The Mech Touch

Chapter 6682 Aureus

The new Fey Fianna had taken shape.

It took a lot of effort to get this done within a very limited timeframe.

Ves delegated most of the work involving the fabrication of fey parts and assembling them around the 25 formation anchors to the best-performing mech technicians who served on the Spirit of Bentheim.

These Larkinsons had years of experience with working on many different kinds of living mechs.

They participated in the production of hundreds of them and also services quite a few existing machines.

While they did not understand how the living mechs like Ves, they had developed their own feelings for them that could only be accumulated through years of experience!

Ves was quite satisfied with their attitudes, their professionalism and their competence. So long as he wrote a clear and detailed manual that described the steps that they needed to follow, he had no concerns that they would screw up along the

way.

Unfortunately, as good as the Larkinson mech technicians have become, the modifications to the Fey Fianna's mech frame required more skilled and delicate touch.

This was why Ves decided to descend on the Spirit of Bentheim in person so that he could do all of the work himself!

One way to do this was to possess one of his masterwork mechs and use the mech frame as a medium for him to operate tools and equipment. He had done it several times in the past by temporarily taking control of the Everchanger.

However, Ves disliked this measure because it wasted a lot of energy and made him feel exhausted at the end. A mech was also far from suitable to perform precision work. The Everchanger was never designed to perform these tasks!

Another solution that was a bit more unconventional ways to use his external incarnation Vulcan to possess the body of a mech technician or craftsman who worshiped Vulcan.

Vulcan worship was not that prevalent in the Larkinson Clan, but they could always be found on every Larkinson capital ship.

Although using Vulcan to perform mech-related work was not ideal, the advantage was that the design spirit was extremely good at elevating the quality of every work he touched!

If Ves had no better option at his disposal, he would have settled for this approach. It was a good thing that he did happen to have a better choice.

"Who are you? What are you?" Commander Melkor asked with surprise when an ostentatious golden mechanical construct entered the mech workshop!

"Don't you recognize me, cousin? It's me, Ves!"

Melkor would have accepted this statement if the speaker even vaguely resembled Ves.

The problem was that the construct looked nothing like the patriarch. The remote-controlled bot was shorter than a typical human but possessed a lot more girth. The construct's appearance greatly resembled that of a stereotypical dwarf that was engaged in blacksmithing or other productive craft.

What made the bot a lot different was the fact that it was made entirely of uncoated metallic golden alloys!

Gold dominated all of the visible surfaces of its exquisite mechanical body. What was interesting was that his exterior was not entirely smooth and closed. Instead, many parts of its chest, arms and legs were deliberately opened, showing off a lot of dazzling gears and other anachronistic mechanical implements that looked like they belonged to a completely different age!

Melkor suspected that the spinning gears and such served no purpose at all aside from making the golden dwarven mechanical avatar look more classy and artful.

"Is this... a masterwork?"

"Yup." The golden dwarf construct replied with a deliberately mechanical and tinny voice. "This is Aureus, one of several masterwork mechanical avatars that I have constructed through special means to allow me to 'possess' them. It is much more efficient and convenient to have me work through this construct than trying to do the same with the Everchanger."

Technically speaking, Ves made this masterwork avatar to allow Vulcan to seamlessly possess it whenever possible.

After all, an inherent energy-based life form that had made a lot of strides in his deity cultivation was much more suited to descend on a suitable vessel!

Ves on the other hand would have to force himself to perform an action that he was not inherently supposed to execute.

While there were several differences between letting Ves or Vulcan do the work, it didn't matter too much in this case.

Aureus was not the only mechanical avatar tied to Vulcan. It was merely the one that the God of Dwarves, Mechs and Craftsmanship had created and deposited inside the Spirit of Bentheim for occasions like these.

Given that Aureus would likely be used for mech-related tasks, Vulcan had designed

the mechanical avatar to excel at operating high-tech instruments and production machines.

Argent was the second dwarven mechanical avatar that Vulcan had made. It was currently deposited inside Ves' personal office within the Astral Octagon. If there were any situations over there that required him to be present in person, he could have Vulcan temporarily manifest a part of himself inside the silvery shell.

Since Argent was designed to work with cultivators of many different varieties, Vulcan had impregnated its silver alloys with a higher proportion of hyper materials than usual. This made it very suitable to craft certain types of artifacts.

There was also a third mechanical avatar named Aes. Ves and Vulcan deliberately designed the dwarven avatar to possess a larger and more stout dwarven appearance. Combined with decorative elements that adhered to the brutalist style and a booming low-pitched mechanical voice, Aes did an excellent job of conveying strength and

power.

Aes was stationed in the Eternal Vulcan Empire, though it had yet to make a public appearance.

