The annoying buzzing at the back of the head was back, but this time everyone knew to wait while joking about it.

The only time it happened before was when their whole Universe had been scanned to create a personal compensation for everyone and evaluate the state of their defective law.

[Rune: I’m reading but not participating, continue your discussion like I’m not here please]

[Adreana: So, I did exactly the same thing when the first buzzing started, I contacted my friends, and now I’m doing the same but with different friends]

[Gar: I encountered Arik soon after the global system became available, we clicked it off and then joined the Tireless when the became a thing]

[Nelo: Me and my sister had a battle to know who was the most unannoyed by the buzzing, I won]

[Astryde: Stfu little brother]

The Undecided were all ready, last time, the buzz took 3 days to go away and nobody knew what was causing it.

Now, everyone knew why it happened and they could even observe their own ether soul and see it was also vibrating, it was also a subject to be scanned.

Light vertigoes and nausea were frequent side-effects, and the Undecided weren’t the only ones who discussed it.

[Utopia: I’m betting on the connection to a tier 2 dimension being complete, so we’re being assimilated by their global system, but for some reason, we’re subject to another round of scanning, there’s a lot of possible theories that could explain that for example the forum called…]

[Arik: You missed the forum about the one law theory, I find it fascinating how many people agree on one thing and just keep on expanding their own theory by taking bits and pieces of others, even more interesting is...]

[Gar: The theory of tiered dimensions is by itself very hard to use, if it’s truly a fact, would we need to be tier 2 to enter? Then how will the system manage all that? I’m quasi sure there’s nearly an infinite number of dimensions and maybe the system…]

Maybe Rune was the only one whose all they were talking about went in over his head, he only read because it was here, but didn’t try to comprehend.

After the initial excitement died down, he left the Undecided forum and continued his color creation.

1 week passed, and finally, the buzz ended, and hours later, the Ether Law made itself known.

Defective dimension “Defective Physic Laws Dimension 527” has been assimilated and prior laws are being rectified, compensation law has already been issued.

Your link to the Endless Dimension is now open, it is accessible in the dimensions window. Updated Dimensions’ names

The EP Market window can now be accessed in the global system, EP can now be traded between independent entities.

Information Board Add-On Enabled, Expanded

‘Defective Dimension’ Add-On. Information Board optimization effective immediately, connection limited to Defective and Tier 1 Dimensions.

Ether Density Progress Bar Add-On Disabled

‘Defective Dimension’ Add-On. Ether Density Progress Bar Add-On is Disabled.

Ether Wiki Add-On Disabled

‘Critically Defective Dimension’ Add-On. Ether Wiki Add-On is Disabled.

Event Add-On Disabled

‘Critically Defective Dimension’ Add-On. Event Add-On is Disabled. Pending rewards are still accessible.

Avatar Creation Disabled

‘Critically Defective Dimension’ Add-On. Avatar Creation is Disabled.

Avatar EP Loan Disabled

‘Critically Defective Dimension’ Add-On. Avatar EP Loan is Disabled.

But it wasn’t the Compensation Law they knew that transmitted them this announcement, it was just a minimalist announcement, with not even a context, welcoming newbies and giving them the minimum necessary to know what just happened to them.

For the natives of this dimension now named “Defective Physic Laws Dimension 527”, it was more than enough.

Everything that took place before today was just the starting line, and now they had access to whole new paths going in every direction with no stopping anyone who wanted to try their luck.

In the Undecided, Utopia, Arik and Gar stopped talking after the announcement.

[Rune: Is there somewhere I should go first?]

[Nelo: Just open the information board, it seems that a new dimensions gaining access to the board isn't a once in a lifetime event, but a defective physic laws dimension joining is pretty rare]

[Adreana: The defective dimensions newcomer forum has everything you need Rune, explanations, and everything]

[Rune: Ok, later]

‘The defective dimensions newcomer forum? Where is it, where is it… Ah!’ In the general list of forums, where every other forum was of the same white color, a red named forum immediately jumped into his eyes.

Opening it, he carefully read it, it seemed to be pretty important.

[Baldovino: Dear newcomer to the grand and magnificent Globalized Information Board, I’ll not mash my words so first, let me inform you that your home dimension is a defective dimension, and it’ll forever be.

If you don’t know what it means, then the origin of the name given to you is correlated to what type of Ether Law variant you lived under before, the Ether Law can degenerate in a lot of different variations, but as for the complete list, you can verify by yourself.

Know that I, myself, am an illustrious truth-finder, alternatively named Ether Scholar, who have multiple theses to his name recognized by the Gray Order, and as a premise, let me inform you that as defective dimension’s natives, your comprehension of what the Global System Law and the Ethers Law are is very shallow, non-existent in fact as you couldn’t possibly know.

