Chapter 5400 Room for Improvement Messing with people's souls was extremely dangerous. The slightest mistake could easily cause them to suffer permanent personality disorders. More serious damage could easily cause people to forget their original selves and turn into completely different people! Ves had experimented on the spiritualities of enough test subjects to understand that he could never take this lightly. The main reason why he dared to cut into people's spirits and bestow them with companion spirits was because his operations were relatively shallow. Ves did not possess any further insights or understanding in the nature of the spirituality of a human being. If he wanted to make any further progress into this highly mystical and esoteric field, then Ves would have to conduct a lot more dangerous experiments! His most conservative estimate was that he needed to experiment on tens of thousands of individuals. The good news was that they did not have to be humans. Ves could use the large number of prisoners of war that the Larkinson Clan currently kept in captivity on the Dragon's Den. If that was not enough to satisfy his demand, he could always make a deal with the Terrans to supply him with more alien prisoners. After all, the Terrans were definitely taking active part in the fighting at the frontlines. Their forces were probably able to capture large amounts of alien prisoners every day. There was no chance that they suffered a shortage in this area. The only issue was that the Terrans must have already reserved these alien captives for their own secret experiments. It was vital for red humanity to learn more about their alien adversaries. "Ves! Stop thinking about experimenting on aliens!" Gloriana yelled from the other side of the workshop. "You are polluting the design network with your crazy ideas again. Restrain your focus and get back to work!" "Ah, sorry, honey!" Ves responded with an embarrassed look. Ves pointedly ignored the scandalized look on his grandfather's face. In any case, Gloriana was right in that Ves needed to focus on his work rather than unrelated experiments. The subject that caused him to hold all of these thoughts was the Blood Pact that existed between his grandfather and the original Blood Star. He did not have a clear idea of what it represented in the past, but now that Vulcan had become a proper creation cultivator, Ves figured out that the Blood Pact was a variation of a soul bond. "If this is the case, then my grandfather has turned into a serious artifact cultivator." This was an important distinction. Every mech pilot could be defined as an artifact cultivator. A pilot borrowed the strength of a mech in order to put up a better fight. The pilot was also about to cultivate his willpower and progress as he continued to make use of a mech. However, Ves found it surprising that the concept of a soul bond never really became widespread in the mech industry. Despite its serious disadvantages, the benefits often made it worth it! Any mech pilot would be able to grow faster and break past their limits so long as they bonded with a strong enough mech! "Oh, I forgot about the artifact spirit." Modern mechs did not possess any life. The only way to bestow them with an artifact spirit was to transfer the souls of powerful life forms, but the latter did not exactly grow on trees in an energy-poor environment! The concept of artifact spirits had become completely buried in the modern age. A lot of mech designers just made do without them, which did not affect the effectiveness of their mass production mechs, but severely constrained their ability to develop high-level mechs! It was harder to promote the growth of expert pilots and ace pilots if their machines lacked the benefits of handy artifact spirits. Of course, these mechs were already amazingly strong without this invisible element. The neural interface and the man-machine connection partially compensated for this shortcoming. So what if there was no artifact spirit? The combination between the operating system of a machine and the mind of a human mech pilot ensured that the mech would always be expertly controlled! The higher the rank of the pilot, the more capable he was able to assert control over the many complicated functions and systems of a mech. A god mech did not strictly need an artifact spirit because its total merger with a god pilot meant that the latter had completely taken over this role! If this was the case, then the mech industry had already come up with adequate substitutes for artifact spirits. There was no need for Senior Mech Designers or Master Mech Designers to engage in a demonic ritual that extracted the soul of a powerful prisoner and transferred it to their own works! However, just because the mech industry made artifact spirits redundant did not mean they had become useless. The power and utility of his living mechs made that clear! Ves believed so much in the value of making his mechs alive that he could not accept any notion that they were better off if they were lifeless! The Ouroboros, which was the oldest living mech in existence, was much of the reason why General Axelar Streon had become so strong among the Terrans. This renowned first-class hero mech could even fight and control its own systems on an independent basis, and that was when it was still a second order living mech! Ves could not wait to see how extensively it had evolved once it finally evolved into a proper third order living mech! The real issue right now was how the concept and the existence of an artifact spirit could help Ves make the Blood Star Mark II stronger. It was not necessary for him to do anything special in this regard. Ves knew that as long as he did his work as expected, he and his wife would be able to assemble a good enough expert mech that would serve Venerable Benjamin well for the coming years. However, Ves felt that this ordinary attitude would not give him the means to upgrade the Blood Star