Chapter 5 - Perk up.

When Benton was thoroughly satisfied that he understood everything important and pertinent about cultivation method creation, he moved on to techniques and found out that the process for those didn’t vary much from what he’d already learned. The multiplier for the technique’s realm matched the one for methods, and he had to specify the applicability and allocate one hundred Creation Points in the same manner. The only differences were the costs and that he had to also specify what skill or ability he wanted the technique to impart.

A technique tuned to a specific aspect cost three points and returned four upon the sect member reaching mastery while one created for the broadest scope of members cost ten. Since Su’s memories told him that cultivators could learn multiple techniques per realm and that advancing them was typically accomplished much quicker than moving between major realms, Benton was enthusiastic about the prospect of making lots of points off techniques.

Not only were they profitable, but they were also quite flexible. Want to learn parkour? There was a technique for that. Turn invisible? Use a technique. Fly? Turn your fist into iron? Create a poison mist? Yep. Use a technique.

Granted, those abilities were dependent on being a high enough realm, but the possibilities were seemingly only limited by the imagination.

“System,” he said after he finished his perusal of the Technique Creation Menu, “please bring up the status screen again.”

Sect Name:Not ChosenSect Members:0Sect Points:100Shop Points:0Host Cultivation:NoneHost Techniques:NoneMenus:[Cultivation Method][Technique][Quest][Perk][Advancement][Shop - LOCKED]

“Thanks. Now please let me see the next one on the list, the Quest Menu.”

Welcome, Host, to the Quest Menu.

Host has three open quests.

Host has zero completed quests.

“System, please display open quests.”

Found a Sect QuestPrerequisites:Sect name selected Minimum of one disciple Sect land ClaimedReward:Shop unlocked Recruit First Disciple QuestPrerequisites:NoneReward:5 Shop Points Recruit Additional Disciple QuestPrerequisites:Recruit First Disciple Quest CompleteReward:1 Shop PointSpecial:Repeatable



None of that sounded terribly difficult. He just hoped that later quests might provide greater rewards.

“System, how is the term ‘disciple’ defined?”

A disciple is a qi user who has accepted Host as Master and who has committed to becoming a Sect Member once the sect has been created. Becoming a sect member automatically fulfills the requirement to be a disciple.

Alright. If he grokked that correctly, a disciple was simply a sect member before the sect was actually created.

Time for the good stuff. It had been all he could do to not skip ahead in the order.

“System, please display the Perk Menu.”

Welcome, Host, to the Perk Menu.

Host has five Perk Points available. Selecting any perk from the list below uses one Perk Point. Using additional Perk Points on the same perk increases the potency of the perk.

Please choose from the following list:

Auspicious Encounter

Advantageous Starting Location

Enhanced Body Cultivation Power

Enhanced Cultivation Power

Enhanced Physical Senses

Enhanced Spiritual Senses

Enhanced Technique Power

Five Equipment Points

Hide Cultivation

Regeneration

After looking over the list, Benton was completely dismayed. There were simply too many incredible choices, and he could only choose five. Worse, if he chose the maximum number of different perks, that decision meant that he missed out on the opportunity of supercharging any of them.

“System, will I ever be able to gain more Perk Points?”

Perk Points are extremely rare, but several quests offer them as rewards.

Benton sighed. That was something at least. He began questioning the System on each of the entries. The Auspicious Encounter would guide his path to one or more potential high value recruits. He’d still have to do the work to get them to take him as a master, but choosing the perk was the only guarantee he had of finding a foundational sect member who would have the good enough spiritual roots to compete in a brutal cultivation world. It was almost a must have.

Likewise, Advantageous Starting Location seemed too valuable to pass up. Choosing it would cause the System to guide him to a good place to start his sect, one that was in a high qi location with good resources but not near any rival sects. Finding such a site on his own would be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

The three perks that enhanced his personal power all sounded good on the surface, but it went against his entire reasoning for choosing the Sect Leader System in the first place. While it was important for him to have an appropriate level of personal power, his plan was to build up his sect members, not himself. After a moment’s thought, he removed all three from consideration.

Enhanced Physical Senses simply made his five senses better, which seemed maybe a little bit useful but just wasn’t on the same level of some of the other choices. It took little thought to discount it.

Enhanced Spiritual Senses was a completely different story. At first glance, it felt like it fell under the category of not enhancing his own power, but as he read on, his eyes widened. To begin with, the perk gave him a personal skill that would help immediately—the ability to sense spirit beasts at a far greater range than his cultivation level would normally allow, which meant he could likely avoid potentially deadly encounters with one well above his level. More importantly, though, the perk gave him the ability to see the exact cultivation realm, qi aspect, and spiritual roots of any person and the techniques of a cultivator at a lower cultivation realm than him. Without it, he would have no ability to make full use of the System’s Cultivation Method Creation and Technique Creation. It was the first absolute must have.

