‘What’s so scary about jumping in a bottomless hole? I did that for multiple weeks straight when I first-’

Free falling at a relatively “slow” speed, Rune was interrupted by Astryde and a few seconds later Arik, who joined him after finally taking their respective decisive steps.

Once they neared him enough, they started to accelerate beyond the terminal speed together.

At 300 meters per second, their perception reached the end of the tunnel in ten minutes, and in eleven they exited the tunnel physically.

And already… Patrollers were fighting in multiple locations in his perception.

‘So it’s true…’

Seeing was believing, and he now had no other choice but to believe everything he had been told about the monster activity in the bone region.

“Let’s not take risks, fighting airborne is too much.”

Not even awaiting an answer, Rune released cosmic mist at full power. In an instant, the group of 3 was swallowed by a bubble that made them invisible to a vast majority of the monsters that could be found in a normal way.

With just 20 minutes being necessary to reach the ground, taking this precaution was maybe a bit too much, but the 3 knew they were under-leveled compared to what they considered to be the “minimal threshold”, so they did it anyway.

Fortunately, they had gone through 2 months and a half of adventuring re-education prior to this moment as otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to switch from a comfortable urban lifestyle to what they needed to be now.

With all his organic senses having stopped existing, Rune had reassigned his awareness mainly to his perception, but not completely, an awareness cloud didn’t work that simply after all.

So from the awareness state with the least amount of strain he found, a state he named “natural” mode, he pushed it to “enhanced” mode.

This enhanced mode was an awareness configuration that completely cut off his physical senses and differed so much from the normal state of his awareness that the effort necessary to keep it that way was enough to equal half a passive awareness training method.

‘Let’s not push it more than that for now. It wouldn’t surprise me if I needed to temporarily include momentum as part of my fighting style for the near future…’

Being the only one able to see past his cosmic mist bubble, he couldn’t help but bit by bit feel the thrill go up.

The closer they were to the ground, the more monsters versus patrollers scenes that entered his perception.

‘Not being able to see more than 10 kilometers… Yeah, I think I realize now why that one said the scouting department was essential to even survive. At least it's a fair field as neither us nor they have access to natural vision.’

19 minutes passed just like that, the group unbothered by the more and more active fighting scene that was unveiled before them.

When the ground appeared in his perception, Rune remembered famous quotes present in the guides that explained what happened from tier 4 onward.

[Monsters will always remain infinite as, as long as the monsters themselves continue to kill each other, the ether will one day naturally repopulate entire zones with the same tier monsters as the ether density, allowing the true monsters to find new challenges and evolve without any need of sapient’s management.]

[When we, so-called intelligent entities, have only a hundred years or so of lifespan remaining after enjoying a leisurely life, we go and die trying to reach further. This cycle is only a bit different from that of the monsters, but who am I to judge this cycle?]

All those quotes were things he knew by heart, the guide and the net in general made sure everyone heard them enough to be able to make an entire thesis based on them.

‘Let’s land away from this madness.’

The patrollers had their own methods, and the Undecided also had their own, so Rune took the arm of Arik with one hand, and Astryde’s arm with the other, and made them change their direction.

Knowing them, however, he momentarily created a hole in his cosmic mist’s bubble, allowing them to see what was happening directly below them.

Then he closed it and they continued getting away from the hotspot of “IGS versus wild”.

‘Let’s not get too far away yet. Me underestimating the Endless? No kidding.’

Getting 70 kilometers away, the number of patrollers in his perception had drastically diminished, and he judged it was a good place to land.

The landscape was between a steep bleak plateau and a very weird canyon, flat land and gigantic faults marred all his perception was able to see.

What completed this alien landscape was of course the main source of activity and movement: The monsters.

Patrollers hadn’t intruded here, they joined. What Rune saw in the majority weren’t patroller versus monster fights, but monsters versus monsters, with more monsters that continued coming from one direction, using the only large-scale indicator available to guide them towards new opponents.

‘It’s so easy to tell there’s a major fight in this direction now that I focused all my awareness on the right aspect and know what to look for…’

The ground vibrations.

They were the key to all the monsters that kept on coming from further and further away. Without traditional vision or specialized senses, it was the easiest way to know things.

Once they landed, Rune freed his two friends and prepared a special bait. From the classic sound and light bait he used before, it didn’t take much effort on his part to come up with a slightly different sound and “very” spiritual light bait.

As it was linked to his fireworks hobby, he already had the solution he needed in his memory, and he just had to adapt his 3rd stage intent to allow the brightest spiritual light spot to appear in his perception sphere. As for the subject of spiritual sound…

It was on his to-do list…

It was a really big and complete list last he checked…

The moment the bait was finished, he changed his full power intent to the new iteration he would use a lot for the near future, one where the 2nd and 3rd stages were slightly modified.

