The Mech Touch

Chapter 7540 Hatred Crafting

Gloriana's proposal highlighted an excellent if somewhat pricey enlightenment fruit.

If Ves put the current crisis aside, then he would still be willing to invest 400 Ascension Points into redeeming the Principles of a Divine Kingdom.

However, it may take a year or two for him to get around to doing so. Red humanity still had to overcome a lot of perils. Ves may be forced to put out so many fires across human-occupied space that he wouldn't be able to save up so much AP for a big purchase.

This was why he found Gloriana's proposal so attractive. It gave him a convenient and legitimate reason to invest so much AP in an enlightenment fruit that seemed to yield the most in the long term.

However, the vagueness regarding its knowledge and how quickly Saint Commander Casella Ingvar could incorporate it into her existing Command Field remained a point of concern.

"The risk level of your proposal may not be as high as that of Alexa's proposal, but it is not trivial." Ves voiced his own judgment. "Still, it promises to give us the greatest overall benefits, especially outside of the immediate context. The knowledge of this enlightenment fruit possesses great strategic value to red humanity. If it has the potential to increase the breakthrough rate of Master Mech Designers and peak ace pilots by just 1 or 2 percent, then its actual worth should be at least ten times higher as far as I am concerned! In fact, I suspect that the actual impact of this repository of knowledge may be closer to 10 or 20 percent!"

While those figures sounded rather low, it could still make an enormous difference when applied to an entire civilization!

Ves knew that the biggest shortcomings of mech pilots and mech designers was the shallowness of their heritage.

Both professions had been invented relatively recently.Cha

Although they had experienced a huge amount of development since their introduction more than 4 centuries ago, mech pilots and mech designers still lacked a lot of clarity about the conditions they had to meet in order to successfully break through to the next rank.

This was especially an acute problem for those at the cusp of attaining godhood!

The transition between cultivators of the second major cultivation rank and the third major cultivation rank had stalled or ended the lives of countless generational talents and heroes!

Though both professions had to overcome very different problems, they still had a few principles in common.

The development of their domains appeared to be a key factor in their progression. Yet despite its importance, theory and understanding in this field remained woefully lacking.

Too many mysteries remained unresolved. They lacked clarity in how to move forward, so they relied on dubious means such as guesswork and intuitions to stumble their way forward and hope that they did not inadvertently step off a cliff!

If the Principles of a Divine Kingdom truly contained the crucial information needed for these professions to develop more systematic models of their own progression, then that would be an absolute game changer!

In the face of such an enormous societal benefit, Ves had no thought about hoarding this precious knowledge for himself and a select few Larkinsons.

His fate and the fate of the Larkinson Clan was long tied to red humanity's survival and prosperity.

Even if he had to give up on a potential monopoly, he would not feel any regret, because he would benefit much more if other red humans became strong enough to dominate the Red Ocean.

Besides, he did not think that others would be ungrateful.

The major players had always recognized his past contributions. He received an abundant amount of reputation and gained access to a lot of exclusive goods and services unreachable by low-tier galactic citizens.

Depending on the effect of the Principles of a Divine Kingdom, the major players should definitely feel obliged to grant him astronomical rewards for freely sharing such valuable knowledge!

Still, as much as he wanted to redeem this enlightenment fruit on the spot, he restrained himself.

They still needed to make a decision today.

Now that the three women had presented their respective plans, it was finally time for Ves to explain his own idea.

"As you know, I have developed a fondness for Demoncasting." He began. "I know that it has produced unstable results, but that is precisely one of its charms. It has the potential to vastly exceed our existing limitations, though it also comes with a considerable assumption of risk."

His words already caused Gloriana and Ketis to frown. They had a bad feeling about where this was going.

Ves did not seem to pick up on their fears and activated his own projection.

Everyone grew curious about the choice of vector for his proposal.

The mech designers who presented their plans before him all picked a specific subject to empower.

Ketis chose to strengthen the First Sword Mark III.

Alexa added an entirely new capability to the Woodsap mechs.

Gloriana wished to elevate the domain field of the Minerva Mark III.

Now, all three of them waited for Ves to reveal his own choice. Would he go back to his current favorite and choose to empower the Riot Mark III?

As the only D-mech so far, the Riot Mark III had already received multiple tweaks and upgrades. Ves clearly was not done with transforming the volatile machine.

In fact, he could not really afford to take his attention away from the unstable ace mech for a long time.

Its self-harming nature already caused a lot of headaches to the maintenance crew assigned to keep it in good shape.

The mortal workers could only conduct small fixes by remote. They did not dare to get close in person, because they might get killed by an uncontrolled outburst at any time!

For this reason, the Riot Mark III regularly accrued small but relatively troublesome instances of damage.

