The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3233

Chapter 3233: Painful Options

"Well, here we are again." Ves sighed as he sat in front of his main workstation in his personal workshop. "It seems that every time I'm being confronted by a powerful enemy, I have to pull out another rabbit out of my hat."

"Meow."

Lucky floated around Ves before settling on the table. The cat was already familiar with this routine and wondered what he would be able to witness this time.

The scariest aspect about an imaginative mech designer like Ves was that he developed a lot of ideas.

A handful of them were good.

A lot of them were awful.

A fair number of them promised significant benefits but not without complications!

Ves shelved a lot of ideas that fell into the last category. Although he liked to take a risk every now and then, he did not generally feel the need to resort to them when he was already doing fine by maintaining a stable trajectory.

Unfortunately, the good times were over. After a year of stable growth, the Larkinson Clan finally bumped into an enemy that was too powerful to overcome by letting Venerable Tusa out of his cage.

"It's not just the numbers that daunt me." He whispered.

If the 30,000 mechs dispatched by the Vulcanites fought like a mob, then Ves would still have ample confidence in his forces. However, the Ferril Provincial Army was a professional mech military that did not feature any obvious shortcomings such as lack of funding, corrupt and complacent leaders or low morale.

The incoming enemies were all trained and driven soldiers who knew how to fight like a proper army. Even if their martial traditions were not old and even if they lacked recent battle experience, they were still capable of employing proper strategies and tactics that attempted to achieve greater synergy out of the three mech divisions.

The strength of a coordinated mech army was two to ten times stronger than a swarm of unorganized mechs piloted by undisciplined scum!

Fortunately, the Larkinson Army was also close to military-grade. The mech legions were only deficient in a couple of aspects such as accumulation and martial tradition, but they had already proven that they could hold their own against the likes of the Fridaymen.

"This isn't enough, though."

Ves did not like the current odds as he saw it. Even if the Larkinson Clan and its allies were able to achieve victory, it would most definitely be paid with the blood of a lot of people and the loss of many crucial starships!

A pyrrhic victory at this stage was barely better than an outright loss. If his clan lost most of its capital ships and a huge amount of mech pilots and other critical personnel, then he and his clan would no longer be in a position to enter the Red Ocean.

"I won't accept this outcome."

This was why he started to pull out old ideas from the back of his mind and contemplate whether it was feasible to implement them. Almost no option was too taboo for him anymore!

"Should I build a giant warship-grade luminar cannon and mount it on the prow of my factory ship?"

Ves ruled out this idea straight away. Even if he won the battle, he would land himself in hot water with the Big Two. Whatever happened to him and his clan in this case would be no worse than losing the battle.

If he wasn't able to get ahead in some way, it was not worth it to employ the idea in question.

"Besides, a cannon of that size and caliber takes too long to build."

There were many impractical ideas like that. After contemplating several more suggestions, he came up with a simple one that was a lot more practical but was associated with a considerable opportunity cost.

Ves reached into his uniform pocket and retrieved a pouch. He opened it up and withdrew a handful of gems.

[Bastet's Favor]

The blessing of a feline patron is stored in this gem. Enhances the cutting power of a mech by 20 percent.

[Bastet's Regard]

The blessing of a feline patron is stored in this gem. Improves the agility of a mech by 20 percent.

[Bastet's Affection]

The blessing of a feline patron is stored in this gem. Increases the firepower of a ranged mech by 20 percent.

The three gems were the latest batch that Lucky had managed to produce. Unlike many of his other gems, these ones provided straightforward boosts without any complications. The only weirdness was that they appeared to have ties with the same patron, but that was not important at the moment.

Ves currently contemplated whether he should use them on his existing expert mechs.

"If I do so, I won't gain any substantial benefits with regards to my progression."

Their greatest value to him was the possibility to upgrade a mech that was already high in quality into a masterwork mech. This was an immensely profitable procedure that had already provided considerable boosts to his ability to design mechs.

In essence, the more he utilized his gems in this fashion, the faster he was able to realize his design philosophy! It also brought him closer to fulfilling his ultimate ambition to become a Star Designer.

Ever since he learned about Senfovon's Ladder of Craftsmanship and its relevance to his profession, he realized that making masterwork mechs was even more critical to his future accomplishments.

The headstart he managed to accrue with the help of Lucky's gems already put him at a significant advantage.

It gave Ves a whole new appreciation of his first pet. At the same time, he also suspected that there was an even greater meaning to having him by his side. Whether his mother, the System or some other unfathomable existence arranged Lucky to assist his mech design journey, it was clear that the remarkable gems were crucial to increasing his affinity for mechs and thereby allow him to catch up to the best and most talented mech designers.

To use them up at this junction and give up the opportunity to make three future masterwork mechs was a painful thought.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify