Published at 30th of December 2025 8:37 am

Chapter 7351 Central Willpower Chamber

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A few days passed by. The laboratories turned into hives of activity as every scientist or engineer with decent qualifications conducted R&D activities related to the priceless research specimen.

With permission, they harvested carefully chosen samples from the Goliath in stasis before proceeding with their own projects.

As far as coordination was concerned, every group and subgroup pursued their own goals.

Total coordination was impossible. The Rubarthans, mechers, fleeters, Cybers and Larkinsons all had their own ambitions. While they agreed to share their common research results with each other, that did not mean they intended to share all of their secrets.

Besides, their diverging specializations made it difficult to communicate across disciplines. Ves found that there was not much use in listening too much to the technical explanations of other specialized researchers. Their vast depth in fields such as biotechnology far exceeded his eclectic knowledge base.

Fortunately, Ves already had enough work on his plate. After his discussion with Gloriana, he and his Larkinsons continuously engaged in their own research.

Since Ves possessed the most coherent idea out of them all, he took on the role of project lead and determined the overall direction of the experimental research project.

He not only served as the glue that put the different pieces together, but also offered vital help related to imparting life into previously lifeless objects and constructing abstruse E-technology solutions.

Gloriana set her sights on developing a substitute for a Mentalist Crystal and developing a basic interface between this object and the anticipated distributed intelligence.

She was quite suited for this task as she had first-hand experience with Mentalist Crystals herself.

The female mech designer had acclimated herself to her cranial implant set for several months now, and she had gained considerably more advantages out of it than anyone had expected.

Mentalist Crystals appeared to be dead and static, but Gloriana had a different perspective on the matter. She viewed it like a vessel that possessed the touch of life and therefore had the potential to grow.

She consciously trained herself and made heavy use of the sophisticated calculation and inference capabilities of her cutting-edge cranial implant set.

By continuously engaging in the same kind of exercises, she found that the Arachne 01 gradually performed faster and more efficiently with every passing week.

Although the growth rate was not as dramatic as she wished, she grew delighted with the results!

The progress showed that the hardware limitations of the Mentalist Crystal fragments were not completely set in stone, but could be forcibly raised upwards on an incremental basis!

After conducting more experiments on herself, she eventually found out that strong spirituality also had a significant influence on the operation and expansion of functions of the Mentalist Crystals.

She did not have a clear idea how the Red Association's research institutions managed to harness the Mentalist Crystal fragments effectively at the start, but she vaguely learned how to upgrade them by utilizing her mind and spirituality alone.

For example, radiating them with Alexandria subtly increased their coordination and decreased their latency.

Conducting high-intensity math calculations marginally raised their peak processing power.

Not all of these experiments produced the desired results.

Each of them came with an element of risk. She found that channeling strong emotions into them was counterproductive. The crystals actually resonated with strong feelings such as anger and joy and amplified them even further!

She quickly ended this reckless trial as a result in order to minimize the chances of losing control.

In any case, her own experiences with manipulating the Mentalist Crystal fragments gave her enough of an understanding to make an attempt at designing an artificial substitute.

Though she had to force herself into developing a product that would definitely be full of flaws and shortcomings, she knew that this was a necessary step to mastery in a highly promising new field.

She had to tap into many different disciplines in order to make substantial progress.

Not only did she have to study a lot of academic literature related to Mentalist Crystals, she also had to tap into her own limited understanding of spiritual engineering in order to design the intangible aspects of her experimental work.

Although Gloriana did not possess the same depth and passion in cultivation science as her husband, she did not neglect this field in the slightest.

In order to ensure her present and future collaborations with Ves remained smooth, she had to invest at least a few hours every week into studying his more accessible theoretical advancements.

She also kept up with the most mainstream developments in the rapidly growing field of E-technology. Gloriana possessed enough awareness to know that she did not have what it took to excel in this field, but it was not necessary for her to go so deep.

As long as there was anything she did not understand, she could always save up her questions and ask them to her husband whenever they encountered each other again.

Ves did not always have the answers, but his insights often led her to the right direction.

Through her focused efforts, she gradually managed to develop a basic model of a 'central willpower chamber'.

This was the standard terminology that the scientists in the escort fleet had already adopted when referring to their own attempted substitutions of the Mentalist Crystal.

Initial calculations and experiments revealed that there were huge theoretical and empirical gaps between their own rudimentary devices and the real deal.

"I still do not know how Mentalist Crystals are formed and what makes them so good at harmonizing and amplifying mental activity." Gloriana exasperatingly explained to her husband one day. "One of the more accepted theories is that Mentalist Crystals appear to be the E-energy crystallization of strong mental activity. I am not so sure about that, but they are a universal solution to many problems related to this field. They can do so much that it is ridiculous. That regrettably also makes them highly desirable to anyone with a use for them. This is why the need for substitutes is growing stronger with each passing day."

