Kyle remained silent as he walked through the city.
He was annoyed by Theodor's tantrum but didn't want to enter an annoying conflict with him, which was why he kept his thoughts to himself.
When Kyle had been younger, Theodor had seemed like a crazy and powerful antagonist.
Someone who had been wronged by someone else and vowed to exact vengeance.
Maybe some dramatic and evil laughter here and there, and the picture would be complete.
But now that Kyle was slowly approaching Theodor's power and saw the world for what it was, his image of Theodor changed.
He was just a toddler.
He demanded stuff that wasn't his, fully believing that he deserved it, and when he didn't get it, he threw a tantrum.
'Yeah, well, it doesn't actually matter. So what if he's a baby? He still gave me an Aristocrat's Body and taught me a lot about power,' Kyle thought.
'Yes, yes, he's a fucking toddler, but I still owe him.'
'Just gotta repay my debt, get rid of this dumb rock in my brain, and be done with it.'
Kyle walked through the city.
On his way, he didn't see any living being.
Naturally, since the trials didn't need to remain active anymore, the golems didn't need to stay clear of this area.
The golems regularly traversed the known tunnels to clear them of all the different pests that may appear.
In a way, without all the Ore Fiends and the weird wolf things, the city seemed kind of dead and lonely.
It had a certain finality to it.
However, Kyle barely paid attention to any of that and just flew onto one of the higher tunnels near the back of the city.
This city acted as the hub for most of the tunnel network. Over 20 tunnels led from this city, and all of them led somewhere else.
The tunnel Kyle had chosen was one of the less scouted ones.
Due to the close proximity of a Metal Elemental, almost no golems were sent to this place.
An interesting bit of information Kyle had received from Granite was that they had lost about half of all their golems within the last years due to all of the scouting.
Without Theodor, there was no easy way to create new golems.
There were plenty of machines that could create the bodies and even the Cores of the golems in the Inheritance Crypt, but the Cores couldn't be properly activated without an Artificer.
Just by learning a bit about Golemancy, Kyle could fill that role, but he didn't really care.
What was the point of golems when Kyle had all the power he needed himself? Kyle walked through a couple of caves and saw some Ferocious Beasts here and there.
One time, he saw a Peak Ferocious Beast that had lain in wait for who knew how long.
Ferocious Beasts and Monsters didn't really need meat to survive. If necessary, they could wait for the remainder of their natural lives for food to arrive.
But wait! Why did the Beast Tamers and Beast Masters need food for their beasts then?
Well, just because they didn't need meat didn't mean that they didn't want meat.
In a way, it could be seen as an addiction.
Beasts were programmed to consume powerful prey. It was in their instinct.
It was already difficult enough for humans to stop taking addictive substances. How hard would it be for a beast?
Beasts from Beast Masters needed meat occasionally, or they would become nervous and unstable.
They would become more aggressive and harder to control.
Nevertheless, there were some beasts that could deal with not having food for years.
One of these beasts was the Peak Ferocious Beast Kyle came across on his journey.
When it saw Kyle, it immediately became greedy and readied itself for combat.
Yet, as soon as Kyle looked at it, it immediately fled.
Kyle hadn't actively used his Momentum, but some of his Momentum still spilled out.
And this little bit of Momentum triggered the beast's sense of danger.
Its instincts told it that attacking Kyle would result in its death.
The same thing happened when Kyle met an Initial Monster a couple of caves further along the road.
And then…
There were no more beasts.
There was also no more ore here.
Kyle knew that he had entered the territory of a Metal Elemental.
Naturally, Kyle became nervous.
Metal Elementals were terrifying.
In general, they were more terrifying than Monsters of the same Realm.
Their bodies were tough.
They were fast.
They had incredible offensive capabilities.
The strongest Mid Metal Elemental could probably fight the weakest Late Monster.
Kyle's instincts were warning him of incredible danger.
After all, his mind had learned to associate the signs of the presence of Metal Elementals with mortal danger.
In a way, this wasn't any different this time.
They still represented mortal danger.
But this time, he was here to fight one.
Kyle gripped his hammer more tightly as his eyes narrowed.
All his thoughts about not wanting to fight a Metal Elemental left his mind.
He no longer complained.
He no longer lamented. He no longer regretted.
He couldn't.
He didn't have the luxury anymore.
All of these things needed brain power, and Kyle needed all the brain power for the upcoming fight.
A bad mood or a distraction could spell his doom, and he couldn't allow that to happen.
Kyle thought back to the map.
'The cave in which the Metal Elemental resides is not that big. At its widest, it has a diameter of 50 meters.'
50 meters was quite a big distance for mortals, but for beings on Kyle's level, this was not a lot of space.
Kyle could accelerate to speeds of over 300 meters per second within a fraction of a second.
From a standstill, Kyle could reach the other end of the cave within barely 0.2 seconds, and that included the time he needed to accelerate.
This was not going to be a varied and tactical battle.
This was going to be a close-combat brawl.
As Kyle approached the cave, he readied all of his new Methods.
He could feel the Metal Elemental…
And the Metal Elemental could feel him.
There was no curiosity or thought.
The Metal Elemental just saw food.
And it immediately charged forward.
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