2 months of gathering resources in the red dangerous ground allowed Rune to gain 5 860 597 EP, he also found 14 special crystals and 10 special stones.

Being in a zone with special resources was so overpowered, every time he found a special resource, it was worth more than what he gathered in normal ether resources.

Avatar (Basic Rank) (Tier 1)

EP: 11 685

Stats Total: 4 120

Health: 500

Health Regeneration: 500

Strength: 500

Cohesion: 500

Energy: 220

Energy Regeneration: 200

Purity: 200

Affinity: 500

Momentum: 500

Perception: 500

In those 2 months he gained an additional 1 366 EP worth of stat points, after maxing his physical stats, he focused on affinity and also maxed it, Rune then invested the rest into energy.

The week he passed training in reinforcement was very fruitful, with practice it became fast enough to use in a real fight, and he intended to use it.

Leaving his room, he walked to the main living room by taking the stairs.

It was the room he first arrived in and did the hero scene with Utopia, it’s been furnished a lot more compared to when he arrived, there was now a fridge, a minibar, and even some arcade games just to form the ambiance.

Coming in, Utopia was already here, as well as Gar the 2m10 giant, Nelo of the brother-sister duo, and who he supposed to be Adreana, a pachin with dark brown skin and smooth black hair tied in practical sports cut, she was slightly taller than him standing at 1m75, still average.

They were discussing around a table full of drinks of all types, sodas, alcohols, infused waters, with some appetizers too.

Soft music was playing but was purely for the background, so it was just peaceful piano without any rhythm jump.

“And then I punched the machine so hard for an unknown reason that I attained 87%, but I couldn’t do it again, so I thought too much training was leading me to dementia,” Utopia was talking while drinking a popular orange soda.

“Hahaha! I’m still at amateur level and doing all these things seems stupid, energy is so much simpler and direct, create a spell matrix, eject energy, blast things!” Gar the enthusiast responded in kind to Utopia anecdote.

“Yeah, different aspirations for everyone, I only focused on energy spells, I also watched how as a pure spellcaster I could keep warrior like you Utopia, out of my zone,” Adreana followed with a sweet high-pitched voice, her end of the world attitude wasn’t here, nor was her seriousness.

Joining them, Rune was simple and direct, “Yo.”

He then sat down on an available chair next to Utopia and served himself a drink, and peach iced tea, he also had that at home and it was just a staple drink for him, if not his favorite drink. Even some energy-infused drinks he tasted on the Duke of Andromeda couldn’t compete.

“Hello Rune, that’s Adreana right there, Adreana, this is Rune, with this you’re only missing Astryde and Arik, they’ll arrive soon,” Utopia introduced us to each other and then continued on his subject.

It wasn’t like they needed to talk to each other now, they had months of camp to do it, so Rune let the conversation be led by Utopia, the less he needed to talk the better, observing other people talk was one of his personal life choices.

5 minutes later, Arik arrived with Astryde in tow.

The group of friends made through the information board of the new era was now complete.

Utopia, a 16 years old rululu, a typical handsome specimen of what their entire species consisted of, blue hair, blue eyes, and blue skin, his youth only explained in part his fascination for heroes and his enthusiasm for the associated strength.

Nelo and Astryde, the brother and sister duo, kajos with platinum blond hair and very white skin.

The brother Nelo was above average in size for his species' average, they loved to clash with each other but still had very distinctive traits, with soft and amicable on the outside but hard and stubborn on the inside Nelo and the instinct following Astryde.

Adreana, a pachin with dark brown skin and smooth black hair, her eyes were also black, on their board private forum she always appeared serious and stressed, but as expected, her social persona was a lot more relaxed, her true personality was still unknown.

Gar, a 2.1 meters giant who was completely bald with pinkish white skin, his species was integrated relatively recently in the IGS history but his open and simple enthusiasm made others feel like they could ask him anything, he was one of the 2 informants of their group, with Arik they always gathered info and loved doing it.

Arik, in complete contrast to his brother-in-arms, was short, 1m40, he was too young to look like a legendary fantasy dwarf but he informed the group that his whole male family side let their beard take over their face when it arrived.

His apparent personality was also a contrast, to the point and factual, so much that he appeared sarcastic.

When he joined with his fellow informant they became talking machines, insufferable in the board channel, but reliable in the moment of important events.

‘And me.’

Rune was happy with this group, he long lost contact with his ancient friends from X125 and gaming friends like Jules, Peter, and Romain.

‘My journey has already started and my life has already changed…’

Thinking about it all, Utopia was in part the reason for the change, Rune’s asocial personality allowed him to make a friend powerful enough to pay an intergalactic ticket to gather a group of 6 friends he made onboard, even if maybe not everyone here needed an intergalactic one to travel to this planet, it was still impressive.

‘And there’ll be so many more in the future, let’s tune back and stop thinking about those, live in the present, not in the past or the future.’

Rune finished his inner monologue and, as a neutral observer, started to listen to what his friends talked about.

“No, true heroes said they regretted not learning everything, they trapped themselves in a limited style, you just have to account for everything, momentum technique, close combat, close combat with reinforcement, and energy spells, the last two consume enough energy that only using one is possible in a true high-level fight,” Arik was correcting Nelo and Utopia on how to approach the creation of a fighting style.

