"Perfect. Now, let's go to the perk and talent part."
He nods and walks to his table. He takes out a book from the drawer and gives it to me.
"This is the same CYOA we give to the regular agents. However, the companion and heritage are locked out. When you complete five missions, you will get its full and upgraded version."
Let's see… I open the book and notice the world section is already filled in. When I go to the other page, I can see it is the Origin section which is already filled in as well. It looks like the company picked a Drop-In for me. That means I will not get anything when I arrive. I will arrive there with anything I have on my body.
Hmmm, this will be tough.
"Vy, can I ask if there is something that can give me documentation of some sort?"
"What kind of document? We have those but need to know what you want first."
"Hmmm, what about a candidate to become a hunter? I'm not a fully trained hunter but a soon-to-be hunter. That means I can spend a few months training and get used to fighting."
"Easy enough. Go to the Talent & Perks section and then go to the Generic option. Search for the Paper Trail option and select it for yourself."
I nod when I find it. I press the option and select the option for myself. It cost me one point, which was relatively cheap.
"Great. You will get those documents after the opening scene we prepared."
I look at him in confusion when he says that. However, I returned to reading the book when he said nothing.
The third section, the Binding & Lure section, the Binding already filled it. The company gave me the regular stamp.
The stamp is a device that lets me capture the goods, aka Waifu and Husbando. It needs three seconds of skin touch to mark the target with brainwashing magic. However, the magic is not as powerful as I thought. It is more of subtle brainwashing. It will make the target quickly love, adore, and, in some parts, worship me.
However, I still need to work my way to make them obedient slaves. That is where the lure comes in.
I open the Lures section and quickly pick two options. The first one is called Sticky Fingers. This lure makes sure my touch makes my target melt. Each of my touches will make them shudder in delight and even reduce their stress.
[Sticky Finger]
You know all the points that make a waifu melt. You can play her like a piano. Your very touch is electrifying. You are also a sexual savant. Keep a waifu on the edge long enough, and she’ll promise anything to make it stop. With your skills, she’ll be sure to keep that promise. This lure cannot affect targets who lack a sense of touch.
The second one is called Faerie Feast. This one makes me the God of Cooking. Each of my food will taste between great to divine depending on how I prepare them and the quality of the ingredient.
[Faerie Feast]
Your cooking is supernaturally good, capable of making miracles from the worst ingredients. Just one taste is enough to hook a waifu for life - assuming, of course, that she can taste. Even if she doesn't like you, she'll be unable to imagine a world where she can't eat your cooking every day, and stay with you for that alone. Over time, you can leverage this dependence into obedience through simple operant conditioning and, in turn, create real affection by enforcing faked affection.
The quality of your ingredients doesn’t matter, but they must be real ingredients. This lure will not let you cook without the proper tools, unless you have an adequate substitute. This lure also covers drink-mixing, butchery, and chemical food processing, but does not help with gardening, farming, animal husbandry, fishing, etc. - that’s biology, not chemistry. If you want to use this lure’s gifts as a professional skill, you can dial your ability down to world-class-chef levels, enough to ensure great business (and plenty of repeat customers) without tripping any "this food might be literally addictive" alarms.
This lure cannot affect targets who lack a sense of taste.
What makes these two called lure is that it makes the target addicted. I can prevent the addiction part, but it is on by default. I need to be careful when using this.
The reason why I take these two is how useful it is. Sticky Finger did not only work for the goods but also me. It can help me destress and relax. Faerie Feast is a no-brainer. Good food increases morale, and I don't want to eat horrible food when hunting monsters.
I can also use my food to lure monsters into my trap.
There are other things in this section, but I will skip them for now as they are not as helpful. After reading the list, I will visit this page if I have points left.
I then open the Heritage section. Oh boy, it was mind-blowing. This section let me become a dragon, transhuman, outsider, psychopomp, wendigo, and heir of some kind of wealthy villain. The last one is weird, but they are all powerful if you use them correctly.
Sadly, it is locked. Oh, well. Five missions and it will be unlocked for me.
