The Mech Touch

Ves exchanged 250 Ascension Points to get his hands on the enlightenment fruit that imparted the entire contents of the Beginner Five Elements Spells Manual.

He spent a hefty amount of points, but got a lot of value in return!

It was impossible for other people to quickly master all of the knowledge and techniques contained within this expansive manual.

Not only did they have to spend a lot of time and effort on studying a lot of new and confusing theories, their learning efficiency was also affected by their own elemental affinities!

Ves was able to perform the beginner spells for all five elements because this benefit was included in the package.

Other people did not have this benefit. Short of being able to pluck an identical enlightenment fruit from the Tree of Possibilities, they could only start learning the spells as long as they possessed a higher-than-average talent or comprehension for a single element.

Ves himself would probably be able to learn a few metal and wood spells if he had to study the manual the old-fashioned way.

It would be a lot harder for him to get started with wielding the power of fire, though perhaps his incarnation Vulcan might have better luck.

All of this showed that talent and affinities were essential for cultivators to do anything related to a specific spiritual energy attribute!

This was also one of the biggest reasons why the Five Scrolls Compact had never been able to produce too many powerful True Gods or cultivators who had gotten close to this height.

Talent and affinity not only determined whether a human could get started in an elemental cultivation method, but also had a large influence on how far they would be able to go by relying on their own efforts!

While cultivators had come up with many ways to improve one's affinity to a specific element over the ages, they always had to pay a hefty price to improve their own conditions.

One of the advantages of the mech designer and mech pilot cultivation methods was that they both enabled their 'practitioners' to develop their affinities as they did their jobs.

The more they did anything meaningful like designing a mech or winning a difficult battle, their valuable experiences and realizations would automatically feed back to their spiritualities, causing them to develop in a comprehensive manner.

It was how a previously average human like Venerable Isobel Kotin managed to develop such a strong fire domain.

She hadn't acquired her remarkable affinity towards fire naturally, but earned it through focused effort while piloting rifleman mechs.

If she had made different choices in her life and settled for piloting swordsman mechs instead, then the odds were high that she would acquire a strong metal-related domain instead!

Ves was not in the presence of Isobel the swordsman mech specialist.

He was in the presence of Isobel the pyromaniac.

Compared to other ranged mech specialists such as Venerable Davia Stark and Venerable Brutus Wodin, there was no one who invested so much of herself in making her flames burn hotter than Isobel!

Her unusual mentality and approach may have given her mixed results so far, but when it came to learning a basic technique on how to leverage her acquired closeness to fire to perform an actual flame spell, the fire domain that she worked hard for granted her an enormous boost at this time!

Technically, Ves was trying to teach Kiroshi on how to cast a simple firebolt, but the companion spirit was Isobel's mirror, so they both put their mind on absorbing his teachings.

Ves had already noticed that Isobel was a little smarter and more academically gifted than other expert pilots. Now that she essentially had two separate but related minds to do her thinking, she picked up on his theories a lot faster than he initially expected!

A lot of expert pilots came across as ignorant louts that only knew how to fight. This was actually a mistaken impression as the better pilots always had to learn a bit of science in order to fight properly in different environments.

Most pilots simply didn't like it when they were forced to sit in class benches and learn boring textbook theories. They would much rather hop into a cockpit and spend their time on practical lessons!

Ves was glad that Isobel Kotin possessed a much higher tolerance for boring theoretical lessons. It was essential for him to impart a basic theoretical framework to Isobel before he actually explained how to execute a specific fire spell.

Two hours of rapid tutoring went by before he began to give Kiroshi specific instructions on how to let loose a ball of fire.

Ves could see and feel the flaming companion spirit exercising her control over fire energy. The speed in which she picked up and applied his lessons was quite frightening!

Eventually, Kiroshi managed to produce an actual result!

"Ya... YAAAAAA!"

A surprisingly large and uncontrolled spray of purple flames swept a part of the office with a huge amount of heat!

If not for the fact that Ves manually disabled the fire detection systems in this space, alarms would have already started to ring due to this sudden release of heat and light!

"Yaaaa!"

Kiroshi reacted with fear and embarrassment at the fact that she unleashed a large spray of purple fire from her breath!

"I apologize, sir! I didn't mean to make it so big!" Venerable Isobel immediately spoke. "I don't know why my companion spirit lost control."

Ves swept his arm at her. "It's okay. It wasn't directed towards me. Even if an accident occurs, a little fire won't be able to harm me through my Unending Regalia. I am much more glad about the fact that your companion spirit successfully harnessed the power of fire energy and converted it into an actual physical manifestation of fire. This is a huge deal, Isobel. It is always the hardest to get started. Once you have successfully converted E energy radiation into another form of energy and matter, you will be able to repeat this feat a lot easier in your subsequent attempts. The fact that Kiroshi has managed to complete this step so quickly means that his fire affinity is... exceptional."

