Chapter 7400: Uncommon Generosity Ves had grown tired of talking with the Resonance Smith. He could not bear so many heavy truths and secrets. Though it could be argued that a tier 2 galactic citizen should not complain about being entrusted with exclusive information, Ves did not feel he was up to the task of bearing so many burdens. In the end, he was still too young. He felt he needed at least a century’s worth of experience before he could properly engage in this kind of political machinations. Fortunately, the Star Designer did not keep on hammering him with ugly truths and inconvenient facts. After betraying how readily the tier 1 galactic citizens disregarded their principles in order to advance their respective goals, the Resonance Smith soon moved on to addressing more pleasant subjects. Such as the rewards that he had prepared for Ves and the clan. The Resonance Smith became a lot more generous all of a sudden. "I am aware of how much your clan is struggling to merge the advantages of superdimensional technology with archetech. Both branches of technology have great potential for resonance. I will leave it up to you and your fellow mech designers to discover this potential yourselves. What I can offer you are adapted superdimensional alloy formulas that offer superior compatibility. This should make it easier for you and your spouse to design archemechs that can not only withstand more damage, but incorporate greater features than normal. Just be warned that the requirements to design, fabricate and repair any machines with these technologies are exceedingly high." Ves received a bunch of electronic documents that contained the relevant knowledge. He briefly skimmed through them with his cranial implant and found that it contained exactly what he expected. Though Ves did not feel particularly excited about the new alloy formulas and accompanying theory, he knew that he would be ecstatic! 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮 This was exactly one of the problems that had been bothering her for a while. The Riot Mark III would have been able to perform better and withstand more damage if it was able to fuse the advantages of superdimensional technology and archetech a lot more perfectly. With the new alloy formulas, Gloriana could at least ensure that the upcoming Promethea Mark II Project and Lionheart Mark II Project properly made use of the synergies between both cutting-edge technologies! In that sense, Ves was quite happy that the Resonance Smith turned out to be well-informed and astute enough to address one of the Larkinson Clan’s greater needs. Even though Ves believed that it was partially a waste, it might have taken several years for the Larkinson Clan to independently develop alloy formulas that offered comparable performance. Of course, Ves also recognized that this did not instantly solve all of the Larkinson Clan’s problems. Getting the right alloy formulas was just the first step. He and Gloriana still needed to incorporate it properly into archetech in a way that fully utilized the potential of both. There should still be a lot of room for improvement and optimization in this regard. "This is a gracious gift." Ves politely responded. "We have experienced plenty of difficulties in our attempts to merge superdimensional technology with archetech. These solutions will save us a lot of time and allow us to release more powerful mechs sooner rather than later." The Resonance Smith’s expression remained fairly neutral. "Do not forget that archetech possesses alien origins. As long as there are aliens who have mastered this tech base more extensively than you, you will never be its true master." "We have always been vigilant about this fact. You do not need to remind us of the dangers. My wife has already set her mind on developing a humanized adaptation of archetech, though she has warned that it will be a long-term effort." Doubling down on archetech might make the Larkinson Clan’s high-ranking mechs strong against a wide variety of threats, but it also increased their vulnerability against the original developers of this tech base. The Larkinsons were lucky that they had yet to confront the truly powerful enemies of the arche, but a confrontation would only be a matter of time. What would happen if the true master engineers of the mysterious arche race encountered the technological abominations created by the Larkinsons? Would these aliens who understood the structure of archeshells and archemetal inside-out be able to punish the crude theft of their own inventions? This had always been one of Gloriana’s latent fears. She could not afford to underestimate the control and ingenuity of the crafty turtle-like aliens. Fortunately, the awkward positioning of the arche race in the Red Ocean meant that the probability of encountering a large force was fairly small. The nomadic aliens had never fully fit in with the other major alien races. Their nomadic and plundering habits made them poor guests wherever they traveled. It was only due to the Red War that the arche reluctantly cooperated alongside other aliens. "Another gift which I will bestow upon you is a boon to the Ascended Giants that you have taken under your wing." The Star Designer continued to speak. "It is clear that your new and unruly subordinates are not able to cope with opponents that cannot be defeated with a certain amount of brute force. While you and your men are already working to remedy this shortcoming, I have decided to assist your effort by granting you a scalable weapon system of my own design." A projection came to life. It displayed a series of hammers of different scales. The smallest could be wielded a mech while the larger ones were massive monsters that could only be wielded by greater phase lords! What impressed Ves the most was that these were not simple solid hammers. They incorporated varying degrees of electronics that mostly appeared to empower the faces. A few of the hammer models also appeared to be made out of superdimensional alloys, making them a lot more dangerous than normal! "What are they?" Ves asked as he tried to guess at their functions and features. "They are but a handful of sample