5021 Healthy Trees As much as Ves became impressed with all of the progress that the T Institute accomplished in a relatively short amount of time, he did not have a good impression of its director. Ves periodically met and talked with the third daughter of Matriarch Erexi Aduc. He had always known her to be a studious researcher as well as a woman of faith. He knew that Gaia favored Pesca Aduc, but he never really minded it in the past because the director was good at her job. The recent changes caused her to develop a lot more powerful, though. Only a short time had passed before exotic radiation entered the fray, but already Pesca spoke like she had become the messiah of the Mother of Earth! Ves truly did not like this development. Even though the T Institute's secret research projects had made more progress in the last few days than they had in years, he had a feeling that he was losing control. It sounded as if many of the breakthroughs that the researchers had made over the past few days could be attributed to Gaia. As a woman who developed a close connection to the powerful spirit, Pesca Aduc placed more importance in her faith than her responsibilities as the director of a research institution! All of this talk about a 'holy mission' to establish a version of Earth in this new cosmic region disillusioned Ves even further from Pesca Aduc. If not for the fact that the only other candidates qualified to run the T Institute were either himself or another member of the Aduc Family, he would have demanded her resignation within the first five minutes! Ves raised his palm to interrupt Pesca's latest plea. "I have already told you that our clan and alliance have different priorities. We cannot undertake a burden of this magnitude. Do you even know what you are asking? My clan is not set up to found a colony! If you believe it is a matter of serious importance for red humanity to create a spiritual successor to Old Earth, why don't you approach the Terrans or the Red Two?" The director shook her head. "They are too powerful to take us and our mission seriously. The Terrans have more reasons to support us than any other red humans, but I am afraid that they will try to claim the Old Lady for themselves and abuse it for their own purposes. Gaia should be able to protect herself and her holy domain, but we do not want to put our sacred tree at risk at all if we can help it. The modern Terrans... have gone adrift." "You can say that again." Ves rolled his eyes. Many Terrans took pride in their history and their lineage, but that did not mean they were willing to set aside all of their selfish desires and complicated machinations to serve a random 'goddess'! The Greater Terran United Confederation had decayed a long time ago. The rise of the New Rubarth Empire and the Big Two may have forced the Terrans to clean up their act and limit their excesses, but they still retained much of the decadence and selfishness that gave them such a bad name! Of course, that did not stop Ves from looking forward to teaching them at the Eden Institute of Business & Technology. There were still plenty of decent people among the Terrans. They were insanely wealthy and had access to a lot of fantastic tech. "As for the Big Two or should I say Red Two, their ideologies are too hostile towards Gala and our cause. They will never let Gala become the guiding deity of red humanity. The mechers want the masses to worship their own gods while the fleeters reject faith in its entirety." Director Aduc said with enough clarity in her tone. "So you are leaning on me and my clan to help you fulfill your holy mission?" "Yes. Gala has not forgotten about you, patriarch. You have already accomplished much, but can do so much more. You bear the power of creation. You have brought her to life." "Oh, so now Gala remembers me. How convenient." Ves rolled his eyes. "While I am grateful that you and your researchers managed to make these trees work, this is part of an existing arrangement between our clan and your Aduc Family. The contract that we have signed says nothing about your patron." "We can make another arrangement if that is what you desire. Gaia has spent her time in the past on consolidating her existence and harmonizing with Old Earth. Now that we have all moved to the Virgo Cluster, she shall be able to come into her power in a matter of years rather than decades! The Mother of Life can be the greatest protector of our race as long as we find a new Earth for her to enshrine this role." Ves crossed his arms. "As I have said, all of that sounds nice, but my clan already has enough on our plate. I am cooperating with the Red MTA on several different projects that are also of great importance. We all have our own missions. I am sure your Aduc Family is resourceful enough to figure out a way to complete this holy mission through other channels." The Aduc Family may have reached a close cooperation with the Larkinsons, but stopped short of Joining the clan entirely. As long as they remained separate entitles, Ves had no obligation to look after the interests of the Aduc Family. These tree worshiping hippies needed to solve their own problems! The discussion between the two eventually moved on to more relevant topics. Director Pesca no longer mentioned anything about her holy mission and honestly reported the state of all of the research projects. The woman blessed by Gaia held out her hand. A fruit that was hanging on a branch above her body spontaneously fell and dropped into her palm! "Please examine this fruit." Ves took the pear-shaped fruit in his hand and examined it in multiple ways. He felt the texture of its skin. He applied pressure to understand its firmness. He swept his spiritual senses