The Mech Touch

The fundamental problem was that the Monster Slayer was not exactly a beginner-friendly mech when utilized in actual combat.

Ketis was a highly skilled swordmaster, and spent most of her time interacting with Swordmaidens and Heavensworders, both of whom possessed remarkable skill in swordsmanship.

That made it a little more difficult for her to understand the plight and circumstances of mech pilots that comprised her actual clientele for this mech model.

Did she overestimate the competence and discipline of her customers?

Had she neglected to implement enough safeguards to prevent the mech pilots of her Monster Slayers from throwing themselves into near-certain death?

Or was it mainly the 'fault' of the Ocanon VI Branch of the Larkinson Clan for dominating the rankings by repeatedly defeating terrible monsters in solo hunts?

Ves really did not want to increase his stress by personally getting involved over this issue. This was not supposed to be a work visit.

He came up with a good idea on how to resolve this potentially thorny problem. He turned around and gestured for his oldest daughter to step forward.

"Aurelia?"

"What is it you require from me, papa?" The lovely girl asked in a slightly more formal tone than usual.

"Once you grow up, you may find yourself in charge of our clan. You will need to be able to resolve difficult problems that others haven't been able to solve. Given the current situation, how would you prevent this issue from turning into a serious blow to our clan?"

The young girl immediately looked thoughtful.

"More education is needed." Aurelia proposed in her elegant voice. "The root issue is lack of understanding. From what I can deduce based on what I have heard, the local hunters are overestimating the strength of the Monster Slayers and underestimating the skill of the Swordmaidens. Neither our mechs nor our personnel are at fault. There are no reasons to punish them for crimes they have not committed. The origin of the problem lies with the pilots, so the solution must target them as well."

Ves clapped. "That is sound logic, dear!"

It was not enough for President Tarich, however.

"With all due respect, we have already attempted to remedy the problem by issuing multiple warnings to the customers of your products. The death rates have not dropped as far as we can measure. There is something about your Monster Slayers that makes their pilots especially blind to their actual combat strength. They continue to overestimate their capabilities over and over again."

Aurelia took in this response and quickly formulated her response.

"If suggestive methods no longer work, then you must resort to more coercive methods to control the situation. Regardless of whether the Monster Slayer is a sound mech or not, it is a fact that it is being misused by too many of its customers. The most effective way to stop these mech pilots from undertaking challenges that are too much for them is to stop them from entering the hunting zones in the first place. President Tarich, your branch should institute a test that every mech pilot of the Monster Slayer must pass before he or she can proceed with their hunts."

That was a novel idea!

"That is an unprecedented move." The branch president stated. "If we follow your suggestion, then the Monster Slayer will be the first mech model that receives special treatment. This is not entirely fair to other mech designers and mech companies. The usual solution is to ban the mech model outright."

Aurelia shook her head. "It is not fair to the Living Mech Corporation to disallow one of its products from participating in valid hunts when neither of them are at fault. Your organization should not be inflexible. It is bad management to avoid the most obvious and effective solution due to bureaucratic limitations that do not exist."

She did not give the branch president an opportunity to issue another response. The assertive girl turned towards the store manager.

"Captain Gheri, you and your fellow Swordmaidens are not at fault for what has happened, but it cannot be denied that your actions have caused this problem to build up. You need to help our mech company in resolving this matter by showing that it is not the Monster Slayers, but your superior combat skills that are responsible for completing all of your highly challenging hunts."

The Swordmaiden veteran looked receptive towards Aurelia's idea. "You want us to leave our personal Monster Slayers behind and pilot other mechs instead?"

"You do not have to abandon your current mechs." Aurelia corrected. "You may keep them and continue to hunt with them. What I am suggesting is that you start to pilot our other mech models instead. I believe that you should be skilled enough to hunt your prey with the Huntmaster despite the fact it is equipped with spears. You can also pilot swordsman mechs produced by our competitors."

"That sounds counterproductive, little girl. We will only boost the sales of the other mech stores in this city. Besides, I do not trust those swordsman mechs nearly as much as the Monster Slayer. The vast majority of their mech designers are completely inept in swordsmanship."

"This should not hinder your efforts, captain. You can choose to go on slightly easier hunts whenever you pilot third-party mechs. Your successful results should prove that you are still much more capable than all of the hunters. Your selection of prey should also send a message that you simply do not think you can fight just as well with a third-party mech than with a Monster Slayer."

It was a rather facetious message, but it still emphasized that the Swordmaidens had a lot more faith in the Monster Slayer model!

Everyone else looked impressed at Aurelia's suggestions. Perhaps Ves could have come up with these solutions as well, but he was not a preteen like his daughter!

"Miaow!"

"Meow meow!"

Clixie and Lucky had paused in their attempts to run around and explore the interesting decor by voicing their approval.

