Kyle left his home gym, walked through a couple of corridors, and walked through a door.
As soon as he entered, he saw several doors with signs that showed if the room was available or not.
'Being a member of the Array of Stars is awesome!' Kyle thought as he entered one of the open rooms.
As he entered the room, he found himself in a big hall covered in Formation Arrays.
His perception stretched to the central Formation Array and commanded it to activate.
BOOOM!
Immediately, a humongous storm appeared in the room, and Kyle was slapped against the wall.
Kyle deactivated the Formation Array immediately and took a deep breath.
'A bit too much,' he thought as he changed the setting.
When he reactivated it again, a weaker storm appeared, but it was still enough to push him back.
Then, he activated another Formation Array, which locked him in space.
The powerful wind kept hitting him, but the Formation Array kept him in place.
Since he didn't have to focus on staying stable anymore, Kyle could focus on perceiving the wind around him.
He very quickly gained several insights since he had moved at similar speeds before.
After a while, he changed the settings again.
The wind became weaker, but it became denser.
The way the Energy moved had changed again.
Yang-Wind was one thing. Yin-Wind was another thing.
They were both called wind, but they were still very different.
Meanwhile, Minor Wind was a gradient between the two.
The speed of the wind increased as the density of the wind decreased.
In order to comprehend Minor Wind, Kyle had to understand every part of the gradient.
After just a couple of days, Kyle comprehended the first couple of Fragments of Minor Wind's Movement, but that was because they were just a tiny bit more complex than the Fragments of Yang-Wind's Movement.
Understanding these Fragments wouldn't even improve Kyle's speed.
However, it was important to understand them to understand the stronger Fragments.
A couple of months into his session, Kyle was called to another Planet.
Standard. Nothing strange.
Of course, as soon as he returned, Kyle went back to his wind tunnel and continued.
Around ten years into his session, he got a message on his Communicator.
"The challenge has been issued. In around 400 years, we will accept the challenge, assuming it's still active by that point."
It still wasn't certain if the enemy combatant had actually once been a Legendary Transcendent. "Sounds good," Kyle managed to write back while being inside a brutal storm.
More time passed, and Kyle received another alert.
Once more, the Planet was pretty standard.
This time, they focused on killing beasts again.
Surprisingly, Kyle saw a Crusher Beast on that Planet, but he decided against attacking it.
Fighting this thing would count as a True Battle, although a small one.
Usually, Kyle would be interested in fighting a bunch of them, but he had a difficult fight on the horizon.
The team avoided the Crusher Beast until they left the Planet's atmosphere.
"Good work," Swamp Dragon said.
"More Contribution Points for us!" Manny said with a smile.
"Yeah, hey," Kyle said, "I have to talk about something."
The other two looked at him.
"There's a big change in my schedule," he said. "I'm focusing on unlocking my eleventh Cluster, and after that, I will get a new task."
"I think I have to leave the team."
The other two looked at Kyle in surprise.
When Kyle saw Swamp Dragon, he felt a bit guilty.
He felt a bit like he was abandoning Swamp Dragon.
"Is that by your choice?" Swamp Dragon asked.
"Yeah, sorry," Kyle answered.
"Why did you apologize?" Swamp Dragon asked with raised brows.
"I mean, I'm abandoning the team," Kyle said awkwardly.
"Meteor Hammer, we are Seekers," Swamp Dragon said. "Our goal is to become more powerful. Stopping you from leaving would mean I would stop you from walking your path."
"Don't misunderstand me when I say this, but if I get an opportunity to become more powerful without breaking my moral code, I would also take it. Yes, we are a team, but we are also individuals."
"We are not Seekers to work in a team. We are in a team because we want to become stronger Seekers, and this is currently the best way."
"Also, who's to say that we won't be a team again?" Swamp Dragon asked.
Kyle listened to Swamp Dragon and realized that he had overthought things.
Of course Swamp Dragon would be happy for him.
However, that last sentence…
"Well, my new task also comes with a promotion, you know?" Kyle asked.
"You're an Inner Disciple?" Manny asked from the side with shock.
"Yeah, but please, keep it a secret," Kyle said.
Swamp Dragon looked with interest at Kyle.
Then, he typed something into his Communicator, and a window popped up on Kyle's Communicator.
It was Swamp Dragon's profile.
"Wait, what?" Kyle asked in surprise. "You're also an Inner Disciple? "
Swamp Dragon nodded.
"How did you do that?" Kyle asked.
"I've killed many members of the Cult," Swamp Dragon answered. "Compared to our alerts as Rarity Hunters, there are many more available missions to hunt Cult members."
"I've done quite a few."
Kyle just kept looking at Swamp Dragon in surprise.
Was it that easy to become an Inner Disciple?
Swamp Dragon could guess what Kyle was thinking about, and one of his brows rose.
"Meteor Hammer," he slowly said, "when was the last time you saw me activate my Momentum?"
"Eh, a while ago?" Kyle answered, uncertain.
The next moment, the world around Kyle turned colorless, and he felt like he couldn't breathe anymore.
Swamp Dragon felt so unimaginably powerful!
Kyle felt like he would be helpless against him!
However, this was just a false image created by a difference in Momentum.
Both Swamp Dragon and Kyle knew that he would easily win against Swamp Dragon in a battle. It wouldn't even count as a True Battle.
As Kyle felt Swamp Dragon's Momentum, he was sure of one thing.
Swamp Dragon's Momentum was already powerful enough to become a 12/13 Primal!
While Swamp Dragon wasn't very talented with his body, he essentially already had all the prerequisites of becoming a 12/13 Primal.
The biggest hurdle for him would be the 500 years of pain, but someone like Swamp Dragon could probably also get through that.
It would just take longer.
Right now, Swamp Dragon was working on his eighth Cluster. Within 300 years or so, he would also unlock his ninth and tenth Clusters.
At most, he would need around 1,000 years to become a 12/13 Primal, which would leave him with about 300 years or so to comprehend other things before becoming a Crusher.
"Your Momentum wasn't this strong during our mission on the first Planet," Kyle commented.
"It wasn't," Swamp Dragon said. "I started going on many more missions after I thought you were dead."
"I've been through my fair share of True Battles since then."
Kyle was still quite surprised.
'I underestimated him,' Kyle thought. 'He's also a member of the Array of Stars. By the look of things, he went through a lot more True Battles than me.'
Eventually, Kyle smiled. "Then, we might become a team again in the future."
Swamp Dragon nodded.
"Hey, don't forget about me!" Manny shouted.
"Are you also an Inner Disciple?" Kyle asked.
"No, but when I become a Crusher, I will be," Manny said with a smirk. "After all, I'm an Exchange Seeker, and that job comes with a promotion when I advance!"
'Huh. I thought I shot past them, but it turns out, they are hot on my heels. In fact, Swamp Dragon even overtook me in one aspect.'
'But that's a good thing.'
'Seems like my worries were unfounded.'
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