Makun Focused. Finally, they were speaking about the Ladder.
He leaned closer, ignoring the throbbing in his third eye.
THE HIERARCHY OF POWER
As a practitioner peels back The Veil, their spiritual rank advances through defined tiers. Each tier represents a degree of separation from physical limitation and a step closer to the Source.
As spiritual energy expands through comprehension, the practitioner climbs the tiers. Each tier represents a threshold. A level of spiritual density, awareness, and power that reshapes what the practitioner IS.
Not just what they can do. But what they ARE.
Your body changes. Your soul changes. Your place in reality changes.
Within each tier exist three grades. Stages of refinement before the next great leap.
First Grade: you enter the tier. Unstable. Learning. Adjusting to the new weight of your soul.
Second Grade: you stabilize. The power becomes natural. Your techniques sharpen.
Third Grade: you master the tier. You stand at the edge of the next threshold, ready to leap.
Then comes the trial. The breakthrough. The major comprehension that shatters the ceiling and pushes you into the next tier.
And the cycle repeats.
THE TIERS:
TIER 0: THE DISCONNECTED
TIER 1: THE INITIATED
TIER 2: THE APPRENTICE
TIER 3: THE ADEPT
TIER 4: THE ELITE
TIER 5: THE MASTER
TIER 6: THE ENLIGHTENED
TIER 7: THE GRAND
TIER 8: THE ETERNAL
Makun stared at the list.
Eight tiers. Each one a mountain separating him from the Source.
Was he gonna be able to climb each of these mountains while they were chains holding him back?
How important was luck? did it play a vital role?
He turned the page.
THE PATH OF COMPREHENSION
See? The Four Paths of Comprehension are what you need once you want to move from one tier to another.
Minor comprehensions and enlightenments to advance from one grade to another.
Major comprehension to advance from tier to tier.
And the more you advanced, the more you understood of the universe. The more you understood of the Source. And the greater the power you had.
So easy to guess, right?
To achieve the goal of a mystic, you need to be an Eternal.
Makun's breath caught.
Tier 8. The Eternal.
He stared at the words.
That's the goal. That's what it takes.
He could not put a weight on this word yet, He did not know what power you gained with these tiers yet, But for it to be the pinnacle was proof enough of its importance.
I am gonna reach There.
He thought back to the Four Paths of Comprehension he'd read earlier.
Meditation. Ritual. Lived Experience. External Resources.
Those weren't just methods. They were the way forward.
Minor comprehension moved you from First Grade to Second. From Second to Third.
Major comprehension moved you from Tier 1 to Tier 2. From Tier 2 to Tier 3.
Each step required understanding. Not just power. Not just energy.
Understanding.
He turned the page again.
THE GREAT ROUTES AND THE INFINITE BRANCHES
While all mystics seek reconnection with the Source, the journey is not uniform.
Each soul resonates with different truths. Each practitioner comprehends reality through different lenses.
Theoretically, there are INFINITE routes to the Source. As many paths as there are ways to understand existence.
A mystic who comprehends through fire walks differently than one who comprehends through shadow. A practitioner who binds entities follows a different rhythm than one who breaks them.
The Deep does not care HOW you climb. Only THAT you climb.
But over millennia, seven dominant patterns emerged. Seven routes that have been walked by countless mystics, tested through ages, proven to lead toward enlightenment.
These are not the ONLY paths.
They are the CLEAREST.
The most traveled. The most documented. The most reliably effective.
Others have walked stranger roads. Some succeeded. Most vanished into The Deep, their comprehension incomplete, their souls scattered.
The seven routes are not rules. They are guides. Maps left behind by those who reached the summit and returned to teach.
Follow them, and your odds improve.
Ignore them, and you risk becoming another cautionary tale whispered in the Night Markets.
THE SEVEN GREAT ROUTES
1. THE SCHOLAR ROUTE
"Knowledge is the map. Understanding is the bridge. Truth is the destination."
Nature: Mystics who seek the Source through study, research, and intellectual comprehension. They believe reality can be understood, decoded, and navigated through accumulated wisdom.
2. THE WARRIOR ROUTE
"The body is the vessel. Discipline is the forge. Battle is enlightenment."
Nature: Mystics who seek the Source through physical and spiritual combat. They believe truth is revealed in the moment of life-or-death confrontation.
3. THE RULER ROUTE
"Authority is will made manifest. To command reality, first command the self."
Nature: Mystics who seek the Source through governance, leadership, and imposing order on chaos.
4. THE SEER ROUTE
"Time is an illusion. Past, present, future all exist simultaneously. I walk between."
Nature: Mystics who seek the Source through prophecy, divination, and perceiving probability branches.
5. THE HEALER ROUTE
"The body reflects the soul. To heal flesh, mend the spirit first."
Nature: Mystics who seek the Source through restoration, balance, and understanding life's fragility.
6. THE ARCHITECT ROUTE
"What I create echoes in eternity. To build is to impose permanence on chaos."
Nature: Mystics who seek the Source through creation, craftsmanship, and leaving lasting marks on reality.
7. THE MERCHANT ROUTE
"Every exchange is sacred. Every deal binds reality. Value is truth made tangible."
Nature: Mystics who seek the Source through negotiation, exchange, and understanding value.
SUB-ROUTES EXPLAINED
Sub-routes are NOT separate paths to the Source.
They are SPECIALIZATIONS within a Great Route. Specific ways of walking the broader path.
A Pactbound Warrior and a Blade Dancer Warrior both walk the Warrior Route. Both comprehend reality through combat. But their specializations differ.
Sub-routes emerge through natural inclination, training focus, entity influence, or hybrid comprehension and other circumstances.
Most mystics develop sub-route identity by grade1 Tier 2. It can differ.
By Tier 4, your sub-route becomes FIXED. Changing requires spiritual reconstruction, sacrifices etc..
Dangerous.
It makes sense Now. Makun thought.
Seven routes.
He thought of Zuri. Seer. Second grade apprentice. She read fates, saw threads others couldn't.
He thought of Zack York. Warrior. He enhanced his fist with energy. He never mentioned his tier and grade, but Makun remembered. The old root that could grand Third grade adept enlightenment.
He now understood the value of such a thing. He now understood the meaning of the veil lady refusing it.
He thought of Veil Lady. Warrior too, maybe? He was not sure.
And me?
He didn't know yet.
But he would figure everything out.
He tried to turn the page again.
But the text had stopped.
The next page was blank. Waiting.
His energy reserves were nearly empty. The book had drunk deep.
He could feel it. It was done. He could not have more information from the book at his current stage.
I need more spiritual energy, I need different sources of information.
He closed the book carefully and placed it back in the sports bag.
His mind raced.