The speed Rune was traveling at was not “steady” anymore, it was peak tier 2 high speed.

As he was more of a strength rather than a momentum speed-based user, he had to change his course to adjust to the forest environment, he forgoed the shortcut of simply flying.

Arriving at the camp an hour later, he slowed down to not appear as a ballistic missile type of threat.

First, with his eyes, he saw someone standing in the air, and then with his perception sphere, he perceived that this camp was manned by a patroller squad and other adventurer’s group.

‘A patroller doing vigilante work?’

Rushing through the forest, his eyes couldn’t clearly see, but for him to be here meant that maybe patrollers started to adopt specialized build.

‘The timeline is a little too quick… Is it an exception? A willful patroller?’

Rune knew that as a fundamentally military job, patrollers would have to take or adapt their build to work as a team, it was one of the few paths that allowed all-in types of build to work in practice.

But a specialized sight build at tier 2? Now, this patroller certainly wasn’t ordered to do it.

‘So it’s probably an idiot.’

With a conclusion, Rune arrived at the camp and slowed down, even more, he was only here to ask for directions as he could see multiple paths departing from the camp and he didn’t know which one was correct.

The asocial part in him was completely panicked by the fact that he didn’t have to only ask for directions but also know the advancements the IGS made while he wasn’t here.

Not seeing himself as an important guest, he searched for a normal patroller, who all had uniforms now, and searched for the one who could help him get some answer.

‘This one.’

More instinct than reason pushed him towards a certain patroller, not only because he was a rululu but because he also seemed to know that Rune wanted to ask things so he did a welcoming head gesture to invite him.

“What’s your problem? Got lost and needs directions?”

This rululu checked all the marks, not only in his questions but also in appearance, he was near Utopia level.

“Hello, yes, I just came back from a deep dive into tier 3 zones and as I’m soon reaching tier 3 myself, I came back through unknown territory, so… Yeah I need some assistance if there’s been no apocalypse,” simple smile, flat tone, it wouldn’t deceive a rululu but it was basic civility.

“Hehe, not bad brother, the IGS didn’t yet experience an apocalypse-class event fortunately and everything’s fine, tier 3s started to appear as early as 2 months ago so I can believe you, when did you leave in your deep dive? Simple question, no worry, no problem giving me your name too by the way? I’m the vice-leader of this patroller squad, Aldon Dai, the one you see in the sky is our current leader Rority Frye, but he doesn't get down so...”

Letting a little silence happen, he stopped talking and waited for Rune.

“Hum… I don't know exactly how much time I spent traveling but it should be a maximum of 5 months if I lost it and most probably around 4 months, is the metal tower underground related to… Internet? You can try and search for Rune Tudor if you can to find me, an adventurer affiliated with the Undecided Group.”

“Ok, wait a moment,” Aldon started to search on the patroller network for information about Rune via his connected lenses.

He was vice-leader but he was the one who got the only pair of connected lenses their squad received, it probably hinted at something regarding their squad hierarchy.

“Yes, Rune Tudor, your last sighting was in the Undecided Camp, you departed 4 months and 6 days ago only informing one of your group members of your long term expedition, you’re on the list for prospective privileged adventurers and the timeline seems correct,” finishing reading his file, he could only see a fish-faced Rune.

“Hahaha! Yeah, the IGS already restituted basic network ability and access, the metal tower is much more than this but it’s too complicated for us simple mortals,” Aldon continued to talk using pure charisma and social skills to open up Rune.

“If you’re reaching tier 3 soon then only the Adventurer’s Society headquarters, which is located in the new capital construction site can give you all the privileges associated with your new status, I’m not going to spoil you the surprise but the IGS already established a stable colony and that’s pretty goddamn impressive, just follow this path and after some hours of travel you’ll reach the landing zone, then follow the signs to find the adventurers headquarter.”

Being indicated the right path to take, Rune was happy to hear everything was much simpler than he imagined.

“Thank you, I’ll be on my way if there’s nothing else then, I have much to do.”

Like gaining 2 levels in his awareness division fundamental and making it advance, purging his specialized cohesion infusion mastery to take back the basic reinforced armor mastery, advancing to tier 3 officially.

Then he’d have to manage his specialty advancing, his class getting a class path, prepare for a pretty big holiday creating his composite element, sending news back to his family, discovering all the innovations he missed, contacting the Undecided with what he’d receive by becoming a tier 3, informing the cartographers of his looping journey…

‘What the penguin!’

Thinking about all those in an organized manner put to light that he wasn’t a savage, he was a member of a newly arrived civilization, nothing was streamlined and he was part of those testing things.

“Indeed you have much to do, I’ll let you discover everything by yourself, it’s much more educative for a human like you, you need lots of practical experiences to become used to your new responsibilities, goodbye,” Aldon seemed to understand and sympathize with his future, encouraged him like a senior to a junior.

“Thank you for your help, goodbye.”

On those words, Rune walked slowly in the direction of the pointed path and once he reached the end of the clearing, he accelerated to cruise speed, he had to actively train his awareness now.

…

‘I’m just too damn fast, nothing I can do about it.’

Even at cruise speed, he only used a day before seeing the shadow of a gigantic structure in the distance, he didn’t know for sure what it was but it for sure wasn’t made by mother nature.

It looked like a kilometer high concrete parking lot, the one only seen in video games to occupy the designers, but this one was completely opened everywhere with neon path animation signaling that the building was alive, and certainly not to signal passing planes.

When he saw this from a thousand kilometers away he had no choice but to accelerate, this was some attractive structure he wanted to see closer.

The night only embellished the fact that it was still under modification, and maybe even construction as cranes were still present everywhere.

The landing zone was a ten by ten kilometers zone, after all, the fact that so many concrete-like materials had been produced was proof of the IGS's wonderful planning, efficient administration, and optimal workforce usage.

At some points he started to see other people appearing in his perception sphere, proving he was approaching the “birthplace” of the IGS, and in the future, the place where millions, even billions would transit every day as a monthly routine.

The closer he got, the more impressive the titanic structure appeared to be.

It was clearly designed with esthetic as a goal, not an option, you didn’t accidentally design a 50 meters carpet of neon lights going from top to bottom for pleasure, and clearly, it worked.

Rune saw signs pointing to lots of new things, some for numbered areas, some for named areas, some for numbered and named areas.

It could however be stated that “Iron 53” clearly expressed it wasn’t a tourist destination.

The landing zone parking lot lost a bit of its charm when he got too close to it, but it was still a work in progress so it was inevitable, for a society that was not even a year old Rune could accept anything.

Once he had his dose of seeing a beautiful marvel, or more likely the construction site of a future marvel, he started to follow the signs pointing to the Adventurer’s Society headquarters.

A moment later, he saw what could be etherly called a “highway”.

Not for vehicles mind you, but for superpowered entities who could go at 300 meters per second without dying from a simple fall or a collision, and with it, hundreds, maybe thousands, of people using it, as in, running, running very fast.

Even the air was occupied by those who didn’t need the ground to move, those who used energy wings or pure momentum.

Everyone did what they wanted, the highway was a 200 meters wide 2-way line with the ground sunken, or more probably compressed, till it was a whole 3 meters below the surrounding flat plain of razed forests.

At the entrance of the highway, a large gathering of thousands of people was giving large crates full of blocks of refined materials with a sign clearly saying “If you’re going to the capital take crates with you”.

Flabbergasted by this preposterous genius move, Rune couldn’t find a reason to not contribute when he could.

Once he arrived there, he perceived that beneath the landing zone structure was a large open 40 meters high floor allowing for completely free circulation, it seemed the IGS decided to make the landing zone a capital transit point for the logistics and supplies needed for the capital construction site.

After seeing what was happening on this ground floor, he realized how important, in terms of whatever he could think of, be it quantity or localization, this transit point was.

There were at least millions of crates waiting to be transported.

Once his sphere saw the true highway, the sighted crowd of people became a river of people, all transporting tens of crates.

He even saw some that clearly just arrived from the capital, picked up tens of crates, and simply went the other way.

‘...’

Rune couldn’t think about anything to say, so he did as everyone else that arrived did and picked up as many crates as he deemed fit with energy threads, which ended up being around 40 crates, or were they containers? Yup, little containers.

For sure they were heavy as hell.

And he entered the mass, the river, the tsunami of people on the highway towards the capital.

‘Not even movies or fantasy stories would have thought about something so ingenious, free workers who can transport tons of loads just because you asked politely.’

He thought about it and didn’t find anything evil in that, it was even reassuring to some point.

‘Everyone excels at something, and I'm probably an adventurer.’

Relativism was a strong school of thought in his mind as he continued to follow the highway, the direction of it he deduced to be southwest, and he was going to wait before making a theory about why it was this way.

Some moved faster than others, some even took a break by leaving in the middle, Rune didn’t stop and was faster than the majority.

He didn’t want to admit it but it was a fact that moving alongside thousands of people made him feel quite uncomfortable, so he wanted to get out.

Not knowing when he’d arrive didn’t bother him more than any other things he didn’t know about.

His armor was full and unless a tier 4 monster specialized in grand manipulation or reinforcement targeted him, he wouldn’t die in one strike, so there was no worry, no stress.

‘Seems that… I really changed without knowing it.’

He was constantly adapting, from an average graduate to a veteran adventurer, obviously veteran only to the current standard of the IGS, because otherwise, he’d still be a student in training.

He had many things to do but he already organized his mind on how to go about them, so he had nothing else to do but think about life or talk to strangers, with one not being his cup of tea at all.

At 200 meters per second, he started to see branches on the highway after 30 minutes, with gigantic signs pointing to different destinations.

His eyes couldn’t yet see what was written on those gigantic blue shining panels as they were a thousand kilometers away, even by overloading his vision he couldn’t read them.

