The Mech Touch

MTA merits might not be as versatile as MTA credits, but they could be spent to obtain many more exclusive, high-quality goods and services from one of the Big Two!

Even if the Larkinson Clan only obtained half of the total award, this was still enough for Ves to comprehensively empower his entire power base!

If Ves wanted to, he could bring his Larkinson fleet back to the Milky Way Galaxy and still have enough MTA merits left to buy passage to the Red Ocean!

Of course, only a fool would squander so much MTA merits on a useless vacation back to his home galaxy.

Calabast herself would probably whack Ves over the head with a stick and put him in a torture chamber deep inside the Blinding Banshee until he finally came to his senses!

There were smart ways and stupid ways to spend a windfall of MTA merits.

Ves greatly preferred to spend the MTA merits on benefits that strengthened him and his clan in the long-term.

These included highly-prized catalog items such as access to restricted knowledge, permission to utilize alien technology, obtaining teleportation devices and replacing existing cranial implants for superior models!

He was already satisfied with how much goodies he could obtain with the Larkinson Clan\'s share of MTA merits. There was no need for him to get greedy for more and ruin his relationships with those he considered friends.

His credibility was extremely important and was potentially worth a lot more than a few million MTA merits.

The windfall from the Purgatory Campaign had inflated his ambitions. With so much additional wealth, Ves could forge a lot more relationships with powerful people and organizations.

He intended to take advantage of this condition to expand the Golden Skull Alliance and build a more formidable power bloc around the Larkinson Clan!

Of course, Ves also planned to expand his clan as well. This was his foundation and it needed to become at least five times greater in order to keep up with his growing ambitions!

"Please inspect the amended contract. It should accurately reflect the share of MTA merits awarded to each alliance partner." Master Dervidian said, causing Ves to turn his attention back to the present.

Ves carefully reviewed the numbers. He references his own internal calculations to make certain that they were in order.

[Ves Larkinson: 211,140,000 MTA merits.]

[Reginald Cross: 126,684,000 MTA merits.]

[Galina Rovon-Hartul: 84,456,000 MTA merits.]

"The numbers all look fine to me." Ves said. "Can you transmit this contract to the Cross Clan and the Glory Seekers so that their leaders can review it as well? While I can speak for the Golden Skull Alliance, my alliance partners should also have an opportunity to provide their input. That said, I don\'t think they will object to any of the terms of this agreement."

The terms were way too generous, after all. The Crossers and the Glory Seekers weren\'t stupid enough to reject such a favorable deal.

Master Dervidian nodded. "Very well. We have already teleported over our personnel to their respective flagships so that they can thoroughly go over the full contract. We will probably hear back from them fairly soon. If there are no further issues, we can proceed to sign it so that we can officially put this matter behind us. Congratulations, Mr. Larkinson. Many mech designers would kill to be in your place."

"Many mech designers are lab geeks who can\'t hurt a fly. They can dream all they want, but if they want to obtain a similar windfall, then they should first step out of their high-security design facilities and venture into the deep frontier."

The MTA Master held no interest in this topic and directly addressed another matter.

"We are not done with settling matters, Mr. Larkinson. We have only gone over the most direct issues that needed to be resolved in a formal manner. There are also other incidents that we would like to discuss with you. The difference is that I will be speaking on behalf of the Transhumanist Faction as opposed to the Mech Trade Association as a whole. Do you understand this distinction?"

Ves already expected this to happen. Previously, Master Dervidian only brought up the most necessary points in order to satisfy the MTA\'s obligations and responsibilities.

Now, the MTA Master wanted to negotiate with Ves on a more personal and less official basis.

In short, Dervidian wanted to engage in private business!

Ves had no objection to this. He knew quite well that the Association as a whole was too big and too impersonal for him to befriend at this stage.

It was much better to collude with a handful of factions or individuals who clearly knew Ves better and had a vested interest in his success.

"Let us start with the most important and also the most interesting subject." Master Dervidian said as he summoned another projection. "The means to which you have induced a large amount of breakthroughs in a short amount of time."

The projected feed showed a sped-up clip of the most crucial moment of the Battle of Purgatory.

It displayed the Everchanger changing its design spirit to Lufa before radiating its transcendence glow.

Shortly after that, breakthroughs happened left and right. Mech after mech exploded with forced resonance as if they could easily be bought on the market like nutrient packs!

The most drastic display of extraordinary power was the instance when Vincent Ricklin not only broke through with his B-Man, but also achieved the legendary Unity of Man and Machine.

The sight of the giant energy projection of Bravo charging over to land a powerful punch of the Phase King was already seen as Vincent\'s crowning achievement!

"Impressive." Master Dervidian spoke as the sped-up footage reached its end and started to replay from the beginning. "Rarely have battles of this scale produced so many breakthroughs. It is extremely unlikely for so many expert candidates and expert pilots to emerge at once. What exactly have you done to defy the odds?"

