The Mech Touch

Ves experimented with the Soul Whip Technique as if it was the latest toy in his possession.

He unskillfully waved his arm about and watched as the Soul Whip noodled around like a floppy snake.

The enlightenment fruit taught him how to create a Soul Whip, but did not pass on the skills on how to handle this weapon.

It didn't matter to Ves. As long as he could make it hit what he wanted, there was no need to perfect his whipping skills.

One of the downsides of the technique imparted by the latest fruit was that it only taught him the most essential and basic instructions of creating a Soul Whip.

It did not appear to be too powerful or possess a lot of depth. The lack of strange descriptions and abstruse meanings meant it was simple for Ves to master the technique, but it also meant that he would have to work out how to improve and adjust the parameters of the Soul Whip by himself.

As Ves and his former student left the Wishing Fountain and moved to their next step, he already began to experiment with the new technique.

Instead of channeling pure darkness energy into the intangible whip, he also began to channel each of the five elements in succession.

The results were... mixed.

The Soul Whip mixed with fire energy literally flamed out. It was as if the darkness energy and fire energy mutually destroyed each other.

Infusing water energy seemed to make the whip heavier and move like an eel, but it also lost much of its threat. It became useless!

Earth energy simply caused the whip to become solid and rigid, thereby turning into a rod that lacked the fluidity of a whip.

Blending the whip with wood energy did... something, but Ves could not determine what. He likely had to use it on a target in order to know for sure.

When he finally tried it out with metal energy, he seemed to have turned the whip into a... needle.

"Hm. Funny!"

It was clear that simple blending of other E energy attributes did not yield any useful improvements. He would have to employ more sophisticated methods in order to successfully evolve the Soul Whip.

Ves was not quite sure whether it was worth it to invest his time in this endeavor,

He shrugged and set this matter aside. He would revisit it when it became clear that it would be helpful for him to form a stronger whip.

He visited the Divine Bazaar next. Most of the stalls and shops remained the same, but a new clearing had formed in the center that became occupied by a large and ostentatious wooden pavilion.

When the pair of mech designers entered the pavilion, they saw no signs of life, but numerous display cases showing many different items.

Just as expected, these display cases offered a large variety of low-level items for sale on a fixed basis. Attribute Candies, potions, medical supplies and other goods could be bought for dozens of AP each.

"This is a good place." Ketis said. "We don't have to wait for the right rotation to obtain the stuff we need anymore."

"That's true. It's too bad we don't have the AP to spare for these goods at the moment." The two memorized the items for sale and soon left the Divine Bazaar. They climbed up the mountaintop and soon reached the Tree of Possibilites. Compared to before, it had grown taller and formed more branches. The amount of enlightenment fruits available for exchange still remained the same, unfortunately. What was new was that Ketis previously dumped the corpse of a high-caste orven naval captain at the base of the tree.

The corpse had disappeared. The roots of the tree had sucked out all of the nutrients until there was nothing left.

As a consequence, one of the branches had grown a conspicuously glowing golden enlightenment fruit.

It beckoned to Ves and Ketis as if it was a piece of forbidden fruit.

Though Ves had a suspicion that he could pluck the fruit with no issue, he did not make any moves to do so as it belonged to Ketis.

[Orven Large Homeship Operations Golden Fruit]

Grants comprehensive understanding on how to operate most fundamental operations on large homeships built by the orven race. Also grants sufficient understanding of orven language in order to facilitate the operation of orven homeships. The beneficiary of this fruit will be able to operate basic engineering, gunnery, navigation, helm, life support, damage control, hydroponics, energy shielding and more.

Requirements: Intelligence must be 1.7 or higher.

Ketis grew a little disappointed when she studied the description of the fruit. Learning how to operate an orven warship did not exactly rank high on her wishlist.

"At least you will be able to understand what is going on whenever you board an orven warship in the future." Ves commented.

A frown appeared on her face. "I do not see the point in absorbing this fruit. I should pass it on to whoever you appoint to become the captain of the Torturous Scream." "That's not necessary. We won't keep much of the convoluted alien computing systems and other systems that run the flagship that we have captured from the Torment Fleet. By the time the conversion process has run its course, the Torturous Scream will largely look the same from the outside, but much of her internal systems should be based on human tech. Just take it. You will know what is going on when you next invade an orven ship, and you will also be able to negotiate with the orvens if necessary. I think it would also be good for you to widen your horizons and stuff your head with knowledge that is not directly related to swordsman mechs. You need to diversify your knowledge base if you want to keep innovating"

Though Ketis still had her doubts about the usefulness of this knowledge, this was her first golden enlightenment fruit. She eventually decided to follow his advice and bit

Into the golden fruit.

She paused and closed her eyes for a minute.

"That was... a lot. My head hurts a little. I do not think I should absorb another enlightenment fruit for at least a few days. Orven language is so alien that I need to put myself in an entirely different mindset to speak it. There are so many guttural

Sounds."

"Do you regret absorbing this fruit, Ketis?"

