Chapter 1351
As Ves woke up the next morning, he did not take the latent security threat lightly. However, he did not panic either. The presence of sophisticated listening devices did not mean that someone was determined to make a move.
Fe Nitaa and the mercenaries he hired had already been informed of the findings. As Ves was enjoying a quiet breakfast delivered to the hotel room, he listened to a report by Nitaa.
"Commander Meivin of the Vindar Dustravens reached out to his contacts to determine who might be responsible. So far, he ruled out that any of his local allies and acquaintances are involved."
"I take that to mean that the Bloodwellers and some of the neutral Redwellers aren't responsible." Ves replied.
"I'm not certain if that's the case, sir. The Bloodwellers are far from united. They may share the same banner, but each of them believe in different methods to keep the Redwell Province out of the Hinson Protectorate's hands."
The conflict between the Bloodwellers and the Whitewellers did not interest Ves at all. He had no intentions of meddling in their long-running spat. Whether the Redwell Province remained a part of the Chuko Republic or defected to the Hinson Protectorate did not affect his personal interests in the slightest way.
Even if the crisis resolved one way or another, the Chuko Republic or whatever took its place would simply become another market in his eyes. Even so, Chuko was significantly smaller and weaker than the Bright Republic, and combined with the distance in between, Ves did not anticipate selling a lot of mechs here anyway.
That was completely fine to Ves. His lack of commitment to the state meant that he did not have to worry about treading too carefully between all of the interest groups. Even if he pissed a couple of them off, it wasn't going to bite him back in the butt as long as he never returned.
In a way, Ves partially treated his year-long trip through the Komodo Star Sector as a trial balloon for his future grand expedition. The small lessons he learned and difficulties he encountered would give him a better picture of what it was like to travel through various new locales.
Already, he and his advisers took plenty of notes on how they ought to prepare for a multi-decade expedition.
"If there is one issue that bothers me, it's that we're far from allies here." Nitaa noted with worry as she rubbed her slightly-weary eyes. "Aside from hiring the Dustravens to act as our local fixers, we don't have any local support. There is no place in the Redwell Province or the rest of the Chuko Republic where we can take refuge if we are under pursuit."
"There is the Hinson Protectorate, I suppose."
"The Hinson Protectorate is weeks away, and that's only if we take the most direct FTL routes. Also, the Hinsoners will only care about us because they don't want to displease your girlfriend."
Ves knew that it was foolish to rely on the unmitigated support of the Hinson Protectorate. Perhaps they might decide it was in their direct interest to assassinate Ves and pin the blame on the Redwellers!
As he reminded himself of this possibility, he lost some of his previous joviality. Fe Nitaa pointed out a very poignant problem. Ves lacked a convenient escape route. The closest possible safe harbor was the Hexadric Hegemony, but his fleet would have to travel straight through Hinson space in order to reach the border to the second-rate state.
Even then, the problem still persisted! Not everyone saw his relationship with Gloriana in a favorable light! Ves was not a Hexer and would not be able to find a home anywhere in the Hegemony except for the star systems occupied by the Wodin Dynasty.
In short, the only true safe harbor for Ves right now was either Centerpoint or the Bright Republic!
Unless he reached one of those two destinations, he would never truly be in the clear. Being surrounded by uncertain allies, hidden enemies and a lot of people who didn't care about his troubles did not do his paranoia any favors.
Nonetheless, the sons and daughters of the frontier lived under these conditions for their entire lives. Many of them adapted to this dangerous reality. Some of them even thrived under these conditions.
While Ves did acknowledge that it would be prudent of him to secure strong allies in the vicinity, he would rather solve his problems on his own.
He never forgot the instance where all of the friends, allies and other friendly connections failed to bail the KNG out when the famed mech company became embroiled in a scandal.
As long as the threat surpassed a certain scope, no one was willing to stick out their necks to lend a hand to a beleaguered friend.
It was also for this reason that Ves did not plan to seek any long-term allies in this region of space. He shared little to no connection to anyone in the Chuko Republic. Sheer distance alone would cool any connections he made during his visit to the Redwell Province.
"It's good I have a fast fleet at my disposal. If nothing else, hardly any vessel can beat the Barracuda's pace."
Securing a powerful fleet ought to be a high priority to him. His current fleet possessed a very crucial mobility advantage that allowed them to outrun most enemies trying to corner them during their travels.
Considering that Gloriana started to look into whether she could obtain a factory ship for their grand expedition, Ves would not be able to rely on the same advantages in the future.
No matter how well the Hegemony built their technologically-advanced factory ships, the fundamental nature of this humongous ship class meant that it was a pipedream for these huge behemoths to outrun smaller ship classes.
Without any inherent advantages in mobility, Ves would just have to resort to building up his might.
This issue had been a thorny subject for Ves in the last couple of months. One of the biggest issues that Ves faced was whether the escort detail should consist of second-class mechs, third-class mechs or both.
Right now, Ves did not have the earning potential to support a large second-class mech force. He doubted that would change in the future. Only when he transitioned to designing and selling second-class mechs would he be able to bear the immense burden of supporting so many expensive mechs.
Yet what would remain of the Avatars of Myth? From the start, his personal mech force recruited a handful of native Brighters. They were highly capable of piloting third-class mechs, but transitioning to second-class mechs would require years, perhaps decades of training.
Not every Avatar would succeed in the transition.
This left the Avatars of Myth in an awkward state. He might find himself in the unenviable situation where he had to rely on his girlfriend to fund another outfit that could protect them a lot better than his own home-grown mech force!
For now, Ves still struggled to find a way to resolve these issues without harming his pride and the pride of the Avatars of Myth.
Having a Hexer as a girlfriend gave him a lot of headaches, that was for sure!
"I've been thinking about what we've been doing as well." Gavin spoke at the table. "Right now, we are not expanding the LMC's footprint at all. Shouldn't we do something to further our company's reach?"
"Maybe." Ves spoke. "The problem is the business climate in the Chuko Republic. No one is interested in facilitating access for a far-away mech company when they are more worried about keeping their heads above the water."
"You're right."
Ves deliberately visited an unstable and insecure state, so it was already a given that there wouldn't be any business opportunities on the table.
"The LMC will naturally expand once I begin expanding its mech catalog, Benny. The next generation is getting closer and closer. It might even arrive shortly after we return to the Bright Republic. That will be the period when I'll really start to pump out designs."
"Won't you need a design team for that? You recently lost one of your two subordinate mech designers. Only Ketis is left to assist in your design work."
Gavin hit the issue right on the mark. The lack of assistants was a sore point for Ves as he hadn't managed to expand his design team for a very long time.
"I'll be on the lookout for interesting mech designers who are willing to work for me." Ves eventually shrugged. "Hopefully I can find a couple of mech designers along the way who are willing to stick around for the long haul."
They added the finding trustworthy mech designers to augment his design team to their long list of objectives.
After they finished sharing their thoughts to each other, they began their new day by visiting one of the local black markets.
Underneath a tarnished and largely shuttered industrial district in the outskirts of Wilxyr, a bustling underground trade operation took place.
Getting there was a bit complicated. It wasn't as if Ves could directly fly there with his shuttle in the open.
They also couldn't approach the black market under full escort. Both the landbound mechs of the Battle Criers and the aerial mechs of the Dustravens attracted way too much attention.
This meant that Ves had to leave most of his protection detail behind. As Ves stepped inside an unmarked aircar, he only brought a limited retinue along this time.
Commander Cinnabar opted to stay behind to babysit his idle mechs, so Ves could only rely on Lucky, Nitaa and Commander Meivin for protection.
The latter looked a bit apologetic at these demands. "My apologies for all of these restrictions, but the black market that I'm taking you to don't enjoy government sanction."
"I understand." Ves casually waved his hand to brush aside the issue. "Black markets that operate under the noses of the government aren't really black markets in the first place. I hope the goods on offer at the place you're bringing me to will be interesting enough to justify the hassle."
"Oh, have no doubt about that, Mr. Larkinson. I dare say you'll have the opportunity to purchase plenty of valuables."
Though Nitaa had a lot of second thoughts about this trip, Ves remained calm. If worse came to worst, he could quickly don his custom Sparous Vize armor which Nitaa brought along in suitcase form. She herself had already donned her combat armor as well so she was more than capable of fending off any sudden attacks.
The windows of the vehicle had turned completely dark, preventing the occupants from seeing where they traveled.
During the journey, the aircar they rode made a lot of detours before landing at an abandoned underground parking zone.
The group transferred to another aircar which followed another circular route before finally arriving at their real destination. Ves spotted easily over a hundred identical aircars in the abnormally barren and sterile underground parking zone.
"This place is kept as clean as possible in order to defeat any tracking measures." Commander Meivin mentioned before he passed them a number of robes stored in the aircar. "Wear these in order to hide your identities. It's best not to let anyone know you've been here."
They did as instructed.
Currently, the mercenary commander acted as their local guide. He led them towards a checkpoint where they underwent a very casual security check before they were let through.
Everyone immediately noticed the disturbance in the air. It was like they were all being massaged by invisible waves.
"This entire black market is subjected to a jamming field!" Gavin gasped.
Having spent a lot of time in various different jamming fields, Ves became very good at judging their strength. "This isn't a light jamming field. A lot of juice is being pumped into the jammers to keep this underground hall secure."
Meivin grinned. "I was serious when I said the government isn't involved. Only those we invite are privileged to enter this market."
Compared to the extraordinarily public black markets of the Reinald Republic, the one he had just entered was a lot quieter and less frequented.
Rather than a bazaar, Ves had the feeling he had entered an exclusive, high-class shopping venue. Only a handful of people browsed the small shops and stalls in the open. Most donned obscuring robes or other identity-concealing outfits to do their business.
Despite the lack of traffic, Ves immediately recognized a lot of valuable goods for sale. Visiting this black market may be a lot more fruitful than he thought!
"Meow!"
Even Lucky sensed a number of highly interesting exotics. His nose tingled with excitement!
Chapter 1352
While Ves spotted various valuable wares, a lot of cheaper junk was for sale as well!
The place had the air of a flea market for distressed businessmen and other wealthy individuals. Each stall or store offered peculiar collections of goods that made Ves suspect that the owners simply cleaned out their vaults or offices and dumped them into the black market to raise some capital.
All of the sculptures, paintings and other works of art put on display had to come from somewhere.
None of the disguised figures threw a glance at these ornaments. In times of hardship, why would anyone want to spend their dwindling capital on useless status symbols?
"Art is the first to suffer during a period of deprivation." Gavin muttered.
"I'm not so sure about that, Benny. It is during the most difficult times that symbols become all the more important. Art can help unify a scattered people or keep hope alive."
"Well, tell that to all the fancy exotic-laden statues dumped in this underground market."
Ves smiled. "These gaudy or meaningless pieces of art only serve to satisfy the vanity of their owners. They are different from other forms of art that serve a societal function. The streets outside are filled with outpourings of emotions."
"You mean the graffiti plastered all over the walls of the abandoned buildings? All I saw was urban decay and a complete and utter neglect by the city government."
The two continued to argue with each other as they neared the closest stalls.
Ves found it refreshing to argue with Gavin. Despite their huge disparity in status, their common roots as well as their familiarity with each other made it so that his assistant didn't hesitate to voice his opinions.
Although there was a time and place for compliance and presenting a unified front, Ves always encouraged his gatekeeper to speak his mind. Good communication was essential in preventing any misunderstandings that might lead to a dysfunctional relationship.
As long as Gavin freely voiced his own opinions, Ves was much less likely to lose his grip on reality or make strange decisions.
If he pushed through with his choices regardless, at least he would do so knowing that he was doing something weird. Sometimes it got harder and harder for him to determine whether he was still acting normally at all.
"Meow."
"Oh? You're interested in this mineral, Lucky?"
Carrying his cat around almost defeated the purpose of their disguises. While Ves held Lucky underneath the dark and flowing robe he'd been issued, it wasn't every day that a visitor came along who brought a mechanical cat.
Well, Ves figured it was no big deal. He wouldn't be staying on Vindar VII for long. He already visited the three local mech designers he intended to have an exchange with. Other than shopping for curiosities, nothing here compelled him to stay.
To Lucky's disappointment, Ves declined to purchase the exotic shaped as a pockmarked yellow egg. The vendor greedily asked him to pay the equivalent of two billion bright credits.
He hated being ripped off! Ves didn't need to employ his spiritual senses to realize that the slimy and greedy salesman thought he was an easy mark!
Ves may be a mech designer, but he also sold mechs for a living. Although he couldn't really estimate the actual value of the egg-like mineral, it emanated very little energy, which meant it was likely a low-grade exotic.
If the Vendor demanded the equivalent of 2 million bright credits, then Ves would have said yes.
"Just let it go, Lucky. We'll find better stuff elsewhere."
"Meow!"
Though Lucky fussed and scratched underneath the robes, Ves resolutely turned away.
After passing over a few uninteresting stalls, he quickly found something of interest.
"Is that.. a shield generator?" Ves asked with some astonishment.
The bored seller perked up from his seat. "Why yes, dear sir! It is a modern, portable shield generator that is guaranteed to protect you from many threats! These devices are rarely sold outside of the heavily-regulated stores at Centerpoint!"
Ves inspected the shield generator and noted that it was not that different from his own. They shared a common origin. The same supplier likely sold a significant proportion of shield generators circulating in the Komodo Star Sector.
Since he possessed some familiarity with this type of device, he could immediately tell that it was an older model. Not only that, but its hidden charge indicator did not look very healthy.
