Kaiser of the New World

Kai softly rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things right. Sure he was a little tired, but that didn't warrant him imagining a really high number.

450 added to each stat whenever he used Soul Inferno just seemed way too good to be true. It was just so much stats that Kai didn't believe he was reading things right.

It was only after he done a bit of maths in his head did that number seem plausible.

If he used Soul Inferno by itself, he would gain 250 bonus stats in each stat. Including his bloodline, that number would rise to 325. Then, including his Flame of Hope, it would rise to the 450 he was currently reading.

And that meant it also had the possibility to reach 575 in each stat if he ever got desparate in a fight.

A mad grin slowly started crawling onto Kai's face.

With this skill upgrade, everything just got a whole lot easier.

It would be able to keep them warm while the blizzard slowly got worse and worse the higher up they would have to clime, it had incredibly offensive capabilities considering that majority of the creatures they would encounter would have something to do with snow or ice, it could make his items stronger, hence making him deal more damage and take less damage, and to top it all off, it gave him a crap ton of stats.

If he wanted to, he could manipulate the flames to boost only one of his stats, increasing a single stat by 3150.

And Kai had a faint idea of how he could take advantage of that fact.

But first, he wanted to test just how much his control of the flames had grown during his month in the cell of ice.

Taking a deep breath, Kai exterminated all of the flames coating him except for a little ember on his fingertip.

Then, with near masterful precision, he slowly started making that small ember cover his whole body.

Of course, this would be incredibly inefficient in a fight, so it was lucky that he wasn't in one, Kai just wanted to test what he was capable of.

The upgrade of the skill had also given a boost to his proficiency, making the test a little easier.

Once that test was over, Kai had the flames attach to his armour.

The feeling was... strange. The flames were still completely covering him, every inch of him being enshrouded by the raging fire, only it was like there was now two layers to it.

One layer being the one that boosted all of Kai's stats and made him look incredibly awesome whenever he used the skill, and the other layer was a much smaller one that was clinging to his Chrome Skin, making it even sturdier than it already was.

Suddenly, Kai got another idea. Since the description of the skill said that the flames would boost certain aspects of the item it was empowering...

Kai sent some extra flames to coat his Flame of Hope.

The idea in his head was simple.

Would it boost his gained stats even more?

Sadly, the answer was one that he didn't want to hear.

With the extra flames coating it, the ember inside the silver necklace seemed to glow a little brighter, but Kai gained no additional stats.

Kai sighed to himself.

So he couldn't gain any more additional stats through the boost the flames offered, they only increased basic features of items such as their durability or sharpness.

But what if there was other features they could boost?

It was now that Kai regretted giving that snakeskin coat to Cecilia so quickly, he kind of wanted to experiment with it.

Like, if he were to boost it with his flames, would it increase the heat offered even more or even increase his bloodflow even more than what it would originally be increased by?

Luckily, there was another item that had a feature somewhat like that that Kai could use as a test.

Pretty Good Boots (Uncommon)

Hey, these boots are pretty good, and it's even better they increase the rate at which the wearer recovers from fatigue and also keeps your feet comfortable. If you want to buy the full set, visit Archibald's Footwear and Fun Time Store.

Kai's eyes widened slightly after reading the description of his boots. It had been forever since he had actually looked at it, and it had actually changed without him realising.

Before, the end of the description had just been question marks, presumably because the system had censored the self advertising part of it.

But now, now it actually showed the store that the boots belonged to.

"Archibald's Footwear and Fun Time Store..."

Kai felt a shiver run up his spine. Those two things were nothing remotely close to each other, so why the hell had the shopkeeper decided to set up a store using that as their premise?

... Was every shop like that?

Kai shook his head, getting rid of that thought. He had more important things to focus on after all.

Sending some extra flames down to his boots, Kai watched as a second layer of fire enveloped them.

And to his surprise, his boots, which had already been comfy enough, suddenly got even comfier.

Kai grinned.

It seemed that the flames couldn't boost the stats gained by items, but it could boost their other functions instead. Kai was a little curious as to whether the flames could also boost percentage based functions of items, like the 50% damage reduction he could take once a day, but he didn't really want to waste it on an experiment, just in case they ended up getting attacked by anything in the next 24 hours.

At the end of it all, Kai was over the moon with the skill upgrade. He felt as if he was barely scratching the surface of what it was capable of, but it was already worth its weight in gold.

... Even though it didn't technically have a weight, but since when was he someone who went into technicalities?

Now that he had finished testing with Soul Inferno, it was time to move onto the second thing Kai wanted to test.

How to improve his fusion with Umbra.

To be honest, he wasn't even sure if it would work, but it was still worth a shot, it would make the future journey much easier after all.

Setting up a telepathic link and giving Umbra a silent order to sneak outside, Kai watched as a pitch black black wolf slowly emerged from the tent, a tired expression on her face.

Kai smiled softly as he scratched the top of her head.

"Hey girl..."

Kai sighed as he gazed out into the distance. They had climbed a small bit of the mountain, so they were already above the main level of the land. It also meant that he could spot certain things that looked strange that he had missed.

But none of that mattered.

It had been over eight months since Kai contracted Umbra, and to be honest, he hadn't actually done all that much with his familiar.

Sure there was the fact that he was under a mind hex for six of those months, but even then he had been more focused on Esurient than his furry partner.

So now that he was fully healed, Kai knew what he was going to spend this journey doing.

Leveling Umbra up.

Of course, he would also go for a few levels himself, obviously, but right now he was over 30 levels higher than his familiar.

What would happen if they got split up and she had to fight something a higher level than her by herself? Kai wasn't certain if she would be able to handle herself.

As if reacting to his thoughts, Umbra closer her three eyes and purred softly, pushing her head even further into Kai's hand, making his smile grow a little.

That was how they stayed for a few minutes, simply watching the snow fall as he continued to pet her.

It was nice.

Perhaps the last nice experience he would get on this journey to the peak.

Or maybe not, who knew what was going to happen?

Sighing once more, Kai finally pulled his hand away from his familiar's head and got ready to test his theory.

His theory was simple.

Manipulating the flames that were still around him, Kai watched as they all turned a deep shade of violet.

He had increased his Mana by 3150, having all the boosted stats go into that one stat.

Then, be activated his fusion with Umbra.

His body started to grow, more muscle manifesting as he started to get taller and taller. Hair started to grow out of places it normally wouldn't and Kai felt the body of Chrome Skin start expanding to accommodate the sudden increase in size.

However, something strange was happening with the transformation, as if he was stronger than he would normally be when in this form, and not because of all the stays he had gained since the last time he used it.

It was because of something else.

And after hearing the notifications in his mind go off, Kai knew that he had been right about his theory.

Mana threshold reached

36050/10000 Mana needed

New perks for Wolf of ??? unlocked.