A majority of the bodies already partially disintegrated, only leaving disintegrating cores on the ground, which Rune took.

‘For such a practice run, the saying after the effort comes the comfort should be true, etherly speaking…’

*Ding* Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct reached Tier 3 Level 39

*Ding* Physical Fundamental: Body Control reached Tier 3 Level 40

*Ding* Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression reached Tier 3 Level 38

*Ding* Energy Compression: Basic Energy Armor reached Tier 3 Level 37

*Ding* Energy Compression: Basic Energy Defense reached Tier 3 Level 37

*Ding* Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion reached Tier 2 Level 5

*Ding* Energy Compression: Basic Energy Structure reached Tier 1 Level 35

*Ding* Body Control: Basic Humanoid Body reached Tier 1 Level 41

*Ding* Body Control: Basic Prolonged Body Use reached Tier 1 Level 41

“Yup,” with a loud affirmative answer, Rune sealed the fact that his personal fighting style only involved 3 fundamental masteries.

“Next,” and then he proceeded to ignore this point and do something else.

Deciding to clean his pocket dimension a bit, Rune walked to the straight cliff some kilometers away and dumped all the tier 2 monster bodies while keeping their cores, extracting them all was a pretty tedious process but worth it considering their numbers.

Once done, he moved away from the straight cliff and got back on the right track where he got the best of all worlds, not losing his way and covering as much ground to observe the zone and notice any anomaly or practice his hobby.

The only reason he got so far so fast was that there was nothing he saw that he didn't already observe, there was a difference between a hobby and a passion, adventuring and music were his passion, fireworks and observing everything and trying to understand the fauna and flora was his hobby.

‘If I had the opportunity to take an additional path, would I choose the fireworks element path or would I choose the black hole hazmat suit path? You have 2 hours Rune! Decide!’

Using this sudden reflection to try and know himself better, he was surprised by his indecision. Often, his indecision only existed when he had an inner choice that he would probably take, and then he tried to convince himself other options could be better.

But this time it was pure indecision born from not knowing enough, so after half an hour of reflection, interrupted in the middle by a juggernaut-style execution of a pestering 2 meters long insect, Rune decided to stop thinking about it.

They were 2 paths that had their own merit the more he thought about them.

If one day he had to take a very long holiday or decided to stop adventuring for some months, he could use those paths to accomplish life achievement equaling “peeing from the top of a mountain” or “jumping from a bridge 20 meters high”.

Of course, Rune already accomplished those two, he wasn’t a neophyte to life after all.

‘If I become a teacher, I’ll try to teach and publicize fireworks magic. If I take a break in the IGS I’ll cause chaos by illuminating the nights with fireworks. If I hear about an environmental hazard and want to take a look deeply I’ll take the ether hazmat suit path. If I hear about an ocean of magma I’ll stop everything and go there to try the hazmat suit path.’

Ending this inner dilemma with fantasies, Rune changed to another line of thoughts and went on on his path towards the source of this radiation land.

…

2 weeks later, Rune had long gone beyond the point he stopped last time and was now sure no normal tier 3 could survive where he was.

“And here it is… And…” Rune knew it was coming, a number he preferred would never come into existence.

“100! Woah, baby! Death to all foreign life forms! Radiation supremacy forever!”

He reached what he thought to be 9 000 kilometers, considering it looked like a linear increase even now.

“Still… How much, that’s a good question Rune, why don’t you calculate again what you calculate every time your defensive masteries level up? Oh, it would be my pleasure to do it again sir!”

His loud exclamations and interrogation weren’t privy to his sole mind, he shared everything with the no man’s land that was around him.

To once again check the maximum distance he could reach if it never ceased to increase at this rate, he opened his masteries.

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 3 Level 17

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 3 Level 43

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 3 Level 44

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 10

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 9

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 3 Level 42

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 3 Level 11

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 3 Level 9

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 12

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Armor: Tier 3 Level 41

Energy Compression: Basic Defensive Energy: Tier 3 Level 41

Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion: Tier 2 Level 11

Tier 3 Masteries

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Structure: Tier 1 Level 48

Body Control: Basic Humanoid Body: Tier 1 Level 54

Body Control: Basic Prolonged Body Use: Tier 1 Level 54

‘424%, plus class path and full energy regeneration, so 520 armor per second, then… 9 times 520, 4 680, times 10, 46 800 kilometers, with this I should be able to truly step into the Endless, right?’

It was commonly known that the Endless was 0.1% tier 1 to tier 3 zones with the rest being the true Endless, with regions spanning hundreds of thousands of kilometers in a straight line for the most minor one.

There were as many theories as to why it was like this.

From the presence of a dormant defective dimension linking zone to the fact that maybe the link was moving depending on ether density, to lots of experts debating that everyone else was stupid and there was proof it wasn’t the case, with some defective dimensions linking to tier 5 or even tier 7 zones and lots of other facts.

