Ves was sure that the serum synthesized by the Supreme Sage had a lot of secrets that he had yet to grasp. Due to lack of time and lack of comprehension in anything related to biotechnology, he had not gone over the research files of Project Cain and Special Project 'V'.

Instead, he tasked Dr. Ranya and Dr. Perris to work together on deciphering them in secret. Since much of the data and theory contained in the files related to extremely high-level research, the two young biotech experts were far from capable of grasping all of the knowledge.

He did not expect any quick results, but that was fine. He did not need to know all of the ins and outs on how the serum was produced to make use of its amazing properties.

After purifying and doing his best to develop a bond with the universal life energy he reserved for this experiment, he moved on to attuning himself to his other ingredients.

Nyaaaaa.

The Golden Cat looked a little glum as she materialized and stared mournfully at one of his other P-stones.

Ves gently caressed the ancestral cat's back with a spiritual projection. "I'm sorry, but I really need this piece of yours. I know it hurts, but you'll be able to make up for it in no time. Aren't there a lot of people who joined our clan lately? The spiritual feedback that our members provide is no longer a trickle."

In fact, Goldie no longer depended as much on the low-quality spiritual tribute provided by ordinary clansmen. Much of her growth came from the more potent spiritual feedback provided by the expert pilots and Journeyman Mech Designers of the Larkinson Clan.

Compared to someone as weak as Melkor Larkinson, people like Ketis and Venerable Jannzi provided much more substance at greater qualities.

Nyaaaa!

Goldie still acted petulantly, though. She perched close to Ves and gazed at him with recrimination in her resentful eyes.

Ves just reached out and petted her with an even greater degree of affection.

"There, there. You'll recover in no time. If all goes well, I'll be able to create a new cat and companion for you. Don't you love it when our family expands? Best of all, with the portion you have donated, the new addition will become your younger brother!"

Technically, it was more correct to state that Goldie would be one of the 'parents' of his companion spirit, but she was too young and the family relation wasn't that strong, so it was too excessive to treat her as if she was the mother.

In any case, since Ves was the main progenitor of all of his spiritual products, he was unquestionably their father. It didn't make sense to apply the human framework of family relations to his growing collection of spirits.

If he started doing that, then the genealogy of his spiritual family would become very weird.

Despite Goldie's grumpiness, Ves did not feel any reduction in closeness to the tiny spiritual fragment he harvested from her spiritual body.

After making sure that his intimacy with this piece remained high, he turned his attention to his other spiritual ingredients.

The relatively modest piece he carved out of the original fragment of the Unending One was a completely different ingredient. Though it appeared dormant and unresponsive, Ves always kept his guard up while he inspected it and tried to make sense of its confusing mix of spiritual products.

Just like the spiritual remains of other alien entities, Ves encountered a lot of alien and incomprehensible components that he felt very wary about.

He did not dare to assume that the Unending One was permanently dead. A dark god should have more tricks than that, and out of the three of them, the tentacled whale should have the richest means.

What was dead could come back to life. Ves had already inadvertently brought one fossil of history to life in the form of Ylvaine, could an entity that was much more powerful than a human prophet do the same?

"I have to minimize this risk as much as possible."

This was why Ves spent a lot of effort on cutting away the pollution. Every attribute that was not related to devouring and converting spiritual energy was useless in his eyes. This was why the lesser fragment of the Unending One grew even smaller as he did not hesitate to err on the side of caution.

It didn't matter if he reduced the fragment to just around 20 percent of its original strength. As long as he combined it with the universal life energy he prepared, the energy processing functions he damaged would definitely be restored and could very well even reach a higher degree of potency!

Compared to these difficult ingredients, the next one he handled was much simpler.

Lufa was one of his more recent spiritual products, so he possessed a high degree of understanding on how he worked. The spiritual fragment Ves requested from this design spirit actively cooperated with him when he wanted to cut out some unnecessary components.

The shard he carved out of Aisling Curver's design seed was much more unfathomable. It took quite a lot of force in order to damage the orphaned design seed in the first place, and Ves guessed that he only managed to achieve this much because the mind it belonged to was no longer alive.

"It's quite hard!"

He was sure he may have damaged something in the process, but Ves didn't care. He got the ingredient he wanted.

The only problem was that Ves couldn't figure out how to process or purify it any further. The dense but inert chunk was a different form of spiritual energy than he was accustomed to handling.

Still, it was fine if he kept it like this. The shard was so small and weak that it shouldn't have a major influence on his companion spirit.

The final spiritual ingredient that Ves had to process was the spiritual fragment that he had obtained the Illustrious One.

