The Mech Touch

As much as Demoncasting had consumed Ves' attention, he still needed to complete his tour of the improved System.

After leaving the Demoncasting Forge, he and Ketis stopped by the Time Gate for a moment.

The Time Gate looked more impressive than last time. The circular metal structure still bore the marks of age, but it had gained a lot more runes. It also glowed in green, making it seem as if it was charged with radioactive energy.

Ves quickly accessed the interface and verified that the new options conformed to the description in the changelog.

"So it is true now. We can dive into the minds of other mech designers who worked in the past." He said. "By the way, have you tried out the Time Gate already?"

"I did." The swordmaster said. "I can only use it once a year, so it is more efficient to use it right away."

"So how did your first Mastery experience unfold?" Ves curiously asked.

"It was... interesting. I did not go on any wild adventures like the ones you went through in the past. I deliberately chose to inhabit a swordsman mech pilot, so the System stuffed me inside the mind of a rather peculiar second-class swordsman mech pilot. I only occupied his mind for a few days before my session automatically came to an end."

"What kind of battles did he fight?"

"He wasn't a soldier. He was a mech athlete who competed over 150 years ago. The swordsman mechs back then weren't as developed as the ones in the market today, but the principles are largely the same. It was interesting to witness the contrast in performance and see how much incremental advancements in technology has caused swordsman mechs to perform so much more fluently. In any case, pilot. I inhabited had just entered the playoffs and had to duel against a variety of tricky opponents to make it to the finals."

Ketis smiled as she imagined the hearty duels that she got to witness while riding the mind of the mech pilot.

While there were plenty of boring periods in between where the pilot was resting or studying his next tournament adversary, Ketis used the time to think about what she witnessed firsthand.

The tournament did not impose harsh restrictions on mech type and so on, so the swordsman mech pilot had to overcome a variety of opponents.

From running down a rifleman mech to avoiding the deadly pounces of a tiger mech, the experienced mech athlete used a combination of skill and strategy to win one match after another.

"Did he make it to the finals in the end?"

"Alas, no." Ketis sighed. "He finally met his match in the semifinals. He got matched up against an axeman mech. The enemy mech was slower, but was able to exert great strength with its axe swings. The swordsman mech tried to use his superior mobility to circle around and avoid the crushing chops of the deadly axe, but he largely failed. The axeman mech was specially designed to defend against flanking attacks as it was able to twist its torso from its waist section by 170 degrees in either direction with surprising speed and force. This effectively allows the axeman mech to rapidly attack or counterattack from any angle. The swordsman mech managed to evade the sweeping attacks multiple times, but it only took one mistake for it to suffer crippling damage."

"That's a shame. Would you have been able to win the match for the swordsman mech pilot if you intervened more directly by taking over control of his body?"

Ketis looked thoughtful. "Maybe. I am not sure how that works and whether I can proficiently operate a mech through the neural interface. I am not trained in mech piloting, after all. If I could control the swordsman mech like it was my own body, I am confident that I can rely on my superior swordsmanship to whittle down the axeman mech while remaining undamaged. I don't have a reason to do so, though. This tournament was a test and challenge for the mech pilot. He must earn his victories through his own merit. While I felt tempted to give him tips on how to quickly polish his overly flamboyant swordsmanship, it would taint the sanctity of the tournament. It would be unfair for my intervention to deprive other finalists from the victories that they have earned over the course of normal history."

"You don't have to be afraid that you will wreck the current timeline if you change a bit of history during a Mastery experience. The current timeline we are living in already reflects the changes that we have made in the past. We just don't know it all as of yet. Perhaps you would have been able to propel the swordsman mech pilot to the finals and witness a mech duel at the highest level."

"I stand by my choice. I believe it is best to remain an observer and to refrain from affecting the timeline. I am already content with the original purpose of these Mastery experiences, which is to give us a first-hand look and feel of what our potential customers are going through when they are interfacing with a mech. This first experience is already enough to make many small improvements to the overall piloting experience." ʀäℕɵꞖЁș

"Suit yourself, then. By the way, you can also explore the mind of a mech designer now that the Time Gate has been upgraded. I think I will give it a try when it is available. There has to be a purpose to making this option available to us. Perhaps it will give us better insights on how proper and more orthodox mech designers work.

Neither of us are exactly normal among our kind. We should be able to harvest a lot of gains if we glimpse at the minds of professionals who possess a vastly different perspective and design philosophy."

Ves had already occupied the minds of plenty of mech pilots by this time. He could use a bit of variation and see what the fuss was all about with this new option.

