"Eight days left. If I push a little harder, I should have time to gain three more levels, right?"
Pan Long calculated the Experience Points he needed and fell into thought.
At first glance, levels 18 and 21 were only three levels apart. In reality, they were worlds apart.
In the Dungeons & Dragons system, level 20 was a dividing line. Anyone at or below it was still just another ordinary soul among the masses. Even extraordinary deeds would be no more than flowers blooming for a single night. Many figures at higher levels looked down on adventurers in that range.
But from level 21 onward, adventurers broke through mortal limits and began to do things that truly transcended the ordinary and entered the sacred. They might still be young and weak beside established powers, but they had begun to pose a genuine threat to them.
In game terms, a level 21 adventurer counted as a Legend and could gain legendary feats—more powerful than ordinary feats, often with effects ordinary feats could not match.
In practical terms, a level 21 character had begun to touch the power at the root of the world. Spellcasters, in particular, could start researching and mastering so-called "legendary spells."
A full explanation of legendary spells would take thousands of words. In short, they were a system of magic far more powerful than ordinary Spells, with far greater room for expansion.
For example, suppose a level 20 wizard knew as much physics and chemistry as Pan Long. He could probably find uranium ore, work out how to enrich a certain isotope in it, make it into separate pieces, pack them in lead boxes, and put the pieces together when he needed to...
He would certainly die, but no one could question the power of that "spell."