The Mech Touch

Ves became fascinated with exploring what Blinky was capable of. He knew his own design well enough to know that Blinky could do more than what he had already discovered.

"I spent weeks refining a complex design and used up seven different spiritual ingredients to establish your existence. I don't expect too much from you, but you are definitely not as one-dimensional as Sharpie!"

Compared to Sharpie, Blinky's nature was a lot more complex and multifaceted. While this should theoretically bestow the latter with more abilities, the downside was that they probably weren't too strong.

Sometimes, simplicity wasn't a bad result. Sharpie was quite one-dimensional, but that caused it to become exceptionally good at its only function. It also managed to grow and develop new capabilities that fully suited Ketis.

Yet due to Sharpie's limited spiritual attributes, it was highly unlikely for it to develop any new abilities unrelated to swords.

This was not what Ves sought. While he primarily created Blinky in order to solve his spiritual energy needs, companion spirits possessed a lot more potential than that. Their growth potential was limitless, and Ves felt it was too wasteful if the living spiritual construct that would accompany him for the rest of his life only possessed a single specialty.

After another hour of exploration, Ves discovered a couple more useful abilities.

Blinky was able to possess and inhabit an object. When Ves pulled out a figurine of his Desolate Soldier and modified its control systems to accept unconventional input, Blinky was able to control it like it was his own body!

"Remarkable!"

Since Sharpie was able to enter a sword, Blinky ought to be able to inhabit objects as well.

There wasn't much benefit to doing so, though. Unlike Sharpie, Blinky's existence didn't alter his personality or distort reality around him due to lacking a force of will.

Ves failed to come up with a practical reason to make use of this capability. It was fun to see Blinky control all sorts of mech figurines, but they were just toys.

It wasn't possible for Blinky to take over other objects unless they incorporated a special control system that was specific to spiritual entities. This meant that Ves wouldn't be able to use Blinky to hijack someone's weapon, combat armor or other equipment. It also ruled out taking over larger machines such as mechs or starship systems.

"However… what if I prepare all of these products myself?"

He could theoretically modify one of his mechs with a special control system to enable Blinky to pilot it. Since Ves was able to take direct control of Blinky at any time, this theoretically implied that he could use this roundabout way to pilot a mech!

He firmly shook his head. "This is a silly idea!"

There were a number of practical problems.

The most fundamental one was that Ves lacked the right genetic aptitude, so he wouldn't be able to accept and process the flood of data.

Even if he was able to offload this to Blinky, the second problem was that the special control system was barely functional. It was extremely difficult for a spiritual entity to transmit a lot of precise data to an electronic device, so the amount of control that Ves could exert through this ragged connection was very poor.

The third problem was that Ves simply wouldn't be good at it. Perhaps he would have grasped at any possible opportunity to pilot a mech when he was younger, but now that he built up a career as a mech designer, he felt no need to waste his time on a different profession.

"This is a parlor trick, nothing more."

The only interesting application he could think of was to fabricate a high-quality mechanical battle construct. This way, Blinky would be able to overcome his inability to interact with the material realm and be able to fight with the help of a combat avatar designed especially to accommodate the companion spirit.

Ves could make this avatar as large as a tiger or as small as a housecat. Though he preferred the latter, it was hard to stuff too many powerful components inside a tiny machine.

"If I have any free time, I'll just cobble something together so that you can contribute in battle in a different way. Is that okay?"

Mrow.

He failed to find out any further significant abilities, though Ves still speculated that there was more to Blinky.

He didn't have the time to explore what Blinky could do with his ability to harness Worclaw energy, but it should definitely not be trivial.

Ves also didn't forget about adding a portion of Aisling Curver's design seed into his companion spirit. Combined with the fact that Ves integrated a considerable amount of his own spiritual energy into Blinky, the spiritual cat ought to be able to provide assistance whenever he designed a mech!

It was difficult to figure out what Blinky could do in this regard if Ves wasn't actually designing a mech.

"Oh well. I'll leave this for later. I'll return to work very soon, so you'll definitely be able to show how you can help. I designed you with this capability in mind."

Mrow.

"For now, you can play with Goldie or get Lucky to accept you. I have to take care of some administrative work."

He proceeded to handle the paperwork that had piled up in the last few weeks while allowing Blinky to fool around.

Ves was able to maintain at least some focus on his companion spirit, which meant he knew exactly what Blinky was doing and what he was thinking.

Blinky behaved like any young cat, though he was not as helpless as a kitten. Seeing that Lucky still looked wary towards him, the Star Cat circled around and tried to play with the gem cat.

"Meow meow!"

Mrow. Mrow.

"MEOW!"

Sadly, Lucky acted as if he was Gloriana who just found out that Ves got a new girlfriend behind her back.

It didn't take long before the two cats began to wrestle against each other again!

This time, Blinky tried to leverage more strength.

Mrow mrow!

Nyaaaaa?

The Golden Cat materialized close by and observed the fight with a curious expression.

Mrow!

Nyaaa.

