‘Well, well, well, let’s see.’
Scratching his chin and musing internally, Rune was pondering on how to allocate his EP.after claiming his due rewards and going back to his peak mental ability following a good sleep.
‘After I invest them, I’ll also reach 1 000 total stats, so another million EP for me to claim, hehehe!’
It was a lot easier to think clearly when he was in his bedroom, it was a statement that was true even before the Ether Law awakened.
He had kept the same bedroom for over 20 years, and talking about familiarity would be an understatement when it came to describing the link he had established between himself and this room.
‘249 stat points, I have 249 stat points to use as I want. Who can say they have 249 stat points to use as they want right now?’
Thinking for a moment, he couldn’t help but think about what Arik had said to him, about keeping a secondary fundamental field in case he ended up blocked in the spiritual one.
‘If in only 15 days I successfully divided my awareness… Maybe energy is similar? As long as I have the stats to practice it, it should be relatively easy if time consuming? Unlike martial arts…’
Concerning the physical fundamental training field… It was like an old man waking up from a thousand-year nap, it had deep reserves, but…
‘They are trying to catch up quickly, but as much as they really want to, they still remain behind the rest.’
Rune nodded his head at his own inner conclusion.
As much as he wanted them to move a bit faster though, he had to admit that despite all the innovation currently happening everywhere, the current state of affairs of the IGS was stable.
Ether, stats, avatars, dimensions… Combined, they destroyed common sense, but the IGS wasn’t an intergalactic civilization for nothing. Causing havoc to its administrative system was close to impossible, it was too big and too perfect.
Even more fortunate, of all things that could have been supremely detrimental to the IGS in those troubled times, the whole society just got out of a period of political complications and social unrest just 500 years ago, so everyone was currently working in unity.
It was a golden age to which was added the equivalent of discovering a new continent, except it was a dimension, nearly the same thing implications though, except for some minor details.
Following 3 months of Aspera’s training converting all the easily swayed to the energy manipulation branch, the energy field could also be said to have ushered into a golden age.
Energy manipulator “geniuses” were already pumping out practical spells, so much in fact that for the board, the primitive energy manipulation era was already over and their dimensional sector had entered the basic energy manipulation era.
Energy beam, energy bullet, energy compression, energy telekinesis, energy wings, energy-infused words, intent-infused words, energy-infused cooking…
So many new spells and so many geniuses thinking outside of the box created a scene never before seen by any living being born in the Intergalactic Era. Now, everyone was able to engrave their name in history and be remembered forever.
They just needed to be better at something where everyone had started at the same level of expertise and talent seemed to be nonexistent.
Companies were preparing for ether-traveling spaceships with ingenious means, circumventing the current low, abysmal even, ether density problem to adapt their tech to problems that would only come naturally in decades at this rate, already hyping their revolutionary products on the board.
The government was also preparing something big, so big that they couldn’t keep the secret for long.
They were creating the Adventurer’s Society, for the private sector, and the Dimensions Department, which was going to recruit “Patrollers” in charge of helping safeguard the safety, law, value, and principles of the IGS.
And in the middle of this golden era revolution climate, Rune remained someone who made his own plan, independent of any trend, isolated in his own little bubble.
Having already released his method to split one’s awareness between the original body and tha avatar months ago, he had just forgotten about it. It now belonged to the public domain, and he for sure wasn’t going to announce he was the creator.
‘I can max out my perception stat now and be done with it, then start to train in manipulating my perception sphere like the board said is possible while farming. I’ll also retrace my steps and invest in my physical stats. Utopia has a point after all, and the special resources milestone will not complete itself.’
Confirming his plan, he took action.
‘First, invest everything in perception. Then claim the one million EP.’
Attain 1 000 total stats: 1 000 000 EP (COMPLETE) (Claim?)
‘And re-invest everything in perception.’
With his 194 996 EP remaining, he invested everything, excluding his safety deposit, equally between health and cohesion.
