The Mech Touch

Gloriana spent weeks developing her new concept.

In order to design and make an expert mech that could become the beginnings of a god body, she took advantage of the Larkinson Clan's intimacy with numerous proto-gods.

What better way to understand gods and how to make them in the form of mechs than to receive assistance from the real thing?

Not just Helena, but numerous other proto-gods also pitched in to help her achieve her ambitious goal.

Design spirits such as Qilanxo and Goldie pitched in as well and granted Gloriana the theoretical understanding she needed to complete her new method.

More importantly, Bravo also cooperated with her in various ways. The design spirit was more invested in Gloriana's endeavor than others because the C-Man would become a lot stronger if she succeeded.

Although not all of the design spirits were as easy to communicate with as Helena, Gloriana was able to make do. Sometimes she made use of Alexandria's design network in order to communicate and convey meaning on a more direct level.

Gloriana made rapid progress every day. Her passion ran high as she overcame one challenge after another and came one step closer to completing her new method and approach for high-ranking mech designs.

One of the more difficult and challenging requirements of realizing a god body was to develop a mechanism that enabled its physical form to evolve and transcend on its own.

Gloriana did not especially aim to strengthen the intangible half of a living mech. That was her husband's specialty. It was doubtful that she could do any better, and even if she did, their work would overlap too much to produce much synergy.

In order to avoid stepping on Ves' toes, Gloriana primarily focused her attention on developing a mechanism that relied on extraordinary processes to transform a mech's physical structure into a god body.

She knew that it was already possible for metaphysical phenomena to strengthen products in a physical manner.

For example, masterwork mechs!

An incredibly daring and radical notion suddenly came across her mind.

"What if… my god body concept gradually allow my mechs to transform into masterwork mechs and beyond on their own? What if it is no longer necessary to get everything right from the start?"

Gloriana was completely shocked by this bold and daring notion.

If anyone else heard what she had just imagined, then they would definitely call her crazy!

Masterwork mechs were rare and special exactly because the conditions to make them were so harsh. Mech designers and fabricators could spend their entire lives chasing after them but never succeed because they fell short or never attained the luck necessary for their works to reach beyond the mundane.

However, who was Gloriana? She was a six-fold masterwork mech designer!

Not only that, she attained this status while she was still a Journeyman in her thirties!

She wasn't as old and set in her ways as other masterwork mech designers. She might not be as knowledgeable and experienced as her older peers, but she was far more flexible and open to subversive and counterintuitive ideas as a result!

The notion of designing and making an expert mech that could automatically transform into a masterwork mech and perhaps even a grand mech did not sound ludicrous in her opinion!

This was because she became increasingly more certain that she could establish such a mechanism!

"Even if I can't do it yet as a Journeyman, I will surely be able to make it happen in the future!"

This was her conviction as a mech designer! Just because other people could not accomplish this goal did not mean that Gloriana was unable to make any progress.

It was better to try and see if she could make anything happen. Even if her initial attempts failed to achieve her intended purpose, she would still be able to learn from the experience and produce a better result in the future.

As Gloriana fleshed out her new method, she soon began to think about how she could turn a physical mech into a more effective and efficient receiver of divine energy.

"We are gods because when people direct their worship towards us, we can capture what they freely offer to us." Helena explained to Gloriana during a design session.

"I understand that, Helena, but how can this connection take shape? How can people direct their worship to the right subject? There are many people who are called Helena in human space. There are many gods who bear this name as well. What ensures that they do not worship the wrong death goddess?"

The self-proclaimed Daughter of Death scrunched her intangible face. "Those are really difficult questions, Gloriana. You're asking questions about matters that are completely natural and instinctive towards my kind. My head is already starting to ache. If you weren't my brother's sweetheart, I would never cooperate with you on your quest."

Fortunately, the two were related, so Helena was still open to cooperation.

After a brief discussion, Gloriana finally learned what she needed to know.

"So each god is a unique existence that possesses its own marker. This marker is what identifies you and makes sure that whenever people think of you, they will reach out to the correct subject. It is much like an address in that sense."

"Yes."

"Then what I need to add to my next mech is simple. I will have to design and place a unique 'divine marker' to my mech so that it can gain one of the most essential functions of a god body!"

Gloriana's idea was rather simple. Since gods sustained their existence with the help of unique markers, she wanted to create an artificial version onto a mech that she had already primed to behave like a god in physical form.

The addition of a divine marker might be the catalyst that her upcoming mech design needed in order to make her idea come to life!

