Ethan was terrified of his own mind now, but Ethan let a bit more of his Creativity and Processing slip out of the grasp of his Fortitude as he descended into the most furious studying session he’d ever been in- and he’d been quite the academic once.
Ethan began with the Hobgoblin’s muscle as a base, and then began slowly, agonizingly transplanting the Goblin’s second Form onto it. He’d felt that the task was impossible to do in a short time period moments ago, but as more and more of his mind slipped out of his Fortitude, Ethan began to feel like it was more and more realistic to get this done in the next day or so.
Luckily, even when his Fortitude let everything out, his task was so monumentous and infatuating that it didn’t split.
Two hours passed in a blur, and Ethan grinned at his transplanted mess of a design. The ‘design’ in question existed only inside his head, and was very, very theoretical. The elegance of the Goblin summoning ritual’s second Form was completely absent in his version, but that was fine. Ethan could and would refine it soon.
First, though, Ethan needed to test it. He pushed a clump of mana out of his chest and began summoning a Goblin. The second Form he used was his makeshift version, and Ethan analyzed it as carefully as he could- in particular, he analyzed how it interacted with the other Forms, but that wasn’t it. He monitored its volatility and even identified a few parts that just outright did not work as he’d intended.
Faintly, Ethan felt like he heard a whisper in the back of his mind, but it barely registered.
More importantly, though, Ethan was concerned by how it clashed with the third Form- the organs. He was unsure how to solve the dilemma, but temporarily put it off as he more carefully pulled the mana back into his body, salvaging almost all of it.
Almost immediately, Ethan descended into another fugue. His mind worked greater than he thought possible of a human mind as he fought to refine and replace sections of his spell, but he continuously ran into problems- problems that he lacked the knowledge to solve.
For example, the ordinary goblin blood didn’t seem like it would be efficient enough to sustain its body with the new addition. More than that, certain muscles in the goblin’s body were very important; for example, their speech involved many muscles in their throat- thus, these muscles needed to have a level of flexibility that the tougher, stronger Hobgoblin muscles did not offer.
Another example would be how the organs seemed like they would reject the body with these additions. Ethan had zero clue how the hell he’d solve this problem, but almost an hour later, he’d fixed quite a lot of the problems- enough that he decided to test it again. Just like last time, he performed the Goblin summoning ritual, the only alteration being his version of the second Form, and monitored the problems and clashes with it. Then, he went and fixed the problems he found.
Several of them were caused by his own fixes. Others were because his fixes hadn’t worked, and even more were because his fixes had been actively negative, ruining the cohesiveness of the ritual.
By now, his Creativity and Processing had lost most of their intenseness. That was… fine, actually. Ethan was tired by now, and he’d clearly wiped himself out with his furious studying. Ethan grabbed hold of the excess, entangling it all in his Fortitude so that his mind could return to being mostly normal.
With a sigh, Ethan realized he needed to relieve himself and stood up. As he stepped outside, Ethan considered a few things.
‘Creativity’s really cool. I don’t think I’d have come up with half of those solutions so quickly if not for it. It let me figure out the origin point of many of the flaws really quickly and easily, too. It’s not as useful as Processing, I don’t think, but it’s got benefits other than what it showed just now, I’m pretty sure. I mean, what the fuck was that dreamworld thing I got trapped in while Fortitude was… evolving, I guess?’ Ethan thought, a bit lost on the terminology for that one. ‘Also, I bet it’s the majority of the reason that I’m able to model the Forms and stuff as well as I can exclusively within my own mind.’
Finishing up with his business, Ethan zipped up his pants and glanced down at the time. 1:02 A.M.
‘It’s pretty late,’ Ethan thought. ‘I should get to sleep soon,’
Just before he crossed into the burrow, Ethan stopped, recalling the weird sensation in his mind earlier. It was still there- just fainter. Acting on a hunch, Ethan summoned his Panel.
Subject: Ethan Cross
Class: Summoner (Uncommon) (Cursed)
Level: 10
Rank: 0
Attributes:
Agility: 2.2
Creativity: 2.5
Fortitude: 2.6
Insight: 1.4
Magic: 2.5
Processing: 2.8
Strength: 1.3
Impartments: Summon Altered Goblin, Summon Cursed Hobgoblin
+1 Minor Physicality AP
+1 Standard AP
+1 Superior Standard AP
Impartment Available
System Grading Available
…He’d leveled up again. Ethan rubbed at his face, a bit exhausted of all the System bullshit. It had just Cursed him, after all. Regardless, Ethan knew better than to turn down power. As he began to consider the Panel, Fred poked his leg.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Why standing there?” The goblin asked, and Ethan split off a portion of his mind to answer the goblin with disturbing ease. Increasingly, he was getting the feeling that his mind was not his own.
“Just thinking; stay alert, Fred.” Ethan answered absent-mindedly, stepping a bit deeper into the burrow.
‘Minor Physicality is definitely going into Fortitude. More Insight would be very nice, even if it did raise by .2 all on its own since last time, so it’s a candidate for the standard AP, but Fortitude is really important… the Superior Standard AP’s absolutely going into Magic, though. I need more mana to practice with, and the ability to summon more goblins is invaluable.’
