‘I don’t really want my purging to finish…’

Like a salted fish, Rune was laying down doing nothing, or more accurately he was thinking about what was soon to come.

‘Tier 3 class and specialty… I want to dieeeee…’

His inner reaction was a little over-exaggerated but only he knew what happened inside his mind.

‘Noooo, I can feel it! Noooooo!’

*Ding* Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion has been purged

‘Nooooooo!’

While struggling against himself, he resigned himself and selected the empty slot.

Using reinforcement while enveloping his armor, the ultimate notification sounded.

*Ding* Do you want to fill one of your empty mastery slots with Reinforced Armor Mastery?

‘Yes…’

*Ding* Reached Tier 3, proceed to advancement?

‘Yes…’

Rune bullied by the world could only accept his fate, the indecision hell would descend upon him now or in the future, it was fate, it was Ether Law.

*Ding* Your class has matured with you and you can once again select your own class ratio, additionally, you can now select a class path

Class Ratio (1 stat point = 300 000 EP)

Health: 1,0

Health Regeneration: 0,5

Strength: 0,5

Cohesion: 0,5

Energy: 0,5

Energy Regeneration: 0,5

Purity: 2,0

Affinity: 2,0

Momentum: 2,0

Perception: 0,5

Class Path

[Empty]

Confirm? Class cannot be changed after confirmation

“Sigh…” With this sigh, Rune lost all his desire to fight against the world.

For a tier 3, class ratios would usually be important, but with the loan, he could ignore it. Not like he changed his mind and modified his fighting style anyways, and the class path was pretty obvious considering his personal style.

A class path was something useless at the start, but further down the line, it became a defining factor of one’s strength.

Class Ratio (1 stat point = 300 000 EP)

Health: 1,0

Health Regeneration: 0,5

Strength: 0,5

Cohesion: 0,5

Energy: 0,5

Energy Regeneration: 0,5

Purity: 2,0

Affinity: 2,0

Momentum: 2,0

Perception: 0,5

Class Path

Energy Compression I

Confirm? Class cannot be changed after confirmation

‘Confirm!’

Confirming this class, Rune was prepared for the assault of notification that followed.

*Ding* Your class “Frontline Pathfinder” tiered-up to class “Steady Pathfinder”

*Ding* Maximum EP storage capability has been increased to 10 000 000 000 EP

*Ding* Soul specialty is being upgraded to tier 3, choose its path

*Ding* You opened up an additional 3 empty mastery slots

His ratio being the same, Rune was still in the lineage of the frontline pathfinder class, with only his class path changing the name a little.

Opening his status, he saw the changed name, and once he selected it the power of a tier 3 class was unveiled.

Steady Pathfinder

Class (Tier 3)

The Steady Pathfinder is a class emphasizing survivability, it doesn’t differ much from its class 2 counterpart. A Steady Pathfinder stops at nothing to make sure his energy is never misused and every point transformed to its optimized form, alone or in a group it doesn’t matter as even in a group configuration he should be put forward alone or alone to the side, whatever happens to him he’ll survive.

Energy Compression I: As a core part of your identity, your Energy Compression Fundamental Mastery is influenced by your class and has its efficiency increased by 100%.

‘A class can never be bad, but that’s still only the first step, I’ll always keep energy compression as my main domain, so it doesn’t really matter to me.’

Rune was very decisive when it came to his favorite fundamental mastery, and he hoped that in the future he wouldn’t forget this decisiveness.

The impact of a class path at this stage was useful but ultimately negligible, however, it was something a lot of people would dream about when establishing their dream build because every time this path was refined, it wouldn’t gain another 100% efficiency, it would double!

Double would still net a 100% efficiency gain for the first refinement, but the implications for the future were completely different.

At tier 4, if he didn’t choose to expand his class paths and gain another path, he would have an additional 100% efficiency, but at tier 5, in the far future, he’d gain 200% efficiency, then at tier 6, he would gain 400%!

‘It’s too far, let me first make it to tier 4, and after that, I’ll start to dream about it.’

