“Yup! We’ll all go and gather the maximum amount of the stuff as possible, it’s free and will not slow us down that much, it'll also help to form a good impression if we just ask where to drop them off, and maybe form new connections,” Utopia explained.
The week of farming ended, and the 2 sides were gathered in the camp, Utopia was preparing for the trip back to civilization.
The 2 sides traveled thousands of kilometers and confirmed that nothing changed, no second sun appeared, no first moon, no red sky, no no sun at all, this zone was part of the same region they journeyed in and would journey back, a flat primitive forest with some rivers.
Going back 6 000 kilometers with massive pieces of rock effectively wouldn’t influence their speed too much, it’d still be at a steady 60 meters per second.
At such a speed the return trip would take 28 hours, and the additional charge was something everyone was capable of carrying without expending more of their energy than they regenerated, it was completely reasonable.
“As long as you take care of all the social side I don't see any problem,” Arik said and received a thumbs-up as well as a knowing smile from Rune.
As long as it didn’t involve talking to strangers, everything was fine, even facing a tier 3 alone.
With no objections, the group followed Utopia to the magnetite ore veins and took as much as they could transport.
It was actually the same for everyone as using energy threads wasn’t a special capability of Gar, it’s just that he was the only one who specialized in it in the Undecided, so they generally let him do easy training like transporting the stone bricks.
As a result, everyone now transported tons of rocks, those rocks had parts that reflected silvery and metallic lights amidst their black envelope, and they were floating above each one of the group’s heads.
Now that was a fantasy scene.
With 28 hours of road, they didn’t procrastinate and, after taking all they could, with each one transporting a mass of rocks amounting to 15 tons, totaling more than a hundred tons, they departed.
Cutting through the forest, they joined their path by taking a shortcut from the river vein.
Everyone was even pushing themselves to go faster than 60 meters per second, with Utopia, Rune, and Arik being in a friendly competition as they used the reality-breaking power of their reinforcement and body control masteries to push themselves to 70 meters per second without suffering a negative energy balance.
During the last 3 days of this farming week, Rune gathered an additional 33 300 720 EP, advancing his status quite a bit.
Rune Tudor (Tier 2)
Class: Frontline Pathfinder
Specialty: Shelled Dimensional Perception
EP: 1 005 395
Stats Total: 8 863
Health: 500
Health Regeneration: 500
Strength: 1 000
Cohesion: 500
Energy: 1 000
Energy Regeneration: 1 863
Purity: 500
Affinity: 500
Momentum: 500
Perception: 2 000
He wasn’t the one to absorb the tier 3 core but Nelo said it gave him 108 000 EP, and it was only a newly advanced tier 3 from what they understood.
There was no concrete proof, but judging from the damage it dealt to Rune, the damage it resisted, and the time taken to empty its health pool, that was their conclusion.
As for his masteries, they advanced quite a bit, they were leveled through blood and punches so of course, they increased a lot.
Masteries
Tier 1 Masteries
Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 2 Level 9
Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 2 Level 9
Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 2 Level 10
Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 2 Level 3
Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 2 Level 4
Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 2 Level 8
Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 2 Level 7
Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 2 Level 3
Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 2 Level 4
Tier 2 Masteries
Energy Compression: Basic Energy Armor: Tier 1 Level 33
Energy Compression: Basic Defensive Energy: Tier 1 Level 33
Reinforcement: Basic Reinforced Armor: Tier 1 Level 35
Rune’s masteries were advancing at a good rhythm, but his tier 1 masteries were the ones progressing at an explosive speed.
Once they reached tier 2 and he leveled them a bit, he would be able to survive a newly advanced tier 3’s attack forever.
Rune was happy with this rhythm, not even a month has passed and he had advanced so much, and he didn’t intend to slow down.
Passing by the first river they encountered, his perception was 480 meters larger than when he saw it the first time, so he didn’t only see a corner.
The sense of accomplishment for something like that was very little, however.
If he could make an energy firework causing a beautiful 10 meters wide rose-shaped explosion, then yes, he would feel a sense of accomplishment, but he didn’t even try as he knew he couldn’t.
Yet.
