As Kyle understood his first Law, his eyes widened.
He suddenly understood so much more!
All the insights he had gained were so disjointed, but now, they were flowing together.
He could feel how all the Fragments acted on different parts of the metal.
The composition was all about how the Metal Ether was aligned.
The Fragment of Focus was about finding ways to get past the natural resistance of Metal Ether to get closer together. It was like finding ways to get past the gravitational and electrical forces that stopped atoms on Earth from getting closer together.
The Fragment of Expansion was about using less Ether to affect a bigger area. In Earth-terms, this could be likened to expanding the atoms' sphere of influence. Of course, on Earth, this would result in a less dense material, but this was not Earth. Ether worked differently from how atoms worked.
The Fragment of Hardness was about changing the way the aligned Metal Ether acted. In Earth-terms, this would be like increasing the number of shared bonds the individual atoms had.
Everything worked on a different aspect.
And with everything added together, one could build an entirely new framework.
By creating this new framework, Kyle's power increased yet again.
"So, this is how metal works," he said as he looked at his new hammer.
He remembered how the metal of Theodor's Golems had felt, and he realized how weak and horrible it had been.
Theodor had known quite a bit about metal, but he couldn't even hope to compare to Kyle.
Not even the Chief could compare to the current Kyle when it came to understanding metal.
Only Silvester knew as much or even a bit more than Kyle.
'It's actually strange,' Kyle thought. 'Theodor was also in the Peak Third Realm. He was also one of the most powerful people in that Realm.'
'And yet, all his knowledge, power, and achievements seem so small.'
Kyle remembered how he had looked at the broken mountain that Sulfur had made by punching that one Monster.
It had been so imposing.
How could a human do that?
And yet, if Kyle wanted, he could hit that mountain with his hammer, and within just a couple of seconds, 80% of the mountain would have flown over the horizon in the form of individual stones.
As for Transcendents…
Killing one with Kyle's current power was still very unlikely.
But not impossible.
A moment later, Kyle tested his hammer a bit by swinging it from side to side.
'It's perfect!' he thought. He enlarged it several times and swung it again.
It cost a bit of Ether to expand it, but it did not become weaker.
Kyle also noticed something else.
His Ether was continually moving through his armor and his hammer.
It was like his equipment was part of his body.
'This is what Theodor told me,' Kyle thought. 'He said that Silvester can't just create the perfect Rank S Material but that he can also increase its power by an entire level, essentially making it out of Rank SS Materials, assuming they exist.'
'I can see how that would work, but I don't have enough Ether to increase my equipment by an entire level. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I do have enough Ether. It's just that my Ether isn't efficient or dense enough.'
One could liken this to trying to create a hot fire on Earth.
One could dump a truckload of wood and ignite it. With the right setup, one could make it so that the fire would reach up to a thousand degrees Celsius, but that would be about it.
It didn't matter if one increased the amount of wood by ten, a hundred, or even a thousand times.
Wood could only burn so strongly.
Yet, if one just took a bit of acetylene, one could make a fire that went over 3,000 degrees Celsius.
Did that bit of acetylene have more stored energy than thousands of tons of wood?
Obviously not.
Kyle had a lot of proverbial wood, but to get the same ability as Silvester had, he needed more powerful fuel.
For that, he needed a Core Spark, and he couldn't get that without breaking through.
'But it's still pretty fucking strong,' he thought. 'Just the base material of my hammer is already the best Rank S Material. Then, the effects of my other three Metal Fragments increase it by almost a level. In a way, it would be halfway between a Rank S Material and a theoretical Rank SS Material.'
'However, with the overall Law of Metal added, while it doesn't increase it by an entire level, it still increases it by half a level.'
'So, with everything added up, I am now fully decked out with equipment made of Rank SS Materials, relatively speaking.'
Kyle did some calculations and thought about his fight with the Second Advisor of Winterfire.
If one of her daggers hit his armor…
The armor would rapidly cool and essentially burn to Kyle's skin.
Yet, it would survive an attack with the daggers.
'After probably around ten daggers, my armor would start to collapse due to the severe cold. I would also need to use a lot of my Ether to counter the foreign Ether.'
'If she managed to hit me with about 13 daggers or so, my armor would crumble, and the 14th dagger would kill me.'
'However, she summoned and fired her daggers very rapidly. Summoning 15 daggers shouldn't be that difficult. Additionally, my heavy armor makes me slow since I am so heavy that Ignition barely makes a difference. I'm completely reliant on my green speck to move.'
'To be honest, I think she would just keep retreating with her superior speed and launch one dagger after the other at me.'
Kyle sighed.
'Yeah, I wouldn't be able to win. The only chance I would have is to get rid of my armor, charge after her with superior speed, and hit her with my new and improved hammer. Even more, that single hit has to kill her immediately, which is unlikely to happen.'
'But it's not impossible.'
Kyle scratched the side of his head.
'Fighting a Transcendent on my own is a bit too early, but I'm not far off.'
'If I get another couple of Fragments or a Law, I could probably do it.'
'Anyway, before I continue, I should check up with Sebastian.'
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