[Gotham City, New Jersey, Gotham City Orphanage]
To my surprise and Mimi's shock we in fact did not get ambushed and knocked out by a giant man dressed as bat in the middle of the night.
Cool, but not cool enough. After all for all I know, he's just waiting for me to kill again or something.
So what am I to do? Lay low? Wait it out until then bat comes for me?
Of course not!
I have a whole life to live after all and he's just one of many problems I'm going to have to deal with during my daily life.
So instead of studying or sleeping in class like a normal person I plan. I plan from start to finish and even during recess and nap time because that's dedication.
It was fine as the only class I really needed to focus on was history and that was mostly remembering the dates of events. So I had plenty of prep time.
I knew one thing for now running away wasn't a good option for now as if I did I'd lose access to my most valuable resources. Food, water, and shelter wouldn't be an issue but all of my identification papers were in the hands of the matron and I'd be damend if I couldn't get a driver's license or a bank account because of one childhood fuck up.
But that's not all, as if the Bat truly is onto me then I risk going to Arkham or something if I stay. So I need to start doing what game fans hate the most, grinding for levels.
Or in this case, improve my current powerset to reach its full potential. After all, I've only truly scratched the surface of what my abilities could truly do.
So Monday morning I started my super awesome totally not evil plan. The first step was convincing Mama Matron to take me to the store using my persuasion skill.
Why you ask?
Elementary my dear Watson!
To steal shit! But nit just any shit! No no. This was all sorts of things so I could start playing with *cough* experimenting with poison.
Getting to the store had been easy and with my inventory ability I was probably at least one of the top 5 thieves in Gotham. Ok more like top 10 but you get the picture.
So after procuring everything I thought I needed from buckets to flasks and more I started experimenting.
So there I was sitting in my room with my new desk and chemistry equipment as well as a gas mask for Mimi and a copy of 'Poison for Dummies' in my left hand with a flask in my right.
The window had been left open to disperse any fumes into the already shitty smog-filled air of the city and Flowy had been moved out of the room and down the hallway for his own safety.
Yes, I found it at the Gotham Library and added it to my inventory with my inventory skill. Why the hell was it in the children's section I will never know, but that's Gotham for you!
The first question I needed to answer was what exactly I could make with the poison factory ability? My second question was whether or not I needed to know how to make each poison. Pulling up the system screen description I gave it one more quick read.
[Poison Factory]
|Elite Ability|
[Allows you to design, concoct, and expel any poison from your body, also rendering you resistant to poison. You can also use this ability in conjunction with other abilities to make more esoteric poisons. Overuse of poison factory can cause nausea and sickness.]
The cloranthy ring I had made the downsides basically none existent for what I had done so far. So I wasn't afraid to push my limits with it.
So I took a deep breath and thought about what I wanted to make with it. Most people would start small with something they could easily control. Not me no I decided to go big or go home. Specifically, I thought of a fictional poison and wondered if I could make it.
Holding my hand over a beaker slowly but surely I focused on the poison that I wanted. Then from my hand a shining purple liquid poured down steadily into the beaker until it was full.
Picking it up, I studied the shining material on the beaker. Then seeing it was probably what I was hoping for I looked to Mimi.
[New Achievement! Breaking Bad!]
[Congratulations! You have created a super volatile and highly poisonous methamphetamine potion! Reward: (x1) silver random Gacha ticket!]
Setting the book down, I stared at Mimi and she stared back we fist bumped, grinned, and laughed with cartoonish evil.
"I did it! Muhahahahahahahaaaa! Eat your fucking heart out, Magellan!"
I had created Shimmer.
"Oh man, Mimi you have no idea how much money we are about to make. I mean if this works I should be able to make basically anything. Hell, I could probably sell this stuff and a bunch of other things for a shit ton of money!" I said setting the beaker down I stood up and intertwined both hands with Mimi and we spun around in circles laughing.
As we did so another thought occurred to me. I stopped spinning and my mouth fell open.
"Wait a fucking second… I can grow weed. Why the fuck didn't I think of that before? Why the hell hasn't Poison Ivy done it yet? Is weed even legal in New Jersey? Why the fuck don't I have a phone so I can Google it?" My voice rises as I continue ranting.
"OI WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT ALL THAT NOISE!" The matron calls out from somewhere outside. I have half a mind to think the woman has super hearing or something from how good it is. Then again she's not some super old lady though.
"Sorry Matron!" I shout back.
"Ahem as I was saying… uh what was I saying?" I say clearing my throat as I caress my smooth chin. I wonder if I should grow a beard one day? I wonder if I can even grow a beard at all? Only time will tell I suppose.
"Master wanted a phone to use Google," Mimi says happily shifting her hand to look like a smartphone. It doesn't work like a real phone fully does though I already tried that. She's much better at simple objects and animals than anything else but she's also gotten significantly smarter since the Zsasz incident.
