“You also have this personal receiving and transmitting mini ether tower. When you reach a zone border, a region transition, or a zone of interest, use it to transmit the coordinates back with a complete scan, it’ll also automatically make sure your flat compass isn’t unsettled compared to the system of coordinates we are using.”

Rune was currently at the Adventurer’s Society headquarters, on the 4th floor.

There, he encountered the support team that would assist him at distance. After they all greeted each other, he was led to a smaller room where his first contact, a human woman named Olivia, was presenting him how to use every equipment he’d bring with him.

The first contact was sort of a secretary that would manage his file. It wasn’t a full-time job and was just a designation used in the massive support team to know who everyone should report to when a major problem popped off.

“To never be lost, you received the premium version of a flat compass, yes, it looks like a smartwatch, but to make sure it doesn’t break easily, every other function it should do has been replaced to ensure its stability. When it starts to bip incessantly you need to put it in the recharge module that comes with it, the solar charger just there…”

She introduced everything he had to know, and also everything he didn’t need to know.

Ending up with a complete banquet table full of goodies, he was certain that now, everything he discovered, he could send back with as much data authenticity as possible.

“And finally, the ether pocket dimension,” Olivia grabbed a metal ball the size of his fist and looked at it like a treasure.

“It’s unactivated, but the moment you activate it, it’ll only last 1 year. Before it can contain monster cores or monster bodies, though those will take a big place, you need to let monster cores and bodies dissolve inside to saturate the ether density, the ether can only get in but not get out so once you saturate it you’re ok for the rest of the year.”

Learning more about this precious treasure that allowed any tier 3 adventurer to become a one-man pioneer team, Rune was totally impressed. It was pure fantasy for this thing to have become a reality so fast, or even become real at all.

“And that’s pretty much all, any question? You can also ask later. The moment you activate your ether tower we’ll enter long-distance communication mode and you can ask about anything,” she seemed to be finished with her table round.

Olivia, his assigned first contact, was a woman who looked serious, short black hair and a serious face, an office uniform, not fat, not skinny, normal, if glasses were still needed she would probably wear a pair.

“Nope, the moment you tell me how to activate this I’ll go,” Rune answered, he was back to his social persona.

A simple smile, an average face, brown hair attached in a short low ponytail, and blue eyes gave him a typically expected look for a background human.

“I need to pass through the lab to activate it, from what I learned those pocket dimensions we got are sort of experimental ones. Normally a true ether pocket dimension should be stable for years, but as we’re missing lots of crucial technologies and there is no precedence to this domain, our boss made the decision to sacrifice stability for space,” Olivia replied in all seriosity.

“What’s the size then? To have accepted the price of 1 year of longevity, it should at least have reached normal pocket dimension size no?” Rune would discover it soon, but he wanted to know now.

“I don’t know what size the current stable pocket dimension has, but the unstable one has a size of 100 cubic meters, truly a marvel of ether engineering,” Olivia still had her serious look but let through an inkling that she was amazed by something like that existing.

“Ok, so… Do I wait here or do I accompany you to the lab? Better I wait here right?” Rune wanted to see this lab, but it sounded like he would be more disappointed than anything else.

“Yup, just wait here, it’ll only take a minute, I’ll be right back!”

Confirming that Rune intended to go as soon as he got his pocket dimension, Olivia took off like a rocket with the metal ball in hand.

True to her words, she was back 40 seconds later, proving that should Rune have accompanied her, it would have been a miserable experience.

“From now on you have 1 year, it’s the minimum time before this pocket dimension collapses, so take care of it and pray to the Ether law that nothing happens to it, here,” giving the metal ball to Rune, Olivia then proceeded to explain how to use it.

“To make things go in and out you need to use a special unlock spell. When you want to send something inside, cover the object with the spell and they’ll phase through to the pocket dimension once they contact this metal ball, let me show you the spell matrix.”

At the slowest speed imaginable, and possible, Olivia created the spell matrix. It was only a way to give the energy a certain property that allowed it access through the ether pocket dimension seal.

Seeing it, Rune copied it easily, and then with the metal ball in hand, he covered the mini-tower in the energy coming from the spell. The moment he made the metal ball touch the object, it disappeared.

“If you want to make an object exit the pocket dimension, you have to send this energy inside and same as before, except this time you have to pull it out with a thread,” guiding him step by step, Olivia was advising him.

The next instant, the mini ether tower reappeared on the table like it didn’t move in the first place.

After practicing multiple times, Rune gathered all the goodies in the room and sent them inside his pocket dimension except for the one he had to wear.

Those he had to wear included the smartwatch, or flat compass, a complete set of clothes to not appear as a naked savage if he encountered intelligent life, and a tactical belt, one used to transport the metal ball hosting the ether pocket dimension.

