Arlo walked in the laboratory past the lead-lined carboys, his shoes stepping sound carrying weight as he was tired; this was his last shift.
The air in the vault was dead. That was the first thing Arlo noticed—not the smell of chemicals, but the absolute lack of any kind of wind, the heavy stillness of a room encased in three feet of high-density concrete.
He was tired. It was a mundane, slight tension in the neck that made his hands just a fraction less precise than they should have been. He was adjusting the polyethylene spacers between the two polished shells of Uranium-235. It was a routine procedure, meant to measure the edge of a chain reaction.
Then, the spacer slipped.
It wasn't the loudest of noise. Just a soft clink of metal meeting metal.
In that heartbeat, the room didn't change, but the air felt like it had been charged with electrons, a feeling when you are in front of a deadly predator.
A silent, shimmering blue corona bloomed around the assembly—a beautiful, terrifying glow of Cherenkov radiation as the air itself began to ionize.
Arlo didn't scream, because he couldn't.
The moment the spheres touched, a massive burst of prompt neutrons slammed into him. It wasn't hot. It was a sensation of being pierced by a billion needles, a deep, bone-vibrating hum that gave him what seemed like a 'neurological glitch' for an instant he saw a massive amount of code full of weird symbols then his vision came back.
He pulled the spheres apart with a frantic, desperate jerk of his hands, but it was a wasted effort. The dose was already in him.
Twenty seconds in. His stomach turned into a knot of fire. This wasn't the slow nausea of the flu; it was his gastrointestinal lining of epithelial cells being stripped at the molecular level. He tried to walk toward the door, but his balance was gone. The radiation had hit his brain like a sledge hammer, causing immediate cerebral edema. The world tilted forty-five degrees to the left.
Forty seconds in. A heavy, galvanized heat broke into his throat, thick enough to choke on. It wasn't just as simple as taste; it was the sensation of his own saliva turning alkaline and bitter as the molecules broke down. His DNA was no longer a blueprint; it was like a heap of broken glass shards that will only give you pain. His DNA had been scrubbed of its data, leaving his body to realize, all at once, that it was already a corpse. He collapsed against the cooling intake pipe, his breath coming in ragged, wet hitches as his lungs began to fill with fluid.
Sixty seconds.
The "walking ghost" phase usually lasted days for others, but Arlo had taken too much. The gray (Gy) count was off the charts. His heart, short-circuiting as the potassium pumps in his cells failed, gave one last, erratic thump against his ribs.
He slumped onto the floor.
Arlo woke up vision still not clear and saw he was in a deep dark place but with still enough light to see everything clearly.
There were letters, symbols and numbers everywhere and also gigantic in size each the size of a skyscraper.
"Is this the afterlife?" Arlo said still not sure if he is dead or not.
"We really are just a program, huh?"
A loud voice exclaimed please spin the wheel you have three unclaimed spins
Arlo turned back and saw a massive wheel
With infinite amount of categories
From species (every possible variant of species like an ultimate variant of that species that possesses all the skill related to the race) to skills like whatnot to world spawn to authorities to weapons everything.
Arlo waited for a moment thinking that these spins will decide his future.
" Meme god's give me all the luck, All hail the 67!"
"Spin" he said as he gave the voice command to the wheel
The wheel spun as fast as me when I was chased by a street dog, oh god that dog was fast.
As it stops it went from a lamprey and landed on "Essence of Blank"
Although Arlo was very happy inside ,he was still very nervous for the other two spins
"Spin" same procedure happens again
It lands on "2 extra spins"
"Yes!" shouted Arlo with nervous excitement
"Spin"
The wheel lands on "Essence of overcoming limitations and adaptive evolution" inspired by Getrektnuub
Arlo was practically shaking with joy as he was imagining a future him who is crazy-ass strong.
"Spin" said Arlo loudly
The wheel landed on something special this time.
"The codex" read Arlo
He checked the description
"The device is capable of doing anything and everything the user desires provided the desire is strong, be it creating skill, making an item, changing race or anything. It is permanently linked/joined and sublimated with the source of the user. It can't be separated even if the soul of the wielder is destroyed"
At that instant a very colorful star made purely otherworldly looking light appeared. It had an aura that was screaming it was capable of destroying everything and shine showing majesty of it capable of doing anything.
Suddenly that star blitzed to Arlo's chest and went inside it.
"Aaaaah!!" Screamed Arlo in pain as well as a euphoric sensation arose inside him.
He felt like he was a god- if only he knew
This went for what felt like a day but since there was no concept of time here he couldn't tell what he could tell was he was feeling the power to do anything he desired.
"I want an interface that will systematically manage all my abilities and skills'' Arlo spoke in his mind excitedly his desire for the powers was overflowing
As if a miracle has happened light burst in his mind instantly information flooded his mind as The codex has recreated a variant of Great Sage unique skill of rimuru from Tensura, Arlo never said he wanted the skill great sage but it was his inner desire that was providing codex with the information about the skill as when Arlo was thinking about a way to manage skills the first thing that came to his mind was great sage.