Ves clapped his hands. "Great! Let's go with what my daughter has just said. Do either of you have any objections to following her blueprint?"

A look of distaste appeared on Captain Gheri's face. "My Swordmaidens and I can diversify our mech usage if that will help. I do not like it, but as long as those stupid hunters start to recognize that we are good, then that is worth it, I think."

President Tarich also agreed to enact the proposal directed towards the Hunting Association.

"I will have to conduct numerous meetings in order to push through the changes necessary to restrict the usage of the Monster Slayer in valid hunts. It is good that our Association only recently completed a large and extensive reorganization. Our rules are still fluid enough that it should be easier to implement other changes."

"Did you hear that, Aurelia? Are you happy that your suggestion is leading these people to work towards effective solutions?"

The dark-haired girl nodded. "I do! This is fun. I like being in charge!"

Ves couldn't help but grin and pull his daughter into a hug. He soon began to shower her face in kisses.

"I am so proud of you, Aurelia! You're so cute when you act like a leader. I can't wait to see you grow up and take over my clan. I wish your mother could see you now. She would be just as happy!"

"Not here, papa! It embarrassing!"

"Hey, I want kisses as well!"

After Ves had his fill with showering his children with affection, he regained his composure and acted as if nothing special had happened.

"Ahem. Let's continue with this tour. Tell me about the third bestseller of this store."

Captain Gheri smiled in a funny way but did as she instructed. She led the group a short distance away until they arrived before a very different mech from the last two ones.

"The Crystal Lord Mark III is not a mech that should be popular within the hunting community. It is a landbound rifleman mech that is more expensive than most of the competition. It is also equipped with an energy weapon, which is generally regarded as less effective than a kinetic weapon when hunting huge beasts."

Large-scale exobeasts tended to possess a lot of damage-resistant meat. Normal energy attacks tended to burn a shallow amount of hide and flesh while dispersing a lot of heat energy to a much greater chunk of organic matter.

What all of this meant was that a lot of exobeasts had the ability to absorb a lot of energy beams without losing a lot of combat effectiveness.

So long as their organs and more important extremities remained untouched, these beasts could continue to rampage without any noticeable hindrance!

If hunters wanted to bring ranged mechs to a hunting trip, then they would often go for mechs armed with ballistic rifles, gauss rifles and similar armaments.

Although it was troublesome to carry around a lot of heavy and bulky ammunition, this effort paid off in spades as these chunky rounds were much better at penetrating through layers of thick and resilient flesh!

This was why Captain Gheri stated that the Crystal Lord Mark III model shouldn't be such a good seller in the local market.

Ves grew curious why one of his old machines had defied the odds.

The Mark III edition was equipped with second generation luminar crystal rifles, which was two generations behind his most current implementation of luminar crystal technology.

"The first reason why it is popular is because it is one of the few landbound living mechs that we sell that is optimized for ranged combat." The Swordmaiden explained. "Living mechs have become more and more popular here and elsewhere. I think many of our customers would still be willing to buy a worse version of the Crystal Lord Mark HI as long as it is still alive."

"That makes sense, but that should only lead to moderate sales. What else is responsible for boosting its sales?"

"There are many ranged mech pilots that have devoted most of their training to specializing in the use of energy weapons. They do not like to switch to kinetic weapons. Out of the rifleman mechs sold in the market, our Crystal Lord Mark III model offers greater firepower at a cheaper price. The more powerful luminar crystal weapons partially offset the lack in penetration power when hunting large exobeasts."

"I can see how that helps. That doesn't sound like everything, though. Are there any other factors that have made it so popular?"

"Heat." Gheri replied. "A lot of exobeasts can easily spot mechs that run hot, even through thick forests. There are many hunts where remaining undetected is of vital importance. No mechs that rely on energy weapons can keep their temperatures down, but the luminar crystal rifles of the Crystal Lord Mark III are so efficient that they heat up slower than any other energy weapon at their price range. This can mean the difference between a successful hunt and a fatal accident. The less an exobeast is able to detect the position of ranged mechs, the lower the chance the maddened creature will bull through everything in the way in an attempt to destroy the machines that fire those painfully hot beams."

"Even if that happens, the Crystal Lord Mark HI should be able to outrun many threats. The mech is quite fast and maneuverable, which is what you want the most in a hunt." Ves grinned.

Of course, the Crystal Lord Mark III made up for that by reducing its armor protection.

Though Ves had added a gimmick that made it much more resistant against enemy energy attacks, most of the exobeasts of Ocanon VI were only able to attack through physical means.

Nonetheless, the threat to the Crystal Lord Mark III should be light as long as it maintained its distance.

Combined with a much lighter logistical burden due to avoiding the need to carry a lot of spare ammunition, the Crystal Lord Mark III sounded like a fine addition to any hunting team.