The Mech Touch

"Miss you, papa!" Aurelia cried as she continued to hug her father's neck as soon as the little family returned to their grand stateroom.

"There there, I'm back now. I won't be leaving your side anytime soon."

Ves did not regret going on an excursion in Purgatory, but he knew it came at a price.

Looking at his first-born daughter and knowing that there were more children on the way made his heart increasingly heavier.

Someone with his personality would never be satisfied with staying in a single place all of the time.

As uncomfortable it was for him to admit it, he did yearn to go on subsequent adventures like the one he just concluded in Purgatory.

Riding the Everchanger into combat and observing his proud work in action made him feel more alive than ever. The high stakes along with encountering completely new enemies had excited him and given him a much more rounded perspective on his work.

The insights he gained from the Purgatory Campaign was one of his most valuable prizes. Sure, harvesting over 2 metric tons of phasewater may sound fantastic, but material gains could easily be spent, destroyed, taken away or used up over time.

Information and knowledge were different. Any additions to his mind became permanent that could not easily be taken away by anyone, even the Big Two.

As a mech designer, his greatest weapon and reliance was his design ability, and this was largely a function of his accumulated professional knowledge as well as his unique experiences.

Two mech designers who took the exact same classes, studied the exact same textbooks and achieved nearly identical grades could nevertheless build two completely different careers.

This was because their experiences became different after they split paths.

Someone who spent much of their time in a design lab would develop mechs that were generally more refined, technologically advanced, optimized and free of major flaws.

Although Ves looked down on these boring lab nerds for lacking the guts to take major risks, he did not deny that they had their place in the mech industry.

The mech market was highly competitive and highly developed, so the customer base demanded mechs that met a high standard of performance and quality. These were exactly the points that nitpickers and perfectionists excelled in delivering!

His wife was the quintessential example of a lab-oriented mech designer.

Then there were the mech designers who embodied the innovative and exploratory side of mech design.

These people weren't content with treading the beaten path and sought to venture away from it. Most of them just got lost, but those who succeeded often became so inspired that they became capable of coming up with design solutions that might lead to major technological leaps!

A lot of innovations in the mech industry such as true resonance, juggernauts and Destroyer Weapons only came about when their original inventors took great risks and fought against the prevailing consensus.

Of course, the amount of innovations that crashed and burned far exceeded the ones that eventually gained acceptance. Biomechs never caught on to the wider market, for example.

The low success rate did not stop the truly daring and confident from making their own attempts to revolutionize the mech market in their own way.

Ves proudly counted himself among these daring inventors and innovators.

What was even better was that he was not just a brat that talked big games but had yet to win any of them. His career may be short, but he already created several successful design solutions that were bound to interest the MTA.

While it was true that the troubles he sparked due to his habit of taking risks were not light, he believed the mechers would be willing to overlook a lot of annoyances as long as Ves was willing to share enough benefits!

Thinking about how many problems he created this time made him feel ill at ease. He knew he was in the hot seat this time because his decisions directly compelled the MTA to intervene in a strong fashion.

If the Paracelsus Optimus hadn't arrived in time, what Ves thought of as the strongest phase whale to ever exist would have succeeded in escaping into the depths of the Red Ocean!

Ves was well aware that if any normal person performed this deed, the MTA would likely execute them for 'colluding with hostile alien entities', 'endangering human lives' and most importantly 'damaging the interests of the Mech Trade Assocation'!

With such a heavy cloud hovering over his head, Ves was no longer in the mood to play with cute little daughter.

"Aurelia, daddy needs to talk to mommy. Will you be a good girl and keep our cats company?"

His precious baby cutely nodded her head and ran off to poke and hug the gem cat who she hadn't seen in a while!

"Lucky!"

"Meow!"

Ves and Gloriana sat down at a nearby couch. The latter looked expectantly while the former briefly narrated the Purgatory Campaign from his perspective.

The most difficult part was explaining his own side with the full knowledge that the MTA was likely eavesdropping on the conversation in real-time.

He had no expectation of privacy whenever the MTA was too close. Though Lucky was a highly competent bug catcher, the tech he was based upon was not omnipotent. The Association developed secret spying tech that exceeded their standard spying solutions!

This was why Ves refrained from going into too much detail. The more he spoke, the more he risked saying anything that might paint him in a worse light to his invisible listeners.

Fortunately, Gloriana was smart enough that he did not have to convey these considerations out loud. She knew that Ves was speaking to a greater audience than just herself.

His wife even played along by asking more restrained questions that were bound to divert the MTA's attention.

"I don't know if we will be able to do anything productive with those disgusting fish-whale organs you've brought back from Purgatory, but they're not important. What matters is that in the backdrop of getting played by an ancient alien king fish, you managed to produce a working implementation of a breakthrough machine. I don't think I need to emphasize how revolutionary this sounds. What I want to know is this. Can you replicate this phenomenon?"

