Venerable Tusa arguably piloted the weakest expert mech of the Larkinson Army. That did not discourage him at all. Instead, his lack of contributions in the last few battles spurred him on to work harder to develop ways to exceed his limitations. This was how expert pilots were like. Fortunately for Tusa, he made a lot of progress. He not only discovered that the Shadow Dance Dagger Style became a lot more effective with the addition of exotic radiation, but also found that his companion spirit could complement his actions! Blackwing was an extension of himself. Imbuing him into a specific mech part enabled Tusa to resonate with it a lot more than before. This was a trick that every expert pilot with a companion spirit had come to learn, but that was only a shallow method. What truly enabled Tusa to draw out Blackwing's potential was when he performed a Shadow Dance! The sight of the Dark Zephyr dancing in shadows was a show in itself. The expert light skirmisher's display of agility, finesse and charm seemed to conquer the power of heaven around the machine and cause the immediate area to become engulfed in a storm of shadow. Ves could see that Venerable Tusa and his Dark Zephyr had actually come closest to forming a pseudo-domain akin to the Saint Kingdom of their betters! By the time Venerable Tusa ended his demonstration and brought his expert mech back to his berth, the expert pilot looked proud. "What do you think, Ves?" "These new tricks of yours are certainly impressive, though they don't appear to be too relevant in battles against warships." "I am still working on that angle." Tusa replied. "I have been working hard to develop a way for me to bypass the transphasic energy shields of enemy warships, but this is way harder and more complicated than anything else I have worked on. I am not even sure that I can pull it off at the expert pilot stage." That sounded like an incredibly useful ability to have! However, Ves did not dare to get his hopes up. The likelihood that Tusa would succeed was far too small. His judgment about needing to advance to ace pilot first was likely correct. Even then there was no guarantee that he could pull it off at that stage. This was fine. Venerable Tusa could develop a lot of other useful techniques to increase his effectiveness on the battlefield. His current attainments showed that he had derived a lot of use out of the knowledge he learned from the enlightenment fruit. He did not stop at mastering what he already learned. The expert pilot also displayed his ability to adapt and innovate by figuring out how to adapt his methods to mech combat and how to integrate Blackwing into his combat approach. "Blackwing is kind of like a co-pilot in that sense." Venerable Tusa told Ves. "My companion spirit can carry a part of my power and has a mind of his own. He can allow me to put a lot of focus on a specific part of my mech and help me utilize it a lot better, especially in highly stressful moments when I cannot afford to get distracted." He continued to explain how the addition of Blackwing made a positive difference in his fighting style. "Thank you for explaining that." Ves said as he took in all of the information. "I think you will be able to do just fine. It is clear that the Shadow Dance holds greater potential. As long as you continue to explore and improve upon it, I think that you'll be able to make use of Blackwing in more powerful ways. For example, it may be possible for you to launch Blackwing at your enemies." That immediately caused Venerable Tusa to come up with a new idea! "Now that you mention it, I have never tried to attach Blackwing to the Dark Zephyr's transphasic grenades before. I should try it out next and see whether I can find a way to pass them through a transphasic energy shield. It will be a lot easier to bypass defenses with a small grenade as opposed to a full-sized mech!" Once Ves concluded his meeting with Venerable Tusa, he met with a few other expert pilots such as Venerable Davia Stark and Venerable Brutus Wodin in order to see how they integrated their companion spirits in their own combat routines. Their methods were fairly effective but also rudimentary. Each of them regularly sparred against each other, so they shared a lot of knowledge with each other. However, it became clear that Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson and Venerable Isobel Kotin had taken a step ahead of the rest. The knowledge granted by their enlightenment fruits enabled them to harness E energy radiation and other spiritual phenomena such as their companion spirits a lot more effectively than their peers! Other expert pilots such as Venerable Joshua had little choice but to figure everything out from scratch. Ves drew a number of conclusions from his latest investigation. "First, our expert pilots and other mech pilots for that matter urgently need a cultivation method. Over time, they must also be able to learn applied cultivation techniques that are specific to their choice of weapons." It was impossible for Ves to buy enlightenment fruits for so many mech pilots. He needed to find a more cost efficient way to increase the capabilities of so many soldiers. Ves already had a few ideas on how to make that happen, but he wouldn't be able to realize any of them in the short term. He focused on what he could do in a smaller time frame. After studying the interaction between companion spirits and expert mechs, Ves felt he figured out a way to increase their synergy. "I can design a weapon or modify the mech so that it can specifically accommodate the companion spirit!" It would be similar to how Sharpie empowered the Bloodsinger! If Ves designed a new weapon or modified an existing one that was already being used to an expert mech, he could