Path of Dragons

Elijah drifted in the center of the cave, hovering only a few feet from the bottom. The Leviathan Bones remained, though he could feel that they were far less dense than they had been before his bout of cultivation. As for the rest of the vegetation, it had been absorbed by his efforts. Apparently, reaching the third stage of Core cultivation required quite a lot of energy, both vital and magical, and he'd taxed the cave to the extent of its capabilities. That the coralline structures of the Leviathan Bones had survived was a minor miracle, though one for which he was extremely grateful. The natural treasure had been a once-in-a-lifetime reward, and most of his reasoning for choosing it had hinged upon it being a multi-use tool, so Elijah was more than glad to see that it remained. It had been weakened, but he sensed that it would recover soon enough.

However, he wasn't above giving it a little help, so after shifting into the Shape of the Master, he swam through the tunnel connecting the cave to the open ocean. Soon enough, he was engaged in the familiar task of repopulating the cave with local sea vegetation, including red algae, kelp, and various other plants. Even a few fish followed him back to the cave, probably curious as to his presence and attracted to the trickle of ethera leaking out of the tunnel.

Once he was done, he spent a few hours meditating as he flared Nature's Bounty.

Some might have considered it an onerous task – akin to cleaning up after work – but Elijah found it to be both cathartic and rewarding. Feeling the surge of vitality as the transplanted marine life took hold centered him in a way nothing else really could. So, rather than feeling annoyed by the delay – after all, he still wanted to inspect his gains – he appreciated the opportunity for what it was.

Most people would never feel what he felt. Instead, they would go through life never connecting with anything, except maybe on a superficial level. He had both the responsibility and the privilege to truly bond with the natural world in a much more complete way, and he felt incredibly fortunate that he got to do so.

Still, as he floated in the center of the cave, he found his mind wandering to arguably more immediately important factors. Like the fact that, even in that short amount of time since he'd awoken, he could feel just how much stronger he was. Elijah knew his attributes hadn't risen. He didn't need to look at his status to know that much. However, he could feel the difference all the same.

But it did beg the question of just how much more powerful he'd become. He could easily cast his various buffs and check his status to figure out how much more potentl his spells had become, but he'd also passed to the next stage of overall cultivation, which meant that the quality of his attributes had increased. Because of his cultivation, each point in each of his attributes counted for more than they ever had before. To figure out just how much, he'd need to do some serious testing.

Which he intended to do, of course.

But first, he needed to complete his task so that the cultivation cave had every opportunity to recover, and in as short a time as possible. He didn't know when he'd get the chance to work on his cultivation again – he had a ton of things on his to-do list, and most of those would take a significant investment of time – but when he did get around to taking the next steps, he wanted everything to be ready.

Eventually, though, he couldn't help himself. He opened his status:

Since the last time he checked his status, there were only two changes. First, as expected, his Core cultivation had reached the next stage, which was labeled Drakyn. From what he remembered from a guide he'd read just after the orc invasion, a Drakyn usually referred to an adolescent dragon, which fit with his perception of his stage of cultivation. As much as he wanted to believe he was powerful, he knew that he was only a little better than a child, at least in the grand scheme of the multi-verse.

He only needed to remember the vision of the Akar, the First City of Dragons to know that as fact. Not only had his host, Miskar, been far more powerful than him, but there were creatures like the Eldertalon and the Caretaker that absolutely skewed his entire perception of the scale of power within the multi-verse. And that wasn't even considering the unfathomably mighty Stormbreaker, who'd made even those god-like beings look inconsequential.

No - Elijah knew that likening him to an adolescent was probably accurate, if not a little generous.

In any case, the second thing he noticed was that his Cultivation Stage had climbed from Adept to Expert, which was more gratifying than he'd expected. Sure, it was just a line on his status, but it definitely meant a lot to him. Hopefully, he wouldn't be disappointed in the effects of that leap forward on the expression of his power.

And after acknowledging the changes in his status, Elijah knew he didn't have any further reason to delay. So, he soon left the cultivation cave behind and headed to shore. Once there, he shifted into Shape of the Master and made his way to the grove. Along the way, he couldn't help but notice that his grove had expanded, and not by a small amount. If he'd had to estimate it, he would have said that it had grown by at least a hundred feet in every direction. Consequently, his domain had become larger as well, with the boundaries extending far into the ocean. When Elijah focused on the facet of his Jade Mind where he'd sequestered those related senses, he found the deluge of information both comforting and a little overwhelming.

The same was true of the senses granted by Soul of the Wild, which had both grown larger and deepened. He had difficulty saying precisely how much, but it was definitely noticeable.

In any case, after acknowledging that spending days cultivating underwater had left him in need of a shower, he headed into his treehouse and gave himself a thorough scrubbing. Once he was finished, Elijah finally decided to do a little testing.

