The Mech Touch

Ketis gestured towards the projected draft design of the Blade Chaser. "If you compare the design of the First Sword to this sketch, you should be able to observe many differences. The design choices that I have made for Venerable Imon's future expert mech are different because its pilot has developed a different fighting and piloting style."

"Can you explain it for us, please?" Ves politely asked.

"What Imon needs are two things, namely speed and power. If you look at my draft design, you can see that it is equipped with a larger flight system than normal and that it also features a more robust mechanical structure. I will need Juliet and Janassa to flesh out these areas further, but you can see where I am going for this expert mech."

Ves and several other Journeymen nodded.

The Blade Chaser Mark II Project was all about leveraging its speed and power to produce a lot of figurative and literal momentum in battle.

Even though it was armed with two smaller swords instead of a single bigger one, it could strike pretty hard in the right circumstances.

In fact, it shouldn't matter too much if the Blade Chaser Mark II hadn't built up any speed. Ketis had envisioned the upcoming expert mech as a close-ranged terror by designing it so that it could strike repeatedly with its two weapons.

It didn't matter if Venerable Imon's control and technique were not impressive!

It didn't matter if the Blade Chaser Mark II did not allow for more precise control over its movements!

It didn't matter if Ketis had to design a different swordsman mech than what she originally envisioned!

As an ambitious mech designer who wanted to design the ultimate mechs of this archetype, Ketis understood that not all of her customers fit her ideals.

She loved to design mechs for the Swordmaidens because she shared the same approach towards swordsmanship as her fellow sisters.

It was not challenging at all for her to envision new mech designs that could give the Swordmaidens another way for them to channel their sword skills.

The story was different for users outside of the group she was familiar with. It was still manageable for her to design swordsman mechs for the Heavensworders due to how seriously they adopted swordsmanship as the center of their lives.

Outside of that, Ketis still had much to learn. She had struggled on this issue when designing her recent Monster Slayer mech.

Compared to her previous works, she consciously had to dumb down her Monster Slayer and make it more universally compatible in order to widen its appeal.

If she had to design the Monster Slayer for the Swordmaidens, then it would have become a much tighter and exacting mech design!

While the skill and control requirements for the mech would be higher, its upper limit on performance would be raised as well, allowing the Swordmaidens to defeat opposing mechs that were much more powerful on paper!

As Ketis thought about her plan for the Blade Chaser Mark II Project, she figured that she needed to explore a different approach towards power.

"The Blade Chaser Mark II is meant to be an expert mech that can swing its swords faster and harder as Venerable Imon gets more excited." She continued to explain. "I intend to design his expert mech in a way that can channel and derive strength from his special qualities as an expert pilot. He's a hothead, and that is manifested in his bright and powerful will. His expert mech will complement this trait."

Ves crossed his arms as he developed a few doubts. "It all sounds rather vague to me. Are you sure your approach to this design project will fit Venerable Imon?"

"You're not a fighter. You don't understand anything. Just leave it to me. I know exactly what Venerable Imon needs."

"Don't worry, Ves. I won't spend as much time on the Blade Chaser Mark II Project, but I will be supervising it to make sure it is a good fit for its pilot." Gloriana assured.

That was enough for Ves.

They settled a few more details before they were done with discussing this expert mech design project.

One of the interesting details about the Blade Chaser Mark II was that Ves did not intend to take an active part in its design.

When Gloriana designed the original custom mech, she managed to make it alive by borrowing a few tricks and techniques from her husband.

She used to struggle with this in the past, but ever since she obtained her own companion spirit, all of this changed. She was finally able to observe and interact with spiritual phenomena on a more conscious level through Alexandria.

Since Gloriana had already turned the current iteration of the Blade Chaser into a living mech of some sort, Ves was curious to see how she could develop it further with the upgrade project.

Ever since Venerable Imon broke through while piloting his custom mech, the Blade Chaser had gained a lot of spiritual feedback and came close to becoming a third order living mech.

It would only be a matter of time before the Blade Chaser or its upgraded version surpassed the threshold and turned into an existence on the same level as the Everchanger and the Shield of Samar.

However, Ves had a hunch that a Gloriana-style third order living mech would look substantially different from the ones he developed. Just thinking about what he might encounter in the future made him feel excited!

"Ahem. Now that we have gotten the expert mech design projects out of the way, let us discuss the regular projects that we will be tackling for this round. As you all know, the fifth design round is all about commercial mechs. I want each and every one of us to focus on designing mechs that serve at least a single common purpose, and that is generating as much revenue for the LMC and by extension our clan as possible."

