2 months had passed since the Ether Law pieced itself together and awakened, those 2 months had been a period in which a lot happened in lots of places for lots of reasons.
After refining his plan and deciding to train in the spiritual fundamentals first when he got an idea about what “fundamentals” was really about, Rune continued to farm for 17 days.
Those days that consisted of peaceful farming days and not peaceful news allowed his stats to jump forward at a snowballing speed.
8 days into his farming frenzy, he reached the equivalent yield of 2 stat points per day after spending 134 121 EP to increase his momentum to 80 and absorbing 11 ether resources per hour.
Like a lot of people, he discovered that after becoming used to absorbing an ether resource, the time of one whole minute was the minimum time possible to absorb a resource valued at 70 EP, not that there was any indication that denser or richer resources took longer.
After an additional 9 days, with the ninth actually just starting, so 8 more days of farming, he gained an additional 160 234 EP, which translated into 16 stats, which he continued to invest in his momentum, making this stat reach an exceptional 96 points.
Avatar (Basic Rank) (Tier 1)
EP: 14 426
Stats Total: 295
Health: 10
Health Regeneration: 1
Strength: 1
Cohesion: 1
Energy: 10
Energy Regeneration: 65
Purity: 10
Affinity: 1
Momentum: 96
Perception: 100
With his ether resources per hour yield increasing without break, the last level of the resource gathering objective of the Void Initiation event was coming dangerously close to completion,
Now, he only needed an additional 8 days of uninterrupted farming before completing it and gaining a sweet 1 000 000 EP reward sponsored by the compensation law thanks to living in a critically defective dimension.
But while his stability plan worked, some, now officially called heroes on the board, those who risked everything to accelerate their EP gathering speed, had already attained 500 total stats, to the dismay of many.
Some, like Ethan, were farming in an asteroid belt, also called automatic EP delivery by the haters. In fact, he had caused a mini-trend all by himself, causing those who encountered gravity planets to retrace their steps and invest in their physical stats, hoping for a miracle.
And a miracle was just what Rune was living, as before him, stood an avatar.
But it was not his. It was also not a perception trick. And he was not in his original body either.
It was an unknown avatar. That he encountered in the Void Dimension.
An infinitesimal event just happened to him.
‘So it’s possible…’
Inner turmoil would be too much to describe what was happening in Rune’s mind.
He had heard from Gar and Arik that some avatars had come in contact with each other, but it was like having the ambition of becoming the IGS leader, it was theoretically possible, but for it to really happen?
‘For this to happen to me… Did I just use all the luck of my life, and so will henceforth be unlucky for the rest of it?’
The reason this sort of news was nonexistent was that it was too rare.
After they encountered each other, Rune and the other didn’t know how to react. Were they both from the IGS? Did the other come from an unknown civilization? Were they going to fight?
This type of stressful situation, he had not felt in a long time, at least for him such a situation was not normal at all.
During academy exams, he had been the type to not be stressed. Once it began, he rationalized to himself that he could only do his best, the fact that he studied or not didn’t count as a factor.
But for social interactions, only the instant, the present, counted. And Rune, as a silent observer and background spectator in life, was less qualified than a tree when it came to talking with strangers.
Fortunately, the other seemed a lot more at ease. He was trying to communicate by gesturing with his arms and hands, his mouth also opened but talking without air was impossible, and neither of them seemed able to talk using energy.
It was only after an intense ten minutes that they finally found themselves in a forum.
It wasn’t resolved by decrypting the other's sign language but by the stress making Rune’s chaotic mind order his system to send a private message via the information board to the opposite avatar.
And it worked.
After having a big mental sigh of relief, it was time for the less stressful part, communicating. With intent.
[Theo: So it was that easy.]
[Rune: I was dying of stress.]
[Theo: it’s so amazing to encounter another avatar, can you see all the details of my avatar body? My perception sphere just gives me a blurry visual return]
[Rune: If you can see mine then so can I, but the reason you’re asking this question is that I appear blurry right? Well, it’s the same for me. So no, I can’t see the details.]
