The Mech Touch

Ves enjoyed the little impromptu Q&A session. He formed a lot of new thoughts and became exposed to different viewpoints in the process of satisfying the curiosity of his students.

Still, his class had to go on, so he urged his students to set aside what questions they had left and practice their skills with the superfabs.

It was satisfying to see how far his students had come. All 100 of them had already received enough guidance and practice to pass his course.

The study load was not light, but the students did not dare to slack off and skip their homework in a course taught by a tier 3 galactic citizen.

Ves already knew that the less talented students such as Klaus Robar-Fulton had shortened their sleeping hours in order to squeeze additional hours of practice time in their schedule.

Their devotion to their studies was admirable, but it was not healthy for them to work at such a high intensity for a sustained amount of time.

Regardless, Ves had become so satisfied with all of his students that he thought about inviting them to join his clan.

This was not a simple matter, though. Even if the students were willing, most of them had already accepted obligations to work for a clan or another organization.

Alexa had already told him how troublesome it was to cancel or transfer these obligations.

It was much easier if Ves started with the kids who failed to obtain sufficient backing. Their overall learning abilities were not as good, but that also meant that they appreciated the opportunity to join the Larkinson Clan a lot more.

Ves chose to invite the student that he had been laying his eyes on since the start.

The young man visibly looked apprehensive as he entered his professor's office. Klaus Robar-Fulton was not stupid, so he already had an inkling on what this meeting was all about.

That just made him more nervous, though.

"Sit down." Ves gently spoke as he leaned back against his luxurious chair. "You're not in trouble or anything. On the contrary. You have done well enough in all of the three courses that I am teaching."

"I can still do better, professor. My grades are not the highest."

"That is because you are being limited by your augmentations and other factors that are outside of your control. You have done the best you could under the circumstances, and that is already good enough in my book."

The two talked for a little bit. Ves gave his feedback on Klaus, which caused the student to feel flattered.

"Let us get down to business." Ves eventually said. "You are in your fourth year of studying mech design, correct?"

Klaus nodded. "That is the case."

"I see potential in you. Once you have finished your studies and graduated from the Eden Institute, I would like you to join my clan and assist in my work. If you show enough compatibility with my design philosophy, then I would be happy to pass on my core teachings to you. No matter whether you have decided to specialize in living mechs or not, my clan welcomes any mech designer who is both smart and sincere in his work."

Silence ensued as Klaus took in the invitation. It was one thing to anticipate it. It was another thing to hear it being offered by the professor he admired a lot!

Admirably enough, Klaus did not immediately jump at this opportunity, but showed enough rationality by asking for clarification.

"Can I ask what you see in me aside from the traits that you have already mentioned? To be honest, professor, I do not entirely understand why you have chosen me over the other students."

Ves smirked. "That is easy to explain. My clan has a preference for recruiting particular kinds of people. We seek those who possess sufficient competence but do not entirely feel at home in their current societies. We welcome professionals who have enough ability but cannot gain enough opportunities due to heavy competition. You have also taken my Frontier Wisdom classes, so you are also a lot more prepared for the more... active lifestyle that we Larkinsons pursue. If you are ambitious and not afraid of taking risks, then I believe you will fit in nicely."

The Terran student gained a bit more confidence in himself. The professor did not select him on a whim, but genuinely wanted him to join the Larkinson Clan.

"I... would love to work for you and join your clan. I have been fantasizing about it for weeks. Your invitation is a dream come true as far as I am concerned." Klaus eventually responded.

"This is not a decision that you can make lightly, Klaus. While everyone assumes that my clan has a bright future, it is too new and its foundation is much poorer than many Terran organizations. It is also largely comprised of second-raters and will remain so for a long time. I may even ask you to assist in the design of second-class mechs. Will that be a problem?"

"No! Absolutely not! Well, I do not have experience in designing such mechs, but I can be a quick study. Let me assure you that I do not look down on second-class mechs at all. If they have been responsible for making you so good, then it would be stupid if I dismiss their value."

Ves smiled. "That is nice to hear. Don't worry. Our clan will still have plenty of second-class mech designers who will continue to work on such mechs. I am not in the habit of wasting resources, and a first-class mech designer such as yourself should be working on first-class mech designs."

They talked a bit more. Ves wanted to make sure that Klaus did not regret his decision to commit to the Larkinson Clan. There was one topic in particular that needed to be mentioned.

