The Mech Touch

Ves considered himself to be a good service provider, so he did not insist on changing the mind of his client any further.

He had a professional obligation to meet the demands of his customers as best as possible without compromising any rules and such.

Even though he was of the opinion that Patriarch Patrick Becker-Anson made a suboptimal choice concerning this opportunity to obtain a custom companion spirit, it was not a truly awful choice.

Old or not, Patrick had good access to life-prolonging treatments. Future advancements in cultivation might be able to extend his longevity even further. It was not a waste to provide him with a custom companion spirit.

With that in mind, Ves proceeded to do his job so that he could get his hands on the Divine Blacksmith scriptures as quickly as possible.

He created a companion spirit on the spot. He designed the new entity to be a close interpretation of the ancestor of the Becker-Anson Family.

In the end, Patrick looked fascinated as he felt several decades younger all of a sudden. His newly created companion spirit floated around his head like a curious little fairy.

"I name you Balthasar."

The supposed name of the Divine Blacksmith was Balthasar, so it was pretty clear what Patrick had in mind for his second personality.

In order to accommodate his client's desire to take up traditional craftsmanship, Ves decided to be generous. He used up a small spiritual fragment from Vulcan in order to impart the talent that Patrick lacked.

This already had a significant effect on the cognition of the older patriarch. His perspective had expanded as he instinctively knew more about the craftsmanship of all of the objects around him. It was like a veil had been lifted from his eyes!

Ves gave the older patriarch several more minutes to get over his fascination with his latest augmentation.

"I have upheld my end of the bargain. I have even transmitted a manual to you that thoroughly explains how to care for your companion spirit and all of the dangers and pitfalls that you should avoid. Can you finally show me the scriptures?"

"Ah. Of course. As I have mentioned before, I have brought the original scriptures to the conference so that the mechers can analyze and translate their contents. They are still working on it as far as 1 know. 1 can make arrangements to grant you permission to visit the department that currently has possession of them so that you can attempt to read the texts in person. I can also give you a copy of the scriptures in their ancient words and letters and transmit the completed translations when they arrive."

Ves did not really feel like studying a bunch of fragile ancient scrolls that had managed to survive for who knew how long.

"I only care about the contents rather than their carriers." He responded. "I can make do with the digital copies of your scriptures."

"Very well. I shall transmit the original texts. Mind you that the language is so old that it has been dead for hundreds of thousands of years at the very least. There is an exceedingly small number of people in the Red Ocean who have gained enough proficiency in this primitive language to barely translate the words. Even then, their work is greatly hindered by the fact that the scriptures likely contain a large proportion of professional jargon and terms."

That indeed sounded trouble, but Ves showed little concern about this problem. "Understood. I will wait until the Association has completed its interpretation work."

As Ves said goodbye to the patriarch of the Becker-Anson Family, he loaded the files into his cranial implant and already began his attempt to read the ancient words.

He made no progress at all. The language consisted of pictograms whose meaning completely and utterly eluded him. His talent for understanding alien speech played no role at all because there was no living counterpart for him to interpret.

This was fine. Ves might not be able to understand anything, but his mother was a different story!

Back in the Milky Way, Veronica already interrupted her design session in order to seek out Cynthia again. Hopefully the True God possessed enough knowledge to make sense out of the digital copy of the ancient writings.

Ves meanwhile proceeded to handle his other custom orders in the ensuing hours. The jobs were relatively straightforward as no one issued any odd demands.

He managed to eam a first-class military base and outpost that was currently situated in a fairly precarious region of the Red Ocean.

Jovy expressed a bit of puzzlement why Ves selected this bid over other ones such as a straight infusion of cash.

"The value of this outpost and all of its first-class facilities is higher than a couple of hundred million MTA credits." Ves replied. "So long as I can pack it up and sell it on the second-hand market, I can already earn a greater sum of money. I am not getting rid of it, though. I intend to use it as the foundation of the first branch of the Larkinson Clan in an upper zone. We might not be able to make proper use of it in the next few years, but it is extremely handy to have on hand when I am finally promoted to a first-class mech designer."

He needed to have a first-class counterpart to the Cat Nest in an upper zone to facilitate his future operations.

Jovy looked a bit skeptical. "You will have to move the outpost from its current location to a safer position that is further away from the frontlines. Your clan cannot accomplish this by itself. You will have to pass on this responsibility to another trusted party."

Ves grinned. "1 have already thought about that. Once this conference is over, I plan to get in touch with the Eden Institute of Business & Technology to disassemble the base and bring it back to a safer location. I will also ask for assistance in hiring a small maintenance crew to keep everything in good condition."

