The Mech Touch

"Hihihihi!"

Aurelia toddled forward on her own with her small and sturdy legs. She had already learned how to walk by now and used that to her advantage as she chased after one of the many cats that lounged in the park. Even the fact that she was wearing a thin protective suit did not hinder her from going forward.

"Kitty!"

Dozens of meows spread throughout the park as the cats ran and played with the numerous children that their parents had brought along.

Once Aurelia grew tired of chasing after a tabby cat, she moved over to a sandbox and sat down next to a pair of suited, blond-haired twins who were trying to make a mech out of sand.

Unfortunately, the humanoid figure they attempted to shape didn't look that accurate.

"Mek!"

"No."

"Mek!"

"No!"

Even though Aurelia was younger than the twins, she could still hold her own in this childish argument!

Her parents looked proud and content as they sat on a nearby bench and watched over their daughter.

Both of them wore protective gear as well. Although the fleet was not under acute threat, it was still wise to take precautions.

The Garimel System might be dangerous, but life still had to go on. Fortunately, the Larkinsons experienced so many crises since the founding of the clan that everyone had become used to the threat of danger hanging over their heads.

No member of the Golden Skull Alliance was a softhearted coward. Even the most timid among the Larkinsons experienced a lot of changes after getting caught up in large space battles and living among active duty soldiers.

The Larkinsons had grown as a whole.

Although there were many faults to Ves' strategy of going on an expedition while bringing his entire clan along, the sharing of wealth and woe had comprehensively developed the mentality and unity of his clansmen.

As Ves observed how well the other civilian and off-duty Larkinsons in the ship city of New Dorum coped with the current circumstances, he felt proud of what his people had become.

They weren't Brighters. They weren't Ylvainans. They weren't Hexers. They weren't Lifers.

They were none of those people anymore. Although their lives in their former states still marked them in many ways, the Larkinson Clan had successfully assimilated them. Becoming a Larkinson meant that they had gained a new identity at the cost of their old ones.

An identity that Ves had shaped to his liking.

Now, his daughter and his future children were bound to grow up in this environment.

The Larkinson Clan was the equivalent of a growth mech to his children. Both of them nurtured each other and had the potential to become stronger as a result.

Of course, much of that would take many years to come into fruition. For now, Aurelia was just a cute little kid who loved to chase after cats and babble with her parents.

"She grows up so fast." Gloriana sighed in a loving tone as she leaned against her husband's combat armor. "I already miss the time when she was smaller, but it's nice to see that she has grown. I can already see that she is going to grow up into a splendid woman."

Ves nodded as he enjoyed the sight of his daughter having fun. "Growth. It is such a wonderful process. Even the smallest and cutest baby can grow up into a formidable existence. Aurelia more than anything has the potential for greatness."

Life wasn't fair and Ves was in a position to provide a lot of resources to nurture his daughter's growth.

While there were much wealthier parents who could shower their children with all kinds of advanced treatments and training, none of them should be capable of helping their offspring grow their extraordinary qualities.

This was the source of Ves' confidence. With the unique enhancements that only he could develop, his daughter and his future children one day be able to soar to the top of human society!

Gloriana pressed her suited hand on her stomach. "Ketis and I are halfway through the preparation phase. We'll be able to begin our pregnancies in one or two weeks if everything goes according to schedule."

"That's great news, honey! I would love to hold our ginger-haired baby in my arms one day."

Raising Aurelia already added to their stress at times, but neither parents wanted to stop so soon. The satisfaction and fulfillment they gained from raising their own flesh and blood was incomparable.

Not even designing a fantastic new mech brought them as much warmth as spending time with their cute little girl!

As the married couple chatted about their kids and other matters, Ves eventually brought up his recent epiphany.

He calmly explained his recent insights and his decision to commit his design philosophy to a direction that he instinctively felt drawn towards.

"Growth, huh?" Gloriana fell into thought. "That… indeed fits your work. It explains many of your choices, even the ones that are not directly related to our mech designs. Our clan, our fleet, our mech pilots, our proto-gods and even our relationships with outsiders are characterized with growth. You always have a tendency to invest into something small in the hopes that it could grow into something bigger one day."

"Huh. That's a clever analysis. I do have a tendency to make decisions based on long-term considerations, but I never contextualized it in my preference to pursue growth. It's not just a preference for me. It's a philosophy."

Just like how Gloriana constantly pursued perfection in every aspect of her life, Ves sought to encourage growth in everything he cared about. It was how they worked and how any mech designer approached their lives as they progressed their careers.

There were some mech designers that became more affected by their design inclinations than others. Ves figured that highly passionate mech designers such as himself and his wife were more badly affected by their design inclinations than other mech designers.

