Records - CH 29 - LIBRARY 2 - System Management (Patreon)

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't posted all of last week. I know I said I would try to be better about giving a heads up on that. That's really on me. I can only say that I was hella sick. I'm still sick even now, but the worst of it has broken, and I'm now on the road to recovery.

To apologize, I'm posting the two chapters of the Vol 2 of Records I had written previously.

[THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED FOR CONSISTENCY]

(Word Count: 3,577 => 3,604)

Scrolling through the many different modules available to buy, I pulled up the ones that I felt like were the most reasonable to buy right now. I definitely wanted the Inventory modules, but they were all expensive, and I just didn’t think I really needed them right now.

The way the inventory modules were set up, I could either choose a “slotted” inventory, which would act like Minecraft: items would take up slots and the same types of items would stack—that was its own module though—and I could expand the inventory by buying more slots.

Or, I could choose a set amount of space, like a cultivator’s spatial ring. I could buy options to expand the space, or make it so the objects don’t interact with each other.

There were even presets that copied inventories seen in games, like Minecraft Inventory, or Terraria Inventory, or Inner World Inventory. The idea of having a very convenient inventory was very tempting, but they were out of my price range by far though.

Looking for some more reasonable modules to buy right now, I ended up with:

| UI/TOOLS MODULES | Friends List | 2,000 WP |

Keeps track of friends added, if they're in the Library or which world they're currently in. Friends have the option of entering the same world, with the permission of the one that entered first.

| STAT MODULES | Chi Stats | 500 WP |

Unlocks the Chi Stats: Chi, and Chi Recovery.

| RACE MODULES | Racial Bonuses | 300 WP |

User gains his race bonuses per Global Level.

| RACE MODULES | Swapping Race Bonuses | 950 WP |

Users can use DNA samples of other races and create race cards from them. Users can swap out the equipped race and gain the benefits, and drawbacks, of the equipped race instead. Note: Does not change the physical species of the user, only the system benefits gained.

| QUEST MODULES | World Quest Tracker | 200 WP |

Displays the World Quests and tracks their completion within the world.

| SHOP MODULES | In World Shop | 500 WP | 

The user can access the System Shop and the Merchant Trader System while in-world.

| TRAVELING MODULES | Drop-In Location | 500 WP |

Instead of a random location within the canonical bounds of the “plot,” the user is able to designate a drop-in location.

| TRAVELING  MODULES | Language Comprehension | 250 WP |

The user is automatically able to speak, read, and write fluently in any non-magical language.

| TRAVELING  MODULES | Immune System | 450 WP |

Blocks all types of viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other microorganisms. Is not effective against poisons.

| TRAVELING  MODULES | Universal Currency | 300 WP |

User can convert any currency from the current world into the Library’s Currency, LC, and vice versa.

| UI/TOOLS MODULES | UI Editing | 80 WP |

Allows the user to edit, hide, sort, and group different system elements.

| SKILL MODULES | Skill Trees | 850 WP |

User can upgrade max level skills into a higher tiered skill. Level resets to 1. The new skill can take many paths, it can be a direct upgrade, or deviates a bit to a specialized "branch".

I couldn’t purchase all of them. In total, these modules would all cost 6,880 WP, so I had to make some cuts. Thinking over everything, I don’t think I actually needed the Friends List right now. At the very least, I had another 7 days of Library-Time if I wanted to wait for Hadrian, and that was enough time, if the time-dilation was strong enough, to visit another world. I could easily get the required World Points before Hadrian finished the Pokemon world. 

I also didn’t need the Drop In Location module. Since I was planning on my next world being just somewhere to grind out levels, the actual location I started in didn’t really matter.

First and foremost, I got the UI Editing right away. The huge list of skills was getting very inconvenient to scroll through all the time. Didn’t even have to think about that. 80 WP was well worth that.

Second was the In-World World Quest Tracker. That was mostly a quality-of-life purchase. I could remember the quests for the most part, since for the most part the quests followed the plot, however, I could now see and plan for any non-plot related World Quests, and see their descriptions. That was 200, for a total of 280.

