The Transcendence Pill he received from the System as a reward from the Glowing Planet campaign came with a very powerful benefit . It could directly break the attribute limit of any of his mental Attributes .
There were two major problems . One of them was that it hadn't mention any way to control the outcome . Ideally, Ves hoped to boost his Intelligence, because it would directly help the speed in which he mastered his new and overwhelming Senior-level Physics Skill .
The other problem related to the amount of time he'd be indisposed . The Pill's description offered a very wide range of time, from just a single day to eighty-eight days of adjustment . In the meantime, Ves would fall into a coma as the Pill did its magic .
"I can't afford to be down for three months . The Bright Republic's situation will certainly deteriorate in that time . "
Ves thought about it and figured the main reason it might take so long to unlock his genetic limit . The Pill would be facing an uphill struggle if the person who ingested it possessed a weak foundation .
Most of his mental Attributes scored 1 . 7 and higher, so Ves had no concerns in that area . However, just to be safe, he spent the last dregs of his DP to round his Attributes out to its current maximum limit . At his state, Ves had no excuse for leaving his Attributes so low .
[Intelligence Attribute Candy]: 1800 DP
[Intelligence Attribute Candy]: 1900 DP
[Creativity Attribute Candy]: 1900 DP
[Concentration Attribute Candy]: 1700 DP
[Concentration Attribute Candy]: 1800 DP
[Concentration Attribute Candy]: 1900 DP
"Too bad the Store doesn't offer any Spirituality candies . "
If his conjecture about the source of the Store items was correct, then Ves shouldn't get his hopes up . After all, not a single human in the galaxy possessed a deeper systematic understanding of Spirituality .
The candies worked their magic in his body and Ves could feel his mind grow in minute ways . The boost in strength had not been as large as crossing past 1 . 0, but it definitely brought other benefits . It appeared the closer a human got to 2 . 0, the more their mental prowess quickened and became more steady .
"It's actually an increase in stability!"
A small weight had been lifted from his mind, and strange enough, the internal energy cycle within his body had also grown a little lighter . Ves rubbed his stomach and chest with a deep expression .
"So this thing that Dr . Jutland has implanted within me isn't purely a physiological matter . It's strongly related to my mentality . Perhaps it's even directly related to Spirituality . "
He always suspected something like that might be true, but he subconsciously dismissed it all of this time because of Dr . Jutland's crazy ravings . His constant rants about the importance of developing the mind over the body sounded crazy back at the time, but now, Ves couldn't help but reconsider his words .
Had the mysterious and rebellious Five Scrolls Compact been on the right track? Why had they fallen out with the CFA and MTA?
A chilling dread ran through his spine . Dr . Jutland appeared to be an outcast of the heretical organization . If the higher ups of the Compact took him a little more seriously, they might have been able to master the phenomenon of Spirituality .
Fortunately, from Jutland's resentment, Ves gathered that the Five Scroll Compact focused most of their efforts on enhancing their physical bodies . They pursued a completely different direction .
"It's not like they can help it . Human science is still biased against things they can't observe . "
As long as no one could sense or measure spirituality directly, even the most radical scientists in the Compact possessed no clue .
Still, Ves did not underestimate the ingenuity of the human mind . Like Dr . Jutland, there must be several other hermits and outcasts who might be on the right track, if only coincidentally .
At some point, the secret wouldn't be a secret anymore .
"At least I have a head-start in this field . "
The benefit of being a pioneer was that he could reap the benefits first . Ves became more determined to develop his mental Attributes and find a way to grow his Spirituality to even greater heights .
He took the rest of the trip back to Cloudy Curtain to rest his mind . He cleansed his mind of any distractions and attempted to bring it to its peak state .
He shoved aside any concerns about designing a rifleman mech for later . He also halted his attempts to integrate the influx of Physics knowledge .
The Barracuda took a little longer than necessary to return to Cloudy Curtain . Even though she possessed enough capability to hop directly from the Joe System to the Bentheim System, such a straight and obvious trajectory could easily be traced back to Ves .
Thus, Captain Silvestra chose to obfuscate their presence by transitioning to a number of uninhabited star systems before they finally approached Cloudy Curtain without passing through Bentheim .
The monitoring equipment in the Cloudy Curtain System was extremely rudimentary . The captain believed that it wouldn't be able to pinpoint the exact star system the ship had made their final transition .
"Good work, captain . " Ves nodded to Silvestra as he stood on the bridge while the corvette made her final descent onto his home planet . "I won't be needing the Barracuda for a couple of months I think, so she should get back to regular duty . "
"Understood, sir . "
The Barracuda had become something of a status symbol to the executives who needed to commute between Cloudy Curtain and Bentheim . Her sleek appearance and impeccable Coalition pedigree always impressed their business partners .
Once they reached the spaceport, Ves left for his old workshop with his intangible pet in tow . At first, the security escort dispatched by Sanyal-Ablin looked nonplussed at Lucky's casual ability to pass through the plating of the armored shuttle .
"Hahaha, don't mind my pet . He recently received a couple of upgrades . " Ves quickly attempted to defuse their suspicions while trying to grab on to his lawless cat . Unfortunately, he utterly failed at grasping onto Lucky as he floated through people and fixtures with no regard .
The journey back to the old workshop therefore became a little tense . Ves had no doubt the security officers would report their sightings back to Sanyal-Ablin's office, which would then pass on the intelligence back to the Konsu Clan .
Ves had made no attempts to hide Lucky's new state . Even if he could get his cat to obey him, the benefits decisively outweighed the risks .
