Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 52: Support

Alex looked to Devon with his mouth agape in surprise.

“You don’t want to enter the Inheritance?” he asked.

Devon set down the tools among the many items and components that littered the table space they were working on. Then he leaned back in his chair with a sigh until he finally nodded.

“Yes, I don’t want to go in,” he confirmed.

“I don’t understand.”

“Look, Alex, I get that this is some really big opportunity and whatnot, especially for you battle freaks. But, I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, I’m not that great in combat. I stick to the back line and just go through my crafted items until I have nothing left. My melee skills are abysmal.”

That was true. So far in their journey in Aetherios, Devon had mostly been a backup role. He provided ideas, items and support. But when it came to spells and weapon combat, he just didn’t cut it in the top tiers.

His crafted items were powerful, very powerful. Which is why he had made it so far in the tournament at all. But without the time to prepare fully between rounds, and with his opponents learning his tricks from his previous fights, he couldn’t hold out.

Still, despite that, he held an immense amount of value with his mind alone. Which is why Alex wanted to take him in with them.

“Your strength isn’t direct combat. Neither is Peter’s. That’s not what makes you a strong pick for a teammate,” Alex said.

“I know. But… having had the last few months to really dive into my crafting, hitting a rhythm, I know I’m nearing something big. Unlike you, or Holly, or Kate, I don’t think my path to power is in killing monsters and conquering opponents. It’s in my skills. Skills I won’t be able to progress while in the Inheritance.”

Alex sighed heavily. It sounded like Devon was serious about this.

“I haven’t even learned any spells for the light element half of my attunement, and barely anything for my earth attunement. I don’t have any real ability with a sword or spear, or hammer. My talent is this,” he said, holding up the [Glyphcraft] stylus. "And if I want to see if it bear fruit, I need to focus on that.”

“Damn…” Alex muttered, finally leaning back in his chair as well. “I can’t really say you’re wrong.”

“Lance looks to have the same thoughts regarding his smithing. He’s taken rather well to it,” Devon added.

“Yeah, Garret too.”

“But Garret’s just as wild as you are. He’ll thrive in the Dungeon,” Devon said. “Crazy bastards, all of you.”

The two chuckled softly at the same time.

“I’m not going to try to force you to come. If you think your path lies in your skills, then you should absolutely stay behind and work on those. The Inheritance isn’t a guaranteed answer to the System Trial Quest. Everyone needs to prove themselves; maybe this is how you can do it,” Alex said.

Devon grinned. “That’s what I was thinking too.”

***

“So Devon wants out?” Kate asked.

Alex nodded to her.

“Fine, we can take someone else then. Maybe Peter.” Kate’s hands moved in front of her as she talked, creating a pattern that Amnios had taught her.

“Peter would be a nice support in there for sure. Cole, too, having an off-healer would be nice,” Holly added.

“If we want an off-healer,” Alex said. “We can bring Myrae.”

Holly scoffed. “You just want to bring in the hot elf with us to build your harem,” she said, before giving him a wink. “Besides, if we bring Myrae, we have to bring Ghrukk. She wouldn’t just leave her burly green man. Who do we drop?”

A headache was starting to form and Alex rubbed at his temples. “We can bring Zach, Tom-Tom, Allie, and with Erich’s extra, that leaves one slot.”

“Cole, Lance or Peter then,” Kate said plainly. “Or maybe Doran?”

Alex was ready to shoot down at least one of those options. “Lance is pretty obsessed with blacksmithing, we would have another Devon situation. The same with Doran, I think. The dwarf is a strange one, and even after all this time I can’t say I know much about him.”

“That’s on purpose, dummy. Doran is a very reserved guy, he’s not gonna open up to you. Bringing him might fix that, but he’s pretty well stuck to Ghrukk in the others.” Holly pointed out to him.

“Selka?”

“Highly capable. Fiercely willed. She would do well. But that’s another offensive-focused member added to the team, and Allie is still the only support healer,” Kate said, her hands still following those strange patterns as the conversation went on.

Alex’s headache had increased two-fold in that time. “Then we go with Cole. Off-healer, melee tank. Done and done.”

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A knock suddenly came at the door, and it opened a moment later to reveal Garret. He looked about the room, finding Alex alone with Holly and Kate, and shot him a sly thumbs-up. Alex only groaned.

“What is it, man?” Alex asked.

“There’s some creepy butler guy here to see you. And he brought some skinny guy along with him,” Garret explained.

Alex looked to Kate and Holly, who both shrugged.

“I guess we’ll go see them.”

Turned out, creepy-butler-guy was Erich’s main assistant, Mr. Kim. Alex did find the description rather accurate once he thought about it. He always wore that fancy suit, and his voice was a bit creepy with the monotone.

“Mr. Pierce, thank you for seeing us.”

“Hello again, Mr. Kim. We had been expecting you, of course.” Alex gave a slight bow to the man, who bowed even deeper back to him. It looked like not all of Earth’s mannerisms were in him, some of Aetherios culture remained.

“Allow me to introduce Akus Neffrati, one of Mr. Von Dämmmerang’s students,” Mr. Kim motioned to the person standing just to his left.

Akus was of slight build and of average height. His face was plain, almost to the point of being androgynous. He had soft brown eyes, and strangely, no eyebrows despite having a head full of short length black-brown hair.

At five-foot six, Alex couldn’t help but look down on him physically. But that didn’t stop Alex from sensing the power of a peak-stage Adept coming from him.

[Aether Sight] confirmed this, as Alex looked at the man through his ability.

A peak adept. And he didn’t even join the tournament. If Erich wanted into the inheritance, why didn’t he just have them compete? He thought.

