The Mech Touch

Ves paid a visit to the base of the Avatars of Myth. Few mech pilots were lounging about. Instead, they disappeared into their mechs or simulator pods and poured their hearts and souls into training!

How could they continue to take it easy when Jannzi Larkinson, a young mech pilot fresh out of the mech academy, underwent a highly improbable breakthrough to expert candidate!

One of their own ascended from the ranks of mortals and took her first step onto godhood! Jannzi had only been an Avatar for a scant few months, but already she shed her role of emulating a mythical being into becoming one herself!

How could this incredibly fortunate example not inspire the remainder of the Avatars into a frenzy?!

Aside from that, everyone heard about Jannziʼs close connection to the Shield of Samar. Melkor told Ves all the details when all the Larkinsons on Cloudy Curtain met in the Avatar Commanderʼs office.

”The men and women of the Avatars of Myth have developed the belief that your mechs can help them turn into expert candidates. Even though there is only a sample size of one so far, Jannziʼs circumstances during her breakthrough are very remarkable. Aside from being a Larkinson and paired with a mech that is practically tailored for her use, the rest of her background made a quick advancement extremely unlikely.”

Mech pilots fresh out of the academy just donʼt advance to expert candidate after a single show match.” Rhode Larkinson added with a hint of incredulity. ”You need to accumulate at least some battle experience to get a realistic chance of becoming an expert candidate.”

All the other Larkinson expert pilots that popped up over the years all broke through under arduous combat. Each of them faced tough opponents and put their lives on the line, forcing them to sum up every scrap of ability before they ultimately broke through an invisible barrier in order to achieve even greater performance!

Having heard from both Melkor and Rhode, Ves turned to Chette. ”What about you? What do you think?”

Chette was the oldest Larkinson mech pilot among the three little chicks. Well, Ves supposed he should call them two little chicks now. One of their own had suddenly evolved from a plain juvenile chicken into a majestic young phoenix!

”A lot of us Larkinsons dream of becoming expert pilots. You know that, Ves. Yet even though the family boasts hundreds of active mech pilots, less than ten have managed to take the next step. The odds that we can follow in Jannziʼs footsteps arenʼt all that big. If it happens to me one day, Iʼd be ecstatic, but if not Iʼll just live my life as a normal Larkinson.”

”Thatʼs a very sober outlook to take.” Ves nodded to Chette in appreciation. ”While thereʼs nothing wrong with harboring some ambitions, donʼt put too much stock in my abilities. Iʼm not a sorcerer who can simply wave my hand and turn you all into expert candidates. Jannziʼs example is a very clear outlier that likely wonʼt be repeated.”

He was being a little disingenuous here. Ves knew more than anyone how expert candidates emerged! Not only that, but he also possessed the tools to replicate the feat!

However, for a second expert candidate to emerge from the ranks of the Avatars of Myth was too conspicuous. Once may be coincidence, but to have something incredible like that happen again in a short time would definitely attract a lot of attention from some very high places!

Nonetheless, was it really so bad if people began to associate his mechs with an increased chance of advancing to a higher form of life?

Even if Ves did nothing to encourage this phenomenon, the remarkable X-Factor of his mechs would do the job for him. As long as the mech pilots became aligned with the X-Factor of their machines and earned the favor of their design spirits, their chances of breaking through would definitely increase!

This effect should be most pronounced when the mechs they piloted came from designs with A-grade X-Factor or higher!

For now, Ves did not think he could reproduce an A-grade X-Factor without resorting to extraordinary means. Without the aid of something as powerful and benevolent as Qilanxoʼs spiritual fragment, his customers shouldnʼt transform into expert candidates anytime soon.

Still, considering he was facing family, Ves decided to throw them a bone to chew on for a while.

”I donʼt want to dash your hopes. Maybe youʼll achieve something similar one day.” Ves said to his cousins. ”I will share some of the same advice to you that I gave Jannzi just before she deployed on that fateful day. What do my company and my mechs stand for? What is most remarkable about each of my products?”

”Living Mechs. Partners for Life.”

”Youʼre just parroting the company motto, Melkor.”

”I know the meaning, Ves. I havenʼt attended all of those company events for nothing.” Melkor frowned. ”Your mechs are supposed to be valued partners to mech pilots. Treat them right, and they will treat you better. Thatʼs the idea behind your mechs, right?”

”Correct. However, few people truly embody that ideal. You all have a tendency to regard your mechs as cold machines or lifeless tools, right? What if I tell you that Jannzi firmly rejected that stance. What if I tell you that Jannzi put her faith in my ideology and earnestly tried to bond with her mech?”

That put the three Larkinson mech pilots in Melkorʼs office into deep thought. Staying at the Mech Nursery for a few months taught them all about the LMCʼs beliefs. Yet that did not necessarily mean they took them literally.

Perhaps only now that Ves directly connected Jannziʼs lucky break with the companyʼs ideals did Melkor, Chette and Rhode begin to take them seriously.

Maybe Ves was really on to something here!

