With a thought, Noah brought up his Trait choices. On top were a few related to his arcane essence.

Arcane essence manipulation - allows you to freely manipulate your arcane essence.

Arcane essence affinity - Increases the damage and effectiveness of all arcane essence related actions by 100%

Arcane essence combat mastery - allows the creation of a unique combat art. All moves related to it are more refined. Perfecting your combat art is easier.

Arcane essence fighting - increases the damage you deal with arcane essence related actions by 100%

There were also manipulation and affinity versions for every element he could think of, and then some. There were also mana and stamina manipulation, all kinds of weapon combat masteries and their fighting versions. There were rune theory, magical circles, and incantations theory, and on the physical side of things breathing, cultivation and aura control techniques.

There were also enhancements to the effectiveness of stats, skill cost reduction, regeneration boosts and more, and more, and more. The stat enhancements were interesting. There were four types. Increasing one stats effectiveness by 300%, two stats by 175%, three stats by 125% and four stats by 100%. Also, there were, as far as Noah could tell, all possible combinations of the six stats available.

He only had three free slots and way too many good traits to chose from. Noah got a general feeling of how the Traits worked and what they did. When he asked the system if he could just learn them, without spending a point, he got a big 'Nope'.

He also found out, the system was quite helpful, sending him affirmative or negative feelings when he wondered if the traits would work or synergize in certain ways. It turned out, ask and you shall be answered, was valid in this situation.

Getting all four types of stat enhancement could increase a stats effectiveness by 800%, a second stat by 500%, a third by 225% and a fourth by 100%. That would be a huge increase to someone's stats, but they wouldn't have the means to utilize them if they picked all four.

Also, although Arcane essence was created by merging the vitality and wisdom stats, it wouldn't be affected by their enhancement traits. When Noah asked the system if he could get an enhancement Trait for the stat, it pretty much laughed in his face.

There was a synergy between his fighting and affinity traits. Usually, the fighting Traits affected physical combat and affinities magical, but in his case, they both related to his arcane essence, as opposed to weapons or the elements.

The breathing, cultivation and aura control techniques would allow a person, to strengthen his body, better utilize and enhance skills and in the future, with better control, even produce supernatural and magical effects. But they were made to work with a normal human body, and his had been changed. That meant, the effects for him would be reduced, and the techniques harder to use.

His Arcane essence Trait already did some of that, like strengthening his body. Also, Noah could feel small charges of electricity building and discharging in his arcane essence as it flowed. That would further mess with the breathing, cultivation and aura control techniques.

And on top of all that Arcane essence manipulation used the same metaphysical tools but in the opposite way. That meant physical Traits unrelated to his arcane essence were out of the question.

The situation was similar with rune theory, magical circles, and incantations theory. They were designed to work with mana and his arcane essence had different characteristics. For one it was much more volatile and unstable, making it almost impossible to form and hold the required shapes of circles and runes, or to be affected by incantations.

So, the arcane essence related traits were his top priority, but there were four of them to his three free slots. Now that Noah thought about it, there were way too many traits that worked off of each other and synergized together and only 5 trait slots. There had to be a way to get more traits later on. He questioned the system and received a " You'll have to find out yourself " kind of feeling, laced with amusement.

"Ok, I'll take that as probably" Also the system might be alive, but he was already close to an existential crisis, so that was a question for another time.

As he was scrolling down something caught his eye. Mana sacrifice health regen. It differed quite a lot from other traits. The name was strange, compared to the precise and often cool sounding names of other Traits, and the description sounded like it was written by a child. Also, it seemed overpowered and broken, but it was badly optimized.

If Noah had to guess the system's little brother created it and the system was too nice to remove it, but it was ok since nobody would pick the Trait anyway. Noah got an affirmative feeling from the system, laced with resignation.

"You have a little brother? NO! WAIT! I don't want an answer to that question. I don't want to think about it right now." Thankfully the system remained silent.

Anyway, what the Mana sacrifice health regen did was regenerate 0.25% of max health per second for every 100 mana points in your maximum mana pool. The cost was 3 times your current level and was taken in ticks every second. The health regen was gradual throughout the second.

