Having found inspiration after seeing the basic effect of the rejection specialization path, Rune was reveling in the amazing conceptual mastery he successfully formed.

‘I can find so many possible uses for this specialization… And the more I let my different adaptations grow, the more this sort of active enhancement will be massive. Just thinking about my fateful first encounter with an environmental event is enough to tell me this is something I need!’

Drawing in his mind a future that would happen whether he wanted it or not, he pictured himself fighting against a gigantic void event that would appear a few meters next to him.

This simple picture didn’t seem realistic, but neither was it totally unrealistic. There was no denying in his mind that the more he adventured in regions, zones, or dimensions with higher ether density, the more likely it was for such a thing to take place.

The fact that he just came up with a possible weapon he could use in the future to fight against this type of situation that was at the same time the first cause of death according to the globalized information board and the guide and also the most improbable cause of death anyone could come up with…

‘I need to make this idea possible.’

Putting aside his genius idea after sketching everything he had imagined about it, he finished organizing his new tertiary cohesion infusion specialization paths tree.

[Adaptation specialization path: Adaptation speed.

Self specialization path: Cohesion compass.

Isolation specialization path: Multitasking cohesion.

Rejection specialization path: Cohesion threshold.]

‘Isolation and rejection still somewhat follow their original effect path by helping me fight against the environment in their own way. That’s amazing when I think about it. As if I had been destined to take this path, or is it that my subconscious knew I would take this path long ago?’

With the 4 tertiary specialization paths now unveiled and summarized before his eyes, Rune realized he had opened yet more paths he wouldn’t be able to explore with his limited amount of mastery slots.

‘At least, everyone is equal on that side. Be it me, a tier 5 monster, or a beyond tier 5 bone golem.’

He wasn’t ready, or even willing, to sacrifice his energy compression-focused build just to get a few fancy specializations that wouldn’t come close to furthering his survival.

The place he was going was a tier 5 dimension. With tier 5 monsters. And he was only a tier 4 entity with provided masteries having just reached tier 4.

In his mind, it was clear that his focus for his imminent adventure shouldn’t be anything else but survival.

As it had always been.

Except for the few times when he had wanted to reach his limits.

But those were different times, he knew what entering a tier 5 dimension meant, but from the newest pieces of information he read about his destination, he wouldn’t be entering a wild dimension where he would have no respite.

However, he still didn’t hold all those pieces of information he read about as being true, the number of natives having escaped their dimension after scouts from the IGS entered and told them it was safe to exit were inferior to 10.

All that chain of events was due to the dimension being unique.

With his mind drifting to the subject of the Unending Mountain Dimension, Rune didn’t hold to his focus and went to a newly created news category aptly named “Unending Mountain Dimension”.

‘1st circle native interview… 1st circle tribe overview… 1st circle’s dangers and the effect of long-term domestication… What are ascenders? Tier 6 theories… Yup, still nothing new.’

The first wave of IGS scouts had already returned with news and natives willing to enter the Endless after heavy intent-backed persuasion, and from those, all the basic intel of the dimension was distributed online.

The Unending Mountain Dimension, unlike the Universe or Defective Physics Laws Dimension 527 from which the IGS originated, was a “filled” dimension.

It was hypothesized that this dimension had followed a normal evolution course: Birthed at tier 1, billions of years passed, reached tier 2, billions of years, tier 3, billions of years… But over its transition to being a tier 4 dimension, its law had been warped to affect the gravity property.

As for how it changed from here on, that was a question that pertained to the “Abnormal dimension evolutions” field of research, and from what Rune had understood, the number of possibilities in this field was as endless as the word endless could mean.

‘If only a 2nd circle native could exit. All the 1st circle natives know is that the 2nd circle is the home circle of the ascender tribes. That’s teasing me to death! I need to take matters into my own hands!’

During his week of purge, he had been able to follow the day-by-day evolution of this fascinating news category, and the slowness of the feed was killing him.

