The Mech Touch

5972 Attribute Bonus

The physical projection of Tristan Wesseling looked surprised.

He never imagined that Ves would contact him out of the blue one day.

The distance between the two had become a lot more magnified after the last year.

When Tristan learned that Ves had actually played a key role in transforming the Dominion of Man into a living dreadnought of all possibilities, he knew that there was no way he could catch up to his old friend anymore!

Even if Tristan managed to make a lot of progress in the following century, Ves would make 10 times as many gains.

This realization did not make the former Fridayman depressed.

Instead, he felt relieved. The burden of trying to keep up with an insanely successful prodigy was impossible to begin with. It was better for him to stop wasting his time on useless comparisons and focus on his own work.

That was exactly what he was doing before the infamous patriarch of the Larkinson Clan contacted him in person.

It quickly became clear that it was not a social call. Ves directly started the conversation by explaining his needs before extending a business offer.

His old friend presented so much information in so little time that Tristan had to delay his response so that he could go over all of the implications.

"I am not opposed to working with you on commission." Tristan spoke. "I am no stranger to them. The difference here is that you are not giving me enough information to work with. You want me to develop a hyper gem that can augment the performance of an experimental hyper module for an expert mech of yours, yet you refuse to share their technical data."

"That is because it isn't necessary. You should be able to work out a gem without needing to learn the specifics. There is plenty of public footage of the Dark Zephyr in action. The upgraded version of the expert mech will become a lot more powerful, but there are still plenty of similarities."

"That may be the case, but I cannot guarantee that the commissioned gem will perform up to your standards. You haven't even explained to me what this experimental hyper module is meant to do. I cannot work out anything too specific if you do not extend even the most basic level of trust."

Ves sighed. "I am sorry, Tristan. I am not treating you as fairly as I would like. Please understand that it is better for both of us if I do not share too many details. The experimental hyper module is part of a major technological development. I do not want the wrong people to learn about it too soon. If the cosmopolitans ever get wind of it, they will most definitely lead the information to the Red Cabal, who will subsequently be able to account for this additional factor if they ever plan an ambush against my forces. Real lives are at stake. I do not ask for a perfect result. I am just fine with a satisfactory one. Don't worry. I will not skimp on the payment. As long as the gem is at least somewhat useful to the Dark Zephyr, I will compensate you fully."

That mollified Tristan a bit. "Those terms are acceptable. As a service provider, I do not want to deliver a disappointing product to my clients, but in the interest of full disclosure, I cannot promise to fulfill all of the requirements that you have set. If you agree to present me with a commission after this, then I will make the attempt to create the hyper gem you need. Given your demanding expectations, you will need to send me an advance in funding or materials so that I can begin the development of the hyper gem that you wish to add to one of your expert mechs."

"Funding and materials are no problem." Ves dismissively waved his hand. "I will put you in contact with Miss Alexa Streon, who acts as my secretary and assistant in mech-

related affairs. I will send her a message that she should procure all of the high-grade exotics and hypers that you need to develop your gem."

"More powerful materials are not always beneficial to my work, Ves. It is exponentially harder to form a stable and functional gem when you try to compress too many volatile and energetic materials together. I have found that it is always better to establish a stable equilibrium, even if that means forgoing more powerful materials."

That made Ves appreciate Lucky's gems even more. They were much more powerful than Tristan's gems, but managed to isolate their energies so well that Ves was not able to perceive anything from the outside.

Tristan's specialization had not yet approached that level, but that was not a big problem. He still had plenty of time to grow and develop his specialization.

"If you truly need more direction, then I can give you a single hint. The gem should enhance the Dark Zephyr's connection with the shadow element. That is all I can say."

"That is… helpful. It is better than nothing. I have not worked with this element before, so please do not expect anything too refined."

"I understand. Even a minor difference can help. If it turns out that your gem doesn't really provide anything helpful to the Dark Zephyr, then I can always leave it out. I won't blame you if that happens."

It was not in Ves' best interests to reduce his expectations for this commission.

However, he did so anyway because he trusted Tristan to do his best regardless. They were more than client and producer. They were friends who went all the way back to the Komodo Star Sector. Even if their trajectories had diverged from each other, their mutual respect still remained strong.

There was no need for Ves or Tristan to actively reaffirm their friendships. Their speech, body language and other indicators already made it clear that they were still in tune with each other.

A part of Ves even wanted to deepen his friendship with Tristan, but he decided against it. He was far too busy to spend his time on an activity that would not yield immediate gains. He already had too much work on his plate.

After hashing out a few more details, Ves quickly bid goodbye to Tristan.