Third was the In-World Shop, so I could make these system purchases anywhere. Anything that I couldn’t get now, I could get them right away in the next world. That was 500, for a total of 780.

Fourth was the Chi stats. It was my main method of attack, and most of my skills revolved around my Chi. Having the stat would allow me to grow my Chi reserves far beyond normal. That was 500, for a total of 1,280.

The Immune System module was non-negotiable, simply for the fact that different worlds mean different strains of diseases. It was like flying out to a new country but 10 times worse.  That was 450, for a total of 1,730.

A lot of my skills were capped already, so I needed the Skill Trees. That was 850, for a total of 2,580.

Getting the Racial Bonuses would give me the most bang for my buck for each Global Level I got, which was especially important given how slowly I was getting them now, and since I was about to go on a leveling grind. I didn’t actually know what “Human” would give me, since there wasn’t anything special about the world I came from. That was 300, for a total of 2,880.

The Swapping Races module reminded me a little of the biokinesis fanfics, where the MC would take the bloodlines of various people for the strongest bodies. I also had a feeling I would need the “racial bonuses” to gain access to some of the powers of the worlds I might visit. One example I could think of was the wizards of Harry Potter. It seemed very much like a genetic thing. This was 950, for a total of 3,830.

Then I would just need the Racial Merger module to complete it, but that could wait for later.

Lastly, I bought the Language Comprehension and the Universal Currencies. That would allow me to not have to worry about where I was going, because no matter what, I would be able to understand everyone, and be able to have the currency needed.

That was a total of 4,330, leaving me with only 241 WP left. I looked through the store to see if there was anything that caught my fancy.

That’s when I found a UI/TOOLS module to show the blessings I had received from someone/thing. I thought of the blessing I had received from the Moon Spirit. It was only 100 WP, so I bought it.

| UI/TOOLS MODULE | Blessings Tracker | 100 WP

Shows the user all of the blessings/curses they’ve received from other entities.

With that, I had 141 WP left, but I decided to just save it for something more significant.

With the Blessings tracker, I saw that I had two blessings:

[Blessing of the Lion Turtle]

Your Chi is now attuned to the Earth element. You can now Earthbend. Innate control over your earthbending. +20 Chi.

[Blessing of the Moon Spirit]

Your Chi skills are more powerful under the moonlight. The % effect of this blessing mirrors the % of the moon shown. Ex.) A full moon is a 100% boost, you get the full effect of double power to your Chi skills. A half moon is a 50% boost. A new moon is 0%. 

That explained why I was able to grasp Earthbending so quickly. For the Moon Spirit blessing, I wasn’t often active at night, so I didn’t really notice the effects so far.

I moved on to using the UI editor to change my Status Screen. I was now able to group together my skills to similar skills. All of my Chi skills were now under a collapsible group, all of my martial arts were under its own grouping, my crafting skills, etc. It will also now only show skills that have gained any levels since the last time I opened the Status Screen.

STATUS SCREEN

NAME: Callan Stone

TIER: 1

RACE: Human

RACES AVAILABLE [-]: 

Human

GLOBAL LEVEL: 15 35,404/43,409 Exp

CLASS: Swordsman 8 5,023/6,808 Exp

CLASS HISTORY [+]:

STATS [-]:

Str: 38

End: 63

Dex: 34

Int: 15

Wis: 51

Cha: 15

Chi: 39

Chi Rec: 5

Free Stats: 5 => 20

BLESSINGS [-]:

Lion Turtle, Moon Spirit

SKILLS [-]:

Skill Points: 0

CHI SKILLS [+]:

EARTHBENDING SKILLS [+]:

FIGHTING SKILLS [+]:

WEAPONS SKILLS [+]:

PROFESSION SKILLS [+]:

MOVEMENT SKILLS [+]:

MENTAL SKILLS [+]:

WP: 141

This was much better. The “[+]” meant I could expand out the section to reveal the hidden parts of the Status Screen, the “[-]” meant I could hide the section. Easy enough to understand. 