Now I'm back in the Talent & Perks section. I ignore the Rides option as I don't need them at the moment. Bringing cars into the world of Monster Hunter is a bit much. I arrive at the Demiplanes & Dungeons option, where I know I will spend many points.
I decide to buy Pocket Space
You now possess a timeless extradimensional inventory space. This inventory may be accessed via an app on your smart device, Apportation, or certain Heritage perks. Transferring an item into the inventory via the app requires it to be in contact with you before transport. An item pulled from the inventory via the app will be deposited into your hand or within one meter of your position.
Your Inventory has a volume of 1m by 1m by 3m. Living beings may be stored within, but not any resisting or unwilling ones. Stamped or otherwise bound retinue members always count as willing and unresisting. Time does not pass within your Inventory, for good or ill.
, Pocket Apartment (2x)
A 75 sq m extradimensional residence, for when you need a place to crash. It has all the basics: two medium bedrooms, one bathroom, a living area, kitchenette, and closet space. All characters with alternate outfits, shown in any official source, will find them stored in their room or closet. This includes phone, TV, internet, and other network access to any worlds visited after chargen. Be careful not to mix up separate networks; URLs may not lead to the same place from one world to the next.
Access it by plopping a portal onto any reasonably flat surface. Only one portal may exist at a time and you may close it with a thought at any time, whether you’re in or out of the apartment; if you’re inside when the portal is closed, the new exit must be reasonably close to the previous entrance. Some independent multiverse travelers may enter your universe directly. This requires dedicated and deliberate effort and a beacon to follow.
Your inventory becomes a sealed vault inside the apartment. You may open the vault while in your Pocket Space, but doing so subjects its contents to the passage of time. If you or a resisting or unwilling subject is inside the vault when it is sealed again, time will continue to pass.
A second purchase of this perk will double the floor area to 150 sq m. Whether the additional space is a loft, basement, or just a larger main level is your choice.
, Sweet Home (2x)
Your residence’s floor space is doubled again. It now measures 300 sq m, equivalent to a large house. This includes a master suite (one large bedroom, with one each attached large bathroom and walk-in closet), three other medium bedrooms with their own closets, two and a half other bathrooms, a large living area, full-size kitchen with attached eating area, closet spaces, and one each of very large, large, and medium rooms that you can decide how to use: dojo, garage, library, a shared workshop, extra bedrooms, separate dining room, etc. You may also repurpose unneeded bedrooms until they’re filled.
Your property now sits on a plot of land. The total area is one hectare (not necessarily an exact square), with the ground extending down 10 meters and the sky going up 20 meters.
You may now make your Pocket Space any clearly delineated space within your Sweet Home, and not simply a physical vault.
A second purchase of this perk will double all stated measurements: 600 sq m interior floor space, 2 hectares area, 20 vertical meters of ground, and 40 vertical meters of sky. The number and size of rooms within your Home will increase accordingly.
, Grand Manor (2x)
Your living space is significantly larger. It now has 1,200 sq m of floor space, with every living, training, and workshop area you and your waifus might need. If you do not have Life’s a Beach, your property’s land area will also increase, to 20 hectares.
A control room deep in the mansion now allows you to customize the structure however you like. Specialized workshop equipment and exotic resources will only be available if you have someone who knows how to use them, whether that’s a purchased or captured retinue member, your Substitute or Possess target, or by some other means. For safety reasons, all personnel and important items will be ejected from areas undergoing rearrangement.
A second purchase of this perk will double the interior and exterior measurements again: 2,400 sq m floor space inside, 40 hectares outside.
, Life's a Beach
Your Sweet Home’s lawn is significantly larger, now measuring 15.2 sq km across, with 24 vertical meters of ground and 48 vertical meters of sky. A control center deep in the apartment will allow you to customize the landscape however you like: the default is a tropical island paradise with a standard equatorial day/night cycle and perfect weather all the time. This is the same control system as what Grand Manor provides. If you have either rank of that perk, you can use the control room to add new wings and other features to the manor, within the 20 (40) hectares of manor lands and the vertical clearance offered by this perk and Sweet Home Expansion.
