“Sigh… You’re only 16 years old Miri, you should really talk to your teacher, or mom and dad about this, not me,” Rune sighed to externalize his frustration regarding the current situation.
He was only a normal big brother, so when Miri came to ask him advice on what to do, he was really taken aback.
“But mom said that you’ve already made your choice, so I just want to know what you decided, just for reference of course!” Miri tried to reason using nonsense logic.
It seemed that he knew that his big brother couldn’t say no to him, so his argument was just for show.
“I’m not that sure, I still have a week before the first wave comes back, and even if that’s right that I have a general sense of what I want, do you even have an idea of what you want?” Rune started by making sure Miri and him were on the same page.
“Yes,” Miri answered.
“And did you choose how you’ll fight in the future?” Rune pursued.
“I’ve done as everyone did and read forums talking about builds and paths and how there is no best but only most suitable. When I fight with monsters I favor fast strikes with momentum evasion as the source of my defense. Miro chose the tanking hits and hitting back harder so we could fight together in the future.”
Miri was ready for any question it seemed, Rune couldn’t escape from his grasp.
“Then why do you want to know what I choose? Just follow some guides like I did, start with the easier class ratio, did you already do that?”
“Yes, tell me yours!”
‘So that’s what he wanted to know.’
Rune wasn’t surprised, there was a 2 000 stat points limit per stat at tier 2, which was a very large amount of EP to gather and invest without a pre-established governmental structure to help.
Choosing a class ratio would make you gain a very big advantage on some stats, but also weakness in others, and maybe his little brother searched for comfort in his choice?
‘It’s not like it matters that much? It only changes the cost after all…’
The rule was that at tier 1, every stat point had the same cost in terms of EP, always needing 10 000 EP to gain a single stat point in any of the 10 stats.
At tier 2 however, accompanying the birth of a pseudo-class, it was possible to change this cost to 0.5 (or half the price), 1 (or the exact price of a tier 2 stat point), 1.5 (or 50% more expensive), and 2 (or double) as long as the total combined ratio of every stat remained the same as the start.
So, as long as the ratio of each stat combined equaled 10, everyone was able to decide which stats to prioritize, and that changed everything because at tier 2, the individual stat limit was 2 000, quadruple the tier 1 stat limit.
“Ok then, let me do it with a process of elimination,” Rune didn’t have a choice, saying no to his cute little brother? Unthinkable.
“My fighting style is a very, very slow burner marathon style. It allows me to take risks because I’m very resistant to damage and can recover. From my point of view, the true essence of it all comes from normal strikes which are dependent on body control strength.”
“Yet, to give me a margin of error using this style, my energy armor is mandatory, and energy compression is dependent on only 2 energy stats, energy, and energy regeneration. So I took those 3 stats out.”
“As for my soul specialty, it affects my perception, so it’s a no-brainer choice. I also chose to sacrifice momentum because I can substitute it with an energy platform mixed with strength. So? Which stats did I place at high priority? And which are low priority?”
Rune exposed his complete train of thoughts about his fighting style and ensuing class ratio to Miri, making him reflect on what he chose by himself.
“Energy, energy regeneration, perception, and strength are high priority, that’s minus 2 ratio points, then purity, affinity, and momentum became low priority, you gained 3 ratio points if you put their ratio at 2,” he answered, holding no doubt he was right, it was easy after all.
“That’s right, now I have the leftover stats, health which is the last rampart of anyone, health regeneration that adds flexibility to any loss of health, and cohesion which reduces environmental effect and damage that your health is subjected to,” gradually, he guided his little brother through his thinking.
“If you were at my place, with my current ratio equal to 11, I can reduce two of them to half price, which did I choose, or did I invest this point in another way?”
This was a multiple-answer riddle, and Rune was innerly proud of putting his situation like that.
Thinking for a few minutes, Miri thought really deeply about what his brother would do, but in the end, there were only 2 possibilities: Either he transformed a low priority stat into a medium one, or he created another 2 high-priority ones.
But Rune had valid reasons as to why he put low priority on a stat, that was because he would not need them in the short-term future where he remained a tier 2 entity with close to no complexities involved in his slotted masteries’ choices.
To be sure Miri, asked for more details, “Did you decide to replace the momentum stat with just running using strength and energy platform?”
Rune’s smile got a little brighter.
