The Mech Touch

The fall of the Reinald Republic accelerated the fall of the Vesia Kingdom.

The fall of the Vesia Kingdom hastened the end of the Bright Republic.

For better or worse, the Bright Republic needed these foreign states to be strong. Strong enough to resist the sandmen and strong enough to protect the flanks of their neighboring states.

Ves felt a new urgency in his work. He was certain that his Deliverer design would live up to its promise and make it easier to resist the sandmen.

The sooner he finished its design, the sooner they could start sniping down sandman admirals!

He shook his head. "Am I being delusional for thinking that I can single-handedly save the Bright Republic and the other states under attack?"

It felt a bit unreal that he had grown to this point as a mech designer. As long as he could realize the Deliverer according to his vision, the mech would definitely be able to match the impact his Soldier product line managed to make!

Despite the pressure piling up on his shoulders, Ves felt more passionate and determined than ever to realize the Deliverer design. He pretty much treated it as a passion project due to its limited commercial appeal and restrictive piloting demands.

It wasn't enough for the Deliverer to be piloted by a random Ylvainan mech pilot. The mech's powerful gauss rifle was difficult to handle in untrained hands. Only a highly-trained specialist in ranged mechs would be able to lay down accurate fire in the direction its design spirit pointed out.

After all, how could a Deliverer ever hit a sandman admiral if its mech pilot possessed shaky aim?

Time began to pass as Ves immersed himself in his work.

Together with Gloriana and his design team, the Deliverer and Adonis Colossus projects progressed briskly.

Despite their lack of manpower, the sheer ability displayed Ves and Gloriana prevented many problems. Their mutual understanding of each other's design style had deepened as well, causing the friction between them to be substantially reduced.

While they worked together, Ves and Gloriana made sure to continue to work on their synergy.

Right now, they experimented with all three types of synergy they managed to identify.

While they hadn't been able to make much progress at all in improving their synergy, each design session paved the way for a future breakthrough.

What fascinated Gloriana the most was her attempt to apply Conceptual Perfection on the Adonis Colossus design.

"I think a custom mech like the Adonis Colossus is the perfect testing platform for Conceptual Perfection." She stated to Ves. "Just think about it. It's not only a custom mech, but also one with a generous budget by third-class mech standards. It should be well within our means to design the perfect vessel for Vincent Ricklin from the resources we have on hand."

Ves looked skeptical. "While I don't necessarily disagree, our client is less than ideal. As a mech pilot, his skillset is too mediocre and spread out. How can he bring out the potential of any mech with his lackluster piloting ability?"

"I thought we already talked about this. We'll just have to make the Adonis Colossus easy to start with and leave a lot of room for growth. Trust me, Ves. The value of a custom mech, especially one that fits a mech pilot perfectly, is incalculable to them. I have changed the lives of plenty of clients who used to muddle along before I designed a custom mech for them. I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about."

It was similar to someone purchasing a luxurious new gadget. Because they invested so much money on it, they unconsciously felt compelled to get their money's worth.

However, there was still a difference between wanting something and being able to achieve it. Vincent's inconsistent piloting ability heavily constrained their design choices for the Adonis Colossus design.

"If only we had a better mech pilot as a client." Ves grumbled resentfully.

They went back to discussion on how to apply Conceptual Perfection on the Adonis Colossus design.

"I think it's worth a try to pray for a miracle with this mech." She asserted. "What we're doing is pretty creating a god from scratch. How can a god be worthy of their name if their existences aren't miraculous?"

This was the lying to reality part that Ves had never really gotten a handle on. The entire concept sounded too fantastical and devoid from his existing understanding on how reality worked.

Yet just because he didn't know if it worked did not necessarily mean it was impossible. Ves already lectured the Tovars about keeping an open mind, so how could he not practice what he preached?

He was willing to go along with Gloriana's obsession over Conceptual Perfection, since it didn't appear it would do any harm.

"How will we apply its principles, though?" Ves frowned. "If it's merely engaging in wishful thinking, then that's little different from what we are already doing. Conceptual Perfection has to be more deliberate than that to achieve genuine synergy between our design philosophies."

"I was thinking about applying it in a more limited scope to begin with. Even I don't feel confident in our ability to make our Adonis Colossus perfect just because we wish it so. I think it's best to start perfecting a narrow aspect of the mech in order to achieve a real gain."

Ves paused and turned to his girlfriend with some astonishment. "Are you serious? I thought you were never satisfied with anything except the best!"

"Silly Ves." She patted his head as if he was a child. "I know my limits, especially since I started working with you. The road to perfection can't be traversed with a single step. I realized that it's better to focus on making smaller gains."

"That.. is remarkably insightful of you. How are you planning to put your idea to use?"

"By selecting a single conceptual trait and trying to make it as perfect or real as possible, of course! By starting with a small miracle, we can see whether this method of synergy is viable. Whether it works or not will be clear as long as we can sense a difference in the design."

"What aspect do you want to perfect?"

"Think about what the Adonis Colossus is all about. What is the single most important trait to Vincent?"

