The Mech Touch

After waiting for multiple years, Ves finally obtained a new batch of gems.

Was the delay worth it? That was questionable. The quantity of gems left a lot to be desired. The more gems he obtained, the greater his options. In addition, a larger reserve of gems allowed him to transform more high-quality mechs into masterwork mechs.

However, it was clear that Lucky's latest three gems were different from the ones he made before.

The most immediate factor that stood out was not their power but rather their suspected origins.

It did not escape his notice that their descriptions and effects were clearly related to a number of powerful individuals that he had recently encountered.

[King's Authority]

The authority of a fallen sovereign is locked within this gem. Increases the control of all transphasic parts of a mech by 100 percent.

This gem no doubt derived its power from the Phase King.

He found that to be odd because when the Golden Skull Alliance fought against this powerful fish-whale king and his lackeys, Venerable Vincent beat up the ancient exobeast so hard that Ves was able to harvest the Phase King's spirituality in a fairly whole state.

These days, the Phase King was doing pretty well for himself after Ves had converted his defeated opponent into a design spirit.

How was Lucky able to produce this gem, then? Did the cat quietly sucked up the loose bits of spiritual energy that the Phase King had shed upon his death?

Ves scratched his head in confusion.

"Whatever. It's not that important for me to understand what has happened. What I should actually be doing is figuring out how to best leverage this gem."

The System sight only provided him with a single sentence that explained how the gem would affect a mech under its influence. This was barely enough for Ves to figure out what it actually did to a machine.

"The Phase King was one of several powerful fish-whales that the creator of the Purgatory pocket space had brought to life inside a biolab." Ves recalled after a bit of time. "What is impressive about this batch of fish-whale kings was that they lived on long after the disappearance of the phase whale that created them. The Phase King and his brothers must have lived over a million years."

Eons had passed by while the Phase King, the Cerebral King, the Hive King and Fusion King divided Purgatory among themselves and fought intermittent wars against each other.

While each of these four kings likely didn't improve that much over time, they had each accumulated a scary amount of knowledge, experience and skill after experiencing the passage of so many years!

The King's Authority gem only captured a fraction of the Phase King's incredibly wisdom and understanding of phasewater manipulation, but that already encapsulated an immense degree of mastery!

Even 1 percent of the Phase King's understanding of phasewater manipulation was enough to revolutionize the performance of a transphasic mech!

Ves fully understood that the value of this gem was especially great in the early days of the introduction of phasewater technology!

At this time, humanity's understanding and depth of phasewater technology was still shallow. Though many researchers were able to gain a head-start by taking advantage of stolen alien knowledge and technology, they were still far from matching the ability of the likes of the phase whales.

Even if the Phase King was not a genuine phase whale, his incredibly long life allowed the once-powerful creature to develop an extremely impressive intuitive understanding of phasewater and how to bend it to his will!

Perhaps the Phase King's long-term isolation and lack of exposure to how phasewater was being utilized in the Red Ocean meant that the fish-whale king did not develop any advanced techniques, but Ves had no doubt that the sovereign mastered the more basic applications to an extremely powerful extent.

That was what made the gem so valuable to Ves. Humanity's familiarity and exploitation of phasewater technology was still at the level of a child in the eyes of the most powerful native aliens of the Red Ocean.

"With this gem, I can effectively turn a human mech pilot into a fish-whale when it comes to understanding and utilizing phasewater technology. The more transphasic systems the mech possesses, the more value this gem will generate!"

As such, the best mech that this gem should be used on was a machine that was infused with as much phasewater as possible!

The Mars was the most obvious candidate for this gem. It was the most powerful mech in the Golden Skull Alliance and with cutting-edge transphasic products such as the Abasis Armor and the ARCEUS System, it was loaded with enough phasewater to fund the acquisition of an entire fleet!

However, Ves already gave the Mars a gem, which didn't appear to be playing a major role these days now that Patriarch Reginald's overbearing willpower baptism had overridden its effects.

Since Lucky's gems appeared to work in an identical fashion to willpower baptism, Ves had learned that it was largely a waste to employ them in ace mechs or more powerful machines.

"I should put my gems to use in weaker mechs that will remain useful for a long time." Ves concluded.

The best way to utilize the King's Authority gem was to employ it into a fairly powerful mech that integrated a lot of phasewater. It would be best if it was a high-tier expert mech of the same caliber as the initial version of the Mars.

However, the Larkinson Clan had yet to obtain any high-tier expert pilots.

Those that were on track to reach this height in the coming decade or two already piloted powerful expert mechs that already benefited from their own gems.

"None of our new expert mechs are suitable either." Ves shook his head.

He already had plans for the Dullahan Project while the Ghost Project, the Greenaxe Project and the Bloodripper Project were all starter machines prepared for recently advanced expert pilots.

He sighed. "I guess this gem will be collecting a lot of dust."

