The Mech Touch

Bang!

A round launched from the muzzle of the dark red rifle and rapidly crossed the distance to a tree hole where a scaled lizard-like creature made its nest.

Despite the alien lizard's diminutive body and lack of ferocity, its species possessed excellent instincts and reflexes.

The hunters who entered the Hanlin #6 Hunting Ground in the past rarely managed to hunt these sensitive and speedy lizards down.

This was because they could always sense a threat in time for them to dodge and move out of the way!

Their ability to evade attacks might not be as good as light mech specialists, but it was more than enough to avoid the vast majority of attacks launched by the casual and immature hunters that frequented this hunting ground.

While the alien lizard had already tensed its limbs in order to jump away in an instant, the creature suddenly froze in place!

Its reptilian eyes dilated and its scaled body shook in fear.

The reason for that was because the bullet that was heading straight towards its body happened to carry an additional passenger!

Maaaaaaw!

Just like the Valkyrie Redeemers that initiated their charges against their foes, Yaika was able to project her death power in a narrow cone in front.

Even though the black spiritual cat was much weaker than Helena, Yaika's aura of death was not a force that a small reptilian exobeast could resist!

Plop.

The bullet fired by the rifle was not that powerful, so the lizard did not explode on the spot. The projectile merely passed through the forehead of the creature and accurately struck the brain, thereby killing it instantly.

"That is how it is done." Andraste spoke with satisfaction even as she maintained her vigilance. "Did you see that, big sis? You should take a shot at the next creature we come across. I will even help you correct your aim this time so that you won't miss your shot!"

"Ah, that is okay, little sis. I can manage on my own. I know how to shoot."

"Yeah, sure." Andraste dismissively said.

"Maaaaaw!"

Yaika meanwhile returned triumphantly. The juvenile companion spirit had just participated in the act of taking the life of another creature in the most direct fashion possible.

As an entity that had managed to activate the seed of death embedded within her spirituality, Yaika managed to harvest a lot of new insights on life and death.

The black spiritual cat had grown excited because of these gains. Even if she and her principal were still too young to comprehend a lot of deep and profound concepts, just touching the surface of them was enough to influence the direction of Yaika's subsequent growth!

Andraste had spent so many hours on training her weapon skills that she never really thought about what would happen if she utilized her arms on the field.

It couldn't be helped. Despite her tremendous combat skills, no one in the Larkinson Clan ever thought about sending her off to battle!

At most, Andraste only got a taste of what it was like by killing virtual opponents in virtual combat scenarios, but only sparingly as it was not good for a child of her age to indulge in such a bloody spectacle.

Her father did her a favor by bringing her to a hunting ground where she could finally experience what it was like to take away the life of another organism.

Though the small lizard was not comparable to a human or one of the formidable aliens of the Red Ocean, her first true kill still had a notable impact on Andraste!

"Lucky, can you retrieve that lizard? I want to take a closer look."

"Meow."

The gem cat dashed forward and returned a short moment later with the bleeding lizard carcass between his teeth.

"Meow!"

Lucky hurriedly deposed the lizard carcass in front of Andraste. The cat certainly did not enjoy putting four-tasting organic matter close to his maw.

"Thank you, Lucky."

Andraste and Yaika studied the dead lizard in further detail. The smell was awful, but the breathing mask fortunately filtered out the worst of it. The bullet hole in the center of the forehead looked a bit odd.

It leaked out less alien blood than it should, and there was a dark and ominous air to it. Yaika's energy still lingered on this wound, causing the surrounding organic tissue to necrotize a lot sooner than it should.

However, the effect was only slight, proving that Yaika was far from reaching a degree of lethality that could instantly harvest the lives of other creatures upon contact.

"Hm. Once is not enough. I want to hunt down ten more creatures before I am done! You better stay by my side, Lucky. I am going to need you to play fetch a lot of times."

"Meeeooow..."

As Andraste dreamed of hunting down all kinds of exobeasts, her father and her aunt continued to remain engaged in their own conversation.

"What you have proposed may have a chance of working." Helena eventually said after a few exchanges of ideas. "You do not have to work with me. I am good at harvesting the energies released upon death, but once I have caught them, they won't be usable anymore. I will have to put a lot of effort into reversing this transformation. Since this goes against my nature, the process will produce a lot of waste. The yield will be so low that only a fraction of the original energies will be left. In addition, I do not have the ability to remove impurities, so long-term absorption will likely change your living mechs in undesirable ways. These quantities will be far less than if you rely on a god pilot like the Huntsman. His domain and concepts are much more supportive towards these processes."

Ves frowned. He expected that Helena would have certain limitations. It turned out that he had overestimated her abilities.

