The Mech Touch

Chapter 6095 Too Smart Mechs

When Ves thought about what he needed to do in order to rectify the problems that he had overlooked, Alexa Streon looked thoughtful as well.

Compared to her mentor, Alexa was still new to living mech design. She had received a lot of lessons from Ves over the years, but her mastery and ability to design living mechs by herself was far inferior.

There was not only a gap in comprehension, but also a gap in experience.

It couldn't be helped. No matter how quickly she was able to absorb knowledge, mech design had never been a purely theoretical occupation. It was vitally important for her to stay true to her profession and actually design mechs that became desirable by a lot of mech pilots.

For this reason, she did not react as strongly as Ves towards their latest discoveries. She wasn't even able to fabricate a third order living mech, so what did it matter if their cognition affected their cultivation efficiency?

However, Alexa knew enough about her mentor's work to understand that this insight was of great significance to him. This was why he had fallen silent for a few minutes.

"Sir? What do you intend to do now that you have managed to make your theoretical framework more complete?"

"I am not entirely sure." Ves admitted. "I need to think about this a lot more. At the very least, I have already decided to rethink the cultivation methods that I have devised for my living mechs. I think it is best to start over from scratch. I can either devise a single universal method that is a lot more adaptable than the Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra, or I can come up with a bunch of different specialized cultivation methods that align with each individual mech role or mech archetype."

Alexa frowned. "The former approach is difficult to produce optimal results. A one-size-fits-all solution will never be able to fully service the needs of mechs as diverse as the Fey Fianna and the Transcendent Punisher Mark III. The latter approach is far too time consuming if you have to do all of the work yourself. I doubt that any of the researchers over at the T Institute possess the necessary expertise to devise cultivation methods for your living mechs. If you have to make one for each individual mech line and each individual high-ranking mech, you will not have enough time left to design your own mechs."

She was right. Ves found it difficult to decide between the two approaches. That was why he failed to make a decision. He needed to conduct more tests and explore his options a bit further before he committed to a strategy.

"I will figure this out later." Ves said while he made a dismissive shrug. "There is a need for change, but it is not urgent for the time being. All of my existing living mechs are continuing to grow and make progress with the help of the current Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra. Even if they are not developing their greatest strengths, the gradual boost in resilience at least increases their chances of survival and do a better job at preserving their mech pilots. That is not a useless development."

It was not his preferred solution, though. He was a big believer in the idea that specialized mechs should mainly develop their strengths. Mitigating their weaknesses was not detrimental, but it did not really yield as many benefits, especially if different machines fought together.

Now that Ves was able to make detailed observations on the effectiveness of the Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra on all of his living mechs, he became a lot more confident in his ability to develop a superior solution.

The insights that he managed to obtain from studying the Elegant Rage would definitely play a crucial role in this upcoming endeavor!

The Elegant Rage's brand new focus on thorns had given Ves enough empirical data that strong cognition mattered more than fancy techniques.

In fact, Ves should already be familiar with this dynamic. His mother had already taught him that a lot of cultivation methods placed a huge emphasis on artistic conceptions, but he never fully understood why that was the case.

Now, he knew.

According to his current analysis, the reason why the Elegant Rage was able to passively cultivate at such a high level of efficiency was because Venerable Lanie had forcefully imprinted her own 'artistic conception' into her living mech!

This act was so overbearing that the Elegant Rage's very essence was reshaped into thorns.

Ves wanted to replicate this method. If he was able to succeed…

"If my research bears fruit, then there is a very real possibility that I can comprehensively improve the power of living mechs to a whole new level." He explained to his protege. "The jump in performance should be drastic enough to announce it to the public. The only issue is that this is an improvement related to mech cultivation, which is associated with fifth generation living mechs. Sixth generation living mechs are mostly centered around improvements related to hyper technology and Ultimate Modules. It is not entirely appropriate to consider this to be a refinement of the current generation of living mech development."

"Why not use this as the basis of seventh generation living mechs then?"

"It's not enough." Ves rejected the suggestion. "While I anticipate that any progress in this area will lead to a substantial increase in the growth rate as well as the hard power of all of my living mechs, it is essentially an evolution of an existing mech feature that I have introduced relatively recently. I don't want to declare a new generation of living mechs unless I have managed to devise a new feature that qualitatively improves my products. I am still short of reaching this standard."

"I see. How long will it take for you to complete this research?"

"I don't know, but don't expect any immediate progress. I think that there are still extensive gaps in my understanding of living mechs and cultivation science. I need to conduct more experiments and study more theory. I also need to consult a number of experts in order to clarify a few matters that I am not certain about. It would actually be great if I can consult the opinion of the Evolution Witch."

