The Mech Touch

The Iron Emperor was too stingy. He refused to issue a bonus if Ves managed to make a masterwork crown.

Oh well. Ves tried at least. Though he was incredibly greedy for precious materials like Galenta Bone and Pieraester, Rion must have paid a fortune to amass all these expensive first-class materials.

As far as the dwarf was concerned, letting Ves go after all he had done was enough of a reward!

This outcome reflected the ambivalent relationship between Ves and Rion.

The two weren't friends, but they weren't enemies either.

Rion had lots of good reasons to take revenge on Ves. Though the dwarf currently maintained the upper hand in this situation, the awkward truth was that he still had to depend on his 'god' to realize his ambitions.

This was why the dwarf was fine with allowing the Olympus Mons to kill a couple of humans and destroy a small amount of mechs and ships. No matter how much he suppressed his emotions, he still didn't hold any good feelings towards Ves.

As for Ves, his main goal had always been to get out of this situation alive.

In fact, if he obeyed Rion's requirements to the letter, he could have designed a more conservative crown that delivered what the dwarven leader had asked for and nothing more.

That was the safest option, but it was also a mistake as far as Ves was concerned.

The demand to make a masterwork crown was a heavy one. Ves could never take it lightly. Even if he had used Vulcan's powers to make a masterwork mech figurine, that was mostly because it was based on his successful Valkyrie Redeemer design and because he was still exploring his incarnation's capabilities.

The key to making a masterwork was to be passionate about his work. He needed to care for it and commit his feelings to it in order to make it special.

In the Battle of Fordilla Zentra, Ves learned that masterworks functioned as an extension of their creator.

That was how Ketis managed to transfer Sharpie to the Decapitator and use that interaction to intervene in a mech battle. It was also how Ves managed to do something similar to the Amaranto and empower Venerable Stark's attack.

One of the implications of this key insight was that masterworks needed to reflect the strengths and dėsɨrės of their creators.

As Ves turned his Devil Tiger Project into a passion project, he became completely consumed by the dėsɨrė to make a unique new mech based on new and unprecedented growth concepts.

The fact that it ended up as a masterwork was a validation of his extreme approach!

The Amaranto was another example of how inventing something different and trying out experimental new ideas yielded rewards to Ves. His persistent dėsɨrė to improve his luminar crystals so that he could equip his first ranged expert mech with a powerful weapon system had driven him to push his work beyond its limits!

Ves guessed that the same effect was also the reason why Gloriana managed to make the Little Angel.

The Blessed Squire was their first hexer mech design that was technically intricate and provided a lot of space for Gloriana to indulge in her need to fit all of the puzzle pieces together in the right way.

He had already suspected that this kind of hidden rule was in effect for masterwork products, but the revelation he gained from seeing Ketis in action provided him with solid proof!

In short, if he wanted to make a masterwork out of this crown, he needed to go bold and implement solutions he hadn't thought of before!

The first-class luminar crystals, the use of a brand-new prime material, the high integration with Vulcan, the realization of the divine right of kings and more were all aspects that caused this project to stand out from his other totem projects!

In its current form, the crown design was as ambitious as Ves could get away with. He had high hopes for his product and was incredibly eager to translate it into reality!

As someone who was familiar with craftsmanship, Rion was able to detect his captive's enthusiasm. Ves did not hide his passion. In fact, he deliberately exposed it to the dwarves in order to convey his sincerity for his design!

The unspoken message behind Ves' insistence on sticking to the current design was that any changes would ruin his passion. Once his mood worsened, the odds of creating a masterwork crown was much reduced!

Rion couldn't afford to take the chance of ruining what might be his only chance to obtain the crown he truly needed. Even if a couple of details looked off, as long as it did the job, who cared about the details?

As a result, the Iron Emperor finally gave his ȧssent to proceed with fabricating the crown. The heavily-armored dwarf retreated to the upper catwalk in order to give 'Vulcan' enough space to perform his craft.

Ves grinned as he prepared all of the resources and tools for his upcoming fabrication attempt.

Since so much was at stake for him, he couldn't afford to be careless. He not only needed to become familiar with the production equipment he was about to work with, he also needed to understand the precise properties of the first-class materials that he selected.

As he proceeded to do his preparations, he felt free enough to ask one persistent question that had been nagging at the back of his mind.

"Why are you in such a hurry, Rion?" He asked. "You've waited at least a decade for me to arrive at this asteroid belt. Why do you insist on giving me just 24 hours for me to make your crown? Are you trying to put more pressure on me? You know that I can still fail, you know."

"THE GALAXY DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOU, VULCAN." Rion crossed his armored arms. "I CANNOT REMAIN HERE NOW THAT I HAVE EXPOSED MY TRACE. DESPITE WHAT YOU THINK, THE EMPIRE OF THE LOST AND ALL OF THE NEARBY HUMAN STATES ARE AWARE OF MY EXISTENCE. I AM A HIGH-PRIORITY TARGET TO THEM. AS LONG AS THEY CAN CAPTURE ME, THEY CAN LEVERAGE MY IDENTITY TO FORCE MORE VULCANITES TO SURRENDER WITHOUT PUTTING UP A RESISTANCE."

