[Thanks to Mr. Ham (5/6)]

Talon kept glaring at Leonel fiercely, making the latter have to use all his willpower to not roll his eyes. Clearly, Talon wasn't going to give in until Leonel explained how he had done it.

"Annoying..." Leonel muttered. His mind was occupied by other things right now. He was still trying to thread a needle, and this bastard was obsessed with something he had done casually. For a moment, he almost wished that he had just given him the victory. But then he might have had to listen to the man's drivel.

"Your thinking is far too rigid. You're obsessed with bringing out the best qualities in both and making sure that they balance, when that's not necessary at all. The point isn't to create the purest treasure; purity is subjective and changes based on the observer. I'm sure there are some cultures who would lambast you for daring to think of touching a woman's hand before marriage, and others that will look down on you for not having a harem of them.

"Crafting is just a reflection of real life. When you start with three separate ores, purifying them to 100% and then trying to Craft with them is like pulling out a rubber band and extending it to infinity while expecting it not to snap.

"The Elastic Flash Ore has its own tendencies, as does the Sparking Rose Ore, and even though everyone just thinks of it as a foundation layer, so does Urbe Ore.

"Your job as a Crafter should have been to mute some of the clashing characteristics and let the others shine.

"The Elastic Flash Ore has a great ability to disperse attacks, forming tracks for Forces to run along. The Sparking Rose Ore is excellent at forcing the Forces to converge onto a single point, while amplifying it.

"The latter works more so with capillary action while the former relies on the principle of flowing from areas of higher concentration to lower.

"If you formed a network of them instead, alternating between whether they converge and where they diverge, taking advantage of their properties, muting them in certain locations and amplifying them in others, rather than forming a treasure that could only act defensively like yours, you could create one that could be used both offensively.

"I don't just need to sit here and wait to be attacked like an idiot, I could flood my brace with my own Force and use it to launch an assault. Likewise, I can flood my Force through in a different pattern to amplify my defenses instead."The other problem with your braces is not only the fact that it relies on getting hit first, but it also wastes way too much. It relies too heavily on the fact Sparking Rose can only take on Force from a single point at a time. So while it seems like it's "amplifying" an attack, in reality, it's only amplifying a small portion of it.

"If you had designed it like mine, the Elastic Flash Ore would have diverged the force outward, and then filtered it through several points in the Sparking Rose Ore, allowing it to amplify the whole strength of the attack to be used instead of just a portion of it."

Talon stood frozen.

The problem wasn't that he didn't understand Leonel's words. Theoretically, it was possible. But theory was one thing, actually doing it was a completely different matter.

The fusion points between the Ores would be especially contentious. You couldn't just "use impurities to mute their characteristics" like Leonel had said, that was asinine.

Impurities couldn't just be used like earmuffs in the cold. You'd have to make the change on a molecular level. And that change would have to be extremely stable as well to be part of the overall design, or else any small change would ruin the entire Craft.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt what Leonel was saying was ridiculous. Was he just making things up to piss him off?

He looked at Leonel as though he as on the verge of losing his mind. But Leonel sneered.

"No. It's just that the gap in skill between the two of us is that large. Like I told you before, maybe if you used your fists you'd have a chance.

"But in a battle of Crafting?"

Leonel couldn't be bothered to finish his words, looking toward Celestia who was clearly shaken.

"What? You don't want to challenge me anymore? I could have sworn you were eager. Didn't you want the treasure?"

Minerva's eyes flashed with a dangerous light. Leonel was digging a bigger and bigger hole for them to jump into.

But the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. If he wanted to deal with them, why did he goad Talon into action first? Shouldn't he have hidden his skill or eked out a victory? Why did he perform so well instead?

She found herself getting lost in Leonel's rhythm. There was only one way forward. They had to win an astonishing victory, and it had to be through the Force Pill Crafting stream.

"We-"

"Just going to tell you in advance, if you challenge me in Force Pill Crafting... I'm going to give up."

Leonel's laughter erupted while Aina shook her head and smiled.

Celestia froze. Indeed, Leonel had just accepted a challenge; he had the right to reject now.

Celestia subconsciously looked up toward her master, not sure of what to do.

"Your master's not going to be able to help you out here," Leonel said, continuing to laugh.

Every one of his words was more lethal than the last.

Celestia's eyes snapped back, but that only made her look more guilty.

"If I might say something," Somnus suddenly spoke lightly, intervening. "Quite frankly, I think you'd misunderstood something, Leonel, right? We are not your enemies here. Contrarily, you've been doing your best to antagonize everyone since the start of this Gathering of Minds.

"Master Minerva gave us all points to begin with, and Talon only mentioned putting up 28 of those, so why are you insistent on using the Life Tablet? No one ever asked you to bring it forward in the first place."

Leonel's laughter faded away, his gaze narrowing as he looked toward Somnus.