The Mech Touch

Ves studied the only F-stone in his possession and sighed. The exotic's offensive charge diminished every time he drew on it. While its ability to enhance the offensive power of his spiritual projections was invaluable, he would eventually run out of it if he couldn't find another F-stone!

It wasn't as if he tried. He already instructed Calabast to discreetly search for more spiritually-reactive materials.

He had some hopes of gaining more P-stones, F-stones and B-stones during his stay in Cinach. After all, he obtained much of his initial samples from the local branch of the Peacekeepers and the mysterious Circle of Mota!

Yet even after a month had passed, the Black Cats still hadn't brought any goodies.

Had Ves cleaned out decades worth of accumulating of spiritually-reactive materials in his previous visit?

Were others buying them up as soon as they entered the market?

Whatever the case, Ves couldn't rely on replacement for his current F-stone. He had to operate on the assumption that he could only rely on his current sample.

All the while, Nyxie was restoring his strength. Each time he woke up a bit more, he seemed to be able to leverage more and more strength!

Ves felt as if he was on a time limit. Cutting pieces of him to use as ingredients was unsustainable.

If Ves failed to grow strong enough to negate his reliance on his F-stone, he would eventually lose his ability to defeat the formidable entity!

Fortunately, the problem wasn't acute at this moment. He still possessed plenty of charge to cut Nyxie down to size a dozen or so times. Before he reached this point, he could always grow stronger or find some other way to limit the restoration of the tyrannical spiritual entity.

"Did he grow stronger due to receiving spiritual feedback?"

This issue concerned him a lot. The spiritual products derived from Nyxie's spiritual fragments had the potential of feeding spiritual energy back to their 'parents', but Ves made sure to block this interaction.

Ves took the time to inspect and inquire Bravo and the Solemn Guardian. Neither of them had broken his rule as far as he was aware of. In their current state, they weren't capable of withholding information from him. They were being completely truthful!

"Did he get something from Silent William?"

He couldn't help but recall the spiritual surgery he performed on the Urbesh clansman. While the operation succeeded in turning him into an expert candidate, it also generated plenty of side effects!

Right now, Ves didn't have access to William. He pretty much disappeared after Ves sent him back to the Rim Guardians. It would probably take some time for Silent William to return to the Urbesh Clan in the Vicious Mountain Star Sector.

"Maybe I should pay a visit to him if I ever pass through Vicious Mountain." He hummed.

He wrapped up his session in the vault and stowed away all of the materials. He made sure to store Nyxie's spiritual fragment inside a P-stone before locking it inside his B-stone lockbox.

"If there is any material I need the most, it's the B-stone." He concluded. "As long as I have enough blocking material, I can surround the coffin with an even greater cage!"

He could also use B-stone for other purposes like crafting more lockboxes and building a spiritually-impervious suit of armor!

"Meow."

Ves glared at his cat. "No! This is not your food! I have too few spiritually-reactive exotics for you to treat them like your personal snacks!"

"Meow!"

His cat angrily turned around. Lucky still remembered the unique flavor of a P-stone!

Though Lucky eventually produced the Accumulation of Spirit gem that played an invaluable role in turning the Quint into a masterwork mech, Ves couldn't afford to sustain this consumption.

While he currently held seventeen P-stones, each of which contained a spiritual fragment or some of his spare spiritual energy, that might be all he had to work with for the foreseeable time!

The worst possibility that Ves had to take into account that he wouldn't be able to find any more spiritually-reactive exotics, especially if he traveled to a different star sector or galaxy! The current materials he managed to obtain might be exclusive to the Komodo Star Sector or the Nyxian Gap!

While Ves didn't believe that spiritually-reactive exotics only showed up in a single region, who knew what other letters he had to use to describe newer materials with different effects.

"Maybe I need to make another anonymous stop to the Circle of Mota." He muttered.

"I would advise against that, sir." Nitaa suddenly spoke up. It was rare for her to take the initiative to react to him! "The last time we visited the Circle of Mota in this star system, we encountered a suspect agent from the cult. You even speculated that the Circle might be one of its fronts."

That was right. The last time he visited its black market, they randomly encountered someone with the same kind of enhanced nose as his bodyguard!

He frowned. The most suitable way to avoid exposing his special nature to the Five Scrolls Compact was to send a surrogate to do his illicit shopping.

The problem was that no one else could do what he could do and detect the spiritual reactivity of the exotics for sale!

"Meow!"

As if he knew what he was thinking, Lucky returned to his side and attracted his attention.

"You? Hah! You'll probably buy the yummiest exotics for sale if I let you be in charge! No way!"

"Meow meow meow!"

Ves supposed his cat was right. Aside from him, Lucky should also be able to detect the exotics he wanted. If nothing else, his cat had already learned the distinctive properties of P-stones, F-stones and B-stones, so he should be able to pick out any of these three materials in any market!

"Hmmm.."

Maybe sending out a surrogate would work after all. As long as he sent someone trustworthy and take along Lucky in disguise, they might be able to shop at the most promising venue.

Of course, that was assuming the Circle of Mota still remained active in this star system. For all he knew they had already packed their bags and left the star system.

