The Mech Touch

All in all, Ves became incredibly satisfied with the gains he made today.

His coincidental meeting and cooperation with Master Blacksmith Rogha Dunnerholm had taught him an important lesson.

It was not a waste of time for mech designers to work together with other professionals who didn't necessarily have anything to do with the mech industry.

Hardly any mech designers bothered to collaborate with other professionals. In the Age of Mechs, the former was in the ascendancy while the latter had become more marginalized than ever.

As mechs became more popular and visible in human society, only a small minority of eccentrics and rich people still held a small amount of appreciation for traditional craftsmanship.

It was a rather sad state of affairs, but the demands of a progressing civilization dictated that any production method that did not do well in the areas of efficiency and mass production had to be set aside.

Mech designers were not only able to keep up with these demands and justify their existence, but could also take their jobs a step further and attain transcendence while incorporating more and more metaphysics into their works.

All of these unique and powerful advantages made it seem as if mech designers stood on top of everyone else!

Why would any mech designer condescend to lower himself to the level of a mere mortal craftsman?

This sounded as pointless as modern humans trying to treat a race of primitive, jungle-dwelling aliens as their equals!

However, Vesk knew quite well that even the less sophisticated alien races could develop their own unique strengths that may be of use to another technologically superior race.

It was the same case with the dwarven blacksmith. Rogha Dunnerholm may not be a transcendent, but he had succeeded in getting close to approaching the extreme of his own craft.

As far as Ves was concerned, the greatest benefit he gained from this experience was that he gained an even better feel and understanding of metal than before.

This was difficult to describe or quantify in scientific terms. Ves only vaguely felt that he could work with metal a bit more exquisitely than before. It was as if he had gained a small part of the benefit of spending many decades working with metal in a forge!

Of course, Ves also made a lot of practical gains as well. He felt a lot more confident in his ability to mimic a traditional blacksmith and work a forge. The only fault was that he lacked a lot of practical experience which could not be solved unless he spent a lot of time in the forge himself.

The little hammer that Dunnerholm gifted to Ves was another little benefit.

After testing it out on the work table, Ves confirmed that it could provide him with a lot of help and convenience in applying his newly gained knowledge on acoustic metallurgy.

The living tool had been shaped in a way that made it seem as if it was only good for ringing a bell, but it could do so much more than that with the help of its metaphysical properties.

What was even better was that it could grow over time and become much more useful in the future!

The same applied to the set of relic tools reserved for the master blacksmith himself.

As Dunnerholm reverently picked up the handles of the blacksmithing tools one by one, the grin on his bearded face could not be suppressed!

"Are you satisfied?" Ves asked as he skilfully twirled his second hammer around his fingers.

"More than you can ever know." The dwarf gasped in response as excitement coursed through his body. "I cannot wait to see how well I can channel Vulcan's blessing in making my next totems! I should be able to create magnificent works that properly honors the majesty and divinity of our god!"

"Uh huh. Just keep in mind that you need to earn your keep. Our clan literally fought alien battleships to secure the materials used to make your new set of fancy tools, and my expertise doesn't come for free either."

The old dwarf patted his chest with his strong fist. "I shall not squander these blessed gifts! You can count on that, patriarch! I will do my utmost to help your Creation Association obtain all of the totems it needs to spread the worship of Vulcan across the Red Ocean and beyond! The great works that I will be able to make with my new tools shall be celebrated among both humans and dwarves. This is my promise!"

Ves was satisfied with this earnest statement. This had been a highly productive experience for him today.

Through a half a day of collaborative work, he not only secured the loyalty of possibly the best totem maker for the Creation Association, but also empowered him to become even better at his primary responsibility.

By now, Rogha Dunnerholm had completely forgotten about any of the ambivalence he held. He no longer felt bothered by the Larkinson Patriarch's culpability in the tragedies that had befallen the Vulcan Empire and its many dwarven citizens.

In the old dwarf's mind, perhaps Ves Larkinson had merely been acting as an agent on behalf of Vulcan himself.

The god may have grown so disgusted by the degeneration of the Vulcan Empire that he would rather strike down his own people than let the misguided dwarves wallow in their own filth!

"Would you like the honor of bestowing a name to our new equipment set?" Dunnerholm asked the younger man.

"Hmm." Ves paused for a moment. "This is mostly your work. You should be the one to name the tools that you will be using for a long time."

"Then I would call it the Harmony Smith set. Each of these tools are made for the purpose of helping my products achieve harmony with Vulcan. I have yet to use any of them as of yet, but I am convinced that I can apply my own strengths much better than before!"

