Hours after Arnold gleefully filled his stomach before falling asleep, both Ves and Ranya sat side by side as they methodically combed over the sensor readings.

Since a surface-level analysis yielded too few answers, the pair decided to spend precious hours diving into the huge quantity of raw data.

They had to know exactly what the sensors managed to record. They also had to question the reliability of the sensors in question. Ves even spent some of his time performing physical inspections on them in order to make sure they were properly calibrated.

None of the sophisticated lab devices generated any skewed readings. Ranya had only acquired them recently and she had already calibrated and configured them a short time ago. It was extremely unlikely for one of the lab equipment to malfunction, let alone over fifty of them at the same time!

Ves no longer questioned the integrity of the lab equipment. After ruling them out as the reason behind the inconsistent readings, they tried to analyze the data from different angles.

If the sensor readings were accurate, then the original body that had stayed in place simply turned fake without any odd disruptions.

The exact timing of this transition happened at the same time as one of the Arnolds in the corner had turned into a real body!

What drove the exobiologist and mech designer crazy was that there was no indication that such a swap had occurred!

The sensors detected no outburst of signals, no explosion of heat and no displacement of air. It was as if real turned fake and fake turned real at the snap of a finger.

Ves was reminded of one of the exchanges that he held with a mech designer he met in the past.

Truth was relative. What people observed was not necessarily real. People interpreted sensory data differently. Many mistakes did not arise from possessing inadequate or faulty senses, but rather resorting to biases and flawed theories to explain something.

He suspected that he was in such a situation right now. Due to various limitations, Ves was unable to come up with a satisfactory explanation of what happened.

Teleportation seemed to be the most obvious answer, but Ves had a feeling that this was too simplistic.

He would have been able to test this possible answer by performing a third test. It was too bad that Arrnold was asleep now. If he was awake, Ves could have told the exobeast to repeat his trick, but this time Ves would mark the original's body with a harmless marker.

Would the Arnod that emerged in a different place boast the same marker on his body? If not, then that would have great implications for Arnold's potential!

"Do you really think that might be the case?" Ranya looked skeptically at Ves. "It sounds far-fetched. While I'm not a physicist or anything, even I know that the ability to call upon alternate reality versions of yourself and eventually importing one of them to our current reality while putting your original self in an alternate reality to balance it out is ludicrous!"

"It's just a theory, doctor. While it sounds ludicrous, high-ranking mech pilots are known to have pulled off even more exceptional feats."

"I'm very much aware of those examples, sir! I seriously doubt that that a weak and otherwise ordinary exobeast like Arnold is capable of pulling off the same feats as exceptional ace and god pilots who have the support of powerful supermechs!"

She had a point. Even though physical strength was not necessarily correlated to spiritual strength, Ves already made an estimation of Arnold's spirituality. Almost every design spirit was able to overpower the arganid when it came to this quality.

It was quite difficult for him to imagine that a spiritually-active lifeform like Arnold was capable of breaking the boundaries between alternate realities.

The more Ves thought about it, the more silly he felt. Why did he propose this theory in the first place? He didn't have any proof. If he had to supply an answer, then he shouldn't let his imagination go wild. There were several more restrained possibilities that did not delve into something as fantastical as alternate realities.

As Ves tried to find a more realistic explanation, Ranya sighed and pushed herself back from her desk.

"I don't think we are engaging in productive activity. Does it matter if we know exactly what occurred?"

"Uhmmm…."

"There are too many uncertainties in cutting-edge science." She reminded him. "The strange sample of fluids you once supplied me still puzzle me to this day. I often put them under my scanners in the hopes of gaining some more clues, but I think it will take me years to crack more secrets. I don't let myself get bothered by that, though. You take what you can and leave the rest for another time. Even if we can decipher Arnold's odd powers, what can we do with what we've learned?"

"Not much, I guess." Ves admitted. He began to view this situation from a more sober perspective. "To be honest, I don't know how much of the applications of my design philosophy works. I've figured out a few mechanics and interactions, but I've only scratched the surface of what is possible. One of the reasons why I resorted to borrowing the powers of external sources to begin with was because I needed access to more powers than what I can provide on my own. I'm no Arnold, but as long as I can access his abilities, it doesn't matter."

He began to let go of his unrealistic expectations. Once he did, he felt as if he removed a weight off his shoulder. He no longer saw Arnold as a source of lots of problems. Instead, he started to view the remarkable little exobeast as a potential addition to his collection of design spirits.

Once Ves began to turn his thoughts in this direction, he began to frown.

He seriously doubted whether Arnold was capable of granting a mech the ability to swap its position with one of its phantom clones.

Even though the term 'swapping' was not an accurate description of what Arnold did, it was the most convenient term for Ves to use at the moment.

