Kyle was no longer slow.
His hammer also definitely wasn't slow anymore.
His hammer swung as fast and precisely as a rapier.
Its speed was increased by so many things that it no longer acted like a huge hammer.
It was just a blur of pure destruction.
The speed and destructive potential of every single swing were on the level of a tank shell.
Every single swing of his was like a tank firing its primary cannon.
Yet, compared to a tank…
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Kyle swung three times in rapid succession, destroying all the remaining Ore Fiends.
Compared to a tank, Kyle didn't need a lot of time to reload.
He could unleash two swings in one second.
All the pebbles of the Ore Fiends tumbled into the water.
'They're made of Azurite,' Kyle thought as he looked at the pebbles. 'That's a Rank C Material, and there's quite a bit of it here.'
Kyle did a rough count of the ore.
'Around ten Ether Stones,' he thought.
He watched the pebbles in the water for a while.
'This still feels dangerous,' he thought. 'My instincts are still not happy with this room.'
'Something's in the water,' he thought as he looked at the tranquil lake.
Almost nothing inside it moved.
It looked completely safe.
'Nothing's happening to the ore,' Kyle thought. 'If I didn't have my instincts, I would think this lake is safe.'
'But I'm sure that something's in there.'
Kyle thought for a while.
Then, he frowned.
'What have I become?' he thought as he came up with an idea. 'What happened to turn me into this?'
Nevertheless, Kyle put his left hand onto the ground and lifted his hammer with his right hand.
CRACK!
The hammer's pick hit Kyle's small finger on his left hand and broke it off.
Kyle grimaced.
Next, he stood up and threw the finger into the water.
For just a moment, the finger swum in the water.
Then, Kyle saw something approaching the finger from one of the ends of the lake with incredible speed.
The end was a good 30 meters away, but the attacker would reach the finger in less than a second.
Kyle swung his hammer, targeting the other side of his finger.
The attacker reached the finger.
The hammer reached the finger.
BOOOOOOM!
The fast attacker collided with the flat side of the hammer, and the entire cave shook.
A humongous explosion of water doused the entire room.
Kyle's hammer was violently pushed back, forcing him several meters back.
Whatever had hit his hammer had an insane amount of force behind it.
Yet, despite all of this, Kyle never lost sight of his target.
His target was also stopped by the violent strike of the hammer, and the force was redirected towards the ceiling.
The attacker flew out of the water.
It was a three-meter-long fish.
Hard stone-like material was scattered around its flying body, and Kyle could see the stump of a broken horn on the fish's head.
Naturally, the horn had been decimated by the hammer.
While the fish flopped out of the water, it didn't move.
Such a powerful strike must have stunned its consciousness.
Kyle quickly recovered and attacked the fish.
BANG!
The hammer's pick rammed into the fish's neck and pulled it along.
Then, Kyle moved his hammer and buried it into the ground behind him.
BOOOOM!
The fish's head popped off, and the two parts of its corpse shot in different directions.
Kyle quickly grabbed the two parts and looked at them.
The fish almost had the form of a torpedo.
It was quite clear how it hunted.
'It waits at one end of a long and straight body of water. When it senses some strong biological Ether, it shoots forward with all of its power and spears through the target.'
'It's like a sentient harpoon.'
'If you don't know that it's already there, you would get hit by surprise since it's so fucking fast that you wouldn't even know what to do. At best, you could create some kind of half-assed defense, but that won't be enough against such a powerful attack.'
"Boss, do you know this kind of beast?" Kyle asked.
The room was safe now, which was why he was willing to talk.
"Arrowana with two r," Theodor said.
'That's quite a smart pun, actually. It's like an arrow,' Kyle thought.
"They live in the big underground lake here. Sometimes, some of them travel to different places," Theodor said.
"This doesn't look like a big lake," Kyle said, looking at the small body of water.
"That's not the lake I was referring to," Theodor said with annoyance. "There's a much, much bigger one somewhere else. This is just one of its tendrils."
"Should be on the same elevation, right?" Kyle asked.
"No, it's much deeper," Theodor said.
Kyle raised an eyebrow as he looked at the small lake.
No current.
"Wait, how?" Kyle asked. "Shouldn't this small part be level with the bigger lake if it's just a tendril?"
"Individual basins at different elevations," Theodor said.
The image of Japanese rice fields jumped into Kyle's mind.
'Huh, if a fish could jump over the different elevations, they might be able to climb all the way to the top of the rice fields.'
"How many Arrowanas are there?" Kyle asked.
"Many," Theodor said. "Don't touch the actual lake. Touching it is not dangerous but suicidal."
Kyle nodded.
'Sounds like I should not touch the lake.'
After talking with Theodor a bit, Kyle ate the Arrowana.
He was not ready to reach the next level yet, but he was approaching the threshold.
This Arrowana had been a Late Ferocious Beast, and it was not very big, which meant all its Ether was condensed in its small body.
After eating the entire Arrowana, Kyle felt filled with energy.
'That was more Ether than I expected,' he thought. 'Just one more beast, and I should be able to break through.'
Naturally, Kyle wanted to reach the next level.
However…
'But should I?'
'I mean, I'm here to literally put my life on the line.'
'Is becoming stronger actually the right way to become stronger?'
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