The Mech Touch

After his discussion with Gloriana, Ves continued to think about the problem that she presented.

Finding a new way to make his glows useful in ranged combat was not easy. Aside from the effects he already achieved, he really wanted to expand his arsenal without resorting to borrowing the powers of other design spirits.

He wanted to keep every Hexer mech as pure as possible. Lately, Ves felt that he was relying way too much on the unique properties of different design spirits to bail him out whenever he needed to achieve something difficult.

The development of spiritual constructs and triggered abilities was supposed to pull him back from developing an overdependence on external design spirits.

As powerful as they were, Ves was unable to exert a lot of control over them. As a mech designer, he much preferred to maintain some precise control over the advantages that he was able to bestow onto his products.

His recent preoccupation with spiritual engineering allowed him to rediscover the charm of creating precise solutions. So far, he believed he had barely scratched the surface of spiritual constructs.

As Ves supervised the design teams working diligently on their respective assignments, he continued to mull over the possibilities.

His methods of strengthening his products should always center around the mech pilot.

So far, his main solutions fell into two broad categories. He either enhanced or suppressed the morale of mech pilots. He did so by manipulating specific emotions such as appealing to their sense of duty or triggering their primal fears.

While many of his mech designs had achieved considerable success by accomplishing these methods, Ves no longer became satisfied with these options.

"They're too rudimentary for me to feel proud of." He muttered to himself. "My entire design philosophy should not amount to this. Making mechs alive should bring more to the table!"

Intuitively, Ves sensed that he had come to an important stage in his development as a mech designer.

Journeymen like him progressed to Senior by expanding their options, deepening their applications and exploring the greater possibilities of their design philosophies.

What Ves was able to accomplish at this moment was very helpful in waging psychological warfare, but he didn't want to limit himself in this corner for the rest of his life!

This was especially so because he knew his current solutions did not make much of a difference as the quality of mech pilots rose.

Ves had already noticed from the footage of the Blessed Squire in action that elite mech pilots from both sides experienced much less changes when affected by glows.

To the superbly-trained Hexer elites, their minds were as strong as steel and their confidence in their own strength was already through the roof. A bit of additional courage and mental support hardly boosted their performance!

As for the elite Fridaymen mech pilots who braved the Blessed Squire's glow, they quickly got used to the discomfort pressing on their minds.

In their training, they endured much greater hardsh.i.p.s! Their tolerance for pain and other forms of harm were already high in order to ensure they remained high-spirited in the toughest of situations!

The Fridaymen and Hexers weren't unique in this sense. Ves recalled that Master Willix and a significant portion of her entourage easily endured the terrifying glow of the Doom Guard up close!

"The power of the human mind is not weak!" He concluded. "Glows might be effective against regular mech pilots, but the strong are different. I need to develop a different set of solutions to affect their performance!"

This was very relevant when he considered his aim of traveling to the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy.

In the early years, only the most ambitious and most successful galactic pioneers were capable of reaching this new frontier!

Ves easily imagined that many of the enemies he might stumble upon would be fielding lots of well-trained mech pilots. If he solely relied on his old tricks to win his battles, then he wouldn't achieve as much success as he did against Nyxian pirates.

Additionally, Ves noticed that his glows didn't even exert any discernible effects on expert pilots. They were so strong-willed that no amount of external influencing was able to shake their beliefs!

He needed to ensure that his specialty remained relevant in expert mechs and other high-performing machines!

Limiting himself to enhancing the value to cannon fodder mechs sounded incredibly depressing to Ves. How would he be able to justify designing his own expert mechs if his contributions in those projects were marginal?

"Arghh!"

After fruitlessly trying to figure out his own solutions on his, he decided that maybe it was better to hear out other people.

Just recently, Ves had managed to gain several important insights on heavy mechs by hearing out the opinions of Commander Orfan and Zanthar.

"If it worked once, maybe it can work again."

For this reason, Ves decided to pull Maikel Larkinson out of his homework assignment and bring him to an office.

"Please sit down."

"Uhm, okay."

"I'm sure you must be wondering why I called you here. As far as I know, you have developed a fascination for my design philosophy, is that correct?"

The young Larkinson nodded. "I really admire you for inventing something that is different and unique. It's so different from what everyone expects from mechs. I want to be able to do what you can do one day."

"A good mech designer is someone who is able to innovate, Maikel. It's not a good idea for you to set your goal on my applications. If you haven't done the hard work of inventing them from scratch, I very much doubt you will be able to achieve a worthwhile career."

The earnest warning did not affect Maikel's determination. "I don't want to do anything else. Designing living mechs is your greatest ability. It should become the Larkinson Clan's ability as well!"

That was a surprisingly high-minded idea coming out of someone as young as Maikel!

