The Mech Touch

Ves set his sights on the Eminence of Torment.

Killing this phase lord would kill multiple birds with a single stone. Not only would he be able to harvest a huge amount of phasewater at once, but he would also be able to get his hands on a Warship Token.

Although it was rather troublesome to determine the ownership of the Warship Token after a successful battle, that was a problem to worry about later. It was always better to secure it first before doing anything else.

He issued a bunch of instructions to Calabast to make sure the Black Cats looked into the right phenomena. He already came up with a couple of interesting plans, but he needed more information to confirm his assumptions.

After dealing with this matter, Ves turned his attention back to his current research.

After discovering that the Quint was able to accelerate his own growth and produce a pseudo-domain, Ves had investigated this phenomenon even further.

The Quint had taken the initiative to share his own discoveries and methods with the other third order living mechs, and soon each machine with a decent amount of intelligence had begun to absorb ambient spiritual energy in different ways!

The methods were all fairly crude and rudimentary, but this was already enough to excite and entertain the machines!

For example, when Ves paid a visit to the Dark Zephyr, he saw that the expert light skirmisher had become surrounded by a weak cloud of energies attributed to wind and shadow!

Anyone who strayed close to the expert mech would definitely feel as if they had entered an invisible storm that disoriented their senses and made them feel as if they had been blown into the wind!

Ves stepped inside the expert mech's faint domain in order to directly experience what it was like.

"This is impressive, Dark Zephyr. How well are you able to push objects within your range?"

Before he knew it, Ves suddenly felt a moderate push against his body. I le took a few steps back until the invisible wall weakened in strength.

"THAT IS THE BEST I CAN DO." The living mech's artificial voice boomed in the hall. "MY STRENGTH DOES NOT LIE IN PUSHING ITEMS AROUND. I THINK I CAN USE THE CONTROL THAT I HAVE GAINED OVER MY SURROUNDINGS FOR MUCH MORE USEFUL PURPOSES. I NEED MORE TIME TO FIGURE OUT WHAT I CAN DO TOGETHER WITH TUSA."

Ves nodded. "It's a good idea to work together with Tusa. You are a mech after all. You are made to work together with an expert pilot. Have you tried to see whether he can leverage your domain to produce a good result?"

"WE HAVE, BUT WE DID NOT KNOW WHAT WE WERE DOING. WE WERE WORKING AGAINST EACH OTHER MORE TI IAN ANYTHING. WE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO COORDINATE OUR ACTIONS FIRST."

"I see. Well, do your best. I hope that you will be able to produce surprising results in our next battle against the aliens. You need to do your best to increase your ability to fight against strong warships. I don't want you to build up too much of a dependence on transphasic grenades."

After Ves learned what he wanted to know from the Dark Zephyr, he returned to his private lab and began to summarize the information that he had gathered up to this point.

"Pure energy-based life forms are able to do this a lot easier than ones that still have corporeal bodies." Ves concluded. "Most design spirits and all companion spirits are able to absorb E energy radiation with relatively few barriers, but those with physical bodies have to deal with extra complications."

In order to test this finding, he tried to do this himself without relying on Blinky.

The air started to grow sharper but also more lively as Ves consciously tried to attract ambient energies related to life and metal.

He was only able to attract it inside his body, but trying to circulate it caused his flesh to feel pained and uncomfortable.

It was like trying to navigate through a maze. Each time the small flow of energy bumped into a dead end or took a wrong turn for whatever reason, it started to produce problems!

He only managed to produce a stable circulation when he followed the same pattern as the Worclaw energy that had always been circulating inside his body.

However, Ves felt like it wasn't doing anything special aside from granting him a bit more control over his immediate environment.

"I am doing something wrong." He guessed.

He tried it out with Blinky as well. It had taken a lot of trial and error to feel out his inherent circulation path, but the effect was rather disappointing.

His biggest problem was that Messier 87 did not propagate any spiritual attributes directly related to mechs.

Sure, the ambient spiritual energy radiating from M87 did produce a lot of related attributes such as various varieties of metals and craftsmanship, but it appeared the aliens did not adopt mechs in large enough quantities to become a fixture in their galaxy!

As a result, E energy radiation contained no direct mech-related energies for Ves to absorb!

"This is a problem." Ves frowned.

While it was possible for red humanity to naturally produce a lot of mech-attributed spiritual energy as their society became more affected by exotic radiation, it would probably take years if not decades for this to happen!

Fortunately, Ves happened to possess a cheat.

"Mrow~"

Blinky no longer tried to absorb ambient spiritual energy directly, but instead devoured it into his stomach and rapidly converted all of the foreign energies into mech and life attributes!

Although Blinky was unable to contain all of these newly produced energies, both Ves and his companion cat began to absorb a part of them and circulate them in their bodies!

Both of their eyes lit up!

"It works!"

