The Mech Touch

Item #613, which Ves dubbed the B-stone, exhibited simple properties. It blocked spiritual energy. The higher the mass, the more effective the blocking strength.

Ves could easily pierce a sheet of B-stone as thin as a fingernail with a spiritual jab.

However, layering several sheets of B-stone on top of each other increased the blocking strength as if they were a single whole. This made working with B-stones a lot more convenient.

He continually cut more and more rectangular sheets from the B-stone and kept layering them against each other. He kept doing this until his full-strength spiritual probe could no longer pierce through the material.

"It's kind of strange." Ves scratched his chin. "My spiritual energy loses a bit of force and energy if the B-stone isn't thick enough, but it's still able to go through. However, the moment I add in just a single sheet, the B-stone turns into a solid wall. I can't even get past the front door anymore."

Against weak opponents, a decent layer of B-stone offered total protection against spiritual intrusions. Even if Ves faced a powerful entity as strong as Qilanxo, the B-stone still weakened and sapped the strength of any powerful spiritual attacks.

"B-stone is really easy to use!"

Ves liked its straightforwardness. Compared to the abstruse mechanics of P-stones or the unfathomable source of charged energy in F-stones, a B-stone simply functioned as a shielding material against a specific type of energy.

As an engineer, Ves appreciated the simple rules behind the B-stone's spiritual blocking phenomenon. Because of its regular and predictable properties, Ves could make precise calculations on how much B-stone he needed to design and fabricate a particular application.

He began to record the parameters of the B-stone for the rest of the day. He took a specific quantity of spiritual energy and tested how much B-stone was required to block that specific amount.

All of this sounded like boring work, but Ves never lost his interest. The more he became familiar with B-stones, the more he gained a feel of its workings.

At the end of the day, Ves recorded all of the parameters in his personal database.

Of course, Ves did not stupidly describe the spiritual blocking phenomenon in a way that hinted at the existence of either spirituality or psionics. Crindon's frequent warnings always reminded him that no electronic system or database was truly secure.

It was better to start with the assumption that his records would always be accessed by a hacker, infiltrator or spy. For that reason, Ves merely typed up a bunch of gibberish that he had mentally encoded with his own form of encryption. His highly capable mind was easily capable of emulating the functions of a computer to this extent as long as the encryption wasn't too complex.

Of course, even if a genius was still able to decrypt his gibberish records, they would only be able to obtain a bunch of random code words and numbers that meant nothing to the wrong person.

Only a high-ranking mech designer who specialized in the same direction of research as Ves would be able to infer that the data described a material that hindered the passage of spiritual energy!

"I won't say a mech designer like that doesn't exist." He cautioned himself. "Exceptions always exist. The galactic mech community is humongous and incredibly varied."

Even so, the chances of encountering another mech designer who specialized in spirituality was very low! At the very least, Ves believed he wouldn't encounter any of them in this corner of the galaxy!

Now that Ves recorded all of the properties of his B-stone, he stopped his investigations and took back the B-stone from the scanning machines. After continually cutting samples from Item #613, it now featured lots of rectangular cutoffs on its surface. He had practically skinned its surface in order to obtain enough sheets to block his spiritual probes!

What he had accomplished today not only increased his familiarity with a new type of spiritually-reactive material, but also advanced his understanding of the nature of spirituality.

"However, I'm still limited by my own strength." He idly complained.

His Spirituality Attribute had grown since he advanced to Journeyman, but the quantity of free-floating spiritual energy in his mind was still too weak. With his design seed hogging most of his Spirituality, the leftovers only enabled him to exert a small proportion of his strength in areas unrelated to mech design.

This also made it hard for him to imagine whether he even needed the protection afforded by B-stones.

This was a very valid question, as so far Ves had only witnessed spiritual energy being used to empower one's own abilities. In other words, it was like a fuel that enabled a spiritually-strong entity to perform special abilities that bent or broke the rules of reality.

"However, if someone dumps a bucket of fuel over me and ignites it in some way, it can still be deadly!"

Nonetheless, Ves believed it was a bit far-fetched for him to utilize B-stones as protection against direct spiritual attacks. Not even Qilanxo utilized her formidable spirituality in such a fashion!

After a bit of thinking, Ves came up with a number of possible applications.

First, he could utilize B-stones to form a prison for uncooperative spiritual entities.

"The problem here is that P-stones already serve this function."

That did not mean that B-stones became redundant. The suction force exerted by P-stones was not omnipotent.

Unlike B-stones, the effect of P-stones couldn't be strengthened by layering them against each other. Ves had already cut off a tiny slice of P-stone during his previous experimentations in order to test that assumption.

Each P-stone formed a completely new nucleus. They were self-contained entities that didn't combine their forces with other P-stones in the vicinity.

This meant that even if he pressed a hundred identical P-stones together, he'd only form a collection of 100 smaller cells instead of one huge chamber!

In fact, when he attempted to melt the small sample of P-stone he cut off from one of the primary P-stones, it lost its effect!

"P-stones lose their properties when subject to heavy processing!"

All of this probably didn't matter if Ves only used his P-stones as spiritual energy batteries.

However, if Ves captured a very strong spiritual entity one day, his P-stones might not be strong enough to keep something powerful contained in place.

