Ves left the Tree of Possibilities and climbed up the steps leading to the summit of the mountaintop. He hadn't visited the top of the mountain for a long time. Compared to the more practical areas of the System Space, the Sacred Temple provided little obvious benefits to Ves. The Pantheon was where Ves could check up on his state and the state of his incarnations, but he wasn't able to do much else. The Chosen Courtyard was where he could host his so-called Chosen Envoys, but Ves had yet to recruit any for his cause. The Sacred Hearth was the core of the Sacred Temple and supposedly held his Divine Core and that of his incarnations. Ves still had a poor understanding of Divine Cores. He didn't know what they represented and what made them different. All he knew was that his Divine Cores were all underdeveloped. Each of them resembled flickering candle flames that looked as if they could be snuffed out at any moment. The one corresponding to Vulcan was a little stronger due to his greater spiritual development, but its quality was still low for the most part. There was an important reason why he entered the Sacred Hearth. The knowledge imparted by the latest enlightenment fruit had caused him to develop a strong suspicion. "The reason why Orven Ritual Sacrifice Altars and by extension other divine artifacts are special is because they have merged a part of a powerful individual's Divine Core!" This went beyond anything that Ves had dealt with before. Not even the act of creating an incarnation was as extreme as splitting off a shard of Divine Core before merging it into a different object! This was an exceedingly dangerous process and could easily kill or cripple the orven that wanted to make an altar. The reason why the orvens were able to create their special altars to begin with was because they prepped the leader orven with a lot of nonsense. By creating an elaborate ceremony around this event, the priests essentially drugged and hypnotized the leader orven into exposing their Divine Cores before subsequently chopping off parts of them to use in the creation of the corresponding altars. "The reason why cutting off the limb works is because it puts the leader orven in the right mindset! The flesh isn't that important. What matters is that the individual also cuts off an invisible part of themselves in the process!" Not every orven could complete this ceremony. Only a small part of the total population was able to make a useful altar. Ves believed that was because only a few of them possessed sufficient spiritual strength and talent to form a Divine Core in the first place. The ability of certain orvens to create working altars formed one of the foundations of the orven caste system. The upper caste orvens were so powerful and capable of doing so much more that they didn't even regard the lower caste members of their race as individuals! "Being an orven is great if you are spiritually talented, but if you're not… then you will never get to enjoy true freedom." The orvens showed many traits that were similar to humans, but they also adopted customs that completely set them apart. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞 Ves found everything related to their sacrifices to be abhorrent, but that didn't mean he was willing to discard what he learned. He obtained a lot of useful knowledge, including a way for him to make a divine artifact if he wished. "I don't even have to read orven religious scriptures for several weeks on end while ingesting various mind-altering substances." The reason for that was because of the ethereal flames that were burning in front of his eyes! "It turns out that one of the purposes of the Sacred Hearth is to make my Divine Cores more accessible!" Ves never really figured out the point of building the Sacred Hearth until he ate the latest fruit. The System had somehow brought the Divine Cores or a reflection of them to this place. Not only that, but the System also made them tangible, allowing him to touch and manipulate the Divine Cores as if they were physically present! Perhaps Ves might not know how profound that was before today, but now that he learned the unique cultural practices of the orven race, he understood how precious it was to be able to manipulate his Divine Cores on demand! "A Divine Core is like the source code of a god. Changing it can directly change a deity!" It turned out that the Mech Designer System 2.0 provided Ves with a huge opportunity by setting up the Sacred Hearth. Gaining access to his Divine Cores without needing to turn himself into a pilgrim and drugging himself stupid was a massive convenience! "No wonder those orven prisoners spilled so much information to me back then." Ves suddenly realized. "Their so-called gods are truly able to wield a lot of power if they have received enough sacrifices." There was another factor that enabled the best and most talented orvens to break their biological limits. In order for the leader orvens to expose their hidden Divine Cores and make it possible to slice out a part of them, they had to be injected with a dangerous substance. That substance was known as phasewater! "Crazy! These orvens are mad for coming up with this step!" The earliest orvens had access to phasewater. Somehow, they came up with the idea of ingesting the substance or injecting it directly into their bodies. Most times, these crazy experiments ended in gruesome deaths, but there were rare cases where the stupid bastards managed to survive! Ves guessed that the first orven 'gods' came into existence through this reckless experimentation! "The existence and presence of phasewater has certainly distorted the societies of many alien races." He surmised. "Without phasewater, the orven race would probably be a lot more