The Mech Touch

Chapter 6727 Contrasting Conditions

The visit to the Devos Ancient Clan's secret facility yielded a lot of gains to Ves.

He left the research site with a satisfied expression. His Terran collaborators were practically doing most of the necessary research on his behalf without requiring any handholding from him. The Devosans had many capable researchers in their employ that provided a massive amount of assistance to the design team.

Ves and Master Devos mutually agreed that it would be better if Ves took a step back and took on a more supervisory role for the Arboreal Project.

Though Ves had conceived of the idea of a Woodsap mech, he did not have the time to babysit the project every day.

It was not that difficult for him to decide to restrain himself and allow the Terrans to settle stuff by themselves.

It was a matter of prioritization. Ves had other projects on his agenda that deserved his time as well. They would pretty much get stalled or slow down to an unaccepted degree if he did not contribute them on a regular and frequent basis.

This time, Ves was able to let go because his Terran collaborators sounded and behaved as if they had a much greater stake in the success of the project!

Ves had come to know and befriend Master Laila Rebecca Devos for a few years now. The two might not be as close as each other as his relationship with Master Moira Willix, but he trusted the Terran Master Mech Designer to do the Arboreal Project. justice.

The two had already discussed their joint vision and overall research direction for the design project in advance. Ves had put in his own demands, and as long as Master Laila made sure to respect them, then he did not feel the need to micromanage the mech design project.

Of course, he could not remain completely hands-off either. He still needed to put in the minimum amount of work to make the Arborcal Project come to life. He had to make sure to maintain enough ownership in the mech design in order to provide the necessary building blocks to enable the formation of a Carmine mech that excelled at interacting with the wood element.

That was not a big deal to Ves and Master Laila. Both had lots of experience with working on collaborative mech designs. They knew what to do in order to forestall common problems and ensure the project progressed on schedule more or less. Since the Arboreal Project was a bit more radical and innovative than usual mech designs, both Ves and Master Laila added a buffer in order to account for extra delays. Even then, Ves expected the work to be done within half a year!

"It's really nice to design a mech with such an immense first-class support structure. When will my Larkinson Clan be able to provide this level of R&D and infrastructural assistance?"

It would take too long, especially given how Ves chose to develop his clan.

He repeatedly rejected development strategies that could have enabled the Larkinson Clan to expand several times faster. Founding a colony on a planet and building up multiple industrialized settlements was a great way to expand the membership rolls! "It's also a great way to dilute my clan and make me lose control over it." He muttered under his breath.

"Meow?"

"Oh, it's nothing" He responded to his gem cat. "So what did you think about the progress the Terrans have made on the first Woodsap mech design?"

Lucky looked thoughtful as he cutely rested on Ves' lap. His tail lazily swished back and forth as he looked as if he was reflecting deeply on what he saw.

"Meow..."

Ves rolled his eyes. "It figures that you would think that. Just because the vast majority of mechs are made out of refined metals doesn't mean that it is the only valid choice. Biomechs are perfectly valid machines as well. They are just a little bit more troublesome to produce and maintain. Mech designers must justify their existence in order to make them worthwhile. I think the Arboreal Project more than satisfies this demand."

The special properties of TE Wood and the insanely promising synergies with Gaia Trees were more than enough to make his first proper Woodsap mech a lot more effective than nearly any other first-class hero mech model!

Of course, it was not easy to realize all of this potential. The Terrans definitely had to do a lot of heavy lifting in order to figure out how to mass produce TE Wood and how to utilize it as effectively as possible in a Woodsap mech.

There were also many challenges concerning the special implementation of the Carmine System.

Ves had gained a bit more insight in the nature of Blood Pacts as well as Life Sword

Pacts.

Blood was a very convenient medium to connect a Carmine mech and mech pilot together, but it was hardly the only valid choice.

The advantages of using blood to bind the two parties together was that it was easy, more controllable and least prone to accidents despite pumping a lot of artificial blood into the Carmine mech pilot's body.

The disadvantages was that the basic version of the Carmine System was clunky and

not very functional. It occupied valuable real estate in the internal architecture that could have been used to make the mech a little stronger in many different areas. Blood also had its limits in terms of data and energy transmission.

Ves just had to look at the explosive example of the Dominion of Man to witness how much the first Carmine dreadnought in existence raised her upper boundaries after getting juiced up with so much fire energy!

Of course, this was a special case that could not easily be reproduced with mechs.

The example set by Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger served as a more representative case. The two primarily managed to form a Blood Pact by using life-attributed energy as the connecting medium.

Ves had already examined this variation of the Blood Pact by remote. He felt that it should be easy enough to produce similar outcomes with his Woodsap mechs by using wood energy, which was not all that different from life energy.

The only problem was that Venerable Joshua was already a high-tier expert pilot that extensively developed his affinity for life after piloting living mechs and the

Everchanger specifically for many years.

