"So you haven't found anything useful yet?" Ves skeptically asked as he scratched Lucky's head.

"I'm still in the process of grouping all of the individual substances inside the sample." Dr. Ranya told him as she peered at a microscopic view of the sample of life-prolonging treatment serum. "Besides, many of the organic substances I've catalogued are complete unknowns. I can't even begin to guess where they came from, let alone reproducing them. It doesn't help that you are only giving me a few hours a week of access."

"You still have other responsibilities, and it's not like you'll gain much more with additional time. I'm well aware that you spend a lot more time on hitting the books in order to gain the knowledge to decipher more about the serum."

Dr. Ranya sighed. While Ves wasn't an exobiologist, he was still a scientist of some sorts. He was well acquainted with her research cycle.

"The serum is one of the most wondrous products of high technology in human hands." She spoke. "My foundation is far too shallow to even scratch the surface of its profound nature. It will likely take centuries for me to decipher its basic working. Nonetheless, I will never let go of this opportunity! Access to such a high-grade serum is an extremely precious opportunity that many of my fellow colleagues would kill to spend a few hours with! I'm confident I can achieve something remarkable in three, no two decades!"

Ves glowered at that. WIth such a long time-span, he could have hired much more competent exobiologists!

Someone as smart as Ranya didn't miss his response.

"Before you try and find someone more senior to take over this research project, you should keep in mind that there is so much to learn that every biotech expert has to start from scratch. The theories that you need to learn to unlock the secrets of serum are very esoteric and obscure. Much of what is available is scattered and fragmented. I have to piece together a lot of rules by combining scattered theories with my experimental observations. This is a life-long labor. Sure, someone better than me might be able to decipher the serum faster, but how old will they be? 100 years? 200 years?"

The implication was obvious. Ranya might not possess the learning efficiency of those at the upper end of a field, but they were at least several decades old. By the time they mastered the serum to a thorough degree, they might have already reached the end of their lives!

However, her argument possessed some very glaring holes.

"There are two ways to mitigate this shortcoming." He said and raised a finger. "First, research on life-prolonging treatment serum will presumably yield research results that will aid people in prolonging their lives. Even if that isn't the case, the value of an expert who studied the serum extensively is worth it for me to pay for a life extension!"

He raised another finger. "Second, even if prolonging the life of an old geezer isn't viable, I can always tell him to teach some apprentices to take over his mantle! Human civilization has always revolved around the accumulation and inheritance of knowledge. We stand on the shoulders of giants."

What a lofty argument! Ves mentally patted himself on the back for making use of these lines.

"I won't say that you're wrong, but.. do you really want to expose the existence of your serum further? Even if you have managed to guarantee their silence, there is always a way to crack someone open. Do you truly want to take that risk?"

Ugh. Ranya succinctly appealed to one of his fears. She was right. Every single person who knew about the serum increased the chance that it might get exposed.

Even the Terrans and Rubarthans wouldn't hesitate to dispatch forces to rob the serum from his hands! Its value was simply too great for someone like him to retain possession of such a hot good!

Though Ves truly wanted to obtain benefits faster, he feared the risk of exposure even more. This was why he had been very careful about exposing its existence to as few individuals as possible!

So far, only he, Lucky, Nitaa and Ranya knew about it. No one else. With all of the security precautions he took, Calabast was probably in the dark as well.

Perhaps the only other person who might know a thing or two about it was James, but his methods were simply too confounding.

Though Ves was highly alarmed at how the Living Prophet peered through some of his secrets, he was relieved that the Ylvainan was apparently on his side.

Since James claimed to be able to see the future, the smug bastard should be very well aware of the consequences of betraying him! While Ves hadn't been able to exact vengeance on anyone who wronged him, he would definitely not spare any effort, starting with Ylvaine's spiritual fragment!

After all, if Ves was capable of breathing life into spiritual entities, he could take it back as well!

As long as he possessed this leverage, he was confident he could keep James in check.

"You have made your point." Ves eventually spoke. "That said, my patience isn't endless. Even if you can't figure out anything fancy, I want to see at least one practical gain within the next few years."

"That.. is a steep challenge. If I drop almost everything and focus completely on short-term gains, I might be able to derive a useful application of my research. It would be helpful to determine direction to work towards. What are you looking for, exactly?"

