The Mech Touch

Ves carefully held the unsheathed form of Bloodsinger in his hands. The original CFA greatsword that he had modified and upgraded with Unending alloy was not an unfamiliar weapon to him. Ketis had taken good care of it even though it was already built to be resilient to most forms of corrosion and decay.

"Miaow."

During this time, Clixie had moved herself from his lap, but still kept a watchful eye over him. As long as he did not behave improperly, she had no reason to take action.

"What a remarkable weapon."

When Ves first held the sword by the grip and its broad blade, he could feel the attachment that Ketis put into her weapon. Even without Sharpie, the weapon was well on its way to becoming a bonded weapon, particularly due to the assistance of Unending alloy.

In fact, Ves could already see that the Unending alloy had managed to absorb bits and pieces of her spiritual energy. It was still a trivial amount of energy compared to the strong presence of Sharpie.

When Ves inspected the living spiritual construct, he could not help but admire his own handiwork.

"You have grown so much, Sharpie."

Swish swish.

Compared to his initial form, Sharpie had grown at least a thousand times stronger. Not only that, its spiritual makeup and construction had also grown vastly more complex. It was as if Ves had made a crossbow one day, only for it to turn into a highly advanced positron rifle a year later!

The transformation was too extreme and the power boost that Sharpie gained in the process was too massive.

As Ves continued to run his spiritual senses over one of his original creations, he struggled to recognize bits and pieces of his original design. The spiritual construct had evolved to a different, stronger form that went way beyond its initial form!

In fact, Sharpie's existence actually exceeded a degree of complexity that Ves could understand. There were so many unfamiliar aspects about his current spiritual configuration that Ves didn't even know where to begin.

It was pointless to deconstruct these mysterious aspects. Sure, if he studied Sharpie long enough, he might be able to replicate it, but without Ketis' willpower, it would never be able to match the real deal.

Sharpie was a unique existence that had grown to its current form because of Ketis.

Ves had given it the capacity for growth. This was one of the major pillars of his design philosophy and one of the reasons why he felt his mech designs could bring something unique and valuable to the mech industry.

Yet what Sharpie had gone through was a level of growth that he had never thought was possible!

It wasn't just the growth in power that astounded him. What truly baffled him was how little time it took for Sharpie to grow from a freshly-created spiritual construct into the vessel of Ketis' force of will!

Ketis had managed to do all of this without relying on any external supplements. She did not borrow any spiritual energy from a design spirit or relied on any other source to accelerate Sharpie's growth.

Instead, she somehow found a way to leverage the advancement process of swordmasters to generate all of the conditions required to elevate Sharpie to its current level.

It was brilliant!

Ves became inordinately proud of his work. Inventions like Sharpie showcased the limitless potential of the growth component of his design philosophy. While his creations didn't always start off strong, they always had the opportunity to rise from their original specifications and grow into something vastly greater than their starting points.

His best products were all defined by characteristic. The Devil Tiger, the Superior Mother and now Sharpie had all grown in their own unique ways that completely conformed to their own unique circumstances.

If Ves implanted a construct like Sharpie into someone else like Venerable Joshua, then it was hard to predict whether it would develop in a similar direction.

This was because the growth and evolution of his spiritual products was completely out of his control.

The fact that Sharpie's current spiritual configuration incorporated engineering principles and solutions that were completely beyond his understanding already denoted a gap between where he stood and where he wanted to be. It was undeniable proof that his own modest comprehension of spiritual engineering still had a long way to go before it could reach this level of sophistication by design!

Though Ves felt a little frustrated by this, he did not take it to heart. Without incorporating a growth component, it would never have been possible for his best products to develop to this extent. He would still be playing around with mechs that possessed barely noticeable X-Factors if he did not take this aspect seriously.

"Well, Ves?" Ketis opened her mouth after Ves a lot of minutes in silence. "How is Sharpie doing? Is it doing okay? Don't get me wrong. I'm happy that it has grown stronger, but I'm not sure it is stable."

Ves lifted his head and smiled. "It's fine. Your pet is completely healthy. While I won't deny that there is a possibility that uncontrolled growth can go in the wrong direction, I haven't witnessed it so far. In my professional judgement, Sharpie had molded itself to become a lot better at serving your needs. It will continue on this path until you are finally satisfied."

"That won't happen for a long time."

Now that he had satisfied his curiosity with regards to Sharpie's current makeup, he proceeded to study the consequences of its expanded configuration.

He first studied the greatsword and studied how Sharpie interacted with it. Though he didn't learn anything revolutionary, he did manage to gain some inspiration on some new ideas he could apply his totems.

