The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

"Remember to practice with Object 431 every day." Ves said as Jannzi's visit to the workshop came to an end. "Don't just blindly repeat the same moves. Try to be more creative about it. The shield contains over a dozen different prime batteries, each of which are filled with different varieties of spiritual energy. It is like a musical instrument that you can play in order to produce a nice-sounding melody. Don't waste too much time on repetitively hitting the same notes, but try to vary and combine them into chords."

It took a long time for Jannzi to accept her new 'homework'. The shield that Ves had made for her might look silly and useless, but Ves claimed that using it would help her become more effective once she finally obtained her new expert mech.

"You're asking for much, Ves." She said with a tired breath. "It will take years if not a decade for me to master the use of this strange new shield."

Ves grinned at that. "Good. That will mean that the Rainbow Shield has nearly endless potential. You can slowly spend your time on drawing it out through relentless practice. What you will be doing goes beyond producing different defensive barriers. You are also exercising your willpower like a muscle. The more you do this, the stronger it will grow. I have a theory that proactively utilizing your extraordinary capabilities like this will help you expand your resonance strength and bring you a step closer to advancing to ace pilot."

Venerable Jannzi briefly felt excited at the thought, but she quickly calmed herself down. Ves had no proof to back up his assertions. She had never heard anything about this before. From what she learned, the most reliable methods for expert pilots to progress was to fight a lot of battles and work on their mentality.

Still, she was willing to give his approach a try since she already agreed to exercise with Object 431. It should at least allow her to make use of the actual Rainbow Shield in a useful capacity once she finally received her reborn expert mech.

"How long will it take for you to complete the Dullahan Project?"

"You will get it before our flagship returns from the MTA's shipyard." Ves promised to her. "It is one of the most advanced and complicated expert mech design projects I have worked on, but that is not detrimental to me. The more complicated it becomes, the deeper its pool of strength. Your new expert mech will not be as weak and limited as the old one. With all of the expensive materials, advanced technologies and unique features stuffed into your machine, I believe it shouldn't be a problem for you to comfortably defeat a high-tier expert mech that is comparable to the Skorpion Kommando. It may even be possible to defeat two of them under the right circumstances."

Venerable Jannzi's eyes grew sharp at the mention of that hated machine.

"Are you being serious?"

"We are living in the early years of the Phasewater Generation, you know." Ves smirked. "Progress is always quick in the first decade of the introduction of a radical new technological paradigm. Transphasic armor systems, transphasic weapon systems and minidrives are constantly improving by leaps and bounds with each passing year. We can do much more with phasewater than when we created the last iteration of your Shield of Samar. Aside from that, don't underestimate the expensive materials that I am willing to invest in your machine. First-class alloys are no joke."

Venerable Jannzi couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to pilot an expert mech that Ves just described.

Somehow, the absurd claim that the product of the Dullahan Project might be able to defeat two expert mechs at the level of the Skorpion Kommando or the Shockshell did not sound as impossible as before.

Jannzi might not be well versed in the technical side of mechs, but even she knew that this was an irrational notion.

Yet the trueblood Larkinson couldn't help but believe in Ves' claims. This was his charm, she supposed. The damn bastard could always find a way to attract people with his dreams.

"I have waited long enough for you to finish your work. I will kill you if you don't give me my expert mech by the time your ship comes back." Jannzi growled.

Ves didn't take her threat seriously. He simply turned around and went back to conducting his next work assignment.

"You can go now. Don't forget to do your homework every day. I think I will pay you a visit in a few weeks and test your abilities with a few weapons."

Once she left his workshop, Ves thought back on the prime resonance barriers that Jannzi managed to project in a short amount of time.

While the barriers were rather weak and pathetic, this would not stay this way forever.

Venerable Jannzi had only recently passed the threshold of a mid-tier expert pilot at this time.

Once she became a high-tier expert pilot at the level of Venerable Davia Stark, she could probably produce a prime resonance barrier that was five times, ten times or even twenty times stronger!

At that point, Jannzi would no longer express any doubts towards the Rainbow Shield and its working principles.

"That is not the limit."

What if Jannzi ascended to a Saint one day? Her ability to harness her willpower would undergo a massive improvement!

Not only would she gain an enormous boost of power, but she could finally exert real control over her strength. This was what made Saint Kingdoms so special.

Theoretically, Jannzi should already be able to form an extremely strong true resonance barrier, but only if her expert mech possessed the right resonating materials.

Resonating exotics and alloys could produce fantastic effects when matched with compatible high-ranking pilots, but they also imposed harsh limits on the mechs in question.