The Carmine mech pilots that the Devosans were prepping for the Arboreal Project

did not possess such qualifications.

"Luckily, this problem isn't as insurmountable as before."

The Red Collective had released a bunch of auxiliary qi cultivation methods that enabled mech pilots as well as Carmine mech pilots to develop a basic affinity for a

specific E energy attribute.

The Devosans already looked into requiring their future Carmine mech pilots to practice the auxiliary qi cultivation method that enabled them to develop a closer affinity for wood.

In fact, the Terrans employed large amounts of cultivation scientists themselves. Master Laila had already shared to Ves that they would attempt to develop their own auxiliary qi cultivation method that should enable the Carmine mech pilots to raise all of the useful criteria that could allow them to make better use of Woodsap mechs. The rising trend of systematic cultivation had not replaced mech piloting as many mech insiders had feared.

Instead, the many benefits introduced by systematic cultivation ended up complementing mech pilots!

If cultivation remained taboo like before, then Ves and the Devosans would have very little choice but to resort to much more dangerous and invasive alternatives. For example, when Ves initially came up with the concept of Elemental Carmine mechs, he assumed that every Carmine mech pilot that wanted to pilot these powerful

machines had to transform their bodies and replace their blood with an alternative substance that was laced with fire, water, earth, wood or metal hyper particles! Such transformations were highly invasive and doubtlessly produced a lot of undesirable side effects.

Ves found it troubling to a candidate to

his humanity for an opportunity to pilot

a stronger and more special Elemental Carmine mech.

Fortunately, the rise of the Red Collective had thoroughly reformed red humanity's

stance towards systematic cultivation. The RC completely tore down the taboo towards this previously controversial subject and modernized it so that it turned into an upright scientific discipline!

As his armored shuttle returned to Diandi Base, Ves kept thinking about the many relationships that connected the Woodsap mechs, the Carmine mech pilots, Gaia and systematic cultivation together.

Each of them were fairly strong by themselves, but they could produce vastly superior results by combining their strengths!

"Is this what I should think about when designing the other four Elemental Carmine

mechs?"

The Arboreal Project was not the only Elemental Carmine mech design that Ves wanted to work on in the foreseeable future.

He had also made a promise to the Hunting Association to design a so-called Mergewater mech for them. The Hunters didn't seem to be in as much of a hurry as the Terrans, so the preparations for this initiative had not progressed as much.

That should change in the near future. Demand for Carmine mechs was universal among humans.

Hunters were humans as well.

There were plenty of exobeasts and mutated beasts in the wild that Hunters loved to

hunt, but could not do so because their infantry-grade armaments simply couldn't inflict enough damage to save them from getting trampled by their angry prey!

Ves had already received reports about a number of Ilunters adopting the Yellow

Jackets.

The reason why their adoption rate was not higher was because the Yellow Jacket model was not a suitable mech for hunting.

Mergewater mechs promised to be completely different. Not only would he design it to excel in hunting down powerful exobeasts, but they would also grant Hunters a war machine that could grow by assimilating the remains of their organic focs!

To Ves, Mergewater mechs combined the strengths of the Evolution Witch and the Huntsman in a single mech model.

This comparison alone should be enough to persuade a lot of Hunters into trying out

his Mergewater mechs!

"It will take more time, though." Ves frowned.

He had a good feeling that he wouldn't be able to entrust the design of his first

Mergewater mech from any of the mech designers affiliated with the Hunting

Association.

Ves might have to take the lead on this project and figure out all of the complicated mechanisms that made his Mergewater mechs so promising.

"That will squeeze my time even further."

He was glad that he was not short of interesting and meaningful work, but he felt as if

he hardly enjoyed any free time anymore.

As Ves wondered how he could optimize his work schedule, he just received an

important notification.

"The detachment from the expeditionary fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance has just entered the New Constantinople System. Saint Davia Stark, the Amaranto Mark III and the remains of the Riot Mark III will soon arrive at Diandi Base."

Ves set aside all of his thoughts and prepared for the arrival of the ace pilot and

mechs. When a large transport touched down on a designated landing zone, the main hatch slowly slid open to reveal two completely different machines.

The Amaranto Mark III virtually suffered no damage during the last battle and looked

more resplendent than ever.

Now that Saint Davia Stark had broken through, she could finally pull her weight and pilot her supremely powerful ace marksman mech to the fullest!

In contrast, the Riot Mark III or what was left of him was in complete shambles, Limbs

had been severed. The torso section was almost severed in half. Melted and deformed

plating and structural components dominated the front side.

Yet despite ejecting his cockpit and suffering catastrophic damage on a level that would cause most people to dismiss any thought about restoring an old wreck when it

was easier to build a new machine from scratch, the Riot. Mark II stubbornly managed to cling to life!

His spiritual foundation had suffered severe damage, but as long as he was not outright dead, he could still be saved as far as Ves was concerned!