Ethan turned away from the dead swamp monitor, looking for Ember with a question ready on his lips, only to find her staring at him. Their eyes met, and her voice reached his mind.

  “[What…was that? How did you do that?]”

  Ethan blinked, then frowned. “I was about to ask you about it… you don’t know?”

  She tilted her head. “[I’ve never seen such a thing in my life… was it a spell? Was it something this new system gave you?]”

  Ethan shook his head and paused, trying to recall. “No I just… thought of my path and just tried to act in a manner that reflected it the best. I tried to channel its mindset so I could get more Essence. And I did get a bunch, but I don’t think it was a special trait or spell. It just happened,” he said, then eyed the cat. “Have you not met one of your kind who could do such a thing?”

  Ember sat on her haunches and shook her head. “[The highest Ignisra I’ve met was tier-2, and I haven’t seen her do such thing.]”

  “[Ignisra? And only tier-2?]”

  Ember flicked her ears back in annoyance. “[Well, we don’t call ourselves ‘feline fire elementals’. And it’s not as if we were some high and mighty city or faction to have anyone stronger. We’re just a…small tribe of Ignisra. One of many in the realm.]” She paused, staring off for a distance. Ember licked her paw for a couple of seconds, then lay on her stomach. “[Well, we were… I guess.]”

  Ethan hesitated. He liked to tease the Ignisra, and sometimes gave her a hard time, but if he were honest, he didn’t know much about her life from before she was summoned. Or even if she had wanted to be summoned. He’d asked a couple of times, but only got soft snores and barely twitching ears for a response. The cat could be cute and friendly on occasion, only to turn cagey and quiet the next second. Still, he asked. “What happened?”

  The cat stared at him for a second, its orange and black glowing in the dark like lit candles, and then, she put her head on her paw and closed her eyes.

  “[We were hunted, as is common to those who were born within rifts. As we are doing to those oversized lizards. Everything and everyone is all but fragments and kindling to be consumed to reinforce your own wand. And life goes on, but this is all a story for another time. For now, we should probably rest. I don’t expect raiding the rift will be an easy matter.]”

  “Raiding?”

  “[That’s what it’s called, when you go into a rift to conquer it. Now let me sleep.]”

  Ethan looked around for a moment, then took a seat, leaning on the still smouldering carcass of the reptile and eyed the cat sleeping a few paces away.

  [Feline Fire Elemental - Ignisra (I) - Level 56]

  I guess the system’s learning. And looks like Ember ended up gaining a few levels ever since she arrived here, then again, I already caught up with her, in a sense.

  Ethan might not have her level just yet, but he could fight off and win against opponents of that level. Though it clearly meant the Ignisra could have easily killed him back when he’d met her. As much as he could fight off things above his level, that wide of a gap would have been the end of him.

  Alright, enough wasting time. Let’s get started.

  Ethan activated the upgrade, and watched as 500 fragments and a 100 Essence disappeared out of his balance. He barely felt the sting of loss when the world shuddered around him.

  A buzz. The air tingled around his skin, and he could feel the hair on his arm stand on end. A swirl of invisible power began pulsing and twisting around him and then, it began sinking into his body and soul. Ethan felt a swell of power surge into him, as if he’d just jumped five whole levels. His muscles pulsed and twitched, as if his body was urging him to run and jump and set everything on fire. He was simultaneously filled with power while also a huge weight was dropped off of his shoulders.

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  Off his chest, actually.

  Ethan felt [Mana Heart] suddenly become much more bearable. Like a kink in his neck he was finally able to relax and with that, the energies around him died out, and a new message popped up.

  Prime wand of the Juggernaut: Upgrade from tier-1 to tier-2 completed.

  Restriction on Prime forms lifted.

  With a flex of his will, Ethan summoned the horns and felt the pulse of magic course down his body, reinforcing his claws and scales. Next, he summoned the wand in his left arm, and the black and red rod appeared against his palm. In his right, he summoned the lance, and the hefty weapon dropped into his grip.

  Now I have all three, and I have an extra spellform spot in the Prime wand… but I’m not putting the wings in there. I’ll move the scales here, and the wings in the other one. I know I got used to the weight of carrying a tier-2 form in a tier-1 wand, but I’m not doing that again unless I seriously have to…

  A quick gander through the wand interface told him of the main changes.

  The first interesting point was the increased spellform limit.

  When I upgraded the other wand to tier-2, I didn’t get an extra slot… only when it reached tier-3 could I use a second form spell with the wand. The Prime wand on the other might get an extra slot per tier… which is double. Interesting.

  The second change concerned the stats. The Prime Bonus—the property boosting all of his stats—was raised from 5 points to 10. Already, that was a full 20 extra stat points, but it wasn’t over just yet. Next, the form bonus that would be allocated depending on his spellforms got raised to 20 points instead of 10, which currently made his Mana stat spike.

  Ethan didn’t pay that much attention considering he was about to shuffle things around. Then he paused.

  Shit. The Prime wand can now handle two spellforms, but I only have a single capacity slot.

  Ethan sighed. It wouldn’t take him long to unlock the extra capacity slot, but it was slightly annoying so for now, he just turned his attention back to studying the evolved wand.

  Ethan checked the upgrades, and there were quite a few interesting ones listed.

  [Tier: 2 to 3 - 2000 fragments, 250 Essence, ???]

  [Prime Echo: Add an echo slot - 500 fragments, 50 Essence]

  [Form Bonus: Increase by 20 - 300 fragments, 20 Essence]

  [Mana regeneration: Increase by 1 - 100 fragments, 10 Essence]

  [Capacity: Increase by 1 - 100 fragments, 10 Essence]

  [Cast refresh: Decrease by 0.25s - 50 fragments, 5 Essence]

  What did the three question marks meant? A secret requirement? And what’s this new echo stuff?

  Ethan leaned over, studying and thinking of the words floating in front of him. He had a couple of suspicions of what this new ability could do. Maybe it would double the effect of a spell or duplicate it? Maybe it would allow this wand to copy a spell of another wand? Whatever it was, it sounded interesting and most certainly useful, but it would take a moment for him to confirm it. For now, he would love to get some extra stats and capacity, as well as some mana regeneration if he could afford it.

  With a flick of his hand, Ethan dismissed the prime forms and leaned back on the ground.

  All in all, he was happy with the upgrade. He had a lot more stats, and he’d be able to manage more forms, though the collecting of Essence was slowing him down.

  Unless I manage to channel that state again…

  Ethan closed his eyes and kept his ears peeled for danger.

  It wasn’t that big of a deal that he couldn’t upgrade everything he wanted all at once. After all, Essence took time to collect, and it has barely been a couple of days since he could even use it, so he just had to be a little patient. For now, he could plan things out and first things first, he was getting some extra capacity for the prime wand, which should allow him an extra form.

  Once that’s done, I can have [Mana Heart] and [Sapping Scales] in the Prime wand, then [Draconic Claws] and [Draconic Wings] in the other wand. After that, more stats in the Prime wand. Now, I only need to convert [Breath Gland], [Sapping Scales], and [Mana Heart] to something draconic, and I’ll have the whole set.

  Ethan wondered. What kind of bonus would that give him?

  It’d probably be something awesome, he thought to himself as he sat back up.

  Ethan cracked his neck, and pulled up his freshly finished quest.

  Congratulations. Side quest completed.

  15 stat points

  1 magic item

  1 custom trait

  Alright, let’s look through all of this, now. After that, a capacity boost, then some scouting to see the big beasties.

  Ethan rubbed his hands together. Now that he was about to have a permanent spot for the wings, he couldn’t wait to see where they could take him.

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