Chapter 5999 Floating Tusa felt unprecedentedly free. His body was no longer as weak as before. He managed to change it somehow. He did not understand the first thing about biology, so he was not able to quantify the changes like a scientist. The expert pilot could just feel that he was no longer inhabiting the same collection of meat and bone as before. He could vaguely sense that his plan succeeded. He managed to alter his body on a fundamental level. The changes might not be too strong, but it already made a huge difference as far as he was concerned! His willpower could still sense the presence of phasewater dispersed through his injured but recovering body. As the doctors around him had already taken action to restore one of his lungs as well as the other parts of his body that had gotten torn, Tusa already started to laugh. "Hahaha… I did it… phasewater… can't do anything to me anymore!" While his statement was a bit exaggerated, he instinctively knew that his relationship with phasewater had changed forever! His perception of space had changed on a small but fundamental level. As Tusa disregarded his physical pain, he became fascinated by how much he gained from vanquishing the threat posed by phasewater. It was difficult to describe all of the changes. His body felt… lighter somehow. His weight did not change, but… it was as if he had become a little less anchored in reality than before. He had the illusion that as long as he flipped a switch that did not exist, he could phase his body out of the material dimensions in a similar fashion to Lucky. This was an amazing gain if his judgment was correct! Tusa no longer had any fears that he would put himself in any harm if the Dark Zephyr gained the capacity to phase through other objects. What mattered the most right now was that he successfully managed to neutralize the threat posed by the phasewater that was buried in various parts of his body. 22:29 However, there were more changes than that. His perception of space was rather strange. It was not an effect that he expected or desired. It was not that strong either as the sensitivity of this new awareness of space did not stretch across the entire mech workshop. What mattered the most right now was that he successfully managed to neutralize the threat posed by the phasewater that was buried in various parts of his body. Somehow, his body and the space occupied by it just refused to give in to the harmful effects produced by phasewater. Even though Tusa and his companion spirit no longer exerted any active form of suppression against phasewater, it was fine. As far as Tusa could tell, his transformed body simply… refused to allow the space it occupied to bend and tear. He interpreted it as a more advanced form of evasion. The most straightforward form of evasion was to physically move his body out of harm's way. What he had done now was to occupy the same space, but somehow deceive reality into treating as if his body occupied a different location from where the phasewater was doing all of the harm. It was a bit more complicated than that, but Tusa felt this was as good of an explanation as any. All he cared about was that this new capability not only made him impervious to the harm posed by Ves' blood, but also gave him inspiration on how he should develop his ability to avoid harm when piloting the Dark Zephyr! "This is our future!" The Dark Zephyr had already been leaning in this direction from the start. The prime abilities and resonance abilities already granted his expert mech the ability to draw fire at his apparent location without actually getting hit. The potential to allow his expert mech to phase through attacks that were certain hits on command was the next evolution of his piloting journey! Freedom tasted sweeter than ever before. In the rush and euphoria of his weird sublimation, Tusa felt as if he could liberate himself from more shackles of reality! However, that was a consideration for later. Right now, he wanted to pilot the Dark Zephyr Mark III more than ever before. He already knew without entering the cockpit that he had definitely improved his ability to phase through space alongside his expert mech. He no longer felt he was holding back his expert mech anymore. Tusa smiled as wide as he could. He did not disappoint himself. He just managed to catch up when his new expert mech was about to assume his new and improved form! "Ves!" He asked with a hoarse voice. "When… when is my machine ready?" "Just ten minutes to go." Ves responded from the open cockpit of the new archemech. "We are putting the finishing touches to your new expert mech. The upgrade has succeeded as you can tell. We just need to make a few final adjustments to tune your machine in the most optimal state." Tusa almost couldn't wait! He restrained his urges as much as possible. He knew that the additional wait was worth it in the end. He had already managed to keep the phasewater in his body suppressed for almost a week. He could wait a little longer to get his hands on his new machine. "Then hurry up! I want to pilot it right after you are done." "Are you sure about that, Tusa? It is really impressive how you have managed to endure the test for so long, but your brain and willpower are probably stretched beyond their limits. You urgently need to rest in order to recuperate and heal." "NO! I will not wait any longer! I have waited far too long for this! Don't stop me, Ves! I can still pilot my improved mech." Though Ves had reasons to doubt that, did not attempt to deny Tusa his wish. The expert pilot may be in a bad shape right now, but his desire and enthusiasm had reached a new peak! Ves exchanged glances with Gloriana and continued to finish up the Dark Zephyr Mark III. By now, the entire machine had almost fully converted into his new archetech configuration. Whenever