Let’s first talk about what the system is because maybe some of you still didn’t understand that there’s only one law, the Ether Law, but we intelligent beings further separated it so that we would understand more of its inner workings.

In the end, it was accepted as true that the Global System Law, as it’s now called, was separated in a long lost age, just as much as the Compensation Law was, but ultimately only the Ether Law exists.

Now that this point is resolved, I hope that you understand your views on reality need to be redefined, the second point is what is going to happen.

I’ll not take you by the hand or whatever appendages you have, just know that there’s only one path for us who search truth, power, riches, or whatever we desire, and that is the Endless, that is the name given to the only multi-tiered dimension in existence, and also the only way to access higher-tiered dimensions.

It’s a unique dimension supposed to be as old as the event that birthed the Ether Law itself, forget about every defective variation born in the lower dimension such as this Global Information Board or the Ether Avatars that find their origin in whatever compensation you received, they are now irrelevant.

If you’re recently assimilated then I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re at the tier 1 level of existence unless you’re a native from a legendary defective gate dimension, and so in this case with the insane compensation you should have received, you’d have already reached tier 2.

As a defective dimension, you’ll be connected to every other defective and tier 1 dimensions through the Information Board, so the rest or what you didn’t understand, you can search by yourself.

My path in search of the truth ended at tier 7, but like you, I started where you are now, the best you can do now is to become aware of possible advantages you have and enter in the Endless as soon as possible, then reach tier 2, and only then will you start to forge your own path.

Thank you for making my memory lives on Ether Law.

Ether Scholar Baldovino Zita of the Grey Order]

A very enlightening and concise explanation, leading to more curiosity in the few subjects that were spoken about, but Rune was used to let Utopia and the rest do the extensive research, what he was more interested in was how to advance to tier 2 in the energy and spirit masteries.

And the Wiki that would have been the best answer, wasn’t available anymore.

Dimensions

Information Board

EP Market

Event (9 rewards pending)

Status

Gathering Log

Masteries

Rune didn’t know if the compensation law spoiled them, but by the time Gar and Arik finished their research, he would have an answer.

Now that only the board existed to convey information, he had to plunge into it and search, it wasn’t going to be difficult.

‘From tier 1 to tier 2, fundamental masteries, thank you Ether, that was easy.’

Accessing what his keywords search gave, he now joined the group of knowledge seekers, and he would only stop when he had the answers he sought.

…

‘So it wasn’t our fault.’

Rune found the reason explaining why they couldn’t advance further than peak tier 1 for the energy and spirit fundamental masteries, and it had everything to do with their home dimension being defective.

The previous Ether Law announced that it rectified the law to its complete state, but it couldn’t be aware that it wasn’t, and couldn’t be, complete from the beginning.

A variant law means in every case a defective and incomplete Ether Law where some aspects are more focused on than others and importance is relative.

“Defective Physic Laws Dimension 527”, the name attributed to their home universe, told of what type of variant was used, and even when it was “restored”, it could only be moderately modified.

Searching only for the method to advance to tier 2, he was forced to explore this subject, and it was truly amazing.

Every variant existed, and they all derived from a part of the complete Ether Law, so defective dimensions with only the energy part of the Ether Law existed, though they couldn’t lead to life as energy was the ether formed by life.

Some dimensions had a system that was completely glitched and nothing else, some only had a part of the global system and some only had one stat, some didn’t even have a system but had stats.

You could imagine whatever you wanted and it truly existed, and among those defective variants, there were some truly… Weird ones.

Dimensions, where life was possible with a variant of the Ether Law with only the dimensional teleportation part, was what was called a “Defective Gate Dimension”.

Life was so hard in this type of dimension, with true-blue tier 1 monsters intruding everywhere and all matters being randomly warped that when the Compensation Law awakened, all intelligent entities immediately received an avatar with maxed tier 1 stats, an emergency masteries window, and a complete Wiki to guide them.

It wasn’t inequality at play, it was pure fairness.

The Universe “Defective Physic Laws Dimension 527” dimension was really lucky in some sense because as before their variant was awakened, individual powers didn’t exist and nor did ether powers.

So they were judged to be a critically defective dimension and given an avatar and an empty Wiki, which was a very rare and high compensation.

But now that he knew why he couldn’t advance, he just wanted to enter the Endless, but he had to wait because once he entered he would be cut off from the board.

The Information Board was only usable in defective and tier 1 dimensions, and the Endless was not part of those.

Once he entered, he would not only become a tier 2, he’d also lose access to easy communication and access to information, maybe crucial information.

