The first thing I saw was a list of disciplines. Eight of them, like skill branches in an RPG, only instead of virtual skills—quite real, potentially deadly knowledge. They didn't just hang in the air, but seemed engraved in light against a dark background interface. Each had a short but capacious description.
Herbology (Power of Nature) — discipline focused on using plants to create healing and enhancing compounds. First thought was skeptical. Herbology? Sounds like a subject at wizard school, something for straight-A girls and nerds. I imagined endless hours grinding pestle in mortar some roots. But then it hit me. This is Marvel. A world where heart-shaped herb grows in Wakanda giving superpowers, and somewhere in space live walking trees. I immediately understood we're not talking dandelions and plantain. Most likely have to hunt for "lunar chamomile" that blooms once every hundred years on Himalayan peaks, or "whispering moss" from Asgardian caves. Promising, no doubt. Creating serums boosting strength or regeneration—direct path to the big leagues. But logistics could be, to put it mildly, problematic. I'm a broke student in Hell's Kitchen. I'd struggle to scrape together subway fare, let alone an expedition to Tibet. So yes, tempting, but a game for the rich and influential. For now shelve it.
Chemistry (Matter Transformation) — science of mixing substances to obtain new, often dangerous compounds. This was closer to home. No abstract alchemy with miracle herbs, philosopher's stone, and turning lead into gold. In theory—quite specific formulas, reactions, reagents. Chemistry is the foundation of everything. From household cleaning poison to the most sophisticated toxins and explosives. It's both sticky webs Spider-Woman pins thugs to walls with, and acid that can burn through a bank vault. Dangerous? Absolutely. I'm no chemist, and one mistake, one wrong drop or extra degree of heat could cost me this wretched apartment, or even my life. I vividly imagined how from a stray spark my dump turns into a small branch of hell with toxic smoke and furniture bits on the walls. But the potential is enormous. And most importantly—accessibility. Many reagents, even if dirty, can be sourced from ordinary household goods. Risky, dirty, but real. Definitely bookmark.
Explosives (Controlled Chaos) — art of creating and using explosives. The name spoke for itself. Straightforward and unadorned. Not "pyrotechnics," but "explosives." I mentally pictured Daily Bugle headlines: "Mysterious Hell's Kitchen Bomber Strikes Again!" No, thanks. Attracting S.H.I.E.L.D., FBI, and other guys in black wasn't in my plans. I'm a builder by nature, not a destroyer. But… the cynical, practical part of my mind immediately tossed another thought. Explosives aren't just bombs. It's also smoke bombs for retreat, flashbangs for disorientation, shaped charges for breaching armored doors. It's a tool. Powerful, terrifying, but a tool. Worth studying recipes at least for general knowledge and understanding how this stuff works. To know what to expect from others. So won't create for now, but study—definitely.
Smithing (Art of Metal) — metalworking to create armor and weapons. Here the craftsman in me woke up. The line seemed to vibrate, touching something deep inside. The smell of hot metal and coal, deafening but rhythmic clang of hammer on anvil, hiss of red-hot steel plunged into water… I almost physically felt it. This was mine. Real, honest craft. But reality immediately doused me with cold water. A forge. In my studio apartment? Even using a drill here—already neighbor problems, let alone a furnace that would burn out all wiring and start a fire. This is a goal for the distant, very distant future, when I have my own garage or workshop. A dream to strive for.
Weaponcraft (Thunder and Steel) — creation and modification of firearms. Hm. I'm in the USA. Here you can buy a gun at the corner supermarket, if you have a permit, and sometimes without. Spending time and resources on a steampunk flintlock pistol inferior to factory models—stupid. I'm no gunsmith, and my homemade piece would probably explode in my own hands. But if the recipes offer something… exotic? Railgun in rifle format? Plasma cutter? Electromagnetic accelerator shooting ball bearings? Or at least simple mods: perfect silencer, non-lethal ammo, smart sights. Then the conversation is different. This direction heavily depends on what exactly the system offers. For now—"look into," and screw it that every discipline is on that list, heh.
Electricity (Spark of Life) — taming the power of electricity to create amazing devices. In a world with Tony Stark, this direction is one of the key. Electricity is the language modern technology speaks. It's both weapon and defense, and power source for future projects. From simple taser to complex microcircuits, power sources like arc reactors or even EMP generators. Potential limitless. But entry threshold, I suspect, sky-high. This isn't just "plus" to "minus" connect. It's physics, math, circuit design. Though considering where exactly the recipes come from, I vividly imagined schemes with steps like "charge from Thor's lightning" or "connect to tesseract." Definitely need to study in detail, but somehow I'm sure without a base from other disciplines like Mechanics I won't get far here.
