Chapter 7422  Feeding the Darkness

Ves felt tempted to spend his time on repairing the container housing and other devices before repeating his last experiment.

However, he had enough of limit-breaking. He knew that if he repeated his last test, he would end up damaging the lab equipment yet again.

He got what he wanted from this tentative investigation. He discovered a new phenomenon related to the truth behind Destroyer particles and even figured out a mechanism to temporarily boost their power.

Unfortunately, he had failed to achieve the grand prize, which was developing a method to duplicate Destroyer particles in-house.

He currently lacked the conditions to achieve such a ground-breaking result.

Ves could not determine whether this research direction could ultimately lead towards such an outcome, but even if it was true, he could only treat it as a long-term goal.

"My means are too crude at the moment." He frowned as he looked back on his conditions.

He had only just stumbled upon the doubling effect. He was able to rely on a mix of ingenuity and improvisations to attain his current results, but that could only get him so far.

If he wanted to make more profound discoveries, then he would have to establish a much more rigorous experimental design.

He not only had to process the current data and develop a much greater understanding of what he was dealing with, but also construct a highly specialized research laboratory that was hardened against both destructive energies and spatial energies.

As long as he erected such an expensive facility, he grew confident that he could push the doubling effect further and hopefully reach an invisible threshold!

However, such a lab could not come about in a single day. The cost in funding and resources alone was insane.

Not only did he have to procure large quantities of mid to high-grade superdimensional matter as well as Destroyer-resistant alloys, he also had to incorporate these special materials into high-end lab devices.

Though the investment may be great, Ves knew it would be worthwhile for him to establish this lab.

This was because he strongly suspected that this research direction may ultimately enable him to decipher Destroyer technology and get to the bottom the mystery behind source of all of the projected particles!

Even now, his shallow exploration and incomplete understanding of this field already changed his perception and his comprehension of the relevant forces.

He had conducted experiments in person. He observed many changes through his own eyes and other, more esoteric senses.

Destroyer particles no longer held as much mystique in his eyes anymore. Even though it still retained a lot of secrets, now that he had removed one of the veils that obscured its true nature, Ves felt he had joined a very small but exclusive club.

Being an insider was completely different from being an outsider. Ves felt as if he had been entrusted with a massive secret. Its weight pressed heavily on his mind. Not everyone could bear this secret, but Ves had dealt with too many crises for him to succumb to this burden.

"I will bear the truth that I have learned today in my own way."

There was one more factor that strengthened his resolve to continue his research.

Whenever his experiments with Destroyer particles generated violent or explosive reactions, a part of himself felt invigorated!

The more violent and the more unstable the outcomes, the faster his phasewater-infused blood flowed through his true body.

"My experiments are resonating with one of my affinities!"

Ves immediately suspected that this influence may have been induced by his artificial affinity for the darkness element.

Though the relation between the concepts of darkness and destruction was not strong, it was not weak either.

Therefore, he readily believed that he had a considerably strong aptitude. creating tools that could inflict a lot of damage and cause mass destruction.

As long as he continued to work with the aim of harnessing these powers, he would gradually master the power of darker forces.

Perhaps other people might feel apprehensive about letting the power of darkness encroach upon their innocent souls, but Ves held a different opinion.

Darkness held power. Any means that could strengthen his mechs and armaments should be embraced rather than shunned.

He had witnessed far too many instances where a lack of hard power had caused him and his forces to suffer significant losses.

The specter of the battle against the first Ixith Goliath still cast a very large shadow over him and Saint Orfan.

The only way for them to get out of this gloomy place was to gain the strength to beat such a formidable Goliath into submission!

They had to gain so much strength that nobody sane would ever think about betting on the enemy!

"There are also other formidable enemies." Ves reminded himself.

He had not forgotten about his upcoming campaign. The planned incursion into enemy territory would reach deeper than most offensive thrusts. Penetrating deeper into enemy territory raised the potential gains in resources, but also increased the probability of encountering truly strong phase leaders!

Such leaders did not easily participate in the most intense raids. Far too few people returned from their secretive destination, which indicated that the true defensive line of the native aliens may be positioned a bit further away from the active front.

In other words, the deeper his raiding fleet ventured into alien space, the higher the probability of encountering enemies equivalent to Level 8 Goliaths!

Ves knew quite well that gathering a respectable amount of junior ace pilots and accompanying mechs did not necessarily turn his force invincible.

The native aliens had numbers on their side. So long as they employed the right strategies, they could potentially ambush his fleet and dismantle his forces with surgical precision!

"I can't let such a scenario come to pass!"

Greater power translated into greater capital for survival.

Though the experiments so far did not reveal any permanent ways to strengthen his existing Destroyer weapons or allow him to create new ones, he still had plenty of ideas to translate his current results into tangible design applications.

