{Would you like to spend 82.600 points, 9 special points and 3 golden points to have Martial arts (Common) be raised to Transcendent level of proficiency?}
Before selecting yes, Aki looked through his selection of talents for the Pinnacle level. To his surprise, there was something he wanted even more than kicks that had an invisible extension and kicks that eluded his enemies, but it was not immediatly available, he needed a weapon skill to get it, so he had to instead go buy another skill first.
{Would you like to spend 109.000 points, 15 special points and 3 golden points to have Swordplay - one handed (Common) be raised to Transcendent level of proficiency?}
Saying yes to the prompt and taking on the most sinergetic option for talents he could access, Aki then accepted the previous prompt, which ended improving both his STR and DEX to B rank. He was rather surprised it got there, but he wasn't so sure if his skills actually affected the extent his body could improve, nor what his latest adventure would cause on his body.
Although his vampire body was still the same skill according to it's name, which the system refused to give a complete description of, his ears were now more pointy and his body a better conductor to magic, meaning it did change despite the title remaining the same, the pain that came with the change the only thing really indicating anything, there wasn't even a system notification beside [You have consumed the essence of a powerful bloodline!] and then something about the amount of energy and vitality he'd regenerate were he not capped.
He'd also reached 1,9 meters in height, but the reason as to why was obvious after looking at his girlfriend's new form. Hopefully he'd not need to mutilate his ears on Earth so he could keep looking human.
On that same note however, he was also quite curious why no one seemed to have thought about safeguarding High elf's sexual fluid like the rest of their essence. Sure, it would make them sterile before choosing a gender, which generally took five hundred to two thousand years, and the species was pretty bad at reproducing one way or another, but it'd hardly make a difference since there were already ways to force blood and marrow to transfer the necessary essence, though said methods killed the elf, so the same not counting for intercourse was a bit of a gigantic flaw in design for the 'monopoly' reasons.
Sure, it took a ton of mana to properly please them, nevermind he even had his fingers....
{You have a new message!}
"Oh right, the rest of the payment." He remembered, being thrown away from his thoughts on his girlfriend. Again. He'd only spent about five minutes unconscious and then went to take a cold shower, upgrading his skills while the water woke him up.
Aki had honestly expected to come off a bit strong considering his constitution, nevermind that high elf meat had taken the spot of his favourite food with the amount of perfectly combined fruity tastes it released, but no, turns out he wasn't the only repressed nerd.
[Queen: Waited a bit to send your payment since i wanted to send it all in one message, but here's the promised amount. I do a small party after every sucessfull dungeon clear, only some close friends and associates though, and you are invited. Can't wait.
Annex: 70.000 Points. *Video.}
The second part got him by surprise, but he wasn't completly against some socialising and...
"NOPE! Never working with her again either!" He immediately shouted, closing the video he'd opened thinking it to be some kind of instruction manual or the like. If possible he'd have burned the thing till there were not even ashes, but the maximun he could do was delete it from his historic.
Honestly, Aki had been aware that the woman had been having fun with the elves while he spent quality time discussing theorems on existence itself and calm lunches, but the images in front of him made him want to kill the woman with a giant cross and bludgeon her into paste, the only way he could think off that would not have him fell groosed out. He didn't actually have anything against her being part of a group effort, no, but did they need to include animals and narcotics to the whole thing as well?! Why the fuck would you want a tiger to do that?!
He felt quite compeled to hunt her down and kill the woman then and there, consequences be danmed, but the thought went away quickly after he took some deep breaths and he instead politely told her he'd be refusing the invitation, to call if she had any more business only.
Maybe his thoughts on muslins and middle easterns were completly wrong, he'd admit to that possibility any time of the day because of various examples, but rich people were most definetly still fucked up idiots. Taking down terrorists with his own hands seemed that much more like a good idea for money, fuck psicology, how am i to just let these kinds of people do what they want with money that could be used for things that actually matter?
