(AN: work, gaming, and most of all procrastination and laziness are the reasons why i haven't updated this.)
<1 week later, blake pov>
I looked down at the barrel filled with blood that i was supposed to pour down the drain, disappear into thin air as i used blood sacrifice.
'dozen tries and yet i don't feel anything different, let's change the strategy and create a mana and faith perception ability to see if it actually worked'.
I frowned as i felt the two distinct energies, one a "solid" ball located in my heart, mana, the second was a formless mist in my brain, faith.
The reason for my less than cheerful mood was because the range of my energy sense was restricted to my body and a few centimetres outside it, even when i used a barrel of blood to extend the range, it increased by only a centimetre.
'i expected limitations on creating non blood related things but this is absurd, back when i was increasing the range of blood sacrifice i probably haven't even used 20 barrels worth of blood to have it extend up to 6 metres' pushing down my disappointment i moved on to the next part of my plan, upgrading my blood and organs.
<3 months later, rank 1 paladin Jothan pov>
I looked down at the bowl of water mixed with crushed mana crystals. There was no glow, no vague images, no reaction "you do not possess any potential to be a priestess let us move on to the warrior's test".
I took out a piece of paper that had a small filled circle drawn with ink mixed with crushed up quarts "all that is needed is a drop of blood, if the circle glows even slightly you have the ability to hold mana, please land me one of your fingers" i took out a needle and waited for her to give me her hand.
The girl's pupils visibly dilated as she started stuttering slightly "i-is there any other test we could d-do? One that doesn't involve blood?"
I forcefully stopped my eyes from rolling in annoyance "try to force mana out of your body so i can feel it, but since you have no experience in controlling it the chances of success are low, if it doesn't work we will do the regular test".
I waited for half a minute, after nothing happened she let me prick her finger to see the test results.
I sighed in my head hoping that this waste of air would be able to keep itself from crying until it left this place, i put a stamp on its id that signified that it held no energy and said "you do not possess any mana Sara, here is your identification, you may leave the building"
It started to tear up and shake slightly before running out of the building.
'useless...' i thought disqusted and looked down at its profile on my paper before writing down "no energy" next to it.
Sara: birth: 90th, summer, year 345 portal epoch, adress: Z district no.627 [no energy]
Soon after, i put away the short document and left it in a cabinet to gather dust for the rest of eternity.
By the end of the day about a hundred people came to get tested, some had mana, some had faith, some failed, and a small handful of people had both.
I looked up when another person walked inside and what i saw didn't look like your avarage 14 year old kid.
What i saw was a lean muscular man standing at 1.83m tall (6ft), black hair, red eyes, sharp face, and wearing simple leather clothing 'can't people read signs nowadays?'
"This building is for mana and faith testing, the healers are two buildings down" i said and was about to return to my reading when he said "i am here to get tested" and took out his ID, an iron card with the name Blake and his birthday inscribed on it.
I looked at the card and back at the man before me before repeating that action two more times 'this guy is 14?!? What do they feed kids these days?'
I coughed into my hand to regain composure "very well let's move on to the faith test, dip your finger inside this bowl and think about changing the water in some way, the most common change is the change of colour, an image appearing, or the water glowing."
Few seconds later the water turned blood red.
"Congratulations si- young man, you are capable of becoming a priest, let's move on to the warrior test to check if you have the potential of a paladin".
The piece of paper glowed brightly, this signified that this person had a larger mana pool inside his body than most new warriors which made sense since a good physique encourages the growth of mana.
"Congratulations once again, now we will just go through some light paperwork and change your ID, please come with me".
"In 5 days there will be a gathering of newly found people who possess mana and or faith in the city centre, right by the statue of Sol. Have a pleasant day." The tester said in that while handing me the new ID card.
I started walking back home while looking at my new card which now had a blue and white stripe to show my status as a paladin.
On top of that i gained a custom surname, something that only paladins can get, a priest would be forced to choose from a few already chosen names associated with the god they worship, while warriors would have to choose based on their weapon of choice, what type of mana control they specialise in, or their fighting style.
Both the warriors and priests took about a month to get their surnames, priests had to meditate to find which god they had a connection to (which i would have to pretend to do since my faith is actually connected to someone who is not of this reality and is just a normal human being on top of that), while warriors had to find which something to specialise in.
What's my name now? It's Blake Bloodsworth because i plan on proving that i am worthy of being Mozzi's most dedicated worshipper by turning her into someone that can live care free for all of eternity and all she will need to do is watch the universe turn into an utopia while we spend time together for all of eternity...
All of eternity.
