Rune’s question echoed and he knew Arik had heard it, this time there were no excuses.

And he was proven right when the energy making the connected screen inside Arik’s head move stopped.

“Minor civilizations’ natives are throwing a tantrum about the IGS’s philosophical approach on AI core, and lots of sources are telling me that a half-working prototype AI core is already online,'' he finally gave an answer. It was a succinct but shocking one.

And he wasn’t over, “The online traffic has increased by a few ten thousand times over a too short period compared to the influx of immigrants. This pattern is too identical to an AI core at its learning phase, and unless someone created a homemade one…”

“Wait. A tantrum? They don’t want AI cores?” Astryde incredulously asked from the side.

“Why would they… What?” Rune was in a similar mental state, he was lost for words.

“Sigh…” Arik sighed to express that he knew how they felt, “Everyone’s the same, the current theory is that IGS citizens are fanning the flame to express their discontent about minor civilizations’ natives. Sociologists are bringing up something about an imminent factionalization, and… And…”

“Sigh…” He sighed again, “And it’s just really hard to understand from here.”

“I asked you about the AREC reform,” remembering the original question, Rune implied that he wanted an answer about this one in a provocative way.

“It’s just a public announcement mixed inside a big proof bag that there’s probably a functional AI core somewhere. Otherwise? Yes, there are more details if you want to check it yourself, it’s very interesting in my opinion,” nonplussed, Arik naturally followed his own rhythm and half-ignored him.

Next to the bickering duo, Astryde had finished checking her message and found nothing noteworthy, “This situation is only taking place online? No protests or manifestations? Why would you care about it then? Just check it later and you’ll have the start, the middle, and the end available.”

“It’s just so interesting once you realize how everything is linked,” a flame of excitement made its way to Arik’s voice as it emitted from its larynx energy construct.

“I’m not saying it’s all linked, but just thinking about this possibility is making me addicted to finding more. For example, currently under construction are hundreds of sets of massive automated facilities, it’s a fact. The AREC reform is publicly detailed but not started, it’s a fact. A moral and philosophical discussion about AI cores coincidentally started online, it’s a fact…”

Then he went on and on about tens of other facts from historians bringing up the cycle 429’s AI core revolution of the IGS and all the consequences it had to many many things having been optimized lately, including…

“The guide? So it wasn’t other people who read and organized it but an AI core? I swear I knew something changed about it! That’s amazing!” Rune exclaimed at having personally lived one of the facts Arik described.

“Yup, it’s really amazing. And I just keep digging and I keep finding coincidental facts. I'm this close to joining the conspirationist camp,” Arik approached 2 of his fingers a few millimeters away to emphasize his joke in a serious manner.

“Still, you can give us a more summarized version later or at our next stop. I want to move and now that Rune is here and you’re unaddicted, let me start my own exciting story,” Astryde changed the subject abruptly.

The concerned person acted as if he wasn’t mentioned and shook the person he held by the shoulders, “If only you weren’t addicted Rune, you made us lose a few days, that’s deplorable for someone normally so serious.”

“Yes. I’m sorry daddy Arik, I’ll not do it again. Your time is too important for me to take a few days to come back from a random adventure where I left my friends behind,” Arik’s sarcastic tone was back at full power as he took to Rune’s play immediately.

“Anyway,” Astryde cut them off before they started again, “My extended report isn’t ready yet, and I’m sure if I try to speak about everything you’ll just be more confused, so I’ll just skip the details and let you go through them once I finish compiling them.”

In a half-professional way, the group relaxingly settled down and Rune removed his arms from over Arik’s shoulders. It was time to decide their next destination.

“What I’ll speak about immediately is where we can go next,” she broached the sensitive subject without waiting, “First is my own preferred destination: Another city ruins I confirmed the existence of.”

“I refined my knowledge and coordinates, and it’s only a few months of travel while being much much bigger than the one we are currently in. Meaning it’s just the best overall option that will help me refine all the other options I learned of.”

There, she transmitted a set of coordinates that were very familiar as it was one of the remaining 2 they had before reaching this city ruins site.

“A new option I found by chance and that can somewhat equal the big city is a solid report about a retired tier 7 entity. If we can track him and get solid intels on what tier 7 is like, what it implies, what are possible pitfalls, and anything concrete linked to it. I think the IGS will not skimp on a massive contribution reward.”

Left unsaid was the fact that just sending back this report about a retired tier 7 would already give them a pretty amount of free contribution.

“As for the third and final option I find reasonable, it’s one I only found thanks to the training I received in the track unit of the civil protection cell. I don’t dare to say it was pure luck or skill, but I found a nearly perfect time segment dating back to 1500 years. And by nearly perfect, I mean it was a few days of uninterrupted, perfectly preserved scenes where I could observe, repeat, and hear the secrets of as much as I wanted…”

As Astryde brought up a final option, Rune and Arik expected something similar to the first two, but even as they waited, she kept making the hype go up.

