[Utopia: How did you surpass me?! You’re cheating right?!]
[Rune: You don’t even know how inferior you truly are, you’re talking about things beyond your comprehension as a mere tier 1, now pray to me, I’ll maybe deign to answer]
[Astryde: You come asking about advice and see what you wrote just then]
[Arik: Master Rune, god of the physical fundamentals, please convince Utopia to make another camp so that you can teach us the true path]
[Rune: If you know the truth then the answer resides in the Deep Void dimension, not anywhere else. If we had a way to unite in groups of 2 maybe you could reach tier 2 of the physical fundamentals faster, also if no one has an awareness training method that can be done at all time, then I got one. I think I can put it into words now]
[Nelo: It’s really hard to communicate with you, but I assume you have already reached tier 2 for all the physical fundamentals right?]
[Utopia: Master! President! How could my ignorant self treat you like a cheater! Teach us the way!]
[Rune: I came here because I have 2 friends named Utopia and Nelo who are particularly good at making plans with as few flaws as possible, I’ll also explain how I reached tier 2 but you already know it, that’s why you should all try and unite in groups of 2 once we all enter in 1 month, it involves a really really really violent death if done alone after all]
[Utopia: So you cheated death with your avatar! You cheater!]
[Nelo: We were already detailing plans, also Gar found an experimental teleportation spell and the IGS confirmed that it worked under stringent conditions, so maybe we can take care of the reunion problem]
[Gar: Should be possible, but we need to put everything into it if we want to be ready in 1 month]
[Arik: If only the group teleportation spell worked, it would have been so easy, anyway Nelo and Utopia you can prepare the plan, tell us which mastery is the problem]
[Nelo: The experimental spell demands a special emitter, not a problem for me to do it, but launching the spell on your side is the problem, the IGS said level 80 in fine and grand manipulation, but with an express focus on only that part of the spell, maybe level 50 is sufficient I don’t know]
[Astryde: Can't we just go to a rift leading to the Deep Void?]
[Gar: Too many people, too much activity]
[Rune: I let you manage that, I’ll prepare my awareness automatic training, but if we join I’ll try and teach you with your sphere inspecting what I do, I’d also like special training from your part if you have any, the moment a tier 2 dimension opens, I want to join in]
After that point, Rune only checked once in a while.
While he practiced his fireworks magic, he tried to make the training more complex with fine manipulation, meaning more mini-explosions inside each explosion, while also training grand manipulation by trying to create fireworks in record time.
He wanted them to become usable in fights, he didn’t know if it was by radiating ether light too powerful, the explosion reaching an acceptable damage level, or even by becoming so complex that one use would beget colors apocalypse from using it.
He just knew that his current limit was either a gigantic unicolor explosion of 5 meters in diameter or a triple exploding fireworks of different patterns, and neither did significant damage.
Even their entertainment value was pitiful compared to what was possible with a simple industrial production line, but he didn’t lose hope, there was still so much potential to unleash.
But something took Rune by surprise, in what felt like the blink of an eye later, a rescue corvette was there.
What he felt was maybe a day was in reality 3 days.
He was too focused on energy training to see the time pass by, and the IGS was prepared this time so once Rune turned on his energy emitter like everyone else, he was quickly put on the rescue list.
As he couldn’t practice fireworks in a spaceship, he used some of the special training practice transmitted by the Undecided.
He had to wait a minimum of one week before arriving back home, so he decided to do the thread ball practice, credited to Adreana, where you only created one thread but rolled it till you couldn’t anymore, simple at the start, complex at the end, it only ended when it became impossible.
…
Arriving back home, Rune knew that he had to start the teleportation spell practice, but there was something he ignored intil now that he had to resolve.
[Miro: We’re going to spar!]
[Miri: Don’t try to escape!]
His twin little brothers were really insistent, and he couldn’t say no, so after coming back and turning on his computer, he put on some music while he waited for them to come back.
He was absent for a short time compared to before, but the next time he departed, it was going to be for a long period of time, so he also had to have a chat with his parents, but come what may after all.
Watching videos he loved, he was constantly distracted, having a chat with one’s parents involving leaving the house was a delicate subject.
‘I already did it 2 times… Why am I worrying so much about something that has zero chance of happening?’
Ultimately he couldn’t delay the inevitable, so he put the video on pause, stood up, and entered the living room.
“Mom, dad,” he was so used to saying those words, for every child, their parents didn’t have names, they were just mom and dad, and he wasn’t any different.
“Yes Rune,” his mother didn’t turn her head, maybe having a perception sphere exacerbated her problem of not turning her head.
“In 2 weeks or so I’m going to go on a very long training with my friends, and I don’t know when I’ll come back, so I’ll only be able to give news with the forum, and also I’m thinking of making this my job,” breaching the subject was easier than he thought.
“Since the new era began, I’ve been thinking about it and trying things for myself, and I feel that I belong there,” Rune said, at that moment, he was wearing his true character.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
So mild and inoffensive that it put people at ease, but it was the ultimate real-self, nobody except family and friends were allowed to see it, not that it was something he wanted to hide, but that he didn’t want this facet of his personality to be what people thought of him as a person.
“As long as you don’t die that’s okay, and you said it yourself, use the family forum to send news back, I’ll tell your brothers and sisters to ask you if they have doubt in their studies,” it was, of course, his mother who responded, his father was silent but listened to what they were saying.
“Ok, I’ll tell you when I depart, you can fold my bedroom to gain some ground once I go,” the conversation was over. It was like this in the Tudor household, and as usual, Rune's inner shyness made him overthink the situation.
