Originally, most people in this district would not send their children to the Mechanical Temple. The strict requirement of speaking High Gothic filtered out most people, and even if they could speak High Gothic, the subsequent cost and difficulty of learning deterred most, not to mention the need for sufficient confidence in your child's intelligence.
Now it's different. With Omega as a junior lecturer, the learning difficulty has decreased significantly. This means that even if one can't become a Priest, there's still great hope of becoming a better-paid foreman after studying at the Mechanical Temple.
This also led to Omega's reputation growing higher and higher here as more and more people learned about him.
As for whether the Adeptus Mechanicus knows that their education system is too backward, one can only say that the Omnissiah doesn't care. "Cultivating people" is cheaper, more efficient, and more stable.
Why did Omega ask Paul to introduce someone?
It was because Omega felt he was familiar enough with simple weapons like the lasgun and planned to get one for himself to enjoy.
Is a Tech-Priest without any weapons still a Tech-Priest?
As for directly buying one from the Mechanical Temple, wouldn't that be easy for him?
That's where you don't understand technology!
How could an ordinary lasgun satisfy someone who understands technology like Omega? It had to be bigger, stronger, and rarer to satisfy him.
Other Priests collect all sorts of black technology; if he just carries an ordinary lasgun, how much face would he lose?
So, a Hellgun, with greater power and capable of penetrating ceramite armor, wouldn't work either?
The answer is: no, this type of weapon needs a power pack for energy, which is inconvenient, not rare, and he couldn't afford it…
So Omega wanted to ask someone to buy one from the black market. Good or bad didn't matter, he could repair it, which would be good practice.
After telling his apprentice his idea, Paul, as the oldest local, immediately patted his chest and said he knew someone who could handle it.
Outside the Mechanical Temple, after dealing with the greeting parents, Paul led a "senior" who was three parts human and seven parts ghost, ravaged by life, to Omega and introduced him:
"Lecturer Boss, this is Uncle Anduin."
Anduin twitched his badly corroded half-face and quickly bowed to Omega to greet him.
"Greetings, Tech-Priest Omega."
Omega heard Anduin's spine creak as he bowed and, wincing, stopped him, replying:
"Hello, Anduin. Has Paul told you my purpose?"
"Yes, Priest, but I'm not quite clear on your requirements yet," Anduin said respectfully.
"I don't plan to go myself. You've seen what I look like."
As he spoke, Omega raised a hand to gesture his height, both livening the atmosphere and stating his position.
"Praise the omnissiah! Only the great power of the Omnissiah could create a miracle like you. Speaking with you, I truly subconsciously forget that you are still so young."
Tch, I won't be happy no matter how much you flatter me! You old fox!
"Hahaha, really?"
"Of course."
"Lecturer Boss, I feel the same way."
Omega: "Hahaha…"
(Saying one thing, meaning another…)
After explaining his requirements to Anduin and asking him to help purchase it, paying a few cog-teeth as a deposit, the two watched Omega return to the Mechanical Temple.
The two remaining on the spot exchanged glances, and Anduin spoke first:
"Little Paul, you are truly very lucky!"
"Yes, every apprentice feels that way!" Paul said, still looking in the direction Omega had left.
Anduin continued, "Tech-Priest Omega is a rare kind-hearted person."
Paul nodded gently and said, "He does care. When he first appeared with canned food and saccharin, I knew he cared about us."
"Haha, little Paul, what you said makes me a little jealous!"
"Then be jealous, Uncle Anduin."
"I wonder when I can call you an adult too?"
Paul looked at the cog-skull on the Mechanical Temple and murmured, "Soon… Soon…"
A few days later, Paul brought Omega an oilcloth-wrapped package containing the lasgun he wanted.
He gave the remaining money to Paul, with a little extra for Paul's running errands, but Paul refused to take it no matter what. Omega didn't force him, so he added a bit more to buy a few cans of Grox meat and distributed them to the people in the library, saying Paul was treating.
Paul, that kid, said no with his mouth, but his body was very honest, puffing out his chest as if he was about to undergo a gender change.
Through this incident, Omega also discovered that the laws governing weapons were basically a dead letter; otherwise, Paul wouldn't have brought it so blatantly.
It was a business led by the Great Sage of the Forge World; who would be so blind as to take it seriously!
As for worrying if it would threaten the Forge World, in Omega's opinion, it was purely superfluous.
Does your flashlight have an anti-Titan bayonet attached?
Omega excitedly carried the package back to his room. After opening it, a lasgun with a black main coating and a stock appeared. The package also contained a bayonet and a entrenching tool.
The Lucius No. 98 Pattern Lasgun, produced by the Lucius Forge World, is an iconic weapon specifically issued to the Death Korps of Krieg. It has higher power than other lasguns, resulting in greater single-shot destructive power, but it puts greater stress on the weapon itself, limiting its rate of fire and requiring an additional cooling ring in the barrel, which is standard for this model.
