Once he drank a lot of water and filled his belly with the contents of a nutrient pack, Ves took stock of his gains from this Mastery experience.
"I gained far more than I expected." He concluded.
First, he fulfilled his primary objective. Witnessing Eloise Pelican piloting the Valiant Warden space knight extensively gave Ves an incredible amount of small insights about the rigors of piloting a mech in space.
What Ves appreciated the most was that he watched Eloise pilot her space knight during uneventful patrols and an incredibly pitched battle. The contrast between both of them gave Ves a strong learning experience. Some features were much more important during battle!
The second benefit did not need any repeating. Learning some of the actual mechanics behind apotheosis and complete resonance changed Ves' perspective on expert pilots forever. They no longer posed a mystery to them now that he understood where their force of will emerged from!
"I was right! Spirituality is the key!"
Ves also advanced his fundamental understanding of spirituality by a substantial degree. He learned that spiritual energy consisted of meaning and possesses all kinds of attributes and imprints.
This was important, because learning that these properties existed meant that Ves could one day manipulate them just like Qilanxo's spiritual fragment aptly demonstrated!
What did that mean? As long as he found a source of compatible spiritual energy, he could infuse that into the emotions and desires of a mech pilot that aligned with the attribute of the spiritual energy!
As long as the fusion succeeded, the force of will that emerged would be enough to elevate that mech pilot into an expert candidate or expert pilot!
"If I can replicate the process myself, I can produce artificial expert pilots!"
The magnitude of this astounding ability could not be overstated! Such a secret was so explosive that everyone would fight for it! The weight of this secret surpassed even that of the Mech Designer System because the latter only benefited a small number of people while the theories that Ves developed could potentially empower every mech pilot in the galaxy!
"I shouldn't be too eager to apply what I've learned." Ves instantly decided.
While he wanted to experiment with what he learned in order to elevate the likes of Melkor, Melinda and Raella Larkinson to expert pilots, it would be too conspicuous for them to advance to experts all of a sudden!
Ves could not afford to give anyone reason to suspect he possessed the secret to elevating mech pilots into expert pilots!
"This ability doesn't only come with galaxy-spanning implications, it's also exceedingly dangerous!"
He readily admitted that he could not come close to replicating the feat. The skill and precision demonstrated by Qilanxo's spiritual fragment showed a mastery of manipulating spiritual energy that Ves didn't even knew was possible!
Even though he understood the basic mechanisms of what he witnessed, it was like seeing a musician play an instrument up close. Just because he knew how it worked in theory didn't meant he could pick up an instrument and play it like a master of the craft!
"This is yet another possible application of spirituality in the galaxy that I can learn one day!"
Until that happened, Ves did not intend to mess with it carelessly. If he recklessly inserted foreign spiritual energy into the mind of a random mech pilot, there was a great chance that the spiritual energy would fail to take hold and disappear into the imaginary realm.
If Ves forced the merger of incorrectly attributed spiritual energy with the emotions and desires of a mech pilot, then he might even inflict major harm!
"There's so much still that I don't know." Ves muttered to himself as he sought out Lucky. "What makes spiritual energy capable of affecting reality so strongly? How is it generated and where can I find it? Can the attributes of spiritual energy be converted to other attributes in the same way that their personal imprints can be exchanged?"
So many new questions emerged from his mind. The uncertainties that popped up would keep him busy for a very long time, he guessed.
In any case, it appeared that Ves had not been the only beneficiary of the Mastery experience. He concentrated his mind and turned his mental focus inward.
Resting in the center of his mind space, Qilanxo's spiritual fragment pulsed and glowed with strength. While Ves noted that its activity level had diminished a bit due to its donation of spiritual energy, what remained took on an even more complex and multifaceted quality than before!
Aside from the miniscule influence of Ves' base model and the remnants of Venerable Fontain's stolen spiritual energy, the fragment gained two more influences!
Ves immediately recognized the additional flavors. It seemed that Ves was not the only entity who harvested benefits from his Mastery experience this time!
The strong protectiveness and maternal love of Venerable Eloise Pelican almost entirely displaced the influence of Venerable Fontain. It gained a lot of prominence because it shared much in common with Qilanxo's own spirituality!
Underneath this notable influence, the echoes of the Valiant Warden also resided. Its presence gave the spiritual fragment a much greater fit with space knights!
For a moment, Ves didn't know whether he should celebrate this new development. The spiritual fragment had become more complex, but that also meant it became more muddled and less focused. Only the sheer might of Qilanxo's overpowering imprint on the powerful spiritual fragment kept the pieces together.
"You intervened for a reason, right?" Ves asked the fragment. "Why did you decide to make a move?"
The fragment pulsed once but remained dormant afterwards. It was as if the previous exertion exhausted it quite a bit, forcing it to enter a period of hibernation in order to recuperate.
Ves eventually shrugged. There was no way he could force the powerful spiritual fragment to open its mouth.
