The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2885

Chapter 2885: Swordsmanship Tradition

While Ketis heard some fantastical claims about the Heavensword Association, she always dismissed them as rumors and exaggerations.

Even though she found a way for her to develop her own superpower, she gradually learned she was the exception rather than the rule.

Every other mech designer in the Design Department had never managed to achieve something comparable to her ability to make every blade sharper. Even if her fellow mech designers found a way to make their design philosophies more useful, the effects were very marginal and virtually indistinguishable from that of a regular trained person. _{fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm}

Therefore, the stories she heard about Heavensworders being able to shoot wind blades or manipulate gravity never sank in. Whenever she saw footage like the one earlier, she attributed the remarkable effects to the construction of the sword.

As a mech designer, she knew quite well that there were lots of unstable exotics in existence that were capable of warping reality in some fashion. Phasewater was just one of the more recent and most impactful exotic to do so. Other substances were capable of reducing gravity, negating kinetic force or amplifying temperatures.

Of course, utilizing those materials was very hard. Most of them were fairly fragile and easy to break. Their effects were also inconsistent and easily disrupted. Material scientists like Master Katzenberg dedicated their lives to invent new alloys and composites that were capable of replicating the effects of raw exotics in a stable and usable package.

However, according to Angelique, it turned out that the Heavensword Assocation eschewed these kinds of weapons!

"Just like how a mech must always remain under the control of its mech pilot, a sword cannot do all of the work on behalf of its wielder. What is the point of becoming a swordsman when any random person on the street can hold a blade that can tear through the fabric of space? Using such blades is considered cheating because it devolves the practice of swordsmanship. The goal of our pursuit is to elevate ourselves, not our weapons. One of the criteria that our state uses to certify a swordmaster is that he must be able to channel his powers with a plain sword made out of a mundane material like iron. Many swordsmen have never gotten close to this point."

Ketis briefly recalled her own experiments on imbuing random fruit knives with her superpower. Did this mean that she was effectively a swordmaster?

"Okay, I think I understand why swordmasters are a big deal here. It's rather amazing that expert pilots are able to pass on a portion of their powers through teaching. However, not everyone is a mech pilot or expert pilot. Is it really possible for a norm to become a swordmaster?"

Angelique proudly nodded. "It is! Our state has poured more research and development in this aspect than many other organizations. While we cannot claim to be the absolute best in swordsmanship, in an age where the pursuit of piloting mechs has trumped every traditional fighting practice, we are one of the few people in human space who still aim to preserve our old ways."

Though Ketis was obsessed with swordsmanship, she was not a fan of tradition. She was very well aware that most people today didn't think there was anything special about it. Most mech pilots were willing to learn how to wield a sword, but they only invested enough time to acquire a repertoire of moves before focusing their training on other mech piloting aspects.

As for norms, the use of swords in personal combat had long ceased to be a fixture in warfare. Outside of duels, ritual combat and special circumstances, swords were completely irrelevant to soldiers!

Rather than waste time on learning how to wield a weapon that was only useful when the enemy was at point-blank range, it was much more efficient to invest all of that practice time in improving marksmanship.

Due to uneven scaling, rifles and other ranged weapons were much more effective at the infantry level. It was only when armor became bigger and more massive that it was able to resist ranged weapons long enough for mechs to get close to other mechs!

In this scenario, a mech that wielded a sword could easily butcher a rifleman mech!

This was why mechs that wielded primitive swords and other melee weapons were not a joke, and why swordsmanship was still a somewhat serious discipline.

Yet to take it as far as the Heavensworders sounded ridiculous even to Ketis.

While she was aware that the Swordmaidens were also obsessive about swordsmanship, this was more of a means to bring sisters closer together while instilling discipline in them. The Swordmaiden approach towards swordsmanship was very practical and devoid of any extraneous philosophies.

Perhaps the style she learned didn't come with any fancy tricks, but it belonged to the Swordmaidens, and that was enough. She could always compensate for what was missing with her own superpower.

"Is it possible for mech designers to become swordmasters?" Ketis curiously asked.

"It has never been done." Her companion replied while sighing in regret. "None of us are resigned to this truth. Nearly every mech designer in our state tries to do their best to polish their swordsmanship while keeping up with their work or studies, but we don't have enough to achieve results in both pursuits. We can only choose to excel in one of them. That is the choice I made as well."

"What do you think about my chances, then? You've seen me fight. I also managed to pass that old man's test."

"Don't get too cocky. You don't understand anything about what it takes to become a genuine swordmaster. It is already a minor miracle that you have attained a degree of swordsmanship that is enough for you to compete in the tournaments, but sooner or later you will have to make a difficult decision. The amount of time and effort that swordsmen need to put into becoming a swordmaster is so great that it consumes their entire lives. How can they spare any time to become a good mech designer?"

Ketis wanted to refute Angelique's scepticism, but she still had some reservations about revealing her superpower. She knew quite well that her design philosophy had more to do with it than her attainments in swordsmanship.

Commander Sendra was much more skilled in swordsmanship than her, but the mech pilot was completely unable to evoke any extraordinary effect!

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