The Mech Touch

Discovering a way to create permanent spiritual matter that was able to sustain its state indefinitely was only the starting point.

In order to turn spiritual matter into the building blocks of his imaginary mechs, he needed to develop a means to change its properties.

After all, a real mech consisted of many different materials! From the incredibly hard armor plating to the energy-resistant materials that made up the power reactor, each component needed to take advantage of the properties of different materials to reach a satisfactory level of performance!

If Ves failed to transform the properties of spiritual matter to match with the properties of the materials that made up his real mechs, then his imaginary creations would only have the form of a mech. Like a mech made out of paper, an imaginary mech made out of uniform spiritual matter would not possess any strength!

What Ves sought was a way to turn 'paper' into other materials such as palladium or Breyer alloy!

For now, Ves didn't have a clue how he could accomplish this. He hadn't even been able to form permanent spiritual matter yet. Nonetheless, he was confident he could develop a solution to this problem in time!

A particularly thorny issue related to this problem was how he could translate energy and data transmission to imaginary mechs.

It wasn't as if an imaginary mech would behave exactly like a physical mech. Ves would probably have to make at least some adjustments and develop a spiritual variant to a physical mech design.

Assuming that he found a way to overcome this issue and successfully created an imaginary mech, what then? An imaginary mech was just a spiritual equivalent of a physical mech.

On their own, mechs didn't do anything. They only became operable when a mech pilot entered its cockpit and interfaced with the machine.

This left Ves with a conundrum. Should he operate his imaginary mechs directly, grant them the means to operate autonomously, or find a way to make them ever closer to mechs by providing them with 'spiritual pilots'?

The first option basically meant turning himself into the mech pilots of his own imaginary mechs.

Though the temptation was great, Ves believed it was a very bad idea to pursue this direction.

If his guess was true that genetic aptitude was no longer a hindrance in piloting imaginary mechs, Ves shouldn't immediately hurry up and hop into an imaginary cockpit!

Ves had already committed to the path of a mech designer. He did not possess the training or expertise to become proficient in piloting mechs.

In addition, it was impossible for him to improve himself beyond his mortal limit. Once he advanced to Journeyman, he already committed his spiritual evolution towards developing his design seed.

While he could imitate a force of will due to his extraordinary control over his Spirituality, he could never replicate the strength of a true expert pilot!

"The whole point of doing this is to save time and transfer my existing competences in a new field. Learning how to pilot mechs is a lifelong endeavor! I don't have the time and energy to branch out to such an extent!"

The second option was to bring an imaginary mech pilot to life in order to pilot an imaginary mech.

This was not as impractical as the first option. Ves believed he was already capable of creating an imaginary mech pilot! He already developed a method to create a spiritual product!

As long as he created a spiritual product in the shape of a human and instilled it with fragments taken from expert pilots, then he could possibly create the first imaginary expert pilot in the history of mech design!

"Crazy! This is crazy!"

Ves had no idea whether it was possible to create an artificial expert pilot that consisted of pure spirituality.

Even if he managed to shape such an abomination to life, what could such a miraculous entity even do? Was it capable of piloting one of his imaginary mechs? What if it could do more?

What if he could take it a step further and make it pilot a real expert mech?

Ves shuddered in place. Such a blasphemous idea shouldn't be possible, yet he did not immediately rule it out! Something within him made him think it was possible!

"This is way too crazy even for me! It shouldn't be possible!"

Though Ves heaved with excitement, he eventually reined in this wild ambition. It sounded a bit too far-fetched for him to be able to mass-produce imaginary expert pilots and have them pilot entire regiments of expert mechs!

Ves could practically conquer the entire galaxy if he gained this ability!

Compared to the second option, the third option was a bit more restrained. Rather than creating his own mech pilots, he might be able to find a way to make other mech pilots pilot his imaginary works.

Of course, this was a bit more complicated than it sounded. First, he didn't even know it was possible.

Should he harvest a spiritual fragment from a mech pilot and deposit it inside the cockpit of an imaginary mech? Would the mech pilot in question still be able to control the imaginary mech through his connection with the fragment, or would the fragment start to behave in an autonomous fashion?

Assuming that it was possible, would he really wish to expose imaginary mechs to his Avatars of Myth and other mech pilots under his employ?

Regardless which one was right, the issue of trust and control still hung over his head! 

Though Ves was filled with uncertainties, these questions also made him excited. He couldn't wait to explore the possibilities! Even if the result fell short of his expectation, the entire concept of imaginary mechs was already unprecedented enough to spark a revolution in mech design!

"These ideas are so astounding that Gloriana will probably explode when she hears about them! I wonder what she will think?"

She would probably think he was creating divine soldiers or something. Every god needed a heavenly army after all. Right?

For now, Ves intended to keep these ideas to himself. Gloriana wouldn't be of much help at this premature stage, and he still doubted whether she could contribute at all to the creation of an imaginary mech.