"This shield generator is almost out of juice. There's only a five percent charge left." Ves flatly stated to the seller. "If the shield generator still comes with a decent amount of charge, then it shouldn't be languishing at your stall like a forgotten child."
The seller nervously laughed. "Hahaha, you have a sharp eye, foreigner."
Ves decided to apply his Spirituality to exert some pressure on the salesman. "This shield generator is almost worthless. It might be able to protect someone against small arms for a time, but even then its protection won't last. There are combat armors that offer much greater protection than this short-lasting gadget!"
"That's not true!" The seller dramatically protested. Evidently, the spiritual pressure exerted against the norm did not suppress his salesman instincts! "A shield generator can be an enormous life-safer in the right situations! It is much smaller and more concealable than wearing a conspicuous suit of combat armor! The utility of this shield generator is priceless in the right circumstances!"
"The key phrase here is right circumstances." Ves knocked his fist against the surface of the stall for emphasis. "What if I'm surrounded by a mob of rioters? What if a rifleman mech is aiming its humongous rifle at me? This ancient shield generator is only useful in an extremely limited set of circumstances!"
The two continued to argue over the merits of the shield generator for a few minutes. They began inserting price offers as well.
Eventually, Ves managed to negotiate the final price down to the equivalent of 553 million bright credits.
Ves did not even bother to pay attention to the local currency. He simply ordered Gavin take care of converting and transacting the money.
Once they concluded the trade, Ves walked away with a new shield generator in his pocket.
"Is that gadget truly worth paying the price of nine premium mechs?" Gavin asked with obvious skepticism. "I know enough about shield generators that they're a lot more valuable than the sum you paid, but its almost at the end of its life."
Ves only chuckled at that. "Hehe. This shield generator might be almost spent, but I might be able to breathe new life into this gadget."
The shield generator was an absolute steal! The seller should have obtained the device through irregular means, otherwise he wouldn't have sold it for such a cheap price!
During the bargaining, Ves quickly realized that the seller only possessed superficial information about shield generators. The man treated it as a finite, disposable protective device.
Once a shield generator ran out of energy, the device lost its value. The price that Ves had paid was close to what he might earn if he recycled the spent shield generator!
That was an enormous waste! If Ves proceeded to pull the shield generator apart and broke it down by material, a lot of active exotics incorporated in the device degraded enormously.
However, if Ves kept the shield generator intact and instead replaced its spent ultracompact battery with a new one, then much of the value of the device would be retained!
He could subsequently sell the shield generator for a fortune, but Ves wasn't stupid enough to do so. This was a shield generator! Aside from the one he received from Master Olson, Ves never managed to get his hands on a second one!
"One man's trash is another man's treasure." Ves satisfyingly gushed.
As long as he scrounged up the materials to cobble up an ultracompact battery, he had an extra means of possession.
The only issue that weighed on his mind was who he should lend the shield generator to if he managed to replace its charge.
Lucky didn't need it. The shield generator would completely ruin Lucky's adorable shape. This alone was a reason to rule out his cat!
What about Gavin? The man would surely appreciate the gift. Out of every person on his staff, Gavin was by far the most vulnerable because of his civilian background.
Yet Ves decisively crossed him off the list as well. As much as Ves appreciated Gavin's advice and friendship, his executive assistant was ultimately expendable.
If the worst ever happened, Ves might shed a tear at Gavin's funeral. However, as callous as it sounded, he would easily move on from the loss.
Obtaining another executive assistant to replace Gavin's job shouldn't be too difficult. Ves just had to find a trustworthy person among the crowd.
So if Lucky and Gavin fell out of consideration, who should he give it to instead?
Ketis emerged at the forefront of his thought. Unlike Gavin, Ves really didn't want her to die. He cared a lot about her and he wanted her to be safe.
Right now, she was far away from him. In addition, she wouldn't stick around forever. Ves felt very conflicted at the thought of gifting her a fully-working shield generator!
It was far more reasonable to issue the shield generator to Nitaa. As his loyal Kinner bondswoman, keeping his bodyguard alive effectively meant keeping himself alive as well.
Yet... why give away the shield generator at all? Why not make use of it himself? As far as he knew, nothing prevented him from wearing two shield generators under his clothes at a time!
Though the shield generators wouldn't work at the same time, using one after another effectively doubled his window of protection!
"Brilliant!" Ves lit up his eyes.
He could never protect himself too much! With all of the danger lurking in the shadows, Ves shouldn't let this opportunity pass him by. As much as he cared about the others, he was under no illusion that he would always be the primary target!
After obtaining this fantastic bargain, Ves eagerly browsed the wares for additional hidden gems.
Sadly, his hopes quickly dashed as he encountered an unending selection of artwork, useless trinkets and other knick knacks of little practical value.
Perhaps poignantly to Ves, he came face to face with a lot of trinkets celebrating the past glories of mech designers. Commemorative mech miniatures, old trophies and other awards all alluded to Vindar's once-lively mech industry.
Now, most of those mech designers went bankrupt, got fired or still presided over a husk of their mech companies. A golden trophy for winning a past mech design competition no longer held as much value as insuring one's basic needs.
"Mech designers are in a pretty bad shape in the Chuko Republic." Gavin remarked. "When money is easy to come by, a lot of mechs get sold. Now that hardly anyone can afford to buy a new mech, what's the point? Only those who are lucky to work for the government or military are still secure."
"That's the nature of doing business. It's inherently intertwined with risk." Ves sagely replied. "Mech designers are better off in this regard. They might lose all of their assets, but they can never be robbed of their knowledge. As long as they moved elsewhere, it's not impossible for them to start anew."
This was easier said than done. Foreign mech designers were hardly welcome in many states. Most Novices and Apprentices would never be able to make it as independent entrepreneurs.
Only Journeymen and higher enjoyed better opportunities. Regardless where they went, a high-ranking mech designer always had a use. Even Ves harbored some ambitions of hiring one, though keeping them loyal and subordinate to him was another problem entirely.
Of course, even if he gained the employment of a valuable Chukan mech designer, he still had to smuggle them out! With all surface-to-orbit traffic under the complete control of the local authorities, he could forget about sneaking a couple of mech designers out of Vindar VII!
Chapter 1353
Ves spent hours trawling through the underground black market. He found a lot of past glories of once-successful mech designers, business magnates, famed artists, entertainment stars and more.
A plethora of historical mementos of Vindar VII's once glorious high society turned into cheap and disposable souvenirs.
None of these trophies, awards and other aesthetically beautiful but functionally useless objects aroused his interests.
He focused his attention solely on the useful and practical items among the trash.
Unfortunately, he was far from the only buyer who trawled the black markets for hidden gems. Savvy buyers who perused the wares much earlier than Ves already picked up the most obvious treasures with considerable utility or resale value.
The goods that remained failed to impress Ves at all.
So far, he only obtained the nearly-spent shield generator as a bargain, and he couldn't put it to use immediately. He still had to find a way to cobble up an expensive ultracompact battery to truly revitalize his second-hand gadget.
"It might be your stuff that would be put up for sale one day." Gavin muttered.
"Unlikely." Ves shook his head underneath his hood. "All of the mech designers who got ruined are mostly the low-ranking ones. Seniors are still well-off while Journeymen can also find employment from the government if they don't have anywhere else to go. It's just that a couple of mech designers such as Old Man Terrence are too proud to abandon their past accomplishments."
It was not as if mech designers literally starved on the streets. The demand for domestically-produced mechs had simply dried up. Mech buyers were short on money and did not wish to squander their dwindling reserves on mechs made more expensive due to the scarcity of materials.
With so many enterprising mech designers running out of business, they had no choice but to find alternative employment. Working for the government or larger mech companies who still managed to make ends meet had always been reliable refuges for mech designers with at least some level of skill.
These kinds of transitions already took place in better economies such as that of the Bright Republic. The only difference between his home state and the Chuko Republic was that the latter's bar for success had been raised to a ridiculous height.
In this awful business climate, hardly any Novice or Apprentice could keep their independent businesses aloft!
"Maybe you have a point, boss. Mechs designed by Novices and Apprentices always compete on price. In an economy where the supply of raw materials are constrained, their only advantage of offering cost-effective mechs is gone. Who wants to buy an inferior mech that practically costs the same of a superior mech designed by someone better?"
"The availability and affordability of materials is critical." Ves emphatically noted. "As long as the materials required to produce a mech are unavailable or priced out of proportion, it isn't viable for a mech manufacturer to produce their mechs."
"I bet when scarcity hit the Chuko Republic, the bigger mech manufacturers probably managed to make a deal with the surviving suppliers. As for the smaller mech companies..."
"They're too far down the line." Ves noted. "Even the troubled raw material suppliers seek certainty and stability in troubling times. They don't care about the small fry. Maintaining favorable relations with a Senior or well-performing Journeyman is far more important than keeping thousands of inconsequential Apprentices afloat."
The harder it got, the more ability and competence mattered. Only in a prosperous and bountiful mech market offered enough space for low-ranking mech designers to do business.
Ever since he founded his company, the LMC operated in a relatively good business climate. Even during the height of the recent war, the Bright Republic's robust infrastructure ensured reasonably stable distribution of vital materials.
This was to the credit of the Bright Republic, whose long history of wars had forced the government to invest in various measures that ensured the continued flow of goods and materials to Bentheim even with the Vesians wreaking havoc on the Brighter supply lines.
Yet what if the supply of materials dried up to a much greater extent? What if prices of the materials that remained for sale multiplied by two? Could the LMC still stay in business in such an unfavorable climate?
No.
Even if the LMC mostly sold premium mechs at generous profits, it was exactly the upper end the mech market that declined the most!
With every outfit and mech buyer facing diminishing reserves of money, they could hardly afford to splurge on expensive, high-performing mechs.
From what Ves had observed of the Chuko Republic's anemic mech market, the most predominant mechs sold these days fell into the budget category.
Consumers no longer indulged in luxury. Subjective taste made way for pure practicality. Mech models aimed at maximizing the price-to-performance ratio in an inexpensive package dominated Chuko's mech market.
The sad thing about it was that most mechs sold in the Chuko Republic consisted of imported mechs!
States that didn't suffer from Chuko's instability and deteriorating market circumstances still retained their strong economic advantages. Foreign mech manufacturers eagerly swooped into Chuko like hungry vultures and outcompeted the faltering domestic mech companies!
Having observed all of these interactions and seen the consequences of failure through all of the goods put up for sale, Ves fell into an increasingly contemplative mood.
He intended to visit different locales in order to learn. Already, the Chuko Republic taught him many valuable lessons.
The one he grappled with right now was the importance of preparing for adverse economic circumstances.
"My company isn't set up to survive a disaster that has struck the Chuko Republic." Ves morosely declared.
"To be honest, we've only ever experienced growth, boss. There has never been a period where our growth has declined. The worst periods we've lived through was when our sales started stalling."
"That's nothing compared to the calamities that have befallen the Chukan mech companies."
Both Ves and Gavin saw the need to shore up the LMC's reserves so that it could continue to operate during extremely difficult times.
"I'll raise some suggestions to the folks back home." Gavin muttered. "While I don't think the Bright Republic will deteriorate to the level of the Chuko Republic, it's best to take some precautions while times are still good. It will be far too late to implement new measures while we are in the middle of a crisis period."
Ves waved his hand, signalling his assent. "It's a bit irresponsible for a company as large and significant as mine to overlook proper crisis management. It's evident that a lot of mech companies on Vindar VII haven't done that enough."
To be honest, the implications did not concern him too much. If the LMC ever shuttered due to catastrophic circumstances, Ves would still be okay. His ability as a Journeyman guaranteed that he'd be able to regain what he lost and surpass his old accomplishments.
The only requirement to do so was to remain free and unfettered from any existing shackles. The Chuko Republic experienced such a severe brain drain that they strongly held onto their existing talent.
If Ves ever got caught up in such a net, he could forget about starting his business anew!
He wouldn't be immune to these circumstances even if he started to operate from an expeditionary fleet. There may be times during his upcoming grand expedition where his fleet might stumble into a region with enormous troubles.
Keeping his expeditionary fleet under his control would be a major challenge. He also had to take into account that the regional business climate may become so unfavorable that his operations would have to keep running at a deficit.
Planning for these circumstances could make the difference between a successful expedition and total failure.
As Ves continued to weigh the additional preparations he needed to do to shore up the grand expedition, Fe Nitaa suddenly bumped him with her armored hand.
"Sir, I've detected something critical at the shop ahead of us. It's an item that might prove very vital to you in the future."
He followed her subtle direction to what appeared to be a gaudy golden figurine of a human DNA strand. "What's so special about this ornament?"
"The smell of it is unusual, sir. Upon further study, I believe it is a one-time receiver from.. the cult. These receivers are often handed to moles in deep cover."
Ves widened his eyes. The cult in this case could only mean the Five Scrolls Compact!
"Will you be able to use this receiver?" He whispered back.
"I'll only be able to determine if it has received a message. As for interpreting the contents, it's unlikely that I'll be able to overcome the encryption."
"Then what use is the receiver?"
"For objects of this nature, security is paramount. It works through very different principles from ordinary receivers. I doubt you'll be able to detect anything amiss when you point your multiscanner at it. The only cost to this disguise is that it will only be able to receive a single short message before it no longer works. The cult therefore only passes these objects on to agents planted in very critical positions with orders to act normal for years or even decades. Not even the cult itself retains any records on their moles in order to ensure maximum confidentiality!"
That was quite a scary method! Who knew if someone important secretly worked for the Compact?
