The stormy wind was helping with the heat that suffused Ethan's chest. It was as if someone was continuously pouring boiling water across his chest, and while he knew the red-hued energies flowing out of the riftcore were being consumed and changed as his Prime Arcanum was upgraded, it still made him grimace and sweat as he prayed for the damn process to be over.

Upgrade or not, it was not at all pleasant.

At least the Lesser Arcanums' upgrades aren't this dramatic, he thought, panting through gritted teeth.

Thankfully the whole thing took less than five minutes before it was all over. The riftcore dimmed, and cracks spread through its once red and smooth surface before winds picked up the bits and pieces as they turned to dust.

Ethan let out a sigh, eyes closed as the heat finally began to abate and as much as he wished for a river or an ocean to dive in, he still had to keep going with the process. With a quick check, he looked into totals for a second.

Shardpurse: 31612

Essence: 62

The tier upgrade for the Prime Arcanum had burned through 250 of his painfully collected essence, but he still had a decent amount left and he was sure he'd get more of it soon.

Letting the scales dispel from his upper half, he took a second to enjoy the cold wind on his skin before he opened his eyes and focused back on the task at hand. "Let's see if there's anything new here, then."

Prime Arcanum upgrades

Tier-3

Tier upgrade (Tier-3 → Tier-4): Increase the Arcanum's tier, empowering its capabilities and unlocking more upgrades - 10000 fragments, 500 Essence, 3 Riftcore (tier-3)

Spellform Capacity (2 → 3): Increase the Arcanum's spell capacity by one - 3000 fragments, 150 Essence

Spellform Bonus (Tier-2 → Tier-3): Increase Spellform bonus from 20% to 30% - 2500 fragments, 120 Essence

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

Spell Capacity (3 → 4): Increase the Arcanum's spell capacity by one - 100 fragments, 10 Essence

Prime Echo Slot (Tier-2): Increase Echo slots by 1 - 1500 fragments, 100 Essence

Trait Upgrades - 3 available

The upgrades to the Prime Arcanum unfurled in front of him and instantly, he winced at the costs. Not all of them were new, as both Mana Regeneration and Spell Capacity had not reached their second upgrades just yet. But the new items were definitely up there. And while he had plenty of fragments to spend, the Prime upgrades cost Essence, which was a little more difficult to collect and save. After all, that was the only reason why Ethan hadn't cleared out the cheaper upgrades just yet.

Still, he didn't miss the new section. His eyes had been immediately drawn to Trait Upgrades option, and without any delays, he tapped it.

Trait Upgrades

Enduring Brawler - 5000 fragments, 500 Essence

Child of Flames - 5000 fragments, 100 Essence, 1 mid-grade life-themed primagem, 1 mid-grade force-themed primagem.

The Vanguard - 5000 fragments, 500 Essence

Ethan whistled. "Hoooly crap that's expensive," he mumbled as he read through the list, brows furrowing for a moment.

The high cost wasn't the only element that were throwing him off. Seeing one of the traits requiring mid-grade primagems while the others required essence was odd, until he realized that maybe the difference in cost was due to the nature of his path.

Child of Flames, even though it revolves around fire, did not ask about a fire-themed primagem. Only force and life, which the path of the Burning Juggernaut had no connection to, he thought. Which meant that the only reason why both Enduring Brawler and Vanguard were only asking for Essence. His own path aligned pretty well with those two, so he only had to upfront the fragments and Essence.

"That's still a shitload of essence though," he grumbled. With a sigh, he pulled the new upgrades of the Lesser Arcanums next. At least those were usually less expensive and…

"Shit," he cursed as soon as he saw them float in front of him. And he barked out a laugh. "I guess subsidizing our progress is over, then."

The prices of the upgrades have ballooned way past the Prime Arcanum. Maybe because the latter was being grounded by its costs in Essence or maybe the new tier meant that upgrades were significantly more powerful and so required more fragments. The result was, well, Lesser Arcanums have just become more expensive as well, though thankfully, they still only cost fragments.

Lesser Arcanum upgrades

Tier-4

Tier upgrade (Tier-4 → Tier-5): Increase the Arcanum's tier, empowering its capabilities and unlocking more upgrades - 15000 fragments

Spellform Capacity (3 → 4): Increase the Arcanum's spell capacity by one - 3000 fragments

Spellform Bonus (Tier-3 → Tier-4): Increase Spellform bonus from 30% to 40% - 3000 fragments

Spell Capacity (6 → 7): Increase the Arcanum's spell capacity by one - 2000 fragments

Mana Regeneration (Tier-3 → Tier-4): Increase the Arcanum's mana regeneration - 2000 fragments

With a quick calculation, Ethan realized all the upgrades for a Lesser Arcanum—excluding the tier upgrade—cost ten thousand fragments. Which meant, he could fully upgrade both Arcanums and leave the tier upgrade for last.

That'd leave me with 10k for the Prime. And 62 Essence.

Ethan hummed. The trait upgrades weren't on the table, considering the cheapest cost 100 Essence, and he didn't have the mid-grade primagems anyway. Not those, at least.

"I could get the lagging upgrades out of the way, then. Capacity and mana regen for the Prime."

With a decisive nod, Ethan dispelled all of his spellforms and applied all of the upgrades, buying everything but the tier upgrade in the Lesser Arcanums, then confirming the two upgrades for the Prime one, and when he paid for the first capacity upgrade, he found the second to be affordable as well and got that. While the effect was taking place, he turned his attention to his stats point. After all, he had gained a bunch of levels since the day had started, and it was time to assign some points, and with a flex of will, he hid the boosted stats so he could focus on their basic state, before all of his bonuses and traits came into the picture.

