The Mech Touch

There was a reason why Ves spoke those harsh words. It wasn't because he liked to bully his students or wanted them to fail.

The design office fell into silence as Ves kept his mouth shut for a minute. He gave Maikel and Zanthar a bit of time to reflect on themselves and how lucky they were for receiving the tutelage of one of the most accomplished Journeymen in human space!

Although Ves was not a Master Mech Designer or Star Designer, his qualifications were vastly superior compared to most teachers!

Whether it was his proven commercial success or his many masterwork certificates, his insights and understanding of mechs were extremely valuable!

For years, the two young men had access to much of it without encountering too many barriers. They never questioned whether they actually deserved the treatment that they received. Ves feared that this would cause the brats to develop an inflated sense of entitlement.

This was a development that needed to be strangled as early as possible!

If Maikel and Zanthar graduated from their studies with a conceited attitude, there was no way that they would be able to make substantive progress once they entered the actual mech industry.

"Do you understand the point of your graduating assignments?" Ves asked his students.

"Uhmm… since our qualifications aren't as good as other students, we need to prove even more that our treatment is justified. The best way we can do that is to perform extra well on our graduation assignments."

"Your answer is close, Maikel. There are a couple of elements that you have missed. Zanthar, can you supplement your colleague's arguments?"

The other young man frowned as he quickly tried to grasp other angles.

"I think… the tests you have given to us should be doable for the promising students that you have referred to. Since you haven't decreased the difficulties of our graduation assignments, you expect us to achieve the same results by compensating our lack of talent with diligence and hard work."

Ves looked impressed. "That's better! You've hit one of the keys here. You're right. Both of you want to advance to Journeyman quickly and begin leading our clan's design projects, right? How can you possibly do that when you aren't as good as the likes of the Voiken siblings or the direct disciples of Master Deliz Corenay? The four Journeymen that we have recently brought onboard our clan are carefully selected among hundreds of different applicants, many of whom possess their own impressive qualifications."

Compared to the recent hires in the Design Department, Maikel and Zanthar were truly inferior in almost every criteria!

"It is all well and good to hold high ambitions, but you need to possess the necessary ability to realize them. If your talents aren't good, then you need to rely even more on your other strengths. Diligence and persistence are just a couple of them. If you want to match or surpass the results of mech designers who have a realistic chance of advancing to Master, then you need to work your butts off in the next twelve months."

Part of the reason why Ves wanted to increase their workload was to emphasize that putting in so many hours was necessary to excel in this profession.

He did not want them to think that they could take it easy once they no longer studied under strict supervision.

While there were plenty of mech designers who treated their jobs as 9-to-5 gigs, these people simply didn't have what it took to become Master, let alone a Journeyman.

Average mech designers that assumed a normal work ethic only climbed up to the rank of Apprentice Mech Designer at most.

Regardless of whether they possessed spiritual potential or not, anyone who wanted to climb higher needed to show brilliance in at least one aspect.

What Ves was trying to do was to pressure his students into doing just that. A year sounded like a lot of time, but the difficulty of designing a high-performing original mech could not easily be overcome by working long hours alone!

In fact, there was one more reason why he imposed harsh demands on the Larkinson seeds.

According to his analysis of Maikel and Zanthar's academic results and design submissions for different practical assignments, the two young men were highly likely to fail their final tests if they adopted a normal approach.

If Maikel and Zanthar did not recognize their own shortcomings and thought that working additional hours a day was enough for them to earn a passing grade, then they were in for a rude awakening!

Since Ves expected the pair to fail their graduating assignments, why set the bar so high in the first place?

The answer was that Ves wanted Maikel and Zanthar to solve their problems by thinking outside the box!

Neither of their chosen specialties were conventional or straightforward. Both of them were determined to tread new ground.

This meant that they needed to be better at innovating and developing new solutions than other mech designers!

Without exercising their creativity and without finding shortcuts, there was no way for them to make any meaningful progress towards designing more battle-ready living mechs or more damaging luminar crystal weapon-equipped mechs!

In short, Ves wanted the pair of mech design students to follow in his own footsteps as a mech designer.

He wanted them to embrace the approach of a Brave and smash through all of their obstacles by possessing more guts and taking more calculated risks than other mech designers!

If they weren't talented enough, then they should be braver!

If they weren't smart enough, then they should take more risks!

If they weren't rich enough, then they needed to be more inventive!

Every problem had a solution!

If an easy solution wasn't available, then they shouldn't give up so soon. Harder solutions were always available. It all depended on whether his students had learned enough from Ves to realize that their only way to success was to adopt a radical approach towards mech design.

