The Mech Touch

Before this point, Ves had been trying to ease Gregory Haloscar into the world of living mechs.

As someone who had gone through multiple Mastery experiences and interacted with lots of mech pilots throughout his career, Ves knew that their capacity to embrace new concepts was limited.

Mech pilots were rather contradictory creatures in his eyes.

On one hand, the well-trained and more experienced individuals among them were able to cope with various difficult and unexpected situations on the battlefield. Whether it was fighting while outnumbered or responding to a sudden ambush, as long as they were willing to do their duty, they could put up a stiff resistance regardless of the odds!

On the other hand, mech pilots often experienced difficulties in getting used to changes outside the battlefield. They were especially sensitive towards anything that had to do with the mechs they piloted. Since they entrusted their lives and future to their machines, they often had a tendency to stick with what worked.

Even if radical innovations promised to increase their battle effectiveness by a huge margin, they still reacted with wariness and hesitation towards any changes outside of their understanding.

Though Ves didn't think that Gregory was a close-minded mech pilot, there was no need to push him to his breaking point.

However, after fighting two matches with the Pontifical Lance, Gregory should have made significant progress in adapting to his living mech. The man's performance against the Lighthouse Keeper showed that he had already surpassed a certain threshold.

This gave Ves the confidence to implement additional measures.

"I'm not sure if the last mech you will have to fight against will be close to the Dominant or the Lighthouse Keeper in strength, but we need to make sure that you are equipped to defeat any opponent." Ves told the mech pilot. "This is why I want to take the opportunity to strengthen the Pontifical Lance even further."

"Is that even possible, sir? You don't have access to a Korok Alpha KA-35 this time. It's too late to fabricate additional parts."

"What I want to do won't require any physical modifications." Ves shook his head. "Just wait. The first step won't take long."

He approached his Pontifical Lance that had only suffered light damage that was easily repairable this time. He placed his palm against the exterior of the lancer mech and began to enhance its spiritual foundation with Ylvaine's assistance.

The design spirit was doing better these days but the spiritual feedback he received was still on the lower end. That said, Ylvaine did not hesitate to donate a portion of his strength to enhance the Pontifical Lance in a vague and indescribable fashion.

Since the Pontifical Lance did not incorporate any prime materials, it could not be pumped with an excessive amount of spiritual energy. Ves didn't even want to go that far because it was way too attention-grabbing and exerted too much strain on low-ranking mech pilots.

He briefly glanced towards Gregory and confirmed that he was a typical spiritually dim mech pilot.

Although Gregory possessed no talent as far as spirituality went, that also meant he was relatively insensitive towards spiritual pressure.

Ves chose to continue pumping up the Pontifical Lance until its spiritual foundation had reached a degree that people like Gregory could somewhat tolerate. That corresponded to around 50 Ves, which was enough to be discomforting if the relationship between mech and mech pilot wasn't good.

Although Ves could technically make his mech more powerful, it was too risky to do so. Any mistake could easily lead the mech to dealing serious mental damage to Gregory, and that would pretty much ruin everything. There was no better way for a mech designer to turn himself into a pariah by harming his own clients!

In any case, Gregory Haloscar was still a novice when it came to dealing with living mechs, so piloting a mech with 50 Ves was more than enough for his needs at the moment!

Even though the mech pilot lacked spiritual sensitivity, he was able to feel that the mech he piloted had changed in some way.

"What did you do?" He asked when Ves was done with this step.

"Nothing much. I just fine-tuned its most distinctive trait. Once you pilot your mech again, you will find out that your partner has grown much stronger than before. Don't be afraid. The mech is your friend and can lend you even greater strength than before."

Enhancing the spiritual foundation of the Pontifical Lance mainly provided it with greater growth potential, but this was a relatively useless benefit in this context.

What Ves mainly cared about was boosting its overall living qualities even further. Ylvaine was able to channel his strength through the mech to a stronger degree, especially when he was the source of the strengthening.

Ves continued to tweak the Pontifical Lance's spiritual design in the time that he had left. He did not make any drastic changes or add any new features. Instead, he worked on altering or improving several details.

"The Pontifical Lance has become stronger now, so it is absolutely essential that you remain in sync with it." He explained to Gregory. "The consequences of clashing with your own machine are much greater this time. The lancer mech may be a little more overbearing this time, but remember that its main goal is to seek a path towards victory. You must trust its judgment. It's best if you surrender to it entirely."

That was all he could say before the third round was about to commence. Ves and the other mech designers moved to the familiar spectating platform.

The third and final round would decide everything. A good win could propel them into the top 10 while a defeat might sink their chances.

It was already clear that a few contestants did not care too much about this round at all. Their mechs had already achieved two easy wins. A third victory might grant them a better score, but this was merely icing on the cake.