“That’s why I rescheduled the camp, now I have all the tools and Rune do too, don’t know for you, if someone here thinks that they can attain tier 2 without learning reinforcement then I’d have overestimated your intellect, but true fighting will say the truth,” Utopia was really into defending his opinion.

“I only concentrated on momentum and energy spells and techniques, and as long as the Ether Law doesn't update a masteries window or the global law does something about a masteries window, I’ll continue this way,” Adreana seriousness was surfacing it seemed.

“I followed my instinct and went all-in on reinforcement, so I had 2 additional weeks compared to Rune and Utopia to practice it, the energy expenditure is so no joke that only with my avatar stopping farming I could practice as much as I wanted with consequent reinforcement. Oh yeah! Some don’t know reinforcement here, hum let me explain…” Astryde in the end repeated what the instructor said, or maybe what all instructors said.

“Next-generation spell, you’re underestimating them, less time wasted, more efficiency, more accuracy, more variety, that’s the future of the IGS, teams of patrollers covering for one another with one focused on only spell casting is monstrous, the moment the Ether Law allow group dimensions deploying, you’ll see the truth,” his smile couldn’t hide his stubbornness on his thought and opinion, that was true Nelo for you.

“I’ll soon beat your ass Nelo, you’ll learn that you can’t only do spells,” his sister didn't let it go, maybe it was her instinct?

“Maybe in 1 versus 1, but the moment I’m teamed up with Rune or Utopia, I’ll just atomize you so much your instinct will tell you to learn spells from now on,” that was some quality exchange and arguments he got there, and it flattered Rune’s ego in a good way too.

“Oh, I didn’t even think about 2 versus 2, that’s possibly the answer to my predicament, thanks Nelo,” so Adreana was preoccupied with what was coming, she wasn’t resigned to losing every 1 versus 1, but maybe she’d shine in other configurations.

“Don’t worry, I planned around every theory, even the most improbable ones like… If one wants to try an ambush situation, everyone here will want to help and be the practice target, that’s what friendship is for,” Utopia really touched the points, making everyone have a smile appear on their face.

‘We should fly together as one, now’s the time to move forward we’ll be alright, through the tears that fall like rain up in the sky,’ Rune could only think about a song he stumbled upon not long ago.

(One Piece OP 5 Kokoro no Chizu - Studio Yuraki https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=dEtzmsGZTn0&list=RDAMVMdEtzmsGZTn0)

As the situation evolved, artists never let culture down, new themes with very poetical meaning were posted onboard, and true singers popularized them.

‘Let us stand together while we look for the light…’ Rune could magically remember nearly every sentence with the rhythm right.

The casual talk continued for an hour, even Rune wasn’t spared from questions about his life, love, hobby, and family, but as he was equally curious about those same subjects but for others, he answered them with as much detail as he could to satisfy them.

After enough time passed, however…

‘There's a sun inside you shining burning bright…’ Rune could feel tension appearing, Gar fidgeting, Nelo breathing deeply, Astryde sharpening eyes, so he hinted at Utopia.

“Fighting camp Utopia?” Okay, it wasn’t a hint, but he was never subtle, to begin with.

Looking at everyone, feeling like he made a fool of himself, he stood up, “Excuse me for the wait, we’re here to fight, so let’s fight, we have an entire month of energy to use and I also want to establish the fact that you’re all sidekicks for my magnificence!”

‘Yeah he also has a considerably sized ego, it’s part of his personality at this point, but he’s still young so he can get away with it, but only if he can keep up with everyone punching him the face soon.’

Rune stood up and walked to the stairs, forget the elevator, he was preparing mentally.

…

“As it’s only the beginning, we’ll be starting with 1 versus 1. As I said, I prepared lots of scenarios for true practice, but let’s all get some practice before that point.”

“It’ll be the first true fight for everyone I think, with no restrictions, if it’s possible to kill in one time please show restraint as such a move would be considered a trump card,” Utopia was doing the speech, the legendary speech.

‘I think he’s ecstatic inside, his smile says it all.’

Rune observed it, but didn’t interrupt.

“Losing is when your health goes beyond 75% lost, you are not allowed to stop before that, in fact, please give me your health stat and health regeneration, as well as cohesion please, if you gave the right number then the assistant will stop the match automatically,” but the non-reaction from his friends told him to explain.

“That’s government educational tech, I heard they were giving their everything to develop educational techs that precisely assure that future students could go all out but never die, and with a new experimental ether probe attached, it can somehow precisely measure the health damage you did, and so calculate everything.”

“Woah, that’s seriously amazing, I wouldn’t be surprised if they prepared super patrollers suits with integrated AI core that literally control the owner to have an invincible peak tier 1,” Gar just said an intriguing idea, unfortunately, it would only be useful in linked dimensions, so not the Deep Void.

“50 in everything,” Rune took the occasion to say it.

“Okay, next?”

After everyone inputted their stats, it came to no surprise that like Rune, everyone probably had more than 3 000 total stats, though some were unlucky and couldn’t find a correct farming ground so they were slowed a bit.

“Now we can just fight, as I said, just fight, no advice, nothing, just beat the hell out of your opponent, everyone has to create his own style by using their own preferences.”

On those sage words, Utopia entered a ring and waited for someone to come and fight him like the man he was.