The Mech Touch

The team of Journeyman solemnly prepared for their fabrication run.

Ves wanted each of them to take advantage of the exceptionally good mood they were in right now. The optimism that Gloriana and the others had held while they designed the mech along with the powerful rush of excitement from receiving a Superpublished version of their work produced a powerful effect that made everyone feel incredibly eager about their upcoming attempt to make the expert mech!

Of course, not all of the circumstances were perfect.

The technical fluency required to fabricate an expert mech was still daunting to mech designers at their level. Even if they poured more effort into studying more advanced fabrication techniques, they didn't know if they were able to handle the volatile resonating materials better this time.

Their understanding and sense of ownership in the Sentry Project was already less than ideal due to incorporation of the essential contributions of Master Willix. Now that a second external influence had made a pass on the expert mech design, Ves and the rest were not doing any better in this regard.

They couldn't do much about this, though. Not without spending a lot more time on preparation, but that was unfeasible. The Larkinson Clan needed its expert mechs sooner than later and Gloriana was eager to finish them before she was ready to give birth.

Therefore, everyone gathered at her personal workshop the next morning while looking eager and raring to go. Just like before, they had to work on the mech design for at least five days straight in order to complete the second major mech of their lives.

Despite their optimism and eagerness, there was yet another complication that threatened to disrupt their attempt.

"I can't stay awake for five days straight while expending my full concentration during this entire time." Gloriana told her husband. "I especially can't do so while injecting my bloodstream with a cocktail of stimulants that are designed to artificially keep me awake and in a hyperactive state."

She rubbed her belly as she did so. Enough time had passed by now for her normally-flat stomach to show the beginnings of a bulge.

Ves briefly concentrated his mind and swept his spiritual senses across Gloriana's body.

The constant effort he had put into feeding his unborn daughter with spirituality had made a substantial difference in her spiritual growth. Already his daughter's spirit had surpassed the average strength of a norm and was already on its way to reaching the level of someone who was spiritually active.

Ves did not spend a single second on thinking whether it was wise, safe or even desirable to make someone so spiritually powerful at such an exceptionally early stage. His daughter wasn't even born yet, but already her spiritual development surpassed most of humanity!

All he cared about was letting his daughter enter the cosmos on the strongest footing possible. The ideal result he was aiming for was to implant her with a companion spirit seed before her birth.

From what it looked like, his unborn daughter's current rate of spiritual growth was not fast enough for him to achieve his goal in time, but he wasn't worried. With each day that passed, her tolerance and capacity became a little greater.

She was growing more and more adept at handling spiritual energy. By the time his little baby was born, she should definitely give him a pleasant surprise!

Ves smiled and approached his wife in order to place his hand on top of hers. Pure warmth flowed between them as they both sensed their child in their own ways.

"I understand." He said. "I don't want to risk the health of our baby either. We'll have to adopt a different approach to our design work."

"I've already reshuffled the timetable and set up a rotation so that we can each take extended breaks where we can take naps and rest our strained and overburdened bodies. I won't be able to stay on top of the ongoing process as much as I want, but this is the only way I will be able to ensure the health of our daughter."

She had extensively consulted with Dr. Ranya and the other medical specialists before she settled with this decision. Though they were mech designers who were highly passionate about their work, the quality of a single machine could never trump the importance of their own flesh and blood!

As long as they invested enough time, they could easily design a lot of mechs. Birthing and raising a child with loving care wasa something different. Children were not products that should be discarded if they were defective somehow. Parental love didn't or shouldn't work that way.

Though the genes of their designer baby was substantially better than that of a baseline baby, at this early stage both of them were equally as vulnerable to negative external influences.

In fact, designer babies were even more sensitive because even a minor deviation from their design could ruin their ideal biological arrangement!

When they announced the modified schedule to Juliet and Ketis, neither of them reacted too strongly about it. They had never fabricated a masterwork mech before, so how could they possibly know what they were missing?

All of the changes meant that the fabrication time would likely be extended to six whole days. This was quite a difference but there were other expert mech designs in the pipeline that likely required even more days. Ves feared how much time he would have to spend in order to upgrade the huge Shield of Samar to its expert mech incarnation.

"I think you have made the right choice." Juliet gently said. "You are a mech designer, but you are also a mother. Between the two, the latter responsibility is much more important because you have only one chance to nurture and raise your current child properly. The Superior Mother will be pleased with your dedication. You carry her grandchild, after all. If you insisted on keeping yourself awake by pumping your body with chemicals, then I would have said something myself."

The two didn't always get along with each other, but ever since Gloriana had become pregnant, their relationship had mellowed out a bit more.

