Even after I learned how to spin the perception field around myself, I still keep training with it in my slow and steady run, though after that breakthrough any improvements are marginal at best.

But even if the improvements are small, an entire day playing with the perception field like it is a fidget toy teaches me the limits of my mental stamina, how quickly can I get it moving and a lot more about my limits with it. One small ‘trick’ I learned is pressing the ‘brake lever’. Though it is just wasting the energy I input into the system, not working like a regenerative brake, is the easiest and fastest way to stop at a particular spot.

Even if the perception field is wildly spinning, I firm press on the brakes stops it in barely a second against the minutes continuously pushing it to get it at that speed, though while the effort is lesser, it is still a new mental muscle and requires a bit more mental flexibility to do it correctly than to start the spin of the perception field.

After a good 2 days on this new project, with my mind clear and relaxed, I’m ready to go back to my original goal: trying to find balance.

I sit on the ground, now no longer restless from all the pent-up energy simply bursting out of my muscles, though the last two days hadn't been anywhere near close to what is needed to physically push me.

This endeavor deserves to be treated with seriousness and I do my best. Finding and learning my own version of the system’s resource trio is not slapping a hamburger together, it is a true form of art and anything but my very best foot forward is a monumental mistake.

I take a deep breath in through the nose, filling my lungs and every single minute aureole inflating it all from my diaphragm all the way up to my clavicle.

Hold, wait, release it ever so slowly, a minute.

Again, a minute and a half.

Again, and again and again.

When I’m approaching three minutes, about my limit without cheating in this simple exercise without feeling short of breath, my mind is open to the possibilities of the world I reach out and to grab, to match the perfect concept to the idea of Health.

As before, the main point stopping me is the feeling of the deep and nagging impression that Health and now life is supposed to be more, to DO more.

I don’t know what Health is capable of, nor I have come to believe that focusing on discovering it will be actually helpful, I need to track my own ground.

I need to trailblaze.

What the system had discovered and made available is all about the already made discoveries, but that doesn’t make them the best triad, or even the best in any single category.

Now that I come to think about it, although my concept of qi is still more fluid, Vigor is an old friend and though I have been learning more about its tangible effects on my body, its core effect is in the imaginary world, a metaphysical effect that directly correlates to my physical exertion.

That is so very different from stamina that focuses not 60/40 mental to physical. Stamina feels to be 0/100, though I know it is probably closer to is closer to 5/95 or 10/90 given it does have slight but meaningful effects on the mind even if only in helping achieve the simple chemical balance the body needs.

So if in the end Life ends up further than I had expected, it doesn’t matter. I only need it to be in balance with its brothers, Qi and Vigor. Its cousins were not even in the equation.

As I voice the thought in mind and concisely put it all in words, I see a path ahead. Slight openings in the brush of the forest that I can walk sweep aside or easily cut down as I pursue the path relentlessly. An opening in the formerly impenetrable wall before. Tying together the concepts to build something more, a base that I will rely on for eternity as I muddle through and struggle against all the injustices that the system allows, all the wrongs that it engenders and the evil it protects, and all the hate and callousness that it teaches its users.

Entire races enslaved with its people punished for not following arbitrary and unfair rules. Even my friend back on Earth has suffered from this. I can only imagine Pando fighting horde after horde of enemies and a myriad of smaller, but still significant slights from the system.

I will not remain silent before all that.

I will not remain powerless before that.

I will seek more knowledge, understanding and wisdom, so I can protect, help and shelter all that I can.

And this…. this is perhaps my first real step outside the system.

Maybe stealing all at knowledge classifies along with the natural version before the system’s skill of the perception field, but all of that was just things that came to me while others are expected. If you can, who wouldn’t steal all the info Bureau's books? This is something else altogether. This is a shot in the dark.

I always speak of other talented people, like Merlin, Alex and even Greg in his own way. All I knew how to do was ‘cheat’ the system in small ways. I wasn't even a proper ‘progenitor’ or whatever name early Aether wielders like me get. I got to the party too late to make any significant diference, but this isn’t cheating at all.

