The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5935 Repulsed By Light

Aurelia eagerly began to practice her new cultivation methods as if they were toys.

Whether it was because she possessed a companion spirit from birth or because she was a partial primordial human, but she took to qi cultivation as if she was the equivalent of a mech pilot with A-grade genetic aptitude.

Ves already expected as much, but he was pleased to see that his work was sound enough to do their jobs without endangering his daughter.

He might not be as wise and knowledgeable as his mother, but he possessed enough of a foundation to develop his own low-

level cultivation methods.

He still needed to depend on her assistance if he wanted to do anything more complicated. This was why the Power of Teamwork Method and the Beacon of Hope Methods were not only simplified, but also did not stretch much further beyond the first major cultivation rank.

Since Ves had yet to become a domain shaper, it was impossible for him to properly design a cultivation method that covered the second major cultivation rank.

Still, as rudimentary as his work may be, it was more than enough for a beginner like Aurelia.

The girl practiced the two methods with utmost diligence. She appreciated her father's gifts and did not want his efforts to go to waste.

"Do your best not to deviate from my instructions." He told her. "There are cases where it may be necessary for you to do so, but you should only do so when you have a certain degree of confidence that it is safe. Cultivation deviation is a very real danger, and it often happens when people get too smart for their own good. Ask me first if you want to deviate from a method. Even if I don't have the answer, your grandmother will. Until then, try and follow the instructions as faithfully as possible. You need to follow the letter but more importantly the spirit of the methods. This is the best way to manipulate E energy into strengthening you in a targeted fashion."

Trying to diverge from the steps and theories outlined by Ves might cause all kinds of accidents, so he did his best to reduce that probability from the onset.

He had deliberately simplified and weakened the cultivation methods in order to increase their fault tolerance.

This reduced the effectiveness of the cultivation methods, but it would also make it easier for Aurelia and Mana to switch to completely different methods as they grew older.

A small part of Ves wanted his oldest daughter to rebel against the track set by her genes and make her own choice on what she wanted to become!

If Aurelia ever decided to defy her mother, Ves would support her as much as possible.

For now, she learned and mastered the methods quickly with guidance from Ves. It felt nice to be able to teach her professional knowledge that would help her go further in life.

He did not have a lot to teach to his eldest daughter. Sure, he was a good public speaker and knew his way around politics, but he lacked the systematic training and studies in these fields.

His daughter had already started taking classes in these fields. The highly qualified first-class teachers of the Joan Devos Elementary School could help her a lot more than a mech designer who stumbled his way to a leadership position.

Perhaps the only advantage he had over the first-raters who received the best possible education on leadership and public speaking was that he did not follow any of their established formulas.

Ves was not sure whether he wanted to pass on that particular aspect to Aurelia. He did not want her to break taboos or flip the table whenever it was convenient. He envisioned a much cleaner public image for his daughter when she grew up. This was why he deliberately imparted a cultivation method that would shape Mana into a beacon of hope.

He crossed a line when he did that. His daughter deserved more time to experience what life had to offer before she settled on a role for herself and her companion spirit.

Yet instead of giving her a few more years to explore her choices, he had given Mana a heavy push towards a very particular kind of deity cultivator.

Perhaps his confrontation against the Subjugation King had spooked and traumatized him more than expected. He had let his fears and hatred against the God King who attempted to enslave him influence his decision-making once again.

It was only hours after he had given Aurelia her first tutoring session on how to practice cultivation that he realized he may have made a horrible mistake.

"A certain God King told me that he values any slave who develops an affinity for light."

Aurelia, or more precisely Mana, had managed to do that early in her life.

Due to the nature of companion spirits, this effectively meant that his daughter would find it remarkably easy to deepen her understanding of this E energy attribute!

Ves grew a lot more ambivalent towards this process. Mana's inclination towards light made it inevitable for his daughter to embody the element of light to a degree.

While he did not expect her to follow in the footsteps of the Subjugation King, the alien taught him that not everything related to light was pleasant.

Light could be harsh. Light was an annihilating force. Light was indiscriminate. Light passed judgment. Light was blinding.

Ever since he developed an affinity towards darkness, Ves had become more critical and repulsed towards light and its related associations.

That was really annoying, especially because he relied heavily on luminar crystal technology to empower his ranged mechs.

He was not quite certain how his changes affected his effectiveness in working with luminar crystal technology. He feared that by embracing the opposite element, he would find it harder to gain inspiration and insights into light.

Though it was possible for cultivators to master two opposing elements, they always had to put a lot of effort and sacrifice into it. They needed to work hard to form and maintain a balance.

Ves had only seen that done right in only a few instances. The Ouroboros was the most prominent example among them, and even then the old living mech had gone astray due to letting its Destroyer sword overwhelm its creation aspect.

