*Ding* Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control reached Tier 2 Level 56

The notification passed through his mind but he didn’t react to it.

Rune was sitting with his legs hanging over the famous straight cliff, just observing the immensity of it, “it” being the nothingness, it was night so not even the usual white ether mist appeared.

Notifications could be ignored, what interested him was reaching tier 3, not leveling his masteries.

After every fight, Rune didn’t check his notifications for leveled masteries anymore, he just knew that one thing he did before wasn’t the most perfect he could reach anymore, it was just a hair thickness away from it.

Sometimes it was very absurd, he should have made his energy exit from precisely 42 centimeters above his navel, this way it’d bring a little more power to his sound bomb.

But if he had his two legs in a crossed position then it wasn’t true anymore, now it was 46 centimeters.

Tier 1 should have been the peak of the fundamentals, everything should have been learned, but the progress through tier 2, in addition to bringing an unexplained boost to one’s ability, also taught how to be more perfect in the manipulation of the Ether Law, and it was constantly natural, never artificial.

Rune wondered how teachers could teach what they learned through the Ether Law tier 2 journey to their students, and like that, he had another question to ask Utopia.

Or another rululu like the female one he talked to when the 9 members adventurer’s group arrived.

There was no worry, Rune was having a chill moment, music from Electronics Gems would correspond to his current mood and state of mind.

The one you reached after listening to this style of music for one whole hour, feeling like the night would go forever and that the whole world had no problem.

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 2 Level 95

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 2 Level 93

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 2 Level 94

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 2 Level 55

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 2 Level 56

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 2 Level 100

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 2 Level 56

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 2 Level 49

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 2 Level 58

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Armor: Tier 2 Level 66

Energy Compression: Basic Defensive Energy: Tier 2 Level 66

Reinforcement: Basic Reinforced Armor: Tier 2 Level 65

Soon he’d reach his first tier 3 mastery, he had no deadline but he wanted to reach this threshold sooner rather than later, so he could only continue doing what he did best, slaying monsters.

His awareness division wasn’t even halfway to tier 3, maybe his physical fundamental masteries would all reach mid-tier 3 before it reached it in turn.

At tier 3, Rune read that masteries leveling speed slowed down to what the board called a “more reasonable” pace, and this pace was often fused with a saying.

At tier 2, it’s one level every day, at tier 3, it’s one level every week, at tier 4, it’s one level every month, at tier 5, it’s one level every year and at tier 6, it’s one level every ten years.

This pace of progression was averaged based on purely passively training all of one’s masteries at the same time, so it was of course more false than true, but it still told everyone that at some point, training everything like it didn’t matter wouldn’t work anymore.

‘Well, our situation was a bit different.’

Rune took 2 years to reach the peak of tier 1, but this tier was the fundamentals of all fundamentals, children had to study years even in top empires to have full comprehension of what they had in their life.

He could of course actively train his awareness from tier 3 onwards, but where would the fun be?

He didn’t have any plan with his awareness division mastery, the better plan if every other masteries reached tier 3 would be to change his slotted masteries to start leveling his planned specialization or some body control masteries.

If all his physical masteries reached tier 3, then he would become able to learn his specialization tier 3 mastery having to do with physical stats minor manipulation a lot more easily, so he wouldn’t waste his time on something his spirit could do by itself.

Using his body to do things was becoming a passion, and there was no hidden meaning to it.

In what he estimated to be 1 or 2 months, it would be his third year since he gained access to the Ether Law, their defective version, and even if time lost a bit of its meaning, it was still an important date.

He learned from the very beginning that there was no miracle, he saw himself as average, and now he belonged to the very reduced first billions of people who gained access to the Endless as soon as it was opened, or accessible was the better term.

The fact that he was still alive and kicking showed who he was and who he wanted to be.

In the month following the connection with the globalized information board, he learned that miracles really didn’t exist, but he also learned that it was possible to see things that no others would ever see in their life.

Seas of pure ether, floating islands, mountains you couldn’t hope to climb, holes with no end, monsters so magnificent nobody would ever dare to approach them, demons so horrifying they would make you mad just by looking at their form.

‘And magic.’

Sitting there, on the edge of a cliff more than a thousand kilometers high, gathering 2 000 energy into an orb, Rune started to shape it.

An outer layer, composed of emerald slime green little unstable balls, then he linked those balls to a second layer of spiral-shaped energy flux, this time their color was a vibrant burning red, and finally, he linked everything to a star-shaped fractured cold blue.

Then he sent it flying.

The result was passable.

A single primary explosion corresponding to the theme of the night, then from the star-shaped explosion flew spirals of fire, and after those spirals couldn’t spin anymore, explosions of emeralds covered a region of 30 meters of the sky, sending flashes of light illuminating the ether night.

