While the screeching and roars continued to fill the blue-tinted mushroom forest, Ethan tried to talk himself into a plan he knew he was going to fail.
Eyes on the prize, Ethan. You need clothes. And the knife’s tip is already cracked and the rest is beginning to bend in a weird way. That trait for the loot would be great here. Might be even better than the dagger, considering it gave me nothing lately. Maybe it’s because it’s damaged? Anyways, that trait and clothes. That’s what I need right now.
Ethan exhaled. If his last few interactions with the multiple choices given by the system were of any indication, he was about to be driven off-course once more. Something better than what he planned on getting would be proposed to him, and once more, he’d have to pivot and pick something else.
No plan survives enemy contact. Or something like that.
A quick glance toward the cat told him Ember was completely conked out, sleeping on her side with her mouth open, so without further delays, Ethan began with the traits.
Select a trait from the list below:
Enhancer Specialist: When a wand is being used as a form, it provides 10% extra form stats.
Harvester’s flames: Opponents vanquished through fire have a higher chance of forming primagems and spellcores.
Scorching Ascendency: Gain the ability to buff all of your stats by 30% for a few minutes. In this state, Essence is generated faster. Approximative recharge time: 12 hours.
There we go, Ethan thought as he clicked his tongue, but a smile still crept across his lips. Once again, he was forced into a tough choice, but he didn’t hate it. It was slightly annoying of course, but it was a great problem to have.
Now, permanent boost in loot, or a trait that buffs my stats? For the latter, there’s two options: 30% for a few minutes, or constant 10% ?
Ethan lay back on the soft soil with his hands under his head. Between the two buffing traits, the second was certainly more attractive. Sure, it was an ability that required time to recharge, but the difference in stats was significant, and the extra Essence generation was nothing to scoff at. Plus, it somehow reminded him of that odd state he’d reached recently… Was that why he’d gotten this option?
Yeah. Between the two buffing traits, I’m taking the 30%. Now… loot, or boost?
The looting trait was great, but it was greedy. It would be great in the long-term, but at his current level and stats, the 30% stat boost represented more than 60 points of raw stats. It was only once in 12 hours, sure, but that was not a negligible boost, and it would only grow larger as he grew stronger.
I can always get another dagger, or pick the Harvester’s flames next time, but Scorching Ascendency is a no-brainer.
Ethan made his choice, and felt the magic sink in his body. He wanted to give the new trait a test, but that would be incredibly dumb. He needed to hold it in reserve for the big monsters still lurking around.
Which made him itch to get back out there even more, but while the [Mana Heart] allowed him to go for a long time, he still needed to rest a bit.
Next, Ethan turned his attention to the last token, and a new menu popped up. He was supposed to get clothes here, but he doubted that’d happen.
Select a magical item from the list below:
Shardpurse: A soulbound wallet to hold your fragments.
Spellblade robes: A set of clothing enchanted to be highly resistant to the user’s own magic.
Reinforced tent: A robust tent to allow rest and sleep in the wilderness.
Speaking Stones (2): A pair of enchanted stones to allow communication between two users across up to a mile.
Longsight goggles: Enchanted goggles to see your targets from afar.
Right… forgot about the shardpurse. And it’s most definitely more useful than the clothes.
Ethan stared at the prompt for a second, sighed, then selected the magical wallet. He’d still be naked under the scales, but at least he can organize his fragments more efficiently, which should allow him to quickly upgrade the new wand when he’d get it, instead of having to funnel fragments to it.
A quick flash of light, and a little intricately carved deep-blue gem dropped out of thin air. As soon as Ethan touched it, a new prompt popped up.
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Claim shardpurse?
Ethan agreed, and the gem exploded into a mist of blue and gold motes then sunk into his hand, burning into his right wrist, and when he looked down, he saw a ring of symbols that quickly faded into his skin.
Collect all wand fragments into the shardpurse?
Ethan agreed once more, and felt something twinge and move within his soul for a couple of seconds before a final prompt showed up.
Shardpurse: 462 fragments
And now, it’s all in a single place.
For a quick test, Ethan turned his attention to the elemental wand, and triggered one of the upgrades he had available.
[Capacity: Increase by 1 - 200 fragments]
The upgrade finished up, and the shardpurse’s balance went down as expected.
This will help. Now, for the new stat points.
