"Did everything go as planned?" Noah asked as Kyle walked out of the Advancement Room.
"Yep," Kyle said with a smile. "I'm now an Initial Fighter."
Noah smiled and nodded. "I'm looking forward to your successful missions. You were already outstanding as an Adept. I wonder what you can achieve now."
Kyle laughed. "Trust me, I'm also looking forward to trying out my new powers."
"Kyle, come! Train!" Bonk shouted with excitement.
"Bonk," Noah said, pointing at the open door. "Close door."
"Okay," Bonk answered, going to the door and closing it carefully like it was made of brittle wood.
When Kyle saw that, he had to take a deep breath.
'Bonk is so insanely strong! It's actually crazy!' he thought.
"Kyle, could you shrink a bit?" Noah asked, looking up at Kyle. "I don't think you will fit through most of our doors like this."
"Oh, yeah, right," Kyle answered before his body shrunk.
In an instant, he returned to his normal size.
Yet, the next moment, Kyle almost fell over.
"Whoa!" he shouted, righting himself before looking backward.
'That hammer is heavy!' Kyle thought.
Just now, Kyle felt like his hammer had doubled in weight, and it had almost pulled him to the ground.
He had to use quite a bit of power to stay upright, and walking forward was not easy.
'Brah, just walking is a workout with this.'
"I noticed that you're usually wearing armor," Noah said. "Have you decided against wearing your armor, or are you just lacking the funds to purchase a new one?"
"Second one," Kyle answered. "I still want to wear armor, but I need a set that can grow with my body."
Noah just nodded without saying anything else, and the three of them walked back to the cafeteria.
Luckily, the set of clothing he had received in Theodor's Trials was designed to grow with the wearer.
Otherwise, Kyle would be naked yet again.
Shortly before they reached the cafeteria, Noah looked at Kyle with raised brows. "Are you sure everything's alright? Your Ether seems to be in disorder, and your face seems strained."
"It's just the hammer," Kyle said. "It's heavy."
Noah chuckled. "That's the burden of Fighters who choose to have a large True Body. If you want your equipment to be useful in a serious fight, it needs to have just the right weight for your True Body. Sadly, that makes it far too heavy for you in your normal body."
"Yeah, I've heard that many times," Kyle said. "Bundt complains about it all the time."
Noah politely chuckled as he opened the door to the cafeteria.
"Congratulations!" Everyone in the cafeteria shouted at the same time.
Kyle looked at everyone in surprise.
Then, an expression of betrayal appeared on his face. "Guys, I wanted to surprise you!"
The people laughed.
"Surprise? Look at your red face! Everyone can tell that you carry the burden of a true Shouter now," one of them shouted with a laugh.
With the burden of a true Shouter, the guy was referring to the fact that Kyle had to carry equipment that was far too heavy for him.
The cafeteria exploded into laughter.
"Kyle is going to be walking even slower now!"
"Hey, aren't people supposed to become faster when they advance? Why is walking so difficult for you suddenly?"
"Guys, don't be so mean to the little guy. He's already old. Grandpa needs his time when he's walking."
"Hey, are you going to buy a new set of armor? Will you still be able to move then?"
"He doesn't need to move! They will just carry him around like a big boulder and load him into a catapult to send him to the enemy."
Kyle just rolled his eyes at the jokes, and everyone broke into laughter again.
Yet, deep inside, he actually enjoyed the jokes.
He was part of a community.
These were his brothers and sisters, and Kyle knew almost every single one of them by name.
After a bit of small talk, Kyle went outside with Bonk.
He really wanted to try his power.
When they left the Guild, Kyle wanted to summon his True Body.
But then, he remembered that it was illegal.
True Bodies were not allowed in the city.
In the end, Kyle just had to walk out of the city the uncomfortable way.
However, before that happened, Bonk grew bored.
He grabbed Kyle's hand and simply jumped over the city's walls.
Kyle gritted his teeth nervously as he saw the distant ground.
'I swear, if this guy doesn't catch me!'
Luckily, Bonk easily caught Kyle and put him down gently.
It was almost like Bonk was putting a small child back to the ground.
"Attack Bonk!" Bonk shouted with excitement, standing in front of Kyle.
"Kyle Attack," Kyle said, summoning his True Body.
He grew to a size of over three meters and pulled out his hammer, which also grew quite a bit.
By now, the hammer was almost three meters long.
"Kyle attack to kill," he said. "Bonk careful."
"Bonk careful," Bonk confirmed with a smile.
Kyle narrowed his eyes.
Then, Wind Ether gathered around his body, and he charged forward.
This was one of Kyle's new techniques, Wind Dash.
It was essentially a form of Air Current that could be used with the body, increasing one's speed.
Kyle stopped in front of Bonk and redirected his speed to his hammer.
It shot forward at incredible speeds as Air Current surrounded it, the pick aimed at Bonk.
BANG!
Then, a burst of Fire Ether came out of the blunt end of the hammer, pushing it forward even more.
This technique was simply called Boost, and it worked like a jet engine to push objects forward.
Kyle also used Ether Strike to increase the power of his attack.
He shoved all of the Ether in his Center into his body to make it even stronger.
Near the end of the strike, Metal Ether gathered around the pick.
Pilebunker!
Bonk watched the hammer with interest.
Then, Bonk lifted his left hand and put it in front of the pick.
BOOOM!
The ground around them exploded, and powerful gusts of wind shook the surrounding trees.
Kyle's entire body vibrated as all his power was stopped in its tracks.
He looked at Bonk's hand.
Bonk pulled his hand back and also looked at it.
There was a white spot in the middle of his palm.
"Owie," Bonk said, rubbing his hand a bit on his clothing.
When Kyle saw that, he grew excited.
'I managed to hurt Bonk!'
'I mean, it was not a lot, but he felt it, at least!'
'Progress!'
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