The Mech Touch

"Companion spirits can change your life depending on what they can offer to you." Ves explained to Jovy. "They start off relatively weak but will quickly grow and adapt to your needs. It will take a lifetime for them to become formidable, but once you have reached this stage, you will find that you are much more individually capable than any of your peers!"

Ever since Ves arrived on the Simile Halifax, he had been waiting to present his friend and ally with dazzling possibilities.

Though Jovy's latest demand reduced the amount of choices that he could make, there were still a lot of ways that Ves could satisfy the MTA Journeyman!

The importance of providing this service could not be overstated. The more Ves interacted with the MTA, the more he valued the allies he made within this massive organization.

There was no way that Ves could navigate his relationship with the Association and its various factions smoothly if he did not have a trusted and reliable source of contact!

Ves may have managed to forge a good relationship with Master Willix, but the woman had not followed him to the Red Ocean. It was far too difficult to leverage this relationship now that they were separated by hundreds of thousands of light-years.

He wasn't that particularly close to the other mecher personalities that he had encountered since he entered the Red Ocean.

People like Master Dervidian may treat Ves nicely due to the value he provided, but their relationship was actually quite utilitarian.

Ves needed the help of an insider to actually convey what the MTA actually thought about him and what it was doing. There was no way he could easily obtain such valuable intelligence from acquaintances.

The existence of Jovy perfectly met his needs.

Jovy was younger than all of those older Masters who only had benefits and tradeoffs in their eyes.

He was also a Journeyman at the same level as Ves. Although their design philosophies differed, their journeys and struggles were roughly equivalent to each other.

That not only allowed them to understand and empathize with each other to a greater degree, but also presented them with the possibility of growing stronger together.

If both of them ever advanced to Master, their friendship would definitely be incredibly close due to all of the years they had known each other!

Due to this, Ves attached great importance to his gift to Jovy. A companion spirit could truly change one's life for the better, but the usefulness of a living spiritual construct was dependent on many factors.

Ves did not wish to botch this up by saddling Jovy with a relatively redundant companion spirit.

"I've created several different proposals based on the goals you wish to pursue and the problems you need help with solving." He continued to explain. "You can think of it as having access to a trusted and competent assistant that can keep up with your growth. This effectively allows you to overcome challenges by cooperating with yourself."

"I understand. Can you give me an example of what I can acquire?"

"Hmm, okay. Let's start with a relatively simple companion spirit." Ves waved his hand and activated a projection, which depicted the small form of an inspiring-looking flag.

He had based this 'companion spirit' on Rion Aaden's Banner of Vulcan.

Of course, Jovy's spiritual flag depicted the emblem of the MTA instead of any dwarven symbolism.

"I have tried my best to make it so that it conveys a touch of the design spirit it is based upon. Can you feel it, Jovy?"

The other man slowly nodded. "I do. The sensation resembles the glow of your bestselling Desolate Soldier model."

"Don't be deceived by its simple looks and effectiveness. It can inspire duty and loyalty in your fellow mechers and other people. It will be a lot easier for you to exercise your authority and get taken seriously by the masses. In the beginning, its effects will probably be little different from the glow of a Desolate Soldier. However, the more you use it for a particular purpose, the better it will be able to do its job. Perhaps you can one day use your companion spirit to obtain the allegiance of millions of your peers. You can also do it to convince your strongest opposition to work for the greater good of mankind."

Though Ves had no idea whether this proposed companion spirit could actually fulfill his exaggerated boasts, it was nice to dream!

Jovy didn't look impressed, though. He crossed his arms and shook his head.

"I am a mech designer, not a bureaucrat or politician. I don't need to rely on a companion spirit to inspire people to do their jobs. I can rely on the reputation, prestige and power of our Association for all of that! Besides, leading people is not my primary job. My main priority is to design mechs."

The MTA Journeyman made a good point. The Mech Trade Association's reputation was ironclad. Hardly anyone dared to defy the organization. It had built up a formidable amount of deterrence power through blood and thunder.

A duty-based companion spirit was largely redundant. It wasn't even all that useful against other mechers due to their strong mentality training.

Ves shrugged and moved on to his second proposal. He swiped his hand so that the projection switched from depicting a flag to a hammer.

"This is another possible companion spirit. This time, it is much more relevant to your primary responsibilities."

"What does it do? Must it always come in the form of a hammer?"

"You can specify the shape. If you don't want it to be an inanimate object, I can turn it into a cat or lizard. Even if you have already obtained a companion spirit, you can always encourage it to evolve it in another form if necessary."

"Ah. That is good, but how does this companion spirit add to my work?"

"If you have been checking up on me, you should know that I recently started the Creation Association to help craftsmen and artisans of all kinds. This proposed companion spirit can help unlock your creativity and help you generate new ideas for your work."