He would need some more stat points in his energy stat and some more efficiency to fine and grand manipulation to make it happen, maybe tier 2 stats still wouldn’t allow it.
In the end, their friendly competition was a win from Utopia, with Arik second and Rune being last, he rationalized it was normal as Utopia and Arik invested in the strength stat more than he did.
27 hours passed quickly when there was no need to eat, drink or sleep, they only had to focus on rushing as fast as they could using their legs for strength-based speed, and focus correctly on sending energy into the energy wings spell for energy-based acceleration.
The night passed and the day arrived again, this zone of the Endless had a day of 24 hours, with 18 hours of it with the sun being visible.
Sometimes they experienced rains, but not at the level of a storm, at least it didn’t happen during their 3 weeks of traveling.
All those conditions could maybe explain why the forest was thriving everywhere.
‘Having a road is the best.’
Having created their own path, they simply rushed without stopping, all points of interest were already marked so just a continuous sprint was necessary.
“Let’s slow down to let the others catch up,” Utopia seemed to really take his role as nominal leader seriously, and it was reasonable, so they took a break.
20 minutes later, Astryde and the 3 spellcasters caught up, their arrival to the northern outpost was imminent.
Already they saw other people razing large pieces of the forest, and it was only the start of what one month with millions of manpower had done in such a short period of time.
Taking a bit of altitude, the first observation was that there was no more forest in a big circle around what they supposed to be the landing zone.
Buildings made out of stone had also sprung up everywhere around it, and thousands of chimneys spewing out black smoke from the extreme west of the big circle was perfectly visible.
People saw them passing with massive pieces of rocks so they stared at them weirdly, but the Undecided didn’t stop.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The previous wooden decrepit outpost was replaced by a large stone building with people waiting in line with signs pointing to a lot of different entrances.
Utopia bifurcated in the direction of the waiting line for the “mission complete” entrance.
Before entering, they had to deposit their chunks of rocks, so they left them next to the entrance, not like anyone could decide to steal them when their perception sphere still covered them.
5 minutes later, with people arriving behind them, they entered the outpost, 5 more minutes and they were at the desk with a receptionist ready.
“Your mission paper please,” Utopia handed it over, he also had a big stack of paper next to her, at least it was still paper.
The group would have been stupefied if electronics had been reached in such a short period, it seemed that the production lines weren’t set up yet.
“Yes, here!” Utopia the young hero persona was back, a brilliant smile and a dashing look with an honest and confident posture, maybe it was a part of the education received by the Rululus?
Checking the paper for a moment, she then prepared another paper and asked the general development of what they found.
“We did a straight line north-west for approximately 6 000 kilometers while doing the required 20 meters wide path, points of interest are a river, a border with a tier 2 zone, and an unevaluated vein of magnetite that looks like a gigantic hydrothermal rise in the border about 600 kilometers to the northeast junction where our path split in two and we made a clearing.”
Utopia paused his speech, letting the receptionist write at his own rhythm.
“We scoured thousands of kilometers on each side along the border and found nothing worth noting, still one sun and no moon, so no region transition, no abnormal barrier between the tier 2 and tier 1 forest, that’s all,” finishing his report, Utopia stopped talking and waited for the receptionist to finish writing the report.
“Undecided Group? 7 members that’s right?”
“Yes,”
“In that case congratulations, that’s a very good result for an area reclamation mission so your reward will be increased, do you authorize the IGS to use your created path from now on? Your group will be marked as the creator and further rewards will be given if your points of interest are true finding.”
Of course, the IGS just wouldn’t believe a report straight away without proof, but Utopia was ready for this one.
“We brought back more than 100 tons of suspected magnetite ore, we also need indications on where to stock or drop them off,” Utopia announced the news, which made the receptionist react.
“In this case, I’ll contact a manager, did you stock them near the outpost?” Maybe that was good news for him as he immediately became a little more friendly.
“Yes, we stocked them near the entrance, your sphere should be able to see them,”
“Hahaha, I’m not really used to using my sphere for more than 20 meters around me after working behind a desk for so long, in this case, wait near it, I’ll immediately send a manager to evaluate it,” awkward that he missed something like that, he acted embarrassed before offering the mission completion announcement.
