The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1481

Before Ves attended the Circle of Mota’s auction, he only discovered two spiritually-reactive exotics.

He dubbed them P-stones and F-stones. He deliberately named them in this boring and undescriptive fashion in order to obscure their true purpose.

Even if a cultist of the Five Scrolls Compact heard mention of a P-stone, the crazy fellow would probably dismiss it as a stupid name for a random exotic.

Naturally, adopting these bland names also made it difficult for Ves to communicate their value and applications to others, but that wasn’t a problem to Ves.

So far, only Lucky knew the most outside of Ves himself, but that was slowly changing.

He’d been dipping his toes into expanding his circle of trust by letting Nitaa watch over him as he worked. Even if he didn’t speak out and explain about spirituality, she probably picked up some clues about the remarkable nature of the materials he prized so highly.

Now that Ves finished some of his tasks, he eagerly directed his attention to the two unusual items he and Finlay won from the auction.

"I better start with something easy." He muttered as he decided to leave Item #1255 aside for later. "Besides, the equipment I have on hand in this lab is too small to accommodate an object of this size."

The Ancient Sarcophagus was clearly the most powerful and impressive object he obtained from the Cinach System. However, Ves harbored a heavy amount of caution over this seemingly dormant object.

A crystal coffin that imprisoned an unknown humanoid alien being ought to be an artificial product rather than a product of nature!

"Whatever alien produced this crystal growth might have slipped all kinds of traps and safeguards into its structure. I can’t treat it carelessly lest I break it or something!"

Another reason why Ves wanted to leave it for later was because of the unsettling amount of spiritual activity he sensed from within.

Could it be the remnant spirituality of the dead alien being?

A cosmic spiritual hitchhiker who randomly latched on to the coffin?

A formless collection of wild spiritual energy that sprouted from the environment where the Ancient Sarcophagus used to rest?

Ves had no clue, and that scared him. Sometimes, he even entertained fears that he might have unwittingly invited a powerful spiritual predator aboard his ship!

Fortunately, nothing unusual had happened while Item #1255 had been brought aboard the Barracuda. None of the crew or his staff acquired a different personality and no one suffered any nightmares.

Ves even occasionally swept his spiritual senses over every individual he came across. He detected no spiritual contamination or anything of that nature.

That still didn’t make him feel relieved, though. The more he observed Item #1255, the more he feared its presence.

"This is a good thing." Ves tried to convince himself. "If it isn’t so powerful, it’s not worth 20 billion bright credits."

Rather than keep reinforcing his fears, Ves decided to ignore the Ancient Sarcophagus entirely in favor of something smaller and more manageable.

Item #613 consisted of an unknown exotic that reacted to his spiritual probes in a different fashion from his existing P-stones and F-stones.

"This means it’s likely to be a third type of spiritually-reactive exotics!"

This was good news, if it turned out to be true! Ves eagerly grabbed the container holding Item #613 and practically ran from the vault and returned to his lab.

There, he began to subject the exotic through a whole host of scans and probes.

While his Vulcaneye and his miniaturized lab equipment didn’t yield as much data as he wanted, he still managed to record a decent amount of energetic activity that confirmed that it was a powerful exotic.

"Interesting." Ves mulled over the readings he interpreted. "The P-stones I obtained barely contain any activity, though I’ve never studied them when they are filled with spiritual energy. The F-stone I’ve acquired is decently energetic to begin with, but it also starts off with a full charge."

In comparison, Item #613 exhibited moderate activity, which suggested that it was a completely new medium-grade exotic.

No wonder the Circle of Nitaa decided to put it up for auction! If not for its completely unknown applications, a lot more wealthy material researchers would have loved to uncover its secrets!

"Well, it’s all mine now."

Though Ves subjected Item #613 to various scans, he had merely been studying the strange exotic with technological means.

He withheld employing his spiritual senses until after he covered the basics. If his spiritual probes ever elicited some kind of reaction or transformation, then he wanted to make sure he possessed the original parameters to compare the changes.

"Well, it’s finally time." He smiled.

He made sure to take numerous precautions. He placed Item #613 in a protective chamber and made sure to wear protective lab equipment. While he didn’t suspect that the rose-gold exotic was some kind of bomb, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Once he finished triple-checking all of the sensors and safeguards, he began to concentrate his mind and rouse his spiritual senses.

He maintained his distance at first. He switched on his spiritual vision and began to observe Item #613 without disturbing it in any fashion.

He spotted no sign that the exotic contained any spiritual energy. It didn’t glow in his spiritual vision or throw up any unusual phenomena that signified the presence of a spiritual entity.

That did not mean that he was wrong about Item #613. The P-stones didn’t appear unusual either in his spiritual vision because they didn’t normally contain anything.

"Looks like I have to take a risk and probe it deeper."

Just looking at it from afar didn’t cut it. He needed to touch it and pry it open in order to figure out its spiritually-reactive properties, and from there, its applications.

He extended his spiritual senses, which took on a faint real form due to the infusion of his spiritual energy, and began to extend it towards the exotic.

Enough time had passed since his mother’s visit for his spiritual energy reserves to return to its peak. Ves had already begun to siphon bits of his excess spiritual energy into one of his five P-stones.

Ves was curious how much excess spiritual energy a P-stone could store. He wondered whether their capacity differed in relation to their mass, volume, density, material composition or other variables.

This reminded him that he should come up with a measurement for spiritual energy. For now, he already apportioned his spiritual energy by how much he replenished in a standard day.

In any case, he turned his attention back to Item #613. Before, he only briefly brushed his senses towards the object. Now, he was about to perform a deeper examination.