"I am not sure. Nothing about it is directly relevant to me and my work. It doesn't contain too much technical knowledge. I just know how to operate most of the systems of an orven homeship. Maybe I will be able to gain inspiration from how the orvens approach their tech. Some stuff is universal, but the orvens do have their

Unique points."

"That sounds good. Just let it settle in your mind. Perhaps you will think about it next time you are in a creative mood. Anyway, I think I understand how the improved Tree of Possibilities operates. It just gives us a chance to absorb a part of the knowledge of the sacrifice. That piece of knowledge can comprise the most important or the most advanced that can be extracted from the brain, but the selection can also be completely random. Whatever the case, it is unlikely that the golden enlightenment. fruit will contain knowledge that doesn't belong to the deceased"

Ketis nodded in agreement. "We won't be able to obtain golden enlightenment fruits related to mech design. We would have to kill and allow the tree to fertilize the corpse. That is unacceptable to me unless the mech designer is a scumbag" "Then forget about it. The most valuable bodies that you should strive to obtain are those belonging to senior alien scientists and engineers. They contain a wealth of knowledge in phasewater theory and all manner of alien technologies. They should have also learned human technological principles as well. Puelmer carcasses should be especially valuable to us. Since you are currently stationed in the frontlines, it should be easy for you to purchase a handful of bodies from high-ranking puelmers. Try and see whether you can fertilize the Tree of Possibilities with them. If that doesn't work, try and obtain a prisoner of war and kill the ugly alien with your sword. If the Tree of Possibilities still doesn't want to absorb the corpse, then it is clear that the rules for growing a golden enlightenment fruit are quite strict."

The only known success case so far was when Ketis personally killed the orven captain and sacrificed his corpse on the spot. If valid combat was a requirement, then they wouldn't be able to grow hundreds of golden enlightenment fruits by buying

High-value alien bodies in bulk.

"This feature still has promise." Ketis smiled. "I have an actual reason to enter the battlefield and challenge the native aliens in direct combat. Previously, I only did so in order to grow my courage and refine my swordsmanship. Now I know I can acquire useful knowledge that can help me understand alien tech better."

The upgrade to the Tree of Possibilities was much more practical for Ketis than for Ves. The former just had to keep fighting against the native aliens to get the corpses she needed to grow more golden enlightenment fruits.

As for Ves, he would have to move closer to the frontlines and secure a dedicated

Supply channel.

Even then, the Tree of Possibilities may still reject the corpse because Ves was not directly involved with killing the alien in question.

He had a suspicion that the corpse would still remain valid if it was killed by one of his products, but death by mech tended to obliterate fragile organic bodies.

The only enemies that could be killed by powerful mechs but still remain mostly physically intact were phase leaders!

Unless Saint Tusa was able to replicate his feat of killing a phase lord faster and cleaner than before, Ves could forget about obtaining such an extravagant prize!

Even if Tusa managed to slay another phase lord, the corpse was way too valuable to be handed over to Ves.

The Red Three had been snapping up phase lord carcasses left and right whenever they became available. Even if the groups were reluctant to hand it over, they would still be forced to do so even if they earned a large amount of war merits and other

Rewards in return.

Ves sighed.

"Would you do me a favor, Ketis? If you ever obtain a golden enlightenment fruit that you don't already need, please show it to me first. If I do not need it, you can give it to

Others." The swordmaster nodded. "I will, but only if Joshua and my children do not already need the knowledge that the golden enlightenment fruit contains. They will probably need it much more than you, no offense."

"It's okay. I would have made the same decision if I was in your shoes."

The latest feature of the Tree of Possibilities could still play a useful role, but it

Required the users to put active effort into hunting down high-value enemies. After leaving the Tree of Possibilities, the pair of mech designer entered the Mission

Hall next.

It had grown larger and featured a much more sizable Mission Board.

Both mech designers studied the Missions made available this time and indeed

Confirmed that there were three times more than unusual.

The additional quantity also led to another improvement that hadn't been mentioned

In the changelog.

The variety of Missions had increased!

There was greater room for the Mission Hall to issue Missions that were much

Different from the usual ones.

Ves paid particularly close attention to the much more numerous D-rank Mission.

[Forge 5 Bastard Swords]

[Pray to Su-thaneexi's once every 37.4 hours for a total of 7 times]

[Demoncast a Pain Blade]

[Design a Cannoncer Mech] [Repair 5 Heavily Damaged Mechs]

None of these Missions imposed any heavy demands. Ves could complete several of

Them in the span of a few days.

The rewards for these low-rank Missions did not amount to much. He would only gain

Around 5 to 10 AP if he satisfied the requirements without overperforming. That was still a good deal, though! The amount of time that Ves had to invest to

Complete these Missions was not that big of a deal!

He could easily complete half a dozen of them and earn several dozen AP. As long as he

Did this enough times, he would soon be able to afford an expensive enlightenment fruit or pay for a substantial upgrade! "Earning AP has become much easier!"

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