When Ves thought about his new E-generator, he suddenly recalled another sophisticated construct that was designed to provide useful energy to a beneficiary.
In the past, Ves benefited greatly from the so-called 'Grand Dynamo' that had once taken root in his mind.
Although the Blinkyverse had superseded the role of the Grand Dynamo, he still used its existence as a template to ultimately bring his panion spirit to life.
Ves wondered whether he possessed the necessary know-how to develop E-generators such as the Grand Dynamo.
"Probably not." He sighed and shook his head.
The Grand Dynamo deserved its name. Although it did not seem like a massive spiritual construct, it was actually capable of extracting energy from the rotational movement of an entire galaxy!
Ves could not even begin to determine the core principles behind such an intricate design. Whoever developed the Grand Dynamo must have been a True God because only an existence on this level could dream of harnessing the power of an entire galaxy at once!
pared to this incredibly profound work of E-engineering, the E-generator that he had in mind was a lot more modest.
Yet even so, Ves still questioned his ability to develop the most basic transformation of death energy to life energy.
Without solving this crucial problem, there was no way for his poisoned fruit to spread a disease that could affect all of the deathborn on the battlefield.
It would also hinder his research into developing a more universally applicable life energy generator, one that he could embed into every Woodsap mech.
"This is not going to be straightforward."
The key to solving the problem was mastering one of the most advanced and obscure processes of the Last Defiance Technique.
The ability to rapidly heal and restore your wounds by overdrawing your foundation was incredible, but that also made it particularly difficult to prehend!
Ves ran his mind through the relevant passages in the Last Defiance Manual over a dozen times in the last hour, yet still failed to understand the essence of this process.
He felt way out of his depth. He had a strong suspicion that he had touched upon an application of energy that only qi cultivators at or close to the level of a True God could truly master!
"My mother would probably be able to figure this out in an instant." He guessed.
In fact, given her 'exciting' past, Ves believed it was more than probable that she had mastered at least one such desperation technique, if not the exact one described in the Last Defiance Manual!
Unfortunately for Ves, his mother's understanding of the relevant concepts and techniques remained inaccessible.
Even if he made contact with his mother through his external incarnation Veronica, he knew without a doubt that Cynthia would flat-out refuse to share anything while repeating the same excuses she made before.
As far as his mother was concerned, passing on the Mech Designer System to Ves was all of the help to his career that he ever needed.
In that regard, it was hard to blame her for not doing enough to facilitate her son's success.
No. He could beg for a solution from his mother.
He needed to solve his problems by himself as much as possible.
"Perhaps I need to spend more time on studying the texts." He frowned. "I am no stranger to the concepts of life and death. As long as I can tie them together in a more effective way, I can get over this hurdle."
That was easier said than done.
Ves failed to make substantial progress in the next hours. He repeatedly hit a wall that seemed impassible. He had underestimated the difficulty of deconstructing advanced cultivation techniques.
The only meaningful realization he made during his exploration was that prehension alone may not be enough to replicate the intended process.
He already had a good idea that this was the case, but when he reread the same passages from the Last Defiance Manual for the umpteenth time, he basically confirmed that there was a big difference between performing a technique himself and letting an independent construct do all of the work.
The latter lacked the strong emotions and higher cognition of a true living being. This was especially bad in this case as the Last Defiance Technique relied much more heavily on the desperation of a practitioner to trigger and sustain the processes.
Was it possible for Ves to create a living construct that could adequately simulate the desperate mind state of a dying warrior?
"I can make a superficial copy with ease, but… it will lack authenticity."
He had a feeling that it wouldn't work as well as he hoped.
"Well, I will find out soon enough I guess."
He continued to work on the problem at hand, though he continued to encounter one difficulty after another.
By the time Alexa finally came back to him, he felt grateful now that he had a second opinion by his side.
"Wele back. Now that you have been brought up to date, what do you think?"
The young woman looked slightly tired, but her sparkling eyes betrayed her strong interest.
