‘’Your mother is a cavewoman!’’

Ethan looked at the annoyed girl who heard him clearly, realized she was at early tier-4, and he was likely inside her domain. He gave a wry chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. ‘’Sorry, I didn’t mean any offense. Are you okay?’’

The girl relaxed visibly and started walking toward him. ‘’Yes. I mean, no. I’ve no idea where this place is, and I don’t know where the exit is. How did you enter here?’’

‘’From a teleportation gate, which is also the exit,’’ he replied, pointing toward a mountain. ‘’It’s about three days of walking that way. At the peak of the mountain.’’

The girl’s eyes lit up, barely holding herself from jumping up and down. ‘’Thank you! Thank you so much! I’m Evelyn. What’s your name?’’

‘’Ethan. How did you get lost here if you didn’t use the gate? Are there other ways to enter?’’ he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Evelyn’s expression turned irritated. ‘’I was in another pocket world, and it teleported me here! What are the chances of that? And this one is even bigger than the last one. It might’ve been years before I found the exit if not for you.’’ She turned happy once again. ‘’What are you doing here? When are you leaving? Where will you be going out? Wh-’’

‘’Easy, easy!’’ Ethan interrupted with amusement. ‘’Let me treat you to dinner first. We’ll talk about it slowly.’’

Evelyn flushed and looked down. Nodding, ‘’Okay! Sorry if I’m being awkward. It wasn’t my best week, or year for that matter,’’ she muttered.

A red ball of fur entered the scene. Evelyn jumped, ‘’Oh! Paprika, I didn’t forget about you. I was just checking if there was any danger,’’ she lied as she ran to the squirrel and gave it a hug.

Ethan found the squirrel familiar but couldn’t pinpoint it. He went back to his barbeque place and started preparing his tools. Lifting his head when Evelyn came close, ‘’It’ll take half an hour. You can take a bath at this corner of the lake if you want. I also have some extra clothes with me,’’ he said, pointing to the space-tear-free part of the lake.

‘’That would be great. Do you have a shampoo as well?’’

‘’No, but I have soap,’’ he replied and gave it to her along with one of his new black robes. Unfortunately, he had already burned the clothes he got from Alice, but he had many extra ones himself.

When Evelyn left, Ethan checked his gains with glee before starting to cook. ‘So? Ani? What changed for [Void Wrap]?’

‘[Void Wrap] Rank-2: Mana consumption changes according to the size of the matter that has been concealed. You can also use it on any non-living object that you touch.

Ethan called his daggers and used the skill immediately with everything on himself. ‘Calculate the mana consumption.’’

‘Currently, 4 mana per second.’

Awesome, almost 5 min long with my current reserves. ‘Show me the status panel and the notifications.’

‘DING! You have reached tier-3, +20 bonus stats to all.’

‘DING! All regenerations have increased 50%.’

Tier 3 - Level 30

Health: 1000/1000

Mana: 1200/1200

Stamina: 799/800

Vitality: 100

Strength: 92

Endurance: 80

Agility: 130

Intellect: 120

Perception: 60

*Available stats: 10

Skills(Rank 1): [Blink], [Fabric Tear], [Mana Sense], [Mana Aura], [Shadow Spikes], [Long Jump]

Rank 2: [Void Wrap]

‘’Twenty?’’ he exclaimed, pleasantly surprised. I didn’t see that coming, not complaining about the bonuses, though. The reg. increase was first 200%, then 100%, and now 50%. It’s like I guessed. It became 0.3% / min now; presumably, it’ll go up to 0.9% / min at tier-9.

Another 10 points went to Agility, making him giddy with the stat increase. He also realized that the tier difference would be hard to overcome. Wait, how did I even kill Sparky? There must’ve been a massive stat difference between us. Fuck me, he wasn’t using any speed boost skills, was he? It was his natural speed. And that also means I’m not that fragile, as it was only natural for him to hit like a truck with every strike. Did he underestimate me, or was he hiding other skills? Pondering himself with new realizations, he decided to be more careful against the high-tier people, but the decision didn’t dump the euphoria he was feeling with his advancement.

Humming a happy tune, Ethan cut a few boneless short loin steaks from the buffalo-like creature he stored. That was the best type of meat he got, but the girl looked like she could use a good meal. He cooked it in his new ware with spices while thinking how it would taste if he marinated them with Ehreneer first. ‘Ani, remind me to ask Bob if he has anything like a dark stout beer next time I see him.’

Just as the dinner was ready, he heard the sounds of footsteps. Glancing from the corner of his eyes, he assumed that the cavewoman must’ve died somewhere in those shallow waters because a peerless beauty walked over instead.