make it so that they overpowered to a degree never seen before! "How can I do this?" Ves quickly frowned. He instinctively judged that he could make any piece of equipment more compatible with a companion spirit, but that it would work a lot better with prime materials. This was also why the Dark Zephyr was one of the few expert mechs that experienced the greatest boost after the Great Severing. Other mechs that incorporated significant amounts of Unending alloy such as the First Sword and the Everchanger also enhanced the extraordinary abilities of their expert pilots. The value and benefits granted by Unending alloy had skyrocketed now that the Red Ocean became exposed to Messier 87's exotic radiation! Ves could think of many new uses of prime materials! It was a pity that the current time period was a bit awkward for Ves. The Age of Dawn may have given everyone access to E energy radiation, but not enough time had passed for this influence to generate large quantities of brand-new prime materials! Without access to enough materials, Ves could not make anything that was worth his time! "I should wait until I upgrade the designs of all of the older expert mechs." He concluded. "I originally made up my mind to transition all prime mechs to pure transphasic mechs, but may I need to reconsider this decision." Prime mechs and transphasic mechs both excelled in different ways. The former was a lot more versatile, but a lot more difficult to figure out the best ways to make use of their strengths. The latter was a lot simpler and more reliable in many different combat situations, but they demanded a lot of phasewater! It would be best if he could combine the advantages of both in a single powerful machine, but the difficulty and requirements were not small! However, he suddenly recalled a specific mech weapon that might become a lot more effective, especially when utilized by the right expert pilot and expert mech! Ves recalled the Gray Lotus and began to upgrade the mech pistol in several different ways. He applied his latest gains in spiritual engineering and cultivation science to enable the weapon to passively absorb death energy from the environment. While Ves was not proud with the rate of absorption and the cultivation efficiency of the Gray Lotus, it was better than nothing. He could always revisit his work at a later date and improve upon the current solution. Ves also altered the Gray Lotus so that it could draw upon the surrounding ambient spiritual energy to charge up and amplify the lethality of its death beam attacks. In truth, he did not have to make too many changes. The Black Demon Steel that the Gray Lotus was built around had already been doing this since it started to come into contact with exotic radiation! The power and other attributes of this remarkable prime material became a lot more pronounced as of late! In addition to that, Ves also implemented a few measures that should enable a companion spirit to empower it a bit more effectively than before. The premise was that the companion spirit could get along well with Helena and the death element. This severely restricted the available expert mechs that paired best with this potent relic weapon. Ves briefly thought about loaning the upgraded weapon on to the Glory Seekers. Either of the Handmaidens of Death would definitely be able to use the Gray Lotus to its full potential! "None of them are Larkinsons, though." Ves did not want the Gray Lotus to benefit other people. Even if the Glory Seekers followed the Larkinson Clan everywhere, they were ultimately outsiders. Who knew if the Glory Seekers separated from the Larkinson Clan one day. Ves decided to pass the Gray Lotus on to the only viable choice in the clan. He paid a visit to Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger and granted them the right to utilize the powerful relic weapon in the next battles. Joshua was not unfamiliar with the Gray Lotus. He had even used it for a time. He did not think it was necessary for him to handle this weapon. "The Everchanger already has enough weapons." He insisted. "The Heartsword, the Vitalus rifle and the Scarlet Ember already give me more than enough options to beat my opponents. That plasma sword is an especially big killer." "Only at close range." Ves retorted. "Not only that, the Scarlet Ember exerts a massive drain on the Everchanger's energy reserves. The Gray Lotus is a good complement to the Everchanger. It is not only a lot more frugal in terms of energy expenditure, but it is also a good way to damage your targets at longer ranges. The Vitalus rifle is a rather ordinary luminar crystal rifle. It is not even transphasic, though it incorporates a modest proportion of prime materials. You can leave the Heartsword and the Vitalus rifle behind. You can make a much greater impact on the battlefield by relying on a combination of a plasma sword and a death pistol." "I'm not so sure, Ves." Joshua furrowed his brows. "I might have a good relationship with Helena, but I don't know how my companion spirit can get along with the Gray Lotus when he is filled with life. Won't he cancel out all of the death power of your special gun?" Ves smirked. "Maybe that is possible if you don't do anything special, but life and death share an interesting relationship. Opposites can attract and amplify each other. It depends on the circumstances. I have a theory that the Gray Lotus can produce much more impressive results in your hands. Don't forget that death energy beams can bypass energy shields and solid matter. You should try and figure out how to build upon that, preferably within a week. If everything goes right, we will start an engagement against an immobilized alien raiding fleet. I expect you to kill a lot of aliens with your new weapon!"