The first thing that Seb did after he was done 'simulating' sleep was to assign his stat points.
After some thinking, he realized that it was best to go for a balanced build in the early stages.
This was reality and not a game. It would be better to be a jack of all trades and master of none, rather than a one-trick pony full of loopholes to be taken advantage of.
However, it was also important to focus on the traits that he had a natural advantage in, thus the following distribution.
—---------------------------------
[Status Page]
Stats:
VIT: 10 (+)
PHY: 10 (+)
DEX: 12 (+)
INT: 13 (+)
SPI:15 (+)
Free Stats: 8
Stamina Bar: 100/100
Sanity Bar: 100/100
Reiki Bar: 50/50
—-------------------------------
Sebastian could instantly feel the increase in his stats one by one.
First, his vitality increased, making him full of energy and getting rid of all the latent lethargy within his system. It felt as if the hidden blockages within him had gotten removed and he could run straight for a mile!
His strength increased next. This time it was a painful process.
He could feel all of his muscles get torn down and regenerated repeatedly until they started to fill out across his figure.
Next, his spine grew by around an inch and grew sturdier, making him feel as if there was an inexhaustible wellspring of power hidden in his body.
The sudden change in his physicality made Sebastian feel a little out of place in his own body… but that didn't last for long.
As his dexterity increased, he could feel his control over every single muscle strand improve. His nerve endings, both motor and sensory, had been strengthened exponentially.
If vitality made him feel energetic and strength made him feel powerful…
Dexterity made Sebastian feel in control.
It was an… extremely reassuring feeling.
Next in line, Sebastian could feel an intense headache as his intelligence increased.
To be more accurate, it was his intelligence attribute increasing.
What it actually did was make his mind grow firmer, stabler and increase his willpower.
This increase left Sebastian with mixed feelings.
He felt an ever-increasing clarity in his mind and a lot of the messy feelings that had been clouding him since the tutorial faded away.
It also seemed to increase his mental processing speed.
All of this made him more stable, yet… perhaps it was a bit too stable. He felt as if the rational part of his brain overpowered his emotions.
He didn't get to mull over his newfound clarity for long as right after all of his senses started to grow sharper.
His existence grew more attuned… to the world around him.
The world around him… as in the chaotic eeriness of purgatory… not the flowers and trees in nature.
As his… affinity to purgatory increased… he could feel the sense of hyper-rationality fade a little as he felt more grounded with reality.
After the transformation was over… Seb felt his self-confidence increase with his healthy body and relatively healthy mind.
Whether he would recover and change for a new leaf… or fall further down the spiral of insanity… was something left to be seen.
—-------------------------------
[Cores and Traits]
Primary Core: Colt M1911 Pistol
Level: 1 (25/100)
Damage: 10 (+)
Precision: 10 (+)
Fire Rate: 10 (+)
Range: 10 (+)
Mobility: 10 (+)
Free Stats: 0
Ammo: 7/7
Reiki: 50/50
Ammo Cost: 5 Reiki/Bullet.
Reiki Recovery: 1 unit/minute
—-----------------------------------
The rest of his stats were all spent in balancing out the various abilities of his pistol.
Seb raised his pistol and tried to feel the changes to it.
Unfortunately, he wasn't an expert in gun design and would thus need to do some target practice to get reacquainted to the new parameters of his gun.
While this round of upgrades had made Sebastian's mental muscle memory that were the basis of his shooting skill from the trial, he still held onto his combat sense and ability to sense timing.
He would need to improve the stats of his weapons sooner or later either way.
It was better to get used to the changes while he was still under the newbie protection period rather than in the middle of a firefight.
Before leaving for some target practice, Seb decided to first equip the items from his inventory.
He first took out the artifact - Eye of Artemis
—--------------
Eye of Artemis Lv10 (Tertiary Core)
Reiki Storage: None
Trait: Hunter
Skill: Bullet Time – Enter a state of hyper focus where you can find the perfect shot timing.
Cost: 10 Reiki
Cooldown: 5 minutes
—----------------
The artifact was in the form of an actual eyeball that looked like it had been neatly extracted from someone's skull. The pupil was silvery grey in colour.
Seb raised the eyeball and placed it over his right eye.
After willing the artifact to 'fuse' with him, it melted within his palms.
The liquid flew into his right eye, and after a brief spike of intense pain, the fusion process was over.
Sebastian rubbed his right eye before opening it again.
It didn't feel as if his vision had significantly improved, but he could somehow 'sense' that he was now able to use the abilities of this tertiary core.
Seb then took out the second item that was lying inside his inventory.
The trait of severe perseverance.
Unlike the artifact which had a solid form, the trait appeared in the form of a glowing red orb.
Sebastian pondered for a few moments on whether to fuse the trait with his tertiary or primary core before settling on the primary one.
