The Mech Touch

Technically, the Valkyrie Prime had been enhanced to around 6400 Ves, give or take a few hundred Ves.

To be honest, the humongous strength exuded by the custom mech was so exaggerated that Ves couldn't even examine it properly. He could only make a vague estimate by observing the mech from a distance.

Precision didn't matter right now. What Ves truly cared about was that the Valkyrie Prime was a completely unprecedented mech. Not just its spiritual foundation, but also its physical form received the Superior Mother's bounty!

The two weren't equivalent, though. When the Superior Mother infused the Valkyrie Prime's spiritual foundation with energy, the intangible qualities of the mech directly grew stronger.

The same wasn't necessarily the case when the design spirit dumped the equivalent of 6300 Ves of spiritual energy into the Unending alloy that made up large parts of the physical frame.

All he could say was that the Valkyrie Prime turned into a huge battery of spiritual energy. The vast quantities stuffed inside all of the Unending alloy did not do anything except radiate an exaggeratingly thick glow derived from the Superior Mother's attributes.

Ves already expected an outcome like this. It didn't make sense for the mech to come alive if all he needed to do was to incorporate a lot of Unending alloy or P-stone in a mech before filling it up with spiritual energy.

The true purpose of doing so was not to empower the mech, but to provide the mech pilot with greater leverage. As long as Joshua was able to interact with all of that spiritual energy, then something dramatic might take place!

Once the Superior Mother completed his request and withdrew, Ves tentatively approached the mech again. Though the Valkyrie Prime's glow was still identical in character to a normal Valkyrie mech, its density and solidity was insane!

Ves winced as he tried to step closer. He felt as if he was digging through a huge amount of snow. While his physical body didn't encounter any hindrances, his sensitive spiritual perception experienced something very different.

Venerable Joshua seemed to be better off in this regard. His lower perception and strong will allowed him to bear the pressure a lot better. Once he shook off his astonishment at the Valkyrie Prime's insane empowerment, he became fascinated by the thought of piloting it. He had never experienced a mech with such a powerful glow!

Though Venerable Joshua wanted to hop into its cockpit right away, Ves pulled back the eager expert pilot.

"Wait! Not so fast. I need to make some readings and inspect the mech for any changes. I can't tell whether the Valkyrie Prime's components have changed or malfunctioned during its transformation. With a mech this powerful, we need to put safety first. Be patient while I exame this machine from top to bottom."

"Awww…"

Ves forcibly shoved the expert pilot back and activated a number of scanning and inspection equipment.

The top-of-the-line Hexer scanning machines worked quickly and efficiently. Even when they were faced with a material as hard as Unending alloy, they proved capable of peering through the material as long as they remained in place and boosted their power to their limits.

After a couple of hours of careful examination, Ves tentatively concluded that the physical state of the Valkyrie Prime remained unchanged.

No matter how much spiritual energy it carried, it didn't scramble any electronics nor misalign any delicate parts. Ves felt very relieved once he made this determination.

"Can I pilot this new mech now?" Joshua whined like an impatient little kid.

He spent over two hours doing nothing else but sitting close to the Valkyrie Prime. Though he was intimidated by the powerful at the beginning, he slowly acclimatized to the mech's extraordinarily dense aura.

The fact that Ves introduced Venerable Joshua to the Superior Mother undoubtedly helped. He seriously doubted whether other non-Hexer mech pilots were able to approach this extraordinary mech. Its deterrence factor was actually a lot higher than the Doom Guard and the Ferocious Piranha!

Still, Ves couldn't allow Venerable Joshua to take the mech out for a spin without taking extra precautions. During the scanning process, he had added some additional instructions to the mech's operating system.

He took a deep breath. "Venerable Joshua. Before we proceed any further, I would like to ask if you consent to taking part in a potentially dangerous experiment. I'm sure you can feel how drastically the Valkyrie Prime has changed. I cannot in good conscience guarantee your safety if you test pilot this mech. Are you willing to pioneer this mech by becoming its first mech pilot?"

The expert pilot bloomed a smile in response. "Did you need to ask? Of course I want to pilot this mech! I don't think this mech will treat me wrong. I've already spent a lot of time trying to befriend the mech while I was waiting for you to finish whatever you were doing. I think the Valkyrie Prime knows me well enough to accept me. I think."

"Well, in case you are wrong or are unable to withstand the pressure of piloting this mech, you should shut it down immediately. If you aren't capable of doing so, then the mech will shut down on its own. The extra programming I have added to the operating system will continuously monitor all of your life signs. If any of them turn erratic or enters into dangerous territory, the mech will automatically become unresponsive. Take that into account."

"That.." Venerable Joshua frowned. No mech pilot liked to lose control this way. "Can you give me a chance to—"

"Don't be reckless! There is danger in the unknown. For now, I just want you to pilot it briefly. Just fly out into space and perform some basic maneuvers before returning back to this ship. You can attempt to resonate with the mech if you can. That's the main reason why I came up with the Valkyrie Prime. However, don't exert yourself too much. I don't want you to get hurt or suffer permanent damage."

The heads of regular mech pilots exploded when they attempted to interface with mechs at strengths ranging from 50 Ves to 100 Ves.

