Chapter 6149 Mental Shift From the moment Ves made a mental shift, his entire perspective on reality changed forever. Previously, he always looked at life from the perspective of a nurturer. He was like a gardener who invested a lot of time and effort into growing healthy and bountiful plants. Each living mech that he managed to design and produce over the years made his garden ever more prosperous. His mental shift caused him to look at life as a resource that was ripe for the taking! He still regarded life as a miracle and a treasure to be nurtured, but he also gained another perspective that possessed a completely different attitude towards this subject. It was as if he gained a split personality of sorts that looked at life from the perspective of a selfish plunderer! Although he was initially unfamiliar with looking at life from this angle, he quickly acclimatized to it once he thought about the benefits, of which there were many! "There is not much of a difference between siphoning energy derived from exotic radiation and draining energy from other life forms." All of the energies ultimately originated from the same common source. The biggest difference was that energy held by other lives had become owned, making it more difficult to harness it directly. Still, there were ways for demonic cultivators to erase the imprints of owned energy or simply skip this step and make use of this stolen resource directly! Ves certainly knew about it, but that did not mean he could replicate these methods himself. He still lacked a means to drain a large amount of wood energy from a large forest. It was as if he was looking at a huge farmfield that was filled with ripened crops, but lacked the harvesting machines to quickly collect them all. Perhaps he might be able to improve by cobbling together a simple scythe, but this was an incredibly inefficient solution! Ves needed to give the Elegant Rage the power to drain the life of surrounding trees all at once. Regular wood manipulation techniques could no longer meet his demands. "If my suspicions are correct… then the act of plundering a large amount of wood energy from a forested environment no longer conforms to the rules of nature anymore. As long as the scale grows large enough, such actions have the potential to inflict serious damage to a planet's ecosystem." This was not an approach that aligned with the concept of wood. Although nature could be cruel, it also emphasized balance. There was a difference between natural disasters and man-made disasters. The former was a part of nature's struggle, while the latter was a disruption of the common living space of so many other individuals. Such actions were much more aligned with the darkness element as opposed to the wood element. Ves raised his arm and conjured a ball of darkness energy. It was a rudimentary display of power, but it helped to bring him more in tune with this ominous element. He strode into the temple building and deliberately moved to a corner where the light level was the lowest. Immersing himself in shadow helped to put himself in the right mindset. It was a lot more difficult to think about how to drain the life out of an entire forest by standing under bright lighting. As Ves avoided the light, he indeed found it easier to shift his mentality and think about plundering the bounty of nature for his own purposes. When he thought back on what the Elegant Rage was capable of, he realized that it had already begun to straddle the line between light and darkness. As the first mutated mech of the Larkinson Clan, the Elegant Rage had spontaneously grown thorns due to getting contaminated by Venerable Lanie's overwhelmingly negative emotions. This caused the Elegant Rage to turn from a noble dueling mech into a scarred and traumatized machine that sought to sting anyone who harmed her and her pilot. Wood as an element was neither light nor dark. It could be employed in many different ways. The emergence of thorns was a reflection that the Elegant Rage had already taken a turn towards the negative aspects of the wood element. "The foundation is already there. I don't have to start from scratch." Ves concluded. This was good news and made his job considerably easier. However, thorns shared no direct relation with the act draining the environment of wood energy. The current iteration of the Elegant Rage had no means of interacting with the environment. Ves needed to change that. This meant that he had to add an extra feature to the Woodsap mech spiritual foundation that could fundamentally change its nature. "This is not going to be a light upgrade." The good news was that there was no need to install any new hardware onto the mech frame. Ves figured that the Elegant Rage could already accomplish its objective by relying on additions based on spiritual engineering or E-technology. That also made this job a lot more difficult. It would have been nice if he was able to bring the Elegant Rage back into his workshop so that he could install a huge new hyper module onto the mech frame. "Well, it's not as if it is necessary to add more hyper materials to the mech. The Elegant Rage already has a lot of improved ebony wood that is not being used to their full potential." The Elegant Rage already possessed the ability to utilize E energy a lot more effectively. The living mech was just not capable of doing so because Ves neglected this aspect in the past. His starting point should be the ebony wood that currently made up much of her mech frame. Ves had to figure out a way to activate this powerful wood and assist the Elegant Rage in siphoning a lot of wood energy. He also thought about the thorny vine that had grown from one of the seeds fired by the Sprout Rifle. This was another prop he could use to drain the life out of the surrounding forest. He frowned as his thoughts soon hit a wall. Figuring out a starting point was not enough. He needed to develop a more specific way to utilize the wood to achieve the desired result. "I know my starting point and my ending point. What I can't figure out is how to connect the former to the latter." There was a gap in his knowledge base. He was not familiar with how to manipulate the wood