The Mech Touch

[Design Evaluation: Blood Knight]

Model name: Blood Knight BO-O-01

Original Manufacturer: Ves Larkinson

Weight Classification: Medium

Recommended Role: Organic Space Knight

Armor: C+

Carrying Capacity: C-

Aesthetics: A-

Endurance: B

Energy Efficiency: B-

Flexibility: D-

Firepower: C-

Integrity: B-

Mobility: D

Spotting: C-

X-Factor: B-

Cost efficiency: B+

Project involvement: 100%

Original component composition: 9%

Overall evaluation: The Blood Knight is a second-class organic space knight that is affordable but not particularly powerful. Its basic performance parameters are mediocre when compared to competing biomech models, but the reliability and the fault tolerance of the Blood Knight are relatively good. The newly invented 'Empowered Blood Sharing System' is the only standout feature of the biomech and has the potential to bring great benefits to both the organic machine and its pilot.

Ves nodded as he read the System's evaluation. He hadn't seen one in a long while.

"Hm, that's what I thought. I'm glad the System also concurs with my judgment."

A mech designer possessed the deepest understanding of his own work.

That didn't necessarily mean that they were the best judges of their own mech designs.

Biases and emotions frequently distorted their objective views. There were way too many mech designers that developed overly rosy pictures of their own mech designs.

This was also why it was important for professionals to design commercial mechs.

It was only when they subjected their work to market forces that they would truly find out whether their mech models were as competitive as they thought!

While Ves was confident that his new Blood Knight design was able to pass muster, he wasn't certain whether that was actually true.

The System's evaluation of his first biomech design did not completely tell Ves whether his new Blood Knight design lived up to its promise. The phrasing with regards to the Empowered Blood Sharing System was a bit unusual.

[You have received 1 Ascension Point for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

"Ah, I almost forgot about that. There are more ways to earn Ascension Points than completing Missions."

Ves hadn't really paid any mind to this rule because he hadn't completed any mech designs lately.

The side projects he worked on such as the Gray Lotus and the Instrument of Doom were both brilliant products, but they weren't complete mechs. Neither of them earned any recognition from the System.

Instead, Ves managed to earn a reward by designing a biomech that was much weaker and less impactful on the battlefield. It reinforced the notion that the Mech Designer System still centered around mechs for the most part.

"C'mon. Tell me how well I've handled the latest Mission. I did good, right?!"

He didn't know why the System delayed the announcement. He could only sit around and wait until it finally issued its judgment.

[Congratulations for completing the following Mission: Introduction to Biomech Design. The design of your submitted mech design is both complete and viable, showing that you have learned and mastered the basics of biomech design. However, the lack of time spent on designing your first biomech and the lack of access to more advanced resources have set back the performance of your work. Your experimental Empowered Blood Sharing System can potentially produce dramatic results, but requires time to take effect. The immediate effects of this new design application are not as significant and will reflect on your score.]

[You have been awarded with 114 Ascension Points for submitting your Blood Knight biomech design.]

"...That's it?" Ves questioned.

He had toiled for 70 straight days for this Mission. This was a lot of time. It was difficult for Ves to recall his original mentality when he had just entered the System Space.

He spent so many hours on studying how to design a biomech before he proceeded to work on the Blood Knight Project.

Although Ves was more than satisfied with all of the knowledge that he had gained and the fantastic new experimental biomech design that he had rushed to complete, the profit he made at the end was hardly worth the effort!

With a total investment of 100 AP, his net profit only amounted to 15 AP in the end!

15 AP!

"After all of this effort, I refuse to settle for this reward! I deserve more! You know how promising the Blood Pact can be. It is a revolutionary new method of empowering mech pilots that can give people like Commander Melkor a chance to become an expert pilot one day! I know that all of this future stuff might not really fit the criteria of the latest Mission, but surely this is what you truly want from me, right?"

Ves was so emotional about his paltry profit that he could not control himself in front of the System.

He didn't expect much from his venting as he knew that the System had always been rather inflexible about its rules.

However, it turned out that the System wasn't done.

[You have been awarded with 200 additional bonus Ascension Points for designing a biomech that exceeds the parameters of your Mission.]

"DAMNIT! Couldn't you have announced this to me sooner?!"

Ves had no idea whether his whining had worked or whether the System always intended to give him a bonus.

In any case, Ves had become a much richer mech designer!

He started out with 1032 Ascension Points. This was a generous sum, but not good enough for his purposes.

After spending 70 days in this System Space that was frozen to reality, he finished his Mission with 1247 Ascension Points in his pocket!

"1247 Ascension Points!"

Ves was much better off than before!

If nothing else, he bought himself a lot more time for himself. He could spend all of the profit he made on extending his stay in the System Space by 215 days, which was more than worth all of the stress and strain he experienced!

He spent several minutes celebrating the good news before he finally regained his composure.

