Mana-Wielders, Nobles, and Bloodlines

When Landen rose, preparing to personally help the two senior ministers to their feet, he experienced a feeling he had never known in his previous life.

Why was he so tall? Once he stood straight, most people around him only reached below his chest. Only Albert, Raul, and three other men were about the same height as him.

After everyone stood up, Raul was a head taller than Landen, Albert was slightly taller, and the other three men were a head shorter than him.

It was Landen's first time seeing the world from a height above two meters. He felt that basketball players in his previous life must have had this perspective, but he was a little dizzy.

"Landen, don't stand for too long. You've just made a breakthrough, and your body is entering a stage of rapid growth. Ever since you awakened your Mana-Wielder Bloodline, you probably haven't grown like this," Albert said as he supported Landen and slowly helped him sit down. Yet Landen's heart was already filled with confusion.

What was going on? Could he still grow taller after leveling up? His level and body were linked?

"Uncle Albert, tell me what's going on. When did I make a breakthrough? What should I do in the future?" Landen wanted Albert to tell him more about this world.

But his words came out in a muddle, because he could not find any concepts related to Mana-Wielders, Transcendents, or advancement in his memories.

"Oh, right. After you awakened your Bloodline, I was so busy with territory affairs that I forgot to tell you about these things." Albert looked somewhat ashamed. Then he began introducing the extraordinary inheritances and advancement paths of the entire Human Race.

Everything began with the Twin Suns in the sky. Yes, two suns could be seen during the day on this planet. One was huge and somewhat dim, called Laya. It provided the world of Alivia, where they lived, with a small portion of its sunlight and heat, as well as most of its magic.

The other was the smaller, brighter Diyang Star, the source of most of the heat and sunlight, along with a small portion of magic.

On a grand scale, magic fell from the sky in the form of many different magical elements. This was the blessing that the heavens and the gods bestowed upon every race of Alivia.

When individuals of a race could use magic, magic constantly circulated through their bodies. It could strengthen their physiques, increase their size, improve their bodily functions, and extend their lifespans. These powerful individuals naturally became the leaders of their races.

Through long periods of exploration and experimentation, every race found its own path for increasing the power of its strong and preserving their Bloodlines.

For humans, those paths were the three great extraordinary professions: Knight, Mage, and Cleric.

Each path began with the most ordinary Mana-Wielders, those who had just awakened their Bloodlines, and ended with True Gods. There were thirteen levels in total. Every advancement brought a qualitative leap in the body's perception of and interaction with magic.

Among the Human Race, those who successfully awakened a magical Bloodline before the age of fourteen were called Mana-Wielders.

Mana-Wielders found it difficult to sense the magical elements in the air, but magic's enhancement of them was already visible in their appearance.

All human Mana-Wielders stood over two meters tall, regardless of gender, profession, or age. Meanwhile, Mana-Less humans who failed to awaken their Bloodlines would never exceed two meters in height.

The Empire counted its population by "households," "commoners," and "adults." "Adults" referred to powerful individuals at the Mana-Wielder rank or above, while "commoners" referred to Mana-Less people. According to Imperial law, only families with at least one Mana-Wielder could be counted separately. In other words, a "household" was a family gathered around a Mana-Wielder.

From the Emperor at the top of the Human Empire, to the Kings of various Kingdoms, the Dukes of duchies, and all the way down to the lowest-ranking Barons, knights, and landed knights, all had Mana-Wielder rank requirements. There was a relatively strict correspondence between one's Mana-Wielder rank, the noble title one could be granted or inherit, the size of the territory one could govern, and the number of Territory Residents.

Mana-Wielders could become lords and receive the support of the Territory Residents within their lands, but they also bore extremely strict obligations toward both the residents and the territory. Simplified from the Empire's noble code, there were two: defend the land and protect the people.

Defending the land meant ensuring that both one's own territory and one's liege's territory were not invaded.

Protecting the people meant that lords had a duty to protect all Territory Residents, including Mana-Less people. If absolutely necessary, they could order their residents to seek refuge in other human cities or territories, then return to rebuild their original territory after the disaster.

Generally speaking, if a lord's territory was occupied but the residents had been relocated, their title would not be stripped within three years. As long as they could reclaim their homeland and restore their rule over the territory within three years, their title would not be reduced. But if more than half the Territory Residents in the territory were lost, their title was guaranteed to be gone.

Under all these rules, every noble with a fief attached the utmost importance to the continuation of their own Bloodline.

