The Mech Touch

His earlier experiments drained so much out of him that he quickly went to bed and slept for twelve hours straight. He only recovered his spirit the next day.

Ves was relieved he returned to normal after a long period of sleep. "If this is the price I have to pay to perform those techniques, then it's definitely a bargain!"

The only concern he held was that he only worked with some minor relics yesterday. If he wanted to do the same to a more valuable relic, then he might need to sleep for an entire week before he recovered from the ordeal!

"It's worth it as long as I can recover in the end."

What he gained out of this process far surpassed the price he needed to pay. Much of it was due to his strong Spirituality!

Although he already got rid the relics, he still remembered the sensations. The commemorative medallion particularly caught his eye. After all of the transformation, its strengthened original sentiment met the threshold for him to turn it into a spiritual fragment.

It was too bad that Ves had no use of such a spiritual fragment. The Grey Martyr was not a warlike person, so it was a bad idea to incorporate his spiritual fragment into any mech design geared towards battle.

Perhaps Ves would have a use for it if he wanted to design a display mech, an industrial mech or an agricultural mech. He didn't have the time to divert his attention right now, so he could only let it go.

During the entire morning, Ves summarized his results. He developed so many new techniques all of a sudden that he felt the need to introduce some structure.

As far as he knew, he developed six applications of Spirituality that had the potential to become his staple tools in his toolbox.

His Spiritual Senses formed the root of what he could do with his Spirituality. Without being able to sense, feel and observe what he was doing with his own Spirituality, he could never perform his other techniques! Possessing this ability provided him with a critical advantage that put him far ahead in this esoteric field!

Another ability he developed early on was his Spiritual Projection technique. To project his spiritual energy in the form of tentacles or some other shape allowed him to interact with other spiritual entities. Being able to extend his Spirituality and use it as a spiritual limb enabled him to act proactively rather than remain as an observer!

A more recent but vitally-important ability was his Spiritual Empowerment technique. Using his imagination to create an image only resulted in something hollow and lifeless. By infusing it with a spiritual fragment or his own spiritual energy, he was able to breathe life into an image, turning it from a figment of his imagination into something more substantial!

His Spiritual Empowerment technique was the key to imparting his mech designs with a stronger X-Factor!

The stronger he empowered his images, the higher the grade of X-Factor!

His next ability was his Spiritual Exploration technique. By sending his spirit out of his mind, he was able to dive into imaginary realm and explore the wonders contained within.

While the imaginary realm was largely empty and surrounded by a corrosive mist, Ves knew there might be a lot more dangers and treasures lurking within. Right now, the risks were too great for him to blindly stumble around in the imaginary realm, so he set it aside unless he needed to steal a spiritual fragment from someone.

His most uncertain technique was his ability to emulate an expert pilot's force of will. It didn't match the potency of the real thing, and Ves wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to perform this technique in the first place.

"I'm a mech designer, not a mech pilot."

This left him with his two newest abilities.

The first was what he called his Spiritual Imprint Manipulation technique. It encompassed a collection of methods to manipulate spiritual imprints. Whether it belonged to himself or someone else, as long as he possessed the required amount of strength and control, he was able to erase a spiritual imprint or foster its growth.

The latter was only possible if he employed another technique at the same time. His newly-developed Spiritual Masking technique allowed him to don a spiritual disguise that could fool other spiritual entities.

While his flawed disguises wouldn't fool anything alive and intelligent, they were more than sufficient for him to fool a spiritual imprint that belonged to someone who was already dead for several centuries!

All of these techniques formed the tools he developed to accomplish his goals. They were so distinctive from his Skills and Sub-Skills related to mech design that they deserved to be placed in their own special spiritual toolbox!

The significance of forming this spiritual toolbox was very evident. For the first time since he adopted his design philosophy, he finally developed a basic but complete collection of all the tools he required to exploit his abstruse specialty!

A supreme sense of satisfaction overcame his mind and spirit, revitalizing them both. Even his design seed pulsed with pleasure!

"To a creator, there is nothing more valuable than owning a complete set of tools!"

If Ves ever documented his achievements in a textbook and released it to the public, it would definitely become a seminal work in the entire mech industry! In fact, it would not only open the eyes of mech designers, but also mech pilots and everyone else!

Of course, he would never do something so stupid!

"For now, I'll have to keep the gains to myself. There's no benefit for me to divulge my techniques."

At some point in time, that might change. Once he climbed up the ranks and gained the power and status to protect himself, he didn't mind giving back to the mech industry, especially if he stood to gain a lot of rewards in return.

"That won't happen for a very long time, I think."

He would probably have to advance to Master Mech Designer or Star Designer before he reached that point.

"What are you so glad about?" Ketis asked as she was petting a disgruntled Lucky.