Avatar (Basic Rank) (Tier 1)
EP: 14 996
Stats Total: 1 153
Health: 19
Health Regeneration: 10
Strength: 10
Cohesion: 19
Energy: 10
Energy Regeneration: 65
Purity: 10
Affinity: 10
Momentum: 500
Perception: 500
“The legendary 3 000 000 EP per day, hehehe,” laughing naively as if he had remembered a marvelous dream, he put on some music before cutting all his senses except his hearing and switched his awareness to his avatar.
It was a new playlist, hours-long chill and background style compilation made the majority of it.
‘I’m going to do it in 4 hours this time.’
Fixing impossible deadlines was often more stressful than useful, but every time he came back, Rune fixed himself this challenge.
And a bit less than 5 hours later, he succeeded and sent 4% of his awareness back to his original body side, fully stabilizing the music he was hearing from the other side.
‘Good things come to those who wait, I’m not in a hurry, I don’t need to succeed in 1 year, maybe even 2 years, I just need to never stop practicing.’
With new music he never heard before playing in his mind, he started his farming slash training, focusing more on modifying his perception sphere than going at maximum speed
*Ding*
‘Oh? Special news?’
Opening his system, he was attacked by something that hadn't happened since 6 months ago: An announcement by the Ether Law, forwarded by the greatest law ever, the Compensation Law.
Compensation Law Quota Announcement
Progress bar “Universe Dimension Ether Density (Void Dimension Opening Basis): +20%” will be updated to “Universe Dimension Ether Density (Deep Void Dimension Opening Basis): +0%”.
Universe Dimension’s Information Board Dimensional Sectors will be gathered following increased ether density.
Rifts leading from the Universe Dimensions to the Void Dimension will start appearing. Ether density cannot increase by dimensional rift way, the Universe Dimension still doesn’t allow ether resources to form or ether life forms to live.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
The Deep Void Dimension can now be accessed.
Event “Deep Void Initiation” has been created.
…
In the office of the IGS leader, multiple things were happening. The first being his personal AI-core secretary transmitting answers after answers to everyone who came asking the same things: “Should we delay the government announcement, or modify it a bit?”
It could be said that this announcement really fell right where it shouldn’t have, so those who were preparing to finally lift the veil upon a lot of changes were asking the IGS leader if they should proceed.
But the IGS leader was who he was for a reason, and Ether Law announcement or not, their own announcement had already been prepared.
“Add a clause reminding that the IGS is always ready to help foreign civilizations and has never used violence in its entire history. Have the Pachin’s Exploratory Front contact the Dimension United Companies for them to collaborate on the rift discovery and usage.”
Thinking for only a few more seconds, he started to modify their own announcement.
“Authorize the Kajos’ Investment Funds to make resources an official currency and make them forward their plan to the economy department’s head. Don’t include that part in the announcement. Don’t change the Adventurer’s Society and Dimensions Department part.”
“Also allow the Martial Supreme Dojo, the New Energy Institute and the Psychic Union to include an advertising message in the announcement. They need to showcase their value to all the citizens and accelerate the transition, better be prepared than suffer what or who could be hiding in those far-away sectors.”
And another few seconds later.
“That’ll be all, for now,” he concluded.
Rululus didn’t climb to the peak of the IGS’s political sphere by chance. If they hadn’t been limited by special economic laws pertaining to their intellectual capabilities, the Kajos would have lost everything thousands of years ago.
Being able to remember everything they saw, heard, or felt, being able to browse through everything they learned in their lifetime in a single second, and being able to control all those capabilities without any drawback made them able to answer sudden events as if they had come back from time.
Before the awakening of the Ether Law, even the other 4 leading species didn’t even try to intrude into the masterful political sphere of the IGS anymore.
An 80-year-old Rululu could make any one of the equivalent age of another species run back to their home and not go out for the rest of their life.
Not to mention the IGS leader position, only Rululus with 150 years of life memories could even think about candidating for it, and the “Legendary Debate of the Leaders”, a Humans and Kajos’ sponsored program was something that convinced entire alien civilizations to be integrated into the IGS with its debate using millennia of history.
…
As Rune and his friends, who suddenly came back to life, were still discussing the new Ether Law announcement, an IGS Government announcement descended like thunder.
[Adreana: It’s just logical, trying to fight ether life forms is impossible, don’t even need to try, the event is broken. It’s not for those like us who leisurely formed.]
