Once the body was sculpted, there still remained much to do. For now, she was a body without a personality, and the soul still needed to be shaped properly as well. The person she was no longer existed, not in body nor in mind. He continued his efforts to shape her by shifting through the menus in his mind, looking through the various traits that he could assign to form her personality.
In essence, he had to choose the essential core positive traits and/or essential core negative traits. These core traits would form the basis of her personality and would guide her existence, but she would still be able to learn and grow. She was a living being after all, and as such, was not limited by these essential traits. Instead, they were more like a starting point for her personality.
As for negative traits, it would seem unwise to select any, but there were benefits to selecting negative traits. First, it would help offset the cost of creation in SP and secondly, there were benefits to be gained if the negative trait aspect could be overcome. These benefits could be boosts to abilities, new skills, or even positive attributes.
There was one limiting aspect to his creation: Every change he made to her whether physical or mental required ‘Soul Potential’ or SP. SP could only be obtained by devouring the souls of the living. It was similar to a point system with well-defined costs. His abilities also incurred costs in SP to use. His body strangely contained no mana and instead was filled with a different but equally mysterious power.
Sculpting an entire body incurred a cost in SP dependant on the sheer magnitude of changes. The more he shaped and sculpted the body, the more SP it would cost. There was a scale which wasn’t made visibly apparent, but he could at least see the cost being deducted in real time in his retina. He had to be careful while shaping the body so as not to waste any of his SP. Once this was finalized, he would not be able to go back and change anything without incurring a greater cost in SP.
On top of that, each positive personality trait would cost a specific amount of SP depending on the type and effect of the trait. Positive personality traits were costly, while negative traits would refund some of the cost of SP used in creating the personality. It was an intriguing and well thought out system. He could only wonder at how such a thing came to be and what was its origin.
I never designed this into the Tower of Babel so I can only speculate on how I was granted this power. Not everything about the Tower of Babel can be so simply explained. Even I, the one who designed it, received mystical inspiration that I can’t fully explain. There is also the influence of that strange power which radiated from the Tower itself when I activated it. It's just a shame I can't use this system on myself. If I could alter my appearance and strengthen myself with this system, things would be a lot easier for me.
Aleks browsed through the traits, and also looked at the negative ones. He realised that while the refund given when choosing negative traits may not seem that appealing at first look because one could always just acquire more SP, there were underlying benefits to choosing a negative trait. A negative trait could eventually be overcome with time and effort which would lead to many benefits.
My first must be a great commander and general and she must have tact and wisdom. I will need her to not only command my future subordinates and soldiers but be able to navigate the intrigue of politics. I don’t need her to be specifically a diplomat or skilled in coercion, but she must not be easily fooled by plots and manipulation. Hmm, Charismatic is the first choice. She must have charisma. It’s expensive… it might not seem like much but choosing classes and ranking them up is going to be quite exorbitant. 100 SP down the drain. Charisma is a primary trait, so it is expensive, as is Wisdom but they are necessary. Another 100 SP spent! That is a total of 200, but let me pick a few of the lesser traits. These are 50 SP each, so I will choose two. Loyalty, this is important not because I am concerned for myself, but this will ensure her loyalty to her subordinates so that she will consider their worth and not expend them needlessly. The other should be prudence which is a sub-trait of wisdom, but necessary I think. I really want Courage too… but to spend another 100 SP… I have to. That is a total of 400 SP. It’s almost as much as it cost me to shape and mold her body. I could offset the cost with negative traits... Well, let me continue for now.
Once the personality was set, he would need to decide what kind of profession she would have as well. This meant deciding a general direction that the creation would take. For example, there were combatant and noncombatant professions. When designating a creation as a combatant, a direction would need to be chosen.
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There were three general directions which could be chosen under combatant, melee, ranged or magic. These were the basic classes of Warrior, Wizard/Mage, Archer, etc. All soldiers and lower leveled adventures fell under this category. It was difficult to raise one’s rank and would require one to gain great strength and power. There were thirty levels within the basic classes, and once one reached the max level of thirty, they could then advance into an intermediate class.
