The Mech Touch

Chapter 6354  Dark Tidings

"What if the source of the strike remains unclear due to remaining in stealth?" Jovy Armalon innocently asked.

"We must act with expedience. We do not have the time to conduct a proper investigation. If the hidden vessel in question has launched a strike at our forces, then the source clearly hails from the enemy fleet. We cannot state with confidence that we have managed to detect every stealth-capable cosmopolitan warship and archeship in this star system. Any hidden craft or vessel that targets our assets belongs to the same side as our more visible enemies. We do not need to wait for confirmation before we unlock the use of our own stock of weapons of mass destruction."

The fact that Admiral Tensen managed to say all of that with a straight face and a completely convincing tone was great!

Ves struggled to maintain his composure. He wanted to grin crazily after knowing that he managed to convince everyone of his scheme, but it wouldn't be appropriate for him to jump with joy at the moment.

At least he could rest assured that much of the work he put into the Doomspreader Torpedo System did not go to waste.

Before the emergency virtual meeting came to an end, Ves commanded everyone's attention once again when he made a surprise proposal.

"I will take part in the fighting as well."

"What?!"

"That is not necessary, sir!"

"You are a non-combatant! You will only get in our way!"

Ves raised his palm, causing the objections to die down, at least for the time being.

This proposal still received significantly less support than the last one. Ves was the VIP that they were tasked to protect. It made little sense to place him in the field where everyone could concentrate their attacks on his true body.

"I know how stupid it sounds, but we have no choice. The ambushers in this star system are powerful enough that we need to make use of every available combat asset. As much as I do not like it, I am one of them as well. As a phase lord, I can fight. I might not be as strong or versatile as a first-class multipurpose mech, but I have my own tricks. I can also cobble together a raiment for myself that is made out of different mech parts in a hurry. While I will definitely be putting myself in danger by appearing in the field, my contributions to the fight may be the only way for us to stop the alien phase lords from running roughshod over your forces."

This proposal still received significantly less support than the last one. Ves was the VIP that they were tasked to protect. It made little sense to place him in the field where everyone could concentrate their attacks on his true body.

Even if he did appear in the field, his combat effectiveness would still be dubious. He had tried to spar against a first-class multipurpose mech before and absolutely got his butt kicked.

The results might change once he was fully equipped with combat gear scaled for phase lords, but that still did not resolve his complete lack of combat skills. The battlefield was not a place for amateurs!

"Let us leave this as a last resort." Admiral Tensen eventually decided. "You may prepare raiment and additional combat gear for yourself. If there are not enough spare materials left, you have my permission to partially strip the hulls of our combat carriers in order to obtain more sturdy materials. Their priority pales in comparison to yours. You do not have our permission to enter the field right away. Let us wait until the enemy phase lords have withstood the attacks of our mechs and warships and exhausted most of their combat power. If we have expended our own options, an argument can be made for you to deploy into space and help us finish off the surviving phase lords."

That did not sound ideal to Ves, but it was a better course of action if preserving Ves' live weighed higher than anything else.

Once the meeting came to an end, Ves hurried into action.

Right now, the Dark Zephyr was actively being chased by a mob of phase lords and enemy warships. The ace mech was heading straight over to the coordinates of Fort Rock, but his progress was partially slowed down by the machinations of the enemy pursuers.

Neither side was able to engage in full warp travel at the moment. They interfered with each other's efforts to form warp bubbles far too much to reach any higher speeds. This bought Ves a bit of time to construct additional gear for himself.

Ves did not prepare any raiments for himself, but it was easy enough to copy the shapes of existing mech parts and plating and mold them to his form.

He had studied the raiments used by enemy phase lords in the past and roughly understood how they worked. It was not particularly challenging for a Senior Mech Designer to spontaneously design a raiment on the spot, especially since it was basically a mech without any internal parts.

The only issue that Ves had to be concerned about was that he would have to do what Admiral Tensen suggested and strip hull plating and other parts from one of the existing combat carriers.

The crew of the vessel likely did not appreciate his act, but he needed the additional protection more than others.

The use of existing plating cut down on the production time a lot. Ves just had to use his own muscles and all sorts of production machines to cut apart or reshape the alloy parts.

Before he knew it, Ves managed to reach his full size, which was roughly 3 times as tall as a typical mech, and manually clad himself in a suit of armor.

His raiment was quite crude. It was heavy, did not fit his contours perfectly and was missing a huge amount of optimization.

Ves was not able to mount any integrated weapon systems or other sophisticated functions to it. He only installed an oversized flight system onto the back, and even that was an abomination as he had to simplify it because he had no actual experience with operating them in any capacity.

