“It’s more a way to flex than anything else, but using it feels extremely good, the different elemental interactions are very funny to watch.”

“But still… Why a billiard? Who got the idea first?” Rune couldn’t help but ask.

“There is no first… Because it’s the bone region. Artisans and craftsmen have been specially recruited to start an adaptation process experiment. It’s also extremely advantageous for the first comers as it means less competition and lots of people with too much money.”

“I didn’t see any other billiards during my tour though? Same for anything related to craftsmanship for that matter…”

“Didn’t you go below the 200th floor?” The unnamed friendly skeleton asked while sounding a bit confused that his case could even exist.

“Ah… Hahaha! Of course you wouldn’t know, we didn’t even introduce each other yet! Try to guess then, I’m not gonna say more, that’s the retribution for someone with a better version of my idealized social weirdo personality!”

“Hum… No. It’s too much of a bother. And we’re at our destination,” changing the subject, he brought the more imminent and more important matter to the light.

“I wonder if those 3 weirdos are here… I hope not, it would be slightly awkward, but at the same time it would be a fascinating challenge.”

As they stopped to talk, they finally arrived at the “door” to the elementalist club, a perfectly identical door to any other one if it wasn’t for the logo on it. The logo of the elementalist club was a rainbow flame or a flame-shaped rainbow, he wasn’t sure.

Rune accelerated a bit to get ahead.

‘No one is exiting or entering, is the number of club adherents so small? Or my timing sucks?’

When he neared the door, it opened automatically, and when he passed through it, his perception swept through the inside of a massive open-space with a few tens of people inside.

‘And there’s the pool table as promised.’

“No, what am I thinking about! Someone lying to me about a billiard being present? That person would have to have a very good sense of humor to do that to me!”

“I’m not feeling targeted, try guessing my name to make me feel bad at least,” catching up to him, the nameless skeleton kept his thorny integrity up and countered his slight joke.

“Our communal trip is over, and unless you’re the person charged with helping newbies, and I really hope you’re not or we’ll have a big problem, then please go about your own intent tinkering and leave me alone. Goodbye nameless one.”

“Well, the person in charge of helping newbies…” He started ominously, “It’s… Unfortunately not me… Happy to have met you invisible one,” it ended in the best way possible and he left without saying more.

In exchange, another person started heading his way. This one was a completely gray-black-ish-covered skeleton, and it was really intimidating to see.

“Hello,” a distinctly female voice, “I”m Syphon, involuntary guide. What is your purpose in visiting the elementalist club?” She sounded exhausted, as if she had gone 2 months without sleep.

“Maybe becoming an adherent and visiting for fun, those are my 2 main goals. You sound so tired I would be happy to come back later if you want to go to sleep now. I can at least do that for a new friend.”

“No need, no need, I’m just training my spiritual awareness through my own method so it’s not true tiredness. As for becoming an adherent, did you read the user guideline?” She didn’t change her tone and still sounded exhausted.

“I’m going for the simple registration, not membership, I have no time for that.”

“Can you undo your stealth please then? Discussing with nothing is annoying me,” she said something that perfectly exemplified why Rune didn’t want to discuss with people that couldn’t locate him.

“No. And I’m not stealthed, you’re just unable to see me.”

“Sigh… Follow me then, let’s sit and complete your registration,” she instantly gave up, impressing Rune to no end internally.

“Is your tiredness affecting your will? How come you just gave up like that? Is the elementalist club really so full of weirdos you became used to people having weird habits?”

She acted like she didn’t hear him and just led him to a table located near the entrance. It was very eye-catching due to the two chairs around it being covered in an element’s layer.

“Sit on this chair, it’s specially made for newcomers…”

“What’s the element layer?”

“Secret…”

“Ok.”

Sitting on it, Rune tried to feel what was the effect, but he felt nothing. Siphon also started the registration interview directly, not letting him get a feel for what the elemental layer could be doing.

“Name?”

“Mist Guy.”

“Affiliations?”

“None.”

The registration process began with the usual questions, as well as a few people making it obvious they were listening on, observing as if waiting for something to happen.

“Club members acquaintances?”

“Hazard… And what were their names again? My short-term memory is really bad, just give me a second…”

Searching their stupid names in his stupid memory, he only had to think a bit to remember them, “Fission, and Crystal, those 3. We are very deep friends if you have to add lines of details.”

“Reason for becoming a member?”

“Member?” For some reason, this interview seemed to have gone on for hours, and it made him feel a bit bored, “Having fun and gaining new friends? Sounds right, just write that.”

“Can you describe your elementalist path?”

“Hu…” He didn’t want to answer anymore, “Yes, I can, but…”

His level of boringness exploded for no reason, and his Mist Guy persona mixed with it made him take a decision that bordered on being mean and unpleasant. But he was Mist Guy, and he was really overly bored.

“Huuuuuu…” He made his level of boringness known by doing that, making Syphon look at him weirdly, “I feel too bored… I think I’ll just go and come back when my boring state is over…”

He stood up from his chair, “Next time I’ll… Do more fun things…”

Everyone listening seemed taken aback by what Rune just said, even Siphon.

