The Mech Touch

First-class technology!

The proposed deal not only granted Ves near-full access to all of the MTA's considerable research on the most distinctive technology of the extinct crystal builder race, but also gave him access to all of the prerequisite knowledge needed to master this alien tech!

What did this mean?

Essentially, Ves would be able to learn the most complete foundation of every field related to luminar crystal technology, which included optics, crystallography, directed energy weapon systems and energy theory!

Although the System had given him a thorough understanding in these fields, the information content of its Skills were relatively constrained at the lower tiers.

If he still had access to the System, then Ves would have to splurge on a lot of Design Points as well as meet other possible requirements to learn those Skills and Sub-Skills.

Of course, the advantage of taking this route was that it took no time at all to learn and acquire at least basic proficiency in these complex fields.

That said, Ves did not neglect the utility of learning knowledge the old-fashioned way. A mech designer must always exercise his learning ability in order to progress his design philosophy and understand mechs at a deeper level.

In addition, the System's database was filled with neutral and flavorless theories. Sometimes, the accumulation of specialized mech designers such as Professor Benedict Cortez may be much more useful even if his ideas didn't conform to mainstream science.

Aside from that, Design Points were way too precious. There were many desirable goodies that he could spend it on. It would be nice if he could save hundreds of thousands of DP by spending a bit of time devouring academic literature.

What Ves valued a lot this time was that the MTA promised to grant him the latest and most advanced technological framework on luminar crystal technology!

These were theories and advancements that were way more profound than the knowledge compiled in textbooks and taught in university classes!

The Mech Trade Association's top-level science and engineering research departments were famed as the most advanced and forward-thinking pioneers of humanity's technological development. Their research capabilities were insanely high. They had to be in order to sustain the high pace of mech development.

Although mech designers carried the primary responsibility of advancing the state of mechs, it would be difficult for them to design better mechs if they did not gain access to new materials, new mech components and newly discovered scientific theories.

The reason why the MTA was the undisputed holy land of mech design was because its mech designers all had access to the support and contributions of its renowned research teams!

Now, Master Dervidian stated that Ves would gain the opportunity to cooperate with one of those pinnacle research teams on a long-term basis!

This was like having guest access to an entire first-class research institution!

However, the Master soon made it clear that Ves would not have all of those respected top scientists at his beck and call.

"We are not promoting you to a senior contributor of restricted technology, opening our libraries on luminar crystal technology and allowing you to be on speaking terms with one of our research teams just for you to play pretend. While the primary reason for taking these steps is to camouflage our true purpose, the pretense must look real enough in order to fool those with ulterior motives. The longer we can keep them at bay, the more time we have to flesh out our transcendence technology and allow us to introduce it to the public on our terms. Do you understand my meaning?"

Ves slowly nodded. "I think I do. You expect me to put in the work and master this tech as quickly as possible so that I can contribute to actual advancements in this field. It's just… how much time and effort does it take for someone like me to master all of the first-class technology required to harness the highest level of luminar crystal technology? This is top-level science we're talking about. I wouldn't be so concerned if I am already a Master, but right now I am still a Journeyman. Even with all of the knowledge that I have already learned, I have the feeling that I am way out of my depth in this case."

"You'd be right to think that." Dervidian replied and acknowledged this issue. "Based on my studies of your existing mechs and mech designs, your mastery of the fields related to luminar crystal technology is much more extensive than what a Journeyman of your position should possess. However, even with the formidable learning ability that you have demonstrated, it will still take five to seven decades for you to barely qualify as an intern to one of our top research teams."

"Seven decades?!"

"There are numerous measures you can take in order to shorten this learning period." Dervidian replied. "First, you can take the initiative to persuade the researchers or a top authority in the relevant fields to tutor you on an individual basis. This can shorten your learning time by half depending on various factors. Second, you can shave a handful of decades off if you have installed a powerful first-class research or mech design-oriented cranial implant in your central nervous system, but if not you are at a severe disadvantage."

Ves grew sour as he heard this judgment. A second-class mech designer attempting to master the highest level of luminar crystal technology and related first-class technologies would literally have to waste decades of his life in order to barely get started!

This should not be a surprise. This was the kind of research that only Master-level figures could engage in. Mech designers below this rank had to put in an exponentially greater amount of effort and time just to reach this point!

The biggest problem with this was that luminar crystal technology ultimately wasn't a central research focus to him. It would be one thing if he was a specialist in energy weapons. It was another thing if he specialized in a completely different aspect of mech design!

Ves couldn't justify the sheer amount of time and effort spent on completely mastering all of the requisite knowledge! He would take far too much time away from his mech design projects and more relevant research priorities!