“What next?” Rune asked once he gathered everything and equipped himself.

“Everything has been checked and rechecked, so only one last test is needed, exit the headquarters and contact me, I’ll make sure your flat compass is correctly adjusting in real-time.”

“Ok,” answering for the last time, Rune left the room and descended down the stairs to arrive back in the entrance hall.

Orobas was also here but he already greeted him back when he entered, this time he only did a hand gesture to signal his goodbye, which Orobas answered with a similar hand gesture.

Once outside, he contacted Olivia with his connected lenses.

“Ok Rune, to do the test you need to stop somewhere I know the coordinates of, so take the highway, but exit when you reach the first panel indicating north capital sector,” hearing Olivia’s voice, he did as asked and after running for a few minutes at 300 meters per second, he exited the highway.

“I’m there, what do I do now?”

“Tell me the numbers on your compass.”

“Hum… Ok, 1.534, 0.668, 0.003,” with his scientific background, Rune knew it had to be an adapted system of coordinates, one with a lot of thought behind it.

As long as the compass was made with durability in mind, it shouldn’t be difficult for it to register his path. In his pocket dimension, there was even a gadget used to allow him to see his own path in case he became lost.

“Everything is as it should be, no problem. In this case, I’m only waiting for you to reach the first tier 2 zone transition in your planned itinerary so we can do an ether tower transmission, later,” hanging up on this, Rune was left with only himself.

‘Nothing grand, just a bunch of gadgets so that I can transform my adventure into much-needed information when I come back, what could I ask for except for something this simple that only needs me to put the thing down and press a button?’

Now free, freed from social obligations, freed from doubts, Rune entered the highway again.

‘40% of my maximum strength is equal to peak base tier 2 strength, it’s also around when I really start to put effort into accelerating… But I’m certainly not going to resolve myself to keep a 40% strength output till I join the path.’

2 000 strength speed was equal to 300 meters per second.

‘I totally reached the diminishing return of strength-based speed.’

Every point of strength beyond the first one was equal to the others, but the principle behind accelerating using strength was that you needed to use more and more energy just to go an additional meter per second.

This translated to early strength users being faster than their momentum counterparts, with energy-based speed being in the same case as strength.

The limit the Ether law had for it was 2 000 strength. Beyond that point, in terms of speed gains, every added point in strength had a less efficient return than one point invested in the momentum stat, with the breach point located at 42 000 momentum, where momentum-based speed and strength-based speed were equal to each other.

And there was of course no exploits possible, momentum was completely separated, as it had always been, and couldn’t help to push this limit beyond the strength stat itself.

In the guide, Rune read, 1 momentum stat point would never change its return, always 1 meter per minute. For strength, however, it had a return passing from a potential 9 meters per minute till 2 000 strength to 0.6 meters per minute after that, a wall that even masteries couldn’t bypass.

His body control mastery allowed him to use 128% of his strength stat, pushing 5 000 strength to 11 400, translating theoretically to 394 meters per second.

‘It’s time then.' Rune has his own plan for how he was going to reach high strength and ability quicker.

The world slowed down the next moment, he entered a different temporality.

In this state, he effectively had his reaction speed doubled, so he pushed his body till he reached 100% of his potential strength-based speed.

‘And now, don't do that at home, children.’

His unused energy regeneration was put to use by using everything for a permanent reinforcement of 83 energy per second.

With his current efficiency bonus of 107%, it became a reinforcement worth 172 energy per second, or a boost of 17.25%.

By pushing all his energy into it, he broke through the limit of 400 meters per second and reached 402 meters per second.

If Rune had used his energy to accelerate directly via an energy wings spell, every point of energy would have transformed into an equivalent of 1 point of strength, so an additional 83 strength, a derisory amount, and that’s why reinforcement was the optimal solution.

‘My limit.’

The world was passing by at an extremely fast pace. The true exhilarating feeling was the feeling of dodging people by a margin of one or two centimeters, and that some of them acted chaotically as he approached but he still successfully dodged them.

‘My limit without momentum.’

Momentum manipulation couldn’t make him accelerate more, but it could still help him stir himself, and that was when fighting instinct and a different temporality came into play.

On the highway, Rune was feeling totally free, he was in his own bubble. People couldn’t understand what a different temporality involved till they experienced it themselves.

…

From the capital construction site to the landing zone, then northwest till he found the path he created with his friends. In hours he accomplished all that, and soon he was going to reach the zone border.

*Ding* Body Control: Basic Humanoid Body reached Tier 1 Level 1

*Ding* Body Control: Basic Prolonged Body Use reached Tier 1 Level 1

‘As expected of tier 1 masteries, and it’s probably going to shoot up like a rocket as long as I’m always at 100%.’

On every occasion, Rune wanted to use all his strength. The more he practiced it, the more he’d progress rapidly and the cycle would repeat indefinitely.

