The Mech Touch

"DAMN YOU, LUCKY!" Ves grabbed Lucky's dormant body and lifted it into the air before shaking it a few times. "After so many months of lazying about and eating billions of hex credits worth of exotics, is this the best you can do?! Where are the gems that can double a mech's attack power? Where are the gems that can triple the speed of my mechs? Where are they, Lucky!?"

He was just venting his frustration now as his gem cat was hardly in a position to talk at the moment. Lucky expended so much effort to produce this gem that he was pretty much spent for the day.

Ves shook his head and dropped Lucky's body back onto the tabletop. He wouldn't find any answers here.

He examined the gem once again. He had to pinch it tight enough to prevent it from floating away. For some reason, the gem not only possessed a consciousness, but was able to move on its own. Ves had never seen anything like it before!

"Is this because of my intervention?"

That sounded far too simple. He did not believe that throwing in his own spiritual energy would lead to such drastic changes.

The gem was probably abnormal to begin with, but whatever Ves had done caused it to become more livelier than usual.

Whatever the case, Supreme Comprehension was by far the strangest and most unusual gem that Ves obtained.

He reread its description several times and probed it with his eyes and spiritual senses.

Just like his other gems, Ves was unable to perceive any spiritual activity from it. The gem's exterior tightly isolated whatever it contained.

Ves wanted to rub his chin. "There is definitely something unusual inside."

Thinking back on what happened, the vortex was definitely related to the final form of the gem. The unknown spiritual energy that the vortex absorbed might have come from the Supreme Sage, but this was an absurd conclusion!

According to the rebels, the Supreme Sage had already died more than a year ago. Even if he was a spiritually-developed researcher who was comparable to Master Mech Designer in mental strength, there was no way for the Supreme Sage's spiritual remnants to be sticking around for so long… right?

"Wait a minute."

Ves knew that certain strong individuals were able to keep their spirits together longer than usual.

While the spiritualities of ordinary people quickly faded into the imaginary realm where they would subsequently get eroded away, those who enjoyed much greater development might be able to resist the corrosive spiritual winds a lot longer!

Ves was reminded of the origin of the Illustrious One. When his mother plucked a spiritual fragment from the imaginary realm, the remnant was almost completely worn out. Yet despite floating in the imaginary realm for eons, it still managed to retain a portion of itself!

Perhaps some individuals had become so strong that it was hard for them to completely die out in a spiritual sense!

As long as at least one remnant of them survived, they could always resurrec back to life, if with a lot of missing parts.

If this was the case, then it became a lot more plausible that the red gem managed to absorb a remnant of the Supreme Sage.

There were a few oddities, though. Ves wasn't sure about the range of the vortex, but even if distances and dimensions were a bit whacky in the imaginary realm, it was extremely unlikely for him to believe that some portion of the deceased Supreme Sage just happened to be floating around nearby.

His eyes narrowed. "If it's not a coincidence, then…"

There were a couple of possible explanations why Lucky's vortex easily managed to absorb the Supreme Sage's remnant.

First, the founder of the LRA might have been so powerful back when he was alive that even his  broken remnants were capable of moving and acting on their own!

Perhaps they might have found something interesting about Ves. Perhaps they saw something special in Lucky. Whatever the case, the active spiritual remnants may have foreseen that they would be able to find a way out of their predicament by entering Lucky's stomach!

"This sounds very unlikely, though."

Spiritual remnants of strong individuals were capable of acting on their own. However, without any support or guidance, it was difficult for him to believe that the great scientist chose to latch on to Ves of all people!

There were much more suitable candidates for the Supreme Sage to work with. The only shortcoming of these other candidates was that they lacked spiritual sensitivity.

Maybe the Supreme Sage possessed enough wits to reject this option and instead stay close to a foreigner.

However, Ves never recalled getting stalked by the spiritual remains of a great scientist. Such an impressive figure would have definitely made waves where he got close enough.

"I didn't sense anything during those times! My intuition didn't sound any alarms either!"

He trusted in his senses. He would have definitely felt it if a creepy, centuries-old geezer was stalking him all this time.

Compared to assuming that he was special enough to attract the Supreme Sage's attention, Ves was much more inclined to believe in his other theory.

"The Supreme Sage… may have perished somewhere close to this site."

Lucky's vortex easily managed to capture this legendary figure's spiritual remnants because they might not be that far away from one of the LRA's secret pinnacle labs!

Alternatively, this location might also be close to where his comatose body was being treated!

Ves quickly recalled what Master Brixton claimed about the Supreme Sage.

According to the opposition leader, the Supreme Sage engaged in a taboo experiment that was designed to extend his lifespan as he had exhausted all conventional options of prolonging it the regular way.

Unfortunately, Master Brixton was too short on details. Ves had very scant details of the experiment in question.