Gloriana cared a lot about this question. So much so that she leaned closer to Ves than ever so she could look closely into his eyes!

Ves slowly nodded. "This isn't like the exceptional circumstances back in the Nyxian Gap. The reason why a lot of mech pilots broke through back then was likely due to the abnormal environmental circumstances they were fighting under. While I can't reproduce the variables that make the Nyxian Gap so weird, I worked at this problem from a different angle and have finally succeeded in creating a method of inducing different circumstances that can achieve similar results."

"Are you sure you know what you're talking about, Ves?"

"It's like using a ranged mech or a melee mech to defeat an enemy fish-whale. Either mech can do the job, but if I happen to be a lot better at designing the former, my chances of success will be greater if I focus on ranged mechs. I know what I am talking about. What I managed to pull off in Purgatory is a more advanced form of emotional manipulation, which is an area that I have always been good at, as you very well know. A lot of people underestimate how much emotions can affect combat since they don't directly increase a mech's performance by 10 percent, but these folk always forget that the mech pilot is also a crucial factor."

Gloriana adopted a skeptical look. "It's one thing to make mech pilots more brave or more fearful. It's another thing to increase their chances of breaking through by 10 or 20 times! The gap between these results is too big!"

"I don't see it that way, honey." He nonchalantly shrugged. "I have interacted and worked with a lot of different expert pilots, you know. Combined with my expertise, I have long figured out that the state of mind of mech pilots is one of the most crucial variables that determines whether they can undergo apotheosis. According to my developing theoretical framework, manipulating their mood and emotions in a specific manner does not guarantee a breakthrough, but can bring it a lot closer to mech pilots than normal!"

"Can any mech pilot break through with this method?"

Ves laughed. "Impossible! There are no incompetent expert pilots! Before any pilot wishes to break through, they need to meet all of the basic qualifications first! If they are not competent in their job, then they can forget about going any further. Besides, there are also other variables such as 'talent' that can decide whether a pilot has the potential to go further down this path. The issue of talent is a major stumbling block to me and is the primary reason why I don't think that Commander Melkor will ever be able to go further in this regard."

"Will you be able to guarantee that our second baby can advance to the rank of expert pilot one day?"

Ah. This was the main reason why she made this inquiry. She was greatly concerned about the future of the unborn fetus that was growing in her belly at the moment!

"If… if our second-born daughter truly wants to become a mech pilot, then I will provide as much help that I can provide." Ves promised. "That said, her talent is a major variable that can limit what I can do. If she is as 'gifted' as Commander Melkor, then maybe you should lower your expectations."

His wife didn't look pleased after he gave this answer. She likely had ambitions to turn her daughter into a god pilot!

Not even Ves was arrogant enough to promise that he could turn even the most talented and gifted mech pilot into an apex warrior that surpassed the likes of Saint Mikel Spindar!

Besides, he hadn't been entirely forthcoming in his previous answer. Once he repeated what he had done to Aurelia and implanted a companion spirit seed into the unborn baby, the chances were great that their second daughter would already be spiritually active on the day she was born!

There was no reason for him to share this crucial detail with either his wife or his unseen MTA eavesdroppers.

The wedded couple talked a bit more about the magnitude and the implications of the so-called transcendence glow.

"The MTA will want to master this technology." Gloriana pointed out. "What will you do if the Association makes a politely-worded request?"

Ves helplessly shrugged. "I'll give it to them, of course. I just hope that the mechers will uphold their reputation for fairness and continue their habit of issuing rich rewards to those that make major contributions. I could use an incentive or two to refine this innovative new tech further. While you might think that I have already succeeded in creating a fantastic method to produce more breakthroughs, it's far too rudimentary in my eyes. I am confident that I can increase the success rate and decrease the risk of fatal accidents if I continue to conduct further research in this direction!"

The only way he could make his implicit appeal more obvious was if he turned his head in another direction and winked for no particular reason!

"Did you just say 'fatal accidents', Ves? I've studied the logs and footage of the battle. None of the mech pilots affected by the Everchanger during that time showed any signs of rejections towards its current glow. How do you know your transcendence glow is dangerous?"

"Let's just say that a lot of lab animals had the unfortunate tendency to explode when exposed to the glow for too long." Ves answered as straightforwardly as possible. "If anyone else aside from me thinks they can make unrestricted use of this special glow, then good people will die sooner or later. This is why I still consider it a product in development. If not for the desperate circumstances in the last battle, I wouldn't have ordered the Everchanger to apply this glow in field conditions!"

It was in his best interests to hype up the dangers and risk factors of the transcendence glow. A method to produce breakthroughs without any significant costs was way too valuable for a small Journeyman!

Making it sound as if there were lots of restrictions, limitations and risks to using the transcendence glow was a good way of curbing any excessive attention from the MTA.

It also increased the value of his continued cooperation!