The Mech Touch

Ves found it far too agonizing to choose between two good choices.

His heart yearned to travel to Ocanon VI and let go of everything related to mechs for a week.

He looked forward to letting down his guise as a patriarch and a man who attracted the attention of all of red humanity and immerse himself in various hunting and camping activities.

On the other hand, Port Salience enabled him to engage in his passion from a different angle.

Instead of designing mechs, Ves could reconnect with his work by seeing them in action.

He was curious to see how his older products fared as they grew alongside the mech athletes who they partnered with. The bonds they developed must be deep as mech athletes fought at a much greater frequency than professional soldiers.

Certainly, mech athletes never became exposed to life-and-death struggles, but the strong emotions generated by winning and losing important matches that could define their careers were almost just as potent, especially when they occurred at a much higher frequency!

From what he understood about living mechs, Ves believed that he may be able to witness the most intimate bonds between man and machine among his purely commercial works.

Perhaps his visit to Port Salience might not be totally removed from his work, but he was sure he could gain enough enjoyment during his stay to compensate for any added stress.

"Which one should I choose?"

Ves needed to restore and uplift his mental state one way or another. He could not afford to run himself ragged.

No one was able to maintain a high level of productivity on a continuous basis for so long. This was especially the case when working at a high intensity, as Ves had done when he completed his last five mech design projects.

Ves also grew a little bored of New Constantinople VIII. Even though he had yet to explore all of the curious and wonderful sights that the Terran planet had to offer, he had already witnessed the best of what it had to offer.

New Constantinople VIII lacked the accumulation of history that produced unique local cultural customs and gave weight to old monuments.

That problem was not unique. Red humanity had only formally begun to colonize the Red Ocean very recently, so all of the colonies in human-occupied space suffered from the same problem.

It was one of the many signs that red humanity was still not in sync with the rest of the dwarf galaxy. People like Ves were still regarded as intruders who forcibly tried to carve out a new home in the new frontier.

If Ves wanted to get in touch with anything older, then he had to travel to a planet that had yet to succumb to humanity's insatiable colonization drive.

His choice became clear now that he figured out what he wanted to experience the most.

"I have made up my mind." He announced. "Please make the appropriate arrangements for a week-long visit to Ocanon VI. Give me a more detailed list of hunting activities. I want to hunt a variety of different prey under various different conditions. The planet also allows for the hunting of huge game, correct?"

"That is so, but the supply of large-sized exobeasts is fairly limited."

"Try and arrange at least a hunting trip related to huge beasts."

That caused Gavin to look confused. "You will need to bring your own mechs to hunt such prey. It is overkill to rely on the mechs of the Bluejay Fleet to hunt these prey. The only way to make this special hunt meaningful is if you issue a special request to the Davute Branch to quickly dispatch a troop of appropriately equipped Larkinson mechs to the Ocanon System."

Ves dismissively waved his hand. "That won't be necessary. I intend to conduct a different sort of hunt. I will explain it to you later after I have conducted an investigation. For now, just reserve a quota for me. I am sure that the colony will be eager to accommodate a guest of my stature."

Since Ves had become a bigshot nowadays, he might as well make use of his privileges.

They talked a bit more about what Ves sought to gain from this upcoming vacation.

"So does that mean that we do not have to make any arrangements in Port Salience?"

"Not so fast, Gavin. Right now, my schedule is largely constrained by the need to hold a product reveal in a month, right?"

"That is so." His assistant confirmed.

"I don't want to miss out on Port Salience. It is still necessary for me to reconnect with my old customers and my old works in these changing times. The mech scene on that planet is vibrant, so I am sure I can learn a lot about how my products are faring in the Hyper Generation. How about we schedule a visit after I have finished my product reveal?"

Gavin raised his eyebrows. "That can work. It will delay your return to New Constantinople VIII. We will also have to postpone a few important meetings, but it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Are there any other particular reasons why you want to detour to Port Salience on the way home?"

Ves steepled his fingers. "I want to take a look at how other mech designers are dealing with living mechs. Competitive mech teams often repair and modify their existing mechs at higher rates. I think that has led to the rise of mech designers who have developed unique insights and approaches on how to tweak the performance of my works. I think I may be able to meet with a handful of interesting second-class mech designers that we bring into our Design Department."

His assistant immediately understood what Ves was aiming for. "Are you looking to fill up the void left behind by the mech designers who have chosen to undergo EdNet training?"

"Yup. We need to replenish our ranks of second-class mech designers, but I don't trust others to hire the right sort of people. The Design Department is one of the most important institutions of our clan, and I do not want to fill it up with people who do not understand living mechs or have opposing ideas. We also need people who are willing to leave their old lives behind and embrace their new identities as Larkinsons."