This sounded much more interesting to Jovy!

"I have seen how one of your glows can help you design and fabricate a mech much better than normal. You have an odd habit of hitting your head with a hammer just before doing that. Do you expect me to do the same with this intangible hammer?"

"Uh, that won't be necessary." Ves quickly replied. "The two of you will be tied for life. Your companion spirit is like a second half of yourself. You can directly affect each other without doing anything physical."

"That's reassuring, but… if I want to enjoy this effect myself, why don't I get a similar hammer to yours?"

Ves responded with a restrained smile. "There is only one hammer like it. I do have totems that can give you a weaker version of its effects, but they're not the same. This proposal is actually extremely generous on my part because I am giving you permanent, life-bound access to a companion spirit that can massively increase the quality of your output."

The biggest problem with this companion spirit was that it was potentially able to wield the power of Vulcan while not being tied to the incarnation!

There were lots of potential problems that could result from this, but Ves didn't care about them at the moment.

If Ves truly wanted to cultivate a close bond of trust with Jovy, then he needed to show a lot of sincerity.

For his part, Jovy genuinely looked conflicted. He felt an enormous attraction to a companion spirit that could inspire him to design better mechs and help him fabricate higher-quality machines by hand.

It was difficult for many mech designers to remain calm in the face of this temptation!

Jovy was not an average person, though. His mentality was a lot more stable than that of others. He was even sober enough to recognize the potential downsides to this companion spirit.

"This is a good option, but I am accustomed to relying on myself to recognize and solve any technical issues that I encounter in my work. I feel as if getting a new hammer that can solve many of my design problems will affect my own design abilities. It would be fatal for my design career if I develop a dependency on easy solutions. I don't need that much help in progressing my design philosophy."

"Understandable. That is also the same reason why I try to keep calm and collected."

The potential utility of the hammer companion spirit was high, but the pitfalls were a lot deeper as well. Jovy wanted to rely on his own capabilities to make progress and become a better mech designer.

This was a noble attitude and one that Ves could agree with. However, that also left him with less options than before.

Given Jovy's particular demands and preferences, Ves decided to present a risky and fairly dubious option.

He waved his hand again, causing the projection to display an eyeball.

"This is another companion spirit with higher potential than usual." Ves said. "I designed it in light of what I have learned about your design philosophy and your work."

"Oh?" Jovy grew a lot more intrigued. "Please tell me more. How does this eyeball companion help me manipulate probabilities."

"By giving you the answers in advance."

"Pardon?"

Ves smirked. "The concept is simple. I know that you have probably become good at judging how a pair of dice will roll or whether a lottery ticket will yield a prize. However, I bet that you can only estimate and maybe nudge the probabilities that only you can see, is that correct?"

"I… cannot say anything to your query. Much of my work is sensitive information."

"Oh. You can keep it general, then. Let's say that my guess about your design philosophy is right. If so, then you are wielding potent abilities that can help you avoid disasters while giving you greater opportunities to get ahead."

Jovy directed a deep stare at Ves.

For a moment, Ves wondered what his MTA buddy saw in him. Did his probability manipulation work directly on humans? Was Jovy able to recognize that he could gain great advantages by spending time with a particular second-class mech designer?

Whatever the case, Ves bet that the eyeball companion spirit was the perfect supplement to this ability!

Ves smiled. "The flaw of what you can possibly do is that probabilities can only estimate future outcomes. There are times when you make a decision that is successful 95 percent of the time, only for you to encounter failure as you end up with an outcome that only happens 5 percent of the time!"

"How can this strange eye help me with that?" Jovy skeptically asked.

"You have studied my Ylvainan mechs, right? You should already know that their design spirit has a tendency to read the future. I don't know how this works at all, but I can bestow a measure of this power to your companion spirit so that you may develop a better idea of what will happen in the future."

"How will this manifest, Ves?"

"To be honest, I don't have a solid idea. This proposal is a lot vaguer than the others because the nature of your companion spirit is a lot more difficult to understand. Perhaps you will develop a stronger intuition of which possible scenario will come true. Perhaps you can observe trends that will happen further into the future. Perhaps you become a lot more sensitive to bad luck and negative outcomes. Who knows."

"Does adopting this companion spirit also mean that I have to worship a religion?" Jovy frowned.

"Uhh… maybe. I'm not sure. Theoretically, you shouldn't need to, but it might probably help with developing the predictive powers of your companion spirit in a specific direction. I think it will be fine if you don't do anything with the Ylvainan Faith. You can just grow and develop your companion spirit in a secular manner."

Ves didn't actually know whether this could happen. The eyeball companion spirit was actually one of his riskier proposals!