The Mech Touch

With the progression of his design philosophy, Ves could easily make a living product if he wanted to.

In fact, the instinct of bestowing life to his creations was so ingrained these days that he consciously had to mess up his own work if he wanted to produce a lifeless object!

While he was glad of his improvement, he sometimes felt lonely. As the pioneer of this new field in mech design, Ves had to rely on himself to invent all of the theories and methods that allowed him to make better living products.

This inevitably led to a lack of diversity and perspective. Because every living product or mech design came from him, the forms they took inevitably conformed to a single monotonous pattern, his pattern.

It was like baking an old-fashioned cake with only one type of mold. If Ves only became exposed to a circular mold in his career, all of the cakes he baked would come in the same shape without any meaningful variety!

This was why Ves was so pleased with encountering Ketis' work. She had clearly inherited some of the concepts of living products from him, but she did not possess a domain that was oriented towards life.

Nonetheless, she managed to develop her own means to create a living product that fit her own talents!

The outcome was similar but the approach was different. The mold she used to bake her unique cakes was different. Hers was rectangular, which resulted in cakes that looked substantially different.

Yet as long as someone tasted a slice of their cakes, that person would find that the ones baked by Ves and Ketis had a lot in common!

Ves was intrigued by the similarities and differences between their works. The Decapitator was almost entirely designed by Ketis and represented her unique strengths the best.

At this distance, he could clearly sense that the Decapitator was alive in some way, but it was different from what he was accustomed to. While it did possess a spiritual foundation like his own work, it was configured in a radically different form than he was accustomed to. There was much less life and a lot more.. purpose, for a lack of a better word.

It was like the difference between an animal cell and a plant cell. Both types of organic cells possessed different traits that ultimately produced different lifeforms.

An ordinary animal cell was flexible and morphable, allowing for the emergence of creatures that could move with ease.

An ordinary plant cell was lined with cellulose, which caused it to become more solid and rigid. This produced plants that were stiff and unmoving.

Yet no matter whether Ves was looking at an animal or a plant, both of them were alive. They just worked in different ways.

Did this mean that Ves, who was accustomed to designing mechs like animals, suddenly thought it was a good idea to design mechs like plants?

Not necessarily. He knew what he was good at and what he wasn't good at. Creating an exceptional sword character on products like the Decapitator was something that only Ketis and possibly her inheritors could master.

At best, Ves could attempt to imitate her approach, but without her domain along with her passion and obsession for swordsmanship, his copies would probably be only a tenth as effective as hers, and that was just a generous estimate.

Ves possessed his own strengths and it was much better if he continued to develop his own approach on living mechs. His products shouldn't be any weaker from that of Ketis. They just possessed different strengths. It was up to the customer to decide which one met their needs and solved their problems better.

That said, it was still helpful for him to broaden his perspective by exploring different takes on living products.

The new Remote Energy Channeling method that Ves had added to his toolbox was directly inspired by Ketis, after all! This was actually a rare case where he was able to apply the same method as hers without needing to make any substantial changes.

Ves even wondered if he could 'obtain' even more solutions once he passed on his teachings to more students. Though Maikel and Zanthar were a bit too far away from becoming Journeymen themselves, he had high hopes for their future!

"What do you actually mean when you say your swords are singing to you?" He asked with obvious interest in his tone. "I've tried to hear this supposed song many times but I haven't even heard a peep from the Decapitator."

Ketis smirked. "That's because you perceive them in a different way from mine. You're not a swordsman or even a warrior, so you don't understand how people like myself treat their weapons. A good weapon is more than a tool. It's a partner who you entrust your life with. When you spend so much time mastering and getting to know your weapon, you will find that it will sing to you at one point. At least, that's the way that I experience it. My weapons sing to my soul instead of my ears."

Ves looked confused. If he wasn't wearing his Unending Regalia, he would have scratched his head by now!

"It sounds like we perceive life in different ways. I mostly perceive it by feel, though in practice I imagine the life that I am working with on a visual level.  To me, living products are a wonderful tapestry of art that is constantly evolving."

While Ves continued to talk shop with Ketis, he completely forgot about his wife.

Gloriana looked increasingly upset. The two were completely ignoring her. She didn't understand anything about what they were talking about. Her exposure and comprehension to living mechs was much shallower than theirs, so she lacked the background that could allow her to participate in the discussion as an equal contributor.

Seeing that Ves and Ketis weren't about to stop anytime soon, she simply threw her hands up and decided to complete the remainder of the expert mech survey by herself!

"Let me ask you a question." Ves said. "Did you gain the ability to hear this singing when you advanced to Journeyman and became a swordmaster?"

