The Mech Touch

Ves had been too complacent.

He underestimated the remaining survivors of his brutal slaughter.

Aisling was a bona-fide Journeyman Mech Designer while Patricia was rational enough to stay sober during emergencies. If both of them were holed up in a mech workshop during a crisis, then they could easily destroy the entire ship given enough time!

Disabling the many safeguards of a missile and rigging it to launch only took a couple of minutes for a competent mech designer.

Who knew what kind of tricks the two Fridaymen mech designers prepared when they became alerted of an attack!

"Ahh.. this hurts!"

Ves felt as if he wrong his body through the meat grinder!

His terrible body weakly jerked back and forth on the debris-strewn deck as he tried to overcome the pain wracking through his body!

"I can't afford to sit still still at this time! Aaghh!"

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to control the situation if he lost consciousness, Ves forcefully concentrated his Spirituality and did not hesitate to expend his spiritual energy to forcefully boost his consciousness!

Though his method wasted a lot of spiritual energy, his crude manipulation forcefully strengthened his mind relative to his body!

The pain emanating from his body was just a biological response! He could not afford to allow it to consume his attention!

Through the application of will and spiritual energy, Ves slowly managed to claw himself out of the pit of pain.

Soon enough, he became conscious enough to assess his current state.

Ruptured eardrums, concussed head, internal organs jarred by concussive shockwaves, entire body peppered by metal debris, the list went on and on. If his body wasn't so unnaturally resilient, he could have easily died if not for his intuition warning him of imminent danger!

Ves briefly puzzled about that. Ever since he became a mech designer, his intuition grew increasingly stronger.

Though Ves valued it most due to the instinctive assistance it provided him during a design session, it also proved its value in battle!

However, as a mech designer, why did he develop such a strong ability to detect danger? Did his mind and Spirituality develop due to all of the dangerous adventures he went through?

He suspected that other mech designers might not be as good as him in detecting imminent danger!

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Haha-Agh!"

Other mech designers spent most of their time in a design lab or some other peaceful environment.

Having worked alongside Gloriana for quite some time, Ves became aware that her intuition was highly sensitive towards hidden faults and flaws. She spent most of her professional life on becoming good at it, so was it any surprise that she developed an uncanny sense for imperfections?

In contrast, Ves frequently chose to take risks, causing him to end up in precarious situations! Rather than developing towards something that substantially aided his design activities, his intuition instead evolved into something close to the extraordinary combat intuition exhibited by Aisling's female Benny!

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry right now!

"I'm a mech designer, not a commando!"

Yet wasn't he trying to be the latter when he hatched this insane plan to hijack an entire mobile supply frigate with only Lucky and himself?

The fact that he had almost succeeded made him wonder whether he was more cut out to be a mech pilot or a soldier rather than a mech designer.

Ves even suspected that developing an intuition for danger came from his Larkinson blood!

After all, how could the Larkinsons be so daring and courageous all of the time while still remaining alive?

On the other hand, the evolution direction of his intuition conformed to his domain of life. As a mech designer who constantly played with life, it made sense for him to value his own life as well!

Whatever the case, Ves felt very thankful that he developed this extraordinary sense for danger!

He was confident enough in his professional ability to rely on himself to design his mechs!

His life was much more valuable! As a mech designer with many secrets and unique abilities, Ves was destined to navigate through various crises!

Continuing to hone his intuition for danger would benefit him greatly!

This was because no matter how good of a mech designer he became, it would all be moot if he lost his life!

His happiness upon realizing this truth made his pain a lot more bearable.

With the passage of time, he already felt his body starting to cope with his injuries. While his wounds didn't disappear, his flesh seemed to mitigate them a bit by stemming the bleeding.

Though it wasn't enough for him to restore his mobility, he could at least move some of his limbs.

He threw a look at his System comm. In the end, did he really have to spend his precious DP?

With his life at risk, Ves did not dare to be stingy with his resources.

It was just that he felt rather unwilling to waste his DP especially now that the System curtailed his income.

He was no longer able to earn DP by selling his mechs!

Though he earned substantially more DP when he completed a mech design, he had lost far more after the System prevented him from profiting off the sales of his Soldier product line!

Ves recalled that the LMC easily managed to sell over a million mechs since the Sand War! All of those sales should have showered with tens of millions of DP, which was enough to turn him into a super soldier!

As it was.. the System he owned was too defective to reward him properly! He never made any progress on its Supply Missions, so he pretty much had it coming.

He weakly shook his head. "Whatever."

With what little control he had over his limbs, he activated the System and browsed the Shop.

Countless items dazzled his sight. Ves suppressed the urge to snap them up by looking at their price tags.

The gadgets offered by the System were too expensive for him to afford! With less than 2 million DP on hand, how could he think of buying something that cost 30,000,000 DP?

The Shop always offered the best, but their prices were commensurate to their quality!