Soon after he reached the zone border to the tier 2 primal forest, he made a mini ether tower appear on the ground, then he pressed the only button present on it.

A subtle vibration spread through the air, he could see it with his sphere, it originated from the tower.

Shortly after activating it, he received a call from Olivia.

“Yes,” was Rune's way of saying he did as planned.

“I’m receiving all the data right now, it’ll be complete in 5 minutes, did you think about any question you want to ask?” Olivia similarly got straight to the point.

“No.”

“Ok, I’m keeping in contact and I’ll tell you if there’s a problem with your ether tower.”

For the next 5 minutes, Rune didn’t move in body but he did in spirit by doing some spiritual training. His momentum fundamental didn’t really need passive training anymore as he used it a lot more now that he had his time perception extended by 100%.

But as for his awareness and perception, they were going to be his two deadweights trying to become a tier 4.

If he gained 1 level every 3 or 4 days he would count himself happy. In the end, it would mean 300 to 400 days only to reach tier 4 while doing whatever he wanted, and that was his plan.

He abhorred the idea of isolating himself for weeks because all his other masteries reached tier 4 but those few didn’t, he just planned to continue adventuring if that was the case.

The guide even advises that in some situations, it was an optimized way to train as the fundamental masteries governed the limit of every slotted masteries.

Never would one of his energy compression slotted masteries surpass his compressed energy fundamental mastery.

5 minutes later, Rune heard a beeping alarm, signaling the tower finished its analysis, and seconds later Olivia did the same.

“Everything’s all right, your ether tower works as it should and I didn’t see any aberrant data, you’re good to go, good luck Rune,” finishing on this, she hung up after Rune said his goodbye.

‘Oh a tier 2 monster… She said I have to pile monster bodies and cores inside right? Not like it’s going to take me a lot of time.' a monster entered his perception, his modified perception.

Rune's choice for his passive perception training was one where the person had to make his perception sphere rotate with some effort. The side-effect of such a continuous rotation was that like water, the perception would flatten by itself depending on how one makes the rotation.

For his rotation, he decided a simple above and below axis was the right one, so the effect was that his perception was now more than 5 000 meters horizontally but less than 5 000 meters vertically, though it was really light and didn’t really impress him.

The amount of loss above and below only amounted to some tens of meters at his level of practice, a comparatively tiny amount compared to 5 kilometers.

He could only hope that the more he became used to doing this training, the more he’d be able to make his perception sphere rotate faster.

The only danger he came up with was that by flattening his height perception, he was potentially allowing birds to dive and gain some additional seconds of time before he could react.

‘It’s not going to matter anyway with me living in a different temporality.’

Fortunately, his perception wasn’t his specialty for nothing. The fact that he could even make his perception sphere rotate like this was so new to him that he enjoyed it more than he should.

‘I’ll lose the ability to make it rotate when I go back to the unbending path, so let me enjoy it for as long as I can.’

After having been prohibited from playing with his sphere like others, he wanted to do what they could, he wanted to feel what projecting all of one’s perception felt like, what giving it a strange form felt like.

Not the potato form he could give his own sphere after hours of effort, canceled at the slightest inattention on his part, but a true perception control as he should always have had.

Rushing to the tier 2 monster that entered his perception, Rune decided to go all out.

In terms of fighting ability, he became 2.5 times better than the maximum he reached before, so theoretically tier 2 monsters weren’t worth any challenge anymore.

With 5 000 energy at 376% efficiency coming from his masteries and 100% efficiency from his class path, his armor now reached an acceptable level of 28 800 armor points, with currently all of it infused with his cohesion stat.

‘Let’s try and make it catchy, perfection mode, juggernaut style, tier 2 boar punch annihilator!’

The boar-like monster reacted when Rune penetrated his perception, but at 400 meters per second, the speed of a tier 3 bird's dive, only had some seconds before the human crashed into it face first.

Mindlessly, it thought it had a chance at fighting and received Rune's punch like a man.

Except it was just a tier 2 monster, not even a peak one. With only 1 000 strength, it faced Rune’s 12 000, emptying nearly all its health in one strike.

Soon after the collision, Rune grabbed it and once again punched it.

It stopped moving.

‘A total noob, if you showed any intention of ignoring me or fleeing then I wouldn’t have killed you, but the guide clearly informed me that you were called a monster for a reason.’

The moment it died, Rune enveloped its whole body and sent everything in his ether pocket dimension, where it would disintegrate over a few dozens of minutes, increasing the ether density inside a little.

“Hahaha! That’s what I’m talking about, finally back where I should be!”

On this joyous celebration as the first kill of his first tier 3 expedition, Rune returned to the path and went on a path cleaning mission.

If someone came just after him, they would think they were still in a tier 1 barren zone.