Rebecca must have told the others what to avoid talking about, because when they came to visit the next day, the mood was much lighter but a bit awkward. I suppose it was nice catching up, although they mostly talked about the perks they were able to buy with the Breach proceeds. For all the demons that were there, it didn’t amount to much for them due to the ludicrous taxation they’re up to.
I was currently at an approximate sixty-three percent increase, being 0.39 times the amount of experience I’ve spent, before the tax. Kay, who had the lowest tax due to being the newest, was sitting at a markup of over 800 percent for any perk she bought- which made me suddenly more appreciative of my comparatively paltry tax.
When Cleo had explained the reason it was in place I begrudgingly accepted it was probably a good idea. If it didn’t exist, MGs would get not-quite-exponentially more powerful for a mostly static cost. This increase in power only allows them to get more powerful faster, and would eventually hit a point where they would seriously injure themselves or irreparably break the fabric of reality from the universe trying to cope with the massive amount of reality warping their magic caused.
Equally convincing if someone was that powerful, I would never have a shot in hell of getting a single demon kill before they did- let alone do enough to buy any meaningful perks.
After we had eaten all the food they had brought to my hospital room and made meaningless but pleasant conversation for a while after, they left so I could finalize the perks I would be getting in preparation for the morph. [Magical Hacking] was the base for most of the others and served as the analogue for my cardiovascular and skeletal system since it normally distributed the ULE to each of its sub perks in the background. Since it could let me make user-like inputs, [RAT King] would serve as my digital muscular system.
Alongside those, Cleo and I worked out eight more perks:
-[Digital Dominion]: Normally would allow me to absorb programs and systems as a whole instead of subverting, manipulating, or destroying them. Now it would correlate to my digestive system.
-Corresponding to both my endocrine and nervous system would be [Secure Connection]. By the normal sounding name, it should be obvious Cleo didn’t get to name it. As a perk it would let me create an instantaneous, uninterruptible, and untraceable connection between any number of devices I charged with ULE for as long as the energy lasted.
-Another non-Cleo named perk, and flipside of [Magical Hacking], I would be taking was [Magical Antivirus]. Hopefully there is little need to explain what it does and that it would serve as my lymphatic and urinary systems.
-[VPM], or [Virtually Propagated Magic] when not in a punny acronym: Outside of being used in a morph, it would have let me cast magic by using the ULE put into devices that allowed my other perks to work, although blindly and at a horrible efficiency. As part of the morph base, it would act as my respiratory system. Not the best correlation, but since a lot of popular media involved chants or names to cast magic, it was barely workable.
-[Oxidation Membrane] was purpose built for me, as the perk would give a form of firewall to biological computers- and fit nicely as my integumentary system.
-[Can of Worms]: Normally would allow [Magical Hacking] packets to slowly gather ambient ULE to sustain and duplicate themselves. Now it would be a distasteful parallel to my reproductive system.
-Finally, [Computer Integration] would allow me to take [Perk Macros], an apt analog to my weeks-old magical system.
Not counted among those was the Dæmon morph itself. According to my Semiseelie, technically, it wasn’t a perk. Along with experience, it would be bought with tokens and where perks only gave knowledge and familiarity according to their purpose, this would completely alter my being. The bluntness of the statement gave me a moment of pause, but so long as I remained humanoid and had perks to cover stuff up, I wasn’t too bothered by the implications.
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The next day, after I laid out my thought process to Miracleworker, he simply asked, “as much as I find the process interesting, are you sure you’re fine technically no longer being human?”
“Yeah. I’ll still be me, and as jaded as it sounds: recent events have shown me that being strictly human- or even superhuman- is a bit overrated.”
“Alright then. I think your proposed guide-line perks are pretty fucking good. In terms of quantity, you’re certainly integrating by far the most perks I’ve seen. Unless your Semiseelie disagrees, I think you should buy them now so you can get used to them while we work on your arm situation.”
Face turning a bit red with embarrassment, I admitted, “I somehow forgot about that… It’s probably my tail’s fault for filling in so well. And all I’ve been physically doing is moving papers and eating. Give me a few to talk with my designer.” Shifting to thinking at Cleo, I asked, “can you generate some designs for me if you haven't already?”
Visible only to me, they smiled and shot back, {any special features or aesthetics you want included?}
After a moment of thought, I replied, “ideally, it would look pretty close to my old arm- maybe with a little bit of stylistic machinery like on my tail in the joints?As far as special functions… maybe having a few sections be modular would be better than a hard to replace, dedicated function.”
{Last question: would you prefer more space for modules or for blood storage to make up for the capacity you lost with the arm?}
“Would not having the blood thing really hurt me? Can’t I just use atmospheric ULE for stuff?”
{Yes and no. Your reserves dictate the absolute maximum amount of ULE you can put into something, you just haven’t done anything on that scale and when costumed, your reserves fill only a tiny bit slower than you can use them.}
“Can you favor the modules and just have the default be more blood storage?”
{Done. The manufacturing should be done this evening. It took just over four tokens to reach something satisfactory for your upcoming morph. The remains of the fifth should be used to clean everything up with nanites like with your other equipment}
Focusing back in on the real world, I turned to Miracleworker and explained, “the arm is apparently in the works right now, slated to be done ‘this evening.’ So I guess install tomorrow if you don’t have other things to do?”
With a playful scoff, he lazily decided, “as much as I enjoy it, I literally don’t fucking need sleep and you’ll be knocked out for the procedure, so let's just get started right after it's finished. Make sure to send me the procedure guidelines so I know what needs to be done for installation. I can also pick up and finish it if you want- I get tokens subsidized by the system if it's not excessive and for the use of other MGs.”
“Uhh, sure. Just don’t mess it up.”
“Yeah, yeah. My little magical friend will be handling it under contract with yours, and I’m sure you know how particular they are with that stuff.”
With that he left and I asked Cleo to get the perk integrations over with. A few hours, a lot of headaches and nausea, and 168 experience later it was finally over. Due to the large amount of information subtly dumped into my head, I was mentally exhausted and simply laid on my side, watching videos on a low ‘volume.’ There wasn’t actually any noise, but the computers poking my brain were able to stimulate the feeling of listening to a speaker on low volume. The part that would have been more worrying before getting [Computer Integration] was that I was able to turn my normal hearing way down. That perk combined with my high level of physical connectivity enabled a much more intimate and natural connection between my carbon and silicone computers- but not quite the level I was expecting I’d get from the upcoming morph.
By the time I was feeling alright again, Cleo informed me that my arm was done being fabricated and polished. When Miracleworker arrived a few dozen minutes later, I was anxious and excited. Unlike my previous interactions with him, he was all business. After a quick circuit of the room I was in, he nodded and a myriad of medical equipment and tools appeared. I could only guess at what most of them did, but I didn’t have time to think about it as after he confirmed I was ready, I simply fell unconscious.