Kyle used a bunch of techniques from different Elements, but he always had to be careful that they didn't get into each other's way.
Because of that, there was a limit to how many techniques Kyle could use at once.
He could infuse the inside of his hammer with a technique.
He could infuse the outside.
He could use the specific part that hit the opponent.
He could infuse the surroundings of the hammer.
He could infuse the hammer's hilt.
But that was it when it came to using techniques for his hammer.
Five techniques.
All the other ones had to be used on other things.
But by fusing Elements, he could combine different techniques into one and only infuse that into one part.
'Seems like quantity will turn into quality,' Kyle thought. 'From many weak techniques, I can transition to a few powerful techniques.'
The tome naturally also talked about different levels of techniques and how there were different ways to combine elements.
The simplest way was to add the two Elements and turn two techniques into one.
That wouldn't increase the power when compared to using two individual levels, but one could use that technique on only one part of the weapon.
It essentially freed up space.
But there was a detriment.
Such a technique wasn't twice as complex but four times as complex.
Learning it and using it were much harder.
A more advanced form of combining techniques was to emulate the effects of a natural phenomenon that combined the two Elements.
The tome gave a couple of examples.
Fire and Wind Ether could be combined to form an explosion. The heat of the explosion represented the Fire Ether, while the shockwave represented the Wind Ether.
Metal and Earth Ether could be combined to form a mountain.
Wind and Water Ether created a storm. If one also added Lightning Ether, it would make a thunderstorm.
Fire and Earth Ether could be made into magma.
However, learning such a technique required even more work since it was even more complex than just adding them.
People were familiar with their Affinities, but they were not familiar with the combination of said Affinities.
Yet, there was an even more advanced form of combining Elements, but the tome stated specifically that it was something only Transcendents could hope to grasp.
That was understanding the specific Ether of a combined Element and directly creating that for the technique.
This required the understanding of at least two Fragments.
For example, to create Explosion Ether, one needed to understand the Fragment of Concentrated Heat and the Fragment of Instantaneous Wind Expansion.
If one knew those two Fragments, one could use the understanding of both of them to make a new technique.
The technique would already be quite powerful, but it would only reach perfection when the Fragment born out of the two individual Fragments was formed.
The Fragment of Explosion.
'So, at some point, techniques just represent the way the world works.'
'Well, I'm far from doing anything like that.'
'I should focus on the second level for now, emulating a natural phenomenon.'
Kyle continued reading.
Naturally, there was even more one could fine-tune.
For example, did the combined Element fit the weapon?
If one took inspiration from a mountain, one would only get limited success when trying to combine that with a sword.
Mountains were essentially the opposite of swords.
Swords were light, fast, agile, and sharp.
Mountains were heavy, unmoving, inflexible, and blunt.
If possible, one should find a different natural phenomenon between Metal and Earth Ether if one also used a sword.
Sadly, that wasn't that easy.
There were only so many natural phenomena.
The best way was to switch to a two-handed sword or to focus the technique on the shield, if one used one.
When Kyle finished reading this part, he thought about his own situation.
Fire, Wind, Metal.
A hammer.
A natural phenomenon that fit all of them.
Fire and wind could easily be combined into an explosion.
Fire and metal could be combined into molten metal.
Wind and metal?
The book didn't give an example.
'Also, molten metal doesn't even fit my hammer. Molten metal is a liquid, which I would consider soft. My hammer is hard.'
Kyle couldn't think of anything that combined all three.
'I mean, we had guns on Earth. They kinda used an explosion to propel a piece of metal forward. That could kinda work.'
'But it's literally just using the explosion to move metal. That's not a combination of all three. I'm kind of already doing that with Boost.'
'What else is there that combines all three?'
'It has to hit hard and fast.'
'It has to be explosive.'
'It has to have a lot of force.'
'It has to have all three aspects of the three Elements, and it needs to fit my hammer.'
No matter how much Kyle thought, he couldn't come up with a natural phenomenon that combined all three.
As Kyle's mind drifted, he started to think about random stuff from Earth.
"Would the sun be a combination of explosion and light?" Kyle asked.
"No," Theodor said. "The sun is just a projection that illuminates the world. There are no explosions."
Kyle blinked a couple of times.
'Oh, right. Earth's sun is different.'
'That means they don't even have space here. Like, this world is all that exists.'
'No stars. No meteo-'
Klye perked up as his eyes widened.
'Meteorites?'
'Asteroids!'
Kyle imagined a humongous ball of iron entering Earth's atmosphere.
It moved far faster than the most powerful wind and was extremely heavy.
It burned in the atmosphere with incredible heat due to the friction of the atmosphere.
And when it landed, it caused a tremendous explosion.
It had everything!
It was explosive, fast, and hard!
Even more, it was a natural phenomenon, just not from this world!
Kyle imagined his hammer overlapping with the asteroid.
It was perfect!
'I can use that concept for almost anything!'
'It has speed!'
'It has offense!'
'It has defense!'
Kyle looked at his hammer.
'Seems like I found what I am going to focus on for my future techniques.'
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