'I'll first start with the meaning of the ranks. The ranks indicate how strong a creature is, measured by the strength, density and quality of his life energy flowing throughout the body. You can summarize strength and density to quantity. For us normal mortals, the highest rank we can achieve is the legendary-rank. There are still two ranks above, but it doesn't matter, because I doubt that anyone of you will ever reach it. Drin: Your people should be grateful for Mr. Maida's high expectation for you! Lower than this rank is the mystic-rank, then it's SSS, SS, S and least A-rank till E-rank. E-rank is the lowest rank. These ranks can be transferred to any living creatures, even humans. Normal average adult humans with no special abilities normally have E-rank, only as a comparison. The power gap between the different ranks can vary a lot. The higher we go up in ranks, the bigger the power gap. For example, a C-rank creature can beat a B-rank creature if it has more skills or battle experience. Maybe it was just pure luck. I don't know! However, the power gap between an SSS-rank creature and one of a mystic-rank can't simply be overcome with pure luck or skill alone. Especially, starting at the mystic-rank, the power gap gets a lot wider. Of course, it would be different when someone had a ridiculous strong weapon, but I doubt any of you do. Even within the ranks, there are still three different levels to separate. We distinguish between, low, middle and high-level. In this case, high is the strongest level. Ok. It's important to know that these differences within the ranks only exist starting from the mystic-rank. Ranks lower than that don't have levels. So, with the ranks we can classify the life energy inside a person up to a certain point. Though with life energy it is enough to get a vague image of the creature's strength but more accurate the strength of the life energy. However, the individual's body fitness, sometimes depending on the workout one does, experience and personals skills and whatever also play an important role. Ranks do not reveal anything about these factors. In addition, it doesn't also reveal something about the specialization of a person.'
'What is a specialization?', a random person asked. Mr. Maida briefly moved his arms apart. He then crossed them and leaned back.
'Let's...' he skimmed everyone with his eyes, 'ah, yes!' he jerked his head to Luna. 'Let's take Luna as an example. Luna is specialized in regeneration. Now, to the interesting part!' He grinned faintly. 'When living beings use their powers, it requires the life energy in us. Let's say a monster needs 5% of its life energy to generate an attack with his fire ability – Let's take a fireball. Of, course these 5% will return after some rest. It only becomes dangerous if you fall below a certain percentage. It's different to each person. Some persons are limited to 50%, while others can use their life energy till only 20% remains. Ok, back to the example! Now, we take another monster who only uses 1% of his life energy for the same attack – Same in strength and size. This monster has an advantage, because now it'll be able to use these attacks more often than the other. While the other one needs 5%, this monster only requires 1%. His specialization gives him an advantage in attack; thus, it's specialised in attack. There's also another kind of specialization concerning attack, as far as I now! We take another monster. Before I continue, be aware that when I take these different monsters– They all have the same strength concerning life energy. In addition, personal fitness and skills don't matter!' He gazed around the room and got several nodes back. 'Ok, let's move on. The monster also uses 5% for the same attack. But this time, his fireball is three times the strength and size of the other ones – Still, his attack needs the same percentage of life energy. This monster is also specialized in attack, but his specialization is different. With the same amount of life energy as the first example, this monster can use the same attack, but superior in power. It's the same for Luna – She needs to use less life energy than the average to heal herself. So, her regeneration is faster and stronger.'
'Do you also have something similar?', Drin asked.
'Yes, I have my own specialization, whereby even among the specializations you could call it special! Drin: I wonder what kind of specialization he has! There're so much specializations, even I don't know about them all. But Drin, I wanted to make you understand that there's a lot more besides ranks. The individual's ability, skill, experience, body type and fitness and specialization can turn the fight to their favour, of course only if the ranks aren't too wide apart, respectively the power gaps between the ranks.' Mr. Maida stopped explaining as he saw Drin's perplexed expression. 'What do you not understand Drin?'
'You said that the power gap between a mystic-rank and SSS-rank can't be overcome so easily. But with the individual's abilities it should be feasible, judging what I heard up till now right?' Mr. Maida took up the topic again:
'I understand what you mean. But the life energy still plays an important role. The greater one's life energy in quantity and quality, the greater the person's fighting power. With fighting power, I mean the person's body or physical abilities (strength, speed, reflexes, senses etc...), special abilities/power (fire, energy, wind, ice etc...) and specialization, if the person should have one. The quality and quantity of the life energy between ranks is big and it increases more the higher you go up in ranks. For example, if a person in A-ranks ascend to S-rank, the quantity of his life energy can increase by 1% and the quality by 0,5%. For you, these numbers surely appear unimportant. However, these little differences can make a person a lot stronger. And imagine what happens when a person of the mystic-rank goes up in levels or even attain the legendary-rank. The increase in the life energy's quantity and quality will be greater than in the previously example. Thus, the power gap will even be wider. A specialization makes a person stronger, but not as strong as an increase of 1% (quantity) and 0,5% (quality) in life energy. Sometimes, there're special cases, but they're rare. It depends how well all these factors play together, but that's where my knowledge comes to an end.'
'Ok, understood.', Drin uttered. 'So you can go up in ranks when your life energy gets stronger? Did I get that right?' Mr. Maida nodded. Drin formed a brief smirk. 'It's truly rare to see me concentrated for this long! Luna: Oah, we've been talking since 5min! And how can you achieve that? Making the life energy stronger?' Mr. Maida answered:
'By continuously using your life energy to its limit – Best way, by fighting.'
'Makes sense!', Drin added, leaning back. Drin: Think my dad once told me that! 'Well, thanks. Don't have any questions left.' Mr. Maida gazed around and inquired.
'Are there any questions left to ranks or specialization?'
'Yes, I have one?', a blond-haired no-name replied. 'While speaking you mentioned skill. I once heard something about a specialized skill, only accessible to people with specialization, though even among them not everyone has it!'
'Yes, there's indeed something like that!', Mr. Maida replied, going through his beard. 'I must admit that area is limited, but I can' – The no-name waved with the hand in front of him and explained:
'It's ok! I only wanted to know if something like that existed!' Drin: A no-name trying to be important!
'Ok, this was enough about ranks, life energy and specialization!', Mr. Maida proclaimed. 'There's surely still more, but it's up to you to find out – If you're interested in knowing more! Drin: Self-research? Never! Drin, back there you were curious to know how strong we are. In Jasmin's and my prime, we had middle legendary rank.' –
'Oha, you were quite strong', Drin complimented. Drin: So they reached the highest rank of a normal being!
'Yes, we were', Mr. Maida replied less energetic than he had talked up till now, 'but now it's different. We lost part of our powers and now have middle mystic-rank. You will get the reason during my narrative.'