This is my own thing, something that the system shouldn't interfere with. I’m treading my own ground and even if perhaps strange, this is my path of power. The way that I will push forward beyond anything that working closer to the system’s resources would forever limit me.

The system is important and has a lot that I can take from it, but I will not rely on it to the detriment of all else. It wasn’t written in explicit terms, but the council only concerns itself with the rules and laws of the system, and the ones they can get away with on their own courts and their domains because to do otherwise always come with the threat of losing power.

I’m not sure what form that takes and most power losses seem fairly temporary, but the threat is all constant, what the system gave it could take away.

Are there many people who pursued the same path as me?

If so, what are the downfalls?

Even as those questions flow through my mind as I sit crosslegged, I laugh.

Yes, of course, people had tried it.

I may have a few talents of my own in the area, and got lucky in the cosmic sense, but given that our entire galaxy was considered a small backwater place the sheer size of the system…

Why but if that is the case, why didn’t the council ignore their loss of power? This seems like a straight power up with no downsides. Did they fail mid-way never achieving the highest levels of power with this other resource and coming back to using only the system’s resources?

With all questions and no answers, I head forward for I’m not going to falter.

I will not find a section of the mountain that is too technical and hard to climb, I will suffer no impediments in my path.

I climb the mountain.

I will do it barehanded

And I will build a sky tower reaching for space.

There is nothing and no one that will stand in my way.

Beside me Aspen, Pando and all my other friends, each with their own unique perspective to contribute. Though I can’t change anyone else and this is MY dream, my goal, I believe that it is parallel with their own paths.

Life

Life

Life

Life

Life

Life

LIFE

LIIIIFE…

The word echoes in my mind louder and louder until is no longer a chant but a scream against the heavens. There is nothing that will ever stop me, nothing that will make me give up and this is the step I need to take now.

I reach inside myself and grab hold of my LIFE. I hesitate over my only idea thinking I should cradle it and forever keep it in a box, but that would mean failure. I take the plunge and pull at the roots of my soul, at my very life.

A turning sensation of pain is quickly followed by explosive growth.

A hundred tendrils try to make their way out of my body and a few even succeed as I try to catch my breath.

Pain like I just managed to tear my very being in half comes. That however is nothing before my achievement.

I watch in wonder as not only do the roots poke out of my skin at the base of my ribs, not a drop of blood comes out like they were always supposed to be there. As the seed I added to my chest wiggles its new limbs back and forth, I grin.

They are moving blazingly fast, at least when compared to any non magical method of movement for plants. They are even comparable to using proper nature mana and about as fast as a human finger, and they don’t seem to be using the HErt up to do that. Damn…

Another fact caths up with me.

The system, it’s not trying to erode the roots poking out of me.

Though as I look closely and focus on my perception field, I can feel another reaction taking place.

Life is slowly ‘leaking’ from it and as it does, the faint perception of the system tries to poke its head in.

Damn, not quite the miracle I had hoped for, not if the price for a few minutes of safety is this pain, but it may come into use in select circumstances.

I think over that, just this single action taught me enough about the final leg of the triad and the building imbalance is simply gone. No… not gone, just… much fainter. I can barely tell I was a limp two-legged stool till minutes ago.

I look at the stone ceiling and do a quick assessment of my body and situation before preparing for a night’s sleep.

Perception field. Two more meters in range.

Food stores, dwindling, but I still have another month with my own fat reserves if I keep my running pace slow.

Qi is full, Vigor is full, Life is recovering, though more slowly than Health did. I used just a few percent of my stores and it seems it will take me about half a day to fully heal.

As exhaustion takes me something calls to me and I realize one last thing, the system didn’t even try to hinder my use of Life.

----------------------------------

Merlins’ POV

“Are you sure this is wise?” Asks one of my most annoying assistants.

“Man, you are persistent if nothing else. This is nothing really new, it is just pushing the same boundaries a little further. I don’t have the instinctive connection that Nash has with this place or with space, but he wouldn’t tell me I could experiment if he had any doubts about our and the rabbit's safety.”

“I know, I know. I just worry.”

“And that is fine, just keep it to yourself before voicing it 50 times. Also, don’t get in the way.”

“It wasn’t that many times.”

“Well at least ten or twenty times.”

