The Mech Touch

Jovy Armalon was a critical client of Ves.

So far, Ves had not provided a lot of companion spirits to people. Despite their huge benefits and high utility, they were still a relatively new invention that could only be born by literally carving into a person's own spirituality!

No matter what he did, the risky process always produced an element of risk, as the most important part about creating companion spirits was that it had to be rooted in a person's spirit from the beginning!

It was like taking a sane person and deliberately imparting him or her with a split personality disorder!

There was no other way. Making an individual a little more insane than before was the necessary price that the recipient had to pay in order to gain the power of a specially-designed spiritual entity.

Ves was not unaware of the irony of this tradeoff.

Didn't the Age of Conquest originate at least in part due to more and more leaders succumbing to madness as they pursued unrestrained genetic modification and other forms of reckless augmentation?

Perhaps Ves might be following in the footsteps of those who were too eager for progress and too impatient to wait for proper studies to verify his inventions.

If so, he did not care that much. Even though he only had a few cases of successful implementations of companion spirits, he was already happy with the results so far. He wouldn't have chosen to operate on himself if he wasn't confident in his own methods!

"This should be a fairly easy job." He muttered as he placed his hand over Jovy's forehead.

The MTA Journeyman looked calmer than expected, but that was because he chose to undergo light sedation.

There was no particular rule that stated that the recipient had to be conscious and sober while undergoing the procedure.

However, since Ves performed all of his previous procedures on people when they were awake, Ves felt it was prudent to keep Jovy awake.

"This is going to hurt a bit, especially if you aren't used to stressing your spirit—, I mean your psionic core. Whatever happens, you need to remain as calm and controlled as possible. Don't let yourself get overtaken by your emotions, okay? If you let your pain, anger and or other emotions get the better of you, then you will be the equivalent of a patient thrashing on the operating table while undergoing a heart transplant surgery."

Jovy faintly nodded in understanding. "The documents you have provided to us already said as much. I have already undergone a special training program in the past few weeks. I am as ready as I can be. Come on. We mechers are not as weak as ordinary people!"

This became evident as soon as Ves used his direct physical connection to Jovy's head to examine what went on in his head.

From a spiritual perspective, Jovy's mind was purer and considerably more organized than any other Journeyman he had observed.

It was not as unnatural as he expected, and he was certain that the minds of rational mech designers were much more clean and artificial.

Still, compared to other passionate mech designers such as Ves, Jovy's mind and spirit looked remarkably organized!

Ves always suspected that the MTA possessed its own methods and solutions to produce high-ranking mech designers that possessed numerous advantages over space peasants, and this observation pretty much confirmed his guess!

The lower concentration of junk and irrelevant attributes inside Jovy's mind and spirit yielded several useful benefits over ordinary Journeymen!

A higher proportion of his very being would be dedicated towards his design philosophy, thereby giving him an inherent advantage in his future development!

In addition, Jovy would be able to maintain the same or even a higher degree of passion towards his specialty without being prone to getting distracted by irrational impulses!

Jovy had eventually become a more optimized version of a passionate mech designer! He retained almost all of the advantages of a mech designer that was incredibly dedicated towards an extreme design philosophy while also retaining a sufficient amount of rationality to base most of his decisions on facts rather than emotions!

The current situation was just one of many examples of sound decision-making. If Jovy was less rational, then he would have likely been a lot more hesitant to undergo this life-changing operation!

However, if Jovy wanted to overcome the huge gap that separated Masters from Star Designers, then he could not keep avoiding opportunities that could provide him with an enormous boost in his career.

He also wasn't willing to wait until Ves and the T Institute rigorously verified the safety of companion spirits as a new category of human augmentation.

After weighing the risks and benefits of this option, Jovy Armalon wholeheartedly put his trust in his weird and quirky friend!

As Ves reached deeper into Jovy's mind, the two became increasingly more connected to each other. Their current states were similar to the both of them forming a connection with a design network.

Ves was able to learn more about the man he was about to operate upon.

He recognized Jovy's pressure, ambition and faith in Ves. He also became exposed to a portion of Jovy's mindset and perspective.

Just as Ves looked at reality as a space filled with many different forms of life that interacted with each other, Jovy saw everything around him as a constant progression of probabilistic events.

It was quite a dazzling and confusing approach to reality to Ves. To Jovy, every phenomenon in existence could be reduced to a series of probabilistic equations!

Nothing was impossible to Jovy!

Nothing was 100 percent certain to Jovy!

From an instance as small as the atomic decay of a radioactive isotope to an event as large as a dying star that could go supernova at any moment, everything could be calculated and quantified in terms of probabilities!

Though it was natural to think this way towards inherently probabilistic subjects such as buying a lottery ticket, Jovy's uniqueness was that he applied it to everything, even concepts that weren't associated with probabilities in the first place.

Even life itself wasn't anything special to the Reality Trickster!

Whereas Ves made clear distinctions between life and the absence of life, Jovy did not make any special distinctions with regards to the former.

Living organisms such as other humans were merely products of lots of probabilistic events. The more he understood the past probabilities that defined one's life, the better he was able to calculate the probabilities of that person's future actions and decisions!

In short, reality was all a product of math of Jovy. Percentages constantly filled his vision as long as he remained conscious.

This could drive any ordinary person mad, but all of it came natural to Jovy due to his intense studies along with forming a design seed that encapsulated his design philosophy!

It was quite amazing to Ves to see and understand how a Journeyman like Jovy actually worked. Gaining the opportunity to observe the distinct and unique spiritual and mental traits of a talented and promising MTA mech designer allowed him to collect a lot of interesting data points that could prove some of his theories while generating new ones as well!