He didn't know what kind of coin she'd used or even her nationality, but the seventy thousand he'd just made were worth around 350.000 dollars. The game followed most of the world's economic exchange too, meaning that this was it's one basic demomination. Euros, pesos, reais, yuans, yen, ruppes and whatever minor coinage you could think of were all options, all under a common denomination that made them worth basically the same despite rates on the real world, making it so points were the best currency for players no matter where they went.
The system would not accept outside money for points, and another of it's well known restrictions was to never try to break economies, but that didn't stop player that were already rich, nor did it stop someone from buying points from other players.
You could buy millions worth of things in auctions or whatever, but if you tried to push a country up with money from the system, something bad would happen to said country, then your points would be seized up. There was no second warning. Being a player was already something great, what did you need the system's help to raise a small country from poverty or become the CEO of the biggest coorporation?
Due to such limitations though, there was also no problem in ussing the system card however, because technomancy was certainly involved in whatever fuckery made people not pay attention to the completly black card that worked on basically everything. Hell, with the rise of apps that allowed for ussing your phone instead, you could even access the card like that if you were ussing your device on a compatible machine instead of simply summoning the thing from the void.
He never intended to do anything of the like though, it was clearly a trap from the system. He wasn't even part of the intended target anyway, there were people in his life that would question him bringing out several thousands out of the blue even if he hipnotised them unless he stopped after a few times only.
After getting over his mussings, Aki had already decided a lot of things, specialy after acquiring the spatial ring from the king, the ten cubic meters that did not add to his weight were immensily useful for his grownth.
He could not use money to upgrade his hipnosys skill anymore thanks to the several synergies that'd made it mutate on a even more effective skill, but he could still have his spirit attribute reach Z rank, which should massively increase it's effectiveness in the real world. After that was done, he'd convince his parents he was going on a trip to find himself and they should not be worried even if he never sent pictures. He just needed to purge the ones that openly created discord, even that would help with creating a more peacefull world enviroment, specially if bombings were not necessary anymore.
There were only five dungeons before he could see his girlfriend too, so that ment he didn't exactly have much allowance when it came to training his body either. Thanks to his new skill they'd be able to talk through short messages as long as he had enough energy, or at least it was so from his side. It was mostly a feeling really, nothing like the system actually explaining how the legendary skill worked.
He'd do his best to have her meet his parent's but it'd honestly be hard even to him, and he'd literally figured godhood on his own.
Going through the rest of his loot, Aki was heavily disappointed however. A rare skill book for using heavy armor, a towershield that could partially reflect attacks up to a certain point, a knife that did not make any sound when thrust, a pair of boots that could not actually rise his mana conductivity due to his bloodline being better.... Most of the equipment came from the king's personal inventory, and it was full of potions and antidotes, which was good considering they were of better quality than what he usually bought, but the pile of documents for example would only be gathering dust on his lobby to open up space, while he'd be melting most of the non-magical jewelry and coins for gold to use in other dungeons.
Ultimately however, even if he kept a couple of rings for strong rank attacks and defenses here and there, the rest was completely useless even if he could see the value of some redundancy in his arsenal. There was a rare sword that was as sharp as his legendary+, but it's durability was worse and he could already cast magical slashes with almost no effort, nevermind imbuing elemental effects in it.
To be fair though, the man was unlikely to keep all the good things on himself too, spreading it all through his capable followers, who must've either been in a mission or in another part of the battlefield, because he fucking doubted kings wouldn't look for things like 'boots of double jump', 'Invisible sword', 'knives that come back'... No way he wouldn't be finding those things until much later, right?
He should probably put an order on the auction house or just go look at the more expensive section already. After all, all these rare items and useful uncommons should net him a pretty sum of money, nevermind that he was now someone with two legendary items, though the ring barely qualified thanks to having no cost besides the energy upkeep.
Reaching said auction house, however, had him spitting blood from dread. He found each and every thing he'd previously said, nevermind that there were even cars that turned into giant robots, a stick that could summon random monsters, magical guns and ridiculous ammo to go with...
Instead of trying for any of that, he just silently bought an uncommon skill book and left his stuff to sell, plenty of the rare items making it through to the auction too, which was still six days away. He'd go to sleep after this, but there were still two days away from his dungeon cooldown reset for single player, so he'd try and look for something else to do while while waiting for the points to come in.
