It took around 134,000 DP to purchase the Attribute Candies he needed to elevate the physical attributes of six Swordmaidens to the level he wanted.

His DP reserves dwindled at an alarming rate as Ves kept purchasing Attribute Candy after Attribute Candy from the System's Store!

He stopped when he only had less than 25,000 DP left, but only for a moment.

After a bit of thought, Ves decided to be a little more daring and shower some extra attention to Venerable Dise and Ketis. He wanted to give them the option of boosting their Dexterity to 2.0!

"Dise is an expert pilot, so her combat acumen is by far the best. She can develop a wealth of new techniques that make the most out of her abnormally-dextrous body. As for Ketis, she'll become a lot more precise whenever she needs to make something delicate."

In the end, he was only left with a measly sum of 1142 Design Points after he redeemed a bunch of Dexterity Candies.

As Ves gazed at the large collection of candies lying haphazardly on the surface of the control console, he became a little dazed.

"Have I gone crazy?"

Objectively speaking, he thought it was incredibly foolish to squander more than 150,000 DP just so that he could turn 6 Swordmaidens into extremely powerful fighters.

Physical strength didn't matter when it came to mech combat! While a fit and healthy body definitely improved a mech pilot's performance when interfacing a mech, the relationship wasn't strong. It was quite doable for people with average constitutions to compete against the mech pilots.

The only benefits these candies provided was boosting the personal strengths of Venerable Dise, Ketis, Commander Dise and three other sisters. The immediate and obvious benefits were distressingly few as far as Ves could tell.

Sure, there may be times where having a lot of strength by his side may help, but that was what infantry weapons and combat armor was for. High-tech weapons and armor could kill any augmented superhuman with ease!

Despite his logic telling him what a dumb decision he made, Ves didn't feel any regret for his impulsive choice.

"I can earn DP easily enough as long as I design more mechs." He consoled himself. "Besides, it will be interesting to see the effects of boosting their attributes to such a large extent."

Justifying it as an experiment eased his mental burden a bit, though it wasn't strictly necessary. It was enough to consider this extravagance to be a reward to Ketis and the Swordmaidens.

He carefully marked the candies and put them into containers that he had already prepared in advance. He picked them all up and entered the testing chamber which had just completed the physical scans.

"Here you go." He simply said and gave each Swordmaiden present a small box that held the candies.

"What is this?" Commander Sendra questioned as she looked at the odd candies stored inside. "We don't have a habit of eating candy. That's for children."

Ketis quickly raced to stop the commander from randomly ingesting one of the candies.

"STOP! It's not that kind of candy! Be careful with that! It's much more powerful than you think!"

All of the Swordmaidens turned to their resident mech designer for an explanation.

"I think.. it might be best for you to try one of them out, but only in the order that Ves has specific." She said.

Ves nodded. "Start with the candies marked with Strength."

They all rummaged through their candy containers until they picked up the Strength Candy that corresponded to their current strength score. While the women were rather suspicious about what they held, they weren't overly suspicious towards Ves. Besides, Ketis already vouched for them, so they should probably be safe for consumption.

Once they popped them into their mouths, the women immediately felt the effects. Their bodies shook as they felt a myriad of changes taking place inside their bodies.

Initially, they became alarmed!

"What?!"

Some of them even reached for their new Unending alloy greatswords as if that would ward off the threat.

Fortunately, the candies worked quickly and efficiently. It only took a few more seconds for their body fluctuations to subside.

"What.. happened?" Venerable Dise frowned.

She had become a lot more agitated due to the changes to her body and that of her other sisters. Her protective instincts had become riled up. Even if she was willing to take Ves and Ketis at their word, she still felt that there was something fishy about this situation!

Ves could already feel Venerable Dise's force of will turning against him to an extent. He innocently raised his hands.

"Nothing bad has happened! In fact, you should all feel better than before. Why not step outside this chamber and swing your new weapons a few times."

They did as he suggested. They all stepped out into the workshop and spaced themselves apart so that no one would be slicing anyone by accident.

Since their bodies felt weird, none of them started going wild straight away. They performed standard practice routines that they had already performed an uncountable amount of times.

The women immediately noticed the difference.

A Swordmaiden champion called Jelena gasped as she swung her weapon with greater ease!

"My sword had become lighter!"

"Our swords are exactly the same as before." Venerable Dise corrected. "Our bodies have changed. We can exert more power than before."

Now that she pointed this out, the other Swordmaidens eagerly tested their new changes.

They were amazed!

Even though their strength only increased by 0.1 according to the scale used by the System, this actually represented a major leap! Each and every Swordmaidens immediately embraced their changes, especially when it became clear that it didn't seem to come with any negative side effects that they could tell!

"Wait, if this is the power of just one of those candies, what about the rest?"

