The Mech Touch

Ves admired his finished mech design from multiple angles. He noted that forming a barrier to contain the aura that resulted from its strong X-Factor did not magically make the aura disappear.

As Ves examined the interaction closer with his spiritual senses, he realized that as the aura found no outlet to escape outward, it instead sank into the interior of his mech design!

This resulted in a strange effect that gave the Devil Tiger design a very strange and subtle quality.

"The Devil Tiger doesn't feel like my regular mech designs, which is what I wanted, but…"

It was as if his mech glowed in a different way. Instead of radiating a clear aura, it started to emanate a hidden pressure that made him doubt the wisdom of what he did. He had the feeling that percolating his mech with its own aura all the time might lead to unpredictable results!

Instead of worrying about it, he actually looked forward to what this might result!

"Hahahaha! I hope you won't succumb too soon!"

This alternate expression of aura served as a way to disassociate himself from his creation. Although both expressions shared a couple of similarities, the inward expression of aura was a lot less blatant about drawing attention to itself.

"There's enough differences to establish plausible deniability. That should be sufficient." Ves nodded in satisfaction.

The only other concern he held was the lack of restraints keeping Zeigra's spirituality in place.

Unlike the P-stones, his mech designs did not possess a powerful attracting force on spiritual entities.

This basically meant that Zeigra's spirituality was free to stay or leave as it desired!

Of course, when Zeigra realized this soon after inhabiting the mental space of Devil Tiger design, he immediately tested the waters outside his open cage.

As soon as Zeigra made his escape, his spirituality immediately began to deteriorate!

In fact, its existing wounds along with the gaping hole from the time Ves carved out a fragment accelerated the breakup process!

There were no other places that could shelter Zeigra's spirituality except for the P-stone that it had just left.

There was no way Zeigra wanted to return to its former prison! At the very least, his new home presented him with the hope of escaping in the future! He just had to bide his time for an opportunity to hop to a better home!

Ves grinned. He sensed Zeigra's thoughts and knew that there was a risk that the Crown Cat's spirituality wanted to leave.

However, Ves believed that Zeigra would gradually become used to the Devil Tiger. The mech possessed a high growth potential that wasn't any inferior to that of the Crown Cat's original body!

He actually considered the Devil Tiger to be a much more effective prison than his P-stone!

"The best prisons aren't the ones with the thickest walls, but the ones whose inmates want to stay!"

Now that he finally completed the Devil Tiger design and confirmed that Zeigra had nowhere else to go for the time being, Ves switched off the projection and deactivated all of the jammers and security precautions in his stateroom.

As soon as he reconnected to the rest of the galaxy, Gavin immediately entered his stateroom with a concerned expression.

"Are you finally done with your work?"

Ves nodded. "Yeah. I'm done tinkering. Sorry for being so rude, but I can't control the onset of inspiration and creative moods. Creative and passionate states of mind are very valuable to me. All of my best works came about with inspiration."

"I know, boss. You've told me that before. I know how you tend to be when you are completely taken in by your work. I just want to suggest you ought to find a balance. You can't just isolate yourself in your room for weeks or months on end. It was much better when you worked with Ketis, because at least you were forced to come out of shell. Now that you're back to working alone, you've regressed."

"You have a point."

Though he recognized Gavin's concerns, Ves wasn't apologetic at all. He considered upending his schedule a small price to pay to rush his mech design to completion.

"Right now, our fleet is orbiting Reinz I for a while. We originally scheduled appointments with two Journeyman Mech Designers who reside on the industrial planet."

"Have you successfully rescheduled those appointments?"

"Surprisingly, the Journeymen expressed a lot of understanding for our request to postpone the appointments." Gavin replied in a puzzled manner. "I don't know what's up, but their secretaries have been very accommodating to us. They've basically told us that you're welcome to drop by their headquarters whenever it's convenient!"

"Sounds like my reputation has already spread! Haha!"

He knew that taking part in the Crown Hunt had been worth it in the end. Though the commoners outside of Felixia didn't pay much attention to this blip in the news, those in the know were aware of its true significance.

By participating in one of the Sentinel Kingdom's celebrated hunting traditions, Ves had made a lot of inroads in the local power structure. His acquaintance with Lady Miralix meant he also enjoyed a measure of native noble support, which further enhanced his standing in the state.

Once Ves got up to speed with what he missed, he immediately proceeded to get down to the surface of Reinz I. As he emerged from the armored shuttle surrounded by the mechs of the Battle Criers, he decided to wear his overcoat over his normal business attire.

The addition of this single article of clothing made a huge difference to his stature!

Every employee of the headquarters immediately felt or noticed his ostentatious presence. The living spiritual fragment locked within the overcoat emanated an aura of both menace and pride!

The effect it had on the receptionists, the security guards and everyone else within sight caused them to feel suppressed and compelled to show their respect to Ves!

While Ves found this reaction to be exceedingly interesting, he became a bit annoyed at how strong his overcoat affected the moods and emotions of other people. At this rate, the Planetary Guard would probably arrest him on suspicion of brainwashing everyone in the vicinity!

