The Mech Touch

Sending off Melkor and the first rotation of Avatars and Sentinels to war only served as a small diversion.

Ves, Ketis and Gloriana quickly turned back to work and began to shape the Prideful Soldier in rapid tempo.

After picking out the appropriate parts, they quickly substituted them into the design and began to mesh them together as best as possible. Because of the similarity of parts, this did not require too much effort.

The only problem was that a lot of tiny tweaks still had to be done because the reduced parameters of so many parts had fundamentally altered the balance of the design.

After roughly a week, the small design team finished making most of the major alterations.

"The design is 95 percent finished." Ves nodded in satisfaction. "It's the remaining 4 percent that's a bit difficult. The Prideful Soldier is already a decent mech, but we need to perform more simulations and testing in order to optimize its design."

Ketis furrowed her brows. "That only comes up to 99 percent in the end. What about the last percent?"

Ves smiled mysteriously at her. "The final percent is the final touch which I'll add at the end. I already have that covered, so you don't have to be concerned about that part."

After a bit of discussion, they decided to let Ketis manage the simulation and prototype testing phases. It would occupy her for a couple of weeks and allow her to be in charge for a while.

Of course, she still needed to check in with Ves to make any serious alterations to the design in response to the results she gained.

Though Ketis was still rather young and inexperienced, Ves believed she was competent enough to manage these phases by herself.

Off-loading the work to Ketis allowed Ves and Gloriana to move on to the Militant Soldier project and Peaceful Soldier project without any excessive delays.

"What do you think, Gloriana?" Ves asked.

His girlfriend eyed their four interns with a speculative expression. "We need more manpower. While I enjoy nurturing these four kids, they're not exactly useful at their current stage. We need real professionals with degrees in mech design to help us manage all of these projects. Having Ketis here is already a huge help to us. Think of how we can increase our productivity if we have ten of her around!"

Ves sighed. "You're right, but it���s harder than it sounds to recruit mech designers. There are so many employment opportunities out there that working for me is hardly anyone's first choice."

If he wanted to, he could probably recruit some bottom-tier mech designers who were starving on the streets. Yet what good would that do? These failed mech designers were either too incompetent to be trusted with even the most unimportant tasks, or too untrustworthy that no employer dared to hire them. Adding them to his design team would do more harm than good.

Right now, the mech industry was undergoing a major upheaval. Plenty of mech designers already fled the Bright Republic. Many already found jobs elsewhere or accepted one of the many job offers from prestigious employers such as Seniors or the Mech Corps.

Working for a Journeyman was ordinarily a decent option to low-ranking mech designers, but Ves was still too young and erratic to be seen as an attractive employer.

Even if his Desolate Soldiers sold extremely well at the moment, it might have just been a fluke. His current success did not guarantee future success, which was something very important to many low-ranking mech designers looking for a tall tree to shelter under.

"You need to expand your recruiting efforts." Gloriana advised him. "You don't have to do everything yourself. Just tell your managers to set up a recruiting operation that is dedicated to scouting universities and job markets for mech designers that meet your requirements."

"You're right." Ves sighed. "I should have thought of that myself. I'll send a message to Calsie right away. Even if it's a little too late at this stage, it's better than nothing. We really need some extra hands to handle all of our future work."

As Ves composed a brief message to Calsie, he recalled the time he held a guest lecture at Rawlings University in the Sentinel Kingdom.

In normal circumstances, the students who signed preliminary employment contracts with him should have been on the way to the LMC after some time.

Unfortunately, the sandman invasion disrupted everything. The Sentinel Kingdom was still a fair distance away from the border to the frontier, so the powerful state had little to fear from the sandmen.

Which Sentinel mech designer would be crazy enough to leave their safe harbor and go travel to a state directly under threat by the sandmen?

Ves had already received notifications that the mech design students he recruited at Rawlings had broken their contracts. They would rather pay the penalty and stay home at Sentinel than brave the dangers of working in a sandman-infested state!

He did not blame them for their choices. Not every mech designer was like him who didn't mind a little excitement every now and then.

The only surprising part was that Mayer Torto hadn't torn up his contract yet. Apparently, he was still committed to work for the LMC when he graduated.

"Will he truly stay?" Ves frowned.

Maybe Mayer believed he could still gain the most under his tutelage than working for someone else.

"Well, I won't let him regret his choice."

Talents like Mayer Torto were not that easy to get a hold of. Every institution that taught mech design was filled with scouts and recruiters who kept their eyes on promising future mech designers.

In addition, ambitious mech designers rarely sat still and waited for offers to come to them. Oftentimes, they proactively applied for internships in prestigious mech companies, hoping to transition their temporary jobs into permanent jobs.

The LMC was still too new and volatile to attract any serious consideration from mech design students.

"No matter." He muttered. "The LMC can slowly build up their recruitment capabilities."

If Ves wanted to get his design teams up to speed, then he needed at least two teams with ten mech designers each. They didn't have to be particularly smart or talented. As long as they possessed a strong grasp on the fundamentals, Ves could teach them the necessary knowledge to allow them to perform their tasks.

