The Mech Touch

The Red Two's recent discloses related to hyper materials generated a lot of discussion and speculation.

The broad community of red humanity still looked up to the Red Association and the Red Fleet, so they accepted the explanation easily enough.

What most people working in the academic and industrial sectors wanted to know was how they could make use of these new hypers to their advantage.

The greater scientific community had been remarkably unrestrained when it came to sharing data and results produced by fundamental research. This enabled much of red humanity to quickly get a basic grip on the mutating materials phenomenon.

However, their generosity quickly came to an end as soon as research delved into the possible applications of any discovered hyper materials!

None of the states, companies or research institutions were stupid. They all recognized that research on how to take advantage of the properties of hypers was the next big trend!

Any useful and actionable knowledge could be used to fulfill goals that were previously unattainable!

For example, a mech company could release a new mech model that utilized a new hyper to increase its acceleration by 50 percent.

Sales of a mech that moved a lot faster than anything else without costing too much more could easily become a new market leader!

A state like Davute that managed to discover an effective method to turn a hyper into a highly destructive warhead could start a war that could quickly overwhelm the defenses of Karlach in a matter of months!

All of these possible scenarios and more drove many people to frantically engage in their own priority research into hypers!

Ves was no different in that sense. An amazing relic weapon such as the Gray Lotus simply couldn't be made without access to a specific sub-classification of hyper materials.

He previously assumed that it was impossible to obtain similar resources unless he paid a lot of Ascension Points to redeem them from the Mech Designer System.

Now that he discovered that exotic radiation changed this equation all of a sudden, he too had become obsessed with this latest trend!

Different from many other people, Ves already possessed a decent understanding of how he could make effective use of certain hypers.

The only constraint was that it would probably take a while for the T Institute to produce the first batch of prime materials.

Ves couldn't wait to ramp up production and get his hands on a lot of cache materials and sympathetic materials!

More specifically, Ves was already thinking about designing a super deluxe variant of the Valkyrie Redeemer.

He already had plans to design a similar upgraded variant for the Penitent Sisters and maybe the Glory Seekers. He wanted it to become a quasi-first-class mech as well as a transphasic mech in order to maximize its combat power.

If he was able to turn it into a prime mech as well with the use of a sympathetic material that paired well with its design spirit, then the upgraded Valkyrie mech would likely be able to reach a whole other level of power!

At the very least, Ves anticipated that such a Valkyrie mech would be able to produce much more powerful battle formation attacks!

He could think of other ways to exploit the support and amplification provided by sympathetic materials that possessed similar properties to Black Demon Steel!

The other mech designers of the Larkinson Clan had already come up with their own possible ideas.

For example, Ketis saw a lot of promise in them. She had been working with Unending alloy swords for years, so she possessed a head-start in this field just like Ves.

"As you know, resonating exotics are commonly used in expert mechs in order to generate true resonance." She explained to him during a collaborative design session centered around the Storm Sword Project. "They can make swordmasters a lot more powerful, but nothing at the level of the Heavensword. Even the best and most luxurious use of resonating exotics can only enable a swordmaster to damage a typical mech. Defense is much more problematic as a sword doesn't offer enough room to produce an effective resonating shield."

The total mass of a typical sword designed to be wielded by humans was only a fraction of that of a full-sized mech!

One of the reasons why expert pilots were so unquestionably strong was because their gigantic mechs could accommodate many kilograms of powerful resonating exotics!

Ves already had an inkling what his former student was getting at. "Are you suggesting that the power imbalance between swordmasters and expert pilots might shrink with the introduction of hypers?"

The woman looked a bit uncertain. "I am not completely sure. The Heavensword Association's past records describe legendary weapons that can enable its wielder to amplify all techniques by borrowing 'the power of heaven and earth'. From what we have been able to deduce, this means that the swords of the past were able to derive a massive boost from E energy radiation. There are tales that the Heavensworders previously considered to be fantasies, but are now seen as a lot more realistic. The right swords can enable swordmasters to fly through space and chop entire starships in half."

"What, really?!"

Although Ves had a lot of expectations towards hyper materials, that did not necessarily mean that he believed that he could buy into the assumption that a warrior like Ketis was able to chop a starship like the Spirit of Bentheim in half by herself!

"I think we should not dismiss these possibilities too quickly, Ves. I believe it is possible to recreate these feats as long as I can get my hands on the right hyper materials. The descriptions of swords at the time suggest that swordmasters don't necessarily rely on their own strength anymore. Their willpower instead allows them to take over the energy within a certain range and use that to execute all sorts of amazing techniques. It is similar to leveraging the Saint Kingdom of an ace mech, except the domain field is no longer a pure expression of the ace pilot's astounding willpower."

