The Mech Touch

Ves became filled with thoughts on how to realize this latest idea.

It was incredibly daring to set a goal related to bringing the Mech Body Merger Progress forward.

His idea did not conform to the well-established pattern set by the mech community!

The mechers and a lot of other smart people methodically refined and optimized the cultivation trajectory of the mech piloting profession over the course of the Age of Mechs.

Ves did not want to sound arrogant and claim that he possessed the capability to subvert all of these proven laws and replace it with a completely new theoretical framework.

There were good reasons why every mech pilot could only wait until they had reached the very limit of what they could accomplish in their normal cultivation before embarking on the infamous road to no return.

However, it was exactly because the Mech Body Merger Process produced so many fatalities that Ves felt compelled to figure out a substitute!

"A cultivation process that tries to cram so many radical life-changing transformations in a single sequence is a mark of poor design." Ves frowned for a moment. "The results speak for themselves. The excessively high failure rate shows that this is one of the most awful breakthrough methods imaginable."

The mechers certainly knew this, but they were helpless about this outcome. The only other way for a peak ace pilot to advance successfully was to complete all of the four transformations at the same time!

The success rate of that reckless and highly risky method was even worse, so the mech community settled on the Mech Body Merger Progress because it was the least-bad option available.

This illustrated the enormous difficulty of a mech pilot trying to ascend to a True God without the assistance of the Kingdom of Mechs!

The huge jump in difficulty was simply too much for mech pilots who relied on 'automatic' cultivation for the entirety of their careers!

There was no way the mechers were content with this outcome. They must have worked incredibly hard to improve the Mech Body Merger Process or develop alternatives with higher success rates.

None of them succeeded apparently, or else the mechers would have popularized them a long time ago. Their need to produce more god pilots was too high for them to keep a better method for themselves.

What this meant was that the demand for a better way to help mech pilots ascend to godhood was insanely high!

Even if Ves could only produce a minor improvement, such a solution would already offer incredible value to the mech community at large!

Ves knew that Jovy and the Survivalists had already recognized that his Carmine System had the potential to make one of their most difficult dreams come true.

However, potential was not enough. There were plenty of other brilliant and crazy mech designers out there that came up with promising ideas.

Unless Ves was able to come up with a systematic theory and a practical solution, his idea would only remain a fanciful daydream to the mech community!

It was even worse if the solution could not be replicated without his design philosophy. Ves was still a Senior, which meant that his work and philosophy had yet to prove their value and permanence to the mech industry.

Only Master Mech Designers had the capital to make permanent contributions to the development of mechs!

This was because they had already contributed their design philosophies to the Kingdom of Mechs or rather the Red Kingdom.

Even if they perished, their extraordinary design principles would live on, thereby permanently enriching the strength of mechs in future generations!

Ves understood that it was a bit too premature for him to single-handedly solve one of the major problems related to the Mech Body Merger Progress when he was still a relatively inexperienced Senior Mech Designer.

"I can still try, though."

He had already discovered numerous parallels between the Blood Pact and the early phases of the Mech Body Merger Process.

There was no hope of relying on the Carmine System to attain corporeal union and total union. The last two phases of the Mech Body Merger Process were among the most extreme and deadly.

Only the strongest, luckiest and daring of ace pilots could successfully overcome these insanely difficult hurdles!

A means to complete the first two steps of the Mech Body Merger Process in advance was not that valuable in comparison.

While it would certainly help peak ace pilots improve their chances of success, Ves did not expect the success rate to improve by more than 10 percent at most.

"That is already enough to produce one or two more god pilots per mech generation." Ves made a conservative estimate.

There were far too many variables that affected the emergence of god pilots. Population was the most important factor by far, and red humanity was far too short of human bodies.

The best way to increase the rate of breakthroughs was by boosting the population. There were good reasons why the Polymath insisted on producing human clones en masse!

Ves shook his head. He was letting his mind wander yet again.

When he turned his focus back onto his work, he recalled that the fabrication run had already persisted for four standard days.

There was not much time left before the Blood Star completed its radical metamorphosis!

Even now, its mech frame already integrated enough high-end parts that the fundamental character had already changed.

Its transformation to a quasi-first-class expert mech massively strengthened its spiritual foundation!

Ves became impressed by how extensively this fed back to Venerable Benjamin.

Whenever the Blood Star grew stronger, so did his grandfather!

Benjamin literally looked as if he had undergone a round of life-prolonging treatment. The lingering traces of his physical frailty had disappeared entirely and he was visibly gaining a bit more body mass.

While it wouldn't surprise Ves too much if these improvements took place over months or years, to see it happen in the span of just a few days was too shocking.

The visible proof of a deep relationship between a Carmine mech and a mech pilot validated much of Ves' hopes and expectations towards the Blood Pact!