They might not affect the actual performance of the D-mech all that much due to its highly redundant archetech construction, but letting them pile up over time would definitely produce serious consequences over time.

At worst, the degeneration of the Riot Mark III posed a serious threat to its permanently bonded ace pilot's health and well-being!

As it was, Ves had to spare an hour or two each week just to conduct essential maintenance and repairs on the mechanical problem child.

While Ves thought this was just a necessary price to pay to retain the unique and incredibly strong capabilities of his D-mech, he still considered the Riot Mark III to be an unfinished work.

He had long wanted to find a design application that could mitigate or negate its many maladies, but it appeared that this day would not come soon.

"Is that… the Omega Thresher?" Gloriana dubiously asked as if she needed confirmation. "Of all of the mechs you thought that needed strengthening, you chose to improve a mech model that is not even ours? Have you forgotten that it belongs to the Red Association? Even if we have developed our own variant of this model just so that it can better serve us as a bunker mech, that does not change the fact that it is a third-party mech."

Ves for his part simply nodded his head. "You are not wrong about the ownership of the Omega Thresher. What we disagree upon is whether it is worth our investment. Even if it is not our work, it is still a good mech design, or else the Premier Fleet would not have adopted it alongside the Dracoloid. When I am looking for a solution, I don't care too much about ownership. I only care whether it is effective. While I would still prefer to favor our works, for my proposal to work, I needed to make use of highly effective ranged mechs that I can easily modify en masse."

"If that is the case, why did you not choose to upgrade your Woodsap mechs?"

"Because I do not want to unleash the full brunt of Demoncasting onto those living mechs, and more importantly, their bonded test pilots." Ves responded. "Those prototype Woodsap mechs have a bright future ahead of them as long as they survive this campaign. That applies even more so for their Woodsap mech pilots. Tainting them with demons will permanently subject them to a life of misery. Besides, even if I implant them with weaker Minor Demons, I am doubtful whether the living mechs and their standard mech pilots possess the mental fortitude that is necessary to prevent total demonization."

They would end up doing way more harm than good if they allowed demons to completely take over the minds and bodies of those vulnerable living mechs and bonded mech pilots!

Due to the Woodsap Pact, there was no way to separate the two from each other.

This meant that if one of them suffered a serious spiritual malady, the other would automatically become subjected to the same harm as well!

"He is right, Gloriana." Ketis said in a serious tone. "From what I know, Rosa Orfan is barely hanging on, and she possesses the willpower of an ace pilot. I doubt that those Terran pilots will be able to hold their own against demons, especially if they lack the necessary training and preparation."

"Then how will applying Demoncasting to the Omega Threshers be any different?"

Ves grinned. "Good question, honey. That is the thing, really. The Omega Threshers are not strictly living mechs. Not yet, at least. What I am a lot more certain about is that they are not Carmine mechs. This means that if the machines get tainted by demons, the pilot will not be as severely affected. We cannot block every form of harm, but we can implement a few filters and safeguards to keep it as manageable as possible. What is more important is that once we no longer need to make use of the demonized Omega Threshers, we can discard them without feeling any form of guilt. They do not come with the baggage of living mechs or Carmine mechs."

The three women all mulled over his words. He was right. It was much better to treat 'ordinary' mechs as disposable goods than actual living beings!

The question now was whether this treatment was necessary in the first place.

"So which enlightenment fruit have you decided to make use of that necessitates the use of our Omega Threshers?" Gloriana asked.

"This one. It's quite a bargain compared to the other options."

[Hatred Crafting]

Price: 325 Ascension Points

Imparts the knowledge as well as the skill required to perform Hatred Crafting proficiently.

Hatred Crafting is a lost and forbidden art that was originally invented to fight demons by weaponizing them in turn. It is the art of infusing demons into weapons through specialized tools and techniques, with a strong focus on transforming their boundless hatred into a more destructive form of power that poses great harm to souls.

Due to the use of demons, Hatred Crafting is difficult to learn and master, as mistakes can be dangerous or even lethal to the practitioner. The Hatred Artifacts produced with this art may also lack stability and will eventually self-destruct. Depending on their strength, their wielders must constantly guard their minds and souls, or else they may suffer just as bad as the enemies they are meant to defeat.

Despite its many dangers, Hatred Crafting can empower weapons far beyond their normal limits without demanding excessive resources. The art can be adapted to nearly any weapon type, both ancient and modern, and is only limited by the imagination and skill of the practitioner. Hatred Crafting was once known for being one of the few reliable methods that mortals can employ to slay True Gods. For this reason, the latter had tried their best to erase any trace of this art.

This version is specifically made compatible with the existing Demoncasting Forge.

Requirements: Strength must be higher than 1.5. Dexterity must be higher than 2.5. Concentration must be higher than 5.0. Spirituality must be higher than 10.0.

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