Chapter 3395: Object of Affection Through an act of love, Ketis went above and beyond during this fabrication and sacrificed a portion of her own strength! The price she paid was great, so much that Ves became shocked when he realized what she had done. He knew that while the force of will of an expert pilot was strong, the person in question might suffer significant consequences once it got damaged. What she had just done would definitely have repercussions for herself! "What have you done, Ketis?!" Joshua grew alarmed as he found out that his girlfriend was in pain due to her actions. "I never asked you to do something like this. There's no need for you to go this far for my sake. The sword you've made is already good enough for me to rely upon in battle." "You're wrong! A normal sword isn't enough to keep you alive. Did you know how awful I felt during the Battle of Fordilla Zentra? A single dwarven expert mech almost managed to shatter your body to pieces with a giant axe!" "That's because I was trying to fend off an expert mech with a prime mech. I never stood a chance from the start." Ketis scowled at the other side of the mech workshop. "You must never think that way. No matter whether you are fighting against an expert mech or an ace mech, I never want you to feel you're out of options. Since you're the kind of expert pilot who gets stronger if you can resonate with living partners, I've made sure your mech sword is one of the best of its kind. Just look at what I've made!" The weapon, though dark and unassuming on the surface, radiated with power, love and will. Both Ves and Joshua could see that Ketis had clearly been taking lessons from them and put her own spin on their approach. The biggest difference between Ves and Ketis was the way in which they imparted life in their creations. Unlike Ves, Ketis was unable to make her products alive in the way that Larkinsons were familiar with. She had to borrow his help to do so, but that deprived her of a measure of control. The swords that they could make by pooling their strengths together were not weak and possessed numerous advantages, but the problem was that they required a substantial period of growth to unveil their potential! Ketis wasn't stupid. The short but volatile history of the Larkinson Clan was marked by numerous harrowing battles. Now that the Larkinsons were all about to enter the Red Ocean, they needed to get ready to confront more powerful opponents! She did not worry too much about the medium term prospects of the clan. Once Ves and other prominent Larkinsons adapted to the environment of the Red Ocean and found a way to make their clan thrive, they would have adequate means to defend themselves against most foreseeable threats. It was the early period that she was concerned about. Ketis used to live in the frontier of the galactic rim and that was just an appetizer compared to the frontier conditions of the Red Ocean! With so many different sharks and predators roaming the dwarf galaxy, a modest-sized organization with a weak foundation like the Larkinson Clan possessed a high likelihood of bumping into a hostile superior force! At that time, how could Joshua put up the best possible fight by wielding a living weapon that was the equivalent of a toddler in terms of growth? Ketis feared that her boyfriend wouldn't get the help he needed from his equipment to defeat a powerful foe! Just like how the Valkyrie Prime fell short against the Burza Fens, she did not want the Chimera Project to falter in a similar fashion! This was why she came up with her own way of making her products more alive. Since she couldn't create new life by herself, she transferred a bit of her own life into the mecch sword she had made! While she hadn't given away much, what she had done was enough to upgrade the sword. Due to Ves' influence on the entire Chimera Project, the weapon was already alive in a sense, but the force of will injected by Ketis not only boosted this element, but also altered it so that it could leverage some of her powers and abilities! Though she was unsure how this would actually work in practice, she possessed a lot of confidence that her sacrifice was worth it. The sword she made with her own efforts became a lot stronger than the Decapitator she made last. Even if it wasn't a masterwork weapon, Ketis was still confident that her gift would give Joshua an additional trump card! "I don't want you to keep struggling against more powerful opponents." She explained her thoughts to her as her damaged will compelled her to convey her intentions. "You've risked your life so many times that I'm sick of it. I'm tired of our clan needing to go above and beyond to defeat stronger enemies. As far as I'm concerned, we should be the stronger combatants in a battle! I don't want us to be underestimated. I want us to be feared for our combat prowess, and with the help I've given you, you won't lose against any melee expert mechs!" The object of her affection was incredibly touched by her dedication. He could clearly hear and feel the love she held towards him. The mech sword she made and imparted with an aspect of herself materialized her hopes in a living weapon that he could resonate with in a method that suited him best! Ves, who was relegated to the side in this touching moment, was both impressed and concerned at his former student's actions. "Ketis…" He spoke up. "You can't shrug off the damage you've done to yourself. It might take years for you to recover from the consequences of your own actions." The woman remained unyielding. "It's okay. I'm a warrior. I can handle the pain. It's better that I get used to this sort of injury in