“Long time no see, Joben!”

“Yup, this place is truly too interesting to miss on! I would have insulted you if you didn’t come!”

“You’ll be able to keep your engine on for months if you have the capability!”

“Those monsters are solid pieces of bone that won’t be sent flying easily! Perfect for reinforcement users like us!”

As if it was a planned play, lots of people acted as if they were best friends with him and returned his greeting with relaxed statements, and all those words felt true to Rune’s perception.

“Hahaha, sorry for being late in that case. But I'm here now! And there’s nothing better than making up for my past mistakes by absolving them with a big punch in the face of monsters, right guys?” His energy-infused voice exiting his larynx energy construct had a very honest tone to it, making everyone know that he really meant what he said.

Before people started to answer it, he continued, “Well, why wait for more?! I have like 3 days of mental power at full power left before my wife tells me to go to sleep! Hahaha! Now, let me try those weird bone spiders for myself!”

Not even had he finished speaking that one of his group members kicked him in the shin.

“If you want we can go to sleep now!” His wife, obviously, blurted out.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean that!” Quickly denying his past self, he tried to change the subject, “And look! My blood is already boiling at seeing this endless swarm of monsters! So I’m a bit high and cannot be trusted with anything I say!”

“Mmph!” Snorting at what her husband said, she eventually relented as the swarm of bone golems was truly too lively and eye-catching to be ignored.

“Well,” losing the happy-go-lucky tone in his voice, a slight seriousness and eagerness took its place, “3 days should be enough, right?”

The next instant, in everyone’s perception, not just Rune’s, the energy surrounding and being emitted by the unassuming Joben started to become brighter and brighter as he remained immobile.

The left and right wings of the front line formation weren’t affected, as was the backline, but as for the central front, the teams, and by extension everyone else, voluntarily opened what could only be called a “corridor”

A corridor that allowed the prospect named Joben to have a straight path towards conflict.

The intensity, density, and brightness of the energy kept going higher and higher around Joben, as if there was no limit to how much energy could be pumped into whatever he was sending his energy into.

And all too soon, a subtle aura Rune knew too much made its appearance: A regeneration boost’s aura.

It was a sign anyone would recognize as something important.

Then, the tier 4 solid ground under where Joben once stood cracked for dozens of meters around as he vanished.

And on the other end of the opened corridor, a visible shockwave made of air and energy spread, forming a distorted cone of disturbed ambient ether that could be seen by anyone.

At its center, the unmoving and fragmented remains of more than one single bone golem stood scattered about, with some fragments having been sent flying higher than Rune’s perception was able to see.

This moment was firmly engraved on his mind, it wasn’t just a testament to a single entity that entered a herd of sheep as a hungry wolf, it was a depiction of someone who went on a path that shouldn’t be taken by any entity below tier 5 that wanted to be self-sustaining.

‘All-in reinforcement?’

Rune didn’t even have time to process his claim that the entity responsible for the ether shockwave, an unnatural phenomenon that no prospects here were able to do in a practical fight-compatible and sustainable way, started moving again.

Seemingly having lost only a bit of his energy intensity, he teleported-ish to another place 20 meters away.

This time Rune put his all, even stopping trying to erode his target bone golem’s energy armor, at trying to make out his actions and the fluctuations of his reinforcement.

But even with that… It was just too fast.

His movement speed, his strike preparation, his actual punching, Rune was only able to see the end result of a first fragmented bone golem, a second punched through, and a third with half of its spine blown over.

‘What’s the secret? It’s just not possible at tier 4 to have enough reinforcement efficiency to do that.’

The whole IGS side of the front line seemed to be observing the newly arrived Joben rampaging at the center, blowing bone golems after bone golems as if they were tier 1 entities not able to react at all.

However, it was reality.

Reinforcement-user prospects at least had the decency to explain the situation to their less knowledgeable companions who didn’t understand why the one rampaging wasn’t already a tier 5 entity.

And by listening in, Rune also got his answer.

‘Reinforcement engine path? What kind of suicidal moron would start this path so early? How is he sustaining it?’

It turned out the prospects weren’t really the most talkative people, so they didn’t really give much to let him know how Joben was doing what he was doing: Using an all-in reinforcement path.

And he wasn’t just “using” it, he was incarnating it.

The way he was fighting wasn’t like the magia path that combined reinforcement with grand manipulation to create openings, it wasn't even anything close to any balanced paths that used reinforcement as an edge to their own style.

He was going at it like a behemoth, direct and violent, there was no better shortcut than a straight line to the objective, Rune knew this mindset more than he wanted as he loved doing it that way when he felt a bit tired.

‘Even a specialization taken to its third degree wouldn’t allow an energy regeneration like what he should be spending now… So there’s really only a single answer left.’

Calming down, he stopped being mind-blown by this prospect who was using a path that shouldn’t be used so early.

His basic knowledge about all-in reinforcement builds and paths, of which the reinforcement engine path was the most basic one, told him that using exclusively reinforcement without anything else was a bad trade without what was needed to back it up.

And what was needed to back it up couldn’t be acquired by entities that were less than tier 5.