"I see. If the cult takes so many precautions to keep their moles secure, then they won't send anything but the most critical messages to these one-time receivers. For example, the arrival of reinforcements followed by the mobilization of many hidden assets spread throughout the star sector."
The message sent to the one-time receiver might carry a different message entirely. Yet if the receiver remained dormant for an entire decade, only to become active shortly afterwards, then that might signal something ominous!
The envoys of the mythical Ruined Temples may have arrived at the Nyxian Gap!
"Alright, you've convinced me." He said. "Let's go buy it. If it is truly issued by the cult, then it may hold more surprises."
Obtaining the ornament depicting a golden DNA strand posed no challenge to Ves. Because of its lack of utility, Ves managed to snag it for the equivalent of fifty-thousand bright credits.
Even then, he probably paid at least three times its apparent worth. The seller grinned gleefully at earning a hefty profit.
Ves passed the object on to Nitaa, who had to retract the armored gauntlets of her combat armor in order to study the ornament by touch.
"Anything?"
"It's definitely related. I'm sure. As for what else this receiver holds, I'm afraid I can't say."
"That's fine. I'll take it to my lab and see if I can find anything noteworthy."
He didn't have much hopes of finding anything in the scan results. If the Five Scrolls Compact readily issued these items to their moles, then they were probably capable of defeating nearly every scanner in existence!
Only a nose as remarkable as Nitaa's had been able to sniff it out! Not even Ves with his spiritual senses had been able to sense anything amiss!
In fact, Ves had scoured more than half of the black market by now and hadn't found a single object that reacted to his Spirituality!
Ves encountered very few exotics for sale. Most exotics in the collections of mech designers possessed very high resale value if they hadn't been processed.
His hopes of stumbling another sample of the P-stone began to fade. Perhaps the only reason why he hadn't given up entirely was because the P-stone's true value was not apparent on the surface. Most people mistook it as a marginal low-grade exotic with extremely dubious value.
Sadly, after another hour of trawling the offerings, Ves made no more gains.
The shield generator and the one-time Compact receiver had been his only gains from this visit.
"I've seen enough. Let's return." Ves instructed.
Chapter 1354
Once Ves had his fill of the black market, he and his group left through the same method of shuttling between a number of blacked-out aircars.
Nothing amiss took place, though Ves half-expected something to happen. Nitaa and Lucky constantly remained on high alert in case the aircar brought them somewhere dangerous.
Ves especially trusted Lucky as the aircar's attempt to blind its occupants failed to work on the cat. If his pet wanted to glimpse outside, he could simply phase through the structure of the vehicle.
Fortunately, Commander Meivin's promises stayed true. Ves encountered no attempted robberies or extortion or anything like that. The black markets on Vindar VII couldn't afford to scare away the few foreign buyers who were brave enough to frequent their sites and inject some extremely valuable hard currency in the local economy.
Ves had money. A lot of money. He also showed his willingness to spend his fortune. That made him a king among beggars in the Chuko Republic.
The way Commander Meivin regarded Ves had obviously increased by a few notches. Spending the equivalent of half a billion bright credits on a single transaction spoke volumes about his foreign employer's financial strength!
The Vindar Dustravens snagged a loaded client!
From the way Commander Meivin looked so satisfied, Ves was sure that the Dustravens received a commission for the money he spent at the venues he was brought to. This was already to his expectations.
As long as everyone amply benefited from the current arrangements, they wouldn't be tempted to resort to more unpleasant options to earn a big payday.
Ves knew that this was simply the price of getting in bed with a local snake.
Once everyone finally returned to the hotel, Ves went up to his room and called up Nitaa to study the DNA-strand figurine in greater detail.
Lucky sniffed the hand-sized ornament with a curious expression.
"Meow."
"It's okay, Lucky. Your nose is just geared in a different way." Ves soothed his disappointed cat as he configured the settings of his Vulcaneye.
Right now, Lucky covered the entire hotel room in his ECM field. This posed a lot of hindrances to his multiscanner's operation, but different from inferior devices, his Vulcaneye could pierce through the jamming as long as Ves held it very close and dialed up its power.
In the meantime, Nitaa kept turning the disguised receiver in her hands as she tried to decipher its secrets.
No luck.
"I really can't tell anything about this statue aside from what I've already determined." She said with a downcast expression. "The only other guess I can make is that it may have been designed to be identifiable to people with empowered noses like mine."
Ves agreed with her assessment. "That is a very strong possibility. Even if the Compact has done its best to erase any records of their hidden moles, they still need some way of tracing them somehow. I think it's quite ingenious since I doubt even the MTA or the CFA developed means of tracing these mysterious scents."
This also meant that they might be incurring some risks in carrying the ornament around. Who knew if they'd be approached by a Compact agent one day who held the mistaken belief that Ves and Nitaa were hidden assets of the cult!
Nonetheless, as long as carrying the one-time receiver did not lead to immediate hostilities, Ves found the risks acceptable.
The object represented his canary in the coalmine! As long as it started hooting, they would know that something drastic had changed.
Otherwise, by the time Ves realized that he should launch his grand expedition, the Compact bloodhounds might have already marked him as a person of interest!
That reminded him of another priority for this trip. He should really look into obtaining more geril spice. In fact, Ves wanted to do more than buying the finished product. He desired to obtain the unique plants the Nyxians processed into their trademark pungent spice!
"Will geril spice be able to obscure the smell of this trinket?" Ves curiously asked. "It might be prudent to hide it from your former compatriots. I only want it for its ability to receive a critical message."
"It's worth a try."
Ves retrieved his packet of geril spice from his pocket and sprinkled it over the figurine. Though it looked rather silly of him to flavor an inedible object, Fe Nitaa looked optimistic.
"I think it worked. The spice won't stay fresh when exposed to open air, but as long as it remains effective, I can't distinguish the hidden receiver anymore."
This was a welcome development. With one less worry on their minds, they continued to study the ornament.
Sadly, they made no further gains. His System-bought Vulcaneye scanned the object at close range in multiple modes, but all of the data he received indicated that it was nothing but a piece of decoration made with slightly-valuable materials.
His multiscanner detected absolutely no circuitry, crystals or other weird objects that might be responsible for receiving a transmitted message. The object presented a very interesting puzzle to Ves. His knowledge on signals and communication was too shallow to even begin to fathom how the object functioned as a signal receiver.
After they stopped their investigation, he waved Nitaa to the side while calling Gavin to his room.
As Ves sat while idly playing with Lucky, Gavin took his seat at the couch opposite to his own.
"What's up, boss?"
"With everything I've observed so far, I think it's time to fill you in on the details of one of my more ambitious plans."
Ves began to enlighten his assistant of his grand expedition. Though Gavin might have picked up some clues just by interacting so much with his boss, this was the first time he heard of something so incredibly significant!
"This is.. this is crazy!"
"It's not as outlandish as it sounds, Benny. What I'm doing is no different from what the spaceborn clans have been doing for millenia. I'm simply doing it on a temporary basis."
"Even so, abandoning a fixed and stable career in the Komodo Star Sector for the unknown doesn't make any sense!"
It did made sense. Just not to someone working on incomplete information like Gavin.
Even if Ves did not communicate the threat of the Five Scrolls Compact to Gloriana, she still bought his excuses of accelerating his progression by experiencing new cultures.
"Look, I've already made up my mind on this decision. I've also filled Gloriana who has already begun to make her own preparations on her end."
Seeing how it was hopeless to persuade Ves from changing his course, Gavin moved on to the consequences.
"The LMC back home won't be the same without your presence." He stated. "Mech companies are highly defined by their lead designers. Unless you can find a mech designer with stature to hold the fort, the LMC's growth will inevitably be hampered."
"I've already said that it's fine. We can compensate for the slowdown in growth in the Komodo Star Sector by fostering growth elsewhere. That's one of the purposes of the grand expedition."
"I'm not sure if you'll be able to succeed. You're still a foreigner, after all." Gavin pointed out.
Ves smirked. "I think the unique advantages that my mechs have to offer will definitely appeal to customers regardless of their origins or cultural backgrounds."
They began to discuss the greater implications to the company if Ves really brought a significant chunk of people along.
"The company will be split up if you do this, boss. The employees who volunteer to join your expedition will develop in a different manner than the employees you left behind. Will the latter still hold any admiration towards you when you've been so distant for so long?"
Ves casually waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Most of the LMC's workers aren't critical. They are cogs in the machine. If a couple of cogs have turned rusty, we can easily replace them with new ones."
"Is that how you see your employees? As cogs in a machine?"
"I'm a mech designer, Benny. As long as someone is replaceable, they're not worth excessive consideration. If my employees get grumpy just because the boss of the company isn't physically present, then why are they working for the LMC in the first place?"
"You.. it sounds as if you don't care about the LMC anymore."
Ves shook his head in denial. "I still care, but it's not as critical to my development as you think. As long as the company falls in line, it is still a valuable asset."
He needed to make a lot of money if he wanted to fund his future research and development projects. The only caveat was that the money did not have to come from the LMC.
Gavin still looked disturbed. He could foresee the enormous amounts of damage the grand expedition might do to the LMC's cohesion.
As someone who was involved in the company at its earlier stages, Gavin possessed a lot of emotional attachment to the LMC!
"If you're gone from the LMC, you still need to leave someone behind at its headquarters to represent your interests."
"Calsie has been doing a good job so far."
"She might not be enough." Gavin warned. "Even though she's my friend, she is far from ready to assume the highest post. She has made her doubts pretty clear to me during our private discussions. You'll have to find someone else to take the helm of the portion of the LMC that you are leaving behind."
That was a difficult issue. Other than Calsie, Ves could think of no other person to lead his mech company in his absence.
"Um, what about you, Benny?"
"Hahahaha! I'll be honest. I never thought about sitting on the big chair. I don't have what it takes to inspire confidence and to ensure stability over the company!"
Well, that left Ves with very little names aside from the senior retainers sent by the Larkinson Family.
Just as Ves was contemplating some alternatives, Gavin made a strange suggestion.
"Why not place a Larkinson at the top? There are so many Larkinsons in your family that have the leadership ability and experience to preside over a company. While they might not be up to speed on how to run a mech company, they can always learn on the job. The most important factor is that they have the spine to be in charge of thousands of employees and billions of credits worth of assets."
That caused Ves to interrupt his other thoughts. Put a Larkinson in charge?
If it was in the past, the idea would have repelled him. The LMC was his baby, and he did not want his family members swoop in and freeload off his hard work and accomplishments.
Yet as the LMC continued to expand, his ability to influence the company continued to diminish. It had grown too big for him to implement arbitrary decisions and expect the entire company to play along.
His extremely sudden decision to go on a grand expedition in the future was exactly the kind of development that might fracture the LMC!
This made it all the more important for him to place someone trustworthy but also authoritative enough to hold the LMC together when its lead designer merrily began his decades-long adventure.
In addition, ever since Ves advanced to Journeyman, he began to value his own progression over the growth of his company. Although the two were intricately related, Ves would not face total ruin if the LMC ended up mismanaged.
"I think your suggestion has a lot of merit." Ves slowly said. "Try and come up with a list of Larkinsons with the requisite leadership or business experience that can take over as director or CEO."
Obviously, Ves did not completely think through what his departure from the star sector would mean to the company he left behind. He founded the Living Mech Corporation to help him fulfill his dream of propagating a different kind of mech.
If he failed to manage the upcoming changes properly, all of his previous efforts in building up his company might go to waste!
Chapter 1355
Ves and Gavin held a very fruitful discussion about maintaining the stability and continuity of the LMC if the grand expedition ever took place.
Obviously, the LMC likely wouldn't be as it once were, but perhaps that was for the better. By slowly implementing multiple policies over the following years, Ves might be able to minimize the shock of the sudden departure of the lead designer.
"Right now, the LMC is very much centered around you." Gavin noted. "That's not inherently bad because it simply reflects the truth that mech companies are all about their mech designers."
The lack of mech designers under the LMC's employ had been a consistent weak point for Ves. When he left the Komodo Star Sector in order to go on his grand expedition, he would not only deprive the LMC of the personal presence of its founder and CEO, but also its sole lead designer!
Naturally, Ves could still remain in touch via comm calls and remote conferencing and the like.
However, time and time again it has been proved that running a company completely by remote was not a healthy development for the long term. This made it all the more important that he placed competent surrogates in the positions he left behind.
In essence, this not only meant he had to prioritize the director, but also the presiding mech designer at the Mech Nursery!
Right now, Ves could at least resort to promoting a proven Larkinson as the director of his company. Yet who could fill the huge void he left behind in his paltry design team?
Ketis would have been perfect for the position. Bright, resourceful and loyal, she was the perfect candidate to head all mech design-related matters that needed to be addressed back home.
Yet she had made her opinion about returning to the Swordmaidens abundantly clear. Her attachment to Ves and the LMC could never overcome her devotion to her fellow sisters.
It would have been great if the Swordmaidens moved to Cloudy Curtain...
The idea suddenly interrupted his train of thought. What if it was possible to take the Swordmaidens out of the frontier and place them in civilized space?
Such an operation would not be easy. Civilized space repelled pirates for a very good reason. Smuggling in Ketis might have been okay as she was just a single person with a very good counterfeit identity. Smuggling in hundreds of slaving, robbing pirates was another thing altogether!
Even if Ves somehow found a way to forge the identities of so many women who popped up out of nowhere, would they even agree? The Swordmaidens explicitly fought for the daughters of the frontier who lived much worse lives than the women in civilized space. Their central mission was incompatible to moving to civilized space.
