The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-6129

Although Joshua was obviously not in a good mood at the moment, Ves was confident that the expert pilot would bounce back in time.

Failure was normal under the circumstances. Expert pilots had to meet high standards in order to break through. Whatever changes had been made to the Red Kingdom may have lowered the thresholds, but it could change the fundamental qualities required for any pilot to reach the second major cultivation rank.

The principles of willpower cultivation were universal. Both swordmasters and expert pilots needed to temper their willpower and gain supreme confidence over themselves before they were even remotely qualified to take a step further.

Given that Joshua had not yet fully committed to a future development trajectory and often wavered in his intentions, he was obviously not ready yet. He needed more time to figure out his future and work towards it to the exclusion of every other possibility.

Hopefully, Joshua would get his act together by the time Ves upgraded the Everchanger.

After talking to the expert pilot a bit more, Ves finally turned back to the prize that beckoned to him since the moment his physical projection appeared inside the vault.

"Joshua."

"Yes, sir?"

"I need you to move your Everchanger closer to the ebony mech. I need to borrow your masterwork mech to conduct a more detailed examination of this treasure."

Joshua did as instructed. It seemed strange for the Everchanger to move closer to an ebony wooden mech that looked similar but also off in many ways.

This resulted in an exaggerated uncanny valley effect. Ves could not stand the appearance of the Ebony Everchanger.

That did not stop him from appreciating the ebony wooden mech's performance.

The Emperor Tree clearly attempted to copy the Everchanger, but possessed little actual comprehension of what all of the mech parts were supposed to do. The calamity plant also failed to replicate the proportions of the genuine mech well enough.

This resulted in an exaggerated uncanny valley effect. Ves could not stand the appearance of the Ebony Everchanger.

That did not stop him from appreciating the ebony wooden mech's performance.

Even if the Ebony Everchanger relied on a powerful external energy source to perform at its best, it was still impressive that a construct made out of wood managed to fight expert mechs to a standstill!

Ves wanted to learn more about it and find a way to reproduce its advantages. If he could replicate just a fraction of the advantages of the Ebony Everchanger, he was confident that he could turn his upcoming Woodsap mechs into truly special machines!

He had already thought of a wonderful application for these special elemental Carmine mechs.

Their inherent regeneration properties were highly dependent on the availability of wood energy or related E energy types.

In a typical space battle, there was no other source of wood energy aside from the exotic radiation generated by Messier 87 in the distance. A Woodsap mech probably wouldn't be able to regenerate particularly quickly unless it had access to another source of wood energy such as Gaia.

The situation would be different when the Woodsap mechs fought on life-bearing planets.

The richer the ecosystem, the greater the concentration of wood energy.

The greater the concentration of wood energy, the higher the performance of Woodsap mechs!

Such machines had the potential to perform way above standard in the right environments!

In fact, Ves could also envision similar scenarios for other elemental Carmine mechs.

A Bloodfire mech would perform particularly well in hot environments such as planets that orbited close to a star.

An water-based Carmine mech would be able to outperform other aquatic mechs in any water-rich environment.

An earth-based Carmine mech would become rock solid when deployed on any terrestrial planet or moon.

A metal-based Carmine mech should be able to perform better than usual when put on a space station or starship that were nearly entirely made out of alloys.

In short, if Ves wanted to make the best use of his elemental Carmine mechs, he needed to pay a lot more attention to all of these interesting elemental variables.

"Mrow~"

When Ves temporarily shifted his companion spirit to the Everchanger, Blinky was able to gain a much more detailed impression of the ebony mech under stasis.

Blinky was able to sample the ebony mech's deep connection to the wood element. The Star Cat was also able to sense that the trapped wooden construct was not a completely mindless entity. It possessed a spiritual presence that was not strong, but not too weak either.

Unfortunately, Blinky was unable to form any solid conclusions. The stasis field distorted every observation and made it difficult to ascertain any details.

There was only one way to solve this problem.

"Shut down the stasis field." Ves command.

"Are you serious, sir?" Joshua immediately questioned. "This will unfreeze the Ebony Everchanger. Who knows what it will do. It may end up self-destructing itself once it realizes that its creator is gone."

"I am sure about it. I need more data. Be ready to reactivate the stasis field as soon as it does anything funny."

The operator responsible for controlling the stasis field generator executed the order. Once the field shut off, it was as if an invisible weight disappeared from the center of the vault.

The Ebony Everchanger essentially unfroze and regained the ability to move and act for itself.

That did not mean that the wooden construct did not earn back its freedom. The vault was still closed, and the ebony mech was also surrounded by multiple layers of azure energy shields.

For a moment, silence passed as the Ebony Everchanger did not appear to move. The only visible sign of activity was that it released a little more heat than before. That indicated that it was definitely doing something.

"Strange." Joshua remarked as he focused his senses on the odd ebony mech. "Is it… thinking?"

"Yes, though not in a way that you and I can understand. Plant organisms think differently from animal organisms such as ourselves. It is rather interesting that there is a remarkably high degree of mental activity from this wooden construct. I did not expect it to be capable of producing so much higher-level thought."