What interested the most was that he had a hunch that Ketis' greatsword had the potential to turn into something extraordinary by itself if Ketis continued to use it as a container for her sword will.

At the same time, the sword also had the potential to influence Sharpie in some ways, though to a much lesser degree due to the disparity in strength.

The mutual interaction between spiritual entities and material objects had always been a core research priority to him. Seeing how Sharpie and the sword influenced each other was very fascinating to Ves. He wished he could keep the pairing under constant observation, but that was not possible.

He could only make do with making period checks whenever Ketis was around.

After he was satisfied with recording what he could observe at the moment, he looked up at Ketis.

"Sharpie was originally a part of your mind. I would like to see how it fares when it inhabits your mind again. I can also take a look at your altered state in the process."

"Are you sure? My personality will change if I take Sharpie in my mind. Others like Venerable Dise told me I become a lot like Venerable Jannzi."

"Oh?"

"She says it's because I become too obsessed with pursuing my goals that I no longer pay as much attention to other things. I get too tunnel visioned, which is good for my focus but not that great at making me approachable."

That sounded interesting. Ves already established a correlation between obsessiveness and drastic personality shifts in expert pilots. It explained how Venerable Joshua and Venerable Tusa were relatively laid back while someone like Venerable Jannzi transformed into a different person who was always on the job.

It sounded as if Ketis had taken an unfavorable turn in her evolution, but fortunately her trick with Sharpie allowed her to avoid most of the repercussions.

"It's fine." He dismissively waved his hand. "Just do it. If I can handle Venerable Jannzi, I can handle a more serious version of you. Besides, I don't think it is healthy to leave Sharpie out of your mind all of the time. It is a part of you, and your body and mind needs its presence in order to get accustomed to the strength it wields. If it grows too powerful while it stays outside your body, it will become a lot harder for you to encompass its presence. Do you understand?"

Ketis slowly nodded. "I get it. I need to make sure that I grow with it, and I can only do that by getting used to its presence."

She took a deep breath before taking back her greatsword. She sent a mental command to Sharpie that caused it to return to her mind.

The young swordmaster's presence immediately grew stronger and more forceful. Ves eagerly observed the transition and recorded all of the subtle changes. It was as if Sharpie's return caused her to develop a steely spine.

The sharpness in her eyes, the lack of levity in her expression, the rigidness of her posture and the will that drove her onwards were all indicators that she had become a much more serious person.

"Are you happy?" She asked with a lot less friendliness than before.

"I can see why Dise thinks you have come to resemble Jannzi in this form. If I put the two of you together, I have a feeling that you would either become the best of friends or the most horrible enemies."

The latter possibility was more likely, he thought. He felt it was better if the two never met while Ketis was in this form.

Ves studied Ketis' current condition without any restraint. Yet when he tried to probe inside her mind, he met a considerable degree of resistance before she voluntarily lowered her guard.

At her current level of strength, she was fully capable of resisting his spiritual inspections, but she did not choose to do so because of her trust in him. In any case, even if he did anything malicious to him, she would be able to sense his intentions beforehand, so she did not show that much concern.

In any case, Ves was the expert in this kind of matters. Ketis was fully aware that she could have never made these kinds of attainments without his intervention, so allowing him to take a peek in her mind was just one of the ways she could pay back her debt.

"Interesting."

"What did you find, Ves?"

"I understand a bit better now how a construct like Sharpie is able to coexist with the rest of you. You are correct in saying that you are a mech designer first and a swordmaster second. Though both are equally strong presences in your mind, your native identity is definitely a mech designer. The swordmaster part of yours is just tacked onto the side."

"Will that have any negative consequences?"

"I can hardly say, but I have always found that life finds a way. Even if I don't have any solutions, Sharpie won't evolve in a way that will harm you I think. I'll have to make frequent checks on you to be sure, though."

Once he made enough observations about how a construct as strong as Sharpie was able to exist in Ketis' mind without blowing up her head or creating new compatibility problems, Ves took a step back and thought about the wider applications of living constructs like Sharpie.

Seeing how many benefits Ketis gained from its existence caused Ves to grow quite jealous at her good fortune.

The largely inert spiritual fragment of Gloriana that Ves had deposited in his own mind was practically a dummy in comparison!

He was already thinking about how he could apply the results of the Sharpie experiment on a wider scale. What if he implanted similar living constructs in the minds of other people?

Was this another way for him to mass-produce extraordinary people?

The possibilities were endless!

In fact, the greatest use of this experiment was to apply it to himself!

Ves dug up one of the many plans he shelved in the back of his mind.

He always wanted to create a replacement of the Grand Dynamo with his own version. Perhaps the best way to go about it was to model it after Sharpie!