My mech filled dreams finally gave me a new Technique that would serve me well during events like the past couple days. I didn’t get some teaching power, or some Technique to improve another’s abilities. I’m a mech creator, not a teacher, nor some instructor, but that doesn’t mean that the abilities that allow me to create a mech shouldn’t be useful in helping others build my creations.

[Path of the Peerless Royal Mech Creator rank 13]

[Technique: Create Blueprint Hologram]

It took me a second to figure out how this may help me at first, as I already had a way to create blueprints. It wasn’t until I activated the Technique and played around with it did I realize the true power of it. You see, holograms aren’t just a glowing picture, they can be manipulated, they can be animated. This Technique allows me to create a big hologram, probably true to size, as I haven’t actually done it on anything super big yet, which you can manipulate and move portions of the hologram. If I designed some big with complicated inner works, I could open up portions of that and do simulated tests on that piece. I could simulate movement on a whole blueprint. Essentially this allowed me a tool to show intricacies of a design to someone who may not get it when seeing it in two dimensions, but would when they see how it truly functions and operates in a four dimensional form.

I was so set on this being a good way to show those less adept at me how my more technically challenging pieces would function that I missed a much more impressive feature of it. It wasn’t until I had gotten my clothes on and gone through my full morning routine that an inkling in the back of my head started forming. When I met up with Yi-Jin and mentioned my new Technique and rank, I got the obligatory congrats, but being the more business oriented one of us two, he began asking questions about its functions.

“Does the image stutter, or otherwise move slower than whatever is manipulating it? Is it life sized or otherwise true to the dimensions described on a paper blueprint? Can more than one be in use at a time? Do you have to be immediately present, or is it a creation in it or itself, allowing someone else to use it?” Were just some of the questions he asked in the blitz of things he said. I began answering the questions, talking about it acted as it was going at sixty frames per second, which caused a smaller discussion about video graphics before getting back on topic, basically that it was smooth movement in response to however you dragged it. Then I mentioned that I wasn’t sure if it was life sized, but the few test blueprints of objects I had in my room all produced holograms of similar if not exact size, but they were all the objects that would’ve fit within a normal blueprint actually there. I hadn’t been able to answer the other questions, so I just pulled out a couple blueprints I had spare to test for ourselves as we walked.

Turns out I could open more than one, although the Qi draw rapidly shot up with each additional hologram opened. When I first opened two, I began to notice my Qi actually drop, not super fast, but enough that I’d doubt I’d get more than ninety minutes to two hours before it got too bad. At three blueprints, the time went down to forty-five minutes, at four blueprints, which was the most spare ones I had, I got all of ten minutes. We were still experimenting with the drawbacks and such of the Technique when we finally arrived at the workshop. I had the idea of trying to mentally transfer ownership of a blueprint over to someone, hoping it would allow me to get around the Qi drain. While it did partially help, as it reduced the draw by a lot, there was still a “connection” formed between me and any blueprint I formed due to the Technique that required some Qi to keep open, which of course increased with more open. With this in mind I was able to estimate an hour to keep four blueprints open, even if not in my direct control.

I was able to answer the implied question about the possibility of creating a hologram blueprint and then basically selling it or otherwise giving it to others so they would use it. For a while the answer seemed like yes, as I was able to walk away for a bit. However, when I left the workshop to grab a quick snack, I came back to find the blueprint no longer working. After determining that I wasn’t able to go more than a hundred feet away before breaking the connection between the blueprint and I, effectively shutting my Technique down.

The real magic came when I was having some of the mechanics mess with one of the holograms I made of one of the new mech designs. Turns out this guy had a childhood dream about being a mech warrior as a kid, but for various reasons, largely his family wasn’t that wealthy, he had to pursue mechanics work. He still had that childish delight in playing with mechs like they were toys, and so was moving the hologram mech around like it was fighting monsters. I can’t say I blame him, I watched enough of those shows a kid to have my fair enjoyment, but what sparked my brain was the random moment in which someone was moving a mech arm piece through the area, and for a brief second it was in a similar position to an arm of the hologram. In that brief second, the hologram arm slightly lit up a different color.

It was then that I recognized the hologram was not just a teaching tool, but literally mech building for dummies. The two mechanics who were involved briefly froze up when they saw the hologram react. Their flinching behavior caused a few others to also freeze up, and it almost seemed to cause a cascade of people stopping their work. Eventually Yi-Jun caught on to what happened after he had his nose buried in some diagrams and other documents. Seeing the slight color change to the document, he asks me what happened.

