“I want to see if there are survivors,” Arik added an unexpected point to the list of what he wanted to do.
“How?”
“I don’t know, I’ll ask Astryde.”
“Ok, I want to do a behavior analysis of the monsters there,” Rune then added his own.
It was then Astryde’s turn.
“I want to do deep rewinds at archeological sites,” she simply said.
“And what does it mean?” Rune asked for clarifications, with Arik similarly blinking multiple times to show his curiosity.
“The longer I keep my time-watching state on, the clearer the result will be. In exchange I won’t be connected to my real body anymore unless it’s gravely damaged.”
“I want to find and bring back different artifacts,” Arik considered the explanation enough and went on with saying another one of his objectives.
“I want to make illogical turns, going where my instinct tells me to go, I don’t want to follow already paved paths.”
It was Astryde’s turn again.
“I want to…”
As they discussed with their head rested, Rune noted down every want they said and asked for clarifications when he didn’t understand.
His list has already gone beyond 20 items, and it didn’t seem to be the end considering he still had a few wants left unsaid.
“I want to go against a squad of monsters who have spiritual powers,” Arik said.
“I want to find true challenges and find if I can escape with my cosmic mist,” he said an evident thing, but it still needed to be said.
“I want to see, enter, and survive an environmental chaos,” Astryde said something crazy, but it was clear in its statement so Rune didn’t ask questions.
Again, it was Arik’s turn.
“I will need a few days for myself once a month to make special drinks.”
“Need? Drinks? Minor manipulation?”
“Want, my own way.”
“Ok,” Rune noted down this part, adding “breaks” below it, it was the most simple way to separate between their different objectives, “I want to make an observation diary about this ancient civilization…”
After they all said what they wanted, Rune sent them the file and asked them to start thinking about possible incoherence in what he wrote, and also to start thinking about what could be done simultaneously.
Then they departed once again, with concrete things on which to think.
“Am I just weird to have done it that way?” Rune found it funny now that he thought about it, “Hehe, at this level it’s more like I consider you as if we are all married together.”
“It’s a bit weird, but as you said, we are long past simple friendship,” Astryde echoed his words and seemed to partially agree with them.
“Gar,” Arik started to speak, “He said that if the Ether Law hadn’t awoken, finding each other would have been impossible, he then said that the intent communication used onboard probably had a role in gathering us at the Tireless forum.”
Receiving the questioning glances from Rune and Astryde, he felt forced to continue, “It’s like the true soulmate concept. We are different, but the core is extremely similar, it’s what makes it so obvious that after we each got past the social barrier… Well, and considering we can exclude romantic and sexual interests as long as we’re not past tier 4…”
The more he tried to answer, the more he seemed ashamed at his answer and was becoming vague.
“Undecided, united by fate? Something like that? I’ll add it to the list of mottos we can use,” Astryde seemed to get the gist of it and let her inspiration work freely.
“Then for an employment notice… Undecided, find us randomly? I think I saw the idea of making the Undecided Guild and recruiting new people, but then what will be the recruitment criteria? Hehe, be a soulmate?”
“I think it’s Utopia who added that to the list, and I think if he will be the one writing the criteria too…” Astryde seemed certain it was Utopia who added it, but at the end, she lowered her voice and didn’t continue or finish her line of thought.
“Pfff!” That was when Arik the matter-of-fact guy came to resolve the problem, “We’ll never get a new Undecided then, easy.”
“Sigh… We’ll never get another soulmate… What unluck, in my life I only want to encounter new people and socialize with strang-”
“Monsters.”
“Monsters.”
Rune’s sarcasm was aborted before the end, and before he even tried to salvage the situation, the 2 targets rushed forward, ignoring him and leaving him alone.
‘...’
‘Soulmate my a*s. Are you sure it’s not just a one-sided soulmatery? It sure looks like that from MY point of view’
…
*Ding* Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation reached Tier 4 Level 8
*Ding* Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element reached Tier 2 Level 47
*Ding* Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion reached Tier 4 Level 27
*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense reached Tier 2 Level 34
*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure reached Tier 2 Level 34
*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor reached Tier 2 Level 34
*Ding* Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression reached Tier 2 Level 7
*Ding* Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body reached Tier 2 Level 13
*Ding* Body Control: Provided Prolonged Body Use reached Tier 2 Level 13
“Putting my life on the line to level is just cheating, just look at that, we haven’t even encountered our first tier 4 monster and we are still keeping at 3 levels per day… Disgusting!”
He opened his masteries to record his leveling rate on another diary’s entry.
