The Mech Touch

Ves was grateful to learn about the secret of the A7-KEI General Purpose Pilot Cultivation Elixir.

He initially did not suspect at all that it was basically formed by combining the blood donated by the Fist of Defiance with other miscellaneous reagents!

Perhaps he should have. He had developed a much better appreciation of the power of blood as of late. He had already applied his insights on blood to develop the Carmine System. It shouldn't have been a surprise that the Red Association managed to discover their own uses of this ingredient!

Of course, compared to a single clan leader like Ves, the mechers had access to much more bountiful and powerful sources of blood!

Ves couldn't help but feel jealous towards the Red Association for being able to experiment on the lifeblood of one of the most powerful beings of their civilization.

Though Ves technically had access to a True God as well, the problem was that she was situated in the wrong galaxy!

So what if he could draw his own mother's blood? Perhaps he might discover a lot of useful insights by experimenting on it, but any product he made with this ingredient would only end up helping the Oblivion Empire in the end!

Although he did not really pay too much attention to how his mother's growing empire was doing, the Lady of the Night had her own mysterious ways to promote the development of mech pilots under her command.

Ves continued his frank discussion with Jovy.

For whatever reason, the Red Association entrusted both of them with highly classified information about the development of the A7-KE1 General Purpose Pilot Cultivation Elixir.

This was just one of many signs that the mechers were being serious about roping Ves into their organization. They truly treated him as an insider.

"It all comes down to resources." Jovy said as both of them ceased their direct observation of the expert pilots and sat down next to a table. "During the conference, our faction leaders spoke of a lack of resources. Our civilization is too small and weak compared to the native alien civilizations in the Red Ocean. Since conquering additional territories is not an option in the short term, the only way we can obtain more resources is to squeeze them out of what little is available. Our desperation has led us to recognize that our very own god pilots can also serve as resources."

That sounded awfully close to cannibalism. The very notion of using any human and a god pilot no less as a source of materials did not entirely sit well with Ves!

This was rather contradictory as Ves knew more about the power of blood than most people.

Every form of blood contained power.

It was not that big of a logical leap to assume that stronger individuals possessed more potent forms of blood!

No matter whether they were human or not, powerful organisms were among the most valuable sources of high-quality resources in any given environment, particularly ones that were rather poor in other terms!

Both Ves and Jovy exchanged complex expressions with each other. They both understood the cold hard calculus behind the decision to use god pilots as sources of high-quality ingredients.

"Our god pilots are all powerful enough for the time being." Jovy explained. "While I have no knowledge of what they can do to advance their strength after completing the Mech Body Merger Process, the common belief is that it may take an exponentially greater amount of time for them to attain a qualitative leap in strength. The fact of the matter is that we cannot wait that long. It makes little sense to invest an unreasonable amount of resources to promote their growth when the payoff is too far away. We need to realize our gains faster, and if that means promoting a large number of other high-ranking mech pilots at the cost of using our own god pilots as the source of their growth, then so be it. Everything is justified as long as it works."

This was yet another reminder that the Survivalists were quietly capable of making the most extreme and radical decisions as long as they were logical enough!

Though Ves held too much respect towards humanity's god pilots to regard them as moving repositories of high-quality ingredients, his rationality told him that this was definitely the most optimal solution at hand.

Jovy already told Ves that the mechers were scrambling to produce high-quality reagents that could reduce their dependence on god pilot blood. Subsequent elixirs developed for use by the New Elites would probably become a lot less remarkable.

Perhaps no one else outside of a small circle within the Red Association would ever learn that earlier formulas actually incorporated the blood of their greatest idols as the main ingredients!

Ves made an important realization today.

Ascended beings contained so much power that they all amounted to highly valuable collections of ingredients without exception!

Their rich and potent blood was just one of the resources that Ves and many other people could use to make the most powerful products.

Ves made another realization at this time.

What the mechers had done to their own god pilots wasn't even that unique. Many cultivators had resorted to similar measures in the past.

Rather than relying on the cumbersome and difficult collection of reagents in a poor or insufficient environment, it was much easier to harvest powerful substitute materials from mighty beings!

Ves bet that even the indigenous alien races of the Red Ocean were no strangers to this approach. The existence of unclean whales proved that not even the so-called descendants of the Elder Gods were exempt from this phenomenon!

Phasewater. Godblood. They were two different terms for the same exotic substance. Though their connotations were substantially different from each other, they both described two different facets of the same liquid material!

For an unknown number of eons, the aliens of the Red Ocean struggled to imitate the beings they equated as gods by doing whatever they could to infuse phasewater into their own bodies!