Mechanics (Motion and Logic) — design and creation of complex mechanisms and automatons. This—yes. This is mine. This isn't fixing stools, but creating something truly complex. Mechanics is the skeleton of any device. Gears, levers, drives, hydraulics. It's the foundation for everything else. Want a cool gun? Need mechanics. Want to assemble a robot helper? Mechanics. Exoskeleton? Again it. Unlike smithing, here you can start small. Disassemble old equipment, scavenge junkyards, create from salvaged materials. This is a direct and understandable path for me to create useful gadgets and tools that will make life and work in other areas easier. Again, it all comes down to resources and workshop, but you can start even on your knee, if the recipes allow. This is the foundation.
Therapeutics (Healing Technology) — combination of chemistry and mechanics to create healing devices and potent medicines. I mentally bowed to this discipline. This is a joker. Ace up the sleeve. In a world where everything constantly explodes, collapses, where heroes and villains clash leveling whole blocks, ability to heal isn't just useful—it's survival, money, influence. Ability to stitch your own wound without going to hospital where they'll ask uncomfortable questions. Ability to create regenerative gel or stimulant that puts you back on your feet in hours, not weeks. Here's where the real gold is buried. But it's also carries the greatest danger. A person who can work medical miracles will immediately become a target for everyone: from government to crime syndicates. They'll either try to control you or simply kill you so you don't fall to the enemy. Complexity here is also insane—need to understand chemistry, mechanics, and apparently biology. This is a long-term goal. Very important, but not immediate.
So, briefly running through the disciplines and headings, I moved to the most important and responsible stage—choosing the recipe! Opening one discipline after another I carefully read the again abbreviated recipe descriptions and noted the most interesting and potentially useful. Each discipline had several dozen recipes, which pleased me, because if it were hundreds… I'm afraid one night wouldn't be enough to adequately cover them all, but here only about 200-250 recipes total.
I decided to start noting useful ones, and so as not to get confused I wrote down names in a notebook, starting in order, from Herbology. Here I liked 7 recipes, each useful and functional in its own way: healing balm, persuasion elixir, fatigue pills, restorative agent, miracle cure, acceleration potion, and intellect potion. Despite seemingly obvious names, the descriptions of the same persuasion elixir or fatigue pills surprised me, which is why I added them to my list. Persuasion elixir temporarily increased charm and eloquence of the drinker, and fatigue pills removed fatigue and should really be called anti-fatigue pills.
Reading the resulting list again I crossed out healing balm and restorative agent. These are less effective healing analogs of miracle cure. With an asterisk I marked Intellect Potion, which according to description temporarily sharpened the mind, allowing to solve complex problems or notice what was previously hidden. Sort of NZT-48 on minimal settings. In the end 5 recipes remained, the problem being I didn't understand if they needed magical herbs, which I probably can't obtain… Anyway, analysis and move to Chemistry!
Here, discarding a bunch of poisons of varying dubiousness and lethality, a bunch of options for neutralizing or enhancing magic, I ended up with only 3 recipes: Acid Mixture (caustic acid capable of eating through armor, weapons, and flesh), Elixir of Fire Resistance, and Will Paralysis Poison (potent neurotoxin that completely paralyzes the victim for a time without killing). From brief descriptions of both the discipline and recipes themselves, I dare hope magic isn't heavily involved here, though…
My gaze lingered again on "Elixir of Fire Resistance." This was a perfect example of what bothered me about this "Arcanum." Where is the line between science and magic? The description said: "compound making skin temporarily immune to high temperatures by forming an unstable energy field." Sounds scientific. But what is an "unstable energy field"? Is this from Tony Stark's lexicon or Doctor Strange's? If it requires, say, powder from mythical salamander scales, it's magic. If achieved by mixing rare-earth metals and irradiating at a specific frequency, it's science, albeit insanely advanced. The system blended these concepts, calling everything "technologies." Perhaps for it there was no difference. As Arthur C. Clarke said, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And I'd apparently have to get used to this blurred boundary. Main thing is that the ingredient list doesn't include items like "add a pinch of faith and a drop of luck." I might have problems with those. Okay, moving to Explosives!
Molotov cocktail, dynamite, flamethrower, mine, chlorine gas grenade… All this and more I sent to the furnace! For now I don't need lethality, ended up with only 2, actually 1 recipe that interested me: Stun Grenade—non-lethal device that on explosion disorients and stuns everyone in radius with bright flash and loud sound. According to description a useful thing, the second recipe is Plastic Explosive (powerful and controllable explosive that can be attached to any surface), and precisely because it can be controlled I marked it with a question mark, but still more no than yes. Next up Smithing.
