Chapter 7077: A New Identity The Rubarthans were a strange sort of people. They completely opposed the Terrans and tried to run their government completely differently. Instead of running a decentralized oligopoly where multiple ancient clans all shared power, the Rubarthans liked to elevate a single central leader to a position of supreme authority. One voice. One direction. Zero division. At least that was supposed to be the case in theory. Ves knew that it worked out a lot messier in practice, but the Rubarthans still clung to the fantasy of answering to a single leader. What complicated this insistence on centralization was the heavy promotion of meritocracy. The Rubarthans believed that any one of them had a chance to ascend to greatness. They should be given a fair opportunity to excel in their studies and prove their worth in their work. This was nearly impossible to realize in practice. Cronyism, favoritism, prejudices and office politics often caused people to promote their friends and minions above those who deserved the positions more. Such abuses were more prevalent in certain states and organizations. The Red Fleet had recently moved to a much more closer form of a well-functioning meritocracy after letting ARCHIE evaluate its members. The increasingly more sentient and powerful AI effectively gained the power to decide on which fleeters were eligible for promotions! The Rubarthans had not gone that far. Humans still decided who to hire, promote and fire from their jobs. So long as this remained the case, the Rubarthans could never be truly fair and neutral when dealing with each other. Even so, most Rubarthans tended to be quite fair. Their culture promoted a strong sense of responsibility. Each of them needed to be fair about each other’s merits and shortcomings. This was the only way the Rubarthans could overtake the supposedly decadent and corrupt Terrans and become the ultimate masters of the universe. While Ves admired the noble and ambitious sentiments of the Rubarthan people, he personally thought that they were too stubborn about clinging to old glories. The New Rubarth Empire had indeed been great during the heyday of the Age of Conquest, but they had declined in power and influence ever since. Ves seriously doubted whether the Rubarthans in both the old galaxy and the new frontier had any hope of regaining their former glory. Red humanity was currently living through the Age of Dawn. This was two ages past the Age of Conquest. Not only had they arrived in a different time period, but they also found themselves in a completely new galaxy, if only a small one. Why the hell were they still pining after the dream of restoring a star empire that effectively died over 4 centuries ago? Rather than engage in a difficult and most likely futile attempt at necromancy, Ves would rather have these people form a new polity that was unburdened by the shameful failures of the past. At least they were making a bit of progress on that front by cleaning out their old stash of undesirable relics. After returning to his compound with his latest prize in tow, he carefully began to study the damaged banner. He first unfolded it and spread it across the floor of his borrowed workshop. The original banner was around as tall as a mech, but only a fraction of its length remained intact. After brushing the surface of ancient soot and ash, he could spot various stylistic elements used by the Rubarthan Imperial Household. Ves had already verified it earlier, but as he touched the banner with his own hands, he could feel its connection to a pivotal period of Rubarthan history most acutely. It was not the main item that symbolized the New Rubarth Empire’s dramatic fall from grace, but plenty of people harbored a lot of ill will towards this banner and the sovereign it was supposed to represent. All of those hatreds and regrets caused the banner to become a focal point of negativity. Back in the old galaxy, that translated into nothing more than to subtly stoke the hatreds of any Rubarthans that beheld this damaged relic. Yet it was different in the new frontier. Here, the thoughts and emotions of every sentient being could exert enough power to alter reality. All of the dormant negative emotions embedded into the imperial banner gradually became increasingly more active and significant. Ves could not guess what sort of difference they could make, but he doubted that it was anything good. The Rubarthans had made the right choice by getting rid of this banner because it might turn into a source of bad luck if they remained in close proximity. Even Ves might fall victim to the vagaries of misfortune if he stayed in its presence for too long. “Let’s stash it away for the time being.” After completing his examination of the banner, he requested for it to be stored in a vault that was hopefully isolated. He already had a good idea of how he wanted to process it and rework it into a canopy for the Flower Parasol, but he needed to do a lot more preparation work first. Ves briefly pulled the artifact in question from his System Space. The object’s attitude towards him was lukewarm at best. He was clearly not the right person to own it, which was understandable considering its pink canopy. “Don’t worry. It won’t be long until I gift you to my daughter whose company you prefer a lot more. I first need to modernize and transform you into a more suitable protector. Your original was made and used in a very different time and place. Things are completely different here in the Red Ocean. You will need greater protection and reinforcement. Let me show you what I have in mind.” Ves began to project his draft design for the upgraded Flower Parasol, giving the high-level artifact a good view of its next iteration. “In order to offer the best possible protection to my daughter, I really need to strengthen your capabilities. In my opinion, it is essential to incorporate the strongest materials that we have access to, which is high-grade superdimensional matter. Combining this new material in the form of workable