Compared to the hotspot battlefield present below the tunnel and the front base, the 10 kilometers around the place Rune landed looked much more like what they expected to see before arriving.

A few monsters fighting, a unique environment… A classic unique Endless region.

“Your cosmic mist is really…” Arik muttered.

“A lifesaver?” Rune completed what he said, “Find your talent and you’ll have the same result, it’s that simple.”

“I can hit things very hard, but the world keeps proving to me that it's not my talent…” Appearing a bit lost in his thoughts, he replied in a not-really-a-joke tone.

“Maybe you didn’t do it right? I started using and creating intents years ago, but I only realized it was my talent after fully entering the crafting path. I didn’t find anything official and clear like that in the guide, but I think there is a reason paths exist.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a smart-ass, aren’t you? Let’s go,” ignoring Rune’s haphazard theory, he started to walk forward again.

‘I do consider myself a fine smart-ass, though I’ll never say it out loud.’

As monsters had yet to start charging at them, the group leisurely advanced and Rune decided to use this short slice of peace to open his diary and make a new entry.

Now could be considered the true official start of their adventure in the unique bone region. Everything that happened before was the bothersome preparation phase that he already summarized in a previous entry.

He quickly understood that learning how to use his energy to type on his connected screen had a better efficiency compared to using his voice, so he already got some practice in.

Their objective, archeological site 19, was neither near nor extremely far, and in fact it didn’t really matter for Rune. He had already fully regenerated the adventuring mindset he had during his mountainous region adventure and time or distance weren’t important things anymore.

Those were things he completely delegated to the people who received his ether tower feedbacks, he believed in Olivia and the support team of the Adventurer’s Society.

The only thing that mattered for him now was the adventure itself, fighting, moving, discovering, taking breaks, thinking about life…

5 minutes was the time they were given before a monster came from beyond his perception, it had probably just won its own battle and decided it didn’t have enough, so it headed towards them.

It was strangely fast.

‘I’ve seen tier 3 monsters with more cunning than that. Are all the monsters of the bone region really etherly spawned?’

However, it wasn’t hard to find a monster faster than them, so deciding to entertain the monster himself, he took a step forward to indicate it as he increased the volume of his music.

He wasn’t in the mood to think about complicated matters or make complex hypotheses about an entire region, so he let his own thoughts go in the direction his fleeting instinct wanted as the monster neared dangerously close.

‘Or maybe… I’ll finally be able to see with my own figurative eyes what a repopulation looks like?’

Excited and amazed at this prospect, he prepared a cosmic mist bomb and kept it suspended behind him, then he engaged in close combat with the bone monster that had yet another appearance he had never seen before.

The encounter happened normally at first. He stopped it, without using his cosmic mist he was weaker in this type of direct confrontation so he tried to equalize the situation, he used his cosmic mist bomb in hope of resetting the board and make his health erosion strategy begin anew.

Except this time, when it lost its perception it didn’t react in the way Rune wanted.

It activated something and sent a strike with one of its bone limbs that immediately found purchase.

Everything occurred too fast.

So fast in fact that Rune instinctively deactivated his armor’s shock neutralization, he had already lived something like that before and such an answer was the best general answer he also used.

And then he felt something hit his back as his perception suddenly changed.

The ground was what touched his back.

And what was above him was the bone monster ready to hit him with something.

Something that shined extremely brightly and vibrated enormously in his perception.

Fighting instinct taking over, he didn’t even form any thoughts about the sudden situation. He put his energy armor spell matrix inside his energy pool, giving it unlimited and uncontrolled access to it as he tried to slide to the side while punching with all his strength the thing coming his way.

It all took place so fast that neither Arik nor Astryde could react.

For them, Rune was ready to receive a seemingly very heavy punch, but then he appeared below the monster and a gigantic explosion happened, even impacting them who were a hundred meters away.

If they still had an innate voice they would have exclaimed, they had just landed and started their journey, only to suddenly encounter something extraordinary.

The two reacted as fast as they could as they rushed to the center of the explosion in under a tenth of a second.

The explosion had been so violent that all the cosmic mist had been swept away, its environment integration property useless in the face of what happened.

As for Rune, after the initial contact with the strike nearly annihilated his armor, he manually created a hole, letting the strike go through him and breaking his spine, vanishing more than half of his health in the process as he lost more than half of his humanoid skeleton.

His fighting instinct told him it was that or losing all his energy and maybe more.

The bone monster immediately tried to strike again, but Arik arrived and a massive reinforced punch sent it flying away, freeing Rune in the process.

Astryde took over the monster that had shown its true color as not any tier 4 monster, but one with at least maxed stats and unique tricky style.

Arik remained near Rune, who used momentum to lift what was left of his body and get away from the fight.

His energy armor was already back and protected him completely so he didn’t feel he was going to die, but having lost his legs, his mobility had been so heavily impacted that even if he saw a strike coming, evading it was wishful thinking.

