Ethan was certain of what would happen, but he brought up his available Impartments.

CHOOSE AN IMPARTMENT.

1. SUMMON ABOMINABLE ORC.

2. SUMMON TAINTED BODY

3. SUMMON CURSED MINOR GOLEM

4. SUMMON ALTERED FERROW

5. CORRUPTED SPIRITUALITY BANK

6. GLEAN ABOMINABLE INSIGHT

7. GAZE OF THE PROFANE TITAN

Ethan shook his head at the options. He had zero intention of being Corrupted or whatever. Regardless, he brought up the Impartment’s Descriptions.

SUMMON ABOMINABLE ORC IMPARTMENT DESCRIPTION:

THE MIND, BODY AND SOUL OF THE ABOMINABLE ORC HAVE BEEN THOROUGHLY CORRUPTED, GRANTING THEM INCREDIBLE STRENGTH AND HORRIBLE INSANITY. TO THE ABOMINABLE ORC, EVERY LIVING THING MUST GRUESOMELY DIE- EVEN THEIR KIN OR THEIR SUMMONER. NOT ONLY ARE THEY STRONG BEYOND BELIEF, BUT THEY CAN ALSO SPREAD CORRUPTION.

PROS: UNHOLY STRENGTH (RELATIVE), UNHOLY FORTITUDE (RELATIVE).

CONS: EXTREME MANA COST (RELATIVE), UNCONTROLLABLE, MINDLESS.

The next four were equally crappy, but the last three seemed interesting, albeit still bad.

CORRUPTED SPIRITUALITY BANK IMPARTMENT DESCRIPTION:

IMPARTMENT: CORRUPTED SPIRITUALITY BANK GRANTS SUBJECT THE KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO CREATE A CORRUPTED SPIRITUALITY BANK. UNLIKE ITS UNCORRUPTED COUSIN, THIS VERSION PULLS POWER FROM CORRUPTION, RESULTING IN NO MANA COST. THE MINDS THAT ARE PRESERVED WITHIN THIS SPIRITUALITY BANK, HOWEVER, ARE AFFLICTED WITH INCREASINGLY POWERFUL CORRUPTION.

Interesting, but useless.

GLEAN ABOMINABLE INSIGHT IMPARTMENT DESCRIPTION:

IMPARTMENT: GLEAN ABOMINABLE INSIGHT GRANTS SUBJECT THE KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO PEER INTO THE DEPTHS OF CORRUPTION AND GRASP WISPS OF KNOWLEDGE FROM ANY AND ALL BEINGS THAT HAVE EVER, ARE OR WILL BE CORRUPTED. THE DEEPER SUBJECT DELVES, THE MORE DANGEROUS IT WILL BE.

‘That’s absurd. I could ‘grasp wisps of knowledge’ from any Corrupted being to have ever existed, that currently exists or will exist? Corruption’s even scarier than I fucking thought,’

GAZE OF THE PROFANE TITAN IMPARTMENT DESCRIPTION:

IMPARTMENT: GAZE OF THE PROFANE TITAN GRANTS SUBJECTS THE KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO DRAW THE GAZE OF THE PROFANE TITAN TO THEIR LOCATION.

…That was ominous, but otherwise unhelpful. The only thing that these Descriptions brought to him was a more clear understanding of the danger and power that Corruption held. Ethan chose none of the Impartments and then returned to his Panel, inspecting everything once more now that the System’s descriptions were more helpful.

To begin with Ethan focused on the (Cursed) tag next to his Class.

‘CURSED’ CORRUPTION RANK DESCRIPTION:

TO BE CURSED IS TO BE THREE STEPS DEEP INTO THE CORRUPTION. BEFORE CURSED IS TAINTED AND THEN ALTERED. AFTER CURSED IS ABOMINABLE, UNHOLY AND PROFANE. IT IS TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE TO RECOVER FROM BEING CURSED, BUT IS IMPOSSIBLY UNLIKELY. EFFECTS: IMPROVED APPROPRIATE ATTRIBUTE BY APPROPRIATE AMOUNT, INCREASED EFFECTIVENESS OF MENTAL ATTRIBUTES, OCCASIONAL BOUTS OF MINOR INSANITY, ALTERED ATTRIBUTE. NOTE: THE NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION WILL BECOME MORE PRONOUNCED AS SUBJECT GROWS.

