The Mech Touch

Chapter 6062  The Potential of Elemental Mechs

There was one other idea that Ves had in mind.

It was such an outlandish one that he did not dare to share it with Ketis.

The idea was simple. Although the technical properties of the wooden constructs were not too strong and impressive, they were mainly limited due to the suboptimal circumstances of their creation.

The Emperor Tree did not have access to top materials. It knew nothing about systematic mech design. It lacked the most fundamental understanding of the concepts behind mechs.

What if a real mech designer took this method and designed a proper 'wooden mech'?

Was it possible for Ves to collaborate with the Emperor Tree or use it as an organic mech production facility to create all kinds of strange and exotic wooden constructs that could be piloted like conventional mechs?

Ves grew incredibly curious about this possibility!

Although the current wooden mechs produced by the Emperor Tree did not have a lot of remarkable properties so far, they did have a few merits that were hard to replicate by ordinary metallic mechs.

First, the wooden mechs seemed to possess regenerating qualities.

This was hard to notice at first because all of the Larkinson mechs demolished the wooden constructs far too quickly for the regeneration to become noticeable.

It was only when Ves paid attention to the wooden mechs damaged by the Elegant Rage that he noticed this quality.

The wooden mechs recovered relatively rapidly with the help of an abundant infusion of wood energy!

What was even more remarkable was that the efficiency was remarkably high! The Emperor Tree only had to inject a bit of wood energy to regenerate a major wound!

How could this be possible? Why was the wood produced by the Emperor Tree so malleable and easy to manipulate?

After going through his observations, Ves believed that one of the secrets may be the remarkable sap that was circulating inside the wooden constructs.

This sap produced an undeniable attraction to Ves. It was filled with such a high concentration of wood and possibly even life energy that he couldn't help but develop new ideas.

Different from metallic mechs, the wooden mechs were undoubtedly a lot more compatible with life energy. Ves believed he could explore a lot of interesting facets about living mechs if he started to experiment by applying his design philosophy to the Emperor Tree's exotic creations.

Aside from that, Ves also developed a bolder and more daring idea.

What would it be like if he combined the Carmine System with a wooden mech?

The new and potentially greater synergies produced from this unusual combination might actually spark the birth of an entirely new subcategory of Carmine mechs!

Ves already came up with the concept of Bloodfire mechs as a potential upgrade path for regular Carmine mechs. Just like the Dominion of Man, Bloodfire mechs theoretically had the ability to utilize fire energy as a substitute for blood as a binding medium.

When he looked at the crude wooden mechs produced by the Emperor Tree, he had a feeling he could use the organic circulation system of these constructs as another substitute of blood!

If he had to call it by a name, then he would call these hypothetical creations Woodsap mechs, as they derived their power from the incredibly nurturing Woodsap Pact between a Carmine mech and a mech pilot.

In fact, he speculated that he did not even need to design and grow a full wooden mech in order to develop a Woodsap Pact. Only the internal circulating system that was normally used to circulate human blood had to be replaced by a special wooden version.

So long as the compatibility between a wooden version of the Carmine System and the mech was not too bad, the two should be able to get along well.

Ves widened his eyes.

"This is an excellent addition to the upcoming Everchanger Mark III Project!"

The Everchanger was the only Larkinson expert mech that was biased towards life. While that did not necessarily align him towards the wood attribute, the compatibility between the two concepts was high.

At the very least, an upgrade in this direction would truly turn the Everchanger into a regenerating powerhouse that possessed enhanced nurturing properties!

Ves was pretty sure that no other mech like this could ever exist! The Everchanger would be an utterly unique and unforgettable living mech that had developed in a unique trajectory!

His excitement suddenly dropped when he reminded himself that the decision to convert any machine to a Carmine mech had to depend on the will of the mech pilot.

Even if the Everchanger was technically the property of the Larkinson Clan, thereby granting Ves the absolute right to do anything he wanted to his asset, Venerable Joshua had long regarded his battle partner as his possession.

If he ever advanced to the rank of ace pilot, then it was practically unthinkable to recall an ace mech from a Saint regardless of who owned the machine on paper!

The extraordinary high status of ace pilots along with the incredibly unfair preferential treatment provided by the Red Association had firmly cemented this precedent!

It was the privilege of a mech designer to be able to supply an excellent mech to an excellent mech pilot.

In any case, even if Venerable Joshua wanted to keep his options open for whatever reason, Ves could just design a Woodsap mech from scratch.

Perhaps it was better this way as he could account for the presence of a Woodsap System in a mech from the start instead of trying to cram it into an existing machine.

Ves' breathing grew heavier. He wanted to work on such a project right away. He needed to gain the power of the Emperor Tree in order to get started on such a profoundly exciting extension of the Carmine System! He could feel his design flame shaking as if his design philosophy might actually be able to progress by another step once he successfully realized this innovative concept!

His eyes suddenly widened as he made another shocking inference.

"Wait, is this a potential way for me to realize my design philosophy? Can I become a Master Mech Designer by developing variations of the Carmine System based on the five classical elements?"

At first, the entire notion sounded stupid and arbitrary to Ves. Why would developing five seemingly random elemental variations of the Carmine System allow him to realize his design philosophy?

Then he thought about what it would be like if 5 Carmine mechs that were strongly aspected towards 5 classical elements joined up and fought alongside each other.

