4 The Future Path

As Vera explained to her how the system worked, Evelyn focused all her thoughts on how to maximize the use of her energy. No matter what the purpose of this organization was, what she cared about right now was making the best possible use of what she had.

There were only two main windows floating in front of her. The first window was "Status", and the second window was "Abilities". She decided to look through them carefully first before asking for help. Even though she was confident, she knew that the next few moments would have major impact on her future, and thus she would rather be overly careful than regret later.

[ Status ]

[ Physique : 10 + ]

[ Spirit : 10 + ]

[ Vitality : 100 + ]

[ Soul : 10 + ]

She wished the status was simpler, but unfortunately the reality seemed more complex. She barely understood the distinction that Vera tried to explain between spirit and soul. At least physique and vitality were simple enough.

Vera gave her an encouraging smile at the end of her explanation. "Don't stress yourself too much. Simply think of physique as how strong the body is, and vitality as how long that body will live. Hmm, if you want, you can even think of 'spirit' as 'magic', and soul as… well, I don't know how to explain that. It's just… soul."

"Thank you. I understand it now, for the most part."

Evelyn gave Vera a grateful nod and then began looking through the ability window.

She noticed that there were two tabs, primary abilities and miscellaneous abilities. Primary ability tab only had twelve entries, and she noticed that each attribute in the stats screen had three entries here. The worst part was that some of these "primary" abilities were far too expensive, but she didn't let that bother her too much. Knowing more could always help, who knows.

[ Abilities / Enhancements ]

Primary Abilities

(10) energy for [Basic Spatial Manipulation] Requires 10 Spirit

(100) energy for [Advanced Spatial Manipulation] Requires 100 Spirit

(10,000) energy for [Disaster] Requires 1,000 Spirit

(10) energy for [Basic Regeneration] Requires 10 Physique

(100) energy for [Advanced Regeneration] Requires 100 Physique

(10,000) energy for [Undying] Requires 1,000 Physique

(1) energy for [Basic Charm] Requires 10 Soul

(10) energy for [Advanced Charm] Requires 100 Soul

(100) energy for [Calamity] Requires 1,000 Soul

(100) energy for [Disease Immunity] Requires 100 Vitality

(1,000) energy for [Poison Immunity] Requires 1,000 Vitality

(100,000) energy for [Reincarnation] Requires 10,000 Vitality

"Ah, I almost forgot to tell you… well, you would have noticed when you tried to increase them anyway. But keep in mind that each of the attributes cost different amounts of energy. The most expensive are Spirit and Vitality, which cost a hundred points each to raise. Physique costs ten points to raise, and the cheapest is soul, which you can raise by ten points for just one energy."

Evelyn gave her a blank stare. "Why is there such a big difference?"

Vera looked a bit out of her comfort zone as she tried to explain. "Oh, uh, well, how do I put this… it's not that one of the attributes is worth less than another, it's just… how much energy is used to manipulate them in the way we do it."

"So… alright, I get it…"

"No, well, sorry, maybe I'm not the best person to explain it. Anyway, you can think of it as we're just putting all this energy into your soul to enhance the body you will inhabit in the future. Since we can directly enhance the soul here, it is the 'cheapest', and the mortal body is not very hard to change, but it will still be ten times harder getting it done later on its own. As for the longevity and spirit power of that body, it's even worse, and uses even more energy to change!"

Evelyn's expression was slightly moved. "Makes sense… thank you, Vera. I don't know why you're helping me so much, but thank you."

The blue haired girl just laughed it off. "Haha, don't compliment me too much, my head will grow bigger. I just think you have a lot of potential, it would be a shame if it was wasted because of my carelessness, so I'm just putting a little more effort. I know there are more talented guides you could have gotten, but I can only make up for it with sincerity. It might be a long time before we meet again, but I hope we'll meet again as friends."

Evelyn didn't know when she began to smile happily. "… Thank you… I'll look forward to it."

Neither of them spoke anymore as Evelyn concentrated on her 'build'. It wasn't too daunting since she could add and remove things as she wished till she was satisfied with the end result.

"Might as well start picking out some core abilities first, and then upgrade my stats to match them… Oh, it's better to look through the ones I can't have as well, doesn't hurt to know more."

As she was nodding to herself, Vera just chuckled next to her. "Aren't you just curious?"

[ Basic Regeneration ]

Costs 10 Energy

Requires: 10 Physique

-Enables complete recovery. The body will no longer by susceptible to permanent injuries. The recovery is not autonomous and requires external aid.

"So basically, no more scars or long-term injuries, hm."

[ Advanced Regeneration ]

Costs 100 Energy

Requires: 100 Physique + Basic Regeneration

-Increases vitality over time. Passively heal self without external aid. Speed of recovery depends on physique and vitality. Consumes vitality upon use.

