The Mech Touch

Before Ves conducted the big test, he first had to conduct a quick test of his current physical properties.

The mechanics behind the spatial folding of his body was weird. In his current state, he only had partial and selective access to the properties of his true body.

Ves had an abnormally strong body for a long time, but he never really made use of it since he was a mech designer.

The last two lightning tribulations had improved this seemingly redundant advantage even further.

Not only did his muscle mass become stronger, but they also became a lot more efficient, remedying many of the lingering flaws and imperfections produced by Dr. Jutland's extremely messy implantations!

However, the greatest and most radical change by far was the introduction of phasewater into his body.

From the moment he gained a smidgen of phasewater in his bloodstream, he had already separated himself from his humanity in a physical manner. His body had taken its first steps to physical transcendence and experienced a profound transformation that enabled it to exist in multiple dimensions where it should normally not exist!

All of this sounded incredibly weird and dangerous. It was essential for a body under these conditions to become a lot tougher and stronger.

From the intelligence collected by the Red Two, developing a strong body was essential to the progression of a phase lord!

This was one of the reasons why puelmer phase lords were practically unheard of. These weird ball-shaped aliens were not weak, but they were not known for their athleticism either.

The native aliens that somehow managed to take their first step on the path of the phase lord immediately had to undergo their first test.

If their bodies were strong enough to withstand the dangers introduced by the presence of phasewater, they would be able to go on and live as phase lords without any immediate concern for their health!

If their bodies were too frail or had weakened too much during the advancement process, then the phasewater introduced in their bloodstream would definitely tear their flesh and bones apart!

Far too many native aliens had perished at this junction.

Edge cases also existed where a native alien managed to become a phase lord, but did not quite become strong enough to resist all of the phasewater fluctuations.

This led to the emergence of tortured phase lords like the Eminence of Torment!

As such, no one in the Red Ocean underestimated the need to develop a strong body!

"We believe that a fit, strong and healthy body is essential to successfully advance into a phase lord." Jovy elaborated from the side as Ves punched a few dummies with his surprisingly crushing fist.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

Though Ves had not reached the point where he could tear apart mechs with his bare hands, he found it quite enjoyable to crush these weaker metal bots as if he was a superhuman soldier!

He had never tested his physical might in such a raw and primitive fashion. After all, why would he? Possessing greater might was absolutely useless in a highly advanced technological society where every heavy exertion could be done with bots and machines.

Possessing too much muscles could even become a detriment to the fine manipulation of manual tools during delicate production processes. That was intolerable for Ves as he needed to maintain high dexterity in order to improve his various crafts.

Nonetheless, he still possessed the same wants and needs as other people. There was something compelling about possessing the ability to crush a person's skull with his raw hands.

It made him feel more fearless as he felt he could easily take care of lesser threats himself!

He was no longer as vulnerable and helpless as before!

Even without a weapon, he could rely on his brute strength to crush his opposition!

What was important at this time was that Ves only exerted a fraction of his current strength. Once he unfolded his body, he was not only able to 'unlock' the full expression of his larger true body, but he could also take advantage of the greater leverage granted by his larger limbs and scale!

After conducting a few more quick tests, Jovy summed up his observations.

"Your raw physical properties are impressive for a human. Only the most radically augmented humans can match and in certain cases exceed your exaggerated strength. I have seen one such case myself in the form of a highly mechanized cyborg soldier. His body was almost completely replaced by high-quality mechanical components. He was like a mech on a human scale. You are more like a biomech in the same vein."

Ves smirked. "I think this comparison will become a little more apt once I unfold my true body. Can I do it now?"

"Please wait a moment. There is a high likelihood that nothing will go wrong, but in the faint chance that the process will get botched. We need to calibrate our rescue measures to save you from the dangers of your own body."

The worries of the mechers were unfounded. Ves possessed a good grasp of his own body and he felt that there was no chance he would stumble and tear his own body in half or whatever.

However, he could understand the caution of the mechers. Any good researcher had to prepare for accidents, no matter how unlikely they may be. It was always better to be safe and sorry.

Once the mechers had completed their adjustments of their excessively thorough safety measures, Ves could finally see how his body truly measured up these days.

"I am starting."

Jovy and all of the other mechers had vacated the testing chambers. They all retreated to the observation areas that were all protected behind solid walls and transphasic energy shields.

Shortly after Ves made the determination to unveil his true body, his presence started to shoot up like a rocket.

The act of revealing his true body was like unsheathing a deadly blade. Ves no longer suppressed his glow anymore, causing him to radiate a powerful sense of life and mechs that was reminiscent of his living mechs!

Anyone who experienced his Living Workshop method would feel familiar with this sensation.

