The Mech Touch novel Chapter 480

"There’s something strange about the Loquacious Raphael."

Ves looked past its ungainly name and its unusual loadout. Instead, he began to dip his perspective into Mr. Reeve’s design philosophy.

He quickly found out that this was an exceedingly dangerous move. Higher-ranked mech designers constantly warned those who haven’t formed their own design philosophies that they shouldn’t take too much inspiration from the works of their betters.

The older generation trod their own path. Following in their footsteps risked turning younger mech designers into pale imitations of their teachers.

Though he started to speculate over incomplete data, what the Detemen League managed to gather so far painted a broad enough picture of the Raphael’s intended use.

"Just like other hybrid mechs, the Raphael is built to impress."

While vanity definitely played a major role, the mech’s entire design was suffused with the intention of making an impact on allies and enemies alike.

Basically, the Loquacious Raphael weaponized its showmanship. Every aspect of it was designed first and foremost to show off.

Practicality took something of a back seat in terms of priority, but that didn’t mean that Mr. Reeve neglected it entirely. Instead, Mr. Reeve successfully exaggerated the appearance and abilities of his mech without detrimentally affecting his design too much. Ves felt as if his entire design philosophy seemed to build up to a perfect fusion of awe and efficiency.

Ves initially didn’t know what to make of such a silly standpoint. Ordinary teaching in the field of mech design treated it as a solemn profession. Mechs should be devoid of flashy gizmo’s and attention-grabbing cosmetics.

Yet did those classes truly represent the will of the people? His own products all incorporated a little showmanship themselves, what with the incorporation of the completely impractical but very cool Festive Cloud Generator in his design.

"Yeah. I’m guilty of this as well."

Mr. Reeve simply took this guilty pleasure as his core competency and developed it towards an extreme. Ves didn’t even need to look at his design catalog to know that his mechs must be highly desired props in action dramas.

Still, while the Raphael looked good in a projection, it made an even better impression in the flesh. One of Reeve’s tricks was to finetune the sounds his mechs released when they moved. Each motion carried its own sound, and each of those sounds had been selected for maximum psychological impact.

A person standing near or in the cockpit of a nearby mech would feel the threat of the Raphael in their bones.

Its ballistic rifle formed another point of showmanship. While its frame looked rather large and intimidating, it was fairly hollow underneath its surface. The rifle unleashed rapid-fire shells or projecticles that could overwhelm any mech in close to medium range due to their fairly huge caliber.

As anyone with a brain could imagine, this capability came at a cost. Intense recoil caused the rifle to swing wildly out of control, and the magazine would quickly run out of projectiles after a quick succession of shots. Still, as a tool for intimidation, the weapon worked splendidly in this capacity.

"The rifle is meant for intimidation. It’s the sword that kills."

The Loquacious Raphael’s sword took on a golden sheen. Its shape resembled the straight sword of a knight, which gave the weapon a heroic impression. Outside of that, the weapon looked fairly simple, but that did not take away from its deadliness. The excellent materials and incredible sharpness of the sword allowed it to puncture through heavy armor in the right circumstances.

In a way, Reeve compromised the least on the sword, giving the Raphael at least one reliable means of taking out its opponents.

That lack of compromise and emphasis on genuine performance reflected back in the sword arm. It incorporated a bit less frivolity compared to the arm meant to wield the rifle.

"Reeve still hasn’t brought his design philosophy to the apex."

The time when Constantine Reeve successfully married showmanship with practicality whereby improving one would pull up the latter would be the moment when he advanced to the rank of Masters. Every Master became known of making the impossible into the possible.

From a professional standpoint as a mech designer, Ves certainly looked forward whether Reeve could succeed.

"Still, mech designer or not, I’m also a citizen of the Bright Republic. Since we’re on opposite sides, don’t blame me for taking apart your work."

Ves faced an important question at this point. Did Mr. Reeve employ the fake resonance to augment the Raphael’s sword arm or rifle arm?

"It could be both, but I doubt it. Resonating two completely divergent effects is too much."

Even if Reeve made it his life mission to turn the impossible into reality, some goals were harder to obtain than others. Ves figured that the Senior Mech Designer chose to surrender on this matter.

That left Ves with a guess on which aspect of the mech the resonance was supposed to enhance.

From a practical perspective, strengthening the arm and sword allowed the Raphael to be a powerhouse up close. The mech already possessed plenty of intimidation factor in its rifle, but adding an extra kick to its sword attacks turned it into a fearsome killing machine in close quarters combat.

However, Ves also came up with an argument against augmenting the sword attacks. "The sword arm is already good enough. It doesn’t need to be any stronger."

Channeling resonance in the ballistic rifle allowed the Raphael to shoot exotic projectiles that expressed itself in strange ways upon impact. The effects varied wildly depending on the exotics used in the formation of the projectiles.

Some burned hot on impact, while others freezed the impact site. Some caused the projectiles weigh twice as heavy, others caused them to partially phase through any obstacle, thereby dealing significant internal damage.

The challenge facing Ves was that he didn’t know how the Raphael expressed its fake resonance. It might not even be focused on an offensive form, though Ves figured that was unlikely.

A mech designed to show off wouldn’t focus its resonance towards defense of auxiliary functions.

"Resonating the sword allows the Raphael to become even deadlier in battle, while resonating the rifle enables the mech makes it a lot more flashier."