A Thousand Years Ago

Rune's exploration immortal fighting style used his cosmic mist's ability to impact his opponent's perception and senses in general as a core part that couldn't be removed.

Without this core part, he would return to his ancient fighting style that had slow and steady as its focus.

The changes brought by the addition of his cosmic mist to his fighting style, though, weren't limited to only affecting his opponent's perception senses. He had to add a whole lot of innovations in terms of fighting tactics, as well as learn new things he had never encountered before.

The reactions made by a monster that knew where you were and one that didn't were completely different.

The reactions of a monster that lost its target were completely new.

And even now, after months of departing from the capital, Rune was still learning new things and refining his new style, using his ancient experiences to accelerate the process.

There was a part, however, that he only categorized as a new core part of his style very recently, he called it baiting art. The way this art came to exist was thanks to an obvious problem brought by his cosmic mist: If he vanished, the monster would move on.

That's why the purpose of this art was to make sure a monster, no matter how cunning and sly it was, wouldn't stop fighting after its prey disappeared.

As fate, or ether, had it, it just so happened that Rune had years of experience fabricating intense blinding lights and very loud and strident sounds from nothing but energy, so his baiting art made rapid progress in a very short period.

Although his baiting art didn't have a dedicated mastery, that didn't affect him much as his ability to make purely visual, very loud, and inexpensive, effects completely filled his needs. But he knew that going at it that way was only a short-term solution, not a true answer.

That's why ultimately, seeing as there was no way for him to get a new element to act as the foundation to his baiting art, he started to think about ways to apply his talent in intent to boost a standardized bait spell.

From different artificial ether colors to different intent affinity, he started his research without setting any limits, goals, or expectations.

And now, shortly after entering site 58, he decided to start creating the framework for his future bait intent.

'Blinding, deafening, threatening.'

As his baiting art was only a nascent project, he didn't risk anything and went with sure-value concepts.

'With those 3 I don't need to worry about going haywire unless I find a groundbreaking idea that revolutionizes my baiting art, it'll also allow me to reduce my scope for the artificial ether color I want.'

His research on artificial ether colors had never stopped. When he discovered his talent in intent, he thought he would have maybe gotten a way to magically create new awesome colors, but it turned out to be a false hope.

From a pure intent he refined for 10 minutes to a sloppy hazy concept, it worked the same when it came to color creation's processes that involved intent.

A yellow created from pure blinding intent encompassing everything he thought about light was equal to a yellow he created after him looking at the sun for a microsecond, that was his conclusion and he had never been proven wrong despite wanting to be.

In the end, it had just been less prioritized than some more important project. It was something he could do while traveling and fighting after all, so why would he waste his time on it when he could do more intense, interesting, and long projects he felt like doing?

Making a pure energy sphere float in front of him, he changed its color to that of pure shining white. This base ether color was the color he had used in nearly all his bait experiments as the first step.

Using a basic blinding intent mixed with an idea of pain, the color swiftly switched to a more grey-er version, he called this color "shadowed light", and its different properties were something he had studied a long time ago.

Invoking 2 energy spheres, he made one take on the dangerous red color while the other took on the pure shining white color. Then, after infusing each with a mixed deafening and threatening intent, he mixed the two by grinding them against each other

The result was a tantalizing pink, this one he wasn't finished with studying yet.

With a shadowed light and tantalizing pink spheres, he gently mixed the two in the most simple way, no complex procedures, and just waited for the two to fuse.

They did in under 5 seconds, and the result was what he called "baiting orange", his current best color when it came to the amount of intent affinity it held: 3.

If he was to ever use this color for his clothes for any reason, he was sure to attract more attention than he ever had in his life before. Even color-blind people would feel something when looking at this color.

The careful process to end up with this color took 10 seconds in total, but now that he had it, he could just grow it again and again by feeding it more energy.

Pensively perceiving this weird orange he one day created after hundreds of similar tries, Rune thought about how keeping 3 intent affinities was a feat that others wouldn't be able to understand. He couldn't explain with words, he could only show the data.

'This color isn't an element. It even being able to have the ability to be refined by 3 different intent concepts is amazing, let's be satisfied with that.'

Nothing keeping him from beginning, he started to create an intent.

He was familiar with the process, but the objective brought him to unfamiliar ground.

The goal wasn't to hide, interfere, absorb, or anything close to those concepts he used in his cosmic mist intent, the goal was to attract attention.

