Shawn didn't waste time. After living for a long time as an assassin, he had long since knew what he'd want.
"Okay. I'll keep it simple. I want unlimited potential. Not legendary, not godly, unlimited. Can that be done?"
"It's easy for me to implement that. I'll remove your biological limiters in their entirety. Name your second wish."
"Full control over my body. Like the ability to actively control my heart rate, need to breathe and some of the more outlandish ones like for example, commanding my body to sprout bones like the Kaguya clan from Naruto. Full control also includes my brain. Of course, I'd like the ability to turn that function off or enable a few of them so that I don't have to think about breathing or consciously control my heart rate."
The old man stroked his beard.
"It's surprising that you watched anime."
Shawn shrugged.
"Well, it kept me sane."
The old man smiled gently.
"So in essence, you want full administrative control over your body while your brain will act as an assistant?"
"Exactly."
"Done. You'll be able to fully control anything and everything about your body. Be careful you don't do anything irreversible though like turning yourself into dust only to have foreign matter mix in with your body as you reform. Take your time to get your bearings down and allow your brain to catch up and adapt. Name your third wish."
He took a bit of time to think about his third wish. After the current revelations about the old man in front of him, who's to say beings on the same level as him won't have any nefarious intentions towards him.
"Protection. I want you to hide me from any higher existences like you or others that I obviously can't defeat. If I stumble into them by mistake, then it's just my bad luck but I don't want them to somehow detect me when I'm just going to buy milk."
The old man looked at Shawn with just the tiniest hint of admiration.
"It will be done but I can only protect you for a millennium or so. However, if you start schemes like conquering the world, even I would be hard-pressed to hide you from them since you will inadvertently, stumble upon their avatars, descendants or chosen ones. Name your fourth wish."
He nodded but he wasn't quite satisfied.
"Understood then. For my fourth, I don't want to be bound to things like fate and karma. I don't want people to be able to divinate or prophesy anything about me…or anything along those lines for that matter. Can that be done?"
"What you're asking for is something that belongs to those of the 10th Gate and above."
Shawn furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"10th Gate?"
"Let me give you a quick explanation boy. There are 12 known Gates in existence that one can achieve ranging from the 1st to the 12th Gate. I'm a 12th Gate God. To achieve godhood, you must reach the 10th Gate. Power wise, a 10th Gate can punch through an ultimate-tier star, shattering it through pure physical strength."
"Okay. What about a 1st Gate. How powerful are they?"
"They can shatter space through pure physical speed. Let me explain it to you in detail so that you’d understand properly. Every mortal existence has eight limiters in their bodies. Those are called the eight paths. Once you open all eight of them, you’ll be presented with a gate that you must break in order to evolve and transcend your existence. Once you break open the gate, you become a 1st Gate existence, meaning you have successfully evolved. The same goes for the second, third and fourth gates, all until the ninth gate. Unlocking the tenth gate is vastly different but you don’t need that information yet.”
Shawn crossed his legs as he absorbed the information.
“How do I go about opening these paths exactly?”
Lazarin scoffed.
“You’ll naturally know how once you’ve reincarnated. Anyway, we're getting off-topic here boy. Do you want to be unbound? Keep in mind that once you're unbound, when you truly die, you'll fade from existence since you're no longer within the system of that universe or realm you will soon be born in."
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Shawn looked at the old man in front of him and smiled faintly.
"If I die, I die. I accept."
The old man smiled.
"Good good! Name your last wish boy."
He really sat down for this one. He already has unlimited potential and full control over his body. He has protection from higher existences and he can't be affected by Karma. After thinking about it, he took inspiration from an anime he used to watch.
"For my magic to function based off imagination. I don't have the time to perform dozens of calculations just to launch a fireball."
"That can be done however, you will need a foundation of sorts to work with. You can't create something you don't understand. You will need a decent amount of knowledge on the subject before your imagination can use it to take off."
"Got it. No rewinding time anytime soon."
The old man smiled.
"Now, at what time period do you want to be sent in in comparison to your old world?"
"Preferably a millennium after Jesus was 'supposedly' born. Not sure if they were off by 6 years but I digress. Can you make that happen?
"1000 A.D? That is acceptable."
"Can I confirm if the humans will keep the same level of technological development?"
"Yes, they will, unless you introduce more technological advancements yourself. Although the history will not be quite the same as your world, the technology will develop in accordance. So don't worry about humans somehow developing mobile phones in 1655."