Because the Lucius Forge World is located in the Imperium Nihilus, considering the impact of the Great Rift, it is a rare commodity for worlds in the Imperium Sanctus.
Omega was very satisfied. Look at this scarred bayonet, the blood-stained stock, and this entrenching tool with a chipped edge—who knows how many bloody battles it has endured! How many xenos skulls it has chopped!
Suppressing the urge to test the gun, Omega decided he needed to check it thoroughly. Although Imperial lasguns are sturdy and durable, if one actually explodes, it's no weaker than a grenade, so caution is advised.
Strike the bell.
Remove the power pack.
Appease the machine spirit—wait!
Omega, with a dark expression, threw the censer bell aside, muttering curses.
For more than ten consecutive days, Omega dedicated himself to his "flashlight," mending what needed mending, polishing what needed polishing, finding replacement parts for those that needed changing, and hand-crafting those he couldn't find.
A Tech-Priest, while becoming a learned person, must also be a mechanic. Hand-crafting an aircraft carrier is nothing; Omega stated that with the help of his multi-functional bionic limbs, he could hand-craft microchips.
Thanks to whichever Mechanical Sage secretly learned Lucius's technology and generously shared it, when Omega maintained the lasgun, knowledge points about this lasgun kept popping up, some about basics, some about improvements. This is why he was tinkering for so many days.
Now, the lasgun in his hand can be called a "master-crafted" lasgun. Compared to an ordinary Lucius pattern lasgun, it has greater power, longer range, and faster heat dissipation. For this, Omega proudly welded a cog-skull symbol onto the gun body.
The gun was "made," next was testing it. He didn't dare test it in the Mechanical Temple, fearing that Sage Lauster, who liked to secretly peek, would discover it and punish him with the Mechanical Axe of Leg Severance for blasphemy against the omnissiah. That "old geezer" had been very irritable lately.
After finishing his daily head-banging, an excited Omega jogged back to the Mechanical Temple, enduring his aching back, grabbed his lasgun, and set off for the lasgun factory's testing area.
"Tech-Priest Omega, are you...?"
Father Louis, the Tech-Priest in charge of the lasgun factory, asked curiously, looking at the excited Omega.
Father Louis—one of the many ordinary people in the Mechanical Temple, one of the Fabricators responsible for the lasgun production line. Hobbies: biology, interested in various strange alien creatures.
Fabricator—a type of Tech-Priest, widely present in various departments throughout the Imperium. They possess a large amount of practical knowledge, from maintaining various armored vehicles to repairing and maintaining various production lines, they are indispensable.
However, Fabricators are not highly regarded within the Adeptus Mechanicus because of their strong emphasis on practicality, which doesn't contribute much to exploring principles. They are essentially pure beasts of burden within the Adeptus Mechanicus.
(Fabricators: What's wrong with your worker grandpa?!)
Omega turned to Father Louis and showed off the lasgun on his back.
"Lucius pattern! That's quite rare!"
"Hmph hmph, isn't it?"
"Going to test the gun?"
"Yes."
"Alright, let's go together. I've only seen one; I've never personally handled it."
"You can try it later too, and help me see if there's anything different about it. Is it okay for you to leave?"
"Just for a moment, it's fine."
The two arrived at the firing range amidst the greetings of workers along the way.
Inside the large firing range, workers continuously pushed boxes of lasguns fresh off the production line for testing.
The metal plate targets were ready-made. Seeing Omega and Father Louis approach, the testing workers voluntarily made way.
Disengage safety, aim, fire!
With a "pew!" sound of the laser burning the air, the metal target was directly melted and pierced by the laser, leaving a scorched mark on the wall.
"Tsk! Tsk! That power!" Father Louis couldn't help but click his tongue, looking at the pierced target.
"Not bad, right?" Omega asked.
"More than not bad! Let's try two plates this time."
"Pew!"
The result with two plates was still a complete penetration. Although three plates weren't completely penetrated, their surfaces showed signs of melting.
After Father Louis tried a few times, he said, "I've always heard that the Lucius pattern has greater power than other types of lasguns, but I didn't expect it to be this much greater!"
Omega explained, "It's a bit more powerful, but probably not this much. I modified this gun."
It is well known that the Adeptus Mechanicus strictly prohibits the modification of the omnissiah's sacred creations! They utterly detest it!
However, this applies to people outside the Adeptus Mechanicus. For Tech-Priests, as long as it doesn't involve "artificial intelligence," "xenos technology," "Warp," etc., the church does not prohibit Tech-Priests from improving or inventing new things.
New technological advancements need to be reviewed by the Adeptus Mechanicus headquarters on Mars. As for the review time, it is often measured in centuries; people die of old age before the technology is approved.
At the same time, this also means you have to hand over the technology you've spent a lifetime researching, without holding anything back. For followers of the Omnissiah, whose values are "knowledge is wealth, it is one's value," this is no less than "XX's crime in front of husband."