The Harmony Smith set sounded good. It became another set of living and growing heirlooms for the Creation Association.

The ownership of the tools was never in doubt. Dunnerholm already acknowledged without saying that he did not own the hammers and other instruments. He merely received the privilege of using them for as long as he was employed by the Creation Association.

If a day had come where Dunnerholm could no longer effectively lift his hammer, he would have to relinquish his right to use the Harmony Smith Relic Set. The clan would subsequently entrust the tools to another promising smith who could make good use of their distinctive properties.

The dwarf stared at the small hammer that Ves continued to twirl in his hand.

"If I may ask, have you considered a name for your own tool?"

Ves ceased to twirl his own new personal hammer and thought about it for a second. He smiled and lifted his other arm so that he could flick the surface of the delicate tool with his finger.

Ting~

The sound produced by flicking the hammer with his fingernail resembled that of a tuning fork. It was capable of doing so with the help of a hollow core along with carefully placed holes.

If he wanted to, Ves could even learn how to play the elegant hammer as a miniature instrument by manipulating it in different ways.

It was an interesting toy if nothing else.

"Hammer of Melody sounds fitting to me." Ves eventually decided. "It is a hammer as well as a musical instrument. It's practically a little sister to the Hammer of Brilliance."

Now that they settled this matter and wrapped up their short but incredibly fruitful project, Ves was ready to leave.

He only stayed around long enough to issue new instructions and make a few matters clear.

"You have two main responsibilities. Your main job is to meet the requests of Director Samandra Avikon and make the totems that she needs to expand the Creation Association. Your second job is to teach your craft and specialization to a number of apprentices."

The second responsibility caused the dwarf to frown.

"I am not certain I am ready to start mentoring apprentices again. The ones I taught before the fall of the Vulcan Empire did not meet a good end. I am afraid... I might not be able to guide my next students well."

Ves crossed his arms. "What happened to your last apprentices?"

"They were younger and much more fanatical than me. They did not stand by and let the fight unfold around them. Instead of heeding my advice and letting the soldiers do the fighting, they gave in to their youthful impulses and joined the fighting. All of my teachings had gone to waste!"

That sounded tough, but that didn't mean that Ves wanted this highly capable dwarf to keep all of his expertise to himself!

"That is in the past. You are living in a different galaxy and a different time now. Your skills and insights are too precious to be confined in your head. Go and select a bunch of young but talented smiths and teach them like you would do any apprentice. Make sure that they are not exclusively normal humans or heavy gravity variant humans. What you fear won't happen again if there is a greater diversity among your apprentices."

"I suppose you are correct, sir. I will need time to adjust to my new tools and learn exactly what I can do with them. I need to learn how to make other sets of tools with my new equipment so that my apprentices can begin to learn how to make their own totems in time. That should be the goal of their studies."

With that, Ves settled the future course of the Creation Association. Totems of Vulcan played an essential role in the business model and the expansion rate of the non-profit organization under his clan.

Now that Ves finally ensured that he could liberate himself from this tedious responsibility, he could go back to concentrating his time on his core research and design projects.

He finally exited the underground workshop floor after agreeing to meet with Dunnerholm again at a future date for future collaboration projects.

Director Samandra Avikon awaited his return. "I see your time with our master blacksmith has greatly satisfied you. Are you pleased with the state of the Creation Association?"

That was not as simple of a question to Ves than before.

"I guess it is not so bad." He conceded. "If more people like Dunnerholm come and work for us, then that would be great. We need a concentration of skilled and talented artisans to turn this arm of our clan into a facilitating influence that can further our footprint in the industrial sector of the Red Ocean."

"I understand your motives. It should be easy enough to build a following in most zones and colonial states by relying on the obvious benefits of our totems. Compared to many other faiths, the rewards for praying to Vulcan are much more tangible and noticeable. The main reason why our expansion has been so constrained over the years was because we were bottlenecked by the supply of totems. Once Dunnerholm and our other craftsmen are able to resolve this issue, nothing will stand in the way of our spread through all of the lower and middle zones of the Red Ocean!"

"What about the upper zones?"

The priestess grew a lot more guarded at this mention. "I would highly advise against encroaching in the territories of first-raters. The religious organizations that operate there are much stronger, much more established and much more capable of crushing any challenges to their reign. Many of the oldest human churches with legacies that span back to the dawn of human civilization have entrenched themselves so well that not even god pilots and Star Designers can shake their rock-solid hegemony over the most powerful masses."

"I see. I guess it is a good idea for us to maintain our distance from them." Ves conceded.