Saint Isobel Kotin frowned. She felt pressured by the proposal made by Ves. The notion of implanting a miniature mech reactor inside her artificial chest set off her intuition. She might not understand the science behind it all, but she was instinctively able to judge how much she would imperil herselft
Ves clearly sensed her reluctance. He did not let that stop him from making his case. If she wanted to reject her plan, then she should at least do so from an informed perspective.
He spent a bit of time thinking on how he should approach this issue. He had a lot of theories in his head. The goal was to convert that into words that could persuade Saint Isobel to cooperate with his new experiment.
Ves grasped the Artificial Fire Heart and lifted it from its container. "How would you describe this artifact in terms of attributes within 10 seconds? Use short keywords."
The command came abruptly, but Saint Isobel did not hesitate too long before complying. "Fire. Small. Powerful. Energy source. Rare. Expensive. Cybernetics. Risk. Reward."
"Good choices. You hit the nail on the head. These are all keywords that accurately summarize the nature of this object.” Ves praised the ace pilot. "Now imagine if you can copy these keywords and integrate them into yourself. You will go down a path that will make you stronger. While there are definitely risks associated with this method of cultivation, the rewards are greater than what you can normally attain by piloting mechs."
The female saint frowned in incomprehension. "I think I am missing a few steps here. What... are you talking about, exactly?"
“To answer that, you will need to understand a bit of theory. What is systematic cultivation?"
“It is the act of trying to absorb E energy or other special energies to strengthen oneself." She replied.
“That is a decent answer, I suppose, but it lacks a lot of depth." Ves responded. "Since you are an ace pilot, I think that you are ready to listen to my personal understanding of the nature of E energy and how it interacts with systematic cultivation. Have you ever wondered how absorbing fire-attributed E energy allows people to manipulate flames? How can they absorb raw energy and turn that into fireballs?"
“I don't know." Isobel frankly responded. *I have read a few theories about it, but they are too superficial.”
Ves put down the Artificial Fire Heart. Moments later, a bot arrived that carried a few simple experimental tools.
He picked up two test tubes. "This is filled with water. This is filled with artificial blood, the same kind we use for the Riot Mark Iil's Carmine System."
He proceeded to dump the contents of one tube into another. “Now, the vial of water has absorbed the contents of the vial of artificial blood. Through a very crude and uncomplicated process, the former has inherited the traits of the latter, if in a diluted form."
Isobel blinked her eyes. "Is this your analogy for systematic cultivation?"
“Yes. Possibly. What I just showed you can either be described as cultivation or contamination.”
“Contamination?”
“In my personal opinion, all forms of cultivation are a process of contamination." Ves replied with a smirk. *I am sure that not everyone can accept this answer, but this is what I believe. The difference between contamination and cultivation is that the latter produces more positive outcomes, enough to turn it from an adverse phenomenon into a beneficial phenomenon.”


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