35 Chapter 35: ATG 1

[AN: A number of readers have pointed out that since I didn't write any details about Carl's company producing and selling the batteries that the way it just happened was somewhat unbelievable. And I admit they have a good point. The little amount of detail leaves too much in the air. I'll strive to do better in the future.

The points that I had in mind that made his business venture go smoothly is 1) his farms producing the materials needed for his product. 2) Automated machinery managed by workers that made the rune scheme batteries fast. 3) General incompetence by the Ministry of Magic. (seriously, the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifact department was Arthur who couldn't even correctly pronounce Electricity. I seriously doubt they'll be on him like white on rice the moment he starts operating). 4) Carl's perk to be able to sell as much as he wanted and for decent prices. Before the Ministry could do anything about his product he would have sold millions. Good luck to the ministry being able to visit millions of muggles.

One of the reviewers seemed to think the name Magibattery for the company was lame. Yeah, it wasn't super inspired. /shrug. And why shouldn't Carl be using magic in the company name? So he could hide from the ministry of magic? Why would he hide that it's magic? That's the whole point of the scenario, letting the muggles believe in magic. There must be lots of muggle items labeled magic. Magic Card trick, Magic: The Gathering, video games about magic, etc. The incompetent ministry couldn't be on top of all that. They would be clueless.]

Carl sat up in bed, fully awake. After being ejected so suddenly from the Harry Potter world because he'd accidently finished the scenario, he had been a little miffed. He'd taken a cold shower, and used the terminal left by Spere 037 to add the Harry Potter magic and perks to his base body.

"Note to self. Be a bit more aware of how close to the goal you are in future scenarios." Carl said aloud just to hear his own voice in his almost empty Warehouse. Just then Rover flamed in, and seeing that Carl was awake, he started singing cheerily.

The magically soothing song did its job well, and Carl smiled and spent some time giving Rover attention. After some thought, Carl came to the conclusion that the reason Rover was able to join him in between jumps was because he was not a fully self aware entity and was his familiar. So a combination of those two made him a part of Carl, instead of a companion.

The Pokemon, on the other hand, were sentient and self aware creatures, so they counted as a companion and required a stasis pod to be able to join him in the jumps.

"Well, how about some breakfast, Rover?" Carl asked. At Rover's eager chirping, Carl laughed and jumped out of bed. He went downstairs and started preparing a feast using the household magic he'd learned in the Harry Potter world. The food was soon finished, and Carl and Rover dug in.

After Carl washed down his last bite with Root Beer, he sat back, satisfied. "I tell ya, Rover. The household charms and magical cooking of the world of Harry Potter alone was worth it." He looked over where the dishes were washing themselves before putting themselves away. "I find myself saying that a lot, you know. But it's absolutely true. There are some things I would gladly waste 10 or even 30 years in order to learn. And not having to do the dishes? That's one of those."

Rover chirped in agreement. He too liked the food that Carl made.

Carl eventually got to his feet and exited his house. He looked around the Warehouse, just now noticing how disorganized it had gotten, with half done projects everywhere. It was a good thing he'd made it a habit to keep everything of importance inside his Warehouse or on his person, since he had gotten kicked out of the HP world so suddenly. But now, seeing how he'd let it get so messy, he decided he might as well clean it up and organize it since he had the time.

So for the next couple of days Carl levitated things around, used his cleaning charms, shrunk things to be put in storage, and used space expansion charms to make more storage. Once he was finished, he looked over his Warehouse proudly. It looked good and organized once more.

He had purchased several computer servers that were sitting in a pocket space with only a terminal on the outside that contained a digital copy of his magical library and Arithmancy program. Carl couldn't wait until he could go to a scientifically advanced jump world so he could really start learning some advanced science and technology, and mix it together with magic.

Carl had used the time organizing his Warehouse to settle his mind, to compartmentalize his life in the Harry Potter world and put it behind him for the time being. He had long come to the conclusion that if he didn't have his head in the game and was totally focused on the current world, due to missing past worlds and people, then at the very least he would miss out on priceless opportunities. At the worst he might accidentally stumble into a jumpchain ending situation that he wasn't prepared for.

But now that Carl had his head on straight, and was ready for the next world, he went to the terminal and selected the option to start the next world. The introduction popped up on the screen.

Against the Gods!

Welcome to the world of Against the Gods! This is a world of cultivation, romance, death and violence, a world with legacies from ancient gods and devils, where fortunes rise and fall every day!

This is a planet full of amazing adventure, where mighty beasts roam the lands, hunting and hunted by great Practitioners. It is full of competition and jockeying, as strength is the only thing that matters. And it is full, absolutely chock-full, of so, so fucking many assholes.

Carl burst into wild laughter. "Oh, damn, that is so hilariously accurate." Carl said while brushing a tear away from his eye. "There's a reason people call cultivators in these types of stories 'murder hobos'. The main characters usually don't have a home, they just wander around trashing everyone else in their quest for strength."

"Arrogant young nobles run around these worlds looking down on everyone and calling in their elder brother or uncle to kill whoever offends them if they can't do it themselves. People stab each other in the back for drugs (cultivation resources). Girls will betray their betrothed at the drop of a hat if they aren't strong enough. And everyone, absolutely everyone, is obsessed with getting stronger. The only way to survive, is to fight and bite and claw for strength just as much as anyone else, while hoping you don't offend someone that can flatten your entire family."

Carl finally calmed down after a bit and started thinking how he was going to handle this world. "Okay, I know that with my Grand Master's fitness level I'll be stronger at the beginning than others of the same level, so that should give me a decent chance to survive until I can get some backing to keep the other murder hobos off my back. These kinds of worlds usually have large organizations called Sects that the cultivators join to get access to cultivation techniques, skills, and resources to advance their strength."

