Daz decided to buy four passive skills for himself, upgrade his resistances and buy a new one, improve his energy reserves, and lastly, he bought two passive skills for Rimmy while also maxing out the golem's stats.

He would have maxed his own stats as well, but Daz didn't think it was worthwhile considering that he gained stats by consuming souls. If the need ever arose, maybe he'd max his stats with points one day, but for now, it was a waste in his eyes.

First, he bought a skill that he thought would be incredibly useful for the foreseeable future.

Lifeforce Dependency [SS-Rank (Lower Tier)] Description

A skill which tightly links the host's life to their Lifeforce.

Ah! I love this skill! It's perfect for a torture victim to have! Not for the victim, of course, but more for the torturer. You can get away with a lot more stuff when you're sure your, uh, 'friend', won't die easily.

Level N/A Abilities So long as the host has at least 1 point of Lifeforce, they shall not die.

Ignoring the fairly gruesome flavour text, Daz bought this skill for the sole reason of making himself far harder to kill.

Not only did his Halo of Absolute Judgement forcefully move his body from fatal danger twice per day, but it was also able to restore up to two-hundred-thousand points of his natural lifeforce, which he had upgraded from the previous amount of only seven-thousand to a respectable one-hundred-thousand.

In essence, this meant that Daz could 'die' up to four times per day and be totally fine.

Previously, from what Daz had known, all lifeforce did was kill you if you ran out of it, but at the same time, a blow to the brain or the heart might not have drained all of your lifeforce, but it would still have killed you instantly. Now with this skill in his arsenal, the fear of a fatal blow had been nullified.

The only downside was that, despite only being an SS-ranked skill, it was easily one of the most expensive ones since it cost Daz fifteen-million merit points.

The next skill that Daz decided to buy was seemingly random, but his instincts told him that it wouldn't be a bad idea to purchase it, so he did.

Waterbreathing [S-Rank (Higher Tier)] Description

A skill which replicates the natural abilities of aquatic beings, allowing the host to breathe underwater.

I wonder what kind of fish you'd be? A Clownfish? Maybe a Pufferfish? Hmm... Something's telling me you'd definitely be a sardine.

Level N/A Abilities Allows the host to breathe water as if it were air.

A very straightforward but equally useful skill. Not only did it make so that Daz could breathe underwater, but more importantly to the reaper, it made it impossible for him to drown in it. Blood and other similar liquids like oil could still kill him if he somehow had his lungs filled with them, but there was very little he could do about that right now.

Perhaps if time proved that he needed to be able to breathe in other liquids, then he'd replace Waterbreathing with a far more expensive skill, Liquidbreathing, but for now, this was as far as Daz was willing to go with this particular passive skill.

His third new skill was something he was buying more for his clones than for himself.

Soundless Steps [SS-Rank (Lower Tier)] Description

A skill created by the apprentice assassin, Orthes Methial, on her first successful mission. It went by another name initially, but it wasn't long before her master, Fuldro Undthar, saw her practising the skill in secret.

Fuldro Undthar chastised her prized pupil for keeping a skill with such potential a secret for so long and then went on to spend three decades perfecting it with Orthes Methial.

Your vast array of 'Skills any creeps and pervs must have to successfully ruin their social status!' is ever-expanding, I see.

Level 1 Abilities Passively silences the host's footsteps when walking or running. Makes the host immune to all forms of sound detection.

With this, Daz could probably use his clones to infiltrate enemy survivor cities fairly easily. He was already very good at hiding and masking his presence from his days as a pickpocket, but in this new age where every Tom, Dick, and Harry could have enhanced hearing, Daz saw this as being a worthwhile purchase.

He was sure that in the future he'd need to buy even more skills related to infiltration if he wanted his clones to be good at that, but he figured that for now, he'd only buy this one and simply let Beta practice in a training room to see if he could learn the other skills related to spy work on his own.

Daz's final new skill was one that he only purchased since it was fairly impossible and very dangerous to realistically practice, especially in an area where the system would actually grant skills.

Space Adapted Body [SSS-Rank (Lower Tier)] Description

A skill which replicates the natural abilities of the very rare space-born beings, allowing the host to safely stay in the vacuum of space.

Congratulations! You can now successfully accomplish your childhood dreams of becoming an astronaut!... Oh, right, you didn't have a childhood.

Level 1 Abilities Allows the host to traverse space (Does not affect the host's body, it only allows the host to stay in space without any negative side-effects such as death).

Now, Daz was aware that he would probably naturally gain this ability if he ever awakened his Gravital Body esper power, however, he had no idea when that was going to happen nor did he know if that esper power was a passive one or an active one.

At least with this skill, it was certainly passive and he now had it in the unlikely circumstance that he'd need it before the tests naturally gravitated towards the wider universe. As a side note, his instincts had been completely silent on his purchase of this skill, so he just went with his gut and decided to buy it.

As far as his resistances went, he had spent quite a lot of merit points on those.

Host's Resistance Sheet Resistance Type Resistance Amount Magic 60% [+5%] Physical 60% [+47.5%] Ranged 60% [+50%] Penetrative 60% [+50%] Holy Magic 60% [+65%] Elemental 60% [+35%] [New!] Pressure 60%

Now this, this had cost Daz an incredible amount of merit points to do.

As it would so happen, it seemed that sixty-percent was the maximum percentage that a resistance could reach. Upon asking the system about this, its answer was that it simply would not allow any hosts to become invincible, and thus the resistances were restricted.

