The Mech Touch

From the moment Melkor's ritual succeeded, his mind and spirit exploded.

He immediately felt as if a hidden part of himself had accumulated so much energy that it opened itself up to the universe!

He immediately began to attract a large amount of E energy radiation, thereby generating an energy vortex that visibly affected the surrounding space!

That was not all. His ongoing connection with the confinement spell array allowed him to use it as an additional source of E energy!

At the cost of reducing its strength, Melkor was able to speed up his breakthrough process and strengthen his new foundation as a combat spell array master considerably faster than usual.

This was the benefit of using a shortcut to get started in the Combat Spell Array Master Qi Cultivation Method. The Red Collective definitely knew its business when it came to optimizing this kind of stuff.

As Melkor's essence changed on a fundamental level due to the absorption of so much E energy, his artistic conception quickly became more powerful and real.

The artistic conception was based around the image of a spell array. In fact, it shared a great resemblance to the confinement spell array that he used to promote his breakthrough into a formal qi cultivator!

This had massive implications for Melkor. His artistic conception became the focal point of his qi cultivation and would have a great influence on his affinities, abilities and inclinations.

One of the consequences of forming an artistic conception around a sealing spell array was that his affinity for this type of qi formation rose massively.

This was why he could immediately feel a much greater sense of closeless and compatibility with the confinement spell array!

He was already beginning to take advantage of this by strengthening its effect, making it harder for the distressed alien phasefighters to break out of the cage by attacking the mists in a single direction!

If Melkor had not broken through, then the probability was high that they could have broken out by now, but because his control of the array improved so much, he was able to fortify its defenses past its normal performance!

He was even able to exceed the standard control options and perform changes that were outside of the normal bounds of the spell array. This allowed him to strengthen the containment in one direction at the cost of weakening the other directions.

The puelmers were clever for figuring out that concentrating all of their attacks in a single direction might break the confinement spell array, but it was too bad that Melkor was able to respond much better to this measure than before!

"This is amazing." He sighed as he continued to marvel at his increase in strength and capabilities.

His improvement in cultivation also expanded his mind by a considerably larger degree than he expected.

He felt as if his mind suddenly expanded in a nearly physical sense as he could recall many more memories, keep track of ten times more variables and speed up his calculation speed by who knew how many times!

It was as if he had truly turned into an organic processor, all without relying on artificial implants and augmentations!

"Is this what it is like to be a mech designer or an engineer?"

His sudden expansion in cognitive capabilities caused him to view reality from a much different perspective than before.

He found that he became more analytical and data-driven. His perception improved as well, allowing him to more intuitively estimate the dimensions, mass and density of different objects.

He was even able to perceive the flow of E energy radiation a lot better than before. Melkor could also feel that he could manipulate it with the help of his newly established foundation as a combat spell array master!

He had read about this in the extensive notes about the ritual and the qi cultivation method.

Combat spell array masters could be divided into further categories.

There were general array masters that could work equally with every type of qi formation.

Then there were specialists who purposefully chose to specialize in using one classification of spell array.

Melkor had chosen to become the latter because he would rather excel in one area than become mediocre in all areas. He was done with staying unexceptional.

Having spent so much time in the Larkinson Clan, he had long figured out that the most successful talents tended to dedicate themselves towards a single pursuit above all else.

They were quite clever and self-aware about their strengths and weaknesses. They knew not to be too greedy and purposefully narrowed the scope of their progression in order to make sure they could make the greatest contributions to the clan.

Even Ketis was an example of this despite pursuing two non-overlapping careers. Choosing to limit herself to designing swordsman mechs lowered her burdens and maximized the synergies between her two professions to the greatest possible extent!

Melkor did not regret the decision to specialize in sealing-type spell arrays. The ritual demanded the use of a spell array, so he could not become a general spell array master from the onset.

The only way to become this was to follow the normal process, but that took way too long and demanded too much book learning.

In contrast, upon breaking through, Melkor understood so much more about sealing spell arrays than a few minutes prior.

He not only mastered the existing theories that he studied beforehand, but also understood truths and concepts that he had not formally studied!

This was amazing, and was a testament to the power and efficacy of the ritual!

It appeared that Melkor had pulled it off at a high standard. Not only did he manage to confine hundreds of trained soldiers, but a proportion of them also died inside the spell array.

This included the living mechs!

Though Melkor should have felt guilty about taking advantage of the deaths of his own clansmen to fuel his cultivation, he was way too ecstatic about gaining true power to let this inconvenient fact ruin his mood.

"I have just become a sealing master!"

