Ves became dazed as he thought about the outcome of his little experiment.
All of the hype and claims surrounding phasewater caused him to develop certain expectations about this wondrous exotic.
A material that could make ships travel ten times faster through the stars than before should not be average. Ves would not be surprised at all if phasewater interacted with spirituality in one manner or another.
He even speculated that its power might be derived from spiritual energy!
That would turn it into a similar substance to high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum. The implication of this was that phasewater might have a biological origin and that it was possible for alien organisms to produce it with their bodies.
One of the weirder ideas he came up with was that phasewater might actually be phase whale urine!
This was a rather ridiculous notion. What if the basis behind the functioning of the beyonder gates and the new superdrives that the Big Two and the first-rate superstates started to leverage to their advantage only worked because they were fueled by the equivalent of Lucky's gems!
"Maybe I was thinking too much." He whispered.
The ultimate result turned out to be a letdown to him.
Phasewater was powerful, special, remarkable and precious.
Phasewater wasn't a spiritually-reactive exotic, though.
The suspended sample severely affected the integrity of his spiritual probe just by generating an invisible dimensional storm around it, but it did not inherently behave any differently when coming into contact with spiritual energy.
What about Blinky, then?
Mrow.
His companion spirit was quite afraid of getting close to the phasewater sample. The way it tore up the dimensions could also inflict substantial damage to the spiritual cat's intangible body!
Not even the Worclaw crystal embedded in Blinky's forehead exhibited any abnormal reactions, though this might be because of the distance.
The only way for Ves to gather more pertinent data was to get closer, either physically or spiritually.
Ves ultimately decided not to risk it. Further probes did not yield any reactions. Ves soon retracted his spiritual probe because he saw little point in continuing this burdensome experiment.
Though this little experiment was anything but conclusive, for now it was safe for him to assume that phasewater probably didn't have any special relations to spiritual phenomena.
All of this meant that he would have to rely on technological means in order to make use of its properties. That made him no different from every other human that sought to integrate it into their mechs and starships.
Ves ultimately relaxed now that he made this discovery. He no longer became burdened by the need to obtain and experiment with phasewater in order to see whether it had any special effect on his spiritual abilities and applications.
His mentality shifted into that of a regular tourist who wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Just staying in its vicinity and subjecting his body to the faint dimensional fluctuations was an experience in itself.
"Is phasewater truly so dangerous?" Casella asked as she looked at the tiny sample with concern. "What if we get exposed to a larger quantity of phasewater?"
"What you're seeing right now is purified phasewater." A female pioneer took the initiative to explain to the woman who was obviously an expert pilot. "Just like ordinary water, phasewater is almost always tainted by other substances when it is found in nature. Phasewater doesn't blend with water and many other materials, but there are certain forms of matter that it gets along with. Once phasewater is blended, its violent and dangerous effects often become more temperate."
"So they're not as dangerous when they are impure?"
"Phasewater is always dangerous." The pioneer warned. "Its potency decreases when it comes in a blended form. We have already encountered many different blends, each of which weaken and alter the effects of phasewater in different ways. Some are able to neutralize the passive dimensional warping effects entirely, thereby making phasewater safe for transportation. There are other blends that can transform phasewater into an extremely dangerous bomb that can literally tear a hole through the material dimensions."
"What?!" Ves almost jumped when he heard this claim! "I never heard any mention of this!"
The middle-aged woman smirked. "That's because such a weapon is too destructive to the environment. The Big Two has already classified it as a weapon of mass destruction and heavily limits the spread of any technical details about these purported phase bombs. This shouldn't be a surprise because they can be just as deadly as anti-matter bombs."
That was quite a powerful threat! The anti-matter bomb was one of humanity's best way to inflict massive destruction. The thought that people like Ves could gain access to the same level of power by grabbing a bunch of phasewater and treating it in a special way was horrifying!
It shouldn't be a surprise that the Big Two strictly restricted all forms of research related to this dangerous application.
While it wouldn't stop secret research groups from developing this forbidden tech in the darker corners of human civilization, it should at least minimize the prevalence of this powerful bomb in human hands.
"I bet the Big Two have already begun to stockpile a lot of phase bombs." Ves guessed.
The other pioneer nodded. "Most certainly. What is even more frightening is that we are not the only race to have mastered this dangerous application. The indigenous alien species have lived alongside phasewater for many ages. How could they not have discovered that phasewater can punch holes through dimensions when blended in a special way? If I were you, I would maintain maximum caution should you encounter any alien fleet during your travels."
Damn, that made exploring the Red Ocean even more dangerous for the Larkinson Clan!
For all of its mech legions, expert mechs, and capital ships, Ves knew quite well that the expeditionary fleet could not withstand the power of an anti-matter bomb!
It should be just as vulnerable to a powerful phase bomb if that was the case!
Ves wasn't too afraid of getting into a tussle with an ordinary pioneering fleet. He could take comfort in the fact that his opponents were largely restricted to utilizing mechs and mech-grade armaments in order to fight.
The aliens didn't play humanity's rules, though!
There was no large interspecies governing body that artificially imposed treaties onto different alien civilizations!
"Phase bombs shouldn't be too prevalent… right?" Ves quietly asked.
His eyes widened. frёeωebɳovel.com
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