Rune only understood that tier 1 to tier 3 zones were often the zones colonized by civilizations, with nothing extraordinary in them except if they were under the influence of an abnormal superior tiered zone. Like it was probably the case for where he was.

Having largely surpassed his previous record, he still didn’t notice anything special, still the same plants, approximately the same species of monsters, and the same black and white forest.

…

Distances? Rune could still understand them, but accounting for the Endless sense of distance?

Sooner or later it would act on his common understanding of such a concept, reducing it to nothing, his only protection against that was that he was still in a tier 3 zone.

‘Something changed…’

As usual, he lost sense of time as he traveled towards the unknown, with only the linear increase of armor loss per second as a way to tell how much he traveled, he never failed to keep some of his attention on it.

Slowing down, Rune stopped thinking about life and his place in the Universe, the Dimensions or the Endless to start methodically observing his surroundings, from the ground to the air, the underground and the trees, and after observing the trees he saw something.

Wind, a slight draft, imperceptible with his sphere as he didn’t decide to specialize in compression to analyze the flow of the air with a resolution boosted at thousands of percent.

‘Why isn’t it stopping? Since when did it start?’

Once he took notice of it, he couldn’t go back, the wind wasn’t stopping, but only now did he realize it.

Deciding to back up, Rune traveled in the opposite direction with this new goal in mind, stopping when the wind stopped, and sending those coordinates back.

‘So much…?’

As he was consciously counting the distance and time, he realized that even after retreating at maximum speed for 5 minutes, or 120 kilometers, it didn’t stop. Like this permanent breeze had always been there.

Only after another few minutes did he see the “moment” the permanent breeze stopped existing, dissipating into nothing. So he got his mini ether tower and activated it, in his humble opinion, such a change should be marked on the map, his future map.

Once the 5 minutes scan analysis was done, Rune pocketed the mini ether tower again and entered the permanent breeze plus radiation zone with a much more focused mind than previously. If even one plant showed something abnormal he was ready for it.

Unfortunately, reality little by little eroded his focus as nothing out of the ordinary happened for the next thousands of kilometers, just the usual monster fights, like the breeze was an infinite cliff-hanger with no de-priming.

‘200 armor per second, it’s really making my blood boil like the epic final boss is coming.’

When Rune reached this point where the environment eroded 200 cohesion infused compressed energy per second, he knew that sooner or later his first tier 4 monster would appear.

He didn’t need a high-rated prediction model to know it. From the start of the tier 3 zone till now, it was more than 3 weeks of travel, so even if he was on the wrong trajectory to escape the low tiered zones, how wrong could he be?

With this prediction in mind, Rune was preparing himself mentally, sooner or later, average tier 3 monsters would become rarer than peak tier 3.

Subsequently, when at his current masteries level he could only fight peak tier 3 safely, a tier 4 would appear and transform his happy adventure time into the worst situation of all time.

The breeze truly never stopped but it also never increased, it was just a permanent and stable breeze which, like what Rune called “radiation”, was just another mystery that had to be solved.

Maybe by himself.

…

Between theory and practice was the harsh truth of reality, and in his mind, he was now sure he was approaching a tier 4 zone.

Peak tier 3 monster squads and loners similar to the tiger-like monster squad he fought weren’t a one in a million chance anymore, they were a one in ten chance.

Of course, for Rune, such luck did not imply anything except the increasing difficulties of all the fights he had to do.

He knew he was a tier 3 and he knew that as a tier 3, a beginner one at that, or maybe a middle one depending on the point of view, he wasn’t exactly qualified to safely leave the safe regions of the Endless, but his desire for adventure and discovery overwhelmed the rest.

A tail strike from what looked like an armored tattoo with fleshy neon white balls over it represented his current limit.

Only by using everything from fighting instinct prediction, maximum strength movement with support from momentum and his reaction speed doubled could he evade it.

The burst of air against his face proved that it was a strike worth 3 000 armor, and his only choice against it was evading, blocking was stupid, he didn’t have any way of efficiently blocking such a monster with its monstrous strength.

‘Peak tier 3, human-like build, soon to be a true resident of the Endless.’

Remembering a condensed description of what a peak tier 3 monster was, Rune couldn’t help himself but compare it to the tiger he faced during his tier 2 bloody jungle battle.

‘Except this one probably already has tier 4 masteries.'

Monster’s tiering up was more instinct than anything else, only when they reached peak tier 3 stats-wise could they start the race towards becoming death machines.

‘I’m surpassed in body control, reinforcement, energy manipulation and it even dares to have an energy armor on, why aren’t you tier 4 already?’

His only consolation was that he was on the same tier, so their basic stats were the same, and that like anybody else, it couldn’t be perfect everywhere.