Masteries
Tier 1 Masteries
Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 4 Level 36
Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 4 Level 12
Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 4 Level 13
Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 33
Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 33
Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 4 Level 12
Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 4 Level 6
Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 4 Level 33
Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 8
Tier 2 Masteries
Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element: Tier 2 Level 47
Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion: Tier 4 Level 27
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Cohesion: Specialized Endless Adaptation: Tier 1 Level 5
Tier 3 Masteries
Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense: Tier 2 Level 34
Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure: Tier 2 Level 34
Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor: Tier 2 Level 34
Tier 4 Masteries
Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression: Tier 2 Level 7
Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body: Tier 2 Level 13
Body Control: Provided Prolonged Body Use: Tier 2 Level 13
“Yeah, truly disgusting.”
Rune commented on his after-fight leveling notifications after he saw two of his tier 4 masteries leveling from a “slightly” challenging fight to the death.
“This squad was clearly beyond our fundamentals, but I agree that it’s really not that difficult compared to facing a monster wave…” Astryde remembered when the whole Undecided did crazy strategies to gather EP faster back then.
“Not like encountering tier 4 monsters that just tiered up would be that much of a challenge,” Arik agreed with that their situation was worsening rapidly, “Or maybe for you it will be? Considering you don’t have a specialization to assist you?”
“I’ll just ask Rune to create a bubble of cosmic mist, no need to play fair if it's about a true tier 4 fight.”
“Nyeheheh,” a weird laugh escaped the said person.
“And as you just said, it’s not like because they are tier 4, they ‘are’ tier 4, we’d need Rune-level of unluck to encounter a true tier 4 so near to tier 3 ether density like he did,” she completed her logic saying that.
“Our worst enemies: Birds without a good sense of direction. Thank Rune for that,” Arik committed to aggravate the accusation.
“Why didn’t I find that in the guide when I looked at it? I swear I don-”
“Monsters.”
“Monsters.”
“-I don’t believe in chance!”
This time it was a small squad of 9…
“Oh… Speedsters goats. I just thought about which monster would be the most susceptible to a sound and light bait and here they are…”
“What?” Astryde and Arik looked at him weirdly, but Rune didn’t explain this name.
It was part of his own private lore that was only contained in his private diary.
As he somewhat already predicted, when they entered their perception, the squad of goats charged towards them faster than any of them was capable of reacting.
Such speed informed them that similarly to the squad they killed a few minutes ago, they were at least late tier 3 monsters with abundant experience and developed build.
‘In a single month, we reached where late tier 3 are common… Tier 4 are really not far.’
A month.
That’s the time it took the group of 3 to travel from the tier 2 zone border to the near end of the tier 3 zone.
They had all gotten their masteries to tier 2 in that time, or at least those that could be leveled through fighting, and they started to plan around encountering the first tier 4 monsters that were in the same scenario as them.
Those that had reached tier 4 through getting all of their masteries to tier 4, and had then “restarted” their build by picking provided masteries.
This month, in addition to his warm-up trip to the cliff, had allowed Rune to get back to his “adventure mode”.
Fighting monsters was normal, having to think without any break was normal, always going at 100% was normal, spending all his energy regeneration non-continuously was normal…
It was different from life in a safe and controlled tier 1 zone, and if he had to judge his own views between the two and compare them while getting a second passion in intent tinkering had made the scale a little less unfair, Rune could only vote for the adventure lifestyle to be his favorite mode.
And an adventure lifestyle against speedster goats was a variant he still clearly remembered.
Creating a sound and light bait, the 9 goats appeared by magic behind it.
But after seeing it was fake and other targets existed just next to them, they switched and split themselves.
‘I’m really getting the know-how of this sound and light bait, it’s coming very close to my firework-making speed…’
After his new opening move was done, he turned on momentum gravity, anchored his feet to the ground, and received the first speedster goat in a hug position.
Once the collision happened, without even calculating what hit him, he released a cloud of cosmic mist and maintained a ruthless grip on his target.
The target itself seemed to have encountered an extremely weird situation as its struggle intensified but they were without a goal, that was to be expected from a monster that lost its perception and all its senses.
Rune took damage, but the goat took more, and it wasn’t even as resistant as him, so its struggle lasted only a short 30 seconds before it stopped moving.
Confirming it really died, he instantly created a bait and welcomed the next willing customer in his bubble.
‘Maybe one day…’
He thought as he kept observing his energy pool and the damage he kept tanking.
‘I’ll invite a true behemoth inside by mistake?’
…
The group of 3 didn’t have an active way to verify if the monster or monsters they were fighting truly reached tier 4, nonetheless, some signs like a very abnormal monster with spiritual powers were typically a tell-tale sign of a monster who got a special soul specialty.
Apart from that specific sign, elements that couldn’t be that powerful without secondary specializations, all-round capabilities without any weaknesses, clear respect from its fellow squad members…
Rune didn’t know if Astryde and Arik had traveled as deep as he did into a tier 4 zone, and it wasn’t really that relevant. He really hoped they didn’t though, as he didn’t want suicidal friends.