The efficiency was still awfully low, but both human and cat could feel that they were making progress!

The only issue was that the growth was purely quantitative in nature. While Ves could guess that he would probably be able to accelerate the growth of his Spirituality a lot faster, he had a strong feeling that he would not be able to depend on this mindless growth to advance to Master Mech Designer.

After fooling around for a few more minutes, Ves ended his little experiment. Although he gathered a bit more data and confirmed a few more theories, he grew dissatisfied at the lack of sophistication.

He felt like he was like a kid who accidentally entered a mech workshop and fumbled around with the production equipment until he barely managed to produce a simple metal cube!

A mech workshop could be used to produce a lot more awesome products than a simple toy!

Instead of continuing to fool around on his own, Ves decided to consult a professional in this area.

Back in the Milky Way, Veronica halted her design work and shut down the desk terminal.

The cyborg cat Jumped off the desk and floated away from the private workplace and began to navigate the corridors of the Throne of Light.

The living divine artifact soon reached an armored hatch that was guarded by a pair of menacing soldiers.

The cat phased through the hatch without getting stopped, as everyone knew that Veronica was allowed to travel anywhere inside the heavy cruiser!

Veronica emerged in a compartment that looked like a cross between the interior of a traditional wooden temple and a carefully arranged garden.

Incense burned from the walls while plants and flowers flourished in the natural environment.

Insects crawled between the bushes while small birds chirped at each other.

Water flowed from a tiny river while colorful fish swam beneath the surface.

It all gave Ves a strong sense of life and vitality in a different variety than he was used to working with as a mech designer.

While Ves attempted to combine life with mechs, his mother apparently stuck a lot closer to nature.

The contrast was interesting and reminded Ves that there were many different varieties and interpretations of life.

The cyborg cat continued to float forward until she reached the center of the compartment.

A single woman that naturally glowed with power was seated in a lotus position. Her dark robe and lustrous jewels enhanced her gravitas and imparted her with a touch of regality that made it impossible for anyone to regard themselves as her equal.

Even Ves felt oppressed by the resurrected woman due to the enormous differences between their life states!

Nonetheless, that did not stop him from behaving in a casual manner. Goddess or not, Cynthia was still his mother!

"Ves." C'ynthia spoke as she opened her eyes and suppressed the aura that was leaking out of her body. "Or is it Veronica?"

The cat cutely shrugged as she fell onto her lap. "It's your choice. I don't really care. A part of me regrets choosing to turn this avatar into a female."

"I think it is good for you to widen your perspective and vary your life experiences." The mother said as she began to stroke Veronica's back. "We grow stronger and wiser by exposing ourselves to different events. I think you understand this better than most people in both galaxies."

Veronica lifted her head in pride. "That's right, hehe."

"So why have you come, my child?"

"I think I am ready to receive a lesson about what you know about the methods of the Five Scrolls Compact." The cat spoke in a more serious tone. "Back in the other galaxy, I have made a number of interesting discoveries related to the E energy radiation produced by Messier 87."

The cat avatar proceeded to give Cynthia a short summary of observations and discoveries.

As Veronica continued to explain her fascinating research, her mother smiled in an Indulgent manner.

"You have done a good job at making these discoveries." Cynthia lovingly said as the cat finished speaking. "Your findings may be rudimentary, but you have managed to obtain them through your own efforts. That is important. Far too many people have grown lazy and lost their ability to see through the essence of different phenomena because they are accustomed to learning the knowledge generated by their predecessors."

He understood what she meant. Ves had always been taught that rote learning alone did not make for a good mech designer. Scientists and engineers needed to use their imagination to step outside of the box of established theories in order to create truly new works.

"Myaow. While I do not necessarily object to continuing my own research in the Red Ocean, I am in a bit of a hurry, mother. My clan and I are facing a lot of pressure and challenges due to the Great Severing. Can you teach me what I should know so that I can skip years of trial and error? I need to quickly find a way to make my mechs stronger so that my forces are better equipped to defeat powerful opponents."

His mother slightly frowned. She did not prefer for his son to learn too much from her. He would fare better In the long-run If he created his own paradigms and formed his own theories.

However, she already noticed that Ves had begun to incorporate select pieces of knowledge related to the Five Scrolls Compact.

She had a good idea where he acquired this forbidden knowledge.

Instead of allowing her son to fool around and play with forces beyond his greater understanding, it may be more prudent to give him a few basic lessons so that he wouldn't be so Ignorant anymore!

A small sigh escaped from her divine lips. "Very well, my child. I will start by giving you an overview of what you have been trying to do. I will also give you a gift at the end of my lesson if you have been good."

The mention of a present instantly stoked Veronica's enthusiasm! Her tall already began to swing around at a higher frequency!

"What are you going to teach me today, mother?"

"The basic theory of cultivation." The powerful mother replied.