Opening the tab, Ethan was surprised to not see a single selectable option, but rather a trio of subtabs.
General Modifications
Lewd Modifications
Arts
Ethan wasn’t as surprised to see “Lewd Modifications” this time. He had expected there to be after seeing the wide variety of modifications he could add to Dai’Gyo. Regardless, he would get to the tab when he got to it.
Ethan looked at his total of 233 Fate Points, and this is where the remainder of them would go. He took a deep breath, opened the “General Modifications” tab, and began selecting the desired options.
Old Grudge: Someone you have once wronged in the past holds a strong grudge against you and wishes to have you pay for your past transgressions. However, you have no memory of what you had done. This individual spawns when you do and starts at a similar power to you. The individual will not actively seek you out for the first year after you spawn; however, you can still encounter each other, likely causing a conflict. (+10 Fate Points).
Monster Magnet: Monsters are drawn to your internal energy and constantly flock towards you if you are nearby. This does not alter the monster’s behavior, so a typically passive beast will remain passive. (+5 Fate Points).
Rivals: For one reason or another, some people make it their mission to oppose you. While more competitive than malicious, you will find yourself challenged by many individuals who are unnaturally difficult to kill, as circumstances arise to let them slip away. Some rivals are not hellbent on your downfall and will still help you on occasions as long as they see themselves as remaining ‘above’ you. (+2 Fate Points).
Prodigy: You are incredibly skilled at absorbing knowledge and implementing it flawlessly. You can copy basic martial arts after only seeing them once, and you can understand basic sorceries after seeing them being performed. This modifier increases the rate at which you learn skills and arts by 5. Meaning you learn 5 times faster. (Cost 25 Fate Points).
Special Physique: You are unnaturally gifted in a physical attribute (Speed chosen). Your body seems specially designed to utilize that attribute in normal use as well as the arts. Additionally, when the chosen attribute is boosted by any means, the boost effect is enhanced. This modifier can be taken multiple times. (Cost: 15 Fate Points).
Massive Reserve: You have an overwhelming abundance of internal energy that can be used to boost your overall physical attributes as well as in the use of various arts. Arts utilizing internal energy are also considerably stronger or have a longer-lasting effect. (Cost: 15 Fate Points).
Boosted Resistance: You are unnaturally resistant to effects that would tamper with your mind and body, such as poisons or overwhelming instincts. While this does not make you outright immune to altering effects, all but the strongest poisons or mind-altering arts have a greatly reduced effect. (Cost: 10 Fate Points).
Abundant Vitality: Your natural vitality is far beyond what any of your race could manage. Due to this, your body can naturally regenerate non-lethal wounds over time and even regrow limbs with enough time and rest. Your vitality is used in various arts. (Cost: 15 Fate Points).
Suppression Resistance: Your power cannot be fully contained by most suppression effects, such as enchanted bindings or warding sorcerous arts. While you are weakened from most suppression effects, they all have a greatly reduced effect. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
False Immortal Body: Your body is enduring of age, and you look far more youthful than others of your age. Your natural lifespan is tripled. (Cost: 15 Fate Points).
Trade-Off: You have the ability to willingly suppress one or many attributes in order to boost others. The boost is proportional to how much you suppress the other attribute(s). This effect can be manipulated at will. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Broken Limiter: The limiter keeping your progression from having diminishing returns has been broken. As such, you do not suffer diminishing returns while training and increasing your attributes. However, this does not increase the natural rate of your growth. (Cost: 15 Fate Points).
Harem Management: For most, it is hard to manage multiple lovers vying for your attention, including their own conflicts. For you, however, things seem to go far more smoothly. You can seamlessly end conflicts with individuals you have a strong bond with, and those who you appeal to are less likely to be hostile towards each other. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Wealthy: You have recently stumbled upon a surge of wealth befitting that of an upper-class citizen. The money is completely clean, and no one will question how you obtained it. However, the newfound wealth will not last forever and will inevitably run dry. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Well Off: You are rather fortunate compared to others in your background. Be it constantly getting the best-paying customers or your employer having a soft heart for you specifically, things tend to work out for you in your profession. This modifier does not affect luck. (Cost: 2 Fate Points.)
