Ves returned to the testing grounds for the last ti hopefully. He was still excited about the energy converter he invented!
The conception and realization of this basic component was a critical step forward in his career as a spiritual engineer.
Just like how the human race began to escape the confines of their physical limitations by generating energy from heat, Ves finally took the sa step!
To be sure, the energy converter he cobbled together was still rudintary in form and function. This was normal as Ves had not mastered all of the nuances and theory involved with this kind of spiritual machine.
"In fact, I shouldn’t be able to make it in the first place."
The only reason why he managed to create it was because he borrowed the properties of a key ingredient. Without the fragnt of the Unending One providing a ready-made ’OEM component’, Ves would have never been able to create his d.e.s.i.r.ed end product!
This situation highly resembled his current approach as a ch designer. While he knew how to make basic versions of existing components, it was much more efficient for him to license parts developed by specialists. The latter delivered far greater performance than anything he could cobble up. Ves also saved a lot of ti by relying on soone else’s work rather than waste an excessive amount of ti on reinventing the wheel.
Of course, ch designers developed a worriso degree of dependence on others if they maintained this approach. It was generally good to master the developnt of at least one or two key ch components related to a ch designer’s specialty.
The problem with Ves was that his specialty was not directly related to a physical aspect of a ch. His core focus lay in spiritual design, and as far as he was concerned, his specialty worked equally well on a first-class multipurpose ch or a third-class rust bucket!
The only true path left for him was to imrse himself in designing and creating spiritual components.
This was quite an enormous challenge as he did not have any prior instruction in this field. He knew that there was a community of spiritual adepts out there that had systematically developed a complete frawork of spiritual engineering.
Yet he didn’t have access to it! His mother kept denying him and it was impossible for him to knock on the doors of the Five Scrolls Compact.
Therefore, Ves had no choice but to pioneer this field himself.
Even though he felt annoyed that he had to start from the beginning, the advantage of doing so was that it was all his own work. Not even the System could take that away from him! The innovations he accomplished not only provided him with deep insights in the fundantal nature of spiritual energy, but were also completely attuned to his own design philosophy.
The energy converter he made was a good example of that.
Due to the peculiarities of his life domain, Ves found it easier to ’birth’ and ’grow’ his spiritual creations rather than to ’build’ them up like a normal machine.
In this regard, he shared sothing in common with bioch designers.
"I guess we are both life manipulators, then." Ves remarked with a chuckle.
Still, he did sothing different today. Rather than let nature take its course, Ves adopted a more proactive approach and exerted much greater control over the creation process in order to prevent it from becoming alive.
The result was a product that was neither lifeless or fully alive.
It simply sat sowhere in between.
Though the energy converter showed so traits of life, Ves had inspected it extensively and beca reassured that it was not about to develop its own thoughts.
At least for now.
"Well, I can always kill it again if it gets too rebellious." He muttered.
It didn’t matter too much if the energy converter possessed a lot of faults. It was a first generation product that opened up a lot of new possibilities. As long as Ves was able to build on this accomplishnt, he could develop a much better version in the future.
"I can create self-sustaining spiritual constructs with the help of my latest creation!"
The spiritual device he made was not useful on its own. Instead, it ca to its full potential when integrated into sothing else. Engineering was all about combining smaller assets to form a larger asset that was more than the sum of its parts.
A device that supplied energy to the greater construct was an essential requirent to create more advanced products!
Just like how modern human technology such as comms, shuttles, chs and starsh.i.p.s all required exponentially more energy to operate, countless other spiritual applications needed to be fueled as well.
In order to confirm whether this bright new future was within his reach, Ves had to test the operation of the energy converter in person.
This was why he patiently waited for all of the pieces to be put into place. It took so ti to prepare the 40 Blinding ch prototypes for deploynt again. The test also required the participation of an expert candidate and expert pilot in order to prove that his new ch’s Blinding Pulse ability was finally able to affect stronger individuals.
Gloriana caught wind of the test and took so ti out of her busy schedule to visit the testing grounds as well.
"Miaow!"
"ow."
"What have the two of you been up to lately?" Ves suspiciously asked.
"Miaow?" Clixie innocently blinked at Ves.
Ever since a portion of the Larkinson Clan landed on the surface of Prosperous Hill VI and occupied Gentle Lotus Base, Lucky and Clixie were rarely at the side of their owners. Ves was worried whether they were bothering others. Even if they were skilled in infiltrating other places, the biotechnology employed by the locals sotis produced exceptional results.
"Don’t stir up any trouble, you two." He sternly warned.
"eeoooww..."
Before he could admonish them any further, his wife walked up to him and hugged him. Her floral scent quickly wafted over his nose, causing him to smile and revel in the presence of his spouse.
"Hey, Gloriana."
"Hey, Ves." She smiled into his eyes. "I heard you have finally solved the most serious issue with our Blinding Project. Does it actually work now?"
