The Mech Touch

Now that he had achieved his first successful result, Ves quickly moved to preserve his first success.

He quickly pressed a button that pulled the captive dwarf out of the danger zone.

The strong gravity force only pulled the captive's body far enough to prevent the Aspect of Transcendence from continuing to exert its influence on the test subject.

Ves did not want to take any risks. He needed his successful test subjects to remain alive.

Though he was curious to know what would happen if an evolving test subject continued to be exposed to the Aspect of Transcendence's strong glow, that was an experiment for another time.

Right now, he was more than happy that the dwarf succeeded where all of his other test subjects had failed!

The breakthrough event did not drag on for long. Ves continued to remain in rapture as he eagerly observed all of the changes that took place in the dwarven serviceman's mind.

Since the fellow wasn't a mech pilot, his will did not receive any exceptional empowerment. Instead, his previously inactive spiritual potential expanded in strength like a seed growing into a flower.

The metamorphosis was unlike anything he had seen before. Neither mech designers, mech pilots nor swordsmen evolved in this manner.

To be honest, Ves had no idea what he was looking at. Considering the dwarven captive used to serve as a warrant officer in charge of ammunition supplies aboard one of the derelict Ferril combat carriers, it was likely that the newly-evolved dwarf did not gain any special abilities.

Ves guessed that the boost the surviving test subject gained was probably general and unfocused. Perhaps he became a little smarter, a little faster and a little stronger. What little reality-defying properties he gained were unlikely to be exceptional either.

Still, the dwarf had taken his first step on the extraordinary road by becoming the equivalent of an expert candidate. If he broke through one more time, then just the strength of an expert pilot or Journeyman was enough to turn him into an exceptional individual!

"87 seconds!"

This was how long the dwarf lasted before his spiritual potential ignited into a stronger and more real form. Ves had a hunch that this was a critical number and one that every other test subject had to attain in order to pass the Aspect of Transcendence's trial!

Ves spent a few more minutes to check on the successful test subject's condition.

"His physical condition looks normal but his mental condition is a lot more active than before. Interesting."

In any other time, Ves would have dropped every other research project in order to study this dwarf's new properties. What had changed? What could he do? How had his personality shifted? Did he gain any new obsessions? What similarities did he share to other spiritual professions? Was he able to resist the Aspect of Transcendence's glow at his current stage?

"I don't have the time to seek these answers." Ves muttered as he shook his head.

He had different goals in mind today. Now that he confirmed a number of key hypotheses and assumptions, he could perform more targeted experiments at a later date.

"I can make more test subjects like these now that I know what to look for!" He grinned.

In order to test whether lasting 87 seconds in the presence of the Aspect of Transcendence was the key to a successful breakthrough, Ves quickly used up the remainder of the current category of test subjects.

Dwarf after dwarf screamed before their bodies blew up. Ves keenly paid attention to how well they endured the pressure. Those he thought were stronger managed to last longer than those with lower odds.

"None of them lasted all the way to 87 seconds." Ves disappointly observed.

The closest one came close. The female dwarf lasted all the way to 84.5 seconds while spending half her time insulting Ves before her body blew up like the rest of her colleagues.

It wasn't until the second-to-last dwarf of this batch had her turn that the previous record was broken yet again.

"88.2 seconds!"

The middle-aged female dwarf endured the pressure for a little longer before her spiritual potential ignited in a similar fashion as before!

A gravitic projector quickly pulled her body away from the Aspect of Transcendence, allowing her to complete her breakthrough without any further risk.

"I can finally make comparisons!"

By collecting data on the second success case and comparing it to the first one, Ves was able to derive a lot of clues through comparative analysis.

Still, he didn't spend too much time on these studies as his day was far from over.

In the end, out of the 13 non-pilot dwarven prisoners with spiritual potential, 2 of them broke through!

Although the survival rate was still abysmal, Ves was incredibly happy to achieve this result.

"A 15 percent success chance is much better than a 0 percent success chance!"

