The Mech Touch

Ves had two choices to make when it came to redeeming his radiant lottery ticket.

Should he continue to aim for an enlightenment fruit related to space, or should he set his sights on a different target instead?

For example, the five elements sounded a lot more attractive to him than before. No matter whether he gained knowledge related to a single classical element or all of them at once, Ves would always have the confidence to translate what he learned into substantial short-term gains!

He thoughtfully rubbed his hairless chin. "My main elemental focus is currently centered around water, so it is better to dive deeper into this element for the time being."

Though he knew better than to blindly believe everything his mother told him, he believed she was right on this aspect.

Trying to learn all five elements at the same time was an inefficient approach. It might allow him to adapt a lot of shallow but useful applications, but he would ultimately gain little that others hadn't already figured out through their own research efforts.

What Ves needed the most was to delve deeper into the water element.

On the premise that the System was not able to further his understanding of the space attribute, the water element was a much more suitable target.

Not only did it have a special relationship with phasewater, it was also fairly obscure among mech designers.

The only ones that could possibly develop a comprehension towards the water element were biomech designers.

Everyone else primarily strengthened their comprehension of metal and maybe fire or earth.

If Ves made enough progress in drawing out the potential of the water element, he was confident that he could develop much more powerful design applications in a short amount of time!

"Aside from that, the water element can also help me deepen my control over my true body."

This would hopefully enable him to fulfill multiple goals at the same time.

"It all depends on what I can gain out of my radiant lottery ticket."

No matter what he tried to aim for, the essence of a lottery ticket was based on random chance. He could get a reward that exceeded his goal, but he could also easily get an irrelevant prize that was not helpful in the slightest!

"Well, enough delays. It is time to make use of my ticket."

Ves had gained enough of an understanding of what he could or could not obtain from an enlightenment fruit.

Once he moved down to the Wishing Fountain, he held a multi-colored ticket in his hand.

Ves took a deep breath as he thought on what he should do to increase his chances.

"Should I unfold my true body?"

Perhaps that might influence the prize pool. By strengthening his affinity to space at the expense of weakening his connection to all of the other attributes, the Wishing Fountain may decide it was more suitable to add more prizes related to his dominant attribute!

Of course, this was pure speculation. It might make no difference at all. He was not willing to bet on the small chance that he could gain a useful enlightenment fruit that contained serious knowledge related to the manipulation of space.

"I might have to wait until I can earn a more precious lottery ticket."

He took a few moments to concentrate his mind and reaffirm his primary goal.

"In you go." He said as he tossed the ticket into the fountain.

Just like the previous times he utilized a radiant lottery ticket, the Wishing Fountain began to glow in multiple colors.

The water turned into a rainbow spectacle while a huge amount of energy started to brew underneath the surface.

As the Wishing Fountain continued to grow more active, Ves focused as hard as he could on wishing for an enlightenment fruit that was deeply related to the water element!

"Water. Water. Water." He repeated the same word over and over as if he was reciting a mantra.

Soon enough, a tiny golden boat rose to the surface!

Compared to previous fountain manifestations, the boat looked incredibly underwhelming due to its tiny size.

Despite the fact that it looked small enough to serve as a toy for his kids whenever they took a bath, the construction and detail of the waterfaring vessel was exquisite!

It might not be a masterwork, but there was so much care for details that its design must certainly be seaworthy if it was built at full scale.

Ves briefly wondered what he was supposed to do with this little boat.

He did not have to puzzle over this issue for too long because the Wishing Fountain soon produced a second reaction.

Over a hundred tiny rods extended from the decorative water resevoir.

Chromatic water lapped against these rods as they continued to extend from the water as if the Wishing Fountain was in the process of spawning a needle bed.

A third change occurred once the rods stopped and began to unfurl unique flags.

The design of all of these flags instantly attracted his attention. They came in all kinds of colors, and they all depicted different symbols.

For example, one of the tiny flags was purple and displayed an active plasma saber.

Another flag that attracted his interest was a blue one that displayed a wicked shark.

There were around a hundred flags like this spread across the fountain pool.

Ves soon figured out that he was supposed to guide the boat towards the desired flags.

However, this was not as simple as it looked. The more valuable prizes were probably situated on the other side of the fountain. The tiny golden boat had to weave its way around a lot of other flag poles in order to reach the other side.

Another complication was that the water surface wasn't calm. Instead, the multi-colored water had become more and more active. Ves could spot the buildup of tides and possibly other complications. This meant that there was a risk that the boat might sail off-course and hit a flagpole that was not his target.

"How do I control this little vessel?"