The problem was the trait couldn't be turned off and activated for the full one-second cost, even if you took a single point of damage. The regeneration also ended when max HP was reached, and the extra HP was lost. It could also be triggered multiple times per second. In theory, if you had 10 000 Hp and MP you would regenerate 2 500 HP per second, but the user could end up out of mana in a couple of seconds if he suffered consecutive light damage.

So this Trait wasn't useful to anyone. Warriors wouldn't have the mana pool and mages wouldn't risk going out of mana for an inefficient heal. But Noah wasn't anyone. His HP and MP pools were merged and the large regen would cover the cost. As his HP pool grew larger, the regeneration would increase exponentially. His Arcane essence, Arcane incorporation, and Mana sacrifice health regen made a really mean combo.

The problem was right now the cost would outpace the regeneration. His HP pool was too small. At level one Mana sacrifice health regen would cost 3 HP per second and would regenerate 0.75% of his 343.6 HP pool, which was 2.57 HP per second. If he took the Trait and got hurt he would, worst-case scenario die in about 15 minutes, best case scenario hover between 0.1and 3.1 HP which was as good as dead. If Noah put his 10 unspent stat points in Arcane essence he would go to 443.3 HP, which would bump his regen up to 4.43 HP per second.

But that meant for the foreseeable future spending all his stat points in Arcane essence. He would be barely outpacing the cost for the next few levels until the exponential part of the regen kicked in. That would leave his other stats underdeveloped. On top of that, he wasn't getting those stat enhancements anytime soon.

Noah wanted the trait, he wanted to be able to regenerate his whole health pool in a manner of seconds, and since his MP merged into his HP, have an endless mana pool, but he also wanted to survive this cave. Any second now a horde of rats could come out behind the bend of the tunnel and swarm him. He was forced to make important, potentially life-altering choices, that required days, weeks, even months of meticulous planning and theorycrafting in minutes, and he hadn't even gotten to the skills yet.

Noah thought about opening the skill menu but hesitated. Whatever he decided to do there was one Trait that he needed for sure and he selected it, hoping it would narrow down his choices somehow.

You have chosen Arcane essence manipulation as your third trait.

Arcane essence manipulation-allows you to freely manipulate your arcane essence.

Even before taking the trait, he could feel the arcane essence inside of him. Noah even felt, that if he left his mind drift, he could submerge his consciousness in it. That was nothing, compared to what he felt now. It was similar to the experience he had while lying on the ground after he took the Arcane essence Trait.

But now, Noah also had control. It was like a new limb he hadn't used before - a little awkward but it was his. He knew how to move it and just needed practice. The arcane essence was concentrated in his blood saturating the rest of his body, as it circulated. However, the circulation was inefficient and because of that his body right now was operating at about 75% capacity. He knew how to fix it, but that involved some drastic actions, and Noah wanted to select his other Traits and skills, before undertaking it.

More importantly, he felt that his essence was constrained to his body. He could manipulate it freely inside of him, but getting it outside was not happening. Noah got the feeling that in the future with a bigger pool and improved manipulation it would be possible, but at this moment it was a big no-no. Which meant the same for magic.

While going through the options he got the feeling magic skill needed mana manipulation to work reliably. So mages needed both mana manipulation and an elemental manipulation trait to make full use of an element. His arcane essence manipulation did both which was good but spells needed to be cast outside of the body if you wanted to not blow up, which meant no magic for now. That meant he was going the melee fighter route.

Noah realized he would probably end up getting the Mana sacrifice health regen Trait, but he needed to check the skills first. If there weren't any skills fueled by mana or health he could use in this situation, he might have to depend on traits alone to survive.

The skill menu opened in front of him. There were thousands of skills- dozens of weapons with dozens of specific skills each. Then there were bolts, balls, arrows, breaths, armors, novas and many more spells for each element. Noah noticed a flight and blink spells and promised himself to get them as soon as he could.

For now, he ignored everything that included external mana manipulation, which was every spell available. Physical skills cost stamina and required stamina manipulation to execute properly, which like the breathing, cultivation and aura control techniques, interfered with his Aracne essence and Arcane essence manipulation. So he ignored them as well. There was a noticeable absence of red text, so no arcane essence related skills.