designs of my Resonant Breaking Hammers." The Star Designer sounded mildly proud of his work. "They are blunt force weapons that can easily be scaled up to be wielded by increasingly more powerful giants. The larger the hammers, the more effective their damage. This is because they are designed to vibrate at a high frequency just moments before impact. Once they make contact with a target, both of them will resonate with each other over a brief interval. This can drastically weaken material defenses, making every subsequent impact more damaging than the ones that came before. This effect is much more pronounced if the hammers are made out of superdimensional alloys. Do take note that this does not apply to energy-based defenses." "I see. These hammers... sound quite useful." Although the existence of these Resonant Breaking Hammers did not solve every shortcoming of the Ascended Giants, they could at least increase their lethality against larger and more formidable opponents! So long as the difference in mobility was not too great, a squad of giants armed with these special hammers should be able to break the defenses of a more powerful phase lord clad in Saint Armor! Even if the high-frequency vibrations did not do anything special to azure energy shields and spatial barriers, it didn’t matter too much as normal superdimensional weapons already penetrated such defenses with ease. The more Ves thought about it, the more he felt that the Resonant Breaking Hammers could serve as a perfect stopgap solution for the coming years. While the superdimensional halberds possessed greater reach and sharpness, they were not that sophisticated. They could easily be used to bully the weak, but lacked the lethality to threaten anything stronger. The Resonant Breaking Hammers may look a bit clumsier, but as long as the hammerheads remained fairly small in proportion to the shaft, the new weapons would not be much slower to swing. The Star Designer had been very thoughtful when he presented this weapons package to Ves. The Resonance Smith would not offer a gift that would end up making the Ascended Giants weaker. This also made it hard for Ves to refuse. Even if these high-tech weapons possessed any hidden traps, Ves still had little choice but to adopt them for his men. The demoralized giants truly needed a new source of encouragement, and these Resonant Breaking Hammers perfectly hit the nail on the head! "Thank you for these weapon designs and specifications." Ves eventually said. "I will make sure that my subordinates from the Phase Lord Department will adopt them as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing them in action against worthy enemy targets." "Your Ascended Giants have great potential, but only if they are properly led and equipped. At this moment, your new supersoldiers do not justify the phasewater and resources invested into them. That has disappointed many of us, but there are those who understand that they still need more development before they come into their power. Given how much you have committed to them, I am willing to add my own investment into your program. Do not squander my gift. I have especially taken the time to increase its synergy with superdimensional technology. The superdimensional version of Resonant Breaking Hammers can shatter entire fortresses if they are massive enough." As Ves skimmed through the design schematics, he could readily believe this statement. The tech responsible for generating high-frequency vibrations was way more complex than he thought! They could not only vibrate at surprisingly high amplitudes, but also vary their frequency depending on the matter and shape of their targets. The key to their ability to inflict high degrees of internal damage was not to shake as quickly as possible, but their ability to find the ’right’ frequency that just so happened to generate a brief instance of destructive resonance that could drastically amplify the damage inflicted by kinetic impacts! All of this not only demanded a lot of processing power, but also insanely well-designed analytical software. Ves could never design such a complicated weapon system by himself. He would have to rely on a large multi-disciplinary R&D team to develop a comparable weapon system, especially one that synergizes so well with superdimensional technology. This made this gift even heavier than normal. Once Ves got over the euphoria of being able to equip all of his giants with these powerful new hammers, he began to grow skeptical. The Resonance Smith’s generosity exceeded Ves’ imagination. Why was the shifty Star Designer being so nice all of a sudden? Whatever minor favor Ves had managed to inherit from the Voice of Liberty did not warrant so many gifts! What was even more perplexing was that the Resonance Smith was not yet done! "My third gift to you is a primer on anti-resonance technology. This is a niche branch of resonance technology that has become much more relevant for obvious reasons. Not everyone has access to this unusual tech. That is unlikely to change in the short term. Its strategic value will only grow higher due to future developments. The few parties who have mastered anti-resonance technology have a strong interest in limiting its circulation. I advise you to be careful about controlling the spread of anti-resonance solutions." That was a serious warning. Ves actually felt that he might not be up to the task of protecting this exclusive tech against seizure. Nonetheless, he had no intention of rejecting the virtual document. Anti-resonance technology was exactly what the Larkinson Clan and the Ascended Giants needed to counter any hostile application of true resonance or stolen resonance! If the giants had already mastered this tech before the recent battles, they wouldn’t have suffered so many casualties! "Why give me this primer?" Ves asked as he felt curious why he deserved this particular gift. "I am confident that you can put your own spin on this tech. If you study the theory of anti-resonance technology, you will understand that it is particularly compatible with a familiar attribute. I have high expectations for that reason." "I see." No gift was ever truly free.