Obby whistled inside his skull, “Well, well, meatboy. You’ve gone and fed the monster. The System likes what it sees.”
He ignored the rock, as always, and focused on Holly’s reaction instead. Her brows raised over time as she read each line, once she got the end, she shook her head. “Wow, my advancement quests just ask me to practice and use the skills I learned. Meanwhile, you’re over here getting beaten to death and forced to tally kill-counts. Sucks to be you.”
“Eh, it’s not all bad. Like I said, its a powerful Martial Style.” Alex closed the notification screen, not needing it open anymore to know the information The System wanted him to understand. He intuitively knew that the last few strikes Beithin hit Alex with had counted because the intent behind them was indeed to greatly harm him. That, despite the two of them being in a spar, which the advancement quest would not usually count.
This meant that the Cresselian, despite saying not to, was actually trying to maim or cripple, maybe even kill him, at the end there. Alex wasn’t too upset by that though, he was close to doing the same thing after all.
And when two warriors got into it like that, passions are bound to run high.
The new Martial Skill was also interesting. Alex understood it to be a mark of some kind that he mentally placed on a target. Any damage he dealt to the target would siphon off aether from them and give it to Alex, basically recharging him during the fight.
It was interesting, but Alex wasn’t sure how effective it would be. How much aether did it really siphon away? Was it more or less than the energy he would expend attacking? Not to mention the small amount he lost due to the [Burning Strike] passive?
There were some tests he would have to run.
“Anyway, with this new upgrade,” Alex continued his explanation to Holly. “That passive pain debuff is also going to increase substantially. That’s what happened last time I upgraded the martial style’s tier anyway. I doubt a single meridian imprint will be able to keep up with that. So for now, my problem is solved.”
“And when you unlock your next meridian? And the next? And the one after that?” Her tone asked the question like it was an inevitability on par with the days changing through the week. Alex smiled, glad that Holly knew him so well, because of course he wouldn’t just stop at one.
“Well, we will have to cross that bridge when we get to it.” He smiled, leaning forward to kiss her forehead softly.
“Just, be careful okay,” She grumbled into his shoulder.
“I will be, don’t worry.”
They stayed like that for a few more minutes, just enjoying each others company, and needing nothing else. Eventually, a few of the others had finished their gathering technique diagrams and began bringing them over. That was Alex’s cue to get back to work, so Holly left him to train by herself.
He looked over each of his friend’s parchments carefully. Noting fine details and personal, unique, flares to each of their techniques. He made specialized enchantment designs for each one rather quickly. He was already very familiar with elemental-attuned glyphwork after all, and none of their techniques were vastly complex. Holly’s was the hardest, but also the simplest, as she had done what Alex had suggested many weeks ago and married the concepts of the [Condensing Spiral] with her family’s breathing technique from back on earth.
This made things easier, as Alex was far familiar with the [Condensing Spiral] and variations of its form from his own technique. But it was harder, as Holly couldn’t provide an aether pattern for her family’s technique, only a description of it, how she felt the energy moved when using it.
That was enough though, and he had the designs ready in about an hour. When he turned to check back up an Allie, he found her still working on preparing all the materials.
“Allie,” Alex said suddenly.
She looked up from the ink she was stabilizing. “What?”
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“Once we’re done here, I’ve got something to test.”
Her brow furrowed, curious, but she didn’t press. “Fine. But first you’re finishing these upgrades. I’m not letting you blow yourself up until after you’re done with us.”
Alex laughed softly, leaning back on his hands. For once, he didn’t argue.
***
Glass vials glimmered in the dim light, inks swirling with faint motes of aether. Styluses lay lined up in order, silver tips gleaming, each one linked to a small focusing crystal. A small lens in a golden frame sat at the end of the row, Alex picked it up and placed the item over his right eye.
“All set,” Alex murmured, more to himself than anyone else. His gaze drifted over his friends. The worldstriders had all rolled back their collars, exposing the nape of their necks where the faint shimmer of their bodygates pulsed beneath the skin.
“Allie,” he said, “keep the stabilizer on hand. If the ink runs wild, we’ll have to burn it out before it scars.”
She nodded, lips pressed thin. The others exchanged uneasy glances between themselves, but no one backed away.
Eric went first, sitting cross-legged in front of Alex. “Let’s get it done.”
Alex breathed deep, activating his [Aether Sight]. Lines glimmered into view, Eric’s bodygate shown like a luminous wheel of threads and spokes, channels branching into yet more branches like a fractal of energy. Alex dipped the stylus into the dark ink that Allie held out to him and pressed it to Eric’s skin.
