The Mech Touch

"Come on, Lucky. Can you figure out what this material does?"

"Meow?"

Lucky looked confused as he floated besides Ves' armored body. Seeing that this was not a joke, he took a bite out of the chunk of Hulivaster ore.

"..Meow… meoww… meow…"

"So you are able to ascertain at least this much? That's great!"

Ves grinned. His guess was true!

Lucky was a gluttonous gem cat who ate valuable exotics like no tomorrow. He hungered for the most special and remarkable metallic exotics and wasn't above sneaking around on the Spirit of Bentheim in order to take a secret bite every once in a while.

How did Lucky find these valuable exotics?

How was he able to discern the properties and the overall value of different exotics?

Though Ves did not understand how Lucky worked at all, that didn't stop him from taking advantage of his cat's unique abilities!

According to Lucky himself, he was able to discern different exotics by 'taste' and 'smell', though the ways the cat experienced these senses were vastly different from that of normal cats.

Lucky was even able to sniff out nearby exotics in a vacuum environment or through many meters of solid rock!

All of this signified that Lucky's senses were remarkably effective even if they were beyond understanding.

Ves had no hopes of deciphering Lucky's various functions and mechanisms. He might look like a mechanical cat but his systems were far too sophisticated for him to understand and replicate!

He might have a chance of deciphering how Lucky was built if he became a Master Mech Designer or Star Designer, but that was too far away from him. For now, he should be happy with the utility that Lucky was able to provide.

Ves floated over to a second box and picked up another mineral. "Take a bite and tell me what you've figured out about this rock."

"Meow!"

Even though Lucky had filled up his stomach with a lot of minerals today, he could never say no to an additional snack. He happily darted forward and took a big bite out of the second exotic.

"Meow meow meow…"

"It's hot and spicy, you say?"

Ves nodded in affirmation as Lucky's descriptions largely matched the properties that the MTA database described.

Usher-B was a resonating exotic that was capable of amplifying the temperature or heat energy of a component. This allowed it to have multiple uses, most of which were offensive in nature.

The only unfortunate aspect about Usher-B was that it was classified as a third-class exotic by the MTA. The reason for that was because Usher-B was too fragile and prone to breaking when subjected to the rigors of second-class combat.

"Too bad." He said as he tossed the remaining rock back into the crate.

Not even Lucky was eager to finish off this little snack!

Time went by as Ves fed sample after sample to Lucky. He did not skip any of the 26 identified exotics because he wanted to know exactly what his cat discovered when taking a bite out of the different rocks.

Although Lucky's way of perceiving the properties of different exotics was anything but precise and objective, the fact that he was able to provide descriptions that matched the findings of the MTA confirmed that the gem cat was truly able to figure out every metallic exotic in his own way!

They soon arrived at the last identified exotic which also happened to be the most valuable one they discovered so far. It stood out from the rest due to one reason.

"This is a first-class low-grade resonating exotic!"

It was by far the most valuable find from this mining site. Even if he did not intend to use this material for his own purposes, he could easily earn a small fortune if he sold it in Davute!

Lucky was a lot eager when he took a bite out of the tiny sample Ves presented. The cat speedily muched it down as if he was afraid that Ves would take back the remainder!

"Well? What can you tell me about the treasure that you have just eaten?"

"Meow meow meow! Meow meow meow meow meow!"

Apparently, Lucky was a lot more eager to express his feelings about the first-class resonating exotic that he had just eaten. Even though it pained Ves that he had obtained this answer by bribing his cat with another sample, at least he picked the smallest chunk in the box this time.

Ves parsed what Lucky had conveyed to him and matched the information with the description in the MTA database.

Celestan Cobalt was a special material. It was a material that was exclusive to the Red Ocean. The material was not energetic in its raw form and was difficult to detect with ordinary mineral scanners.

If Lucky didn't possess such an accurate sense for powerful exotics, the Larkinsons would have missed out on this treasure!

Celestan Cobalt didn't do anything special under ordinary circumstances aside from being denser and harder than normal materials.

The indiginous aliens races apparently treated it as a low-value exotic. If Celestan Cobalt could be found in large quantities, then the weaker alien races probably would have used it to build their starships and structures.

However, the material was so rare that the aliens didn't even bother using it for this purpose. It was better to employ a proper bulk material that could be used to build lots of starships in a uniform fashion.

"All the better for us then." Ves grinned.

Humanity was one of the few races if not the only one that could make proper use of resonating exotics. The deposits of Celestan Cobalt found in other star systems that remained untouched due to alien indifference easily enriched the pockets of the humans that came later!

"Even though the supply of Celestan Cobalt is not low due to this turn of events, that doesn't mean its market price is low."

The reason why Celestan Cobalt deserved greater attention was because of its discovered effects.

When paired with the right expert pilot, an expert mech that integrated this resonating exotic was able to accelerate at least 20 times faster!