That's why, better than believing what he was seeing, Rune preferred believing in what he learned and added in the most general constraint he could think of to explain the unexplainable.

‘Yup, I can’t think of anything else that would allow this to be possible. There’s a time limit. Probably something like a soul specialty dedicated to providing an ultra explosive energy regeneration for a certain lapse of time.’

Vowing to himself to crunch the subject during his next break, he focused on his own fight again and ignored the rampaging prospect that had the efficiency of a tier 5 entity.

…

‘Yup, completely sub-optimal no matter how I look at it.’

Rune gave his definitive judgment as he saw the math he did himself.

‘Minimum is 200% for his reinforcement fundamental, another 200% for his doubled down class path, and 8 times 400% for his 8 provided reinforcement masteries. That’s a total of 3 600%.’

He didn’t get the number of 8 provided reinforcement masteries by asking, he got it by listening and hearing it repeatedly.

‘Converted into tier 4 energy regeneration, that’s 166.7 energy per second, so it becomes a constant sustainable reinforcement equivalent of 6 167 energy per second, which translates to a continued 617% reinforcement-based strength boost… And that’s less than my current… Hu… That’s less than what I know I have!’

Having once again proved his point to no one but himself, he brought up his masteries and leveling notifications, curious about his progress in the unknown amount of time he spent fighting.

*Ding* Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct reached Tier 4 Level 69

*Ding* Physical Fundamental: Body Control reached Tier 4 Level 69

*Ding* Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression reached Tier 4 Level 69

*Ding* Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division reached Tier 4 Level 65

*Ding* Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element reached Tier 4 Level 0

*Ding* Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element reached Tier 4 Level 1

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense reached Tier 3 Level 95

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense reached Tier 3 Level 96

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure reached Tier 3 Level 95

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure reached Tier 3 Level 96

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor reached Tier 3 Level 95

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor reached Tier 3 Level 96

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression reached Tier 3 Level 88

*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression reached Tier 3 Level 89

*Ding* Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body reached Tier 3 Level 89

*Ding* Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body reached Tier 3 Level 90

And it seemed he really had no idea how much time he spent fighting.

‘Well… In my defense, the majority of people I’ve seen fighting when I started are still at it! So it’s not my fault I…’

Doing mental calculation to retro-calculate the time he spent fighting as he tried to find useless excuses, he arrived at a somewhat impactful result.

‘That’s more than a week at least…’

Wanting to have an overall view, he opened his masteries.

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 4 Level 70

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 4 Level 69

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 4 Level 69

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 58

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 58

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 4 Level 69

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 4 Level 8

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 4 Level 65

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 24

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element: Tier 4 Level 1

Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion: Tier 4 Level 82

Cohesion: Specialized Endless Adaptation: Tier 1 Level 8

Tier 3 Masteries

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense: Tier 3 Level 96

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure: Tier 3 Level 96

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor: Tier 3 Level 96

Tier 4 Masteries

Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression: Tier 3 Level 89

Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body: Tier 3 Level 90

Awareness Division: Specialized Sense Invocation: Tier 2 Level 15

‘Well, while I’m impressed at my past self for his dedication to making me enter the tier 4 great grind, it still doesn't change the fact that my single body control mastery grants me a more steady output than his wannabe reinforcement engine-like build.’

Going back to why he checked his notifications to begin with, he changed his calculation from the minimum mode to the maximum one, a mode that turned Joben into a late tier 4 entity.

‘For maximum, it’s 300% for a peak tier 4 reinforcement fundamental, still 200% for his class path, but if I take that his slotted masteries are half-maxed tier 4, it’s 8 times 500%. That way, the total is 4 500%... Or a continuous reinforcement-based strength boost of 766%. Mine is 649%!’

Finding happiness in an interpretation of the result that didn’t represent reality at all, he soon stopped deluding himself and stopped translating a reinforcement-based bulb into a body control-based one like the one he used.

‘4 500%... It’s clearly a number that will make his transition to tier 5 a world-shaking one. And talking about word-shaking, what’s the threshold in impact strength to cause a shockwave at tier 4 ether density? Now that I think about it, I only saw visible shockwaves at the pillar hotspot and on very few occasions against monsters I don’t want to remember facing.’

Searching directly for “shockwave phenomenon tier 4 ether density”, he got what he wanted.

‘So his every move really went over the equivalent of 1 000 000 strength during all his opening… No wonder he stopped after only 10 minutes to take a break of half an hour then. He’s really a suicidal maniac who took an extreme build, and that’s why some prospects are saying he’s too ambitious for his own good.’

Not agreeing or disagreeing with any opinion, Rune finalized his research on the subject of Joben, a prospect that had left the front line a few hours ago to go to sleep after he pulverized hundreds of bone golems by himself.

After his departure, the whole formation seemed to have entered a lull period. More than half of the people that had been fighting intensely for the past few weeks also retreated, some went on a break, some went to sleep, some went to do their own things, even Rune decided to take a break after Joben departed.

That led to the current situation he was seeing: A stilled front line that didn’t advance or retreat.

