My friends spent about four hours choosing their own ability modifications. After that, they gave me an update on what they had changed.
Sallia had trimmed some of the ‘extras’ from her Absorption essence Skill, dropping it from 30 to 23 Glut. It still kept most of its core functions. It still generated essence when she trained with a blade and allowed her to create runes. However, she had removed the 'Training' keyword from the Ability. While the related parts of the ability had been useful at [Basic] grade, at Intermediate grade better alternatives had appeared. Thus, Sallia decided to scrap the Training keyword entirely and open up a keyword slot. She hadn't changed her rune-related Keyword ability through customization at all. None of the options had seemed like a worthwhile trade, since they had greater downsides than upsides.
I thought that was reasonable, since Sallia used her rune Ability for a wide variety of things. Customizing an ability wasn’t always a net positive - it was a way to reshuffle the components of an ability. Every single upside gained through customization also had a downside. For some abilities, this meant that there were amazing tradeoffs we could make for almost no cost. That wasn't the case for every Ability, though.
Her manifestation essence Ability had undergone much greater changes. First of all, Sallia had removed the Knowledge keyword. After that, she had customized the Ability in a rather extreme way. As a result of these two changes, the Ability could now ONLY be used to cast physical boosts on herself. It was now set in stone that Sallia would never be able to toss fireballs at enemies.
In exchange for the lost versatility, Sallia had gained the ability to ‘innately’ use a few spells in ways that weren't normally possible. Sallia could now ‘strengthen’ things beyond just herself. She could now strengthen any weapons she used, and other things, such as us or the air itself. In practice, this meant she could create a variety of shields, barriers, and improvised weapons in the middle of a fight. Since Sallia was already positioned as our group’s front line, her having a way to keep us safe was a great addition to her toolkit.
Furthermore, the magic system Sallia was dozens of times faster and easier to use. Previously, any spell required Sallia to spent a great deal of time constructing magic symbols into a coherent spell. It was a cumbersome and difficult process. Now, she could only use strengthening spells, but she could activate them at will. There was almost no delay between her deciding to cast a spell, and that spell activating. It was essentially a trade of versatility for speed and ease of use.
That wasn't the biggest change, though. The biggest upgrade to the Ability was its impact on her stats. Previously, Sallia could get perhaps a Grade of stats out of her various boosts. This required using her spells from manifestation, as well as burning some absorption essence through her runes. After her ability customization, this had become far more substantial. By her estimation, she should get about two grades worth of boost from her strengthening spells alone now. After that, she could get about another half a grade from burning the essence in her runes for a physical boost. She could get three more 'passive' grades by constructing her first three runes. That meant she could add around five and a half grades to her physical attributes after some time passed in each world. If things went well, Sallia could exceed a Wanderer of Lost Silence, if we removed their 'extra' boost first.
To be honest, I didn’t think that Sallia had lost much. She might have lost a bit of the versatility that she potentially had in her manifestation essence system. However, in practice she almost never used things like fireballs anyway. Losing a clunky, rarely used ability in exchange for an extra grade of stats was an excellent trade. If Sallia needed a ranged attack, she could always carry some throwing knives or something. However, each Grade of stats cost more than the last one. Her Attribute boost, faster spells, and her new shielding abilities were excellent changes.
In all, Sallia was now using 34 out of her 62 Glut. She had about 2,000 Achievement left, and she was in an excellent position for her intended role in the group.
Anise… had gone in a very different direction.
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According to Anise, the biggest problem with her magic system was the fact that spell maps took forever to build. Each one took nearly a year to construct. During reincarnations, that was theoretically fine. After all, we had a long period of infancy to work on rebuilding our strength. However, our time during the past two worlds was a stark reminder that the world wouldn’t sit around and wait for us to rebuild our strength. There was always a chance that something would invade our home, or that a monster might attack us. Furthermore, in the Market, we wouldn’t have anywhere near as much time to build up. We had about two months per entry to the Market. That wasn’t even enough time for Anise to even start rebuilding her spell maps. That meant that Anise had no way to help us when we went to fight for lives in the future.
Anise had customized her ability to resolve this problem.
Instead of forming in her brain, spell maps now formed inside of her soul. In other words, she would keep all of her spell maps from one life to another. She wouldn't lose any of her spellcasting strength when we returned to the Market. This was one of the best customizations our group had found - it directly solved dozens of problems at once. I couldn't help but wish that I had been able to find a similar option for my own Ability evolutions.
Of course, this came at a cost. In exchange for this amazing ability, Anise’s spell maps now took Achievement to build. Anise’s process of creating a spell map no longer relied on starlight at all. It would instead chew through Anise's funds like a wildfire tearing through kindling. That stung a bit, since it meant we would need more than just time for Anise to grow stronger. But the sheer potential of her new customized Ability was still very impressive.
Unfortunately, this ability customization had nearly bankrupted Anise. She was left with only 500 Achievement after this customization. If Anise were alone, that might have been a fatal problem for her.
Luckily, none of us were alone. The moment Anise mentioned her new Achievement total, Felix offered to give her some money. According to him, sponsoring Anise wasn't just being nice. It was a way of preserving his own life. After all, we were a team. We would succeed or die as one.
In practice... seeing my friends support each other still made me happy. If I had ended up in the Old Market, I doubted that scenes like this would have happened very often. The Old Market had seemed obsessed with earning more and more money. I somehow doubted that one of the souls who massacred worlds to earn more would be willing to help out their friends like this. In a twisted way, I was glad that I had joined the Market after the collapse, instead of before. At least this way, I could be part of a wonderful group of friends.
In any case, Anise had a way to get the funding for her spell maps. After modifying her one keyword Ability, Anise’s Glut penalty hadn’t changed. Unlike Sallia and I, Anise didn't remove any keywords. She remained at 16/53 Glut, with 3 Keyword slots occupied.
Felix underwent the fewest changes among the three of us. He didn't outright remove any keywords. He did, however, delve heavily into Ability customization. He ended up removing some of the more 'odd' parts of the shaping magic system, since he claimed to find it difficult to use on the fly. In exchange, Felix gained the ability to infuse Achievement into metal objects while he was working on them.
According to Felix, he suspected this was one of the most important parts of creating Market items. It was also a technique that had left him scratching his head for multiple lives now. He didn’t sound completely sure that this was the right direction… but he wanted to try it. I didn't think it was a bad idea to focus on it. Felix's Alchemy ability could theoretically provide him with extra item slots. If he could create his own items, he would always be able to make great use of his item slots. It was a good way to prepare for his own future needs, and to contribute to the group.
As for his Alchemy keyword ability, Felix said he wanted a life with it. It was hard for him to figure out which parts he needed and which parts he didn't need, at least right now. In total, Felix was left with 3/10 Keywords slots used, and 31/155 Glut.
After everyone finished customizing their abilities, Anise said that she wouldn’t be buying any new abilities. She had almost no Achievement left, and what little she did have was going to be used for spell creation. Sallia also seemed uncertain about whether she would buy new Abilities. However, Felix and I were definitely going to find a new Ability or two to take with us. There were too many useful Abilities that the bed might be able to offer us, and we had Achievement and Glut to spare. But first, I had one other thing I wanted from the Ability bed. I wanted to see what hints it could provide about evolving my Abilities in the direction I wanted.