The Mech Touch

Just because Ves predicted this outcome did not mean he liked it. He never put all of his faith in his predictions because he had seen too many people get screwed when they happened to get it wrong.

If even the Polymath got misled by her assumptions and projections of the future, then Ves should never put much too much stock in his own predictions!

There were always variables that could cause reality to deviate from the most probable outcome. This was why Ves faintly hoped that he could produce another miracle and turn the Blood Star Mark 11 into another masterwork mech.

"Too bad it didn't happen."

This was a missed opportunity. A masterwork mech was not just a unique work of art. It was a rare state that provided all kinds of benefits to its mech pilot.

For example, now that General Ark Larkinson received a masterwork expert mech in the form of the Lionheart, he would definitely be able to break through sooner or later!

The reason why he had failed to do so during the first activation was because a simple testing session failed to stimulate his willpower and emotions extensively enough.

Ark had already made plans to speed up his Warborn's deployment to the border regions once he returned to his posting.

The best way for him to trigger his second apotheosis was to go all out against an opponent that was not a pushover!

With such a powerful and exquisite expert mech at his disposal, the threshold for Ark to break through had dipped to the lowest point in years.

If he could not break through in the next 5 years under such favorable conditions, then he was truly hopeless!

Venerable Benjamin had a much harder road ahead of him. The absence of a masterwork mech would make it a lot harder for him to overcome his bottleneck.

Although Gloriana's second generation god body method combined with the Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra should be able to promote the growth of the Blood Star Mark II over time, Ves was not sure whether that was enough to overcome the handicap imposed by the Carmine System.

Ves could only wait and see whether the Blood Star Mark II would be able to overcome its own deficiencies.

At worst, it would remain stuck at an impassable junction like the Ouroboros. Only outside intervention might allow the Blood Star Mark II to reach the second rung of the Ladder of Craftsmanship.

There was no need for Ves to get too hung up over this issue. Masterworks were helpful, but not essential to the cultivation of mech pilots.

Plenty of mech pilots managed to advance to the rank of ace pilot while piloting perfectly normal expert mechs.

Ves believed that a Carmine mech had its own advantages. The Blood Pact transformed the relationship between mech and mech pilot to the point where their mutual feedback became at least an order of magnitude stronger!

If this was the case, then the advantages of a Carmine System more than made up for its disadvantages!

While everyone beheld the final outcome of this fabrication run, Ark approached and placed his hand on Benjamin's shoulders.

"Are you okay, dad?"

The old but surprisingly rejuvenated Larkinson smiled in response. "I am fine, Ark. It is not a setback if I did not hold any high expectations to begin with. Regaining my strength as an expert pilot and restoring my lifespan is more than I could have ever hoped for. Piloting the original Blood Star has allowed me to rediscover my original passion. Now that it has turned into a proper expert mech, I have everything 1 need to fight on behalf of our family."

Benjamin's positive attitude dispelled the air of disappointment that had settled into the mech workshop after the outcome became clear.

Though Gloriana still expressed obvious discontent at missing her goal, there was nothing they could do to improve the Blood Star Mark II.

"This is a fine high-tier expert mech." Ves affirmed after he had collected his thoughts. "I am proud that I was able to upgrade your Carmine mech to this extent. Masterwork or not, it will serve you well enough in the coming years."

The conclusion of the Blood Star Mark II Project signaled the end of projects related to expert mechs for Ves and Gloriana.

While plenty of Larkinson mech pilots would undoubtedly advance to the rank of expert pilots in the coming years, Ves intended to pay less attention to any new expert mech design projects.

There was no need for him to go all-out into designing the most extravagant expert mechs for a bunch of low-tier expert pilots.

His wife might have a different opinion, but she needed to take the next months off in order to receive her long-awaited cranial implant upgrade and recover from the operation.

This gave Ves a good opportunity to put more emphasis on designing standard mechs.

Whether he designed them for the Larkinson Army or the mech market, Ves felt a strong compulsion to go back to his roots and focus on meeting the needs of ordinary mech pilots!

A few days went by as the mech designers recovered from their exertion and spent more time with their family.

In the meantime, both the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark 11 went through multiple testing sessions.

The Lionheart needed very little tweaks and adjustments. Gloriana had done a good job at interpreting Ark's wants and needs. The expert command mech already fit him like a glove from the start, and the minor changes that followed afterwards were so trivial that they weren't even necessary!

The Blood Star Mark II needed a bit more tweaking in order to accommodate Venerable Benjamin.

The old man had not fought like an expert pilot for over half a century. Neither he nor Gloriana could accurately anticipate how the Blood Star Mark II needed to be configured in order to fit his current fighting form.

