"It's time to go, Lucky!"
Ves wanted to leave this barren place and return home. He retrieved his miniaturized Amastendira and shot at the correct sequence of runes. Despite its shrunken state, the Amastendira's output hadn't diminished at all.
When the crystal city generated the portal back to the Joe System, Ves didn't hesitate and flew up to the portal over the crystal city. Lucky followed behind him with a fascinated gaze. The cat couldn't get used to seeing a human of this size.
The downside of having shrinked himself was that it took a bit longer than he thought to traverse the distance. Unlike the Amastendira, his hazard suit's output had scaled according to its size. Ves felt as if he tried to fly out of the atmosphere of a habitable planet. It took an agonizingly long time before he reached the portal.
"Hurry up! The portal will almost close!"
Ves dove through the portal just as Lucky went through as well. The portal winked out twenty seconds later but Ves had already sprawled himself against the asteroid. His intangible form had also returned to its normal size.
"I'm back! Haha!" He celebrated even as fatigue swept over him. The change in stature had really expended an enormous amount of mental energy. Ves had to take a lengthy before he could contemplate his next problem.
Right now, he remained stuck as a ghost. If he ever wanted to return to normal, he had to find a method to turn his body back to solid.
"It shouldn't be too different from turning that nutrient bar back to solid."
He employed the same method of hypnotizing himself into believing his body was corporeal. It actually went a lot easier than he thought, because he essentially didn't lie to himself. He always possessed a fully material body. He just had to reinforce this truth in order to effect a change.
"My body and gear are solid. My body and gear are solid. My body and gear are solid."
The only issue that complicated his efforts was that he also wanted to turn his gear into solid at the same time. It wouldn't do for him to turn his body back to normal, only to die in vacuum as his hazard suit still remained intangible.
Eventually, he succeeded. His body along with his hazard suit and other possessions suddenly blinked back to a solid form. Ves had succeeded into turning back to normal!
Despite his success, he still remained cautious and stood still while he waited for his body to flicker back into ghost form.
One minute. FIve minutes. Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes.
Only after one full hour did Ves become assured that his transformation had been permanent. He sighed in relief and let down his guard. Hopefully nothing strange would happen in the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, Lucky played and floated around the asteroid as if Ves had nothing to do with him. The cat stubbornly remained intangible.
"Lucky! Turn back to normal!"
Lucky pointedly turned his butt at Ves and continued to play with the rocks that had been shaken loose from the asteroid. Ves sighed to himself and gave up trying to persuade his pet to stop fooling around.
Lucky's intangible state didn't come with any downsides as far as he knew.
Ves looked back to the cave entrance and thought about the graser rifle design he had to get back to. It was such a long time ago since he last worked on it that he forgot about some of the details.
"With the insights I've learned from the crystal ruins, I should be able to design a much better rifle."
Even without applying any of the alien innovations, Ves still gained a lot from the Skills and Sub-Skills he acquired from the Skill Tree. They corresponded closely with the inner workings of a laser weapon, and Ves immediately thought of a number of ways to enhance his old design.
The difference between the old design and the improved one would be like night and day. When Ves returned to the cave and studied the design, he shook his head.
"It's so simplistic."
The design became so rudimentary in his eyes that he quickly overhauled the entire schematic. He couldn't bear to fabricate the old design as it possessed a large number of flaws that grated his perfectionist sensibilities.
A mech designer should have more pride in his work!
He vastly improved the graser rifle design in several areas, increasing its endurance while cutting down its weight. It would be able to output a lot more power as well while generating a bit less heat. Its capabilities more closely matched the graser rifle design outlined in the research notes.