"And you guys are having trouble with that?" Ves asked.

His wife responded with a brittle smile. "I have not worked on this matter for too long, but I have already crashed into many different walls. It is impossible. A Mentalist Crystal is already the perfect vessel for all forms of mental activity as far as I am concerned. It is the philosopher's stone of mind-based E-technology. Even the force of willpower falls within its extremely wide domain. How can I possibly develop a substitute of perfection when I can only make due with lesser materials and highly flawed theories? I would be lucky if I could create a substitute that possesses just 0.01 percent of the capabilities of a Mentalist Crystal of an equivalent volume."

Ves noted a very important implication in her words. His eyes lit up as he considered a possible way to succeed, if not as conveniently as he liked.

"Is it possible to scale up your experimental substitute so that it can potentially perform at a similar scope as the one used by the Ixith Goliath?"

Gloriana immediately frowned. "It is not that simple, Ves. Many of us have already thought about it. Perhaps we can forcibly increase the raw processing power and other simple parameters by constructing a central willpower chamber the size of a heavy mech, but it will still fall short in programming, versatility, malleability and other important parameters."

"These shortcomings may be serious, but we are not looking to develop a perfect substitute for a Mentalist Crystal. We just want a product that works on a basic level. This is what a proof of concept is all about. Even if we cannot shrink the central willpower chamber in the future, it doesn't matter. Large warships have so much available capacity that they can easily fit a module the size of a city block inside their massive hulls. Will you be able to construct a central willpower chamber that is large enough to produce measurable levels of stolen resonance?"

His wife frowned in thought. This was a difficult question.

"It depends on whether your work and that of others are effective enough. I can only tell you that the results on my end will be limited. As far as scale is concerned, I can attempt to make a central willpower chamber that is roughly as large as a mech. We do not have enough workshop space and high-grade materials to produce anything larger. It is also excessive in my opinion."

"That is okay. I just want you to work on a component that is large enough to be effective. The stronger your work, the lower the burden on the rest of us. We are all working on new and uncertain fields."

"How is your own work progressing, Ves?" His wife curiously asked. "Have you managed to develop adequate substitutes to the so-called sentient organic components?"

Ves smiled back. "That is much easier, actually. I am basing my works off smart metal. Nanotechnology is the ideal inorganic base for my experimental attempt. I have already conducted a fair amount of studies in advance in preparation for the development of my highly anticipated Polymetal mech. In fact, I am already dreaming of incorporating stolen resonance with this upcoming elemental Carmine mech, though the scale requirements are a major setback."

If Gloriana and the others truly couldn't shrink the size of the central willpower chamber, then it was not feasible to integrate it into standard-sized mechs.

Perhaps they might be able to get away with inserting them into juggernauts, but that was a whole different story.

It was better than nothing. As long as the Hunting Association could not increase its output of Mentalist Crystals, this special hyper material would always remain in very short supply, the same as superdimensional matter.

As one of the few parties in the Red Ocean that controlled the supply of superdimensional matter, Ves was well aware of the difficulty of acquiring monopolized resources.

Unless the Larkinson Clan was willing to trade significant amounts of superdimensional matter or other extremely scarce goods with the Hunting Association, it was impossible to acquire a second whole Mentalist Crystal anytime soon!

The relationship between the Larkinson Clan and the Hunting Association was also very complex at this time.

While there were signs of improvements now that the Hunting Association developed a growing desire for his theorized Mergewater mechs, they had yet to move into solid action.

Perhaps he needed to contact the Hunters and make actual progress in their cooperation.

Still, Ves did not expect to obtain too many Mentalist Crystals. The demand remained too high. There were much more powerful people that could offer much greater concessions for the same good.

Tier 1 galactic citizens such as god pilots, Star Designers and fleet admirals had much greater wealth and capabilities at their disposal. The Larkinson Clan could not compare to these giants at this time.

Even Ves could only offer limited benefits to the Hunting Association. Mergewater mechs may have their strengths, but Hunters had more ways to become strong enough to influence the balance of power than relying on an advanced version of a Carmine mech.

The Hunting Association clearly did not intend to put all of its eggs in a single basket. Now that it had grown in scale, it was prudent to engage in broad development.

Ves had no doubt that the HA already contracted many other mech designers to develop machines that were also suitable to be used by Hunters.

The Huntsman was still a mech pilot, so it was impossible for this leader to neglect the value of mechs in this age.

Ves needed to bring more to the table if he wanted to entice Hunters into trading more Mentalist Crystals to him. He needed them if he wanted to develop more powerful but also fairly compact machines, including his own personal Polymetal mech!

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