The risk to who I was could not be denied, but I had to believe that my soul had the capability to remember who I was at the end of the day.

I moved to the next line, and I smiled at the growth in this skill.

[Mortal Shell 61 → 68 (Adept) — Broken-Celestial]

Skill grew more slowly in the Adept range, but getting seven ranks in one loop was impressive.

If I keep pushing forward like this, how long before one of my skills reaches the Arcanist tier?

This skill that had been the core of my power system had grown again and was now further along that tier’s curve.

My body had become denser. The cords that had been anchored at the joints were now anchored at points the body did not have names for.

It was like there were bones beneath my bones, channels beneath channels, and places that the magus tradition’s anatomy did not catalogue.

All of these were both fascinating and scary, and I no longer tried to suppress my fear because I was afraid that if I did, I might soon forget what that felt like, and I did not want that.

[Endurance 71 → 79 (Adept)]

Eight ranks, and I was not surprised after what my body was forced to endure in the last loop.

Endurance at seventy-nine meant the body I had brought back was a body that could survive what should have killed it three times, and the body’s tolerance for sustained stress had increased again.

I shifted on the cot, feeling the difference in my body. My joints felt weirdly lighter, as if the weight of my body was distributed across more anchoring points than what was considered normal.

[Lightning Resonance 36 → 59 (Acolyte) — Rare]

Twenty-three ranks. The largest single-loop growth I had ever seen for an Attunement skill, and the engagement’s lightning-state had earned every rank of it.

I was one rank from the Adept tier and approaching the curve where each additional rank produced qualitative rather than quantitative change.

The pathways that lightning resonance was creating across my body were no longer pathways; they were going to be infrastructures.

But when I felt the slow beat of my heart, and what my Hollow Avatar wanted to make of my so-called defective body, I wondered what would emerge from the other side.

Still, it did nothing to stop the growing excitement in my heart, because the moment lightning resonance crossed the Adept threshold, it would cause my lightning spells to flow much more smoothly and hit that much stronger, and what was even more important was the immunity it would grant me.

Running so much lightning through my body damaged it, my blood boiled, and my flesh was burned. If I reached the Adept Tier, then the only thing holding me back would be my soul.

No, I had to stop thinking of my soul in this manner.

Forcing my mind to focus on what was next so I would not be stuck in my thoughts, I glanced at the next line.

[Lightning Cascade 31 → 44 (Acolyte) — Rare]

I may not have gained any growth in this spell when it was wielded by the Avatar, but I had used this spell a lot before I completely burned my soul.

Thirteen ranks were nothing to scoff at, and with the increase in my lightning resonance - which had outpaced the growth of my spell, a ridiculous thought when you think about it for long - this spell would enjoy a lot of growth.

I was still thinking about the growth in this spell when I glanced at my next spell, and my heart stopped beating for a long moment.

First, it began as Spark, the discipline that gave me the taste of my first victory against the demons, and then it became Arc Lightning.

Gaining Lightning Cascade made Arc Lightning a bit irrelevant because it did nearly the same thing, but did it even better, due to the connection between these two spells, using Lightning Cascade also grew Arc Lightning.

I knew there would be a change when Arc Lightning crossed the Adept Tier, as it had become the center of my offensive spell discipline, and it was hard not to scream when I saw the next evolution of my spell because it was a freaking Epic spell!

[Arc Lightning 59 → Lightning Dominion 61 (Adept-Epic)]

-The electrical discharge no longer travels as a single arc or a branching tree. It manifests as a field of controlled lightning with the caster at the epicenter.

Properties:

Field Sustain: Lightning radiates continuously from the caster’s body and staff (when available) for the duration of the cast, covering a radius that scales with rank (base: 15 meters).

Directed Arcs: Up to a dozen independent arcs can be maintained simultaneously, each targeting different enemies or even different body parts.

Voltage Modulation: The caster can adjust the intensity of each arc independently.

Conductive Leash: Any enemy struck by an arc becomes a temporary conduit, allowing lightning to jump between enemies without loss of power for the duration of the field.

Storm Sense: While Dominion is active, the caster perceives all conductive objects and living beings within the field’s radius through electrical feedback, bypassing sight and sound.

Cost: Moderate Anima drain per second, reduced by Lightning Resonance rank.

Note: At higher ranks, the field radius and number of arcs increase, and the caster can designate "safe zones" within the field where allies are not targeted.

This was... I lacked the words to describe what I was feeling. Every single property of this spell was ridiculous, and I further understood why Adepts were so terrifying.

Lightning Dominion was a field-type spell, and these sorts of spells were one of the rarest spells there was due to the stringent requirements for it.

Purchasing field-type spells was very expensive as they were usually restricted spells, and trying to develop them by oneself was incredibly difficult.

Thinking about the way I had used my Arc Lightning and then Lightning Cascade to chain across hundreds of demons at a time, I had unknowingly begun to form the nascent prototype of a field spell, and the moment Arc Lightning had reached the Adept Level, its transformation was inevitable.

I felt my fingers twitching as I knew there were barely thirty minutes left before the Khaaz demons erupted from the ground, and I had never felt so excited for battle.