Having spent two furious days on realizing his vision, Ves felt as if his competition design lacked sothing.
He felt the sa itch whenever he felt as if his ch ideas lacked so sort of gimmick.
For example, the Deliverer wouldn't be so remarkable without Ylvaine lending his prediction ability to the ch pilot.
The Doom Guard would never have shot up from the ranks of striker chs and form its own category if not for its terror glow.
Right now, Ves felt that while his competition ch managed to et most of his expectations, he felt he set his sights too low.
"I can add more to ch design." He whispered.
The problem was the lack of capacity.
Choosing to center the duel around striker chs was one of his ways of constraining Jovy.
Letting this MTA ch designer design a swordsman ch or any other ch that offered a lot of skill expression was just a disaster in the making!
With all of the tricks that Jovy had at his disposal, there were way too many opportunities for him to empower his ch beyond the level of an indigenous ch designer!
While Ves did not regret this choice, it hard Ves just as much!
Even if competition chs weren't required to last as long, even if Ves could tune up the performance of the individual parts to their breaking point, he still ran out of space!
This was the point where he resorted to his specialty and imbued his ch design or its intended design spirit with so special feature.
However, Ves did not need to turn his head to see Master Willix floating high above the floor.
Ever since the design phase of the duel comnced, the Master had been keeping a constant eye on both contestants. Like a goddess watching over her subjects, hardly any of their actions escaped her vision!
So far, Ves did not bother too much with her blatant observation. He couldn't do anything about it, and he hadn't done anything remarkable aside from concentrating his mind and imbuing a gradual amount of spirituality into his ch design.
So far, the ch already acquired a rudintary spiritual foundation. Though it wasn't nearly as deep and strong as the spiritual foundations of his serious ch designs, it was already sufficient to host a design spirit like the Superior Mother!
Yet was this everything he was capable of doing? For a ti, Ves slowed down his work as he began to ask himself whether he should feel resigned to this bland outco.
His sense of deprivation grew stronger. As ti went by, he increasingly felt as if he was missing sothing essential. Without adding this extra factor into his ch design, he could forget about winning the upcoming design duel!
He paused and halted his design work entirely. He stared dully at his current design, trying to do his best to pin down what it lacked!
anwhile, above the air, Gloriana had floated next to Master Willix and joined her in observing both contestants.
While Ves inexplicably paused and let precious minutes pass by, on the other side of the workshop, Jovy continued to build his design at a steady and confident pace.
No matter what kind of odd conditions he faced, this was hardly the MTA ch designer's first challenge!
It wasn't easy for him to beco a ch designer and advance to Journeyman in the halls of the MTA. The workload was incredible, the amount of knowledge he needed to master was trendous and he constantly had to compete over resources!
Winning design duels was one of Jovy's favorite thods to get ahead of his peers. Not even the thought of facing a certified masterwork ch designer swayed his confidence in his strength and ability!
"Mr. Armalon is an avid design duelist." Master Willix noted and she approved of what she saw in him. "He has dueled over sixty tis, and won at least forty of them, and hardly anyone of them is weak!"
Gloriana widened her eyes. "How can Jovy be so strong?"
"Aside from working hard, his design philosophy is very formidable. What he can do for now is just the tip of the iceberg, but even so, he can already confound many rivals. Even in the galactic center, his specialty has to be taken seriously!"
"It's that formidable?! How co I haven't heard about it more?"
The Master ch Designer sighed. "Probability manipulation touches upon so very high-level abstract concepts. There are many ways to classify design philosophies, and sorting them by subject is rely one of them. In the MTA, it is not just the subject that matters, but also the grade."
This was sothing that Gloriana never heard of! Even when she lived at Centerpoint, she never sorted design philosophies by grades!
"How do you determine the grades?"
"By difficulty, scope, ambition and other factors." Master Willix patiently explained. "Ordinarily, I wouldn't bring up this topic to a ch designer as young as you. Knowing the grade of your design philosophy is often detrintal to your developnt. However, since you have beco a masterwork ch designer, you have already proven that you are firm in your research direction. It won't hurt to know where you stand and where other ch designers stand."
The Master waved her hand. "In a state such as the Sentinel Kingdom, most local ch designers have developed simple and basic design philosophies. I'm sure you are already familiar with them. They don't have much ambition and they are constrained by their environnt. Therefore, they rely seek to make their chs cheaper, more efficient, more resilient and so on. While their dreams are still admirable, their limited ambition ans that it is actually relatively easy to realize their design philosophies."
Of course, owing to the sa poor environnt, it was very difficult for the local Seniors to advance to Master!
"Where do I stand?" Gloriana asked.
"There is no objective and authoritative way to determine that. If I use my own judgent, I would rate the grade of your design philosophy as middle-high."
That caused Gloriana to pause. A sense of dissatisfaction appeared on her face. "Why just this?"
