As soon as Ves made the connection between his current state and Lucky, he became astonished by the similarities. He never expected that he would be put in a position where he could reproduce Lucky's functionary in this early stage of his career! A crazy grin appeared on his face. "Damn, doesn't that mean I can take over Lucky's job and produce my own gems?!" He had always been dissatisfied with the limited production rate of Lucky's gems. If Ves could make it so that he could produce his own gems, then he no longer needed to cater to the whims of his lazy cat anymore. He could rely on his own 'output' to empower his mechs! Now that Ves latched onto this idea, he eagerly tried to turn it into a reality! Unfortunately, his efforts could not keep up with his ambitions. "Damn!" He had no choice but to suspend his current activities. He got stuck because he understood far too little how Lucky was able to work. Though it wasn't necessary for him to understand everything, the lack of any foundation meant that he was unable to direct the incoming creation energy to produce the functionality he sought! "I'm also missing a lot of essential materials." A lot of advanced and powerful systems required the support of exceptional materials. Ves could not reproduce materials out of nothing. He could only gradually increase the amounts of materials that were already at his disposal such as Unending alloy. "Oh well." Ves was only reluctantly able to modify his digestive system so that he would not poison himself to death by putting raw metals in his stomach. Instead, it would digest the metals that it was strong enough to handle and void the ones that were too tough or troublesome to bother with. He had to make sure that none of the metals got stuck on the way out. He did not look forward to visiting the infirmary one day in order to request the doctors to 'clear' the congestion! Ves did not have much confidence in the capabilities of the digestive system that he had shaped through his haphazard actions. He could probably digest most low-grade exotics, but he was iffy about anything better. "This will probably improve over time. The more my body evolves, the more it can transcend the boundaries of reality." He could attain much better results if he implemented the same sort of digestive system to his cyborg cat. The divine artifact had absorbed the bulk of all of the exceptional energies, after all. It was much closer to reaching the state of a True God than Ves himself! Ves turned his attention back to his self-augmentations. In order to prevent his teeth from breaking if he ever bit on a piece of metal, he strengthened them to an unnatural degree. Though he didn't expect to be able to chew through mechs as easily as Lucky, the strengthening was sufficient for the time being. He moved on to adding an energy weapon to his leg. This time, he decided to integrate a small laser weapon into his big toe. He possessed a great understanding of how energy weapons worked, and he even found a way to fool the creation energy into making tiny luminar crystals! "It's a good thing I integrated a few luminar crystals in my Unending Regalia." The laser weapon was incredibly small by necessity, but Ves did not ask for much. He didn't think he would ever have to depend on it to get out of trouble, but who knew what the future might hold. In the end, Ves stopped with adding any further weapons at this point. He could think of much better ways to make use of the limited internal volume than adding more weapons. "The CyKin Gun and the CyLas Gun should be enough." The two names corresponded to the Cybernetic Transphasic Kinetic Ankle Gun and the Cybernetic Transphasic Laser Big Toe Luminar Crystal Gun. Though the names were a bit too unwieldy, he didn't have the time to come up with more elegant labels. One of the factors that made these compact weapons so powerful was that they were both transphasic in nature. The galactic energy supplied by the Red Ocean was already making its mark on Ves. Not only was his entire body slowly morphing into a state that allowed him to start integrating minute amounts of phasewater, his intuitive and theoretical understanding of phasewater had also been boosted! It was as if he had spent years in a foreign country while struggling to learn the local language, only for him to 'get it' one day! Right now, all of the difficult textbooks about phasewater and transphasic technology that he painstakingly read in the past became a lot more comprehensible than before. It was as if he had whacked himself with his Hammer of Brilliance and understood all of the theories and associations that eluded him in the past! "So that is how phasewater works!" While he had hardly turned into an authority on phasewater, he no longer felt as stupid as before. This was why he was able to make both of his weapons transphasic in nature. As for where the phasewater is coming from? The creation energy directly converted a small portion of his blood into phasewater! This was not as impressive as it sounded. His evolution was not that great, so he estimated that only 0.01 percent of his total