The Mech Touch

"Ves! Come here right this instant!"

As soon as he returned to the bedroom he shared with Gloriana, he blinked.

Lucky squirmed out of his grasp and flew towards Clixie. The two cats nuzzled their noses at each other before hugging their bodies together. They both looked at their owners as if they were about to witness a good show!

Ves slowly loosened the collar of his uniform while he approached his scowling girlfriend.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Ves?"

He scratched his head. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Don't play stupid with me! Don't you realize what you've done?!"

"Uhhh.. no?"

"You pressed my cousin into the Larkinson Clan!"

"You mean Ranya?" Ves finally realized what she was talking about. "I made an offer to her, and she accepted. What's the big deal?"

Gloriana marched in front of his face! "You.. you idiot! She's a Wodin! She's my relative! You should have broached your intentions to me first before you turned her into a Larkinson? Don't you know how much noise I've heard from my relatives back home? Ranya will never be welcome at home again!"

"That's not a concern, because our clan won't be travelling to the Hegemony anytime soon. Once she pledged the oath, she became a Larkinson first and a Wodin second. That is the rule."

"I know that." Gloriana hissed. "What I am trying to say is that you could have gotten what you wanted in a much less controversial manner if you solicited my input first! Besides, Ranya is my cousin, and I should have been the one to raise this topic with her, not you! I still can't believe you went behind my back!"

Ves frowned and crossed his arms. "I am in charge of the Larkinson Clan. I make the decisions here. While I agree that I should have consulted you first, the agreement that we've made in the end only concerns Ranya, myself and the clan. Your involvement isn't needed."

"I'm a part of the clan as well! I have a say as well!"

He shook his head. "Officially, you are a lead designer of the LMC. That is your title in the clan. While you have a lot of say on what goes on in the Design Department, that does not give you the authority to decide on our other matters."

Gloriana didn't enjoy hearing that! She looked ready to explode!

Eventually, she turned around and huffed!

"Fine! Whatever! Just don't do it again, Ves!"

"Don't worry. It's not like I'm able to recruit Brutus."

"With your Devil Tongue, who knows."

Though Gloriana still remained pissed throughout the night, at least she didn't pursue the matter further.

She still remained catty for the next couple of days. The tension between them hindered them from focusing on their Hexer mech design project.

Even though the first iteration of this mech design had reached an advanced stage, they still had plenty more optimization to do! All of this was tedious work and couldn't entirely be passed on to their design teams due to the complexity and highly-advanced nature of the knight mech design.

Ves frowned and pressed his fingers against his forehead. There were so many more variables he needed to take into account that his brain matter couldn't keep up with the workload of his implant.

Right now, the pair were taking a break. While Gloriana went off to perform her irregular prayers, Ves thought about the many priorities he needed to address.

He looked around before sneaking his hand in his uniform pocket. His fingers reached a small container inside a small pouch made out of Synthra Umbra fabric.

Once he slipped his finger into the pouch, he extended his spiritual senses through it and felt the vibrant patterns of life churning inside the serum droplet he carried around!

Its value was too great for Ves to leave in Ranya's hands.

Aside from keeping it close and secure, he also had another reason for carrying it on his person.

He liked to observe its mysterious spiritual fluctuations frequently throughout the day.

While the minute sample of life-prolonging treatment serum had lots most of the insanely concentrated potency of the full dose, that was not necessarily a downside.

Sure, the sample only contained a fraction of the majesty of the entire vial, but its spiritual activity no longer burned his spiritual senses like a sun!

After comparing the spiritual power levels between the tiny sample and the main dose, Ves realized that the sample contained disproportionately less life than its quantity suggested.

Most of the life was locked in the main body. When Ves extracted the sample out of the vial, the droplet evidently became detached from the collective.

Its vastly-reduced complexity and power level allowed Ves to study it without suffering a backlash.

So far, Ves learned nothing useful. He had no idea what went on inside the serum. His foundation in spiritual engineering was incredibly shallow, so much so that he wasn't even aware of the basic ground rules behind the spiritual activity of the sample!

Ves might as well be a caveman looking at the propulsion system of a shuttle. The knowledge gap was simply too wide for him to gain a solid understanding of what he was looking at! Let alone figuring out its basic principles, Ves the caveman wouldn't even be able to take it apart in order to use one of the exhaust pipes as an improvised club!

Regardless, the serum was filled with the energies of life, and that fascinated him a lot. He spent hours staring at it. He didn't even attempt to study its patterns in the hopes of figuring out some rules. He simply regarded it as a piece of art and enjoyed its lively fluctuations as if he was watching an interesting drama.

It was difficult to describe his irrational obsession with the serum. Though he acknowledged its incredible value, that did not justify all of the hours he wasted! He could have spent that time on much more productive uses!

Yet… Ves still insisted on this seemingly-useless activity. There was something soothing and harmonious about carrying the sample on his person and observing its inscrutable motions with his senses.

His mind often wandered in strange tangents during these moments.

He seriously contemplated what would happen if he swallowed the droplet.