The only way the Swordmaidens might willingly decide to accept the offer to move to civilized space was if they were no longer able to survive in the frontier.
Whether this would happen or not depended on how well Commander Dise managed her outfit's relations with the local pirate powers of the Faris Star Region.
Ves mentally put this unrealistic option aside. He couldn't rely on lucky breaks to retain Ketis in his company. He would have to find someone else who could take his place and address any acute design-related problems at the Mech Nursery.
After swapping a few ideas with Gavin, the executive assistant came with another surprising idea.
"Why not resort to your family again, boss? Aren't your relatives in the process of raising a few bright seeds to potentially inherit your mantle?"
The suggestion had some merit, but Ves quickly shook his head. "The young Larkinsons being nurtured as mech designers are way too juvenile. Even if they can graduate from a good mech university in time, they'll be way too green to handle most of the problems that might pop up from time to time."
"They can always call you if they need your help."
"That's true, but I'm not always available. What if I end up in an anomalous zone? What if the expeditionary fleet is being pursued by pirates? A lot can happen when I'm away from the Mech Nursery. The mech designers that I've left behind will have to be adaptable and resourceful enough to handle all kinds of difficult technical problems."
Perhaps one way to solve this problem was to feed some candies to the young seeds. With brighter minds, they could breeze through their mech design courses and maybe even receive additional nurturing.
Yet the lack of struggle in learning might breed arrogance and complacency in the seeds. Ves encountered plenty of spoiled brats in his profession to realize that it was better if mech designers were tested beforehand than if they were thrown head-first in a situation where mistakes could plunge the LMC into ruin!
Someone like his old friend Carlos would have been a great choice. Hardened by his wartime experience, his friend possessed a much greater practical grasp on mech design than any fresh graduate.
Yet that was not an option in this case.
Ves sighed. He still had a decade to address this problem, so his current lack of choices did not reflect the future.
"Let's shelve this issue for later. We might not have a dearth of candidates when the time comes to make a decision. Is there anything else you believe we need to address?"
"Hmm..." Gavin thought for a moment. In truth, he still worried about many issues, but most of those problems could be solved by others. Only a few required special attention. "You've already thought about most of the critical issues, but what about your destination?"
"I've already selected some options, but I haven't made up my mind yet." Ves admitted. "There are too many choices, to be honest. Many star sectors in the galactic rim have their own distinct inclinations. It's too difficult to make a choice right now."
Star clusters usually consisted of multiple varied star sectors. It was quite rare to see a homogenous star cluster unless a powerful first-rate state gobbled everything up and turned it into their own playground.
Most star sectors developed rather independently from each other. While the Komodo Star Sector lacked a distinguishing trait due to its relative youth, other star sectors may be different.
With a lot more history under their belt, older star sectors already developed a lot of distinctive characteristics.
Each of them offered very interesting circumstances for him to focus his exploration towards.
For example, one star sector might be filled with religious states, while another had fully converted to the bestial supremacy movement.
The mechs designed from these eclectic states all inherited some of the characteristics of these distinct cultures. Ves mentally salivated at the thought of witnessing a huge variety of strange and unusual mechs.
Just as he began to mention some of his favorite options, a knock sounded at the door. Ves ordered Lucky to deactivate his ECM field before commanding the door to slide open.
Fe Nitaa entered the room with a somewhat troubling expression. "My apologies, sir. Miss Gloriana Wodin called. She is quite insistent on speaking with you this instant."
"Is it urgent?"
His bodyguard shook her head but merely repeated her words. "She is quite insistent."
That must be quite an understatement if Ves gauged Gloriana correctly. He helplessly waved his hand. "Let's resume this discussion later, Gavin. Go ahead and inform Calsie of my plan. She will have to prepare the LMC for the upcoming transition as well."
"Will do, boss. You're really putting us in a difficult spot, though. The LMC would be much better off if you stayed behind."
"A mech company's strength is determined by the strength of their lead designers, Benny. If there is an opportunity for me to progress faster in a sustainable fashion, I won't hesitate to take it. The next few decades may be challenging, but the payoff will be more than worth it for myself and the company."
"By that time, many of the workers who joined the LMC at the start will have retired by then." Gavin morosely muttered.
His remark reflected the lack of understanding between normal people and mech designers. As a Journeyman, Ves had already crossed the extraordinary threshold and therefore became increasingly more inscrutable. Even his assistant, who had spent a long time by his side, couldn't figure him out sometimes!
This problem would only exacerbate as Ves continued to progress and distance himself from his normal human roots.
Once Gavin and Nitaa left the room, he accepted Gloriana's thirty-seventh call attempt.
The woman that appeared looked grumpy. And gorgeous. Dressed in a body-hugging white sweater that accentuated her slenderness and a skirt that showed off her delicate legs, his 'girlfriend' immediately appealed to him in a very primal way.
"Gloriana." He began. "You look.. pretty."
"Oh? Just pretty?" Glorian twirled a lustrous lock of her raven hair. "Is that the extent of what I deserve?"
"You're gorgeous! If you weren't in front of me as a projection, I would have embraced you by now!"
"Hihihi! That's better!"
After a bit of small talk, they settled down. The reason why Gloriana called was because she finally received some news about the promises she made.
"I've been looking into how to obtain a factory ship with the specifications we need." She began with a serious tone. "The Wodin Dynasty owns stock in many different businesses spread through the Hegemony. We have close ties to a number of shipbuilding companies and have commissioned them to build many of my dynasty's starships. The only problem is..."
"Factory ships are expensive. And complicated."
Gloriana nodded. "Exactly. As much as I want to commission the best, I don't have the money to afford one. Even if I contribute to numerous mech design projects in the next ten years, I still won't be able to pay off more than a tenth of the cost!"
"We don't need the best. As long as they are properly built, we can always upgrade them later. Also, we don't have to commission a second-class factory ship from your home state. It's a lot more affordable to commission a third-class factory ship so that—"
"—NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! I WILL NOT TRAVEL AROUND WITH YOU IN A SHABBY RUST BUCKET!"
"..."
Ves was afraid of this. Gloriana's perfectionist tendencies had cropped up in the worst time!
"Gloriana... unless your Wodin Dynasty helps with the financing, there's no way we can obtain a good ship. I've seen the prices the shipbuilding companies charge for this class of vessels. Why not look for cheaper alternatives such as buying a second-hand factory ship?"
"No! Don't speak nonsense, Ves! I will not have our time together be ruined by inadequate facilities and equipment breakdowns! Our factory ship will be our flagship and our home for the next couple of decades! Our children will grow up running through the halls!"
"Err.. kids?" Ves became stumped.
Wasn't this too fast?!
"We owe it to our cute little children to provide the best nurturing environment!"
As Ves still puzzled over the mention of kids, Gloriana already moved on as if this issue wasn't in question!
"Don't worry, Ves. I don't expect you to be able to help me in the financing. I can manage on my own, I think. I've been sounding out my parents and the rest of the Wodin Dynasty for a potential deal. With my potential, I'm sure I can get them to agree to an accommodation. The only concern I have is that they might make some problematic demands."
Factory ships were expensive, so even the Wodin Dynasty wouldn't be able to shrug off their cost. Even if Gloriana was a part of the family, there were rules she needed to abide by. No one was allowed to squander the dynasty's fortunes!
"Please don't make too many promises." Ves pleaded. "We don't need all the latest toys and whistles!"
His girlfriend completely ignored his words! "You don't have to worry about anything, Ves! If everything goes well, the shipbuilding company will begin construction of our fantastic new factory ship in a couple of years! Our new vessel will put all the other privately-owned factory ships in the Hegemony to shame!"
Chapter 1356
Ves let out an exasperated sigh as he ended his call with Gloriana. His 'girlfriend' showed almost no regard to his input! It was as if only her opinion counted!
"She's so high maintenance." He lamented.
He predicted that this would become a recurring problem. Ves should feel lucky that Gloriana at least didn't impose unattainable demands such as trying to obtain a first-class factory ship built by the MTA or a first-rate superstate!
In addition, even if Gloriana asked for much, right now she did not place any expectations on Ves to help her pay for her expenses! As a Hexer, she already assumed the role of the primary earner!
In essence, even though she was a high-maintenance girlfriend, she essentially paid for herself!
Ves shouldn't have anything to complain about. Yet why did he feel awful? As a man, he really felt diminished in front of Gloriana!
If he earned enough money to pay for the factory ship, then he wouldn't be bowing his head in front of her all the time!
"I have to do something about this in the future." Ves slammed his fist against his palm. "I can't keep leeching off her money all the time!"
Designing third-class mechs wouldn't cut it in the long term. Even if he sold billions of them over the next half century, he would still be unable to catch up to his girlfriend!
If Ves wanted to make the really big bucks, he would have to venture into designing second-class mechs at some point.
"I should start studying their design principles." He determined after some thought. "Although it's not going to be easy for me to become familiar with the properties of second-class mechs, the earlier I begin my familiarization, the sooner I can take off in this entirely different class of mech market."
He added yet another goal in his long list of objectives he had to fulfill. The amount of design projects he would have to complete in order to shorten his to-do list became quite burdensome!
Designing a complete collection of third-class mechs already demanded a lot of time, but adding a whole raft of second-class mech designs on top of that threatened to overwhelm his agenda!
If he wanted to design the largest amount of mechs in the least time possible, Ves needed to prioritize the nurturing of a large and robust design team!
Yet where could he obtain the subordinate mech designers that could make up such a vital group?
So far, Ves possessed a rather mixed relationship in the mech industry. His Class IX design philosophy, his past public antics along with his Devil Tongue nickname already turned him into an unpalatable figure!
If not for his astounding and remarkable effects of his design philosophy, Ves might not have any chance to attract other mech designers!
"It's too bad I haven't been able to buy any mech designers from the Kinner Tribe." He rubbed his chin. "Even if I did, they generally won't amount to anything anyway."
The education system of the Kinner Tribe firmly emphasized quantity rather than quality.
The Kinners in general already made for poor mech designers due to their lack of creativity and ingenuity. Combined with the way they were raised, hardly any Kinners managed to advance to Journeyman, let alone the higher ranks!
Even slaves in spirit if not in name had their limits!
The special properties often popped up in his mind recently. So far, the Kinners he hired or bought at Bloodstone all performed to his satisfaction.
Fe Nitaa and Michael Crindon already served as his additional left and right arms. Their addition into his staff considerably improved his personal and virtual security presence.
As for the Battle Criers, Ves called up Commander Hugin Cinnabar to his hotel room to discuss their employment.
"How have your Battle Criers been faring so far under my service?"
"It's a bit more quiet than we are used to, but that is not a bad thing, Mr. Larkinson." The red-bearded man replied seriously. "Overall, we like what we see, but we haven't experienced enough to make up our minds. There are some Battle Criers who are in favor of working for you on a permanent basis, but there are also doubters in my rank who are holding out for a better employer."
"I'm sure that will change at the end of this trip." Ves confidently smiled. "Is there anything you want to say?"
The Kinner mercenary commander shrugged. "Nothing much. I do appreciate the trust you put into us. Despite being Kinners, we've dealt with plenty of employers who mistrusted us or think their judgement is better. I'm very grateful that you've left most of the operational decisions to me. My men won't easily listen to other people's orders."
Ves hadn't done anything exceptional in this regard. Commander Cinnabar was an experienced and competent mercenary commander, so Ves did not hesitate to delegate every decision concerning his mech security detail to the Kinner leader.
"How are the two Ingvar siblings doing so far in your service?"
Imon and Casilla Ingvar still remained on the Ion Tracker high up in orbit. As spaceborn mech pilots, they played no role on the surface.
The same applied to Commander Cinnabar as well, but he fell back to coordinating the escort detail while staying close.
The Kinner grinned. "Casella has been adjusting pretty well. The woman is a lot humbler than what I expected out of noble brats. She's got a smart head as well and learns quickly. It's a shame she's rather stiff. Despite her willingness to adjust, she still hasn't let go of her highborn roots."
"What about Imon Ingvar?"
The mention of the male Ingvar caused the commander to grimace. "He's adjusted less than well. He's always dragging his heels whenever we give him an assignment. Casella has tried to persuade her brother to behave numerous times, but she hasn't managed to get the stubborn kid to adjust his snobbish attitude."
"Keep working on it." Ves responded. "If we ever stumble across trouble in the coming months, just throw the Ingvars head-first into the fighting. If Imon happens to survive the encounter, I'm sure he'll have a much higher appreciation of your Battle Criers and a much better assessment of his own strength."
"You sure about that?"
"I hired them to protect me and fight on my behalf. If they aren't even willing to do that, they're not worth the money I've thrown at their feet. No one is allowed to slack off under my employ!"
While Ves still possessed a considerable interest in the Ingvar twins, he wouldn't be able to make use of them as long as their old attitudes remained.
Unlike the Kinners, Imon and Casella couldn't be bought. As ordinary mercenaries, the Ingvar siblings could pack up their bags and leave whenever their contract ran its course.
If Ves wanted to make use of their remarkable spiritual potential, he first had to win them over!
He had several ways of doing that. One method would be to pamper them and proactively invest in their development. Yet the thought of investing so much money and other resources into improving a pair of mech pilots with uncertain loyalties left a sour taste in his mouth.
What if they subsequently decide to leave and use their elevated abilities for someone else's benefits?
Investing in human resources only made sense if those resources remained in his possession!
Therefore, Ves concluded that the first step to securing their allegiance was to adjust their personalities and attitudes.
