Chapter 322 — Return to the Ancient Capital

After Shi Jin successfully copied the 'Divine Net' skill, he took a look at the Black-Winged Demon God mech.

This Divine Net was, without question, a top-tier intelligence system.

It was presumably a signature skill that Legend Xiao Shuang had developed by combining the racial traits of the Myriad-Form Stone body.

With the skill in hand, Shi Jin glanced at the mech.

[Teaching Success Rate]: High

"Huh?"

Shi Jin was stunned.

It actually had an overlord's will?

Impressive.

Still, come to think of it — how exactly was the will of a mechanical life form to be judged?

He had never really paid attention to the will level of mechanical life forms before.

Did they all start at the lowest, or did the will level vary according to the grade of the intelligence chip and the initial settings?

Unlike other life forms, which were 'blank' from birth.

Some mechanical life forms were not, in fact, a blank sheet of paper when they came into being.

Most mechanical life forms had certain settings added to them before they were created.

Combat and guardian-type machines, for instance, with the setting 'protect the master.'

Mechanical maids with the setting 'love only the master.'

And research-type machines with the setting 'learn constantly.'

These settings were the equivalent of a mechanical life form's dream — written in by its creator from the very start.

Shi Jin felt that for mechanical life forms whose initial settings could be written in like this, their will level might not be very high, but it probably would not be low either.

After all, a human could casually swap one dream for another, change ideals, and in the end choose to lie flat out of sheer laziness.

But a mechanical life form with a fixed setting would not be weak in that kind of execution — by the same token, its will should not be poor either.

Though it was unrealistic to expect a robot vacuum to suddenly burst out with hidden power, so long as it still had energy and was not damaged, it would not go on strike for no reason; in certain posts, mechanical life forms that held to their duty for decades on end were all too common.

"It may be a combat-type machine, but it is a top-tier intelligence all the same. The question you asked was rather too simple," Legend Xiao Shuang said calmly.

Her words cut short Shi Jin's train of thought.

Shi Jin was briefly taken aback, then smiled. "I was just asking casually, that's all..."

"Ask something useful," Feng Jin said.

"Legend Xiao Shuang is the most promising mechanic of the new generation in the field of mechanics."

"Generally speaking, top-tier intelligence only appears in those research-type machines, but Legend Xiao Shuang managed to successfully upgrade a combat-type machine to top-tier intelligence. That is a one-of-a-kind achievement."

Feng Jin said with feeling, "If you have any questions, hurry up and ask Legend Xiao for more guidance."

Feng Jin did not think he could persuade Shi Jin to contract a mechanical pet beast. Since persuasion was out of the question, he would at least try to keep Shi Jin from taking unnecessary detours.

"Is it very hard for combat-type machines to possess top-tier intelligence?" Shi Jin asked.

Legend Xiao Shuang said, "Very hard, but not impossible. You can think of top-tier intelligence as a transcendent-tier skill."

"Mechanical life forms are really just like other pet beasts. The principle of 'jack of all trades, master of none' applies to them as well."

"After all, a body's capacity is limited. If you focus on developing combat ability, other aspects will be constrained — and the same holds in reverse."

"Then your Black-Winged Demon God..." Shi Jin began.

"Its top-tier intelligence is only used to assist in combat, nothing more."

"My Black-Winged Demon God does have top-tier intelligence, but if you convert that into proficiency with a transcendent-tier skill, it is only at the proficient level — it has not even reached mastery. Its main upgrade path is still the combat direction, so its combat-type transcendent-tier skills upgraded quite smoothly and all reached perfect proficiency."

"So if you really do intend to contract a mechanical life form, my advice is this: whether it is combat, support, or research type, specialize in only one direction when upgrading."

"Take a fighter aircraft, for instance. Its inherent function is to race across the sky; constantly strengthening its flight and combat capabilities is the proper path. A research-type codex, on the other hand, should focus on developing its intelligence rather than expecting it to fight."

"The mechanical life forms of us legendary beastmasters do touch on every aspect, but we are not proficient in all of them — they exist only to support the main ability. After all, the Myriad-Form Stone's decomposition and recombination really does require tremendous computing power to sustain."

Shi Jin nodded.

In the end, it came down to this: a mechanical life form's energy was limited too, and it could not attend to every ability at once.

It was just like Chongxuan's advice back then — specialize in a single transcendent-tier skill, and do not pour too much effort into other skills. The same principle applied.

Shi Jin understood.

Codex — add points!

Combat skills, intelligence skills — just max them all out and be done with it.

"If you're using the Myriad-Form Stone as the core to create mechanical life, then honestly, both combat-type and research-type mechs are viable choices."

"That special decompose-and-reassemble structure lets them handle all sorts of tasks. As for which one you'll major in and which you'll minor in down the road, that comes down to your own ideas."

So said Legend Xiao Shuang.

Since Shi Jin had also made a name for himself in husbandry and archaeology, contracting a research-type mech as an assistant was hardly a bad idea.

"All right. Anything else you want to ask?"

"Yes, yes, yes..."

...

One day later.

The Ancient Capital.

Once the national tournament had well and truly wrapped up, the bulk of Ancient Capital University's delegation made its way back to the Ancient Capital.

There was nothing novel about the award ceremony. Shi Jin might have been champion, but he had coasted through the whole affair, his mind fixed entirely on mechanical pet beasts.

He had, however, copied three useful skills off Legend Xiao Shuang.

They were the top-tier intelligence system skill "Divine Net," a super-rank skill;

the high-rank mechanical fusion skill "Load," which worked much like "Possession" or a "Fusion Talent," a move that merged mech and beastmaster into a single entity;

and "Mechanical Space," a high-rank skill of both the mechanical and spatial attributes.

Mechanical Space was akin to Chongchong's "Spatial Pocket" — it too could carve out an independent space within the body.

The reason Legend Xiao Shuang's Myriad-Form Stone transformed so smoothly, going straight from a Rubik's cube into a mecha, was that all of its other mechanical equipment was stowed inside Mechanical Space.

"Damn it."

"Couldn't Senior 'Yue Nü' have put a little more care into forging equipment?"

Back at Ancient Capital University, Shi Jin heaved a sigh.

The night before, he had tried to awaken the high-grade smart chip among his prizes into a transcendent lifeform.

The result: bam. Failure.

After digging into it, Shi Jin learned that even without any other mechanical materials, awakening a high-grade smart chip purely into a mechanical life chip would still yield a commander-rank species — a top-quality research-type mechanical core.

Which was maddening...

The Awakening Mirror was useless again.

After all, that thing could only awaken the most basic of transcendent species.

In other words, despite having gotten his hands on a high-grade smart chip, he still could not awaken it directly with the Awakening Mirror.