The Mech Touch

5916 Exotic Possibilities

Ves discovered that the Subjugation King was an excellent sounding board for his ideas.

So long as the alien tyrant did not mention any talk about enslaving Ves, subjugating the human race and all of that other nonsense, he served as a useful font of insight on matters relating to cultivation.

It was not at all different from asking for advice from his mother.

In fact, the Subjugation King was considerably more generous in his willingness to supply information. As a cultivator who sat close to the top of his extremely powerful society, rules no longer constrained him as much as other life forms. The fact that he was already strong enough to hijack a tribulation storm was proof that he could dictate the rules to an extent!

"$&#&$@&$."

"THERE ARE MORE CHOICES YOU CAN MAKE, MY WORTHY SLAVE. IT IS NOT A MISTAKE FOR YOU TO EXPAND YOUR DOMAIN BY SPECIALIZING IN THE ELEMENTS THAT YOU ARE ALREADY CONSIDERING, BUT THERE ARE MANY OTHER ALTERNATIVES THAT CAN IMPROVE YOUR WORKS. THERE ARE RARE TALENTS THAT YOU CAN ACQUIRE THAT MANY CRAFTSMAN WOULD BE WILLING TO SELL THEMSELVES FOR. THE DIFFICULTY OF MASTERING THE RARE ELEMENTS IS HIGHER, BUT THEY WILL HELP YOU BECOME A CREATOR WITHOUT EQUAL."

Ves actually took this into serious consideration. There were way more E energy attributes beyond the obvious selection.

Since Ves did not aim to master the 5 elements, why should he obsess over them? He did not find it unacceptable to continue to stick with the metal element alone if there were better options available.

"Please give me a few suggestions."

"#%$&$#@$."

"YOU ARE WISE TO SEEK MY CONSUL, MY YOUNG SLAVE. I WOULD NORMALLY MAKE THIS DECISION ON YOUR BEHALF, BUT I AM TOO DISTANT TO FULLY UNDERSTAND YOUR WORK AND CULTIVATION. SINCE YOU POSSESS THE GREATEST UNDERSTANDING OF YOURSELF, I WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH SEVERAL SUGGESTIONS THAT COMBINE WELL WITH YOUR EXISTING DOMAIN. FOR EXAMPLE, YOU SHOULD CONSIDER MASTERING THE DEATH ELEMENT."

"No." Ves shook his head. "I can already understand some of the logic behind this recommendation, but I do not have a strong desire to explore it further."

He already had access to Helena if he wanted to borrow her expertise or powers related to the death domain.

Sure, borrowing her power might not be as good as mastering it himself, but Ves did not think that his own attempts to comprehend this concept would surpass his eldest sister.

The only real gain from mastering this negative attribute was to develop powerful synergies between life and death.

"#$&$@#$@."

"THEN YOU SHOULD CONSIDER THE LIGHT ELEMENT. I CAN DISCERN THAT YOU POSSESS A SMALL AFFINITY AND COMPREHENSION OF LIGHT. IF YOU DECIDE TO DEVELOP IT PROPERLY, THEN YOU WILL BE ABLE TO RAISE YOUR STATUS WITHIN THE KRELION EMPIRE. ALL SLAVES ACKNOWLEDGE THE GREAT LIGHTHOUSE AND RECEIVES ITS BLESSING SHALL BE TREATED TO A HIGHER STANDARD. I SHALL HAVE REASON TO GRANT YOU GREATER PRIVILEGES, SUCH AS BEING ABLE TO DECIDE YOUR OWN WORK OR REQUEST TO SPEND ADDITIONAL TIME IN MY GLORIOUS PRESENCE."

Ves directed a suspicious glance towards the shadow of the Subjugation King. What sort of slave wanted to spend more time with the cruel and merciless tyrant who was responsible for enslaving him or her in the first place?!

"No thanks." Ves irreverently said. "I indeed devoted my time to study the properties of light so that I can improve certain aspects of my work, but I am not that passionate about it. Choosing to specialize in light will cause me to deviate from my goals."