advance rather than in the middle of a battle. What hurts me will only make me tougher." "It might affect your work…" "My ability to design mechs is still the same, Ves. It's not like I'm cutting pirates left and right these days, so it doesn't matter if I can't channel my sword techniques as well as before. Besides, Sharpie will bear most of the pain." Seeing that Ketis not only understood the price of her own actions, but also accepted them without any complaint, Ves and Joshua slowly dropped their protests. Ves placed a hand on the expert pilot's shoulder. "What's done is done. Ketis has done her best to strengthen your expert mech. What the rest of us need to do now is to live up to her expectations and make sure the rest of the Chimera Project is worthy to wield this much power!" "I understand, sir. We… shouldn't let Ketis be the only one to make my expert mech exceptional!" Through the design network, the participants all felt that Ves, Joshua and Ketis were much more emotionally invested in this project than the others. To them, the Chimera Project wasn't 'just' an expert mech like the Dark Zephyr or the Riot. Ves and Ketis cared a lot about its user while Venerable Joshua fully ignited his desire to obtain the greatest possible power than an expert mech could bestow! It was due to the combination and sharing of these strong emotions and desires that the Chimera Project increasingly went on the right track. Ves and Ketis already came up with numerous new production techniques that put the Chimera Project on a higher starting point than the previous expert mechs. All of these extra measures built up to an increasingly more promising and hopeful result. Seeing how Ves and Ketis cared so much and worked so hard to improve just a single machine, Venerable Joshua felt touched in a way that he had never felt before. He never experienced this much dedication and affection back when the mech designers made the Valkyrie Prime for him. Back then, the prime mech was just a modification of an existing mech design, which didn't require as much effort to realize. This was different. The Design Department invested over a year of intermittent development into its design. Although the mech designers only truly became serious about completing it a few months ago, Joshua could clearly see how they all reserved the best for last! His previous grievances about having to wait at the end of the line were no longer important. Compared to a lengthy delay, Joshua cared a lot more about piloting a mech that was developed by the people who he was close with! Right now, he felt as if he had become the luckiest and happiest expert pilot in the Larkinson Clan. Who else could receive such extravagant treatment? The love and expectation directed towards him gave Venerable Joshua a push. He didn't want to receive their gifts without doing anything in return. He wanted to pay back all of the affection he received, and aside from doing his best to win all of the future battles he would take part in, he also sought to amplify the strength of his expert mech in his own way! Although he was not a mech designer and did not understand a thing about the advanced engineering that went through the heads of the Journeymen, Joshua had developed his own understanding and feel of life! He piloted almost every single mech designed by Ves. Aside from competition mechs and custom mechs designed for other mech pilots, Joshua had already familiarized himself to the variety of living mechs that the clan patriarch was able to conceive. In the past few days, he resonated with a different form of life. Blinky was a highly unusual creature. Though the cat reminded Joshua a lot about Ves, he was his own distinctive existence and possessed different powers. The more Joshua learned about Blinky just by remaining in contact with the companion spirit, the more he became inspired. Yet that did not necessarily mean anything. Just like how resonance needed to be used in a useful manner in order to derive benefits from it, Joshua had to find a way to translate his inspiration into a plan that could allow him to fulfill his new desire! As the expert pilot continued to think on how he could realize his new idea, enough days had passed for the lengthy session to move on to the crucial assembly phase. When Ves briefly swept his senses across all of the parts fabricated by him and his colleagues, he noticed a small and distinct difference. The components made by him were significantly more attuned to Venerable Joshua while the ones made by the rest were less aligned. It couldn't be helped. Only Ves was able to cooperate with Venerable Joshua to create this effect. This had led to an additional difference in the properties of different mech parts. Ves had mostly been responsible for fabricating the luminar crystal rifle as well as the various energy transmission systems needed to support the ranged combat operation of the Chimera Project. This meant his efforts mostly granted Venerable Joshua an extra advantage in ranged combat. The melee capabilities of the Chimera Project shouldn't be any weaker, though. Now that Ketis had also made a remarkable move, the expert mech's combat effectiveness was no longer as uneven as he feared! "Now, all we need to do is to combine these strengths into a single frame." Ves smiled. Venerable Joshua looked on as the mech designers began to operate the heavy bots and machinery needed to put together a mech that consisted of parts that weighed several tons. A new life was finally taking shape! As the mech frame became more complete, it began to exude a greater presence. The time for him to greet his new battle partner was close at hand!