The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1180

Ves spent some time to talk to the six Kronon mech pilots after they displayed their prowess in the simulation battles.

Overall, they didn’t have much to talk about. The elite mech pilots devoted much of their lives to piloting mechs and the Ylvainan Faith.

While Ves became impressed by their quiet intensity and their religious fervor, he found them to be rather bland aside from their narrow interests. Describing them as warrior monks seemed apt. They didn’t really have a life outside of their devotion to serving in the Protectors of the Faith.

Even if they had become the black sheep of the Kronon Dynasty, they still had faith in their mission!

One of them was slightly different. While the other five Kronons showed evident dislike at interacting with a foreigner who didn’t share their beliefs, one young man looked at Ves with a disturbing amount of intensity.

"What’s your name?" Ves asked.

"Taon Melin, sir." The Kronon said with respect.

"You don’t appear to be as reticent as the others. Why so?"

"I’ve seen copies of your mechs before during my prior assignment." Taon said. "The.. Blackbeak, was it? The moment I laid eyes on them, the desire to pilot them sparked within me. Despite not looking anything like an Ylvainan mech, I wanted to pilot it more than any other machine!"

That caused his other five colleagues to look askance at Taon. Obviously, his lack of xenophobia didn’t entirely sit well with the rest.

Ves gestured to himself. "You’re not disturbed that I’m a foreigner?"

"What’s there to be afraid of? We are all destined to transcend in the end. Whether you’re an Ylvainan or not, we will all become brothers and sisters in the end!"

One of the other mech pilots looked irked. "Taon, I think your interpretation of Ylvaine’s predictions is a little too generous."

Taon didn’t pay any mind to the criticism. Mild arguments over their beliefs happened all the time.

"Regardless of whether Mr. Larkinson is a foreigner or not, his mechs are something else. Haven’t you heard about what happened during the introduction of his Aurora Titan model?"

All of them fell silent for a bit. While the Ylvaine Protectorate generally didn’t pay too much attention to affairs in other states, the advancement of both Ves and Jannzi Larkinson was too explosive! News of this remarkable event spread to neighboring states, arousing the interests of many mech insiders!

"Think of what he can do for us now that he’s designing a mech for us." Taon continued. "Mr. Larkinson has proven he can design a mech that can help someone advance. Piloting his mechs is our greatest chance to take a step forward on the road to ascension!"

During this interaction, Ves glanced at Calabast in her Ylvainan persona.

She met his gaze and nodded. "My mech pilots wouldn’t have worked with you at all if not for your recent stunt. They’ll grumble a bit, but they can set aside their aversion to foreigners if they can pilot a mech that is just as good as the Aurora Titan."

"Do you think it’s easy to design a mech like the Aurora Titan, madame?" Ves quickly replied. "I collaborated with an esteemed Senior on that design. While I’ve advanced to Journeyman now, the conditions that allow me to design a machine as good as the Aurora Titan aren’t present."

"Just do the best you can. These mech pilots all believe you can recreate the magic of your previous design."

It seemed that ever since the Aurora Titan made a splash in the news, Ves became known as the mech designer who could help mech pilots enter the realm of expert pilots.

He quietly scoffed. How could it be so easy to advance? So many mech pilots struggled all their lives to shed their mundane existences, but only a tiny fraction ever succeeded. Having a good mech might help a bit, but it mostly depended on the mech pilots themselves to break through their mortal shackles.

Curious, Ves employed his spiritual vision to take a quick peek at the six mech pilots.

As expected, none of them possessed any significant amount of spiritual energy. While their minds were a lot more disciplined and focused than other mech pilots, there really wasn’t a lot of diversity in thought and emotion.

Ves observed this kind of condition in many elite mech pilots. Even the Swordmaidens suffered from this problem.

Despite their harsh training and discipline that should have been conducive to forming a coherent force of will, the spiritual energy simply wasn’t there to fuel the process.

In contrast, the Larkinson Family didn’t train their mech pilots nearly as harshly, yet still managed to produce a couple of expert pilots in every generation.

He developed a hypothesis behind this difference. To form a force of will, a strong and disciplined mind wasn’t enough.

What was the meaning of life if your entire life revolved around service? All these elite mech pilots completely devoted their lives to their jobs, to the detriment of everything else. They didn’t make any friends outside of their own circle and they neglected their families in their pursuit of advancement. They had no hobbies to speak of and their existence was completely negligible aside from their profession.

Their monotonous living pattern made them no different from bots in human form. While Ves still had no explanation of what spiritual energy actually consisted of, he began to develop an inkling that it possessed an intricate relationship to life!

Ves sensed many people with his spiritual senses. Very few possessed spiritual energy in significant quantities. Therefore, he wasn’t sure about the strength of his hypothesis. There might be a possibility that an elite mech pilot who did nothing else still managed to advance.

In any case, while Ves did not sense any significant spiritual energy from Taon and the other mech pilots right now, it might be different in the future. They also didn’t necessarily have to rely on spiritual energy generated from themselves to form a force of will, as Eloise Pelican’s case had already proved!

When Ves, Madame Cecily and the rest bid goodbye to the mech pilots and moved away, he couldn’t help but make a remark.

"You should give the young mech pilots a break every now and then?"