Nathan decided to make some new skills and perks.
For one, he was travelling in the Labyrinth, a region which naturally held monsters.
Second, he was travelling with a demigod, natural monster magnets. Despite being a regular human, Nathan had already encountered a lot of scorpions wandering in the halls of the maze. He didn't have to imagine how many a demigod would attract. He himself, had no issue with monsters coming to find him, but he was worried there might be too many at once, causing them to be overwhelmed. And if there was a particularly strong monster that got attracted, they would, in simple terms, be screwed.
Thirdly, he had been thinking about getting some much needed skills and perks for a while now. While he had trouble with getting Loadable Items and editing existing skills and upgrading them due to his severe lack of points, making new ones wasn't very expensive. He had made his Mist control skill with only a single point after all.
"Alright people." Nathan said to his squad that consisted of a child and a squirrel. "The plan is simple enough. Escape the Labyrinth. However, Reuben here is a demigod which is a problem."
Reuben raised his hand and spoke with a confused tone, "Why is that such a problem?"
Freddy answered his question with a squeak, 'Because Demigods smell really good to monsters. They go all kinds of crazy when they see 'em. Want nothing more than to eat eat and eat.'
"Huh!? That's scary!"
"Worry not." Nathan said with a smile. "I have... a plan let's say. I'll do something to hide your scent to some extent. It'll make our escape easier."
"Whoa!" Reuben exclaimed, his eyes shining. "More magic!?"
"Something like that." Nathan chuckled.
Closing his eyes, he opened up the Custom Order tab and started modelling an ability.
Skills and Perks have a very distinct difference. The difference is method of usage. Perks are normally much more passive than skills; but their actual distinction comes from being... somewhat magical.
Skills can also be magical but they hinge off of a particular rule or natural resource present in the world - like his Mist skill being able to use the mist to do various tasks. In comparison, something like his perks, Monster Lore or Blessing of Mana-Yood-Sushai were much more inherently magical as they didn't use any naturally present resource to bring about the 'magic.'
If Nathan someday decided to model a power that let him utilize the magics of different Pantheons, that would most probably be a skill and not a perk, because it would hinge off on already established powers and rules; while if he made an entirely different magic from scratch, it would be a perk.
For now, the ability he wanted to make was one that could hide the scent of Demigods.
How would he accomplish that?
Frankly, he had no idea. He wasn't the best at imagining clever ways to bypass problems, but he could figure something out given enough time.
First, he described a single clause.
'Hides the scent of demigods.'
The cost came out ridiculous. A whole 20,000 points! With a sigh, he edited the clause, 'Hides the scent of one demigod when within 100 meters of the user.'
Instantly, the price fell to 90 points.
He narrowed his eyes.
Hiding the scent of demigods seemed to be a surprisingly difficult task. His earlier clause may have been taken as hiding the scent of every demigod in the world, which was the reason it was prized as at 20,000. But even with the restriction of one demigod in a 100 meter radius added, the price hadn't fallen below 90.
He experimented some more, watching as the price went up and down, and eventually was able to narrow it down to an acceptable range.
[Concealment: Using the mist as a natural veil to impede and limit the parts of the mystical from being revealed to monsters. Lessens the natural scent of a single demigod when within 50 meters of distance from the user.]
The ability came out as a skill because it used the mist as an anchor in how it worked. Perks were a lot more expensive to make so he was happy to have it be a skill.
He had cooked up a crooked explanation for the ability to save many points. Naturally, he also targeted the ability towards monsters since they were the only problem, and he had nerfed the 'hiding' to 'lessens.'
There were many reasons for it. First of, nerfing the ability saved him an entire 10 points! Secondly, he still needed the monsters to come to him. While he had his monster compass, having the monsters come to him was a win-win in all respects.
And there was no need to worry about too many monsters swarming them at the same time, because he could consciously bolster the mist around them to further lessen his scent. It was a skill after all, and that meant he could consciously choose how much effort was being put into it.
All in all, the skill cost him a total of 11.3 points, bringing him down to 13.5.
Next, he began upgrading.
He started with the sword and its mastery skill, swordplay. The thing with sword excepts for a select few was, they weren't actually meant for slashing. A sword was normally meant to pierce through armor and strike right at the vital points, usually being the throat or a joint. In front of fully armored foes, a slash wasn't going to do all that much unless you could slice right through iron.
Basically, swords were meant as a way to poke and prod. While slicing with it could be damaging; in that you would break a bone even when struck over armor, that wasn't their intended purpose. Things like katanas or talwars remedied that, but in return, they weren't too good at piercing through armor.
Nathan had experienced that with the Catoblepas, when his sword slashes weren't doing much and he had to poke around to get through its muscles. And now came the issue. He had upgraded the sword's sharpness, which seemed a little counterproductive in hindsight. Sharpness on other blades that were actually meant for slashing would have been a lot more practical.
