Chapter 2713: Regulating Input (2/2)

”Mr. Ingvar!” He shouted. ”I need you to help Lanie out. Don't just sit there in your cockpit while doing nothing. Concentrate your mind and set aside as many distractions as possible. Put yourself in a state of focus with as little fluctuations as possible. Your only thoughts should center around piloting the Bright Warrior in a calm and controlled fashion. Do this while at the same time imagining as if you are teaching someone.”

The expert candidate reacted with surprise, but quickly did as instructed. He was worried about Lanie's distress, so he wanted to do everything possible to relieve her burden.

His active involvement immediately changed the equation. Even though he wasn't able to clear his mind and concentrate as well as Ves, his mind became a lot less cluttered than before.

This change altered the kind of signals he transferred through the direct bond. With the cooperation of her Bright Warrior mech, Lanie became much more able to process the foreign input she received.

”Hmmm, I miscalculated.” He frowned.

He already figured out a couple of factors that put undue strain on Lanie's mind. Piloting the Bright Warrior was already a burden to her, so adding even a modest amount of input on top of that brought her much closer to the edge.

On top of that, the spiritual construct that was supposed to filter and regulate the input did not work as anticipated.

If he used a normal mech pilot as the source, then the spiritual construct should have been able to process the input properly.

Yet Ves didn't pick a normal mech pilot for a good reason. According to one of his theories, the strength of the source had to fit within a certain range.

A mech pilot without spiritual potential was completely unsuitable to act as a source. Their weak spirits were almost fully tucked inward. It was impossible for Ves to draw any of them out and transmit signals through the direct bond.

He needed to employ someone with at least some spiritual potential. Yet Ves didn't consider this option to be ideal because potential alone was not useful. Only when a mech pilot's potential had bloomed to an extent would they be able to do something with their spiritual energy.

This was why Ves settled on expert candidates as the ideal source. With someone like Imon Ingvar acting as Lanie's teacher, he would be able to transfer enough skills over the direct bond.

To be honest, Imon was not his first choice. He considered opting for expert pilots such as Venerable Joshua instead, but quickly realized that the strength disparity was too great.

An expert pilot was directly capable of overpowering a direct bond, thereby smashing through any limiters that Ves had set and potentially flood Lanie's mind with an excess of input that would surely have devastating consequences on her mind!

As the experiment quickly stabilized, Ves became relieved that most of his guesses and assumptions turned out to be accurate. Now that he handled some the unexpected variables, the bond had stabilized and Lanie received a steady amount of mental signals that no longer pushed her close to the edge.

”It's better sir, but.. nghh.. I still can't hold on too long.”

Ves contemplated moving on to the next step of his plan, but he hesitated.

Lanie may have gained a reprieve, but she already went through a difficult ordeal. She didn't seem to be in the right state to put her enhanced abilities to the test.

If Ves was working with a more disposable test subject such as a pirate or some other person he didn't care about, then he wouldn't have hesitated to proceed with his original experiment.

Yet this wasn't the case. Lanie was someone who possessed a lot of promise and might go on to become one of the most powerful Larkinson mech pilots of her generation. He had already pushed his luck to a great extent. Just one bad occurrence could cause everything to tumble down.

He suppressed his curiosity and urge to gather more data and made the prudent decision.

”I am ending this session. Please stay calm.”

He told Goldie to dissolve the direct bond while he shut down various systems that enabled the current state. The two mech pilots shut down their mechs in a controlled fashion.

Soon enough, Lanie breathed in relief as she no longer endured any pressure.

When Lanie and Imon finally emerged out of the cockpits and lowered themselves to the deck, Ves left his workstation and approached his two test subjects.

He quickly scanned Imon with his spiritual senses and did not detect anything amiss. That was to be expected.

Lanie did not look so great. From a mental perspective, she looked like she had run a day-long marathon or something. Her mind had become shaky and she looked as if she was unable to regain her center.

”Take the rest of the day off and go to sleep. You'll feel better after you've enjoyed a good night's sleep.” Ves suggested based on his own experiences with excessive mental strain. ”If that doesn't work, keep resting until you're back to normal.”

The young woman cradled her head as if Ves had whacked it with a stick. ”I briefly felt as if I was a much stronger mech pilot than before. What exactly.. is this all about?”

Ves smiled and nudged his head to Imon. ”I'm sure you have already guessed the answer. What you have just tried out is a new and hidden feature of my Bright Warrior mechs. It's still a bit rough so I have to tinker with it some more. While it's a shame that we haven't been able to see you in action, what you have just told me is highly encouraging. Did you really feel as if you became a lot better than before?”

She nodded while glancing speculatively at Imon. ”For a moment, I felt like I completely mastered the Bright Warrior despite the fact this was the first time I piloted it for real. All kinds of thoughts, considerations and even reflexes filled my consciousness.”

”Has any of it stuck?” Ves asked an important question.

She shook her head. ”No, sir. It's all gone now. However… I still remember a portion of the stuff that spoke to me the most. Even though I only grasped just 1 or 0.1 percent of what I became exposed to, I think I can become a much better mech pilot after I've processed what I've learned!”

Ves and Imon reacted with interest. If this was true, then Lanie definitely benefited from this brief experience!