Ves returned to the testing grounds for the last time hopefully. He was still excited about the energy converter he invented!

The conception and realization of this basic component was a critical step forward in his career as a spiritual engineer.

Just like how the human race began to escape the confines of their physical limitations by generating energy from heat, Ves finally took the same step!

To be sure, the energy converter he cobbled together was still rudimentary in form and function. This was normal as Ves had not mastered all of the nuances and theory involved with this kind of spiritual machine.

"In fact, I shouldn't be able to make it in the first place."

The only reason why he managed to create it was because he borrowed the properties of a key ingredient. Without the fragment of the Unending One providing a ready-made 'OEM component', Ves would have never been able to create his desired end product!

This situation highly resembled his current approach as a mech designer. While he knew how to make basic versions of existing components, it was much more efficient for him to license parts developed by specialists. The latter delivered far greater performance than anything he could cobble up. Ves also saved a lot of time by relying on someone else's work rather than waste an excessive amount of time on reinventing the wheel.

Of course, mech designers developed a worrisome degree of dependence on others if they maintained this approach. It was generally good to master the development of at least one or two key mech components related to a mech designer's specialty.

The problem with Ves was that his specialty was not directly related to a physical aspect of a mech. His core focus lay in spiritual design, and as far as he was concerned, his specialty worked equally well on a first-class multipurpose mech or a third-class rust bucket!

The only true path left for him was to immerse himself in designing and creating spiritual components.

This was quite an enormous challenge as he did not have any prior instruction in this field. He knew that there was a community of spiritual adepts out there that had systematically developed a complete framework of spiritual engineering.

Yet he didn't have access to it! His mother kept denying him and it was impossible for him to knock on the doors of the Five Scrolls Compact.

Therefore, Ves had no choice but to pioneer this field himself.

Even though he felt annoyed that he had to start from the beginning, the advantage of doing so was that it was all his own work. Not even the System could take that away from him! The innovations he accomplished not only provided him with deep insights in the fundamental nature of spiritual energy, but were also completely attuned to his own design philosophy.

The energy converter he made was a good example of that.

Due to the peculiarities of his life domain, Ves found it easier to 'birth' and 'grow' his spiritual creations rather than to 'build' them up like a normal machine.

In this regard, he shared something in common with biomech designers.

"I guess we are both life manipulators, then." Ves remarked with a chuckle.

Still, he did something different today. Rather than let nature take its course, Ves adopted a more proactive approach and exerted much greater control over the creation process in order to prevent it from becoming alive.

The result was a product that was neither lifeless or fully alive.

It simply sat somewhere in between.

Though the energy converter showed some traits of life, Ves had inspected it extensively and became reassured that it was not about to develop its own thoughts.

At least for now.

"Well, I can always kill it again if it gets too rebellious." He muttered.

It didn't matter too much if the energy converter possessed a lot of faults. It was a first generation product that opened up a lot of new possibilities. As long as Ves was able to build on this accomplishment, he could develop a much better version in the future.

The energy converter he created was just as pivotal as the invention of the steam engine or the development of the first human-designed FTL drive. It represented the start of a new era for Ves.

"I can create self-sustaining spiritual constructs with the help of my latest creation!"

The spiritual device he made was not useful on its own. Instead, it came to its full potential when integrated into something else. Engineering was all about combining smaller assets to form a larger asset that was more than the sum of its parts.

A device that supplied energy to the greater construct was an essential requirement to create more advanced products!

Just like how modern human technology such as comms, shuttles, mechs and starships all required exponentially more energy to operate, countless other spiritual applications needed to be fueled as well.

In order to confirm whether this bright new future was within his reach, Ves had to test the operation of the energy converter in person.

This was why he patiently waited for all of the pieces to be put into place. It took some time to prepare the 40 Blinding Mech prototypes for deployment again. The test also required the participation of an expert candidate and expert pilot in order to prove that his new mech's Blinding Pulse ability was finally able to affect stronger individuals.

Gloriana caught wind of the test and took some time out of her busy schedule to visit the testing grounds as well.

"Miaow!"

"Meow."

Lucky and Clixie both preceded Gloriana as they padded into the familiar observation room. As various techs and specialists were setting up their own consoles, the cats thronged through several of them before they hopped on top of an unoccupied workstation.

"What have the two of you been up to lately?" Ves suspiciously asked.

"Miaow?" Clixie innocently blinked at Ves.

Ever since a portion of the Larkinson Clan landed on the surface of Prosperous Hill VI and occupied Gentle Lotus Base, Lucky and Clixie were rarely at the side of their owners. Ves was worried whether they were bothering others. Even if they were skilled in infiltrating other places, the biotechnology employed by the locals sometimes produced exceptional results.

"Don't stir up any trouble, you two." He sternly warned.

"Meeeoooww…"

Before he could admonish them any further, his wife walked up to him and hugged him. Her floral scent quickly wafted over his nose, causing him to smile and revel in the presence of his spouse.

"Hey, Gloriana."

