The Mech Touch

Master Willix's expression remained carefully composed. She rarely revealed any strong emotions and she never exposed her true thoughts.

This made it difficult for Ves to judge what she was thinking.

Ves knew that he had exposed a portion of the capabilities that he didn't want to show to her. There was no way that she had managed to miss the changes in Ves when he actively channeled one of his design spirits.

Though he was unsure how much spiritual sensitivity a Master Mech Designer typically possessed, he did not think it was weak. People like Master Willix had all moved away from the spiritually deficient origins and only needed to take one final step to reach the end point of their progression track!

This meant that the chances were great that Master Willix detected that Ves had solicited a distinctly alien presence. It would not take much thought to realize that Ves had actually made contact with a luminar entity.

What he had just done probably looked like a cosmopolitan's dream!

Ves innocently shrugged. "I told you that I can't make these crystals by myself. I need to borrow some assistance in order to make the strongest versions of my products. I think this crystal ball might help, though. It should allow you to make the same light beam attack phase crystals that are of great interest to you. You should be able to make as many of them as you want, though don't ask me how it all works. I think your research teams will be able to figure that out themselves."

An entire minute passed before Master Willix summoned the newly-produced crystal ball. The object smoothly flew in her direction and paused just in front of her floating body.

She was clearly examining the crystal ball in detail. She didn't need to employ any scanners to observe a complex array of internal circuitry patterns hiding within its transparent surface.

"I shall pass this orb along with your research data to the relevant research teams." She eventually said. "However, it needs to be verified. Please demonstrate how it works."

When the orb flew back to Ves, he tentatively took hold of it before moving to his production equipment again.

He consciously did not call upon the Illustrious One again. The point was to enable others to produce the enhanced crystals. This was a problem that had long restricted him from using his best crystals on a larger scale, but now that he was under pressure, he hoped he managed to come up with an actual solution!

In order to speed up the work, Ves decided to make a small infantry-grade light beam crystal. He gathered the right materials and processed them like normal, but instead of drawing upon the crystal cube, he utilized the crystal ball instead.

The cube absorbed a portion of his spiritual energy, causing its internal circuitry to buzz and light up. What happened next caused even Master Willix to take note.

This was because the crystal ball began to exude the presence of the Illustrious One!

The crystal ball turned out to be a totem!

Ves specifically aimed to create an auxiliary production tool that directly drew from the Illustrious One in order to support its functioning. However, the design spirit wasn't able to do so independently. The person using the ball needed to supply it with a portion of spiritual energy in order to power the connection.

This was the essence of his idea. As he proceeded to use the activated crystal ball as a tool to carve the internal circuitry pattern into his latest attack crystal, he saw that it was working exactly as he hoped!

Just like before, the Illustrious One was doing the heavy lifting. It helped that the crystal ball only contained a limited amount of instructions. It served no other purpose than to create the light beam attack phase crystals that interested the MTA the most.

With the creation of this ball, Ves finally created a means that allowed others to create powerful luminar crystals without requiring his personal attention!

However, it was not a perfect solution yet. The price of activating the crystal ball was to donate a significant chunk of spiritual energy.

This might not be a big deal to Ves, who could easily supplement the cost with the help of Blinky, or Master Willix, who doubtlessly possessed much greater reserves.

The real problem came with handing over the crystal to someone who had much less energy to spare. If Ves handed a crystal ball to a random mech technician, then there was a considerable risk that this person would probably drain himself dry!

Once he finished his latest product, he handed both the attack phase crystal along with the crucial crystal ball to Master Willix.

She looked a bit more pleased now that Ves gave her a solid result.

"Be careful with the crystal ball." He softly warned her. "In order for it to work, it needs to consume a portion of psionic power. It takes at least a Journeyman in order to be able to use the crystal to produce a light beam crystal."

Master Willix didn't look surprised. She remained remarkably calm despite all of the oddities that Ves had demonstrated.

"What variables determine the consumption?"

"It should be usage time as well as production quantity. It takes more power to extend its active state. It also has to expend more energy in order to configure larger and more voluminous luminar crystals."

At least, that was what he guessed. He didn't really have a thorough understanding of what he created. Whether it contained anything extra or possessed different parameters, he could tell for certain. He would have to test the crystal ball under many different circumstances, but this was obviously not the time to perform such an extensive study.

He could only hope that the crystal ball presented to Master Willix wouldn't produce an accident or something once the MTA researchers made use of its capabilities.

After studying the crystal ball and the product that it helped create, the MTA Master finally teleported them back to her ship before turning her attention back to their maker.

"This is barely sufficient, Mr. Larkinson. Though I am impressed by your unconventional method, it is not an approach that can be performed through purely human means. You are still too far away from mastering the working principles of this tech."

Ves sighed. "I am aware of that, ma'am. I am more focused on the power that I can gain than trying to understand its roots."