"Please produce results as quickly as possible. It will not take too long before we are ready to upgrade one of our oldest expert mechs. We will find out at that point whether your gem can serve as the capstone to our reimagined machine."

Once the communication channel closed, Ves closed his eyes and pushed aside most of his thoughts concerning the hyper gem commission.

The typical effects of gems did not require Ves to design a mech around them. He could freely design his mech first before slotting in the gem to selectively augment a few capabilities.

Lucky's gems were especially compatible with a lot of mechs. Tristan's gems did not possess as much adaptability, but as long as the effects were not too disruptive, he could still slot them into his mechs after making a few adjustments.

Gems were convenient like that.

"Wait, the Dark Zephyr already has a gem."

It had been such a long time ago since he imbued his expert mech with a gem that it had slipped his mind. This was despite the fact that its actual performance clearly exceeded its technical parameters!

[Bastet's Regard]

The blessing of a feline patron is stored in this gem. Improves the agility of a mech by 20 percent.

The effect was a bit weak compared to Lucky's newer gems, but it was still an excellent fit for an expert light skirmisher.

Ves wondered whether the effects of Tristan's gems would overlap with the gems produced by Lucky.

"That… shouldn't be the case."

They might look identical to each other, but they worked according to different principles.

Besides, their effects should be radically different, so there was little chance of any overlap.

Ves soon returned to his work.

He split his time between mech design, research, teaching, raising children and handling administrative duties.

He deliberately declined to engage in any diplomacy and delegated this responsibility to his subordinates.

Far too many people wanted to establish a relationship with Ves, but he could not afford to get distracted.

He was way too invested in the Dark Zephyr Mark III Project to get pulled away again.

His wife made excellent progress as well. Though it was a bit weird for her to drag Hekkel along every time she worked on the Dark Zephyr Mark III Project, Ves became accustomed to the arche engineer's presence after a while.

It helped that his wife had done an excellent job at taming the alien. The arche was so damn servile and obedient that people started to treat it like a giant pet turtle.

"Meow…"

"Miaow…"

Both Lucky and Clixie yawned as they perched on top of the shiny archeshell and took a nap.

Hekkel's archeshell had become one of their favorite napping spots!

"Hihihi! Let's ride!"

Andraste and Marvaine loved to climb on top of the archehell so that they could pretend to ride Hekkel as if he was an exotic mount.

While his shell was not a particularly comfortable saddle, the children did not mind all that much.

The only issue was that Hekkel's movement speed was much slower than that of an arche soldier. He was unable to actually ride in battle, not that anyone cared about this detail.

As Ves tried to incorporate Omen Stone and Teraixe-063 in his very first Ultimate Module design, he conducted lots of small experiments to study the interaction between the two hyper materials.

Only a few of these experiments yielded helpful insights, but a negative result was still a useful data point.

The more experiments he completed, the more he became adept with the usage of these two interesting materials.

Ves discovered that his newfound affinity for darkness provided him with a large advantage in understanding the two hypers and understanding their greater potential.

It was as if Omen Stone and Teraixe-063 hid their secrets behind encrypted texts.

The greater his comprehension of darkness, the easier it was for him to decrypt these invisible texts and gain more crucial insights.

"Am I deciphering their runes?"

Ves had not observed any solid trace of runes in the two hyper materials.

That did not mean they were absent. They might just be hidden from his sight.

Though Ves had no evidence to prove that the hyper materials were marked with runes, he had reasons to believe that this may be the case.

They did not have to be there by design. Nature itself carved the runes as the hyper materials started to react to specific elements and harmonized with a fundamental aspect of reality.

Whatever the case, Ves had a powerful feeling that he would be able to draw out the potential of the two hyper materials to a considerably greater extent than other people!

The Ultimate Module would become even more powerful if that was the case!

"Should I insert a darkness-oriented Ultimate Module in all of my expert mechs?"

Ves shook his head. This was too excessive!

Darkness just happened to be compatible with the Dark Zephyr and Venerable Tusa in a way, but that clearly did not apply to other combinations.

Ves should prioritize fit over raw power. Even if he possessed a clear advantage in working with the darkness element, he should stick to the ones that were already associated with his other mechs.

"It's a pity, though."

He needed to pay more attention to the nascent domains of other mech designers. A lot more Journeymen worked for the Design Department than before. That gave Ves access to many different specializations, each of which corresponded to many different attributes.

"I should pay more attention to them." Ves thought. "I haven't really interacted with them all that much. It is usually Gloriana and Alexa who direct their work."

Many of the new recruits had already acclimated to their new clan and responsibilities by now. Ves should check up on them and see whether any notable talents had bloomed.

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