"Let's pray for the Superior Mother's blessing before we start." Gloriana suggested. "We worked hard on the Sentry Project not just because we want to protect ourselves, but also because we want to secure the future of our children. My daughter and the many children that follow will grow up under the protective shadow of our expert mechs. Each of them employ their great strength to guard all of our offspring on our behalf so that we can raise them in peace and without fear of death."

After sounding noble for a moment, Gloriana and Juliet both moved to the giant statue of the Superior Mother and fell to their knees in order to begin their ritual worship.

Ves simply shrugged at the nonsensical sight and turned his back to the display. "So, Ketis, are you excited?"

"Surprisingly, I am." She said. "It's strange. I'm only really interested in working on sword-wielding mechs, but there's just something about this expert rifleman mech that interests me. I'm quite fascinated by all of the improvements. The stronger this machine, the more support it can provide to my fellow Swordmaidens who will have to rely on support from the rear."

"In the ideal case scenario, the Sentry Project should be capable of sniping critical leader figures among the enemy ranks. Its ability to bend its beams will likely come as a nasty surprise to those who think they are well-protected behind their barriers."

The two chatted for a time as they waited for the Hexers to be done with their silly prayers.

After roughly half an hour, his wife and her colleague returned from the statue looking a lot more refreshed and ready to fabricate their second expert mech.

"Let's begin!"

The mech designers all headed towards different production equipment in order to start with the fabrication process.

This time, the division of labor was different. While Gloriana was still in charge of the main structure, Ves had taken complete responsibility over the luminar crystal rifle. His affinity with the tech along with his reliance on his unique methods to create the weapon did not give his wife a lot of opportunities to contribute to its creation.

Juliet focused on the flight system but also took responsibility for the expert mech's extremities in order to make the best use of her time.

As for Ketis, she was relegated to a lesser role. She performed odd jobs as well as tedious, time-consuming assignments that didn't require as much brainpower to complete.

They all started picking up steam after an hour. Their excitement and energy had accumulated to a degree where they were not ready to put down their work anytime soon.

"Ves." Gloriana called. "Bring out Blinky. It's time for him to do his part!"

"Got it, honey."

The purple spiritual cat emerged out of his head after Ves called him out. The companion spirit took one moment to look at his surroundings before he began to poke his black-tipped tail into the heads of all of the Journeyman.

This was a familiar process to the mech designers so they easily accepted the connection that had formed between them and the remarkable cat.

Mrow!

It was only then that the mech designers truly started to pick up the pace!

Every Journeyman shared a piece of themselves while the design network was active. As could be expected, Juliet and Ketis didn't bring anything useful to the table this time.

Ves' contribution was always useful as it was helpful for the others to become a bit more sensitive and aware of the life they were creating. Though the effect was not that useful at the very start of the fabrication process, it would become a lot more vital at the latter stages when the expert mech finally started to take shape.

This meant that Gloriana's contribution dominated the design network at this time. The need to fabricate powerful components at exceptional quality was extremely important at this early stage, and she was able to encourage others to pay much more attention to the potential flaws and mistakes that they made or were about to make while they worked.

The quality of their output noticeably increased right after the design network took effect. While the difference wasn't drastic, every little difference helped.

As time continued to pass, Ves gradually realized that the design network was slowly shifting. With his sensitivity, he was able to perceive a small abnormality that somehow altered the character of the network but did not disrupt it in any way.

Instead.. Ves instinctively felt more relaxed and sublime when he focused on this subtle but peculiar influence.

He quickly finished the luminar crystal that he had been synthesizing with the help of the crystal cube and threw a brief glance at his wife.

"What the…?"

His wife looked a lot more enthusiastic than normal. She boasted a wide grin as she churned out small and delicate parts with greater speed than ever before.

When he swept Gloriana with his spiritual senses, he sensed that the temporary bond that Blinky had formed with her did not just tie her into the network. It turned out that this spiritual operation inadvertently brought along a hitchhiker!

"Our daughter!"

Both his wife and child came together in the design network. Even though Gloriana was highly focused on her current work tasks, there was an unconscious part of her that instinctively embraced and drew strength from her unprecedented intimacy from her child.

As a result, her motivation skyrocketed and her energy grew more vigorous!

Yet that wasn't all. Just as Ves detected this highly abnormal interaction, something even more drastic happened.

The statue of the Superior Mother that was resting at the side of the work hall suddenly glowed with a spiritual intensity. Ves could feel the design spirit becoming more active.

Suddenly, he noticed that his mother was forming a vague connection with Gloriana.

No. This connection already existed. What the Superior Mother actually did was activate this connection!

Pure energy flowed from the powerful design spirit and poured straight into Gloriana. Where it went after that, Ves wasn't sure, but in his spiritual vision, his wife started to glow as if she had become the incarnation of a perfect mother!

Not only did this unexpected influence invigorate his wife beyond reason, much of her excitement along with the additional energy began to spill over into the design network!

"What the heck are you doing, mother?!"