Ves already had enough on his plate. Life, mechs and darkness already caused his nascent domain to become a lot more complex than those of his peers. There was no good reason to add the light element to the mix.

Sure, he liked luminar crystal technology, but it was not central to his design philosophy. He could live without it, especially now that he was transitioning into a first-class mech designer.

A huge set of advanced weapon technologies became available to him once he reached that point. Plasma weapons alone were powerful and potent enough for him to play around for a long time.

While luminar crystal technology was incredibly versatile and synergized well with hyper technology, it was not wise for Ves to treat it as the only acceptable ranged weapon system.

He mentally shook his head.

It was not quite clear to him how much his embrace of darkness affected his ability to work with luminar crystal technology.

As a creation cultivator, he should be able to work with stuff that fell outside of his comfort zone.

He might not feel as passionate about the alien tech as before, but he still retained his prior expertise and experiences with the tech. He could treat it as just one of many other fields of technology.

Understanding the theories and knowing how to apply them was the basis of engineering. This should be more than enough to continue working with luminar crystal weapon systems.

That reminded him of another consequence to his changed domain.

Since there was a sacrifice, there should also be a payoff.

He had already discovered that it became a lot easier for him to study tech that was at least tangibly related to the darkness element.

His previous study sessions already caused him to make a lot of strides in understanding cloaking technology, ECM technology and materials with sensor dampening effects.

He also found it a lot easier to think about how to design mechs that were able to hide their presence a lot easier than before.

It became a lot easier for him to devise meaningful upgrades for the Dark Zephyr and the Phobos, among other sneaky mechs!

The Phobos alone captured his imagination like no other. He had always regarded the living expert stealth mech as one of his best works, and now he had even more reason to adore his existence.

The powerful and fearsome machine oozed darkness!

From the powerful Optaar transphasic active stealth system to the mysterious and innovative Geist System, the Phobos embodied many of the best aspects of darkness.

Even the way he was meant to be used was draped in darkness!

The Phobos eschewed direct confrontation and preferred to assassinate his targets in an underhanded fashion. The expert mech should ideally remain unnoticed until the time for secrecy had passed. The stealth mech was also able to deceive his enemies by being effective in direct combat.

Ves deeply wanted to pull up the design of the Phobos and improve it right away. His head was filled with so many ideas that it was frustrating for him to keep them contained.

However, the Phobos was one of the expert mechs that least needed an upgrade for the time being.

There were many older machines that were clamoring to be pulled up to the Hyper Generation, the Dark Zephyr chief among them. Ves and Gloriana kept poor Venerable Tusa waiting for way too many months due to the insistence of incorporating archetech in every Larkinson expert mech.

"Soon." Ves murmured as he decisively shoved all of his ideas relating to the Phobos to the depths of his mind.

It was better if he waited and upgraded other expert mechs first. This would grant him more time to deepen his mastery of relevant technologies. It would also give him time to research and experiment with hyper technology related to the darkness element.

Once he built up a robust accumulation in these areas, Ves had a hunch that he might be able to transform the Phobos into a resplendent machine!

In any case, his musings about what he intended to do with the Phobos did not distract him for too long.

Once he made sure that Aurelia was on the right track, Ves tried to devise a set of cultivation methods for his second daughter.

A part of him wondered whether it was even necessary.

Andraste had a strong desire to become a mech pilot. If that was not possible, then she wanted to become a traditional swordswoman instead!

Both of them were willpower-related professions, which meant that they were much less dependent on systematic cultivation.

It was extremely difficult to hone willpower under artificial conditions. Only discipline, diligence, hardship and to a certain extent talent gave birth to extraordinary willpower.

Due to receiving instruction from Ketis and a number of other expert pilots, the energetic girl had already taken strides to follow this lifestyle.

Ves did not know whether Andraste might ruin her chances of becoming a powerful high-ranking mech pilot or swordmaster if she started to lean too heavily on qi cultivation.

"Papa?"

"Yes, pumpkin?"

"You never gave me a method that could improve my genetic aptitude. Can you make one for me, please?"

Ves got reminded of the flawed and dangerous cultivation methods that people with ulterior motives spread on the galactic net.

His daughter had tried to practice one before he recognized the dangers and exposed its flaws.

The Red Two put more effort into removing dubious and unverified cultivation methods from the galactic net, but people could always find a place to access them if they searched hard enough.

He did not want his daughter to dabble with those shoddy works, so he needed to give her a resolution.

The problem was that he felt out of depth when it came to this issue. He knew far too little about genetic aptitude to devise a proper cultivation method around this qualification. It might not even be possible for anyone to improve it due to its complexity.

Fortunately, he knew of at least one person who knew more on this subject!

"Mother! I need help! Can you come and give me a hand?"