To integrate with his avatar, the two first had to be at the same place.
‘I need to recall my avatar, the forum said I have to enter the dimensions window and select Universe…’
Doing as he had heard and read, Rune opened his system and selected the Universe Dimension.
Dimensions
Universe
Not able to bear ether life forms.
Fully stable. Dimensional anomalies impossible.
No restrictions on ether.
The Universe Dimension is the first dimension birthed by a critically defective law, as such, the ether density is abysmal and doesn’t allow ether life forms to survive.
This dimension is composed at more than 99% of emptiness, only the most fundamental part of the Ether Law has allowed this Dimension to birth sapient life and to exist in its current state.
Enter?
It was the same word, “enter”, but the meaning was completely different.
‘Yes, enter.’
Knowing that as long as his avatar still existed it would be the one that would be “teleported”, he decided to confirm.
The next instant, his avatar that was in the Deep Void Dimension was teleported.
Normally, anyone using this way of moving between dimensions would appear in a random position, but as the two originated from the same ether soul, the avatar was inevitably attracted here, they were ultimately 2 pieces of the same thing.
Thanks to his perception sphere, Rune could see a hole appear before him, and from this hole, a seed floated out. This seed radiating weird ether and energy was the inactivated form of an avatar.
Activating his avatar by sending his awareness to the “other side”, he saw his avatar deploy in but a moment.
One’s avatar was fundamentally a mirror of themselves, so his avatar was identical, the hair, the eyes, the face, even the clothes were created. It was all just a bit blurry as only their appearance had been copied.
Stopping his narcissist fascination, he did the instinctive thing, he touched himself, the other himself, and like water, his hand passed through.
Now, he only had to will for the integration to start and it would.
A subtle fluctuation of ether, or something similar, was released in the surrounding area. It was pure white ether, and like air, the avatar evaporated into his hand.
The integration was over in a few seconds.
‘Now I only need to wait an entire month or hope that a rift to the Deep Void appears just next to me.’
The penalty of Ether Law-assisted dimensional teleportation of course still applied, that was for every dimension, the Universe Dimension as much as any other one.
It meant that if a Primary Ether sub-dimension became available, he would only be able to go in after 2 months now.
‘I need to prepare more though. The best training to do is my special shapes and colors energy training, hoping to raise the efficiency of the compression mastery. Maybe I can create a new way to only practice compression?’
Rune thoughtfully stared into nothing for a few minutes before deciding on his training plan for the next month.
‘I’ll focus on energy compression first, the grand and fine manipulation on the side, and perception manipulation in the background, doing it at the same time as the rest. I can’t fight or farm anymore so I only have free time.’
Not procrastinating, he immediately got outside through the airlock and began to engineer his own special break training.
…
Manipulating pure energy directly was easy, it wasn’t just the case for Rune, it was the case for everyone.
‘Solid cube, push.’
In the end, the best self-training for the energy compression fundamental was to try and compress something with the most complexity possible.
Repeatedly.
‘Explode, relax…’
The cube he just created exploded in a soundless cubic white explosion.
‘Solid pentagon, push.’
The more variety, the easier compression became after becoming used to it.
‘Explode, relax…’
This time the pentagon just disintegrated. Frowning at that for a bit, Rune ultimately ignored it and continued.
‘Solid pentagon, push.’
‘Explode, relax…’
The same result as last.
‘Solid pentagon, push.’
This time, he spent a whole 5 minutes creating it, he even colored it in red.
‘Explode, relax…'
And it did explode, creating a red explosion like a star with 5 branches.
‘Solid cross, push.’
And so he continued this training.
Exhaustion was visible on his face, but he didn’t stop. His rhythm was close to automatic at this point, it was like breathing in and out when running, it gave a rhythm to follow, and when it was disturbed, he felt bad.
After integrating with his avatar, he always had 100% of his awareness to control, but he couldn’t train his awareness and his perception sphere at the same time, he had to choose.
And he chose his perception sphere, he judged his current awareness manipulation to be enough.
As if he had become an addict to his own training, only the thrill of becoming stronger allowed him to stay awake and resist the exhaustion.
The mixed training he had designed allowed him to have steady progress in 2 fundamentals.
As Rune used his time to train, he eventually came to associate training and ambitions. Training was a part of realizing his ambitions, when he took a step with his training progress, he also took a step in direction of his ambitions.
All in all, he came to like training and the progress that came with it.
Like watching a video, eating something delicious, or going to bed, training became a part of his life that he liked.
