She moved her hand to the left, hovering over the staff and then the bow in turn. “These are harder. It’s difficult to see exactly what these upgrades do.”
“Don’t worry. It will come to you in time. Just relax and let yourself discover what you can feel about them in your own way.”
I was proud of her as I saw her do as I suggested. She let out a long, slow breath, and I saw her shoulders drop as she let the tension go out of them. A moment later, she cried out, sounding pleased.
“It’s the spell! The lightning spell. This one is giving me the option of upgrading the lightning spell to a more powerful version.”
“What about the other one?” I asked.
She moved her hand over to the image of the bow. “Interesting,” she said after a moment. “One of these is a range bonus, but there are other options. I can fire arrows more accurately over a greater distance, and another adds elemental damage to the arrows. It’s difficult to decide.” She glanced up with me with doubt in her eyes. “What do you think I should do, Leo?“
“I think you should decide for yourself. Ultimately, it’s up to you. Any upgrade will be good. Which one would you like the most?“
“The one that allows me to collect more Renown when I’m wearing this Persona,“ she said with a firm nod. “As you say, all upgrades are good, and that one will allow me to get more upgrades quicker in the long term.”
“That sounds like a sensible choice to me,” I said encouragingly.
She smiled at me, took a breath, and reached for the green gem.
It swirled and blazed with green light as Cara laid her hand upon it. I heard her gasp, and her face was a picture of pleasure and satisfaction as she felt the upgrade take effect. The Renown in her pool glowed as some of it drained away into the Tree Spirit Persona.
“Does it always feel so good when you add the upgrades?” she asked, smiling.
I nodded. “Every time I’ve done it, it’s given me a really pleasurable sensation.”
She grinned wickedly at me, showing her perfect white teeth. “Reminds me of something else I felt recently,” she said with a laugh.
I smiled back, enjoying her pleasure in the new power she had discovered.
“You still have some Renown left to use,” I pointed out.
“I do, don’t I?” Her excitement grew. “I thought the crystal upgrade would have consumed it all. I’ll have a look in more detail at what’s available for the bow.”
She reached toward the image of the longbow. When she held her hand in place over it, the image faded to review three new options. On the left was a symbol representing fire. In the middle, was a symbol representing ice. On the right was an arrow. She held her hands over these symbols one by one.
She pointed to the arrow symbol. “This is the range bonus.” Then she gestured at the fire and ice symbols. “These represent the elemental damage types which can be added to the bow.”
“You wouldn’t need the fire upgrade,” I said, “because you can already do that with your potions. How about taking the ice upgrade?“
She shook her head. “We already have the ability to use ice with the shuriken stars, and we can combine those with my fire arrows to create explosions. I don’t think we need to double down on any of those just now. I’ll pick the range and accuracy bonus instead.”
As had happened when she picked the crystal upgrade, the image of the bow glowed green and spun when she touched it. Again, she let out a groan of pleasure and shuddered as the sweet feeling of upgrading power flowed over her body and through the Persona which she was wearing. The longbow on her back glowed as well, a bright pattern of light flickering over the dark wood of its long shaft. Cara’s Renown counter drained down to empty as the light flowed into the image of the bow.
“Are you going to try it out?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Not until we’ve finished upgrading. I want to see what you’re going to get as well. Let’s see what’s available for the shinobi aspect of the Kitsune Persona.“
I nodded, pleased that she was still keen to see me get upgrades despite being able to get them for herself. This kind of power might corrupt some individuals and turn them inward to themselves, but not so with Cara. She was all about the team.
With one hand, I reached for the image of the black costume which I was currently wearing. I tapped it, and it faded to reveal the three options. One was the familiar green crystal, and I knew straight away that upgrade would allow me to gather more Renown when making kills with the Kitsune Persona. But it was the other two options that immediately caught my interest.
In the middle floated the image of a strange weapon. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was about the size of a one-handed war axe, with a short wooden handle like a truncheon, but instead of an axe’s wide, flat blade, it had a long hooked curving blade like a scythe, tapering to a vicious point. Attached to the top of the truncheon was a long chain with a spiked mace head on the end. I reached for it and felt the knowledge of what it was flow from the Kitsune Persona to my mind.
“Kusarigama,” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?” Cara asked.
I indicated the sickle-like weapon with the ball and chain on top. “That is what it’s called. Kusarigama. It’s a cunning weapon that can be used at a distance. The fighter can hit an enemy at range with the mace head, or the chain can be used to wrap around an enemy’s legs, hands, arms, or weapon.”
“That