Though the transformed design spirit was not very communicative, it acquiesced to his request without any fuss.

The moment he held the P-stone containing this special fragment in his hand, he felt an unexplainable closeness to it. Much to his surprise, he did not even have to do anything to develop an immediate intimacy with the Illustrious One.

Out of all of his design spirits, the Illustrious One was a bit more special than most. Its origin along with its drastic upgrade caused it to undergo a drastic evolution that caused Ves to feel less and less familiar with what he initially brought to life.

"Do I have a special relation to the luminar race?"

Sure, he may have stumbled upon one of their ruins and raided some treasures by chance, but was that enough for him to develop any strange thoughts about this extinct race.

"This is irrational. There is no reason why I should feel so close to the Illustrious One."

Though he doubted his judgement, a part of him nonetheless insisted on making use of it. He was already happy with his other ingredients. Each of them brought something solid to the equation.

The only exception was the fragment of the Illustrious One. Even though he only harvested a lesser fragment, its unique and different qualities caused it to become a wildcard in his hands.

If he handled it correctly, he might be able to augment his companion spirit with a powerful new function that complemented its functioning.

If he handled it poorly, it could easily cause his companion spirit to mutate in an undesirable direction!

"Should I take this gamble?"

Who was he kidding? Of course he would! He was not ignorant of all of the ways this decision could backfire on him, but he was confident he could deal with them. As long as the creation process did not go out of control like it did during the time he created the Superior Mother, then he would definitely be able to intervene before the situation blew up in his face!

After he finished all of the steps from designing the initial seed to preparing all of his ingredients, he was ready to proceed with his experiment.

Though he originally thought about creating a more modest companion spirit for another Larkinson in order to test whether some of his assumptions were accurate, he decided to skip it because it was too cumbersome.

He already spent several weeks preparing for his companion spirit. How could he devote so much time and labor to benefit someone else? Though he thought about experimenting on his wife, he eventually dropped this idea.

"There is no way I will let Gloriana overtake me! I have to stay a step ahead of her. I can't let her run the entire show once we begin our work on our expert mech design projects!"

With time running out, Ves decided to put an end to all of his preparations.

When he had to decide where he wished to perform this crucial procedure, he chose to shuttle over to the Dragon's Den.

He did not have to perform his spiritual experiments in an isolated mech workshop anymore. His options were much better these days. Not only did he induct Dr. Ranya into his inner circle, he also had access to an entire bioresearch vessel that possessed sophisticated treatment and monitoring capabilities. He would be a fool to ignore all of this advanced tech!

When Ves stepped aboard the Dragon's Den and allowed an attendant to guide him to one of Dr. Ranya's personal labs, he entered a large medical lab that was filled with conventional machines instead of organic machines.

"Ah, you're here now." The lab-coated woman looked up as he arrived with his honor guard. She glanced at the floating crate behind his back. "You informed me you wish to perform a sensitive procedure on yourself. I am always happy to assist, but there is only so much I can do by myself. If you give me permission, I can invite a team of trustworthy doctors and specialists to work with you. They possess a lot more relevant expertise."

Ves shook his head as he approached a table and ordered the crate to rest on it. "I won't be doing anything weird to my body. Instead, I'm trying something new with my mind. The only reason why I chose to come here and put my body under your care is because I don't know if my body will become affected in some way. I need you to monitor my physical signs and be ready to intervene if something awful happens."

While he was sure that the Lifer specialists that had recently joined the clan would be able to do a much better job, Ves did not trust them as of yet. They had yet to thoroughly integrate into the clan and he was quite wary of encountering someone like Dr. Nigel Redmont-Larkinson who intentionally sabotaged the clan in the mistaken belief he was doing the Larkinsons a favor!

"I.. will do my best to take care of you." Dr. Ranya reluctantly promised.

Ves briefly explained his goals and described his plans. Much of it wasn't relevant to Dr. Ranya due to her inability to perceive and interact with spiritual energy, but it was better to keep her in the loop to an extent.

As expected, her reaction was quite drastic.

"What?! So you want to create an even stronger 'spiritual' augment than the one that Ketis currently enjoys? And you intend to perform this experiment right now when much of your model is untested?"

Though Ranya had a lot of objections, Ves overruled them all. He was determined to make progress today and nothing would stop him except for suffering failure.

He changed his clothes and prepared to undergo a thorough physical examination.

"This isn't the first time I have done something like this, doctor. This is the right moment for me to augment myself. I have already waited weeks for this. I don't want to wait any longer."

The examination lasted a couple of hours before Ves was free to start his experiment.