Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 180: Book 3: Chapter 33: Wake Surfing

Read chapter 180 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Book 3: Chapter 33: Wake Surfing Chapter 33: Wake Surfing The forest floor quickly became their workshop. Tom-Tom, Lance, and Garret crouched together with their palms pressed to the dirt as earth-aether rippled outward. Stones rose in neat chunks, and slabs locked together into a flat base while thin sheets slid inward to form sidewalls. Henry knelt beside them, coaxing his vines through every gap in the rocks causing the greenery to snake tightly around them, tying it all together until the raft held firm as a single piece. Thanks to magic, in less than twenty minutes, they had something roughly usable. It was an ugly rectangular cube of rock, plantlife and wood with pointed ends on either side, but it would at least float. “All aboard the SS Tombstone,” Garret said with cheer as he planted his shield at the prow as though it were some kind of a figurehead. Tom-Tom clambered in with his ladles clinking against his belt and muttering prayers to whatever kobold spirits they prayed to, Alex didn’t know for sure—maybe it was dragons. Peter followed them, while Allie eased herself in last, settling cross-legged as though daring the raft to tip and suffer her anger for it. Holly stepped forward, wind already whipping through her hair, aether collecting around her shoulders. She spread her arms, drawing air into a wide spiral and kicking up a whirlwind around them, until the entire raft shuddered against the bank like it wanted to leap free on its own. “Hold on,” she warned. Alex and Eric stood to one side, muscles tense, each ready to sprint the moment it launched. Henry and Lance had already moved in the opposite direction, making their way up and across the cliff wall. They worked together, stone cracking outward, vines wrapping around jutting slabs, and forming rough ledges over the water ahead of them. Then they formed another, and another until an uneven path clung along the face of the cliff, just wide enough for two. They had already scaled the cliffside for a couple hundred yards over the lake toward the waterfall. “Backup’s set,” Henry called out. “Good!” Alex’s eyes flicked from the raft to the waterfall. He was anxious about the whole plan, his [Aether Sight] useless against the dense curtain of liquid that fell over the cliff-face. Whatever waited behind there was invisible. “Now or never,” Eric said. Holly’s spell reached its peak. With a quick thrust of her palms, the wind howled like a cannon blast and slammed into the raft. The rocky boat cut across the lake in a spray of foam, propelled like a stone flung from a sling. Alex broke into motion a heartbeat after Holly let the spell loose. Eric was already at his side, the captain skimming across the water in a rush of white sparks as wind gathered under his boots. Holly moved with the same grace, her steps light and sure, air curling beneath her like invisible bridges. Alex, though didn’t have air aether, so he had to improvise instead. The [Flare] spell was his secret idea. He didn’t overcharge it, didn’t let the shockwave disperse in all directions like it did during a normal casting. Instead he compressed it tightly, smaller than a fist, and snapped it off his boot soles in bursts. With each cast the spell discharged with a muffled pop, jets of force kicking him forward and barely keeping him above the waterline. The impact stung his ankles and calves with each blast, but he grinned through it. It worked, it actually worked. They only needed to traverse a quarter mile, then they’d reach the waterfall and push through. That was the thought Alex clung to. It was a sprint, nothing more. Of course, the lake disagreed. The surface broke with a roiling crash as reptilian-scaled backs rose from the depths. Crocodilian shapes appeared, thick-bodied and broad-snouted, their backs bristling with aquatic reeds and jagged fronds. One surged directly up under the raft, its bulk nearly capsizing the craft and forcing Garret to slam his shield down on one side like a counter wei