Ethan grit his teeth and restlessly tapped his foot as the magic dust swirled and slowly sank into his naked body. He was facing away from the team, but he wasn’t worried about anyone peeking. The sounds of frantic battle told him all that he needed to hear.

  So while he waited for the upgrade process to finish up, he assigned the stat points he had gotten from finishing the side quest, but he couldn’t enjoy the process or take too long. The fight was raging behind him. It hadn’t even been a minute, but the shouts and orders were getting more desperate. The rings of focused water hitting metal were getting more frequent.

  The monitors were showing up faster than he thought they would.

  As he waited, Ethan had pulled up the notifications waiting for him. The side quest was completed, and he’d gotten his points and his trait token, but he didn’t think he was going to have time for the latter.

  Eleven points. Three on Toughness, two on Mana because it got a point from the last level, three on Might and Spirit. That’s eleven.

  Thankfully, point assignment was a much faster process and with it done, Ethan pulled his stats and whistled. He couldn’t see the boost of the Elemental wand as it was still being upgraded, but even with just the Prime wand’s boost and Mana Heart, the stats looked impressive.

  And it’s about to get even better with the tier-3 wand. Right about… now.

  Lesser Wand of the Fire Elemental: Upgrade from tier-2 to tier-3 completed.

  Congratulations. Hidden quest: Upgrade a wand to tier-3 completed.

  1x tier-3 spell token awarded.

  Ethan, with his blood rushing in his ears, pulled the new wand upgrades available to him and even though he saw a few extremely exciting ones, his heart still sunk down to his stomach.

  There was nothing about extra forms.

  “No, no come on.”

  There was no upgrade for forms. What was he supposed to do now?

  Maybe it’s not something that’s not linked to an upgrade?

  Loading his wand, Ethan desperately tried to slot [Claws] next to [Reptilian Scales]. The spell moved in his interface and he could picture it bouncing off from the spell slot as he mentally resigned himself to not having his new form. But it didn’t. The spell didn’t bounce back.

  Spell Forms: [[Scorching][Reptilian Scales]], [Claws]]

  Ethan blinked, the air still stuck in his throat, and then realized it had worked.

  A bark of laughter escaped his throat, and it was quickly cut off when Amelie called his name.

  Crap.

  Ethan jumped to his feet and quickly slotted [Small Fireball] before he summoned the scales and his claws. The hands changed, and the talons surged out while a pulse of strength filled his body. The scales spread out and, as always, he kept them off of his face.

  He didn’t want to fully look like a lizard. Then again, the horns didn’t help his case.

  Ethan couldn’t help but giggle. He picked up the dagger, and decided to keep the claws only on his right hand. [Mana Heart] continued working as always, and as he jogged back to the exit, he stole a quick glance at his stats.

  Level 40

  Might: 45 (18)

  Toughness: 56 (29)

  Spirit: 67 (18)

  Mana: 33 (18)

  Huh. I guess it makes sense that I don’t get a boost from every single spell form. The bonus gets shared between them. But this certainly makes the wand prize more worthwhile.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Ethan wondered what was the limit of wands per person. If each gave this many bonus stats, then he could see how they’d be considered extremely valuable.

  He slipped past the cat. There were a lot of new things to digest. New possible upgrades to think about, traits to choose, and side-quests to consider. But not right now.

  Ethan slid past a roaring Audrey as she shoved a water monitor back. She glanced sideways at him and made space so he could get past her. Her lips were bloodied, but she still grinned as she took in his appearance. “Took you long enough.”

  The water monitor she’d been blocking lunged at him, jaw open, and Ethan’s clawed hand split the air and embedded itself through the beast’s skull with a soft and wet crunch.

  You have defeated [Water monitor (I) - Level 36]

  Ethan pushed the corpse forward and kicked another as it tried to bring itself over the edge, sending blood and teeth flying. Next, he created a roar of fire from two outstretched hands, and then Ethan jumped, leaving Gerald and the other two to finish off the dying creature he had kicked.

  Reptilian eyes tracked him as he fell down through the air, body surrounded by fire. There were at least twenty, and more kept stepping out of the brush.