similar to humans." He didn't know how it worked, but somehow the act of injecting phasewater into the body of an orven helped with exposing that individual's Divine Core. It was as if the Divine Core existed in a different dimension or realm but could somehow be brought to the material realm. Even as the orven race became more advanced and began to master the power of technology, they never found a way to get rid of this essential step. Although modern technology, extensive augmentation and more optimized ceremonies had substantially reduced the lethality of this move, fatalities and crippling injuries still occurred from time to time! Normally, if Ves wanted to make his own divine artifact, then he would have to subject himself to the same dangerous treatment. "Luckily, I don't have to do that!" Ves grinned. A part of him understood now why the System offered the Divine Artifact Creation Mission. It was well within his means to complete it given the resources and facilities within his reach. That said, the process could still be dangerous to him depending on how far he was willing to go in exchange for power. He was confident that he could create a weaker divine artifact without taking any risks. He just had to take as little away from his Divine Core as possible. "Taking away a tiny shard won't fundamentally affect the health of my Divine Core." Ves said. "It is only when I go further that problems will occur. Divine Cores can restore themselves over time, but it becomes harder if it has sustained more damage and lost too much strength." There was another point of concern that caused him to hesitate a bit more. "A divine artifact has to be a true extension of myself." He sighed. "Sorry, Blinky. I can't use your Divine Core as a substitute. It has to be me who makes the sacrifice." The Mission description was rather clear in that he needed to create a divine artifact based on the essence of his power and rules. Blinky might be another part of himself, but the companion spirit still possessed slight differences that would end up imbuing a divine artifact with different properties. "It has to come from me. There's a reason why there are three Divine Cores in the Sacred Hearth instead of two. The System still considers us as separate entities with separate Divine Cores." It was an interesting observation that had a lot of implications. Ves didn't have the time to think it through, though. He had no interest in jumping too deep into the Spiritual Ascension rabbit hole. "Let's start with designing my first spiritual artifact." Ves no longer delayed any further and proceeded to accept and start his work on his new Mission. There was a lot of leeway as far as divine artifacts were concerned. They could be small, big, strong or weak. Bigger divine artifacts tended to be more powerful, but also imposed greater demands. For example, when it came to the Orven Ritual Sacrifice Altars, their maximum size was limited to the strength of the fragment of a Divine Core. More powerful entities with more powerful Divine Cores could probably get away with obtaining a much larger divine artifact! "As for me… I should probably lower my expectations." Ves wasn't willing to push the limit on this. He was deeply reluctant to inflict too much damage on Divine Core. He didn't really see much benefit in creating a powerful divine artifact. "As a mech designer, the only way for me to grow stronger is to design better mechs and progress my design philosophy." He already understood what it took for a mech designer to become a Senior. He also had a decent idea on what he needed to do to become a Master. However, the gap between a Master and a Star Designer was enormous. Ves could not rule out the possibility that a divine artifact might play a useful or even an essential role in the subsequent evolution of a mech designer. If Ves settled for a perfunctory divine artifact, then it would be a lot more difficult to make any progress in the future! Despite this possible truth, Ves wasn't too afraid of starting out small. He thought about his mechs, his design spirits and many other products. The one thing that all of them had in common was their capacity for growth! "In fact, even Orven Ritual Sacrifice Altars are able to grow stronger over time, but that is usually because the orvens they are attached to have gained strength." Ves wasn't satisfied with that. He guessed that the relation between a divine artifact and a 'god' was similar to the relationship between a mech and a mech pilot. The stronger the mech pilot, the stronger the mech. The stronger the mech, the stronger the mech pilot. If this comparison held up, then a stronger divine artifact might be able to help Ves become a lot stronger over time! In what way, Ves didn't entirely know, but it should definitely be a positive development! "Just like how a masterwork mech has helped Patriarch Reginald Cross to overcome his bottleneck and become a Saint, a powerful divine artifact can lower the threshold of my own future breakthroughs!" He could be wrong, but he didn't think the System would lead him astray. Since it had issued a Mission that encouraged him to create his own divine artifact, then it should definitely provide a lot of help to his development. He just hoped that it would help him become a Star Designer as opposed to an unholy abomination. Ves spent a bit of time to come up with a direction for his divine artifact. He wanted to make one that was small and easy for him to carry around. It didn't necessarily have to be strong from the start, but it had to possess a good foundation and an excellent growth framework. It also needed to be alive and related to mechs. His eyes suddenly lit up as he stumbled upon a fantastic idea! "Oh, I know! Let's make a cat!"