Chapter 6508 The Power of Emotions Ves did not have the faintest clue how a quality as intangible as emotions could enhance the firepower of an energy weapon to such an extent. It sounded completely ridiculous on the surface. At least hyper technology had a positive effect on human machines because they somehow drew on the power of E energy radiation from the environment. In this case, the chain of cause and effect were clear, logical and consistent, which was why many scientists easily adapted to hyper technology even if they lacked comprehension on the fundamental nature of hyper materials and E energy. What Harry Kaikkonen managed to stumble upon during his explorations of luminar crystal technology did not conform to any existing paradigms. It violated the law of conservation of energy, at least on the surface. It was just too strange to assume that emotions alone could directly generate a huge amount of joules of destructive energies. Ves would not be too surprised by the amplification if an expert pilot such as Davia Stark wielded the ERC luminar crystal pistol. However, the person who fired two test shoots at the Apocalypse Warden just now was a simple Journeyman Mech Designer! Even if it appeared that the Journeyman in question not only possessed a companion spirit, but had already begun to practice one the auxiliary qi cultivation methods suitable for mech designers, his spirituality did not amplify his emotions all that much. What would happen if a different sort of extraordinary individual wielded the same weapon? Expert pilots, ace pilots and god pilots were especially noteworthy for drawing strength from their convictions, which was directly related to their strong emotions! It was practically impossible for a high-ranking mech pilot to emerge that was completely devoid of emotions. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢 They were extreme figures who cared so much about their causes that their emotions practically exploded their willpower past the extraordinary threshold! Strong feelings and motivations such as love, hatred, kinship, altruism, duty, greed and desperation enabled these mortal humans to surpass the limitations of their race and attain transcendence! Ves had never heard of a technological solution that could enable 'ordinary' people to draw upon the power of their emotions to strengthen their attacks, especially to this degree. Since a Journeyman such as Harry was able to attain a 11 percent increase in firepower just by channeling a specific emotion, what would happen if a true emotional powerhouse wielded the same gun? Not everyone was equal. Compared to a mech designer, an expert pilot possessed much stronger emotions, and could even amplify them with their willpower! Harry projected a piece of footage in the air. It showed Venerable Davia Stark wearing a protective suit of armor while standing inside the shooting range that was used to test experimental firearms. Harry appeared in the footage and carefully presented a much larger and more intimidating luminar crystal rifle to Venerable Stark. Compared to the energy pistol carried by the Journeyman Mech Designer, the rifle handed over to Stark was clearly designed to serve as a scale model of a weapon that the Amaranto would wield. The visual design of the weapon conveyed the impression that it was an evolution of the Instrument of Vengeance. Harry had taken the design of the original weapon and updated it with his own technological advancements as well as his own visual aesthetics. "This is one of the early prototypes of the upgraded version of the Instrument of Vengeance." Harry explained just to make it clear. "Director Gloriana has graciously invited me to participate in the Amaranto Mark III Project for the purpose of furthering the development of the existing primary weapons of the Amaranto. This is the first test of the rifle that incorporates my new ERC tech." Venerable Davia Stark held the weapon with great familiarity. She had used the real Instrument of Vengeance more times than she could count while piloting the Amaranto. After Harry conveyed his instructions to her, he retreated to an observation room before the expert pilot began to assume a firing stance while bracing the long rifle against her shoulders. It would have been a lot more convenient for her if she could anchor herself or the weapon onto a solid fixture, but that was not how the Amaranto opened fire with the Instrument of Vengeance. Venerable Stark tried to imitate her living expert mech's shooting stance as much as her human body could accomplish. This helped a lot as she was able to leverage her familiarity to draw upon all of the skills that she usually employed when she was interfacing with her Amaranto. A floating countdown appeared before and above her field of vision. [3, 2, 1, FIRE!] Stark pulled the trigger at the right timing! The hyper laser beam that erupted from the long crystalline barrel looked powerful enough, but it also appeared rather lacking in Ves' eyes. The metal target dummy's torso impressively melted a bit after getting struck, but the heat-resistant alloys still managed to do a good job at preserving the rest of the structure. All in all, the first attack was decent, but not much else. The only other praise that Ves could give was that Venerable Stark had managed to land a precise shot at the center of the torso despite handling the rifle for the first time. The prototype weapon did not benefit from the willpower reinforcement of true resonance, nor the conversion of additional power derived from Harry's so-called ERC tech. It was just a standard hyper laser beam that was clearly meant to establish a baseline. What happened next caused Ves to pay a lot more attention than before. [Venerable Stark, please flip the switch that activates the ERC mode. After that, you should take the time to enter into a state of excitement.] The female expert pilot frowned. "I need clarification. Excitement is too broad of a word." [By excitement, I mean the emotion that people experience after passing a difficult exam, winning a battle with minimal losses or winning a gambling bet. Perhaps it is better if you think about joy and happiness.] These words almost sounded foreign to the woman who had once lost