"I am sure that you have already heard that you will need to sever your ties with the Terran Alliance in order to join the Larkinson Clan. We do not want to bring in any people with conflicted loyalties. Once you become a Larkinson, you have accepted the identity of one. We have found that it is difficult for most Terrans to make this step. Will this be a problem for you, or are you confident that you can let go when the time has come?"

No Terran could give a certain answer to this question, and Klaus was no exception.

"I do not know what it takes to pass your loyalty test. I can only promise you that I will try my best." Klaus replied in a measured tone.

"That is good enough for me. You can consult with Miss Alexa Streon on this particular topic. She has gone through the same ordeal."

There was not much more for them to talk about. As much as Ves valued Klaus due to his notable spiritual potential, that did not necessarily mean that the student could realize it. There were far too many people who failed to develop their potential to the fullest and eventually settled into mediocrity.

Nonetheless, that was not a reason for Ves to ignore young talents. His clan needed to recruit a lot of capable mech designers in order to remain active in the mech industry. Klaus may be the first of many first-class mech designers to enrich the Premier Branch of the Larkinson Clan.

After Ves finally dismissed the young student, Alexa Streon entered his office a moment later.

"Is he to your liking?" The new Larkinson asked as she sat down on the same seat that Klaus had just vacated.

"That remains to be seen. He won't be the only Terran who I will extend an invitation to. Whether he or any of the others will be able to inherit my design philosophy is not certain."

"You have given me Maia. I think that it should not be a problem for you to bestow similar boons to your other students."

"I am not going to extend the same courtesy to other recruits." Ves shook his head. "You are different because you bring much greater value to our clan. Besides, you are only a small step away from becoming a Journeyman. Before you have met me, you have already spent years on trying to search for a way to design a living mech like the Ouroboros. Your circumstances are far superior to that of a newly minted Novice Mech Designer. If Klaus and the other young talents want to receive a companion spirit from me, then they will have to earn it, either by making steady contributions, or by demonstrating shocking talent."

Ves knew he could make it easier for mech designers to get started with living mechs by bestowing them with related companion spirits, but doing so robbed them of a necessary journey.

Mech design was all about innovating and figuring out ways to mechs that were different from what was available. People who entered the industry needed to develop the right work approach from the start if they wanted to make great achievements in the future.

Ves was willing to ease their journey and give them a shortcut in order to increase their success rate, but he did not want to give them a cheat sheet and allow them to gain all of the answers without expending any actual effort.

The two did not linger over this topic for a long time. They had much more interesting topics to talk about instead.

"Have you witnessed the majesty of god mechs?" Alexa asked.

"Of course." Ves chuckled. "I do not think that any red human has missed the show. I am truly impressed by god mechs. Their power exceeds that of ace mechs to such an extent that they do not even bear a strong relation to each other anymore. I understand even more why your grandfather yearns to become a god pilot so much. The total fusion between an exquisite grand work and the willpower of a god is beyond anything I have witnessed."

The former member of the Streon Ancient Clan released a sigh. "That is true. The current god mechs are even stronger than they were back in the Age of Mechs due to the addition of new variables such as E energy radiation and hyper technology. Some of the god mechs wouldn't have been able to defeat those ancient phase whales so comfortably without the recent changes."

"Tell me honestly, sir. How much progress do you think my grandfather needs to make in order to attain the same level of strength?"

"Too much." Ves honestly replied. "While he carries the label of a peak ace pilot, his shortcomings are still too great. It is no wonder that he has no confidence in his ability to survive the Mech Body Merger Process. Now that I have witnessed several god pilots in action, I can better appreciate the extent of the gap. I am being frank, your grandfather is still too... ordinary of a pilot. He still needs to do a lot of work before he is qualified enough to make the jump."

The younger woman did not look too surprised after hearing this answer. "The birth of every god pilot is an aberration of nature. Humans aren't meant to be able to transcend this far. That it has happened at all is a miracle in the truest sense. Miracles aren't known for being common or easy to replicate. My grandfather has always known that it takes superhuman effort in order to catch up to the likes of the Light of Sol."

How many ace pilots remained stuck at the final threshold? How many of them had died in their unrelenting journey to shed their mortality and become an ascended being in full?

Ves cared a lot about the Ouroboros. He deeply wanted it to evolve, but now that he had witnessed multiple modern god mechs in action, he realized that his living mech still had far too many shortcomings that were holding it back.

Fortunately, Ves had given the ace hero mech a long overdue update. It shouldn't take much longer for the Ouroboros to finally grow past its previous limit and evolve into a more proper third order living mech.

The changes that should happen to the famous Terran mech should be a lot more drastic given its monstrous accumulation...