"Evolve it to Raphael: lord of wisdom" willed Arlo
And an even greater light explosion happened; he now had the ultimate skill Raphael; it didn't require the sacrifice of degenerate skill, just desire.
If you don't know about raphael these are the subskills of raphael-
Thought Acceleration- it allows the user to greatly increase the speed of their thought process. The user can adjust the level of acceleration as needed, as well as extend the effect to other individuals.
The exact factor by which their thought process is accelerated varies from several hundred to millions or even hundreds of millions, depending on the individual
Analytical Appraisal- An extremely versatile analytical skill that allows its user to analyze and appraise a target. Depending on the user, it can be used via sight, Mana Perception, touch, or in an isolated space with increasing level of precision. It likely works by releasing waves that enter the target of analysis and perform a full scan of their composition, which is then sent back to the user. Depending on the target being analyzed and the user's processing capabilities, it may take wildly different amounts of time, ranging from mere moments to multiple hours or days for more complex targets, even with the help of Thought Acceleration.
Parallel Calculation- It allows the user to carry out multiple thought processes simultaneously. Possible applications include the detachment of analysis of phenomena from the user's regular thoughts, and the preservation of consciousness by using additional thought processes as backups.
Chant Annulment- It eliminates the need for chanting when using magic after a spell is analyzed or successfully cast. The spell is stored in the user's mind and available to be instantly cast just by thinking about its activation.
All of Creation- Allows the user to gain information about any non-concealed phenomena, as long as it is perceivable to the user and the user has a basic understanding of it.
Using this skill in conjunction with other skills, like Analytical Appraisal and Chant Annulment, allows the user to easily learn a multitude of magic spells and adjust them freely to their desire.
Alteration- Allows the user to modify and evolve skills.
Now that Arlo is done with codex he once again focuses on Wheel
"Spin"
Scene cuts
The same loud voice announces ''now the transfer will commence''
''safe journeys'' this time with a little emotion in its voice
The scene shift we come in face with an Entity of Immeasurable size and incomprehensible form but you can see a partition in it's body of two opposite forces residing in peace but have still not become one
''Do what you are meant to do'' They say in their ethereal voice looking as if they can see outside the fourth wall
As for Essence of Overcoming limits and adaptive evolution - This is an amalgamation of original essence by Getrektnuub while adding the adaptation part
By drinking this sticky fluid that tastes strangely like lemonade you gain the following abilities:
This grants you a body that stands at the peak of whatever race that you start as and grants significantly higher strength, endurance, intelligence, wisdom durability, stamina, talent, coordination etc compared to the race. Your Limits are essentially removed you can grow stronger infinitely without any hindrance of the same training not working anymore, if you have already reached infinity, limits removed essentially means if infinity counts as 1 then you can go for infinity times infinity. Alongside this the body can become even stronger without any limit with a high growth rate. This growth rate will also increase as you grow stronger.
This also makes your mind significantly more resistant to anything that can negatively effect your mind(Boredom, Madness, Mind
Control, Fear, Telepathy, Memetic effects of Lovecraftian horrors and many many more things). Even
standing in front of Cthulhu wouldn't drive you insane unless it uses its full power to do so. And rest assured you can recover and adapt from it given sometime.
This essence grants you immortality in the form of infinite reincarnation allowing you to surpass the limits of mortality. This reincarnation cannot be stopped by any being no matter how powerful. You will only stop reincarnating if you truly with a completely sound mind wish for it. You can reincarnate in whatever world or universe that you choose fictional or otherwise into the same verse as well you can also choose the time setting of reincarnation. You can reincarnate as whoever you choose (Wanna be Superman Shagging Wonder Woman? Sure go ahead).
If and only if you choose to be a Canon character then you can activate a sort-of built-in auto-pilot that will allow you to do the same things they would have done had you not reincarnated as them. You can toggle on-off this auto-pilot as you please.This can be complete auto-pilot or partial or no auto-pilot. This could be useful for universes that you have no knowledge of. This auto-pilot mode is fully under your control and cannot take over your body or form their own consciousness. This will allow you to understand whatever character you are reincarnated as.
When you reincarnate, your status as a reincarnator and out-of-world knowledge and skills etc are completely hidden from all beings who would normally know about it.
This means that if you are reborn as a human then even if you were a god in previous lives nobody will be able to detect the divine power in the body. your body.
You could go to Marvel verse and stand in front of One-Above-All and he wouldn't be able to
tell that you don't belong and he'll receive info from his omniscience that you belong in Marvel. They'll only know about this status if you tell them yourself and allow them permission to look in your mind.
