Kegan was barely paying attention as the blue spirit listed out his achievements in the last life. The numbers stood out to him, but the praise and accolades from the blue spirit felt hollow. He felt like he was being praised as a child would be after completing some minor task that all adults could easily complete.
“...survived 713 days …”
He’d always thought the blue spirit seemed cruel, but this experience was changing his perception. The spirit just lacked any kind of tone other than joyous excitement. When Kegan had been suffering and dying the joyous excitement felt cruel. But now he had achieved something ...
“... 1621 goblins killed directly ...”
The tone of the spirit should have fit better. But knowing that it was the same tone as always, made Kegan … not feel anything because he never felt anything in this place. But he was pretty sure he would have felt lonely had his emotions been working.
“... one world level threat resolved ...”
Kegan had half expected the golden spirit to show up, and another emotion felt pushed out of his mind before it could take hold … disappointment. If this life wasn’t enough to warrant a visit then what would work?
“... for a new total of 19,453 points. Any questions adventurer Kegan!?”
“What perks do I have available now?”
“You have some new memory perks available:”
“I’ll take all of the memory perks.”
“That will be 400 points, leaving you with 19,053 points”
Memory User:
“Two new subsistence perks available:”
New Subsistence Perks:
“I’ll take both of the subsistence perks.”
“That will be 2000 points, leaving you with 17,053 points”
Subsistence Perks:
“Four new homeowner perks available:”
New Homeowner Perks:
“Why is the material attachments perk so expensive?”
“It requires an increased alteration to the world generation algorithm. As you’ll see when we get to the world generation section, changes can be quite costly. Most perks only require changes to your body. Even the homeowner perks work by spreading a helpful microbiome in any place your mind recognizes as ‘home’.”
“Your explanations are of no value. I’ll take the Real Estate Mogul, and Nomad perks, but I will come back to consider the Material attachments perk. I need more time to consider its worth.”
“That will be 1500 points, leaving you with 15,553 points”
Homeowner Perks:
“Four new healing and physical perks available:”
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Kegan almost felt some amusement leak through his emotional block when seeing the first perk. He knew it must have been unlocked in the previous life when the villagers all thought his combat skills were godly. ‘If only that had been true …’
The smithing skin could be useful, he had burned himself badly a few times working with molten metals. The muscle perks looked like an absolute must-have.
“I’ll take everything except divine appearance.”
“That will be 3500 points, leaving you with 12,053 points”
Healing and Physical Perks:
“Finally there is one new magic perks:”
Magic Perks:
“That would have been useful to have, I’ll take the perk.”
Magic Perks:
“You have 11,953 points remaining, would you like to select any more perks?”
Kegan sat there for a few minutes thinking things over. He did tend to spend a lot of time every life building the same tools, weapons, and items to deal with the goblin invasion of the valley.
“Spirit, if I unlock the material attachments perk, will I always get to start a new life with those items?”
“Yes, unless you choose to remove an item, but it can be added back in without respending any points.”
“What about things that don’t make up a single item? Can I bring pemmican or smelted copper and iron with me?”
“Non-contiguous items will be measured by weight. One pound of the substance will be equal to one item. Would you like to add the material attachments perk?”
As the spirit spoke Kegan felt knowledge entering his mind for how much a ‘pound’ of weight represented.
“Yes, add the perk. I’ve finished my selection.”
“You now have 1,953 points remaining. Here are your options for Material Attachments:”
A huge list of everything Kegan had made in the last life appeared before him. Kegan thought hard while looking at the menu. After speaking with the spirit he narrowed it down to just a few items that he thought might be worth getting.
“I’ll spend a hundred points on these four things, and a thousand points on the iron”
Material Attachments:
“This leaves you with 553 points. Are you ready to start a new life?”
“Wait, are you going to show me the world generation thing that you spoke of? And can’t I return to the life I was just in?”
“Of course I can show you the world generation settings! However, you do not have enough points to purchase anything. You also do not have enough points to return to your old life with your new perks!”
Kegan wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but the spirit seemed extra cheery about him not having enough points.
“Well can I reallocate some of my perk choices to have enough points to return to the world I was in? And why didn’t you mention this point cost upfront?”
“Nope! You already finalized perk selection. And you did not ask about it upfront.”
Kegan was experiencing a rare upside to the muted emotions, of the spirit world. His anger quickly slipped away.
“How much would it cost to revisit the world?”
“Ten percent of your perk point changes, excluding material attachments, since those changes will not be added until you start a new life. You spent 7500 points, thus the cost is 750 points.”
“Fine, show me the world generation.”
A planet slammed into Kegan’s mind. That was the best way he could describe the sensation. One moment he was in the spirit realm talking, and the next moment he felt like his mind had grown to encompass an entire planet. There were suddenly millions of minute details that his mind was tracking. The temperature at thousands of different locations, the ecosystem of hundreds of unique places, from frozen tundras to deep ocean trenches. All of that felt like just background noise, his main attention was sucked into the sentient races of the planet he was viewing. Goblins, orcs, and humans were immediately recognizable, but there were dozens of others as well.
For each sentient race, he could feel their connection to specific stones. Ones just like the ‘save point’ that he had found in his last life. He felt that with just a small nudge that he could change the history of a species. A small tweak in their essence and they would be blood-crazed warriors, or they could be calm scholars unwilling to hurt the smallest creature. He could plant the seeds of new ideas in their heads, or make them incapable of thinking certain things. All of the changes seemed to require a cost. Kegan realized that the cost was being measured in his perk points. He felt like even the smallest changes would cost hundreds of thousands of perk points.
He kept diving into smaller and smaller changes, trying to find something he would be allowed to do. He started finding things that only cost tens of thousands of points. His awareness probed for increasingly cheaper things, without really caring what those changes were.
His probing went deeper and deeper into the smallest minutiae of a save point stone. Time did not flow the same when he was in the world generation. He may have spent seconds or may have spent days before he re-emerged in triumph. He’d found a change he was allowed to make.
There was an experimental save point that was only tried to a single individual. This made most of the changes at this save point incredibly cheap. They also fed power back into the save point, lowering the cost even further. The one thing that lowered the cost the most was that this individual was Kegan, and he was editing his perks. The change available to him was the Divine Appearance perk that he had turned down earlier. Kegan felt himself screaming in frustration. The world responded to his anger, races dying out, volcanoes spewing ash and covering the planet, the oceans boiling away.
His anger turned to fear and horror, and he pulled his mind back.
Kegan’s mind snapped back into the tiny body that represented him in the spirit realm. The emotion dampening effects quickly calmed his mind, apparently, he still had his emotions inside the world generation program.
The blue spirit spoke up:
“The proposed changes would cost 12,945,732,150 points. You do not have enough points saved up to make these changes. If you’d like I can save this template for later use?”
Kegan briefly felt some amusement before it disappeared like all emotions. His changes hadn’t been real, it was all in his imagination.
“No, don’t save that template. I’m ready to start a new life. I finally know what I need …”
The spirit cut him off before he could finish his sentence and he found himself waking up at his normal spawn point once again.
“Welcome to your new life adventurer Kegan! Good luck!”
Kegan glared at the spirit, before sighing and heading down the mountain towards his cabin.
Memory User:
Subsistence Perks:
Homeowner Perks:
Healing and Physical Perks:
Magic Perks:
Material Attachments:
