The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1713

Chapter 1713 Confinemen

Ghanso did not visit Ves again, and neither did anyone else for that matter. The crew of the combat carrier took their mission seriously and maintained a professional demeanor.

The sandmen had reached far and wide, and they could show up anywhere. While the ship was currently safe in FTL travel, who knew what they might encounter at the other end.

The carrier had to be ready to face an ambush. Venerable Ghanso needed to prepare himself for battle at any time. How could they possibly have the time to play with their prisoner?

Ves felt as if he was a piece of cargo thrown in the cargo hold of a transport. The crew were just responsible for bringing him from A to B without any superfluous steps!

He hated it. After spending a lot of time around people, this forced isolation was grating at him. He missed Gavin's dutiful reports, Raymond's advice, Nitaa's dedication, Gloriana's warmth and the energy of his design team.

It was only now that his captors deprived him from what he took for granted that Ves realized how much he depended on his friends and subordinates!

Loneliness swept through his mind and spirit, causing him to feel more and more depressed.

The bare cell didn't help any matters either. For some reason, security officers neglected to offer him any form of distraction or entertainment. They didn't even provide him with a single projector that allowed him to watch old dramas or something!

The lack of amenities forced Ves to depend on himself to pass the time.

He first attempted to develop some ideas for his next design project. Now that he completed the Deliverer design, Ves did not really have anything else on his plate.

It was difficult to figure out what mech he should design when he did not even know his future trajectory.

"I don't know where I'll stay next." He muttered.

With everything that happened today, his trust in the Bright Republic had dropped close to the bottom. While he identified himself as a Brighter, he no longer held the same amount of trust and loyalty in his home state.

Some of the words he spoke to the Larkinsons had come from the bottom of his heart. He truly meant it when he told them that they didn't owe the state anything anymore.

While he and the Larkinsons should be grateful to the Bright Republic for offering them a good environment to develop, it was difficult to go any further.

While Ves figured that the Bright Republic still offered more room for growth, the only way to do so was to grow under the tree of the Tovar Family.

"A shelter is also a cage. My family doesn't necessarily have to rely on others for protection."

Ves vastly preferred decoupling the Larkinsons from the Bright Republic and form a more independent existence. So long as his family could retain its most useful customs and traditions, it should have no problem sustaining a mercenary existence.

"That's not enough, though."

Becoming mercenaries was a step down for the Larkinsons! Most of them would certainly rebel if Ves pushed them into adopting an identity devoid of honor!

Only pirates and dark mercenaries ranked worse!

He scratched his head. "I'll have to consider this matter carefully."

Ideally, Ves wanted to make the Larkinsons work exclusively for him. The problem was that he couldn't expect every Larkinson to follow this mold. They were unlike him who did not really care about settling down somewhere else for the long term.

He needed to find some way that offered various options for his family while retaining a firm grasp on its core.

Since Ves had a lot of time on his hands, he methodically formed some ideas. Several hours went by as he explored every option he could think of. He eventually came up with a new vision for the family that entailed some radical changes!

His expression brightened as he looked forward to how he could change his family to his benefit!

Of course, plotting the future of his family only entertained him for so long. After he formed his ideas, he grew bored with pretending to be the architect of the new incarnation of his family.

He began to spend his time on something different. No matter how much his captors isolated him and deprived him with something to do, they could not prevent him from utilizing his Spirituality.

Ves turned his thoughts inwards and began to check on each active design spirit. He checked up on Qilanxo, Ylvaine's spiritual fragment, Zeigra, Bravo, the Solemn Guardian and so on. He made sure to keep track of their strength, maturity, personality as well as their spiritual dividend distribution.

Most of them reached a plateau in their growth. Pure quantity no longer provided them with measurable benefits.

Fortunately, none of them appeared to be dissatisfied with their current lot. Ves believed that other spiritual entities would never be able to grow as fast and effortlessly than his design spirits!

"Your jobs are pretty cushy if you think about it! There's no reason for you to be dissatisfied with your current progress!"

The main downside to this easy growth was that none of his design spirits appeared eager to cultivate their strengths by themselves. They had grown completely dependent on the spiritual feedback provided by mech pilots!

This kind of relationship reminded Ves of the relationship between the Blessed People and the Sacred Gods they used to worship.

As a former Sacred God herself, Qilanxo had adopted her new role with a lot of gusto. Ves clearly sensed that she was applying her spiritual abilities in a much more sophisticated manner than the rest of his design spirits!

Unfortunately, Ves did not have the guts to ask Qilanxo to teach his other design spirits how

Getting in touch with each of them alleviated his loneliness, though not very much.

None of his design spirits were comparable to human company. Even Ylvaine's spiritual fragment, which was the most human design spirit in his collection, was far too pure and cerebral to provide good company.

They couldn't really help him out of his current predicament either. As design spirits, the most they could do was to influence the minds of people to a limited degree.

"It's not like I can convert the crew of this ship by exposing them to the glory of Prophet Ylvaine." He figured.

A few days went by as the combat carrier apparently traveled to a more distant star system. There were too many possible destinations to count. Space was unimaginably vast, but also filled with countless stars, many of them uninhabited due to their poor resource endowments and unattractive satellites.

Though Ves lost track of the day-night cycle, he tried his best to estimate how much time had passed.

At least he didn't have to worry about his hygiene. At irregular times, his cell would be blasted by an all-encompassing sonic blast that cleaned up his clothes and body.