‘So essentially, I became a genius warrior, and if I follow the trend of having a temporal perception extended by 100%, then I should focus on the offensive, a steady offensive like I’ve always done and liked. Therefore, it comes back to body control masteries.’

With 3 slots to fill, Rune already concluded that he’d stop using the reinforced armor mastery, reinforcement used his precious energy after all.

Then, adding his specialized cohesion infusion mastery back, he ended up with a fully defensive build of 3 slots.

‘But at the same time, I really feel inspired by my fighting instinct mastery…’

His original idea of taking an additional 2 energy compression and 1 body control masteries was first changed to 1 energy armor, 1 body control, and 1 elemental. This idea was then beautifully thwarted by the Ether law and his too-big ambitions.

Having his masteries window open helped him go back to his fundamentals, so he opened it.

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 3 Level 7

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 3 Level 27

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 3 Level 28

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 2

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 1

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 3 Level 26

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 3 Level 2

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 3 Level 0

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 1

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Armor: Tier 3 Level 25

Energy Compression: Basic Defensive Energy: Tier 3 Level 25

Reinforcement: Basic Reinforced Armor: Tier 3 Level 0

Tier 3 Masteries

[Empty]

[Empty]

[Empty]

For a month-long return journey, he only gained 6 levels in his 3 defensive masteries. The holy radiation land of training was truly a holy place to train one’s defensive masteries.

As for his 2 most used ones, the body control, and fighting instinct fundamental masteries, they each gained 9 levels. Every other level, he got through passive training, with reinforcement being the most notable one having leveled 4 times.

‘Oh that’s right, I’m so unkillable right now, 376% efficiency, 5 000 means 83 per second, so… 396 armor per second! And my cohesion stat is 2.5 times more effective against passive damage like those of the radiation land now!’

Rune felt ready to directly go at it again. With only an additional month under the permanent damage, his infusion mastery would reach the ultimate ratio of 1 to 1, clearing the path for him to let his imagination run wild. His legs too.

‘My goal is still to be able to escape from a tier 4 speedster monster, and I don’t think combat observation skills will help me escape… But it can give me enough time to divert its attention somewhere else. If I take 1 defensive and 2 body control masteries, then combined with an extended perception of time…’

His revelation about an element tailored for escaping was truly something he knew he wanted, and now that he couldn’t have it, he just had to adapt and overcome this missing section.

For him, one additional defensive mastery was pretty much confirmed, but he was now hesitating between 2 body control or 1 body control and 1 fighting instinct masteries.

In any case, those masteries would reach peak tier 3, possibly even tier 4, before his fundamental spiritual fundamentals reached peak tier 3, even though they would begin at tier 1 level 0. Rune was sure it’d happen.

‘Looks like It’s time to call my ultimate master, the supreme IGS guide! Let’s see what millions of years of history have to say about how to escape a tier 4 mindless speedster.’

Turning his connected lenses on by sweeping his vision 3 times to the right rapidly, the menu appeared. He then selected the guide option that was put there from the start.

And here it was, a section that told how smart, genius, and handsome the team who created, organized, and engineered this guide was.

‘Life lessons for adventuring and fighting, I expect very much from you so don’t disappoint me.’

It truly didn’t disappoint him. This part of the guide had its own search engine, and checking for the amount of data contained, he found 54 Tb of exploitable data, probably all just texts and maybe pictures.

‘You can’t become at the same time quick and perfectly in control, but as counter-intuitive as it seems, it should always be what you strive for.’

‘Our expert personally discussed with an eminent teacher of the Martial Starbook school, a renowned school supervising their students in a curriculum totaling 10 years to reach peak tier 4 from their youth, to when they become able members of their civilization.’

‘From what he said, tier 3 was the moment there were the highest chances of dying in the most stupid way possible.’

Rune found an interview the IGS did personally and subsequently posted there. It was so full of what an advanced civilization considered fundamentals that he even found a reason to interrupt Nelo who was working seriously not far.

“Nelo? Did you read the interview of the teacher from the Martial Starbook school? I only just found out that for them tier 3 is the moment where most people died stupidly because they thought themself part of the military and got themselves a build without accounting for the most important balance of fundamentals…”

“Wut?”

“You didn’t find it? For you, there's a part arguing that when you have too much efficiency for your grand manipulation but not for your fine manipulation then you end up losing too much for too little gain of potential damage.”

“There's even the same comparison for me and the fact that too much body control without fighting instinct efficiency or reaction speed specialization is like manipulating a hammer as a child… I never thought someone would really use this sentence to describe the Ether law, what a savage…”

Blinking repeatedly while trying to compute what Rune just said, he tried to defend himself, “I didn’t really finalize my build choice you know… Where’s this interview?”

“Guide, Life lessons for adventuring and fighting, use the search engine to search Martial Starbook, you’ll find the interview. I’m still reading it and holy moly the IGS gave us pure gold.”

