Meta Essence CYOA 29

Essence of the Aaron's Serpent

 By imbibing this essence (based on Nobilis), you gain the following benefits:

○You manifest a nature and set of abilities reminiscent of the Aaron's Serpents, titanic Imperators born from the World Ash itself. Despite being cosmically large snakes from beyond what most think of as "reality", the Children of the Ash tend to have some of the most pleasant and understandable psyches to mortals. Sure, the unbridgeable gap in scale is always there, but maybe you can help as an intermediary if you want now?

○You are an innately Miraculous being. When you are using a Divine Attribute to craft a miracle, you are affecting reality on a level that can only be directly opposed by other Miracles. Phrasing is important though, as mundane (i.e. Prosaic) actions can interact wherever it does not contradict the Miracle. If you craft a Miracle properly though, you are effectively unassailable by the denizens of Prosaic reality regardless of however much arbitrary levels of mundane force is used. They cannot even speed blitz you as Miracles are decided in an ambiguous narrative "discussion" outside of normal time, meaning no amount of super speed can overcome your ability to throw up a Miracle. Even time travel and paradox will not harm you as you are above such trifles of the mundane world. When a pair of Imperators accidentally turned the flat Earth round, all celestial bodies and the mundane laws to support this new behaviour were automatically "corrected" such that no proof of the old world would be reachable by even Prosaic time travel.

○On the other hand, your strength outside of Miracles is ultimately mundane, merely being "outrageous" or "overwhelming". If you shrank yourself down to a paltry tens of thousands of miles you could handle the Moon like beach ball, but be utterly helpless to a Noble using an Aspect Miracle to manually twist you into a knot.

○You are also one of most Immortal (with a capital I) types of being to exist. Essentially assume there is no threat whose operation is based in Prosaic reality that can put so much as a scratch on your "true" self. This includes anything from a simple gun, to a supernova, to a multiverse-twisting sorcerer, to a super science reality bomb, to even "mundane" reality warpers. Against enemy Miracles you are still tough, but not untouchable. Weaker Miracles are outright negated (whether they are literally "attacks" or merely deleterious), but stronger ones are merely reduced in power. Still, it is outrageously hard to put you down.

○As an Imperator, you have 2-4 Estates. Choose them now. These are concepts you have true dominion over. No...it is better to say that you are those things and are what allows them to manifest in reality. They do not even exist as a facet of reality outside of you. This can be anything such as Fire, Justice, Swords That Have Shed Blood, Electromagnetism, and Magic. No Estate is innately more powerful than any other, it is how you use it. Furthermore, the literal manifestation and mechanics of those Estates in Prosaic Reality are just an emergent phenomenon to make life make sense for mortals. Water is not "really" a molecule formed by two hydrogen atoms bonding with an oxygen atom...well, it is for mortals, but you can just have Water work however you want if you pick it as an Estate. Estates also have metaphorical power, such as how the Estate of Blankets could make it snow by implementing it as making a "blanket of snow".

○You are given access to four Divine Attributes that are your primary way of enacting Miracles. They are:

■Vastness

■You are big, really big. Your body is so large that mere notions like "volume", "mass", and "the speed of light" do not adequately describe you. Your true nature too is so vast, so concretely "you", that if thrown into the not-lands beyond Creation entire new worlds would form around you. It is actually impossible to see you unless your are shrunk down. This Divine Attribute not only gives you ambiguous size, but also allows you to deal with and leverage your scale. Create powerful war or "kaiju" forms for yourself that defy reasonability. Expand to literal astronomical sizes (i.e. unshrinking yourself a bit) with a thought. Take on ambiguous size and accomplish feats such as holding the moon between your hands then walking through a door without explicitly changing size. Have a nice stroll downtown as a colossal serpent and play with your smartphone while experiencing none of the normal difficulties or collateral damage you would expect. Extraordinary physical and spiritual power are yours with this Divine Attribute.

