The Mech Touch

As Ves listened to Ketis explain a portion of her plans and ambitions, he felt a profound sense of satisfaction and regret in his heart.

He felt satisfied because the young mech designer that he used to tutor in the past had fully grown her own wings and started to start her own initiatives.

He felt regret because Ketis was undoubtedly beginning to expand beyond the Larkinson Clan.

The new sword school with its upcoming planetary branches were an extension of her own power base.

If necessary, Ketis could even cut off her relations to the Larkinson Clan and rely on her own organization to develop independently from Ves and the Larkinsons.

Of course, the chances that Ketis would seek to divorce herself from the Larkinsons was too small. The Swordmaidens had fully integrated into the clan and Ketis owed too much to Ves to turn her back on her benefactor. She wasn't the sort of person who engaged in treachery.

She was also married to Joshua and still needed to raise a couple of children. There was no way she would want to leave before Kirian and Mayra grew up and started to settle into their own careers.

What about afterwards?

Ves might be willing to let Ketis go if she requested it one day. The Larkinson Clan had grown to a point where it didn't need the help of Ketis, the Swordmaidens and the Heavensworders to grow stronger and more prosperous.

Therefore, if there truly came a time where a split was mutually beneficial, then he had no objections to allowing Ketis to develop herself and her organization on her own terms.

Ketis and her people would still have strong ties to Ves and the Larkinson Clan. The stronger she became, the more help she could offer to the Larkinsons.

This was similar to how Masters raised their disciples.

The students eventually needed to find their own footing in the mech industry, but even if they no longer worked directly for their old teachers, they still formed a close-knit relationship that essentially amounted to a permanent alliance.

Older Masters were extremely formidable and possessed a lot of clout for this reason.

They taught so many talented disciples and students that eventually went on to become successful in their own endeavors that the collective power of them all was incredibly strong!

Of course, it was way too soon for Ves to be able to rely on his own network. Aside from Ketis, he only had a pair of trueblood relatives who were still stuck at the Apprentice stage. They were hardly in a position to provide him with any meaningful support.

"We're here." He spoke as they arrived in front of a secure checkpoint.

Ves and Ketis calmly passed the security checks before they could finally enter the guarded compartment.

The crew had dumped a lot of salvage and plunder from Pima Prime in this hall. The seemingly random bits of mech wrecks, cargo containers and debris caused the place to look like a junkyard, though it was at least a well-organized one as the clansmen neatly sorted all of the objects.

This specific compartment happened to store a lot of the more valuable battle loot. Fragments and remains from notable enemy expert mechs such as the Quadknife, the Point Break, the Shockshell and so on were laying haphazardly on the deck as if they were worthless.

They were not. Each of them could provide valuable lessons, insights and inspiration to the Larkinson mech designers. Ves intended to study each of the remains at a later date.

Once everyone was done with studying the wrecks, he would probably recycle them so that the clan could at least squeeze a bit of valuable materials out of them. There was no reason to keep them whole unless he wanted to turn them into trophies, but none of them were impressive enough to earn this status.

The plasma sword was a different story. If nothing else, turning the weapon of a defeated ace mech into a trophy would definitely impress a lot of people!

Ves sighed in regret. "I wish our clan managed to defeat the Neo Amadeus through our own merits. This way, we would have no shame in turning this plasma sword into a trophy and a mark of pride for our clansmen."

"You don't need to feel sorry about missing out this time. I am convinced we will become strong enough to earn an ace mech trophy ourselves one day." Ketis reassured him. "We can let Patriarch Reginald Cross hog all of the glory for the time being."

Though the Larkinsons played an indispensable role in making the Mars possible and giving Reginald the breakthrough opportunity he yearned for, it would be too presumptuous for the Larkinsons to claim a significant amount of credit for the defeat of the Neo Amadeus.

Ves wasn't shameless enough to steal the Cross Clan's thunder. He agreed with Ketis that the time of the Larkinson Clan would come soon enough. He just needed to wait until the Larkinson expert pilots progressed far enough to reach a new stage in their evolution.

The two mech designers turned their attention to the massive weapon that was resting upright on a large weapon rack.

Ves had already spent enough time to familiarize himself with the plasma sword during his last visit to the Cross Clan, so nothing about the weapon was new to him. Once his awe towards anything related to ace mechs had worn off, he realized that this piece of gear wasn't worth obsessing over.

Ketis reacted a lot stronger than him towards the giant weapon. This was the first time she could get close to the plasma sword. Her expression displayed a mixture of awe, respect and interest as her eyes scanned across the blade and studied all of the technological elements that were visible on the surface.

"Do you have any scanning data?" She asked.

"Here you go." He replied and transferred the files to her comm.

The female Journeymen did not rush her examination but calmly observed the high-tech weapon at different heights and angles.

She also studied the scanning data and other information that the Larkinsons had collected about the weapon.

It was only after she had fully studied the exterior of the plasma sword that she began to use her powerful senses to examine the intangible properties of the sword.