"I do not think you will have much issue attracting volunteers these days." Gavin remarked. "An invitation from you holds almost the same amount of weight as an invitation from the Terrans or the Rubarthans. You have become the idol of many third-class and second-class mech designers who hope to follow your trajectory."

"Well, I won't complain if it makes it easier to convince talented mech designers to work for me, but I don't want to take on people that can only look up to me." Ves said. "I need mech designers with enough pride and ambition to push themselves to greater heights."

He knew he was being way too picky about this. It was not necessary for the mech designers of the Design Department to design original mechs all of the time.

There was also room for less inventive mech designers that were more suitable to work on maintaining existing product lines.

Perhaps Ves should pay more attention to these sorts of people during his upcoming work visit to Port Salience.

In any case, it did not take long for Ves and Gavin to add this extra trip to the planning.

"I will make sure to inform the Wild Fighter Association and arrange a meeting with the officials in charge of Port Salience. Would you like to mention the topics that you wish to talk about when you meet with them during your visit?"

Ves definitely wanted to hold a deeper discussion with the Wild Fighter Association. He believed that there was much more room for cooperation. He did not dare to underestimate the second-class organization despite the fact that he was in the process of transitioning into a first-rater.

"Hmm... I do not have anything definitive in mind at the moment. Just tell the Wild Fighters that I may wish to discuss deeper cooperation with them. I would ideally like to meet with a representative who has a strong enough voice within their ranks to make decisions on behalf."

"We shall see what we can do. Port Salience is not their main base of operations, but there should be enough time for the Wild Fighters to prepare for your arrival."

That settled the matter of vacations. With two different trips on the agenda, Ves was sure he could thoroughly restore his mood and return to a more optimal state.

Together with the return of his wife, he and his wife were bound to become a much more effective pair than before!

"By the way, how much progress has been made in the preparations for your upcoming augmentation treatment?"

Gavin couldn't help but smile. "The Senechai has been helpful and transparent every step of the way. However, it is not easy to get anywhere close to his own level of cybernetic augmentation with a lightly upgraded body like mine. I am pretty much a baseline human as far as the Terrans are concerned."

Ves had an inkling of what the issue might be. Baseline humans were simply too weak and fragile compared to the typical Terrans.

"So the Terrans think your body's load-bearing capacity is too low to undergo heavy augmentations?"

"That is so. I will have to undergo several rounds of gene optimization treatments. Once my body has reached a higher standard, the Terran implant surgeons will gradually install more and more mechanical implants in my body until my mind is more extensively digitized. Luckily, my body is not too deviant, so the Terrans do not have to deal with any existing complications."

"How long will you remain absent?"

"The experts of the Streon Ancient Clan believe that they can get it done in less than half a year. They have tried to compress this time period as much as possible, but it is difficult to shave off more days when I need to recover from surgery multiple times."

"I understand."

It would become a little more difficult for Ves to get by without Gavin taking care of all of his trivial chores.

Others could fill in while his long-time assistant was absent, but Ves would miss the deep and tacit trust and mutual understanding that characterized his long relationship with a fellow local from Cloudy Curtain.

After he concluded his meeting with Gavin, Ves took the day off and accompanied his children for a time.

He found it delightful to spend time with his daughters and son again after he exhausted himself in his attempt to bring the Elemental Lord to life.

Ves enjoyed a long night of rest and woke up without his wife by his side.

He missed her warmth and company, but knew that she would eventually return better than ever.

Once he sent his children off to school again, Ves did not follow his old routine by heading over to his design lab.

Instead, he decided to move to the empty testing grounds and entered an underground chamber.

This place was normally reserved for testing mechs. It was spacious enough to accommodate dozens of mechs and possessed enough defenses to withstand decently strong attacks.

Since Ves was not in a mood to dedicate all of his attention to designing or fabricating another mech, he might as well explore his expanded phase lord cultivation today!

"Ves." A familiar voice spoke up behind his back.

"Ah, I expected you would come." Ves turned around and smiled at Jovy. "I take it that you and your fellow mechers want to observe and record more data about myself?"

Jovy nodded. "We still know too little about human phase lords. We have reasons to believe that your transformation into one is close to the ideal state of a phase lord at your stage. You can provide us with a large amount of reference data. We can also assist your attempts to familiarize yourself with your new capabilities by sharing what we know about how alien phase lords operate."

"Hm, that is fine with me. I don't exactly have a manual for this so I can use a bit of guidance."