He walked into the infirmary to find Valkyrie and Victor were still undergoing their changes and were unconscious. Cain and Shilla were talking as he walked in. "Hey." They both nearly jumped out of their respective skins.

"Jace, what the hell?" Shilla turned and looked over at him. "It has only been an hour. That was way too quick. Are you done?"

Jace shrugged, "mostly." He shrugged as he moved over to watch over her shoulder at the information that was flowing past her screen. "You were right though. I did lose control for a moment. I would have definitely fried anyone else in the room. Where is West?"

"With Crystal. He is showing her the scanning and tracking systems aboard his mech. She wants to use that as a starting point for installing on the ships and any other pieces of equipment we build." Shilla quickly explained with a frown before asking a question that came to mind when she noticed him. "Are you more patient?"

Jace tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Shilla turned her attention back to the screen because it started to quietly beep. She adjusted the systems so Valkyrie was receiving less of the stabilization serum. "I mean before it was like you were knotted up with worry about everything from what we needed to do to our people in our galaxy."

He shrugged. "I just know we will be alright. Now then, a few things I want to veer our focus to. Cain, I want you to build some automatable bodies and don’t worry I am not making more AI. I will stop suggesting it. I have another way to control them." Jace told them as he could feel Catherine’s location now.

"What are we going to do about Catherine?" Shilla asked, moving on from her worry about Jace’s sudden mellowness. It had to be an effect of whatever evolution he underwent.

"I can deal with her. I just need to prepare something. It will only take a few hours before we are ready." Jace informed her as he stretched and a cracking noise could be heard from his body. "There is something more that I need to start collecting as well." He then spun around. "Talk to you later!" He called out as he walked out of the room.

Jace went towards the room with the still incomplete cruiser. For some reason everything was so clear now. Not only that, he knew ways to power up so many things. He felt like he needed to try some of them out now. Mainly because a portion of his mind was being spun around by various spells and enchantments.

He was so distracted he did not even notice when he arrived. He did however notice when he walked past Shinobi. He currently had his gear off and was cleaning it. He flinched when he noticed Jace and went to grab his gear.

Jace waved him off. "You are all good. I am using this table. I need to do something to my gear." Jace explained as he moved to an open table. He materialized his armor on the table and the storage box next to him. It was time to work on himself.

He pulled out a piece of metal. The metal was a composite of carbon and a human created metal. He just had a small rod of the composite. But it should work for the intended purposes. The enchantment just required carbon and a precious metal.

He materialized his knife and carved a tip into the rod. Then he grabbed one of his armor’s boots as he set aside his knife. He then began writing in hex around the base of the boot above the sole on the outside. The boot was still pristine as he marked it with the black pencil rod.

"What are you doing?" Shinobi asked as he moved around the table.

"Something new but old." Jace answered honestly as he finished writing the enchantment. Then the final mark was the symbol he took a breath before drawing the three squiggly lines on the back of the boot.

He then set aside the rod. He then moved his hands on either side of the boot and took a deep breath and concentrated. Electricity arced between his hands. Then slowly the boot started to float as the enhancement process began.

The writing which was black began to burn orange and then blue as smoke came off the boots. Once it was done it slammed down onto the table. He picked it up and looked at it. The writing and symbol were discrete and almost unnoticeable. But it did engrave it into the armor. Not to the point that it was compromising. In fact the change it made was likely negligible.

"Can I see that for a moment?" Shinobi requested. He must not be used to schooling his expression because it was clear from his expression that he was in shock.

"Sure." Jace handed over the boot and Shinobi looked around the edge at the writing and then the symbol before nodding. "Something wrong?"

"Yes, deep in the vaults of Oda are items like this. Items imbued with power thanks to some unknown power. They have writing like this all localized around a symbol. How did you manage to learn it? Is it part of your evolution?" Shiobi asked as he shakily handed back the boot.

Jace shook his head and dematerialized it before rematerializing it on his leg. He focused some energy specifically to the enchantment and the writing and symbol glowed and pest of air shot out of the bottom of it. "No, it was always there. I just did not know how to channel it. Now I do. You already have the basics down, I can see that."

"The basics?" Shinobi asked in surprise.

"Yeah, a basic understanding and control over your soul." Jace answered with a shrug. "To be honest, all I am doing is imbuing a portion of my soul into the item. You just need to know how to do that without causing permanent damage to yourself."

Shinobi shifted nervously as his face gave away his thoughts. "What do you suggest I do to get to the heights you are at?"

"Don’t." Jace told him with a chuckle. "It is clear you just evolved to something else. Your version of the next step beyond a normal human. Valkyrie, your girlfriend, is doing the same. You both are only just now stepping on a path I stepped on months ago. Although you have an advantage over her."

"Then what do you suggest we work on for now?" Shinobi asked, seemingly giving up on the idea. But it felt more like he would attempt it later anyways despite Jace’s unspoken warning.

"Meditation. Once self reflection and meditation are complete you should see which path you can take." Jace explained as he removed the boot before grabbing the other boot to begin writing on it. "To first access your soul, the process starts with accessing the mind." He brought a hand up and tapped his temple.

"Then in that case can you do the same to my sword?" Shinobi asked as he looked over at his work area where his sword was resting. Recently sharpened and shined.

"No." Jace chuckled as he shook his head. "Not now at least. There are multiple things at play. The first is that your sword would need to be enchanted with a portion of your soul but you can’t do that yet. The second is that I can only enchant so many things at one time and I have a long list of ideas backed up that I want to get to before I do other stuff."

Shinobi frowned but sighed before moving and sitting at his workbench. "Then you got any technical tips for my gear? I am trying to make it more efficient, but I am struggling."

"There are many ways. But I am assuming you are struggling with hidden weapons." Jace asked and watched him flinch, confirming his suspicions. "I have a few designs in mind. I will help you while I work, it will give me time to practice multitasking." He explained as he looked around before connecting to a nearby construction mech. Looks like Colvert made it to help finish up the cruiser that they were in the hangar of.

He would borrow it for a bit. It moved over and Shinobi nearly jumped out of his skin when the construction mech moved over to him. "What the hells? Are you doing this?"

"Yes, I just sent you edits for your armor. I will show you by using the mech how to do them. So you can repair them as well." Jace explained as he slowly started working on other enchantments. While the mech he was controlling started working on helping Shinobi. It was time to sit back and relax. Time for him to embrace the change.