The Skills tab was now a bunch of different groups, and I now had a “RACE” and “BLESSINGS” portion of the Status Screen. From the sudden increase in free points, I gathered that the racial bonus for being “Human” was 1 Free Stat Point per Global Level. Another bonus was that the Racial Bonus module seemed to work retroactively, which made the Racial Benefits a thousand times better.

With all of the new Free Stats, I assigned the new 15 stat points to Chi, and 5 to Chi Recovery. 

Chi: 39 => 54

Chi Rec: 5 => 10

Free Stats: 20 => 0

With all of that out of the way, I moved on to check my skill tree options. There were a lot of options because I had already capped most of my skills already. So it was time to slog through all of the upgrades.

First things first, was probably his most important skill right now, Chi Manipulation.

[Chi Manipulation LVL 100/100]

Increases control of Chi by 0.5%/LVL.

This skill had four different options for upgrade.

[Chi Manipulation II]

Increases control of Chi by 0.6%/LVL

Reduces the cost of Chi skills by 0.2%/LVL

[Bodily Chi Manipulation]

Makes your chi more in tune with the physical body.

Increases control of Chi by 0.6%/LVL

Reduces cost of Body type Chi skills by 0.5%/LVL

Increases cost of Elemental type Chi skills  by 0.2%/LVL

[Elemental Chi Manipulation]

Makes your chi more in tune with elemental energies.

Increases control of Chi by 0.6%/LVL

Reduces cost of Elemental type Chi skills by 0.5%/LVL

Increases cost of Body type Chi skills by 0.2%/LVL

So there was the straight upgrade, improving all of my Chi stuff by a little, or I could specialize. The Body one would benefit my Chi Enhancement, and Chi Enhanced Senses, and things like that. The Elemental one will obviously benefit my Earthbending and all its sub bending skills.

I didn’t hesitate to select the Elemental one. When it got all the way to LVL 100, the downside would only be 20% increased cost, and that was largely negated with all of the other bonuses I was getting, it wasn’t too much. Meanwhile the extra 50% cost reduction of my earthbending would help a lot.

When I selected the upgrade, the level of the skill reset back down to 1, meaning that my Chi Manipulation was temporarily reduced, but once the skill level got back up, I would be in a far better situation. I would have to practice a bit to get used to it.

Next up was Chi Sensing. This skill only had one upgrade option, so this one was straight forward.

[Chi Sensing LVL 100/100]

Increases the clarity and range in seeing Chi and in feeling the connections between others by 1%/LVL

[Chi Sensing II]

Increases the clarity and range in seeing Chi and in feeling the connections between others by 2%/LVL

Next up was Chi Enhancement. It had two options.

[Chi Enhancement LVL 100/100]

Uses Chi to enhance your body by 5%/LVL

[Chi Enhancement II]

Uses Chi to enhance your body by 8%/LVL

Reduces cost of this skill by 0.1%/LVL

[Chi Burning]

Burns through your Chi quickly to enhance your body by 10%/LVL

Increases cost of this skill by 0.1/%/LVL

I just got the straight upgrade. I was using this skill as more of a passive bonus during fights, so I didn’t need the quick burst of Chi Burning.

Next up was Chi Enhanced Senses.

[Chi Enhanced Senses LVL 100/100]

Uses Chi to enhance the five senses by 5%/LVL.

[Chi Enhanced Senses II]

Uses Chi to enhance the five senses by 8%/LVL

[Selective Chi Enhanced Senses]

You can selectively enhance the five senses as you please by 5%/LVL

I chose the Selective option. It was kind of annoying to get an improved smell or touch when all I wanted was to enhance my sight, or hearing. Even if I didn’t get an extra bonus to my senses, the selectivity was worth it.

Next up was my Earthbending skills.

[Earthbending LVL 100/100]

Reduces Chi cost of earthbending by 0.5%/LVL

Increases the control over earth by 0.9%/LVL

Increases the amount of earth you can move by 5%/LVL

This one had two options to upgrade.

[Earthbending II]

Reduces Chi cost of earthbending by 0.6%/LVL

Increases the control over earth by 0.95%/LVL

Increases the amount of earth you can move by 8%/LVL

[Stonebending]

More in tune with the natural stone of the earth. Removes the sub-bending styles, in exchange for greater power with stone.

