The Mech Touch

Ves only took a short time to come up with the concept of the Two-Step Execution Crystal, but he had already fallen in love with the idea!

Sure, the solution sounded a lot more convoluted than relying on Ylvaine's guidance to land an accurate shot at extreme ranges the first time, but it was a much better fit for the Amaranto Mark III!

Ace pilots such as Venerable Davia Stark clearly wanted to rely on nothing else but her own power and that of her battle partner.

Forcing them to beg an external party for help each time they wanted to perform a difficult action would cause their willpower to develop flaws and ultimately stagnate.

Unless Venerable Stark converted to the Ylvainan Faith or somehow triggered a massive mental shift that caused her to become a substantially different expert pilot, she would never feel comfortable with relying on outsiders for guidance.

Throughout her career as an expert pilot, Venerable Stark had unceasingly trained and improved her marksmanship skills.

Every battle she participated in gave her the opportunity to exercise her ability to hit distant or rapidly-moving targets no matter the challenge.

Just like Saint Tusa became ridiculously good at evading incoming attacks after putting his life and the life of the Dark Zephyr on the line, Venerable Stark also became incredibly skilled at predicting the evasion patterns of her targets and exhibiting enough superhuman accuracy to ensure her energy beam attacks struck their marks!

However, even Davia Stark had her limitations.

Ves' plan was therefore simple. If her skills, experience, judgment, intuition as well as the assistance from the Amaranto Mark III was not enough, then perhaps the additional help from the Ultimate Module may be able to bridge the remaining gap!

After Gloriana and Harry Kaikkonen got over their initial shock reactions and mulled over Ves' proposal from a more critical perspective, they roughly understood the merits of this idea.

"I can see the logic in this Two-Step Execution Crystal of yours." Gloriana said. "The challenge in landing a successful execution shot is to process the data from the calibration shot as quickly and correctly as possible. You assume that Venerable Stark and her battle partner will not be able to accomplish this by themselves, so you add a third entity, this time internal, that is completely specialized in processing and performing accurate judgments based on the calibration data."

"Leaving aside the unconventional nature and properties of Ultimate Modules, this is not an uncommon approach to solve a problem such as this." Harry said in a thoughtful voice. "Mechs that rely heavily on predicting patterns are usually augmented by AI processors that are specifically programmed to perform specialized tasks. A light skirmisher that needs to fly faster can mount additional external boosters. A space knight that needs to block more damage can carry an external shield generator module. What each of these solutions have in common is that their footprints are relatively light, but their positive impact on the performance of the mechs are greater. If this Two-Step Execution Crystal can truly perform the functions as described by Professor Ves, then it may be able to turn the Amaranto Mark III into an extreme range executioner."

Ves grinned. "I am glad that you have figured this out. The Ultimate Module for the Instrument of Vengeance is meant to unlock a new capability that is otherwise impossible to attain through conventional means. While this solution is admittedly imperfect, Venerable Stark and her battle partner can ultimately land her attacks on extremely distant targets by relying on their 'own' strength. No matter whether the Ultimate Module can cultivate by itself, it is still a part of the Amaranto Mark III, so it cannot be treated like an external party."

While Harry appeared to be open-minded enough to buy Ves' arguments, his wife was a bit more difficult to persuade.

"Your story sounds good, Ves, but what if one of the many assumptions that you have made fail to reflect our actual reality?" Ves maintained his confidence. "Then give it more time. The Instrument of Vengeance has gained the potential to grow on its own with the help of this Ultimate Module. At the start, a living Two-Step Execution Crystal starts out fresh and relatively weak, but will quickly grow stronger after feeding from the spiritual feedback of a strong high-ranking mech pilot. The Ultimate Module will begin to advance its 'cultivation' and form Ultimate Runes, many of which may be derived from Ylvaine, the Illustrious One, Titania and other helpful design spirits. However, the Two-Step Execution Crystal is only 'learning' from them by absorbing their Ultimate Runes. It will never rely on the design spirits during actual battles."

"Give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." Harry quoted. "This is a brilliant solution now that I think about it. There is still an unwelcome reliance on an unnatural and unscientific factor, but at least it is internal to the Amaranto Mark III system, which reduces potential vulnerabilities and makes the living mech more self-sufficient."

Even Gloriana started to get around to the idea.

"As Harry has mentioned, this is hardly a perfect solution." She said in a more composed tone. "However, I have to admit that your solution has a greater chance of working than the alternatives that I have devised on my own. It sounds as if you are cheating by exploiting the advantages of the E-technology mechanics of your Ultimate Modules, but this is your strength, so I can understand where you get your confidence from. I can say for now that your proposal is worth trying, if only because it is the only viable solution so far that does not cost an excessive amount of resources to test in reality. If your Two-Step Execution Crystal fails to deliver on its promises and has no long-term prospects, then we can always remove it from the mech design and start over."

The project lead made a logical and mature decision.

Ves actually expected that he would have to endure the screeching of his wife a little more, but she acquiesced a lot sooner than expected.

