A progenitor is quite the unique existence. By creating a new species, every aspect of them affects the race in it's entirety. The very first thing from a progenitor that affects their species is talent. When a progenitor has their body remade into the species, whether by mutation or ritual, their talent will become the absolute peak of that species. Of course, others of that species can have equal talent to the progenitor but they can never surpass their progenitors talent. This means that the progenitor will almost always be ahead of the rest of their respective species, unless of course they decide to not practice strengthening themselves.
The Progenitor of a species also affects the main interests and abilities of a species. For example, if a Progenitor has a strong interest in writing then that species may have a collective interest in writing or they may even have some form of ability which can be activated through writing. Of course this aspect of being a progenitor requires a strong obsession to affect the entire species, an obsession so strong that they would forsake everything else for it. Even then, sometimes it becomes an ability unique only to the progenitors direct family.
- Known Aspects of Progenitors, Page 212
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When Hypnos woke up, He saw that Nyx was awake and not only that. She was also miraculously looking much better than what she looked like before. He then looked down at himself and realized that his body no longer looked as emancipated as it did before, now lookking much more like how it should at his age. His eyes sparkled in wonder before he and Nyx could hear a clear knock ring out from the door to their current room.
"Can I come in ?" Charon voice was slightly muffled as he knocked again.
Hypnos got up and wnet over to the door and opened it to let Charon in, Charon simply dragged a chair into the room and gestured for Hypnos to sit on his bed. He then cleared his throat awkwardly, due to this being his first time actually teaching someone.
"Now, uh, I'm going to teach you kids about the power system of this world. the classes of strength are determined based upon how much damage someone can do, this is mostly based upon what freelancers use however. Firstly there is the newbie or recruit class, which is someone who has some supernatural strength or their ability is strong enough to take on about one or two normal adults without any training at once. This is ideally where you two will be in a couple days once I help activate your Mana Pool." Charon paused as he saw that Hypnos was going to ask a question, while Nyx was just silently watching with a confused look on her face.
"Activate our Mana Pool? What does that mean?" Hypnos tilted his head in confusion, having never learned about Mana due to his history.
"Hmm, I suppose firstly I must explain that an Atmosphere made entirely of Mana covers all of our world. Now when a mage uses spells or someone strengthens themselves they do so with Mana, either consciously or unconsciously. In order to do this however, unless your species can automatically gather Mana, you have to teach the body to gather it inside itself. This is done by either going through a life or death situation, or having a mentor inject a tiny part of their Mana into you which teaches your body to absorb it automatically. Since you two are humans and children at that, I will be injecting some Mana into you." Of course, it had to be Unattuned Mana which was injected but Charon decided to save that for later since they still had a lot to learn.
Hypnos nodded at this explanation, acting a lot less suspicious of Charon then yesterday. Most likely due to some remnant of childish innocence.
"You can raise your hand going forward if you have more questions. Beyond the Novice level, the next class of strength is Adept. An Adept can easily take out a full village or town's worth of ordinary people at their full strength, or at the very least they can affect that large of an area. The next level of strength is Veteran, that is my current level, A Veteran's strongest attack can take out a city roughly the size of this capital city." When Charon said this, Hypnos' eyes widened in shock whereas Nyx nodded as if she understood but she obviously didn't due to her only being a couple years younger then Hypnos. Charon seeing this, realized he never asked their ages.
"How old are you two by the way?" Charon looked at them, wondering how close his guess at their ages were.
"I'm eight, I'm just small for my age." Hypnos looked mad at being reminded of his diminutive size.
"Uh... I'm four Charon" Nyx looked confused about Charon suddenly asking this.
Charon thought over why they were so small for their age when he realized it was most likely due to their malnutrition. Realizing that, he felt his guilt towards these two increase even more as he sighed before continuing.
"Sorry, I just realized I had not asked how old you both were. Anyways, the next level of strength is Master which is someone whose strongest attack can take out a whole kingdom usually, or at the very least destroy the land of a kingdom. At least one master is require to create a kingdom or empire, but most that have been around for a long enough time have a lot more than one. After that is the final confirmed level of strength which is Grandmaster, someone whose strongest attack can level a continent. Thankfully most who reach this stage prefer to be either solitary or explore the world with minimum attachments to the people weaker then them, if you ever meet one then simply be as kind as possible and then run once they let you go." Charon's voice went deadly serious, cutting through his previously casual tone.
Hypnos raised his hand as Charon nodded for him to ask his question, "You said confirmed? What do you mean by that?"
Charon gave a grin for Hypnos noticing his wording before he coughed and levelled out his excitement at Hypnos' curiosity, "Well, I mean that there are theoretical levels of power. However it is unknown if anyone has ever reached those levels before. For example, someone whose strongest attack could destroy the world. Of course even if someone reached that level that level it would be hard to prove without destroying everything we know."
"Oh. I guess that does make sense." Hypnos sat back before he realized the flaw in this system, "But wait, this system to measure power doesn't quite work then. What about people who specialize in non combat or non destructive abilities?"
Charon chuckled to himself as heard this, after all this was the same question he asked when he was as young as Hypnos, "Yes, you're exactly right. The issue is, due to the vast amount of ways to strengthen ones self we cannot easily translate those to each and every group. With each species having their own techniques to gain strength with its own stages. So when the first freelancers created a relatively easy to understand system everyone simply used that with outsiders of their specific group to make it more easy to translate. Of course, some have tried to create a more comprehensive system but it's difficult to do that when others are too used to the current measurements."
Hypnos nodded as that made more sense to him. He then looked at Charon as nervous to ask a question. Charon could see his hesitation as he gestured for Hypnos to ask his question.
"Well, why are you teaching us this?" Hypnos was confused, having never received help from someone before.
"Oh that's simple. I've decided to raise you two and I don't want you two to go off and die an idiotic death from not understanding your limits." Charon, having almost no experience with children, was as blunt as can be.
Hypnos' eyes widened before some suspicion creeped back into his eyes, "Why raise us?"
"I can explain fully why later, but let's just say I felt guilty for your situation. So I decided to raise you both as my children, simple as that." Charon explained, getting up as he did so.
"You're a weirdo. Also I am not calling you father." Hypnos looked annoyed at Charon.
"Well in that case, how about I ground you?" Charon gave Hypnos a mischievous smile.
"Hypnos! Don't be rude to mister. If he wants to raise us then let him. plus he gives us good food!" Nyx, who was quiet for most of this, suddenly cut in.
"No, no, no, little Nyx. You are my daughter now, you should call me father or dad." Charon nodded as if giving sage advice.
"Okay, dad?" Nyx said almost as if questioning if she said it right.
Charon simply laughed and nodded to say that she got it right before picking her up and putting her on his shoulder, he then put Hypnos on his other shoulder. The whole time he picked up Hypnos however, The tiny eight year old was struggling to get out of Charons grip.
"Hah! Give up oh son of mine, you already let me name you. Who names a child if not their parent." As if realizing the truth behind Charon's words, Hypnos began to calm down as he realized there was a kernel of truth in his words.
Originally, Charon was going to wait to tell them of his plans to adopt them but then he realized something last night. From the information he received before, for a soul pact to take place it requires the consent of all parties involved. Meaning that for a parental pact to take place, then both the parent and children must approve, subconsciously or consciously.