Expert candidates possessed a much greater tolerance for spiritually-enhanced mechs. They could handle a mech with 150 Ves such as the Quint while enduring only a moderate amount of pressure.

Expert pilots were much stronger. Even a relatively new expert pilot such as Joshua was very impressive in this regard!

Yet when it came to the Valkyrie Prime, Ves was a lot less confident about the expert pilot's chances.

"Well, all of this speculation is useless. I need to gather hard data in order to prove my assumptions."

Ves proceeded to command his ship to move the newly-empowered mech to the upper hangar bay of his factory ship. His personal workshop was actually not that far away.

As the gravity subjected to the Valkyrie Prime disappeared, a couple of heavy-duty bots clamped the inert machine and slowly pushed it forward.

Ves and Joshua steadily followed the mech as it entered the cargo channels and navigated through it. Other mechs and containers passing through the network of large and cavernous hallways had to halt and wait for the remarkable new mech to pass.

This was one of the perks of being in charge.

"Is that the clan patriarch?"

"Wait, what is that mech?"

"By Ylvaine! How powerful is its glow?! I've never felt anything this strong anymore."

"I want to convert to hexism right now!"

The powerful mech unavoidably sparked a commotion. While the range of the Valkyrie Prime's glow hadn't increased, its intensity had definitely gone through the roof!

Ves didn't mean to hide the mech, though he didn't go out of his way to announce it. Once the mech was finally moved to the hangar bay, he commanded everyone stationed there to move away and keep their distance.

It took an instant for Venerable Joshua to suit up. Ves approached a nearby workstation and took it over as the expert pilot floated upwards until he slipped into the cockpit of the experimental Hexer mech.

Once Ves set up the workstation to monitor the Valkyrie Prime's telemetry, he gave a thumbs up to the mech.

"Alright, Joshua! You can boot up the mech whenever you are ready! Take it slow and don't be in a hurry to move!"

As Venerable Joshua settled into the brand-new piloting chair, he did as he was instructed.

The mech slowly began its initial startup. This was a slower process than normal because the mech meticulously checked each and every system as they came online.

No problems took place. Several minutes went by as the mech became more active. Ves studied Joshua's heartbeat, blood pressure, perspiration and other signs for any indications that he was under pressure, but aside from some elevated activity, he remained remarkably stable.

"Okay, Joshua. The mech should have come online without issue now. How do you feel right now?"

"I feel fine." The expert pilot responded. "This Valkyrie mech isn't as scary as I thought. I can feel its strength, but it isn't fighting against me. A part of it is actively helping me while the rest is just doing nothing but sitting around."

Ves smiled. That was largely within his expectations.

"Remain steady. If you are confident enough, you can sortie into space. Just go out and fly ten kilometers away. Make sure that no other mech or ship is within this distance from you. I will command any nearby patrols to stay away."

The Valkyrie Prime moved. It slowly approached the end of the hangar bay before engaging its flight system.

The mech soon emerged out of the upper hangar bay.

Somehow, word of the strange new mech made by the clan patriarch had spread throughout the fleet. A lot of sensors pointed straight at the Valkyrie Prime as it flew away from the Spirit of Bentheim!

Once it reached a fair distance, Ves demanded Joshua to perform a standard routine of test movements.

This was quite a boring chore. Ves and the onlookers quickly grew bored as the Valkyrie Prime methodically stretched its arms, adjusted its flight system, made some basic thrusts with its spear and waved around its round shield.

None of the readings from the mechs seemed abnormal, but that was because Joshua did not do anything special.

Since the basic performance of the mech was good, Ves felt a little bit adventurous. He didn't want to recall the Valkyrie Prime before satisfying his curiosity.

"Joshua?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Do it. Try to resonate with your mech. See if you can sync up with the dormant strength locked inside the machine. Don't do anything drastic, though. We just need to confirm if resonance can be achieved. We can explore the rest later."

"Alright. I will try. I think I have an idea on how to resonate with my mech."

Venerable Joshua had been waiting to do this for hours. He instinctively expanded his force of will and tried to run it through the entire mech. With him as the center, he tried to harmonize with the machine!

His force of will began to interact with the saturated Unending alloy.

Faster than Ves expected, a weak but increasing glow formed around the Valkyrie Prime!

The other observers became astonished as they spotted something remarkable from the strange Valkyrie mech!

"What is that?"

"Is that resonance? Since when did the clan patriarch design an expert mech?!"

"Wait! It's not quite right! The resonance meters aren't moving a lot. There's something wrong here.."

As Venerable Joshua managed to arouse the hidden potential locked within the Valkyrie Prime, Ves paid very close attention to the resonate meter and other signs.

The smile on his face drooped a bit. The result he was hoping for didn't materialize. While the data told him that Venerable Joshua was definitely resonating with the mech, the efficiency was dreadfully low.

"This isn't true resonance. It's much weaker. It's merely a stronger version of fake resonance. Whatever the case, it's not comparable to the real deal!" He disappointingly concluded.

The goal of his current experiment was to see if he could substitute resonating materials.

He hypothesized that infusing a spiritually-reactive material with spiritual energy could allow an expert pilot to resonate with it. The answer turned out to be yes, but barely!

Perhaps there was a way to achieve a greater degree of resonance, but for now, the Valkyrie Prime was not as strong as he hoped!