Ves called up the design of the Blood Knight Project and studied it carefully. Unlike all of his other serious works up to this date, the Blood Knight Project almost looked unrecognizable at first. The reason why the Blood Knight Project looked so out of place was because its entire mech frame consisted of organic components! The latest iteration of the Blood Knight Project consisted of a second-class spaceborn hybrid biomech. Although Ves ideally wanted to design a quasi-first-class biomech so that it could match the latest standards of the main fleet of the Larkinson Clan, he did not want to bite more than he could chew. This was his first true biomech design project. Compared to designing a conventional mech, Ves had to overcome brand-new difficulties and complications for the first time. The biomech design-related skills that he acquired from the System could only support him up to this point. He lacked way too much experience to exploit these meager skills any further. What was worse was that Ves couldn't apply much of the proficiencies related to conventional mech design to this troublesome project. While there were definitely a lot of parallels between conventional mechs and organic mechs, they also differed in so many different ways! Designing a mech comprised of metal was like assembling a clockwork machine. Each component was discreet and could be slotted into place with relative ease. Designing a biomech was like shaping a holistic organic life form. Every organic part was interconnected to other organic stuff. Removing an organic component was not simple at all because it supported countless other biological systems. Just like how blindly adding a second heart to a random human body would lead to a cascade of health problems, Ves needed to make a host of adjustments for each organic addition or removal to the Blood Knight Project! Many limes, Ves even had the illusion thal he had become a beast designer as opposed lo a mech designer! The development of the Blood Knight Project had become very uneven as a result. There were periods where he breezed through the design problems, but there were also times where he got stuck on a single problem for days on end. It didn't help that Ves became preoccupied with many other matters In the last few weeks and months! His incarnations were somewhat capable of picking up the slack, but he had mostly prioritized other mech design projects during this period. The Blood Knight Project was too special to Ves. It deserved his full attention. Only then would he be able to complete a Carmine biomech that introduced a lot of new refinements to the Carmine System. 'This machine is a lot different from the ones I've designed before." He rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "Not even the Carmine mechs commissioned by the Survivalists in a hurry can compare to the Blood Knight Project in terms of scope and integration." The Carmine System implemented in conventional mechs had always seemed awkward to Ves. As a fully biomechanical system, it looked out of place inside the frame of a conventional mech. Even the Bastion, which he considered his best Carmine mech to date, still possessed a fair amount of suboptimal solutions and unnecessary burdens due to the relatively crude addition of the very first Carmine System to exist. This had been one of the contributing reasons why the Bastion failed to become a masterwork mech. The Blood Knight Project might possess a lot more flaws and inadequacies compared to his conventional mechs, but one of its strongest advantages was the fact that its 'Carmine System' encompassed every single piece of organic tissue sustained by blood! "In fact, the Carmine System doesn't really exist as a discreet system anymore. The ordinary cardiovascular system of the biomech essentially fulfills its purpose without doing anything special." The original Carmine System was an attempt to introduce a blood circulatory system to a mech frame that did not have anything to do with blood in the first place! Ves did not need to go through all of that effort this time because a biomech already incorporated this to a much more extensive degree! The real challenge to incorporating the essential elements of the Carmine System into a biomech was to make its blood safe for the human body. This was not technically possible unless a mech pilot subjected himself to extreme genetic modification and implantation. The 'blood' utilized by a biomech was much denser and filled with all kinds of toxic substances that could quickly poison any human body from the inside! In order lo safely merge (he cardiovascular system of the biomech and mech pilot, Ves had lo design a miration system in the cockpil. This new addition was responsible for removing all of the toxic and dangerous elements in the enriched blood of the Blood Knight Project. Only purified and diluted blood should be able to get into the body of the mech pilot. Theoretically, everything should be safe. There was little reason to suspect that the filtered blood would pose a health risk to the mech pilot after undergoing a lot of processing. Ves did not assume 11 was completely safe, though. He needed lo test this new technological implementation to make sure that he did not overlook a few variables. In any case, as long as those measures worked, the outcome should be quite considerable. "The Carmine Systems integrated in conventional mechs such as the Bastion and the Blood Star function more like add-ons rather than a core system of those machines. They only comprise up to 5 percent of the volume of rhe mech frame. While they are working as intended, 1 always feel that much of their potential remains untapped." The story was different for his Blood Knight Project. The reach of the 'Biocarmine System' or whatever was so extensive that it was in direct contact with at least SO percent of the volume of the biomech frame! The remaining 20 percent or so comprised of inaccessible organic metals that made up the bones and