"Ah."

"ALSO, I HAVE ONLY AMASSED A LIMITED QUANTITY OF EACH FIRST-CLASS EXOTIC AND ALLOY. CAN YOU CREATE A SECOND CROWN BASED ON THE EXACT SAME DESIGN?"

"Uhm, no." Ves blinked as he swept his gaze over the materials he chose. "If I fail to make what you want, it is unlikely that I can recycle all of the materials that I have used. You don't have enough reserves for me to create a second crown."

"EXACTLY." Rion contemptuously smiled. "I AM A DECISIVE EMPEROR, VULCAN. I CAN RECOGNIZE REALITY AND KNOW WHEN IT IS TIME TO CUT MY LOSSES. DESPITE MY INVESTMENT IN THIS CROWN, I WILL NOT TAKE EXCESSIVE RISKS AND CHASE AFTER A LOSING PROPOSITION ONCE IT HAS BECOME CLEAR IT WILL NOT YIELD THE DESIRED RESULTS."

Of course, Rion wouldn't treat Ves nicely if he didn't get what he wanted. His threat was still valid!

Half an hour passed before Ves finished his preparations. He had rapidly mastered the controls and operations of the various devices and he had also familiarized himself with the exact properties of all of the samples.

"I will start now." He said. "Wish me luck."

Before Rion could say anything pompous, Ves went to work.

The first action he performed was to draw out the Hammer of Vulcan and knock it against his head!

Bonk!

Now that he was close to his best state, he eagerly began to take the first step.

He began with the luminar crystals as synthesizing them was fairly delicate work. Ves believed it was best to produce them while he was still fresh.

Although he had already created a viable first-class luminar crystal before, that was when he created a smaller sample.

The twelve jewels that were supposed to be embedded into the upper section of the crown came in a larger size. Eleven of them would adorn the sides while a larger one would be affixed on the blocky front.

Ves already possessed a decent understanding of luminar crystal tech and he did not hesitate to channel the Illustrious One to ensure the crystals were as high in quality as he could make them under the circumstances.

"I still don't know enough about first-class luminar crystals, but these will do I guess."

Eventually, he ended up with twelve crystals that closely matched his specifications. He was a bit disappointed that of them hit the ceiling but that was not necessarily an indicator that he would fail in making a masterwork crown.

He soon proceeded with fabricating the base of the crown. This was the section that would make direct contact with the skull or helmet of the Iron Emperor and therefore had to be solid as well as ergonomic.

Ves had already received precise measurements and scans of Rion's bald head, so he was not worried about botching the fit of his work.

"This Galenta Bone is really difficult to manipulate!" Ves gritted his teeth. "It's so hard to turn it into a consistent and uniform shape!"

Bone was an inconsistent material by nature. The center might be denser than the edges. The left side might be more porous while the right side was laced with impurities. These reasons and more all made it incredibly challenging to work with such a material.

Fortunately, humans developed solutions for nearly every problem. With the right tools, even Galenta Bone straightened out to a large extent.

Once Ves managed to complete a suitable base, he began to create the upper side of the crowns. The various blocky protrusions had to be made from a combination of Galenta Bone, Piraester, EFV-343 and Extreme Cold Titanium.

He also included minor amounts of other materials in order to prevent powerful exotic materials such as EFV-343 and Extreme Cold Titanium from going out of control.

This was one of the more time-consuming portions of this job. Ves had to slow down and work precisely in order to make sure that every tiny part fit into place without any complications.

As the hours began to pass, the false inspired state that Vulcan had initially imparted on Ves had already begun to fade.

Though Ves no longer enjoyed a powerful blessing, he had still obtained a lot of gains from the temporary state. He had spontaneously tweaked and altered minor aspects of his crown in order to make it more effective.

Once he neared the end of the fabrication attempt, he began to channel Vulcan more and more as he affixed the luminar crystals into their sockets.

During this time, Ves also enabled Vulcan to slowly infuse the Galenta Bone component of the crown with spiritual energy.

The crown became increasingly more powerful and holy as he did so. Vulcan inputted roughly 10 Ves worth of spiritual energy into the work, which wasn't powerful enough to make it intolerable to wear the crown, but still significant enough to turn it into a prime totem.

Ves finally released all of his tension as he carved a small third eye on the surface of the crown.

"It's done."

The outcome was already within his expectations. With how much he invested into its design and how much help Vulcan provided during this fabrication attempt, creating a masterwork was already a certain reward!

Ves eagerly observed his latest work as it began to transform in a mysterious fashion.

It was a crown truly fit for an emperor!