The Mech Touch - Chapter 7164: Short of True Mastery

Chapter 7164: Short of True Mastery

After concluding an exploratory spar, Ketis developed a good understanding of Ves’ upgraded combat prowess.

The swordmaster was a scary opponent to fight against.

Perhaps Ves could crush her if he unfolded his true body and tanked her powerful blows, but he saw no way he could beat her if he restricted himself to infantry scale.

Ves always heard many praises about her combat prowess, but it was only when he faced her with a weapon of his own that he understood the gulf between her and other fighters.

Swordmasters were serious business.

Even if they had become mostly obsolete by the time humans adopted mechs and warships as their preferred combat platforms, that did not diminish the lethality of swordmasters in the slightest.

Ves could not imagine how much scarier it would be if he faced her while she was wielding her Bloodsinger or her Heavensword as opposed to a random metal rod!

He gained a lot more respect for Ketis for this reason. Now that he had gained the fighting skills of a Demonic Possession Spearman, he understood a lot better how much time and dedication it took to become so good at swordsmanship.

And she still had enough time left over to become a Journeyman Mech Designer.

He knew that it was almost impossible for him to defeat her in terms of pure skill anytime soon, if ever.

His new fighting method did not rely at all on developing superior weapon handling skills, but instead took a detour and relied on the unconventional magic of demonic possession to surprise and overwhelm opponents.

It followed a completely different philosophy that could no longer be regarded as a pure martial pursuit. The inclusion of demonology elements irrecoverably tainted it and turned the art of wielding weapons into a vessel to channel the power of potent demons.

Although victory could justify all means, as long as the enemy managed to counter his demons, or he lacked access to powerful enough ones, his ’ordinary’ spearmanship skills would not carry him far against truly challenging opponents.

The feedback issued by Ketis basically confirmed his own evaluation.

“You have become a serviceable fighter. Your technical fighting skills alone are equivalent to that of a professional spearman mech pilot with several years of training and preparation under his belt.” She gently praised. “You are probably good enough to join an elite mech unit as a fresh recruit. Your foundation is solid, and you know your theory well.”

“I sense a ’but’ coming…”

The female Journeyman gave him an encouraging smile. “You are not a true fighter, Ves. I do not mean this as an insult. I am just stating the truth in my professional capacity as a swordmaster. Technical skill alone is not enough to become a qualified warrior. While I know that you have shed blood in person on multiple occasions, you lack the killer instinct, the drive to defeat every opponent, the determination to master your weapons to the limit and so on. Since you have gained these skills through an enlightenment fruit as opposed to working for them the hard way, you lack true appreciation of how far you have come.”

A more vain and prideful person might feel insulted by her criticism, but Ves did not feel much hurt.

She was right.

Ves still did not think of himself as a true fighter despite gaining the skills to qualify as one.

“That is fair.” He said. “I absorbed this powerful enlightenment fruit to turn the Dark Apostle into a competent fighter. The fact that I have mastered the same skills as well is just a bonus as far as I am concerned. I will definitely be able to design better spearman mechs in the future.”

“I would not say that you have attained true mastery over your technical skills.” Ketis shook her head. “Let me put it this way. As a chef, you have learned how to execute the standard recipes to a high degree of proficiency, but that does not necessarily turn you into a master chef. A true pursuer of the culinary arts has developed his own style or signature, his own taste as it were. He also knows how to adapt the static recipes to the actual circumstances. For example, variations in ingredients and differences in climate may compel him to increase the proportion of vegetables and decrease the amount of seasoning applied to a dish. The end result clearly deviates from the standard recipe, but customers undoubtedly prefer its taste over one that has rigidly stuck to written instructions. Do you understand?”

This was a simple enough analogy to understand for Ves. “I understand. The enlightenment fruit has only given me instruction on how to execute the most standard and impersonalized form of Demonic Possession Spearmanship. It has not given me any assistance when it comes to bridging the gap between standard practice and personalization. I still have a long way to go if I want to adapt and optimize this art until I have developed my own fighting style.”

Ketis smiled and nodded in approval. “You have the right idea. This is a lesson that every Swordmaiden and Heavensworder receives early on. We have never insisted that sword practitioners must rigidly adhere to the exact specifications of every sword style or technique. That is folly. We are not raising bots. We are raising warriors. There is good sense in drilling the basics without too much deviation, but past an acceptable level of proficiency, sticking to rigid standards will do more harm than good as far as I am concerned. Mind you, not every fighter agrees with this stance. There are outfits that have made a strong focus on standardization work. They mostly filter out fighters who deviate too much from the uniform standards. Do this often enough, and you are only left with those who work well following the exact same standards.”