blood volume had been converted into phasewater. Increasing the concentration any further would begin creating health problems that Ves was highly keen on avoiding! Ves already figured out that the concentration of phasewater was an important variable. He guessed that reaching 100 percent phasewater blood concentration was the end state for many indigenous 'gods'. "If my guess is right, then the local versions of True Gods are incredibly powerful organic beings that have successfully converted all of their blood into phasewater!" The fact that pretty much all of the indigenous alien races referred to phasewater as 'godblood' made a lot more sense all of a sudden! In other words, this was the alien variety of divine ichor! So what did it say that 0.01 percent of his own blood had turned into phasewater? "I guess I can pass myself off as a demigod in front of the natives of the Red Ocean." This was starting to become confusing as humanity already attached the label of a demigod to expert pilots. "Urgh, I can think about the semantics later." Ves took a close look at his cyborg cat. Compared to himself, his divine incarnation was much further ahead in its evolution. He estimated that approximately 5.3 percent of his cyborg cat's total blood volume had transformed into phasewater, and this proportion was slowly rising over time! "I knew it was a great idea to add blood circulation to my divine artifact." In any case, the large disparity between himself and his cyborg cat showed how much weaker he was compared to his divine artifact. Ves had to show a lot more constraint as he continued to work on himself. "Let's finish the remaining features." He proceeded to add a lot of systems that might be handy one day. For example, he added a mineral scanner that would allow him to prospect for ores and metals from the environment. He also concentrated a lot on life support systems. He added a life support suite that consisted of many small systems that could help keep him alive if he ever got stranded on an untamed planet. The oxygen extractor could pull out oxygen from both water and air. The moisture extractor could prevent him from dying from thirst. The heat generator could keep him warm in a frozen environment. The refrigeration module could vent a lot of excess heat when it was too hot. While these features were all useful, they took up a lot of leg real estate. Ves did not have much room left, so he needed to be careful about his remaining choices. "Let's add a few mobility systems next." He worked to integrate a miniature antigrav module that could allow him to float and support his entire weight under standard gravity conditions. He also added small maneuvering thrusters that allowed him to change his trajectory if he ever ended up in deep space. Now that he had filled up the interior, he proceeded to surround his limb with an exterior that largely consisted of Unending alloy armor plating. "It will be difficult to hide how powerful it is if I leave it be. It's a good thing I thought about it in advance." He integrated active and passive ECM systems inside his leg that largely served to hide and obscure its powerful functions. Ves even extended his original skin over his cybernetic lower leg to camouflage it as a normal leg! "Hm, this isn't enough to hide all of my new changes." Though he did not expect to hide his radical transformation from everyone once he returned home, he hoped to avoid attracting as much attention as possible. He at least needed to ensure that the MTA did not sniff out his extraordinary changes before he grew powerful enough to get away with it. Who knew what they might do to him once they discovered that he had 'gone native'! Now that he had finished creating a new cybernetic leg for himself, he devoted his remaining time to tweaking the rest of his body. He glanced upwards. The storm clouds had grown more active and violent than ever, but his defensive lines were holding just as well as before. "The storm is beginning to run its course." He had a hunch that his 'punishment' had gone past the halfway point and was well into its second half. "Damn, I need to hurry up before this buffet comes to an end!" Ves proceeded to poke his own body in many different places to direct the creation energy to augment himself in different ways. For example, he reinforced his bones with different biometals. He especially paid great attention to reinforcing his skull and his spine as they contained and supported his central nervous system. He enhanced his flesh to make them stronger, denser and more efficient. He also paid extra care in making his arms more dextrous and precise. He augmented his senses so that they could switch over to a high sensitivity mode where they functioned similar to organic sensor systems. His eyes, ears, nose and even his skin could gather and interpret a lot more data than before! He made sure to keep their sensitivity at normal levels if he did not need all of the extra input. He did not need a nose that was 10 times sensitive as before when he was doing his business in the bathroom! After that, he spent his remaining time on the most