The scouting platoon turned advance force still hadn’t come back despite more than a few days having already passed.

Questioning whether he had correctly understood their role as an advance force, which he understood as a force that should have come back after only a few hours, Rune condensed himself a pair of spiritual eyes before looking towards Tolevia.

‘Oh, yeah, my bad, sorry for the misunderstanding.’

He could still see them, they weren’t really that far all things considered.

As for what they were doing, they were fighting, primarily, but surely the presence of a few inside standing buildings told him that they weren’t just doing that.

‘Scouting platoon one day, scouting platoon forever? Well, not like it’s that serious around here, look at all those prospects chilling and sleeping in the backline, hehehe!’

Thinking of the prospects as some sort of military designation could only be considered wrong, “prospect” was just a somewhat official recognition of potential attributed by the IGS, exchanging their present and future potential for direct benefits.

So while the greatest benefits obviously came from becoming a “true patroller” prospect, the majority, from what he understood, could only be considered as sub-military prospects, a balanced contract that stood between military restriction and adventurer freedom.

‘While I’m at it…’

As he wondered what to do next, he remembered something.

‘I know it’s a bit of a stupid idea I got while fighting against this particularly annoying bone golem, but what can I do? I never thought about doing it for good reason.’

Mobilizing his awareness, he didn’t do it half-heartedly as his idea was a big one, so he took control of all the awareness he could. Retracting all that awareness that made his spiritual eyes, he even went further and diminished the awareness allocated to maintaining his perception sphere’s full functioning.

‘Being able to do something doesn’t mean you should do it, but if you can really do it, why not try for the heck of it?’

Justifying what he was about to do, he made sure he was completely hidden in his cosmic mist and put to execution his “I’m able to do it” sense invocation idea.

In his spirit, the awareness he controlled started to flood 5 general areas that corresponded to physical senses he had naturally lost since he entered the bone region and came under its special warped law.

‘Sight, touch, thermoception, hearing, smell, taste…’

All over his skeletal physical body, awareness gushed out as it tried to restore what he had lost for more than a year but hadn't thought about trying to get back everything at the same time.

It didn’t take more than 10 seconds for all the awareness he could mobilize to be sent on all those physical-based senses and for them to start manifesting in a tangible way.

And accompanying this tangibility was the actual senses’ feedback. It wasn’t just a single feed that Rune felt as he had done before, it was… Lots of different ones. And all more intense than he remembered them to be.

‘They’re made with a spiritual foundation after all, so it’s no wonder. Or maybe it’s just because I lost them for too long? So I lost a bit? Probably not.’

*Ding* Awareness Division: Specialized Sense Invocation reached Tier 2 Level 16

‘Well, of course it’s worth a level, why wouldn’t it?’

Nearly overwhelmed by all the awareness-boosted sensory feedback he was getting, he was happy to be hidden in his cosmic mist, there was also a visual to what he was doing after all, and it wasn’t exactly pretty.

His awareness, once sent through his sense invocation specialization, took on the appearance of a translucent and illusory mist, and as he had willed his sense of touch to be invoked…

‘Mmh, yeah, pretty neat if I ever need to incarnate a ghost or a spiritual life. Though I’m sure I can replicate the whole aspect with a bit of color creation and push it further with a silver coating of intent.’

Fantasizing freely for a moment, Rune ended up enjoying his full sense invocation mode for 10 minutes before dismissing it without exploring it further like trying to taste a rock or drinking something and getting to his next item: Checking things online.

It has been a relatively long time since he had last checked what the IGS was up to.

Nonetheless, the moment he thought about checking the news, he remembered something… Objectively important.

‘Did Miri and Miro? Penguin… Completely forgot about them… Bad big brother! You’re a bad big brother Rune! What would your parents say if they knew it?’

Still believing in the slight possibility that they could have also forgotten about him, he hopelessly opened their respective contact pages.

And saw their respective answers to the long message he sent them weeks ago.

[Miri: I don’t need to receive advice from someone who’s not even facing me.]

[Miro: You’re dead to me.]

‘Sigh…’

Completely understanding the half-comedy half-serious undertone, he started to write an answer mostly composed of “Have mercy brother”, “I’m on a secret mission”, and “Talk to me when you took part in creating a successful company and reach tier 4”.

Once done, he closed everything having to do with communicating with other people and finally went back on the track he wanted: Checking the news.

However, when he opened the very obvious and distinguishable web address of the minimalist official IGS news site, he was shocked to find that its makeup had been completely modified.

What welcomed him was a simple-looking search engine and an endless list of categories ranging from “Adventurer” to “Politics” to “Culture Festival'', without forgetting oddly specific ones like the “Ethership” one or the “Stairway To The Arcadia” one and passing by categories like “Major Expedition Front” or even “AREC Ranks” and “AI Core”.

‘So there’s no something like a general category anymore? Now that I think about it, with the amount of news… Yeah.’

He only had to think about it a bit more to realize how truly massive and diverse the IGS had become over the recent years.

‘It’s a rework that should already have been made some time ago as long as logic is used.’