‘Disappointing.’

That’s what was on Rune's mind as he kept failing to evade or punch correctly in the competent body control room.

Every time the gravity turned to zero, he thought about the same situation happening to him in the Deep Void dimension, and even trying as hard as he could, he failed more than he succeeded.

Even after all this time, he still wasn’t ready.

Watching a simulation on how he could have done it and listening to the advice given was becoming very frustrating, ‘How in the seven hells am I supposed to know that to evade I’ve got to use the goddamn burning pillar coming straight at me with the speed of a spaceship as support?’

Of course, he was being a little too harsh on himself, his true progress was astonishing, even a donkey would have learned something from all the tries he did in the hell’s room.

And it was even more true now.

‘Maybe sleep is my talent…’ Every time Rune woke up from his monthly sleep, he progressed rapidly and without stopping, it was already the third time he was experiencing that so he was quasi completely sure it wasn’t his imagination.

‘I should ask.’

So he asked the Tireless forum, where the helpful and friendly lurkers were always here to answer your questions.

[Rune: After every monthly sleep, I feel like I became a genius overnight and keep progressing. Should I sleep every week in this case? Or is it due to an entire month of accumulation?]

[Helpful and friendly lurker1: The more you train during a month, the more your brain will have to organize the experience in your sleep. You're not the only one, but it seems you need to be very dedicated to your training for it to happen. If you remembered the dreams you had, you would realize they were probably all about the training you did]

Having the answer that sleeping wasn’t his talent, he just continued with another session of hell’s room.

…

“I’ve long heard of the masters of the supreme dojo, you’ll see Astryde, they are at another level, one of the fighters is an ancient galactic fighting league champion, I’d never have thought we would be so lucky!” Utopia kept praising the reason he gathered everyone.

He was leading a group made up of 4 people, Atsryde, Nelo, Rune, and the newly arrived Gar.

Gar wasn’t someone from the 5 leading species of the IGS, he told everyone that he belonged to a minor civilization that was only integrated a little earlier than the Rululus.

But as they didn’t have anything impressive like an inborn eidetic memory, they were completely integrated and from their ancient culture, only their homeworld made them remember that they were very late-comers.

As for his appearance, he was a giant of 2m10 of height with a bald head, bushy eyebrows, and white-pink skin, but everyone knew that his external impressive appearance would melt in seconds the moment he started talking, he was an enthusiast in everything and was happy to share his enthusiasm with anyone.

“Don’t underestimate it because It’s only one round, it’s played more as an advertising coup than a true demonstration of competence, but! One contestant is an ancient galactic fighting league champion, so he started a step ahead of everyone in terms of physical mastery, he’s already a master in 2 out of 3 physical mastery knowledge!”

Gar's level of enthusiasm could be compared to that of Utopia.

Rune and the sister-brother duo weren’t here because Utopia was very insistent, it was actually because it was an opportunity to see what true fighting looked like at master level.

Taking a speed walk, they arrived at the master reinforcement level hall, a place they’d only see today and then far in the future unless one of them was a hidden genius of reinforcement and combat in general.

A crowd of privileged people of all ages was already there, standing around a 50 by 50 meters ring.

They discussed for 5 minutes before the first contestant arrived, accompanied by his adversary, also a master of the supreme dojo, just without a prior stellar record, they were discussing amiably as they stepped on the ring without a care in the world.

The one who looked just past his prime, with grey short hair and sports cloth, was once the galactic champion, he was not part of the 5 dominant species.

His casual friend and opponent was a human, he had blond hair, brown eyes and was as average as you could imagine an average human with no defining features.

‘He’s just as average as me…’ Thought Rune after seeing him.

Surprisingly, they started to get ready the moment they entered the ring like it was a chore and they wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

“Energy compressed weapons, armors, energy spells or techniques are forbidden, all external energy manipulation are forbidden, in fact, all spiritual techniques are also forbidden excluding passive perception sphere, the only exception is energy compression platform used to move.”

The human talked slowly as its voice was amplified not through technology, but by an infusion of energy, it was a simple energy-infused voice spell. He was flexing in their face that he wasn’t only good in the physical path.

And like it truly was a casual fight for them, they positioned themselves on opposite corners and waited for the virtual countdown to declare the start of the match.

Soon after the start, Rune felt the air around them seemingly vibrating with his sphere, but the 2 opponents were just staring at each other.

“They’re starting to use reinforcement,” with the eyes of a fanboy, Utopia described what was happening.

“This is relatively new, but if one of them was late by one second inactivating their reinforcement, they’d lose after the first exchange.”