“I do not think I can stand such treatment.” Ves threw out a guess.

“That is right.” Ketis gave him a measuring stare. “You are far too individualistic, both as a person and a fighter. This is why my evaluation of you is so critical. There is an enormous gap between high proficiency and high mastery. You can only claim to master the art of wielding a spear if you have truly spent your training on personalizing what you have learned before testing your results against actual opponents. If you are willing to make this commitment, then I estimate that you can defeat most Ascended Giants if everything else is equal.”

“What about their champions?”

“You still stand little chance against them.” She flatly said. “I do not know too much about them, but from what little I can gather, every candidate of the Phase Lord Department has to be an elite soldier or warrior from the onset. After all, the Red Collective wants to get its money’s worth. It makes little sense to pump so much phasewater into the bodies of mediocre combatants. The leaders and champions among them are definitely a cut above the rest. Their skills undoubtedly reached a higher level of mastery, but that is only a part of the story. They most likely possess talents that are rare or innate that put them ahead of others. Their intangibles are also far superior to your own. This is a gap that you cannot close unless you set everything aside and fully dedicate yourself to the art of combat in the next several decades.”

That was clearly impossible. For all of his exuberance about becoming a skilled and competent fighter, the pursuit of combat mastery did not hold as much attraction as becoming a Master Mech Designer.

“I will leave that up to the Dark Apostle.” Ves dismissively waved his hand as he refused to do so much work, only to benefit another ’person’. “Let me ask you this. Do you think that my weapon skills are good enough to defeat the four leaders of the Phase Lord Department if I combine them with other advantages such as the demonology stuff and superior tech?”

Ketis shrugged. “Who knows. I can’t say anything for certain when I have so little information. My guess is that you have raised yourself to a competitive level. The outcome of the leadership challenge is no longer heavily against your favor. While I do not think you have much of a chance against a former galaxy-class boxing champion like the Oscillating Fist, achieving victory against the other three Ascending Giants should be well within your reach.”

That was enough for Ves. He smiled as he gripped his fist. He could sense the raw power that he could now command.

One of the biggest benefits of the enlightenment fruit was that he was able to draw upon Lucky’s power more actively.

To be more precise, Blinky was able to channel a lot more E energy from his Imaginary Universe.

While Ves had yet to test the new limits on E energy transmission, he already felt that he had acquired his own miniature Spark Reactor!

Just like how the Spark Reactors made dreadnoughts so formidable on the battlefield, Ves had the potential to punch far above weight so long as he leveraged the much more accessible output of the Blinkyverse to the fullest!

There was so much E energy stuffed inside the enormous internal universe that Ves never had to worry about running out during any combat engagement.

Since Blinky had begun to cultivate the Imaginary Universe Method Version 3.0 that his mother had customized for him, the companion spirit had been absorbing incoming E energy radiation day and night.

With so much reserves, Blinky’s effectiveness as an ’innate demon’ was mainly limited by his improved throughput.

Of course, not everything was optimistic.

Due to his abnormal conditions, Ves did not turn into a Demonic Possession Spearman.

He had already deviated from the standard recipe from the onset. Blinky was a companion spirit, not an innate demon, and that changed a lot of stuff.

The hybrid fighting method that he learned from the enlightenment fruit may be versatile enough to accommodate many different situations, but Ves did not think its original creator had ever accounted for this possibility.

As a positive life form, Blinky lacked certain traits that were common in demons. Ves understood that many power moves would not work at all or become only a fraction as effective as they should even accounting for regular adaptations.

He, or rather the Dark Apostle, would have to spend a lot of time on testing them out and puzzling why they did not work properly.

Then he needed to devise his own solutions and continue to test them until he was able to perform his extraordinary spear techniques at an acceptable degree of potency.

In short, Ves and the Dark Apostle needed to pay the price for deviating from the standard formula of Demonic Possession Spearmanship so much.

It would be worth it in the end. Blinky might not be able to replicate all of the features of a demon, but he possessed properties that no demon could equal.

Ves had little expectation of being able to explore these new possibilities in time for the upcoming leadership challenge, but that did not stop him from imagining how much more versatile he would become in the distant future.

“So is this everything you need from the System?” Gloriana asked at the end.

“Yes.” Ves confidently replied. “More boosts are welcome, but strictly speaking, I have everything I need from the System to give me a realistic chance of winning the upcoming duels. Now I need to spend my remaining time on building up my wargear. I can channel my newfound skills and abilities much better if I have the right weapons and armor at my disposal. I hope that the RC has plenty of high-grade hyper materials on hand. I am going to need a lot of them in order to channel my newfound skills to the greatest extent at this time.”