"If I can harvest a portion of his power, I can use it as an ingredient for a brand new design spirit!"
Ves could already imagine it! The spiritual product that he envisioned in his mind would be the ideal mech pilot, one that best represented and stood up for this profession!
This design spirit might not possess the strongest attacks such as Helena, but the new entity would definitely provide the biggest boost to the growth and evolution of mech pilots!
"Wait, do I even need to create a new design spirit? What if I merge this special ingredient with one of my existing ones?"
Now that he thought about it, the Quint already fulfilled a part of this job description. Though it was not a human mech pilot itself, the mech interacted with so many mech pilots that it definitely gained a deep understanding of how they worked!
As long as Ves was able to obtain a shard of Divine Albedo's awesome force of will or whatever it turned into at the god pilot stage, he could definitely transform the Quint into the patron spirit of mech pilots!
"All of this sounds great, but how am I supposed to satisfy the most essential requirement?"
Ves did not dare to bring up his ludicrous idea to Master Dervidian. The Transhumanists idolized Divine Albedo so much that they would consider any notion of harming him or stealing his power to be sacrilege!
That was despite the fact that many Transhumanists were supposed to be intelligent and open-minded mech designers!
"Ugh. Forget about it. There is no way that this can happen."
The second-most viable idea he came up with was to imitate Divine Albedo's ability by developing a homegrown version.
Now that he knew that Genetic Aptitude Reparation was actually real, he was a bit more confident that he could develop a bootleg version of it by relying on his unorthodox specialties.
However, without an appropriate spiritual ingredient or reference, it would be extremely hard for him to develop this solution.
"I can't just create a design spirit that can magically do what I want."
The design spirit needed actual substance in order to accomplish a specific task. Not only did it need to possess the right spiritual attributes, it also had to possess at least some theory in order to perform a complicated feat.
Ves would need to obtain ingredients related to biology, neurology, interfacing and other related subjects.
He also needed to develop a theoretical framework that could make this happen.
"That last part is the biggest problem. I barely know anything about the science of neural interfacing!"
Though he managed to learn the bare basics of this sensitive field, he was hardly an authority on this subject.
"If I truly want to make this happen, I will need to cooperate with a top research team that knows everything about neural interfacing and genetic aptitude."
This requirement was almost just as harsh as trying to harvest a fragment from a god pilot!
Ves grew more pessimistic as he thought of all of the hurdles he needed to overcome.
Developing his own version of Genetic Aptitude Reparation would take too long and require too much work at this rate. It was completely unfeasible, especially since he did not have the time to work on such a difficult research project.
"Forget about it." He shook his head in surrender. "Maybe I should just wait until I stumble upon the right materials or inspiration.
He came up with several other ways in which he might possibly be able to replicate Divine Albedo's unique method.
They ranged from experimenting with Venerable Joshua's life domain to seeking out a phase whale in order to conduct a mutual exchange on biotechnology, but none of these plans sounded reliable.
In the end, it all came down to the fact that Ves was not qualified enough to tackle this problem.
"It is useless to think more about it. Let's wait until my situation changes for better."
Rather than trying to research the impossible, it was a lot more realistic to accumulate 1 billion MTA merits.
He had managed to earn over 200 million MTA merits before, and that was before the Golden Skull Alliance underwent a comprehensive upgrade and expansion phase.
While he didn't want to think about it before, now that the Cross Clan had gained a powerful ace pilot, Ves belatedly realized that he no longer needed to act as timid as before.
As long as he could convince Patriarch Reginald to support his schemes, Ves could take much bolder risks!
"It would be a waste to leave an ace pilot in reserve. All of that combat power is just begging to get used!"
If Ves had the current version of Patriarch Reginald and the Mars at his side, he and his allies would have been able to conquer all of Purgatory!
"This is the right way to exploit the power of an ace pilot!"
The power of Patriarch Reginald was much stronger than before and the Mars was expressly designed to defeat alien warships.
This meant that Ves did not have to fear as many enemies as before!
"There's no way I can earn a billion credits by sitting here in Davute and conducting research behind closed doors. I need to get back out into the deep frontier and plunder as much phasewater as possible!"
Even if it was too difficult to stumble upon another phase whale enclave, there were bound to be other alien settlements and strongholds that contained a lot of riches.
The profits of raiding these places would be unimaginably high!
Now that he gained a new goal, Ves completely set his mind on preparing for an extensive expedition that would take the Golden Skull Alliance across the new frontier!
All thoughts about relying on peaceful accumulation and steady sales had gone out of his head.
Though a part of him enjoyed the stability and comfort of living in Davute, the wild streak within him could not be suppressed now that he was driven by a new purpose.
"I'm not an ordinary mech designer." He reminded himself. "I'm an explorer and a wanderer. The stars are calling out to me. The Red Ocean has so much more to offer. There is no reason why I should hole up in Davute and Krakatoa."
He had made a firm decision. Once the Golden Skull Alliance completed its years-long upgrade and rebuilding plans, he would strongly advocate for the expeditionary fleet to embark on the biggest grand expedition to date!
Whether he would actually wish to exchange 1 billion MTA merits for a chance to upgrade one of children's genetic aptitude or not, it was always useful to stock up on this exclusive currency.
The MTA had so many goodies to offer that Ves would never be able to pay for it all. His talk with Master Dervidian also revealed to him that the mechers held back a lot of exclusive goods and services that were even more precious.
After all, there were a lot of god pilots, each of which possessed their own special capabilities.
Perhaps a handful of them offered a good or service that Ves desperately needed in order to progress his design philosophy!
"I have to learn what they can all do! Where can I find more news about these amazing people?!"