"So once I get in the world I'll have to find me a large sect to join so I can get access to all that and hope that there's not some plot induced sect destroying disaster happening before my ten years is up. Cause for these murder hobos, I mean cultivators, who live for thousands of years, 10 years is a drop in the bucket. Unless I get some perks that speed up my own cultivation, I'm not going to be anywhere near the top by the end of my time here. And I would probably not be able to survive a huge disaster."

Carl turned his attention back to the jump document. Maybe there was more information he could glean from it about just what was going on in this world he didn't know. At least a little bit of information that could help him survive his time in a very Darwinian world of only the strongest survives.

So, let's go over it. One planet, 97% water, three continents. One is the Azure Cloud Continent, another is the Profound Sky Continent, and the third is the Illusory Demon Realm.

If these names sound moronic…that's alright, they are.

Anyway, this is the world you need to be concerned about, at least for the most part. There are other worlds and other dangers, but they should be out of scope for this jump, barring exceptional circumstances, in which case you can bloody well go and learn about them yourself. In any case, you can be assured there is no imminent apocalypse coming up within ten years of your arrival, unless your meddling does something.

"Well, that is sooo reassuring." Carl sarcastically said to the jump document. Despite Carl's words, he actually was comforted. All he had to do was keep his head down for ten years and he'd likely be just fine. He continued reading.

The art of cultivation practiced here is called simply the Profound. There are nine major levels of it, each with ten sublevels. They are Elementary, Nascent, True, Spirit, Earth, Sky, Emperor, Tyrant, Sovereign. It is followed by the Divine way on other realms, but that's a different matter.

Practitioners above the Sky levels get additional titles as well, which are thus: An Emperor level is called a Throne, a Tyrant level is called an Overlord, and a Sovereign level practitioner is called a Monarch. Beside these there is the usual, what with there being many types of herbs being valuable, Profound Beast parts and cores being hunted, so on and so forth.

If you want to survive, you will most certainly need these 1000 CP, so take them, and go write your own Saga!

Good Luck.

Times and Places

Regardless of location, you arrive just as Yun Che wakes up to live his third life back in his first life's body.

"So, I'm guessing that Yun Che is the protagonist of this story, then?" Carl shook his head. "The guy already has three lives, what is he, a cat? I'll have to see what kind of person this guy is. In some of these stories it's great to be the MCs friend. They'll share their insane luck with their friends, and pass on badass techniques and generally make sure their friend's lives are good. In other stories it is super bad to be their friend. They run around offending every Super Power Sect around and get retaliated against by the big sects killing their family and friends to give the MC the proper motivation to grow strong. Since I have absolutely no desire to be his motivation or stepping stone, I'll have to keep my distance at first to see what kind of dude he is."

Carl then read about the places he could be inserted in. He gained a small bit of data about the world from the descriptions. "Chances are that since these places are mentioned, this Yun Che will be visiting each place and making his mark at some point. So it doesn't really matter where I go, he'll show up eventually."

Carl then rolled the dice for his location. He rolled a 5.

[5. Demon Imperial City – The capital of the Demon Illusory Realm, this place is the heart of the only nation to cover an entire continent. There is, if anything, greater intrigue at work here than anywhere else. The royal family of the Empire, the Demon Royal Family is split between the main bloodline and the Duke Palaces. Of the former, only one girl is left, and far, far too many of the latter have varying opinions about this.]

"Well, as good a place as any I guess, even if there is politics. And if the people are busy scheming amongst each other, I can avoid notice while hiding in the cracks." Carl shrugged and dismissed any concerns from his mind. With the limited amount of information and no knowledge of the world, he couldn't really make any plans at the moment.

Carl then rolled for his insertion age. He rolled a 5 again. He would be inserting as a 15 year old. It wasn't the youngest he'd ever started as in these worlds, but it was old enough that he could conceivably be on his own without causing questions from those around, even without resorting to his metamorphmagus abilities to look older.

Next Carl had to choose an origin. Drop In 0 cp, Young Master 100 cp, Elder 200 cp, or Smooth 300 cp. Carl was unsure about what he wanted to choose, so he did a quick skim of the perks to see which would give him the best package with their discounts.

When Carl got to the description for the perk Inheritor 500 cp, he immediately chose the Smooth origin. For 300 cp he would get three free purchases of Inheritor, and anymore purchases were half off. That was 1500 cp for the price of 300 cp. Just that discount alone was worth the purchase of the Smooth origin.

[Smooth – Yours is a strange existence. You may be the heir to a great family, but if so, it is far, far away. Or you may be a reincarnation of an ancient power, or any of a thousand possibilities. Or maybe even more than one at the same time. Only time will tell. Simply put, you have a protagonist's background in this world, with all that entails.]

Carl wasn't sure just what his protagonist background would end up being, but he was optimistic in being able to handle it with all the perks and skills he had available.

Carl then started reading though and adding perks to his shopping cart. Cultivation would give him the basics needed to start cultivating.

[Cultivation 0 cp: You are proficient in the Profound Arts, the cultivation style of this world. You start at the second level of the Elementary Profound Realm. Your profound veins are above average, but nothing particularly special. Roll a 1d20+10. That's the number of Profound Entrances you have open. You have slightly above average talent with one element, and start with knowing one low level Profound Art each for attacking, defending, and movement.