Looking at this explosion, Rune couldn’t think of any more masteries to add for the future, he thought of everything he thought important.

*Ding* Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation reached Tier 2 Level 56

Not a single ripple spread through his mind, the level up wasn’t the goal, it was a consequence, something he couldn’t control while doing what he wanted to do.

He couldn’t fight without leveling his fighting instinct mastery, otherwise, he would just die, so he accepted it as something that existed, merely a representation of what he was, and just by looking at it, nobody could judge who he really was.

‘That’s really a chill night, and I’m really sitting on the edge of the abyss, and I’m really alone.’

The situation dawned on Rune,

“I’m already an adventurer,” his mutter could only be heard by himself.

Rune accomplished one of his ambitions.

…

For the trip back to the camp, Rune shifted his trajectory by 50 kilometers.

This way, he would encounter plenty of monsters, he just had to be careful of not going too near to the tier 3 jungle zone and the region transition, he wasn’t ready to fight five tier 3 monsters at the same time. Yet.

After traveling half an hour, from his sphere, he saw a squad of spiders, 80 individuals, three tier 3.

‘Why not.’

The spiders clearly knew he was here as they were rushing towards him with their 8 hairy legs.

He could only deduct 2 specializations from what he perceived, one was air, a nearly invisible shimmering current circulating around one of the tier 3 spiders.

The second one was decay, a sickly black with a green shine to it, something that ate away at your health once you were hit by it.

It was dirty over-time damage, extremely efficient against health but had no effect on energy, so Rune would counter it as long as his armor held on.

If the last one didn’t exhibit its specialization naturally, then it was something it couldn’t sustain naturally, unlike its 2 companions.

After deciding, Rune similarly started rushing towards them.

Feeling time slowing down a little every step he took, feeling his speed increasing a little after each step he took perfectly. 100 meters away from the charging spiders, he adopted the crossed arm in a cross position, he was prepared to just charge through them.

The charge was a success as even the three tier 3 tried to stop him but failed, and he did it with his spirit being completely used by passive training and with minimal reinforcement from a continuous energy flux.

Once he passed through all the monster’s squad, he stopped and flattened the last in line tier 2 spider.

Rune expected nothing from this fight, so he used it to make a show by himself, proving that he could fight multiple tier 3 by using only his fundamental fighting ability.

The tier 2 spiders could do nothing, the tier 3 ones only touched him when he allowed it voluntarily, and one and a half hours later, he killed the last tier 3 spider still alive.

…

Rune knew he was approaching the camp because monsters became a rarity for 2 hours now, and the only answer to the situation he came up with was that they’d all been killed.

His trip to the straight cliff took 2 weeks, he took another 2 to come back.

All his physical masteries were at peak tier 2 and he decided that once he came back to the camp, he would prepare for an expedition to the tier 3 zone in hope of using true danger to advance without the normally necessary months of accumulations.

Just to reach tier 2 in spirit and energy masteries, he had needed months of tier 1 pure manipulation work, active manipulations, for them to advance with little effort once he entered the Endless.

But now that he had a whole infinite dimension to explore and search, he could plan anything, and he wanted to rush this part, nothing seemed worth the wait he would have to do if he didn’t do it.

Now that he didn’t have any obstructions in the form of monsters, he quickly reached the camp and after this one-month trip, it changed not in quality, but certainly in quantity.

Approaching it, he was certain it was their camp, he could still see some traces like uprooted trees in certain places he did himself or the way they were carelessly sent away and created small crater.

The difference was that now he sensed 60 people currently in it.

‘That’s a lot of people damn.’

He could see all sorts of persons, species he knew, some he didn’t, the most visible group being a uniformed group of people, true clothes, with “IGS” marked on the back and their names, probably, and whatnot written on the front.

Patrollers or administrative employees, Rune would bet more on the former.

The second most visible thing, at least for him, was that another one of the Undecided was here, Nelo, he was sleeping in a corner, so Rune walked to him and sat down near to wait for him to wake up.

‘Maybe I can sleep? No, maybe Nelo would just go away, too risky for my sociability.’

He was lucky as Nelo wasn’t deeply asleep and reacted to his approach by talking, still in a sleeping position.

“You can talk to the patrollers for more information, ask about the new plan the IGS put in action about adventurers, I’m going back to sleep.”

It was already a feat for Nelo to have woken up and said something before going back to sleep, Rune understood perfectly because spirit exhaustion was really that powerful, and even more.

Letting Nelo go back to sleep in peace, Rune changed his target to the patrollers' group and remarked that they were also watching him after he talked to Nelo. Focusing on their location, he tuned his perception to hear what they were talking about.