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Might: … (38)

Toughness: … (62)

Spirit: … (38)

Mana: … (38)

Unassigned: 7

Eying it for a second, he figured Toughness was already leaps and bounds beyond anything else, so it getting just one point would be fine. In the meantime, the other three would at 40 each. Applying his choice, the swirling lights and forces around him grew intense for a few seconds before they mellowed out though already, Ethan could feel the changes.

His breath quickened as his attributes were slowly bolstered far more than they'd ever been. And that wasn't just because of the couple of points he'd just assigned. No, the Lesser Arcanums had just finished their upgrades, which meant that multiple spellforms that had been boosting one stat or another by 30% was just upped to 40%, and that effect was being felt across all of his body and soul.

Ethan got up to his feet, a smile on his lips as he hopped in place from the excess of energy he could feel, and he was about to summon his spellforms when he paused.

I do have a couple of new spells… and a new spellform meant more bonuses, he thought, moving his spells and spellforms around in his Arcanums before he pulled all three screens in front of him.

Prime Arcanum of the Juggernaut

Spells: [Detect Life], [Arc of Force], [Enlarged][Sunshard]

Spellforms: None

Prime forms: [Lance of the Juggernaut, Horns of the Juggernaut, Wand of the Juggernaut]

Echo: [Overloading Fireball]

Traits: [Universal Tongue, Enduring Brawler, Child of Flames, The Vanguard, Harvester's Flames, Enhancer Specialist, Founder's Bounty, Soul Space]

Lesser Titles: [Arcanum of the Fire Elemental, Arcanum of Forms]

Tier: 3

Spell Capacity (II): 4/5

Echo slots: 1/1

Spellform Capacity (I): 0/2

Form Bonus (II)[20%]:

[Lance of the Juggernaut: +20% to Might, +20% to Mana],

[Horns of the Juggernaut: +20% to Toughness, +20% to Spirit],

Mana Regeneration (II)

Arcanum of the Fire Elemental

Spells: [Wall of Fire], [Elemental Crown] of [Homing][Overloading Fireballs], [Pressurized][Gout of Flames]

Spellforms: [Scorching][Crystal Blooming][Scales of the Bronze Dragon], [Emberborn Heart], [Breath Gland]

Tier: 4

Spell Capacity (IV): 7/7

Spellform Capacity (IV): 3/4

Form Bonus (IV)[40%]:

[Scales of the Bronze Dragon: 40% to Spirit +40% to Toughness]

[Emberborn Heart: +40% to Mana, +40% to Spirit],

[Breath Gland: +40% to Mana, +40% to Spirit]

Mana Regeneration (IV)

Arcanum of Forms

Spells: [Electrified][Water Jet], [Acid Orb], [Homing][Crystal Dart][Heal],

Spellforms: [Extending][Claws of the Ossyrath Dragon], [Draconic Skeleton], [Draconic Wings], [Sphinx's Gaze][Stormtalon Harpy's Claws]

Tier: 4

Spell Capacity (IV): 7/7

Spellform Capacity (IV): 5/5

Form Bonus (IV)[40%]:

[Claws of the Ossyrath Dragon: +40% to Spirit, +40% to Toughness]

[Draconic Skeleton: +40% to Might, +40% to Toughness],

[Draconic Wings: +40% to Spirit],

[Sphinx's Gaze: +40% to Spirit],

[Stormtalon Harpy's Claws: +40% to Might, +40% to Spirit]

Mana Regeneration (IV)

Ethan opted to place [Breath Gland] in the Lesser Arcanums to benefit from the higher bonus. Eying everything one last time, he nodded.

"The harpy's claws boost both Might and Spirit which is pretty great… but I wonder if it'll clash with the other one. Nothing prevented me from placing it."

Taking a deep breath, Ethan began summoning his spellforms one by one, until all but the new one and the horns were left. He didn't let the crystals form on his scales this time, and as he reached for [Stormtalon Harpy's Claws], he felt the spell trying to go up to his arms, but he opted to push it lower. In imitation to the original users, his scaled feet bulged and glowed until they morphed into large, eagle-like talons that were at least twice, if not thrice as large as his regular feet. The talons were nearly the size of daggers, and it looked like they kept the bronze scales that covered the rest of his body. Blue electricity crackled along the thick digits, and taking a couple of steps, he found it to be…

"Awkward," he mumbled. "But not awful. Just need something to make it Draconic eventually."

Lastly, he summoned the horns, and his breath caught.

He couldn't see them, but he felt the change instantly. It wasn't dramatic, yet the horns radiated heat and carried a new, strange presence to them. A weight. Not a physical one. But it still pressed against him. When he summoned the lance, he studied it with a furrowed brow. Outwardly, it was unchanged; its dimensions and heft were exactly as before. Yet both Prime spellforms carried something new. The lance seemed sharper, more dangerous, while the horns pulsed with a raw intensity, as if they were calling for a target on which to unleash their might. As if, in their own ways, the spellforms were echoing the essence of the Zenith state.

Ethan grinned. He quite liked the change.

Finally, he looked at his updated stats, with all the bonuses applied, then nodded as he reached into a fold of space and pulled the cloudy, crackling riftcore out.

It was time to get back to civilization.

Level 81 (II)

Might: 106 (40)

Toughness: 246 (63)

Spirit: 196 (40)

Mana: 106 (40)

Unassigned: 0

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