The Mech Touch

5919 A Human Gesture

All good things eventually came to an end.

The dark miasma that surrounded him for an unknowable amount of time gradually started to disperse and fade.

The golden light of Messier 87 eventually shone on Ves yet again, much to his regret.

He wished he could have immersed himself in the darkness a bit longer. It had been so easy for him to connect a lot of dots and recognize how so many parts of himself already shared an existing relationship with darkness!

Ves had emerged from the darkness as a different person.

He did not feel as if he lost any part of himself. Instead, he had the illusion that he had always been incomplete, and that his embrace of darkness had just managed to fill up a lot of missing parts.

He was still not quite complete, though.

This was because he only managed to identify and resonate with a handful of concepts related to darkness.

Ves felt an intimate connection with conflict, disorder, secrets, adversity, weakness, concealment and a few other related meanings.

None of them sounded benign or pleasant, but Ves did not regard them as undesirable. Each of these words had always been an intricate part of his life. He would have never been able to become the mech designer he was today if he was not shaped by all of these concepts.

Ves understood that if he wanted to maintain or strengthen his relationship with darkness, he would have to continue to live his life in a way that conformed to the spirit of these keywords.

It shouldn't be too difficult to maintain his new state. The real challenge lay in forging ahead.

Without the handy miasma of darkness at his disposal, it would become a lot harder for him to develop this brand-new aspect of his nascent domain.

He would have to put a lot of work into progressing his design philosophy, gaining new inspiration and subjecting himself to a lot of adversity.

Nonetheless, his vastly improved understanding of darkness also gave him the confidence that he would definitely be able to master its greater potential in time.

As the heavenly authority was about to retreat now that it fulfilled its mandatory obligation, Ves looked forward to getting out of the sight of the shadow of the Subjugation King.

Ves grinned in a vindictive way. "This isn't what you expected, eh? I am so sorry that I managed to spoil myself. I am tainted now according to you. I guess I have desecrated myself so much that I am probably the least valuable 'worthy slave' in your collection now. I hope I have taught you a lesson about messing with humanity. We may be weak, but we shall never bow down to your tyranny!"

The God King had reined in his temper by now. The Subjugation King recognized what had happened and accepted the outcome.

What else could he do now that the heavens had taken action?

Though the Subjugation King was practically incapable of feeling regret, he did convey a sense of profound disappointment towards Ves.

"#$&#%&$@%%$@$."

"YOU WERE WEAK AND IGNORANT, BUT YOU HAD GREAT POTENTIAL AS A WORTHY SLAVE. I EXERCISED MY POWER TO PLANT A MARK OF OWNERSHIP ON YOU. THROUGH YOUR FOOLISH AND SHORTSIGHTED ACTIONS, YOU HAVE TURNED IT INTO A MARK OF SHAME. YOU HAVE DOOMED YOURSELF TO DESTRUCTION AT MY HAND. THE FIRST ACTION I SHALL UNDERTAKE ONCE I REACH YOUR DIM AND MISERABLE SEA OF STARS IS TO TRACK YOU DOWN AND PUNISH YOU FOR THE GRAVE INSULT THAT YOU HAVE DELIVERED UNTO MYSELF AND THE GREAT LIGHTHOUSE."

Ves had a very simple response to the Subjugation King's parting remark.

He raised his middle finger at the alien!

There was no need for him to explain the meaning of this quintessential human gesture. His attitude and open defiance provided enough clues that this was anything but a flattering move!

It was over.

The empty heavenly paradise disappeared.

Ves returned to the command center in an instant. The shadow of the Subjugation King was nowhere to be seen.

As he started to take stock of the situation, he quickly learned that the Dominion of Man had just completed her profound restoration and transformation.

The giant rainbow-colored beam that shot through the hull had bestowed everyone with the gifts they deserved!

Even if the multi-modal lightning tribulation skipped out on the most arduous 9th round, the dreadnought and everyone related to the vessel still performed above and beyond to make it past the final wave. Each of them clearly deserved additional recognition for their noteworthy contributions.

The heavens may be harsh, but they were ultimately fair.

Ves became amazed by how much improvement the giant rainbow beam had left in its wake.

The crew of the Dominion of Man each became stronger than ever. It did not matter whether they knew nothing about cultivation. From the moment they tied their lives to the ship, they had automatically become contract cultivators.

Not only did they receive a round of direct strengthening, but the comprehensive evolution of the Dominion of Man herself also fed back into significant boosts to the fleeters who had forged a Bloodfire Pact with the vessel!

Alas, not everyone had been willing to place their dedication to the dreadnought on top of every other concern, so they clearly missed out on the latter benefit.

Regardless, no one was truly unhappy with what they received. It was already unimaginable for mortals to feel as if they had magically grown stronger, smarter, tougher and more prepared to face the tough challenges ahead!

Everyone gradually began to smile and laugh as they celebrated their survival and embraced their new and improved dreadnought!