However you set the landscape, the edge of your pocket dimension will be selectively-permeable, allowing biome-appropriate wildlife to wander in from worlds that you and your retinue have visited or call home, without any issues from invasive species, implanted transmitters, pollutants, unwanted predators, etc. For safety reasons, all personnel and important items will be ejected from areas undergoing rearrangement.
If you bring a vehicle into the pocket dimension via Rainbow Bridge or some other method, regardless of whether the vehicle was purchased through this catalog, your dimension will have an appropriately-sized garage, dock, or hangar for it. If you have a starship from Catch-a-Ride, Heavenbuilt Proto, or third-party sources, it will be able to enter and land in your pocket universe even without a multiversal drive. Especially large dreadnoughts may require some geographic rearrangement first.
, and Warehouse District
The basic Grand Manor offers an automatically replenishing supply of resources for each workshop, but only a limited amount at a time. Each warehouse in this district is 20 m tall and has about 50,000 sq m of floor space, enough to hold… a lot of materials. You can have as many individual warehouses as you have workshops, though this is also capped by your dimension’s physical space. New resources will appear here, in entire pallets at a time. Your retinue members’ workshops will now pull their materials from this central stockpile instead of generating their own. You may also define empty warehouses as sections of your Pocket Space.
.
This will give me a pocket dimension with a floating island and manor. I can also access the warehouse like an inventory system in the game. All of them cost me ninety-five points.
I read this section for a few more seconds and decided to take the All Road Lead to Home perk that allows me and my retinue to open multiple portals. We also can sense where it is located so we can open them up later when we are in the area. This cost me ten points.
While reading the list, I see something interesting.
"Vy, can I ask you about this Stay in Touch perk?"
"Sure."
"Which internet will this access? Can I post something from where I'm currently staying, or can't I?"
"You will access your Earth internet. Because we slow down the movement of time on your earth, you can't post something while on a mission. You can search for something and gather information, but you can't post something on the internet. That also means you cannot watch live streams."
"Hmmm, that is good enough."
I buy the Stay in Touch perk
High-speed internet service covering any and all dimensions, no matter the location, magic ward, or jamming technology. A modem-router and replacements are provided for free.
for five points and continue to read the list.
"Vy? This armory… How powerful is that? It says it will give me a weapon from my earth to the next world I go to. It also says that it will give me a weapon that a special force has. Does that mean I can get… let's say Nuka-Nuke Launcher when I get to the world of Fallout?"
"Sadly, no. It is not that powerful. It can only summon a weapon that is mass-produced. That means only a weapon that numbers in thirty thousand, at least, around the world that you can summon."
"Thirty thousand? That is a lot. What about ammo? Having a mini-nuke will boost my firepower."
"Produced in a million at least."
"Damn. Wait! How much ammo ever produced for a Heavy Bowgun in my mission?"
"And now you are asking the right question. As for your question, it is more than enough to be summoned."
"Good. What about the weapon?"
"Nope. All of the weapons in Monster Hunter are not mass-produced. They are custom-made, and you can't summon a custom-made weapon."
Well, at least I don't need to worry about ammo. I buy the Armory perks
A room-or pocket-dimensional space similar to the Pocket Space perk full of weapons, armor, and ammunition becomes available to you with this upgrade. It holds a wide variety of standard and specialized equipment from both your new world and your old one. This does include equipment that would normally only be available to special forces, but does not include custom-made or heavily customized variants on weapons. Weapons you or your companions acquire in the field can be sent to this armory with a few seconds of concentration, and each of you can choose up to ten pieces of equipment - such as a gun, a shield, or a full set of armor - to be able to equip or return at will. The armory will automatically repair and maintain weapons stored within it. This doesn't work for fully destroyed artifact items unless you help supply the magical oomph.
and also Home Security
The portals to access your Pocket Apartment, and any perks that follow from it, can not be perceived or entered by anything you do not allow, including creatures, contaminants, and remote viewing.
. Home Security is a free perk after I buy the Pocket Apartment. I can make a set of rules for items, creatures, or contaminants from getting inside my pocket dimension.
It is free and rather useful; what kind of idiot did not want to buy them?