Apart from learning that the dimension was organized in circles with “something” at the center, that the 1st circle was where all the IGS scouts ended up in, that the 1st circle was gigantic with a stable gravity of 10 times a normal one, and that everything he considered interesting happened deeper…

Literally, if he entered now, Rune believed he would just rush straight to the 2nd circle to learn more about why there was no tier 5 monsters in the 1st circle or why technology hadn’t been developed at all.

‘I should stop thinking about it, nothing is going to change anyway. And isn’t it better to enter without knowing anything?’

Repressing both his frustration and curiosity, he closed the news website and decided to first change location.

There were in the end a bit too many people around this park for him to feel at peace.

…

‘And finally, obviously, it needs to go directly from my endless adaptation to my forced threshold activation. Only 1 mastery slot or nothing, I can’t give any more.’

Preparing to create a tertiary mastery he would probably never purge unless an extraordinary situation happened, Rune didn’t take the prep works lightly at all.

With the same methodology as when he created his growth mastey, he accounted for all the factors he could think of: Mindset, concept, limit, cost, potential…

The image he had created after a few hours of brainstorming was that of a specialization with a finite effect, it only needed to do the job of making his cohesion take in everything it could regardless of the consequence.

He didn’t even try to come up with another use or even a way to regulate it, he only needed that specialization to be an on/off type of specialization and he would be the happiest in the world.

For him, getting this sort of specialization was enough to disregard the cost and its future potential.

Everything would be worth it if he could succeed in creating a specialization that would push his cohesion to take 10% of their threshold.

With such concept clarity, Rune predicted that he would either get what he wanted by the end of the day or be proven that what he wanted wasn’t possible.

‘I don’t think there’s anything else… Meaning it’s time to create my ultra adaptation mode?’

Knowing when to stop, he changed his focus from preparation work to mood setting.

And for him, mood relied on one precise element: Music.

‘What should it be? What genre is more suitable for this mastery? Not a middle-ground genre, that’s certain, so should I go for immersive and deep or explosive and motivational? Maybe emotional or addicting?’

Fixing his mind on an explosive and meaningful one, he navigated to his personal playlist that had gathered thousands of various music over his long period of time traveling around listening to new and varied music.

Setting up a few filters, he reduced the whole massive list to a few hundred titles.

‘What other filters can I use? Oh! Isn’t this mastery a bit like a fateful one? What about fate?’

Decreasing the list again by adding a filter that the music must include a heavy emphasis on “Fate”, he ended up with a few tens of pieces.

‘I don’t remember listening to any of them… It must have been so long ago that I added them.’

Not sure if the right one was even there, he started listening to them all and felt if the vibes they contained were what he wanted.

Until he found the right one that turned on his motivation fuse.

(iMeiden - Fighting Fate (feat. Oktavia) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbMXo_Qp0s4 - Not the most addicting, but the lyrics are just so appropriate and awesome I knew I would use this one day! And the day has finally come!)

‘Well, no more reason to procrastinate right?’

In his mental theater, a gigantic orb that represented his cohesion appeared, bigger than ever and with more intensity and life than Rune had ever been able to imagine.

It wasn’t about testing and experimenting with his endless adaptation anymore, now it was a true path-defining event.

As he stabilized his first image, the music he had personally chosen started unfolding.

[Breathing heavily,

Moving steadily,

Stuck in reverie,

Dreaming of the future.]

Allowing his awareness to flow by unanchoring it of all his spirit’s senses, he pictured his mind as a chaotic swirl of ideas that may or may not come to exist depending on whether the Ether Law would allow it or not.

Once the picture couldn’t be more detailed, he started believing with everything he was that he would get what he wanted.

The specialization he wanted to create was worth it.

[Taking baby steps,

Growing to my strengths,

Inches, miles, lengths,

And progress soon will show!]

From the massive cohesion orb that looked more like a pure white star, a flow exited slowly.

It escaped from everywhere, it was a part of his cohesion and without it, it just wouldn’t be the same.

The resulting gigantic cloud of rejection then started to condense as Rune thought about just a single connection.

‘No matter the cost, no matter the initial strength, no matter its dangerosity, I don’t need to control it, I don’t want to, it’s a natural force.’

