Just putting it here, even though its been a while, but at no point does the author confuse the level system of the novel. When upgrading, a 1 star gold rank would become a 2 star gold rank. ‘Gold’ is the quality, not the potential. It never decreases, only increases. A 1 star gold that excels at combat would beat a two star silver who isn’t so great a combat, or is directly countered. It all makes perfect sense. Even when getting later to the threshold of mid-tier and high-tier (lvl3-4 and 6-7) the boost is significantly more. Its not difficult to understand and the explanation is quite easy to accept as well.
