The Mech Touch

Much had changed in the week after the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan brought their kinship networks online. They simultaneously performed lightning actions that brought every loyal member to the fold while exposing hundreds of traitors and those with different thoughts.

Dealing with these people was difficult, especially since only a minority of them turned out to be crown terrorists.

The crown terrorists were easily enough to handle. These hidden sleeper agents acted very violently when they were discovered. Their personalities seemed to switch to a completely different mode and they became incredibly rabid!

Yet as long as their identities became known, they no longer had any chance to cause any further harm. They all possessed methods to end their lives without a word and did not hesitate to activate them upon capture.

Ves requested to see the bodies of these dreadfully fanatic enemies, but when he finally finally swept them with his senses, he came out disappointed.

He thought that the Five Scrolls Compact employed spiritual manipulation in order to turn random, decent people into suicidal terrorists.

Even though he failed to study a living crown terrorist, he saw no traces of obvious spiritual tampering from the bodies of the exposed individuals.

Ves had a pretty good sense when it came to detecting any tampering or other anomalies related with people's spirit. He had experimented on so many people that he would have to be an idiot if he still couldn't tell the difference between a natural condition and an artificial condition!

He became disappointed when he found out that the Five Scrolls Compact relied on some other method to turn people into their tools of destruction.

"Our findings haven't different from others who have studied the physiologies of crown terrorists." A Crosser medical expert sighed as he commanded a bot to wrap another cadaver with a shroud. "The prevailing theory on the galactic net is that these crown terrorists haven't been subjected to technological brainwashing methods at all. They were simply subjected to lots of ordinary influencing. Teaching, in order words."

This answer made a lot of sense.

The best way to avoid any unnatural traces from showing up was to teach or indoctrinate people with ordinary methods!

Was it illegal for people to teach others in a normal fashion? No! Teaching was one of the fundamental activities that kept human civilization aloft. Outlawing teaching sounded just as absurd as outlawing love or hunger. Taking it away directly undermined the future of the human race. The Big Two would probably get overthrown before they could succeed in implementing such tyrannical directives!

In order to make sure he didn't miss anything, Ves requested the doctors to vacate examination chamber before setting up a jammer.

"Blinky!"

Mrow!

His companion spirit emerged from his mind once again. The purple starry cat let out a cute yawn. It had been napping peacefully before Ves rudely woke up his spiritual cat.

"Go sniff these corpses. Try and find out if there are any unusual energy traces."

Mrow.

The Star Cat not only examined the body lying on the examination table, but also the ones that were stored in coffins stacked in an adjacent compartment.

Sadly, Blinky returned empty-handed. Ves could do nothing else than to rub Blinky's head.

"It's okay. It was a long shot anyway. You can go back now."

Mrow…

Since his own investigation had reached a dead end, Ves decided not to spend any further time on this issue. He had already solved the main problem by giving his allies the tools needed to root out traitors and prevent other ones from infiltrating their ranks.

The expeditionary fleet should not have any concerns about threats from within at the moment. The Glory Seekers and Crossers had also become very enamoured by the effects of their new kinship networks, so the wave of mistrust that previously dampened their moods was no longer casting a shadow over their heads.

This left Ves free to return his attention to his design work.

Gloriana did not look pleased when he finally returned to the design lab. "Master Willix is due to arrive soon. I want us to be able to move on to the next phase of our design projects by then. Will you be able to complete your assignments in time?"

"Huh?" Ves briefly looked surprised. "She's coming in a few days?"

"Yes, and I want to present everything that we have accomplished so far in the most perfect state possible. I can't do that when you have been spending your time on other matters lately!"

"Hey! Don't blame me! I had to bail the Glory Seekers and the Crossers out of their own predicament! Aren't you grateful that I have brought the Glory Seekers closer to the Superior Mother."

"You could have done that after we had completed our projects, Ves! You keep getting distracted by this and that. Can't you just sit down and work on our expert mechs for a long and uninterrupted stretch of time?!"

"Hey, I promise I'll maintain my focus this time. You know I want to design the best expert mechs as well. I'm still a mech designer, you know."

"Pfff." His wife crossed her arms. "Well, that's hard to tell these days. You've spent so much time managing clan affairs that your primary title should have been clan patriarch."

Ves hunched over a bit and accepted his wife's admonition. She was right in a way. Though he felt justified in securing a favorable agreement with his allies, it did detract from his main work.

Gloriana continued to rant for several more minutes before she recalled her tight schedule.

"You're behind schedule, so I don't want to see anything else but results from now on, okay? Start first with completing the improved luminar crystals that you have promised to deliver. We can't form any plans if we don't know what we're dealing with. I need you to deliver samples to me so that I can figure out their exact properties. The success of the Chimera Project and the Sentry Project hinges on this result!"