What better way to force them to go through a reality check then to throw them in the middle of a battle? According to their stories, neither Ingvar twins actually fought a real battle as of yet. House Ingvar fell way too quickly for them to put their training to good use.
"What is the overall risk of encountering pirates or other threats while we travel through the Redwell Province?"
"Not that high, sir." Cinnabar confidently replied. "Our Battle Criers might look shabby, but our battle accomplishments can't be faked. Pirates and the like know better than to attack a fleet like ours. Not only can we outrun most attackers, but we'll fight like hell if they manage to corner us. Sacrificing so many mechs and mech pilots just to attack you doesn't make much sense."
Pirates preyed on the weak and avoided the strong. While Ves and his escorts fell somewhere in between, that was enough for most of the pirates and irregulars operating in the Redwell Province to let them pass.
Too much risk and not enough payoff! Unless the attackers specifically targeted Ves, there shouldn't be any reason for them to be attacked!
Regardless of these circumstances, Ves knew better than to assume he wouldn't be attacked along the way. He had seen way too many stupid pirates to believe that each of them would adhere to logic.
In addition, the sophisticated listening devices inserted in his hotel room the other day did not portend any good.
"Be on the lookout for any threats targeted in our direction." Ves warned. "What do you think about Commander Meivin and the Dustravens?"
"They're reliable so far. I don't regret introducing them to you. It's only..."
"What's the problem?"
The commander frowned. "I've been spending a lot of time with Meivin lately, and while he's still an old friend, he's a changed man."
"He strikes me as a Bloodweller."
"My thoughts exactly. While he's professional enough to keep his political inclinations from interfering with his work, I'm concerned that the Whitewellers will try something."
That sounded weird to Ves. "The Whitewellers can't attack us in the open. As citizens who are agitating to defect to the Hinson Protectorate, they can't afford to be seen as attacking a Hegemony-aligned mech designer."
"You know how these things are done. The assailants will never reveal their true allegiances."
That was true, Ves admitted. "I'm sure we can stay secure as long as we travel along the most frequented routes."
"That won't protect you in every instance. Many star systems are too big for patrols to cover every transition zone. The system patrols may also be less-than-enthusiastic about repelling pirates due to bribes, incompetence or lack of funding. Mixing up with the Dustravens only complicates our security situation even further as we can no longer claim to be strictly neutral."
That last point sounded very important!
"So what you're suggesting is that hiring the Dustravens may have afforded us protection against the elements of his own faction, but attracted the hostility of the opposing faction?"
"Correct, sir. While the Whitewallers aren't known for taking proactive action or launching attacks, they aren't as scattered and defenseless as you think. We'll have to be prepared for every eventuality."
With how serious Commander Cinnabar sounded, Ves could not maintain his nonchalance. Though he still maintained his confidence that he could come on top of almost every crisis that might occur during his stay in the Redwell Province, taking some extra precautions didn't hurt.
"Should we hire some extra mercenaries?"
Cinnabar shook his head. "That will only muddle the situation even further. Each mercenary corps that managed to survive in these difficult times have all attached themselves to a faction or powerful influence. It's not a good idea to mix them up."
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
"Leave the Redwell Province as fast as possible."
"Out of the question. I still have at least a couple of destinations to go. There are several mech designers in Redwell that I still want to conduct an exchange with. They all reside in the safer parts of the province, so the risks of traveling to them aren't unreasonable."
Sadly, Commander Cinnabar hadn't been able to come up with any other suggestions. It was hard to improve their security situation any further without hiring additional mercenaries or leaving the troubled Chuko Republic.
"Sir, I really don't think you're making the right choice here. The chance that we'll come under attack will only grow larger the longer we linger in the Redwell Province."
Ves grinned. To him, that didn't necessarily sound like a bad thing. As long as their assailants didn't outnumber them, Ves was sure he could gain some benefits from the confrontation!
Chapter 1357
Vindar VII offered a lot more sights to visitors, but none of them interested Ves anymore. He already exchanged with the few Journeymen that remained and picked up some bargains from an underground market.
While Ves could spend his time on visiting the other black markets, his timetable was too tight for him to indulge in continuous bargain hunting.
He decided to move on from the Vindar System.
Ves and his entourage returned to Wilxyr's spaceport and left Vindar VII with some new company. The Vindar Dustravens continued to accompany Ves during his stay in the Redwell Province.
While they were based in the Vindar System, their contacts stretched throughout the entire province. They were part of a vast, informal network of other outfits and organizations. It wasn't a stretch to regard this network as an alliance of convenience.
A few weeks went by as Ves visited a number of specific star systems. He visited mech designer after mech designer, many of which yielded very little of note to Ves.
It couldn't be helped. Many mech designers were too selfish and narrow-minded to share their valuable insights.
They valued their own insights highly. Even if they failed to progress their design philosophy after advancing to Journeyman, they still stuck up their noses in front of Ves!
What could a weird mech designer with a Class IX design philosophy offer to them? The only reason they hadn't declined the exchange visitations was out of consideration for his powerful Hexer girlfriend!
For these reasons, Ves encountered many situations where his counterparts only cooperated in a superficial manner. Their lack of sincerity continually disappointed Ves and dampened his impression of Chuko mech designers.
Even if they all suffered under the economic malaise, they still clung to their pride as Journeymen! All of them believed that they were already good enough to live through this trouble period and bounce back to success in due time!
What was worse for Ves was that many older mech designers maintained similar sentiments. He deliberately adjusted his agenda to meet with older mech designers, only to be subjected to long-winded rants about how everything was better in the 'good old days' and endless boasts of how they won various design competitions forgotten by everyone else!
Ves failed to stumble across a second old mech designer who wanted to impart some life lessons to the younger generation.
It turned out that even among his generation, Old Man Terrence was still the exception rather than the rule!
The biggest reason was because Old Man Terrence was a famous recluse. He never married and never mentored any younger mech designers due to the restrictive nature of his design philosophy.
It was too hard to obtain a mech designer who specialized in neural interfaces!
Many other mech designers with more conventional specialties did not suffer this problem. With so many Novices and Apprentices on the streets, they could easily collect dozens of them and nurture the most promising ones into their heirs.
Even that wasn't entirely necessary as many mech designers opted to nurture their own children.
Nonetheless, even as Ves dejectedly returned from his exchanges with little to show for his efforts, he did manage to receive some useful tidbits here and there. Nonetheless, it became increasingly more difficult to find someone willing to hold a sincere exchange.
"Secrets have become too important to a mech designer's continued survival." Ves dreadily observed after his fleet left yet another star system without any gains. "When times are plenty, mech designers are much more eager to expand their horizons and focus on their progression."
That wasn't the case right now. When times were bad, the mech designers who remained no longer thought about growing their capabilities. They simply wished to hold on to their existing accomplishments!
The lack of forward-thinking made many mech designers far too reticent to open their mouths to Ves. Holding onto their existing competitive advantages and preventing them from disseminating might mean the difference between staying in business and declaring bankruptcy!
Fortunately, Ves finally caught a lucky break when he met an unusual mech designer.
At a company headquarters located on a typical industrial planet in decline, Ves shook hands with a middle-aged female mech designer.
"Mr. Larkinson, welcome to Paisley I." The motherly woman greeted with a weary smile. "I hope you don't take our lack of hospitality to heart."
Ves returned a friendly smile. "I wouldn't be visiting the Chuko Republic otherwise, Mrs. Linzif."
As they seated themselves at her desk, they began to chat. Felicity Linzif had been a rather odd choice for him to visit. She specialised in multifrequency laser weapons and enjoyed enough success to gain a nickname from it. Within the local mech community, she started to become known as the 'Prismatic Light', which was very flattering.
Ves felt a little jealous that Mrs. Linzif received a nickname that drew attention to her capabilities while he got stuck with a moniker that made light of his tongue!
Fortunately, not everyone took nicknames seriously. Mech designers paid a lot more attention to a fellow mech designer's specialty and mech designs than their personal inclinations.
Many mech designers, particularly high-ranking ones, tended to be eccentric. If mech designers continually took offense at a fellow colleague's quirks, then how could they expand their network?
Of course, Class IX design philosophies still attracted a lot of scorn, so Ves still had to deal with a lot of prejudice regardless.
Mrs. Linzif didn't appear to be the same as other mech designers, though.
If only her design philosophy was more relevant to him. While her specialty interested Ves a lot, her area of expertise possessed little relation with his design philosophy.
"Mrs. Linzif, thank you for hosting me." He began. "I appreciate your willingness to accept my request for an exchange."
The woman smiled gently at Ves. "I'm not as narrow-minded as the other colleagues you've visited. Word is getting around about your visits. While many of them have conspired to stymie your efforts to learn anything valuable from their mouths, Old Man Terrence speaks glowingly about you. If there is one thing I know, it's that Old Man Terrence is not in the habit of exaggeration."
Ah. Ves learned a lot from her words. He wasn't aware that the local Redweller mech designers he scheduled an appointment with all banded together against his visitations.
He also learned the reason why Mrs. Linzif took him seriously where many did not. Ves owed a lot to Old Man Terrence.
"Terrence Reedan is.. quite a mech designer."
"He's always been rather secretive, which is a necessity considering his restricted specialization." The woman explained. "I've always admired his ambition to make genetic aptitude strength irrelevant. He was always destined for failure, but he never wavered in his pursuits. That is how a true mech designer ought to act."
"Not many of us are courageous enough to upend one of the most impactful rules on mechs."
They quickly moved on from talking about Terrence. Ves hadn't come here to share in her admiration for an old and senile mech designer.
Though a number of customs had emerged to set the ground rules for professional exchanges between mech designers, they did not adhere to a structured format.
This meant that the discussions could take on any form. It all depended on whether the mech designers themselves were willing to divulge their more valuable insights.
For this reason, Mrs. Linzif started the exchange with a strange opening. "What is the ultimate armament of mechs?"
This question completely came out of the blue to Ves. He could only answer according to his honest beliefs.
"The perfect weapon for mechs doesn't exist. Every weapon is associated with their own advantages and disadvantages. No weapon can possibly defeat every obstacle in existence."
"That's the most orthodox answer to this question." She said with an intriguing smile. "Yet what if we disregard this premise that the perfect weapon isn't possible to be made. What if one day, we can develop a weapon so powerful that every other weapon pales in comparison?"
"Is that what you are pursuing?"
"In a way. There are many different weapon types in existence. Ballistic rifles, kinetic rifles, missile launchers all the way up to primitive weapons such as swords and spears. Don't you think these weapons are rather lackluster in this day and age?"
"The Big Two and the first-rate superstates already make use of very advanced weapons such as plasma rifles and positron rifles. They're a lot more destructive than the armaments that are prevalent in the galactic rim."
"Ah, that is true, but that's not the point. Even the entities you've mentioned still make use of laser rifles, you know. Theirs are more advanced than ours owing to better technology and materials, but the basic principles are still the same."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Laser weapons are the ultimate weapons for mechs. They're scalable, universal and applicable in nearly every situation today."
"Not every situation." Ves replied.
For example, the hexapods of Groening IV absorbed seemingly limitless amounts of energy, rendering energy weapons ineffective against these creatures!
"For now. While I admit that certain defenses have emerged that offer extremely effective protection against laser beams, even they can't withstand the energy of a sun!"
"That is horribly inefficient. Trying to overpower a defense that is tailored against laser weapons with lasers is not a cost-effective endeavor."
"For now! That is not indicative of the future! I believe out of all the weapon systems that humanity has developed, none still hold as much potential as laser weapons! They have been with us ever since our civilization's first forays into space. From the Age of Stars, to the Age of Conquest and now the Age of Mechs, laser weapons are still alive and thriving!"
"You could say the same to ballistic, kinetic and missile weapons."
Mrs. Linzif snorted in debridement. "Those primitive weapon systems are always slower than light. Their limitations are plenty. In the future, mech combat will increasingly take place at a distance. The next generation is already a portend of this trend. The offensive might of laser weapons will continue to grow while defensive tech falls further and further behind!"
The woman continued to rant a bit about the supremacy of laser weapons over other weapon types. Ves did not share in her opinion, but he hardly managed to get a word in while she espoused her love for laser weapons!
Nonetheless, despite being subjected to a very biased opinion, Ves still kept his ears open because it sounded as if she possessed some insider information about the next mech generation!
"...the development and evolution of laser technology has achieved so many strides these last couple of decades that the proponents of other techs have tried to muzzle us! The upcoming new standards and specifications on laser weapons is much more conservative than what the leading experts in my specialization wished to impart!
"So the MTA is publishing a half-hearted set of standards for laser weapons?" Ves probed.
"Right! The lobbies for other weapons and defensive tech have managed to persuade the MTA to hold back in introducing radical innovations in laser technology! It's a travesty! If they didn't outnumber us all, we would have taught them a lesson!"
Ves wasn't interested in the infighting that took place within the research circles of the MTA. "Is there a way for mech designers like me to obtain the unadulterated specifications for laser technology?"
Mrs. Linzif grinned. "The new innovations will eventually leak into the mech community. Our efforts will not be in vain. When the new mech generation finally commences, you should do yourself a favor and withhold from designing any mechs armed with laser weapons. Newer and better licenses will quickly emerge in a year or two that will absolutely blow the crippled versions of the MTA out of the water!"
This was a very valuable piece of advice! He appreciated what she told him even if she did not offer him the insights he sought.
Chapter 1358
When a new mech generation commenced, a raft of component licenses and updated technological specifications became available to mech designers.
