The Mech Touch

How should he call this new kind of mechs?

Spiritual mechs?

Technically accurate, but too revealing. If there was any instance where he had to reveal the existence of spiritual mechs, then he shouldnʼt call it by this name.

Though Ves did not assume he would ever reveal the existence of something so thought-defying, he used to adopt the same thought towards the X-Factor and its manifestations.

Since he had a tendency to reveal some of his capabilities over time, he might as well prepare ahead and have a good name in place to explain his concept.

He weighed several possible suggestions, from false mechs to psionic mechs.

Eventually, he settled for a suitably vague but accurate phrase.

”Imaginary mechs.” Ves snapped his fingers. ”It fits!”

The reason why he settled on this name was because it described the essence of his latest idea. The work he tried to create would be formed of pure spiritual energy or matter. It did not exist and left no trace in the material dimensions.

Ves created these mechs completely in the realm of mind and spirit, hence why he called them imaginary.

As he silently explored this idea throughout the day, Ves steadily expanded the concept and tried to find a way to translate this innovative idea into a practical creation!

”Itʼs all well and good to come up with great ideas, but if I canʼt turn them into reality, then what is the point of wasting time on them? Before I develop this idea any further, I have to determine whether itʼs even feasible!”

After all, Ves had ever heard of creating intangible mechs! The idea was so inconceivable that Ves guessed that he was the only mech designer in the galaxy to even consider it seriously!

The main reason why Ves wanted to turn this idea into fruition at all was because it completely matched his professional inclinations.

Perhaps other spiritual sorcerers developed techniques that allowed them to create spiritual swords and shields, but why should Ves reinvent the wheel?

He was a mech designer! Designing and fabricating mechs was what he did best! Even if creating a complete and functional mech from reality was a thousand times more complicated than forming a primitive spiritual weapon or tool, Ves possessed a clear advantage in this aspect!

The existence of the Grand Dynamo hinted to Ves that spiritual engineering was a flourishing discipline. Plenty of spiritual sorcerers managed to apply advanced techniques to create incredibly wondrous spiritual applications.

Ves yearned to explore spiritual engineering and develop it into one of his strengths, yet he could not devote his entire life to it like other spiritual sorcerers.

”I am NOT my mother.” He emphasized to himself.

He was incapable of performing all of the tricks displayed by the likes of his mother and Cassandra Breyer, and he didnʼt feel any passion in following their ways.

Rather than following in the footsteps of the Five Scrolls Compact, why not leverage his existing strengths and treat spiritual engineering as a minor?

Ves had a hunch that as long as he succeeded in coming up with a method to create an imaginary mech, he might be able to translate his gains in this field back to his main profession!

Whether he could use his imaginary mechs to enhance his design spirits or infuse a mech with an imaginary equivalent, the potential to empower his physical mechs was boundless!

Perhaps this direction was a possible way for him to design and create a true living mech that he had always dreamt about! As long as he combined a physical and an imaginary mech into a single entity, he might be able to create a combination that posed a threat to every possible enemy, whether they were real or spiritual!

He became more excited when he fantasized about these possibilities! This was not only a way to broaden his specialty, but also completely integrate spiritual engineering into his core profession!

Once he developed this field, no mech designer in the galaxy ought to be able to match him! Unless another mech designer existed who specialized in spirituality and possessed his spiritual competences, then Ves would definitely be able to hold a monopoly over spiritually-empowered mechs!

”This is the key to earning lots of MTA merits.”

Whenever he thought about the astronomical amount of MTA merits he needed to earn, Ves always felt pained at the burden.

The quantity was too huge!

With his capabilities and growth trajectory, he figured it wasnʼt a big deal to accumulate 100 million MTA merits in 50 years.

Yet if he waited that long, Ves would miss far too many opportunities! Already, stories about all of the gains the first-movers had gained were spreading all over the galactic net. The Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy was ripe for the picking, but if he came too late, much of the harvest would already be gone!

Therefore, Ves really needed to fulfill this requirement within a decade in order to keep his hopes alive. He did not wish to explore a Red Ocean that was already filled with established states!

”I also canʼt forget the time it takes to travel to the nearest beyonder gate.” He muttered.

Shortly after the Big Two revealed the existence of beyonder gate technology, they immediately formed an ambitious plan to revolutionize space travel in the old galaxy!

As humanity plundered an increasing amount of phasewater from the Red Ocean, the Big Two rapidly started to erect beyonder gates throughout the Milky Way.

Just like with the Comm Consortium, the two most powerful human organizations in the galaxy formed a subsidiary organization to operate and manage these smaller beyonder gates.

So far, the Gate Consortium was only in its infancy, but already its existence shook up human civilization!

