With close to a day remaining before the next cultural event started, Rune decided to do something he thought of the moment he received his “salary”.

‘1 502 490 136 EP… Just enough to max a tier 2 entity ether stats, and that’s the result from an adventure of 9 months. I gathered that in months in a tier 2 zone back then...’

Thinking about this number, he decided to think a little more about what it implied for his future.

The fact that he was more focused on travels, that once he entered the tier 4 zones his gathering stopped completely, that it took tens of minutes to kill an individual peak tier 3 monster, that…

‘Well.'

Rune stopped thinking subjectively, he had a truly objective analysis to make.

Opening the guide provided by the IGS, the all-powerful tool which could provide any answer, even to the most stupid questions Rune could think of, he went to the “Entity Tier” section, arguably the most important one of all the guide.

This section had everything, from maximum stats per tier to their cost, but only up to tier 6, beyond was a domain even current peak empires decided to not disclose to the world through the board, so the IGS just left tier 7 and above empty.

[Tier 1, cost per stat point is 10 000 EP, 500 maximum individual stat, cost to reach the peak is 50 000 000 EP.

Tier 2, cost per stat point is 100 000 EP, 2 000maximum individual stat, cost to reach the peak is 1 500 000 000 EP.

Tier 3, cost per stat point is 300 000 EP, 5 000 maximum individual stat, cost to reach the peak is 9 000 000 000 EP.

Tier 4, cost per stat point is 800 000 EP, 10 000 maximum individual stat, cost to reach the peak is 40 000 000 000 EP.

Tier 5, cost per stat point is 2 000 000 EP, 15 000 maximum individual stat, cost to reach the peak is 100 000 000 000 EP.

Tier 6, cost per stat point is 4 000 000 EP, 20 000 maximum individual stat, cost to reach the peak is 200 000 000 000 EP.]

From those hard data gathered through the board, the IGS did a number of models to sort of predict the future cost of every tier, the result was that all the models showed every tier was very chaotic in its EP requirement.

In the future, a very far future, of course, the participation of many millions of patrollers and adventurers would be required to help a tier 7 or tier 8 max his ether stats immediately.

Next to those hard data, the IGS put up, a lot more than just those few numbers, after confirming they were true, was the logical section of “EP Gathering”.

Every independent entity could “be used” to gain EP, Rune could be killed and then eaten to allow someone to gain some EP, if he didn’t create a core by then, one would automatically form when he died, gathering a major part of his ether.

Fundamentally, there was no difference between himself, a monster, and another sapient.

Every tier had a defined range of EP it could give because this amount depended on all the stats cumulated.

Having those numbers for up to tier 5 was easy, but became a little difficult for tier 6, considering it wasn’t a linear increase that could be deducted by multiplying the number of stats by a precise gain of EP.

[Tier 1 cores are between 10 000 and 50 000 EP.

Tier 2 cores are between 50 000 and 100 000 EP.

Tier 3 cores are between 100 000 and 200 000 EP.

Tier 4 cores are between 200 000 and 400 000 EP.

Tier 5 cores are between 400 000 and 600 000 EP.

Tier 6 cores are between 600 000 and 800 000 EP.]

But this section was even larger than the “Entity Tier” one, the culprit was of course the Ether law with its numerous ways it allowed EP to be gathered.

‘Passive presence in zones with an ether density strictly superior to tier 3, rare resources that could be found in isolated dimensions like the Void and Deep Void, monster nest management, automatic zone repopulation… Yes, ether! I understand! Stop flexing now!’

The IGS currently didn’t need to use those methods, or they did but it wasn’t their main objective.

In terms of prospective EP gains, the Void was by far the richest dimension the IGS had, special resources were abundant in what was previously seen as dangerous grounds.

The second richest was the Deep Void, incredibly smaller considering it was only a billionth of the Void dimension size, but would still require millennia to completely exploit it if all the means were directed towards it.

The rare resources contained in it, each worth from a million to millions EP completely justifying this rank.

There wasn’t a clear range for rare resources worth in EP, just that depending on the dimension properties, they could be worth more than 10 times their equivalent in another dimension.

With rifts leading straight to the Void dimension and the Deep Void dimension, the IGS was probably already creating titan-sized spaceships with the only goal of being able to enter the dangerous grounds, not that it was easy as all the required techs were completely new.

With only pictures and words available to understand all these techs, the IGS could only wait for their research institutes to make head and tail of what Rune thought to be spell matrixes at first but were in fact ether tech components, lots of it.

…

Once on track, Rune pursued what he wanted. Some of those things he never read before, he was reading them because he was momentarily interested in the subject.

From sections of the guide with obscure names like “Beyond Ether law”, that talked about the basics of pushing the boundary of the basic 100% stats and fundamental masteries, to “Legendary Build Ideas”, that he only opened for a moment before deciding to only check one thing before forgetting this section.

It was just too dense.

He tried reading the only build he knew to be legendary and true, the engineering path Uranus variant, but just that build had more than thousands of variations and there were maths and numbers with complicated formulas in every sentence.

