Slowly, the Energy Kyle needed increased again before it hit a plateau once more.
By now, the Space Comprehension Fruit had completely worn off, and Kyle looked at the last two with a sigh.
'This is harder than I thought,' he thought as he shoved the third one into his mouth.
Once more, Kyle was surprised by the insane difference the Space Comprehension Fruit made and continued experimenting.
He quickly refined his space compression and expansion techniques, rapidly decreasing the Energy they needed.
And then, improvements became very slow. Decreasing the required Energy by 1% suddenly took as much time as halving it earlier.
On top of that, Kyle noticed that the calculations became vastly more complex. Earlier, he barely needed to use his brain, but now, it was like he was back playing Sudoku to comprehend the Minor Law of Mind.
'I guess that's it,' Kyle thought as he watched the compressing and expanding space. 'I probably already have the Minor Fragments of Space Compression and Expansion. Or Spatial Compression and Expansion. Whatever. It means the same thing.'
'I probably already looked a bit into the Major Fragments, but they are as complex as Level Six Laws, from what I've heard. I'm not going to make any significant headway if I keep going.'
Kyle scratched the back of his head. 'It's just a bit weird since they are just Fragments. Whenever I understand a Law, I get knowledge beamed into my head, which doesn't happen with Fragments. Usually, I also know when I'm done with a Fragment since there's nothing more to learn about that aspect.'
'But here, it doesn't feel like it. It's probably because the Minor Law of Space doesn't exist. Not even sure if these Minor Fragments actually physically exist, if you understand what I mean. It's probably more like getting a certificate. You learn these things, pass a test, and you get the certificate, but you don't really feel different.'
'Anyway, I should get onto Space or Spatial Stasis.'
Kyle used his Soul to make a stone levitate in front of him. This was not a difficult skill. Basically every Transcendent and stronger could do that.
Then, he started to experiment with Space Energy again, trying to keep the stone from falling as he decreased the influence his Soul had on it.
The stone slowly lowered as the space around it expanded and contracted.
Kyle raised the lowering stone to its old position and started his experiments again.
After countless tries, Kyle managed to keep the stone somewhat in place.
'I can keep it in place, but it's still jittering around a bit. I would assume that it needs to be immovable and stable since Formation Arrays need to be so precise.'
As he kept experimenting, he managed to stabilize the position of the stone so that its range of jittering didn't surpass one millimeter.
That was when Kyle noticed that the effects of the third Space Comprehension Fruit were starting to taper off.
'Gotta quickly work on the weight!' he thought as he transitioned from stability to intensity.
Surprisingly, when he grabbed a heavy piece of metal, the range of motion of its passive jittering didn't increase in the slightest. It was like the weight of the object didn't impact how much it jittered in space.
What did increase, though, was how much Energy Kyle needed to use to keep it stable.
For the next few years, Kyle worked on increasing his Energy Efficiency when it came to keeping a heavy object locked in place.
He improved a lot, but then, the Space Comprehension Fruit lost all of its effects again.
When Kyle realized that all the effects were gone, he sighed. 'No idea how close I am to the Minor Fragment of Space Stasis. I mean, how am I even supposed to know if I understood the Fragment or not? There are no clear borders.'
'Are there any specific requirements?' he thought as he took out the Communicator with the guide again.
Kyle saw the rules and the requirements again, but they didn't specify anything.
Then, he noticed an attachment at the bottom.
'Definition of Standards,' he read in his mind. 'It can't be, right? I mean, it sounds like unimportant legal shit. No part of the document refers to this attachment, and it sounds like some random document. I thought this document would be like the general terms and conditions that everyone just blindly accepts.'
Kyle opened the document, and sure enough, it was a lot of legal shit.
Yet, halfway through the document, the legal shit actually became relevant.
Since the Minor Space Fragments basically didn't exist, they needed an official definition. Otherwise, some people might complain about not being able to do what the guide wanted them to do because they thought that they knew the required Fragments.
When Kyle saw the requirements, he noticed that there were differentiations between people with and without a Space Affinity.
Kyle blinked a couple of times as he read the specific requirements.
'Okay, I guess?' he thought as he dispersed his Complex Center Law. The definitions gave the mass of Energy in one's Center without a Complex Law as guidelines.
Next, Kyle emptied almost his entire Center and used all the Energy to expand the space in front of him.
The wall of the cave moved over 500 kilometers away before space instantly contracted again.
Kyle blinked a couple of times as he looked at the requirements again.
'120 kilometers,' he thought. 'Huh, I'm quite a bit over the requirement.'
After recovering his Energy, he did the same thing for Spatial Compression. He just needed to create a long tunnel inside the Planet before he could measure it.
The distant wall of the tunnel moved toward Kyle until he could touch it before moving away again.
Kyle only needed to use about 20% of his Energy.
'According to the standards, I would have needed to use about 95% of my Energy to qualify. Huh, seems like I shot past the goal.'
Finally, Kyle looked at his knowledge in spatial stasis.
His feelings told him that there was still a lot more he could learn about it, but he wanted to check first.
'Range of motion required: Not more than seven millimeters from the two farthest points,' Kyle thought as he looked at the stone that moved, at most, 0.5 millimeters from side to side.
'Perpetual recovery of Energy during lift, measured in tons kept static.'
Kyle stabilized heavier and heavier materials until he noticed that he was using more Energy than he was recovering.
As he looked at the standards, he scratched the side of his head again.
'I'm like ten times over the required amount.'
'I guess I learned this stuff way faster than I thought.'
180 years. That was how long Kyle had looked at Space Energy.
He had the help of a Space Comprehension Fruit, which essentially gave him a temporary Space Affinity.
He was a Fulfilled Crusher.
He had plenty of experience with Law Comprehension.
His Momentum was at the absolute maximum.
He knew all four Minor Laws of Aspects.
He had a Complex Center and a Complex Mind Law.
180 years of comprehension for Kyle…
Was like 1,200 years of comprehension for an average Fulfilled Crusher with a Space Affinity.
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