Wasteland Conqueror

Completing the skill point distribution, a sizeable amount of new information and knowledge came flooding. But it was nothing in comparison to what I was subjected to in the past, thus I absorbed all of it without any difficulty whatsoever.

Finished soaking up the small flood of knowledge and experience, the system screen changed. However, instead of changing to the status screen like how it had done so in the past, it unexpectedly changed to display an entirely new screen I hadn't seen before.

[ Mutations ]

Mutation Points Left: 1

| Acidic Blood | Your blood becomes acidic to the point that it can easily eat through stone and metal.

| Animation | Gain the ability to animate inanimate objects with the ability to move and act on their own.

| Biological Manipulation | Acquire the ability to manipulate all things biological.

| Bone Armor | Gain bone plating all across your body that you freely manipulate however you wish.

| Brute | Transform into a brute.

| Dragons Breath | Gain the ability to release an explosive, fiery breath from your mouth.

| Earth Manipulation | Receive the ability to manipulate earth.

| Fire Manipulation | Receive the ability to manipulate fire.

| Fungal Symbiosis | An intelligent fungal colony will integrate itself with your body and form a symbiotic relationship with you.

| Ice Manipulation | Receive the ability to manipulate ice.

| Mana | Gain a beginner level of mana and some basic information about it, several simple spells, and knowledge about how spells are constructed and what not.

| Marked One | Transform into a marked one with a random set of abilities and have a certain percentage of your body covered in tattoo-like marks. You will have the ability to customize the color of your tattoos and their shapes.

| Qi | Gain a base of level qi and some basic information about it and how to cultivate it.

| Plant Manipulation | Gain the ability to manipulate plants.

| Pure | Forego your mutation point for another perk point per level up.

| Random Bloodline | Receive a random bloodline.

| Random Mutation | Receive a random mutation.

| Random Perk | Receive a random perk.

| Transcendent | Become a transcendent with a random set of powers.

| Transmutation | Acquire the ability to transmute matter and its various elements into whatever form and elements you desire.

| Vampirism | Take on the traits of a vampire, both those seen as positive and negative.

| Water Manipulation | Receive the ability to manipulate water.

After scanning all the options presented, I've narrowed down the ones I'm interested in to Biological Manipulation, Mana, Qi, Plant Manipulation, Pure, and Transmutation. They can all increase my abilities significantly in numerous ways, unfortunate as it is, I can't take all of them. Thus I will have to see which of them presents the most benefits out of the bunch.

Biological Manipulation would be a great ability to have in my arsenal because of the many things I could do with it. For example, using it on myself to speed up my body's regeneration and fix injuries I obtained from working out and combat. I could also probably use it on others and to modify my body in all sorts of ways.

If I can do that, I could use it to turn my Colossal Gila Monster Egg that has yet to hatch into an actual dragon with wings and all. It would be pretty sick to own an actual dragon instead of just a flightless one.

Even though owning a dragon is something I wish to possess, I still have five other mutations to look at before I can come to a decision. So moving right along Mana is next on the list. Having access to magic could open up a lot of avenues to me and will certainly empower me a great deal.

Despite that, I'm already stretched thin enough for time, so to actually turn this into a powerful asset, I would have to cut back on other areas to turn this into something other than just a novelty. Which is something I'm just not willing to do at this moment, thus magic will have to be delayed till a later date. I could also more than likely learn magic from those tomes I know about out east, so there's that too.

With magic crossed off the list, Qi is next. From all the xianxia novels I read back in my previous world, I'm certain this mutation would put me leagues above others in the future. However, it's in a similar boat as Mana and will more than likely require more time than I can currently dedicate to it, so it isn't really an option as well if the novels I read are anything to go by.

Continuing on from Qi to Plant Manipulation. This mutation is most likely similar to Biological Manipulation but more specialized for plants. And seeing how I'm going to be moving to an even more arid environment in the future, the only real use this mutation will see will be when I'm growing plants for food, medicine, and drugs. That doesn't really sound all that appealing to me, honestly. Therefore, this specific mutation can join the others I've crossed out so far.

