The Mech Touch

The circumstances of this fabrication run was similar to the previous attempt.

It involved the same mech designers who had already made substantial gains compared to before.

In fact, the four Journeymen were even stronger than when they completed the expert mech upgrade of the Shield of Samar! Their mech affinities were higher and they internalized numerous useful insights after turning their latest expert mech into a masterwork.

This time, the ambitious Larkinson mech designers aimed to repeat their previous critical success!

This was a tough task as their accumulation was not as great as before. Ves vaguely felt his chance of making another masterwork was much less than before.

Despite investing a lot of emotional commitment to the Chimera Project, despite taking numerous risks with its design and despite implementing many innovations, the deck was stacked against him this time.

"I'll just have to put an even greater effort in this fabrication run than last time." Ves whispered to himself.

He was confident he could find a way to succeed twice in a row. He just had to beat the low odds and turn the impossible into the possible by distorting reality!

Soon enough, Venerable Joshua arrived at the workshop. He was the most depressed expert pilot as of late. His last two battlefield performances paled in comparison with the other Larkinson expert pilots and he had to wait the longest until he obtained his own custom machine.

This was quite a difference compared to his previous treatment! As the patriarch's golden boy, he used to enjoy a priority on all of the good stuff developed by Ves. It was highly unusual for him to wait at the end of the line this time!

Venerable Joshua put up a brave face in public, but he was definitely harboring a lot of pain in his heart. Only the prospect of finally obtaining his own expert mech could dispel his darkness!

"So this is finally it, right?" He asked.

Ves nodded and gestured to the projected design. "We'll be fabricating the base mech of the Chimera Project today. Although I would have wanted to fabricate at least one mounted wargear loadout, they're too different from anything else that we have made before. The only way to make sure the extra add-ons work as intended is to complete the base mech first. Otherwise, we'll be forced to work around estimates that don't necessarily reflect reality."

"Uhh…"

"It's not important. You'll get your expert mech and its performance will be at least on par with our other expert mechs. The mounted wargear stuff can wait until later. What's important is that you can finally exert your full strength and resume growing just like Venerable Jannzi."

"Okay. I get it." Joshua nodded. "Jannzi told me that I should prepare to play an active role in the production of my expert mech. I made sure to be in my best condition."

"Good. Has she also told you how you'll be baring a piece of yourself to us?" Ves asked.

"…Something like that. She didn't elaborate too much about that. We're not exactly friends these days."

"Oh, it's not a big deal. The effect is similar to when you took part in battle formations. We'll all connect to a different kind of network this time which lasts longer and is much more suitable for mech design purposes. What you need to take into account is that each participant will not have as much privacy as before. Though the entity responsible for maintaining the network will make sure to filter out irrelevant thoughts, the entire point of doing this is to increase mutual understanding."

There had to be an exchange of ideas in order to produce synergies. The more Joshua bared himself to the mech designers, the more people like Ves was able to tailor his work according to the expert pilot!

Soon, every Journeymen was finished with their respective preparations. Gloriana had put extra effort into making sure that she could take care of Aurelia throughout the day.

Even though a baby did not belong in a mech workshop at all, neither Ves nor Gloriana wanted to keep Aurelia out of their sights. They weren't willing to pass her on to a nanny either, though they had called in and put a caretaker on standby should they need one during this fabrication run.

It was only after checking all of the preparations related to caring for their baby that the parents were ready to make another child.

"Start!"

Gloriana called out Alexandria. The red spiritual cat directed a loving gaze towards Aurelia before she performed her function.

Maow!

Several strong spiritual bonds stretched out from her intangible body. They all latched onto the heads of the mech designers as well as Venerable Joshua.

It took only a brief moment of time for Joshua to accept the connection. As soon as he did, he widened his eyes as he went through the same experiences as Venerable Jannzi.

This was a unique moment for him. Although he had bonded with other mech pilots before this when he took part in several battle formations, those were much different situations.

A battle network worked best when the mech pilots were all aligned to each other. They were trained and instructed to rid themselves of as many distractions as possible and achieve complete harmony with their fellow comrades in arms.

There was no room for diversity and individualism in battle networks. Everyone had to be in sync with the nexus to allow it to channel a greater amount of extraordinary power!

A design network was set up in a different way. It was explicitly meant to embrace people's differences. It was actually counterproductive to connect two identical people together!

The greatest value of this new network was to put opposites together. This allowed them to cover for each other's weaknesses while sharing their respective strengths.

This was one of the reasons why the previous fabrication run yielded so much success! Every mech designer was already capable of exerting their unique strengths, but the design network allowed them to share their best qualities and amplify their contribution to their work!

It was no different this time. The four Journeymen were already accustomed to the effects of the design network so they did not slow down as they began their different fabrication tasks.

