Chapter 6571 Short Term and Long Term Considerations Now that Ves read through the descriptions of the three powerful upgrade options presented by the Mech Designer System, he immediately began to determine which one suited him best. Ketis had a lot more time to mull over her choices. Her discussion with Ves did not change her calculus all that much. She still went through an orderly process of setting criteria before weighing the three options against them just to be sure she made a choice that had not been overly influenced by the Heavensword. Ves on the other hand had to start from the beginning. He first tried to determine his greatest priorities. Survival should rank at the top. He could do nothing if he ended up getting killed by his enemies. The native aliens of red humanity posed the most acute threat. Given their many advantages during this sensitive period of time, it might be useful if Ves found a way to strengthen himself and the forces under his command in the short term. However, Ves was not the only one who was fighting against the current enemies of red humanity. Many other people were pitching in as well. This meant that he did not bear the sole burden of saving his race and civilization. Was it truly necessary for him to disregard other concerns and solely base his decision on immediate combat boosts? Maybe, maybe not. The rest of red humanity still had the capital to compete against the native aliens. Humans were working on plenty of initiatives to overcome their lack of numbers. However, what if their preparations fell short? What if the surprises prepared by the Red Cabal turned out to be more powerful and overwhelming than expected? Ves did not want to spend so much time and preparation on improving his long-term prospects when he was already at risk of getting killed or driven away in the short term! He found it very difficult to decide how to weigh his short term and long term interests. His expression darkened. He could not afford to neglect the latter. The greater threat on the horizon was the future invasion of the natives of Messier 87. The Subjugation King and his alien armada were on their way to the Red Ocean! Once this foreign invasion force entered the dwarf galaxy, neither the humans nor the resident aliens stood a chance against the might of a God King! Sure, the Evolution Witch and every other god pilot was hard at work trying to promote to the fourth major cultivation rank, but how much could they accomplish in the span of a few decades? If Ves had a choice, he did not want to put his life in the hands of others, particularly strangers who did not have his best interests at heart. Ves would much prefer it if he could take the initiative and solve the threat posed by the Subjugation King through his own efforts. He did not dream about arming himself to the teeth and engaging in personal combat against the powerful krelion. That was pure madness. It was best if he could elevate one of his Larkinson mech pilots or power up a more reliable ally such as the Destroyer of Worlds with his works. The time limit was far too short for his liking. Ves did not have the confidence that he could help a mech pilot reach the fourth major cultivation rank in just half a century. There was too little time! Escape was not even an option for him. Ves learned that the Red Three had already built the Whale Ark, but he did not dare to board it while he still bore the soul mark of the alien god king. At best, he could send off his wife, his children and his Larkinsons. Ves was not resigned to death or capture at the hands of the terrible alien from the nearby supermassive galaxy, The Mech Designer System gave him the best prospect to flip the table and overturn the rules! All three upgrade tracks gave him the potential to gain a lot of power to overcome a hostile god king. Five Element Mastery held the greatest promise as far as he was concerned. By mastering the five elements and learning how to fuse them all together might result in a supermech that might be powerful enough to allow a god pilot, or better yet multiple god pilots to leapfrog an entire major cultivation rank and defeat the Subjugation King in combat! Ves couldn't help but think back on the Elemental Lord and recall the brutal response from the heavenly authority of Messier 87. He truly believed that developing a successful version of this incredible mech was the best way to solve this crisis. However, he was not entirely certain whether he should put all of his eggs in the five elements basket. The natives of Messier 87 excelled at manipulating E energy since that was what they had in abundance They were doubtlessly familiar with the 5 elements. Not only did they wield the power of fire and so on with great familiarity and sophistication, they also knew exactly how to effectively counter these manifestations! The other two upgrade tracks promised to strengthen Ves and his works in less familiar and unconventional ways. This was crucial as the only way to defeat the Subjugation King from a position of weakness was to take the alien bastard by surprise! The less familiar the methods, the greater the chances of killing or repelling the extragalactic invader! In that sense, Ves had much greater confidence that the benefits brought by Demoncasting and Superdimensional Transformation would help him defeat the alien god king. Of the two, Demoncasting probably granted more immediate benefits in the short term while Superdimensional Transformation likely promised amazing value in the long term. "Damn, I am no closer to making up my mind." Ves felt an attraction for all three options if he was being honest. This was why he needed to set hard criteria and stick to them. He needed to use his logic to decide. which choice benefited him the most. He took another look at Five Element Mastery. The short term benefits of this upgrade track were not too great. It took time to earn enough AP to absorb his first elemental enlightenment fruits. Ves needed to spend even more time to apply his newfound knowledge into future mech designers. It also took months or years for his published works to proliferate throughout