The Five Equipment Points allowed him to choose pieces of equipment much like he was choosing perks, and, honestly, his inclination was that any permanent change to his fundamental skillset vastly outweighed the transient power provided by equipment. On the other hand, Benton was stuck in the middle of a dangerous forest without so much as a sharpened stick to his name. He didn’t even have a sack or waterskin with him. What benefit would a good starting location or any of the other perks be if he died before he reached civilization?

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

In contrast to Enhanced Spiritual Senses, he immediately saw the value of Hide Cultivation. His grandson’s stories were filled with tales of characters using such a cheat ability to hide from their higher realmed enemies. It was such a stereotypical protagonist skill that it would be difficult not to take it.

At first blush, Regeneration was similar to Hide Cultivation. What self-respecting isekai protagonist didn’t have the ability to regenerate? Once again, Su’s memories disagreed. Cultivators already possessed bodies that were difficult to kill, and the right pill could heal any injury. Basically, a cultivator would eventually recover from any injury not severe enough to immediately end one’s life as long as he had the appropriate resources available.

“System, what exactly does Regeneration do?”

Regeneration allows the Host’s body to heal all injuries at double the Host’s natural rate. The rate scales with other increases such as gains from spiritual and body cultivation.

If Benton was reading that explanation correctly, he’d heal injuries in half the time, but it wasn’t like the perk was so overpowered he’d see his skin immediately reform. And though it was nice that something like a brain injury would definitely heal over time, pills existed that would do the same thing. Regeneration was definitely a nice thing to have, a really nice thing to have that he wanted, but he felt that it wasn’t a true game changer.

“System, please give me Auspicious Encounter, Advantageous Starting Location, Enhanced Spiritual Senses, and Hide Cultivation.”

Four choices were accepted. Host has one Perk Point remaining.

Honestly, all four were candidates for supercharging, and he went back and forth over making the call to designate the final point to do just that for each of them. Whenever he got close to pulling the trigger, however, a nagging thought about the benefit of equipment stopped him.

On one hand, equipment was temporary unlike the permanent benefit that all the other perks offered. Not to mention that Su’s bare hands were weapons.

Benton wasn’t a cultivator, though. He was a sixty-year-old middle manager. The idea of taking on a lion or tiger or bear or whatever without even crafted wood and steel to face it with was frankly terrifying. His immediate survival trumped all concerns for the future.

At peace with his choice, he said, “System, assign the last point to Five Equipment Points.”

Host’s final choice was accepted. Host has no more Perk Points remaining.

Host has five Equipment Points available. Selecting any piece of equipment uses one Equipment Point. Using additional Equipment Points on the same piece of equipment increases the durability, power, and/or performance of the piece of equipment.

Please choose any piece of equipment.



Benton had honestly expected a list just like last time, but the System apparently wanted him to use his imagination.

“System, please give me a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.”

No.

Oh well, it was worth a shot. He had no idea what he’d do with such a thing anyway, considering that he had no idea how to fly a single engine Cessna much less the most advanced fighter jet in the world. Uh, in his old word, anyway. He’d taken a couple of his grandsons to an air show, though, and had been completely blown away by how fast and agile those aircraft were.

“An AK-47 with a hundred thousand rounds of ammunition?”

No. Host will please confine requests to equipment appropriate to a cultivation world.

“How about a defensive treasure of some kind that would protect me from all attacks?”

Host is selecting a perk, not a world breaking cheat for Host’s current rank. No.

“Okay, then how about a ring or something that transforms into any weapon that I desire?”

Selection would cost five Equipment Points.

Confirm selection?

Yikes. All five? Probably not worth it.

“System, please describe the type of sword I could get for a single Equipment Point.”

A single Equipment Point purchases a sword of any regular type as specified by the Host. Sword will be made of standard cultivator materials as crafted by a master blacksmith. Sword will be strong enough to oppose foes through the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm without taking damage.

Hmm. Su’s instincts told him that a sword of that quality would be both valuable and hard to obtain through other sources without the backing of an existing sect. Benton felt better about his decision to choose the equipment perk.

He just had to decide exactly what to purchase.

Su’s memories were chock full of experience with a sword. Thousands of spars. Hundreds of battles. If Su were in charge, he would have chosen one in an instant. Benton wasn’t sure. With the ability to learn sword fighting using Sect Points, he wasn’t worried about the skill needed to wield a blade, but to him, swords were great for use against other cultivators and for making him look cool. He definitely wanted one eventually.

