The Mech Touch



Spencer Hall was an ultramodern venue that possessed a technological aesthetic. The architect did not hide the huge amount of technology and metal that went into its construction. All of these advanced components were necessary to make the place adaptable and accommodating for any type of event a university might hold.

Tens of thousands of spectators had already arrived in advance. Large groups of adolescents congregated together. A notable proportion of them wore the jade green hoodies and shirts that proudly showed off a stylized gray wheat ear, the emblem of the Davute University of Technology.

Ves had no idea why a tech-oriented educational institution would choose to represent itself with an agricultural symbol of all choices, but none of it was his business.

As more and more people entered the venue, Ves could see that the engineering and mech design students made up an unusually high proportion of the group.

"They have all come to learn from you." Zanthar Larkinson stepped up to his side. "I can't blame them, honestly. I have learned from you first-hand. The stuff you teach can't be found in any of the textbooks or classes that they have access to. I think they might already be satisfied if they learn a scrap of your repertoire."

Ves chuckled. "I am afraid these earnest students won't be able to get what they want. If my design philosophy was so easy to learn from, the mechers wouldn't have labeled it as Class IX. I hope they can gain more general inspiration from their work. I don't want them to inherit my design principles. I want them to form their own original ones. If I can do it, so can they. These young men and women are all enrolled in the best mech design university of Davute. They should have done more than rote learning."

He knew that the colonial state had invested a disproportionate amount of funding to accelerate the growth of the DUT. It needed to become a top school of the entire Krakatoa Middle Zone in order to build up its prestige and attract more talented students and professors.

After Ves finished his examination of the student body, he shifted his gaze towards all of the other spectators down below.

Different from the party goers who attended the typical mech combat tournaments, the ones that decided to show up today all wore neat and refined clothing. Business suits and clean dresses were common as the professionals all tried to present themselves at their best.

It was as if they were attending a church session instead of a mech design tournament.

There were multiple reasons why these people wanted to look clean and professional. This event was less of a party and more of a work conference of sorts. They were surrounded by their peers in the mech industry and were expected to talk shop with each other as the competition dragged on for many hours.

The mech technicians, engineers, sales associates, marketing managers and etcetera also wanted to make sure they did not leave an awful impression to their future employers, peers or superiors.

Even the mech designers put an effort into presenting their most refined sides as it was not a secret that scores of Senior Mech Designers and maybe Master Mech Designers would be observing or presiding over the tournament!

Maikel all thought it was because of the star of the show. "You're a big deal, sir. The Twin Weapons Tournament isn't the biggest mech design tournament of the founding festival. A lot of Masters would rather be elsewhere at this time. It is only because the most famous mech designer among the younger generations has decided to take part that they have chosen to come."

Well that certainly did not help soothe his nerves.

Though Ves was too experienced and confident in his abilities to suffer from performance anxiety, he was keenly aware that he needed to make an excellent impression in front of the Masters of Davute in order to earn 9 impressive fleet carriers for his clan!

Those brilliant and accomplished mech designers may very well have come to scope out his design abilities in advance in order to judge whether it was worthwhile to collaborate with him on Davute's key mech design projects.

Ves was determined not to disappoint their expectations.

In fact, he wanted to do better. He wanted to exceed their estimates of his design capabilities!

By the time he was finished, those Masters would beg to collaborate with him on their most ambitious mech design projects!

Ves received a silent alert that informed him that he needed to go down and prepare for the start of the Twin Weapons Tournament.

He patted Maikel and Zanthar on the shoulders. The two had grown a lot since they first came under his tutelage. Both of them had grown into bright and motivated Apprentice Mech Designers who were well on their way to flesh out their nascent design philosophies.

What Ves appreciated the most about the two of them was their work ethic and their decisiveness.

Ves had faithfully passed on one of the most important lessons he learned during his formative years.

Professor Velten, late of the Flagrant Vandals Mech Regiment, once used her own life trajectory as an example of how much mech designers could squander their time on politics, socializing and other activities that did not benefit their progression in the slightest.

She eventually exhausted her potential as a Senior Mech Designer and waved away what little chance she had of advancing to a Master.

Her lack of progress and contributions to the mech community also left her with little choice on prolonging her life. She could only exchange a discounted version of a serum with her meager means and ultimately completed a botched treatment process that left her with no more avenues to live past two centuries.

Though many years had passed since Ves the young Apprentice received Professor Velten's teachings, he still held an immense gratitude towards her for enabling him to rise so quickly.

This was why he frequently imparted the same advice to his students.