Though the two dwarves broke through at slightly different exposure times, Ves chalked it up to individual differences. The critical breakthrough point had to be around this range!

"None of the dwarves without spiritual potential lasted this long." Ves recalled. "They only managed to hold on for 40 seconds or even 60 seconds before they succumbed."

This was already a pretty good result compared to weaker-willed individuals. Much of the low-quality stock couldn't even hold themselves together for more than 20 seconds before their heads and bodies went poof!

"Now, let's see what the difference is between norms and mech pilots!"

He had to make some adjustments before he started with this phase of the session. A special cockpit was moved over which was meant to simulate the act of piloting a mech. It was distinctly designed to be as harmless as possible.

After all, Ves didn't want to become one of those cliche scientists who succeeded in creating a monster only to get killed by his own success!

"Alright, let's start!"

Just like before, he first went through the test subjects who did not possess spiritual potential.

Of the 17 test subjects of this category, none of them survived. Their survival time was a little better than their non-mech pilot counterparts on average.

"Now, let's proceed with the most promising category of test subjects."

Ves rubbed his palms before he began to subject the strong-willed dwarven mech pilots with spiritual potential to the Aspect of Transcendence!

These captive dwarves were the most promising talents of their mech divisions. In another reality, they might have gone on to become expert candidates or expert pilots in their lifetimes.

Now, their only fate was to devote their lives and spirits to provide more experimental data to Ves!

Whether they succeeded or failed, Ves would forever honor their contributions to science by making good use of their test data!

"All of you are heroes." Tears almost welled up in his eyes. "I will forever remember the great gift that you have given to me. This will become one of the greatest experiments of my life!"

It was too bad that the dwarves were unable to share his jubilation. Many of them were dead while the survivors had every reason to kill him with their bare hands!

From the moment he began to put the first dwarven mech pilots with spiritual potential in the simulation cockpit, he already had a feeling that he would experience something remarkable.

"78 seconds!"

"83 seconds!"

"86.3 seconds! Success!"

A little sooner than expected, the third test subject of this promising category succeeded in breaking through!

A strong outburst of will erupted from the simulation cockpit as it began to glow and resonate according to the force of will of the lucky new expert candidate!

"DIE, YOU FALSE PROPHET! THE VULCAN EMPIRE BELONGS TO THE DWARVES!"

An amused smile appeared on Ves' face. "Well, this test subject has spunk, alright."

It was too bad the new expert candidate was piloting a mech that didn't actually exist. His breakthrough was completely meaningless if he was not able to resonate with anything that could actually pose a threat against his captors.

Once the breakthrough event had passed, Ves unceremoniously forced the successful test subject out of the simulation cockpit and moved him over to another waiting room.

"Let's see how the remainder fares."

Several more breakthroughs took place in the next hour. Though there were plenty of failures, Ves was gratified to see that most of the test subjects of this batch lasted the longest on average!

Those who lasted shorter generally possessed poorer qualifications according to the data. They were mostly individuals who were older, possessed lower genetic aptitudes and performed worse during the Battle of Fordilla Zentra.

"Hmm. Makes sense."

In total, 6 out of 17 dwarven expert pilots with spiritual potential successfully advanced to expert candidate.

This was a remarkable result considering that none of them had broken through in actual battle!

"A 35 percent success rate is not bad! If the price of failure wasn't death, I feel tempted to immediately put my Larkinson mech pilots through the same test!"

These weren't ordinary test subjects, though. The ones that Ves had experimented on so far only consisted of the toughest and most strong-willed dwarven captives aboard the Blinding Banshee. There were hundreds more test subjects that he didn't even bother to bring out this time.

"They're too weak." He sighed. "I can only use them to make up the numbers in my follow-up experiment."

As he began to study the results he obtained so far, he was able to derive some reasonable conclusions.

Ves guessed that the main reason why the mech pilots held out longer was because they were especially trained to endure great stresses in battle. A military mech pilot always had to maintain control over themselves.