Ves just wanted to deposit a mechanical avatar close to the Iron Emperor and the fanatical dwarves in advance.

Vulcan was already working on the design of a fourth mechanical avatar that had yet to be named. This one was designed around a dark theme and was meant to navigate the seedier corners of human society.

Ever since Ves climbed his way up the ladder and entered the upper echelon of red humanity, he no longer maintained any contact with the black markets and other elements of the underworld.

That did not mean they had ceased to be of use. These murky sectors always offered goods and services that people wanted but did not dare to obtain through regular

channels.

From the bodies of deceased high-ranking mech pilots to stolen pieces of Mentalist Crystals, a lot of contraband could be bought as long as customers were willing to

take risks and pay big fat premiums!

It was completely unsuitable for Ves or most of his clansmen to get in touch with the underworld.

If Calabast was still around, then he would have entrusted her to form a discrete trade

channel.

Her absence during the current period made Ves reluctant to delegate this matter to the rest of the Black Cats.

It would be better if he could do this himself through an avatar that could disguise itself and share no obvious relations with Ves.

This was why the design of his fourth mechanical avatar had to be impregnated with a

lot of Solus Gas.

While the mysterious substance was excellent at blocking all kinds of scanning and

observation methods, it also had the potential to block Vulcan from manifesting himself inside the mechanical shell!

This was why Vulcan needed more time to conduct research and find a way to reconcile two conflicting demands.

So long as Vulcan found a solution to this problem, it should be no problem to cover up the surface of the dark construct with false organic skin and pass it off as a human.

Naturally, the fourth avatar was designed to look like a human rather than a dwarf. The latter would attract way too much attention for Ves' liking.

The steady development and production of these unique mechanical avatars imperfectly solved one of Ves' long standing problems.

Since he was way too important to participate in battles and expeditions in person

like he used to, he could still be present in a different way by possessing these

masterworks!

He originally intended to design a few cat avatars for himself, and he might still do so

in certain cases.

For now, Aureus would allow Ves to work on Melkor's mechs with a much greater

degree of control and feel than through other means.

After an extensive round of upgrades and modifications, the iconic drone mech of the Larkinson Clan had drastically changed in function and performance!

Ves did not apply too many changes to the mech frame. At most, he applied a few quick fixes and upgrades that should slightly improve the Fey Fianna's defenses and responsiveness. He also updated it to a seventh generation living mech, though he did not implement any measures related to assisting in the cultivation of the Combat Spell Array Master Qi Cultivation Method.

He did not understand it himself, so the probability of making mistakes when implementing it was high. There would be time to implement this feature later when he was willing to design a proper 'cultivator mech' for Melkor.

In fact, the Fey Fianna served as an initial proof of concept for Ves. He wanted to

know how a modern qi cultivator was able to amplify his capabilities with the help of a mech designed to complement his abilities.

The lessons learned from observing the upgraded and modified Fey Fianna in action would definitely provide Ves with a lot of guidance on how to design a proper cultivator mech from the ground up! If successful enough, Fey Fianna could even be

used as the basis of an upgrade project.

11

mitigate everything that went sideways.

This was a much safer and more thorough design approach that would ensure that Melkor's first proper cultivator mech made him as useful as an expert mech.

Ves refused to accept a lesser outcome! Given the rapidly expanding demand for mechs. especially Carmine mechs that could allow qi cultivators to properly fight on the modern battlefield, Ves needed to

get in early rather than later. He did not want his competitors to overtake him and set the standards for this new and special classification of mechs.

"So what do you think now that my work is done? Do you feel more eager to pilot your mech than before?" Ves asked through his Aureus mechanical avatar.

"It looks better." Melkor admitted. "I don't think its performance has improved by

much compared to the base model of the Larkinson Edition of the Fey Fianna. The

only real changes are related to the fey. I don't know whether the new formation anchor fey will work as intended. I need to take the new mech out for a spin."

"Then go ahead. I am curious to see how my work will perform as well. Your Fey Fianna has become the precursor to cultivator mechs. I need to know whether my theories are correct."

Melkor entered the cockpit and smoothly activated it. Once the living mech came online, he immediately noticed a number of differences.

"My living mech has become less responsive. His personality is not as strong and

assertive as before. It's like he has turned from a healthy adult into a bed-ridden old

man,"

"That is an expected outcome." Aureus said without any surprise. "Your living machine had to splinter many more pieces of himself to infuse life all 25 formation anchor fey.

It is already good that it still remains alive. As long as you keep piloting your machine, your spiritual feedback will nourish it back to health. For now, I want to control the new fey and try to deploy a weak formation if possible. We need to find out whether their core functions are still working" Melkor and his modified drone mech cautiously proceeded to conduct a few tests.