Ethan’s Fortitude raised from 2.6 to 2.8, and Ethan hesitated on the next AP, before raising his Fortitude again, from 2.8 to 3.2. It was, quite possibly, his real most important Attribute. Without it, his mind would be running wild, and he suspected that it was very vital to dealing with Corruption.
Lastly, Ethan’s Magic Attribute rose from 2.5 to 3.5, becoming his best Attribute in one decision. After each of these improvements, with his honed Insight, Ethan could just barely feel a slight infusion of impossibly dense yet nearly-invisible mana. It was most noticeable with his final decision though, both due to the greater amount and the nearness to his mana core, which was the nexus of his mana sense. Ethan could clearly detect it flooding into his mana core and enhancing it in every aspect- his mana became slightly more dense, but its capacity to hold mana shot up massively, and the rate at which it was generated increased as well.
Once the infusion faded away, Ethan focused on the state of his mana core. Letting out a bit of Processing to figure out the specifications of it more accurately, Ethan measured everything. A minute later, Ethan came to the conclusion that his mana was roughly 6% denser, that his mana core could store roughly 30% more mana than before, and that mana was generated about 40% faster. That was very significant, but they were only rough estimates.
After that, Ethan moved onto one of the other peculiarities of his Panel, any trace of tiredness chased away by his interest. Ethan focused on ‘System Grading Available’.
System Grading Description: The System will grade your value to Earth. Those who are valuable to Earth’s continued existence will be treated better by the System.
Commence System Grading?
That… was pretty blunt and straightforward. Relatively confident that he was ‘valuable to Earth’s continued existence’, Ethan gave it a mental thumbs up.
Commencing System Grading…
Major Feats: Abomination Slayed.
Minor Feats: Impressive progress. Wyrdfur slain. Enduring Corruption.
Minor Failures: Accepting Corrupted Offer.
Major Failures: N/A
Congratulations! System Grade: Grand
Received Boons: Minor System Assistance (Grand), Greater Descriptions (Greater), Superior Treatment (Greater), Identify (Moderate), Mana Indicator (Lesser), Translations (Lesser), System Personalization (Lesser).
Ethan focused on each ‘boon’ in order.
MINOR SYSTEM ASSISTANCE (GRAND) BOON DESCRIPTION:
MINOR SYSTEM ASSISTANCE IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT. YOU MAY RECEIVE MINOR ASSISTANCE FROM THE SYSTEM ON RARE OCCASIONS.
‘The value of that really depends on how often I receive assistance and how helpful the assistance is.’
GREATER DESCRIPTIONS (GREATER) BOON DESCRIPTION:
GREATER DESCRIPTIONS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT. THE DESCRIPTIONS SUBJECT RECEIVES ARE MORE PRECISE AND DETAILED, FOR KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
‘Wish I had that sooner…’ Ethan thought, a bit ticked off. Seriously, how hard was it to actually explain literally anything?
SUPERIOR TREATMENT (GREATER) BOON DESCRIPTION:
SUBJECT IS FAVORED BY THE SYSTEM.
‘…So much for Greater Descriptions, huh?’
IDENTIFY (MODERATE) BOON DESCRIPTION:
SUBJECT CAN IDENTIFY THE OBJECTS OR BEINGS OF THEIR FOCUS, RECEIVING A DESCRIPTION OF SAID FOCUS.
‘That sounds really fucking useful,’
MANA INDICATOR (LESSER) BOON DESCRIPTION:
SUBJECT CAN MORE RAPIDLY AND PRECISELY MEASURE THEIR MANA BY CHECKING THEIR PANEL.
‘That’s convenient, I guess.’ Ethan thought. It had never been vitally important to see exactly how much mana he had- he had a pretty instinctive understanding of it- but it would still be nice to have, especially for measuring the benefits of upping his Magic Attribute.
TRANSLATIONS (LESSER) BOON DESCRIPTION:
THE SYSTEM WILL TRANSLATE ALL KNOWN HUMAN LANGUAGE INTO THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE FOR SUBJECT.
‘Alyssa speaks English, and the goblins aren’t human… even if they were, I understand them through the summon link. It’ll probably be useful later, though, once… if… I reconnect with human society.’
SYSTEM PERSONALIZATION (LESSER) BOON DESCRIPTION:
THE INTERFACE AND SUCH OF THE SYSTEM IS MORE PERSONALIZED TO SUBJECT’S LIKING.
‘Irrelevant, probably.’ Ethan thought, before reopening his Panel once more to check the changes.
SUBJECT: ETHAN CROSS
CLASS: SUMMONER (UNCOMMON) (CURSED)
SYSTEM GRADE: GRAND
MANA: 12%
LEVEL: 10
RANK: 0
AGILITY: 2.2
CREATIVITY: 2.5
FORTITUDE: 3.2
INSIGHT: 1.4
MAGIC: 3.5
PROCESSING: 2.8
STRENGTH: 1.3
IMPARTMENTS: SUMMON ALTERED GOBLIN, SUMMON CURSED HOBGOBLIN
IMPARTMENT AVAILABLE