The Mech Touch



As the banquet progressed, Ves increasingly felt more gratified with the attitudes of his fellow clansmen.

In the last couple of years, he always had the sense that his clan had grown too large for him to control.

It was a bit difficult for many Larkinsons to continue to look up to a Journeyman Mech Designer.

The story was different now that he had become a Senior Mech Designer.

While it was not as good as attaining the rank of Master Mech Designer, people were already accustomed to seeing Seniors in positions of authority.

This was because the majority of Seniors tended to advance to this rank when they were in their sixties or later.

Mech designers who had overcome their youth and climbed their way to this level of success were no longer young and inexperienced. They had all attained the mentality and the qualifications to assume responsibility over important duties.

Even if Ves personally thought that he hadn't gotten rid of his wild and adventurous streak, he was more than happy to take advantage of the common stereotype of Seniors.

From the reactions of his fellow Larkinsons, he already understood that his authority within the clan had restored to its peak. It was trivially easy for him to implement his ideas. People would actively bend over in order to accommodate his request as long as it wasn't too unreasonable.

"Can you tell us more about the mech that ultimately triggered your breakthrough?" Beatrice Hendrix curiously asked. "I already have access to the basic details about the Dullahan Project, but what is the most important factor that caused your design philosophy to make so much progress? You don't have to be too specific about it. I only want to learn from your example so that I can save a few years myself."

Half a year had passed since Ves successfully invited one of his former competitors at the Twin Weapons Tournament.

Just as expected, Beatrice adapted well enough to the Larkinson Clan.

It did not matter whether she fully agreed with the values of the clan or its penchant for risk-taking.

The huge amount of resources the clan had at its disposal was reason enough alone for the talented Journeyman Mech Designer to feel grateful about joining this club every day!

Ves figured that Beatrice Hendrix would soon be ready to get into full gear. He already had a few upcoming mech design projects in mind where she could make full use of her specialization in modular armor systems.

"I cannot say too much about the most promising features of the Dullahan Project." He said as he gestured around the dining hall. This was anything but a suitable venue to explore sensitive and confidential topics. "What I can say is that our latest completed expert mech is of great significance to my work and design philosophy. I took a gamble and implemented experimental new tech that is not proven to be safe. While I am sure that I have broken a lot of ethical rules in the process, the benefits are also obvious. It is only through bold experimentation that I have been able to become a Senior so quickly."

The laymen around the table all nodded as if the entire story made sense, but the mech designers weren't so easily fooled.

Gloriana and the others started to frown.

"Forgive me for saying so, but you are contradicting yourself." Merill O'Brian spoke up. "Testing  untested and highly unsafe design applications is a good way to crash your career. It only takes one deadly accident to force the MTA into censuring you. Mech designers such as us are supposed to serve mech pilots to the best of our ability, and an important part of our duty is to prioritize their safety. How can we make persistent progress when we constantly subject our own clients and customers to unnecessary risks?"

That was indeed a persistent problem with Ves' work. He had few compulsions about holding back and constantly wanted to play around with new ideas. That admittedly caused him to develop a lot of bad habits that he found difficult to shake.

Everyone stared at him in order to hear his answer to this crucial issue. Ves could already tell that his status as a Senior would incur serious damage if he did not provide a satisfactory answer.

"My attitude towards innovation is different from most of you." He began. "It is a bit complicated to explain, but the short version of it is that I recognize that there are already lots of mech designers who are busy with helping mech pilots by developing conventional solutions. I feel no need to follow the crowd because my work won't make that much of a difference anyway."

"You would rather kill yourself than become a generic mech designer." Gloriana said in a familiar tone.

"Just so." Ves grinned. "I have chosen to tread my own path and pioneer an entirely new field of mech design. This has been incredibly rewarding to me so far, but what few people know is that I have to make a lot of difficult decisions on how to proceed. If I slow down and conduct proper studies all of the time, then I would have still been stuck as a Journeyman. Innovation comes at a price, but I have always made sure that the users of my product understand the dangers of benefiting from my latest work. I laid out all of the possible risks and rewards to Venerable Jannzi so that she could make an informed choice. In no way did I ever deceive or coerce her into playing along with my experiments."

"Was it worth it to cooperate with Ves on the Dullahan Project, Jannzi?" Venerable Tusa asked his fellow expert pilot.

"Yes."

Many people reacted with surprise. Everyone knew that Jannzi had a lot of disagreements with Ves. To hear her support his reckless decisions was a bit difficult to accept.

"Are you serious?"

The female expert pilot crossed her arms. "What do you want me to say? I was desperate, okay? My old Shield of Samar has died, but Ves promised to deliver a new expert mech that is at least somewhat related to my old battle partner. He has satisfied this condition and more. I was only able to interface with my brand-new expert mech for a short time, but I can already tell you that my machine has become unbreakable in my hands."