exterior plating. Though Ves initially wanted to design the Blood Knight Project as an uncovered biomech, he did not have the confidence to make it sturdy enough by relying on a fleshy exterior. This was why he went through the trouble of adding an exoskeleton made out of organic metals. This increased the cost and growth of the Blood Knight Project by a considerable margin, but Ves wasn't too worried about the added expenses. "It's not as if I'm putting this design on the market." The Blood Knight Project primarily served as an experimental design for Ves. It might not see heavy use once he completed it, but its existence would definitely benefit him a lot as he got to test and discover many new Interactions related to the Carmine System! The innovative new biomech design was not only important to Ves, but also the Survivalists! Ves knew that Jovy and the mechers stationed aboard the Spirit of Bentheim and the Bluejay Fleet always kept tabs on him. Their interest would always peak whenever he worked on anything related to the Carmine System. Even though he didn't like it, Ves had made peace with all of this snooping. This was a necessary cost of doing business with the Red Association. It was fine so long as he wasn't outright enemies with this powerful organization! Besides, if Ves wanted to work on a project that was truly dangerous and taboo, he could always make Veronica work on it instead. There was no way the mechers succeeded in infiltrating the Throne of Light, the flagship of the Oblivion Empire! The scrappy warship that served as the mobile stronghold of the Lady of the Night was under her permanent supervision! Ves did not believe that a True God would be blind to any shenanigans that took place well inside the range of her own domain! There was no need for Ves lo resort lo this measure tor lhe lime being. The Blood Knighl Project contained plenty of innovations, bul none of them crossed any lines lhal the Carmine System hadn't already done. "Now that I think about it, the Biocarmine System is not so much an evolution but a variation of the original Carmine System." Ves believed that the Biocarmine System could produce enhanced results compared to the base version. He anticipated that it could produce a much deeper integration between the biomech and its bonded mech pilot. The resulting 'Deep Blood Pact' could produce a lot of potential benefits, such as doubling the increase in effective genetic aptitude! If this was lhe case, then Carmine biomechs should be the most effective platform for aspiring pilots with poor qualifications. Mech pilots with extremely low genetic aptitudes and norms who did not possess any meaningful genetic aptitudes to begin with could effectively pilot a mech after bonding with a copy of the Blood Knight Project! Even pilots with better qualifications could benefit from the Blood Knight Project as it took much less time for them to receive a substantial boost in control. They did not have to pilot their new Carmine mechs for several years in order to grow their Blood Pact to the desired strength. Ves could already imagine it. Mech pilots who had the fortune to become potentates only to be devastated after learning their genetic aptitudes only reached lhe D-grade would experience a renaissance! "I'm not sure how much their effective genetic aptitudes will increase when bonding with a Carmine biomech, but it is not outside of the realm of possibility to jump from D to C from the very start. Reaching B should also be possible as long as their Deep Blood Pact has time to grow." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢 What about more? Was it possible for these marginal mech pilots who always earned lhe least amount of respect in the mech community lo attain a level of control over their machines that was equivalent to A-grade genetic aptitude?! It sounded too good to be true! Ves seriously doubted that it would be that simple, though. There had to be limits and complications that should cap or slow the relentless increase in effective genetic aptitude. Even so, any boost was better than no boost. The initial results of the Carmine Trooper, Carmine Conscript and the Carmine Raider also proved that the base version of the Carmine System could produce at least one major jump in effective genetic aptitude! The fact that it also worked in the upper grades was an important piece of information to Ves! "If I can achieve all of that with a Carmine System that is hastily designed and grown, what about a proper Biocarmine System that is properly designed and made?" The Blood Knight Project fascinated him more and more. It already held a lot of promise, but Ves wasn't entirely satisfied with its design and technological implementations. As much as Ves had broken new ground by developing the Biocarmine System that could potentially form a Deep Blood Pact, it wasn't innovative enough to represent a generational advancement. He still regarded it as a first generation product. The improvements all amounted to relatively minor and easy refinements as opposed to revolutionary additions. Ves thought that it would take years for him to reach the point where he was ready to develop the second generation of Carmine Systems. That had changed when he had incidentally discovered rhe greater potential of blood. "Right now, the blood used to bind the mech and mech pilot together isn't all that special. What if I change that? What if I deliberately add extraordinary factors into the mix? Will that lead to a holistic strengthening of both sides? Will that strengthen or mutate the Blood Pact into an enhanced form? What if I Insert trace amounts of hyper materials instead?" The possibilities were endless! Ves truly felt that if he fleshed out this amazing idea in the Blood Knight Project, the improvements would become so significant that it essentially represented a generational leap! "Compared lo the first generation, lhe second generation will truly turn lhe Carmine System into a product of lhe Age of Dawn!"