Kyle looked at the bubbling pot in front of him.
Naturally, this pot was filled with copper, and it was already quite hot.
The fact that it was boiling meant that it was already close to becoming a gas.
'This fucker is bright,' Kyle thought as he looked at the bright, bubbling liquid.
At this moment, a complex rune was on the ground below the pot, and a similar rune was on the pot's bottom.
Surprisingly, there was no flame.
In order to create these insane temperatures, Kyle needed to learn a new Spell.
Luckily, the Spell had been quite simple.
It just acted like an induction stove.
"That's hot enough," Theodor said.
Kyle's heart rate shot through the roof when he heard Theodor's voice.
"Put your hand in."
Kyle took a deep breath.
Everything inside of him told him not to do this.
This was a dumb idea!
Kyle closed his eyes.
Then, he rammed his hand into the stove.
His eyes immediately shot open as an unending assault of heat went into his hand.
Yet, Kyle just gritted his teeth and kept his hand inside.
"Move it around! Remember how it feels!" Theodor shouted.
Kyle did just that.
Moving it around hurt so much more.
"Deactivate the Spell," Theodor said.
Kyle did just that.
Deactivating such a Spell was easy. He just needed to stop doing the calculations.
"Keep it inside," Theodor said.
Kyle felt like his hand was inside a gigantic furnace, but he forced himself through.
'Just dissociate!' he kept shouting at himself in his mind. 'Pain is just a feeling. So what if it hurts? It's just a feeling!'
'It's background noise!'
'Just ignore it!'
Of course, doing that was harder than saying it.
It was like all of Kyle's senses were being pulled to his hand.
It was like a blinding spot in a world of darkness.
It just couldn't be ignored.
After some minutes, the pain lessened.
Some more minutes passed, and Kyle almost felt like his hand was normal.
By now, his hand was no longer an impossibly bright spot in the darkness.
It was almost like it was just gone.
'Did it burn off?' Kyle thought.
'Wait, no. If it burned off, my body would grow a new hand, which means my new parts would enter the hot copper again. That means I would still be in pain.'
'But somehow, I'm not in pain anymore.'
"Boss, what's going on?" Kyle asked with furrowed brows. "My hand doesn't hurt anymore."
"That's a good sign," Theodor said. "We need to test something. Pull your hand out. "
Kyle pulled his hand out of the incredibly hot liquid.
Naturally, so much heat wouldn't dissipate within just a couple of minutes.
As he looked at his hand, he saw a thin sheet of copper covering it.
"Scrape it off," Theodor said.
Kyle removed the dried copper from his hand.
After he was done, his hand looked very normal.
"Put it into the pot again," Theodor said.
Kyle did just that.
Immediately, he was assaulted by unending heat again.
But this time, the feeling almost immediately vanished.
The incredible pain only existed for less than a second.
With raised brows, Kyle pulled some liquid copper out and moved it around in his hands.
Some droplets fell onto the ground and started to blacken the stony floor beneath them.
Yet, the copper on Kyle's hands didn't damage him in any way.
"Eh, what?" Kyle asked in confusion.
"You comprehended copper," Theodor said. "At least, your body did."
"Everything is made of Ether, including copper. You have Ether of your own, and your Ether can manipulate other Ether. You just need to know how to do that."
"Your body knows how copper Ether works, and it created a protection mechanism. You are subconsciously affecting the copper around your body and changing it."
"You now have to learn what your body has learned. Put your hand back into the pot."
Kyle followed Theodor's instructions and put his hand back.
He felt intense pain for just some milliseconds before it vanished again.
"Feel the Ether on your arm. Try to understand what it is doing," Theodor said.
Kyle closed his eyes.
After some seconds, he noticed that the Ether on his hand was moving a bit differently when compared to the Ether on his other hand.
A moment later, Kyle stopped the flow of Ether.
"Ah, fuck!" he shouted as he gritted his teeth.
Naturally, all the pain had returned.
Kyle tried to restart the process, but…
'How?!' he thought. 'How does it work? How am I supposed to restart that?!'
Kyle pulled his focus away from his hand and tried to deal with the pain.
After some seconds, the pain lessened again.
His defenses against hot copper were returning.
Kyle focused on his hand-
"Fuck!" Kyle shouted as the pain intensified again.
Paying attention to the subconscious process halted the subconscious process.
It was like breathing.
It happened automatically, but if one paid attention to it, it would stop and require manual effort.
It was almost like it was waiting for orders. It was like an employee who was moving boxes, and as soon as the boss looked at them, the employee stopped working just to look at the boss.
Kyle needed several minutes to learn how to activate and deactivate the subconscious process of defending against hot copper.
By now, he could also do it manually, in case it no longer worked automatically.
"Good," Theodor said when he noticed Kyle's progress. "You have now learned how to interact with copper's Ether."
"Now comes the interesting part."
"Interesting?" Kyle asked nervously.
"Take some of the remaining solid copper."
Kyle did just that.
"Try to establish a connection."
Kyle looked at the copper and moved his Ether in different ways.
Some time later, Kyle felt like he could feel the copper.
'What the fuck? That's so weird!' Kyle thought.
He could feel his own fingers touching the copper.
It was like the copper was part of its body, and it was telling Kyle that some fingers were touching it.
That was when Kyle noticed something.
The copper had changed shape to better fit into his hands.
He blinked a couple of times.
'Wait, can I?'
BANG!
In an instant, the copper turned into a long, thin needle.
Kyle just looked with shock at it.
He told it to change…
And it changed.
"You have learned about copper," Theodor said. "The first material is done."
"Try iron next."
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