The Mech Touch

Chapter 6139  Lobis Fragment

The development of the Sprout Rifle rounded out the Elegant Rage and gave the thorn-covered mech a chance to leverage her advantages at a distance.

To be honest, Ves did not expect the performance of the Sprout Rifle to be good at first. The weapon was largely based on improved ebony wood, so it was not weak by any means.

That did not change the fact that Ves had to develop the weapon in haste by making use of suboptimal materials and tech. The terrans could easily present the Elegant Rage with a first-class gauss rifle that vastly outperformed the Sprout Rifle in terms of size, mass, ammunition capacity, per-shot power, firing rate, interchangeability and overall efficiency.

That said, there was nothing stopping the mechers from upgrading the Sprout Rifle. Ves had already created a solid base that contained all of the essential elements. The materials, the technological implementations and even the appearance of the weapon could be changed.

What the mechers must never change was to change its status as a blessed weapon and an Ultimate Module. The Sprout Rifle's entire existence was centered around its ability to channel E energy and the blessing of the Mother of Earth to grow dangerous vines that could attack any enemy within range.

This tactic reminded him of the Promethea's penchant of starting deadly wildfires whenever the expert rifleman mech struck a distant opponent.

The Sprout Rifle was designed to offer a similar capability to the Elegant Rage, though its performance was much more restrained.

Ves predicted that the Sprout Rifle should be able to perform much better when attacking organic opponents.

The vines growing out the seeds may gain predatory capabilities.

They could suck the life out of any large creature that had the misfortune of getting entangled!

The more the vines absorbed the energy and biomass of their prey, the more they grew.

The greater the blessing and resonance empowerment, the more serious the threat posed by this positive feedback loop! n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Each of the rapidly sprouted growth had the potential of killing their targets by taking advantage of their own bulk!

The greater the blessing and resonance empowerment, the more serious the threat posed by this positive feedback loop!

It was similar to how Saint Isobel's King Killer Flames were able to propagate and engulf entire enemy warships just by using their hulls as fuel!

Compared to the King Killer Flames, the thorny vines that could sprout from the seeds launched by the Elegant Rage probably would not perform too well when employed against inorganic opponents.

They only truly shone when employed against large organic enemies, and only when their physical bodies became vulnerable.

Ves predicted that as long as Venerable Lanie grew strong enough, the Elegant Rage might be able to outperform the Promethea when it came to killing phase lords and phase whales!

The Sprout Rifle should also be incredibly effective against all manner of exobeasts.

Huge opponents that were filled with vitality such as the Emperor Tree should never be able to shrug off the threat posed by Venerable Lanie and her battle partner ever again!

In any case, Ves became quite satisfied with the addition of the Sprout Rifle. The Elegant Rage would no longer be able to function as a pure melee mech when equipped with this weapon, but the living mech should be able to fit much better in the lineup of the Red Association.

Amidst all of the fancy first-class multipurpose mechs, the Elegant Rage should be able to keep up with her non-living peers by firing seeds at distant targets. She would not be rendered helpless if she was being harassed by enemies from afar.

"It really would have been great if Venerable Lanie was here to witness the completion of her new Woodsap mech." Ves sighed yet again.

"You can always wait until she has completed her augmentation surgeries and retraining." Gloriana suggested.

"That will take too long, honey. I don't want this project hanging over my head any longer than is necessary. Besides, the mechers still need to make a pass on the Elegant Rage to upgrade her into a proper first-class expert mech. That will probably take a bit of time as well. The sooner we get this done, the sooner Venerable Lanie can get into action."

Once Ves felt that the time had come, he left the gathering of mech designers and floated over to the cockpit of the Elegant Rage.

Much of the new components were already in place, but Ves had deliberately saved the final pieces of the Woodsap Carmine System for last.

Much of the interior of the cockpit had been converted from a metal base to an ebony wood base.

The decor gave Ves the feeling that he had entered a high-tech tree house as opposed to a metal control room.

"It feels nice."

The cockpit generated a completely different atmosphere from all of the other mechs that Ves had designed in the past.

Swapping out much of the cold hard metals for warm and vibrant ebony wood filled the entire cockpit with wood energy. This would probably help Venerable Lanie attain a closer connection and also help her soon-to-be-altered physiology merge with her living mech.

He even thought about adding a number of decorative thorns on the chamber walls, but he eventually sobered up when he thought how they could easily impale Lanie's body if they ever grew out of control.

In any case, the centerpiece of the cockpit was the piloting chair, which was completely made out of transformed ebony wood and other organic materials.

Ves designed the piloting chair to be a lot bigger and bulkier than normal because it also incorporated a part of the Woodsap Carmine System.

Most notably, the chair contained numerous channels that were responsible for circulating the Emperor Tree Sap that was already running throughout the Elegant Rage's organic components.

The degree of integration between the Woodsap Carmine System and the Elegant Rage was much higher than any other Carmine mech that he had worked on in the past.

