The Mech Touch

Chapter 6615 Kickstarting High-Level Artifact Production

?Chapter 6615 Kickstarting High-Level Artifact Production

Ves possessed enough connections with the Red Collective to understand that the production of artifacts and especially high-level artifacts had become a rising priority.

The collies may be new to the scene, but they were led by plenty of far-sighted leaders, Ves included.

While Ves had remained mostly hands-off when it came to directing the policies of the latest member of the Red Three, he had a strong interest in promoting the rise of creation cultivators.

This was because he believed that the use of artifacts could help red humanity fight back against the native aliens.

Not only that, the use of powerful artifacts could also help red humanity's greatest heroes meet the threat posed by the aliens of Messier 87!

Artifacts had yet to become a phenomenon in human civilization, but it was only a matter of time before artifact production became the latest pillar of red humanity's industries.

Certain parts of red humanity embraced traditional craftsmanship a lot more enthusiastically than others.

Aside from the Red Collective, two notable groups also invested a considerable amount of resources into manpower into artifact production.

The Eternal Vulcan Empire embraced traditional craftsmanship for obvious reasons. The dwarves had come to worship Vulcan almost universally, and that gave them greater motivation than others to take up extraordinary crafts.

Becoming creation cultivators was not only an excellent way for them to embrace the new possibilities of the Age of Dawn, but also allowed them to get closer to their supposed god!

Another broad group of people that invested more in traditional craftsmanship was surprisingly third-raters.

Not all of them expressed interest in it, but there were proportionally more of them that saw value in becoming traditional craftsmen.

This was because this new and emerging industry offered a much better pathway to prosperity than other career choices.

Second-raters and third-raters might be able to attain better results by relying on their superior augmentations and easier access to more expensive materials, but craftsmanship was ultimately about being able to make products with heart and soul. As long as third-raters became good at creating high-quality artifacts, they would definitely earn the appreciation of big companies and investors!

If they were able to become good enough to create masterworks of their own, then even

first-class groups might take an interest in these emerging talents!

Whatever the case, the demand for artifacts would definitely grow in the future! "When you think about it, Demoncasting can be considered an attempt to produce a high-level artifact through the unorthodox means of embedding them with a relatively powerful demon." Ves explained. "However, that also means that there are regular methods that do not involve such a dangerous source of power. The problem is that most of them are fairly troublesome. For example, you have been trying to turn your Bloodsinger into an artifact by spending a disproportionate amount of time and attention on carrying it around and upgrading it on an incremental basis. Yet all you have to show for it is a sword that is still within the range of a minor artifact."

Ketis frowned, but did not refute his description. "That was true before, but now that I have turned it into my life sword, I think it will take less time for it to evolve into a major artifact."

"Oh really? Let's compare, then."

Ves decided to retrieve the Oceancaller from the Vault of Eternity. The remarkable flute appeared in his hand in an instant and already began to pulse with the anticipation of getting used.

Ketis took a deep look at the flute before she decided to pull out the Bloodsinger.

Compared to its earlier state, the Bloodsinger indeed appeared to be a little stronger and more alive after forming a pact with its wielder.

Yet when the Oceancaller and the Bloodsinger were placed next to each other, both mech designers could perceive a very clear difference in strength, sophistication and development.

"This is not a fair comparison. You obtained a ready-made high-level artifact from the System while I acquired and built up the Bloodsinger through my own efforts." Ketis complained.

Ves smiled. "You are right. I am not passing off the Oceancaller as my work. My purpose in making this comparison is to give you a clear indication of what actually constitutes a high-level artifact. My flute here is governed by a mature artifact spirit. As for your Bloodsinger, I think it has only recently obtained the prototype of one due to the Life Sword Pact. If not for this sacrifice, your greatsword would have remained only slightly more special than a regular manufactured product."

"Why is this important?"

"Because not everyone is willing or able to replicate your method to transform a sword or other object into a high-level artifact, Ketis. Traditional blacksmiths may be able to forge a hundred or so sword artifacts per year. You can't expect them to repeatedly pay the price to empower their creations. Unless they are so good that they can produce masterworks at will, they can only resort to using external sources to imbue their creations with artifact spirits."

Ketis began to understand his argument. "And you think that the spiritual foundations of living mechs are better suited for this than the alternatives?"

"Yes" Ves grinned and nodded. "My latest proposal hits multiple birds with a single stone. First, it preserves the personality of a living mech even after the machine is destined to be scrapped. It provides the emerging artifact industry with an abundant and sustainable source of hyper keystones that can be used to imbue unfinished works with intelligent, friendly and reliable artifact spirits. As long as the latter still retain the memories of their previous incarnations, then they will maintain a high degree of loyalty towards red humanity and would be glad if they can be put to use despite adopting another form. This will be especially great if the artifacts consist of mech-grade weapons such as swords, rifles and more."

