Around 20 or so iterations later, Ning stopped once more. He was getting a little frustrated at this point. On one hand, doing the same thing over and over was very vexing and he was about 3 more iterations away from tearing this hair out because of the monotonousness of the task at hand. On the other hand, even after 20 iterations, his Kinetic energy had only barely increased by less than 2 Billion energy, which was a far cry from the over 4 Billion energy he had got from Heat energy. "Urghhh, I need to find another way. This is going to take too long," Ning complained, but there was no other way. He had to stick to it. "Sigh, let me refresh my mind," he thought and sat down on the cold snow to clear his mind. He started to cultivate. Of course, there was no Qi there for him to cultivate his inner Qi, but there was Aether, and he was going to try cultivating that, however, that worked. He recalled what he had learned about Aether a few hou— months earlier. Aether was a liquid that one could keep in their body and use to conduct what the Aether users called Aether arts. They would have to burn the liquid and use what powers they got from it. However, even though Aether was a liquid, finding it in the liquid form outside of one's body was damn near impossible. Only in rare places where the aether was concentrated at a very high amount would one be able to find liquid Aether. Otherwise, most people used the aether that was in the air, or perhaps the rarer version, Aether ores. The aether in the air was very diluted, so most people stuck to aether ores that could be mined from Aether pits. Even then, both air and ore were really just vessels for the tiny amount of Aether liquids. "So, the Aether in this Qi and Aether amalgamation is liquid Aether?" Ning asked the system. "I see, then I need increased acclimation rate for the Aether right?" Ning asked. "Give me the costs." "Get me the 4 times one," Ning said. "So, I also have to get cultivation techniques and such right? Can't I get automatic ones that do it passively? Now that I think about it, I need those for Qi as well," Ning thought. "Aether per second? What's the normal amount needed to go from… uh… Aether Starter to Aether Student?" Ning asked. Aether Starter and Aether Student were the ranks that were given to Invokers and Enchanters based on how much Aether they could hold at once. Invokers were ones that could use Aether to create stuff, while Enchanters were ones who could use Aether to control existing stuff. All people in Vilmore had the ability to use Aether, but, not all of them could use a lot of it due to the physical limitations as well as resources. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢 Aether Starter was the starting rank and everyone in this world was one. Aether student was the next rank after that. There were 11 ranks in total and the world's hierarchy was set with that. "Hmm… wait, do I technically count as an Aether Starter?" Ning asked. "Hmm, and I will require the Aether Cultivation method for that huh? So let's see… 10 days should be fine. Give me an automatic one that can collect 100,000 Aether in a day," Ning said. "12 Billion for just 100,000 Aether in a day? Isn't this just robbery?" Ning was flabbergasted. "Sh*t, you're right. However, at least with automatic, I won't have to worry about finding different cultivation techniques. In fact, I should buy this for all. After I have the energy of course," Ning thought and decided to start the routine back up. He disliked doing it a lot but he was determined to get both of the Automatic ones for Aether and Qi, so he ignored all thought and just followed the routine. He also toggled off the Heat ignorance skill so that he didn't have to worry about losing heat energy. He got hurt a few times while going that due to not knowing how much he could go on with the In the next 30 iterations, he had enough Heat energy to waste on Aether's cultivation method. "Alright system, give me the Aether one first," Ning said. "Yeah, that was why I waited all this time to begin with. In fact, only use Heat energy for everything if possible," Ning said. Ning suddenly felt something change in his body. It was like a new stomach had appeared inside his guts and it was hungry as hell. So, it started sucking in as much food as it could find. "I can feel it. It's… right next to the sea of Qi. Wow, is this what they call the Sea of Aether?" Ning wondered. While he couldn't see it, the feeling was the same as when he first formed his Sea of Qi. "I guess… that makes me an Aether Starter now."