The Mech Touch

When Ves entered the workshop of his flagship, he met a collection of Swordmaidens.

The women all flourished their new greatswords with relish. While the mass, balance and design of their weapon had changed, they actually took to them better than their older Breyer alloy blades!

"How are you enjoying your new gifts?"

Commander Sendra grinned as she repeatedly chopped the air with her recently-made weapon. "It's great! Ever since the Battle of Reckoning, I always dreamt of wielding the same type of blade as the Bright Sword Prime. Now, my wish has come true!"

"Look at how easily it tears into the deck!"

"Wait, stop! Don't damage the ship!"

The enthusiastic Swordmaidens couldn't be stopped. Ves already noted to his distress that the ecstatic warriors had already left more than a hundred different holes and cut marks into the deck of his workshop.

While this damage was rather light and could be fixed by bots with ease, Ves didn't want the women to trash his personal workspace any further!

"Please, sheathe your blades! You can play around with them when you've returned to your own ship."

Fortunately, the Swordmaidens respected him enough to obey these instructions. They dampened their eagerness and calmly sheathed them in scabbards specially prepared to contain the deathly weapons.

Ves turned to Ketis, who looked proud of her work.

He left the actual job of fabricating the Unending alloy greatswords to her. She not only knew more about swords than him, but also knew every recipient in person.

Instead of fabricating forty copies of the exact same blade, she listened to the demands of the recipients and made various measurements. She then used her own design skills to tweak the standard greatsword design in order to come up with individualized variants that fit the hands of their new owners a lot better than the alternative.

Some swords were a little longer. Some of them were shorter. Others were thicker while a handful were slightly curved.

Venerable Dise received a grander-looking weapon than the rest. Even though she was no longer the commander of the Swordmaidens, she was still their greatest hero and authority figure.

As an expert pilot with several major victories under her belt, she deserved to wield a sword that matched her glory and prestige.

The grip and guard looked more elegant in the way it entwined silvery metal with dark Unending alloy. The pommel had been machined to look like the head of Qilanxo back when she was alive. The eyes of these decorative elements were embedded with lustrous jewels that reflected incoming light.

"What's the name of this weapon?" Ves gestured towards the greatsword that Venerable Dise just sheathed in an engraved metal sheathe.

The sheathe was another work of art from Ketis. Its two broad surfaces depicted some of the most tragic and heroic moments of the history of the Swordmaidens. The final scene where the Bright Sword Prime stabbed through the chest of the Jeanne D'Arc looked especially prominent!

"I call it the Maiden Protector." Ketis answered with a tired voice. "I put in all my effort and accumulated knowledge to design and make this sword. It's the best sword that I have made so far. While I made it for Venerable Dise, I hope my work will continue to compel its future wielders to protect the Swordmaidens to come."

Ves indulgently smiled. "I hope so as well."

He was very glad with her approach to her work. It seemed he passed on his preferences to create legacy products and works that lasted. While there was no guarantee that they would be able to gain access to better materials and techniques in the future, Ves believed that the Maiden Protector would not be worse off in comparison.

Not only was it made out of Unending alloy, which was by far the most powerful and potent material that Ves had ever gotten his hands on, it also had the potential to become alive.

As Ves inspected the weapon from a spiritual perspective, he noted that it was not a living totem like the other products he made by hand.

This was natural as Ves didn't involve himself in this job aside from setting Ketis up. He briefly instructed Ketis how to use the relevant machines of the ELKINE production line and supplied her with the necessary materials that he secretly lifted from the frame of the Shield of Samar.

Yet what Ves found interesting was that Ketis added her own touch to the weapon. He could somehow sense that its blade had been imbued with an element of sharpness that shouldn't normally be present.

In fact, all of the swords she made bore the same traits, but to a lesser degree. She invested significantly more in the Maiden Protector to make sure it was by far the most potent weapon out of the entire batch.

Whether the swords had the potential to grow into totems or transform into something else, Ves didn't know. What he did know was that the spiritual properties of Unending alloy would undoubtedly make a huge difference over time!

"Now that I've finished making all of the weapons, what's next, Ves? Can we.. finally receive our candy?"

The other Swordmaidens looked confused at Ketis. Why did she sound so eager to receive candy of all things? Was this a euphemism of a secret drug of sorts?

Ves looked amused. "You'll get your candy, and so will some of your sisters. Ketis, please bring Venerable Dise and the five strongest Swordmaidens that will comprise your best team in the group personal combat contests to my secure compartment over there."

"Okay."

It turned out that the main combat team included Ketis, Commander Sendra as well as three other notable sisters.

Ves wasn't entirely sure about this arrangement. Both Ketis and Commander Sendra played key roles in their mech force. If any accident befell either of them, the Swordmaidens would definitely become disarrayed!

It didn't seem like the Swordmaidens were hesitant about their selection. They always thought that their leaders should be fighting women who could overpower any other sister. They were much like Vicious Mountainers in that regard. Not even Ketis could be persuaded to reconsider.