Gloriana tested the archemetal parts to verify that they had fully integrated into the brand-new mech frame, she grew more pleased when she confirmed that the new components linked up with each other. Alas, she was only able to verify that the archemetal parts could successfully link up on a one-to-one basis. It still remained unclear whether the entire archemech would be able to function as a single whole. The fact that the living mech still remained intact throughout the comprehensive transformation of his physical form was a good sign. As the final minute ticked down, Gloriana completed her own task and floated over to the cockpit to see whether her husband was done with his own handiwork. Ves had just affixed an amended status plate below the main console. "Done! Let's head back outside!" When Ves and Gloriana quickly floated out of the cockpit, they looked back to see whether their expert mech managed to pass muster. "It's happening!" Gloriana gasped! She noticed it before Ves. As the living mech fully settled into his new and massively improved form, a wonderful physical transformation took place. "The Dark Zephyr has turned into a masterwork!" One of the Journeymen standing at the side exclaimed! While the masterwork transformation was already familiar to the Miracle Couple, it was completely novel to the recent recruits! They had never seen a masterwork mech take shape with their own eyes! This was the first time they received the privilege of observing it in realtime! Every mech designer could no longer keep their distance anymore. They hopped over the railings and moved towards the newly elevated masterwork mech in order to observe and feel the mysterious transformation up close! Fortunately for them, neither Ves nor Gloriana cared about the presumptuous actions of their subordinates. The Dark Zephyr Mark III was Ves' 12th and Gloriana's 11th masterwork mech. Normally, that should have meant that they had already witnessed this transformation enough time to harvest most of the insights that they could obtain from this sort of event. The reality was different this time. The Dark Zephyr Mark III was their first true archemech, and thus turned into a radically different masterwork mech than the two had ever made before! Gloriana became delighted when she managed to harvest a dozen completely novel insights that she never came across in the past! This was just the beginning as the masterwork transformation began to expose other imperfections and areas of improvement that she never noticed before. It became clear that she was still so new to archetech that she had only scratched the surface of its greater potential. There were still a lot of nuances that she had yet to master. This partially resulted in a rough and less optimal archemech design. Gloriana briefly glanced towards Ves. As much as she wanted to take credit for turning the Dark Zephyr Mark III into a masterwork mech, the decision to use archetech had dragged down the expert light skirmisher's quality. If not for the fact that Ves had been insanely brilliant by inventing his first new Ultimate Module and using a strange gem that possessed a remarkably useful effect, the only other way for the Dark Zephyr Mark III was to rely on her god body solution to compensate for her many mistakes over time. All of this reinforced the fact that the Dark Zephyr's intangible properties had become even more impressive than his tangible properties! Soon enough, the new and unprecedented masterwork transformation had run its course. The Dark Zephyr Mark III finally assumed his final form in truth now that he had managed to climb up to the second rung of the Craftsmanship Ladder. Silence descended onto the dimly lit mech workshop. Though Ves and Gloriana had worked hard to successfully convert the Dark Zephyr to his current state, their exhaustion was nothing compared to that of Tusa! Everyone wanted to find out how Tusa fared with his new expert mech. The expert pilot did not disappoint the crowd. With the help of a few more stimulants and a bit of emergency treatment, Tusa managed to regain enough energy and fitness to lift himself off the bed. He activated the antigrav module of his piloting suit and steadily floated up to the cockpit. "Can I…?" "He's all yours, Tusa." The expert pilot reverently entered the cockpit and settled onto the new piloting chair. Almost nothing looked the same anymore. Though Ves and Gloriana had tried their best to make the layout and so on identical, the use of new materials and more advanced tech had left their mark on the entire mech frame. Tusa did not regret the loss of familiarity. Change was inevitable. What he cared about the most was whether he could adapt to all of the improvements of his machine. From the moment he activated the Dark Zephyr Mark III, a very different neural interface began to form a stronger but also more comfortable man-machine connection with an archemech. Tusa momentarily blanked out as he connected to a vastly different but unquestionably more powerful archemech! As his mind and willpower began to resonate with the Dark Zephyr Mark III, his body began to experience sensations that made Tusa feel as if he was floating. What delighted Tusa even more was that he could feel as if his new expert mech was floating in sync with his own body! As the activation sequence slowly ran its course, the Dark Zephyr Mark III already began to move! The gathered mech designers all moved back in order to distance themselves from the large but very threatening machine. The Dark Zephyr's glowing eyes seemed to focus on the floating form of Ves. The true resonance generated by the expert mech also began to lock onto one of his progenitors! A strong sense of battle intent radiated from the freshly upgraded archemech. The Dark Zephyr raised an eager fist. "Let's fight!"