Faced with the new and foreign website interface used on his reworked favorite news site, favorite because all the news on it were all confirmed by the IGS itself, Rune couldn’t help but go on a slightly philosophical rant.

But thinking over this rework in terms of more than just an appearance redesign, he found in himself an endless source of logic and reasons that said a simple truth: It was better this way.

It didn’t even take him a minute to come up with a new activity he would be able to do as a form of entertainment: Clicking on a category and scrolling down.

This new way of breaching a totally unknown subject would not only make him get a feel for it much quicker than searching for it online, it would also be a way of entertaining himself that would even allow him to be up to date on the subject once he was done.

‘And also… Now I’ll simply be able to totally pass over every category that doesn’t interest me! Goodbye AREC ranks, goodbye AI core, goodbye massive festival with genius singers and amazing performances that I’m not able to be at!’

Putting to the test his new idea once he stopped finding reasons the rework was amazing, he selected a news category he had long been interested in as Lounae was directly linked to it but that was just too big for him to follow it easily.

Clicking on the “Major Expedition Front” category, what was displayed was yet another seemingly endless list of words, though this time they were not stand-alone but put into sentences he was very familiar with.

They were news article names. A very long list with a time of publication listed next to them.

Some were pretty short and straight to the point like “Latest surveyed area summary”, some others were uselessly complicated, specialized, and convoluted, like “Transportation time table, a survey of all the difficulties and problems encountered for people wanting to join the expedition front without paying millions of EP”.

But all those names formed a whole that Rune was extremely familiar with, he could even feel a certain sense of nostalgia at this display, like the minimalist news site he had known hadn’t really changed, just grown up.

Browsing through all the news articles released in that category for the past few months easily, one in particular attracted his interest.

‘The gravity anomaly sub-major expedition front is reaching tier 5 ether density and its accompanying problems, are they closing in on the core? Now that’s a title that automatically makes me want to know more!’

Not even trying to hold his curiosity back, he opened this article and started to read it enthusiastically.

‘Tier 5 monsters are a pain to deal with, but… Very high chance they’re approaching the anomaly core… The endless mountain region major expedition still hasn’t seen signs of reaching tier 5 ether density, so…’

Quickly becoming absorbed into all the new knowledge provided and actual considerations that were talked about, he got the perfect picture of what state the gravity anomaly expedition had once been in.

Even all the conclusions and opinions that were talked about seemed completely logical.

The comparison with the major expedition front that still hadn’t reached tier 5 ether density despite being much deeper in terms of distance compared to where they were in the gravity anomaly had led to a whole “article within the article” that Rune absolutely loved.

‘If only I waited only a month more before reading this… I’m sure by that time I would have been able to read the conclusion of this expedition.’

Going through a few more interesting-sounding articles, this time about the real mountainous region major expedition and not the gravity anomaly sub-one that split from it, he spent more than 1 hour just reading about something he wasn’t involved in at all.

Once he satisfied his curiosity about the front Lounae was deployed at, he went back to the list of categories and used the search engine to search for something that should have come to pass.

‘And here it is.’

Being redirected to the “Gardener Path” category after using the “tug of war material presentation” keywords, he started browsing yet another slice of the IGS he knew close to nothing about.

…

“I’m sure they were surprised! It was only a pretty secondary material after all, the company that created it is even a small one that was recently established from what I read!” Rune explained his latest greatest finding to Arik who had stopped fighting a few hours ago.

“Ah, yeah,” he didn't appear to care that much, but still listened to everything calmly before acting like he was the mature one, “You know the neon gold buzz happened more than a week ago, right?”

“I don’t care if it’s already has-been, it’s just so interesting that the whole after tug-of-war event’s advertisement purpose had its lighting stolen by a small company who only asked to surf on the event,” still enthusiastic about everything that he read, he didn't let down his level of interest.

Yet, Arik made a point of reminding him of the cynical reality, “It’s just a pretty material, nothing ground-breaking about it. You can even buy it at a cheap price online.”

“Well, I’m all for prettiness above functionality. For me an accessory made of neon gold is much better than whatever obsidian crystal thingy or rustic starred emerald,” Rune argued back from a different standpoint.

“Just use a bit of intent and any accessory you want will become eye-catching,’ he impassively answered, making Rune go silent in reflection and closing the debate once and for all.

To be sure the currently enthusiastic wouldn’t start another useless discussion, Arik continued by throwing a new bone, “There’s a new article that made the buzz a few days ago. It’s been published in the mastery path category and it’s named ‘A record supported by the globalized information board of the most extreme paths and their precise associated builds discovered in the Ether Law’.”

Not acting dense and getting the cue that he wanted to be left alone, Rune followed his wish and surrounded himself in cosmic mist as he vanished to find a place to finish his break.

