In the Adventurer’s Society HQ, on the fourth floor, this entire floor was dedicated to support teams.

“Your social credibility is very high following your two recent expeditions and the associated reports, so your status as a tier 4 entity has already been confirmed. It doesn’t give you additional benefits except if you explicitly search for them in different services,” Olivia explained behind her screen.

A white desk, tens of screens, new generation connected lenses, if she turned her head to the side, she would be able to see other persons, her colleagues, soundlessly talking like her with multiple screens turned on.

“Yup, and I’m going to use one of those services, the one with the composite element faculty, I already got the form, just have to complete it, that’s why I was asking if I got the tier 4 status,” Rune’s voice was transmitted to her in response to her explanation.

Being the first support of an adventurer was sometimes easy, sometimes hell.

Hell, as in, the adventurer contacting you every time he puts his tower down, reports done half-heartedly, hiding details, forgetting important parts.

Summarized, anything that involved a loss of hard data made the first support’s side job more difficult.

“In this case, you can go ahead. As I said when you left half a day earlier, you’re totally free now, until you start your next expedition that is.”

“Yes, yes. Well, that’s it, just wanted to ask this, bye Olivia.”

“Goodbye, Rune.”

Her relationship with her assigned adventurer was a friend at best and a familiar acquaintance at worst.

The psychological analysis team was too overworked to start making profiles for every adventurer, so she used her gut feelings to navigate their relationship.

But despite the difficulty involved in supporting a hard-working adventurer, after he discovered a potential deadly anomaly or a special region transition, she got a successful psychological profile request in, so she only had to wait.

Professionalism and seriousness were things she knew she had, and she used those strengths to correctly do her job, which she ended up separating into two parts, the first support part, and the support team part.

When doing the first support part, she needed to slowly proceed, discover new procedures she would have never read, communicate with totally different departments, and learn to recognize the hierarchy in those new places.

It was hard, harder than the other part of her job, but from contacting the defense department, the science department, the territory department, the prospect department… She wouldn’t be able to categorize everything, she was only a human.

She got access to making contacts and gaining contributions with her efficiency.

As for the second part, that of being a member of a support team, she had to help manage the massive administration, guide new employees, alpha-test new software, make reports concerning potential upgrades to all the processes she did…

It was more chaotic overall.

Before arriving here, she was still part of the gigantic administrative structure of the IGS, but she was only an exemplary employee.

After volunteering to go on the other side, her worldviews had to evolve.

She could quit anytime, she could change position if she asked, she could disappear in the wilderness if she desired.

Some of her colleagues from the time where the IGS was still stammering about had already quit, becoming singers, instrumentalists, private company owners, even adventurers.

Never before in her life did she realize how “Freedom Of Choice”, a key principle of the IGS, was so powerful against the fickleness of sapient’s minds.

If she had any doubt or reluctance at doing her job, she could leave without any repercussions.

After more than 3 years, however, she admitted that sitting behind her desk, managing everything, learning how to be more efficient, helping others, just doing her best was something she liked, so she never doubted that in the short term, she wouldn’t change her vocation.

Focusing her gaze on a supplementary option of her software, she saw the whole screen freeze and lag, only refreshing ten seconds later.

“Optimization report, software… 12-16a, just caused a freeze at desk A24, refreshing necessary to make it functional again.”

Habits were good, habits were fine.

Her life was good, her life was fine.

…

Landing on the balcony, Rune observed that the energy-compressed table and chairs had dissipated.

Through the window door, he saw the barrel of infused fruit juice, probably left here for him if he needed more.

‘How thoughtful, well, I’ll miss the next festival as I have to do a purge, so thank you.’

With no shame at all, he entered, took the small barrel, nodded at Adreana, and once he compressed a 5 000 energy armchair because he felt like having an armchair this time, as well as a table and a glass with as much energy, he started the purge process.

‘I already did at least 5 right? One for taking my infusion, another one to replace it to become tier 3, then another to take back my slot for my specialization… Yeah, I thought 3, not 5, why would I say 5?’

Accessing the guide, he went to the beyond section, probably the most popular but also the most useless section of all the guide.

‘Beyond Purge, cannot be made into a mastery. Reputed very easy to get. Understand the process of purge, and make it become a manual process. Will allow you to reduce the time to do a purge from 7 days to 1 day.’

‘The Information Board record for fastest beyond purge obtention was Lu Faus, at tier 2, after 865 purge processes. Time taken totaling 6 055 days, or 16 and a half years, passed in the purging process. Further investigation opens the possibility that the majorities were not completed, but aborted after the first day, before being restarted.’

He tried to feel what was happening inside his body, but other than the nausea, vertigo, and the feeling of wanting to die, he felt nothing.

Completely fine body, fine ether soul, and fine awareness cloud.

He only checked for the heck of it, he had no intention whatsoever of trying to get even a small peck of understanding about the purging process.

He was a tier 4, he had multiple millennia left to live, and he wasn’t even 30 and he hadn’t surpassed his biological age limit yet.

Being in the middle of the south capital sector, his internet connection was topped, so he opened a news website and from them got the links to get to the true new generation entertainment website.

