The Mech Touch

As Ves began to wonder what he should do now that he achieved a strange result, Gloriana couldn't take it any longer.

The new mother softly patted her baby who was sleeping soundly against her body. She checked to make sure that Aurelia was covered by a moderate sound isolation barrier before she opened up her mouth.

"You need to cut it out, Ves! You've made your attempt. Don't waste your time on forcing out a positive result. The more you experiment, the more you are getting sidetracked. You're not only getting further away from achieving your goal, but you're also distracting the rest of us from doing our jobs. Don't ruin this fabrication run! There's nothing wrong with adopting the same approach as before!"

Her words woke Ves up from his obsession. He became aware that he had completely stopped his work in order to focus on what he could accomplish with Venerable Joshua.

Though he was happy that he discovered a new interaction, it didn't yield any productive outcomes.

Though Venerable Joshua was compatible with different life forms and Blinky was capable of dealing with different kinds of energy, the resonance they produced was weak and incomparable to the true resonance that an expert pilot was able to produce with an expert mech.

This was not an odd outcome now that Ves thought about it. Expert mechs were explicitly designed for the purpose. Their entire design was made to enable and maximize this phenomenon.

Blinky was just a spiritual cat. He was not designed to resonate with an expert pilot at all. His insubstantial form did not contain any resonating exotics that Joshua could latch on to generate systematic resonance.

In other words, what Venerable Joshua managed to accomplish with Blinkyy was accidental. It had nothing to do with the benefits that Ves was hoping to obtain.

Ves rapidly thought about what was happening and what he could do to achieve a useful result. Despite Gloriana's warning, he had no intention of stopping at this point. He intuitively sensed that he was on the right track. He just needed to change the variables in order to achieve a more desirable outcome.

He put his thoughts in order and considered the current data.

When Venerable Joshua attempted to resonate with his design seed, the latter reacted with a powerful rejection.

When Venerable Joshua attempted to resonate with Blinky, both of them produced a tentative but useless harmony.

What if… Ves tried to accomplish the former but through a detour?

If Blinky acted as a medium for Venerable Joshua to channel his willpower, Ves might be able to accomplish effective resonance by commanding his companion spirit to embrace his design seed.

"This… sounds a bit iffy."

Ves already encountered an initial rejection. He was afraid that his second attempt might deal actual damage to his design seed!

The risks were too great this time. Ves could not afford to put his entire mech design career at risk just because he wanted to try out an experiment!

Though the potential payoff was big, it was not crucial to Ves. His life wasn't on the line this time, so there was no need for him to go to such extremes.

Besides, Ves lacked theoretical support for this idea. He was not able to predict what might happen if Joshua resonated with his design seed with the help of Blinky.

He let out a deep breath as he dropped his current train of thought. Perhaps the justifiable caution and concern transmitted by Gloriana through the design network had played a role in waking him up from his crazy ideas. Whatever the case, he lost some of the extreme hopes and excitement that drove him to consider the notion of messing with his design seed in the first place.

"What now?"

Neither Ves nor Venerable Joshua had a solid idea on how to proceed. Though the latter kept resonating with Blinky, absolutely nothing happened aside from making him glow a bit brighter.

If he wasn't able to come up with an alternative idea, then he would have no choice but to follow Gloriana's advice. He was already falling behind schedule. If he continued to squander his time on one failed experiment after another, then he would lose his momentum and resume his ordinary work without the support of his previously high passion and morale.

Ves imagined that he had reached the edge of a cliff. When he looked down, he saw nothing but darkness and fog. Endless treasures might be resting down below, but the obscuring fog could also be hiding a lot of monsters!

Should he take the plunge or walk back from the edge before it was too late?

He fell into a difficult dilemma. As a consummate risk taker, it was in his nature to take any gamble he found reasonable enough. Yet right now Ves wasn't able to come up with any new ideas that could allow him to take advantage of the special conditions that were in effect at the moment.

"I need inspiration…"

Suddenly, a light shone in his mind.

"Wait a minute."

Ves withdrew the Hammer of Brilliance that was hanging on the side of his toolbelt. He looked at it with a promising glint in his eyes.

"Let's see if this works."

He did not hesitate any longer. After taking another deep breath, he lightly bonked his head with the flat side of his hammer!

Instantly, his head began to glow in bronze. Vulcan's power took effect, causing Ves to enter into a false inspired state that massively boosted his thinking in several ways!

His logic, deduction, memory, pattern recognition and many other mental capabilities experienced a significant jump!

It was difficult for Ves to describe the degree of improvement that he was currently benefiting from, but it was not an exaggeration to say he became 50 percent smarter!