The only novelty was that they had all gained a peek into Joshua's mind and spirit for the first time.

"He truly is a lot different from Venerable Jannzi." Ves muttered.

Out of all of the mech designers, Ves had the greatest interest in getting to know Venerable Joshua better!

Compared to talking to someone, connecting directly to them was a lot more effective!

There was no way to lie or distort about yourself, so Ves felt assured that he gained a true picture of Venerable Joshua.

What he perceived so far did not deviate from his expectations. Venerable Joshua was almost exactly who Ves expected him to be. He was still a relatively normal mech pilot who just happened to be endowed by greater power.

The contrast between Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Joshua was striking. While they shared plenty of common ground such as their love for the Larkinson Clan and their sense of decency, there were many other areas where they stood on opposite ends!

One of Venerable Jannzi's defining traits was how driven she was to accomplish her goal. She dedicated her entire life to protecting the Larkinsons, and this caused the rest of her personality to morph in a way that allowed her to better accomplish this self-chosen purpose!

It was only when Ves was able to compare Venerable Jannzi with Venerable Joshua that he was truly able to recognize how extreme Jannzi's conviction had become.

Compared to Jannzi's extreme dedication for her goal, her ex-boyfriend was a lot more casual about fulfilling his own goals!

A part of this was because Venerable Joshua's ambitions were a lot less grandiose. His main dream was to pilot Ves' living mechs.

Back when he was just a mech cadet, he already fell in love with the earliest mechs designed by Ves. Joshua's love and loyalty never faded over time.

Just as Ves continued to design better living mechs, Joshua's adoration for them consistently grew stronger. This effect continued on to this day. By now, the young expert pilot's love for living mechs had grown into an unshakable obsession!

"You really believe in my work!" Ves noted with a touch of surprise.

Although it didn't look like it, Venerable Joshua had become such a fanboy of Ves' work that his faith in living mechs had practically become his religion!

It was impossible for him to think that any living mech design was bad. Even if Ves deliberately botched up and designed a truly awful mech, Venerable Joshua would just rationalize a nonsensical story in order to keep his thoughts consistent!

This was actually the only extreme and unreasonable part about Venerable Joshua. As long as he was thinking about anything other than living mechs, he became a lot more reasonable. He was little different from regular mech pilots in that regard.

"So that's how it is." Ves realized. "I know why some expert pilots experience drastic changes in personality and why others hardly changed!"

Venerable Jannzi's mission was so grand and involved that she essentially chose to shed a greater portion of her humanity. This sacrifice allowed her to rid herself of numerous distractions and impediments that might hinder her from fulfilling her goal.

According to her own mindset, the choice she made was necessary.

Venerable Joshua was different. From what Ves could gather, the expert pilot did not have to become more narrow-minded in order to fulfill his own ambition.

A goal as simple as piloting every mech designed by Ves was not something that Joshua could fulfill better by sacrificing his humanity. It was therefore unnecessary for him to do so. In fact, considering his life domain, it was actually better if he lived a more balanced and fulfilling life!

Ultimately, the conclusion that Ves drew between comparing the two expert pilots was that the extent of their changes was largely determined by their individual conviction, ambition and goals.

The greater and more difficult their goals, the greater the extent to which they feel compelled to shed their humanity.

Ves began to recall his impressions of the other Larkinson expert pilots.

Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson was a more casual expert pilot and was similar to Venerable Joshua.

The light mech specialist also came across as normal.

He knew a bit less about Venerable Orfan, but the expert pilot was just as obnoxious as before.

As far as Ves knew, Rosa Orfan's greatest goal was to earn glory and make a name for herself. However, this was mostly a personal goal that did not put a lot of weight on her shoulders, so it should not be a surprise that her personality barely deviated from her previous self.

The same applied to Venerable Dise, though she was already a highly-dedicated mech pilot from the start. Her dedication to the sword was strong before she was an expert pilot and it had not noticeably changed after she broke through.

"Venerable Stark should be different, though." Ves guessed.

Though the comparison wasn't entirely apt, back when she was a broken and traumatized expert pilot, her conviction probably wasn't anything impressive. This also caused Davia Stark to be relatively weak and fragile among her peers. The fact the sandmen succeeded in breaking a strong-willed expert pilot was sufficient proof!

The new Venerable Stark was a completely different beast. After Venerable Brutus brought her on a soul-searching tour, she reinvented herself and set an undeniably greater and more difficult goal for herself!

As a consequence, she shed much of her human weaknesses along with other parts of her humanity such as her ability to love. All of this was necessary for her to go on a path of vengeance and take down the most powerful organizations in human space!

When Ves kept considering all of these individual cases, he finally understood the differences between expert pilots.

This left him with one interesting question.

"Are Joshua and Tusa weaker than Jannzi and Stark?"