"You may have a point, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. You are currently just a first year mech design student in my eyes. You still have several years of study ahead of yourselves. The more you become exposed to the possibilities of mech design, the more options you'll contemplate."

"I already know what I want. Didn't you teach me to be decisive? I want to design my own living mechs!"

"If you are so determined to follow my direction, then at least find your own way to differentiate yourself!"

"I'll try, teacher." Maikel promised.

That was the best that Ves could hope for at the moment. Personally, he doubted whether his student was able to develop the same traits that enabled him to adopt his unconventional design philosophy.

That said, as long as Maikel branched out and followed a path that was suitable for him, it wasn't impossible for him to design something related to Ves' work!

Ves attempted to direct the conversation towards his current goals.

"Since you are eager to build on my work, maybe it will help if we talk about what I do. Now, let me warn you that you are in a very impressionable period in your development. When an older and more established mech designer expounds upon his design philosophy, a young and inexperienced individual such as you might easily be contaminated by my views! In the mech industry, this is frowned upon because it is too easy to set you up for a research direction that originally isn't compatible with your inclinations."

Maikel remained brave. "I don't see that as a bad thing. Aren't my inclinations already the same as yours?"

Ugh. Ves wanted to palm his face. "Fine then. Since you're my student, you have already been exposed to my influence."

He pushed aside his concerns and began to speak.

"My design philosophy isn't capable of strengthening mechs directly. It's not supposed to, strictly. This is something that you should already be aware of. What I can do instead is to deepen the integration between mech and mech pilot…"

Maikel already knew some of what Ves was saying, but this was the first time he learned about his teacher's specialty in such a clear and coherent fashion.

The student eagerly lapped it all up. It was as if he was relieving a hunger that had plagued him for months!

"...and this is why my design philosophy is called Metaphysical Man-Machine Symbiosis. Each of those words are important. Now, do you have and questions or remarks?"

It took some time for Maikel to organize his thoughts.

"How exactly are your mechs able to fight better?"

"As I've told you, it's all about designing my mechs around the mech pilot first. Currently, I'm able to deepen their integration so that the mech pilot can pilot his machine more optimally. I'm also able to bestow glows to my mechs to affect the morale of nearby friendlies and enemies. I'm mostly known for the latter these days."

"Does that mean you neglected the former?" Maikel innocently asked.

"Uhm.. my research time is limited." Ves answered. "In the past few years, I have been expanding what I can do with glows because I found them to be very effective in increasing the value of my mechs. However, I'm starting to reach a plateau of what I can do with them. Glows are only a single addition to a mech. There are many other ways to make your product stronger."

"It doesn't really sound like that your glows are related to integrating mechs and mech pilots, teacher. I mean, if your design philosophy is Metaphysical Man-Machine Symbiosis, shouldn't you be trying to figure out ways to make mechs more like humans and humans more like mechs?"

Ves reacted with surprise at Maikel's suggestion. It sounded quite compelling!

"Elaborate, please."

"Well, maybe it's because I don't know exactly what you're capable of, but when I hear what you want to accomplish, I think that your design philosophy is mainly about making mech pilots better. In one of your earlier lessons, you told us that mechs are already strong, but their performance is constrained by the limitations of the mech pilots. The latter are only human, after all. Why not focus on shoring up their weaknesses?"

"...Let me think for a bit."

What Maikel put forward didn't sound complicated, but it was a direction that Ves had never really considered!

The more he thought about it, the more he thought it was feasible!

Instead of enhancing the mech pilots of his mechs by manipulating their emotions, what if he could enhance them in a more direct fashion?

"Maybe you can figure out a way to increase a mech pilot's marksmanship if you're designing a rifleman mech." Maikel suggested. "Maybe find a way to increase the reaction time of the mech pilot of a light skirmisher. Can you do this? Maybe it's too much to hope for, but I think that plenty of mech pilots would be glad to pilot a machine that can increase their skill!"

"I think you are onto something." Ves began to smile. "It's interesting, but it's not quite what I'm looking for. It's doubtful that I can accomplish the effects that you have described."

Instantly turning a bad mech pilot into a good one by causing the mech to dump a lot of skills in them was impossible with his current capabilities.

It also possessed the same limitations as glows. This solution was mostly useful to lower grades of mech pilots. Elites and expert pilots didn't need this kind of help!

Even so, this fresh direction expanded his horizons. What could he do to empower the mech pilot? What kind of solution would help the Hexer mech pilots gain an advantage in the Komodo War?

"Interesting." He whispered.

A forgotten idea rose up in his mind. While it may not entirely be possible to strengthen a mech if he relied on deepening the integration between mech and mech pilot alone, what if he added the design spirit to the equation?

What if he could turn his mechs into actual avatars?