The Mech Touch

5925 Getting Closer to the Truth

It took hours of meetings and discussions for Ves to broadly summarize what he had done while he stayed aboard the Dominion of Man.

There was no way that Ves could freely discuss extremely sensitive matters relating the truth about the Spark Reactor.

However, Ves was free to speak broadly about the emergence of both Caramond and Furia as humanity's latest ancestral spirits.

He just had to refrain from mentioning that Furia was originally a Fire Elemental that held the repressed consciousness of the original creator of the Fire Scroll!

Ves actually found it quite frustrating how much fun stuff he was forced to leave out of his story.

For example, there was no way the mechers would be able to maintain their composure if they learned that the Brain Trust was made out of a lot of brains with A-grade genetic aptitudes!

Despite the fact that there were a lot of glaring holes in his retelling of events, there were still plenty of details that occupied the attention of his audience.

There were also pieces of information that Ves obliged to disclose.

"So you went ahead and turned the Dominion of Man into a 'Carmine dreadnought'." Jovy flatly said. "This is… disappointing. You violated the terms of one of our agreements. The Carmine System is designated as restricted technology. It is far from ready to be rolled out to the public. Now that you have exposed its existence to the fleeters of all people, it becomes much more difficult to control the narrative."

Though Ves felt genuine remorse for breaking the trust of the mechers, he ultimately convinced himself that it was for a good cause.

He deliberately went through with his ambitious plan without disclosing all of the details to the mechers in advance. Now he had to pay the price for his rash decision.

Fortunately, the benefits of a successful outcome were so massive that it would be hard for the Red Association to blame his unilateral actions!

"You should be grateful that your plan ultimately succeeded." Vector Loban said. "I think the Survivalists are more inclined to forgive your transgressions, but the Evolution Witch may not be so forgiving. If I was in your place, I would put more thought on how to placate her the next time you correspond with Her Holiness."

Though Ves felt a bit more nervous about attracting the ire of the Evolution Witch, he did not harbor that much fear towards the leader of the Transhumanist Faction.

He already learned through Veronica that his mother had already begun to cooperate extensively with the Evolution Witch in secret.

So long as his mother and the Evolution Witch remained dependent on each other, it was nearly impossible for the latter to have a falling out with Ves.

In other words, Ves could get away with a lot more than usual!

"I think the Evolution Witch won't remain upset once she learns about the advancements I have made in relation to the Carmine System." Ves grinned. "Trying to apply it to a dreadnought of all possibilities has allowed me to make a lot of new discoveries. I even managed to come up with an innovation that is so powerful that it has the potential to change the entire game."

The discussion continued on for several hours as Ves tried to sate the curiosity of his friends while revealing as little information as possible.

He simply wasn't allowed to share much of what he had learned during his life-changing visit to the Dominion of Man.

He had to wait until he came into contact with a Star Designer or god pilot before he could divulge more sensitive details to the Red Association.

The leaders of the Red Association likely received a report from the Red Fleet already. The incident had too many repercussions. The entire status quo had changed as soon as the first 'god ship' successfully came into existence!

Fortunately, the tier 1 galactic citizens became so preoccupied that none of them reached to Ves for the time being.

This allowed Ves to finally retire to his stateroom and prepare to end his long and exceedingly exhausting day.

"I really want to put all of this excitement behind me and go back to my family." He said as he loosened his uniform collar and sank into a couch.

"Meooow~"

Lucky floated over and started to sniff all around his body. The darkened gem cat did not give up on his quest to find the exceedingly precious metal that Ves had managed to obtain from the Red Fleet.

The cat's silly behavior reinforced the perceived value of EE-343F-00334R. Lucky did not want to leave Ves alone until he had a bite of this precious substance!

"Okay, okay. I won't tease you any longer. Give me a moment to prepare a portion."

A few seconds passed before a small chunk of EE-343F-00334R appeared on his palm.

Ves had carved out precisely 300 grams from the alloy bar.

"MEOW!"

A dark flash zipped towards the chunk of alloy and engulfed it in the blink of an eye!

"Hey, be careful about that! Its potency is much higher than your regular diet!"

The cat quickly discovered this for himself as his dark-plated body began to shake.

"Meow… meow… meeeeoow!"

Lucky squirmed and shook in the air as if he had eaten a mouthful of spicy peppers!

Though Ves had a lot of confidence in Lucky's digestion capabilities, he still remained on alert to see whether his gem cat was able to contain his latest meal.

It turned out that feeding him with a portion of 300 grams at once had been a mistake.

"Meoow… meoooow…. Meooow…"

Ves relaxed when several minutes passed by without any further signs of deterioration.

Lucky may be in considerable pain for the time being, but the cat would probably bounce back pretty quickly once he managed to absorb his luxurious meal.

"Okay, I think you'll be alright for the time being. That will give me time to settle one important matter."

Ves traditionally visited the bathroom to do his System business, but he was so tired that he no longer bothered with that step this time.

He returned to the System Space with a single thought and returned to the mountain top.