A few seconds of waiting was followed by an erupting impulsed jump from the human contender, rushing with astonishing velocity toward the former champion, a simple blink of an eye, and the first exchange happened.

It felt like Rune was the one fighting, the feeble energy vibrations in the air caused by their exchange were like ripples in a lake.

But it was normal at their level to be able to do that, though, from the spectator's perspective, they were trying to literally kill the other.

Rune knew what changed the most compared to fighting during the Intergalactic Era, or alternatively, the Defective Physics Laws Era, it was that your entire health, your life, only needed a minute to go back to full, and what did it mean concretely?

It meant that if you could use 90% of your health to deal with 100% of the opponent's health, it was more than worth it to go for it.

So much strength was condensed in their punches, kicks, and blocks that the air shimmered a bit around the zone of impact.

Before the eyes of Rune, he discovered why the breakthrough of discovering reinforcement put the physical on the path to glory, crushing literally everything in battle.

Some tried to argue that they could still flee, that the energy path only needed time to develop, but there was always a solution for those people, they didn’t want to accept the idea of reinforcement being the king of mastery.

In this very fight, Rune saw them flying by stepping on the air, it was a very basic technique of the energy path, the energy compression one, the only exception about the energy path in this fight.

They literally made a platform appear and used it to transform their strength into speed, Rune understood why fleeing while kiting them wasn’t a correct counter, that’s because from the beginning they could catch up to you.

“Reinforcement is energy applied internally, it uses the same principle as the revitalization but by using energy as a booster to do anything, the only reason it’s not classified as energy mastery knowledge is that the support to use it is strength, which belongs to the physical path.”

“Oh! And also it functions on a very different principle compared to regular energy spells and techniques,” Gar sounded like he was well-versed in the subject, so tuning your hearing to his voice was like having a live commentary by a professional.

“Ah! That kick applied a difference of at least 5 health, but the retaliation took 15, it was a masterful move, impossible without reinforcement. The human did a risky move just now and! No! He was led to a trap, maybe it’s coming to an end, the difference should already be 30 health, yeah he’s trying to wait it out, but the former champion is not going to let him, he created 2 platforms to try and confuse him, it didn’t work…”

‘Considering 50 health is the maximum without integrating with one’s avatar and benefit from tier 1 full stats, it's really a tidal wave, yeah… Wait… Is that snack a protein bar? Really the dojo of strength and testosterone here…’

As for Rune, he just enjoyed the demolition.

The fight ended up with the former champion winning by what appeared to be a landslide, his exquisite combo and flawless moves impersonated what the majority of people here intended to reach and be one day, Rune wasn’t an exception.

“It’s really frustrating that some people have attained such a high level not even a year after the Ether Law awakening,” Astryde clearly let her frustration and envy take over.

But no one corrected her that those people already trained for years and all, they knew she knew.

“Trying everything is the priority, isn’t that right Rune?” Utopia tried to divert the subject, and Rune answered.

“Yeah, do your tutorial and complain that your talent is average after working for months on one particular mastery knowledge, that’ll be more sensible for those who have below-average talent or are completely blocked by awareness or momentum training,” sometimes being frank was the best, and Rune really liked this truth, and he knew Astryde also liked it.

“Maybe soon the ether density will open a new power like a mastery window? Or maybe a way to activate the ether soul specialty? We can only train and train more,” Arik was just saying the current trending theories, but he was so into it that it wouldn’t surprise Rune if it happened tomorrow.

The group soon separated with Utopia saying he’d soon post a message saying that the fighting camp will be rescheduled to later, as he didn’t start his energy training yet and wanted at least the fundamentals before truly fighting.

‘The fight really motivated him, but my motivation isn’t any less than your's kid.’

Finding himself in the competent body control training room again as he did during the last month, Rune put his entire being, except 30% that were farming, to the task.

…

The Ether Law was strangely something that proved to the Universe Dimension that all lives were equal against nature, talented or talentless, rich or poor, young or old.

Universe Ether (Deep Void Dimension Opening basis): +9%

Nothing came easy, even the talented couldn’t be talented in everything.

Reaching for tier 2 was like pushing for an unattainable dream at the moment, but for youth like Rune and Utopia, who still had a hundred years of lifespan even with the worst-case situation where life-prolonging treatments didn't work anymore or were broken, it was only a question of hard work from their point of view.

Lifespan was a shadowed domain in the Ether Wiki, countless tried to reveal what Ether knew about possible lifespan increasing treasures birthed from the whatever, but to no surprise, ether was just that, energy.

It could reinforce your body, make your spirit affect reality, increase your perception, and a lot more… It really looked like everything was possible.

