The Mech Touch

Ves gritted his teeth but eventually decided to pull the trigger.

The System instantly deducted 299 Ascension Points from his account from the moment he plucked the fruit from the tree!

Before he could spend time regretting this fairly expensive purchase, he quickly bit into the fruit and swallowed it without hesitation!

This time, Ves received a much greater rush of knowledge!

His mental and cognitive functions had improved enormously compared to a few years ago, so he was still able to keep up and integrate all of the insights and lessons he received at a rapid rate.

The useful knowledge contained within this fruit was much greater than the last one!

Even if the Atmer Guardian Mantra contained a lot of additional esoteric knowledge that was only relevant in a past age, Ves still learned a lot of sophisticated cultivation processes that were incredibly valuable!

They combined qi cultivation and body cultivation elements in a single cohesive and synergistic cultivation framework.

Many of them were either so advanced that Ves would never be able to deduce them himself or so ingenious that it could have only been invented through inspiration.

As usual, Ves fully felt it had been worthwhile to spend 299 AP on this fruit.

"In fact, I've obtained a bargain this time. One man's trash is another man's treasure. The actual value of this fruit of mine surpasses its list price!"

The reasons why he felt this way were myriad.

First, Ves gained a large quantity of high-quality building blocks and general cultivation knowledge. His understanding of what he came to call 'cultivation science' had progressed enormously after learning so many new cultivation tricks!

Second, the Atmer Guardian Mantra could serve as another useful template. He could hollow out anything that was too specific and fill up the void with all kinds of other cultivation processes in order to form a new variant cultivation method that was geared towards other purposes!

Third, pretty much every fit and healthy human with at least a modest amount of spiritual potential could get started on this cultivation method.

The amount of eligible practitioners used to be fairly small in the Age of Mechs, but now that red humanity was about to undergo widespread spiritual activation due to constant exposure to exotic radiation, the circumstances had changed!

A lot of his own clansmen would gradually become eligible to practice the Atmar Guardian Mantra!

Each of them would be able to consistently absorb the power of heaven and earth to gradually cultivate their own body, mind and spirit.

These were all vital and useful attributes in the Age of Dawn!

Of course, Ves would never make any of his subordinates practice this outdated cultivation method. It contained a lot of elements he didn't like and he also found it rather slow, demanding and inefficient compared to more modern advancements in cultivation science.

He intended to adapt and alter it so that he could invent a more appropriate cultivation method for all of his clansmen!

"The members of the Aduc Family won't be the only ones in my network who can engage in deliberate cultivation anymore by the time I am done!"

Fourth, although the Atmer Guardian Mantra was specifically geared towards human cultivation, Ves was confident he could combine it with elements of artifact cultivation in order to form a method specific for living mechs!

He might even go to his wife and propose to work together in order to incorporate her god body method into his exclusive living mech cultivation method!

His expression turned odd when he thought about his wife's most recent successful design application.

"Now that I think about it, Gloriana has actually begun her own research on artifact cultivation."

Her god body method practically fit the definition! Although it only focused on improving the material quality of her mechs, it was already impressive for her to be able to make so much progress without benefiting from any mystical inheritances such as Ves!

While Gloriana still had to grope in the dark without any teachers or textbooks to help her out, Ves could easily attain lots of cultivation-related knowledge by asking his mother or plucking another enlightenment fruit from the Tree of Possibilities!

"I should buy a fruit for her in order to help her out." He decided.

It was all well and good for her to keep figuring stuff out on her own, but her progress would fall too far behind if she had to keep researching and experimenting all by herself.

Ves needed all of his mechs but particularly the high-ranking ones to become stronger a lot faster. Her own innovations could play a useful role in accelerating the rise of powerhouses in his clan!

"I should take care of my own needs first, though."

He already spent 404 Ascension Points in a short amount of time, and he was far from done with his purchases!

He needed more knowledge to boost his understanding of spiritual engineering and cultivation science further!

"I still need fruits related to deity cultivation and artifact cultivation. If I have enough points left, I should also make sure to grab a qi cultivation method that can tap into a lot of different elements."

He quickly bumped into an incredibly attractive enlightenment fruit.

[Divine Blacksmith Records]

Price: 975 Ascension Points

Imparts a large collection of related smithing recipes and techniques developed by a Divine Blacksmith. The majority of techniques consist of special hammering methods that can impart metallic and organic materials with special properties. The smithing recipes contain many combinations that enable a craftsman to forge powerful materials with the infusion of special energies and materials into a work.

Although the description sounded simple, Ves did not underestimate the knowledge contained within!

This was among the most expensive and powerful enlightenment fruits produced by the Tree of Possibilities!

"A Divine Blacksmith, huh?"

That sounded like a True God oriented towards creation cultivation. It might even be a predecessor of a Star Designer!

Any core knowledge related to a True God was a treasure in other people's hands.

