The Mech Touch

The reason why Gloriana looked absolutely gobsmacked at the moment was because she had already started to write off the possibility of turning the Ghost Project into a masterwork mech.

Her internal model of mechs heavily emphasized the physical qualities of a mech. In her opinion, a mech that was worthy to become a masterwork had to match the mech design as closely as possible while also making small adjustments in order to compensate for irregularities in materials and the environment.

Although Gloriana also learned from her husband that it was important to provide a mech with a structured spiritual foundation, she had always treated it as an auxiliary component. Adding it to a mech was an easy method to elevate the overall quality of a mech.

The stronger the spirituality of a mech, the less effort was needed to surpass the masterwork threshold!

However, one of the long-running disagreements between Ves and Gloriana was their view on how much weight the material and spiritual properties carried when calculating the overall quality level of a mech.

Gloriana for example believed that a masterwork mech was at least 90 percent about perfecting the material aspects of a mech.

Expanding on the spiritual foundation of a mech was definitely an easy way to score extra points, but even if it received a massive improvement that made it much more effective than before, it should not be alone to carry a mech to the masterwork state!

In Gloriana's theoretical framework of mechs, it was absolutely essential to elevate its physical and material qualities to the utmost in order to climb up to the second rung of Senfovon's Ladder of Craftsmanship.

Although Ves fully understood Gloriana's arguments, he disagreed with her conclusion.

Their design philosophies were ultimately different on a fundamental level, and that caused the two to regard masterwork mechs from their own unique lenses.

Ves possessed an unconventional design philosophy, so it shouldn't be a surprise that his interpretation of mechs was radically different from the mainstream.

In his view, a classically educated mech designer as Gloriana put way too much stock on what mechs looked like in the material realm.

To a mech designer like Ves who spent much of his years studying how his mechs looked in both the material realm and the imaginary realm, he felt that the latter was just as important as the former!

A mech that looked visually exquisite but turned out to be a mess from a spiritual perspective was a defective product in Ves' eyes!

Perhaps it was still possible for such a mech to become a masterwork, but the people who accomplished this in the past only did so by putting in an effort that was beyond human!

These rare masterwork mech designers made it so that the material properties of a mech overpowered to such an extent that its strengths fully compensated for the weaknesses of the spiritual properties of the same machine!

According to the theoretical framework of mechs established by Ves, that was a valid but extremely inefficient way to make a masterwork mech.

There was no need for mech designers to perfect the physical engineering of the mech to such an insane degree.

As long as they did a good job at shaping the spiritual engineering of the mech, the combined scores of the two should make it so that the product had a higher chance of attaining masterwork status!

Ves theorized that whatever force was responsible for judging the craftsmanship of a mech based 50 percent of the score on its material form and the other 50 percent on its spiritual form!

Of course, Ves was also open-minded enough to accept the possibility that the spirituality of a mech was only 30 or 40 percent as important.

It was difficult to determine the exact weight of every criteria. Ves and Gloriana did not have access to enough samples to perform rigorous quantitative research on this difficult subject.

They also found it challenging to record concrete data without involving a lot of their own subjectivity in their measurements.

This was the reason why their disagreement remained unresolved for such a long time.

This was like two people watching the same drama show but coming away with different opinions on whether it was good.

Gloriana was the sort of viewer who heavily appreciated the graphics, the practical effects and the appearances of the actors of a broadcasted drama. She became incredibly stimulated when the entire show looked fantastic to her eyes, so much so that she did not pay too much attention to any other criteria!

Ves on the other hand was the sort of viewer who appreciated both the visuals and the sounds of a drama show. The experience had to look good, but it was equally important for the sound effects, the voices of actors and the accompanying music to delight his ears!

Perhaps most people did not put much weight in the aural experience of a drama show, but Ves was different.

Not only that, but he believed that the cosmos or whatever else turned mechs into masterworks applied a set of criteria that also shared a similar appreciation for sound and music!

Of course, it was also probable that this cosmic force also scored mechs by other aspects that Ves and Gloriana did not consider such as the quality of the narrative plot or the dialogue.

None of that was important for the time being.

What mattered the most to the two mech designers was that the Ghost Project's masterwork transformation may finally give the Miracle Couple a resolution to their long-running dispute!

From the increasing sense of dismay on Gloriana's face, it appeared that the proof provided by the expert stealth mech did not sit well with the female mech designer!

Ves was the opposite in this regard. His grin grew wider and wider as he observed plenty of signs that his innovative efforts to elevate the spiritual design of his Ghost Project to a greater height made the difference!

"Hahahaha! I knew I was right!"