Acquiring the right attitude was paramount and more important than every other lesson he taught to them. He did not really care whether they learned how to design living mechs or inherited his passion for luminar crystal technology. He just wanted his students to make the most out of the limited amount of time they could spend on their life's work.

Though Ves did not have the confidence that Maikel and Zanthar would follow in his or Ketis' footsteps and become a Journeyman before their thirties, there was no need for haste.

They would reach their initial goals sooner or later as long as they continued to enrich their knowledge, built up their own theoretical frameworks and worked on more design projects.

Naturally, his students also needed to develop spiritual potential, which they thankfully did. Ves had no proof of this, but he had a hunch that his teachings along with their frequent exposure to spiritual phenomena had spurred on the emergency of this crucial quality.

He would have to test this hypothesis when he taught other students in the future.

Ves left the VIP booth after kissing each of his children on their heads one last time before he went down and entered a preparation area.

Many fellow Journeyman Mech Designers had already gathered. They showed clear reaction to his arrival but otherwise kept to themselves.

Good. Ves did not want his competition to be cowed by his reputation.

"Ves." Juliet Stameros walked up while wearing a business suit that carried the markings of the Penitent Sisters and the Larkinson Clan. "About the mech design proposals…"

He raised his palm. "Let's talk about that after we have received the restrictions and requirements of this tournament. I have my ideas, including one that I think is especially promising for the unique format of this contest, but I need to be sure it is applicable for this instance. I can promise you that we should definitely be able to impress the audience if we can implement my best idea."

He looked forward to implementing his latest product of his imagination. It attracted him a lot ever since he first came up with it. The brilliance and value proposition of this innovative idea impressed him so much that he even thought it had potential to become the basis of one of the major mech commissions that he agreed to fulfill!

As such, his participation in the Twin Weapons Tournament served a greater purpose than validating his progress and impressing his fellow mech designers.

He wanted to showcase a new method of employing mechs that had the potential to become a strong boon to the forces of Davute!

It might even match the impact that the Blessed Squire and the Valkyrie Redeemer had on the Hex Army!

As Ves chatted with Juliet about irrelevant matters, he struggled to contain his grin. He wanted to amaze both his fellow competitors and his entire audience with his original new idea, but it was not yet time for him to steal the show.

A university attendant soon entered the preparation area. "Everyone! May I have your attention, please? The tournament shall commence soon. Please follow our instructions and stand on the places that we have marked for you. There is no need to do anything else before the design phase starts. We have no intention of occupying your time and the time of our valued guests. We only ask you to follow our rules and present us with the best possible mechs that you can develop within the deadline."

It took a bit of time before the recorders came to live. The Twin Weapons Tournament had finally begun!

Ves tuned out the introductory speech and all of the other useless talk. He was grateful that the Davute University of Technology assigned more professional announcers who didn't come from the entertainment industry.

The only time where he paid attention to the people speaking to the crowd was the distinguished-looking gray-haired man who commanded everyone's attention.

The reason why everyone fell silent was not just because he was a professor employed by the DUT.

He was also a Master Mech Designer who had been in the industry for almost two centuries!

Ves did not know much about Master Hergard Elroy, but he recalled the older man's record.

Master Elroy dedicated his life to advancing his Class IV design philosophy. The MTA officially referred to his specialty as 'Alternative Propulsion Drive Systems', which was a fancy way of describing weird and radically different means of making mechs move from point A to point B.

Juliet could probably describe his work a lot more than Ves on account of their similar research and design interests.

What actually mattered was that Master Elroy spent many decades of his career on studying and deciphering many different alien drive technologies.

He did so long before the Red Ocean ever became accessible. His rich experience in researching and reverse engineering all of the weird alien tech originating from the old galaxy put him at a clear advantage in doing the same for all of the phasewater tech originating from the new frontier!

"Master Elroy likely possesses the deepest attainments in phasewater theory and warp drive technology among the academicians in Davute." Juliet quietly communicated to Ves. "He also has many ties to Morton Tech and the other top development companies of the colonial state. He is an extremely popular collaboration partner."

Ves looked more impressed. "I see. Thanks for the clarification."

It did not sound likely that Ves would collaborate with Master Hergard Elroy on any future projects. The man was probably working to develop better iterations of minidrives. These extremely expensive transphasic mech systems were only destined to be equipped by high-ranking mechs. They were too uneconomical to be employed by standard mechs.

That did not stop him from respecting the Master. The older man was already over two centuries old but still retained his hunger to explore more unknown alien technology.