The Mech Touch

Three days wasn't enough to fix every mech.

Even if he stopped going to bed and jacked himself up with stimulants, it was impossible for Ves to complete all of the tasks within 72 hours!

"In fact, I still won't be able to finish all of the repairs within a week!"

A lot of repair tasks were so extensive that the procedure was no different from fabricating a new mech from scratch!

"That's only in case I want to restore my dueling mechs to their peak condition."

If he lowered his standards, then he could do a serviceable job in just a fraction of the time. He just needed to make sure that his sloppy rush jobs didn't fall apart when put to the test.

This was still a great test for any mech designer. They had to employ great planning, judgement and other necessary skills. A mech designer would never be able to achieve success in the mech market if they weren't capable of working efficiently.

This happened to be one of the qualities that Ves thought he was good at. He had plenty of practice in rushing projects and he knew his way around a mech workshop.

"Of course, Dr. Navarro isn't a slouch in this aspect either."

Biomechs possessed an inherent advantage in this area. From what Ves had learned, it was a lot more complicated to repair major injuries such as amputated limbs, but it was very trivial to repair lots of minor damage!

"Dr. Navarro just has to chuck his biomechs into specially-prepared feeder pools and let the organic machines do the work themselves!"

The fact that this was possible placed a heavy burden on his shoulders. If Ves dueled against conventional mech designer, then he didn't have to try so hard to accelerate his progress at this stage.

"Well, I already knew this when I accepted the design duel. I can only live with this handicap." He muttered.

"Meow." Lucky disinterestedly replied as he curled up on a nearby table.

Ves no longer tarried. He had already spent enough time going over the battle damage and surface scan results to form a basic plan.

First, he decided to split his mechs into two groups.

The other group was made up of mechs that were not worth a lot of investment. While Ves intended to perform a few quick and impactful repairs, he had no illusions that they'd be able to fight anywhere close to their previous level in their upcoming matches!

"I still have a chance of winning, though. I just have to ensure that the piloting experience is still pleasant enough to woo the mech pilots." He consoled himself.

Choosing which ones he should put on a lower priority was painful to Ves. All five mechs possessed their own merits. Each of them had qualities that made it worth it for them to be employed in the defense of his clan.

Still. Not every machine was suitable to fight in a dueling environment. Ves turned his eyes towards the defense-oriented Bright Warrior and the Valkyrie Redeemer.

The former not only lost its tower shield, but also incurred heavy damage to its frame. It took at least several days to replace all of the damaged frontal armor plating, and that was just for a single mech!

"It's a waste of time to go through all of that effort." He muttered.

He could probably restore at least fifty percent of the knight mech configuration of the Bright Warrior by hastily slapping some standardized plates onto the frame. Even if they didn't fit all that well, they would still be able to do their jobs to a degree!

At least it wouldn't be as troublesome to fabricate a new tower shield. Ves just had to program a production machine and feed the necessary materials to it. As long as he simplified the design of the shield, he didn't need to supervise the process in turn.

He also had to replace the critical components that got cut when a sword stabbed deep into the internals of the knight mech. Even if Ves skipped every redundant broken part and only focused on restoring the most essential components, it would still take a few hours to complete this job at minimum!

"This will definitely be one of the ugliest rush jobs of my career." He helplessly shook his head.

He briefly glanced at the Valkyrie Redeemer which got savaged by the Frokyn after it suddenly produced a lot of hair. Ves still couldn't wrap his head around the odd transformation. What kind of mech designer would come up with such an absurd idea?

"Well, stupid or not, it worked. I guess that is enough of a justification to ignore how creepy it looks."

Ves didn't have much hope for the Valkyrie Redeemer in the next phase. It was a powerful mech when utilized in the context of a larger unit, but by itself it was not the best!

The damage to its frame was very extensive. The hair that grabbed and pressed onto the frame had led to a lot of dispersed damage to its armor system. It was like an egg-shell that was already cracked across its entire surface.

While Ves could still spend some time to fill up the cracks, this was merely a stopgap solution that would only allow the Valkyrie Redeemer to survive a few more minutes on the dueling ring.

"I also have to fix up the worst of all of the axe attacks."

The Frokyn not only chopped off one of the Valkyrie Redeemer's arms, but also tore apart large sections of the front!

"Well, the arm can be fixed, but with so little time at my disposal, it'll be ugly."

