Strongest Hammer God

Chapter 1188: Terms Apply

"By the way, have you seen that outsider recently?" a False Immortal in the big hall asked.

"Which one?" another guy asked.

"The one who wanted to sell his Formation Arrays. Do you still remember him?"

"Oh, right! He probably failed," the other guy answered.

"Not sure. At least one of us would have noticed him leaving," another guy added.

"Did anyone see that outsider?" the first guy asked a couple of other groups.

All of them said that they hadn't seen the outsider.

"When was the last time he left his Workshop?"

"Like 5,000 years ago."

"Do you really think he's still here? That would mean that he's at the seventh task, at least."

"Doubtful. The sixth task is a major watershed. Over half of the people fail it."

"Nah, the sixth task is a major watershed for us but not for him. Remember, he can create materials since he knows the local Laws."

"Oh, right!"

As the people continued talking, their opinions of Kyle slightly shifted. If he was actually still here, he was actually a pretty talented Beginner Formation Array Master. Fewer than 10% of applicants got to the seventh task.

"We must have missed him. I refuse to believe that he's still here. The third task might be easy for us, but it should be brutal for him."

"Right, our Formation Arrays are completed by the Cosmos, making them perfect. We don't have to be careful about our Energy Waves."

"Yep, the third task is there to weed out all of the outsiders."

"But none of us have seen him. Someone must have noticed him if he failed."

"I'm going to take a look," one of them said as he left the hall. It was forbidden to enter a fellow participant's Workshop, but no rule said one couldn't knock on the door.

The guy from the hall approached Kyle's Workshop and knocked a couple of times.

While no one had followed the guy, they were all paying attention with their Divine Consciousnesses.

BANG!

"What do you want?!"

The door opened explosively as Kyle shouted with aggression. His aura was jittery and unstable, showing that he was under immense stress.

The False Immortal in front of Kyle's door just looked at him with a raised brow. Knocking on someone's Workshop was bad manners. Most people would get annoyed. He wasn't surprised about Kyle's reaction.

"I just wanted to know if you were still here," the guy transmitted calmly.

"Yes, I'm here!" Kyle shouted. "I'm busy!"

BANG!

Kyle slammed the door.

"That answers that question," the guy transmitted to the people in the hall.

"Still here, but probably not for much longer," another guy commented. "Did you see how stressed he was?"

"How difficult is the seventh task?" one of the False Immortals asked. According to her Communicator, she was at the fifth task.

"About as hard as the sixth task, but since the bad ones get filtered out by the sixth task, not many people fail it," another False Immortal answered. He was at the ninth task. "The eighth one is another difficult one, but the last two are the actual challenge."

"You think he's gonna fail?"

"On the seventh one? Probably not, but the eighth one might get him."

"Man, I almost feel bad losing him. I've grown attached to him."

"How? You've seen him like twice."

"So? I'll still miss him a bit. We have so few outsiders. That makes them special and interesting."

"Hey, I've just had a funny thought," another guy said with a chuckle. "Imagine he wins... Could you imagine being his Stone Slave?"

"Ugh," another person groaned. "I don't wanna think about it. There would be nothing to learn. It's work without pay."

"Then, don't fail. If you succeed, you won't be a Stone Slave. Alternatively, you can also just join the frontlines."

"If I wanted to join the frontlines, I wouldn't be here. I like my head where it is."

"Then get back to your studies."

"Yeah, I should."

...

"Then, why are you still here?"

"No materials."

While the people kept talking with each other, Kyle stared at the complicated setup of Formation Arrays in front of him. His Workshop was filled to the absolute brim with Formation Arrays, and they were running constantly.

By now, Kyle had learned how to create a Gravity Energy Source. This was a complicated Formation Array that consumed Gravity to produce Energy. Theoretically, one could harvest an ungodly amount of Energy with enough Gravity Energy Sources. Sadly, everything had a cost.

Using a Gravity Energy Source came with two associated detriments. First, the materials deteriorated quickly since they were pulling Energy out of reality itself. Second, reality needed to remain stable, and harvesting Energy from reality was like trying to destabilize reality. This was considered a weak and indirect attack on reality, which came with negative Karmic Luck. Luckily, as long as one didn't overdo it, the lost Karmic Luck wouldn't be too bad.

Naturally, as someone with a True Sin Aura, Black and his team didn't care about the negative Karmic Luck.

Kyle's room contained over thirty of these Formation Arrays, and they fed Energy into just two Formation Arrays.

'Come on!' Kyle thought as he activated another Formation Array. 'You have to work!'

Almost all of the Formation Arrays within the room went into overdrive, and the reality within the room warped slightly.

'Do it!'

The Formation Arrays shook, and a second later, all of the Gravity Energy Sources vanished. Then, the two Formation Arrays vanished, taking 20 other Formation Arrays with them.

Kyle took a shaky breath and looked at the small rock in front of him. It was a Base, and it was just a meter tall.

'Did it work?' Kyle thought as he activated it.

The Base activated, and Kyle felt Energy coming out of the Base.

He watched it for a couple of minutes.

Nothing changed.

"It worked!" Black shouted. "It fucking worked!"

"I made a Karmic Energy Source!"

Kyle grinned like a madman as he looked at his Karmic Energy Source with greed and fanaticism.

'Oh baby, my usage of materials just dropped by 80%!'

A Karmic Energy Source was essentially a stabilized form of a Gravity Energy Source. By infusing several Gravity Energy Sources and a couple of other Formation Arrays into a Base, one could stabilize the materials of the Gravity Energy Sources. The surrounding materials stabilized them, which meant that the materials would no longer degrade. Well, they would still degrade, but it would take millions of years, assuming the Karmic Energy Source was in constant use.

It was called a Karmic Energy Source since it only cost Karma to use it. All big cities, forts, branches, outposts, and headquarters had Karmic Energy Sources, but they were not always in use. Due to the associated Karmic Cost, they were only used during battles.

Kyle took his Karmic Energy Source and slotted it into a complicated Formation Array, watching it operate for a couple of seconds with a smile.

Then, he took out his Communicator and asked for his evaluation.

'You wanted my Formation Array to have Energy Usage equivalent to 50 Grade Eight Energy Stones per use? That's what you wanted, right?'

Kyle watched the Communicator measuring the Energy Usage of his Formation Array with an exaggerated smirk.

'50 Grade Eight Energy Stones, yes? Guess what! As long as the Formation Array doesn't consume more than a Grade Nine Energy Stone per second active, its Energy Usage is...'

A moment later, the Communicator finished its evaluation.

The result...

"That's right, fucker!" Black shouted.

"It's fucking zero!"

"But it's not just zero!"

"It's infinite zero (degradation terms apply)!"

"Forever zero (degradation terms apply)!"

"Infinite (degradation terms apply), eternal (degradation terms apply) fucking zero!"

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