■Wanderer

■You are born from the very tree whose branches hold up entire "worlds", though collections of multiverses/timelines might be a better word for it. You could lose entire "fictional" settings in the World Ash and forget about them. As such, freedom of movement is your birth right. You are attuned with a certain type of fantastic distant land or event. While this Divine Attribute makes you much better at travel in general, you are outright masterful with your specialty. You can call yourself away into distant lands. You care not for normal routes or requirements for entry, you may enter through any appropriately symbolic way. Take others with you on a fantastical transformative journey, or return with impossible treasures from impossible places. Interactions with you become so intense you can conceptually implant things in people, retroactively declaring it was always inside them. Is it a "seed of evil", "actually being the long lost heir to a magical kingdom", or "the Innate Dao of the Ultimate Kung Fu Master"? Time with you is never boring at least. Once you have attuned yourself to an otherworld, it becomes yours and you can shape it to your liking.

■Allegorical

■As Aaron's Serpents move through the world, the land is never quite the same. They are wondrous creatures

 whose passage transforms others and wakes the world to life. Choose some allegorical role, something in which you will be considered the pinnacle shining example of. So long as you live up to your role you are effectively unstoppable. Reality will reorganize to make tasks easier. Even mundane actions will be able to contest with Miracles. Transform others into initiates of your cause. Craft impossible wonders based on the role you embody. More obscure powers stemming from this are actualizing a metaphor (e.g. make happiness buoyant), make certain actions outright impossible taboos around you, or simply make the impossible feasible.

■Sealed

■You are afflicted with Reality Syndrome. The way you experience the world is fundamentally unlike everyone else and you are able to treat your truth as "The Truth". You refused to believe something did not work a certain way that your delusions not only got the better of you, but also everyone else. You wield bizarre impossible powers that are meant to help share your unique experience with others, drawing in the rest of reality into your perspective. Maybe your System is super time travel that bypasses the normal Miraculous immunity to temporal tampering, or the ability to steal other Miraculous powers, or even just an outright omnipotent Wish-Granting Machine. Whatever you choose it should be impossibly broken (i.e. literally breaking the rules), though with enough finicky caveats that it will take some time before it will really help you. As a bonus, people are oddly understanding of your quirky perspective. Certainly, no one is immediately hostile to you from the onset as long as you are not in return, even if they really should be. Even if it is to their detriment, as long as you explain your actions in your context in a benign way they will just wave you off.

Essence of the Alpha Cultivator

 By imbibing this essence (based on Alpha Cultivation by Onehand_Writer), you gain the following:

•You have a method of supernatural cultivation that far exceeds all others for similar investments of effort, yet only available for those who are willing to truly commit to it. The Dao of Chadness, the ability to manipulate Big Dick Energy.

•There are several levels of the rising Gigachad, like all forms of cultivation. Each level is significantly more powerful and magnificent than the last.

•For example, the first realm of Chadness, the Outer Chad, is purely external body enhancement. The first of the five stages of the Outer Chad simply involves body development by lifting heavy things. The second stage is the Jaw Reformation stage, where Chads gain their distinctive jawline that can be used to destroy enemies in a single blow. The third stage is the Muscle-on-Muscles stage, which greatly increases the amount of Big Dick Energy you can enhance your body with. The fourth is the Big Brain stage, which allows you to tap into Big Brain energy to gain superhuman reflexes, senses, and intellect. The final Outer Chad stage is Chadorgans, turning the alpha cultivator's organs into miniature Gigachads and making you an alpha singularity of Chads all the way down.

•For one hour a day you may summon the talking demonic squirrel and fellow alpha cultivator, Dese Nuts, to assist you. As he is a Bro he will help you out of mutual respect, but will refuse if you try to get him to do some truly beta shit like hurting the innocent or oppressing the weak.

Essence of the Daily Sign-In Reward

 By imbibing this essence (based on OP After 30 Days Of Sign-In), you gain the following:

•Every 24 hours, a screen pops up in front of you asking you to "sign in". Upon hitting the "Sign In" button, you will be granted a random highly potent power. These will be thematically appropriate and always scale up (but never down) to whatever world you find yourself in. Some examples:◦Day 1: In canon, the main character gained the equivalent of 1000 years of internal cultivation, the theoretical highest level possible based on Earth's ambient qi. He was instantly literally the world's strongest organism in a world of cultivators, able to pounce up skyscrapers in a blink, throw punches that blow away superhumans from the mere shockwave, and take blows on that level in kind.

