Some weeks after killing his first tier 4 monsters, Rune started to train his lacking masteries again, he even tried to emphasize using alternative fighting styles to train them faster.

From massive reinforcement use to launching offensive fireworks at monsters, he felt full and satisfied from all the work he did every day.

When the gravity reached around 205.8, he reached the tier 4 zone border while half-expecting it to happen.

The number of tier 4 monsters he encountered kept getting higher, it was what should have originally happened back in the erosion anomaly, when the only separation was an ether density border, then the mixing should be highly heterogeneous like that.

Region transition could also be like that but generally, they were much less mixed due to possible massive environmental changes.

Even from the forest region to the jungle region, a seemingly similar environment, he didn’t remember finding a massive amount of tier 3 as it was the case for tier 4 here, omnipresent everywhere.

His achievement of killing a tier 4 monster, he replicated multiple times, maybe gravity monster builds were highly countered by him or he luckily got good matchups.

With his high reactivity, steady damage accumulation, and tankiness, he could buy himself the time necessary to create an inevitable rhythm of death, every fight becoming intense enough to be anchored in his memory.

It also led to him taking a break after each battle to note things down, the number of gravity-dependent behavior was limited, and his judgment told him that between a gravity of 200 and one of 800, there wouldn’t be that much of a difference.

Same for the flora, essentially, only a very peculiar kind of plant life subsisted here, all the trees having disappeared a long time ago.

He didn’t find it in the guide but he liked to call it “Grav-Grass”, he even miraculously found a valley between some high mountains that were covered by it, which he happily reported with his ether tower.

It was typical anomalous plant life, how did it breach the ultra compressed soil? How can it even spread? Rune had used all his tools to try and crack the case, in vain, he could only take samples of it without forgetting the compressed earth on which it grew.

Life in the gravity anomaly was simple, just some rock, wind, rain, and patch of grav-grass.

One thing he really liked to do lately was jumping. It was like his legs were glued to the ground, more than 20 tons of weight couldn’t be lifted easily, but when he successfully did it, it was a time of self-celebration.

Finding a random rock on the ground, he lifted it, it weighed hundreds of kilograms, he launched it, it only flew for tens of meters.

‘Penguin!’

Having failed once again at launching the same rocks further than he did once, he felt funnily ashamed.

As he wanted to pick it up again, he was interrupted by something, noise, Rune heard something, something abnormal.

Minutes later after being exposed to this noise, it became clearer and clearer in his mind.

‘Is that???’

Thinking about something similar to what he was hearing, he suddenly accelerated.

The deeper he went, the clearer the sound and the sounder his conclusion.

‘Water! That’s water! A waterfall?!’

It could only be a thunderstorm or a massive waterfall.

‘Water? Gravity? Massive sounds? Lost in the middle of nowhere? Everything checks out!’

Even more excited, Rune pushed his body further.

With such a gravity he couldn’t go at 500 meters per second anymore, only around 80 meters per second, still, an amazing result considering it was impossible to stand on one leg for long anymore, the moment he tried his lifted leg found the ground again.

Maintaining his equilibrium was harder than when he just started to go to the Martial Supreme Dojo back at Utopia’s training camp. So step by step, with little distance with each step, it was the most efficient way to advance quickly.

Half an hour later, the sound became delirious, it was so loud, and after every step Rune expected the waterfall to appear, but it never did, only now did he see a precursor sign.

A massive river was unveiled in his perception sphere, and a minute later, not only a waterfall but people, also appeared.

It was a gathering spot of people, tens of people.

Some were already looking at him while some ignored him and continued what they were doing, like playing under the waterfall or “swimming”, as in, deep diving and walking because they didn’t have a choice.

A minute later, he arrived near enough to actually see the waterfall, a big beast 30 meters wide with a fall of maybe 20 meters.

With his sphere, he evaluated the speed at which the water was falling to be around 100 meters per second, accuracy not guaranteed, perfect as a marvel of nature and a spot he wouldn’t want to miss.

‘Though if there’s another one at 9 000 gravity I’d still want to visit it… Later.’

