The Mech Touch

Venerable Joshua didn't even know where to begin.

When the mech designer he admired for so many years asked to be treated as an expert mech, Joshua blanked out for a moment.

The suggestion sounded so absurd that Joshua didn't even think it was possible. Even if he somehow managed to produce a reaction, the chances were great that something horribly wrong might ensue!

During his pilgrimage to the MTA's sector headquarters, the friendly and knowledgeable instructors over there taught him about the dangers of exposing his mind to others.

Expert pilots possessed extraordinarily strong minds and wills, which not only enabled them to resonate with an expert mech, but also allowed them to impose their mental strength on others.

Most of the time, this was fairly harmless as an expert pilot's willpower was only able to induce psychological pressure onto other people.

Although there was the potential for abuse, the MTA generally didn't mind because expert pilots were generally honorable and they weren't particularly strong outside of their cockpits.

That said, there was one particular scenario where the abnormal mental strength of expert pilots could result in fatal consequences!

He still remembered the words of the MTA instructor to this day.

"Experiments have been conducted in the past that attempted to connect the mind of an expert pilot with the mind of a mech designer. This has almost always produced fatal or near-fatal results as your willpower is too domineering for other people to handle. Your mentalities are like volcanoes while the mentalities of mech designers are akin to cities. Putting the two together will result in ruination. If a mech designer ever asks you to interface directly with his mind, then always say no. Don't do it for your own sake. Do it for the other person's sake."

Expert pilots were too strong! Even if Venerable Joshua was just a low-tier expert pilot who hadn't been able to grow his resonance strength that much, he still possessed a degree of mental fortitude that was far more dense and solidified than that of a Journeyman!

After all, people like Venerable Joshua evolved to put up a better fight against his enemies. His transformation was completely oriented towards increasing his combat strength.

In contrast, people like Ves evolved to design better mechs. While his mind and spirit were strong in their own right, as a non-combatant his chances of holding his own against the mentality of an expert pilot were awful!

Ves didn't need to remind himself of this truth. His confrontation against Saint Yila Mayorka more than a month ago provided him with plenty of proof that high-ranking mech pilots ranked at the top of their ranks in terms of threat and direct combat strength!

Just as Venerable Joshua attempted to dissuade the mech designer he depended on the most from doing exactly what the MTA warned against, a hand rested on his shoulder.

Ves looked straight into the expert pilot's eyes. "Trust. Me. I am aware of your concerns, and I am also aware of all of the ways it can go wrong. However, those scenarios you are thinking about are different from our current situation. I'm not flying blind here. I am relying on a number of assumptions that can allow us to grasp a method that can work! I am confident that our distinct conditions will allow us to succeed where others have failed!"

The more he thought about it, the more Ves became eager to try out this latest idea! His extreme desire and enthusiasm radiated from his mind, giving Joshua a good understanding of how obsessed the other person could be when faced with a promising new possibility!

In fact, it was the first time that Ves showed this side to others in such a direct fashion. The other people in the design network such as Ketis never knew that Ves could be so passionate about trying a new experiment!

Only Gloriana possessed a greater familiarity on how engaged Ves could be. She had participated in some of his experiments in the past, but even then she never experienced his passion so directly!

Though Venerable Joshua ordinarily would have rejected this dangerous notion if he faced any other mech designer, Ves was different.

The clan patriarch was not only the object of his own obsession, but had always managed to produce one advancement after another. That gave Joshua a lot of faith in Ves.

Combined with the well-reasoned theories that Ves was cooking in his mind, the expert pilot became swayed by the possibilities.

Venerable Joshua was not a selfless person. He hungered for power as well. He wanted to become stronger so that he could not only protect Patriarch Ves against stronger threats like the Olympus Mons, but also pilot the more powerful machines that the mech designer was able to design!

Right now, an opportunity to obtain a stronger mech had come. If Ves was able to realize his current ideas, the Chimera Project might be able to catch up or potentially exceed the likes of the Amaranto and the Shield of Samar!

"I… am at your disposal." Joshua eventually said.

"Good." Ves grinned. "Follow my instructions and cautiously reach out to me. It will be difficult for you to transmit your entire will to my mind through the design network, but that will limit the potential risks that we might incur, so don't hesitate too much."

Alexandria's design network already propagated Joshua's force of will to the other Journeymen, but only to an extent. This was because the expert pilot did not actively push out his formidable strength onto others.

This was also why the previous fabrication session never produced any serious danger. When Venerable Jannzi connected to the design network back then, she mostly played the role of a passive observer.

Aside from allowing the mech designers to become more familiar with her outlook and piloting style, Jannzi basically stood around all day.

Ves did not believe that this was the limit that expert pilots could do to contribute to the fabrication of an expert mech. This was the best opportunity for him to put this assumption to the test and produce an unprecedented result!

He repeated his earlier instructions and guided Venerable Joshua to extend his force of will in Ves' mind.

Once a trace of Joshua's powerful will fell into the right place, Ves took a moment to get familiar with its power and properties.

