The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2325

Chapter 2325: Shortcomings

The jubilation he felt at obtaining a huge amount of newly-discovered Unending alloy didn't last long. After he picked up Lucky and left the shrine, Ves visited a vault that presumably stored the Grand Protector's most valuable possessions.

The old man collected a lot of trophies and interesting materials over the years. Much of the random scraps of medium and high-grade exotics could be used to build higher-performing mechs, though their low individual quantities made it difficult to do so. If nothing else, Ves could trade them for other strategic materials that weren't easily available.

Yet of all of the valuables contained in the small vault, Ves hadn't seen hide or hair of any B-stones!

"Where did the Grand Protector store all of his B-stone?! I thought that Ulimo Citadel was supposed to sit on top of an entire deposit of this material!"

"Uhm, sir, we found the material you were looking for in the Grand Protector's personal estate. The properties match the parameters that you have specified."

"Take me there!"

They moved to a small palace built closer to the center of Ulimo Citadel. A lot of effort had been put into planting gardens and adding opulent decorations.

Ves wasn't interested in these useless aesthetics. He stormed through the front gates and followed his guide to the master bedroom of the mansion.

He soon came face to face with the biggest concentration of B-stone he had ever seen.

"It's.. a bed?"

The king-sized bed certainly looked comfortable. The thick, soft pillows and smooth, gentle fabric didn't appear to be made in a rotten place like the Nyxian Gap. Ves was sure that the Grand Protector managed to import it from civilized space.

"Tear it all out."

Some of his bodyguards stepped forward to rip away the soft pillows, the exquisitely bouncy mattress and other useless frills. Only the structure remained after a few seconds.

Ves approached and touched the surface of the bare bed frame. He experimentally channeled some of his spiritual energy, only to encounter strong resistance.

"Finally!"

Though his men hadn't found any B-stone mines or containers filled with the spiritually-reactive material, at least he still obtained some.

He felt a bit disappointed at the quantity. Though he should ordinarily celebrate obtaining this much B-stone, after encountering the mech-sized statue of the Unending One, a mere bed frame's worth of B-stone looked inconsequential.

"Then again, I didn't necessarily set out to build a mech out of B-stone." He reminded himself.

Unending alloy was as hard and tough as the materials used to build first-class mechs. It might not rank among the top, but it was definitely within that range.

As for B-stone.. Ketis could probably chop the bed in half swing a single swing of her cutlass.

The sorry remains of Lucky's Misfortune Harness was a clear example of how little physical protection B-stone offered.

Therefore, B-stone could never be used as the main material for a mech or protective gear. He needed to layer it with another material with stronger protective properties.

Fortunately, he had just gotten his hands on a material that was even better than Breyer alloy!

Yet.. Ves didn't think it was so simple to layer B-stone and Unending alloy together. Each of them provided him with different advantages, but the problem was that their effects might not be compatible with each other!

B-stone blocked and interfered with the operation of spiritual energy. Ves was forced to apply a very thin layer of this material to the Misfortune Harness because Lucky wouldn't be able to turn intangible with too much interference.

Unending alloy possessed different properties. It was not only capable of storing spiritual energy, but was also able to channel it! As long as Ves experimented further with this material, he might be able to create more sophisticated applications with this wondrous alloy.

How could he make any half-mechanical, half-spiritual device he created with Unending alloy retain its power in the presence of B-stone?

Ves feared the two conflicting materials might cancel each other out! This was anti-synergy and something he least wanted to see!

"Maybe I can't have my cake and eat it too." He thoughtfully muttered.

On one hand, Ves wanted to build a suit of armor for himself that could protect him against spiritual attacks and other shenanigans of this nature.

On the other hand, Ves wanted to build a suit of armor that protected him from lots of physical damage and allowed him to channel his spiritual tricks and abilities with greater effectiveness!

It would have been great if he could combine both desires into a single piece of equipment. He didn't think it would work, though. He intuitively guessed that combining both materials in a single piece of equipment couldn't be done unless he processed the materials to a much more extensive degree.

Ves didn't specialize in materials science and metallurgy, but he possessed a lot of knowledge about it. Yet despite obtaining all of that System-exchanged know-how, he was completely stumped when it came to figuring the essence of spiritually-reactive materials.

Whether it was P-stones, B-stones or the newly-discovered Unending alloy, Ves didn't have a single clue why these materials interacted with spirituality. They didn't seem to share anything in common.

"There has to be an underlying reason why they are different."

He realized that his understanding of spiritually-reactive materials was quite shallow compared to his knowledge of regular exotics.

It couldn't be helped. He was a mech designer first and foremost. Without any prior instruction, he was only able to blunder his way through spiritual sorcery.

While it was easy for him to figure out some simple properties, he was unable to go any deeper due to his insufficient theoretical foundation.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify