Once Gloriana clung to Ves like an adoring wife, Clixie no longer hissed at him. Instead, the furry cat cutely crawled on his lap while he checked the data.
"Miaow~"
"According to these readings, the physical performance of the Valkyrie Pri did not receive any noticeable boosts." Gloriana pointed at her terminal. "Fake resonance has a much more limited scope of improvent. It's usually just the components that incorporate self-resonating materials that are boosted. True resonance is broader and can affect the entire fra of a ch."
There was no way to arouse true resonance without pairing an expert pilot with an expert ch.
The only other thod that could produce a comparable result was forced resonance, which only happened when ch pilots broke through. This was no different from winning the lottery, so no one ever pinned their hopes on banking on forced resonance despite not needing any expert chs.
Ves had actually hoped his experint produced either true resonance or forced resonance. The forr was like winning the jackpot while the latter was like getting the second prize.
Reality on the other hand saw fit to hand him a consolation prize. While pri resonance appeared to be stronger than fake resonance, it wasn't very useful in this context.
Ves pointed his finger at the projected schematics of his ch. "The problem with what you've just described is that my ch's armor system and internal fra is almost entirely made out of Unending alloy. The pri material I've used is also top notch in terms of defense. Strengthening the defenses of this material even further is completely redundant."
He would have wanted the pri resonance to enhance other aspects of the Valkyrie Pri. Increasing the mobility and offensive power of his ch would have a asurable impact on its battle performance!
Gloriana humd as she thought about this issue. "From what I can see, I don't think you can utilize Unending alloy in many other ways. Even though you have clad the flight system of this ch with this pri material, it didn't gain any additional thrust. We need to learn how to apply Unending alloy in other ways. Utilizing it as armor and internal support is only the most shallow application. One way I can think of to leverage Unending alloy further is to fire it as a projectile."
"Absolutely not!" Ves instantly replied. "Don't even think about that! Unending alloy is incredibly rare, strong and precious. Even if it's available on the market, I doubt we can afford any with our current ans. Unless proven otherwise, I'll assu that this alloy is only available in the Nyxian Gap. While I am willing to keep an open mind, I highly doubt that Unending alloy or its component exotics can be found in the Red Ocean. That ans we can't waste a single gram of Unending alloy."
"It's just a possibility, Ves. I didn't an you should go through with it. My point is that you need to be more clever with how you utilize Unending alloy. If I was in your place, I would have started with just a fraction of Unending alloy. I wouldn't have used it all on armor plating, structural parts and armants."
"This isn't just an experintal ch. It's also a ch that is ant to be deployed in battle. If you set aside pri resonance, the Valkyrie Pri is by far our toughest and most damage-resistant chs. That alone is worth using up so much Unending alloy. It's not doing anything useful while it's collecting dust in our vault."
Gloriana still had a point, though. As both of them studied the effects of pri resonance, they concluded that it was effectively useless in its demonstrated form. Even if the Valkyrie Pri exhibited ten tis stronger resonance, it only offered an extra layer of protection to a ch that already possessed excellent defenses!
Due to the many limitations they faced, Ves saw no way to improve his ch by focusing on this aspect.
He would rather focus on another, more mysterious angle.
"My goal is to achieve true resonance." He stated. "That hasn't changed. Even if it isn't possible to accomplish it with our current resources, I want to co as close to it as possible. I managed to create pri resonance by putting sothing together that is completely different from existing thods. My current idea is to expand upon the incorporeal and human side of my project. My specialty is man-machine symbiosis, so I must continue to explore the Valkyrie Pri concept from this angle."
His wife tentatively nodded. "I can't help you much on that aspect, but what I can do is optimize your ch. Even if you swapped out one material for another material doesn't an the ch performs as optimally as before. The altered mass and density of the Valkyrie Pri has unbalanced the fra. I'll go ahead and correct that while I perform so other optimizations."
"Don't spend too much ti on that. There are several other expert pilots who urgently need improved chs as well. Our overall priority lies in boosting the strength of our expert pilots as quickly as possible rather than perfecting the ch of a lone individual."
Gloriana frowned. That did not sit well with her. "Why are you in such a hurry, Ves?"
He hesitated for a couple of seconds.
"It sounds silly, but… the Living Prophet made a prediction that we might be confronted with so enemies on our way out of the star sector."
"That's impossible. Our fleet is incredibly powerful and we are still inside Hegemony-aligned space. If the Fridayn are targeting us, then they need to muster up thousands of chs and lots of carriers. It's impossible to hide the movents of a massive fleet."
"I know. I agree with you. We're detouring through Vicious Mountain just to stay as far away from Coalition-aligned space as possible. We might encounter other enemies along the way, though. What if so Garlaners attempt to waylay us? What if we'll encounter trouble at the Life Research Association? We need to increase our strength as quickly as possible. Don't forget that it's not a secret that our expert pilots don't have access to any expert chs. They are paper tigers who won't deter a formidable enemy."
"Hmmm. Maybe you're right." She agreed with his logic. "I don't like rush jobs, but I know this is important to you. We better do a proper job when we design our expert chs. I don't want to rush any aspect of our best works."
