The Mech Touch

5890 Forging Ahead

As the Dominion of Man and her new 'additions' continued to endure various trials of escalating difficulty, Ves found it difficult to endure his own inaction.

It was a sharp contrast to his previous performance. Despite the fact that he had strained himself to his limit and beyond during his 'duel' against the Subjugation King, the rush of combat and the pressing need to outthink a strong opponent had made him alive in a way that was indescribable.

He had been fighting for several noble causes, a few of which were greater than most. He not only took responsibility for his creation and defended his work, he also secured important gains that would help red humanity stand a greater chance at surviving the tests in the future.

While there was still a chance that the ongoing lightning tribulation might ultimately prevail, the Dominion of Man was faring increasingly better as the various trials continued.

This was abnormal. Tribulations usually became increasingly harder to deal with, mainly because they escalated in power and difficulty. The damage accumulated between each wave also taxed the endurance of the subject being tested.

However, the rise of Furia and the comprehensive evolution of the battered but unbroken dreadnought represented a turning point in the ongoing tribulation event.

Ves had made a huge bet that ultimately delivered a huge payout!

The transformed and brainwashed Fire Elemental completely changed the game as far as everyone was concerned. Her awakening not only strengthened and expanded her fire domain, but also allowed it to meld with the many different parts and systems of the Dominion of Man much more effectively than before.

It was difficult for Ves to imagine that the new fire entity was able to expertly enhance so many different technological functions. Even if she had been a part of the dreadnought since the beginning, there was no logical explanation how she was able to master so much high technology.

Just the fact that she was a True God was not an explanation of itself! Ves had encountered many other True Gods who lacked true comprehension of advanced sciences.

It wasn't until he checked on the Brain Trust that he gained the answer.

"Interesting."

The Brain Trust or more precisely the Super Brain comprised out of 5 Alpha Plus Brains had been working at full capacity to support all of the computational power required to direct the application of Furia's power.

Ves initially found it difficult to accept that an organic AI core array was able to understand Furia's fire domain well enough to calculate how to use it to augment the dreadnought in a comprehensive manner.

Though he was not quite sure about this, his best guess was that the Super Brain made all of the difference.

Since Ves came up with the crazy idea that ultimately led to its formation, its performance already exceeded the combined performance of the 5 Alpha Plus Brains back when they worked as separate brain units.

That performance difference only widened as time went by. Part of it was because the Brain Trust benefited from all of the lightning baptism.

However, there was more to it than that. The Super Brain had gained a lot of Spirituality and had transcended its initial state.

Ves believed this to be a function of having an effective genetic aptitude score of S, but he wasn't sure due to lack of proof.

He did not even know what was special about S-grade genetic aptitude in the first place. That did not stop him from recording a lot of data so that he could analyze it in the future. Little might come out of the study, but he would at least be able to recognize similar phenomena in the future.

"It is impressive how the new elements are working together so well." Captain Zonrad Reze said as he continually monitored the state of the Brain Trust and the performance of the Dominion of Man. "This ship has turned into an unprecedented new type of vessel. Whatever you have done, you have managed to impress a lot of fleeters. Once more and more people are able to get ahold of the footage and the associated data, you will find that they will quickly change their tune with regards to the role of cultivation in human society. Few of my colleagues can resist the allure of commanding so much power. You have single-handedly secured the future of the Red Collective. Not even the Fifth Enforcement Fleet will be able to deny the benefits of your work anymore."

Ves tiredly chuckled. "Well, I am glad that my efforts today have caused a lot of people to open their eyes."

At this time, the tribulation storm had produced a field of heavy gravity. The Dominion of Man became mired by powerful gravitic forces that tried to crush her immense hull into a single point in space.

The gravitic field was failing.

The Dominion of Man was just too damn sturdy to get crushed like a can. Not only that, but the vessel was equipped with so many antigrav plates and inertial dampeners that they were fully capable of counteracting the force of gravity.

Even if there were a lot of sections of the hull that had become damaged to the point where the gravitic field couldn't be neutralized, Furia stepped in and utilized her potent fire domain to protect these vulnerable areas.

In any case, it looked like the tribulation storm had been poorly calibrated to test a modern human dreadnought. Everyone with a decent understanding of human shipbuilding technology would have known that it was useless to pit a hostile environment against such a powerful and well-

constructed warship.

When the heavy gravity field finally faded, the 6th round of the tribulation event had finally ceased.

All it did was buy time for the Dominion of Man to enact a lot of emergency repairs and provide a lot of free tribulation energies.

The crew of the dreadnought felt more relaxed than ever. It was as if the remainder of the tribulation storm had already tried its best to break their ship but failed!