The outcome of this endeavor fully satisfied his initial goal. He was in a much better position to resolve the crisis than before. The more Ascension Points at his disposal, the greater his ability to come up with a viable solution.

He still hadn't forgotten about his other goals, though.

He wanted to accumulate a minimum of 1500 AP to feel comfortable with developing a weapon that could interrupt the unclean whale that was previously imprisoned inside the Palace of Shame.

"It would be even better if I can earn 2000 AP, but that seems unlikely."

Ves gained a better understanding of the System after completing the latest Mission. It was quite brutal in following its rules, but it was also generous enough to reward him if he earnestly worked on new innovations.

Developing new design applications played a key role in the progression of a mech designer. Ves would have never been able to make so much progress if he didn't work so hard to invent new means of making his mechs more powerful.

The best Master Mech Designers and Star Designers were all brilliant innovators who weren't afraid of common sense and fully committed to realizing their unique visions!

"I am still far from reaching their level, but I can still imitate their unrelenting drive."

Ves took a small moment to take a well-deserved break.

He was not eager about wasting more Ascension Points than necessary, but after subjecting himself to so much pressure, he needed to decompress and reset his mental state.

He had plenty of time to reflect on his work and evaluate his Blood Knight design from different angles.

"It's decent, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a rush job. The System was a bit generous when it judged that it was worth 114 Ascension Points at first. Its performance really can't keep up with the mainstream offerings on the market."

That said, the Blood Knight Project could still be incredibly popular and well-regarded if its Empowered Blood Sharing System worked as intended!

If a Blood Knight and a mech pilot were able to deepen their relationship by becoming intimate 'blood relatives', then there was definitely a pathway to enabling a mech pilot to leech off the spiritual development of the biomech!

In essence, the Blood Pact took advantage of one of the greatest advantages of living mechs, one that never seemed important until he came up with this revolutionary biomech concept.

"The spirituality of a typical human being is deficient. Most of the time, it is weak and hindered by numerous barriers that prevent it from growing stronger."

This was the congenital weakness of the human race. It limited the activities of the Five Scrolls Compact and kept the Transhumanist Faction of the MTA busy all the time.

Ves had invested way too much of his time on trying to solve this problem. His great obsession with making his mech pilots grow in pace with their living mechs had driven him to try out all kinds of solutions, but to no avail.

"There is no viable way to solve this congenital defect unless I can plant a companion spirit seed into an unborn fetus while it is still malleable."

While Ves was happy that he could ensure that all of his children obtained spiritual potential through the growth of their companion spirits, this was hardly a solution that could be applied on a wider scale.

Yet what if any mech pilot could solve this congenital deficiency by piloting a specific biomech? What if they didn't need to do anything else but exchange their blood with that of an organic machine over the course of performing his duties?

Compared to all of the weird and expensive procedures that had yet to achieve any solid results, the Blood Pact was a much more practical way to turn large amounts of ordinary mech pilots into extraordinary heroes!

This was because living mechs didn't seem to experience any bottlenecks in their spiritual growth!

As life forms that were inherently more energy-based than humans, living mechs seemed to operate by different rules that were much more generous than usual.

Each of his products had the opportunity to evolve into a third order living mech as long as they experienced enough precipitation!

Given that third order living mechs were quite powerful in a spiritual sense, a mech pilot could gain a massive spiritual boost as long as they were able to borrow at least a fraction of their battle partner's strength!

"It's a way for a mech pilot to rely on an external source to kickstart their own development. As long as the biomech and the mech pilot are close enough to each other, their Blood Pact is bound to produce results!"

Of course, Ves also recognized that mech pilots who possessed spiritual potential wouldn't necessarily be able to develop their hidden strength.

Their mentality, discipline, skills, courage and conviction also played important roles in their progression as mech pilots.

"Increasing the pool of eligible high-ranking mech pilots is still incredibly useful! It is always better to give everyone a chance. Even the most hopeless loser has a chance to reinvent themselves when given the opportunity!"

Perhaps Venerable Vincent Ricklin served as an example of this. Ves never thought well of the idiot of a mech pilot, but the man had certainly shaped up to become a powerful warrior and a useful asset on the battlefield.

"My work has enabled me to turn trash into treasure! Vincent would have remained a nobody if not for my intervention!"

Ves had facilitated the growth of several mech pilots, but none had started out as low as Vincent!

If Ves was able to provide chances to not just a handful but to thousands of Larkinson mech pilots, then he would definitely be able to elevate the Larkinson Army into a true force composed of demigods!

"In fact, why stop there? Why not go further?"

If he was able to design a commercial version of the Blood Knight mech, then he could easily transform the lives of millions, billions or even trillions of mech pilots!

Anyone who was brave enough to take in the blood of their own biomech and share their blood back to the organic machine would be able to step on the road to becoming a god pilot!

"A bonus of 200 Ascension Points is too cheap! You should have given me a million Ascension Points!"