Now came his tier 3 specialty, everything he did between the moment he became tier 2 and now would influence the path he had to choose, and there was never a bad choice, only different choices.

Soul Specialty Tier 3 advancement paths

Flowing Dimensional Perception

Soul Specialty (Tier 3)

Your perception will gain flowing properties without losing any of its unbending ones, anything that moves in your perception will be seen as ripples, they’ll spread as a consequence of movement and can be interpreted, with enough practice it’s possible to manifest some primitive spiritual power via the flowing properties given to your perception.

Your sphere resistance to external and internal changes is increased by 200%. The effect of dimensional ether restriction on perception is reduced by 100% for Tier 2 Dimensions; 80% for Tier 3 Dimensions, 40% for Tier 4 Dimensions, and 10% for Tier 5 Dimensions. Your resistance to abnormal perception changes is increased by 50%. Your perception will now include the perception of ripples after gaining the flowing properties, you gain influence over basic spirit ripple creations.

Confirm?

‘Basic spiritual power…?’

Now that was a very, very strong start, spiritual power was a minor stat manipulation specialization found in the perception and momentum stats, allowing one to use their spirit to inflict damage in different ways.

Different from energy spells or physical strikes, however, spiritual powers are invisible to all, and when you struck, you hit, nobody could see such attacks coming or even appearing, sometimes even the owner.

‘It’d involve a complete rework of my build, not the defensive side as spiritual power cannot be transformed into a shield, but the attacking side. In this case, I’d only have to evade and even escape while my opponent perpetually receives damage from nowhere.’

A very tempting idea, but there was a reason Rune didn’t already start to change his fighting style if it was so overpowered.

‘My spirit would become tired a lot quicker, while the body is a machine only dependent on energy supplies.’

Do monsters sleep? Yes they do, because any ether life form, even mindless monsters, even pure energy beings, need their spirit to sleep.

The more time passed, the more exhausted a spirit became, and nothing in the Ether Law could change that, only time passed training one’s spirit could help a bit.

Why were there no “Spirit” and “Spirit regeneration” stats?

Because spirit is what you are, and the Ether Law couldn’t change even a dependent entity spirit, so the Ether Law cannot change the spirit, one of the convoluted but fundamental laws.

In the end, spiritual powers were more of a strategic type of build, used for precise situations.

In stories, assassins or military armies often owned spiritual power users, but few had the courage to be a one-trick pony of spiritual power in the wilderness, they’d lose their fighting capabilities too fast.

‘Now, what are basic spirit ripple creations? Specialties are too special and crucial to ignore something when you don’t know what it is.’

Rune decided to come back to it after he saw the rest and thought a little.

Unbending Dimensional Perception

Soul Specialty (Tier 3)

Your unbending perception of your surroundings will rub off on your awareness, rendering it more difficult to divide and manipulate while also increasing your innate ability to resist any form of change. Same tier dimensional ether restrictions on perception are nullified and subsequent tiers are resisted. If something is trying to affect your perception, your sphere will not only oppose resistance to it up to a moderate unveiling of the source but also disrupt the whole process at play.

Your sphere resistance to external and internal changes is increased by 300%. Your awareness resistance to external and internal changes is increased by 100%. The effect of dimensional ether restriction on perception is reduced by 100% for Tier 3 and beneath Dimensions, 70% for Tier 4 Dimensions, 40% for Tier 5 Dimensions, and 10% for Tier 6 Dimensions. Your resistance to abnormal perception changes is increased by 200%.

Confirm?

‘The purist fundamental path, become stronger in what you do best, even a new way to increase my passive training of my awareness, maybe it means that this path leads to all my spirit becoming an absolute fortress… Something to think about.’

Rune still didn’t use the effect of reduced restriction in dimensions with ether restriction simply because he didn’t have access to other dimensions.

And between the Endless, a place of miracle where wonders could be found by stepping over a boundary, and the dimensions, the majority of them if you excluded the majestic ones, were not to his taste.

‘But it’s not because I don’t use this property that it’s bad… The next one.’

Like the previous one, he had to see everything before deciding.

