The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1070

Mastery provided Ves with a first-hand perspective on how mech pilots handled a specific mech type. It was immensely valuable and he considered it worth its hefty price tag.

Even so, Ves already possessed a Mastery in landbound knight mechs. Would he really be able to gain as much benefits when he acquired a Mastery in its spaceborn version?

After some contemplation, he decided to add Space Knight Mastery I to his list.

"Spaceborn mechs are vastly different from landbound mechs. The three-dimensional aspect of moving and fighting in space as well as concerns about vacuum, inertia, momentum, flight, heat management and more add a lot more complexities to the equation."

In general, mech pilots found it harder to pilot spaceborn mechs. The barrier to entry may be higher, but they were paid a bit better than their landbound colleagues.

All of these added complexities made piloting spaceborn mechs incomparable to piloting landbound mechs. Ves saw a lot of merit in acquiring the relevant Mastery, even if it wouldn’t be in the right weight class.

[Space Knight Mastery I]: 40,000 DP

"Next up is to improve my understanding of flight systems."

This entailed upgrading the Propulsion Skill and the generic Flight System I Sub-Skill.

The former encompassed many ways to move mechs aside from using legs. It encompassed a broad understanding of flight in the air and in space. It also included some fundamental understanding on water-jet propulsion used by aquatic mechs.

"Let’s just skip the years of learning and bump it straight up into Journeyman territory. I’ll improve my expertise on flight systems specifically while I’m at it."

[Propulsion - Novice]: 5,000 DP

[Propulsion - Apprentice]: 10,000 DP

[Propulsion - Journeyman]: 20,000 DP

[Flight Systems II]: 2,500 DP

[Flight Systems III]: 5,000 DP

[Flight Systems IV]: 10,000 DP

Ves could already feel the System rubbing its greedy non-existent hands as he added more Skills to the shopping cart. Even though it seemed somewhat luxurious for him to spend this much DP just on the flight system alone, he considered it essential for him to match the competence of a mech designer specialized in spaceborn mechs.

Only a few minutes went by and Ves already planned to dump 92,500 DP onto various Skills and Sub-Skills!

"That’s almost a third of my DP budget gone!"

Nonetheless, these new additions solved his most critical inadequacies when it came to designing his super-medium space knight. With a Mastery and a vastly improved understanding of flight systems, he didn’t fear the prospects of mistakes any longer. Not only that, he would also be able to incorporate various aspects unique to spaceborn mechs a lot better into other areas of his design.

Many laymen had the mistaken impression that spaceborn mechs were actually landbound mechs with flight systems slapped onto their backs. That was a gross simplification of the truth, as the lack of gravity and air in space led to a much greater divergence in design standards.

Ves learned many of these rules when he came into touch with many spaceborn mechs as a head designer. However, repairing spaceborn mechs was one thing. Designing them from scratch was an entirely different thing.

"The last mistake I can make in this design project is to underestimate the challenges of designing a spaceborn mech!"

After some more thought, he added a Sub-Skill related to polarizing modules to his list. This would not only enable him to understand the working principles of this piece of technology, but also be able to tinker with it and adjust its parameters.

[Polarizing Shielding I]: 20,000 DP

[Polarizing Shielding II]: 40,000 DP

Unfortunately, the System regarded polarizing technology as something advanced, so it jacked up the prices for understanding it by a corresponding proportion.

For a while, Ves questioned whether he was spending his DP wisely. Polarizing technology did not see much use in the Bright Republic. The modules took up way too much space to be applicable to anything but heavy mechs.

However, the tech was a bit more ubiquitous among second-class mechs such as those circulating in the Friday Coalition. It was possible to miniaturize the polarizing modules so that it became practical for them to be implemented in medium mechs as long as expensive exotics took over the role of regular materials.

Ves could bear the price for Polarizing Shielding I. Yet he wasn’t satisfied with understanding the bare essentials. He wanted to tweak the polarizing module and tailor it to his upcoming design. That required a lot more understanding, and to meet that need he would have to get Polarizing Shielding II.

"It’s still a hefty price to pay just to improve a single mech design a little better."

He decided to bite the bullet and add the second tier of this line of Sub-Skills to his shopping cart. He rationalized it as an investment. In order to earn more DP, he needed to spend more DP.

"If I invest 60,000 DP into this Sub-Skill so that I can bump the quality of my space knight design to another level, the extra sales I get in return might pay back my investment in spades."

His fatty mech design would definitely be a niche product that lacked the slightly wider appeal of his other two commercial mech designs. Since the target segment of his space knight would be those who specialized in piloting space knight, Ves needed to offer them a product with excellent performance.

The polarizing module was the key gimmick of his space knight design. Being able to implement it proficiently and without introducing flaws or vulnerabilities would make or break his product!