The Mech Touch

The Avatars of Myth and the Living Sentinels were fairly bland as far as mech legions were concerned. That was not necessarily a problem as they opened their doors to all kinds of mech pilots that satisfied their minimum requirements. They just seemed a little boring compared to the more specialized mech legions.

Ketis turned to the next mech legion on her list.

"Battle Criers." she said as her attention turned to Legion Commander Hugin Cinnabar. "Up to this point, your mech legion has developed into a counter against enemy manifestations of E energy. This was mainly for contingency reasons in the past, but now that systematic cultivation is able to turn any human into a metaphysical threat, it has become more important than ever to prepare your troops to contain such enemies. The cultivation method that we have prepared for you will help you resist and negate enemy supernatural attacks. It should also help you strengthen the effect of the Godkiller heavy luminar crystal rifles equipped by the mechs of the Battle Criers. However, I should also warn you that this method comes with potential risks. There is a chance that you and your mech pilots will... reduce the likelihood of breakthroughs."

The older man's expression remained calm. "It is fine. Our patriarch is far-sighted to be able to foresee the need of a mech legion that can resist these magical powers. We have spent years preparing ourselves for this purpose. We are ready and willing to accept whatever you give us. I think it is only a matter of time before we grow more relevant. If humans like us can cultivate, then the aliens will figure it out sooner or later. I bet the cosmopolitans are already working hard to tutor those phase whales."

That was a scary prospect. Systematic cultivation had already produced plenty of results this early. If the aliens started to catch up and practice their own cultivation methods, then they would become vastly more powerful than before!

"The Mental Fortress Auxiliary Qi Cultivation Method is exactly what it says." Ketis explained. "All practitioners must build a fortress in their mind that is primarily geared towards defending their own minds and spirits against external manipulation. The effect should be just as good as the mental defenses bestowed by strong willpower, though it will also dull your emotions if you practice it in certain ways. Later chapters of this method will strengthen your offensive capabilities as well. You will be able to impart the power of negation in your attacks that can help you break your enemy's extraordinary effects. Since much of this is based on the power of Lufa, this cultivation method is an excellent complement to mechs and weapons that already channel his power."

Legion Commander Cinnabar looked satisfied. "That sounds exactly what we need, Swordmaster Ketis. Our Battle Criers do not need to wield exotic powers. It is already enough if we can break them with our strength."

"The power of cultivation will only become more and more common as the years go by. We will all need to rely on your strength to proactively deal with the more troublesome enemies that are as threatening as the cultivators of old. To be honest, it would be even better if we can equip you with true mechs, but the Red Association is keeping these rare machines to themselves."

"I haven't seen a single true mech since it got introduced." Commander Sendra remarked. "There isn't even any hype around these strange mechs that rely on these so-called complete neural interfaces."

"That is because systematic cultivation has not yet had time to empower so many people... and maybe aliens," Commander Melkor stated. "From what it sounds like, true mechs only exist for one purpose. Maybe they can still be used to fight against more conventional opponents, but it would be a waste for them to do so. Besides, true mechs are much harder to learn and master. Maybe we need to learn a new approach towards piloting in order to use them to their full potential."

Little was known about true mechs as they infrequently showed up in large settlements. They generally did not appear on the frontlines as their principal enemies were not present on the battlefield, yet.

The Larkinson leaders quickly set this topic aside and focused on the other cultivation methods that Ketis was about to introduce.

"Commander Firelight, the mechs of the Flagrant Vandals all have speed and evasion in common, so your mech pilots will have the right to practice the Small Zephyr Auxiliary Qi Cultivation Method. Just as its name suggests, it was made with the cooperation of Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson. The Small Zephyr Method shares many similarities in that it can increase a practitioner's reaction speed, pattern recognition, and intuition, but since it is an advanced cultivation method, it can go much further in the later chapters."

The Vandal Commander looked disappointed. "Is that all? Not that I am complaining. Our pilots can certainly do much if they obtain a fraction of Saint Tusa's amazing speed and evasion abilities. It just sounds... incomplete compared to the methods of the Avatars of Myth and the Living Sentinels."

"I am not finished yet." the swordmaiden grinned. "The Small Zephyr Method does more than that. It ties everything together by helping the practitioners grow their affinity towards the wind element. It is not a particularly strong effect, but those who already possess an existing bond with the wind E energy attribute will be able to progress much faster than others. At the later stages, mech pilots will truly be able to evade attacks at almost the same effectiveness as a low-tier expert pilot. The mech needs to be able to keep up, though."

That sounded a bit better to Commander Firelight. He was not entirely sure why it was so important to develop an affinity towards wind when the Larkinsons fought most of their battles in space, but this was probably some kind of cultivator nonsense.