So he decided to fix that.
He edited the sword, modelling its shape into something completely different.
It was the Leviathan Axe!
Nathan only edited the shape and gave it a name; costing him 0.2 points. Cosmetic edits weren't anything expensive. So long as he didn't completely change the composition or make the object wildly out of proportion, it was all right. Since he had a lot of Celestial Bronze to work with for the blade, he managed to make it extra tempered and durable. As for the handle, he inserted a Celestial Bronze core through it, ensuring it wouldn't break off in case a monster hit it.
After that, he edited the swordplay skill, changing the concerned weapon of mastery and renaming it to Axe Mastery; costing 1 point.
Skills which had been upgraded were naturally harder to edit and cost more points. But if that was the case, wouldn't it be better to simply make a new skill? The answer to that would be no.
Take Swordplay(+) for example. It had been upgraded once and was well over the basic level of proficiency the skill would have offered. Upgrading that to Axe Mastery does not change the fact that the skill had been upgraded, keeping the same level of proficiency. In the end, it was more cost effective than modelling another skill and upgrading that.
With 12.3 points left, he turned to his arrows.
The arrows were enchanted with piercing enhancement and were able to hurt monsters due to being magical. But that wasn't very effective against naturally tanky enemies. He had needed to go in with the Catoblepas and they had straight up bounced off of the scorpions' armor. The arrows were also far weaker than the celestial bronze.
They weren't poisonous to monsters and often needed to be shot multiple times.
And so, he upgraded them too.
First and foremost, he upped the piercing, investing 6 point for all 30 arrows. He wanted to make them poison tipped for second, but weaker poisons wouldn't be any good and the stronger poisons were too expensive so he let the plan go. There was also the thought of editing his bow to add the 'aimbot' enchantment, but that would cost 230 points; which Nathan found to be quite outrageous.
And so, he decided to invest the remaining 6.3 points into his axe, upgrading its sharpness. He had plans about upgrading it to be the bearer of the Frozen Flame somewhere in the future, so he refrained from upgrading the Frost enchantment, leaving it as is.
[Customization Points: 0]
Nodding to himself, he opened and his eyes and found both Freddy and Reuben looking at him strangely.
With a cheeky smile, he reached into the air and an axe appeared in his hand, its cold and dark blade glowing with an eerie blue luster that seemed to be quite dim compared to any normal Celestial Bronze weapon. Its blade held many golden embellishments, carved out in the form of constellation charts and star symbols. The edge of the axe looked terribly sharp. It gave the impression that it could kill simply with a graze.
"Whoa! Another weapon! Hey, big bro! How'd you do that!?" Reuben exclaimed, swooning over the axe. Seeing him all excited, Nathan felt his ego swell up a bit. He laughed evilly in his mind.
Hehe. I really am awesome aren't I?... Alright, enough of that. He shook his head, and grabbed into the air, preparing to summon his quiver. But just before he could, a brown blur collided with his back and climbed onto his head, throwing him off balance.
"Whoa!" He yelled and looked up at Freddy. The squirrel in question had its eyes glued to the axe.
'Fascinating. That's a really powerful ability you have there. Being able to store so many things at once. I remember you entered here with a sword, but this axe seems to be even more powerful. You must be an accomplished mortal. It's strange I've never heard of you on my travels.'
Nathan made him get off and turned towards the door. Walking over, he first activated his Concealment skill.
Instantly, a strange fog began to churn around him, bubbling and writhing as if it were alive. Nathan narrowed his eyes and willed it to encircle Reuben. Freddy jumped as the mist enveloped the kid like a cocoon. Soon, the mist disappeared from view, but Nathan could feel that it was still there.
"Alright, then." He grabbed his quiver and strapped it onto his back. Walking forward, he pushed open the door with the lightning symbol on it.
Creeeeeeeakkkk!
It creaked loudly, and beyond it was darkness.
Nathan threw a glance at Reuben, who gulped when he saw the empty and dark hallways again. His hands seemed to tremble a bit but when he met Nathan's gaze, he found some courage and nodded.
And so, they walked into darkness.
...
...
250 PS Bonus Chapter.
I have a lot of ideas to make him powerful, much of them stray from the generic ideas like Eight Gates, Sharingan, Six Eyes, etc. I feel like since I have the option to make anything I want, it's a shame if I were to still stick close to the things seen normally in fanfictions no?
But they will come later when he has enough points. Right now, he's just trying to do his best and be efficient and make use of as much points as possible.
I had planned to make the two bonus chapters into a single chapter, but then decided not to do that. Also, how in tf have you already almost gotten the third goal?