Dragon Hourglass

The Dragon Hourglass is a large structure which indicates the time until the next Wave of Calamity. It is also used for various rituals and ceremonies.

Description
The Dragon Hourglass in Melromarc is a massive hourglass about 7 meters tall. It is covered in detailed decorations and has red sand within that counts towards the next wave.

Waves of Calamity
The sand within the dragon hourglass indicates how much time until the next wave. When a wielder of a Legendary Weapon or Vassal Weapon (also known as a Hero) encounter a dragon hourglass, it will be registered to their weapon. Upon registration, they will receive a countdown to the next wave within this hourglass' territory and will be teleported, along with their party, to the wave once it begins. A world may have multiple dragon hourglasses. If a hero is not registered to them, they will not be made aware or be teleported to waves within its respective area.

Levelling-Up
As non-heroes level-up, they will eventually reach a point where they can no longer proceed. For example, in Raphtalia's World, there is a level ceiling at level 40 and 100. In order to break through this limit, they must participate in a limit-breaking ceremony. This is also called a class-up or job-change ceremony.

The class-up ceremony is done at the dragon hourglass. Almost all regions, whether it be human-inhabited, Demi-Human-ruled, or a completely uninhabited region, all have this similar Dragon Engraved Hourglasses that can perform the same function. Mostly, they reside within that country's capital or capital itself is built around where the Hourglass resides. That country's government alone decides who will get to class up; not simply anyone is permitted to do so. By using special items, one can modify the class advancement procedure like Fitoria's gift of Ahoge to Filo which doubled all the statuses of Naofumi's party, which was quite rare.

The dragon hourglass can also reset the levels of an individual back to Level 1. It is mostly used on criminals.

Regions
There are several Red Hourglass of the Dragon’s Era spread throughout the world. Those explicitly described are inside Melromarc's Castle Town's town plaza in the middle of the church, in the underwater submerged temple of Cal Mira Archipelago, in Q'ten Lo, and in the hidden country protected by Fitoria. Fitoria also mentions that there are numerous hourglass across the world and that she manages the region where there is no human settlement.

Melty informs Nafoumi that just like river changing course, the Hourglass will also changes location in a period of centuries.

Chronology
Naofumi wasn't aware of how the system works at first. He was told about the Dragon Hourglass in Melromarc's church and went there. He got himself unknowingly registered to the Melromarc Hourglass when he actually meant to check for the time of the next wave. Naofumi was under the impression that he will be teleport to the regions where the wave will occurs. But that wasn't the case, as Melromarc's hourglass merely transports heroes to the wave affected region within its jurisdiction. The heroes must register to the hourglass of that particular country to fight the waves. When he was framed for kidnapping Princess Melty, he was worried that even if he ran to another country, he might be teleport back to Melromarc during the time of the next wave and might be arrested, not knowing that he could have easily registering in other country's hourglass.

Trivia

 * Their origin was a mystery as all the records of it were destroyed or forgotten in the course of time.