Grey turned his hand overly, watching his knuckles as he wiggled his fingers about. Black diamond began to squirm across its surface.
’Could be better.’ Grey thought, absent mindedly taking another bite of Duko’s body. ’I think I can control the structure. This is probably what separates the stronger Dormaji from the weaker ones.
’The first Dormaji I came across had a tan, almost clay-like color to them. It was like they were just normal bits of somewhat sturdy earth. But this guy was on another level. All the Dormaji I came across this time were stronger.
’The rock lady also had a unique pattern to her. There’s probably an inheritance of some sort they follow. But this guy is a bit...’
There was no doubt that Duko’s black diamond was strong, but Grey only called it black diamond because it looked kinda like black diamond, not because it was actually so strong or sturdy.
In truth, the diamond of Earth was probably only about as strong as an Established Class hardy material. If it was scaled up based on the energy of higher Classes, though, it would be stronger than Duko’s black diamond by a good amount. By at least twice as much by Grey’s estimates.
Duko was close to something great, but he didn’t understand raw materials, their chemical structure, or things of the like nearly enough.
Of course... that was just by Grey’s standards.
And, it also had to be noted that Duko had only just reached the Established Class himself. So technically, when Grey said that the black diamond was about as strong as an Established Class hardy material, Duko had already reached that standard.
The problem was that, even if it was only Established Class, Grey didn’t think it was all that good.
A so-called "hardy" material was just a material Grey put in the bucket of being known for its sturdiness. However, this black diamond would be at the bottom of that totem pole.
Any Vector Class existence with good enough talent could break it.
Of course, in Duko’s defense, he could create this nearly endlessly, and in thick deposits across his body as well. So it would probably take someone of the Vanguard Class to really put him down.
However... in Grey’s opinion, if Duko had been better, the material would be way stronger than this. Reason being Grey had studied several Established Class raw materials with a hardier structure than this black diamond.
’I can tweak the structure.’
Grey formed a fist and the black diamond on his knuckles shattered. He opened up his hand again and started to form it again.
SHIIING.
It sounded almost as though blades were singing through the skies from the formation alone. But when Grey tried to wiggle his fingers, he found a problem.
’Interesting. Is that why he held back purposely?’
The Dormaji were an intelligent race and they studied raw materials very thoroughly as well. They only lost points in intelligence when they battled, but in their normal day to day life, especially when they were forming their mineral and skin of choice, they were highly focused.
When Grey focused only on making the hardest material possible, he found that he lost all his flexibility. When he used Duko’s, he could wiggle his fingers around freely.
But when he formed his variation, his hand became stiff and he felt like he would rip apart his own skin if he tried to form a fist from an open hand.
Grey grinned. ’This is fun.’
Even now, Grey didn’t think he was being too hard on Duko. He had only come up with that new chemical structure on a whim, but if he was aware of the problems with this, he could change it again.
This was like mech crafting, but for his own body.
And what was fascinating about the Dormaji was that they could quite literally form their own raw materials in exchange for energy.
In fact, if Grey didn’t care about flexibility at all, he could just form his hand into a fist before he coated it with the raw material. The trouble with doing that was the energy expenditure.
The reason the Dormaji were perpetually coated in heavy and hardy rock was twofold, Grey realized.
The first was that it was easier to catalyze new material from old material. If there was a spot already primed with their mineral of choice, making more cost a tenth the energy as doing it from scratch.
The second reason was because it was less of a mental tax as well. Synthesizing a brand new mineral from scratch in the middle of battle was basically impossible...
Unless you were Grey, of course.
Grey didn’t see a problem with doing any of this. These abilities were so badass he didn’t really understand why the Dormaji were so damn weak.
It seemed that he had already forgotten about the first Dormaji he met that he couldn’t even cut.
However, Grey was already imagining himself forming his own raw materials, and then forging them.
The problem, of course, was the biological limit of the Dormaji... there was a limit to how good the raw materials they formed was. This biological limit wasn’t just a matter of their mental capacity, but a literal physical limit.
A lack of flexibility was the smallest potential problem.
But Grey didn’t seem to care about that either.
He adjusted the chemical structure again, and this time, when the black diamond surged into being over his hand, he clenched and unclenched his fists with ease.
He raised his fist and slammed it into the ground.
BOOM.
It cracked like an egg, and even then, he didn’t feel the slightest bit of impact on his bones. The energy rippled through him, tiny little flaps of crystal opening up and dispersing the impact.
One would have thought that Grey’s body itself had become the mech.
He couldn’t help but grin ear to ear.
He hopped up to his feet, a belly laugh leaving his lips.
Walking over to Amunet and Thi Lan, he scooped up their shivering forms.
"Alright, let’s get the three of you out of here."
He put a foot on the edge of the fountain and shot into the portal.