How does one get stronger. The answer is fairly simple, Will.
Your will is everything in this world because it linked to something extremely important, your soul.
My previous world did not have mana in it so the power of will did nothing for people except give them more drive. In this world willpower is everything. And like my last world, those with more willpower, will succeed in this world. Mana is commanded by will so those with a better soul, and ergo more willpower, will indubitably command more mana.
People in this world noticed this and started researching ways to increase will and they came to a remarkable conclusion, the strength of your soul is directly proportional to the strength of your will. So to that end, most training arts are devoted to strengthening your soul in one way or another.
Warriors like my father, for instance, under go a type training that strengthens the soul through by borderline injuring it to make it tougher. It crazy, but it makes sense for warriors since their training is devoted to making their bodies stronger.
Druids like my mother use a combination of life force and mana to connect the soul to the surrounding mana like a tree sucking up nutrients to grow the soul naturally.
Whatever the case, the soul is the most important part of your being, and has clearly defined stages. The beginning parts may be different for most depending on their form of training, but the later stages are all the same.
There are nine different Ranks. Most people call it the path to the divine where the ninth level is the divine level. The first five ranks are called the mortal ranks and can differ depending on the training route but the last four are all the same and are colloquially called the four gates to immortality. Crossing all the ranks is said to lead to true immortality.
The descriptions in the writings in the library state clearly that my giant ancestors were all rank 9's. Which confuses me more because if they were immortal, where are they now?
In any case isn't this a goal I can pursue for my whole life. A way to elevate my existence to where I can influence society as whole. Although it's a means to an end, strength will always be useful.
[Ding Ding Ding we have a winner. Someone's found a path :) ]
"Your such a weird Goddess, you could have just lured me over here with that instead of some grand adventure scheme. You had to have known that." I remarked in genuine confusion.
[And spoil the fun? NOT!!!! I knew you had the heart of an adventurer and the soul of someone who seeks to make change. Why spoil the fun when you'd find it out eventually. And watching the journey is much better than just watching the destination. Plus the path of the divine is an adventure in and of itself.]
"You know I'm actually starting to like you". I said smiling at nothing in my room.
[Don't go soft on me now]
Reorganizing my thoughts I said "I would never."
Now regaining my train of thought. Powerful souls around rank 6 start to do something interesting to the environment. They begin to change it with just their presence. At first it's subtle but by the time you get to rank 9, it can become a whole domain or godly kingdom.
An example would be a Druid who seeks to master the creation of new crops. At rank 6. his soul would start to make it easier for him to make new crops. At rank 7 he would have made a concept like super fast species generation which is something only he understands and tackles creating a new species in a simple and fast way. You wouldn't think that is powerful but if you really look into it, on earth, it takes hundreds of years for a new species to be born so for a Druid to do that in a few second without the use of the alchemy is incredible.
This man at rank 8 might be develop something like a farm domain of new species or an environment where new species grow. And rank 9 might be something further along that. The records of rank 9 being are incomplete so it's hard to get a good understanding of their strength but basically gods, giants, and other super powerful beings all fall into this category.
The center point to all this being the fact that your willpower has been sharpened around one thought. Your soul as it gets stronger will try and back your desires up. Therefore, even though I was just making a passing comment before, a goal in my life is important.
Now let's talk bloodlines. I realized this fact about two years in, but my strength is extremely above average for a human toddler. Yes I'm over two years old now. My father explained to me that as descendants to giants, our bloodline has traces of their power. Which in my terms means I'm not entirely human. The giants gave their children gifts along with strong potential.
And it looks like I was pretty lucky because I'm descendent from three different Giant Bloodlines due to my parents arranged marriage. Yes my parents were arranged to be married. Though it's not like my father is complaining. Ironically enough my mother isn't either. She seems very upbeat about it.
In any case, I likely have the potential to be the strongest tribesman between the two tribes. Both tribes are already calling me The Giant Prince. Frankly it's making my father nervous. He's begun to plan my warrior training early. About 6 months after my third birthday.
Moving back to the topic of souls, because the soul is so important and has a subsequent growth procedure, your body has to catch up to it somehow. Powerful species don't have this issue because their bloodlines provide adequate room to increase their soul's size. In the giant's descendants case, we train as warriors which increases our bodies strength. But humans don't typically have bloodlines. So how do they get around that? In all honesty I have no clue. There's been several proposed plans but for everyone on this side of the desert, the answer is to increase your Blood Purity. Because of that, not a lot has been written on alternate solutions. Maybe when I leave the forest I can learn the orthodox human methods and see what is more viable.
Regardless, all this can be tracked with your rating which is basically one stat point equals a point on your rating.
To make an explanation of what the power levels look like. An adult male at the peak of rank 1 has 1 stat point in every category. Rank two is where we start getting super human.
This is where my mother is located. This goes until you have the stats of double the amount of an adult male with 2 stat points in every category. This is is where Rank 3 gets started.
At rank 3, things start changing and it takes about double the amount of stats to level up your rank. In other words by the time you reach rank 4. You will be around four times the strength of your average man with a rating of 20. It's said that rank 8 can rend mountains.
And this puts my father in rank 3. This doesn't make it seem like a lot, but you have to remember my parents are child prodigies with remarkable blessings. Just to top it all off their fairly young still with plenty of life to go. Because they broke though rank 2 they've already gotten about an extra 50 years and my father got an extra 100 from his breakthrough into rank 3. I'm sure the old fossils in the tribe are likely at rank 4 or higher.
Yea, old fossils that are still around. Apparently I'm not part of an all powerful royal family. The Hammers are a prestigious family, but they do not hold all the power. Their are two other political bodies making decisions. These include the council of elders and the council of the people. They are meant to balance out the power of those with high ranks and the common people while the royal family acts as a mediator. The council of elders is filled with those in the tribe above rank 4.
The Council of elders is a very tight nit group who go around all the cities fixing various problems. Their almost like legal philanthropists. They are technically of the same station as every other warrior except with more seniority. Because of that they call every other warrior brother or sister. It's supposed to drive home the equality factor. Everyone else besides the king must refer to them as elder though.
The council of the people has one representative from each city with its leader being the head Blacksmith.
As weird as that sounds, it makes sense for the tribe. The tribes main export is gems and forged equipment so the head blacksmith like has a lot of sway over the economy while the city representatives obviously represent their interests. The only requirement to be a representative Is to not be a warrior.
Every individual city is lead by a chief Warrior who handles the day to day. They answer only to the king and disciplinary action is handled in a military style fashion.
Laws can only be passed if both houses agree and the royal family agrees. The royal family can't pass laws, but royal decrees are emergency powers gifted to the the family in order to protect the tribes interest in emergency. In addition to that the military is only controlled by the royal family as well, which can organize the forces of each city to a general should they choose.
This is why all members of royal blood are expected to be great warriors and leaders at the same time. They are protectors of the realms. Which is what my father is duty bound to mold me into before he passes down the torch.