The Mech Touch

The anomalous event that knocked out half of the clansmen in the Larkinson fleet could not be hidden!

The shocking event had even triggered the highest level alert, causing the Larkinsons who were still awake to assume their battle stations and act as if they were under heavy attack!

Thousands of mechs housed in ships that were stationed away from the Blinding Banshee disgorged into space and began to sweep the nearby areas for any threats.

The spontaneous activity also alarmed other organizations. The Glory Seekers, Cross Clan and the numerous mercenary fleets that were hired to protect the expeditionary fleet scrambled their mechs as well!

It took an entire hour for the confusion to die down. The Larkinsons who had been rendered unconscious by an unexplainable event eventually woke up and found they did not suffer any further maladies.

Systems were being checked and spaces were being swept, but the befuddled clansmen found nothing suspicious.

In fact, many Larkinsons already had an answer in their heart. The old timers who had been with the clan since the early days didn't even need to make any further guesses.

"It's the patriarch again."

"Weird things happen whenever he does something big."

"Just ignore it and move on. Stuff like this takes place every tuesday."

After experiencing so many odd shenanigans, the Larkinsons developed a tolerance for anomalies. In any case, getting hit by an invisible blast that robbed them of their consciousness was hardly more astounding than fighting against illegal warships or supposed dark gods.

Some Larkinsons even speculated that their patriarch had developed a new superweapon!

It was not hard to figure out the origin point of the strange event. Since it propagated like an expanded sphere, the potency of the strange effect was subject to the inverse-square law.

The people situated closer to the Blinding Banshee slept the longest. Those who were positioned further away only got a light tap. At a certain distance, the strange blast wave no longer possessed the strength to knock out anyone!

Of course, once the clansmen figured out the origin point, they attempted to board the Blinding Banshee which had fallen silent. The leaders of the clan still held a lot of concerns. What had happened on the capital ship?

"It's fine! Everything is okay here!" Ves spoke to General Verle over the comm. "It's all on me this time. I don't want anyone else poking around in the Blinding Banshee. The Black Cats can take care of themselves."

"Ves…" General Verle gritted his teeth.

It was no surprise that he was upset with this situation. No one had any warning that this might happen. The least Ves could do was to warn him and other important clan leaders in advance!

Since they were talking on a remote channel, Ves didn't dare say too much. The general understood this concern as well so he did not waste any further time on attempting to pry more information.

Having dealt with Ves for a long time, he knew that the clan patriarch would only divulge information if it was useful to do so. As someone who came from an intelligence background himself, the general was used to remaining in the dark.

"I will do my best to cooperate with others to clean up your mess." General Verle said. "You don't need to supply any answers. Even if people have questions, nothing will come out of it if there are no further disturbances."

"Don't worry." Ves smiled at the man's unspoken question. "I'm pretty sure we won't suffer a repeat of the earlier incident."

"Fine. Take care and don't do anything drastic."

Ves had to spend more time than he thought to handle much of the repercussions. He was already weary and exhausted from his earlier ordeal, but he had no choice but to keep talking to different people in order to prevent them from bursting into the cargo bay and noticing anything untowards!

While that happened, he commanded various bots to clean up the mess his creation process had generated. The entire middle of the cargo had turned into a charnel house as the headless bodies of hundreds of dwarves were soaked in blood, shredded brains and fragments of skull matter.

Anyone stepping into this compartment would probably have nightmares once they laid their eyes on this horrible sight!

Ves places his hands on his hips. "A couple of cleaning bots aren't enough to remove this mess."

Considering how bad it would be if anyone found out what happened here, Ves had already anticipated that he might have to resort to extreme measures.

It was for that reason that he employed bots armed with flamethrowers to burn everything!

Everything in the cargo bay was being scoured by hot and purifying flame! Every single piece of biological remains were instantly burned to such an extent that even the deck began to melt to an extent!

Once Calabast woke up, she also assisted with the cleanup. She employed special solutions to sanitize and purify every single cell, compartment and corridor where the secret dwarven captives had been housed. Not a single hair follicle or dead skin cell was allowed to remain intact in case investigators came to search the Blinding Banshee!

She even went as far as to destroy all of the bots and systems used to remove all of the evidence.

"I've already prepared for the scenario in advance." She said to Ves after they were done with the cleanup operation. "I had a feeling you didn't intend to redeem our prisoners back to the Vulcan Empire, though I didn't expect that all of them would lose their lives in such a violent fashion. What in the galaxy were you trying to accomplish, Ves?"

He could only shrug in response. "I can't explain it to you yet. I still have to explore all of the results I've obtained from this experiment. I can only tell you that I have gained a huge amount of power that will hopefully give me a powerful boost in my subsequent mech design projects. It's too early to tell what that will look like, and I will probably need a long time to adapt to all of the power that I have gained. The potential should be high, though. It has to be considering the extravagant amount of resources I've used to give myself this boost."

