The Mech Touch

Now that Ves had settled his conflicting thoughts, he tried his best to shove all irrelevant matters aside and fabricate his next mech.

It felt rather strange to be doing this without Gloriana by his side. She was so obsessed with collecting masterwork certificates that it was difficult to think that she was willing to pass off this opportunity.

Her decision to leave before Ves started this fabrication run emphasized how much she cared about obtaining a powerful first-class cranial implant!

Though Ves most definitely noticed her absence in his work, it was not as if he lost the ability to do his job without his wife at his side. He had not degenerated to this point.

Ves had his own style of designing and making his mechs. Without Gloriana's direct input, he was free to apply his full vision onto the Fey Project without any pushback.

If Gloriana fabricated a copy of the Fey Project, then it would be as materially perfect and flawless as it could be. That did not mean that she aimed to minimize the differences between her work and the output of a materializer.

As bland as her work might sound, she still believed in the value of a human touch. Her ultimate goal was to design the perfect vessels for her clients. This meant that she was open to making on-the-spot deviations to the actual mech so long as it would help.

This also made it possible for Gloriana to tolerate her husband's many antics in their work.

In any case, Ves did not really care too much about reproducing a design as closely as possible.

It was a good idea for mech designers to adhere to the parameters of a mech design as closely as possible at the start of their careers.

However, mechanically fabricating the same parts without any regard for material inconsistencies, emotional investment and other variables usually ended up producing mundane commodities that did not deserve to climb up the Craftsmanship Ladder.

One of the undeniable traits of a masterwork mech was that its maker cared enough about the product that he invested a piece of himself into his work!

Both Ves and Gloriana happened to excel in this aspect. This was one of the many reasons why they cooperated so well with each other despite their many differences.

Ves expressed his love and dedication to his mech designs by trying his best to impart each of his handmade mechs with a unique character.

In his opinion, no mech should be completely identical to each other. Every mech pilot was different, so why should they be stuck with piloting the same rigid mechs that did not adjust to their piloting styles and other circumstances?

Gloriana held the same stance. She mainly sought to overcome this problem by customizing her mech designs so that they fit their intended pilots right from the beginning to the best possible extent.

Ves wanted to produce living mechs with personality that would befriend their partners. Over time, these adaptable living mechs would grow and mature as they accompanied their mech pilots, thereby increasing their fit in an organic fashion.

Of all of the living mechs that he had made, the Ouroboros was the finest example of dynamic in action!

Initially, many of the qualities and properties of the first-class hero mech were seriously deficient.

It was only after Axelar continually committed to piloting his Ouroboros that it gradually grew into a monstrous second order living mech that could provide a huge amount of help to its mech pilots in battle!

Thinking about the Ouroboros gave Ves a bit of inspiration.

The legendary journey of this old living mech not only showcased the power of growth, but also proved that it was okay if a mech started out imperfect.

Ves just needed to have the right intentions. So long as he was earnest in his work, he had a lot of hope that his mechs would have a bright future ahead of them. This was especially the case for his masterwork mechs!

"In the hands of the Red Association, my masterwork mechs will enjoy the best possible growth conditions."

The only downside that frustrated Ves was that it took too damn long for his living mechs to grow into powerful beings.

It took a century of time for a renowned machine such as the Ouroboros to reach its current state. That was a bit too long as far as Ves was concerned!

"My other mechs don't have to wait as long this time." His expression eased. "The medium energy environment combined with persistent cultivation should speed up the growth of my living mechs by a considerable extent."

How did that relate to the Fey Project?

"This is the most interesting living mech that I have designed in quite a while." Ves grinned.

The last time he was presented with such a difficult and complicated puzzle related to the spiritual engineering of his work was back when he designed the Phobos.

Just as he somehow managed to kludge together a mystical combat module in the form of the Geist System, Ves was presented with another mystery box when he worked on the Fey Project.

The defining characteristic of a drone mech was that it shifted much of its combat power to its combat drones, or spurs in order to distinguish them from their standalone versions.

Why this mattered so much to Ves was that he had only ever imbued a single life in every mech he designed and built.

He had never been tasked with designing a mech that consisted of multiple different elements that could operate separately from each other.

The spurs were sufficiently self-contained that it felt wrong for Ves to design them as extensions of the main body.

This was why he designed the Fey Project with the goal and the presumption that every spur was a living entity in itself!

Of course, Ves did not make the spurs completely independent from their main body. That would make them weak and rootless when they were deployed in battle.

His real vision for the Fey Project was to make all of fey alive but connected to the main mech.

"The fey are like the pets or the companion spirits of the main body."