‘So the struggles with my mind aren’t solely because of my increased mental attributes… that makes sense. Why would anybody invest in it if it allowed your mind to turn on you, after all? It also makes sense that the effects are more significant. It’d be insane if everyone was capable of thinking as rapidly as I do now.’ Ethan thought.

Surprisingly, Ethan’s Grand Boon came into play for the first time.

MINOR SYSTEM ASSISTANCE ACTIVATED.

IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT SUBJECT WORK NOT TOWARDS ESCAPING THE CORRUPTION BUT TOWARDS SURVIVING IT. IT IS HIGHLY UNLIKELY THAT SUBJECT ESCAPES THE CORRUPTION. IT IS MERELY UNLIKELY THAT SUBJECT SURVIVES THE CORRUPTION.

Ethan grimaced at the words. He’d obviously noted that the description of Cursed told him that it was incredibly unlikely that someone of that stage could escape the Corruption, but he’d still held onto a bit of hope.

“How do I survive the Corruption, then? I don’t want to summon eldritch abominations that don’t even listen to me, too.” Ethan demanded.

MINOR SYSTEM ASSISTANCE ACTIVATED.

ENTIRELY ESCAPING THE GRASP OF CORRUPTION ONCE IT HAS GRABBED HOLD OF YOUR SOUL IS NIGH-IMPOSSIBLE, BUT SUBJECT CAN STILL RESIST FALLING DEEPER INTO CORRUPTION. YOUR SELECTION OF IMPARTMENTS AND SUCH WILL BECOME SIGNIFICANTLY MORE NORMAL IF YOU MANAGE TO BECOME MERELY TAINTED OR ALTERED RATHER THAN CURSED. ALTERNATIVELY, SUBJECT COULD AIM TO RESTRAIN THE CORRUPTION.

‘Holy shit, the System’s actually being helpful.’ Ethan thought, legitimately a bit shocked. It was still just barely missing completely solving his question of how to survive the Corruption, though.

“What do I do to resist falling deeper into Corruption?” Ethan asked.

MINOR SYSTEM ASSISTANCE ACTIVATED.

SUBJECT MUST SIMPLY BECOME MORE POWERFUL AND NOT DESCEND DEEPER INTO CORRUPTION. ITS GRASP OVER YOU IS RELATIVE TO THE STRENGTH OF YOUR SOUL; AS OF NOW, ITS GRASP ON SUBJECT IS FIRM, BUT AS YOU GROW- ASSUMING THAT YOU DO NOT GIVE IN TO CORRUPTION- ITS GRASP WILL BECOME WEAKER. NOTE: MAXIMUM USAGES OF MINOR SYSTEM ASSISTANCE REACHED.

Ethan rubbed at his face and groaned as he roused his tired mind once more. ‘So I’ve basically just got to refuse to interact with Corrupted anything for a while. That doesn’t sound too hard… but I doubt it’s as easy as it seems. The System wouldn’t put so much emphasis on the difficulty of not giving in to the Corruption if it was.’ Ethan thought.

Whatever; the rest could wait for tomorrow. Ethan laid down next to Gadget, pulled the fluffy but still unconscious animal up next to him, and passed out.

∑

Ethan jerked awake suddenly, clutching at his chest. Sweat poured down his body, and he was gasping for air. The memories of his cursed dreams were fading away by the second, but it was impossible to forget the extent of the torture he’d been subjected to. In his sleep, his Creativity had free reign… and Ethan was very confident in which of his Attributes had been ‘Altered’.

Ignoring the alarmed gazes of Fred and Alyssa, Ethan brought up his Panel and focused on his Creativity Attribute.