"I get it, I get it. Let's get to work."
Ves finally managed to get away from his wife. While she proceeded to examine the armor layout of the Valkyrie Pri, Ves rose from his seat and approached Venerable Joshua.
"Hello again."
"Oh, hey." Venerable Joshua snapped out of his daze. "What do you want to know?"
"First, let begin by telling you that we have not detected anything concerning the initial test run. Neither you nor your ch sustained any damage. We've also discovered a new form of resonance. Let tell you what we know."
He briefly filled Joshua in about pri resonance. The problem was that the expert pilot never experienced fake or true resonance. He only ever experienced forced resonance twice.
"So in conclusion, it appears the Valkyrie Pri is not capable of imitating a genuine expert ch." Ves said at the end of his explanation. "What we currently have is pri resonance, which has potential but isn't a ga changer."
"Sir.. I don't think pri resonance is as weak as you think." Venerable Joshua replied. "Back when I tried to resonate with the Valkyrie Pri, it felt as if I was trying to lift sothing heavy. A couch or sothing. I only managed to lift one side of the couch, and that was with the ch and.. the Superior Mother helping out. I could have achieved more if I was able to lift the entire couch."
That was a rather poor analogy, but Joshua managed to convey his point.
"Does this an that resonating with your ch is strenuous to you?" Ves asked.
He nodded. "It's a workout, for sure. I can't do that with other chs because there is nothing for my mind to grapple on. The Valkyrie Pri is the first ch I've piloted that I feel useful as an expert pilot."
"Interesting. Tell more about how you feel about the ch itself."
"The ch is quite friendly to . I can actively feel the Superior Mother's influence now that I know what to look out for. I actively tried to get in touch with her and tell her what I want. I can feel she is helping in so way, but don't ask for any details. The ch is very powerful to , but it's frustrating that I can't fully channel it. There has to be a way!"
Ves nodded and smiled in encouragent. "I think so as well. We'll have to perform so subsequent test runs in order to gather more data and try out so different thods."
They began right away.
While Gloriana worked to optimize the armor layout of the Valkyrie Pri, Ves frequently commanded Venerable Joshua to pilot the Valkyrie Pri.
Since his expeditionary fleet was engaged in FTL travel most of the ti, it wasn't possible to deploy the Valkyrie Pri in space.
Fortunately, it wasn't necessary to do so. After a few cautious attempts, Ves decided to keep the test runs in his personal workshop. It featured enough space for a ch to move around in a very tight circle and rise a bit in the air, but not much more.
In fact, Ves didn't even need the Valkyrie Pri to move. It was already sufficient to station the ch in the most open space in his workshop before ordering Joshua to keep the ch still.
It was already enough to gather data on the ch while Joshua was actively inducing pri resonance. The machine glowed brightly in the ch workshop, but none of the nearby production equipnt suffered any damage.
The repeated tests fatigued Venerable Joshua. While he didn't feel much strain if he induced pri resonance for a couple of minutes, it quickly added up when a session stretched on for twenty minutes or longer.
To be fair, other forms of resonance aside from fake resonance were also strenuous to ch pilots. The power granted by resonance always ca at a price. The greater the resonance, the greater the burden on the ch pilot.
Still, no matter how much Ves was asking from Venerable Joshua, the expert pilot diligently did what he was told. He did not ask for any reprieve.
"I can still go on, sir! I am nowhere near my limit!"
While Ves worried about overworking the expert pilot, he wanted to stress test the Valkyrie Pri and its ch pilot. He needed to know if so kind of limit existed if the combination continually engaged in pri resonance.
The frequent, lengthy test runs were very useful in other ways. Sustained use of the Valkyrie Pri soon exposed so details that took Ves by surprise!
"This…"
"What's the matter?"
Gloriana walked over as Ves looked shocked at the pattern he read from the data!
"Look at this graph."
"I see it. The squiggly line is slightly rising upwards. It's quite flat, though, so the change isn't drastic. What am I looking at, Ves?"
"Resonance strength. According to this chart, in a span of four days, Joshua's resonanc strength rose from 2.51 laveres to 2.55 laveres."
"What? That's impossible! Expert pilots are only capable of growing stronger when they are piloting actual expert chs! Everyone knows that!"
"Well, apparently I ca up with a new thod. Pri resonance isn't the sa as fake resonance. The latter is entirely produced by the ch, while the forr is sothing that an expert pilot actively needs to induce. I think that our pri ch is sohow capable of allowing an expert pilot to 'exercise' the aspect that is responsible for resonating with a ch!"
This was a considerable discovery! If this was true, then the expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan didn't have to wait to receive their expert chs in order to develop their new powers!
A few days later, Ves made another discovery.
The Valkyrie Pri had slightly grown weaker. As Ves carefully examined the ch, he discovered that it had lost at least 100 Ves!
"Where did it go?"
In the process of investigating whether pri resonance slowly consud the spiritual energy stored inside the Unending alloy, he ca up with another experint.
Everyti spiritual energy was being consud, sothing happened. What if Ves attempted sothing that consud even more spiritual energy?
As soon as the fleet transitioned out of FTL, Ves imdiately comnced his next test!
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