I sat meditating while I carefully constructed a portal of energy in front of me. I had been working all evening after a meal of freshly cooked flesh. It was taking time, but my Astral Projection was slowly filling in. It would take another year or two, but I was making progress, which was the most important thing.

Already, I felt my strength increasing as my body became more physical. I would need that strength for tonight. It was time to investigate something quite dangerous and possibly exploit it as a super weapon. Without my Word of Power Shatter, this was an incredibly tedious and slow process.

That was why I had picked that skill for my first meta-point. It was incredibly versatile, allowing me to easily break apart energy. My third meta-point would have been Combine. That would have allowed me to recreate quite a bit that the system was capable of.

I would have truly been unstoppable then. But if wishes were fishes, I would be lazing about, getting pleasure, not risking my life on this little adventure. Finally, it was done, and should last for several hours.

To enter another layer for travel was not simple. I was creating a bubble of highly condensed energy and then oscillating it. The key was to not let it have a type. Neutral or system energy if you will. This would cause a micro-tear in the air. Once that happened, I needed to push in energy and form a portal.

I looked at the head and chest of the kind of alive person nearby. They would be the fuel to maintain this opening, so I could return to this precise point. Their arms and legs had been quite tasty and useful. Making a person without stats into a battery, involved shoving point crystals into them and tying off the various modules into their brain.

They would quickly burn themselves out. But it was a useful technique when sustained energy was needed for testing. The Master Fleshcrafter had really taken this to the next level, but he was more focused on flesh-energy interactions while the UCS and me had been more focused on energy-energy interactions.

The sphere expanded and was kind of stable. There was a wobble to it. I was really missing my meta-point. At least I had figured out this before the meta-point so I didn’t lose the core knowledge, but I lost a lot of experience. I took a deep breath jumped through the portal into the energetic layer.

I kept my eyes closed against the kaleidoscope of color. Focusing, I quickly floated away. The trick to this place was thinking and you moved. It was just that simple. No way to speed up or slow down that I could figure out unfortunately. I hadn’t been able to figure out how the monsters transitioned through this space.

I carefully counted out the seconds and quickly activated the modules I had prepared. A tear was ripped open, and I came out the other side back on solid ground. I checked the energy in the air and nodded. A purple rabbit screeched at me.

Waving a hand it died instantly and dropped a point crystal. I quickly pocketed it and lifted off the ground and set off in the direction I could feel a greater density of energy from. Holes through the landscape and the bedrock itself dotted my path.

I saw flesh to the North. I hesitated and quickly flew over to check. The energy was incredibly dense. It was approaching the Goldburg limit. The theoretical maximum amount of energy flesh could contain. That woman was the true genius. A shame Chief Researcher Goldburg was too dangerous to my plans to be allowed to live.

Looking at the blood flowing, I could see minute movement in the flesh. Another theory she had. Artificial Construct Formation, once energy reached a certain density it began to gain awareness. This was below the threshold. A pure energy based intelligence was theorized to exist, the system itself. Perhaps that was why the system had acted here.

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I would have to consider integrating this energy into me later on. It would take time and careful planning, but I had initial idea. Time to see the real prize and if could be weaponized. I flew out above the void, avoiding the floating void bubbles.

The void was energy, but more chaos than refined. It eroded everything that came into contact, except the landscape itself which was held together with the system’s will. That was how its overarching influence was initially discovered. How did the terrain constantly resist the effects of the void? The system was holding it all together.

Anything that could disrupt its control and power, was not something to be taken lightly, but I needed every advantage I could get and was curious. I easily moved around the void bubbles and floated my way out over the churning darkness.

The waves of energy were growing more and more intense and my Astral Projection was in a slight bit of danger. “Astral Projection,” I created a bubble around myself with various attachment points and adjusting the energy type that the bubble was composed of. It was fragile but would deflect energy around me. I would just have to dodge any targeted attacks.

Once that was in place it was easier to move forward. I soon saw the chunks of floating bedrock and behind it a sun of energy. It took my breath away. This was far past the Goldburg limit. The flesh I had seen earlier and the void bubbles were but a drop compared to the energy that was coming off those chunks.

I moved behind a piece of bedrock and looked at the energy streaming past. It was not the energy of the system that was all over the place. It was something different, an outside context anomaly. I couldn’t tell if it had the same type of energy as the calamity unfortunately, but it was very likely.

Focusing, I spun off several test modules into the air, and carefully observed them and how this new form of energy interacted with them to gain a baseline. I frowned slightly as my modules collapsed very quickly. It was overpowering, too overpowering.

Thinking back on to my journey out here, there had been a clear divider between this thing’s energy and the system’s energy. It was being contained somehow. I took another peak at it and winced as I ducked behind the bedrock.

It was immensely powerful. Too powerful. I couldn’t tell anything beyond that through observation. I felt my protection bubble strain slightly. The energy was shifting around me, putting pressure on me. Oh, that was interesting. There was an active intelligence behind it. I reduced the energy to my Sense stat to nothing, and peaked again.

Visually, there were floating shards in the air. Pure white, and if anything was radioactive with energy, it was those shards. I ducked back and reactivated my Sense stat in full. I had some time left. Low risk, high reward, that was my preferred methodology to beat Michael.

I quickly began to make a portal to another layer. Quick and dirty. Keeping so many effects up was straining me, but I should be able to manage somehow. I knew my limits very well. The aiming part would be difficult, but I had things worked out.

The bubble portal, was pushed out and formed up. “Astral Projection.” A third one would only last for a moment, but that was all I needed as the portal was protected and pushed towards the shards. Once it was almost in arms distance, it collapsed and a moment later so did the portal.

I quickly retreated from the area. Anymore risked bringing my actions to the attention of the system. Once I had cleared the area I returned to my original spot. The portal on the other side would have collapsed. I let out a sigh and began to fly back.

Annoying, but it was safer. I had no idea what that thing would do to the layer of energy. Better not risk it. I adjusted my bubble to be dark like the sky to hide me as I floated over the wall. It was unfortunate that my attack had failed since I could see people still alive. I had been hoping to wipe most of them out with a massive surge of energy.

I could see traces of the system energy gathering more intently around me. I couldn’t risk that again. As dawn came and I entered my safehouse, I considered how I had screwed up. There were a lot of variables. Well, no matter. That flesh should prove interesting once I could harness its power.

For now I needed to rest my head. I had a headache from having to focus that much.