As he continued to read, Rune was really rapt with wonder at what approach this school used.

It wasn’t a conventional approach, it was the approach that created the least amount of weaknesses, and it resonated completely with the path and build he wanted to pursue, the steady path.

‘So if my specialty gives me 5 peak tier 2 perception boosting masteries equivalent, it can easily double how much information my fighting instinct fundamental mastery can receive and sort. Then the steady path would be to be able to live in a 100% extended time temporality like I’m used to living in this one, so…’

‘2 body control masteries then? 3? No, I have to take into account that I’ll keep the same temporality all along for my tier 3 adventures.’

Finishing his planning, he only had the last step to take.

As a form of respect for this eminent teacher, Rune read the whole interview, devouring its content and forgetting nothing.

‘Ok, now the last step, I also call it my ultimate move, few know it… I’m going to… Be indecisive! I’ll continue reading!’

As expected of him, one interview and some snippets of info were not enough, at all. He had entire other schools of thought to check on how to approach adventuring and fighting.

This guide was so full of condensed info that even an entire year wouldn't allow someone to read through everything, so he used keywords to search for what he wanted.

From pure explorer approach to pure behemoth path suicide warrior approach, and to confirmed tales of legendary persona and how they did.

Rune learned a lot, the steady Martial Starbook way was counterbalanced by other eminent schools and persons that advocated for reinforcing one’s strength to make up for the large weaknesses and pages and pages of theoretical battles between different approaches.

History really had the bad habits of never agreeing on something, Rune was experiencing that fully.

‘At least they respect me and they don’t try to assume that they are the best, just that their path is the most suitable for themselves and their students, that’s so wholesome… Anyway, 1 energy compression and 2 body control, right? Let’s go.’

Standing up from his comfy energy deckchair, he jumped to land in the middle of their residential park.

Some others were there too, he even knew the name of some of them. Having everyone in his sphere was truly an infringement on their privacy, but he wasn’t going to retract his sphere for that reason.

‘It makes me think that I need to learn other passive perception control training…’

“Sigh…” The lassitude was so strong it escaped his mouth with a heavy sigh.

Focusing on one of his empty tier 3 slots, Rune started to fill them with his planned masteries.

Starting with another defensive energy compression mastery, he used his energy to create a simple ball of compressed energy with the idea of it being an egg, then he emptied the middle of it.

Next to this egg, he created a different lattice structure made of energy, and after creating them he used his strength to apply pressure from different sides and test their resistance.

After doing that multiple times with the right intent, the Ether law gave him the mastery he wanted.

*Ding* Do you want to fill one of your empty mastery slots with Energy Compression: Basic Energy Structure?

‘Yes.' it was a very low-hanging fruit of the defensive compressed energy branch, so he took it.

Not like taking another one would make much difference if he didn’t intend to go on a very specific energy structure specialization.

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Structure

Basic Slotted Mastery (Tier 1)

Energy is energy, but as you plunge deeper into how to better use your energy with the goal of protecting yourself, you stumbled upon a peculiar phenomenon and want to study it till you gain something out of it.

After getting this one, it was time to enter into a new domain, one he never touched till now, and for it, his perfectionist side was not unwelcome.

Once again thinking of filling one of his slots, he started to do a martial demonstration of moves that could transmit 100% of his strength.

Again.

And again.

Until after 5 minutes, he was granted the first body control mastery he wanted.

*Ding* Do you want to fill one of your empty mastery slots with Body Control: Basic Humanoid Body?

‘Yes.' it was so general that Rune was happy it existed, it was the quintessence of perfection. Learn how to use your own body and learn how it works, then you’ll never see it failing what you ask of him.

Body Control: Basic Humanoid Body

Basic Slotted Mastery (Tier 1)

Your humanoid body still hasn’t reached what you wanted, so you decided to make it happen. The way you decided to do it is by leaving your body without a single drop of strength untouched, but only now did you discover that perfection is only the most basic requirement.

‘Yup, exactly my mindset, perfection is basic, not arrogance at all, next one, the most interesting one.’

Rune read that it was possible to create a mastery from everything one thought about, so he wanted to try this one by remembering how he fought and make a mastery derived from very long battles.

From simple individual fights to all the major ones, the first time he had to confront a tier 3 with Utopia and Nelo, the subsequent endless flocks of birds and armies of monsters, till they all decided to split and pursued their own schedule.

Never stopping and always fighting. He didn’t think about the breaks he had, only the amount of battles. Then the most notable moment he remembered from them, a bear burning with flames, how he only defended, the worst opponents he ever had, an ice spider or a poison wolf, for him they represented his evolution.

And after 10 minutes of pseudo-nostalgia and deep remembrance, it seemed to be enough.

*Ding* Do you want to fill one of your empty mastery slots with Body Control: Basic Prolonged Body Use?

‘So it works like that… Yes please.'

And with that, Rune was set for the foreseeable future.