Temporal Dimensional Perception

Soul Specialty (Tier 3)

Trying to see things your perception shouldn’t be able to, too elusive, too fast, but now your very own perception of time will slow down, permanently, and even more when you so desire, all of your senses will be used as the link between different temporalities. Be wary that from now on you’ll live in a slightly different temporality, different from that of other slower entities. Your perception's previous unbending properties will be almost totally changed to accommodate your new way of perceiving the world

Your sphere resistance to external and internal changes is increased by 50%. Permanently change your perception of time to be extended by 10%. You can at any time choose to depart from your current temporality and enter a different temporality with 100% extended time without suffering from any consequences. You become sensitive to time affecting events happening near you.

Confirm?

‘The paths of the Ether Law are endless, and they include everything, from creation to nihility, from fantasy to reality.’

This saying passed through Rune’s mind when he saw the path that the Ether Law and himself made available, maybe it was even created only for him.

“Oh, man… Oooooooooh… Utopia help meeeeeee…” Faking convulsions on the floor, he stopped worrying about the choice and ignored everything for ten seconds.

Before coming back.

“I’m not in the right state of mind to decide something so freaking important!”

“My tier 2 specialty wasn’t that hard! What the hell! And it’s not even my tier 4 advancement! Goooooood!”

That path appeared to have caused a powerful earthquake to the perfect plan in Rune’s mind.

Becoming able to react twice as fast as before, make 1 second become 2 seconds! It was so perfect for his fighting style that it wasn’t like the spiritual power path which was pretty unsuitable all things considered, it was a real contender, a black horse to his tier 3 specialty’s path.

But such perfection came at a cost, if it could even be called a cost, he was totally ready to make such an exchange anytime, and he wasn’t being impulsive.

Standing up, he first opened his status and invested all his 1 000 000 000 EP into what he deemed was important at the moment, or more specifically, his way of moving fast, strength. The rest he invested in energy regeneration and perception.

Rune Tudor (Tier 3)

Class: Steady Pathfinder

Specialty: Shelled Dimensional Perception

EP: 1 000 000

Stats Total: 26 660

Health: 2 000

Health Regeneration: 2 000

Strength: 5 000

Cohesion: 2 000

Energy: 2 000

Energy Regeneration: 5 000

Purity: 2 000

Affinity: 2 000

Momentum: 2 000

Perception: 2 660

One billion EP only translated to 6 666 stat points at 0.5 ratio cost, but to keep a security of 1 million points he only invested 3 660. Everything ended up perfect like it was fated to be.

‘Ok! I decided! I’m reporting my choice! It’s not indecision, it's carefulness!’

After making his decision, Rune stood up and arrived at the balcony where Nelo was doing dark and demonic incantation manipulating different elements.

“Yo Nelo, do I just go to the tier 3 zone in the headquarters and I’ll receive my things and the loan?”

Not turning his eyes from what he was doing, Nelo answered, ”They’re going to tell you anyway, but yeah you’ll only get special equipment like an ether pocket dimension when you go on a long term expedition, and of course it’ll involve paperwork and time before you receive them. You’ll immediately receive a pair of connected lenses that are calibrated to you and also a seminar to tell you about how the IGS sees the future, a very interesting one in hindsight.”

“Ok, thanks,” Rune jumped from the balcony and arrived back at the highway. Taking it backward he adapted mid-course to his new strength.

The strength stat being additive and every point being the same as the first one meant that Rune was now literally 2.5 times stronger than when he previously used the highway.

As he adapted to his new strength, his steady pace increased from 80 meters per second to 100, then to 150, and finally to 200 meters per second.

Only at this speed did he feel he started to use his true strength, meaning he reached his beyond steady speed.

As his perception wasn’t up to 5 000, he didn’t have the associated reaction speed needed to go at his full speed, so having confirmed his beyond steady speed, he started to push his strength ever so slightly and continued to accelerate.

Once at 300 meters per second, he stopped to accelerate, he would arrive at the headquarters in minutes at this speed.

‘I should be able to go much faster than that… Did I reach the strength-based speed diminishing return?’