It was like setting up a person to become a king but not being able to bestow the legitimacy of one. In history, such false kings were known as pretenders, and they rarely succeeded in becoming true monarchs.

What Gloriana attempted to accomplish was to set up a pretender king but also put a crown on his head.

The addition of a crown might not single-handedly turn a pretender into the real deal, but it made the false king look more dignified.

As long as the crown bearer kept convincing more and more people to acknowledge him as the only true king, the pretender may ultimately receive enough recognition to turn falsehood into truth!

This was exactly the sort of dynamic that she was aiming to achieve with the C-Man!

She might be aiming to produce a mech that matched the description of a god body, but she knew quite well that she was probably unable to make one right from the start.

This was not necessarily a hindrance, because she took a page from Ves' book and intended to create a seed at first. A god body seed!

"The power of growth can be used to strengthen many existences. Why shouldn't it apply to a god body?"

Gloriana combined everything she had learned and come up with for the past week into a complicated implementation that required a lot of additional design work and problem solving.

One particularly difficult challenge was to make a valid divine marker. It turned out that while it was easy to make an intangible marker, it was a lot harder to translate it into a physical form.

When she conducted a few experiments by making trinkets that were similar to totems, she realized that placing a single divine marker on a mech would not be enough.

"If I place a single divine marker onto an armor plate of a mech, any effects will likely remain contained within this component."

Whether this was because her implementation of a divine  marker was too flawed and rudimentary or because the entire concept was insufficient, Gloriana couldn't tell.

She did not let this problem hinder her efforts for long.

"If one divine marker isn't enough, then I'll add two. If two divine  markers are not enough, then I'll add four!"

She initially thought about spreading a dozen or so across the frame of her mech, but then came up with a notion that was even more extreme.

"What if I add a divine  marker to every single component?"

According to her theoretical framework, there should be no rule that prohibited this action. Instead, it might facilitate the transformation of a mech into a god body because a mech would carry a lot more receivers than normal!

Gloriana quickly adjusted her mech design and added the unique marker she developed of the C-Man onto every single mech part.

Every armor plate, every structural component, every pipe, every wire and every single nut and bolt bore the exact same symbol!

It was as if Gloriana took a stamp and pressed it on every single part in order to mark their ownership!

While this action minutely affected the parameters of her mech, Gloriana convinced herself that this was a necessary sacrifice to achieve perfection.

"This isn't enough." She said as she had finished with marking every part that she could control. "There is one major part about my mech that has remained untouched."

That was the TESMAS that was supposed to be one of the killer functions of the C-Man design.

She corresponded with Professor Neihy Almar on a regular basis in order to make sure that the custom version of this product would specifically complement the C-Man's strengths and weaknesses.

However, Gloriana did not know how well the professor would take her next request.

When the mech designer finally mustered up the courage to pass on her latest demand, she received a skeptical reaction.

"Out of all of the additions and alterations that you have requested, this is by far the most inexplicable of them." Professor Almar's projection replied. "You at least provided sound theoretical arguments to justify the prior changes to the TESMAS that I am developing for your expert mech. This is completely different. It will not improve the performance of my nanomachines at all. In fact, the change will detract from it because you are adding unnecessary elements to their design. The impact will not be light because my nanomachines are so small that the addition of a symbol of this complexity will substantially change the structure of a nanomachine. I will have to conduct many tests and perform many simulations in order to reoptimize the altered design."

Gloriana directed a pleading expression at the older woman. "Please do so, ma'am. I am certain that this addition will further my ultimate purpose. It is difficult for me to explain why this is the case, but I am confident enough in my ideas that I am more than willing to make this attempt."

Professor Almar remained impassive. "Very well. I will respect your clan's identity as a shareholder of my development company and will faithfully attempt to implement your request. You are not the first mech designer who has made unusual demands. I will tell you what I have told others and remind you that you are ultimately responsible for the outcome. Whether your experiment works or not is not my job. I am only obliged to deliver the product that you have specified, nothing more and nothing less."

"I understand, professor. I will not hold you to account for my own failings."

Gloriana recognized that she was essentially making a costly bet. If her theories and assumptions were correct and if her actual implementation was good enough, then the C-Man would definitely become an expert mech that could set a new standard in the Larkinson Clan!

If her ideas failed to deliver on their promises, then she would have made an extremely costly error that left the Larkinson Clan stuck with an expert mech that performed substantially below expectations.

Yet despite this cloud hanging over her head, Gloriana was absolutely convinced that she was able to realize her very first god body with this design project!