(The following is an excerpt from the digital handbook provided to all incoming first-year students of Zenith National Academy. Jin Park downloads it to his data chip after accepting his offer.)
Zenith National Academy Fresher's Guide and System Primer, 195th Edition
Foreword
By Dean Elara Vane, the Archon
Welcome, Fresher.
You have been selected from millions. You believe this makes you exceptional. You are mistaken. Your selection means only that you possess the bare minimum potential to not waste our time.
Zenith is not a school. It is a forge. Here, your potential will be hammered into strength, or it will be shattered into dust. The System that governs our world is a complex and unforgiving game. This guide provides you with the basic rules. Your survival, and indeed your success, will depend on your ability to master them.
Do not disappoint me.
Section 1: Understanding the System - A Tale of Two Grades
A common error among novices is to confuse the measure of a soul with the measure of a threat. The System utilizes two distinct hierarchies. To master the game, you must first understand the board.
System A: The "Essence" Grade
This is the measure of your soul-bound potential. It is the color of your very being.
Applies to: Jobs, Talents, Skills.
Hierarchy (from lowest to highest): Sub-Normal, Normal, Rare, Ultrarare, Unique, Semi-Legendary, Legendary, Semi-Mythical, Mythical, Demigod-tier, God-tier.
System B: The "Threat/Value" Rank
This is the NHA's practical classification for tangible, worldly things. It is the measure of danger and utility.
Applies to: Dungeons, Monsters, Items, Quests.
Hierarchy (from lowest to highest): F-Rank, E-Rank, D-Rank, C-Rank, B-Rank, A-Rank, S-Rank, SS-Rank, SSS-Rank, and the legendary, world-ending classification of God-tier.
Refer to the Universal Grade Correspondence Table in Appendix A to understand their relationship. A C-Rank threat is the rough equivalent of a Unique-grade Essence. Internalize this.
Section 2: The Path of the Awakener - Jobs, Talents, and Skills
Jobs: Your Awakened Job is your path. Upon reaching Level 30, and every thirty levels thereafter, you may petition for a Trial of Ascension at an NHA Advancement Center. By making the required material offerings to the Ascension Altar, you may undertake a quest to evolve your Job to a higher grade. Legends speak of "Hidden Advancements" that bypass this trial, but such are the stuff of myth.
Talents: Your Talents are your soul's signature. They are absolute.
Leveling: Your existing Talents will grow stronger, leveling up from 1 to 2, only as a direct reward for a successful Job Advancement. They do not grow through simple practice. While rare elixirs that can circumvent this rule exist, be warned: the System permits an individual only three such miracles in their lifetime. God-tier talents are a singularity; they are absolute and have no levels.
Awakening: A successful Job Advancement will also awaken a brand new Talent within you.
Skills: Your skills are your tools.
Slots: Your soul can only actively maintain five Skill Slots upon Awakening. You will gain five more with each Job Advancement. Your Innate Skill, your birthright, does not consume a slot. All skills from Job Progression or Skill Books do. Should the System grant you a new Job skill when your slots are full, it will be lost forever. Plan accordingly.
Progression: The System will grant you a new, random skill from your Job's pool every ten levels. The quality of this gift increases over time: a Rare skill at Lv. 10, an Ultrarare skill at Lv. 20, and so on, until it reaches the Legendary Ceiling at Lv. 50. To acquire skills of the Mythic tiers, one must rely on luck, immense wealth, or the evolution of one's own skills.
Evolution: A skill that reaches its apex at Level 100 will evolve to the next higher grade. A standard skill may evolve three times. Your Innate Skill, your truest technique, may evolve four times. Choose which skills to master with care.
Section 3: The World Beyond the Walls - Dungeons and Their Spoils
Dungeons: All practicums and excursions will take place in dungeons. These are wounds in reality, ranked from F to SSS. For large-scale events, dungeons will be "instanced," providing each party with an identical, private version to ensure a fair test. Beware the Dungeon Break, a catastrophic event that occurs if a dungeon's time limit expires or if its Core is shattered before the Boss is slain.
Loot & Treasure: Wealth and power are harvested from the depths.
Caches: Hidden chests can be found throughout a dungeon. These are rare finds, but their rank is always lower than the dungeon itself. A C-Rank dungeon will never contain more than a D-Rank Cache.
The Conqueror's Chest: The true prize. This chest materializes only upon the defeat of the final Dungeon Boss. Its rank is always equal to (or, in the case of a rare Elite Boss, greater than) the dungeon's rank.
The Conqueror's Choices: Slaying a Dungeon Boss grants you a choice.
Destroy the Core: The safe option. Closes the dungeon permanently.
Leave the Core: The risky "farming" option. The dungeon and its inhabitants will respawn.
Take the Core: The ambitious "conquest" option. An incredibly difficult and rare technique that allows one to remove the Core and plant a new, private dungeon in their own territory. This is the foundation upon which the Great Houses are built.
You are absolutely right. I missed several key details in the guide and made the systems seem simpler than the more nuanced and logical rules we developed. My apologies.
Here is the revised and definitive version of Section 4 of the Fresher's Guide, incorporating all of your excellent, detailed corrections.
Section 4: Life at Zenith - Rules of the Hunt
Within these walls, you are not a single student body. You are a member of a specialized Department, be it Arcane Arts or Covert Operations. The General Division is the proving ground. The Prime Division is the peak. Your resource allocation, your quality of life—all of it is determined by your rank and your performance in the Bi-Annual Evaluations.
Competition is the lifeblood of Zenith. Understand its rules, or be devoured by them.
The Prime Division: The thirty students of the Prime Division are the absolute elite. Their mandatory Ranking Spars, held once per semester, are a unique exception to academy rules, allowing for cross-year matchups (e.g., a first-year may be pitted against a fourth-year). This is to establish a true, "King of the Hill" style internal ranking among the nation's greatest prodigies.
The General Division: For the thousands of students in the General Division, competition is more structured. Ranking Matches are held every month. These matches are strictly intra-year; first-years only fight other first-years. Rising to the top of your year group is the primary goal for any ambitious student.
The Right to Challenge: This is your path to the top.
The Monthly Champions: The students who secure the top ranks in the monthly General Division Ranking Matches earn the "Right to Challenge" a Prime Division student of the same year.
The Rookie Champion's Prerogative: The single student who achieves the #1 rank in the entire General Division at the initial Entrance Examination (such as Kaelen) is granted a special, one-time Prerogative to issue their challenge immediately, bypassing the first month's ranking match.
The Three-Challenge Limit: To prevent a constant state of war and allow for proper training, any given Prime Division student can only be formally challenged a maximum of three times per semester. A Prime student cannot refuse these sanctioned duels. Choose your target wisely, as their challenge slots are a finite resource.
A Word of Caution: Many monthly champions wisely choose not to exercise their Right to Challenge immediately. They understand the vast power gap and choose to build their own strength, waiting for a more opportune moment rather than tasting certain defeat. Ambition without strategy is simply a faster path to failure.