"Ah, forget about it! I have to get rid of this pain first!"

Ves studied some of the goods offered by the Shop beforehand. He didn't want to waste time searching its catalog for something suitable in the middle of an emergency!

Under the consumables category, Ves pinpointed an emergency remedy.

[AE-S1 Combat Trauma Stabilizer]

Price: 100,000 DP

A fast-applying remedy meant to stabilize physical wounds and prevent them from deteriorating any further. The Combat Trauma Stabilizer is most effective on external injuries, but is very strenuous to the vitality of the affected body.

The Combat Trauma Stabilizer also functions as a stimulant which energizes the recipient. After a short amount of time, this effect is lost and a prolonged period of weakness will follow.

The Shop offered a handful of ways to heal his wounds. Most of them tended to be extremely expensive and come with huge downsides. Those that didn't burden his body instead burdened his wallet!

As someone who had always been frugal with his DP, Ves could not bear to use the more comprehensive remedies that cost at least 1,000,000 DP or more! Ves could not bear to allow the System to take advantage of him so much!

In his current circumstances, the AE-S1 Combat Trauma Stabilizer seemed suitable. Though Ves worried about the short duration of the stimulant effect, he could still bear with this price.

Regardless of what happened, Ves and Lucky had almost swept up all of his opponents throughout the ship! Only the survivors in the mech workshop compartment remained alive!

As long as Ves held on for a little while longer, he would definitely be able to finish the job!

Knowing how dangerous it was to allow mech designers more time to tinker with the weapons at the mech workshop, Ves redeemed the remedy without any further hesitation!

This was 100,000 DP! That was enough to elevate a Skill to Senior-level or go on another Mastery experience!

A medical injector materialized into his hand. Ves found its shape and model to be vaguely familiar, but he didn't waste any time on figuring out who originally designed this product.

He stared at the cartridge slotted into the injector. This cartridge contained the solution meant to stabilize his wounds and pepper him up! It was also the principal reason why the System charged 100,000 DP for this item!

"What a scam!"

Next time he ended up in a crisis, he had to make sure he prepared himself better! This time, he made plenty of mistakes and underestimated the difficulty of taking over a second-class ship!

If not for the lack of time and difficulty of obtaining a suit of combat armor, Ves wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state!

After confirming that the injector looked exactly like the one in the catalog, Ves resolutely pressed its tip onto his chest and pulled the trigger!

Ahh!

A searing heat spread from his injection point and rapidly spread throughout his entire body! His wounds rapidly stopped bleeding entirely and his flesh started pushing out some of the shards that cut into his body!

Though Ves spent a distressing amount of DP, the benefits were undeniable!

While the remedy hadn't managed to restore his hearing, the painful sensations from his head had subsided by a substantial degree, clearing his head even further.

At the same time the stabilizer worked on some of his wounds, the heat also affected his brain, causing him to become a lot more energetic than usual!

The fire in his consciousness regained its vigor, causing him to feel as if he was ready to fight a mech with his bare hands!

"What a powerful stimulant! It's probably addictive as well!"

He became so caught up in the uplifting sensations of his remedy that he almost forgot his original purpose!

"Damnit, I can't lose my mind right now! I still have a mech workshop to clear!"

The medicine he took not only closed his wounds, but also restored more control over his body. This was enough for him to pick himself up and pull out the deeper shards that had managed to embed in his body.

He should have been paralyzed in pain. Instead, he only the warmth of the stabilizer dulling his wounds and working to stem the bleeding.

Once he pulled out all of the shards, he ignored his distressed and blood-soaked appearance and materialized the Amastendira in his hand once more.

His fury and the stimulant effect both made him bloodthirsty!

However, instead of going forward, Ves instead distanced himself from the mech workshop and waited patiently.

Lucky emerged by phasing through the deck. His cat looked a lot more tired than before, showing that he was at the limit of his endurance!

"Meow meow!"

With his ruptured eardrums, Ves couldn't hear a thing of what Lucky said, not that it mattered.

His ability to communicate with life transcended sound. He merely had to focus his mind a bit and extend some of his Spirituality to his pet.

Soon enough, Ves got the gist of Lucky's meows.

"You killed off the guards and mech technicians?"

"Meow!"

"What about Aisling and Patricia? Did you kill them yet?!"

"Meow…"

"What?! They're gone?!"

"Meow!"

"Did you search the mech workshop thoroughly!"

"Meow meow!"

"DAMNIT!"

Ves wanted to punch himself in the face! He thought he would have to fight a pair of entrenched mech designers with all the tools and equipment of a mech workshop at their disposal!

For this reason, he didn't hesitate to use up an overpriced remedy!

Yet now he discovered that his final opponents had somehow managed to slip away!

"Find them!" He ordered Lucky! "If they're not at the mech workshop, they might be heading somewhere else!"

"Meow.."

"I know you're exhausted, but bear with it! The Scarlet Rose is almost mine!"