bignt

I decided to change the date of the mana wave to Jan 8th from the original Jan 5th. I forgot completely that Christmas ends there. I honestly consider it too cruel to do this on that day.

At 11 am, after leaving the exhausted girls alone, Eli sat on the couch and was trying to book a flight ticket to Las Vegas on his phone, but quickly realized that it was Christmas right now. Since Eli was both a Jew and an atheist(Until he just recently learned that God was actually real), he never celebrated it with friends, he just had cancer, had no family, and was busy killing right after getting the system, he totally forgot about it. Even if there are flights, they are mostly booked, and all the hotel rooms over there are jam-packed. "Well, Earning money can wait for a bit. For now, I will continue to focus on the Bronx then, and kill some other gangsters there. Maybe I should look for university books to read in the meantime? Oh right, I also wanted to adopt a dog! I also need to sell my previous house... So many things to do..."

Eli decided that he should take a day off today, sell his house, and look for books. He doesn't need more points urgently right now anyways. He also needed knowledge about the gangsters in Manhattan before he acts, but he can't search for them on his phone, or the cops would be on him. Previously, he just took a picture of Ramón's map and did not search using keywords, in fear of the slight chance that the cops would track him through his search history. This was 2021, and privacy was pretty much non-existent. Even if he had a VPN, it was not foolproof enough.

Also, he found out after checking his quests, that the side quest disappeared entirely. At first, he thought that he would get a third quest about cleaning up the whole of the Bronx or something, but that didn't happen. Honestly? Eli did not actually have any vendetta on any of the other gangs. He was just looking for points. The MS-13 on the other hand just hit home, both literally and figuratively, so he targeted them first. Perhaps the system was giving out quests according to what you want, need, or a situation, tailored to your own personal abilities. In any case, Eli still had a map for the Bronx, so he was set for now.

The first thing Eli did was to call his house's insurance company and informed it that his house was wrecked. The original value of his home was actually a pitiful $40k. If you include the furniture, it would be $50k. However, if the damages were included, it would now be worth $30k at most. After informing the company, they told him that the damage assessor will arrive at 12 am at the earliest, and he agreed. Eli also wanted to sell his house for the dirt-cheap price of $20k to some real estate agency. The condo itself was old, it was damaged by the gangsters, and he did not clean it up properly after it got wrecked, and he did not plan on doing so. Also, it was only a 2 and a half room condo and was in the middle of the poor district of the Bronx. Even if it was in NYC, this was a really bad piece of property. So to avoid haggling, he just avoided the bullshit and just wanted to sell it for $20k. After Eli called a real estate company and informed them that he wanted to sell his property for dirt cheap. The company immediately told him that they will send someone today at 1 pm.

Having decided what to do for the morning, Eli dressed himself up, packed his bags, said his goodbye to the girls, and left. He arrived at his wrecked house at 11:20 am, so he just searched online for books. Luckily, it was now the modern era, so books were actually easy to obtain. He could simply read all the eBooks he wanted for just $100 on Perlego. And they were all academic books. Eli Immediately registered, paid the money, and started reading. He first read a book in math about Linear Algebra. It took him only 1 minute to fully memorize a page, and that was under the condition of reading through an old android phone from 2017, if he read from a tablet, he reckoned it would take barely 30 seconds to both read and comprehend every single page he read. Eli did not switch his phone until now, since he was in the military all the time, and decided to add purchasing a tablet and a new phone on the list of things to do.

After reading 25 pages, the insurance company representative came, and he assessed the damages. After 15 minutes, the representative offered to compensate $5k. While Eli knew that he could get higher compensation, he didn't care, so he just agreed. He then continued reading another 25 pages, finishing a sixth of the book, the agent from the real-estate company arrived. After the agent looked around the house for a bit, he offered $22k, a bit higher than Eli's bottom line, so he happily agreed, and sold the house to the real estate company. The agent even brought with him all the necessary paperwork, so it went incredibly smoothly.¹You might think I am joking here, but this is t

In total, Eli got $27k from the whole thing, and since he technically lived there, and owned it for his entire life, it was tax-free. In economical terms, it was a major loss, but he didn't care. In just 2 weeks from now, he was going to be a millionaire. He was just glad he could switch the state he lived in officially now. This way, he can now avoid state taxes. In NY, the state tax was 8% of the winnings, along with 24% federal tax, which amounted to 32%, which meant he would get only 68% of the winnings. However, if he switched his state to Texas or Nevada, which had no state taxes, he could get 76% of all the winnings. Usually, it takes 1-2 weeks to move from state to state, depending on where you plan to move to. But since Eli sold his condo, without taking any of the furniture, it would only take him just a simple USPS.