“This perfectly preserved time segment is the reason I even got the intel about a retired tier 7, it’s also the reason it’s taking me so long to make my report, and it’s also how I identified a ‘few’ people belonging to the wanted people list of the IGS…”

Beginning there, she then went on to explain to her 2 ignorant friends that anyone making it to the wanted people list of the IGS’s archeological department wasn’t someone that could be ignored, even less when it was “a few” people.

“I think this third option should be called the ‘secret society’ option, it’s a very thrilling if difficult one from my point of view. But I think you can already guess though?” She questioned them symbolically, then spoke of her true thoughts, “Just from what I got here in this city ruins, I think it’s already worth more than the track unit’s reward I got from the prospects finding event.”

On these words, she left them to digest everything she said and didn’t say anything more.

“Woah…” Rune was the first to say something after half a minute of silence, “I’m speechless, was it really that easy? Wouldn’t such a report be undervalued or compared to the ones made by the… City teams? Don’t know what to call them.”

“True,” Arik bounced off of what Rune said, “As the one who understands the current situation the best, no bragging of course. I’m sure and certain the AI core isn’t completely online yet, so the possibility of your report being undervalued exists even if it’s low.”

“You want me to partition it? I don’t think that’s difficult, I can just spread my deep diving time and make discoveries over a long period of time. I can also withhold it and wait to send important pieces of information over multiple months. It’ll also allow me to make mixed reports by crisscrossing intel from 2 or more cities…”

She seemed like a real professional cheater as she started on a tirade about how she could confuse the system. Or so Rune thought as he listened to her thinking of tens of imaginative ways to hide what she learned in less than 5 minutes.

‘Is she maybe?’

“Are you a professional scammer Mrs. Sirle?” He interrupted her when she started on yet another way to cheat, “No really, are you a professional scammer? I need some lessons on-”

“Hehehe,” an ominous laugh escaped her larynx construct, as she started a confession, “I do have a dark past as a bad student thinking outside the box a lot when it came to homework and tests. By ‘a lot’, I hope you know what I really mean Mr. Tudor.”

“Hohoho, I see there are still some sides of you I never learned to properly appreciate before. Your education must have been a very hectic and hot-blooded time, wasn’t it? I never thought people like you still existed as I literally never got to know one, I thought they only existed in stories.”

Rune expressed his sudden interest in learning about someone who tried, and probably succeeded at least a bit, to cheat in an education system that was overseen by systems he knew were created expressly to crack down on people like those.

Even Arik didn’t interrupt his sudden curiosity, indicating at least a modicum of interest.

“If you think I’m born like that, then you couldn’t be farther from the truth. The number of times I made it through the checks, sigh…”

As if the subject of their meeting had disappeared, the three started to speak casually like they entered a bar. Astryde became a mother telling her kids a bedtime story, and Rune and Arik shared short stories and reacted to what she said.

The next 2 hours were spent like that, lost in a chill discussion that would have continued for maybe more if the main “Astryde cheating at school” subject hadn’t run out of bullets.

“And that’s pretty much the last notable attempt I remember doing. From my late university classes onward, it wasn’t possible to fiddle my way as much as before, so I stopped doing it altogether and graduated the normal way hehe,” she concluded lightheartedly.

“Yeah, I can totally relate to the late university classes part,” Rune commented as he remembered how late university wasn’t about learning and normal school stuff, it was about true applied learning. Cheating there was a bit too complicated and had too high consequences.

“Us three really don’t have much in common from our pre-Ether Law period,” Arik argued his opinion for the umpteenth time in 2 hours.

“I know it’s the truth, but stop repeating the same thing again and again, please. Why not give your opinion on which of the 3 options to follow for example?” Rune attacked him passively, he didn’t even think before speaking.

“A big city, a retired tier 7, and a secret society. I thought about it, and I failed to find why you talked about the second and third options. Was it just to have unopinionated feedback?” He didn’t answer the question, preferring to ask Astryde non-explicitly instead.

“I said I liked the first option the best, just saying,” she said, then proceeded to remain silent, letting the two make the right and rational deduction in their head.

“Anyone needs to sleep before we go? More chit-chat maybe?” Rune cut in.

In response, he received another ping from Astryde telling him one more time the coordinates for the near-certain ancient big city site and a grunt from Arik.

Tampering with his connected screen for a few seconds, he let the app do all the work with what he gave it and got a map essentially completely dark but with a very useful arrow and stats that would tell him how he was traveling.

“I lost a bit of strength after losing one of my body control masteries, but you don't have to worry, I already confirmed I can still punch things to oblivion,” standing up, he started to update his 2 friends about his changes enthusiastically.