The Swordmaidens eyed their candy containers with a lot more hunger than before. Ves had the illusion that they were just moments away from stuffing their mouths with a dozen candies!

Fortunately, Venerable Dise kept a sober mind.

"Control yourselves! Drastic physical changes should never be taken lightly!"

Ves nodded in agreement. "She's right. I've enjoyed some of these candies myself, and I can tell you that the load on your body becomes increasingly greater if you ingest more candy at once. I highly suggest you space them out. Just eat one or two of the candies a day at most. That way, your physical changes won't warp your bodies to the point you feel like strangers in your own body. I can tell you from personal experience that it will take weeks or months to fully adapt to your changes."

This was not a severe consequence, but one that nonetheless held a lot of implications to the Swordmaidens. Strength without control was never good. Their training constantly emphasized the need to master and control their strength. Exerting strength blindly would just endanger their fellow sisters and leave them open to counterattacks.

Ves engaged in a brief discussion with the Swordmaidens. Together, they decided that the Swordmaidens should just ingest one candy a day at most. In the meantime, they would undergo intense physical training in order to allow them to adjust to their changed parameters as best as possible.

"We need to space out the improvement over time in order to retain full control over our own bodies when we are able to participate in the competitions." Commander Sendra decided. "It's not as fast as everyone wants, but I think this is the best course of action."

Ketis didn't agree.

"Why not swallow multiple of them in the same day? Sure, the adjustment period is harsher, but the sooner we finish off the candies, the more time we can spend on learning what we are capable of at our maximum strength."

Venerable Dise crossed her arms. "Both of you make some valid points, but I'm inclined to favor Sendra's theory. We are already trained and seasoned warriors. We know what we are capable of when we are weak, so we will definitely not be starting off from scratch when we have augmented yourselves to the fullest. It is much more important to maintain peak control than to try to achieve a greater height in battle effectiveness."

Since the expert pilot had spoken, every other Swordmaiden instantly agreed. Even Ketis dropped her theory.

Ves left them to attend these matters for themselves. He already did his job when he handed over all of the candies.

Before he left, Ketis and the other Swordmaidens bowed to him in utter sincerity.

"Thank you for giving us all this candy." His student spoke. "I don't know where you got it from, but it must have cost a lot for you to obtain them. I've never heard of anything that could transform our bodies to this extent without requiring complicated surgery or expensive implants. With these, we'll definitely perform well during the upcoming competitions!"

Venerable Dise did not hide her appreciation either.

"You're a true friend to us, Ves. We shall be your sword for however long you need us. Wield us at any enemy you need to kill."

Ves modestly smiled. "You don't need to thank me so much. We're friends. As long as we stay true to each other, we will always be able to rely on each other."

Inwardly, he still cried about the 150,000 DP he gave away, but it was worth it as the Swordmaidens were one of the few people he viewed as completely loyal.

Sure, they were rough, uncivilized and uncouth. Yet that was why he liked them more. They were so honest and direct about everything that Ves had nothing to fear from their schemes.

If they supported him, they did so openly without any hidden agendas. If they did have other intentions in mind, they would tell him honestly.

Their frontier ways also made them prone to putting their full trust in the few people and groups they considered to be their true friends.

Before the Swordmaidens left, Ketis inquired about another important matter.

"Ves, you told us that you would arrange a backer for us who would take care of us while we're in the Heavensword Association. Have you managed to do that, or do you need more time?"

"Ah, I've already made a deal with someone. Here's her contact information."

Ves activated his normal comm and swiped the relevant data to her own comm.

"Who.. is Angelique Harcourt?"

"Someone I met by chance on the galactic net." Ves casually replied. "While I don't actually know her that well, she's a talented Journeyman Mech Designer who specializes in designing a specific kind of mech. Since she is rooted in the mech industry of the Heavensword Association, she possesses enough influence and contacts to address any impropriety that might take place."

Though Ketis felt dubious about this, the Swordmaidens truly needed the backing. As foreigners, they had no other protection should the authorities or powerful local factions ever wanted to find fault with them. This became even more important now that their expectations in the contests had risen!

"We'll contact her and see how we'll be able to get along. I hope she's receptive to us. I don't want us to fall out."

"Don't worry, Ketis. Both of you are obsessed with swords, so I have no doubt you'll be able to get along swimmingly."

Besides, if Angelique Harcourt wanted Ves to uphold his end of the bargain, she better abide by her promises.

He still couldn't believe how easy it was for him to convince the woman he met only once in a virtual setting to accept his deal. He only offered to contribute to one of her fencer mech designs, but she already jumped on it as if she was a ravished dog!

"It's just a contribution, not a full-on collaboration."

He didn't want to invest too much time in this distraction so he only offered to make a pass on one of her designs, but that was already enough to gain her agreement. It appeared that his desirability as a collaboration partner had already shot up on account of his fame and all of the accomplishments he made!