Being asocial didn’t mean he couldn’t communicate, it signified that apart from when there was a clear discussion thread to guide him, he couldn’t come up with ways to continue a conversation.
His weakness was casual talk with not-friends, because with true friends he could talk about nonsense for hours or keep silent and there would not be any awkwardness. With strangers however…
[Theo: I just checked what the others who encountered each other did, and it seems that some answered the government’s requests of trying things in exchange for massive amounts of money. Want to try something big? Want to take 10 days of vacation? I trained with my energy enough to probably pull it off if your stats are pretty low on that side.]
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
[Rune: Nope, I still want to farm seriously and 10 days would impact my plans too much. Just the avatar’s targeted private message thing should be given, as for the rest… It’s impossible for me. I didn’t invest in the right stats to reach the numbers they want data on.]
[Theo: Yup, same for me, I only invested a little in them…]
Then it was followed by ten awkward seconds of pause before Theo decided to finally re-engage the conversation to say goodbye.
[Theo: It was good meeting you, if we have nothing else to talk about, we should go our own way.]
[Rune: Yeah right. In this case, goodbye]
[Theo: Bye.]
For some, it could be considered an awkward end, but for Rune, the faster it was done the better. Awkwardness be damned, he was above such petty concern and could live with it, maybe even revel in it.
He also had another reason explaining why he wanted to leave as soon as possible, he needed only 8 days before receiving one whole freaking million EP, and holy ether that was a lot!
To regenerate the sanity he had consumed during this social interaction and help evacuate the generated stress, he shortly discussed with his own group of friends, but it wasn’t enough, so he started to act a solo sketch.
‘Please Ether Law, could you, in your infinite goodness, give me access to music on the board?’
He prayed really loudly and strongly in his mind, even a faithful would have difficulty seeing through his act. He never got an answer though. His system didn’t even react with a flicker.
He didn’t miss the taste of food or his family that much, but he certainly was missing listening to music. Just some good music could hype him up so much he wouldn’t feel the time pass by.
‘Spiritual stats should include dividing my own awareness right? I’m going to grind it so much and put everything in perception after getting my momentum to 100! Penguin!’
Self-motivation had always been one of his talents, he was good at it.
…
8 days later, Rune opened his event window thinking he had finally reached his objective, and he did, so he immediately claimed his rightful compensation of 1 million EP.
Event
Void Initiation
Gather a total of 100 ether-rich resources from the Void Dimension: 10 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Gather a total of 1 000 ether-rich resources from the Void Dimension: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Gather a total of 10 000 ether-rich resources from the Void Dimension: 1 000 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Travel more than 100 kilometers in the Void Dimension: 10 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Travel more than 1 000 kilometers in the Void Dimension: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Travel more than 10 000 kilometers in the Void Dimension: 1 000 000 EP
Survey the Void Dimension for 100 hours: 10 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Survey the Void Dimension for 1 000 hours: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Survey the Void Dimension for 10 000 hours: 1 000 000 EP
Discover a special resource: 10 000 EP
Discover 10 different special resources: 100 000 EP
Discover 100 different special resources: 1 000 000 EP
Use 10 000 total energy in any way: 10 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Use 100 000 total energy in any way: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Use 1 000 000 total energy in any way: 1 000 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Attain 100 in any individual stat: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)
Attain 1 000 total stats: 1 000 000 EP
Completion Bonus: 10 000 000 EP
In this period of time, Rune had reached 100 in his momentum stat, and while he knew that if he only focused on perception, his yield would have theoretically increased a bit more, he was happy with his choice.
In the latest evolving model of EP yield, the weight of momentum became much higher depending one the perception king stat, having a broken equilibrium between the two was now worse than anything.
As for the math behind that conclusion: With 20 momentum and 200 perception, how much time would you need to reach any ether resources you found? 10 minutes. Yes, 10 minutes, just to reach a single ether resource.
So, 1 point invested in perception, as cubically as it theoretically helped, was useless without a corresponding investment into the momentum stat.