It shouldn't be a surprise that this was the case. Companion spirits were much more spiritually pure compared to their associated humans.

Not only that, but their nature as pure energy-based lifeforms allowed them to manipulate spiritual energy with much less barriers in the way.

They were pretty much natural gifted qi cultivators!

Kiroshi also benefited a lot from Venerable Isobel's existing growth and development. Despite her relatively young age, she did not truly start to grow from scratch, but had split off from an actual expert pilot!

This illustrated the incredible value that companion spirits could add to a mech pilot.

As willpower cultivators, mech pilots ordinarily weren't supposed to be able to launch firebolts or firesprays out of nowhere as if they were wizards.

Abilities like these were usually associated with qi cultivation.

Yet by giving mech pilots such as Isobel an 'alternate self' in the form of a companion spirit, they could potentially enjoy the best of both worlds!

"Ya ya?"

"What now, sir?" Isobel asked.

"Kiroshi is really talented and gifted in this kind of stuff. I would really love to teach you more or give you an entire textbook on fire spells, but we don't have the time right now. What we need to do is improve your companion spirit's control. Power is not the issue here. Try to make it so that Kiroshi doesn't rely entirely on her high fire affinity to convert spiritual energy into actual fire."

The companion spirit attempted to do as instructed and focus more on finesse rather than raw power.

It was difficult because she was practically filled with fire. Just unleashing a bit of it always produced a noticeable spray of flame!

A part of Ves actually felt a little jealous at Kiroshi for being able to produce such powerful spells.

Then he realized that Blinky practically had access to his own internal universe that was filled with a lot of different spiritual energy attributes!

Even though Blinky did not share Kiroshi's exceptional connection to the fire element, the Star Cat could rely on the massive quantity of fire energy deposited in the Blinkyverse to brute force any spell!

Anyway, this was not about Blinky right now. What mattered was that Venerable Isobel and Kiroshi thoroughly gained a grasp on how to attract and convert exotic radiation into a specific and intended result.

It became a lot harder for Kiroshi to exert proper control over her energies than to tap them in the first place.

Companion spirit or not, Kiroshi needed to go through a lot of practice and build up her skills over time in order to truly master the techniques that Ves had taught.

This was okay. Ves could proceed with the next step in his plan so long as Kiroshi was barely able to perform the complete firebolt technique without causing it to break down in an uncontrolled spray of purple flames!

"Yaaaaa!"

When Kiroshi opened her maw yet again, a wobbly and overly powerful ball of fire launched from her burning body and splashed against the bulkhead!

This time, the flames started to stick.

This was another breakthrough for Isobel and Kiroshi!

Ves could see that the companion spirit not only managed to retain her connection to the flames she had just unleashed, but actively nurtured and controlled them to eat away the metal alloys of the bulkhead and use that to propagate the fire further!

Though Kiroshi's ability to do so was not on the same scale as the Promethea, it was already impressive that she was able to do this in the first place!

"What now, sir?" Venerable Isobel asked in a more excited tone now that her companion spirit had actually learned a technique that turned into more than just a mascot! "Should I enter the cockpit of the Promethea and see if I can replicate this technique on a larger and more powerful scale?"

Ves shook his head. "Don't be in such a hurry. We need to complete two more steps. First, I need to modify and tinker with the Ignitron rifle so that this luminar crystal weapon can do a better job at channeling Kiroshi. Secondly, I need you to perform a variation of this firebolt technique. The problem is that I haven't really learned or mastered it myself, so you will need to figure it out yourself."

That sounded rather vague to Isobel.

"What do you require from us, sir?"

"Instead of making Kiroshi launch a firebolt out of her mouth, why don't you try and turn her into a fireball and launch her forward instead? If I am right, you should be able to propel her far away enough that you can actually take advantage of this in a space battle." "What?" Isobel reacted with surprise. "Is that even possible?"

"I've seen it happen before, though in a slightly different way. It is truly possible. You just need to master the trick of turning Kiroshi into a flaming projectile. The goal is to make it so that once your Promethea launches a shot, your companion spirit can hitchhike on the energy beam and reach the target. As long as you can successfully deliver Kiroshi to the enemy, I'm sure that she can do a lot to compound the damage with her flames."

The imagery of this scenario enthralled Venerable Isobel. The air around her seemed to grow hotter as she developed a strong desire and will to make this happen!

"I will work on this right away, sir! I will not let you down and do my best to figure this out before our battle commences."

"Good." Ves smiled in satisfaction. "I will leave you here to practice on your own. Take care not to burn down our entire flagship. I will call down a few fire extinguishing bots as an added form of insurance."

He knew he could rely on the reality distorting properties and the pig-headed stubbornness associated with expert pilots to enable Isobel to produce a result.

She might not be able to meet all of his requirements, but she should at least be able to get enough work done to strengthen her hand in the upcoming operation!