Ves was not so arrogant to believe the ship would be able to fare well enough in the couple of rounds. The storm had continued to escalate with each subsequent wave. He wondered whether the ship and Furia would be able to grow quickly enough to keep up with the increasingly more challenging tests.

His borrowed hazard suit produced a noise.

"Oh. My presence is requested at the commander center. Good luck and keep monitoring the state of the Super Brain."

"You do not need to tell me that. Its performance is absolutely fascinating." Sigrund said.

The hybrid AI core practically salivated over all of the novel data produced by the most central part of the Brain Trust. Perhaps Sigrund believed he may be able to upgrade his own 'body' by drawing the right lessons from the Super Brain's performance.

Ves blinked as the Rubicon Spatial Transfer System teleported him to the commander center right away.

The transition had become a lot smoother than before. This was a powerful indication that the Rubicon had become a lot more effective at its job.

Ves appeared in a familiar chamber that was dominated by a familiar piece of art. He threw an admiring glance at it before directing his attention to the master of the ship.

The captain summoned an energy screen that isolated them from the rest of the bridge crew. Fire energy coursed through the boundary, offering additional protection against spying and eavesdropping.

"Thank you for coming. I preferred to give you the rest that you deserved, but there are leaders who require answers from you. Now that it appears that our upgraded and evolved vessel is well-placed to resist the storm for the time being, we have enough time to hold a quick discussion."

It seemed like the tier 1 galactic citizens were too impatient to wait until the tribulation event had passed.

"I don't mind answering a few questions." Ves cautiously said.

"The first question that everyone wants to ask you is whether you can replicate what you have done to the Dominion of Man." Dread Captain Volkert Argile asked right away. "We have 7 more dreadnoughts that are equipped with nearly identical Spark Reactors. Each of them house practically identical Fire Elementals. Are you able to bring to life and prevent them from degenerating into a vessel for an ancient tyrant? The Red Fleet is willing to reward you immensely if you are able to empower them in a similar fashion to my ship. Granted, we will have to put much greater effort into ensuring the ships can survive the tribulation storms without your intervention."

Ves shook his head. "I hate to say this, but the Dominion of Man is truly one of a kind. The main reason why she has become so powerful is because I have awakened her Spark Reactor, in a manner of speaking. As you already know, bestowing the Fire Elemental with life is not that difficult. You guys have already managed to do this yourselves. What is truly challenging is to prevent the Fire Elementals from downloading the personality of the aforementioned tyrannical cultivator. The only reason I managed to succeed is because I forcibly bonded Caramond to the ship, which allowed him to redirect much of the faith in human supremacy to the awakened Fire Elemental. That has led to the birth of Furia. I think you can recognize the problem after hearing my explanation."

The dread captain frowned. "Some of our analysts have already theorized this. I am not comfortable with the concept of 'faith', but given that it possesses a real and tangible quality in the Age of Dawn, I suppose it has become a useful resource to us. It is rather ingenious that you have thought to 'convert' a Fire Elemental into a loyal spirit. However, now that the transformation has concluded, is it necessary to continue to allocate faith to Furia?"

"It's not as simple as you think." Ves sighed. "First, there is only one Caramond. We cannot create another ancestral spirit that possesses the same domain as him and bind the new creation to another dreadnought. Second, Furia's transformation is not as permanent as you think. There is… a lot of hardwired programming in her being that continues to rebel against our attempts to reform her. These are the original personality traits of the creator of the Fire Scroll, and it explains much of the reason why Furia is angry and passionate all of the time. Whoever he was, he must have been extremely powerful, because it is impossible for us to erase these stubborn traces with our current means."

That alarmed the dread captain a bit. "There is a risk that Furia may regress and pose an existential threat to red humanity?!"

Ves grimaced but nodded. "Exactly. This is why Caramond is vital to the continued existence of the Dominion of Man. He is constantly funneling a portion of faith energy to Furia to keep her in her current state. This is a rather precarious scheme as there are several possible ways that this can go wrong."

"Please list them out for us." The dread captain requested.

"Caramond needs to be alive and in a good state. He is the sole conduit of faith energy that can keep Furia in line. As a True God, she can tap into faith energy as well, but it won't be of a variety that will keep her loyal to red humanity."

"Understood."

"Caramond must also maintain an active bond to the Dominion of Man." Ves continued. "In practice, that means that the dreadnought herself must remain intact enough to maintain this bond. If the ship ever falls apart one day, the bond between Caramond and Furia will break, because an essential binding element has disappeared. Furia will become unchained at that point."

That concerned Volkert Argile a lot more. "That is… unwelcome news. We cannot afford to lose our ship. That will force us to be more cautious in her deployments. Are there any other points of concern, professor?"

"Yes. We need to discuss the source of faith."

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