You may cultivate up to any level you want, with no restrictions. All of your power, along with any changes made to your veins or body are carried over with full effect in all future worlds. Once you reach Sovereign 10, you can grow Profound Veins in others with an injection of your own Profound Energy, giving them the ability to cultivate.]

He rolled a 15, so he started with 25 Profound Entrances open. From what Carl could extrapolate, the purpose of the Profound Entrance was basically to suck the world energies into their body that cultivators used to level up their cultivation and power their techniques. So the more entrances they had open, the faster they leveled up, and the quicker they could recover their battle energy. He wasn't sure just how many Profound Entrances there were in a human body in this world, but he felt confident with having rolled so high that he would be fine.

Looking over the options for elemental affinity, Carl saw there were five elements. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Lightning. "Huh, it's like the Naruto world. Well, when in doubt, burn it with fire." Carl then selected fire for his affinity for his above average talent with one element.

One of the parts that Carl was especially liking about the Cultivation perk was that once he attained Sovereign level 10, he could help other people grow their Profound Veins, giving them the ability to cultivate. So, in future worlds, once he got strong enough, he could build himself an organization of murder hobos to be his employees.

"Excellent." Carl said while imitating Mr. Burns, tapping the fingers of his hands together with a creepy smile on his face.

Carl then read the perk for Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins.

[Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins 100 cp /0 cp: Discard the roll for Profound Entrances above. With this perk, you have all of them open, meaning your cultivation is thrice as fast as the average person. This perk is free for those who take Genius Doctor below. You get equivalent effects in all future worlds where these things are relevant.]

Even though Carl still didn't know how many Profound Entrances there were, when he saw that all of his Profound Entrances would be open and his cultivation would be three times as fast, Carl thought it was a must have. The perk would be free if he purchased Genius Doctor, which normally was 400 cp, but with the discount for his Smooth background, it would only cost him 200 cp. Carl knew a good deal when he saw it. So he purchased Genius Doctor to become a peerless expert on the art of healing, and get all his Profound Entrances opened.

[Genius Doctor 200 cp: You are a peerless expert without equal, when it comes to the arts of healing. Not only can you tell everything wrong with a person with a single glance at them, you also possess an unerring instinct that guides you as to the best possible treatment for said ailment.

For this world, your medical knowledge and skills completely equal the great Medical Saint Yun Gu, unquestionably the best healer on the planet. Just like him, you know long lost techniques to both heal and improve the body, and have an immense knowledge of peripheral skills like refining herbs and animal parts. While you don't start on quite the same level in the future, you're very close, and can catch up rapidly.

Also, you have a vast, encompassing knowledge of acupuncture and related techniques, such as opening profound entrances and all others. This gives you the Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins for free, and you can obviously grant them to anyone you want, at will. Can't take it back, though.]

Carl knew there were a lot of skeptics about the efficacy of acupuncture back in his original world, but in a cultivation world where the healer had Profound Energy to send through the needles, doctors were able to heal their patients with just a few pokes. Even in the HSDK world, he had Ki to send through the needles to make it work. He just hadn't had much need to use his acupuncture skills. But with the Genius Doctor perk, he would know how to use the needles with his Profound energies.

And while Carl hadn't read Against the Gods, he had read Library of Heavens Path, so he had some ideas about just what he could do with a peerless ability in healing. It would make it so much easier to make allies and gain favors to keep himself safe in a world of cultivation. Once he started networking and making a name for himself as a healer, enemies would have to think twice about all the backup he could call on before attacking or offending him.

The next perk that interested Carl was Craftsman.

[Craftsman 300 cp: This world has a lot of unique things of its own, from Profound Weapons to things like Arks or Transmission Imprints. They need someone to make them, you know.

You are now an exemplary craftsman and enchanter, an expert at making weapons and items of all kinds. You know how to use Profound Beast cores to make quality weapons, how to set up a Teleportation Array that can move people across an ocean, how to make Spatial Rings, Transmission Jades, and similar things seen in this world.

In future jumps too, you become eminently capable at enchantments, smithing and similar, becoming one of the best enchanters and artificers as appropriate to the local magic or Cultivation system.]

Both Craftsman and Genius Doctor were too good not to take, since they would be incredibly useful even beyond this world. The sheer amount of knowledge and abilities that he would get just from those two perks were completely worth it.

"But, I need to remember to keep my knowledge and skill in healing and crafting hidden, and only show as much as my strength warrants. Because in a cultivation world, there are likely lots of strong people who would think nothing of enslaving me to make me a crafting or healing monkey for them. And I refuse to be a dancing monkey for anyone."

"Okay, time to pick my Inheritor perks." Carl smiled while looking over the perk. He liked the look of several of them.

[Inheritor: You are beyond other, lesser, beings. In you is the gift of a god, or a god-like being such as a Divine Beast. You have special powers above and beyond anything possessed by mere mortals, barring those who possess similar gifts.

You may pick one Inheritance from the following list per purchase. Smooth people get three purchases for free, and a discount on more.]

[Nine Profound Exquisite Body 0 cp: Your body is utterly exquisite and unmatched. You have a 'small world' inside you, which allows you to hold far more power within you than would otherwise be possible.

Simply put, you can preserve your Profound Energy without needing to strain your Profound Veins, allowing you to perform techniques and measures requiring any level of Profound Cultivation without suffering the consequences anyone else would suffer in your place.

The inner world in you can hold any quantities of energy of any and all kinds, and you can channel this energy without any damage to your body. But it doesn't generate any energy by itself, requiring you to save it up.]

The idea of having a huge battery in his body that Carl could constantly have charging that would let him use techniques beyond his cultivation level, effectively hitting above his weight class, was too good to pass up.