Since that was the case, he better make them as strong as possible. He guided them all into a secure chamber that was meant to perform covert experiments and briefly studied the six women with his System vision.

It turned out that their physical attributes were already high. This relieved him a bit, but it still meant he would have to spend big in order to upgrade all of their attributes to a high level.

Ves briefly debated to himself whether it was worth it to invest this much DP into so little people. If he acquired a lot of Attribute Candies, that meant it would take even longer for him to redeem other offerings from the System.

Eventually, he felt like going through with his plan. It might not make logical sense, but his feelings steered him towards bestowing this favor to the Swordmaidens. Making them stronger than ever before might even pay off in the long run. Not only would he receive their gratitude, he also acquired a strong team of champions who could fight in many possible challenges on his behalf!

"Wait in this testing chamber while some of my scanning equipment quickly inspects your physical conditions. We need to make sure that each of you are healthy enough to undergo your upcoming treatment."

Ves stood in an observation room and indeed activated some scanners that inspected their bodies.

He wasn't interested in the data that the scanning equipment spat out. He just used it as a smokescreen for his actual measures.

[Dise]

Strength: 1.4

Dexterity: 1.2

Endurance: 1.5

"That's pretty good if she's a third-rater."

It fell a bit short of second-raters who dedicated themselves to physical combat, though. Ves had researched some of the top competitors that took part in the contests held during the Greater Omanderie Festival and was very impressed by their strength and vigor.

While a stronger physique was not a guarantee for victory, it helped a lot. Together with great skill, the Swordmaidens had the potential to defeat a large succession of opponents, thereby improving their attractiveness to the recruits they sought!

Helping the Swordmaidens ultimately benefited him as well, so Ves no longer quibbled with the cost of boosting these attributes.

"Let's see how many DP I can spend."

He summoned his System comm and activated it. Just as he expected, he first gained an infusion of DP on account of finishing one of his works.

[Design Evaluation: Bright Warrior Mark I Version B BW-A-01-B]

Model name: Bright Warrior Mark I Version B BW-A-01-B

Original Manufacturer: Ves Larkinson, Gloriana Wodin

Weight Classification: Medium

Recommended Role: Modular Mech Platform

Armor: C+

Carrying Capacity: C+

Aesthetics: B+

Endurance: C

Energy Efficiency: B-

Flexibility: C

Firepower: C+

Integrity: B-

Mobility: C

Spotting: C

X-Factor: A-

Cost efficiency: D

Project involvement: 58%

Original component composition: 24%

Overall evaluation: The Bright Warrior Mark I Version B is a second-class conversion of the first version of the Bright Warrior design. The design has been re-envisioned to perform a more fundamental role as a starter modular mech platform to the Larkinson Clan. Despite its new role, the mech's base performance is considerable in relation to mechs designed with similar purposes in mind. The Bright Warrior Mark I Version B also contains remarkable properties that can change the lives of its mech pilots under the right circumstances. The growth potential of this mech is significantly greater.

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

The System's evaluation matched his expectations, even though he still wasn't sure about its standards. It disappointed him a bit that none of the criteria attained an A-grade except for the usual X-Factor. It matched his own impression of the Bright Warrior IB as a balanced but plain design.

He didn't waste much time in going over the implications of his scores. Instead, he went into the Store and browsed the interface until he reached the section where he was able to purchase candy for other people.

This was actually one of the most potent and useful features the System bestowed upon him. He long wondered why it sold its candies at relatively low prices.

Now he understood that it wasn't undercharging its products at all. While it was relatively affordable for him to boost the attributes of a single person, it was a different story when he wanted to augment an entire group of people!

"Spending my DP on six people will already make me broke!"

He made some quick calculations as he noted down their physical scores. Fully raising Venerable Dise's strength, dexterity and endurance to 2.0 would cost Ves a whopping 30,800 DP!

And this was just a single person!

Since the other Swordmaidens in the chamber were somewhat comparable to Dise when it came to their physiques, that meant that Ves would have to spend a total of 180,000 DP to raise their physical attributes to the limit that they could bear!

"They might as well be superwomen at that stage."

It was unfortunate that he didn't have the points to support this spending. Also, it might not be necessary to boost them all the way to 2.0.

He briefly considered his strategy and decided to skimp a bit on dexterity. While he could guess that it might be useful in combat, the Swordmaiden fighting style largely revolved around power rather than finesse. Improving their fine control would not benefit them too much. Only Ketis might find it handy whenever she needed to do some precision work.

"Well, I'll do the best I can."

Attribute Candies became more expensive the higher the score, so Ves could save a significant amount of DP if he skipped dexterity to a degree.

With his latest gains, he currently possessed 157,342. Properly speaking, he should keep it all in reserve, but he didn't worry about spending it all because his other mech design projects were close to completion.

Therefore, he felt free to spend as much as it took to turn the strongest Swordmaidens into even scarier killing machines!