The Mech Touch

Ves was fair to Zanthar.

If the young Apprentice Mech Designer squandered his resources or failed to make use of his opportunities, then Ves would have dressed him down.

Yet now that Zanthar had proven through his own actions over the years that he had methodically worked to attain a result that was impressive enough to earn everyone's appreciation, he deserved an applause for making this much progress in a difficult research direction.

Sure, his current results did not seem impressive at all. There was still a long way to go from producing a proof of concept to developing a mature design application.

This was why Zanthar had yet to become a Journeyman.

A Journeyman Mech Designer was a professional that had already managed to develop a working mech design that was reflective of his design philosophy.

It did not have to be too practical or economical, but it definitely had to possess at least a bit of real substance in order to serve as the permanent source of strength of a Journeyman!

Now that Ves managed to gauge Zanthar's progress, he understood that his former student should not take too long to finally surpass the extraordinary threshold for real and become a high-ranking mech designer.

"What sort of EEE munitions are you aspiring to make?" Ves asked with clear interest in his voice.

"I have devised multiple concrete applications that should be useful to many customers, teacher. The first form of EEE munitions that I am trying to develop is close to what you have already seen. I want to devise a means to mass produce explosive rounds that are all implanted with E-energy explosives. The point is that when the physical shell explodes, it will simultaneously trigger the detonation of the E energy warhead, causing an eruption of power that not only amplifies the original explosion, but also damaged anything related to E energy such as hyper energy shields."

"What else?"

"Well, a more advanced form of weapon system that I have been dreaming to develop are EEE munitions that are entirely made out of E energy." Zanthar grew more passionate as he unveiled his next idea. "This is admittedly similar to the strange hyper energy beams that can be fired from a weapon like your Gray Lotus. I want to develop a cannon that is similar to gun, but instead of firing energy beams, it can launch E energy projectiles that should theoretically be able to bypass many forms of obstacles and directly detonate inside a mech frame or the interior of an enemy warship!

Ves could definitely see a lot of uses for such a weapon!

Even without significantly strengthening the physical attack power of the conventional warhead, including a means of damaging any form of E energy manifestations made it a lot easier to destroy azure energy shields, disrupt the true resonance of high-ranking mech pilots and maybe even inflict real harm on the comparatively weak and vulnerable spiritualities of gigantic phase lords!

"I think that hyper energy shields and hyper alloy plating should be able to resist such attacks." Ves explained. "The resonance shields and Saint Kingdoms of expert mechs and ace mechs should be even more effective at blocking these spiritual attacks. However, as long as you can launch enough of them at the enemy, they should definitely be able to exhaust the intangible defenses of the targets, so they should at least be useful in one capacity or another. You will need to conduct a lot of research in order to fully understand how your E energy explosive warheads can undermine different enemy types."

"I shall do so as soon as I can develop a weapon that can launch pure E energy warheads." Zanthar promised.

The eager Apprentice mech designer shared a few other ideas.

From EEE torpedoes that were designed to annihilate the spiritualities of every crew member of a heavily shielded enemy warship to shield breaker shells aligned towards the space attribute that could quickly destabilize transphasic energy shields and azure energy shields, the possibilities were endless!

The depth and breadth of ideas clearly indicated that Zanthar had a solid idea on how to derive practical applications from his initial theoretical framework.

As long as he was able to advance to the rank of Journeyman Mech Designer, he should quickly be able to realize the low-hanging fruit that did not take much effort to realize and establish a foothold in the mech market!

Ves did not fear that Zanthar would fail to attract a willing audience for his products. Their usefulness was as high as living mechs.

If the younger Apprentice did not lie by stating that most of the effects of his EEE munitions was largely based on E-technology and could easily be attained with the use of inexpensive hyper materials, then he should be able to design products that offered immensely compelling value propositions!

This was the key to attaining critical success at the Journeyman stage!

Whether Zanthar Larkinson was able to realize all of this amazing potential remained to be seen, but Ves no longer had any reason to dissuade him from pursuing his chosen ambition.

"You have big dreams." Ves stated at the end. "What separates idle dreamers from innovative mech designers such as myself is the ability to realize your ideas. In order to bring your fantasies to life, you must work hard and boldly tread new ground that others have not traversed. This is not always a rewarding or easy direction for mech designers to follow, but it is one that has the potential to yield the greatest reward. I can foresee that if your EEE munitions live up to their promise, your work shall become as famous and desired as my living mechs."

The smile that bloomed on Zanthar's face was the happiest and more fulfilled one that Ves had seen from a mech designer!

