"So, I can't have more arms," Kyle said. "Only beasts can do that."
Theodor didn't dignify that with an answer. He was already tired of this topic.
Kyle sighed. "Well, alright. Guess I'm going to enter your weird cave some other time, then. Feels a bit too spicy right now."
Theodor still didn't answer.
Kyle threw one last glance at the mountain before he left.
'Gotta prepare. If I eat a bit more ore and meat, I should be able to advance in just a couple of months.'
Eventually, Kyle left Forest Haven Cradle and went back to the safe pathway.
'They probably have already passed this place,' he thought as he started running towards the south.
Sure enough, some time later, he saw the caravan and joined the others.
"You done?" Falk asked.
"Yep," Kyle said with a smile.
"What did you do?" Serene asked.
"Settled a debt," Kyle said.
"Did you kill somebody?" Michael asked.
"What? No! I owed an old friend some money, and I repaid my debts," Kyle said.
"Oh," Michael said with a bit of surprise. "People usually use that phrase when they've killed somebody."
"Huh, it does sound kind of ominous," Kyle said.
Nothing had happened while Kyle was gone, and after he came back, Lily sent out the next batch of golems to gather more combat information.
The journey back went smoothly, and some hours later, everyone left the peninsula.
"Feels good to be back home," Kyle said as he jumped down from the wagon he had been riding.
"Thank you for your work," the leader of the caravan said. "The payment has already been given to your Guild before we left."
Kyle nodded. "Thank you for choosing the Stark Brotherhood," he said with a polite smile.
Team Sandstorm returned to Starkhold and finished the mission.
Falk sold the valuables from the beasts they had killed, netting them another nine Ether Stones, which were split amongst the members.
Life returned to the usual.
Mining, refining, the occasional mission, and so on.
Like this, two more months passed.
At this moment, Kyle was sitting in his room, focusing on a translucent rune hovering over his right hand.
Ether was gathering on the rune at incredible rates.
From time to time, the rune warped.
It seemed like it was just about to collapse, but somehow, it didn't.
"Now!" Theodor shouted.
Kyle grabbed a small hammer with his left hand, moved the rune to a piece of metal in front of him, and hit it.
BANG!
The rune was pressed into a mold inside the piece of metal, which looked just like the rune.
Finally, the rune was stable.
At least, for a moment.
An instant later, it started to lose its translucent luster.
"Hurry!" Theodor shouted, but Kyle had already moved.
He quickly grabbed the piece of metal and put it on.
The piece of metal was his armored pair of pants.
Kyle focused on the rune, and his mind was doing a lot of calculations.
The rune returned to its previous luster.
Seconds passed.
Minutes passed.
Eventually, Kyle sighed and looked away.
"This is exhausting," he said.
"Stop complaining!" Theodor shouted. "You will get used to it!"
"But I constantly have to calculate stuff," Kyle complained.
"You will get used to it! Nobody in the world would complain about this!" Theodor shouted.
Kyle rolled his eyes.
"Imbecile! Focus!" Theodor shouted as the rune became weaker again.
"Oh, fuck!" Kyle said, focusing on the rune again.
The rune Kyle had created was the first Enchantment he had learned.
Wind's Speed.
It had taken a while, but Kyle had eventually learned how to cast Wind's Speed.
It hadn't been easy, and he had put in a lot of effort.
Even more, the calculations had been beyond difficult.
In fact, if he only had to rely on his math skills, he still wouldn't have succeeded.
However, through the hundreds of hours he had invested into learning this specific Enchantment, he had gotten so used to it that his brain sometimes just gave him the answer.
Usually, Enchantments were cast onto a body, and they would persist for around five minutes.
Yet, there was also a way to make them somewhat permanent.
As long as the Enchantment was channeled into a rune, it would keep its logic.
It was like a machine at that point.
Sadly, even a sophisticated machine still needed a human to operate it.
Even advanced AIs needed people who got rid of the dust on the ACs that kept their servers cool. They also needed people who exchanged physical components and rewired cables on the hardware.
So, even though the rune was doing 90% of the work calculating the Ether, the remaining 10% had to be done by hand.
Or, in this case, Kyle's head.
It wasn't hard for Kyle to do these calculations.
While learning Spellcasting, he had gone through way worse.
But it was never-ending!
He needed to do these calculations all the time.
Constantly.
Otherwise, the rune would deactivate.
Luckily, getting the correct rune onto the armor was the hardest part.
As soon as it was in the armor, it wouldn't dissipate.
It would just deactivate.
Sadly, to get it going again required the Enchantment to be recast, which cost a lot of Ether, focus, and time.
During a battle, Kyle wouldn't have that time.
So, he had to keep the rune going in case a battle suddenly occurred.
As long as the rune was active, Kyle would be under the effect of the Enchantment.
This kind of method to make enchantments kind of permanent was common knowledge, but it was rarely used.
The reason was simple.
There was almost nobody who could properly make use of this.
The minds of Knights were too weak to keep up with the complex calculations.
The minds of Fighters were strong enough, but the drain on their Ether of this Enchantment would be too much for their weak Centers.
The only ones who could properly use this method were Sorcerers, but their bodies were so weak that some more defense, speed, or power wouldn't make a difference.
In front of somebody charging at you with 500kph, it didn't matter if you ran at 30 or 60kph.
Only Warriors and Experts could use this method, and it was also one of the reasons why they were so feared.
It was not easy for someone to comprehend the skills necessary to cast these Enchantments, but when they actually learned them, they could use them.
An Early Warrior might not have the skill to keep the rune active.
But a Mid Warrior could, assuming they had learned the relevant Enchantment.
'I'm faster now. Cool!' Kyle thought as he looked at the rune in his armored pants.
'Just gotta keep this secret for now.'
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