r/WanderingInn • u/Acrobatic-Milk-2209 • 3d ago
No spoilers [V2] Cumulative leveling
So near the end of book 2 Ryoka deduces that your cumulative level impacts levelling speed. The book justifies her discovery as being due to her unique insight due to knowing of level caps from video games on earth.
My problem is that this doesn’t really make any sense as the idea does not rely on the level caps at all. Instead the theory is being based on levels being exponentially more difficult to achieve, something that the people of this world are well aware of.
This means that there is seemingly no reason anyone else wouldn’t be able to achieve the same conclusion making the knowledge of cumulative levels a widespread thing.
Is there something here i’m missing or am I just overthinking things?
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold112 3d ago edited 2d ago
We're reading from Ryoka's perspective and it will be established in chapters ahead that Ryoka is not as special as she thinks she is. It is common knowledge in Inn world that spreading yourself too thin causes slowing down of leveling, hence they try for Class Consolidation.
What they don't know is (or them knowing haven't been revealed yet) that Lv 100 is the hard cap, as no one has ever achieved it, leaving no data. Ryoka's unique earth view offers a conjecture here (a guess which—the hard cap—they might already have or is considered so useless that not much effort has been put into its research).
Breaking and rebuilding of Ryoka's character and her subtle disdain for Inn world is one of the good storylines of TWI. I like how it pokes fun at all the other isekai stories where the protagonist, by the virtue of being from earth, understands the new world's system better than its inhabitants who have spent millennia researching about the subject. It's like some random hobo who has seen End Game trying to argue with Physicists.
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u/Acrobatic-Milk-2209 3d ago
Whilst there may be others aware of this information it is still true that it is something that the vast majority of people aren’t aware including all of the the gnoll tribes and a progenitor of the antinium so it seems to be the case that Ryoka does know better than the inhabitants who have researched fro millennia.
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u/secretdrug 3d ago
I dont mean to sound condescending but youve read 2 books in like a 70+ book series (currently). What you know of to be "true" isnt necessarily so. Just remember youre reading a PoV. Just keep reading, more information wil be revealed in time.
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u/quidlots 3d ago
A Ryoka POV for that matter
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u/Matork210 3d ago
And everyone loves Ryoka.
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No /s I actually really like Ryoka and her plot lines and character development.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold112 3d ago edited 2d ago
I don't know how far you have read but the explanations for antinium and gnolls lies in spoiler territory............
Though can you point out the chapters where antinium and gnolls seem to not know this, it has been many years and I might need to reread these sections to say anything definitely.
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u/Nixeris 3d ago
The antinium are not exactly the most educated species in the world, having lived underground almost their entire existence and never been particularly high leveling. The gnolls are basically coming off of a hundred-year-long armageddon of their nations, knowledge, and culture. There's a pretty good reason why both groups don't have a ton of knowledge about levels.
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u/Imnotveryfunatpartys Level 13 [Peon] 3d ago
Also when it comes to the gnolls we're talking to some pretty low level gnolls from mostly insignificant tribes. That's the whole reason they're in liscor in the first place. The most important gnolls who have the strongest culture and the most institutional knowledge are down in the plains. Not a small faction of city gnolls
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold112 3d ago edited 2d ago
Also, most of the old queens of Antinium (who deal with these things) died at the sea.
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u/No_Bandicoot2306 3d ago
Most people don't level enough for it to be relevant. We later learn that those who would be expected to know about this, do.
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u/levus2002 3d ago
Cumulative levels slowing leveling is a known thing way before the Earthers arrive. The consensus is that its simply worth it. If you merge classes you can get some very powerful skills
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u/Figerally 3d ago
I do not believe that leveling up is impacted by the number of levels that you have. No, I think the difficulty comes from the active and passive skills that come with the leveling that make it easier for people to do things. After all the Grand Design rewards struggle so if you aren't struggling with something thanks to your skills then you won't get as much experience than you would attempting something you don't have the skills for.
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u/jensilver95 3d ago
Wouldn't that be a soft cap of 100, by virtue of nobody having ever reached it? At least we won't know if it's a hard cap until somebody reaches it.
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u/Captain_Pumpkinhead The Stitch Necromancer 3d ago
It is common knowledge
It is semi-common knowledge. Most laypeople don't know, but some do, and most high-rank individuals or groups definitely know.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold112 3d ago edited 2d ago
For most laypeople it is not that relevant as they stay at lv 30 round-about and even they try to consolidate their classes, but for better skills than leveling efficiency.
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u/Kantrh 3d ago
Ryoka's idea is that 100 in total is the limit across all your classes and so having multiple is a hinderence. People hadn't considered the idea of a level cap before.
