Levels and experience are now gone. Instead a ranking system is now in place. This ranking system is to give characters a chance to improve their characters over the duration of the roleplay and missions. How a character advances in ranking is determined through personal story arcs, player participation, and so forth. This ranking system is based on the F D C B A S SS SSS system you find most commonly in Japanese and Korean games.
Characters can over time reach higher ranks and therefore get more abilities.
You'll notice this information on your character badge; a letter ranking and a number ranking. The letter ranking determines your characters total ability amount which you can place in whichever section (physical or magical) you wish. This means you can have a character who can either be more magic focused, physically focused, or balanced. The number ranking determines your rank among your player peers, meaning should a character take on a leadership role their rank would be higher than others.
A character with a higher ranking doesn't have to take a leadership position, but if something happens to the group leader or there is a disagreement, a character can essentially "pull rank". 0 is the highest rank and 10 is the lowest rank.
