Kyle immediately started learning everything there was to know about all the Rank A Materials.
He knew that would take a long time, but oh well.
Becoming more powerful wasn't easy.
One person could only understand so many things in a limited time.
The road to power needed a lot more effort than it needed talent.
Kyle was quite talented in some things, but all of that talent would be worthless without hard and constant work.
One could be athletically gifted, but without actually doing sports, one would never be able to compete in a proper sports competition.
Kyle only had such immense power because of all his risks, investments, and work.
Without all his True Battles, his Momentum wouldn't be this powerful. One didn't need talent to seek out a dangerous fight.
Without his literal years of looking at boring rocks, he wouldn't have his Material Fragments.
Without his years of learning how to make money, he wouldn't have had the resources to support his growth.
Without his years of learning about techniques and Spells, he wouldn't have been able to create any Methods.
Without his years of refining and perfecting his Methods, they wouldn't have their current power.
Work and discipline.
Of course, luck was also a factor.
For example, the fact that he had gotten his job as Enforcer Trainee and got the Predator's Being was purely luck.
But what was the use of that without all this work?
Great, he could tell when danger was near, but that wasn't very useful to a normal human who came face to face with a lion.
They would just know that they would soon die a couple of seconds earlier than normal humans.
One also needed the power to fight back and actually make use of this advantage.
Of course, there was also Kyle's Aristocrat's Body, but if he hadn't risked his life, he wouldn't have that either.
He would just be one of the many skeletons in Theodor's Inheritance Crypt.
Did it suck that Kyle had to spend years in isolation, looking at funny metal rocks?
Yes, it sucked a lot.
It was not fun.
If his power didn't increase as a result, he would never spend his time like this.
Just like how people wouldn't do a job without payment.
Can a job be fun?
Yes.
But was it so fun that one would do it for free?
Very likely not.
As Kyle looked at the materials, time started to pass.
Understanding Rank A Materials was much harder than understanding Rank B Materials.
Shocker.
However, there was one thing that made it much easier for him to learn about these materials than for others.
He had used his brain a lot in the past ten years.
If Kyle had started comprehending his first Fragment with his current power, he would have understood it several times faster than he did back then.
Yet, comprehending the Rank B Metal Material Fragment would have taken much longer.
After all, he wouldn't have had as much practice in understanding difficult things that required the use of all of his brain.
Time passed while Kyle was busy comprehending the Rank A Materials.
After six months, the Skysand Kingdom wanted its share of Rank A Materials again, which he gave them.
Then, another year passed, and the Skysand Kingdom wanted more materials.
By now, Kyle had been in his new home for over five years.
While he was learning things here, some things in the world changed.
It had been over ten years since team Sandstorm had disbanded.
Selene was an Early Expert, and she had assumed the position of Lieutenant Colonel in the royal army.
Michael had become a famous Spell Creator. He had created a company that employed over 20 people, who were just there to deal with everything that wasn't related to Spell Creation.
Since Kyle wasn't easily reachable, Michael just put his share of the profits into the kingdom bank.
By now, that account had amassed thousands of Ether Gems.
That was a huge sum of money.
Of course, Michael's share of the profits was much greater, and he had accumulated even more wealth.
In fact, he had enough money to pay for an Aristocrat's Body's Ritual, but only for a person in the First Realm.
Sadly, Michael didn't have any children.
Lily and Falk stayed together.
After some years in the army, they decided to retire from the army and create a family.
Lily had a job in the Royal Artificer Academy that paid very well, while Falk was working as an instructor.
The two of them had two children, which might sound a bit terrifying.
Lily?
A mother?
However, she dealt with the children surprisingly well.
Although surprisingly well didn't exactly mean good.
There definitely were some issues, but they were not as bad as one would expect when knowing Lily.
Noah had also joined the army, and he worked under Selene.
The Ace Team had split up and done different things.
Bonk was in the army and was treated like a very special soldier. He didn't have any responsibilities except when one of the officers gave him a special task.
Sadly, while some of the former members of the Stark Brotherhood had good lives, others didn't.
Wyveria was dead.
She was killed by an Archer from the Winterfire Kingdom during a mission.
Captain Martin from the Alpha Team was assassinated. He had decided to join politics and wasn't careful enough.
Selene's brother, Sven, was also dead.
The assassins got him.Follow current novᴇls on N()velFire.net
As for the Chief, he was still working hard.
He had a Metal Affinity, like his father, and he was focusing on comprehending the Rank A Materials, just like Kyle.
After realizing that the other powerful guy in the kingdom wouldn't attack him, the Chief also decided to reach the Peak Third Realm.
Naturally, since Kyle had already been eating Rank A Materials for 18 months, he had also advanced.
For the first time, both of them were in the same Realm.
Both of them were in the Peak Third Realm.
Who would comprehend the Law of Metal first?
That answer came six months later.
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