Reduces Chi cost of earthbending by 0.8%/LVL

Increases the control over earth by 0.99%/LVL

Increases the amount of earth you can move by 20%/LVL

I just went with the straight upgrade. There was no way I was getting rid of my sub-bending styles, even if the Stonebending offered a huge bonus to specialize.

Next up was Seismic Sense.

[Seismic Sense LVL 100/100]

Use a bit of your chi to allow you to see through the vibrations in the earth. Can “see” clearly up to 10m/LVL. This perception quickly becomes less defined until you’re able to sense nothing after an additional 10m/LVL.

This one only had one option as well, which doubled the range of my Seismic Sense.

[Seismic Sense II]

Use a bit of your chi to allow you to see through the vibrations in the earth. Can “see” clearly up to 20m/LVL. This perception quickly becomes less defined until you’re able to sense nothing after an additional 20m/LVL.

The next capped skill was my own created skill, Earth Softened Steps. 

[Earth Softened Steps LVL 1/100]

Using your Chi, you are invisible to Seismic Sense.

Lowers the chance of someone hearing you while sneaking by 1%/LVL

It only had one upgrade options:

[Earth Softened Steps II]

Using your Chi, you are invisible to Seismic Sense. The earth softens the sounds of footfalls. 

You can now apply this skill to anyone within 0.5m/LVL

Lowers the chance of someone hearing you while sneaking by 1%/LVL

This was getting a bit tedious, so to speed things along a bit faster, I went through all of my skills and found all the ones that only had the straight upgrade option and accepted them. I saved the ones with the actual options to go over later.

FIGHTING SKILLS [-]:

[Baguazhang LVL 100/100] => [Baguazhang II LVL 1/100]

[Northern Shaolin LVL 100/100] => [Northern Shaolin II LVL 1/100]

[Tai Chi LVL 100/100] => [Tai Chi II LVL 1/100]

[Parry LVL 100/100] => [Parry II LVL 1/100]

[Counter LVL 100/100] => [Counter II  LVL 1/100]

WEAPONS SKILLS [-]:

[Axe Handling LVL 100/100] => [Axe Handling II  LVL 1/100]

[Hammer Handling LVL 100/100] => [Hammer Handling II  LVL 1/100]

PROFESSION SKILLS [-]:

[Wood Chopping LVL 100/100] => [Wood Chopping II  LVL 1/100]

[Forestry LVL 100/100] => [Forestry II LVL 1/100]

[Cooking LVL 100/100] => [Cooking II  LVL 1/100]

[Carpentry LVL 100/100] => [Carpentry II  LVL 1/100]

[Fishing LVL 100/100] => [Fishing II  LVL 1/100]

[Wood Carving LVL 100/100] => [Wood Carving II  LVL 1/100]

[Calligraphy LVL 100/100] => [Calligraphy II  LVL 1/100]

[First Aid LVL 100/100] => [First Aid II  LVL 1/100]

[Drawing LVL 100/100] => [Drawing II  LVL 1/100]

[Teaching LVL 100/100] => [Teaching II  LVL 1/100]

MOVEMENT SKILLS [-]:

[Sprinting LVL 100/100] => [Sprinting II  LVL 1/100]

[Jumping LVL 100/100] => [Jumping II  LVL 1/100]

[Acrobatics LVL 100/100] => [Acrobats II  LVL 1/100]

[Dodge LVL 100/100] => [Dodge II  LVL 1/100]

[Sneak LVL 100/100] => [Sneak II  LVL 1/100]

[Muted Steps LVL 100/100] => [Muted Steps II  LVL 1/100]

MENTAL SKILLS [-]:

[Deception LVL 100/100] => [Deception II  LVL 1/100]

[Persuasion LVL 100/100] => [Persuasion II  LVL 1/100]

[Language LVL 100/100] => [Language II  LVL 1/100]

[Situational Awareness LVL 100/100] => [Situational Awareness II  LVL 1/100]

[Singular Attention LVL 100/100] => [Singular Attention II  LVL 1/100]

[Divided Attention LVL 100/100] => [Divided Attention II  LVL 1/100]

For the most part, these upgrades were only doubling the effects they already had. The exception to this would be Teaching, where it also gave an added benefit if the student I taught was also connected to a system. I could now just directly give them the skill, and they have a bonus to gaining experience in leveling it up. Parry also now had a chance to momentarily stunned the enemy on a successful Parry.