In fact, even finding them was an issue because he lacked someone like Lady Miralix of House Laterna to vouch for him and introduce him to one of the Circle's black markets!

That said, he still possessed the contact information for Finlay, but thinking about the mysterious noble contact instantly soured his mood.

"That bastard lied to me! My doom crawlers are only supposed to be used against pirates!"

He mistakenly thought that their low-gravity configuration prevented them to be used on standard planets in civilized space.

Evidently, he was wrong. The faction that stood behind Finlay probably harbored greater plans for the local region than throwing a couple of pirate organizations in chaos! Their conspiracy even encompassed the Sentinel Kingdom!

To Ves, these conspiracies were all child's play to him. No matter which group of nobles came out on top with their power plays, eventually the Fridaymen or Hexers would come and sweep their entire order!

"Their sights are set too low. They can't look beyond their local region!" He muttered.

What happened in the rest of the star sector affected the Sentinel Kingdom. What happened in the star cluster affected the star sector, and so on. From the moment the MTA announced the invasion of the Red Ocean, every single corner of human space shifted in a different direction!

"Let's go, Lucky. We're done here."

Later that day, he requested a meeting with Calabast. He first passed on his request to dispatch someone to shop for spiritually-reactive exotics with Lucky's help.

She looked dubiously at his pet.

Lucky.was currently preoccupied with munching on some scrap that used to belong to a CRC mech. Ves had to placate his hungry cat in some way, and ordinary exotics didn't work!

"He's rather eye-catching, you know. It will be difficult to prevent people from associating him with you. After all, there are countless recordings and images of you and your distinctive-looking mechanical pet on the galactic net."

Ves smirked. "Don't underestimate Lucky's ability to hide. He's quite difficult to detect when he wants to hide! I bet he can even sneak up on you without alerting you! Who do you think is responsible for the theft at Kesseling VIII years ago?"

"That harebrained scheme of yours almost got you killed, remember?" Calabast scowled.

In the end, she acquiesced to his demand. She promised to find the Circle of Mota's marketplace and dispatch an operative paired with Lucky to scour it for spiritually-reactive exotics.

There were a couple of problems, though. Aside from lacking the contacts that could introduce them to the Circle of Mota, they were also short on the most essential resource of all, money!

"What's our budget?" She asked bluntly.

Ves winced. "Not that much. While I can give you more, it will be difficult to hide so much cash moving around. I also need to maintain a sufficient reserve to sustain my current fleet."

"I know." She said. "I've been supervising the Penitent Sisters on your behalf for a while. It's immediately obvious that they are proving to be a greater burden on your upkeep than all of your other assets put together. When are you going to solve the money problem?"

"I'm working on it! You don't have to hound me as if you are a mother trying to make me do my homework! If you have been keeping an eye on my activities, then you should know that my commercial striker mech design is weeks away from completion. If it's as promising as I think it is, the LMC will soon obtain another cash cow besides the Desolate Soldier! That should solve our immediate liquidity concerns."

The spy looked skeptical. "I don't know, Ves. While I don't know mechs as much as you, I understand the way societies and economies are run. Right now, the market for striker mechs isn't booming, especially spaceborn ones."

That was because the market for spaceborn striker mechs was highly correlated to major wars.

While the Komodo Star Sector was engulfed by the growing ripples of the Komodo War, that was mainly a struggle between two superior powers. The surrounding third-rate states had nothing to do with the fighting up to now! Aside from some rare incidents, the lesser states mostly stood aside and tried their best to catch as little attention as possible!

"I think that will change soon enough." Ves ominously predicted. "If hostilities ever break out between numerous third-rate states, the scale and frequency of battles will skyrocket! The demand for an area-denial mech that can hold off an entire group of mechs will become more relevant than ever! Besides, even if that's not the case, I think the inherent value of my next product is enough to turn it into a bestseller!"

Though Calabast still remained skeptical, it didn't matter. If demand for his product wasn't sufficient, then he planned to generate it! There was no way a mech as useful as his striker mech should remain obscure!

They eventually moved on to another topic.

"How are the Penitent Sisters?"

"Keeping them in line is tiring me out." Calabast glowered at Ves. "Sorting out their many issues is becoming increasingly more difficult. The Penitent Sisters aren't people who are content with sitting around and doing nothing. They expected to themselves at the Fridaymen, not rot away in the periphery of the star sector. You should really talk to Commander Chancy and come to some sort of according with the Sisters."

He looked confused. "Why didn't you do it yourself?"

"They have quite the grudge against normal Hexers like me." Calabast crossed her arms. "The Hegemony single-handedly crushed their cult and forced them to make unpalatable oaths. While I'm not exactly a representative of the Hegemony, to them I'm still an enemy."

"I'm a man, though. Shouldn't that even be a greater obstacle to gaining their cooperation."

"Not necessarily." Calabast shook her head. "While their original ideology did call for killing you and every other male in human space, they have already sworn to disavow it. While a lot of hatred still exist, the Sisters will never break their oaths to teach you a lesson. As long as they realize that there is no point in antagonizing you, I expect they'll cooperate. Just talk to them, Ves."

His expression turned flat. He didn't relish the idea of talking to the most extreme man-haters the Hegemony had ever produced! He had already met them once before and his impressions were anything but positive!