Chapter 7101: Alien Innocence Alexa began to familiarize herself with Ves’ ambitious design for the reconstructed artifact. She gazed down at the Flower Parasol that Ves had placed on a worktable. Her fingers touched the pink canopy which was decorated by colorful flowers. The whole ensemble looked elegant and unmistakingly feminine. "Do you truly want to replace the canopy of this artifact? It would be a shame to get rid of it, Ves. It looks so beautiful and it is clear that this object has a strong association with flowers. Its damage resistance is also impressive. What if the umbrella’s special abilities can no longer be channeled through the replacement fabric?" "That is why I don’t intend to get rid of it, Alexa." Ves said as he began to process the imperial banner of the Disaster Star. "My intention is to unravel the threads of both the canopy and this banner. I will combine all of that with threads made from wood hyper materials as well as a small amount of metal threads made from a stable version of weapon-grade superdimensional alloy and weave it all into a thicker and more robust cloth. and to weave it into a thicker and much more robust cloth." "That sounds... questionable, Ves. Are you certain that the cloth will be able to combine the properties of all of those materials without interfering with each other?" Ves shrugged. "To be honest, I am not. This is only a tentative plan. I will improve if the resulting cloth is weaker than anticipated or tries to tear itself apart. I can lower the proportion of superdimensional threads or add more stabilizing materials. I am not too insistent on sticking to precise ratios. My only demand is that the new fabric must retain its effectiveness in channeling wood energy while also being at least 5 times more resistant against damage when it remains in an unaugmented state. I want the best for my daughter, which means that trying to integrate superdimensional alloy into the entire umbrella is imperative." "Are you not afraid that adding so much metal to a strong wood artifact will weaken its ability to channel E-energy?" "That is why I have been feeding the umbrella with mutated exoplants for the last week." He explained. "It is actually considerably stronger than it was before. Even if the new product has a lower affinity towards the wood element than normal, then it should at least remain functional. Besides, I do not necessarily think that will happen. We have the frozen wood elf, remember? I am not sure about the effects of integrating this strange life form inside the artifact, but I am reasonably confident that it will cause an evolution that will substantially improve its affinity towards the wood element." There was not a lot of information about the frozen wood elf, but Ves was still able to sense its amazing closeness to the wood element. If the theory about how such an amazing life form spontaneously came into existence, then it was not wrong to describe it as a child of heaven! Ves felt it was practically sacrilegious to sacrifice this rare and innocent life form to empower an artifact! He was not the only one to feel that way. As Alexa directed her glance towards the new container that kept the wood elf in a frozen state, she looked a little conflicted. "This wood elf... are you sure you are doing the right thing, Ves?" He sensed the discomfort in her tone. He ceased his current activity and turned around to face his disciple with his full attention. "You have misgivings." "I do." Alexa responded. "This... wood elf, this organism... is just a baby. It barely came to life before it immediately got captured. It never even had a chance to experience life and prove itself useful to us. Why don’t we give it a chance and see whether it can be trained? I think that a living and cooperative wood elf is a much more wonderful birthday gift for your daughter." Ves frowned. To be honest, he had thought about doing this as well. The value of the wood elf actually exceeded the value of the Flower Parasol, especially if the former had a lot of growth potential. The current state of the wood elf was still at its infancy. It could grow a lot stronger if it was given enough time. "I understand your sympathies, but do not be fooled by its tiny humanoid appearance." He calmly said. "You are not looking at a human baby. You are looking at a spontaneous manifestation of life birthed by the exotic radiation of a supermassive galaxy that is unquestionably hostile towards red humanity. Sure, the child may not necessarily align with its parent, but are you willing to take the risk? I am not sure about you, but my response to this is no. I am not going to unfreeze the wood elf. I am not going to give it an opportunity to speak, only for it to disappear and slip from its confinement. When the Cybers gifted me with this, they sternly warned me not to give it a chance. I am not going to ignore the advice of some of the smartest people in the Red Ocean." Alexa’s expression drooped a bit. She already expected that he would shoot down his suggestion, though she secretly hoped that he would give it greater consideration. "So we will effectively be sacrificing a young and innocent organism to empower your artifact? Are you sure it is a good idea to stain it with sin before handing it over to your daughter? What if she will suffer the consequences for your crime against nature?" Ves crossed his arms and snorted. "Crime against nature. Funny. We humans are a race that rose up by exploiting, depleting and abusing the natural universe around us. We raze planets as well as reshape their entire ecosystems. We develop ever more sophisticated technologies to live centuries longer than our natural life spans. We develop FTL