Eve slept in the day after combining puppies, hunting, and explaining the wonders of culinary cuisine to Fang. When she woke up, the first thing she did after showering was check her kill messages while choosing an outfit. Letting the experience spam flow through her mind, she didn’t even pay it attention.

“Wilson, would it be possible to just see if a target is dead visually, and only receive the highest level up message of a bunch?”

The System believes it can arrange such a thing for the User, for a price.

“Oh?” Eve said, her tone curious.

The System notes the User currently has one Skill slot from their Lv. 10 that hasn’t been used.

“No that was, wait Map was from the Starter Pack. Didn’t I, oh, no I used the Spell. Huh, you are right Wilson, I do have an unused Skill Slot. How is that related to my question?” Eve asked, after doing some quick mental math.

The System is shocked the User didn’t consult her brother’s notes on this subject.

Eve gave the gimlet eye her mother used when she was being snarky as a kid. Taking a moment between choosing yoga pants or sweat pants, she skimmed her memory.

(Notes on the best things to Sell a Skill or Spell Slot for are listed on page 19501)

A strange message appeared, yet her memory had no other information.

“There’s nothing about how to Sell a Skill or Spell Slot?” Eve said, before a rush of information unfolded.

All the best Systems will buy Skill or Spell Slots. What they use them for, I can’t tell you. No, really I can’t. I have absolutely no clue, and it really isn’t relevant.

Now, onto Selling. The System buys many things, and one of the ones that you will have easiest access to for Selling is Skill or Spell Slots.

Don’t let the System lie to you, it can do a wide variety of things. One of the most simple and basic is alter reality so that you can loot things from fallen foes, give you combat data to make sure that dead guy is really dead, or even show you the health and mana of people you are working with. The sky is the limit, it can provide game interfaces, and so, so, so much more.

Buuuuut, everything has a price Eve. Like any good salesperson the System will provide the first sample of the good for free, after that, the price rises. The maximum price will always equal whatever you get every 5 levels in terms of Skill and Spell slots.

So do this.

Get the ability to Loot your kills first for free. Being able to Loot pulls from the fundamental magic of Risk versus Reward, one of the Primal Laws. The System is able to change that into actual items, although I have long suspected they are making a cut of the profit involved. After all, who could tell if the loot was good or bad besides the System giving it, eh?

Then get the ability to visually see if something is dead. For me I always had it show a Skull and Crossbones over something when it was truly dead.

Next I recommend the ability to see your Health, Mana, and Stamina as both a Percentage and Number.

Finally, you should get the Buff/Debuff with your Health/Mana/Stamina bar setup. This can show you if you are suffering from any Curses, Poison, and so forth faster than checking Status.

(Yes, notes are going secret squirrel now. Some of this information is too powerful for you to know without some extra safeguards built in.)

“Oh, wow. A guy keeping secrets to keep secrets, color me shocked.” Eve said as she chose the yoga pants and shirt combo. “Alright, can you give me the Looting ability, and then the ability to see if something is truly dead?”

Domain of Paper I has absorbed the Looting Spell.

Domain of Paper I has learned to show True Death.

Eve blinked at the messages in surprise before saying, “Nice!”

You have lost a single Skill Slot.

Eve waved it away, even with the loss, it was a good deal in her opinion. She was still one level away from Level 20, and she already had plans to address her mana regeneration problems with her next two choices.

Checking her memory Eve dredged up the Spell and Skill combination she had been drooling over. Ever since she had gained Celestial Mind it had been easy to calculate out how ridiculous her mana regen was. When she had queried Wilson about it, the System eventually admitted that Celestials were known for mana regen. Checking her brother’s notes had also given her a solid path forward. Remembering the note, she looked it over once more.

So, you’ve got the choice between Physical or magic

Magic.

Magic all the way.

Let me say it again, M.A.G.I.C.

Why?

Because at the higher levels humans are not built to fight creatures on the same Physical level without a massive amount of reduction in our efficiency.

A physical fighter at the peak of perfection can match a Dragon, sure, but they must sacrifice so much along the way, specialize in so much extra baggage, it just isn’t worth it. Granted, it means once you leave the world with a Primal Energy Source travel is a lot easier for you in the Void. You would also be able to get through the Walls between realities easier.

At least if you only learned magic from some pathetic half-wit.

Your great and awesome big brother is specialized in non-physical stuff, so I have tons of advice for it.

Not so much for physical stuff, and the advice I could give I leeched off the Bear, cause, well he went that direction. (The Bear is a Russian guy on our world, as strong as me, yes, there are people who managed to be as awesome as your big bro. It happens, rarely.)

I didn’t go that route. I didn’t go the bulging muscles, and ridiculous good looks while lifting mountains route.

Instead, I went the rip my enemies into sub-atomic particles in less than a second, counter time-stoppers, seal dimensional escape shenanigans route.

Much better in my humble opinion.(MUCH. BETTER.)

If for some reason you choose Physical, there’s a few methods of training for that, it will be a big gamble if they work for you though. Cause magic is better, duh.

Now.

If you picked magic, Eve, then let me tell you how to roll!

Focus on one path specialization is the easiest way to reach the top. Specialization can be as simple as an Element. Basically, focus on one thing to the exclusion of all other factors.