As for the nameless skeleton that accompanied him and remained to listen, he had his mouth wide open, as if what he just said was the most shocking thing he could ever say, completely blowing his mind.

After standing up, he began walking towards the exit door, preparing to say his farewell and come back later.

“Wait! That’s a prank!” But before he could exit, Syphon urgently stood up too, saying a very weird thing that Rune’s mind couldn’t comprehend, making him look at her silently.

“My element is designed to do that! it’s an inoffensive property I use to make others feel tired and exhausted,” she started to explain her element, and how it was a joke nearly everyone here had to go through.

“Oh…” And this explanation made the cogs in Rune’s mind start to accelerate, “That’s interesting…”

The fire of curiosity began to burn a bit, making him move back without turning, he was going backwards towards the chair covered in this very interesting element.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Then he looked at Syphon.

“Let’s start this fascinating interview again… What was the question?”

Fighting tiredness and boredom wasn’t something foreign to him, and it had been a long time since the last global war started between them.

…

Rune released a bit of comic mist that he condensed in the form of a billiard ball. Then he made it fuse with a pre-prepared true billiard ball that wasn’t “just” a billiard ball.

“Hehehe, here, have fun playing with a ball you can’t detect.”

“It’s certainly a good prank if I had to judge it,” Syphon, who was showing him around, commented after he created his representative billiard ball, still seemingly exhausted.

“I have a special intent cocktail made especially for this scenario,” to seal the ball, he added a core intent of corruption, and then refined his own cosmic mist intent with his 1st stage, “Anyone with some intent knowledge will ‘see’ it, as for those who don’t, they deserve it!”

“Anyway, next there’s the crafting space,” she gestured at a door, “It’s linked to the recently founded crafting guild that gathers all the crafting paths like intent creation, material creation, energy engineering, energy taste refinement, or ether sculptor. Considering you’re on the intent creation path, pay attention to news related to it, who knows? It might allow you to understand a few things you never considered before.”

“Nope, I already exploited everything available on the guide, it’s a crafting path after all, not much to be done if the other person isn’t on the same wave as me.”

“Still… They have general intent knowledge that you might find useful? And once you confirm your rank, it’ll only give you advantages.”

‘Rank?’

“Hehe, no thanks. But if you insist, I promise I’ll read more about it! Or my name isn’t Mist Guy!”

“I’m only showing you around, do what you want…” Added to her exhaustion, there was an added layer of exasperation.

And this layer appeared from the moment “Mist Guy” got to know that the chair was covered in Syphon’s composite element “Spiritual Syphon”.

“That’s pretty much it, now you know everything there is to know about the elementalist club of the bone region’s front base. Do you have any last-minute questions?”

“That will be all Syphon, take good care of yourself and maybe I’ll give you a promotion, dismissed!”

Not wanting to annoy her more than she already was, Rune executed his evasive plan and walked away.

He found a table occupied by 3 very customized skeletons, sat on a chair, and under their surprised “eyes”, as they only saw a chair move by itself, he started yet another urban exploration.

“Yo, my name is Mist, and while I was walking earlier I overheard your conversation about a ‘primary monster wave’. Care to explain to this humble invisible skeleton what this is about?”

…

By far, the elementalist club discovery was the greatest turning point in his urban exploration of the front base.

Few, if any, people had access to this place by requesting it themselves, the vast majority were patrollers, or replied to a request forwarded by the administration of this place.

This led to the whole base being much more united in all their interactions and much less user-friendly when it came to general information dissemination. In other words, the base wasn’t yet prepared to receive free people.

When he exposed his situation to the people there, they were all surprised that he even existed, and once their shock passed they all asked how he got his access.

Or at least that’s what the “average” people did.

Over 3 days of innovative urban exploration, Rune in his Mist Guy persona had got to know true weirdos that could rival his Mist Guy persona in terms of having a unique character, and to some measures, they were even above it.

The fact that all of them were prospects or claimed to be one did not go unnoticed in his mind.

However, Mist Guy obliged, he never left behind his contact information.

Once again, the fact that one prospect, in particular, had been particularly ardent in pursuing him even when they had bid each other goodbye had no effect on making him revise his stance on this subject.

After all this urban exploration, overall, if he had to decide when the group of 3 would depart, he would say anytime.

And after the group of 3 Undecided convened together again after those 3 days, they shared all their acquired intels, and each similarly judged it to be enough.

Enough to plan their departing date.

“It’s really going to be hectic,” Astryde was still mulling over their decision, but she agreed too that they would go.

“A few months of battle to the death and we’ll be ready to start on our wants list, for me it seems optimized, you don’t think so?” Rune wasn’t able to see if what she said was good or bad, so he asked for clarification.

“I expected… Less hectic and dangerous,” she answered honestly.

“Same,” even Arik seemed to have a similar opinion.

The two had more time to listen to rumors and tell-tales about the bone region, so Rune had a hard time putting himself in their place, not that he wasn’t someone who hardly believed any rumors.

