Wonder - what is the difference between upgrading and unlocking?

I'm a bit of a noob on the Wonder building and am struggling to understand the difference between unlocking and upgrading the building. I see tons and tons of information about unlocking your Wonder but next to nothing about upgrading it.

Everything says I need to get my Ares before I can unlock my Wonder. Yet when I'm in the forge trying to upgrade my dragon gear, turns out I need to have my Wonder at level one before I can upgrade my dragon armor. When I click on the Go To button it displays the next picture showing all I need is some resources and k30. Because of typical evony glitches, I'm extremely nervous to attempt to do the upgrade via the forge method. I wouldn't be surprised if it would pop up some other screen saying I need my Ares first and then rob me of my billions of resources.

To make matters further confusing, the resource amounts listed from the forge method differs so from what is on the unlocking screen (third screenshot).

I truly appreciate any sage advice that you guys can give.