The Mech Touch

Each movement and action of the Adonis Colossus exuded a distinctive charm.

Ves had never seen anything like it. Only the Devil Tiger exhibited something similar, but the effect was only barely noticeable.

The Adonis Colossus was all about outward expression, so its extraordinary qualities were much more obvious.

This distinctive charm enhanced the mech's impression. It was extremely difficult to ignore the mech.

This effect was still notable when watching the mech through a live projection!

Just like all of his other mechs, viewing a projection of the Adonis Colossus inexplicably caused viewers to experience its glow!

The reason why Ves paid more attention to this aspect was that the high degree of alignment between the mech, mech pilot and design spirit amplified the glow!

As Ves closed his eyes and inspected the glow in detail, he found out that both its strength and its quality had risen.

"Interesting."

Compared to the relatively static glows of his Desolate Soldiers and other mechs, the Adonis Colossus exuded a spiritual presence that was much more alive.

"It radiates some of Vincent and Bravo's liveliness."

Of course, Bravo was still a newborn spiritual product. His first interactions with Vincent was barely enough for it to develop a distinct personality.

This meant that the Adonis Colossus was only at the start of its spiritual evolution. Its glow only reflected Vincent's liveliness so far.

So long as Bravo learned from Vincent and matured, it would eventually grow into a spiritual entity which was no less sophisticated than a living human being!

"The only downside is that it won't grow very much when paired with a single mech pilot." He realized.

Different from the Solemn Guardian, Bravo was only ever meant to interact with one mech pilot. This meant that it would only receive a miniscule amount of spiritual feedback.

Vincent alone was not enough to provide spiritual nourishment that could facilitate further growth!

However, by keeping Bravo exclusive to Vincent, the spiritual product would constantly align itself closer to its intended partner.

Through spiritual trinity, the shortcoming of lack of growth could be compensated by pursuing an alternate method of spiritual strengthening.

This latest insight prompted Ves to look at his mechs and design spirits in a different manner.

Design spirits dedicated to mass market mechs needed to maintain many different connections to accelerate their growth. They possessed their own personalities and pursued their own goals.

In contrast, design spirits created for custom mechs needed to find a different direction for growth. Instead of empowering themselves, it was much less resource-intensive to strengthen the spiritual trinity.

Achieving greater synergy and empowering the other two legs of the spiritual trinity was a way for the design spirit to overcome the lack of spiritual feedback.

While Bravo's growth was only in its initial stages, Ves already managed to deduce its future progression!

While this alternate method for growth sounded weaker, Ves did not dare to underestimate how far the combination could go! As long as Vincent, Bravo and the Adonis Colossus continued to grow in lockstep, the three might be able to become actual gods one day!

Ves smiled ruefully while he shaked his head. "How can such a thing be possible?"

All of the power he witnessed only concerned the spiritual properties of the mech.

Sometimes, this was enough to impact the course of a war, as his Soldier product line had amply demonstrated.

However, Ves had to be careful not to place too much emphasis on this aspect.

As much as he became enamoured by adding life to mechs, they still needed to perform their core functions.

The specs and technical performance of his mechs determined the actual value of his mech.

In that regard, the Adonis Colossus was not lacking in most areas. Aside from its low mobility, its armor and firepower were completely in line with its generous budget.

After a bit of playing and mindless flying, Vincent stopped fooling around. While he felt tempted to indulge himself in the wonderful feelings emanating from his mech, he still needed to get to grips with the combat power of his mech.

"Since I'm about to fight the sandmen, I'll start testing the weapons of my mech!"

Ves activated his comm and connected to the bridge of the light carrier.

"Release the target dummies. Make sure that they are oriented towards deep space."

The light carrier released a number of cheap bots of varying sizes. From human-sized bots to bots that were half the size of mechs, all of them were made of steel or other mundane materials.

While they were exceptionally weak against the armaments of the Adonis Colossus, it wasn't necessary to gather more precise combat data.

Ves merely wanted to see if Vincent was able to take advantage of his mech's automated targeting system.

In consideration for Vincent's lack of piloting acumen, Ves and Gloriana made sure to program a lot of automated routines into the mech.

As long as Vincent gained more proficiency in his mech, he could always deactivate these assistive programs.

Right now, the mech pilot harbored no intention of switching them off. He hardly needed to exert any effort to aim his Sandbreaker rifle at a distant target dummy!

"How handy!" He gasped with a delighted smile. "I'll be able to dominate the battlefield more easily than ever!"

Both Ves and Gloriana sighed.

A mech pilot that relied too much on automated systems would never improve. Vincent had become too dependent on crutches, thereby preventing him from developing his own skills.

Of course, Vincent developed this habit out of necessity. His frequent switches to different mech types prevented him from specializing in a single kind of mech.

The Adonis Colossus continued to showcase its might. After testing the Sandbreaker rifle, Vincent fired a full salvo of missiles that impacted twenty targets at once.

While the explosions weren't impressive, that was just because Ves had only loaded the missile launcher with practice munition.