These additions to the mech industry fired off an explosive race to design the first mechs that made use of the new specifications and components!
Yet this was just the start. The first wave of mech designs in the new generations possessed a relatively short shelf life. In a couple of years, the second wave would emerge that made use of components derived from the ones published by the MTA but improved and tweaked in many different ways.
The MTA employed some of the best mech designers and researchers in the galaxy, but they did not encompass the full creativity and ingenuity of the entire mech industry! Individual geniuses or those who possessed unique advantages were occasionally able to design better components than the ones published by the Association!
Nonetheless, by the time the second wave already arrived, the mech designers who moved early enough to capitalize on the first wave achieved an abundant amount of sales.
The advantages they accrued by selling a lot of mechs of the first wave would be able to utilize their momentum to take the lead during the second wave as well!
In other words, it was critical for mech designers to accrue an advantage at the beginning. If they slipped up or delayed their mech designs, their competitors would have already captured the bulk of the sales they would have gained if they moved faster!
Most importantly, first wave mechs did not lose relevance just because of the advent of second wave mechs. The differences usually weren't large enough to warrant a full renewal, especially in the span of a couple of years.
As long as a first wave mech model performed well, its vast number of customers would ensure a good reputation that turned it into an enduring seller for a long time!
The mech company only had to tweak their prices downward for a little bit to retain their attractiveness in the face of newer mech models entering the market.
Mech designers like Ves were well aware of these dynamics and planned ahead. Designing a laser rifleman mech as one of his first mech designs for the new generation had definitely been on the cards.
As one of the most popular machines on land, in the air and in space, laser rifleman mechs represented the biggest and most lucrative mech types by sales volume!
That made the nugget of intel provided by Mrs. Linzif all the more important. If her claims were true that the second wave of laser rifleman mech designs would significantly surpass the first wave, then starting early with designing these mech types would be a grave mistake!
Because the first wave would practically experience a more severe devaluation than usual, putting them on par with last-gen mechs!
"Laser weapon development sure is incredible." He said as he tried to flatter his exchange partner. "It's amazing to hear that the specialists in laser technology have managed to achieve so much progress even if it is already a mature and highly-developed field."
The Redweller mech designer scoffed at his words. "Maturity is a false concept. I've never put too much stock in its predictions anyway. Our civilization is so vast and powerful that we've managed to overcome most plateaus. Laser weapons may have been in use for millenia, but there is always something to improve!"
"Can you tell me about the nature of the improvements that will likely be introduced in the next generation?"
She shrugged. "Oh, the usual, mostly. Updated technical specifications along with new applications using exotics that haven't been utilized before are responsible for most of the performance improvements. They're mostly aimed towards improving efficiency, I hear. More energy is being directed towards the laser beam and less energy is turned into waste heat. This means the next generation will feature more powerful lasers without cooking the weapon or mech too quickly."
This was another valuable piece of intel! Knowing how the next generation of laser weapons improved upon the previous generation would help him lay the groundwork for his future designs.
The information was not only relevant when he designed a laser-armed mech, but also the defensive mechs designed to withstand their improved armament!
"What do you think about laser weapons?" She abruptly asked. "Tell me your honest opinion."
"My answer to that question is similar to the answer I've given to your first question. It's a powerful, versatile and adaptable weapon system, but it is not the only weapon at a mech designer's disposal. I still believe there is a role for other weapon types."
"So do you think that I'm wrong when I state that laser weapons will one day reign supreme?"
Ves shook his head. He had to be very careful about expressing an opinion contrary to the deeply-held beliefs of his host!
"I'm just a simple mech designer. I am not a specialist in any particular weapon system. If laser weapons happen to become the premier weapon type, then I'll gladly embrace them when the time comes. The same goes if melee weapons or kinetic weapons experience a revolutionary leap in progress."
"I'm disappointed by your lack of faith, though I appreciate your honesty." Mrs. Linzif said with a frown. "There are so few mech designers who are willing to commit to a singular weapon system, even though we are responsible for most of the advancements."
Every mech designer was different. Talking to so many fellow Journeymen exposed him to the incredible diversity of people who broke through the extraordinary threshold.
Though Journeymen may be fundamentally different from expert pilots in many ways, Ves realized that both developed very strong beliefs.
Mech designers were perfectly capable of engaging in rational science. They were very inquisitive, did not take every assumption for granted and were perfectly capable of revising their understanding if proven wrong.
Yet as soon as the discussion turned to their specialty or area of interest, they instantly turned into fanatics!
Ves found them to be no different from the religious nuts of the Ylvaine Protectorate or the Five Scrolls Compact when they talked about their specialty!
Perhaps he was no different from the likes of Felicity Linzif.
This was nothing to be concerned about. Every mech designer possessed their own unassailable beliefs. Some were just better at hiding their inclinations, while others gleefully expressed their enthusiasm regardless how unhinged they came across!
After a considerable amount of discussion on laser weapons, they finally moved to another topic.
"Chuko's mech industry is in shambles. This is no secret." Mrs. Linzif spoke. "Yet there is a reason why I have stayed where many of my fellow compatriots ran when the government still allowed them to go. Do you know why?"
"Because of family?"
"I do have a family here, but that's not the primary reason why I decided to stay. Don't you realize, Mr. Larkinson? The current conditions in the Chuko Republic's mech market is a test! Those who manage to keep their company aloft and continue to sell their mechs under these circumstances are the best of the best! As long as you can endure these adverse circumstances, you can do business in practically every other market!"
She had a good point. As tragic as the Chuko Republic fell backwards, the difficult market environment separated the wheat from the chaff.
Many mech designers failed to adapt to the circumstances. The bountiful black markets selling second-hand goods and junk made a profound impression on Ves. Yet out of ninety-nine mech designers who failed, at least one still endured!
"Many mech designers who still managed to stay aloft owe their survival to their patrons." Ves retorted. "I've met mech designers who haven't sold a single mech in the last couple of yours but instead resort to bartering with various local powers. Plenty of your colleagues have also shuttered their commercial activities in order to work for the provincial and central governments."
"That's true, but that doesn't detract from my point." Mrs. Linzif smirked. "Sucking up to others in order to attain their protection is also a skill. There is nothing shameful about submitting to others for protections. The mech designers who are too proud to stoop to begging would have died if a real catastrophe has engulfed the Komodo Star Sector!"
This was a fundamental truth for mech designers. Each of them possessed a lot of valuable expertise. They were only allowed to earn a lot of money because the states that hosted them benefited as well.
If a mech designer did not have the protection of a state, then who prevented them from getting robbed or kidnapped?
Each of them were as vulnerable as the technicians and engineers who ended up in the hands of the pirates in the frontier!
"I see your point." Ves thoughtfully spoke. "But this also means that the conditions in the Chuko Republic is not the worst-case scenario. Mech designers can at least rely on some powers for protection. That's not always possible in worse places such as the frontier or the Nyxian gap."
In those places, who stopped anyone from enslaving mech designers outright?
Only those cultivated a ferocious reputation like the Skull Architect retained their freedom! Mech designers had to stoop to savagery in order to deter the numerous bad actors mingling in these lawless areas from appropriating their wealth and capabilities for their own use!
The female mech designers cast her eyes "Our human civilization has experienced many ups and downs. Right now, I believe the last three centuries stability and prosperity can rightfully be called a golden age for mechs. We've firmly turned our backs to the depravity and destruction of the latter days of Age of Conquest. Yet do you really think this unprecedented period of stability and prosperity will last forever? Humanity is still surrounded by countless alien races. How long will they abide by the truce of the previous age?"
"Either we attack, or they attack. Peace won't last forever." Ves readily agreed. Too many people forgot how much humanity had fought and struggled to come out on top. "That said, the MTA and CFA aren't pushovers. Surely they're prepared against the inevitable resurgence of the hostile alien races. They may even be contemplating a preemptive attack!"
"All of that may be true, but do you really believe that human space will remain unaffected if this inevitable war breaks out?" Mrs. Linzif pounded her fist against her desk. "Wake up, Mr. Larkinson! If a war against the rest of the galaxy does happen to break out, frontier star sectors will likely be the first to croak! Our own will not be exempted!"
Ves had to admit that her wakeup call affected him quite a lot. He, like many humans, had been far too complacent!
The threat of alien resurgence had always been a distant and abstract threat. Even if everyone with brains knew that the Komodo Star Sector was situated right in the frontlines, no one had taken the threat seriously anymore!
What would happen if a war between civilizations finally started anew?
Even if the CFA and MTA fought back with all of their might, the frontier star sectors still faced the brunt of alien incursions!
"Just look at our reaction at the recent sandmen attacks! Aside from the states situated close to the border, no one else has paid them any mind! The Chuko Republic and all the other states that are furthest away from the frontier are completely ignorant about the dangers! The local leaders haven't made any moves to raise our readiness against the sandmen. If we aren't able to take our minds off our political machinations, how can we possibly resist a real alien invasion?"
Her verdict on the local powers made it clear that she had no faith that humanity would be able to unite against the aliens!
Though her predictions sounded extreme, Ves knew in his heart that she was probably right!
Chapter 1359
His talk with Felicity Linzif yielded few insights related to his design philosophy. The Chukan Journeyman expressed a lot more interest in talking about her gloomy predictions of the future of the mech market and the Komodo Star Sector.
Ves still found the visit to be worth it. Mrs. Linzif's words served as a warning for Ves that he should not take the current golden age for granted.
One day, the Age of Mechs would enter its twilight. One day, the galactic rim would come under assault.
This realization only made him place even less emphasis on building up his presence in the Komodo Star Sector.
He equated the situation to the Bright Republic's border systems with the Vesia Kingdom.
Because war constantly broke out at those borders, the public and private sectors stopped giving a damn about them. They consistently withheld vital investments from these poor and forgotten star systems because it would all get appropriated or destroyed by the Vesia anyway.
Ves had a very frightening realization as just as he dismissed the border systems of the Bright Republic, the Big Two might feel the same way about the frontier star sectors!
"It's already obvious when you look at how frontier star sectors are so lacking compared to more inward star sectors!"
The star systems at the very edge of human space were so sparse and insufficiently protected that aliens would basically encounter only minor challenges when they invaded en masse!
From the perspective of a higher-up of the Big Two, the frontier star sectors served as a convenient buffer for any external invasions!
Ves looked depressed as he idly held Lucky to his chest. He didn't blame the MTA and CFA for taking the bigger picture into account. Their primary responsibility was to protect the human race. Nobody said anything about protecting every star sector, let alone the most far-flung ones with the least amount of value.
Perhaps even the Rim Guardians agreed with that sentiment.
While Ves already held the pieces, it took an oddball mech designer with an obsession of laser weapons of all people to show him how to fit the clues together. The resulting conclusions made him so alarmed that he began to see his grand expedition as something more than a temporary escape.
"I can also take up the spaceborn life if necessary."
A strain of humanity believed that their race should no longer be bound by planets. Rather than see them as precious living space and paradises, the true spaceborn clans saw them as nothing more than resource sites. Aside from extracting useful raw materials, they weren't good for anything else!
And that included living on their surface!
Much of humanity disagreed with their extreme views. Humans in general grew up happier on planets. Space was cheap and plentiful and they never had to worry about ships malfunctioning and killing every occupant because a technician forgot to perform routine maintenance on a critical ship component!
Yet despite all of the flaws of nomadic spaceborn life, the radicals always touted how living on the move ensured maximum safety.
In their view, anyone who decided to settle on a planet was asking to get bombed from orbit!
"To their credit, they were right in a way." Ves muttered. "Very few spaceborn clans got annihilated during the latter days of the Age of Conquest."
By far, most of the killing and slaughtering occurred when human battlefleets wiped out entire planets or scoured their surfaces with weapons of mass destruction.
Even if the citizens saw the existential threat coming, it was impossible to evacuate an entire planet in a matter of weeks! Far too few shuttles and ships existed to take an entire population away!
Even if the lucky ones did manage to get away, housing and settling the refugees became a huge problem! Most evacuation ships had been repurposed for the emergency and didn't hold the facilities necessary to support long-term residency in space.
A huge amount of refugees starved or suffocated to death when countless evacuation ships failed to find any safe harbor within their fuel range!
Though Ves still regarded the spaceborn life as unnatural, considering the latent threats looming over the horizon, it might be prudent to prepare a backup option!
The expeditionary fleet that Ves and Gloriana attempted to form represented a huge investment. What would happen to it after they completed their expedition? Selling them all or scrapping them for parts and materials sounded like an incredible waste.
Rather than get rid of the vessels, why not keep the expensive factory ship and other vessels around?
As long as Ves and Gloriana invested in maintaining the ships and keeping them up to date, they would always have a fallback option at hand if the Komodo Star Sector really suffered the brunt of an alien invasion one day.
Ves bet that he was one of the few mech designers around who even contemplated this option. Far too many mech designers who grew up in the same star sector had become so inured with centuries of peace and stability that they no longer paid any attention to the shakiness of their deceptively comfortable positions!
"It's rank stupidity!"
Perhaps it was just his paranoia talking, but Ves felt less and less secure about his life at the very edge of human space!
With the MTA embroiled in an internal struggle over whether they should abandon the galactic rim and the CFA showing open contempt for fixed human settlements, neither of the Big Two would put too much of an effort to protect the frontier star sectors!
Repurposing the expeditionary fleet into a more permanent spaceborn-style caravan fleet sounded more and more prudent.
"Calamity might not strike in this century or the next, but it will certainly eventually."