No, this won’t make you a one trick pony because the next step is to make the one thing you focused on do everything.

Combat with magic is different than simply throwing around Spells or using Skills. You need to build a basic toolkit that can do the following things:

Detection, Concealment, Shielding, Attacking, Control, Movement, and Utility

This is the reason I recommended Charm or Water. In almost 99.999% of the realities you enter, they will be the easiest, smoothest, best way forward in magic. Charm is so versatile that were you to actually reach a high enough level, it would be ok to get in contact with a civilization. (Being that you are a female Eve, Charm is almost three times as effective since most populations will be higher in male than female. Reasons why are on page 18582)

Now, after practicing every bit of your toolkit to the maximum, and creating Core Spells from your Class, eventually you will get a Domain that can cover all these at once, it just takes time to merge everything together.

Once you gain a Domain, then you want to make everything operate at an almost reflexive level. Domains are big force multipliers Eve.

We are talking the difference between a single shot revolver versus a Tank with supporting infantry trained in modern warfare with a command and control center on the side.

If that example made no sense, try this one.

Core Spells=Decent Origami artist

Domain=Grandmaster Origami artist

Looking at the last part made it all click for Eve. She wondered how long it would have taken to reach a Domain without the First Contact Protocol. Would she even have managed to make one before dying of old age?

Wilson is sneaky on so many levels. Eve thought. I suspect the more help he provides on the sly, the bigger the favor brother will owe.

Eve shrugged, that stuff was so far above her current level of power it might as well be in the center of a black hole. The more important part was today was the day she created her ninja suit.

Because every good female ninja warlock queen needs to look like they are one. Eve thought. Something most men in my life didn’t understand was clothing is as much a weapon as a gun.

She looked back fondly at the times she had applied for jobs wearing the skimpiest clothing possible. Did she care that people called her a slut behind her back? Nope, not when she got the junior manager position for it. People quickly changed their tune then, and if they didn’t she made sure their shifts reflected it.

It also helps when making mistakes. Eve thought with a smirk. Men tend not to hold the bubbly young girl in revealing clothes to the same standard as others.

The fond memories of her past adventures back on Earth moving through the job market towards her dream job of a doctor made a pleasant distraction as she cooked breakfast. With a glance at the furry rug that had taken over the chair she had made for him yesterday, Eve made enough for both of them.

Butchering the carcasses was simply a matter of holding them up in the garden by Kudzu and letting the Samurai Six work on them. Once something was rendered down into component meat parts it became stackable. Apparently her inventory had seen so much meat, it just considered meat to be meat regardless of what it had come from before.

Yet it still holds out letting me stack dead animals together. Eve thought. Well, whatever. Weird magic box, is a weird magic box with rules. Follow the rules, and all is well so it doesn’t really matter.

Breakfast was the first time she was going to try something which made every man around her drool.

The fine art of steak.

Granted she didn’t have a proper grill, so she was forced to commit sacrilege and cook from the stovetop. Eve sent a silent prayer to the Grill Gods that she would get a viable source of charcoal soon if they would just bless her stovetop for now. Her prayers must have been answered because all the steaks came out very nicely.

Fang opened one eye when the plate was placed down in front of him. Between the moment Eve turned her attention to pull her own plate over to the table, and when she glanced back at Fang, nearly half his plate had vanished without a sound.

“Like the steaks, huh?” Eve said, letting a portion of her mind split to start cooking more. The ability to split her mind was becoming smoother and Celestial Mind informed her that true multi-tasking was within reach with more practice.

“These slabs of meat cooked in this manner are honored with a Name? Acceptable.” Fang said as he slowly devoured the rest of the plate. Before he managed to finish, Eve had deposited a second plate for him with a different type of seasoning.

Still can’t believe my brother referred to me as a Serial Cook. Eve thought. Just because I take care to note every detail of those I cook food for, from their preference to spices, to the meat and vegetables they prefer. Serial Cook, bah!

The reference had come about when Matt learned that most serial killers studied their victims for days. She had cooked nothing but chili for him for almost a week straight as a result of that little incident.

Once the meal was over, Eve cleaned everything up before asking, “Would you like to remain here or is there someplace you need to be?”

“This old wolf would enjoy relaxing here in the sunlight if that is ok?” Fang asked.

“Sure, I’m just going to be practicing a new application of my paper in the garden. I’ll be back for lunch in a little bit.” Eve replied.

“Truly, one splitting the day by meals is a novel concept.” Fang said as he lay his head down on his paws before closing his eyes.

Eve decided to let sleeping wolves lie and moved to the garden.

“Kudzu could you do me a favor?” Eve asked.

“What kind of favor?” Kudzu asked.

“I’m going to create some armor with my paper, I need you to help me find weaknesses that I can shore up.” Eve said.

“This can be done.” Kudzu said, and suddenly Eve found a variety of lethal vines around her.

“Wilson, if Kudzu attacks me on my request, and manages to kill or harm me what happens?” Eve asked, eyeing the vines.

This System assures the User that such an incident as it imagines is impossible for a variety of reasons, not the least of which, is this System is not an idiot.

Wilson, how you can artfully call me stupid while still appearing neutral, and complimenting yourself at the same time is genius. Eve thought sarcastically before saying aloud, “Ok, let’s test option one…”