The Mech Touch

Ves spent the first fifteen minutes reflecting back on his design philosophy and how it played out with his latest design project.

He contemplated how well the Aurora Titan design embodied the principles and aspirations of his design philosophy. Not only did the audience perceive something special about the show models, but Jannzi's abrupt advancement served as the strongest example yet that all of his beliefs concerning the relationship between a mech and mech pilot was beneficial to them both!

"The key to my design philosophy is symbiosis." Ves described to himself. Only Lucky heard his words, but he was just a cat. "Mechs are inseparable without mech pilots. Not any mech pilot is suitable to pilot a mech. Not every mech is suitable to be piloted by every mech pilot. Only when the two are combined will they both be able to synergize their strengths!"

The mech provided the fighting capabilities while the mech pilot served as the controller. That was the conventional viewpoint on their pairing.

Ves believed in a slightly different relationship. The man-machine connection could be much more than a way to put a human mind in charge of a giant war machine!

"If the mech pilot trusts their mech, why not let it play a role in the decision-making as well?"

Rather than puppeting a mech like it was a lifeless shell, Ves instead wanted to see mech pilots treating their mechs as living partners. Jannzi's analogy of equation her relationship with her mech like Ves enjoyed with Lucky sounded somewhat apt.

Although Ves exerted far less control over Lucky than he liked, the point was that he did not try to control Lucky as if he was a simple mechanical pet. His gem cat was much more than that!

Basically, everything that happened to Jannzi today conformed to his design philosophy. Jannzi's deep bond with her mech and the gift its design spirit granted to her showed that this relationship was not empty talk! It could lead to very real benefits for both the mech and mech pilot!

"It's important that this relationship is beneficially mutual! The gains won't be as much if one is trying to exploit the other!"

Ves resigned himself to the fact that abusive mech pilots existed. Some of them were not right in the head or behaved excessively carelessly. They wouldn't be able to take good care of their mechs, even if they piloted an expensive machine like the Aurora Titan.

In these cases, the mech pilot should never be able to develop a closer bond with their mechs. If the mech pilot only regarded their mechs as tools to be used, then they shouldn't be surprised if their mechs rejected their presence!

"Most mechs are designed without an eye to their intrinsic value. Mine are different. My mechs are alive! If not in body then in spirit!"

As long as both his mechs and their mech pilots regarded each other as equal partners, then true symbiosis could be achieved!

The boundary between the mech and mech pilot would be blurred whenever they established a man-machine connection. The control exerted by the mech pilot gained a substantial boost! The spiritual impulses of the mech would assist the mech pilot in making the best decisions in the heat of the moment!

All of these changes were very real improvements that took place when Jannzi developed a deeper bond with the Shield of Samar!

"What happened with Jannzi is no exception! Not if I have anything to say about it! My design philosophy is all about bringing out the best of both the mechs and mech pilots!"

Ves envisioned a possible future where the LMC became a dominant mech company in the Bright Republic. It might happen twenty, thirty or even fifty years from now, but there would come a time where his company and his mechs obtained a huge amount of market share in the domestic mech market!

Many mech pilots who piloted his designs achieved greater success! While the specs of his mechs may not be at the top, their ability to bring out the most of their mech pilots almost always led to better results in battle!

Such a grand future where the Living Mech Corporation truly lived up to its company name and its motto send Ves into an ecstatic mood!

"A single state is not the end! The entire star sector will come to know what my products bring to the table as well, and perhaps the rest of the galaxy will follow suit as well!"

This fantasy invigorated his mind, his mood and his design philosophy. Ves was so caught up in this future vision that his entire body and spirit seemed aligned in a single, central desire to see his design philosophy come to fruition!

An explosion occurred in his mind at that moment.

The insubstantial mass of spiritual energy that formed his nascent design philosophy began to collapse on itself! Ves noted with wonder as he sensed the loose spiritual energy begin to compact into a single point!

"It's compressing itself!"

This process took place over several minutes, during which Ves began to feel some mental strain as his mind drew upon every single bit of spiritual energy in his mind! Not only his design philosophy was being absorbed, but also some other errant spiritual thoughts!

"This is bad!"

Ves realized what was happening. The process of compacting his design philosophy would transform it into a smaller and more concentrated form. This was likely what Journeymen relied on to give them some advantages in their design work.

"The problem is that it's not related to mech design! All kinds of crap is being shoved inside this seed as well!"

He perceived the compacting process as a crystallization process which took loose spiritual energy and compressed it to an unimaginable degree until only a small crystal seed of fixed spiritual energy was left.

The core of what Ves started to call the design seed consisted of his design philosophy. Yet large portions of it consisted of elements not entirely related to it! His thoughts, his habits, his perspective on life and all kinds of other crap was about to become a part of his design seed as well, which essentially meant those elements became permanent traits to his personality!

This must be what made high-ranking mech designers so eccentric! Because their design seeds absorbed all kinds of random thoughts and impulses during their advancement processes, they became stuck with their personality traits for the rest of their lives!

