Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 48: Progress

The forest east of Vrung’s Quarry wasn’t especially dangerous, just dense. The deeper he pushed, the more the trees leaned in like curious old men, whispering through their leaves at Alex. Shafts of sunlight pierced the dense canopy in lazy golden beams.

Alex found a small clearing not far from the slow-moving section of the river, marked it on his mental map, then dumped his pack onto a flat rock and exhaled.

“Alright,” he said. “Time to get to work.”

“Finally,” Obby replied, his voice buzzing with smug satisfaction inside Alex’s head. “You’ve been walking for hours. Your progress bar was starting to cry.”

“I get it already, damn.” Alex muttered. “First, let’s figure out how to best spend these experience points. Which stats are going to be my priority?”

“Still can’t believe you hit Wisdom five,” Obby said. “Feels like I can breathe again. If I had lungs of course.”

Alex ignored him, rubbing his chin. Wisdom was certainly not his priority right now, despite how much he knew Obby would disagree.

“So then,” he said. “What’s our plan?”

“Short version? You’re a broken mage with no core, running off body-stored aether. That makes you a hybrid. Glass cannon without the glass or the cannon.”

“Helpful.”

“Just being honest. So, if you’re going to be a martial caster without a core, you need three things: survivability, efficiency, and spell-integration.”

Alex nodded. “So we prioritize stats that support all three.”

He mentally pulled up his status screen to spend his points, and his finger hovered over the screen. “Willpower and Intelligence. I need to absorb more aether and use it better,” Alex muttered. “Those stats would likely also help in progressing my [Aether Attuned Body] ability at a faster rate.”

“That’s all true, but it wouldn’t provide a power increase here and now, just slightly accelerate future growth. Remember, your body runs on aether now. But you also use it to cast your spells, so the more you can store the better.”

“Easy, it has to be vitality then.” Alex said.

“For increasing your overall power right now, that would be the best bang for your buck, so to speak.” Obby gave Alex a mental nod as he spoke in his mind. Alex wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he felt it.

“Bang for my buck huh? You mentioned Batman earlier too, how do you know all these things from earth? From my world?” Alex asked wearily.

“Oh good question!” Obby’s rock hummed softly. “ I have no idea.”

“ None? Really?”

“Really. I can guess it has something to do with our connection, but Arceus only knows the truth on that.”

“ Arceu- okay never mind, forget it. Vitality it is, let do this.”