“Oh, you’re so talented and strong, Kyle! I’m glad I made you my successor,” Kyle said as he moved a tiny metal man to a much bigger metal man.
“Thank you, Boss! I could only reach this point thanks to your teachings,” the big metal man “said” while being moved by Kyle.
Kyle had made these two metal men out of the cores of the Basic Mage Stone.
“See?” Kyle asked, looking up. “Things could be much easier if you were just nicer! This could be us, but you keep on being an ass!”
“Why am I the small one?” Theodor asked with annoyance. “I should be the big one!”
Kyle snickered. “You have big manlet energy.”
“Foolish inheritor, are you even listening to yourself? A big manlet would just be a regularly sized man!”
Kyle did his best to suppress his laughter.
“I let you practice your metal manipulation, but I believe this is enough practice,” Theodor said.
While Theodor was talking, Kyle moved the small man from side to side, still suppressing his smile.
“You need to go to sleep. We will resume tomorrow. Think about what you have learned today and try to remember everything for tomorrow,” Theodor said as the small man kept moving left and right.
“Sure thing, Boss,” the bigger metal man said.
“And stop playing with your toys! You’re an adult!”
Kyle just rolled his eyes and flicked the head of the small metal man.
BANG!
The head turned into dust, and the metal man fell over.
Theodor looked at the headless metal man.
He could tell that Kyle was just joking, but despite that, Theodor took that quite seriously.
Kyle was an enigma.
He was an unknown.
Sometimes, he acted like a naïve person who wanted to help the people who had helped him.
But then, he casually made these quite dark jokes.
Theodor was not a trusting person, and he didn’t trust Kyle even a little bit.
Theodor made sure that he would remember what Kyle had just done to the small metal man, but he didn’t comment on it.
As long as he was still in control, there was nothing to fear.
Kyle quickly went to bed.
A couple of hours later, Theodor woke him up again, and Kyle entered the dark forest like a robot.
He wasn’t even thinking about what he was doing since he was so tired.
“You need to pay your tribute to the Noble of the Lake again,” Theodor said as the two of them arrived in front of the small lake.
That woke Kyle up.
“Do I have to?” he asked with an uncertain voice.
“It represents a safe haven in the wilderness,” Theodor answered.
Kyle looked with apprehension at the lake.
Theodor groaned. “Just think of the fish you will get after.”
Kyle’s eyes widened in realization.
’That fish was great!’ he thought.
In the end, he took a deep breath and jumped into the lake.
Just like last time, he extended his leg.
Kyle’s breathing quickened.
CRK!
And just as expected, he was assaulted by pain.
Kyle quickly willed his Soul to move him out of the water.
Theodor watched with surprise as Kyle stood on top of the water with one leg.
Splash!
But as he tried to move forward, he fell back into the water.
The next moment, he pulled himself to the surface again like he was climbing out of a swimming pool.
He messed up two more times, but after that, his footing became solid.
He crawled all the way to the shore.
Kyle just looked at his right stump and took a deep breath.
“I’m starving! Where’s my fish?” Kyle asked.
“Of course you’re starving!” Theodor shouted. “Do you have any idea how much Ether it needs to make someone walk on water?! You probably emptied your entire Center!”
“No wonder I’m this hungry,” Kyle answered.
The next moment, a small fish with six eyes jumped out of the lake and landed in front of Kyle.
Kyle jumped forward and grabbed it.
“This one is much smaller than the last one!” he complained.
“Last time, you gave a foot and a lower leg. This time, you only gave a foot,” Theodor explained.
Kyle grimaced at the fish, but he ate it quickly.
After finishing it, his foot regrew, but Kyle was not happy.
“I’m still hungry,” he said.
“Yes, because you emptied your Center, you imbecile,” Theodor said. “Just get some more fish from the lake.”
Kyle snorted but followed Theodor’s orders anyway.
After catching some regular fish, Kyle left the lake again.
“Go deeper into the forest,” Theodor said.
“Why? I’m already full,” Kyle said.
“You need to put yourself in danger! Coming out of dangerous situations is a necessary skill for survival!”
Kyle furrowed his brows. “But if I put myself in more dangerous situations to avoid dangerous situations, I am actually causing the problem I’m trying to solve. That’s stupid.”
“Danger is not always a choice, foolish inheritor!” Theodor shouted. “Danger you choose yourself will be solvable, while danger you don’t choose might not be solvable.”
“You can choose to fight 20 Mid Humans and succeed, but if a Late Human chooses you once, you might die.”
“Unless you have the experience of fighting 20 Mid Humans, in which case you will have a chance against the Late Human when they inevitably choose you!” Theodor shouted.
“Are we really calling them Mid Humans now?” Kyle asked.
“Normal humans are not worthy of a Realm name,” Theodor said. “They must reach the Second Realm if they want a title. If a normal human manages to reach the Second Realm, they attain the title of Warrior. Until then, they are just human!”
“Warrior?” Kyle asked. “That seems more fitting for a Fighter.”
“Fighters are categorized into Adepts, Fighters, and Grandmasters. Humans are categorized into Humans, Warriors, and Experts,” Theodor explained.
“Experts in what? Being human?” Kyle asked.
“Don’t mock Experts! Humans might be far inferior to Adepts or Squires, and a Warrior might be a bit inferior to a Knight or Fighter, but an Expert is far more dangerous than a Grandmaster or a Royal Knight!”
“Huh?” Kyle asked. “How does that make any sense?”
“Natural selection,” Theodor said.
“Evolution?” Kyle asked.
“No, imbecile!” Theodor answered. “A human that manages to stand out amongst Squires, Adepts, Knights, and Fighters has to be extraordinary, and if they don’t stand out, they will never become an Expert.”
“There are several mediocre Royal Knights and Grandmasters, but there are no mediocre Experts.”
“If they were mediocre, they would have never become Experts.”
“Never underestimate an Expert!”