Arik handed him his camera.

That was it.

‘That’s it?’

Rune was surprised that he was only handed a camera.

“You only want some video files? Nothing else?” He asked, more in confusion than in curiosity.

“And what would you do with the rest of my stuff? Draw the scenery?” Arik practically sneered at him for asking a stupid question.

“Ok, no drawing then, your loss. I need another tower too, in case I need to make a very strategic retreat and leave one behind. You should also keep your feed open in case I’m going to die and need help,” relaxed about what was coming, Rune started telling of how he would do and act in this short but potentially very intense scouting trip.

“Mmh,” grumbling in answer, Arik unhesitatingly took out his own tower and let Rune pick it up, then he ascertained his connected screen’s parameters to make sure he wouldn’t mess up on this side.

A few minutes were enough for him to make sure it was all ok. Once he was done, it was time for Rune to say a temporary goodbye.

“In 16 days there’s going to be a tug of war with strength-specialized tier 4 to showcase a new rope material, so don’t go crazy,” casually bringing up a weird fact that made Rune’s spiritual eyes shine an eerie light, Arik returned to Astryde’s side to continue engineering their plan.

As for Astryde, she only waved one of her bony hands once she heard he was departing before ignoring him and returning to her own connected screen.

‘A tug of war? That promises to be entertaining.’

Energy thrumming inside him in expectation of what he was about to do, Rune first prepared himself mentally.

Intent creation was a very unique field in that it depended a lot more on fleeting mental states than pure instinct.

With enough training and repetitions accumulated over more than a year of intense adventuring under his belt, he easily reached a mental state he found to his liking and created a sphere of cosmic mist that would be used to infuse his intent.

Without waiting, he created from thin air all the core concepts that made up the intent that allowed his monolith composite element to go much further in terms of perception and senses interference than it should.

Proficiency and experience guided him, he didn’t do it the slow way with 1 concept after another as it was something he had done thousands, tens of thousands of times already.

12 concepts were all he had to create, with 3 of them much, much more developed than the 9 others.

Mentally fusing all the concepts together, he didn’t bother with stage differentiation and allowed ideas and links to be established.

Only after he reached his limit in creating the general framework did he separate the 12 concepts into 4 mental areas.

1st stage, spiritual perception extinction: Blinding, obfuscating, interfering.

2nd stage, physical sense extinction by absorption: absorbing, extinguishing, undisturbed.

3rd stage, spiritual sense absorption: Isolating, blocking, bending.

4th stage, chaos interference: Chaotic, warping, infinite.

For the 2nd to 4th stages, they had only sporadically changed and never voluntarily, so they were not only very easy to separate, they were also pretty much only there to create synergies and links for the only stage that was worthy of its name: The 1st stage.

As for the 1st stage, it was the last area Rune focused on. It wasn’t hard per se, it wasn’t even time-intensive, it was just that the mental complexity inherent to the 3 concepts of blinding, obfuscating, and interfering, as well as their interactions that he had reached couldn’t even be compared to the other 3 stages.

He had never bothered to come up with a digitized system to measure his perception-extinction power before and after his intent had been infused in his mist.

But for his perception that had a soul specialty boosting it in perception penetration power to be near the breaking point of finally being unable to see his infused mist anymore, it told Rune everything he needed to know.

Feeling the intent he created after taking his time, he finally entered the last phase of fine-tuning.

‘I really surpassed myself this time.’

However, he felt nothing wrong even after feeling it for a whole minute, it was even a bit beyond the one he thought he would have.

‘Now I’ll not be able to complain at all if I get caught. It’s really the best I can make as of now.’

Looking far ahead towards the ruins of the city of Tolevia for the last time with his spiritual eyes, he willed them to disperse and come back to his spirit.

‘I’m clearly doing the same preparation I would do for a solo terror unit mission. That’s a bit more thrilling than I expected. How many things can potentially go wrong here? Dozens? Hundreds?’

Despite not having a biological body to pump adrenaline, Rune found himself exiting his relaxed state and entering a challenging mind state.

Losing his sight and getting all his awareness back, he didn’t even try to find a balanced or sustained state and went all-in on his perception’s sensitivity. He wanted to be able to react to the slightest ether movement around him.

With all his preparations complete, he cut off his music feed and ultimately couldn’t find a reason to procrastinate and covered himself in a condensed layer of cosmic mist he infused with his full potential intent.

Creating a complete bubble wasn’t even remotely necessary or useful as his 3rd stage wasn’t up to par at all. That was to say, even if he created a 100 meters of radius cosmic mist bubble around him, his perception could still effortlessly penetrate through it all.

Then, he took his first step, a solid step that instantly propelled him at a speed of hundreds of meters per second.

Nonetheless, such a speed wasn’t his maximum, it was far from it.

