While Ves was awaiting the arrival of his overhauled warship, he did not neglect his core responsibilities as a mech designer. Aside from helping Gloriana complete the much-anticipated Minerva Mark II Project, he also had to deal with a number of other projects. One of the projects that saw very little progress due to all of the distractions and events that took place over the last few months was his collaboration with the Devos Ancient Clan. While Ves was not certain whether this was the right time to embark on this project, he needed to make tangible progress in realizing his design philosophy. He had already identified at least two different research directions to meet the conditions to advance to the rank of Master mech Designer. One of them required the cooperation of Alexa Streon. Ves did not expect to make any headway into this research anytime soon, so he may as well pursue the other direction for the time being. One of his ambitious goals was to design 5 Elemental Carmine mechs that corresponded to the 5 classical elements. In order to meet his high expectations, the Carmine mechs based on fire, earth, water, metal and wood needed to be far more special than basic Carmine mechs in order to justify his heightened expectations for the collection. He already witnessed what Woodsap mechs could do from the infamous friendly fire incident where Venerable Lanie Larkinson and Venerable Taon Melin turned against each other. Though Ves had lost access to the woodified Elegant Rage, his clan still managed to retrieve a rich amount of spoils from the aftermath of that unfortunate incident. Though Saint Isobel Kotin had burned down most of the Emperor Tree and some of the surroundings, the Larkinsons managed to salvage the remains of wooden mechs, huge chunks of wood that used to be a part of the calamity plant, burnt tree core fragments and a the remains of the Ebony Zeal and the remains of both the Ebony Zeal and a relatively intact Ebony Everchanger. The latter two were the most special prizes by far. They were the most powerful copies of the then-expert mechs that the Emperor Tree was able to produce with the highest quality of wood material that he could synthesize. The very deep integration with Solus Gas caused all of the wooden mechs to be surprisingly difficult to detect. They also possessed excellent regeneration capabilities so long as they had access to enough high-quality materials and E energy of the right attributes. This was important as the intact nature of the Ebony Everchanger meant that it could potentially serve as a sustainable producer of ebony wood! Unfortunately, its deep dependence on the Emperor Tree meant that it had lost access to the conditions that previously enabled it to repair itself quickly in the middle of a battle against the expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan. On its own, the much smaller Ebony Everchanger was only able to reproduce new ebony wood cells at a relatively glacial pace. Venerable Joshua and the researchers of both the Larkinson Biotech Institute and the T Institute had tried to make sense of the Ebony Everchanger. They already knew that it was actually a backup measure of the Emperor Tree. In a desperate bid to save itself, it had split off a piece of its spirituality and merged it into the Ebony Everchanger, causing the wooden construct to become alive and independent. The Larkinson researchers spent a long time to confirm that the Ebony Everchanger was not secretly an underhanded means for the Emperor Tree to revive itself. They tentatively ascertained that the Ebony Everchanger truly started off as a blank slate. It had also been bioprogrammed to act as non-aggressively as possible to its new masters. This provided the Larkinsons with a lot of convenience as they were essentially able to train the Ebony Everchanger like an obedient puppy. The living wooden construct possessed a dull personality, but it was able to pick up many lessons at a reasonable pace. Its living personality was very much not comparable to that of a human or a living mech, but that was good in this instance. None of the Larkinsons wanted to deal with an alien wooden entity that was too clever and scheming for his own good. As much as the Ebony Everchanger provided Ves and the Larkinson Clan with rich research data, there was a limit to how extensively the LBI and the TI was able to figure out the underlying mechanisms of how it worked and how it was able to constitute an independent life form. In order for Ves to design a proper Woodsap mech, he needed far more insight and understanding how ebony wood worked. He also needed to scale up the production of ebony wood or a similar organic material. The Larkinson Clan’s research institutes were not equipped for such a job. It may take years if not decades for them to achieve a breakthrough in their R&D projects. This was why Ves readily agreed to outsource much of the research burden to the Devos Ancient Clan. As one of the many ruling powers of the Terran Alliance, the Devos Ancient Clan of the Red Ocean possessed much more extensive R&D capabilities. It might not be as powerful as its mother clan back in the Milky Way, but it employed a lot more researchers, of which many of them possessed vastly superior qualifications than the researchers working for the Larkinson Clan! It couldn’t be helped. The Devosans built up their foundation over many generations. They existed as a continuous family organization several ages prior. Such clans had a way of ensuring the continuity of their core talents and assets no matter what happened. The Great Severing affected the Devosans on the side of the Red Ocean a lot more heavily than they had ever anticipated, but at least they still had the capital to retain their hold over the Riston Territory. The relative calm and stability of the hinterland of human-occupied space granted the Devosans precious buffer time to reorganize their ancient clan and adapt to the circumstances of the Red Ocean. As long as the Devos Ancient Clan had a decade or two to sort out their situation, there would be little question about its ability to fully reestablish themselves as one of the premier powers of the Terran Alliance. However, the progress made by the native aliens during the Red Tide Offensive cast a darker shadow over the Devosans. They feared that they may not be granted enough time for them to fully establish a foothold in this dwarf galaxy. Ves feared that recent events may have caused them to doubt the wisdom of channeling lots of funding and R&D resources into their collaboration project, but it turned out that he worried in vain. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞 If anything, the crisis had prompted them to commit even more resources into this effort! When Ves boarded a shuttle and traveled under escort to a well-guarded underground research facility built underneath a mountain range, he finally met with Master Laila Rebecca Devos in person again. "I didn’t expect you to be present here today." Ves said as soon as he stepped out of his armored shuttle with Lucky in his arms. "Meow." The archemetal cat raised his paw in greeting. The Master Mech Designer smiled and reached out to scratch the gem cat in the head as she responded to Ves. "It is true that my schedule has become busier than ever, but our clan holds our collaboration project in high regard. We have important matters to talk about, especially after we have managed to gain a breakthrough in our research." Her excitement was palpable. This breakthrough must clearly be a big deal for her to mention it so soon. "Details?" Experience new stories on freewebnovel "It is better to show you first. Follow me. We will have to move deeper into this facility." They passed through a number of well-shielded corridors that were packed with hardened security measures. The sensors focused much of their attention on the bodyguards that vigilantly shadowed their principal. As soon as they reached the third security checkpoint, Master Laila directed a wordless glance at Ves. He got the hint, but refused to park his bodyguards outside. No matter how well he got along with the Devosans, he would never be stupid enough to assume that he could handle every threat by himself. "My guards hail from the 2nd Apocalypse Warden Battalion. They are militarized qi cultivators whose loyalty and dedication are verified by the Red Collective. Given how well you Terrans get along with the collies, there is no need to fear their indiscretion. Besides, I don’t think this research of yours merits so many excessive precautions. The Red Association also has the mutated Elegant Rage in their possession. The mechers must have studied the partially wooden mech extensively before upgrading her to an expert mech." Master Laila reluctantly accepted these arguments. "Very well. I would still like to reiterate to you that the leaders of not just the Devos Ancient Clan, but also the rest of the Terran Alliance have raised the priority of our collaboration project. This is a period of time where we need powerful mechs and more acutely powerful Carmine mechs the most." "That is what the Yellow Jackets are for." Ves remarked. "Sure, the base model of the first-class version of my Carmine mech is rather cheap, but you can easily develop superior variants." "The first-class version of the Yellow Jacket is serviceable and affordable to mass produce, but that makes it difficult for us to develop a truly premium variant of it. We have long concluded that if we want to obtain a proper first-class Carmine mech, we will have to develop it from the beginning. For this purpose, we have done our best to research a means to upgrade or develop a superior substitute of the interesting ’ebony wood’ material that you have presented to us. We must spare no effort and resources to develop the best Carmine mechs for our colonial superstate." They finally entered a highly secure experimental chamber that possessed a very unique ambiance. Ves did not notice anything while he was still outside, but as soon as the double gates slid open, he became assaulted by a high concentration of water and wood energy! A forest biome greeted his senses. The Devosans had completely reformed the entire experimental chamber into an artificial forest environment. The Terran researchers transplanted remarkable plants and trees in this biome. In order to make them prosper, the walls and ceiling had been lined with thick layers of medium and high-grade wood hyper materials! The Terrans also applied a bit of cultivation science to the layout by also implanting the floor with lots of water hyper materials. The earth and soil layer covered it all up, but the water hypers attracted enough water E energy to nurture all of the plants and trees. Ves continued to gaze at his surroundings with wonder until Master Laila eventually led him to a clearing in the center. He became reunited with the Ebony Everchanger once again. "You… upgraded the wooden construct." The Terran Master Mech Designer nodded. "We did. After a considerable amount of effort, we have successfully developed a reliable process to impregnate ebony wood with phasewater. We subsequently applied this process to the Ebony Everchanger with great care. Transphasic Ebony Wood or TE Wood is vastly superior in many ways. It is much more resistant towards damage. What is particularly helpful is that its resistance against thermal weapons and fire-attributed hyper weapons is vastly improved. This makes TE Wood a more balanced and universally applicable high-end resource to use in the construction of premium biomechs." "What about the production rate?" "We have improved that as well." Master Laila Rebecca Devos swept her arm across the biome. "Why do you think we have placed your Ebony Everchanger in a chamber that is surrounded by wood and water hypers? We have discovered through trial and error that this environment best simulates the support that used to be provided by the Emperor Tree. In this favorable environment, your Ebony Everchanger is able to convert the necessary raw materials into TE wood in a remarkably short amount of time." Although the Terrans failed to improve the base material itself, ebony wood was already one of the better non-transphasic organic materials known to red humanity! There were more superior wood materials available, but the cost of producing them in large quantities was prohibitive! TE Wood happened to strike a balance between performance and cost effectiveness. As long as the Terrans had enough phasewater to spare, they could produce or rather grow enough TE wood to outfit multiple elite Carmine mech divisions!