While the specific processes and methods employed by the aliens weren't important at the moment, Ves found it rather interesting that this approach was universal.

He even developed a greater understanding and appreciation of his mother's own principles and domain.

Cynthia gained strength from absorbing the nutrients of others. The more powerful her prey, the greater her harvest!

What she did was not an abnormality or a deviation from normal behavior. Her approach completely conformed to the ruthless but necessary cycle of life.

In order for predators to survive and gain more strength, they must devour the weak.

His mother successfully became a true god by embodying the concept of predation. She turned the cruelty of nature into her own artistic conception and developed it to such an extreme that she had managed to shed many of the shackles of her own mortality!

For whatever reason, Ves began to feel as if a part of the fog that obscured his future trajectory had faded all of a sudden.

The insights and realization he drew from this initially unassuming session broadened his perspective and allowed him to understand numerous greater truths that governed the cosmos!

Inspiration struck Ves.

Blood was power.

That power was directly correlated with the strength of an organism.

The blood of weaker beings was not worth that much, but they still contained at least a few traces of power.

The blood of stronger organisms ought to contain more power, no matter whether they engaged in body cultivation or a more esoteric form of cultivation.

Many different beings ranging from mech pilots, mech designers, swordmasters, phase lords and so on were all invaluable due to the power contained in their blood!

While the exact properties of their blood varied considerably due to many different circumstances, anyone who recognized its value could make use of this rich substance to make other powerful products!

The possibilities were endless. Ves could probably spend a lifetime on coming up with ideas on how he could transform blood into other forms that could be useful to many different people!

However, what was most relevant to him as a mech pilot was how powerful blood could alter the performance of the Carmine System!

Ves realized that he had heavily underutilized the possibilities introduced by the Carmine System.

Its original name before he rebranded it was the Empowered Blood Sharing System.

The implication was that Ves would develop a means for blood to empower both the mech and mech pilot.

However, it could also mean that Ves could find a way to empower the shared blood itself, thereby increasing the performance of the Carmine System!

Ves developed a suspicion that this might be a way to rapidly promote the strength of an active Blood Pact.

By infusing it with the nutrients derived from energy-rich blood, the Blood Pact could acquire more extraordinary traits!

He immediately thought of the Blood Knight Project. While he was on track to complete it sooner than any of his other ongoing mech design projects, perhaps he should change his plan and work on it a little longer.

Ves became curious to see what would happen if his first proper biomech incorporated the blood and essence from a powerful organism!

A Carmine biomech that circulated a more powerful type of blood definitely had the potential to produce superior results!

He just needed to work it out and find a way to make it safe enough for general use.

Ves finally turned his attention back to his conversation partner. "Thank you for telling me all of that, Jovy. You have taught me a lot of stuff about what is possible with technology. I agree with you that as distasteful as it may be, drawing blood from powerful pilots can be beneficial to the greater whole. The taboos that we held dear in the past cannot be allowed to stand in the way of progress, especially now that we live in a time where we need it most."

That evoked a grin from Jovy. "I am glad you understand. Our society is being hampered by lack of resources. We all need to be more creative in order to develop more inventive means to do more with less. As exotic radiation continues to bombard every single resident of the Red Ocean, all of them shall grow more powerful as time goes on. This applies to both humans and aliens. If there is a way to produce an elixir by extracting the most potent elements from the blood of millions of alien organisms, then we would do so in a heartbeat."

Wait...

Was this what the Deep Strike Plan was all about?!

Aside from the goals that Ves had already figured out, perhaps another reason for attacking alien population centers in the rear was to harvest a huge amount of alien bodies!

Several years laters, all of those aliens were bound to mutate into slightly more powerful beings.

Even if their blood and flesh only absorbed a fraction of the energies bestowed by exotic radiation, that was enough to cause their value to skyrocket!

Blood was power. This rule had grown even stronger now that everyone entered the Age of Dawn.

Too many people had yet to realize this important change. This gave Ves an important head-start!

As long as he harvested as much blood from powerful sources as possible, he could transform these high-quality ingredients into stronger Carmine mechs!

He could also figure out a way to empower his mech pilots directly. If the Red Association was able to do so with their general cultivation elixirs, there was no reason for Ves to fail in this endeavor!

His current priority was the Carmine System, however.

Ves wanted to explore many other possible ideas, but doing so would reduce the time he spent on his mech designs.

That was not acceptable. Ves should be able to gain plenty of rewards by furthering the development of the Carmine System.