This soul bond was absolutely extraordinary. So long as Ves managed to improve it, Carmine mechs such as the Blood Star could turn any of their pilots into powerhouses!

"It is not that easy to improve it, though." Ves frowned.

His theoretical frameworks were not comprehensive enough to direct him towards a viable solution.

Vulcan also did not have access to a complete enough inheritance from a Divine Blacksmith to contribute to this effort either.

From the perspective of artifact cultivation, the Blood Star was most definitely a soulbond artifact.

Radical upgrades to its material performance might strengthen its intangible properties as well, but these were merely secondary reactions that took place without the direct involvement of a mech designer.

What Ves wanted to do was to figure out a safe and effective way to directly improve the Blood Pact!

He needed to do this in a direct and targeted fashion in order to produce the most effective result.

However, any thought related to tampering with the Blood Pact in any way caused his intuition to buzz.

Ves grimaced and narrowed his eyes.

It was not a good idea to experiment on an active Blood Pact without thought.

This was because this extraordinary bond was strong and resistant to tampering. The only way for Ves to directly alter its properties was by using force!

It went without saying that if Ves tried to hammer at the soul bond with the spiritual equivalent of a sledgehammer, the most probable outcome was that he would break it entirely!

This was a disastrous outcome for both Benjamin and the Blood Star!

"How can I change the Blood Pact then if I cannot take any direct action?"

He could only resort to softer and more indirect methods. He was already trying to improve the current Blood Pact by upgrading the physical and spiritual design of the Blood Star, but he had already reached the limit of what he could do after he completed this project.

That left Ves with the slowest and most time-consuming method of improvement.

"Growth."

Growth was a powerful force. As the central concept of his design philosophy, Ves was highly familiar with its strengths and weaknesses.

One of the greatest advantages of relying on growth was that it was usually the gentlest and least harmful way to strengthen a living mech!

Growth could complete the most radical transformations that would have ended up in disaster if they happened under any other circumstance.

By dragging out the changes over the span of years or decades, it became far more manageable to control for the negative consequences.

"All good things take time to come into fruition." Ves whispered to himself.

Though Ves did not prefer to rely on such a slow and relatively uncertain method of improvement, he could not come up with any other ideas for the time being.

All he could do was create a new blueprint and embed it into the spiritual design of the Blood Star Mark II.

"As long as the Carmine mech continues to cultivate, it will gradually be able to strengthen itself in a targeted manner!"

Ves thought back on the cultivation method that he had attached to this mech.

He had only made a few superficial changes to the Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra. It primarily focused on strengthening its metal aspect, but also sought to improve the qualities related to blood to a minor degree.

Ves did not feel satisfied with this shallow solution.

"This is not the best fit for a Carmine mech."

A Carmine mech was a lot different from an ordinary living mech. A cultivation method that mainly focused on improving the non-organic qualities of a mech would not be able to realize the full potential of the Blood Star!

"It needs a different cultivation method, one that not only focuses on improving its biotech components, but also reinforces its Blood Pact." Ves concluded.

As much as he got caught up in the latest wave of inspiration, he was unable to solve such a deep and complicated problem.

It took a lot of time and research to develop a comprehensive new cultivation method for his living mechs!

Doing so in the middle of a fabrication run was impossible to Ves. He could only come up with minor alterations to the Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra at most, but that was far from enough to satisfy his demands.

As the upgrade process slowly came to an end, Ves still hadn't managed to produce any further breakthroughs.

His latest ambition may be great, but reality was too cruel.

Ves could only shake his head and shelve this interesting idea for the time being. He had plenty of time to explore this interesting new research direction once he was done with his remaining mech design projects.

Besides, developing an effective and comprehensive cultivation method for Carmine mechs was such a massive leap in progress that it could single-handedly form the basis of the third generation Carmine System.

Ves had yet to complete a single second generation Carmine System!

The Blood Star Mark II was supposed to be the first living mech of its kind to showcase the improvements that he had been working on over the last half year!

Ves needed to spend way more time on testing, verifying, refining and optimizing the implementation of the second generation Carmine System.

It was not proper for him to get ahead of himself and skip past these necessary procedures. The Carmine System was too important for him to compromise his research!

By the end of the sixth day, the Blood Star Mark II finally reached completion.

Gloriana looked disappointed as the upgraded Carmine mech failed to become a masterwork mech.

"You were right, Ves."

The metallic components were all excellently made. Their overall quality was no worse than the quality of the Lionheart!

Just as Ves predicted, what ultimately held the Blood Star Mark II back from undergoing a masterwork transformation was the Carmine System.

If this complication did not exist, then Ves and Gloriana would have been able to receive another masterwork certificate by this time!