He thought about that. "Since the serum is mainly about extending one's life, then try and find a way to do that. Your result doesn't have to be as effective as a low-grade serum. Even I know that is out of reach. However, if you can develop some sort of elixir that can extend a baseline human's life by thirty years, that is already incredibly helpful. As long as it is economic enough, we can supply it to every clansman, thereby boosting the strength of our clan by a considerable margin!"

Making people live longer meant that Ves would also be able to squeeze more work out of them! It took a lot of effort to hire and train the next generation of replacements. If the old fogeys of his clan could live a few more decades, then that meant that Ves would get a lot more worth out of them! Of course, the premise for all of this was whether the elixir cost less than the value he gained from extending the life of a productive clansman.

As for trying to reverse-engineer serum in its entirety, Ves would be a fool to think it could be accomplished within a century. Even if he had become aware of its remarkable spiritual properties, the degree of spiritual engineering involved was way beyond his level of competence!

He was in the same boat as Ranya in that regard.

Unlike her, Ves couldn't afford to waste too much time on deciphering the workings of the serum.

However, he didn't need to understand how it worked in order to make use of it. After a long time of contemplation, he eventually made up his mind.

It was a waste to hoard such a potent good. Waiting until he became 300 years old in order to extend his life by another century was far too long.

He was only a tenth as old right now! It would take forever to get to the point where he would need to use it to extend his life, and by then he would definitely be able to earn it by himself!

It was this confidence in himself that allowed him to do something that was unthinkable any anyone else in his position.

He decided to use up the serum in other applications!

Though it was very easy to waste the potential of the serum, as long as Ves gained enough immediate benefits, then that was worth it! A smaller boost in the early days of his career was far more valuable than a larger boost in the later stages.

The sooner he advanced to Senior, the sooner he could enter the big leagues!

The faster his mech designs improved, the more money he would earn!

It was all about obtaining an early lead and snowballing it to a greater lead in the years to come. Ves was keenly aware that he was constantly racing against time. He didn't need to rely on his intuition to know that humanity's golden age would never last.

Even if a great threat didn't arrive within his lifetime, it was still very crucial to strengthen himself as much as possible in the early stages. If he was too weak by the time he arrived at the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy, then he would never be able to stick his head out in this wild and dangerous expanse!

As Ves finally took back the sample from Ranya, he left the Scarlet Rose's newly-built biolab and headed over to the vault. After going through a lot of security checks, he entered the secure compartment and inspected the new shipment of P-stones.

Unlike the ones he obtained before, the new ones didn't store any of his excess spiritual energy. They were empty batteries waiting to be filled up. With so many new P-stones, Ves could store years worth of his excess spiritual energy!

"I never did find the maximum capacity of a P-stone." He remarked.

He didn't know whether the P-stones all stored the same amount of spiritual energy. He had no clue if it depended on their individual material composition or their shapes.

In fact, up until now, he still hadn't created a measuring stick for spiritual energy!

All of these were basic scientific questions that Ves had neglected to address due to his lack of time. It was only now that he was waiting for the data of the prototype testing of his remaining project that he obtained some free time.

When it came to researching anything related to this field, Ves preferred to go his own way. Of course, the lack of access to his mother's heritage or any source of systematic knowledge also played into that. If his deadbeat mother actually bothered to pass on her teachings, he wouldn't be forced to fumble in the dark all the time!

"It's better that she didn't." He muttered under his breath. "I don't need her help! I can figure out my own path!"

Just like in the field of mech design, Ves was confident he could innovate his own solutions! Though his results wouldn't be very impressive at first, as long as he continued to blaze his own trail, he would eventually be able to create something that truly belonged to himself!

Ves wasn't looking to replicate the Grand Dynamo nestled in his mind. Instead, he wanted to create something just as powerful!

He looked at the P-stones before glancing at the vial in his hands. His intuition had been buzzing like crazy whenever he looked at the serum.

One of the many hunches he received was there might be some way to make them interact with each other. To what purpose, he didn't know.

"Is it possible to separate and isolate the spiritual properties of a sample?"

Ves was very reluctant to mess around with the highly complex and highly concentrated life-attributed spiritual energy locked inside the serum.

In some ways, the serum was alive. Ves couldn't treat it as a simple medicine.

However, Ves was not deterred.

"Life is one of my domains!"

Ves began to draw out a tiny droplet from the vial and began to store it into another prepared container.

Though the drop was incredibly miniscule, Ves still felt as if he was holding something a miniature sun! The spiritual energy contained in the drop was still very potent!

"Let's see whether I can pass it onto a P-stone!"