However, Ves did not release this glow because he was ready to fabricate another living mech, but because he wanted to draw out his full form, both physically and spiritually!

The testing chamber seemed to shrink in size from his perspective.

It took a few seconds for him to recognize that it was not his surroundings that were growing smaller, but it was because he was growing bigger with each passing second!

More and more strength filled his body as he mysteriously reversed the complex spatial folding that perfectly and seamlessly stored his extra body mass in other dimensions.

Normally, such a process should have produced a lot of stretching, damage and other unpleasant phenomena, but a phase lord somehow possessed the innate ability to dimensionally fold and unfold their true bodies without any danger!

This was an exquisite design! Ves could not believe that phase lord cultivation was a natural phenomenon. It had to be designed and perfected by ancient body cultivators.

Somehow, it had gotten baked into the Red Ocean to the point where its heavenly authority had embraced it as the common standard in the dwarf galaxy.

Though Ves normally looked down on old and outdated methods, he had to admit that there were good reasons why the methods of a phase lord withstood the test of time.

The shift in perspective started to slow as Ves felt as if his growth in size was nearing its limit.

Fortunately, his body had not grown large enough for his head to hit the high ceiling of the testing chamber.

Just as he expected, he had grown a bit taller than a typical second-class medium mech.

In terms of proportions, his muscular but fairly lean body remained the same, which meant that his dimensions had slightly more in common with light mechs.

However, Ves knew that much of the reason why medium mechs tended to be a bit bulkier was because they were always clad with relatively substantial armor plating.

If Ves chose to don himself in a proportional suit of combat armor, he would probably be able to match the bulk of a medium mech that was on the heftier side!

He could even imitate a humanoid heavy mech if his massive suit of armor was thick enough!

However, it wasn't just his height, mass and perspective that had changed.

From the moment he gained full access to all of the body mass and other organs that had previously been hidden away, Ves experienced a huge wave of euphoria that radically uplifted his mood and caused him to feel excited beyond all reason.

"I'M STRONG!" He spoke in a deeper and much more superhuman tone. "I FEEL AS IF I'M UNSTOPPABLE!"

This was not an exaggeration! All sorts of hormones and other changes affected his brain chemistry, causing him to completely push aside his caution and reticence.

For whatever reason, he not only felt strong enough to challenge a mech in a fistfight, but he also felt a lot more connected and in tune with the surrounding space.

His phasewater organs were all able to exert greater strength, and the phasewater spread throughout his body were no longer locked away or burdened by the need to keep his body folded into different dimensions.

All of this meant that his ability to manipulate space had become much stronger than before!

His spatial perception had multiplied by several times.

He felt as if he could actually bend space to the point where he could generate a weak gravity well.

He could probably teleport a lot further than before.

Though Ves had yet to test these drastic improvements, he instinctively felt as if he was not as weak and restricted as before!

After Ves became a little more acclimated to his new state, he immediately turned to the shielded windows of the nearest control room.

Jovy and all of the other mechers had become surprisingly tiny to Ves.

It would be so easy for Ves to crush their bodies in his palm.

This realization profoundly altered his thinking and his perspective on many matters.

Ves felt as if he had truly become the equivalent of a humanoid mech!

Unlike other humans who needed to enter the cockpit of a larger machine in order to gain this kind of combat power, Ves could completely dispense with that and fight with his true body alone!

He looked down at his own suited body and gained a much greater appreciation of his amazing physical state.

The nanosuit surprisingly managed to cover his body despite getting stretched to an extreme degree.

Though it had grown a lot thinner and less concentrated than before, the advanced suit still did its job of preserving his modesty, though it came at the cost of reducing their defensive properties.

Ves didn't care at all. When his body had grown this large and powerful, he no longer needed to rely on mundane protection to withstand greater damage!

After all, his resilience was not solely based on his exaggerated physical size and mass.

The phasewater reinforcing every part of his physical state also played a huge factor in making him stronger and tougher!

Ves truly had the illusion that he was no worse than a transphasic biomech at the moment!

The only question was whether his strength matched the standards of a third-class, second-class or quasi-first-class biomech.

"GIVE ME A DUMMY! NO, GIVE ME TEN DUMMIES! I NEED TO TEST HOW STRONG I HAVE BECOME!"

From the moment the first mech-scale bot entered the chamber, Ves rocketed forward like a giant on the run and simply shoulder-bashed the large contraption against the wall!

CRUNCH!

Ves' huge momentum was too much for the poor bot. It collided against the transphasic energy shield and deformed as its metal construction simply couldn't withstand all of the impact forces!

That was not enough for the unleashed mech designer. He reached down and tore the limbs from the torso one by one as if he was ripping off the arms and legs off a toy doll!

"HAHAHAHA! TOO WEAK! MORE! I NEED MORE!"