"Can I ask if the world you're sending me to will have other sentient creatures besides humans?"
"Yes, it will have them."
"Oh? Can you tell me more about these races?"
"Of course. Although most of them live in their own minor realms, there will be three main categories of races. Demons, humans and angels. Beings like elves and beast-humans like your catgirls lean more to the demonic side. Angels are a race on their own with half-angels being the result of an angel and a human. Devils as well fall under angels."
"Aren't devils demons?"
The old man chuckled.
"Be careful boy. If the true demons heard you say that, you'd be killed immediately. Every race falls under a certain scale of energy that they can manipulate."
"Scale?"
"Yes. Demons wield chakra and Angels wield Ki. Humans on the other hand are a contradiction. In the world I will send you to, humans are the result of a true demon and a true angel, not a god. Unfortunately, opposing powers do not mix well together so the humans there have a meagre lifespan of a hundred years. Some have the ability to wield ki since it responds to their emotions while a really select few can wield chakra. Chakra requires peace of mind and understanding of nature itself, a feat your race can't create due to how chaotic you are. However, most humans can't live past a century since their souls burn out because of the continuous clash between demonic chakra and angelic ki. Only those who train their souls and open the eight paths within their bodies can break the curse and finally get a chance at starting their path into opening their gates."
"Okay I have one last question. What race can I be besides a human?"
"It depends, what type of energy do you want to use? Chakra or ki?"
Shawn pondered for a while.
"Ki is overrated. While I admit ki has a lot of power, chakra is far more technical and flexible and I believe chakra has far more potential. But still, I'd like your opinion."
The old man couldn't help but smile.
"I have never offered my opinion to the thousands I have reincarnated, even if they had asked me but you intrigue me a lot boy. Tell you what, if you choose chakra, I'll make you a dragon and also add in a sweet deal and make you a vampiric surin, a subspecies of the surin race."
"What's a vampiric surin?"
"It's those who had ingested the blood of a surin. The result for most is usually death since surin blood is too pure and rich in chakra but for those extreme few who manage to survive, they become vampiric surins, but they remain between a state of life and death and will always require blood to continue surviving. The vampires that you know off are descended from them, the ancestral vampires as vampiric surins are so called. You'll be similar to those ancestral vampires but much more powerful since the blood I'll be giving you is from the last pure-blooded surin who had managed to become a god, collected during his battle with the leader of the angels."
Shawn was confused.
"How will that work exactly?"
"Simple. Dragons are masses of energy that have an ego from one of the seven sins. I just have to throw in a bit of the blood and you'll absorb it as well, allowing you to become a Draconic-Vampiric Surin."
Shawn shuddered in excitement.
"And lifespan?"
"The stronger you get, the longer your lifespan. Even the weakest surin who has never trained in their life can live for atleast ten millenniums while dragons are roughly the same. Oh, and another thing. Since you'll be a combination of two species, you may be somewhat unstable so you'll have to find a chakra beast that will be able to hold you together or get strong enough fast enough so that you don't die within a thousand years. So…your thoughts?"
"Regardless of the risks, you had me at demon. I accept."
The old man chuckled.
"Ho? Don't want to be a human?"
Shawn smirked.
"Humanity is overrated. Besides I want to be able to unlock my full potential and become something greater than just a human and if I have to forsake my humanity, then that's a very small price to pay for power."
Silence…
"HAHAHAHA! WELL SAID, WELL SAID!"
The space surrounding began to break down, giving view to a planet similar to the appearance of Earth.
"You are the most resolute mortal I have ever met from Yahweh's planet. All of the great figures I've brought to my little office in history always had a tinge of hesitation when the topic about forsaking their humanity came about."
A white light surrounded Shawn while a drop of blood revolved around him.
"I really wish to see how far you can grow boy. I have high expectations of you."
"And I'll make sure to fulfill them."
Lazarin smiled.
"Volkarin, the one who’s blood you’ll use, took ten-million years to become a god. If half the universe wasn't trying to kill him, he could've become one in three-million. As his son, I expect you to become one in two."
The light around Shawn intensified. Although he had no idea what or how many trials he'd have to face, he was confident.
"I'll do it."
After giving a smirk, Lazarin sent Shawn on his way as he shot off into the planet below them.
(Edited on 2023/04/03: Grammar and/or punctuation Errors)