This was strange because his proposal actually contained a lot of sketchy aspects. He had been waiting to explain the mechanics of his Two-Step Execution Crystal in more detail, but his wife had essentially thrown her hands up and gave him permission to proceed in advance.

Perhaps Gloriana already predicted that she would not be able to stop his initiative.

He did not like how she already started to take failure into account, but this was also a reasonable decision to make from her perspective.

Not every mech designer was able to keep his promises.

Since Gloriana accepted his proposal to develop the Ultimate Module that he believed would best suit the Amatanto Mark III, the vision for the Instrument of Vengeance became complete.

Aside from the expected material and technological upgrades that required little thought and ingenuity, the old and new version of this special luminar crystal rifle had at least two major distinguishing factors.

Harry Kaikkonen's ERC luminar crystal technology was meant to add another layer of firepower amplification and attribute modification.

Ves' Two-Step Execution Crystal promised to vastly increase the effective range of the Amaranto Mark III at a reasonable cost.

One of the main advantages of the proposed Ultimate Module was that it did not demand a heavy consumption of power from Venerable Davia Stark, especially if it had more time to grow and develop its capabilities!

While Ves did not expect the Two-Step Execution Crystal to completely automate the calibration process, it was already extremely helpful if it could take over much of the burden from the expert pilot.

The more work the Ultimate Module was able to complete, the lower the burden that Venerable Stark had to bear in order to land a shot at extreme distances.

She would be able to conserve her extraordinary willpower and reduce her mental strain even if she repeatedly nailed shots that everyone else thought impossible!

Another added advantage to this proposed solution was that it had a ridiculously high growth ceiling. Ultimate Modules were alive, so they possessed the capacity to evolve and transcend their limtiations.

One day, the Two-Step Execution Crystal may transform into a powerful high-level artifact in its own right!

Ves felt incredibly satisfied with this solution. It largely conformed to his design philosophy and would remain relevant for many years without requiring active input from himself.

The only caveat was that there was a chance that he did not possess the capability to realize this promising idea.

If the Ultimate Module was unable to execute most of the steps that it was designed to accomplish, then it would turn into a useless burden.

"Let us talk about the Instrument of Doom." Gloriana changed the topic. "As much as I dislike the fact that My beautiful and elegant expert marksman mech resembles an ugly cannoneer mech whenever it is wielding the luminar crystal cannon, the firepower is undeniably strong. It needs to become much more powerful if we want this weapon to keep up with Davia Stark's demands in the future. This is the most promising weapon that we can use to land the killing blows on phase lords when Venerable Stark finally breaks through."

That did not necessarily mean that the weapons wielded by other ace mechs were ineffective against the native alien gods.

However, there were many weapon types that were heavily disadvantaged when employed against physically imposing opponents.

Even if the ace pilot had ultimately decided to reject the title Phase Bane, he had already fallen in love with the superior reach and lethality of this Terran mech weapon!

A good weapon can make all the difference in a confrontation against a massive phase lord.

When Saint Tusa-Billingsley-Larkinson took off for the frontlines with the Dark Zephyr Mark III, he made sure to pack the tier 3 Destroyer spear as well!

Even if the ace pilot had ultimately decided to reject the title Phase Bane, he had already fallen in love with the superior reach and lethality of this Terran mech weapon!

A good weapon can make all the difference in a confrontation against a massive phase lord.

Tusa did not even think of employing the pitiful knives of his ace light skirmisher against his gigantic adversaries!

Ves actually preferred to keep the precious tier 3 Destroyer spear within his reach in case he needed to borrow its destructive edge in person.

He was also afraid that the Dark Zephyr might get trounced on the battlefield and lose hold of this precious weapon somehow!

Then, Ves recalled that Destroyer weapons had no longer turned into an endangered species in the Red Ocean.

The Terrans of the new frontier may not be able to reproduce them, but the Terrans of the old galaxy should still be able to produce new ones as if nothing had changed!

With the creation of the Oblivion Gates, Ves should be able to import a batch of medium to high-tier Destroyer weapons from the Milky Way!

The challenge lay in making contact with a friendly and willing Terran trading partner.

Perhaps he could leverage his friendships with the Streon Ancient Clan or Devos Ancient Clan of the Red Ocean to establish contact with their counterparts in the old galaxy.

His mother already planned to form an unholy alliance that dragged in every potential source of opposition towards the Big Two. There were bound to be Terrans in this messy coalition!

If Ves asked his mother nicely, she might be willing to negotiate with the 'old' Terrans to trade for a pair of Destroyer knives and other requested arms!

Ves inwardly shook his head. He could think about the possibilities of intergalactic trade later. His mother and her fellow conspirators were way ahead on this front.

All he knew was that his mother owed him a lot for agreeing to work on the Rule Breaker Project.

She had no choice to refuse to pay back this favor by transferring a batch of precious Destroyer weapons to the Red Ocean!

What other goodies originating from the old galaxy could he ask for that were not too troublesome to import…

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