Becoming a spell caster meant that he would have to be vulnerable. He would likely have lower health, lower defenses, and his magic would take time and concentration to cast. While he was sure that there were types of magic that were good defensively, he had nowhere near enough information to build towards that. There was a reason that mages were often part of a party after all. There was no guarantee that he would have the space, resources, or talent to be a mage.
That was assuming the fiction he was drawing from was accurate …
Besides, he had to take into account the fact that he had absolutely no information about the other side. If he was fortunate, then he was going somewhere peaceful and no one knew he was coming. Then he could have all the time in the world to deal with all of this and make his decisions.
Given his experience with the system so far, he was not optimistic about his chances.
The disaster scenarios were just too numerous to account for. The one responsible for the summoning could be on the other side and they could have certain ideas about debts. Or perhaps he was about to be transported straight into the den of a monster. He could even be born again, which was really horrifying for another reason entirely. All bets were off really.
No matter what the circumstance, he just had to make sure that he survived it. Everything else came later.
There was also the fact that he was starting off at level 1. This meant that he was at the absolute bottom of the food chain, so to speak. No matter how strong he was able to make himself, it would be meaningless if he went against something with a higher level.
As for a general strategy … While he would love to create a hyper-focused build with synergies between every ability, it was far too risky. Especially given that the system seemed determined not to give him any information.
The opposite strategy, trying to cover every base, was also not going to work. It was spreading himself too thin and was too reactive besides. Sure such a strategy wouldn’t have a weakness, but it would always lose in some way to anything more focused.
A balanced strategy would work best, though one weighted towards a theme. And that theme?
Survival.
Dante would withstand any test for a chance to return home. That would be enough for him. Besides, surviving is what he did.
In his experience there was one thing that trumped all others when it came to survival.
information.
You had to be able to react to a threat to survive it after all. Conversely, noticing and getting the first strike on an enemy could end a battle before it even began. So increasing his perceptive ability would come first.
Which reminded him …
Dante focused his attention on the mysterious number again and was surprised.
8,130
It had dropped far faster than he had expected. Well, it was time to test if it related to how many skills or attributes he could take. Steeling himself, Dante placed his intent on the plus next to Perception.
+1 to [Perception].
Dante didn’t feel any different after this increase, but then again he didn’t have a body. He quickly focused back on the number and found that it was still the same. The blinking pluses next to his attributes remained as well. It seemed he still had more points to distribute.
Well, it’s time to test the other side of that theory as well.
When he had been scrolling through the ability list before, one of them had caught his attention early on. He was sure that he would not regret picking it up and that it would serve as a test nicely.
[Sharpen Senses] acquired.
Once again, there was no change either to the mysterious number or to his perception. After a quick scan through the first couple dozen ability list options, it didn’t seem like any had disappeared. So it seemed like he was mistaken that the number did not represent the points that he could spend. Well, at least it meant that he could search the ability list for as long as he wanted. Well, for up until that number hit zero. If it was indeed a timer.
There was a sudden distracting pulse from the edge of consciousness and Dante turned his attention towards it. He was happy to see that it was his friend from before, the one who he had been ‘communicating’ with before.
Dante sent a pulse back, but the response seemed unchanged. After a period of listening, he realized that there was a pattern. It was Morse code, he was fairly sure — though he didn’t understand it. It went something like: Long, 3 x short, 4 x long, 3 x short, 2 x long, 4 x short, 2 x long, and 4 x short before repeating.
Dante wasn’t quite sure how to respond and just sent the same message back. Shortly after, the messages stopped. Perhaps his friend had given up on him. Which was a bit lonely, but he couldn't blame them. It’s not like the could have an actual dialogue.
No two ways about it, Dante was going to have to sit back and search through this ability list for anything that fit his criteria. Given its apparent length, this was going to be an exercise in patience more than anything else. Good thing that he apparently had a sixteen in willpower…
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Dante had no idea how much time had passed at this point, but he was certain that he had gone through thousands of these abilities — perhaps even tens of thousands — and had not reached the end of the list. He doubted that there was an end.
Though many of the abilities were worthless. Who would ever take [Perspire Adhesive] or [Mana to Cheese]? And he couldn't ever see a use for [Sprout Fingers]. Nothing that would be worth that price anyway.
Besides those, he had come to realize that there were, in fact, many many abilities that dealt with magic. They spanned from something as generic as [Basic Pyromancy Affinity] to the awe inspiring [Chronomancy Savant]. There were even supportive abilities such as [Mana Battery], [Enhanced Mana Regen], and [Arcane Sight].
Dante had no idea how useful each of these were, but at least they confirmed that magic was going to be a thing in this new world.
Dante was sorely tempted to buy one of them. What good was reincarnating in a magical world without magic of his own? But, he was a complete stranger to how magic worked. For all he knew, all spells required something beyond mana or were prohibitively expensive. That was without considering that he knew nothing of how important something like affinity was compared to mana regeneration.
It was an exercise in futility even considering magic for the moment.
The remaining abilities seemed … freakish to say the least. Many seemed to change how the body worked at its fundamental level, things like [Steel Bones] or [Pneumatic Muscle]. These had the advantage that they were the easiest to understand what they did. But on the other hand?
Dante imagined viscous talons on his finger tips, thick scales emerging from his skin, extra eyes. All of which were abilities he had found on that list, a mere finger tap away. He shuddered.
That would be a sacrifice that he really did not want to make. Could Dante even call himself human after selecting something like that? Though, if he were to be honest with himself, the idea did not disturb him as much as he thought it would.