“Want me to give you some motivating quotes? Like there are more pros than cons? Or that fighting against infinite monsters is something that will always happen in the future? Ah… Saying this is disgusting me, I’m sorry for saying that out loud.”

Still, Rune was a bit affected by their slightly disappointed state of mind, so he tried to lift the mood earlier than they wanted.

“Sigh… I’m not disappointed, just slightly discontent that such simple intel didn’t get to us before. But anyway!” Astryde pulled herself up artificially, recovering her normal behavior, “I’ll go say goodbye personally to my friend, see you soon!”

Following that, she departed from the apartment that would soon become empty again.

Without saying anything, Arik went to the door, then he waited there, looking at Rune with his empty eye sockets.

‘Seems that saying goodbye isn’t for us?’

That was all Rune could think as he joined him and they departed together towards the bottom floors.

Taking a situation too seriously and bidding goodbye wasn’t for the 2 of them, they were too asocial for that.

They ended up talking about hero landing, though.

…

Thanks to the existence of vertical corridors, one of the best inventions anyone could have made, Rune and Arik plunged deeper and deeper.

He didn’t know about Arik, but for him, it wasn’t the first time he went down. All the people he encountered praised the lower floors as being the best floors for anything.

And it turned out to be true as after 2 days of exploring, he encountered more people and gained a pretty good idea of what those bottom floors would become in the future: The last stop before the bone region.

It was, of course, still in the future that such a term would be attributed to it, but the way the lowest floor was a must-go-through floor hinted that the framework had already been made.

“I didn’t see it the day we arrived, but as for the past 2 days, I can assure you there has never been even the slightest moment where there were fewer people than there are now. That’s crazy,” Rune observed.

“Mmh,” Arik grunted in reply.

After arriving at the lowest floor, the 342nd, they waited at the exit slash entrance for Astryde. There was clearly a non-zero chance of not being able to find each other with the number of patrollers buzzing everywhere.

She arrived half an hour later, and with the group prepared, they started to make their way through the floor.

The goal was the central hole tunnel, but before getting there, they had to pass by secondary tunnels that were created to make sure any monster that potentially came from the bone region would have the hardest time of its life invading the base.

The main hole tunnel had been fortified and plugged multiple times from what Rune could see from where he stood. The IGS clearly wasn’t joking when it came to a tunnel leading to a tier 4 heartland.

After struggling a bit to find someone able to manage private entities like them, they went through the usual procedure they had gone through in the surface base.

“Everything is up to regulatory standards, you can go in. If you’re missing supplies such as ether towers or ether pocket dimensions, feel free to take one,” the person handed back all the data chips and that was it.

‘Well, don’t mind if I do.’

Nearing the available supplies, he took an unstable ether pocket dimension, passed it through a device that activated it, and got a massive folded ether tower out of one of the pocket dimension’s storage before stocking it in his own new big pocket dimension.

Arik and Astryde did the same.

Using the belt he already had, he made a bit of space next to his own personal pocket dimension and set the new pocket dimension in the right position.

The group of 3 was primed for falling.

‘An archeologist, a drunkard, and an adventurer fall through a hole…’

With this checkpoint cleared, the path to the main hole tunnel was opened and they reached a jumping platform a few minutes later.

The platform they reached was only one of the dozens available, and the number of patrollers coming up and jumping down was a scene completely worthy of being recorded. Rune and Arik were truly synched on that subject and as a result, the camera was unsheathed for another few minutes.

And then it was time to jump.

“I’m not anxious, my lizard brain is just doing wrestling holds to my sapient brain.”

“Hehe…” Arik laughed despite himself. It was a bad joke that Rune made and he would have never laughed if the circumstances were normal, but the situation wasn’t exactly normal.

“The atmosphere is a bit anxiety-inducing,” Astryde translated their behavior in the most scientific conclusion, but it didn’t make anyone laugh.

“I swear when I was being chased by the stupid bird it wasn’t that hard to jump to my probable death. And 200 kilometers will pass very quickly anyways. And why am I even saying all this? My element is made to make me survive against tier 99, freak it.”

Taking the last step, Rune didn’t wait for Arik or Astryde and he began to free fall feet first, surrounded by patrollers who had literally the same goal as him.

‘200 kilometers of tunnel, 500 kilometers of falling, 700 kilometers total, 4 hours at terminal speed, not even half an hour if I actively go down…’

Thinking about numbers, he waited for Arik and Astryde to join him before accelerating. They had planned to actively go down, and now he was only missing their presence before accelerating.

‘Waiting for others…’

As the core part of what he considered to be the adventure began, he had this sudden thought.

‘When I go to an anomaly in the future, to train my endless adaptation…’

It was something that would necessarily happen as it was part of what made his exploration immortal path his own self-created path.

‘Sigh… Let’s just enjoy this adventure for what it is, neither my first, nor my last, just another one.’

Guessing how alone he would be in the future were unnecessary thoughts, he realized.

‘Another one with friends.’