I continue to read this section, and after a few minutes of reading, I decide to move on. The other perks are excellent and powerful, but I do not need them at the moment.
I quickly go to the Talent section.
I buy a lot from this section. I buy Body Tune-Up
You lift. Your body is now in perfect fitness and health, with significant muscle growth, within healthy human standards. If your natural height was less, you are now between 170 and 210 cm tall - or will be, if you aren’t yet fully grown. Your clothes are all resized and your muscle memory adjusted to fit. (You may opt out of this height boost.)
In the event of a mismatch, your body will change to match your gender identity, reflecting what you might have looked like if you’d been born as such, unless you created or maintained a mismatch with your choice of targets for Substitute or Possess. You knew what you were getting into when you did that.
All unwanted pre-existing medical conditions, from skin blemishes and unwanted body hair to chronic disease, missing limbs, detrimental genetic irregularities, and physical transformations are erased. (Cyborgs will find their reproductive system restored and augmentations optimized within their technological base.) This full heal will automatically trigger only once for each member of your retinue, including yourself: when you first purchase this perk or when the person joins your retinue, whichever happens second. You are immune to further minor illnesses, but not diseases or injuries. All healing or medical operations performed on you will complete without complications, residual pain, or unwanted scars.
The individual benefits of this Talent may also apply, at your discretion, to any/all of your purchased and captured subjects. Unwanted conditions are erased according to your wants, not theirs. If you purchased Extra, Substitute, or Possess, this perk will be retroactively applied to your new body, with the exception noted above.
, Everlasting Talent
You live. You have weak immortality and eternal youth. If you are older than the peak age for your species (25 years for humans), your body is reset to that point; otherwise you'll continue to physically mature to that point but not experience any aging afterwards. This will not interfere with deliberate age-manipulation effects from within your retinue, whether from the company’s transformation suite or third-parties. If your maturation process had been halted by any means, it will now continue until your peak age. The "Fog of Ages," including atrophy of unused skills, will never affect you.
This perk will not make you unkillable or grant any form of auto-resurrection. It just means you won’t grow feeble and die of “natural causes,” so don’t try anything foolish. The benefits of this perk will apply to your purchased and captured waifus, but you can disable it for specific individuals if you wish.
, Athletic Talent
You can rapidly learn any non-supernatural athletic skills you encounter: acrobatics, physical sports, parkour, swimming, etc. Skills directly related to combat fall under Martial Talent instead, while supernatural extensions of skill are affected by Psychic, Soul, or other Talents. This is an experience and skill acquisition multiplier, not a flat improvement, and scales to the strength and skill of your opponents and trainers: the better they are than you, the faster you learn, until you’ve caught up to them.
, Martial Talent
You fight. You have prodigious martial talent and can rapidly learn any personal, non-supernatural combat skills you encounter, whether melee or ranged. Supernatural extensions of martial skill are instead affected by Psychic or Soul Talents. This is an experience and skill acquisition multiplier, not a flat improvement, and scales to the strength and skill of your opponents and trainers: the better they are than you, the faster you learn, until you’ve caught up to them. This applies to both command ability and personal skill.
, Wild Talent
You camp. You have a knack for living in the wilderness, with a natural feel for how to identify and make use of edible food, potable water, suitable shelter, animal tracks, etc. You know how to ride a mundane horse. In worlds that don’t use horses, you can quickly adapt your riding methods to whatever appropriate beasts are available.
, Communication Talent
You understand. You can read a room, spot deceit or employ your own, know when to speak and when to hold your tongue, and find the right words to say for good or ill. You will neither be That Guy whom women warn their friends about, nor the otaku nerd whose obsessions drive others away. This does not lend any additional power to your words - that’s what Siren’s Song is for - nor will it make you enjoy social interactions for their own sake. It only guarantees knowledge and competence.
Additionally, you are immediately fluent in any spoken language you encounter and will speak it like any native in only a few days, with mastery of the written form taking a week on average; this part always applies to your retinue as well. Finally, you have a prodigious talent for writing, regardless of whether the subject is fiction or nonfiction. Depending on the skill of your trainer, cohorts, and rivals, you can elevate your own skill beyond ordinary human ability, following the same rules as the other Talents.
