The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7104

Chapter 7104: The Ultimate Transformation

The new artifact neared completion.

As Ves put all of the parts together, a new umbrella took shape.

Both he and Alexa took a moment to admire the near-finished product.

The shaft no longer showed any visible wooden structure. Ves had not dared to change it considering that it anchored complex runic sequences. He merely covered it up with multiple layers of thick superdimensional alloys.

The metal sheathed the shaft and provided an enormous degree of physical protection. They also contained very thin electronic components that Ves had somehow folded into the extradimensional space of some of the layers.

Although this technique compromised the defensive power of the superdimensional metal in question, it effectively allowed Ves to fit in electronics without taking up any space in the material dimensions.

Ves was most proud of being able to do this. He knew that he had mastered a rare combination of skills and abilities that synergized particularly well with each other. If he wanted to earn a lot of extra income, he could advertise his capabilities to high society and accept insanely lucrative commissions to supply a rich and powerful clientele with much more powerful weapons and defensive tools.

However, Ves quietly rejected this course of action. It would take far too much time from him. He was a mech designer, not a weapon smith or anything. He needed to avoid this trap and go back to completing his current slate of mech designs as soon as possible. He was already looking forward to fabricating the Riot Mark III.

"It looks beautiful." Alexa said. "You have preserved the feminine look of the umbrella, but also elevated its class. Any girl would be lucky to own such an exquisite ornament."

Even though Ves was not a woman, he had a little more understanding than most people due to possessing a female cat avatar.

Of course, Veronica did not really have many ways to show her feminine side due to being a cat and a mechanical one at that, but she still possessed a different mindset.

He had spent a considerable amount of time and effort to make the shaft and handle look delicate and thin. That limited the volume of electrical components he could fold into the superdimensional layers, but he found it important not to make the shaft too thick and bulky.

He also tweaked the superdimensional alloy and mixed in trace exotics until he was able to produce an alloy that possessed a bright silver exterior, especially when polished to a shine.

Ves had taken the time to carve and mold the shaft into an asymmetric twisted vine structure.

The deliberate asymmetry and messiness of this pattern should have caused the shaft to look sloppy and haphazard, but it had the opposite effect.

Ves and Vulcan channeled all of their artistry and craftsmanship to carve a pattern that used chaos to produce a sense of organic harmony.

Perhaps an isolated section of the shaft might look disorderly, but when taken as a whole, the twisted vine structure looked oddly soothing, organic and seemingly made out of plant matter.

Of course, that was not actually the case. It was just an illusion as the exterior was still made of metal.

However, Ves hoped that this surface pattern would continue to retain the umbrella’s strong association with the wood element.

The handle at the end deserved special mention as well. Ves had shaped it into a hook to make it easy to hang it on an arm or use it to retrieve an object that was out of arm’s reach. It also looked nice.

Ves tried his best to mold and carve it into the shape of a leaping cat. He had to be a little more creative with the angles and such, but he felt he did a good enough job.

The handle also functioned as a subtle control panel. In order to activate the tech incorporated into the artifact, Aurelia could do so through two different methods.

She could press the physical buttons that Ves had cleverly shaped into paws and other natural features.

She could also send electrical signals through direct skin contact, although that required her to augment herself with cybernetic implants that she had yet to install.

To be honest, it was not strictly necessary for her to manually activate the personal energy shield or any other technological system. This was a high-level artifact, which meant that the artifact spirit was already capable of activating its own functions.

This autonomy was what separated low-level artifacts from high-level ones.

While the shaft and handle looked refined and elegant when held by a woman, Ves was most proud of the new canopy that adorned the strengthened superdimensional ribs of the artifact.

Since Ves used up so much more fabric than before, he opted to turn it into a two-sided affair.

The bottom side was meant to reflect its original incarnation as the Flower Parasol. Its base color was gold, but much of its surface area was occupied by pink cherry blossoms and other pink flowers.

This time, Ves had opted to eschew chaos and purposefully aimed for an orderly, symmetrical and perfectly circular visual style. Anyone who looked at it would find it difficult that it was made by the same creator who designed the shaft.

One quaint little feature was that the pink petals possessed a subtle glow by default. It would be difficult to observe it in brightly lit areas, but it still produced a minute color cast that should make anyone who was holding the umbrella over the head look cuter and more feminine.

Of course, Aurelia could easily strengthen or dim this pink glow if she wanted to by pressing the right buttons on the handle.

The topside of the canopy looked completely different. Ves had turned the base color into black, which provided a sharp contrast to the lighter colors underneath.

Naturally, Ves had tried to liven it up by adding a variety of different cats. Each of them looked realistic and almost life-like. They consisted of different breeds and featured many different coats and patterns. Each of them possessed stances that looked anything but static and boring. They instead looked playful and whimsical.

He tried his best to add a different kind of harmony into this vista. He meticulously determined the sizing, positioning, angles, stances and other features to make every cat look a part of a whole.

Each of them might look like separate individual creatures, but when they were depicted together like this, it became clear that they belonged to a single unified clowder of cats.

The duality between cats and flowers in the visual style of the artifact reflected its past and present. This duality extended to its practical features, which relied on both ancient runes and modern tech to produce a variety of powerful effects.

Old and new blended together to form a new artifact that would hopefully remain strong and useful enough to accompany Aurelia for the rest of her life.

At the very least, the new umbrella possessed a lot of growth potential. Ves tried his best not to damage the artifact spirit. He instead did everything he could to nurture it, though he did not have too many means of doing so aside from feeding it exoplants and other high-quality wood materials.

The Larkinsons could continue to feed the umbrella with more extraordinary plants, though it became increasingly harder to yield greater improvements.

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