"Hey, Ves." She smiled into his eyes. "I heard you have finally solved the most serious issue with our Blinding Project. Does it actually work now?"

"That's what we're going to find out. To be honest, I can't guarantee anything. I might need to make some tweaks on the spot in order to obtain the desired result. Since this is a completely new invention, don't be surprised if it takes a lot of time to get it to work."

"Mmhmm."

Although he was confident in his work, he couldn't help but dial back his words at this time. Living with a demanding wife had taught him not to overpromise. It was better to do the opposite and delight Gloriana when he achieved an unanticipated success than talk big but deliver a fraction of what he complained.

Soon enough, every piece was put into place. The mech pilots of all of the prototypes and the target mechs had arrived. The machines had all come online and were all warmed up and ready to show their capabilities.

Ves commenced the first test. "Let's start with a baseline. I want one Blinding Mech to activate its Blinding Pulse ability on one average mech."

He first had to confirm that the base functioning of his auxiliary mech hadn't changed as a result of his changes.

A randomly-chosen Blinding Mech prototype slowly stepped forward and faced a Bright Warrior IB piloted by a test pilot from the Living Sentinels.

"Commencing test."

Ves paid careful attention with his spiritual senses. He saw the mech responding to the command of its mech pilot and unleashing its Blinding Pulse ability.

"Erm!" The mech pilot of the Bright Warrior IB uttered. "I felt something."

Nothing much had changed. Ves sighed in relief. He was afraid that damaging its spiritual foundation and inserting a semi-foreign component would alter the fundamental performance of the Blinding Mech.

Fortunately, the Blinding Pulse ability still worked like normal.

"Is that it?" Gloriana frowned in puzzlement. "I don't see any improvement."

"It's not meant to be, honey. A solitary Blinding Mech shouldn't have the power to debilitate or incapacitate a single mech pilot. Not without some extra assistance."

The energy converter of the Blinding Mech had not gone into action. No matter how amazing it was, it wasn't able to generate any output without supplying some input!

The question was where to source the input. Ves anticipated that the Blinding Mech needed quite a bit of energy in order to fulfill its ambitious purpose, so he needed to link the energy converter to an abundant energy source.

The most obvious choices were his design spirits. The ones that were flush with spiritual energy such as the Superior Mother, the Solemn Guardian and several other entities could all pitch in and offload the excess.

Yet Ves did not solely want to rely on tapping the production of other design spirits to make the Blinding Mech work.

He had a more ambitious goal in mind. He wanted it to become more self-sufficient and be able to fuel its own expenditure.

It was an ambitious goal, though. Ves did not believe the primitive energy converter he made was already at this point.

It would already be good if the mech could supply at least some of its needs.

As for where the Blinding Mech would get its input from, that was what the next test was all about.

"Alright, let's proceed with the main trial. I want all forty Blinding Mechs to get ready. Joshua, please step forward with your mech."

As an entire mech company of Blinding Mechs stood ready, the Valkyrie Prime piloted by its currently-designed expert pilot attracted a lot of attention.

Even though it wasn't an expert mech, it possessed its own qualities that made it appear remarkable. Even Ves couldn't help but feel fascinated by its compelling presence.

"Your orders, sir?" Venerable Joshua dutifully asked.

"I need you to exercise your prime mech."

"Pardon?"

"Just move around and perform strenuous and difficult maneuvers. Pretend you are locked in a duel against another expert mech. I need you and your mech to work up a sweat before we can proceed with the next phase."

"Okay, sir…"

Though Venerable Joshua didn't understand how this was helpful, he executed his orders to the best of his ability. He strained his mind and tried to resonate with his prime mech. A weak resonance field formed around the mech as it began to fly around while stabbing its spear at an imaginary opponent.

This went on for fifteen whole minutes. The techs monitoring the telemetry of the different mechs didn't understand what was going on at all, but they all remained quiet.

Gloriana did not. She frowned deeper and deeper. "What is the point of all of this? Are you trying to test your invention out against a weakened expert pilot or something?"

Ves raised his palm. "Be patient. It's almost time."

After a few more minutes of random exercises, Ves finally called Venerable Joshua to cease.

"That's enough. Good work, Joshua."

Once the Valkyrie Prime returned to rest, the test pilots of the Blinding Mechs finally received the command that they had been waiting for. The mechs all seemed to shine a little brighter than before.

"Commence!"

The Blinding Mechs all began to trigger their Blinding Pulse ability at the same time!

As the person on the receiving end of this ability, Venerable Joshua was already on guard. His intuition had already noticed something unusual from the mechs wielding shields that were studded with luminar crystals.

When all of those crystals simultaneously flashed a light onto his Valkyrie Prime, he didn't experience a light glint this time.

Instead, an entire beam of light seemed to have washed over his mind! It was at least a hundred times stronger than the previous tests!

"Ahhh!" Joshua cried as he held his head. "It's like I'm seeing stars! It hurts!"

The Blinding Mechs successfully affected an expert pilot!

Even though Joshua quickly regained control after a couple of seconds, the fact that the Blinding Mechs were able to get to this point at all was a major turning point!