After confirming that creating spells was truly an arduous task, Rune searched a bit for how the greatest creators did, and the answer was a spell creation team, with every person having a role to fulfill.

‘The greatest contribution of the scientific method, teamwork, and sharing of methodology.’

In a sense, he also had an education revolving around scientific methodology. As an exploration engineer, he had field internships where he had to never disobey the rule of “Observe, Theorise, Experiment, Observe” when the situation required it.

And now Rune understood why the field of spell creation was only growing, it was just logical given how the world in the previous era developed.

However, it didn’t concern him directly, maybe if he became an expert in energy compression spells he would be involved, but it wasn’t his goal.

So he told the Undecided about his request for an energy smoke spell.

[Nelo: So between 20 to 40 seconds and I can reduce it to 10 seconds if the range becomes exceptional?]

[Rune: I’m starting on spell creation so I know it’s an arduous task, but I only need you to take a look at the spell created by their team and see if you can improve it]

[Nelo: Ok, I’ll ask Adreana when she’s here, Gar is too much into fine manipulation to help with this spell. You can check the forum called TitanXYou for energy compression fanatics, it’s not my domain so I abandoned it as soon as I found it]

[Rune: Ok thank you]

With his goal complete, he turned his focus to the forum that Nelo advised, it was better to start with advice on how to create energy compression spells, even if they originated from merely competent or proficient people using the standard of the martial supreme dojo.

‘Imagination and optimization have a much smaller part than other categories.’

That was the conclusion that energy compression spell creators reached.

In the grand and fine energy manipulation centric spells, they had to be used fastly, but for energy compression centric spells, they were all external support spells that could be launched before fighting, so why the need to optimize them when your matrix was already created before you engaged your opponent?

This situation led to the creation of this specific forum, where they knew some people wanted to create spells for the middle of a fight, but ignoring them and just packing everything in complex spell matrices was much more worth it.

So Rune could only take their spells as references.

He often injected energy into his armor mid-fight, and if he wanted to complexify his energy armor spell, then he wanted a function worth the time consumed creating it, again and again, every time it was broken in the middle of a fight.

At least they were passionate, and from what Rune saw of the description of their spells, they innovated a lot in energy armor optimization, they even found the optimized basic version of the basic energy armor version, a simple mass of energy with a defensive value that cost only a single point of energy to be created.

With all those, he had enough to train in spell creation using only energy compression, so he set about the task, his only break would be when the next Primary Ether sub-dimension opened.

…

Soon, the first day of the 21st month would begin, and Rune was still immersed in the spell creation guide.

The more he understood, the more he concluded that 20 months of delay could completely be catched-up to.

His advantage was that he already knew what he wanted, he also knew that sooner or later he’d have access to a complete guide once their information board connected with other inhabited dimensions.

His current situation reminded him of his school years, there was no ambiguity, it was just learning and practicing, if he wanted to make his armor spell matrix more fluid and easier to create, he had to create tens of matrices the size of his fist, if he wanted to experiment with an armor that could retract itself, he had to try hundreds of matrices.

Having received the energy smoke spell he wanted, he was only blocked by the Primary Ether sub-dimension, everything else he had to do by himself, and for himself.

‘Maybe I need to use more of the fluid armor to make the joints?’

He was still researching on something that was already researched, the retractable armor, the ability to control the armor once it was complete.

His current custom energy armor, the most basic of the basic one arm and one leg unarmored, was now officially a spell matrix, this way he wouldn’t have to manipulate his energy to compress more energy and not cover his arm and leg.

Once again giving it a try, he was interrupted by a notification, the long-awaited notification.

Opening the Tireless forum, the friendly lurkers were spamming the info about the Primary Ether sub-dimension being open.

Rune didn’t hesitate this time and opened the dimension window, directly selecting where he wanted to enter.

Dimensions

Primary Ether Sub-Dimension

Able to bear ether life forms

Completely unstable, dimensional anomaly impossible

Only open to peak tier 1 dependent entities

No restriction on ether

The primary form of an anomaly for a nascent ether dimension, as a sub-dimension it only exists for a moment and will collapse soon after its creation. Its collapse will cause its contained ether to be released in its origin dimension.

Only entities with a complete ether soul and at peak tier 1 can aVoid being pulverized by the primary ether contained inside.

The primary ether contained inside can be used to awaken one’s ether soul.

Enter?

‘All the warning message vanished.’

