The Mech Touch

Ves and his children had a good time in the Gesora #12 Hunting Ground.

In a society that surrounded people with ever more advanced technologies with each passing day, it was nice to leave all of the hustle and bustle of modern civilization and return to a semblance of nature.

Even though their boat was a highly sophisticated product in itself, the vessel possessed an understated appearance. Her white hull kept a lot of advanced detection and defense functions out of sight.

The bodyguards assigned by the Bluejay Fleet also did a good job at blending into the background. Their stealth tech was so good that Ves could have easily thought that they had left him alone if not for the fact that his powerful senses could pick up the presence of metal and life.

Most notably, there were several large metal objects lingering in the vicinity of the boat's location.

Ves paid little attention to these hidden first-class multipurpose mechs and focused on his needs.

As his children competed against each other by filling up their buckets first, Ves did his best to play a pleasant melody while trying to deepen his comprehension of the water element.

His progress was not fast. He had known a long time ago that he did not possess a strong affinity or talent related to the water element.

Although it had traits that Ves liked a lot, he could say the same for many other E energy attributes.

The root of his Spirituality was still centered around metal and life. He could make much faster progress in these areas than any other attribute. Trying to familiarize himself with elements outside of his core focus seemed like an inefficient and wasteful activity.

Yet Ves persisted anyway.

Creation cultivators needed to master a variety of different forces to develop a comprehensive product catalog.

Not even a highly focused specialist such as Ketis could avoid the necessity of incorporating other concepts in her swordsman mechs.

Ves was much worse in this regard. He couldn't help himself from exploring unfamiliar concepts and ideas all of the time. As a mech designer, he was destined to remain restless for the rest of his life.

He would have explored the five elements sooner or later as far as he was concerned. They were just too useful and versatile in the fields of hyper technology and E-technology.

Since that was the case, Ves was willing to tolerate a little hardship and force himself to learn more about the water element.

As the hours went by, he began to produce a few results.

His mood improved as he continued to play the Oceancaller in an environment where it most felt at home.

Even though Ocanon VI was nothing special, its oceans possessed a certain charm and beauty that held a lot of attraction to many visitors.

Such places possessed strong associations that made the Oceancaller feel more alive and in tune.

As a high-level artifact, the replica artifact possessed just enough life to develop its own likes and dislikes.

It had been an excellent decision for Ves to bring the flute here. One of the rewards he received for indulging in the Oceancaller's fancies was that the artifact opened up to him more.

It was as if he had earned enough favorability from his artifact for it to put a little more effort into helping him along.

The changes were subtle.

The flute put a little more effort into helping him manipulate the water element, enabling him to perform more delicate and advanced techniques.

It subtly made corrective actions whenever Ves made a mistake in his operation. This not only prevented him from screwing up and wasting his time investment, but also gave him clues on how to solve certain problems.

More than that, the flute slightly deepened his ability to connect to water bodies such as the ocean water below.

"Hah! Take that, big sis! I've caught the biggest fish yet! Wait, why does it have so many sharp teeth?"

"It wants to bite off your face!"

"Miaow!"

"Good job, Clixie! You sure showed that piranha-like fish! You're much more diligent than that other lazy cat."

"Meow...?"

While his children continued their impossible quest to empty the ocean of all of its fish, Ves had begun to gain increasing control over water.

A square cavity formed in the waters to the side of the boat. Ves continuously played the same staccato pattern of notes that enabled him to shape the water according to his liking.

He slightly slowed down and changed his intonation so that the sounds produced by the Oceancaller slightly shifted.

The square started to narrow and lengthen into a rectangle. It became a lot harder for Ves to maintain this shape as its complexity had increased by a significant extent.

Eventually, the sides of the cavity started to shake. Ves did not try to stabilize his efforts but instead continued to make the rectangular cavity more and more extreme.

Splash!

Ves suddenly lost control, causing the ocean water to restore its natural form.

"Hm. My control has improved by another measure."

He could not imagine making so much progress in so little time. There weren't many opportunities for him to visit places like these once his vacation came to an end.

New Constantinople VIII had its own oceans, as they were vital to turn this terrestrial planet into a place that was suitable for human habitation.

However, the difference was that this planet had been terraformed from top to bottom by the most advanced technologies available to the Devos Ancient Clan.

Everything that was alien and threatening to human life had been wiped out and replaced with more compatible elements.

If the original planet had any oceans, then all of the alien life that occupied its vast ecosystem for millions of years had been totally erased!

The Devosans had changed the shape and the salinity of the oceans to suit their own needs. They also replaced the old ecosystems with new ones that were much more to their liking.

