It's interesting (and refreshing) that Aesir meets people he absolutely stomps, equals, and people who can 'kill him ten times before he blinks' (in his own words) over his journey, often in the same arc. All too often fantasy powerlevels tend to devolve into 'stomp group of baddies, get powerup to beat boss of baddies who is powerful (but usually cheating), stomp next group of baddies, etc', and that's the ones where the MC isn't just hilariously overpowered and just steamrolling everyone from the get-go. He's still very strong, but his power is rooted more in his versatility and knowledge acquired over a long life rather than just being hard and hitting hard.