The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1970

Chapter 1970 Opposite Sides

Even though Ves hadn't integrated any taste and digestion functions in his avatar, the virtual setting conveniently ignored that detail and allowed him to taste the wine as close to reality as the simulation allowed.

An indeterminate silence followed as both avatars sipped the wine.

"Interesting avatar design." Ves spoke up. "What is the idea behind its appearance?"

"My avatar represents my specialty. After listening to your advice in one of our previous talks, I did some soul-searching. After incorporating the lessons I learned at the trials held by the Rim Guardians, I eventually found a calling that I can call my own. I shifted my design philosophy in a direction that I'm truly interested in. While my current situation doesn't allow me to develop my new area of interest, I am still a lot more confident about my career than before."

"That sounds great. So what is your design philosophy all about?"

"As you know, Master Katzenberg specializes in material substitution. As her direct disciple, I've inherited much of her discipline, but unlike her I work better with some materials than others. After we played around with lithic mechs during our trials, I discovered that I possess a good affinity for non-metallic materials. After a lot of study and experimentation, I've settled on specializing in gems."

"What?" Ves sat up a little straighter in his chair!

"I'm not talking about ordinary gemstones, of course." The Green Golem avatar calmly continued as if Tristan anticipated Ves' surprise. "Humanity has come across countless exotic materials. The most interesting exotics to mech designers are metallic exotics and exotics that are useful in enhancing the properties of alloys. That still leaves out a lot of exotics that fall outside these categories. While not as ubiquitous as metallic exotics, gemstone exotics have their own strengths and isn't nearly as researched."

"You won't have as much competition than if you decided to specialize in metallic exotics." Ves noted. "That's pretty smart. I haven't worked with a lot of gems before. How do they actually work?"

Ves was very interested in Tristan's answer.

The Green Golem avatar smiled. "The gems that I am interested in aren't very common in third-class mech designs. In second-class mechs and above, installing precious gems on specific components can result in noticeable performance gains! The advantages of this approach is obvious. Gemstone exotics don't take up a lot of capacity, but their effects are very noticeable!"

What!? Ves was a lot more shocked than his Apollo Radiant showed.

What Tristan just described sounded very similar to how Lucky's gems worked!

"How do these gems amplify the performance of mechs?"

"You can't slap a gem in a random section of the mech. Gems have special catalyzing or amplifying properties that need to be leveraged by modifying the components of a mech in order to make good use of them. While the power they bestow to a mech is noticeable, there are many limitations regarding their usage."

"Such as?"

"Some gems last indefinitely, but most slowly wear out in time. They can last as short as a single battle or decades of constant use! One of the ambitions I've developed is to find a way to slow down the degradation rate of gemstone exotics. The other important limitation of gemstone exotics are their limited effects. Due to their size, most gemstones are only able to amplify specific performance parameters by a couple percent. There are gemstones that can do more, but their rarity and value makes them difficult to obtain!"

Ves tried to keep his shock in check by comparing Tristan's description of gemstone exotics to Lucky's gems.

As far as he knew, the gems produced by Lucky never degraded over time or with use. Some of his older mechs such as the Shield of Samar still performed at close to optimal levels.

Other mechs which Ves embedded with Lucky's gems also showed very little problems regarding their usage!

He wondered whether Lucky's gems were related to Tristan's gemstone exotic specialization at all. Despite their commonalities, they might be two completely different categories of materials!

Tristan glanced at Ves with interest. "You seem very intrigued by my new specialty. Others haven't shown as much attention as you. They usually dismiss gemstones as marginal exotics that are too overpriced and scarce to be of any use in mass market mechs."

Ves' avatar awkwardly smiled. "I think it is still a very helpful way of amplifying the performance of custom mechs. That's where they are used the most, right?"

"They show up frequently in our expert mechs. In fact, one of the reasons why the Friday Coalition is interested in securing the lesser states is to secure a greater supply of gemstone exotics. Their distribution pattern doesn't completely conform to the distribution pattern of other exotics. The frontier is also an excellent source of rare gemstone exotics. Controlling a trade route from the border of human space to the Friday Coalition has always been a priority to us. Sometimes, that obsession can lead to awful outcomes."

The conversation suddenly turned towards a touchy subject. Ves' avatar looked emphatically at Green Golem. The green, crystalline construct calmly resumed sipping the glass of wine.

"You told me that you are involved in some sort of secret research group. How much do you know about what has occurred to me in the last few months?"

"I've heard quite a bit. While I don't have access to the galactic net during ordinary times, I've worked hard to receive some dispensations. I'm only allowed to connect to the MTA's virtual portals. Once I entered the Rim Exchange, I was able to obtain some public news. You showed up frequently in many industry publications recently."

"I see. Those articles also mentioned my problems with your government, right?"

"Right." Tristan answered.

Well, at least Tristan didn't try to proclaim ignorance. Since he called Ves for a meeting, he should have been prepared to confront this subject.

"Urgh, let me be straight. I don't like your state at the moment. In fact, I hate the Friday Coalition. Going after me is one thing. Going after my subordinates is somewhat understandable. It's my fault if they died in my service. What I can't accept however is your state's decision to persecute my family members in the Bright Republic!"

As long as they maintained their hostile stances, their friendship was very hard to sustain! _{ƒгeewebnovёl.com}

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