Crafting My Incubus Avatar

Along with activating the Avatar Creation authority, all sorts of text floated up before my eyes. I scanned the lines carefully and soon burst into a wry chuckle. “Ha, I was wondering how they planned to collect their taxes. So this is the angle.”

Goblins cost 100 points, humans 300, elves 1200—the race of the avatar I would create. The method of my intervention—reincarnation, possession, or pure creation. Whether I’d be born with innate traits or add them later. Price tags were attached to every last ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠detail.

If the information in my head was accurate, the dignity—or points—required to create a human in one’s own world came to around ten. Even considering this was an avatar meant to house an Immortal’s consciousness, the sheer thirty-fold markup unfolding before me naturally drew out a hollow laugh.

“Yeah, well… Sending out tax collectors would be a pain.”

If they simply slapped a profit margin onto the points I spent, the tribute would flow in automatically. No need to dispatch collectors one by one.

“In that case, I’ll need to be a little more deliberate with this.”

The points I currently possessed were the ten thousand Malphas had given me, plus the mysterious twenty-one points I had somehow obtained back in my human days. If I wanted to conserve them carefully, possession was the correct choice.

Possession only required deciding which race I wanted to inhabit and what kind of body and talents the target should have. I just needed to search and then take over—no need to create anything from scratch. It was the cheapest method, but—

“That wouldn’t be any fun.”

After going through all the trouble of making my first avatar, was I really going to use someone else’s creation? It lacked romance and entertainment, so I discarded it.

The next cheapest option was reincarnation. Since this involved being born from a mother rather than taking over an existing body, it was more expensive than possession but still relatively economical. The problem was that the moment I added conditions for where I would be born, the price exceeded that of pure creation. The more turbulent and painful the location, the cheaper. Stable and safe locations were expensive.

“Sigh… What a filthy business tactic.”

I had no desire to deliberately start my reincarnation in some hellish place and subject myself to hardship, so all that remained was the most expensive choice: creation. A sigh nearly escaped me.

I briefly considered compromising with possession, but I simply couldn’t tolerate the no-fun route. I selected creation and examined the floating text. I was a complete beggar with neither knowledge nor possessions. I couldn’t dump every point into avatar creation alone.

Once creation was finished, I would still need to purchase traits and skills from the shop. Therefore, I needed to choose a reasonable race.

“They’ve lumped all the demi-humans into the human category.”

Still, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠browsing this was more entertaining than I expected. While goblins, orcs, trolls, and the like were all filed under the human species, dwarves and elves fell under the spirit species instead. Surprisingly, angels and demons were categorized as spirit species too.

“Hmm… The spirit species is too expensive.”

Elves at 1200 points and dwarves at 1100 were the most reasonable prices. Moving into proper demon or angel types pushed the base cost beyond 4000 points, and the selectable races were limited to things like imps, gremlins, or incubi.

In that case, choosing the human species would work, but selecting a demi-human race for my first attempt felt like too high a hurdle. Goblins, orcs, trolls, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ogres, and the rest—they were too much for a beginner stepping into real combat for the first time.

The safest choice was human, yet… it was human, but…

“…Tsk.”

The feeling that it was too ordinary to be interesting meant my hand refused to move. What was this contradictory emotion?

Then should I pick elf or dwarf after all? But those pointy-eared bastards and bearded fools were far too insular.

“Should I just go crazy and pick a succubus…”

The price was 1400 points. A little expensive, but still within the realm of reason. It was classified as a demon, so there was the danger of holy extermination, but as a race skilled at disguise, it would allow for all kinds of chaotic trolling.

Experiencing a gender swap once might not be bad, but—

“If I ruin my first experience like that, my sexual identity might end up shaken afterward.”

I wasn’t ready to abandon my masculinity yet. In that case—

“Fine! Incubus! Come!”

Without hesitation, I settled on the race. Since appearance customization also devoured points, I trusted in the incubus’s potential and skipped that section entirely.

Next came the traits section. I skimmed through the cascading flood of text several times. There really was everything imaginable.

The [Lust Demon] and [Magical Lifeform] that incubi possessed by default. Innate blessings like the [Extreme Yang Body] and [Extreme Yin Body] from martial arts novels. Or innate curses such as [Nine Yang Severed Pulse] and [Nine Yin Severed Pulse]. The 108 malicious stars like Heavenly Killing Star or Earth Killing Star weren’t visible.