He also considered leeching its still-potent spiritual energy.

With so much life-attributed spiritual energy locked in a very intricate balance, Ves wanted to try and merge it with his design seed or infuse it in some sort of mech or mech design!

What would it be like to empower a mech with some of the most vibrant energies of life in the galaxy?

Was this the ultimate key to realizing his ambition of making mechs alive?

The possibilities were endless.. but so were the dangers.

At best, he would merely waste something of enormous value. At worse, his reckless experimentation might result in his death!

The truth of the matter was that he knew too little about the nature, properties and underlying rules behind the serum.

Though his intuition didn't know what to make of it, Ves had a hunch that he could derive a lot of gains if he experimented with it in various ways.

When Ves met with Ranya at the Scarlet Rose's new restricted biolab, the new Wodin-Larkinson voiced a similar desire.

"In my field, there is so much I can accomplish through passive observation." She stated to Ves as she paid close attention to the readouts of the current scanning operation. "While I'm very grateful for the opportunity to observe the sample, I.. can gain much more if I can manipulate it. If I can just extract some of its particles and use them up in various experiments, the insights that I can gain are immeasurable! The more you give me, the greater the amount of value I can give in return!"

She looked carefully at Ves amidst the newly-installed lab machines.

Only a handful of lab equipment had been carried over from the Frozen Leaf so far. They had already ordered a whole set of advanced biotech equipment from the Hegemony, but it would take some time for them to be shipped to the Cinach System.

Ves knew why Ranya was being careful around this topic. A complete dose of life-prolonging treatment serum was of inestimate value to everyone, including himself!

Who didn't want to live forever? While the serum that fell into his possession was only able to add an extra hundred years to the life of a 300-year old, this was still an amazing benefit that cost a huge amount of merits to redeem from the MTA!

With such an amazing effect at his disposal, the very thought of using a portion of it in destructive experiments was blasphemous!

Any other person would have blown up at the mere suggestion!

Yet.. Ves didn't show any sign of dismissal. Instead, he looked thoughtful.

The truth was that Ves was in the same boat as Ranya. He recognized the value of the serum, both as a means to extend his lifespan and a priceless trade good that he could exchange for countless different benefits.

Yet.. those obvious options weren't as straightforward as they appeared.

He was still in his early thirties! Even without any life-prolonging serum, all of the gene optimizations he received had already extended his lifespan to an estimated 180 years!

This meant that pursuing life-prolonging treatments wouldn't be a priority to him for a very long time.

Even if it became relevant, he would have to be at least three centuries old before this specific serum became relevant!

Three-hundred years was a lot of time. To the less talented mech designers, it was far from enough, but Ves was different! He was a lot more confident in his abilities! With all of the advantages he enjoyed, he refused to believe that he would fail to advance to master within the first two centuries of his life!

In short, the primary use of the serum wasn't very relevant to him. By the time he became this old, he would probably be in a position to earn the serum through his own efforts!

The same applied to Gloriana!

Therefore, the only other uses of the serum was to extend the life of someone else or to trade it for a host of valuable concessions.

Ves already ruled out using it on others. The gains from extending the life of someone who wasn't in the position to earn it themselves was not a profitable transaction.

As for exchanging it for something else of value, Ves wasn't too hopeful about it. The biggest problem about the serum was two-fold.

First, it was stolen goods. Once the CFA got wind of its existence, Ves bet that he would immediately receive another visit from Lieutenant Stimmons!

Second, its value was so high that there was a high risk that his trading partner would renege on the deal! It was too painful to sacrifice so many valuables to obtain the serum.

It was a much better deal to bring a lot of mechs and rob the serum from his hands!

His distrust of strangers amplified this fear. If Ves was in their position, he wouldn't hesitate to do the same!

"Ugh." He eventually grunted. "It's way too early to consider such a contentious matter. For now, just make do with passive observations, and try your best to figure out any potential uses of making active use of the serum. I won't say I will approve of them if they sound good, but it would be nice to explore this option."

Dr. Ranya looked hopeful. "I'll do my best to develop a concrete use of a sample! It is not unreasonable to assume that this serum has many more uses than extending the life of a geezer."

The question was, would the potential benefits of experimenting on it outweigh the benefits of the other options?

Ves didn't know. This decision was fraught with uncertainty, and the risk of suffering was considerable!

Yet… compared to the more conventional options, he somehow yearned to experiment with it. Even if the gains he made was less than extending his life by a century in the future, the timing was incredibly relevant!

Giving up a substantial benefit in the future for a smaller benefit in the present was not his style.

In many of his previous decisions, he preferred to invest for the future and lay the groundwork of long-term success and profit.

Yet.. this was a different kind of investment. If he could develop a new application of his design philosophy or design some sort of amazing new mech, the gains he earned in the shorter term would eventually snowball into a considerable lead over his original trajectory!

This was a risky investment that could very well pay off handsomely! Being able to advance to Master sooner or rising into power faster were both possible if he could master some of the power of the serum!

What choice should he make?