Chapter 207: The Tin Knight and The Forest of Deception (1)
The rank system of the towers was unified into five ranks regardless of which tower, to clearly establish superiority among members and minimize incidents resulting from this.
For example, if the Tower of Foresight had three ranks and the Tower of Annihilation had five, even if both were 3rd rank mages, their actual standing would be different.
The criteria for rising to higher ranks varied by tower, including scholarship, experience, combat power, strategic insight, number of patents held, etc., but basically, if one had the ability, it was possible to rise to higher ranks.
Except for one: the Tower of Control.
In the Tower of Control, there were basically only two ways to rise to 4th rank or above.
Be born into the royal family, or become a marriage partner to the royal family.
If neither, no matter how excellent a mage one was, it was impossible to rise above 3rd rank.
Of course, this wasn’t legally established.
Officially, the prevalence of royalty in the 4th rank was due to their magic prowess, and any mage without background who rose to this rank and became intimate with royalty was supposedly just interacting with those of similar ability.
However, there were rules in the world that were silently shared without openly discussing them, and ignoring such implicit rules only made life tiresome.
Some might think, “Why obsess over the Tower of Control when there were other towers where one could rise to high ranks based on ability alone without restrictions, why not just go to another tower?”
It was a fairly valid point.