The Mech Touch

What enabled mech pilots to advance to expert candidates?

What enabled expert candidates to advance to expert pilots?

Ves used to believe it was simple. A mech pilot with spiritual potential, meaning that he possessed more than a significant amount of spiritual energy, developed his strength by undergoing a gradual mental evolution.

As long as a mech pilot found a reason to fight for and devoted his entire will towards this concept, they would eventually grow strong enough to pierce through a veil and become an extraordinary individual!

Yet the story was not as simple as Ves initially thought.

The thin veil that separated an ordinary mech pilot from the realm of expert candidate was a lot thicker than Ves thought.

The same applied to the barrier between expert candidate and expert pilot.

Ves was not a mech pilot. His evolution as a mech designer was not very relevant in this instance. Both mech pilots and mech designers developed in different ways.

The growth trajectory of mech designers didn't include an equivalent to expert candidates. Ves only possessed a rudimentary understanding of this phase. He always figured that it was only a matter of time for candidates to advance to expert pilot.

He wasn't wrong. Not completely.

The chances that an expert candidate broke through to expert pilot was a lot higher than an ordinary mech pilot jumping to expert candidate.

Yet that chance was not equivalent to a guarantee. Later on, Ves learned that plenty of expert candidates failed to make the most important step for whatever reason.

Ves saw that both Jannzi and Tusa had progressed a lot as expert candidates. They polished their rudimentary force of wills into a strong and pure reflection of their fighting spirit.

Yet as exceptional as they appeared to his spiritual senses, he somehow sensed that they lacked a key ingredient that allowed them to break through their bottleneck.

What was it? Were they lacking in stimulation? Was there some sort of flaw in their mental wills? Was their spiritual potential insufficient to support them in their final step?

It made sense if someone like Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson took his time to undergo apotheosis. The man reached expert candidate at a fairly young age and rapidly improved his skills through sheer talent and hard work.

Yet that wasn't enough.

Ves purposefully dubbed the extraordinary by this specific term because they were beyond the ordinary. The implication was that advancing to an extraordinary state required someone to already be exceptional!

It sounded like a chicken and egg problem. For an expert candidate to become an expert pilot, the person in question already needed to replicate the performance of an expert pilot to an extent!

How could that be possible? An expert candidate was called this way because they only possessed the potential of an expert pilot, and not the corresponding power.

"Perhaps the only way to square the circle is through immense external stimuli."

The way Jannzi Larkinson advanced during a non-life-threatening mech exhibition was a very rare exception. Most mech pilots didn't turn into expert candidates by participating in a show. Most mech pilots also didn't enjoy the surreptitious assistance of a Sacred God like Qilanxo.

No. The key was external stimuli. To be more specific, the most 'reliable' method to encourage mech pilots to push themselves beyond their limits was through subjecting them through life-and-death battles!

The more desperate the situation, the greater their need to reach beyond their limits!

This was exactly how an expert candidate like Captain Foster broke through after being persecuted by a super force of Flagrant Vandals!

Not only did the Vandals inadvertently push Relia Foster into a corner, but also gave her the time to hone her force of will into a razor-sharp blade that was deadly enough to propel her to expert pilot!

"Maybe that is what Jannzi and Tusa truly need." Ves muttered. "Keeping them off the battlefield will only result in stagnation."

Mech pilots existed to fight. If they couldn't perform their primary function, why did they need to advance?

Expert pilots only emerged when mech pilots realized their inadequacy and threw their entire weight behind chasing after strength!

Only by wholeheartedly pursuing the strength to increase their chances of survival and bring them closer to achieving their goals would they become worthy enough to shed their mortal shackles!

Ves therefore believed that he should find some way to push Jannzi and Tusa into action sometime in the future. If they failed to make any progress while they were drilling with Larkinsons, then obviously something had to change.

As for Silent William, Ves immediately experienced a headache whenever he thought about him. The mute mech pilot and exile from the Vicious Mountain Star Sector had gained a lot of spiritual potency since Ves 'operated����� on his spirituality.

Yet the Urbesh clansman remained ordinary as any other mech pilot. His spiritual potential may have ballooned, but it was still largely untapped.

Despite experiencing months of harrowing battles against the sandmen, none of the stimuli caused William Urbesh to form a coherent force of will.

What was the problem? What was taking him so long?

In order to solve this conundrum once and for all, Ves ordered William to report to the lab. Once there, Ves drugged the mech pilot and placed his unconscious body in an enclosed lab.

Since William was by all accounts silent and unresponsive to others, Ves didn't even bother asking questions to him. He would just keep his mouth shut anyway.

"So what are you going to do with him?" Gloriana asked as she stood in the observer's room while holding her cat.

"Miaow."

Clixie wasn't interested in the proceedings. All she cared about was getting pampered by her owner.

"Meow."

Nyaaaa!

Lucky on the other hand was tugging and playing with the Golden Cat. The two had been spending a lot of time together, which wasn't surprising considering Ves lugged the Larkinson Mandate wherever he went.

Right now, Ves placed his book out of the way in order to place his full attention on this problem.

In order to get in the good graces of the Rim Guardians and thereby gain an opportunity to earn a lot more MTA merits, he needed to complete this task of theirs.