"I still do not understand much of the contents of the Last Defiance Manual, but… I have learned enough to understand its depth and thoroughness. I do not know whether it is because it was written by an ancient warrior, but the contents lack… academic rigor. The structure is sloppy, the theories are inadequately explained and much of the text is riddled with strange terminology and references to forgotten myths and stories. All of this makes it harder to conduct a systematic study on the techniques described in the book."
She sounded very helpless about that. Ancient humans who lived during a time of myths and gods did not adhere to the scientific method at the time. They accumulated and shaped knowledge in pletely different ways, much of which seemed alien from the perspective of modern people!
This was one of the hidden barriers that hindered contemporary humans from quickly relearning their old heritage.
The Red Collective devoted huge amounts of researchers to the task of modernizing ancient methods and techniques!
Their work was definitely necessary because if the masses attempted to practice these old and decrepit scriptures by themselves, they would definitely end up producing mass casualties!
"It's alright." He said. "The enlightenment fruit gave me a much more instinctive understanding of the Last Defiance Manual. You do not just have to understand the technique. You have to develop the right feel for it. This is primarily a work of passion. The detailed stuff will fall into place as long as you understand the overall intent and concepts involved."
Alexa still looked helpless. "That makes it even more unlikely that I shall ever master this technique. I am not a soldier or warrior. I have never fought enemies directly, let alone bee a champion and duel against other powerful fighters. Out of all of the mech designers in the Red Ocean, I can think of no one who is more suited to master the Last Defiance Technique than you. It is as if this enlightenment fruit was fated to end up in your stomach."
Ves smiled back. "I don't necessarily disagree with you. While I still need to figure out a lot of stuff on my own, it is impressive how well I can make use of its teachings. Anyway, let's proceed with the task at hand. I have managed to figure out a framework for our poisoned fruit, but I am not entirely sure how to solve a number of specific issues."
He proceeded to elaborate on his tentative plan. Alexa nodded continuously as she was able to follow his train of thought without much issue.
Once he finished his explanation about the difficulty of trying to convert death energy into life energy, Alexa leaned back in her chair and began to look intrigued.
"Do you have any suggestions on how to make this possible?"
The young woman did not say no. "Possibly. What you have just described vaguely reminds me of my grandfather's Ouroboros. You should know all about him and his unique ace mech. I had the privilege of spending time on this impressive machine. The Ouroboros is one of the driving reasons why I wanted to bee a mech designer in the first place. I may not understand how this mech works on the same level as you, but… when it es to the duality between creation and destruction, I am slightly confident that I can make an original contribution to this discussion."
Ves adopted an expectant look. "You sound confident. Let's hear it, then. What do you have in mind, Alexa?"
The female Journeyman spread her arms, with one of her palms pointing down while the other pointed upwards.
"creation and destruction are intricately opposed to each other. Life tries to overe death, while death tries to overpower life. When the two are out of balance, then there is usually a great contrast. Life struggles to thrive in an environment steeped in death. Death cannot find much purchase in an environment that is saturated with life. That said, these rules do not always apply. There are many cases where they can swing abruptly in one direction or another."
"So how can you produce these swings?" Ves asked.
Alexa shrugged. "I cannot tell you with any certainty. I have only heard my grandfather describe some of his experiences in brief. For example, one of his persistent gripes in the past is that his tier 2 Destroyer sword is too powerful relative to his rifle. The sword's very existence frequently tilts the balance towards death. Decades of fighting and learning has slowly allowed my grandfather to learn a few tricks on how to prevent this slide towards death from going too far."
General Axelar Streon never told Ves about this stuff!
"Go on. What tricks did he employ?" He eagerly asked.
"Well, one of them is to enter a special state of mind while utilizing his weapons. I cannot describe it adequately to you. He only told me that he 'must sow death in order to fertilize the birth of new life'. By imagining himself as a farmer, he consciously sought to use the enemies he killed with his Destroyer sword to empower his rifle. He faced many difficulties at first, but because he persisted in it for years, he eventually managed to achieve a breakthrough and made it work. He gained insight on the cycle of creation and destruction due to this effort."
Life and death were closely related to creation and destruction.
Ves might even argue that they were practically the same!
Though Alexa's did not provide a clear solution, her broad description already provided him with a potential blueprint.
"Thinking like a farmer, huh…?"
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