With Rune having regained his sight and even having it upgraded, the group stopped encountering monsters too powerful or too special for their level as beginners to below-average tier 4 entities. This led to them keeping a steady traveling speed and a moderately intense training regime.

Arik and Astryde didn’t change much as for them, the whole city ruins break was spent in either time watching or experiments.

Rune, however, had finally concluded he was reaching the end of his fast learning phase for his new exploration immortal fighting style. His cosmic mist element had given him a lot of moves to adapt from his ancient style, as well as new ones to create, but that was coming to an end.

‘Now I need some serious situations or long periods of use to even gain a slight increase in efficiency, and it’s not like I’ll be able to revolutionize it anytime soon…’

Where before he gained new insights every day in how to use his cosmic mist in a better general way, specialized way, how to move slightly more efficiently and straightforwardly under its cover, adapt his previous style’s rapid combo, or learn to react to blind monsters.

Now he really felt like how he was fighting didn’t reveal his style was pretty new. He felt comfortable using it, his moves flowed naturally, and more shocking was that when he tried to fight without his cosmic mist, his fighting instinct reacted differently.

‘Oh that’s right, I need to check the AREC ranks reform details.’

Looking over the active ether tower that was doing its scan, he was reminded that he still hadn’t checked this reform’s details out.

Making a round with his vision to confirm there weren't any suspicious monsters or weird ether flows, he relegated his scout duty to the background and got onto the minimalist news site, where he quickly and easily found what he was curious about.

‘It’s like… Exactly what I read last time but with a lot more details…’

In part due to the hype he created by himself, he found what he was reading to be a bit under his huge expectations.

Nonetheless, once he put it back to the level where it belonged and mixed it with the supposed half-working AI core, he found the details to be really entertaining.

[There’s a large rift between the theoretical metal ranks and the theoretical gem ranks. This rift cannot be filled with simple effort, hard work, and results, you need capability unique to the job itself…]

When the official report started going into the true depth of how this rank system was made, a lot of scientific terms started to be used. From differential adaptive criteria to retro-normalized time-knowledge contribution calculations, Rune understood approximately what they were about, and that shocked him.

‘Arik was completely understating it. How can all those things be accomplished without an AI core retracing the complex timeline and the linked moment where certain pieces of important knowledge were acquired?’

As he continued to read, the idea that this reform was even possible without an AI core made him doubt whether he had misunderstood if the existence of an AI core was the main camp or the conspirationist camp.

[All recognized professions will be separated and have their own adaptation scale which will use the progression speed and high-low professionalism degree to adapt the results needed to get to higher ranks (e.g: The close-quarter fighter ranking system involving close-quarter free fighters and all its associated restrictions and rules will have a comparatively much higher number of silver rankers at its creation than the sculptor artist ranking system).]

Reading about all the subtleties like the multiple inspirations taken to create this system, nearly 100% from the globalized board and 80% of them originating from the Maze, as well as all the adaptations made for it to accommodate to an entirely different environment compared to before the Ether Law…

‘And from what Arik said, this reform is only the most public one with the biggest reach. It’s only an important cog in a much bigger transformation engine that’s making lots of people react.’

Pulling him out of his thoughts was the alarm signaling the ether tower had finished its scan.

Astryde then proceeded to pack it up, allowing the group to get back on the invisible road to continue towards their objective.

‘Well, that’s our first scan done. I think it’ll be a good timestamp. Yesh, it’ll be, so let me add my current masteries to it.’

Deciding on the fly to do something, he brought up his masteries.

Masteries

Tier 1 Masteries

Physical Fundamental: Reinforcement: Tier 4 Level 61

Physical Fundamental: Fighting Instinct: Tier 4 Level 54

Physical Fundamental: Body Control: Tier 4 Level 54

Energy Fundamental: Fine Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 51

Energy Fundamental: Grand Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 51

Energy Fundamental: Energy Compression: Tier 4 Level 54

Spiritual Fundamental: Perception Control: Tier 4 Level 8

Spiritual Fundamental: Awareness Division: Tier 4 Level 56

Spiritual Fundamental: Momentum Manipulation: Tier 4 Level 23

Tier 2 Masteries

Energy: Specialized Cosmic Mist Element: Tier 3 Level 78

Cohesion: Specialized Cohesion Infusion: Tier 4 Level 68

Cohesion: Specialized Endless Adaptation: Tier 1 Level 8

Tier 3 Masteries

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Defense: Tier 3 Level 73

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Structure: Tier 3 Level 73

Energy Compression: Provided Energy Armor: Tier 3 Level 73

Tier 4 Masteries

Energy Compression: Provided Quick Compression: Tier 3 Level 66

Body Control: Provided Humanoid Body: Tier 3 Level 67

Awareness Division: Specialized Sense Invocation: Tier 1 Level 79

‘And now that my build will not change unless something very special happens…’

From his feeling that he had reached his best build and a slight frustration at having kept a constant check on his leveling speed, he decided to make another decision on the fly.

‘I’ll just stop actualizing. Maybe I’ll check when I feel curious, but I won’t report it anymore.’

