Notice that bug this patch that stops you from deleting all of your misc. items? It's a real pain, luckily it also works for turning in merge items if you have the exact amount needed, in that case it will only use one 1 item aka: get exactly 100/100 orbs -> tier 2 orb, + 99/100 orbs left. combine with energies and each tier 2 orb will only cost 1 energy farmed, so instead of taking 2 weeks, should take maybe 2 hours?
Enjoy.