The Mech Touch

Failure was the mother of success. Just because Ves accidentally exploded Peter Seterin's mind did not mean he intended to fail again this time!

The stakes were higher this time. Ves did not care a thing about the life of a former slave turned bad.

Ketis was different! Ves genuinely cared about her life and wellbeing.

So far, Ves learned many lessons from his human experimentations. Many of his captives suffered horribly from his callous spiritual manipulation.

Due to his penchant for limit testing, Ves often tended to pursue extremes, much to the detriment of his unfortunate test subjects.

He did not feel guilty for harming them, distorting them or killing them. To Ves, they were irredeemable pirates who deserved to die. At least this way they at least contributed back to society before they inevitably succ.u.mbed.

His test subjects did not suffer in vain.

Ves gathered a huge amount of research data and discovered many new rules. He possessed a deeper understanding of various spiritual mechanisms.

Most importantly, by constantly exploring and breaking different boundaries, he became much better at judging how much he could get away with. As long as he did not go overboard, the risk of inflicting permanent damage was much less.

All of this research progress made him feel confident enough to proceed with his latest experiment.

Ketis was no test subject though. He treated her as his patient and client. This meant that he did not dare to act recklessly. Rather than exploring new horizons, Ves tried his best to stick to familiar ground.

This was not the time for him to engage in limit testing!

Though Ves had not executed this exact series of steps on someone else, Ves had already performed them in isolation plenty of times for him to feel somewhat confident about the outcome.

The only real uncertainty was that he never performed any spiritual manipulation to this degree on a mech designer. None of the test subjects that fell into his hands were mech designers, let alone Apprentices with notable spiritual potential and nascent design philosophies.

Nonetheless, at this stage, Ketis was not much different from an ordinary person with spiritual potential. Hers was just a bit more developed towards her interests and her design philosophy.

Perhaps the strongest measure of the confidence was the careful experimentations he made in his own mind. After forming various different spiritual augments in order to store as templates in his implant, he was certain that the mind sword would not inflict any harm.

That said, too much power was not necessarily a good thing. Right now, the mind sword was pathetically small and weak, so much so that Ketis barely noticed the difference.

This was why Ves wanted to feed and grow the mind sword. He wanted to accomplish this without harming her existing potential as a mech designer, so he could not draw out more of her spiritual energy than he had already done.

For that reason, he drew out a portion of the life-attributed energy stored in the P-stone placed at the side.

If he was experimenting on a pirate, then Ves wouldn't care too much about controlling the dose of energy. Any outcome was acceptable as long as he didn't squander it recklessly. Causing a few heads to explode was no big deal as long as he learned something different.

This time, Ves did not set out to learn anything new, so he carefully sliced away just a modest portion of high-quality life-attributed energy.

Even though the potency and activity of this diminished portion had dropped significantly, Ves learned enough not to underestimate its threat to people.

While Ves was able to handle it with care, too much energy was basically poison to someone much more spiritually weaker!

This was why Ves estimated a dose that was safe enough for Ketis to contain, and then cut it even further just to be safe.

When he checked to make sure the life-attributed energy he withdrew did not contain any surprises, he turned his attention to his patient.

"If you concentrate deeply, you should be able to sense the presence of a sword in your mind. Can you feel its sharpness?"

"I.. think so?" Ketis scrunched her face. "I sort of felt you rummaging in my mind. If I think hard enough, I think I can grasp an invisible sword."

"Keep sensing it, but don't try to activate it. Just get to know it better."

"This sword.. how is it supposed to help me, exactly?"

"It's mainly a tool to allow you to perform your superpower with greater ease, but aside from that I'm not too sure." Ves shook his head. "Before we begin, I think it is best for you to center your mind and think of your core ideals. Why do you pursue extreme sharpness? Why do you prefer to wield large swords?"

"Because they're the best at cutting powerful enemies. In mech combat, cutting an enemy mech apart with a single successful attack is much more worthwhile than slashing several times with a feebler sword. Bigger swords are not as quick and agile, but as long as you are skilled enough, you can overwhelm any opponent!"

"Not everyone agrees with that premise. In the mech community, there are many mech pilots and mech designers who believe that finesse is more important than power."

Ketis snorted with contempt. "They are mostly used to dueling against humans. None of them have faced off against an exobeast that weighs at least twenty times than their own bodies! If they have went through the Swordmaiden graduation ceremony like I have, they would have been gobbled up at an instant as their toothpicks is barely able to make a feral exobeast bleed!"

That was a very brutal image. The Swordmaiden's preference for bigger swords stemmed from their desire to challenge themselves against inhuman opponents. There were plenty of wild and untamed planets in the frontier that boasted many dangerous predators and beasts.

To challenge them in single combat and chop them apart was one of the greatest glories a Swordmaiden could earn!

Talking about her ideals and her ambition caused her mind to become more intimate with her mind sword. The spiritual augment seemed to resonate with her a bit. This was an important process, because the more she communicated with the mind sword, the closer the imaginary weapon conformed to her nature!

Unlike many of his other constructs, Ves tried something slightly novel and designed the spiritual construct in a way that offered plenty of room for growth. He wanted the mind sword to be able to grow alongside Ketis as she advanced and reached greater heights.

