He already confirmed that the Tree of Possibilities occasionally rotated in old enlightenment fruits after they had disappeared for a while.
This meant that Ves always had the chance of plucking it in the future when he became more powerful and earned a lot more Ascension Points.
Ves eventually settled for a more modest and economical artifact cultivation method.
[Colica Sect Equipment Maintenance Sutra]
Price: 220 Ascension Points
Imparts a sutra as well as associated theories and techniques on the maintenance of personal weapons and equipment. The Colica Sect believes that equipment that is recently manufactured and unused in the circumstances they were made for cannot be relied upon.
The battlefield is the forge and the attacks launched by the opposing force are the hammer strikes. Only after undergoing repeated combat refining will surviving pieces of equipment have the capital to turn into artifacts of greater power.
The Colica Sect's unique sutra utilized by its blacksmiths is not only meant to facilitate the repair and restoration of damaged equipment, but can also increase their toughness and other properties through a combination of special methods.
"This is much more appropriate for my needs!"
Although it didn't sound nearly as comprehensive and high-level as the Divine Blacksmith Records, the Colica Sect Equipment Maintenance Sutra was a lot cheaper while also being highly relevant to his work!
Sure, this enlightenment fruit did not sound like it had anything to do with mechs or living products, but Ves was sure he could adapt the principles of this so-called Colica Sect to his mechs and mech designs!
"It would be best to change it so that the mechs can apply a version of this sutra to themselves instead of letting the maintenance crews do this stuff." Ves determined.
He could figure that out later.
Ves took the time to study the other enlightenment fruits that sounded like they were also tied to artifact cultivation, but he did not like them due to various reasons.
They were either too cheap which gave him little confidence that they would satisfy all of his requirements, or they demanded too many Ascension Points while stuffing his head full of too much irrelevant knowledge.
This one was just right.
"Buy."
Ves plucked the fruit and tossed it into his mouth.
Another burst of knowledge flooded into his mind. The quantity of theories and techniques was a lot, but a significant proportion of the input was made up of hard data that should ordinarily be stored in a database.
Ves harvested a lot of gains from this fruit. Just as he expected, the knowledge was both highly relevant and multipurpose.
Not only did he gain the building blocks he needed to cobble up a much more functional and fitting artifact cultivation method for his living mechs, he also gained a much greater understanding of blacksmithing and manual craftsmanship processes!
He especially gained a lot of competence in repairing damaged and broken mechs! He understood a lot more on how to preserve their valuable attributes while also imparting his machines with small improvements by imbuing the mechs with spiritual energy.
The more damaged the mech, the greater the room for mystical improvement!
"My chance of fabricating a masterwork mech should be even greater, especially if I upgrade an existing mech!"
The Colica Sect's survival of the fittest mentality towards equipment synergized well with his specialization towards living mechs.
So long as his products managed to survive the battlefield and grow for numerous years, they would be able to grow into much more powerful versions of themselves!
Ves smiled as he fully digested the knowledge contained in the latest fruit. He developed a much stronger desire to go back to his design lab and work on upgrading the Dark Zephyr and all of his other old expert mechs.
These older machines had gone through so many serious battles and accumulated so much growth that he knew that he could unlock a lot of potential if he reconstructed their frames!
However, all of that took a lot of time and effort. He needed to think carefully about whether to embark on any further design projects at this time.
"Let's get back to my search."
He had 625 Ascension Points left. He was willing to spend a large chunk of it on two more fruits, but he needed to make sure he left a healthy reserve in order to pay the rent for the Vault of Eternity and rent extra time in the Workshop of Creation.
Ves urgently needed a proper deity cultivation method.
The Orven Ritual Sacrifice Altar Design enlightenment fruit he ingested once taught him a little bit about this form of cultivation, but it hardly added anything to his understanding of cultivation science.
Compared to the methods of primordial humans and other races with rich spiritual inheritances, the crude and primitive deity cultivation methods of the orven race could not be relied upon!
If Ves did not have access to the Sacred Hearth which gave him direct access to his Divine Cores, he would have never been able to survive his attempt to create his own living divine artifact!
Now that he still had plenty of Ascension Points at his disposal, he became determined to do better!
It took a while, but he eventually found a decent fruit...