14. System Preferences

As soon as Callie dismissed the window listing her new Skill Books, 5 books appeared in the world around Callie, falling on her body in quick succession.

The initial pain of being slammed by heavy books quickly faded as a familiar burning sensation began to spread inside Callie's body from wherever the Skill Books had touched her. Callie immediately began to scream and cry, even as the Skill Books disappeared, leaving empty air around her and burning lava inside her.

Her mother came running into the room, her eyes wide. Callie paid her no mind as she continued to scream, her little limbs flailing as the burning sensation spread and intensified.

It was so much worse than the last time. Apparently the pain went up exponentially with each Skill Book. Callie honestly wished she hadn't had the opportunity to find that tidbit of information out. Even with her curious nature, this was one experiment she hadn't planned on undertaking. Certainly not as a newborn, anyway!

The pain seemed to last longer this time, burning through her tiny body until Callie was surprised she didn't dissolve into ashes in her bassinet.

Her mother had tried to lift and soothe her, but whenever her hands had touched Callie's oversensitive, little body, Callie had only screamed harder. She quickly decided to give up on lifting the baby, and instead took to whispering sweet nonsense.

That was the first thing Callie noticed as the pain slowly stopped. The soothing sounds of her mother's voice made her feel safe and inexplicably calm. The more she listened, the more her heart and body slowed their agitated movements.

Callie allowed the sweet sound to lull her to sleep. However, as her consciousness faded, Callie thought to herself that she was kind of a troublesome baby...

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When next Callie woke, it was to another changing and feeding. Callie didn't care for the experience, but she also tried to be as accommodating to her mother as she could be.

Callie felt kind of guilty, honestly. She knew she hadn't been an easy baby so far. She could only imagine how much trouble she was going to give this poor lady later, what with her system upgrade, skills, and everything else that would put her at odds with the nobility of this planet.

She looked at the stressed-looking expression on her mother's face, and pangs of conscience kept assaulting her.

What had this lady done to deserve to have Callie as her daughter?

Deciding there was nothing she could do about that except try to be the best daughter she could, Callie finally turned to her System Status screen. After all, this problem she knew she could take care of!

--New Trait Acquired: Quick Learner--

--Pain Resistance Leveled Up--

--Pain Resistance Has Maxed Level! Upgrade This Skill Now? Y/N--

--New Skill Acquired: Healing Lv. 1--

--New Spell Acquired: Heal Self Lv. 1--

--New Spell Acquired: Heal Lv. 1--

--New Ability Acquired: Stealth Lv. 1--

--New Skill Acquired: Steal Lv. 1--

--New Ability Acquired: Study Lv. 1--

--New Skill Acquired: Flight Lv. 1--

--New Spell Acquired: Fly Lv. 1--

--------Stats--------

Name: Caliope (Callie) Griever

Level: 2

Exp: 0/40 (+30)

Race: Human

Life Stage: Newborn

Cultivation Level: 0 (Locked)

Magic Level: 0 (Locked)

Health: 430/430

Mana: 0/0

Recovery: 1400

Stamina: 15

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Agility: 16 (8)

Intelligence: 40

Wisdom: 25

Willpower: 25

Endurance: 35

Control: 25

Charisma: 60 (15)

Perception: 20

Luck: 150 (15)

Faith: 10

Skills: Reading Lv. MAX; Analysis Lv. 2; Necromancy Lv. 1; Healing Lv. 1 (See Details); Steal Lv. 1 (See Details); Flight Lv. 1 (See Details)

Abilities: Fear Resistance Lv. 2; Sleep Resistance Lv. 4; Mental Resistance Lv. 2; Pain Resistance Lv. MAX; Stealth Lv. 1 (See Details); Study Lv. 1 (See Details)

Professions: N/A

Traits: UNKNOWN ERROR DETECTED; Curiosity; Necromantic Legacy; Fear of the Undead; Quick Learner (See Details); Cute (See Details)

Blessings: UNKNOWN (Error Detected); UNKNOWN ERROR DETECTED; Goddess of Sacrifice; Goddess of Luck; God of Power; Gray the Lich

Curses: God of Cruelty

Titles: N/A (Locked)

Stat Points: 9,950 (+25)

Skill Points: 52,156

System Points: 15 (+12)

Mission Points: 4

Building Points: 0

Gold: 110 (+110)

Karma Points: 215,866

Divinity Points: 14,528

Universal Points: 2

Ally System (Locked)

Past Life Reward System: 10 Past Lives Rewarded

'System, what happened? Why did I get assaulted by all of those Skill Books?' Callie tried to hold in her anger, but even her mental voice shook from the strain of it.

--System Opened All Items Once Host Dismissed the Window--

Callie rolled her eyes. 'Okay, well, that was stupid. Do you know how bad it hurts to process 5 Skill Books at once?'

