The Mech Touch

Ves would become a Senior sooner or later. He could feel it in his bones. Despite his relatively young age, his accumulation was substantial and his work caught on in the mech market. He derived many successful innovations based on his design philosophy and built up an increasingly more expansive theoretical framework of his specialty.

He was ready to engage in mech design at a higher level. He was tired of remaining stuck as Journeyman.

In the mech industry, a Journeyman was treated as a teenager that was better than an ignorant kid, but not by much.

Becoming a Senior was a watershed for a mech designer. Though Ves didn't exactly understand how much of a difference the rank would make in his work, the higher status alone was worth the effort to sprint towards advancement!

Ves did not know when he would be able to get rid of his status as a Journeyman, but he could feel that it would not take long. He just needed a single impetus to get over the edge.

If completing the Dullahan Project did not do that, then completing the Ghost Project may allow him to break through to Senior. If that wasn't enough, then another creative and groundbreaking mech design would surely be able to get him over the edge within the next decade.

In any case, Ves believed that his advancement to Senior was close enough for him to get ready to plan ahead. Fulfilling his obligation to pass on his knowledge to students in a more systematic learning environment was an important facet to any mech designer's life. It was better to plan ahead than be caught unprepared once he finally broke through.

"So how does this work, Master? Will I be able to become a full professor right out of the gate with the help of a Hyper Chamber and a recommendation?"

"Naturally, you should not expect to receive heavy responsibilities at first. You will have to start at the bottom of the ladder where you will only be able to teach a small and fairly limited elective course on a specialty subject that you can speak with authority. You will have to do the hard work of convincing students to accept your teachings. This is a method that a mech university regularly employs to test the teaching ability of its newer professors. Those that can attract more students and are able to improve their mech design capabilities in a concrete manner will be promoted in the future."

The bald MTA Master continued to explain the basic situation of what it would be like if Ves snatched a teaching position at one of these fancy schools.

The subjects that Ves was allowed to teach, the amount of hours he had to spend in front of a virtual or projected classroom, the type of students he was allowed to teach and the additional privileges he might receive as a relatively junior member of the teaching staff all varied depending on the specific employment contract.

Ves would have to agree on the exact terms of the contract with the mech university in question. It did not take a genius to figure out that a more outstanding institution would impose more restrictions and make more cumbersome demands.

Master Goldstein carefully spoke his next words.

"It is not a trivial matter to become a professor at a more prestigious mech university that is renowned throughout both galaxies, but the rewards are worth the sacrifices. Obtaining a temporary or permanent teaching position will immediately raise your reputation and gild your record. You will not only gain a tentative foothold in the core academic community of the mech community, but also obtain a lot more legitimacy for your work. It becomes much easier for other professionals to take your design philosophy, your radical innovations and your mech designs seriously, because a prestigious name is vouching for your work."

It was just as how being a member of the Mech Trade Association made every mech designer's reputation a lot better. No matter what kind of person a mecher may be, other people just knew that a MTA mech designer was just smarter, better and overall more superior than someone grown in the 'wild'.

The biggest shortcoming of Ves was that he was completely unfamiliar with the upper landscape of second-class educational institutions. He did not know the top names or their histories and traditions. He had no idea where the schools were located and what sort of teaching philosophies they upheld.

"The best second-class mech universities often maintain close connections to first-class institutions." Goldstein helpfully told Ves. "Make your choices carefully, because every top institution is entangled in a large and intricate web of interest groups. Your selection will have political implications for yourself and your clan. If you are unwilling to become an asset to a first-rate state such as the Greater Terran United Confederation or the New Rubarth Empire, it may be wise to steer towards a slightly less prestigious institution that has built up a more independent reputation."

That sounded like a good idea. Ves would have to do his own research, but he did not mind passing over the best offers if they came with too many strings attached.

"Are there any other important benefits to teaching at a top institution?" He asked. "I mean, it is nice to be able to use the reputation of a famous name, but not all mech designers need this sort of assistance."

"You are correct, Mr. Larkinson. There are many top mech designers who do not have to rely on a third party to boost their fame and reputation. What these individuals truly seek are opportunities to get into contact with promising and talented mech design students. The better the school, the greater the average quality of future mech designers. It is in the lecturing halls where Seniors and Masters often scout their next disciples."

Ves' eyes gleamed. Master Goldstein raised an excellent point!

Although the Larkinson Clan was slowly ramping up its ability to train and educate its own mech designers, the chances that a genius would emerge from within was still too low.

That didn't mean that Ves had no intentions of passing on his craft to his clansmen. Successful cases like Ketis showed that he could still make do with lower quality stock if he invested more effort and resources into his tutoring.