‘Or…? Should I sleep? Do I feel tired?’

Asking himself whether he had been awake for close to a month or not, he decided upon actually feeling a bit tired that checking this interesting article would be his last activity before taking another sort of break.

A nap break.

The instant he started thinking about how tired he was though, he really began to feel the exhaustion he had until now ignored as he was either too focused on training and fighting against bone golems, or recently under the hype of the reworked news site

‘Well, let’s see what this buzz is about.’

Confirming he was nicely isolated even from the backline by a few kilometers, he was ready to lie down and read until he fell asleep but stopped himself in the middle of it.

‘Wait…’

Surprising himself by the different timings all coming together, he mobilized his awareness and started invoking his sense of touch.

A cloud of illusory awareness covered his whole body in a few seconds, effectively giving him back the ability to feel things by touch.

Then, it was the turn of his energy to be mobilized as he began using it to shape an extremely simple and familiar construct: An energy mattress, a soft, bouncy, and spongy one.

‘Thank you past me, you gave me all the tools necessary to make this happen.’

Lying down, he basked in the long-lost sensation of lying on something soft and feeling the different pressure put on his body.

‘Ah…’

Not even trying to think more about this marvelous discovery, he just reveled in it and used his energy in conjunction with his connected screen to finally start reading about some “most extreme paths in the Ether Law”.

Like that, as exhaustion started peeking its head above the water more and more, Rune got to learn about paths and builds that took things that shouldn’t be taken far… Too far.

A path that allowed someone to transform their perception sphere into a laser they projected over thousands and thousands of kilometers… The perception laser path.

A path that focused only on creating massive spatial bombs that would teleport any threat, even higher tier entities, to millions or billions of kilometers away… The spatial… Nuke? Path.

A path that specialized in creating a clone made of health, energy, and a massive amount of awareness… The perfect clone path.

And as darkness overcame his mind and spirit, a last thought made itself known.

‘I forgot to do the Dream set-up again.’

Then he was asleep.

…

Waking up with his sense of touch and the linked feeling of lying down on something bouncy and soft made Rune want to continue lying down for much longer than he wanted.

You only realized the true value of something once you lost it, that’s a saying that came out of his mind. But then he continued it by thinking that recovering what you lost was really something worth losing the thing in the first place.

And on that last very warped thought, he arrived at a disturbing conclusion.

‘So I need to lose things to enjoy them more later? Am I a repressed masochist?’

Dismissing the funny inference, he increased the volume of his music that had kept playing as he slept. It wasn’t the perfect theme, but whatever, it still fitted somewhat.

‘No need for any warm-up or stretching. I just need to… No, I don’t even need to stand up in fact. I just need to use a bit of momentum and I’ll be joining back the front line that is still in my perception that I only see as a place to train in... In a few minutes at worst.’

Realistically thinking about what he was doing, Rune didn’t even attempt to convince himself that cleaning Tolevia was something that needed to be done at all cost.

It was just coincidentally the best thing to do at the time.

‘I wonder what Astryde is doing? I didn't see her fighting at all. Maybe she just initiated a deep dive to observe the traffic or something like that? It’s not like she would change anything if she was here anyway, we’re on the same level on that point.’

Pursuing this train of thought as he delayed the resuming of his training to get all his fighting masteries to tier 4, he added a touch of self-mockery.

‘Though if we consider the whole “Tolevia initiative” thing, then as a time watcher she’s straight-up more important than me. Me? Well, I’m a happy nobody! Now that’s a good combination of words! Let me write it somewhere.’

For 10 minutes Rune played around with his connected screen, wondering if he really wanted to go back now or later.

Ultimately, the itch for punching some bone golems won over and he felt his spirit go back to its alert state, as if warming up for what was about to come.

‘As a happy nobody, I don’t need to consider anything! Left wing and that’s it! What’s going on around it? I don’t care! I have a whole month, and I won’t believe anyone who says we’ll not reach the outer city by then! Let’s go!’

After hyping himself sufficiently, cosmic mist gushed out and formed a condensed layer around his bones, overlaid above his armor layer.

Taking control of the cosmic mist swirling around him that had kept him company during his sleep, he stood up and enjoyed the feeling of the soles of his feet feeling a sense of pressure from the ground before dismissing his sense invocation and recalling the awareness he used.

It didn’t take him more than a minute of motivation-boosted steps before the whole front line formation appeared in his perception.

‘The curve is a bit more pronounced? It really looks like a half-circle now.’

Observing everything as he headed towards the left wing, he couldn’t help but compare the current formation with the chaotic, messy one he had joined… Weeks ago? Around that much, not more than a month for sure.