He liked the feeling of always pushing without suffering any consequences apart from exhaustion. Exhaustion that he used to refine his will.
New colored forms compressed before his eyes at his will, some a lot more complex to realize than others.
His perception sphere fought back every time he tried to push it in a cycle.
At some point, he realized that he couldn’t even think anymore, and all his attempts at pushing against his perception sphere didn’t cause anything anymore.
Feeling his own mind becoming more clouded by the second, he willed his energy loop and shape reinforcement mode to keep going, as a way to confirm that he could still do what he learned during Utopia’s camp.
Then he reentered the cube house through the airlock and fell unconscious upon hitting his bed, happy to have fought to his limit.
There was no further limit he could have pushed more efficiently.
...
Rune slept for 3 days and feeling well enough upon waking up, he got back to his mixed training. His parents didn’t even ask him any questions as he passed them by.
After his spirit had time to heal from all the strain he had put on it, he realized that his perception sphere had now become slightly more moldable, his ability to cause a change having increased just a bit more.
He could also form complex compressed energy forms faster, so he tackled himself to multiple layer energy compressed shapes, the future level of creating amazing-looking energy fireworks.
As was usual for the spiritual path fundamentals, only repetition was the key. Comprehension came from this repetition, It was an accumulation of experience that ultimately led to opening a new way, everything being natural.
The psychic union had an inkling about how to use momentum in timed bursts, but even then it needed accumulation before becoming possible.
‘It’s a shame that teleportation will not allow even pods to be taken…’
The thing he would miss the most was obviously music, nothing could go along during dimensional teleportation by the Ether Law system, not even clothes.
Even after he accepted this fact though, his suicidal idea of still going through with his plan was still going strong.
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He had even reestablished again that he would not need to breathe again by keeping his shape reinforcement on during the whole time he was unconscious and sleeping.
He wasn’t pushing boundaries, he kept his own rhythm, and his inner peace remained undisturbed.
‘First time trying, 2 layers sphere, push.’
Like breathing, instinctually, it was the method Rune used.
‘Explode, relax…’
Breathing out, he finally restarted his training, although it was a failure.
...
Rune approached yet again the moment he had to go to sleep.
After this rest, the 17th month would begin, and he would be going on a trip to the border of life and death for a minimum of 1 month.
He had prepared himself as if he was going to have his college exam, except that even for them, he had never studied this hard.
In this month of training, he reached 50% efficiency for energy compression, increasing his odds at living an encounter by many times. His perception sphere manipulation strength had also finally allowed him a corresponding weak manipulation strength.
He could now feel his sphere deforming in real-time over one minute, it was a pure garbage deforming time compared to even a commoner adventurer who practiced for 1 month leisurely, but if he was at their place, Rune was sure he would obliterate their perception sphere’s boundaries inadvertently.
‘I still have a day, let’s compensate for the future month or even months of abstinence in entertainment and music.’
…
Looking fondly at his new home, fondly called “home cube”, or maybe he looked more fondly at the relaxed situation than the home cube itself represented? It didn’t change the fact that he had lived in this one for a month and a week.
‘It’s maybe the last time I see my family, anything could happen to me.’
Depressing thoughts were present, but he only had to remember what he felt during a fight and his will to change his plan vanished silently.
‘Everything I didn’t experience in my life, getting a job, love, I’ll still have a try after coming back, but…’
Rune opened the Deep Void Dimension screen.
Dimensions
Deep Void
Able to bear ether life forms, Can birth life.
Slightly unstable. Dimensional anomalies possible.
Tier 1 Perception: 50% restriction.
Tier 1 Momentum: 50% restriction.
The Deep Void Dimension was born soon after the Void Dimension. It is only a billionth of its size but has a dimensional link to the Void Dimension allowing ether density to come in but not out, greatly increasing its ether density, explaining its ability to produce ether life forms.
The ether life forms born in it ended up becoming ether monsters that propagated more aggressive behavior with every successive generation in search of dominance and power. Few ether life forms escaped this cycle.
Enter?
‘My dreams come before my life, enter! Yes!’
The next moment, like his body was having a seizure, he couldn’t control himself anymore.
His right arm, he couldn’t feel anymore before feeling it again suddenly. He also felt his head colliding with the sole of his feet, his blood boiling and freezing at the same time and his ears hit by what felt like an incapacitating grenade.
Minutes passed by before it suddenly ended and his perception sphere finally allowed him to see things again.
