The Mech Touch

In the two months that Ves single-mindedly worked to complete the Amaranto Mark III Project, the Larkinson Clan not only gained a powerful ace pilot, but also gained possession of the legendary Heavensword.

Just one of these developments was enough to demand his full attention and change his short and medium term plans!

Yet instead of doing so, Ves became a prisoner to his own artificial fixation. The Deep Research Mode simply would not allow him to spare any significant attention to outside developments.

Perhaps the only way to shake him off his months-long fugue was to physically prevent him from doing any more design work, or threatening to take away his life!

Gloriana and the liaisons of the Red Association briefly contemplated this option, but quickly discarded it because of the unforeseen dangers to Ves. Who knew whether he would suffer brain damage or incur massive trauma due to getting forcefully pulled away from his abnormal mental condition.

At least the biotech specialists of the Larkinson Biotech Institute, the Red Association as well as the Phase Lord Department of the Red Collective had become certain that Ves would naturally pull himself out of this state once he finally completed the project.

In this way, each of the parties gained a much more thorough understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the Deep Research Mode.

Certain theorists even speculated that one of the reasons why the Red Cabal was unable to mobilize as many phase whales to the Red War was because over 80 percent of them had entered into Deep Research Mode for entire centuries if not millenia!

What Ves had put himself under may be far more common among phase whales and certain species of phase lords.

Although the disadvantages were more pronounced than people initially thought, they still understood why the phase whales embraced it a lot.

Ves had truly become a much more effective worker than before. The power of being able to set aside all distractions that were not directly related to his current preoccupation sounded like a simple change, but it was a far-reaching measure that truly ensured he invested all of his potential into his current work.

By reducing the priority of other developments and daily interactions such as spending time with his family, Ves was able to maximize his potential in a way that was virtually impossible to attain by other humans.

Perhaps only the likes of Star Designers were able to produce a similar effect, but that was way too far away for the vast majority of mech designers.

Under this exceptional state, Ves had turned into a much more competent, obedient and helpful contributor to the Amaranto Mark III Project than before.

As long as Gloriana overlooked the many problematic aspects of the Deep Research State, she had come to fall in love with its effects on Ves.

How could she not like this new version of her husband? He had become the ultimate good boy as far as she was concerned!

He obeyed her instructions without wasting any time on questioning her motivations or theories.

He did not waste time on thinking about strange and unrelated tangents.

He did not insist on implementing his own suboptimal solutions instead.

While Ves still made sure to add his own unique touches to the Amaranto Mark III Project, he solely limited his creative energy to his predefined areas of responsibility.

In the past, Ves regularly suggested improvisational solutions that he occasionally produced in his mind on a whim.

His ideas were always inspired, and to his credit his solutions were never truly awful, but Gloriana could not tolerate the constant disruptions and course changes!

She always wanted to work on her mech design projects in an orderly fashion.

The female mech designer rarely managed to get what she wanted whenever she collaborated with Ves.

The problem had been fairly manageable in the early years of their union, but it had grown progressively worse over time.

As Ves became more knowledgeable and experienced in multiple fields of mech design, more and more scattered ideas began to collide with each other in his mind, causing him to develop all kinds of new and unconventional proposals.

The vast majority of them were questionable at best. Their compatibility with the actual project at hand was not always good. It was much better if Ves set aside his crazy ideas and reserved them for future variants, or better yet an entirely new mech design entirely!

All of that came to an end when Ves was actually able to concentrate his normally-scatterbrained mind to his actual tasks. He became incredibly task and mission-oriented and demonstrated a degree of efficiency that Gloriana had never witnessed from him in the past!

He did not actually grow smarter or expand his brain or anything. It was clear that his new state merely optimized the utilization of his cognitive functions, but that already resulted in a roughly 20 percent boost in productivity!

While Ves got stalled more often whenever he faced problems that needed to be solved with a creative and non-standard solution, he was still able to overcome them as he gradually brought back more and more of his active imagination, but only as long as it was necessary.

For these reasons and more, Gloriana gladly tolerated Ves' nearly complete disconnect with the rest of reality.

Even as Ketis took the initiative to seek cooperation with several Master Mech Designers from the Mech Supremacist Faction to help elevate the First Sword into a powerful first-class ace mech, Ves never expressed any opinions about this development.

Ketis and Gloriana actually got into multiple arguments about how to approach the FIrst Sword Mark III Project.

The swordmaster had initially proposed to design an upgrade to the expert swordsman mech without the involvement of Ves and Gloriana!

This was an outrageous proposal that Gloriana could not accept!