They had to be crazier than other mech designers in order to have any hope of reaching Master in their lifetimes!

Ves wasn't generous enough to reveal this hint to his students openly. They needed to figure out this truth by themselves. If they weren't even bright enough to make this realization in the following year, then what had they been doing since they began their studies?

"Your graduation assignments are more difficult than the ones given to other mech design students, but have you ever thought about what you will gain if you succeed?"

Both Maikel and Zanthar looked up to their patriarch.

"I am not simply giving you an exam. I'm also giving you an entry test to see whether you have what it takes to become a high potential prospect of our Design Department."

"Are you saying that we will get better treatment if we succeed?" Maikel asked.

"You can think of it that way." Ves nodded. "If you can show me that you have the potential to make real gains in the field of living mechs or luminar crystal technology, then our clan will continue to channel more resources into your subsequent development. This will give you a better chance of advancing to Journeyman quickly. The reason why we are doing this is because we urgently need mech designers with your respective specialties. This is not a gift. This is a trade. Prove to me that you are good enough to uphold your end of this lucrative deal, and we will not treat you poorly."

If Maikel and Zanthar failed to impress Ves, then the Design Department would not grant them special treatment. Their only way forward was to start at the bottom and work their way up like all of the other assistant mech designers.

This was already a better start than what most mech designers could attain!

The Larkinson Clan still employed hundreds of low-ranking mech designers outside of the Design Department. They helped with producing mechs and servicing the existing ones fielded by the different mech legions.

The Larkinson seeds didn't need to do that because it would be an even greater waste of their studies. They had already hung around the Design Department for so long that they could quickly start assisting with smaller assignments.

Before Ves was ready to dismiss his students, he decided to throw them a bone.

"Each of you can ask me a single question. This is the only time I will directly provide assistance that is relevant to your graduation assignments."

Zanthar went first.

"Sir, you have asked me to develop a completely new luminar energy attack phase crystal. How can I possibly do that when I have only learned this tech relatively recently?"

"It's not that difficult to synthesize luminar crystals that can be combined with energy weapons to produce energy beams with different properties." Ves answered. "If I spent more time on this, I would have been able to develop a seventh, eight or ninth variety of attack phase crystals that are powerful enough to be utilized in combat. I only stopped at six because they are already sufficient to cover the majority of combat scenarios."

Zanthar blinked. "Can I really invent another attack phase crystal if I experiment for a time?"

"Yes." Ves nodded and smiled. "That does not mean that you are done, though. You need to overcome at least two challenges. First, your new attack phase crystal must be different from the existing ones that I have developed. I don't want to see another variation of a laser beam or positron beam from you. I want you to design a rifleman mech that can inflict damage through different means that I haven't seen before. The only way to do that is to experiment a lot. You need to combine theory as well as trial-and-error to invent a unique new attack phase crystal."

This meant that Zanthar had to spend a lot of time in a laboratory or workshop!

The young man frowned. "I don't know how long it will take for me to succeed."

"That is the second challenge you must overcome. Mech designers in the mech industry work under time constraints all the time. They don't get the luxury of having 3 or 5 years to design a single mech. Their clients, bosses or the market expect people like us to deliver a workable product within a year or half a year. What you must do is manage your time and plan your schedule well enough to meet your requirements within the deadline. Do you understand?"

"I understand…"

The outcome of Zanthar's graduation assignment heavily depended on his research effectiveness!

He needed to do well in many different aspects, from time management, theoretical modeling, methodology, iteration, data analysis and so on. If he was lacking in any of these areas, then he didn't possess the qualifications to specialize in a technological swamp such as luminar crystal technology!

"What about me?" Maikel prompted as Zanthar fell into thought. "How can I possibly program an AI that can come close enough to matching or exceeding the control of a professional mech pilot?"

Ves snorted. "By learning how mech pilots do their jobs, of course. Mech designers are never too far removed from mech pilots. The latter are our clients and the entire reason why our profession exists. If you don't know anything about how mech pilots control their machines, you will have a bad time when you embark on your specialty. You can't maintain your ignorance in this aspect. If I was you, I would start to interview and spend time with lots of different mech pilots. Learn their habits. Study their battle footage. Figure out their best practices. Once you learn all of this, use what you have absorbed to program the strongest possible battle AI that you can accomplish at this stage."

"In a year?"

"Less, actually. You still need to design the rest of your battle bot, remember?" Ves devilishly grinned.