There were so many examples in the books he'd read about how the protagonist would always have to fight someone that was a higher level than him, and only pulled off a win through abilities like this one. And since he was going to have a protagonists life, he needed the abilities to survive!

[Heart of Snow Glazed Glass 0 cp: Your mind is extraordinary, allowing you to perfectly remember and recall anything you have so much as seen or heard once.

You have incredible comprehensive abilities, allowing you to comprehend any and all techniques, whether or not you're capable of using them. Even techniques restricted to specific bloodlines or sects are open to you, although how well you can use them depends on your other abilities.

Finally, you're blessed by the heavens, meaning that you can instinctively sense danger in any situation, and look into people's hearts and see if they are good, evil, or anywhere in between.]

This was basically like having the Sharingan without the negative aspects of the Sharingan, like having to see one of his loved ones die in front of him, or kill his best friend, or whatever other nonsense the Uchiha got up to.

And while his Sherlock abilities helped him read people's body language, if someone was a master at controlling their body, they would leave him no clues to judge them on. It happened often with his masters in the HSDK world. When they went into battle mode, they were so in control of their bodies that he couldn't get a read on them. So being able to determine the quality of their character with a look would be very useful for his survival.

[Supreme Attribute Beast Bloodline 0 cp: You have the bloodline of one of the Supreme Beasts of either Fire or Ice, which are the Vermillion Bird, the Phoenix, and the Golden Crow for Fire, and the Ice Phoenix, the Celestial Qilin, and the Blue Dragon for Ice. You have received several drops of their blood, granting you their bloodline so you count as having descended from them, along with the power of their respective flames or ice. In terms of sheer destruction, the Golden Crow's Yang-rich flames are the most powerful in this universe, while the Vermillion Bird's power is the greatest when it comes to cleansing Devil and assorted creatures. There is likely a similar hierarchy for the Ice Beasts, but the details are unknown.

In the item section, this gets you the respective Profound Art Jade Tablet for free.]

Carl grinned savagely when he saw the Golden Crow's flames were the most powerful in the universe, and he picked that bloodline. "Burn, baby! Burn!"

[Jade Tablet – Golden Crow 0 cp: These are jade tablets, holding the complete details of exactly one Profound Art of the highest quality, that you are free to design by yourselves. This art is of extremely high quality, similar in level to world defying Profound Arts like the Evil God's Secret Arts, the World Ode of the Pheonix or the Vermillian Bird's Consoling Spirit Song. Indeed, you get the complete tablets for whatever Supreme Beast Bloodline you buy for free.]

Carl had been somewhat tempted to get the bloodline of the Phoenix because he had Rover as his familiar, but the idea that the Golden Crow had the most powerful flames tempted him too much to pass it up. Having the best and strongest flames would help him stay alive and kick butt.

And if anyone messed with him, then he would kill them with fire! With the bloodline of the Golden Crow and the Heart of Snow Glazed Glass, he would be a knock off Uchiha. No, he would be the superior Uchiha!

"All your techniques are belong to me. And actually, this is much better than being an Uchiha with their emo-ness from having to kill their best friend to achieve their Mangekyo eyes. At least I get a path to power without the trauma." Carl commented with a sense of smug superiority that would no doubt drive an Uchiha to say "Hn."

[Evil God's Profound Veins 250 cp: You have the Profound Veins of the Evil God himself, one of the True Primordial Gods of a Bygone age.

These veins do not provide you any qualitative advantage, in that they are not really much better than human veins when it comes to channeling Profound Power. But in your veins, there exist seven Gates. Each gate may be safely opened at a certain level of Profound Power, so that your body can survive the process.

The first gate multiplies your powers by three fold, the second gate four-fold, and so on. In addition, you also gain mastery of certain Profound Arts as long as the gates are open, one with each gate. These veins also let you absorb the Evil God's Seeds for various elements as you find them. In the item section, you get these at a discount.]

"And now I feel like I need to start yelling about the Springtime of Yooouuuuth!" Carl crowed to himself, thinking of Gai and Rock Lee from the Naruto comic and the chakra gates that they opened to increase their strength and speed. "At least they left off the eighth gate, the Death Gate."

[Evil God's Seed – Fire 300 cp: This is one of the elemental seeds of the Evil God, or a perfect copy of it, your choice. It gives you an affinity for one element, your choice, unmatched anywhere in Heaven or Earth at its height. You receive no damage whatsoever from this element, no matter the type or scale or nature, be it mortals, gods or demons trying to hurt you with it. It doesn't matter if it's a kitchen flame or fires from the depth of hell or anything in between, it does no damage to you.

At the same time, your control over the element is nothing short of ludicrous. The scale at which you can control it depends on both your innate profound power and how much time and effort you put into it, but you start out capable of controlling it on a personal level, such as tossing small fireballs or singular lightning bolts. You'd be surprised how quickly you can train it up, though.

Your control extends over all forms and aspects of an element, meaning that the fire seed lets you control even magical or divine flames, while the water seed lets you control ice and vapor too. As a matter of fact, this seed makes it so any elemental controlling abilities you have automatically develop these aspects, letting you control the exotic versions just as well and at the same scale as the base one.]

If Carl was going to be throwing around the most destructive fire around, he was damn sure making sure he didn't accidentally kill himself with said fire. The idea that he could, in the future, bathe in Fiendfyre amused him greatly.

After thinking about it for some time, Carl decided that he would also add the Evil God's Seed – Water 300 cp to his basket. The jump document kept bringing up water and ice, so he was positive that he was going to run into some asshole Hyoton user eventually.

