Scorching Ascension - [Progression Litrpg Apocalypse]

While his hands rippled and tingled as the [Claws] spell changed, Ethan stole a quick look at his current side-quest. He had seen when it had come in, but he hadn't paid too much attention to it and now that he was resting, he could give it a minute.

Side quest:

Reach level 50

Reward:

15 stat points

1 magic item token

1 custom trait.

Already half-way there, he thought excitedly, though his mirth was quickly dying out as a painful, crushing pressure was slowly inflating in his chest. Ethan gasped for air, hand on his chest as his mind churned.

Was he having a heart attack?

It was as if there had been a something in his soul that was slowly inflating, forcing itself into a space that was too narrow for it and as he watched the swirl of magic around his hands continue to sink into his transforming flesh, it clicked.

His tier-1 [Claws] was evolving to tier-2. His Prime Arcanum wasn't.

Thankfully, the pressure did not get much worse and within seconds, the transformation was over. It still felt like there were metallic bands restricting his breath and with every second, the sensation got a little better, as if his soul was slowly adapting.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ethan let his hand drop from his chest. Damn. I should be careful the next time, he thought, and looking down at his chest, he wondered if this was something to avoid or if it was something worth pursuing. Could it be used as some sort of stretching or tempering for his soul?

He'd considered it in a moment. For now, he wanted to see his new spellform.

The talons, still black, were now shorter. Around six inches each, they had a thicker base and a narrow, straight and sharp edge. The hands themselves were thicker, and as he opened and closed the scaled palms, Ethan felt like he could reduce a rock to dust with his grip force alone. And that wasn't the only change, either.

The scales covering his hands were graphite-black. Their shape was more triangular, compared to the circular scales covering the rest of his body, and they looked dense and tough enough Ethan believed he could catch a swinging sword or a dagger with his hands without the blade being able to bite through his flesh.

Worth it. So much worth it, he thought, a grin on his lips, which transformed into a wince as he felt the restricting pressure in his chest. He looked forward to going back out and testing these new bad boys. But before that, he had more work to do. And he might need to switch thing around if the pressure didn't get any better.

Over the next few minutes, Ethan tried to upgrade his other spells. He tried picturing possible upgrades to [Small Fireball], he tried to coaxe [Scorching Enhancement] to take move on to the next step, but neither were ready to step into tier-3 just yet. He tried as well with [Extending Enhancement], but while he felt it was close, no notification came through.

Just like Ember had said, tier-2 spells required a bit more work before they were ready to upgrade. As for [Extending Enhancement], he figured he had to be more mindful of it. Maybe brainstorm some other ways of using it instead of it just being a finisher. Maybe he could try and use it as a distraction?

I bet it just needs a little more time. I'm sure it'll be ready soon.

Next, Ethan turned his attention to [Reptilian Scales]. He didn't have high hopes, but he really wanted to fuse the Sapping primagem to them. Then he paused. Technically, the sapping effect could work just as well with the [Scorching Enhancement]. Something like [Sapping Scorching Enhancement]?

Ethan grimaced. He wasn't a big fan of that. It felt limiting to his flames. He'd rather keep the sapping effect to the scales. Unfortunately, he didn't think [Reptilian Scales] was ready to upgrade to tier-3…

He shrugged. He'd give it a shot. After all, what was the worst that could happen?

Ethan closed his eyes once more and focused on the scales.

Ethan considered the [Reptilian Scales] covering his body. He pictured the rounded and dovetailed rust-red scales. He'd had them for close to a day or so, which to be fair wasn't that long, but he felt he'd gotten a lot of use out of them and they'd proven themselves invaluable already.

Aside from covering him up, they allowed him to tank hits powerful enough to send him flying. If it hadn't been for the scales, Ethan was confident that Savannah's spells would have broken bones at the very least and that had been only within the last couple of hours.

Ethan recalled more of the attacks the scales had dealt with. Diego's kicks and punches. The water monitor's jets of pressurized water and bites. The drakes and their claws.

Now, he pictured all of those spells reaching his scales, and hitting a pale, green light that sapped them out of their force. Weakening them before they even reached the scales, upon which they'd break like waves on rocks.

He liked the image. He didn't think it would amount to much, which made all the more shocking when a trill spread out of his chest, tingling all over his scales from his neck all the way down to his soles, and when Ethan opened his eyes, he found a notification waiting for him.

Congratulations. A lateral evolution to [Reptilian Scales](Tier-2) had been unlocked.

Reptilian Scales (Tier-2) → Sapping Scales (Tier-2)

150 fragments and one primagem of Sapping required.

Ethan raised a brow at that. A lateral evolution? Not an upgrade?

At least that won't put any extra pressure on my soul, he thought as he mentally pulled the proposed spell's description.

Sapping Scales: Summon sturdy, magic-dampening scales that blunt physical blows and drain hostile spells.

Ethan rubbed his hands together in glee, and he was about to confirm the upgrade when he paused and eyed his companions. What if the scales disappeared mid transformation? He'd be buck-naked.

Eying his four fellow humans carefully, he confirmed they were too deep into their own advancement process, and Ember seemed to be dozing off, so he triggered the change.

