The Mech Touch

It was too much to hope that the Survivalists never figured out that Ves had technically become a phase lord.

He didn't even know how he was supposed to explain how he ended up this way.

Should he tell them that he stole and adapted an orven ritual to transform himself?

How would he be able to avoid mentioning the System's role in vastly increasing the success rate of this sketchy procedure?

Then there was the tribulation lightning that rained down upon him for an awfully long time. It undoubtedly contributed to his successful transformation, but he did not have the faintest clue why that was the case.

Unfortunately for Ves, Master Goldstein's tone made it clear that there was no way he could reject this 'invitation'.

"Oh well. At least it is scheduled on the sixth day. I don't have to worry about it for a while." He shrugged.

Ves was confident that the Survivalists valued him enough to prevent him from getting arbitrarily detained.

The possibility that the avid researchers of the Red Association would capture him before stuffing him inside a lab so that they could dissect him was low.

However, just because the chance was low did not mean it was zero!

If Ves wanted to make sure that he would be able to leave this conference without issue and return to his expeditionary fleet without any incidents, he needed to do his best to increase his value in the short term!

"I need to do a good job at making people appreciate all of my work." He concluded.

He gained extra motivation to do well in his upcoming presentations!

Aside from that, he also needed to give this research group enough data and information to keep them busy. If they were able to gain nothing that could help them make actual progress, then they would probably keep pestering him for more assistance!

As Ves stood outside the closed hatch of Master Goldstein's office, he wondered what he should do next.

"I am free, right?"

Jovy nodded. "You don't have any obligations on the first day. You can choose whether to spend time on your upcoming presentations if you want, but 1 think you would rather like to hear what other people have to say."

Ves grinned. "That's right. Let's take a look at the list."

They connected to the internal network and called up a long list of ongoing and future sessions.

The list was adjusted according to his identity, so Ves was only able to learn about presentations and debates on topics that he was permitted to get in touch with. This meant that there were a lot more sessions going on that he did not know about.

Ves did not particularly mind. There were already so many possible events that he did not have the time to attend all of the ones that held his interest.

He happened to catch an open session led by Master Teresa Norville. His eyes widened when he saw its title.

"This one! Let's attend this one!"

"I can see why you are interested in this session. Master Norville is one of the Xenotechnician's more talented and successful apprentices. She is only 180 years old and is considered a prospect to become a Star Designer in a century or two. You can trust that she had conducted thorough research on a subject if she is ready to present her findings to an audience."

"That sounds good. I recently managed to get my hands on an archeship, so it is incredibly helpful to know how archetech works."

The session that Ves was interested in was titled 'Introduction to Archetech and its Applicability to Meehs'.

He figured that a lot of mechers and associates might want to attend this session because they admired the Xenotechnician's cool new outfit.

"It is actually clever on their part." Jovy said. "The Xenotechnician attracts attention towards his new and interesting archemetal clothing. His former disciple holds a session on this exotic tech shortly after the opening speeches. This is a good opportunity to sway more people into supporting the Diplomacy Plan."

Ves could see that as well, but he did not care about it. He just wanted to learn how archetech worked and how he could produce his own archemetal components.

After navigating through the Khamatar Reign's interior, the two Seniors finally entered a middle-sized lecture hall.

The layout and seating had been precisely arranged according to Master Teresa Norville's instructions.

Just as Ves and Jovy expected, the session attracted a notable amount of people. Most of them were mech designers or engineers who possessed a keen interest on mastering archetech so that they could apply it to their own work.

Both young and old professionals took their seats without disturbing Master Norville.

It was rather interesting to see that everyone automatically chose their seats based on the rules of the main assembly hall. The younger and less experienced individuals got to sit at the front while the older people sat in the back.

Ves figured out that this made it easier for the former group to ask questions and engage in a dialogue with the lecturer.

As Ves and Jovy took their seats in the middle, they waited for the hall to fill up further before the Master was ready to begin her presentation.

Over 700 people chose to attend this open session. Even though it looked unlikely that most of them would ever seriously work with archetech in their lives, they still wanted to broaden their horizons and learn what was possible.

"Very well." The middle-aged looking woman wearing several prominent pieces of alien jewelry spoke up. "Each of you has chosen to learn about the fundamentals of the signature technologies of the arche race. It is not possible to go into exhaustive detail on this alien tech. There is only enough time to mention the key characteristics of this advanced tech base. 1 have condensed the contents and the technical information as best as possible, but it is hardly exhaustive enough to enable you to reproduce this tech by yourselves."