If Ves only lived as long as a baseline human, then he might not even bother. Yet if he could potentially live up to five-hundred years or more, then it was very possible that he might see the transition to an entirely new age!
With such a long life ahead of him, the last thing he wanted to see was to see most of his hard work go up in smoke due to lack of preparation against a foreseeable calamity!
Speaking of foreseeable calamities, once Ves exited Mrs. Linzif's company headquarters, his armored bodyguard approached.
Fe Nitaa passed on her concerns through her full-face helmet. "There are observers staring at you from the surrounding buildings."
Ves pretended to scratch his cheek, thereby preventing his lips from being read. "People are staring at me all the time. Lucky and I are rather eye-catching."
"It's different, sir. These aren't bystanders who are gawking at you because you look wealthy. They've been stationed in the vicinity of this area specifically to observe you from a distance. From their methods, they're definitely trained."
"Are they spies?"
"I'm not certain at this time. I'm unable to determine whether they work for the government or for a smaller influence."
"How did you find them in the first place?"
"I always keep my eyes out. I take nothing for granted. The excellent gear that you've procured for me is indispensable. It is evident that they have never fathomed that you would have invested so much money on personal equipment."
Ves smirked underneath his hand. "The local Redwellers have been living under a severe economic depression for a long time. It's no wonder they've overlooked the capabilities of secure equipment."
"Regardless, the presence of so many observers is very concerning, sir. I do not advise you to board your shuttle. Even with the presence of the Battle Criers and the Dustravens, it only takes one attack to go through to disable your shuttle."
The shuttle they used carried a little bit of armor, but that did not give him a lot of comfort. The planetary government already appropriated every armored shuttle on the planet a few years ago.
Ves and his group lingered at the headquarters a little. Though the receptionists and guards obviously wanted them gone, they did not dare to shoo away a Journeyman.
Though no one appeared to have moved, one single entity was missing from their midst.
Lucky had quietly wandered as if he grew bored.
Half an hour went by as Ves discreetly discussed his security situation with Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar.
Due to the suspicion that any remote transmission might be intercepted, they did not dare to pass on any important messages to the Dustraven mechs patrolling above.
"Are the Dustravens involved, perhaps?"
"I can't say. Commander Meivin has changed a lot over the years." Cinnabar murmured. "It won't do his mercenary prospects any good if he stabs his employer in the back. However, if he has thrown in his lot with the Bloodwellers, then he may have decided to sacrifice everything in order to advance their cause."
"You're prepared against their betrayal, right?"
"Sure did, boss. On your orders, we brought down a lot more rifleman mechs than usual. My men on the ground have also gone through numerous simulation battles against the Dustraven mechs. All of our ranged mechs have brushed up their techniques targeted towards taking down quick and agile aerial mechs."
Ves nodded in satisfaction. Despite his familiarity with Commander Meivin and the Dustravens, Commander Cinnabar did not take their friendliness for granted.
"Can we count on any reinforcements?"
"We don't even know who to trust. Every mercenary corps on Paisley I is pledged to one power or another."
The lack of options made him consider whether to turn to Mrs. Linzif for help. He was sure that she would demand a very big price, though. She may even be a part of the same faction as the people who targeted him for some reason!
The exchange he just held with Mrs. Linzif came back to the forefront of his mind. Now that he thought about it, he found it rather weird that she began to talk about the need for patrons and the difficulty of surviving under adverse conditions.
Was she trying to pass on a warning to Ves?
If she did, then Ves would have preferred a clearer warning instead of the roundabout one he received!
"Damn woman." He muttered.
"What was that, sir?"
"Ah, nothing." Ves rubbed his face. "Can we turn to the government for help?"
"I'm not sure." Nitaa grumbled behind her helmet. "If our hidden enemies have stationed an attack force nearby, then they may decide to launch their attack as soon as the planetary guard begins to mobilize."
The big variable right now was whether a hidden force of mechs was truly present. If not, then the Battle Criers could fend off most threats by themselves.
As Ves, Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar continued to speculate, Lucky eventually returned.
"Meow."
"Really?"
Meow meow."
"What is your cat saying?" Nitaa asked, confused at how Ves was able to interpret the meows!
"Lucky managed to sneak up on one of the distant observers. He then traced the signals the observer transmitted to another site, which housed a single occupant who is in touch with all of the observers. You're right, Nitaa. We are definitely being targeted right now."
Everyone quietly cursed. Gavin, who had been left to the side, began to wring his hands in worry. He wasn't cut out for this kind of dangerous business!
Meanwhile, Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar looked at Lucky in a very different light. They misjudged the pretty mechanical cat! The artificial creature functioned more than a plaything to a wealthy mech designer!
"Meow."
"Oh. Lucky did more than that. He also traced the encrypted messages the coordinator transmitted to an underground parking zone not far away from here. He encountered a dozen unmarked mechs!"
"This!"
Although a dozen mechs would not be enough to overcome the Battle Criers and the Dustravens, they didn't have to. As long as they destroyed the shuttle while in transit, then that was enough for them to declare their mission a success!
The evidence they gathered pointed more and more towards a planned assassination attempt!
"It's been awhile since I've landed in someone's crosshairs." Ves muttered before he slowly began to grin. "Unfortunately for them, they've lost the element of surprise!"
Chapter 1360
The surprise attack targeted towards Ves presented a great threat, but only if he remained oblivious about it. A dozen mechs could never defeat his entire mech security detail.
They had to rely solely on the element of surprise to give them the decisive edge.
Now that Ves discovered their presence, his assassins lost this advantage. What was even better for him was that the potential assailants didn't know that they'd been discovered! With Lucky's stealth, signal-tracking and phasing capabilities, they had no way of guarding against such a perverse cat!
"Good boy!" Ves hugged Lucky in order to show his gratitude. "I'll be needing you again, though. Are you ready to put your claws to use?"
"Meow!"
"Okay, okay, I'll be sure to give you a reward!"
Looking onwards, Fe Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar still looked at the two with doubt. Had the cat really discovered a dozen mechs hidden nearby? Whatever the case, they had no choice but to presume the worst.
The three began to discuss measures to turn the tables on their potential adversaries under a light jamming field.
"Our conduct alone is probably triggering some suspicion among the observers." Nitaa warned. "The individual coordinating this operation will definitely suspect that we're aware of something fishy."
"It's fine." Commander Cinnabar said. "They probably think we've detected their observers. Their mechs are a lot more hidden."
Ves slightly grimaced. "I think Nitaa does have a point. The longer we dilly-dally around, the greater the likelihood that our potential assailants will lose their patience. We need to decide on a course of action quickly."
Nitaa opted for the safest option. "I say we call for help. It won't reflect well for the planetary government if they allow us to die on their soil. The Journeyman Mech Designer you've just met can lend a hand as well, either by continuing to shelter us or calling in her friends."
"Pah!" Commander Cinnabar huffed. "If we ask for help, we'll be bound to return the favor somehow. I don't think it's necessary to go through all of that trouble. Didn't we determine that the hostiles are relying on the element of surprise? Why not make it clear that we know exactly what they are plotting? As long as we transmit a message telling them we know exactly what they are up to, they'll likely abort the mission!"
Nitaa nodded in agreement. "Covert operatives are trained to strike only when they have a strong chance of success. They abhor variables and unanticipated setbacks. So long as we do what the commander has proposed, the chances are high that they will call off their attack."
Ves shook his head. "That's not the most optimal solution. We don't know who they are, who they work for and the reason why they targeted me specifically. We suffer from a severe information disadvantage. Scaring off the assassins might save our skins today, but this will only cause them to prepare more thoroughly next time. If we truly want to stymie our opponents, then we need to take the fight to them, or at least teach them a lesson."
The three argued over the best course of action. Even though Nitaa strongly objected to taking a proactive stance, Ves held the final decision.
"I've made my decision. Let's just roll the dice and see what happens. I think our odds are quite good."
The question was what they should do. Ves turned towards Lucky and contemplated where his cat should be put to use. His ability to sneak up under complete stealth and phase through solid obstacles was quite powerful! However, Lucky wasn't particularly fast, so Ves had to decide carefully where he should employ his strongest asset.
"It's too risky to send Lucky out to sabotage the mechs in wait." He murmured. "It's doable if the mechs are lying dormant, but according to my cat they've already warmed their systems."
"Can your cat sneak up to the figure who is leading this operation?" Nitaa asked.
Ves turned to Lucky, who raised his tail in an arrogant manner.
"Meow!"
"Lucky can definitely do it. There's a small security detail present but they won't pose a threat."
"Then I suggest you take him out, sir. The way this operation is set up makes me think this person is the key."
"Should we take him in alive?"
"Is that possible, Lucky?"
"Meow."
"Lucky says he only has lethal options available."
Nitaa retrieved a vial containing an unknown substance from a cavity in her combat armor. "Here. As long as you splash its contents in someone's face, they'll be knocked out for a few hours. It won't work against people who carry standard antidote devices or implants, as many spies tend to carry in their loadouts."
"You hear that, Lucky?" Ves grabbed the antidote and placed it between Lucky's maw. "When you splash this stuff on the leader's face, make sure to prevent him from neutralizing it. We need this person alive and well enough to talk!"
"Mrwor." Lucky responded, his regular meows sounding garbled due to the finger-sized vial between its teeth.
After passing on a few instructions, Ves waved Lucky off as he began to sneak back to the hidden room where the suspected mastermind resided.
Ves turned back to the others. "Fifteen minutes from now, Lucky will make his move. If we want to accomplish anything else, we have to decide quickly."
"I say we make a move on the hidden mechs. My Battle Criers are far more suitable to go on the attack. Since we know where they are holing up, we can quickly take them by surprise by storming straight at their position!"
"I don't suggest we do so, sir." Nitaa replied. "We're operating on foreign soil. As guests of Paisley I, it is highly unbecoming of us to launch a seemingly unprovoked attack. The mechs in hiding may be working for a legitimate local power."
"And if this local power happens to be a part of the plot to take our employer's life?"
Ves scratched his head. "Both options are possible. We simply don't know enough. Nitaa is right, though. If we launch an unprovoked attack, we'll definitely get in trouble with the planetary government. With all of the political entanglements taking place in the Redwell Province, it's not impossible that certain elements of the government are in cahoots with the attackers."
"So we should let the attackers go?"
"I'm not saying that. We should simply ensure that we should not be the ones who launch the first attack. As long as we can get the other party to do so, we'll be justified in our reprisal."
Nitaa disagreed. "I don't think that excuse will necessarily hold up. Aggressive posturing is a naked provocation. If the attackers are smart enough, they'll know what we are up to and will withhold their fire in order to prove they aren't related to any assassination attempts."
"Hahaha! That's not going to be a problem! My Battle Criers will make sure the hidden mechs will attack first. You can trust my word on this, sir!"
Though Ves was inclined to do so, Nitaa held another concern.
"There's another problem, sir. If we allocate all of the Battle Criers to the attack, only the Dustravens are left to protect us against hostile mechs. If they happen to be a part of the conspiracy, that will leave us all dangerously vulnerable."
"We can split our forces up." Cinnabar suggested. "Half of my mechs will move out as planned while the other half will stay behind. If I'm guessing right, then the mechs preparing to attack are mostly ranged mechs. They don't perform very well when taken by surprise. The underground parking hall won't offer them much distance against my melee mechs."
What the commander said made a lot of sense. Only the ranged mechs of the Battle Criers kept the Dustravens in check. Leaving behind half of the Battle Criers also protected Ves against the other cards the assailants held in reserve.
Yet.. the question was whether the Battle Criers could truly triumph against the dozen of hidden mechs. The Battle Criers only received permission to bring twelve mechs to the surface.
This meant that if Ves went through with this plan, he could only count on the six ranged mechs for protection. As long as the Dustravens were still on their side, then this would not be a problem.
Yet if the Dustravens did happen to be compromised, then the Battle Crier mechs would have to focus their full attention on deterring the aerial mechs. This left them vulnerable if another hidden mech force emerged!
"This talk is getting way out of hand." Nitaa spoke. "Regardless whether the Dustravens turn out to be hostile or not, they won't be able to do anything while we are still holing up in the lobby of Linzif's headquarters. Any operation that is targeted at us is likely aimed at taking out our shuttle. It's a lot harder to attack us while we are still inside this structure, especially from above. The most the attackers can do is collapse the entire building."
"They won't do that." Ves asserted. "Felicity Linzif is still present in the building. She managed to stay in business to a certain extent by aligning herself to at least one strong local patron. An attack on the headquarters is an attack aimed at her, and by extension her backers."
"What if the attackers don't care? What if Linzif and the attackers are in the same boat?"
"Then we'll just fight our way out." Ves declared. "Every modern office building of this size should be connected to an underground tunnel system. We just have to find one of the evacuation exits."
Time was running out. Almost fifteen minutes after Lucky departed, the orders that Commander Cinnabar discreetly passed on to his mech pilots began to take force.
Six of the Battle Crier melee mechs abruptly separated and headed towards a specific direction!
As befitting for an offensive mercenary corps, the mechs that departed all consisted of light and medium mechs that emphasized speed and offensive power. They traversed the largely-empty streets of the fallen office district with prodigious speed and reached the entrance of a closed underground parking hall.
The melee mechs stabbed their weapons through the thin protective cover and cut open a huge opening!
Since the material they were cutting through merely consisted of conventional alloys, the mechs faced very little resistance!
Within no time, the mechs formed a square opening through the metal cover. They filed through and engaged their alternate sensor modes in order to observe the completely darkened hall.
Back at the lobby of Linzif's headquarters, Commander Cinnabar impatiently stared at the projected interface of his comm. A message finally came through.
