Dimensional Descent

The Ore Leonel immediately recognized was quite a unique metal that manifested like glass. It had all the texture, feel and pliability of metal, but also happened to be see-through. This ore was simply known as Polished Glass Ore and it seemed that Kaela's faction received their name directly from this source. The only difference between it and normal glass was that it had a slight black hue to it as though in warning of its danger…

The issue with Polished Glass, though, was that it was incredibly volatile. And as Kaela mentioned, it was best not to leave it with any impurities unless one wanted a face of what would amount to a stack of TNT.

However, as it seemed with most things, the more difficult they were to deal with, the better the reward for dealing with them. The problem, though, was that Polished Glass had a very specific use case that would benefit it the greatest and it was difficult to reach this balance.

Seeing that Leonel had spent so long looking toward their stores of Polished Glass, Kaela smiled.

"Definitely do not touch that. Radlis, that brat, actually almost caused us to go up in smoke a few days ago. It's lucky that he has some use or else I really would have strangled him to death by now."

Though Kaela seemed casual with her words, the lab itself was in great order. Even at this moment, the Polished Glass was locked away safely and securely.

The five members of the faction, excluding Radlis, had all gone off to work.

Rum held two massive hammers, pounding away at something with his head hidden under a hood. Litia and Madia seemed to be taking whatever product he finished and purifying it what looked like flames. Thilly inspect their products, while it was the lanky Vaglor who took the most volatile product and placed it within the protective covering.

To give Radlis some credit, though, it seemed that he had also gotten started on the task Kaela had for him. But, for whatever reason, he kept looking back toward Leonel and Kaela with tears streaking down his cheeks. One would have thought that he was cutting onions.

The last station was completely empty. Leonel was certain that whatever processing was left would be left to Kaela herself.

"You want to watch?" Kaela asked, seeing that Leonel was still curious.

"Sure."

Kaela made her way to the last lab table, her expression turning serious. Everyone seemed to take a pause on what they were doing to look over.

The hair scrunchy that kept Kaela's ponytail in place began to flicker to life, dancing with a golden-red.

Taking a deep breath, she slipped her hands into the two openings within the transparent container, her gaze growing focused.

Her flames licking across her hair danced down her neck, along her shoulders and arms, through the slots and onto the tips of her fingers.

Very delicately, she began to handle the piece of transparent Polished Glass.

At this moment, it already looked like a finished product. There was no amount of polishing that could make it any clearer.

But, as Force Crafters, they all knew that this was an illusion. Handling such a piece of Polished Glass felt no different from standing in a nuclear war zone. Even if your eyes couldn't see it… You didn't have to for you to already be considered dead.

The most dangerous part of handling Polished Glass didn't come from purifying it to this extent.

This shouldn't be taken out of context, because it was indeed dangerous to reach this step. Rather, because the impurities were so obvious during the first steps, they were easier to deal with and manage.

But right now…? They were like hidden assassins ready and waiting to take your life.

This was the most dangerous step. Not the purification, but the molding of Polished Glass into your weapon of choice.

It took Kaela several hours of careful, step by step processes to finally mold the final product.

She gently pulled her hands out and grinned triumphantly, sweat matting her brow.

Despite how happy she was with her work, she didn't take it out of the container. Rather, after pressing a button, the container collapsed in side very gently and formed a small box of metal that Kaela then put to the side, ready to receive the next.

"… So you're making grenades?"

Kaela gave Leonel a surprised look.

"How did you know that?"

The final product looked no different from a Christmas tree ornament. It had a small round body, so small, in fact, that one could fit three into the palm comfortably. Combining with its transparent appearance and it was quite a beautiful ornament, indeed. The slight black light it radiated only made it more intriguing.

The only other oddity about the design was the small hole at the top. It was barely a centimeter and a half across and was hard to pick out amidst all the transparent glass.

This was all to say that… other than a vague similarity in shape, it should be impossible to tell what the purpose of the vessel was… Especially since it wasn't truly the final product! There was still one more step Kaela had to complete in secret before it could be deemed to be finished.

Leonel shrugged and spoke casually. "Just a guess."

Kaela's mouth opened to answer but couldn't come up with anything.

Was it really just a guess?

"It's definitely an innovative idea. Usually, Polished Glass is used as the edge of blades due to its extraordinary sharpness. But, your design is innovative. Since you can't purify the Polished Glass completely, you're taking advantage of this to finish a completely novel Craft. It's quite genius."

Leonel's casual remarks filled Kaela with pride in the beginning before she was left more stunned than anything else.

"You… How…? What?"

This wasn't analysis a layman could complete no matter how learned they were. Just telling that the Polished Glass wasn't completely purified required a deep level of knowledge.

"How?" Leonel blinked. "Oh, that's what you mean. I'm a Force Crafter too, I guess."