The Mech Touch



Ves Larkinson's Orders of Life emerged as a means to systematically categorize the living qualities of different mechs.

First order living mechs barely possessed any coherent signs of life. They were mechs with a weak degree of X-Factor. Ves had been able to produce first order mechs since the moment he first formed the building blocks of his design philosophy.

Second order living mechs became Ves' default standard. They already possessed a rudimentary amount of sentience, intelligence, awareness and autonomy. Each mech pilot could easily get in touch with them as long as they interfaced with the machines.

The spectrum of second order living mechs was quite extensive. There were massive differences between a living mech that was mass produced at a third-party mech factory and a living mech fabricated by Ves in his own workshop!

While there were noticeable differences between the two, even the best living mechs fabricated by mechs had never managed to breach the upper threshold upon their creation!

The requirements to make a third order living mech were too high!

Let alone Ves, no one else who possessed a slight understanding of living mechs could ever hope to fabricate such a potent machine through their efforts!

The only mech designer who could solve this problem and develop a viable method to make third order living mechs on demand was the pioneer in this new field!

Not even Ves himself expected to be able to fulfill one of his smaller but no less significant ambitions!

The best part about discovering this new method was that it was not a fluke nor an accident.

Ves could easily reproduce the conditions needed to repeat this feat!

This newly discovered approach which he had taken to calling the Living Workshop Method had endless potential.

His techniques were still rudimentary as he mainly relied on brute force and passive contamination to infuse the production machines and the raw materials with the elements of life.

What would happen if he refined his techniques and contaminated the aforementioned objects in a more sophisticated manner?

What would happen if he became a better mech designer and developed the strength to channel a lot more spiritual energy?

More refined techniques combined with a greater quantity of energy would allow Ves to make stronger and more superior third order living mechs!

This may very well serve as an essential step to his eventual goal of birthing a mythical fourth order living mech!

Still, as Ves grew a lot more tired now that he had successfully converted the Ghost Project into a third order living mech, he immediately recognized that his new approach had two major flaws.

The first flaw was that it was not applicable to delegation mass production. Only Ves could replicate these conditions. Unless there was another mech designer who could project a similar glow, there was no way anyone else could perform the same feat!

"For now, at least…" Ves murmured under his breath.

His thoughts briefly drifted to his son. Marvaine not only had the makings of a great mech designer, but was also endowed with a companion spirit that was already attributed towards life.

Although Denny was still a young and growing spiritual kitten for the time being, what about a decade later? What about two decades later?

Once Denny grew up and realized a portion of his potential, it was not impossible for Marvaine's companion spirit to pull off the Living Workshop Method by himself!

However, there was another major flaw to this technique that made it a lot less likely for his son to pull it off by himself.

This was because the energy requirements were too high!

Where did life come from? It did not emerge out of nothing!

The Living Workshop Method was just a particularly creative way to brute force the creation of a third order living mech by spending spiritual energy like flowing water.

It was the stupidest and least efficient way for Ves to create a third order living mech!

If Ves did not have free access to the nearly limitless supply of low-quality spiritual energy accumulated by a bunch of friendly design spirits, he would never be able to fuel this extravagant process by himself!

Ves would have sucked himself dry in an instant if he only relied upon his own spiritual energy!

Though he did not like the fact that he became dependent on external sources of energy in order to keep up his Living Workshop pseudo-domain for an extended period of time, he had no other alternative for the time being.

He estimated that he would either have to become a highly developed Master Mech Designer or an outright Star Designer to gain the strength needed to support this method by himself!

If it was already this bad for Ves himself, it was worse for everyone else!

Blinky allowed Ves to cheat his way out because his companion spirit derived his main ability from the spiritual remains of the Unending One.

As far as Ves could recall, Marvaine's companion spirit did not contain any ingredients related to Blinky or the Unending One. This was a serious shortcoming that signified that his son was probably unable to follow his exact path.

That was fine. Though Ves deeply wanted Marvaine to inherit his design philosophy, it would be wasteful for him to become a clone of his father.

Marvaine should be allowed to figure out his own goals and develop his own design style.

In any case, Ves did not have to worry about these issues for the time being. It would take at least two decades before Marvaine was ready to set off as a mech designer.

Ves directed his attention back to the Ghost Project.

Although Ves had elevated its spiritual foundation to a third order living mech, the mech was not complete.

This was an important distinction.

So long as he and his fellow mech designers did not put in the final parts and regarded it as complete in their own hearts, it would not completely come to life!

The current condition could be likened to a highly developed fetus that was a single step away from taking his first breath of life.