"You will have to discover that on your own, Miss Wodin." Master Willix replied. "Don't take my word for it. My judgent is different from that of other people. In fact, in order to counteract bias as much as possible, the MTA employs a very comprehensive set of algorithms and comparisons in order to apply the exact sa standard to everyone."
"Is the grade set in stone?"
"Never. ch designers, even high-ranking ones, can constantly evolve and develop their design philosophies. Sotis, their ambition swells and their grades automatically rise. Other tis, they are getting on in their years and see no hope of realizing their impossible dream. By setting their sights lower, they don't have to overco as many hurdles and have a much better chance of advancing to Master."
Her explanation contained a lot of implications. Gloriana had already caught many of them. "I see. Higher grades are associated with difficult but ambitious design philosophies. Though the odds of breaking through are low, once you do, you can beco a very powerful Master! In contrast, lower grades don't require as much effort to realize, but such Masters simply can't strengthen their chs as much."
"That's not necessarily the case." Willix said. "Low-grade design philosophies aren't necessarily weak, and high-grade design philosophies aren't omnipotent. It is all about how you use them and how you develop them. Even at Master, when you develop a low-grade design philosophy to an extre, it is enough to break any high-grade design philosophy!"
This confused Gloriana a bit. "So when it cos to strength, the grade doesn't matter?"
"No, though many ch designers disagree. It's a perspective problem. There are different thoughts on this matter. Because it is less arduous to realize a low-grade design philosophy, there are many Masters who barely make the cut. This has caused the average strength of their group to be quite low. Yet I personally know of many so-called 'low-grade Master ch Designers' who have co close to reaching the threshold of Star Designer! Once you reach this height, the grade of your design philosophy is no longer an accurate asure of your strength!"
This revelation shocked Gloriana! What Master Willix touched upon was far too high level for a young Journeyman like her to know!
She automatically inferred the situation of ch designers with high-grade design philosophies.
"If I am guessing this right, then high-grade design philosophies are so ambitious and difficult that not a lot of Masters with them have broken through. However, once they do, the performance of their chs are substantially more powerful because they are able to perform much greater miracles, is that right?"
Willix nodded. "This act of 'performing miracles' as you say is much more drastic at the Master level. You can view it as an amplification of sorts. How strong your design philosophy is when you are a Senior will directly affect how strong it is when you beco a Master. That said, many ch designers dream of realizing a powerful design philosophy, but few are able to do so within their lifetis."
"The few that do are all monsters." Gloriana sumd up. "I see. Even though the group of high-grade Masters are small, because their average strengths are so high, it is not difficult to develop the idea that high-grade design philosophies are better!"
Obviously, Master Willix disapproved, otherwise she wouldn't have led Gloriana to this conclusion.
"If it is not presumptuous of to ask, where does your design philosophy stand?"
"My specialization is gravity systems, and it sounds exactly as boring as you think. The MTA officially categorizes it as a dium-grade design philosophy." Willix smirked. "Yet I have not taken any notice of the insults and disparagents I've received. I have worked diligently while exploring additional applications of my design philosophy in order to raise the performance of my ch designs. Nowadays, I can call myself an equal to many high-grade Masters."
Her status at Halcyon Citadel was high because of that! Not a single resident Master at Centerpoint looked down on her and her modest-sounding specialty!
Gloriana looked even more impressed at Master Willix. In her eyes, this MTA Master was practically a role model to her!
Even if Willix wasn't as exceptional as her rivals, she had long overtaken many of them and continued to make progress even to this day!
"What about Ves and Mr. Armalon?"
Willix turned to Jovy, who was still making a brisk amount of progress. "One of the factors that I have left out is the difficulty of developing a design philosophy. The higher grades are much harder to formulate and internalize. An exceptional design philosophy such as probability manipulation is ranked as a superior-grade design philosophy. This ans the requirents to adopt it are extrely demanding. I dare say that in the entire Yeina Star Cluster, there is no one else who can specialize in this strange field!"
"Doesn't that an that it becos harder for a Master to develop personal disciples?"
"Partially." Willix admitted. "It takes a very specific person to develop a high-grade design philosophy. The odds of a ch designer eting all of the requirents naturally is small, but that is when nobody interferes. If a Master wants to nurture a personal disciple, he can always mold a student."
"I see. You haven't told how Ves stands, though."
"Your partner is… difficult to pin down. I have so thoughts about his design philosophy, but I cannot say anything about its grade other than that it is fairly high. It is just…"
"What's the matter?"
"What is he doing?"
Both of them looked down at Ves, who finally began to move after freezing for fifteen minutes straight.
He began to place his palm into the projection, distorting the ch design he developed up until now.
Ves twisted his fingers, which sohow caused his work to take on a slightly different air!
User Comments
0 comments from readers