Chapter 1118. Dorum Center of Technology and Innovation (1/2)
Professor Ventag arranged for Ves and his entourage to stay at one of NORA Consolidated's guest accommodations during their visit to Bentheim. It was a much better option than staying in a luxurious hotel because it offered plenty of room for the squad of Avatar mechs to secure their surroundings without bumping into the security detail of other important guests.
With only two days to go before the product reveal, everyone that Ves took along split off.
Gavin paid a visit to Marcella Bollinger in order to discuss some final details about the LMC's marketing campaign that was just about to kick off.
Ketis expressed a desire to explore Bentheim for a day on her own. She had grown increasingly curious about Bentheim and lost her apprehension towards the stupendous amount of people living on the planet.
”It's not safe on the streets right now.” Ves warned her. ”The Bentheim Liberation Movement is a serious threat to public safety, particularly now since it appears they've prepared to launch a major attack for years.”
”Oh, come on, Ves. An attack hasn't occurred since your last visit. Why would the BLM choose to attack now of all times? I'll be perfectly safe. You know I can take care of myself. I'll even bring my greatsword and my armor along in a floating case.”
While Ves still expressed a lot of concerns, he was not her parent. Eventually, he acquiesced to her request, though he insisted that she'd be accompanied by some guards dispatched by Sanyal-Ablin Security Services.
During the first day of his stay on Bentheim, Ves received an invitation to meet with Professor Ventag. This time, his armored shuttle didn't travel to Mech Designer's Row, but instead turned towards Dorum's Academic District.
As its name suggested, the Academic District hosted a large amount of schools, universities and other academic institutions. It was a city within a city as it hosted a very vigorous student community. Many of the students consisted of Bentheim natives, but the rest came from all over the Bright Republic and even beyond the border!
Only mech academies didn't make their home here. Due to all of the live practice they conducted, it wasn't safe to operate so many mechs in the middle of a metropolis. Most of the mech academies of Dorum were situation in the outskirts of the capital city.
As the armored shuttle touched down on a very expansive landing zone, Ves emerged with Lucky in his grasp and with some armored guards in tow. Around the shuttle, a number of mechs from the Avatars of Myth began to prepare for a long standby session as they weren't allowed to step onto the campus of the DCTI.
”So this is the Dorum Center of Technology and Innovation.” Ves sighed as he and Lucky stared out through one of the gates.
The DCTI was the second mech university of Bentheim, so it took up a considerable amount of valuable real estate within the Academic District. As a premier learning institution, it provided its students and staff with a tranquil but very mech-focused campus environment.
Large amounts of greenery and parks suffused the campus. Huge facilities capable of holding dozens of mechs were spread across the campus, and large empty fields provided the students with plenty of space to try out their new creations.
”Not even the Rittersberg University of Technology is willing to give its mech design students so many opportunities to work with real mechs!”
Even if the students practiced with outdated mechs and cheap materials, the costs could easily run up over time. To be frank, most mech design students simply couldn't afford the tuition costs that could easily run up to several hundred-thousand credits a year!
And this was already factoring the generous subsidies the DCTI received from the central government in order to maintain its competitiveness against the Ansel University of Mech Design!
The Ansel University of Mech Design cast a huge shadow over the DCTI. No matter how impressive its campus looked, it simply didn't compare to Ansel's splendor!
Ves shook his head. ”Both are already fine institutions. The gap between them concern me very much.”
He knew that Professor Ventag didn't invite him to the DCTI for nothing. The Senior's intentions couldn't be more clear.
A university was not without its students. Most were attending classes, but plenty of them were still out and about. Many of them took immediate notice of Ves and his bodyguards.
Some of them even recognized his face.
”Is that Ves Larkinson?”
”That famous Apprentice Mech Designer? The one who was awarded with the Golden Mech?! What is he doing here?!”
Ves ignored the idle speculation of the students. They would come to learn of his visit in two days when he officially revealed the Aurora Titan to the public.
Ves slowly crossed the campus and reach the administrative building of the DCTI's Internal Design Faculty. The faculty specialized in teaching all manner of courses related to the mechanics, internal architecture and other aspects about the insides of a mech.
Professor Ventag happened to be the dean of the Internal Design Faculty. The DCTI employed six Senior Mech Designers in total. Each of them were deans who led the different faculties of the school.
As far as Ves knew, the DCTI also employed twenty-five Journeyman Mech Designers as associate professors.
However, these esteemed mech designers did not spend all of their time teaching the students or grading their work.
The actual teaching work was being done by various respected academics in the various fields of science and engineering related to mech design.
In order to teach courses that dealt directly with mech design, the DCTI employed various older Apprentice Mech Designers who possessed an abundant amount of experience as assistant professors.
Overall, the students of the DCTI did not have a lot of opportunities to get in touch with the Journeymen and Seniors who fronted the university. These esteemed individuals all invariably led their own companies or worked for the government in some capacity, so they could never devote their full time to teaching the next generation of mech designers.