The Mech Touch



When the masterwork transformation finally came to an end, everyone still lingered in the workshop for a time.

The surprises that unfolded on the final day continually exceeded everyone's expectations.

Not even Ves could have dreamed that the Ghost Project would go through so much last-minute improvements and upgrades!

Compared to the Ghost Project as depicted in the latest iteration of its design, the expert stealth mech that they created under the influence of Ves' supercharged glow was significantly stronger!

The significance of the Ghost Project was greater than that of other masterwork expert mechs.

It proved that it was possible to make a masterwork mech through alternative means.

Gloriana's theory had become defunct. The Ghost Project was living proof that it was possible to climb up to the second rung of the craftsmanship ladder even if it exhibited obvious physical flaws and imperfections!

That was not to say that there was no point in putting a lot of effort into making the physical construction as exquisite as possible anymore.

On the contrary, its importance continued to remain high. A better physical construction meant that the spiritual foundation did not have to be as demanding.

It was already enough for Ves and his collaborators to create a third order living mech!

The huge jump in quality between a second order living mech and a third order living mech meant that it should become easier than ever for Ves to collect additional masterwork certificates in the future!

Ves confirmed so many theories that he felt he lifted the veil that obscured the secrets of masterwork mechs to a much greater extent.

Although he was still far from being able to fabricate masterwork mechs on demand, he had made a lot of progress towards attaining this ambitious goal!

If Gloriana's most recent guess also happened to be accurate, then Ves may have figured out the requirements of making a grand work as well!

Just the thought of it sent shivers through his body.

Ves and Gloriana happened to be 'lucky' enough to witness an artifact that was most probably a grand work with their own eyes.

When Ketis abruptly clutched the Heavensword in her hands and channeled its enormous might, Ves and his wife managed to make a lot of observations that enriched their vision!

While Gloriana conducted an extensive study and analysis on the Heavensword's impressive physical design, Ves on the other hand focused primarily on its vast and even more elaborate metaphysical properties!

The Heavensword happened to score extremely well in both aspects. If this ancient artifact could truly serve as a typical representation of a grand work, then perhaps it may very well be possible for the Miracle Couple to combine their respective strengths and realize the impossible!

Of course, they were way too far away from reaching this point. Ves was much more interested in increasing his success rate in making masterwork mechs.

He understood that the Ghost Project was still an exception rather than the rule. Its spiritual design was much stronger and more complex due to the addition of the Geist System.

There was no way for Ves to mass produce this key part. The necessity to harvest the head of an existing expert pilot and artificially keep it alive was not only a taboo, but also a massive pain!

The only chance that Ves could obtain a result that was partially as good was to develop a simplified and downgraded version of the Geist System.

Just as how Master Benedict Cortez realized his design philosophy by developing the mass producible Endex System based on his Original Energy Bridge System, Ves could pursue a similar approach to his work.

As long as the mass production version of the Geist System still retained a sufficient amount of power and utility, it may even be innovative and useful enough for Ves to realize his design philosophy based on this successful research result!

Ves would never do that of course. He had much greater ambitions in mind. He did not struggle for many decades like Master Benedict, so he was not desperate to attain an easy solution that could allow him to get rid of his status as a Senior Mech Designer.

In fact, he already saw much greater potential in becoming a Master by conducting further research into third order living mechs and his newly invented Ascension Paths.

For example, Ves believed that refining the living mech concept to the point where other professionals could fabricate third order living mechs was an achievement that was almost just as massive as making genetic aptitude redundant!

Ves had already managed to develop his living mech designs to the point where all of the factories, workshops and manufacturing complexes that followed his proscribed methods of fabrications could stably mass produce second order living mechs.

However, the difficulty of enabling them to mass produce third order living mechs was probably at least a hundred times greater!

Another potential research direction that could help him advance to Master was to successfully figure out a method to fabricate a fourth order living mech.

The difficulty of accomplishing this might be much greater depending on how much stronger it was compared to a third order living mech.

Ves was afraid that the gap between the two was so great that making this happen was as improbable as an ace pilot ascending to god pilot!

"We are done." Master Benedict declared once everyone had enough time to mull over what had happened and form preliminary conclusions based on their observations. "Much has happened over the course of these last five days. You will have plenty of opportunities to study the masterwork transformation by revisiting your memories and rewatching the recorded footage. You are all tired and exhausted, so I suggest you wrap up this run and take a long and well-deserved break."

The Master Mech Designer was right. None of them were in the right state of mind to do anything serious.

As the mech designers began to clean up the workshop, Venerable Zimro Belson stared up at his completed expert mech with awe in his eyes.

The frequent sensations of pain resulting from his abrupt bonding with Mephisto no longer bothered him as much as before.

In the face of a powerful masterwork expert mech, Zimro was more than willing to endure this suffering!

