It took some time, but Lucky eventually regained a bit of vitality. Without his stomach going to war against the remnant energies of some dark and unfathomable entity, he no longer acted as if he was paralyzed.
That didn’t mean he returned to normal. Sometimes, the medicine could be just as bad as the malady. While Ves didn’t think this was the case with Lucky at the moment, the B-stone he ingested certainly did not make his cat feel good!
“Meoooww..” The gem cat pathetically meowed while he was stuck in Ves’ grasp.
“None of that, Lucky. You’re healthy enough to walk and bite, so that means you’re healthy enough to work! No slacking off for you any longer. With the Gravada Knarlax and other pirate warships about to close in on us, we need to take advantage of every asset that we have, including Unending alloy!”
Ves held his cat like some kind of cutting tool and basically directed him to bite off certain sections of the giant statue of the Unending One.
He had already apportioned the cutting lines beforehand. He also prepared some external aids such as struts and guide supports to make sure that Lucky did not bite in the wrong direction. He wanted the cut-off portions of Unending alloy to be as even as possible.
With the help of his grumpy cat, Ves steadily split up the statue into different pieces of varying sizes.
To produce the pieces he intended to use for his personal gear, he cut the Unending One’s tentacles into smaller squarish-plates or other hand-sized shapes.
To make the larger pieces such as a mech-sized spear or lance, he forced Lucky to bite through the entire length of the statue several times.
Though his cat openly took advantage of this situation by ingesting some of the Unending alloy he bit, he was too wary of this material to eat too much. Even if the dark energy that this statue used to hold had already evaporated, the incredible toughness of this metal still made it difficult to digest.
“Meow….”
“No breaks! Keep biting! Time is of the essence. The sooner you complete this job, the sooner you can go back to sleep! You’re working overtime!”
“Meow!”
“What do you mean about bonus pay? Aren’t you eating it right now? You’ve been stuffing your stomach until it is full. That’s enough of a reward for you. After this, it’s back to eating regular exotics for you. You won’t enjoy this banquet for long!”
“Meow meow!”
Due to the sheer amount of alloy that needed to be bitten, it took two straight days to break off the necessary portions from the statue. The tower shield reserved for the Aurora Titan took an especially long time due to its enormous surface area.
Not only did Lucky have to bite through this shield and other mech-sized gear from the greater statue, Ves also forced his cat to go over every bitten surface in order to bite off the roughest and most uneven areas. He had to force Lucky to employ more precision and only bite on command.
At the end. Ves finally put Lucky down, much to the exhausted cat’s relief!
“Meoooww!”
“Hey, I don’t like it either, but do you see any first-class material processing machines around here? I can’t help it that Unending alloy is way too hard for any of the machines in our possession to tackle.”
Ves felt like a caveman for employing a solution as inane as turning his own pet into a cutting tool. Yet no matter how silly he looked, he did not regret it as taking advantage of Lucky was better than letting the statue remain intact.
Now that he had partially butchered up the statue, he ordered his men to move it out of the way. After clearing some room, he proceeded to refine and assemble the sections he had cut together with some other auxiliary components.
He first treated the daggers reserved for Tusa’s Blueshift. While they were larger and weighed much more than his body, they were fairly small and slim compared to other mech weapons.
Due to their amazing properties, Ves made the daggers smaller and thinner than other daggers typically wielded by light skirmishers.
Despite slimming them down so much, their effectiveness in battle shouldn’t be any worse. Unending alloy was very dense and heavy so even a slim dagger provided enough heft for the Blueshift to stab them with force. The relatively thin blades also increased their penetrative power, which gave Tusa the option to thrust the daggers through more protected armor sections.
Most of the finishing work that Ves performed merely entailed minor work such as wrapping up the hilt with a grip and other minor flourishes.
Like every other gear he prepared for his expert candidates, he added a bit of personalization to the daggers. With Lucky’s help, he added his signature look on the crossguards. He also fashioned a unique pommel in the form of a claw where he set some artificial synthesized crystals.
There wasn’t anything special about the crystals. Their durability was at least a thousand times worse than Unending alloy, but they were cheap to make and replace. Ves mainly opted for this choice because he was able to mold them in a way that allowed them to fit perfectly in place.
“If they break, I can always replace them.” Ves shrugged.
Perhaps in the future he might obtain something better than a synthesized industrial-grade crystal.
In fact, Ves was more inclined to melt the daggers down and reforge the materials into something much more sleek and refined. Due to the crude way he made the pieces, the daggers did not look that good. Its uneven surface area covered with bite marks gave the weapons a distinct texture that looked rather savage, but Ves would rather produce something smoother.
“Well, at least these Unending daggers are deadlier than any other weapon.”
He proceeded to assemble and finish the other Unending weapons as well.