  Ethan hit the ground with a geyser of soft earth and slowly stood up. A first jet of pressurized water came at him, but he only raised an arm to block it.

  It felt like being targeted by a garden hose. It was refreshing.

  “Hope you’re ready, you little shits.”

  Ethan threw the first fireball and the violent explosion killed at least three lizards in the largest deflagration of fire Ethan has yet to see.

  Right. Not only is my Spirit stat near the seventy mark,but everything is being boosted by the horns.

  Ethan chuckled and began tearing into the creatures with gusto. That explosion would surely attract every hostile creature that could walk, but he didn’t care. His [Mana Heart] made him feel like he could throw fireballs and scorching cones of fire all day and it won’t even break a sweat.

  Ethan alternated between devastating claw swipes and fire. He tried to tag as many monitors as he could with the dagger, occasionally stopping to see if anything came off of it and to collect some of the fragments. He also alternated between the horns and the lance to get some of the valuable resources into his Prime wand.

  I’m going to afford so many upgrades after this.

  Ethan tried not to kill every monster. He left a few to the others, occasionally glancing back to make sure they weren’t being overrun. When he saw an arrow sticking off the back of one of the monitors, or saw one being knocked away or stabbed or shot, he would quickly put it down if it was within range, guaranteeing some of the levels to the others.

  Still, the creatures slowly surrounded him, and he let them. When they were close enough, Ethan spread his arms and flared as much as fire as he could, laughing while he turned everything in his immediate vicinity to chars and ash.

  ***

  What a little monster.

  Amanda watched from a good distance away as the cave darkened once more and as the flames faded. Ethan stood in a smoking, torn crater of charred lizards and glowing rocks after having literally lit up his portion of the cave. For a couple of seconds, it was as if the sun had managed to show its face down here.

  Glancing at the tree-line and everything she could see through giant-mushroom caps, she watched the creatures continue to swarm toward him from all over the cave, excited by the magic and the noise. Here and there, she saw lizardlings, watching from a safe distance. Some were fighting, forced to clash with the water monitors.

  This attention might have been catastrophic for most, her included, but in this scenario, Ethan was like some sort of giant crocodile, sitting there with his jaws wide open while his food just strolled down his gullet.

  This would further propel him ahead of the pack. If he did not have the highest level already, he was about to get it. Amanda bit her nails and watched as the man burned through the monster and through her plans.

  I have no leverage. I won’t have any leverage if this goes on.

  She could already picture herself having to work around him once they’ll be back in the real world. If the governments were still around, that’d be different. But if they fell apart and if everything started revolving around personal power, then she would always have to plan around him and people like him.

  Amanda turned to the right. She couldn’t see the rift from here, but she knew there were other people past it. Would she find allies over there?

  I won’t really be able to get to them. Not with the number of monsters around there.

  Amanda tasted blood and forced her hand away from her mouth.

  Maybe she needed to change her focus. Instead of chasing the martial power of a few individuals, maybe she could do something with everybody else? Focus on the quantity instead of the quality?

  It’s not as if all of them are loners, anyway. Gain the trust of their friends and they’ll fall in.

  Amanda wasn’t stupid enough to attempt threats and overt pressure. That could easily backfire in this new world. Though she couldn’t wait to find out how the other worlds’ societies functioned. If she could find that out, she could start prepping and set herself for success. But for now, she was just working blind, which was both frustrating and exciting.

  Amanda smiled from her perch. This was so much more fun than dealing with greedy executives and short-sighted shareholders. This was chaos. Waiting to be molded and controlled.

  She couldn’t wait to see how this all turns out. Then her eye caught a movement from below her.

  Activating her Prime form, her vision sharpened, and she recognized the blue grocery-store jacket and the lurid green magic surrounding the figure. Amanda’s mood sobered and, after checking her surroundings once more, she leaned forward.

  She couldn’t move now. This had all started as a routine outing to see if anything new was taking place, but now that Savannah was entering the picture, she had to see what happened. She didn’t root for them to fight each other, even if that might make her life easier. The poor woman was grieving and Amanda was many things, but she was not that monstrous. That was a step too far.

  But she had to see. Whatever happened between Ethan and Savannah might impact the rest of the trial. Amanda was not going to intervene, but she had to watch.

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