Ves and Venerable Isobel Kotin walked closer to the Promethea at this time. The former briefly recalled the design choices he made when he developed the black-and-purpose expert rifleman mech. He was quite proud with how the Promethea ended up. She might not be as flashy as masterwork expert mechs such as the Everchanger and the Phobos, but the expert rifleman mech comfortably occupied her own niche in the Larkinson Army. If the Age of Mechs continued to progress like everyone expected it to, then the Promethea would have been able to excel without question! Ves felt a lot of regret for the fact that his original projections and expectations for this creation failed to match the actual reality. How could he have known at the time that the Promethea would no longer be able to use her Ignitron rifle to set fire on unshielded or lightly shielded human starships anymore? Unlike human vessels which mostly lacked transphasic protection due to the extreme scarcity of phasewater, seemingly every alien warship was equipped with a collection of powerful transphasic shield generators! Even the weaker and less advanced alien races such as the wheednars and the yurzens were also able to outfit their warships with this powerful form of protection. This disparity illustrated the difference between the two sides. Humans were still newcomers to the Red Ocean. They only controlled a relatively modest portion of its galactic rim. In contrast, the native aliens occupied the vast majority of phasewater-endowed territories for many millennia! Even a minor race would be able to construct a lot of decent warships by relying on long and steady accumulation! This pattern practically ensured that as long as red humanity and the native aliens remained at war, the Larkinson Clan would have to fight against many more warships protected by transphasic energy shields! Ves grew even more determined to enhance the Promethea's performance against this difficult enemy type! He wanted this older creation of his to live up to expectations he set when he initially designed this fire-based machine! He did not want the Promethea to constantly play second fiddle to the Amaranto. Both of them were expert mechs, and while only one of them was a masterwork, that did not excuse their unusually wide divergence in performance! Ves examined the Promethea with his spiritual senses. Her growth and evolution had not progressed too far, as evidenced by her 4 Ascension Runes. This was understandable. The machine was a lot younger than the Amaranto and participated in considerably fewer battles. She also started out as a second order living mech and had to spend a lot of time with Venerable Isobel Kotin to evolve into a third order living mech. The Promethea currently had access to two Ascension Paths. The Path of the Metal Eater was derived from Zeigra. It took advantage of the aggressive design spirit's original talent for corroding metal and increased the upper boundary of the Promethea's ability to burn metal with her flames. Ves grew more confident in Venerable Isobel Kotin and the Promethea's ability to gradually burn the toughest first-class alloys! However, the greatest shortcoming of this Ascension Path was that it was only effective against armor-based defenses. It did not provide any clear enhancements against energy-based defenses. The Path of the Illuminator was derived from the Illustrious One. It strengthened the Promethea's more direct energy attacks and paired fairly well with the Detonation Code. If the expert rifleman mech continued to progress further into this Ascension Path, then the Promethea would eventually be able to draw out the greater potential of energy attacks and luminar crystal weapons! Ves originally set up both of these Ascension Paths together with the design spirits to go hand-in-hand with each other, but perhaps that might not be the best for Venerable Isobel's development. There was no quick and easy way for the Promethea to make use of a third Ascension Path that could enable her to counter transphasic energy shields. There was no obvious source for one aside from the Phase King, but doing so would change the fundamental spiritual makeup of the expert rifleman mech. The combination of the Illustrious One and Zeigra fit the Promethea best from a practical and conceptual perspective. After learning about the importance of sticking to strongly defined artistic conceptions in cultivation science, Ves found it even more important to exhibit restraint when it came to matching mechs with design spirits! If Ves couldn't improve the Promethea's performance through Ascension Paths, then maybe he should look elsewhere. He turned towards Venerable Isobel. "How are you doing with your companion spirit?" The woman smiled in delight. "Kiroshi is fun to have around. I also found her to be useful in helping me resonate more with specific parts of my mech. I have found that she is especially good at increasing the power of the Promethea's flamethrower. It's a shame that it's only effective at shorter ranges." Her companion spirit popped out of her head as she talked. The purple cat shared a surprising degree of resemblance to Blinky! "Ya! Ya!" Their spiritual natures were substantially different, though. Whereas Blinky embodied energy itself, Kiroshi was a full reflection of Venerable Isobel's fire domain. Kiroshi actually reminded him of Emma! "Have you been able to use Kiroshi to strengthen the effectiveness of your long-ranged energy attacks?" Ves questioned. "I've tried to, but it's hard." She responded. "I tried to do what you have suggested and go beyond the basic trick of increasing my resonance with the Ignitron rifle, but... I'm not sure if it is even possible to attach Kiroshi to the energy beams released by the weapons. No matter which attack phase crystal I employ, none of the beams have any 'substance' that Kiroshi can attach herself to. The only way I can do what you have told me is to switch to a kinetic weapon or throw an incendiary grenade." Ves looked disappointed. He hoped that Venerable Isobel Kotin would be able to use Kiroshi in the same manner as how Irene Mox made use of Emma, but their