The Mech Touch

Though Ves still felt pissed about Ketis going behind his back, he did not quibble too much over her crimes. He was much more concerned about her health and safety. Getting to the bottom of this mattered a lot more than anything trivial.

As Ketis took her seat, Ves recalled that she had an accomplice.

"Lucky."

"Meow?"

"Do you know what you have done?"

"Meow?"

"Just because you have a good relationship with her doesn't mean you should listen to her whenever she wants you to take action! I'll deal with you later."

"Meow." Lucky rolled his body away from Ves and took a nap without exhibiting any concern!

Ves rolled his eyes at his cat's behavior, but he did not linger too long on this issue. He turned his attention back to Ketis and studied her form a bit deeper.

"Before we go any further, I'd like to examine you. Can you show me Sharpie? I can sense that your companion spirit has undergone substantial changes. It has a different feel to my senses."

Sharpie appeared out of Ketis' floating greatsword. Initially, the spirit looked like a miniature greatsword.

However, upon receiving a silent signal, Sharpie morphed into a downsized version of Ketis!

"What?!"

Ves almost stood up as he observed the changes!

Though he was quite aware that spiritual 'matter' was morphable and never as solid as real matter, he still became surprised by how Sharpie was able to change forms so drastically.

From what he learned about spirituality, the shape and appearance of spiritual entities directly reflected their identities. It was insanely difficult for such beings to change shape as that would entail a direct change of the essence of their own being.

Before, Sharpie adopted the shape of a sword, which said a lot on how it perceived itself. Sharpie was the living sword that Ketis always carried in her mind. It was the personification of her will to succeed and cut everything in her way.

This was a simple enough interpretation for Ves to figure out. Now that Sharpie was not only able to change shape, but also adopt a form that was a lot more complex in nature, how was he supposed to interpret this bizarre change?

The newly-evolved Sharpie did not hover around and do nothing. It, no, she directly preened in front of Ves while swinging her tiny greatsword as if to show off her might.

Due to her diminutive size, Sharpie looked like a toddler swinging around a toy sword. She looked rather cute if not for the fact that she was an extraordinary companion spirit that was also the source of Ketis' swordmaster powers!

If that wasn't surprising enough, Sharpie unveiled another little surprise!

"Sharp! Sharp! Sharp!"

"Huh?!"

Ves looked shocked at Sharpie!

This wasn't because Sharpie was able to communicate. Many spiritual entities were able to convey meaning to others.

The problem was that as intangible existences that could not meaningfully affect the material realm, they were incapable of creating actual sounds.

That would require them to gain the strength, ability or knowledge to affect the material realm in a way that allowed them to vibrate the molecules in a volume of gas or liquid.

Perhaps the Superior Mother was able to do that due to her sophisticated techniques and brilliant methods of leveraging her strength, but she had never demonstrated this capacity so far. It was far more strenuous than just conveying her thoughts directly to a receptive individual such as Ves.

This was why Sharpie was such an anomaly. The fact that she was able to create actual sounds was already notable, but what truly caught his attention was that the companion spirit did not look as if she had grown tired!

"It's a willpower thing." Ketis explained when she saw his confusion. "I was surprised as well that Sharpie is able to speak like this. After examining her for a few minutes, I figured out that she can use our willpower to bend reality so that she can exert pressure onto air molecules."

"Sharp Sharp Sharp!"

"Can Sharpie say anything more than that?" Ves asked.

"No." Ketis regrettably shook her head. "Believe me, I tried. I don't know what is wrong, but I am sure that Sharpie will be able to expand her vocabulary once she grows stronger. Right now, she is too new to her human form. She needs time to adapt and consolidate her latest round of changes."

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin as he looked at Sharpie with an intrigued expression.

"There has to be more to Sharpie's evolution than just a shape change. What else did she gain?"

"Well, she can do this." Ketis smirked.

"Sharp! Sharp!" The cute mini-Ketis kept repeating the same word as she started to demonstrate the moves of the Annihilator Sword Style.

The doll-like spiritual entity did not just imitate the form of the style. She actually changed her demeanor so that she better aligned with the destructive sword style before her intangible blade actually glowed in an ominous dark corona.

Sharpie then dove with her tiny greatsword, causing her to penetrate the reinforced deck of Ves' office!

"HEY! Don't damage my ship!"

"Sharp! Sharp!"

Though Sharpie looked a bit more tired than before, Ves was still impressed by what the little companion spirit had accomplished.

Sharpie was able to deal a substantial amount of damage in the material realm by relying on her inherent capabilities.

She did not make use of the Bloodsinger. She did not channel her power through Ketis. She did not leverage the power of a mech.

It was all her! The companion spirit was able to inflict actual damage without any assistance, which meant that she had gained real bite this time!

This meant that even if Ketis was captured and restrained in almost every way, as long as her force of will was still intact, Sharpie would be able to create a bloodbath all by herself!

