The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3569

Chapter 3569 Spiritual Equivalence

"My apologies. With everything that has happened as of late, I failed to keep track of your training progress."

Ves had called the 20 MTA mech pilots that Master Willix had originally foisted upon him. After spending a long time among the Larkinsons, each of them had changed a lot compared to before.

If Ves had to describe the changes, then he would say that they had all grown less uptight and more relaxed. Their postures weren't so stiff and their chins weren't pointed so far upwards anymore. They also exhibited more respect towards him, which was a welcome surprise.

"We understand." A man who went by the name of Yusu Tjalen said. "We have been managing fine on our own. There is plenty to do in the Larkinson Clan. Though your facilities aren't as good as the ones we are accustomed to using, we've learned other lessons while we trained and fought alongside your mech legions."

Carlton Detrivo nodded. "The swordsmanship training provided by the Swordmaidens and Heavensworders has helped me reinvent my own approach to melee combat. The guidance provided by Miss Ketis has improved my combat effectiveness with swordsman mechs by more than 20 percent. That is a much larger jump than I could have hoped. If I can continue to improve like this, I will be happy even if I don't break through."

The question whether any of them would be able to break through to expert candidate or expert pilot still weighed heavily on their shoulders, but they knew that hard work was not always sufficient to shed their mortality. Talent, luck and happenstance played an even greater role in determining whether any of them would find their chance!

Ves leaned back on his comfy chair and fell into thought.

He planned several experimental initiatives that might give mech pilots a better chance of breaking through, but with the Simile Halifax hovering so closely to the Spirit of Bentheim, he had put those plans aside.

Though Ves accepted that the MTA was probably snooping on him for the entire duration the MTA frigate was traveling with the expeditionary fleet, he did not want to be too blatant about exposing his more sensitive secrets.

In truth, he had already been a bit liberal about showing off his more innocent capabilities. Little quirks such as forming design networks, allowing Lucky to phase through solid matter and exposing the existence of companion spirits were all deliberately shown off in order to impress Jovy and inform the MTA that his clan was special without attracting too much attention.

However, once he directly exposed a more drastic secret such as the existence of a remnant of the Metal Scroll or the ability to artificially induce a breakthrough, the very top of the MTA would get involved right away!

In order to draw attention away from those extremely sensitive matters, Ves had no qualms about using other secrets as decoys.

In any case, now that he had become an associate of the Survivalist Faction, he could probably get away with a few small actions such as making use of the high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum that he stole from the Supreme Sage's pinnacle lab.

Speaking of factions, now that Ves became more aware of the inner workings of the Mech Trade Association, who did these mech pilots all belong to? Were they all aligned to the Survivalists or did they come from several other factions?

Though Ves was curious to know the truth, he did not find it appropriate to ask this question to them. They were his guests, not his captives. The matter of their factional allegiances weren't really relevant anyway.

"We developed a few plans at the start, but our situation has changed a lot since then." Ves told them. "Each of you are adults so each of you are more than capable of choosing your own training programs. Our clan can give you recommendations, but in our experience the best way for you to push yourself beyond your limits is to fight actual battles where your lives are on the line. I think you'll be able to experience plenty of that in the years to come."

Although the MTA mech pilots all knew that, it still disappointed them that Ves did not offer them anything better.

"Patriarch Ves, Master Willix assigned us to you because she is convinced that you can be of service to us." Jessica Quentin said. "While your clan has its strong points, we have yet to undergo any unique or special procedures."

Ves looked exasperated. "Master Willix was a little too overeager, Miss Quentin. She foisted you on our clan without properly considering that my clan and I don't have a ready-made solution available. My own clansmen are in the same boat as you. Few of our mech pilots have broken through as late."

"What about the Quint, sir? This masterwork mech of yours has already stood out as a mech that can help people break through."

"I believe so as well, but a sample size of 2 is hardly a conclusive indicator that the Quint is a breakthrough machine. Besides, the core identity of the Quint is an ascended Bright Warrior mech. That means it is exclusive or at least highly partial to the Larkinson Clan. None of you are Larkinsons so I do not believe the effect will be as strong on your group. Besides, there is only one Quint and twenty of you guys."

That caused the mech pilots to frown. They all knew quite well that even if they had the opportunity to pilot the Quint, they would all have to make tough choices on who was allowed to go first.

Jessica didn't give up though. "Then… can't you design a more purpose-built mech for us? It doesn't have to be as good as the Quint, but if this new mech model has only a fraction of its advantages, that will still leave us better off than piloting your modified Larkinson mechs."

Her words suddenly caused Ves to gain a new idea.

He envisioned a mech that conformed exactly with what she described. It didn't even have to be a brand new mech design. He could just design a quick variant of the Bright Warrior that was compatible with outsiders and designed with facilitating breakthroughs in mind.

He came up with two different experimental features that could help this breakthrough-oriented mech perform its job.

First, he could employ a weakened version of the glow of the Aspect of Transcendence onto the mech. Though Ves originally planned to test this glow on lab rats, those trials not only took too long, but would also make it too obvious what he was doing to the MTA.

Though the glow of this infamous statue had produced plenty of head explosions, that was only when he exposed it to his test subjects under the most extreme conditions.

What if he toned it down? What if he dampened the effect to just 5 percent of the intensity? While the glow might not be able to produce any immediate breakthroughs under this setting, the chance that someone's head might explode should drop as well!

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was a viable idea. After witnessing hundreds if not thousands of different glow-induced head explosions, he possessed a good understanding of what caused his pirate and dwarven test subjects to sacrifice their lives in the name of science.

They endured too much pressure.

That was it. Although the glow of the Aspect of Transcendence wasn't actually that strong, Ves had programmed it in a way that led to a constant buildup of extreme obsession.

If not for the fact that there was a possibility that it might actually succeed in letting enemies break past their limits, he would have been tempted to weaponize it already!

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify