Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 55: Tiered Improvements

So far, Alex had been adding to previous enchantments, stacking new ideas on to past implants. It started with the lattice spiral, then the basic aether siphon implant to create the artificial body gate. Then came the aether gem implant on to of that.

Each improved his aether manipulation, efficiency or overall capacity in one way or another. But they weren’t made with each other in mind. It was like slowly adding new hardware into a desktop computer, constantly having to find things compatible with the old motherboard, or graphics card, or the processor itself.

It made things harder than it needed to be, and far less efficient.

To top it all off, with Alex’s new skills and his new understanding of aether, he couldn’t help but see the shoddy work he had been using before.

“You let me do this, look at those glyph lines, Obby, its like a toddler applied them,” Alex whined while looked at his previous enchantments through his [Aether Sight].

“Not like I knew any better either. I was working with the restraints on my knowledge at the time. I’m as appalled as you are.”

Even though it hurt him greatly, both mentally and physically, Alex decided to just start over. First, by slowly removing his aether gem implants, as well as the artificial body gates he’d placed over his meridians.

Lastly, he went through the painstaking process of removing his Lattice Spiral enchantment over his natural bodygate.

It was much like getting a tattoo removed back on Earth, in that it was a slow and painful process that made things look far worse before ever getting better.

Still, by the end of the first day, he had at least wiped his canvas clean enough that he could start anew.

“I can make a far more advanced Lattice Spiral to enhance my bodygate with what I know about [Glyphcraft] alone. If I add [Infusion], I can make it even better.”

“What concept would you use for it? Absorption? Pulling force?” Obby projected the image of a plunger in front of him and began waving it around.

“No, something far better. Luckily, Earth and its education system will help me here, I already know the best concept for an all consuming, pulling phenomenon.”

Within his mind, Alex thought up a cosmic scene, a galaxy of space dust, comets, planets, and stars. A scale of grandness and vastness. Then, at the very center, he placed a black speck, the most unassuming of things.

And that speck grew, drawing in everything around, pulling in all things with no possibility of escape.

A black hole… it was the pinnacle of the idea of something pulling in its surroundings.

He held that thought in his mind as he worked, first on creating the ink for the application, crushing and grinding [Pearl Lotus] petals and [Spirit Cooling] water, both middle adept tier natural materials. Then, he still held the thought in his mind as he began the application process of the new glyphstring that he tattooed over his gate.

The advancement of his [Glyphcraft] skill and the materials alone would have brought the enchantment to late stage adept tier. But Alex’s [Infusion] was the catalyst needed to push it further, going all the way to peak adept.