Different resonating exotics often interfered with each other when they were placed in close proximity. Some combinations produced an amplifying effect, but in most cases the opposite occurred.

This was where prime resonance could play a useful role. Prime materials weren't subjected to the same interference effect, so Ves could develop a shield that contained many different prime batteries.

"Besides, who says that prime resonance can't be combined with true resonance?"

Ves already knew from previous instances that both forms of resonance could be combined to produce a stacking or amplification effect!

This could make a huge difference in battle!

If Venerable Jannzi ever fought against an equal or a stronger opponent on the battlefield, she would not fall behind as long as she properly leveraged her expert mech's prime resonance capabilities.

Ves was nearly completely certain that there was no possibility that his forces would ever fight against opponents that harnessed the power of prime resonance. This was his exclusive invention and trade secret. No one should have the ability to reproduce all of the conditions that made it possible.

"That won't last forever, though." He frowned.

Perhaps the MTA might not think much about this obscure design application, but once it became strong enough, that would definitely change. The mechers would definitely want to make it more reproducible before turning it into a general technique that could be passed on to other mech designers.

Fortunately, it would take a long time before the MTA took this step.

"Well, let's get back to work."

Ves went back to his old routine. The preliminary success of his Rainbow Shield concept had elevated his mood and stoked his passion. Just as he predicted, he made a lot more progress on the Dullahan Project than before.

Even Gloriana who occasionally dropped by in order to contribute in her own way took note of his remarkably high productivity!

Mrow~

Blinky floated in the air while cuddling next to another companion spirit.

Maow…

Alexandria lazily yawned as the red spiritual cat pressed closer against her purple companion.

"I didn't think that an odd tower shield would make you so effective." She commented. "What is happening to you, Ves? I don't believe that a single invention can spur you on to this extent."

He chuckled. "Hehehe. I've seen and learned too much as of late. My accumulation has grown too much. I have become so filled with ideas that I want to realize them as soon as possible. Working faster will get me closer to exploring those fantastic new research directions. The fact that I am able to implement a few of them in our current project makes me work even faster."

His wife looked at him with envy. She understood the circumstances that he described. Every mech designer wanted to experience the same state of mind!

Unfortunately, her research was much more plodding and methodical. Her work approach was also a lot tighter and more disciplined than that of her husband. That meant that she was much less likely to enter into a productive frenzy.

She looked back at the projection of the expert mech design in progress.

The Dullahan Project had undergone numerous revisions to its configuration after they returned to work after the conclusion of the founding festival.

One of the benefits of the Larkinson Clan's greater cooperation with the Colonial Federation of Davute was that the latter granted access to more high-end technologies.

President Yenames Clive and his administration still wanted to get on the good side of Ves and his clan. This meant that it was not unacceptable to treat the Larkinsons as insiders and give them access to some of the good stuff that the Clive Consortium and other important parties normally kept to themselves.

Ves took advantage of this generosity to upgrade the technical specifications of all of the ongoing expert mech design projects.

Gloriana was pleased with the boost in expected performance. The only downside was that they needed to spend more time to undo their previous work and start over, but Ves had become so productive that all of these changes hadn't produced any meaningful delays!

"Ves?"

"Yes, honey?"

"If you want us to complete our expert mech design projects faster, you should make a decision about the proposal that I last made. I can work just as quickly as you if you cover the 60 million MTA merits that I need to replace my old cranial implant with a first-class version."

Ves groaned. "Not this again."

"I am not wrong, Ves!"

"Let's wait until we have completed our current batch of expert mech design projects." Ves patiently replied. "We are already doing well enough under the current circumstances. I seriously doubt that you will be able to recover quickly from the complicated replacement operation. What if the recovery period stretches on for months? There is no way the rest of us can complete our latest expert mechs without your input. We need your god body application and your optimization ability to turn them into the best works of our clan. You don't want to miss out on three excellent attempts to add more masterwork certificates to your name, right?"

That caused Gloriana to frown. She wanted her cranial implant as soon as possible, but she didn't want to disrupt her current plans either!

"...Fine. I will wait. You better be ready to subsidize the acquisition of my next cranial implant. I am tired of falling behind."

She was glad that Ves no longer quibbled over the need to replace her old implant with a superior model. That was a definite improvement in her opinion.

She had already managed to get the Glory Seekers to agree to spend 60 million MTA merits to cover the rest of the cost of her future first-class implant, but maybe she could ask for more.

If she was able to persuade the Glory Seekers to invest 120 million MTA merits, then she could shop around for an even better cranial implant!

A product that was worth 180 million MTA merits would definitely boost her progress even more!

She might even be able to surpass Ves with such an excellent augmentation!