The dozen so-called lesser beyonder gates already started to provide an enormous amount of convenience! Space travelers who urgently needed to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other end no longer had to waste decades of their lives to reach their destination!

Unlike the greater beyonder gates which enabled inter-galactic travel between the Milky Way and the Red Ocean, the lesser beyonder gates were not as costly to operate.

In order to access the Milky Way Galactic Gate Network, a passenger could still pay for their trip in MTA or CFA merits.

No one with a shred of sanity in their minds would ever accept this price! Merits were too precious and difficult to earn! Not only did the payer have to earn the merits themselves, they werenʼt transferable!

This meant that there was no possibility of inheriting them. It was impossible for a group to accumulate them without putting in some actual effort!

The other major issue with merits was that they were essential in redeeming goods and services exclusive to the Big Two, of which life-prolonging treatment was their biggest prize!

If someone had to choose between extending their lifespan for a century or instant travel from the edge of the galaxy to the center of the galaxy, most would choose the former!

Since many people had been conditioned to hoard their merits until they could redeem something truly valuable, the Gate Consortium reluctantly opened up their Galactic Gate Network to passengers who paid in money rather than merits.

Even though the price in fleet or mech credits was rather exorbitant, at the very least it was a lot easier to earn them! Ves himself did not worry as much about this issue as he had a thousand ways to accumulate funds.

For example, aside from earning money by selling mechs, he could also collect fees from rich people eager to reach the Red Ocean or attract investment from a wealthy patron.

As long as the Gate Consortium built a lesser beyonder gate close to the Komodo Star Sector, then Ves would only have to spend a few years to access the network. From there, he could pay for passage to a hub destination which contained a greater beyonder gate.

Only greater beyonder gates were capable of facilitating inter-galactic galactic travel!

In any case, the formation of the Galactic Gate Network already solved one of his most urgent problems. His expeditionary fleet didnʼt have to waste too much time to reach a greater beyonder gate.

”Thatʼs something to consider for the future.” He muttered.

For now, he still needed to form a list of issues he needed to solve in order to pave the way for the creation of imaginary mechs.

As the fleet silently entered the territories occupied by the Ylvaine Protectorate, Ves obsessively ignored everything and devoted his complete thoughts to realizing this fantastic concept!

After a lot of consideration and experimentation, he finally ended up with a succinct list of points he needed to address.

Ves activated his spiritual vision and inspected the miniature mech he made out of his own Spirituality.

He wasnʼt proud of his first attempt.

Outwardly, his very first imaginary mech was an identical copy of the Desolate Soldier, scaled down to the size of his hand.

Yet it was simply a toy in his view. The mech was actually just a spiritual projection that Ves carved into the shape of a mech. He hadnʼt been able to tinker what lay underneath as his spiritual control wasnʼt that precise.

This meant that the mech didnʼt possess any internal components at all! It was just a solid collection of spiritual energy!

Even though his first attempt was an abject failure, Ves learned a lot from this attempt. At the very least, he found out what he had to do to turn this failed product into a working product.

The first step was to find a way to turn spiritual energy into permanent spiritual matter.

To be honest, spiritual energy was not an entirely accurate name for the clouds of energy that powered most spiritual applications.

It actually possessed the properties of both energy and matter.

Not only that, but its state between the two extremes existed on a spectrum! As long as Ves willed it, he could shift the state from one end to the other end, or just settle it in between!

”The problem is that energy is its default state!”

For some reason, it took active effort to sustain the matter state. The more spiritual energy slid towards matter, the more Ves had to work to keep its burdensome state!

As long as Ves withdrew his concentration, his spiritual matter would quickly decay into energy!

This was a frustrating problem, and one that hampered him enormously!

He wanted to create a true imaginary mech. How could he painstakingly reproduce millions of components and put them all together, only for it to devolve into a cloud of spiritual energy the moment Gloriana distracted him? Such a shortcoming was intolerable!

For this reason, Ves thought long and hard to address this perplexing issue. Unless he found a way to form spiritual matter that was able to maintain its state without active support, the whole notion of creating imaginary mechs was moot! He would never waste time on something so inefficient!

He gained some inspiration after watching Lucky munch an exotic for lunch.

”Wait a moment..”

Spiritual matter couldnʼt sustain its state because there was nothing fixing it in place. It was like trying to build a sandcastle with liquid water. How could water obediently defy the laws of reality and behave like a solid object when its nature compelled it to behave like a fluid?

What if Ves could fix spiritual matter into shape by feeding it or blending it with materials?

While he wasnʼt sure whether this was doable, he thought this was a viable solution. Certain exotics reacted to spirituality. What if he could take advantage of this property to process spiritual matter?

”Iʼll have to wait until I get back to explore this idea!”

Ves developed other theories to form permanent spiritual matter, but only this idea gave him the hope of solving this problem!