For example, Ves felt he had completed a major step into developing a genuine superdimensional version of a Destroyer weapon.

The hard data combined with his feelings and impressions of the experiments granted him a measure of unnatural understanding.

He would have to rely on both to devise his initial applications.

"Let's see if I can use my discoveries to temporarily empower Destroyer weapons."

Ves chose to experiment with the Elegant Cut.

Though he respected its original design and its usefulness in an actual crisis situation, it was ultimately a tool to further his objectives.

Before he transformed it into a worthy birthday gift for his second daughter, he still had room to fiddle around with its structure and conduct certain experiments.

Ves began to do so by applying selective alterations to its design. He did not directly try to replace the original blade with a superdimensional alloy version. That was far too crude of a replacement.

Instead, he incorporated small pieces of low-grade superdimensional matter around the hilt and parts of the blade.

This added a considerable amount of mass and bulk to the tier 10 Destroyer weapon, but it couldn't be helped.

Due to many limitations, the improvised modifications caused the Elegant Cut to lose much of its charm and harmony.

The weapon looked clunky and out of sync with itself. The decorative elements including the ostentatious basket hilt still remained intact, but that caused the contrast to become even more difficult to miss!

"Please bear with it. I will remove these clunky modules as soon as I am done with my experiments." He promised.

He felt quite proud of his creation. He jumbled together a lot of advanced science to quickly devise a potential way to improve his existing Destroyer weapons.

"Let's put this to the test."

Ves quickly stepped before a specially prepared target dummy and held the blade in his hand.

Its balance was off. He felt a little less comfortable holding the Destroyer weapon than before.

Ketis would likely react with disgust at how he desecrated its sacred sword form, but she was not present at the moment.

He swung the blade without empowering it in any way. His technique was crude, but not ineffectual.

The enlightenment fruits he ingested in the past had given him a foundation in the art of combat.

Even if none of them taught him how to wield swords in depth, he still understood universal principles such as leverage.

"A true swordmaster can outfight me with ease, but I should be able to hold my own against much less skilled opponents."

It didn't matter. Ves preferred to wield a polearm. It had greater reach and was much cheaper to empower. He could also throw it with great accuracy and power.

Once he became assured that the new modifications would not cause him to accidentally cut himself with the edge, he finally commenced his initial test.

He raised the blade and activated a hidden switch before he swung it down!

The automatic systems embedded into the weapon already stimulated the Destroyer particles inside the blade.

Destructive energies already covered the sharp edge and even began to spill forward just as the weapon was about to strike the target dummy!

Yet different from before, this outburst of power no longer appeared as subtle and disciplined as before.

The setting that Ves just toggled caused a small amount of superdimensional matter to make intermittent contact with numerous Destroyer particles!

Though the contact was not continuous, the heightened activity of the Destroyer particles locked inside the blade ensured that the frequency was not low!

Ves partially managed to reproduce the conditions of the earlier lab experiments.

The amplification of destructive energies was quite respectable.

In fact, he underestimated the boost in power.

He was no longer inducing the doubling effect on a single Destroyer particle, but many of them in rapid succession!

Combined with the added volatility of having them all in close proximity with each other, both the base and multiplier were higher than anticipated!

This was his mistake. His math and assumptions had both been off due to lack of data.

When the Elegant Cut ultimately made contact with the target dummy, the blade not only cut through the solid alloy matter with greater ease, but also inflicted more catastrophic damage to the surrounding matter!

Ves quickly flicked the setting off before the Elegant Cut could produce any instabilities.

He looked quite impressed. He was able to make a direct comparison between an unpowered and powered attack.

The difference in output was enormous!

The Elegant Cut basically gained the lethality of a tier 9 or maybe a tier 8 Destroyer weapon for a moment!

Though Ves effectively sacrificed a small amount of low-grade superdimensional matter to maul the target dummy to this extent, he felt it was worth the trade!

"If I have to treat any superdimensional matter as a consumable resource, then the low-grade stuff is better than the alternatives."

He was glad to see that the low-grade superdimensional matter could deliver an impressive performance despite the crude and highly unoptimized modifications to the tier 10 Destroyer weapon.

Though it remained to be seen whether this solution would be as effective on Destroyer weapons of higher tiers, he at least gained a lot of confidence in this approach.

Of course, his greater goal had never been to improve the combat effectiveness of a single infantry-grade dress sword.

What truly mattered was whether he could use what he learned to improve more serious weapons of war!

"Perhaps… I will be able to use these results to turn the tier 3 Destroyer spear from a failed experiment into a successful experiment."

That was way too ambitious of a target. Ves quickly turned away from such an ambitious fantasy and tried to be more realistic with his expectations.

"Let's take this one step at a time. I should start with developing a basic amplification module for the big spear."