There was one other idea that Ves had in mind.
It was such an outlandish one that he did not dare to share it with Ketis.
The idea was simple. Although the technical properties of the wooden constructs were not too strong and impressive, they were mainly limited due to the suboptimal circumstances of their creation.
The Emperor Tree did not have access to top materials. It knew nothing about systematic ch design. It lacked the most fundantal understanding of the concepts behind chs.
What if a real ch designer took this thod and designed a proper 'wooden ch'?
Was it possible for Ves to collaborate with the Emperor Tree or use it as an organic ch production facility to create all kinds of strange and exotic wooden constructs that could be piloted like conventional chs?
Ves grew incredibly curious about this possibility!
Although the current wooden chs produced by the Emperor Tree did not have a lot of remarkable properties so far, they did have a few rits that were hard to replicate by ordinary tallic chs.
First, the wooden chs seed to possess regenerating qualities.
This was hard to notice at first because all of the Larkinson chs demolished the wooden constructs far too quickly for the regeneration to beco noticeable.
It was only when Ves paid attention to the wooden chs damaged by the Elegant Rage that he noticed this quality.
The wooden chs recovered relatively rapidly with the help of an abundant infusion of wood energy!
What was even more remarkable was that the efficiency was remarkably high! The Emperor Tree only had to inject a bit of wood energy to regenerate a major wound!
How could this be possible? Why was the wood produced by the Emperor Tree so malleable and easy to manipulate?
After going through his observations, Ves believed that one of the secrets may be the remarkable sap that was circulating inside the wooden constructs.
This sap produced an undeniable attraction to Ves. It was filled with such a high concentration of wood and possibly even life energy that he couldn't help but develop new ideas.
Different from tallic chs, the wooden chs were undoubtedly a lot more compatible with life energy. Ves believed he could explore a lot of interesting facets about living chs if he started to experint by applying his design philosophy to the Emperor Tree's exotic creations.
Aside from that, Ves also developed a bolder and more daring idea.
What would it be like if he combined the Carmine System with a wooden ch?
The new and potentially greater synergies produced from this unusual combination might actually spark the birth of an entirely new subcategory of Carmine chs!
Ves already ca up with the concept of Bloodfire chs as a potential upgrade path for regular Carmine chs. Just like the Dominion of Man, Bloodfire chs theoretically had the ability to utilize fire energy as a substitute for blood as a binding dium.
When he looked at the crude wooden chs produced by the Emperor Tree, he had a feeling he could use the organic circulation system of these constructs as another substitute of blood!
If he had to call it by a na, then he would call these hypothetical creations Woodsap chs, as they derived their power from the incredibly nurturing Woodsap Pact between a Carmine ch and a ch pilot.
In fact, he speculated that he did not even need to design and grow a full wooden ch in order to develop a Woodsap Pact. Only the internal circulating system that was normally used to circulate human blood had to be replaced by a special wooden version.
So long as the compatibility between a wooden version of the Carmine System and the ch was not too bad, the two should be able to get along well.
Ves widened his eyes.
"This is an excellent addition to the upcoming Everchanger Mark III Project!"
The Everchanger was the only Larkinson expert ch that was biased towards life. While that did not necessarily align him towards the wood attribute, the compatibility between the two concepts was high.
At the very least, an upgrade in this direction would truly turn the Everchanger into a regenerating powerhouse that possessed enhanced nurturing properties!
Ves was pretty sure that no other ch like this could ever exist! The Everchanger would be an utterly unique and unforgettable living ch that had developed in a unique trajectory!
His excitent suddenly dropped when he reminded himself that the decision to convert any machine to a Carmine ch had to depend on the will of the ch pilot.
Even if the Everchanger was technically the property of the Larkinson Clan, thereby granting Ves the absolute right to do anything he wanted to his asset, Venerable Joshua had long regarded his battle partner as his possession.
If he ever advanced to the rank of ace pilot, then it was practically unthinkable to recall an ace ch from a Saint regardless of who owned the machine on paper!
The extraordinary high status of ace pilots along with the incredibly unfair preferential treatnt provided by the Red Association had firmly cented this precedent!
It was the privilege of a ch designer to be able to supply an excellent ch to an excellent ch pilot.
In any case, even if Venerable Joshua wanted to keep his options open for whatever reason, Ves could just design a Woodsap ch from scratch.
Perhaps it was better this way as he could account for the presence of a Woodsap System in a ch from the start instead of trying to cram it into an existing machine.
Ves' breathing grew heavier. He wanted to work on such a project right away. He needed to gain the power of the Emperor Tree in order to get started on such a profoundly exciting extension of the Carmine System! He could feel his design fla shaking as if his design philosophy might actually be able to progress by another step once he successfully realized this innovative concept!
His eyes suddenly widened as he made another shocking inference.
"Wait, is this a potential way for to realize my design philosophy? Can I beco a Master ch Designer by developing variations of the Carmine System based on the five classical elents?"
At first, the entire notion sounded stupid and arbitrary to Ves. Why would developing five seemingly random elental variations of the Carmine System allow him to realize his design philosophy?
Then he thought about what it would be like if 5 Carmine chs that were strongly aspected towards 5 classical elents joined up and fought alongside each other.