“Your mission is complete in any case, the IGS will prepare your reward in a maximum of one month, do you want to repeat the same mission to explore the tier 2 zone in-depth this time? You could accompany a team of prospectors on the way to make additional EP.”
The asocial members of the group behind Utopia were completely in awe, the others grinned at their exaggerated reaction, Utopia’s plan worked, connection, better impression, that’s an exemplary rululu charisma and social ability there.
“Yes please, we’ll do as you suggested, we already planned to go back to farm EP there anyway,” Utopia’s smile showed all his teeth, his plan was a resounding success.
The group was then issued another area reclamation mission and an escort mission, the escort included only showing the different points of interest and not ensuring security.
If someone did not reach tier 2 they wouldn't survive long, and anyway, the IGS wouldn’t take the risk to send competent unprotected staff to the border of a tier 2 zone.
The escort mission paper had a time of departure fixed at tomorrow's sunset, so they had more than 35 hours of free time as it wasn’t even midday currently.
Waiting near their stock of rocks, a manager soon arrived and confirmed that it was the expected magnetite ore.
“Take them with you and follow me, I’ll bring you to the industrial zone,” the manager was a tier 2 and he did his job at the fastest speed.
Taking the rocks with them, they followed after the manager at a steady pace of 40 meters per second, and ten minutes later they entered a place with true patrollers and people transporting a never-ending supply of raw materials of all colors and sizes.
The industrial zone was clearly the most developed, massive stone factories and people moving everywhere to get iron, copper, and even gold to the next building, it was something that couldn’t have existed without the Ether Law.
With his sphere, Rune saw that in the same building there were stone furnaces, blast stone furnaces and steel furnaces being built next to each other, like a museum, a factory museum, still in operation?
A large foundry was at the center of the whole industrial zone, steel was the beginning of everything and the easiest to make, but already installations to make concrete were being built next to it.
“Iron is this way, be careful and control your rocks to not destroy anything,” they entered a street 50 meters wide where iron ore was processed and then directly sent to the steel foundry.
At the entrance, the manager opened the way for them and they entered.
They arrived at an overcrowded zone where people arrived and deposited whatever iron ore they had, other people took those to process them and people managed the other 2 to keep at least a semblance of order.
The manager they followed asked where to deposit their one hundred tons of ore, and as it was magnetite ore, they were at a priority due to its high concentration in magnetite itself that the manager observed.
Once they were deposited, they had to evacuate the zone.
At least the Undecided got an overview of how the IGS was progressing, once they updated all the equipment to high-tech steel furnaces and installed a globalized heating distribution system then they would process ores at light speed.
“Mister manager, did you receive news about clothing being made or soon to be made?” Utopia asked.
Now that everyone had a sphere, the only way to protect one’s modesty was to create a layer of energy clothing that was skintight, but it couldn’t replace clothing forever.
“Something resembling a cotton plant has been found, and it seems to be the only way as no petrol or anything to make synthetic fibers has been found, so they’re trying to make it mutate using energy infusion if you want to see cotton fields you can go to the south but they are growing slowly even with energy infusion, so don’t expect clothing before a long time,” the manager answered.
Utopia extracted as much information as he could, and Rune really felt good that he wasn't the one who had to do it, first, he wouldn’t be able to do it, and second, he wouldn’t be able to do it.
With a few questions, Utopia and his group learned a lot about the situation.
For example, the mountain range they could see from the landing zone was in fact 800 kilometers east and marked a transition to a new region with 1 sun and 1 moon.
Thankfully it was still a tier 1 ether density zone, so it wasn’t anything special except the change to a mountainous environment.
The north was the nearest to a tier 2 zone, a flat forest, the west, and south were similar in that no one reached the tier 2 zone yet, even after traveling more than 10 000 kilometers.
The mountain range had lots of different raw materials and wasn’t far, so it was from where the majority came from, only a minority came from deposits similar to the one found by the Undecided, in the middle of the forest.
Of course, news not that joyous came from everywhere, a tier 4 wandering monster wiping out an adventurer's group, a tier 2 monster nest with a massive overpopulation…
It was a moving world, and not every group was as careful and professional as the Undecided. Though in the same line, the Undecided certainly weren't the most careful and professional.
