The Mech Touch (Web Novel)-Chapter 7166: The Value of a Second Perspective

It had been worth it to put Dulo Voiken through EdNet training.

Though he missed out on a lot of events during the last few years, he had spent a decade-and-a-half on learning everything he needed to design the best first-class spearman mechs.

He knew exactly what he wanted to become. He wanted to excel in designing spearman mechs just like how Ketis excelled at designing swordsman mechs.

The problem was that Dulo was not able to become a combat master like the Swordmaiden mech designer. He could only make up for the gap in other ways. His chosen solution was to learn all of the tech related to spears and spearman mechs and nothing else.

By maintaining such a narrow focus, Dolo lacked the qualifications to design rounded first-class multipurpose mechs. His expertise in high-tech ranged weapon systems was very inadequate compared to his other competences.

However, he made up for his lack of versatility by deepening his specialization to a greater depth than generalists managed to learn.

Ves may be able to design a decent first-class spearman mech, but Dulo could completely outclass him on this front.

That made Dulo’s help so valuable this time. Even if they were working on phase lord equipment as opposed to spearman mechs, many of the principles remained similar enough that his expertise was still very much relevant and useful.

It took remarkably little time to reconfigure the plasma spear design. Dulo replaced many vulnerable electronics and mechanisms with miniaturized versions that were smaller and far better shielded than the alternatives.

The cost and resource demands of the weapon rose sharply, but the projected performance gains were also undeniable. Ves gained considerably greater confidence in his ability to defeat the Unshakeable King with a stronger and sturdier weapon at his disposal.

The greatest complication with the weapon project was to make it so that the plasma spear could explode with the greatest possible force.

Dulo had to deviate from the standard template and make the capacitors more energy dense and prone to violent discharges upon command. He also had to incorporate the strange arrangement of fire hyper materials that would turn into an explosive material when charged in the right way.

Ves and Dulo worked together to puzzle out the solutions to these complicated technical problems in the shortest possible timespan. They drew upon external resources such as spare processing power and advice from technical consultants in order to complete their work as quickly as possible.

Hours passed by until they completed the initial design of a unique plasma spear.

"This is not even its final form." Ves grinned in anticipation.

Dulo winced. "Do you truly have to apply this experimental ’demonization process’ onto such a beautiful weapon? The plasma spear is already powerful enough in my eyes, and its capacity for self-destruction is already significant. I fear your strange treatment may corrupt the mechanisms and disable crucial components that are essential to its operation."

"That won’t happen." Ves reassured him. "The treatment will mutate the weapon. That is unavoidable. It will not cause the weapon to lose its core functionality. The process somehow adapts to the properties of the original object. It is meant to enhance the weapon, not disable it. Besides, if you are correct and the special treatment has somehow resulted in too many flaws, we can always recycle it and fabricate a second plasma spear. Red Collective will cover the additional expenses and resource requirements."

It was nice to know that the big superorganization was willing to cover all of the expenses and open up a part of its strategic material reserves.

The plasma spear already incorporated a small collection of those luxurious high-grade materials that were not available in the open market.

Much of it happened to comprise of high-grade hyper materials that the RC produced through artificial means.

The ’production methods’ encompassed more than just piling lots of hyper materials of a single element while placing normal materials in the vicinity that had the potential to evolve into superior forms of hyper materials.

At this level, the collies employed elaborate rituals and qi formations that concentrated and regulated the flow of E energy. It was all fascinating and troublesome.

Whatever the case, Ves and Dulo crammed as much of the good stuff into the plasma spear design as they could. This was not always possible as an excessive concentration of high-grade hyper materials vastly increased the probability of accidents and unwanted reactions.

They had to be reasonable and mix in a modest amount of mid-grade hypers as well as exotics that possessed stabilizing properties.

Only by combining the strengths and weaknesses of different materials together were they able to complete the design of a plasma weapon that held great promise, but also preserved enough reliability to withstand the rigors of the only battle it was meant to be used.

"It is a pity." Dulo sighed. "This is such a powerful weapon that it is too much of a waste to blow it up in the same battle it is debuting. I do not want the first high-end spear that I have designed since I have graduated from EdNet training to have such a short lifespan. Is there any way for you to keep it longer?"

Ves shook his head. "Unlikely. The Dark Apostle will have to dominate the first duel in order to make the final solution redundant, and I do not see that happening when fighting against an opponent of this caliber. The Unshakeable King is long regarded as the second-strongest human phase lord currently in existence. The fact that he is not able to challenge the Oscillating Fist directly is not a sign of weakness. The latter is just too strong. Against my phase lord self, the Unshakeable King will definitely have an easier time. Only by doing the unexpected and triggering my plasma spear to explode do I have a chance to crack his formidable defenses."