‘And that’s how it begins…’

Astryde and Arik exited the bubble but didn’t go much further while Rune remained close to the bait.

‘My exploration immortal fighting style is finally going to see some intense use. As for my masteries…’

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 4 Level 40

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 4 Level 16

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 4 Level 17

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 36

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 36

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 4 Level 16

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 4 Level 6

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 4 Level 34

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 11

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element: Tier 3 Level 4

Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion: Tier 4 Level 31

Cohesion: Specialized Endless Adaptation: Tier 1 Level 5

Tier 3 Masteries

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense: Tier 2 Level 99

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure: Tier 2 Level 99

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor: Tier 2 Level 99

Tier 4 Masteries

Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression: Tier 2 Level 72

Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body: Tier 2 Level 78

Body Control: Provided Prolonged Body Use: Tier 2 Level 78

‘1 154% additional energy compression efficiency, 529% additional body control efficiency. Respectively 2 090 armor per second and 62 900 strength, at least I’ll not lose when it’s a 1 versus 1, right?’

The bone region didn’t disappoint his expectations.

The apparition of 2 new entities and the most blinding and annoying light of their life prompted multiple monsters to change course, heading straight towards them.

As they neared, Rune stopped having complex thoughts, his fighting instinct took over and started analyzing everything it could. His perception was powerful enough for him to judge nothing could hide from it, limiting the number of crisis plans he had to create.

The first monster reached their position and true to its tier 4 state, it was a kilometer away an instant, the other it accelerated to the point that in under a second Arik learned his normal strength wasn’t enough to fight it.

Rune didn’t have time to observe for much longer as another monster arrived, it ignored the fighting Arik and the lonely Astryde, much more preferring to extinguish the light bait.

With his enhanced mode, Rune saw when the monster made it clear his objective was his bait, so he prepared himself.

The appearance of this monster wasn’t that of what would result from an animal that got through a bone transformation, it was a true bone monster. Six limbs, bone plates, no exaggerated weakness like a human’s spine, a simple but efficient killing machine totally adapted to this unique region.

When the monster penetrated his bubble, he took action and used the moment it “crushed” his bait and realized its perception had been completely extinguished to make the first hit.

A simple hammer strike, testing its resistance to his full strength.

It resisted.

Completely.

Not even a flinch to cushion some of the force.

Not bothered trying to know if the problem was his strength or if the monster had an energy armor, he kicked it and used the rebound to escape its major turn and counterattack that came a tenth of a second later.

With the monster still in a confused state due to losing its perception completely and having missed the thing that just hit its energy armor, Rune hit once again when it stopped moving.

3 such exchanges happened before the monster got out of the cosmic mist bubble, where the blinding light reappeared at the same time its perception did, making it return.

This time, however, it hit something.

Rune put himself in its way and interrupted it on its way. He wanted to try its strength, see how much damage he could and would take.

This monster still hadn’t shown its specialty and specializations, so he remained careful and kept observing even when they collided and started exchanging punches and kicks from one side, and grabs and limb-strikes from the other.

The match-up wasn’t on Rune’s side, but he never thought it would. Weird moves that defied his imagination and fighting instinct like chained reinforcement with 6 limbs put him at a definitive disadvantage.

And that was including the fact that the monster didn’t have its perception anymore, it was blindly wrestling around and sometimes got something.

When Rune’s armor got down to half its total of 125 000 after 2 minutes, he backed down, allowing the monster to once again escape the bubble.

‘Seems like I’m not as feeble as I expected to be. That’s good news.’

…

The first hour of battle allowed Rune to find his own rhythm.

More than that too, his bubble attracted some lonely patrollers. The concept of private property didn’t really exist in a chaotic fight, and it wasn’t like the group of 3 was going to ignore potential deadly situations others went through under their perception.

Those patrollers only passed by and used this bubble as a “resting spot” before departing again, but remaining a few kilometers away.

Not saying anything, Rune sometimes boosted his light bait to a miniature-sun level, largely enough to captivate all the monsters able to see it. It was the only thing he did but it said a lot about his overall general focus.

“I also say we just go, damn the consequences!” Using a lapse of battle on his side, Rune added his opinion concerning their immediate plan change.

After this first hour, the group of 3 had understood that their initial plan of training for a few months to get their masteries up had to be changed. The monster activity of the bone region wouldn’t allow them to train peacefully if they didn’t make round-trips to the front base.

It could even be said that being near the front base was in part responsible for their plan being impossible.

“Agree!” Arik agreed after sending a reinforced punch that sent an ugly bone monster flying. With him, that made the whole group that agreed on the same opinion, Astryde having been the first to forward this change of plan.

