Elijah glanced at the cavern's distant ceiling, and upon seeing a dense bank of dark clouds rolling in from the north, decided to take shelter in his tent. He only barely made it inside before a storm erupted into a fury, sending a cascade of rain to descend upon the parched desert.
It was fitting.
Even as Elijah listened to the steady drumbeat of heavy drops of rain on the tent's silky material, he lay back on his fur blanket. It had been made from the sa hide as his old cloak, but he suspected it would last much longer than that useful item. In any case, it was extrely soft, so he was incredibly comfortable as he turned his attention to the latest opportunity afforded him by the system.
Congratulations! You have achieved the requirents for the evolution of the spell Storm's Fury. Please choose a path:
Spear
Heart
Maelstrom
Channel the fury of the tempest into a spear.
Absorb the power of the storm into your heart.
Erupt with voltaic power.
Elijah couldn't help but frown at the descriptions. As much as he appreciated the chance to evolve one of his oldest spells, he was a little frustrated at the descriptions. It seed that with each evolution offered, the options beca more and more cryptic, and to the point where, on the surface, he had no clue what any of it ant.
Thankfully, his instincts also afforded him so sense of what each evolution entailed. Without that influence, he would have been flying completely blind. And while he didn't think there were any bad choices, per se, there were so that wouldn't fit his current focus.
And given how often he found himself in close situations, he couldn't afford even a slight mistake. Each evolution was incredibly important, as much because they offered more power, as because they also gave him the chance to guide his class in the proper direction.
Did others have the benefit of their instincts? Or were they expected to do research at the Branch? Should he resort to such tactics before pushing forward? Could he even manage to delay his choice that long?
Elijah might not have known the answer to all of those questions, but he was intimately aware of his own impatience. It was to the point where he knew he would never forego a choice just so soone else could tell him what to do. That just wasn't his personality.
With that in mind, he dove into the choices.
He got the feeling that the Spear option was as direct an evolution of Storm's Fury as possible. However, he also sensed that it would be far more concentrated. Perhaps even solid. And it didn't take a leap of logic to suspect that it would remain castable only in his natural form.
That wasn't a huge detrint. The spell had always scaled incredibly well, and to the point where it remained useful even hundreds of levels after he'd attained it. However, of late, its usefulness had shifted from damage to control, largely because the massive electrical current caused involuntary muscular contractions. Effectively, it offered a useful stun that, at tis, had allowed him just enough ti to enact other parts of his plans.
If the Spear option maintained that use while adding more damage, it would once again beco a lethal tool.
A viable option, even if it wasn't quite as exciting as sothing wholly new.
The next choice was Heart. The description gave him almost no information, but his instincts ca with the strong suggestion that it would focus the power inward. How that would manifest was a mystery, but Elijah suspected that it would simply add the power of the storm to his current attacks.
Similar to Stormborn, but unlikely to be quite as comprehensive. Certainly, it wouldn't add more abilities to each form's toolset. He felt sure of that much, at least.
Again, it was a viable option, even if it was only because it would make the ability universally useful. At present, he could only cast it in his human form, which he rarely used in a pitched battle. If he could gain additional power – whatever form it took – in his bestial shapes, that would be a net benefit across he board.
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He definitely couldn't ignore it.
The storm raged on, though his magical tent shielded him from its fury as he moved on to the final option.
Maelstrom.
Imdiately, he thought back to the last Primal Realm he'd conquered, but he knew the spell's evolution wouldn't manifest as an elental storm. Rather, it was likely more like the tempest surrounding Chira Island. Though Elijah suspected it would be far more localized. The power it took to conjure even a small storm was incredible.
It was also sothing Elijah didn't really need.
As much as he liked the notion of becoming a herald of a coming tempest, wielding the power of storms at his beck and call, he knew it was unnecessary. He already had plenty of abilities ant to help him kill large swaths of enemies. Eternal Plague, Nature's Claim, and Spreading Blight were terrifying weapons against groups.
Would adding another one to the mix be helpful?
Sure. But Elijah worried about skewing his abilities toward killing armies. It was better to keep things diverse.
And besides, he suspected the scope would co closer to his old Calamity spell than the tempest surrounding Chira Island. So, he eliminated that option, focusing in on the other two.
Spear or Heart?
It didn't take Elijah long to make his decision. That was usually how it worked. When it ca to his spell evolutions, he was nothing if not decisive. However, in this instance, he forced himself to wait, to truly examine the pros and cons.
And it wasn't difficult to understand why.
When he'd evolved Shape of Venom into Shape of the Scourge, he'd put himself on a wholly different path. Guise of the Unseen was still a powerful ability, but it had beco far less useful with every passing level. If he'd chosen differently, his stealth might have kept pace a little longer.
Most recently, that issue had manifested against the monkeys, which had seen through Guise of the Unseen and contributed to a situation that had very nearly gotten him killed. It wasn't the first ti, though. He'd encountered similar issues trying to infiltrate Kalki and the war elf encampnt.
