The Mech Touch

\”Meow!\”

Ves momentarily collapsed on the toilet bowl seat. A searing heat churned in his stomach before the Grand Dynamo Elixir gradually blurred and phased through his stomach.

Then, it began to move upwards!

Within seconds, it had reached straight towards the edge of his mindspace.

Surprisingly, the barrier protecting his mind caused it to stop. Since the elixir kept searing his brains as it lingered in his head, Ves quickly lowered the defenses of his mind, allowing the elixir to enter without any hindrance.

The heat slowly faded as Ves no longer physically experienced the elixir.

\”Who made this elixir?! Canʼt they make it easier?!\”

As Ves recovered from the searing sensations branded onto his flesh, the Grand Dynamo Elixir began to settle into his mindspace. It occupied a space close to the center, not too far away from his design seed.

Already, the two began to interact in a strange fashion. The glowing hot elixir began to warp into a peculiar shape that reminded Ves of a machine in the form of glowing energy particles.

\”This must be the dynamo!\”

He noted that the dynamo and his design seed exchanged with each other. The meaning of this interaction quickly became evident as the dynamo started to assimilate some of his spiritual energy!

Parts of the dynamoʼs structure began to expand with the influx, making Ves feel as if the dynamo belonged to his mind!

His eyes widened!

\”This.. the Grand Dynamo Elixir is a spiritual product!\”

Not only that, but its complexity and sophistication vastly exceeded that of his own rudimentary attempt at creating a spiritual product!

He had blundered his way through the creation of Vescas from the ruins of the Dragon Catʼs spirituality. His lack of knowledge and his dearth of theory prevented him from programming any aspects about his artificial spiritual entity.

If Ves was just a first year mech design student who had taken his first class on mech design, then the creator of the Grand Dynamo Elixir must have been the equivalent of a Master Mech Designer!

The disparity between their application of spiritual energy was just too vast!

An incredible insight struck him as he saw the dynamo starting to become more active.

\”Spiritual energy can be manipulated just like any other matter or energy. Even though it abides by different rules, structure and order can still be imposed!\”

Seeing the obvious mechanisms taking shape made it clear to Ves that the dynamo adopted its shape because it had been designed to do so! Someone or something deliberately developed the dynamo to serve a specific purpose.

Ves coined another term. A narrow glimpse of what was possible suddenly expanded into an open sea! He knew now that ever since he started developing his spiritual toolbox, he had already embarked on the road he now referred to as spiritual engineering!

\”Just like physics, mechanics and mathematics, spiritual engineering is another field of science that I can utilize to design my mechs!\”

The existence of the Grand Dynamo Elixir hinted to Ves that he was not the first individual to embark on the road of spiritual engineering.

Just like how Ves lived in a reality where Seniors, Masters and Star Designers loomed over his shoulders, there might be spiritual engineers out there whose applications were much more formidable!

As Ves began to consider which organization most likely harbored spiritual engineers, his face began to sour.

The System and everything it knew and possessed originally belonged to the only organization the galaxy that actively toyed with spirituality.

\”The Five Scrolls Compact.\”

The more Ves delved into the secrets of spirituality, the more cult kept intertwining itself into his life. It made him feel as if Nitaaʼs sense of worship towards him became more and more justified when he progressed his application of spirituality further.

While Ves firmly considered himself a mech designer, his design philosophy was deeply intertwined with spiritual engineering. At this stage in his career, there was no way he could divest himself from this entanglement!

\”Itʼs like.. Iʼm tugging back and forth between the MTA and the Compact!\”

He had a very clear idea on where he stood. He never possessed a strong sense of belonging to the MTA to begin with, and as he began to harbor more secrets, he diverged more and more from their principles and aims.

Instead, as uncomfortable as it sounded, he slowly aligned himself with the Compact.

Oh, he didnʼt delude himself that he would ever become a full-blown card-carrying brother of the Compact. However, he was faintly aware that some of his attitudes and approaches werenʼt very unusual among their kind.

Ves had something in common with both organizations, but because he dabbled with each otherʼs archenemies, he never fully belonged to one or the other.

A rueful laugh escaped from his mouth as the dynamo in his mind began to become more active.

\”Iʼm both a mech designer and a Holy Son. Yet I can never trust the MTA nor the Compact!\”

He stood completely alone!

If either of them realized the extent of his secrets, they would not hesitate to deprive him of his advantages!

However, this was the road he had chosen for himself. Even if the actions of his parents and the proddings of the System pushed him into it, Ves fully embraced the direction he had taken in his life.

There was no turning back!

At this time of contemplation, the dynamo finally assimilated and shaped his spiritual energy into its structure.

As its mechanisms removed the final restraints, the supreme-quality spiritual product began to fulfill its function.

\”A dynamo is a generator of energy. It converts one form of energy into another form of energy.\”

Though simple and primitive, that did not detract from its utility. Numerous engineers still applied dynamos in all kinds of energy-conversion applications.

Ves could easily build a basic dynamo that converted the energy from a spinning wheel into a weak electric current.

When he compared the basic dynamo he imagined in his mind to the Grand Dynamo that fully took shape in his mind, the differences were too vast, yet their fundamental principles still remained the same!

The Grand Dynamo slowly started to unleash a trickle of spiritual energy.