◦Day 2: Gain the Legendary War God's complete battle experience and martial arts skills, to most effectively use your strength.

◦Day 30: Mass scattering (or whatever is appropriate) celestial bodies like the Earth or even stars is on the table.

•For using your newfound powers to accomplish impressive feats, you will be given random rewards outside of the daily. Some examples of what was canonically received on the first day:◦Passive <Solid Spiritual Field>: Your combat power is constant and cannot be suppressed, even by being in a magic-barren environment.

◦A "pet" that is really a demonic beast with thousands of years of cultivation. Previously the vanguard of a supernatural invasion, your System has bound her to you and given you direct control over her. Also very adorable in either animal or human form.

•You may also choose to immigrate to the world of OP After 30 Days Of Sign-In or any other urban cultivation story. For the former, you gain Essence of the Super Streamer by default. If you choose the former option then you may either replace Chu Mo or start next to him when he gains his own Sign-In System. Your growth rate will always be at least on par with his, though what exactly you randomly draw might diverge.

Essence of the Eternal Club

 By imbibing this essence (based on I Built a Lifespan Club, also translated as Eternal Club), you gain the following:

•You gain a specific abstract control over time.

•Firstly, you can buy "time" from people consensually. Your power can automatically materialize a contract for you and the seller to sign, with magically binding clauses like "I get to take all your lifespan if reveal my power to the world". This deal increases your lifespan, like it is a reservoir.

•You can sell your time to other people in a similar contracted deal. This can be quite lucrative in terms of money and favours. This does not have to be strictly consensual on their part.

•A person's lifespan increases and decreases from these deals. The sick will have their illnesses cured or at least suspended by the extended time. The elderly will regain their youth, aging backwards. It is important to note that this is more fate-based than purely biological. For instance, one person's time ticked to zero just as a car crash instantly killed him. Any biological changes are just so your meat vehicle is at least able to get you to your destined finish line. A person who sold their time might not outwardly show anything.

•You can also speed up and slow down time, in both physical and abstract ways. The dilation starts at 100x and increases with stored time. This can be universal, within a defined space, or for a specific target. You could speed yourself up to gain super speed without worrying about friction. You could "store" sped up time in a pill and remotely release it inside someone's body to age them to death. You can speed up someone's learning speed to train them from novices to experts quickly.

•You also get a stylish pocket watch that you can summon at will. You can use your powers through it, but that is just for show. You can do everything with a thought if you do not feel like being theatrical.

Essence of the Humanoid Cultivation Pill

 By imbibing this essence (based on I am a Humanoid Cultivation Pill), you gain the following:

•While you look like a normal human on the outside, internally you are the legendary Huan Dan, the Ultimate Cultivation Pill given an independent will! You are humanoid mass of swirling spiritual qi and dao of the highest order.

•Your raw physical and supernatural abilities far eclipse any living cultivator. You can jump off a kilometres high mountain, run to a village even further away from, and safely return with someone you were searching for in a blink. You can casually shoot energy beams that push straight through such mountains and exit the other side without even slowing down. Dozens of superhumans could be trying to hold you back while you simply walk forward unimpeded as if they were not there. If you are not careful you could accidentally break a girthy tree in half by hugging it.

•You are basically indestructible, able to take your own attacks without any lasting damage. Any damage to your form, even lost body parts, is instantly healed. Supernatural effects and curses seem to just slip off you without any effect. You also do not need to eat, sleep, breathe, or relieve waste.

•You can shape shift into anyone you have seen and imitate their voice perfectly.

•Most importantly, you function as a cultivation pill. You can harmlessly pull off any part of your body, which instantly regenerates. As you are not actually human it is not gory, rather there is a shining golden light at the partition. When eaten by someone else it has the taste and texture of the most delicious thing suited to the eater's palate. This works for anything that comes out of you...so even something like ear wax is a feast fit for a king.

