The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5177

Once Master Teresa Norville ended her highly interesting presentation on archetech and its potential applications in mechs, everyone who attended the session saw a lot of promise in this unconventional alien tech base.

Although it sounded like it would take around five years for the Red Association to make it practical for internal use, that was still fast enough to make it a worthwhile medium-term investment.

This was what most mechers cared about.

The associates on the other hand deeply wanted to figure out how much longer they needed to wait before they could play with archemechs as well!

Unfortunately, Ves and the others would probably have to wait a few years longer. In order to make a new form of high technology viable enough for use to the 'general public', it had to become a lot more economical and practical.

Otherwise, most mech designers and mech companies would simply skip over it because it cost too much.

They would rather spend the same amount of money for an alternate solution that provided a much greater return of investment.

That said, it was still possible for individual parties such as Ves to get ahead of the curve.

There were rumors that the Red Association planned to end the current mech generation early just so that it could publish a wide range of early tech that could help the mech industry get started on empowering mechs with E energy radiation.

Even if the Phasewater Generation made way for an Exotic Radiation Generation or whatever, it was unlikely that the mechers would add any form of archetech to their public releases.

That would only happen a mech generation later at the earliest. Who knew how long people had to wait in order to get their hands on mature and tested applications of archetech.

Ves couldn't wait that long. He possessed a strong interest in archetech. It was perfect for him as far as he was concerned. The Larkinson Army had always taken the high-end route, so the excessive costs and troublesome maintenance

He also recognized the fantastic synergy between archetech and the Carmine System.

One of the greatest downsides of the Carmine System was that it permanently locked a mech pilot to a specific mech for the rest of his or her life.

Although Ves had yet to actually test this, he knew it was an actual restriction. Venerable Jannzi outright refused to consider the idea of piloting any other mech even though she physically possessed the ability to do so without problem.

The Blood Pact was a literal pact. It was a contract and binding that went beyond the physical and acted on the spiritualities of the involved parties.

In any case, the existence of this restriction meant that it became a lot more important as well as worthwhile to prevent the demise of a Carmine mech.

If Ves could choose between a conventional metallic mech and an archemech, Ves would pick the latter over the former anytime.

While slower, an archemech was simply more durable, not only in single instances, but also over many years of service.

They were admittedly a lot more difficult and troublesome to perform deep repairs on their complicated frames, but their performance remained relatively solid when they only incurred light damage.

The fact that an archemech was also a lot more effective at protecting the life of a mech pilot was a nice bonus, even if it was not as valued in this specific case. It removed a potential weak point and gave Ves a lot more use out of a soldier that already took a lot of time and funding to bring up to standard.

To be honest, Ves still wanted to learn the secret on how to design an archemech no matter whether he intended to incorporate the Carmine System or not. Just its applicability to expert mechs and ace mechs was enough for him to drool at the possibilities.

Ves still had to wait for half an hour before he could have a chance of speaking with Master Norville in person.

It was not unusual for conference speakers to answer a lot of questions from the professionals who listened to her presentation. Master Norville might gain inspiration to tackle a problem from a new angle or meet with a specialist that could offer a lot of additional assistance.

Strangely enough, Master Norville was willing to answer relatively basic questions from the people sitting in front as well as the more advanced questions from the people sitting in the rear.

Ves got the feeling that her replies were not as useful as they sounded, though.

The questions asked by young and curious Journeymen were too shallow to be of use to a mech designer that wanted to make serious use of archetech.

The ones voiced by other Master Mech Designers were much more relevant and technical in nature, but Teresa Norville kept her replies extremely curt.

The social dynamic of these interactions caused Ves to suspect that they were secretly agreeing to meet in private at a later time in order to negotiate a serious exchange.

Jovy clearly picked up on this as well.

Unlike before where everyone had to remain absolutely silent and attentive in order to hear out the proposals from the three faction leaders, it was acceptable for people to communicate with each other.

"Are you thinking about meeting with her in private to explore the possibility of holding an exchange?" Jovy transmitted to Ves over a private communication channel.

Ves nodded. "I am, but I am not sure what I can trade for it. Archetech has become a high priority to me. It is especially relevant because my expeditionary fleet has an actual archeship in its possession. That puts me ahead of almost everyone else in this hall. It would be a waste not to take advantage of this rare and precious opportunity to learn how to combine archetech with mechs a few years sooner than normal."

The RA Senior actually shook his head at that. "I do not recommend you approach Master Norville at this time. She will not take you seriously, and that will greatly hinder any negotiations. You need to prove your usefulness first. I advise you to do well in your upcoming presentations. The more people respect and acknowledge your work, the more she will be interested in what you can offer."

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