Ethan started by assigning a point each to Might, Spirit, and Mana to get them to 20 points each, and five to Toughness so it’d crack 40, which left him with 7 points. After a quick look around, he put those in Might.
My base stats are growing nicely, and the Toughness has been doing great, so it’s time to help something else catch up. Now, what’s the new side quest?
Side quest:
Reach level 60
Reward:
20 stat points
1 tier-2 spell
1 tier-3 spell
More spells on the menu? Looking forward to that.
With his base stats updated, Ethan took a quick rest. He just needed a few more Essence points, and he’d be able to reshuffle his spellforms around. He was looking forward to seeing what his final stats would look like once that was done.
***
A couple of hours later, the duo went back to hunting. They’ve only been bothered a couple of times when they’d been resting. Once by a little group of water monitors, and the second by a warband of lizardlings. Both had been dealt with pretty fast, and now Ethan was only a couple of Essences short from upgrading the capacity of his Prime wand and having a second spellform spell on it.
As he eyed the peeved and smoking cave monitor ahead, he tilted his head to the right. The cat didn’t even need to dig her claws into the horn. That tiny nudge was nowhere enough to dislodge her.
“Get off, Ember.”
“[I want to see the thing from up close. Try again.]”
Ethan went to poke her with a talon as the reptile ambled toward them, and she swatted his scale covered digits. Ethan sighed and turned his attention at the creature ahead as he stepped forward.
“I haven’t been able to recreate the effect without you distracting me up there. What makes you think it’ll work this time?”
The cat did not respond, so Ethan exhaled and rolled his shoulders, then tried to sink back into the odd mindset.
The monitor opened its maw and shot a clump of crystallized rocks, and Ethan summoned a wall of flames to ward it off, but the projectile punched right through and slammed into his left shoulder like a swung sledgehammer. A sharp pain came next, followed by wetness as a bit of blood seeped out of the wound.
One of the sharp crystals had managed to punch through the scales.
Motherfucker…
Ethan grimaced. He didn’t feel like eating another of those, so instead of walking slowly to recreate the feeling, he ran, quickly eating through the distance separating him from the monster and at the last second he leapt and summoned the lance, then stabbed down.
The lance head drove into the stony scales for only a few inches, but it was enough to drag a screech out of the monster. Ethan dismissed the lance, unwilling to waste Essence on a detonation, and instead began tearing into the creature's face with his claws while blasting it with fire.
The talons couldn’t cut well into the tough scales, but they most definitely could pop an eye or two, and the fire would do the rest, so Ethan let the flames roar.
He didn’t want to waste time here. He wanted to go explore, so he held nothing back, and a few minutes later, the monster fell, charred and smoking, and Ethan found he had enough Essence for his much desired upgrade.
You have defeated [Cave Monitor - Level 58]
Shardpurse: 73 fragments collected.
[Capacity: Increase by 1 - 100 fragments, 10 Essence]
He waited as the magic did its thing. Ethan had high hopes. He knew Toughness was about to lose some points considering it won’t be propped up as much by the tier-3 wand, but the loss shouldn’t be bad and then again, everything else should see a strong boost. With that, he began moving things around and once he was done, he had a wide grin on his face.
Prime Wand of the Juggernaut:
Spell Forms: [Mana Heart], [Sapping Scales]
Wand of the Fire Elemental:
Spell Forms: [[Scorching][Extended][Draconic Claws]], [Draconic Wings]
Finally, he pulled up his updated stats.
The wings are boosting Spirit and Mana, but too bad I can’t see the effect of the new trait just yet… but soon. At least Vanguard is active, and so is the draconic set bonus.
Might: 64 (27)
Toughness: 77 (40)
Spirit: 95 (20)
Mana: 67 (20)
I’m close to hitting a 100 in a stat. Would that give me something? I doubt it… it might though if it had been a base stat. Everything else is being inflated by spells and wands.
Ethan hummed as his wings spread and unfurled behind his back. He guessed he would find out eventually but for now, it was time to go exploring.
“[Don’t fly too fast. It makes me sick.]”
Ethan glared upward at the furball lounging atop of his horns. “Don’t puke on my horns or I’ll throw you in a lake,” he said, then jumped.
He was ready to go see the rift.
Reach level 50
Reward:
15 stat points
1 magic item token
1 custom trait.
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