The reason why he felt so jubilant was because he knew that the Ghost Project was not that impressive from a physical aspect!

His past masterwork mechs were much more well-constructed even if Ves and his wife weren't as good at the time.

This was because the technological sophistication of older mechs such as the original Amaranto, Everchanger and so on was not that high.

These masterwork mechs more closely matched the design and fabrication skills mastered by Ves and Gloriana.

The Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project were entirely different in this regard.

They came much closer to first-class mechs in terms of technological sophistication and material composition.

The addition of phasewater alone also made it a lot harder to fabricate a working transphasic mech!

The result of these changes was that the Dullahan Project ended up fairly sloppy.

Ves and Gloriana may have learned a lot of lessons and pulled off a significantly better job at improving the physical construction of the Ghost Project, but it should not be close to reaching the masterwork threshold at its current quality!

The only reason why it became a masterwork mech without the use of one of Lucky's gems was because the act of turning it into a powerful and more structured third order living mech massively improved its spiritual properties!

This latest advancement raised the overall quality level of the Ghost Project so much that it essentially became a masterwork mech by virtue of its elaborate and multi-faceted spiritual design!

"It's a combination of excellent features that has made the difference!" Ves guessed.

By combining the powerful and versatile Geist System, the newly forged bond between Venerable Zimro Belson and Mephisto and now a third order living mech that gained access to several promising Ascension Paths, all of these innovative additions enriched the expert stealth mech to such an extent that the cosmos would have to be blind if it did not recognize it as a masterwork!

"This…" Gloriana looked almost broken. "This cannot be… I was sure my theory was right… how can such a physically flawed mech become a masterwork…"

It was as if the qualitative transformation of the Ghost Project had nothing to do with her contributions.

She may have worked hard to prevent the expert stealth mech from ending up terrible in physical terms, but she had not been able to excel in this area due to her immature skills, her incomplete theoretical understanding and her lack of experience!

Even if her god body solution would eventually ensure that the Ghost Project's physical attributes gradually brought it closer to the masterwork threshold over time, this was not a real accomplishment in her opinion.

As Ves and everyone else continued to observe the Ghost Project as it reached a higher and more indescribable state of existence, it seemed that even the masterwork transformation was biased towards spirituality at this time!

Gloriana had another reason to feel upset about this event!

"How can this be?! Why isn't the physical structure being elevated as much as in the previous cases?!"

Ves smirked in her direction. "You should summon your companion spirit and take a peek through her perspective."

Gloriana along with Miles and Cormaunt all pulled out their respective companion spirits.

Maow…

Alexandria had been working hard in the past few days. The red spiritual cat looked much more tired than normal, but she did not need to exert much effort to witness the remarkable transformation taking place in a different realm!

It was as if the Ghost Project was bathed in a rainbow. Reality itself moved to improve and strengthen the spiritual foundation of the newly completed expert mech in ways that were both subtle but incredibly clever!

All of the Larkinson mech designers understood that this was the reason why the masterwork transformation did not affect the Ghost Project's physical construction all that much.

Its spiritual foundation was already claiming the bulk of the benefits!

"This proves one of my other theories." Ves grinned. "When a mech becomes a masterwork, its improvements are spread in proportion to its different aspects. A materially superior mech will receive a major improvement to its physical cohesion. A spiritually superior mech will receive a major improvement to its spiritual properties. Of course, the rest will also benefit, but not to the same extent."

What was weak became less weak.

What was strong became a lot stronger!

"What about a mech that is already strong in both matter and spirit?" Miles Tovar cautiously asked.

Gloriana's body suddenly shook! A daring theory suddenly entered her mind!

Even though she wanted to deny the truth, she could not argue against concrete proof.

Once she began to reconstruct her old theoretical framework in order to make it more consistent with the latest results, she immediately extrapolated the scenario that Miles had just mentioned.

The possible answers shocked her to her core!

"If a mech is exquisite enough in both areas, then it shall receive a major improvement in both areas. It will not turn into a masterwork mech that has barely climbed up to the second rung of Senfovon's ladder of craftsmanship. The mech will advance substantially further than that. If both the matter and the spirit of the machine have reached an extreme, then it is possible that it can reach the next threshold that comes after a masterwork."

This time, even Master Benedict grew shocked!

"You mean…"

"Grand work." Gloriana reverently spoke.

The entire workshop fell silent this time. Though all of the mech designers continued to track the changes triggered by the masterwork changes, a part of their minds were no longer in the present.

Instead, they were already fantasizing about what they needed to do in order to climb up the third rung of the craftsmanship ladder!