All of those years of living his life as a normal person had changed Benjamin in many profound ways.

He was not young anymore. His fiery passion and his impulsive edge had made way for a more level-headed and patient outlook towards life.

The Blood Star Mark II exuded a steady but reassuring presence. With the Golden Cat as its design spirit, the expert offensive space knight inspired both love and protection.

This caused Ves to consider whether it would have been better to design it as a defensive space knight.

Ves shook his head at that thought. "Jannzi already has that covered. The Larkinson Army is better off with a sturdy machine that can take the initiative and carry its own weight on the battlefield."

Aside from the Carmine System and the optional shoulder-mounted luminar crystal cannons, the Blood Star Mark II was not an exciting expert mech.

Usually, high-tier expert mechs tended to gain one or more powerful trump cards that synergized well with the developing abilities of their expert pilots.

The Blood Star Mark II did not come with so many bells and whistles. Its configuration was a little bland, but that enabled Ves and Gloriana to make it solid and reliable.

What they actually wanted to pay attention to were the effect of the Blood Pact and the implementation of the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem.

Previously, the Lionheart was the only Larkinson mech that had been built according to the standards of the new mech ecosystem.

There was no effective way to test it out because it was expressly designed to work in cooperation with multiple Larkinson mechs.

The greater the strength and quantity of Larkinson mechs, the more drastic the effects produced by the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem!

Pairing just two of the mechs with the new ecosystem together was enough for Ves to verify a few theories.

As the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II finally deployed together for the first time, Ves watched on as their respective pilots tried to figure out how to make use of the Energy Weaver functions.

That was one of the downsides of the new mech ecosystem. It was so far beyond the experiences of most mech pilots that they had very little foundation in these sorts of activities!

The strong auras of the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II failed to harmonize with each other.

The local E energies claimed by the two expert mech refused to merge with each other. Ark and Benjamin tried various ways to combine their strengths, but made no progress in this area.

Ves thought that their close family relationship would have made it quick and easy for them to combine their forces, but it turned out that this assumption was wrong.

Just because the mech pilots of the Gemini Family could merge their powers together did not mean that others could do the same!

Ves couldn't bear to see his uncle and grandfather bumble around like fools. He transmitted lots of instructions in the hopes that one of his ideas might allow the two to get started.

"Don't try to cooperate directly with each other. Work through your mechs instead, as your machines are the interfaces that can facilitate greater cooperation. Grandfather, your job is easy. Just leave it to your living mech. Ark, your job is a little harder because your Lionheart does not possess an independent personality. You will have to reach out to the Blood Star Mark II yourself through your second skin mech."

When the two Larkinson expert pilots tried this suggestion out, they found to their surprise that their expert mechs were finally beginning to reach out with each other!

The resonance strengths of their pilots were strong, so their initial attempts at utilizing the advantages bestowed by the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem were quite drastic.

At this time, the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II produced notably less clashes as their resonance shields started to get in touch with each other.

Though the two expert mechs were ultimately not able to combine their resonance shields and form a much more resilient defensive barrier, this was just the start!

Ves already anticipated that the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem would be challenging to learn and even more challenging to master!

Ark and Benjamin at least needed to practice with a troop of Energy Weaver mechs for multiple months before they developed their first proper applications.

"Try and see if you can produce a better result by borrowing the help of Goldie."

When the Golden Cat manifested above the Blood Star Mark II, she managed to improve the cooperation between son and father for a bit, but it was still too early to produce any drastic results.

There were too few participating units!

Neither Ark nor Benjamin developed any significant proficiency with the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem!

The amount of additional E energy that they were able to harness through their combined efforts was not trivial, but it was not game-changing either.

All of this left Ves a bit dissatisfied. He had hoped that his powerful uncle and grandfather might be able to prove the value of his new mech ecosystem, but it appeared that he needed to wait until he completed a bunch of other Larkinson mech designs.

The Fey Project was already close to completion. Once the Larkinsons produced a few hundred copies and started to put the new machines into use, the mech pilots assigned to the new drone mechs would surely be able to explore the potential of his mech ecosystem!

"Alright, that is enough testing for today. 1 have seen enough."

The Miracle Couple had conducted enough tests on the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark 11 to confirm that they had reached their optimal states.

They were ready to be shipped back to their respective places.

General Ark Larkinson eagerly wanted to bring his Lionheart back to the Warborn Mech Division and lead his elite unit in battle against the aliens as soon as possible!

Venerable Benjamin Larkinson would be taking his Blood Star Mark II back to the expeditionary fleet and participate in the Golden Skull Alliance's next expeditions.

Either way, neither of the powerful living mechs would be gathering dust in the coming months!