Right now, he needed more ways to attack directly and if he didn't like the given skills, he could change the position of the trait later anyway.
He pushed the orb into his M1911.
The entire pistol glowed red for a moment before returning back to its original appearance.
Seb pulled up the system interface to check his new skills.
—--------------------
[Cores and Traits]
[B] Traits
…
2) Severe Perseverance
Synchronization Rate: 100%
Skills -
1) Unavoidable Perseverance
Effect: The bullet shot will hit the target with 100% accuracy
Cost: 1 bullet + 10 Reiki
Cooldown: 5 minutes
2) Unstoppable Perseverance
Effect: Increase the chosen stat of the target hit by the bullet by 10 for 20 minutes.
Cost: 1 bullet + 50 Reiki
Cooldown: 8 hours
3) Unending Perseverance
Effect: The gun will have infinite bullets for 5 minutes
Cost: 100 Reiki
Cooldown: 1 Day
—--------------------
Seb looked over his skills and decided to keep the current arrangement as he was satisfied with it.
Done with his basic setup, Seb decided to find a place to get used to his new body, skills and weapons in time for the trial.
.
.
.
Seb regretted it the moment he stepped out of the shack.
Right in front of him, in broad daylight, yet another act of insane perversion was taking place.
The 'doctor' had gotten his hands on a set of scalpels and was busy dissecting his own body.
He was using the reflection provided by water collected in a bucket to guide his hands.
For the briefest of moments Sebastian considered turning back around and entering the shack to avoid another crazy encounter.
The moment didn't last for long though.
Despite knowing that it would be better just leave the man alone, Sebastian decided to ask him a question against his better judgement.
"What are … you doing?"
The man looked up, noticing Sebastian's presence for the first time.
An excited grin spread across his face.
"I am glad you asked!"
Shit…
Here we go again…
But this time Seb couldn't really complain since he had indeed asked for it.
"Did you realize that our bodies seem to have changed fundamentally since we have come to this realm?"
Seb couldn't help but nod his head.
"Yes… no hunger, no thirst, no sleep."
He would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about what the changes were.
Perhaps the doctor actually knew what he was doing?
The doctor smiled at Sebastian's response.
"Yes exactly! Not only that, our healing factors seem to have increased by a lot!"
The doctor adjusted the angle of his reflection before continuing.
"I am currently dissecting myself to make a note of all the changes that I can see."
The man raised his head once again, a fanatical gaze within his eyes.
"Now I know that you might think that I am insane, but I believe that I have real chance on making gigantic breakthroughs in the field of medicine!"
He licked his lips, barely able to contain himself.
"Just imagine the glory I could obtain! In fact, I might even be able to prove the existence of the soul! The possibilities are endless!"
Sebastian couldn't help but find himself taken aback.
No matter how crazy were the actions of the man in front of him… they seemed to make logical sense?
Somehow?
Or maybe Sebastian's on sense of normal had already been skewed beyond repair that he could somehow find logic in even the most absurd of situations.
"So… what have you found so far?"
The man scratched his chin before sighing in defeat.
"Nothing useful really… except that adding stat points to vitality can temporarily increase the healing factor of the body."
Oh!
That actually was useful!
Sebastian could only lament that he had used up all of his free stats at once.
If he had just chosen to leave his shack first, he might have decided to keep a few spare in case things ever went south.
Seb couldn't help but re-evaluate his impression of the doctor in front of him.
However that didn't last for long.
"Isn't it extremely unhygienic to dissect yourself here in the open, it would have been at least safer to do it within the shack. There would even be lesser distractions that way."
This time the man gave Sebastian the same look as one would give to an absolute idiot.
The doctor took a deep breath to probably calm his anger before replying in a bored tone.
"There is no light inside those dingy little shacks nitwit!"
But what about sanitation!!!
Sebastian didn't say that out loud.
There was no reasoning with a madman.
If the man actually had a solid reasoning for that, Seb would just lower his own impression further in the man's eyes.
For example, he could indeed use the VIT stat to get rid of the disease, or maybe the realm of purgatory just didn't have any microbes in it, or better yet - their new bodies were completely impervious to getting sick since they were basically soulless.
Either way… Seb felt like that it would be really embarrassing.
Shaking his head with a sigh, Seb decided to head towards the Hamlet's central square to see if he could get any more advice on his future actions.
At the very least he was hoping to find a decent spot to practice and try out his skills without exposing his abilities to everyone.
He didn't manage to get far when he found himself face to face with the only remaining newcomer from his batch- 'The rich young master'
But what was even more surprising, was that the young master actually seemed to be normal.
A bit too normal for Hamlet 444 if you asked him.
At least that's what Sebastian thought until the man opened his mouth.
"Would you like to make a deal with me?"