'I'm strong now,' Kyle thought. 'While this chameleon was not a powerful Peak Ferocious Beast, I still managed to jump a couple of levels.'
Kyle remembered the time he had traveled through the peninsula.
Back then, as a Peak Adept, he managed to kill the occasional Initial Ferocious Beast.
That was a jump of one level.
There was also one time in which he had managed to kill an Initial Ferocious Beast as a Late Adept, which was a jump of two levels.
Yet, the enemy had been perfectly countered by Kyle back then. It had been heavily armored and slow, which was exactly what Kyle liked to fight.
This time, he had jumped three levels.
'Although I also didn't do it on my own. Without Arrowanas, this fight would have become much uglier.'
'Would I have lost without them?'
'Not sure. It's possible, but it's also possible that I would have won.'
Eventually, Kyle jumped off the wall and landed on the lake.
Almost immediately, his instincts told him that he was about to be attacked.
'Now that the chameleon is gone, the Arrowanas are more aggressive,' he thought as he jumped forward.
A couple of Arrowanas shot out of the lake, trying to skewer him.
Yet, Kyle just jumped diagonally forward in a zigzagging pattern.
Within just a couple of seconds, Kyle reached the shore and looked back.
He saw a couple of Arrowanas falling back into the lake.
During this entire time, Kyle hadn't been worried or nervous.
It was like everything was within his control.
Such simple and straightforward attacks wouldn't be able to hit him.
Kyle looked at the underground lake for a bit longer before searching for a way out.
After a bit of searching, he saw another tunnel quite high up on one of the walls.
He went over and proceeded to walk through the next tunnel.
In a way, Kyle had no idea where he was going.
This was a maze of different rooms, and he didn't know what he was actually walking towards.
By the looks of things, this cave network had existed for thousands of years, way before Theodor had moved his city here.
After a while of walking, Kyle reached the next room, and his instincts were already shouting at him again.
This time, he found three tall behemoths.
He decided to call them as such since they looked just like the Ore Fiends Kyle had found in the city.
However, these behemoths looked way bigger and harder.
The smallest of them was already ten meters high.
Luckily, they were in quite a big room.
Otherwise, getting through them would be troublesome.
Naturally, these were also Ore Fiends, and they were in the Late Second Realm.
"Are they made of Ancestral Stone?" Kyle asked, watching as the behemoths slowly turned to him. He remembered that Theodor had constantly talked about Ancestral Stone after they had fused for the first time.
"Yes," Theodor answered. "There is a big vein of Ancestral Stone near my old city. From time to time, it produces Ore Fiends. If left unchecked, they can grow to the Peak of the Second Realm."
"What about the ones we saw inside the city?" Kyle asked.
"I don't remember," Theodor said. "I haven't fixed my lacking memory at that point. You have to ask Sulfur."
The behemoths started approaching Kyle slowly.
Kyle spun his hammer once to get ready for battle.
Then, he stepped forward.
He approached the first behemoth, which just looked at Kyle.
"How much is Ancestral Stone worth?" Kyle asked.
"It's a Rank B Material," Theodor answered.
Kyle watched as the first behemoth slowly extended its gigantic hand to him.
In a fluid motion, Kyle spun once, Elemental Ether gathering all around him.
BOOOOM!
He hit the gigantic hand full force.
The formation array on his hammer shook the entire arm into pieces.
One had to remember that Kyle wasn't just swinging a weapon.
He was swinging a mining weapon.
And these behemoths were made of ore.
As soon as the arm of the behemoth broke into pieces, the entire atmosphere changed.
The behemoths had just been curious before, but now, they wanted to kill Kyle.
"Didn't want to fight, huh?" Kyle uttered as he saw the behemoths readying themselves for an assault.
"Then, you shouldn't have been made of money!"
The behemoths immediately started to jump upwards, just like the ones in the city.
It wasn't difficult for Kyle to see their trajectories.
He easily avoided two of the jumping behemoths and waited for the injured behemoth to launch its attack.
A moment later, it did just that.
Once more, Kyle spun with his hammer.
BOOOOOM!
The hammer hit the jumping behemoth.
The ground around Kyle exploded, shooting broken stones against the walls.
Kyle's entire body bulged, and his eyes became bloodshot due to the brutal strain.
BANG!
The behemoth was launched to the side, broken pieces of ore falling from its body.
Kyle exploded after the behemoth, jumped, spun once, and rammed the pick of his hammer into the behemoth's chest. He still remembered where these specific Ore Fiends had their core.
The pick pierced into the core, and Kyle infused it with Fire Ether, interrupting the core's functions.
An instant later, the Ore Fiend collapsed into a bunch of lifeless ore.
BANG!
Kyle jumped to the side to avoid the next Ore Fiend.
After three more attacks from them, Kyle jumped towards the second Ore Fiend.
It moved its hands to grab him, but Kyle just used Fire Cloak to hide his actual location.
He reached the behemoth's chest and rammed his pick right into its chest, infusing it with more Fire Ether.
This Ore Fiend also collapsed into a pile of ore.
Killing the final Ore Fiend wasn't difficult, and just two seconds later, it also collapsed into a pile of ore.
Kyle put his hammer over his shoulder as he looked at the pile of ore.
The wealth in front of him amounted to over five Ether Gems.
This was a big harvest.
During this entire fight, Kyle had been in full control.
He hadn't even been nervous, despite fighting three Ore Fiends that were two levels higher than him.
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