Ascent.
In the First Step of Ascendance, the first step leading to Godhood, there were nine ranks; from the lowest, the G-Rank, all the way to the peak, the Ex-Rank.
And each of these ranks had smaller sub-steps.
From Initial Assimilation, to Branching Root, to Purifying Replacement, and finally, Ascent.
Each step was endlessly complex, requiring long years of work, opportunity, research, and talent, each step laying the foundation upon which ascendants would stand in the future.
The First Step was the foundation of Ascendance, and thus was the foundation of Godhood.
Ascent was the last step of each rank.
Each rank had a vast chasm separating them, one that could only be bridged by doing a very simple thing; compressing the 'weave', what most humans of the dungeons called their 'system' or even 'status'.