“I did, but there’s a limit, strength-based speed increases explosively at the start, more than momentum, but becomes stale once a certain threshold is passed, though that threshold is only at 2 000 strength, so I got some time before reaching it.”
“In contrast, the momentum stat increases linearly without a breakpoint. The higher it is, the crazier it gets, and once it goes beyond 42 000 equivalent stat points, no other stats can compare to it in terms of ratio for cost to speed.”
Getting some food for thought, Miri continued to muse for some minutes, until he decided to deliver his choice.
“You probably decided to make cohesion and health regeneration into high priority stats, you can respond to the problem of a future less steady long-distance speed, but you can’t respond to environmental damage and death by evading,” that was Miri’s point of view which he transposed to reality, and it was a flawless answer.
From Rune’s point of view only, of course, he was far from all-knowing, so he couldn’t say it was a perfect answer.
“The new education reform really is working miracles… That’s right, that’s what I’m going for, and in case you ask, slotted masteries are what I’m supposed to use to correctly exert my stats, but so many masteries exist that I’m just lost,” Rune admitted with a foolish grin.
“At the start, I was going for 2 energy compression masteries, but the more I read, the more the possibilities expanded. So don’t try to make me say my current choice, it’s not optimized at all, and it’s not like a class, you can always switch them in-between tiers with a purge if you decide to change your style,” Rune finished educating his little brother in beauty, at least from his standards.
‘How could I speak about maybe including the fireworks element specialization in them? Your big brother is too shy for that. So many choices exist that my confusion is only increasing as I read.’
That was what happened to everyone who had infinite choices mixing with an indecisive personality, during the last 3 weeks, the Undecided that all had a certain degree of inner indecisiveness were becoming crazy.
‘Energy compression mastery? Perception control mastery? Fireworks element specialization mastery? Momentum manipulation mastery? Maybe I should go for an offensive one and add a body control mastery? But a reinforcement mastery sounds so clutch!’
Slotted masteries.
Rune guided his eyes towards the information board notes he had made, surprised by the relative order there was.
It was really the most powerful symbol of being independent, but there were only 3 available at tier 2, then 6 at tier 3, then 9, then 12, every tier up made you gain 3 additional slots for the masteries of your choice.
At each tier, there was even an additional way to manipulate your build more and make you lose your sight in the innumerable possibilities.
At tier 1, he only had his fundamentals to care about, and they were locked, nothing could change them.
At tier 2, he would gain access to the basic masteries, masteries that could only boost a fundamental further.
At tier 3, and by doing extended training at tier 2, specialized masteries, or specializations, appeared, allowing for… Everything?
‘I still need to read more on those specializations… But… Really? Everything? If everything is possible then… How can someone ever find their perfect build?’
Ignoring the problematic specializations, he continued reading.
At tier 4, every basic masteries you had used until now could go to the trash as a much better type of masteries became available, the provided masteries, sacrificing some things to benefit other things much more…
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
And at tier 5, something called masteries evolution became available. Unfortunately, this change again had to do with specialized master's.
‘Lose 1 tier, widen or change the scope of the target specialized mastery without having to start anew… I don’t know the real implications, but who would ever choose this option to change? If I really have a specialization in the future, which I’ll probably do, how can I be certain I’ll never use this specialization again? Anyway…’
His train of thought ended shortly after it began, Rune had already read and learned enough to know he didn’t know anything about how vast and infinite the Ether Law really was.
From specialized masteries you could get anytime as long as you had an empty mastery slot and learned the slightest bit of minor manipulations involving manipulating one of your stats or going further with your fundamentals enough to create an entire new field…
Passing by the potential mixed stats specialization like an infusion of cohesion into his energy, or an infusion of purity into his strength…
And finishing with the beyond masteries, beyond capabilities, growth masteries and all sorts of secondary fields that were each more interesting than the previous ones…
Every choice he could decide to go with had associated difficulties, and the consequences on the future also had to be accounted for and optimized as well…
‘If the Ether Law loves life as much as the trillions of billions of years old forums say it does, then why does it open so many choices for me? Well, at least you don’t open a choice for the stats, they’re equal for everyone…’
Rune could just think for a bit and remember all the amazing paths the heroes from the biographies he read chose to go on.
Some of their paths had been incredibly focused on furthering one of their fundamentals, either using the reinforcement fundamental to kill god-like entities, or pushing their grand manipulation until matter became energy for them.