Ves tried to control the elements that his design seed absorbed. He wasn't very effective at it. His design seed was like a voracious black hole and the entirety of his mind fell within its event horizon! There was no way the mental force he could exert over his spiritual energy could resist the overwhelming pull of his design seed!

"The process proceeded rather chaotically as well. His design seed was like an intoxicated eater at a buffet. The attraction force it exerted was very uneven and often changed directions. This basically meant it was only absorbing some spiritual elements in his mind while leaving others alone!

No matter what Ves tried to do, his influence on the absorption process was minimal. Only until his design seed absorbed a good portion of the loose spiritual energy in his mind did it finally have its fill!

Ves felt a weary ache in his mind. Although the process hadn't been as painful or as straining to his mind than he expected, he definitely felt exhausted!

Yet when Ves tentatively studied the result, he immediately became happy as he mentally observed the spiritual crystal resting in the deepest part of his mind.

"It's beautiful!"

The design seed was a remarkable spiritual object that Ves felt intricately connected to. It was different from a spiritual fragment in that it was a lot more compressed and solid. Ves wasn't sure of the significance of this form, but he could explore the differences later.

It immediately became apparent that his design seed was a far stronger spiritual object than the loose ball of spiritual energy that used to be his nascent design philosophy.

Ves understood now why Apprentices were so susceptible to outside influences. "Their design philosophy is fluid. Their lack of fixed form means that it is too easily to shape them into something else!"

Yet now that his design philosophy had crystallized into a design seed, Ves no longer had to worry about losing his way! He would always be able to depend on his design seed to stand firm against other powerful influences!

A second property about his design seed stood out as well. It seemed to be intimately connected to Ves. Despite the lack of any channels connecting his design seed to the rest of his mind, Ves somehow perceived that his design seed and his consciousness were one and the same!

Ves speculated that all of the random spiritual elements his design seed absorbed from his mind left an incomparably strong personal imprint on it! It would be very hard to steal his design seed from his mental space!

"Hard, but not impossible." He muttered.

He sensed that his grip over his design seed was only as strong as his Spirituality.

Aside from these observations, Ves also determined a third property about his design seed. It seemed to generate and emanate faint spiritual waves from its crystal body. These spiritual waves were very weak, but they reached a huge distance!

Ves scratched his head. He didn't see the significance of this phenomenon yet. He only perceived that this process was self-sustaining as his design seed did not seem to grow any weaker.

In fact, when Ves looked into his design seed further, he somehow perceived that it was absorbing a minute amount of spiritual energy directly from the imaginary realm!

That was quite convenient! His design seed didn't absorb his own spiritual energy anymore so Ves would not have to worry about its upkeep.

Overall, Ves had become endlessly fascinated by the transformation of design philosophy. It was a radically different process from the apotheosis that mech pilots underwent upon becoming expert pilots.

"Mech pilots are predominantly focused outwards, while mech designers are mostly focused inwards!"

A fixed crystallized design seed could not be employed like the force of will of expert pilots. The latter could take on various shapes and could be spread outwards from their minds like empowered fog.

A design seed could not be flexed in this matter. In fact, it couldn't change its shape at all! It was like a shiny rock resting in the center of his mind.

"Ves decided to forestall any further speculation and emerge from the locked room. He ordered lucky to deactivate his ECM before departing from the room as an entirely new man!

When he wearily dragged his body over to Professor Ventag, the older man studied Ves with a critical expression.

"You look a bit less exhausted than I thought. Most newly-advanced Journeymen would get knocked out at the end of the process. I'm surprised you even managed to stay conscious!"

"I have a very abnormal physique. It takes a lot more to put me out cold!" Ves chuckled as he rattled off this excuse. "So what's your verdict, professor? Have I become a Journeyman?"

"Let me touch you for a moment."

"Sure."

As the professor placed his hand on Ves' palm, a small spiritual clash occurred.

Ves felt as if his newly-crystallized design seed bumped into a much larger solid object!

The professor drew back his hand with mild surprise. "Seniors have a way of telling whether you're a Journeymen or not. As far as I'm aware of, you've definitely advanced!"

Jubilation marked Ves' face as he heard the verdict. The amazing transformation that took place in his mind didn't leave him with any doubt, but it was reassuring to receive confirmation!

After several years of toiling away as an Apprentice, Ves had finally taken his first real step towards greater prominence! He had graduated from a kid into an adult in the mech industry!

Ves and Professor Ventag decided to make use of his advancement as a public relations coup! The timing of it was simply too fortunate!

That day, an explosive piece of news erupted on all the news portals!

Not only had Jannzi Larkinson advanced into an expert candidate, but Ves Larkinson, the cousin who designed the mech she piloted during her transformation, advanced to Journeyman Mech Designer as well!

The official statement published by the LMC carefully included a caveat. Right now, Ves could only be regarded as a de facto Journeyman. He needed to obtain official recognition from the MTA in order to be treated as an actual Journeyman.

Nonetheless, this did not detract too much from the explosive events. With Professor Corus Ventag personally testifying that Ves had advanced, few doubted the truth!

The remarkable mech that caused both Larkinsons to transform their lives immediately received much greater scrutiny in the media.

This was the mech that created both an expert candidate and a Journeyman!