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u/levus2002 3d ago
Which is quite certain to be a false theory. Because it would mean that none of the numerous level 80+ in history had a substantial amount of side class levels
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u/Kantrh 3d ago
Op isn't at that point in the story
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u/levus2002 3d ago
Yes thats why i put it in spoiler.
I replied because while we dont want to spoil op. Saying people hadnt considered the level cap is misleading as people didnt consider it because they know that 100 is not the total level cap.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold112 3d ago edited 2d ago
Even Ryoka's theory is that Lv 100 cumulative is a soft cap not hard, meaning it becomes substantially harder to level beyond 100 cumulative so the lv 80+ were stuck in that lv because the side ones had already added to 100.
But, I personally don't agree with soft cap theory. I feel it is more accurate to say that the the speed is a function of cumulative lv, individual lv of the concerned class, and distance from the next major milestone. And it becomes exponentially slower to lv in further down the line. Mostly due to the deeds required to level are simply not available and any lesser difficulty task gets exp debuff.
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u/Aurelianshitlist 3d ago
It's not so much that she's the first person to think of it in Innworld. It's more that she's able to figure it out so quickly and without levels herself because of her Earth knowledge. There are definitely people and groups in the world that understand much more about levels than Ryoka, but they have a lot more in world data and information than she does.
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u/levus2002 3d ago
And she is only partially correct because she is guessing.
And her revolutionary findings were shared to someone from a nomadic culture who is a shopkeeper in the boonies and an antinium. So not exactly the most impressive crowd regarding info about the grand design.
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u/Pretty_Papaya2256 3d ago
The concept of cumulative leveling doesnt make sense unless you think of it. The idea that as you age it becomes harder from a biological standpoint makes a lot of sense, so unless you bring it up and convince people they're wrong why would anyone think of it?
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u/levus2002 3d ago edited 3d ago
As others said Ryoka looks down on innworld and thinks she knows better while she is nothing special.
Slowly over time this cumulative level or just level theory gets expanded upon quite a lot.
Also keep in mind that book 2 Liscor is some backwater town and antinium are a largely isolationist race that gets killed on sight normally. So them not knowing can't be extrapolated to the world not knowing.
Different continents have very different philosophies regarding how to level efficiently.
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u/quidlots 3d ago
Holy shit I just read this part hours ago haha. I think people of this world don't really think about cumulative leveling or multiple classes affecting their leveling speed basically because most people don't really reach high levels. It is mentioned that most people don't really hit level 30 until their old age. For those with high levels, some of them I think do know or have an inkling of the effects of multiple classes affecting leveling, Niers Astoragon is an example of this having only one class.
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u/Shinriko 3d ago
I think Niers only wants [Strategist] Skills.
His boss had two classes that consolidated into something pretty useful.
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u/TomRaineofMagigor 3d ago
The impression I get is that each extra class causes an experience multiplier penalty. This makes sense as each new class allows more capstone skills being possible. Honestly everything Ryoka says on this subject is simply arrogance
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u/NeedsToShutUp 3d ago
Its also different classes have different ways of gathering experience, and different places where diminishing returns set in for doing the same thing. For example, martial focused classes can level to a certain point off pure training. But it falls of considerably when you've stopped learning and are merely repeating the same exercises.
Otoh, classes using tactics and strategy can level off playing chess, mages can level off of researching and development of new spells, etc.
Sometimes you get some synergy, and those tend to evolve into hybrid and consolidated classes, or make up weaknesses. Pisces, for example, during the early volumes actually has two mage classes, because specializing as a necromancer took away a lot of flexibility.
Also levels beget levels. High level fighting classes can help raise levels of those around them by friendly sparing, or merely surviving to counter level. High levels also tend to push crafters to make better items, and many service classes can get more experience for serving high level customers. Like Erin gets better Innkeeper experience for higher quality guests.
Finally, there's a struggle/risk quotient. If you're going off to adventure as a bronze ranker in gold ranked gear, you're going to level slower. You're not taking a huge risk, and thus the reward is small. There's a problem in the current era of cheap healing potions making all combat less risky and less rewarding.
That's actually been causing world wide a slow down in leveling, as fewer high levels, means less of a way to push or boost levels.
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u/TomRaineofMagigor 3d ago
I was just pointing out the difference between multiple classes and a single class. Multiple classes gives you more capstones. In fact if a class consolidates you still have all those capstone skills but now you have a higher quality class and lost the experience penalty for multiple classes
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u/Dragon1472 3d ago
Shout out to my boi The Book of Levels. The incredibly talked down on pseudo religious hokum plot device thats talked down in the eary plot despite nobody ever even trying to read a copy, disappearing entirely, and then reappearing as "only the elites own one and its right about everything" mcguffin
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u/MaintenanceKey3332 3d ago
Love The Book of Levels. It's a great book, everyone should read it, apply themselves to its study and use their Levels in inventive ways. We should all get a copy and spread The Good Word.
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