"That is more to my liking. I am sure the rest of the Vandals will be happy with this as well. I have a question. Since this is called the 'Small Zephyr Method,' is there also a corresponding 'Large Zephyr Method'?"

Ketis nodded. "It is in the works, though last I heard the cultivation scientists over at the T Institute have not made up their minds whether to call it the Big Zephyr Method or the Large Zephyr Method. It is an ancient tradition that has gotten lost in translation or whatever. What I do know is that the follow-up cultivation method may not be an auxiliary method anymore."

"What do you mean by that, Swordmaster?"

"I mentioned earlier that auxiliary methods are especially designed for mech pilots as they don't imperil their chances of becoming expert pilots or higher." the swordmaster said. "They are what our patriarch refers to as 'willpower cultivators.' The boundary to expert pilot is a life-changing threshold. This is important because crossing this boundary will determine whether a person can become a willpower cultivator or qi cultivator. If a low-ranking mech pilot decides to switch from the Small Zephyr Method to the Big or Large Zephyr Method, that person has already chosen to abandon his chances to step on the traditional path of godhood in favor of becoming powerful in a different way. Since it is all systematic, there is much less dependency on luck and serendipity for breakthroughs."

This was quite an important distinction. If there was one aspect about breakthroughs that mech pilots hated, it was that there was no progress bar or any other indication of whether they were close to breaking through.

This was especially a huge problem for standard mech pilots. They could only make rough and usually inaccurate estimates of how close they were based on their own self-evaluations.

For example, Commander Melkor had times where he felt he was close to breaking through, but did not know how much further he had to push himself to become an expert candidate.

There were also periods where he felt he had only made 5 percent progress towards triggering his breakthrough, when in reality he was closer to 50 percent or higher!

The lack of information was maddening. Many more mech pilots than Melkor suffered from the same problem.

The advantage of systematic cultivation methods was that they were usually structured into multiple chapters. Every practitioner should also have much more tangible information on how much progress they have made and how far they needed to go before reaching the next stage.

In any case, the commanders present in the conference room could foresee that many Flagrant Vandals who had yet to attain much success in pushing up their willpower may feel tempted to switch to the follow-up qi cultivation method.

"I would like to remain informed about the development of this next book," Commander Firelight requested.

Ketis nodded. "I will pass that on to the T Institute. Do not expect to see quick progress. Figuring out the cultivation steps at the later stages becomes exponentially more difficult, especially when no one really knows what people are capable of at that point and what they need to do in order to become stronger. We may have to wait until dozens of Flagrant Vandals have completed the final chapters of the Small Zephyr Auxiliary Qi Cultivation Method."

She soon moved on to introducing the next method.

"Are we next?" Swordmaiden Commander Sendra eagerly asked.

"Not quite." Ketis said. "I have a special plan in mind for my fellow Swordmaidens. Please wait until the end. It is the Penitent Sisters that are next."

Penitent Commander Valerie Chancy sat straighter as she awaited her gift.

"In cooperation with the Superior Mother, we have devised the Single Phase Mastery Auxiliary Qi Cultivation Method." the Swordmaster introduced. "Penitent Sister mech pilots should choose one of the six phases of existence of hexism to master: life, death, godhood, damnation, dust, and woman. The more they practice the chapters associated with a single phase, the more their affinity will align with their choice. They will develop various powers and abilities that are related to one of the phases. Every Penitent Sister can pray to the Superior Mother for guidance, but whether she will answer your doubts or lend a hand is not certain."

This was exactly what the Penitent Sisters have been dreaming of. This auxiliary cultivation method immediately conquered the Penitent Commander's heart!

The former Hexer even asked a question. "Is it possible to master two or more phases of existence at a time? Many of us already have companion spirits. It should be more than possible to let each of us practice two phases at a time. Even if there are Penitent Sisters who do not have them yet, what is stopping them from practicing all six phases at the same time or in sequence?"

Ketis raised her palm. "Slow down. You are asking way too many questions. I do not have all of the answers, but from my understanding, it is possible for a companion spirit to master a different phase of existence, but we cannot be sure about the results. As for trying to practice multiple phases yourself without the involvement of a companion spirit, that is not recommended. Doing this at the same time will cause your domain to get confused and split. It will lose focus and prevent you from making further progress until you have reconciled the conflicting attributes somehow. It is safer to do it sequentially, but the time it takes to make progress will increase more and more as it becomes harder to incorporate new stuff. I am not the right person to answer these questions. You are better off praying to the Superior Mother for clarity."

"Thank you. I shall do that. You have already provided a large amount of clarity."

The Single Phase Mastery Auxiliary Qi Cultivation Method had a lot of potential. It possessed greater depth than the other cultivation methods.

Commander Chancy even felt that it faintly promised every practitioner to follow in the Superior Mother's footsteps!

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