A surge of electrifying energy coursed out of his chest and into his skin. The scales rippled and gained an unearthly green shine for a few seconds, and slowly, the color of the light changed from a pale green to a muted red, then it faded away.

Looking down at his scales, he found they were mostly the same, but rust-red had turned into a brighter red that seemed to have its own shine. The scales themselves didn't change in size or shape.

All in all, Ethan was happy. He was glad they hadn't become green, somehow. That'd really make him look like a lizard. Or a snake.

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Taking in the handful of small upgrades, Ethan was pretty happy and now, with the spell upgrades out of the way, he turned his attention to the tier-3 spell token waiting for him.

For that one, he wanted something that'd help with the weight issue and frankly, Ethan was hopeful.

So far, the system's rewards and selections hadn't been random. Aside from the very first spell selection, maybe. Everything else seemed to have been affected by his fighting style or by his affinities and so, he hoped taht the System was listening to his desires and that it would continue tailoring its options to match him.

Still, even if he got what he wanted, would he even be able to use the form?

Ethan hummed. He was out of spellform capacity in both Arcanums. In fact, he might have accidentally lost one by upgrading his claws to tier-2, and if he wanted to keep everything he had equipped, he'd have to buy some Arcanum upgrades. And soon.

Maybe I should deal with that first, then. The tier-3 token isn't going anywhere, and I'd rather have a spot for it right away when I get it.

With that, Ethan pulled up the menu of his Prime wand.

Prime Arcanum of the Juggernaut

Spells: [Detect Life], [Whisper]

Spellforms: [[Extending][Claws]]

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

Traits: [Universal Tongue, Enduring Brawler, Child of Flames, The Vanguard]

Lesser Titles: [Arcanum of the Fire Elemental]

Tier: 1

Spell Capacity: 3/3

Spellform Capacity (I): 1/1

Form Bonus [15%]:

[Lance of the Juggernaut: +15% to Might, +15% to Mana],

[Horns of the Juggernaut: +15% to Toughness, +15% to Spirit],

[Claws: 15% to Might]

Essence: 36

Mana Regeneration (I)

Fragments: 641

Available upgrades

Tier-1

Tier upgrade (Tier-1 → Tier-2): Increase the Arcanum's tier, empowering its capabilities and unlocking more upgrades - 500 fragments, 100 Essence

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

Ethan pursed his lips. While he had enough fragments for the tier-2 upgrade, he still needed quite a lot of Essence. Though he did earn himself a good chunk of Essence from diving head-first into the swarm and rushing headlong into battle, it hadn't been enough to meet the cost of the upgrade.

Damn. I guess I'm going to have one less spellform until I upgrade this Arcanum. How about the other one?

Arcanum of the Fire Elemental

Spells: [Small Fireball]

Spellforms: [[Scorching][Sapping Scales], [Mana Heart]]

Tier: 3

Spell Capacity: 2/4

Spellform Capacity (I): 2/2

Form Bonus (II)[20%]:

[Reptilian Scales: +20% to Toughness]

[Mana Heart: +20% to Mana]

Mana Regeneration (II)

Fragments: 1421

Arcanum of the Fire Elemental

Available upgrades

Tier upgrade (Tier-3 → Tier-4): Increase the Arcanum's tier, empowering its capabilities and unlocking more upgrades - 1500 fragments

Spellform Capacity (2 → 3): Increase the Arcanum's spell capacity by one - 900 fragments

Spellform Bonus (Tier-2 → Tier-3): Increase Spellform bonus from 20% to 30% - 450 fragments

Spell Capacity (4 → 5): Increase the Arcanum's spell capacity by one - 100 fragments

Mana Regeneration (Tier-2 → Tier-3): Increase the Arcanum's mana regeneration - 300 fragments

General Arcanum upgrades

Title: Acquire an Arcanum title, unlocking special abilities and effects for Lesser Arcanums - 200 fragments

Title Upgrade: Arcanum of the Fire Elemental - 300 fragments

Ethan, wide-eyed, immediately focused on the general upgrades available. When had those shown up? Had they been around when he'd upgraded the Arcanum? Or was it when he hit level 40?

Ethan frowned. Recalling the last time he'd gotten a title offered, it had been when he'd hit level 10, and now that he just hit 40, he got another one? It must be tied to levels. He wasn't sure about the title upgrade though. Maybe fighting the swarm and Savannah had triggered it, but through all that mayhem, he hadn't spent too much time checking his interface and if there had been a notification, it must have been lost along among the noise.

Still, this was amazing news, and he was most certainly spending some fragments there but for now, he turned his attention back to the Lesser Arcanum's upgrades.

Ethan's eyes were first drawn to the tier-4 upgrade, but while he was not that far from it, it wouldn't be worth it to make the jump. He had much better options to spend his hard earned fragments, some of which were the spellform capacity upgrade at 900 fragments or more bonus stats.

At least with that upgrade I won't be losing spellforms… Unless I can manage to maintain a tier-2 spellform in a tier-1 Arcanum?

Ethan felt at the pressure in his chest, frowning. It wasn't worse, but he'd need to do some test before he made the attempt. Just in case it could end up with him being incapacitated.

Cracking his knuckles, Ethan began planning his approach. He had a lot of work ahead of him.