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

"[What was that? How did you do that? Was that a spell?]"

Ethan blinked, then frowned. "It was neither. I was about to ask you about it… you don't know?"

She tilted her head in thought for a couple of quiet seconds. "[I have… an idea. But it'd make not sense for you to have access to it just yet. You're not even tier-2 yet.]"

Ethan's eyes widened, suddenly excited. Was he accessing something ahead of schedule? He wouldn't mind that at all. "What is it?"

"[What were you trying to do, exactly?]" Ember asked, completely ignoring his question.

Ethan gave her an annoyed look but still answered. "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. "[Yes. But I'll only tell you if you can do it again.]"

Ethan frowned. "What? Why wouldn't you tell me now?"

Ember flicked her ears back in annoyance, still sitting. "[I don't feel like it. And I'm not sure it's what I think it is so I'd like to make sure first. Do it again, and we'll talk.]" She paused, ears flicking as she stared off in the distance before she licked her paw and started rubbing her face while he stared at her. When she was done, nearly ten seconds later, she tilted her head. "[Are we continuing or are we taking a break?]"

Ethan sighed, then dropped on his behind on a nice rounded rock. "We'll take a short break, I guess. And I'll try to do the thing again so you can finally tell me what it is."

"[Good,]" she said, nonplussed, before she laid down on her side and yawned.

[Ignisra (I) - Level 58]

She was levelling as well, he thought. Then again, I already caught up with her, in a sense.

"[That's because we hunt in packs and we're forced to share. We don't all get such a curated environment to level in peace.]"

Ethan tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Ember swished her tails as her half-lidded eyes peered at him. "[It means that levelling can be dangerous out in the real world. You could be hunting tier-1s and tier-2s for hours, but you could turn a corner and find yourself face-to-face with a tier-4. And that's death. We have to be careful. Slow. Rifts are great for leveling, but everyone wants them, and my little pack of Ignisra isn't enough to muscle away those who hoard them.]"

That was a little unfortunate to hear and while it didn't show on his face, he was sure she could pick up on it through their link. Thankfully, the cat didn't seem too affected, and from the flare of flames along her back, she seemed to find his empathizing amusing."[Now you understand why this whole adventure is such a great opportunity for me. I could get strong enough to give my pack a real chance back home. We wouldn't need to scavenge and scurry around for easy pray if we had someone powerful to shield us. So finish up with your break quick, and let's get back to hunting.]"

Ethan smiled. "Alright, then. Give me a few minutes."

Without wasting any more time, Ethan activated the Prime Arcanum's tier 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. It was just so… reinvigorating.

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He wished he could do this every single day., and as the energies around him died out, and a new message popped up.

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

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 Arcanum 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.

They don't feel that much different, but that's no big deal. I didn't expect them to change much. But now I can slot some tier-2 spellforms in here, and I could increase the spellforms supported as well.

Ethan pulled up the interface and went straight to the upgrade menu of his Prime Arcanum.

Tier upgrade (Tier-2 → Tier-3): Increase the Arcanum's tier, empowering its capabilities and unlocking more upgrades - 2000 fragments, 250 Essence, 1 Riftcore (tier-2)

Spellform Capacity (1 → 2): Increase the Arcanum's spell capacity by one - 600 fragments, 60 Essence

Spellform Bonus (Tier-1 → Tier-2): Increase Spellform bonus from 10% to 15% - 500 fragments, 50 Essence

Mana Regeneration (Tier-1 → Tier-2): Increase the Arcanum's mana regeneration - 400 fragments, 25 Essence

Spell Capacity (4 → 5): Increase the Arcanum's spell capacity by one - 400 fragments, 25 Essence

Prime Echo: Add an echo slot, allowing you to cast spells equipped within your Lesser Arcanums through your Prime Arcanum - 500 fragments, 50 Essence

Ethan read through it all once, then twice before he finally leaned back as he considered the words floating in front of him.

So a new ability is on the table? And I guess I really do need to deal with that rift if I want to push the Prime Arcanum to tier-3. I'm pretty sure a riftcore need to be sourced within rifts.

Glancing back at the echo ability, he was sure it'd be pretty damn useful, but he wasn't getting it first. That honor went to the spellform capacity increase, which was his next immediate goal.

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. A few more possibilities had just opened up in front of him, and he couldn't wait to get his hands on them though the collecting of Essence was slowing him down a little.

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 prepare for what was to come.

For now, I can probably remove the forms title and get back to the fire-manipulating one, he thought. He definitely missed that ability. But he'd get to it in a second. For now, 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. After that, an equipment check, 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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