“And with me now being able to see things at more than a thousand kilometers, I’ll be able to take on the scout role and optimize our itinerary in real-time. Though I doubt you want to skip on training opportunities, am I right?” He turned his head towards the horizon as he started to create a new pair of spiritual eyes.

*Ding* Awareness Division: Specialized Sense Invocation reached Tier 1 Level 79

‘Seems like I’ll soon enter the high levels, but it’s still tier 1 so it doesn’t really matter.’

In a few seconds from starting to send his awareness from his spirit to reality, he got a fuzzy return. He was closing in on complete and instant control of his new awareness division’s specialization.

‘It’s a shame we’ll not pass next to the pillar. They don’t have sight anyway, so for them to truly appreciate it… Wait.’

He was once again proven he was a bit stupid as he took everything Arik loaned him, including a camera that captured a lot of really amazing things.

“Here,” Rune handed everything back to their short and silent owner, “I made a lot of amateur-ish high-quality filming and full depth pictures, so you need to empty it. You’re free to use everything as you want, it’s already in the past for me.”

“Ah that’s right,” Arik too, seemed to have forgotten about them with his AI core coincidence finding addiction.

“Did you have a good time at the pillar?” Astryde asked, recalling she had no idea about how Rune’s small journey was, “A scenic view and everything? I’m sure it was worth it for you to have done it two times and have only come back to get some sleep and some tools.”

“Hu…” Rune hesitated, “Just asking, but you know what an underground pillar is and what it implies, right?”

She tilted her skull slightly to the side in a cute manner, before confusedly answering with unfounded confidence, “Yes?”

And then Arik facepalmed hard enough for a loud empty clap to echo as the 3 of them stopped talking.

“Sigh… Come here young time watcher girl, your education is really lacking seriously. Fortunately, you have us two old adventurers to guide you or you would head straight to disaster!” Rune impersonated a familiar persona.

“She stupid. Leave her to die,” Arik grumbled on his side like a grumpy grandpa.

This instant marked the return of the two old veterans act.

…

With everyone at their top condition, the group of 3 departed the first city ruins they discovered in the bone region. Astryde knew the ancient name, but Rune only noted “Drunrith” with the associated coordinates next to it in his diary then promptly forgot about it.

As the newly self-assigned scout, he started showing a new expertise he was the only one to have among the group: Threat assessment.

After his time spent living in the pillar hotspot, he had seen so many monsters he couldn’t even hope to face that he had dedicated days to trying to find ways to identify them prior to them showing off their power in direct confrontations.

In the end, he couldn’t get it 100% right every time, it was even hard to get a clear percentage of success, but he at least had pushed a new boundary in his monster's behavior analysis.

And as he was retelling what he lived and did at the pillar to his 2 friends, it was inevitable for him to not breach this subject as well as one of his greatest disappointments.

“I thought hotspots, where the ether was disturbed, had like… A regular-ish occurrence of environmental events? Something like that? But it seems there was a reason the IGS hadn’t started this research before me,” Rune said in a disappointed tone.

“I think having seen one is already the best I can ask for with my luck. As for seeing a second one? I think being at a hotspot only increases the chance slightly compared to just standing in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, everything else turned out right, so I don’t have much to complain about.”

And he kept on talking and talking nonstop.

“My expectations of finding a crystal mine for my growth mastery like that weren’t right anyway. I also hypothesized that maybe there’s something like a super hotspot that exists somewhere that can rival apocalypse regions, but it was only a petty conclusion. If I compare an apocalypse region and a super hotspot…”

“So really, environmental events are more the exceptions rather than the rule. And hotspots are just so chaotic, going there alone without ways to stealth myself would be signing my death warrant. I’m nearly certain now that all the overpowered monsters we come across are in fact escaped survivors of a hotspot…”

“Rune,” Astryde called him, stopping him from continuing his infinite rambling tale about his pillar journey that seemed to go on forever, “I want to punch some things, can you lead us to some monsters?”

“Ah yeah,” he looked around in response, “Now that you say it, it’s weird that we didn’t already run into any considering we are pretty much doing a straight line. There’s an ongoing fight there, let’s go.”

“I think they have a way to instinctively detect a passionate entity that would talk passionately nonstop if they had the misfortune to encounter it. That’s why they ran away prior to crossing us, or you more precisely,” Arik admitted to his most honest inner thoughts.

“Once you have the time to watch everything I filmed, you’ll be so mind-blown you’ll not be able to say that anymore,” Rune countered thinking he was right.

“Then I’ll not watch, it’s as simple as that.”

“Then I’ll make Astryde watch it just next to you, it’s as simple as that.”

“Then I’ll keep all the files for me, it’s as simple as that.”

“Then I’ll have to use the few files I already downloaded on my connected screen, it’s as simple as that.”

“Then I’ll-”

The group entered within 10 kilometers of an ongoing fight.

“Sigh… Finally,” Astryde sighed in relief as the two continued to bicker, “I wanted, needed, something to punch.”