He first stepped closer and attempted to reach out with his hand.

An invisible barrier stopped his limb from moving any closer.

"I thought so." Ves did not look particularly surprised.

He conducted a few experiments and became surprised when he found out what he needed to do to get the boat moving.

It turned out that he needed to manipulate the water element around the boat to navigate across the pool of water.

This was a challenge and a test. The greatest rewards required him to stand in place and to extend his control over the water element in the fountain pool.

It was difficult to apply enough power to move the boat but still maintain enough control over its trajectory.

The more the boat moved away from his position, the harder it became to exert fine control over the water-attributed E energy surrounding the boat.

If he wanted to prevent the boat from drifting off-course, then he had to possess a good understanding and feel of the behavior of water under these choppy conditions.

All in all, if Ves wanted to earn the best possible prizes that might possibly be related to the water element, then he had to prove his worthiness in front of the Wishing Fountain!

"This is the strangest lottery draw yet." Ves frowned.

On the one hand, he felt a bit encouraged by this strange display. This was the most direct response yet that indicated that the Wishing Fountain was responsive to his wishes.

On the other hand, he felt that the lottery draws were leaning more towards determining the outcome through skill rather than luck.

Perhaps the Wishing Fountain was responding to his desire to control his own destiny. The current arrangement clearly made it so that Ves would only have himself to blame if he failed to lead the boat to the desired destination.

Since Ves did not have to start right away, he took the time to observe and analyze each and every flag.

Even if the flags were unable to convey precise enough clues, Ves was still able to guess what sort of prizes they contained.

The icons depicted on the flags grew slightly more complicated at the far side of the fountain pool.

By determining which flags interested him more than others, he was able to construct multiple routes that could guarantee a satisfactory outcome even if his boat drifted off-course.

He could not guarantee whether his fine control over the water element was good enough to prevent accidents from occuring. If the golden boat bumped into a flag too soon, he at least wanted to ensure that it was relevant to his current interests.

It was only when he studied the dozen or so flags at the end that he put more thought in their meaning.

The most attractive flag depicted a sea dragon in a dark expanse of stars. The detail of this sea dragon was so much more realistic and lifelike that it attracted him like a moth to flame!

All of the other flags at the far side simply couldn't not compare in his opinion. The fact that it was located in the most distant position was not a coincidence!

Just to be sure, Ves also took the time to designate a few nearby 'consolation prizes' if his boat ended up just short of reaching its goal.

"I'm ready."

One of the annoying restrictions of this test was that he was not allowed to rely on Blinky or his design spirits.

He was only allowed to control the water element from his actual self. This made the test a lot more difficult because his companion spirit was so much better at manipulating spiritual energy!

"Let's see how far I've come."

Ves began to stir the multi-colored waters with his mind. He tried to harmonize with a part of the power of heaven and slowly managed to create gentle waves that pushed the boat along.

Of course, the choppy waters also produced many other waves, so the boat constantly tried to escape his control.

Fortunately, his control over the water element was both stable and strong so far. The boat readily obeyed his directives and always kept its distance from the nearest and most low-value flags.

It was not until the boat drifted further and further away from him that he started to struggle.

Ves was not able to exert precise control anymore.

If he tried to push too softly, then the boat hardly changed its course.

If he tried to push too hard, then the boat might overshoot and completely deviate from its intended route!

Ves started to experience greater and greater strain as he worked surprisingly hard to retain stable control over the increasingly more distant water energies.

"Ah, go back!"

He had accidentally pushed too hard when the boat was only a third of the way across. This not only caused the boat to move away from one of the ideal routes, but also came close to bumping into a green flag that depicted a decaying tree branch!

Ves tried to push the water energies hard on the other side. This prevented the boat from bumping into the wrong flag, but also caused it to follow a completely different trajectory that was not close to any of his consolation prizes!

"Damn, I'm screwed if I make another mistake."

Instead of blindly going forward, Ves tried to manipulate the water energies so that the boat slowly started to approach the center again.

However, a strong wave caused the boat to drift out of his control yet again!

Though Ves responded quickly, he had exerted too much power yet again, causing the boat to change course and move uncontrollably to an orange flag that was located somewhere at the halfway point!

Though Ves tried to prevent the boat from crashing into this flag, the distance and the resistance from the fountain water hinder his attempt!

In the end, his control over water energy simply wasn't good enough. Ves already knew that he had failed this test when the golden boat directly crashed onto the pole with the orange flag.

"Damn!"

This was not one of the consolation prizes that he had designated!

The orange flag was not only in an odd color, but also depicted a musical instrument in the form of a transverse flute!