This was where B-stones could come in. Since it was easy to work with and retained its properties no matter how much Ves beat it up, he could easily shape the B-stone into a barrier around an P-stone.

"It's like building prison walls around the main prison building. It's a second line of defense."

As long as Ves possessed a sufficient quantity of B-stones, he could potentially imprison the most powerful spiritual entities in the galaxy! Even ace pilot-like entities like Qilanxo would have no choice but to stay put if Ves built a cell out of B-stones that was many meters thick!

"Perhaps even god pilots or comparable entities can be isolated in this fashion!"

The only downside was that B-stones only blocked Spirituality and did nothing else. P-stones still played a role in imprisoning spiritual entities because they formed an adequate substitute of physical bodies.

Without the sheltering function provided by P-stones, spiritual entities would slowly degrade because they lacked the nurturing of a real home.

The best home was a physical body, but now that Ves thought about it, he never thought about the fact that his designs and mechs also served as adequate homes!

Ves believed this was mostly due to bleeding his Spirituality over his mechs and mech designs. Because he subliminally invested his spiritual energy into his works, they gained the ability to shelter and maybe even nurture any spiritual entities that resided in their spiritual shells!

In fact, Ves even suspected for a very long time that his design spirits benefited more if his mechs grew more popular! The more mech pilots a design spirit connected with, the more symbiotic relationship it formed!

"Each proper relationship is mutually beneficial. Both the mech pilot and the mech derive benefits from their bond." Ves observed.

This was one of the core assumptions of his design philosophy, after all!

If Ves extended this line of reasoning, then forming more relationships meant that a design spirit harvested more benefits!

Of course, Ves assumed that low-ranking mech pilots only provided minimal benefits. A bond with an expert candidate or expert pilot was probably a billion or a trillion times stronger!

Ves grinned. "It's interesting how discovering new materials can elicit so many new insights!"

He observed many different phenomena related to spirituality, but he never paid attention to some of his more peculiar observations. Only when prompted by different stimuli did he begin to look back at his old observations and realize that something exceptional was happening right under his nose!

Each new phenomena he came in touch with expanded his grasp on spirituality. With a greater amount of context, his old observations began to fit into place like pieces in a puzzle.

"If I've already managed to obtain these gains from just three exotics that are relevant to my specialty, then what about six? What about twelve?"

He could scarcely imagine what kind of brain storms would ensue if he came in touch with so many different kinds of spiritually-reactive exotics!

One of the reasons why mech designers spent so much money and effort on certain exotics was to initiate brainstorms that substantially advanced their understanding in their own fields!

He basked in the new insights he just formed, each of which illuminated another facet of spirituality and spiritual engineering.

Once he came off his high, he turned his attention back to the present and stared at the chunk of B-stone.

He wondered whether he should preserve it in its current form or make use of it immediately.

"This is my only sample so far, but unlike P-stones I've already figured out what I needed to learn. There's no use keeping it in storage."

However, Ves couldn't come up with an immediate application.

"What do I need?"

Maybe he should make use of it to form a barrier against hostile spiritual intrusions and invasions. He already attacked or intruded upon several spiritual entities in the imaginary realm. While he always got away with his attempts, he might provoke a powerful existence into chasing him back to his body!

That would be really bad if the entity he provoked was strong!

Ves looked at his B-stone with a dubious expression. It had enough mass to form a thick helmet with plenty of material to spare.

"A helmet won't offer protection in every direction. Even if I make the entire faceplate solid, it will still have a huge hole to accommodate my neck!"

Unfortunately, the amount of B-stone he possessed fell short of forming an entire suit of protective armor. He'd have to spread out his B-stone so much that its layer of protection could easily be pierced by someone of his strength.

Eventually, he decided to make a protective container out of his available B-stone. He processed the raw B-stone through various machines and hand tools and quickly crafted most of its mass into a fairly thick lockbox with a purely mechanical door and locking mechanism.

Ves also drew upon the stores of other strong materials stored on the Barracuda and added some much-needed physical reinforcement to the contraption. While it wouldn't save the lockbox against being flattened by the foot of a mech, it was more than sufficient to survive someone shooting at it with infantry weapons.

The B-stone lockbox looked thicker than other lockboxes. Despite its size and lack of functions, it was the only container in his possession that blocked and isolated spirituality in both directions.

He proceeded to test it by placing one of his P-stones inside. The P-stone contained a decent charge of excess spiritual energy which Ves could easily detect with his spiritual senses."

However, once he closed the lockbox, he no longer felt any trace of the P-stone's spiritual activity!

He attempted to project his Spirituality through the lockbox and sense the P-stone that was stored inside.

He failed!

"It works!"

Not only did he form a container that could potentially assist him in imprisoning powerful spiritual entities, he could also store sensitive materials inside. Anyone who possessed the power to detect spiritually-active materials would not be able to peek what Ves had stored inside!

To be honest, Ves had another reason to make use of his B-stone to craft a lockbox. He wanted to shield his valuable treasures against the only person who stole from him on a regular basis!

His mother!

"Hahahaha!" He laughed as he rubbed his cheek against the surface of his new lockbox. "With you around, my mother won't have any clue!"