The human mecha designers and engineers weren't actually bad.

The fact that they actually managed to create military grade two hundred meter tall metal behemoths capable of flexible fighting like a real human being bore testament to that.

It was just that we were a very young race.

We did not have the accumulations of the aliens which had millions of years under their belt, and strings of failures that would beggar a billion earths.

And without failures and time, how would we learn?

And so the aliens did it much better than us in terms of mechas.

Design objectives that we needed three to four big devices to accomplish were accomplished in one tiny device, while layers upon layers of insulation and the sort were discarded and replaced by only a thin layer of cream-like substance, a result of ingenious elemental manipulation that surpassed anything our smartest and craziest minds could imagine.

Massive amounts of space were freed and made available to store other much more critical parts - firepower.

That serpentine mecha's power was approximately equivalent to a standard white mecha. But with such incredible tech, I suspected that in the alien's military line up, it was but a cannon fodder.

That thought actually sent chills down my spine.

We weren't alone in the universe, and those with whom we shared the universe were millions of years ahead of us in terms of technology and strength.

We needed to increase our strength, and fast! Our mecha grades had to rise exponentially in strength in order to be able to survive the eventual confrontation we would have with the aliens.

And at that moment, I was humanity's only hope. I needed to steal their tech, and just like the sea civilisations, leapfrog thousands, even millions of years of experimentation to reach tech maturity within decades.

The road was extremely long, but every journey of a thousand miles started with a single step, and I had just taken it.

The serpentine mecha I absorbed was probably an ancient alien relic, judging by the state of disuse and rust that covered every part of it.

However, old rusted junks do not have a place in dragon treasure troves. I knew that there was something special about the old serpentine mecha, and I wasted no time studying its design in minute detail to determine exactly what its X factor was.

Due to the huge amount of wondrous technology that was contained within the serpentine mecha, it was not readily apparent to me which one of them was the X factor.

All of them looked really epic to me!

I decided to go through them one by one, and ponder upon them and their massive implications.

However, the simple act of overviewing all the available tech and breakthroughs already took several hours. If I were to do a complete analysis, it would probably take days!

I opened my eyes and glanced at Bruce Pang who was meditating next to the still unconscious Ancestor.

All seemed peaceful.

"I probably have time. The Americans and Europeans would probably take more than a few days to scour the entire ocean. Might as well start now. It would be good for me to be fully ready to make full use of these tech breakthroughs as soon as Devour wakes up." I thought before I sunk my mind into the wondrous process of combining alien design principles with human ones.

Without realizing it, time passed very quickly once more.

The hours turned into a day.

And one day turned into three.

Apart from doing the bare physical necessities, I was completely focused on the study of new alien tech.

You might wonder just how much could be accomplished by studying for only three days. But you would be surprised.

A Eureka! Moment only needed a few seconds of enlightenment and realization.

I got like a thousand of those within the first few hours.

The next few days were spent studying the "answer sheet" in the form of the serpentine mecha and then re-engineering the white mecha designs I had in my mind.

Why stick with the white mecha designs that I already had and not recreating new ones from scratch?

Well for one, I had no access to alien raw materials, so I would not be able to create mecha army if I recreated a brand new design using purely alien design principles and tech.

Secondly, although human beings were far behind in terms of tech, our lack of ability actually forced us to be creative in other ways. There are still several things that we did better than the aliens.

Little things, true, but these are little advantages that we would have over the aliens, and I wanted to maximise them.

And finally, I am a human being, for god's sake. I would be damned if I only used their tech and none of ours!

After three days, the barebones re-design and re-engineering of Black Prince was completed.

Let us call that design, Black Serpent Prince.

My Black Serpent Prince was a true beauty.

It retained its humanoid form and its original look of hyper coolness.

However, in terms of its deadliness, I could safely say that if I were to meet with the ugly as hell Horse Gavarel Leader once more, I would be able to kill it within seconds.

historical

Screw fighting skills.

Screw experience.

The shocking power and utility that my Black Serpent Prince was able to bring forth would trap it within one simple move and then kill it with the next!

My armor, which was already near the peak of white mecha strength, easily exceeded the maximum limit and entered Golden Mecha level.

In terms of energy output, conversion, manipulation, storage and movement, I was also probably at the very cusp of Golden Mecha level.

Yes. I understand that golden mechas are a thousand times stronger than white mechas.

I was truly very, very close to that level.

However, it was in terms of utility which I truly excelled at that moment.

The first utility was shapeshifting.