Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong tried to act mysterious in front of his clever Ship’s Officer Miss, but ended up amusing himself.

He awkwardly touched his nose and said, ”Let me show you something, this is the result of my research these past few days.”

He put on the control gloves, then pressed his hand on the console, projecting a construct from the large information crystal.

It was a Sword Bearer, somewhat tattered, and Hilveld fixed her gaze, realizing it was the one that had been damaged by the construct on the big ship earlier.

Unexpectedly, her Lord Captain found it and repaired it after the fact.

She pursed her lips into a smile.

Fang Hong was also a bit embarrassed.

Who would have thought that he couldn’t bring out any other construct, having left Tansnier in such a rush he didn’t manage to take much alchemy materials, making it impossible to construct an Energy Angel for experiments, he could only go back and pick this thing up.

However, compared to before, this Sword Bearer had some slight differences—the biggest difference was probably the large and cumbersome structure attached to its core.

At a glance, it looked like a tumor growing from the machine, ugly and unsightly.

”This is?” Hilveld was a bit surprised, ”A Closed Loop Device?”

”Not entirely, it’s modified from that,” Fang Hong probably couldn’t bear to look at it himself, ”This is just a prototype, the finished product will look much better.”

”A finished product,” Hilveld grinningly said, ”What does the Lord Captain want me to do?”

”Try it out, use this hand crossbow to attack it.”

Fang Hong handed over the hand crossbow he used. After saying this, he took off the control gloves and placed them aside.

Hilveld looked at this gesture, tilted her head a bit, and looked at him playfully.

As if indicating: Can we start now?

Fang Hong nodded.

Hilveld raised the hand crossbow, aimed at the Sword Bearer, and pulled the trigger.

Theoretically speaking, a flexible construct without an operator should not be able to move, but a miracle happened; at the moment the crossbow bolt approached, the Sword Bearer suddenly sidestepped, letting the bolt hit the floor.

Hilveld put down the hand crossbow and looked at this scene with some surprise.

She looked up, her eyes speaking to Fang Hong.

Fang Hong shook his head, ”Doesn’t it look exactly like that construct? But actually, it’s not, it can only do this...”

He picked up the control gloves beside him again, putting them on while saying, ”I didn’t control it, but before taking off the gloves, I gave it an order: when an attack approaches, it will make an evasion move.”

”That’s not bad,” Hilveld looked at the Sword Bearer again, ”So the margin information can be input in advance and stored, waiting for a command to trigger?”

She turned her head back with some curiosity, ”That could save a lot of calculative power?”

If native craftsmen could also grasp this ability, the number of flexible constructs each person could control would greatly increase.

Because such an array can almost turn a flexible construct into a summoned creature—only a command from the Alchemist is needed to trigger it. And it doesn’t require a soul contract, nor does it have a spiritual power burden.

But Fang Hong gave a wry smile and shook his head.

Saving calculative power, that’s probably the only function of this thing.

He replied with a wry smile, ”But so far, it only knows this one move. In fact, no matter what attack mode you use, from whatever direction, it will only have this one evasion mode, and regardless of the result...”

Hilveld’s gaze lightly flashed, quickly understanding, ”Because the Lord Captain only set this one set of commands for it?”

The Ship’s Officer Miss’s level of intelligence rendered Fang Hong a bit numb, he nodded.

”The key issue lies in the storage device... you saw it only made one evasion move, but in reality, a flexible construct isn’t controlled like this; a craftsman’s commands must be detailed down to every moving direction of each transmission mechanism, broken down, and even just this evasion move requires seven groups of forty-four sub-commands—though for professionally trained craftsmen, most of these repeated commands are instinctual reactions, muscle memory, but used in this device...”

Fang Hong looked at that ugly device with an expression hard to describe, ”used in this device, regardless of whether the commands are repeated, each array must be inscribed individually... and the carrying device for that array, I used a modified Closed Loop Device, and each array needs one... forty-four, I’ve simplified as much as possible, but it’s still this big.”

Hilveld couldn’t help but smile, ”So its practicality is limited?”

”At least, it’s nowhere near the level of that fully autonomous construct that has judgment capabilities and can act on its own.”

She thought for a while, ”But how is that achieved?”

”That segment of alchemy formulas does mention this, it mentions a material called starstone, but I’ve never heard of it.” Fang Hong couldn’t help thinking of the peculiar device he had seen inside the hats of those constructs, with those enigmatic crystals he had no clue how to study.

Hilveld knew that if Fang Hong said he hadn’t heard of it, it also meant that the knowledgeable Miss Tata might have no clue either.

She thought about it and found this name quite unfamiliar.

She had no choice but to turn her attention back to the present, looking at the Sword Bearer and asking, ”What about this device?”

”It’s not entirely useless,” Fang Hong replied, ”this is just a prototype, I can still find ways to optimize it, and after mastering that array, I have also made some discoveries about Closed Loop Devices.”

Hilveld watched him, waiting for him to continue.

”I found the Closed Loop Device can also be optimized, its original materials can be replaced, after replacement it will be much lighter, it’s just...”

Fang Hong suddenly became a bit hesitant.

”So?” Hilveld blinked with interest, knowing her Lord Captain only appeared this hesitant when seeking help.

”The materials are somewhat expensive...”

Fang Hong stammered.

Hilveld joked, ”Is the Lord Captain suggesting I ask Miss Atira’s opinion?”

Although the Seven Seas Travel Group has money, but as everyone knows, that money doesn’t belong to any one person.

...