Freed from this burden, he could finally fully enjoy his videos, only interrupted 6 hours later by Miri and Miro, as well as Floria and Victoria wanting to spar.
‘The good family activity, good for health and future, two for the price of one.’
It was time for a wholesome mild trashing of his two little brothers and as a family package, an additional very mild trashing of his two little sisters.
…
‘If the IGS is managing it as I imagine they are, then tier 2 should be the result for everyone getting out of compulsory education.’
‘If all the students did what they were asked to do, even if it’s very boring things like energy training or spirit training, they’ll eventually understand.’
Rune was feeling teacher-ish after “teaching” his sisters and brothers the hard reality that their big brother was invincible.
When he “trashed” them mildly, he tried to transmit his strange passion for fireworks by doing a mini-show, but they were only impressed, nothing else.
So he got back to training.
With no teleportation signal to catch, he could only form a gate leading to nothing, collapsing after a few seconds of existence, but it was still practice and training.
And now that he had gained his independence, Rune now had something that motivated the majority of his sessions.
*Ding* Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation reached Tier 1 Level 46
The soft and appeasing sound of another leveled mastery resounded in his mind, indicating his training working.
It wasn’t the most urgent mastery to train in, but he would take it.
He was more focused on making a gigantic explosion as fast as he could with pure manipulation, but he didn’t brute force his training, he did it carefully, attentive to the loss of energy accompanying such huge movements of energy in a short moment.
Of course, he wasn’t the one who came up with the notification for leveling up a mastery, it was Gar and Arik transmitting the info, he was a pure shameless profiter.
He still had much more training to do, constant and steady, that’s how Rune played in video games, not relying on critical at all, and now by grinding intelligently, he could accomplish his steady and rock-solid leveling speed spree.
6 hours later, making only big fireworks explosions, it resonated again.
*Ding* Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation reached Tier 1 Level 38
‘Time to change to another training.’
It was reality, mindlessly spamming a spell wouldn’t increase your mastery, it was what you learned by spamming it that was important.
Some said that gaining a level also gave you a bit of an illumination, but the majority came from yourself, and Rune could understand where those people came from.
He became a supreme physical fundamentals master in 20 months, and thinking back, fighting monsters was the true way to forcefully level up at the fastest speed, so the two paths of training and fighting existed and could be used.
‘Still 2 weeks before my cooldown is finished, It’s largely possible to attain the masteries requirement by spamming it for 2 or 3 days in the end, and I can still just wait till I’m sure to succeed to try a teleportation.’
The result of a failed teleportation was not death, but it could potentially send you into the middle of a monster’s nest, or worse, an anomaly with gravity, which was fatal for everyone.
Only training and leveling could help Rune, and he controlled the 2.
…
“Here’s the signal you must memorize, if you forget it then it’s over, you’ll be left behind because you’ll miss the teaching of master Rune,” Nelo was presenting a very strange energy construct that was emitting waves that faded into the ambient ether.
“No one said they couldn’t launch the teleport spell so everything should happen with no accident,” Utopia said, taking the initiative to conclude the meeting.
“It's only the fundamental masteries, if we’re not ready then all our Nelo-like stubbornness in never stopping our training would be useless, I’m not missing learning from a tier 2,” Gar appeared very serious compared to his usual amiable mood.
“I still have 2 hours before my cooldown ends, so I’m going to enjoy some music, later,” Rune said and successfully escaped immediately after the meeting concluded.
Proud of his achievement, he enjoyed his last hours of music, he hoped from the bottom of his heart that the next announcement by the Ether Law would involve music being contained in the global system.
If only he knew what tier 2 dimensions meant, he could predict if hearing music was even possible or not.
Until finally, “Time to go,” Rune mused aloud, “Goodbye dear music, goodbye Universe, it’s not against you, I’m just a free spirit deep inside.”
He had no regret, he said to his parents what he had to say, he was free and independent now.
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?
‘Yes.’
For the fourth time, he felt dimensional sickness, it really was a challenge.
Trying to not react to feeling your eyes pop outside of their orbit, not reacting to something intruding your throat or your ass… It was hard, very hard.
When it was over, Rune felt it immediately when his perception sphere sent him information back.
This time, however, something had changed, others had a restriction of 50% on their tier 1 ether stats of perception and momentum, but his current sphere showed that awakening his soul specialty truly had an effect.
He had a radius of 400 meters, his perception was only reduced by 20% instead of the expected 50%, so he had resisted 60% of the effect, as was written on his soul specialty description.
‘And that's only tier 1 for a tier 1 dimension, maybe my perception sphere could one day become able to scout where nobody without something similar to my specialty can, that’s something to look forward to.’
What was left unsaid was that Rune’s perception sphere became much harder, he had to step up the focus put on bending his sphere to provoke even a slight reaction as the previous one just didn’t do anything anymore, not even ripples.
Now there was only a single step left before starting his second adventure, he opened the Undecided forum.
[Gar: Is the emitter turned on?]
[Nelo: The emitter is turned on, you can all teleport]
After receiving the confirmation, Rune started to focus and carefully feel for a special signal.
Once he had it in mind, he carefully started to create a spell matrix, and 5 minutes later, after feeding all his 500 energy at 50% efficiency, 51% to be more precise, a stable gate opened, leading to a black something.
Without hesitation, Rune stepped in it, and then his sphere changed from receiving nothing to feeling 4 individuals.
Infusing energy in his vocal cord, Rune said “Hello Undecided group, I’m here to teach newbies how to fight properly, I only see kids here, where are my students?”
And following his question, 4 pairs of eyes focused on him, someone who had no smile on his face, someone they knew by the name of Rune.