Though Dulo looked regretful after hearing that, it was not as if his opinion could change anything.

They moved on to developing the second spear for the next duel.

This was a different weapon for a different occasion.

The Fiery Axe was a human phase lord who was famed for being able to launch crushing and burning axe strikes. Her unrelenting offensive prowess forced many Ascended Giants who were weaker or at the same level to go on the defensive and do everything in their power not to get struck by her continuous strikes.

Ves did not want to confront such an opponent directly. He chose to rely more on mobility, which meant that his raiment had to be lighter than usual while equipped with a relatively powerful flight system.

The good news was that all of this lightweight equipment left open a lot of mass for weapons.

However, equipping the Dark Apostle with too many heavy weapons would clearly weigh him down, causing him to lose a lot of mobility and make it harder to evade incoming attacks.

In order to make full use of the mass allowance while making sure to preserve as much mobility as possible, Dulo made a slightly inventive proposal.

"Segmentation is the answer." He said as he began to draft a spear with a long shaft. "Who says that you have to deploy into the field with a single solid weapon? You can choose to arm yourself with a spear that is modular. Each section can be separated upon command."

He proceeded to draw lines across the shaft to show how the weapon could be segmented.

"You can adjust the length of the spear by adding or removing segments. If you have a need of greater reach, you can add them to the shaft. If you need greater mobility, you can remove these dense and heavy segments and gain a lighter and more handy weapon in return. What is important is that you have the option to change the configuration of your weapon at any time."

The idea sounded intriguing. Ves could see how it could work, especially for a solid alloy spear that originally did not incorporate any electronics.

"What do I do with the shaft segments that I have no use for?" He asked. "I can’t just carry them around. They will just weigh me down and mitigate the mobility gains from removing them from the spear."

Dulo shrugged. "You can just toss them aside. Leave them floating around somewhere. If you need them again, you can go back to them and slot them back onto your spear. Wait. If you incorporate that self-exploding hyper tech into this weapon design, you can even turn them into makeshift hand grenades! During critical exchanges, you can disconnect a segment and toss them into the Fiery Axe at close range where it is much more difficult for her to defend against this move. A critical explosion at the right time can create openings and help you land the killer blow. Of course, you can also toss your entire spear at your opponent and hope that the detonation will be powerful enough to win the duel outright."

Those were great ideas!

Ves wouldn’t have been able to come up with these ideas on his own. This instance showed how valuable a second perspective could be, especially from a mech designer who knew his craft.

The idea of segmenting his high-penetration spear had many possible applications. It added a lot of versatility and truly rounded out his equipment configuration for the second duel.

There was only one complication.

"The ’tech’ related to creating self-exploding hyper spears that I have recently acquired only works with fire hyper materials."

"So?"

"This is not going to be a plasma weapon. It will be a solid alloy spear, which means it is much more difficult to channel the power of the fire element through this weapon. Since my affinity for the darkness element is stronger than the five classical elements, I prefer to incorporate darkness hyper materials into this particular weapon."

"Oh." Dulo saw the problem now. "Does that mean that self-destruction is off the table?"

Ves smirked. "Not exactly. Just because the original inventors of this tech never thought of using other types of hyper materials to make it work does not mean we have to do the same. I am sure I can puzzle out a way to substitute fire hyper materials with darkness hyper materials. We don’t have much time to figure it out, so the solution will probably be sloppy, messy, underpowered and maybe not as reliable. However, as long as it can unleash a painful blast, that is all I need."

They began to work on it right away. While Dulo designed the segmented spear, Ves busied himself with trying to apply the principles of exploding hyper weapons to hyper materials that were sensitive towards the darkness element.

These experiments were not cheap. Darkness hyper materials were considerably rarer and difficult to obtain. It would be painful if Ves failed to produce a successful result.

Fortunately, he managed to make it work, sort of. Although the resulting explosion was weaker than desired and possessed a vastly different character, Ves was pleased as long as it could inflict a significant amount of damage.

There was clearly a lot of room for improvement. Ves wished he could spend a week optimizing his initial solution, but there was no time for that. He could only go back to Dulo and do his best to incorporate his improvised solution into the segmented high-penetration spear.

"Did you make sure the spear tip is as sharp as possible while still aligned with the darkness element?"

"Yes, sir. There is only so much I can do with transphasic alloys, but I found a good combination that blends well with this type of high-grade hyper materials. The only problem is that the tip has to be thicker and more reinforced as that sharpness comes at the cost of toughness."

"That is okay."