Ethan lay back as he chose the last few options. More modifiers made him stronger than he’d initially thought. He glanced up at his remaining Fate Points: 118. Even after all that, he still had over his starting total.
He closed the “General Modifications” tab and opened one he hoped he wouldn’t get carried away with like last time, though the slight sensation in his pants made him think that was a hopeless endeavor. He opened “Lewd Modifications” and scrolled through their options, choosing ones he wanted as he went.
Enhanced Libido: Your libido is considerably higher than the average person’s. While mental strength can help you bypass this effect, you find it very distracting to go about your life without daily pleasure. (+5 Fate Points).
Enhanced Sensitivity: The sensitivity of your genitals and erogenous regions is amplified from sexual interactions. This leads to you climaxing far more easily, which may make you less appealing to some lovers. However, others will find this more appealing than normal. (+5 Fate Points).
Sensitivity Control: You can control the sensitivity of yourself and anyone who is in a sexual encounter with you. This can cause your partners to favor you over others during sexual interactions. Can also amplify the play of certain kinks. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Fetish Radar: You innately know the fetish someone who is attracted to you has, as well as what they want to sexually experience with you. This effect only works for individuals you are looking at and are nearby. (Cost: 2 Points).
Self-Cleaning: Your body is self-cleaning of general fluids and grime that occur during sexual acts and even daily life. (Cost: 2 Fate Points).
Dual Cultivation: Dual Cultivation is more effective on you than most. It boosts your natural healing for a time after sex and very slightly increases your internal and external energy reserves as long as your partner has internal or external energy similar to yours. (Cost: 10 Fate Points).
Sex Guide: You know how to guide nearly any interaction between you and someone who finds you appealing to sex. While this does not work in every situation, it inevitably increases the likelihood that the individual will seek you out for sexual interactions. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Aura of Lust: You emit a small aura around you that increases the libido of anyone who finds you attractive within the area, making them far more likely to attempt a sexual act on you. However, be warned that if their libido is too high, they may not care about the situation and attempt to make love to you on the spot. (Cost: 4 Fate Points).
Surprisingly, there were not that many modifications Ethan desired for how many options there were. And he didn’t even get carried away this time. At least he didn’t think he did. Looking at his Fate Point total, he noticed it was at a nice, even 100, exactly where he had started.
With a satisfactory smile, he closed the “Lewd Modifications” tab and opened up the one simply titled “Arts”.
Upon opening it, he was met with two subtabs.
Martial Arts
Sorcerous Arts
Without thinking, he clicked on the first tab.
Muscle Control: You have greater muscle density and strength than your physique would suggest. Without the use of internal energy with an average physique, you can still equal one with an athletic build. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Iron Body (Requires “Muscle Control”): By imbuing your muscles and skin with a constant flow of internal energy, your skin becomes as hard as steel, and your muscles increase your strength proportional to their base. This art increases your base durability, even while the art is not in use. (Cost: 10 Fate Points).
Refined Steps: Your sense of balance is increased, and your general agility is beyond that of an average warrior. Your flexibility, speed, and balance are all increased. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Light Jumps (Requires “Refined Steps”): With a steady supply of internal energy through your body, your body becomes as light as a feather, allowing you to leap great distances and run far faster than a normal person. (Cost: 10 Fate Points).
Clear Mind: Your mind remains calm, even during combat. Your natural mental fortitude is increased, and you are much less likely to panic. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Mundane Mastery: You are naturally gifted in all manner of mundane weaponry (hand-to-hand, blades, spears, bows, etc.). This modifier grants no special properties but gives you an innate familiarity with all weapons. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Incorporated Mysteries (Requires “Mundane Mastery”): You can seamlessly augment your attacks with internal energy without using any true martial technique. This gives your attacks a variety of ways, such as increased range and increased cutting/crushing force. (Cost: 10 Fate Points).
Master of Myriad Arts: You can seamlessly switch from the utilization of one art to the next with minimal fluctuation in your internal energy, allowing you to adapt to a battle much faster. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Ethan stepped back as he completed his choices. He still had 45 Fate Points left over to use on Sorcerous Arts, though he was less concerned about those. There were more arts he could still obtain, rather useful ones as well. But he imagined he was technically able to learn all of these, given enough practice. And given his prior “Prodigy” modification, letting him learn at a far increased rate, he didn’t imagine learning the more advanced arts would take him more than a few years.