Some had been focused on making their energy take on properties annihilating all life facing them. Creating elements that even billions of years later were still used and researched.
Some had been focused on warping their perception into a domain capable of holding everything within in their grasp.
Some others had even dedicated their whole life to a craft, using their crafting path and crafting specialization to revolutionize the world in ways he couldn’t even begin to understand.
Rune even found ways to create a specialized mastery dedicated to resisting dimensional effect on one's perception, imitating his own soul specialty…
‘Infinite and all-encompassing… And I’m not even tier 2 yet… And my soul specialization… Sigh…’
How could he forget that becoming a tier 2 entity meant his soul specialty would evolve? And that he wouldn’t know what would be the choices before it happened?
The board said the truth, becoming a tier 2 was the beginning, the first step to the indecision hell.
If slotted masteries couldn’t be switched out through using just a week-long purge, Rune would just die, his human brain couldn’t read, learn, understand, and plan everything he wanted.
An upside to the situation was that every time he remembered he still had a week before knowing what the IGS expected of its citizens, he gained another burst of motivation to continue the arduous and enjoyable task of browsing the board.
…
[Utopia: My mother just told me it's for soon, so be ready. Our landing zone is very peaceful, only a tier 1 forest zone, there’s no information on the region yet, so we can just gather using the IGS prepared Adventurer’s Society branch, the north one, then we’ll take a mission as a group and help do whatever while becoming tier 2 quickly.]
[Gar: Thank you god Utopia, we’ll be your faithful underlings, you’re the protagonist of our group so become conceited and arrogant please.]
[Rune: Have pity master Utopia! Have pity! I’ll do my job correctly, don't fire me! Mercy! Mercy!]
[Astryde: I’m the reincarnated princess of an empire with an imperial guard only composed of tier 6 entities, be my knight and escort me back! Humph Peasant!]
[Arik: All those biographies affected you all too much, come back from your insanity, you need to choose which masteries you’ll take! Why does my head hurt so much?]
[Nelo: Look at him! He’s trying to make us believe he’s completed his choice! To the pyre ya go heretic!]
[Adreana: The pyre! Burn! Hahaha!]
[Rune: So Nelo made his choice to wield the pyre element? So rational from you sir, I thought you would have gone with the millions of other fire-related and explosion-related elements?]
[Nelo: Rune tried to make me believe I made my choice! To the pyre ya go too!]
That was the day just after the first wave came back and transmitted all their info to the IGS, the Undecided were crazy from so many choices and even a whole month or more than 700 hours of uninterrupted documentation work hadn’t allowed them to make up their mind.
Rune had a primary choice in mind, but he still had until he became tier 2 entity to think about it, maybe he had missed some info? So he wouldn’t seal his decision for the moment.
2 hours later, the IGS, which was, in the end, the unique major power of their entire dimension comprising more than 200 billions galaxies, made its announcement.
[Dear Citizens of the Intergalactic Society,
This is a summarized announcement to express our final opinion and stance on the recent events related to the Ether Law and the opening of the Endless Dimension. For further details, please look further down.
Given the recent full integration of our dimension to the Globalized Information Board, this announcement is also destined for all civilizations that didn’t have previous contact with us.
The recent events have led to the IGS becoming the beacon of civilization and unity of our dimension, now named Defective Physic Laws Dimension 527, but as we’ve always done, and will forever do, only coming under our administrative management is asked of you and nothing else.
This dimension, our dimensions, will forever be a safe harbor where you should feel safe living in, but it should now also become the foundation from where the manpower needed to take our first steps in the Endless comes from.
Never before have we been so proud to belong to a greater whole who can lead our dimension to further horizons, and as such, all individuals will be free to do as they want, without restrictions of any kind except the moral restrictions that come with signing the citizen contract of the IGS.
Compared to millions of years old empire, kingdom, country, or any form of society and civilization, we are just weak newcomers, and as such we should act as one.
Everything will be used to increase the sharing of information and opportunities for everyone, not only our citizens, but also everyone who desires help.
As such, a new IGS-sponsored profession, the Ether Guide, will immediately start recruiting for an emergency 1-year curriculum, with the objectives of gathering all sorts of lost legacies on the Globalized Information Board, to help everyone forge their path in better condition.
In the near future, not only our colonization effort of the Endless, but also our home dimension, will have to adapt to a totally new form of society, no longer will our defective law technologies works, not even all ether technologies that have been developed until now are suitable for a complete Ether Law environment.