Ves carefully put the large and glowing blue gem away in his secret pouch.

"Meow…"

At this time, the innocent-looking tiger-striped gem cat responsible for producing the gems had dozed off on a pillow.

"Miaow~"

Nyaaaaa.

Clixie and the Golden Cat both moved over and licked Lucky's cheeks before settling down next to his body.

Though Lucky looked and acted like a cat most of the time, Ves started to comprehend how remarkable he was. From the mechanical creature's dimensional stomach to how he was able to capture remnants from powerful spirits, Ves couldn't imagine how much conventional engineering and spiritual engineering it took to create such an amazing sentient tool!

He began to wonder more and more about the creator of this gem cat. Who created him? What purpose did Lucky serve? Why make him alive?

Whatever the case, Ves was happy that Lucky ended up as his pet. The gem cat provided him with a lot of convenience and crucial assistance whether it was on the battlefield or in the bathroom.

He wouldn't have gotten here if not for Lucky. The gem cat's existence was also the reason that Ves imparted his children with their own little companion spirits.

Though Mana, Yaika and Denny did not possess material bodies and did not come close to matching the capabilities of Lucky, their potential was just as great if not greater!

Ves bestowed these lovely little feline companion spirits to his kids in the hopes that their own versions of Lucky would provide them with just as much help and protection.

Of course, the companion spirits still needed to grow up. Right now, even the oldest of them could do little more than act cute and perform a few minor spiritual tricks.

He turned his attention back to the remaining two gems that his cat had just produced.

The latest batch of gems were larger and more lustrous than the ones he obtained before. They even glowed in the light, which was an indication that whatever they contained was powerful enough to generate energy.

[Jeremiah's Inheritance]

The discipline and pursuit of swordsmanship is captured within this gem. Increases the speed of learning swordsmanship and related skills up to a limit by 200 percent.

The providence and the effect of this glowing silver gem left no ambiguity who it was derived from.

Somehow, Lucky managed to catch enough of a fragment of Saint Jeremiah Gauge to turn it into a source of power for this gem!

A part of Ves was angry at Lucky's gem production system because it choose to express the power of a ace pilot in a different fashion from before.

Unlike the gems that straightforwardly increased the defense or offensive power of a mech by 20 to 40 percent, Jeremiah's Inheritance provided no direct performance boost whatsoever!

Ves would rather obtain a weaker gem that increased the cutting power of a bladed weapon held by a mech by 100 percent or less.

This way, a mech like the Blade Chaser Mark II or the upcoming Greenaxe Project would immediately become a lot more effective in battle!

However, when Ves thought about how he could best exploit this gem, he realized that the value it could generate for the clan may be greater than his other gems!

"This is the most ideal gem for a training mech!"

The more he looked at it, the more his eyes lit up. If he was able to cooperate with Ketis to develop the ultimate training mech oriented towards swordsmanship, then they would be able to give birth to the ultimate swordsmanship tutor!

Each mech pilot that interfaced with this new training mech would essentially improve in a way that made it seem as if they were being tutored by Saint Jeremiah Gauge himself!

"This is an excellent way to train a lot of swordsman mech pilots!" Ves realized.

The Heavensworders would especially go mad for this kind of mech!

No matter what sword style the aspirants practiced, the wisdom and mastery of an ace pilot was so great that a mech that incorporated Jeremiah's Inheritance would always be able to help!

Perhaps Ves could make another mech in the style and function of the Quint but solely dedicated to swordsmanship and swordsman mech pilots!

His eyes shone as he quickly came up with several ambitious plans for this gem. The only question was whether he could persuade Ketis to play along.

He wasn't sure whether Ketis would be willing to make use of Jeremiah's Inheritance. The woman possessed strong principles with regards to swordsmanship and swordsman mechs. Who knew how she would think about exploiting a fragment of an honorable opponent.

Still, even if Ketis refused to lend her services, Ves would never allow this precious gem to remain unused.

"I've already designed training mechs like the Chiron and the War Squire. I can definitely develop a third one oriented towards swordsman mechs if necessary.

Perhaps that might be an even better idea because it would allow Ves to implement unusual ideas that might produce dramatically different results.

There was nothing wrong with traditional swordsmanship, but it was hardly the only kind of swordsmanship in human space.

The mech community mostly utilized a more modern and data-driven approach towards swordsmanship that was rooted in the sciences.

"I'll see what Ketis has to say." Ves decided.

A gem like Jeremiah's Inheritance needed to be used as soon as possible. If Ves hadn't started up the latest design round a short time ago, he would have added a relevant project to the schedule.

"Well, I can wait until I've completed one of my active design projects before adding a new one that is tailored to this gem."

Training mechs were one of his favorite mech types because of how deeply they were intertwined with the concept of growth.

A gem that specifically accelerated learning was like a dream come true to a mech designer like Ves!