The Mech Touch

Gloriana expressed continuous amazement at what Ves experienced after he departed from New Constantinople VIII.

She had already heard a part of what Ves had done on Ocanon VI by questioning their children. Yet even she did not know that her husband harvested the complete spirituality of the Azure Tornado Dragon!

As her beloved, Gloriana clearly understood the significance of this move.

"Are you thinking about turning it into your latest design spirit?"

"Maybe." Ves said as he continued to cuddle with his wife as they gazed at a projected view of exotic alien vistas. "I need to be more careful about this. My collection of design spirits is already considerable, and I haven't even made full use out of all of them. Expanding it further will make it harder for me to manage them all. There is nothing actually stopping them from cutting off their connections to my mech designs and splitting off to go elsewhere."

That surprised his wife. "You have been making use of them all this time without binding them with contracts or restraints?"

"That's not how I work." Ves responded. "Each of them are either my creations or my partners. It is not right to treat them like slaves. Doing this will more than likely incur a backlash as they can withdraw their support or even tamper with the mechs that they are overseeing. Our relationships have always been based on trust and mutual interest. Besides, the design spirits previously did not have any good alternatives because the old galaxy is a low-energy environment. The imaginary realm over there is completely barren and filled with corrosive energies."

"The Age of Dawn has changed that." His wife quickly deduced. "Unlike before, your design spirits can sustain themselves even when they no longer have access to the spiritual feedback of so many mech pilots."

Ves nodded. "The power balance between me and my design spirits has become a lot less lopsided than before. Fortunately, all of our existing design spirits have spent years growing stronger with my assistance. They are unlikely to leave due to inertia. The same cannot be said for any new creations. They will grow up in an environment where I am not the only choice for sustained growth. Coercing them to work for me is not a reliable means of maintaining control. Life always finds a way. I can use as many means as possible to bind them to me, but they only need to succeed once to break out and take revenge."

He and his wife fell silent for a minute as they mulled over these considerations. Design spirits played a vital role in the success of the Larkinson Clan. The loss of any of them would plunge the value of certain mech lines and initiate a crisis of trust among the LMC's customers.

While Ves did not think that any of his current stable of design spirits would maliciously break off all relations without notifying him in advance, he needed to be prepared for any contingency.

"If this is the case, then maybe it is better to be less restrained about making additional design spirits." Gloriana suggested. "You are still holding back because this is your old habit, but we are not living in the Age of Mechs anymore. Now that we have entered the Age of Dawn, E energy and mutated beasts have become particularly abundant. I believe you should be able to find and harvest the spiritualities of enough powerful creatures to make substitutes for many of your current design spirits. You don't have to use them right away. You can store the spare ingredients and only bring them out if you need to obtain a replacement for one of your lost design spirits."

That was actually a good suggestion. Gloriana reminded Ves that he was no longer stuck in the past where it took a huge amount of effort to find powerful mutated beasts and high-quality spiritual ingredients.

The quantity of mutated beasts had skyrocketed, and so had their variety. It no longer became implausible for Ves to obtain a mutated beast that possessed rare and exceptional domains such as space or even devouring.

Of course, the demand for mutated beasts with these particular talents was still high. Not just Ves, but many other researchers hungered for creatures that possessed amazing 'superpowers'!

Fortunately for Ves, his recent visit to Ocanon VI had given him a clear understanding of the modern hunting community.

He had seen plenty of hunting teams return from their latest trips with dead or living mutated beasts among their spoils.

A large number of biotech institutions paid handsome rewards for the retrieval of all manner of powerful and exotic mutated beasts.

There was no need for Ves to visit Ocanon VI or any other hunting planet in person. He could just instruct his clan to issue commission and wait for the hunting community to fulfill them. The higher the price, the shorter the wait!

The price for the capture and shipment of living mutated beasts may be high for second-class organizations, but it was completely trivial to the current Larkinson Clan!

Ves had never visited any first-class hunting planets. He had heard amazing stories about the mutated beasts that grew up and evolved on planets that were filled with higher quantities of exotics and hypers.

However, there was no requirement for strength for his design spirits. Ves managed to create Ylvaine from a centuries-old discarded nutrient wrapper.

The true value of spiritual ingredients lay in the rarity of their spiritual attributes and the application of power of the mutated beasts.

The former determined the starting point while the latter gave his design spirits clear directions on how to develop their abilities going forward.

Beasts found on a second-class hunting planet such as the Azure Tornado Dragon and the Giant Stone Eater more than satisfied Ves' needs.

He formed a new plan based on the strategy suggested by his wife.