“But….”

A single look at him is enough for him to realize what he was doing and he purposefully shuts his mouth.

I look at my other helpers, which include a pair of rabbits fitting the last copper piece together in my grandest runic working. A wide band surrounding the entire inner world, fully charged with mana and ready for the test.

It all leads to a 3 meter wide 12 ton copper focus and a smaller but even more important ten-pound silver runic wire mesh.

Over a million mana in the back and thousands of man-hours, all for a brief instant. To test this single application of a quicky of the space around us.

It took me a long time to begin got understand how the runes really interacted with space and how they pushed the boundary outward. Nasc may understand space almost instinctively, but I’m Merlin and I bear my forefather’s name proudly adding to his fame not retracting it.

Runes and a deep understanding of how they interact with magic are in my blood. I even got the Runic language skill only a few minutes after Nash. I may have even gotten it before if it wasn’t for all the Aether bullshit he can pull.

I walk behind everyone after the last adjustments are in place in the short tunnel and head for the middle of the inner world, the safest place I could think of.

“Goddammit, Nash shouldn’t have left you in charge, you are crazy.” Says a familiar voice amongst the translator team.

I knock on the wooden runic formation and thick walls I formed with my nature Meta magic to protect us.

“This is the strongest shield with a thick wall behind and we are in the safest place in the entire inner world. There is nothing to worry about, but just as a precaution, I build this. This is stronger than the mana shield of our village.”

They look as unconvinced as ever so I just wait a few more minutes for the thousands of rabbits streaming in along with the ever larger wolf. Though it had increased in just one level, reaching 51 inside the inner world. Its physical growth seemed to be settling at around Greg’s height but its intelligence seemed to have no limit. Getting to his side feels closer like standing beside a talking unicorn, rather than a common wolf.

Though even as it has become friends with the rabbits, it grins at a group of younger bunnies who madly scurry off.

I sit in the limited space, while the remaining rabbits climb in the tunnels underground and on the platforms all above us.

Aster however just stomps over and hits her paw against the wolve’s in a chiding tone.

I wonder what will be its response, but what I see instead halts my mental track for a moment. He actually lowers his head.

“Bloody hell. I… I didn't expect the wolf to be that meek!” I burst out in an uncharacteristic squeak.

“Ohh, so now the high and might Merlin doesn't know who really runs this place?”

“Shut up,” I say tired from all the crap from him. I just want to experiment in peace. Before they can say anything I connect to the runes and pulse the mana.

I skip all the lesser tests, going for a full-powered blast as the strongest shield I ever conceived comes to life around the control room.

Torrents of power flood the entire ring band dividing the inner and outer side of the barrier keeping us in the inner world. A power build-up starts on the opposite side and slowly but surely heads all the way around.

The two opposing waves build and build guided along narrow channels. They arrive at the mouth of the tunnel and enter the screw channels twisting around each other. They spin crazily and in a flash, they burst out with a monumental wave of power precisely timed to coincide.

“You mad man….” I do my best to ignore the ramblings of the actual mad man distracting me.

As both pulses of spatial energy collide they push the barrier forward. The tunnel corridors contract and expand destroying a part of the equipment over there. The 5 meter wide corridor has its walls in and out wildly crushing most of the wood holding the intricate and precise inscriptions over there and the waves of spatial energy had already built their momentum.

I glance downward at my instruments trying to gauge the reaction but I’m interrupted as something hits the edge of the shield draining a good hundred thousand mana from it. On the edge of my mana sense, I felt something akin to the space interaction I have come to study, but even as I look at the other instruments, nothing was damaged, at least not in our bunker. The corridor will need a lot of work.

The cries behind me go unanswered as I look at what I want to know.

Peak range: 121 meters.

100 ms range. 120 meters.

1 sec range: 107 meters.

5 sec range: 98 meters.

I analyze the range over time graph trying to glean as much as possible and then begin to grin, laugh and let loose a mad cackling at the successful experiment.

The spatial distortion that could have torn a line of people apart, is just an afterthought. Now I know about it for the next time. Just moving the bunker a dozen meters to the side and we will be able to avoid any mishaps altogether, the important thing is: I succeeded.