Ves couldn't help but nod when he heard that. Her descriptions fell in line with his own theories.

It was difficult to estimate how powerful a swordmaster could become. There were too many variables at play.

The point that Ketis was trying to make was that the upper limit could be incredibly high!

"I'm aware that swordmasters cannot necessarily catch up to expert pilots because expert mechs can also take advantage of hyper materials." Ketis said in a more subdued tone. "It may even be the case that the differences in power will grow even more. A mech can easily fit a lot more hyper materials than a sword. As long as the expert pilot's willpower is strong enough to effectively resonate or take advantage of a large quantity of hyper materials, his expert mech may be able to become strong enough to match the power of an ace mech."

That actually sounded like an incredibly realistic possibility!

"As long as we have enough hyper materials in our possession, we can indeed increase the combat effectiveness of all of our expert mechs to ludicrous heights, but there are still a few caveats." Ves stated. "Ace mechs won't stay at the same power level either. They will also go through a ridiculous amplification of power once they begin to incorporate hypers as well. They might not be able to match the ridiculous combat power of today's god mechs, but they should be able to come awfully close."

This meant that the difference in power between an expert mech and an ace mech would not shrink at all. The opposite would happen instead. Ace mechs would become so domineering that they should easily be able to crush expert mechs like stepping on ants!

"What else is on your mind, Ves?"

"From what I can observe, many hyper materials are powerful because they can enable their users to leverage a lot of the ambient spiritual energy in the environment." He said. "What if it disappears? What if there is nothing left in the surroundings for hypers to act upon? Any swordmaster who is fighting in space by relying on a sword alone will not only lose the capital to participate in a serious battle, but also lose the ability to maneuver effectively in a vacuum!"

"Is it even possible to do that?" Ketis skeptically asked. "Aside from the phase whales teleporting you to an entirely different galaxy, I don't think you can repel spiritual energy from an area to the extent of creating an energy vacuum. The Red Two have clearly stated that E energy radiation cannot be blocked or hindered by anything. The densest exotics and the most powerful transphasic energy shields have completely failed to keep it out. Maybe god mechs can do this due to their absolute control over their God Kingdoms, but they aren't exactly common in this dwarf galaxy."

She was right for the most part. Trying to keep ambient spiritual energy away from a massive battlefield was as difficult as trying to obtain an accurate count of all of the grains of sand on a terrestrial planet.

Ketis did not possess as much information as Ves, though. Even she probably wasn't aware of Blinky's amazing future potential now that he had started to cultivate the Imaginary Universe Method.

So long as Blinky became a True God or close enough to one, Ves believed that his companion spirit should easily be able to deprive a part of a battlefield of all ambient spiritual energy!

By that time, all mechs and starships in the affected area would immediately degenerate back to their pre-Age of Dawn power levels!

Ves had an entirely insightful discussion with Ketis. Both of them could be regarded as partial inheritors of separate but related cultivation inheritances.

While Ves possessed a vastly greater knowledge base on general cultivation sciences, Ketis mastered willpower cultivation to a much greater extent!

Not only that, Ketis also happened to know a bit about forging swords with hyper materials that could produce highly effective amplification for swordmasters!

"If you can supply enough hypers to me, I can use that to forge much more powerful bladed weapons for all of our expert mechs." Ketis offered. "Just think about it, Ves. The Dark Zephyr, the Everchanger, the Blade Chaser Mark II and the Phobos will all be able to fight with their new blades as if they have the power of a small battle formation at their disposal!"

Even Ves began to look forward to making that happen after Ketis had given her pitch!

"I will try my best to give you what you need." He promised to her. "Compared to our other mech designers such as my wife, it sounds like you already have a clear idea on how to take advantage of hyper materials. I am still working on obtaining enough quantities of them, so I advise you to be patient. You can play around with the Unending alloy swords in the meantime."

Ketis had already been doing that, but she did not manage to accomplish much aside from helping Venerable Dise develop slightly more effective sword techniques.

Cache materials such as Unending alloy were much more neutral compared to sympathetic materials. This was an advantage as they were incredibly versatile and could be used in many different applications.

The downside was that their lack of bias and inclinations made it a lot more difficult to produce strong results. The struggles of Ketis and the expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan proved that not all hyper materials were easy to work with. It might take months or years of focused research to produce actionable results.

Ves expected that it would probably take a few weeks or months before he could get his hands on newly formed hyper materials that had just completed their transformations.

What he did not expect was that he would get a call from Director Pesca Aduc not long afterwards.

"Sir? Our researchers have just discovered a batch of ore that has reached saturation after being subjected to the Everchanger's glow."