As the cloud of rejection started to condense into a spot that fluctuated between darkness and brightness, the music gradually came to its climax with lyrics Rune could identify himself into.

[Taking leaps of faith!

Working my own way!]

‘I just want the slightest connection to this natural force that is my cohesion threshold.’

In the form of slight threads of spirituality, he let his concept infuse the nascent star.

He had nothing else to say or precise.

He had infused and clarified everything his mortal mind could understand.

[I'll return to the battle every time!

I'm gonna keep fighting fate!

Don't wanna be too late!]

Now, everything was left to the natural order as he finally pictured the cloud of rejection ultimately condensing enough to start fusing into a new form.

That of his new specialization.

*Ding* Do you want to fill one of your empty mastery slots with Cohesion: Specialized Threshold Burst Rejection?

Accompanying the shockwave produced by the birth of this new star, a notification appeared before him, announcing that the Ether Law had deigned to his whim.

‘Yes. And fill the topmost spot I reserved just for you.’

Solemnly agreeing, Rune connected his awareness to his senses again, being honestly thankful that it had worked.

As for the degree of success, it didn’t matter as much as having actually succeeded.

If what he had wanted had been impossible, it would have never taken the form of a notification.

‘Let’s see…’

Cohesion: Specialized Threshold Burst Rejection

Specialized Slotted Mastery (Tier 1)

A tertiary specialization created with the single goal of connecting with one’s cohesion on an extremely deep and natural level. The only reason such a connection could have been successfully established was the initial acceptance of the inherent lack of control such a connection naturally comes with.

You can now force your own cohesion to adapt to its environment until it reaches its threshold limit, disregarding every natural limit such an act poses. A lower adaptation rate amplifies the cost of such an act by extreme amounts.

‘So… Will I die if I activate this threshold burst mode now?’

Upon reading the description, Rune understood that this “Threshold Burst” embodied perfectly what he had desired, pros and cons included.

‘Will it try to adapt to the air until all my cohesion combust? Will it take my health with it?’

With a new fascinating toy to play with, he couldn’t hold back and decided to give it a try the next instant.

Focusing inward, he perceived the cohesion inhabiting his 10 000 health and his 10 000 cohesion-infused energy armor layer, he didn’t know how things would unfold, but dying shouldn’t be an issue as long as he confirmed that when the cohesion inside his health disappeared it wouldn’t take the health itself with it.

‘Well, it’s all about taking leaps of faith, isn’t it?’

By focusing more than ever, he faintly felt a connection.

It was so feeble that Rune wondered if what he was doing even reached the level of a minor manipulation.

As it was his first time, it took a few minutes for him to take hold of this new connection that came with its lot of new sensations and ways to control and influence it.

However, as the description had said, this connection was faint and was nearly a one-way on/off type of connection. He quickly realized that until he decided to attempt doing the only thing he could do with it, nothing much would happen.

Inevitably, his mind already set and his awareness allocated to massively increase his sensitivity, he decided to step into the unknown and mobilized this new connection by sending a “signal” to the other side.

*Ding* Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion reached Tier 4 Level 93

*Ding* Cohesion: Specialized Endless Adaptation reached Tier 1 Level 10

*Ding* Cohesion: Specialized Endless Adaptation reached Tier 1 Level 11

*Ding* Cohesion: Specialized Threshold Burst Rejection reached Tier 1 Level 1

Following a small flurry of leveling notifications that seemed completely unrelated, his armor started chaotically flashing with 3 different colors as if it was suffering an epileptic crisis.

Of those 3 colors, Rune discerned one he knew: Fluorescent cyan. And two he didn’t know: Blinding yellow and… Black that flashed with white wisps?

A second passed, another second… Approximately 10 seconds passed under his intense scrutiny as he kept track of what was happening of his cohesion as it was showing this color show.

And what happened in those 10 seconds could be summarized in one word: A carnage.

Every tenth of a second that passed, it seemed as if all the cohesion that inhabited the compressed energy making up his armor burst into nothing, leaving behind only a colorful explosion that he perceived as new adaptation colors.