"Uhm, Ves, are you going to start anytime soon? All you have been doing so far is staring at my inner self. Don't forget about the reason why we have invited you to this operating theater."

Ves blinked. "Ahem. My apologies. I need to possess at least a basic understanding of how your mind is set up before I start my operation. I've already learned what I needed to know to begin the operation. Get ready for real this time."

As much as he wanted to continue to study the intricacies of Jovy's mind, this was not a time for him to indulge in his curiosity.

The faint domain field exuded by a nearby ace pilot that was interfacing with an ace mech constantly made Ves feel as if all of his actions were exposed.

He couldn't afford to fool around at this time!

"Let's go, Blinky."

Mrow!

Blinky took the lead with performing the steps needed to impart Jovy with a companion spirit.

Ves had drafted this plan a long time ago and none of the steps were anything new or dangerous.

The only point of uncertainty was that he was unable to determine what exactly Jovy's companion spirit would turn into. This was because Ves was not too familiar with Jovy's main spiritual attributes as of yet. It was only when Blinky began to carve out a portion of Jovy's spirituality that he truly got in touch with the concept known as probability!

As much as Ves felt tempted to smuggle a small spiritual fragment for his own use, he resisted this foolish urge and immediately directed Blinky to combine Jovy's exposed spirituality with the spiritual ingredients he brought.

The process went fairly smoothly and Blinky did not encounter any serious hindrances or surprises when he merged the ingredients and shaped Jovy's new companion spirit.

Just as promised, Ves formed it into the shape of an eyeball. It might not be the cutest form of companion spirit that he had made, but if Jovy wanted to anthropomorphize his other self, then he could do so by directing his spiritual pet's growth.

The eyeball was just the starting point.

Due to its relatively simple shape, Blinky easily managed to form it out of numerous different spiritual shards.

None of the ingredients that Ves had chosen were particularly difficult or dangerous to work with. Their attributes also got along with each other rather well.

The principal ingredient was Ylvaine's spiritual fragment. This was the main driver of Jovy's new companion spirit and it was absolutely essential that it passed on at least a portion of its predictive potential!

Ves wasn't sure how effective the new companion spirit would be because he did not harvest a particularly large spiritual fragment from Ylvaine this time.

Just like Helena had warned a week ago, the humanoid design spirit wasn't earning a lot of spiritual feedback these days, so its growth was extremely limited.

The Illustrious One was a bit better off in that regard. Not only was he tied to multiple mech designs, he also received high-quality spiritual feedback from an expert pilot such as Venerable Davia Stark.

Despite being able to harvest a larger spiritual fragment from the Illustrious One, Ves only collected a minute amount from him because he did not feel the need to add too much of the alien design spirit to the mix.

Ves only chose to add a tiny portion of the Illustrious One to Jovy's companion spirit in the hopes of empowering the companion spirit's observation capabilities.

Though Jovy instructed Ves to only utilize spiritual ingredients derived from human design spirits, Ves felt that this addition made so much sense that he added a tiny spiritual fragment from the luminar design spirit anyway!

"It's just a tiny add-on. It's not that big of a deal."

Ves believed so much in this theory that he bet that he could probably get away with it. Seeing that the hidden ace pilot did not intervene, it was probably okay!

He did not want the companion spirit to develop a new ability related to light at the cost of weakening its predictive capabilities.

As Ves supervised and assisted Blinky's efforts to shape the new companion spirit, he intuitively felt that everything was proceeding as planned.

No surprises occurred so far which was exactly what he was aiming for. Before he knew it, Blinky was done with completing the shape of the companion spirit.

Already, it was coming to life after the spiritual energy provided by Ves himself formed the spark of life that fully granted this partially-separated aspect of Jovy a new and independent consciousness!

"Nghhh!"

Jovy had remained remarkably stable throughout this process, but when his new spiritual eye finally came to life, he finally made a sound!

"Hang on, Jovy. You're doing well. We have already reached the final step. Don't reject whatever it is you are experiencing. Accept your new companion spirit and embrace this new part of yourself!"

Blinky pulled out of Jovy's head after he had completed his tasks. The spiritual cat remained vigilant in case anything went wrong.

Mrow.

"I know."

Though Ves and Blinky had done everything correctly, they still remained a bit nervous as they waited for the new companion spirit to come into existence.

After a dozen seconds of waiting, the spiritual eye finally came to life!

The new companion spirit instantly gained clarity and understood the nature of its own existence!

Jovy's pain and discomfort had largely disappeared at this time now that Ves and Blinky were not tinkering inside his head. Though he still felt a dull throbbing inside his head, the addition of a brand-new companion spirit completely attracted his attention.

As the two separated parts of Jovy familiarized with each other, they quickly accepted and embraced each other.

"Being able to see probabilities is already a useful ability." Jovy slowly said as he explored what his new companion spirit could do. "If I can combine that with the ability to see the future, then what I can do no longer be described as probability manipulation."

Jovy turned his head towards Ves. "Do you know what it means if I can see the probabilities of the present but also their outcomes in the future?"

"Uhmmm, not really."

"It means that I have mastered the power of destiny." Jovy answered with glinting eyes. "With my new Eye of Providence, I will no longer be subject to the whims of luck and random chance!"

Those were big words! Ves was impressed by Jovy's hubris. That didn't mean he was convinced.

The so-called Eye of Providence might have the power to glimpse the future, but nothing came for free!

Since Ves hadn't artificially accelerated the Eye of Providence's growth process, it was stuck in a weak and immature state.

It hardly had any time to grow and come into its power. How could it possibly start providing Jovy with the answers of the future right away?

Ves predicted that it would probably take months of growth before Jovy could truly attempt his first glimpse of the future!