--Host Initiated System Preference to Automatically Open All Items Once View Items is Confirmed and Window is Dismissed--

Callie blushed. 'Wait, you mean...you did that because of what I said?'

--Affirmative--

All of Callie's anger whooshed out of her, only to be replaced with acute embarrassment. 'Well, System, I'm sorry that I complain so much! Can you reverse that System Preference and ask me next time, please?'

--System Preferences: Saved--

'Alright, well, can I See Details, please.'

--Healing Lv. 1--

Through the rewards of your first mission, you have acquired the Healing Skill! Use the associated Spells on yourself and others to level this Skill to its full potential! Spell: Heal Self acquired! Spell: Heal acquired! +5% Health for every second of Healing used!

--Steal Lv. 1--

Through the rewards of your first mission and the blessing you have received from the Goddess of Luck, you have acquired the Steal Skill! The more valuable the things you steal, the better this skill will become! x2 Agility stat! +5% chance of going undetected when stealing.

--Flight Lv. 1--

Through the rewards of your first mission and the blessing you have received from the Goddess of Luck, you have acquired the Flight Skill! Longer flights without breaks will reward the most experience! Spell: Fly acquired! x2 Agility stat when flying! +5% Endurance stat for every minute flying (deactivates on landing)!

--Stealth Lv. 1--

Through the rewards of your first mission and the blessing you have received from the Goddess of Luck, you have acquired the Stealth Skill! This skill is best leveled when you go undetected by people within 20 ft. of you. +5% harder to detect! +20% Agility stat when you are undetected!

--Study Lv. 1--

Your Newborn Starter Package awarded you with the Study Skill! Studying anything new is the quickest way to grow this skill! x2 Intelligence stat when studying! +5% reading speed when studying!

--Quick Learner--

Your Newborn Starter Package came with the Quick Learner Trait! +50% skill learning boost!

--Cute--

Your Human Starter Package came with the Cute Trait! +25% chance of favorable first impressions. +50% chance of protection.

Callie couldn't stop smiling now. What a great haul! She couldn't see herself using the Steal skill at all, but otherwise, her new skills were really great! And the traits! Those provided great boosts! Too bad Quick Learner didn't apply to level experience, too, but Callie was satisfied none the less.

Callie's eyes now wandered down her screen, inspecting. Those 15 System Points looked mighty nice. There were so many things Callie wanted to unlock...

Honestly, it was hard to choose!

She definitely knew she wanted to unlock the System Store, which only cost 2 System Points. That left 13 System Points to spend.

Or she could save. Some of those bigger items were really fantastic looking! However, if she leveled up her Mission Level, she'd probably see bigger rewards anyway. Was it really smarter to save when bonuses like those Starter Packages were waiting behind these locked items?

Well, if she was going to spend, her choices were the Karma Store, Titles, Cultivation, Magic, Daily Mission 1, Gacha Game, Lottery, or, finally, the Sell Option for the Store. She could also get Inventory Level 2, but she didn't have anywhere near enough stuff yet to make that worthwhile.

The Karma Store was pretty tempting. After all, she had a LOT of Karma Points to spend.

But then there were the Titles. Callie was really, really looking forward to earning Titles, and she had a feeling she might be able to find out more requirements if she unlocked it.

And then there was both Cultivation and Magic. She could buy them both if she wanted. That way she might get a head start in cultivating her soul and accessing all those magic spells she'd already acquired. Cultivation sounded a little mysterious to Callie, but Magic...Magic got Callie excited enough to shake her whole bassinet! Callie had spent her entire life back on Earth dreaming of having magic and using spells! And now, those dreams were right there, at her fingertips!

The Daily Missions kinda scared her, still. Ever since Callie read about the supposed penalties, she was really afraid to unlock it. But the rewards sounded pretty tempting, and Daily Missions also seemed to be the best way to steadily grow in strength and power, especially so in her current lifestage...as long as the missions weren't something she couldn't do as a baby. Who knew if the thing took her level or lifestage into account when assigning Daily Missions?

Callie wasn't really sure what a Gacha Game would even be. It sounded like some game her students played, but she couldn't recall any of their games being worthwhile enough to warrant spending System Points on.

The Lottery sounded tempting, though! A chance at winning gold sounded like a real win for Callie, since she had so little right now. But...what if she spent the points and never won anything at all? Having so few System Points, it didn't seem a good idea to gamble with them right now.

Finally, the Sell option for the System Store. Well, this one would no doubt come in handy for making that gold she was so low on, but Callie couldn't think of anything she could sell as a baby. Her toys? She hadn't even seen any of those. Maybe her family was too poor. In any case, this would be important to Callie at some point, but right now she was just too young to utilize this feature enough to warrant the expense.

There were just too many options! Callie just wanted to go ahead and buy them all!