The cat immediately left his owner's side after he was forced to eat the medallion.

"I've made some progress in my specialty." He answered honestly. He didn't want to cover up his satisfaction. "I've made a lot of breakthroughs that should help me design better mechs."

"What was your specialty again?"

"Metaphysical Man-Machine Symbiosis."

As expected, Ketis looked utterly befuddled. "Do I even want to ask any further?"

"Not everyone's specialty is simple." Ves explained. "It's also something private to us, so you should take care of how much you reveal to others. Not only will you give away the essence of your competitive advantage, but you'll also be harming those who aren't mature enough to learn your secrets."

She accepted the explanation. Ves had already warned her of the consequences of getting in touch with dangerous knowledge that posed a threat to her design philosophy.

"So are you confident you can do a good job now?"

He nodded. "I'm sure now that I can design a fantastic mech that can equal the Aurora Titan!"

"That would be very impressive!" She gasped.

Ketis probably had the mistaken impression that Ves didn't think he could equal the Aurora Titan because he didn't collaborate with a Senior this time. Ves didn't spare any effort to correct her misconception. The less she knew, the lower the risk of exposure.

What Ves was planning to do was going to be extremely dangerous. However, as long as he managed to pull it off, his mech design would definitely be able to astound the Ylvainans!

After he finished his breakfast and his morning routine, he called for Leon. He was often present at the guest compound in order to liaison for Madame Cecily.

"You called, Mr. Larkinson?"

"Yes." Ves calmly nodded. "I'm performing some research on Ylvainan culture right now. One thing I've noticed from our unfortunate visit to the grand church is that your people highly values relics. Why is that so?"

Leon bitterly smiled. "They are remnants of the pivotal figures of the Ylvainan Faith who have left us too early. We value their contributions and sacrifices. While most of the objects on display in the church aren't that impressive to a secularist like you, we Ylvainans believe that these relics allow us to connect to the great figures of our faith."

"I've never heard of that before."

"It's not exactly standard doctrine. It's more of a hopeful aspiration than anything else. The Attendants of Ylvaine are rather mixed on this issue because Prophet Ylvaine never said much about it. Most believers don't think that much, though. As long as they are presented with a genuine relic of the prophet or one of his Martyred Followers, they are bound to pay their respects!"

"Kesseling VIII doesn't seem to host a lot of valuable relics." Ves remarked as he tried to steer the conversation into a particular direction.

"That's true. The Kesseling System isn't as strategic as some of the other star systems in the Protectorate. The Attendants of Ylvaine don't think it's worth it to invest a lot of relics here. The most significant relics are barely worth a glance if placed in the capital system of the Protectorate."

"Oh? Can you describe the most important one?"

"Sure. As you know, relics that are associated with Prophet Ylvaine are the most important to us by far. We are lucky that we have collected a lot objects that the prophet once came in touch with, but most of it is locked away by the Attendants of Ylvaine. What little they put on display are rather meager."

"There's a relic of the prophet himself on display on this planet?"

"Yeah. As far as I know, there is a discarded nutrient pack wrapper on display at the grand cathedral!"

"A.. nutrient pack wrapper?"

Ves was distinctly unimpressed. Of all the objects that the Attendants of Ylvaine could put on display, they chose to enshrine literal trash?!

He already came in touch with discarded nutrient pack wrappers that belonged to the Grey Martyr, but they weren't very prominent!

Leon shrugged. "I know it sounds weird that the most important relic on our planet is a nutrient pack wrapper. However, it's better than nothing. The Poxco Dynasty don't want to expose anything more valuable, especially since our planet isn't all that important. Even if the relic isn't very impressive, practically every Ylvainan born on this planet has paid a visit to the grand cathedral in order to pay tribute to the nutrient pack wrapper! It is the closest that any local Ylvainan can get to our prophet!"

Ves perked up when he heard that. Even though he looked down on some torn packaging of a disposable meal, the fact that the prophet once ate its content was enough for the local Ylvainans to deify it! Regardless of whether it was trash, the spiritual accumulation it gathered over the centuries must have grown incredibly formidable!

He bet that the quantity of spiritual accumulation would definitely surpass that of the Grey Martyr's commemorative medallion by at least an order of magnitude!

Ves quickly switched the topic to more mundane matters such as readying the mech workshop for his use. However, he never let go of thinking about the prophet's nutrient pack wrapper in his mind.

If he could steal the nutrient pack wrapper and process its spiritual accumulation, he might be able to extract a powerful spiritual fragment that possessed an undeniable connection to Prophet Ylvaine!

The things he could do with such a holy spiritual fragment! The Ylvainans probably never came in touch with something like this before! As long as he incorporated it in his upcoming hero mech design, which Ylvainan wouldn't drop to their knees and worship his mechs?

It was brilliant!