The Mech Touch



The Ghost Project was on the cusp of completion.

Ves, Gloriana and Master Benedict Cortez had carried most of the weight and put all of their prior experiences and insights to good use. Compared to what they imagined a few weeks before, the estimated combat effectiveness of the actual product had most definitely increased by a considerable margin!

While the newbies consisting of Miles Tovar and Cormaunt Hempkamp hardly contributed to the fabrication of the mech, their modest involvement already granted them unimaginable gains at their stage in their career.

Witnessing several excellent mech designers in action, working on a mech that was way more powerful than they could ever design by themselves and more importantly getting exposed to Ves' domain and design philosophy more directly had given them a much better understanding of the life that could be buried inside a mech!

The two mech designers had already distanced themselves from the nearly completed expert mech. They had already completed their tasks and sticking around would do nothing except get in people's way.

Their expressions displayed a mixture of awe and confusion as the two Journeymen no longer possessed a clear grasp of what was taking place.

"Ves… has gone completely off the rails this time." Miles softly spoke as his exhaustion at staying awake for five straight days became evident. "Everything started out normal, but once our patriarch activated his glow, our work quickly deviated from the plan. Now, I do not think anyone except for our boss himself knows what will happen next."

The much more recently recruited mech designer standing next to the former member of Tovar Family looked a lot more hopeful.

"The patriarch knows what he is doing. When we were still connected to the design network, we could all feel his overflowing confidence and certainty. Sure, even he might not be able to predict the outcome of his methods, but he just knows that he is working in the right direction. I believe the Ghost Project will end up just as powerful as the Dullahan Project if not more. He is a Senior now. He's a lot more capable than a two weeks before."

There was a clear delineation between Journeymen and Seniors in the mech industry.

It was not unheard of for outliers such as Ves to exhibit design ability that far exceeded that of his peers when he was just a Journeymen, but Seniors still possessed advantages that more junior professionals lacked.

What would happen once this exceptional Journeyman advanced to Senior?

Would Ves lose much of the advantages that made him so great?

No!

Ves would retain his strengths, and even take a few more steps forward due to becoming a Senior with a much stronger foundation and set of design solutions!

This was the way that mech designers were like. Early advantages led to even greater capabilities as they advanced!

It was not without reason why the mech industry paid so much attention to rising stars.

As long as they managed to retain their excellence and persist in their hard work, which was anything but certain, they were bound to become leaders in their own fields!

Miles Tovar started off as a third-class mech designer from the Bright Republic, so his understanding of the mech industry was not as good as that of his colleague.

As a genuine second-class mech designer who worked for several large mech companies in the past, Cormaunt understood a lot better that there was no Journeyman or Senior that was anything like his patriarch!

Just the act of producing a glow and turning the entire workshop into a pseudo-domain was straight out of a fantasy drama!

If that was not the template of a future overlord in the mech industry, then Cormaunt did not know what else Ves needed to do in order to prove his excellence!

It was a great blessing and opportunity for mech designers such as Miles and Cormaunt to work for such a generational star.

The benefits they harvested this time were unimaginably valuable.

What about next time?

As long as they kept working for Ves, they were bound to get better at their jobs purely by osmosis!

However, it was also a curse for them to work for such an incredible genius. Their self-esteem took continuous hits as they constantly recognized their inadequacy when they compared themselves to Ves.

Anyone who worked in the Design Department for a few months would soon lose their confidence in their ability to excel. They would adopt a more subservient mindset and always let Ves take the lead.

This had happened to every promising Journeyman that Ves recruited over the years. From Sara Voiken to the most recent Beatrice Hendrix, each of these talented mech designers had consciously and unconsciously lost their arrogance and greater ambitions due to working in the Larkinson Clan.

The only Journeyman in the Design Department that remained immune to this effect was Glorian Wodin-Larkinson.

She refused to admit that she was inferior to Ves in any way despite her rationality telling her so. Her arrogance and conceit often made her come across as unpleasant to others, but they were also her greatest support.

Narcissists were often maligned by society, but they were also the source of many brilliant advances throughout history!

Much of what allowed improbable events to happen was to possess enough confidence and motivation to pursue unlikely goals.

Nothing would happen if everyone acted cautiously and conservatively, but people like Ves and Gloriana were both built differently somehow.

"What do you think Ves is doing next?" Miles asked his colleague.

Cormaunt shrugged. "Don't ask me. He hasn't shown any indication that he was planning to do anything extra now that we are close to finishing the expert mech. He is in a state of high inspiration at the moment. It is clear that what is on his mind has only emerged in the last few minutes. Only the patriarch himself knows what the Ghost Project will look like at the end."