The Banthar, which was the name that Commander Orfan came up with for her custom mech, gained a spear and small round shield. Ves also threw in a small Unending knife as a backup weapon.
For the Sword Hunter, Ves spent a lot of effort on adding his finishing touches on the large Unending greatsword. It featured a more prominent signature look of his and boasted a larger and tougher crystal as its pommel.
He also employed the same care for a shorter and much thinner sword. If the Sword Hunter ever lost its primary weapon, Commander Dise would still be able exert almost just as much cutting power with its smaller and lighter secondary weapon.
The Shield of Samar finally gained a shield worthy of its name and mech pilot. Though the tower shield’s outer surface initially looked rough, Ves covered it up by applying a thin layer of Breyer alloy on the outside. He also added multiple sturdy grips so that Venerable Jannzi’s mech was capable of holding and bracing the shield in multiple ways.
“This is an enormously heavy shield! If I hadn’t upgraded the Shield of Samar’s flight system, it would probably be left behind in battle!”
While Ves could have made the shield thinner, Venerable Jannzi had already made it clear that she wanted as much defense as possible.
He delivered what she wanted. The tower shield was so thick and dense that Ves was confident that the Shield of Samar would be able to withstand a direct hit from the Gravada Knarlax’s primary cannons!
“Of course, blocking such a powerful attack doesn’t mean the kinetic force goes away.”
Just like one billiard ball hitting another billiard ball, any heavy attack that squarely hit the Shield of Samar would probably bounce the mech away!
This problem was especially bad in space combat. The lack of solid ground meant that mechs had to rely on their flight capabilities to stay in place.
“Well, at least the mech will still be in one piece. That is always better than sustaining damage.”
Though he knew that Venerable Jannzi didn’t particularly demand it, Ves still threw in an Unending knight sword for her mech as well.
After all of that work, he left the Quint’s weapons for last. Since Joshua and Major Verle already decided to keep the enhanced and upgraded masterwork mech in its lancer mech configuration, Ves wanted to make sure to craft a lance worthy for one of his best works.
The Unending lance was long and narrow but not entirely smooth. It featured some cleverly-placed grooves and bumps along its length to offer a stable grip and ensure the lance wouldn’t get flung away at the moment of impact.
To give the Quint some close dueling capabilities, Ves prepared an Unending short sword as well. Though the lancer mech configuration lacked the agility and flexibility of the swordsman mech configuration, a pilot as good as Joshua should easily be able to cope with these limitations.
“This is especially so if Joshua breaks through during the next battle.” He grinned.
Though all of this mech gear took a lot of time to prepare due to their considerable mass, Ves had plenty of time left over to fill them up with some spiritual energy.
After all, Unending alloy was not only incredibly hard, but also capable of storing spiritual energy. Ves had a strong hunch that this second property might be very helpful in the coming battle.
He only asked the Golden Cat to fill each piece of gear with just a modest amount of her spiritual energy. The capacity of each Unending weapon was very considerable, but filling it up would likely weaken his design spirits considerably.
Perhaps it is better to leave a lot of room. If the expert candidates ever turned into expert pilots, maybe they could channel some of the excess energy they leak out into the Unending weapons.
This would not only empower the weapons in a way that completely fit the individual expert pilots, but also leave an imprint behind that could grow.
“Maybe they’ll turn into legacy weapons someday.”
Ves winced at the thought of the rough and crude gear turning into revered relics. He resolved to smooth the Unending weapons out as soon as he gained access to a production machine that was powerful enough to perform this task!
Once he completed his work on the mech gear, his clansmen took them away and moved them to their respective mechs.
With that out of the way, Ves could finally turn his attention to crafting some personal gear. This would be one of the final projects he embarked on before he met the pirates in combat.
Although Ves felt it was kind of silly to pay so much attention to infantry gear when he was about to confront actual warships, he wanted to make sure to account for as many possibilities as possible.
“The focus this time is on enhancing my spiritual combat abilities.” He muttered.
Just like he did with Ketis’ Rising Red Dragon suit, Ves envisioned creating a suit of armor that consisted of two primary layers.
The outer layer should be made of Unending alloy, while the inner layer consisted of B-stone alloy.
Ves gazed at the bin where he collected a large quantity of small Unending alloy plates. The bin rested next to a large bed frame he looted from Ulimo Citadel.
“There should be enough B-stone to create two inner layers with plenty of materials to spare.” He estimated.
If there was any time left over, Ves also planned to remake Lucky’s Misfortune Harness!
“Let’s begin!”
He already prepared all of the designs beforehand. On top of that, he also fabricated much of the internal parts out of Breyer alloy and other accessible materials. His main job was to assemble them all together and make sure he ended up with one, solid suit of armor that could withstand any manner of material and spiritual attacks!
