The Mech Touch

Gloriana benefited immensely from meditation.

The main advantage was that she could reduce her low period by accelerating her spiritual energy recovery.

However, Ves discovered that meditation conveyed another advantage.

For a few hours after a successful prayer session, she entered a clear-minded state where she was a lot more attentive and certain than before!

While her mental exhaustion continued to drag down her mood, the short-term benefits she gained from her prayer session was enough to mitigate her negative state!

This meant that she was able to work a lot more closer to normal than Ves anticipated!

While she was still lacking in creativity and imagination, she at least managed to restore some of her passion!

That was enough to make their collaborations more pleasant. There was nothing worse to Ves than working alongside a mech designer who wasn't as passionate as him in developing mechs!?

Fortunately, Gloriana's method successfully prevented this potential conflict and allowed them to work more harmoniously.

Of course, Gloriana was also self-conscious enough to let Ves take the lead. Right now, they still needed to pool their strengths together to make the Deliverer design more flawless and complete.

While Ves could easily complete the Deliverer design by himself, the lack of synergies would make the design a lot less potent than he initially envisioned.

Since the Deliverer was his most important statement of the year, Ves wanted to make his passion project as successful as possible!

He cared so much about this project that he unconsciously adopted some of Gloriana's perfectionist tendencies!

"The Deliverer has to be able to end the Sand War in one fell swoop!"

This was his ultimate ambition. As long as he could borrow Gloriana's strength, he possessed a lot of confidence that he could fulfill his vision!

Unfortunately, Gloriana wasn't able to persist in her temporary state for long. After two or three hours of intensive work, the boost of energy she gained from completing a prayer session had faded.

This turned her into a lethargic work partner. Everytime they tried to do something together, Ves felt as if Gloriana was dragging his heels.

Neither of them liked to collaborate in this awful fashion.

"I'll go supervise the testing of the Adonis Colossus." She suggested with a tired smile. "I'm clearly not fit to add anything to the Deliverer design in this condition."

Ves raised his hand and patted her head. "Don't look so down. You're in a much better condition than I used to be when I exhausted myself."

"Is there a way to avoid this state entirely?" She asked. "Don't think I haven't noticed what you are doing with those so-called P-stones of yours. They're repositories of energy, right? Can't you just give me one of those exotics and teach me how to deposit some of my energy into it? As long as I have a battery on hand, I don't have to exhaust myself again!"

Her suggestion surprised him a bit. Though he hadn't hidden what he was doing with his P-stones, he didn't exactly explain much either. For her to figure out the potential uses of the P-stone was pretty clever!

While Ves wanted to keep his P-stones to himself in order to accumulate as much excess spiritual energy as possible, he already gathered more than he needed for most applications.

Diverting a single P-stone for Gloriana's use brought him a lot more benefits than increasing his already-abundant reserves.

"That's a good idea." He responded. "Only, we'll have to wait until you return to your peak condition. You're in no state to build up a reserve when you still have to take care of yourself."

"I understand. While the energy you're manipulating is very divine in nature, it still obeys some conventional rules! We can still treat it like regular energy in some ways!"

This was the engineer in her speaking. Ves approved. She needed to develop the mindset that she could comprehend and control spiritual energy in order to make active use of it. Even if she wasn't as talented as him in manipulating it, he still wanted her to develop more tools.

The more tricks she mastered, the more she elevated their collaborative design projects!

Helping Gloriana was like helping himself. Since his own interests were at stake, Ves did not mind lending her a hand!

Of course, he wasn't willing to sacrifice his own growth for hers. He also didn't want her to grow too fast. It would be a tragedy for him as a man if Gloriana advanced to Senior first!

"By the way, Ves, we haven't properly talked about your third eye yet." She pointed at the head of the Deliverer projected by the terminal.

"You didn't object to it, right?"

She nodded. "My opinion hasn't changed. I think it's a fine way to express the strength of your design philosophy. I like how it's more than just a simple ornament. I'm curious how the market will perceive the variable glow and vapor of this third eye. I hope they recognize its mystical nature!"

"Likely, only religious states such as the Ylvaine Protectorate will see something more in the third eye." Ves shrugged. "As for the Bright Republic, I know my home state well enough that consumers will dismiss it as a flashy but meaningless component."

It didn't really matter to Ves. Regardless of consumer attitude, the third eye was still distinctive enough to serve as his signature look. That was the most basic function it was supposed to fulfill.

Anything else was extra. That the more faith-minded people interpreted the third eye in a different way was not his concern.

Making the third eye reactive to the X-Factor and the connection between the mech and mech pilot was just a creative exercise to him. He would only explain its true significance to his Avatars and most trusted mech pilots.