The first thing he wanted to check was probably the least consequential. As much as he was interested in increased attributes and more powerful spells, he was even more interested to see how reaching the Drakyn stage of Core cultivation had affected his various forms' appearance.

It definitely wasn't due to vanity, he told himself, and he almost believed it.

Regardless of his not-so-subtle attempts at convincing himself that his choice was driven by utilitarianism, he quickly found his mirror – which was full-length – and shifted into the Shape of the Master. The changes were subtle. The general features were the same, but his lizard-like fingers and toes were a little longer, as were the ridges above his eyes. The form was also slightly more muscular, as if he'd been on a strenuous workout program for about a year. The shape still wasn't intimidating at all – in fact, it veered far closer to cute than anything else – but Elijah could feel the power pulsing through him.

And it only took another look at his status to figure out why.

The attribute bonuses from the shape had increased by fifty percent, plus a single point that he attributed to rounding. That meant that his Shape of the Master now gave him a whopping sixty points in every single category, which was just insane in context with the rest of his attributes.

Switching to the Shape of Thorn came with the realization that his ceilings were a little too low to fully accommodate the shape, and he ended up having to crouch in order to take a look at it. The attribute increases were identical – at least in terms of percentage – to Shape of the Master, which meant that it maintained a lead in pure points over the other shape. The form had also grown more than two feet in height, gaining muscle and increasing the density of the vines encircling his arms and growing from his shoulders.

Shape of Venom followed that same pattern, though it hadn't grown any larger. Rather, it became sleeker and more feline, with slightly longer legs, sharper claws, and much larger fangs. It was an incredibly intimidating form, though in a different way than Shape of Thorn.

Checking Shape of Sky required a trip outside, so he toted the mirror out into the grove and initiated the transformation. As expected, his flight form had become more of what it already was, with even more vibrant scales, a much larger wingspan, and an even more graceful neck. However, Elijah did notice that his claws had grown as well, and he could easily imagine swooping in and capturing something as large as a cow if he so desired.

In short, his shapes hadn't really changed in terms of their overall appearance, but they had all grown much better at filling their niche. That was mostly as expected, but it was still a very exciting turn of events.

Finally, Elijah headed to a familiar beach so he could test out the effects of his overall Cultivation on his abilities. Unsurprisingly, he found that he was much stronger than before, and he struggled to find a rock heavy enough to tax his physical might. Even before, he'd been capable of hefting multi-ton boulders with ease, but now, his only real constraint was getting a proper grip. That meant that the Shape of Thorn was far better at lifting heavy things, if for no other reason than because of its much longer arms.

And he discovered another change that he hadn't expected. He now had control over the vines covering his arms. They didn't function like extra limbs, but he found that, with enough concentration, he could use them almost like a monkey would use his tail. He could wrap them around objects, and when he wanted, he could squeeze with about half the strength of his normal limbs.

How much stronger, then, would Domain of Vines be?

As it turned out, the answer was hard to quantify. His control was far better, and the vines were much more numerous. However, without a target, he couldn't be sure. After crushing a boulder with nothing but that spell, he decided that exact measurements weren't really useful. All he needed to know was that it had become far more powerful.

The same was true of all his other spells, as well. He couldn't really put them through their paces, but when he used Lightning Domain, he scoured an entire beach.

In short, he was more than happy with his advancement. Progressing his Core wasn't the be-all, end-all of cultivation, but it was clearly the most powerful aspect.

"Your progression is admirable," said Nerthus, who'd suddenly appeared out of the forest. Elijah had felt him coming, so he wasn't surprised. "Most people do not reach such heights before taking the first steps into ascendency."

"That's what Kirlissa said," Elijah admitted, running his hand through his hair as he turned to face his friend. "Now that I've reached this point, I'm kind of wondering if I should keep going. I mean, if getting to Expert is considered a valuable Feat of Strength for my Legacy, then shouldn't reaching the next step be better? Think of how powerful a class evolution I could get then."

"It would be a waste," Nerthus stated. "There is only so high you can climb before you need to move on to the next peak."

Even though Elijah had considered just forging ahead with his cultivation without getting his evolution, he was relieved to hear Nerthus's advice. For all that he wanted to maximize his growth, he was eager to finally push ahead to his evolution. After all, from everything he'd read, doing so would be a huge boon.

And he had a notion that, going forward, he would need all the help he could get.

So, he asked Nerthus, "Can you think of anything else I need to do before I pick an evolution?"

Nerthus said, "No. You are as ready as you can hope to be."

"Alright then. I guess…I guess I'm going to head to the Branch and get it done. When you see me again, I'll be a new man."

With that, Elijah shifted into the Shape of Sky, threw himself into the air, and began the short flight to Ironshore so he could, at last, evolve his class.