"That’s what we’re going to find out. To be honest, I can’t guarantee anything. I might need to make so tweaks on the spot in order to obtain the d.e.s.i.r.ed result. Since this is a completely new invention, don’t be surprised if it takes a lot of ti to get it to work."
"Mmhmm."
Although he was confident in his work, he couldn’t help but dial back his words at this ti. Living with a demanding wife had taught him not to overpromise. It was better to do the opposite and delight Gloriana when he achieved an unanticipated success than talk big but deliver a fraction of what he complained.
Soon enough, every piece was put into place. The ch pilots of all of the prototypes and the target chs had arrived. The machines had all co online and were all ward up and ready to show their capabilities.
Ves comnced the first test. "Let’s start with a baseline. I want one Blinding ch to activate its Blinding Pulse ability on one average ch."
He first had to confirm that the base functioning of his auxiliary ch hadn’t changed as a result of his changes.
A randomly-chosen Blinding ch prototype slowly stepped forward and faced a Bright Warrior IB piloted by a test pilot from the Living Sentinels.
"Comncing test."
Ves paid careful attention with his spiritual senses. He saw the ch responding to the command of its ch pilot and unleashing its Blinding Pulse ability.
"Erm!" The ch pilot of the Bright Warrior IB uttered. "I felt sothing."
Nothing much had changed. Ves sighed in relief. He was afraid that damaging its spiritual foundation and inserting a semi-foreign component would alter the fundantal performance of the Blinding ch.
"Is that it?" Gloriana frowned in puzzlent. "I don’t see any improvent."
"It’s not ant to be, honey. A solitary Blinding ch shouldn’t have the power to debilitate or incapacitate a single ch pilot. Not without so extra assistance."
The energy converter of the Blinding ch had not gone into action. No matter how amazing it was, it wasn’t able to generate any output without supplying so input!
The question was where to source the input. Ves anticipated that the Blinding ch needed quite a bit of energy in order to fulfill its ambitious purpose, so he needed to link the energy converter to an abundant energy source.
The most obvious choices were his design spirits. The ones that were flush with spiritual energy such as the Superior Mother, the Solemn Guardian and several other entities could all pitch in and offload the excess.
Yet Ves did not solely want to rely on tapping the production of other design spirits to make the Blinding ch work.
He had a more ambitious goal in mind. He wanted it to beco more self-sufficient and be able to fuel its own expenditure.
It was an ambitious goal, though. Ves did not believe the primitive energy converter he made was already at this point.
It would already be good if the ch could supply at least so of its needs.
As for where the Blinding ch would get its input from, that was what the next test was all about.
"Alright, let’s proceed with the main trial. I want all forty Blinding chs to get ready. Joshua, please step forward with your ch."
As an entire ch company of Blinding chs stood ready, the Valkyrie Pri piloted by its currently-designed expert pilot attracted a lot of attention.
Even though it wasn’t an expert ch, it possessed its own qualities that made it appear remarkable. Even Ves couldn’t help but feel fascinated by its compelling presence.
"Your orders, sir?" Venerable Joshua dutifully asked.
"I need you to exercise your pri ch."
"Pardon?"
"Just move around and perform strenuous and difficult maneuvers. Pretend you are locked in a duel against another expert ch. I need you and your ch to work up a sweat before we can proceed with the next phase."
"Okay, sir..."
Though Venerable Joshua didn’t understand how this was helpful, he executed his orders to the best of his ability. He strained his mind and tried to resonate with his pri ch. A weak resonance field ford around the ch as it began to fly around while stabbing its spear at an imaginary opponent.
This went on for fifteen whole minutes. The techs monitoring the teletry of the different chs didn’t understand what was going on at all, but they all remained quiet.
Gloriana did not. She frowned deeper and deeper. "What is the point of all of this? Are you trying to test your invention out against a weakened expert pilot or sothing?"
Ves raised his palm. "Be patient. It’s almost ti."
After a few more minutes of random exercises, Ves finally called Venerable Joshua to cease.
"That’s enough. Good work, Joshua."
Once the Valkyrie Pri returned to rest, the test pilots of the Blinding chs finally received the command that they had been waiting for. The chs all seed to shine a little brighter than before.
"Comnce!"
The Blinding chs all began to trigger their Blinding Pulse ability at the sa ti!
As the person on the receiving end of this ability, Venerable Joshua was already on guard. His intuition had already noticed sothing unusual from the chs wielding shields that were studded with luminar crystals.
When all of those crystals simultaneously flashed a light onto his Valkyrie Pri, he didn’t experience a light glint this ti.
Instead, an entire beam of light seed to have washed over his mind! It was at least a hundred tis stronger than the previous tests!
"Ahhh!" Joshua cried as he held his head. "It’s like I’m seeing stars! It hurts!"
The Blinding chs successfully affected an expert pilot!
Even though Joshua quickly regained control after a couple of seconds, the fact that the Blinding chs were able to get to this point at all was a major turning point!
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