This was the second time it was open, Rune knew that a majority of the Tireless and Undecided members would go this time, the information released about how it was going to go was very precise.

No one would even be able to move, just passively endure the primary ether contained inside until their ether soul awakened.

Then they would be too occupied exploring their new power, there was nothing except primary ether inside, no resources, nothing.

The dimensional teleportation by the Ether Law was still as violent as Rune remembered, he didn’t know the culprit or the cause but even after 2 times being subjected to it, he was not used to it.

Whatever he did to prepare himself for it was useless, feeling his foot in his mouth was just too much.

He couldn’t think logically and just started to struggle against reality itself till he was released.

But it wasn’t the release he expected, because it was like he was suddenly underwater, and not any water, but very hot water.

He didn’t have time to begin his thinking process or observe with his perception sphere that the water started to pour inside him, absorbed like he was a sponge, and it just didn’t stop.

It wasn’t uncomfortable once the surprise passed but what surprised him much more was the inability to move described by the board, and he was feeling it because he couldn’t move even a finger, only his sphere still sent back something.

It was spectacular.

He wondered why nobody talked about that, his perception sphere captured a scene that blew Rune’s mind, a large current of purple ether was passing through all his sphere's volume and intersected with all sorts of other colored ether in all forms and shapes.

Rune never saw ether so alive, like it was going to explode, like it was boiling, like it was struggling against the dimension itself, wondering how such a sub-dimension could exist, he instinctively understood why it disappeared so quickly.

Rune could bet that it was the premise to the first tier 2 dimension coming, or something superior, but he really hoped that it was not.

If it really was the case then the next announcement by the Ether Law would mean the complete unification of the Universe dimension.

As worrying had no use, he abandoned this train of thoughts and observed how the ether acted here, in what he supposed was the struggle to become another form of ether, a more advanced one, maybe going from tier 1 ether to tier 2 ether?

If the ether density only increased, then his home universe dimension would look like that one day, and at a rate of 2 sub-dimension collapsing in 3 months, it was going to increase a lot more than its natural increase.

…

There was nothing to learn from what Rune was seeing, it was purely a show, a show of colors and shapes.

Even his inner self, where his ether soul was hidden was bathed in all the colored ether.

Some color, Rune knew them, some, he did not, some, he thought he knew them but did not, and the opposite was also true.

Having nothing to do but wait until the sub-dimension collapsed, he enjoyed the show and tried to remember every color, but there was nothing he could do, including energy manipulation.

Like he did at the beginning, he stopped worrying, he even ignored all the pessimist observations linked to possibly losing his energy manipulation ability due to an extreme increase in ether density.

He left that job for other more involved people, for someone like him, the only thing he could do was thinking about which music was best for this situation.

Uncontrollably “flying” with no control of the situation, clouds of colored ether going about with no purpose and no time marker to know when it was going to end.

‘Maybe “how to train your dragon”? Old but time immune… And there are so many themes adapted to immersive theatre, maybe…’

As he was thinking, he saw a fast-moving mass of flaming red ether, followed by a mass of flowing blue and burning purple, and all the little mass they left behind, like rescue rockets.

‘Maybe “Burning Bright” by the League of Legends? Yeah… It corresponds so much more to the situation, a new dimension, going to end in as little as 10 hours, so it’s shining all it has. I wonder what it’ll look like when the collapse happens? A waterfall of color maybe, what a dreamy scene.’

Time passed and Rune felt the flow of hot water stop, but he had nothing to do, his ether soul was still silent.

It was time for his transformation to happen, his home dimension, the Universe, and the Ethers Law had to let him go.

Independence, irreversible to his knowledge, who knew later, but before everything else, it was the path he wanted to follow, alone or with friends. His death had illuminated his mind as to what he wanted to do, to be.

Power was certainly a part of what he wanted to be, but more than that, he wanted to move, he wanted to advance, he wanted to learn, it was so general that he didn’t know how to do everything.

If he saw a whole herd of scorpion monsters wanting to kill him, he wanted to kill them in turn, if he saw a whole dimension full of new ether colors, he wanted to learn them all, if he learned about floating islands someday, he wanted to see them, to touch them, to set foot on them, even be the first to do it.

‘Between an adventurer, a traveler, and an artist, it’s just who I am, no word is needed to describe it, it's not a fate, just what I want put into words, it’s what I want to be.’

