"Hey, so, there are a couple of jobs we can choose from, and I want your input," Kyle said as he turned to Swamp Dragon.
Swamp Dragon nodded. "What are the jobs?"
Kyle gave Swamp Dragon a quick overview of the jobs.
"I know what you will probably choose," Kyle said carefully, "but I'm not-"
Swamp Dragon held up his hand to stop Kyle. Then, a small smile appeared on his face.
"You don't have to worry," Swamp Dragon said. "While I do want to defend our home against the Cult, I know that not everyone is willing to take such a risk."
"I will become a defender as my solo job. I will not force my own morals on you, and I won't think less of you for your choice," Swamp Dragon said.
Kyle sighed.
Right now, Kyle felt mixed.
He was happy and relieved that Swamp Dragon didn't pull him into defending the worlds from the Cult, but he also felt a bit bad for not supporting Swamp Dragon.
'Just ignore it!' Kyle thought. 'Just be glad that you don't have to risk your life in such a dumb way!'
A smile appeared on Kyle's face. "Thanks!" he said. "Then, what do you think about the Rarity Hunter job? I'm interested in that."
Swamp Dragon raised an eyebrow. "That job is just as dangerous as being a defender," he commented. "Do you know what a Dimensional Collapse is?"
Kyle nodded. "Yep! It's when someone or something of far too much power appears in unstable space. This will cause the Dimensions to rapidly solidify, and anyone inside the area of effect of the Dimensional Collapse will be sent to random Dimensions."
Swamp Dragon nodded. "Yes, that's what happens. Why are you interested in taking such a dangerous job? We could be sent to the Elemental or Hell Dimension."
"That's the thing," Kyle said with a smirk. "The Elemental Dimension is the only bad one. The Hell Dimension is super empty. There are barely any beasts or people. Even more, the world will realize that we are in the wrong Dimension within just a couple of seconds. I'd take this chaotic kind of danger over a planned assault by a foreign power."
"I mean, what's more dangerous, randomly traveling across planets and maybe running into a powerful beast, or being the target of a Seeker who leads thousands or millions of people?"
Swamp Dragon furrowed his brows.
"I can see what you mean," he commented. "Fine, I would be willing to also become a Rarity Hunter."
Kyle nodded as he turned back to the interface. He quickly chose Rarity Hunter as his team job before returning to the list of solo jobs.
'I'm not going to risk my life for such shit pay,' he thought as he crossed out the option for defending the world from the Cult.
'I'm also not a teacher.'
'That leaves Exchange Seeker and Primal Territory Defender. Hmmm…'
'Primal Territory Defender would give me several True Battles, but I will already get that from my team job.'
'Should I really become an Exchange Seeker? I mean, I just got here, and I'm going to leave already? Also, I don't even know how many resources I get from the affiliate power.'
"Assistant, I got a question," Kyle said as he looked at her.
"I'll gladly answer any questions you might have," she said politely.
"What's better, being a Core Disciple in an affiliate power or having access to Class C resources?" he asked.
"Class C resources are the lowest available resources," Assistant answered. "However, the Array of Stars is very powerful, and even their newest members are treated better than the Inner Disciples of most Lower and Higher Primary powers."
Kyle waited for more, but it seemed like Assistant was done talking.
'She didn't say Core Disciple.'
Most powers associated with the Array of Stars had a ranking for their members.
There were Growing Members, who were generally called Disciples, and Adult Members, who were generally called Elders.
A Growing Member, or Disciple, was someone whose potential had not been fully unearthed yet. In essence, this meant that they had a high chance of reaching the next Realm.
An Adult Member, or Elder, was someone whose potential had already been unearthed. These people had a medium to low chance of reaching the next Realm.
A Disciple mostly focused on growing stronger and advancing Realms, while an Elder actually focused on keeping the organization running.
Disciples fought for resources, learned Laws, entered True Battles, fulfilled missions, and so on.
Elders taught Disciples, managed the finances of the organization, managed administration, enforced rules, gave missions, and so on.
These two groups were further divided into four categories.
Outer, Inner, Core, and Chosen.
Outer Disciples were the newest members of an organization, and they had to prove themselves first. They generally got the bare minimum of resources.
Fulfilling several criteria would allow an Outer Disciple to be promoted to an Inner Disciple. The categories were strength, loyalty, contributions, talent, goodwill, and so on. Inner Disciples received far greater nurturing and had access to more resources.
Core Disciples were chosen from the Inner Disciples. If powerful Elders or the upper management decided that an Inner Disciple was especially outstanding, they could promote them to become a Core Disciple.
Naturally, Core Disciples got far greater benefits, fewer duties, and more freedom.
In the rare case that an organization believed that a Core Disciple was talented enough to reach the peak of their organization in the future, the organization's leaders might decide to promote them to a Chosen Disciple.
A Chosen Disciple was the future of the entire organization. If they managed to uncover their full potential, they might reach the power of the current leader or more.
The leader of a Lower Secondary Organization might be a True Crusher. If that leader found a disciple who had the potential to reach the Wisdom Fire Realm, that leader would most likely promote that disciple to a Chosen Disciple.
Chosen Disciples didn't get a fixed number of resources. The leaders of the organizations would give them whatever they wanted while also protecting them from dangers from higher Realms.
Elders were also classified into these categories, but this did not specifically reflect a certain hierarchy.
They just ran different departments with different complexities.
An Outer Elder could not give a Core Disciple commands, but a Core Elder also couldn't give an Outer Disciple commands.
Nevertheless, being a Core Elder or Inner Elder held more prestige than being an Outer Elder in the same organization.
It was a bit like being a teacher.
A professor in a university did not have the power to issue commands to high-school students or teachers, but they generally earned more money, and their job was more respected in most people's eyes.
In general, Elders were one or more Realms higher than the Disciples of their departments.
When most Outer Disciples were Transcendents, the Outer Elders would mostly consist of Primal Elders with the occasional Crusher Elder thrown in.
99.9% of all members of an organization fell into the categories of Disciples or Elders.
The remaining members were all upper management. They were the ones leading the organization as a whole.
Their titles varied based on how the organization was run.
Leader, CEO, Guild Leader, Sect Master, Head, Warlord, Prime Minister, President, and so on were all different titles for the head of an organization.
'Outer Disciple treatment in the Array of Stars or Core Disciple treatment in an affiliate power?'
'Hmmm…'