The Mech Touch

Compared to Venerable Vincent Ricklin, Venerable Isobel Kotin was a much more sensible expert pilot.

Ves had not met her too many times, but in the few times he talked to her in the past, he gained the impression that she was a sensible and rational mech pilot. To him, her personality was similar to Commander Casella Ingvar.

The biggest difference was that Venerable Isobel did not invest her time in learning how to lead and command mech troops. Instead, Isobel fully committed herself to excelling in individual combat.

From the battle footage that Ves had studied, Venerable Isobel's fighting style and approach towards combat shared a lot of resemblances to how Venerable Brutus fought his enemies. Both of them were rifleman mechs that were capable of dueling strong opponents and fared best at mid-range combat.

However, no expert pilot was a carbon copy of another one. Each of them were unique.

Shaped by his upbringing and largely peaceful time in service, Venerable Brutus dedicated his life towards protecting his younger sister Gloriana and his closest family and friends.

This caused him to develop a fighting style that was not as sharp or aggressive as others. In combat, Venerable Brutus placed a high emphasis on evasion and mobility.

Although he was capable of hitting hard when necessary, compared to other rifleman mech specialists, it was clear that he had taken a more defensive and supportive approach towards combat.

Venerable Isobel took a different approach. Shaped by the infrequent but highly consequential battles against astral beasts and alien warships, she strengthened her determination to do whatever it took to slay these difficult enemies!

The pressure she was in and the circumstances she was operating under eventually led her to a powerful answer.

Fire.

When Ves entered her recovery room in the Dragon's Den, he could clearly sense the unstable but smoldering flames of her will.

The presence she exuded was quite restrained at the moment, but he had the feeling that Isobel could easily flip a switch and increase her temperature at any time!

"Patriarch."

"Good day, Venerable Isobel. Congratulations for your breakthrough. You advanced at just the right time. Not only did you help take down a lot of Phaser fish-whales, your addition to the Hall of Heroes also plugs a gap in our expert pilot roster."

The female expert pilot's condition was not as good as that of Venerable Vincent, but she was still sober enough to talk.

"I am happy to be of service. I worked hard to advance because of that. To be honest, I don't think I deserve much of the credit. The Quint has been guiding me in person for months. Together with whatever the Everchanger had done to me, the fire that I had been trying to kindle suddenly exploded while I was trying my hardest to kill those fat-bodied fish-whales."

Ves waved his hand. "Don't cheapen your achievements. There are many mech pilots who wouldn't have made any progress if they were placed in the same position as you. The help and assistance that we have provided to you may have given you a clearer path towards apotheosis, but in the end it is up to you to do the climbing. Your success proves you possess both the talent and the willingness to work hard to attain power beyond the reach of mortals. That is commendable regardless of the extenuating factors at play."

His words successfully settled Venerable Isobel's inner turbulence. Just because she was an expert pilot did not mean she was immune to doubts and uncertainty.

Ordinary sources of pressure no longer fazed those with stronger willpower, but any problems that exceeded their strengthened tolerance often hit their mentalities especially hard!

This was not his first time dealing with expert pilots, so Ves accurately diagnosed Venerable Isobel's lack of self-accomplishment and spoke the right words to restore her pride.

He truly meant what he said. Expert pilots were all exceptional people without doubt. Ves might not always look up to them as the common folk, but he respected their ability to persevere when others admitted weakness.

Venerable Isobel Kotin might not look that impressive at the moment, but the smoldering fire of her will possessed a core of strength that made it seem as if her flame could never be extinguished!

Ves and Isobel chatted for a bit about various topics. The discussion started from her personal experiences of the Battle of Purgatory and soon strayed to the role the Quint had played in her formative period as an expert candidate.

"The Quint is… not an easy living mech to handle." The slim, dark-haired woman chose her words carefully. "It possesses an irreverent attitude towards everybody. It doesn't respect you or Casella or myself at all. It also likes to poke and challenge me all the time. There are days where I dread my live practice sessions because I know I will have to endure a lot of snarky remarks and uncomfortable questions."

Ves leaned forward. This was interesting information. "Do you get the feeling that the Quint is doing it for your own good? I can never tell whether it is doing its best or if the darned mech is merely using its mission as an excuse to have fun at other people's expense."

The expert pilot's mouth twitched into a curl. She had spent a decent amount of time interfacing with the Quint, so she knew its personality quite well.

"I think that both of what you said is true, sir. I don't know why the Quint has grown so cranky. Maybe all of those hours standing still inside hangar bays has caused it to seek entertainment wherever possible."

"Ah. I understand."

It was Ves' fault. The Quint already shared a huge list of complaints to Ves, and many of them were symptoms of boredom.

As one of his oldest third-order living mechs, the masterwork Bright Warrior spent more time doing nothing than many other machines!