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 4 Level 69

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 4 Level 66

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 4 Level 66

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 58

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 58

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 4 Level 66

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 4 Level 8

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 4 Level 64

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 23

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element: Tier 3 Level 96

Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion: Tier 4 Level 80

Cohesion: Specialized Endless Adaptation: Tier 1 Level 8

Tier 3 Masteries

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense: Tier 3 Level 91

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure: Tier 3 Level 91

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor: Tier 3 Level 91

Tier 4 Masteries

Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression: Tier 3 Level 84

Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body: Tier 3 Level 85

Awareness Division: Specialized Sense Invocation: Tier 2 Level 14

After 3 months of traveling, he had finally gained enough level for his body control additional efficiency to be 636%. And with it, his maximum steady strength went up to 73 600, or in other words, just above the threshold of 72 000 allowing someone to reach a kilometer per second in straight flat speed.

As for his most cherished energy compression fundamental, the total additional efficiency he had was 1 980%. His armor regeneration per second had reached 3 466 and his total pool of armor was 208 000.

Those numbers allowed Rune to feel accomplished. He had firmly entered the territory of middle tier 4 behemoth-type builds, and if he only wanted to flee, he was certain few things would be able to block him.

‘Only my perception is a potential giveaway, but thanks to my genius past-self, hehehe…’

Thinking about how he came up with a solution in case the extraordinary possibility of monsters being able to trace him back with his perception as he continued to accelerate, he nearly wanted the situation to happen.

Reaching his maximum speed in 5 seconds, he started to use his momentum control to moderately ease his continuous acceleration and diminish the potential sounds he emitted by attenuating everything.

He had already decided that this scouting trip would end up with him being completely undetected, so he didn’t hold anything back in terms of spirit’s strength.

All-in perception’s sensitivity awareness and full momentum use made him feel a moderate strain he hadn’t felt in a long time, but this strain proved that he was going at it at 100% to himself.

A few minutes passed before he started to see what he supposed to be the monster species of the nest.

Four supporting limbs connected to a solid bony and scary spine that was more of a segmented bone block. Four other limbs connected to this part, serving their purpose as multi-use pseudo arms. There was no head or anything that could be even vaguely related to it.

Overall, what Rune was seeing was the purest bone monster made to survive in its environment.

After ten minutes of traveling towards Tolevia, the first obvious trace of the city appeared in his perception: A road.

The ground had been flattened and a visible separation with the normal rocky plain was faintly visible, and for this difference to be only faint after a thousand years of natural erosion, it was a telltale sign that the road he found wasn’t a normal road.

‘Astryde will like that. Probably.’

Not finding any reason to not use this road that was obviously going to lead him to where he wanted to go and that allowed him to not follow his connected screen blindly, he happily started to follow it.

Quickly, building foundations made their appearance followed by a few walls still standing. The monsters occupying the place all looked the same, so he took it upon himself to name them the bone golem species, the bone golem monsters.

A total of 15 minutes had passed from his first step, and now Rune was finally starting to make sense of something that had been bothering him a bit.

He saw a bone golem with an additional 4 limbs. Its previous 8 limbs were not only bigger, its overall size had also increased.

‘It’s pretty much confirmed it’s a nest then. Though it’s a very weird hierarchy… I don’t think those I saw patrolling around… Were they even patrolling?’

Monsters with different growth stages were a type of proof that nearly confirmed the presence of a nest. But even with the proof before his eyes, some contradiction still existed in his mind that remained to be cleared.

Kept hidden by his cosmic mist, Rune observed how his environment had completely changed from the rocky plain he had become used to seeing in the past 2 months to a ruined urban environment swarming with small and big bone golems.

Yet, he knew that what he was seeing wasn’t even close to what he had seen with his own eyes from far away.

Ruins were everywhere around him, ruins as in remains of buildings that have been destroyed, but what he read on the net was soon proved true as standing buildings started making their appearance.

How did they stand the test of time?

Simple. They were made of materials created by someone belonging to the gardener path, the ether build path specialized in creating and growing materials that couldn’t be found in great quantities or at all naturally.

‘I’m not even downtown and there are already such buildings. Even at Drunrith there weren’t any buildings still standing outside of the center…’

Expectations climbing through the roof, Rune continued going further and further inside the city undetected.

The standing building became taller and taller, the bone golems also became bigger and more menacing. It didn’t take long before bone golems with yet another set of 4 limbs appeared, quickly superseded by yet bigger ones with 4 more.

From 20 total limbs or 5 sets onwards, the lower 4 that were used as pseudo arms took on a new role as pseudo legs, joining another set for a total of 8 supporting limbs.

The spine also became larger at its base, allowing for the now 8 pseudo legs to act freer.

And such a cycle of bigger buildings and bigger bone golems went on for… 2 whole uninterrupted hours.

‘What the penguin!’

Simple math told Rune he had already long surpassed what his sight should have allowed him to see, what was around him weren’t just skyscraper-level buildings, bone golem with 4 sets of limbs as legs had also become the average.