•These removed parts contain vast amounts of qi, propelling even seasoned expert cultivators into new strata of power. The amount of power is proportional to the amount consumed. Normally the consumed body part will release energy too fast for anyone to handle and cause them to fatally explode after a brief rise in power. For this Essence, you can choose to restrict this so they survive this if you like them though.

Essence of the Invincible Domain

 By imbibing this essence (based on Invincible at the Start and Disciple, Don't Cause Trouble, Master Won't Leave the Mountain!), you gain the following:

•You may place your Invincible Domain down centred on wherever you are. After being placed, it cannot be moved, but can have its radius expanded with upgrades. It starts with a radius of 2 metres. In canon it quickly grew to cover an entire dojo after two quick fights.

•You can earn points by completing tasks such as defeating enemies, taking on disciples, and having your followers break through in cultivation. These points can be spent either increasing the radius of your domain or directly upgrading its level. For reference:

•Level 1: You are invincible while inside your domain, as well as have absolute control and awareness over anything that enters it. Be invulnerable to damage, absolutely destroy someone down to their soul with a glance, suppress someone's powers, or move things around with unstoppable telekinesis and teleportation. This does not cover the essentials for longer term survival such as food, so you need to leave (or send people) to get supplies. This is macroscopic in precision and cannot create, only able to rearrange whatever is in your domain. For utility, at most you can repair things and move then around. You only have direct control of your domain, but effects can leave it. For instance, shoot a beam that splits the clouds and blows into heaven the moment you gain your domain.

•Level 2: You gain the power over living things. Healing is trivial, already crudely possible in Level 1. More importantly, you can upgrade living things to absurd degrees. Increase someone's spiritual root for cultivation (inborn and only even remotely touchable with the highest elixirs) to that of a peerless perfect genius. Instantly refine weeds into top-class mystical herbs and will it into a refined pill or emergent spirit. Force the seed of an extinct immortal peach to instantly grow, when everyone else failed. Just plain make someone break through to higher levels of cultivation if you feel like cheating harder.

•Level 3: You gain "The True Solution of the Immortal Path". Instead of merely being an invisible area you can remotely manipulate, your entire domain is terraformed (updating with radius increases) into an "Immortal Domain". The previous levels made you invincible in your domain and gave mastery over life. Basically dominion over the physical, or at least things of the mortal realm. Now, your domain is elevated into a heavenly ethereal place. With Daoist Enlightenment seeped into the very land, cultivating into an daoist immortal, gaining inspiration for new transcendent techniques, and beyond are an inevitability just by staying there. For this Essence, this expands to cover any other supernatural abilities you have too. That is not even mentioning all the wonders that spontaneously generate without your direct input. You literally have a slice of heaven (or some similar "higher plane") in your backyard. When you do want to directly create artifacts, you find yourself reaching new heights. More than just the pills and medicines of Level 2, or the mere repair functions of Level 1, Level 3 allows you to craft a myriad of wonders of largely arbitrary function only limited by your imagination. For instance, you could instantly will a talisman into existence that can create an illusion of an entire sect dying that can fool an entire group of heavenly immortals, just because you were worried that sect might get attacked in the future. Furthermore, you can also hide the wonder of things in your world. You can pretend to be a powerless mortal even if you have powers stacked to the heavens, or disguise an immortal-level weapon as a simple domestic tool. You can basically become an artifact printer, sending out impossible products out into the world beyond your domain.

Essence of the Microtransaction

 By imbibing this essence, you gain the following benefits:

○In the vein of "screw the rules, I have money", you may spend money to solve any problem. Any problem.

○At any obstacle (as recognized by you) you can pull up a UI window that only you can see. It will state a price. If you accept the deal, the problem will be instantly solved. The price will be based on factors such as scope, implausbility/impossibility, and duration. Solutions that require active maintenance after initial resolution may required periodic payments, or an extra large sum upfront.

○The money is instantly credited from you. Perhaps it teleports physical currency off your person. Maybe it credits your bank accounts. It might even sell off investments at fair market price for the necessary funds (somehow always finding a buyer). You can decide what means it uses to get the money. No one will ever find these transactions odd and they will not be subject to fees or taxes.

