The Mech Touch

Much of the actual lesson content in the first lecture was not academically challenging. Ves did not hold this class in order to teach the nuts and bolts of mech design such as how to calculate loads or how to add as many plasma weapons to their mech as possible without causing it to explode.

The Eden Institute of Business & Technology already employed professors that could do a much better job at teaching those subjects than him. The school did not hire him based on his meager academic accomplishments, but because it wanted to enrich the vision of its students by exposing them to alternative perspectives.

This was exactly what Ves tried to do during the first lecture of his main passion. He could tell so many stories about living mechs that he could literally keep talking for an entire week!

It was a pity that the schedule and the attention span of his audience did not support such an endeavor. The more time he spent on unloading his own vision to his students, the greater the extent they became indoctrinated to regard mechs as living objects!

As it was, Ves had to keep it rather short in order to make sure he addressed all of the points of today's agenda. Introduction to Living Mech Design was not a heavy course, so he only had a limited amount of hours to make sure that his students comprehended the essence of these subjects by the time the semester came to an end.

One helpful circumstance that massively assisted his lesson plan was that Ves could openly speak about E energy radiation.

Now that the Red Two pretty much pulled the cat out of the bag in relation to psionic power, Ves had no compulsions about mentioning anything related to spirituality and spiritual energy.

He just had to remind himself to use the politically correct terminology to make sure he spoke in the same language as every other mech designer.

"Have any of you attended any classes related to E energy radiation?"

All 14 students shook their heads.

"Has the Eden Institute set up any classes related to this topic?"

"Master Laila Devos has briefly spoken about this." Alexa Striker spoke up. "The Eden Institute has become part of a joint project that is uniting all of the higher technical institutions of the Terran Alliance. The overall goal is to pool all relevant research and discoveries together in order to form a foundational course on E energy radiation and its immediate implications for mechs. This is meant to ensure that every Terran mech design student and mech designer can quickly master what they urgently need to know."

Ves nodded in understanding. "A common base of understanding can promote a lot of innovation, especially in collaboration. The sooner you people master the common rules and traits of E energy radiation, the sooner you can try to exceed your rivals. This is a race for innovation. How long will it take for those people to publish their theories?"

" It won't be made available until the start of the next semester."

What the Terrans were doing was not unique. The Rubarthan Pact and the Red Two were probably hard at work in trying to do the same.

In fact, the Red Association was being the most generous of all by freely publishing much of its findings. The mechers also put a lot of effort into setting up a public forum where other independent researchers could freely contribute their results.

While this initiative helped a lot with raising red humanity's overall understanding of E energy radiation, it did not give the Terrans a chance to gain any competitive advantage over their rivals.

In order to prevent the Red Association from becoming the sole authority on all matters concerning E energy radiation, the Terran Alliance's academic community had to band together and produce its own results!

Given that systematic knowledge on E energy radiation wouldn't be made available for roughly half a year, Ves had little choice but to take a step ahead and share his insights about it in advance.

While tedious, the advantage of doing so was that he could ensure his students adopted his own perspective on spiritual energy!

"Living mechs are intrinsically related to E energy radiation." Ves began. "Mechs cannot be alive without E energy sustaining the invisible and intangible quality that grants them additional properties and enable them to develop their own consciousness, enable them to make autonomous decisions and help them grow stronger over time."

"Wait, professor. Does that mean that living mechs are controlled by self-learning and self-evolving AIs?"

"No." Ves shook his head. He reached down to his tool belt and pulled out his Hammer of Brilliance. "Let me give you an example. Look at this hammer. Can you feel its glow through the connection of my Hyper Chamber? Can you sense how it is a little bit more special than an ordinary alloy hammer? It is able to possess all of these traits despite the fact that it is solely made out of solid metal parts. That is because it is alive in a similar fashion to how my mechs are alive."

Although the Hyper Chamber was not that good at conveying the full majesty of the Hammer of Brilliance, the high-quality connection at least allowed a fraction of it to go through.

Even the students who did not possess any significant spiritual potential could still sense the difference between the hammer and any other ordinary object.

Ves calmly put his hammer back in its place. "E energy makes up for the building blocks of living mechs. When a mech designer shapes it with purpose, they can imbue their mechs and mech designs with additional attributes that are difficult to explain through normal science. You only need a little bit of it to design a functional living mech that possesses all of the basic traits of life."

He continued to explain his basic model of living mechs to his audience. All of his students were incredibly smart, so Ves did not have to repeat himself or worry too much that he moved too quickly.