20 times faster!

This was the power of a first-class resonating exotic, and it happened to be classified as a more inferior material by the mech industry!

"I really can't imagine what a comparable first-class medium-grade or high-grade exotic can do. Are they able to speed them up by fifty times? What about a hundred times?"

These were ludicrously high numbers!

Increasing the acceleration of an expert mech by two or three times was already fast enough to the current Larkinson Clan!

The reason why Celestan Cobalt was able to do this was not quite clear. The MTA's entry on this material was quite brief and showed many signs of obfuscation. It only stated that Celestan Cobalt was able to produce a resonating effect that caused mechs to accelerate faster by 'warping their passage through realspace', whatever that meant.

What was remarkable was that the expert mech in question did not endure greater g-forces or expend extra energy in order to achieve this boost. The only real cost was tiring out the expert pilot.

"Even if it can only be reserved as a trump card, this is still a powerful resonating ability!"

Ves had to search for rumors and unverified reports on the galactic net in order to understand the significance of this resonating exotic.

"Celestan Cobalt and phasewater may be related to each other!"

If that was the case, then the heightened interest as well as the reticence in providing more information could be explained.

A lot of powers that managed to get their hands on Celestan Cobalt probably wanted to keep all of the details to themselves.

The MTA was probably conducting a lot of research in the material as well.

"If Celestan Cobalt can really interact with phasewater, then its applications may be greater than everyone knows." He guessed.

The value of Celestan Cobalt was evident. It was a boon to many speed-oriented expert mechs.

He briefly sighed. "It would be great if I can integrate Celestan Cobalt into the Dark Zephyr, but Tusa's mech is already stuffed with remarkable materials."

Every expert mech only possessed a limited capacity for resonating exotics. Each additional material introduced more incompatibilities and undesirable interactions.

This was especially a problem for a smaller machine like the Dark Zephyr! Its frame offered less room than the other Larkinson expert mechs so all of its active components were squeezed together.

The only way for Ves to fit Celestan Cobalt into the Dark Zephyr was if he replaced another key eoxtic to make room for the new material.

"This is too great of a price."

The Dark Zephyr possessed a strong identity and its resonating exotics matched it extremely well. The Perfidious Steel that enabled it to distort its coordinates in space was one of its signature abilities due to how well it increased the expert mech's evasion capabilities.

"If I pull out all of the Perfidious Steel from Tusa's mech, it wouldn't be the Dark Zephyr anymore."

Ves could not bring himself to do that. Although any light mech could benefit from having more speed, evasion was more important to Venerable Tusa.

The best course of action that he could take was to put it in his strategic materials reserve and reserve it for an upcoming expert mech design project.

"Hm. Maybe I should prioritize the breakthroughs of light mech specialists in the future."

The Larkinson Clan needed ranged specialists more, though. He had high hopes for Isobel Larkinson who was making constant progress while piloting the Quint.

The only immediate pilot that might be able to make use of Celestan Cobalt was Imon Ingvar, but Ves did not have any expectations regarding their compatibility.

Imon Ingvar was an eager fighter and duelist. He did not prioritize mobility.

It would soon become clear if the harvests from this planet were of any use to his expert pilots. Ves planned to expose every resonating exotics to his expert pilots to see whether they were compatible with each other.

Even if he couldn't use them in any of the existing Larkinson expert mechs, he could still hold the matching resonating exotics in reserve in case he needed to design another expert mech one day.

Ves turned away from the box of Celestan Cobalt and floated over to a container that held the first unidentified exotic dug out from this pit.

He picked up a grayish rock and presented it to his cat.

"You know the drill. Tell me what you can uncover."

Lucky bit the gray rock without any hesitation. The cat crunched and chewed it for a bit before gulping down his latest snack.

"Meow meow meow…"

"It is cold, you say? That sounds like it might be useful for heat management."

If what Lucky was saying was correct, then this unidentified exotic might be capable of producing a powerful cooling effect!

This effect could be employed as a useful secondary resonance ability for mechs that were prone to producing a lot of heat.

His thoughts instantly drifted to the Mars Project. The expert hybrid mech was stuffed with energy weapons and each of them produced massive amounts of heat when used at maximum power.

Though Professor Benedict had many plans in mind to minimize the heat problem, there was no denying that hybrid mechs were always prone to overheating!

If this new exotic could be used to cool the Mars Project, then it could massively extend its damage output!

"Do the Crossers even need this feature, though?"

Professor Benedict should have made his own selection of resonating materials already. This was a step that he could prepare well in advance. There shouldn't be any space for additional resonating exotics anymore.

Besides, Ves wasn't sure whether this unknown exotic was up to par with first or second-class materials. He would have to perform additional lab tests to make a reasonable estimate.

"Well, let's see whether there are better treasures in this pile of unidentified materials!"