His student hesitated. "I'm not sure."

"You're not sure?"

"It's… difficult to say. I like to think that I have always been able to hear the songs of my swords. I just experienced it on a more intuitive level back then. I don't rule out the possibility that was all happening in my imagination, but I think I was truly working towards something. After my breakthroughs… I can hear the singing a lot more clearly. It's unmistakable, especially for my Bloodsinger and the Decapitator. Those two stand out from the rest."

Ves hummed for a second. "Can you hear singing from other swords or mechs?"

"Not that well, to be honest. The First Sword sings a different song from that of its sword, and it is also a lot weaker to me. I think I would be able to hear its song a lot better if I designed it by myself."

"That's interesting. We'll need to work on that in our future projects. If the interference from other mech designers keep producing incompatibilities between different design philosophies, then that will make it less worthwhile to collaborate on mech design projects. Do you think this is the reason why the First Sword failed to become a masterwork while the mech sword you were working on succeeded?"

"Maybe. It's just a guess. It sounds logical, but I don't think it's that simple. There are many possible reasons why the First Sword didn't match the quality of the Decapitator. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with the expert mech, though. It's a good fit for Venerable Dise and it has proven its worth in the last battle."

Ves wasn't satisfied with this, though. If there was a potential problem with collaborating with Ketis, then any subsequent swordsman mechs they designed in unison would fail to reach their greatest potential! That sounded like an enormous waste!

"I think we may have put you to work on expert mech design projects too soon." He theorized. "The timing of your breakthrough to Journeyman happened just as our Design Department decided to embark on a batch of expert mech design projects. This has pulled you away from a normal trajectory. Properly speaking, you should spend your first years as a Journeyman working on the basics. You need to know what you are capable of and develop a set of theories and methods that you can use as the foundation of your unique design approach."

"I've been doing that, though! I learned a lot and came up with many different things while I was working on all of the expert mech design projects."

"I know that, but the expert mechs are too high-end for a Journeyman who is just at the starting line. The complexity of mechs like the First Sword are exceedingly high compared to a more regular mech model such as the Bright Warrior. Many of the solutions that Gloriana and I employ on our expert mech designs are all derived from the ones that we have developed for our standard mech designs. This smooth progression from low-end to high-end allows us to implement our respective design approaches with fewer mistakes and consistently high quality."

Ketis frowned. "What are you saying?"

"You wanted to design a swordsman mech all by yourself, right?"

"Yeah. I already told you about the Monster Slayer. Even though it's just a landbound mech design, I'm confident I can develop something that is just as valuable as one of your living mechs!"

"I think this is an excellent initiative. In fact, I think you should design a couple more mechs by yourself. Your mech design career is anything but usual, Ketis. You haven't designed a single mech by yourself that has been produced and is used by actual mech pilots. Have you tried your hand at designing virtual mechs?"

"No. Of course not. That's for amateurs." She huffed.

"Hey, that's a little too harsh. While virtual mechs aren't as good as the real thing, they can still teach you a lot about what I'm talking about."

Seeing that Ketis still showed disdain towards virtual mech design, Ves went back to his original point.

"Much of the design work you have done since you joined the Larkinson Clan went into collaboration projects. You learned how to adjust your own contribution to the work of others, but you haven't spent enough time learning on how to stand on your own. I think that might be the reason why your design philosophy hasn't fully taken hold in the First Sword's design. You lack the maturity that a proper Journeyman should possess."

Ketis was not a weak-minded person. She held plenty of confidence in her design capabilities!

Yet there was a part of her that did not dismiss this theory. As much as she put a lot of faith in how her status as a swordmaster provided her with a strong advance in relevant design projects, her progression so far was indeed unconventional.

Unlike Ves who designed a lot of mechs on his own before he started to collaborate with Gloriana, she never designed any serious mech during her Novice and Apprentice days!

She began to buy into his suggestion.

"I won't say no to spending a couple of years exploring what I can do by myself, but will it be okay? My own designs will probably lack the advantages of our collaboration projects. I would hate to deliver mech designs to the Swordmaidens or any other client that turn out to be weaker than our collaboration work."

Ves stepped closer and placed his armored hand on her shoulder pad. "Believe in yourself, Ketis. Your swords sing to you, and so should your mechs. They're just as alive as my own work. Once we are done with this round of design projects, I intend to let you loose and handle your own schedule. You can start up as many projects as you like and design whatever mechs you want. This will be your time to show the Swordmaidens and everyone else what you can truly do with your talents!"

Her eyes shone as she thought about how she could prove her strength and capabilities. She felt gratified by his trust in her even though she never fully showed her individual design prowess at this time!