He didn’t think a minor health boost was necessary, he only stopped infusing his energy with cohesion the moment he was freed so his body started to regrow quickly, in 30 seconds he would be back to normal.

Astryde was being extra careful in her battle, preparing herself for a massive deadlock at any moment. Arik was observing carefully, ready to intervene at any moment if something similar was to happen

Half a minute passed quickly, and as Rune had the last few bits of his bone feet regrow, the bone monster made its majestic reinforced strike appear again.

The group of 3 didn’t know anything about the limit of the monster’s specializations or specialty, so they didn’t really know how to react.

Arik was already reinforcing his legs, Astryde was ready to create a hole in her armor if necessary, and Rune…

Rune ended up below the monster.

Again.

His perception told he was there one moment, the other, its center was teleported to another spot. It was a really efficient stun method, he had lived the same situation not even a minute ago but he was still stunned.

This time, however, his fighting instinct and logic told him that using the same solution was foolish. A mindless tier 4 monster was still a tier 4 monster.

As the strike descended once again, it appeared to be the exact same, but Rune didn’t even entertain the thought of creating a hole in his armor this time.

In place, he activated his minor energy regeneration boost and minor health regeneration boost and churned more and more cohesion-infused energy.

Arik had already reacted, Astryde too, but the monster and Rune were too close, so the explosion still took place.

Except this time there was no crater.

*Ding* Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression reached Tier 4 Level 17

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense reached Tier 3 Level 0

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure reached Tier 3 Level 0

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor reached Tier 3 Level 0

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression reached Tier 2 Level 74

Under the boosted regeneration state, be it for health or energy, the highest he was capable of doing was double his normal regeneration for a few dozen seconds.

That was the maximum duration he could do it before suffering a completely disproportionate weakening period of a few hours.

Arik arrived at that moment, ready to rescue him, but the monster magically teleported him and he had a hard time stopping himself, so it gained itself a few seconds to finish the one it had already locked below it.

‘It really isn’t that mindless!’

Rune was struggling hard. The strike was still ongoing. The explosion happened, the massive energy reinforcement was used, but the strike was still there, waiting for an opening to happen, waiting to reduce him to dust.

The strike emptied close to everything he was able to provide. More than 250 000 armor vanished to feed the ambient ether, but he regenerated 4 200 cohesion-infused armor per second and kept resisting the horrifying bone monster that was trying to finish him off.

His struggle finally gave him a new lease on life as Arik and Astryde finally arrived.

But this time it wasn’t a situation they could take leisurely.

Rune grabbed the bone limb trying to finish him and anchored himself to the ground. If he was alone, he would be sentencing himself to death by doing that, but he wasn’t alone.

Killing this monster wasn’t a training-related subject anymore, Astryde approached and locked the monster too, busying it as Arik also started dealing massive damage.

He was specialized in strength, so once he started punching, the monster shifted its focus from Rune to him as it tried to block the damaging strikes.

With the help of 2 annoying flies nonetheless, Arik fully used his strength advantage and overcame the defense of the bone monster repeatedly.

Yet, what the group was facing was a true tier 4 monster, and as it felt death nearing, it activated its own health and energy regeneration boost as it started to thrash around.

Half through the monster’s boosts durations, Rune’s own boosts came to an end and his natural regeneration got cut by more than 90%.

From 4 200 armor per second, he got down to 210 armor per second.

Considering he had no dedicated masteries, such a cost was only normal. Regeneration boosts even with dedicated specializations were costly, not to even consider without.

Not hesitating one bit, he retreated and recreated a cosmic mist bubble as the previous one was too scattered and a bit far. Continuing to fight in his state would only worry his friends, it was better for him to stay away.

Tens of seconds later, the bone monster didn’t succeed in freeing itself and its boosts ended. For the first time, the group saw a tier 4 monster go berserk.

Thankfully it didn’t change anything, and under the unending assault of Arik and Astryde, it stopped moving suddenly 20 seconds later.

From the moment Rune collided with it and it died, not even 3 minutes had passed.

Even after the bone monster stopped moving, however, the group waited for one thing, the ultimate sign that it died.

The death sign appeared a few seconds after the end of the fight as a core started to form inside the corpse, and Arik went forward to pick it up before sending it inside his ether pocket dimension along with the bone remains.

With the threat having disappeared, Rune stopped hiding.

“I think that monster had largely earned its place as our first kill.”

It was their first time killing a monster since they arrived in the bone region.

“You good Rune? Not that I believe you can be affected by losing half your body,” Astryde asked him after he cheekily said his piece.

“I’m relieved to have been the one targeted, though it would have been better if Arik had been in my place.”

“Oh, that’s true now that you mention it, if only…” Arik seemed to agree with Rune’s analysis.

“My little brother told me once that he had seriously considered becoming a prospect. It’s not new that Nelo wants to further his path in a more… Intense way than us… But do you think that’s what he wants?” Emotionally staring at the crater where Rune lost half his life, Astryde asked them this question without looking at them.