Evelyn’s slightly wet, auburn hair waved behind her shoulders. There was a satisfied smile on her pale-red lips that matched colors with the few freckles on her high cheekbones. The black robes with red motifs looked tailor-made for her. She was so alluring that Ethan barely noticed the Paprika who was sitting on her shoulder with wide eyes and shiny furs.

‘’And here I thought that robe looked good on me,’’ Ethan mumbled, a little dumbstruck.

She sat on the grass and waited for Ethan to pass the meal with anticipation before noticing the Beet who was staring at her with sinister eyes. ‘’Ohhh, it's so cute. What’s its name?’’

Let alone Ethan, even Beet was surprised by the comment. If he is cute, then Paprika is an elemental of cotton candy who also poops pink mana stones, he thought while trying hard not to drop the plate in his hand, ‘’Beet. He’s a free spirit, might go disappear sometimes to do some Beet stuff but always finds his way back, thanks to the GPS tracker he had planted on me,’’ he answered, sending a glare to Beet.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

‘’A what tracker?’’

‘’A unique artifact. Here,’’ he passed the plate and fetched a mug from his ring to fill with beer. ‘’I got wine as well, but the beer is better, I think.’’

‘’Beer is fine,’’ she assured quickly and dived into the steaks with bliss.

Evelyn ate without breathing, causing Ethan to wait until she was finished for the questions he had. ‘’So, Evelyn, I just made a breakthrough, and the essence I got was double of what it was at tier-2. Do you think this is normal?’’

Evelyn gave a content sigh after gulping her beer. ‘’Of course. You advanced your skill, and your soul had expanded with the comprehension of your element. It can now hold more essence.’’

‘’Then, If I advanced more skills-’’

‘’Not to rank-2, more rank-2 skills mean you’ll have an easy time to get a rank-3 skill, and that'll be the next time your soul will expand again.’’

Still, that means bonuses for tier-4 and 5 will be still 20. Tier-6-7-8 will be 30, and tier-9 will be 40? ‘’What if I advanced a rank 3 skill now? Doesn’t that mean that I’ll have more sta- essence at every tier?’’ he inquired, leaning slightly with interest.

‘’Yep, that’s another reason why top-grade and elemental talents are so strong at the high tiers. You don’t really need a skill, though; just comprehension is enough.’’

His surprise turned to disappointment with the reminder of his talent. Sighing, ‘’Good to know. I feel like my only rank-2 skill came out by accident. Rank-3s are still a long way for me,’’ he said. ‘’Oh, that's also the answer to one of your questions. I came here to train my skills with the space tears. Although I got one rank 2, I still plan to get another one as I feel very close to achieving that.’’

‘’Space tears?’’ Evelyn asked curiously. ‘’Do you have space-related skills?’’

‘’More like void related. Right now, I’m trying to advance [Blink] to rank 2.’’

Evelyn winced a little, ‘’Yeah, I know that one. What else do you have?’’ she asked before adding, ‘’If that’s okay for you to share.’’

‘’This one is called [Fabric Tear], but I had no idea how to progress it yet,’’ Ethan said and aimed for an apple on the tree that was 40 yards away. His hand appeared to grab the apple and pull it back from a fabric tear before throwing it to Evelyn.

‘’What? That's so cool!’’ she cried with an apple in her hand. ‘’Think about what could be done at higher ranks. You could move that portal at will, and your sword could appear anywhere. Or your close combat moves could be used like ranged skills!’’

‘’Yeah, tell me about it,’’ he jested, chuckling dryly. ‘’I’ve been dreaming about that ever since I got the skill, but either it's too complicated, or I’m just stupid to modify it. So far, it's just good for sudden attacks.’’

Evelyn’s eyes lit up, and she jumped to her feet. ‘’I know another use for your skill. Come! Follow me,’’ she urged as she went for her bag before adding, ‘’Take your horse as well. We’ll probably live there for a time.’’

Even with full speed on Jolly, Ethan barely kept up with her, and half a day later, they arrived at a natural pond with lotus flowers on it. With colorful flowers everywhere, under the shades of trees, it was the perfect place for camping, but Ethan was baffled about their purpose here.

Evelyn waited with anticipation, and when a space tear appeared, she used [Wind Step] to jump on a tree branch near it. ‘’Come! Quick! You need to see this,’’ she yelled to Ethan.

He blinked next to her to look inside the space tear, still dubious. What he saw was a small mountain of mana stones, and in the middle of it was a large orb-shaped object, black as the abyss itself. ‘’W-What is that?’’ he asked, eyes wide.

‘’The core of the pocket world. It must have leaked a large amount of mana for god knows how long,’’ Evelyn replied with a broad smile. ‘’Before you get too excited, let me tell you that there is also an ancient rune protecting it. I have no idea how to breach it but look at the mana stones at the bottom. Some of them rolled far away. I’m sure there are quite a few at the outside of its shield. And that’s where your [Fabric Tear] is entering the scene,’’ she explained, giggling toward the end.

