Chapter 6134 Vegan Cat A big turning point came in the development of the first Woodsap mech. The shipment from Reticula Corein V finally arrived on New Constantinople VIII! Ves grinned for hours as the transport carrying the most valuable spoils from the battle against the Emperor Tree slowly touched down on the landing zone of Diandi Base. "Meow?" Lucky looked as if he did not know why he had to be present. Ves just randomly plucked the dark-colored gem cat from Andraste's lap and carried him all the way outside. The cat curiously observed as the fat transport vessel powered down before lowering the main cargo hatch. A small army of bots moved in to take out numerous cargo containers. Each of them held valuable spoils that Ves desired to obtain for a while now. He finally had access to different varieties of Emperor Wood! As Diandi Base began to receive, inspect and process the incoming cargo, Ves soon managed to get his hands on a small splinter of ebony wood. The splinter originally came from the Ebony Zeal, but had broken off from the champion wooden mech after getting struck by the Promethea after Isobel's breakthrough. Ves already had a good idea of how remarkable it was, but holding a real sample in his own hands made him appreciate this material even more. "This is the finest variation of Emperor Wood that currently exists. Isn't it fascinating, Lucky? It is an organic fusion between a high-grade exotic alloy and a high-grade hyper material. It is tough but also fairly flexible. It is surprisingly light in weight but is also much more spiritually active than any hyper material I have seen. It might not score at the top in every criteria, but its overall performance is so good that it is truly a worthwhile material to use in the development of first-class mechs." If not for the fact that it took a lot of time and energy to produce more ebony wood, Ves would have been tempted to design ebony mechs right away! As Ves continued to admire the real piece of ebony wood in his hands, Lucky did not seem nearly as impressed. "Hey Lucky." "Meow?" "Why don't you take a bite?" "Meow-meow?!" "Doesn't it look and smell yummy to you? It may be organic, but it is heavily enriched by the best metals that the Emperor Tree was able to extract from the environment. This particular piece just so happens to have integrated the first-class alloys from the Zeal. That should make this piece of ebony wood a lot more enticing." "Meeoow!" Lucky was already starting to squirm away from Ves' grasp. "Oh no you don't. Cats can be vegans as well, you know. Now open up and take a bite!" "Meeeow! Meeeow! Meeeow!" Ves disregarded the melodramatic cat's distress and forcibly stuffed the ebony wood through Lucky's gullet. Soon enough, the ebony wood had disappeared into Lucky's unwilling stomach. "Meooow…" The cat clearly did not enjoy the experience. He continued to hack and cough as if he had just swallowed the most unpalatable thing in existence. It didn't make sense to Ves. Lucky ate all kinds of strange, weird and toxic metals. If his digestion system was able to handle such difficult materials, then he should be able to digest a wide range of organic and non-metallic materials as well! However, Lucky's reaction towards being forced to swallow a piece of alien wood was genuine. The gem cat truly detested what just entered into his stomach and immediately began to show signs of getting sick. It was as if he had just gotten food poisoned! Ves rolled his eyes at the display. "You don't know what sort of good stuff you have just ingested. It's really difficult for us to produce more ebony wood. It not only requires a diverse collection of high-quality materials, but also has to be fueled with an astronomical amount of wood energy. The Emperor Tree only ever managed to produce just three ebony mechs at its height." "Meoow…" Lucky did not care about that background information at all. He was just upset that Ves forced him to eat another piece of awful tasting organic material! Once Ves loosened his grip, Lucky fought against his sickened stomach and successfully managed to get away from the devil who forced him to ingest a piece of strange wood. "Meow meow meow!..." The cat quickly disappeared by phasing through the ground. Ves shrugged but let Lucky go. He had already seen what he wanted to see. He picked up another piece of ebony wood and stroked its surface as if he was holding a delicate jewel. "I am going to conduct a lot of experiments on you." He grinned. Ves did not delay in this. He had been waiting far too long for this shipment. He already planned out a whole series of experiments. Of course, there was no need to examine the ebony wood from scratch. The Larkinson Biotech Institute had conducted its own studies on the high-quality wood material and managed to collect a lot of useful data. What Ves sought to do with ebony wood went beyond figuring out its properties. He wanted to explore its applications and see how much he could tap into its potential. He also wanted to make deliberate alterations to ebony wood in order to increase its performance and make it more resistant to phasewater. Before he began his experiments, he briefly paid a visit to the Ebony Everchanger. Ves placed a lot of value in the legacy of the Emperor Tree. The Premier Branch dedicated an entire secure vault for the temporary storage of this powerful alien construct. Alexa and Gloriana accompanied Ves as he made his way to the only living remnant of the Emperor Tree. The Ebony Everchanger was truly more impressive to Ves now that he was able to observe it up close. From the strong wood alignment of its spirituality to the remarkable way the large construct was able to operate by relying on unconventional materials, Ves eagerly wanted to pick it apart and see how it ticked from the inside! He tried his best to