On to the next one. Pure isn't really a mutation, it just allows me to dispose of the mutation point in exchange for another perk point from now on. That really isn't a terrible trade at all, I can pick up a hell of a lot of perks with 3 three points every level up. That's the sole benefit of going with that, so let me look at the last of my picks. 

Transmutation wouldn't be too bad of an option. The ability to convert whatever matter I want into materials I need sounds great to me. The only potential issue I see with it is there has to be some sort of energy drain on me for using such a power. If the drain for using it is too high, it pretty much makes my choice worthless.

Unless I use it solely for extremely rare materials, I can't get a hold of, which isn't something I ran into too much. It also does the same thing as Currency Maker, except it can convert any matter into any element I wish so it would make that per redundant, at least somewhat until I raise my trade skill high enough. Thus I'll scratch this one off the list too.

So with all the mutations I'm interested in covered, I'm pretty much left with only Biological Manipulation and Pure. And of the two, I believe I can grow my overall strength and capabilities far more with Pure. Especially now when I have a quest waiting to turn in that's going to net me at the very least 245,000 exp. I suppose I have my answer.

Selecting Pure, I locked it in and as soon as I did; the screen changed once again. But instead of returning to the status screen, it presented another new screen.

I guess my power up continues.

[ Classes ]

Class Points Left: 1

| Cleric | Gain apprentice knowledge regarding this class and how to sense and absorb divine energy, and gain access to a new skill and attributes. +1 divine power, +1 endurance, +1 strength, and +2 divinity skill for every increase in level.

| Mage | Acquire beginner mage knowledge and how to sense and absorb mana, and gain new attributes and a skill. +2 intelligence, +3 magic power, +2 perception, and +2 to magic skill for every level gained.

| Martial Artist | Receive beginner knowledge regarding this class and how to sense and cultivate qi. Besides that, gain access to new skills and an attribute. 1+ agility, +1 endurance, +1 intelligence, +1 perception, +1 strength, +3 qi power, +3 martial arts skill, and +2 qi skill upon every increase in level.

| Random Class | Acquire a random class.

| Ranger | Gain basic knowledge regarding the ranger class and access to new skills and attributes. +2 agility, +1 endurance, +2 perception, and +3 bowmanship every level up.

| Rogue | Gain beginner knowledge regarding this class and access to new skills and attributes. +3 agility, +3 perception and +3 lethality skill for every level increase.

| Warrior | Gain beginner knowledge regarding this class and access to new skills and attributes. +1 agility, +2 endurance, +1 perception, +2 strength, and +3 combat skill for every level increase.

I didn't expect to see classes since that was never a thing in the wastelander series. That said, I'm more than happy to see them because I'll be getting one hell of a power up after all this is over. Picking Double-Edged Sword was 100% worth, going all the way back down to level 0.

Leaving those thoughts behind, I went through each of the classes, scanning over the various benefits they provided.

I would be happy with any one of these classes but I'm gonna have to make a decision on a single class to take at some point. Thus, I'm going to have to think long and hard about which of them best fits my wants and will assist me the most in accomplishing my goals. So what class am I going to go with... I could continue down the beefed up jack of all trades warrior route I've been traveling on.

Of the classes, martial Artist and warrior would be the most suitable for that specific route. Or I can further expand upon my jack of all trades trait and take cleric or mage and of those two I'd rather go with mage, since it provides more stats and versatility from the looks of things. If I was to take mage with my current time, I wouldn't be able to take proper advantage of it until I had a solid foothold in the wasteland. That won't be happening for some years, so the main benefit of this class will lie unused for many years.

On the other hand, if I select this class, my intelligence will increase at a stupid rate which will allow me to gain exp at exponential rate due to my experience rate rising alongside my intelligence. That would be the main reason to go with this class and it's a pretty enticing reason, if I do say so myself.