Daz did have to wonder if you could raise these resistances past sixty-percent via your own efforts, but that would be impossible to find out without talking to experienced hosts like Big Bo or by performing some very dangerous experiments, both of which Daz had almost no interest in doing.

And of course, the final thing that Daz had bought for himself, was the increases in his energies.

Host's Status Basic Information Name: Daz Species: Reaper Race: Archreaper Age: 20 Sex: Male Class: Crystal Digger Affinity: Lawful Neutral Energies Lifeforce: 100,000/100,000 [+93,000] Death Energy: 98,000/100,000 [+80,000] Worldforce: 10,000/10,000 [+9,500] Stats Strength: 1,100(1,650) Dexterity: 1,000(1,500) | Item Boost: +50. Constitution: 1,100(1,650) Agility: 800 Charisma: 680 | Item Boost: +15 Ingenuity: 840 Defense: 1,600 | Item boost: +3,000. Immunity: 316 Soul Power: 6,000 Luck: 1,000 | Item Boost: +325. Justice: 150 [+10] Corruption: 0 Combo: 200 Wisdom: 700 | Item Boost: +250 Regeneration: 1 | Item boost: +100 Patience: 200

Since his life depended on his lifeforce now, he obviously went all-out on it along with his death energy which most of his skills used to power them.

His only skill that used worldforce currently was his new class skill, Crystallisation. It was, admittedly, a very useful skill, but it also wasn't very expensive to use, so he only gave himself ten-thousand worldforce.

With this, Daz had finished reviewing his changes, so he looked over Rimmy's two new passive skills and stat increases.

Hardness [B-Rank (Higher Tier)] [Growth Skill] Description

A skill which was created shortly after the system's inception by the oldest Living Rock.

Simple, yet ancient beyond measure and vastly profound... hardness interests me a great deal... Hey! Don't take that out of context!

Level 1 Abilities Every time the host's body gets damaged, it shall grow 0.01% harder. Limit: 10% hardness.

Daz wished that he could buy this skill for himself, but unfortunately, Rimmy could only get it due to his species. The incremental increase in hardness was minute, but over time, Daz could only imagine how difficult it would become to hurt Rimmy. Especially since the skill would rank up and evolve on its own since it was a growth skill.

Restorative Aura [SSS-Rank (Higher Tier)] Description

A skill initially gifted to the forty-fifth champion of the God of Life upon granting their wish to be helpful to others and not themselves.

No bullshit, very smart choice here, Daz. You've done Rimmy a solid and you've earned 1 respect point with me. Your current respect with me is, oh, well, it's now -999,999,999. Every little helps, right?

Level N/A Abilities Passively creates a 15-foot-wide healing aura around the host. The aura will restore 500 points of the main energy source for hosts the host considers to be their allies every 30 seconds. The aura will heal small wounds for hosts the host considers to be their allies once every minute. The aura will heal medium wounds for hosts the host considers to be their allies once every five-minutes. The aura will heal large wounds for hosts the host considers to be their allies once every ten-minutes.

Unlike Crusher's or Madison's healing powers, this one couldn't cure life-threatening or fatal wounds. The only reason Daz bought it for Rimmy despite its absurdly large price tag, was that it applied to both Rimmy's core and his main body, meaning that it would effectively work on himself so long as his core didn't stray too far away from his main body.

Seeing both of Rimmy's statuses with maxed stats made him incredibly excited. "I wonder who'd win if we fought each other again? We should spar at least a few times a day to increase your Hardening."

"Rimmy," his jewelled friend happily replied as he ordered his main body to carefully make its way to Fort Skip's outer gate to return to its post as the guardian of Fort Skip.

Nodding in satisfaction, Daz checked his merit points.

The total balance of the host is now: 175,140,395 [-115,145,000].

"A lot of points... Especially my energies, resistances and Rimmy's new aura and maxed stats, but this should be enough to upgrade Fort Skip and Waterford, right? I'm really hoping I still have about one-hundred-mil left to generate interest off of after I'm done... My instincts seem to think I'll be fine, so should we get started, Buddy?" Daz asked as he glanced at the happily hovering crystal man who was next to him.

"Rimmy!" the golem excitedly replied.

"Daz!" Turning around, the reaper saw his girlfriend trotting towards him with a blue blob on top of her head.

"Right... That's Mr Barrier," Daz mumbled as he let Madison tackle him and bury her face in his chest.

A few seconds passed before she looked up at his somewhat-handsome profile and pouted with her eyes. "Dad, no, tell. Why? Worried. Love, you."

'Ah, she must have asked Rose about the champion auction then found out about Father...' Daz had an awkward look on his face. "I really didn't want to bother you with stuff related to that monster. I'm sorry if you feel like I was hiding something from you."

Her pouting eyes soon narrowed as she glanced around. Seeing no one in their immediate surroundings since they were within the fort's inner walls, she pressed her lips against Daz's. "Maddy, here. Listen, you. Shoulder, cry, on."

Daz smiled warmly. "That's sweet of you. I kinda wanna go back to our room to have some fun, but I've got some base-building to do. Do you and Mr Barrier wanna join us?"

Madison immediately nodded her head up and down excitedly while Mr Barrier somehow stayed completely stationary despite her wild movements.

With that, the four of them, Rimmy included, left Fort Skip's inner walls.