circumstances were not the same. He still did not give up on this method of attack enhancement. He strongly believed that he and Isobel just needed to figure out the right approach to turn Kiroshi into an indispensable addition to the Promethea. As Ves gained a better understanding of Kiroshi's traits by listening to Isobel and examining the burning purple cat, he began to form different ideas. He briefly switched his gaze over to the Promethea. The third order expert mech was quietly cultivating the Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra in her own way. The invisible energy vortex that surrounded her giant frame predominantly attracted metal energies, but also sneaked in a bit of fire energies as well. That fire energy was crucial as they not only strengthened the Promethea's fire domain, but also granted her the ability to draw upon ambient fire energy to amplify all of her burning attacks in combat. It would have been better if the cultivation method put a lot more emphasis on the fire element as opposed to leaning hard on the metal element, but that was not an option at the moment. Ves had to work with what he got. How could he enhance the Promethea's burning ability if the expert mech didn't know how to effectively absorb large quantities of fire energy? "Wait a second." He turned back to the female purple cat that was playfully brushing against Isobel's face. The Promethea may be bad at leveraging the ambient fire energies in the environment, but the opposite was the case for Kiroshi! As a companion spirit that fully inherited her principal's fire domain, Kiroshi had practically turned into the spiritual embodiment of fire! His eyes lit up as he began to come up with a new model of cultivation. The Promethea herself was not cultivating at her full effectiveness due to the lack of fit between her own nature and the inadequate cultivation method developed by Ves. However, if Venerable Isobel or more precisely Kiroshi got added to the picture, Ves believed that he could figure out a solution to effectively transfer the companion spirit's strengths to the expert mech on a temporary basis! "It would be like dual cultivation!" He realized! The Eternal Love Dual Cultivation Method taught him the basic framework of cultivation through cooperation. It did not offer him a lot of useful references though as it was explicitly designed to work with two extremely similar practitioners. The Promethea and Kiroshi were far too divergent from each other to make that work. Nonetheless, Ves could borrow a few tools from the Eternal Love Dual Cultivation Method and combine it with bits and pieces from all of the other cultivation science he learned! He did not have time to develop an entirely new cultivation method that fully enabled the companion spirits of mech pilots to synergize with their mechs at a more profound level, but now that he stumbled upon on the right idea, he would definitely flesh it out after the current operation came to an end! For now, he needed to lower his ambitions and create a more practical combat technique. "I have an idea, Isobel. Would you care to listen?" "Always, sir." He briefly explained his general thoughts. Even if Isobel was not proficient in cultivation herself, she was still able to follow his simple description. She looked uncertain, and so did her companion spirit. "Ya?" "What you say makes sense, but its not enough to make my mech stronger, sir. Trying to give the Promethea access to Kiroshi's power sounds like trying to set a piece of metal on fire." Ves smiled at her. "That is why we need to come up with a more specific fighting application that essentially tells Kiroshi and the Promethea how to channel both of their powers in combination. Hm, let's go somewhere more private. I want to show you a trick." The mech designer led the expert pilot to a nearby work office that just happened to be empty. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞 Once Ves locked the hatch and activated his jamming suite, he raised his armored hand and unleashed a small firebolt that splashed against the metal bulkhead! Bang! "What?! How?!" Venerable Isobel Kotin initially reacted with alarm when she thought that they were under attack. Once she processed what she had just witnessed, she grew shocked when she realized what actually happened. The patriarch summoned a small amount of fire out of nothing and actually managed to leave a slight scorch mark on the bulkhead! Venerable Isobel was close enough to know that Ves managed to do this by leveraging the E energy radiation in the air as opposed to employing a secret weapons module built into his combat armor. "That... is a spell." Ves replied with a smile. "Don't ask me where I learned it. The short story is that I am a bit ahead of most people when it comes to figuring out ways to draw power from exotic radiation. That is how I have been able to give your Promethea and all of our other living mechs a way to strengthen themselves. Right now, I want to teach Kiroshi how to perform this spell. I don't have time to teach all of the theories and techniques required to perform it properly, but I think I can make your companion spirit perform a bootleg version of this spell if I quickly teach her the bare minimum." "Ya yaaaa?" Kiroshi looked absolutely befuddled. "You're teaching my companion spirit as opposed to myself?" Isobel doubtfully asked. "That is correct. You are an expert pilot, Isobel. If my understanding is correct, you won't be able to pull off tricks like this by yourself. You will only be able perform a similar ability when you interface with your Promethea, but the underlying nature will be different because the power you express will largely be a manifestation of your willpower and the true resonance between you and your battle partner. What I am looking for is to unlock Kiroshi's own power. Her nature is different from yours. She is much more suited to absorb and leverage the ambient fire energies in the environment." "I... don't quite understand..." "That's okay. Let's begin the lesson. If my suspicions are correct, it won't take too long before Kiroshi can spit her own fireball."