If he could vomit he would have, tears and snots were dripping from his eyes and mouth respectively.
He took the fastest decision of his life and created a massive energy platform and applied all his momentum towards it, creating a modicum of comfort in the vast nothingness around him as familiar pseudo-gravity took hold of him.
‘Worst teleportation of my life! Also the first, son of a penguin!’
His body benefited from all the stats of his avatar as they had become one, so he could be considered a quarter ether life form. He was a defective Universe life form fusioned with an Ether Law embodiment.
But it seemed that even this couldn’t allow his body to feel nothing at all.
Pulling himself together after 5 minutes of feeling like he had run a marathon after not running for years, Rune felt he could also add an asthma crisis in between. Maybe an anxiety attack too.
The reality of the situation descended upon him, and as comic as it seemed, he was now in life and death training.
‘No. It’s not training anymore, it’s my first true adventure, my first dimensional adventure!’
Like the earlier situation didn’t happen, a smile, a true smile made its way to his face.
‘Let’s beat the shit out of monsters, let’s go!’
He first donned his energy armor, using 500 energy, all he had, to create a layer of 250 armor.
Then, he only had to activate the galaxy wings spell and travel for 5 minutes before encountering his first-ever monster of the serpent archetype.
They didn’t have smooth skin like the whale or the head monster, they had scales and were experts of momentum techniques.
The board said that their most dangerous attack was their tail, because once mixed with advanced momentum manipulation, they could execute whip-like attacks that allowed them to reach 100% strength exertion easily.
Approaching it, it reacted by rushing at Rune after he entered a 200 meters radius from its head.
‘I could still hope that it was pacific, right?’
Rune didn’t act nervous, he had prepared a whole month for this.
His first move was preparing a 100 energy reinforcement, if he couldn't evade the first attack he would just block what he could.
The snake engaged with trying to swallow him.
From this massive opportunity, Rune could have killed it instantly… If his goal wasn’t to see if there were differences now that he had integrated with his avatar.
He dodged to the side and delivered a light kick to test things out.
After he dodged, the snake contorted and tried to “suffocate” him by wrapping its body around Rune.
Using a platform he jumped to use the 3rd dimension, but as he did that, the snake tail wrapped around his left leg in a flash.
He was violently thrown back as the snake’s head approached rapidly, preparing to bite him.
Rune didn’t hesitate and abandoned any thought of freeing himself and avoiding. He prepared a reinforced block worth 200 energy and used it to counter the closing of the snake’s mouth, two hands at the top, two feet at the bottom.
Finding himself in a surreal scene that would merit a picture to immortalize it, it was unfortunate that the information board couldn’t take pictures. You could only draw with your thoughts to create “pictures” that could be posted on the board.
Like a hero of legend, Rune decided to go deeper. He used another 100 energy reinforcement and rushed inside the snake’s mouth, through its throat, and started to hammer whatever came in contact with his skin.
Before long, the stupid snake monster stopped moving and Rune got out.
10 minutes later, the body and the guts he brought out with him started to disintegrate
‘It’s the same.’
He was feeling a rush of adrenaline, even more than with his avatar, he felt rewarded and felt like he could continue forever.
‘Next one I’ll do calm and steady, the climax will come with time.’
Rune thought about the remaining tests he had to do as he started to chase down his next prey.
…
2 weeks later, Rune felt fully acclimated to living in the Deep Void Dimension. As if it was his hometown environment.
Fighting 3 against 1 near the snake-like monster nest, he felt free and more alive than ever.
With his life on the line, he grew even faster. To make this progression possible though, blood was often spilled, and not only that of monsters.
Rune tried to evade a tail whip strike but another snake disturbed him and he took it full force.
Feeling blood coming from his mouth and his nose, he knew his energy armor had finally shattered with this strike.
But even then, he didn’t choose to retreat, he had to at least finish one-off. Diving at beyond his full strength by using an energy platform and a 100 energy reinforced jump, he prepared for the closing act.
Following this jump, he prepared a 200 energy reinforced kick and as his targeted snake tried to evade it, he made a platform appear and used his prepared 200 energy kick to go on a collision course with the snake, faster than it could react to avoid him.
As he always kept energy for emergencies, a pure collision was all he could do to keep his remaining energy, but it was enough.
Feeling his leg bones resisting an immense force, he persisted in maintaining a straight body and sent the snake weighing dozens of times his own weight bending in 2 from his middle segment flying.
