The Mech Touch

The fabrication of the Minerva Project was projected to take seven days.

Although it was theoretically possible for them to finish the expert mech in five or six days due to working with better production machines, the mech designers participating in the project gave themselves more leeway so that they could pay more attention to quality.

Ordinary Journeymen never thought about fabricating a masterwork mech, but Ves and the others were clearly different.

Since four out of five of them already succeeded at least once, they all had realistic hopes of succeeding again!

Even if the chance of success was just 5 percent or 10 percent, as long as there was a window of opportunity, they would pursue it with all of their heart!

Professor Benedict was actually surprised by how much fervor the Larkinson Journeymen exhibited towards this goal. Ordinary mech designers did not think too much about this at all, but it absolutely dominated the minds of those who were far too young to be obsessed about this accomplishment.

"They're too ignorant, yet maybe that is their strength."

Those who knew better understood exactly how difficult it was to fabricate a masterwork. Seniors such as himself had probably made over a hundred mechs in their careers, but it was already fortunate if they succeeded once!

This was why he ordinarily did not set his sights on this goal at all. If he fabricated a mech at all, he merely wanted to deliver a good product to his clients.

To the Larkinson Journeymen, this was not their end goal, but their absolute minimum!

He discovered that all four of them possessed slightly different mindsets that were ultimately conducive to making masterworks.

Ves possessed a remarkably distorted mindset towards making masterwork mechs. He was fearless in the face of difficulties and eager to overcome challenges. His confidence in himself was absurdly high for a young Journeyman due to the many successes he had achieved.

What was even more remarkable about Ves was that the fire in his heart burned incredibly hot once he became engrossed with creating another powerful mech.

His passion in mech design exceeded that of everyone else's! Ves was so consumed by his work that even Professor Benedict thought he was falling behind at times.

This was an astounding accomplishment as the older man always thought that his passion and drive in mech design was the highest among his peers!

His passion and extreme dedication were so high that these personality traits had even pushed him into risking everything!

He had gone as far as breaking the MTA's taboos and committing unspeakable acts in order to exceed the limits of his design philosophy!

ᴾᵃⁿᵈᵃ ⁿᵒᵛᵉˡ Though Benedict had tried his best to restrain his wild side as of late, right now he felt the urge to release the beast.

The Senior Mech Designer shared many traits with Ves. When he looked at the leader of the Larkinson Clan at work, he saw an echo of his younger self.

For a moment, Professor Benedict reflected on his own life. Though he was still incredibly passionate about his work, all of the trials and tribulations he had endured over the last few decades had worn down his optimism and caused his mentality to become a lot more jaded.

The stagnation of his design philosophy had also impacted his confidence to a degree. The fire in his heart had grown cooler over the years as the constant setbacks in his research slowly caused him to doubt whether he could advance to Master at all in his lifetime.

"How I wish I was young again."

The Larkinson Clan's design network allowed Benedict to reconnect with the fire of youth. The Larkinson mech designers were all young, confident and utterly unaware of the near-impossible challenges they would face in the future.

Once they became Seniors and learned what it took to break past the barrier that prevented them from realizing their design philosophies, it would be impossible for them to maintain the same optimistic mindset! Pa nda

No vel For now, he was willing to let these Journeymen indulge in their own fantasies. It did not do them anything wrong at this stage.

As Benedict continued to study the source of Ves' strength, he noticed that the passionate mech designer relied on another source to boost his confidence.

Vulcan!

Though others weren't able to sense this clearly, Ves maintained a constant connection to Vulcan. This allowed the design spirit to constantly provide hints and other forms of assistance to Ves.

After all, they were bound by life!

Ves' craftsmanship not only became more exquisite because of this connection, the unorthodox mech designer also showed points of brilliance every now and then. His open mindset and his willingness to think outside the box made it easier for him to develop strange ideas, of which a few of them could actually produce performance gains!

"This guy…" Professor Benedict twitched his eyes.

Through their earlier collaborations, he already had a decent understanding of Ves as a mech designer. It was only now that the Senior discovered that he had severely underestimated the fellow's creativity.

"He's crazier than me!" Professor Benedict admitted.

Despite this evaluation, the Senior genuinely admired the gutsy Journeyman. He gained a better understanding of how Ves was able to find success with his abnormal design philosophy. The Journeyman broke the conventional rules of mech design as easily as eating breakfast!

"He will either become a legend or face absolute ruination in the future!"

Though the odds that the latter would happen was much higher, Professor Benedict couldn't help but bet on the former possibility.

That was because the Senior recognized that rare spark of brilliance and irreverence in Ves. In the professor's extensive experience, this rare breed of mech designers had the highest chance of creating miracles!

"With his extreme mentality, I can fully see why he has succeeded in making so many masterwork mechs."

If Ves was already an oddball, then Gloriana was even crazier!

Her belief in her superiority was so high that Professor Benedict had never met another Journeyman who was more arrogant than the wife of the Larkinson Patriarch!