"Have you gone crazy, Ketis?! You cannot unilaterally decide to shut us out of this project! Ves may have put you in charge of maintaining and upgrading the First Sword, but do not forget that it is clan property! Ves would never agree to losing his share of ownership in the project! If you think you can take advantage of his current state to monopolize the First Sword Mark III Project for yourself, then it will not work. Ves will come around sooner or later and tell you that you have made a grievous mistake."

"I don't think that Ves will be as unforgiving towards my decision as you think." The projection of Ketis calmly answered to the director of the Design Department. "The First Sword may be a Larkinson mech, but it is more important to maximize her compatibility with Saint Dise as much as possible. Unlike her colleagues within the clan, she is much less dependent on gimmicks and other bloat to perform effectively on the battlefield."

"I resent the implication that our design solutions constitute bloat in the First Sword." Gloriana hissed at the projection. "My god body method will guarantee that your fellow Swordmaiden's ace mech will turn into a masterwork no matter what happens during the fabrication process. The archetech that I have more recently begun to master in has massively strengthened the Dark Zephyr's internals and made them much less vulnerable to getting disabled. My companion spirit can also help us all collaborate much more effectively with each other."

Ketis' expression grew pensive in response. "I am not denying that you can make the First Sword stronger, but this is a question of fit and compatibility. There are other mech designers that can strengthen the First Sword just as effectively if not more, and they do not rely on alien technology or complicated principles to work. Right now, I find it questionable whether Saint Dise's new affinity for the metal element will work optimally with archetech. From my understanding, the archemetal that this alien tech is based upon is more aligned with the electric attribute. It is also partially based on organic principles. Lastly, it is too complex and far more difficult to repair and service."

Gloriana pressed her fingers against her forehead. "These are not good enough reasons to eject me from the First Sword Mark III Project. Do not forget who has sheltered the Swordmaidens, funded their increasingly greater expenses and gave you all enough opportunities to better yourselves. Even if you have found a third-party Master Mech Designer that can strengthen the mech frame more effectively than I, do not forget that the First Sword must always remain a Larkinson mech as opposed to an RA mech."

"You do not understand." Ketis shook her head in frustration. "The First Sword needs to strive for simplicity, but your design philosophy is becoming increasingly more complex. I am still reluctant to apply archtech into the mech frame, and I am also questioning whther Ves' design philosophy brings much added value to the machine. Dise is not a warrior who relies on a design spirit for help. She is already fine with piloting a relatively basic living mech, and I can already design such a machine myself with the help of my own insights into living mechs. Why would I ask Ves to spend his precious time on a project that does not demand his intervention anymore?"

Although Gloriana did not feel obligated to stand up for her husband's right to participate in the First Sword Mark III Project, letting Ketis get away with this would also weaken her own right to stay involved!

"You are heavily underestimating how much Ves has advanced his living mechs as of late. He has already worked his specialization up to the sixth generation by his own words. His Ultimate Modules alone are incredibly powerful in the right circumstances. Do not think of them as simple gimmicks. It is ingenious to grant living mechs their own 'companion spirits' and have them grow in a specialized direction. In the current day and age, my husband's E-technology carries considerably greater weight than before. It is a mistake to judge his usefulness on your much more rudimentary attainments on living mechs."

The two female mech designers weren't able to come to an accord in their first remote conversation.

It took multiple arguments spread over multiple days for Gloriana to convince Ketis to reluctantly suspend her scheme and wait for Ves to get his mind back together to cast his verdict on her insolent request.

That moment came closer and closer as the Amaranto Mark III Project finally came to completion.

At this stage, Ves still disregarded the enormous implications of the rise of Saint Dise and the arrival of the Heavensword.

What was even more outrageous was that the Mech Designer System had already completed its upgrade more than a month ago, yet Ves treated this life-changing event with the same degree of importance as waking up 5 minutes late in the morning!

On the day when the upgrade process was scheduled to commence in the private workshop of Diandi Base, Ves spent much of his time going over the upgrade plan as well as the finished mech design to make sure he could execute his assignments as best as possible.

Gloriana, Harry Kaikkonen and Venerable Davia Stark both observed the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan remaining completely absorbed in his own world.

"Are you sure he will do a good job?" The expert pilot skeptically asked.

"I cannot guarantee anything, but his output will probably not disappoint you." Gloriana carefully replied. "If he truly makes a mess of his work, then we will forcefully snap him out of his state or at the very least remove him from the workshop. I can complete the upgrade process and make sure to preserve the Amaranto's status as a masterwork mech by myself if necessary."

"Will you be able to construct the new Instrument of Vengeance without his assistance?"

"To be honest, I am not certain. The greatest challenge is to properly make and install the Two-Step Execution Crystal. I roughly understand Ves' theories on Ultimate Modules, but I have never tried to make one myself. Hopefully it will not be necessary for me to take action myself."