"And there we are, another Naruto reference." Carl grinned in humor to himself. "Wonder if the Ice user is going to inspire me in forming my Nindo: My Ninja Way." After giggling for a while - 'It's not a giggle! Men don't giggle!' - Carl thought that as much as he was joking around about it, he was also seriously concerned about his safety. If he could get immunity to water and ice as well as all forms of fire, then he should be that much safer.

And water is the antithesis of fire, so usually people would usually expect him to have a weakness to water. So when they inevitably stab him in the back with torrents of water, he could just smile and smugly declare, "You've activated my trap card." Before proceeding to beat them black and blue.

"Well, now that I've got unparalleled affinity with fire and water through the Evil God Seed copies, I've got to pick a different element for the Cultivation perk." Carl muttered while looking over the document, trying to decide what to pick. "Lightning, Wind, or Earth. If it's anything like the Naruto world, Lighting will be speed and piercing. Wind will be cutting and maybe speed? Was that a thing? Not like Naruto ever took advantage of his wind element to become one with the wind. What a waste. But then again, Gai and Lee were fast without lightning, so maybe speed in their world was more about training and chakra application, than elemental use. Whatever, wind is speed." Carl eventually decided firmly. If he believed it enough, it had to be so. That's what he had learned from magic. "And, finally, Earth will be strength and defense."

"I can throw away strength as a consideration, since I've already got my ki enhanced body and will be picking some more body strengthening perks here shortly. I'm waffling about whether to get earth for the defense, even though the body strengthening perks and techniques should have me covered there. But staying alive is always a huge consideration."

"But with my body strengthening perks I should have some good defense and regeneration, but what's even better than tanking a hit? Not getting hit in the first place. So I think I'll go with some speed. So lightning or wind. My chosen blade is a katana style blade so I mostly do slashes, which would lean towards cutting not piercing, so wind it is." Carl selected wind for his above average affinity for the Cultivation perk.

[Dragon God's Bloodline 250 cp: You have six drops of the Dragon God's blood in your veins, and his marrow which will produce more, at a glacial pace of a drop every several years until you are 10% Dragon. This gives you extreme durability, to the extent that your bones are like tempered steel, and you gain a potent regenerative effect, regaining both your strength, health, and profound energy at a rapid pace even in the middle of combat. It also makes you massively more resistant to poisons and other harmful effects.

This perk makes it so that strictly speaking you don't even need to cultivate now. Any powers you possess will continue getting stronger as you grow older, with no upper limits except your lifespan, which is extended to several hundred years.

Finally, once per jump including this jump, you can produce a 'Dragon Seed', which you may impart to someone else of your choice through sex. This heals them of any and all injuries or illnesses they may have, and nearly doubles their powers and energies. With time, you can learn to impart it without the sex too, but one person can only benefit from it once. This changes to once every ten years after your chain ends.]

The idea that he would be 10% dragon and that his physical body would be that much tougher made Carl drool. So badass!

From novels he'd read, he had the idea that many cultivators focused solely on their cultivation levels, and relied on their cultivation energies to refine their physical bodies. But that the special cultivators that had body refining techniques in addition to regular cultivation would be much more powerful than others in their cultivation class, and almost unstoppable.

It was basically the idea that if the foundation was weak, then the building would be weak. So the idea of having his physical body being much stronger and sturdier appealed to Carl. And so he decided to splurge, and chose the next Inheritor purchase as well, since it added more power to his body.

[Great Way of the Buddha 250 cp: This is the Divine Profound Art of the Primordial Rage God, which allows one to achieve wonders with the body. It has Twelve Stages, each more difficult to achieve than the last.

This art does not depend in any way on one's profound veins or profound strength, working instead from your soul, and nature itself. Your progress on this path depends on your comprehension of it, with each level unfolding as your comprehension improves.

This art provides you two things to begin with, those being increasing strength, and increased healing ability. Both stem from the power of Heaven and Earth around you flowing into you through the mysteries of this art, enhancing your body dramatically.

At the first level, this art gives you a strength of almost two tons, and the ability to heal from all wounds in a couple of days.

At the second level, this art gives you a strength of four tons, and provides significant improvements to your healing speed.

At the third level, this art gives you a strength of ten tons, and increases your durability to the level of pure steel. Your healing abilities enter the realm of active regeneration here, although it will still take hours to deal with grievous injuries. The silver pagoda you manifested so far also turns into a faint gold color.

At the fourth level, this art gives you a strength of fifty tons and you enter the intermediate level of the art. The pagoda becomes a dull gold color and your blood is slightly tinted gold. Your body now cultivates at all times, providing a slow but steady benefit to you continuously, but fast enough that you could gain a level of Emperor rank in a couple months even if you do nothing else.

At the seventh level, this art gives you the ability to restore important bodily necessities such as vision but it is impossible to reach this level even at the Sovereign realm while remaining in the Mortal World. Trying will cause your body to explode.

Benefits provided by further levels are unspecified, except that the twelfth level is the peak, and it grants you the original physique of the Rage God.]

With his Grand Master's ability, he was already stronger than the fourth level of the Great Way of the Buddha, but Carl liked the idea of adding the strength he would get from this art onto his strength, especially when adding in the regeneration. More strength is never a bad idea.

He didn't know how the Jumpchain would handle the whole ascending to a higher plane thing, especially if he was in a universe that didn't have that aspect. But he figured he could always pause his cultivation of the technique before he reached the seventh level that would cause him to explode in the ATG world.

Carl moved on to the other perks.

[Shadow Demon's Secret Retaining 100 cp: You are a virtually unmatched expert when it comes to the art and science of information suppression. Be it the methods of rooting out spies, simple disguise, or concealment, or whatever, if you're trying to hide something, a person, an item, or just some news, it's very, very difficult for it to get out.]