He didn't regret his choice. The scourgedrake was a powerful form, and it had expanded the scope of his abilities by quite a large degree. That wasn't the reason he'd forced himself to think deeper about this latest evolution. Rather, he just wanted to be sure because it had beco increasingly clear that his choices had consequences. When he walked through one door, another closed. He needed to be cognizant of what he was gaining, but even more so, he needed to recognize what he was giving up.
In this case, he leaned toward taking the Heart evolution. It seed useful in more situations. However, when he turned away from the Spear evolution, he was likely closing the door on his oldest spell. Storm's Fury – in its current form – had saved his life more often than he could count, and the lack would definitely force him to adjust his tactics.
But that was just how the world worked, wasn't it? He couldn't keep looking backward. He needed to keep his eyes to the future. And his future was with the Heart evolution.
He chose it.
Heart of the Tempest
Passively increases Dexterity attribute by one hundred-and-twenty points, Strength attribute by sixty points, and reaction speed by an additional five percent.
Flood the spell with ethera to double those bonuses. Duration dependent on Core cultivation. Current: 17.3 seconds
Usable in all forms.
Elijah let out a subtle gasp.
The passive bonus was incredible. Almost as large as those associated with his forms. But the true benefit was the second part, which would double those additional attributes. Two hundred-and-forty dexterity was a ridiculous sum, and adding an additional hundred-plus strength would just make it that much more impressive.
Yet, he was even more excited about the improvent to his reaction speed. He already experienced sothing similar with Shape of the Master, and he always had the base five percent increase from his Sash of the Whirlwind. Identically, he gained five percent from Lupine Reflexes. Together, it was almost unnerving.
Elijah could already feel the difference, and he wasn't even moving. Surely, in combat, the combined effect would be even more evident.
He lay there for a while, resting and considering his next steps as the storm raged on. After a couple of hours, the rain petered out, and he finally exited his tent. The desert had entirely changed, and already, he could feel long-dormant plant life beginning to sprout.
It reminded him of a desert bloom, which was an occurrence that gripped many arid regions after significant rainfall. Elijah had seen videos of sothing known as a super bloom, which followed a once-in-a-generation series of rainstorms that had created a rare and massive version of a desert bloom where millions of wildflowers had exploded across a huge swath of the Atacama in Chile.
He'd always wanted to witness such an event firsthand, and now, he had just such an opportunity.
So, as much as he wanted to imdiately move on, he remained near the Circle of Webs for another few days, just watching the bloom. And it was everything he could have hoped it would be. Not only did the desert erupt into a riot of colors ranging from reds and blues to glowing purples, but much of the normally sluggish wildlife ca alive. Suddenly, there were birds and huge dragonflies, toads and turtles – it was almost like being back in the jungle.
The best part was the sll, though. The rainstorm had left the atmosphere suffused with ozone and petrichor, combined with the distinctive aroma of wet vegetation. It reminded him of his childhood, those mornings when he'd sit on his front porch with his father, just enjoying a cup of coffee while he learned to whittle.
His sister had never really enjoyed woodworking, but Elijah had always found solace in the act. Probably because he'd idolized both of his parents, and he would take any opportunity to emulate their behavior.
He'd never even realized how good he'd had it until they were gone.
But that was the way of things, wasn't it? Nobody appreciated anything until it was gone. And he was no different. After all, even when he'd learned that ever-important lesson from his parents' death, he'd reacted by pushing his sister away. Then, he'd fled without looking back.
He took a deep breath, then sighed with regret.
Once, he might've just shoved those feelings into their own facet, but he now knew that if he didn't pay the toll now, the cost would simply add up over ti. And then, when it ca ti to take care of the bill, he'd be overwheld. He never wanted to experience that again.
He let himself feel it. Process it. And then, he decided to move on.
So it was that he collapsed his tent, stuffed it into his Arcane Loop, then turned back to the Circle of Webs. After one last look of appreciation, he set off across the desert. He strode through fields of wildflowers and oceans of tall, waving grasses, enjoying the sheer vitality of it.
But soon, he left it behind. The starkness of the adjacent tunnel, which led upward, was a shock to his system, but he quickly grew accustod to it. And after only a few hours, found himself in another chamber.
Over the next few days, he saw more of the sa. Forests. Deserts. Swamps. He barely stopped to appreciate them. Sotis, he flew. Other tis, he sprinted through jungles under the Guise of the Unseen, letting the scourgedrake's natural instincts take over. He even shifted into the Shape of Thorn when he passed through a forest of giant mushrooms. In that chamber, a low cloud of spores clung to everything. Only the Shape of Thorn was durable enough to endure the afflictions that ca from those spores, and even then, only with a continuous stream of healing provided by Wild Resurgence.
But on the fifth day since leaving the Circle of Webs, he finally saw his destination glittering in the distance. At last, he'd reached Eldrathûn.
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