I took a breath, and examined each in turn. The air option would cause the throwing stars to travel further and faster, and multiply more in-flight. The fire option would cause the stars to burn their target when they hit, and the ice option would freeze low powered enemies where they stood.
Each seemed a worthwhile upgrade.
Cara was watching with interest, and she nodded as I explained it to her. “Which one will you pick?” she asked, once I had finished speaking. “I’d go for fire. Burning shuriken stars would be incredibly powerful, but the air option where the stars multiply even further could be useful too.”
I thought for a moment. “Don’t forget the ice option,” I said. “You already have a powerful fire ability with your potion-treated arrows, and the shuriken’s ability to multiply in midair is already pretty powerful. I’m not sure we need to double-down on abilities we already have access to. If I pick the ice upgrade, it will add something totally new to our combined skill set.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Cara said.
“I think that’s the option I’ll take.”
I reached out and touched my hand to the image of the throwing star. It vanished, to be replaced by three symbols. They were simple images, but it was clear that they represented the three elemental options. I touched the stylized ice image, and immediately I felt the upgrade take effect. It was like a shiver running through the Persona I was wearing. When I reached up to touch the throwing stars held in my shoulder belt, I felt a hint of cold from the metal.
The three elemental images disappeared, to be replaced by the Ironside and the Kitsune Persona options again. On the left, there was the black assassin suit, and on the right, again, the armor of Ironside. This time, however, there were two differences. First, I noticed that the black assassin’s suit had a little ice symbol next to it. Second, I saw that the tall glass column containing my Renown was now half empty, where before it had been full.
“What does it mean?” said Cara, looking on in fascination.
“I think it means that I still have enough Renown to add another upgrade to one of my Personas. I’ve only spent half.”
“Will you upgrade the new Persona again? I wonder what would happen if you added another elemental damage type to your shuriken stars—could you combine the elemental damage types?”
“Maybe,” I said thoughtfully, “but I think I’ll look at what’s available for the Ironside Persona this time. I suspect that we’ll be gaining a lot of upgrades as our quest progresses, and it makes sense to me that I should balance my upgrades between my Personas.”
“I can understand that,” Cara said. “Though I think if it were me I’d be more inclined to specialize in one particular Persona.”
I nodded to that. “Yes, I can see how that’s an appealing prospect. I’m tempted to spend all my upgrades on the new Persona as well. But we don’t know what kind of enemies we’re going to face. If we put all the upgrades into, say, elemental damage, we might be in trouble if we came across an enemy who was resistant to the elements. So far, we’ve had to fight monsters, but we may have to fight men at some point too, or other monsters with abilities which we can’t imagine yet. Since we don’t know what we’re going to face, I’m going to take the approach of spreading my abilities out between the different Personas.”
“The Kitsune Persona and the Ironside Persona are so different,” Cara said. “You’re right; it makes sense to upgrade both equally, and to be able to use both. Go on,” she urged, “let’s find out what’s available for the Ironside Persona then.”
I smiled at her. Her eyes were shining. It was good to know that she was as excited about seeing what upgrades we could get as I was.
In the same way as before, they expanded and disappeared like a bubble popping. It vanished smoothly, to be replaced by three images representing the areas I could upgrade. As I had seen in Saxe when I had first upgraded the Ironside Persona, there was a shield on the left, a bright green gemstone in the middle, and an axe on the right.
I held my hand over all three in turn.
“What do these ones mean?” asked Cara.
For a moment, it wasn’t clear, but as I turned my attention to each one, I understood. I knew that picking the shield, which I had upgraded previously, would give me the power to wield a great iron shield in battle, and increased strength to block enemy attacks.
When I held my hand over the axe image, I was again presented with the option of adding elemental damage to my weapon.
Then I held my hand over the gemstone.
“This is interesting,” I said to Cara. “The shield and the axe are straightforward upgrades to parts of my kit, with the option of adding elemental damage to the weapon, but this gemstone... if I understand it correctly, it will allow me to draw extra Renown from enemies that I kill while wearing this Persona.”
“That’s unexpected,” Cara said. “It would be great to have an axe that did fire or ice damage, and blocking powerfully with your shield is useful too, but in the long term being able to gain more Renown could be the most useful of all.”
“In the long term,” I mused. “Yes, I think that’s right. We’re here for the long haul. There’s going to be many options and chances to upgrade the Personas. The quicker we can earn Renown and apply the upgrades to the Personas, the more power and options we will have in battle.”
“And after all,” Cara added, “we should apply the same principle to this choice as you did when choosing an elemental effect for the assassin suit—get the upgrade that gives you something you don’t already have.”
“Yes, I think you’re right. We already