"#$&&#$#@."

"YOU ARE MAKING A MISTAKE. LIGHT IS THE QUALITY THAT ILLUMINATES OUR SOUL. LIGHT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING US EE. LIGHT IS THE PURIFYING FORCE THAT STRIPS US FROM IMPURITIES. IT IS NOT AS LIMITING AND NARROW IN SCOPE AS YOU THINK. THERE IS GREAT PROMISE IN MASTERING THE POWER OF LIGHT."

There was no way the Subjugation King was neutral on this subject. Given that light played a central role in his belief in the Great Lighthouse, this was a religious matter to him. The alien was so fixated on light that he acted as if Ves should readily acknowledge the advantages of this element!

The Subjugation King wanted to impose his own faith on Ves!

"I will not choose light." Ves firmly stated. "Before you say anything else, let me tell you that my decision is final."

At least the Subjugation King was tactful and understanding enough to drop his urging.

"#@$$%&@."

"VERY WELL. YOU WILL COME TO REGRET THIS DECISION."

"Just give me another recommendation."

"#$&#@$&."

"YOU HAVE A SPECIAL CONNECTION WITH KARMA. YOUR SOUL IS DRENCHED WITH IT. IT MAY BE USEFUL FOR YOU TO ADD IT TO YOUR DOMAIN. THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT USES FOR KARMA. IT CAN BE USED TO TRACK YOUR TARGETS NO MATTER HOW WELL THEY HIDE THEMSELVES. KARMA CAN ALSO BE EMPLOYED AS AN ATTACK VECTOR. IT IS MOST OFTEN USED TO EXTERMINATE ENTIRE BLOODLINES OR EVERY CLONE OF AN ENEMY CULTIVATOR. YOU CAN ALSO INHIBIT MORE POWERFUL ENEMIES BY BURDENING THEM WITH GREATER DEBTS OF KARMA."

This was definitely an interesting suggestion. Karma was a weird and incredibly abstract concept, but it definitely had its uses.

Ves could already foresee the benefits of adding this to his specialization. Karma would allow him to design mechs that could do the stuff that the Subjugation King had mentioned and more.

It would not play a pronounced role in his mech designs, but would instead serve as a subtle addition to his existing design solutions.

He liked that. Ves wouldn't have to make too many changes to his design philosophy.

In fact, he could continue to design almost the exact same mechs as before! He just needed to add an explicit karma component to them in order to conform with his altered domain.

The only issue was that karma was such an ephemeral concept that it would be difficult to come up with any useful design applications in the short term.

It would take years or a decade for Ves to develop a strong enough design application based on this elusive concept.

The advantage was that it would absolutely be unique. There were many mech designers who developed a specialization that was tied to the 5 classical elements.

Ves did not think that there was any mech designer who would choose to develop a design philosophy based on karma!

Even if a few oddballs emerged in the future, their numbers shouldn't be too large.

In the end, Ves shook his head.

"Karma is an inventive suggestion, but it will take my work in a weird direction. I am not too sure it is the best fit for me. I do not discount the value of comprehending karma, or dismiss the utility of works that can directly affect it in different ways. I just think that it may not synergize well enough with my existing specializations."

Disapproval radiated from the shadow of the Subjugation King.

"YOU ARE NOT DECISIVE ENOUGH. YOU ARE NOT AT FAULT FOR BEING CAREFUL AND CONSIDERABLE, BUT YOU ARE CLEARLY LACKING IN EXPERIENCE AND WISDOM FOR NOT PREPARING A RESPONSE FOR A BLESSING FROM THE HEAVENS. I ORDER YOU TO PUT MORE THOUGHT INTO THIS SITUATION SO THAT YOU MAY HAVE A CLEAR ANSWER IF THE GREAT LIGHTHOUSE BESTOWS ANOTHER BLESSING TO YOU. I HAVE EVERY CONFIDENCE IN YOUR ABILITY TO EARN ITS APPRECIATION AGAIN. I WILL ENDEAVOR TO WITNESS YOUR PERFORMANCE AGAIN."

