Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 128 Making an Apprentice by My Own (Eighth Update)

According to the tradition of the Cult of Mechanics, a high priest, especially after being promoted to the rank of Sage, should establish his own apprenticeship group and a direct team of technical priests.

These assistants not only help with research and handle daily affairs, but are also an important part of the foundation of their power.

However, although Chen Yu is now a renowned explorer, he only has the Guardians of the Faith under his command, making him virtually "alone" in terms of technical team.

The root of this anomaly can be traced back to his early experiences and the cold, cruel nature of the power struggles within the Mechanicus.

Shortly after he was ordained a priest and before he could build his own staff, his faction, specifically his mentor and his network of associates, was embroiled in a brutal internal purge.

His advisor was accused because his research touched on some of the vague and dangerous boundaries of Mechanicism.

Those attempts to analyze and apply ancient alien technology in a non-standard way, despite their mentors' insistence on the purity of the research and their faith in the Om Messiah, became deadly weapons for their opponents to use in factional struggles.

The struggle ultimately ended in a crushing defeat for their faction.

Chen Yu's mentor was stripped of all titles and honors and underwent extremely severe punishment: all the precious mechanical implants were forcibly removed, leaving only a broken organic body.

He was then sealed in a specially designed static field, becoming a "living statue" displayed in the Hall of Punishment.

The Mechanic's techniques ensured that his life activities were almost eternally stagnant, but his consciousness and perception were deliberately preserved.

He was eternally trapped in that immobile body, acutely aware of his own powerlessness and confinement, and bearing the daily contrast between past glory and present shame.

This torment, which is far longer than death, is a standard method used within the Mechanicus to intimidate all "heretics" and losers.

This turn of events taught the inexperienced Chen Yu a harsh lesson, making him deeply aware of the deadly undercurrents lurking beneath the halo of the Mechanic Church.

For this reason, he has always been cautious about building a large technical team throughout his career, preferring to do it himself rather than getting easily involved in complex personnel networks.

Although the situation is different now, this caution stemming from past lessons still influences his current decision on building a core team.

As a member of this faction, Chen Yu was naturally implicated.

However, the network of contacts he had carefully cultivated and accumulated within the mechanical education system in his early years proved useful at a crucial moment.

A powerful figure intervened on his behalf during this liquidation crisis.

Based on their past relationship and their recognition of Chen Yu's personal abilities and potential, this benefactor used his influence to provide limited defense and guarantees for him.

Ultimately, Chen Yu was characterized as "a young priest who was misled by his mentor but was inherently loyal and whose technical abilities were worth preserving," thus exonerating him from the core charges.

He escaped the fate of being turned into a servo skull or subjected to even more horrific punishment.

This near-death experience gave him a profound understanding of the power struggles within the Cult of Mechanics.

That servo skull, transformed from a former classmate, constantly and silently reminded him of the ultimate consequences of a single misstep in choosing sides.

For this reason, after the incident, he preferred independent research, staying away from factional turmoil, and for many years he has not taken on any apprentices to avoid repeating the same mistake. The servo skull floating beside his neck was originally one of his classmates, who also studied under that unfortunate mentor.

That classmate was quite talented academically, but he failed to find protection in factional struggles and was eventually executed. His skull was modified into a servo skull, which, in a sense, can be considered "making the best use of his resources".

This cold, metallic construct serves as a constant reminder to Chen Yu of the brutality of the internal struggles within the Mechanicus, and the ultimate fate that the losers will face.

Through this experience, Chen Yu gained a profound understanding of the vulnerability of individuals lacking a solid foundation within the mechanical education system, especially in the face of power struggles at higher levels.

In the aftermath of the incident, he deliberately chose to keep a low profile and remain on the margins, focusing on less important and lower-risk ancient site exploration projects, staying away from the controversies of the core power circle.

He maintained a relatively amicable relationship with the overseer, the great sage Vox, based on friendship and mutual benefit, but almost completely severed in-depth communication and cooperation with most of his other colleagues.

As for recruiting apprentices, before the incident, he was not qualified enough to recruit them independently. After the incident, he was wary of the personnel relationships within the Mechanical Cult and, in order to avoid attracting attention and potential trouble, he completely abandoned the idea of ​​recruiting apprentices and always maintained a solitary lifestyle.

But now, things are different.

He has been officially promoted to the Exploration Sage, gaining independent authority and resources, and will also have his own forging ship in the future.

Whether it's managing the warships that are about to be acquired, maintaining the complex systems on them, advancing core research such as dimensional teleportation, or coordinating resources and carrying out missions between different worlds in the future, it is far from enough for him and Ignis to do it alone.

He needs a core team composed of individuals with certain technical skills and absolute loyalty.

Given past lessons, he harbored deep-seated reservations about recruiting from within the existing Mechanicus system.

The complexity of background checks, the possibility of other factions planting spies, and the uncertainty of loyalty are all potential sources of risk.

After careful consideration, the core of his logic believed that the most reliable and lowest-risk solution was to "manufacture" the necessary assistants himself.

This is not an unrealistic fantasy.

Chen Yu possesses an exceptionally deep accumulation of knowledge within the mechanical engineering knowledge system, especially in the field of bioengineering and mechanical integration technology.

This is thanks to the area of ​​expertise of the faction he belonged to in his early years.

Chen Yu had the privilege of participating in auxiliary work related to the legendary "Lady Astartes" research project due to his factional connections. Although he was only on the periphery, he was exposed to some peripheral concepts and applications of the Empire's most advanced genetic engineering technology.

In this sense, Chen Yu could even be considered as "a student of Lady Astartes".

Although his faction was later purged for touching other sensitive areas, the solid foundation on advanced biomodulation technology laid during that special period was truly preserved and became an important part of Chen Yu's knowledge base.

He also used this unique knowledge to successfully analyze and partially repair ancient facilities related to genetic modification technology left in a lost colony during an exploration mission, and thus briefly obtained the title of Geneticist.

This experience is undoubtedly strong proof of his ability in this field.

(End of this chapter)