Kyle and Michael entered into an agreement, and Kyle left again.
Michael would need some time to advance, and Kyle also wanted to focus on the other tome first.
The one about techniques.
Naturally, he wasn't planning on sharing this tome with anybody.
The Chief probably already knew about the contents since his father was the one who wrote it, and Kyle didn't have anyone else he wanted to share it with.
"I shouldn't use the mind-beam thing, right?" Kyle asked.
"No, read it yourself," Theodor said. "Forcefully imparting knowledge cannibalizes experience and problem-solving skills. The main reason is that this kind of knowledge acquisition is not always available."
"If you take a shortcut now, you will lack the experience of acquiring knowledge in the future. You must make your own logical conclusions and learn it yourself."
"Sure thing, Boss," Kyle said as he opened the first page.
The first page of the tome just told Kyle all of the rules of the tome, but it didn't mention the failsafe.
Kyle went to the first chapter, which was all about how Ether worked.
"Did you ever learn this?" Kyle asked.
"I did," Theodor said, "but I don't remember the contents."
"How come?" Kyle asked.
"Limited space," Theodor answered. "Don't forget that I am only an Inheritance Crystal. I am not the real Theodor. I filled this Inheritance Crystal primarily with knowledge about Golemancy since I assumed that my inheritor would make use of it."
"Huh," Kyle said, "but you have power over what kind of knowledge you store, right? Why not just delete some golem knowledge and remember this now?"
"In the past, I would have done exactly that," Theodor said, "but that's because I didn't have faith in your power."
"Right now, I know that you will learn and understand everything inside the tome. If I remember the contents as well, we will have stored the same information twice."
"Instead, it makes more sense to keep a storage of knowledge that's foreign to you."
"I am no longer your teacher. I am your companion."
Kyle blinked a couple of times.
"Wow, that almost makes me feel warm inside."
Theodor didn't answer.
'Did Theodor change this much?' Kyle thought. 'He's just an Inheritance Crystal, right? His purpose is to get me to kill the King and his lineage.'
'Theodor is a machine, right? He's like an AI.'
'What if he just says whatever I want to hear to make me more complicit?'
Kyle scratched the back of his head.
'Eh, too annoying to think about. I should read more.'
Kyle kept reading.
The more he progressed while reading, the more his progress slowed.
The beginning was still easy to understand, but the next part built upon the part before.
The introduction was just a general overview of what Ether was, but the second chapter already went into numbers and details.
From a magical concept, Ether transformed into numbers, math, and physics.
'I mean, I get it. It's like Earth physics. It's nice to learn about how different natural laws work, but as soon as you get into details, you're confronted with a shitload of boring-ass math.'
'Sadly, you need to have all of that math to actually make use of the concept and to actually accurately predict what's going to happen.'
It took Kyle almost three days to finish the basic course on Ether.
He knew way better how Ether worked now, and he knew more about how the techniques worked, but he still wouldn't be able to make one.
Luckily, the next chapter talked about techniques in general.
As Kyle read more about this chapter, his eyes widened.
"Wait, you can combine Elemental Ether?" Kyle asked.
"Of course," Theodor said.
"Then, why did I never see such a technique before? According to the tome, you could do that at any given point. Even for Adept Techniques."
"Economics," Theodor answered.
Theodor didn't need to say more since he knew that Kyle knew quite a bit about how the market worked.
Kyle thought about that for a bit.
"Ah, I see," Kyle said. "The production of such a technique requires more effort and time, while the available market for the technique is probably not even 10% as big as a technique for only one Affinity."
"People with two Affinities are already quite rare. Due to the lack of demand, the purchase price has to be increased several-fold to remain profitable, which means even fewer people will buy the technique."
"Then, you also have weapons. Not every technique is useful with every weapon. For example, if I used a sword, Fire Trail would not be very useful since it would only leave a tiny trail behind. Meanwhile, my hammer essentially creates an entire wall."
"There are probably like ten people who can create these kinds of advanced techniques, and they're not going to waste months or years on creating a technique that only five people will buy."
"Does that sound about right?" Kyle asked.
"Yes," Theodor answered.
Kyle nodded and continued reading. As Kyle read more and more, he slowly started to realize why techniques were put into different levels of power.
There were two main parts that decided the level.
The technique's complexity.
And the creator's skill.
These two things were intrinsically connected, but not in the way one would expect.
If the creator were very skilled, they could create powerful techniques that were easy to use.
It was like a bell curve.
Someone who just started making techniques would make simple ones with lackluster effects.
Someone quite experienced in the field would make complex techniques with devastating effects.
Yet, someone at the actual peak would make simple techniques with devastating effects.
Because, at that point, the creator could simplify the complexity.
That also created an interesting situation when it came to who made what techniques.
The techniques for Grandmasters were made by the most experienced people in the world. After all, the concepts inside these techniques were so insanely advanced that no Grandmaster would be able to actually use them unless they were simplified.
The techniques for Fighters were mostly made by the middle level of Technique creators. They were quite complex, but the power of these techniques was also quite high.
Lastly, ironically enough, the techniques for Adepts were also made by the most experienced creators. The reason for that was how simple the techniques for Adepts were.
The most experienced creators just cranked out one Adept technique after another until almost all combinations of simple concepts existed.
Of course, these techniques would be more expensive than techniques made by other creators, but they were also more efficient.
The important part here was the word efficiency.
Not effectivity.
The techniques had the same power, but the advanced techniques were easier to learn and needed less Ether.
After reading about that, Kyle concluded one thing.
'Becoming a technique creator has to be so fucking difficult. Imagine having to immediately compete with the best technique creators in the world.'
'You can't even hope to earn any money with entry-level techniques.'
'You can only make money as soon as you can make a bunch of Fighter techniques.'
'That's a difficult market to get into.'
After musing for a bit, Kyle continued reading.
The next chapter talked about how one could combine Elemental Ether.
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