Ves thought he already got the largest hurdle out of the way by getting rid of William Urbesh's deep-seethed cowardice.

Yet the spiritual surgery which turned William into an entirely new man also caused his mind and spirituality to split into two!

As Ves concentrated his mind and carefully inspected the unconscious mech pilot's mental state, he ascertained that nothing much had changed since he last performed an inspection.

Around 30 percent of his mind and spirit was occupied by the 'original' William. This was the coward part of him that abhorred any type of confrontation.

Seventy percent consisted of the contaminant that Ves had introduced into the foreigner's mind. This portion came from Nyxie, the ancient alien spiritual entity that was safely locked away inside the Ancient Sarcophagus.

Nyxie was overflowing with attributes related to tyranny, superiority and hostility. These attributes completely canceled out the original William's cowardice and allowed the mech pilot to get over his fear of battle.

In that sense, Ves succeeded in overcoming the first hurdle.

Yet turning William into a competent mech pilot was only half the battle. It was a lot harder to drag a mech pilot into the realm of expert candidate!

Ves had seen so many mech pilots who possessed spiritual potential but never found the opportunity to infuse it into their wills.

Part of it was because they might not possess a sufficient amount of potential. Another part of it was that their will was not receptive enough to accept empowerment.

This might be the primary reason for William's block. It wasn't that he failed to get enough stimulation. The problem instead lay in William's foundation as a person!

Those worthy to transcend mortality needed to possess a strong mind and a focused mind!

A split mind like William's was anything but conducive towards the formation of a force of will!

"The fault lies with me, then." He murmured.

"So can you fix whatever is wrong with him?" Gloriana curiously asked.

She didn't understand much of what Ves was trying to do. She was mainly here because she insisted on witnessing what Ves could do with William.

"I have some ideas."

"Then why haven't you tried them out yet?"

"They're dangerous. Anything that manipulates the mind or spirit is something that inherently changes the essence of an individual. It is too easy to screw up and cause someone's personality to warp. In fact, I've already done that to William. He's essentially a damaged human."

"Well, whatever's wrong, there's one thing I know, Ves. If there's a fault, there's a way to remedy it. Always."

Ves contemplated her words. Of course she would say something like that. Though her advice sounded obvious, it was not that straightforward when it came to spiritual alteration.

Or was it?

Perhaps he was overcomplicating the matter. Maybe messing with someone's mind was similar to messing with a mech. As long as Ves made some purposeful changes, he could achieve the effect he wanted without producing a lot of unintended consequences.

The main reason why he lacked confidence was that Ves possessed too little depth in the field of spiritual engineering and spiritual manipulation.

In other words, he was a wizard when it came to mechs, but a brute when it came to manipulating minds!

This analogy was apt because he was aware that he possessed the power to effect change, but lacked the knowledge and technique to wield it with actual skill.

Sometimes, Ves really wished his mother passed on a manual or a textbook or something. She had been too remiss in educating him in how to utilize his spiritual powers!

Well, he had been doing decently so far. At least he succeeded in utilizing his spirituality in mech design. Now he just needed to gain some proficiency in manipulating mech pilots in order to complete the circle.

Ves briefly described William's mental state to Gloriana. "How would you go about in solving this problem? Mind you, the situation is very delicate, so I need to keep my intervention as light as possible."

"Hmm.." She fell into thought while stroking Clixie's belly. "I would contemplate three different options. The first possible solution is to balance out the two elements. Instead of the thirty seventy split you have now, I would find some way to weaken one and strengthen the other so that a fifty fifty split will form."

"A balance doesn't solve the fundamental problem that a split has occurred in the first place." Ves pointed out. "I suspect that this is the root of the problem."

"I don't know, Ves. You're the expert on this matter. I just think that balance is better than imbalance. Perhaps a surprising change might take place once Wiliam's opposite sides become equal to each other. They might cancel each other out or form some sort of harmony that causes them to merge together."

This was pure speculation to Ves. He could not afford to go forward on baseless assumptions. At the very least, a theory had to be backed by solid logic in order to inspire confidence!

"What other guesses do you have?"

"Well, the other option is to tilt the odds until the stalemate breaks. Either the 'cowardly' side of William wins, or the 'Nyxie' side of him takes over."

"No!" Ves forcefully shook his head. "That is taking a step backward. Restoring William's cowardly personality puts us back to the beginning, while allowing Nyxie to take over is unacceptable!"

"Why so?" She tilted her head. "What makes you so afraid of this divine entity? Are you sure that letting him take over results in a bad outcome?"

Her words caused him to revisit his assumptions. He sort of took it for granted that letting Nyxie take over William's mind, spirit and body was a very bad idea, yet why did he believe this to be the case?

Was it just his primal fear for the ancient alien entity talking?

Just thinking about paying another visit to the red coffin practically inspires panic in his being! Allowing Nyxie to extend his reach beyond his primordial prison sounded like a very bad idea! His intuition was practically ringing alarm bells!

"Let's put this suggestion aside." Ves mildly said. "You said you have a third possible solution. What other means can we employ to remove William's block?"

"Well…"