The Mech Touch

Previously, Ves thought that this commission was a difficult and unpleasant challenge.

After all, who wanted to be forced to work with a gun pointed at his head? No mech designer or craftsman would feel good at being exploited for someone else's gain!

It was only now that his opinion began to turn around. Ves slowly swept his gaze across the entire workshop.

The first-class equipment not only consisted of production equipment that could easily process extremely strange and difficult materials, but also encompassed a couple of useful lab machines!

The latter was highly crucial to anyone who wanted to perform experiments or develop a new innovation. With all this lab equipment at his disposal, Ves would be able to investigate how different materials reacted to each other and find out which one of them possessed the qualities that turned them into suitable raw materials for luminar crystals.

Though Ves did not consider himself to be a true specialist in luminar technology, all of that knowledge dumped into his mind after he acquired the relevant Sub-Skills from the System came in really handy at this time.

The expertise he gained from them were so thorough and comprehensive that he reluctantly judged that he was capable of researching new luminar crystal formulas!

"There are constraints, though."

He tempered his expectations a little after he realized that he would have to work under three major constraints.

First, he lacked way too much time to explore this avenue at his leisure. With only a day at his disposal, there was no way he could devote a proper amount of time to develop any good formulas! At best, he would just have to settle for his first success and move on from that point.

The only reason why the Iron Emperor was even able to amass this modest collection of expensive materials was because he only intended to obtain a first-class crown.

If Rion wanted to fund the development of a first-class mech, the sheer amount of materials he had to buy or redeem from the MTA would likely drain the Vulcan Empire's wealth to such an extent that its citizens would have definitely turned against the central authority!

Third, Ves did not forget that he was working for a client now. He could not blatantly embezzle other people's ȧssets and resources to advance his own research gains! He had to make sure that his experimental results tied back to the emperor's crown. If not, Rion would surely have something to say about Vulcan's antics!

All of these factors dimmed Ves' enthusiasm a bit, but not enough to put out his passion.

He could still work with these restrictions. As long as he cut a few corners and worked as efficiently as possible, he could complete this commission in a way that allowed him to make his mark!

"If Rion can truly pull off his masterplan…"

Though Ves still thought that the revived dwarf was being way too ambitious, what if dwarvenkind truly managed to stand on their own stubby legs?

Wouldn't their highest and most respected leader be seen wearing an artifact crafted by Ves?

Mech designers did not yearn for immortality. That was impossible. What passionate people like Ves truly wanted was to leave a legacy behind. They wanted to make the most out of their lifespan and affect their society and the rest of the galaxy in a way that allowed them to be remembered throughout the ages!

Although Ves primarily wanted to base his legacy around the greatness of his mech designs and what mech pilots managed to accomplish with his machines, he did not reject the opportunity to build up a different legacy among the dwarves.

If the Iron Emperor truly became the father of a new independent dwarven empire, then a huge number of dwarves would be able to admire his crown!

Just the thought of it made him excited in a way that tugged at his craftsman's heart.

"I can't possibly settle for a boring design."

Ves decisively threw out his initial intention to design a safe and boring crown. Of course, that didn't mean he could go wild and design a product that did not sit well with Rion.

What he needed to do was to stick with the classical style, but put his spin on it. Ves began to think what kind of features he could impart on the crown that reflected his strengths.

"I should definitely incorporate luminar crystal in its design."

The only question was how much. He could add a few larger gemstones on the base or on the spiky protrusions. He could also form lines with lots of smaller gemstones. Furthermore, if he happened to need more extravagance, he could encrust the entire surface of the crown with sparkling gems!

"In fact, why not make the entire crown out of luminar crystals entirely? If it worked for my luminar crystal rifle, it should work for this crown as well!"

Also, a dainty and girly crown made of dazzling jewel-like materials did not fit a dour, gruff and imposing dwarven leader such as Rion.

When Ves glanced up at his 'employer' for a moment, he immediately gained an impression of a powerful sovereign who was solid, domineering, masculine and utterly confident in himself.

The crown that Ves intended to make needed to complement these traits. This would make the Iron Emperor appear larger than life, giving people the illusion that he stood on a greater height.

