The Mech Touch

Both Ark and Benjamin Larkinson reacted with shock after they learned about the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem!

It sounded like no other mech ecosystem they had ever heard before. It was so typically Ves that they had little doubts that it would turn out to be as effective as he described.

"None of our mechs has yet to acquire this mech ecosystem of yours, correct?" General Ark asked.

Ves nodded. "Your expert mechs will be the first to receive this particular benefit. We want to test it out with the two of you first. This will allow us to verify its performance and make quick adjustments. Once we have done that, we can apply the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem to every Larkinson mech going forward. Every time we bestow a new mech mode or update an existing one, we will make sure that it conforms to the standards of our mech ecosystem. My goal is to unite all of our Larkinson mechs this way within 4 years."

"Four years is not much." Venerable Benjamin observed. "You will have to update a lot of existing mech models. Will you be able to handle the workload?"

"Do not worry about it." Gloriana confidently replied. "My husband has become a lot more effective at his work in recent months. I will soon undergo a massive upgrade as well. Once I have obtained my new augmentations, I can help him upgrade all of our older mech designs at a much faster rate than before."

Ark asked another question. "You have mentioned that you intend to apply your new ecosystem to Larkinson mechs. Does that mean that you will withhold it from your commercial and commissioned products?"

"That is right. The Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem has amazing potential, but it is also rather complicated. It is an experimental product, so it is not proper for me to attach it on any mech intended for use by my customers. It is also one of the benefits that our people should rely on to earn more war merits in the coming years."

Ves made it clear that he considered his new mech ecosystem to be an exclusive advantage of the Larkinsons. Unless it benefited his clan directly, he did not want to spread it out am, further!

Neither Ark nor Benjamin had a big problem with this, but Gloriana did not share the same opinion.

She pressed her elbow against her husband's side. "You shouldn't be so selfish, Ves. The least you can do is to extend this benefit to the Hex Army as well. The Hexers can grow much stronger if they can pilot millions of Energy Weaver mechs! Just imagine it. Tens of thousands Valkyrie Redeemers flying in unison. Each of them working together to summon Helena. Once she appears, she will have so much E energy at her disposal that she can single-handedly wipe out all life in an alien warfleet!"

"I don't think it will be that easy to make that happen." Ves skeptically replied. "While my Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem imitates the functions of a battle network, it is not mean to replace it. Aside from that, once the Hexers show off the capabilities of my work on a massive scale, a lot of different parties will demand that I share my work with them all. I don't want to be forced to give away yet another trump card. So long as we keep this particular advantage to ourselves, we can make use of it to beat our competitors and accelerate our progress."

This was the main reason why he put so much effort into coming up with this mech ecosystem.

His status had risen quickly, but his clan failed to keep up with his growth. If he wanted to lift his clan up, then he needed to bestow them with a powerful advantage.

The Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem could only be applied to prime mechs or the recently renamed artifact mechs. It was one of his proudest works in recent times.

Its usefulness was limited when it came to individual living mechs.

There was no way that the Jupiter Project or the Blood Star Mark II could boost their combat power if they were by themselves.

Energy Weaver mechs thrived when they fought together. They were the embodiment of the strength of the family that characterized the Larkinson Clan.

The greater the number of Energy Weaver mechs, the grander they became!

If the Larkinson mechs happened to be led by powerful units such as an expert mech, then it would be easy to channel all of that collective energy to these capable champions!

Although Ves did not emphasize it, he secretly hoped that his work would enable the high-ranking mechs of his clan to punch above their weight!

He especially kept phase lords and phase whales in mind when he developed his new mech ecosystem.

If the expeditionary fleet or the Warborn ever became ambushed by a powerful phase lord, General Ark or Venerable Benjamin could always draw upon the power of all of the friendly units on the battlefield to defeat a native god!

While Ves did not think that his Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem could bestow the power of a god pilot to anyone less than that, it was at least a step in the right direction!

He answered a few more questions about his promising innovation, though he could not offer as much clarity as he wanted because it had yet to be tested in reality.

They soon moved on to more familiar ground.

"Let us get back to explaining the configuration of your Jupiter Project." Ves said. "As you can see, the dominant theme of your expert mech is light. It literally and figuratively weaponizes the power of light. The brighter it shines, the more powerful it becomes. This will especially be the case once it is upgraded to an ace mech, but it is already strong enough in its current iteration."

As Ves continued to explain his vision, General Ark felt drawn by the finished design. The way it embodied light made him feel as if this machine was part of his destiny. There was no future for him as a mech pilot if he was not able to fight with an artifact that was precisely tailored to his needs!