"I think it's time I develop my own signature look as well." She spoke. "I've been holding it off because I usually like to customize every aspect to the needs of my customer, which makes it difficult for me to add a universal element to my products."

"Will this be a problem?"

"I don't want to be left out on this! How can I take credit for collaborating on a mech design when only you add your signature look to your products?! It will give consumers the mistaken impression that I'm only a contributing designer instead of a lead designer!"

Only the lead designers had the right to add their signature looks to their mechs. This was a long-standing unofficial custom in the mech industry.

A mech design represented the design direction of the lead designer. They held the ultimate decision on what to add to a mech design.

As for contributors, while their input was certainly valued, they didn't have the power to impose their own views on the design. It was inappropriate for them to add their own signature looks to a mech which only represented a small portion of their style.

"What signature look have you settled upon? Did you come up with it recently?"

"It's something I've thought about long ago." She smiled. "You don't have to be afraid that I came up with a feeble idea during my low period. I only adapted it when I found out that you settled on a third eye."

She didn't explain any further, but instead stepped to the terminal and loaded up a predesigned addition from the databanks.

Under her efforts, the head of the Deliverer design underwent a cosmetic alteration!

Ves saw that some glowing lines surrounded the third eye placed in the forehead of the mech. They formed an elegant hexagon made out of the same crystal material as the third eye!

The hexagon possessed many strange associations. Surrounding his third eye with a hexagon added an occult quality to the mech!

He became speechless for a moment. For Gloriana to adapt her signature look with his own was a very powerful statement!

How could he not be blind to the meanings of her hexagon?

To make her signature look complimentary to his own conveyed the meaning that they were destined to work together! Their signatures wouldn't look nearly as complete if one of them was missing on their mech designs!

The hexagon shape was also a deliberate choice on her part. It expressed her identity as a Hexer and her devotion to hexism!

While the hexagon was just a curious geometric shape in most parts of the galaxy, it conveyed a very different meaning in the Komodo Star Sector.

Every hexagon was inescapably associated with the Hexadric Hegemony!

Adding a hexagon to a mech was therefore very polarizing! Not a lot of people liked the Hexers. Ves could be sure that if he assented to this addition, his products would probably repel a lot of customers!

"Are you sure about the hexagon?" He asked. "It's not really unique enough to turn it into a distinctive aspect of your brand."

A part of him wanted to dissuade her of adopting this controversial shape as her signature look.

"I'm very sure, Ves. You don't necessarily know this, but a hexagon is a common signature of Hexer mech designers. It's a way of asserting the common identity of our mechs as Hexer mechs!"

In other words, the hexagon surrendered the opportunity for a mech designer to develop a personal brand in order to join a shared Hexer brand!

"Isn't a hexagon too simple? It only consists of six lines."

"That isn't necessarily bad, Ves. It's easier to perfect something simple than to perfect something more complicated! The hexagon is already the most perfect geometric shape! I'm proud of adopting it as my signature look!"

He eventually decided to accept her signature look. While he wasn't exactly keen on reinforcing his association with Hexers, it was impossible to hide Gloriana's role in designing his mechs.

He might as well make the truth more clear to his consumers. This was what a transparent mech designer ought to do. Ves possessed enough principles to abide by it despite the substantial price he paid.

Ves had already retreated his intention to continue to serve the masses. He was much more passionate about designing niche, premium mechs which offered unequaled advantages!

Since he wasn't maximizing his sales, he didn't feel much pain in reducing the demand of his products yet again.

He was confident that the unique strengths of his products was enough to attract enough demand to run a profitable business!

If not, he could always step out of his comfort zone and design a mech for the masses.

Sometimes, it wasn't necessarily good for a mech designer to pursue passion projects all the time. Without keeping in touch with consumer demand, they would eventually grow out of touch with the mech market.

Ves couldn't afford to diverge his vision too far. However, he did not wish to compromise too much just so that he could earn a lot of money.

His progression mattered more than his wealth!

However, he didn't forget that wealth was still extremely important to him! Not only did he need enough money to sustain his growing organization, he also needed to accumulate enough money to form his expeditionary fleet!

Ves therefore fell into a difficult position where he needed to balance out his passion and his practical needs.

Fortunately, he still had some years to go before he needed to leave the star sector.

Gloriana was very happy when Ves accepted her hexagon. She was aware that the hexagon would not be well-received in states like the Bright Republic.

However, the hexagon was too significant for her to ignore. Her strong prayer sessions already demonstrated how devoted she was to her beliefs!

Perhaps allowing Gloriana to add hexagons to their mech designs would improve the efficacy of her prayer sessions.

Certainly, her happiness already boosted her mood!

Ves to set aside his worries. Making her happy was already a reward in itself!