Radlis felt his intestines overturning. Was this the mysterious gold mine of legends? Was his luck finally turning for the better?
"Bro – No, Big Bro – No, Senior Leonel!"
Radlis flashed and appeared in front of Leonel, a wide smile spreading across his pale face. If Leonel didn't know better, he would have thought that Radlis was a ghost doing its best to scare him half to death.
However, before he could say more, he found himself being kicked away by Kaela again.
"You idiot! That's a ticking time bomb in his hands! What would you do if it accidentally fell because of you?!"
After she was done, Kaela immediately looked toward Leonel with sparkling eyes. Radlis saw a gold mind, but she saw an endless store of information. Even if she was beaten to death she wouldn't believe that Leonel had gained all this skill on his own. He most definitely had a teacher. And, with a teacher came all sorts of information.
Kaela knew that all the Force Arts Leonel had used to form this grenade were Tier 4 at best. But, she didn't believe that this was the extent of Leonel's knowledge.
It had taken her months of research and experimentation to complete the sequence of Force Arts she needed to form the vacuum that kept the grenade stable. But, in the blink of an eye, Leonel saw through its purpose and even adapted her design to suit his changes.
Her breathing quickened. The only way he'd be able to do this was if his knowledge of Force Arts was so far beyond hers that there was no comparison whatsoever. She didn't even believe her former master could see through her intentions without at least a few days of observation and tests.
After a while, Kaela slowly calmed herself and smiled bitterly.
If even a hack like Jac was so close to the vest with his knowledge, how much more so would a true master like Leonel's teacher be in this regard? As arrogant as Jac was, Kaela had no doubt that Leonel's teacher was several times more. But at least he would have more of a right to be.
Kaela knew it would be ridiculous of her to expect a junior she just met to divulge such important information, so she didn't even bother to ask.
Recollecting herself, Kaela finally found a few oddities with the grenade. Namely, there was one she just couldn't wrap her head around. Hopefully, Leonel wouldn't mind answering this.
"How did you manage to get the inert Polished Glass to explode, though?"
Hearing Kaela's question, the five members of the Polished Glass Faction seemed to realize something too. Sighing, the excitement in their eyes also dimmed.
The Dimensional Verse was a cruel world where those at the top always sought to hoard power for themselves. Even if Leonel was a good person, asking something so great of him would be too much and far too ungrateful.
Leonel nodded when he heard Kaela's question.
If the inert Polished Glass could be forced to explode so easily then it would never be used as the blade of a weapon. No one wanted to deal with their own weapon lashing out at them mid-battle, that would be too ridiculous.
It had already been established that the so-called impurities were just regular rocks. Since there was nothing special about them, who was to say that contact with an enemy's blade wouldn't also cause the Polished Glass to explode if it was really so unstable?
"The secret is the thinness of the hidden blades." Leonel explained. "The explosive effect of unrefined Polished Glass is caused by disruptions in its chemical structure. After it has been properly refined to the point of becoming inert, there are no longer any impurities to disrupt its structures.
"When you refine it into a blade, any outside interferences are too small to effect the overall situation. Whatever chain reaction that would have occurred is easily halted before it can gain any steam.
"But… When its thin enough…"
"… To the point where it's just a few atoms thick, the structure is much easier to disrupt. Especially when you draw a Force Art onto it, thinning it out even more."
Kaela's eyes glowed. The more she thought about it, the more she couldn't wrap her mind around how Leonel had come up with such a design in just a few minutes. Everything about it seemed perfect… It was the kind of design one should have spent years laboring over every detail of yet he had completed it in an afternoon.
It was baffling.
Leonel grinned. "Want to test it?"
Kaela shivered. She felt like she was looking at a madman.
"No way. The testing rooms that could withstand something like that are way too expensive to rent. Forget it."
The two looked one another and burst into a fit of laughter.
Not long later, the first grenade of Polished Glassed Faction was completed and stored. Having let the excitement sink in, the team prepared to make as many as possible.
The Valiant Heart Zone wasn't an event just anyone could join. One had to gain enough merits to enter a tournament and only by placing well in this tournament would one then be able to enter.
However, gathering merits was simply too time consuming and many would rather spend the time training. The fact that they were time consuming was just one aspect, though. Often times, missions were a good way to train as well. The main issue was the fact the injury rate was simply too high. If one suffered a severe injury, how would they recover in time to participate even if they managed to gather enough merits?
This consumable device would fix much of this. There were a countless number of missions that would be made far easier if one had such a destructive device on hand. Kaela herself, who had participated in a number of these missions to gather enough funds to buy more ores, knew exactly how much such a product would be desired.
Unfortunately, they often could only be bought from outside markets and in small quantities.
The Polished Glass Faction would change all of that.