Goldie donated a splash of spiritual energy to Blinky. This soon allowed the latter to exert greater strength in his fight.

"Meow!"

Nyaaa!

The antics of Blinky and the others became increasingly more nonsensical to Ves. A part of him couldn't believe that an extension of himself had become this stupid and irrational. He was picking fights against a stronger cat and even cheated during an honorable bout between two tomcats!

"What a shameless pet." Ves shook his head in exasperation.

Eventually, Lucky and Blinky lost interest in continuing the fight.

Lucky's spirituality was not as strong as that of the spiritual cats, but all of the minerals and exotics he ate over the years translated into a lot of growth. In addition, all of the battles he participated in turned him into quite a tenacious gem cat!

As for Blinky, damage translated differently to spiritual entities and Lucky wasn't very good at harming these kinds of opponents. It didn't help that the shameless companion spirit begged Goldie for a little boost whenever he was losing momentum.

In the end, Lucky and Blinky acknowledged each other's strength, but that was it. Perhaps they would grow used to each other's presence this way, but it would definitely take a bit of time before they became bosom friends.

Eventually, Gloriana returned home after a long day of work at the design lab. When Ves met up with her during dinner, he contemplated whether it was a good idea for him to reveal his new companion spirit.

Since he wanted to try and see whether Blinky could help him when he worked, he decided it was best to inform his wife beforehand.

She would find out soon enough, and there was no way to make this easier if he delayed.

"Honey?"

"What is it?" She asked as she directed an annoyed glance at Ves.

She harbored quite a bit of resentment towards him for delaying their projects and staying away from the design lab for so long.

"I… was working on something else during this time. I did not spend all of my time on sorting out the issues of my clan."

His wife snorted. "That's pretty obvious. You have been holing up in your 'mancave' for weeks. The only reason you spend time over there is when you want to make something on your own. I guess this is the part where you justify your absence, is that right?"

She knew him too well. Even though he dreaded her response, he continued to go through with his decision.

"Uhm, I guess so. I succeeded, though!"

"Then tell me what you were up to these days. What made you spend so much time off your schedule?"

"Well, it's like this. When Ketis returned to our fleet after becoming both a Journeyman and a swordsmaster, I…"

He quickly explained the backstory behind his experiment, but glossed out some facts about companion spirits.

If he told her that he possessed a companion spirit while she did not, she might grow jealous and blow up in front of his face.

He was not ready to grant her a companion spirit of her own. There wasn't enough time to design a proper seed and he still hadn't verified whether Blinky functioned correctly over the long term.

Right now, Ves considered Blinky to be a beta version of a companion spirit. Sure, he was more powerful and complex than what should be the norm, but it remained to be seen whether everything was fine.

Ves had to observe Blinky over the long term in order to verify whether there were any serious problems with him. It might be possible that companion spirits imposed burdens in people's mind. They might also be draining the spiritualities of the people they were attached to in order to sustain their existences.

Ves did not feel concerned about these possible problems because he could easily solve them once he found out anything amiss.

This would not be the case for Gloriana, who was not only bad at spiritual perception, but could not consciously solve any issues in her mind.

A part of Ves knew that he would only be making it worse for him if he postponed the threat. If Gloriana found out the truth about companion spirits a year from now after they completed all of their expert mech designs, she would probably be livid that Ves denied her the opportunity to leverage a powerful advantage to make their designs even better!

The only ways to mitigate this disastrous explosion was to find a good excuse or design a great companion spirit!

Well, those were problems for later. Right now, Ves lied about Blinky's actual state and simply presented his companion spirit as a solitary spiritual entity.

"So your new cat is similar to Goldie, right? He's a proto-god."

"Something like that. Blinky's role is much more specific."

"Well then. Show him to me. I'm quite curious to see whether you have the skill to design a good cat. You should have come to me. I could have helped you refine your design and prevent you from making the mistake of creating another male proto-god. Female ones are vastly superior!"

Ves coughed but didn't reply. Instead, he mentally signalled Blinky to stop dozing off in his mind and come out to introduce himself to Gloriana.

Mrow mrow.

Blinky appeared in front of Ves' face. His purple, lustrous form along with his starry light pattern made an instant impression to Gloriana.

His wife stopped eating as Blinky slowly flew closer. When the cat came close, he raised his paw in greeting.

Mrow.

"You're so cute! You're handsome as well. Come here, little fellow. You're called Blinky, right?"

Gloriana's eyes turned into stars as she beheld the pretty cat. She reached out to grab Blinky, only for her limbs to go right through.

She recalled that Blinky was a proto-god that was similar Goldie, so she could not embrace the young cat with her limbs.

She already knew how to handle this situation, though. She concentrated her mind and applied a trick that Cynthia Larkinson had taught to her and channeled her spiritual energy through her limbs.

Though this was very strenuous to her, she didn't care and successfully embraced Blinky against her chest.

"Oh, you're so warm and fuzzy! I already love you so much. You're such a good boy."

Mrow! Mrow!

Blinky was already showing signs of distress!