The Mech Touch

"How much does it cost to receive Vulcan's greater blessing?"

Samandra smiled. "We raised the price from 1 MTA credit to 10 MTA credits after conducting a great amount of market research. Nowadays, only older master craftsmen who have remained stuck in their respective line of work for many decades are willing to pay at least that much and more to receive the crucial impulse they need to break through their respective bottlenecks. This is more than a fair price to charge for life-changing progress."

She made a good point. Ves recalled the time where he hit then-Professor Benedict Cortez with a hammer.

Suffice to say, the results were dramatic as the highly experienced mech designer spontaneously tied a lot of different data points and theories together in a way that he had never done before!

Knowing that Vulcan's influence could play a dramatic role to any mech designer below the Master Mech Designer level, Ves became more curious at how many of them became attracted by the benefits that Vulcan offered.

"What is the proportion of mech designers among the craftsmen that have become members of the Creation Association?"

"It is not as high as you think." She responded. "According to our current statistics, only 7 percent of our entire registered member base are mech designers. The proportion of engineers who are related to the mech industry in a wider sense is larger, but as far as actual mech designers are concerned, not many of them recognize the appeal of worshiping Vulcan even if they learn about him through word of mouth."

"Let me guess. These mech designers don't believe that Vulcan can help them through our totems, is that correct?"

Director Samandra Avikon nodded in a weary manner. "Mech designers generally have a strong belief in themselves. Many of them have attitudes that are similar to yours. They think they can invent and engineer their way out of any problem. It is not easy for them to admit that they need help, let alone pray to a god."

"Well, it's their loss, then. Vulcan should truly be able to give them a hand if they are receptive enough."

Ves didn't blame these people. What the Creation Association tried to push onto its members was too weird and new. Without experiencing its effects in person, it was far too hard for others to believe in the outlanding claims surrounding these mystical objects.

Totems of Vulcan were responsible for keeping the Creation Association afloat and delivering more spiritual feedback to his spiritual incarnation.

They were nothing but statues of varying sizes that were not only made in the image of Vulcan, but also possessed a spiritual connection to the design spirit.

Unlike the mechs that Ves designed on a regular basis, it was a lot more troublesome to ensure that totems produced by people other than himself contained this connection!

This was a common problem that every mech designer suffered from. Their specialization in mechs allowed them to break past the technical limitations of everything that was directly related to mechs, but it did not extend to other product types.

Ves strongly speculated that only Star Designers broke this powerful limitation.

He did not let this annoyance stop him, though. As someone who dabbled with spiritual engineering for a long time, he already accrued a lot of experience in solving long-standing problems through innovative and radical means.

At a certain point in the last few years, he realized that he differed from other mech designers by the fact that he had Vulcan.

If Ves couldn't accomplish this task, why not rely on Vulcan instead?

With that logic, he tasked the Creation Association to hire artisans who were strong adherents of Vulcan and see if they could find a way to design and create totems on their own from start to finish.

This was an important step to expanding the Creation Association across the Red Ocean!

Ves entered the workshop with much expectation and trepidation. The bronze-like steps that led to the first underground floor were shallow but exaggeratingly wide, making him feel as if he was slowly descending to a hidden sanctum.

Once they reached the bottom, Samandra Avikon knocked on the large double doors, causing them to swing open just enough to allow the two to enter.

The workshop hall looked reassuringly well-organized and well-equipped to Ves. The environment here was much cleaner and more well-lit in order to facilitate proper hand work.

Ves immediately noted the lack of advanced production equipment. "I can understand why you haven't acquired a superfab as they are too expensive, but where are the 3D printers? Where are the other large-scale production machines?"

The robed woman frowned. "Please remember where we are, sir. We are standing in the most sacred workshop encompassing the sanctuary we have raised in Vulcan's name. It is disrespectful to rely on automation and highly machine dependent production methods. In this workshop, we only engage in the most earnest forms of craftsmanship. Also, we have learned through trial and error that our efforts have a higher chance of success if our artisans work more with their hands rather than inputting commands in a high-tech device."

The only argument that mattered was the last one. The rest was mere window dressing as far as Ves was concerned.

He did have to admit that the sight of dozens of different artisans working together or by themselves had an uplifting effect.

Ves could sense that each of the people who received the privilege of working on this sacred floor possessed a strong and earnest belief in Vulcan.

Many of the people working in the workshop were metalworkers, sculptors, painters and other traditional craftsmen. Each of them displayed great skills and some were clearly at the master level in their respective professions.

As Ves and Director Samandra Avikon stepped closer, hardly any of the craftsmen took notice of the new arrivals.

The artists and artisans were so engrossed and concentrated in their own work that they refused to get distracted by external factors.

This reminded Ves a lot of himself. Only the most passionate and engaged workers could enter into this special state of zen.

As Ves continued to observe these artisans at work, he began to sense some of the mystery that caused this workshop to be different from other places.