restrain his urges. The Ebony Everchanger was far more valuable to him while it remained whole. "What do you think?" "It is… a perversion of living mechs." Gloriana judged. "I do not object to tributes of our mechs because I know that their creators are generally well-meaning, if much less skilled than ourselves. This is not a tribute. This is an incompetent form of theft and imitation. It is not enough for the Emperor Tree to try to reproduce the power of the Everchanger in an incompetent manner. It also tried to corrupt the entire mech concept by overriding our masterwork mech's original functions with its own wood-based solutions!" His wife truly did not like the Ebony Everchanger at all. She objected to the existence of every organic mech because they were never produced with the level of machine-like precision that she demanded out of her perfect vessels. In contrast to the perfectionist, his protege had a more positive opinion on the ebony mech. "This alien specimen would make for a fantastic legacy mech." Alexa noted with clear interest in her voice. "Due to the excellent regenerative properties of ebony wood, the Ebony Everchanger can theoretically engage in asexual reproduction. It should be able to produce nearly identical clones of itself. Regardless of the cost of doing so, this is incredibly valuable as it opens up the possibility to develop self-replicating mechs. Once a line of ebony mechs has managed to propagate in large numbers, I can bind them into a single mech dynasty, thereby allowing Carmine mech pilots who have formed a pact with it to utilize every ebony mech of the same lineage interchangeably." Ves raised his eyebrow. "You sound genuinely interested in developing an ebony wood variant of your living legacy mech concept." "I am, but I am not in a hurry to utilize it for the time being. I am still preoccupied with designing third-class living legacy mechs. Ebony wood is too expensive for this mech market. It is better to wait until I am ready to design first-class living legacy mechs before I think about designing an organic living legacy mech based on the best and most developed variant of Emperor Wood at that time." "Hm. Good choice. It is better to wait a few years until our clan has refined this wonderful material further." Ves spoke. "I am thinking about instructing the Larkinson Biotech Institute to set up an entirely new research division that is solely centered around Emperor Wood. If our clan has a future for this wood variety, then it is more than worthwhile to invest into persistent R&D on this wood. The scientists can work on developing improved versions of ebony wood to cater to first-raters. They can also work on developing more affordable variants of Emperor Wood to design organic mechs that are more appealing to second-raters and third-raters. You should have plenty of options at that time." His student certainly looked intrigued. "There is natural synergy between Emperor Wood and my living legacy mechs. The issue is that market acceptance for biomechs is low. Wooden mechs are even more unusual than most biomechs, so we will have to fight an uphill battle in order to turn any wood-based biomech model into a commercially successful product." She was right. Biomechs were strange and troublesome to maintain. The current mech infrastructure was not geared towards fielding and servicing mechs predominantly made out of any organic material. Ves did not give up on them, though. "The fundamental reason why biomechs never caught on was because its proponents never managed to present a convincing case why customers should use them over metallic mechs. I think we change that if we combine our own specialties with this material. At the very least, my Woodsap mech concept will probably convince a lot of customers that mechs made out of Emperor Wood are worthwhile investments." These were future considerations. For now, Ves needed to think about producing more short-term results. Alexa and Gloriana did not linger around for long. Both of them had full schedules and needed to get back to work right away. Ves decided to approach the Ebony Everchanger and see if he could interact with the wooden construct. Due to the ebony mech's good behavior, Ves had allowed it to remain in the vault without trying to lock it down in any other way. There was no stasis field or azure energy shields to bind it in place. This made it risky for Ves to approach on his own initiative, but not too much. He was not only equipped with multiple pieces of personal protection equipment, but he was also a phase lord. He was confident he could handle any surprise attack. Ves simply decided to approach under the guise of a normal human in order to test the ebony mech's reaction. So far, so good. Ves did not sense any spike of hostility in the ebony mech. It had truly surrendered itself to its captors. "Hello." Ves waved his arm at the Ebony Everchanger. "I am your new owner. I hope you will fare well under our care. Your old creator is gone now. If you want to live on after your progenitor's passing, then I hope you will follow me and listen to my instructions. I have many plans for you. One of them can make you really powerful. Perhaps you might even be able to surpass the strength of the Emperor Tree one day." The Ebony Everchanger listened to his words, but did not respond in any obvious fashion. Ves previously thought that the ebony mech was too stupid or underdeveloped to understand his meaning. Then he realized that he was talking to a derivative of an exoplant. While many mutated plants and calamity plants eventually developed and mastered the concept of communication, the Ebony Everchanger was not as old and powerful as the Emperor Tree. It was only a month-old baby in absolute terms! Ves let out a sigh. "It appears that educating you is a long-term project."