In another dimension, Rune Tudor was gaining his independence, but he knew that as long as he didn’t become tier 2 completely, his tutorial wouldn’t be over, but it wasn’t hard to be patient, what he learned now was going to be with him for all his life.

Ultimately, he felt that the ether around him stirred and was diminishing at an alarming rate, after 5 minutes he could move his body and mind again.

The first thing he did was impatiently opening his system.

Dimensions

Information Board

Ether Wiki

Events (2 rewards pending)

Status

Gathering Log

Masteries

The global system intro disappeared, now he was an independent entity and he had his own system, he was only connected to the global law of his home universe dimension.

Remembering that there was an event he opened the event window.

Event

Soul Awakening:

Awaken your soul and become independent: 1 000 000 EP (COMPLETE) (Claim?)

Completion Bonus: 10 000 000 EP (COMPLETE) (Claim?)

And just like that, the Compensation Law's last gift was received by Rune, a gain of 11 000 000 EP by making a trip to assist in a show of colors and shapes.

‘I still have the other 2 events to complete, but it's the intention that counts right?’

Of course, the first thing to do was opening his status, to know what his soul specialty really was.

Rune Tudor (Tier 1)

Specialty: Dimensional Perception

EP: 31 741 564

Stats Total: 5 000

Health: 500

Health Regeneration: 500

Strength: 500

Cohesion: 500

Energy: 500

Energy Regeneration: 500

Purity: 500

Affinity: 500

Momentum: 500

Perception: 500

Having lost 10 000 EP to recreate his avatar after dying in the scorpion’s nest, and repaying his 1 000 000 EP debt, he still reached 30% of his maximum EP reserve, as for the specialty, the board informed him of what to do.

‘Now I can do something else, take that reality! Get rekt!’ Rune focused on his specialty and asked what it did.

Dimensional Perception

Soul Specialty (Tier 1)

Perception stat is resistant to all external and internal manipulation, your perception of your surroundings is unchallenged, you’ve always been observing in the shadow and so should you continue, as it’s your calling, and you can’t reject who you are.

Your sphere’s resistance to external and internal changes is increased by 100%. The effect of dimensional ether restrictions on perception is reduced by 60% for Tier 1 Dimensions and 30% for Tier 2 Dimensions.

‘Yes!’ Rune couldn’t contain himself, he wasn’t exclaiming about his specialty, he was jubilating about having a true video game-like system, it only made him reinforce his belief in this being his path.

‘And there’s still the mastery descriptions and even the stats descriptions, let’s see what the system have to say about the stats, I already read them but I don’t care, f*cking board spoiling me, f*ck you Nelo!’

Health

Ether Stat

Determines how much damage your body can take before not being able to sustain its existence anymore. Losing a part of your body affects the amount of health remaining by proportion to the size of the lost part.

Health Regeneration

Ether Stat

Determines how much health your ether soul can regenerate in a minute to sustain your body. Regeneration limited by your health stat.

Strength

Ether Stat

Represents one’s might, determines your physical body ability to exert a force by itself, the strength must be mobilized to be fully used.

Cohesion

Ether Stat

Represents one’s fortitude, binds your health and body in a more uniformed and impervious to damage whole, allowing your body to endure and resist damage.

Energy

Ether Stat

Determines how much energy your ether soul can transform from the ambient ether and store before not being able to anymore.

Energy Regeneration

Ether Stat

Determines how much energy your ether soul can regenerate in a minute, up to the maximum amount supported by your energy stat.

Purity

Ether Stat

Determines how much your energy can influence the world around you, its potency is only a question of knowing how to exploit all its potential.

Affinity

Ether Stat

The essence of manipulation, allows for easier manipulation of energy and ether feeling for zones rich in energy or ether.

Momentum

Ether Stat

Determines the maximum speed that you can reach using only your spirit as a support, this speed can then be controlled as you see fit as long as your spirit is strong enough to shoulder the weight.

Perception

Ether Stat

Represents one’s senses, the ability to perceive your surroundings with you at its center in a sphere with your spirit, it also increases the senses innate to your body and their maximum limit.

‘Yeah, the same as what the others had, not impressed Ether, not impressed at all!’

Now that his status window was completely opened, he noted all the changes, he wasn’t an avatar anymore, his name now appeared in his status, the rank also disappeared, like the wiki said, a rank was only linked to the avatar.

