The Mech Touch

The act of activating a foreign spiritual fragment in the mind was a novel process.

Due to how close they were to each other, the fragments formed a stronger connection to their sources. This not only allowed them to gain a bit more strength, but also increased Ves and Gloriana's mutual understanding towards each other.

This was a magical state, one shared by the both of them. As Ves analyzed what was happening to him, he realized that his current condition was similar to that of entering into an inspired state.

"How intriguing."

He had experimented with activating Gloriana's fragment several times in the past, but that was when he was a fair distance away from her. Now that they were in the same room, the experience was substantially different.

In those cases, the fragment itself was too weak to exert any significant power. It only granted him a taste of Gloriana's domain and allowed him to understand her work to an extent.

This couldn't be helped. Ves was too afraid of harming her by harvesting too much of her essence at once. The fragment of him that Gloriana possessed was also rather small. In the past, she couldn't really do more than take comfort in her presence.

The experience was different now. After activating the fragments, both Ves and his wife became a lot more attuned to each other's domains.

However, this state did not come without a price.

Ves could feel that the fragment in the mind of his wife was actively drawing strength from his spirit. The same must be the case for Gloriana as well.

This small drain was not a great concern if it only lasted for an hour, but if it went on for days, Ves estimated that he and Gloriana would both be forced into a low state for weeks!

This was quite a serious price to pay!

However, when he considered the potential benefits of forming a greater degree of mutual understanding with his partner, it might be worth it if it yielded enough results.

If they failed to make a masterwork mech or something close to it this time, then the gains might not be worth the price.

After all, to passionate mech designers, entering into a low state significantly lowered their productivity.

They wouldn't be as creative, they weren't able to channel their design philosophy as effectively and their design results lacked passion. The couple would basically be unable to perform their jobs as effectively!

He turned to Gloriana, who automatically met his gaze. Due to the faint connections to their minds, they had synced up to an extent. She already understood some of his thoughts.

This must be an application of his life domain. Some of its properties complimented their current state well!

"Wow." Gloriana sounded impressed. "Is this how you experience reality all the time? It's no wonder you're so good at manipulating people!"

"Life is the real miracle to me. Everything extraordinary in reality is rooted in mysteries of life."

Just as she became more attuned with life, Ves gained a deeper perception of perfection.

Perhaps perfection was the wrong word to use here. Gloriana possessed an intuitive sense of quality. She was able to look at any object and judge how close to ideal they were. Now Ves gained the same ability in a weaker form.

He looked around. Their chairs, their rings, the work table, the production equipment and so on all provided him with a flood of additional data that he never paid attention to before. He was able to judge their overall quality as well as the factors that raised or lower it. What annoyed him a bit was that every little flaw and imperfection stood out like a sore thumb!

No wonder Gloriana was so irritable at times. She lived in a reality that was filled with flaws. Even when she worked hard to turn her own workshop into her own sanctum, she still couldn't eliminate every flaw!

"You must have built up quite a tolerance." He lightly quipped.

She looked appreciative at Ves. Finally, someone else finally understood what it was like for her to live like this. It was not easy to bear this burden!

"To create the perfect vessel, I have to understand what makes them flawed. It is a necessity for me to learn everything that affects the quality of an object. I also have to develop a deeper sense on how an object fits to a person."

Her domain went beyond observing flaws and judging quality. Gloriana's design philosophy also judged the fit or compatibility between objects and their users.

For example, when Ves studied his current comm, he realized that the high-quality model fit his wrist fairly well. Its automatic adjustment function caused it to wrap around his skin as comfortably as possible, but it wasn't perfect. His skin and flesh did not conform to the baseline human standard anymore. They were harder and stiffer than his comm was designed to accommodate.

"I should buy a custom-fitted comm." Ves concluded.

"Better yet, you should build your own one. It's only when you take matters into your own hands that you will be able to ensure that everything goes right."

No wonder Gloriana was such a control freak. She simply didn't trust other people to do their jobs properly. Just as his unique perception of life and spirituality shaped his behavior, his wife became enthralled by her exceptional vision and intuitive judgement.

To put it in an uglier way, they were slaves to their own perspectives!

Ves never thought about how the manner in which he sensed reality narrowed their minds and put them onto a narrow road.

If he didn't gain a portion of Gloriana's perspective, he wouldn't have been able to understand how much his normal self was missing in his life!

It was rather strange to view reality with two different lenses at once. Ves felt like he was wearing a mental monocle.

Being able to compare one perspective to another was incredibly valuable!

Both Ves and Gloriana gained so many new insights that they both fell silent as they became engrossed with what they learned.

Not only did they deepen their understanding of the other, they also learned more about themselves! Some details blended so well into the background that neither Ves nor GLoriana were able to observe them under normal conditions.

It was only when they were able to compare their perspective to another that a noticeable contrast emerged!

He suspected that rational mech designers who were able to simulate the design philosophies of other mech designers also experienced something similar. Being able to make comparisons allowed rational mech designers to constantly understand their own strengths and shortcomings. This would definitely help them to polish their own design philosophy and prevent their progression from going astray!

However, there was a downside as well.