‘There are more people, the ranks have been tightened too. Hehehe, I’m sure the patroller company leader couldn’t stand seeing the mess from before and after seeing the massive break he decided to get the job done.’

Making groundless conclusions he didn’t take seriously, he found a place in the left wing that seemed a bit understaffed, targeted an 8-limbed 2-meter high bone golem, and moved in undetected, ready to start his training session.

‘If I don’t slack off, all my fighting masteries will reach tier 4 in… 11 levels for the lowest one… So 2 levels per week… 5 to 6 weeks? Well, that’s a lot of time. We’ll have pushed into at least the outer city by that time, right?’

Hopeful and motivated, an equivalent of being hot-blooded and young, Rune landed on his target, formally integrating the Tolevia cleaning formation again.

…

As Rune had thought about the deeper meaning behind cleaning Tolevia, meaning nothing but literally pushing deeper and killing more bong golems, he did not become bored of the passing weeks spent doing the same thing.

He wasn’t forced to do it.

That was the core motivation he had that couldn’t take even a scratch as he immersed himself in the grinding machine fueled by prospects and patrollers bones that were the front line.

With his pre-sleep experience, the moment he integrated the battlefield again he established a fluid routine for himself. Its goal wasn’t to force himself to either fight, learn, or go find Arik and Astryde, no.

It was to help him empty his mind.

As for the way he kept this routine without forgetting about it? It was all purely objective.

He didn’t have a precise kill counter, he also did not measure the time, and no one was here to tell him he had fought for too long or had taken a break for too long.

It was just that when he felt like he had too many thoughts, observations, or inspirations about whatever was happening, be it the fact that a prospect unit of beyond-horizon strikers arrived, prompting the apparition of massive bombardment leaving elemental trails in the sky, or the first apparition of a 12-limbed bone golem…

He just felt that emptying his mind at that moment was the right course of action.

And the way he emptied his mind was obviously the way he had already used for years, a way he had tested again and again, a way that had never disappointed him, a way that had massive advantages in lots of ways.

Writing.

Fighting, learning, writing, those were the 3 activities making up his routine as a private adventurer having decided to help clean Tolevia with his group for their own ambitions.

Inevitably though, this routine had times where it couldn’t be maintained. Rune liked it when his life remained simple, he yearned for this extreme simplicity and stable progress.

But he wasn’t here as a loner, he was here with 2 friends.

Those 2 friends were very different from him on that point.

They had remained self-aware of their situation even after weeks of nearly perfectly cyclic activities, and once all the conditions for advancing their plan were cleared, Rune had no choice but to break the harmonious routine cycle he had maintained for more than 2 months.

…

‘That was one hell of a weird dream.’

Awareness coming back and reaffirming its control over his own body, his perception sphere encompassing 10 kilometers in every direction soon manifested with no spiritual strain involved.

His spirit had been completely revitalized after this sleep, and he would be ready for another month of fighting against ever-bigger bone golems with ever-more sets of limbs if it wasn’t for the fact that it was time for him to help Astryde on one of her wants.

The front line had already pushed well into the outer city of Tolevia where standing buildings made of tier 3, tier 4, and sometimes tier 5 materials were not that rare. Points of interest had already been found at dozens of places, only waiting for qualified IGS personnel to come to investigate them.

And it turned out that Astryde was one such qualified personnel.

And that she was also only waiting for the right timing and place to start a deep dive.

And while the right timing was approximately “whenever”, Astryde had only found the right place encompassing multiple core outer city infrastructures a few days ago.

The only problem was that she needed Rune to cover for her as it was a place not just “a bit” away from the somewhat secure path created by the pushing front line, and she couldn’t ask other people to protect her as her deep dive’s goal was clearly a private one.

‘Is she already waiting?’

Sweeping around him, he did not identify anyone as being Astryde, meaning she hadn’t arrived yet.

‘Still sleeping maybe…’

To not have to search for her when she finally arrived, he scattered all the cosmic mist surrounding him, allowing anyone to see him if they wanted.

It wasn’t the first time he had appeared, and he wasn’t the only one having a way to stealth himself, so he was sure only a few would even give him a few seconds of attention before ignoring him.

For the following 15 minutes, Rune opened back his screen on where he stopped before he fell asleep, yet a new section of the guide he decided to browse through because it sounded interesting, then Astryde interrupted him as she had finally arrived.

“Let’s go?” Straightforwardly asking, she didn't bother with anything else.

“Yup, you first,” having been ready for more than 10 minutes, he also didn’t bother to say hello.

Nodding, she took her first impulse towards the not-that-far Tolevia with Rune in tow, then continued to accelerate until the two of them breached through the 1 kilometer per second speed.

“Let’s just rush there, it’s only a few minutes away,” she added as they encountered their first roaming bone golem after diverging from the cleaned path.