As Ves carefully scanned the spiritual design of his own work, he grinned as he saw an opportunity to pull off his follow-up plan!

"There is still room for manipulation."

One of the more special qualities of his living products was that once they came to life, it was not possible to reengineer them without putting them at enormous risk.

However, so long as his living products were still 'in construction' for a lack of a better phrase, Ves could still keep building up his work as long as he had a way to improve on their current state!

From his current perspective, the Ghost Project had surpassed the threshold of a third order living mech, but that was all. It had only taken a step into this territory, but had yet to do anything special.

The reason for that was not necessarily because it lacked the energy to go forward.

The real cause why it started out as a blank third order living mech was because it lacked further direction!

Normally, whenever a third order living mech emerged within the Larkinson Clan, the machine itself slowly directed its own growth and evolution based on its own experiences.

The feedback and interactions with the mech pilot also influenced the adaptation and specialization of the third order living mech.

All of this took a huge amount of time and could only be done after the living mech was complete and put into use.

These conditions were clearly invalid in his workshop at the moment, so if Ves wanted to expand upon the Ghost Project's life, he needed to employ a new approach and assume more active control over its spiritual development?

This was a way for him to help the Ghost Project start off on a stronger footing!

To put it in another way, if the Everchanger and the Minerva became third order living mechs by virtue of being masterwork mechs, they most certainly started at level 1!

Even if the bonus provided by becoming a masterwork mech gave these expert mechs enough resources to reach level 9, the machines themselves did not know how to spend them all to reach this height!

In contrast, if Ves was manually created a third order living mech and took an active hand at shaping its subsequent spiritual development, then he might be able to make the machine reach level 5 right at the start!

When Ves became stronger and refined his Living Workshop Method even further, it was not impossible for him to make his third order living mechs reach level 20, level 50 or even level 99!

His eyes burned brighter as he thought about what would happen if he was able to do even better!

If Ves developed his third order living mechs to such an extreme that they surpassed a distant threshold such as level 100, would he gain the chance to create a fourth order living mech?

He strongly believed that this was the case!

Perhaps all of his current third order living mechs such as the Amaranto and the other two aforementioned expert mechs could evolve to the next order through their own efforts, but how long would that take?

Ves couldn't wait a century for these living mechs to evolve into powerful myths!

It would be a lot better and more convenient if he could fabricate them in his workshop on demand!

"Hm, let's not get distracted."

He shook his head in order to clear his mind of distant possibilities. What mattered the most was what he could do with his current conditions and resources.

Aiming to make a level 50 living mech or a fourth order living mech was way too far away for him. He would already be happy if he could turn the Ghost Project into a level 5 living mech.

"Let's see. The spiritual foundation has been set in the initial shape of a third order living mech, but there is clearly room for expansion and modification."

Ves understood the differences between a fresh third order living mech and one that has grown for a number of years. He periodically inspected all of his expert mechs in order to observe and record their changes over time.

He possessed a rough understanding of how third order living mechs grew and developed beyond their starting point!

In the past, Ves had been content to let these powerful living mechs dictate their own growth direction, but this time he intended to make these decisions on behalf of the Ghost Project!

What Ves wanted to do was not as simple as make a few initial decisions. He wanted to shape the entire evolution trajectory from beginning to end!

However, it was easy to make a plan.

It was much more difficult to ensure the Ghost Project would realize it and acquire the abilities that Ves had theorized when he drafted the plan!

In order to direct the Ghost Project's growth and ensure it would gain a set of powerful abilities that not only fit its circumstances, but also synergized well with each other, Ves decided to draw upon resources that could play a helpful role in this process!

"The design spirits can act as the supervisors!"

They possessed the age, life experiences and abilities that any freshly fabricated third order living mech lacked.

Although not all of his design spirits were wise and powerful enough to fully undertake this responsibility, they would only grow older and more capable over time.

Once a design spirit becomes as powerful and knowledgeable as the Superior Mother, it should be easy for the spiritual entity to optimize a living mech's evolution and maybe even bestow the spiritual attributes that were needed to develop a specialized ability!

"This new spiritual framework shall be known as an Ascension Path!"

Ves couldn't help but laugh when he thought about the endless potential of implementing a more systematic approach to the growth of living mechs!

The significance of developing systematic Ascension Paths for all of his living mechs was groundbreaking to his design philosophy!

If it wasn't for the fact that he had already used the creation of the Carmine System as the trigger for his recent advancement, he would have been able to break through on the spot by coming up with this brand-new concept!