Ves didn't have the time or motivation to invest so much into raising mech designers, though. He was already swamped with his own work. Allocating an unreasonable amount of his time on making other people become better mech designers may ultimately translate into sabotaging his own progress!

This was why he became so interested in the idea of taking bright and talented mech design students under his wing.

These little geniuses either possessed wealthy backgrounds or had proven to be extraordinarily smart.

Most of the time, they were both, or else they wouldn't have been able to get accepted by a top school.

This meant that these students not only required less time to learn advanced theories and concepts, but should also be a lot more self-sufficient.

Ves could pretty much treat them like free-range chicken. As long as he remembered to sprinkle a bit of bird food at them, they would go about their day and soon begin to lay eggs on his behalf.

Of course, teaching a mech design student who came from a powerful influence comparable to the Yorul-Tavik Clan would also help expand his connections to the upper layers of human society!

Given all of these amazing possibilities, Ves became more motivated to become a professor at a good institution.

"Getting back to the Hyper Chamber, will I be able to get a good position with a basic one, or do I need to upgrade it with better and more advanced modules?"

Master Goldstein paused for a short moment. "It depends. I am not too familiar with the recruiting standards of second-class mech universities, but a basic Hyper Chamber should already suffice. I believe that the classes that you will be permitted to teach will mostly be confined to theoretical lessons. These classes do not impose heavy demands on the capabilities of high-performance physical projection technology. It is only when you start to teach more advanced classes with a greater emphasis on practical coursework that it is helpful to upgrade your Hyper Chamber. This can cost you at least an additional 100 million MTA merits."

That was good to know in the future.

"It sounds as if Hyper Chambers and their many optional upgrades are common enough to be sold on the open market." Ves remarked. "Can I buy and improve them by spending credits instead of merits?"

"You may, Mr. Larkinson, but can you afford the expenditure? You may not be aware of this, but many of the products that we offer through our exchange can be considered bargains when you consider how much they cost if you purchase them from a commercial vendor. The quality of the products that we list on our exchange are also uniformly high."

"How much does it cost to buy a Hyper Chamber with MTA credits?"

"An entry-level Hyper Chamber can be bought for 500 million MTA credits. A premium one that is offered by our Association will cost much more. The exact prices will vary depending on the brand and the feature set, but it will never be below 1 billion MTA credits. Do you understand why owning this product is a matter of great prestige to second-raters?"

Ves gulped. He never realized that a large package of souped up physical projectors was priced at these ridiculous heights!

There was no way the Larkinson Clan could earn that much cash in the short term!

"I think I will opt for acquiring a Hyper Chamber from your exchange."

"A wise decision." Master Goldstein smiled in approval. "Obtaining a Hyper Chamber is a life-changing decision for you and anyone permitted to use it. This solution is especially suitable for a mech designer who is rarely found in one location and insists on traveling to remote destinations. By gaining the ability to engage in high-end communication and interaction, you can begin to collaborate with other mech designers in a much more intimate and effective manner."

Ves looked forward to all of these possibilities. It made his life a lot easier even if he did not use it for teaching purposes.

"Is it possible for you or your men to install a Hyper Chamber on my flagship right away?"

"I would advise against that." Goldstein replied. "While our fleet has the technical capabilities to install a Hyper Chamber on any of your starships, it will not only demand a large volume of space, but also impose an unreasonably high burden on your craft. The Hyper Chamber does not come with its own power supply, so you will need to accommodate its energy needs. The single first-class power reactor that you have installed on your factory ship is not adequate enough to allow the chamber to project entire mechs under active usage."

A high-end technological suite imposed much higher demands on its environment. The Master mentioned other issues such as weight and isolation that demanded a high degree of structural modifications to the Spirit of Bentheim before she could even accommodate such a demanding chamber!

Ves grimaced when he heard the extensive list of technical demands.

"I get the point. My ship is too weak."

"This is why I advise you to spend a large amount of MTA merits on purchasing an improved factory ship from us. This will ensure you will be in the best possible position to integrate other demanding products of high technology into your fleet."

That sounded compelling, but Ves was reluctant to let go of the Spirit of Bentheim. The ship had greater meaning to him than a mobile factory.

"Is there a possibility to upgrade my existing ship instead?"

"You can do that, but it will require more resources and labor to obtain a worse result." Goldstein brutally said. "If you insist on funding an extensive refit of your factory ship regardless of this reality, then that is your choice. Depending on how much you are willing to invest, we can comprehensively increase her size, strengthen her structure, increase her defenses, improve her production facilities, mount her with an optimized superdrive and more. Anything is possible as long as you are able to pay the price."

Improving the Spirit of Bentheim was a matter of great importance, but if he sunk a lot MTA credits into her refit, that would mean he would not be able to spend as much on other goodies!

Ves felt conflicted.