Chapter 2: 0.2

There were a lot of species to choose from.  If this was the list that had been reduced to due him being human then he was curious about how many there were in total.  Some of the species in the list were familiar, like centaurs, while others he could get at least a vague idea of what they were about from their name, like the arachnus.  He spent a while skimming through the list, occasionally pausing to look at one that caught his interest more than others.  He finally narrowed it down to three options and compared them to the description of humans he had looked at.

Human: A low tier species that grows quickly but evolves slowly.  Evolutions are difficult with many requirements.  Average lifespan: 100 years.  Gain +1 stat point per level, +1 skill point per 5 levels, and +1 stat point per 10 levels.  Gain +10% to experience for class levels and skills.  Traits: Colored Sight, Four-limbed(bipedal), Bidirectional Hearing, Endoskeleton, Improve Destiny.  Cost: 0 points.

Everything except the 'Improve Destiny' trait was pretty self-explanatory and he thought that the species that most video games portray as boring and middle ground was actually pretty strong here.  At least they sounded like a fairly strong race.  He checked on what the trait he didn't know meant before he moved on to look at the other races that had caught his attention the most.

Improve Destiny: A rare trait that both enhances the individual's luck by 10% and makes natural stat gains 10% faster.

That just seemed to make humans even more impressive.  However, he had already spent one life as a human and now that he was here he wanted to try and be something and someone different.  He didn't plan to stray too far from being human but he had no desire to remain human when there were so many more interesting options.

Lynxi: A low tier species that can evolve quickly.  Unlike most species, Lynxi evolve every 50 levels but their evolutions are small.  Average lifespan: 70 years.  Vigor and Mind stats have a -30 adjustment and Magic stats have a -10 adjustment.  Gain +1 stat point every 2 levels.  Traits: Colored Sight, Night Vision, Five-limbed(Balancing Tail), Omnidirectional Hearing, Endoskeleton, Predatory Instinct.  Cost: -40 points.

The most notable thing about this species was the negative point cost which he took to mean that he would gain 40 points.  He wasn't really a cat person, though, so he probably wouldn't end up choosing to be a lynxi, but he thought it was interesting and he was keeping it as a fallback choice in case he found a lot of things he wanted to spend points on more than his species.

Cambion: A half-breed species of mortal and demon origins.  Like other half-breed species, this species has two species in the race slot that provide minor variations of their traits to the individual.  Cambions are slow to level and improve on average but have strong evolutions.  Dexterity and Magic stats have a +10 adjustment.  Gain +1 stat point every 5 levels.  Racial slots can provide additional bonuses.  Traits: Night Vision, Demon Blood, Dark Magic Affinity.  Cost: 30 points. (Additional costs may be applied according to race.)

Nephilim: A half-breed species of mortal and angel origins.  Like other half-breed species, this species has two species in the race slot that provide minor variations of their traits to the individual.  Nephilim are slow to level and improve on average but have strong evolutions.  Vigor and Mind stats have a +10 adjustment.  Gain +1 stat point every 5 levels.  Racial slots can provide additional bonuses.  Traits: Farsight, Angel Blood, Holy Magic Affinity.  Cost: 30 points.  (Additional costs may be applied according to race.)

Both of these looked like they would be great when you count that it was basically adding two species together as well.  They were pretty expensive but if the price was telling anything it would be on how strong these species were.  There was always a risk that picking one would end up being a huge mistake but it was a small gamble at best.  He checked on some of the traits he didn't fully understand before he did anything else.

Demon Blood: Has the unholy blood of demons in the individual's veins.  Gain a 50% reduction to fear effects and curses.  Curses the individual uses are 25% stronger.  Gain the ability: Unholy Intimidation.  Gain a permanent passive aura of demonic origin.
   Unholy Intimidation: Release a wave of darkness with a radius of meters equivalent to level.  Anything the darkness touches receives a fear effect of strength equivalent to Power times 3 and lasting for a duration of seconds equivalent to Power.  Opposing Force can reduce or negate the strength of the fear effect and opposing Will can reduce the length of time.  If the fear is not negated it will last a minimum time of 1.5 seconds.

Dark Magic Affinity: Gain a +10% increase to experience for Dark Magic Skills.
   Dark Magic: Magic focused on using darkness, debuffs, and curses.

Angel Blood: Has the holy blood of angels in the individual's veins.  Gain 33% increase to healing effects received and 25% increase to healing effects used.  (These bonuses do not stack.  A healing effect used on the individual's self will only receive the 33% increase.)  Buffing effects used or received gain a 15% increase.  (These bonuses do not stack.)  Gain a permanent passive aura of angelic origin.

He skipped over the holy magic since it seemed fairly obvious what it would say.  He considered putting the choices on hold until he looked through everything else in his status to choose but since he was already looking here he decided to be a little impulsive and selected Nephilim.  A new window appeared for him to choose the two species for his race slots almost immediately.  He skimmed through the list and found that there were a decent number of species he remembered seeing in his original list in addition to a whole bunch of new ones.  One particular mortal race caught his eye.