Ignoring the people who were looking at him questioningly, he just approached the river tens of meters away from where the waterfall acted.

The water was crystal clear, and it was flat, so flat that apart from some trouble near the impact at the waterfall, it was only a calm stream of limpid water, a big one.

‘Oh, man… I’m gonna cry. It’s too fantastic.’

With so many people here, Rune judged the place to be safe enough to take a break, but first, he had to know if the people here reported this place or if maybe they couldn’t because their tower couldn’t support the gravity.

It seemed however that the other group or groups weren’t content with just ignoring him as 2 persons approached him.

The two looked like regular humans, with no patroller uniforms to identify them, so probably adventurer or possibly unruly prospects.

The waterfall being so loud, the only way to communicate was either an energy-infused voice or an intent-infused voice, and they seemed to prefer a simple energy infusion or at least the one that initiated the conversation.

“Hello, can I ask who you are?” Classic introduction sentence.

‘Too classic man, better luck next time.’

“Yo, I’m Rune, a tier 3 adventurer, you?” Rune however didn’t hesitate and used an intent-infused voice, a little bit of surprise and showing his hand, nothing to hide as usual.

“I’m Kamden, similarly a tier 3 adventurer, my companion here, Costas, is part of my group and is also a tier 3 adventurer, there’s currently 5 groups gathered here so I was just wondering if you encountered some mishaps that’s all,” not perturbed at all, he explained why he came here.

“Nope, I travel alone and I came here after hearing the waterfall, can I also ask a question?”

“I’ll answer as best as I can,” respectful and maybe a little submissive? Or just kind?

“Did anyone already report the location back using their ether tower?” He asked the important question.

“Yes, prior groups who passed by already did it and since then some people repeated it in case it was just hearsay, my group didn’t do it but it should be fine,” the guy answered immediately, seeming like something he even asked before.

“Then that’s it, do you have anything else you want to discuss?” Rune looked over at the water, transmitting his desire to do a quick dive to test it.

“Do you want to travel with us? We are taking a break here for some time but after that, we’re planning to go deeper, it’s only for additional safety, of course, we’re completely able to take on multiple tier 4 at the moment, so, interested?”

‘Is it an improvised invitation?’

He couldn’t help his overactive mind. In any case, Rune knew what to respond immediately.

“Unless you need emergency help then no, I prefer being alone and doing my own things alone, also I’ll probably be taking a pretty long break here as I’m also doing a research mission on flora and fauna,” he answered simply, being alone was the best.

“Hu, ok then, good luck and goodbye.”

Maybe expecting something different out of this conversation, the guy could only back up after Rune made his stance clear to him, with even the intented voice to aggravate the clarity of the refusal.

‘Did I… Already forget their names? Oh sh*t I did… That was some awkward discussion if I didn’t see one… Hehehe, I like it when others are uncomfortable near me.'

Already experienced in the art of awkwardness, Rune easily accepted what just happened.

He wasn’t a social guy, and even more when he didn’t want to talk, he became a black hole of socialites. Talking to him at that moment was the same as trying to talk to a robot with a flat wall personality.

After he perceived no one else approaching, he started to unequip and undress, his pair of connected lenses, his external memory, his metal ball hosting his ether pocket dimension, then his tier 3 external monster clothes, leaving him only in his internal energy clothing layers

He piled everything up in a neat pile and then he jumped straight into the river. The fun before the work, and he needed to, literally, test the water, before doing anything.

The big splash he expected wasn’t there, only some ridiculously quiet and small waves accompanied him diving straight to the bottom like a rock.

“Blblblblblbl!” It really was water, the river bed was even the same as any river he scanned with his sphere.

Moving his arms around, he felt a slight resistance, moving around by walking, it wasn’t accompanied by this feeling of buoyancy he should have felt.

Paradoxically he could feel a layer of slimy and slippery things on top of the river bed, and once he focused on it, he saw a kind of algae that covered the whole bed.

The combination of water and this slippery layer made it so that when Rune tried he could really slip despite his weight.