Take the Landen Family as an example. By the standards of Landen's hometown, his father, Hark Gallop, had at least a dozen children. Among Hark's sons of Landen's generation, there were forty or fifty children of the same generation as Landen, and many Mana-Less children died shortly after birth.

Only a little over thirty truly survived to the ages of fourteen or fifteen. Among them, four Mana-Wielders were born: his eldest brother Ryan Gallop, second brother Obert Gallop, third brother Peli Gallop, and Landen Gallop himself.

Strictly speaking, his second and third brothers could only be considered his cousins. But within Gallop Territory, they had all become Hark Gallop's sons.

Hark raised all four as his own children, and the four would honor Hark as they would their biological father. They would also be ranked separately by age and given the Gallop surname. The other Mana-Less children only had given names and no surnames.

According to the traditions of border nobles, a noble's eldest son would be trained as the next noble.

The second son would be trained as the territory's commander of knights or as a scholar.

The third son would be sent to the Royal Capital or Holy City to serve the gods as a Priest. Children who served the gods would have no inheritance rights, but they could return to the territory as its Clerics.

If children after the third son showed promise, they would join the Knight Orders of high nobles and see whether they could become court nobles. Otherwise, they would serve other mid- and low-ranking nobles as granted knights or family knights.

In short, once they became Junior Knights or above, there would always be some path open to them.

That was for Knights, the profession with the largest population. If they were Mages, they would go to the Mage Towers of large cities and study magic under Archmages.

Among human Mana-Wielders, the proportion of female Mana-Wielders was very stable, between twenty-five and thirty-three percent. The descendants of female Mana-Wielders were more likely to produce Mana-Wielders than the descendants of Mana-Less women, so female Mana-Wielders held high status in Mana-Wielder families.

However, the magical environment along the northwestern border of the Dragon Kingdom, where Landen lived, was poor. Thus, female Mana-Wielders were rarely born there.

"You used to be only an Apprentice Knight. I didn't even know whether you could become a Junior Knight, so I never told you these things," Albert said as he watched Landen absorb the rules of this world.

"But things are different now. You are now the Baron of this territory. If your father and brothers cannot return, you must lead the Territory Residents to survive. So I have to tell you this most basic knowledge first."

"Albert, aren't we running out of time? Landen, you need to decide quickly whether we're leaving the territory," Raul said anxiously.

...Albert's explanation of extraordinary professions and noble ranks...

Children generally awakened their Bloodlines between the ages of twelve and fourteen. In other words, from childhood onward, ten percent of the Human Race became different, turning into beings that were almost another species.

Aside from their height, once they became Mana-Wielders, their senses became sharper and their lifespans longer. Ordinary Mana-Less people rarely lived past sixty, but sixty-year-old Mana-Wielders could still perform strength-based work in the military, as Blacksmiths, and so on.

Among Mana-Wielders, fewer than half became professionals. The most common professions among the Human Race were Knights, Mages, and Priests, also known as Clerics.

The lowest ranks of these professions were Apprentice Knights, Magic Apprentices, and Priest Apprentices. Their titles were not fixed, especially Priest Apprentices, who might sometimes be called assistant pastors, assistant priests, and so on depending on the god they served.

However, all lowest-rank professionals had exactly the same standard: they could sense magic, but could not use it.

Beginning from the third rank of Mana-Wielders, the names became more standardized: Junior Knights, Junior Mages, and Junior Priests, priests, pastors, or Clerics. The standard for the junior rank was the ability to perform simple magic release, using at most one to five techniques, spells, or low-level divine spells.

The fourth rank of Mana-Wielders consisted of intermediate professionals. They could skillfully release magic, continuously use techniques, spells, and low-level divine spells, and could even use magic to form some kind of perception around themselves.

The fifth rank was high-rank professionals. They could release the magic in their bodies outward, forming a short-lived aura or Magic Field. Within that range, they could sense and influence the people and things around them.

The sixth rank was Great Knights, Great Mages, and High Priests. To some extent, they had already entered the stage of transcending mortals. They could form stable auras or Magic Fields, sense the magical environment of the entire world through those Magic Fields, and connect with other people's auras or Magic Fields.

For example, Great Knights could form powerful knight formations with other Intermediate Knights and Junior Knights, using group techniques.

Great Mages, meanwhile, could use their Magic Fields to replenish the magic of nearby Junior Mages and above, or cast more powerful, wider-range spells or Magic Matrices.

Albert knew relatively little about those above rank seven. What he did know was that ranks one, two, and three, meaning everything below the junior rank, were collectively called Low-Rank Mana-Wielders. Ranks four through six were called Intermediate-Rank Transcendents, while ranks seven through nine were called High-Rank Transcendents.

