Ethan stepped in, teeth bared, and leaned into the uppercut with his whole body. His flaming fist slammed into lizardling’s rib, and the gout of flames hit the bone armor point-blank. The glowing symbols shone as the flames diverged around the lizardling’s body, but no matter how magic the armor was, it wasn’t that effective at protecting the lizardling from the incredible heat his flames were generating. It screeched, but Ethan barely heard it over the ringing in his ears.

The lizardling reeled from the hit, but the impact itself had been mostly absorbed by the armor. It panted, teeth bared, and once more summoned that damn wand.

It raised the wand, and Ethan braced for another explosion as he prayed the tunnel wasn’t about to drop on top of them.

Toughness might save me here as well, but I seriously don’t want to experience being buried alive.

Ethan summoned his flames and exhaled. His head was pounding. His joints hurt. But he could win this. He will—

The skeletal armor dissolved into motes.

Ethan blinked, while the lizardling’s eyes went wide.

Now!

The young man surged forward, flames blazing. The lizardling aimed and shot one more of its exploding spells, only this time, Ethan was a foot away from it.

It still hit the wall right next to him, and the miniature explosion rattled everything inside Ethan. Once again, his flames shielded him from the worst of it, but he felt something trickle down his ears. Hee hoped he wasn’t going permanently deaf because of this.

In any case, he was going to live. Unlike the stupid lizardling who kept using explosions in a narrow tunnel.

God, I hope it drops the spell.

The lizardling was on its back, thrown down by its own spell. It was trying to turn to get its knees under it, but it struggled. Like a boxer trying to get back up after getting knocked down.

“You could dish it but you couldn’t take it, huh?” Ethan asked—or at least he thought he did. He couldn’t hear a thing. In any case, the lizardling didn’t answer. It fell back on its side and gurgled something as it looked at him with eyes full of hate.

Ethan took a step toward him and winced. His right shoulder was dislocated.

Flames surged around him, muting the pain for a moment, and with a quick shake and pull, he cracked his shoulder back into place.

Ethan grunted. He gently moved his shoulder.

His flames roared, covering his shoulders. [Child of Flames] should accelerate its healing, hopefully. Every bone and joint in his body was in pain, but the fire was helping.

Ethan stood over the lizardling, then sliced into its neck with his left claws. Seconds later, he heard the much waited for pings, but to his great and expected chagrin, he couldn’t see any spellcores around the lizardling’s body. “Dammit.”

He barely heard his own voice. Ethan cupped both flaming claws over his ears and hoped the fire would help.

I really need to test how effective the new healing is. It certainly works, but I need specific numbers.

You have defeated [Lizardling - Level 22]

…

You have defeated [Lizardling (I) - Level 30]

You have reached Level 24. 1 stat point awarded.

…

You have reached Level 26. 1 stat point awarded.

Lesser Wand of the Fire Elemental: 76 fragments collected.

Ethan quickly eyed his rewards and the fragments he’d collected since this assault had started, then turned his attention to his free stat points.

Everything can benefit from a boost… but considering the damage I took from this dude’s spells… Let’s push toughness a bit higher.

Ethan assigned all three points to Toughness, bringing it up to 19, then he reached over and paused before tapping the lizardling’s fallen wand. He narrowed his eyes, then touched the lizardling’s body first.

Lesser Wand of the Fire Elemental: 26 fragments collected.

“Alright. And now for the wand itself?”

Lesser Wand of the Fire Elemental: 39 fragments collected.

Ethan grinned. So it did have something to do with level 30 and its hidden rewards? Did the body itself become a wand of some sort when one got to that level? Or was it a reward for something else?

There was a wand in the mix, Ethan was sure of that. That bone armor would otherwise have no logical explanation—as far as everything he’d seen from this world’s magic and rules, at least.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The ringing in his ear was getting better, but he could wait a few extra seconds before dismissing his claws. It wouldn’t be for long though. Ethan had 170 fragments burning a hole in his figurative pocket and, who knew, there might be a way in there to improve his healing.

He doubted that. But he could always hope.

Available wand upgrades:

[Tier: Increase by 1 - 100 fragments]

[Cast refresh: Decrease by 0.25 seconds - 1 fragments]

It’s time. Time to see what the next tier has for me. And maybe it’s a hidden quest, if I’m lucky.

Ethan eyed the upgrade for a few more seconds as he continued cupping his ears. The ringing was mostly gone… so he hoped it was healing.

The tier upgrade would boost his stats. It would most certainly unlock better upgrades, and maybe even new ones.

Yeah. There’s nothing else to spend the fragments on anyway, aside from the cast refresh.

Right… He had said he’d try to buy everything before tiering up the wand. Just in case that netted him a reward or something.

