The Mech Touch

Ves let out a deep breath as he reached the final page of the black tome that was directly created by a powerful god pilot.

Being able to learn the content of the Hunter's Code by reading from the pages of this sacred book was an incredibly valuable privilege.

Through the remnant will contained within the heavy tome, Ves was able to comprehend a lot of abstruse and complicated theories with remarkable ease.

It was as if a small clone of the Huntsman sat on his shoulders and whispered a lot of secret guidance in his ear!

If Ves wanted to, he could practice the Hunter's Code right away.

Perhaps he might be able to advance his phase lord cultivation by killing and devouring transphasic beasts.

He could even convert a much higher proportion of the extraordinary nutrients into useful gains due to his vastly superior true body!

Ves could easily envision himself growing stronger at an accelerated rate. He had no need to rely on mechs and organic processing machines. His yield would definitely be a hundred times if not a thousand times greater than any other human hunter!

Of course, this was only the case up to a certain point. Once his phasewater concentration had progressed far enough, his true body became so massive that hunting down ordinary prey no longer yielded any significant benefits.

The only way for him to accelerate his body cultivation through the Hunter's Code was to hunt down other phase lords and phase whales!

Fortunately, it was not necessary to stick to the Hunter's Code all the way. There were no traps or penalty clauses that prevented hunters from abandoning it and switching to other cultivation methods.

The only issue that hunter's needed to take into account was that they needed to put a lot of effort into changing habits, their mentalities, their fighting methods and their artistic conceptions.

This was not easy, so there was still an incentive for hunters to stick to the Hunter's Code even if their progress slowed down.

Ves had no intention of practicing the Hunter's Code for that reason.

He never forgot that he was a mech designer first. Even if the Hunter's Code was not too exclusionary, it still imposed standards and beliefs that all hunters must abide by in order to take advantage of its powerful methods.

If Ves chose to practice the Hunter's Code despite all of these risks, he would acquire a lot of baggage that would turn him into a mech designer similar to Ketis.

His former student was still a good mech designer, but her dual status as a swordmaster contaminated all of her work and prevented her from making anything else!

Ves could not tolerate such a change.

The mere implication that he had to treat the Huntsman as his god and superior was enough to make his blood boil!

As Ves finally closed the heavy tome. He learned a lot from studying the Hunter's Code, but it was not a method that was suitable for him to practice.

"Awww. I was still reading that, papa."

"Shush, pumpkin." Ves said as he patted Andraste on the head. "The Hunter's Code is not suitable for any of you. It might hold a lot of promise to people, but each of you have your own ways to achieve greatness. Practicing this method will consume your lives. There are much more suitable ways for you to grow stronger."

After Ves excited the guarded library, he thanked Oscar Tarich for giving him a valuable opportunity to study the Hunter's Code from the best possible source.

"Your reputation as an unconventional expert on matters relating to growth and evolution is becoming increasingly better known." The old man said. "Are you willing to issue any comments about our Hunter's Code? We welcome any feedback, especially from a visitor as accomplished as yourself."

It was not easy for Ves to figure out the correct response.

He could not walk away without saying anything, as that would inevitably make him look arrogant and piss off certain people from the Hunting Association.

He did not think it was wise for him to share his full opinion. Not only was his feedback far too valuable to be given away for free, he might expose certain uncomfortable aspects that the Hunting Association did not want to highlight.

Ves paused for a few more seconds before offering a polite response.

"The Hunter's Code will serve as an invaluable tool to red humanity. Not everyone is suited to take up the lifestyle that it espouses, but the brave men and women who practice it will surely become our greatest sword and shield against all manner of powerful threats. Your hunters may be engaged in hunting down unstable exobeasts for now, but I can foresee that the best of them will one day grow strong enough to hunt down the threats to our civilization. Neither phase whales nor other powerful alien leaders will be able to prey on us without suffering retaliation in return. The roles of hunter and prey can always change depending on the situation."

President Tarich's face bloomed into a hearty grin. "Well said, professor! Your reputation as a mech designer who is gifted with his mouth is also well-deserved! Our Association is pleased to hear your kind words. Hunting is not always seen in high regard, and the sport occasionally attracts less savory characters. However, our Hunting Association is committed to turn the art of killing beasts into a noble endeavor. With the Huntsman himself watching over us from above, we shall never allow any malcontents to impinge on our collective honor. That is our promise!"

Ves truly hoped these hunters would stay true to their original responsibilities. He was not entirely hopeful that they would remain as pure and noble as the Hunting Association desired.

He knew extremely well that power had a corrupting influence. The stronger these hunters became, the more they became addicted to the process of gaining greater power.

Though the Hunter's Code contained several hard and soft safeguards that prevented hunters from committing uncontrolled rampages, who knew whether that would remain the case in the long term.