The color show presented by his armor layer unfortunately ran out of fuel as all its 10 000 cohesion burned out after 10 seconds.

Naturally and seamlessly, his health took over from that moment and the cohesion that was a part of it started to combust.

All over his skin and even inside his body, mini colorful explosions took place.

‘So it’s not a suicide mastery…’

“Sigh~~” A sigh of relief escaped him involuntarily as he felt that the health that “combusted” didn’t “die”. It just became a new version of health that acted a bit differently and was probably a lot feebler.

Mobilizing his new connection with his cohesion again, he mentally simulated being in a deadly crisis as the cohesion contained in his health was running out swiftly, pushing himself into sending an “off” message.

It seemed he had gotten the hang of it as, after 5 seconds, a small amount of health still containing cohesion stopped spontaneously combusting for “nothing”.

With this threshold burst mode ending, his body naturally started regenerating new heath and discarding the transformed one, as if it was just a useless residue from a fuel reaction.

Before making the choice of dispersing his armor, Rune tried to take a small amount of regenerated health and infuse it directly into his armor.

Maybe things had changed from the time he wasn’t able to do something like that? Maybe his tier 4 cohesion infusion had given him a greater possibility of infusion, such as transformed and active energy infusion?

Gathering cohesion from his just regenerated health, he tried to infuse it…

And it was completely rebounded without any signs of even a single compressed energy point being infused.

‘I assume it's a definite no?’

Shrugging it off, neither disappointed nor happy, he understood that he should be content with gaining his threshold burst mode specialization and shouldn’t ask for more until he had another genius idea.

Stripping his whole armor layer and letting it disperse and return to the ambient ether, he used the freshly produced health to infuse his filled energy pool as he recreated his energy armor.

‘When I reach the gravity corridor, I’ll be able to fully understand and extensively test it. But for now…’

More interested in the present than the future, he brought up his endless adaptation detailed window, wanting to know what the penguin happened when he burst his cohesion’s threshold and forced it to adapt.

Cohesion: Specialized Endless Adaptation

Specialized Slotted Mastery (Tier 1)

A secondary specialization made from the fusion of the adaptation, self, isolation, and rejection effects. It has been specially designed to be able to grow as long as one’s cohesion fights against environments that restrict its user.

Based on a very precise set of rules, with time, this mastery can adapt one’s cohesion to resist any given environment, in any form.

Adaptations:

Erosion Ether Adaptation: 0%

Wind Ether Adaptation: 0%

Void Ether Adaptation: 0%

Radiation Ether Adaptation: 0%

Light Ether Adaptation: 0%

Gravity Ether Adaptation: 0%

“Light and gravity…” Muttering to himself in an inaudible voice, he started to compute what having gained those 2 adaptations in the middle of a tier 1 ether density zone meant.

‘It just means a lot of environmental ethers exist around me but they never reached the point where they “restrained” me enough for my endless adaptation to take notice.’

Uninterested in this direction after not finding any world-changing vision-defining conclusion, he dismissed the window and started appreciating the star and its starshine by laying down on the grass.

Following the regain of his physical senses, he had a new appreciation for simple things such as feeling the wind on his skin and the slight heat the starshine provided.

It didn’t take long however for his over-imaginative and inquisitive mind to start asking questions relevant to his situation.

‘I wonder what the star of the Unending Mountain Dimension looks like, and how its day-night cycle works… Why didn’t I read anything about it? Is everyone else uninterested in knowing simple things like that?’

Fingers moving automatically, he barely stopped himself as another whim of his made its sudden appearance.

‘Maybe it’s time for me to stop reading… I only have a purge to do before I’m ready after all.’

Looking at the infinite sky only marred by colored ether clouds, Rune noticed that his stop at the IGS was coming to an end.

‘I’ll use the week of purge to finalize my investment plans into the entertainment industry and the radiation gardeners… And after that…’

He thought about everything he hadn’t done and all the places that were built but he hadn’t seen, before finalizing his choice for a perfect last activity.

‘I’ll do a restaurant tour.’