Chapter 7157 Bonus Prize This was what he liked the most about acquiring new knowledge and especially through enlightenment fruits. The new theories and insights may initially come in a self-contained package, but as soon as they settled into his mind, they began to cross-pollinate with each other. Brand new connections formed when none existed before. The wisdom of scientists and scholars of the past crossed paths with brand-new technological advancements. The availability of new materials and production methods introduced a wealth of new possibilities to old tech. This was what happened to Ves as the cross-pollination process continued to produce one benefit after another. "The basic premise of the Sacrificial Spear Throwing Method was to infuse specially developed spears with fire energy before throwing them out, causing them to explode and inflict great damage at their destinations. Since this was a method based on ancient cultivation science, it did not involve anything approaching modern science and propellants. Instead, it utilized the materials that used to be abundant and fairly easy to convert into explosive reactants. Those ancient creation cultivators figured out the theory and a series or recipes that enabled them to turn special combinations of exotics and hyper materials into powerful explosives! Through the ground-breaking paradigms included in the enlightenment fruit, Ves was able to contemplate the premise of turning superdimensional matter into the most powerful and compact explosive warhead possible. This was an insane idea, but could theoretically work! "It's not that simple." He said with a frown. Among the three mech designers, he possessed the greatest understanding of superdimensional technology. "Only specific varieties of superdimensional matter can be used for this application, and they need to undergo extensive processing, alloying and rearrangement before they can be turned into a powerful destructing construct. However, so long as you can solve all of these technical problems, a single mech-grade cannon shell can potentially inflict as much damage as the primary gun battery of a battleship." Gloriana grew enthused as she imagined all of the possibilities. "We can attain the best results by using high-grade superdimensional matter. Their extra dimensional characteristics are the strongest. We can design special ammunition and have them launch from a physical cannon wielded by one of our ace mechs. The combination of different enhancements can potentially allow one of our ace mechs to overwhelm the defenses of a particularly powerful greater phase whale. It might even be able to inflict injury on an ancient phase whale." Ves was already thinking beyond that. What if he applied what he learned to develop an insanely potent superdimensional explosive shell for the Destroyer of Worlds? The Ragnarok could be able to launch a projectile that could inflict significant damage to another god mech! The attack may even be potent enough to wear down the defenses of a God King, though that may be wishful thinking on Ves' part. Whatever the case, he fully recognized the potential in the knowledge he gained from an enlightenment fruit worth just 35 Ascension Points. The value of this enlightenment fruit may be accurately priced for ordinary mech designers, but for Larkinsons with enough knowledge of superdimensional technology and access to superdimensional matter, the actual gains were worth much more! Unfortunately, Ves did not have the time or interest to explore the full potential of this new intersection of technologies. "We should prepare an information package for Zanthar." Ves suggested. "We shouldn't dump everything on his shoulders all at once. That is a bit too much. We should share the basics to him first and steadily grant him access to more advanced theories and designs. He would definitely love it and try to incorporate what he has learned into his own works. As the resident physical ammunition specialist of our clan, he is the best person to exploit the potential of this new tech." As the director of the Design Department, Gloriana carefully weighed his proposal. "We can do this, but do not expect immediate results. Zanthar is still an inexperienced Journeyman. He will have to put more effort into learning and mastering the basics of superdimensional theory. We can speed up his studies if we give him access to samples of low-grade superdimensional matter. He should be able to experiment and understand superdimensional theory through actual practice rather than book learning." "We have lots of low-grade superdimensional matter in storage." Ketis mentioned. "This stuff is the equivalent of sand and dirt. The only reason why we haven't tossed it aside is because they happen to possess relatively modest superdimensional properties. It doesn't matter too much if they are not suited to be used as the basis of a self-exploding projectile. We can take advantage of their superdimensional properties to stuff in a larger quantity of exotics and hypers that are configured to explode with great force." Her suggestion had potential. It would still take a lot of trial and error to figure out a cost-effective way to develop superdimensional explosive munitions, but a mech designer such as Zanthar should be able to puzzle it out in the next few years. There were many uses for low-grade superdimensional matter, but Ves did not mind it if the clan used its vast reserves as the key ingredients for explosive ammunition. Compared to using this relatively abundant matter to construct fortifications, Ves would much rather turn them into munitions that could drastically increase the firepower of his mechs and possibly his warships. Ves, Ketis and Gloriana continued to swap ideas about how to utilize the new knowledge. However, Ves soon turned his attention back to his immediate problem. He had no time to explore those exotic ideas when he still had a leadership challenge on the horizon. "Now that I am out of AP, let's head down to the Wishing Fountain. It's time for me to use up my remaining lottery tickets." He had made up his mind regarding this matter. The lottery tickets represented a lot of potential wealth, but continuing to hoard them when he clearly needed an extra