After trying out his hammer, Kyle thought about the Ore Fiends waiting outside the spire.
‘Still gotta get past those without dying. But how?’
“Hey, Theodor. What-”
“Lord Theodor, insubordinate scum!” Theodor shouted back.
“Lord Theodor,” Kyle repeated, trying his best not to roll his eyes. “Can you tell me a bit about Ore Fiends?”
“I don’t know. Can I?” Theodor asked sarcastically.
“Can you?” Kyle asked back.
“Of course I can! I don’t know what you want, but I have centuries of wisdom in me! Just ask!” he said, filled with pride.
‘This guy,’ Kyle thought.
“Tell me about Ore Fiends.”
“Ore Fiends are sentient manifestations of Ether-filled ore,” Theodor explained. “Some valuable ores with a lot of Ether can gain sentience and transform into a living being.”
“They are crude in the beginning and assume the appearance of the first couple of beings they perceive. If there are a lot of humans around them, they turn into humans. If there are a lot of beasts around, they assume the forms of these beasts.”
“Most often, they create a form that is a fusion of the beings they saw. Quadrupedal with hands. Bipedal with snakeheads. Their forms can be very abstract,” Theodor explained.
“What do they eat?” Kyle asked.
“What does what eat?” Theodor asked with annoyance.
“What do Ore Fiends eat?” Kyle repeated, doing his best not to sound annoyed.
“Mostly ore, but they don’t eat other Ore Fiends. Ore Fiends have some kind of companionship with other Ore Fiends, even if the other Ore Fiends aren’t made of the same ore as them.”
“Ore Fiends eat unintelligent ore.”
Kyle furrowed his brows. “I saw an Ore Fiend eating a beast.”
“That can happen,” Theodor answered, “but they can’t digest the Ether inside biological bodies. Ore Fiends generally don’t have a lot of developed instincts, and they just mimic whatever they see others doing.”
“The Ore Fiend probably saw one animal consuming another animal, and it imitated that behavior.”
Kyle raised a brow. “I saw an Ore Fiend eating an animal, and shortly after eating the animal, its body healed from an injury.”
“Not related,” Theodor said. “All Ore Fiends are at least Ferocious Beasts, and they produce enough Ether from their surroundings to regenerate their bodies after a couple of seconds. Even if it didn’t eat the beast, its wounds would have still healed.”
Kyle nodded. “Hypothetically, if there were around 20 angry Ore Fiends outside of this tower, what could I do to get past them?”
Kyle decided to phrase the question as a hypothetical. Otherwise, Theodor would lament about the Ore Fiends again.
“If they are angry at you, that will be difficult. Ore Fiends don’t get exhausted, and they will follow you forever. They also have very weak fear responses, and they will even follow you into certain death.”
Kyle wanted to ask why the Ore Fiends didn’t follow him into the tower if they weren’t afraid of anything, but he knew that this would essentially stop Theodor from giving him a solution.
This limited attention span of Theodor’s was beyond annoying.
“However, Ore Fiends are simple creatures. If you can change their focus to something else they really want to do, they will forget all their anger and focus on that instead. Food is on the top of their list of priorities.”
“If you have some valuable ore near you, no matter how angry they are, they will start eating the ore.”
Kyle’s brows rose in positive surprise as he looked at the pile of ore lying beside him.
“Will Ore Fiends eat the dead bodies of other Ore Fiends?” Kyle asked.
“A dead Ore Fiend is just a pile of ore. It is not an Ore Fiend anymore,” Theodor answered with annoyance.
‘Lucky!’ Kyle thought with a smile.
Then, he started to carry the pile of ore from the third floor to the first floor.
The pile was huge, and it took Kyle a long time to get it to the ground floor.
After putting the pile down, he grabbed a small piece of the pile and threw it into his mouth.
“Are you insane?! Do you want to commit suicide?!” Theodor shouted.
Kyle just ignored him and swallowed the ore.
The ore rapidly transformed into energy, and Kyle felt like he could punch the spire into pieces with this power.
“Oh no. No wonder you’re that stupid. You’re a dwarf!” Theodor spoke like the world was about to be destroyed.
“Half-dwarf,” Kyle answered.
“I’m in the body of a wildling. A simpleton! A monkey!” Theodor lamented.
“Racist,” Kyle answered.
“Racist? I’ve never heard that word before,” Theodor answered.
Kyle just looked out of the big gate.
The only reason he called Theodor a racist was to stop him from whining.
‘Dude’s like a baby. Give him a toy, and he stops crying.’
Next, Kyle rolled a couple of big boulders to the gate and looked at the Ore Fiends.
They were still gathered in front of the spire, looking at the entrance.
But they were no longer looking at Kyle.
Instead, they were looking at the pile of ore beside him.
In one unified motion, the Ore Fiends started to slowly climb the stairs to the gate.
“Ore Fiends! What are they doing here?!” Theodor exclaimed in shock.
Kyle slowly walked to the side of the stairs and started to descend.
“Whatever you do, don’t make any loud sounds! Ore Fiends use these loud sounds to declare a fight for supremacy! The strongest and heaviest Ore Fiend becomes the leader of the pack, and hitting the ground means you are challenging for leadership!” Theodor explained.
Kyle stopped walking for a moment as he remembered what he had done in the city.
‘If it’s black, fight back,’ Kyle repeated in his mind as he remembered hammering the ground with all of his power.
‘These fuckers don’t even eat animals… I mean, naturally. I could’ve just calmly walked past them.’
‘But no, if it’s black, fight back.’
Kyle watched as the Ore Fiends slowly walked past him.
They weren’t even looking at him.
‘Who’s the retard?’
‘I am!’
‘And don’t you forget it!’