Marvaine''s birthday party came and went without disrupting everyone''s schedule too much.


    Ves, Gloriana and a few other lucky mech designers quickly returned to examining the Superpublished design of the Duhan Project from top to bottom.


    Their frighteningly high intelligence andprehension capabilities enabled them to quickly refamiliarize themselves with their work to a shallow degree.


    The mech designers involved in the Duhan Project were able toe up with superficial exnations for the vast majority of improvements and modifications.


    This was far from fully understanding the design choices made by the System. That would probably take much longer, but Ves and the others could do that after they fabricated their first new expert mech.


    The main priority at this time was to fulfill Venerable Jannzi''s greatest wish and deliver a powerful new expert mech to her. She had been relegated to the sidelines long enough. It was time for her to regain her ability to fight and resume her role of protecting her fellow Larkinsons to the best of her abilities!


    Ves was eager toplete this fabrication run. He had spent enough time and effort on the Duhan Project. He eagerly wanted to finish his current responsibility and embark on other new and exciting projects.


    That did not mean that he had lost his appreciation of the Duhan Project. Its improved design held a lot of promise. Ves particrly became enthralled by its optimized Empowered Blood Sharing System.


    The Superpublish function not only corrected a lot of potentially dangerous ws, but also increased its integration into the frame of the expert space knight in many subtle ways.


    Though the Duhan Project retained all of the traits of a ssical mech, the introduction of blood cirction to its internal systems technically turned it into a cyborg mech.


    Ves did not know to what extent the Duhan Project would exhibit the properties of a cyborg mech. He already held an expectation that it would be more alive to a degree.


    It might even be possible for the Duhan Project to evolve its life state and evolve into the fourth order living mech that only existed in theory up to this point!


    Ves shook his head. "I shouldn''t get my hopes up. Fourth order living mechs are equivalent to ace pilots in terms of spirituality. The gap is too great."


    Though Ves held high expectations towards the Superpublished Duhan Project, the actualbat power of the defensive expert mech was not that mind blowing.


    Sure, its defenses received an enormous upgrade, but it was still a melee expert mech that could only make its presence felt within a limited range.


    Ves was fine with that. A defensive expert mech could still be a lifesaver in the situations that mattered.


    Once Venerable Jannzi grew stronger, her ability to affect the battlefield would be even more exaggerated!


    He would have to wait until she advanced to ace pilot before that happened, and that would take a while to say the least.


    One of his most important concerns for the fabrication run was whether they could produce another masterwork mech.


    Gloriana cared the most about this, but that did not mean that Ves was totally indifferent to the state of her expert mech.


    Thest major iteration of the Shield of Samar managed to be a masterwork. That provided Venerable Jannzi with a lot of benefits. Her resonance strength grew the fastest among her peers in the Larkinson n, with only Venerable Davia Stark rivaling her in growth speed.


    Though the design of the Duhan Project called for recycling much of the parts and materials thatprised the rtively intact head of the Shield of Samar, this was not an upgrade project in the strictest sense of the word.


    Ves truly approached this expert mech design project as a spiritual sessor more than anything else. The Duhan Project did not start as a nk te, but it did not inherit much of the properties of its predecessor either.


    From the vast reduction of Unending alloyprising its frame to the notable increase in mobility, the Duhan Project performed like a substantially different expert mech in many of the ways that mattered.


    "It''s almost time."


    He and his wife had set up everything a long time ago. The AP-VEX superfab had been fully recalibrated and all of the raw materials required to fabricate the mech were waiting to be used.


    Different from the fabrication runs of the past, Ves had to make more extensive preparations than usual.


    One of the more annoying aspects about biomechs was that it took a lot of time to grow their organic parts. This downside partially extended to cyborg mech as their organic parts could only be grown, not produced.


    While it was possible for the most advanced and specialized materializers to essentially ''print'' aplete organic mech from start to finish, this was far beyond the means of the Larkinson n.


    The custom version of the Empowered Blood Sharing System that Ves had designed for the Duhan Project stood out in various ways.


    Compared to a more generic version of this cybeic system, the organic tissue of the EBSS integrated in the Duhan Project was based on Jannzi''s DNA.


    In other words, the Duhan Project would essentially carry a part of Jannzi''s cloned flesh!


    While it sounded creepy, Ves knew that this would help a lot with making Jannzi meld with her new expert mech. The shared DNA and root would minimize the probability of triggering a biological or spiritual rejection response.


    Of course, in order to grow enough organic tissue to form the EBSS during the fabrication, Ves had to start with cultivating the flesh and certain key organs a few months prior.


    If he wanted to hurry up, he could instruct the Larkinson Biotech Institute to elerate the growth process and have everything done in a couple of weeks, but that would severely affect the quality and longevity of the end product.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    As Ves entered an undergroundboratory in thepany of Ranya Wodin-Larkinson, he paused and looked up at argework of rosy red flesh.


