The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5111

Ves and Venerable Isobel Kotin walked closer to the Promethea at this time.

The former briefly recalled the design choices he made when he developed the black-and-purpose expert rifleman mech.

He was quite proud with how the Promethea ended up. She might not be as flashy as masterwork expert mechs such as the Everchanger and the Phobos, but the expert rifleman mech comfortably occupied her own niche in the Larkinson Army.

If the Age of Mechs continued to progress like everyone expected it to, then the Promethea would have been able to excel without question!

Ves felt a lot of regret for the fact that his original projections and expectations for this creation failed to match the actual reality.

How could he have known at the time that the Promethea would no longer be able to use her Ignitron rifle to set fire on unshielded or lightly shielded human starships anymore?

Unlike human vessels which mostly lacked transphasic protection due to the extreme scarcity of phasewater, seemingly every alien warship was equipped with a collection of powerful transphasic shield generators!

Even the weaker and less advanced alien races such as the wheednars and the yurzens were also able to outfit their warships with this powerful form of protection.

This disparity illustrated the difference between the two sides. Humans were still newcomers to the Red Ocean. They only controlled a relatively modest portion of its galactic rim.

In contrast, the native aliens occupied the vast majority of phasewater-endowed territories for many millennia! Even a minor race would be able to construct a lot of decent warships by relying on long and steady accumulation!

This pattern practically ensured that as long as red humanity and the native aliens remained at war, the Larkinson Clan would have to fight against many more warships protected by transphasic energy shields!

Ves grew even more determined to enhance the Promethea's performance against this difficult enemy type!

He wanted this older creation of his to live up to expectations he set when he initially designed this fire-based machine!

He did not want the Promethea to constantly play second fiddle to the Amaranto. Both of them were expert mechs, and while only one of them was a masterwork, that did not excuse their unusually wide divergence in performance!

Ves examined the Promethea with his spiritual senses. Her growth and evolution had not progressed too far, as evidenced by her 4 Ascension Runes.

This was understandable. The machine was a lot younger than the Amaranto and participated in considerably fewer battles. She also started out as a second order living mech and had to spend a lot of time with Venerable Isobel Kotin to evolve into a third order living mech.

The Promethea currently had access to two Ascension Paths.

The Path of the Metal Eater was derived from Zeigra. It took advantage of the aggressive design spirit's original talent for corroding metal and increased the upper boundary of the Promethea's ability to burn metal with her flames.

Ves grew more confident in Venerable Isobel Kotin and the Promethea's ability to gradually burn the toughest first-class alloys!

However, the greatest shortcoming of this Ascension Path was that it was only effective against armor-based defenses. It did not provide any clear enhancements against energy-based defenses.

The Path of the Illuminator was derived from the Illustrious One. It strengthened the Promethea's more direct energy attacks and paired fairly well with the Detonation Code.

If the expert rifleman mech continued to progress further into this Ascension Path, then the Promethea would eventually be able to draw out the greater potential of energy attacks and luminar crystal weapons!

Ves originally set up both of these Ascension Paths together with the design spirits to go hand-in-hand with each other, but perhaps that might not be the best for Venerable Isobel's development.

There was no quick and easy way for the Promethea to make use of a third Ascension Path that could enable her to counter transphasic energy shields.

There was no obvious source for one aside from the Phase King, but doing so would change the fundamental spiritual makeup of the expert rifleman mech.

The combination of the Illustrious One and Zeigra fit the Promethea best from a practical and conceptual perspective.

After learning about the importance of sticking to strongly defined artistic conceptions in cultivation science, Ves found it even more important to exhibit restraint when it came to matching mechs with design spirits!

If Ves couldn't improve the Promethea's performance through Ascension Paths, then maybe he should look elsewhere.

He turned towards Venerable Isobel. "How are you doing with your companion spirit?"

The woman smiled in delight. "Kiroshi is fun to have around. I also found her to be useful in helping me resonate more with specific parts of my mech. I have found that she is especially good at increasing the power of the Promethea's flamethrower. It's a shame that it's only effective at shorter ranges."

Her companion spirit popped out of her head as she talked. The purple cat shared a surprising degree of resemblance to Blinky!

"Ya! Ya!"

Their spiritual natures were substantially different, though. Whereas Blinky embodied energy itself, Kiroshi was a full reflection of Venerable Isobel's fire domain.

Kiroshi actually reminded him of Emma!

"Have you been able to use Kiroshi to strengthen the effectiveness of your long-ranged energy attacks?" Ves questioned.

"I've tried to, but it's hard." She responded. "I tried to do what you have suggested and go beyond the basic trick of increasing my resonance with the Ignitron rifle, but... I'm not sure if it is even possible to attach Kiroshi to the energy beams released by the weapons. No matter which attack phase crystal I employ, none of the beams have any 'substance' that Kiroshi can attach herself to. The only way I can do what you have told me is to switch to a kinetic weapon or throw an incendiary grenade."

Ves looked disappointed. He hoped that Venerable Isobel Kotin would be able to use Kiroshi in the same manner as how Irene Mox made use of Emma, but their circumstances were not the same.

He still did not give up on this method of attack enhancement. He strongly believed that he and Isobel just needed to figure out the right approach to turn Kiroshi into an indispensable addition to the Promethea.

As Ves gained a better understanding of Kiroshi's traits by listening to Isobel and examining the burning purple cat, he began to form different ideas.

He briefly switched his gaze over to the Promethea. The third order expert mech was quietly cultivating the Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra in her own way.

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