The Mech Touch

The jubilation he felt at obtaining a huge amount of newly-discovered Unending alloy didn't last long. After he picked up Lucky and left the shrine, Ves visited a vault that presumably stored the Grand Protector's most valuable possessions.

The old man collected a lot of trophies and interesting materials over the years. Much of the random scraps of medium and high-grade exotics could be used to build higher-performing mechs, though their low individual quantities made it difficult to do so. If nothing else, Ves could trade them for other strategic materials that weren't easily available.

Yet of all of the valuables contained in the small vault, Ves hadn't seen hide or hair of any B-stones!

"Where did the Grand Protector store all of his B-stone?! I thought that Ulimo Citadel was supposed to sit on top of an entire deposit of this material!"

"Uhm, sir, we found the material you were looking for in the Grand Protector's personal estate. The properties match the parameters that you have specified."

"Take me there!"

They moved to a small palace built closer to the center of Ulimo Citadel. A lot of effort had been put into planting gardens and adding opulent decorations.

Ves wasn't interested in these useless aesthetics. He stormed through the front gates and followed his guide to the master bedroom of the mansion.

He soon came face to face with the biggest concentration of B-stone he had ever seen.

"It's.. a bed?"

The king-sized bed certainly looked comfortable. The thick, soft pillows and smooth, gentle fabric didn't appear to be made in a rotten place like the Nyxian Gap. Ves was sure that the Grand Protector managed to import it from civilized space.

"Tear it all out."

Some of his bodyguards stepped forward to rip away the soft pillows, the exquisitely bouncy mattress and other useless frills. Only the structure remained after a few seconds.

Ves approached and touched the surface of the bare bed frame. He experimentally channeled some of his spiritual energy, only to encounter strong resistance.

"Finally!"

Though his men hadn't found any B-stone mines or containers filled with the spiritually-reactive material, at least he still obtained some.

He felt a bit disappointed at the quantity. Though he should ordinarily celebrate obtaining this much B-stone, after encountering the mech-sized statue of the Unending One, a mere bed frame's worth of B-stone looked inconsequential.

"Then again, I didn't necessarily set out to build a mech out of B-stone." He reminded himself.

Unending alloy was as hard and tough as the materials used to build first-class mechs. It might not rank among the top, but it was definitely within that range.

As for B-stone.. Ketis could probably chop the bed in half swing a single swing of her cutlass.

The sorry remains of Lucky's Misfortune Harness was a clear example of how little physical protection B-stone offered.

Therefore, B-stone could never be used as the main material for a mech or protective gear. He needed to layer it with another material with stronger protective properties.

Fortunately, he had just gotten his hands on a material that was even better than Breyer alloy!

Yet.. Ves didn't think it was so simple to layer B-stone and Unending alloy together. Each of them provided him with different advantages, but the problem was that their effects might not be compatible with each other!

B-stone blocked and interfered with the operation of spiritual energy. Ves was forced to apply a very thin layer of this material to the Misfortune Harness because Lucky wouldn't be able to turn intangible with too much interference.

Unending alloy possessed different properties. It was not only capable of storing spiritual energy, but was also able to channel it! As long as Ves experimented further with this material, he might be able to create more sophisticated applications with this wondrous alloy.

How could he make any half-mechanical, half-spiritual device he created with Unending alloy retain its power in the presence of B-stone?

Ves feared the two conflicting materials might cancel each other out! This was anti-synergy and something he least wanted to see!

"Maybe I can't have my cake and eat it too." He thoughtfully muttered.

On one hand, Ves wanted to build a suit of armor for himself that could protect him against spiritual attacks and other shenanigans of this nature.

On the other hand, Ves wanted to build a suit of armor that protected him from lots of physical damage and allowed him to channel his spiritual tricks and abilities with greater effectiveness!

It would have been great if he could combine both desires into a single piece of equipment. He didn't think it would work, though. He intuitively guessed that combining both materials in a single piece of equipment couldn't be done unless he processed the materials to a much more extensive degree.

Ves didn't specialize in materials science and metallurgy, but he possessed a lot of knowledge about it. Yet despite obtaining all of that System-exchanged know-how, he was completely stumped when it came to figuring the essence of spiritually-reactive materials.

Whether it was P-stones, B-stones or the newly-discovered Unending alloy, Ves didn't have a single clue why these materials interacted with spirituality. They didn't seem to share anything in common.

"There has to be an underlying reason why they are different."

He realized that his understanding of spiritually-reactive materials was quite shallow compared to his knowledge of regular exotics.

It couldn't be helped. He was a mech designer first and foremost. Without any prior instruction, he was only able to blunder his way through spiritual sorcery.

While it was easy for him to figure out some simple properties, he was unable to go any deeper due to his insufficient theoretical foundation.

This was not something he was good at or particularly interested in studying. It would have been best if he could set up a materials research group that solely put all of its energy into researching P-stones, B-stones and so on. Ves shouldn't do anything but reap the fruits of its accomplishments.