That certainly sounded alarming!

Did the Subjugation King have the ability to hijack every tribulation storm that took place in the Red Ocean?

It would be too crazy if that was the case! He could not only gather intelligence on red humanity's most resplendent works, but also interfere to cripple the results!

The amount of damage that the alien God King could do to human civilization was too great, and this was when he was still hundreds of light-years away from his destination!

This prospect was far too scary for Ves. He refused to believe in this scenario!

There had to be a price for meddling with the natural order to this degree. Ves distinctly recalled that the Subjugation King never showed up during the disastrous tribulation of the Elemental Lord.

This indicated that the alien tyrant shouldn't be powerful enough to meddle with the new frontier with impunity.

He forced himself to relax and focus on his current situation.

He was coming closer to making a decision. He just wanted to obtain a few more bits of information before he was ready to announce his choice.

"Your suggestions have given me ideas of my own. What do you think about networking or connections?" He asked. "If you have taken a good look at the ship, you will find that networking forms the basis of her strength."

There was no way to hide anything as obvious as the Bloodfire Pact to the Subjugation King. The powerful cultivator likely encountered far more sophisticated versions in his native galaxy.

"#$&#A$&@#$@."

"YOUR 'NETWORKS' ARE INTERESTING, BUT WEAK. I CAUTION YOU TO NOT DEPEND ON THEM TOO MUCH. IF I CAN SEE THEM, I CAN DESTROY THEM. IN FACT, IT WILL MAKE MY EFFORT TO ENSLAVE YOUR RACE MUCH EASIER. THERE ARE INDEED CULTIVATORS WHO HAVE TURNED THEIR BONDS WITH OTHERS AS A SOURCE OF STRENGTH. I AM ONE OF THEM. THIS IS WHY I JUDGE THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE THE TEMPERAMENT TO GO FAR ON THIS PATH."

Ves frowned. He disagreed with the Subjugation King.

The fact that this bastard derived his strength from his slaves was not a surprising revelation.

Ves did not have any ambitions to abuse his own ability to form spiritual networks in the same manner. His design philosophy was centered around mutual growth. Every relationship had to center around a win-win agreement.

If one side exploited the other, then Ves could no longer call it mutual growth.

It would be much more apt to say that the former effectively enslaved the latter!

In any case, the concept of networks should be versatile enough for Ves to take it in a completely different direction than the Subjugation King.

The only concern he possessed was that it was not a neglected specialization.

The Web Mistress was by far the strongest mech designer who worked with networks. Many of her design applications may have been purely technological in nature, but now that red humanity entered the Age of Dawn, it shouldn't be too difficult for her to develop her own version of spiritual networks!

Ves was quite cognizant of the fact that cultivators who possessed similar or overlapping domains might be forced to compete with each other sooner or later.

If he ever made it far enough to get within reach of promoting to the God King, he may be put in a situation where he had to fight directly against the Web Mistress in order to realize his greater ambitions!

Ves did not think it was a good idea for him to compete against a Star Designer who developed a far greater obsession with networks than himself.

Then again, if he allowed his potential fears of conflicting with fellow professionals in the distant future to restrain his own works, then that was stupid!

If Ves chose to expand his domain to accommodate the fire element, then there might come a day where he would have to compete against the Lord of Thermodynamics or one of the many other mech designers with similar design philosophies!

As long as he disregarded this distant concern, then Ves felt it was not a bad idea to develop a deeper specialization in networks. The fact that it synergized extremely well with the Carmine System and his other network-related works was a powerful motivation to deepen his understanding of this concept!

A few minutes passed by as Ves asked for additional insight and clarification from the Subjugation King.

Knowing that time was running out for Ves, he finally managed to make up his mind and settle on a choice that would change his life forever.

He took a deep breath and stared up at the shadow of the Subjugation King.

"I have made my decision. After a lot of thought and consideration, I have decided to ask for a boon that will expand the composition of my nascent domain. The element that I have chosen for this is…"

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