This was because Ves discovered that luminar crystals were spiritually reactive!
The crystals were much less impressive if they hadn't come in touch with spiritual energy.
Ves also achieved modest improvement gains with the Crystal Lord Mark II for this reason. By letting its luminar crystals get in touch with the mech's spiritual foundation, the crystals were able to absorb more energy and unleash slightly stronger light beams.
The more the Crystal Lord Mark II grew over time, the greater the amplification!
The reverse relationship also held true. The greater the luminar crystal, the stronger the glow. The quality of the crystal also played a very significant role.
"Unfortunately, Master Willix didn't give me the good stuff."
Frankly speaking, the luminar crystals integrated in the Crystal Lord Mark II were equivalent to third-class components.
If the MTA passed on its research on stronger luminar crystals, then Ves would readily be able to embed them in his counter against expert mechs!
He scowled. "I'm still in trouble. I have no choice but to work with fragile third-class crystals. Fridaymen mechs can easily break them with casual attacks, especially if they employ physical force."
Yet Ves had very little alternatives. While he could seek out other ways to hinder expert mechs, he would merely be following up on solutions that were already proven to be bad. The costs were simply too great to make them viable.
Ves spent hours thinking over whether he should follow up on basing his anti-expert mech around luminar crystals.
"Fragile or not, I have several unique advantages when it comes to implementing luminar tech."
He bet that the MTA probably hadn't been able to arouse the full potential of luminar technology due to their limited expertise in spirituality.
He also bet that combining the Illustrious One and luminar crystals in a more targeted fashion might deliver greater results.
Maybe Ves might succeed in drawing out the Blinding One's strength over the course of the design project!
"It won't be easy, though."
The glow of the Illustrious One was sparkling and beautiful, but its offensive properties weren't apparent. Ves would have to transform it just like he did with the Valkyrie Redeemer.
Without its ability to narrow its glow into a narrow beam, the Valkyrie mechs would never have been able to affect enemy mechs at range!
Ves hoped that a similar concentration attempt might be able to cause someone like Venerable Joshua more discomfort.
This was one direction of strengthening the main effect of his anti-expert mech.
The other direction was to integrate more crystals onto the mech frame. The Crystal Lord Mark II was far from saturated when it came to this aspect. Back when he designed it, there was no need to increase its production cost and unbalance the mech by piling on an excessive amount of crystals.
Now that Ves wanted to do the opposite, how would his anti-expert mech look like?
His imagination immediately conjured up the image of a mech bedecked in crystals. Its entire chest glittered in the light as the crystals embedded on its surface were impossible to ignore!
The imaginary mech carried a powerful energy rifle that integrated numerous crystals.
Yet before this mech was able to discharge a light beam with the aid of all of its crystals, a single enemy rifleman mech fired its gauss rifle at the attention-grabbing machine.
A powerful gauss round immediately punched the chest of the obvious, glittered target! Almost a hundred different crystals shattered as the incredible kinetic energy transferred by the projectile was too much for them to cope!
"This is not good!"
Then what if Ves adopted a more defensive design?
The ruined mech disappeared from his mind. In its place was a bigger, fatter knight mech. While it did not show many crystals on the surface, its internals were filled with them! Ves also made use of special cushioning materials and shock-absorbing systems that mech designers usually employed in lancer mech designs.
If these systems were able to protect the mech pilots and the delicate internals of a mech from impact damage, then they should also be good enough to protect the fragile luminar crystals!
The knight mech held no weapon. Instead, it carried a single, broad tower shield.
When the same enemy ranged mechs fired a couple of gauss rounds at the defensive mech, its sturdy shield withstood the blows while only incurring a couple of dents!
Once the ranged mech stopped firing, its target began to activate a setting.
The surface layers of the tower shield parted to reveal an entire surface of luminar crystals!
Like a giant mirror, the crystal-encrusted shield projected the Illustrious One's powerful, focused glow at the enemy!
The ranged mech instantly froze as the mech pilot closed his eyes and moaned in pain!
"I can't see!"
The illusion ended after that. When Ves pulled himself back to reality, he evaluated the ideas he just considered.
"Can this even work?"
The mech he just imagined looked so silly and impractical that Ves didn't have much in the concept. Yet according to understanding, the mech might be able to affect an expert pilot.
"Maybe not by itself, but what about a couple of hundred?"
Ves briefly imagined a majestic shield wall consisting of hundreds of mechs.
As an enemy expert mech swaggered forward, the shield wall suddenly turned bright as the tower shields all revealed their crystal surface!
So much light poured in a single direction! Even if the shields didn't precisely land on the expert mech, at least it left the target with few escape routes!
The expert mech stumbled and dropped altitude for a few seconds. Though the expert pilot quickly managed to recover from the unexpected disturbance, the blinding effect continued to hammer at his mind!