With that out of the way, Master Norville immediately began her lesson by projecting a turtle-like alien.

"The root of archetech lies in the organic structure of the arche. As you can see, the arche are quadrupeds that originally relied on their special archeshells to protect them from predation. What distinguishes them from most testudo species is that their shells can not only absorb and integrate a large variety of exotic materials, but are also capable of generating electronic resonance, which provides the species with a large variety of abilities."

The Master quickly summarized a lot of basic information to get everyone up to speed.

She soon began to mention an interesting finding.

"As far as our research has shown, the arche are completely naturally evolved. We have not discovered any clues in their genomes, their historical records or their constructs that signify that they are artificially conceived. Their archeshells naturally evolved to their current form based on the complex and special conditions of their former home planet. The implication is that it is unlikely that any other race in the entire cosmos is able to form anything similar. This is because archeshells and by extension archetech derives much of their power from a specific group of exotics."

A second projection came to life that displayed over a dozen different exotic materials. Their individual compositions were different and so were their properties, but they still shared a few traits in common.

"This is a new classification of exotics that we have designated as electrosensitive. A number of them used to be prevalent in the home planet of the arche. Once the aliens took to the stars, they have later discovered a number of other exotics that can meet their needs for this type of materials."

Ves didn't even know that! Learning this was already worth the decision to attend this open session!

"Electrosensitive exotics have many beneficial effects to arche." The Master continued. "The main benefit is that it is a powerful amplifier of electronic resonance. All high-powered versions of archeshells and archetech are dependent on these materials. Without them, the arche are unable to produce the power that is necessary to cement their place as a major alien race in the Red Ocean. The arche are known to set aside many lesser priorities in order to obtain a notable quantity of this group of exotics. Much like other exotic-dependent races, the growth and expansion of their civilization is directly correlated by the availability of these materials."

That had many implications for both the arche and the humans who desired to reverse engineer archetech. Ves actually became disappointed by this discovery.

If archetech was not as universal as he initially thought, then it meant that he would not be able to produce as many mechs made out of archemetal as he desired.

"Electrosensitive materials are not rare in the Red Ocean, but they are not too abundant either. Much of the reason why the arche have become nomadic is because there are few star systems that can offer them an adequate supply of these exotics. One of the common goals of all hidden archeships is to constantly survey star systems for deposits of these key materials. They may even be equipped with modest mining facilities so that they can quickly and covertly extract them from an asteroid or a planet."

That actually made the arche sound like roaming beggars who would trawl many different trash piles for food. It completely ruined their previous mystique.

However, Master Teresa Norville was not done with her presentation.

"As you can foresee, the material dependencies of archetech heavily limits any further applications by our race. We would have to compete against the arche for the limited supply of electrosensitive exotics. The aliens are already struggling to obtain enough of them. We will struggle even more to accumulate these resources."

Archetech sounded similar to phasewater technology then. The latter had become the playground of the rich and powerful due to the persistent shortage of phasewater. It wasn't even sold on the market anymore!

It was then that Master Norville presented a new research result.

"We do not think that the usage of archetech should be restricted by this condition. We have dedicated a team of material scientists to study all known samples of electrosensitive materials Their objectives are to discover a method to synthesize them with the help of industrial methods, or to develop an artificial exotic alloy that can be used to produce effective archemetal in their stead. We have succeeded."

The projection displayed a handful of new lab-produced alloys that indeed possessed similar properties to electrosensitive exotics!

Master Teresa Norville smiled with satisfaction. "These are only preliminary results. The performance, toughness and cost-effectiveness of the early versions of these alloys are not up to standard. We expect to make rapid gains in these parameters in the ensuing months and weeks. We anticipate it will take half a year to a year to complete a range of artificial electrosensitive alloys that can be utilized to produce archemetal without being limited by the lack of availability of key raw materials. The cost will likely be substantial, so they are not too suitable for mass production. Our material scientists will have to make further breakthroughs in order to realize this condition."

Damn! While Ves had not yet made any progress in researching archetech, the mechers under the lead of the Xenotechnician had already made so much progress!

If Ves could get his hands on what the Survivalists knew about archetech, his clan did not even need to send the archeship to a research partner anymore.

The Golden Skull Alliance would be able to convert the alien ship for its own use a lot sooner!

Ves looked at Master Teresa Norville with a hungry expression. He urgently wanted to pry the secrets of archetech from her. The problem was that his identity and lack of bargaining chips hindered his ability to do so. How could he possibly persuade this eminent mech designer to share all of the valuable research that she and her research team obtained with great effort?