Then I only had a couple more to go through. Sword Handling, Blacksmithing, Running, and Meditation.

Sword Handling actually had 5 different upgrades available.

[Sword Handling LVL 100/100]

Increases damage dealt by swords by 2%/LVL.

[Sword Handling II]

Increases damage dealt by swords by 4%/LVL.

[Single-Edged Sword Handling]

Increases damage dealt by single-edged swords by 5%/LVL

[Double-Edged Sword Handling]

Increases damage dealt by double-edged swords by 5%/LVL

[Great Sword Handling]

Increases damage dealt by any large double-handed sword by 5%/LVL

[Swordsmanship]

You’ve trained under a Master Swordsman, and have become a Swordsman yourself.

The sword is now an extension of your body.

Increases all the effects of all sword skills by 1%/LVL

Increases damage dealt by swords by 5%/LVL

Without much debate, I selected the Swordsmanship upgrade. Not only did it have the same 5%/LVL bonus as the others, but it also increased the effects of any other skill that uses the swords, like Parry and Counter, not to mention whatever skill I’ll be getting when I cap the Swordsman class.

This also shows just how much of a benefit I would get if I studied under a master, the upgrade options would be much, MUCH better. Though it might also be due to the class.

For blacksmithing, it had two options:

[Blacksmithing LVL 100/100]

Increases the quality of items you make by 2%/LVL

[Blacksmithing II]

Increases the quality of items you make by 4%/LVL

[Bladesmith]

You specialize in making blades.

Increases the quality of blades you make by 5%/LVL

While I was now more of a swordsman, I didn’t really think I needed to specialize into making only blades. I had actually benefited quite a bit, using blacksmithing to make enough money to get around. I just chose the direct upgrade.

Running had three options:

[Running LVL 100/100]

Reduces stamina cost of running by 0.5%/LVL

Increases your running speed by 0.5%/LVL

[Running II]

Reduces stamina cost of running by 0.7%/LVL

Increases your running speed by 1%/LVL

[Fast Running]

Reduces stamina cost of running by 0.2%/LVL

Increases your running speed by 2%/LVL

[Long Distance Running]

Reduces stamina cost of running by 0.9%/LVL

Increases your running speed by 0.5%/LVL

For this one, I chose Fast Running. It lowered the benefit for reducing stamina, but I already had several times more stamina than the regular person. Running out of stamina while running wasn’t something I was concerned with anyway, much less with a 20% reduced cost. However, the increased speed was great.

Lastly, was Meditation. It had four options:

[Meditation LVL 100/100]

Recenters your Mind, Body, and Spirit.

Increases recovery rates by 1%/LVL.

[Meditation II]

Recenters your Mind, Body, and Spirit.

Increases recovery rates by 2%/LVL

[Chi Recovery Meditation]

Focuses recovery on your Chi.

Increases the recovery rate of Chi by 5%/LVL

[Body Recovery Meditation]

Focuses recovery on the physical body.

Increases recovery rate of Health and Stamina by 4%/LVL

[Guru’s Meditation]

You’ve learned how to meditate properly under a guru’s guidance. Centers yourself to be more in-tune with the universe, aiding in your recovery.

Increases recovery rates by 5%/LVL

I selected the Guru’s Meditation. Who knew that my meditation with Guru Pathik would be so lucrative? It was the single most beneficial week I’ve had in the ATLA world, giving me access to Chi, the Low Cosmic Connection, and now this advanced Meditation skill.

With that, I was done doing system management, and I was ready for the next world. Right now, most of my skills were reset, so I was much weaker at the moment skill-wise. But I was still a lot stronger stat wise.

I stood up and stretched. While I was ready for the next world, I wanted to see if I could find some other people to check in on the situation.