From today onwards, Melkor felt confident in his ability to deploy and operate all of the sealing arrays that the Red Collective managed to develop up to this point.

There were ones that could encompass a much greater volume of space, potentially allowing him to entrap an entire alien warfleet!

There were also ones that were much stronger than the basic spell array that he was limited to using at the start.

Then there were spell arrays that provided much finer and more precise control. They may even include features that were characteristic of other types of spell arrays!

However he was unable to leverage the latter effects as well as sealing.

This was the price he paid for committing to a specialization.

He was aware that there were many other nifty spell arrays that could launch attacks, resist attacks, generate convincing illusions and even heal wounded people.

He was not prohibited from making use of them, but he wouldn't be able to deploy them as quickly and use them as smoothly as other types of spell array masters.

If there was no one else available than Melkor, then letting him make use of an attack or defense qi formation was better than nothing.

It would be more ideal if the clan raised many different formation masters. This way, Melkor could focus on what he was good at while leaving other types of spell arrays to other qi cultivators.

He was perfectly fine with committing to sealing-type spell arrays.

In his opinion, the ones that focused on attack were redundant because mechs and warships could already output much more damage than all but the most extravagant attack spell arrays.

The ones that focused on defense were probably perfect for protecting structures, towns and warships. Melkor actually felt tempted to specialize in them instead, but he ultimately concluded that a function that could easily be replicated with technology was not worth investing in, at least for the time being.

Perhaps formation masters may be able to develop more unique and innovative defensive spell arrays that could guard against enemies in more effective ways, but Melkor did not want to rely on such a passive means of qi manipulation.

The spell arrays that focused on illusions could produce many strange and weird effects. The confinement spell array had minor illusionary properties by generating mists that could scramble most sensors, but they could easily be negated with the right techniques or equipment.

More powerful and advanced illusory spell arrays were not so easy to defeat. They were among the most difficult to detect and guard against. Most targets probably wouldn't even notice that they had entered into the wrong area.

From what Melkor learned from the Red Collective, illusory spell arrays could employ many devious tricks onto their victims. They ranged from hiding entire structures or warships out of any form of observation, mistaking allies for enemies, distort the perception of time so that much more of it passed in reality than they thought and hypnotize targets into committing actions that they would never do if they were sober!

Though Melkor felt incredibly attracted to these effects, he ultimately felt a little put off by their evil vibe.

Only those who possessed a compatible mindset would be able make the most out of illusory spell arrays. Melkor could easily see an individual like Ves make use of illusions to fool his opponents, but a more rigid and straightforward personality like Jannzi was completely unsuitable for this approach!

According to his own sensibilities, he felt that he might actually have a high compatibility towards utility spell arrays.

These were generally helpful and relatively harmless qi formations that could provide a myriad of positive effects.
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The ability to promote physical recovery or observe a meeting between alien commander multiple light-hours or even light-years away could be incredibly valuable over the course of the Red War!

Yet Melkor ultimately felt it was better for a non-combatant to take up this specialization.

He wanted to become a combat spell array master in order to gain more agency on the battlefield.

This ultimately led him to specialize in sealing spell arrays.

The ability to confine the movements of enemies was an invaluable capability. It was also very hard for modern human technology to replicate these effects on a wider scale.

Melkor also felt more attracted by the other possible functions of sealing spell arrays.

He had already learned that the Red Collective's own formation masters were working hard to develop spell arrays that could seal space, thereby weakening every form of phasewater technology and spatial manipulation.

The formation masters were also working on spell arrays that could remove alien spacers from their warships, prohibit the use of energy weapons, disable flight and more!

Best of all, once Melkor became a domain shaper, he could use his artistic conception to deploy a weaker version of a sealing spell array into reality by using his inherent powers alone!

This was one of the benefits of specializing in this type of array!

There was no need for him to deploy any formation anchors beforehand!

Of course, the range and power of this innate spell array was only a fraction as powerful as the real deal. Melkor could only gain enough power to protect himself, and only if his enemies weren't too strong.

It was better than nothing.

A true formation master ultimately had to rely on preparation and planning in order to make the most out of his capabilities. He was never meant to fight against enemies on the spot.

Melkor was completely okay with that. He already experienced the power of a sealing master today, and he had become completely enthusiastic about what he could do in the future!

"First, I need to finish off these enemies." He reminded himself.

Once he pulled himself out of the high of his own breakthrough, he became more aggressive in controlling the active confinement spell array.

Enough Larkinsons had died today! Melkor was not about to let any more of his clansmen perish during this costly skirmish!