Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 74: Chapter 69: Upgrades

Read chapter 74 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Chapter 69: Upgrades Chapter 69: Upgrades //ANOMALY REVIEW REPORT: //ACCESS LEVEL: Administrator (Obfuscated) //REQUEST SOURCE: Internal Anomaly Monitor – Euclid //LOG CONTEXT: Progress Evaluation – Dungeon: Floor One – Subject #0117-A ("Alex") //STATUS: <Trial Continuance Approved> | Internal Flag: Pending Review START OF RECORD: :://Dungeon Event Triggered:: //User #0117-A engaged with Domain: “The Dark Den”// Floor One Clearance: Success //Boss Entity: [Grave-Tyrant] – Neutralized // Combat Duration: 04m 37s// Damage Taken: Moderate // System Rating: 76.2% Efficiency // Above Average for Current Tier :://Trial Continuation Approved// //Next Floor Instancing Loading… Complete// Dungeon Intelligence: Increased //Environmental Threat Level: Elevated// Tactical Adjustments Recommended //Heightened Encouragement Measures <Confirmed>// Proceed With Monitoring// :://LOG END// *** The portal behind him flickered once, then folded in on itself with a sharp snap of arcane energy, leaving nothing but silence. Alex crumbled onto the stones, looking like his insides moved to his outsides. Left arm still mangled, and his chest still constricted painfully. His thigh still had an arrow-hole in it. He quickly pulled a potion and downed its contents. It took only seconds for the magic to take effect, his bones popping into place and mending, gashes closing up. He felt the pressure inside his body give way. He exhaled slowly, his body was healed but his entire body was still covered in blood, dirt and bone dust. The remnants of his many dozens of battles in the first floor of the dungeon. Alex rose to his knees a look about, finding a quiet that contrasted heavily with the silence of the battlefield above. It wasn’t dead silence. It was as if the room was waiting, watching . He moved down the tunnel he found himself in. His boots scraping on smooth obsidian stone etched with silvery lines that curved and wove through the floor like veins under skin. The lighting came from nowhere and everywhere. It was a soft, cold blue glow that pulsed gently in the stone walls like a heartbeat held in stasis. You have entered: The Waking Hall ‎ Dungeon Floor 2 - Subdomain: Sigil-Binder’s Lab ‎ Objective: Open the way forward. Progress to the portal. “Obby?” He asked, voice low. “ Hmm, an interesting change , ” Obby replied, his tone clipped and curious. “ If you want my guess for this floor... Combat: Low. Likelihood of puzzles... high. Very high. ” “You sound excited,” Alex moved down the hall, finding himself dumped into a large handmade cavern. It was a stark departure from the grave-choked battlefield of the first level. From what he could tell, Alex now found himself inside a sprawling underground archive. It was part arcane study, part living laboratory , and part abandoned research institute once used by perhaps a long-dead order of magical engineers. He looked at the previous notification again. Looked like it was a lab belonging to these so called ‘ Sigil-binders’ . To one side there were tables cluttered with various tools and objects Alex didn’t know a use for or recognize. A bookshelf of sorts stood close by but it didn’t have any noticeable scrolls, or books for that matter. Instead it was covered in shelves with thin rock slates stacked on top of each other. Opposite the tool strewn tables was a long bench covered in glassware and fine objects that looked to be used for advanced alchemy. The center of the room had a ring bench with stools, a smattering of stone cups, rock slates, and other items. The large room had a tunnel leading opposite where he had come from. The wide tunnel immediately led to a three way fork. The three passages leading into only darkness from what he could see. Everything hummed with a quiet, terrifying potential . “Definitely some kind of lab. Enchanting and glyph-work there, alchemy there, a neutral workspace in the middle.” He made his way toward the center of the room and spun in a slow circle to take it all in. “ O