The Mech Touch

The Monster Slayer did not stand out in terms of performance.

Its specifications were rather mediocre when compared to the prevailing competition in the Red Ocean's mech market.

It was not the strongest, fastest, toughest, most agile or even the most cost-efficient landbound swordsman mech model available.

However, the Monster Slayer nonetheless possessed advantages that could not easily be replicated by the competition.

"If I have to summarize the configuration of my Monster Slayer, then I would say that it is a balanced swordsman mech with an emphasis on mobility." She told everyone. "I designed it so that it is more forgiving to control. By lowering the skill floor, it is easier for beginner mech pilots to pilot my work effectively. Its relatively fast reaction speed and good agility allows it to jump away and move aside with greater efficiency, thereby offering my mech a safety net when locked into melee combat."

This was a configuration that was suited for limited circumstances. Considering that Ketis primarily dedicated it to arena combat, there was no problem with specializing it to this extent.

Everyone could see that the Monster Slayer would have a harder time fighting against ranged mechs and aerial mechs, but the mech wasn't really designed for these scenarios in the first place.

For this design, Ketis solely focused on maximizing its chances when fighting against other melee mechs!

Whether it entered into a duel or a group match, the Monster Slayer could fight against a variety of melee mechs and vanquish all of them as long as the mech pilot utilized its capabilities properly!

Ketis smirked as she stood in front of her first completed passion project. "Don't let the low skill floor mislead you into thinking that my Monster Slayer is only appropriate for newbies. While it is true that my mech is partially designed to help lesser-skilled mech pilots become more proficient in wielding greatswords, its reliance on controlled movements can bring it much further. Top swordsman mech pilots such as Venerable Dise and Venerable Imon Ingvar can utilize its understated capabilities to defeat melee mechs that are five times or even ten times as expensive without exceeding the Monster Slayer's limits!"

She purposely designed it this way to pay tribute to her unforgettable 'duel' against the monstrosity a cultist from the Hallowed Abyss Temple had turned himself into. She had dreamed about realizing a swordsman mech that could win leapfrog battles for years, and now she had finally turned it into a reality!

It did not matter that she failed to turn the first Monster Slayer she built into a masterwork mech. Only an obsessive mech designer such as Ves and Gloriana fixated on that. Ketis cared much more about expanding her own body of work.

Compared to Ves who had led dozens of mech design projects and earned the most of credit for most of them, Ketis embarrassingly came up short in this aspect!

She was an anomalous Journeyman who advanced way before she went serious with publishing her own work. Even the First Sword which she earned the most credit for was not entirely her work.

The completion and the impending release of the Monster Slayer relieved the pressure that was pressing on her shoulders for a long time. She finally took a solid step forward in her career as a mech designer now that she was ready to publish her first true commercial mech design!

"How much does it cost to produce a Monster Slayer?" Ves asked.

"That depends." Ketis replied. "The price of raw materials is inconsistent. My Monster Slayer is designed to be a more affordable mech. I refrained from including any bells and whistles in my design and I did my best to incorporate less flashy and more economical parts in my design. My target is to limit the production cost to 1.4 MTA credits, but it is not entirely possible to produce the mech that cheaply in every zone. The good news is that we don't have to worry about this problem. It's the job of the Wild Fighter Association to arrange the logistics and produce the mechs themselves."

That was part of the deal that Ketis and the Larkinson Clan originally struck with the Wild Fighter Association. The Monster Slayer design was essentially a commission. Once the final results fell into the fighting club's hands, it was up to their people to derive as much profit as possible.

The Larkinsons didn't have to do anything. They could just sit back and relax and wait for the Wild Fighter Association to pay royalties to the tune of several million hex credits per sale.

Although the share of profits was rather low, the Wild Fighter Association agreed to do all of the heavy lifting. It was only right that they harvested the bulk of the earnings.

What Ves truly cared about was not the modest profits that the Larkinson Clan could earn from this business deal.

The true value of this business deal was to form a closer relationship with the Wild Fighter Association.

As long as their initial cooperation succeeded, the Larkinson Clan could propose follow-up deals that had the potential to earn ten times as much earnings!

Furthermore, the Larkinson Clan would also gain more access to the Wild Fighter Association's rich network of business partners and strategic partners!

Of course, the Larkinsons had to be careful when navigating this relationship. The Wild Fighters had their own share of enemies and Ves did not want to get entangled by their problems.

As Ketis continued to explain the virtues of her Monster Slayer, she finally addressed the most special points of her work.