As thinking improved, a lot of observations, assumptions and whimsical guesses blended together and spat out a number of promising ideas!

Ves immediately grasped onto the most promising one. "I see. Maybe there is a use for this effect after all. I'm just looking at it the wrong way. Blinky! Follow my lead!"

Mrow!

Ves directed his attention back to the production machine that he had previously been using to synthesize the luminar crystals needed to assemble the Chimera Project's mech rifle.

Gloriana and the other two mech designers relaxed when they saw that Ves had resumed his work. His mood had also stabilized after he had whacked himself with his hammer.

The atmosphere in the mech workshop became a lot more harmonious as everyone focused on their respective tasks while borrowing each other's strengths.

The only difference was that Ves did not approach his work in a normal fashion.

On the surface, he was indeed fabricating the parts that he was assigned to make.

What wasn't as obvious was that Blinky played an active role this time. While the companion spirit hadn't activated his design network, he was currently serving as a target for Venerable Joshua to produce resonance.

On its own, this resonance did not do anything. Yet Ves did not discount this phenomenon this time. He performed an additional action in the hopes of achieving a productive result.

He attempted to imprint the parts he was making with the resonance produced by Joshua and Blinky.

Ves theorized that this might induce a reaction that could cause the parts to become more in tune with Joshua. This would hopefully make it easier for the expert pilot to resonate with them when they were integrated in an expert mech!

It was not the kind of synergy that Ves initially hoped to produce by combining forces with his favorite expert pilot, but he did not look down on any form of progress.

Trying out a new idea and doing his best to add greater strength to the Chimera Project was key to increasing its combat power!

Even if this was not directly correlated to turning the expert mech into a masterwork, a solid success could do wonders in increasing his mood, thereby indirectly improving his output!

"Joshua, you're doing a good job, but I need you to do more." Ves instructed as he began to work with his current idea. "While I am synthesizing these luminar crystals, try to reach out and imprint yourself on them. They will be used to make the Chimera Project's mech rifle, so the more you can attune yourself to them, the greater the power you can exert when you fire it in battle! The best result is that you can match the Amaranto's firepower!"

To be honest, Ves was exaggerating a bit. The Chimera Project's luminar crystal rifle was smaller, weaker, less energy intensive and easier to handle. It was designed for mid-range strafing actions and high-speed dogfights. Its maximum output wasn't great but its firing rate made up for it. Even so, the variable known as true resonance could always change these properties!

Venerable Joshua became excited when he heard that he could make the rifle that his life would be depending on a little stronger.

Although he didn't understand what was going through Ves' mind and how this all worked, the expert pilot put his complete faith in the mech designer who tried so hard to make his machine stronger.

Slowly but surely, Ves produced several large luminar crystals that he would assemble into a functional mech rifle at a later stage.

When Ves closely studied the parts, he saw that they were all alive in a way that only he could make them. If Gloriana attempted to make the same parts, she wouldn't be able to impart as much life into them even if she had the assistance of a design network.

What disappointed Ves was that the crystals he made didn't contain more life than usual. Even without making use of the unusual resonance generated by Venerable Joshua, the crystals wouldn't be any weaker.

"This can't be. There has to be a difference!"

Ves took a closer look at his recent output. When he extended his spiritual senses and examined their living qualities, he eventually perceived a subtle difference.

Their spiritual character was a little different. When Ves compared them to Joshua's signature, he developed the suspicion that they had become a bit more aligned to the expert pilot!

Could it be that he had managed to accomplish his objective? Would the changes to their spiritual character allow Venerable Joshua to resonate with them to a greater degree?

Ves wasn't sure about this conclusion, but he had a hunch that this was definitely a positive change!

"It's working." He grinned as he presented his thoughts in an optimistic light. "We've come up with a new way to improve a mech. Stay focused and keep resonating with Blinky while thinking about making all of these parts more familiar with your willpower. I will explain what each of the components I'm making is supposed to do while I make them. That way, we will both achieve the greatest possible cooperation!"

The expert pilot grew more hopeful. "I'll try my best to keep this up and be of use. It has always been my dream to help you make my mech stronger!"

The two proceeded to work alongside each other without any further incidents. Ves was already satisfied with the results he achieved and did not think it was fruitful to chase after further nebulous rewards.

He instead directed most of the benefits he gained from bonking himself with his hammer towards his more routine work.

Several days passed by as both Ves and Joshua maintained their good vibes.

As time went by, Joshua found that it became easier for him to maintain his resonating state with Blinky. After all, the companion spirit was much smaller than a mech and did not contain any resonating materials that transformed energy into other effects.

The more Venerable Joshua channeled his power through Blinky, the more he became familiar with the spiritual cat. At some point, he began to develop his own ideas…