He had waited for this moment for a long time. Ves was finally going back to designing mechs for the commercial mech market!

After saying a few more perfunctory words, he quickly introduced the projects that he had in mind.

The projection changed to show another set of draft designs.

One of them depicted a sketch of a training mech. Another showcased an extremely light striker mech. A third one displayed a commercial ECM mech.

"Let me give you a quick rundown of these designs." Ves said. "The Tutor Project here is my attempt to revolutionize the market for training mechs. As you know, the Chiron model that our mech academies have been making use of has been particularly effective at helping our mech cadets develop their piloting skills. I think we can use it as a model for a more universal training mech that also contains numerous other enhancements that can make it even better at its job. If I am able to succeed in creating these new solutions, the Tutor Project will definitely achieve comprehensively better results!"

"Will you replace our Chiron with this new training mech model if the latter turns out to be better?" Ketis asked with concern.

"Of course not. We treat our living mechs better than that." Ves quickly answered. "We always keep the best for ourselves. For me, the Tutor Project partially serves as a proof of concept for me. If it works out the way I intended, I have no qualms about upgrading the Chiron model so that its newest iteration not only catches up to my commercial offering, but is able to go a step further!"

This way, the Larkinsons could upgrade all of the existing Chiron mechs and preserve their precious living qualities that they had developed over the years.

After Ves briefly elaborated on what he had in store for the Tutor Project, he shifted over to the ECM mech that he also wanted to design.

"I'm sure that you are all confused why I want to design an ECM mech of all things. While it is true that I don't have any experience in designing shady mechs, I think I can make this auxiliary mech a lot more valuable by adding in an existing function that is already present in our Cherub and Signal Bearer designs."

Not everyone liked what they heard from Ves.

"You're selling out the feature that has given our Hexers an advantage in the Komodo War!" Gloriana angrily burst out. "How dare you, Ves? How could you do this? If the Fridaymen get their hands on this, they will be blaspheming the Superior Mother by using her as their alternative communications network!"

"Gloriana, the Hexers have already lost the war. Don't deny it. While I don't like how it is going either, the Fridaymen have made too much progress in the last few months."

"That doesn't mean you can start selling an enhanced version of the Cherub on the open market! Don't forget that more and more groups of Hexers have arrived in the Red Ocean. They are still relying on the Valkyrie Redeemer and the other mechs that we have designed for them. Don't you have principles, Ves?"

"Do you know how much customers are willing to pay for long-ranged, instant and unjammable communications?!" Ves heatedly retorted! "This is a guaranteed cash cow for us, Gloriana! Combined with the ECM functions that I plan to add to this design, I believe that my Buzzy Bee Project will have a good chance of becoming the product that will turn the LMC into a household name in the region!"

Although Ves wanted to remain honorable and avoid spreading out a feature that only he and the Hexers enjoyed thus far, the market potential for the Buzzy Bee Project was too high!

Ever since Calabast gave him this idea, he had asked his subordinates to study the market and do more research on what customers wanted.

Practically everyone responded positively towards the functions of the Buzzy Bee Project!

Gloriana could complain all she wanted, but Ves did not allow her to mess up this opportunity to capture a lot of market in the Red Ocean.

Ves had little confidence in conquering the market for rifleman mechs or knight mechs, but a machine that not only excelled at communicating under heavy jamming conditions but also possessed a few unusual ECM capabilities was practically a necessity in a complex and chaotic environment like the Red Ocean!

In the end, Gloriana could only grumble while turning her head away. No matter what she wished, Ves was in charge around here.

Besides, he was the one who came up with the design solution that enabled mechs to communicate with each other through the Superior Mother's spiritual network. It was fully within his rights to apply it to any other mech of his choosing.

"What is up with this tiny mech, Ves?" Ketis asked in a clear attempt to divert the topic away from the current controversy. "It looks too small and fragile to fight against mechs."

Ves chuckled. "That is because it isn't meant to fight against human mechs at all. In fact, this is a specialized solution against the voribugs. I became inspired by how well our suppressive glows managed to debilitate the swarms we fought a few months ago. Think of it as a Doom Guard that is scaled down and equipped with a shotgun instead of a flamethrower order to deal more effective damage against the bugs. I can bet you that as soon as the public learns what it is capable of, there will definitely be a lot of major organizations who will be interested in buying batches of my cheap but effective Voribug Nemesis Project!"

"...Voribug Nemesis Project? Really, Ves?"

"It's just a codename!"