When it concerns your outside knowledge your mind, body and soul are completely immune to anything that would disclose your secrets like telepathy, drugs etc.
However, when it doesn't concern such knowledge, the only protection you get is what is mentioned above unless you have additional abilities from somewhere else.
This immortality also allows you to retain everything. Anything physical, spiritual, mental such as memories, personality, skills, perks, abilities can be retained in subsequent reincarnations.
You can discard or keep whatever you wish. If instead of dying from old age you are killed then in the next life you become immune to what killed you.
Any abilities like a Sacred Gear/Exaltation or similar abilities will be copied and the original will be released back into the world after you move on to the next life. Or if you don't wish to have it remain an item, you can turn it into an innate ability with none of the drawbacks it had before. It will function properly regardless, even though it shouldn't.
Anything you gain from your adventures/CYOAs/Jumps whether by buying it or just pure hard work such as personal pocket dimensions, inventories, Bank accounts, Conquered universes and civilizations, Bases, Incomes, Potions, plants, gardens and such similar material things can also be taken with you into subsequent reincarnations and inserted without anyone questioning where they came from.
And all of it fits in perfectly and legally.
This also gives you a higher than normal luck that can be further trained to become stronger. In the beginning this will be just enough for it to be noticeable such that while it won't let you clean out casinos it will let you win enough money to live a few months in luxury, get that one hot girl you didn't have a lot of a chance with etc. But once it starts growing life might as well be a smooth sailing boat.
Train it to a sufficiently high level and the entire pantheon of gods can fall before your luck, even the dumbest plans you make will have a high chance of succeeding.
While this essence doesn't give you any knowledge or abilities in strategy, magic or ruling empires or anything that can be learned, If you manage to get your foot in the door, so to speak, your abilities will grow rapidly matching even the greatest of Archmages in a few months with this essence alone and surpass them if you have additional abilities that increase your growth even more.
Any abilities you have whether it is a spell, mutant power, your pool of magic, Divine Authority/Domains or merely just an ordinary skill will rapidly grow stronger eliminating weaknesses and limitations and adding new benefits surpassing what they previously were extremely quickly.
Even the cost of using your
abilities will continue to decrease with practice until you can use your skills for decades before feeling a noticeable dip in your power.
This will even work on your essences and even similar abilities that help
other abilities grow. If you're a God, you do not need the worship of mortals or others to live, survive or grow stronger.
Any of your abilities/powers that rely on external sources like Authorities/Domains become innate abilities in your next life. These innate abilities will be just as strong as the domain and can be used anywhere, no longer dependent on the permission of the World or the need of atmosphere or a planet. They can be used at the same level without using mana and enhanced even higher with mana.
These powers will still grow stronger through worship or training or any other method you have.
Eventually
you'll be able to create planetary/cosmic storms and the like, with the strength and potency being still enough to kill gods and destroy planets and galaxies. If other gods couldn't resist your attacks before then they won't be able to resist it after the changes regardless of their immunity etc. And it will only get stronger with time.
This essence gives you minor porn logic enough to not harm partners during sexual activities and gives you a one time opportunity to decide what you look like and any look you chose will be absolutely, divinely gorgeous 10/10 to everyone. This is not some kind of allure effect, you just look that good. And this beauty will increase even more as you grow in life.
Any such abilities/essences/perks/powers that are similar such as Peak body, learning ability, Essences, blessings, porn logic, immortality will stack regardless of any other CYOAs say. But they have to be at least similar.
Adaptation part
Reactive Evolution: Your body and mind automatically shift to survive and thrive in response to any immediate threat. If exposed to fire, you become fireproof; if placed in a vacuum, you stop needing oxygen. Any kind of external stress sends a signal to the evolutionary mechanism.
Evolution by Counter: Whenever you suffer harm or face a specific challenge, your body develops a permanent resistance or specialized tool to negate that harm in the future.
Evolution to all the phenomena: Basically Mahoraga evolution taken to extreme
Evolution by Consumption: You can gain the traits, powers, or genetic memories of organisms you consume, integrating their strengths into your own being without their weaknesses.
Adaptation to Death: if you are "killed" by a specific phenomenon, you can regenerate with a complete immunity to that specific cause of death, even if your soul is destroyed. You can turn this if you are trying to reincarnate in a new universe.
Idealized Form: Upon taking the essence, your body is usually sculpted to your peak aesthetic and physical specifications, removing all genetic flaws.
All the evolutions/adaptation are stored in your existence or origin which is expressed through your biological body and spiritual body/soul thus both your grow very strong as you adapt and evolve
Essence of the Blank
By taking this essence, you gain but one benefit:
Your potential becomes limitless. You can learn any discipline or skillset, even if you shouldn't be capable of it, without forgetting it and practice them into mastery, no matter how many you learn.
Any abilities you have from other Essences will increase where possible and develop in ways beyond their initial purposes.