Infantry-grade artifacts were nice and all, but the real value in their existence lay in their ability to augment the combat power of mechs!

Even Ketis could foresee how many mechs could stand a better chance in a fight if they were lucky enough to wield genuine high-level artifacts!

"The Swordmaidens can definitely benefit if I can convert the mech greatswords of their Second Swords and Storm Swords into customized high-level artifacts." She said. "It would be better if our clan has trained enough traditional blacksmiths that can do this work without my assistance."

"That should easily be doable, Ketis. Your helpers and assistants only need to become good enough to produce low-level artifacts, which shouldn't be too difficult as long as you hire talented workers. Once they are trained into actual creation cultivators, they can forge a mech greatsword before using a hyper keystone to imbue them with a well-developed artifact spirit. That should be enough to convert the weapon into a relatively basic high-level artifact. It still won't be as sophisticated as the Oceancaller, but the new mech greatsword artifact should definitely be able to inflict greater damage and pierce through defenses a lot easier than before. The high-level artifact will also become a much better medium to channel extraordinary sword techniques. The mech pilot will be able to channel the power of heaven a lot more effectively than before." Ancient sword cultivators could not be separated from their sword artifacts. Only when they wielded a powerful enough blade would they be able to overcome the strong while

being weak!

Even the Heavensword grew enthused at the prospect of enabling the mass production of high-level artifact weapons. It glowed in a clear sign of approval! "Compared to your last ideas, this one is both sound and practical. Ketis concluded. "The implementation of the hyper keystone is questionable. Unless you can create a working example and test it to see whether it can preserve most of the spiritual foundation of a third order living mech, the viability of this proposal remains uncertain. However, as long as you solve this key issue, this can open up so many possibilities. I can think of no other source of 'souls' that are more suitable to be converted to artifact spirits than ones that have already served in this capacity. When you think about it, third order living mechs have a few similarities with high-level artifacts."

Ves agreed with all of her points. He only made this realization relatively later, but he believed that this was a good development.

It not only showed that his living mechs kept getting better with each generation, but it also proved that traditional craftsmanship was not the only means to creating high-level

artifacts!

"So you have no ethical or moral concerns about the potential repurposing of third order living mechs?" He asked. "After all, not all of them may be pleased to be reduced from a powerful and potentially autonomous machine to a much more limited weapon that cannot even move by itself."

"Perhaps that is a quandary that is more relevant to you rather than me, Ves. As far as I

am concerned, it doesn't hurt to ask the prospective artifact spirit what it wants. You should at least make an effort to match its past with its future. For example, a living mech spirit that used to occupy a swordsman mech would probably hate to be imbued into a rifle artifact. You need to set rules on this sort of stuff and make sure that. traditional craftsmen abide by them. Also, if a spirit trapped in one of those hyper keystones doesn't want to fight anymore and wants to end its own existence, I think you should give it the option to do so rather than force it to persist."

That was a fair request. "I will modify the design of the hyper keystone so that the spirit inside can voluntarily choose to disable containment and go free, thereby preventing it from being used and abused by humans as well as our enemies."

This was a prudent measure in case the hyper keystones fell into the hands of the native

aliens!

Ves did not want this new resource to end up benefiting his own opponents! "How easy is it to create a high-level artifact by making use of a filled keystone?" Ketis wondered. "You have never created a high-level artifact like the Oceancaller before." "That is true, but Vulcan has accrued a huge amount of knowledge and experience in modern craftsmanship." Ves retorted. "He is also becoming more proficient in multiple forms of traditional craftsmanship, though his understanding of it is still rather spotty and incomplete. He should actually be capable of creating a basic high-level artifact if he is lucky enough to produce a masterwork, but the end result does not start off on a strong footing. It takes time and persistent usage for the masterwork to grow into the power of a high-level artifact, which s not much different from my living mechs. Outside of that, there are multiple different rituals and processes to convert external souls into artifact spirits. The simplest ones don't require a lot of time to learn."

Of course, the results usually weren't the best. It was a waste of a good spirit to crudely mash it into an artifact embryo, but Ves could not expect much from inexperienced craftsmen that did not have time to polish their new skills.

As far as he was concerned, any high-level artifact was better than any low-level artifact!

So long as Ves managed to design and sell a lot of seventh generation living mechs, he

was not afraid that the supply of filled hyper keystones would run out anytime soon, especially during times of war!

In this way, living mechs would play an indispensable role to human civilization. They

had the potential to birth an entirely new supply chain that could kickstart the artifact industry and put it on overdrive!

More and more mechs would subsequently be able to swap out their regular weapons

with powerful artifacts that could give them a much stronger edge against the native aliens! The longer the Red War dragged on, the more high-level artifacts became available. This

would cause the mech forces of red humanity to steadily become more powerful even if

their numbers steadily dwindled!

Quantity over quality!

Only by raising the average combat power of mechs would red humanity stand a chance of overcoming the hordes of native aliens!