The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2036

Chapter 2036 Uneven Progress

When Ketis showed off her 'superpower', Ves quickly guided her to an empty office in the base.

What she had just shown off was not something she should reveal so casually!

"Since when were you able to perform this trick?" Ves asked.

"Just a month ago!" She grinned! "During the flight to Sentinel, there wasn't any work for me aboard the ship I was on. Aside from studying and polishing my swordsmanship, I didn't have anything else to do, so I began to see if I could develop my own superpower!"

"Superpowers don't exist, at least not in the way you think." Ves frowned.

Ketis tilted her head. "Didn't I just show off something that no one else could do?"

"That's not a superpower! That's just a side effect!" Ves insisted. "Could you demonstrate it for me again? I didn't pay enough attention the first time. I need to confirm something."

"Okay, but my power can't cut through anything." She warned as he pulled out another steel bar.

It seemed that she had already come prepared.

This time, she placed the small metal bar on a table. When she raised the hand holding her butter knife, Ves keenly studied her with his spiritual vision.

Just as he suspected, through some method, Ketis somehow drew out a considerable portion of her spiritual potential and coated it around the edge of the butter knife!

As soon as her cutting implement was fully enveloped by her spiritual energy, she chopped it down!

Ves paid very careful attention to the metal bar. It parted in half when it met the spiritually-enhanced blade.

It was as if Ketis wasn't a human, but an expert mech that employed true resonance to enhance the sharpness of its blade!

Yet that was impossible. Ketis was not an expert mech, and her application of spirituality diverged significantly from true resonance!

Clunk!

The blade she used to chop the bar continued to cut through the surface of the metal table until it suddenly something that was too hard to continue!

The spirituality surrounding the blade had completely exhausted itself. This must be the limit that Ketis was talking about.

"What are the rules governing your superpower?" Ves probed without shame.

Fortunately, Ketis trusted Ves enough to reveal the details of her newly-developed ability without reserve. "I call it Imbue Sharpness. I can impart an edge on any blade I hold. However, when I tried it out with my greatsword, I quickly learned that the cutting power rapidly dilutes over a longer edge. That's why I can only show off this power with a butter knife. Anything larger quickly causes the additional sharpness to grow weaker."

These rules were easy to understand to Ves, especially since he had seen her ability at work with his spiritual vision.

Right now, her spiritual potential is still within the range of an Apprentice, which wasn't all that much. Perhaps she might be able to empower an actual sword once she advanced to Journeyman, but until then the energy she was able to draw from her mind remained limited.

"What about the duration of this ability?" Ves asked.

"The sharpening effect only lasts as long as I keep concentrating. It's easy to interrupt the effect if I get distracted. Furthermore, my blade can only cut through normal objects. A piece of steel like this bar is still doable, but as soon as I try to cut into the armor of a mech, my sharpness effect instantly runs out! I don't have the strength to cut through harder materials as of yet, but I'll surely do better in the future!"

Everything followed a rule. The energy she was able to channel in her ability could only last for so long. Cutting the small, hand-sized steel bar was no challenge at all, but as soon as her blade cut through the table underneath, her imparted energy rapidly depleted itself because the table was made of a more durable alloy!

After a bit more elaboration, Ves fully understood the gist of her ability.

"It's not a superpower." Ves corrected her. "It's a side effect of your design philosophy."

"Isn't that the same thing?" Ketis frowned in confusion. "I worked really hard to develop my understanding of sharpness! This superpower is the culmination of all of my efforts in the past few months!"

Ves felt like he was talking to Gloriana. Ketis was so convinced that her own framework was right that she simply refused to accept alternative explanations!

"Mech designers." He muttered. "We're just as stubborn as expert pilots."

"What was that, Ves?"

"Oh, nothing. I need to study you a bit. Could you sit down so that I can look into your head? I need to observe something."

"Okay."

Though she was wondering what he was doing, she still sat down so that her head was within his reach.

He placed his hands on her head and tried to peer inside her mind with his spiritual senses.

"Ouch!"

He immediately encountered her mental defenses! It was as if he bumped into a wall of blades!

"Could you relax a bit, Ketis? Just imagine as if you are opening yourself up to me. I want to sense something in you, but to do that, you need to trust me. Can you do that?"

"Uhm.. okay."

Though she began to harbor some doubts, she still followed his instruction, though with some difficulty.

Once her mind cleared up enough for Ves to peek in her mind, he only observed long enough to understand her progress.

Just as he suspected, her nascent design philosophy was incredibly pure!

Not only that, but it had developed to an advanced state! This was not the design philosophy of a Novice or an inexperienced Apprentice. This degree of development was more typical to those who were within reach of advancing to Journeyman! Not even Miles Tovar was this far ahead!

"You have progressed enormously!" Ves gasped. "What did you do in the past year?"

"I already told you. I studied like a demon, I designed a couple of incomplete mechs and I spent months servicing the mechs that belonged to Raella's unit."

All of that sounded simple, but that made her accomplishment all the more remarkable!

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