Body Control: Basic Prolonged Body Use

Basic Slotted Mastery (Tier 1)

For you, normal battles don’t define the essence of what true battle should look like, so you decided to find for yourself what you found missing in the previous ones, and only after so much fighting did you discover that one of the charms of the battlefield was when you kept using your body in the middle of a stampede of death, and emerge alive despite all odds.

“I’m done!” Exclaiming, he jumped in happiness, now it was time for another purge, “More news reading! Yeah!”

Getting back to the balcony, Rune created an energy chair spell matrix on the spot and used all his energy on it. He couldn’t interrupt his purging process by using his energy to rectify it if it broke so he did that in place.

He sat like he just began his holiday, over-excited, and the next moment, vague nausea and discomfort invaded his body. The start of a purge was always the weirdest, but he had to do it.

And like he already experienced, it passed very quickly, only a few minutes.

“Ahhh… Swimming in joy and peace,” with the next seven days being assigned holidays, Rune made happy noises to himself. He had all the time in the world to plan when to start his next adventure.

‘Let’s see.' sweeping 3 times his vision to the right, he selected the mission network, and was then greeted with a unique option, “Expedition support request”.

He confirmed, he planned to go on an adventure, or expedition in this case. A form appeared in his vision, it was time for paperwork.

…

“Oh god your element is so f*cking final-boss-ish Nelo! It’s part of the top 10 of the elements used by the evilest cartoon villain with only the black thunder, black flame, empty destruction, and demonic ice above it, don’t tell me you plan to…”

A totally exaggerated accusatory glance birthed from average acting talent was activated and sent Nelo’s way.

“Please master! Mercy! Mercy! I won’t tell anyone of your great plan! No don’t hit me I’m in the middle of my purging process master! Have mercy!”

“Ah! Sh*t up! Sh*t up! Sh*t up! If you keep interrupting me I’ll never become the cartoon villain I’m meant to be! And you’re not any better mister ‘I plan to create an element that makes everyone become blind, deaf and feel like dying’! I’m the one who should beg for mercy here!”

With an energy bullet ready to be launched if Rune kept talking, Nelo appeared outraged by all the time he got interrupted, but a slight smirk told of a different story.

Soon a week would have passed till Rune started his purging process, and for some reason, the day he was departing that he received from his mission network was the exact time he told in the form that he planned to depart.

For a nascent society, the IGS appeared very optimized and efficient.

Once he finished replacing his reinforced armor mastery with his specialized cohesion Infusion mastery, he planned to go for his next adventure.

During this week, Nelo and Rune shared the balcony while sometimes receiving a visit from Utopia or Astryde who wanted to socialize a bit.

Rune had of course already said he was departing soon, shocking them all by the same occasion.

But after remembering that he was obsessed with going alone on an expedition and discovering floating islands, they acted like it was normal after insulting him for being an addict or something.

‘In the end, I’ll not be here for any concert... I’m… A little frustrated? Well, as long as I don’t forget to remind my support team to try and send me the first music uploaded, everything will be alright… But then my memory is a problem…’

While worrying, like he was going to forget his baggage, he spent the rest of the day surfing on the web, preparing himself mentally…

Or not, he was just entertaining himself and he loved it, for him, the adventure he was going to embark on was all his life was about, everything he worked so hard for, for years.

From the moment he chose to create his avatar with the goal of becoming a pioneer of a new era, to this moment, more than 3 years later, in a new world.

‘A build to use connected lenses easily? Who’s the genius who thought about that?’

And in those 3 years, it seemed Rune never lost what made him who he was, an entertainment addict.

…

*Ding* Do you want to fill one of your empty mastery slots with Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion?

‘Yup, show me my masteries now.’

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 3 Level 7

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 3 Level 27

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 3 Level 28

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 2

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 1

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 3 Level 26

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 3 Level 2

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 3 Level 0

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 3 Level 1

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Armor: Tier 3 Level 25

Energy Compression: Basic Defensive Energy: Tier 3 Level 25

Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion: Tier 1 Level 77

Tier 3 Masteries

Energy Compression: Basic Energy Structure: Tier 1 Level 0

Body Control: Basic Humanoid Body: Tier 1 Level 0

Body Control: Basic Prolonged Body Use: Tier 1 Level 0

‘Hehehe, next stop is when this screen is only filled with tier 4 masteries, maybe in one or two years, it doesn't matter.’

Looking at the sky, full of this ever-present white ether mist, limiting his vision to only a thousand kilometers when he pushed his sight, Rune was lost in his thoughts.

He didn’t know, maybe there was a floating island just above him at the moment, and that was unacceptable.

‘As a tier 3, I have centuries and centuries to live, there’s no way I’ll never discover something amazing…’

‘Time to sleep for the last time before departing, let’s enjoy it.’

In a luxurious foamy energy bed, Rune slept on the balcony without a care in the world.