The Mech Touch

The increased enrollment and the reduced competition was like a dream to this relatively new university!

Now that every remaining educational institution had to compete on a level playing field, it was impossible for the Eden Institute to fall!

Only an enormous scandal would be able to threaten its continuation. So long as it did not make any egregious mistakes, it was destined to rise to prominence!

This provided huge benefits to Ves as long as he was able to remain employed by the Eden Institute.

It did not really matter if he became overshadowed by every professor. He was already happy with teaching a couple of niche elective courses.

Ves did not expect the school administration to attach so much importance to his proposed Frontier Wisdom course.

Were the Terrans truly willing to trust a second-rater to teach a bunch of clueless kids how to kill a phase whale!?

"Humanity has precious little contact with the phase whale race." The projection of Miss Alexa Striker clarified as she sat next to the desk in Ves\' office. "Not even the Big Two has fought that much against these powerful aquatic aliens. They are too elusive and solitary, and spend most of their time hiding inside gas giants or pocket spaces. Master Laila Rebecca Devos has personally contacted the Red MTA to verify whether you have truly come into contact with this race. Once she obtained the desired answer, she Intends to use your course as an additional selling point for the Eden Institute."

Ves blinked.

"Are you sure it is a good idea to blow this matter up? I am still a brand new Senior. I haven\'t taught a single serious class as of yet. My Frontier Wisdom course may be the completely wrong fit for the Eden Institute or its students."

"Master Devos is more than willing to give you room to experiment, professor. The rules and regulations concerning the teaching contents of elective courses are quite loose. The consequences are not too severe if you fail to teach our students anything of substance. You can always retool the syllabus for the next semester."

"I see. I’ll proceed according to my original plan if that is the case."

The two talked a bit further. Ves did not really treat his position at the Eden Institute as a full-time job, so he was largely left out of the loop.

Fortunately, his bright young teaching assistant was fully on top of the situation. She possessed an excellent awareness of the changes brought by the Great Severing.

"You cannot imagine how many pioneers have chosen to raise their own hunting fleets after the Red CFA published its Warship Quota Program." Axela gossiped to Ves. "These leaders have spent most of their efforts on building their colonies or establishing new business in the upper zones. Now, they suddenly chose to put their original plans on the backburner in order to chase after the much-coveted Warship Tokens. How likely do you think that they can succeed in their hunting expeditions?"

He snorted. "Hah, they will likely not be able to obtain the prize that they desire the most. As you have said so yourself, phase whales are highly elusive. Finding them is an enormous challenge. You may stumble upon them by luck if you spent enough time in the deep frontier, but you are likely to get confronted by a full alien warfleet that is strong enough to fight against the Red Big Two head-on! It takes special means to track down a phase whale."

"Are you able to teach that in your Frontier Wisdom course?"

Ves immediately shook his head. "Hell no. The Red Big Two would have bought the secrets from me if I have any. The truth is that my expeditionary fleet never set out to seek them in the first place. We Just stumbled upon them by coincidence."

"Three times."

"I just have the worst luck."

"If you say so." Miss Striker said with a coy smile. "It is not a great loss if you cannot teach your students how to better track them down. You can still satisfy their curiosity by giving them tips on how to trap and defeat the phase whales. Our first-class mechs are powerful, but the powerful aliens are known to possess many strange methods due to their great mastery in spatial manipulation."

"That is why you can never beat a phase whale if you approach one from a distance. You can only ever take it by surprise and preferably when it is fixed to a single location."

"Now that is exactly the sort of lesson that you should teach to your next batch of students."

The two talked a bit more about the contents of Ves\' future courses. They not only talked about his Frontier Wisdom course, but also touched upon his other ones.

The projection of Alexa Striker leaned forward a bit. "Your living mechs have grown stronger, haven\'t they? Are they responding well to M87\'s exotic radiation? It appears that you are among the mech designers that have derived much greater benefits from the Great Severing than others." Ves sensed an unusual amount of Interest from the Terran Apprentice Mech Designer.

"Only a few days have passed, Miss Striker. It is way too premature to judge which mech designer can harvest the most gains from the changing times."

"Have you not listened to the reactions from your own customer base? Many mech pilots that have been using your living mechs on a daily basis have already begun to share their discoveries! Many of them have not only reported that their mechs have become even more intelligent and responsive than before, but that their glows and special characteristics have become noticeably stronger than before."

The young woman waved her hand and projected a few recorded footage.

It showed a Valkyrie Redeemer that was able to scare the pilot of a mercenary mech into paralysis.