boost did not make sense. Of course, that did not mean he was willing to use up his most precious radiant lottery ticket right away. He retrieved the 9 golden lottery tickets and intended to use them up first. If he managed to win the jackpot with one of them, then he might be able to keep the radiant lottery ticket in reserve for a while longer. Both Ketis and Gloriana watched with a mix of fascination and bemusement as Ves tossed the first ticket into the well of the Wishing Fountain. The water began to light up in gold. Energy began to accumulate beneath the surface. When it finally reached a threshold, a message exploded in front of everyone's eyes! [Congratulations! Regretfully, you have not won a prize this time. Thank you for your patronage!] The female mech designers looked distinctly unimpressed. "..." "..." "Eh, the System does this sometimes." Ves awkwardly said as he looked embarrassed. "Hopefully, not all of the tickets will end up as duds." He repeated the process with another ticket. "C'mon. Give me something good." This time, the Wishing Fountain decided to oblige him and actually spat out an object! Ves caught the object. It looked like a skull. A human skull. "What is this…?" Gloriana briefly looked confused before her companion spirit sensed a remarkable amount of power locked inside. "Wait, is this the skull of an ace pilot!?" "What?!" Ketis had already figured it out before the other woman. She looked at the skull with a perplexed expression. It was a good thing the Heavensword did not decide to accompany her into the System Space this time. She feared how it might react when faced with the skull of an honorable hero and saint. "Not a lot of ace pilots have perished in combat since the start of the Red War." Ves said as he held the skull with a bit of reverence. "However, fatalities have risen ever since the phase lords have begun to employ Saint Piercers on an increasingly larger scale in the past year. I will have to look up the archives and see if I can match a name to this particular specimen." "What will you do if you find out that the ace pilot has family or people who cared about him, Ves? Will you give them the skull so that they can bury him properly?" Ketis softly asked. Ves shook his head. "No. I can't explain how I obtained this skull. Besides, the Wishing Fountain gave it to me in order to make something out of it. I can easily imagine that the ace pilot who this skull belongs to would approve of any plan of turning it into a weapon against his killers. If we can gain the cooperation of the Skull Architect, we can provide a powerful boost to one of our high-ranking mechs." He did not have any intentions of giving away such a valuable prize. This was a relic that was equivalent in value if not greater than a whole Mentalist Crystal! Although it was macabre to use the remains of an ace pilot as a resource for his works, Ves truly could not resist the temptation. He readily succumbed to his weakness as a mech designer and had no thoughts about giving it back to the relatives of the deceased saint! Though Ketis did not quite agree with his decision, it was his skull considering he used up his own golden lottery ticket to obtain this prize. After Ves carefully stowed away the ace pilot skull, he proceeded to use up his remaining golden lottery tickets. [Congratulations! Regretfully, you have not won a prize this time. Thank you for your patronage!] [Congratulations! You have won a set of weapon gauntlets called the Tigress Claws!] [Congratulations! You have won the design schematics of the Herzog RED-115 B Edition!] [Congratulations! Regretfully, you have not won a prize this time. Thank you for your patronage!] [Congratulations! Regretfully, you have not won a prize this time. Thank you for your patronage!] [Congratulations! You have won a replica of the Corrupting Orb!] [Congratulations! Regretfully, you have not won a prize this time. Thank you for your patronage!] As the Wishing Fountain continuously gobbled up the golden lottery tickets and glowed in gold, Ves did not always obtain the desired results. Gloriana looked fairly impressed at Ves' luck. "Out of the 9 lottery tickets that you have used up, 5 of them yielded no prize at all. This must not have been a particularly good day." "I wouldn't say so." Ketis said. "That skull is probably worth at least 5 golden lottery tickets alone. It is a pity that it is not immediately useful to Ves." Gloriana curiously picked up a pair of weapon gauntlets. Although they were 'merely' low-level artifacts, they possessed a special charm that made them attractive to her. Their design was surprisingly elegant and delicate, making it clear that they were meant to be used by feminine users rather than masculine ones. "Andraste would love them as a birthday present." She commented. "Perhaps I should upgrade them like you have done with the Flower Parasol." Ves looked dubious at this idea. "They are low-level artifacts. You can probably make a better weapon set by developing it from the ground up with superdimensional matter." "I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the value of these Tigress Claws. Just look at how beautiful they are! The more I look at them, the more I admire their visual design. There has to be more to these relics than what is apparent on the surface…" While the claws represented a novelty, the other two prizes were a bit more interesting. All three mech designers quickly understood the value of the design schematics of the Herzog RED-115 B Edition. "This is an extremely advanced first-class multipurpose mech design." Gloriana noted. "In my view, it looks complete and legitimate. What is strange is that its technological refinement is unusually high." "That is because it is a mech design from the Cybernetic Empire." Ves stated with certainty. "This design contains a wealth of advanced technological applications that are at least a generation ahead of the rest of red humanity. The design itself is not necessarily valuable. What is truly interesting are the design solutions! If not for the fact that these files lack full documentation, we could easily master the underlying knowledge that allows this first-class multipurpose mech to perform so well." This was an unexpected bonus prize!