"Masculinity." Ves instantly answered. "The mech is all about showing off Vincent's qualifications as a man."

"Exactly! What I'm thinking about is a way to elevate Masculinity from an ordinary divine nature into an extraordinary feature that is worthy of a miracle!"

Ves fell silent for a moment as he considered Gloriana's proposal.

Focusing on enhancing the masculinity aspect sounded kind of overboard. He had already formed a plan to add a raw, masculine charm to his mech through creating a suitable spiritual product to act as its design spirit.

However, that was something produced from his own power. The point of lying to reality was to combine their respective specialties to enhance a mech beyond conventional means.

To put it in simpler terms, Conceptual Perfection revolved around combining life and perfection to produce something real and fantastic.

Though it sounded grand and ground-breaking, in truth it was far from simple to combine their strengths in such a transcendent fashion.

It was a highly-advanced act of creation that completely encompassed the essence of him and his girlfriend.

He scratched his head as he thought about how to approach this challenge.

"The problem is that we haven't established a proven technique to achieve this outcome. We are two different mech designs with two different outlooks on mechs."

Gloriana grinned and held his hand. "You don't have to do all the hard work yourself, Ves. I've already thought about these problems and came up with some theories."

"Let's hear it, then."

"As Journeyman Mech Designers, we are essentially humans transitioning to a state of godhood, do you agree?"

They talked about this before, but Ves never took it so seriously.

"I'm not entirely sure I agree, but let's go with that. When do you think someone is a qualified god?"

"Becoming a Master should be sufficient. At that point, a mech designer has managed to realize their design philosophy. Some Hexers believe that every Master is a living god!"

Ves shrugged. "Okay..?"

"Anyway, if you adjust your mindset and acknowledge the truth, you should embrace your domain."

"Domain..?"

"Your divine domain. It's life, right?"

Ves nodded. That was hardly a secret to someone who knew him too well. "I'm not sure if this word accurately describes my design philosophy."

"It's good enough. My own divine domain is perfection, obviously. Ordinarily, the two aren't related to each other. However, it's ridiculous to think that gods can't combine their powers. There ought to be a way!"

"This.. Gloriana.."

The woman rose up and faced Ves with burning passion in her eyes! "I've only realized it recently, but perfection in itself is too empty and colorless to chase after! If I want to design the perfect vessel, then I need to accentuate my domain with another domain! And what better than to borrow your domain of life!"

What was she talking about? Ves grew confused. Were they still talking about designing mechs?

"What does this have to do with the Adonis Colossus, Gloriana?"

She grabbed his shoulders and pressed her face right in front of his! "Don't you see! THIS IS THE KEY TO GREATER SYNERGY! WE MUST SHED OUR FLAWED PERCEPTION OF OURSELVES AS HUMANS AND EMBRACE OUR TRANSITIONAL STATE AS GODS IN THE MAKING! DON'T THEY CALL EXPERT PILOTS DEMIGODS?! JOURNEYMEN LIKE US DESERVE TO BE REGARDED IN THE SAME LIGHT!"

Ves grabbed her arms and desperately tried to put some distance in between them. "Let's not make any hasty claims."

'No! This isn't the time for caution, Ves! This new theory of mine is certainly true! I can feel it! We should test it out right away!"

After haranguing Ves like a stubborn badger, Gloriana eventually managed to persuade Ves to try out her new method on the Adonis Colossus.

"I'll spare you from adopting the same approach to the Deliverer." She said. "We can design it normally and treat it as a control sample. Once we complete the two projects, we can compare the two and see whether my new method has any merit!"

"I don't think that comparison will be useful, Gloriana. The design spirit for the Deliverer is very mature and highly-developed. Its effects on the design will likely skew any comparisons. Besides, commercial mechs and custom mechs are fundamentally different machines. There is little point in comparing apples to oranges."

"It doesn't matter! Let's just begin right away and see what we've managed to achieve!"

The method that Gloriana outlined to Ves sounded simpler than he thought.

In her perspective, the two of them were transitional gods who already possessed an underdeveloped prototype of the domains they would possess when they became Masters.

Each domain possessed their own remarkable effects, but they weren't exactly impressive by themselves.

In order to achieve greater results, they needed to combine their domains to enhance a certain aspect of a mech.

This was masculinity in the case of the Adonis Colossus.

What Gloriana proposed was to hold the same ideas on masculinity and apply their respective domains to them in an attempt to empower them. As long as they shared the exact same ideas, they could attempt to merge their domains together in order to achieve an extraordinary outcome.

The key to combine two distinctly different domains was to use their common subject as an interface to connect the two! The more their ideas on masculinity aligned with each other, the easier it was to make a successful connection!

However, Ves immediately spotted a problem with this method.

"You're a Hexer, Gloriana. Not only that, you're a completely different person to me. How can we hold the exact same ideas on something when we are not that much alike?"

"What are you talking about?" She frowned.

"Is your perception of masculinity the same as mine?"

"Uh.."