Perhaps rational mech designers exhibited the greatest degree of control over their impulses.

"I agree with you that this growth direction has great potential, if you can pull it off." Gloriana said as she imagined his future works. "Mechs will acquire a different meaning once you advance to Master. The entire mech community as a whole will no longer be able to walk around your design philosophy anymore. I know mech pilots quite well, and I have never met one that is able to resist the desire to attain greater strength. The market appeal of such a machine that can fulfill this desire will become so enormous that your recognition and influence will surpass that of any Star Designer!"

She was not exaggerating. Ves seriously doubted that the best mech designers alive today could design a mech that had the potential to accelerate the growth of its pilot to an exaggerated degree!

Great legends in the mech industry such as Maximillian Zu, the Heart of Fire, and Rekzel Dawson, the Lord of Atlantis, were able to design fantastic mechs that delivered much better performance than nearly anything else on the market, but even they possessed their limitations!

The Heart of Fire reigned supreme when it came to designing mechs with energy weapons.

No other Star Designer could surpass the Lord of Atlantis when it came to designing aquatic mechs.

Yet as much as they excelled in their chosen specialties, Ves did not believe they could maintain their advantage in other fields.

This was especially the case when the fields became more obscure and difficult to learn.

In that sense, not even the incredibly versatile and multi-disciplined Polymath should be able to exceed the works of Ves in his area of specialty!

As long as Ves was able to prove that he was able to execute his new concept of growth mechs, he would already attain an inestimate status in the mech industry!

"I have found my path to Senior and beyond." Ves confidently boasted to his wife. "Before, I spent much of my time developing many different applications of my specialty. Each of them are useful, but I already feel that it doesn't make much sense to diversify my solutions any further. My toolbox is large enough to deal with many different scenarios. I increasingly feel the need to develop a single advantage further so that I have the strength to compete against more powerful mech designers."

Gloriana's lips curled into a smirk. "You are feeling threatened by the competition, isn't that right? Ketis and Professor Benedict must have prodded you to work towards Senior more seriously. This is a good development. I don't want you to stagnate or waste too much time at your current level. We are far more talented mech designers than others. We managed to advance to Journeymen when we were young and I expect us both to continue our streak by becoming Seniors before we reach fifty."

Just because Ves had found his direction did not mean he was confident that he could break through within the next year.

Collaborating together with Professor Benedict allowed him to understand the qualitative difference between Journeymen and Seniors.

There were good reasons why the two were treated separately.

A Journeyman was just a mech designer who had just entered the world of high-level mech design.

A Senior was a mech designer that could aptly be described as a preparatory Master.

Although the gap between Senior and Master was enormous, the former was not just a Journeyman with greater skills.

Seniors possessed real powers that were much more concrete than that of Journeymen!

Now, Ves had set his sights on advancing to Senior. This was his goal for the upcoming years.

No matter how clear he was about his future direction, designing a lot of mechs was indispensable!

This was a process that could only be sped up to a limited degree. As much as he was impatient to break through to Senior, he himself knew that he possessed far too little design experience to advance in the next design round.

A part of him felt it was a pity. His knowledge accumulation probably satisfied the minimum threshold with the help of the System. His Spirituality had also grown a lot stronger thanks to the addition of Blinky.

His weakness was his lack of works that aligned with his chosen direction.

He not only had to apply the concept of growth mechs many times in order to prove that it was the right choice, he also had to develop it further so that they provided much greater value than his prior advantages!

"What sort of growth mech are you aiming to design in the near future?" Gloriana asked.

"I have several different ideas." Ves replied. "I can pursue an easy start by taking notes from Ketis' recent works. Her Monster Slayer design reminds me of the training mechs that I have designed in the past. The Chiron is the quintessential example of a mech model that can actively foster the growth of its users, but it is not the only one. Back in the day, my Young Blood and my Old Soul has trained a lot of young mech cadets. They are the reason why Venerable Joshua has become so strong, and that is an impressive result considering I was just an Apprentice at the time!"

How many more Venerable Joshuas could he nurture if he designed more training mechs? Ves could scarcely imagine the wave of skilled mech pilots that might emerge as a result of his upcoming work!

"Is that what you are aiming for in the next design round? A commercial training mech?"

Ves tentatively nodded. "At least one of my new projects will revolve around such a mech. It is the simplest and most direct way to test the viability of growth mechs. The mech market already has an expectation that training mechs are designed to facilitate the growth of mech pilots. Mine will just be significantly more effective than usual if I succeed. It will be an evolution of our Chiron model!"