"I intend to make design spirits that correspond to each of the five classical elements. They are just too ubiquitous for me to ignore." He eventually decided. "I will also make other design spirits based on very powerful or useful attributes such as destruction."

"Destruction? How?"

"Ah, let me tell you about my gains in Bortele."

Ves proceeded to summarize what he managed to accomplish during his trip to the port system.

From turning the Fey Fianna line into an overnight success to meeting with the Destroyer of Worlds in person after getting rescued by her, Gloriana's eyes increasingly widened after she heard his side of the story.

"So the rumors are true?!"

"I'm sure that a lot of them are exaggerated, but it is true that I managed to forge a friendship with Her Divinity." Ves smiled with pride. "I even managed to obtain a powerful spiritual fragment from her. Would you like to see?"

He briefly summoned the Novastella statue from his System Space. His wife grew stunned as she held the dense metal statue with utmost respect and care.

The sculpture depicting Emma radiated the power of destruction. Gloriana clearly found it difficult to withstand the passive glow and soon had to give it back to her husband to prevent greater harm.

Once Ves put the remarkable container back into his System Space, his wife needed a minute to think over all of the implications of what she learned. Her new Arachne 01 granted her a formidable amount of processing power and helped her contemplate the ramifications much more extensively than before.

Her expression grew a lot more serious. "It is no wonder that the Terrans treated us much differently upon my return. My children and I have clearly sensed that a barrier has formed with the locals."

"It doesn't help that I managed to hook up with the Impresario Prince as well. I don't know what you heard from the media, but it is true that our clan now owns a 20 percent stake in Isthmus Manufacturing. While this deal comes with many strings attached, the shares are all real."

Ves spent a bit more time on explaining his new relationships with the Rubarthans. He left out a few crucial details such as how he first became acquainted with the Destroyer of Worlds, but his wife was clever enough to infer that other extraordinary factors were at play.

She knew that her husband likely had good reasons to hold back certain pieces of information. There was no need for her to pry any further. The information that she already received was enough to keep her preoccupied for a while.

"This changes everything." Gloriana said as an ambitious spark lit up in her eyes. "Our clan can speed up its growth now that our clan has become a greater force in high society. The Terrans resent the Rubarthans and would hate to see you move into the orbit of their archrivals. In fact, they probably consider your latest moves to be a betrayal of their trust. You chose to travel to the Terran Alliance first, so the Devos Ancient Clan likely thought that becoming your ally and partner was a foregone conclusion."

Ves shrugged. "I always told the Terrans that I never intended to get in bed with them. They might secretly hope that they can 'convert' me to their side, but that will never happen. Our clan will always remain independent and neutral within human society. This is the best way to ensure that our mechs will be able to get sold to the widest possible audience."

Though he did not agree with all of the policies of the Red Association, he resonated with the need to serve red humanity as a whole. All of the petty divisions that turned humans against each other was child's play. Getting involved in these intra-human disputes would only make it difficult for Ves to fulfill his role as a mech designer who wanted to cater to the entire mech market!

"You have always wanted to build up a fleet of first-class starships, correct? This is the time to make use of our advantages to demand these concessions. We can play the Terrans and the Rubarthans against each other." Gloriana suggested a dangerous game. "The Devos Ancient Clan will soon attempt to form an extensive agreement with you that can act as a counterweight against your newly established partnership with the Impresario Prince. The Terrans will be so desperate to obtain your support that they may be willing to pass on one of their first-class starships to you. Seize this opportunity to build the fleet that you have always dreamed about."

This was a bold and risky gambit, but it had a decent chance of succeeding!

Even if the Devos Ancient Clan was not able to spare any of its capital ships, it should still be able to donate a handful of first-class combat carriers.

That would already make Ves happy because he knew how much more powerful an individual first-class multipurpose mech could be. Quality trumped quantity, so even a handful of combat carriers was enough to guarantee enough self-protection ability in a confrontation against the major alien races of the Red Ocean.

"I'll need to flesh out this idea further with Gavin and the Foreign Affairs Ministry." Ves decided. "I think it is worth a try. We will likely have to forgo other lucrative gains. First-class starships have become an even more valuable form of hard currency than phasewater in the current climate."

If Ves had to make a choice between 20 percent ownership in Isthmus Manufacturing or a couple of first-class fleet carriers, he would choose the latter anytime!

The former might be a fantastic long-term investment in times of relative stability, but how long would that last?

The latter would definitely increase his ability to survive and make fantastic gains through conquest and plunder!

Of course, there was no inherent contradiction between the two. It was best if Ves could obtain both at the same time. The best way for organizations such as the Larkinson Clan to get ahead was to combine strong finances with abundant martial strength!