The Mech Touch



Time passed quickly after Ves had made up his mind.

While Ves and his fellow mech designers worked hard to finalize the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project, the rest of the Larkinsons did not stay idle either.

The time to resume the Trailblazer Expedition had drawn closer. The clan had already prepared extensively for this important moment. Not only did the Larkinsons put a lot of effort into repairing and upgrading their starships, they also collected a lot of information and stockpiled a lot of useful supplies.

Almost every arm of the clan contributed to this major effort. It was no secret that the expeditionary fleet was bound to leave the Krakatoa Middle Zone and cross over into the rougher and more dangerous Torald Middle Zone.

Given all of the stories that came out of this deeper frontier zone, there was no such thing as too much preparation!

One of the most optimistic pieces of news that Ves received as of late concerned his Spirit of Bentheim.

After roughly half a year of extensive disassembly, refurbishing and refitting work, the original factory ship of the Larkinson Clan had finally completed her transformation!

So much of her hull had been strengthened and improved that she had fully regained the capital of leading the expeditionary fleet!

It actually took longer than expected for the MTA shipyard to complete the extensive refit process.

The people in charge of the project never provided a clear reason to Ves, but he suspected that it had to do with the abnormal spiritual properties of the ship. The MTA probably studied the hull of the Spirit of Bentheim from top to bottom in an attempt to figure out all of her secrets!

Ves already expected this to happen. He had nothing to hide. The Spirit of Bentheim was not a mech so he wasn't able to add too many amazing goodies to her hull.

The mechers had already notified the Larkinson Clan that they just had to conduct thorough inspections and conduct short trials to verify that the upgraded factory ship performed up to expectation.

The MTA cared a lot about quality. None of their products ever failed to drop below their exacting demands.

Once the Association made sure that the Spirit of Bentheim passed their requirements, the ship would immediately be sent to the Davute System.

Ves hoped that he would be able to complete everything he set out to do in Davute.

At this point, Ves had reached the moment where he was ready to Superpublish a mech design.

He carefully considered his decision one last time.

"Do you think I am doing what is right or do you think I have gone crazy, Lucky?"

"Meow." The cat nonchalantly responded as he floated in the air while licking his paws.

Ves shrugged. "Maybe you're right. The line between innovation and insanity is not as solid as people think. It is especially blurred when it comes to me. None of my inventions are normal from the perspective of other mech designers."

He felt a little bit better about himself. There were moments where he briefly entertained second thoughts about committing to the Empowered Blood Sharing System. It truly had too many restrictions to make it practical enough for widespread usage.

Still, Ves already came up with a few promising ideas on how to reduce its downsides and increase its practicality. Nothing was impossible as long as he was brilliant enough to come up with a creative new solution.

For example, the Dullahan Project already pointed out a way for mech pilots to be able to continue their careers once they have lost their bonded mechs.

So long as they retained possession of a substantial enough quantity of their former mechs, the mech pilots would be able to regain their ability to fight!

He could explore that in the future once he advanced to Senior or higher. Right now, he needed to pull the trigger and pull the trigger.

"Hm, maybe it is better if I leave the Ghost Project alone. It's my latest passion project and I am more confident that it will work out the way I intended. Whatever flaws and imperfections it may have in its current design won't spoil its significance."

Ves had a good feeling about the current iteration of the Ghost Project. He also had a high degree of ownership towards it. He had contributed more to this expert mech design project than any other collaborator.

From developing the basis of the Geist System to implementing and customizing the Seferath AQ-3M transphasic active stealth system, Ves alone had been responsible for designing the Ghost Project's most defining elements!

On the other hand, the Dullahan Project had been much more of a team effort. Sara Voiken had been responsible for designing most of the expert knight mech's crucial defensive systems. Gloriana took care of the internals while Ketis designed a new mech sword that was tailored for Venerable Jannzi. Master Benedict integrated the resonating materials and also worked on the energy transmission systems to make the powerful new machine more enduring.

Ves on the other hand spent much of his time on designing miscellaneous parts along with trying to design a working implementation of the Empowered Blood Sharing System from scratch. His sense of ownership towards the Dullahan Project was high primarily because it was his brainchild and because its spiritual design was such a core part of its identity.

"It doesn't really matter too much if my sense of ownership gets reduced." Ves concluded.

He no longer hesitated any further and activated the Superpublish command.

It did not take a lot of time for the Mech Designer System to process the design of Jannzi's future expert mech.

No matter how sophisticated it had grown, nothing about the Dullahan Project was inscrutable to the fragment of the Metal Scroll!

Once Ves obtained the Superpublished version of the completed mech design, his eyes widened as he beheld all of the changes.