Mech pilots also possessed more innate pride and confidence. Their profession was celebrated and honored in the Age of Mechs. It shouldn't be a surprise that they refused to bow their head and succumb to adverse pressure!

"It's not enough, though."

The mental resilience of those with no spiritual potential was too weak compared to those that did possess potential. The difference was quite substantial as the pressure that people experienced from the Aspect of Transcendence was not constant and linear.

Instead, it built up over time the longer they become exposed to the organic statue's glow!

The difference in mental resilience from someone who lasted 80 seconds was much weaker than someone who lasted 7 seconds longer!

This suggested to Ves that it was not easy to bridge this gap at the upper levels.

"It's probably impossible for most people to become strong enough to last 87 seconds in their lifetimes. Their resistance needs to reach a level that is beyond baseline human levels." Ves frowned.

Of course, this only applied to artificially induced breakthroughs. Ves didn't think the conditions were so harsh for natural breakthroughs. Those were different circumstances that were much more normal.

Using the Aspect of Transcendence to induce a breakthrough was a shortcut, so there were bound to be complications.

Now that he used up his batch of strong-willed test subjects, Ves wrapped up this experiment and began to prepare for his next endeavor.

He approached a large table and inspected all of the ingredients he prepared for his next experimental procedure.

"One complete vial of high-grade life-prolonging serum. Check."

"1 Unstable Chaos Essence gem. Check."

"20 P-stones that Blinky has completely filled with my spiritual energy. Check."

"1 P-stone that contains a minor spiritual fragment the Quint. Check."

"1 P-stone that contains a minor spiritual fragment of the Amaranto. Check."

"1 P-stone that contains a moderate spiritual fragment of the Unending One. Check."

"1 P-stone that contains a shard of Lady Aisling Curver's design seed. Check."

Ves briefly directed his gaze towards the waiting rooms that held both the newly-advanced dwarven test subjects as well as the hundreds of ordinary dwarven captives.

"6 heavy gravity variant human expert candidates. Check."

"2 heavy gravity variant human undefined preliminary transcendents. Check."

"178 mundane heavy gravity variant human military mech pilots. Check."

"466 mundane heavy gravity variant human military servicemen. Check."

After confirming that all of his ingredients were present and in a usable state, he placed the final key object and catalyst on the table.

"Hammer of Brilliance. Check."

The reason why this totem played a key role in his next experiment was because he harbored an ambitious plan.

A devious grin appeared on Ves' face.

"Since you dwarves yearn for Vulcan so much, then let me give you what you want!"

He finally decided to make a design spirit based on Vulcan!

The God of Dwarves, Mechs and Craftsmanship did not exist. Not really. As far as Ves was concerned, he only existed in the imagination of the Vulcanites.

Initially, Ves was fine in allowing the dwarves to stick to their false delusions. Everyone was entitled to their own beliefs as long as they didn't bother anyone else.

It was too bad that the Ferril Province decided to pick a fight with the Golden Skull Alliance!

Did the Vulcanites really think that Ves wasn't going to retaliate for all of the Larkinsons they had slain?

"1400 Larkinson mech pilots and 6000 other Larkinson servicemen have died at their hands!"

Ever since the Ferrils took away those lives, Ves had always entertained thoughts of taking revenge.

The difficulty was that the expeditionary fleet was no match against a dominant second-rate state. The Vulcan Empire was able to field so many mechs that the Larkinson Clan would only drown if Ves dared to wage war against the dwarves!

If he wanted to attack them and hit them where it hurt, he needed to undermine them in another fashion.

In the past few weeks, he regularly talked with Shederin and Calabast to learn how to harm the Vulcan Empire. Both of them told him that religion was a clear fault line in their state. The division between the traditional Vulcan Faith and the upstart Dwarven God Cult had only grown more tense after the latest controversy had erupted!