Besides those, things like [Return of the Saint], [Hero’s Destiny], and [Dragon Heart] drew my attention.

“Hmm…”

After looking through everything, I pondered for a moment. Should I take any traits? Or skip them?

Personally, since I was going with an incubus—a demon type—I was curious whether it would be interesting to acquire holy-type traits like [Return of the Saint], [Heaven’s Grace], or [Whispers Beneath the Bodhi Tree].

Seeing those violent prices, the thought vanished instantly. As for the rest… well. There were quite a few that looked decent: [Superhuman Strength], [Heavenly Sword], [Heavenly Martial Body], [Diamond Body], and so on. Their effects were intuitive and outstanding at a glance.

However, they weren’t choices that particularly pulled at me.

…It is absolutely not because my budget was already exceeded and I couldn’t afford them.

After ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠experiencing a few sad farewells with several traits, I suddenly felt annoyed. The information in my head told me that traits were physical characteristics or fates—things that could naturally be obtained later through effort or by seizing opportunities.

If that was the case, was there any need to obsess over them now?

“…I won’t need them for the time being.”

Putting aside the fact that my points were tight, obtaining them naturally later would probably be more dramatic and entertaining. The conclusion sounded half-assed, but so what? As long as I enjoyed myself, that was enough.

If I kept browsing, I would only develop lingering attachments, so I quickly pressed complete and finished the character creation.

Along with a strange sensation of strength draining from my body, pitch-black mud surged up before my eyes. Soon the bubbling mud rose, took form, and transformed into a handsome man.

“Oh… I’ve gotten quite large now.”

The man created before my eyes was as small as the Barbie dolls I’d seen as a child. Inside this white space that could drive someone insane, I simply hadn’t realized my own scale. Well, Malphas, who had appeared by tearing through the sky, had been quite large too.

Thinking about it unnecessarily brought back the memory of the moment my body was reborn as an Immortal, making me shudder. That was a sensation I never wanted to experience again.

“Whew…”

After taking a few deep breaths to calm my nerves, I belatedly examined the handsome man before me. From the messy, long black hair and the heavy dark circles, an aura of fatigue radiated. The sharp fangs visible between pale lips, the vertically slit golden pupils, and the ashen skin evoked a sickly, alien impression reminiscent of vampires.

He possessed every element that should appear negative, yet was handsome enough to slap both cheeks of professional actors and still leave only a decadent, beautiful impression. It was truly mysterious. As expected of a lust demon. At this level, it had been the correct decision not to touch his appearance.

Now the last important thing was whether my consciousness would transfer properly. I closed my eyes and focused on the thought that this incubus was my body. Along with the sensation of my body slowly floating, my consciousness snapped.

“Mmm… Did it work?”

Like an old appliance receiving electricity, my vision flickered before sharpening. What stood before my properly awakened eyes was my main body—a giant formed of pitch-black smoke.

Was this what a god-like existence looked like? Simply having it in front of me sent a tingling across my skin and a crushing pressure against my shoulders, but—

“It feels somehow lacking.”

Compared to the experience of witnessing Malphas’s true form, it felt rather bland. Well… I had only just become something god-like, so comparing myself to a Transcendent one rank above an Immortal was ridiculous. Still, it lacked any sense of majesty, divinity, disgust, or negativity. It was like red bean bread without the red bean paste.

This too would change once I put in the effort. What mattered now wasn’t the state of my main body but the condition of my newly created vessel.

“Status Window.”

Looking at the desolate state window summoned by the System’s authority, a sigh escaped me. It felt a little too haphazard because I lacked a sense of reality, but romance was a serious matter. What fun was there in only picking safe choices? I had already lived that kind of life once. If anything was lacking, I could simply fill it in later.

“Shop.”

When I called up the System’s shop, all sorts of items at insane prices lined up before my eyes. Of course, the traits I had just skipped were there, along with armor, weapons, potions, scrolls, talismans, medicinal pellets, grimoires, secret manuals, and cultivation methods. I roughly browsed the shop that transcended genres when a sudden thought crossed my mind and I looked down.

As expected of an incubus—a sinister-patterned serpent met my eyes.

“Ah… I need to buy clothes first.”

If I had known this would happen, I should have bought and tried on some clothes in my previous life. I had no idea what to wear.