Ves imposed high demands on the second generation of his Carmine System. It needed to incorporate more than refinements of existing tech. It had to offer substantially better performance compared to the previous generation. A part of the improvements also had to be completely new. Only by adding revolutionary new functionality would the second generation be worthwhile enough to overhaul the Bastion's original Carmine System! However, a lot needed to happen before Ves was willing to apply an upgrade to one of his most important works. He already spent a bit of time familiarizing himself with the power that was locked away in the blood of powerful entities. Il did not surprise him that Blinky's highly attuned senses easily managed to detect traces of unusual energies in the blood of expert pilots, mech designers as well as his talented children. However, that was not enough data for Ves. He needed to discover more variations In order to build up a picture in his mind. Only then would he be able to figure out a more specific way to improve the Carmine System. As the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan, it was not difficult for him to request a large quantity of blood samples. It only took hours before a bunch of hots delivered thousands of vials of red liquid. The vitality contained in these modest samples were relatively weak, but when they were all placed next lo each other, they exuded a collective sense of power lhal was linged with lhe flavor of lhe Larkinson Clan! Ves enjoyed himself as he inspected the blood samples one by one. He made a lot of different observations as he examined the extraordinary properties of different people. just as he expected, the blood drawn from expert pilots remained the strongest by far. Everyone olsc's blood was weaker to the point that there was barely any value in using them for other purposes. While he detected a lot of subtle variations in the samples taken from different people, they weren't all that interesting most of the time. "Whether a subject has surpassed the extraordinary threshold makes a substantial difference in blood potency." Ves actually figured out that this might be a consistent way to detect extraordinary life forms. No matter how well these individuals hid their power, it was doubtful whether their lifeblood could hide their true nature. In any case, Ves actually made a lot of interesting observations when he examined the blood of outliers. For example, mutated beasts such as Arnold along with many other extraordinary creatures held inside the Dragon's Den possessed particularly powerful blood! The potency of their blood could easily match or exceed that of a typical expert pilot! That did not necessarily mean that mutated boasts were more powerful. What actually happened was that their physiques were more sensitive towards Ecnorgyand absorbed it more effectively. In other words, their natural cultivation was much more slanted towards body cultivation. This was a particularly important discovery to Ves! He even discovered thal empowered blood or 'E blood' for short could even function as a hyper material to an extent! Although the capacity of blood was pitiful compared to a more traditional hyper material, this still indicated that Ves had alternatives if he couldn't get his hands on proper materials! "Interesting!" The blood derived from extraordinary beings were also sensitive towards different elements. This made a lot of sense. Blood sourced from a mutated beast with an affinity for water reacted well when exposed to water-aspected E energy. All of this lined up with his current understanding of cultivation science. However, what truly mattered was how he could translate his findings and knowledge into a concrete improvement of the Carmine System and by extension the mech as a whole. Ves called up the incomplete design of the Blood Knight Project once again and stared at it for several minutes. Time passed as his eyes focused on different design elements. Eventually, a light shone in his eyes as a brand new concept gradually formed in his mind. "The Carmine System... is originally based on the methods of the Gemini Family." The Geminis evoked a lot of disgust and revulsion due to their tradition of turning twin siblings into married couples, but that did not stop Ves from admiring the results of all of their efforts. No matter what, lhe substantial boost in power and coordination from two highly cooperative mech pilots was very real! Seeing the twin ace pilots of the Gemini Family effectively merge their domains as well as their ace mechs together was one of the most impressive feats that Ves had ever witnessed as a mech designer. Il was impossible to produce this result in any other way. Ves admired the engineering thal went into the Gemini Family's iconic ace mechs. By designing them in a way that enabled them to merge into the Embodiment of Love and Sacrifice, the resulting combination mech perfectly fused the strengths and domains of Saint Sandro Gemini and Saint Kaia Gemini! When Ves compared the extreme synergies produced by this fantastic combination with the synergies attained by his Carmine System, he found that his work lost out badly. "The problem is that the relationship is loo uneven." He frowned. When it came to the Bastion, the expert space knight was actually considerably less extraordinary than Venerable Jannzi. Thar was nor necessarily a problem, though. The Bastion was a living expert mech that could automatically grow her spiritual foundation as well as rhe quality of her mech frame over time. Exposure to exotic radiation significantly accelerated this growth rate! Sooner or later, the Bastion would be able to catch up to Jannzi's approximate strength. That was probably close to the best outcome that Ves could hope for. The Bastion would not hold Jannzi back, but she wouldn't be able to provide her human battle partner with any additional assistance. "If the Bastion is stronger, she