The Mech Touch

In the end, Ves still hadn't completely figured Calabast out. She didn't fully explain her motives, which was regrettable because she was one of the few people in the clan who could fool his ability to read people.

As he grew older and came in touch with more formidable people, Ves became more proficient in figuring out people's true thoughts and motives. His ability to monitor the state of someone's mind and spirit was an especially great advantage.

However, Calabast was always able to withhold her true inclinations from him. Her impeccable training already gave her a good foundation, but lately she seemed to have focused a lot on suppressing the fluctuations of her mind. It was as if she knew exactly what Ves could do and developed her own countermeasure to make it harder for him to peer at her true thoughts.

Ironically, because she was not a spiritually strong person, Ves wasn't able to get any clues from her spirituality either! Those with stronger spirits such as Ketis were much more easier to read than a random person in the fleet.

"Well, whatever." Ves shrugged. "Calabast should at least be smart enough to remain on my side."

She knew his strength and potential more than anyone else in the clan, so there was no way she would want to bet on another horse!

He no longer spent any thought on Calabast's motives and turned to other matters.

Due to the expeditionary fleet's proximity to the gate system, a lot of different priorities needed to be addressed in advance.

The most important concern was to successfully complete the Chimera Project. Ves had invested a lot in the project and he did not want it to produce a worse result than the Bulwark Project.

It had a lot going for it. He incorporated all of his recently-gained insights and advancements from turning the Shield of Samar into a masterwork in the latest iterations of the Chimera Project.

By now, the design of Venerable Joshua's future expert mech contained all of the fruits that Ves and the other mech designers had gathered since the start of this round of design projects.

"If the Chimera Project can become a masterwork, then I will be truly content." Ves murmured.

This was one of his biggest concerns. Despite his confidence, he still feared he might let Venerable Joshua down. He did not want his strongest backer and supporter among the expert pilots to fall behind the likes of Venerable Jannzi. One way or another, Ves had to do everything in his power to repeat his improbable success!

Fortunately, had gained a useful form of help when Lucky dropped a couple of gems on his ŀȧp one day.

"Meow." Lucky huffed at Ves before grumpily turning away.

Ves immediately dropped what he was doing and happily picked up the gems.

He had high hopes for them this time! It had not only taken many months for Lucky to produce this batch of gems, but the gem cat had also digested a number of foods such as half an expert mech and a sliver of Timpala Steel!

With such high-quality ingredients, there was no way Lucky's output would be lackluster this time!

"There's five of them this time!"

Ves' eyes lit up as he weighed the small but incredibly valuable gems in his hands. He poked each of them with his finger as if he was trying to confirm that they were all real and not projections.

It was worth the wait as far as he was concerned! Five more gems translated into five more opportunities to transform a high-quality mech into a masterwork. This urgently relieved his depleted collection of high-quality gems.

When he pulled out his secret pouch from his uniform, a distressed expression appeared on his face after he saw how little it contained. There was only a single gem left inside, and from what Ves remembered of its properties, it was completely unsuitable for the Chimera Project!

"Lucky is getting lazier and lazier."

This was both a good thing and a bad thing. The longer it took for him to produce a gem, the greater the chance it became stronger. On the other hand, a long delay might cause him to lack suitable choices when he wanted to use them on a mech.

After Ves became satisfied that the gems were the real deal, he finally attempted to inspect their properties.

"…"

Only to come up with nothing.

"Huh? Oh, I forgot!"

Ves wanted to palm his face. Ever since the System swallowed the Timpala Steel that he had recovered, it had become dormant.

Then he thought it would take an hour or so before it was done.

When the delay kept taking longer, he thought it would take days or weeks for it to digest all of the Timpala Steel.

Now, it appeared the System wasn't close to finished!

Since the System had become inoperable, Ves was no longer able to take advantage of its data overlay that he sometimes made use of. A matter as simple as figuring out the effects of Lucky's gems became impossible!

"Damnit, how the hell am I supposed to figure out what these gems can do?!" Ves complained.

The five gems all looked relatively similar to each other. They shared the same shape and shiny ŀuster, but they each differed in coloration.

Since Lucky had produced them before Ves had a chance to do anything, the grey, blue, purple, black and aquamarine gems weren't alive. As with other gems, he wasn't able to perceive any notable fluctuations from them. The only way for Ves to figure out what the gems contained was to break them, but that would cause it to release the energies that made them remarkable in the first place.

In the following fifteen minutes, Ves tried several ways to decipher the properties of the new gems. He inspected them with his spiritual senses, he scanned them with his Vulcaneye and Odineye and he even tried to communicate with them. Nothing worked!

