Leonel opened his arms wide. Suddenly, Little Tolly, who could fit neatly around his wrist, became a large blanket of liquid, silver metal. If the little guy, or rather, not so little anymore, wanted to swallow Leonel whole, it was more than possible.
In two years without Leonel, Little Tolly had grown stagnant. But, even before that, the Metal Spirit had long since entered the Fourth Dimension and was well on his way to the Fifth. If not for Leonel stalling his progress, he would have already entered such a state.
Luckily, despite still being in the Fourth Dimension, Little Tolly didn't seem to have many problems swallowing and molding Fifth Dimensional metals. But, this only made sense. After all, in order to step into the next level, a Metal Spirit would need to be capable of devouring on step above it.
That said, there was less ease to it. Leonel had to be more forceful and deliberate with his control. The difference was akin to filling a cup with water versus filling one with wax.
In the first case, the water would easily take the shape of the vessel. In the latter case, though, the wax would have to first be melted. And, in the case that it wasn't melted, one would have to struggle to mold it by hand and press it into the shape you wanted.
Given this analogy, molding Fourth Dimensional metals was like water, while molding Fifth Dimensional one was like wax.
Even with this being the case, though, Leonel's skill didn't seem to miss a beat. His mind had split so many ways that he could control every minor little detail with a level of comfort that made it seem as though it was no more difficult than it had ever been.
The design Leonel had decided upon would be centered around the dictionary. It would be his navigator and his trusted AI. Leonel had reached a point in his skill where he was confident enough to do this, and he also realized that it would make much of the rest of the process easier on him.
With the internals figured out, all he needed to focus on were the defenses of the spacecraft and its propulsion system.
The outer hull would be an alloy of Splitting Sky and Dusted Cloud Ore. The inner hull would be formed of Whistling Howl Ore.
Splitting Sky Ore was a durable but light Wind Elemental Type Ore. It was very good at deflecting winds and dealing with high speeds. At the same time, it had more durability than the usual Wind Elemental Ores.
Its domineering name came from its wind nullification ability. A location where the Ore swept through would be devoid of Wind Force for a moment, at least that was the illusion that it portrayed.
The truth was that the Wind Elemental Force was being frozen, its particles attracted to this Ore almost like a magnet. This usually made this ore a good option for Wind Elemental weapons used by those who had mastered momentum type techniques. However, this was maybe the first time such an Ore was being used as the shell of a ship.
Dusted Cloud Ore was a Star Elemental Type Ore. It was named as such because it was often used as a finisher, somewhat like a coat of painting for certain types of Ores. This coat of painting, though, was great at muting the effects of the metals it coated, as well as giving it added durability and heft.
Finally, Whistling Howl Ore was a Wind Elemental Vein Type Ore capable of using accumulated Wind Force.
Usually, ships were either designed with Light or Space Elements in mind. It was rare for an interplanetary ship to be built with the Wind Element as its focus for obvious reasons: It wasn't the most efficient.
There was only so fast wind could propel you through the vastness of space. However, Leonel had his own plans about this matter. His conviction only seemed to grow as his hands moved faster and faster.
It went without saying that while Leonel had improved his Crafting through his Dream World in those two years, he also improved his hand and finger speed and coordination.
He was already at the Superior Grade Two Designation at a Bronze Standard. If it wasn't for the limitations of his body, he knew that he would already be at a Superior Grade One Designation.
The hours blazed by one after another, Leonel's hands never pausing for even a moment. In fact, he only seemed to quicken his pace as though he was only becoming more and more comfortable.
"Since you're already here, is there a need for you to continue to hide?"
Leonel's voice came suddenly, his hands never stopping.
Bits and piece of ship seemed to come together like fusing tides. But, Leonel knew he wasn't quite finished yet. Of the three hours he had given himself, only two and a half of them had passed. It seemed that even his worse case scenario wasn't as worse case as it should have been. It could only mean that those looking for him were indeed quite skilled.
Leonel believed that best shot at finding him would be some sort of tracking ability or a minor level of omniscience similar to Goggles. But, the latter ability would require a lot of information that Leonel had been sure not to leave, while the former should have been very difficult given the climate.
How would you follow someone's scent with so many winds whipping about so viciously, for example?
By the time those experts found his trail, whatever smell he had left behind would have been scattered to the other side of the planet. And, if they instead chose to observe Leonel's actions instead, he had left behind enough subterfuge to delay them for three hours.
But it seemed that even he wasn't perfect.
Now he had an incomplete ship and four experts walking out from the shadows to face him.
Of course, it only made things better that this mountain happened to be filled with miners as well. All in all, this was an excellent situation indeed.
Leonel sent a glance toward Manson and the others, scattered pieces of his ship laying about.