Etherai: A once high-tier race based on generations of a universes mixed breeding between humans and elves.  After the entire race banded together in an attempt to overthrow the gods and subvert the system, nearly resulting in the destruction of multiple universes, they were severely punished.  Now, thousands of years later, they are known as a rare race in the low to middle tiers.  They are almost physically identical to half-elves.  Average lifespan: 300 years.  Magic stats have a +10 adjustment.  Mana Regeneration gains a +100% bonus.  Gains +1 skill point every 5 levels that must be used on a racial skill and +1 stat point every 5 levels that must be used on either Mind or Magic stats.  Gains the Meditation skill as a racial skill.  Gains the racial abilities Mana Burst and Enduring Mana.  Traits: Colored Sight, Four-limbed(bipedal), Bidirectional Hearing, Endoskeleton.  Cost: 10 points.  (As a half-breed race, all numbers shown other than rate of gain are divided by 2.)

Meditation: A method of rest and relaxation.  Some species use meditation instead of sleep and some few others require being in a state meditation to be considered in a resting state.  As a skill, Meditation focuses on Mana Regeneration while resting. +1% Mana Regeneration per skill level.

Mana Burst: Use mana to inflate the power of something at a rate of 5 to 1.  Example 1: 5 mana to increase strength by 1.  Example 2: 5 mana to increase damage of heat ray by 1.

Enduring Mana: Refill your mana using your stamina at a rate of 4 to 1.

The little note at the end of the species description was a little confusing at first.  After some thought and rereading everything he took it to mean that parts where it said "every 5 levels" was being excluded from the division.  However, as he looked at it once more, that meant that the cost was also cut in half and made the species only cost 5 points.  That made this a really strong mortal half since the initial cost was likely for the racial abilities and skill, which didn't get affected as far as he could tell.  Unfortunately, as he searched through all of the angel half options, nothing really seemed like something that he wanted to be.  He thought for a moment and then decided to try and back out to the original species choices and hope that he could choose Cambion instead.  If it didn't work then he would just have to look through the angel list carefully and pick the best choice he could find.

It took a little bit to figure out how to back up to the original species choices but he eventually managed to do it by closing the windows as if he were closing the status.  He double checked that he could choose be a cambion now and then closed the window without choosing.  He was already fairly certain about it and he didn't want to get too far into choosing the demon half until he had at least looked at the rest of his options for spending points.

It looked like he couldn't do anything with role or class yet so he moved on to the traits.  The list was even larger than the species list, as much as that boggled his mind.  At this point it seemed like checking on the skills list was more of an intimidating idea.  As he was kind of skimming through the traits he came across something that made him pause and think for a moment.

Angel Blood.  Cost: 10 points.

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That made him think that maybe he could get both bloods.  That being the case, he had to wonder if there were other blood traits.  The two he had seen seemed pretty good and if there were others that were just as good then they might be worth trying to get.  He kind of wished there was a search function to look through...oh...apparently there was.  He searched for the blood skills and ignored the ones that obviously weren't what he was looking for like Thick Blooded.  It wasn't long before he had an interesting list in front of him.

Angel Blood.  Cost: 10 points.
Demon Blood.  Cost: 10 points.
Devil Blood.  Cost: 20 points.
Dragon Blood.  Cost: 12 points.
Elemental Blood.  Cost: 8 points.
Fae Blood.  Cost: 12 points.
God Blood.  Cost: 20 points.
Immortal Blood.  Cost: 5 points.
Lycanthrope Blood.  Cost: 8 points.
Noble Blood.  Cost: 3 points.
Nocturne Blood.  Cost: 10 points.

He read through them each and then decided that several of them weren't worth considering in comparison to the others.  Devil Blood and God Blood were just too expensive and didn't seem like they gave enough benefits to be worthwhile.  Maybe there was some hidden parts, which seemed quite likely based on how the descriptions of many things had gone so far, but his points were limited.  Immortal Blood and Noble Blood turned out to be downright disappointments.  They were almost closer to being titles with few if any benefits since all they did was exist for people who had ways of seeing traits or blood type or whatever to be able to say "this guy has someone important as an ancestor".  

Lycanthrope Blood and Nocturne Blood were interesting in that they proved that werewolves and vampires were a thing as well as giving out some nice enough bonuses to be considered at first.  Nocturne Blood especially had bonuses that were probably even better than Angel Blood or Demon Blood if looked at objectively.  Both provided some good resistances and immunities to diseases and illnesses along with a few other things, too.  However, they both had some pretty massive weaknesses in them, like daylight and silver, that he didn't want to have to deal with.

Fae Blood he was keeping on his list because it provided some really good bonuses and helped against mental attacks, even though it also had some pretty big weaknesses against magical metals and fire.  Elemental Blood was staying for a similar reason.  It had no real outright weaknesses other than having to have the trait per element.  Otherwise being better both with and against certain elements while also being able to have some innate control over them was actually pretty good.  The real gem out of all of these traits, though, was the Dragon Blood trait.