This arrangement sounded more and more of a burden to him. Although it was great for him to master first-class technology in advance, if it came at the cost of slowing down his progression as a mech designer, then it wasn't worth the trouble!

Although Ves bet that he could leverage the System to skip a lot of years of study, he still had to pay a big price.

How could he agree to assume this burden so easily?

"I understand your concerns." The MTA Master said with a knowing look. "The arrangement is not as difficult as you think. From what we can see, your ability to harness luminar crystal technology is not as sophisticated as us, but your expertise allows you to harness the more esoteric properties of luminar crystals to a greater degree. This makes this issue much simpler. You merely have to contribute your unique methods to our research team. Our scientists will apply your teachings to their existing work, thereby producing better applications or deciphering another working principle of this tech. Until you have caught up to their level of expertise, this is the most convenient approach that you can adopt."

"Ah." Ves flatly replied. "I see how this can work."

It amounted to nothing but sharing his trade secrets to the MTA research team responsible for reverse engineering luminar crystal technology!

Apparently, this deal wasn't as one-sided as he thought. It basically amounted to an exchange of benefits and knowledge.

The MTA would get what it most desired and gain a more thorough understanding of how spirituality interacted with luminar crystal technology.

Ves gained the benefit of calling himself a senior contributor of restricted technology and would slowly be able to master advanced technology without too many hurdles.

Although the deal looked fair on the surface, he had the feeling that the MTA was the biggest winner for scamming another trade secret from this odd arrangement.

Sure enough, the greedy mechers never lost a negotiation!

There was little that Ves could do about it, though. He truly needed this camouflage in order to maintain a low profile. The story might be different if he was a Master, but for now it was better for him to avoid getting caught up in the power plays of the upper echelon of human society!

No matter what, Master Dervidian and the Transhumanists were earnest in their desire to cooperate with Ves. They were just acting like typical mechers who wanted to extract as much new and original research from an indigenous mech designer.

Since this was the case, Ves felt the need to gain more concessions. He did not want the MTA to get the impression that he was that easy to exploit!

"If I become a senior contributor of restricted technology and get to work with all of those top scientists, then I better have a good incentive for going through all of this trouble."

"What do you require?"

"I want to expand my right to make use of luminar crystal technology." Ves stated. "Whether it is third-class, second-class or first-class luminar crystal weapons, I don't want my clan and I to be hindered in utilizing my own innovations. Previously, the Survivalists imposed restrictions on how extensively I can make use of this tech. I want those restrictions gone."

Master Dervidian frowned as he used his implant to access the relevant information.

"There are good reasons why we wish to restrict people's dependence on alien technology. I am certain the Survivalists must have explained that to you already."

Ves nodded. "That is correct, but it makes no sense if I work together with the MTA on exploring the limits of luminar crystal technology while still being restricted to fielding standard-sized mech weapons for my mech designs or imposing hard limits on the amount of weapons of a particular caliber that I can make and put into use. I want to get rid of these annoying limitations."

"I will see what I can do. I need to consult with the Survivalists to obtain the details of your agreement with them and see how we can best adapt it to our current circumstances."

A few minutes passed as Master Dervidian quietly teleported away in order to contact another faction.

He soon reappeared with a heavy expression. "I have held a brief discussion with the Survivalists. I learned that they have given you a test that you need to pass before you are allowed to develop and field larger, heavier and more potent luminar crystal weapons. This rule still applies."

Damn. Ves did not have much hope that he could get rid of the Polymath's requirement, but he still felt disappointed that the mechers refused to budge on this issue.

"I understand." He sighed. "What else?"

"We do not mind accommodating you in other areas. For one, as long as you can ensure that your more advanced luminar crystal weapons cannot be harnessed or abused by external parties, you can apply them without special restrictions in your own pioneering alliance. You only need to abide by the usual rules."

"I promise I won't arm my starships with upsized luminar crystal weapons." Ves sincerely said.

"Aside from that, you are still prohibited from arming your second-class and first-class mech models with luminar crystal weapons that are not for internal use. However We are willing to grant you an exception to this rule. As long as you can work together with our research team to reverse engineer enough principles and develop applications of this tech that is fully based on conventional human technology, we will allow you to propagate your 'humanized' luminar crystal weapons to the public."

This… did not sound so bad. In fact, Ves would have already been able to do this without any special deals, but he could develop products for the market a lot faster this time if he had the cooperation of a top MTA research team!

As long as those clever MTA scientists did all of the heavy lifting, it was not impossible for Ves to publish lots of powerful ranged mech models in a decade!