The Mech Touch

Ves came up with several different possible methods to accelerate the formation of prime materials.

As long as he was able to develop an effective process that could produce a stable and regular output of spiritually reactive materials, his plans to develop more prime mechs could successfully be brought forward!

In order to set his latest scheme in motion, he took another trip to the Dragon's Den and paid a visit to the T Institute.

There was a research group under the institute that specifically conducted research on how to create prime materials.

To be honest, it accomplished almost nothing over the years. It was only after the Great Severing took place that the idle researchers suddenly became a lot busier.

They had largely spent their time on identifying and cataloging all of the materials that displayed any sort of reaction to E energy radiation.

Their investigations along with the vast body of data that was constantly being updated on the galactic net enabled the research group to form a vast database of interesting entries.

The researchers had even procured substantial quantities of materials that were all showing gradual transformations under the influence of exotic radiation.

This pleased Ves. The prior preparations made by the research group saved a lot of work on his end.

"The key is to increase the concentration of ambient spiritual energy in the storage compartments where these materials are held." Ves determined. "It is best to match specific materials to specific elemental energies."

Just like the Black Demon Steel that played an important role in making the Gray Lotus so effective, there were a lot of varieties of heavenly materials that were highly attuned to only specific spiritual energy attributes.

It was not quite clear which materials were attuned to specific elements. Not enough time had passed for the ongoing transformations to reach an advanced stage where their natural qi formations locked in specific elemental energies.

"It doesn't matter too much for the time being." Ves determined. "So long as there is a way to increase the concentration of ambient spiritual energy in this storage compartment, the nature of these emerging prime materials will slowly become clear."

Ves did not master the method of creating a qi formation that could naturally attract a lot of spiritual energy.

He had tried to reproduce the seemingly mathematical array of lines and circles that Cynthia briefly demonstrated to him before, but his attempts all ended in failure.

Ves understood at that time that he was approaching his work from the wrong direction.

Instead of trying to imitate his mother and try to master a new discipline from scratch, he would be better off if he adapted his existing work and understanding instead!

As a mech designer, Ves was most proficient in designing and making mechs that could fulfill specific purposes.

He decided to call over the Everchanger.

Venerable Joshua spent a lot more time in and around the Dragon's Den these days. His talent and specializations made him a lot more suitable to calm, befriend and placate the mutated beasts that were all beginning to grow stronger through natural cultivation.

"What do you want me to do, sir?" The pilot asked as the Everchanger gently stepped inside the large storage compartment.

"Do you see these containers and the stacks of different metal bars around us? They are all special, Joshua. The short story is that they are all prime materials that are highly useful in developing prime mechs like your own. The only problem is that they need to absorb a lot of E energy radiation in order to make them useful. I need you and your expert mech to work together to speed up their creation."

"That... sounds complicated, sir. Shouldn't this be done in a factory or something? I do not see why I am needed in the production process."

Ves smiled up at the expert mech. "I would have preferred to do so if I had the option, but I do not have the right means. I can only resort to more primitive and readily available methods at the start. What I need is for your Everchanger to cultivate in this space for a time. At the same time, I also need you to resonate with your expert mech in order to strengthen its glow and find a way to increase the attraction of E energy in this compartment."

The idea that Ves came up with sounded confusing to Joshua, but the Everchanger had a greater understanding of what the mech designer had in mind.

"I UNDERSTAND." The living expert mech spoke. "I WILL ATTEMPT TO GUIDE YOU, JOSHUA. IF WE CAN SATISFY THE PATRIARCH'S REQUIREMENTS, WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO FACILITATE THE CREATION OF BETTER MATERIALS."

The availability of a greater variety of prime materials was of great interest for every living mech. Everyone of them could grow more powerful and acquire more versatile functions as long as they integrated the right prime materials.

Ves, Joshua and the Everchanger spent the next few hours experimenting and fumbling around.

Whenever the Everchanger practiced the Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra, he was able to form an energy vortex around his physical form that sucked in a lot of ambient spiritual energy.

The formation of a strong enough energy vortex essentially meant that ambient spiritual energy in other locations would slowly get drawn into the storage compartment, thereby exposing the emerging prime materials inside with a lot more E energy radiation than normal!

However, the problem was that the mantra mainly focused on attracting metal energies.

This meant that only the prime materials that were strongly biased towards metal in one way or another benefited from this effect.

Spiritual energies aligned to different attributes did not get affected as much.

However, this was why Ves called on the Everchanger in particular.

"Can you switch your glow to Helena and amplify it so that it dominates this compartment at the strongest possible intensity that you can manage?" Ves issued his next request.

"I can do that, but one of the Everchanger's resonance abilities is mostly geared towards amplifying the range of a glow." Joshua responded. "It is not so good at increasing the strength of a glow within a tighter space. I have tried it out before, but the results are not that impressive."

