The transformation had awakened something in him that went beyond mere statistical improvements.
Where once he might have felt concern at facing impossible odds, now he felt only anticipation.
Jack flexed his fingers, marveling at how the simple gesture felt different now.
The Sanguine Accelerator and Crimson Recovery ring pulsed gently against his skin.
'This is what I was meant to become,' he thought, though the origin of that certainty troubled some distant part of his mind.
'Not just a mage throwing lightning from a safe distance, but something that thrives in the heart of battle. I always thought after I died I would be a mage in the heat of battle. Now it's time to put up or shut up for good.'
'System,' he thought, flexing his fingers around the Lightning Spear's grip, 'I have 286 vile cores in storage. Convert 280 of them to stat points.'
The request felt natural now, like breathing.