Ves did not dare to waste her time on trivial matters, but… he felt the urge to do so anyway.

He should have a chance to ask his questions during the next session of the Interim Leadership Council.

However, that would take a bit of time, and the upcoming alien offensive might delay the upcoming session.

Ves and Alexa quickly wrapped up their initial examinations on the Elegant Rage.

Outside of learning about the importance of strong cognition, the two mech designers managed to gain a much better understanding of how the current iteration of the Elegant Rage worked.

Unfortunately, they had yet to figure out the core secrets that explained the existence of a mutated machine that utilized both metallic and wooden components at the same time.

Alexa made a helpful suggestion in this regard. "Instead of spending our time on studying a large amount of knowledge related to exoplant biology and wood-based organic machines, it is better to consult an outside expert. You can leave this responsibility to me, sir. I can contact many different Terran research institutions on your behalf."

Ves hesitated for a moment. Involving outsiders meant leaking valuable information.

However, the Elegant Rage did not contain anything that he desperately needed to hide. He had yet to transform her into a Carmine mech, so it was fine if outsiders took a peek.

"Very well. You can go ahead and do so. Make sure you get someone who is truly qualified to understand what is going on with the Elegant Rage. It is best if you manage to gain the cooperation of a mech designer."

Once they ended their examinations, they left the workshop and left the Elegant Rage alone.

Ves used to think that the answer to this question was an unambiguous yes, but now he started to doubt his direction.

Ves continued to remain in thought as he began to work on his other daily tasks.

He began to get a clearer sense of what he should be working towards. It was all well and good to design living mechs that became increasingly smarter and more capable of forming human-like thoughts and emotions, but was that truly the best way to make them stronger?

Ves used to think that the answer to this question was an unambiguous yes, but now he started to doubt his direction.

"Is it better to dumb them down instead?"

The Elegant Rage arguably already completed this process. Just like Venerable Lanie who had sacrificed parts of her humanity in order to gain extraordinary power, her battle partner also lost aspects of herself in order to 'make room' for her new thorns obsession.

Ves briefly wondered whether it was possible for living mechs to undergo willpower cultivation.

They would undoubtedly grow a lot stronger if that was possible. If their mentalities became increasingly more single-minded and focused, then their cultivation efficiency and power utilization should both skyrocket!

However, Ves had never heard of high-level artifacts developing such exaggeratingly strong willpower. Objects such as the Oceancaller and the Flower Parasol were not only a lot less sapient, but they also possessed inherent cognitive gaps that made them unable to fully emulate actual humans.

"It is impossible for them to strengthen their egos past an extraordinary threshold."

That made Ves consider whether his living mechs were subject to the same restraints.

"Becoming more intelligent and human is not entirely bad." He suddenly thought. "Sure, there are many more opportunities for them to go astray, but if they knowingly and consciously develop their egos, they may be able to break through as willpower cultivators one day!"

This was one of the most outrageous ideas that Ves had formed as of late!

The notion that mechs would actually be capable of breaking through and developing strong willpower that could rival that of expert pilots was absurd!

It was impossible! It could never happen! Mechs were not supposed to break through in the first place!

The reason why everyone held these assumptions was because they all treated mechs as objects. Even his living mechs were just special objects that still did not escape the definition of property rather than people.

Yet what if that was not the case anymore?

What if Ves continued to develop his living mechs according to their current trajectory?

"My third order living mechs are special because they have successfully managed to acquire a myriad of human traits." Ves surmised. "That is both their strength and their weakness. However, an important detail is that not every human is equal. They can be distinguished in many different ways, but the most important one is rank. A human of the first major cultivation rank is not comparable to a human of the second major cultivation rank."

The question now was whether it was possible for living mechs to acquire the traits of much stronger humans.

Ves thought back on the Elegant Rage. What if the mutated mech's repeated exposure to Venerable Lanie allowed the machine to learn how to strengthen her own willpower and obsession?

What if the Elegant Rage successfully managed to break through and develop extraordinary willpower of her own? How much stronger would she become, and how much more exaggerated would the synergy between the living mech and Venerable Lanie become?

The results were bound to be shocking!

Ves even suspected if such a crazy mech could truly emerge, the transcendent machine may have become the first fourth order living mech in existence!

"Fourth order!"

He did not dare to know for certain whether this was even possible. He only knew that if he actively pursued this development direction, he would truly diverge from the ancient traditions of high-level artifaction production and truly open up a brand new discipline!

So long as he was able to reproduce this result and teach others how to make such an amazing living mech, Ves was confident that the mech community as a whole would definitely embrace his design philosophy in full!

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