*****
ID: Aki
Level: 2
Sp: 39
Gp: 34
Points: 156.400
Hp 207/207
Mp 240/240
STR: 72 (B)
DEX: 71 (B)
VIT: 78 (B+)
PER: 65 (C+)
INT: 85 (A-)
SPR: 101 (S)
Skills:
Spiritual corruption (Rare) INT\SPR
Intimidating presence (Rare) INT\SPR\VIT
Hexagonal element balance (Rare) ALL
Body of the abyssal vampire king (Rare) STR\DEX\VIT\PER
Contracted spirit (Legendary) N
Stealth: Master (Common) DEX\PER
Knife work: Apprentice (Common) DEX
Light firearms: Apprentice (Common) DEX\PER
Heavy firearms: Journeyman (Common)
DEX\STR
Light sleeping: Beginner (Common) PER
Spirit detection: Journeyman (Uncommon) PER\SPR
First aid: Senior (Common) VIT
Medical knowledge-humanoid: Journeyman (Rare) VIT\ INT
Spirit healing: Apprentice (Rare) SPR\VIT\INT
Martial arts: Transcendent (Common) STR\DEX\VIT
Spirit slash: Journeyman (Uncommon) SPR\DEX
Spirit strike: Apprentice (Uncommon) SPR\STR
Mystical knowledge-spirit: Pro (Uncommon) INT\SPR
Bargaining: Journeyman (Common) INT
Meditation: Transcendent (Common) SPR
Spirit reinforcement: Apprentice (Rare) SPR\STR\VIT\INT
Dodging: Transcendent (Common) DEX\PER
Combat throw: Beginner (Common) DEX\STR
Energy transfer: Master (Uncommon) INT\SPR
Ego's brilliance: Apprentice (Rare) INT\SPR\VIT
Inspiring shout: Journeyman (Uncommon) VIT\SPR
Swordplay-one handed: Transcendent (Common) DEX\STR
Life drain: Journeyman (Uncommon) INT\VIT
Interrogation: Beginner (Common) DEX\PER
Singing: Apprentice (Common) DEX
Spell song proficiency: Journeyman (Uncommon) DEX\SPR
Celestial umbra: Apprentice (Rare) DEX\SPR\INT
Assassination tools: Journeyman (Uncommon) DEX\INT
Dancing: Transcendent (Common) DEX\PER
Reverberation of silence: Journeyman (Rare) SPR\PER\INT
Gravitas: Journeyman (Rare) SPR\STR\INT
Cessa verunt: Journeyman (Rare) SPR\VIT\INT
Blood sucking: Beginner (Uncommon) VIT\DEX
Royal light spirit's eyes: Beginner (Epic) VIT\PER\INT\SPR
Tiers: Beginner-Apprentice-Journeyman-Senior-Pro-Master-Grand master-Pinnacle-Transcendent
Descriptions:
[Light firearms: Apprentice - You know how to better utilise side arms, handguns, light machineguns and such better. When reloading with a light firearm, your dexterity is bumped one rank higher.]
[Stealth: Master - You mastered how to be undetectable to most means of perception.
1. While in stealth any undetected attacks will temporarily stun the target and have them make less noise.
2. Attacks against weak points gain a 1.5 times damage multiplier.]
[Heavy firearms: Journeyman - You know how to better utilise sniper rifles, miniguns, RPGs and the like. When aiming with a heavy firearm, your dexterity is bumped one rank higher.]
[Knife work: Apprentice - You know how to better utilise knifes and small daggers. When you cut an enemy with a small blade, they will bleed 10% (30%* if humanoid) more] (Bonus affected by knowledge skill.)
[Medical knowledge-humanoid: Journeyman - You studied how to better treat all sorts of maladies and understands the body of people. Your patient's vitality is bumped one rank higher while being treated.]
[First aid: Journeyman - You know how to apply your medical knowledge on the field.
1. Your dexterity is raised by one rank when treating recent injuries.]
[Spirit detection: Journeyman - You can use your spiritual energy to understand your surroundings.