Not only did strategically placed totems of Vulcan ensure that the entire space was constantly bathed with a subtle but constant glow that promoted craftsmanship, but the work being done in this hall began to resemble a ritual of sorts.

The passion, concentration and desire generated by so many artisans working in close proximity to each other generated a faint but invisible form of resonance that aligned with Vulcan's domain.

All kinds of small and subtle background interactions took place that ultimately produced positive effects that would definitely affect the end products!

In order to confirm the theories that were surging in his mind, Ves approached the far side of the hall where dozens of finished test products had been placed in a display area.

What impressed him the most was that each of them were actually totems!

Although most of them possessed such a faint connection to Vulcan that they were pretty much useless, it was already a massive achievement to get this far in only a couple of years!

"Wait a minute. The materials used to make these items look incredibly familiar…"

Samandra caught up to him and smiled at the statues and other knick-knacks. "As we have said, we are constantly engaged in trial and error. Our craftsmen have experimented with a wide variety of materials, but they found that metals are more respective to Vulcan. We subsequently tried out many different mundane metals and metallic exotics. One day, one of our blacksmiths suggested that we employ the exact same type of alloys that are used in the mechs that you have designed in the past. We requested a batch of materials from the Cat Nest and started to work on them, and that has eventually led to this result."

"Strange… but amazing."

Ves couldn't fully explain why this worked out better than the alternatives. He could guess at the logic but not the exact mechanisms.

Still, that was what trial and error was for. By trying out a lot of stuff, there were always chances of making new and unexpected discoveries!

He immediately felt more enriched. The discoveries made by the craftsmen affiliated with the Creation Association filled a small but important gap in his theoretical framework.

That said, this was not enough.

"Are there any better works?" He asked.

"There are. Let me show you where our best artisans work."

They moved out of the large communal hall and entered one of the more private but also more luxuriously outfitted work rooms.

Only a single metalworker was working on a life-sized totem of Vulcan. The figure patiently used his large and meaty hands to hold a high-power sanding tool that persistently grinded against the surface of a metal object.

This was tough and tiring work, especially when the totem in question was made out of a second-class alloy that was designed to withstand damage inflicted by mechs!

Nonetheless, the exquisite details of the nearly completed totem along with the utter concentration and focus exhibited by the master artisan exceeded anything that Ves had witnessed in the previous hall.

What gratified Ves a lot was that the totem depicted Vulcan as a human that looked remarkably similar to himself!

As Ves studied metal sculpture to a greater degree, he picked up several remarkable details.

One of the finer aspects that the master craftsman did right was that the totem possessed the cleanest spiritual foundation that he had seen so far. It was already noticeably more coherent and focused than what he had seen from the rejected objects that he passed by a moment earlier.

Of course, the totem wasn't alive, but that didn't matter too much in this context.

What truly surprised Ves was the spiritual connections of the totem. It held a stronger connection to Vulcan than normal, but what actually caused this work to stand out was that it had also started to form a faint and weak connection to himself!

What the hell?

Ves belatedly remembered that he had also become an existence closer to a design spirit himself. He had acquired his own glow though he always suppressed it to the strongest degree possible because he didn't want to annoy the people around him with the spiritual manifestation of his ego.

Still, if anyone were to make a product that made use of himself as a glow, it should have been Ves!

What this exactly did to the totem, Ves wasn't entirely sure, but right now his interest had shifted to the master artisan responsible for creating this astonishing work!

Ves took care not to raise his voice or step any closer than necessary. As a creator himself, he knew how rage-inducing it was to break a moment of utter concentration. It might even cause the totem to fail to reach its potential!

He slowly turned to Samandra Avikon. "Who is this guy?"

"You have the distinct pleasure of observing Master Blacksmith Rogha Dunnerholm."

"Where does he come from? How come he is able to forge such a close connection to Vulcan in his work?"

"That is because he knows Vulcan longer than you have been alive." Samandra respectfully replied. "For 80 years, he not only grew up worshiping Vulcan alongside everyone in his state, but he has also devoted himself to traditional blacksmithing in order to devote himself further to the deity that forms the center of his belief. The fall of the Vulcan Empire has been a devastating and traumatic event for many of its citizens, but a master blacksmith of Dunnerholm's skills easily managed to secure a way out. He has wandered for several years since, but eventually arrived in the new frontier and sought us out to confirm that we are tied to the same god that he prayed to all his life."

"Did he… did he find the god he was looking for?" Ves slowly asked.

"He did."

Ves had already noticed that the master blacksmith was a heavy gravity variant human. There was no mistaking this body type.

He did not immediately think that the bearded dwarf originated from the Vulcan Empire. Dwarves could be found in many parts of human space, and only a minority of them had any relations to the Vulcan Faith of the past.

It still came as a surprise to Ves that he actually became reunited with a Vulcanite once again!