He needed to modulate the strength of his overcoat's aura. When Ves thought about the problem, he realized he already developed a solution!

As he and his followers stepped in the elevator that brought them to the top of the headquarters, he quietly went to work. He expended a small portion of his spiritual energy to form a weaker but otherwise identical barrier to the one that encompassed his Devil Tiger design.

Once he stabilized the barrier, he gently enveloped his overcoat with it, making sure to cover both the exterior and the interior portion of his garment.

The tense shoulders of Gavin and Nitaa immediately relaxed a bit as the tenseness in the air immediately subsided by half!

"That's better!" Gavin sighed. "Was that you're doing, boss?"

"Yup. What do you think?'

"It's a lot less threatening. It's less of a punch in the face and more of a slap in the face. You still look like you demand attention, but it's not as forceful as before."

Ves nodded in satisfaction. "That's the effect I was going for. What do you think, Lucky?"

"Meow."

His cat arrogantly perched on his shoulder as if it enjoyed sitting atop a Crown Cat!

Now that Ves had taken Zeigra out of the P-stone and placed him into an intangible design, Lucky could no longer bully the captive spiritual entity as easily as before.

The only way for the gem cat to establish his dominance over the Crown Cat was to mess with the Pride of Dusk!

"Don't you dare scratch my coat!"

"Meow!"

"I'm serious!"

Soon enough, the elevator reached the top floor. After leaving Gavin and Nitaa behind at the security checkpoint, Ves passed through the entrance of the office and met with the first mech designer he wanted to meet today.

As soon as Ves stepped foot into the office, the dynamics within the room immediately reversed. Ves subtly weakened the barrier filtering some of the aura his overcoat emanated, and the effect became palpable.

The man sitting behind his desk on the opposite side of the room immediately stood up in respect.

"Mr. Larkinson! Welcome to my headquarters! I have looked forward to your visit for a long time! I'm honored you've decided to meet me first!"

Ves calmly stepped forward and stretched out his arm to shake the other Journeyman's hand. As the distance closed, his counterpart experienced an increasing amount of pressure!

"Thank you, Mr. Pelle. I hope I haven't troubled you with the changes in my schedule."

"Oh, not at all! There is nothing else on my agenda that demands my attention, so it is no issue for me to meet you at this time."

Marcus Pelle was a local Sentinel Journeyman who hadn't come to success on his own. While he showed some promise when he graduated from a technical university, the man lacked the capital and connections to start his own mech company.

It was only when one of the local noble houses in the Reinz System recognized his capabilities and invested in him that Pelle propelled his way into success. He even managed to advance to Journeyman a few years ago when he reached thirty-five years old.

While the mech industry did not consider anyone who advanced to Journeyman at that age to be remarkable, it still served as proof that Pelle possessed the drive and competence to reach greater heights!

Within the mech community, Marcus Pelle's age, experience and abundant portfolio put him in a senior position over Ves. Yet as the small talk proceeded, the Sentinel mech designer did not put on any airs and instead gave ground to his guest!

Ves knew that Pelle's unusually accommodating attitude came from the intimidation effect of his coat as well as his recent bump in reputation. Considering the man's close ties to a noble house, the man was especially sensitive to noble associations!

While Ves enjoyed establishing his superiority over Pelle, he quickly reined in this vain desire.

If he started to revel in this act, then it might come back to bite him in the future!

Relying on fear and intimidation to coerce others into cooperating with him would only breed more hostility!

Therefore, as much as Ves wanted to indulge in his macho desire to put himself on top of others, he consciously tweaked the filtration barrier that enveloped his coat to reduce the effect of its aura to a point where it faded into the background.

The shift happened so discreetly that Marcus Pelle hardly noticed the air between them lightening up. While the man grew a bit more comfortable with his guest, he still maintained some guardedness.

"Let's move on to the exchange, shall we?" Pelle suggested.

"You first."

Generally, Ves liked it when others went first. He could gauge the sincerity and the willingness of the other party to conduct an honest exchange by the opening they delivered.

Those who wanted to conduct a sincere exchange were fairly liberal in what they revealed. In contrast, those who wanted to hoard their secrets spent much of their time on vague descriptions and worthless anecdotes.

Considering the circumstances, Marcus Pelle did not dare to mess around!

"Are you aware of my design philosophy?"

"Yes." Ves nodded. "According to your record, you specialize in designing spaceborn mechs that are suited for extensive deployments. Your products are famous in Sentinel for being able to operate in space for weeks!"

Marcus smiled. "That claim is already outdated. My latest mech design is able to operate continuously in space for more than a month!"

"That's very impressive!"

Was it unique to design a mech that could operate for months at a time in deep space? Not really.

However, those who wanted to design such mechs had to make a lot of considerations that other mech designers never thought about. One of the most prevalent problems that occurred when mech pilots were deployed in the cold of space for so long was that they tended to become unstable!

What Marcus Pelle actually specialized in was designing mechs that mech pilots didn't mind piloting for weeks at a time!

Ves saw a lot of similarities in their priorities, hence why he became eager to exchange with this Sentinel Mech Designer!