Ves grew irritated. His inability to learn what the gems could do to a mech wasn't a big problem if the System woke up soon or if he wasn't about to complete any design projects in the short term, but this wasn't the case!

"It won't take long before we start to fabricate the Chimera Project." Ves realized. "If.. if Venerable Joshua's expert mech just misses the threshold, then will I have little choice but to take a gamble on one of these gems?"

That was a terrible situation! Ves had to do everything possible to drag the Chimera Project over the masterwork threshold!

"Of course, if the quality of my upcoming expert mechs falls too far below this point, then all of these considerations are moot."

That was a very real possibility and one that Ves had to take into account as well. Venerable Joshua would probably be devastated, but as an expert pilot, he wouldn't break so easily. He just needed to wait a few years for Ves to design an upgraded revision and see if he could repeat the same feat he performed on the Shield of Samar.

It was not impossible to turn an existing mech into a masterwork!

"The question is whether I should use these gems or just leave them be if I ever end up in a situation where they are useful?"

Ves did not want to ruin the future of the Chimera Project by pairing it with the wrong gem. He already found out that the Shield of Samar was still affected by the same Arden Wish gem he integrated with it a long time ago.

Even if he had upgraded virtually every component of the space knight since then, the current mech was still affected by the same gem!

This was a rather amazing result and gave Ves a deeper understanding of the nature of Lucky's products.

That also meant that if Ves wanted to turn the Chimera Project into Joshua's lifelong mech, he needed to be extremely careful about the design choices he made. Some of them would remain a permanent part of the mech even if he upgraded it to an ace mech in the future.

There was one factor that reassured him to an extent. "Luckily, the Chimera Project is a hero mech. It's also designed to be adaptable to different circumstances."

The Chimera Project was compatible with many different gems for that reason. It became a lot harder for Ves to make the wrong choice, though Lucky sometimes produced awfully specific gems like the one that he had temporarily turned into a jewel for Clixie's collar.

"Speaking about masterworks, why hasn't the MTA send an inspection team yet?" Ves wondered.

He expected Master Willix to arrive only days after he turned the Shield of Samar into a masterwork, but strangely enough he never received any visits. The MTA didn't even transmit any messages!

"The mechers should surely know by now." He frowned.

While the Larkinson Clan implemented many measures to keep the Shield of Samar out of the public eye, these measures only worked up to an extent. Not only that, but the MTA mech pilots that had been ȧssigned to the clan also knew about the masterwork mech!

Since Ves had some free time, he decided he might as well contact the MTA Master. He didn't think a topic like this required the use of the Darkbreak Module so he simply called her directly over the galactic net.

It took a while for the other side to accept his call. Master Willix's projection soon showed up. Her expression was neutral and it looked as if she was in the middle of conducting an experiment.

"We know about your latest masterwork expert mech." She spoke, instantly dispelling one of his doubts. "I cannot leave the Komodo Star Sector for the time being so I cannot perform an inspection on your latest work."

"Oh. What then? Will someone else come and evaluate my Shield of Samar?"

"I have already made arrangements with my colleagues in Tarnished Crown. I have made sure that a Master who belongs to the same camp as I will inspect your new masterwork expert mech. This is more convenient and sidesteps potential issues."

"I see."

Ves became a bit nervous about this development. The MTA was not his friend. It was incredibly important for him to remain chummy with Master Willix. He could at least count on her to keep his secrets and prevent the MTA from looking into his situation too much. However, now that he was traveling further away from her, it became more difficult for her to cover for him. Was this ally of hers trustworthy?

She seemed to have anticipated his worries.

"There is little cause for concern." She said to him. "I can call upon many acquaintances and allies in the MTA, and my patron has built up an even greater network. Once you reach the Red Ocean, there will be others who you can trust to handle your matters. The premise is that you remain useful. I don't believe I need to tell you anything further."

Ves understood this dynamic quite well.

"I understand." He sighed. "Can I expect a big reward for making a second masterwork expert mech? I recall you granted me a substantial reward for making the Amaranto."

Master Willix shook her head. "Don't expect us to be generous a second time. We're not that easy to take advantage of. We have obtained most of the data we are interested in by studying your first successful attempt at turning an expert mech into a masterwork. The Shield of Samar is no longer a unique product and is only useful for comparison purposes. Do not expect to obtain as many merits as before. Do not forget that our merits are mainly ȧssociated with research value. If a phenomenon is no longer new, then there is no reason to issue merits. Do keep that in mind, Mr. Larkinson."

Damn.. His ambition to fabricate masterwork mechs en masse and collect an endless amount of MTA merits were dashed.