The Mech Touch novel Chapter 13

The Skill Tree featured a virtually endless amount of skills. With enough Design Points, Ves could become the ultimate mech designer, capable of drafting a complete design in minutes with his left hand while pointing out the faults of someone’s else work with his right hand. Naturally, Ves lived in a world where time and resources were finite, so he didn’t delude himself into thinking he’d ever reach that point in his lifetime.

For all its merits, the Mech Designer System represented an incomprehensible piece of technology. Sometimes Ves felt as if reality itself bent to its whims. He didn’t know how sapient the program was or how it determined its own limits. If one day the System’s sophisticated AI turned crazy, entire star systems might get embroiled into war.

The System in fact always addressed him as a user, not an owner. It acted as if Ves was just one client who conveniently picked it on the ground. If Ves’ father hadn’t given him the data chip, the System might have found a way to get its chip transported to some other person with the traits it preferred. This insecurity made Ves question if the System was using him rather than the other way around.

Certainly the System didn’t work for free. Some powerful entity had gone through the trouble of designing a reality-bending software working on principles at least a thousand years beyond humanity’s grasp, and somehow it ended up in an average person’s hands. And it was a question whether the System will stay in that person’s grasp for long.

For all Ves knew, the System only treated him as a train. Once it reached its destination, it would leave without a word.

So Ves felt the need to milk the System while he still could. So despite all his doubts and questions, he still skimmed over the Skill Tree and made a shopping list of skills he needed to tackle the redesign of the Caesar Augustus.

[Assembly - Upgrade to Apprentice]: 1000 DP

[Assembler Proficiency I]: 200 DP

[Assembler Proficiency II]: 400 DP

[3D Printer Proficiency II]: 400 DP

[Jury Rigging II]: 300 DP

[Electrical Engineering - Incompetent]: 200 DP

[Electrical Engineering - Novice]: 500 DP

[Electrical Engineering - Apprentice]: 1000 DP

[Mediumweight Armor Optimization I]: 300 DP

These were the absolute minimum required to produce or to redesign a Caesar Augustus. Ves needed to become much more familiar with the tools in his workshop in order to fabricate the CA-1’s notoriously delicate components and put them together. And if he wanted to redesign the mech to make it easier to produce, then he needed to become proficient in electrical engineering pretty fast.

Since Ves was attempting to fabricate a stock CA-1 in Iron Spirit, he felt he should make a start on a purchase. He picked the cheapest option in the list and bought it immediately.

[You have spent 200 DP to acquire Assembler Proficiency I. Please view your Status in order to confirm your skills.]

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Novice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 98

Attributes

Strength: 0.7

Dexterity: 0.7

Endurance: 0.6

Intelligence: 1.2

Creativity: 1

Concentration: 1

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly]: Novice - [3D Printer Proficiency I] [Assembler Proficiency I]

[Business]: Apprentice

[Computer Science]: Incompetent

[Mathematics]: Incompetent

[Mechanics]: Apprentice - [Jury Rigging I] [Speed Tuning I]

[Metallurgy]: Apprentice

[Physics]: Novice - [Lightweight Armor Optimization I]

Fabrication technology advanced since that time, and now that the armor’s formula became semi-public knowledge with the release of the CA-1’s licensing options, all modern 3D printers could reproduce it as long as they weren’t too cheap.

The Caesar Augustus required a large amount of plating for a medium mech. The large, bulky sword and shield also added to its total weight, almost pushing the mech into the heavy weight class.

The production of the plates came with its own challenges. Due to Ves’ inexperience, some of its armor plates came out of the 3D printer with higher than normal stress or other issues. If the virtual 3D printer wasn’t so good, Ves might get stuck with a number of half-failed plates. _{freёwebnovel.com}

"Damn." Ves sighed as he finally finished producing all of the CA-1’s components. "This is more tiring than I thought. There’s a world of difference between 1-star and 5-star mechs. Hundreds of years of technological progress only made things harder to build. I really miss the simple Fantasia."

The challenges he faced with this step alone broadened his vision of what mechs were capable of. Working on a near-modern mech meant for elites taught Ves what this target segment looked for in a war machine.

"An elite mech has to meet different requirements than regular frontline mechs. They pack as much armor and punch as possible in a reasonably mobile package. Energy efficiency isn’t necessarily a problem when you can swap fuel or energy cells from a support group on the field."

Jason wasn’t wrong to design the CA-1 along those lines. He just went a little bit too far with it. Competing mechs could do almost everything the Caesar Augustus could do, but lasted a little longer in the field. Sometimes that extra time counted, so procurers wanted to be safe than sorry by picking the less exaggerated choice. The Caesar Augustus was also a bitch to maintain in a chaotic battlefield, so generally only wealthy ace pilots who cared a lot about peak performance bought the models.

"Next up, assembly."

To assemble the mech from scratch, Ves first put together the frame. The parts that composed the mech’s skeleton were built to be big and robust, so Ves easily got to practice his enhanced assembler sub-skill without much risk. The skill improved his ability to manipulate the lifters and arms that composed the assembler module. The parts that he wanted frozen stayed still, while the parts he wanted moved got shifted around just enough but no further.

As Ves already assembled the power reactor and engine by hand, he only needed to place them delicately in the slotted areas of the frame.

After that, Ves added the other components and systems that made up the functionality of the mech. The biggest piece was the cockpit, followed by the energy storage unit that stored the replaceable energy cells. All the smaller systems followed, such as the sensors and boosters.

Finally Ves reached the most troublesome stage. All of the components had been installed on the mech, but they remained isolated to each other. Ves had to connect each of them together in a mish-mash of cables and pipes. In between these relatively delicate components, Ves also had to squeeze in a lot of artificial muscles. Sometimes that led to very tight fits.

The work tested Ves the utmost. He screwed up many times, having to remove the cabling and do the placement all over again. Sometimes he had to cram a bundle of cables through a narrow opening between pipes by force. The stress and frustration caused Ves to slip his fingers sometimes, causing unforgivable mistakes in the assembly.

After a nerve-wracking day of playing plumber, Ves finally reached the end stage of the assembly. He spent a much more leisurely time putting the armor plates together. Sometimes the improper cabling caused the plates to fail to adhere in its position. Ves sometimes had to hammer the problem areas lightly in order to cram the pieces of armor in their place. It proved the parts he fabricated were of substandard quality.

"It’s finally done." Ves said as he sprawled on the ground in exhaustion. The diagnostics and debugging still ran in the background, but Iron Spirit took care of most of the issues that popped up at this stage.

"What do you think, System? Did I do a decent job? Why aren’t you giving me an evaluation yet?"

[The Mech Designer System only evaluates designs, not copies. Since you are not the designer of the Caesar Augustus CA-1, you will not earn any Design Points even if you manufacture it a thousand times. Please work hard and make your own designs.]

That made sense. The System didn’t want to bring up a technician or a factory supervisor. The main job of a mech designer was to make designs. The act of fabricating a mech in person was only done in order to understand the mech better or to ensure its quality.

Ves could only rely on the numbers given by Iron Spirit in judging how well he built his first Caesar Augustus. And from what he read so far, the news wasn’t looking good.