CREATIVITY ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION:

CREATIVITY REPRESENTS THE SUBJECT'S ABILITY TO INNOVATE, ENVISION, AND SYNTHESIZE NEW IDEAS. THIS ATTRIBUTE INFLUENCES THE SUBJECT'S MINDSCAPING ABILITY, ALLOWING THEM TO CRAFT AND MANIPULATE MENTAL LANDSCAPES WITH GREATER COMPLEXITY AND DETAIL. A HIGHER CREATIVITY ATTRIBUTE ENHANCES THE SUBJECT'S CAPABILITY TO MAKE ABSTRACT CONNECTIONS, SOLVE PROBLEMS IN NOVEL WAYS, AND DEVELOP UNIQUE STRATEGIES. IT IS A MEASURE OF THEIR IMAGINATIVE PROWESS AND MENTAL FLEXIBILITY, CRUCIAL FOR TASKS THAT REQUIRE THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX AND APPROACHING CHALLENGES WITH ORIGINAL SOLUTIONS. NOTE: THIS ATTRIBUTE HAS BEEN ALTERED.

‘Damn,’ Ethan thought. The note was, of course, the reason he’d brought the description up to begin with, but he was a bit surprised at how much better the description was than before. Curiously, Ethan focused on his other Attributes.

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AGILITY ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION:

AGILITY IMPROVES THE SUBJECT'S DEXTERITY, BALANCE, AND COORDINATION. IT ENHANCES QUICK REACTIONS, PRECISE MOVEMENTS, AND FLUID TRANSITIONS. THIS ATTRIBUTE IS VITAL FOR EVADING ATTACKS, NAVIGATING COMPLEX TERRAINS, AND PERFORMING ACROBATIC FEATS WITH EASE AND EFFICIENCY.

That was pretty expected; agility was agility.

FORTITUDE ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION:

FORTITUDE ENHANCES THE SUBJECT'S PHYSICAL AND MENTAL RESILIENCE, IMPROVING THEIR ABILITY TO ENDURE STRAIN AND RECOVER FROM INJURIES AND STRESS. THIS ATTRIBUTE ENSURES GREATER ENDURANCE, QUICKER RECOVERY TIMES, AND THE ABILITY TO FACE BOTH PHYSICAL CHALLENGES AND MENTAL PRESSURES WITH STRENGTH AND PERSEVERANCE.

Ethan frowned. Why was Creativity’s Description so much more wordy? Because of the fact it’d been Corrupted? Shaking his head, Ethan glanced over the description and nodded. It was more detailed, which was nice, but it only confirmed what he’d already pretty much known so far.

INSIGHT ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION:

INSIGHT HEIGHTENS THE SUBJECT'S SENSORY PERCEPTION, INCLUDING THE ABILITY TO SENSE MANA. IT ENHANCES AWARENESS OF THEIR SURROUNDINGS, DETECTING SUBTLE CHANGES AND HIDDEN DETAILS, AS WELL AS THEIR INSTINCTS, BOTH MUNDANE AND MAGICAL. ADDITIONALLY, INSIGHT STRENGTHENS SUBJECT’S AUTHORITY OVER MANA.

Finally, there was another Attribute Description that held something of note. The last description for Insight hadn’t mentioned two core things- that it heightened his instincts, both magical and mundane, and that it strengthened his ‘authority over mana’. ‘I definitely need to invest into Insight,’ Ethan thought, a bit pissed.

PROCESSING ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION:

PROCESSING ENHANCES THE SUBJECT'S COGNITIVE SPEED AND EFFICIENCY, ALLOWING FOR RAPID ANALYSIS AND DECISION-MAKING. IT IMPROVES THE ABILITY TO PROCESS INFORMATION, SOLVE COMPLEX PROBLEMS, AND ADAPT TO NEW SITUATIONS. THIS ATTRIBUTE IS VITAL FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING, QUICK THINKING, AND HANDLING MULTIPLE TASKS SIMULTANEOUSLY.

Ethan was becoming a bit bored by the descriptions by now, but Magic had to be interesting, right?

MAGIC ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION:

MAGIC DETERMINES THE CAPACITY AND DENSITY OF THE SUBJECT'S MANA CORE, AFFECTING THE AMOUNT OF MANA THEY CAN STORE AND GENERATE. IT ENHANCES MANA MANIPULATION, MAKING IT DENSER AND EASIER TO CONTROL. THIS ATTRIBUTE IS ESSENTIAL FOR CASTING POWERFUL SPELLS AND SUSTAINING MAGICAL ACTIVITIES.