Aside from the spiritual drain, the mental strain was also considerable. His design seed possessed a very strong identity and did not take kindly to Gloriana's spiritual fragment taking over its territory!

Ves had to restrain his design seed from lashing out at the foreign fragment. He also had to keep his passion pure and prevent it from being contaminated by his partner's influence.

If he let himself become contaminated, then his domain wouldn't be as pure anymore! In the worst cases, his design seed would become heterogenic, causing him to lose much of his specialty.

The gains weren't worth the losses!

The entire point of Ves and Gloriana collaborating with each other was to take advantage of each other's strengths. The better they were at their respective specialties, the more they gained from working together.

If they let themselves be contaminated, then they wouldn't have any strong points anymore. They may have become more self-sufficient, but their work would suffer as their mixed passion would never be able to burn as hot as before.

"This is dangerous."

Ves eventually snapped out of his fascination. He hadn't forgotten about his original goal. He lightly shook Gloriana's arm in order to return her to the present.

"Hey. We still have a mech to fabricate. We are straining and exhausting ourselves the longer we maintain this state. We can't waste our time on introspection. Also, don't get too caught up to what I can do. I'm very different from you. It's okay to take a peek, but I don't advise you to go too far. You'll just lose yourself in the process and push you further away from your ambition."

Due to their enhanced communication, Ves didn't need to elaborate any further. He conveyed his theories, his concerns and his urgency to her by communicating on a spiritual level.

This was quite convenient.

"Alright." She nodded after adopting a serious expression. She became more focused on the task at hand. "Before we begin, we should bestow a proper name to the result of the Cat's Paw Project. Don't tell me to settle for this code name. It isn't serious enough and doesn't properly fit with the design."

He agreed with her this time. The Cat's Paw was a second-class landbound artillery mech that was mainly purposed for static deployment on land and bunker deployment aboard ships.

Nothing about this was related to cats aside from the cat-themed bunkers of his upcoming flagship.

Goldie didn't even preside over the design!

Since Ves wanted to design a heavy artillery mech version of his old Deliverer model, he chose Ylvaine as its design spirit.

He already came up with a suitable name.

"It's official name will be the Transcendent Punisher. Its supreme firepower and enhanced targeting allows it to exact punishment on any enemy that dares to enter its range!"

Gloriana looked oddly at Ves. Even though she understood him, that didn't necessarily mean she agreed with him. She still retained her own perspective.

"It's a bit too direct for my tastes."

"That's on purpose. This is an expensive and powerful machine. One of its purposes is to deter anyone from attacking our expeditionary fleet. Once we are able to fill up every ship-based bunker with Transcendent Punishers, we'll be able to frighten off many people, particularly once our new artillery mechs have demonstrated their prowess!"

The Transcendent Punisher was their latest Ylvainan mech. While it derived its spiritual abilities from the Deliverer, it was much more powerful than the third-class marksman mech that once played a key role in the Sand War!

Ves and Gloriana began to fabricate the mech. In order to help them become more attuned to Prophet Ylvaine, Ves took the liberty of channeling Transcendent Punisher's design spirit.

While this added even further strain to his mind and spirit, it fit their current circumstances well!

Neither of them possessed much love for the Ylvainan Faith. Yet now that Ves channeled Ylvaine and extended the design spirit to Gloriana, both of them knew exactly how to make an authentic Ylvainan mech.

"The prophet will bless this machine!"

The two proceeded to work together in a much more harmonious fashion than before. While they were still trying to experiment and get used to their special states, they already tasted the benefits.

They spoke less and less to each other as they switched over to a more intuitive way of communicating with each other. At many times, they were of one mind. In the few cases where they conflicted, they easily hashed out their differences because their mutual understanding reduced their opposition to each other.

Gloriana finally understood the twisted logic that drove Ves to make decisions that didn't make sense to her before.

Ves realized how much certain elements were so glaringly wrong that she couldn't tolerate their existence. He became a lot more sympathetic towards her decisions even if it affected his own choices.

Both of them worked harmoniously for five straight days. It took a lot more time to fabricate a heavy mech. The sheer amount of parts along with their greater mass slowed down everything.

With each passing day, Ves and Gloriana experienced more and more strain. Their minds became weary and their spiritual energy reserves slowly diminished. They had to take regular breaks in order to recover from the strain and to stave off contamination.

All of these difficulties hampered their cooperation a bit, preventing them from achieving the best possible result.

In the end, their most difficult fabrication run to date produced a Transcendent Punisher that both of its creators took pride in! Unlike the previous five mechs, the machine they made was of significant higher quality than before!

"It's a pity…" Gloriana wearily sighed as she squeezed her ring, deactivating the fragment in her mind.

Ves was quite happy with the result. "I don't think there is anything to complain about. We achieved a higher standard of quality through replicable means. As long as we get more used to our activatable states, we can keep working on it until we are fluent enough to reach the next level!"

To him, this experiment was a success!

The potential of this new method lay in its consistency. Rather than praying for something as random as serendipity to bestow him or Gloriana with a special state, Ves would rather develop one himself that he could apply whenever he wanted!