5 minutes later, after taking the lawful path of not cutting through the gigantic capital construction site, he arrived back at the headquarters.

Only when he passed through the entrance did he realize what he was going to do was pretty much saying to the world he was an amazing tier 3, and that he should be a model for the poor people using the 2 other zones.

‘I remember the saying that power corrupts, but it’s so childish that I can’t understand how I could ever become someone who… is bad? Yes! You’re equally as childish Rune, power corrupt so some people are bad! Bravo! Stop it stupid brain!’

Arriving in the entrance hall and then the reception hall, there was no one at the tier 3 zone.

Heading there, he attracted some attention, but he did his best to ignore the gaze, and once there he looked at the only one of the five employees who were ready to help him, a male rululu.

The professionalism emanating from him was extremely apparent, strict posture, hard stare, frowned brows.

‘This guy’s not meant to be a receptionist!’

Was the only thought on Rune’s mind.

“Hello, what can I do for you, sir?”

“Hello, I’m Rune Tudor, affiliated under the Undecided adventurer’s group, here to confirm I became tier 3 and to receive all the goodies to correctly progress and other... things,” the simple smile was here, the social awkwardness was here too.

“Let me confirm you are tier 3 first, give me your hand please, I’m starting an exchange,” Rune could only follow the instruction and like it was a stick, his right arm was stretched out.

The strict-looking rululu took it and the next moment.

*Ding* You received 2 000 000 000 EP from Orobas Hill

‘Oh… He’s tier 3 too… It explains everything…’

It was the only way he could send 2 billion EP because the storage limit of tier 2 was 1 billion EP.

‘Ingenious too, exploiting the law in the most intelligent manner.’

After he finished realizing what happened, as a good-standing average IGS citizen he could only ask, “Do I send them back now or is there a need for another way to confirm I’m tier 3?”

“Send them back please, congratulation for reaching tier 3 Mr. Tudor, all the goodies you’ll receive include, a personal introduction to how to approach some delicate situations you could encounter in the future during your travels, a pair of connected lenses you’ll receive after completing the introduction, and once your file is completely cleared, you’ll gain access to the loan and the true goodies like the ether pocket dimension.”

Well, it seemed they were on the same wavelength the moment he was confirmed to be a tier 3, after giving back the 2 billion EP he received, the male rululu named Orobas continued.

“Follow me please, your introduction is being prepared,” Orobas then left his desk by the opening to the side, every zone had a giant semi-circle type desk, with 5 posts on them each, they were all perfectly integrated into the structure of the hall so it was very harmonious.

Even if it was still under construction.

Following Orobas to take the stairs, he finally entered the first floor, also called the second floor in some regions, maybe they don’t know what a floor means? Language is confusing anyways… And his sphere encountered another disrupting structure above the first one, it was really well made…

After “walking” at a relatively very slow speed compared to their potential maximum one, he was led to a room with an old-looking male rululu.

‘Oh sh*t…’

The worst just happened.

‘I’ve seen young rululu Utopia and he’s already so perfect I cannot compare, now I’m going to be… Whatever he’s going to do to me, please don’t unveil my inner thoughts! I’m not a pervert I promise, I’m just young, I’m not a revolutionary!’

Once Orobas saw him entering, he closed the door and left, he left pretty quickly, pretty much instantly in fact.

‘He’s just in a hurry… It has nothing to do with the old rululu before me… Their reputation of overly charismatic and god-like beings is completely false after all…’

Rune was pretty much panicking, but panicking while making a joke, meaning he became crazy.

“Hello young human, why don’t you take a seat! No need to be nervous, I'm not going to eat you as your kind say! Hahaha!” Jovial, handsome, friendly.

“My name is Aengus Finley, I’ll be responsible for your introduction to the right and correct principles of the IGS, so we’ll pass some hours together!” Confident, honest, convincing.

‘Goodbye past Rune, hello new Rune.’

The reputation of old rululus was at the same time a joke and a reality, and now Rune had to discuss sensitive topics with a god-like being who knew everything, alone.

Literally everything.