alloys will allow you to keep up with the times and worry a lot less about getting broken into pieces.” The Flower Parasol shook in his hand. “I am well aware that you are strongly aspected towards the wood and flower attributes. The careless addition of cold metal alloys can potentially ruin your astonishing formation, which is why I am not trying to replace your parts with it. I would much rather expand you with superdimensional alloys. This way, you get the best of both worlds. You get to keep your powerful runes, but also enjoy the protection of superior metals.” The artifact shook harder in his hand. “I understand what you are concerned about, which is why I decided to reward you and strengthen you by feeding you powerful explants. This is one of your capabilities, right? You can continually evolve and strengthen yourself by absorbing more and more resilient exoplants. I will do my best to satisfy your hunger, but I expect you to cooperate with me to help integrate superdimensional alloy and other powerful materials into your structure.” The Flower Parasol had clear concerns about whether Ves was skilled enough to avoid mistakes and preserve its existing features. “Don’t worry. I will explain my plans and my steps to you as I work. If you have any objections, then share them with me. We can work this out together.” Ves was not arrogant enough to know how an artifact like the Flower Parasol worked. Not even Vulcan knew too much about it as the incarnation had turned into an all-rounder of sorts. Ves and Vulcan would have to learn advanced woodworking skills in order to properly transform a wooden artifact like the Flower Parasol. It was a good thing that they were not afraid of the challenge. “I know that you are already fairly powerful in your current state, but you don’t enjoy the benefits of any modern technology and materials. Don’t underestimate what I can offer to you. In order to make my daughter safe, I am willing to go all-out to turn you into a powerful protective umbrella.” Ves cared a lot about upgrading the Flower Parasol. Not only did he want to make it more resistant against powerful attacks, he also wanted to obtain a greater understanding of the nature of ancient cultivation artifacts. The key trait that separated old school artifacts such as the Oceancaller, the Flower Parasol and most notably the Heavensword from modern artifacts was the sophisticated use of runes to shape and channel power. Ves did not have a clear understanding of runes as of yet. His attempts to impart Ascension Runes to his mechs did not count as he did not master the Runes himself. He merely laid the groundwork for their appearance. Working with an existing artifact that was marked by runes was a good opportunity to learn how ancient creation cultivators utilized runes in their attempts to produce high-level artifacts. So long as he understood the gist of it, he could apply his newfound knowledge in all kinds of useful applications. Perhaps he could upgrade his Ascension Runes and help them reach the next level by having them synergize with each other much more extensively than before. This was still an uphill battle, though. There was only so much he could learn from studying an artifact without completely dismantling it. He was also lacking crucial theoretical knowledge that Vulcan would not be able to make up for due to his lack of book learning. All of this made it more difficult to upgrade the Flower Parasol to his satisfaction. He hated the thought of disappointing his daughter. This was more than trying to create the best possible birthday present. Ves wanted to create an iconic relic that would serve Aurelia well and accompany her as she grew older and entered different stages of her life. In order to ensure that the Flower Parasol remained strong and useful enough to remain in use, Ves needed to do his best to future proof it and ensure it could continue to improve over time. “Do you think you can teach me how to change your size like the Oceancaller?” “…” “How about creating a pocket dimension where Aurelia can safely stash you before pulling you out when she needs your protection?” “…” “Do you even know anything that I can use?!” “…” An artifact was just an artifact in the end. It was unable to explain how it was made just as much as Ves did not understand how his phase lord physique worked nowadays. He at least managed to earn its trust. It might not be able to provide much technical guidance, but it was willing to let Ves examine its structure and runes. All of this helped Ves refine and expand upon his design for the next iteration of the Flower Parasol. “If this works out, you will definitely become a lot more powerful and unique. You might not be able to come close to matching the power of the Heavensword, but that is okay. So long as you persist in your growth, you may one day be able to catch up to this ancient relic weapon.” The Flower Parasol became increasingly more enthusiastic about the changes that Ves had in store. He not only proved his sincerity, he also showed excellent understanding of what the Flower Parasol truly desired. A unique identity. Ves did not forget that the Mech Designer System only produced a copy of the original FLower Parasol. No matter how remarkable this template must have been, the one in his possession was ultimately a pale imitation of the real thing. Ves went out of his way to propose a redesign that would make it impossible for others to mistake it for the Flower Parasol. Only by transforming it into an entirely different object would it truly be able to forge its own legend rather than borrowing the legend of its predecessor! Ves believed this was the essence of true high-level artifact production! Thank you for reading my work. If you wish to support The Mech Touch, please vote with your golden tickets! Purchase Privilege for The Mech Touch! Read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers while enjoying a 99% discount on unlocking new chapters! Join The Mech Touch’s unofficial Discord server: https://discord.gg/APB5KCU