Of the 3 concepts he wanted to use, he already knew the blinding concept, but in the end, he didn't know the blinding concept he wanted.

'And that's why intent tinkering is just so freaking awesome.'

He was back to zero, on a completely different intent, but with much more knowledge than when he started his first one.

Finding in himself the desire to go through with it, he infused a baiting orange energy sphere with the purest blinding concept he could come up with.

'And that's the first step, now let me deepen it until I can't anymore.'

…

Days passed as Rune tackled the first baby steps of his self-created bait intent project.

Whether the result was exceptional, average, or mediocre, it wouldn't impact him too much in the short term. It was even a fact that as the result didn't matter, he could put his all in it without worrying.

If creating a bait intent had been something he couldn't go without, he would have either resisted the pressure and succeeded, or given up and decided to change his plan.

As it turned out, he could still feel a burst of motivation at knowing what he was doing was only for himself and there was no real goal in doing it apart from… Doing it.

Once he finished translating all spontaneous insights into his bait intent, he decided to take a break to update all apps he used and see if he didn't miss something important.

And he didn't. Or at least it wasn't that important.

'AREC ranks… So I was right. Misunderstandings are really scary, no wonder it was leaked.'

[AREC Ranks: IGS Universal Reform. Inspiration: Globalized Information Board. Origin: Adventurer's Society. While awaiting confirmation from the administrative department, this ingenious ranking system was broadened to encompass all sorts of professions and is designed to create a new market where…]

Reading the latest update on the subject of the AREC ranks, he was proven right that while it was really linked to the Adventurer's Society, they weren't the only ones who would be applying it.

'But there's still no info, why is it ingenious? You tell me it's an ingenious ranking system but you don't tell me why, how do you even know it's ingenious?'

Scoffing internally at all those unproven sentences, he found no other "important" news, leading him to turn off his connected screen.

He instinctively looked at the sky while thinking about what to do next, and was reminded that even if he still had eyes to see, there was probably nothing to see.

'It's an underground region after all… Why would there be a sun or a moon? Even asking for stars is asking for too much…'

His perception limited his world to a sphere of 20 kilometers in diameter.

It was at the same time amazing and distressing. It meant he was limited to only this small area, and the only way for him to see new things was to find them by walking around.

'Though… Is there really no sun and moon? No stars? Why should I believe the IGS about them not being there?'

Doubting everything was his way of living, seeing was believing for him.

'But getting my vision back is similarly asking for too much. I can't even go for a shortcut by using a high-definition camera that translates everything to a screen I can read…'

Reaching a line of thought that didn't interest him, he put a stop to it and focused back on what he wanted to do next.

He looked at site 58 for a bit, but nothing interesting seemed to be going on.

'If I was alone, that's when I would have moved on and found some monsters to fight… But do I really do that? With all the bother of asking when Astryde will finish? I don't even know how much time has passed.'

Reflecting on what to do when he wanted to do something productive but that wasn't about intent tinkering or writing something readable, he started to sweep through the site and the discussions in search of inspiration.

'Why not those who are talking about the ancient civilization? It'll look good if I add some snippets of information not available on the net.'

"The bone region was still inhabited a thousand years ago…"

"One day all the outposts were evacuated…"

"Probably an ether current that swept through the region…"

"Theories like the last ether season having been more violent than it should have been…"

"I heard the short anomaly explanation camp is finding more purchases recently…"

"The community just settled on the most likely scenario without major proof, right? I think…"

"Can't we see how it happened by rewinding to the right time period? The answer should be literally under our eyes…"

"They observe the big apocalypse-region level waves of monsters again and again, but that's it…"

"They keep saying that time rewinding can't make miracles out of nothing, they need time to find intact time… Segments? Don't remember, to…"

Nearly a thousand people were in the site's second layer protection dome, and Rune underestimated how often they discussed things related to the ancient civilization.

The picture he had formed in his mind thanks to the information available freely on the front base network and the net found echoes in what some were saying. Some others were a bit dissonant, discussing theories that weren't proven, or casting shadows of suspicions over what was judged as proven.

'And that's how it should be… Maybe I should go at it in a more thriller-like way? I don't want to write a scientific article after all.'

Listening to all those people with their own imagination and suspicions, he started to take note of the most interesting ones.

'It's also not like I really believed the basic ether current theory either way. It's still possible, but I'll wait until they find traces of it or catch up to it before I believe in it, and considering it made a whole civilization run for their life, good luck for catching up to it.'