Still, the raiment satisfied his most basic requirements, which was to add a layer of protection and enhance his mobility.

As for attacks, Ves did not intend to use any other weapons aside from his Oceancaller.

He already ruled out the option of wielding the tier 3 Destroyer spear. Ves already concluded that the Dark Zephyr had no hope of defeating the Arena Lord of Ya'gwasa unless the machine harnessed the power of this potent weapon.

Ves had theories about how he could safely wield this spear for himself, but it did not change the fact that his foundation was much weaker than that of an ace pilot.

He could close the gap by ingesting an enlightenment fruit that bestowed him instant combat skills and so on. He already decided to do so, but not so that he could better wield the tier 3 Destroyer weapon.

No. Ves merely sought to obtain a combination of general combat acumen along with more specific weapon skills.

He already decided to wield the Oceancaller as a staff, so it would be ideal if he could ingest an enlightenment fruit that taught him how to wield these specific weapons.

Ves would probably still be able to manage if all he could obtain was an enlightenment fruit that taught him how to wield spears, halberds or even shorter weapons, but it was best if he could get exactly what he needed.

Even as he remained on standby while wearing his raiment, Ves silently activated the System and entered the System Space.

He was curious to see what form he took when he emerged inside the System Space.

"I did not expect this to actually work."

Ves entered the System Space in his full size while also wearing his raiment!

He half-expected to be forced back into a semblance of his human-scaled body, but the System evidently abided by different rules!

It was incredibly awkward for him to navigate the mountaintop with a body that towered over mechs.

Ves cautiously removed his raiment pieces and shrunk himself back to human size. He had already memorized how he looked just before, so he was confident he could recreate his exact appearance once he was done with the System Space.

Now that he had returned to his normal form, he immediately began to ascend the steps.

He briefly paused when he passed by the route that led to the Wishing Fountain.

"I still have a radiant lottery ticket and a bunch of golden lottery tickets in reserve." He recalled.

He could use any of these tickets to draw a powerful weapon or a very useful enlightenment fruit!

As tempted as he felt to make use of the lottery tickets since he had fallen into a crisis that was severe enough to make use of them, Ves did not want to be too wasteful.

"Let's see what the Tree of Possibilities has on offer first."

He passed by the Wishing Fountain and continued to move up until he reached his intended destination.

Last he checked, he had 213 Ascension Points in total. He managed to replenish his reserve by completing a few generic Missions with the help of his clan wherever possible.

For example, completing Alien Relic Hunt was as simple as ordering his Procurement Department to pick up a bunch of alien relics from different auction houses.

Ves also managed to complete the Consume 100 Beasts Mission with ease by ordering his clan to deliver a lot of exobeast carcasses to Diandi Base.

It wasn't pretty, but Ves felt it was worth it to gain a lot of Ascension Points in return!

A spending budget of 213 Ascension Points was not a lot, but Ves believed he should be able to afford a single medium-priced enlightenment fruit.

"Let's hope that the Tree of Possibilities can accommodate me this time."

Ever since Ketis became a user of the System, the Tree of Possibilities started to produce a lot more combat-oriented enlightenment fruits.

Ves previously felt annoyed by that because this shift reduced the amount of fruits that he was typically interested in, but this time was different.

His eyes rapidly scoured through all of the fruits until he finally managed to find a single candidate that tentatively matched his requirements!

[Dark Apostle Self Defense Manual]

Price: 200 Ascension Points

Bestows the skills and related theory to execute the techniques of the Dark Apostle Self Defense Manual. As a herald of darkness and a believer in the nihility of this universe, a Dark Apostle is often unwelcome among others when he begins to proselytize his dark tidings. In order to defend himself against the violent reactions that his controversial speech often evokes, a Dark Apostle must master the basic skills to wield a staff and channel a miniscule aspect of the power of darkness that will one day engulf the universe.

Requirements: Strength must be 4.0 or higher. Dexterity must be 4.0 or higher. Endurance must be 6 or higher. Concentration must be 7 or higher. Spirituality must be 10 or higher.

"..."

Ves found it rather suspicious that the Tree of Possibilities just happened to produce a single enlightenment fruit that could teach him how to wield a staff. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

It just so happened that this enlightenment fruit not only fell within his AP budget, but also happened to be oriented around the darkness element that he recently integrated into his domain!

He hesitated for a few seconds before decisively plucking the fruit from the tree branch.

"There's no point in overthinking this issue. I need it, and that is enough."

He ingested the enlightenment fruit without any further doubt or hesitation.