Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 84: Book 2: Chapter 1: Reunion

Read chapter 84 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Book 2: Chapter 1: Reunion Book 2: Chapter 1: Reunion Alex stumbled forward, his boots skidding against the rough hewn stone floor. Only a single second ago, he’d been in the heart of the Dark Den Dungeon in the center of a sterile system room, and leisurely making purchases at the Dungeon Shop. But now? “-GET DOWN!” Someone screamed. A bolt of fire hissed past his ear and forced him to duck. Another blink later and Alex realized he was standing dead center in the Kobold ritual cavern. All around him was absolute, total chaos. He watched as humans and kobolds clashed like raccoons stuffed into a burlap sack. To his left, Garret ran headlong into one kobold with a loud Thud. Meanwhile, a second kobold hung off his broad back, was shrieking at the top of its tiny lungs. To his right, Allie slid behind an overturned stone altar. Her reposition maneuver scattered bones and other trash-adjacent ritual objects across the floor in a clatter. Drops of blood dribbled from her elbow, and a glowing purple vial was clenched in one of her fists. Meanwhile Devon ducked behind a tall stalagmite while he hurled small crystals that looked to be enchanted. He was cursing every time they simply fizzled instead of doing whatever he had apparently etched them with. In the far corner, Henry stood in the middle of three kobolds. His was face emotionless, his movements calm and exact. He held one kobold by the ankle and was using him to beat the other kobolds into submission. Lance was yelling something, which Alex couldn’t hear over the chaos, before disappearing under a swarm of yipping kobold warriors. Kate, of course, was barking orders. Orders which no one followed. Her hand smoldered with ash and smoke as she prepared to cast another spell. Tom-Tom stood in the center of it all wearing a bronze cooking pot as a helmet, flailing two wooden ladles in wild circles and shouting. “I FIGHT FOR THE DRAGON-BLOOD-ONE!” “What the absolute hell,” Alex muttered. “ These are your friends. The people you trust and fight to keep alive.” Obby reminded Alex in his mind. Then a white-hot heat flashed across his face as a [Firebolt] barely missed his head and exploded against the far wall. “Kate!” He barked. She whipped around and raised a fist in adrenaline-filled reflex. Her eyes locked on him before narrowing. Recognition rippled across her face and then her eyes widened a second later. He saw her mouth open, but before she could speak, a bottle arced through the air and hit Alex dead center in the chest. It burst into purple mist that scratched at his mouth and nostrils. “WHAT THE FU-” He choked on the offending acrid substance and stumbled backward. He stumbled and pranced about, waving his arms like a flustered penguin. “Alex?!” Allie’s voice pierced through the purple fog, disbelief lacing her tone. “Yes!” he said after getting himself under control. Then he coughed once again. “Yes, it’s me! Stop throwing things at me!” “Sorry!” “Allie,” Alex yelled, “I need you to—” A kobold lunged at him from the side. It gripped a glass shard wrapped in cloth in each of it’s hands. Alex spun, but because of the purple haze of Allie’s potion vial earlier, he caught the motion too late. He was saved by a flying wooden ladle launched by Tom-Tom. It hit the kobold square in the snout. The creature squealed and collapsed into a stunned heap, its eyes watering. “HA,” Tom-Tom screamed. “LICK SPOON!” A kobold trumpet blast sounded nearby and a table had somehow caught fire. Someone, probably Garret or maybe Peter, tripped over a corpse. The corpse stirred, as the kobold turned out to be asleep, not dead. The sleeping kobold woke up yelling angrily. “I cannot believe this is my life,” Alex muttered. He brushed bits of broken potion vial off his chest. Despite his efforts, some glass slivers still got caught in the folds of cloth and torn leather. He would need to buy new armor anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. “Alright. Enough.” He mentally reached toward the aether ener