Ves had great confidence that he could use the gains from this fruit to advance much of his research and methods by leaps and bounds!

"In fact, it is much better to let Vulcan absorb this fruit instead of me. The heritage of a Divine Blacksmith suits him a lot better!"

Unfortunately, the price was just too high for Ves. In terms of cost-effectiveness, he could easily satisfy requirements by spending a lot less on cheaper enlightenment fruits!

The Divine Blacksmith Records was just too high-end at this time. It was an extravagant enlightenment fruit that would take a lot of time and effort for him to fully digest and convert into real gains.

He could not possibly set himself back by spending too much AP and delaying his acquisition of more essential fruits at this time.

He eventually shook his head and moved on. "Maybe I will revisit this decision in the future."

He already confirmed that the Tree of Possibilities occasionally rotated in old enlightenment fruits after they had disappeared for a while.

This meant that Ves always had the chance of plucking it in the future when he became more powerful and earned a lot more Ascension Points.

Ves eventually settled for a more modest and economical artifact cultivation method.

[Colica Sect Equipment Maintenance Sutra]

Price: 220 Ascension Points

Imparts a sutra as well as associated theories and techniques on the maintenance of personal weapons and equipment. The Colica Sect believes that equipment that is recently manufactured and unused in the circumstances they were made for cannot be relied upon.

The battlefield is the forge and the attacks launched by the opposing force are the hammer strikes. Only after undergoing repeated combat refining will surviving pieces of equipment have the capital to turn into artifacts of greater power.

The Colica Sect's unique sutra utilized by its blacksmiths is not only meant to facilitate the repair and restoration of damaged equipment, but can also increase their toughness and other properties through a combination of special methods.

"This is much more appropriate for my needs!"

Although it didn't sound nearly as comprehensive and high-level as the Divine Blacksmith Records, the Colica Sect Equipment Maintenance Sutra was a lot cheaper while also being highly relevant to his work!

Sure, this enlightenment fruit did not sound like it had anything to do with mechs or living products, but Ves was sure he could adapt the principles of this so-called Colica Sect to his mechs and mech designs!

"It would be best to change it so that the mechs can apply a version of this sutra to themselves instead of letting the maintenance crews do this stuff." Ves determined.

He could figure that out later.

Ves took the time to study the other enlightenment fruits that sounded like they were also tied to artifact cultivation, but he did not like them due to various reasons.

They were either too cheap which gave him little confidence that they would satisfy all of his requirements, or they demanded too many Ascension Points while stuffing his head full of too much irrelevant knowledge.

This one was just right.

"Buy."

Ves plucked the fruit and tossed it into his mouth.

Another burst of knowledge flooded into his mind. The quantity of theories and techniques was a lot, but a significant proportion of the input was made up of hard data that should ordinarily be stored in a database.

Ves harvested a lot of gains from this fruit. Just as he expected, the knowledge was both highly relevant and multipurpose.

Not only did he gain the building blocks he needed to cobble up a much more functional and fitting artifact cultivation method for his living mechs, he also gained a much greater understanding of blacksmithing and manual craftsmanship processes!

He especially gained a lot of competence in repairing damaged and broken mechs! He understood a lot more on how to preserve their valuable attributes while also imparting his machines with small improvements by imbuing the mechs with spiritual energy.

The more damaged the mech, the greater the room for mystical improvement!

"My chance of fabricating a masterwork mech should be even greater, especially if I upgrade an existing mech!"

The Colica Sect's survival of the fittest mentality towards equipment synergized well with his specialization towards living mechs.

So long as his products managed to survive the battlefield and grow for numerous years, they would be able to grow into much more powerful versions of themselves!

Ves smiled as he fully digested the knowledge contained in the latest fruit. He developed a much stronger desire to go back to his design lab and work on upgrading the Dark Zephyr and all of his other old expert mechs.

These older machines had gone through so many serious battles and accumulated so much growth that he knew that he could unlock a lot of potential if he reconstructed their frames!

However, all of that took a lot of time and effort. He needed to think carefully about whether to embark on any further design projects at this time.

"Let's get back to my search."

He had 625 Ascension Points left. He was willing to spend a large chunk of it on two more fruits, but he needed to make sure he left a healthy reserve in order to pay the rent for the Vault of Eternity and rent extra time in the Workshop of Creation.

Ves urgently needed a proper deity cultivation method.

The Orven Ritual Sacrifice Altar Design enlightenment fruit he ingested once taught him a little bit about this form of cultivation, but it hardly added anything to his understanding of cultivation science.

Compared to the methods of primordial humans and other races with rich spiritual inheritances, the crude and primitive deity cultivation methods of the orven race could not be relied upon!

If Ves did not have access to the Sacred Hearth which gave him direct access to his Divine Cores, he would have never been able to survive his attempt to create his own living divine artifact!

Now that he still had plenty of Ascension Points at his disposal, he became determined to do better!

It took a while, but he eventually found a decent fruit...