CHAPTER 135: RACE GRADE
Kael stood in the corridor, gazing up into the distance. Dark, cloudy skies hung overhead ominously, as though foreshadowing the arrival of a calamity.
Today was supposed to be a special day for him, and despite the circumstances that surrounded him, it had truly started as one of the best—no, the best—celebration he had ever had. If only his parents were also here, it would have been perfect.
Yet, when it was supposed to be noon, there was no bright sun beaming down from the skies. Instead, the world seemed to be covered by a veil of darkness.
"It's about time..." he whispered with a flat face. He was already tired of this wretched academy and wanted nothing more than to escape.
But now that Nathaniel had seen a vision, it meant it was no longer safe for them here.
The young boy's class allowed him to peer into the future, and while his class sounded overpowered, the truth was that it wasn't all that great, at least compared to a Legendary Class.
The first limitation was that Nathaniel had little to no combat power. Not to mention that he couldn't just peer into the future at will.
Instead, the visions came when a great danger that had a high likelihood of taking his life was about to happen. That was right, Nat could only foresee his possible deaths.
But that in itself was a valuable skill. One that Kael himself highly appreciated and had decided to keep the boy on his team.
'But it seems this time will be different, huh? No matter what awaits, I will survive it.'
Affirming his conviction, Kael turned and walked back into the large classroom, his friends already there.
It was time to prepare!
On the other side of the corridor, the survivors moved in haste, fear and worry etched across their faces.
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Race Grade.
Classes could be likened to professions, as they determined how a person grows and what type of abilities they naturally learn. Simply put, they were the backbone of progression.
Talents, on the other hand, were few and far between. A Talent was a personal and innate gift that granted abilities outside the limitations of one's Class. Just like Classes, they were graded from the Common Rank up to the Primordial Rank, known to a select few.
Then what about Race Grade?
One could argue that the grade of a person's race was the most important factor to their path of power. After all, it determined their potential.
Simply put, Race Grade represented how close a race was to biological perfection. It determined how efficiently their bodies could use every stat. Which was why two people with identical stats could produce vastly different results if one belonged to a superior race.
As an example, let's say 100 Strength in a human represented 100 Force. Then the higher one climbed in Race Grade, the greater the difference in power output. This gave rise to something called Stat Density.
An F-Grade race would be able to output 150 Force with the same 100 Strength an Unranked human possessed
An E-Grade race would be able to output 300 Force.
A D-Grade race, 450 Force.
A C-Grade race, 600 Force.
A B-Grade race, 750 Force.
And once a race broke into the A-Grade, they experienced a qualitative change. At that point, they could output 1000 Force with a mere 100 Strength stat.
That was the difference in Race Grade.
Of course, that was far from all there was to Race Grades, just as it was for Classes and Talents. The higher the race of a being, the more they could tap into Authorities of reality governed by the body.
A dragon with ten stats across the board would obliterate any number of humans at the same level.
This was simply the superiority of Race Grade.
Which was why humans were generally looked down upon in the outer universe. As an Unranked Race, it was very hard for them to stand up to other races, and only those with supreme Talents and high Classes among them could put up a fight. And when one considered that it was exceptionally difficult for a human to evolve and break out of their racial constraints, it was little wonder they were disdained.
The only exception was a human who had reached the peak of power and thereby broken out of their shell, allowing them to pass down their Lineage, the equivalent of Bloodlines, to their descendants.
And what Kael and the other survivors did not know was that they were far from being at the top of the food chain in this apocalypse.
The system had simply weeded out the strong from the weak at the start, to give the weak a fighting chance to survive.
And as fate would have it...
That chance would come to an end tonight.