The Mech Touch - Chapter 6816 First-Class Recruitment
After settling matters with Zanthar Larkinson, Ves met up with his wife later on to discuss how they should treat the new Journeyman.
“Meow~” Lucky swished his tail in contentment as Gloriana lovingly scratched him on the head.
His archemetal exterior felt abnormally warm and soft to her touch.
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Gloriana had taken a liking for Lucky. His naughty personality reminded her of Ves, and his archemetal body frequently granted her inspiration on how to improve and develop her mastery of archetech.
As the mother continued to pamper the gem cat, she voiced her own opinion towards Zanthar.
“His design philosophy is too narrow. I mean, he has the potential to become as good as Lord Richard Brownstone, but his repertoire is too small for the time being. I have studied his private mech designs and his work is far below the standard that I expect from a second-class Journeyman Mech Designer. He needs to study a large amount of textbooks and design at least half-a-dozen mechs all by himself before I can even consider the idea of putting him in charge of a serious design project.”
Her verdict sounded harsh, but Ves knew it was fair. His own evaluation of Zanthar was not that different.
“Zanthar is not as talented as the Journeyman Mech Designers that we have recruited over the past few years.” Ves shared his own opinion. “I have given him a good amount of tutoring and granted him access to a lot of learning resources. His conditions are far better than many other second-class mech designers. While he has managed to come up with an invention that has the potential to revolutionize combat against shielded enemies, the practicality and effectiveness of his FadeBurst Rounds are too poor to be of use. He has nothing else aside from this. If he participates in a mech design contest, he would be the kind of person who will earn a below average score and be completely forgotten by the audience.”
He had taught Zanthar for years. Even if he largely took a hands-off approach and gave Zanthar enough space to decide his own curriculum and specialization, Ves did not neglect his student entirely.
As far as he was concerned, neither Maikel nor Zanthar could come close to Alexa Streon in terms of talent, potential, judgment and competence.
Zanthar’s unusual choice to form a design philosophy around special munitions of all choices also made it difficult for him to make a lot of achievements in the future.
However, that did not mean Ves was ready to write Zanthar off. Ketis was no genius or prodigy either, but she believed in her own conviction and vision of mechs so much that she had found success by establishing her own niche as a Journeyman Mech Designer.
Although Ketis was a lot more famous for being a swordmaster these days, her mech designs were truly useful and powerful enough to earn the adoration of the Swordmaidens.
Ves had a feeling that as long as Zanthar did not give up and continued to pursue his original vision, he may one day become a Journeyman Mech Designer like Ketis or maybe even Ves.
Their success did not rely on excellent skills or designing mechs that were nearly devoid of flaws.
Instead, their kind derived their success by opening up new markets for innovative mechs that did not exist in the past.
Why bother competing against existing mechs when they could just find an unoccupied corner and sell their own unique mechs?
Even if their products possessed obvious shortcomings, as long as their value proposition was strong enough, people would still buy them in droves!
“I think Zanthar has a bright future ahead of him, but it will take time for him to reach that point.” Ves judged. “I am proud of what he has accomplished so far. His proof of concept is already innovative enough to attract further investment. It is a pity that the gap between an experimental prototype and a competitive product is too wide. I have no idea how much Zanthar will struggle to bridge this divide.”
Gloriana smiled as she caressed Lucky’s back. “I do not think it will take as long as you think. You are still thinking about the outdated metrics of the Age of Mechs. We are in the Age of Dawn. Zanthar not only enjoyed the benefits of auxiliary qi cultivation, but also had a weekly quota of 16 hours with the SF-02. You told me earlier that the smart AIs helped him achieve his breakthrough. I think that the assistance of Polly can continue to accelerate his research.”
She was right. Ves felt grateful for this reminder. Red humans were destined to progress a lot faster than original humans. Exotic radiation made such a great difference that the two branches of humanity were bound to diverge further over time.
Perhaps the differences would grow so great in the future that red humans could constitute its own separate species.
This was similar to how primordial humanity was so unfathomably more powerful than original humanity that it was hard to think they were related!
“Zanthar is far from the only mech designer that is taking advantage of E energy radiation.” Ves responded. “He may be able to progress faster in this environment, but his rivals and competitors are not slowing down. I have been noticing that many of the other Journeymen are making a lot of progress in their own time.”
His wife nodded even as she began to rock Lucky like he was her baby.
“The Journeymen that you have recruited over the years are truly superior stock. They are all ambitious and unwilling to get left in our dust. Beatrice Hendrix, Viktor MacMillan, Harry Kaikkonen and Adrien Marceau have particularly impressed me with their work and rate of improvement. While I do not think that they will advance to the rank of Senior Mech Designer anytime soon, I would not be surprised if they do in the next 5 to 10 years.”
