The Mech Touch

Once Ves enjoyed a good, long rest, he recovered most of his condition the next day.

He was surprised by that. He would have thought that tearing out a portion of his core Spirituality only to fill up the gap with semi-foreign spiritual matter would debilitate him for at least weeks.

"It looks like I can recover faster than usual."

The crudely-healed wound already looked a lot better than yesterday. He attributed this fast recovery to his life domain and Blinky's excellent spiritual control.

Ves had a reasonable estimate of how much damage other people's spiritualities could endure. The threshold was quite low as most individuals easily became affected by distortions.

His own resilience was higher because he already subjected himself to a lot of torment. He only realized now that his life domain had definitely strengthened his spiritual resilience and recovery rate.

"I can't use myself as a benchmark for others." He reminded himself. "I can get away with a lot more shenanigans than anyone else."

He had a hunch that if he wasn't as resilient as now, he would have never survived the act of breaking off a piece of his own core Spirituality!

He performed a thorough inspection of his current state. Though there were several unusual changes, nothing looked threatening. His spirit wound was healing nicely and his new spiritual channel to Vulcan did not unduly affect his mind.

At worst, Ves gained a greater desire to create something with his hands!

"I need to figure out what Vulcan can do before I do anything else." He decided.

When Ves picked up the Hammer of Brilliance and inspected his incarnation, he could sense the power and potential that Vulcan was exuding.

Ves expended an entire vial of life-grade serum to create the dwarven design spirit! This allowed Vulcan to begin his life at a much higher starting point than other spiritual products!

The downside to accelerating his growth to this extent was that there was a horrible lack of adaptation time. Vulcan gained a lot of strength and capabilities without ever exercising one of them. This was one of the biggest downsides to his artificial growth process!

"He's not like Trisk or Arnold who started off weak but get to practice and master their respective abilities as they grow over time."

This was the most ideal progression for a design spirit. While their power level was not impressive at the beginning, over time they became more valuable as they grew in strength while developing their abilities in the directions that were most suitable to them. Different experiences and environmental stimuli made sure their evolution constantly adapted to their current needs!

Vulcan missed all of that.

The dwarven design spirit was like a clueless kid sitting in front of the helm of a capital ship. He understood nothing about what was going on. If he pulled a random level, he might cause the ship to pitch uncontrollably and crash into a planet or something!

Therefore, Ves already understood that just because Vulcan had almost become as strong as the Superior Mother right after his birth, the latter could easily overpower the former because the Hexer ancestral spirit possessed a much higher mastery over her own strength and abilities!

Ves was not upset by this. He already expected this to happen and that it might take years for Vulcan to familiarize himself with his prodigious capabilities.

"This doesn't sound much different from letting a design spirit start off weak but grow stronger step by step."

This was the growth trajectory of many of his other spiritual products such as Trisk and his unborn daughter's companion spirit.

The reason why Ves was willing to make Vulcan stronger straightaway was because he theorized that a high starting point would give his design spirit a higher growth ceiling!

"If my guess is correct, then Vulcan will have a much easier time breaking through his bottleneck than other comparable spirits!"

From what he could observe, it was not so easy for spirits to break through to the next level. All of his strongest ones had reached a height that Ves thought was comparable to that of a senior ace pilot.

Though he had never seen an actual ace pilot in person, he did not think that Qilanxo and the Superior Mother had any chance against an actual god pilot. It was not without reason that many people thought that god pilots were able to defeat battleships!

The scarcity of Star Designers and god pilots throughout the galaxy already told Ves that reaching this level of strength was difficult for every kind of existence, not just mech designers and mech pilots.

"If nothing special happens, then many of my design spirits will get stuck at the same ceiling for a long time."

He could already deduce that entities like the Superior Mother who could no longer grow their raw strength spent their energies on refining their abilities. By developing new techniques and deepening their existing ones, they could accomplish more with the same degree of power. This was the only viable way to increase their effective performance.

As for Vulcan…

"The difficulty of reaching that level is insanely difficult." Ves tried to temper his expectations. "I shouldn't get my hopes up too much. Even if Vulcan has better prospects, it will still take decades or even centuries to notice the difference."

However, if Vulcan succeeded, his power level would surpass that of any other design spirit! Ves even suspected that his incarnation's strength would become comparable that of a powerful spiritual sorcerer that he had once witnessed in person!

Back during the Battle Against The Abyss, Ves had become terrified at the might shown by 'Temple Protector' Aramid Dista. The way he could knock everyone unconscious with his massive spiritual presence and his ability to fight against mechs and worse without relying on any mechs or external weapons was so mind-boggling that he had to have been comparable to a god pilot!

"If Vulcan advanced to that level ahead of me, then will my own chances of becoming a Star Designer be even greater?" Ves wondered.

The osmosis effect suggested that this might be the case. At least some of Vulcan's high-level energy flowed back to Ves through their permanent spiritual bond. It reminded him a lot of the interaction between high-ranking mech pilots and mechs of exceptional quality.

