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[Update: You received a B.A point, the shop has been updated, everything to grow into a great cultivator is there]

Following the usual robotic voice, Erik saw the interface of the shop appear.

--

{B.A. (Brain Advancement) SHOP} {You have one B.A. point}

__Improve the brain! You currently have:__ {10 options}

__Perception:__

-{Better energy awareness} (0)

-{Better Senses} (0)

-{Exceptional life energy awareness} (0)

__Reasoning:__

-{Intensive thought process} (0)

-{Superior information association} (0)

__Action:__

-{Body control} (0)

-{Exceptional Instincts} (0)

__Oversight__

-{Overall better management of the body} (0)

-{Better regeneration} (0)

-{Evolution analysis} (0)

--

-The cost is one B.A. point from (0) to (1), two B.A. points from (1) to (2), continuing in the same way.

-The maximum B.A. points into an improvement are (3), but it will be bigger once your current body overcomes its limit.

---

There was a lot of options, but nothing could enhance his cultivation procedure, that really disappointed Erik, as he was in a dire need of a complete core to defend himself. It would have been way easier to kill the beetles' group if he possessed a superior core, but it seemed that it would take some time. One by one, he went through the description of each improvement, pondering about which of them he should spend a point on. For example, {Exceptional life energy awareness} would allow him to discern where there would be living things, unless they use a special type of camouflage. Evolution analysis was the most special one, the brain would always look at how to upgrade the body by observing, compiling and inspecting what happened to the body. Erik was pretty interest in it, but it was a slow evolution process and he didn't know what would get from it. He decided to ask something to the system before choosing.

_"Am I going to receive enough B.A. points to max everything out, or will it be impossible to complete? Also, how much new types of improvements will be available?"_

[Well, you definitely won't possess enough B.A. points to buy everything, since there will a lot of new improvements. You have to plan how you want to be in the future, how you spend your points now will be very important. The system doesn't know how much a certain improvement will help you, it depends mostly on your soul capability. Therefore, the system won't advise you, do your best and choose wisely.]

Erik didn't receive a lot of help from the system, but he didn't expect much anyway. His goal right now was to be strong enough to live in the forest, or at least not to be so killable as he was now. He also thought about moving away from any dangerous place with {Body control}, but maybe it would only enable him to do minuscule movements.

He was choosing with an elimination process, letting him with only two option in the end, {Better regeneration} and {Exceptional life energy awareness}. The first one would allow him to recuperate from the awful wounds the beetles created on his body, while the second would enable him to take in more life energy before it became limited.

Maintaining his life was crucial right now, so he only really considered improvements with healing factors. With {Better regeneration}, he was at least certain of the result, it would alleviate him from the damage he suffered from.

With {Exceptional life energy awareness}, he was not sure how well it would work, however, he had noticed before that the core would not be unstable if there was more life energy than other categories. There could not be less of it than the others, but he never felt bad from having a lot of it, like he did with everything else. For example, too much earth energy would give an unbalanced feel to the core and taking more energy inside would be hard.

As long as he could, he always cultivated with life energy, but it would get scarce after some time. If he sensed more of it than he was capable of now, he could also take in a superior amount. It was the only energy that didn't make him feel bad and also the only to improve his body, making a harder coating and developing defenses against sickness. He couldn't be sure, but it would probably be a healing factor too, since it was enhancing the body. It's not like he was on the verge of death, even with all his wounds, so he didn't want to take {better regeneration}, something that may get bested just by getting enough life energy. After carefully thinking for some time, he decided to go with {Exceptional life energy awareness}, the best option for the future. It had many uses, like sensing where there was a hiding enemy or simply improve the core along with taking care of his well being.

Even while insects were attacking, he didn't actually stop circulating energy around his vessels. He was able to do it while thinking about something else and Erik didn't like wasting time, so he never really stopped ever since he began as a seed. Now, he bought the improvement, and finally was obliged to stop, not because he decided to, but he had forgotten just how much pain the transformation would give him.

_"Not this again, why can't I relax, I'm just a plant, goddammit!"_