An invisible weight was spiritually lifted from his mind after he made this decision. He thrived on important impulsive decisions, and he had just made one.

Just like that, the group of 3 truly went on their way.

They were alone in a weird and unique foreign land, but they had already adapted to it and were steadily progressing towards reaching tier 5 in their most active fundamentals.

…

In the massive kilometers-high landing zone structure that occupied the complete 10 square kilometers and that kept on being built higher and deeper to receive more immigrants.

The flow had never stopped, that’s what every private news agency said about it, that’s what all the official government reports said, that’s what every passerby said.

In sum, the fact that millions and millions of people appeared here every day was an indisputable fact that not even the most lunatic would try to contradict.

Years had passed from the time the IGS had just entered the Endless, and it reflected everywhere. New people were informed, managed, identified, and sent out as soon as they received the information they wanted.

This process wasn’t started from this side, after all, it was started from the other. Public information packages available on the net and the globalized information board were the perfect tools for the job, and it allowed anyone to be sure there was no danger.

On the 73rd floor, a young human male appeared from thin air. He had all the characteristics of a newcomer and soon enough, this observation was confirmed as he couldn’t stand on his two legs anymore and fell on the rubber-ish gray floor.

Short brown hair, clear blue eyes, toned body, imperfect facial hair, he was a perfectly ordinary young man of the human species.

When he felt the tingling all over his transforming into pure pain, he quickly deactivated his sense of pain through his awareness, letting his body transform into that of an ether lifeform naturally without thrashing around.

Through his perception, he saw in a 500 meters radius around himself, and what he saw could only be described as the most crowded place ever.

People of all skin color, hair color and style, height, corpulence, and gender were collapsed naked all around and nothing was protecting their innocence for the most part. Realizing he was in the same case, he quickly covered himself in a faint energy layer to feel at least a bit covered and protected.

However, it could be said that the clothed people that seemed to be managing the place were efficient as a mere 5 minutes after his transformation began, one approached him and began to ask for information about who he was and what was his primary objective.

“Hello, I’m a born IGS citizen, Miro Tudor, my homeworld is X125 of the 186th administrative region in the Andromeda galaxy. I’m part of a batch of students that graduated a few years ago, and me and my twin brother decided to come here to further our career,” a normal voice emanating from the struggling body said everything that needed to be said.

“Once your transformation is finished, follow the arrows and you’ll end up at a more advanced reception desk, finished describing why you are here for and everything will be fine and quick. Don’t forget to get your armor up. Here is a set of clothes for you, though I doubt you’ll be able to wear it before finishing your transformation.”

The other party only swept his eyes a few times here and there before bidding farewell, leaving behind only a set of white clothes.

‘My armor?’

Confused by the advice coming from nowhere, he confirmed his armor was up but it had already been for a long time, as long as from the moment he landed here.

Having a fully charged armor up at all times was so fundamental that few would ever forget it, at least he knew no one personally. Not even his parents or young children he sometimes saw had no armor up.

Trying to stand up a few times futilely, Miro finally resolved to patiently wait until his transformation was properly finished as he focused on observing his surroundings more.

‘So that’s the effect of the ether erosion… It’s really frightening. And I need to wait for 2 hours? Miri isn’t even around… He was probably teleported too far away.’

Compared to his expectations, his current situation could be described as good. There were too many people, sure, but it was an organized chaos.

The people managing this place weren’t tier 1 or tier 2 entities, they were at least tier 3. So for newcomers going through a 2-hour long paralyzing, it was the best comfort they could ask for. As for the neat building and everything else? It was secondary.

After 2 hours passed, the tingling had ceased and a new world was being unveiled to him. The ether wasn’t just something that could be seen with his perception anymore.

He could see it with his eyes, he could smell it, he could touch it, feel it. Even the wind had transformed into something very intense, as if his skin had become baby skin or he had overloaded his sense of touch.

‘That will take a while to get used to.’

Once he adapted his awareness to reduce all the different senses that made him feel overwhelmed, he stood up unsteadily as his transformation wasn’t yet finished, though it was very close.

5 minutes were enough for him to wear some clothes and to finally feel like he was back in total control, so he started to follow the arrows and joined the mass that was doing the same.

He couldn’t look behind him as it was clogged with people walking or flying, but he concluded behind him would be something like an exit, opposed to before him which should lead to something like a central structure.

He was soon proved true as he reached what could only be described as big holes leading either up or down. They were clearly vertical corridors and there were dozens of them with very simplistic color indications.

‘Red cross should mean do not enter. Green arrow should mean open and the direction.’

This change was maybe recent as he didn’t read about it on the board, but it wasn’t enough to make him panic so he just followed the mass and entered an open tunnel leading downwards.

Be it up or down, the floor seemed to be identical, as if he was in a gigantic maze from which he couldn’t escape. Even as he started falling, he had this same sensation that he was in a maze and he wasn’t moving at all.

Falling for a few seconds at a relatively slow speed, not like he had a choice with all the people around him, he finally perceived a change.

And soon he landed on that change.

It was a slope that regulated the traffic and made everyone taking this vertical corridor or even the adjacent ones that were separated by a wall fuse into one.

