"Is that related to that huge ore pile you made me put on my lap?" Kyle asked.
He looked over to the pile and smirked.
"It's not that huge anymore, though," he said.
"Yes," Theodor commented. "Refine the materials according to my instruction."
"Speaking of, couldn't I have done that before we went in here to save time?" Kyle asked.
"Shut up and do what I say."
"Sure thing, Boss," Kyle said with an eye roll.
He walked over to the materials and grabbed the first stone.
"Refine only a very small part of it," Theodor said.
"Why?" Kyle asked.
"Just do it!"
"Sure thing, Boss."
Kyle infused the stone with his Ether, and moments later, his eyes widened.
'That's crazy!'
When Kyle infused the stone, he felt like he could look into it.
It was almost like the stone was transparent, even though it wasn't.
It was like he could touch any spot inside and outside of the stone.
Controlling the ore was so much easier than before!
It was almost like some kind of pudding!
He focused on one spot near the edge of the material and pulled on it.
Kyle recoiled as that spot turned into powder before falling to the ground.
"Eh, is it supposed to do that?" Kyle asked, looking at the powder.
"No," Theodor said. "That's why I told you to only use a small part. You failed the refinement."
"What? How?! I felt like I was in complete control," Kyle thought.
"You didn't use enough Ether. Use more Ether next time."
"Okay," Kyle answered as he focused on another spot.
This time, he used much more Ether.
BANG!
And it turned into powder again.
"Too much?" Kyle asked.
"Not enough," Theodor answered.
"Wait, seriously? I used like 5% of my Ether for this tiny spot!"
"This is a Rank C Material and not an easy one to refine. The only reason why you were able to afford it in the first place is due to how energy-intensive it is to refine!" Theodor shouted. "Now, get to it! Use more Ether!"
Kyle took a deep breath and shoved 20% of his Ether into it.
This time, it didn't immediately turn into powder.
Instead, it started to wobble before flowing to the ground as a liquid.
"That good?" Kyle asked, looking at the tiny puddle.
"The amount of Ether was adequate, but it wasn't stable enough. Keep it stable," Theodor commanded.
"Fine!"
Kyle tried three more times, but the material always turned into liquid again.
"Dude, this is hard!" he said.
"This is nothing," Theodor said with a snort. "You held this pile of ore while advancing, which means it is attuned to your Ether. That's called Familiarizing, and it makes it much easier to refine the ore. If you didn't familiarize yourself with the ore, I wouldn't even tell you to try."
Kyle took a deep breath.
"I'm not sure how many more times I can try this. I don't have an endless amount of Ether, you know."
"There is plenty of Ether in front of you," Theodor said. "You're a dwarf. You can consume the wasted product to regain your Ether."
"Huh, you're now actually telling me to eat stones?" Kyle asked.
"You've done it before."
"Sure," Kyle said with a shrug as he gathered some of the powder.
He opened his mouth and-
"Stop!" Theodor said.
"What?" Kyle asked, holding the powder in front of him.
"Consume it via your airways," Theodor said.
Kyle's mind took a while to process what Theodor just said.
"Wait, what? You're telling me to snort this?" he asked in shock.
Theodor always seemed quite angry whenever Kyle did that, but now, he actually wanted him to do it?
"You have used the Mental Tome. Your Ether Equilibrium is no longer as important. Overcharging your mind is no longer an issue. You need a powerful mind to control the subtle movements of Ether in the material," Theodor explained.
Kyle blinked a couple more times.
'Well, I'll be…'
"Sure thing, Boss," Kyle said as he made a long line of powder.
Then, he snorted the entire thing.
He grew excited, but his excitement quickly vanished as he realized something crucial.
He didn't feel full of energy like all the other times he had done this.
Instead, everything just seemed to move a bit slower.
'That's boring,' Kyle thought.
"Stop wasting time! You're using up the Ether without doing anything with it! Refine the material!" Theodor shouted.
"Oh, yeah, right."
Kyle tried and failed again, but this time, he saw where he had gone wrong.
His increased perception was just enough to show him the tiny moment in which the material broke down.
After two more tries, Kyle managed to actually refine the material, creating a small sphere with it.
"Good! Refine the entire thing, but do it in small increments. You can still fuse the refined material later," Theodor said.
For the next minutes, Kyle refined the entire stone.
Then, he went on to the next material, which was not easy to refine as well.
Three hours passed before Kyle managed to refine all the materials.
"Alright," Kyle said, breathing heavily. "What now?"
"Follow my directions EXACTLY," Theodor said. "We only have one shot at this, and if you mess up, you will lose all the materials."
Kyle nodded.
Then, Theodor ordered Kyle to put the materials in a certain order.
After doing that, Kyle used his Fire Ether to ignite one of the materials, which burst into white flames.
The white flames were so hot that Kyle's body received minor burns just from sitting beside it.
Then, Kyle used his Soul to create a shell of Wind Ether around the flames, guiding them onto a tiny spot.
While all of this was going on, Kyle had to use his Metal Ether to manipulate the different materials.
It was not easy, but what Kyle was doing was definitely easier than refining the individual materials.
After about 30 minutes of work, the process ended, and Kyle saw an orange, green, and grey sphere in front of him.
"Good," Theodor said. "This is your new Mining Weapon Core. It should last you until your next advancement."
"Wait, it will last me that long?" Kyle asked. "Wouldn't I need a Grade B Material for that?"
"This is a Grade B Material," Theodor said. "It's an alloy."
Kyle remembered the Stygian Graphite he had seen in the crevice of that big Abyss Eye.
The thing he made was on the same level as that?
"That was… surprisingly easy," Kyle said.
"Creating alloys is not difficult," Theodor said. "The problem is finding a way to create an alloy with desiring properties."
"I spent years creating alloys for different Affinity combinations, and this was one of them. Every single alloy took me several weeks to create."
Kyle looked at the sphere in shock.
"How much is this worth?" Kyle asked.
"This is my alloy. Nobody else can create it," Theodor said. "This means this is unique. The blueprints for an alloy are exceedingly expensive, and nobody sells them with a smile."
"Since you are the only one who knows how to make this, you have full control over the supply."
"If I were to estimate, I would say this sphere is worth about ten Mana Gems."
Kyle's eyes widened.
'Brah!'
'Ten Mana Gems!'
'That's like… more than ten times what the materials are worth on their own!'
'I literally just made money out of essentially nothing!'
"Don't get too excited," Theodor said. "Without Familiarizing, you wouldn't have been able to make this. This is a one-time thing. Creating another one will take you months of effort, and you also need to become a Mid Warrior first."
Kyle sighed.
'Was too good to be true.'
"Put it into your Mining Weapon."
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