What he was sure of, however, was that he didn’t reach the true tier 4 heartland when he tried to during his deep dive.
He had “retreated”, not only due to encountering “middle” tier 4 monsters but also owing to the fact that he feared reaching the tier 4 heartland without realizing it.
Tier 4 was a power spike, and what he called “middle” tier 4 monsters before, when he was a peak tier 3, were probably only “early” ones who had started to have an appropriately leveled provided build.
And by “appropriately leveled”, Rune was thinking about early tier 3, considering the refined class path, the evolved specialty, and the additional 3 mastery slots.
Meaning: Not at all representative of true tier 4 monsters.
Maybe only the big bird at the very end scratched the surface of what a true tier 4 monster was.
And inevitably for the group of 3, the first tier 4 monsters appeared a month and a half after their entry into the wild mountains and their axis change.
“I never thought it would be so obvious.”
“Me neither,” even Arik seemed dumbfounded at the monster currently bombarding the cosmic mist bubble Rune created, with a bait to gather all the firepower.
“At least now we’re sure we are closing in on the tier 4 zone,” Astryde was also next to them.
The reason they were sure it was a tier 4 was that…
“It’s been 5 minutes, maybe we have an Adreana-specialty facing us, it started to do that the moment it saw us, so there is probably no short-term end to the regeneration boost.”
“Then we need to make it move, not moving is the condition for Adreana’s specialty to activate and delay the boost's ending.”
“Well, let’s go then.”
Rune started to rush forward and zigzag while bringing the cosmic mist with him. They would force it to do something.
‘Soon. When we all get to tier 3 provided masteries…’
In the end, it was the fundamentals that were centric to fighting in the Ether Law. Specializations only acted as the spices that could give so much more taste to an already consistent, yet blank, meal.
‘Arik won’t use grand spells anymore, he lost nearly all his bonus efficiency at grand manipulation. Same for my and Astryde’s reinforcement… There’s no long-range damage dealer in this group.’
As he ran towards the tier 4 monster, Rune thought about how it was already too late for him to change his mind, and that this decision had already come into effect as soon as his provided masteries reached mid tier 2.
His reinforcement efficiency had already dipped down to be nearly equal to nothing, even when he used a massive amount of energy, it was like he was back to having a tier 1 reinforcement, 1 energy equaled a 0.1% strength bonus for 1 move.
‘But I already prepared for that.’
His new budding style, one that relied on his cosmic mist to make sure there was even less danger for him, was a variant of his personal style.
And as he fought again and again during a month and a half, he really began to desire those fights that would heavily challenge him and make him develop at light speed once more, like when he just started.
“It’s not retreating.”
Pulling himself back to reality, he gave the latest intel as he was the only one with a perception able to bypass his cosmic mist’s interfering power.
“Launch a bomb?” Arik suggested.
Gathering cosmic mist in his hand, Rune condensed it as much as possible and then enclosed it in an orb of compressed energy.
Using his strength rather than his energy, he sent the orb straight at the tier 4 monster.
As the group continued to near it, with its senses completely blocked, it finally moved, only to find the big cloud of cosmic mist just before him, with the same annoying sound and light bait inside it.
However, as the group had neared so much, they wouldn’t allow it to activate its specialty without offering any resistance, and the next instant 3 humanoids exited the big cloud and rushed at it with all their power.
With less than 100 meters separating them, it couldn’t retreat and only tried to blast them with its energy spells, and while it shaved thousands of energy armor from Rune with one successful hit, in the end, it failed to contain them.
Arik, who could only literally punch the energy spells to defend himself was the first to reach it and with a much greater effective strength than it, he flattened it to the ground.
Astryde and Rune arrived not even a second later and they all started to beat the dangerous tier 4 monster together with a somewhat practiced teamwork.
Or at least, as much as “not interfering with the others” counted as practiced teamwork.
Without their maxed stats and only the equivalent of their masteries, the monster could only die less than a minute later, concluding the group’s first encounter with a tier 4.
“Let’s just wait for a squad of tier 4 and individual battles before saying it was too easy.”
Preemptively saying that just as she extracted the core, Astryde didn’t rejoice at their success.
It was only the start.
Soon, true challenging battles would happen.
And that’s what happened as the group of 3 started to encounter tier 4 more frequently, first alone or with tier 3 monsters accompanying them, but then in reduced squads that were content with leveling in the tier 3 zone.
2 months after they entered the wilderness, the rate of advancement of the group’s capabilities became slower than the rate of advancement of the monsters.
Relatively, they became the weaker party, a weaker party that kept becoming weaker as they continued to advance.
That’s when Astryde permanently entered Rune’s cosmic mist bubble, Arik stayed near it, and Rune himself finally felt the necessary pressure that accelerated the formation of his new style.