The Mech Touch

Upgrading the gear of his student gave Ves a lot more reassurance about her survival in the upcoming exploration mission.

Ketis continually insisted on taking part, saying that she was completely unlike the lab nerds who were content to fiddle with designs all day.

As Ves deeply understood her need, he allowed her to take part in the risky mission despite his many misgivings.

Inwardly, he asked himself whether he would stay still if anything ever went amiss. If the Dry Snakes ever captured the Swordmaiden mech designer, Ves would certainly commit his entire task force to rescuing her no matter the cost.

If they managed to kill Ketis, then Ves did not even dare to think how he would react in such a situation!

Ketis noticed his inner struggle and placed her strong hand over his own. "You Larkinsons always say that we need to be courageous in seeking greater opportunities. What I'm doing is no different. I've also learned from you that we need to pay the price for our decisions. If anything happens to me… just take care of the Swordmaidens for me, will you? I love my sisters, and they deserve to pilot the mechs of their dreams. If I can't give them that, then I hope that you will do so in my stead."

She sounded as if she just heralded her own demise!

How could Ves possibly stay calm at this moment? Right now, his imagination ran wild with tragic images of her death or capture. As long as the Larkinsons made just a single mistake at Ulimo Citadel, there was nowhere for them to go! The tight security and nearly impenetrable wall of mech patrols meant that there was almost no chance of escape!

In an instant, Ves began to develop various different plans.

"I don't feel assured of your safety." He stated. "I'll tell Lucky to be on standby close to Ulimo. He'll give you a hand if you ever end up in trouble."

"Meow?" His cat looked puzzled at him from a nearby desk.

Ves pointed at his cat. "You're going, and that's that! If anything happens to the entire group Larkinsons entering Ulimo Citadel, don't bother with protecting them all. Just cover Ketis and make sure she survives long enough to escape. I'll tell Calabast to prepare her stealth shuttle and try and sneak it close to the base."

This was very risky as the Xona Stalkers might possess the ability to detect the stealthed vehicle. The entire point about dispatching Larkinsons in disguise was that it wouldn't trigger any suspicion from the Dry Snakes.

In order to keep the chances of detection at a minimum, the stealth shuttle had to be parked some distance away from Ulimo. This would delay Lucky's entry into Ulimo if an emergency ever took place.

Ves rubbed his chin and studied all of her gear. After integrating a bit of B-stone in her helmet, not even Ves could spiritually penetrate her head when he faced her head on. It was a different story if she stood on the deck above. The helmet didn't offer any protection against spiritual probes sent from below.

This was why he prioritized the acquisition of a lot more B-stones. In order to provide him with omni-directional protection, he needed to acquire enough materials to cover his entire body. Only by closing each and every possible port would he feel assured of his protection.

The scattered whispers about B-stone being sold on Ulimo was one of the reasons why he couldn't let it go. Though it wasn't relevant at the moment, Ves was pretty certain that he would need a lot of B-stone in the future. Against huge threats such as the Five Scrolls Compact, he did not feel confident that his own feeble Spirituality was enough to resist their sophisticated and bewildering spiritual tricks!

Speaking of spiritual tricks, Ves began to rub his smooth-shaven chin while he stared at Ketis with a thoughtful expression.

"What are you thinking about?" Ketis asked.

"I think I have a way of making you stronger. It's just that my measure is a bit experimental. I'm not sure if it's safe or helpful enough to make a difference in your upcoming mission."

His student grew curious. She sat down next to him at the workshop table that held all of her gear.

"You never think of something trivial, Ves. Tell me what you have in mind. I won't oppose any measure that can make me stronger."

He hesitated a bit. "Let's head somewhere more private. This workshop isn't secure enough."

They first moved to a nearby office before Ves changed his mind. He instead directed his group to Compartment G-13, which was the safest, most secure and most isolated section of the Scarlet Rose.

Along the way, he also paid a quick visit to the vault in order to retrieve a special P-stone.

Only Ves, Ketis, Lucky and Nitaa were present at the moment. After activating a jammer, not that it was needed, Ves felt fully assured that he could speak what he wanted.

"This is new." Ketis idly commented as she looked around.

The surprisingly-packed compartment was filled with automated industrial equipment and stacks of Breyer alloy bars. The forging machine rumbled as its insides burned with incredible heat as it burned Cassandra Breyer's corpse for the umteenth time in order to melt down another advanced escape pod.

Since he hadn't entered for some time, Ves took the time to perform a thorough spiritual check. He did not detect anything amiss. No matter the weirdness surrounding this old and undead spiritual sorceress, Ves did not believe she had the energy to spare to mess around with him once again!

He turned back to Ketis. "Before I introduce my idea, I'd like you to repeat your little trick with the butter knife. I need to study you closely when you perform this technique before I am sure about my suggestion."

"Okay..? I'll get tired if I do it too much, though."

"Just a few seconds is enough."

She had plenty of knives on her person. She pulled out one of her smaller ones from a hidden compartment in her boots and began to concentrate her mind.

The air around her seemed to grow sharper and more charged. Anyone who was spiritually sensitive would know that Ketis was trying to accomplish something exceptional!

