With his back against the wall and the cold stone digging into his painful behind, Ethan rubbed his face and looked away from the man that had tried to kill him. He still didn’t feel that good about it, but having had to fight for his life against a swarm of scale-covered humanoids definitely helped put things in perspective.

  Ethan closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall. “Everything hurts,” he mumbled. A few seconds later, he forced his eyes open and reviewed the updated interface.

  With the tier upgrade, the wand not only became capable of handling the tier-1 modifier, but it also boosted his stats. Now the goal was to save up again for the new big item: the unique trait.

  Well. Second biggest item. The biggest was now the tier-2 upgrade, and it would cost a 100 fragments.

  That will take a minute to collect. But it isn’t the priority.

  Ethan turned his attention back to the unique trait. It wasn’t too expensive. Only 20 fragments, which shouldn’t take him long to collect.

  Another new option was the capacity upgrade, which should allow him more spells and modifiers within the wand. The rest of the options were the same as before. Cast refresh, mana regeneration, and stat bonus.

  Now he just needed to collect more fragments.

  I’m so damn tired, though.

  Ethan leaned against the wall, wincing as he inhaled through gritted teeth from his many injuries, and closed his eyes for a second. He wasn’t going to sleep. He just needed to rest his eyes. His ears were on high alert, listening for any noise. Whether it be wind, screeches, or steps.

  There were people around, clearly enough. Should he try to find them?

  His brows knitted.

  If people are turning on each other, I’d rather keep some distance.

  As soon as he thought that, an old man’s disapproving glare popped in his mind and Ethan pursed his lips.

  Alright. Maybe not big groups. But if someone needs help, then I should give a hand. Otherwise, I’m better off being on my own.

  He should try and see if Luther was in this group. Then again, his ex-foster had been all the way across the country last he’d heard from him, so it’d be a miracle if he was in this group as well.

  Ethan wasn’t enthusiastic about approaching others, but he needed to sleep. He will soon need food and water as well, and those might be easier to come around with people.

  Well. I’m not hungry and I’m not thirsty just yet. So we’ll see.

  Ethan opened his eyes and brought up his wand menu. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it but for now, he had a modifier spell to put in his wand.

  After a quick glance around, Ethan dismissed his claws. He probably had enough mana to bring them back at this point.

  Wand #1:

  [Form: Claws]

  [Sequential: None]

  At first, he tried dropping [Flaming Enhancement] on the second box. The one that said “none”. But it didn’t work. So he dropped it on Claws, and both in the interface and within his chest he felt something click. He brought the configuration screen up again.

  Wand #1:

  [Form: [Flaming][Claws]]

  The second case that had “sequential” in its name disappeared, while the default case now contained two cases, one for [Flaming Enhancement], one for [Claws].

  That’s it? It’s that easy? Well. Time to test this. Hopefully, it doesn’t burn me.

  Ethan triggered the wand and put his mental finger on the off button. In case the fire burned him, he was instantly turning the wand off.

  Same as the last couple of times, mana rushed out of his chest. The magic layered itself against his hands, strengthening it, growing the claws. When that part was done, his hands ignited with a woosh that made him shrink back.

  Ethan waited for the pain to scream into his mind. A second. Two seconds.

  Nothing. No pain. Well, not new pain that is. Only a comfortable warmth, and dancing yellow and orange flames. And the sensation of his soul being sucked dry.

  “Ugh.”

  Ethan groaned and disabled the magic. It was like something had just scooped out a part of his heart and made firewood out of it. He had to breathe deep for a few seconds until the feeling lost its edge, but the verdict was clear.

  [Flaming Enhancement] was writing checks his mana reserves couldn’t cash.

  I guess I need to invest in mana regeneration if I want to use the modifier any time soon. Oh well. A few fragments won’t make a big difference.

  [Mana regeneration: Increase by 0.04 - 1 fragments]

  [Mana regeneration: Increase by 0.05 - 2 fragments]

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  That was convenient. Once the upgrade sunk into his arm, Ethan really noticed the flow of mana coming into his hands and up toward his chest. He might have been imagining it before, but with the regeneration rate being literally multiplied by ten, he could distinctly sense the tingly energy move up his arm. A quick glance to his status page confirmed the upgrade.

  Mana regeneration: 0.1 (5%)

  Within the minute, his chest felt full, so he ignited his hands again.

  The fire surged around his claws, but Ethan didn’t pay it too much attention. Instead, he focused on the feeling in his chest, where this mana seemed to be stored. After a minute, he still felt comfortable, so he opened his eyes and grinned.

  “Problem solved, I guess.”

  Still sitting and resting, Ethan turned his hands this way and that. He touched one of the dead lizardlings with his right hand, and smoke immediately began wafting off its skin. He touched his own bicep, but only felt a comfortable heat, which made him smile for a second before he smelled burnt cloth and was forced to extinguish his hands and smother his burning sleeve.