“Then let’s go steadily towards the archeological site we want! I have the map so just tell me the codename and I’ll start moving the bubble!” Responsible for their anchor point, Rune asked for their itinerary.

Astryde was obviously the target as she was the one that needed to go to an archeological site to use her time watcher specialization, so she entered a deadlock with her own mindless monster, momentarily allowing her voice to reach him clearly, “Site number 19! 19! Ten plus nine! 19!”

Getting the information he wanted, Rune entered his bubble again and used his connected screen to find the direction he needed to take. Ether thanks the internet connection was still up so he was sure there was no problem.

‘Site 19…’

Finding it easily, he didn’t dilly dally and re-established a firm connection to his cosmic mist, taking control of it in a much more direct way than before.

With this control, he started to push the whole bubble in a certain direction and away from the hotspot.

At first, it rolled slowly, but then it picked up speed as Rune kept exerting control over it.

‘And now!’

Feeling comfortable enough after getting a feel for actually fighting in the bone region, he went on and started his ultimate adventuring morale booster.

‘It’s time to activate the boosted speaker belt project!’

With a simple energy manipulation, the small but very powerful speakers he bought for a little fortune back in the capital turned on.

His cosmic mist didn’t disrupt the connection with his paired connected screen as a playlist he had long since completed began to play.

(Break Free (Lead The Way) - Super Mario Odyssey [OST] - https://youtu.be/DYXvB8gLf_g?list=PLzQ3v4Ut8qOabHYZUMqk7-4LZyNePMpjK + The Remix by RetroSpecter is fantastic)

A piece of music that was first released at the singing competition of the prospects finding event and took its place in the top 10 was the piece he selected as the first music to grace his perception in the bone region.

“Smash through the blocks that bar your way-yeah,

No time for fear just let it all fall away, all fall away,

Nobody believes in me and you!”

His cosmic mist’s sound absorption was strong, but his perception was stronger, so nothing could block him from entering his adventuring phase state.

‘Now that’s how I want to start my adventure!’

Motivation overflowing, he pushed everything he had to its limit.

The bubble of cosmic mist, himself, Astryde, and Arik, started to accelerate.

And they continued accelerating.

More and more.

They accelerated beyond 300 meters per second, 400 meters per second, 500 meters per second…

They all had more than 1 body control provided masteries, their team had exchanged their long-range ability for an excellent ground speed. They didn’t have energy specialized members, but they adapted to it.

Creating and following their own battle rhythm they created over the 2 months and a half before they arrived, they got the ball rolling.

600 meters per second, 700 meters per second, 800 meters per second…

The strength necessary to go at this speed was 52 000, and they all had above that, but Rune stopped accelerating there.

The remaining margin would allow anyone getting left behind or locked in an intense confrontation with a bone monster to catch up easily.

Rune of course didn’t intend to keep this speed. Between risking dying due to not having made enough preparation and training progressively and steadily until they could go all out on the adventure part, it wasn’t hard to select the right choice.

‘But for the next few hours!’

A monster was charging at his bait directly from the front.

Increasing his speed to its maximum, all of his 62 900 strength was mobilized, he went to the absolute front of his rolling bubble.

‘It’s having-fun time!’

And they collided in the most violent way.

Rune felt the loss of more than 20 000 armor. That’s what he had to spend on his side for the monster to instinctively deactivate its own energy armor’s total shock absorption property and be sent flying at hundreds of meters per second to the side.

*Ding* Physical Fundamental: Body Control reached Tier 4 Level 18

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense reached Tier 2 Level 100

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure reached Tier 2 Level 100

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor reached Tier 2 Level 100

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression reached Tier 2 Level 73

*Ding* Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body reached Tier 2 Level 79

*Ding* Body Control: Provided Prolonged Body Use reached Tier 2 Level 79

‘Tier 4 having-fun time!’

…

The thrill of going against more powerful entities reached a threshold after 2 hours passed. It was at that time that Rune decided to slow down and reset their situation, so he exited the bubble and explained very concisely what he was going to do.

“I’m resetting!”

Stubborn monsters had chased after them for those 2 hours, and there were more than 50, so he turned off his bait and made his bubble levitate a bit from the ground.

Arik and Astryde entered, Rune grabbing them to make sure they didn’t exit accidentally.

Then he propelled the bubble and himself towards the distance, leaving behind a chaotic battlefield full of mindlessly aggressive bone monsters.

A few minutes later he landed again and confirmed no monsters were heading where he was.

Grabbing Arik and Astryde, he exited the still cosmic mist.

He reduced his music to allow his voice to be heard clearly, “We’ve arrived at the bone region, please make sure all your belongings are still with you before departing. Thank you for using Rune’s Airlines! Hope we see you again soon!”