"That perk will do nicely as a counterpart to my scenario reward from the Harry Potter world. If I want to keep things secret, they will stay secret. If I want it known, everyone across the world will know." Car chuckled.

[Celestial Profound Basic Decency Inducement 200 cp: This world…you don't know what exactly is wrong with it, but you can at least do your part in making it better.

You have the incredible power of making people act like rational human beings. Through a conversation, a beating, or whatever other method you like, you can beat the intricate mysteries of Common Sense and Basic Human Decency into people lacking them, and make it stick.]

Carl chuckled at the perk ability of being able to beat some common sense into people. It may not always take a beating to get through to someone, but it was a very useful perk to have in a world that was absolute chock full of assholes.

[Advanced leveling 600 cp: As your powers grow, as your strength reaches higher and more advanced levels, advancing further becomes ever more difficult.

Not for you. No one knows how, maybe you can somehow access the richer energies and better qualities of the Higher Realms, maybe you can just grasp certain crucial principles others miss, it depends on the circumstances. But the result is the same.

Where others would require decades, if not centuries to grow through a level, not to mention proportionally higher effort, you simply don't suffer these diminishing returns or bottlenecks. You can advance through even the highest levels of cultivation just as easily and quickly as you grew through the very first ones, while losing none of the benefits.]

Carl knew that he was piling up the cp debt, and that he would be paying for it with drawbacks and his banked cp, but at this point he didn't care. There were too many must have perks in this one world. Once he had all these perks, he could spend a few worlds banking up points again to spend later.

But if he missed out on all the ridiculous perks that enhanced his strength and survivability in this world, who knew when he might have another chance to get perks like these? He was willing to take the chance.

[Wildly Willful 0 cp: As things happen, you may end up undergoing a lot of things that would leave normal people with broken minds and crushed souls. Not you. You have boundless willpower, meaning you can keep yourself going through pain, terror, or horror out of sheer stubbornness.

It also helps you in quickly recovering from old trauma, letting you forget and/or move on unbelievably quickly. Also, you're good at insulting people.]

For the initial price of 100 cp that perk had, it was well worth the purchase. But with his discount, Carl picked it up for free. Being able to out-stubborn stubborn would make sure that he didn't falter before the end of the jump chain, whenever that would be.

[Sex Fiend 100 cp: You're one. Really, you are. When it comes to wooing others, you have the kind of skills that the very best Casanovas in the world would come together to declare you the One True Sex Fiend.

You know just how to talk the right way, how to behave in the short and long term, how to touch them just right, so as to inflame the passions of even the most frigid, hard-to-crack people in the world. You can make them fall in love with you or in bed with you, or both. And yes, you have the skills and endurance to thoroughly satisfy any number of people you may have brought to your bed.

Furthermore, once they do, you find that as a rule, they have no problem with you fucking, marrying, or entering into a relationship with any number of other partners, and indeed, your partners tend to grow close by themselves, even getting romantically involved if their personalities fit right. This works on any member of your preferred sex you set your mind at, be they people, spirits, gods, or anything in between.]

One of the concerns that had been in the back of Carl's mind, was how all of his girls would get on when they all gathered in one place. Even in his first world, the BtVS world, he had to struggle to keep the girls happy. Looking back on it now, Carl kind of suspected that the multi partner relations were a combination of three things.

The first of course being that they routinely engaged in life and death activities. So in order to feel more alive, or celebrate staying alive, they were willing to engage in more open behavior than they normally would have. And who could they trust more than the people in the trenches with them, keeping them alive?

The second being that they routinely studied magic, demonology, and other such topics that would induce a bit of insanity in them, as told him by Spere 037. With the amount of brain bruising from insanity inducing studies, it was no wonder that mundane things like social mores fell by the wayside.

The third thing was the brain healing effect of his Root Beer, which brought them back to sanity. Instead of going off the deep end due to brain bruising, the Root Beer assured that they were healthy. So they were more willing to engage in social activities, like sex, rather than insane activities, like trying to cause the world to get sucked into the Hellmouth. Just a minor difference, really.

So now that he had a perk available that would help Carl make sure that his various girls from different worlds would at least not fight and may get along even better, he was very happy and would not give up the opportunity to purchase the perk.

Now that he had all his perks chosen, Carl began looking over the items available. He got a free Disguise Kit for the Smooth background. He didn't really need it with his metamorphmagus ability, but since it was free he picked it up anyway.

[Disguise Kit 0 cp: You have a box full of disguise-useful materials of the highest quality. You have everything, from colors to fake hair, everything required for you to pretend to be another person is here. You are also good at using them, so much so that no mundane ways of detection can even tell your appearance is fake, let alone detect who you really are.]

Next he spent 100 cp to import his Goblin made blade, Blue Orchid, as a Profound Weapon.

[Profound Weapon 100 cp: A sword, a spear, or maybe something exotic like a…ribbon? Whatever. This is a Profound Weapon of your very own, and the important thing about it is, it's linked directly to your soul.

Meaning you can have it in your hand with just a thought no matter where it may have been an instant ago, and perhaps more importantly, it grows with you. Not only does it perfectly channel any and all energies you can use, it even enriches and enhances them just by being passed through it. It's also extraordinarily receptive to enhancements of any and all kinds, magical, technological, or otherwise.

For this world, it's always exactly one Realm ahead of you, and the growth is similar in the future.]

