The half-virtual world had much less potential than Avery had imagined, but that did not mean it was useless. It truly was much more advanced, and who knew what the result of engraving a rune with it would be?

  Taking solace in that thought, he looked around on the floor for his stylus, but found only dust. Evidently, his pen had not survived his last stunt, and had finally lost the last useful object he owned.

  He didn’t even have any clothes left, as they had been disintegrated by the dragon power years ago. His only remaining material possession was a hammer he did not know how to use, and had nothing to use it on.

  He had not expected this revelation to hit as hard as it had, but he couldn't help but get emotional looking down at the ashes of his ten-year companion. It wasn’t just worrying about whether or not he could really engrave without his pen, he was mourning the loss of a dear friend.

  He had transmitted so many emotions through this instrument, it had felt alive to him. All his moments of anger, sorrow and despair, and even occasionally joy had all come from using it.

  He loved it, grateful that it had been a reliable lifeline he could use to guarantee his survival. He hated it, for all the hard work it had demanded, the endless repetitions of incredibly precise movements, and all the pain that had flowed through it.

  He had not believed that he could feel more lonely than he already did, but apparently it was possible. He was a lonely man forgotten in an immense universe, and nothing, not even an inanimate writing instrument, would bear the test of time with him. Loneliness was his destiny, and it was inescapable.

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  Fortunately, Avery was already very familiar with the slipping slope of negative emotions, so he forced his attention to one of the only things that could get his mood back up. His visualization and the hints of the Tao it contained.

  For all of the disappointment it had turned out to be, he had poured so much of his hopes and dreams in it that any mention of it was always accompanied by an irresistible fondness, as well as immense pride.

  No matter how flawed it was, it was the fruit of thousands of hours of work, and it felt like his child. He would never abandon it, and would love it no matter how infuriating it was.

  Besides, he did not know if it was a total failure yet. Perhaps the shattering of his pen was a sign from the heavens, telling him he was already ready to engrave runes with pure intent without external aid.

  He knew he should not get his hopes up, and that it was incredibly unlikely, but he nevertheless grew very excited at this idea and immediately set out to test it.

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  He imagined his mental world producing a majestic intent, that flew up in the sky, transcending the half-virtual world and rushing to his soul. There, it roused the idle mana from its slumber, forcing it to travel down to Avery’s body, all the while compressing it into an ink-like substance.

  It arrived at his head, and was led to his heart, following his blood vessels as it coursed down his arm. It finally arrived at his finger, but instead of continuing on to his stylus, it directly exited his finger as silver ink, painting the surface of the wall.

  Unfortunately, while the mystical ink was definitely visible, it was very inconsistent, tracing incredibly thin lines that sometimes disappeared entirely.

  It was already impressive, but had not quite reached the necessary standard for a magical rune. Avery was very close to his goal, but that last step was always the hardest, and his visualization was frozen, unable to improve any more.

  Unwilling to give up before he had tried everything, he went back to his mental world, trying anything he could think of, wanting to understand exactly what the Tao had done to his creation.

  He failed to regain any power on the internal workings of the world, but despite everything, the mental world was still half-virtual, and was still intrinsically linked to his mind. This connection provided Avery with the only authority he had, which was influencing the flow of time.

  He did not have total control, but the world was instinctively moved by his thoughts, and time had become relative to what Avery was studying.

  If he was considering the movements of planets and stars, time would flow extremely fast, years or centuries passing by in the blink of an eye. This would let him, as an outside viewer, see the stars moving at a comprehensible speed. Otherwise, with these celestial objects moving so slowly compared to their size, they would look immobile to him.

  If he was focusing on something smaller, like a forest, time would flow slower, perhaps only a few in-world months per second, at just the right speed to understand it’s development. And if the scale was reduced to a single plant, he would find that each second corresponded to a few days or weeks.

  He could also concentrate on a single beam of light, at which point an in-world second would be extended until it lasted thousands of years in reality. Time was proportional to the scale of what he observed, allowing him to fully apprehend everything that was happening.

  This was of no help to improve his world or write runes, but the more Avery looked, the more he realized that it was perfect for studying the Tao. The world might be unfinished, but it was directly connected to the Avenue, and had become an incredible comprehension treasure.

  All the things Avery had thought to include in the creation of the universe had been perfected, and his authority over them allowed him to understand them with unprecedented ease.

  His eyes sparkling and his face full of joy, he confirmed that it would be an invaluable resource, as it had become a supreme cultivation treasure, unveiling many obscure secrets to the naked eye.

  Even in its imperfect state, he could use it as a direct guide to ascending to immortality through comprehension. Even if it wasn’t what he had originally hoped for, he had still gotten something extraordinary out of this fiasco, and it was up to him to use it to its fullest.

  This was incredible news, but this treasure had still come at the cost of losing Avery’s source of points. To be able to enjoy using it, he needed a new source of income. For that, he found no other way than to go back to the system store and change his occupation.