I shook my head and started to think.
First off I didn't need to actually know how to make the poison. Secondly, I could make fictional poisons as well. Which means I just needed to figure out a few more things. Like if I could make poisons in other states of matter or if I could create medicines.
More often than not the difference between poison and medicine is simply the dosage. So my main idea was that if you could get oxygen poisoning then I could probably create oxygen and so on. Not to mention most non-edible things could be considered poisonous as well.
I tested out the first theory and lo and behold I was right poison gas, crystals, and powder were all on the table.
Weaponizing it was the main part I was worried about. Sure I could do things like sleep powder from Pokémon or whatever but spraying hydrofluoric acid at someone could get messy very quickly.
Lucky me I thought of that ahead of time and stole-ahem I mean borrowed a bunch of different types of containers using my inventory.
Saving the shimmer in a few vials and putting them in my inventory for safekeeping.
[images here]
Then I started seeing what else I could make but I knew that my room was honestly too small for true experimentation. I needed a laboratory of some kind or a secret base.
"Ha, I think I need an evil lair haha. That's hilarious I'm not gonna lie Mimi." I laughed grabbing my notebook and noting down a few poison ideas for the future. But as I continued to write my notes I pulled out a few empty water balloons and a water bottle from my inventory.
Normally I wouldn't recommend drinking in this kind of environment but I was immune to poison so it's fine for me.
So I started humming as I began to fill the empty balloons with all sorts of different poisons and such. Then I started thinking of locations I could use for my new base. Gotham had both an overpopulation crisis like the rest of the US and also plenty of abandoned places to choose from.
The problem?
Most of them have been taken up by supervillains and gangsters. It would probably be way harder than I think to find a place.
I didn't know much about current gang affiliations and truffs but I did know a few things.
The first thing was that territory is almost constantly shifting hands thanks to lots of people constantly getting their operations shut down by the bat or the cops. That being said some of the larger names have learned to keep their turf stable even when they're put away.
Second was that it doesn't matter who or where you are, you are always in danger of running into a Joker gang so long as cop presence isn't too heavy. So don't even look at them or you're a target, even then they might still attack you just for shits and giggles.
Doesn't matter if you're on their turf or they're on your turf. They do what they want when they want and how they want to do it.
The third thing I was well aware of was that we were currently smack dab in the middle of Two-Face and Black Mask's territory. I learned that last part from watching Two-Face and Black Mask's thugs beating up on each other outside. The midnight visits they paid to the orphanage to take protection money. The sad worried tension in every other look from the matron.
I knew she was not only worried about finding the money to keep the orphanage safe from both groups but I also knew that she was worried about me specifically.
Being a mutant is hard. Being a mutant in Gotham is harder. But being a mutant child and an orphan in Gotham City is much worse.
There were so many bad paths to follow I can't even name them all. I could get trafficked for my abilities and my unique appearance. I could end up falling in with the wrong crowd and end up a mob enforcer or a two-bit gangster. I could even end up like one of those crazy ass super villains on the news she watches all the time.
But I wasn't going to let any of that happen to me. Because I had too many resources and time along with the great motivation of not going to jail.
So when the Matton called us all downstairs for dinner I took mine up to my room. Then after eating dinner in my room with Mimi and putting Flowy back in his favorite spot.
I started planning out the second step in my grand plan of how to not go to jail. Find a place to practice my Bloom and learn my first few spells from my aeromancy grimoire. Before I went to bed, I tore my silver ticket gacha ticket.
This time it was interesting but I honestly wasn't all that excited about it I could only hope it would be helpful in the future.
[Ancestry]
|Elite Trait|
[You have some... unique ancestry, your parentage and lineage have changed from mundane or regular to you being the secret child of a great figure, which figure? Who knows, maybe they were a great swordsman or a legendary magician. Once you unlock your lineage ability or talent this trait gets replaced with it.]
[chapter meme here]
XXX
Hey guys so I've got a few updates I'm planning for how the system works but I wanted to make sure that I don't miss anything super obvious after all I'm only one super sleep-deprived man after all.
So here it is:
1 Synchronization: Skills and abilities that are similar can be synchronized to allow the user to create or use new ones. It can also be used to enhance the strength of existing ones. Creating a new skill or ability does not destroy the components but it does deactivate them while the new skill or ability is in use. While synchronized abilities take up a slot, skills can be permanently winked without slot cost. I'll pick the skill myself instead of rolling for it but it will only be one rank up and I'll try to have it make sense.
2 Deactivation: Traits can now be deactivated at will including race changes. But race changes can still be rerolled if not yet activated.
3 Gift: Can hand over tickets to others for them to use. Tickets must be physically manifested in order to do so risking theft.
These are not fully finalized as the update is not in this chapter so this is your chance to make any suggestions if you guys have any.
Anyway, remember to drop some powerstones so more people can read the fic.