The Mech Touch

The luminar crystal weapons of the Eye Project and the Bloodripper Project continued to occupy most of his attention.

Even as he fleshed out their designs by forming their shapes and finding the right material composition for specific crystals, he still felt that the guns lacked a crucial element.

Ves became increasingly more annoyed as this thought continued to take root in his mind.

It was as if he was designing a mech without making it alive. The luminar crystal weapons that he would develop at the end would never feel complete to him because of missing a mysterious factor.

Ves eventually became so unbalanced during the middle of a design session that he forcibly pushed himself away from his desk terminal so that he could pull himself away from the moment.

"I can't keep working like this. I need to resolve this issue now instead of later. If not, my work efficiency will continue to be impacted by my unease."

The worst part about it was that he didn't even know why he was feeling this way. He never thought that his luminar crystal weapons were weak or inadequate.

Sure, he hadn't been able to draw out more potential from this amazing tech, but Ves had never been in a hurry to advance his utilization of luminar crystals.

His core specialty had always centered around living mechs. His work on luminar crystals was merely a sideshow to him. It wasn't particularly important for Ves to further his progress on understanding how they worked because it had no direct impact on his design philosophy.

"This doesn't make any sense." He frowned.

It was as if the unconscious part of his mind was trying to tell him that he was all wrong and that advancing his understanding of luminar crystals would be extremely helpful to his progression.

"Am I wrong about luminar crystal technology? Is it more related to my design philosophy than I thought?"

Ves normally placed a lot of importance on what his heart was telling him. As a passionate mech designer, he often made decisions that didn't always make sense but somehow worked out because he listened to his intuition.

He suspected that this was yet another one of those moments.

"The problem is that this is too open-ended. Even if I accept the premise that I can do more with luminar crystals, what should I do next?"

It was a lot harder to identify a problem than fixing it! There were many different aspects about luminar crystal technology that Ves could try to improve, but his knowledge base was not deep or broad enough for him to push it any further.

He had already spent a lot of time and effort into expanding what he could do with this tech in prior years. Now that he had plucked all of the low-hanging fruit, it became a lot more difficult to attain further progress.

"Maybe that was the case in the past, but I am in a different situation now. What if the key to achieving a breakthrough in this tech lies with the insights and lessons that I've learned from the recent battle?"

Ves thought back on the Battle of Pima Prime, but did not notice any obvious connections.

While luminar crystal weapons played a major role in helping the Larkinson Clan defeat the mechs of the Sundered Phalanx, they did not do anything outside of his expectation.

The only instance where a luminar crystal weapon achieved a shocking effect was when the Amaranto unleashed a super-powered beam attack onto the Shockshell just as Rebecca Andus broke through to ace pilot.

Ves waved his hand and activated a projection that played back this memorable moment.

"How powerful."

The Amaranto'sInstrument of Vengeance rifle was already powerful enough to rival a high-tier expert mech in damage output.

Ves was able to amplify the damage of one of its shots by exploiting a strange connection between himself and his masterwork mechs.

While only he and Ketis possessed the power to directly amplify the combat power of one of their masterworks through this method, it was a powerful trump card that could turn the tide in a battle, just as it had accomplished in the last battle.

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin in thought.

"Hmmm. Is this what I should be looking into?" He wondered.

His intuition did not provide him with an answer, so he had no idea whether he was on the right track.

He thought about it for a while and came up with a possible answer why this phenomenon might be of interest to him. It had to do with one of the meanings of a masterwork.

"A masterwork product is an extension of its creator." Ves reminded himself. "In other words, it is already alive even if I'm not involved in its development."

Could he use this connection to come up with a new theory and design solution that could make his luminar crystal weapons more alive?

Perhaps doing so might allow Ves to unlock the greater potential of luminar crystals, but he wasn't sure whether this was true. He might end up wasting months of his time on fruitless research.

He eventually shook his head. "I'm sure I can gain something from studying this phenomenon, but I don't think I am ready to look into it yet. I need to gain a better grip of masterworks before I can figure out this stuff."

Ves decided to look in a different direction and rewatched the footage of the battle from the beginning.

It wasn't until the Minerva and the Blade Chaser Mark II appeared into view that Ves suddenly remembered that he had recently made another notable luminar crystal weapon!

"How could I forget about the Gray Lotus?!"

So many mechs and people were involved in the previous battle that it was easy for Ves to overlook anything that wasn't as flashy.

The Gray Lotus was definitely powerful, but it didn't play as big of a role as Ves initially hoped.