A sudden charge forced Rune to stop moving and take it head-on, he already tried evading this situation and the consequences were too costly compared to just taking on a stronger charge than he couldn’t hold.

True to his previous observations, it was like his strength didn’t exist. From the moment he blocked, his feet just started to slide. The point of this move was to use every stability moment to send a quick punch or kick here or there, eroding its energy armor.

The fight had already started 20 minutes ago, and Rune found the situation as funny as it was challenging. He just had to observe the tattoo to know it wasn’t a behemoth path monster, it was just a balanced warrior approach without any aberrant weaknesses.

The proof of that was, he successfully downed its energy armor here and there, opening its greatest weakness.

Working little by little on its armored head, the moment it became so debilitated it lost all its precise moves and opened weaknesses in its posture, was what Rune used to make sure he kept its health balance in the negative.

“That’s why you should have invested more in energy compression!” Infusing intent behind his words, hoping it could reach the monster's brain, was something he took a slight pleasure to do lately.

Another punch to its head with its energy armor broken only continued to add up, brain concussion after brain concussion kept being healed and re-applied, and this time Rune didn’t intend to be merciful and try things out.

“You didn’t learn to boost your health regeneration?! Ah! Noob!”

When it didn’t do anything except letting its natural health regeneration do the work, Rune realized it still didn’t learn how to resolve the number one mortality cause amidst monsters, massive brain damage.

Maybe it was too stupid to realize that?

After 25 minutes of careful and decisive moments, Rune successfully and confidently claimed the tattoo in front of him was so disoriented, it was a lost battle for it to come back.

Rune didn’t stop, there was always a worst situation, and his goal was to not only render his opponent’s brain into brain paste but also to continue being careful and adapt his approach to confuse the monster even more.

Taking drugs and being under high alcohol content in the blood would approximately reproduce what Rune wanted the tattoo to feel. It wasn’t his fault such a weakness wasn’t already remediated by simply learning how to boost its health regeneration.

‘Not like it would change the result.'

Boosting one’s regeneration, be it the one for health or energy, would subsequently make it slower for a pretty long period of time, hours in which your disadvantage would transform into a death sentence if the same scenario repeated itself and you didn’t retreat.

Unless you had a mastery dedicated to it of course, in which case you were imitating people who awakened with a soul specialty related to health regeneration that answered to such demands.

All that was battle theories, not much to do with battle practice which Rune was doing now and drove the point home that despite being a beginner, maybe a middle, tier 3, the peak tier 3 tattoo-like monster stopped moving after a quick harassing jab from Rune’s part.

The tattoo’s body then disappeared and Rune went on like it was perfectly normal.

‘I even won with the radiation taking away 289 armor per second, I really hope it ends soon.'

He didn’t even check his notifications, he was in the zone, he felt like his body was light and he could do anything, so he just went on and on and on.

Until ultimately, after an additional 5 fights, as he took the time to overload his sight and do his periodic large distance inspection, he saw something.

Something that announced a great change.

He saw a great white wall of neon white ether a thousand kilometers away.

‘It’s not the accumulation of atmospheric neon white ether right? No no no, that’s clearly not that, but I didn’t encounter any wandering tier 4 monsters… Is the zone special? Something is keeping them from descending here? But what about the tier 3 that promoted to tier 4?’

Theories kept forming in his head, but this time the guide couldn’t help him, no one could, he could only rely on himself.

‘Think logically and rationally, if it’s natural then the environment should have some sort of transitory phase in the last hundred kilometers, I should be able to learn a lot more there.’

Departing again, Rune kept switching from looking in front of him to looking behind him, confirming there really was something in front that wasn’t behind, and again and again he confirmed that a great white wall shining in the way the neon white ether did was there.

3 fights in which he only faced lone peak tier 3 monsters allowed him to access the transitory band of territory, and even if he didn’t want to admit it, the soil becoming neon white and his sphere feeling the neon white ether like it was touchable was too much to not see.

Accompanying this change, clearly, the vegetation density was decreasing, it didn’t look like a jungle anymore.

From one 200 meters high twisted black tree every 10 meters to one every 30 meters, then to one every 50 meters… Even the bushes were decreasing, and the more he advanced the more they diminished, with the trees separating themselves even more.

Now, by just lifting his head, he could see a large white wall, seemingly infinite in height, marking the separation to something, a wonder of nature that upset a lot of understanding.

Rune could lift his head as much as he wanted, he just couldn’t see the end of this neon white wall, his vision stopped a thousand kilometers high and nothing else after that, just white, white everywhere.

He was also sure his energy armor loss was stabilized at 300 per second despite traveling more than 90 kilometers, once more confirming he was arriving at his first destination.

The end of the tier 3 zone.