Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 36: New Spell

Despite both of their strength stats being the same -at a base of five- Alex knew he was stronger than Garret currently, due to the Refined Body ability he just gained. So he had to at least attempt to break out of the cage himself.

Alex grabbed a bar with both of his hands and pulled. His muscles strained, bulging against his skin under the armor he wore. He felt the power in his arms, far more than he ever thought he could achieve back home on earth. Alex really was at the peak of humanity. He'd outdo any strongman or power-lifter of his previous world despite still having a slim -albeit impressively chiseled- body build.

Despite this, Alex couldn't budge the bars. They held firm in their stone recesses regardless of the grunts and huffs Alex made during his attempts to bend them. After a grueling thirty seconds, he gave up and stepped back.

"Told ya," Garret said.

"I know, I know," Alex leaned forward and took the time to examine the bars for once. At first glance, they seemed like rather typical wrought iron metal. Dark grey, not even a bit of shine to them. The surface was rough, but not from the pot-marks of a forging process, something else gave the metal a textured look.

What are those? Alex's eyes strained in the dim light to focus on the metal texture. There were lines on the metal, etched on the surface in an intricate pattern. He traced the lines along the bar in vision, watching it curve and intersect to make various tiny designs.

It's covered in glyphs. He realized.

The bars were indeed a basic metal after all. They were enhanced with some sort of [Glyphcraft], no doubt giving them a massive increase in their sturdiness. Alex only knew a few basic glyphs and lines in the enchanting method thanks to Celeste's elemental circle he had learned. A lot of what he saw he didn't recognize, but some of it he did.

Earth glyphs, and they're all connected through other symbols up and down the surface. Makes sense, the earth element would provide strength and stability.

Alex's observations were rewarded with a popup.