"Does it have anything to do with that glowing hammer of yours?" Calabast gestured to the hammer that Ves had attached to his toolbelt. "Its glow is a lot stronger than before."

"Oh? What are you feeling from it?" Ves curiously asked.

"It is difficult to explain." Calabast frowned. She raised her hands. "I feel the urge to do something with my hands. I'm thinking about going back to my office to fold origami paper or service my personal firearms. I even feel inspired to make my own gadgets despite not being good at it. This is one of the most unusual glows you've made. I can see why you claim that it can boost your work."

Ves was intrigued by her description. Vulcan was supposed to have a combat application as well, but it wasn't obvious at the moment. This was no surprise to him as Vulcan's primary duty was to enhance his craftsmanship. Every other function was secondary as far as he was concerned.

"You're not involved in any production jobs, so Vulcan's effect on you isn't that compelling." He guessed. "The effect should be stronger on mech designers, crafters and similar professionals. Even I feel inspired to make something."

He was subjected to the strongest degree of influence. Not only was he carrying the Hammer of Brilliance on his person, but he also possessed an unbreakable spiritual channel that directly connected him to Vulcan!

At this moment, this new channel was constantly exerting a strange kind of pressure on his Spirituality. The difference in strengths between himself and his new incarnation caused some kind of osmosis effect where his Spirituality was constantly being stimulated to grow stronger.

He had already obtained an immediate jump in strength since he created Vulcan. Not only that, he felt that he would automatically grow stronger even if he didn't do anything else except lie in bed all day.

This was just one of the side effects of creating a new incarnation! Ves hadn't even explored the main functions that Vulcan brought to his life!

He grinned. He already felt he had succeeded today! Though the gamble he made could have crippled him or endanger his life, he just knew that he could pull off his elaborate and ambitious plan!

Calabast could clearly tell that he was revelling in his success, so she gave him plenty of time to process his euphoria.

"What are your plans now that you have accomplished what you have set out to do?" She carefully asked. "From what I can glean from your actions, you don't appear to be in a hurry to move on and travel to the gate system."

Ves smirked. "I'm not finished with the Vulcan Empire yet. I'm aware that our clansmen and our allies are sick and tired of the dwarves, but I won't leave until I have completed my mission."

Calabast realized something significant. "Those discussions we held on how to undermine the Vulcan Empire… you were being serious. You actually plan to topple an entire second-rate state all by yourself!"

"Hahaha! Exactly! I don't think it is crazy as it sounds. The Vulcan Empire is in its most precarious state in decades. It has a fearsome reputation but its short heritage and flawed ideologies has produced a lot of fault lines. While it is not that easy for others to exploit these vulnerabilities, I'm different, because I'm Vulcan!"

Calabast didn't know whether to take his claims seriously or not. She could tell that Ves wouldn't be deterred unless he had an opportunity to pull off his scheme. If it worked out, then that was great. If his dubious plan fell through, then she and the other advisors would insist he move on and hurry up to the Red Ocean!

Once Ves issued a couple of instructions to Calabast, he finally left the Blinding Banshee and returned to the Spirit of Bentheim.

As soon as he returned to his grand stateroom, his pregnant wife was already waiting for him inside.

"Hello, dear. How's our baby?" Ves tried to act as nonchalant as possible.

It was too bad his act didn't fool Gloriana for a second. She walked over and grabbed the hammer on his toolbelt.

"What's this? You created a new proto-god, didn't you? Why didn't you tell me?! Is this Vulcan?!"

"Calm down, honey! I'll explain everything to you." Ves lied as he tried to calm her down.

He gave her a basic story that skipped many details. He declined to tell her that he sacrificed a lot of dwarves for science and that he almost came close to losing his own life. He also hid the fact that Vulcan was his permanent incarnation.

The only information that he truly passed on was that Vulcan was supposed to help them in their work.

"How, exactly?" She wondered.

"That's what we'll find out." Ves smirked. "I don't know what my new design spirit can do either, but I think he will definitely play a useful role once we fabricate the Bulwark Project and Chimera Project. Craftsmanship is one of Vulcan's strengths, remember?"

That caused her to become intrigued. She had already experienced how much help a spirit could bring during her work after Blinky made use of his networking ability. If Vulcan was able to provide her with a different form of utility during her design or fabrication work, then she would come closer to fulfilling her ambitions!

Her eyes turned starry as she struggled to hold the dense and heavy hammer. Even though Vulcan was yet another a male proto-god, Gloriana already began to feel inspired by its glow.

"I feel like I can make a masterwork mech with this hammer!"

That was exactly what Ves thought as well when he came in touch with Vulcan's glow for the first time!