The Mech Touch

Ves had already introduced the various Systems to Ketis not too long ago. It had already turned into a semi-fixed routine by the time he began to introduce each and every System facility to his wife.

Gloriana should have felt a lot of wonder and admiration after being introduced to stuff like the Wishing Fountain and the Tree of Possibilities.

Unfortunately, the strongly-worded warning issued by Ketis had thoroughly spoiled the mood.

For whatever reason, Ketis felt it was more important to threaten Gloriana than to maintain good relations with a newly elevated user.

What was worse was that she had done so without discussing her actions with Ves.

This reminded him that neither Ketis nor Gloriana were strictly his subordinates. Both of them possessed strong egos and produced enough successes to keep their backs straight in front of the Father of Carmine Mechs.

Losing his patriarch position and bringing them into the System only exacerbated this trend. Ves needed to make sure he adjusted to the new reality and make sure he treated the other two women as equal partners as opposed to his minions.

Ves tried his best to cheer up his wife and take the sting off the harsh warning issued by the swordmaster.

Slowly but surely, it worked. The features offered by the Mech Designer System Version 4.0 were simply too amazing for her to remain unmoved.

"So this is how you are able to take your things out of nowhere. I thought that it was an application of your phase lord abilities."

"Is this where you obtained your remarkable relic flute?"

"These candies are useful."

"This tree… so beautiful…"

"I see. The Mech Designer System clearly wants us to work for our rewards."

"What an excellent workshop! Charging only 1 AP a day for its use is a pittance compared to the excellent results you can produce in return! You idiot! Why did you not introduce me to the System before?! With these perfect tools, we could have improved the quality of mechs such as the Dark Zephyr Mark III, the Amaranto Mark III and the Minerva Mark II by at least 10 percent! You should know as well as I do how much of a difference this represents! You are such a paranoid imbecile!"

"Is this where you created your Bitter Scimitar? No wonder it turned out so evil! This is a disgusting expansion to the magnificent Workshop of Creation! I abhor this facility! You can keep this demonic forge to yourself. I shall never taint my perfect creations with foul demons!"

When they finally walked up to the Dimension Observatory, Ves and Ketis revealed the true origin behind the ability to create temporary gateways into other dimensions.

"..."

Gloriana looked stunned at Ves and Ketis before turning back to gaze up at the beautiful Dimension Blade.

Just like the rest of red humanity, the woman had fallen for the misdirection. She used to believe that Ketis was only able to let people venture into the mysterious Blue Dimension and mine all of the superdimensional matter they wanted because she borrowed the power of the Heavensword.

She never imagined that this was the true origin behind this amazing power!

"Does this mean… that you can use this to enter the Blue Dimension as well, Ves?"

Ves nodded. "Yes. In fact, any user can do it. This means that you can do the same as Ketis has done. The only problem is the price. It currently costs 200 Ascension Points to open a 20 by 5 meter portal that lasts for 24 hours. I have already shown you the Mission Hall, so you should be aware of how much effort it takes to earn so many Ascension Points. We are trying to save up 5,000 AP to unlock the upgrade for a semi-permanent breach, but… it will take a long time to accumulate so much capital."

Gloriana clearly had a good idea of how much work it took to earn such a ludicrous amount of points.

The most expensive and desirable enlightenment fruits usually cost more than thousand AP to redeem.

With 5,000 AP, Ves could have easily spent it on a handful of enlightenment fruits that could completely revolutionize his work approach and add amazing new facets to his mech designs!

To save all of that money in favor of creating permanent portals to the Blue Dimension was not only an amazing benefit to himself and the clan, but also red humanity as a whole.

The revelation caused Gloriana to get a better idea of what Ves and Ketis had been planning with the Dimension Observatory.

They did not solely keep all of the benefits of the Mech Designer System to themselves. The pair of conspirators also sought to uplift red humanity, and did not mind sacrificing a large amount of time, effort and opportunity costs to achieve their goal.

Of course, saving red humanity also resulted in saving themselves. There was no way for them to live decent lives if the native aliens eradicated their race and civilization.

The pair had already half-accomplished their goal. Superdimensional matter had already made a massive difference by empowering the Fist of Defiance and making him virtually invincible against ancient phase whales.

Other human powers also benefited from obtaining samples of superdimensional matter. They conducted a lot of useful research and already upgraded their most prized peak ace mechs.

Even the Larkinson Clan had gained a lot more hard power by converting the First Sword Mark III into a full superdimensional ace mech!

In short, Ves and Ketis had already affected the course of the Red War. They introduced an amazing new variable that may have saved red humanity from an early collapse!

This realization caused Gloriana to take the Dimension Observatory a lot more seriously.

"From what I understand, the Blue Dimension is not the only target destination that you can choose from. Is that correct?"