After 20 minutes, the time taken to go back to the northern outpost, the manager left the group and returned to his job.
“The IGS has everything under control and all the cards it could have asked for, now only time is needed before electronic and internet come back, I give it 5 years before AI cores and ether spaceships begin productions, we can only pray to the Ether Law that nothing happens during this time,” Utopia said, clearly concerned by the progress of the IGS in the Endless.
“What’s left unsaid is that the more time passes, the more manpower arrives from our native dimension, we don’t need to worry about anything, we just need to do what we want and the benefits will automatically go to the IGS cartography department,” Gar gave his opinion of the situation, a very optimistic one, but it was shared by the majority.
“I’m waiting at our path entrance if you search for me,” Rune didn’t want to wander for nothing with a deadline on the horizon.
He didn’t want to explore by asking strangers, so he was just going to wait at their path entrance and do things, like spiritual training.
Arik immediately followed Rune without a word and the 2 departed from the group, then Gar followed soon after, leaving the 4 others behind.
‘It’s the best time to train my awareness, I’ll just cause a general blackout so I can catch up to my other masteries.’
Of Rune’s masteries, his awareness division and fine manipulation were the least leveled, but fine manipulation would instinctively level up by fighting, whereas awareness division couldn’t have combat use at the beginning of tier 2.
The more an entity approached tier 3, the more other facets of the Ether Law became accessible a lot more easily than before.
Health manipulation, naturally boosted momentum, beyond maximum overloaded senses, stealth…
It was what some used as a key to their own unique fighting style, but their effects without a dedicated slotted mastery were so minor that they were called minor stat manipulation, and were only at the level of a magic sleight of hand.
“Do you have a specialization in mind for your tier 3 Arik? An elemental one or a minor stat manipulation? A specific fundamental maybe?” Gar made small talk as they returned to their path.
“Reinforcement, same as you using energy as threads, all-in on explosive strength and some body control masteries for evasion, you want an elemental one?”
Concise in his answer, he asked in turn, it was something that would happen whether they discussed it or not but knowing the path of a friend was always interesting.
“Yup, I’m going for the basic lightning element, its ability to shock everything that approaches me will work well with my energy threads manipulation and…”
Hearing them talk about this subject, Rune remembered what he chose for himself and why it was so important.
It was totally possible to not choose an elemental or a minor stat specialization at tier 3, you just had to have a very solid build using only basic masteries.
When he first read about all the specializations onboard, even Rune wanted to first take an element, he didn’t know which one, but their attraction was very strong.
Every element had special effects on a multitude of domains, some could shock as the lighting element did, some could blind like the light element, some could hide like the darkness element…
And there were as many elements as intelligent entities could think of, the Ether Law encompassed everything, even the toothbrush element or the chair element existed and had their unique effects.
However and as was made clear by the Ether Law, there was no strongest mastery or build.
Monsters without an element could be monstrous, a typical example were the behemoths, named after the behemoth path of the sapient entities.
Behemoth was the equivalent of an extremely defensive and brutal juggernaut in fighting style terms, they designed monsters and above who were only focused on using energy as armor and pure body control for everything else.
The same as Rune wanted, but only in terms of mastery build, not fighting style, compared to the extreme brutality involved in the behemoth path, he was a lot more careful, slow, and procedural.
‘I need to be ready for anything, not only taking strikes and surviving, I can’t go full behemoth path, it’s enraging that I don’t have enough mastery slots to take body control masteries… Or maybe Utopia is right and I should just switch my reinforcement mastery for a body control one?’
Like everyone, he had a path he wanted to take and he was confident in it, but his tier limited him, his tier 2 was dedicated to 2 defensive masteries, the last one was a stopgap and he’d erase it as soon as he reached tier 3.
But even tier 3 wouldn’t open enough mastery slots to allow him to complete his primary vision of his build, so he’d still go with reinforcement-based damage for the moment, maybe it’d help him in the future.
“Sigh… Maybe I should sleep?”
His spirit was beginning to feel exhaustion, so once they arrived, he planned to push his sphere to his spiritual limit for some hours, then sleep with a general artificial blackout.
There was no end to the intensity of training, Rune was used to it.