He had done some studies of Lucky's intangible state with the help of his Vulcaneye . It turned out that Lucky had become as elusive as if he entered the field emitted by the Privacy Shield . Although optical sensors could still detect the mechanical cat, many other sensors ceased to work entirely .
This turned Lucky into a great spy and thief . Ves had become well aware of the implications as Lucky had raided the Barracuda's stores of spare materials bare with impunity .
Thinking about his losses prompted Ves to stare his pet with a vigilant expression . Lucky had better not try to break into the storerooms of the LMC .
"I'm keeping my eye on you . "
"Meow?" Lucky responded back, and tried to act cute . He floated down to Ves and partially solidified on his owner's lap . "Meow!"
Ves couldn't help but take the invitation and stroke Lucky's back . He chuckled . He couldn't stay angry at his pet .
A couple of hours later, the armed escort arrived at the outskirts of Freslin . The old workshop looked a little bit less lively since he last visited the place . When Ves exited the shuttle, he met with Carlos who waited on him at the front entrance .
"Carlos, how's it going here?"
"It's largely empty here at the moment . We've already moved most of our operations to the new complex . By the way, you forgot to name it . Everyone's calling it the Complex or the Place . It gets confusing sometimes . "
"Let me think about it on the way . First, I want to take a stroll through this workshop one last time . "
Before Ves left for the Joe System, he ordered the LMC to pack up and move to their operations to the new complex with haste . Even if the construction project hadn't been finished yet, Ves wanted to hurry up with the move because it was already a lot safer to work from there .
As Ves entered the halls, he instantly noticed the lack of furniture and people moving around . Previously, the office areas of the workshop had been packed with workers . Now, their absence left a gaping void that could never be plugged again .
The old workshop already attained a touch of history in its empty halls . Almost everything from the desks to the monitoring equipment had been removed . Only the old cleaning bots still moved within these halls . The old machines had been left behind because the manufacturing complex possessed a better suite of bots .
After glancing at his old personal office, Ves wandered over to the yard, the empty storerooms and the fabrication hall .
The mech technicians had already packed up the Dortmund and the rest of the main production line and moved them away . The absence of all the large machinery had turned the hall into an empty cavern .
"Just think about it . " Carlos prompted . "Almost two years ago, you began your business with a single old printer and assembly machine . I doubt you had more than a couple of million credits to your name . Now, your net worth must have ballooned into the billions . "
With his enhanced mind, Ves sensed the subtle thread of envy in the voice of his friend . "It's all thanks to my designs . Without my work, the LMC would have never grown so big at this point . As the first person who joined me, I won't mistreat you . "
He felt the need to reinforce Carlos' loyalty . Ves casually handed him a bonus of a couple of million credits, but they both knew that such an amount of money wouldn't change anything .
"You've already been more than generous to me, Ves . " He responded as he looked at Ves with a despondent expression . "The money is great, but it's the practice and the books that's truly useful for me . I've been studying under you for all this time . "
"How far have you come along?"
"Further than when I started . I've even designed some variants of the Blackbeak in my spare time . Would you like to take a look at them?"
"If you wish . "
This time, Ves gazed with interest as Carlos transferred some files to his comm . He projected the design schematics and studied them with his full professional attention .
He knew why Carlos opted to design a variant of the newer Blackbeak instead of the older Mark Antony Mark II design . The latter was an extremely complex hybrid knight while the Blackbeak was one of the simplest mech types in existence .
However, just because the Blackbeak appeared relatively simple didn't mean it contained a lot of complexity . Ves incorporated a lot of subtlety and nuances into the Blackbeak . Those who failed see through these secrets would never be able to trump his original vision .
Ves only took a minute to determine that Carlos had missed the most essential points . His variants all increased the Blackbeak's power at the cost of endurance .
That didn't sound so bad on the surface, but many of the Blackbeak's components specialized in lasting power . To turn that around and force them to perform past their shallow peaks meant that they'd be worn out within months at worst . For a design that Ves intended to last for at least a decade, that was blasphemous .
If that wasn't bad enough, Carlos had also botched the tradeoffs . He traded far too much endurance to squeeze out just a little bit more peak performance out of his variant . If Ves made a casual effort, he could easily double the gains, not that he would ever want to . Carlos opted to pursue a vision that was diametrically opposite to the original intention of the Blackbeak .
As for the X-Factor, Ves generously didn't include that factor in his evaluation . Carlos hadn't been clued into that particular secret anyway .
When Ves wiped away the projection of the design schematic, he turned his eyes towards his friends . "I don't know how to say it, but your work could use a little more maturing . "
"That bad, huh?" Carlos replied with a low voice . It was as if he already accepted that he botched his designs . "Can you tell me what I should work on?"
Ves quietly sighed in relief . At least his friend hadn't been in denial and accepted his shortcomings . There was hope for him yet . "Before you design a variant, it helps if you set a vision for it that's compatible with the base model . You can't turn a marathon runner into a sprinter in a single go . Figure out a set of criteria that your variant has to meet that's also not too different from the parameters of the base model . "
"Won't that defeat the point of my work? If my variant performs too similar to the original work, what's the point of publishing a variant in the first place?"
"That's not exactly wrong, but it's better to err on the side of caution . Get some practice in first before you begin to deviate further . Try to figure out a way to add a new capability without sacrificing too much performance . For example, the Blackbeak has always been a little bit poor in terms of heat management . If you can come up with a solution with regards to that area, then you can save me a lot of trouble . "
Hope sprung in Carlos' eyes . "You can count on me, Ves!"
Chapter end
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