The final thing Carl chose to purchase was a Heavenly Profound Treasure, he chose the Heavenly Time Pearl. He also chose to merge it with himself, placing it on his left hip so it would look like a tattoo, where he was sure no one would look anytime in the near future.

[Heavenly Profound Treasure 300 cp: Oh, this is big. You are in possession of one of the Seven Heavenly Profound Treasures, the most valuable, precious and powerful items in the entirety of this world. You can, if you wish, choose to fuse them to your own self, instead of just using them as items. This can be undone and redone at will.

These items are all indestructible, but can be taken from you unless fused. If taken away, you get them back only once the jump is over, unless you actually get off your ass and take it back. While possessed by another, they work for them just as well as they do for you.]

[Heavenly Time Pearl: This pearl is one of the two greatest aids to Cultivation in the whole universe. The way it works is simple. It has a pocket dimension inside, which holds the power of limitless time itself. In this dimension, time moves much faster, meaning one day in the outside world is equal to one hundred years inside the pearl.

This pearl has fused with you completely, and has recognized you as its master. This means that you can go in and out of its inner dimension at will, and can also take anyone you want with you, in any numbers you want. The inside has breathable air and limitless space, but nothing to eat or drink except what you take in.]

With the Heavenly Time Pearl and his farms producing food, Carl figured he was pretty much given a win. He could hole up in the Pearl as long as he needed to train up for any threat coming his way. Even if he got rid of all his other perk purchases, as long as he had the Heavenly Time Pearl, he could safely cultivate up to max level.

"Well, now it is time to add drawbacks so I can afford my massive purchase." Carl shook his head in dismay at the massive cost. "Still worth it." He muttered.

[I'm Surrounded By Assholes +100 cp: …By sheer virtue of living and cultivating here you will inevitably keep running into petty, touchy, oversensitive, entitled, sociopathic, possibly psychopathic, and just plain insufferable jerks. It's not everyone you meet will be a dick, more that on a regular basis you will run into someone who just has to be a dick. Even if you are trying your best not to give offense they will trump up an excuse to take offense anyway, or else simply decide that you or your friends have been chosen for the honor of being their next bullying victim.

Don't bother trying to reason with them; if they were willing to listen to reason, they wouldn't be stereotypical Xianxia assholes in the first place. You could in theory placate them by simply giving them whatever they want, but that would just make them come back later with another round of even more obnoxious demands.

Fortunately for you, this Drawback does not scale; antagonists will be no more powerful than they would normally be. Furthermore, if you are obviously too powerful for them to confront then they would (usually) not be stupid enough to directly confront you. They will, however, go behind your back and try to intrigue against you, slander you to the general populace, inform on you to your enemies, steal your shinies when you're not looking, attack you when you're weak, sexually harass yoru waifus, or bully your less powerful friends.

If you have Celestial Profound Basic Decency Inducement that does still work to encourage the assholes you encounter to learn the ways of the not-asshole, but it does nothing to slow down how often you encounter new assholes.]

From his time stuck playing Monopoly, Carl knew how aggravating it could be to deal with assholes. But unlike in Monopoly, in the ATG world he would be able to do something about any obnoxious jerk, and he could even vent some of his frustration while pounding some common sense in their heads. Carl wondered if it would actually turn into a bonus to have a string of jerks to vent on. He would certainly find out over the next ten years.

[Profoundly Delicious +300 cp: All kinds of Profound Beasts think you're very tasty, and want to kill and eat you. You can't go two steps into a forest or untamed area without getting swarmed, and even tamed beasts try to snap at you if their masters aren't firm enough. Which they rarely will be.]

Carl's time in Farmville showed him that having an irresistible lure could actually be a good thing if he was hoping to hunt. And in cultivation worlds, the beast cores were very valuable. So Carl planned to stay in the cities for the most part, unless he hired a troupe of hunters to take out the beasts that were sure to swarm in, or was strong enough to take care of himself.

[Sacred Rage +400 cp: One of the Four Sacred Grounds, the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, the Sun Moon Divine Hall, the Supreme Ocean Palace, or the Absolute Monarch Sanctuary are after you. They will hunt you to the ends of the earth, and will never stop, unless you destroy them completely and utterly. While they won't commit to you so extremely that their existence could be threatened, don't expect one or two setbacks to even slow them down.

You may take this drawback multiple times, for another Sacred Ground, up to four times. If your location roll placed you out of the Profound Sky Continent, it is discarded and you must choose a place in that continent.]

Carl frowned in dismay. It would have been perfect if he could have picked the Sacred Grounds. It would have been safe points, since they were far, far away on a different continent. He angrily tapped on the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region in the list in frustration.

Carl froze in shock when the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region was added to the list and he was credited with the cp. He looked left and right, looking around to see if someone was there playing a joke on him or something. But nothing was there, and the points were still totaled up.

Cautiously, Carl reached out and selected the next Sacred Ground. They were also added to the list. Huh. Throwing away all caution, Carl selected all four Sacred Grounds, and smiled at the +1200 cp. Shrugging at his good luck, which probably only happened because his Jump Chan wasn't around, he moved on.

[Crippled Profound Veins +600 cp: Your profound veins are completely crippled, making you entirely unable to channel Profound Energy. While it's possible for them to be fixed or replaced if you have the means, as they are you can never cultivate beyond the first level of the Elementary Profound Realm.]

Carl chose to start with crippled veins because he was confident he could survive until he could heal his veins, because he had a fully functional Medical Bay that could heal up anything that still had a pulse. Cheating? Sure, but then again, wasn't the whole grab bag of powers he was getting from the Jumpchain cheating in the first place?

