Naturally, Kyle was annoyed with Theodor calling him a tool, but he had gotten used to it.
They had had a couple of these conversations, and Kyle hadn't been able to change Theodor's mind.
Sadly, they were stuck together, and Kyle just had to swallow his annoyance with Theodor.
'He's like an old racist grandpa, except that he's not my grandpa but just some random grandpa living in the house next to me.'
'At least he's honest, I guess. Lying to me and telling me he is my friend would make controlling me much easier.'
Kyle put the Core Tome and the Spirit Tome into a bag inside his room.
The bag already had another book inside, which was the Physical Tome.
'I'm only missing the Mental Tome. Theoretically, if I work a bit, I could afford to buy it in a couple of days, but I feel like it's still too early.'
"When should I advance?" Kyle asked.
Kyle was already at his limit when it came to gathering Ether.
He had eaten many beasts, and his body was ready to advance as long as he willed it.
"Not yet," Theodor answered. "Momentum is important. The weaker you are, the more chances you have to build your Momentum."
"Fighting people and beasts stronger than you and losing will not damage your Momentum by a lot since it is expected to lose. However, if you win, you will receive a big boost with your Momentum."
"Keep working on your power."
Kyle furrowed his brows.
"When am I strong enough? Can you give me an actual goal?" he asked.
"That Shouter you are fighting with regularly."
"Bundt?" Kyle asked.
"Correct," Theodor said. "When you can fight him evenly, you can advance."
Kyle's eyes widened. "But he's an Early Fighter!"
"And you have an Aristocrat's Body," Theodor answered. "Your base power is already 1.5 Stages higher than the base power of someone a Stage above you. Fighting evenly with that Shouter means you are above-average in skill."
"Do you believe the Fighters you are fighting with have an advantage?"
"No! They have a disadvantage!"
"You are stronger than them on a base level. You are not the one jumping Stages! They are!"
"You are only at the Peak First Realm on paper. In truth, you are between the Initial Second and Early Second Realm!"
"Amongst all Initial Fighters in the Guild, you are still quite a bit below average! You are in the bottom ten to twenty percent!"
Kyle took a deep breath.
"Fine," he said before leaving his room.
'Well, nothing has changed. Still gotta work on my power.'
He wanted to continue training, but there was no good opportunity available.
Gill's course had just ended, and Bonk was dealing with the Cult of Final Fate.
Additionally, Kyle wanted to know how the mission with the Cult of Final Fate went.
If the Ace Team failed, no amount of planning would help.
Kyle would explode together with Starkhold tomorrow.
Naturally, that put quite a lot of pressure on Kyle's mind, and he just walked out of the Guild and looked to the north.
The Cult of Final Fate was a couple of kilometers north of here.
Kyle sat down halfway up one of the mountains and looked over the endless forest.
The dying area was just over the horizon, and Kyle just looked in that direction.
He waited for the Ace Team to run out of the forest.
Several minutes passed.
Then, Kyle saw some trees falling over near the horizon.
'The battle has started.'
"Are you nervous?"
Kyle's head shot to his right as he was startled by the sudden sentence.
Without him noticing, the Chief had arrived beside him.
"Why are you here?" Kyle asked.
"I told you, if the Ace Team fails, I will deal with it. I can't see the battlefield from my office," the Chief answered with annoyance.
'He sounds annoyed, but I wonder if he actually is annoyed. Is this asshole behavior part of his disguise?' Kyle thought.
'Well, this guy is not normal. Acting normal with him will just lead to bad results.'
"You sound annoyed," Kyle commented.
"Part of the disguise," the Chief answered with a snort.
"Ah, ok," Kyle commented, looking to the north again.
Some seconds passed.
"The ritual has been interrupted," the Chief said.
"You can see what's going on from here?" Kyle asked. "How? Pretty sure you can't see past the horizon."
"Ether," the Chief answered. "I can sense the movements of the Ether. The Ether that I feel tells me everything I need to know."
"Can everyone in the Third Realm do that?" Kyle asked.
"You need an enhanced Soul to feel the subtle movement of Ether from such a distance, and you need an enhanced mind to interpret the feelings. Only a Master Artificer can see with the same clarity as me. Everyone else just feels faint sensations."
"How clear is the image to you?" Kyle asked.
"Very clear," the Chief answered with fake annoyance. "It's like I'm in the middle of the battlefield myself. I can see the movements of every member of the battle clearly."
"That's crazy," Kyle said. "How are they doing?"
"As expected," the Chief commented. "The members of the Cult are holding themselves better than expected, which will make things more difficult for the Ace Team, but they have the power to deal with that."
"In what way?" Kyle asked. "What's happening?"
"You don't need me to tell you. This should be visible even to you," the Chief answered.
Kyle looked towards the north again.
Two seconds passed.
Then, Kyle's eyes widened as a white pillar appeared on the horizon.
The pillar was massive!
It was most likely 200 meters high!
The next moment, over 20 arms with terrifying claws at their ends came out of the pillar and hit the ground.
Five dragon-shaped heads also came out of the pillar, and white mist gathered in their mouths.
Then, Kyle saw an icy beam coming out of the heads as they moved around chaotically.
As one of the beams washed over the forest, Kyle saw a 20-meter-wide and kilometer-long line of trees turning to ice.
"The Cult bought enough time for their Demon Master to summon a Greater Ice Demon," the Chief said.
"It's an Early Greater Demon."
Kyle gulped.
"That's the Early Third Realm, right?" he asked.
"Correct," the Chief answered.
"But Bonk is the only one in the Third Realm, and he is in the Initial Third Realm, right?" Kyle asked.
"Also correct."
Kyle looked nervously at the horizon.
Could the Ace Team really handle that?
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