THE UNIVERSE RANKING

Since the beginning of everything, the Dao has ranked every being that lives. It has never met one it could not read.

Then something ancient, silent for eons, turned its eyes on the universe. In that moment, Eric Qin was born, carrying a power no human has ever held by birth.

His climb starts small. He enters an academy whose history is buried and whose halls hold only a few students. Every student carries a level, and his never quite adds up. His teachers test him three times and get three different answers. Only the principal looks at him a moment too long. He registers with an organization as an adventurer, takes small jobs, and makes a few friends.

Then he walks into the Null Hollow, where only the Marked may enter. He has no Mark. He walks out alive.

Now ten great clans, six powerful organizations and five great academies reach for him, to claim him, to study him, or to bury him before he becomes something they cannot stop. Above them all, a titled dragon watches and will not lift a claw to help. It knows what Eric is. Eric does not.

One power in the universe has never belonged to anyone.

Eric Qin is about to learn why.

Chapter 1: The Tallyhall Guide to the Ranks


Issued by The Tallyhall, Registry Division. One free copy per registered awakener. Replacements cost two silver.


You are now in the ledger, and the ledger does not forget. Read this before you take a step into the wider world.


Every being has a level. Every fifty levels, your rank changes.


Levels 1-300 are the mortal ranks.Your lifespan is bound to your rank, and those who stop advancing fade.


Every twenty levels, the Dao tests you. It rewards what you have lived through, and it cannot be rushed or bargained with.


Every awakener carries five stats: Strength, Agility, Vitality, Spirit and Luck. Each is a plain number.


Strength is the force behind your body. Agility is its speed, reflex and precision. Vitality is how much punishment it survives. Spirit is the strength of a being's inner self. Luck is how often chance falls your way.


Every level grants stat points. You may place them in Strength, Agility, Vitality or Spirit. Luck cannot be assigned. It is not yours to spend.


Traits are what you are born with, and levels cannot raise them. Only an event that changes you can.


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Your bloodline sets where you start, not where you end.


Faint, Scion, Kindred, Elder, Exalted, Paramount, Peerless, Legendary.


Never trust a stranger's claim about their bloodline. Ask for a Tallyhall reading.


Anything that carries real experience is graded on the treasure ladder. A treasure remembers where it was made.


Common, Fine, Rare, Relic, Arcane, Mythic, Divine, Empyrean, Cosmoforged / Omniforged.


Weapons carry a treasure rank of their own, separate from their wielder's skill.


A dungeon's rank is set by its energy rating and its pressure. If the two disagree, the higher reading wins.


A-rank: has ended careers. Enter only with a full party and a Tallyhall contract.


S-rank: has ended towns. No unregistered awakener enters.


Some dungeons close or erupt if left uncleared. Others stay where they are for generations. Learn which kind you are standing in front of before you walk in.


A labyrinth is not a dungeon, and the two must never be confused. Dungeons are graded. Labyrinths are reported. If you find one, do not enter. Leave, and notify the Tallyhall at once.


The ledger records who you are, not who you will become. We have been wrong before. Rarely, but we have.


Chapter 1 - The Tallyhall Guide to the Ranks