"Next time."

After they completed their visit to the Time Gate, the pair of mech designers moved on to the Dimension Observatory.

Ketis immediately became drawn to the Dimension Blade. It did not look as if it had changed, but she did note that it now offered the option to take out in reality and use it for a short duration of time!

She winced when she saw how much AP she needed to spend in order to use the Dimension Blade for a brief period of time.

"It costs 100 AP just to project the Dimension Blade into the main universe for just 5 seconds!" She exclaimed!

Ves walked up to her and looked down at the list of options introduced by the latest System Upgrade.

It was possible to rent the Dimension Blade for a longer period of time, but Ves and Ketis needed to spend AP to extend the duration.

For example, they could spend 500 AP to extend the duration to 1 minute, and 2000 AP to make the projection last 30 minutes.

There was even a greyed-out option that allowed them to project the Dimension Blade into the cosmos on a permanent basis!

The interface did not mention any AP cost so far, but Ves did not have to guess that it

Was astronomically high.

"This Dimension Blade can be a powerful weapon that can save your life in the right situation." Ves said. "However, the AP needed to afford all of the upgrades to make it. practical enough is too much. I think it is best to leave it alone for the time being. You have the Heavensword anyway, so it is not like you need to borrow this weapon." Ketis responded with a sardonic smile. "Don't worry, I am not greedy for this weapon. I already have enough swords."

"Speaking about the Heavensword and the Dimension Blade, when you exit the System Space, you should probably prepare to open up a temporary breach and see if you can mine a few resources while it stays open. We can't wait any longer. You need to expose this capacity and gain the cooperation of the Red Three to start mining dimensional resources on an industrial scale"

"I know, Ves. It is not convenient to start opening dimensional breaches in a

Contested star system such as the Viola Magnifica System, but I refuse to leave while it still remains in human hands. I am a mech designer, but I am also a swordmaster. I need to keep fighting if I want to become a sword saint."

"Ah. I hadn't thought about that. This... may become a problem. Once the Red Three recognizes your value as a source of dimensional resources, they will absolutely disapprove of any further combat deployments. At worst, they will treat you just like me and assign an entire escort fleet to shadow you day and night. They will also compel you to leave the border regions and force you to take up residence in a safe first-class star system that is far enough away from the action."

Ketis scowled. "I won't let the mechers, fleeters and the collies bully me into becoming a dove. I will just use the Heavensword as an excuse why I can't leave the frontlines so easily. I already prepared a plan for this. I will just claim that the only reason I can open up dimensional breaches is because I have earned the appreciation of the Heavensword. If I act cowardly and retreat from a necessary fight, then I will lose its approval and subsequently lose access to the ability to open up a dimensional breach. It's the perfect explanation. Even the Heavensword agreed to play along with my charade and pretend to be angry at anyone who suggests taking me away against my

Will."

As if to show that she was not lying, the Heavensword began to rattle in its scabbard and release an intimidating red glow!

Ves directed an odd glance towards the Heavensword. The ancient relic weapon appeared awfully eager to serve Ketis' whim. He had the illusion that the swordmaster had turned the notoriously willful artifact into an obedient puppy.

"That sounds great, but are you okay with deceiving others like this? I thought that

Would go against your honor."

"You are normally correct, Ves, but deception is a valid tact to employ against enemies and those who hinder you despite their good intentions. Besides, I am not harming anyone directly by employing this underhanded means."

"I see. I am glad to hear that you have already made the right preparations, but one threat that you cannot guard against is elevated enemy attention. The cosmopolitans will find out about your strategic value and leak your information to the native aliens. The latter will subsequently put a high bounty on your head, turning you into a highly attractive priority target to both humans and aliens." nøvel.com

The female swordmaster sighed. "I know that this will also happen sooner or later. There is no way for me to evade exposure. The most I can do is find a way to disguise

Myself and make sure that my enemies will not be able to recognize me when I deploy

In the field."

This was easier said than done.

Ves turned his attention to the Dimension Observatory. Since it arrived with the Version 3.0 upgrade, it had not been put into use.

He and Ketis intended to change that in the short term.

"We need to spend more AP on upgrades. Ves said. "Once we earn heaps of AP in our

Upcoming marathon, we need to upgrade the Dimension Telescope to improve our ability to find resource-rich dimensions. We don't have any hope of earning 5,000 AP that is needed to create a persistent breach, so let us set it aside for the time being. I

Am hoping to invest my AP in other areas first."

"Like Demoncasting?" "You read my mind."

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