A new hero expert ch was being born today. Inside a personal workshop located deep inside the Spirit of Bentheim, a ritual that combined precision engineering, heavy engineering and love had almost reached its conclusion.
After seven days of brisk and purposeful work, four Journeyn and a single expert pilot had continuously poured their efforts into making the final and perhaps ultimate machine of this design round.
For the ch designers, their ti in the design labs and the ch workshops in the past year provided them with many challenges and delights.
Each of them had made substantial gains as they successively worked on the six projects. Their approach had matured, their toolboxes held more techniques and they beca more adept at designing high-performance machines.
More than that, the four Journeyn also progressed their core design philosophies and developed a better understanding of the chs they truly wished to design.
Everyone was already satisfied. Each of them would be able to translate their recent improvents into substantially better results when they embarked on their next ch design projects.
That said, their job was not yet done. They still had to assemble the final pieces into place. They also had to make sure that the parts that had already been added to the ch fra were sound and functional.
All of this demanded the undivided attention of every ch designer. They no longer swapped as many thoughts and ideas to each other as they had already completed the most challenging and influential phase of the fabrication run.
What they were doing now was more akin to consolidating their previous efforts than adding more value to the ch. It was too difficult to co up with a new way to make the end product a little stronger during this phase.
That did not stop Venerable Joshua from thinking, though.
At this mont, he still resonated with Blinky as the companion spirit road throughout the incomplete ch fra. Even if it appeared that this move hardly made any difference at this point, Joshua was still able to familiarize himself with the soon-to-be-completed Chira Project in advance.
What struck him a lot about the hero expert ch was how he witnessed its creation from beginning to end.
Due to participating in the design network, Venerable Joshua beca awed and excited at how closely he was involved in the birth of his own expert ch.
This was a machine that was truly designed and made for him from the ground up. It was a ch that not only embodied life to Joshua, but was also filled with the love and affection of its creators.
From Ketis, Joshua received the most intimate form of love.
From Ves, Joshua received the goodwill of the greatest ch designer.
From the other two Journeyn, Joshua received the trust and expectation of the Larkinsons who invested him with power to fight on their behalf.
Whether their motivations were rational or emotional, Venerable Joshua beca continually touched by all of the effort that everyone put in a single machine.
The four Journeyn were under no obligation to go through this extent to fabricate the Chira Project.
Yet each of them did so without any hesitation. As a rule, any ch designer always sought to serve their clients as best as possible, but it was difficult to uphold this ideal in practice.
There were many ch designers who did not provide as much service to individual clients, but the ch designers of the Larkinson Clan were different.
Everything was personal. While every Larkinson was used to treating their fellow clansn as family, Joshua received more favor than others.
Though he was expected to repay all of the gifts and attention he received by performing well in battle, this did not require any effort on his part.
As an expert pilot and a soldier of the Larkinson Clan, he was already committed to doing his absolute best to protect his fellow clansn and destroy all of their enemies!
This realization caused him to build a small degree of frustration in his heart. He knew more than any other ch pilot how much the ch designers worked to elevate the Chira Project.
Compared to all of the effort and ingenuity that Ves and the others squeezed out of their minds, Joshua just sat around most of the ti while passively resonating with Blinky.
Over the past several days, he vaguely gained the notion that he could do sothing on his own initiative.
This was a strange impulse, so strange in fact that he had buried it deep in his heart. He felt ashad and uncertain about the notion that he could contribute to the formation of a ch by himself.
He was not a ch designer and didn't know 1 percent of all of the knowledge required to design a machine.
Others would think that he was being arrogant to the extre for thinking that he could do better than any other ch designer!
Yet the more the Chira Project reached completion, the more he felt that the expert ch was missing that final touch that could truly make it right for him. Joshua did not doubt the competences of the people who worked on its design, but none of them understood life and expert pilots like himself.
Not even Ves, who possessed the greatest understanding of his powers and capabilities, understood all of his facets.
Though Joshua loved all of Ves' living chs, that didn't an he was content to remain as a passive consur.
He already piloted so many living chs designed for other people in mind. Each of them had their rits, but ultimately possessed elents that prevented Joshua from embracing them in their totality.
He wanted to be more selfish this ti. The ch designed exclusively for his use must not have any shortcomings that prevented him from piloting it as seamlessly as possible!
With that thought in mind, Joshua beca increasingly more committed to his planned course of action.
Several strange thoughts flowed through his mind. Venerable Joshua took a lot of inspiration from the mindset and the thods employed by Ves and Ketis before coming up with his own plan of action.
He patiently waited while the ch designers completed the Chira Project at their own pace. When the expert ch had reached its final juncture, Ves had slowly entered the cockpit in order to install the commorative plate and add the final elents to the interior.
At this point, Ves could already tell the final result of all of his efforts and the efforts of his colleagues.
His worst fears had co true. After turning the Shield of Samar into a masterwork expert ch, Ves and the others had emptied their accumulation and started off this fabrication run at a lower starting point.
He didn't think that this was an insurmountable problem. Even if he started this race in the rear, he just had to work harder to get to the front.
Yet despite fabricating an innovative new expert ch and implenting several new solutions developed on the spot, the overall quality of the expert ch fell short of his hopes.
It didn't matter that the Chira Project embodied its three core concepts to a higher degree than the other expert chs.