Slowly but surely, a shimmering glow appeared over the sharp edge of her blade. While Ketis didn't cut anything, the threat that Ves was able to sense was no joke!

This time, Ves did not study the spiritual patterns that overlaid the knife. Instead, he directed his senses towards Ketis' mind.

Though she lacked a design seed, her active spiritual potential boiled with excitement. Several specific spiritual attributes related to sharpness, swords and other related aspects had become unusually active, though by and large her actions lacked form.

Ves developed some more theories as he observed her in action. He soon waved his hand, signalling her to drop her strenuous exertion.

She quickly loosened her concentration and pulled herself back in. Her little knife no longer held any special cutting power.

"Did you get what you want, Ves?"

"I did. Let me think for a moment."

He did not really possess a good understanding of the 'superpowers' that extraordinary individuals could perform. High-ranking mech designers and expert pilots were able to influence reality and the people around them in various ways.

Nonetheless, the way that Ketis excited her own potential seemed simple and straightforward. Ves grew a bit confident in his plan to strengthen her ability to call upon her cutting ability.

Still, he wasn't completely sure, and he hadn't performed enough experiments to say for sure.

"I've performed a lot of experiments recently." He started. "Many of them have to do with the mind. While I'm not incredibly familiar with this field, I think I know enough to improve your trick."

"Oh? Do tell, please!"

Ves grimaced. "It doesn't come without a cost, and I'm not sure whether it will work out the way I planned. If it works, you'll grow stronger. If it doesn't, you might sustain permanent brain damage. Are you sure you want me to proceed?"

"I trust you, Ves."

Those words made him feel warm. "Okay. It's like this. It's a bit complicated to explain and entails many different factors that you aren't supposed to know. I'll explain it as simply as possible. I think I can shape a part of your mind into a sword. This sword will capture some of the essence of your beliefs and principles, and you'll be able to use it to strengthen yourself, though how exactly that will play out, I have no idea."

She quickly grew interested. "That sounds really interesting!"

"Aren't you afraid?"

"You wouldn't bring something up if it isn't useful. From what I understand, you're basically telling me you can help me condense my sword intent!"

"Uhh… I don't know if it's accurate for you to view it that way."

"Let's find out, then!"

With her willingness to try out his suggestion, Ves hesitated no further.

Just before he concentrated, he halted for a moment.

"The mind sword I want to make needs to take on a specific shape. What kind of sword do you want to host in your mind?"

"Do you even need to ask? Take my greatsword as a model!"

She turned around and unsheathed her CFA greatsword from its scabbard. She laid it down on a pallet of Breyer alloy bars for him to examine.

Ves touched the hard and smooth surface of the blade. The alloys incorporated in the weapon were even harder to damage than Breyer alloy!

Though the weapon was just a lifeless sword, Ketis already treated it as her most cherished possession and her lifelong companion. Though Ves did not sense anything spiritual about the weapon, he believed the bond she shared with it was real.

"Hold out your hand."

In order to make his work easier, he placed one hand on the flat of the blade and gripped Ketis' fingers with his other hand.

He then proceeded to go to work. He concentrated his mind, causing him to acquire an intensity that Ketis had often seen from him when he worked at his hardest.

"Open your mind to me." He whispered. "It will hurt if you don't. Just think of welcoming me in the depths of your mind. The more you trust me, the less your mind will rebel from my presence."

One of his spiritual projections cautiously entered her mind. He hardly felt any rejection along the way. It seemed Ketis indeed trusted him a lot. Only Gloriana welcomed his presence with greater enthusiasm.

This made his subsequent steps so much easier. He cautiously began to approach her spiritual potential before deriving a minute portion of it to mold into a mind sword.

As he began to shape a literal part of her spirit, Ketis frowned and felt ill at ease.

"Don't resist! Try and endure it as much as possible."

"I'm trying."

It was deeply uncomfortable for anyone whose spirits underwent substantial changes. After half an hour's work, Ves completely reproduced a small portion of her spiritual potential into a facsimile of her favorite weapon.

In its current form, her prototype mind sword looked rather weak and feeble. In order to prevent it from collapsing, Ves quickly isolated a small portion of the spiritual attributes that Ketis drew upon when she performed her superpower and stuffed it into her mind sword.

The new spiritual augment gradually turned solid and cohesive. Already, Ketis widened her eyes as she sensed something remarkable forming in her mind!

Due to the relative weakness of her spiritual potential and the tiny size of her mind sword, the spiritual augment did not seem very potent.

It was difficult for Ves to draw upon more without seriously impairing his student's ability to design mechs or work with swords. He only drew just enough of her spiritual energy to create a stable construct. Potency and effectiveness did not come to mind at this moment.

He had a different solution in mind. He had arrived at the riskiest step of his plan. He directed his attention to the life stone that he placed by the side.

The life stone was nothing more than a P-stone that held a trace amount of life-attributed energy that he had derived from the high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum. It constantly swelled with vitality to the extremely high quality of the energy locked within.

The sheer potency of this life energy was enough to blow up someone's head! Ves still remembered what had happened when he recklessly inserted some of this incredibly powerful energy into Peter Seterin's mind.

The last thing Ves wanted to do was to repeat the outcome on Ketis!