It was times like these that Ves regretted that he neglected the importance of alchemy and elixirs. He could not do anything about it due to his lack of background in these new and exciting fields.
Due to the existence of Vulcan, Ves happened to be extremely good at crafting artifacts.
This was a pretty deep and profound discipline that required a lot of study, practice and dedication in order to achieve any major successes.
Traditional blacksmithing and related fields happened to synergize well with mech design.
It made sense to match his side profession with his main profession. Both of them were intrinsically related to the metal element. It was simple for Ves to transfer skills in one profession to the other profession and vice versa.
The same could not be said for alchemy. This was an entirely different field of expertise that had a much weaker relation to the metal element.
From what he heard, the Alchemy Department primarily focused its recruitment on qi cultivators who happened to possess notable affinities for the other 4 elements, but most notably the wood element.
The growth and cultivation of reagents, especially the more potent ones, demanded a lot of attention from specialized planters and farmers.
Many of them had less than a year of training and cultivation under their belt. Their skills and extraordinary techniques were still rudimentary. Only the most talented and learned among them may have been able to skip ahead and master more potent techniques.
This was probably the most important reason why the supply of Premium and Excellent Version Elixirs was not even close to meeting demand.
Red humanity needed more time to ramp up production and raise the quality of the end products.
Until that happened, the good stuff would remain in short supply.
Currently, Ves did not think it was worth it to exchange a major favor for a single Excellent Version Elixir.
The effort and risk put into earning a major favor was worth much more than a single elixir, even one as good as the highest grade of Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs!
One important reason why Ves looked down on this trade offer was the fact that Ves could already induce breakthroughs by relying on his own methods.
Sure, the risks and dangers were much greater, but at least he was able to exert better control over the process and outcome.
Saint Tusa, Saint Dise and Saint Orfan all managed to attain their ranks as a direct result of his actions. Although his methods were far from perfect, Ves was confident he could refine his approach and achieve good enough results to skip the usage of the elixirs.
After all, the use of Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs was a shortcut, not a challenge.
Any pilot who broke through by relying on them inevitably suffered from sequelae.
Even the Excellent Version Elixirs could not avoid this consequence.
In fact, the use of such a 'near-perfect' product would probably cause mech pilots to feel even more unworthy due to the low failure rate.
At least the mech pilots who successfully broke through with the help of the Standard Version could claim to have undergone a test of life and death!
Ves let out a deep breath as many different thoughts crossed his mind.
He was not yet done with thinking over the implications. The Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs possessed the potential to disrupt the entire mech community!
How could he possibly maintain his composure in the face of such a colossal future development?
"This could have been a war-winning strategy." Ves suddenly realized. "If the native aliens happened to be our only enemies, then the drastic increase of expert pilots and ace pilots would allow us to more effectively fight back against the native alien warfleets. Their warships are vulnerable to expert mechs while their phase leaders struggle against our ace mechs. The more high-ranking mechs our side can deploy, the easier it will be to defeat the native aliens by relying on quality. Regrettably, quality is not an effective approach against the mutated voribugs."
Jovy grimly nodded. His assessment matched that of Ves.
The mutated voribugs could leverage an unending tide of disposable insects. Not even god mechs could quickly clear a single star system of all hostile life.
Therefore, a strategy that relied on expanding the pool of champions in red humanity would not work all that well. Defeating the mutated voribugs demanded an entirely different strategy.


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