Companies and research institutes are currently trying to remedy the problem, but new infrastructures need to be built and raw materials have to be gathered. This is not a problem on this side, but your help is solicited on the other side.
Before touching on the plan of the IGS, an official apology had to be made, the IGS high sphere of command was aware for months now that the current situation would change drastically.
Fortunately, this situation is far from the worst-case one, our home dimension still can’t bear ether life forms, no danger exists for us there, so I invite everyone to forgive us and advance together.
Only peak tier 1 entities can survive the ether life form transformation that will happen directly upon entering the Endless, but the IGS prides itself in the number of such individuals being in the millions.
For those who can survive entry, you’re invited to help the IGS take possessions of the surrounding territory and use your perception sphere to detect the necessary raw materials needed for fast industrialization as an emergency response.
Once in the landing zone, you’ll find yourself in a plain currently being transformed, follow the indications to be directed to one of the 4 Adventurer’s Society branches if you want to contribute, a lot needs to be done.
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.]
‘Then it’s time.’
Rune finished reading through the IGS’s announcement.
He had already made up his mind long ago, maybe not at the very beginning, no, but soon after it.
[Utopia: I’m departing now, I’ll wait for everyone at the north branch.]
[Gar: Same, see you soon guys, tell your family that you’ll miss them.]
[Nelo: We’re departing now, see you soon.]
[Astryde: See you.]
[Arik: I loved the board, but I need to advance.]
[Adreana: Drama!]
Asocial, shy, and indecisive, those were Rune’s traits, but he had still made true friends, and that was something he should be the happiest about now that the tutorial part of his life was finally over.
[Rune: See you soon…]
Entering the airlock, he wanted to say goodbye to his mom and dad mainly, from now on and until the private sector opened a way to pay EP to send messages back, he wouldn’t even be able to give news if he wanted.
‘If I can think about it then it’s pretty confirmed that they can too, it’ll just be a bit expensive as they’ll need an EP market teleportation refresh everytime they do it...’
“I’m departing now,” he said. As usual, his mom and dad were in the living room.
“Take care, send back news if you can,” his mother was used to his absence by now, she would only worry if he wasn’t heard of for a decade or two.
“Mmh, Good luck,” his father answered him. That was more than he had expected from his silent father.
He was always here, and he was also the origin of his personality, so Rune had genuine respect for him, a simple grumble and a few words were more than enough to know that he wished him good.
He checked to see if his bedroom was clean, that his computer was turned off, and he was ready.
As nothing could be taken through the Ether Law dimensions teleportation, he hadn’t prepared any baggage.
Thinking about landing naked, he kept reminding himself to be ready to condense energy clothing, his exhibitionist side was very slight after all.
Dimensions
Endless
Only liveable for independent ether life forms.
The Endless Dimension, or simply the Endless for most intelligent beings, is a multi-tiered dimension where ether moves and flows across infinite distance, there is no end to its infinite continents, seas, skies, and undergrounds.
This dimension spans everything known, every dimension is in some way linked to it, but some of those links are very subtle and nearly undetectable.
When entering the Endless Dimension, you will enter it through your current dimension’s link to it.
Enter?
‘Let’s go then, to this dimension that birthed so many legends. Yes.’
And his body instantly disappeared from his home dimension, being teleported following the now solidly established link between their dimension and the Endless.
He didn’t feel any differences between this teleportation and the others, it was still as horrendous and uncomfortable as the first time, no way to get used to it even after all the time he had done it.
Maybe it was long, maybe it was short, but in an instant, he felt gravity again, and accompanying it was something he never experienced following this type of teleportation.
He felt the ground below his feet.
After a momentary absence, he condensed energy clothing and then felt his perception sphere send information back from within a sphere of 500 meters around his body, penetrating into the ground while also sensing the thousands of people around him.
The ether in the air was light, only some occasional familiar white vapor-like clouds appeared, it was a very low ether density, probably less than even the Deep Void dimension’s one.
But this simple ether density was making him feel things, his sense of pain was deactivated, but he could feel his body burning from its contact with the ambient ether.
It was something he knew would happen, something the IGS had warned everyone about.
It was time to transcend his past defective form, becoming another life form, something that couldn’t live in his home dimension if the ether density didn’t increase to tier 1.
It was time to become an ether life form.
A human ether life form.