Noah was starting to lose hope. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach and his chest felt heavy. He was about to give up, and go back to the traits when the word sacrifice flashed in front of his eyes.

Sacrificial strike - An attack sacrificing a portion of your health that deals damage based on the amount sacrificed.

Sacrificial nova - An attack sacrificing a portion of your health that deals damage to everyone around you. Damage is based on the amount sacrificed.

The skills were hidden away, and it seemed like they did not fit in with the rest. But it felt like a ray of shining light and hope for him. He could work with that. The skills were probably optimized for relatively small amounts of HP sacrificed and would be used either as an execute or a last resort. They would be devastated if he could overcharge them, and if not, he could always spam the hell out of them. But right now he didn't have the HP or the regen to make them work like that. Still, it was better than nothing. And even more, hidden away, there was another set of skills.

Sacrificial strenght - sacrifice health for a short boost to your strength.

Sacrificial dexterity - sacrifice health for a short boost to your dexterity.

Sacrificial endurance - sacrifice health for a short boost to your endurance.

Sacrificial intellect - sacrifice health for a short boost to your intelect.

The boost lasted only for a second, but there was no cooldown time and no limit on the sacrificed amount. There were pros and cons - Noah would have less actual skills and a large amount of his regen would be used up to fuel his stats. On the other hand, he would be able to change his stats on the go and adapt to the situation and his enemy.

He tried figuiring out if the sacrificial stats would scale with the stat enhancement traits. After a short silince he got an unsure negative and a second later, another feeling which boiled down to "definitely not" from the system.

"You didn't know? How is that even possible? Did you change it just for me?" There was no answer.

"Fine! I wasn't getting the stat enhancements any time soon, anyway."

Noah had a better idea of what to do now. He had something to work with. His eyes focused on the dead rat, that could have killed him, lying on the floor, and after a deep breath, he added 10 points to the Arcane essence stat.

Arcane essence-30

HP:443.7/443.7(3% per min / 13.3 HP per min)

You have chosen Mana sacrifice health regen as your 4th trait.

Mana sacrifice health regen - For every 100 mana in your mana pool you regenerate 0.25% HP per second. Can not be turned off. Activates whenever you take any damage. The healing stops when you reach max HP. Any additional health is lost. Costs 3 times your current level in mana per second. The full one-second cost is paid at the begging, regardless of the amount healed. Can be triggered multiple times per second.

The childish explanation, which was about 10 times longer and much more confusing, was replaced by his shorter and more to the point interpretation of the Trait. The system sent him a "you're welcome" type of feeling. Now it was starting to talk to him on it's own. This wasn't disturbing at all. No need for panic!

Only the last Trait was left now, and it had to be Arcane essence combat mastery. Noah knew nothing about fighting and was more likely to hurt himself while punching or kicking, than whatever he was trying to hit. He also knew nothing about weapons, but he was highly unlikely to find one around here. Unless the monsters dropped items. He sent the question towards the system and got a negative in return. Sadly, there would be no epic loot. Anyway, the trait would give him an elementary understanding of fighting and combat to start him on his martial way.

You have chosen Arcane essence combat mastery as your 5th trait.

Arcane essence combat arts-allows for the creation of a unique combat art. All moves related to it are more refined. Perfecting your combat art is easier.

You have no more trait points.

The trait came with a questioning feeling of hand to hand, short sword, long sword, spear, dagger and all kinds of other possibilities. Noah wasn't getting a waepon any time soon, so he chose hand to hand combat. Besides, he got the feeling he could incorporate weapons later, but he would have to learn the basics on his own.

A rudimentary understanding of punches and kicks, basic footwork and defense, flowed in his mind. Of course, he lacked the muscle memory and reflexes honed in battle to properly apply his newfound knowledge, but it was better than nothing.

Looking at the dead rat again, Noah thought back to their fight, if you could call it that. The monster had shot out like an arrow, even with a crushed backside and one mangled front leg. Rats back on Earth were fast and mobile, and these were super rats, so they would be even faster. Even with his increased stats and enhanced body, he wasn't sure, he'd be able to hit them.

