The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1194

Ves already took the first step to mastering the techniques demonstrated by Qilanxo’s spiritual fragment. If not for witnessing the processes up close, he wouldn’t have a clue on how to begin!

"Not only that, but I wouldn’t even know that something like this was possible in the first place!"

It could be said that what he witnessed when he redeemed Space Knight Mastery I from the system had broadened his horizons. He never even dreamt that it would be possible to artificially create an expert pilot!

Ever since then, Ves always wanted to replicate the process.

That was easier said than done. Not only was it rather troublesome to acquire spiritual energy, but even if he had some within his reach, his control and strength was but a shadow compared to Qilanxo’s might.

He only gained some confidence when he advanced to Journeyman. While his Spirituality probably wasn’t as strong as that of a Senior Mech Designer, he at least took some steps forward.

So far, he was right. After a bit of fumbling, he managed to wipe out the spiritual imprints of an uncountable number of Ylvainans!

He met very little resistance as he did so. Each individual imprint was weak, and Ves spent more care on limiting the scope of his actions so that he didn’t spill and damage something important.

"If the spiritual accumulation only consists of one imprint, then it’ll probably offer much more resistance." Ves muttered.

He recalled that Qilanxo’s spiritual fragment donated a substantial amount of its own spiritual energy to encourage Eloise Pelican’s apotheosis.

While Ves hadn’t experimented on his own spiritual energy yet, he knew that he wouldn’t face any resistance if he wiped off his own spiritual imprint.

He smirked. "It’s my imprint. How can I resist myself?"

The only downside was that spiritual energy was quite precious! He hadn’t even fully recovered from the losses he sustained when he donated a small chunk of his own spiritual energy to empower the images he created for the Ouroboros!

He treasured his loose spiritual energy, especially since not a lot of it was at his disposal after his design seed absorbed a large amount.

While the emergence of his design seed provided him with a lot of help, it also narrowed down his choices.

"Advancement is a process of specialization." Ves formed a guess. "Just like mech design, there’s always a tradeoff. Becoming better at something means sacrificing versatility."

Fortunately, his advancement to Journeyman hadn’t crippled his ability to manipulate spiritual energy. While he would probably never become a maestro in this field, what strength and control he acquired was sufficient to perform some limited procedures.

This made him wonder if his ability to manipulate spiritual energy in this fashion would strengthen or weaken over time. It would be bad for his future plans if his versatility further diminished as his design seed grew stronger and transformed.

"On the flipside, if my design seed becomes stronger, I’ll become less dependent on external sources."

It was better if he could do everything himself. The whole reason why he was resorting to raiding the spiritual energy from valuable relics was because they could strengthen his ability to design his mechs.

He turned his attention back to the second step of his plan. He knew it was a lot trickier than his first technique.

"Destruction is easier than creation."

Some of the thoughts he held when he designed the Ouroboros still stuck in his mind. Destruction and creation were two sides of the same coin, but both possessed a lot of differences.

The act of removing someone else’s spiritual imprint was akin to destruction. Ves didn’t really need to wrack his mind over the technique because it was as simple as smudging his spiritual finger over the imprint.

However, putting another spiritual imprint in its place was a bit trickier. He couldn’t apply his Spirituality in a hamfisted manner and expect to create something new in the form he wanted.

He needed to find a way to spread the Grey Marty’s spiritual imprint to the ownerless mass of energy.

He developed several different approaches.

The simplest approach would be to see if the Grey Marty’s spiritual imprints could ’contaminate’ the larger cloud of ownerless spiritual energy.

Such a procedure also tested the nature of spiritual imprints. Was it something that existed in a fixed quantity, or could it spontaneously reproduce itself as long as there was enough space?

The other alternative would be to regard the act of replicating someone else’s spiritual imprint as a process of mass production. Like a 3D printer running day and night, the only way for Ves to duplicate a spiritual imprint en masse was to put conscious effort into copying it over and over again.

The premise of this technique rested on the assumption that Ves was able to imitate the function of a 3D printer.

Ves tried to recall what he witnessed back then from Qilanxo’s spiritual fragment.

"The first step is to wipe out the spiritual energy it freely donated to Eloise Pelican. The second step is to blend the huge cloud of ownerless spiritual energy with the strong emotions of the mech pilot."

Ves wasn’t attempting to create an expert candidate or expert pilot this time. He didn’t have access to a living Grey Martyr who could donate the thoughts and emotions that he required!

This left him with a gap where he couldn’t blindly follow someone else’s example.

He needed to solve the problem by developing his own solution.

"Well, here goes nothing."

He started with the simplest approach, which he much preferred over the other. If he could let the spiritual imprint do most of the work itself, then Ves didn’t need to exert too much energy in encouraging the contamination process.