There were also mech designers whose works lost twice. The weakness of their machines couldn't be hidden and there was no way they could break into the upper ranks with only one good score.

The people who were most nervous about this stage of the tournament were mech designers like Ves. With one victory and one defeat in their name, they had no buffer to fall back upon if their mech lost another match.

"I can't lose again!"

Surprisingly enough, most of the audience were still present. Although a proportion of them had left because they were unable or unwilling to witness an event for so many hours, there were still plenty of people who wanted to witness the final outcome of this tournament.

Maikel yawned.

"I'm excited to see the Pontifical Lance in action one more time, but I wished we didn't have to wait so long."

"Meow."

Lucky yawned with him as well as the cat rested on the young man's lap.

Rennie shook her head at Maikel. "I'm the opposite from you. I haven't seen enough at all. Our clan patriarch only designed his mech in 9 hours. That's way too short."

"There are other brilliant mech designers here who have taught a few lessons as well." Maisie Ann concurred. "We should attend a longer design tournament next time."

"Which mech will the Pontifical Lance fight against next?" Zanthar asked.

"I don't know. We'll find out soon enough, I guess. Let's keep track of every good mech that enters the arena. If they show up before the Pontifical Lance, that means they're not going to be a threat."

The four Larkinson seeds kept note of the mechs that entered the arena in batches of 8. They all felt a little more relieved when powerful machines such as those designed by the centrists or particularly old mech designers like Michael Arven Emistes fought their third matches.

Previously, the Pontifical Lance didn't have to wait long before it was called to the arena.

That didn't happen this time. More than half of the competition mechs had fought their third bouts, but the lancer mech still had to wait in the back.

It was only until there were about two-dozen competition mechs left that the Pontifical Lance was finally called to demonstrate its might for the last time!

[And now, in the first arena, the magnificent Pontifical Lance designed by Ves Larkinson shall face its greatest challenge yet! The swift and tough Phazeon designed by Katien Tievos must do its best to avoid getting impaled!]

"What?!" Ves blurted out!

How could this happen?! The odds that he would match up against a centrist was already small. He never expected that he would have to pit his work against the mech developed by another powerful mech designer from the galactic center!

This random draw was ridiculous. Ves briefly suspected that the matching procedure had been rigged, but he quickly dismissed this ridiculous idea.

The Mech Trade Association governed every tournament that took place in the Vulit Central Star Node. Their presence was ubiquitous and there was no way the mechers would ever sully the sanctity of a design tournament by tampering with the algorithms that determined the matchups.

Besides, if Ves voiced this stupid notion in public, he would quickly get on the bad side of a lot of people.

"This matchup has already been announced, so it's useless for me to linger over it. There is nothing I can do that can make this better."

He just suffered a spell of bad luck, that was all. Just because the chance of facing off against two centrists was almost zero didn't mean it was nonexistent!

"I need to learn some of Jovy's mojo. He probably has a way of avoiding low-probability events like these." Ves muttered under his breath.

Some of the mech designers around him were already shaking their heads in sympathy.

Against a big and sluggish mech, the Pontifical Lance only had to drive its lance forward as hard as possible.

Against a light skirmisher, it was seriously doubtful whether the lancer mech could even come close to such an agile machine!

What was worse was that the Phazeon was unquestionably the best light mech in the tournament. Just like the Dominant, it was strong in multiple aspects.

First, its mobility ranked close to the top. Where there was an even faster light mech in the tournament, the Phazeon possessed an additional crucial advantage.

Katien Tievos wasn't actually a light mech specialist. Instead, she excelled in defensive systems. She adopted a special armor system to the Phazeon that caused its exterior to exhibit some of the properties of non-Newtonian fluids.

To put it simply, the Phazeon's armor resembled glue. It was lightweight but responded remarkably effectively against different damage types.

By combining superior mobility with superior defense, the Phazeon turned into a marauder mech that could easily outlast most opponents without ever incurring any greater risks!

The Phazeon already won two crushing victories, but that didn't mean that its mech pilot was willing to take it easy. There was still a chance for Katien to reach a higher ranking by exceeding one of her existing scores!

It just so happened that light mechs were natural counters to lancer mechs. As long as the Phazeon took advantage of this dynamic, it could easily achieve a crushing victory!

That said, the Pontifical Lance was still a formidable machine in its own right. If the Phazeon made one mistake, the lancer mech could capitalize on it with devastating effectiveness.

Due to the earlier spotline that had shone on Ves, the female mech designer briefly spoke with her rival.

"May the best mech win."

"May the best mech and mech pilot win." Ves politely responded.

Two different mechs gathered in the first arena. The contrast between the two machines attracted a lot of attention from the audience.

The Pontifical Lance was hefty and looked as if it contained a lot of raw might.

The Phazeon was light and airy in a way that made it seem untouchable.

Soon enough, one would eliminate the other.