The Mech Touch

Ves was not accustomed to attracting so much interest from powerful pioneers.

His ego gained a significant boost as he verbally danced his way from one negotiation or another.

He had always known that his work was good enough to attract the attention and appreciation of a significant portion of the market.

However, much of the advantages conveyed by his mechs were difficult to translate into hard numbers.

There were many other products on the market that hit harder, withstood more damage or moved a little faster.

Creative and innovative mech designers tried to excel in ways that weren't so obvious and straightforward. Instead of joining the crowd, they stood apart from the mainstream by developing all kinds of gimmicks that gave their products a competitive edge. These features ranged from adding enhanced self-repair capabilities to their machines to making their mechs a lot harder to detect.

Ves happened to fit in this category of mech designers as well. His living mechs and his glows constantly attracted more and more customers who were willing to take the risk of pursuing an alternate direction of strength.

However, the commercial success of his living mechs had always been confined to the grassroots and the lesser organizations of human society.

These were the parties that were constantly trying to look for bargains and better ways to overcome their competition without spending a ludicrous amount of money.

While the LMC's products weren't cheap by any means, they still presented an amazing value proposition to those who recognized the advantages of living mechs.

It was too bad that the LMC still couldn't break into the largest circle of customers. These massive conglomerates and centuries-old organizations usually developed their own mechs or signed long-term contracts with larger and more established mech companies.

Developing exclusive relationships made sense because major clients gained the right to make additional demands to ensure they obtained the mechs they truly needed.

This was far more convenient than trawling through the enormous mech market in the hopes of finding a mech model that somewhat matched their requirements.

The LMC was still an upstart for the most part. It was hard for the LMC to attract clients as large as the Adelaide Mercenary Company or the Boojay Family.

That was slowly changing as bestsellers such as the Pacifier line, the War Squire line and the Hymenoptera line emerged. The law enforcement mech and industrial mech both proved that the right glows could produce immediate and highly productive benefits to their customers.

While the LMC managed to gain greater traction in these niches, the Larkinson mech company still fell short of attaining critical success in the most important market category, which was combat mechs.

A mech company that could not become the market leader in at least one subcategory of combat mechs was not qualified to attract the notice of major clients!

Without proof that Ves could design a mech that could become a potential champion among its competitors, he would always be faced with skepticism and lack of recognition.

The Battle of the Boryan Belt changed that pattern. The other five pioneering groups fighting alongside the Golden Skull Alliance had tried and failed to overcome the impenetrable defenses of the unclean whale that showed up at the final stage.

Ves had ultimately been the one to personally bail them all out, and he did so twice.

He first did so by launching a mysterious superweapon from his flagship. Though Ves could clearly sense everyone's burning curiosity and desire towards this 'trump card', he always deflected any cautious inquiries relating to this incident.

People quickly figured out that they had no hope of acquiring it for themselves and tactfully avoided the topic.

They had greater success with asking about the second move he made. His capacity of imparting a powerful 'blessing' on a machine as high-end as an ace mech in the middle of an ongoing engagement was just as amazing if not more!

It was this surprise that he was willing to put up for sale.

Ves revealed three crucial pieces of information as he made his indirect sales pitch to the attendees of this gathering.

First, he told them that his so-called blessed weapon method was a new and experimental design application that had only been tested on just two different prototype weapons before the latest battle.

Blessed weapons were so new that Ves could guarantee that no rival pioneers benefited from this powerful invention!

This meant that this was probably their only opportunity to place their orders for blessed weapons when it was still in the earliest stages of its product life cycle.

Second, Ves revealed that there were many limitations regarding the production and use of blessed weapons.

Many of them were practical such as the necessity of making mech weapons alive and convincing mech pilots to build up relationships with their new living equipment and the Phase King.

Ves also told his audience that supply would be constrained for a long time as he could only afford to make a limited amount of blessed weapons at this time.

Whether this was because his resources were limited or because he wanted to jack up his prices by creating artificial scarcity, nobody could tell for certain. No one confronted him on his ambiguity because he possessed a monopoly on blessed weapons.

Third, Ves confirmed that his blessed weapons could be of use to any mech. No matter whether it was a regular mech, an expert mech or even an ace mech, each of them could enjoy a massive boost in combat effectiveness as long as they carried a bit of phasewater!

Technically, it was possible to pair mechs with other design spirits, but Ves had refrained from mentioning this as he had yet to discover and secure a supply of alternative sympathetic materials.

For now, phasewater was the only game in town. It was so famous and ubiquitous throughout the Red Ocean that there was always a place for the Phase King to help.

Once Ves was done with outlining his conditions, the negotiations became serious.