“Well I thought this was a decently powerful Technique for allowing me showcase, and in a way teach, others about mechanics I designed in my mechs when it was above others abilities, but this sounds awfully a lot like it became a super powerful Technique that turns mech creation into a jigsaw puzzle” I say to him, although it was a little loud, so other people clearly heard as well. This caused a slight rush as Yi-Jun picked up the hologram cube blueprint for the infantry mech, which yes, after we messed around with having other people try and activate and take control of the blueprints, they started appearing as physical objects. Yi-Jun then starts activating the blueprint right in front of our completed mech, and the hologram begins lighting up all over the place.

Turns out a couple screws and bolts were left off, since there a couple red lights, but largely the hologram was showing everything was put on correctly. I inactivated that blueprint after that, and one by one we tested the other two designs, finding more errors, but still was largely put together correctly. For the rest of the morning we were taking apart the mech designs and fixing any mistakes that were made, adding any bolts, screws, or other little pieces until each hologram showed it to be completely correct. You might think something like this would’ve taken ten minutes, maybe thirty minutes tops, but I was just beginning to notice everything was built by a human mechanic. That may seem like an odd thing to say, but there were no mechanics operating some sort of construction mech. When I first saw the mechanics lugging out hundreds of pounds worth of metal parts I had dismissed the necessity of it, but then the other issue came up today.

Big heavy parts? Sure, Techniques can make it easier to lift, along with higher cultivation. But you know what those don’t fix? Being able to manipulate and place those parts in such a way that it can be easily installed. As a result, even if the pieces could be technically lifted by one person, it might require two or three people to get it into a steady position for another person to do the correct mechanical work. This caused me to think about adding a new mech design to my repertoire.

I ask Yi-Jun if we have enough parts for another mech, at which he says we should, depending on how big it is and how many iterations we go through. I tell him we shouldn’t be doing many changes, and get started on a blueprint for a construction mech. The design is much smaller than a normal mech, maybe half the height with a lot less of the bulk, creating an overall slimmed down design. But where it is smaller, it is much more complicated. The forearms of the mech bulk out much more than even a normal mech, as I made it so that each forearm was effectively three slimmer arms attached to a central arm. The slim arms would have built in tools to allow it to weld, hammer, or otherwise do mechanical work that would take multiple people to do. I gave this a small Qi generator, basically just enough to be able to power the tools on the arms, while the overall powering of the mech would be done by the mech operator. Lastly, I have the legs and other available space on the mech be storage, giving it dockable spaces for ammunition boxes and other common parts for mechs.

When I finished up the design, I created a hologram for it, and handed it off to the mechanics to build while me and Yi-Jun talked. When he saw what I was making he was perplexed, since he didn’t see how that would help our current plan. I told him that it wasn’t strictly speaking part of our plan, but an addendum to it. Sure, we could keep building mechs the way we do, but there were plenty of scenarios where a mech mechanic, what I am calling those who will operate the construction mech, would be needed, and clearly it will open up the pathway to bigger mechs, and even mech versions of other things. When he says there is no way a change like that will occur, I calm his fears, saying there will be a need for non-mech mechanics, but having one in a workshop, maybe two? That is a definitely a possibility to happen. I talk about the idea of having the “head” mechanic in every workshop being a mech mechanic, who does the larger assembly of mechs, while the rest of the crew assembles and creates the smaller pieces. I even add to that by saying in the rare instance it is decided to supersize mechs, these would serve as an invaluable if not necessary piece in their construction.

This eventually convinces him enough of the design, at which point I ask him to contact the First prince or someone else about showcasing the construction mech and the two new mechs. Yi-Jun asks why include the construction mech, where I reply that it will allow for greater building capabilities, and will be something the military, among everyone else, will want. He says he will work a meeting out sometime in the next couple days. After that, we stay around a little longer for the construction mech to be built doing the jigsaw puzzle method via the hologram, before I head back to my room after the long day of work. That night, the mechanics talked about how many of them having been gaining a handful of ranks in their mechanics Path since working under me, but more importantly the mechanic who had largely been the one supervising and leading the other mechanics, was happy with his Path change that night.

[Path of the Original Mech Mechanic]