“Two possibilities,” Obby said in response to his musings. “First, they didn’t receive a token. Power alone didn’t earn you that token. It was the feats you performed. If this student wasn't out adventuring or Dungeon diving, only training in seclusion at a secret school, he wouldn’t have gained a token.”

That’s a fair point. But the second option?

“Covert entry. Erich didn’t want the attention of having a student publicly enter and fight in the tournament, letting everyone know he’d have a person going inside. This way, far less scrutiny would be on him.” Obby explained.

You know I hate when you’re right. Alex retorted mentally.

Obby sent a flash of joy through their bond. “Then you must always walk around hating life, because I am always right.”

“Wonderful to meet you Mr. Neffrati.” Alex gave a second bow.

“Please, Akus. We will be comrades soon, after all.” Akus gave a smile.

“So you are the lucky person picked to join us in diving into the Inheritance of the Supreme Aegis?”

“Yes. Master chose me to help your team. I wouldn’t dare to assume his thinking, but I believe he thought my special skills and abilities would be very useful to you.”

“And what might that be? Exactly?” Kate asked forcefully from behind Alex.

“Mr. Neffrati has the water affinity, but his offense has focused almost entirely on weaponless hand-to-hand combat. His spells are geared toward single-target focus fire. His equipment and stat allocation are set with a spotlight on Wisdom, with a balance to everything else.” Mr. Kim elucidated on Akus’ behalf.

Alex looked them over again. There was no doubt in his mind that the mage was powerful. He just didn’t know how much. He would need far more information than just his affinity and combat focus.

“Constitution? Meridian Imprints? Martial Style and secondary skills?” He asked in rapid fire.

“[Alchemy], [Tailoring], and [Merchantile]. Martial Style is [Crashing Wave Palm], I add weight and momentum to my body and strikes as long as I keep moving and I can redirect my flow of movement instantly with negligible energy loss.” Akus fired back just as quickly, seemingly unperturbed by Alex’s pressure. “My imprints are [Aether Storage], [Vast Reserve], [Aether Flow], and [Distilled Aether]. Finally, my constitution is called the [Gentle Breath Aether] constitution.”

The fact that [Tailoring] and [Merchantile] were skills wasn’t new information to Alex. He had learned there was a multitude of basic skills under the System. Some even said there were thousands, and even more to be discovered.

His Martial Art Style seemed basic yet practical for a water user. And he didn’t know what [Distilled Aether] might do, but he had a general understanding of his other imprints.

It was his constitution that was the biggest question mark. What did it do, exactly? A few guesses came to mind, and Alex might even be close to the truth.

Still, even with all of that, Alex didn’t quite understand why Erich thought Akus would be the best pick for their team. He was a melee fighter with, what Alex assumed, a large total aether pool given the imprints and his focus on Wisdom.

Was that enough, though?

Alex looked to Mr. Kim, disappointed. “I don’t see how this is a boon for us. We already have a water-attuned melee fighter with Henry.”

“Mr. Neffrati is not a melee combat mage. He is a support mage.” Mr. Kim corrected Alex in his standard monotone.

Akus nodded at Mr. Kim’s words, confirming them.

“I don’t understand. How is he a support?” Holly asked.

“He can be fodder for our enemies and a distraction,” Kate sneered.

“Allow me to show you, please.” Akus stepped forward at last and held out his hand to Alex, palm up.

Alex looked at the mage’s hand for a moment, unsure about what he intended or if he should trust him. Though he immediately concluded, just as before, that if Erich wanted to kill them, he would have been able to do that long ago. Whatever Akus wanted to do, it shouldn’t hurt him.

He hoped it wouldn’t, at least.

Alex held out his own hand, letting Akus grasp it firmly. Then the water mage’s eyes began to glow slightly, the soft brown color having an added blue tint. Just a moment later, Alex felt an influx of aether rush from Akus’ body, through his arm, and then into Alex’s hand.

He pulled back instantly, feeling the mage’s aether swim through his body and aether channels, expecting a reaction as his body rejected the energy.

But nothing happened.

“Oh, now that is indeed interesting.” Obby laughed. "There's no host reaction to his aether."

Typically, any foreign aether put into someone’s body would be rejected and pushed out. This was one reason that healing was so difficult. As it required a mage using healing spells to have not only great knowledge of the anatomy of their patient, but high aether control and finesse. All this to avoid damaging them even more with a spell than they healed.

But Akus’ aether swam through Alex’s body with no issue. In fact, it was more than that. Alex felt he could grasp control of the energy and use it for his own if he wished. It was as if Akus had donated aether to him in that moment.

It was something Alex had never seen before, and didn’t know was possible.

“Well… damn,” he muttered.

“You understand now.” Akus smiled.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Holly asked, as she looked over Alex head to toe.

Alex only chuckled before patting Holly’s hands. “I’m fine. Akus seemed to pass some of their aether to me.”

Both women’s eyes widened as they realized what Alex meant.

“So you’re, like an aether donation bank? You have a huge aether pool and can give it to anyone you want?” Kate asked.

“That is one way to say it, yes. I can supplement any mage’s aether pool with my own. And can even give a boost to a mage’s spell if I am touching them during the spellcasting. My constitution makes my aether very gentle, and compatible with almost anyone.” Akus looked to both women, and then to Alex once more. “But more importantly, it also gives my aether special properties, such as healing issues in one's body or soul gates.”

“What do you mean?” Alex was getting more interested now.

“I mean, Mr. Pierce, I think I can heal the damage you are suffering from your [Technique].”