ALL OF ETERNITY!
I shook off the fanatic expression that was slowly creeping up on my face and took a deep breath to steady my breathing 'let's calm down and check on my current progress'
'status' i thought while closing my eyes, a holographic looking window appeared Infront of me.
[name: Blake Bloodworth]
[Strength: T:0 high]
[mana/faith: T:1 low]
[Constitution/endurance: T:0 high]
[Agility/dexterity: T:0 mid-high]
[Will power: T:0 high]
[Perception/sense: T:0 mid-high]
[Charisma/presence: T:0 low-mid]
[Species: human]
_________________
Body:
[Enhanced blood (R:4): (red: higher oxygen and carbon dioxide capacity), (white: enhanced toxic secretions), (T+B cells: increased adaptibility), (phagocytic cells: increased acidity and membrane stability)]
[Stem cell production (R:2)]
[Heart+blood vessels (R:3)]
[Kidneys+liver (R:3)]
[Digestive system (R:2)]
[Endocrine system (R:2): glands and organs that release hormones, regulation of bodily functions]
[Lungs (R:2)]
_________________
Blood sacrifice upgrades:
[Range: 6m], [auto sacrifice], [small blood cost intuition]
_________________
Abilities:
[Blood regeneration (R:4)]
[Faith and mana sense (R:1)]
[Observation (R:1): gain vague understanding of things you focus on for prolonged periods of time]
_________________
Skills: none
This wasn't a true system like in games or manhwas, it was achieved through creating the observation ability that made my stats at least somewhat accurate, being ultra specific when upgrading my mind by basically making me good at visualising stuff but only if it was in a system window format and putting multiple ridiculous restrictions on it so it wouldn't cost much, for example i could only see this window while i had my eyes closed between 9-10pm, and finally my own input to fine tune the details of these skills.
It didn't have much use, but it was a nice way to keep track of progress since i absolutely loved video games in my last life.
The stats were broken down into numbered tiers and heights going down from low to top, if i had to put an avarage human from my last world in this scale most of the physical stats would be placed at tier 0 mid while someone like the world's strongest man would have his strength rated at tier 0 high almost reaching the top of tier 0.
Someone with low tier 1 strength would be able to destroy fairly weak wall with a single punch, someone being in tier 2 could destroy building as for anything above that it would rapidly escalate in scale and was quite useless to think about when a tier 2 being could easily snuff out my life like it was a candle.
As for my high mana/faith stat, i speculate that my years of worshipping Mozzi in my last world have actually translated to basicall cultivating my faith in this world.
'shame i couldn't have found Mozzi when she was just starting out, i could have had an extra year worth of faith cultivated'
Moving on to my body upgrades, my heart, blood vessels, lungs, and blood all upgraded some aspects of my stamina.
My blood, kidneys, and liver increased my resistance towards pathogens and poisons.
Stem cell production was for faster healing.
Digestive system was upgraded to get nutrients faster so i could fuel my body more effectively for training
Finally the endocrine system was used to increase the results of my physical training by giving me those sweet sweet hormones. Also pretty sure i basically skipped or at least drastically sped up my puberty by doing this, not that i am complaining.
The next three sections were self explanatory.
[Minor blood cost intuition] was a simple addition that let me roughly estimate how much blood i would have to sacrifice in order to get the intended effect so long as the amount of blood wasn't more than a few hundred litres
The skill section wasn't actually empty, it had hundreds of skills ranging from farming and cooking to even gaming but i decided against having them visible since they would just ruin the whole game character vibe.
Once back home i started eating dinner while thinking of what to do for the next five days, i could continue my rountine of working at the butcher shop to steal some more blood, however i was paranoid now that i took the test that there would be someone secretly spying on me to find out if i was a spy from a cult sent to infiltrate the city now that it was weakened.
While i might not be a spy there would be a big chance of being found out for having an ability that relates to blood thus falsely connecting me to a blood god, and as most people could guess blood gods usually are evil or neutral at best in terms of morality.
The best course of action i could think of was to somehow bypass the need for blood and continue my routine with slight changes in order to make myself look like some commoner who received a god given opportunity but hadn't fully grasped its full meaning.
After thinking of a few dozen upgrades that would still leave me with some gains while remaining hidden, i came up with an ability that would work just fine without sacrificing too much.
[Regulated blood essence extraction (10%): extract 10% of essence from blood without changing it in any way for other beings]
[Restrictions: 1: blood that had this ability used on itself becomes useless for the user 2: range of this ability is 1/10 of Blood sacrifice]
It wasn't impressive but i would have to make do with it.