Some of them seemed quite good. It would be easy to build synergies as well as it was quite clear what they would do. Though, he had no idea how the new world would react to such features. Humans were famously intolerant of anything different, even something as small as skin color. Dante had no desire to be a social pariah.
So no extra limbs or anything that would be readily apparent at first glance.
Some were just so obscure that he didn't think he could justify picking them without more information. There was no possible justification to pick an ability like [Precognitive Hemetics]. Dante was not even sure where to start with that, though he was certain it had something to do with blood and the future.
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Though it was impossible for him to feel fatigued, Dante was quite sure he had hit his limit. He had been having to scroll back up the list and reread sections more and more. Continuing beyond this point would only see him forgetting viable options with no guarantee their replacement would be as good.
It was time to choose.
Now that Dante had upgraded his ability to notice incoming threats with [Sharpen Senses], he now needed a response to said threats. He would be going with a strategy he was familiar with.
If you can't fight a threat, hide from it.
Which, in turn, would assist him in ambushing any would-be attackers. Dante would never fight a fair fight if he could help it.
With that in mind he selected [Chameleon], then checked the list once again and still found it unchanged.
Either I have a lot of selections available or I’ve only picked weak abilities.
Either way, it wouldn't change things.
Afterall, something would always go wrong and he would need to be prepared in case he was spotted. Dante’s first instinct was to select something that would protect him, like [Impenetrable Skin]. But, after thinking it over, he instead selected [Split Second Reactions]. Hopefully it would let him identify, react, and dodge threats. By his reckoning, it was better not to be hit at all.
Especially when that blow could kill him in a single shot, defensive ability or no.
Dante returned his attention to the list and was startled to find that there had been a change this time. The vast majority of the list was now greyed out. He attempted to select the aforementioned [Impenetrable Skin] but was unsuccessful.
Guess my luck finally ran out.
Which meant that this next ability was likely the final pick.
Every ability that he had liked, and even the ones that he had been considering, was now off the table.
Which meant it was back to the searching. Great. If only there was an option to — as soon as Dante formed the thought, the unavailable options disappeared.
Well, at least there’s that.
If Dante was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure how much list searching he had left in him.
Just until the first option that doesn’t sound awful, he promised himself. Then, he got to it.
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Honestly, some of these would be more harmful than helpful, Dante thought while considering [Partial Self-Detonation]. Without mitigating powers, that one sounded like a good way to get yourself killed. Besides, it sounded extremely painful.
Just about every ability at this price point had either been like this, with enormous drawbacks, or something only mildly useful. Currently, his favorite pick was [Mana to water]. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about dehydration with that. While Dante was wrestling with that decision, one other entry caught his eye that gave him pause.
[Warding Flesh].
That sounded … promising? It was the first even vaguely defensive sounding option that he encountered ever since his options became limited. It wasn’t quite clear what exactly it would ward against. Perhaps some form of magic? Dante recalled fantasy stories where wards were used in a magical sense. If it was the same case here, then the ability sounded useful.
However it sounded like it might make some change to his flesh, which was certainly not ideal. It was a risk for sure but, for whatever reason, he had a good feeling about this one. Before Dante could second guess himself, he locked it in.
What's the worst that could happen?
[Warding Flesh] Acquired.
The list abruptly closed and he found himself staring back at the character sheet, now complete with his new abilities and absent the [Selections Available] line.
Seems like that's the end of that. Dante was … not entirely disappointed. He had gotten a decent number of selections and he was mostly happy with the ones he got. There were a few glaring gaps that he would have liked to cover, like some sort of healing ability if he ever did get injured. Hopefully he would get the chance to fix that later.
Though I can partly fix that now, he thought while inspecting the pluses next to his attributes. Fortitude and constitution were a given. In fact, he was tempted to spend however many points he had on just them. Though a few points in endurance would also be good, all of his other stats and abilities would be no good if he was too tired to use them properly.
Perhaps a 3 fortitude, 3 constitution, 1 endurance ratio? It would certainly work well enough for this first level up, he just hoped he had enough. Hopefully he wasn’t making a massive mistake here.
Bracing himself, Dante put one point into those three attributes.
+1 to Fortitude.
+1 to Constitution.
+1 to Endurance.
Seems like I still have more.
+2 to Fortitude.
+2 to Constitution.
Oh I still have more? Well certainly not going to complain about that. Maybe I have more than I thought?
+1 to Fortitude.
Immediately after placing that last point, the [+] next to his attributes disappear.
Shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up …
Immediately after he had that thought a small window popped up over his [Status] which simply read:
[60]
As he watched it ticked down to 59, then 58. This at least, Dante was sure, was a timer. Likely one that counted down until the beginning of his new life.
That … was not a lot of time to prepare himself. Less so, now that Dante realized that he hadn’t yet thought about what he was going to do when he got there. Not that he had any idea what it was going to be like. All he could do was watch the clock count down and take one more look at his [Status].
3 … 2 … 1 … Initializing Dimensional shift.
Name: Dante Embry
Race: Human
Class: Unclassed
Level: 1
Attributes
Alacrity 9 Endurance 14 Charisma 6 Fortitude 15 Cognition 13 Perception 8 Constitution 15 Strength 7 Dexterity 12 Willpower 14
Skills
Brawl 2 Deception 1 Lock Picking 4 Logic 4 Menial Labor 3 Sleight of Hand 1 Stealth 2
Abilities
Chameleon 1 Sharpen Senses 1 Split Second Reaction 1 Warding Flesh 1
Traits
Fickle Fate MAX Human Tenacity 4