Masterwork mechs and higher quality mechs were able to promote the development of expert pilots to a drastic degree. Part of that was because a powerful mech had a tendency to lift a mech pilot up to their level.

"There's a flipside, though."

If the quality of the mech was lower, then an expert pilot or an ace pilot would find it much more difficult to grow their strength and break through their bottlenecks!

Ves feared that this might be the case with his relationship with Vulcan as well.

"I don't have to worry too much for now." He consoled himself. "Vulcan will not form an anchor as long as he is stronger than me. At his current level, I would have to attain the rank of Master Mech Designer before this can even pose a problem to me. If Vulcan becomes comparable to a god pilot, then I will still enjoy an advantage!"

The major concern happened once he became a Star Designer. From what Willix alluded to, every Star Designer was trying to climb up to the mythical fourth rung of the craftsmanship ladder. This suggested that the MTA believed that there was a rank above Star Designer!

"It's highly likely that this applies to other transcendent professions and existences!"

There had to be a rank above god pilot.

However, if Vulcan remained stuck at the god pilot level, then he might form an anchor that prevented Ves from surpassing the limitations of a Star Designer!

At that point, Ves seriously needed to consider whether it was worthwhile to keep his incarnation.

"As long as Vulcan isn't useful to me anymore, I need to find a way to get rid of him. That's going to be troublesome."

Ves and Vulcan's lives were intertwined. If one of them suffered, the other one suffered as well!

This was one of the many prices that Ves had paid in order to obtain the power of a design spirit.

Still, Ves was capable of accomplishing a lot of seemingly impossible feats. If he truly wanted to get rid of his incarnation, he predicted he could develop a method that wouldn't result in his own death!

"It will likely take centuries before I need to consider such solutions. By then, I can do much more than I can ever imagine at this time!"

Ves no longer thought about the long-term implications of gaining an incarnation. Instead, he was eager to explore his short-term gains!

"Even if Vulcan hardly knows what to do with his power, just a shallow application should be enough to yield a powerful effect!"

He held the Hammer of Brilliance and tried to attune himself to the artifact and the design spirit resting inside.

The experience was quite deep and profound, especially since he was able to experience Vulcan's perspective as well. Even though the latter was so weird and alien that Ves couldn't understand anything, the combination of sensory experiences somehow gave him a couple of clues.

"I should start with making something."

Ves moved to his personal workshop and immediately started off with a simple job. He grabbed a multitool and a few spare pieces of metal and quickly completed a handcrafted mug.

His expression became mixed.

"There's… hardly any difference."

Mugs were simple objects by nature and it was not that easy to increase their quality. Their complexity resulted in a lack of variables that Ves could manipulate in order to improve the fundamental nature of an object.

"I see. Vulcan's glow doesn't help me out that much if I engage in something simple. Then let's increase the level of complexity!"

Ves took out more tools and materials and spent an hour making a lovely mech figurine based on the Valkyrie Redeemer.

This was not an average toy. Ves had made sure to incorporate more parts than scale models of this size ordinarily possessed. The challenge of putting this intricate puzzle together provided him with considerably more satisfaction than before.

"Is this one of the effects of Vulcan's glow?"

The quality level of the Valkyrie Redeemer figurine was quite high. Ves knew that it was possible for him to reach this level if he tried his best, but the odds were not high.

Was this a fluke or did Vulcan truly improve his craftsmanship? It was rather hard to figure out the exact cause and effect considering that he wasn't able to perform detailed sensor readings on spiritual phenomena.

He was already able to make a couple of preliminary conclusions based on his two crafting attempts.

"I don't think my work has magically gone up in quality because of Vulcan's presence." Ves speculated as he rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "It's much more likely that Vulcan's glow exerts an influence on my mental state that causes me to become more sensitive and attentive to details related to good craftsmanship. When I was making my mech figurine, I noticed that I was working slower and more meticulously than before."

This was the most likely explanation of what was happening. It was a much more logical and realistic explanation of how Vulcan was able to promote people's craftsmanship.

After all, the creator was the biggest variable in determining the quality of a product.

"This effect also matches my expectations."

However, Ves had only scratched the surface of what Vulcan could do. His incarnation possessed a lot more potential that was just begging to be tapped!

The problem was finding the right method to draw out Vulcan's massive potential.

As Ves kept thinking, he suddenly came up with an odd idea. It didn't seem possible, but Vulcan was an existence that ought to be powerful enough to distort reality.

"Can I…?"

He didn't know why he thought this might work, but his intuition hinted to him that something would definitely happen.

Ves picked up the Hammer of Brilliance and lightly tapped the flat end onto the surface of his newly crafted figurine.

A small amount of energy flowed from the hammer to the miniature Valkyrie Redeemer! Vulcan also instinctively took action, causing him to do something that caused the mech figurine to glow in the same bronze light as the Hammer of Brilliance!

A connection had formed!