Once Ves learned about all of this, his active imagination came up with a brilliant plan to mess up the Vulcan Empire and perhaps upon up a path for him to travel to the Paramount Province without getting attacked!

"I'm just going to make another design spirit! A Vulcan design spirit!"

That wasn't all, though. A regular design spirit wasn't good enough for his liking.

First, Ves had to make a choice whether he should turn Vulcan into a human or a dwarven incarnation.

He couldn't decide, to be honest.

That was why he came up with an unorthodox solution.

"I'll just turn him into both a human and a dwarven design spirit!"

Who said that design spirits needed to come in a single form? Couldn't they take on multiple forms or identities at the same time?

Trisk didn't even have a defined shape! Aside from being a bird, it could be both male or female, colorful or colorless and big or small.

This example proved that design spirits didn't need to adhere to a strict definition. They were bound by fewer limitations than corporeal existences!

However, as soon as Ves thought about creating a design spirit based around Vulcan, he recalled another goal.

"I always wanted to create a way for me to excel in craftsmanship."

Ever since Master Willix lectured him about the importance of craftsmanship to mech designers, Ves yearned to improve his ability to create masterworks and even higher-quality works!

Though he knew that steady accumulation was the name of the game, Ves wouldn't be Ves if he didn't think of a method to cheat the process.

When he thought about how he could gain an advance, he came up with an interesting thought.

"I've long been able to surpass my limitations by creating different spirits."

An excellent example was Blinky. Before he created his own companion spirit, he didn't have an easy way to generate more spiritual energy. He was always wary of expending his own spiritual energy because it took too long to replenish it without the Grand Dynamo.

Blinky's creation neatly solved this problem and expanded his own capabilities by a huge margin.

Now, he was faced with a different problem.

His success rate in creating new masterworks was too low. It was too difficult to produce a high-quality mech and he was way too dependent on luck and serendipity to succeed.

Though a Journeyman like him was already far ahead of his peers in terms of creating masterworks, Ves wasn't satisfied!

If he wanted to realize his design philosophy faster and increase his chances to become a Star Designer in a reasonable time frame, then he needed to go above and beyond in order to create his own success!

"I'll just make a design spirit that excels in craftsmanship! Not only that, I will become that design spirit!"

That was right. Ves wasn't willing to allow any entity to become the patron saint of excellent craftsmanship. That would mean that he would have to borrow someone else's power whenever he wanted to fabricate a high-quality mech.

He wanted to master this power for himself!

"In essence, I want to add craftsmanship to one of my domains!"

There was a problem, though. His Spirituality was already based around life and mechs on an equal basis. Ves did not want to alter this balance just so that he could add craftsmanship to the mix.

"Besides, I doubt it would work since my domain is already locked in a solid design seed." He muttered.

His solution? Create a design spirit that was a similar existence to that of Blinky! The Vulcan that he was about to create would exist both as a separate entity but also serve as an extension of himself!

To put it in simpler terms, Ves wanted to create a design spirit incarnation of himself!

"Hahahaha! It's brilliant! I'll be able to get the best of both worlds!"

He clearly took inspiration from his mother's attempts to turn the Superior Mother into her 'incarnation', whatever that meant.

Although Ves didn't have a clue about the mechanics of his mother's incarnation technique, that didn't stop him from going through with his plan.

"I'll just invent my own method of creating an incarnation. If my mother can pull it off, so can I!" He confidently exclaimed.

With all of these measures, Ves intended to kill three birds with one stone.

"First, I'll be able to improve my craftsmanship faster and allow me to invent new methods to consistently produce masterworks at a much more accelerated pace!"

"Second, I can use my design spirit to mess up the Vulcan Empire and make them pay for killing my clansmen!"

"Third, I'll become both a human mech designer and a design spirit at once. As a result, I can enjoy the advantages of both without giving up anything!"

Ves would truly be able to become the greatest mech designer if he succeeded in his next procedure!

He cackled at the thought of all of the power he would be able to command!

"This is going to be brilliant!"