The space tear disappeared as she spoke, but Ethan knew there would be others. ‘’Looks like we’ll be staying here for a while,’’ he sounded and couldn’t help but smile as well.

The next one appeared 30min later, but the mana stones were about 70 yards away, so they had to pass. There were also the ones that seemed to be flickering in and out of existence in short time spans, but thanks to Ethan’s void manual, he knew which ones to stay away from, lest he lose a hand. They also had a chance to poke the core, and a giant shield with runic symbols showed itself. No matter what they did, it was useless; even when Ethan tried to open a portal inside, the only thing he got was a nosebleed. Anything inside of the shield was able to leave, but nothing passed from the outside, mana, wind, rocks, nothing they tried worked. Still, there were at least a few dozen mana stones that had rolled from the giant pile.

The next day, they were relaxing under a tree, and Evelyn was telling her adventures in the other pocket realm. As time passed, she became extremely chatty, but Ethan didn’t mind.

‘’...Finally, we entered the damned village and saw the temple that held our exit in it. Th-’’

‘’Temple in a village?’’ he jolted. ‘’Were there any statues that were kneeling inside?’’

‘’How did you know?!’’ she asked, surprised. ‘’Don’t tell me you also went there?’’

‘’I was there just half a year ago. If that bullshit cultus teleported me here as well, I would definitely die, not knowing why,’’ he responded, also surprised.

‘’But how did you escape? That village was full of late tier-4s.’’

‘’Well, I kinda used a distraction and sneaked around without killing anything.’’

‘’What distraction? I’m talking about dozens of tier-4s in a small village. Wait, what was your tier back then?’’

‘’Umm, is there a tier 0?’’

‘’Not even tier 1!’’ Evelyn screamed, disbelief on her face. ‘’Holy shit! That's why. They didn’t see you as a threat, you had no essence that was useful for them, and with the abundant mana, they weren’t even hungry, hence letting you do as you please.’’

Ethan was also taken aback by the revelation. Now that I’m thinking, even when I entered the temple, the giant lizard was less than a hundred yards away. I was definitely in its domain. It just didn’t care about me.

‘’But how did you even reach the village?’’ she asked, still suspicious.

‘’Well, I got teleported right in the middle of the village,’’ he replied, amused by the coincidences.

Evelyn looked at him for a few seconds, blinking. ‘’You have some dog shit luck,’’ she uttered, smiling.

‘’You are awfully fast to accept the fact that I got everything you could’ve,’’ Ethan pointed. ‘’Aren’t you even a bit jealous that I have looted the place just a few months before you?’’

Evelyn waited a bit before answering, ‘’I guess, if it was me from a year ago, I’d probably beat the shit out of you just to vent, even though I wouldn’t demand the loot… But now? I really don’t care. Is that weird?’’ she asked with an uncertain simper, scratching the back of her head.

Ethan gave her a deep look, ‘’You must’ve been through a lot,’’ he stated.

Evelyn shifted uncomfortably to hide her expression.

He looked toward the pond, another space tear appeared near it, but he didn’t move. ‘’It builds character, you know? The sufferings we’ve been through,’’ he expressed, gazing at the space tear but watching something else entirely. ‘’There is this invisible balance, making sure that the gains and losses always come together even if we don’t notice some of them. They keep adding together, changing us bit by bit. So you shouldn’t keep saying ‘a year’. Sometimes, a year is worth more than a lifetime.’’

Evelyn turned her head, looking at Ethan with her slightly wet eyes. ‘’I- uh… Can I-,’’ she stopped herself before shaking her head. ‘’Nevermind,’’ she concluded and got up, taking a walk with swift steps.

Even though he was a little bewildered, Ethan didn’t say anything and left her alone. He wanted to show that he understood so that she could feel some comfort, but it looked like he somehow made it worse.

Thankfully, she was quite skilled at changing her mood according to her wishes. Or just very good at hiding her feelings. Regardless, a delightful week was spent in their secluded spot.

Ethan was playing his guitar on his hammock near the pond. After many practices, he started to play some basic songs on his own. As he played a different version of ‘Sittin’ on the dock’, Beet and Paprika were bobbing their heads to the beat, enjoying the music.

Fishin' in the mornin' sun

I'll be fishin' when the evenin' comes

Watching the space tearing

Then I watch 'em tear away again, yeah

Just when he was about to switch to the whistling part, he heard the shouting of Evelyn, who was trying to find different angles to check if they missed any mana stones.

‘’Ethan! Come here quickly! It’s the Aether Bloom!’’