”Iʼll let you guys figure out the rest yourself.” Ves shrugged. He only wanted to give them a push in the right direction but not much more. ”I can only promise you that as long as you stay in the Avatars of Myth, you will be in the best possible place to follow in Jannziʼs footsteps. Melkor, what is the founding principle of the Avatars of Myth?”

”The Avatars of Myth are meant to showcase your mechs.” Melkor replied. ”Our name comes from your aspiration to have our mech pilots exhibit the full potential of your mechs. Each time we pilot our mechs, we become avatars for the incredible machines that are inspired by beings of myth!”

Ves smiled. ”Exactly! The avatar component in the name of my personal mech troop refers to mech pilots such as you and Jannzi. The definition of an avatar is a manifestation of a mythical godlike being. While that generally means that you are only able to emulate a god, perhaps youʼll be able to learn from the experience. The key is the Myth component of the name.”

A light shone in Melkorʼs eyes, not that everyone saw it due to his annoying habit of covering his upper face with an opaque visor.

”I see now. You are saying that the key to being an Avatar is to understand the myths we are meant to embody. Thatʼs what you intended from the start when you decided upon the name, right?”

”Correct.” Ves nodded. ”As you all know, I hold some very unusual and eccentric beliefs with regard to the relationship between mechs and their mech pilots. You can review all of the LMCʼs reading materials if you want to refresh your understanding on them. Suffice to say, I donʼt just design a mech as a functional product. Instead, I get inspired by great beings and figures of myth. If no convenient examples are within my reach, I just let my imagination get the best of me. You can say that my mech designs each have the shadow of a mythical being behind them. What Jannzi understood that you do not is that there may be some benefits to opening yourself up to this shadow.”

After passing on his words of advice, Ves left his relatives to stew on them. Even though he didnʼt think they would be able to advance from his lessons, he at least expected them to perform significantly better. His mechs had always been designed to perform at their best when their mech pilots believed in them. As the most prominent members of the Avatars of Myth, his Larkinson cousins should lead by example!

”The Avatars of Myth do not yet live up to their name.” Ves shook his head in regret. ”It will take a lot of time for Melkor to build up their ranks and for me to supply them all with my own mech models.”

Perhaps a few years earlier, Ves would be content with fielding only one or two mech companies. Now that he advanced to Journeyman, he knew it was not enough to keep up with his growing ambitions.

”All of that takes time.”

Speaking of time, Ves already had his hands full with tasks to occupy his time. Before he embarked on designing his fifth original mech design, he needed to fulfill the promises made by his company.

After Gavin arranged the LMC to renegotiate the sales contracts, he managed to postpone the promised delivery of fifteen gold label Aurora Titans in exchange for Ves adding a little something extra to the machines!

”We had to work hard to get some of the more stubborn ones to loosen their stance.” Gavin said as Ves returned to his office.

”I hope you havenʼt promised too much.”

”Itʼs fine, boss. As long as you make their mechs look unique from every other gold label Aurora Titan, theyʼll be content. I know enough about your design style that making cosmetic changes to your mechs is as easy as pie for you. You can do it, right?”

”No problem. Art is in my blood. Itʼs really no problem for me to dress up my Aurora Titans in a different coat.”

Perhaps other mech designers would have some objection to trying to develop fifteen unique looks for a single mech model, but Ves possessed a very creative mind.

While he preferred to think that he inherited his active imagination from his mother, the truth was that all the Creativity Attribute Candies he ingested supercharged his imagination. Ever since he bumped his Creativity to practically inhuman levels, he never worried about running out of ideas!

After he finished checking with Gavin about the LMCʼs daily business, Ves decided to pull up his sleeves and go to work.

Over the next thirteen days, Ves, Ketis and a dedicated crew of mech technicians labored hard to pump out five excellent gold label mechs.

Although Ves rushed the fabrication process, he still worked meticulously enough to ensure the mechs equaled the condition of the show models when they first rolled off the production lines.

With the production of five new gold label Aurora Titans, ten of them existed in total now!

Ves gifted the Shield of Samar to Jannzi while putting the other four show models at Professor Ventagʼs disposal. The delivery of these five new mechs should ensure that a small but decent sample of gold label Aurora Titans showed up in the wild!

Some of the lucky clients who obtained the first batch of gold label Aurora Titans bought them to show them off to the public. One notable client that Ves prioritized highly happened to be the Bentheim branch of Bosworthʼs, one of the most renowned mech show room operators in the star sector!

Bosworthʼs was like a museum for notable mechs! For them to decide to place a gold label Aurora Titan on display was a massive honor to Ves!

”With all of the foot traffic that Bosworthʼs attracts each year, millions of people will be able to experience one of my best works up close!”

Projections of his mechs simply didnʼt cut it. People had to witness his mechs in person to experience their full splendor!

”Infatuation is great for sales!”

After all, if customers became infatuated, they wouldnʼt hesitate so much when deciding to purchase a product. To Ves, they were pretty much suckers fooled into impulse buying one of his products!