To call the limb that he had in mind an arm was a travesty. It would be nothing more than a fixed appendage that permanently held a shield. It was the best he could manage with so little time at his disposal.

"I'll work on the Valkyrie Redeemer last." Ves murmured. "If I have to spend more time to complete the other repairs on the agenda, then I would rather do that than invest too much time in this lost cause."

The only reason why he wanted to spend a few hours on this machine at all was because he didn't want to leave an ugly impression to the audience. He also hoped that its mech pilot might get swayed by its charm despite its awful condition.

After making this determination, Ves got to work.

He started with the mech that went into battle first. The Bright Warrior in its swordsman mech configuration acquitted itself well. Its ability to switch design spirits had come in very handy.

So handy in fact that its frame was still reasonably intact. The first match ended too quickly and too decisively for the Epsilon Mosar to inflict too much damage onto its frame.

The most troublesome aspect about this mech was that a lot of internal components became affected by the battle. Captain Alazar Ipsich put too much strain on the Bright Warrior's frame. The armor breaches to its front also destroyed a number of internal components that were situated close to its c.h.e.s.t.

Just like with the other mechs, it was impossible for Ves to fix them all, especially when he was by himself. While he had an army of bots at his disposal, they were only capable of performing basic functions such as hauling components back and forth and cleaning up debris.

Ves hastily fabricated or pulled basic premade parts off a shelf and put them into the damaged Bright Warrior. He skipped most tests and procedures and simply trusted that the newly-installed components would do their jobs.

"They don't need to last long. As long as they can hold it together in a single match, then I don't care if they fall apart a second later." He muttered.

He didn't have enough time to provide the same treatment to the smaller breaches and cut marks. He simply filled up the gaps with filler materials that were much weaker than proper armor but could still withstand at least some damage. In certain spots, Ves even patched up the holes with jury-rigged plates.

In the end, the sword-wielding Bright Warrior got back into shape. Its offensive power had mostly been restored, but Ves did not have too much confidence in its ability to withstand damage.

"It has to go on the attack. This mech will go down a lot faster if it is forced into a defensive posture!"

Ves couldn't do much about that.

He immediately moved on to the next and most optimistic-looking machines of the five. Out of all of his dueling mechs, his Ferocious Piranha performed the best by far.

Its game-changing glow was too difficult to deal with against any melee opponent. This happened to turn the Ferocious Piranha into a nightmare against other light skirmishers!

Still, even if it was his best mech, it had not come off its match unscathed. The Faerie Stinger had been able to inflict a decent amount of corrosive damage to the Ferocious Piranha.

Even though its armor was quite good, it was also thin. Ves quickly patched up the worst-affected sections of the exterior of his mech. Even though these ugly repairs would likely slow down the Ferocious Piranha, it was better than exposing its fragile internals right away.

Aside from that, he also performed more thorough repairs on the flight system. Mobility was one of the most important strengths of a light mech so Ves wanted to make sure the Faerie Stinger wouldn't be able to take out the wings!

Since the Ferocious Piranha possessed a smaller frame than other mechs, it didn't take long for Ves to perform the most essential repairs.

He moved on to the Transcendent Punisher last.

This mech had taken an extensive beating. While his artillery mech inflicted even worse damage onto the Swarm Monarch, Ves could not get around the fact that it took way too much time to address every deficiency.

Fortunately, much of the damage was contained to the surface. The drilling beetles and positron beams had inflicted extensive damage to the legs and the upper side of the heavy mech, but all of that armor had done its job.

It was fairly simple to repair the upper section. Ves fabricated very thick plates and simply fitted them over the parts that already looked ruined.

The new plates didn't entirely fit and they looked extremely out of place, but the Transcendent Punisher was strong enough to bear all of the extra plate.

Fixing the legs was more troublesome, but Ves was lucky that the Swarm Monarch only fired its particle weapons at the lower portion of the leg.

Once Ves completed all of this exhaustive work, he didn't forget about implementing a countermeasure against the drilling beetles.

Even though Ves had no guarantee that the Swarm Monarch would use the same mode of attack in the next round, Ves did not want his Transcendent Punisher to be forced to overheat its surface in order to get rid of its parasites!

He mounted some minor weapons across its hull. While they weren't strong enough to damage a mech, they were still capable enough to get rid of some beetles!

Aside from that, he also made some hasty modifications that allowed the Transcendent Punisher to overheat every section of its exterior without needing to rely on improvised solutions.

Any beetles that land on my artillery mech will have an awful time!"