The fabrication run started off as a cooperative venture, but quickly mutated into a Ves show due to his shenanigans.

Everyone else became side characters as Ves decisively took the lead and even wrote a new ending to the script!

The problem that concerned everyone was that the rewrite happened as soon as the show was almost done.

Would Ves' last-minute ideas enhance the Ghost Project or complicate it to the point where it became a different beast?

As Ves had just tied Venerable Zimro Belson to Mephisto the Firstborn, he paused for a minute in order to survey the changes to the expert mech.

The spiritual foundation of the Ghost Project experienced mild changes as a result. Ves tried his best not to miss any detail. He was not interested in studying the reactions per se, but he just wanted to confirm one of his theories that played a central role in his next set of actions.

His lips curled into a smile. "So this is the case. I can definitely proceed."

"Ves." A slightly tired-looking Gloriana flew up to his side. "I have been incredibly patient with you for the last five days. I understand that you have become a Senior and felt the need to flex your power. I also understand that you did not want to wait and implement your new plans as you formed them on the spot. However, now that we have come to this point, it is time for you to give us an explanation."

Her husband grew a little annoyed at the distraction. Couldn't she wait until he was done?

"I have learned a lot after becoming a Senior." He slowly told her. "My perception and my ability to internalize my existing theories and assumptions have improved as well. It is almost as if I am constantly whacking my head with my hammer day and night. I have become a considerably better mech designer than before, and because of that I have formed new connections between different theories and deduced greater possibilities that eluded me in the past."

Gloriana frowned. "That much is clear, but you have yet to give us a solid answer. What do you intend to do with the Ghost Project? It is already complete aside from lacking a few components. What else can you do to make it any stronger or more effective?"

Ves gazed at the Ghost Project, though his eyes did not focus on anything in particular. He was perceiving the expert mech in a completely different manner.

He did so all the while he was radiating a glow that was filled with the breath of life and a love for mechs!

"Mrow."

Blinky had been diligently putting his formidable energy devouring and digesting capabilities to use.

With the likes of the Superior Mother, Lufa and the Solemn Guardian feeding the Star Cat with copious streams of spiritual energy on rotation, the companion spirit processes so much power that it could have been used to fuel hundreds of battle formation attacks!

Blinky took all of those energies and converted them into spiritual energy that was completely compatible to Ves.

Ves subsequently burned it all in order to supercharge his glow!

In fact, it was a little inaccurate to say that Ves directly overloaded his glow. He was in fact powering himself up beyond his natural capacity, causing him to temporarily acquire a portion of the powers and abilities of his future and much-stronger self!

To put it differently, Ves exploited his complicated and multi-faceted powers to imitate the domain of a Star Designer!

Any knowledgeable mech designer who understood the significance of this act would probably go crazy if they learned of this event!

It was inconceivable for a little Senior Mech Designer to exhibit one of the defining abilities of a Star Designer in advance!

Although the pseudo-domain displayed by Ves was incomparably weak to the real domain briefly demonstrated by the Polymath, it was already enough to enable his next moves.

"The Ghost Project is primed." Ves observed. "Every single part, no matter whether it is tangible or intangible, has been contaminated with life. Much of it still remains dormant. They are like a pile of bricks that don't do anything when mashed together. What do you think will happen when I take all of these bricks and use them to build a structure?"

His wife furrowed her brows. "Isn't that what you have been doing with your mechs and mech designs all of this time?"

Ves grinned. "This is a little different. The foundation is stronger and my glow has done a better job at infusing all of the parts and materials of the mech with the element of life. To put it in simpler terms, the Ghost Project carries a considerably greater quantity of life. Even if the quality is not that much, I can build a much grander structure with more bricks!"

He finally went to work. He began to weave the Ghost Project's spiritual foundation to its physical frame by using the latter's infusion of life as a bridge!

Gloriana made use of Alexandria to observe what Ves was doing.

Her eyes widened as she realized what he was doing!

"You… you are creating a third order living mech by yourself! I thought a mech could only reach the third order by becoming a masterwork mech or evolve towards it over time!"

Though Ves was deeply immersed in his own spiritual engineering activities, he still had enough attention to spare to laugh at her statement.

"Who says that I can't create a third order living mech from scratch? The biggest reasons why I could never do so in the past was because my vision was too shallow and the life in my newly fabricated mechs was not abundant enough to meet the requirements of a third order living mech. All of that has changed now that I have become a Senior! From now on, any mech I make by hand shall always start off as a third order living mech! Unless I have a reason to settle for less, mechs of this order shall become my new standard!"

Gloriana looked shocked! She was deeply familiar with his design philosophy and theories, so she knew how significant it was to be able to make a third order living mech on demand!