The list of skills, spells and traits seemed infinite until I decided to intervene.
“From what I just saw, skills are information you shove into my brain, runes are used for magical abilities, and traits change my body.
That about right?”
Confirming statement. Please continue with the selection.
“You mean I should just ignore the obviously corrupted text in the mutation part of my screen? Is that some eldritch cancer or what?”
Proceed with starting decisions.
“Sure, just separate them into different categories please.”
Spells
Traits
Skills
Spatium
Ē̸̢̡̨̡̧̻̣̭̺̺̙̥̱͊̈́̃̿̈́̓͌l̷̖̯̒͑̏̾͆̆̀̆̃̓̀̀̑͆̍͂̐̏̓̉͆̉̏̿́͋͘͝͠d̴̡̨̛̞̗̣̥̲̱͉̟͓̱͎̯̳͕̲̝͙̀̉̑͂̾́̉̽͛̇̓́̎̓̈́̈́̓̚̕͘̕͜͜͠͝͝r̵̡̡̧͖̫͖̱͇̩̗͓̙̺̘͈̟̫͇͈͘͜ͅi̸̡̡̧̡̧̫͔̣͍̙̹̭̤̦̯̱͕̫͕̙̰̹͎͙̘̙̘̘̤̼̭̱̩͐̈́̄̌̌̋͗̑͜͝͝t̸̢̧͍̭͙̺̻͇̝̝̤͎͈͇͕̜̺͖̘̗͚̣̗͔͓̫̆͑́̿̓͊́͂̏̐̈́̓̍͑̀̎̅͂͑̐̇̕͝ͅͅc̵̢̘͈̖̭̦̟̖̭̗̞̠̥͎̈́̈́̿̑̓̄̋̐̒͛̄͆̀͘ḩ̶̧͙̙̳̦̭͚̼̦̝̼͇̝̘̞̻̠̱̲͎̟̫̊͌͜
Utility
Necros
Undead
Survival
Lumen
Human
Social
Neutral
“That seems intimidating, will there be later points for me to choose more?”
Refining your body and growing more mature will result in new trait slots being unlocked.
Refining your mind and upgrading your class will result in new skill slots being unlocked.
Refining and growing your soul will result in more rune slots being unlocked.
“I guess that means becoming a gim bro, power level whatever my class will be and a lot of killing, if that Anima chimera trait is how I’m supposed to grow my soul.
I was grinning at this point, all my previous lives enjoying the promise of power the system held.
“Give me the list of this cryptic trait group.”
Of course, every trait in here seemed similarly corrupted to the name itself, and was thus quickly dismissed after I nearly got an aneurysm trying to decipher them.
“Understood, probably something to do with my eldritch cancer trait, right?"
I mumbled, taking a deep breath as I prepared for the next step.
While all my lives agreed on being a showoff, none of them were stupid enough to think being born as an obvious undead could possibly be a good Idea.
It left me with about fifty traits, most of them pretty boring, until I managed to suss out four I liked.
Mystic bones
Your bones are magical conduits, increasing the power of your spells and adding a Necros component to them. Power increases when a source of death and decay is nearby.
Life sense
You sense vitality around you. Will combine with synesthesia or the HUD spell
Unblemished
Necrosis in your skin destroys dust, parasites and other small creatures you touch.
Persistent
Your body can last longer without sleeping, eating and breathing, also slows down the aging process.
“Can I somehow upgrade these traits once I got them?”
Any skills and traits will grow with use.
“So Mystic bones will probably at some point turn every spell of mine into a Necros version, and Unblemished will turn into a death touch? No thanks. Show me the traits humans get to choose from.”
I asked, and the system complied with the longest list of things I had ever seen, even compared to the undead and encrypted traits together.
“Understood, shorten it by filtering for things that do not clash with the undying mutation, which probably means utility and back line support.”
The list now spanned several hundreds only, though things like greater physique and hard skin disappeared.
“So, five left that I am somewhat interested in.”
Nimble
You have a greater connection between body and mind, enhancing the speed at which you can act and react.
Small
You are smaller than the average member of your race, decreasing the surface area for potential attacks.
Good eyesight.
You have a better vision compared to other members of your species.
Magic hair
Slightly decrease the strain of a spell based on the length of your hair.
Persistent
Your body can last longer without sleeping, eating and breathing, also slows down the aging process.
“I don’t want to have long hair, my eyes are good enough and being small comes with enough downsides, besides, would I grow shorter eith every level in it?. I’d rather have those necrotic bones than being a bit more nimble, I guess persistent does give me the best opportunities while being not as obvious, and it’s available to both undead and humans, so they won't be that suspicious if I have it.
