The Mech Touch

Ves continued to spend much of his days making statue after statue. He stopped experimenting with Vulcan and the Hammer of Brilliance once he figured out their basic parameters.

The Analysis Record and False Inspiration abilities formed the bread and butter of Vulcan's productive capabilities. Ves was sure his incarnation could do more, but the current circumstances were not right. It appeared that he had to expose Vulcan to different situations in order to draw out his other capabilities.

"It's fine."

Neither of the two known abilities provided much use to Ves at the moment. The statues he was making were so simple that he only needed to employ the Analysis Record a few times to understand most of the nuances he needed to take into account to maintain a consistently high standard of quality.

The gap between good and masterwork could not be solved by following a checklist or formula. Ves still needed to rely on his own skill, judgement, intuition and luck to create a work that surpassed the physical limitations of a design.

"Miracles aren't called that way when they can be mass produced." Ves depreciating observed.

Aside from relying on occasional flukes, the few times where he was able to put himself in a false inspired state enabled him to figure out new insights that he had previously missed.

Ves predicted that if he continued hitting himself in the head every four days or so while he constantly produced the same item, he could eventually master its creation to such an extent that he could pump out masterworks on a reliable basis!

"The only problem is that I have to hit myself in the head way too many times for that to happen!"

Based on the current pattern, Ves estimated he needed to put himself in a false inspired state at least a dozen times before he figured out how to control for every variable.

Was it worth it to do so for a single version of his Vulcan statue? Not to him. He also had to do the same for the other version of Vulcan's depictions, though the similarities between the two undoubtedly allowed him to borrow many of his previous gains.

"The issue here is that it takes a lot more whacks for me to do the same for my mechs!"

A metal statue he could hold in his hand was much less daunting than a fully functional statue that could tower over him! The amount of variables that Ves had to take into account multiplied by at least a million times and that was only for the simpler products. The more complex ones

such as expert mechs were even more finicky and complicated to fabricate!

Of course, many of these variables and parameters weren't unique. In practice, mech designers and other technical professionals were able to condense them into a smaller number of groups or categories where a standard solution or formula was enough to account for most of the details.

"That doesn't make it much better, though."

Given that each false inspired state provided him with a relatively limited amount of insights per session, Ves would probably have to bonk his head with his hammer at least a thousand times before he fully mastered a design like the Bright Warrior!

This would turn into a long-term process that could stretch on for years before Ves attained his ultimate reward.

"Well, at least I will constantly see improvements over time. It's not like I have to wait until the end to notice the difference."

Ves didn't see much point in employing this ability unless he had a mass production mech model that held its value over the long term. As soon as he updated its design, so many parameters would change that he would have to start over at least part of the way.

In that regard, the False Inspiration that the Hammer of Brilliance was able to bestow was more useful as a learning tool.

Ves focussed less on Vulcan as he continued to make batches and batches of statues. He only stopped once he made 1000 copies of each of the two versions.

"Now that I've made them, I need to put them in the hands of the dwarves."

Doing that was fairly challenging, but the trade between the Vulcan Empire and the rest of the Fermi Star Cluster had never dried up. Even with the recent tensions, greedy trading companies found several ways to circumvent the blockade on foreign traffic.

Ves had already instructed Minister Shederin to prepare a solution. The foreign minister did not spend his time in vain and contracted numerous courier companies on both the human and dwarven side of the border to ship the 'specialty products' to numerous prominent destinations in the Vulcan Empire!

"Are you sure the goods won't end up stolen or confiscated?" He asked.

"We're not engaging in smuggling, sir. Not technically." The old man calmly replied. "As long as the handover takes place in the border region, it is unlikely that the nearby patrols will step in. The Lost and the Vulcanites pay much more attention to the people moving through their territories. As for goods, simple inspections can easily warn them if there is anything wrong."

That was a slight complication because the glows around the statues were quite noticeable at close range. Ves had to invent a simple spiritual mechanism where the glows of the statues remained inactive until they were taken out of their packaging.

Once the recipients took his gifts out of their boxes, the statues would bloom to life and create an unforgettable first impression!

Ves briefly checked the date. "I need to see quick results. We've been delaying our main journey long enough."

"I have contracted the fastest courier shipping companies that are willing to enter into business with us. I've even set up shell companies and acted under a different identity in order to gain the cooperation of dwarven companies. By the way, I have also signed a contract with the Persham Chamber of Commerce. The Pershams are honored to ship our goods to the Paramount Province."

"The Pershams?"

"Yes, the third-class dwarven traders we've met during our initial foray into the Vulcan Empire."

Ves hadn't heard that name in a while. He still remembered the friendly dwarves that he exchanged with. If the crazier Vulcans didn't launch an attack on the expeditionary fleet, maybe he would have been able to forge a better bond with Director Olivier Persham!