Ves did not prolong his stay at the branch office of the Hunting Association.

After touring a few more interesting departments, Ves and his children entered a hotel where they could rest and prepare for tomorrow's activities.

"Get ready for bed, kids. I will take each of you on a hunt tomorrow. By the time we come back to Tixe City again, I hope that each of you have caught at least one little prey."

"I can'twait!" Andraste grinned.

"Do we really have to kill those cute animals, papa?"

"Don't let their appearances fool you. They will not hesitate to devour your bodies if they have the ability."

"Meow meow meow."

"See? Even Lucky agrees."

It took a while for Ves to put his excited children to bed.

Once they fell into slumber under the watchful eyes of the cats and the mecher bodyguards, Ves retreated to his own bedroom and fell into thought.

The Hunter's Code was a modern, sophisticated and highly comprehensive cultivation method that was representative of the current level of cultivation mastered by the Red Association.

As an off-shoot of the Five Scrolls Compact, the mechers certainly weren't bad at this kind of stuff!

Ves did not know who was in charge of composing the Hunter's Code, but he vaguely felt that their understanding was on the same level as his mother.

However, there were huge differences in comprehension between high-level cultivators.

His mother possessed a distinct style and approach to cultivation.

The creators of the Hunter's Code held different perspectives and likely derived their knowledge from different legacies.

That has led to the creation of a cultivation method that attempted to accomplish similar results through different means!

In other words, Ves managed to broaden his horizons and learned how certain processes could be accomplished without relying on his mother's solutions.

Ves became especially inspired by the use of rituals to engage in a formal form of contract cultivation.

"It is a brilliant idea to convert the extraordinary resources of a defeated prey into fuel for your own cultivation."

As a mech designer, Ves was not interested in employing this method himself.

He instead thought about whether he could apply this mechanism to his own mech design!

It did not seem practical at first.

Many of his mechs fought on busy and contested battlefields. There was no time for his living mechs to stop and build an elaborate ritual circle before sacrificing their kills to a higher entity.

If the mech pilots waited until the battle was over, then a lot of the valuable energies contained within the carcasses would have already dissipated into the environment!

"Besides, not every adversary is purely organic in nature. What if a mech unit has defeated an alien warship?"

Only a fraction of that gigantic vessel consisted of flesh-and-blood organisms!

The rest was entirely made out of lifeless metal. Ves could not really imagine how these inanimate objects could be converted into cultivation progress.

However, Ves did not think that it was impossible to apply the overall principle in general combat.

The rituals described by the Hunter's Code were elaborate and demanding. They could never conduct while hostilities took place.

The reason why it made sense to demand so much setup was because elaborate and highly meaningful rituals often increased the conversion rate and maximized the yield that could be obtained from a single carcass!

This was extremely suitable for single hunts where it took a lot of time and effort to harvest a powerful prey.

In more traditional battles, the quantity of opponents were far greater, but none of them were strong in terms of body size and other parameters.

"What I need is a fast way to extract whatever valuable energies from their bodies and convert them into instant cultivation gains."

The ritual could be simplified or changed so that it was always active on a living mech.

The role played by the Huntsman needed to be replaced with another entity. His design spirits should be able to undertake the same responsibilities, though they probably wouldn't be as good.

As long as Ves successfully made these adaptations, he would end up with a new application of E-technology that could serve as a permanent upgrade to all of his living mechs!

"It's like an add-on to their existing cultivation methods!"

As long as it worked as intended, both the living mech and potentially the mech pilot would rapidly grow stronger through frequent combat!

This was the inspiration that Ves always sought whenever he traveled to a different location!

It really made a huge amount of sense for his living mechs to actively devour a portion of the strength of their defeated opponents.

The expeditionary fleet had fought against numerous powerful enemies in the past. Whenever their foes got killed in battle, the Larkinsons had never attempted to extract more power from the corpses of the defeated alien soldiers.

This was a massive waste in hindsight!

If his living mechs learned how to absorb whatever power was left in the bodies of their defeated adversaries, then they wouldn't have to wait for an entire century to grow as powerful as the Ouroboros.

They could attain the same magnitude of power in just a couple decades depending on their fighting intensity!

As Ves thought about designing a lot of bloodthirsty mechs, he suddenly sobered up a little.

He suddenly realized that his exposure to the Hunter's Code had slightly shifted his mentality in the direction of his mother.

He did not know whether this was a good or bad development.

As much as the more decent side of himself wanted to refrain from going down the path of slaughter, the more ambitious and greedy side did not want to give up on this approach!

Now that he learned that stuff like this was possible, how could he continue to deprive his living mechs from a means to speed up their growth?

"This is the curse of knowledge!"