The Mech Touch

Life went on after the surprise visit from the MTA.

The expeditionary fleet continued to make its way out of the Bardo Star Cluster without receiving any more surprise visits.

The Fermi Star Cluster was just around the corner. This was an important location despite the fact that the lesser beyonder gate was situated in the Antilla Star Cluster that was just ahead.

No one else but Ves knew that he had a very special reason why he needed to stop by one of the star sectors within the Fermi Star Cluster. With the System hanging over his head, he knew that it would probably get in big trouble if he passed by the Smiling Samual Star Sector without doing anything.

"Damn, I hope Shederin is able to befriend a local guide who can take me to where I need to go. I don't want to have anything to do with these xenophobic dwarves."

Visiting the Vulkan Empire had become a lot more complicated since the outbreak of the Crown Uprising. Though the Golden Skull Alliance hadn't experienced any further chaos after rooting out all of the suspected traitors, the same didn't apply to all of the other states that the expeditionary fleet was passing through.

Some of them descended in the same upheaval that plagued the Ivena Federation where the Purnesse Family came from. Others fell into outright civil war that caused a lot of planets to descend into chaos.

This had nothing to do with the Larkinson Clan, though. The expeditionary fleet had no reason to stop at a dangerous star system and venture to the inner system where it became a lot more vulnerable to attack. The three alliance partners had already stocked up on a lot of goods and supplies at Talulah Silver and could easily go on for several more months without lacking in anything.

Thus the fleet soared forth as if it existed in a different plane from the rest of the galaxy.

Everyone in the fleet became occupied by internal matters.

For example, Venerable Stark took every opportunity she got to take the Amaranto out for practice. The Design Department conducted subsequent tests on its capabilities. Ves even set up a temporary semi-closed testing range to test out the Amaranto's other attack phases.

Just as everyone hoped, the Amaranto's positron beam, the light beam, the kinetic beam, the cutter beam and the disruptor beam were capable of dealing a huge amount of damage in the right circumstances.

When combined with the Beam Bending resonance ability, Venerable Stark had a lot more options to choose from to make sure her resonance-empowered attacks hit the mark at surprising angles.

What Ves and every other mech designer was really interested in was how its masterwork properties made it better.

Though Master Willix provided the Journeymen with a lot more context, she hadn't actually clarified the mechanisms that explained why mech pilots derived more benefits from piloting masterwork mechs.

Neither the Journeymen nor the assistant mech designers who received permission to look at the Amaranto up close had any clues. They just saw a really high-quality mech that was wonderfully put together.

Of all the visitors who loved to stare at the Amaranto, Zanthar Larkinson happened to be the most frequent visitor. He always attempted to get as close as possible until the pressure emanating from the rifle was too much to bear.

By containing a substantial amount of spiritual energy donated by the Illustrious One, the Amaranto had also become a proper expert mech!

This had the unfortunate side effect of making the exquisite expert mech unapproachable to anyone who didn't possess the mental fortitude to endure the thick and overwhelming glow, so that made it a lot more complicated to perform maintenance on the machine.

Fortunately, the Larkinsons were already accustomed to handling prime mechs so the crews of mech technicians all knew they had to work through bots to perform many routine tasks.

Despite the fact that Zanthar had to maintain his distance, the Amaranto was big enough for him to provide a sufficient view from a distance.

"Are you having fun?" Ves asked as he dropped by the hangar bay one day.

"This rifle… I can barely understand why it is better than others." The mech design student softly spoke. "The more I look at it, the more I realize how much I need to work to reach this level. The design. The craftsmanship. The originality. Everything is so great to me that I don't know if I'll ever be able to catch up to your progress."

Ves looked at the luminar crystal rifle himself and felt pretty proud of what he managed to cobble together in the span of a few months.

"You're not even at the starting line, yet. Everything seems wonderful and amazing to you at your current age. It's okay to admire the great works of others, but don't let your envy and lack of ability consume you. From the moment you decide to become a mech designer, everything you do must in some way be conducive to your chosen career path. Staring too much at the Amaranto's weapon won't make you a better mech designer. You have already spent enough time here to gain enough inspiration. What you need to do is to process these gains so that you can make your own weapons."

"How can I do that knowing that my first work probably won't be more than a fraction as good as your work?"

Ves sighed and shook his head. "This is how every Novice and Apprentice feels. You know what, even I feel envious of the capabilities of Master Mech Designers. Yet do you see me study their works obsessively? Am I designing my mechs based on the design choices made by other mech designers?"

"Uhm, no."