For the most part, it was the same; the only changed detail as that it also made his mana easier to control. There was a slight overlap between it and Insight, but it wasn’t difficult to separate the two; Insight gave him better control over the mana while Magic made it easier to control. Lastly was Strength.

STRENGTH ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION:

STRENGTH ENHANCES THE RAW MUSCULAR POWER OF SUBJECT, ENHANCING THEIR ABILITY TO EXERT FORCE AND PERFORM PHYSICALLY DEMANDING TASKS. THIS ATTRIBUTE INFLUENCES THE OVERALL IMPROVEMENT OF ALL MUSCLES WITHIN SUBJECT, INCREASING THEIR CAPACITY FOR LIFTING, PUSHING, AND STRIKING WITH GREATER POWER. ADDITIONALLY, STRENGTH AFFECTS THE SUBJECT'S ENDURANCE AND SPEED BY BOOSTING THE EFFICIENCY AND STAMINA OF THEIR MUSCLES, ALLOWING FOR PROLONGED PHYSICAL EXERTION AND QUICKER BURSTS OF MOVEMENT.

Another unimportant Attribute Description. Ethan swept the System shit away and refocused on the real world, his horrible dreams luckily only barely recallable now.

Ethan’s brows furrowed when he looked around the burrow. The Wyrdfur hairs strewn about it were all squirming around, wriggling towards him. Alyssa, Gadget and Fred were nowhere in sight. He could feel Fred’s summon link ending only a few feet away from him, though…

‘This isn’t real.’ Ethan realized, his eyes widening as he realized that his Creativity had escaped from his Fortitude. He jumped when the world suddenly turned a blinding white before returning to the real real world in the next moment. Alyssa was staring at him with a very alarmed expression on her face, and Fred was looking at him with concern. Gadget was still unconscious, right next to him.

“…What do you mean this isn’t real?” Alyssa asked cautiously, and Ethan paled a bit. ‘Shit, did I say that out loud?’

Ethan sighed and absent-mindedly petted his childhood dog. “The Cursed thing I was telling you about… well, it’s really obnoxious.” Ethan started.

Minutes passed as Ethan gave up everything he knew about Corruption and such, before he finally ran out and realized that he hadn’t been nearly as forthcoming about things as he’d thought he had. He told her about other things- the System Grading, the things he’d learned about mana and the details of the Attributes- everything, pretty much, that she could use to make better-informed decisions and avoid the mistakes he’d walked into.

Almost half an hour later, Ethan finally ran out of words. Alyssa was silent, simply processing everything he’d said.

“…I wouldn’t blame you if you left,” Ethan blurted out, unable to stand the oppressive silence. Almost immediately afterwards, he regretted it.

“I’m not going to ditch you, asshole.” Alyssa said angrily, “You’re able to put up with my shitty class; I can put up with a little bit of schizophrenia here and there.”

“Shitty class indeed,” Ethan said in response to her outburst, prompting a small snort. Beyond tired of talking by now, he had Fred fetch him one of their fruits and then glanced over at Gadget.

It was ten A.M. now; Gadget had been unconscious for quite a while, and he still showed no sign of waking. He placed his head on the dog’s chest, a bit relieved at the confirmation that his heart was still beating and that he was still breathing.

“What’re you going to do about your dog?” Alyssa asked, and he shook his head. “I’ve got no clue. I guess we try to get him to eat some of the fruit… chop it up into little bits and make him swallow, or something.”

He sat and stared at his dog for a minute, before standing up with a groan and grabbing a fruit. He borrowed Alyssa’s dagger and cut a chunk of the fruit off before approaching Gadget’s comatose body and sitting down.

Ethan had Fred prop the dog up, and opened his mouth. The not-so-pleasant smell of dog breath struck his nose like a fist, but Ethan tore a small bit off of the chunk of fruit and placed it in his mouth. The jaw hung limply now, though, and Ethan had to hold it closed for him. Around a minute later, Ethan felt and saw the dog swallow and let Gadget’s mouth fall open to confirm that the fruit chunk had, indeed, disappeared into his stomach.