[Gar: The government just released an announcement, you will have to continue your talk later.]
[Astryde: An optimized energy beam can deal 5 health per second, how will that be insufficient? Do you think the ether life forms that live at that ether density will have a thousand health or what? They should still be tier 1, like us, so 500 health maximum!]
[Nelo: It’s not a video-game big sis. Anyway, we all belong to the spectator group, not the front liners group. And in video game terms, we aren’t even at the first town yet, we don’t even know if slimes or dragons will be our first fight, so I think it’s better to wait for a little before concluding things.]
[Rune: I can’t take my eyes off the board, I can’t focus on farming. Did you recently check the number of members in the Tireless forum? That’s sick, last I checked we had 14 562 members, now we have 84 521, the family’s growing too fast!]
[Arik: The government just released an announcement, you will continue your talk later bis.]
[Gar: Thank you brother!]
When life-changing events happened, you could discuss for hours about what you intended to do, and even being an asocial person, Rune wasn’t an exception to this.
You could probably even get a shy and grumpy old man to talk enthusiastically about the situation with the current upheavals that were happening.
‘Ok, the government first.’
Opening the official IGS Government forum, he checked the last announcement that had topped the previous one, now probably pushed to the bottom.
[Dear Citizens of the Intergalactic Society,
This is a summarized announcement to express our opinion and stance on the recent events related to the Ether Law. For further details, please look further down.
Given the recent dimensional sector fusion, this announcement is now also destined to any major forces that are possibly open to negotiations as well as less technologically advanced civilizations. The IGS remains open to every and any plea for help, and will answer them to its best ability.
From the moment this announcement is made, the Adventurer’s Society, an organism dedicated to recognizing the new social status of citizens who made the decision to dedicate themselves to following the path opened by the Ether Law, has been officially founded and is officially recognized as an independent organism association.
The dimensions department, a defense department affiliated department, also opens its newly created door to any valiant citizens who want to become part of a semi-militarized front with the goal of maintaining the peace while still progressing through this unknown journey.
As should be asked, it is imperative for you to report any anomalies that could lead to the discovery of a newly-created rift leading to the Void Dimension. A bounty of 100 000 regular ether resources will be given to the major contributor or contributors groups.
The newly created but IGS-supported Martial Supreme Dojo, New Energy Institute, and Psychic Union are now open. You are invited to contribute to the IGS through them while furthering your own ambitions and goals.
The Martial Supreme Dojo is the only officially established organization that has the training necessary to improve and polish the physical use of your body. Join to learn how to use 100% of your strength stat or 1% when needed.
The New Energy Institute is a professional research organization, inheriting hundreds of universe cycles, or hundreds of thousands of years, of refined and confirmed scientific methodologies. With currently thousands of approved original spells, everything discovered will be credited to its creator with no ambiguity possible.
The Psychic Union is a new generation corporation with only knowledge sharing in mind. Profit with our concerned stats isn’t a problem, but manipulation beyond the easiest level is hard. We propose a free and advanced guide to all currently known spiritual stats applications, including perception sphere manipulation, awareness manipulation, and momentum manipulation.
To end this announcement, as the new era down on us, as the current leader of the IGS, I am proud to be the one who will help our civilization have a smooth transition to the Interdimensional Era, and hope that your hard work will be rewarded.
Don’t be left behind.
The IGS Leader authorized this announcement.]
Astonishment colored Rune’s mind as he finished reading the IGS government’s announcement.
‘How could the government be so proactive? Was it just because I didn’t watch the news before? Do they know more than… No, that’s conspiracist territory.’
To make sure he understood right, he read the summarized announcement again, as he did for the Ether Law’s one, then he returned to his friend group's private forum.
[Utopia: Yeah! The Ninja Momentum Technique looks so dope! I’m just waiting for their forum and Universe headquarters to accept my submission, only 2 days to wait!]
[Arik: You just don’t want to admit the energy institute's superiority. The institute’s methodology existed long before you were even born. A startup like the psychic union will need years before becoming useful, I don’t understand why the government decided to do it this way.]
