Amber light exploded across Kaelen’s vision, drowning the red furnace glare in a flood of golden script.
[Fallow Cash-Out: Track 3 (Alchemy & Comprehension)] [299 Hours Consumed -> 300x Multiplier Applied] [Burst Window: 5 Minutes Active] [Current Comprehension Velocity: 1 Minute = 300 Baseline Hours]
The world slowed to a crawl. The roar of the smelting furnaces, the shouts of the charging bandits, and the twang of heavy crossbows dropped into a dull, distant rumble.
Kaelen stepped up to the central bronze pillar, his eyes fixing on the dense talisman script carved into the verdigris-crusted metal.
Three hundred baseline hours for every sixty seconds I stare at these pipes, Kaelen thought, tilting his head slightly. Most array masters spend forty years meditating on a windy mountain peak eating pine needles to understand an industrial array. I just have to look at a bronze post while Sera handles the crowd.
Behind him on the stone stairs, the battle erupted.
CLANG.
Sera’s star-iron pike darted forward like a striking serpent, punching clean through the wooden buckler of a charging bandit. She twisted the shaft, threw the man over the side into an empty slag cart, and snapped the butt back to crush the throat of a second attacker.