He then started searching for a house to rent in Texas and quickly found one for $10k a month in the middle of Houston. It certainly was not cheap, and in fact, downright expensive, but he wanted a house with everything in it, that even included a gym, a pool, 4 bedrooms, a good kitchen, A garage, etc. A big reason was that it had a lot of privacy and space. But the biggest reason was actually very simple. "There are over 20,000 gangsters just in Houston, and in Texas over 100,000 at all times! Over half of them are from drug trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking, and all the other nasty rings. I won't even need to differentiate between my targets. They are all equally scum over there!"²He could have gone to Los Angeles, but the state tax there is 9.5%, even higher than in NY

And so, Eli rented the place for 2 whole months for $20k. He would start living there officially starting the 6th of Jan. After he finished that, Eli filled a simple USPS online to the new address, contacted social security to change his state to Texas so that he won't get taxed in NY instead of Texas. And after changing a few other details, he was done. All the paperwork would be finalized in just 1-3 days, and he would be a (Temporary) citizen of Texas.

When he was done doing all of this, it was now 2:30 pm. Eli first searched for a new hotel in the middle of the Bronx and found one for $260 a night next to Morris park, so he booked it for 6 days for $1300. He then went to a nearby trustworthy phone shop and bought there a brand new tablet and phone for $900 total, including everything. He then went hailed a taxi and arrived at the hotel room he rented. It was really worth the $260, the room was excellent, it had a queen-sized bed, a kitchen, living room, tv, and had a really good view. It also included breakfast and all. He was fine with it all in all.

Eli sat down on the couch in the living room and continued reading the book on his new tablet. He already configured it back in the store. It took him barely 30 seconds on average to read each page, and he finished the rest of the book in only 2 hours. He even memorized it all, and after testing himself, he confirmed that he remembered everything perfectly. In just 2 and a half hours, he can finish an average university course in math perfectly. A bachelor's degree requires approximately 24 courses. That means, that if he just studied for 60 hours, he could complete a bachelor's degree in terms of knowledge and receive an A+ average grade!

It was now 4:40 pm, and there was still 2 hours until the cooldown will go down, so Eli started browsing the skill shop. In the end, he decided to buy 5 lvl 0 skills, and not upgrade anything to lvl 1 yet.

Medical Skills lvl 0: Gives the knowledge and medical level of expertise of a generic paramedic. You now know how to operate lvl 0 system-based medical equipment.

This skill was convenient, and it allowed him to use system-based medical items. If someone near him was dying, he could give them emergency treatment, even without the system.

Pharmacology lvl 0: Gives knowledge about lvl 0 Tonic crafting.

This skill simply gave out knowledge and nothing else, it felt more like cramming a book inside his head, than real experience. While Tonics could technically be crafted outside of the Alchemy crafting table, it might not have optimal results. In any case, the knowledge of the tonics was really amazing. Tonics had the ability to maximize the limits of the body. While the effects in the short-term were not all that impressive, by continuously consuming tonics, you can become stronger, faster, smarter, have keener senses, etc... It can even improve the body's limits by a small extent upon every use, but only up to the very limits of the species itself. In other words, if a normal person lifting strength was about 200lbs with a few months of practice, and his own limit was 420lbs then with enough tonics and time, he could break his own limit continuously until he reaches the theoretical limit of peak human strength, at 800-1000 lbs. Naturally, he would need to also train alongside taking the tonics, or they won't be as effective. For reference sake, before Eli had cancer and was in top condition, he had the lifting power of 302lbs, which was between an advanced lifter and an elite lifter, while his own human limit was 440lbs. And he was an elite soldier.³It is single repetition, not multiple

If a lvl 0 unevolved man who trained all the way to the peak through tonics and training fought a lvl 1 average man who simply relied on the system for enhancement, then the man who relied on tonics and training would actually win in terms of raw abilities! It was even confirmed that they could enhance all evolution aspects, even including the elusive 'Instinct'. Also, a man who used tonics and trained would have a higher chance of awakening a skill, and unless he was incredibly old, and on the verge of death by old age, he could even resist the mana wave by himself with a 100% guarantee!

However, there was a catch. Tonics could only be currently crafted in the Alchemy crafting table. Many processes could not be completed without it, and mass production was impossible since only he would be able to manufacture them, and also, while some ingredients were incredibly common on earth, some ingredients were impossible to get on the non-magical earth, and only the system had them in the shop, and they were not exactly cheap. It was basically impossible to give tonics to all of humanity, so Eli gave up on that idea, and decided to have it for personal use.

Cooking lvl 0: Gives basic cooking skills and knowledge. Gives the necessary knowledge about processing lvl 0 edible ingredients from unsafe mana, toxins, and poisons. Gives a boost to the lvl 0 alchemical concoction process. 