human society and make a meaningful difference in the Red War. The long-term prospects of Five Element Mastery were a lot better. This upgrade track would allow Ves to speed up his progression as a mech designer by a considerable degree. As an added bonus, Five Element Mastery also allowed his companion spirit to enrich the Blinkyverse and acquire all kinds of useful combat techniques. The Star Cat would become a proper qi cultivator like his mother and possess the ability to become a moderately powerful threat in his own right! "This sounds rather good, but... can I really afford to wait that long?" The poor short term prospects of this upgrade track ultimately caused Ves to lower its overall evaluation. Ves considered Demoncasting next. He felt a lot more excited for this option than the other choices, but he could not allow his emotions to affect his judgment. Objectively speaking, the benefits of Demoncasting were not quite clear due to the short description. The System withheld too many important details for Ves to gain a good overview of what he would be getting into if he chose this upgrade track. If he was willing to make a lot of assumptions, then Demoncasting presumably allowed him to strengthen his gear and the gear of others right away. The biggest constraint was the supply of 'demons. The System mentioned that there were numerous ways to obtain demons to cast into his mechs and other gear, but each of them imposed their own demands. Spending AP to summon demons from another plane or whatever sounded incredibly wasteful. Sacrificing the lives of lots of humans and aliens sounded like a cheaper and more convenient way to acquire demons, but this sort of practice reeked of demonic cultivation! There had to be other ways to obtain more demons. Perhaps he might be able to make use of the Dimension Observatory to find a dimension where they resided and dispatch forces to a dimensional tear to capture them en masse! Whatever the case, as long as Ves solved the demon supply problem, Ves or rather Vulcan would be able to cast a large amount of cursed arms, giving red humanity an immediate edge against its enemies! While demoncasting likely possessed good short term prospects, its long term prospects should not be too weak. As long as the art of demoncasting remained forbidden and forgotten by others, Ves would maintain a definite advantage. All of his rivals and enemies could be kept at bay because their machines lacked demoncasted weapons. Even if they became a little more common, Ves would make sure that his forces retained the most powerful and exclusive demon arms! The only question was whether demoncasted weapons would eventually hit a ceiling in the far future. Unlike Five Elements Mastery which would continue to become more powerful over time, Demoncasting might have lower development potential. What if its development hit a ceiling? What if he could only create stronger arms by converting the soul of a god king into a demon? "Nothing comes for free! Ves sighed. "Five Elements Mastery will allow me to derive a lot of power from elemental E energy, but I can't forget that all E energy radiation originally belongs to Messier 87." That was a potential vulnerability that the natives of that powerful galaxy could exploit against red humanity! After all, the Subjugation King had once proved he was able to control a part of the heavenly authority of Messier 87! That was not enough for Ves to give up on his ambition to recreate the Elemental Lord, but he felt it was necessary to prepare a backup measure. Demoncasting was inherently a practice that went against the heavens, so Ves did not have to worry that Messier 87 would be able to sabotage it. At most, the heavenly authority might suppress it instead. Regardless, demoncasted weapons presumably worked in a similar manner to the Heavensword in that they possessed their own internal power sources. That sounded much more reliable than an elemental mech that had to rely much more 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢 extensively on the availability of E energy radiation to reach its full potential! This caused him to lean more and more to this upgrade track. What about Superdimensional transformation? Its long-term prospects were equally promising. It might even be able to turn Ves and Ketis into unfathomably powerful beings whose mastery over the dimensions would allow them to fight the Subjugation King! In the short term, Ves was more than willing to spend as much AP as he could scrounge on transforming his brain into a more extensive superdimensional organ. As a phase lord, Ves had already turned into a superdimensional organism, but not to a great extent. Instead of relying on obscure and flawed alien methods to advance his phase lord cultivation, Ves would much rather make use of the System's more precise upgrade options to precisely control and optimize his superdimensional evolution! However, would all of this make enough of a difference to overcome his enemies? He was much less certain about that. Superdimensional Transformation was largely centered around empowering himself rather than helping others become stronger. Ves had to remind himself that he was a mech designer first and foremost. If he disregarded everything else, then the only reason to pick this upgrade track was to increase his productivity and make it easier for him to acquire dimensional resources. None of these advantages were unique! Ves could increase his productivity in other ways even if they were not as convenient. He could also rely on the current facilities of the Dimension Observatory to harvest those resources. If that was the case. then Superdimension Transformation ultimately didn't hold as much promise as the other upgrade tracks. After he completed his evaluation, it became abundantly clear which option he should choose. "Ketis? I am done." "Which option do you favor the most?" "Demoncasting" The swordmaster's expression twitched. "As expected. I already had a hunch you would lean in this direction." "What is your choice?" "My choice hasn't really changed. I still favor Five Elements Mastery over the others." "I see."