Universe Ether (Deep Void Dimension Opening basis): +10%

As always, it increased by a round number, a complete percentage point, but with each increase of the ether density, the Ether Law gained more power.

And as part of it, the global system law and the compensation law also received more power.

This threshold of 10%, however, was a point that historians would mark as a true turning point in the IGS history into the new interdimensional golden era.

Because this increase demarcated a moment where the wiki could finally confirm that tier 2 was something universal to everything, tier 2 had always been present; it marked the first step in a journey towards something more.

Tier 2 had something to do with lifespan.

So the Ether Wiki updated based on unconfirmed contributions sent by countless seniors in the Universe Dimension, with the majority of them being similar to some who were refused but it wasn’t enough to dissuade sapient life.

And coincidentally, a competitive informant that saw the update made on the tier section couldn’t resist but post it on his personal forum.

Followed by many who did the same.

It was how the Interdimensional Era was, if you wanted to be part of it, you just had to have the strength and determination to carry the consequences of your own decision.

And soon, decisions would be made, very heavy decisions. For lots of people. Talented or talentless. Rich or poor. Young or old.

…

Rune won the challenge against the amateur guardian of the martial supreme dojo and was now officially a competent close combat fighter.

It was the objective he gave himself and he did it, he didn’t regret using nearly the whole 11th month to succeed, he did it properly and soundly.

At a competent level of close combat, the only reason you would use a virtual opponent was to try new techniques and moves.

For this reason, the competent hall was hundreds of 20 by 20 meters rings where you fought all day and increased your experience fighting fellow sapient opponents.

But that was it for Rune, he could see that the majority of the fights taking place here used some measures of reinforcement, as strange as it sounded, the close combat hall didn’t forbid reinforcement.

For them, it seemed that close combat at a competent level should stop being training matches only, external energy techniques were still forbidden, including energy platforms, but that was all, everything else was authorized.

It was the start of the odyssey of blood.

‘Time to start energy training.’

There were still 5 days before his monthly sleep, so he could either start his energy training fundamentals or focus on competent body control and not become proficient because he didn’t have enough time.

‘Say less!’

Dreams of magician and epic spells spontaneously appeared in Rune’s mind, but more than anything, his ideal for what a mage should be wasn’t represented a lot by what he read on the board.

He was a lot more… Childish?

He wanted total control of fluent shining and flowing energy, he wanted to control colors and shapes like it was part of his body, he wanted… Not a pragmatic energy mage training!

He wanted magic!

After sharing his dreams, his friends called his idea an “artist entertainer dream”, and if you forgot that the fundamentals included spells like energy beams and energy bullets, then it was exactly what Rune wanted.

He wasn’t in for mastery, he was in for love, he didn’t start training before that because it was only a part of his dream, a journey across different dimensions first, a magician controlling shapes of different colors second.

Since the first training was released, it has been optimized a lot to clearly separate fine manipulation, grand manipulation, and energy compression, the 3 discovered paths for energy manipulation.

After getting back to the training building rented by Utopia, he got to the giant simulation room where they did their momentum technique training months ago.

Taking control of the energy in his original body, he willed it to get out and form a stable sphere at the end of his raised finger, and…

His energy training began with nothing but energy flatulence.

2 hours later he succeeded in forming a clump of energy, and as said by lots of haters, only by using your perception sphere could you see energy, eyes used to see in the original universe dimension were useless for this part of the new era.

When it became possible to recreate your own body into an ether life form, when the ether density attained whatever it needed to, eyes would probably become useful again for energy and ether detection purposes.

Avatars were only energy embodiments, so their eyes were similarly useless.

Ether and energy were different words designating the same thing, but the wiki explained everything.

“Energy is the refined ether by your ether soul, ether is what makes everything else when you use your energy, it becomes ether again, and a cycle that didn’t involve ether being destroyed is so created and exists everywhere where life exists.”

This single-sentence explanation from the wiki was pretty clear for Rune.

Ether was infinite, when it became infinite enough it formed condensed ether resources, but he didn’t know what lay beyond that point.

Maybe another form different from volatile ether existed that started to be created once a certain density was reached?

Or maybe the answer was just inconceivable with their current knowledge?

‘Why would the ether be red in my farming ground if only increased density happened, something game-changing must happen later, something that changed the ether’s property or even function.’

In conclusion, fighting was sure to happen, and in very short notice for the majority of the predictions, and energy manipulation was the key for an amateur to truly deal damage, so Rune was absolutely certain that if he didn’t have talent in every other category, then he had to have one in the energy path!

If even then he didn’t find it, then he missed it, or he approached one of the categories in a bad manner, unsuited for his talent.

5 days later, Rune got to sleep while thinking about how manipulating energy felt good.