Ves responded with a reassuring smile. "Just try the best you can, Joshua. You can treat it as a form of practice. Don't let yourself be limited by the technical limitations of your machine. The Everchanger is the most versatile and malleable mech that I have designed. Every design choice that I have made, from designing him as a hero mech to making his glow variable, is meant to make his evolution as limitless as possible. Sure, your expert mech might not be as strong as the other ones in their own areas of specializations, but the greatest advantage of your machine is that it is not constrained in any orientation. If you can't do something, then it doesn't mean that the Everchanger is incapable. It just means that you and your battle partner have yet to develop the right method."

That caused both Joshua and Everchanger to fall silent and mull over the words for a while.

Ves truly felt proud for designing and realizing the Everchanger. Even the newer machines that came out afterwards such as the Minerva and the Phobos could not supplant his love and expectation for the mech that could evolve in any way possible.

Versatility was the Everchanger's greatest strength. It could even help in a productive capacity if it spent enough time and effort in this direction.

Once the Everchanger began to channel Helena with the help of his powerful new mech pistol, the entire compartment gained a sense of gloom that was associated with death.

Her powerful glow not only affected the materials in different ways, but also formed a weak pseudo-domain that formed a greater attraction towards death energy!

Ves patiently sat around while the Everchanger cultivated while also familiarizing himself with the power of death.

The Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra was technically capable of giving living mechs the ability to slightly attract and absorb other elemental energies.

Now, the Everchanger took advantage of that property by trying to move as much death energy in the environment as possible.

The living expert mech was able to kill multiple birds with a single stone. Not only did the Everchanger fulfill Ves' request, but the machine also actively furthered his growth.

On top of that, Joshua and the Everchanger also deepened their familiarity with Helena and the death element! This would doubtlessly enable them to make better use of the Gray Lotus in the upcoming battle!

As time passed by, Ves made a few rounds and used his implant to mark several specific materials that exhibited higher activity than normal.

Each of them displayed properties that were not that different from Black Demon Steel!

"They're a lot weaker, though." Ves furrowed his brows.

This shouldn't be much of a surprise. Most naturally-occuring exotics were pretty much treated like junk because their properties were not that impressive.

Heavenly materials should share a similar hierarchy. There were a lot of crappy materials and only a few good ones.

Perhaps in the future Ves could figure out how to make artificial prime alloys that were a lot more powerful than the sum of their individual ingredients, but that was a lot of work.

"I need to get a specialist in materials science in order to do a good job at this." Ves determined.

Professional work should be left to the professionals. Ves did not share a passion in materials science. If not for the fact that prime materials played such an important role in his core work activities, he wouldn't be willing to spend so much in this storage compartment in the first place!

Once Joshua and the Everchanger spent a decent amount of time on increasing the effective concentration of death energy in the immediate area, Ves waved his hand to signal that they could stop their efforts.

"That is enough for today. I know that the two of you can't spend all day over here. You are free to return to your regular schedule."

"Alright." Joshua said. "Do I have to come back in my next work shift?"

Ves nodded. "I will need you to repeat your actions many more times until the prime materials that are biased towards death have completed their transformations. Once that happens, I don't need your help anymore, at least for this specific purpose."

"Truly?"

"If my ideas are correct, I can use the new prime materials to create totems that can essentially do what you have done without requiring your personal intervention."

This was his goal!

Ves wanted to create extremely effective totems of Helena to form entire spaces that attracted lots of death energy!

Just like the ancient statue of the Unending One that was made out of Unending alloy that the Larkinsons once encountered, totems made out of prime materials were much more effective than their ordinary counterparts.

As long as Ves placed another batch of compatible materials in their presence, he would be able to speed up the formation of more heavenly materials!

Ves could subsequently use the newly transformed materials to produce more totems of Helena.

This would multiply the production rate of heavenly materials even further and progressively enable him to obtain so much of what he needed that he would never suffer a shortage again!

Of course, Ves recognized that any attempts to mass produce specific prime materials depended a lot on the availability of enough space and the supply of sufficient quantities of specific raw materials.

It would become increasingly less practical for his clan to produce large quantities of prime materials within the expeditionary fleet.

The only way for his clan to expand production on an industrial scale was to move the bulk of the operations to planets.

Ves could instruct the Davute Branch to buy a large patch of land and build a large-scale production facility according to his specifications.

Since the Davute System was a trade hub, it shouldn't be a problem for the branch to procure large quantities of suitable raw materials.

This meant that the Larkinson Clan could theoretically produce as many prime materials as it wanted!

"I'm sure that other people can figure out their own ways to produce these kinds of materials, but my method works best for me. The production costs are low and the process doesn't require any human intervention."