Because it was very, very far-away.

More than an hour later it was still night and thankfully the ones who designed those signs thought about night vision, detouring everything in neon.

It was not an obsession at all, but the most practical choice for proving that the IGS knew what they were doing.

‘I approve, but why didn’t they place neons to the side of the road? When I get access to the internet I’ll transmit the idea… Or maybe it’s already in the planning stage but there’s too much to do? Don’t care!’

Returning to civilization after fulfilling some short-term dreams was really an amazing feeling, better than anything he expected.

But in the same way that alcohol affected his mind very little, Rune tended to not let anything he thought about escape the confines of his mind, this way he couldn’t be wrong, he was really a genius.

The first branch led to something called “North Capital Sector”, and by straining his eyes a little, Rune could see some vague shapes in the distance, his eyes were however too bad to appreciate them, atmospheric ether wasn’t light after all.

It was only 10 minutes later that Rune saw a blue panel indicating “Adventurer’s Society Headquarters” that he did a trajectory adjustment to prepare to exit the main highway.

People like him who also had the headquarters as a goal also transported crates, so he didn’t worry about not having a place to deposit the crates he had with him, and when the moment came, he softly turned and exited the main mass of people,

‘Oh! That’s a very good feeling!’

Like going from a traffic jam to a rural road, absolute freedom and getting happiness from the sufferings of those still in the traffic jam.

However, at 200 meters per second, 5 seconds was a kilometer, so in the end, Rune only enjoyed the feeling of freedom for 20 seconds before he reached the end of the branch, and his objective was clearly visible.

‘Uh…’

It was clearly a monolith.

A monolith still under construction without neon on, but it was clearly an absolutely black monolith with cracks that would make an AI core happy to have its culture represented.

The only problem was that with the right angle, Rune saw the words “Adventurer’s Society Headquarters” appear in blue and yellow flowing animated neons.

Seeing something like that in a 3D virtual simulation was pretty common but in real life? Attraction parks wet dreams or a festival, maybe a rural planet theme only.

The highway was stopped there, with a future continuation still under construction. Rune did like everyone who wanted to go to the headquarters and just dropped off all their crates at the sides of the highway’s end.

Freed from volunteered patriotism, he made his way with all those who seemed to know how to approach this 100 meters high black cracked monolith.

The surroundings were very simple to describe, everything was under construction, the ground wasn’t compressed, crates were everywhere, holes delimited things and concrete pillars delimited more things.

It’d be pure logistical chaos if not for the existence of a perception sphere that allowed you to see what was inside every crate and that you could sort them all by dedicating 10 minutes of your precious time to the task.

Following the masses through the “under-progress” ground, where not even a path was made, he reached the entrance a minute later, and it was an unimpressive entrance, still under construction.

‘Like everything else yup.’

The flow of people entering and exiting was constant, with no endless waiting line or people squatting at the entrance.

Only after entering did the building change from pure black to simple soft neon lights and non-aggressive shades of light grey with some white and black, gender-neutral, and passive color schemes.

‘I really thought they would take the theme too far and flash my face with neons everywhere.’

Only with his own eyes could he confirm the thing, because yes, for the first time in his life, his perception sphere was blocked, and even his specialty couldn’t pierce through what was blocking him.

How did they do it? Just compressed perception sphere dampener elements or specific energy structures, you could find the 101 guide on how to do something as basic as that everywhere onboard.

Be aware that such basic ways of blocking perception spheres need lots of layers to resist the most intrusive sphere like Rune had.

‘I can see 13 layers, that’s probably a lot right?’

Clearly, the IGS didn’t joke about that, and Rune expected nothing else than 500 layers to be sure no perception sphere could ever penetrate through it.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a defense set in the material plane like a rock, otherwise, it would be a nightmare to defend against opened doors and microscopic holes.

‘Why didn’t they announce a forbidden perception sphere policy? Everyone would just have to retract it, easy, then they get someone that can check that all spheres are retracted.’

Rune wasn’t a planner, he was an adventurer, there was a reason he wasn’t in charge of dealing with those decisions, so he just enjoyed the feeling of seeing a massive empty cube in his perception sphere, novel and exciting.

The number of people on this floor was still in the hundreds, with 3 zones intended for 3 different objectives.

Information, mission, and tier 3. The majority of the people waiting were at the information zone waiting line, fewer at the mission zone waiting line and none at the tier 3 zone waiting line.

He didn’t want to go to the tier 3 zone and announce he would become tier 3 in a little more than a week, it would be ridiculous.

He was here to get information, not to ridicule himself out of ego, so he wisely entered the waiting line for the information zone with around 200 people before him.

As waiting was essentially wasted training time and waiting lines consisted in actively waiting, he started another set of awareness training, splitting his ether soul into multiple pieces and approaching them all enough for general chaos to happen, but he held everything in place by sheer spiritual power.

Waiting lines were a very average place to train in, but as long as you had the will for it, it was possible, so Rune made it happen.