Still, setting up such a remarkable research group was very difficult. The main reason for that was that at least some of the researchers had to be spiritually adept!

Where was he supposed to hire such people? Of course, he could do it, but that would take away valuable time he could have spent on designing mechs.

Perhaps the only people who were eligible to join this research group were the members of the Five Scrolls Compact!

As far as he knew, many powerful members of the Compact were passionate researchers, and many of them dabbled in spirituality.

The thought of poaching some of the Compact's researchers instantly caused his heart to freeze.

Those mad scientists were dangerous! Each and every Compact researcher he had met were completely obsessed with their work to the point where they disregarded every ethical boundary!

There was no way Ves could hire or work alongside those extremists!

"Why can't these people be more normal like me?" He lamented.

Considering the extreme danger of hiring those kinds of people to staff a potential materials research group, Ves firmly shelved this plan in the depths of his mind. It joined the pile of thousands of other abandoned and neglected ideas.

"Why am I forming so many expansion ideas lately?" He frowned.

While some bots entered to carefully box in and transport the B-stone bed frame back to the Scarlet Rose, Ves began to take stock of himself.

He thought back on all of his recent thoughts. Aside from feeling happy about his material gains, he also experienced several significant shortcomings that hampered his ability to achieve his goals.

Whether it was lacking a mech force that was equipped to fight against spiritual threats or being unable to make better use of spiritually-reactive materials, Ves was awfully short in help in many areas.

"The Larkinson Clan is too small." He sighed.

In truth, it had grown astronomically in just a year. It was just that most of its growth was biased towards the mech forces and other essential services. Not even the Larkinson Biotech Institute was sufficiently staffed. He wouldn't have been so eager to travel to the Life Research Association if that wasn't the case.

It used to be that Ves was already happy if his clan was able to field mechs and keep the LMC profitable.

Over time, Ves gradually desired more. He wanted to acquire more biotech researchers. He wanted to hire more materials scientists. What was next? Ship builders? Mech component developers?

It felt as if he gradually wanted to expand the scope of the Larkinson Clan.

In the beginning, it made sense to focus solely on selling mechs and piloting mechs. The original Larkinsons were good at piloting mechs, while Ves took care of the clan's main source of revenue by designing mechs that the LMC could sell for a tidy profit.

The justification to set up the branches wasn't as clear. The Larkinsons didn't possess a foundation in anything else. While adopting talented outsiders into the clan partially addressed this shortcoming, it still didn't change the fact that his clan wasn't set up to undergo so many activities.

Ves believed in the strength of specialization. It was why the Life Research Association could grow into a formidable second-rate state in Majestic Teal. Its research and applications into biotech conveyed the institute-turned-state a powerful competitive advantage which it leveraged to trade for other essentials.

He faintly felt that his Larkinson Clan might be following the growth trajectory of the LRA.

"Are we evolving into a state?"

He felt a bit mixed about this direction. While he wanted his clan to become self-sufficient, he didn't want his clan to get bogged down by too many responsibilities. The problem was that adding more responsibilities was inevitable if he wanted to grow stronger.

"Well, this is not an immediate issue." He shrugged.

Ves checked his itinerary and found that he had seen all there was to see at Ulimo. He quietly departed the pirate base and returned to Scarlet Rose.

Once he reached his ship, he headed straight to the isolated chamber and activated the Darkbreak module. He decided to call Master Willix.

"Hello, Ves." The Master Mech Designer's physical projection appeared as soon as she accepted the call. "I have been waiting to hear more details about your successful assault."

"Ah, my people have just finished sorting out what happened during the near-disaster. A lot of confusing stuff happened and much of our logs and data don't make any sense. Forgive us for not providing you with clear recordings and telemetry during the latter half of the battle."

He waved his hand, transferring one of the files he had just obtained from Major Verle.

The Darkbreak module almost instantly transferred the large data package to Master Willix at Centerpoint. She rapidly opened the package and rapidly skimmed over some of the doc.u.ments and footage with her implant.

She quickly frowned and threw a disapproving stare at him. "I see what you mean."

Ves spread his hands. "These Nyxian pirates have become more and more outrageous with each passing day. Not only did the Dry Snakes employ a lot of taboo weapons, they also manipulated the unstable fabric of spacetime of the Nyxian Gap."

He expressly avoided any mention of gods, spirituality, psionic power or anything else outside the norm. He even brushed aside Venerable Jannzi's amazing breakthrough.

The sanitized footage, reports and logs he sent to Master Willix and the MTA shouldn't possess any incriminating material!

He didn't even want to put on his stupid hat to rant about gods. Talking about the Unending One was very dangerous due to the dark god's apparent connection to the Five Scrolls Compact.

There was something very dangerous about the Hallowed Abyss Temple! How were the Grey Watchers able to evoke great rituals and even absorb some of the dark energy themselves?

Random people could never accomplish these mind-boggling feats! The Five Scrolls Compact definitely had a hand in these developments.

Ves didn't want to get involved in this huge conspiracy at this time!