This was the power of human civilization. Its colonizers always preferred to wipe out anything alien and deviant on the planets that they preferred to make their homes. It was a way of homogenizing and perpetuating humanity across vast interstellar distances.

Whatever the case, the damage the Devosans had done to the original oceans of New Constantinople VIII was incalculable!

Wiping out all of that alien life at once and distorting the oceans to suit human desires had erased a massive amount of unrecorded history and meaning.

The new meticulously designed organisms that the Terrans had let loose in their newly claimed oceans were far too young and sterile to fill up the massive void!

Ves knew that if he tried to play his Oceancaller in a body of water on a terraformed planet, his flute would not be in the mood to do him a favor.

A part of him felt a little frustrated that the artifact continued to act with so much restraint.

His living mechs never played such games whenever they interfaced with their mech pilots. They all knew that they had to earnestly work together with each other in order to preserve their lives and pursue victory once they deployed on the battlefield.

This was exactly what a living mech was supposed to be like. Ves was really annoyed that these traditional artifacts all came with stubborn and reticent artifact spirits.

Ves inwardly sighed.

It couldn't be helped. Artifact cultivators often had to deal with lopsided relationships with relics that were too powerful for them to restrain.

This was the price of handling an object that exceeded their present levels of cultivation.

Ves was able to tolerate the power imbalance between himself and the Oceancaller because the latter was just too damn useful.

The gains he made today had already deepend his understanding of the concepts of fluidity, waves and the oceans.

Combined with his existing comprehension of the concept of blood, Ves had already deepened his overall understanding of the water element!

It might not sound like much, but Ves had gained much more confidence in his ability to utilize the water element to a greater degree in multiple future mech design projects!

His accumulation had grown so much that his mood lifted even more.

Ves spontaneously played a more vigorous tune that suddenly caused the oceans around him to respond to his melody and the emotions that he was channeling.

Waves started to surge from his position. The oceans grew more and more turbulent.

Though the buildup was slow, it began to gain momentum after a few minutes.

"Hey! What are you doing, papa?"

The children all reeled in their fishing lines as the boat started to get affected by the waves that spontaneously spread from their location.

It was not hard for them to figure out that Ves' performance was responsible for this. Aurelia grew especially fascinated by what her father was doing with the flute.

She was able to observe a hint of the powerful effects produced by the Oceancaller by borrowing the senses of her companion spirit!

"Mew!"

Lucky and Clixie started to grow uncomfortable as well.

As the waves grew taller and taller, the boat rocked up and down to such an extent that Lucky woke up from his cat nap and jumped into Andraste's arms!

"Meow!"

"I know, Lucky! Papa is so powerful! I wonder if I can borrow his flute."

As the waves started to exceed ten meters high, the buildup of waves showed no signs of abating.

Ves had never imagined he could exert so much force by himself. He grew particularly amazed at how much water energy he was able to command with his flute and how well he was able to convert this extraordinary power into physical force!

He suddenly understood that this must be what it was like to be the Mistress of the Oceans.

The power to create waves that were powerful enough to drown all of the cities on a coastline was so exhilarating that he had a tendency to look down on the mortals who could never hope to come close to matching this feat!

Ves should have felt horrified for entertaining these thoughts, but he had become so consumed by his performance that he started to resonate with the ocean in a way that gave him the illusion that he had become its master!

BEEEEP!

It wasn't until a first-class multipurpose mech deactivated its advanced cloaking system and transmitted a discordant electronic tone that Ves snapped out of his fascination.

"We apologize for interrupting you, Professor Larkinson, but your actions threaten the stability of the Gesora #12 Hunting Ground. If these waves continue to grow in power, then many of the individuals who have rented boats will have to evacuate from these waters."

Ves had to shake his head in order to bring him back to the present. "I... I am sorry. I could not control myself. It was rude of me to disturb everyone else in this hunting ground. I will make sure not to do this again unless I am in an unoccupied body of water. Please convey my apologies to the people who have been affected by my experiment."

The mech of the Bluejay Fleet activated its cloaking system again and disappeared from sight now that it had done its job.

Only a short moment passed before his children ran up to their father!

"That was cool, papa!" Andraste admiringly said. "Can you make me a flute that can do the same?"

Even Aurelia could not restrain her own desire.

"Can you teach me how to command water while playing the flute?"

Marvaine made a more mischievous request. "Can you splash my sisters with water?"

"Sure."

Ves played a small tune and made sure to act with much greater restraint this time.

Due to his improved control and familiarity with water, he easily managed to summon three spouts of water that promptly splashed the bodies of all of his children at once!

"I'm wet!"

"No fair!"

"Bad papa!"