Sliding for a few seconds, a new floor opened and it really started to look like as the guy who interviewed him said, he would get to go at a desk and get guidance one on one.

Hundreds, thousands of waiting lines were there, and he only had to join one.

So that’s what he did, he joined one and same as when he was teleported, started to observe while waiting.

Some talked, some remained silent, Miro didn’t have a preference. If someone wanted to talk, he would happily do the same, if no one wanted to talk, he could remain happy just observing.

However, looking at the very fast advancing speed of the waiting lines, few started an in-depth conversation about anything, only exchanging a few words and generally discussing nothing.

In 10 minutes, Miro had gone from the end of the line to just before the perception-blocked automatic door and was waiting for the green light and the enter symbol signifying he could go inside.

When the fateful moment came to happen, he walked inside and mindlessly followed the pulsing neon line on the floor until he arrived in front of yet another door that was perception-blocked. The door automatically opened and he entered.

“Welcome to the Endless Miro Tudor. If you are curious, your twin brother Miri Tudor is already undergoing his own guidance. You’ll be reunited once you’re done if you so desire. Please sit while I create your new citizen file,” a handsome blond human welcomed him with a professional smile.

“Hello,” Miro summarily replied in habit as the door behind him closed and he sat on one of the available chairs.

The room looked like an office, a clean and spotless desk with holographic implementations, white and gray wall paints, a few potted plants, and a piece of universal background music. This once again wasn’t what Miro had expected.

“Do you agree to the renewal of your IGS citizenship contract, Miro Tudor?” The man asked suddenly.

“Yes, I agree,” he answered without thinking.

“As a citizen of the IGS having gone through a dedicated official education, you have the right to apply to a prospect school. Do you want to use this right and expedite your guidance?”

“No,” he had read about the process, but living through it was completely a different thing.

“As a citizen of the IGS, it’s our duty to help you in your first steps as much as we can reasonably do, so now, tell me. What do you want to do here in the Endless? How can we help you?” Those two simple questions should have been said more than a thousand times, but the person asking didn’t seem bored of them at all.

“I graduated from a new architecture career school with my brother, and we want to enter the labor market directly. I personally want to see if some pioneered and non-pioneered fields can be used in new ways. And I want to contact my already present family to know where to begin,” Miro explained, trying to be as clear as possible.

“Names? Parents? Distant family? Brothers or sisters? Wife? Husband? Professions?” He asked for more details in return.

“Only one person to my knowledge and that I want to know of, my big brother. Rune Tudor, adventurer, tier 4, Undecided adventurer’s group. It’s been more than 7 years since he arrived here and belongs to the first wave,” he described to the best of his ability what he knew from the messages his family had sporadically received from him.

Sweeping screens a few times and typing things with his extremely fast hands, holographic profiles appeared before him.

One of them looked very similar to the pictures of him he saw to remind himself before departing, just slightly more mature, “This one. My twin brother should have already tried to identify, so maybe check on his side to cross our results.”

Not directly acknowledging his proposition, he continued doing his own things without saying anything for half a minute, then suddenly used his energy to pick up a hand-sized machine from one of the shelves integrated into the walls.

“Please put one of your hands inside to confirm your family tie.”

Miro did as asked and put his right hand inside and saw with his perception that samples of everything were being taken, blood, fine hairs, fingerprints, palmprints.

‘This box has clearly been designed to make sure I know what’s going on inside.’

“We’ve tried to contact your elder brother but the attempt was unsuccessful as he is currently in sensitive and dangerous territory. In consequence, you’ll be forwarded to the leader of his adventurer’s group, Utopia Fanaru. Your twin brother has already agreed to that and is currently discussing with him, I’ll connect to the feed.”

He did a few more sweeps and typing here and there, then a holographic screen with a video of his brother, Miri, and a handsome rululu wearing a comfy-looking gold and white suit, surely Utopia Fanaru, appeared before him at the same time as what he thought to be their voices.

“Please say hello,” the handsome man concluded by saying that then stopped talking.

“Miri? Hello?” He tentatively asked.

“Well, do I even need to ask if he’s your brother? Are you purposely keeping the same style? Hehehe, you want people to know you’re twin brothers or something? Your parents also really abused for your names, Miri and Miro, hehehe!” The stranger purely and simply didn’t seem to care about being strangers or not and spoke familiarly.

‘Utopia… I think I heard about him before but it’s been so long that I can’t remember how and when…’

“Yo Miro, he’s Utopia, a tier 4 adventurer and he’s been friends with Rune from before they entered the Endless. We were talking about what to do and we were only waiting for you,” Miri explained the situation briefly before they returned to the subject.

“Hello little Miro, though we’re not that different in terms of age, I think I’m clearly above you in the hierarchy! Now that you’re here, it means you decided to not go to the prospect schools, right? Well, you would have canceled anyway once Rune received the news you arrived and contacted you.”

The way Utopia talked seemed near-effortless, as if what he was saying was a foregone conclusion and he was only going through the motions.

“And now, let me tell you where you need to go and a brief summary of the situation. Guiding young people like you is very in line with what I work in so it’s perfect.”