The Mech Touch

The excitement surrounding the completion of the Larkinson Clan's fourth new masterwork expert mech had yet to die down!

The significance of this new machine couldn't be overstated. It was not just a singular powerful combat engine, but also promised to provide a huge amount of support to the rank-and-file mechs fielded by the Living Sentinels and possibly other mech legions.

If the Larkinson Battalion's final winning match in the G-Aena League was any indication of Commander Casella Ingvar's extraordinary combat application, then the addition of a suitable and compatible expert mech would allow her to replicate this feat to a degree!

Right now, many mech pilots were curious to what extent the new expert command mech was able to enhance the battle power of ordinary mechs.

It was difficult to perform a precise estimate because of many reasons. Commander Casella's previous performance was also a result of forced resonance, which often produced a more violent burst of power compared to true resonance.

Still, even if Commander Casella was unable to rouse as much power in her current state, she was still a young expert pilot!

As long as she continued to pilot her new machine, her resonance strength would definitely grow by leaps and bounds. This was one of the biggest advantages of piloting a masterwork expert mech!

"So you've decided on the name of your expert mech?" Ves asked Commander Casella.

The happy expert pilot nodded as she continued to rub the surface of her new battle partner's exterior. "The Minerva is a good name for my mech, patriarch. I have already associated it with this name in my mind and don't see the need to change to another one. Besides, the Minerva itself is completely okay with it. It is an honor to be called after an ancient human goddess of war."

Ves twitched his eyes. This was going too far. When he originally came up with the mech concept, he only loosely called it the Minerva Project in order to give himself and other participating mech designers a strong mental idea of a powerful command mech. Names possessed psychological weight and one of the best ways to hype up a new mech was to associate it with a powerful myth!

However, he never seriously thought about sticking with the name. It sounded a bit arrogant for a mech to be called after a god. That was usually a treatment reserved for much grander mechs such as the ace mechs of the first-rate superstates.

However… as Ves directed another admiring glance towards his latest product, he did not think that calling it the Minerva was a disservice to this powerful name.

There were few masterwork versions of expert mechs in existence to begin with. Each of them stood out from regular expert mechs and many had actually succeeded in nurturing ace pilots who went on to perform legendary deeds!

Therefore, Ves did not reject the name as much as before. The only part he found difficult was that he did not like to develop the mistaken impression that he and his clan were messing with actual gods.

It was one thing to call a mech after a mythical god. It was another thing for people to mistake the Minerva as the actual personification of the ancient Roman goddess of war!

Although Ves detested such a phenomenon, he knew quite well how easily people fell for superstition.

The former Vulcan Empire clearly proved that the fictional existence of Vulcan was enough to brainwash trillions of dwarves into tall folk-hating fanatics!

Ves may have chosen to give life to Vulcan, but that was only because he wanted to take advantage of the gullible dwarves.

With a convenient ‘helper' like the Iron Emperor spreading the gospel of Vulcan out of strategic reasons, borrowing an established brand would definitely make it easier for the incarnation to harvest a lot of spiritual feedback!

This was okay in his opinion because Vulcan solely took advantage of the dwarven people.

Even if they were human in a sense, the dwarves who fell under the banner of the Iron Emperor were all planning to separate themselves from human civilization, so it was fine to treat them as non-humans.

What Ves could not stomach was setting up a situation where humans might do the same one day. A prominent mech like the Minerva would definitely attract a lot of admiration, especially among his own Larkinsons whose lives depended on the performance of this expert command mech!

He shrugged. This was not a phenomena that could be stopped once it got going. Mechs were venerated in the Age of Mechs, and powerful ones received even more attention from the public. No matter whether he called Casella's new machine the Minerva or a boring label like M-12346, the attraction of a powerful expert mech was irresistible!

In any case, after Ves reluctantly agreed to register the name that the Sentinel Commander had chosen, the woman addressed another topic.

"The Minerva and I are eager to see what we're capable of, sir. When will we be able to deploy for the first time?"

"Be patient, commander. We have just completed a seven-day fabrication run. We're not in the best state to supervise a field test at the moment. Besides, we also need to examine the Minerva carefully now that it has grown to its current form. Let's reconvene in twelve hours. We can use this time to prepare a more elaborate testing session. Since your expert mech excels as empowering other friendly mechs, it is necessary to see how many machines you can boost. This is crucial information that we can use to plan out our future battles."

Casella nodded in understanding. The Sentinel Commander needed to know the limits of her own capabilities. Though she possessed an intuitive understanding of her own prowess, she did not know how much her new expert mech could amplify it through resonance. Only an actual attempt would make everything clear.

Novel Ves and his fellow Larkinsons did not need to stay in the workshop any longer. The Minerva Project was originally the property of the Larkinson Clan so he arranged for it to be shipped to the Spirit of Bentheim.

Professor Benedict's subordinate mech designers were already cleaning up the workshop as well, so that was one less chore he needed to worry about.

