Final Upgrades

With the ice rod and primal focus, I got some decent inspiration, what if I were to make a wand core that was similar.

It took me about a week's worth of effort and about 13 failed attempts but I managed to make wand rods that had similar effects to the ice one but for different primal aspects.

The recipe was a balanced shard and a shard related to the element you were trying to replicate along with praecantatio (magic), an aspect closely related to the element, and a primal essentia along with the rod's material.

Quartz made a rod for ordo (order)

Bones made a rod for perdito (entropy)

Sugar Cane made a rod for aer (air)

Blaze rods made a rod for ignis (fire)

Obsidian made a rod for terra (earth)

Ice made a rod for aqua (water)

During the time figuring these rods out I also figured out how to make a staff core, by sticking 2 rods together and using the primal charm I created long ago you could create staff cores. Scepters worked similarly with them requiring 3 caps, a rod, and a primal charm to make.

To combine these rods together into a single staff would be crazy, but that was my idea from the beginning so I continued my work. It took 2 failed attempts before I managed to get the recipe correct.

By infusing a silverwood rod with all 6 elemental rods, 2 primal charms, and a ton of praecantatio (magic) and primal essentia I managed to make a staff core that was a step above everything so far.

The Staff Core of the Primal or the SCP for short combined all the features of the lesser staff cores- it has a vis storage of 250 and could regenerate it's vis over time! It also adds 50% increased power to any foci its used with.

Or that's what it should be capable of…

There is one small problem, like any wand it requires caps. The problem is I can't put any caps on it because my wand doesn't have the vis capacity to do so!

"FUCK!" I screamed

I spent a full week and a good portion of the money I was given on this project and I CAN'T EVEN USE IT! I mean sure I could put gold caps on the wand, but that would be a waste!

"Why don't you just embed a focus into a ring, wouldn't that be a great combat solution?" Taint asked

"Ohhh, that might be a good idea!" I responded

I decided to try that idea, and although rings themselves proved to be useless, bracelets were a much better solution.

By completely removing the core of a wand from the construction and adding some mundane parts to hold it all together and making a 'zone of potency within the caps themselves I created Casting Bracelets.

They are my alternative to the staves, due to their construction they don't come in thousands of different variants.

The bracelets can't be used for crafting but do work with foci, after all, that's what they were made for. However since the bracelet has no core the vis capacity is very limited, the iron one I made as a test could only hold 10 units.

Luckily there are some upsides, because they were made entirely for the usage of foci they have an amazing vis discount, and cooldowns on foci are also reduced greatly. Not just that but because of their small size, invisibility potions affect the bracelets as well!

I decided to see if I could make primal bracelets like the staff, luckily due to me already having most of the knowledge available, it only took 4 days to create a primal bracelet.

The recipe was rather similar, infusing a primal charm with the 6 elemental bracelets and 2 void metal caps with the same essentia used in the staff core.

I decided to make 2 of these bracelets, so after spending another few hours making a second one I was done.

The bracelets function much the same as the staff core does, the bracelets regenerate vis, and increase the output from spells by 50%. They did only hold 30 units of vis but that was made up with the 60% vis discount.

The 50% increase also seemed to change my foci while one was equipped, the frost focus got even colder hitting temperatures close to -40C (-40F).

The fire foci's flame went from yellowish orange to a bright yellow (2226C to 3726C) (4038F to 6738F).

The shock focus went from lightning that was as thick as a finger to as thick as 2 fingers.

The primal focus was hard to measure due to the fact that I can't measure chaos, but it did get more chaotic.

I would have used the Focal Manipulator but due to my low funds and the fact that I wanted to upgrade my armor with the last amount of cash I had left, I decided not to.

The armor was a pretty simple upgrade, by replacing the thaumium with void metal, I was even able to upgrade my boots of the traveler by infusing void metal.

It was a little harder getting the recipe right but when I did complete it, it was everything I could have wanted, disturbingly comfortable cloth, better vis channeling, seemingly bottomless pockets, and rather solid defense!

They looked much like my previous set of clothing with a few changes of course. Dark purple robes with eastern-style armor plating covering the vital parts.

The boots were the sleekest footwear in the mortal world. With greatly increased movement abilities and runic shock absorbers built-in, I could run faster, jump higher and fall from higher without issue.

I do have to admit that while wearing the robes I sort of resemble the eldritch monster I fought during the monster festival back in Orario, that worried me a little but there wasn't much I could do about it.

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Those are the final upgrades required before Stella heads out to explore! Suggestions and power stones are always welcomed!