There was a big difference between advancing without the Tos versus advancing with the Tos.
Advancing into the Second Realm without the Tos was very easy. Nobody failed it.
Yet, advancing with the Tos made it much harder, and there were cases of people failing the advancent.
Failing an advancent was a huge hit to one's wealth, Montum, ego, and ti.
If one failed, they would fall back into the Late First Realm. Even more, they would have to buy the Tos again.
Failing an advancent was a major setback, and so people never tried again since it had been so hard to get here in the first place.
The reason why it was so different to advance with Tos was that the Tos changed the body in an unnatural way.
The Tos were infusing the advancing person with Ether it wasn't designed to absorb.
This ant that the body had to adapt to this new kind of Ether.
The Tos couldn't be used outside of such an advancent since the body was usually very stable.
But during an advancent, it beca malleable and changeable since it was already undergoing a significant change.
The first circle, representing the Physical To, started to shine brighter than the other ones.
The Ether in the surroundings changed yet again.
CRKSH!
The skin on Kyle's muscular right arm burst, releasing a bunch of blood.
'Ouch!' Kyle thought as he gritted his teeth. 'Gotta focus! This is the Physical Refinent! Gotta imagine yourself to be real big! You are a giant!'
The next mont, Kyle's right chest muscles moved inward as they lost their connection to the hurus.
The tendon tore.
Kyle took a deep breath through his teeth, but he just kept imagining himself growing bigger and stronger.
CRK!
Then, Kyle's femur broke under the strain.
The unfamiliar Ether was pushing the old Ether out of his body, weakening different parts of his body.
Kyle's femur had been as hard as a normal man's femur at that mont while having to withstand the pressure of his tensing thighs, which had the power of soone in the Peak First Realm.
Naturally, they couldn't withstand that.
Several more parts of Kyle's body broke, but his imagination never faltered.
'Bigger! I have to be bigger!'
Kyle couldn't see it, but his body was actually growing at that mont.
Within a couple of minutes, he grew enough to almost cover the entire first diagram.
Of course, the diagrams were designed with this expansion in mind.
As soon as the diagrams were activated, they created small shields around them, protecting the actual diagram from being ssed up by the expansion.
Despite the accumulating injuries, Kyle's body didn't recover.
There was no Ether it could use to do so.
There was just this strange and unnatural Ether in his body.
More and more of Kyle's body broke, and he was assaulted with unending pain.
'Bigger!'
Kyle's body kept growing as it beca more and more injured.
"Stop," Theodor said. "Don't go too far."
Yet, Kyle refused.
He had to beco even bigger!
His body grew even more.
"Fine! Suit yourself!" Theodor said with annoyance. "Don't bla when you fail."
Kyle kept imagining himself growing bigger.
More!
More size!
More height!
More girth!
Big!
Suddenly, Kyle felt lightheaded as his body wanted to take his consciousness from him.
'Alright, that's enough,' Kyle thought as sweat ran down his back.
Then, he stopped imagining himself becoming bigger.
His body stabilized again, but it still kept getting injured.
'Fuck! When is this going to end?!' Kyle thought in panic as his body pulled more and more on his consciousness.
'Fuck off! I'm not sleepy!'
'Maybe a bit.'
At that mont, the first diagram sensed that the body stopped changing shape.
That was when the first diagram vanished, turning into dust.
The dust turned into Ether, which then entered Kyle's body.
As soon as the Ether entered, it was like Kyle's body finally found sothing it could use to access the foreign Ether.
In a way, the dust acted as an emulsifier. It built a connection between Kyle's body and the foreign Ether.
The body used the emulsifier to access the Ether, strengthening the body and repairing it.
Kyle's pain lessened, and he was no longer in danger of losing consciousness.
'Fuck this!' Kyle thought.
Over the next minute, Kyle's body evenly advanced until he was no longer injured.
He had done it.
His body was now in the Initial Second Realm.
Then, the second diagram, representing the Core To, brightened.
The Ether changed again and entered Kyle's body.
It moved through it, reaching Kyle's Center.
'Center Refinent!' Kyle thought, focusing again. 'Fire, Wind, and tal!'
He rembered Theodor's instructions.
There were two ways to advance a Center while having more than one Affinity.
One was equalized, which ant that the Center would contain Ether of both Affinities in equal amounts.
The other was adaptable, which ant the Ether remained pure but could be transford more easily.
The first thod saved a lot of Ether since it didn't need to undergo any transformations during battle, but it limited the elent-specific Ether storage. If one ran out of one kind of Elental Ether, they couldn't transform the other Elental Ether into the first Elental Ether.
The other thod didn't save as much Ether, but it made the Center more adaptable. One could transform the entire Ether storage into one kind of Elental Ether and then change it again.
One would lose so Ether during every transformation, but it didn't lock the person out of the ability to have one Elent as their entire storage.
The two thods had their strengths and weaknesses, and choosing one depended on one's battle style.
However, with three Affinities, the adaptable thod was superior.
The addition of a third Affinity did not increase the weakness of the adaptable thod, while the equalized thod would beco even worse.
As the Ether gathered in Kyle's Center, he started to sweat.
His chest was becoming hot.
Very hot.
Then, Kyle's chest started to turn black.
The Fire Ether in his Center was strong enough to burn them but not strong enough to break past the strengthened muscles...
Yet.
'Why does this have to be so painful?!'
'I'm not a masochist!'
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