drives and superdrives that allow us to travel faster than the speed of light. We design mechs that can help turn humans into gods. Nature is a wonderful machine, but that does not mean that everyone has to follow its rules without question. Besides, the wood elf is a product of Messier 87. We may be making use of its E energy radiation, but that does not mean it is our benefactor. It is quite the opposite in fact. It considers us to be a foreign infection." Alexa accepted his argument, though she obviously did not feel good about it. The more she stared at the wood elf, the more she found it to be cute and completely undeserving of the fate that Ves had in store. Unlike him, she would have given it a chance, even if doing so would give it a chance to escape and cause the Larkinsons to lose a precious gift. Alas, the direct disciple knew who was in charge, and it was not her. Ves had a very different opinion. Her appeal failed to sway his decision on the matter. To Ves, the wood elf was not human despite its shape. It was an alien, and that meant that people like Ves had no obligation to respect human rights. Doing so without question was what a cosmopolitan would do. One of the central tenets of human supremacy was to never extend one’s sympathy towards the members of an alien race. Doing so would deprive humans of the care and attention that they deserved. The actions of the Cosmopolitan Movement had already proved that this was a zero sum game. Their ideals did not match reality as they repeatedly betrayed human interests in order to promote alien interest. Ves was not about to repeat their mistake out of a mistaken sympathy towards an alien creature that just happened to look like a miniature wooden human body. Of course, Ves was not that extreme. He was actually a bit more open-minded than ordinary humans because he cooperated with multiple alien entities in the past and present. He considered Qilanxo and the Phase King as his good friends and reliable allies, for example. However, the difference in those cases was that he was in control and understood his alien partners quite well. He also confirmed that they had no reason to harbor any hostility towards humans. Perhaps the wood elf might possess a lot more similarities to those non-human design spirits than Ves expected, but he could not take the risk. The truth would remain buried inside the frozen specimen. "Are you not afraid of inviting retribution?" Alexa questioned. "Nope. Messier 87 already has a very low opinion of me. Sacrificing one of its wood elves will hardly change my situation considering that it already holds me in contempt." "What if more wood elves arrive in the Red Ocean and find out what you have done to one of their kind? There is no way that humans will be able to capture all of them as they can appear anywhere that is exposed to exotic radiation. More of them will arrive and grow up to become formidable creatures that may one day wield the power of gods." Ves smirked. "Then let them come. I am not afraid of them. Humans have their own saints and gods. I am confident that our high-ranking mech pilots will be able to deal with these challenges. The wood elves will just be the latest enemies that we have to contend with. We will solve them just as we are in the process of solving the native aliens and the mutated voribugs. Humans during the Age of Conquest never backed down despite the fact that they were a small player in a big galaxy that was filled with powerful alien civilizations." He had considered the possibilities described by Alexa but still did not change his stance. He mistrusted the existence of these elves because they were intrinsically tied to Messier 87. Of course, that did not automatically mean that they were servants of the heavenly authority that had shown open hostility towards Ves and red humans. There was a chance that the wood elves could be nurtured into red humanity’s greatest allies if they were raised and indoctrinated from infancy. Yet Ves was unwilling to take this chance. He did not understand this strange new life form and how they were birthed. He had no insight into their capabilities or their growth phases. He did not even know whether they were born with inherent memories and techniques or whether they started off as blank slates. In short, the main reason why Ves was unwilling to take a chance to convert the wood elf into a pet or ally was because he lacked too much information about this strange new life form. Ves had tried to probe it or see whether he could make alterations to it while it remained in a dormant and frozen state, but he failed. That alone caused him to put up his guard and no longer contemplate any unrealistic fantasies. "So how exactly do you intend to integrate this wood elf into the artifact?" Alexa asked next after she accepted that she would never be able to make Ves change his mind. "Will you carve it up and use it to form the handle of the reformed umbrella? Will you chop it up and turn it into a pulp that could be used for multiple different purposes?" "None of that." Ves shook his head. "I have already communicated with the Flower Parasol on how it could make use of the frozen wood elf. We will be saving this step for last. The artifact itself does not know what will happen once it integrates this magical creature, but it instinctively understands that it will receive a major upgrade." "And you are willing to take the artifact at its word?" Ves grinned back at Alexa. "Yes. Unlike this dubious wood elf, I am much more willing to put my trust in this artifact because I understand it a bit better. Objects are simpler to figure out than alien creatures. I am willing to trust in my judgment and my intuition."