Chapter 2178 Huge Vortex Ves grew curious about Captain Nodan's usage of the B-stone as a sleeping aid. He decided to try it out himself. Surprisingly, just placing the B-stone in the vicinity of his bed while he slumbered truly increased the quality of his rest! When Ves woke up the next day, he shoved Lucky's body from his face and turned his head towards the case holding the B-stone on the bedside table. If he looked at it with his normal eyes, he didn't see anything special. The rock was completely inert. It was only until he observed with his spiritual senses that he detected a subtle change. Ever since Task Force Predator entered the Nyxian Gap, Ves felt as if he entered a huge interference field. The difference wasn't immediately apparent at the outermost edge of the region, but as time passed by, the disturbance in the surrounding space gradually grew stronger. This was rather worrisome to Ves, though everyone else just thought it was another unique quirk of the Nyxian Gap. The Nyxian pirates and everyone who entered this region had already taken it for granted. Aside from making people restless and not entirely at ease, the widespread interference field didn't seem to do any other harm. Ves felt there was more to this field than what everyone else thought. The Nyxian Gap held too many mysteries, chiefly why such a weird place popped up in the first place. Reality did not entirely work normally here, and the endless amount of asteroids floating around was just scratching the surface! "Hmm. Everything seems to point to the center of the Nyxian Gap. It's the origin of everything. If I want to obtain answers, I'll have to travel deeper." The periphery was the least-affected region of space. Wreckage Paradise only offered visitors a preview of what was in store. If what he suspected was true and the strange spiritual interference field grew stronger at Maynard Fields, then the demand of an object that could dampen or restrain the disturbance would grow stronger! "If the pirates know that B-stones can make them feel at peace, then they will definitely hoard them if they manage to get their hands on them!" Ves realized with a gleam. That said, Ves highly suspected that B-stones were so rare that not every pirate leader had the privilege of owning them. He would have to raid a lot of pirate fleets in order to obtain the loot he desired. The problem was that the smaller pirate gangs shouldn't have the capital to possess something so rare, while the stronger pirate groups and alliances would definitely bleed his forces! For now, attacking every pirate force in Wreckage Paradise shouldn't be a problem, but Maynard Fields was a different story. Not only were the pirates who managed to establish a foundation in the inner periphery rather strong, they also had at least some friends. The Larkinson Clan could easily attract the hatred of dozens of pirate groups if his fleet recklessly offended everyone within reach. Calabast and Major Verle already warned him that they should change their approach once they exited Wreckage Paradise. Though Ves was loathe to do so, he did not wish to put his clan under excessive risk. Earning merits came first. Obtaining B-stones was just an unexpected bonus. Ves should firmly keep his priorities straight. He freshened himself up and prepared himself for another of work. When he prepared a bowl of exotics which he appropriated from the Rust Grinder flagship for Lucky, he began to partake in his own breakfast. He felt a bit lonely despite the presence of Nitaa, who wasn't all that talkative in the first place. "I miss Benny." His executive assistant stayed behind at Cinach. Though Ves felt tempted to take Gavin along, there was no great need for his presence. With the Doom Guard already on sale for a time and no new product releases on the horizon, the LMC's growth had smoothed out. The regular reports that Ves received sufficiently kept him in the loop. There was no need for him to be appraised of the state of his mech company in person when he should direct most of his attention to his dangerous excursion. "That reminds me, some of my mechs are apparently acting wonky." Once he finished his breakfast, he took Lucky and boarded a shuttle that brought him over to a light carrier owned by the Living Sentinels. Since the fleet did not travel through FTL, there was nothing stopping him from visiting the other ships of Task Force Predator. Once he stepped into the hangar bay of the light carrier, he greeted the captain of the ship before immediately ignoring the fellow. Instead, Ves carefully observed the handful of LMC mechs that had been put on standby. When Ves observed them with his spiritual senses, he found to his puzzlement that their spiritual nature differed from his expectation. Though the differences were subtle, he felt as if all of the glows of the Aurora Titans and Desolate Soldiers had undergone some minor amplification. They grew stronger. The difference was minor, but as somehow who created them in the first place, the fact that every LMC mech received some sort of minor boost regardless of their individual differences was very odd! As Ves quietly observed the mechs some more, he frowned deeper. The mechs were spiritually active. Both their spiritual foundations and their design spirits were rooted in a different realm. Now, it seems as if they were both being affected by some sort of omnipresent external influence. It did not take long for Ves to tie this effect to the weird spiritual interference field that encompassed the entire Gap! If this was true, then the glows of his mechs might grow even further! He made a note in his implant to keep track of the fluctuations in strength of his glows. Once he completed his inspection, he boarded his shuttle and returned to the Scarlet Rose. Though he was supposed to head to the conference and evaluate the