Chapter 143: Compatibility

Leonel exited his Dream World and smiled, taking the little Metal Spirit into his hands and playing with it again. 

"This'll be our first project together, Tolly. Are you excited?"

Tolly split into numerous balls of silver, jumping around Leonel's hands like little globules of mercury. The little guy didn't need to speak for Leonel to know that it was excited. 

Recently, Leonel had been feeding it a lot of metals. Earth might have not been a Fourth Dimensional world just yet, and as such, was lacking in high quality minerals that came with this evolution. But, they as a people had squeezed everything they could out of the materials they did have, creating alloys that this little Metal Spirit loved to eat at its current stage of evolution.

Tolly's favorite snack was an alloy of platinum and iridium. Using it, the little guy had already reached the Fifth Black Tier. 

Leonel was very careful not to overfeed Tolly, though. According to the hazard lesson, doing so could cause 'Overflow'. It was a dangerous state spirits could enter where they sought to devour everything. 

Toward this, Leonel could only shake his head. His father had actually likened the state to a stomach ache. How such a catastrophic event could be as simple as a stomach ache was beyond him. 

Leonel took a deep breath and went into a state of meditation. This time, however, it wasn't to enter his Dream World, but rather to prepare his mind and settle his heart. His father said that the most important thing in a successful crafting was one's state of mind. 

His oppressive aura unwittingly surged out from him, causing the playful Metal Spirit to grow silent and solemn. It was easily affected by Leonel's presence, its own will becoming somewhat suppressed. 

The first step in crafting was exactly this, Spirit Unity. 

During the process, Leonel and Tolliver would have to work as one. It was necessary for their thoughts and actions to be one in the same. 

At that moment, Leonel's dull gaze became bright once more and two familiar ores appeared before him.

Tolliver separated into two, coating each one of his palms as he grasped toward the first ore. 

This unrefined ore was known as 'Black Urbe Ore'. It was part of the 'Urbe' class of metals. Those of this class were exceptionally good at forming alloys and had strengthening effects on metals they were melded with due to their special chemical structure.

Urbe ores were a strategical resource no matter which world one was talking about. They were a foundation piece in almost every treasure in existence and were key components in treasures that needed to fuse two volatile materials. 

Black Urbe Ore was considered the lowest grade. However, if it was combined with the high level metal technology of Earth, it was like giving wings to a tiger. 

Even compared to other Pseudo Fourth Dimensional worlds, Earth was incredibly advanced. If strength was strictly compared, Earth was most definitely the strongest such world in the history of the universe. Actually, it wasn't so exaggerated, but Earth was most definitely top ten.

Leonel already had a plan in mind and the sniper rifle he took from Xinghai's corpse would be perfect. 

It was time to begin the second step: Purification.

There were many ways to approach purifying a metal. In the world of Force Crafting, 'purification' wasn't as simple as removing impurities. It was more accurate to say that this was the process of a Force Crafter 'treating' a material to create a wanted result. 

Consider steel, for a moment. Technically, steel is just iron with a certain concentration of added carbon. If Leonel's goal was to make steel, then his 'purification' process would be taking iron and smelting carbon into it, thus producing the desired product.

One must know that even amongst steel, there are various stages, purities and strengths among them. This is all decided by the process taken in forging the metal. Urbe ore, likewise, works in this fashion. 

Leonel's goal was to temper the Black Urbe ore such that its chemical structure was perfectly suited to the alloys of the sniper rifle. How well he performed this task was decided by a 'Compatibility' rating. Depending on the metals and materials used in the craft, the Compatibility of a metal prepared, even in the same exact way, could vary.

The methods he had to choose from were Smelting, Macro-Separation, or Oscillation. Leonel had already learned all three, respectively, via the techniques [Melting Hands], [Dancing String] and [Delicate Touch].

Without hesitation, Leonel began to use [Delicate Touch]. The ore became like a bouncing ball trapped between the cage that was his fingers. 

The movement of his hands became blinding. Despite the fact his arms and wrists were locked in place, his fingers continually flicked at the ore, causing it to slowly, but surely, turn a deeper and deeper shade of red as its body became hot. However, the odd part was that this red only seemed to appear in spots that didn't seem capable of spreading their heat elsewhere.

The Oscillation technique was one of Induction. It was the process of agitating the chemical structure of the metal and raising its heat. But, it was special in that it could target very specific chemical bonds, causing them to break and restructure themselves according to the Force Crafters will. 

This alone made the Oscillation method the most difficult of the three. Controlling things on such a micro level while ensuring that the heat wasn't spread was nearly impossible for beginners. Of course, Leonel wasn't really controlling things on an atomic level. He was simply able to use his strong Internal Sight to separate the ore into larger sections to be tempered individually. 

It was impossible for the current him to create a 100% Compatible Metal as that would require being able to use his Internal Sight to scan minerals at the level of chemical bonds. However, about 60% was well within his grasp. 

If others knew that Leonel was confident in such a thing, it would definitely cause an uproar. Even veteran Black Grade Force Crafters would find 50-60% acceptable while 40% was passable. Something like 70% was already above average, 80% was elite, 90% was legendary, while 100% was basically folklore. Who could claim to be capable of commanding the trillions of atoms in an ore perfectly?

Leonel's Force poured from his body and into Little Tolly without reservation, the rhythmic drumming of his fingers growing faster and faster. 

Beads of sweat fell from his forehead, but he didn't even take the time to wipe them, his eyes shining brighter and brighter with each passing moment. 

'[Dancing String]!'

Leonel's rhythm abruptly changed as Tolliver shot out from his palms, covering the reddened ore. 

Leonel pinched his fingers on either side of the ore and pulled, elongating the hot ore into a thin line, folding it over itself, and pulling once more. 

As though he was working a dough, Leonel stretched and folded the metal continuously, his fingers oscillating in a mesmerizing rhythm. 

'Perfect. 67% is better than what I was expecting.'

Leonel didn't allow himself to bask in his success. He immediately reached toward the sniper rifle he had already separated into its parts the moment the Black Urbe Ore was prepared.

Compared to the Black Urbe Ore, dealing with the pre-processed alloys of the sniper rifle was much easier. The compatibility rating of the Urbe Ore was precisely decided by how well it could meld into these alloys. This meant that the last of Leonel's task was simply to combine the two and then inscribe his chosen Force Arts. 

He could almost see the final product before him. And, considering he had practiced many times in his Dream World already… was failure even possible?