The Mech Touch

　　"I really should have thought about this before!"

　　"Meow?" Lucky looked questioningly at Ves.

　　"Am I being crazy for coming up with this thought?!"

　　"Meow!"

　　The gem cat rolled his eyes again. Ves had entered into one of his frequent bursts of genial madness. Whether something would come out of it remained to be seen, but Lucky would be sure to stay as far away if another experiment took place!

　　As Ves continued to think about this new idea further, he soon calmed down a bit. Not everything might go as well as he wished. He already came up with numerous doubts that could complicate any implementation.

　　The first question was whether it was truly possible to turn a living mech into a design spirit.

　　Though his theoretical framework showed that the possibility should be there, his theories might not always be correct. His assumptions could be wrong and perhaps his living mechs were too far removed from other spiritual entities to function in this manner.

　　The only way to know for sure was to try it out. Hard evidence beat any theoretical deductions. Ves wouldn't have to rely on so many guesses if he obtained solid data to support his theories.

　　Still, he was reasonably confident that it should be possible. Living mechs possessed spiritual foundations which basically functioned as the spiritualities of living organisms.

　　There were still a lot of differences between them, but the gap started to close as the mechs became more alive.

　　Third order living mechs were so alive in fact that they possessed a lot of characteristics that were more commonly seen in spiritually powerful entities.

　　Perhaps people might be able to argue that first-order and second-order mechs weren't truly alive, but there should be no doubt when it came to his best mechs. They were all intelligent enough to think and communicate clearly with their own mech pilots.

　　His living mechs weren't sophisticated AIs either. Each of his mechs, not just the most advanced third order ones, all possessed emotions!

　　They became happy whenever the Larkinson Clan achieved a victory. They became sad when their mech pilots died or when they needed to be eliminated in order to free up space. They became angry when they witnessed enemies killing fellow Larkinsons mechs and mech pilots.

　　It was this distinct quality that made it impossible for battle bots and mechs integrated with highly advanced AIs to fully copy his work.

　　Sure, the best AIs programmed by the most brilliant specialists were able to emulate humans to an extremely precise degree, but there was no way that lines of code could fully make mechs understand the concept of love or to feel hatred against an enemy.

　　"That's because AIs are completely rational."

　　Their entire thought processes consisted of logical calculations from beginning to end. There was not a hint of irrationality in their electronic brains.

　　In contrast, his living mechs were much more similar to humans than AIs!

　　From their very first moment of existence, they hardly exhibited any coherent thoughts. Instead, they either followed their instincts or expressed themselves through emotions.

　　Although they weren't always strong, the ability to feel emotions unquestionably put them ahead of practically every AI!

　　In short, his stronger living mechs met every requirement to become a design spirit!

　　The only reason why it hadn't happened yet was because Ves had never connected the strings together.

　　"Still, just because it's possible doesn't mean I should go ahead and do it. There has to be a good reason to take such a drastic step."

　　He was quite wary of doing anything that might harm the development of his most precious mechs. The Quint as well as the Amaranto, the Shield of Samar and the Everchanger were all treasures to the Larkinson Clan. They had only recently come into existence and had a lot of growth ahead of them. As long as the Larkinsons continued to take care of them, they might reach an unimaginable height one day!

　　Why should Ves complicate this matter by turning them into a new role that was not a part of their original design?

　　He could not fully predict what would happen to any of his living mechs if he took this momentous step.

　　His instincts told him that this was a heavy decision that might have profound implications for his design philosophy.

　　Was it truly a good idea for him to marry the concept of a design spirit with the concept of a living mech?

　　What would happen if the living mechs perished in battle?

　　Would his living mechs still remain mechs or evolve to become something… else after receiving a lot of spiritual feedback?

　　Ves needed to puzzle out the answers to all of them before he was willing to attempt such an experiment.

　　"Let's start, then."

　　The first and most important matter was whether this approach conformed to his design philosophy.

　　Up until now, he had always treated the concept of living mechs and design spirits as separate methods to empower his mech designs.

　　The former was more fundamental and was the basis of his design philosophy. While it provided plenty of advantages to products, the problem with living mechs was that they needed a lot of time to grow into their power. This growth process took years until it produced a considerable improvement and that was far too long in most cases.

　　This was why Ves had also placed a heavy emphasis on employing design spirits. While their glows were only as strong as their originators, most design spirits were already formidable spiritual entities. When attached to any mech design, they provided a direct and immediate boost in combat effectiveness without requiring any unreasonable delays.

　　Design spirits therefore became a prominent solution in his arsenal. They neatly made up for the principal weakness of his design spirits and could also convey other advantages such as enabling battle formations.

　　"They're not directly related to my design philosophy, though. It's a side branch of my research that has taken on a life of its own."

　　Ves had always struggled with the question on what he should do with design spirits. Should he continue to develop it further, or should he try to go back to his roots?