Though his newly granted Enhanced Spiritual Senses didn’t ping on any spirit beasts nearby, it still seemed to him that he was much more likely to be facing such encounters in the near future than other cultivators. And for keeping claws and jaws away, something really long just seemed like a far superior choice.

“System, please give me a spear.”

Choice accepted. Host has four Equipment Points remaining.

A dark black spear slightly taller than Benton’s new body appeared right next to him. He had to quickly grab the shaft to keep it from falling.

The grain of the wood felt good against his hand. Substantial. Solid. Heavy, too. He didn’t know if he could even lift the thing for long periods of time, much less fight with it. Su’s instinct informed him that he’d be fine with a few cultivation levels under his belt.

With melee taken care of, that left the need for a ranged weapon, leaving one obvious choice.

“System, please give me a bow with a quiver of one hundred arrows.”

Choice partially accepted. A bow with a quiver of twenty-five arrows will be provided. Three additional bunches of twenty-five arrows will also be provided. Host has three Equipment Points remaining.

Good enough.

The bow and arrows appeared on the ground next to him. That pretty much took care of weapons. What next?

Rations?

Not really necessary, according to Su’s memories. The forest teemed with regular animals, and he should have no problems catching whatever he wanted. Su even knew what plants were okay to eat. The pond would provide all the water he needed as long as he had a way to carry it as Su’s memory assured him that a few cultivation levels would make him immune to any problems that originated from mortal level contamination.

So that left storage.

“System, please give me a spatial ring.”

Choice accepted. Host has two Equipment Points remaining.

A pale green jade ring appeared on Benton’s finger. Neat. When he tried to store his spear in it, however, he ran into a problem. According to Su’s instincts, he’d need either the ability to manipulate qi outside his body—an ability not gained until the Foundation Establishment realm—or a spirit beast core in order to actually use the ring.

Shoot.

“System, can I return this ring?”

Yes.

“System, please take back the ring and return my Equipment Point.”

Is the Host sure that is a good idea? A spatial ring is almost a required accoutrement for a sect leader, and the ring provided far outshines that which would be found on the fingers of most leaders of even medium sized sects, able to hold the volume of a small house.

If Host wishes to have a ring that Host can use immediately, investing another Equipment Point can provide that feature along with greatly increasing the ring’s storage capacity.

Benton rubbed his chin a couple of times. He hated using two points on a single piece of equipment when there were surely other things of use that he could buy, but how was he supposed to carry all that stuff if he didn’t have a storage ring? Maybe some kind of spatial pouch? But that wasn’t what all the other sect leaders used.

He sighed. “Sure. Why not? In for a penny, in for a pound.”

Choice accepted.

Host has one Equipment Point remaining.

Storing his equipment was as simple as directing his desire to do so at the ring, and he spent a few minutes enjoying the novelty of placing and removing items from the ring, including about half the pond. Apparently, the ring’s new storage capacity was on the order of the volume of an NFL stadium—one of the bigger ones like Jerryworld. He wouldn’t be running out of space any time in the near future.



Turning his attention back to the matter at hand, he thought about his next choice. With offense and storage taken care of, he needed defense, and there existed lots of options like talismans, arrays, or an armored robe. He quickly discarded the first two as a talisman only offered a one-time shield and arrays required setting up prior to a fight. Protective clothing seemed like a good choice.

Before he could pull the trigger, another option occurred to him. No amount of shielding would guarantee he wouldn’t take an injury and would provide no benefit against poison. No, what he really needed were pills, but using a point for a single healing pill seemed wasteful.

“System, can you give me a bunch of healing pills for my remaining point?”

Yes, but that might not be the most advantageous use of a scant resource.

Oh. Interesting.

“System, can you please suggest an equipment choice?”

Host might consider taking a fifteen-pill assortment. Rather than simply providing contingency against one type of emergency, the assortment contains the potential to benefit in a number of ways.

“Awesome idea. Let’s do that.”

A drawstring bag appeared in his hand, and directing his new spiritual sense into it determined it to contain two Spiritual Root Refinement Pills, two Qi Condensing Pills, six Minor Healing Pills, two Major Healing Pills, two Poison Removal Pills, and a single Purple Venom Pill.

The assortment was definitely much more useful than just a handful of healing pills. He still got plenty of those, including ones to that would cleanse poison and venom from his system. More interesting, though, was the ability he’d gained to increase the value of a recruit’s spiritual roots and the ability to speed their cultivation. Heck, he’d even gotten a potent poison to slip into someone’s food. He wasn’t sure what he’d actually do with that, but cultivation worlds did tend to provide opportunities to use such things.

With his equipment selected and stowed, that closed out all the options under the Perk Menu, leaving him with the final option on the list.

“System, please open the Advancement Menu.”