[Nelo: Every path leads to the same destination, only because everyone saves from Utopia and Rune specialized in energy and that energy is the only true path doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Maybe tomorrow, the energy field will be started from the ground again because someone found a new application with a 50% energy efficiency, that’s reality.]
[Astryde: Blasting you with energy orb will be the most fun part, I can’t wait for that 50% efficiency.]
[Rune: Want to do the Ninja Momentum Technique training together Utopia? A get-together in the Universe Dimension while listening to epic ninja music?]
[Utopia: I don’t see why not. But let’s wait a bit. By the way, did you know that if you gather descriptions of lots of dangerous grounds, you will find some very similar ones?]
[Rune: I think I read something like that… The “starting zone” theory? The one about an enormous zone in the Void Dimension where the Ether Law sends everyone present in a dimensional sector to save up on power?]
[Utopia: Yeah, that one. Avatars are born in a “zone”, though its size is probably still equal to a quarter of a minor galaxy, so…]
[Arik: This theory had been theorized from the moment the fact that the Ether Law’s power was limited by the ether density on that side was confirmed. Ether density equals power. But some disturbing facts appear once you think about it, why isn’t the ether density of the Void Dimension taken into account there?]
[Arik: I’ll give it to you, the current theory is that it’s linked to the intrinsic properties of each dimension. The Universe Dimension is the primary one, the Void Dimension and now the Deep Void Dimension are just subsidiaries that don't count for whatever reason.]
[Rune: It’s really weird when you put it like that… So the Universe Dimension is the headquarter of the Ether Law? Seems like bullsh*t, I’m more for the “Ether Law everywhere omnipotent forever” theory.]
[Gar: There’s no clear answer, but think about it: The compensation law is something that was activated after an “evaluation” judged our “dimension” as being “critically defective”, and just like that, completely ignoring the Void Dimension, we got plenty of goodies for seemingly no reason other than being on this side.]
[Rune: You’re losing me…]
[Adreana: Easy creation of an avatar, easy sharing of information, easy communications, nonsensical events, Ether Law’s compensation law making announcements… The chain of events point towards the compensation law being our true savior. What do you think would have happened if the compensation law didn’t use the quota it gained from the critically defective dimension evaluation to tell us the Ether Law awakened?]
[Nelo: Without those, only the IGS and similarly technologically advanced civilization would have been able to transmit info on how to manually create an avatar. If the add-on had even been activated to begin with, and if they even had the insight to try and think “system” after feeling the changing world around them.]
[Astryde: Rune, everyone's acting as if they knew it for years, but they didn’t tell you that an article about that subject was released and you just missed it. So they’re rubbing plagiarized knowledge from this article on your naive face. And it’s very enjoyable]
[Rune: Are you telling me I’m not the only one to not completely understand everything that has been said.]
[Gar: No comment.]
[Adreana: No comment.]
[Arik: No comment.]
[Nelo: No comment.]
The end conclusion was that only when ether life forms started to kill everyone in our Universe Dimension after it reached a sufficient ether density to allow for them to survive millions of years later, would everyone become aware that the Ether Law existed and awakened.
Or maybe the infamous “ether erosion” would have started and everyone would have just spontaneously been eroded, whatever that meant.
[Astryde: But all this apocalypse theory is based on so many assumptions… For me it’s all just a beautiful conspiracy theory to make us feel lucky about how the Ether Law evaluated the Universe Dimension.]
[Utopia: Oh freak!]
[Rune: Effective immediately, I’ll change my religion from death asteroid god to compensation law god! My faith and gratitude are infinite, never let the Ether Law say anything else! I’m joking, I’m open-minded. How can someone think of all this alone anyway?]
[Gar: As long as you keep being open-minded, maybe the future will surprise you.]
On that note, they started arguing again about which fundamentals path was the best.
In the end, the reasonable Nelo said that to attain tier 2, we would have to learn everything anyway. Nonetheless, ego and pride were heavier than logic and fact, so the fight didn’t end even though an objectively true answer was reached and accepted.
As true friends, nobody puts a pretense on the fact that they would all ignore the Adventurer’s Society until they receive good news about it.
They also just didn’t even breach the dimensions department’s patrollers employment opportunity. They were all too free-spirited to seek a job in the government.