"Lufa excels in purifying contaminated stuff. Can you work together with him to purify the contaminated energies?

Helena looked a bit more optimistic about this approach. "It should work in theory. If he can purify the energies just after I have harvested them, the lack of resentment and other pollution will make it easier for me to restore their original attributes. You can increase the yield in this way. However, I will need to work together with Lufa on a long-term basis to support this for so many mechs. Every additional link in the chain will introduce further complications and inefficiencies, so the entire process will become more and more unwieldy."

He vaguely understood what she talked about. Helena and Lufa were fundamentally different existences, and their attributes were not entirely compatible with each other. It was inevitable for the two of them to enter into slight conflicts if they came close to each other.

"You know, brother, I bet the Superior Mother can do a much better job. She might be able to complete both steps by herself due to her range and versatility. As a True God, her control over qi much stronger."

Ves immediately shook his head. "Let's not disturb our mother unless it is necessary. Children like us shouldn't rely on our parents all of the time. We need to prove to her that we can take care of our own issues. Besides, this is good for you. The more you come into contact with instances of death, the more you will be able to advance your comprehension. Aside from that, you can also levy a fee for every 'transaction', just like what the Huntsman must be doing."

The energy manifestation of his eldest sister grinned. "You know exactly what to say. I cannot deny that I am interested in this scheme. It will keep a part of me busy on a constant basis, and this will only grow worse when more and more of your mechs gain this capacity. However, the gains may outweigh the costs. I am willing to try it out, Ves."

Brother and sister quickly reached a tentative form of cooperation. There was no need to make any larger commitments when they still needed to work out this scheme.

Helena still sensed that her brother was not entirely at ease with this development. She threw him a look of concern.

"Are you having any conflicting thoughts about this addition?"

Ves minutely nodded. "It is difficult for me to describe what I am struggling with. I am still not sure whether I should turn my herbivorous mechs into omnivores. Giving them carnivorous traits will cause my mechs to lose a large portion of their 'innocence'. A part of me wants to maintain the current framework on living mechs. I never had a problem with relying on time and mutual interaction to fuel their growth. They are already doing fine in their current state."

His sister did not empathize with his problem. "Do you truly believe that will be enough to ready your clan and the rest of red humanity for the struggles ahead? Messier Sy will not give you any reprieve for treating your living mechs nicely. Strength is all that matters. You do not have the time to treat living mechs like trees and wait for many decades if not centuries for them to grow strong enough. If you can speed up their development by allowing them to absorb a fraction of the power of their enemies, then that will make your life more secure."

"But..."

"Do not underestimate your living mechs! I am sure they can keep themselves under control. Even if they go bad, so what? They are still under the control of their owners and mech pilots. There are enough restrictions that can prevent them from doing any damage. If you ask me, just accept the reality that there will always be bad apples among every batch. If you are truly worried about the risk that these deviating mechs may cause harm, you can task your design spirits to monitor and report them. That should help with correcting them before they slide any further."

That made a lot of sense. Ves slowly eased the conflict within his mind. Though he still couldn't get rid of his discomfort at the idea, this potential upgrade was too beneficial for him to dismiss. He felt obliged to implement it in all of his living mechs.

Bang!

"Oh, look! Andraste has killed her fifth exobeast." Helena smiled. "Given how enthused she looks, you should rein her in before she depopulates this entire forest."

Ves did not look too worried. "She will run out of bullets long before that happens."

He still stepped forward in order to guide and supervise his children.

While Andraste did not need any instructions, Ves spent a bit of time on helping his oldest and youngest children complete their first kills.

Aurelia looked squeamish as Lucky returned with a mottled ground-digging insect.

The alien insect looked disgusting, which made it a lot bearable for her to shoot it with her rifle. A look of distaste appeared on her face and Lucky eagerly dropped and distanced himself from the foul creature.

Two wounds caused the dead insect to leak strange green blood. Aurelia had been forced to fire two shots because her first one wasn't lethal enough.

Unlike the kills made by Andraste, the bullet holes of this insect looked a little cleaner and neater than normal.

Mana's attachment to the bullet did seem to carry special lethality, but Aurelia noticed that the insect moved a lot slower than before.

"Good job, honey." Ves proudly smiled as he stepped closer. "How do you feel about your first kill?"

"It... was not as bad as I thought." The girl spoke. "This exoinsect is too ugly. I did the cosmos a favor by getting rid of it. Ugly beasts do not deserve to exist."

Ves awkwardly coughed. "That is a bit too extreme, Aurelia. Beauty is subjective. There are many possible reasons why you want to kill others, but you should never use this standard to make this determination. There are much more practical and rational reasons for you to get rid of others."

"Can you expand on that, papa?"

"Sure..."