Now traveling 100 meters every minute if he pushed himself, Rune decided to start focusing again on his perception stat, a probable key to hearing music again.
At least from his self-created theory that perception would help him manipulate his awareness more easily, the wiki didn’t want to answer his query on that subject.
After those 8 days of farming, his total gain was 202 369 EP.
Once he added four stat points to his momentum to push it to 100, he put everything else into his perception, which brought it to 116, very near to the optimized number needed to find ether resources without difficulties.
Accounting for the 1 000 000 EP he just gained, as well as the 100 000 EP he received after completing the 1 000 kilometers objective, his avatar status now looked much more welcoming.
Avatar (Basic Rank) (Tier 1)
EP: 1 026 796
Stats Total: 315
Health: 10
Health Regeneration: 1
Strength: 1
Cohesion: 1
Energy: 10
Energy Regeneration: 65
Purity: 10
Affinity: 1
Momentum: 100
Perception: 116
‘So, what will investing everything in perception give me? Let’s see.’
Opening the Divine Spreadsheet, he localized the corresponding stats line.
‘100 momentum and 217 perception, here it is… 65.3 ether resources per hour with volume scanned only. Considering traveling time, it’s 2.37 minutes per resource, and adding the optimum absorption time of one ether resource every minute, it becomes 3.37 minutes per resource, so in total it’s…’
He directed his gaze at the most interesting line of this spreadsheet.
‘1 246 EP per hour or 29 911 EP per day!’
He was still far from reaching the limit of the farming yield, the limit of one ether resource per minute, but he didn’t depreciate his achievement just due to the existence of a better choice that could bring him much more if he took it.
‘If I decide to invest in my momentum, then I’ll be able to gain another million EP in a pretty short period after I complete the final event objective for distance traveled… And once it's done…’
He didn’t really need to think anymore, his mind had already been made some time ago. Perception was too important for him.
The farming path had an end for different reasons, such as the stat limit imposed by the tier of his ether soul, the absorption time of a resource being set at one minute minimum, and the value of each resource changing depending on the location.
But it didn’t concern Rune.
‘If my goal was really to reach the maximum EP yield possible, then I wouldn’t need to think and I’d just go and invest in my momentum. Maybe I’d even invest to bring my survival chance against a death asteroid to 100%... But no, it’s not my path.’
He already decided that he couldn’t go on without changing his approach to farming, so attributing all his EP except the safety deposit to his perception, he confirmed.
‘Music comes first.’
Avatar (Basic Rank) (Tier 1)
EP: 16 796
Stats Total: 416
Health: 10
Health Regeneration: 1
Strength: 1
Cohesion: 1
Energy: 10
Energy Regeneration: 65
Purity: 10
Affinity: 1
Momentum: 100
Perception: 217
Dazed by a suddenly expanded perception sphere, Rune stood in place for a dozen seconds, reveling in this sudden expansion.
After exiting this state, he started to contemplate his own situation.
‘Steadiness is the way, it’s the true path for no risk and still being among the top, but no. Just no. My comfort comes before that, I want to hear something on this side too much.’
Long periods of isolation had only continued to mark and degrade his psyche, and he was even starting to lose the feeling of excitement he had at the start. That was something he didn’t want to happen.
‘If I analyze my choice of not optimizing my farming, then there are 2 different answers: Either I’m weak-willed, or my drive to divide my awareness will allow me to surpass others… And I’m confident in my ability to train my awareness, hehehe.’
He knew it was only a confirmation bias that he did, but he never considered himself the protagonist of a story.
He was the protagonist only of his own life.
So while laughing inwardly, he renewed his determination to farm a bit more, secure his survival in the Void Dimension, and only after that, return to the Universe and begin training with his awareness in a spartan way.
‘I’m so pumped up! Let’s go! Immediately! For music and melody!’
There was a single problem nonetheless.
‘I can see 2 ether resources at the same time... And I need 2 minutes just to reach one… I diverged from the farming path, will you absolve me from my sin spreadsheet god?’
His farming had taken on a slightly different atmosphere.