That sounded really good. Not everyone could be measured by the insane standards set by the Polymath. Becoming a Senior Mech Designer at around 50 to 70 years old was commendable.
“Alexa Streon and Kelsey Ampatoch are much better than them due to their Terran or Rubarthan backgrounds.” Ves felt obliged to mention. “They are already undertaking far greater responsibilities. We should focus on recruiting additional first-class mech designers, but not too many at once. I don’t want to give the second-raters the impression that I am trying to replace them as if they are obsolete mechs.”
“Meow meow~”
Lucky stretched his body and limbs, granting Gloriana a chance to rub his belly.
The female mech designer frowned in thought.
“Now that you mention it, I have already tasked our recruiters to take a close look at the applications we have received from first-class mech designers. If the need is great, I can accept the most promising applications right away. I have been holding off on this decision because the arrival of so many superior mech designers may cause unwanted division. Alexa and Kelsey are too oppressive towards second-raters, you know that? They naturally exude their superiority and their productivity is so much higher that they can drive a second-class mech designer to despair.”
The arrival of the SF-02 significantly eased the pressure on the Design Department, but it did not solve every problem.
The Design Department still needed to increase its output of mech designs.
The demand for both original designs and variant designs was growing with every passing year.
The consequences for failing to address this problem were severe.
Expert pilots and ace pilots may be forced to wait for two years before they received stronger machines that matched their strength.
Norms that couldn’t wait to become Carmine mech pilots had to wait for multiple years until the LMC released a Carmine mech design that catered to their interests and budget.
The loyal customers who fell in love with old LMC mechs from the previous generation may be forced to switch to third-party mechs because the lack of modern updates increasingly put their lives at greater risk.
These reasons and more all demanded an expansion to the Design Department.
“I am looking into recruiting a batch of first-class mech designers from all three colonial alliances.” Gloriana said. “Right now, I am closely studying the applications from Terran mech designers who graduated from the Eden Institute of Business & Technology. The ones who attended your classes in the past few years should find it much easier to integrate into our clan and make meaningful contributions to our mech design project. Who knows, they may even be able to design living mechs like Ketis and I. That will allow us to work on more living mech designs at the same time.”
This was a good solution. Ves had not been as attentive when it came to fulfilling his teaching duties, but there were certain Terran mech design students that had managed to catch his interest or impressed him during the previous semesters.
If they were open to joining the Larkinson Clan, then Ves would definitely welcome these Terrans!
“That is a good idea, Gloriana. It doesn’t matter if you play favorites and make the Rubarthans upset somehow. Competence is more important than hurting other people’s feelings. Living mechs has always been a signature of our clan and mech company. It doesn’t make any sense to publish mech designs under our label that aren’t alive. I can’t work on so many projects at the same time, so the best way to increase our Design Department’s ‘bandwidth’ without stretching myself thin is to make progress in this area.”
“This would be so much easier if you are able to realize your design philosophy.” She said. “How much progress have you made?”
Ves thought on how he should answer this question, knowing that his wife was extremely sensitive to any perception that she was falling behind.
“Not that much, I think. I am not standing still. The Arboreal Project that is centered around Woodsap mechs should be the first step towards becoming a Master Mech Designer. The Hunting Association does not appear to be in a hurry to cooperate with me on designing a Mergewater mech. I still have no idea what I should design as my first Bloodfire mech. I am also too busy and short on time to work on my Polymetal mech. I have even less ideas about Elemental Carmine mechs based on the earth element.”
His wife stared at him with unreadable eyes. She even ceased to pet Lucky, which elicited a complaint from Lucky.
“Meow!”
“It sounds to me that you urgently require more manpower to share your burden.” She eventually said. “You are only one Senior Mech Designer, and you do not even have the benefit of a cranial augment suite that is empowered by Mentalist Crystal fragments.”
“That is why I need the help of more mech designers like Alexa Streon. Let’s start with screening the Terran mech designers first. They are already so close that it shouldn’t take more than a week to interview them and test whether they have what it takes to become our next assistants and maybe even peers.”
Gloriana remained still for a few seconds before she slowly nodded. “I shall take care of it. I am thinking about recruiting 3 Terran mech designers. It is not difficult to recruit more, but I am afraid that absorbing any more at the same time will result in too much tension among our current workforce.”
Recruiting 3 mech designers did not sound like much, but it was a different story if they were highly competent first-raters.
They could make a huge difference once they settled into the Larkinson Clan and began their work in earnest!
Due to their excellent education, they required minimal study and training to become useful to the Design Department!
“If you think that is a good number, then go for it, Gloriana. I trust your judgment.”