In any case, the worst situation didn’t happen, only natives to a defective dimension could leave and come back, so currently, his dimensions window looked like that.

Dimensions

Defective Physic Laws Dimension 527

Defective Physic Laws Dimension 527 Void

Defective Physic Laws Dimension 527 Deep Void

Endless Dimension

He read something about other dimensions being accessible only from the Endless, but he’d ask the informants for additional details later.

One totally new dimension, with everything else having changed.

For Rune, his home dimension was still named “the Universe”, but time would tell if this name could resist time.

As for what the Endless Dimension was, it was pretty clear that it was the “true world”, the place where he wanted to go but couldn’t till now.

Dimensions

Endless

Only liveable for independent ether lifeforms

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?

‘No, no, no.’

He had too much to learn to go now, he didn’t say goodbye to his family, he didn’t discuss with the Undecided, he was not ready at all.

*Ding*

A notification from the Undecided rang out, it was time to hear from the sages.

[Utopia: We’ve finished discussing with Arik and Gar, the plan should be sound, we also compared it to some plan from less known newcomer forums that tries to help us and also told of what we learned and concluded]

[Gar: There are globally 3 parts to our plan, the first is the IGS part, they should’ve already sent scouts to test the water. If you saw what the Endless dimension told of links, then every other friendly extra-dimensional lurker from other dimensions told the same thing about them.

They’re pretty large, around 10 square kilometers, as no one can pay the EP Market to cancel their dimensions cooldown, we’ll need to wait 1 month for the front liners to come back and tell us that we can go, or they never come back and the zone we’re linked to is too dangerous and the solutions are very few]

[Arik: The second part is the immediate fundamental knowledge that can be accessed and the advice from much more powerful existences than us, the problem is that they literally don’t care about us, or they care about everyone like us too much, you can read the biographies of tier 5 pretty easily, also some tier 6, but further than that and it starts to really become difficult.

On the subject of tiers, I think no one here missed the info but tier 2 will be a big mess for us, so start to think about the slotted masteries that you’ll take and the class ratio you want, maybe even start to think about your tier 3 class path, only an entire month of reflection is enough to think such an important matter thoroughly]

Arik clearly knew what he was talking about as Rune recognized all the words he used.

Having read about all those easy-to-access intel himself, he knew that tier 2 was the start of paving one’s own path, so the moment he really became a tier 2 entity, he’d get 2 things.

The first was a class, a tier 2 class only had one use, and that was the class ratio.

At tier 2, every stat point would cost 100 000 EP, but there was a way to change that, and that’s the class ratio, a true video game concept, but everyone accepted that as reality, so that was reality.

The second was every gamer's wet dream, it was called Slotted Masteries, and it simply allowed every tier 2 entity to create 3 masteries.

Rune already experienced that with his tier 2 physical fundamentals, but once past tier 1, the 100% efficiency could still continue to increase.

1 point of energy could have an effect greater than 1 point of energy, 100% of your strength could be more than 100% of your strength, this reality-defying power resided in tier 2 and beyond masteries, fundamentals or not.

Those slotted masteries could be occupied with anything that had an attachment to the Ether Law fundamentals or newly introduced concepts he still didn’t completely understand, such as “minor stats manipulation” or “primary specialization”.

Rune knew that one of his slots would be occupied by an energy armor mastery or something similar, he didn’t know for the other but he already started to theorize his own class ratio according to what the board said of its restrictions, and it made his life brighter.

[Utopia: The third and last part is to enter the Endless, finally starting our individual journey, from what higher tier people are saying, the best thing to do is to find a dimension at tier 2, but it’s close to impossible for us to find one, and anyway, biographies from lots of powerhouses are all over the place, “you’re your own master, so just take your life in your own hands and assume the consequences” are what they all say.

The plan is to help the IGS secure the landing zone, it should be a good beginning, everyone will return one day so helping a little at the start could have far-reaching consequences down the line]

[Nelo: If you forgot, I advise everyone to return home, don’t be so consumed by all the new knowledge that you miss the moment the IGS gives the starting signal because you still have a week of cooldown]

[Rune: I’m just waiting for rescue]

[Adreana: Same]

At least now Rune had a guideline on what to do, and he was thinking of following it, more the reading part than the learning part but he’d do it.

The idea of reading the biographies of people who maybe had a style similar to his could help him determine what slotted masteries he should choose while allowing him to learn more about what was more important later.

His fighting style relied a lot on managing his health and energy balance, and the first thing he wanted to do was choosing the correct class ratio for his future adventuring.

So as he waited for rescue, Rune started to read stories starting with “Once upon a time”.

And he loved it.