element in a more destructive and predatory fashion. He also lacked a lot of specific methods related to 'demonic cultivation' that could help the Elegant Rage gain a rapid boost of power. The solution seemed obvious at this point. "I need to acquire an enlightenment fruit that can make up for the gap in knowledge." He always intended to learn more methods related to his recently acquired darkness domain, but events moved too quickly before he had time to address this priority. Ves hadn't even completed any of the Missions that he had accepted shortly after the System completed its latest upgrade! He was still stuck with a paltry sum of 132 Ascension Points. Ves was grateful that he still retained at least that much. He thanked his habit of trying to maintain a minimum AP reserve in case of emergencies. "132 AP is not much, but it should at least be enough to acquire an affordable enlightenment fruit with a narrow focus." Ves left the shadows and exited the Sacred Temple. He descended down the mountain and approached what may arguably be his most favorite facility in the System Space. Ves licked his lips as he thought about how much he could gain if he plucked them all before biting into their juicy flesh. "It's so painful to be poor!" The exorbitant AP price of this stellar enlightenment fruit did not deter Ves from staring hotly at this sumptuous package of priceless knowledge. The Tree of Possibilities beckoned to him once again. Hundreds of random fruits in many different shapes, sizes and colors vied for his attention. Ves licked his lips as he thought about how much he could gain if he plucked them all before biting into their juicy flesh. "It's so painful to be poor!" He thought about his limited spending power and winced once again. He wished that the System opened up a way for him to spend AP on credit. He had become too pampered as of late. The Larkinson Clan was spending way more than it earned in recent months. Despite the lack of liquidity, money never seemed to be an issue, as Ves and the Larkinsons could easily borrow a lot of money. All of this ease was based on the assumption that the clan would grow faster than its debt burden. Unfortunately, the System did not see any merit in establishing a financial institution based on Ascension Points. The only way for Ves to obtain more was to earn them fair and square. "If I am truly short of AP, I'll go back to the Mission Hall and see how many Missions I can complete in a lengthy marathon work session." He decided. Ves really hoped that he would not have to resort to that. Trying to extend his stay in the System Space by spending AP while trying to complete as many design-related Missions as possible was mentally exhausting ordeal. He would probably need a long vacation by the time he was done. He was still prepared to do it for the sake of the Elegant Rage, but Ves hoped he could get his hands on a more cost-effective enlightenment fruit that met his essential requirements. "Let's see what the tree has in store this time.' Ves couldn't help but glance at a handful of familiar and very attractive enlightenment fruits. [Divine Blacksmith Records] Price: 975 Ascension Points Imparts a large collection of related smithing recipes and techniques developed by a Divine Blacksmith. The majority of techniques consist of special hammering methods that can impart metallic and organic materials with special properties. The smithing recipes contain many combinations that enable a craftsman to forge powerful materials with the infusion of special energies and materials into a work. Imparts a large collection of related smithing recipes and techniques developed by a Divine Blacksmith. The majority of techniques consist of special hammering methods that can impart metallic and organic materials with special properties. The smithing recipes contain many combinations that enable a craftsman to forge powerful materials with the infusion of special energies and materials into a work. The exorbitant AP price of this stellar enlightenment fruit did not deter Ves from staring hotly at this sumptuous package of priceless knowledge. The more he learned about high-level artifacts and how his living mechs related to them, the more he recognized the value of a complete traditional blacksmithing heritage! "One day." Ves promised. "One day I will grab you and let Vulcan ingest you whole." His gaze soon swept across another expensive but seductive enlightenment fruit. [Karnasis Seed Planting Manual] Price: 555 Ascension Points Imparts a set of secret techniques that enables a practitioner to covertly plant demonic seeds into many different people. These demonic seeds will gradually merge with their recipients until they fully merge together. The practitioner can employ various different techniques to manipulate the behavior of the seed bearers, although strong-willed individuals may be able to detect and resist contradictory compulsions. The practitioner can also harvest as much energy from them as desired. If seed bearers grow stronger, they can make greater sacrifices to their controller. If a seed bearer perishes, the implanted seed can be harvested and absorbed by the practitioner. The matured demonic seed can also absorb the nutrients of the corpse on the spot to rapidly form a demonic tree that can spread a large amount of initial seeds that can be spread to a large group of nearby individuals. "What a useful method." Compared to the first time Ves encountered this fruit, his attitude towards it was completely different. He no longer found it as reprehensible or disgusting as before. He still recognized the stigma surrounding its methods and its implications, but the Karnasis Seed Planting Manual seemed like the perfect complement of a powerful wood-based organism such as the Emperor Tree! 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞 "By extension, it can also function as an excellent complement of the Elegant Rage!" If Ves wasn't so short of AP at the moment, he would have felt tempted to buy it. Not only did the Karnasis Seed Planting Manual present him with options on how to solve his immediate problems, he could also employ its methods for many other purposes down the line!