“... There’s still one missing but she’ll come at one time or another, not like he’ll ask for the reward when it has no use,” a rululu patroller was talking with a kajo looking female patroller.

“He should be the one human of their group, you also got his file right?” Exactly what you would expect from law enforcers, they had a job that involved law and fighting.

“I’ll wait for him to come before confirming it with him, look he’s coming,” after the rululu replied they stopped talking.

Rune slowed down once within 20 meters of their position, then walked step by step to them.

“Hello, I’m Rune Tudor, group member of the Undecided, I’m here to ask for information about what happened to this place,” he had only talked with a law-enforcer one time in his life, and that was when he lost his things in a public transport, a tramway.

Apart from that one time, he only saw them sometimes in the city when he got to school.

“Hello MrTudor, to answer your question first, you’ll have to know that the influx of persons migrating to the Endless is only increasing, so eventually came a time where no area reclamation mission was available and we had to open all the areas to newcomers, as your group already pioneered this zone and created a path then it was opened for anyone use,” the rululu was the one answering.

Gauging Rune's response to what he just said, the rululu officer just continued.

“As a result, this place, just a hundred kilometers from a tier 3 zone, is a zone with the greatest moderate challenge, but it’s not the only one, lots of such similar camps have been and are being created as we speak to offer the opportunity for development to everyone.”

“Now that this is said, as someone who’s been disconnected from society for months you must know that the IGS announced an investment plan for adventurers with high potential, so with people such as you as the target.”

‘I accept your praise, mortal.’

“Once you proved your utility to the IGS, you’ll be entitled to several benefits such as a free lending of an ether pocket dimension, access to the exchange of monster cores for EP at a rate of 95%, and being put on the list of privileged adventurers, giving you privileged sell to new technologies and other complicated things, the most important one being the right to demand a loan of 9 000 000 000 EP, but you’ll be briefed if you have the right for it anyway.”

This time the info made Rune raise his eyebrows in stupor, so much that he asked if it translated to what he thought.

“So if I prove that I got potential and my background is clean then I’ll be simply handed benefits because I did what I want to continue doing?”

The question elicited a smile from the male rululu, who answered with a nod and then spoke.

“Globally right, and from the file we have and what your group did till now, I can assure you that you belong to those who are nearly guaranteed full benefits once you reach tier 3 in less than a year, probably less actually.”

“And that’s why there are so many people here right? It all makes sense, did the IGS even start the first proper city? Or are they only focused on making the Adventurer’s Society go at full speed as quickly as possible?” This time Rune wanted to know the legit last news from his home-civilization.

“The culture department has stopped every attempt at building the first city because, well you’re a human so of course, you would know that the soft power of the IGS, its culture, is the cement that links everything and everyone.”

“So they want the first city to mark history, a futuristic neon city or something, I’m not entitled to such information, so while they are preparing for that, the IGS tries to dispatch every new adventurer to a place where they can shine, so it all seems chaotic but everything’s fine,” the rululu officer also seemed to have time to lose so he happily discussed with Rune.

“Is it a government’s initiative to create an EP to cores exchange platform? That’s really a genius move, did they learn it from the board?”

Loan and everything else, Rune knew to some detail, but that type of future service was something that would revolutionize how he’d approach farming EP in the future.

“It’s a Kajo’s initiative of course!”

The second officer, the female with platinum blonde hair and excessively white skin, like Nelo and Astryde, proving her belonging to the Kajos, interrupted them, but Rune wasn’t bothered and turned to glance at her.

“It’s a move by the economy department’s head to get first-hand control over the value of EP and its major circulation, then it was given to a subsidiary government company, the Archanic Company, the loan incentive is linked to this as the IGS wanted a strong influence over what the adventurers should do in the near future, and it's a resounding success seeing all the people not hesitating a second!”

She was really fired up about the IGS’s plan, Rune couldn’t say he wasn’t impressed as one of the reasons he wanted to become strong was to be able to help the IGS in a major crisis situation.

‘You didn’t answer if it was something that originated from the board or not, well it doesn't really matter anyway.’

Rune continued fishing for information and left happily half an hour later, they were friendly patrollers, as you would expect from law-enforcers sent to the field.

‘Or maybe they saw that I was a supreme genius and that’s why they were friendly, in this case, they would have gone on their knees if they did the same for Utopia hahaha!’

Now he only had to sleep and then prepare for an expedition in the tier 3 zone, or an expedition very near to it, the prospect of once again approaching the region transition was exciting by itself.

He needed to taste death in his mouth this time to advance his physical masteries and his energy compression mastery to tier 3 and learn the minor stat manipulation specialization mastery he wanted.