Not disliking what he was doing, he was surprised that he so easily found inspiration and started focusing on the task properly, organizing what he heard in different areas, and sometimes developing those ideas with his own overactive imagination.

After he ran out of people who said weird things, he decided he hadn't had enough and naturally switched to writing in a somewhat serious manner about what this day in site 58 looked like.

Tens of time watchers all undergoing deep dive, Astryde included. The training ground where people kept sparring. The absence of food and biological comfort having led to the creation of lots of table game areas for the less dedicated. What looked like a serious chess contest…

And finally, his place as a spectator.

'It just feels right. Exactly in the same way it felt right for me to take a one-year-long holiday to only watch entertainment. And in the same way, my tier 1 soul specialty described me as an observator, I'm still the same.'

Thinking about who he was, he inevitably came to think about who he wanted to be and what he wanted to do, but that's when he stopped writing.

'Stay away from trouble, keep discovering new things, find new music to listen to, be happy and content. I don't need to write this down, it would give ideas to others.'

Finishing this inspired session of writing, he felt that his intent tinkering small overload had gone away and brought up a sphere of cosmic mist.

It felt right.

…

"I didn't have a particular reason for deciding to go east, I just searched for maps and conversations talking about big wild outposts and found some mentions of 'scum lair', 'criminal hive', 'prison', or 'border city' depending on how I interpret it."

Astryde, having finished her deep dive, didn't even bother going to a gathering to share her discoveries. She just fetched Arik and joined Rune a little away from the rows of tents and people before starting to make an impromptu orientation session.

"There are different ways to see all the available information, the technology of the ancient civilization wasn't high for some reason, and getting proper universal directions was a bit hard. What I'm sure I know though, is that the major evacuation direction was more or less north, the monster wave came from straight east, and minor population groups have gone in all sorts of directions."

What she was talking about was more or less public domain, she didn't seem to own any special intels.

"All in all, I got 3 different coordinates points where there should be something interesting in the area. I think my calculations are right, and they're not only very far, they also seem to be pretty known even here and in the previous 2 outposts I rewound in. So that's where I want to go," she finished her loud monologue and remained silent, wanting to let Rune and Arik digest and think about what she wanted them to do.

"Let's go?" But Rune made it clear once again that he had no goal except moving on, so he only waited for Astryde to transmit those 3 coordinates points.

Arik also felt the same and crossed his arm to express his bewilderment while looking at Rune, "Does she think we are really seniors who can judge her expertise? Or that we have unknown information sources that even the IGS would want? She's a weird one that young'un."

"Why are you saying that so directly! Be more subtle! What if she thinks we are mocking her for her weird speech!"

"You've got to learn what life is one day. Let's just tell her she's a bit of a moron, it will not hurt her that much," Arik's serious tone really impressed Rune.

As they were up to their asocial seniors' antics, Astryde simply started to walk away in direction of nothing. She was preparing to leave.

"Look! She's upset! She's going to sulk for at least 5 minutes now!"

"She even forgot to share her coordinates, she has a lot to learn…"

"What's the difference between 3 fails and 4? She's too far gone so just cut her some slack, she'll eventually realize that life isn't about communicating but acting," Rune accidentally played with his words and got a pun out.

"Oh, yeah. Acting. I love this word, it's strangely feating for the situation."

The two then received 3 sets of coordinates and realized they were truly a bit far, as in "months of travel without interruptions" far.

But even then, the two didn't relax in their teasing.

"She really wants us two old guys to go that far! She's crazy I say!" Rune exclaimed.

"She's completely lost touch with reality… We should feed her to a passing monster to remind her we're only a bit above our minimum safety threshold," Arik let his inner malevolence out.

"Let's wait for an acid rain to do that, more trauma's source is always better for hot-blooded youth like her," Rune joined him.

As the two struggled to keep their act up, they followed behind Astryde and caught up to her before they passed through an invisible layer and site 58 disappeared from their perception.

Half a minute of running later, they passed through another invisible layer and stepped out into the wild tier 4 bone region, a place where biological matter didn't exist, a place where people at Rune's level should be careful of their every step.

They didn't take time to contemplate their existence or anything, and just started to head east, each with their own thoughts swirling in their mind.

'Is there something like a bone dragon? Are there any evolutionary benefits to having bone wings?'

Some more random than others.

'Now that I think about it, I'm completely up for some churros, why not add a festival when I'm at it! If only the teleportation network was up in tier 4 ether density!'