"Higher-level thought… wait. You mean it is intelligent?!"

"This is not a mere product of a calamity plant." Ves calmly explained. "It is a construct made out of a shard of its own tree heart. Do you understand what that actually means? It is a splinter of a powerful and intelligent organism. Even if the main tree has died, that does not change the fact that this ebony mech has inherited at least a fraction of the properties of a calamity plant."

"Does the Ebony Everchanger possess an independent mind, or did it get hijacked by the spirit of the Emperor Tree?"

"Why are you asking me, Joshua? Can't you make this determination yourself? Use your senses. What are they telling you? Are your instincts ringing any alarm bells?"

"I don't feel threatened by the Ebony Everchanger, but I feel disturbed by its existence." The expert pilot answered as he continued to examine the wooden construct closely. "I… kind of feel that there is something about the Ebony Everchanger that reminds me of the Emperor Tree itself. It is weak, though. I can't really make up my mind whether our old enemy is waiting to revive himself through this ebony mech. What… am I looking at, sir?"

Blinky smirked as he continued to hover around the stationary wooden mech. The Ebony Everchanger remained well-behaved for the time being. It did not mindlessly lash out or make any movements on its own. It was as if the loss of direction from the Emperor Tree had turned it into a clueless machine.

"I think I figured out the Emperor Tree's plan. Before you ask, I am more certain than before that the Emperor Tree has truly died. Our clan successfully took revenge for what the calamity plant had done to Venerable Taon and Venerable Lanie. As long as the field teams have made their own verifications, we can transmit the good news to the two exiles."

"They will be more than happy to receive this news." Joshua said. "It won't undo the injustices that have been done to them, but I think it will help them move on from the past. Since the actual Emperor Tree has died, what is so special about the Ebony Everchanger?"

"As far as I can tell, it has inherited a part of the spirituality of the Emperor Tree." Ves slowly replied. "I am not completely certain about this, but it sort of feels this way. The Ebony Everchanger lacks the age, knowledge, power and other accumulation of the powerful calamity plant. It is an independent off-shoot of our old enemy. Although it is currently very weak, the Emperor Tree has deliberately strengthened its foundation and other aspects. So long as the ebony mech is put in the right growth environment, it should be able to grow stronger a lot faster than usual. It already retains a part of the properties of a calamity plant. It should be able to reach this state much easier than other plant-based organisms."

Venerable Joshua initially did not understand what Ves was talking about, but he soon widened his eyes in realization.

"Wait! Are you telling me that the Ebony Everchanger… is the child of the Emperor Tree?!"

"Hahaha! That's right! It is a good plan! The Emperor Tree has truly proven to be a lot more cunning than the average calamity beast. Do you know what I think? I believe the tree created the Ebony Everchanger as its legacy. It is a deliberately designed backup option that was meant to be captured by us. It has already witnessed our mechs attempting to capture an intact wooden mech before. This ebony mech and possibly the other ones are not solely designed to fight, but also ensure that the tree is able to leave behind its offspring if the worst case scenario took place."

This practice reminded Ves of ancient tales about how human tribes that managed to conquer other tribes adopted the latter's women and children.

So long as the male warriors had been killed, the remaining members of the tribe no longer posed a significant threat anymore. Instead, the women and children all turned into productive assets that could deepen the foundation of the winning tribe!

"Is that why the Ebony Everchanger is so… quiet at the moment, sir?"

"Maybe. It is possible that in order to increase the chance that we are willing to adopt this 'child', the Emperor Tree deliberately programmed it to be obedient and docile towards its new human masters. If that is its intention, then it has worked. I am very interested in getting my hands on such a powerful and promising construct. This Ebony Everchanger has excellent growth prospects. I almost don't want to merge it with your own Everchanger."

"ARE YOU STILL INTENT ON FUSING ME WITH THIS WOODEN MONSTROSITY AFTER YOU HAVE MADE YOUR LATEST DISCOVERY?"

The real Everchanger clearly did not want anything to do with this alien construct!

Ves thought for a moment. "I need more time to think about this matter. I suppose that the Ebony Everchanger in its current state is much more valuable as an independent asset than if I merge it into your mech frame. However, it also gives me a lot of intriguing ideas about fusing it to your mech frame while retaining its ego. Don't you realize how much more powerful you can become if you can actively leverage the power of a cooperative calamity plant?!"

"I THOUGHT THAT ANY EXOBEAST AND EXOPLANT IS INHERENTLY HOSTILE TO CIVILIZATION. AREN'T YOU AFRAID THAT THE EBONY EVERCHANGER WILL TURN AGAINST US AND TRY TO AVENGE THE DEATH OF ITS 'PARENT' ONE DAY?"

"The risks are high, but so are the rewards. I am sure you can handle it, somehow. This is still a preliminary plan, though. If I cannot make it work, then I will try to find a way to merge your mech frame with other ebony wooden shards."