And with the popularization of cameras…

A few minutes later.

“Hohoho! Hahaha! Why would he do that! Hahaha!”

Struggling to not move too much, he realized once again that one of his favorite hobbies was watching entertainment.

…

At night, the capital transformed.

Walking in a sparsely populated street, Rune finally understood a bit of the ambiance the city architects wanted to create.

With no moons in this region, nights were totally dark, not a bit of light.

For ether life forms it wasn’t that much of a problem, but if the IGS had to ignore everything for the sake of “efficiency” and “optimization”, then it wouldn’t be the IGS anymore.

The goal of this city wasn’t to remedy the problem of the nights being completely dark, obviously, it was to instill a sense of belonging and appreciation to this place, accepting this city as the home you had to come back to one day.

Rune could think about various ways to achieve that, with the first and foremost way being making it unique.

Bands of neon lights pulsed, dim lights and shadows contrasted, 300 meters high buildings had their shape drawn in the sky by different motives or simply turned on neons.

The streets were still a bit bare and flat, but not having to manage urban circulation was one of the reasons the city was so unique.

It was silent.

It was close to empty.

Visiting the area he was in wasn’t done randomly, it was premeditated.

At first, he wanted it to be random, but then one of the extra steps in his plan had changed his first urban exploration into visiting an acquaintance.

Arriving at his destination, it was one of the, maybe the, highest buildings, standing at 450 meters, of the area, that of the extreme west district or the south sector.

Possibly due to being too recent, all the streets and buildings didn’t own any proper names yet, only numerated and alphabet designations.

The flow of people entering this building was steady and probably very little compared to how much it could contain and accommodate.

It wasn’t like the HQ there, he just entered and there was no reception, if you visited, you had to know why you were here.

With prior indications, he got to the stairs, climbed them to the 42nd floor, with 10 meters being attributed to each floor, he wondered why so much, but then he remembered how stupid a lot of his decisions were, so he stopped judging.

Once on this floor, he walked through the corridor, it wasn’t maze-like, but close to it.

And then he arrived at his destination, which was confirmed by looking at the glamorous sign.

“The Secluded Corner”

Rune had no idea what was behind the door, it was completely perception-protected.

Not emitting any judgments concerning the name, he only read the sign that was at the entrance.

“Not Yet Open”

Having already asked permission from one of the owners, he entered and closed the door behind him.

What welcomed him was a gigantic window bay opening on neon-shining towers.

Bar stools, lone high-tables, and empty cocktail glasses were everywhere.

There were other people, but they were all gathered at one place.

The masterpiece of the considerably sized room, the bar itself.

The mood of the room was still being created, but the warm orange lights already transmitted a bit of what was expected in the future, once it was complete.

When he entered, he attracted the eyes of everyone present, including his only acquaintance.

The one he focused his attention on was one of the three present azorans, the only female one, who he knew was named Lenya Molrar.

The one who gave him 30 glasses before, and they exchanged contact due to appreciation and a few gut feelings.

That’s how sociality worked, you never knew who you would end up friends with.

Perhaps because she expected him, she smiled as she pointed at one of the bar stools already ready, with a cocktail already there.

Counting Rune and Lenya, there were 3 others who remained silent as he approached.

Hearing the ambient music, he deactivated the one he was playing and greeted them all at the same time.

“Good evening everyone,” he didn’t need to infuse energy or intent in his words, they were all from the IGS here and learned to talk the IGS common from their birth.

“Good evening to you Rune, how do you find our not-yet-finished bar?” Lenya asked for his still burning first impressions.

Sitting on the barstool, he answered, “Very contrasting with the mixed neon lights outside, I don’t know if the name is giving away some sort of meaning to it but the color arrangement at the bar gives me a warm and serene atmosphere.”

“For an amateur, your description is not bad, a pity that you’re too much of an amateur and didn’t start ranting about the table and stools dispositions, the window view, or anything really,” she clearly teased him.

“Hehe, maybe I’m still too much in wilderness and purge mode, so I wasn’t really receiving all the subtle necessary hints you wanted,” smiling bitterly, Rune tried to justify himself.

“So you reached tier 4? What does it feel like to know you’ll live multiple millennia?”

Totally ignoring the 3 other persons, she made small talk.

“I feel that I’m now guaranteed to one day step onto a floating island, I also feel that possibly in the future, I’ll be able to appreciate lots of other entertainment I’m currently not able to enjoy as they should be.”

“Well,” one of the 2 silent azorans interrupted, “I don’t know how you get to know a tier 4, but I’m nearly certain your kind is pretty rare at the moment.”

Finally deciding to taste the cocktail a bit, he sipped a bit.

It was one he already tasted back with the 30 glasses, and he had loved it.

“If only it was that rare. Some reached it months ago, even one of my group members reached it a month ago, the others of my group are probably the same.”

Thinking for a bit he added, “But yes, we’re comparatively rare compared to the now uncountable number of people who came to this side, I don’t think it can be expressed with a percentage, too much zero, and only diminishing in real-time too.”