Ves could not imagine how powerful they would become when their respective elements synergized with each other in the most astonishing manner!

So long as their teamwork was not too bad, they should easily be able to take advantage of the mutual transformations and other interactions between the 5 elements to exert power far beyond their individual capabilities!

Ves imagined that it would be similar to bringing a split version of the ill-fated Elemental Lord to life!

An outrageous notion suddenly entered his mind!

"It may even be possible for the combination of 5 ace mechs with different Elemental Carmine Systems to gain the effective combat power of a god mech!"

That was a crazy idea! It was far too unrealistic! It could never happen in reality! The chasm between ace mechs and god mechs was so wide that it could not be bridged by relying on quantity alone.

No matter whether there were 5 or 50 ace mechs, each of them were as weak as babies in front of a single god mech!

Ves needed to temper his expectations.

Even though the synergies could not be maximized due to the fact that the 5 elements were all rooted in different mechs, they should still be a lot higher than nearly anything else that other mech designers could produce!

"It's not going to be easy, though." He muttered to himself. "I need to develop a Carmine mech based on the water, earth and metal element as well in order to round out my collection."

Ves was not sure whether this was even feasible or possible on a technical level.

He only coincidentally came up with the concept of Woodsap mechs by having Blinky ride along the Everchanger during this mission.

If Ves did not glimpse the Emperor Tree's wooden constructs and drew all kinds of inspiration from their remarkable properties, he may have never been able to come up with a promising idea to combine the wood element with the Carmine System!

Personally, Ves was not quite certain whether he wanted to embed the five classical elements into his design philosophy. It would make his work a lot more convoluted and difficult to learn by other mech designers. It may also make his subsequent attempt to become a Star Designer exponentially more difficult!

The boost in power and the humongous synergies may be worth all of the added complications. Ves was nothing if not ambitious.

As long as he was lucky and proactive enough, he may be able to figure out the water, earth and metal variations of the Carmine System within a decade. It might take even less time since each of these elemental variations may share a lot of commonalities that could save him a lot of work.

So long as he met the other requirements for promotion, Ves was reasonably confident he could quickly advance to Master Mech Designer!

"If I go down this route, I am pretty sure that I have to successfully design and fabricate a working version of the Elemental Lord in order to become a Star Designer!"

That was a very shocking guess!

He knew exactly what he needed to do in order to advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer and Star Designer!

This was a very luxurious benefit as most Senior Mech Designers still remained lost in the fog. It was not unusual for them to waste decades if not centuries of their valuable lifespans in order to realize their design philosophies.

It also had massive implications if it was true!

The advantage of going down this route was that Ves had removed most if not all of the ambiguity about his future development trajectory.

He knew exactly what he needed to do in order to advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer and Star Designer!

This was a very luxurious benefit as most Senior Mech Designers still remained lost in the fog. It was not unusual for them to waste decades if not centuries of their valuable lifespans in order to realize their design philosophies.

As for figuring out how to become a Star Designer? No way! This exalted rank was way too far away to these poor Seniors.

To be honest, Ves shouldn't be thinking about how to plan his subsequent advancement to Star Designer either, but he couldn't help it. Making up for his past regrets and creating a viable version of the Elemental Lord was the natural step to take.

Ves still felt rather reluctant to commit to this path. His dream was to become a proper mech designer, but getting too entangled with the five elements would yank him way too far into cultivator territory.

This was not necessarily a bad development, but Ves was not quite sure whether it matched his style and inclinations.

In his heart, he would much rather focus on improving the more fundamental life aspect of his living mechs.

He much preferred to pursue his previous potential advancement opportunity by collaborating with Alexa Streon on combining the Carmine System with her living legacy mechs.

The intended outcome was to create Carmine mech pilots that could freely interface with every Carmine mech that belonged to the same living mech dynasty.

This not only justified the existence of Alexa's works, but also circumvented the greatest shortcoming of Carmine mechs, which was that mech pilots were normally bound to a single partner for the rest of their lives!

"The issue is that this research direction won't make my Carmine mechs stronger. It just increases the fault tolerance of my clients and customers."

Was that truly what red humanity needed in order to repel apocalyptic threats such as the incoming Subjugation King?

Another disadvantage of this trajectory was that Ves would have to wait for Alexa to grow up and develop her design philosophy further.

He was not sure whether it was a good idea to depend on another individual to trigger his advancement to the rank of Master Mech Designer.

Even if he trusted Alexa a lot for multiple reasons, what if they had a falling out in the next few years?

If he was unable to gain her cooperation anymore, then that would strand his attempt to realize his design philosophy according to his original plan!

"Ugh. What a difficult choice."

Ves could still work on both trajectories in parallel. That would allow him to break through to the next rank… eventually.

"I can't wait that long."

He knew his faults. He knew that he had a tendency to be scatterbrained, but there had to be a limit.

If he wanted to become a Star Designer within the next 5 decades, he needed to rein in his excesses and exert at least some focus in his work.

Which research direction should he choose?

Should he dedicate his time to developing Carmine mechs in a way that would promote a huge quantity of Carmine mech pilots?

Or should he devote his time to developing Carmine mechs that were much more unforgiving but also capable of nurturing a smaller group of much more powerful champions?