○Anything can be potentially purchased, for the right price. This includes products on the open market such as getting groceries, fixing a door, buying a house, or "lobbying" a politician. It could also be things that are not really something you can sell such as being instantly declared the genuine winner in a contest despite any game conditions, finding true love, or becoming the most skilled surgeon on the planet (including the certifications to prove it). You can even gain impossible (or out of scope of modern civilization) things such as gaining the powers of Superman, owning a FTL starship, extending someone's lifespan/youth to arbitrary lengths, bringing back the dead, and teleporting across space-time.

Essence of the Overly Simplified Minigame

 By imbibing this essence, you gain the following:

•Whenever you encounter a task which is too great for you to casually solve, it is "simplified" into a much easier minigame. Winning the minigame will resolve the original situation. You can think of your life as an allegory now, with some straightforward things no longer being so simple and actually representing much deeper work. The original task must still be theoretically possible in-universe though, even if it would require prescience and improbably power levels.◦For example, you cannot hack into an isolated air-gapped system unless there is an in-universe justification for it. If there is a way, however contrived, then a minigame can be used. If you have a satellite which can finely tune cosmic rays to remotely flip bits, but is not really programmed to do so you might get a hard Asteroids-like game. If you get physical access you can subvert it in seconds with a Fallout- or Bioshock-like hacking minigame.

◦A duel with the world's best swordsman will become a moderately difficult quick-time and button-mashing game. Enough to make you pay attention, though not too onerous.

◦Locks of all forms (whether they be tumbler, electronic, biometric, etc.) will resolve into a straightforward bobby pin game a la Fallout.

•Any special in-universe requirements are given to you, in an independent sealed system to avoid normal weaknesses of being cut off from some source. Whether it is special genetic markers that allow you to access a futuristic Super Internet (like in BLAME!), a transcendent cultivation base, or even what are supposed singular qualifications (e.g. a sword that can only be wielded by the "chosen one"), you have them as long as they existed within a setting you have visited. This only lasts for the duration of the minigame.

•There is an ambiguity between what you experience and what the outside world sees once this Essence recontextualizes the problem. You certainly perceive a vastly simplified minigame, but sometimes others will see you miraculously rising to seemingly impossible odds and other times they will see reality actually bend itself to give you an easier time. Either way, the realities you and they experience are disjoint during the minigame and it can be difficult to tell what "really" happened.

Essence of the Peacemaker

 By imbibing this essence (based on Golosseum), you gain the following:

•You project a defensive skintight field that will selectively manipulate spacetime. Any dangerous attack is seamlessly whisked away to another dimension. This includes anything from bullets, to knives, to shrapnel, to falling debris, to even restraints if you struggle against them hard enough. The only things not included are direct contact between organic matter (e.g. unarmed strikes and grappling) and gravity to prevent you from falling into the planet's core (i.e. throws to the ground work). Organic matter means more than just humans though, so animals can still attack you.

•Even exotic stuff might only work once because the peacemaker power is intelligent and will adapt to enforce the whole "martial arts are the new nuke" thing. Some things like frozen (i.e. dead) flesh and weapons treated with bone powder might work for a time, but that might also be slowly adapted to later.

•You can switch your power to Extreme Mode. It will only be on every third second, but it will generates a 100 metre field that blocks nuclear thermal loads and radiation (any other other harmful radiation). This also works on biological and chemical weapons with the same range. Nukes and explosives will flat out not go off in your range if you do not want it.

•You are biologically immortal, have eternal youth, and can heal from serious wounds fast enough that you only need to disengage for a few minutes to try again. You always have your perfect body regardless of activity that works beyond peak performance, allowing you to pull off feats that do not make sense for an organic body. It starts off on the level of judo flipping grizzly bears, karate chopping a tiger's head clean off, and resisting such attacks in kind. With modest training you could easily get to the point of being safely launched out of a giant catapult, dive bombing the ground at terminal velocity, and then suplexing a gigantic concrete air control tower in half.

•You get a pair of peacemaker devices that manifest the above powers when worn by someone. They do not stack with this Essence if you wear them, but multiple users can sync in Extreme Mode to give full time coverage.