  The flame didn’t hurt his enhanced hand, but it could definitely damage his clothes. Which might become a problem. Ethan dismissed the claws and pulled up the new side quest.

  Side quest:

  Reach level 10

  Reward:

  1 trait from a list of tailored options.

  3 stat points.

  He was almost there. What kind of trait was he going to get?

  I guess I’ll see when I get to the next level. For now, I’ve got a stat point to assign.

  Mana? More Toughness? Spirit? What did that one even do, actually?

  Ethan frowned for a second, then decided he could figure that out at a later time and narrowed his options to Mana or Toughness. One was dangerously low. The second saved his life and he could use more of it right about now.

  Toughness is pretty high. At eight points, I just need to rest and let it work its magic to heal me up. On the other hand, some extra mana reserves would be good. Plus, who knows? Maybe there’s something out there that can snuff out my claws. If I find myself in a situation where I need to keep recasting [Claws], I’m screwed.

  With that, Ethan assigned the point to Mana, then leaned back against the wall. His body was slightly less sore. The many stabs—most were superficial—still radiated pain, but they were getting better. Thankfully, he wasn’t bleeding badly, as far as he could see.

  Well. Not externally, at least. Though he felt like Toughness should protect him a bit from internal bleeding. If not… He’d had a good run. He doubted there were hospitals nearby anyway.

  But maybe there’s healing spells out there? That would be useful to have.

  Ethan closed his eyes for a few moments. Since this had started, he’d been caught in the system messages, the lizardlings, the side quests. He hadn’t had a chance to think about the outside world at all.

  What was happening? He recalled the message. Something about realities being found? They spoke about sub-par mana levels and tampering. Did that mean his home world has had its magic cut off?

  Lots of questions he’d like the answers to. Eventually.

  For now, he needed to survive.

  ***

  A scratchy voice suddenly reached his ears and Ethan’s eyes shot open. It took him a second to realize the voices were coming from down the hall, and that he’d dozed off.

  Dammit. At least they’re stupid enough to be loud.

  Ethan cautiously turned and saw two lizardlings come around the corner. Levels 4 and 5.

  “We should go back. Tell the chieftain.”

  “Shut it. We can harvest them first. Share their fragments.”

  The two slowly approached, and Ethan took stock of his body. He must have been asleep for a bit because he couldn’t feel the stabbing pains anymore. Only soreness.

  Ethan chided himself as he tracked the two lizardlings. Dumb. If another person had come around, I would have been in trouble.

  He really couldn’t afford to make those kinds of mistakes.

  “More filthy humans,” groused one of them as it pushed a dead lizardling over. It looked around and its yellow eyes narrowed as it carefully stepped over a corpse. “Where are the fragm—”

  Ethan’s claws ignited and shot forward. The two screeched with surprise as the man’s claws sliced through the throat of the first one. Blood sizzled and smoked as it hit the wall. The second recoiled in shock, but Ethan didn’t kill it. Instead, he took its legs from under it with a well-placed kick. Then, aiming his claw at the lizardling’s face, he asked. “What level is your chieftain? And what do you know of humans?”

  The lizardling’s lips stretched across its sharp teeth. “I’ll tell you. So he can break your bones and add you to the cage with the other humans. And then we’ll feast on—”

  Ethan touched the lizardling’s bare chest, and it screeched with pain.

  ***

  You have defeated [Lizardling - Level 4]

  You have defeated [Lizardling - Level 5]

  Wand #1: 4 fragments collected.

  In the end, the lizardling had cracked pretty quickly. It could have lied, of course, but it really did seem to trust its chieftain to be able to bring him down.

  Ethan made his way down the stairs where the torch was still lit, then turned right.

  The hall was empty this time around.

  Light on his feet, Ethan briskly creeped down the corridor, then turned left, killed two more lizardlings for 3 fragments, then took another left and followed the torches. A minute later, he found the camp.

  It was sparsely populated, and the few lizardlings he could see were armed. They seemed to be occupying some sort of reception area. A wide open space with a large fire at the center, and torn clothes or just leathers to serve as beds. Beyond the fire, he could see cages, but he couldn’t make out the people that were supposed to be in them.

  Ethan didn’t think of himself as a hero, but he wasn’t going to let potentially decent people get devoured by these weirdoes. Plus, that chieftain sounded like a good bag of levels, and clearing the rest of the camp should net him some more levels and fragments.

  One last thing, though.

  Ethan still wanted to save up for the Unique Trait upgrade, but there was no need to be too greedy, especially when he was about to head into a big fight.

  [Stat Bonus: Increase by 1 - 5 fragments]

  Ethan took a few deep breaths, then applied the upgrade. When the process was over, he ignited his hands and stepped into the room, heart hammering in his ears. But not from fear.

  Stop smiling, you weirdo. Focus.