towards the center where a blank and rudimentary companion spirit seed had formed! Although the seed possessed clear flaws and shortcomings compared to the ones he was able to plant inside other people's heads, it was already rather impressive for a single companion spirit tree to produce such an outcome! However, it took more than growing a proper seed to make this special fruit work. What was crucial was that the seed possessed the capacity to crawl towards a person's spirituality and successfully take root without causing harm or triggering a rejection reaction! Ves tossed the fruit in his hand a few times before he resolutely started to take a bite! "Hmm. Yummy. This tastes better than the fruits specially cultivated for my family." He quickly bit and digested the fruit without any regard for manners or dangers. Once the fruit disappeared into his stomach, he could feel the companion spirit seed enter his body and move towards his Spirituality like a piece of metal attracted by an electromagnet. Of course, once the seed actually made contact with his powerful Spirituality, it instantly broke apart and scattered into the wind! Although Ves was not able to observe the operation of the fruit in full, he already had a good idea on how well it would work when applied to other people. "The seed has become a lot friendlier than before." Ves said with satisfaction. "This is better than I expected. How soon will these fruits be ready for mass consumption?" "That depends. We have made so much progress in this research project that we can begin to make these fruits available for consumption within months. However, there are many differences in quality and potency. The older and larger trees will be able to grow more sophisticated fruits, and leaving them alone for a longer period of time will increase the potency of their seeds. If you want to grant as many companion spirits to your people as possible, we should harvest the fruits as soon as they are ripe. If you want your clansmen to become stronger, then it is best to take your time." That made sense. Ves was not sure whether he wanted to go for quality or quantity. Both approaches had their merits. "Test them out on our pakklaton test subjects. That is what they are here for." Ves instructed the director. "Feed a batch of test subjects with basic fruits and feed another batch of aliens with stronger fruits. If the latter group displays noticeably stronger results, then it is better to go for quality. I will put the companion spirit fruits on the Larklnson Exchange so that our clansmen can redeem them by relying on their efforts. That should keep demand under control." "Good idea, patriarch." Ves was incredibly happy with the progress made with this project because companion spirits had become a lot more valuable in this new environment! The more people were able to absorb and convert ambient spiritual energy for their own use, the stronger they would become! A companion spirit provided a huge amount of help in this regard. People did not need to learn any special knowledge or Join an obscure secret society. They just needed to ingest a single fruit and let their evolving companion spirits do all of the work! "This is already enough to change everything." Ves smiled in satisfaction. The trees responsible for growing companion spirit fruits were by far the most Important ones cultivated by the T Institute, but there were many other varieties as well. The results for these other types of trees were a lot more mixed. Ves and the T Institute had tried a lot of random stuff in order to figure out what worked. Previously, a lot of trees had been designated as failures, but now that they could supplement their energy levels by absorbing the ambient spiritual energies, they had come into their own! For example, when Director Pesca Aduc led Ves to another patch of trees that was rooted in metal-enriched soil, she gestured towards the odd fruits hanging on the branches. "Can you feel how they differ?" Ves nodded. "I do. They feel like our design spirits." Another fruit fell onto Pesca's palm. The woman used her fingers to peel the orange-like fruit and remove all of the succulent bits in order to expose a relatively small metal coin. She handed the coin over to Ves, who picked it up and lifted it in front of his eye. The coin shared a great resemblance to the tribute coins he conceived in the past. Different from a lot of past results, the coin had become a lot more special compared to the failed products in the past! "This... has become a qualified totem of the Golden Cat." He said. "It's a shame its appearance is still a little deformed." The shape of the coin looked like an oval that had been bent a few times. The head of the Golden Cat that was supposed to make this coin look impressive instead caused it to resemble a Joke article! Nonetheless, Ves could feel that the coin possessed a relatively small but genuine quantity of Goldie's spiritual energy! He could do a lot with such a coin. From absorbing it to fuel his own abilities to using them as a spiritual power cell for an independent construct, the possibilities were endless! That was not all. He couldn't help but notice that the coin was able to store spiritual energy in a similar manner as a P-stone and a piece of Unending alloy. Had he managed to unlock the secret to producing his own prime materials? Ves quickly drained the deformed coin of all of its accumulated spiritual energy, which was not all that much to be honest. Once it became drained, the coin seemed to lose all signs of life. It felt hollow and weak. Ves held it with both of his fingers and applied a slight amount of force. The coin instantly snapped. "Damn. Oh well. At least I have found the right direction."