It had been the right decision to hang on to the Elegant Rage for a while!
Ves managed to harvest a lot of useful gains from the Elegant Rage. The most crucial insight that he managed to obtain from his examinations of this mutated mech was the discovery that strong cognition could replace cultivation methods!
It made sense after a bit of thinking. If active cultivation was like trying to self-hypnotize oneself, possessing a very strong mindset was a superior alternative to such a clumsy and artificial method!
This was probably one of the underlying pillars of willpower cultivation. Both swordmasters and high-ranking mech pilots grew stronger not by engaging in any mysterious voodoo, but by developing an extraordinary mindset that was utterly focused and single-minded.
The stronger the ego of the willpower cultivator, the greater his or her ability to distort psychoreactive energies, thereby forcing reality to bend to their unbreakable will!
This explained what made the Elegant Rage so different from other third order living mechs, even those that managed to ride along the breakthroughs of their pilots.
Compared to other expert pilots, Venerable Lanie Larkinson's breakthrough was especially desperate and traumatic. In her dying state, her mentality became extremely unbalanced and probably fixated really hard on thoughts related to revenge, payback, retribution and etcetera.
Lanie became overwhelmed by her unrestrained negative thoughts and emotions!
During the Age of Mechs, an expert pilot that had completely lost her composure and set aside all of her honor and nobility would never be able to earn the blessing of the Kingdom of Mechs.
The current iteration of the Red Kingdom was different!
The breakthrough did nothing to dispel Lanie's negative obsessions. Instead, the process of apotheosis strengthened them, causing them to become extraordinarily more powerful!
Contaminated by the strong aura, presence and wood energy exuded by the Emperor Tree, Venerable Lanie's extraordinary power further mutated by acquiring a wood-based theme.
This was the reason why her willpower manifested in the shape of thorns.
As the mech that formed an active man-machine connection with Lanie at the time of her traumatic breakthrough, it made sense for the Elegant Rage to freeload off her battle partner's dramatic explosion in strength.
If Lanie was a conventional expert pilot, then her mech would probably absorb a bunch of positive or neutral energies.
This transformed the living mech's cognition and not only caused them to develop a closer bond with their high-ranking pilots, but also increase their compatibility with the latter's E energy attributes.
Now that Ves thought about it, these acquired qualities should also be present among old machines that had been with their partners for a long time such as the Dark Zephyr, the Bastion and the C-Man.
However, these special living mechs did not demonstrate noticeably strong capabilities because it was harder to notice the differences produced by their strong cognitions.
For example, the Dark Zephyr's alignment with Tusa's ideas probably made the living mech faster and more evasive, but how could Ves possibly measure this when the machine was already loaded with a powerful flight system and other parts that boosted his mobility?
There was no way to tell whether the Dark Zephyr Mark III produced a certain increase in acceleration or maneuverability because of a specific reason. It could be due to his superior tech, the true resonance amplification from being piloted by Saint Tusa, a favorable E energy environment or the living mech's own strong cognition!
So even if the effect of acquired cognition played a role in strengthening the performance of a third order living mech, who could truly tell?
The Dark Zephyr and all of his other established third order living mechs all possessed a high trust in their progenitor and diligently practiced the Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra without further question.
At most, they made minor changes to their practice in order to shift a bit of focus towards other E energy attributes, but it was unquestionable that the metal element remained a core feature of this mantra.
It wouldn't have included the word 'metal' in its name if this was not the case!
Ves recalled that he originally created the Lesser and Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra by using another cultivation method as a base template.
The Atmer Guardian Mantra that Ves managed to learn by ingesting an enlightenment fruit not only possessed a strong defensive focus, but could also be adapted for living mechs as the System processed the method to make it more universal.
The latter was an incredibly important hidden benefit. Ves could gain far more from the Tree of Possibilities than by using his capital and influence to collect ancient cultivation records from various different parties.
Even if he managed to obtain a bunch of copies of surviving cultivation manuals, they were usually written in obscure foreign languages that were difficult to interpret.
The conditions of practicing them were also a lot harsher, as many of them had been tailored for primordial humans or people with very rare and specific talents.
One of the greatest advantages of the enlightenment fruits provided by the Tree of Possibilities was to render all of these prerequisites irrelevant and allow the recipients to instantly get started with the corresponding methods!
How was this possible?
Ves had no clue. This was way too advanced and high-level to him. Perhaps he might be able to replicate this effect when he reached the same height as the creator of the Metal Scroll, but that was too far away from his current self.
He focused on the more immediate implications.
The speed of practicing was fairly slow, and it imposed greater demands on the physique than the spirit. Nonetheless, the talent threshold was also lower as a response. Ves gained the distinct impression that the mantra was specifically composed to train a bunch of elite bodyguards.
Was the Atmer Guardian Mantra the best possible template that Ves could utilize in order to develop a cultivation method for his living mechs?
The Atmer Guardian Mantra was quite a good cultivation method. The sanitized version bestowed by the enlightenment fruit was fairly pure and did not possess any major traps or pitfalls.
The speed of practicing was fairly slow, and it imposed greater demands on the physique than the spirit. Nonetheless, the talent threshold was also lower as a response. Ves gained the distinct impression that the mantra was specifically composed to train a bunch of elite bodyguards.
Was the Atmer Guardian Mantra the best possible template that Ves could utilize in order to develop a cultivation method for his living mechs?
No.
For example, the Amaranto definitely got much less out of the Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra than other living mechs.
The expert mech's strong focus on extreme firepower not only caused her to conflict with the central concepts of the Metal Guardian Mantra, but also wasted much of her time and energy on strengthening the least important aspect of her mech frame.
So what if her armor system and internal structure became a little tougher and more resistant towards damage?
The Amaranto was never supposed to get attacked by enemies in the first place!
What was worse about letting the expert marksman mech practice the Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra was that it could produce a conflict in cognition.
The Metal Guardian Mantra could not get away from the fact that it possessed a strong defensive focus.
In order for the Amaranto to grow stronger, she constantly needed to focus on offensive ideas.
Therefore, practicing the Metal Guardian Mantra not only caused the Amaranto to make less progress in strengthening her strongest properties, but also risked the possibility of brainwashing her into becoming a more defense-oriented mech!
"That is a disaster!"
Perhaps the shift towards defense might actually be useful if Gloriana managed to get her hands on a lot of Solarium that she could use to enhance the Amaranto's defenses, but Ves absolutely disagreed with this change in focus.
"The Amaranto and many other living mechs need to stop trying to become a guardian and focus on pursuing a different idea."