The Mech Touch

Chapter 7153: Resources Are Meant To Be Used

The subject on how to control the Ascended Giants in the event that Ves won the leadership challenge already induced a headache.

Ves did not look forward to tackling this issue, but he could not avoid it if he and the Dark Apostle gained control over the Phase Lord Department.

Becoming its department head meant assuming responsibility over the Ascended Giants. Their problems became his problems. Ves and his alter ego needed to make the hard choices in order to make sure the Phase Lord Department continued to occupy a productive place in human society.

Though Ves loathed it, he realized that implementing an ’enhanced’ kinship network may ultimately be the gentlest out of a collection of bad solutions.

Implementing it would violate the rights of the Ascended Giants, but then again, they were not quite human anymore. They had more in common with dangerous exobeasts, which demanded a lot of restrictions in order to keep them in check. The Larkinson Biotech Institute even had to cull the mutated beasts it kept under captivity because the cost of containing them began to exceed any reasonable expectations of profiting off their unique evolution.

He inwardly shook his head.

There was no need for him to solve these problems just yet. He first needed to tackle the immediate issue first before he could think about subsequent problems. Who knew whether these ideas would turn useless if he lost the leadership challenge.

"As you may have already surmised, I called you here in order to find out whether you can lend me a hand with the leadership challenge." He said. "I am about to browse the Divine Bazaar and the Tree of Possibilities for goods and enlightenment fruits that can give me an extra boost in the upcoming duels. However..."

"You need more AP." Gloriana already guessed his motivations.

"Yes. Can you... can you spare a few hundred AP?"

"..."

"..."

Neither Ketis nor Gloriana were amused by this request.

"You came way too late, Ves." The wielder of the Heavensword said. "The two of us have already completed a few small marathons and painstakingly earned the Ascension Points needed to upgrade the Dimension Observatory and open a larger and more long-lasting dimension breach. I already invested 100 AP into Breach Expansion - Level 2 in order to increase the maximum height and width of the dimensional portal by 5 meters each.

"And I fulfilled the demand that you imposed on me well on time." Gloriana mentioned with a hint of pride in her voice. "I worked hard and solved all sorts of difficult and tedious Missions in order to accumulate 500 AP. The instant I reached this threshold, I spent it all on Breach Extension - Level 3, which grants us the option to extend the longevity of the dimension breaches to 5 standard days."

Ves swept his gaze back and forth between his wife and his former student.

"So... how much AP do you currently have in your accounts?"

"13 AP." Gloriana answered.

"414 AP." Ketis responded. "Before you think about laying claim on any of my points, 400 AP is already reserved for the dimension breach that I intend to open next. I have already given out hints and told the Larkinson Clan to make advance preparations. Many parties have gathered at the current location of the expeditionary fleet in anticipation of an imminent mining rush into the Blue Dimension. If I spend my AP for your benefit, then that will massively delay the next opening."

400 AP was a large sum!

Ketis could easily spend it on 1 or 2 decent enlightenment fruits that could give Ves much more solid fighting skills.

She could also exchange it for interesting gadgets or raw materials that could give the Dark Apostle an edge in combat.

Yet instead of spending it all on those items, Ketis was adamant about using her current reserve for its intended purpose, which was to significantly expand red humanity’s stockpile of superdimensional matter.

In a few days, Ketis would once again appear in public while pretending to use the Heavensword to create a larger and much more long-lasting gateway into the Blue Dimension.

It was not an exaggeration that all of red humanity was holding its breath for this critical opportunity.

Superdimensional matter was crucial to upgrading god pilots to the next level while strengthening red humanity’s ability to counter enemy phase leaders.

The Red Cabal had already begun to distribute more products made out of alien-grade superdimensional matter to its phase lords.

If red humanity did not keep up in this arms race, then its forces would suffer increasingly more damage and lose more battles over time. Entire territories might fall and billions of humans would perish!

Both Ves and Ketis could easily figure out the consequences of opening a dimension breach in time or delaying it by several weeks or even months.

This was why Ves felt ashamed for making a request that sounded painfully selfish and short-sighted.

It was not. Control over the Phase Lord Department ought to be worth at least a modest haul of superdimensional matter.

If Ves and the Red Collective truly regained control over all of the rebellious and unruly Ascended Giants, then that could help the war effort just as well as the addition of a dozen superdimensional ace mechs!

"What about giving me half?" Ves asked. "With 200 AP, you can create a dimension breach that is just as large, but will only last a single day. I know it sounds bad to lose 4 whole days of extra mining time, but this is the same duration as last time, which means that nobody will know that you had a better option. We can always make up for the lost opportunities to mine additional superdimensional matter in the future. An opportunity to conquer the Ascended Giants and put them at our disposal only comes once."