That trickle quickly turned into a stream, then ramped up into a flood in a matter of minutes!

The most remarkable aspect about the output of the Grand Dynamo was that the spiritual energy it churned out completely conformed to his attributes!

It was as if the output of the Grand Dynamo was an intrinsic part of his mind! No sense of foreignness emanated from it at all, as its entire structure bore his spiritual imprint from top to bottom!

The flood of spiritual energy the Grand Dynamo generated became more and more alarming to Ves. Its output vastly outpaced his natural spiritual energy regeneration!

\”What force is acting on it to produce all of this spiritual energy?!\”

He recalled the description of the Grand Dynamo Elixir. Though he did not sense any hint of it, he never had the sense that the System lied about anything.

It withheld information, yes, but when it spoke, it always strove to be accurate!

\”Is the Grand Dynamo truly being powered by the forces of the galaxy?\” He breathed deeply.

He could not even begin to understand the engineering behind it all! The biggest spinning wheel in the galaxy was the galaxy itself! As an enormous disk of gasses, stars, black holes and other astral junk, the forces keeping it spinning was incredibly humongous!

For the Grand Dynamo to siphon an extremely miniscule portion of these vast forces and convert them into usable spiritual energy was incredible! Only the equivalent of a Master or a Star Designer in spiritual engineering could have conceived of such an amazing application!

Ves became inspired after witnessing the supreme spiritual product fulfill its purpose!

\”This is what the highest minds are engaged in! Their abilities are lofty, but their vision is loftier! Grand designs are the summit of a creatorʼs work!\”

Those at the very top of their professions were capable of performing unimaginable feats! They frequently engineered miracles on demand!

Only now did Ves fully appreciate the worth of the Grand Dynamo Elixir. The supreme-ranked reward did not disgrace its eminent classification!

The System was generous to its owner as long as he continued to excel in his profession!

After ten more minutes of ramping up and other adjustments, the Grand Dynamo finally achieved stability. Its output no longer fluctuated or sputtered but instead formed a stable river of spiritual energy.

The modest deficit of spiritual energy in his mind was being rapidly filled up! As Ves studied the output of the Grand Dynamo and tracked how fast his mental capacity began to fill up, he quickly estimated his new rate of replenishment.

His eyes widened at his estimated results.

\”Before.. it would have taken an entire year for me to replenish my entire spiritual energy reserves. Now, I just need twenty days to fill up my entire tank!\”

The Grand Dynamoʼs output greatly surpassed what he imagined! The sheer difference between the natural regeneration of his mind and the Grand Dynamoʼs workings was far too vast!

\”The difference in production is as vast as the different in might between a human and a mech!\”

A human could never beat a mech in single combat! Ves knew this lesson very well!

As for the Grand Dynamo, Ves in his current state wasnʼt able to match its enormous output!

However… what about the future? How powerful was the mind of a Senior? Or a Master?

Those who just broke through the extraordinary threshold were only at the starting point of a very long climb. Those who advanced higher became exponentially stronger.

\”Itʼs not ludicrous to imagine that a Master or a Star Designer can easily match or exceed the output of my Grand Dynamo!\”

The value of the Grand Dynamo was proportional to the spiritual strength of its user. To someone who only recently became a Journeyman like Ves, the supreme spiritual product was a godsend!

As for those who stood at the summit of the galaxy, the Grand Dynamo was just a supplement at best.

Ves shrugged. \”Even if the Grand Dynamo isnʼt as useful a century from now, that is in the future. Right now, this is exactly what I need to supercharge my progression!\”

The abundance of spiritual energy welling in his mind made him incredibly excited! He could do so much with a deluge of spiritual energy!

\”Spiritual energy is like a currency that I can spend on improving my mech designs! The greater my income, the more I can afford to spend!\”

Even now, his mind quickly reached its saturation point! It could no longer accommodate any more spiritual energy!

Ves keenly watched what happened next. Upon finding out that his mind was chock-full of spiritual energy, the Grand Dynamo abruptly cut off its output! Some kind of internal mechanism completely disconnected its conversion mechanisms from the forces of the galaxy.

The instant reaction made Ves relieved. For a moment, he was afraid that he might leak out his excess spiritual energy from his mind or cause it to compress into a dangerously explosive concentration!

However, seeing the Grand Dynamo becoming inert quickly began to chafe at Ves. Letting this extremely valuable spiritual energy generator go to sleep was a massive waste!

He had to kick it back to work!

\”Come on, Lucky!\”

Ves grabbed his cat from the wash bowl and quickly exited the bathroom. As he reentered the bedroom, he grabbed the box that stored his first P-stone.

He did something that he never would have imagined doing before. He quickly dumped a fifth of his entire spiritual energy reserves into his P-stone!

\”Yes! Suck it all in! Be a good little rock and accept your fate as my piggy bank!\”

Upon absorbing so much of his spiritual energy, the grey P-stone to gain a lot more spiritual weight in his senses! He determined that his P-stone had not come close to reaching its capacity yet, which was good news! The more excess spiritual energy he stored, the more he could spend at critical moments!

It was as if Ves had started off as a spiritual pauper, but suddenly landed a job that elevated him into a spiritual millionaire! The sudden promotion made him dizzy with all of the potential ways he could spend his new riches!