Although Ves was exposed to Venerable Joshua's force of will often enough, those situations were different.

His formidable mental defenses blocked all of the danger and adverse effects of an expert pilot's strong willpower, so Ves did not actually experience the true depth of Joshua's power.

Now that Ves directly coaxed a portion of Venerable Joshua's force of will through his mind barrier, the risks were much greater than before!

It was similar to the difference between detonating a bomb outside or inside a mech.

Any mech was designed to resist a lot of external damage, so an ordinary bomb did not pose much of a threat against a machine.

It was a different story if the bomb exploded while it was directly inserted into the vulnerable guts of a mech. The degree of protection was not as great, so a bomb that could unleash all of its destructive potential to crucial components could easily cripple the machine!

Now, Ves was exposing himself to the same kind of effect by going through with his insane idea. Yet as he began to familiarize himself with Joshua's force of will, he tested out the first of his assumptions!

"We are similar people." Ves took the initiative to explain to Joshua. "Both of us exert our strength through life. Whether it is creating them or cooperating with them, we are similar enough to each other that we should be compatible with each other. Now try to resonate with me. Perhaps it is easier for you to imagine that I'm a biomech."

This was a huge leap that discomfited Venerable Joshua a bit, but a part of him was incredibly interested to see whether this odd idea would work. If he was able to interface and 'resonate' with Ves, what would happen?

Would Ves be able to understand Venerable Joshua on a deeper level than before?

Would Joshua be able to 'pilot' Ves as if he was a biomech?

Would they produce a fusion where they could both combine in some sort of superhuman entity?

Nobody knew what would happen, not even Ves. All he could do was base his expectations on his assumptions and hope that his logic was solid!

A minute passed as Venerable Joshua tentatively tried to resonate with Ves.

He was in no hurry to exert all of his strength in case it was dangerous, but the more he tried to grasp onto Ves, the more he found himself unable to resonate with anything.

When Ves saw that Joshua was unable to produce a result, he was able to guess what was wrong.

"You need to latch your will onto something in my mind. Let me guide you to the source of my strength." He said.

Under his guidance, Joshua's force of will slowly moved to his design seed.

Ves immediately felt an intense vigilance from his design seed. He already knew that this was an instinctive self-defense mechanism. He suppressed this impulse as best as possible in order to proceed with this experiment.

"Now, try to resonate with me. We should be able to achieve a solid result this time."

When Joshua's willpower came in touch with Ves' design seed, both mech pilot and mech designer cried out at the same time!

Joshua only experienced a relatively minor sting, so he wasn't strongly affected by the unexpected reaction.

Ves was different. As soon as Joshua tried to resonate with his design seed, he experienced a strong shock that not only repelled the expert pilot's influence, but also gave him a painful mental spike!

"Damn, it hurts!" He held his head in pain!

Even with his prior experiences of straining his mind and spirit, Ves still found it difficult to endure the strain!

Fortunately, his condition didn't last too long. Once the pain faded away, Ves quickly inspected his own condition. His design seed hadn't changed or incurred any damage, though he got the sense that it was not happy at the moment!

Ves did not become discouraged at this result. Failure was normal in experiments. Even a negative outcome provided him valuable data.

When Ves analyzed what had happened, he developed a number of theories why this attempt had failed. He also tried to figure out another approach that might yield a different result.

Eventually, Ves came up with a tentative idea.

"You're good with animals, right?"

Venerable Joshua, who was previously concerned at what he had inadvertently done to Ves, relaxed as he saw that he had not inflicted serious damage.

"Uhm, yes. I respect all kinds of life. Whether they are living mechs, the pets that roam around our ships or the 'design spirits' that help us out in battle, I've found that I'm pretty good at understanding them. I can't do much with animals, though."

Ves smirked as he summoned Blinky from his mind. "Not every animal is the same. My cat here excels at manipulating different kinds of energy. His tolerance towards your will should be greater than mine. Try to resonate with him if you can."

Blinky looked encouragingly at Venerable Joshua.

Mrow.

When Joshua attempted to resonate with Blinky, the cat behaved differently than Ves' design seed.

No rejection took place.

However, as Blinky began to experience entirely new sensations, Joshua found it difficult to resonate with the strange cat. He and the cat did not have as much in common, so there wasn't an immediate basis of cooperation.

Yet neither Ves nor Joshua gave up. As the latter got more in touch with Blinky, he was able to learn more about the Star Cat.

As his understanding of the companion spirit increased, Joshua was able to adjust his mentality and become more in sync with Blinky.

This time, a strange harmony took place between the two. The beginnings of resonance took hold on the spiritual cat!

Mrow!

Blinky's body shook and glowed as a strange force emerged from his intangible body!

Yet even as this strange experiment succeeded in arousing resonance, Ves did not experience any apparent improvements in his ability to make a mech.

It was as if this phenomenon was completely unrelated to what Ves was trying to accomplish!

"Hmmm… this is more difficult than I thought."