It showed how an unruly mob of rioters who were angry about the bankruptcy of a company with deep ties to the old galaxy became passive after the appearance of a single Pacifier.

It showed how the Huntmaster was able to cow several powerful exobeasts into submission.

It showed how the Bright Boy was able to debilitate other mech pilots at a distance.

It even showed how a Monster Slayer was able to cut through the armor of a tough mech in a mech arena when it clearly lacked the power to accomplish this with ease!

Ves curiously observed all of the recent footage. He had to admit that he had become distracted by other affairs to take a good look at how M87\'s exotic radiation Impacted his products in the short-term.

It was partially why he was so eager to set off his expedition. He wanted to see all of his Larkinson mechs in action and track their changes in actual battle.

"You have done your homework." Ves stated with mild surprise. First-class mech designers were much smarter and more thorough than their second-class counterparts! "That last mech is not my work, by the way. The Monster Slayer is the solo work of my former student. I taught her a few lessons about living mechs, but she is committed to her own design philosophy."

That caused Alexa Striker to grow more enthused. "That is good news. The work of a student partially reflects the ability of the teacher. Will you be able to help other mech design students produce similar works in your Introduction to Living Mech Design course?"

Ves scratched his head. "I would not say that. Ketis Larkinson only managed to learn a bit of the essence of living mechs after spending lots of time with them. It is really difficult to acquire the most essential requirements to make them. Let me be honest with you, Miss Striker. I do not expect any of the students of my class to learn the art of designing living mechs after completing a single course of mine. It is impossible for them to do so unless I tutor them on an individual basis. I think the only other way they can pick up my teachings faster is if I advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer."

The woman looked crushed. "Is that so? I... already had an understanding that it is fiendishly difficult to pass on Class IX design philosophies. It will likely take many decades for you to realize your own. That is too much time. The Age of Dawn has Just begun, and the mech Industry is certain to go through a period of accelerated technological transitions. All evidence so far indicates that living mechs are on the rise, so it is greatly beneficial to Join this trend early."

Ves raised his eyebrow as he leaned back on his chair. The signal that she was transmitting couldn\'t be more clear.

"Miss Striker... are you Interested in my design philosophy?"

The woman did not deny the obvious. "I am. I would like to learn from you if possible, Professor Larklnson. My initial Interest in your work is the reason why I applied to be your assistant. I continued to do my research and investigated your design philosophy in detail ever since. It was not until the Age of Dawn began that I made up my mind. As far as I understand, your living mech concept is not only becoming stronger in reality due to its high synergy with E energy radiation, but its effectiveness is also Invariant to the tech class of mechs. Your design philosophy is equally as effective on third-class mechs and first-class mechs, is that correct?"

"I wouldn\'t say that." Ves cautiously replied. "First-class mechs operate on an entirely different set of rules. In addition to that, I have never designed a first-class mech in my life, so I have no idea whether my design philosophy is still relevant in this scene."

"You are being overly cautious in your answer. My personal understanding is that your design philosophy has great potential even for Terran mechs such as ours. I believe in your work, professor. I could have chosen to specialize in many other fields, but none of them interest me as much because my work would largely be redundant in the end. Too many mech designers have already explored the many possible methods on how to strengthen armor systems, weapon systems and so on. Only a new and original concept such as living mechs offers a large variety of untapped research!"

Ves took the Terran mech designer a lot more seriously after this. He could hear her earnest passion for living mechs. He also recognized the familiar desire to innovate.

Perhaps she might not be as impulsive as he thought.

Still, he needed to remain cautious. The Terrans were far too powerful for him right now. He really could not afford to mess around with them. Ves did not want to make any powerful new enemies during this sensitive time period!

He sighed. "If you want to learn a thing or two about my living mechs, you can attend my Introduction to Living Mech Design course if you want. I will even give you extra lessons in order to help you perform your duties better. You can tell me whether you are still willing to learn from me after the semester is over."

"Thank you for giving me a chance, professor." The blond woman responded with an enthusiastic smile. "I have a few suggestions about how you can better teach this course. Since it is helpful to expose your students to real living mechs, I will suggest the school administration to obtain a handful of copies of each of your existing products that are on sale. We should strive to complete our collection as much as possible, so I will see if we can procure copies of your famous Hexer mech models as well."

"Uhhh... you\'re talking about a lot of mechs, Miss Striker."

"You do not need to be concerned. Each mech only costs a few MTA credits at most. Even when you add the cost of shipping to the total bill, these expenditures will not even make a serious dent on the teaching budget allocated to this course."