mech design proposals that the LMC's assistants had come up with, Ves was distracted by the observations he made. Everything he had learned today suggested that spirituality and spiritual energy behaved in a different fashion inside the Nyxian Gap. Though the changes were mild so far, what if other anomalies emerged when his fleet traveled deeper into the Nyxian Gap? Ves did not believe that the changes were limited to a gradual increase in spiritual strength! His intuition strongly hinted that there must be something else at work! On a hunch, Ves began to concentrate his mind and did something he hadn't done for a while. He cast a projection of his mind from the material realm and entered the imaginary realm. Once he did so, corrosive winds immediately battered his projection! Ves was surprised at the ferocity of the wind, and immediately pumped more spiritual energy in order to maintain his projection's integrity! "Strong!" The corrosive spiritual energy blew stronger in this region of the imaginary realm! It was as if the distortion of the material dimensions also affected the higher dimensions! As Ves adapted to the stronger winds, he cautiously explored his surroundings. He soon noticed another peculiarity. In normal places such as Cloudy Curtain, Kesseling VIII and Cinach VI, the corrosive winds that blew through the imaginary realm pretty much followed random trajectories. Just like normal wind, it could blow in every direction at any location. Though there were likely larger patterns directing the winds to be biased in a certain direction, they weren't very apparent to Ves unless he performed a systematic study. It was different inside the Nyxian Gap. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶 The winds did not blow in random directions. Instead, the wind distinctly traveled in a single, uniform direction. It was as if someone poked a hole in the hull of a starship, causing all of the air in the breached compartment to press through the cavity! Ves became unsettled as he equated the conditions in the imaginary realm to his analogy. He felt even more disturbed once he vaguely ascertained that the so-called hole that sucked up all of the corrosive winds was very likely situated in the center of the Nyxian Gap! When he attempted to gain a broader impression of the corrosive winds, he faintly noticed that they were slightly curved over longer distances. The pattern he constructed and extrapolated in his mind reminded him of a vortex. The huge, circular vortex seemed to attract loose spiritual energy from an incredibly huge region space! It was not hard to tie this huge phenomenon to the abnormal existence of the Nyxian Gap. Ves felt as if he had just been exposed to a very profound secret. This pirate-infested region became even more unfathomable in his eyes. The spiritual activity taking place in the imaginary realm was not a trivial issue at all. Not only did it cause his mechs to behave differently, Ves also suspected that his own spiritual powers might be affected! Was this another reason why his parents fled to the core regions? Aside from being able to avoid pursuit by taking advantage of the difficulty of navigating through the asteroids, perhaps his mother also took advantage of the spiritual phenomena! The overall strengthening effect meant that his mother likely had an easier time with maintaining her unusual state. Her powers also grew stronger, and the interference field might also interfere with the means the Five Scrolls Compact employed to track her across unimaginable distances. In fact, the unusual spiritual phenomena in the Nyxian Gap should also be highly interesting to the Compact. It shouldn't be a surprise that the cultists set up their regional headquarters close to the center of the Gap! When Ves thought through the implications, he felt as if a veil had just been torn away. Right now, he was far enough from the abyss to turn around and leave its influence. Yet.. another part of him urged him to step closer. He wanted to get closer so that he could finally obtain some answers to the questions that had plagued him for years. Still, he reluctantly reined in his urges. As much as the strange spiritual phenomena offered a lot of attractive research opportunities, he could not abandon everything just to satisfy his curiosity. "What do you think, Lucky? Should I go deeper or should I stick to my original plan?" He asked. His cat playfully floated in front of his body. "Meow." "Yeah. I'm not strong enough to enter the core regions." "Meow meow." "I agree. Gloriana won't like it if I don't make it back in time for our wedding." "Meow." "If my mother repeatedly warned me to stay away, then she has good reason to do so. Whatever is going on in the center of the Nyxian Gap is none of my business." If Ves was still by himself, he might have chosen a different course, but his many responsibilities and obligations held him back. His attachments to Gloriana and the Larkinson Clan restrained him from following his impulses. He felt as if he was being shackled. "That's not necessarily a bad development." He recognized. Ves knew that acting without any regard or constraint was not always the best choice. Plenty of fanatics along with the cultists of the Five Scrolls Compact always acted on their extremes no matter how much harm they inflicted on themselves and other people. Though a part of Ves longed to become free and unrestrained, modern society had no place for people who possessed no bottom line. If he wanted to avoid becoming a fugitive, he had no choice but to accept his shackles. "Maybe it will be different one day." He idly hoped. The more powerful he became, the more leeway he gained to act out on his own. He needed to advance Master first before he should even think about breaking some of his shackles! "Until then, I should keep my head down and behave!"