"This is a useful development!" Ves gasped. "Well, I don't think you will actually need Sharpie to do any fighting, but she is still a handy option to have in emergencies."

Only Blinky could match what Sharpie had just done, but that was only in the case where Ves channeled his powerful Worclaw energy through his companion spirit.

Mrow~

Blinky appeared from Ves' mind and curiously floated towards Sharpie.

"Sharp."

Sharpie stopped swinging her tiny blade and flew over to Blinky in order to huge the relatively large cat!

Mrow mrow~

The sight looked rather silly to Ves and Ketis. To them, it was like a miniature human was embracing a miniature tiger.

Ketis giggled a bit. "They look cute."

"They're far more powerful than they appear." Ves seriously said. "Blinky is no slouch, but your new Sharpie is much more useful now that she has adopted a human form. Can I ask why you evolved her in this direction? I thought with your personality, you would have chosen to turn Sharpie into an even sharper and better sword."

"That was my original plan as well, but I thought it was too simple for me. This will take a bit of explaining. Earlier, I hinted that being a Journeyman and a swordmaster isn't necessarily a paradise. Sure, I have more power in my hands than anyone else at this stage, but I am constantly split between the mentality of a mech designer and the mentality of a swordmaster. They are practically polar opposites when it comes to how you perceive reality and how you want to manipulate it. The further I progressed, the more I struggled with this dichotomy. The latest problem that I experienced finally prompted me to take drastic action."

"Did you succeed? Does Sharpie's new form help you with dealing with your split focus?"

Ketis smiled and nodded. "Definitely. Let me explain it to you with the help of an analogy. Let's say that I run a small traditional restaurant. Before, worked as both the chef and the waiter of my business. On one hand, I had to manage the ingredients and cook the meals. On the other hand, I had to serve the dishes and fulfill customer requests. These are two substantially different jobs, and while I was managing to keep up with the transitions, I never wore any of my hats long enough to concentrate on any of my jobs for too long."

"I see." Ves understood the gist of her story. "If you keep cooking and serving dishes in quick succession, you can never excel at any of the two jobs. The quality of your meals won't be able to increase as much."

"That's right. My answer to this problem is to bring in additional help. Since I primarily like to be a 'cook', I chose to concentrate more on my mech design activities and shift most of my preoccupation with swordsmanship to Sharpie."

"It's as if you hired a serving bot!" Ves remarked.

This was a brilliant solution!

However, Ketis shook her head. "Not exactly. Sharpie is not a mere bot. I did not hire a waiter either. Instead… you could say that I cloned myself and handed off the responsibility of serving customers to my clone."

That was indeed a more accurate description of what Ketis had done. When Ves studied Sharpie in a different light, he became impressed by how human she looked.

Though Sharpie had not yet reached the same level as a human, Ves could foresee a time when she could evolve once again and turn into a more complete form of life, equivalent to that of his third-order living mechs!

"So how did Sharpie evolving to this form solve your original doubts?" He asked.

This was a bit unclear to him at the moment.

"The order is wrong. I first used your Aspect of Tranquility and Aspect of Healing to know myself better and gain a clearer picture of what I was struggling with. I then used the Aspect of Transcendence to accelerate the process of resolving my doubts. When that happened, my swordmaster persona gained a boost of power which I purposed into altering Sharpie's nature. If I hadn't hit a minor bottleneck, the process of transforming Sharpie would have probably taken longer if it was possible to do so at all. Do you understand?"

"I think I do." Ves said as he became thoughtful again.

What happened to Ketis was outside of his knowledge base. Companion spirits were still new and several different variations existed. Sharpie was different from the rest in that she did not solely consist of spiritual energy but was also made up of extraordinary willpower.

This caused Sharpie to follow a mutated trajectory which had less in common with the normal progression of other companion spirits such as Blinky and Alexandria.

Ves lowered his head. "I can't give you any advice. I hardly know what I am doing with companion spirits and I still haven't seen how far they could go. What you have managed to do with Sharpie is unprecedented. You are a trailblazer, which means you need to forge your own way forward by yourself. I think I understand a bit better why you took action on your own. No one can tell you what you should do. If even I don't have a clue what is going on, then I doubt that there is a second person that can provide guidance."

"It's fine. I am used to it. I am confident that I can overcome all of the challenges that I will meet. This is just the first of many tests. With Sharpie in her new and more autonomous form, her ability to solve her own problems is much greater than before. She's like a second consciousness in my mind!"

That caused Ves to lose a bit of his elation. When Ketis described Sharpie in this manner, he developed a new concern.

"Are you saying that Sharpie has a more independent companion spirit?"

"Yes. She's become a lot more human than before. Why? Is that wrong?"

"What will happen if she evolves into a 'human' that becomes stronger than you? Will 'Sharpie' be content to allow you to keep inhabiting your own body?"

"Huh?"