"That... might work. Does that mean you have decided to keep the base within the Terran Alliance?"

"Yes. Don't worry, Jovy. I do not intend to completely align myself to the Terrans. 1 am also planning to open up a couple of small branches in the Red Ocean Union and the Rubarthan Pact if possible. I think my work shouldn't be confined to select areas of human space. Everyone deserves to have a chance to pilot my mechs."

Even though Ves gained a lot more recognition and appreciation from the Red Association, he still rejected the notion that he should bind himself to any single major power.

The mechers might remain in a dominant position for the moment, but that was not necessarily the case in the future. Ves wanted to keep his options open and hedge his bets as much as possible.

"Let's proceed with my next commission."

Half an hour later, Ves had just granted a custom companion spirit for one of the direct disciples of a Master Mech Designer.

In exchange for a custom first-class cranial implant for Gloriana, Ves gave a younger Journeyman a fish-shaped companion spirit with a strong affinity for phasewater.

Ves approved of the choices made this time, so he put a little extra effort into designing a graceful little fish.

Once he had completed this job, he received a fancy virtual voucher from the old associate who commissioned the custom companion spirit.

"I advise you or your chosen recipient to be patient. The implant industry is undergoing great upheaval and rapid changes at the moment. Every day, our researchers and developers discover new materials, new interactions between materials and so on. We even have a secret research group that is tasked with enabling our implants to draw power from E energy radiation. This can present the next generation of implant users with unprecedented options. For example, you can theoretically load a sophisticated software program in the implant that automatically allows its carrier to practice a cultivation method without conscious thought."

"What?! Is that even possible?!"

Much of this already sounded familiar to Ves as he had already solved this particular problem.

However, his approach was not replicable for others. A method of automatic cultivation through the use of cranial implants was much more significant in comparison!

"The early generation products will likely rely on hyper materials to make this happen. The most powerful and effective hypers do not come cheap, so only the highest segments of the market will be able to afford this service. The service that I am offering to you will include this capability if you desire to have it. It is not as useful for mech designers and mech pilots, but it can still benefit them in other ways, especially when we update the software of the new generation of implants in subsequent years."

This was cutting-edge technology that clearly blew all of the older generations of cranial implants out the water!

He even thought about whether it might be better to give it to Aurelia instead, but she was so abnormal that she probably did not have to rely on any external measures to attain great results.

"I will keep all of this in mind." Ves said as he accepted the voucher. "I need to fulfill my next two commissions. Goodbye."

He did not get to meet with Master Henry Urbeck or Master Xena Wintress in person again. Both of them were busy with attending other sessions.

Instead, Ves met with their younger disciples so that he could do his work without any fuss.

The rewards for these jobs were not simple.

The young Journeyman who worked under Master Xena Wintress was in a good enough mood to share a bit of news about the EdNet.

"The EdNet forms one of the pillars of the Polymath's Unity Plan." The young man said. "The initial version of the EdNet is the magnum opus of the Neuromancer, and it has become the Mech Trade Association's signature technologies. Recently, the Polymath has taken the initiative to collaborate with the Neuromancer to update and transform the design of the EdNet in order to improve upon the tech. Her aim is to learn enough about the EdNet to develop a lesser but more practical variation that can be used to quickly educate a massive amount of batch humans."

That sounded interesting.

"Isn't the Neuromancer supposed to be stuck in the Milky Way?"

"That is right, but the two Star Designers can still correspond with each other through the few communication methods that are able to establish data channels between the two distant galaxies."

This was one of the many examples that showcased how much assistance the Milky Way could still provide to their cut-off brethren in the Red Ocean.

So long as they were able to communicate with each other, they could engage in all kinds of joint research projects. The collective wisdom of humanity in the Milky Way was still overwhelming, and the people of the Red Ocean could dearly use all of this help!

"Thank you for telling me that." Ves replied. "Does this mean that the quotas will less or more valuable in the future?"

"It depends on whether the Polymath will keep working on the EdNet. If she continues to use her endless cross-disciplinary knowledge to update and optimize the design of the EdNet from different angles, it may very well become accessible to the general public. I wouldn't worry too much if I was you. The more affordable versions of the EdNet will likely operate with a lower time acceleration factor. You cannot spend as many years in an accelerated virtual learning environment if that is the case."

"I see. So these permanent quotas will at least hold some of their value in the future."

Ves did not feel like he was getting scammed anymore, though it would have been nice to learn about this before he concluded the auction.