[ Undying ]

Costs 10,000 Energy

Requires: 1,000 Physique + Basic Regeneration + Advanced Regeneration

-Greatly enhances vitality over time. Instantly regenerate physical injuries until vitality is exhausted.

She carefully started allocating her stats points after thinking it through, first spending nine hundred energy to raise her 'Physique' by ninety points to a hundred total. This allowed her to acquire both basic and advanced regeneration. There was no need to even think about the third one, it was far out of her reach.

[ Energy : 2,000 ]

[ Physique +90 ]

[ Energy : 1,100 ]

[ Acquired Basic Regeneration ]

[ Energy : 1,090 ]

[ Acquired Advanced Regeneration ]

[ Energy : 990 ]

She already felt the pain for spending half of all she had, but she felt that this was the least she needed to confidently survive in her next life. Advanced Regeneration was also the only grade two primary ability she could get with her points, excluding the soul abilities. Soul abilities were cheap and she estimated that her leftover points should be enough for that.

"Next, there's spirit based primary abilities…"

[ Basic Spatial Manipulation ]

Energy Cost: 10

Requires: 10 Spirit

-Enables access to a personal pocket dimension for storage. The size increases with spirit power.

"Inventory! I definitely need this. I already have ten spirit points so let's get it right away."

[ Energy : 990 ]

[ Acquired Basic Spatial Manipulation ]

[ Energy : 980 ]

She looked at the description of the grade two and three spirit abilities and could only sigh wistfully. She would need nine thousand energy just to meet the requirements for grade two, which was impossible even if she removed everything else.

[ Advanced Spatial Manipulation ]

Energy Cost: 100

Requires: 100 Spirit + Basic Spatial Manipulation

-Allows user to perfectly conceal their presence and allows minor free manipulation of space.

"That's a perfect cloaking skill, right? I think that would make someone pretty much invincible against most opponents."

She sighed enviously before looking at the grade three skill, just to satisfy her curiosity.

[ Disaster ]

Energy Cost: 10,000

Requires: 1,000 Spirit + Basic Spatial Manipulation + Advanced Spatial Manipulation

-Allows user to move through space instantly, maximum distance increases with spirit power. Also allows major spatial manipulation, depending on vitality and spirit.

"How much is that? The increase is too much, is this a bug?"

Vera laughed. "There are no bugs."

She gulped as she calculated silently. It's basically just teleportation, why would it cost almost a hundred thousand energy? She really hoped getting a movement skill wasn't going to be a nightmare. Shaking her head, she moved on to the vitality skills.

[ Disease Immunity ]

Energy Cost: 100

Requires: 100 Vitality

-Diseases and natural defects are no longer effective on self. Consumes vitality when necessary.

[ Poison Immunity ]

Energy Cost: 1,000

Requires: 1,000 Vitality + Disease Immunity

-Enables internal restoration, all harmful substances within the body are purged instantly. Consumes vitality when necessary.

[ Reincarnation ]

Energy Cost: 100,000

Requires: 10,000 Vitality + Disease Immunity + Poison Immunity

-Permanently reduces vitality with each use, depending on the state of the body at the time of death. All stats, abilities and memories are retained in the next life. Reincarnation skill will be disabled if vitality falls below the requirements at any point.

"That's over a million points of energy for grade three, right? Why even show me this, it's clearly far beyond me right now."

Vera giggled, looking a bit embarrassed. "Mhm, well, it's not like I can hide it, but it's all the same. Although it's impossible to change bodies once your stats reach a certain threshold, there is no lack of people who come here to use their own hard-earned energy to give their descendants a bit of a boost. The core shows everything it has, whether or not you can afford it."

Evelyn sighed wistfully. Perhaps all the advantages she was so happy to receive were nothing to some people. "Well, I understand."

Evelyn took a deep breath to shake off her wandering thoughts before moving on. She decided to think of it like just because she entered a shop didn't mean she should be able to afford everything inside. It's good enough if she can afford what she needs.

"I already have the required vitality, so let's just get disease immunity. I don't wanna cry later just in case."

While she did have advanced regeneration, if a disease managed to damage her body faster than her healing could fix it, her death would become a matter of time. It's good if there was medicine to cure it, but if there wasn't then what? Moreover, regeneration consumed vitality, and as long as the disease wasn't removed, she would exhaust her vitality sooner or later.

[ Energy : 980 ]

[ Acquired Disease Immunity ]

[ Energy : 880 ]

As she moved on to the soul abilities her mood lifted a bit. It was the only grade three ability she could get after all.

[ Basic Charm ]

Energy Cost: 1

Requires: 10 Soul

-If attributes match preferences, opponent will feel greater attraction, slightly reducing their combat prowess and lowering their defence against you.

[ Advanced Charm ]

Energy Cost: 10

Requires: 100 Soul + Basic Charm

-If the opponent is not directly repulsed by your attributes, they will feel greater attraction, reducing their combat prowess and lowering their defence and resistance against you.