"Yes. We were rather lucky that Ketis did her research and found that she is more likely to obtain something valuable from the 365th dimension. We can spend modest amounts of AP to scout and briefly enter other dimensions, but it is unlikely that they contain anything that surpasses superdimensional matter in value. It is not really cost-effective for us to make greater use of the Dimension Observatory when we are already struggling to cover for the 200 AP cost to open up another 24-hour mining window in the Blue Dimension."

In short, Ves and Ketis possessed all of the means to reverse the losses that red humanity was suffering, but lacked the Ascension Points to make a greater difference!

Ketis had only utilized the Dimension Blade two times so far. This amounted to an expenditure of 400 AP, which was enough to redeem a fairly precious enlightenment fruit!

As far as Gloriana was concerned, the Tree of Possibilities was by far the most useful benefit offered by the Mech Designer System.

While she definitely understood and valued the goods she could obtain with the Wishing Fountain, the Divine Bazaar and the Dimension Observatory, they were ultimately dispensable compared to acquiring highly specialized knowledge in an instant!

Only the latter granted her the best and most direct possibility of promoting to a Star Designer.

She finally understood how Ves and a handful of other Larkinsons were able to master strange new competences out of the blue.

It turned out that they had been cheating all of this time!

While Gloriana momentarily resented Ves for holding back this benefit for so many years, she quickly shoved aside her feelings of resentment.

Her husband did not trust her back then, and she could not bring herself to blame him for harboring doubts.

He may be prone to paranoia at times, but it had saved his hide over the years.

What mattered was that Ves had finally grown to the point where he was willing to give her a chance again.

While Ketis clearly did not agree with Ves' impulsive decision, Gloriana grew determined to protect the amazing secrets that she had been privileged to learn.

She wanted to do this not to avoid the punishment promised by Ketis, but to reward Ves for extending his trust to a wife who hadn't always been able to make him happy!

"What you are doing is undoubtedly a noble endeavor." She says. "It is regrettable that the Mech Designer System is too good to be shared with many more mech designers. I can fully understand your reluctance to bring others into this System Space. You do not need to be worried. I will contribute a portion of my meager AP earnings to upgrading this Dimension Observatory. It is ultimately better for everyone if we can strengthen the power of the Dimension Blade. Our children are depending on this. Let us ensure that they can still be a part of a thriving human society."

Ves smiled and nodded. "I am glad you understand. We don't expect you to go all-out right away. The Mission Hall only issues so many Missions per period, and only one of us can accept each one. Having more users around can spread the burden and make it easier to funnel AP into the Dimension Observatory, but there is a limit to what we can do. Ultimately, time is the biggest variable."

In other words, the Mission Hall had become their primary bottleneck.

Even if the latest System upgrade had increased the amount of Missions being offered, it was far from enough to earn 5000 AP in a short amount of time.

This was especially when only one user needed to accumulate all of those Ascension Points!

There was no way to transfer AP from one person to another.

Perhaps a future System upgrade might remedy these issues, but Ves had already completed most of the Supply Missions.

In order to complete the last 2 remaining Missions, he needed to get his hands on Orpheidan Glow Glass and a pair of Abalask Eyes.

Neither of them were easy to obtain. Both of them were products of different aliens from the Milky Way.

Veronica would have to take the initiative to seek them out. Perhaps she could take advantage of the powerful Oblivion Gate Consortium to secure these precious super-class resources, but their value was so great that she would definitely have to offer a lot in return!

Her best bet was to offer superdimensional matter in exchange. The creation of the two Oblivion Gates made it possible to trade strategic materials between the two galaxies.

However, Ves had a strong feeling that transporting any quantity of superdimensional matter was far more difficult than other matter!

He had already learned that the Oblivion Gate Consortium was looking into the many possible complications related to this subject.

If their worst fears came true, then transporting a single cubic meter of superdimensional matter may be as cumbersome as transporting many more cubic meters of conventional matter!

Ves inwardly shook his head. This was not the time to think about completing the final two Supply Missions.

"Do you have any questions concerning the Dimension Observatory, Gloriana?"

"No. I already understand what this represents. This facility will save red humanity. It would have been better if everyone fully understands how much we contributed to dragging our civilization out of its losing spiral, but we can only settle for becoming unsung heroes."

She was already talking as if she had toiled and struggled to give red humanity access to superdimensional matter.

Ketis frowned and looked like she was trying to hold herself back from smacking Gloriana in the cheek.

Ves did not feel upset. It was actually good that Gloriana already felt a sense of belonging towards their noble cause. This was a clear sign that she would definitely cooperate and share their burden.

"Welcome to the team. For now, just focus on earning your initial pot of gold and redeem a couple of enlightenment fruits that can be of substantial help to your progression. Only by becoming a better mech designer will you be able to increase your efficiency in clearing Missions."