She spoke her words with so much confidence that she painted Ves as a powerful mech designer who could make any dream come true!

Ves smirked. "Do you know that when Jannzi interfaced with the Dulluhan Project for the first time, her resonance strength jumped by more than 50 percent?"

"What?!"

"That's impossible!"

This provoked a huge reaction from numerous people, but especially among the Larkinson expert pilots!

They all understood how difficult it was to grow their resonance strength and reduce the distance to advancing to ace pilot!

The expert pilots had already been aware that Jannzi had just surpassed the threshold to mid-tier expert pilot, which was normally around 20 laveres.

For her to exceed 30 laveres when she hadn't been piloting any expert mechs at all in the past year sounded absurd!

The only reasonable explanation why Jannzi managed to make so much progress was because of her new expert space knight! This was the only variable that made sense!

More than a few Larkinson expert pilots began to stare at Ves as if he was a juicy morsel. It made him feel slightly uncomfortable.

He quickly raised his palm. "Whoa whoa whoa, slow down everyone. Each of you should know about Jannzi's close attachment to the Shield of Samar. Since the Dullahan Project is my attempt at creating a successor mech, this partial 'reunion' evoked a strong emotional reaction."

"That shouldn't be enough of a reason." Joshua said.

"True. The Dullahan Project has other qualities that can explain why Jannzi has made a huge jump in resonance strength. I even think it will continue to accelerate her progress over the coming years."

Naturally, this caused every expert pilot to request the same treatment!

Venerable Rosa Orfan banged her fist against the table. "How soon will you be able to upgrade our own expert mechs with this fantastic new tech?! I can't wait to get stronger!"

"That is not a simple matter, Rosa. The specific solution that Jannzi is benefiting from can be incredibly powerful, but the demands are also high. You may not be willing to pay the price to enjoy a serious boost. I will brief you on this in a more private setting as soon as I am done with testing Jannzi's new expert mech."

The Larkinson expert pilots had no choice but to drop the matter. There were too many foreign guests in the banquet hall and several of them must undoubtedly be able to eavesdrop on the discussion.

As they continued to enjoy the meals, the Larkinsons continued to chat about different topics, though not many of them were particularly important.

Director Ranya Wodin broke that pattern by asking an important question.

"In the past, you said that you were thinking about expanding the Larkinson Army with a biomech-oriented legion. Now that you have become a Senior, do you still have plans to do so, sir?"

Ves firmly nodded. "I haven't changed my mind on this issue, but I am not in a hurry to add such a big and complicated piece to our clan. I fully understand that it is not a simple matter to disrupt our current pattern and add a lot of infrastructure related to biomechs. It would be ideal if we can absorb an existing biomech outfit into our clan. Most of our mech legions came about in the same way. It is always easier to start with an existing foundation than make one from scratch."

Many people nodded in agreement, though not everyone felt easy about fighting alongside icky and disgusting biomechs. They were just too weird for people who had spent decades of their lives working alongside pure metal war machines.

"With the current strength and status of our clan, I believe it will not be particularly difficult to acquire such a unit." General Verle opined.

"That is true, general, but if the only solution to get what I want is to throw a lot of money at the problem, I would have obtained what I wanted a long time ago. What I am truly looking for is a group of strong but more importantly trustworthy biomech pilots. If they cannot be as trustworthy as the likes of the Swordmaidens or the Penitent Sisters, then I would rather not take the risk of turning an unstable element into one of the core protectors of our clan. There aren't viable candidates in the Davute region."

Although Davute had grown into an enormous trade hub over the years, it was not a particularly friendly or accommodating site for biomechs and large-scale biotechnology.

There was too little infrastructure to accommodate biomechs. Any pioneering fleet that heavily relied on biomechs would constantly suffer headaches when they needed to replenish their organic supplies and order large batches of replacement biomachines.

If Ves wanted to complete this particular goal, he would have to bring his fleet to another colony or state that embraced biotechnology to a greater degree.

In other words, he had to find the Red Ocean version of the Life Research Association!

Such settlements were rare but not unheard of in the new frontier. The real challenge was to persuade a good enough biomech outfit to join the Larkinson Clan!

"I do not think we have the ships, personnel and room to integrate a large biomech legion in our fleet." General Verle cautiously said. "I think it is best that we focus on profiting from our expeditions for the time being. We are not too short on mechs and we are traveling in the company of many strong allies. With two ace mechs watching over our fleet, we can shrug off most threats in the Torald Middle Zone."

"Three ace mechs." Gloriana spoke up all of a sudden.

"Pardon, madame?"

Gloriana's expression turned coy. "Our expeditionary fleet will receive the protection of three ace mechs. You see, my mother has just informed me that the Vraken Matriarchal Dynasty just agreed to temporarily transfer one of its precious Saints to the Glory Seekers."

The entire table fell silent for a few seconds before Calabast expressed her shock.

"WHAT?!"