"You are following a crooked path. The power of these crystals are not weak. In fact, if fully understood, the underlying tech can revolutionize our energy weapon systems, but you are still too far from this point. As long as your methods and products bear traces of alien technology, we cannot embrace it. Do you understand?"

"I do." He said.

Much of the tech that was used to make mechs, ships and other devices were fully mastered by humanity's scientific community. There may be a couple of exceptions, but for the most part anyone was able to understand and reproduce a particular device after learning the underlying theories and mastering the relevant methods.

This universality was key to empowering humanity as a whole. Any mech designer and any developer could make any product as long as they had the right means.

The current state of human technology wouldn't be nearly as easy to learn and apply if it was split up into many different alien-derived branches!

"Mech designers such as yourself must fully understand your creations in order to go further along your career." Willix dropped another hint. "If you continue to overreach and make use of tech that does not belong to humanity, then how can you possibly realize your design philosophy? No mech designer has ever advanced to Master by borrowing help. You must find your own solutions."

This was quite a massive hint. Both Ves and Gloriana silently carved these words in their hearts. What they just heard already fell in line with what they expected out of great mech designers.

"I will take your words into consideration, Master." Ves mildly responded. "May I know whether you have completed your evaluation?"

"You may. After observing your methods, going over your research data and receiving some tools and samples, I judge that your contribution to our Association is worth… 7,500,000 MTA merits."

A weight had lifted off his shoulders. Though the award had not reached the maximum limit of 10,000,000 MTA merits, three-fourths of it was not a small prize!

He didn't have to ask why Master Willix withheld the remaining 2,500,000 MTA merits. The lack of sufficient theory along with the dependence on the crystal ball to engrave special internal circuitry patterns in new crystals significantly reduced the practical applications of this tech.

It was far from ready to be employed by humanity on a wide scale.

Still, Ves had donated a lot of useful material to the MTA, enough for its highly-competent researchers to derive a lot of clues and further their understanding of the working principles through their own means.

Now that she had completed her task, Master Willix was ready to wrap up this visit. She had already taken a lot of time out of her busy schedule in order to handle this case in person.

"If you ever come across or develop another major technological innovation, then I advise you to bring them to my attention." She pointedly said to Ves. "We will always be fair when awarding you with MTA merits, and do not think that you don't need to accumulate them anymore once you have redeemed your beyonder ticket. The value of MTA merits is even greater in the Red Ocean."

That sounded pleasant. Not. While Ves seriously doubted whether the MTA treated technological contributors fairly, he did not question her main point.

The Big Two specifically arranged the Red Ocean for ambitious, hardworking pioneers who wanted to seek their fortunes in the new frontier. How could the MTA and CFA let these talented and capable people go about their day without finding a way to leverage their value even further?

"I will be sure to inform you if I have made any breakthroughs in luminar crystal technology or any other powerful tech." Ves lied.

"You do that. Now, before I go, let me examine the Dark Zephyr."

They moved over to the hangar bay where the Dark Zephyr had been parked. The expert mech quickly drew the interest of Master Willix. Though she was thoroughly familiar with its design, the real mech nonetheless exceeded her expectations.

"This is a remarkable expert mech."

Gloriana beamed at the compliment. "We tried our best to surpass our prior work!"

Ves didn't know what Master Willix was actually looking for, but she took at least half an hour to satisfy her curiosity. He was half-afraid that she would take his expert mech away, but fortunately it didn't come to that.

Once Master Willix was about to depart, Gloriana somehow mustered up her courage.

"Wait, Master! Before you go, can I make a request?"

Master Willix paused and turned around.

"What is your request?"

"We're working on another ranged expert mech design that is reserved for my brother. I would really like it if he is allowed to wield a luminar crystal weapon as well. In fact, I would also like to ask if you can extend this privilege to the rest of my Glory Seekers."

"If your Glory Seekers answer to you, then they ought to be a part of the Larkinson Clan." Willix noted.

"That.. is not the case. The Glory Seekers must remain Hexer. They're entrusted to me by my dynasty. I cannot force them to abandon their identities."

"Then I'm afraid that I cannot grant them an exemption." Willix ruthlessly declared.

Gloriana's expression turned glum. What she really wanted was to give her brother a powerful means of attack, but with this restriction, it was impossible for her to make the Star Dancer Mark II as good as she hoped!

"However…" Master Willix spoke up again, causing Gloriana to gain some hope. "It is not impossible for you to gain your wish, but rewards must be earned. Your husband has just made a notable contribution. He is therefore entitled to receive our generosity. Now it is your turn. Any mech designer that goes far enough cannot continue to take from the mech industry without giving back. Work hard and do your best to achieve a result that is of use to the Mech Trade Association. Goodbye."

Once she said her piece, the powerful MTA Master and her silent bodyguards silently teleported away.

Her message was very clear.