The initial Carmine mechs were just regular metallic mechs that reluctantly incorporated an organic vascular system.

There was no functional purpose to this shallow network of arteries. None of the parts of a Carmine mech actually required blood to function. The Carmine System therefore decreased the technical performance of the mech.

This was not the case for the first Woodsap Carmine mech. The Elegant Rage had mutated to the point where many of its metallic components had been replaced by ebony wooden equivalents.

The latter might not have any use for human blood, but they all required nutrient-rich and energy-dense alien tree sap in order to function and sustain themselves!

This meant that the Woodsap Carmine System no longer functioned as a drag on the living mech!

The overall efficiency and capacity utilization of the Elegant Rage did not drop as a result of the integration of the new elemental Carmine System. At most, Ves had to overhaul the cockpit in order to accommodate all of the extra systems required to circulate Emperor Tree Sap in the body of the mech pilot in a controlled fashion.

Before Ves put the finishing touches on the Elegant Rage, he decided to sit on the chair that he had spent a lot of time on designing.

"Ugh. It's not that comfortable."

Ves had customized the chair for Venerable Lanie's proportions. He also designed it with the assumption that the exiled expert pilot would wear a protective piloting suit.

Once he satisfied his curiosity, he hopped out of the chair and went to work.

He connected the final remaining parts of the Woodsap Carmine System together. The closer it came to completion, the more he felt he was on the cusp of building a work of great significance.

Ves hadn't entirely made up his mind yet on how he wanted to realize his design philosophy.

Developing four more Carmine Systems based on the other classical elements sounded like a fairly straightforward way to advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer, but he was not sure whether he wanted to take the elite route.

As much as he had been focusing on high-end mechs as of late, Ves never forgot about his roots.

Designing mechs for the masses granted him much more fulfillment. He was able to transform the lives of many more mech pilots, giving them opportunities to transform their lives and grow into heroes in their own right!

The elemental Carmine mechs that Ves envisioned in his mind were not that suitable for the mass market. They were very costly and imposed high requirements on their pilots. Ves disliked the fact that they could only serve the needs of the wealthy and the elite. Third-raters had no chance of benefiting from these admittedly powerful machines.

Ves inwardly shook his head. "There is no point in thinking so far ahead. I am far from making enough progress in either direction."

He turned his focus back on his work and carefully connected the final parts of the Woodsap Carmine System together.

"There."

A sense of anticipation welled up inside Ves. He still harbored a bit of doubt on whether the Woodsap Carmine System was able to work as intended.

There was no way to test it for bugs and malfunctions until Venerable Lanie was finally ready to form a Woodsap Pact with the Elegant Rage.

"I hope it won't produce any accidents."

Before he left the cockpit, Ves had one additional decision to make.

He put his hand into one of his pockets and retrieved a sparkling gem that was characterized by a visible patterned structure.

It was one of Lucky's more recently produced archgems.

[LOBIS FRAGMENT]

A semi-processed gem that contains a fraction of a dancer who could not cease. Will compel a mech to dance to eternity with the grace of an ancient master of her art. All motion shall bear a touch of elegance and refinement that can captivate any audience that is able to experience emotions.

Ves initially did not think of embedding one of Lucky's gems into the Elegant Rage, but as he increased his commitment to her design, he started to think about this option.

He truly felt it was not necessary to integrate any gem to the Elegant Rage. Her current incarnation was already good as far as he was concerned. Once the RA took possession of the living mech, they would definitely upgrade her even further.

However, Ves already amassed a considerable collection of gems, and he wasn't using them up fast enough.

Ves ultimately decided to gift the Elegant Rage with a gem. It helped that the Lobis Fragment just happened to fit the Woodsap mech well. He couldn't think of any other mech that deserved this gem more.

"Here we go." Ves whispered as he placed the gem onto the ebony wooden surface of the cockpit.

The wood automatically absorbed the gem. An invisible surge of energy ran throughout the entire Woodsap mech as the subtle influence of a remnant powerhouse began to affect the mech frame in a mysterious fashion.

Though the effect of the so-called Lobis Fragment could not be observed until the mech finally went into action, the Elegant Rage appeared a little more harmonious than before!

Just as Ves was about to exit the cockpit, he suddenly froze when he felt the start of a converge over his head.

"Oh, come on! It's not even a masterwork!"

Ves was no longer a stranger to this sensation. His expression turned helpless and annoyed as he quickly exited the cockpit and met up with his fellow mech designers again.

Jovy and Vector already received the news. Both of them looked bemused that Ves had managed to do it again.

"Congratulations, Ves. You managed to create another work that satisfied the condition of triggering a lightning tribulation. The storm clouds are already gathering over Diandi Base. It doesn't appear that the tribulation will be strong this time, but the Elegant Rage in her current form is not too powerful either."

"I still didn't ask for this!" Ves complained! "Can't the heavenly authorities give me a break?"