Before leaving the arena following Lucia, Jake didn't forget to absorb all of the Aether filaments from the battlefield. The Princess and the three gladiators had just slaughtered two platoons of Imperial legionnaires and that was a colossal amount of Aether.
When he had finished absorbing it all, he was pleased to discover that he once again had almost 1,000 Aether points. That was enough to increase his Extrasensory Perception by about 15 points, but again, if he wasn't forced to, he wouldn't spend it lightly.
He still forced himself to spend 320 pts to raise his Seventh Stat to 20 points. The effect was not transcendent at first glance. He perceived the Aether a little better, could extend his control a few centimeters further and interact with the Aether more easily, but apart from that he still didn't see how it could save his life.
Second chapter following soon.