And if, for whatever reason, his Medbay couldn't heal his profound veins, he had his Grand Master level body and skill and the Way of the Buddha to keep him alive until he could gather whatever he needed to heal his veins. Since the Great Way of the Buddha didn't rely on profound veins, he could practice that until he fixed his cultivation ability.

Carl stepped back from the terminal and stretched for a bit while he thought over his choices. After some thought, Carl removed the drawback I'm Surrounded By Assholes. It only gave him 100 cp. That paltry amount really wasn't worth the hassle of a full 10 years of running into one asshole after another, no matter how fun it would be to beat them up. And when he inevitably got stronger, they would just get sneakier in the ways they used trying to get at him. Just not worth it at all, having assholes undercutting him in the background.

After some more thought he added two more items. While he was generally against spending cp on items instead of perks, these two were very useful.

[Sky Overlord's Ancient Profound Ark 200 cp: An airship by any other name. This is a Profound Ark of the highest quality and finest make, something crafted not by mortals but by Divine Wat practitioners in a bygone age. It has a vast inner space, easily in multiple square miles, give or take, and moves extremely fast, covering thousands of miles an hour.

While it doesn't exactly require any fuel, it goes faster the more energy you pour in, and will accept any form of power or power generation you can provide. Being a creation of the Ancient times, it can even go into space, the inside magically taking care of any atmospheric requirements.]

Carl felt that having reliable transport that wasn't a Profound Beast in this world would be helpful, especially if he needed to make his escape from any dangerous situation. And he could bring it along with him to other worlds, maybe even modify it with technology and power generators to make it really get up and go.

[High Quality Armor 200 cp: This is Profound Armor, of the very highest quality. To be exact, its level is always one level higher than your own. This armor looks however you want it to look, but it can block all types of mundane attacks, and also provides significant resistance to magical/supernatural ones.

Bound to your soul, you can summon it at will, and dismiss it back to wherever with a thought too.]

With the addition of a full suit of armor that would grow with him and could shift into different forms, Carl felt better about being in a Cultivation world. Who knows when he'd get backstabbed or railroaded for looking at someone funny?

He chose the option to merge it with his "Sword" forearm guards that he got from the HSDK world. While the forearm guards were pretty damn good, and would continue to get stronger with him, they only protected a small part of his arms. Adding the two together, and having a full suit of armor that grew with him and was always one realm stronger than him was very appealing.

After seeing that he still had 650 cp from his banked points, Carl shrugged and gave in. "What the hell, right? If I'm going to be spending so much, I might as well go all out." Carl decided and made one more scan over the perks available to see if there was anything he wanted or would be very useful. "I mean, what is the use of a bunch of banked cp if I don't ever bloody use it?"

So from the Young Master perks he picked one perk.

[Ludicrous Loyalty Enforcement 200 cp: There's something to be said about fanatics. Not that those who follow you are always fanatics, but they do share one trait. No matter what you do, how immoral or monstrous your actions may be, how obviously repugnant your nature and actions may be, it won't affect anyone who follows you at all. Even the more moral people will harden their hearts and obey you, and dismiss all thought of it once they're done.]

Carl wasn't planning on turning into some murderous monster, but the perk basically assured him that any followers he had wouldn't backstab him due to a disagreement. In some of these worlds, like ones with murder hobos, knowing that his followers would follow him was very comforting.

And from the Elder perks he chose one.

[Patient Plans 400 cp: At the uppermost levels of this world, among the great Clans and Sects and Empires, there is quite a lot more to things than just Cultivation. The games played here are lethal, long, complicated, and more often than not extraordinarily filthy in their immorality.

You now have the same ability at such plans as the best there are in this world. You can account for hundreds of factors, gather information, and extrapolate more, and set up extraordinarily intricate and robust plans, to bring about whatever events you desire.

You have an extraordinary grasp of the human psyche, of how people act and react to things. You know just what to say, what to do, what strings to pull to achieve the exact thing you desire.]

Carl knew he'd been pretty lucky so far that he hadn't had to deal with a great deal of dirty dealing and corrupt politics so far in the worlds he'd been in. There was some of that corruption in the BtVS world with the mayor of Sunnydale being a century old warlock who had a stranglehold on the town, but he'd resolved it pretty easily with foreknowledge and a bullet.

And he had avoided the Wizarding World of Harry Potter's government like it had the plague.

But going into this world he had no knowledge of, that was full of murder hobos, on a continent with one Empire where intrigue was around every corner, Carl just felt it was a very needed perk to be able to figure out plans to survive.

And while he had spent all but 50 cp of his banked points, Carl was sure that the big spending spree would prove its worth. Not only in this world, but in worlds to come.

Once more checking everything over, Carl was satisfied. "So, ready for another world?" Carl asked his familiar before finalizing his choices. Rover chirped in agreement. "Okay then, here goes nothing."

Right as he hit accept button to enter the world, the ground opened up beneath him, and Carl fell screaming into the portal that materialized from nowhere. Once Carl was through, the portal closed back up, leaving Rover chirping in question as to just what his Wizard was up to.

[AN: Okay, so I tried something a little different in the entry into another world chapter here, namely that I wrote out the descriptions of the perks, items, and drawbacks, instead of just summarizing it a bit. Let me know, readers, if you like it like that or if you think it is useless filler that you just scanned past.

And now for a disclaimer of sorts. At some points in the ATG world I'll be introducing people with names randomly picked by me for story purposes. I chose to randomly pick Chinese names based off a list of names on the internet. Keep in mind that if you know Chinese and the names I randomly picked sound incredibly retarded to you, Sorry/not sorry. /shrug. There's only so much I can do.

But thanks for reading!]