Looking at the other options here, ranger would increase my agility and perception quite a lot. Having said that, I have no real need for bowmanship when I'm a heavy gunner slash heavy sword user, so this class isn't as appealing as let's say rogue, which provides more substantial stats compared to ranger. Even with that being the case, I still think the mage, martial artist, and warrior are better overall, at least for me, thus I'll pass on these two classes.

The last option I've yet to cover here is the random class. This wouldn't be a bad pick per se if I had a metric fuck ton of luck to rely on, but I don't. And since I don't, I'd rather not leave my choice up to chance, thus this is a non option. With that knocked off, I'm left with mage, martial artist, and warrior to pick from.

Now do I want to level faster with the mage class, increase my stats overall stats with martial artist, or raise my current combat significantly... There isn't one right answer here, but I'd rather have the massive intelligence increase provided by mage. Magic is a huge plus, even though it will most likely see limited use until a decent number of years later.

Nevertheless, adding magic to my ever-expanding arsenal will certainly increase my versatility, to what extent I have no idea. At the very least, it will supply me with valuable knowledge regarding the mystical things that exist in this world and maybe those of others.

Locking in the mage class, I had a large amount of information regarding basic magic, mainly consisting of the many elements, types, and schools it was made up of. In addition to all of that information getting stuffed into my brain, there was also a ton of knowledge about magic circles, runes, symbols, and many other such things. There was also a good bit of information on ranks for both spells and mages themselves. 

They had a whole system involving their ranks and from what I saw; it shared a number of similarities to cultivation stages and realms that I read about in my old world. As I was in the midst of devouring all this information, I turned my sights to the basic technique that came along with the class's gargantuan amount of information.

Hmm, this nameless foundation technique doesn't seem all that complicated. Let me try this out.

Following all the steps of the technique, I remained seated as I was and shut my eyes while trying to focus my senses on a point right behind the bottom portion of my sternum. A few minutes went by before I pulled my second from the task of digesting all the information I had absorbed. With the combination of my two thought processes working in sync, I began to sense a minute amount of energy within the area I had been focusing on a minute later.

Seeming to be on the right track, I didn't let up and continued, as I was directing my entire focus to the task. The minutes ticked on by and before I knew it; I started to feel the mana that had been inside me all this time without my knowledge.

[Ding!] 

[You've Become A 1st Level Mage Initiate!]
[+100 Mana, +100 Max Mana Capacity, +1 Magic Power, and +10 Magic]

Sensing my mana core was easy enough. Let's see if I can't succeed in the following step.

Forgetting about my level up for the meantime, I moved onto the next step and tried my hand at sensing the mana of many elements that supposedly existed in the air and the surrounding environment. I was unaware of how long I spent sitting there doing so but I eventually began to sense and feel the mana around.

As I kept it up, I slowly but surely attained the ability to distinguish between the elements that the mana particles made up of. Scanning my surroundings with my newly acquired skill, I found an abundant amount of neutral mana particles which had the appearance of clear motes and were the most common out of all the mana particles.

The second most common mana particles were the five elements that were made up of fire, water, nature, earth, and wind. Of those five, earth was the most plentiful of the bunch because I was underground and wind the least so because again I was underground.

There was a decent bit of the advanced elements too metal and darkness being the ones I could sense the most. But there were some light, ice, lightning, blood, life, and death particles, too. Especially blood and death particles in the direction of the mines and life particles in the direction of the undercity center. Aside from those, I was able to sense a rare few space, void, chaos mana particles too, but very few and far between.

Alright, now that I'm able to sense the mana and all of its variations, I can proceed to the next step of gathering the mana particles in my mana core. However, before I move to that step, I think I'll need to go over this technique and modify it since it's telling me to only gather neutral mana particles. And from the knowledge that has been supplied to me via the class, I would have to convert that type of mana at an incredibly inefficient rate anytime I want to use magic of another element. 

That sounds pretty shit to me, so why not see if I can't try my hand at experimenting and modifying the technique so I can absorb and utilize all elements with 100% efficiency. Becoming a powerful mage isn't my current priority, so I might as well prepare as best a foundation as I can to ensure that I don't have to usurp it later on to start anew.

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