"First, as you are probably aware, my fundamental design philosophy focuses on sharpness. While the Monster Slayer's default armament is not particularly strong or powerful, it is a relatively affordable weapon that is nonetheless sharper than normal. It is able to cut through tougher and more expensive materials without costing a fortune to repair or replace. This advantage gives my Monster Slayer the capital to defeat superior mechs, especially those that rely on superior defenses to stay in the fight."

This was also a way to make up for the shortcoming of insufficient physical might. The Monster Slayer did not have to apply as much force in order to penetrate through armor.

Of course, an enemy mech wouldn't allow itself to get cut so easily. The Monster Slayer's mech pilot still needed to rely on clever positioning and maneuvering to gain the upper hand in a duel.

"Aside from the excellent cutting power of its greatsword, my Monster Slayer also stands out due to another advantage. I have successfully found a way to turn it into a training mech similar to our Chiron model that has guided many of our mech cadets. The exact mechanics are too complicated for me to explain, but just know that each of Monster Slayer mechs are able to help mech pilots become skilled in utilizing the foundational greatsword style that I have compiled for this design."

While Ketis briefly elaborated what she meant by that, Ves carefully studied the finished Monster Slayer for clues on how she managed to turn it into a training mech.

In the case of the highly-successful Chiron training mech, Ves had shaped its spiritual programming to develop a personality that actively taught its users on how to master the various skills related to mech piloting.

While it was easy enough for Ves to program such a feature, the key to making this work was to provide his Chiron mechs with access to teaching materials.

Ves managed to pull this off by using the Larkinson Network as a database of skills and experiences!

There were so many skilled and veteran mech pilots connected to the Golden Cat that she could effectively function as a repository for all of the best skills in the clan!

Sharing them directly to mech pilots was extremely difficult, though. The existence of the Chiron served as a channel that could regulate and control the flow of information so that the pilots always received the right lessons at their stage of development.

As Ves scoured the Monster Slayer mech with his spiritual senses, he soon figured out how Ketis managed to achieve a similar result.

She found her own way to imprint her will and swordsmanship in her mech design. The spiritual foundation of the Monster Slayer possessed a solid core that carried an echo of Sharpie's qualities!

It was not the same as connecting the Monster Slayer design to a design spirit, but Ves was able to tell that Ketis had clearly taken inspiration from his approach.

She was able to derive her own methods from his work and came up with a way to 'program' a swordsmanship style to her own mech design!

This was quite impressive! Even though it seemed that the Monster Slayer's capacity was too small to store a lot of swordsmanship comprehension, just the basics were more than enough to point beginner mech pilots in the right direction!

The Monster Slayer was not a proper living mech, though. Compared to his own work, Ketis fell far behind in terms of making her mechs alive.

In fact, just like Gloriana, she wasn't really able to make her mechs alive in the truest sense of the word.

However, that wasn't strictly necessary as long as Ketis was able to make up for it in other ways. Her ability to imbue her mech designs with her own swordsmanship definitely qualified!

"According to my own classification, a normal Monster Slayer mech is equivalent to a first-order living mech." Ves concluded.

This was already a better result than what the overwhelming majority of mech designers could accomplish in their lives!

Everyone else was completely ignorant about the potential for their mechs to become alive. Once they figured out that it was possible and learned his basic method, it should not be difficult to bestow a hint of life in their own work.

Ketis was much better off in this regard. Not only did she receive numerous lessons from him over the years, she also gained a more profound understanding of his unique perspective whenever they collaborated with each other or connected their minds to each other with the help of a design network.

Blinky and Alexandria's design networks were particularly effective at helping Ketis get started! She knew what she needed to pay attention to and gained a more direct impression on how Ves made his mechs alive.

As a result, Ketis was able to impart her Monster Slayer design with a hint of X-Factor.

Ves was reminded of his work back when he was just an Apprentice. Back then, he did not have the support of his design seed that gave birth to his life domain. He had to rely on his own efforts to make his mechs alive.

"This is probably the limit of what Ketis can do." Ves quietly guessed. "Life is just a side branch to her. If she doesn't deviate from her trajectory, then it is difficult for her to accomplish anything better."

Although he thought highly of her design abilities, he did not think that Ketis could surpass him when it came to designing living mechs! He was the undisputed master and pioneer of this field, and he knew exactly what prevented Ketis from making any further progress!

Even if she became a Master one day, Ves did not believe she could do any better than imparting her mechs and mech designs with a modest degree of X-Factor.

Ves did not have to put any effort into making a second-order living mech, but the only way for Ketis to achieve the same result was to fabricate a masterwork mech!

The process of making a mech on the higher rungs of the craftsmanship ladder was incredibly mysterious to Ves. When a mech turned into a masterwork, all of its properties gained a boost, including its intangible ones!

"Her work still needs to rely on their mech pilots to truly become alive!"