His skill choices would need to increase his reaction speed and reflexes, make sure the hits he landed counted and give him an alternative if he couldn't actually land a hit. So Noah took the skills, which in his opinion met the requirements.

You have chosen Sacrificial dexterity as your first skill.

Sacrificial dexterity - sacrifice health for a short boost to your dexterity.

You have chosen Sacrificial strenght as your second skill.

Sacrificial strenght - sacrifice health for a short boost to your strenght.

You have chosen Sacrificicial nova as your third skill.

Sacrificicial nova - An attack sacrifising a portion of your health that deals damage to everyone around you. Damage is based on the amount sacrificed.

You have no more skill points.

There were no skill levels. Also Noah could't actually use the skills. He was given all the information and the tools to make them work but had to figuire out the last steps himself.

'Really now? You couldn't just pour all the knowledge in my head?' Noah wondered at the system and got back a 'Life is hard, deal with it' type of fealing.

With that taken care of, Noah could either improve his circulation with Arcane essence manipulation or try and make his skills work. The former would be much more beneficial and have an immediate impact, while the latter would require trial and error and probably end up costing him a lot of HP. The choice was abvious but he was scared since it would require him to...

Noah's head darted to the side, his eyes going wide. He, at some pointed, had ended up sitting on the ground with his back to the wall. Now he jumped up and clumsily took a fighting stance. There was a rat just out of the bend on the shorter side of the tunnel. What had gotten Noah's attention was the sound of tiny feet scuttling on the cave floor and quiet squeaks.

The sudden movement startled the rat, making it jump up, turning in the air to face the other way and running behind the corner. Noah hesitated, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, frantically looking around. Was it gone or just hiding behind the bend. Should he run or stay here. Maybe go after it? Was it a trap? Were these rats smart enough for something like that?

The rat came back out. It was hesitantly moving forward, frantically sniffing the air before every step, squeaking quietly. It stopped just out ofthe corner. Now that Noah got a better look at it, he saw it was about as big as the other one. A Lv.1 floated above its head confirming it. Its fur was dark, almost blending with the cave floor, but its lighter-colored paws and nose stood out.

Noah couldn't decide what to do. He still din't have working skills, wasn't at full power and the rats were dangerous. Then another rat came out, and another, and another. In no time there were about twenty rats, just out of the corner, sniffing the air, squeaking and looking at him. They were all the same size and all had a Lv.1 floating above their heads.

Noah started slowly moving backward, away from the rats, not taking his eyes off of them. Thankfully they hadn't started moving forward yet. They were restless and constantly sniffing the air. His theory about the dead rats might be correct after all. Still he didn't dare turn around and run.

He had gone maybe twenty meters away from the paved road, putting him at an about 80-meter distance to the rats, making them hard to make out. Then a group of cat sized rats came out of the corner. Noah couldn't see their levels, probably too far away, but they were clearly higher level than the rest.

Noah increased his pace, one hand on the cave wall to balance himself, still going backward, not daring to show his back. More and more rats were coming out now, most of them level one, but there were bigger ones mixed in too.

There was now quite some distance between Noah and the swarm. He was about halfway to the other side of the tunnel, when a visible wave went through the monsters and an even bigger rat came out. It shoved its way through to the front, sniffed the air. Noah's muscles tensed up. He felt cold sweat running down his back and his instincts screaming at him to run.

The rat loudly screeched and the swarm flowed forward like a wave, covering distance in record time. For a second Noah's mind couldn't pick between running and just shutting down, but then his instincts finaly kicked in. He ran with everything he had. At some point, there was a cacophany of screeches and squeaks, but Noah kept running.

When he was at the bend at the end of the tunnel, he risked a look backward. He couldn't see clearly, but it looked like the swarm had stopped just before the former nest. The floor and even walls were covered with rats all the way to the other end of the tunnel.

At that moment a dog sized monster came out of the bend and looked directly at Noah. He could feel the hatred and bloodlust in the rats gaze. All of the squeals and screeches so far, Noah could attribute to a rat, considering they were much larger and magic was involved.The sound that came out of, what had to be the rat patriarch's mouth was something else entirely. It was monstrous and promised suffering and death.

Noah rounded the corner and started running with everything he had.