She piled up a lot of pressure on his shoulders, but Ves did not shy away from it. It was the opposite in fact. He needed a kick in the pants and Gloriana had just thrust her sharp-heeled boot right between his legs!

Naturally, he did not dare to slack off any second. After discussing some other issues, Ves left the design lab and briskly headed for his personal workshop in order to complete one of his side projects.

Ordinarily, Ves still believed he needed at least a couple of days or even an entire week to complete his objective. There were so many different permutations of formulas that it took too much time for him to narrow down a correct solution.

While he didn't mind spending a week on increasing his depth of knowledge towards luminar crystals and the odd effects they evoked, he made a firm promise to Gloriana earlier.

The downside of relying on trial and error to find solutions was that there were always way too many dead ends!

What Ves needed to accomplish right now was to find a shortcut that could allow him to skip these dead ends ahead of time. He needed to find the right direction straight away so that he could complete this chore as fast as possible.

He considered several different ideas. The most viable one was using up some of his valuable Design Points to acquire new crystallography-related Sub-Skills from the System.

Yet Ves had big plans for those points and did not want to squander it on another ordinary benefit.

He kept pressing his mind for new solutions and eventually stumbled on an idea that might actually work!

"It's been a long time since I did this. Previously, I've always been reluctant to use it because I have to expend too much of my spiritual energy to maintain this state. Now, though…"

With Blinky around, Ves no longer needed to worry about running out of his own spiritual energy. In fact, he already filled up a lot of his P-stone with excess spiritual energy converted by his companion spirit!

"Since this is the case, I guess I can try out my idea!"

He moved over to a nearby storage cabinet and retrieved a small mech figurine.

At the same time, he ordered one of his honor guards to retrieve a couple of P-stones from the vault.

The P-stones that arrived were fairly ordinary ones that did not contain any spiritual fragments or other notable ingredients.

Instead, they exuded a vibe that completely matched Ves. Every single stone had been pumped full with spiritual energy with attributes that fully conformed to Ves!

Before he engaged in his experiment, he briefly activated Blinky. The companion spirit silently emerged and settled a small distance from Lucky.

"Blinky, I need you to keep monitoring my state. If my condition ever looks dangerous to you, then do your best to interrupt it. Also, keep monitoring my actions while I am in a special state. I never really figured out how luminar technology ties in with spirituality, so I hope you'll be able to glean some insights."

Mrow.

Ves turned to Lucky next. "As for you, I hope you can keep an eye on my condition as well. You probably won't be able to help me as much as Binky, but who knows what might happen."

"Meow."

After making sure his two cats were watching out for him, Ves took a deep breath and began to connect to one of his design spirits.

"Illustrious One! Descend into my mind and help me make the crystals that I need!"

A grand presence entered his mind. This time, Ves did not form a shallow connection for the purposes of communication.

He did not establish a slightly deeper connection that allowed him to exchange more direct thoughts.

Instead, Ves opened up his mind and welcomed a portion of the Illustrious One in his mind!

Though this move was not without his risks, Ves believed this was the best way to address his current issue!

His entire demeanor changed. Since Ves knew that he had lots of spiritual energy to spare, he did not hesitate to pull the Illustrious One deeper into his mind!

This was very intensive and Ves could already feel that he was burning a copious amount of spiritual energy in order to maintain the demanding connection and keep his mind in working condition!

Yet by paying such a huge price, Ves truly began to embody the Illustrious One. The changes were too many to count. While he hadn't literally turned into a design spirit, a part of him had undeniably changed!

Under his new and unusual state, he calmly picked up the crystal cube and felt an inexplicable familiarity to this pivotal alien relic.

He no longer regarded it as a black box. It's strange internal circuitry used to look like indecipherable symbols to Ves. That hadn't changed, but he possessed a much greater insight into the major functions of the crystal cube.

"So this is why you are able to operate this device!" Ves gasped.

Ves immediately knew the value of what he learned. He already formed notes in his mind before storing it into his cranial implant. What he recorded would still be there even if he ceased to channel the Illustrious One.

Though it was tempting for him to keep recording all of his new observations, he still had to complete his primary task.

When he gazed upon the stack of luminar crystals that he created in previous sessions, he no longer viewed them as regular crystals.

Each of them shone, sang and shimmered to him in different ways.

They weren't exactly alive, but they might as well be now that he had gained the senses of the Illustrious One.

Ves was able to glean so many more details about these special crystals that he felt as if he had been blind prior to this moment.

"This… this is amazing. I've actually missed so many details about these crystals. They've got a lot more potential than I thought!"

He even identified a possible solution to strengthening the structure of the crystals just by looking at some of the samples!