“I attack,” Kyle said.
Bonk just smiled with excitement.
Then, Kyle used Air Current and charged at Bonk.
As soon as he reached Bonk, he used all his power to hit him.
However, Bonk didn’t move.
Kyle’s eyes widened.
BOOOOM!
Kyle’s hammer hit Bonk’s head full force, but Bonk just kept smiling.
It was like a fly had just bumped off his head.
“Stronger,” Bonk said with a smile. “Attack stronger.”
“Okay,” Kyle said.
He pulled his hammer back and struck Bonk with his full power.
Earlier, he had stopped his hammer during the end since he had been worried, but now, he actually used all his power.
As before, Bonk just kept smiling as Kyle’s hammer hit him in the head.
Nothing.
Kyle’s strike did nothing.
“Stronger,” Bonk said.
“Can’t stronger. Kyle weak,” Kyle answered.
Bonk looked with confusion at Kyle.
“Do real swing.”
“Is real swing,” Kyle answered.
“No, no,” Bonk said. “Not real swing.”
“Is real swing!” Kyle answered. “Kyle weak.”
“No, not power. Swing move weird. Not real swing,” Bonk said.
Bonk grabbed Kyle’s hammer and swung the air.
“This real swing,” he said.
“Looks same,” Kyle answered.
Bonk shook his head and swung again.
“Weird swing,” he said after the swing.
“Real swing,” he said after another swing.
Kyle just looked at the swings with confusion.
“Look same,” Kyle said.
“Look same. Not real same,” Bonk answered. “I slow.”
Bonk swung several times very slowly, alternating between calling them weird and real.
‘Brah, they look exactly the same!’ Kyle thought.
“You see?” Bonk asked.
“No,” Kyle answered.
“Look Ether,” Bonk said. “Ether important. Ether move. Body same. Ether different.”
“Ether move?” Kyle asked.
“Yes,” Bonk answered. “Ether move. Ether strong. No Ether, no strong!”
Bonk continued swinging, and Kyle tried to watch Bonk’s Ether.
However, that wasn’t easy.
Kyle could sense a bit of Ether in the air, but he couldn’t really feel how Bonk’s Ether moved.
After several minutes of this, Bonk grabbed Kyle’s hand and put it on his back.
“Feel easier,” he said. “Close eyes.”
Kyle did as instructed.
Bonk kept swinging while Kyle touched his back.
After a couple of swings, Kyle felt a difference.
It was like there was some kind of wind around his hand.
When Bonk said that the swing was weird, there was no wind, but when he said that it was real, there was wind.
Bonk kept swinging while Kyle kept focusing.
After some minutes, Bonk moved Kyle’s hand to his lower back.
‘The wind is different here. Or the Ether, I guess,’ Kyle thought.
Almost 30 minutes passed, in which Bonk put Kyle’s hand in different places.
Yet, the more Kyle felt the Ether’s movements, the more complex it seemed.
It was like Bonk’s Ether was moving in intricate and complex patterns.
Earlier, Kyle felt like he had been looking at the sun, while now, he was actually seeing the chemical reactions that make the sun into what it was.
It was crazy how confusing the way in which the Ether moved was.
It felt so unnatural.
“Too hard,” Kyle said, pulling his hand back. “Ether move too much. Not understand.”
“You dwarf,” Bonk said. “Don’t human. Do dwarf. Use feeling.”
“Don’t understand. Feel.”
“Is easy. Small dwarf understand easy,” Bonk said.
‘Small dwarf? Children, I guess,’ Kyle thought.
“I try,” Kyle said, putting his hand back on Bonk’s back.
Bonk kept swinging, and the complex patterns returned.
Kyle did his best not to think about them and just felt them.
It felt so discordant.
So confusing.
So unintuitive.
Yet, Kyle just ignored his thoughts about the Ether and just tried to accept it.
‘Just accept it, dude. Bonk knows what he’s doing. Channel your inner ape man. Think ape. Be ape,’ Kyle thought.
‘Kyle want banana. Kyle hit tiger with big stick. Unga bunga.’
‘Ether move ape way. Be ape.’
Kyle emptied his mind and just felt the Ether.
It moved.
‘Ether move. Banana.’
‘Ether funny.’
‘Ether go like this.’
“Good!” Bonk shouted as he stopped swinging.
“What?” Kyle asked, opening his eyes.
“Ether move right! I felt!” Bonk said.
Kyle blinked a couple of times.
‘Brah, I literally just threw it forward without thinking about it. This was supposed to be a joke!’
“Try swing!” Bonk said, handing Kyle’s hammer back.
Kyle looked at his hammer in confusion.
Then, he swung in the air while just throwing his Ether forward.
“Good, not good,” Bonk said. “Train. Swing many time.”
“Hit Bonk!”
Kyle looked at Bonk and nodded.
Then, he swung forward.
“Good,” Bonk said.
Kyle swung again.
“Okay,” Bonk said.
Again.
“Good.”
“Bad.”
“Good.”
“Gooder!”
“Badder.”
Kyle kept swinging away at Bonk for minutes while Bonk gave feedback about the swings.
It wasn’t easy to master this kind of swing.
The state of mind Kyle had to achieve was not easy to summon at will.
It was like he had to empty his mind during a swing, which was not easy since he also had to think about moving his body.
This continued for almost 30 minutes before Kyle ran out of Ether.
“Food time!” Bonk said. “Go food.”
Then, Bonk pointed at the forest.
“I get food?” Kyle asked.
“Dwarf eat. Kyle eat. Train more.”
‘Sure,’ Kyle thought. ‘Guess I’m going to catch some food before I go back to swinging.’
“Kyle back soon,” Kyle said.
Bonk nodded, and Kyle ran into the forest.
“Can you make sense of this?” Kyle whispered to Theodor as he ran into the forest. “The Ether moves weirdly.”
“It is a very complex way of manipulating Ether,” Theodor said. “The Inheritance Crystal doesn’t have enough free memory to make space for it.”
Kyle stopped running as his eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Yes,” Theodor answered. “If I were alive, I would be able to decipher the method the dwarf is using, but I would most likely need a couple of minutes.”
Kyle took a deep breath.
Theodor had been a Peak Master Artificer!
His mind must have been unimaginably powerful!
And he said he would need minutes to understand it?!
“Then, how long will it take me?” Kyle asked.
“This is not an on-off way of manipulating Ether,” Theodor said. “It’s a gradient. After some more hours of swinging, you should have the basics down.”
“How long will it take me to become as good as Bonk?” Kyle asked.
“Long,” Theodor answered.
“Years?” Kyle asked.
“Decades,” Theodor said.
Kyle took a deep breath.
“As long as you stay at your current Realm,” Theodor added. “The more you advance, the better your control over your body and Ether. Naturally, your mind will also improve.”
“Frankly, I am also surprised how quickly you advanced in learning this technique. It seems very discordant and unintuitive. This is not how humans use Ether.”
“I suspect this is related to dwarven instincts.”
“Most likely, humans can’t easily learn this.”
Kyle didn’t answer.
‘Theodor doesn’t know, but I’m not actually a half-dwarf. I mean, I got this weird Predator’s Being from Magic Lady.’
‘I’m actually just a regular guy.’
‘So, how is it possible for me to understand this stuff if I’m not a dwarf?’
Kyle rubbed the back of his head as he ran through the forest.
Yet, his mind got distracted as he sensed food.
‘Eh, who cares? Just be glad you can understand that stuff,’ Kyle thought.
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