“Blblbl!” Ending up on his back immediately after losing his balance, he tried to stand up but his hands kept slipping away, only by carefully standing up and splitting his weight appropriately did he succeed in moving forward.

With the ginormous gravity, even a slightly stretched arm could cause his whole body to not be able to stand, added to that was the slimy slippery floor, it was the recipe for a disaster.

With his perception sphere, he could see that the majority of the people playing in the water were at the waterfall, trying to defy nature and climb up. Futilely.

When Rune arrived there, he saluted those already here by making a bow, a balanced one without bowing too much, then also tried to climb, even though he knew it was possibly impossible.

It was not only smooth and flat, probably due to gravity accelerating the flow of water erosion, but also covered in the same layer of slimy algae, rendering it… practically impracticable.

The water falling at high speed and in high quantity was far from being the only problem impending this task.

Observing the other people who were trying, he could see that they didn’t try to cheat by using an energy platform, they only added adhesive elemental energy to their hands and feet, but this transformation being a minor manipulation they had to use enormous quantities of energy to make it usable here.

‘But that’s the fun isn’t it?’

After trying human ascension of the waterfall, he had to adapt, so he also created a simple sticky element, using thousands of energy to cover his 2 hands.

He then spent the next 2 hours trying to ascend the waterfall, but he never achieved it. It was the same for those who were trying before he came here or arrived after, without cheating it was impossible.

‘I think the algae can somewhat counter the effect of adhesive or sticky energy. I'm not completely sure, will try later to confirm.'

Rune wasn’t being a sore loser, he was just interested, it was really what he expected an adventure to be.

Climbing back to the bank using his moving energy platform spell, he felt how much gravity wanted to keep him grounded, but with 25 000 equivalent strength, he easily climbed up and came back to where his stuff was.

‘Let’s get to work then.'

He didn't do much, he just picked up his pocket dimension metal ball and started to take things out. Among them, his sample box, his weird microscope, his camera, his flat compass, his gravity scale, and some other things.

He equipped his pair of connected lenses back and started to do the regular observation, coordinates, gravity intensity, and simple description.

The river was flowing from the northeast to the southwest, the gravity at the waterfall itself was 386.4.

Around the waterfall there wasn’t any vegetation, same near the river above and below, no grav-grass to be found, so even abundant water wasn’t enough to support plant life in the gravity anomaly, or so his simple improvised theory said.

The resilience of all his tools was to be commended, maybe that’s why they had this weird shape, it was to resist “mild” environmental constraints.

The place being so unique, Rune didn’t slack off and went above and beyond in describing the place, same for taking camera pictures, only ten pictures from different angles to describe this unique place was far from enough.

As for samples, he had to describe them in their natural states, shortly after being sampled, and also try to avoid contamination, so he didn’t hesitate to take dozens of samples of the slimy and slippery algae without forgetting the water itself, though his microscope found nothing in it.

‘Not enough resolution or not enough experience? Well, that’s just more work for the people who will get those samples.’

Hours later, it was now night, he finished his observation, sampling, and even expanded his area of observation to the surroundings by making a drawing of what his sphere could see in-depth. He didn’t care if the ether tower of prior groups already mapped everything.

‘After the effort…’

Putting everything away, Rune decided to do another dive, a nightly dive, he didn’t have enough of this place and he wanted to try everything.

…

3 days after arriving at the waterfall, Rune departed. He used this waterfall break to not only sleep but also have a heavy dose of fun, refilling his weak human psyche.

No one bothered him after the initial duo of adventurers and he was perfectly happy with that, and now he was even departing before them.

Before leaving he of course cheated and used energy platforms to climb up the 20 meters high waterfall, he didn’t have pride to answer to, he just had life achievements to complete.

It has been months since he killed his first tier 4 monster, and now Rune placed his capabilities at peak tier 3 with his survivability at beginner tier 4.

To make sure he didn’t take a path that had been cleared by other groups, he went straight northeast. He didn’t want virgin land untouched by anyone else, but he nonetheless still wanted some monsters to fight with.

The fact that going straight in this direction made him follow the river wasn’t a criterion he took into account.