With that, Ethan opened the very last tab and began selecting options.
Elementalism: You convert a part of your internal energy into one of the 5 Elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Wood), allowing you to manipulate and manifest the element depending on the amount of internal energy you convert. Converted internal energy returns to its base state over time. This internal energy can also be imbued into weapons for elemental effects and is also required for various arts. (Cost: 15 Fate Points).
Binding Oath: You can call upon the fates to impose a limit on yourself, such as you cannot use a specific martial art or cannot utilize one of your greatest strengths. In turn, you can also grant yourself a certain boon that is deemed of equal value. You innately know if a limit and boon are of equal value. Regardless of the Binding Oath, the effect lasts for 1 hour and can be used once in a 24-hour period. (Cost: 10 Fate Points).
Alchemical Transmutation (Requires “Alchemy”): You can imbue your internal energy into various alchemical agents and materials to transmute them into substances of equal value. The amount of internal energy used for transmutation depends on the material. You cannot change an object from one state of matter to another. Such as turning a pile of dust into a liquid. (Cost: 15 Fate Points).
Identification: While holding most items, you can touch them with your internal energy to reveal basic information about the item. Depending on the rarity or general strength of the item, more internal energy is required to analyze the item. (Cost: 5 Fate Points).
Ethan smiled at the choices he’d made. His Fate Points were completely drained out; if he had anything to say about it, he was pretty broken. He hadn’t intended on putting Fate Points into a transmutation art, but he had just enough Fate Points to do so, and it simply felt right.
At long last, Ethan closed all the tabs and stepped back from the screen. As he did, he noticed a large button at the bottom of the screen that read FINALIZE in all caps.
Without a second thought, he pressed the button. Then something he didn’t expect happened.
A translucent screen appeared in front of him. It simply floated in front of him. He took a step back in surprise, but the floating screen followed him. It didn’t take him long to understand what it was. It was a System Screen.
The W.O.T.M had told him that regardless of the world he decided to enter into or the modifiers he chose, he would be accompanied by a System Screen to catalog his progression and general data. Supposedly, it was to monitor his growth and see where their simulation- if one could call it that- could need improvement. The System Screen- that Ethan could dismiss and summon at will- wouldn’t alter his rate of growth nor change his physical attributes, but would ‘grant knowledge already gained through a familiar medium’ if he remembered their words correctly.
With his brief panic settled, he looked at the screen.
Would you like to view your statistics before entering ‘The Realm of Enlightenment’? (Y/N)
Ethan didn’t have to move to press the button; he simply thought ‘yes,’ and the screen changed.
Name: Ethan Hughs
Age: 27
Vitality: 50/50
Internal Energy: 25/25
External Energy: 0/0
Physical Attributes:
Strength: 5
Speed: 8
Endurance: 8
Durability: 6
Mystical Attributes:
Mental Strength: 7
Internal Energy Control: 3
External Energy Control: 1
Social Attributes:
Appearance: 4 (7)
Charisma: 2
Presence: 1
Ethan didn’t know exactly how each number correlated to the ‘average’. But he could clearly see his attributes were impressive. Though he did question why his appearance had a ‘7’ in parentheses.
As if in response to his thought, a smaller system screen appeared.
The score of all attributes for the average person of your race is 2. With the exception of all Mystical Attributes, which are 1.
Appearance attribute in parentheses is the effective score of the ‘Appearance’ attribute for anyone who finds your body type, sex, or general appearance attractive.
A moment after he read it, the screen vanished, leaving Ethan staring at the System Screen. Though taking a second glance, Ethan asked a question aloud. “Can I change my name? ‘Ethan’ doesn’t really sound fitting for some martial hero.”
A moment later, his name vanished, leaving the area blank. Then another System Screen appeared.
Choose a Name.
Ethan thought for a moment. Despite suggesting he change his name, he hadn’t really thought about what he wanted it to be. So he decided not to choose. “Choose a name for me. A male name befitting one within this world.”
The smaller System Screen vanished, and his name filled in on his status page.
Name: Chun Hyang
He smiled and waved his System Screen away. He reached toward the button at the bottom of the screen on the wall and finalized his choices.