His lower half had already been disintegrated the moment it was cut off, swept away by the energy of the monster’s strike, so what remained was only a 20-meter wide crater in the very hard ground of a tier 4 ether density zone.

“I think he’s more the death-from-afar and apocalypse-explosion type, so fighting 1 versus 1 against monsters that overpower him shouldn’t be one of his priorities,” Rune started a bit hesitatingly, “But if you add his stubbornness to the equation, maybe he wouldn’t be that averse to this type of fight?”

“Why are you mincing your words after nearly dying? Learn how to be completely honest and matter-of-fact at all times like me,” Arik didn’t like how Rune was beating around the bush and sarcastically criticized him for it, completely ignoring the subject.

“Nearly dying? If you weren’t here with me, I would have remained inside my cosmic mist and this monster would have only dreamed about teleporting me.”

“It was too sly for that, it would have punched the ground or the air and scattered your bubble to get to you. And that’s if its forced teleportation even needed you to be in its perception,” he sharply answered, and the argument was there.

“Oh… Maybe?” It seemed as though being in the wrong or the false had no effect, “Let me write that in my after-fight document, I already have some ideas I need to write anyway. If only my cohesion-infused energy and my element could cohabit together…” Uncaring about following with a logical answer, he started to note things down.

As Rune disconnected from their reality, Arik and Astryde looked at each other in mutual understanding.

“You think there are a lot like this one?” Astryde said, probably planning to discuss important points.

“It doesn’t matter,” but unexpectedly, Arik didn’t even try to answer, or it was more that he answered in his own way, “I realized and concluded one thing from this encounter, and It’s that only Rune could have had a chance of surviving if any of us were alone. As for everything else, it really doesn’t matter, our plan remains the same.”

“Sigh…” Exasperated to the point of sighing with her larynx energy construct by her two unique friends, Astryde could only give up pursuing a rational and logical discussion about what they did wrong and right.

“It’s fine,” she comforted herself aloud, “It’s just a few weeks before we settle down…”

As the three each got back to do their own things, they slowly got back to moving towards their destination.

This encounter hadn’t revolutionized their mindset, they just ascertained that they were truly in a tier 4 zone’s heartland.

…

*Ding* Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct reached Tier 4 Level 18

*Ding* Physical Fundamental: Body Control reached Tier 4 Level 19

*Ding* Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression reached Tier 4 Level 19

*Ding* Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element reached Tier 3 Level 8

*Ding* Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion reached Tier 4 Level 33

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense reached Tier 3 Level 4

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure reached Tier 3 Level 4

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor reached Tier 3 Level 4

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression reached Tier 2 Level 88

*Ding* Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body reached Tier 2 Level 93

*Ding* Body Control: Provided Prolonged Body Use reached Tier 2 Level 93

‘Oh, dear.’

When Rune brought up his leveling notifications, he was surprised to see so many at the same time. What he expected were only the notifications coming from his tier 2 provided masteries that gained a level every day.

‘Another tier 4 level in energy compression? Is it because I’m fighting with monsters so much stronger that we end up fleeing every time there are more than 4?’

Two weeks had passed since the 3 Undecided landed on the bone region’s monster-infested ground, and according to their map, they would soon see other sapients again.

‘This leveling rate is very close to 1 level per week, isn’t it? And for my tier 3 masteries, it’s…’

He slid up on his note document, wanting to see the leveling rate of his tier 3 masteries

‘One level every 3 to 4 days? And it’s been stable for 2 weeks already. But there doesn’t seem to be an effect on my passive leveling rate…’

Fighting with his own data, he was interrupted a few minutes later as a hazy figure appeared in his perception.

The figure was obviously stealthed and was obviously a patroller considering Rune could see a hazy uniform-contoured humanoid figure.

It was heading their way, and with a slight suspicion in his heart about where it was going and why, he created a hole in his cosmic mist and allowed it to see them.

‘If it’s a humanoid monster, I’m retiring for a few days, I swear.’

He was so sure of his conclusion that he even waved at it. Very explicitly with his two arms.

The hazy figure changed its trajectory, and while Rune didn’t know if it was his obvious waving or the music playing from his belt that attracted it, he nonetheless welcomed the figure inside his bubble when it reached them.

Not wanting to uncover all the group just to discuss peacefully, he used one of his most simple but flawed solutions: Empty cosmic mist sphere configuration.

His 3rd stage intent not being as refined as the 1st, the flaw was obvious, but canceling the 2nd stage intent was even worse as it would allow the monsters to see empty space emit sound waves.

In any case, for him there wasn’t a definitive solution yet, it was on his to-do list.

Arik and Astryde were surprised by this change as for them, there was no 4th person here.

But then, Rune dispelled their confusion with a simple sentence.

“Hello, are you a patroller scout from site 19?”