"Thank you for your encouragement, teacher! I have repeatedly tested my patience and persistence these past few years. I have seen other mech designers such as you, your wife and Ketis progress by leaps and bounds while I have still remained stuck at the initial research phase. However, now that I have gotten far enough to produce a small but positive research result, I hope that my days of working without producing any worthwhile mech designs will soon be over."

It did not matter too much if Zanthar suffered a few more setbacks during his research and remained stuck as an Apprentice for 5 or 10 years.

As long as he kept studying, experimenting and trying out all kinds of strange ideas, he would continue to accumulate more data and knowledge. His theoretical framework would grow more expansive and enable him to explain a lot more phenomena than before.

Ves did not really care what Zanthar planned to do next because he was already set on the path of success.

The remaining twists and turns might cause Zanthar to go off-track or gain the precursor to another useful design application, but he should eventually be able to become a Journeyman sooner or later.

As Zanthar beamed due to receiving the personal recognition of a legendary mech designer, Maikel on the other hand looked a lot more nervous.

Ves hoped that Maikel did not appear apprehensive because his work for the past few years was much more disappointing compared to his fellow former student.

"Maikel." Ves addressed the other young mech designer. "It is your turn now. Last I checked, you were working on developing highly autonomous living mechs. To be honest, I do not think this is an idea worth dedicating your life for, because living mechs already have the potential to control their own mech frames by themselves. If you insist on pursuing this line of research, you will only end up acquiring almost the same design philosophy as myself, but with a few differences that may or may not lead you astray."

Maikel maintained a serious expression as he nodded. "I agree with your assessment, sir, which is why I have sought to… find a better argument to justify the existence of such mechs. I won't explain the journey that I have taken and the explorations that I have made. After an extensive period of theorizing and observation, I have found one potential demand that my work may be able to satisfy."

"And that is…?"

"Immortality. Life after death. To continue to fight an unfinished war."

???

Ves looked flabbergasted. What did all of this have to do with his autonomous mechs? Continue your saga on m|v-l'e m,p| y r

"Those are high-minded words, Maikel. How do they tie into your design philosophy?"

The young Apprentice clearly looked hesitant to share his idea. It was only until Zanthar jabbed his elbow into Maikel's side that the discussion resumed.

"It is like this, patriarch. I… eh… want to design a living mech that… fuses with its mech pilot. Well, a better way to put it is letting the living mech absorb the mech pilot. This way, the human will be gone, but his mind and personality will still live on inside the living mech. With the release of your new Carmine mechs, this service is no longer exclusive to potentates anymore."

"...Really?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but I think that there is a large market for this kind of living mech! There are many reasons why people would want to obtain the capacity to merge a human with a mech. For example, you can save the life of a dying human by letting a living mech proactively absorb his mind and spirit. This will enable the converted human to still live on after his first death and contribute to the survival and prosperity of his race when he would have ordinarily disappeared from life. The converted human would also be able to accompany his descendants in the years to come, maybe even letting his children or grandchildren pilot his new 'body'!"

That sounded incredibly repulsive to Ves for a moment!

However, once he got over his instinctual disgust, he could actually find reasons why this might be a good idea!

Ves even saw how Maikel's potential design application could attain excellent synergy with Alexa Streon's living legacy mechs!

The two of them could work together to develop an entire dynasty of living mechs whose spiritual foundations were originally comprised of members of the same family!

Of course, the consequences of turning this into reality was bound to evoke a lot of controversies!

The very notion of converting a human into a non-human entity for the purposes of survival and exploitation was a definite taboo in human society!

If the red humanity was not already locked in a war that it was on the verge of losing, then Maikel's insane idea would never have any chance of getting accepted!

As it was, the air of desperation that had spread throughout the new frontier had made many people a lot less resistant towards more extreme solutions.

If Maikel dared to pursue this idea in the Milky Way, then the MTA would have cracked down on him a long time ago!

It was still questionable whether the more tolerant RA would allow Maikel to persist in his current aspiration.

Perhaps he may only be permitted to design mechs with this special capacity under constant supervision!

"Wait." Ves suddenly froze as an extremely daring idea came to mind. "Have you ever thought about what would happen if one of your living mechs is able to absorb the spirit, mind and willpower of an expert pilot or ace pilot?"

Maikel's lips twitched. "I did, but… I lack the knowledge to predict what would happen or if it can even happen. My assumption is that if the willpower of the mech pilot is too strong in proportion to the spiritual foundation of the living mech, then the latter will never be able to absorb the former. However, if the process is able to go through, then the high-ranking mech pilot should absolutely be able to establish himself in his new giant mechanical form."

Nobody knew whether any of this was true!

Such a taboo mech sounded incredibly dangerous, but also held a lot of promise!

Ves was not quite sure yet whether he was willing to support Maikel's ambitions, but he had certainly found a bold research direction for himself!