RIght now, Ves planned to kickstart the mind sword's growth by injecting the life-attributed energy into it. This was something very risky and could blow up the spiritual construct if it wasn't capable of absorbing so much juice.

In order to regulate the feeding process and to give him time to stop, he carefully fed just a trickle of life-attributed energy.

Just as he predicted, the mind sword did not reject the energy derived from the serum. It immediately grew in size and strength as it rapidly digested the universally-compatible energy.

"Ah! I feel as if you dumped something hot in my mind!" Ketis suddenly grabbed the side of her head.

"Hold on! Don't lose focus! Endure! I know you can do it, Ketis!"

Her willpower was not that much lower than those of expert candidates! Her capacity to live through pain and hardship was incredibly high due to her Swordmaiden heritage. She resolutely bore the drastic changes in her mind.

Ves couldn't do much to make it easier for her. The mind sword, which was previously just a small and weak construct, rapidly grew in strength! All of its sharpness and sword-related attributes began to proliferate as the energies inside the mind sword rapidly grew in quantity.

If not for the fact that he designed the mind sword to be able to grow, it would have exploded by now! As it was, the stretchiness factor of the mind sword could barely keep up with the rapid absorption of high-quality energy!

Though Ves had not expended all of the life-attributed energy he drew out, he instinctively felt as if he was nearing a safe limit. If he grew the mind sword any further, then its spiritual strength would surpass that of his student's original spiritual potential.

He had no idea what would happen in her mind if that became the case! She might lose control of the mind sword. It might even supplant her original spiritual potential as her main 'spirit', which would likely strip her of much of her humanity!

Since the risks vastly outweighed the benefits, Ves cut off the supply of life-attributed energy and put the remainder back into the life stone.

What he had managed to foster in her mind was already strong enough for his liking! In his spiritual vision, he observed a vibrant, imaginary sword that exuded a lot of sharpness!

The presence of such a powerful mind sword was already starting to affect Ketis. Her spiritual potential seemed to resonate and grow closer to it. A wondrous expression appeared on her face, which signalled that she was already starting to embrace the changes.

The expansion of the mind sword had slowed dramatically when he no longer fed it with nurturing energy. Soon enough, its growth would settle, allowing the spiritual augment to solidity a bit and gain stability.

"It's almost over." He whispered to her. "Your mind sword is settling down. Keep feeling it out. Don't reject it. No matter where you might find yourself in the future, you will never be without a sword. You will always have one in your mind!"

His words inspired her. Her eyes gained an even greater intensity as her spiritual potential roiled with excitement! Her bond with the mind sword that Ves created had become stronger. There was no way she would lose control of it with such an intimate connection!

Seeing the way that Ketis embraced her mind sword with such love and dedication inspired him as well. He developed a small but radical idea on how he could empower the mind sword even further.

At this moment, the mind sword was nothing more than a spiritual construct made from Ketis' own spiritual energy and attributes. Ves managed to create a very sharp spiritual sword from these ingredients that fully conformed to Ketis.

Though Ves already believed that this outcome was a success, he became more and more tempted to add an additional ingredient to the mix.

A normal mind sword was already pretty impressive. What if Ves made it alive?

He immediately recognized the dangers of attempting to make it alive. He had not performed enough experiments in this direction to be able to tell for sure whether his wild idea would succeed.

However, he was too excited to dismiss this idea out of hand!

Intuitively, he felt that this might just work, though that did not mean that everything would go smoothly.

He decided to try it! At this critical moment, once the mind sword fully ceased its growth, it would be too late for him to pull off this measure.

Similar to the formation of new design spirits, Ves began to impart some of his own spiritual energy into the mind sword. He did not dare to inject too much for fear of exceeding what Ketis could bear.

The small seed of life that he injected in the mind sword significantly increased Ketis' discomfort!

"What are you doing?! I feel as if the sword in my mind is going crazy!"

"Focus! Don't lose control! Bear with it. What I just did was to make your mind sword alive."

"What?!"

"Think of what I have been doing to mechs. It's the same for what is happening at this moment! You don't need to think so much. Just keep your mind open and embrace the birth of your mind sword!"

Under his constant guidance, Ketis no longer put up her guard against her mind sword no matter how much it convulsed. Her acceptance and closeness towards it helped the mind sword absorb and integrate the foreign spiritual energy.

If not for her trust and friendship to Ves, she would have never been able to integrate his spiritual energy!

Even so, the process went anything but smoothly. Ves partially regretted moving so quickly ahead of his experiments. Everything that took place now was completely new to him. It was useless to perform this experiment on pirates because they hated him so much that their minds and spirits always rejected his spiritual energy.

Fortunately, his assumptions and theories did not lead him astray. Spiritual energy was intimately intertwined with thoughts and emotions.

With a silent cry, the mind sword had completely integrated the energy that Ves had donated. An exultant wave of emotion spread from Ketis' mind as her mind sword had succeeded in coming to life!

"I can feel her!" Ketis status with wonder! "My sword! She's perfect!"

Ves managed to create his first living spiritual construct!