Ethan quickly bought the first cast refresh upgrade and winced at the price of the second.

25 fragments for another 0.25 seconds. That's a lot.

He bought it as well, and thankfully no new cast refresh upgrade showed up, leaving him with only the Tier upgrade.

“Don’t fail me now,” Ethan said to himself.

He peeked down the hall, then behind him. Nothing was creeping up on him.

Odd.

Ethan blinked. Did he just hear himself? “Testing,” he said, and actually heard himself over the annoying ringing still muffling his ears. A wave of relief washed over him.

The flames were healing him. It was only a matter of time, then.

Ethan confirmed the upgrade and braced.

Similarly to his last wand tier upgrade, he was quickly surrounded by a whirlwind of golden light that slowly sunk into his flesh. It was a bit more intense than the usual upgrades, but soon enough it was over. Once the confirmation message came through, Ethan’s hands shot up. “Yes!”

Lesser Wand of the Fire Elemental: Upgrade from tier-1 to tier-2 was successful.

Congratulations. Hidden quest: Upgrade a wand to tier-2 completed.

1x tier-2 spell token awarded.

It had been a hidden quest. Though an easy one. Ethan expected everyone to eventually get this reward, so it might be some sort of clue for participants to look for hidden achievements.

He’d take that. He’d take that any day. Though, as he examined everything else, it didn’t seem like he’d gotten anything for buying every available upgrade.

Oh well. Worth a shot.

Glancing at the stat boost, he realized it had gone from 14 to 24. “Damn.” He recalled it being boosted from tier-0 to tier-1, and he expected some stats but not a whopping extra ten points.

Ethan ignited his claws, and couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran through him when he saw how long they’d gotten. The hand itself had grown thicker and more muscular. And for good reason; the talons were now nearly 8 inches long. They were thicker and curvier as well, reminding him of an eagle’s talon, with a narrow and sharpened underside near the tips, perfect for slashing.

But something wasn’t right.

Ethan closed his eyes for a second, then opened and closed his fists. There was… some odd sense of needing to stretch his hands. As if there was some hidden tension he couldn’t get rid off. It felt like there was a lot of strength within them, but also too much strength, if that made sense.

He ignited them, and fire licked all the way up to his shoulders, bathing his sides and bare chest in the comforting heat. Ethan chuckled as he took in the flames, marveling at how high they were getting, but his smile turned tight when he felt the tension in his hands swell.

He turned the wand off and shook his hands, trying to loosen up the discomfort as he began to suspect the cause. “[Claws] run on Spirit and Might, and I just crossed 30 in each. Also, [Claws] is still tier-0.”

Could that be it? Too much power being funneled into the spell?

Over the next few seconds, the tension began slowly turning to pain. Ethan didn’t know what to do. Should he try and get a new enhancement-spell from the tier-2 token? Had [Claws] reached its limit?

Thankfully, before he could reach a decision, a new soft ping rang in his ear, and a notification popped up.

Congratulations. Claws (Tier-0) can now be upgraded. 20 fragments will be required.

Ethan sighed with relief and accepted. He was glad he wasn’t going to have to endure the weird tension in his hands for long.

Claws (Tier-0) has been upgraded to Claws (Tier-1)

He didn’t need to slot the spell back into the wand. It was already there. Ethan summoned the claws and found them to be mostly similar to how they’d been minutes ago, but now no tension or discomfort marred the sheer sense of power he felt well within them. After examining them for a moment, he noticed that the transformation extended a bit higher up his hand, nearly halfway up to his elbow.

Probably to reinforce my wrists more. Seems like there’s no hidden quests for a spell upgrade though… Unless tier-0 to tier-1 is too low? Oh well. We’ll see.

All in all, a nice upgrade. He summoned his healing flames once more, and then, as he considered his options when it came to the tier-2 spell, he cupped his ears again. They still needed healing.

Now… Which tier-2 type of spell should I go with? Another general spell? A tier-2 enhancement-spell? Or a modifier?

It really was a difficult choice, especially considering he had no idea of what was going to be offered to him.

What about armament?

Ethan grimaced a bit at that. He had nothing against armament-spells, but right out of the gate it didn’t feel like the most efficient option. A long-range weapon would be nice, but his claws would become useless. A spear? He had the same range with his gouts of flames, and they were bound to get stronger and go further as he got better with his flame control.

Well… there’s another option.

Ethan could just wait. He was getting pretty close to level 30, and there would be a new wand at that level, if his theory was correct. Would a tier-2 spell be more useful there?

As he considered the different paths he could take, Ethan felt something. A tremor in the air, but it wasn’t the same as the stuff that had happened to him a couple of times.

Ethan found himself looking down the tunnel, and his skin crawled.

Those lizardlings were doing something weird, and he was wasting time.