Their size had increased as much as the buildings had, and they were still as lively as their much smaller counterparts.

‘Is this city a freaking sub-capital or what?! I can’t hold on anymore, I need to take a look!’

Not even talking about some massive buildings still having preserved writings and items, even the streets now had names on very catchy signs.

If all the rubbles were swept away… That’s all he could think about.

‘This city is just deserted, not razed, not attacked. I’m nearly sure all the destroyed ones are due to the bone golems having a bit of fun.’

Climbing a building reaching as high as 400 meters, Rune temporarily stopped overloading his sensitivity and created a pair of spiritual eyes.

With the specialization allowing that having reached tier 2, his awareness instantly exited his spirit’s boundary and formed what he wanted.

Once he felt his sense of sight coming back, he created a new cosmic mist sphere and infused it with an intent that omitted the physical senses part. With it, he covered his head and then made his fully powered mist retreat, allowing his eyes to see a sight he hadn’t thought would happen at all.

In the far distance, a distinct massive bone golem standing on dozens and dozens of limbs, the massive blurry ether figure he had seen before from a thousand kilometers away, was standing immobile. That wasn’t that much of a surprise as he had expected it.

However, the fact that there wasn’t only one but 8 of those massive figures… That wasn’t something Rune had even thought about before seeing it with his own eyes.

‘Well, now that’s a challenge worthy of my fighting style. Overcoming something much stronger than me has always been my goal, and while I’m certain I’m nowhere near this one, it has been too long since I was reminded of my own smallness!’

The idea of becoming an annoying fly that couldn’t be killed, a pest that kept on trying something impossible, slowly overcoming an opponent much stronger, going over his limit in perfection, but still never going for risk and preferring to back away and start again.

‘I don’t have a time limit.’

Concluding his hyping inner monologue on that thought, Rune took out Arik’s camera and started recording his surroundings.

With an eye for details and the desire to capture the objective truth of the amazing place he found himself in, he even entered a few buildings to record their deserted inside with items lying here and there.

‘Hehehe, would people think it’s fake because the bone golems aren’t reacting to me? So true.’

Once done, he sent a last look at the city that expanded in literally all directions for at least a thousand kilometers and, seeing no major landmarks or suspicious colored ether that could point to a nest, moved on.

He covered himself in his complete cosmic mist and overloaded his perception’s sensitivity again, confirmed no bone golems were reacting strangely and started navigating through the nearly intact streets of Tolevia.

Yet, when 2 more hours passed and the city still kept on going seemingly endlessly, with the bone golems that didn’t seem to increase much in size… His common sense started to send pings of alarm he couldn’t help but notice.

So he stopped once more and took to the air as he condensed his spiritual eyes again.

Looking behind, looking left, looking right, standing buildings, bone golems everywhere. Looking ahead, more buildings, 8 giant bone golems that hadn't gotten anywhere closer…

‘A city that’s thousands of kilometers wide? Completely possible. A city that’s thousands of kilometers wide in a tier 4 zone that isn’t even the outpost capital? A bit weird. A city that’s tens of thousands of kilometers wide in a tier 4 zone that isn’t even the outpost capital?’

Various explanations popped in his mind trying to make sense of what he had lived and what he was seeing, and while he wasn’t certain something was wrong, he started to base his hypothesis on something actually being wrong.

‘First is distance warping, second is an anomaly. It’s one of these two. But what are the possible causes? A different ether density, an ether current, a dimension’s linking zone, a natural anomaly, the monster’s nest, a true-blue tier 6 or 7 monster…’

Thinking of everything his knowledge allowed him to, he tried to create a somewhat realist explanation by linking all the observations he had made so far.

‘We didn’t encounter tier 5 monsters that could hint to the existence of a tier 5 ether density close by, so while it’s still possible, the ether current theory and ether density theory are somewhat out.’

Proceeding by elimination, he started pinpointing the most probable situations.

‘A natural anomaly always has signs of it existing. There’s nothing.’

‘A nest covered in ether that affects the world must have a cause-effect link to the monsters that have created it. The bone golems are clearly just killing machines, nothing more.’

‘A tier 6 or 7 monster in a tier 4 zone? If it isn’t half-sapient then there’s no explanation. The region is also too inhospitable…’

Once he was done, Rune was left with only one explanation that, despite not making sense, was the most probable one.

‘A dimension’s linking zone.’

Not immediately setting his mind on this very weird conclusion he could counter-argument with tens of different ideas from the top of his head, he decided that ultimately, he had thought things through and the only way to become certain was to move on.

And to move one, he needed to head deeper into this weird city that didn’t seem to have an end, with the possibility of being seen and swarmed at any moment.

But before that, he had to act according to his theory.

‘It’s been so, so long since I last opened this one…’

Bringing up neither his status nor his masteries, he brought up the general system.

Dimensions

EP Market

Status

Gathering Log

Masteries

And then he opened the dimensions window.

Dimensions

It was empty.

As it should be.