Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 70: Chapter 66: Hidden Quest

Read chapter 70 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Chapter 66: Hidden Quest Chapter 66: Hidden Quest “If only I could actually spend these damn experience points,” Alex grumbled as he sat on top of a gravestone, his aether gathering technique running at full capacity. “if only this, if only that…” Obby mocked him. “ If only I had a body of my own.” “ I get it,” he brought up his experience points in a system screen. “But come on, I could do so much with them.” Name: Alexander Pierce Experience: 3,698 The little nest egg of experience points on his screen was steadily climbing as Alex continued to fight his way from grave-mound to grave-mound. He glared at his stats, especially his willpower, with dejection. Attributes: Strength: 9 (1.0%) Agility: 9 (4.8%) Vitality: 11 (0.3%) Wisdom: 7 (0.3%) Intelligence: 7 (34.6%) Willpower: 9 (76.8%) Cresting that next stat threshold on his willpower would be a huge boon for Alex at this point. It would increase his efficiency with this aether gathering technique by a large margin. It wouldn’t let him upgrade it to using nine aether braids, as that was still a far ways off, but the difference in quality from his willpower after the refinement could mean everything. But it was stuck just below that threshold at nine, with Alex only being able to slowly progress without access to his experience points. Complaining about it wouldn’t get him anywhere, so he simply closed his status screen and focused on his gathering technique instead. His next two excursions through the field to a new grave-mound went as well as he had assumed they would. The number of skeletal warriors he came across increased each time. He simply assumed as time went on the swordsmen would all be replaced by warriors. The difficulty curve simply showed it would keep getting harder after all. He focused on learning efficient and fast ways to take the warriors out. His [Flare] certainly did the trick, but it expended too much aether, and he gained nothing back since he didn’t kill them with the dagger. Instead he memorized their attack pattern, their reactions. The warriors were more intelligent and skilled than the basic swordsmen skeletons, but Alex still felt they were like NPC’s. They had an advanced script to their fighting, he just needed enough practice to find a way to exploit it. He did find it eventually. A pattern of feints and probing attacks which always enticed them into over reaching on a sword swipe and let in a huge opening. A stab with his dagger ended it right after that. It worked every time. He pressed forward, leaving a bone splintered trail in his wake as he moved from mound to mound. It wasn’t until Alex had spent what felt like two whole days fighting through the endless fields that something finally changed. He raced up the next mound, his eyes set on the gravestone peaking up at the top. As he neared it, hand outstretched, Alex abruptly halted and dashed to the left. It was just in time to avoid a large blade sliding through the air where he just occupied. Coming to his feet, he sized up his attacker. A large skeletal figure, different from the rest he had encountered so far. This one was taller than Alex by a few inches, even without its flesh. It was clad in sturdier laminar plates, these polished and well oiled. On its head sat a helm with a red crest spanning over the top. If he thought the skeletal warriors looked like roman soldiers, this one sure hell fit the bill to a tee. The figure held a large two handed blade which seemed not very historically accurate as far as Alex remembered from his history lessons in school. “ History doesn’t care, that sword is real and will really kill you with real death.” Obby highlighted the weapons edge in his vision to drive home the message. “I got it, thanks.” He entered his beginning martial stance and dashed at the new enemy. With the warriors, Alex had to try navigating the shield which defended against his attacks. Against this foe, he barely had time to make attacks against the thing, it didn’t need a sh