everything she cared about in her past life. Try as she might, she clearly struggled to evoke genuine joy. Nothing she experienced in the past decade gave her an excuse to feel happy. All of those victories and all of the progress the clan had made failed to stir her heart. Harry Kaikkonen clearly learned that Venerable Davia Stark tended to be one of the more serious and driven expert pilots, which was probably why he wanted to test his ERC tech with this particular emotion first. However, he clearly underestimated how little joy Stark actually possessed! After a bit of struggle, Stark finally began to smile again, if only in a forlorn manner. She clearly drew upon a memory from her past, back when the Sand War hadn't ravaged much of the Komodo Star Sector. It did not take her too much effort to discover that a small component had begun to suck in her relatively weak excitement. The prototype weapon began to glow brighter as a consequence. [3, 2, 1, FIRE!] A brighter and distinctly more golden flash than before briefly overloaded the recording sensor! When the light levels quickly turned to normal, Ves shifted his attention to the data readings included in the log footage. "An overall firepower boost of 23 percent!" Ves gasped! "And this is without leveraging the power of true resonance!" Harry grinned and nodded. "That is correct. Excitement is one of the weaker emotions that Venerable Stark can muster, but she can already increase the power of her weapon to this extent. Do note that using excitement to augment an energy attack also adds other effects besides a straightforward enhancement in firepower, but the effect is not too consequential at this scale. I should also add that the boost derived from her emotions is stronger if she wielded my energy pistol as opposed to this scaled down version of the Instrument of Vengeance." Ves looked intrigued. "Why not conduct the test with a luminar crystal pistol?" "Because I calculated that it would be dangerous. There are good reasons why Davia Stark is wearing a suit of combat armor during these tests. I inferred that if the increase in firepower vastly exceeds the energy carrying capacity of the luminar crystals, they may be prone to malfunctioning or outright exploding. I even conducted a test to confirm this theory" Harry briefly projected a second piece of footage. This time, Venerable Stark wielded a prototype ERC luminar crystal pistol that looked well-constructed on the surface, but was actually a lot weaker beneath the surface. This was a weapon that was deliberately made out of cheaper and inferior materials. The luminar crystals that made up the pistol shouldn't be able to handle too much stress! When Venerable Stark carefully channeled what little joy and excitement she possessed into the ERC luminar crystal pistol, nothing special happened at first. It was not until she was close to opening fire that the weapon started to show clear signs of instability! The weapon started to release cracking noises. The brighter and more energetic light. glow grew more erratic. Heat started to emulate from the crystal pistol in an uncontrollable fashion! Shortly after Davia sensed the mounting threat from the gun, she decisively threw it out, causing the weapon to explode shortly before it reached the target dummy! Boom! The explosion wasn't too dramatic, but it still could have hurt the expert pilot up close "Damn." Ves commented. "Are luminar crystal weapons that fragile?" "They can be under the wrong circumstances. According to my testing, I have ascertained that ERC luminar crystal weapons can only tolerate so much energy at a time, even when it is generated by the newly activated luminary circuitry pattern. There are several measures that can increase the maximum energy capacity of the weapon. You can increase the mass and volume of the ERC luminar crystal weapons. You can also use stronger and more superior materials to synthesize the crystals. You can also dial down the conventional power output of the energy weapon in order to stay within the safety limit." All of that made sense. The first two measures were only relevant to mech designers. The last measure gave the mech pilot a bit of agency on how far he or she should approach the limit. "I understand, Harry. We will just have to make sure that the ERC luminar crystal weapons paired to high-ranking mechs are larger and comprised out of quality materials." Now that Harry explained one of the fundamental limitations of his new tech, he resumed the playback of the original footage. [Alright. Now that we have tested the amplification bourne from your excitement, please take the time to evoke your sadness and channel it into the same weapon.] This was much easier to accomplish for the expert pilot. Even though the tragedy that had befallen the Komodo Star Sector had taken place a long time ago, Venerable Stark could never allow herself to forget those past traumas. Thinking of all of the populated planets that had been scoured by sand caused the expert pilot to shake for a moment. However, she eventually remembered her instructions. She steadied her stance and poured as much of her sadness into the weapon as she could. A faint sense of gloom emanated from the footage as the luminar crystal rifle actually started to dim in brightness! [3, 2, 1, FIRE!] The distinctly weaker and less threatening hyper laser beam that shot out of the muzzle struck the target dummy with utmost precision. Yet the firepower left much to be desired. According to the data readings, the attack was at least half as weak as the baseline, making it seem as if leveraging the power of sadness had been counterproductive! However, the power of sadness also induced another transform in the energy beam that caused Ves to gain a much stronger appreciation of this attempt. When he studied the target dummy a little further, he noticed that the beam may have 11 11 construct than an attack of this magnitude could produce! "This..." Ves couldn't explain how a single emotion could produce such a strong deviation, "I find it strange as well, sir. I have no theories to share with you that can explain why this happened. All I can state is that I have confirmed that leveraging the emotion of sadness can consistently produce similar results."