"There is no need to shape the SOCs into animalistic shapes. A simple organic block will do." He concluded.
This was not his business anyway.
Ves had a better option than all of those other researchers.
From the beginning, he was convinced that he could substitute SOCs with SICs.
He just needed to produce a lot of identical or nearly identical inorganic units that were large and 'strong' enough to carry individual spiritualities.
Ves had already read the research reports related to the SOCs. He also took a sample and studied it in person.
The Ixith Goliath's SOCs were very weak. Ves did not become impressed by their level of intelligence and their capacity to generate strong emotions.
As far as he was concerned, the mutated voribugs heavily prioritized haste and efficiency to come up with these SOCs.
This was good news, because that meant that Ves did not have to impose heavy demands on his own SICs.
Ves believed he could develop sentient inorganic components that were much smaller than the SOCs but still contain a comparable amount of spirituality.
Even if the magnitude was not as large, the differences shouldn't be significant enough to massively distort the outcome.
This was why Ves experimented with smart metal.
Ves initially experimented with individual nanomachines, but quickly encountered a lot of hurdles.
He quickly concluded that he was not ready to tackle this particular challenge.
"I will come back to it when I have become a Master Mech Designer."
Instead of trying to instill spirituality into every single individual nanomachine, Ves tried to do so on a larger scale.
He continuously combined nanomachines together into larger constructs.
These amalgamations of nanomachines were still very small, especially at the start.
A machine that measured several micrometers was too small for people to observe with the naked eye, but it could still be made out of a large number of nanomachines!
Ves basically engaged in limit testing when it came to his personal ability to instill life into objects.
How large did they need to be before they could stably contain their own spiritualities?
He never conducted this experiment in the past, and he felt regretful about that. He gained numerous important insights and gained a better idea on what was needed to carry spirituality.
Individual nanomachines lacked this capability because they could not fit a strong spirit, at least at the start.
Their spiritual capacity was limited by their miniscule material forms.
When Ves forcibly tried to bring them to life, their spiritualities dissipated almost instantly because they were too weak to sustain themselves.
Ves theorized that every spirit needed to surpass a threshold in order to maintain their own existence in the imaginary realm.
That made sense. Whenever he observed the imaginary realm, he noticed that it was filled with strange corrosive winds.
Those winds constantly battered against every spiritual existence that occupied a place in the realm.
Without a certain degree of strength, those spiritualities could not withstand the winds for long.
What was also important was that they needed to be anchored to living creatures, because only then would they be able to replenish the energy that was being expended to resist the eroding forces.
In any case, Ves continually increased the size of his constructs until he managed to create a block the size of his thumb.
"Finally."
Once he reached this stage, Ves finally managed to instill it with spirituality that did not immediately disappear.
Though it still deteriorated at a slow and steady rate, Ves finally obtained hope that he would not have to make his constructs much larger in order to satisfy his goal!
He temporarily suspended his repetitive work and studied his latest SIC in fascination.
While it was still made out of smart metal, he underestimated how much he needed to bring together in order to create an SIC.
"Is there still a point to using nanotechnology?"
Perhaps not. Smart metal still provided a lot of conveniences, but it also produced a lot of complications. The cost was much greater and the nanomachines were also more vulnerable to exploits.
If this was the smallest possible size of a SIC, then Ves believed it was better to switch to conventional technology.
Perhaps it might make more sense to create SICs out of nanomachines when he advanced to the rank of Master Mech Designer and drastically increased the strength of his Spirituality.
"My work is still heavily dependent on my personal capacities." He frowned. "I need to become a lot stronger if I want to accomplish more."