1. Your spiritual energy can now narrowly perceive spiritual beings and related energies.]
[Martial arts: Transcendent - You are a transcendental weapon.
1. Your kicking attacks gain a three rank bump in strength and agility.
2. Successive kicks after the first one will accumulate force, and add +1, +2, +3 and +4 to the speed of the attack during the second, third, fourth and fifth kick.
3. Your legs also count as high grade weapons depending on how you use them and your body's attributes.]
[Meditation: Transcendent - You are yourself.
1. You recover a great amount more quickly while meditating.
2. You may enter meditative states much more easily.
3. Your resources regeneration is further multiplied by a factor of 2.5 while meditating.]
[Spirit strike: Apprentice - You can launch your spiritual energy out of your body when dealing a strike to cause a feeble rank attack. Your spiritual energy can be launched a meter further.]
[Mystical knowledge-spirit: Pro - You studied your own and other's spirits through your own skills and figure out how to change the physical realm with spiritual energy.
1. Your spirit receives a one rank bump in any check.
2. You derivate knowledge related to the mystic slightly more easily.]
[Dodging: Transcendent - You have transcended the art of eluding attacks.
1. You receive a three rank bump in perception and dexterity as you dodge attacks.
2. You are almost certain to sense unseen attacks.
3. Once a day, when you are about to be killed, your perception and dexterity receive a three rank bump.]
[Energy transfer: Master - You mastered how to transfer energy from and to yourself.
1. Conversion of different types of energy becomes easier.
2. Conversion of energy from different owners becomes slightly easier.]
[Ego's brilliance: Apprentice - Show all your light and purify that which denies you.
1.Your light blinds the spirit as well. Those targeted by it suffer spirit checks of SPR -3 ranks.]
[Spirit reinforcement: Apprentice - Temporarily use energy to reinforce an object or part of it.
1. Reinforced objects also become slightly more resistant to the elements.]
[Singing: Apprentice - You know how to use your voice to perform melodies.
1. When singing your dexterity will receive a one rank bump.]
[Spell song proficiency: Journeyman - You know how to weave spell and effects into your voice.
1. Spells cast through song cost slightly less.]
[Celestial umbra: Apprentice - The darkness shrouding great light and forming before dawn.
1. You may choose to restrain the dexterity or spirit of someone within your umbra by one rank.]
[Bargaining: Journeyman - You know how to drive a bargain. What you suggest seems slightly more agreeable when in a transaction.]
[Life steal: Apprentice - Drain others of their life force to power your spells.
1. Your draining touch makes it so your targets suffer in controlling their own life energy. Vitality of target treated as one rank lower when draining.]
[Dancing: Transcendent - Your dance has transcended.
1. When dancing, +4 to dexterity.
2. When dancing your movements attract attention to your movements and will be distracted by it if they don't pass a mental check with the difficulty determined by the sum of half your spirit score and half your charisma score.
3. Your movements consume a flat 15% less stamina.]
[Swordplay-one handed: Transcendent - You transcended through the use of one handed swords.
1. When fighting with a sword 75% (100% if humanoid) added damage.
2. When fighting with a sword, it is much easier to enter a meditative state.
3 Fighting with swords reduces stamina consumption between 15 to 30 percent depending on exertion.]
[Assassination tools: Journeyman - You know how to use hidden tools to better kill.
1. Opponents trying to identify you will suffer a -1 debuff to their perception.]
[Reverberation of silence: Apprentice - Transmission through waves, impossible speed and complete silence.
1. You are slightly more sensitive to vibrations.]
[Gravitas: Apprentice - Heaviness, mass and accumulation.
1. Your own mass slightly increases the power of the skill's effects.]
[Cessa verunt: Apprentice - Waves crashing and reverberations, stillness and calm.
1. Your attacks of suitable elements receive a +1 to chilling damage.]
[Royal light spirit's eyes: Beginner - Use your eyes to peer and elude the spirit of others.
1. ]
[Spirit healing: Apprentice - Your energy is able to bring back what once was through your understanding.
1. Your energy influences other entities slightly more easily.]