Like this, Ethan eventually managed to feed the dog the chunk of fruit and let Fred lay him back down. Then, Ethan went about spending some mana- after all, his mana core was filled to the brim and wasn’t producing any more.

Ethan almost started to summon another mundane goblin, but then stopped himself.

‘Isn’t this a great opportunity to test the Hobgoblin-goblin hybrid thing?’ Ethan thought. ‘It absolutely is.’

And so, Ethan let his Processing slip out of the grasp of his considerable Fortitude and... got side-tracked.

‘What? How is my Fortitude holding my Creativity and Processing captive? That doesn’t even really make sense, does it?’ Ethan realized. He’d been referring to it as that subconsciously for a while now, because that was what was happening… but how?

Ethan retraced the steps of his own subconscious, and then…

‘Holy shit,’ Ethan realized. There was… a prison in his mind. He had no clue how it had shown up there, but it seemed like there was a prison cell inside of his mind. The prison cell was formed out of his Fortitude, and currently, the vast majority of his Altered Creativity was there and a bit of his Processing.

The prison was... in his head, but it felt real. Like a… dream, inside of his head while he was awake. ‘How the fuck was I subconsciously stuffing my Attributes into it?’ Ethan wondered.

Recalling that his mind had ended up splitting several times yesterday, and that he had no idea what was going on in those other streams of thought, Ethan wondered if one of them had constructed this. They’d made that weird dream-world while his Fortitude and Creativity was doing its thing.

If that was the case, though, he should remember it- that problem had been solved. His mind was whole now; there weren’t any other independent splinters being urged to cause chaos by his Corrupted Creativity.

And then, Ethan’s mind came to a screeching halt… because he did remember it. He- or, rather, some of him- had made this prison thing in his mind.

‘Shit… what else have they done?’ Ethan wondered. He hadn’t noticed anything yet, but he hadn’t noticed that, either.

“I think I’m going to go do… something. I don’t know what, yet, but I’m tired of sitting around and hating my class.” Alyssa announced, grabbing his attention.

“Do you want me to send a goblin with you?” Ethan asked, and Alyssa very quickly shook her head. “Definitely not if they’re unclothed… but even if it was Fred, I’d like to be alone, I think.”

Ethan shrugged, and so, Alyssa left. He’d have been mildly worried that she was ditching him, but she left behind all of the fruits- surely, she wouldn’t have done that unless she planned on coming back.

Shaking his head, Ethan realized that he’d been intending to summon another goblin. Checking his watch, he scowled upon realizing that he’d spent ten minutes finding out about that weird prison thing in his head.

‘Speaking of unclothed goblins… removing their… parts…. Is a modification I think I could make pretty easily to the default goblin summoning ritual, right?’ Ethan wondered. Honestly, it was weird that they’d been included at all- summoned goblins couldn’t reproduce.

Shaking his head again, Ethan decided to try summoning his weird Hobgoblin-Goblin hybrid.

Frankly, the ritual wasn’t any harder than usual- it was the studying and such that were truly hard. Thus, a minute or so later, Ethan pushed the mass of mana he’d formed away as it began to form into a new lifeform.

And… it didn’t look any different from usual, honestly. All of the changes were internal, after all. Acting on instinct, Ethan focused on the goblin and used his brand-new Identify Boon.

HOBBLEGOBLIN (SUMMON). A BIZARRE AMALGAMATION OF HOBGOBLIN AND GOBLIN; IT IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO MAINTAIN THAN A GOBLIN AND LESS THAN A HOBGOBLIN. EACH HOBBLEGOBLIN SPECIMEN IS AN UNNATURAL, MISMATCHED… CREATURE. THIS ONE, IN PARTICULAR, HAS HAD ITS MUSCLES CRUDELY REPLACED WITH THOSE OF A HOBGOBLIN. IT IS DESTINED TO HAVE A LIFESPAN NUMBERING IN THE DAYS DUE TO ITS BODIES’ INABILITY TO SUSTAIN ITSELF, EVEN AS A BEING FUELED. BY MANA. DANGER LEVEL: SAFE – DANGEROUS.

The creature’s name caught him off-guard, and Ethan laughed out loud. He definitely wasn't amused by the rest of it, though.