Ves slowly floated down to the emotional expert pilot's side.

"He is beautiful." Zimro whispered to the patriarch. "He might not be as flashy as the likes of the Amaranto and the Everchanger, but my new mech does not need to display its strength in the open."

The Ghost Project did not possess the visual flair that Ves often applied to his other high-end works.

Its coating was almost entirely black from top to bottom. There were no patterns or other visual markings that attracted unnecessary attention to the slim and rounded mech frame.

The lack of sharp edges and defined angles gave the Ghost Project a deceptively soft and harmless impression.

If other people did not know what the Ghost Project was all about, it was possible to mistake it as a particularly expensive standard mech!

It helped a lot that the masterwork expert mech did not actually give people the feeling that it possessed extraordinary traits.

Since its masterwork transformation mostly improved its intangible properties, its physical frame was not that special.

The expert mech's strong and sophisticated spiritual design also did not induce any abnormal reactions onto people.

It felt completely inert, but that was by design. Much of the spiritual design was focused towards hiding and dampening its own metaphysical presence and emissions.

With the help of Kalo, the black-coated expert mech should easily be able to pass for a scout mech!

Although Ves was easily able to pierce through this passive hiding effect due to the fact he understood it too well, another important factor was that it was currently inactive and unpowered.

Once Venerable Zimro interfaced with the mech and activated all of its potent stealth functions, perhaps not even Ves would be able to track it anymore!

Ves looked forward to seeing that happen. After all, if the Ghost Project could elude his own senses, then it should definitely have a good chance of defeating the mystical detection methods mastered by the Five Scrolls Compact!

"The Ghost Project is complete." Ves told Zimro. "It is time to drop the codename and gain a name that better reflects your new battle partner's identity as a masterwork expert mech. Do you have any suggestions?"

The expert pilot nodded. The man had been thinking over the name for many months.

Unlike Venerable Jannzi, Zimro needed no delay in announcing his choice.

"If it is permissible, I would like to name him the Phobos. I want him to become the embodiment of fear, the dagger that is hidden in the dark, the ghost that threatens to take away your life in your sleep. The threat of having it deployed against you must be stronger than its actual performance in the field!"

Phobos. Fear. Another name derived from mythology.

Ves did not have much objection to this suggestion. "Very well. The Phobos is worthy to carry this heavy name. I hope that you will do whatever you can to master it and further its growth. The challenges you will face in trying to control the Geist System will test you a lot over the years, but as long as you cooperate well enough with your new machine, I have no doubt you will truly be able to deploy an army of fiends."

The Phobos had just been born, but its strong spiritual foundation already granted him the intelligence to make rudimentary contact with Venerable Zimro Belson.

The expert pilot needed to interface with the expert stealth mech for the first time in order to truly pair them together, but the common bond they shared with Mephisto already enabled them to familiarize themselves with each other in advance!

Zimro and the Phobos did not reject each other in any way.

This was a small relief to Ves as their personalities diverged to a moderate extent. Venerable Zimro was supposed to act as the voice of reason and restraint while the Phobos was meant to be more aggressive in making use of his powerful functions.

The combination between the two opposing mindsets might produce tension, but it would also ensure that this new pairing remained sharp and in control.

"That is interesting."

When Ves examined the Ghost Project's spiritual foundation more deeply, he discovered that there was an addition that he never accounted for in his design work!

"Is that… the manifestation of an Ascension Path?"

The more he studied it, the more he felt its power and its inextricable relationship to Kalo.

To his spiritual senses, this floating spiritual manifestation that continually exerted its power onto the Phobos resembled a rune!

Yes, a rune!

Ves knew nothing about the origin, the meaning or the typography of the rune, but that did not stop him from recognizing its potency and cohesiveness!

The intangible rune that was hidden inside the expert mech's spiritual foundation functioned similarly to Lucky's gem, but Ves had the feeling that it was a more direct and fundamental application of energy and power!

He never realized that creating an Ascension Path would produce such a mystical outcome!

Ves wondered whether the appearance of the rune was a consequence of the masterwork transformation. The entire spiritual foundation of the Phobos did undergo a subtle evolution, after all. It went without saying that the three Ascension Paths must have been improved as well!

His eyes lit up! "This is exactly what I need to flesh out my Ascension Path concept!"

His first attempt to make them was so sloppy and hasty that they were bound to be flawed. The spiritual transformation of the Phobos must have smoothed out a lot of wrinkles and made them significantly more viable than before.

This meant that Ves could closely examine the changes made to the Ascension Paths and apply what he learned to develop his subsequent Ascension Paths!

"The structure and the boundaries have become a lot more elegant."

"The formation of runes makes it a lot easier to quantify the evolutionary progress of the mech."

"The Phobos is already halfway into forming a second rune."