The greatest challenge when it came to learning the essence of living mechs was to accept that it was possible in the first place.

In the past, Ves had to put a lot more effort into convincing people that mechs could be alive even though it sounded paradoxical.

Nowadays, Ves could attribute everything that sounded weird and counterintuitive to E energy. None of the 14 students showed any indication of rejection or disbelief because of the existence of this powerful factor.

"What is E energy exactly, professor?" Klaus asked with genuine curiosity. "What is it exactly made of and where does it come from? If E energy is so essential to living mechs, why have you been able to design them when E energy radiation is not available in the Milky Way?"

Ves directed an approving smile at the young man. "All good questions, Mr. Robar-Fulton. This is the skepticism and inquisitiveness that a mech designer should possess. While this is not a class on E energy radiation, I will try to explain it as best as I can. As far as I am aware of, there are actually two broad strains of E energy."

"Two?"

"Yes, two. There is E energy that is generated by a high energy environment such as Messier 87 that you can vaguely observe in the skies. You can ignore this for now as it is not a part of the basic model on living mechs. What truly enables living mechs to come into being and sustain themselves is the E energy radiation that is produced in small quantities by the mental activity of sentient living beings."

I! ,1

What Ves just shared to his students sounded incredulous to most if not all of them. Aside from sketchy individuals who may have come into contact with cultivation before such as Gabriel Sekkar, it sounded rather crazy that the power of human thought could actually contribute to the strengthening of mechs!

"I am sure that many of you would like to see proof of this. If I was standing in front of you in person, I can easily do so, but since I'm teaching this class from remote, you will just have to take my word for it. There are higher dimensions than the known material ones where E energy radiation mainly resides. It is there where all of the interesting activity takes place. While I do not exactly know why, our higher thoughts and emotions can not only affect what is happening in that invisible realm, but generate E energy that can be used for many purposes. The art of designing a living mech is to shape it into a specific energy foundation in relation to a mech before bringing it to life."

This time, not even Gabriel could hold in his curiosity anymore.

"Professor Larkinson, that sounds as if you are creating life out of nothing. How is that possible? It is impossible to make living organisms by putting together different materials. The only known process that can do so is through organic reproduction."

"What you have just mentioned is the greatest challenge to designing a living mech, Mr. Sekkar. It is the only condition that prevents many of my subordinates from replicating my work. The act of creating a living mech is... well, a miracle for a lack of a better word. It requires you to have a strong motivation and passion for making mechs alive. I will expand on this subject in a future lecture, but you should all be aware that the threshold is high. This introductory course can help you understand the essential theories and help you prepare for this endeavor as best as possible, but you will ultimately have to complete this journey by relying on your own effort."

"Does that mean we have to specialize in living mechs in order to gain the qualifications to design them?" Polina Devonshire asked.

"Not necessarily." Ves replied. "It certainly helps, but I have a couple of mech designers working in my department that are capable of designing basic living mechs despite possessing drastically different specializations. Their conditions are a little abnormal, so their approaches will not necessarily work for you. The most proper method to design living mechs is to become passionate about them to the point where you are willing to incorporate it into your design philosophy. Living mechs do not necessarily have to be your main focus, but it has to become a significant component of your creative vision."

The mech design students did not show any obvious indications whether they were interested in doing this. It was too early for them to make up their minds, and even if they held a notable interest in this capability, the Terrans were not in a hurry to express their stances.

The only exception was his own teaching assistant. Alexa Striker had already heard quite a bit about living mechs from Ves. She was also able to spend a significant amount of time on the living mechs imported by the Eden Institute.

Ves clapped his hands. "There is no need for any of you to make any definite decisions about your future. This course has only just begun, so there is still plenty of time for you to learn more and digest all of my lessons. Whether you are only here to broaden your horizons or truly come to love the endless possibilities that living mechs can add to your work, 1 will try to accommodate all of your needs."

The rest of the class ended in a fairly mundane fashion. Ves could still share plenty of exciting knowledge, but Ves reserved that for the future.

He ended his first lecture for this course with an optimistic message.

"The Age of Dawn is an exciting time for the mech industry. The existence of exotic radiation has not made mechs obsolete. It complements our work. Mechs that are especially active in their usage of E energy are able to derive greater benefits from the changing circumstances than others. I believe you have already witnessed how much stronger living mechs can be in my earlier lecture for my Frontier Wisdom course. E energy is at the heart of it all, and if you are willing to delve deeper into designing living mechs, I will help you harness this powerful energy type so that you can empower your own mechs as well."