, Soul Talent
You feel. You have prodigious talent for ki arts (aura, chi, Hamon, Phonic Gain, Spiral Power, etc.) and magic and will rapidly learn any such mystical arts you encounter and are capable of using. Unlike the buffs from Heritage or Shroud elements, this is an experience and skill acquisition multiplier, not a flat improvement. This effect scales to the strength and skill of your opponents and trainers: the better they are than you, the faster you learn, until you’ve caught up to them. This does not apply to purely scientific forms of magic.
Many magical styles benefit from both Soul and Science Talents. In these cases, Soul Talent improves your improvisation ability and raw power.
, Blessed Talent
Fortuna and her peers smile upon you. Higher powers, whether they’re deities, demons, or merely greater elementals or other spirits, will warm up to you more quickly than just anyone. Blessings or gifts given to you will be more powerful or useful, and curses or smitings aimed at your enemies will be more effective, scaling to how much the specific higher power likes you compared to who- or whatever you’re calling upon them for.
If you are a god, the use of your own godly powers benefits from Soul Talent instead. In that case, if you also have Talent Sharing for this perk, it will remain useful for anyone in your retinue who calls upon your power.
, Land Talent
You are one with the environment. You have additional prowess with magical styles that draw mystical power from one’s surroundings. This includes, but is not limited to, Warhammer’s Winds, a Planeswalker’s Lands, Geomancy, or anything powered by leylines or background magical fields. These arts and styles are more effective and easier to control.
Your green thumb also extends to agriculture, mining, and other forms of resource gathering. This is an experience and skill acquisition multiplier, not a flat improvement, and scales to the strength and skill of your opponents and trainers: the better they are than you, the faster you learn, until you’ve caught up to them.
, and Template Stacking 1
Sometimes you just want to copy a powerset, either a generic one or a specific character’s. This perk lets you do just that. Only Tier Χ abilities, abilities that originated in other CYOAs, and abilities found elsewhere in this catalog are not eligible. The exact capabilities at the time of purchase will be scaled to Tier 4. This perk is not necessary for any abilities that your subjects might grant you via surgery, ritual, or other means. Templates for characters who are only purchasable in sets must be bought separately. Characters who are represented as Specific Waifu Perks may be purchased as templates for individuals who are not eligible for the actual perks, whether natively or with Power Swap, and follow any mutual exclusivity rules stated in the perk descriptions.
Templates can be trained up to, and beyond, the original version of the ability. You receive a skill framework for your purchase, identical in principle to the ones that “early” captures receive to ensure they learn their missing abilities. This applies to technological abilities as well. Iconic equipment is included with this perk, but may see its parameters and functionality locked until you’re capable of using it safely or have trained enough with the more basic features. After the skill framework runs out and you’ve achieved the typical heights of the template, you can continue to train it beyond that level with the appropriate Basic Talent, regardless of whether the original version is rated at Tier 4, 5, or 10.
Racial templates (Kryptonian, Metallic Dragon, Newtype, Saiyan, etc.) have additional rules that distinguish them from other kinds. Unlike Advanced Tempest Runes (Body), a living, natural example of that template is not required for your selection with this perk. Racial templates are limited to one per individual and will overwrite the individual’s original race for all purposes. The creation of hybrids requires Advanced Tempest Runes (Hybrid) or a geneticist, biomanipulator, or polymorpher.
Other powers that are only available to those who were born with them, such as hereditary magic systems, may be acquired through this perk at any time, just as with Added Potential.
Abilities that are generic in their source but are expressed uniquely, such as Sacred Gears, Semblances, Academy City Esper powers, Quirks, or the results of the X-gene, can be unique to you or copied from a specific character. You may not use company means to acquire more than one of each type of ability at a time.
. This cost me 135 points.
"Oh? You buy a Template Stacking, huh? Which character, race, or power do you want to copy? Remember that this talent only copies up to tier-4. If you choose a tier above that, you need to train to be able to reach that level."
"I choose someone?"
"Yup."
"Can I copy a character from where I'm going?"