Once the Larkinsons were about to depart, Ves briefly spoke with Professor Benedict one last time.

"You Larkinsons are truly amazing." The Senior said with a hint of bewilderment in his tone. "You are a young mech designer and your clan is not that old either, but the amount of surprises you can give me is still astounding. Your strong and abundant vitality is your greatest strength. Cherish it well and try not to lose it through the passage of years."

Though Ves looked a bit confused, he gratefully nodded. "Thank you for your compliment. You are an excellent mech designer as well. I look forward to collaborating with you on the Mars Project. With a straightforward combat expert mech, we don't have to compromise so much."

The Minerva was an expert mech that needed to split its resources between combat power and utility. It was inevitable for Commander Casella's new machine to fall behind in terms of absolute strength.

The Mars Project promised to be different! By allocating 100 percent of its design to direct combat applications, its mech designers would definitely be able to turn it into a strong battlefield champion without peer!

Like children in a candy store, both Ves and Professor Benedict exchanged eager grins.

"There are many reasons for us to be excited for our next big project, but let us not get ahead of ourselves. The Magma Vein System and many other innovations I have in store cannot be realized unless I make the necessary preparations. I have not yet managed to gather all of the rare high-grade exotics I need to construct these special systems."

The impressive-sounding Magma Vein System promised to turn the Mars Project into the singular most powerful combat asset of the expeditionary fleet, but how could it be made without paying a heavy price?

Every remarkable combat system required specific support! An ingenious design could only carry a mech so far. The use of powerful exotics with different unusual properties were indispensable!

Once the two finished chatting, Ves bid farewell to Professor Benedict and headed back to his flagship.

Both Ves and Gloriana cuddled up against each other. For now, no argument or differences of opinion could break them apart. They had just fulfilled their highest goal for this design project. How could they not be happy at this time?

"Mama!"

What was even better was that Aurelia playfully bounded around on their laps. The baby girl seemingly sensed the happiness of her parents and became happy as well.

"Meow meow."

"Miaow."

Lucky and Clixie flanked their sides and were content as well. They were smart enough to know that the Larkinson Clan had grown stronger again. With the Minerva watching over everyone, it would take a lot more effort for enemies to threaten everyone's lives!

Ves rubbed his daughter's head. "Don't look at your mother all the time. Have you forgotten about me already? I'm your papa! Say papa!"

Aurelia paused for a moment before she tried to reach out to Ves' face. "Papa!"

"Yes! You called me papa! What a good girl!"

Gloriana rolled her eyes at the spectacle. "Don't forget she said ‘mama' first. You will always come second, Ves."

"You don't have to remind me about that every day."

As Ves continued to play with Aurelia, he began to think about how they should raise her in the coming months and years.

"Should we look for playmates for Aurelia?"

"I'll take care of it." Gloriana quickly said. "Don't worry about that. I have already been examining a list of children born from prominent couples. There are not many of them that have powerful lineages in our clan, but they are adequate enough."

Ves did not excel in this area so he was happy enough to shove this matter to his wife. She clearly cared about this more so she would definitely do a thorough job.

"What I am more concerned about is her schooling." His wife said. "It will take a few years before she is ready to receive her first lessons, but I am not satisfied with putting her in an ordinary school aboard the Spirit of Bentheim."

"There aren't many other options available." He told her. "Dawn City has larger schools since it is a large civilian population center, but it is inconvenient for us to put our own daughter on a different ship. I don't want to put her into a fancy virtual school for elites. I don't want her to grow out of touch with our clansmen."

He expected Gloriana to object to that and convince him to put Aurelia into an elite school. Instead, she made a different suggestion.

"If we lived in Davute, it would have been easy for us to enroll her into an expensive academy. Since we cannot do that, I think that we should hire a group of highly-qualified tutors to educate her and our future children in person."

"That… sounds like a decent suggestion."

As a low-born human, Ves was quite aware that he was severely lacking in etiquette and many other essentials that the members of upper society took for granted.

While that had never been a problem due to relying on his strength as a mech designer to earn people's respect, he did not want to pass on this shortcoming to his daughter.

Hiring renowned and capable tutors sounded like a good way to instill Aurelia with the knowledge to excel in whatever vocation she embraced.

The truly excellent ones were already attached to various elite educational institutions, but there should be plenty of decent ones that could be persuaded to tutor a child in exchange for generous salaries.

Of course, the amount of money needed to employ them was high in their perspective but trivial in the eyes of the Larkinson Clan!

Since those elite tutors could also be used to educate other prominent children in the clan, it was absolutely worth it to pay a couple of MTA credits a year to hire a bunch of them and raise the development of the clan!

Ves nodded in acceptance. "Alright, let's do what you say, but don't hire the tutors by yourself. We probably won't be able to bring them aboard unless we return to Davute, and that might take a while. You should take that into account."

"I know what I'm doing, Ves."