While his argument may sound decent, neither woman looked convinced.

Ketis flatly rejected his proposal. "Forget about it, Ves. You didn’t have to accept this leadership challenge. Do you even understand how sacred it is? You are about to undertake a ritual where you prove your qualifications to lead a group of warriors by proving you are better than them. The challenge is deliberately difficult in order to make the results convincing enough. Only a leader that is strong enough, clever enough,and tenacious enough to endure all of the difficulties can earn the approval of the warriors in question. By accepting this challenge when you are not even certain when your strength and fighting skills are up to par is both arrogant and disrespectful."

Her rebuke slightly worsened Ves’ mood.

He did not consider himself to be a warrior, so he did not take her criticism to heart.

Yet he still felt a little guilty for letting his greed overtake his good sense.

Not that his decision would have been any different at the time. The potential gains were too alluring.

If he failed, then at least he made an honest attempt.

He would not forgive himself for skipping this opportunity when he had a chance to succeed.

Gloriana’s gaze towards Ves grew increasingly more judgmental. "How much AP do you have right now?"

"Just 41 AP..."

"..."

"..."

"Yeah, I know. I screwed up. I didn’t spend as much time on completing Missions in the past few months as I should have." Ves feebly defended himself in front of the two women. "Look on the bright side. At least you two managed to earn hundreds of AP with my help! If I did not graciously allow you to pick the best and most attainable Missions every refresh period, then you wouldn’t have been able to get this far."

"That is a lame excuse and you know it, Ves." Gloriana practically growled.

Ketis recalled something different. "You are not entirely without options. Haven’t you mentioned in the past that you have kept a number of lottery tickets in reserve? This appears to be the right time to make use of them. What tickets do you have left?"

"9 golden lottery tickets and 1 radiant lottery ticket." Ves responded as he indeed recalled he had kept them in reserve. "While it is true that I can pull good stuff out of them, the results are always at least semi-random. Golden lottery tickets rarely yield truly good prizes, and the radiant lottery ticket can deliver a powerful prize but doesn’t always fit my needs. The last radiant lottery ticket that I used at the Wishing Fountain gave me the Flower Parasol of all possibilities."

"That worked out well in the end now that you have turned it into the basis for Marigold." His wife mentioned.

"I know, but that is a completely different matter. What I need are solutions that fit my current needs and are immediately useful. The lottery draws cannot guarantee these results."

Neither women took his complaints seriously.

"I do not think it makes much sense for you to save those lottery tickets for a future opportunity." Ketis personally judged. "You are just hoarding them if you do not spend them right now. You should at least use up the radiant lottery ticket first. If I was in your shoes, I would try to aim for an enlightenment fruit related to spearmanship. Regardless of what the Wishing Fountain ultimately spits out, at least you get a fruit that can improve your fighting skills. Even if it is not what you were aiming for, you can still change your plans to adapt to what you have gained. Then there are the 9 golden lottery tickets. The chance that you can get a decent prize out of at least 1 of them should be quite good."

Ves looked conflicted. A radiant lottery ticket was precious. That was not in doubt. He obtained the original Grand Dynamo Elixir from one. He also acquired the mysterious Urvenk Obelisk.

He went on to fold the benefits of both into Blinky and his remarkable qi cultivation method.

Although much of his potential was locked in the far future, the Star Cat was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable companion spirits in existence!

Only Emma far surpassed Blinky in might and energy usage!

A radiant lottery ticket could also yield powerful high-level artifacts such as the Oceancaller and the Flower Parasol.

These were ready-made objects that were marked with lots of mysterious runes. They possessed a wealth of powerful features and could do wonders to the right wielders.

It was unfortunate that the two high-level relics that he obtained by using up radiant lottery tickets failed to fit his needs.

He was at least able to transfer an upgraded version of the Flower Parasol to his daughter.

The Oceancaller remained dormant in the Vault of Eternity. Ves had stalled in his attempt to master the water element. While the Oceancaller made for a convenient staff that could scale up to any size when fed with enough E energy, it was not meant to be used as a blunt instrument.

He was ultimately not the right wielder of this precious artifact.

All of these examples illustrated how getting anything immediately useful out of the Wishing Fountain was completely random.

That may be the point of this facility, but that did not mean Ves had to like it. The System could screw him over in many different ways.

It was this fear of getting a useless prize that made him reluctant to expend this resource.

Yet... the two women were right. The current problem at hand demanded that Ves use up whatever he kept in reserve. If his Ascension Points were not sufficient enough to cover his needs, then he had little choice but to let the Wishing Fountain decide his fate.

"Fine." He grumbled. "I will use up the lottery tickets, but not right now. I still want to browse the Divine Bazaar and the Tree of Possibilities to see what is available and what I can aim for when I reach the Wishing Fountain."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!