"It has to have a solid, metal construction. Dwarven heads are larger and broader than human heads and Rion has a particularly masculine look. He's also bald and doesn't wear a beard like other dwarves so I need to make sure the style of the crown takes that into account."

One of the other requirements of the crown was that Rion had to be able to wear it with or without a helmet. Fortunately, Ves didn't have to incorporate any complicated mechanisms to accomplish that. Whoever was responsible for developing the Iron Emperor's personal wargear would automatically adapt the helmet to the crown.

What Ves needed to take into account was that the crown still had to be distinguishable on Rion's huge and bulky armored form.

If the crown was too small, then hardly any dwarf would be able to notice whether the emperor wore his symbol of authority.

On the other hand, if the crown was too big, then it would look way too excessive on Rion's bald and nȧkėd head. It would be like a young kid wearing his parent's hat! Such an impression was counterproductive as it made the Iron Emperor look as if he was trying way too hard.

"Hmmm… how can I reconcile these two competing demands?" Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin.

He began to call up a design interface from the workshop terminal. At first glance, it wasn't that much different from the ones he was accustomed to working with. The only major differences was that it had access to a much larger database and that its math-intensive functions were backed by an impressive degree of processing power.

Ves' eyes lit up. "This little ship possesses more processing power than the Spirit of Bentheim!"

He couldn't imagine how much energy the processors of the dwarven frigate consumed at maximum power. The infrastructure required to host such powerful systems was definitely extravagant.

"I can't underestimate this frigate. She might even be a quasi-first-class starship!"

Ves no longer let himself become distracted by these matters and earnestly began to sketch out a couple of draft designs.

He did not think too much about the material composition or the extraordinary features of the crown. He just wanted to pin down the visuals and aesthetics of his product first so that he could find a sweet spot where its size wasn't too big or small.

"This is harder than it looks."

After forming a few hasty sketches that he didn't like, Ves ultimately concluded that it was better to start on the small side rather than the opposite.

He could always make a crown look bigger and bulkier by adding elements to its design. It was a lot harder to make a crown appear smaller in the same fashion.

"Adding height is a pretty good way to make the crown look bigger without altering fit."

In his latest sketch, he thickened the band and placed twelve different blocky protrusions on top of that. The design gained a distinctive masculine dwarven look because of these design choices.

When Ves called up a model of dwarf and put the crown on its head, he became quite satisfied with this aesthetic. The thick and weighty crown was a little on the bulky side and made it seem as if the dwarven head was surrounded by a crenelated castle wall.

"It's a little too plain and unrefined for now, but the crown is unmistakably dwarven in style."

One of the requirements that Rion imposed on Ves was to avoid making it seem that the crown was made by a human. Everyone who gazed at it had to be convinced that it was made by a supreme dwarven artisan!

Otherwise, a scandal might erupt once people found out that the Iron Emperor's most important symbol of authority came from a human!

Once Ves finished tweaking the contours of his sketch, he needed to embellish it with further details.

"The crown of an emperor of an entire species shouldn't be too shabby. Right now, my work looks as if it could have been made by any metalworker."

This was where his creativity and artistic streak came in. Ves had several different options at his disposal.

He initially decided to treat the outer surface of the crown as a metal storyboard where he could carve in different decorative elements. This was his favorite way of making a plain piece of metal look grander.

"I have at least two possible choices. First, I can limit the detail work to larger and simpler carvings. Maybe I can carve mysterious runes around the crown."

The direction was good, but it was not a good choice to settle for runes. The dwarven people had not developed their own language and script. Ves would have to invent runes on the spot and add meaningless symbols to what was supposed to be one of his greater and more impressive works.

However, aside from dwarf-inspired runes, there weren't many other options that Ves could use to embellish the crown.

This was why he intended to combine it with the second choice, which was to employ different colors.

Ves couldn't go overboard with adding lots of colors to his design, but a simple two-toned or three-toned metallic construction should do the job.

That would still make the crown look rather tame, though.

"Maybe I can add a bit of flair as well."

He could add metallic wings to the side or even add horns to the crown to give it a more savage look.

"Let's see what works and what doesn't work.. I have lots of possible choices so there has to be some that will fit this specific situation."