"You are asking for much, Patriarch Larkinson." General Herman Foraine furrowed his brows. "It is true that we have obtained a sizable share of phasewater from the salvage and recovery efforts, but our headquarters have already allocated most of it for pre-planned projects. We have many older mechs that are still waiting to be upgraded with transphasic parts. Our company also intends to develop brand new expert mechs that are transphasic from the ground up. Providing so much phasewater to the company at large will comprehensively boost the combat power of all of our fleets. That is much better for us than upgrading a single ace mech. No matter how much more powerful the Jedda Sandivar can become, it is only a single machine that can only guarantee the survival of a single fleet."

Ves looked unsympathetic as he gazed at a wall that featured a harmonic collection of alien paintings.

"That is your concern, not mine. I don't accept MTA credits, general. Earning money is too easy for me these days. What I truly want for my services are strategic trade goods that are not so easily obtainable on the open market. If your headquarters can't bear the thought of letting go of phasewater, then you can propose alternate forms of payment. I am willing to take orders in exchange for starships, powerful pieces of alien technology, exclusive knowledge related to mech design, phasewater technology or biotechnology, introductions to powerful human factions that are worthwhile for me to associate with and more. I think you get the picture."

The general continued to look troubled as Ves presented quite a troublesome wish list.

"I thought we were friends, Larkinson. Won't you give us some slack on account of supporting you when you pushed for the unclean whale to be killed? We had your back at that time, and you didn't even need to bribe us with a blessed weapon."

Ves smiled at him. "I haven't forgotten about that, general. I have already applied a discount to my offers to your mercenary company. Trust me that the others will have to pay slightly more to receive my services. Now, are you willing to exchange phasewater or other strategic goods so that you can turn your Jedda Sandivar into a true terror on the battlefield?"

"...I will have to consult with my advisors. This is not a decision that I can make alone."

"Feel free to do so, but remember that this is the only instance where I will accept orders. It will take a lot of time before I will offer this business again."

Ves didn't want to lose too much time on this chore. It was enough for him to develop a relationship with a number of foreign ace pilots and expert pilots. He wanted to use these initial deals as a trial to see whether there were any upsides or downsides to propagating blessed weapons outside of the Larkinson Clan.

As General Herman Foraine excused himself and returned to his fellow Adelaides, the contemporary leader of the Boojay Family came next.

The older lady dressed in an exotic-looking garment over her protective suit stepped forward as if she knew what she wanted and what she had to pay in order to satisfy her needs.

Matriarch Rezzie Boojay turned out to be a lot more straightforward. "We want you to augment the penetration power of the primary weapon of the Royal Jeem. If possible, we would also like you to do the same for two of our high-tier expert mechs, one of which is a space knight while the other is a missileer mech. We can pay in phasewater."

Ves appreciated the woman's directness. "I can do the first request without any issue. If I recall, the Royal Jeem wields a fairly normal-looking solid alloy spear that is useful in charge attacks and dogfighting, is that correct?"

"That is correct, Patriarch Larkinson. The spear is made of high-quality materials that is used to form specially developed transphasic alloys that allows it to become sharper, tougher and capable of absorbing kinetic forces."

"Hm, if that is all there is to the weapon, then I can apply a 'blessing' to it that can readily do what I have promised. However, if you want me to maximize its penetration power, you will have to entrust the weapon to our clan for at least a week. I will also need your permission to make small physical modifications to its structure."

Matriarch Rezzie Boojay looked displeased. "It is normally unheard of to hand over the main weapon of an ace mech to a third party. Anyone who is able to obtain precise and accurate data about the characteristics of the weapon will be able to make special preparations against our Royal Jeem."

Ves sighed. "I can give you my word that I will work on the Royal Jeem's spear and any other weapons entrusted by your Boojay Family with utmost discretion. I will not involve any other clansmen in my work and I will make sure to keep it locked away in a workshop that no one else has access to. As soon as I am done, I will put it in a sealed container so that it can safely be shipped to your fleet. Is that enough to satisfy your needs?"

"That is not enough. We want to send a team of observers and guards that will constantly keep watch over the weapons that we have sent. This is non-negotiable to us. If you are not willing to let our family members monitor our most important equipment while it is in your care, then we will have too many doubts about your trustworthiness to proceed with this transaction."

The woman certainly struck a harsh tone, but Ves guessed that she would probably relent if he refused this particular demand.

The desire to obtain blessed weapons was too great. The Adelaide Mercenary Company might not be so interested as it was a large organization that possessed multiple powerful armadas, but the Boojay Family was largely stuck with a single fleet.

This fleet was everything to the Boojay Family. If the Boojays ever encountered an enemy that was too much for the Royal Jeem to handle, their family would definitely come to an end!

This was why Ves knew that the Matriarch Rezzie Boojay absolutely couldn't return empty-handed.

That said, Ves did not wish to be too unreasonable.

"I won't allow you to bring an entire army aboard my ship." He said. "I will grant you permission to bring along a small team of observers and caretakers."

"That is less than what our family wishes to see."

"Well, that is all you will get from us. You can either take it or leave it, matriarch."