Ves first visited the Vault of Eternity and carefully utilized a tool to slice away 2.353 kilograms of EE-343F-00334R.

This left him with a sizable reserve that he could save up for other purposes. Ves had yet to make up his mind on whether he wanted to feed the remainder to Lucky or figure out a different application for it. He needed to conduct a lot more studies on the materials before he was ready to plan out a proper strategy.

There was no need for him to wait that long in order to complete a Supply Mission.

The only reason why he held off on submitting the right quantity of EE-343F-00334R to the Mech Designer System right away was because he wanted to check up on a few matters.

He first climbed all the way up to the Sacred Temple and checked up on his Status as well as his Divine Cores.

The latest tribulation had led to drastic improvements of most of his Attributes.

Ves could still feel that his body was continuing to adjust to his new condition, so the numbers were still subject to change.

When Ves inspected the Divine Cores that represented himself and Vulcan, he grew more concerned about his current state.

The Iron Resonant Crucifix Crown continued to stick to Vulcan's Divine Core like a barnacle.

While Vulcan definitely took advantage of the powerful symbol of authority to speed up his cultivation, it was not quite clear how much this nasty artifact influenced the incarnation's thought process.

Ves had always remained confident his clean perspective would prevent Vulcan from descending into madness.

That confidence had dropped as soon as he inspected the current state of his Divine Core.

The strange manifestation that Ves had taken to calling the Hand of Creation had changed considerably after his embrace of the darkness element.

Life and mechs still played an essential part of his work, but now they needed to share space with darkness.

Ves grew relieved that his newly acquired affinity and comprehension for darkness merged seamlessly into his Spirituality. There were no signs of incompatibility or conflict.

Not all was well, however.

The Hand of Creation no longer looked as pure and pristine as before!

A small spot of tarnished green had burrowed its way into the Divine Core!

"Ugh."

The only consolation to Ves was that the soul mark remained dormant. It did not seem to exert any active influence or damage to his Divine Core.

That did not reassure him. The less energy the soul mark spent on messing with him, the more energy it devoted to rooting itself into his Spirituality!

It would be a nightmare to erase it! His only hope was to strengthen his darkness manipulation abilities to the point where he could leverage the murky properties of this E energy attribute to dampen or suppress the soul mark.

Ves believed that since the Subjugation King partially drew strength from light, his soul mark should ultimately be vulnerable to darkness.

This was just a theory, though. He had no proof that it could actually make a difference.

"Whatever."

There was nothing he could do about the soul mark, so he simply decided to leave it alone.

Once he exited the Sacred Hearth, he looked up at the pale blue skies. A lot of thoughts flowed through his mind.

"Alright. Let's get this over with." He muttered.

[Supply Mission]

Mission: Material Supply 2

Difficulty: S-Rank

Prerequisites: Advance to Journeyman Mech Designer

Description

The Mech Designer System needs to be supplied with several rare materials to facilitate future upgrades.

This Supply Mission can be completed by offering 2.353 kilograms of EE-343F-00334R.

Reward: 1 use of the Inventorize ability, 10 golden lottery tickets.

The nominal rewards for completing this Supply Mission were trivial to Ves these days.

What he truly valued was what kind of major upgrade the submission would initiate.

Ves recalled that when he submitted the Timpala Steel, the System presented him with 7 different upgrade tracks, each of which promised vastly different benefits.

He wondered whether he would gain access to the same upgrade tracks, or be presented with an entirely new set of choices based on the properties of EE-343F-00334R.

Perhaps the material was so limited in use that the System upgraded itself directly without asking for his input.

"System. I know you're listening. Stop with the silent treatment. I think I deserve a few answers from you now that I am on the verge of completing another S-Rank Mission."

[Please present your query.]

Ves curled his lips upwards. "First, please tell me how long it will take to complete your transformation once I submit this special alloy."

[The Mech Designer System Version 2.0 will remain indisposed for approximately 5 to 21 days.]

"Wait what?! How come it's so much faster than before?! Is EE-343F-00334R much less powerful than Timpala Steel?!"

[That is not necessarily the case, user. The Mech Designer System Version 2.0 is much less fragile and more structurally complete than its previous iteration. The foundation is already repaired. Any subsequent upgrades will be built on top of the new structure.]

"Okay. I can accept that. Will you give me a choice on how the Mech Designer System will be upgraded next?"

[You will be presented with a limited selection of upgrade tracks. They will not be as diverse as the previous selection as they are built on top of the structure shaped by Upgrade Track #3: Spiritual Ascension.]

"I see. Why give me a choice, anyway?"

[The Mech Designer System is created to accommodate the demands of its users. It does not follow a predetermined upgrade track because it will not necessarily serve its users as optimally as it should.]

That caused Ves to think about who shaped the Metal Scroll fragment into the Mech Designer System in the first place.

Who created the System?

What was its purpose?

Why did it end up in his hands?

All of these questions and more had always plagued him. With the information he accumulated over the years, Ves was no longer as clueless as before.

Though he lacked a lot of solid answers, he believed he may have finally pieced together enough clues to come up with a theory that he was confident about!

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