Yet no matter what he called it, he seriously doubted whether his intrinsic ability translated completely to mechs. The energy requirements were likely astronomical!

"Perhaps only expert pilots and higher are able to leverage this ability with a mech." He muttered.

While that sounded incredibly useful in certain situations, Arnold became a lot less practical if this was true.

The only reason why he didn't give up on Arnold outright was the realization that the exobeast was only just coming into his powers. There were other spiritual entities that lived a lot longer and expanded their abilities.

Obtaining a spiritual entity at the start of his development was both a blessing and a curse to Ves.

On one hand, he was able to nurture, feed and instruct Arnold in ways that caused him to grow in a form that Ves desired.

On the other hand, this process could take years or decades to yield desirable results. While Ves felt that it was already possible to use Arnold as a design spirit right away, there weren't any mech designs that matched well with him. Which mechs needed the ability to generate useless and easily-detectable clones? An ordinary projector module could easily do the same!

Ves doubted that anything more would happen unless he was able to supply the mech with additional spiritual energy. That just returned him to another familiar problem. He still hadn't solved the energy supply problem of the Blinding Mech.

While he already formed a plan to utilize the spiritual fragment of the Unending One, there were too many risks associated with it. Ves did not feel he was fully capable of handling the remains of the most powerful dark god he had ever encountered.

What he truly needed was another exobeast or designer beast that also possessed the power to gather or manipulate energy. If that mutated beast happened to be just as naive and unsuspecting as Arnold, Ves would be able to manipulate the creature into another loyal and committed pawn to his cause!

Yet that goal came with its own problems. Ves suspected that he wouldn't be able to encounter a suitable mutated beast on Prosperous Hill VI. All of the best exobeasts and designer beasts were kept on Prosperous Hill IV, which many people viewed as the regional capital of biotechnology.

Gaining access to it wasn't easy. The only convenient solution that Ves could think of right now was to win his upcoming design duel against Doctor Frederico Navarro. The notable Journeyman ought to possess enough influence to give Ves an exclusive pass.

"The delay is too long, though."

Gloriana and the Hex Army were running out of patience. They didn't want to wait any longer to receive the next batch of Hexer mechs designed by the Miracle Couple.

Ves found it hard to make a decision on how to proceed forward. Should he publish his long-overdue mech designs despite not reaching a level of performance that made him satisfied?

"Ugh. I'll think about it later."

After Ves and Ranya wrapped up their examinations, they took one last look at the sleeping little exobeast.

"It's hard to imagine that this arganid is more powerful than most humans in the galaxy."

"Arnold is only powerful in a narrow sense." Ves replied. "Even if your spirit is weaker, your mind is far more developed. You're in control of this entire lab. You can utilize the power and knowledge at your disposal to do anything you want to his body. You can cut him up, put him in a coma, transplant extra limbs and who knows what else you can come up with. Spirituality is not the only measure of power."

Ves briefly swept her with his spiritual vision. He spotted no notable spiritual potential in her mind, which meant she was unlikely to develop any extraordinary traits. That was not a big deal as her profession was not reliant on spirituality.

"How do you wish to treat Arnold?"

He thought about it for a moment. "I'll visit him occasionally, if only to remind him who's in charge. I can't visit him every day because I probably don't have the time to spare for that. I'll leave him in your charge."

"Me?"

"You can assign someone else to this task if you need to. All I want is for Arnold to be taken care of. I don't want to visit you again after you notified me that he died under your purview."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen." Doctor Ranya replied with a determined voice. "How well do you wish to treat the exobeast? Too much pampering is not necessary good for a wild beast."

"Hmm… treat him decently. Let him feel somewhat comfortable, but not too much. While it may be better to subject him to some pressure, I don't think we need to bother with all of that in order to stimulate the arganid's growth."

"..Alright. If that is what you want, I will see to it that Arnold will be kept in some comfort according to his species."

Without the external pressure that Arnold experienced before, the mutated beast wouldn't be pressured to grow his abilities any further. Ves was well aware of this dynamic, but there were plenty of other ways to make up for this shortcoming.

Ves did not acquire Arnold because he wanted to own a mutated beast.

He bought Arnold because he wanted to expand his spiritual options!

There were already several ways that the oblivious exobeast could be of use. Ves just came up with another good idea.

Wasn't he looking for a test subject to test whether it was possible to merge with a processed fragment of the Unending One without going crazy?

This looked like a great opportunity to proceed with such an experiment!

"Hahahaha!" Ves burst out in laughter, surprising both Lucky and Ranya.

The reason why he couldn't control himself was because he just made an even greater realization.

Mutated beasts could serve as test subjects as well!

Not only that, but there were definitely more creatures like Arnold in the Prosperous Hill System. Ves just had to seek them out!