can channel greater benefits through the Blood Pact." The situation was different for mechs that belonged to weaker mech pilots. Three of the Carmine mechs that Ves had hastily designed and fabricated for the Survivalists were all relatively ordinary in this regard. It was impossible tor the Carmine Trooper, Carmine Conscript and Carmine Raider to produce remarkable results in this regard when their Carmine Systems were so basic. Even if their associated Blood Pact grew stronger over a span of many years, it was difficult to produce new and powerful effects if the fundamental properties remained the same. When thinking about the Carmine System, Ves often framed his work in the context of how much benefit it could provide to a mech pilot. "A weak mech paired with a weak pilot will not result in a drastically greater boost in performance." "A weak mech paired with a strong pilot will cause the former to undergo accelerated growth until it reaches parity with the latter." Ves was already familiar with these relationships. He had collected enough data to confirm that they were true. What was truly important lo Ves was the next scenario! "A strong mech paired with a weak pilot should theoretically cause the latter to undergo accelerated growth until he or she reaches parity with the former." In other words, this was yet another way for a living mech to rapidly increase the strength of a mech pilot! Though Ves already had access to measures such as the transcendence glow, general cultivation elixirs, the MSTS and so on, he still wanted more! His design philosophy centered around Mutual Growth, and Ves could think of no better way to realize this ideal by upgrading the Carmine System! His gaze rested on the Blood Knight Project again. Now that he looked at it from another perspective, he found his work to be relatively bland, weak and colorless. It lacked flavor. "Abiomech is like a giant humanoid clone, it is a monstrous creation of biomass that imitates powerful exobeasts to varying degrees." Ves realized that his vision had been too shallow when he worked on the Blood Knight Project. His approach to his first true biomech design was not necessarily incorrect. He had exercised a lor of restraint during the design process because it was way too easy to go overboard and create an uncontrollable monster. Ves was extra sensitive towards this risk due to the examples provided by the Uranus and the meat suit. However, just because he needed to act carefully did not mean that he should completely deprive his Blood Knight Project of much of its personality and flavor! A basic biomech might have a higher chance of working properly, but it would also be weak and unable to benefit the mech pilot as much. Ves sought to change this. Instead of turning the Blood Knight Project into a bland clone, he wanted to turn it into a clone of a more powerful being! This meant that he wanted both the Carmine System and the artificial blood to mirror the organic properties of the source in question! Theoretically, this should result in a more empowered biomech that could transfer greater strength and benefits to the mech pilot! If this idea lived up to its promise, then the pilot of the biomech may even be able to inherit a portion of the extraordinary skills and domain of the 'blood donor'! This reminded me of an experiment he conducted in the past. Ves thought of a few possible candidates he could use as a template for his biomech. He successfully managed to make Lanie Larkinson inherit a portion of the skills and experiences of Venerable Imon Ingvar, who was still an expert candidate at the time. Though Ves never really followed up on this amazing experiment due to being swamped with other priorities, that did not mean he could attempt to replicate this ritual in a more practical form! "Is it possible to embed a variation of Ancestral Possession in the second generation of my Carmine System?" Ves did nol know lhe answer lo this question! He felt it was possible, but it would be anything but easy to realize it. Nonetheless, that did not stop him from trying to see if he could get close enough to produce any worthwhile results. His passion became stoked as he began to consider what kind of steps he needed to take to fulfill this particular dream. Ves was more eager than ever to turn rhe Blood Knight Project into a new and revolutionary mech design that took the concept of Mutual Growth to a greater level! Success not only meant that he had produced a powerful new tool that could make humans stronger. It also meant thal he would be able lo advance his design philosophy by a considerable margin! Ves briefly furrowed his brows. "Developing the second generation of ray Carmine System will bring me a lot closer to realizing my design philosophy. It won't be enough for me to advance to Master right away. My accumulation is far from enough, and I need to come up with a much more revolutionary invention in order to satisfy the most difficult condition." He still had a long way to go before he could attain the breakthrough he desired. Still, the faster he came up with advancements like these, the less years he would have to spend as a Senior Mech Designer! "If 1 can keep up my current rate of progress, it is not impossible for me to realize my design philosophy within two decades." That was remarkably fast! The Polymath managed to set a record by advancing to the rank of Master Mech Designer when she was around 50 years old. Ves would be more than happy If he could accomplish the same feat when he became 60I "This is not a race, but... red humanity is walking on a tightrope right now. The sooner I become a Master, the sooner I can contribute more substantially to the war effort. I don't want my contributions to center around companion spirits and kinship networks. What I truly want is to change society forever with my mech designs!" In this regard, the Blood Knight Project represented a crucial step to this future!