‘Those who found a rank upgrade rare resource should be at the bottom of the hole in terms of mental, their advantage was very short-lived, or maybe they’ll just choose to not awaken?’

Apart from this only details changed, his specialty was there, of course, Rune noted that the description of his specialty said “Tier 1”, so there should be a way to upgrade it.

There was nothing else to say, so he opened the mark of his independence, the masteries window.

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 2 Level 0

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 2 Level 0

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 2 Level 2

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 1 Level 41

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 1 Level 32

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 1 Level 78

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 1 Level 74

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 1 Level 54

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 1 Level 84

After 20 months of effort, Rune surely felt rewarded, he already knew that the tier 1 masteries went from level 0 to 100, and it confirmed that his physical masteries were all tier 2, and most surprising was his higher than expected masteries of fine and grand energy manipulation.

Some surprise could be seen, such as his momentum manipulation being his highest leveled mastery in the spiritual path, and its intense use in his fight shouldn’t be for anything in that conclusion.

Now that he had access to this screen, his plan could be carefully prepared with the objective of reaching tier 2.

‘But first, let’s see if everything is identical to what the board said.’

Rune preferred confirming by himself, after all, he never knew.

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 2)

The use of energy to affect the body, not only to answer its needs but also to go beyond its physical limits, largely beyond them.

You have mastered this fundamental, giving you a 100% efficiency rate with any reinforcement manipulation. Increase efficiency of reinforcement by 0% (1% per level).

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 2)

Experience gathered fighting with your life on the line, the ability to make accurate judgments and plan ahead of time how to react, respond and plan for the worst, your ability to manage every aspect of a fight.

You have mastered this fundamental, giving you a 100% efficiency rate with any combat observation. Increase efficiency of combat comprehension and observation by 0% (1% per level).

Physical Fundamental: Body Control

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 2)

Your ability to control your own body, use only a fraction of your strength when the situation asks for it, but also instantly use all of it when required, your ability to perfectly transmit all your natural strength and even enhanced strength when intended.

You have mastered this fundamental, giving you a maximum of 100% efficiency rate with any body control. Increase efficiency of body control by 2% (1% per level).

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 1)

The fine manipulation of energy, simple threads lifting more than is imaginable, making intricate constructs, reducing the loss of energy when used wastefully by its grand counterpart.

You are still mastering this fundamental, only giving you a 41% efficiency rate when using your energy in fine manipulation.

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 1)

To manipulate your energy and do with it as you wish, to let your imagination go wild and make it a reality.

You are still mastering this fundamental, only giving you a 32% efficiency rate when using your energy in grand manipulation.

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 1)

Compressing energy and using it for what is impossible to do with other forms of manipulation, use energy as matter to become the sharpest and hardest material.

You are still mastering this fundamental, only giving you a 78% efficiency rate when using your energy in energy compression.

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 1)

Your ability to exert control on your own spiritual perception, deforming your senses to receive information beyond your limit, but also modifying your senses.

You are still mastering this fundamental, only giving you a 74% efficiency rate when trying to use your spiritual power to change your perception.

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 1)

The careful art of dividing your own awareness, controlling your body through your ether soul, knowing your ether soul more than anything else, and finding what is hidden in it.

You are still mastering this fundamental, only giving you a 54% efficiency rate when manipulating your awareness.

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation

Fundamental Mastery (Tier 1)

Controlling your own momentum at the maximum limit your spirit can allow you to, flow like ether and use less focus to reach your maximum momentum speed.

You are still mastering this fundamental, only giving you an 84% efficiency rate when trying to manipulate your momentum.

‘It’s really, exactly, identical to what was published onboard, not a word of difference, except for my three tier 2 masteries, are those percentages?’

What was a subject after people published those descriptions onboard was an argument about why some applications weren’t written, typically, boosted momentum was confirmed to exist, but it wasn’t written that you could overcome your momentum limit with momentum manipulation.

So in the end, it was concluded that applications past the basic and logical ones were to be discovered at the discretion of everyone.

‘Now I need to plan, plan and reach tier 2.’

While Rune wanted to plan everything, he knew that he was going to listen more than anything else, Utopia or Nelo had a more logical mind and knew how to foresee the future problems that he wasn’t able to.

So he opened the Undecided forum, and a smirk appeared on his face.

All his friends were arguing about the next step, and Rune knew that having reached tier 2 in the physical masteries, he certainly wouldn’t be shy enough to not help them and keep it a secret.