Although many people had the illusion that living mechs went to sleep as soon as the pilot powered them down, the truth was that they were still active to a degree.

The higher the order, the more spiritual they became. The Quint was already an existence comparable to design spirits and was therefore more perpetually aware.

All of those times the mech remained unused must have been little different from being locked in a prison cell! It was no wonder that its personality had grown crooked as a result!

Fortunately, Ves should have already alleviated the problem a few months ago. When he turned the Quint into a design spirit for the Enlightened Warrior model, the living mech could gain additional stimulation by interacting with many different mech pilots.

Of course, the damage was already done by now. The Quint had already grown and matured in a direction where it derived amusement from teasing its mech pilots. Isobel was merely its latest 'playmate'.

Ves asked a few more questions about Venerable Isobel's experiences with the Quint. He gained a better insight on the approach the Quint adopted to accelerate her progress.

It didn't sound as if the Quint was doing anything special or extraordinary. The living mech just took advantage of the man-machine connection to understand Isobel's mentality.

The Quint already hosted several expert pilots, so it could easily make comparisons and figure out what Isobel was lacking in the most compared to her betters.

Once it identified the issues it needed to address, the living mech simply relied on its words to guide Isobel in the right direction.

This was not a mysterious process at all. The only difficult part about it was that it was difficult to replicate this process through other means. Interfacing technology could be dangerous and it was quite risky for two people to meld their minds together for extended periods of time.

The only other method that Ves could think of that could achieve a similar result was by forming design networks.

Ves briefly wondered whether he or Gloriana could imitate the Quint through the design networks generated by Blinky and Alexandria.

Now that he thought about it, he could facilitate the growth of more than mech pilots.

Perhaps he could even apply a similar methodology towards mech designers, although he vaguely felt it was not as simple in this case.

Too much guidance led to contamination. Ves did not want to ruin the dreams and ambitions of younger mech designers by substituting their visions with his own. Diversity was good for the mech industry.

"Sir, if I may ask, what will I pilot now that I have 'graduated' from the Quint?"

"Hmm, we will need to think about it." Ves replied. "We probably can't give you anything better than a standard mech for the time being. We could allow you to continue to pilot the Quint, but that will rob another worthy Larkinson expert candidate of a precious opportunity to receive the living mech's guidance. I can only ask you to be patient and bear with the situation for 8 months or more. That is how long you need to wait before we can present you with an expert mech."

Venerable Isobel began to smile now that the conversation had turned to her future battle partner. Her flaming force of will grew hotter and more active as she imagined a powerful machine that could enable her to rain down fire towards her enemies!

"What will you design for me?" She asked. "How much can I specify?"

"Your expert mech is designed solely for you, so your input is important. Our goal is to design an expert mech that is not only comfortable for you, but is also able to draw out your full potential on the battlefield. Gloriana will visit you later and conduct multiple rounds of interviews and examinations on you. She's a professional in this. With your cooperation, she will soon be able to form a mech concept and generate a draft design that should hopefully align with your piloting style and personal preferences."

"I understand, sir. I will eagerly await her visit."

"If you want, we can get a head-start by exploring your initial wants and needs." Ves suggested. "First, let us confirm the mech type of your future expert mech. Do you intend to move away from piloting a rifleman mech?"

Venerable Isobel shook her head. "I can't imagine piloting anything else. I have trained and honed my marksmanship for so long that I don't want to switch to another weapon. A part of me feels like I can perform well in an expert striker mech, but that is too drastic of a change. Forget I said anything."

It was not difficult to understand why she took a fancy to striker mech. Her domain was overwhelmingly centered around fire, so piloting a mech type that was famed for wielding flamethrowers in battle sounded like a natural fit!

However, piloting a striker mech required a substantially different approach towards combat. Isobel wasn't willing to invalidate the piloting style and combat skills that she had developed for many years.

Even so, she still felt tangled. Her mind might prefer one answer, but her heart beckoned towards spreading as much heat and flames as possible!

Ves leaned forward and placed his hand on her arm. "Hey, don't give up too soon. One of the most important lessons that people like you and me can learn is that expert mechs don't play by the rules. Expert mechs don't have to stick to a single mech archetype, you know. Depending on the design budget, the capabilities of the mech designers as well as the availability of quality resources and mech components, it is not impossible to design a second-class expert mech that functions as both a rifleman mech and a striker mech!"

Isobel immediately became excited!

"Really, sir?! Are you truly willing to design an expert mech that combines the power of both a rifleman mech and a striker mech in a single frame?!"

"Anything is possible. It is just a matter of how much we are willing to invest in the development of your expert mech. It just so happens that we are returning to Davute with an enormous haul of phasewater and MTA merits. Our clan can afford to splurge a bit this time. Let's discuss how we can best design an expert mech that is powerful enough to satisfy your wishes but also practical enough for us to be able to deliver the end product to you in a year."