"It is so majestic and beautiful." He couldn't help but comment.

Ves grinned. "I am a bit of an artist as well, you know. I have done my best to raise its appearance. The more impressive it looks, the easier it will be for you to command the respect and adoration of your troops."

He had made express use of Vulcan's rapidly growing expertise in designing the appearance of the Jupiter Project. Their combined efforts made the expert mech look like a humanoid white lion king!

"This is not a regular living mech, correct? You have made sure that it doesn't have an independent personality like many of your other living mechs."

"That is correct." Ves replied with a frown. "I do not entirely agree with this decision of yours, but I have done what I can to accommodate your request. The current iteration of the Jupiter Project is a second skin mech. It should fit you like a glove once you interface with the completed mech. Can I ask what made you issue this request?"

"I have seen what Patriarch Reginald can do with his Mars. I know what your other living mechs are like. I regularly exercise with Venerable Rosa Orfan and so on. The Riot is... quaint, but I do not think it will fit my style if I treat my new expert mech like a living horse. What I want is a much stronger version of the mechs that I am accustomed to piloting in the past. I have won many battles and attained great success by piloting mechs that bear no life at all. I think it is better to stick to my familiar piloting style and fight without too many excessive distractions. If Patriarch Reginald can make it work, then so can I. The Jupiter Project shall become the vessel for me to project my power."

As Ves listened to Ark's words, he felt a bit regretful that he couldn't turn the Jupiter Project into a classical living mech.

It could have become incredibly powerful on its own if it started out as a third order living mech!

Still, he understood that a second skin mech fit Ark's style better.

Though Ark liked to paint himself as a protector and a servant of the people, he could be incredibly self-centered at times.

Ves eventually moved on to explaining another key feature of the Jupiter Project.

"One of the most essential characteristics of an expert mech is that it contains a resonating exotic that enables you to amplify its performance by exerting your extraordinary willpower. Aside from the generic resonating exotics that are responsible for producing a resonating shield and so on, we have looked long and hard to find an excellent key material that can better amplify your strengths. The key resonating exotic that we have settled upon is Lumosium."

A new projection showed up that depicted a shiny and luminescent exotic material.

"Lumosium is not a newly discovered resonating exotic. Our civilization discovered it a long time ago, but regarded it as useless for a long time. Normally, it doesn't do anything but shine a light by itself. It is only after the Age of Mechs that mech designers discovered that it can actually function as a resonating exotic. Even then, its only useful application is to amplify the power of laser beam weapons. It would have been more useful if it amplified the power of every variety of electromagnetic radiation, but it mostly acts on light in the visible spectrum, which severely limits its usefulness."

All of this sounded a bit too complicated for Ark.

"What role does it play in my Jupiter Project?"

"Well, aside from making your mech shine a lot brighter, I have also discovered that it actually synergizes well with luminar crystal weapons. To be more precise, Lumosium can allow you to massively empower the quasi-first-class transphasic fourth generation integrated luminar crystal cannon system with your true resonance!"

Ark's eyes practically grew dizzy as he heard the overly long sequence of words.

Even though he considered himself to be smarter and more learned than his fellow peers, that word salad was so excessively long that he couldn't keep up with Ves anymore!

"Can you... use normal words to explain this to me?" General Ark requested.

Ves let out a sigh in exasperation. "Look at your Jupiter Project. It has weapon hardpoints onto its mech frame."

"Just like the Mars."

"Correct. The integrated luminar crystal cannons can fire really powerful light beams. They are powerful because the weapons are not only transphasic, but also hyper tech. Do you understand?"

"I do. Many high-end mechs combine phasewater technology and hyper technology these days. I am glad that my Jupiter Project can take advantage of this combination as well." Ar smiled.

"Well, that is not enough in my book. I have made it so that the ranged attack power of your Jupiter Project has become a lot stronger by adding Lumosium to its design. This resonating exotic can amplify every energy attack that consists of light, and the fourth generation light beam attack phase crystal happens to fall into this category. The consequenc of this is that your expert mech has become really powerful at defeating other high-ranking mechs, but is also very threatening towards other targets such as phase lords and alien warships."

As a Larkinson, Ark was familiar with the strange light beam luminar crystal weapons. They were among the most mysterious of the energy beams fired by these alien-derived weapons.

He didn't know what to make of it. Light beams sounded powerful, but Ark was afraid that he might not be able to grow comfortable with them. Perhaps he could request Ves to swap them with regular laser beams if he ended up disliking light beam weapons for whatever reason.