Everything had undergone subtle changes. The most obvious elements such as the Battle Skirt System, the Rainbow Shield, the transphasic armor system and the transphasic flight system all received substantial upgrades and optimizations.

Some of the design solutions that caught his eyes were so brilliant and inventive that they could even shock the developers of cutting-edge technology!

After all, Ves had already invested a huge amount of money and resources into obtaining the best quasi-first-class parts and systems that he could stuff into the expert knight mech.

To see how far the System had gone in order to elevate the performance of the highly advanced Dullahan Project by 10 percent was a humbling experience.

It reminded Ves once again that he still had a lot to do before he reached the pinnacle of mech design.

He was sure that his fellow collaborators would share the same sentiment.

Gloriana would probably be able to get a lot closer to advancing to Senior once she was able to study the refinements to her god body method.

Master Benedict Cortez would be able to skip 10 to 20 years worth of research and development once he mastered the comprehensive improvements made to his Endex System.

"As for me…"

His gains were no less profound. Not only did the System smooth out the rough edges of the reincarnation of the Shield of Samar, but it also turned his initial rudimentary implementation of the EBSS into a work of art!

"Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but just look at it! Don't you think it's beautiful, Lucky?"

"Meow." Lucky flipped his tail in a clear sign of disinterest.

"You don't understand what this means! This is proof that the EBSS has enough added value that it deserves to remain in the design!"

The Blood Pact was viable! If the opposite was true, the System would have removed it from the Dullahan Project because keeping it was a waste of capacity.

Ves grew more and more eager as he compared the 'optimized' version of the EBSS to his original work. The more he studied the changes, the more he became amazed at all of the ingenious design solutions!

"I truly hadn't thought about this approach!"

"Arggh! I am so stupid for overlooking this possibility!"

"Damn, if this flaw remained unnoticed, there is a chance that Jannzi might have gotten injured!"

As much as Ves wanted to spend an entire month documenting all of the changes before figuring out why they improved on his work, he needed to share the bounty to the others.

"Hm, I should wait a few days before presenting this upgraded design. I can't make it seem as if it only takes an instant to apply all of these comprehensive improvements."

Ves found it difficult to stick to his old routine while carrying such an enormous weight on his shoulders. He knew that his wife and the others had built up a lot of anticipation towards what he was holding back.

Still, Ves stuck to his decision and waited for three whole days before he called the design team of the Dullahan Project together.

Once he projected the improved design and gave everyone access to the detailed design files, the other mech designers reacted just as he expected.

"THIS IS AMAZING!" Gloriana exclaimed! "The quality of our expert mech design has undergone a transformation!"

"I did not expect that I could make my sword sharper through this method." Ketis grew intense as she obsessed over the sword paired with the Dullahan Project.

Ves smiled as he listened to all of the positive reactions from the gang. "Feel free to study the new design. This is a gift to you all. Don't take too long, though. I want to move on and fabricate this expert mech sooner rather than later. I think that 3 or 4 days should be enough for you to understand the improved design to the point where you can fabricate it without issue."

None of the gathered mech designers were mediocre. They were all brilliant and capable as long as they worked within their areas of expertise.

"It would help if you give us more time before we start, Ves." Gloriana responded with a frown.

"You can obsess over the alterations later, Gloriana. We have all waited long enough to fabricate a new expert mech for Jannzi. It is time. No more delays."

Master Benedict looked up from the detailed schematic of the upgraded Endex System that he had originally incorporated in the Dullahan Project.

"I agree. There is nothing we can add to the Dullahan Project at this point as it has already exceeded our capacity to improve. In comparison, the Ghost Project has already become outdated due to this development. I have observed a few new solutions in the Endex System that I can use to improve my implementation of the Original Energy Bridge System in our expert stealth mech design. I believe that you should have a reason to revisit the Ghost Project, Gloriana."

"You are correct!" Gloriana's eyes lit up yet again! "The god body method in the Dullahan Project is much more refined than what I have implemented in the design of the Ghost Project. I need at least a week if not more to bring it back up to date based on all of the lessons I can learn."

"Don't get distracted, honey. Let us focus on our upcoming fabrication run first. Once we make the Dullahan Project, we will probably harvest extra insights that will help us revise the Ghost Project."

This was one of the benefits of Superpublishing a mech. The lessons that mech designers could learn from one could also be applied to their subsequent works!

This could be treated as a substitute to Superpublishing the Ghost Project. Even if Ves decided against using up his precious voucher on this expert mech design, he could still obtain at least a portion of the total benefits!

Everyone quickly agreed on a new plan and timetable before they eagerly split up. They needed to decipher all of the improvements as quickly as possible!