Chapter 2625: Do You Even Lift, Joshua? (2/2)
That was a rather poor analogy, but Joshua managed to convey his point.
”Does this mean that resonating with your mech is strenuous to you?” Ves asked.
He nodded. ”It's a workout, for sure. I can't do that with other mechs because there is nothing for my mind to grapple on. The Valkyrie Prime is the first mech I've piloted that I feel useful as an expert pilot.”
”Interesting. Tell me more about how you feel about the mech itself.”
”The mech is quite friendly to me. I can actively feel the Superior Mother's influence now that I know what to look out for. I actively tried to get in touch with her and tell her what I want. I can feel she is helping in some way, but don't ask me for any details. The mech is very powerful to me, but it's frustrating that I can't fully channel it. There has to be a way!”
Ves nodded and smiled in encouragement. ”I think so as well. We'll have to perform some subsequent test runs in order to gather more data and try out some different methods.”
They began right away.
While Gloriana worked to optimize the armor layout of the Valkyrie Prime, Ves frequently commanded Venerable Joshua to pilot the Valkyrie Prime.
Since his expeditionary fleet was engaged in FTL travel most of the time, it wasn't possible to deploy the Valkyrie Prime in space.
Fortunately, it wasn't necessary to do so. After a few cautious attempts, Ves decided to keep the test runs in his personal workshop. It featured enough space for a mech to move around in a very tight circle and rise a bit in the air, but not much more.
In fact, Ves didn't even need the Valkyrie Prime to move. It was already sufficient to station the mech in the most open space in his workshop before ordering Joshua to keep the mech still.
It was already enough to gather data on the mech while Joshua was actively inducing prime resonance. The machine glowed brightly in the mech workshop, but none of the nearby production equipment suffered any damage.
The repeated tests fatigued Venerable Joshua. While he didn't feel much strain if he induced prime resonance for a couple of minutes, it quickly added up when a session stretched on for twenty minutes or longer.
To be fair, other forms of resonance aside from fake resonance were also strenuous to mech pilots. The power granted by resonance always came at a price. The greater the resonance, the greater the burden on the mech pilot.
Still, no matter how much Ves was asking from Venerable Joshua, the expert pilot diligently did what he was told. He did not ask for any reprieve.
”I can still go on, sir! I am nowhere near my limit!”
While Ves worried about overworking the expert pilot, he wanted to stress test the Valkyrie Prime and its mech pilot. He needed to know if some kind of limit existed if the combination continually engaged in prime resonance.
The frequent, lengthy test runs were very useful in other ways. Sustained use of the Valkyrie Prime soon exposed some details that took Ves by surprise!
”This…”
”What's the matter?”
Gloriana walked over as Ves looked shocked at the pattern he read from the data!
”Look at this graph.”
”I see it. The squiggly line is slightly rising upwards. It's quite flat, though, so the change isn't drastic. What am I looking at, Ves?”
”Resonance strength. According to this chart, in a span of four days, Joshua's resonanc strength rose from 2.51 laveres to 2.55 laveres.”
”What? That's impossible! Expert pilots are only capable of growing stronger when they are piloting actual expert mechs! Everyone knows that!”
”Well, apparently I came up with a new method. Prime resonance isn't the same as fake resonance. The latter is entirely produced by the mech, while the former is something that an expert pilot actively needs to induce. I think that our prime mech is somehow capable of allowing an expert pilot to 'exercise' the aspect that is responsible for resonating with a mech!”
This was a considerable discovery! If this was true, then the expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan didn't have to wait to receive their expert mechs in order to develop their new powers!
A few days later, Ves made another discovery.
The Valkyrie Prime had slightly grown weaker. As Ves carefully examined the mech, he discovered that it had lost at least 100 Ves!
”Where did it go?”
In the process of investigating whether prime resonance slowly consumed the spiritual energy stored inside the Unending alloy, he came up with another experiment.
Everytime spiritual energy was being consumed, something happened. What if Ves attempted something that consumed even more spiritual energy?
As soon as the fleet transitioned out of FTL, Ves immediately commenced his next test!