Kyle focused on improving his Methods over the next several months.
Surprisingly, it took less effort to create his new Methods than to create his old ones.
The reason was actually quite obvious if one thought about it.
He knew more about how Ether worked.
There was just less guessing and experimentation.
Eventually, Kyle managed to create an entire set of new Methods, and when he was done, he just looked forward.
'Offense is good. Defense is good. Speed is good. Adaptability is good. Efficiency is good…' he thought.
'Yeah… that's it…'
Silence.
'Soooooo, I'm supposed to go kill myself again, right?' he thought as he looked forward with an uncertain expression.
Silence.
'You know, despite how unbelievable it sounds, I actually don't really want to die, you know?'
'Finding a True Battle is kind of like dying. I mean, just by definition, the chances of my death have to be relatively high for a true battle to count as a true battle.'
Silence.
'This is retarded.'
'Like ACTUALLY retarded.'
'Like, hurt-yourself-to-feel-less-pain levels of retarded.'
'What's the fucking logic in any of this? Gotta risk your life to reduce the chance of dying.'
'I hate how stupid this is.'
Kyle kept complaining about how the world worked for over an hour.
He knew fully well that he was just procrastinating.
'So what? I don't wanna do this, you know?!'
Yet, he also knew that no amount of complaining would change reality.
'But it makes me feel better,' he thought. 'I like being a whining baby sometimes. Let me whine! You're not the one who has to fight a fucking bear with nothing but a butter knife!'
'Is it possible to kill a bear with a butter knife? Sure! You just gotta ram the knife deep into its eyes and scramble the brain. Easy, right?'
'Just gotta do it. Come on, what's the bear gonna do to you? Sure, it might nibble on your arm a bit. Maybe you will bleed a bit. Come on, it's just a bit of pain.'
'Just gotta get out there and do it! You miss every shot you don't take.'
Kyle breathed more frequently despite not needing to really breathe a lot.
"Come on, Kyle! You can do it! I believe in you!" Kyle shouted at himself as he stood up.
"Come on! You are strong! You prepared for this! You gotta go!"
Kyle walked back and forth.
"Just go! Fucking do it! Just fucking do it!"
"Do it!"
Suddenly, Kyle stopped, and his expression became flat.
"Actually, who am I kidding?" he asked. "As if amping yourself up actually works. "
Kyle sighed and walked out of the room. "What's even the point? Just gotta get through it."
Despite trying his best to motivate himself, Kyle just left the room quietly while gazing forward like he had just started the 18th hour of his 24-hour shift.
"Boss, what's an appropriate opponent?" Kyle asked.
"I can not give you an accurate judgment," Theodor said.
"Okay," Kyle answered in a bored tone.
If Theodor had said something like that several years ago, Kyle would have been surprised.
Why not?
Why couldn't Theodor do that?
However, Kyle had already gotten used to Theodor not being very helpful anymore.
The more time passed, the fewer times Theodor spoke and the fewer things of value he could contribute.
Theodor had comprehended two Fragments while he had been alive.
Meanwhile, Kyle knew those two Fragments and four additional ones.
So, Theodor was no help when it came to understanding Fragments.
Theodor had had a strong Momentum, but it had only been a tiny bit stronger than Kyle's current Momentum while being an entire Realm higher.
So, he also couldn't be a help here.
Theodor had known how Spells were created.
Sadly, he didn't remember everything due to his limited memory space, and Kyle also knew how to make Spells.
Theodor never really knew how to make techniques.
Theodor wasn't better at earning money.
There was just nothing Theodor could teach Kyle.
Sure, Theodor knew a shitload about Golemancy, but what was the use of that?
Kyle had been asking Theodor fewer and fewer times since he rarely got helpful answers.
By this point, he wasn't even asking why Theodor didn't know something.
It was just something that he expected.
"Hey, Granite," Kyle said as he approached Granite in the middle of the big hall of the Inheritance Crypt.
"Lord Kyle," Granite spoke respectfully.
"Give me that map now," Kyle said. "I'm ready to go out."
"Of course," Granite said, handing a stack of papers to him.
Naturally, Granite had used the golems to scout out the gigantic web of tunnels and caves according to Kyle's orders.
He had written all his findings on a map and handed them to Kyle.
However, when Granite had originally offered the map, Kyle hadn't been ready to battle yet, and he didn't want to be distracted.
But now, Kyle was ready.
As Kyle looked at the map, his eyes widened.
"It's this big?" Theodor asked, surprising Kyle.
"Wait, you also didn't know?" Kyle asked.
"No," Theodor said. "I sent some scouts out, but I didn't care a lot. I was only interested in the Metal Elementals."
Kyle pointed at a small circle on the map. "That's where your old city is, right? The one with the big tower."
"Correct," Theodor said.
"And it's like… not even a 50th of the width of this entire map, right?" Kyle asked.
"Yes, this cave system is extensive," Theodor said.
Kyle looked at the map some more.
At some point, all the caves ended, but they "ended" due to different reasons.
"Black means there is a wall, right?" Kyle asked, pointing at a cave ending at a black streak.
"Correct," Granite said.
"And red means?" Kyle asked, pointing at a cave that suddenly ended in a sudden red streak.
"Early Monster or stronger is blocking the path," Granite said.
Kyle looked at the map as he blinked a couple of times.
'That's quite a couple of Monsters.'
"And green means?" Kyle asked.
"It goes up a layer," Granite said.
Kyle grabbed another paper from the stack and looked at it.
"Orange means it goes down a layer?" Kyle asked.
"Correct," Granite said.
Kyle looked through the papers some more.
The lower the floors got, the fewer the caves became.
However, that wasn't because there were no caves.
It was just that red and silver streaks put an abrupt end to the caves.
"Is silver what I think it is?" Kyle asked.
"Metal Elementals, Lord Kyle," Granite said.
Kyle took a deep breath.
"How many are on this map?" Kyle asked.
"74," Granite said.
Kyle took another deep breath.
'Well…'
'I am supposed to risk my life, right?'
"Can you point me to a Mid Metal Elemental?"
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