Axes, swords, shields, armor, gauntlets, helmets, even boomerangs… Different properties indistinguishable from magic, and probably are magic, and a huge choice of recipes, from which I didn't bookmark anything for the simple reason that creating any of this list in my current conditions I probably can't. For example, Molten Glass Armor (unique armor made using volcanic glass, excellently protecting from fire), I can't physically imagine how to make armor from glass and what Volcanic glass even is? Or Boomerang Shield (aerodynamically perfected shield that returns to owner after throw), do I need to train to use it like Captain America? Or is it a conceptual property baked into the shield on creation and works regardless of owner and skill? Questions… Lots of questions I can't yet answer adequately, so moving to Weaponcraft.
Here things were about the same as Smithing. I can't physically imagine where and how I'd assemble a conditional Harpoon Gun (shoots steel harpoon tied to cable, allowing to pull enemies or objects) or Elephant Gun (large-caliber rifle with monstrous killing power). Skimming the impressive list of rifles, shotguns, revolvers, exotic weapons I ended up with only 1 recipe: Tesla Gun (shoots concentrated lightning bolts, dealing massive area damage and especially effective against mechanisms and electronics), I definitely won't choose it, but just to drool over a maxed-out Gauss rifle no one's stopping me, especially since the next discipline is Electricity and I think there'll be more interesting options than Big-Gun-Go-Boom.
Excluding outright lethal things and simple taser analogs I could buy in a store like Shock-Staff (staff capable of hitting enemies with electric discharges on contact), I settled on only 3 recipes, one of which even by description sounds too imba, but dreaming isn't harmful: Mechanical Spider-Shocker (small automaton that runs up to enemy and hits with powerful electric shock), Protective Field Generator (device creating small force barrier capable of stopping bullets and arrows) and imba Teleportation Beacon (complex device that after placement creates anchor point to which you can teleport using special remote). Naturally Protective Field Generator looks most obvious choice, if we set aside the Beacon, which I probably can't create, and it sounds like something… Magical. Brr, gives me chills from that word, anyway, next discipline Mechanics!
Recipes here were… Plenty, almost as many as Smithing, but most are highly specialized automatons. Even a regular Spider Automaton (mechanical helper capable of fighting and carrying loads) I probably can't assemble, let alone conditional Medical Spider (advanced automaton programmed for first aid and injecting healing balms) which also needs healing balms, I suspect from Herbology or Therapeutics, and it's hard to trust first aid to a robot assembled on knee (assuming I can even assemble it). Anyway, automatons to the furnace, bookmarking the following interesting recipes: Mechanical Dagger (dagger with complex spring mechanism that "shoots" blade forward, increasing attack range), Binocular Goggles (optical device for observing distant objects), Gyroscope (complex device that can be built into weapon or armor to improve balance and accuracy) and Exoskeleton (pinnacle of mechanics. Powered frame that not only protects but significantly increases wearer's physical strength). The last again just to drool over steampunk version of Iron Man armor on minimal settings, heh. As for Mechanical Dagger, it's nostalgia for assassin's hidden blade, and Binocular Goggles aren't really needed since I can buy regular binoculars, okay won't cross out anyway. In theory the most useful in this discipline is Gyroscope, but how it works I have no idea, so just asterisk and move to the last and most interesting discipline for me—Therapeutics!
Dozens of Healing Potion variants differing basically only in names I skipped, especially since analogs exist in Herbology, and in the end I had only 4 relatively interesting recipes… Not many, but no complaining, anyway the really hard choice is ahead, now in Therapeutics I settled on: Necromizer (chemical compound that on contact with undead causes chain decay reaction), Muscle Stimulant (powerful steroid temporarily increasing strength and endurance to superhuman levels without side effects), Vivisector (rarest and most complex device that applied to recently deceased can restart heart and return to life) and Purity Serum (medicine capable of curing worst diseases and even removing some curses, acting on cellular level).
Necromizer I kept just in case, maybe zombie apocalypse happens, after all this is Marvel, you can't be insured against anything… Among the other 3 options the most interesting looks Vivisector, but Purity Serum, essentially maxed-out Healing Potion is also attractive. True neither Vivisector nor Purity Serum I'll probably be able to create, so asterisk goes to Muscle Stimulant.
Running through the list again with my eyes and marking with asterisks the most interesting and obvious options that don't look like "Arc Reactor in Garage", my final choice wasn't that big: Intellect Potion, Will Paralysis Poison, Stun Grenade, Protective Field Generator, Gyroscope and Muscle Stimulant. Only 6 options, with which in theory (so far only theory) I can do something, and even for conditional Protective Field Generator and Gyroscope I'm not sure what tech level is required… Why only 1 recipe to choose… It's too hard! Okay, actually the choice is quite obvious.