Ves noted that the footage of the battle was from a perspective that provided a good overview of the battlefield.

If he recalled the previous circumstances correctly, there shouldn\'t have been any friendly units at this angle. The quality and resolution of the footage was also way too high considering all of the heat, energy, spatial warping and other interference flooding the battlefield.

Only an invisible device dispatched by the MTA should have been able to make this recording.

"The key is the glow." He answered. "It takes a bit of time for me to explain the theory and mechanics behind it, and I am not completely certain whether all of it is true."

Dervidian made an encouraging gesture towards Ves. "Go ahead and explain your theories to me. I have immersed myself in more theories than you can count. You do not need to be apprehensive about sharing your personal understanding of what has happened. The outcome of this action is the strongest proof that your work is not a fantasy."

"Very well. Let me start by summarizing glows and how they affect people in general before I get more specific."

A top mech designer such as Master Dervidian probably did his homework, but it didn\'t hurt for Ves to go over his work according to his own understanding.

Although he made sure not to bring in more trade secrets than necessary, he spoke rather plainly and without too much obfuscation this time.

Master Dervidian had shown a lot of goodwill and favoritism so far. The man\'s sincerity prompted Ves to be sincere in return as well.

Besides, Ves was no longer afraid of revealing key details about the mechanics behind glows and even design spirits. The mechers had spied on him and his mechs for so long that they must have figured much of this out by themselves.

Since the MTA never stepped in and restricted Ves from relying on glows or design spirits, he figured that Master Dervidian probably wouldn\'t say anything either.

The older man\'s reaction towards glows and design spirits was actually more positive than Ves anticipated!

"Fascinating. We are already aware of the existence of these so-called design spirits. Internally, we refer to them as psionic life forms. They are a rare case of sentient life that are almost completely detached from the material dimensions. That is also what makes them so elusive. They come in many different varieties, but they rarely intersect with humanity, though there are exceptions."

Ves only reacted with mild surprise towards this response. There was no way the MTA was ignorant about the existence of spiritual entities.

In fact, he even guessed that Master Dervidian was heavily downplaying the MTA\'s encounters with them! Ves did not believe that a splinter organization of the Five Scrolls Compact only bumped into spiritual entities on a sporadic basis!

"My design philosophy and expertise allows me to… talk to them, pretty much." Ves modestly said. "By communicating with the nicer ones, I have been able to gain their cooperation. By allowing them to inhabit the mech designs that I have completed, they can grant a portion of their presence and power to every copy of those designs. Don\'t ask me how this even works. I can\'t even explain it myself."

It didn\'t stop him from taking advantage of this phenomenon, though!

Master Dervidian looked completely taken in by this interesting phenomenon. "That\'s a shame, because I am truly curious at the principles behind these metaphysical interactions. Perhaps I should wait until you have advanced to Master before I come back to you to obtain a proper explanation. I expect you to fully comprehend this abstruse method at that time."

"I would be willing to oblige you, though I fear you must wait quite a number of years." Ves modestly replied.

"Let us get back to the subject. Please tell me how these design spirits and glows are able to induce mech pilots into breaking through."

"Ah, that\'s fairly simple."

Ves quickly explained about Lufa, the organic statues he had made that presented variations of him and the effect of the last and most remarkable Aspect he had made at the time.

In order for his explanation to make sense, Ves also divulged his personal theories on what it took for mech pilots to break through.

"From what I have learned over the course of my career, for someone to become an expert pilot, they need to possess both talent and undergo extreme mental tempering." Ves stated. "My design solutions can\'t do much for the first part, but the glow that I have mentioned can do a lot to facilitate the latter. I designed and made the Aspect of Lufa with the assumption that fueling and amplifying a mech pilot\'s greatest obsession is a viable way to induce them into evolving their willpower. The successes so far make me believe that my theory is correct."

"A breakthrough cannot solely be encouraged by manipulating a mech pilot\'s thoughts and emotions." Master Dervidian replied. "Many of our research groups have developed similar theories to yours, but all of the means they utilized to artificially manipulate the mental states of mech pilots have failed. From injecting them with stimulants to subjecting them through years of neural programming, none of their experiments have bore fruit. Why did you succeed? What are the variables or influences that have allowed your design application to achieve a result that is far above the norm?"

"...I can\'t say." Ves said. "As I have said, I only have an incomplete picture of what I do. It just works."

That was a rather frustrating answer for Master Dervidian!

"You can speculate if you wish. Why do you think our finest specialists and researchers have failed while you have succeeded? What are the differences that you believe have made a difference? Please be as forthcoming as possible no matter how uncertain you are in your answers. As the most successful authority on this subject, even your guesses are of great value to our Association."

"...Can I earn extra MTA merits if I do?" Ves tentatively asked.