BANG! BANG! BANG!
A gigantic person hit a tiny cube of metal with the tip of a huge hammer repeatedly.
Hitting the cube had become boring and too easy for Kyle, which was why he increased the difficulty.
His goal was to keep juggling the cube with the hammer, and there were plenty of ways of making it more difficult.
First, he had gone deeper. This made it much harder to hit the cube. After all, gravity didn't only affect an object's terminal velocity but also its acceleration. The stronger the gravity was, the quicker the object would lose upward momentum and gain downward momentum.
After reaching a certain depth, Kyle needed to hit the cube over ten times per second since it was jumping up and down so quickly. It almost looked like someone had sped up time by hundreds of times.
When Kyle got used to the increased difficulty, he decided to use the pick of his hammer instead of the flat side. The pick of his hammer was very sharp and pointy, and if he didn't hit the cube's center, the cube would fly towards the sides instead of upward. This forced Kyle to run after it and hit it again.
After getting used to that, Kyle decided to increase the size of himself and the hammer. One might think that this would make it easier since the hammer was now much bigger, but that was not the case. Due to how pointy the pick was, its end was still only a single point. Not hitting the middle with that point would still throw the cube to the side. It wouldn't fly as much to the side due to the angle, but it was still easy to see if he had hit correctly or not.
At the same time, the gravity influenced Kyle even more. His density didn't decrease after growing, which meant there was far more matter for the gravity to influence. This decreased Kyle's speed tremendously, and his hits had to be more planned and accurate.
As he increased the difficulty more and more, Kyle found ways to optimize his performance.
He added the rule that he wasn't allowed to descend any further, which meant he had to hit the cube from this height. This made it much harder since he had to charge after the cube with even more speed. After all, if he didn't get to it in time, it would become unreachable.
In reaction to this rule, Kyle now launched two attacks whenever he didn't properly hit the cube. He swung his hammer to the side, causing a whirlwind that pulled the cube back towards him. Sadly, the whirlwind only helped a bit.
Yet, after countless tries, the whirlwind became stronger, and the game became easy again.
The next rule he added was to create a nice sound with the cube. Whenever he hit it, the cube vibrated and made a sound. In order to make it harder, Kyle added the rule that he had to make the cube vibrate at a certain frequency. He didn't know why he preferred a certain frequency, but it just felt right. He felt like this would accomplish something.
After a long time, he managed to create this frequency every single time. Whenever he hit the cube, it seemed to vibrate in a manner that could only be described with the word destructive.
When the cube flew through dense matter while vibrating at this frequency, it turned the dense matter into tiny bits of dust.
At that point, Kyle increased the difficulty again by becoming even bigger and going even lower.
His attacks remained just as strong as before, but the cube became even faster.
Then, Kyle went even lower. By now, his attacks barely bought him enough time for the next attack, forcing him to hit the cube continuously. The vibrations became harder to create due to the heightened frequency of his attacks, but he got used to it eventually.
He went even lower, and things became more difficult yet again. At this point, he couldn't even focus on the sound anymore since he was barely fast enough to keep the cube above him.
He got used to it and went even lower. His attack speed was enough, but if he missed the cube, his base speed wasn't fast enough to catch up. This forced him to use his Law of Hammer to increase his speed.
He went lower once more, and now, he couldn't even catch up anymore, forcing him to use his illusory hammer to gain more time.
This was when the next challenge arrived. His Energy was lowering. He was using more Energy than he was recovering.
This required him to increase the efficiency of his Energy use, and eventually, he also got used to that.
Next, Kyle summoned a weaker hammer, and its pick broke during the first strike. Kyle immediately repaired the pick before striking the cube again. He felt like using a weaker hammer would benefit him in some way.
After getting a weaker hammer, Kyle had to reduce the level of difficulty since it was just too much, but after many years, he raised it again.
By now, Kyle's hammer was also vibrating at a certain frequency, and whenever he hit the frequency just right, the hammer wouldn't be damaged. If he hit that frequency, it was just like using a stronger hammer.
At this point, Kyle was using all six abilities of his Law of Hammer.
He infused his hammer with it to give it more power.
He used the illusory hammer to gain time.
He used his increased movement speed to catch up to the cube.
He used the whirlpool to pull the cube towards him.
He created the perfect frequency on the cube.
He created the perfect frequency on his hammer, strengthening it.
The amount of Energy Kyle could use at a time with his Law of Hammer increased drastically, but contrary to expectations, this decreased the amount of Energy he wasted.
At some point, Kyle realized that he couldn't grow bigger anymore, and he decided to change the difficulty.
He returned to a normal size and cut the cube into eight smaller cubes before juggling those.
Then, he lessened the Energy he used with his Law of Hammer to lessen his power, requiring him to use more of his physical strength.
His Biological Energy started to drop as he overused his body, but this was just another challenge.
Things continued becoming harder and easier as many years passed, and eventually, Kyle felt something.
He felt that his mind was ready to advance.
He had gotten through the Fifth Refinement!
2,500 years of pain!
When he realized that, he felt elated. Even though he had managed to distract himself well enough, he was still happy that he got through.
He saw one of the cubes descending, and for some reason, he felt like this moment was special. He felt like he could do and achieve everything.
With a smile, he swung his hammer, his mind clear.
His hammer moved forward, and the space around it warped. The image of an illusory hammer appeared in the trail the solid hammer left behind.
The afterimage caught up with the actual hammer just when it hit the cube.
DING!
A beautiful sound of reverberation echoed through the surroundings.
BANG!
The cube and the hammer turned into fine dust, which Kyle collected on instinct.
Kyle collected the other cubes and looked forward without thinking about anything.
He was just feeling.
He felt like he had just taken an important step.
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