He knew it was dead from that moment, but he couldn’t be bothered to recover its core as 2 angry snakes were prepared to engage him at full force. And he wasn’t at full force anymore.
So Rune started to run away, distancing himself as best as he could in a short time, using full momentum to stall for time and even wasting his energy to compress platforms to translate his strength into more speed.
He wasn’t in mortal danger, so he didn’t go on a full retreat, his superior momentum stat would perfectly allow him to if needed.
Fighting in the way of the Ether Law implied that at some points, in his own opinion, normal attacks would become the most important source of sustained damage, energy should only be a support to them.
‘Real fighting is completely different.’
It was an eye-opener for him to use only his own 2 fists for his offensive while only using energy to evade and to create armor, not anything else.
To optimize the now impossible-to-lose fight, he focused on one of the 2 remaining snakes completely and used artificial gravity momentum to let his every punch and kick transmit all the strength he could.
The tricky positions he had to take made him learn how to fight in a changing environment.
The snake tried to grab his leg, so he changed his momentum to evade in an instant, then immediately changed it to take an opportunity that the snake's tentative strike had opened.
Combo after combo, the second snake finally died. With only one snake monster left, Rune let his focus vacillate a bit, it cost him a bite to one of his arms.
Having cut his sense of pain he didn’t feel anything, but the red color he saw through his sphere indicated his true situation.
‘Bleeding…’
A situation he expected, but this time it provoked a strange thought to arise.
‘According to logic, as long as I generate energy and it’s used to replace what my body needs, then even if I lose all of my blood I shouldn't die… Woah… That’s crazy…’
His blood served to transport what his body needed to survive, but if energy took charge of this aspect, then its loss wouldn’t even increase the energy upkeep of Rune’s body.
‘Maybe replenishing it would be a problem? Not like I can prepare for it though, if it happens, it happens.’
Finishing the last snake-like monster cost him all his remaining mental strength. It wasn’t just the fault of the fight however, it was the fault of his new-generation perception manipulation training.
To keep himself sharp, as he knew he would remain in a high risk area for an extended period of time, Rune had continued his perception sphere manipulation training, but differently.
Where before he pushed, now he only maintained. It was a constant very low intensity battle between his perception manipulation force and his sphere’s boundaries battling to return to what it was originally: A perfect sphere.
The consumption of what he knew was his invisible spiritual strength was constant, as long as he didn’t decide to go bonkers and fully tried to bend his perception sphere, it was the best sustainable form of training.
He was even experimenting to do it with awareness training, but he hadn’t succeeded on that front yet. Awareness seemed to ask for more active involvement, actively modifying the repartition of awareness to different senses and exploring oneself.
‘Only 2 weeks and I already need to sleep, that’s dangerous.’
Training was something he liked, fighting he loved, and traveling while rubbing shoulders with death was his new hobby.
‘I should conclude this training session with my report.’
Rune still had to say what he was doing, in case he dropped dead the next second.
[Rune: Just won a 3 versus 1, It’s now the end of the second week of my adventure. My perception manipulation training is bringing me to need a period of sleep or my vigilance will drop too much for my comfort. My recent insights all have to do with bringing normal punches and kicks back, juggernaut looks like a good and lovely path, over HQ.]
[Arik: Nothing to say, no signs of insanity, no signs of becoming not-you, no shocking discoveries, you can sleep easy.]
[Gar: I saw no problem in your reports until now, so unless you’re hiding things you are indeed progressing a lot faster, but I have not found scientific reason to explain it, Utopia will follow in your suicidal steps in 3 weeks so I’ll have more data.]
[Nelo: My sister is inspired by your reports, she’s like a little girl reading about a legendary story, she’s training like crazy and she already recalled her avatar too. You’re a pretty bad influence.]
[Rune: If you see any of those two, tell them that even 100% energy compression efficiency will not be enough, there's never enough of this stuff. I’m going to sleep now, see you later.]
[Gar: See you.]
After his report, confirming nothing changed, he could finally let go of his sphere.
The sensation was like he released weights he didn’t know he had.
It was liberating.
For a comfortable sleep, and not the kind where he just stood still with only his sphere, he used his energy manipulation to create a foamy-like energy construct, then he applied a very light and not demanding permanent momentum towards it.
With a comfortable DIY energy bed “below” him, his last thoughts before entering shallow and wary sleep were thought-provoking ones.
‘I’m literally a walking infinitely replenishing adventurer. So freaking badass.’