As a swordmaster, her ability to connect to swords was impressive and could not be replicated through technological means.

Ketis was even more special among other swordmasters due to the fact that her extraordinary attainments in this field was based on her companion spirit.

This granted her a convenient way to familiarize herself with the heart of the plasma sword.

She reached out her hand. A floating scabbard hovered in her grasp. Once it came close enough, Ketis respectfully unsheathed her Bloodsinger.

"Sharpie, there's a new sword for you to explore."

"Sharp! Sharp! Sharp!"

A miniature spiritual version of Ketis quickly jumped out of the Bloodsinger and looked up at the plasma sword with a look of anticipation.

Ves looked dubious when he compared the scale between Sharpie and the plasma sword. The disparity in size was too big!

"Are you sure that Sharpie can handle such a huge sword?"

"Don't worry, Ves. If Sharpie can inhabit the Decapitator that I have made for the First Sword, then she can definitely do the same for this weapon."

"The plasma sword is different from the swords you are familiar with. Saint Jeremiah Gauge has baptized it with his willpower for an extended amount of time. The weapon is also 'alive' in a sense. I don't think it will appreciate the intrusion of an enemy of the Gauge Dynasty."

Though Ketis did not believe the plasma sword could pose a serious threat to Sharpie, she nonetheless agreed that it didn't hurt to be cautious.

"Sharpie will only come in touch with the surface of the plasma sword for the time being."

The little companion spirit slowly approached the exterior of the dormant blade and slowly sank into the metal surface.

A sense of excitement spread from the giant weapon as Ves had the illusion that Sharpie was waking up the plasma sword.

However, only a dozen or so seconds passed before the plasma sword released a painful shockwave that repelled Sharpie and caused Ves and Ketis to take a few steps back!

"What was that?!" Ves grew confused even as he raised his guard.

Meanwhile, Sharpie returned to her progenitor while looking hurt and offended.

"Sharp! Sharp! Sharp!"

Ketis frowned before allowing Sharpie to dive back into her Bloodsinger.

"What's wrong?"

"This sword… is ruined." She stated.

"Ruined?"

"In my eyes, this plasma sword could have become great." She elaborated. "Almost everything about its design and construction is great in my professional judgment. Whoever developed the weapon understood the essence of swords and tried to make this technological marvel as true to the nature of swords as possible. Though the inclusion of plasma technology has forced the designer to make a lot of deviations, a sword is still a sword no matter whether its edge can burn or cut through solid matter."

Ves nodded in understanding. "And all of that became ruined when Master Huron integrated that weird expert pilot head inside the body of the weapon, am I correct?"

Ketis actually snarled this time. The mere mention of this added feature was enough to boil her blood!

"The man responsible for this late addition may be an impressive mech designer, but he has no love for swords! His approach to make the plasma sword is a travesty compared to ours. Whereas we are able to draw out the life that is inherent in our weapons, Master Huron desecrated the plasma sword by inserting it with a foreign life. The expert pilot who is still kept alive in this blade even now doesn't even function as a design spirit. The intruder has directly corrupted the weapon and denied it any opportunity to spawn a life that truly represents the weapon."

Even Ves became disgusted when he heard her description. Master Huron's methods were not only crude, but also violated the intrinsic rights of the product itself.

"I also formed some of those thoughts when I was able to study the plasma sword up close myself." He admitted. "This attempt to imitate my living products is too exploitative. Any weapon that requires an expert pilot to volunteer for this punishing duty is a product that is too harmful to exist. Perhaps Master Huron managed to get away with creating a set of three 'living' swords for the Neo Amadeus, but there is no way a method like this could ever be implemented in mass production models."

Ketis was glad that Ves also harbored disgust towards the plasma sword, but a part of her grew suspicious at him. Did he truly disapprove of the weapon?

"Given what we know about this sword, are you thinking about converting it for our use? No matter what, it is definitely a powerful weapon that can give its wielders a massive boost in attack power."

Ves immediately shook his head. "I would never do so! First, this plasma sword is locked with security features that prevent us from controlling it. Second, the living consciousness within the weapon is extremely hostile towards our clan. Third, the plasma sword was developed with an ace mech in mind, which means its energy consumption is a lot more horrible than you can imagine. None of our mechs can keep it active for more than two or so minutes. In practice, this interval is even shorter as our expert mechs have to use up their energy for many other purposes such as moving around."

Though Ves listed several strong reasons why the Larkinson Clan shouldn't wield this weapon in battle, Ketis did not buy his message.

"I'm not so sure the plasma sword is as difficult to make use of as you say. You can address your first and third points by tinkering with the weapon. You can overcome the second problem by manipulating the living consciousness or assigning the blade to my husband. If Joshua is charming enough to tame a hostile creation like the Titan-5 Project, I don't think it is impossible for him to win over this exceedingly strange sword."

That…. was actually an interesting idea!

Ves spontaneously came up with a potential new design project based on his former student's words!