Beyond the purple mushroom forest, Ethan could make out similar caves. It was like a network of caves connected by wide tunnels, not unlike the one which led up to the castle and the camp. How far this network stretched, Ethan had no clue. Technically, he hadn’t even put foot into the forest. Not after seeing that mystic toad one-shot a level 22 toad.

He needed something weaker to cut his teeth on. And he needed to work on his skills.

Ethan hid behind a boulder and worked on his flames. This time, he tried concentrating the flames around his claws. He wondered if he could heat them up enough so they could pierce through anything; but if that was a possibility, it might take a moment. After around half an hour of practice, he was able to focus the flames to stay within half an inch of his Claws, but whenever he pushed for more fire or tried to condense it further, he’d lose control and the flames would burst out.

It didn’t take too long for the toad to head back into the forest and, unfortunately for Ethan, it knew enough to harvest the fallen toad’s fragments before taking its leave.

No easy meal for me. Oh well.

Ethan slowly made his way closer and decided to carefully and slowly edge his way around, staying near the walls.

His focus, for now, was finding things he could kill for fragments and experience. He needed levels for the side quest and stats, and he needed more mana in his wand. Anything else could wait.

Within a minute of stepping into the mushroom forest, Ethan found a decent target.

A thinner, nearly imperceptible tunnel was hidden behind a few bushes and a few artificially placed dead branches, which was exactly what had attracted his attention.

Just beyond them, barely visible, was a lizardling.

[Lizardling - Level 15]

Ethan was almost sure that tunnel would lead to a camp of lizardlings, and between them and laser-shooting toads, he’d rather level through the aggressive little nutjobs. Although clearly, these were a lot stronger than the ones he’d seen above. Or maybe it was just this one?

Only one way to find out.

Glancing around to make sure no other enemies were around, Ethan made his way to the small tunnel in a crouch. When he saw the lizardling suddenly shoot up, he summoned both claws and surged forward.

The lizardling pointed the spear at him and braced. “A prey that dares attack me? I will feast on—”

“Shut it.”

When Ethan was in range, the lizardling thrust his spear out, but Ethan had been waiting for that. He knocked the spear aside and clawed at the lizardling’s face, but the reptile-looking humanoid nimbly jumped back and hissed at him.

“Strong prey. Your fragments will do well in my spear.”

Ethan paused as he eyed the creature.

Should he have tried to talk to these things? They weren’t innocent, that’s for sure. But maybe some were more reasonable than those he’d initially met. Plus, maybe they knew the area more. They might have a lead on the floor’s exit.

Worth a shot. Got nothing to lose.

Ethan backed up and raised a palm. “Wait. I want to negotiate an exchange.”

The lizardling’s eyes widened before they narrowed once more. It bared its teeth and hissed. “We do not negotiate with inferior fleshthings like you,” it spat. “You will pay for this insult. We will leave your corpse to rot! WE WILL NOT EVEN—”

Ethan lunged forward, cutting off the racist weirdo as it braced once more.

Clearly, negotiations were over and there was no need to stretch this encounter more than needed.

Before Ethan could reach the lizardling, it stabbed forward, even though it was still out of range.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

In that fraction of a second, as he saw the spear move, he recalled it was still a wand. And wands could do crazy things.

Ethan threw himself to the side, hitting the tunnel wall, while a ghostly spear tip shot out of the physical spear and almost skewered him.

The lizardling pulled back its spear and readied another thrust as Ethan straightened up. He couldn’t rush in a straight line. He couldn’t keep dodging either.

Just as the lizardling said something, Ethan had an idea.

He grinned, baring his teeth as well, then, as he drew back his arm, he increased its flames.

Light surged behind as his flames roared, casting his shadow over the alarmed lizardling which pointed the spear tip away from Ethan, switching its hold and using the shaft to defend itself from the incoming projectile.

Gotcha.

With the lizardling on the defensive, Ethan lunged forward once more and got to his opponent before it managed to aim the spear head back at him. He punched up, palm out and caught the lizardling in its stomach. It grunted in pain, but Ethan wasn’t done.

Whenever it tried to angle its spear back at him, a flaming claw would cut into its scaly flesh. It defended its vitals well, but Ethan was in its space and it couldn’t back away.

He wouldn’t let it.

Finally, Ethan scored a deep hit. His flames, pushed to their limit, roared around his right claw, almost blinding him, and he slashed at the lizardling’s throat, right as it emitted a strident call.

The claw tore a chunk out of its throat and immediately cauterized for a second before blood broke through. It fell to its knees, its spear finally clattering to the ground as it stared up at him, eyes wide, while behind, the tunnel began filling with more strident calls.

You have defeated [Lizardling - Level 15]

You have reached Level 13. 1 stat point awarded.

Lesser Wand of the Fire Elemental: 9 fragments collected.

Ethan picked up the fragment and ran back out. He couldn’t deal with a whole camp of high-level lizardlings. But he could come back in a few moments when the alarm would pass.

He carefully made his way back to his boulder, right outside of the mushroom forest, and took a quick look at the upgrades he had available before he narrowed his focus one one.

[Mana regeneration: Increase by 0.40 - 5 fragments]

“Alright. One more in the mana regeneration. I should start collecting fragments though… Also, what's the cast refresh for? I guess it probably has to do with the cast setting… I’ll need more spells to test that out.”

Next, Ethan eyed his stats and tried to decide where he should assign his new free point. As he studied each stat, he paused on Spirit.

“What is it that you do exactly…hmm?”

Might was putting more strength into his strikes—something he should actually test as well as rag-dolling lizardlings and fighting giant toads wasn’t a good indicator or reference point to understand the stat’s effect. Toughness he was pretty clear on, as well as Mana, which left Spirit.

Ethan activated his claw in a single arm and studied for a moment. The flames, the length of the claws, every small change. He decreased the flames, then pushed them further out, paying attention to the intensity of the change as well as how easy it was.

With this, he could test the effect of Spirit. On both the potency of his spell and his control over them, because… those were the only couple of things he thought Spirit could affect.

Then, he put the stat point into Spirit and waited for the wave of energy to wash over and into him.

Behind him, the lively forest continued to be filled with calls and croaks, as the wildlife kept doing its things.

Moment of truth.

Ethan activated his claws, and began comparing their performance to what he’d just tested. With every step, his grin grew wider.

The claws were definitely thicker and longer. By 10%, at most, but the difference was there. The fires licked higher as well. It didn’t affect his control, but he could now push the intensity of the flames higher.

Soon, he was going to burn and cut through everything.

A shiver ran through his body, and Ethan tensed, looking around. It felt as if the surrounding air had trembled for a second, but as he looked around, he saw nothing move.

Was he imagining it?

Ethan shook the feeling out and turned his attention back to the results of his small experiment. “So that’s what Spirit does. Just raw power for spell? Now it makes sense for the Claw spell to boost both Might and Spirit.”

This was a productive break. But it was time to get back to work.

Ethan got out from behind his boulder and began making his way back to the lizardling’s tunnel, careful, as always. When he got there, he found two watchers waiting behind their camouflaged entrance.

Ethan drew his lips in a line. They just had to go and make things more complicated.