There were multiple reasons why he hoped to establish these connections. Spurs tended to get consumed in battle at distressingly high rates.

What would happen if a Fey Project lost all its fey?

While it was not that expensive to fabricate a replacement batch and assign them to the drone mech in question, it would be an enormous setback for the fey to be reset and start over from the beginning!

This was why the connections were so important. His greatest hope was to make it so that any living fey that had fallen into battle could be 'revived' when the main mech received a replacement spur!

Ves had puzzled long and hard over the spiritual engineering to make it all possible.

Though Ves had come up with a lot of creative and inventive solutions over the past year, he did not have any clue whether his design would work as intended.

This was the greatest point of uncertainty about the Fey Project. Much of its unique value was based on this key feature. If Ves had failed to design a working example of this mechanism, then his product wouldn't be able to live up to its promise!

"I cannot let that happen." He vowed to himself.

He had a lot riding on this fabrication run. This was the final test that would prove whether his elaborate spiritual design for the Fey Project would hold up in reality!

Before he started his work, he briefly made sure he worked on the correct variant of his new mech line.

"The Elite Edition."

Though he would rather fabricate the more exclusive Larkinson Edition, it was not the best choice if he ended up offering his work as tribute.

"Let's start!"

Ves employed his Living Workshop ability yet again, causing the entire first-class mech workshop to be engulfed by his powerful glow and life energy!

The environment became a lot more accommodating to the formation of living mechs.

Perhaps the favorable circumstances might also result in the creation of stronger and more successful fey!

Next, Vulcan descended into his body yet again, thereby boosting Ves' effective craftsmanship to a much higher level.

This was such a powerful mental rush that Ves felt there was nothing he could not construct!

It took a moment for him to sober himself up a bit. It was only after he had managed to enter into a more reasonable state of mind that he began to operate the superfab and other high-tech production machines.

Just like in the last few projects, Alexa worked quietly in the background. She dutifully moved resources and inspected the fabricated parts so that Ves would not have to waste any time on trivial matters.

As Ves fabricated the many small parts that would ultimately comprise the four fey that would become a part of the Elite Edition's starter loadout, he began to entertain strange thoughts about how he should craft their lives.

The fey were originally supposed to start off as blank slates, much like his living mechs.

This ensured that they would start to get along with mech pilots with the least amount of biases that might spoil their cooperation.

While this was a safe design choice, it also made the fey rather... bland.

"What if I change this? It is not good for every copy of the Fey Project to come with strong personalities, but this is different. This will become a unique work that will be able to stand on its own. Why don't 1 add a little personality to its fey at the start?"

Every masterwork mech possessed a unique destiny that inevitably caused them to diverge from the mech model they were derived from. This already happened to the Quint, and Ves had every reason to believe his current work would follow a drastically different trajectory as soon as it fell into the hands of the mechers!

Ves knew that the first production copy of the Fey Project would definitely undergo a huge overhaul that would strip it of much of its original parts.

The masterwork mech would go through such an extensive overhaul and upgrade cycle that it would become practically unrecognizable at the end!

However, there was one element that the mechers could not pervert with their input.

Much of the intangible and fundamental spiritual properties of the Fey Project would remain intact!

This ensured that his masterwork mech would still retain the essence of what Ves had put into its mech frame.

If this presumption was correct, then Ves should put an even greater emphasis on the spiritual design of his Fey Project!

A smirk appeared on his face. "Let's go a little wild, then!"

Instead of sticking to his original plan and designing the four fey to be as pure and neutral as possible, he wanted to turn them into colorful personalities that would add a bit of excitement to the Red Association!

Naturally, Ves did not want the characters of the fey to be dull or forgettable. He wanted to force the mechers to acknowledge and respect the living fey if they wanted to make good use of their extraordinary properties!

The question now was what sort of personalities should he shape into the four fey?

Many different possibilities came into mind.

For example, he could insert the personality of a mecher, a fleeter, a Terran and a Rubarthan in each of the fey!

That would certainly lead to a lot of interesting discussions and disagreements between the fey. Perhaps all of the constant quarrels would drive the mech pilot mad!

"Oh, I have a better idea!"

A more promising and wicked combination caught his attention as inspiration struck his mind like a lightning bolt!

Ves couldn't help but grin like crazy as he envisioned a much more imaginative take on his fey!

"Alexa, I need you to withdraw a few matches of other materials from our material reserves!"

"What? Why do you require materials that are not included in the original design?"

"Isn't it obvious? I am going to need them to design and make more distinctive variations of my fey on the spot. I can assure you that you will love what I have in mind!"