That seemed rather practical. But it gave a crucial point, many ingredients could cause poisoning after the mana wave, and would need special processing. Although he was not sure if it would affect him since he was already immune after he upgraded himself, he could not be certain. Better safe than sorry.

Also, as a bonus, it gave basic cooking skills for both indoors and outdoors.

Alchemy lvl 0: Gives knowledge about lvl 0 medicine and poison crafting.

This was the same as Pharmacology, just that it was about medicines and poisons. While he was not interested in poisons, since a bullet was better than any poison currently, medicine was another thing entirely. The knowledge he got, was enough to cure all known afflictions currently known in the world completely! However, any damage that was already done by said affliction, would need medicine to heal. Lost limbs could be regrown slowly, but they would need to retrain them from scratch. Brain damage could be cured slowly, but any lost memories, language, behavior, etc, would need to be relearned. However, same as in Pharmacology, they cannot be mass-produced for the same reasons.

Lastly, he wished to purchase an unrelated skill.

Animal training lvl 0: Gives basic Animal training knowledge and communication skills, to instill loyalty, even in naturally unloyal animals, as long as they have a certain intelligence, and basic communication is possible.

This was a skill he wanted. He wished to get a dog, and training it to be loyal to him would normally be hard, but with this skill, it would be far easier. But in all honesty, when he saw the even in naturally unloyal animals part, he got excited! That meant he could even train the most unloyal pets to be loyal!

When he learned it, Eli got a headache, and the skill shop option greyed out. Eli took the limit of knowledge for today, and could not take in any more.

After Eli finished absorbing the skill knowledge, he understood that the skill was actually a way to instill both goodwill and dominance in an animal at the same time. It was basically a way to tell the animal "I am your friend and also boss.". As long as the animal had a certain level of intelligence, the message could be conveyed. The best part was that even if the animal somehow became stronger than the person, the training method could even make the animal so loyal, that even without the loyalty collar if the animal became stronger than the person, it would still be loyal, as long as you do not antagonize it. It would basically see you as a crucial pack member and undisputed leader.

The communication part was actually more a mixture of body language and sound. It didn't really make you understand what they were saying, as they had no true language. But you could convey and understand intentions. At lvl 0, it basically could convey and understand simple emotions like "Yes", "No", "Happy", "Sad", "Hungry", "Bathroom", "Love", "Hate" etc, correctly. You could convey simple messages and commands like "sit", "Follow", "Attack", "Play dead", "Fetch", "Play" etc.

However, there was a catch in this. The smarter the animal, the harder it was to tame. Also, it was more effective if it was used on weaker animals or creatures when they were still little. You could also 'Bribe' an animal too with benefits such as food or Tonics, or ingratiate an animal to you through actions such as saving its life or medically treating it. Tonics didn't only world on humans. Some Tonics could also work on animals.

The general message that the skill gave, however, was that you should treat all animals with respect, or they would not respect you in return. And they did not appreciate being treated as slaves.

Now, it was 5:00 pm. Eli read another book until 6:40 pm, where his evolution cooldown went off. It was time to upgrade again.

bignt

Current status:

Spoiler

Current date: 12/31/2021 6:40 pm

Status:

[Overall Evolution Rank: lvl 0]

[Strength lvl 0]
[Vitality lvl 1]
[Toughness lvl 0]
[Agility lvl 0]
[Dexterity lvl 0]
[Cognition lvl 1]
[Nerves lvl 1]
[Senses lvl 0]
[Instinct lvl 1]
[Immunity lvl 1]
[Mana Conductivity lvl -]
[Mana Core lvl -]
[Mana Sense lvl -]

Skills:
[Firearm Mastery lvl 0], [Athletics lvl 0], [Acrobatics lvl 0], [Medical Skills lvl 0], [Pharmacology lvl 0], [Cooking lvl 0], [Alchemy lvl 0], [Animal training lvl 0]

Unique Skills:
[Time Stipend lvl 1, Time saved: 9 minutes]

Equipment: Stealthboy lvl 1, Storage ring 7 cubic meters, lvl 0 gloves + boots, lvl 1 helmet + knife, evidence collector, contraception ring, A shitton of ordinary weapons and ammunition.

Points: 77

[collapse]

I personally decided that I limited my thinking. Why limit Eli to just dogs, when he could get other animals. I think we should have a vote on this since I am personally more of a cat person, although I also love dogs.

Also, as some of you might have noticed, now he can only learn 1 lvl 1 skill per day, or 5 lvl 0 skills per day. Also, academic knowledge got removed. He would need to study by himself.