The actual missile loadout was a lot more expensive! Even if Ves didn't have to worry about running out of money, he didn't want to waste any on Vincent's account.

Against closer targets, the Adonis Colossus freed up an arm and fired a number of nails that absolutely demolished the target dummies.

While the accuracy of the nail drivers were rather low, the mech's targeting system accurately compensated for their limitations!

Finally, the mech put its rifle aside in order to wield its backup sword.

The Adonis Colossus wielded the thick broadsword in a two-handed grip. The weapon somehow made the mech more masculine. The warrior image the mech exuded made it look like it was a warrior from an ancient legend!

Unfortunately, the mech's melee combat performance was much less effective than its appearance suggested.

It couldn't be helped. The Adonis Colossus was designed as a ranged weapon platform. Ves and Gloriana hadn't been able to optimize the musculature and the secondary systems of the mech for melee combat.

Due to the lack of accommodation, the mech swung its sword with a lot less grace, power and speed than specialized melee mechs.

Gloriana let out a grunt in disgust. "It's like seeing a child play with sticks. Vincent hardly knows anything about swordsmanship."

"You can't blame him." Ves responded. "Vincent spent most of his limited training time on improving his proficiency with ranged weapons. He's not an exceptional talent nor does he enjoy the augmentations that we take for granted. For a pure, baseline human, he still managed to become an adequate mech pilot."

Vincent's strange insistence on keeping himself pure held him back from improving more rapidly.

This insistence was out of lockstep with his peers.

As long as mech pilots wanted to shed their mediocrity and reach greater heights, they needed to improve their physical and mental attributes.

They would eventually come to learn that most successful people in society managed to improve themselves by resorting to implants and genetic modification.

Only by becoming less human would they be able to reach greater heights!

"Well, Vincent isn't bad in that regard." Gloriana admitted.

After the Adonis Colossus ceased to randomly swing its sword around, it began to fly around and stretch its illusionary red cape across the stars.

The mech made for an enchanting sight.

Overall, the Adonis Colossus was a success. When Ves checked all of the telemetry, the mech did not exhibit any major problems. Aside from some minor misalignments that only required a couple of tweaks to correct, the mech was ready to be handed over!

"Alright, Vincent, please return to the carrier."

Once the Adonis Colossus returned to the hangar bay, the mech slowly deactivated. Its glow became dormant now that its connection to the mech pilot was gone.

Vincent emerged from the cockpit with a celebratory smile.

"Hahaha! What a fantastic mech! It is everything I've dreamed of! Getting you two to design my custom mech is the best decision I've ever made!"

"It is our pleasure to serve you." Ves restrained himself. "Let us proceed with the handover of the mech."

They moved to an office where Ves, Gloriana and Vincent signed a bunch of official documents. After they completed all of the paperwork, the mech was officially Vincent's property!

"Have fun and don't break the mech too soon!"

Vincent already forgot about Ves. He briefly bid goodbye to Gloriana before racing back to his mech!

"Don't bother transporting my Adonis to my ship! I'll bring it back myself!"

The mech soon came online, bathing the entire carrier with its manly glow. Vincent soon brought his mech away, leaving his followers and his media crew to head back to the carrier of the Ricklin Rollers via shuttle.

"They're finally gone." Gloriana sighed with relief. "I'm finally rid of their annoying stares."

"That's because you're too beautiful to resist." Ves grinned.

"Only for you." She giggled.

After they shared a kiss, they boarded another shuttle that brought them back to the surface.

They retired to the Cloud Estate in order to rest after several days of non-stop work.

After a pleasant night of sleep, both of them woke up and met up with each other during breakfast.

The meals prepared by Dr. Lupo and Gloriana's chefs instantly peppered them up. The high-energy food provided by Ves caused him to feel invigorated.

"What's next?" Gloriana asked after she sipped her tea.

"There's nothing else on the agenda except finishing the Deliverer design. I'm eager to complete it as fast as possible."

The Deliverer was not as complex as the Adonis Colossus. The most difficult aspect about its design was increasing the accuracy of its railgun handling.

This was not straightforward as the Executor rifle was very big and heavy. Not only that, it required a dedicated energy channel in order to feed its voracious energy needs.

Fortunately, Ves and Gloriana already solved most of the challenges concerning the design. They only had to fill up the gaps in the design in order to complete the first iteration of the marksman mech.

Even their design team would be able to complete the mech design by themselves.

"How many iterations do you want to make?" Gloriana pointedly asked. "With the way the Sand War is going, I don't think it's wise to delay the publication of the Deliverer design too much."

"I know." Ves frowned. He grappled with this difficult issue for a long time now. "If necessary, we can make do with only one round of prototype testing. I think we can finish the design within ten or so days if that's the case!"

Gloriana did not look pleased. She never liked to rush a mech design.

"Ten days is too short."

However, she also knew that time might be running out. The Adonis Colossus already wasted much of their time. The sandman invasion had already overrun a part of the Bright Republic.

So long as the sandman maintained their current momentum, it wasn't impossible for them to overwhelm another strategic star system!

"Ten days is all we have, I think."