“Lenya told us you were an adventurer? And not a prospect? No! Don’t answer, it was a stupid line of question. I got better, why don’t you tell us how beautiful our human barmaid is, according to your standard?”

Rune didn’t turn his head, he already knew it was a major case of bullying.

“Can’t describe.”

“Too much above even my most undreamable ideal.”

The final occupant of this room was a woman.

Rune would describe her as petite, with discolored hair, and comfy but stylish fitting clothes, exposing her white skin colored by the ambient lights, but that was all he could say, her bust, her size, her body itself, as much as Rune, a complete amateur in the matter could say, wasn’t that big.

It was… Proportionate.

Like the perfection she was, he for sure knew it wasn’t a golden ratio or anything about aesthetics, it was just proportionate.

Everything appeared as it should be, but not in the transcendent side of beautiful, it was just… The more he looked, the more he realized how beautiful she was.

Finally turning his head, he gave his final judgment, “If I was a charismatic prince, I would have proposed already, I think it’s bullying to ask this question. I also think it’s witchcraft.”

The 3 azorans smiled, happy with the result of this survey.

The woman remained silent.

“Oh believe me, when the bar officially opens and she puts on her evening dress, her flower, her pouting, and glacial expression and uses all her power, you’ll beg to get a single hello from her,” the curious azoran who asked the question about her said.

“We’re already suspecting she reached beyond beauty, but she won’t tell us, she was already beautiful back before the Ether Law, but now, it’s just Woah, you can’t and we can’t describe it, and as he said, you’re only seeing her normal form,” Lenya followed.

“So that’s it? You got a bar, you gathered some companions, and now you’re chilling at night, getting inspiration to correctly shape the mood of your bar?” Rune changed the subject without hesitation.

“Yes, that’s it as you said, we four knew each other before and tended to a pretty prosperous and highly rated bar before the Ether Law awoke, so we just decided to switch places and start-over,” Lenya started the official explanation.

“With greater challenges, that is, getting this bar asked us to show we were true challengers, the private gastronomy industry is exploding lately and we were lucky to have a solid and complimentary group, let me introduce you to our group.”

She pointed to the azoran who bullied him with the sacred question.

“This is Karayan Costin, charged with cooking. Back then, making appetizers was his job, he’s very good at it and makes mouth-watering dishes with the wave of his hand. If you’re friendly enough, maybe he’ll make a full meal for you, he had no choice but to learn how to make them considering the necessary build.”

She pointed to the second azoran.

“This is Brand Brand, same first and last name, charged with mood making, supplies, decorations, advertisement, he’s the equivalent of a rululu when it’s about the bar, useless when it’s about his own life.”

And then she pointed to the pretty woman.

“Angeni Sonia, charged with serving and slight mood manipulation, the reason we were highly rated and prosperous was that she tended to… Attract, the opposite gender, beyond the species barrier,” she grinned at that last statement.

“Though she wasn’t nearly as beautiful as she is now…”

But she wasn’t finished as she pointed at herself.

“Lenya Molrar, charged with bartending and mood animation, the figurehead of the bar and someone who loves to hear stories and gossip.”

Then the roles were reversed, as she pointed at Rune.

“This is Rune Tudor, a tier 4 adventurer, he wanted to explore the city to find unknown corners, literally, that’s what he said to me when he contacted me, so I led him there, at our Secluded Corner.”

The wordplay wasn’t lost on anyone here.

“When are you planning on opening? I have a meeting with the research leader of the composite element faculty of the IGS, and I have to define the place where it takes place, and she said, I quote, find a good place, please.”

Brand was the one who answered, “We’ll not open for at least another month, but if you’re meeting such a high rated target, then we can use it and allow her to transmit our position and high-quality service to another high rated target, so we can make an exception.”

The 3 others didn’t say anything, he was clearly in charge of this area as Lenya introduced him to be.

“Well, I don’t know if it’ll succeed but you can try, if we’re meeting a second time I’ll ask her if she’s okay with this place, this way I’ll be able to give you a review.”

“How thoughtful of you, here, have another cocktail.”

“This will be good advertisements, in addition to being entirely natural, hehe.”

“How cute.”

“You’re already a bro.”

Rune didn’t think what he said would make the silent woman finally say something, and certainly not something like that, as for the cook's appreciation, he was ready to reciprocate in the future.

Now that his composite element meeting place was settled, certainly more easily than he expected, he could change the subject to something he liked a bit more.

“So, how many energy tastes have you acquired since last time? And why not add a bit of context, did the spiral ocean affect your plans? Was it really that hard to get this place? It certainly looks very prominent, and for me, it’s a very good place for a business…”

Not even trying to answer his question, the 3 azorans and even the woman shook their heads slightly.

“Well, it’s obvious that you never entered a high bar before, so I’ll teach you bit by bit, but the first rule in our bar, which you obviously can’t know as we didn’t post the bar rules panel yet, is that…”

She took a glass from behind her, filled it with a bit of some bottle, a bit of another, added a shining yellow liquid, then mixed the whole with her energy.

And she served with a slight smile.

“You talk over a drink.”