"That's because I am following my own path. While I have an affinity for luminar crystal technology, energy weapons are not my forte. They can be yours, though. If you commit to specializing in energy weapons and more specifically luminar crystal weapons, then you'll be able to catch up to me eventually. It might take a decade or two, but you'll definitely be able to pass me by as long as you persist."

Ves had to make sure that Zanthar kept heading in the right direction. He didn't want to go through all of this trouble only for his investment to crash and burn.

Once he finished with encouraging Zanthar to think about his own work rather than wishing he was someone else, Ves took a proper look at his handiwork himself.

He didn't blame Zanthar and other mech designers at all for admiring the majesty of the Amaranto. It was clearly a notch above the Quint and his previous masterworks due to the fact that it started off as a powerful expert mech right away.

What Ves was most interested in was figuring out why expert masterwork mechs was so helpful to the progression of expert pilots.

As a clan leader with ambitions, he wanted his expert pilots to prosper as much as possible. He also felt it was his duty as a mech designer to facilitate the growth of expert pilots that depended on his products.

"Besides, our clan would definitely experience a huge jump in strength and prestige if we have an ace pilot within our ranks."

Though he was not as obsessed about it as the Crossers, it was undeniable that the Larkinson Clan would definitely be able to do more if it proved to be powerful and capable enough to retain its own ace pilots.

Yet in practice few expert pilots ever succeeded in becoming a coveted Saint or halfgod or whatever they were called in different circles.

"A good warrior must be matched with a good weapon."

Ves agreed with this statement. It not only matched his own observations, but also matched with his overall design aspirations. His entire design philosophy revolved around achieving greater symbiosis between man and machine. It made complete sense that this could better be achieved if both sides stood at the same height or 'rung of the ladder'.

The way he contextualized the Ladder of Craftsmanship and how better-quality mechs offered greater assistance was to equate them to mech pilots that were able to transcend their limits and become greater than humans.

Just like how regular mech pilots were able to advance to expert pilots, ordinary mechs were capable of advancing to masterworks!

This was not a perfect comparison, though. It was extremely rare and extremely difficult to transform an existing mech into a masterwork mech.

By far, the most cases of masterwork mechs coming into existence was when they were just completed.

"The mech isn't isn't responsible for enabling it to break through. The mech designer or people who are making it are the ones who have to do all of the hard work!"

Mechs were mechs. They couldn't do anything on their own. It was up to the humans that made them and used them to make them strong and help them grow stronger. This was a lot of effort and in most cases the mechs never came close to reaching the second rung of the ladder.

The biggest hindrance that prevented the MTA from realizing its dream of ushering a new paradigm where technology made people stronger instead of weaker was that it took way too much effort and skill to make masterworks!

Only the top mech designers of human civilization were able to make consistent masterworks. This suggested that a high degree of spiritual development was essential for any creator to make a masterwork on a consistent basis.

This was another consequence to the fact that humans were spiritually deficient by nature. It took extreme effort for mech designers to defy their natural weaknesses and reach a state where they have completely climbed up to the second rung of the ladder.

"Then they have to do it all over again." Ves twitched his mouth.

Beyond masterwork was grand work. According to Master Willix, he shouldn't even begin to think about them until he reached Star Designer. From how much she hyped them up, they must surely be powerful and extraordinary enough to put masterworks firmly in the dirt.

"It's like the jump from expert pilot to ace pilot. There is an enormous gap in between them, but if someone ever manages to bridge it, then the rewards are massive!"

Just thinking about it already made Ves despair a bit. The road to becoming one of the best mech designers in the galaxy was so long and difficult to traverse that he felt a bit like Zanthar for a moment.

Fortunately, he was a lot more mature than his student and possessed plenty of confidence. He quickly reined in his emotions and focused more on the immediate picture.

"I should just think about how to do more masterworks first. I might not obsess over them as much as my wife, but it is still essential for me to get a grip on them. The sooner I climb up to the second rung of the ladder, the smoother my journey to Star Designer becomes."

He had gained an extremely crucial clue from Master Willix yesterday. Every Star Designer should be capable of developing grand works, so being able to make products of extremely high quality was probably one of the prerequisites to reaching it! If Ves was able to get a good grip on this ahead of time, then he had one less problem to worry about when he got older!

"Hmmm. How can I increase my chances of making masterwork mechs?" He wondered.

This was a daunting question and one that many mech designers had asked.

If masterworks were products that transcended their limits, then trying to make them right off the bat was as impossible as trying to augment a growing fetus so that the baby came into the world as an expert pilot instead of a regular child right from birth!

"This is an impossible challenge!"