"He might not even be telling the truth."

Ves had too little information to go on, but in absence of anything better, his current theory sounded more plausible than other possible explanations.

Two important assumptions supported this theory.

"First, there must be a pinnacle lab nearby."

Ves didn't think there was one directly underground this biomech production facility. Too many people worked here and there was way too much traffic. However, the range should not be large.

He recalled the strange storage depot that Venerable Tusa once encountered during his scouting runs.

That place was a bit far away but not unreachable from his current location. The placement of this storage depot was odd because there weren't that many production facilities in the surrounding districts to merit such an elaborate facility.

Yet if this storage depot happened to service the voracious needs of one of the best laboratories of the Life Research Association, then it was a lot more explainable why it had to be so large. 

"Still, the clues are too obvious if that's the case."

In fact, Ves didn't think that placing something as sensitive and valuable as a pinnacle lab underneath the outskirts of Veoline made sense.

These secret labs should be placed in much more secure locations!

"If I had a choice, I would have set these labs up underneath military bases, inside desolate moons or in the middle of an obscure asteroid belt. Who thought it was a good idea to bury such a sensitive facility underneath a residential district?!"

Perhaps that was the point. The locations that Ves just considered were sites that everyone thought of if they wanted to set up a secret base.

Hardly anyone would think of burying a pinnacle lab underneath the homes of simple Lifers!

"If this is true.. does it have anything to do with me?" He critically asked.

He was not a biotech expert. The Supreme Sage's pinnacle labs might hold an unlimited degree of attraction onwards to other biotech researchers, but Ves was a mech designer!

"I don't belong in such a place!"

The most he could obtain from a pinnacle lab was raiding their supplies and stealing some precious lab equipment. Other than that, Ves seriously doubted that he would encounter something that was worth his time.

In addition, these pinnacle labs were the crown jewels of the LRA. There was no way that they would be unguarded! These secret facilities must be under constant observation by the different factions!

"Even if the guarding forces of the pinnacle labs have split into different sides, there's no way they'll come to blows and risk the integrity of these precious facilities."

Ves eventually decided not to think about it anymore. Whether there was truly a pinnacle lab in the vicinity or not, he was more inclined to go away than to take any step closer.

Ever since this civil war broke out, Ves had always been aware that there were some places that he and his Larkinsons couldn't touch!

He even thought about relocating. His airfleet had already spent enough time in this region.

"In fact, I've also gathered enough biomechs to pursue other options."

He did not forget about his original goal, which was to escape the planet and return to his expeditionary fleet.

If he only had fifty mechs at his disposal, then Ves didn't have the guts to pursue any ambitious goals!

It was different now. He already accumulated close to 500 mechs, and this was a formidable fighting force.

While it would have been even better if he was able to accrue an entire mech regiment's worth of machines, this was too unrealistic.

"The time to accumulate power is drawing to an end." He murmured. "It's time to spend it in order to fulfill my other goals."

Ves no longer thought about Lucky's latest gem and all of the implications it brought. As much as he wanted to explore its mysteries, he had more important priorities to worry about.

He put the unruly gem inside his pouch and buried it inside his Unending Regalia. While the stupid heart-like gem wanted to fly away, there was no way it could break through premium synthetic fabric, let alone a solid barrier of Unending alloy.

"Just sit still and await your turn to be used!"

That was another headache that Ves was glad to avoid. Due to the System's vague and unhelpful description, there was no way to predict how Supreme Comprehension altered a mech.

"Maybe it won't even affect a mech at all!" Ves guessed.

That would be the worst outcome. To Ves, the best gems were always those that bestowed a clear and useful boost to his mechs.

Vague ones like Supreme Comprehension were the worst because Ves had to form his own guesses!

For now, he assumed that the sentient gem was best paired with a biomech. The Supreme Sage probably knew more about biomechs than any Master in the LRA, so combining the two might yield interesting effects!

Despite all of the biomechs around him, he had no intentions of squandering this unique gem right away.

That would be a waste."

Ves would rather reserve this gem on a biomech that Ves designed in collaboration with a specialized biomech designer.

In fact, even if the effects of Supreme Comprehension were unclear, he guessed that they would not be weak.

"If this is the case, it's best to reserve it for an expert biomech or cyborg mech!"

Ves developed a lot of ideas about biomechs while he was working with them. One of his most promising ones was to design at least one expert mech with organic components.

Organic mechs reacted so well to his design philosophy that he wanted to try to design something that was better than anything else he developed.

He knew that his upcoming expert mechs would definitely be his strongest and most prestigious works for quite some time. Of the six he planned to design, one of them happened to be exceptionally suitable for the purpose he had in mind.

"Since Venerable Joshua already has the same domain as mine, what kind of improvement will he achieve if he pilots an expert cyborg mech?"

Ves shivered with excitement at the thought!