    "How… beautiful." He spoke.


    The director of the Larkinson Biotech Institute did not share the opinion. She regarded therge web of flesh with considerable wariness.


    "I cannot imagine how this mech-sized circtory system is supposed to strengthen a mech." She honestly said. "I may not be as well-versed in engineering as you, but I am sure that running blood through a machine made out of metal doesn''t magically make it better."


    Ves smirked and chuckled. "Ohe now, Ranya. You have worked for me for a decade or so. You should know that my products are never as simple as they appear on the surface. This circtory system is a herald of the future. Once I imnt it into my uing expert mech, you and everyone else will get to learn that blood is the key that unlocks the gate to greater power."


    "That ''gate'' you are alluding to might lead you straight into hell. Are you sure you identified the right entrance?"


    "I am sure." Ves dered with certainty. The Superpublish function didn''t lie. "Anyway, how has this circtory system fared as ofte? Are there any anomalies or idents that I should know about?"


    "Nothing has changed since we transmitted ourtest report, sir. The only abnormality is that the biotech researchers assigned to monitor its growth and condition have felt… ill at ease."


    Ves turned to the woman. "This again? I already exined to you that it is aponent of an uing living mech. It is natural for it to gain a rudimentary sense of life."


    This was an important reason why Ves wanted to grow the circtory system in advance. He did not just want it to be organically sound, but he also wanted to imbue it with greater spirituality.


    It was just that its current transitory state produced a number of ufortable side effects. None of this should be a problem as long as Ves made use of it soon.


    Once Ranya finished her update, Ves stepped forward and essed the control panel. He began to change a few settings and activated a few tools.


    It surprised Ranya a lot that a mech designer demonstrated a decent degree of familiarity with the biotechnological instruments of thisboratory.


    Though Ves had already exined that he had begun to ''dabble'' in biomech design, Ranya still couldn''t understand how quickly he picked up an entirely new andprehensive discipline!


    Ves did not care about her doubts and skepticism. He skillfully manipted the controls to alter and fine-tune the circtory system in many different ways.


    Some changes amounted to nothing but trimming a few excess bits of flesh.


    Other changes were more drastic. For example, Ves formted a special virus that soon spread throughout the entire nutrient solution tank.


    The bioengineered virus soon infected all of the altered humanoid tissue and began to ''patch'' the DNA to a newer version!


    All of these changes were necessary in order to update the original version of the EBSS to the much safer Superpublished version of this same cybeic system!


    Ves stepped back in satisfaction once hepleted his update. All he needed to do was give the circtory system a bit of time to adjust to its new normal.


    "Have you ever thought about renaming the Empowered Blood Sharing System to a more convenient and marketable alternative?" Ranya asked.


    "In fact, I have been thinking about doing this as well." Ves replied as he called up the sensor graphs and monitored the current condition of the organic system. "I did not put much thought into naming it back then. If I want to poprize it among our nsmen and beyond, I should associate it with a catchier and more encouragingbel. Do you have any suggestions?"


    "I do have a handful of suggestions. What about Symbiont or Symbiont System? Your EBSS is clearly meant to establish a greater degree of symbiosis between the mech and mech pilot. It would be good if you can emphasize this rtionship."


    That was actually a good suggestion. Ves seriously considered the word Symbiont before he reluctantly shook his head.


    "It''s good, but it is also a bit generic. I am sure that some mech designer or developer already created a product with a simr name. If I am not careful enough, I will get sued due to infringing on another inventor''s trademark."


    Ranya shrugged. "That was my best suggestion. What about Carmine? It is a tasteful reference to the blood that your unusual system relies upon. If you are afraid of stepping on anotherpany''s trademark, you can always add an extra word. You can call it the Twin Carmine System for example."


    Ves looked intrigued. He liked this suggestion a lot better than thest one, although he wasn''t sure about adding the word ''twin'' to the name.


    "Twin does not really represent what I am trying to aplish. I want to reduce the barriers between the mech and mech pilot as much as possible, but I don''t want them to be too identical to each other. Their pairing is strong because they both possess their own strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of bringing them together is to produce a lot of power through synergy. The Blood Pact that they can form with each other is meant to elevate this synergistic rtionship by making it permanent through the medium of blood."


    "If that is the case, maybe you should call it the Permanent Carmine System."


    "...That sounds worse." Ves grimaced. "Let''s settle for calling it the Carmine System, then. It doesn''t need any further descriptors or modifiers unless I am at serious risk of getting sued."


    "I don''t think you need to worry about that, sir. You''re a Tier 6 gctic citizen. I think that will help you avoid a lot of trivial problems."


    "I hope you are right, Ranya. By the way, how is yourpanion spirit seed doing?"


    "I can feel it is still growing, sir."


    "I see."