Among them, ranks seven, eight, and nine for Knights were called Silver Knights, Sky Knights, and Golden Knights respectively. For Mages, they were called Junior Archmages, Archmages, and Grand Archmages. For Priests and Clerics, they were called Temple Priests, Altar Priests, and High Altar Priests.

The higher the rank, the stronger the body and the longer the lifespan. Low-rank Mana-Wielders had lifespans of around one hundred years. Rank-three Mana-Wielders could basically live to one hundred, and even at eighty, they still possessed the physical strength of a forty-year-old Mana-Less person.

Upon entering the intermediate rank, living beyond one hundred became normal. Great Knights and Grand Archmages could almost all live past one hundred and fifty.

Upon entering the high rank, life had successfully transformed. Powerful Golden Knights living two to three hundred years were not uncommon, and the three types of rank-eight Transcendents could all fly directly into the sky through their own strength.

As for rank-ten through rank-twelve Transcendents, Albert only knew that a thousand years ago, all Transcendents of those levels were collectively called Demigods.

It was not until the God Emperor ascended the throne that the Legend rank was clearly divided into three levels.

After entering the Legend rank, one could no longer be called an ordinary living creature. Many powerhouses who reached the Legend rank during the early days of the Human Empire were still alive today.

As for the three major professions of Knight, Mage, and Cleric, their cultivation methods were completely different at the junior stage. Knights trained their bodies and guided Battle Qi. Mages continuously meditated to increase their magic reserves. Clerics continuously prayed to draw themselves closer to the gods.

However, after entering the intermediate rank, the three paths shared common ground. All of them continuously mobilized the magic within their bodies and constantly practiced and applied it.

At the high rank, Senior Knights, Archmages, and professionals above Temple Priests could already use the abilities of other professions with ease. For Legend powerhouses, the three professions had almost no essential difference. The distinctions lay more in the professional's own habits and proficiency.

Because of the powerful abilities of Mana-Wielders, all noble ranks, positions, and resources within the Human Empire were structured around Mana-Wielders.

Take Knights as an example. A granted Knight with a knight's fief usually had a territory capable of housing five to thirty households, with a population of around fifty to three hundred people.

Whether one was a granted Knight or inherited a knight's title, they needed to be at least a Junior Knight.

For a landed Baron, the territory needed to be able to house twenty to two hundred households. To be granted the title of Baron, a Transcendent needed to reach rank four, meaning an Intermediate Knight or Intermediate Mage. To inherit a Baron's title, one only needed to be a Junior Mana-Wielder.

From the rank of Baron onward, one could grant subordinates lower titles such as knights, landed knights, or lifelong landed knights without inheritance rights.

Above Barons were Viscounts. The difference between Barons and Viscounts was mainly one of strength rather than status, as both were granted titles by nobles of Count rank or above.

A Viscount's territory was usually fifty percent larger than a Baron's. At the same time, the requirements for inheriting and granting a Viscount title were each one rank higher than those for a Baron. In other words, only Mana-Wielders at the Intermediate Knight rank or above could inherit a Viscount title, while only Mana-Wielders at the Senior Knight rank or above could be granted a Viscount title.

Above Viscounts were Counts. A landed Count was already an important minister overseeing a region of a Kingdom. Counts required powerhouses at rank six or above to inherit the title, and rank seven or above to receive it by grant.

Marquises required one rank more than Counts: rank seven to inherit and rank eight to be granted the title. Both Counts and Marquises could grant Baron and Viscount titles, but Viscounts granted by them usually required the King's approval before becoming official appointments. In addition to possessing a town directly governed by the Count, a Count's fief needed to be able to grant at least one Viscount title and one Baron title.

The requirements above Dukes were even stricter, but the basic conditions were fixed: inheritance required rank eight, while grants required rank nine or above.

For a duchy established as an independent state, the requirement for the Grand Duke was only rank nine. However, the country needed at least one Legend as a National Pillar, while a Kingdom needed at least three Legends as National Pillars.

Besides landed nobles, the territories of Marquises and above also contained court nobles. These nobles either depended entirely on high-ranking nobles or possessed administrative authority over certain cities. They had no income from fiefs and could only receive salaries and rewards from their superiors.

Therefore, there was no fixed rule linking the strength of court nobles to their titles.

Following everyone's suggestions, the worldbuilding has been gathered at the end of the chapter. If it feels too dry, you can skip it directly.