Trait:
Description
Persistent 1
Your body can last longer without sleeping, eating and breathing, also slows down the aging process.
Skill:
Description
Empty
Empty
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Rune
Description
empty
empty
empty
“One done, five left to go.”
He announced, letting the system dive right into the next part.
Runes
Skills
Spatium
Utility
Necros
Survival
Lumen
Social
Neutral
Tier 1 Spatium runes:
Move
Open
Close
Tier 1 Necros runes:
Infect
Corrupt
Decay
Tier 1 Lumen runes:
Bright
Dim
Opacity
Tier 1 Neutral runes:
Gather
Dispel
Projectile
“So, there are 3 starter runes for every group, but I have to choose three out of all of them? That’s mad! How do I even use these runes?”
You can create a spell by logging in any runes you want to use, and then going to sleep. While sleeping, the system will then optimize the spell by changing grammar and sentence structure, as well as performing a simulation to make sure created spells can be as safe as possible.
“Then I’ll go about which spells have the most uses and future potential. Now, I don’t seem to have a life affinity, which means I should probably not get my hopes up.”
“I love the Infect rune already, so let’s start looking what makes sense with it. System, do you have a note function?”
Now opening: Notes
Let’s look at my favorite spell ideas.
Infect
Move
Decay
Decay
Move
Dispel
Opacity
Close
Decay
Move
Infect
“Seems decay will be in there, and move is too useful not to take, I mean, it sounds like the base of telekinesis, and with my stunted growth and everything, I can use every option to not use my hands. The choice is between close, open and infect at this point.
Close decay would probably result in a wound or something being closed, now, close open doesn’t make too much sense, and any combination of the three is pretty useless, so we probably don’t have a lot of reason for this choice.
Let’s think about move. Move open decay makes a lot of sense, move decay sounds better though, doesn’t require the decay to be open, while decay open might magically pop a pimple.
Open move sounds like something to start a fight with, or something that helps against restrictions placed on my movement? This sounds fun.
Now, can Infect even come close to that? I mean, Decay infect sounds like a sanitizer, Infect decay like some way to make an already bad wound even worse, move infect sounds like a good way to spread a disease, and infect move is probably some form of debuff.
“System, I want move and decay. Now, get me infect to complete this.”
Trait:
Description
Persistent 1
Your body can last longer without sleeping, eating and breathing, also slows down the aging process.
Skill:
Description
Empty
Empty
Rune
Description
Move
Move
Decay
Decay
Infect
Infect
“Thanks for the Description, captain obvious. Now let’s get to those skills. Any you would recommend to me? Knowledge that’s a bit harder to gain?”
Spellcraft
This skill guides you in the art of Spellcraft, granting you knowledge to create better spells.
Meditation
This skill guides you in the art of meditation, helping the user relief the pressure spells put on your soul supports the refinement of the soul.
Martial arts basics
This skill helps you wield your body as a weapon.
Cultivation
This skill helps the user relax their muscles, getting a better grip on their vitality and refine their body.
Learning
Learn to learn! Fills your head with knowledge on how to better learn new things so they stay in your memory longer.
Quicknap
Teaches the art of quicknapping, resulting in better memory retention and refines your mind.
“So, you recommend I learn the skills to increase my growth faster. Makes sense, though I’m not sure which one to pic. So far, traits seem somewhat interesting, but given the decay thing, I don’t think I should focus on rounding out my biggest weakness. My mind is great the way it is, and I simply love the Idea of magic too much, so Meditation and Spellcraft it will be!”
Trait:
Description
Persistent 1
Your body can last longer without sleeping, eating and breathing, also slows down the aging process.
Skill:
Description
Spellcraft 1
This skill guides you in the art of Spellcraft, granting you knowledge to create better spells.
Meditation 1
This skill guides you in the art of meditation, helping the user relief the pressure spells put on your soul supports the refinement of the soul.
Rune
Description
Move
Move
Decay
Decay
Infect
Infect
As they all settled in, I felt an overwhelming rush of power and knowledge pass through me.
Then, I fell asleep, my body giving in to exhaustion. After all, I was an unborn.
I immediately attempted to use the knowledge meditation gave me, falling back into my mind as I began to inspect my soul.
The moment I laid my inner eye on it, I almost barfed in disgust, kicking my mothers belly out of reflex and pulling me out of the effect as I comprehended how curse my soul looked
Following that, I fell asleep, somehow knowing that my next life was just around the corner.