Its effectiveness against other mechs was relatively good but nothing worth drooling about.

The weapon displayed a lot more effectiveness when fired against other targets.

No matter whether it was mechs, space stations or starships, when gray beams of death struck their exteriors, the people inside might already be dead even if there weren't any breaches!

The reason why a strange and abnormal luminar crystal weapon like the Gray Lotus could exist was due to two reasons.

The first reason was that it derived its death energy from the Black Lotus and by extension Helena.

Without a source of attributed spiritual energy that possessed a lot of lethality against certain targets, the Gray Lotus would have functioned like a normal high-quality luminar crystal weapon.

The second reason was that Ves was able to make the Gray Lotus output death energy by incorporating a rare material called Black Demon Steel to a unique luminar attack phase crystal.

The fact that he had only obtained this material by coincidence from the System had discouraged him from trying to make more weapons like the Gray Lotus.

This was because Ves saw no viable way to create another powerful attack phase crystal that could directly channel the lethal power of a design spirit. At least, not to the degree that would make a substantial difference in combat.

However, what if this assumption was wrong?

What if Ves could make use of this approach to make another amplified luminar crystal weapon?

Though his intuition did not give Ves any clues, he became more and more certain that this may be the solution he was looking for in order to develop the next generation of luminar crystal weapons!

Ves waved his hand and called up his design schematic for the Gray Lotus.

He was quite proud of his work. He had made it for Helena as well as for his clan and tried his best to make sure that it would be able to remain relevant for decades if not centuries.

The weapon wasn't actually all that complicated, though. It looked like any luminar crystal pistol if Ves disregarded the abnormal attack phase crystal.

It was this single element that set the gun apart from his other works and granted it an undeniable connection to Helena.

Ves pressed his finger onto this special crystal to center the projected view around it. He let his imagination run wild as he tried to explore different possibilities.

"I don't see any way to make another death-aspected luminar crystal weapon without a suitable material like Black Demon Steel, but who says I need to stick with Helena? Shouldn't I be able to apply the same approach to other combinations of materials and design spirits?"

The problem with that was that it was difficult for Ves to come up with any materials that were compatible or aligned with different spiritual entities.

The reason why Helena's power played well with Black Demon Steel was because the latter already possessed a high compatibility with attributes related to death and darkness.

If Ves wanted to push this idea forward, then he needed to spend time on discovering other viable combinations.

"Should I take a trip down to the vault and see if there are any useful combinations?"

That would take a lot of time. The clan recently expanded its strategic materials reserve by adding rare materials that the Larkinsons had plundered from Pima Prime. Ves would probably have to spend days or weeks on finding more matches!

This didn't sound like a productive use of his time.

Ves tried his best to figure out a good combination through logic and theory. After several minutes of aimless puzzling, he suddenly straightened his back as he happened to figure out a fantastic relationship!

"The Phase King!"

The design spirit's affinity to phasewater was undeniably great!

The former fish-whale king's life was literally tied to this substance when he was alive, and now that he had become a spiritual entity, his connection phasewater had not diminished in the slightest!

Instances such as the moment where the Everchanger channeled the Phase King in order to exert more control over the meat suit's transphasic abilities served as solid proof of this assertion!

"I should have thought about this upon the moment that I first came in touch with transphasic luminar crystal weapons."

An MTA research team had managed to develop the first true transphasic luminar crystal weapons a few years ago. Ves only provided a minor amount of assistance to this research effort.

This was why he accepted this new development without thinking too deeply on how it worked. Ves didn't understand phasewater technology to the extent where he could develop this solution by himself.

In hindsight, he should have spent more time on this technological development.

The MTA researchers were extremely proficient in materials science. The breakthrough in their research solely focused on the material aspect of transphasic luminar crystal weapons and never really delved into more esoteric variables.

Ves was different. His background in spiritual engineering and his collection of design spirits gave him the potential to do more with this existing tech!

"I need to test this theory right away!"

It was not enough for Ves to come up with all of these ideas. He needed to prove that he was on the right track by creating a real transphasic weapon that possessed greater potential than the ones he developed in the past.

He quickly designed a simple handheld luminar crystal pistol. He then gathered the necessary materials and used the lab equipment to fabricate the new weapon.

What was notable was that Ves did not hesitate to use up a small drop of phasewater to synthesize a valuable transphasic attack phase crystal for this new experiment.

"Now let's see how much the Phase King can do with this gun!"