Hero Ranks

"Are you sure you're not joking?" Kael'thas asked, his expression grave.

"No, brother. I'm not lying to you." Karen thought Kael'thas was angry and hurried to assure him he was telling the truth.

"I didn't mean it that way.

"If you're sure you have more than twenty talents, then you have more talents than anyone I've ever heard of.

"I have nine talents, and people already praise me as a genius rarely seen in ten thousand years.

"If you have more talents than I do, it's understandable that you're more gifted than me.

"But you have more than twice as many as I do. That can only mean you're a monster.

"My talents have already made a lot of people hostile toward me.

"If word got out about how many talents you have, I can't even imagine what might happen.

"You mustn't let anyone else find out.

"You haven't told anyone about this, have you?" Kael'thas asked sternly.

"No. I didn't even mention it to you in the video.

"I certainly won't tell anyone else, especially after learning the highest recorded number is six," Karen said firmly.

"Good. Keep it buried deep.

"Let it pass from your lips to my ears and no further. Don't let a third person hear about it.

"At least until you advance to Legendary Hero, you must keep it secret.

"As expected of my younger brother, a member of the Sunstrider family. Your talent is so exceptional that even I can't compare.

"Maybe you couldn't advance to the advanced level because your foundations were so deep that you needed a lot more time to build them up." Kael'thas found the perfect explanation for why Karen couldn't advance to the advanced level.

"Brother, speaking of Legendary Heroes,

"I wanted to ask how someone advances to become a Hero, and how the ranks beyond Hero are divided."

"Since you've brought it up, I hadn't planned to tell you yet.

"I was mainly afraid you'd learn about it too early and become overambitious, studying this before you'd built a solid foundation.

"But now that I know you have such monstrous talent, I realize you're destined to go further than me. You're destined to become a Super Hero.

"So there's no harm in telling you a little early.

"First, take a guess: how many Heroes are there in the world?"

"How would I know?" Karen shook his head.

"There are only a few hundred Heroes in the world." Seeing Karen's nonchalant reaction, Kael'thas stressed, "That's the total number of Hero-rank beings in the entire world.

"Don't think that's a lot. Among all humans, there are at most twenty Hero-rank individuals, and mages make up more than half of them.

"Even our long-lived race, the High Elves, has fewer than twenty Heroes."

"Do you mean our strongest forces make up only a few percent of the world's?" Karen exclaimed.

"Yes, and that's only because our race lives so long.

"Even a race as numerous as humanity doesn't have more than we do. Some weaker races don't have a single Hero.

"Most Heroes belong to epic creatures like the Guardian Dragons. There are fewer than a hundred Heroes among intelligent races like ours.

"Now do you understand how rare Heroes are?"

"Then how does someone advance to become a Hero?"

"The key to advancing to Hero is understanding the rules."

"The rules?"

"Yes. You're already an advanced mage. Your next step is to become a Master-level mage.

"What makes someone a Master? A Master has basically learned all the magic and can use it proficiently. That's the starting point for becoming a Hero."

"Master level doesn't sound difficult."

"Right. It's like advancing from beginner to intermediate.

"If an ordinary person can become a formal beginner-level mage, advancing to intermediate isn't very difficult.

"It's the same for advanced practitioners advancing to Master. There's no bottleneck to speak of.

"For a long-lived race like ours, once you get past the hurdle of the advanced level, you can reach Master through steady effort, even if it takes a long time.

"That's why our race has quite a few Masters.

"But for short-lived races like humans, time is the most difficult obstacle.

"So when it comes to the strongest forces, we're no weaker than humans, but there's a huge gap between us in the lower ranks."

"Let's get back to Heroes.

"How do you advance from Master to Hero?"

"As I said, the key to advancing to Hero is the rules.

"Once you reach Master, you need to comprehend the rules. When you understand the power of the rules and can use it, you become a Hero.

"The Hero rank is completely different from all the ranks before it. It depends entirely on how well you understand the rules.

"Heroes use the rules with every movement. No one below the Hero rank can withstand them."

"Then how does the passive ability on my necklace block a Hero-rank attack?" Karen asked another question.

"Your necklace was made from a special material that can store the power of the rules.

"It blocked a Hero-rank attack because it held our father's power of the rules, which protected you from the attack's power.

"After the attack, the power stored in the necklace was used up, so it no longer has that ability.

"Give me the necklace. I'll replenish its power over the next couple of days," Kael'thas explained.

"Then how do you comprehend the rules?" Karen took off the necklace and handed it to Kael'thas.

"That's something you can only understand, not explain. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so few Heroes.

"But you don't need to worry. With so many talents, comprehending the rules will be easy for you.

"Talents are one way the rules manifest themselves.

"You don't need to rush. When you reach that level, you'll understand naturally."

"What ranks come after Hero, and how are they divided?"

"After Hero comes Epic Hero, and after Epic Hero comes Legendary Hero.

"After the Hero ranks comes the divine level, which is divided into demigods and gods.

"But that level is too far beyond us. We only know those two ranks exist; we don't know anything else.

"At the Hero rank, you comprehend and use the rules.

"The rules manifest themselves in your attacks, which carry their power. You can use that power to change the form of your spells. For example, turning Frostbolt into multiple Frostbolts.

"Once you understand the rules to a certain degree, you can use their power to create new spells.

"You've always been curious about the magic orb above my head. You wanted to learn it, but I never taught you.

"That's because you couldn't learn it. It's a spell I created using the power of the rules."

"So, brother, you're already an Epic Hero?"

"That's right. The final rank is Legendary Hero.

"At that stage, your mastery of the rules is so advanced that you can use their power without relying on spells.

"The power of the rules can manifest in all sorts of ways. You can use it as you wish, without limiting yourself to spells.

"The power of the rules moves with the Hero's thoughts.

"It's like building with sand. You can shape it into anything.

"You can make a hill, a castle, or a little animal.

"Of course, a Legendary Hero uses their thoughts to shape the power of the rules into rows, nets, walls, or even all kinds of weapons.

"I've only read about this rank in books. I've never seen it with my own eyes.

"You can just take what I've said as an introduction.

"Any other questions?"

"No. I'll go back and organize my thoughts first, then see if there's anything else I want to ask you." Karen needed to go back and digest all this, but why was it starting to feel more and more like cultivating immortality?