L leaned against the tree, scratching his neck. He yawned, stretching his limbs wide, and then grabbed a piece of bark from the ground near him. He broke it into small pieces and tossed them away.

With a slight smile L glanced at the slithering figure of Braj, twisting and groaning under the blanket. It never ceased to amuse him, how the mind would drive itself into oblivion. There was no magic to it on L’s side, of course. The blanket was a normal one, albeit slightly infused with mana, granting it dark coating to block more light. And the voices and thoughts and nightmares Braj was going through; a fragmentation of his imagination.

L began to giggle slightly, but when he realized even his giggles would be transformed into something vicious in Braj’s mind, he soon grew bold enough to scream out his laughter into the night.

He then stopped abruptly, a frown appearing on his face. This wasn’t that fun, anymore. Amusing, yes, but enjoyable? No. Such pranks no longer filled L with joy. It tickled him but it no longer filled him with euphoria. The blanket was, of course, a minor distraction; it would mellow Braj out and allow L to more easily mold him, but it wasn’t a necessity. He simply required it for his mana to refill. It was an hour or two, in which L chased and prodded Braj. The first illusion required a heavy amount of concentration and mana, as he had to create an even larger costume for the oversized head, and then control it’s facial movement and tiny fingers, while the second was more easily able to draw in the surrounding mana to cover L’s skin, and then cover it with his own pale skill color to add the dots of silver. It was more easy to gain mass than to lose it. L did not have the necessary skills for those, and neither will he ever. It was far too advanced.

But in the dark of the night, shaping the shadows to fill an outline was doable. The teeth of the first creature, however, were required to be of a different color. Ambient mana was used for that. It was everywhere, really, as it made from the combination of all mana, but willing it into shape or form was utterly exhausting.

L did gain a few skills from this, however.

Rank A Soul Trait: Humanoid Comprehension

You see how they tick. You know how the cogs combine and separate, break and made. You how to poke them, how to change them, how to destroy them. This is knowledge of the character, but the combination of your 01020 have attained you a mastery higher than any limited human mind is able to reach.

This trait has significantly impacted your evolutionary path.

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Rank A Perk gained: Deceiver

You stab with the blade that does not exist, with the lie that is turned truth. You have no form, no name, no shape. You bend and change according to your needs, but beware that the lies you tell yourself are the most dangerous to break.

Endurance and mana required to cast any non-offensive magic or martial art skills are decreased by 25%, while Endurance and Mana required to cast offensive attack magic or martial arts is increased by 25%.

You are also 25% more capable of attaining and learning non-offensive magic or martial art skills, while any offensive magic or martial arts are 25% less likely to be attained and learned.

This will significantly impact your evolutionary path.

Do you accept this perk?

You have accepted this perk.

While the perk had its obvious setbacks, there was no doubt about its usefulness. The rank A did not mean that this trait was particularly rare, but rather the percentage of tradeoff was large. A 25% increase meant that he was 25% more capable of utilizing supporting magic for the rest of his playthrough. While it did mean that any direct attack, or brute force usage of his mana, is decreased, it only meant that L simply had to use it in a different way. Now, instead of throwing some type of magic bolt to start the fight, not that he could at this point, anyway, he is now able to simply use the extra mana to buff himself, or even cast some time of Crowd Control abilities. Regarding his item crafting, he guessed he was able to do more of it now, but it would not be as durable.

There was this unscrupulous manner in which the description screens were written. Offensive is not clearly defined, and it could possibly apply to even the buffs, as in he can not empower his body to swing harder, as that would be an offensive type of magic. Possibly-- he would have to test it.

In truth, even if the bonuses were filled, L still might have been enticed enough to accept the perk. It was always better to have an advantage and a disadvantage, then to be completely neutral. The advantages can be abused, while the disadvantages could be avoided. It was a simple requirement of being skilled enough to do it.

There was nothing to be said about that Soul Trait. L thought it was distasteful, but appropriate. Soul Traits were permanent with unknown effects, while character traits were slightly more obvious and that could be changed over time.

It was slightly suspicious, however. The system seems to be built in a fashion that it supports the player with the skills and play style they are pursuing, and while it was not that uncommon for that to occur, it did nudge him in the wrong way when he realized that the AI knew exactly what he was doing.

Otherwise, it would have been too much of a coincidence for him to gain a trait that would make what L was about to do inline with the system rules

On the other hand, Darkling Mana Circuits, Darkling Mana storage, and Darkling Dark Weaver all went up considerably, not because of the amount of mana utilized, but because of the way they are utilized. Having nearly a half-century of experience in Diving had allowed L to be extremely skillful in both magic casting and martial arts, which was somewhat ironic. The most useful, most powerful, most experienced Divers are the ones that are nearing the end of their lifetimes. That leaves Guilds at a peculiar balance between investing their most capable Divers in prominent positions, or use the resources to bring up prodigies that would replace them quickly, but risk losing influence in whichever world they decided to conquer.

Ah, politics of the Guilds. They never cease trading, bickering, and butchering one another for a slightly greater advantage. This world, however, was different. It will split up all previous alliances. No longer will the few control the rest because of the capsules; No, the few will control the rest because of their power. Isn’t that some progress?