I've noticed that when the game is rather large, up to six players, the game has a brief lag time before it gets rolling. Nothing moves, no effects surround the players until the game gets 'going' as it were. But during this moment of bried load-lag, you can access the UI menu for leveling your Demigod. If you level your Demigod before the game begins, the graphic will vanish but it will not really take effect.

Odd thing is, If I choose a spell - it will give me the spell. But when I level, I'll get (2) abilities to place instead of one. If I apply them to stats, they will not take effect. In order to get my stats to reset, I need to select a different spell that I didn't choose from the beginning. Otherise I'll keep thinking I'm leveling spells and stats, but nothing is ever really upgrading or taking effect. It's a strange bug, and leaves a Demigod at level 1 for an extended period of time.