Ves still possessed temporary guest access to the Dominion of Man's control system, so he activated a few projections and quickly inspected a lot of different data points.

"Masterwork."

He could already feel and see the difference, but he wanted to take a peek at other parts of the massive hull before he felt confident enough to make this conclusion.

The Dominion of Man had successfully been elevated to a masterwork. Her vastly restored though not quite complete hull exuded an undeniable charm that signified that her overall quality had reached a transcendent level.

Even if it was just the second rung of Senfovon's Ladder of Craftsmanship, the appearance of a masterwork dreadnought was far more significant than the emergence of another god mech!

The reason why this was the case was because there was already an existing pipeline of the latter.

The difficulty of producing another god mech was insanely high, but at least humanity managed to produce a hundred of them! The method to create another one was no longer a mystery.

The Dominion of Man held an entirely different meaning. She was the first and only living warship and Carmine dreadnought for the time being!

Ves was vaguely aware that masterwork starships were not unique. Many Star Designers dabbled in this area for one reason or another.

However, Ves was not aware of any masterwork that possessed the exceedingly mighty combination of size and power as a dreadnought!

He had definitely broken a record in this aspect!

As the reality of the outcome of the lightning tribulation settled into his mind, a deep sense of satisfaction flooded his mind.

The pure and simple fulfillment he gained from helping the Red Fleet acquire a uniquely powerful trump card was indescribable.

Strangely enough, his sense of satisfaction was not as strong as he expected.

"I'm a mech designer, after all. Dabbling with warships is nice and all, but it is not satisfying as designing another bestseller."

To be honest, Ves derived a lot more satisfaction from publishing his Fey Fianna and Ultimatum designs.

He needed to wrap up his affairs on this ship as quickly as possible so that he could finally get back to designing mechs. His head was filled with so much inspiration that he needed an outlet for his overactive imagination!

"Professor Larkinson."

Ves turned around to face the dread captain. "Ah, yes?"

"Before we proceed with other affairs, let me state on behalf of the Dominion of Man and the Red Fleet that you have done an invaluable service to us all. We shall never forget your priceless contribution to our cause."

"SALUTE!" An aide of the dread captain barked!

Each and every fleeter stood up if they were seated and saluted in the direction of Ves!

Their gratitude was so strong that Ves could feel it! If he was a True God, he bet that he would have been able to harvest extraordinary rich faith energy from all of these spacers!

Alas, the pure and authentic faith slid right off him, making him feel regretful that he was two major cultivation ranks away from becoming a Star Designer.

Once the fleeters completed this short but necessary ritual and went back to inspecting their evolved dreadnought, Ves finally managed to retire to Dread Captain Argile's opulent office compartment.

Too much had happened to the Dominion of Man. The dread captain and his entire staff had no time to entertain Ves.

The departure of the tribulation storm had removed all of the interference and fully restored communications.

Even now, the Brain Trust was in the process of transmitting huge amounts of raw data directly to high command!

Many high-ranking fleeters wanted to study the data, reconstruct what had happened and learn how to replicate the evolution of a warship themselves!

Ves was pretty sure that a lot of tier 1 galactic citizens must be discussing furiously amongst themselves!

They would probably make a lot of decisions above his head. It didn't matter as Ves had already provided his side of the story to the dread captain in advance.

The reprieve granted him time to take stock of his own changes. Ves was still in the process of acclimating to the new and improved version of himself.

Acquiring a brand-new affinity to darkness attribute changed his entire perspective towards reality.

His thoughts became biased in a different direction. He also felt greater comfort when he placed himself away from brightly lit areas.

This was why he issued a command that lowered the light levels of this compartment. Even though the change in luminosity resulted in very little functional differences, he still felt a lot more at home in the shadows.

This did not mean he turned into a vampire and became allergic to light or anything.

He just felt invigorated if he was residing in an area that was plunged in the dark. His thinking sped up and he found it a little easier to solve complicated design problems. He became more perceptive towards his environment and became a little more sensitive towards his own personal space.

It was quite interesting for Ves to learn how much a domain affected one's entire state.

Few people had ever experienced such a drastic change to themselves, so they had never gained the opportunity to compare their before and after states.

Ves was different. The clear and obvious contrast not only taught him a lot about domains, but also made it easier for him to understand his past and present condition.

As Ves continued to explore these fascinating changes, the hatch suddenly slid open.

The heavily armored form of Dread Captain Argile strode through the oversized entrance.

"Thank you for being patient, professor. I have just concluded a number of high-priority meetings with the Red Admiralty. I have time now to resolve your remaining affairs."

Ves grinned and rose to his feet. "It's about time! Are there any further problems or delays, or are you finally allowed to fulfill your side of our agreement?"

Volkert Argile smiled back. "We will not withhold the transfer any further. You have done far more to us than we have promised to you. The fleet admirals have agreed to bestow you with additional rewards, but we can address those topics later. Given your restlessness, I believe you would rather follow me to one of our vaults where we have stored our precious reserves of EE-343F-00334R."

"Damn straight."

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