It didn't matter that he found a new way to increase the attunent between his expert ch and its expert pilot.
It didn't matter that Ketis sacrificed a part of herself to empower the Chira Project's ch sword.
All of that hard work just wasn't enough to overco the invisible barriers that prevented Journeyn like himself from climbing up the second rung of the craftsmanship ladder.
Ves tried his best to suppress his growing sense of disappointnt and expectation. All of his emotional commitnt into the Chira Project made it hurt all the more that he had failed to accomplish his ambitious target.
Yet regarding the expert ch as a disappointnt was unprofessional and a disservice to both the machine and its user.
The Chira Project was already strong and valuable in its own right. Ves stood by all of the design choices he made and did not regret completing it last.
In the end, the cold hard truth was that he was simply too young, too inexperienced and too ambitious to be expecting another masterwork expert ch.
"I'm too weak." He sumd up with a sigh.
In the future, this challenge probably wouldn't inconvenience him anymore. Whether it took fifty years or a hundred years, Ves was certain that he would be able to climb the second rung of the ladder as easily as climbing other steps!
He was far from reaching this point, though.
As a result, the Chira Project he poured his heart and soul into beca an expert ch that was rely 'good' in terms of quality.
Its quality wasn't even high enough for one of Lucky's gems to be able to make up the difference!
In the end, it didn't even matter that his gem cat provided him with a batch of five new gems that he couldn't even identify. It turned out that he wouldn't have to play the gem lottery after all this ti.
For a mont, Ves loathed the expert ch he completed. Why couldn't it have been good enough to get close to the masterwork threshold? Why did all of his extra effort failed to make a substantial difference?
"I shouldn't feel this way towards an expert ch that is excellent in its own right." Ves reminded himself.
He had no doubt that the Chira Project would perform well in battle, but it still lacked that extra factor that allowed the Amaranto and the Shield of Samar stand out from its peers.
Venerable Joshua would be fine for the most part, but if his journey to ace pilot would doubtlessly be more arduous than Ves wished.
The only way to redy this problem was to design another expert ch or upgrade his existing one, but these asures only gave him a chance.
"Damn."
As Ves put the final part in place, he sank in the piloting chair and tried to cleanse his thoughts.
"Huh?"
Ves looked up in surprise as he sensed the approached of a familiar figure. Venerable Joshua erged from above and slipped inside the open entrance of the cockpit with a single, fluid maneuver.
"Sir." Joshua nodded confidently at the ch designer.
"What are you doing here? It's not ti yet for you to test run this freshly-made machine."
"The Chira Project isn't finished. Not in my eyes. It's not too late for us to perform an extra step."
Ves grew puzzled. He could sense an aura of confidence and purpose from the expert pilot. It was as if the failure to turn the Chira Project into a masterwork did not affect him in the slightest!
"What… do you have in mind?"
"I need your cooperation for this. Can you call over Blinky?"
"Certainly."
Mrow.
The cat quickly floated back to Ves' side. The Star Cat looked puzzled why he was needed. Hadn't they just completed the Chira Project?
Joshua didn't explain anything further. He looked at Blinky while resonating with the companion spirit to a stronger degree than he had ever done before!
Mrow?!
As the spiritual cat beca surrounded by an increasingly brighter green corona, Joshua suddenly drew a foldable combat knife from his belt.
"Wait, what are you doing with that blade?"
"Trust , sir."
Joshua resolutely cut the palm of his hand, inflicting a bleeding gash that already splattered the cockpit floor with drops of red!
"Are you crazy?!"
The expert pilot did not listen to Ves. Instead, Joshua used his bleeding hand to grasp onto Ves' wrist before decisively making another cut on the ch designer's palm!
"Ahhh! That hurts!"
Joshua moved quickly and gripped Ves' bleeding hand with his own one. The expert pilot proceed to drag over their bloody 'handshake' in the middle of Blinky's intangible body while it was affected by resonance!
"The Chira Project is our child." The expert pilot claid as he conveyed a powerful will through his eyes! "Let us baptize it in blood and celebrate its completion!"
Sothing amazing happened that caused Ves to choke his calls for help.
The blood that leaked between their palms seed to gain power. As the cockpit floor beca increasingly marked by fluids, the energies of life carried by the falling drops began to transfer to the entire ch.
Further inside the machine, the energies transferred seed to draw towards the parts that Ves had recently made while under the influence of Joshua's resonance.
As soon as these parts received a jolt, they began to glow and resonate with Venerable Joshua!
Ves looked amazed as the expert pilot expanded his force of will and channeled as much of his power as possible.
This was difficult on Joshua as he wasn't actually interfacing with the Chira Project. Yet despite not activating the expert ch, he forced himself to reach out to the ch that was already designed to embrace his will and found a growing response!
"It's truly co alive this ti." Joshua grinned.
Ves beca gobsmacked as the living expert ch underwent an unexplainable change that condensed much of its living elents into a cohesive, living consciousness.
For a mont, he felt as if he had co in touch with the Quint. Yet the Chira Project's living qualities were a bit different. They were… stronger and more complete despite not experiencing any growth over ti!
Even as the quality of the Chira Project rose as a consequence of this mysterious improvent, the newly-birthed consciousness conveyed its very first word.
Alive.
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