For a moment, he doubted whether he was dealing with an isolated, apportioned piece of Qilanxo's spirituality. Was the fragment still in sync with the original Qilanxo? The initiative and ability it previously showed off was quite sophisticated to come from a mere fragment!
"Well, whatever. You'll probably be an even better asset for my upcoming mech design!"
To be honest, the prospect of housing Qilanxo's augmented spiritual fragment in his upcoming mech design frightened him a bit. What would result from such a fusion? Ves almost shivered at the possibilities.
"My mech won't design itself. I have to get back to work." Ves shook his head.
Despite the surprises he encountered along the way, acquiring Space Knight Mastery I served to fill up the gaps in his knowledge base when it came to designing space knights.
In fact, the benefits he gained went beyond understanding space knights from the perspective of a mech pilot. Many of the insights he picked up could be applied to many other spaceborn mechs, giving Ves a high degree of proficiency in designing any kind of mech that operated in space!
"I'm not just a mech designer who is only limited to designing landbound mechs anymore!"
Before Ves emerged from his lab to check up on his company before he went back to resuming his design work, he first grew curious at the events that took place at the Dark Sphere.
The overarching question that popped up in his mind was whether the System actually caused history to change. Was it actually capable of time travel or not?
While the phenomenon of time travel wasn't entirely unheard of, most of the galaxy believed that only the first-rate superstates and the Big Two possessed the ability to artificially replicate the feat. Even then, their applications were likely limited, or else their effects would have been much widely felt by now!
Of course, the conspiracy theorists trawling in the underbelly of the galactic net offered another explanation. They speculated that there was some sort of time police among humanity that kept time travel under the radar.
Whatever the case, Ves first wanted to find out if the System truly possessed the ability to manipulate time. He activated his comm and browsed the galactic net. He searched for any news about the Dark Sphere in relation to the Silent Nomad and Pure Wheel Star Sectors.
"It actually exists!"
Not only did it exist, but the involvement of Venerable Eloise Pelican led to some explosive developments!
As retaliation for exposing the Dark Sphere to the public, the rulers of the Silent Nomad Star Sector kidnapped Venerable Pelican's young son!
This led to a series of dramatic events that sent the Silent Nomad Star Sector in complete disarray! What exactly happened over the past thirty years, Ves couldn't tell, because by then both sides published completely opposite narratives.
Even so, by all accounts, Venerable Pelican not only lived to this very day, but she had also become the figurehead of a huge insurgency. The insurgents that followed her banner aimed to reform the disparate powers of the Silent Nomad Star Sector into a single unified state!
"Has she reunited with her son or not?"
Nobody knew for sure. It wouldn't have been easy to rescue Pelican's son from a conspiracy of states. Ves somewhat sympathised with Venerable Pelican's difficulties to reunite with her family. Through no fault of her own, she had been separated from her son and was constantly being hunted down to this very day.
Above all else, Eloise Pelican originally did not possess the spirituality required to develop a force of will. Without an empowered force of will, there was no way for her to advance straight to expert pilot.
All the historical accounts of the Dark Sphere that Ves found on the internet matched his own observations. The descriptions of the titanic battle at the portal and the amazing occurrence of complete resonance put most of his doubts to rest!
"The System actually traveled back in time and changed history!"
Instantly, several questions popped up in his mind. Was this Mastery experience predetermined? If Ves suddenly decided to abort, would Venerable Pelican still exist as an expert pilot who survived the Dark Sphere?
All of the paradoxes involved with time travel already started to give Ves headaches. "There's no point speculating on this matter."
The simple fact of the matter was that he traveled back in time somehow and affected a real change in history. If he could do it once, he could do it again!
"It will be difficult to take advantage of this when the System just chucks me halfway across the galaxy all the time." Ves muttered.
The substantial difference in time and space prevented him from taking actions that directly benefited him in his current time.
Even though this was the first time that Ves gained the option of reconnecting with the host of his Mastery experience, he was leery of doing so. Even though his entry into her mind drastically elevated her life and allowed her to escape the Dark Sphere, who knew what she would do when Ves came up to her and said hello.
He shook his head. "There's no reason for me to reconnect with her. I don't think I'll gain anything aside from increasing the chance of exposing my secrets!"
He decisively set aside any notion of contacting Venerable Pelican. He wouldn't be able to get in touch with her anyway considering her current preoccupation.
When Ves finally exited the vault and returned to his penthouse office to catch up on what he missed during the last week, Gavin stopped by as soon as he heard that his boss returned.
"Ves! We received word that the representatives of a number of esteemed individuals are on their way to Cloudy Curtain!" The newly-appointed executive assistant stated with alarm.
"Ah." Ves smiled in a sly manner. "So they accepted my invitation. Good. Please keep an eye on their arrival and prepare some accommodations for them in Freslin. Make sure to keep our guests separate and unaware of each other. It wouldn't do for them to mingle and band together."
Gavin frowned at the strange instructions. "What's this all about, Ves? Those representatives are all standing in for powerful businessmen and officials from numerous partners of the Friday Coalition!"
"I know."