The reaction was immediate. The ink hissed, sizzling faintly as it sank beneath the skin instead of sitting atop it, drawn into the aether channels of his nape by design. Eric’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t move. Alex worked carefully, sketching out the spirals, layer upon layer, each line a tether that would twist and compress energy in the same way his own upgraded [Condensing Spiral] had taught him.
By the time he lifted the stylus, the faint burn mark of the complex glyph glowed beneath Eric’s skin, a pattern spiraling outward from the bodygate in a beautiful display, then the energy faded and the lines seemed to vanish beneath his skin.
Eric exhaled slowly, sweat dripping at his temples. “Feels… heavier. Like my gate wants to pull on the air itself.”
“That’s the point. Don’t fight it, feel it out. When you gather, it’ll pull stronger, and faster. Just… keep the flow even, or it’ll try to tear itself apart.”
Next up was Holly. She pulled her long hair aside and knelt before him, obviously nervous. He smiled down at her for a moment, and couldn’t help but give her a wink in their current position. Holly rolled her eyes, and he simply shrugged before getting back to work.
When Alex’s stylus touched her neck, the ink reacted faster than Eric’s, spiraling into her skin with hungry eagerness. She winced, biting her lip in response. Once he finished, he saw her already forming her technique to try out his creation. Her wind-attuned gathering technique pulled at the glyph smoothly, almost naturally, the spiral formation thrumming like a tiny storm at her neck.
Her eyes widened. “It’s… loud.”
Alex chuckled softly, wiping the stylus clean to prepare for the next enchantment, Allie held up a new ink vial, as each one was prepared specifically for the person. “That’s just the lattice syncing to your element. You’ll get used to it.”
One by one, he worked through them all. Garret swore loudly when the glyph bit into him, muttering that it felt like someone was chiseling his spine. Devon sat rigid as a board, apparently terrified of making even a twitch of movement and ruining the linework. Henry bore it in silence, the glow of his lattice settling into a confident pulse that seemed to suit him perfectly. Zach barely reacted at all. While Lance and Peter fared about as well as Eric had. Kate treated the whole ordeal like a knighting ritual, Alex half expected her to request a parcel of land right after he was done.
Even Tom-Tom got one done, which Alex spent careful research on designing and extra time doing since he wasn’t absolute on the differences between humans and kobolds. Obby had assured him it would be fine; and it was.
Each time, Allie stood ready with the stabilizer vial, but Alex’s hand never faltered. Every spiral caught the threads of the aether gate precisely, every glyph sealed. Finally, Allie took her place when it was her turn to receive the glyph enchantment. Still, Alex’s hand remained unshaken.
By the end, the group sat in silence, each marked with the faint shimmer of a completed [Lattice Spiral], each one subtly different, tuned to their unique gathering technique and elements. The air itself seemed thicker, charged as though the entire team was antsy. Alex knew why, they all wanted to to try out their new toy.
Alex leaned back, exhausted but satisfied. After so much work, he had dark ink stains across his fingers. “That’s it. You’re all upgraded.”
Garret blew out a shaky breath, then grinned in his typical goofy way. “Hell of a tattoo parlor you’re running here, Alex.”
Laughter cracked through the tension, even Devon chuckled, though his hand still hovered at the back of his neck as if afraid the glyph might explode.
Holly caught Alex’s tired smile, her own softening when their eyes met. “Not bad,” she whispered so only he could hear. “Not bad at all.”
He gently ran his fingertips along the nape of her neck, tracing the lines he knew to be there. He felt as much as saw the goosebumps raise across her skin and his smile grew wider. “Go, cultivate, try it out. I’m not going anywhere.”
She gave his hand a gentle squeeze before she looked over to Allie. The girls nodded to each other before running off a dozen feet away to begin practicing their gathering techniques some more. The others quickly followed, all splitting off and leaving Alex alone.
That was fine with Alex, he had other things to do as well. He quickly cleaned up his supplies before sitting down, six braids of aether already forming behind him as he began cultivating with both of his gates.
From his bracelet, Alex pulled a small circular piece of metal. The exact name of the material was something like “Therizite”, he couldn’t remember for sure. What he did know was that the material was high end Adept Tier, considered a Peak-Tier material, and exactly what he wanted to use when creating a new aether-siphon plate for the base of his second artificial bodygate.
There was some more work he needed done to it, but it was a perfect start. With Garret and Lance’s assist in the realm of [Smithing], Alex was certain this would be as good as The System-made objects from the Dungeon Shop.
He held the metal up to view it under the remaining starlight, the metal gleaming a faint greenish sheen with the dark gray of the main alloy.
Meridian Imprint number two… You’re in my sights for sure.