Before the pair of Journeymen tackled their next projects, Ves finally received the message he had been waiting for. He tapped Gloriana's shoulder.

"Let's head to the infirmary. William has finally recovered from his treatment."

"He's awake? That's great! We can finally complete his custom mech!"

The two walked to the infirmary and entered William's room.

The Urbesh clansman looked awake and alert. His back was straight as he sat rigidly on his bed.

His intense eyes glared at Ves with silent resentment.

Ves smiled. "You dare?"

William didn't respond immediately. Instead, he glowered at Ves as if he wanted to do nothing than skewer this mech designer that had put him through so much torture!

"Good." Ves nodded in satisfaction. He paid no attention to William's grievances towards him! "I like the way you look. It doesn't matter what you think of me. As long as you can think aggressively, you're light-years ahead of your old self!"

William didn't respond. In fact, Ves found it rather unnerving that William kept staring at him like a bug to be squashed.

How much of Nyxie's influence had warped William's mentality? Ves had a sneaking suspicion that the ancient alien spiritual entity had contaminated William's mind a bit more severely than he planned!

"Can you even talk?"

"Yes." William finally said with a hoarse voice.

Even though he finally opened his mouth, William somehow appeared even more unsettling!

There was something very wrong with the mech pilot!

Nonetheless, Ves did his best to repress his latent fear and suspicion. Right now, William showed a remarkable amount of courage. This was not something which Ves wanted to lose.

As long as William was not a coward, nothing else mattered!

Ves waved his hand. "Gloriana, I think it's best if your bodyguards take him back to the lab. Go perform your examinations and such. We'll finalize William's custom mech after we understand his new condition. Is that alright?"

"Mmhmm." Gloriana wordlessly nodded while studying William with an analytical expression.

As someone who specialized in matching mech pilots to mechs, she was very observant when it came to people. She immediately recognized that William possessed a radically different demeanor after recovering from his strange treatment.

Whatever Ves did to William, her boyfriend succeeded in altering the Urbesh clansman's personality!

The only worry they both held was the repercussions of the treatment. How many side effects had occurred? How much damage did William sustain? Gloriana was determined to answer these questions.

As Gloriana and her bodyguard guided the taciturn William out of the infirmary, Ves lingered behind as he processed what he sensed with his spiritual senses.

From what he perceived, William's spiritual potential had achieved a new state of balance. His spirituality managed to tentatively integrate the foreign spiritual attributes left over from Nyxie's failed attempt to take over his mind.

A profound mental and spiritual transformation had taken place. In fact, William's mentality was still in flux. It might take weeks or months for William's personality to settle down!

Ves welcomed the change. Anything was better than the old William. As for the many deficiencies and side effects that ensued as a result of his spiritual treatment, that wasn't his problem!

"William should be glad to gain the opportunity to advance! Don't you think so, Lucky?"

His cat lazily clung to his shoulder.

"Meow."

Ves affectionately patted Lucky on the head. "

Both Ves and Gloriana diverted a few days to work on completing William's custom mech. The Desolate Soldier had gone through major alterations. Though it still used the same parts, Ves found it astounding to how much it diverged from the base model.

A true custom mech designed for a single mech pilot always ended up as an intrinsically-unique iteration. A mech model that served the masses featured so many compromises that not a single mech pilot would ever be able to achieve a perfect fit with such a machine.

While Gloriana preoccupied with studying William's new condition and tweaking the design of their custom mech in response, Ves largely devoted his attention to the spiritual component.

For the new William, the standard X-Factor of the Desolate Soldier was too unsuitable. His mass market product centered heavily around the concept of duty.

Right now, William didn't appear to be the type of person who would sacrifice his life to do his duty.

Instead, according to the personality tests that Gloriana had conducted, William had become a bit more aggressive and assertive. Combined with his old traits such as self-centeredness and egotism, the new William was anything but altruistic!

"I'll have to do something similar to the Prideful Soldier, then." Ves concluded.

He came up with an altered concept and also settled for a fitting name for William's custom mech.

"What do you think about calling our custom mech the Resentful Soldier?" Ves suggested to Gloriana.

"That doesn't sound very pleasant, Ves."

"It fits, though. I've tweaked the spiritual component of the Resentful Soldier by mixing the spiritual component it inherited from the Desolate Soldier with an extra flavor. It feels a lot more.. resentful."

The addition of Nyxie's semi-purified mote of spirituality gave the Resentful Soldier a very different character. Its duty-oriented aura and X-Factor had been heavily warped by this deceptively small influence.

Duty had warped into purpose! Anything that hinted at responsibility had disappeared, and in its place was a kind of anger and selfishness that made it abundantly clear that the Resentful Soldier did not fight on behalf of others.

The Resentful Soldier purely fought on behalf of itself!

"What a huge change." Gloriana remarked when they finalized their design. "I can feel how different it is from the base model."

Ves smiled in satisfaction. "You can do a lot with a couple of minor changes. I think this is sufficient. Shall we go and fabricate this mech?"

Gloriana instantly perked up. "I've waited too long for this moment! Let's see how close we can get to fabricating a Masterwork mech! With all the work we've put into the Resentful Soldier design, I refuse to accept a sub-standard outcome!"