Mark II into a masterwork mech. He did not have a clear idea of this beforehand, but now that he had begun this upgrade effort, he understood more clearly that he would probably miss this chance of fulfilling this small goal. The main reason why he did not feel as confident was because of the limitations related to the Carmine System! The inability to perfect the organic components of the Carmine System would cause a small but significant aspect of the Blood Star Mark II to fall behind. It was like working under a handicap. Ves and Gloriana would have to raise the quality of the remaining mechanical parts a lot more if they wanted to overcome this unchangeable deficiency! "Is it truly unchangeable, though?" Ves did not have the time or the expertise to perfect the organic structure of the Carmine System. However, he could work on other aspects of this crucial element. What if he could upgrade the spiritual foundation or the Blood Pact of the Blood Star Mark II? Previous fabrication runs had proven that substantial improvements in the spiritual design of a mech could substantially boost its overall quality! It was not easy for Ves to improve the spiritual foundation of a mech. He had already done what he could during the design phase. This caused Ves to focus on the Blood Pact itself. While Ves had designed the Carmine System to work in specific ways, he did not directly design or create the Blood Pact. The intimate soul bond only came to life after a mech pilot successfully interfaced with a Carmine mech. He had done his best to specify the parameters of the Blood Pact, but it was ultimately the mech and mech pilot that created one that suited their own conditions. "If this is the case, then there should be room for improvement." The problem was that Ves did not exactly excel in this field. Permanent soul bonds were not related to any of his core fields. That did not stop him from trying, though. Hours passed by as he and his wife continued to produce part after part. Alexa diligently collected the newly fabricated components and scanned them to make sure they passed the quality standards. Venerable Benjamin remained engrossed by the effort put into upgrading his Carmine mech. Though Ves made sure to allocate a sufficient amount of attention to his fabrication work, he and Vulcan continued to brainstorm about ways to upgrade the Blood Pact. None of their ideas were viable, but that did not stop Ves from growing more excited! He knew that even if he wasn't able to figure out a practical solution during this fabrication session, he had gained a firm direction for future research! Perhaps this goal was the seed that might lead Ves into developing the third generation of his Carmine System! That already made all of this effort worth it. Ves did not intend to give up that easily, though. "There is still enough time for me to come up with a good idea." Multiple days went by as Ves and Gloriana continued their work. Due to the fact that this was an upgrade project on an existing living mech, they occasionally had to bring the parts that they had made and assemble them into the partially stripped down frame of the Blood Star. Piece by piece, the inadequate standard mech slowly acquired much better and more comprehensive parts. The additions of transphasic components, hyper components and resonating exotics massively boosted the value of the Blood Star over time! Its theoretical performance and its potential increased so much that the living mech was undergoing a gradual metamorphosis! The gulf between a relatively poor and shabby second-class standard mech and an excellent quasi-first-class transphasic hyper expert mech was so vast that the Blood Star Mark II essentially went through a rebirth! Both Benjamin and his battle partner rejoiced in this massive upgrade! In fact, given how closely the Blood Star Mark II was so closely bound to Venerable Benjamin in spirit, the massive upgrades to the Carmine mech partially became mirrored by the old man's body! Ves couldn't help but stop his work for a moment and focus on his grandfather. "Benjamin?" "Yes, grandson?" "You are looking awfully spry for an old man." Due to Alexandria's design network, Benjamin knew exactly what Ves had in mind when he issued this remark. "I do not have a good grasp on the condition of my body, but I think I have recovered enough to run an additional lap around the walls of Diandi Base." That was a serious improvement in Benjamin's fitness! What was important was that the upgrade process was not even over yet! The Blood Star was about to become a lot stronger once its armor system became complete! Ves shifted his gaze from his grandfather and the Blood Star Mark II several times. He gained a greater understanding of what it meant for an artifact cultivator to form a soul bond with a fairly strong artifact. He also gained more crucial insight on the nature of the Mech Body Merger Process. With the understanding that he possessed today, the first phase and possibly second phase of the Mech Body Merger Process attempted to produce similar results! The existence of Carmine mechs granted mech pilots the option to experience these dangerous and consequential phases far in advance! "If a Blood Pact is able to replicate at least part of the traits of an operation union and maybe a domain field union, then what if I can make it go all the way?" Who said that mech pilots could only start the Mech Body Merger Process when they had evolved into peak ace pilots? Who said that the four phases of the Mech Body Merger Process had to be completed in a limited timespan in order to stave off death? Who said that there were no alternative ways to complete an operation union and a domain field union? Ves became overtaken by excitement as he questioned all of these assumptions. He strongly suspected that he could break these rules and make his grandfather a lot stronger so long as he managed to improve the Blood Pact! "I just need to figure out a solution!"