The intermediate classes were further subsets and more specified roles within the basic overall branches. For example, a Warrior could now become a Knight or a Wizard/Mage could focus on a specific element becoming a Fire Mage for example. Within the ranged classes, there were also a diverse array of classes such as Gunman or Ranger. The intermediate classes also had thirty levels which needed to be achieved before one could then rise to an advanced class.
Advanced classes were even further specialized and would give one great power. Only the most elite of soldiers or high ranked adventurers would achieve these heights. Paladins, Great Mages, Warlords, and other powerful classes made up the advanced classes. Like the the lower classes, there were also thirty levels, and once one reached the pinnacle of their advanced class, they would be level 90 and extremely powerful.
This wasn’t the end though, beyond that were Master, Legendary, and Mythical classes. There were only 10 levels within each of these. Those who rose to a Master class and could reach level 100 were at the pinnacle of power. These were the Archmages and Dragon Knights as well as a variety of other classes of equal power and might. Those that could somehow rise beyond this and achieve Legendary status were even rarer. Their power and might was incalculable and beyond the understanding of most people.
There were only rumors of those who had achieved a Mythical class however. These were the most powerful of beings that walked the mortal realms and they themselves were already on the cusp of godhood. These beings were known as Demigods and had the opportunity to transcend beyond their mortality if they could accumulate enough divinity and fuse the power of laws with their own unique domain. Beyond that was mere speculation, for that was the realm of the divine and the gods.
Once a general direction was chosen for the creation, the creation itself could then manage how they wished to grow under that direction themselves. There were endless possibilities within these general directions. Some of these being Swordsmen, Knight, Assassin, Fire Mage, Water Mage, etc. Gender was of no concern either, both men and women could reach the absolute pinnacle of power.
He eventually finalized the details of his creation, choosing to make her a combatant who would follow a melee profession. Since she was his first creation, he needed to create a strong warrior who could manage and lead his future creations. She would also be very important for his future plans, and so he created her with that goal in mind.
Basic profession, Warrior. Let me rank her up too so I will max out her levels, and she will become a Knight. After that, we will see. Raising her level to 60 is already going to cost me considerable SP. Wait… each level costs 100 SP and granting a basic and intermediate class has a base cost of 1000 SP each. That’s a total of 8000 SP and if I add in the cost already incurred previously that totals 8900SP. So expensive… I would have only a little over a thousand SP left. I need more SP just in case I need to use my abilities often.
In the end, he decided to give her one negative trait. Primarily because the advantages outweigh the disadvantages if she could overcome it and secondly because it would refund a modest amount of SP.
The negative trait he gave her was ‘Jealousy.’ Jealousy was a dangerous negative trait to give, but it would refund a staggering 500 SP of the cost of creation. Not only that but, if she could overcome her jealousy, she would greatly benefit from it. Overcoming jealousy would increase the effects of her special aura abilities on all subordinates under her command providing bonuses to both their attack and defense. On top of that, she would gain a unique ability ‘Heroic Aura’ which would boost all of her stats and abilities by a modest amount.
Definitely worth it. I will have to ensure that she is able to overcome her jealousy at some point. It might not even pose that great of a problem in fact!
He was quite confident in this despite his earlier concern.
Now that his creation had finally been completed, he accepted the changes in his mind. The woman that now lay on the bed in front of him was completely different from the prostitute who was there before. They were, in fact, nothing alike, not in physical shape and condition or in mind. This was a newly born creation, one that was untouched by any other’s hand. He admired his own work and praised his creation in his mind.
Shortly afterward, his creation opened her eyes for the first time. They were a vibrant and stunning Sapphire color just like he remembered of his mother and sister in this lifetime. Now that she was awake, he loosened the wrappings that had been binding the prostitute previously and freed his creation from those shackles. After a moment of confusion, the woman rose and kneeled before the man who had created her. She seemed as if she was uncertain how she should act or what she should say. She looked up at her creator with expectant eyes.
“M..a..s..t..e..r”
The woman spoke for the first time, her vocal chords still had some trouble working properly.
The man proudly looked over her and gave her a name, “Your name shall be Lenia.”
The name of his mother in this lifetime who died.
“L-E-N-I-A,” she struggled to speak her name.