For some reason or another, Gloriana genuinely assumed that she was the chief person responsible for creating all of the masterwork mechs of the Larkinson Clan.

It helped a lot that her design philosophy heavily emphasized quality and perfection. After making numerous masterwork mechs, she had derived so many profound insights and lessons from her best works that her absolute belief in her own superiority had become even more inflated!

"I've met plenty of spoiled Journeymen back in my former home state, but this is ridiculous!"

It didn't matter if the other people in the design network did not think that Gloriana deserved so much credit. She was so immune to doubt and criticism that not even a Star Designer could convince her that she was overestimating her capabilities!

Professor Benedict had to resist the urge to rub his eyes whenever he looked at Gloriana performing her work assignments.

"This is the first situation that I have encountered where narcissism is a positive trait!"

If that wasn't enough, Gloriana derived even more confidence from the assumption that she carried the Superior Mother's blessing!

To her, this supposed Hexer god or whatever was not only real, but also happened to be her mother-in-law!

With the belief that the Superior Mother was the grandmother of her child, Gloriana assumed that she enjoyed divine support. The Senior bet that hardly any other zealots were as conceited as her among the Larkinsons!

Professor Benedict felt ambivalent about the fact that he was working alongside a Hexer with such an extreme personality. She was crazy in a way that made someone like Ves look normal!

Yet for some reason, Benedict couldn't bring himself to reject Gloriana's role in this fabrication run.

The more he studied the dynamic among the Larkinson mech designers, the closer he came to the truth of how they were able to succeed multiple times.

It turned out that her insanely high confidence in herself synergized well with Ves' fiery passion in his own work!

Sure, both of them were confident and passionate in their own work, but it was this combination of one brand of crazy with another brand of crazy that was capable of producing amazing results!

"It is not a disservice to call them a Miracle Couple."

Logically speaking, such a crazy combination shouldn't have worked in the first place. Though Ves and Gloriana shared a lot in common, they also harbored deep philosophical differences about mechs.

Some of them outright clashed against each other!

Professor Benedict had witnessed many collaborations crash and burn over increasingly more irreconcilable creative differences. When there weren't any clear leaders in a design team, any argument about what was right and what was wrong could ruin long-standing friendships.

Yet somehow the two managed to cooperate without getting bothered by their differences.

"Is this the power of love?"

The design network clearly conveyed the affection the two held towards each other. They were husband and wife and trusted each other on a level that Professor Benedict had never experienced.

Previously, he always thought that mech designers would only get bogged down if they wasted their time on marriage. Not only did it take up a lot of time that they could have spent on designing more mechs, it also caused them to become less dedicated to their craft!

"My assumptions were wrong. A relationship between mech designers doesn't have to be a detrimental influence."

Though Professor Benedict recognized that the love between Ves and Gloriana was not entirely normal, their sincerity towards each other was strong!

The birth of Aurelia only further tied them together as a family and made them even more motivated to succeed.

The Cross Clan's Senior Mech Designer envied their synergistic relationship so much that he also wanted to seek out a partner to build the same kind of mutually beneficial bond!

Unfortunately, his love life was pathetic and he was anything but an expert in romance. How could he possibly find a suitable partner to date, let alone form a permanent relationship?

"Maybe I should enlist the aid of a matchmaking service." Benedict frowned. "I might not be good at this, but there are professionals who excel in solving problems like these."

He did not dare to think about this matter too long. What Ves and Gloriana built with each other was probably unique. Replicating it was anything but simple.

Compared to the extreme mindsets of Ves and Gloriana, the other two Larkinson Journeymen were much more reasonable.

To Professor Benedict, Juliet Stameros was a more muted version of Gloriana. She was a fairly normal Journeyman aside from her strong loyalty towards Ves and her extreme devotion towards the Superior Mother.

The strangest part about Juliet was that her unflinching beliefs aligned with that of Gloriana, causing them to reinforce each other's faith while they were connected to each other!

Not only that, but Juliet easily became affected by the enthusiasm transmitted by Ves and Gloriana.

As long as the Miracle Couple believed they could do the impossible, then so did Juliet!

The only normal mech designer in the design team was Sara Voiken. She was too new to the Larkinson Clan and adopted a follower mentality due to her lack of seniority and accomplishments.

However, Sara became so caught up in all of the hype that her common sense was beginning to erode!

She no longer believed in the ordinary assumption that Journeymen weren't capable of making masterwork mechs. Under the heavy influence of the other Larkinson mech designers, even she began to believe she could do it despite not excelling in craftsmanship!

In fact, even if this was the case, Ves just happened to possess a means to reverse this shortcoming.

During the third day of the fabrication run, Ves slowly raised his Hammer of Brilliance and contemplated who he should use it on. He and Gloriana had already used it enough times a false inspired state wouldn't produce anything special.

The effect was always strongest in the first few attempts!