Dragon Blood: Has the mighty blood of dragons in the individual's veins.  Has a 5% increase in experience to magic related skills.  Hostile or unwanted magical effects, including attacks and healing, are reduced by 20%.  All stats gain +2%.  Gain the ability: Draconic Might.  Gain a permanent passive aura of draconic origin.  Cost: 12 points.
   Draconic Might: Upon use the individual's stamina and mana are reduced to 1 and for (level times 2) seconds they have infinite mana and stamina but cannot regenerate either.  When the duration ends, the individual's stamina regeneration and mana regeneration are are reduced to 10% for (level divided by 2) days during which time this ability cannot be used again.

Through various descriptions the system had already mentioned and hinted at level 100 being reachable and that there was more beyond that.  Simple calculations of his current stats and how species gained stat points said that he could easily bring a stat up to 200 by level 100 while having the rest of his stats at least close to if not over 100 as well.  That meant that the 2% bonus to stats was small but worth something and if he ever started being able to bring his stats even higher then that bonus would continue to scale with it as well.  The way he saw it was that the stat boost was for help in the future, the experience boost was for help early on, and the rest was just brokenly amazing, especially that ability.

No matter what, he really wanted to get that trait.  He already had the 35 points mentally set aside for his species and there would likely be a cost to get the second race slot filled with a good demon species so he was already at a total deficit in points.  He also really wanted to get Angel Blood and Elemental Blood which left him with the conclusion that it was about time he figured out which memories he wanted to sell.  It was kind of sad that the only other way he knew of to get some extra points was to sell his body parts.  If there were negative traits then he could have considered...

Apparently the search function was more interactive with is thoughts than he realized.  A list of negative traits was now displayed in front of him.  He started skimming through them when he had a thought.  Technically, Demon Blood was supposed to reduce fear effects so if he chose some outlandish or minor fears then maybe it would apply there as well.  It was a bit of a gamble but could definitely be worth the try.  For a moment he considered moving on to the skills section, however he was fairly certain that even if skills were difficult to get that eventually he would be earning enough skill points to get what he wanted later.  Right now he wanted to try and make his new self be better and more ready for the future.

With that line of thought he scrolled through the list and ended up getting the three new phobia traits of Glossophobia, Nosocomephobia, and Trypanophobia(minor).  None of them were worth much individually and totaled only 7 points but that was enough to get the two blood traits and his species minus the demon race.  Depending on how much the demon race cost would indicate how many memories he would need to sell.  He went back to his species choices and quickly chose cambion and etherai before looking through his demon choices.

It didn't take very long to find something that felt just right.  It was a high cost one, unfortunately, but it just seemed to fit.

Blood Demon: Formed from cursed blood, blood demons evolved into their own species eventually.  They often appear as some kind of mix of species from which their blood was originally formed.  Blood demons are slow to level.  Average lifespan: immortal.  Has a -10% adjustment to character level experience gained.  Dexterity stats gain +3 and Magic stats gain +2.  Gains +1 stat point every three levels that cannot be used on Vigor stats.  Gains +1 skill point every 6 levels that must be used on a racial skill.  Gains +1 stat point and +1 skill point every 13 levels.  Gains the skills Blood Magic, Minor Regeneration, and Detect Life as racial skills.  Blood Magic is treated as if all prerequisites for the skill have been met, other than the prerequisites to use magic itself.  Gains the Blood Manipulation ability.  Traits: Demon Blood, Dark Magic Affinity, Blood Magic Affinity, Blindsight(ground sense, hearing, water)(5 meters), Bloodhound, Carnivorous, Blood Domain, Curse Absorbent(blood).  Cost: 50 points.  (As a half-breed race, all numbers shown other than rate of gain are divided by 2.)(Crossed out traits are once that an individual can only have one of and already has.)

Blood Magic: Magic based on the manipulation and usage of blood.  It draws many parallels with water magic and dark magic making some believe that this rare magic is merely a combination of the two.  Although it is considered a rare magic, many rulers have outlawed it.

Minor Regeneration: Physical injuries heal 100%+(5% per level) faster.  All physical injuries can heal, including loss of body parts.

Detect Life: An adjustable passive skill that allows an individual to use their senses to determine if something living is nearby.

Blood Manipulation: A rare ability that allows an individual control blood mentally using mana.  Will and Force will hinder this ability if used on the blood inside of a living being.  Manipulative ability is based one the average of Spirit, Wisdom, and Finesse stats.  Range is equivalent to 1% of Spirit in meters.  Most other factors of the manipulated blood are determined by the Power stat.

Bloodhound: Able to see, spot, smell, and otherwise sense blood almost instinctively.

Carnivorous: This trait is similar to the trait Carnivore, but allows the ingestion and digestion of plant matter as well.

Blood Domain: A trait unique to blood demons.  As beings made of blood, they are 75% resistant to opposing blood magic and immune to opposing blood manipulation.  When dealing with fresh blood, relevant stats are considered 25% higher.  Fresh and warm blood, when ingested, acts like a minor regeneration potion of health, mana, and stamina.

Curse Absorbent: The individual can store a certain amount of curses in the relevant body part.  The stored curse can then be transferred or used.  Amount able to be stored is based on the body part volume.

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