‘Magia Ama… Where are you Magia Ama build... Ah! There…’

It was the build from one of the biographies he read. The person who wrote it was the brother of the protagonist of this precise biography, his sister.

Some could argue that the behemoth path was a clearly defensive path, and all the build centered around it revolved around using energy armor to counter all sorts of damage, from physical, energy, and spiritual damage to using brute force to survive a hostile environment.

The magia path was a build revolving around the opposite, it was an offensive path.

It was the most distilled build, abusing all the Ether law had to offer, mixing reinforcement with grand and fine manipulation with the goal of opening a path for an ultimate punch. It was classified as a steady to extreme explosive offensive build by everyone who practiced it.

The reason for that being that with grand and fine manipulation as a backup, entities with this build could retreat the moment they felt it was a trap or could feel danger with their intuition.

But if everyone could become a behemoth by imitating a build, it wouldn’t enter the classification of legendary builds.

The girl, called Ama, used her specialty in energy affinity to create a situation where as a tier 5 she successfully killed a tier 7 monster using the magia path.

A monster at tier 7 was the minimum requirement for them to possibly become sentient, not sapient, but it was enough for them to know that reinforcement only became more gargantuan as tier increased and that it was the only major threat to its existence when assaulting weaker tiers.

The biography explained that Ama was passionate about 2 things, ultimate reinforced punches, and energy puzzles, more precisely, solving them.

With her passion as fuel, she breached into the realm of beyond Ether law, allowing her to birth the beyond energy manipulation mastery, making her energy affinity specialty, grand manipulation, and fine manipulation formidable key to her fighting style.

And of course, like the vast majority of true powerhouses, her absolute talent and dedication only expressed themselves when confronted with the most miserable odds.

Using more than half of her tier 5 energy, or more than 7 500 energy, she solved all the defensive measures the tier 7 monster prepared, measures that should have protected it against the swarm tactics, and gave an ultimate reinforced punch worth all her remaining energy with all her masteries or nearly everything increasing the efficiency of reinforcement.

Rune didn’t even have to think to know that at tier 5, unless the person was weird, all of their masteries became provided ones. Meaning that each of their mastery could give up to 800% efficiency at peak tier 5. time 12 slots.

Without forgetting the basic increased body control mastery and reinforcement mastery.

The story ended up with Ama disappearing soon after, with her brother hinting that after what she achieved, she couldn’t find peace in civilization anymore, so she planned to continue her life in anonymity.

‘So it was a true biography! Even the IGS confirmed the story to be mostly true! So it means that this section is where I can come to read all sorts of interesting stories about the most amazing builds ever!’

His earlier reluctance at exploring this section vanished, he just had to ignore the first few thousands of pages worth of maths, formulas, and theories to come to the history chapters, problem solved.

‘I’ll read everything one day, just not now.'

He was sure about that, a guide like this was pure gold, inestimable and era-changing.

“Ahhh…” Yawning as he stretched, Rune finished his day of research that warped a little at the end.

‘Time to eat.’

...

“Monster sausages and hot dog! Fresh sausages!”

“Eating Contest beginning in 20 minutes! Come as you are!”

“Ether Drinks! Only rich people are allowed! A true specialist is here today!”

‘A specialist? Only rich people?’

Rune picked up someone shooting something interesting as he munched on monster jerky with potato chips.

He already tried a vast array of different and unique drinks, at the previous festival he even tried unique street drinks, and they were like he expected, totally unique and different from non-etherized drinks.

He read on the guide that cooking and making drinks or beverages were very similar paths, identical to some measure, approaching pure creation using energy instead of the amateur level consisting of just supporting and injecting meals or drinks with energy.

It was like Rune’s color creation, with basic color and artificial imitation, you could go the basic path, just overcharging a regular drink and have some very great and enhanced flavor, but the true path was by creating microscopic energy shapes, and by means of experimentation and refining you could give a taste to it.

Mixing those energy flavors with all types of normal base drinks or meals, the path to endless combinations was opened, and the board was a repository for all kinds of formulas for this specialized path.

Till now, he had enjoyed the amateur path of all the amateur street vendors a lot, amateur was already something requiring a special mastery after all.

Approaching the guy advertising an energy drinks specialist, he was stopped before approaching too close.

“2 000 000 EP for a tasting of 10 different base drinks with each one having 3 true energy variations, 30 big glasses in total, pay now,” he proceeded to tell the price calmly once he saw him approach with purpose.

The price was big, really big if compared to the concurrent prices, but inconsequential for him currently, so he gave his right hand for a handshake.

Fortunately, he had more than 2 million on him or it would be awkward negotiating with his bank account, possible, but awkward.

“Please, sir. Lenya! One customer!”

Inviting Rune to go sit at the stand, the true owner, an azoran named Lenya was already preparing 30 glasses, she was only waiting for him to sit.