"What kind of fighting style do you want? Close DPS? Tank? Or DPS range?"
"DPS range. Heavy Bowgun"
"Dame Luchika it is."
I nod and continue to read the book. I arrived in the Defenses section. I read them for a few minutes and looked at Vy.
"Why can I buy more than one of them?"
"This perk gets more powerful when you buy more than one."
"Ah, right."
I nod and quickly buy the perk I want.
I buy Body Defense
You have protection from all diseases, toxins, and targeted radiation. Lethal or crippling afflictions will leave you sick enough to most likely stay in bed, unless you really have to move - because you're attacked, for example. Anything short of that will leave you weakened and uncomfortable, but functional.
Additionally, you get an extra one-time full heal, identical to the one offered by Body Tune-Up, with each purchase of this Defense. These are counted separately for each member of your retinue, including yourself and anyone acquired after the purchase of this Defense. These may be kept for future use.
This perk still does not protect against injury or provide any sort of healing factor; if you want one, you’ll have to find it yourself.
, Mind Defense (2x)
You are protected from all mind control effects from outside of your retinue and unwanted attempts from within. Attempts to influence you will be weaker and you have an easier time noticing them and fighting them off. At least part of your mind will always remain beyond any control, leaving you free to fight your controller from within - creatively reinterpreting orders, temporarily suppressing or weakening their influence, leaving part or all of your body locked in indecisive spasms, or even throwing off their control entirely if what they're trying to make you do goes too far against your true self. Successful mind control within your retinue will require your consent, not the victim’s. Friendly psychics may still contact you or your retinue through telepathy.
, Wild Defense
You are equally comfortable on a glacier as you are in a sandy desert, steamy jungle, irradiated wasteland, or temperate floodplain. Combined with Body Defense, you are never at risk of suffocation in a gaseous atmosphere. You can dive far deeper than any human, provided you bring an air supply with you. At the base level, survival will not necessarily be pleasant. Non-fatal/crippling injuries (burns, crush or decompression injuries) are a real possibility.
, and Information Defense
Scouters can’t read your power level. Information about you, from mind-reading, super-analysis, or metaphysical senses will tend to be unclear, incomplete, misleading or even flat-out wrong, or similarly unreliable - the more important any secret of yours is, or the more dangerous to you, the more difficult it will be to perceive, much less perceive accurately. This applies to both attempts from outside of your retinue and unwanted attempts from within, but not Conjunction. You may still allow friendly or neutral third parties to use such abilities on you.
. It cost me eight-five points leaving me with only a few more points to spend. I look at Vy and say.
"Vy, do you have a recommendation? I have nine points left."
"Nine points? I don't have anything to recommend from your defense and talent selection. That should be enough for your mission. I recommend taking a companion, but it is locked until you finish your first mission."
I nod and give him the book.
"Then I'm ready."
"Great! Wait for a few seconds. I will prepare for the teleportation. You will get what you buy when you arrive there. We don't want to damage your brain and body."
I nod and see him typing something on his computer. After a minute of waiting, he returned with a piece of paper.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Take a deep breath."
I take a deep breath and see him rip the paper in his hand in half. A second later, my vision goes dark, and the next thing I know, I'm inside a wooden building. I quickly get up and look around. I can see a cat cooking something, and I'm sitting on a futon.
I am about to get up from the futon, but before I can do that, I can see a woman wearing what looks like a shrine maiden's clothes.
"Oh my~ You are awake! Please don't force yourself to get up."
She quickly walks to me and gives me a gentle smile.
"W-Where am I?"
"We are in Kamura Village. Rondine found you floating on the water when she was about to dock."
"W-Who are you?"
"Ah! Where is my manner? My name is Hinoa, and welcome to Kamura village!"
Alrighty this may be neat... bowgun user eh?
HEAVY Bowgun. I'm not a user of that support range weapon (jk). A little bit of a rant. Light Bowgun better be a support weapon than DPS, IMO (MonHun World).
@Taylor_Herbert The only problem I see with this is that this combat style is really only useful in the MonHun World, if it was just bow user then I could see it having more use later on as well but bowguns don't really have that much future.