Seeing that ‘Dismantler’ there just made me realize something, the System is in English. I’m in a different universe, or at least a different world, and the System is displayed in English. The chance of two worlds developing the same identical language is nearly zero, so the System probably uses the user’s language. The verb ‘dismantle’ is used wrong here, but understanding what it tries to communicate, I don’t think English has a correct word for it, which supports the translation theory.

Let’s get back to the paths topic, first of all I’ll discard all the racial ones. All of them cost 10 or more, because their price is doubled, and most those that I can start don’t seem fitting for my current situation. The only one that can be useful would be the ‘Forstgol 1’, but the description is too vague and it doesn’t justify spending all my points on it.

In the other type, I only have two paths so I’ve listed them both. The ‘Otherworlder 1’ path seems almost a no brainer considering the description, the cost and connection with title. But what the fuck is that cost for the ‘Outsider’ path? According to the A.I. chip that’s one million points! Damn, that description got my expectations sky high just to be shut down immediately after.

On the topic of paths that I can’t start right now there are very few above 10points, disregarding the ‘Outsider’ and racial paths. 3 of them caught my attention as they seem to contain some pretty important information.

First, there’s the fact that the so called space magic and time magic are leagues above the other types. I have more than 20magic apprentice paths and only those 2 cost more than 25 points. Second, as ‘Lightning Warrior 1’ has no equivalent of any other attribute, it was probably unlocked by my affinity or resistance. I can’t rule out the possibility of earning it during my fight with the wolf.

Getting that out of the way, let’s talk viable choices. My first impulse is to choose ‘Animal Researcher’. I have in front of me the corpse of a goddamn wolf that generates electricity. The only problem is the cost. On a second thought, there’s also the fact I can study it even without the path. And the fact that I have no way of studying it without lab equipment…

Wait, I got a bit too much into this path choice, that I forgot something. Before going further, I think it’s better to understand the other tabs in the status as well. I already spent almost 5 minutes looking over 3 tabs so I’ll speed this up a notch.

-Send me a summary of the remaining tabs. I’m mostly interested in what they do, but add any other relevant information about them.

Affinities represent your attunement with different elements. The higher the affinity the easier it is to produce and control said element using mana. Increases in affinity apply to the interval between the current affinity and 100%. Affinities are not shown in the status window unless they are above a certain threshold individual for each element.

Resistances represent your body’s ability to withstand different elements. Increases in resistances apply to the interval between the current resistance and 100%. Resistances are not shown in the status window unless they are above a certain threshold individual for each element.

Titles are earned by performing great feats or achievements. Titles are rare and hard to gain, but provide great benefits. By equipping a title in the Identity tab, the user can gain additional buffs. Only one title can be equipped at a time. Most titles unlock powerful paths.

Perks are representations of powerful bonuses. They are innate to some races or species, but can also be gained by fulfilling certain conditions. Some perks can unlock unique paths.

Skills are ranked into 4 categories: common, rare, epic and legendary. Skills are classified after a mixture of power, utility and usability. Personal skills are a special category, as they are skills outside the System’s database. When a skill is granted through the System, the user gains the knowledge and mastery needed to use it.

Most of them seem self-explanatory. What I’m most interested in here are the way affinities and resistances increase and the equipped title. The higher the affinity or the resistance the harder it is to increase. For example, my mental affinity is at 82%, increasing it by 50% will only bring it to 91%. This means that my lightning affinity is even higher than I initially thought.

Next up are the titles. From what I understand, they provide 2 bonuses. One of them is permanent and the other is active only with the title equipped. The equipped title is considered primary and is also displayed in the identity tab. Let’s see what my titles have to offer.

Otherworlder – 25% increase in stat points gained, 50% faster path progression, 100% increase in the speed of gaining base stats through training, 50% increase in the speed of learning and leveling skills.

Outsider – Add the effect of a chosen title to the effect of the ‘Otherworlder’ title, then double the resulting effect and gain its bonuses. The chosen title can’t be ‘Otherworlder’ or ‘Outsider’. If no other title is chosen simply gain the double effect of the ‘Otherworlder’ title.

Wow, the ‘Otherworlder’ effect seems strong in its own right, but ‘Outsider’ is something else. I may be overthinking this but the fact that it says that it doubles the ‘Otherworlder’ effect, instead of just mentioning the doubled effect, suggests that the titles’ effect can be improved. For now, I’ll equip the ‘Outsider’ title and get back to the paths.

Too many things point towards picking the ‘Otherworlder’ path, so the other 10points paths are out of discussion. I can’t choose 2 paths of the same type because their cost will skyrocket, so let’s take one combat path and one profession path.

For combat, I have martial artist, fire mage, water mage and karate practitioner. I’ve practice a bit of karate during my spare time, but it was mostly to practice my control over my body, especially after enhancement operations.

Karate specializes on keeping some distance and that can be very helpful if I am fighting wild animals. The problem is that the style is optimized to be used against other humans. Just thinking about that wolf slipping through my guard gives me shivers.

If I am to choose unarmed combat, apprentice martial artist seems better as it doesn’t restrict me to only one style. There are a lot of paths for weapons that I can choose from, but I don’t have access to anything decent that can be considered a weapon and I can guarantee that my fist hits harder than a wooden branch.