This was something that closely matched his specialty, but the same could not be said for Gloriana.

"This is something I have to explore alone, at least for now." He concluded.

Though all of these fantasies sounded great, Ves still turned his thoughts back to the original reason why he wanted to create an imaginary mech.

"Regardless of its other applications, it at least has to be able to fight!"

Ves needed to protect his mind from external attacks and influencing attempts. He did not have a lot of confidence in the simple spiritual shield he wrapped around his mind.

Such a primitive means of defense was not only inflexible, but also simple to defeat due to its obvious strengths and weaknesses!

Though an imaginary mech did not wrap around his mind like a spiritual shield, it was capable of performing both defensive and offensive actions!

That meant that aside from guarding his mind, he could also actively send it out in order to attack another spiritual entity!

Naturally, Ves had to make a lot of considerations concerning its strength before he became reassured that the imaginary mech stayed alive.

If it turned out that even his best imaginary mechs were too weak to resist the strength of his weaker design spirits, then Ves was better off sticking with a spiritual shield!

As Ves continued to speculate, the Wodin fleet almost reached the Kesseling System.

If Gloriana didn't remind him of their impending arrival, Ves would have remained consumed in his unending calculations for a couple more weeks!

He entered into such a creative daze that he practically ran his life on autopilot during these past few days!

He was lucky his girlfriend understood the preciousness of this state. With all of the enthusiasm and passion bursting out of Ves, this was the best time to formulate his ideas!

"I'm sorry, Gloriana." He spoke when his girlfriend finally decided to shake him out of his fugue. "I guess I got too absorbed into my new ideas."

"Are you willing to tell?" She asked as she cuddled with Clixie while she sat down at a couch placed in his stateroom. "It seems like you've come across something truly exciting this time."

Ves couldn't help but grin. "Oh, if anyone hears what's in my mind, they'll probably think I'm crazy!"

"You're already crazy, Ves." Gloriana stated.

"Jokes aside, I'm truly afraid of the possibilities! I can't help but think my latest notions will cause a huge storm in the mech community once they become known!"

Though Gloriana seemed happy, she did not immediately join in his glee.

Instead, she asked a question that many mech designers asked whenever they came up with a possible new innovation.

"Is it practical?"

"...Maybe." Ves hesitated. "I only have ideas to go on. I still need to perform a lot of research and experimentation before I can determine whether this possible creation is viable. Even if I can get it to work, I'll likely have to invest a lot of resources in order to make use of this new invention!"

Everything had a price! Ves did not believe that something as fantastical as an imaginary mech could be formed out of pure spiritual energy. At the very least, the creation of a permanent imaginary mech likely consumed a huge amount of energy!

This was fine. As long as the benefits outweighed the costs, it was still worthwhile for Ves to exploit this innovation!

A few minutes passed by as Gloriana tried to pry some secrets out of Ves. Even though he found her adorable when she started to beg, Ves held up his hand and stopped her pitiful act.

"This is something I have to do on my own. I'll let you in once I develop a solid framework."

"How long will that take?"

Ves shrugged. "I don't know. Months? Years? Decades? As long as there is a chance I might succeed, I'll continue to explore this direction regardless of the lack of results!"

He wasn't certain whether his current strength and ability was enough to succeed in realizing this idea. Perhaps he needed to advance to Senior before he could create an imaginary mech.

After Ves made it clear that he would keep his mouth shut, Gloriana pouted at him but didn't pursue the topic any longer.

It wasn't as if he was the only one keeping secrets.

"Since we're almost at our destination, I thought it was time to tell you what will happen to the Scarlet Rose." Gloriana moved on. "Originally, our dynasty wanted to claim the Scarlet Rose for its own purposes, but I fought hard to keep it in your possession on your behalf!"

"Did the Wodins agree?"

"Not immediately."

"Was there a problem?"

"Don't worry." She placed her hand on her arm to reassure him. "I succeeded in persuading my mother and my relatives to leave the ship in your care. The fact that you conquered the Scarlet Rose through your own efforts is undeniable! It wouldn't be in good taste to deprive you of your prize after risking so much."

"I take it that not everyone agrees with this decision?"

She sighed. "There are many Wodins who believe that a boy like you shouldn't even be playing around with such an expensive ship. While we are not short on ships or the resources to build our own ships, a mobile supply frigate is not something we would pass over."

"Are there any complications?"

"There shouldn't be. The Scarlet Rose should be yours after we arrive at Kesseling VIII. We won't be able to help you repair or overhaul the ship, nor will we be able to supply her with a competent crew."

That was no big deal for Ves. "Even if you offered, I won't accept. I already planned to take care of these matters myself!"

There was no way he would make himself more dependent on the Hexers! Only by employing his own men would he be able to maintain control!