[ Calamity ]

Energy Cost: 100

Requires: 1,000 Soul + Basic Charm + Advanced Charm

-Enables acquisition of opponent's core ability, requires any type of affection value to reach highest threshold. Bypasses preferences.

Her disappointment from the first two turned into excitement once again.

She hissed in wonder as she looked at the grade three ability's description again just to confirm. "I thought it would be a bit worse considering it's cheaper than the others, but this is not bad at all!"

She nodded her head decisively and started allocating points.

[ Energy : 880 ]

[ Soul +990 ]

[ Energy : 781 ]

[ Acquired Basic Charm ]

[ Energy : 780 ]

[ Acquired Advanced Charm ]

[ Energy : 770 ]

[ Acquired Calamity ]

[ Energy : 670 ]

"Alright, now that I'm done with the primary abilities and the minimum stats I need for them… Let's look at the secondary abilities now."

There were only two abilities available in the secondary skills list, each with three grades. The first was probe, and the second was shield.

[ Basic Probe ]

Energy Cost: 100

Requires: 10 Spirit + 100 Soul

-Allows you to view basic information of an opponent. Not effective if the opponent's spirit power or soul value are higher in total.

[ Advanced Probe ]

Energy Cost: 500

Requires: 100 Spirit + 1,000 Soul + Basic Probe

-Allows you to view basic information and attributes of an opponent. Not effective if the opponent's spirit power or soul value are higher in total.

[ Essence Probe ]

Energy Cost: 1,000

Requires: 1,000 Spirit + 10,000 Soul + Basic Probe + Advanced Probe

-Allows you to view basic information, attributes and description of an opponent. Not effective if the opponent's spirit power or soul value are higher in total.

She decided to get the grade one skill first and raise it on her own later. According to Vera, secondary skills were easier to upgrade so it would be a waste to use too much energy on them anyway.

[ Energy : 670 ]

[ Acquired Basic Probe ]

[ Energy : 570 ]

She moved on to shields next.

[ Minor Shield ]

Energy Cost: 50

Requires: 15 Spirit + 100 Soul

-Become immune to probe as long as your spirit power is not exhausted.

"Alright, this should be it then."

[ Energy : 570 ]

[ Spirit +5 ]

[ Energy : 70 ]

[ Acquired Minor Shield ]

[ Energy : 20 ]

She looked through the next two skills and was happy she didn't ignore any descriptions just because she didn't have enough energy to buy them.

[ Major Shield ]

Energy Cost: 250

Requires: 50 Spirit + 1,000 Soul

-Become immune to probe as long as your spirit power is not exhausted. Protection can be shared with certain individuals within a certain range.

[ Reflective Shield ]

Energy Cost: 1,000

Requires: 100 Spirit + 10,000 Soul

-Upon being probed by an opponent, their own information will be exposed regardless of any shield skills. Not effective when opponent is probing targets with shared shield.

"I was only looking at the descriptions to make it easier to learn on my own later, but thankfully now I also know not to use probe on people who might have grade three shield or I'd just be exposing myself no matter how good my shield is."

Vera laughed as she heard what Evelyn was mumbling to herself, and upon seeing her confused expression, she chuckled again.

"Grade three shield is not some vegetable. Although learning secondary abilities is easier, I think it would be amazing if there are ten people with grade three shield on one planet."

Evelyn nodded in understanding, a little more relieved.

Vera smiled. "Actually, there are countless number of secondary abilities you can get, but unfortunately only these can be directly implanted using energy. For the rest, well, you will have to learn them on your own or acquire them by yourself."

Evelyn nodded, still deep in thought. "I understand."

She still had some twenty energy points left. Not enough for even a single point in 'Vitality' or 'Spirit'.

"I can get either two more physique or put it all into soul…"

Since Vera said all attributes are more or less uniformly enhanced normally as you grow, she decided that a twenty percent increase in soul was better than a two percent increase in physique. Although she already acquired the grade three soul skill, the success rate of probe depended on soul as well, so it was far from useless.

[ Energy : 20 ]

[ Soul +200 ]

[ Energy : 0 ]

Vera smiled. "All done?"

Evelyn looked through her final choices once more to see if she missed anything.

[ Status ]

[ Physique : 100 ]

[ Spirit : 15 ]

[ Vitality : 100 ]

[ Soul : 1200 ]

[ Abilities / Enhancements ]

[ Basic Spatial Manipulation ]

[ Basic Probe ]

[ Minor Shield ]

[ Disease Immunity ]

[ Advanced Regeneration ]

[ Calamity ]

'It seems like the lower grade ability merge once you acquire a higher grade ability of the same type. Of course, I still had to buy the basic ability to buy the advanced version. Everything else looks as it should be, alright.'

"I'm ready."