important body modification of all, which was hiding his transformation as best as possible! While his CyLeg's ECM systems already helped with blocking surface scans, he needed to do more to hide his shocking changes. "I need to implement two different solutions. First, I need to be able to block any scanning that can reveal what is really going on inside my body. Second, I need to apply a camouflage layer on my exterior that can fool most observation devices into thinking that I am just an ordinary baseline human. Neither of these changes were easy to implement, but Ves possessed enough of an understanding in this field to be able to manipulate the creation energy into growing the necessary organic components. Ves added the two aforementioned systems to his body with great effort and a bit more time than he originally thought. By the time he was done, he used his Unending Regalia's intact sensor and scanning systems to sweep his own body. The combat armor failed to decipher his true nature. Granted, his Unending Regalia was not dedicated towards scouting, but Ves had made sure to integrate it with the best possible miniaturized observation systems that he could obtain at the time. Was it enough to block the high-powered scans of the MTA? Ves seriously doubted it, but he hoped that as long as he continued to evolve and increase his phasewater blood concentration, his camouflage systems would eventually become good enough. After implementing these essential changes, Ves wanted to spend his remaining time on adding exterior protection to his body. Unfortunately, the lightning storm finally had enough of Ves! As the storm clouds had reached their most oppressive level, a humongous lightning bolt that was twice as powerful as the last one overwhelmed the defensive line and struck Ves' body with plenty of power to spare! "YEEOUCH! THAT HURTS!" A part of his body had grown crispy again, though the ensuing creation energy already healed much of his overburdened flesh and organs. In the meantime, the air above his head rapidly cleared up. The storm clouds dispersed rapidly now that they finally lost their support. Ves grew incredibly disappointed as his free source of creation energy had disappeared. He wanted this part to go on longer so that he could morph his augmented body even further. "I had so many ideas!" As the lightning tribulation finally came to an end, Ves quickly donned his half-functional Unending Regalia while recalling a fat and happy-looking Blinky back into his mind. After that, he glanced at his cyborg cat that had become much more extraordinary than before! Already, the connection between him and his divine artifact allowed Ves to sense the huge concentration of power locked within his deceptively small divine artifact. Yet before Ves could inspect his latest cat any further, his eyes widened in alarm as he noticed that his proud creation was not as stable as he thought. Powerful energies continued to circulate throughout the cyborg cat's body. What was especially notable was how much Worclaw energy its miniature jutland organ had produced after absorbing and converting so much excess energies! "Damnit, my cat will blow up if this goes any further!" Ves tried to command his new incarnation to vent the excess Worclaw energy, but his cat had so little control over it that it would drain itself completely if it opened the floodgates. He looked around. He could command his new cyborg cat to expend all of its excess Worclaw energy right here, but that was a massive waste of power. "Wait... what if I let my new cat unleash its power back in reality?" His plan couldn't keep up with the circumstances. He originally intended to continue to milk more Ascension Points from the System so that he could develop a superweapon that could harm the unclean whale that had broken out of the Palace of Shame, but perhaps Ves had accidentally created the weapon that he already sought! Ves tried to determine his cyborg cat's phasewater blood concentration. "It should be around 6.9 percent." Was this a lot? Ves had no idea, but he guessed that it was already enough to produce powerful results. His cyborg cat inspired a lot of confidence from him. It might not be large or strong enough to defeat a cannibalistic phase whale by itself, but it should have enough power to disrupt the enemy's actions! Ves made a spontaneous decision. Its phasewater concentration was not the only reason that gave him a lot of confidence. As far as he was concerned, Worclaw energy was one of the most potent energies that could be found in the Milky Way. The lightning baptism had unintentionally caused his cyborg cat to generate so much while simultaneously keep his cat from blowing up due to all of the pressure. Yet now that his cyborg cat no longer received any creation energy, it was finding it increasingly more difficult to contain so much power! "It's either now or never. I'm betting on you. Don't let me down!" He did not dare to waste any more time. He reached up and grabbed his new cat and issued a command that would seal his fate. "Take me back to reality. It's time to end this crisis!"