The Mech Touch

Master Bouderon finally awarded the Larkinson Journeymen 2 million MTA merits, split among themselves.

That amounted to just 1 million MTA merits per masterwork expert mech.

Was that a lot? Certainly! Ves had tried to complete the kind of missions that awarded him with that many merits. It was always a difficult endeavor and most ordinary Journeymen wouldn't even dream of taking them on! Only higher-ranking mech designers had confidence in performing these tasks.

Yet compared to the merits he obtained from completing the Amaranto, the awards his clan received from elevating the Shield of Samar and the Everchanger into masterworks was not that impressive.

Everyone invested a lot of effort into making them exceptional. Not only did they delay the design projects, but they also applied a lot of innovations into the expert mechs that their predecessors lacked. Ves took a lot of risks to retain or enhance the lives of the machines while Gloriana had been meticulous about maximizing the fit and soundness of the physical designs.

The Larkinsons also pioneered brand-new production methods that could lift the quality and fit of any living mech to a brand new level!

Connecting the mech designers and mech pilots together with Alexandria's design network yielded an effect that was similar to a Mastery experience.

Combining both Ves and Joshua's domains in a mysterious fashion resulted in the birth of a rare and extremely promising third order living mech!

Yet for all of these new accomplishments, the MTA only saw fit to give out 2 million MTA merits in total. Even when Ves took into account the deduction for introducing Gloriana and Ketis to different MTA factions, the cost shouldn't be too big.

He suspected that Master Bouderon and his extensive entourage simply couldn't see through the full depth of his living mechs.

Well, Ves partially carried the blame here as he had never been forthcoming about the principles and mechanics behind living mechs. He only revealed more details to Master Willix, but she shouldn't have spread his trade secrets any further.

Still, even if Master Bouderon knew more, the two masterwork expert mechs might genuinely not yield as much interesting data to the MTA anymore.

Perhaps his fourth, fifth and sixth masterwork expert mechs of this nature would earn him even less MTA merits next time.

Ves did not forget that the mechers liked to collect masterwork mechs and potentially use them for their own purposes. This could easily be done with standard machines but expert mechs were always tied to single expert pilots, which made it useless for the MTA to claim these powerful machines.

This was yet another reason for Ves to hurry up and return to designing standard mechs. Though he would probably opt to keep any new masterwork mechs like the Quint in his clan anyway, it was always nice to have the option of passing them on to the MTA.

The Little Angel should have fallen into the hands of the mechers a long time ago. Ves wondered how it was doing these days.

"Well, whatever the MTA is doing with masterwork mechs, I should be glad that their creators can earn a hefty amount of MTA merits each time."

The key was that this was a repeatable mission, and one that Ves and his team became increasingly better at completing.

The more masterwork mechs they created, the higher the success rate of their next attempts.

Even if the mechers became increasingly more stingy about rewarding the Larkinsons with MTA merits, there should still be a floor where it could drop no lower! Otherwise, they would devalue masterwork mechs too much, thereby removing the incentives to make more of them. This went against the MTA's apparent goal of collecting as many masterwork mechs as possible.

Whether 2 million MTA merits was too high or low, Ves eventually concluded it was not a small sum. Too many Journeymen would kill to earn this much in a single year. He would be acting spoiled if he still expressed dissatisfaction!

Once Master Bouderon handled the merit issue, he addressed a couple of perfunctory and administrative topics before making his departure.

While Gloriana, Ketis and Juliet left the workshop, Ves and Jovy stuck around a while longer.

Now that Ves had become an associate of the Survivalist Faction, it became a lot more probable for them to get into contact more often.

Both of them had reasons to establish closer ties to each other.

Ves was always keen to improve his relations with trustworthy mechers and Jovy was not as stuck up as the others. Despite their vastly different backgrounds and upbringing, they were both passionate mech designers who belonged to the same generation. It was foreseeable that they would keep up with each other in the future.

As for Jovy, Ves was one of the few indigeneous Journeyman Mech Designers that he respected a lot. The Larkinson Clan's living mechs had proven their chops in battle. If second-class mechs could already become more effective with the help of Ves' design philosophy, what about first-class mechs?

Both of them easily picked up that their counterparts wanted to deepen their friendship, so they dropped every pretense and treated each other as equals.

"Congratulations on becoming a father, by the way. You have a lovely little girl."

"Thanks. Starting a new family really changes people. Will you…?"

The MTA Journeyman shook his head. "I'm still at a stage where I'm traveling around and focusing on my own career. My design philosophy is difficult and unorthodox so it is a much more extensive effort to progress it further. You should know what it is like to pioneer a new field. I'm nowhere ready to settle down at the moment."

Ves smiled and shrugged. "People like you whose lifespans are guaranteed to be in the centuries can afford to take it easy. Maybe you'll be in your seventies before you finally become a father yourself."

