The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1596

Chapter 1596 Collapsed Will

An expert pilot was one of the top mech pilots of any state.

Capable of resonating with special materials added to expert mechs, they were able to achieve reality-bending feats with the force of their will.

Each mech pilot who advanced to expert candidate, the precursor of this rank, always received favored treatment from the state.

They were both treasures and strategic weapons. States with more expert pilots than their neighbors always gained a significant advantage in any conflicts.

Regular mech pilots always worshipped strength. The presence of a friendly expert pilot fighting by their side always boosted their morale.

On the other hand, facing an enemy expert pilot in combat was deeply demoralizing.

It was nigh-impossible for normal mechs to defeat an expert pilot equipped with an expert mech that complimented their strengths.

Ves knew this very well. Not only had he heard all kinds of stories about the Larkinson expert pilots in his youth, he also had the distinct pleasure of seeing the ground forces of the Vandals and Swordmaidens wiped out by Venerable Foster.

As long as the expert pilot and expert mech were strong enough, mortals ceased to pose a threat.

He heard stories where mech armies numbering hundreds of thousands of mechs collapsed due to fielding too few expert mechs.

While most expert mechs still possessed distinct weaknesses and limitations, it was far too hard to cope with them. Faster, tougher, longer-lasting and more durable than any standard mech, they could always choose the terms of battle.

If the foes they faced threatened to overwhelm them, the expert mechs could simply choose to withdraw or engage in guerilla tactics.

Even if a single expert mech faced an entire mech regiment, as long as the latter did not field an expert mech, the mech regiment was destined to be wiped out!

It might take weeks, but as long as the expert mech retreated and resupplied without issue, the numerically-superior force could only wait for death!

Considering their immense battle prowess and inspirational value, expert pilots should never be left alone and neglected.

Since force of will was an external expression of spirituality, the MTA eventually managed to find a way to detect its presence. In fact, the MTA continually refined their sensors to the point where it could be measured along the lavere scale.

Let alone expert pilots, expert candidates should never be able to escape detection!

This also made them exceptionally poor at stealth operations. It was far too difficult for them to sneak around unless their force of will revolved around hiding their presence.

Yet the reality in front of Ves shattered his misconceptions. The Bright Republic somehow rescued a genuine expert pilot only to dump her on this random farming settlement on Cloudy Curtain as if she was a discarded good!

What the hell was wrong with his home state!? Was it too much to ask that the government scanned the refugees for the presence of force of will just like they did with scanning for weapons, diseases, injuries, health problems and so on?

Yet as Ves discreetly studied the woman sitting opposite to him with his spiritual vision, he slowly figured the reason why she escaped everyone's attention.

First, she was a fairly weak expert pilot. The refugee was weaker than any other expert pilot he had seen, including Venerable Xie.

Ordinarily, that wasn't an issue, as a newly-advanced expert pilot still lit up like a beacon in sensors designed to detect resonance.

The problem was that the woman's force of will appeared to have collapsed!

Yes, collapsed!

Every expert pilot that Ves had met possessed a strong, overarching will that they had merged with their spirituality. The blending of will and spiritual energy produced a powerful field that acted on both people and material that specifically resonated with its properties!

It was actually similar to the glow of his mechs, but with actual force.

This was the basis of an expert pilot's application of strength. The empowered auras or energy fields they radiated acted on their mechs, thereby achieving selective resonance that resulted in powerful resonance abilities.

Yet what happened if a force of will stopped radiating an energy field?

What if the will that formed the core of their spiritual strength had weakened to the point of starvation?

What if an expert pilot... lost faith?

Something like this almost never happened, but that did not mean that it was impossible.

An enormous defeat, the death of loved ones or the collapse of her home state were some of the many possible reasons for the woman's descent into despair.

Once an expert pilot fell into this pit, they ceased to be strong. With their force of will rendered inert, there was no way they could use their strength to empower their mechs!

An expert pilot without resonance was just a very skilled mech pilot. While they still retained their superhuman level of skill and insane learning ability, they were as frail as mortals.

The woman's force of will was so silent and listless that sensors couldn't detect it anymore.

If not for his exceptional perception of spirituality, he wouldn't have detected a trace of this buried treasure in this forgettable farming settlement!

Though her force of will had grown inert, she still carried the unmistakable presence of an expert pilot in his eyes. It was just that her abnormally subdued and defeated demeanor caused her to be overlooked by those who hadn't come into contact with expert pilots.

Trying his best to maintain composure, Ves carefully tried to engage the woman in conversation.

"My name is Ves Larkinson. I'm a Journeyman Mech Designer from the Bright Republic. What is your name?"

"..."

"Where do you come from?"

"..."

"How long have you been stuck in this settlement?"

"..."

"I come from a military family with a long history of service. We are famed for producing expert pilots every generation."

"..."

The woman refrained from speaking. Instead, her dull eyes bore down on him as if she was dead and nothing else mattered.

His smile grew increasingly more brittle at the lack of response.

If she was anyone else, Ves would have prodded her more directly. Yet in the face of an expert pilot, he had to tread exceptionally carefully.

Since he found a lost and unclaimed expert pilot in the wild, he was determined to have her as his own! He would not allow anyone to snatch this treasure from his nose!