Sitting comfortably on one of the bar chairs provided, he was ready, “Hello, I don’t have any expectations as I never tasted a true specialist’s drinks, so do as you like.”

“I don’t know how my level of expertise compares to the other having chosen this path, but same as probably a lot of them, I was a bartender of an independent bar somewhere, it doesn’t matter anymore as I can’t go back until our dimension allows ether life forms to live in it,” her manners were excellent.

She wasn’t wearing cliche barman or bar maiden clothes but a very comfy looking one-piece dress, she emanated the air of an experienced person and if you ignored the fact that her skin had all shades of multiple colors, her sharp eyes were her defining feature.

“Then why don’t we share some stories? You tell me how your journey as an energy drinks specialist went and I’ll tell you some stories from my last adventure through the tier 4 erosion anomalous zone. I'm really interested,” Rune impulsively decided to ask that, he became curious so he wanted to satiate that curiosity.

Keeping her slight smile on, she established a relaxed atmosphere and started to fill the glasses with different base drinks, 3 glasses for each base drink.

“It’s been more than a year since I reached tier 2 and I already decided long ago that I wanted to keep working as an independent bartender, so choosing my current path was only logical,” she very methodically fused doing her work and speaking.

With his eyes able to see the ether, he could see that she was starting to do something with her energy.

“With my prior experience I didn’t need to learn anything about the basic part of the job, creating, mixing, tasting, all those I already knew, so the only new part was the energy taste creation.”

The energy she released started to do weird things, it was definitely not understandable for a non-initiate like Rune.

After 1 minute of doing her thing, she then sent the strange transformed energy into one of the glasses, where it dissolved completely.

“I advise you to wait till I finish everything, the table is auto-refrigerant so don’t worry about them warming up. You’ll then be able to alternate between the same base drink and clearly sense their variation.”

“I currently have only 3 energy tastes mastered, and the funniest thing about those 3 is that if I didn’t perfectly execute what I just did, those tastes would be horrible, hehehe, yeah, truly horrible;” laughing a little probably in remembrance, she filled another glass with the same energy as she did previously.

“From the board, I gained a basic understanding of the process of developing an energy taste, but I underestimated how horrible they could get,” her voice shook a bit as she said that.

“One I created burned my throat and mouth for half an hour straight without any variation of intensity, tears and snot kept running down my face, hehe, I couldn’t resist at all, I even tried to cut my sense of taste but my face continued to burn…” Her face told Rune that it wasn’t a good memory.

“Your turn, I’ll not share everything without you having to pay the price boy,” Lenya returned to her professional face, it was her turn to enjoy some stories.

...

Lenya was used to talking with her customers back when she owned her own bar, it was even a reputed bar on her planet, and it wasn’t any planet, it was a capital planet.

“I’m part of the very first wave of immigrants from our native dimension, the moment the IGS announced the linking zone was clear of danger I got there with a group of friends.”

“We’ve been together for years and had planned to reach tier 2 as fast as possible before directly leaving,” the man sitting before her was a human, a normal human, or so she first judged, but now she was waiting for maybe a second judgment.

“My memory is pretty bad but the end result was that we took an area reclamation mission and created a path towards the northwest once we all hit tier 2 and filled our masteries.”

“Clearing primitive forest is laborious and what I can today accomplish in some hours took us months, it’s not really a memory I’m fond of, the reverse in fact,” his pacing and tone testified that he even found it boring to tell, explaining why he was rushing this part.

As he talked, Lenya continued to gather 2 000 energy per minute and fill one glass of one certain variation of energy taste.

She didn’t find it hard, she trained hard to make sure she didn’t accidentally give a horrible taste.

“Being an adventurer can be summarized in one thing, fighting, so when we reached the tier 2 zone border, we had to start fighting for our life.”

“Fortunately an intelligent being has an overwhelming advantage against monsters till peak tier 3, where monster’s instincts are really refined and they get a somewhat coherent build, so we rolled over every tier 2 monster coming at us.”

His bored tone didn’t go away, Lenya wasn’t part of the first wave so she couldn’t judge, but even for her she had to kill tier 2 monsters to have her initial capital, and they weren’t exactly “easy”.

‘So at peak tier 3, monsters gain a massive power boost, why not.’

“Telling about how some fights were more intense than others or how we encountered some bad surprises would be underwhelming, after we split into 2 teams to explore the zone border and to not undertake unnecessary risks, we had to fight our first tier 3.”

“The first I fought was a big flaming bear, he did 50 armor per second with the most direct elemental aura spell, and I had to approach a very critical state and be close to retreating before we brought it down, it was really enjoyable,” he nodded to himself.

‘Saying enjoyable with your lifeless tone and bored expression doesn’t really work well,' Lenya thought innerly.

“We did some discoveries, fought a lot, returned to the northern outpost to give our intel back, and were gone again in the same path with the same mission, it seems so simple said like that right?”

A little bit of life started to appear in his story, maybe it was starting soon.

“Your turn now!”

‘...’

‘An ambush!’