A magic path sounds very appealing, but also very risky. If I can create drinkable water with magic, one of my problems is instantly solved. If fire magic allows me wield fire as a weapon, I’ll have a long-range method of fighting. The problem is existence of those ifs, for what I know I can end up unable to use magic and be stuck with a useless combat path.

By process of elimination, my choice is apprentice martial artist. While it’s the most basic of the choices, it’s also the most solid one. With my enhanced body I should have no problems fighting bare-handed and all I have to do is improve my technique.

For the profession path, I have forest forager, apprentice cook and beast dismantler. My problem is finding food and all of them can solve this problem. Beast dismantler would allow me to pick out the edible parts of the animals. Cook is more or less the same thing with the only difference that wouldn’t be interested in the other parts.

All three choices have the risk of not providing me with the information I need, but going down that route renders them all useless. Making the assumption that they can help me not get poisoned, at least not badly, all 3 are optimal for my situation.

Forager’s description mentions nature’s resources so probably I will focus on finding fruits. It also mentions avoiding combat so I’m not totally sure. Avoiding combat would help me progress this path, but will hinder the martial artist one. Also, out of the 3, it has the most limited usability, as it isn’t helpful outside of the forest.

Cooking, besides identifying edible parts, can provide me better tasting food. Being used with the food on Earth, eating basic roast meat will take a bit to adapt to. Being able to cook for myself can be a boon everywhere I can go, but I’d rather spend my time doing something else if I have the option of simply buying food.

Carefully dismantling beasts can help me extract other useful parts and not only edible parts. I’m sure that the wolf’s fangs can be used, considering that my skin is harder to penetrate than iron. It is also limited as I don’t intend to spend my time hunting beast. There’s also the problem that I don’t a knife, but that goes for cooking as well.

Considering everything, I’ll go with beast dismantler. The other two were close calls, but dismantling seems to be the one that is the most useful in the future. Start the ‘Otherworlder 1’ path. Start the ‘Apprentice Martial Artist’ path. Start the ‘Beast Dismantler’ path.

You’ve started the ‘Otherworlder 1’ path.

You’ve started the ‘Apprentice Martial Artist’ path. You have obtained the [Basic Martial Arts Lv1] common skill.

You’ve started the ‘Beast Dismantler’ path. You have obtained the [Dismantle Lv1] common skill.

I’ve felt absolutely no change at all, but looking at the wolf again I have a rough idea of what I can extract from it and how to do it. I was about to try throwing a few punches to test the martial arts skill, but I stopped due to the pain in my left arm.

Now, what should I do next? Not dismantling the wolf here would be a waste, but I need to wait for my arm to heal. Practicing is also out of discussion. Simply waiting here would put me at risk as the fresh smell of blood will surely attract other beast here soon. At the same time leaving here would lose me the wolf’s corpse and will also pose the risk of beasts following my sent from here.

I think that climbing on a tree and waiting is the best choice here. There I can review information about the martial arts stored in my A.I. database. It’s not much as I’ve downloaded just what was necessary as a form of recreation. If any being approaches, the A.I. chip should be able to detect it using my senses.

Said and done, I jump on a big stable branch about 4meters above the soil. I should be hidden if anything comes for the wolf corpse. Now, it’s a waiting game. Hmm, I should use the processing power of my A.I. chip on something. Ignoring it is a waste of resources.

-Simulate scenarios of me fighting the lightning wolf. Using the information on martial arts in the database and anything new that I might have learned with the skill, generate the optimal fighting style against the beast. Consider different sizes for it and also the possibility of fighting more than one of them at a time.

I sit and lean against the tree and focus, trying to understand the moves I’ve used inside the simulations generated by the A.I. chip. It’s only after two hours that I’ve received a message from the A.I. chip.

Warning! Unknown organism is approaching the host’s location at high speed. Calculations suggest that it’s similar to the dire lightning wolf, but slower and smaller.

You have learned the [Meditation Lv1] common skill.

Spoiler: Status

Identity

Stats

Active Paths

Name

Avitus Volten

STR

224 [246.4]

VIT

146 [160.6]

Human

0.4%

Race

Human

AGI

285 [313.5]

PER

367 [403.7]

Otherworlder 1

1.2%

Sex

Male

DEX

312 [343.2]

INT

348 [382.8]

Apprentice Martial Artist

2.3%

Age

47

CON

186 [204.6]

WIS

95 [104.5]

Beast Dismantler

0%

Title

Outsider

END

96 [105.6]

TLN

6 [ 6.6 ]

Affinities

Resistances

Titles Earned

Perks

Lightning

96%

Lightning

90%

Otherworlder

Lightningborn

A.I. Chip

Mental

82%

Pain

72%

Outsider

Shadow

53%

Mental

55%

Fire

38%

Poison

52%

Spatial

8%

Spatial

25%

Temporal

2%

Skills

Common

Rare

Personal

Basic Self-Regeneration Lv8

Fake Status Lv1

Quantum A.I. Processor Lv27

Basic Martial Arts Lv1

Basic Long-range Appraisal Lv1

Dismantle Lv1

Lightning Conversion Lv1

Meditation Lv1

You have 3.3 unspent stat points and 2 unspent path points.