Ves could not imagine how powerful they would beco when their respective elents synergized with each other in the most astonishing manner!
So long as their teamwork was not too bad, they should easily be able to take advantage of the mutual transformations and other interactions between the 5 elents to exert power far beyond their individual capabilities!
Ves imagined that it would be similar to bringing a split version of the ill-fated Elental Lord to life!
An outrageous notion suddenly entered his mind!
"It may even be possible for the combination of 5 ace chs with different Elental Carmine Systems to gain the effective combat power of a god ch!"
That was a crazy idea! It was far too unrealistic! It could never happen in reality! The chasm between ace chs and god chs was so wide that it could not be bridged by relying on quantity alone.
No matter whether there were 5 or 50 ace chs, each of them were as weak as babies in front of a single god ch!
Ves needed to temper his expectations.
Even though the synergies could not be maximized due to the fact that the 5 elents were all rooted in different chs, they should still be a lot higher than nearly anything else that other ch designers could produce!
"It's not going to be easy, though." He muttered to himself. "I need to develop a Carmine ch based on the water, earth and tal elent as well in order to round out my collection."
Ves was not sure whether this was even feasible or possible on a technical level.
He only coincidentally ca up with the concept of Woodsap chs by having Blinky ride along the Everchanger during this mission.
If Ves did not glimpse the Emperor Tree's wooden constructs and drew all kinds of inspiration from their remarkable properties, he may have never been able to co up with a promising idea to combine the wood elent with the Carmine System!
Personally, Ves was not quite certain whether he wanted to embed the five classical elents into his design philosophy. It would make his work a lot more convoluted and difficult to learn by other ch designers. It may also make his subsequent attempt to beco a Star Designer exponentially more difficult!
The boost in power and the humongous synergies may be worth all of the added complications. Ves was nothing if not ambitious.
As long as he was lucky and proactive enough, he may be able to figure out the water, earth and tal variations of the Carmine System within a decade. It might take even less ti since each of these elental variations may share a lot of commonalities that could save him a lot of work.
So long as he t the other requirents for promotion, Ves was reasonably confident he could quickly advance to Master ch Designer!
"If I go down this route, I am pretty sure that I have to successfully design and fabricate a working version of the Elental Lord in order to beco a Star Designer!"
That was a very shocking guess!
He knew exactly what he needed to do in order to advance to the rank of Master ch Designer and Star Designer!
This was a very luxurious benefit as most Senior ch Designers still remained lost in the fog. It was not unusual for them to waste decades if not centuries of their valuable lifespans in order to realize their design philosophies.
It also had massive implications if it was true!
The advantage of going down this route was that Ves had removed most if not all of the ambiguity about his future developnt trajectory.
He knew exactly what he needed to do in order to advance to the rank of Master ch Designer and Star Designer!
This was a very luxurious benefit as most Senior ch Designers still remained lost in the fog. It was not unusual for them to waste decades if not centuries of their valuable lifespans in order to realize their design philosophies.
As for figuring out how to beco a Star Designer? No way! This exalted rank was way too far away to these poor Seniors.
To be honest, Ves shouldn't be thinking about how to plan his subsequent advancent to Star Designer either, but he couldn't help it. Making up for his past regrets and creating a viable version of the Elental Lord was the natural step to take.
Ves still felt rather reluctant to commit to this path. His dream was to beco a proper ch designer, but getting too entangled with the five elents would yank him way too far into cultivator territory.
This was not necessarily a bad developnt, but Ves was not quite sure whether it matched his style and inclinations.
In his heart, he would much rather focus on improving the more fundantal life aspect of his living chs.
He much preferred to pursue his previous potential advancent opportunity by collaborating with Alexa Streon on combining the Carmine System with her living legacy chs.
The intended outco was to create Carmine ch pilots that could freely interface with every Carmine ch that belonged to the sa living ch dynasty.
This not only justified the existence of Alexa's works, but also circumvented the greatest shortcoming of Carmine chs, which was that ch pilots were normally bound to a single partner for the rest of their lives!
"The issue is that this research direction won't make my Carmine chs stronger. It just increases the fault tolerance of my clients and custors."
Was that truly what red humanity needed in order to repel apocalyptic threats such as the incoming Subjugation King?
Another disadvantage of this trajectory was that Ves would have to wait for Alexa to grow up and develop her design philosophy further.
He was not sure whether it was a good idea to depend on another individual to trigger his advancent to the rank of Master ch Designer.
Even if he trusted Alexa a lot for multiple reasons, what if they had a falling out in the next few years?
If he was unable to gain her cooperation anymore, then that would strand his attempt to realize his design philosophy according to his original plan!
"Ugh. What a difficult choice."
Ves could still work on both trajectories in parallel. That would allow him to break through to the next rank… eventually.
"I can't wait that long."
He knew his faults. He knew that he had a tendency to be scatterbrained, but there had to be a limit.
If he wanted to beco a Star Designer within the next 5 decades, he needed to rein in his excesses and exert at least so focus in his work.
Which research direction should he choose?
Should he dedicate his ti to developing Carmine chs in a way that would promote a huge quantity of Carmine ch pilots?
Or should he devote his ti to developing Carmine chs that were much more unforgiving but also capable of nurturing a smaller group of much more powerful champions?
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