"I've seen instances where 130 or 150-year old Masters finally slowed down long enough to start their families. In fact, there are many mech designers who don't even bother with this chore at all. To them, their disciples and inheritors of their design philosophies are their real offspring. They don't want to go through the effort of raising sons and daughters only for them to lack the talent to become great at designing mechs."

This was the tragedy of humanity's spiritual deficiency. Too many individuals lacked the potential to become an extraordinary, and even the great and wise MTA Masters didn't possess any advantages in this aspect!

Ves personally thought that the joy and fulfillment of raising children should already be enough to satisfy people. Whether his own kids could become mech designers or not was not that critical.

Sure, he wanted to nurture heirs or helpers to pass on his responsibilities and lighten his workload, but this was not a life-and-death situation.

"Could you tell me more about what it means to get involved in the Association's factions?" Ves eventually changed the topic. "I'm not sure what I'm getting into. I'm aware that I can't do much as a Journeyman, but what do I need to pay attention to with regards to these factions when I arrive in the Red Ocean?"

Jovy did not mind giving Ves advice.

"I haven't entered the Red Ocean myself, so I can't speak from personal experience. I still need to complete a few assignments before I'm allowed to pass through the beyonder gate. I can only pass on what I've learned from secondary and tertiary sources."

"Anything is fine as long as it's relevant. Information is power and I'm terribly short of both." Ves said in an embarrassed tone.

As a core member of the Mech Trade Association, Jovy Armalon never had to think about what people like Ves had to go through. He had to pause for a moment in order to compile his thoughts.

"You're only a prospect to the Survivalist Faction at the moment, so don't overestimate your status." Jovy began. "What I mean by that is that you shouldn't assume that other Survivalists will go out of their way to help you out. The only ones who can help you are those you are already familiar with. For now, that is Master Willix and myself. You'll need to grow up more if you want to expand your network."

"What about Master Bouderon? Is he worth befriending?"

"He'll remain in Tarnished Crown, so it's unlikely you'll be able to get close to him again. Human space is big, Ves. There are Survivalists everywhere, but you can't possibly befriend them all. The best way you can deepen your ties to our faction is to stick to a fixed region and slowly build up your relations with the local Survivalists. Some tend to move around every once in a while but there are others who settle in a location for centuries. Once you become a Senior, I suggest you should do your research and approach those who are interested in cooperation."

"People such as you?" Ves smiled.

"Hehe, I can't deny that I'm interested in combining our design philosophies." Jovy said without saying when they would be able to do that. "What you should also be paying attention to is managing your relations with the other factions. While it isn't always obvious which one you're dealing with, their shadows are everywhere. For example, there are a lot of Expansionists in the Red Ocean for obvious reasons. Their influence in the dwarf galaxy is enormous, so you should never get on their bad side."

"Understood. What about other factions?"

"Don't get close to the Terran and Rubarthan Factions. You'll inherit their stigma if everyone assumes you've joined one of their camps."

Ves immediately saw the opportunity to learn about one of the deeper undercurrents of the Red Ocean!

"Do these state-bound factions have anything to do with the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact?"

"A lot." Jovy immediately answered. "That's why you shouldn't join one of these dominant alliances. You'll be giving up the chance to earn favors from the MTA just so you can obtain scraps from the first-rate superstates. The latter may be strong, but neither of them can match up against our Association! I think someone as clever as you should know which is the better choice."

"I see. I don't have any ties to the Terrans and Rubarthans anyway. It's not worth it for me to associate with them if I'll always be treated as an outsider."

To be honest, the situation wasn't that much different with the MTA, but Ves wanted to maintain some distance to powerful organizations anyway. The Larkinson Clan's sovereignty must never come into question!

Jovy placed his hand on Ves' shoulder. "The MTA always gives a chance to outsiders as long as they become good enough. Once you become a Star Designer, our Association will always welcome you with open arms. No mecher will close their doors to you just because of your indigenous background."

"I'm not in a hurry. Anyway, I never intended to hook up with the Terrans or Rubarthans anyway. I've already set my sights on the Red Ocean Union. What can you tell me about this alliance that isn't obvious?"

"Hmm, the Red Ocean Union is a huge mixed bag. There are so many different pioneers in this alliance that it will be hard for you to find any common ground with any of them. If I were you, I would seek out other Survivalist associates. You'll have a greater basis of cooperation with them and they will be much more reluctant to betray you since you are all supposed to be on the same side, more or less."

"That is a good piece of advice." Ves genuinely praised. "I'll focus on doing that."

Jovy gave Ves a friendly smile. "I'm aware that you have trust issues, but we Survivalists value credibility more than most people. It's part of our ideology since we can never tolerate betrayal in matters concerning the survival of the human race."

"That's good to hear."