It was not at all intended, he could only complain to his instinct and subconscious for making him do that.

Rune totally erased that upset joking attitude when 2 days later he discovered that the source of the river was springing from inside a mountain.

He just got his ether tower out and after doing a 10 minutes scan he changed his direction back to going southeast, the fastest way to increase the gravity.

When his gravity scale reached 500 weeks later, he started to feel a certain strain, he wasn’t losing health or armor, no, he was slowing down. A lot.

With 2 basic body control masteries still leveling up once every 2 days, he could resist the incrementing gravity slightly, but it wasn’t enough.

Having to move 35 tons continuously wasn’t a problem of maximum strength exertion.

He could lift much more than that, hundreds of tons wouldn’t be a problem, but the adaptation necessary to move such a charge over kilometers and kilometers was another problem.

Lifting one of his legs implied that he had to first balance his whole body on the other leg, without doing that, lifting his leg was equal to bending it because his foot wouldn’t lift up from the ground.

‘Maybe I know how to punch better than I know how to walk? That would explain why I’m so bad at it.'

Complaining inside due to how ridiculous it all was, he started to have second thoughts on proceeding further.

‘But I’m still so far from my goal…’

*Ding* Body Control: Basic Humanoid Body reached Tier 3 Level 67

*Ding* Body Control: Basic Prolonged Body Use reached Tier 3 Level 67

Like a taunt, the Ether law offered Rune an additional 2% body control efficiency, but despite getting an additional 100 equivalent strength to exert, it didn’t change the stupidity of how he needed to move.

‘Nope, doesn’t help, it’s not just a question of weight, going beyond a gravity of 500 means I’m constantly resisting against an acceleration of… I don’t know, 5 000 meters per second, so 5 kilometers per second? Strength is only a low-efficiency solution here…’

Having made up his mind already but trying to find an alternative, Rune was now pondering on whether to continue his adventure by going north or northeast, reducing the gravity gradually while also knowing that the IGS evaluated all the north side to be a monstrously huge mountainous region.

The only other choice was going back, and he didn’t want to go back yet.

‘Fighting in the gravity anomaly is a good way to get experience accumulation. I think my masteries will soon be able to become tier 4, so I should at least make them advance to tier 4 before thinking of going back.'

Opening his masteries, he wanted to confirm how much time his spirit masteries needed to reach peak tier 3.

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 3 Level 94

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 3 Level 100

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 3 Level 100

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 78

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 77

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 3 Level 100

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 3 Level 74

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 3 Level 72

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 75

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Armor: Tier 3 Level 100

Energy Compression: Basic Defensive Energy: Tier 3 Level 100

Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion: Tier 3 Level 69

Tier 3 Masteries

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Structure: Tier 3 Level 54

Body Control: Basic Humanoid Body: Tier 3 Level 67

Body Control: Basic Prolonged Body Use: Tier 3 Level 67

‘My defensive masteries leveling has slowed down so much… But I fought as much as usual didn’t I? Is it because I became so slow that in the end, I didn’t… That’s... Possible.’

This piece of information only reinforced his decision to change his plan, continuing his journey in the gravity anomaly would be less fun than he expected or desired.

Getting his ether tower out, he didn’t know what gravity was necessary to break it, but even now at… 512.8, it wasn’t enough, so he let it do its thing and then changed his plan.

No longer did he desire to go southeast, now he was going north, although a little slanted to the east, he wanted the decreasing gravity to be more gradual.

‘I’ll report more, I got this boosted ether tower, so why not use it till it breaks down…’

As he was making this decision on the fly, Rune had to adapt and think about what he wanted to do.

‘Why not do a pain test here?’

Reactivating his sense of pain, Rune felt like he was being gutted in real-time, so he quickly deactivated it and noted in his diary that normal gravity life forms should never activate their sense of pain at high gravity unless they were masochistic.

His journey towards his gravity limit was over, not because he couldn’t go on anymore, but because it felt stupid, too stupid even for him.

‘I’ll come back… When I feel like it, bye.’