Unfortunately, history didn't progress this way. Ves had no stomach to befriend any Vulcanites after the Battle of Fordilla Zentra. Though he still thought the Pershams were okay people, they might not like him anymore if they learned what he was attempting to do with the cargo they were commissioned to transport.

Ves sighed. "You don't have to treat them differently. The next time we enter the Vulcan Empire, we won't need their guidance anymore."

Well, those were certainly ominous words. As someone who helped Ves flesh out his devious plan, Shederin was aware that this was not an empty boast.

"Well, regardless of who we've entered business with, you should be able to see the first results in little over a week. Since our cargo takes up relatively little space, we can put them in the cargo holds of the fastest courier vessels that are especially employed to transport small, high-value parcels from one region to another. The transportation infrastructure of the Vulcan Empire is still working normally with relatively few disruptions."

Courier vessels designed for speed and reach instead of cargo capacity could cover much more distance than other starships. On a proportional basis, their FTL drives and propulsion systems were much larger than bigger ships such as combat carriers.

Some were so extreme that it was not wrong to describe them as FTL drives wrapped in a metal shell!

Even though these corvette-sized vessels were small, they were not exactly cheap. The operational costs were high relative to the small amount of cargo capacity they possessed, so the transportation fees could easily be hundreds or thousands of times higher than regulation transportation!

There was plenty of demand for their services, though. Whether it was a CEO who urgently needed to travel to a distant company branch or a biolab transferring time-sensitive experimental materials to another lab, there were plenty of people and companies who were willing to pay the equivalent of millions of hex credits just to get a package delivered a week sooner.

"Do you intend to ship out additional goods to the Vulcan Empire?" Shederin asked.

Ves shook his head. "No. I've already made enough. I'm already sick and tired of the statues I've made. Even if I employed a bit of automation to speed up production, I can't keep making the same simple products over and over again."

Perhaps he might hold a different opinion if he was stuck making mechs, but that was not the case at the moment.

After making sure that the statues he made would ship towards their respective destinations, Ves temporarily put this issue aside. What happened next did not require any more actions on his part. He just needed to wait and enjoy the results.

Ves decided to allocate all of his available time on completing his remaining expert mech design projects.

Now that he wasn't distracted by his side projects anymore, he was able to make more refinements to the designs. It was a pity that the Hammer of Brilliance wasn't particularly useful in the design phase of a project.

Ves tried experimenting with it by whacking it on the heads of different people. For some reason, no one appreciated receiving a tap from his glowing hammer.

"Can you please put that thing away? I'm afraid it will cave in my skull!" An assistant mech designer begged.

"Don't worry. I have excellent control over my strength. I know exactly how much force is needed to break through a skull and I'll make sure my tap is well below that threshold!"

"…"

Using the Hammer on other mech designers achieved negligible results. Aside from not being assigned to any hands-on production work, inspired states simply didn't provide as much benefits to them because of their limited knowledge and experience.

One day, Ves decided to try it out on Ketis. He nonchalantly walked up to her workstation and lifted his hammer above her head while she was engrossed in fine-tuning the swordfighting capabilities of the Chimera Project.

As soon as his hammer came close to bonking his student on the head, Ketis' Bloodsinger suddenly surged forth and parried the attempted strike!

"Nice try, Ves, but I could feel you coming a long time ago." The woman smirked as she swiveled around her chair. "Here's a tip for you. Never sneak up to a trained soldier. Others could have responded a lot more violently."

Ves awkwardly coughed. "It's not an attack, Ketis. I was just trying to help you out. You've seen me hitting other people with this hammer before, haven't you? They all gained something out of the experience."

She still looked skeptical. She didn't look particularly impressed at the hammer either. It was too clumsy to function as a proper weapon and it was too large and unwieldy to serve as a primitive work tool.

"Just give me a chane. I just want to see what happens."

"..Fine. Don't hit me over the head, though. Give me the hammer and I'll do it myself."

Ketis was the first person who made this request. Now that Ves thought about it, he never attempted to see what happened if others used the Hammer of Brilliance.

"Here you go."

Once Ketis received the artifact, she attempted to resonate with it. This didn't go too well as the hammer was not a sword.

She even commanded Sharpie to leave Bloodsinger and see whether it could enter the Hammer of Brilliance.

It turned out that he couldn't.

Swish swish.

"It was worth a try." She shrugged.

She gently lifted the implement and carefully controlled her strength so that she could hit herself with the lightest of taps.

Her head began to glow bronze, but nothing else happened.

"Vulcan says you need to lower your mental defenses. He can't get in." Ves relayed.

"That's easier said than done, Ves. I don't normally like to make myself vulnerable."

"Just do your best."

It took a bit of time, but Vulcan was finally able to exert his influence on Ketis.

"So.. do you feel anything different?" Ves said after a while.

"I don't think so. When I look back at my work, I think about the same things as before. I haven't gained any new ideas or anything."

"What?"

Ves became confused.