　　Previously, he had been tempted to do the latter, but now he found a good reason to make design spirits more central to his design philosophy.

　　This was because a stronger design spirit also equated to a stronger living mech if he combined the two concepts!

　　Ves tried to imagine what it would be like to design a sniper-oriented rifleman mech based on the Amaranto.

　　The mech design could be a relatively straightforward interpretation of the Amaranto as a standard mech. This would help the Amaranto perform its role as a suitable and helpful design spirit to the mech pilots of this new rifleman mech.

　　As long as everything went fine, then everyone involved would benefit.

　　The mech pilots of the new standard mech model would likely gain assistance from a powerful mech that was paired with a powerful expert pilot. The piloting-specific assistance that the Amaranto was able to provide should be a lot better than that of a generic design spirit!

　　"After all, creatures like Arnold aren't mechs. What do they understand about mech piloting?"

　　The standard mechs themselves would also benefit. They not only obtained the influence of a role model, but also had a greater chance of surviving as its mech pilots became more proficient. Perhaps they might even inherit a small portion of the Amaranto's power through constant exposure.

　　"It's as if they are the Amaranto's children."

　　Finally, the Amaranto itself would also gain a lot of benefits. Although there was a risk that the spiritual feedback would pollute, distort or unfavorably steer the living mech in the wrong direction, the acceleration in growth more than made up for it! Ves would gladly obtain a living mech that had reached its strength at 100 years in just a fraction of the time!

　　His eyes shone as he imagined his other living mechs following suit.

　　The three masterwork expert mechs would become incredibly dazzling existences in his clan!

　　"They're such a good combination as well."

　　The neglected concept of prime resonance finally had meaning again. While true resonance was still the basis of any expert mech's power, Ves had always envisioned that prime resonance could become equally as powerful one day!

　　Unfortunately, prime resonance was always constrained by the inherent weaknesses of the elements involved.

　　The problem with prime resonance was that it centered around spiritual energy instead of powerful resonating material.

　　Mechs did not possess a high capacity for spiritual energy. Without incorporating any P-stones or other spiritual storage materials, they simply couldn't contain a lot of spiritual energy.

　　Even if Ves did find a suitable material to implement in the mechs, he would still have to pump them full of spiritual energy which wasn't always abundant.

　　However, it was different when the living mechs grew by themselves. If a masterwork expert mech like the Amaranto grew a dozen times faster than before, then its spiritual foundation would continue to grow stronger and more complex at a rapid pace, all without hitting any barriers!

　　Once the Amaranto's spiritual foundation became a hundred times stronger than now, prime resonance would no longer be a joke. As long as Venerable Davia Stark was strong and courageous enough to resonate with this powerful mech, then…

　　"This new form of resonance will truly be able to compete with true resonance!"

　　Ves almost went wild with euphoria as he imagined how much more powerful his expert mechs could become!

　　Though he did not dare to imagine that expert mechs such as the Everchanger would be able to compete against actual ace mechs, they should be able to obtain a pretty heavy advantage against other expert mechs!

　　He did not forget his fundamental purpose. The ultimate goal of doing all of this was to provide a better service to his mech pilots. He had to be careful that he did not pursue power for its own sake.

　　"This shouldn't be a problem. Stronger high-order living mechs will directly benefit their pilots as well as the side they are fighting for. There is little reason to reject this new method."

　　This could be the edge the Larkinson Clan needed in order to survive the Red Ocean after the MTA's 2-year protection period had passed!

　　Ves turned his attention back to the original matter that had prompted him to develop this brilliant new idea.

　　The best way to confirm his theories and to see whether this premise had a future was to test it out in reality.

　　"I'm sorry, Gloriana, but I have to pursue this side project!"

　　Ves planned to put his current schedule on pause and reserve a few weeks to develop the variant he had promised to the MTA mech pilots.

　　Properly speaking, the best course of action would be to design a completely new original mech from scratch. This way, he could integrate this new purpose into the design from the beginning.

　　"I can't wait for so many months."

　　He didn't think he needed to go for that for his first attempt at implementing this brilliant new idea. He just wanted to obtain a proof of concept that he could use as a model for a more serious implementation in the future.

　　The Quint was a good choice to start with. While it was a valuable mech to the Larkinson Clan, the three masterwork expert mechs were far more precious.

　　This made the Quint the most disposable high-order living mech to Ves.

　　"I'm sorry Quint, but you're going to be my test subject for this experiment."

　　The goal of his variant was two-fold. Not only did he want to see whether it was possible to accelerate the growth of the Quint by providing it with spiritual feedback, he also wanted to meet the demands of the MTA mech pilots and provide them with guidance from a mech that was famed for nurturing several expert pilots.

　　Since the Quint was originally based on the Bright Warrior Mark I Version B model, he called up its design and began to envision the changes he needed to make.

　　"For starters, it needs a new name. let's call it the Enlightened Warrior." Ves decided.