"They've spotted the hidden mechs! They're all grouped up and unprepared to repel an attack!"
"Are they firing at your Battle Criers?"
"So far, they've withheld their fire." Commander Cinnabar grinned. "We'll see how long that lasts."
In the meantime, Ves received a nonsensical message to his own comm. Although both the sender and the message itself consisted of garbled data, Ves nonetheless recognized a few prearranged patterns that in themselves conveyed a brief message.
"Lucky succeeded!" Ves smiled. "He managed to take out the guards and use the vial to knock the leader out! Evidently, they never thought they were already exposed!"
"Did they activate any boobytraps?" Cinnabar asked. "Sneaky folks like these often have the habit of preparing several traps and safeguards."
"I have confidence in Lucky. I've already instructed him to sabotage anything that looks dangerous."
The commander briefly paused as his comm received another notification. "Sir, Commander Meivin has just sent an urgent message to me. He's asking what the hell is going on!"
Ves idly waved his hand. "Tell him to go on high alert and guard against any acute threats. Don't say anything else."
"The Dustravens won't like being kept in the dark. Commander Meivin isn't stupid. If we don't tell him anything, he'll realize that we're doubting his loyalty."
"He's a mercenary. Being regarded with suspicion and distrust already comes with the job. If he's truly innocent, then he won't take this incident to heart."
Even if Ves unjustly maligned the Vindar Dustravens, that was better than putting his blind trust in their loyalty!
Chapter 1361
As their preemptive counterattack took place, Ves frequently itched his hand towards his holstered Peaceful Repose.
His eyes also frequently strayed towards the 'suitcase' that Nitaa carried in her spare hand. He was tempted to order her to hand it over to him so he could don his custom suit of combat armor. Who knew if the headquarters was about to come under attack?
Yet the days of stumbling across trouble or running into battle with his Amastendira spitting lasers were over. As a Journeyman Mech Designer, his place was in the rear, far away from the action where all of the actual combat took place.
Ves felt very strange about this. While he knew he ought to be placed in the safest position possible, a part of him wanted to get close to the action.
How could he call himself a man if he cowered so far in the rear that he couldn't even hear the sounds of mechs clashing against other mechs?
He disliked how well Mrs. Linzif's headquarters isolated sound. None of the characteristic noises of mechs on the move or launching attacks reached the building.
In fact, soon after the fighting at the underground parking zone began, the entire headquarters entered into lockdown!
Metal shutters slid over the transparent windows and entrances. The receptionists and other personnel immediately evacuated their posts while armored guards began to mobilize into action.
The security guards regarded Ves and his company with wary apprehension. They had observed some of the Battle Criers moving out and breaking into a nearby underground parking hall.
Ves was definitely responsible for the fighting that occured not too far away!
When the security captain that walked up to them asked them to leave, Ves plainly refused.
"We will be staying here for the moment. It's not safe outside. If the situation deteriorates, I hope you will make your underground evacuation exits available to us."
The imperious tone of voice left no room for arguing. The security captain had no choice but to return empty-handed. He was deeply reluctant to antagonize a Journeyman!
"As long as Mrs. Linzif doesn't say anything, we can stay." Ves said.
"Why hasn't she told us that?"
"Because she doesn't want to get involved in this mess."
As events continued to unfold outside, Ves, Gavin, Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar continued to wait for further development.
During the wait, Ves became increasingly impatient. He hopped from foot to foot and continually caressed his holstered gun. It felt too unnatural for him to be so far from the fighting! Even though he knew he wouldn't be of any use in this situation, he still felt antsy about his lack of agency!
Both Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar recognized his abnormal behavior.
"So the stories I've read about you on the galactic net are true." The Kinner mercenary leader remarked. "You really did live through a couple of battles."
Ves sardonically smiled to himself. "Yeah. I did live through some battles, but I never asked to be there. I know better than to run head-first into danger. It's just that in the past I've come under attack a lot. Being on the other end is a surreal situation for me. It's rare for me to be in the position to preempt an attack on me by attacking first."
"This is what I am here for. What we are here for." Nitaa answered from her helmet. "I don't know what your previous circumstances were like, but you've made a good choice bringing us aboard. It is our job to address your security concerns so you don't have to pull out your gun and fend off the attackers by yourself."
Her words reflected the changes that Ves had been through lately. No longer did the galaxy regard him as an inconsequential Apprentice Mech Designer.
Now, he not only became a Journeyman, but also a galactic citizen! While the utility of the latter was a little dubious, it nonetheless signified that he had become a person of means!
Rather than equate himself as a gun-toting mech designer, he should instead regard himself as a true leader. Someone who sent others to battle in his stead because it was completely unnecessary for him to move into action in person.
The logic of it was very clear. Most of his fellow mech designers had no problem recognizing this simple truth.
But not Ves. He was different. The irrational part of his mind still found it disturbing that he opted to cower in the lobby of Linzif's headquarters than to go out and give the assassins a piece of his mind!
For now, he managed to control his urges. He wouldn't be able to do anything meaningful anyway.
A few minutes passed by as Ves continued to press down his nerves. At some point, Commander Cinnabar received a hopeful message.
"The hostile mechs have all been taken down." He grinned. "Two of our mechs suffered severe damage, but that's the extent of the damage."
"Let me see the extent of the damage." Ves demanded.
The mercenary commander's comm displayed a simple readout of the damage.
"All of the damage is from laser weapon fire." Ves noted. "The hostile mechs are completely geared towards launching a surprise attack on a vulnerable vehicle. They're not equipped to fight against mechs with at least decent armor."
Ranged mechs armed with laser weapons packed a lot less punch than mechs armed with physical weapons. They could unleash a lot of damage over the course of a battle, but they fared poorly when beset in their hideouts by a bunch of melee mechs!
Despite outnumbering the Battle Crier melee mechs by two-to-one, the hostile mechs had truly been unable to put up a good fight when cornered!
"Seems like our bet to launch a preemptive attack worked out. It would have been a nightmare to fight those mechs in the open." Cinnabar grunted in satisfaction. "The only issue now is that our actions have alarmed the Planetary Guard. We're to cease and desist all ongoing action."
"It's fine. Tell Commander Meivin if he can help us smooth over our differences with the authorities. If that's not enough, I'll go talk to Mrs. Linzif and see if we can't work something out. The opposing mechs did fire first, right?"
"Haha! Of course! It was easy as pie to provoke them into firing at us!"
"How did your boys manage to do it? Tell me honestly."
"My mechs merely closed the distance while broadcasting insults and threats. Once the enemy mech pilots heard how we plan to torture them, they quickly lost their nerve and fired!"
"Ah. Well, I would fire too if I were in their position."
The Battle Criers evidently bluffed and won. Even though both sides knew that the side who launched the first attack would incur a justifiable response, the enemy mech pilots still attacked first.
They had no choice! Letting the Battle Criers walk up to their ranged mechs meant giving up their crucial distance advantage!
If the Battle Criers disregarded the rules and swung their swords, then no amount of trust in the rules would protect them from those who acted like they broke them for a living! The obvious hoodlum nature of the Battle Criers played a key role this time!
At some point in time, the Planetary Guard arrived to impose order. Though the fighting had already ended, the authorities still treated the Battle Criers mechs as potential hostiles.
A huge back-and-forth ensued over what exactly happened and what gave Ves the right to order his escort mechs to launch a seemingly unprovoked attack.
Ves declined to say anything about the observers, the coordinating figure who directed the operation or his own suspicions towards the shady group of mechs holed up nearby.
He simply answered most of their questions with a simple statement.
"They fired first."
Naturally, the Planetary Guard did not treat this answer seriously. According to the footage they obtained, while the unknown mechs did look suspicious, the Battle Crier mechs that barged into their hiding spot did everything possible to provoke a hostile reaction!
For this reason, the excuses that Ves had offered stood on shaky grounds. He already knew he wouldn't be able to talk himself out of this situation alone. He was counting on someone to bail him out.
To his surprise, after an hour of maneuvering behind scenes, Commander Meivin of the Dustravens finally managed to get the Planetary Guard off their backs.
The Redweller mercenary commander had long exited his own mech in order to report to Ves in person.
"The authorities are reluctant to let the matter go, but my contacts managed to persuade them their time is better spent elsewhere."
"What's the price?" Ves asked.
He was not naive to think the Planetary Guard retreated without a fuss.
"They've 'appropriated' all of the wrecks. The Battle Criers won't be able to claim salvage on any of the trashed machines. Supposedly it is for compensation for all of the damages we've caused."
Ves snorted. "They can have the salvage."
Sure, a single half-abandoned parking zone got trashed, but so what? The Planetary Guard had plainly demanded a bribe!
Fortunately, Ves was more than happy to relinquish the salvage. Right now, getting the authorities off his back was much more important. Finding out the motives and the identities of the attackers was another priority.
"All of the hostile mech pilots committed suicide before we could capture them." Commander Cinnabar replied with a scowl. "We won't get any answers from them. Tch."
"We'll have to see what Lucky managed to do."
Once they got rid of their entanglement with the authorities, they openly began to move towards the hidden command center of the attackers. None of them had any illusion that the Planetary Guard stopped paying attention to the foreigners.
The high-profile mechs accompanying their shuttle already made it impossible for them to obscure their movements.
For these reasons, Ves did not even bother to hide his movements.
Some time later, he and his group entered a medium-sized abandoned office building. They moved all the way up to the top floor where they entered an office room that used to belong to an executive.
"That's a lot of equipment." Ves commented calmly as he took in the projectors, the terminals and the other gear. "They held the entire city district under observation!"
Most of the gear had been wrecked. Numerous claw marks rent their way straight through most of the processing banks. The few projectors that remained functional displayed various angles of the streets around Linzif's headquarters.
As Ves focused on the hardware, Gavin quickly ran out of the door and barfed out the contents of his stomach in the corridor. The stench of blood and the sight of half-a-dozen corpses sickened him to no end!
Different from Gavin, Fe Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar looked impressed.
"Your cat is more effective than any infiltrator!" Nitaa praised. "None of these operatives managed to pull out their guns before their throats got clawed out!"
"My cat is very talented." Ves grinned. "Did you think I'm only bringing him around because I need something to pet all day? To be honest, you aren't the first bodyguard in my service. Lucky has been fulfilling this role all this time."
Ves and the Kinners directed their attention to the star of the show. The cat proudly sat on top of the chest of an unconscious man.
"Meow."
"You did a good job, Lucky."
"Meow!"
As Ves showered his vain cat with praises, Commander Cinnabar approached the unconscious figure and searched his pockets.
The search yielded various weapons, gadgets and other knick knacks. The thin and seemingly ordinary man carried a whole host of equipment!
"This is the loadout of a spy." Ves observed.
"I agree." Nitaa concurred as she remained on high alert. "The operation here suggests that everyone here are professionals of sorts."
"Of sorts?"
"I've seen better, sir. These operatives don't appear to be too well-trained and their equipment is only average. It's unlikely these operatives belong to an intelligence agency."
Hearing her judgement made Ves sigh in relief. While she may be wrong, Ves had a hunch that her description was accurate.
"That still leaves a lot of options, though."
Ves suspected that either the Bloodwellers or the Whitewellers organized this attempt. Only either of them possessed compelling reasons to kill him in Redwell Province!
Chapter 1362
Joshua sat behind his desk at his dorm at an advanced academy in Bentheim. When he started to excel in his classes back on Cloudy Curtain, he received an invitation to transfer to a better institution on Bentheim.
Now, despite being several years away from graduating into a full mech pilot, his inbox already started receiving invitations to join a mech regiment!
As long as he maintained the same level of results, the mech regiments promised to fast-track his entry into their ranks!
Famed Bentheim mech regiments such as the 3rd Infernal Hellhounds, the 5th Storm Enders, the 9th Colocis Grand Rollers and even the glory-studded 1st Volari Starhawks expressed their interest in him after he graduated!
To be honest, when he received an invitation from the Volari Starhawks, he almost accepted on the spot.
This was the mech regiment which birthed their latest star, Venerable Ghanso Larkinson!
Yet... did he really wish to join Venerable Ghanso's footsteps?
"My heart says otherwise." Joshua shook his head in regret.
Many of his former cadets believed that he wanted to pursue a career in the military. Just like them. Who didn't want to join the Mech Corps if they had the skills?
The better mech academies on Bentheim all had ties to various mech divisions and mech regiments. As long as a cadet stood out in the areas that mech regiments appreciated, they stood a good chance at receiving an invitation!
When Joshua first transferred to the hustling and bustling Bentheim, he met many new mech cadets. Their skills astounded him at first. All of the top students in his academy worked extremely hard to appeal to the mech regiments they idolized!
Different from his new friends and rivals, Joshua never took more than a brief glance at the Mech Corps. Though he admired the glory it earned and the camaraderie of its mech pilots, he never pictured himself in one of their uniforms.
"I'm destined for a different career altogether!" His eyes burned with fiery passion.
The invitations from the mech regiments did not come without cause. Not only did he manage to get admitted to the renowned Meirling Mech Academy on Bentheim, he also climbed his way up until he came close to the top of the ranking of his class!
He even surpassed most of the Larkinsons attending Meirling, which made him feel very mixed. He only fell short against the freakishly prodigal mech cadets with superior genetic aptitudes!
Though his results stopped short of reaching the very top, he differed from every other top cadet because of his versatility.
He gained proficiency in both landbound and spaceborn combat! He was equally as good with wielding swords as he was in shooting down distant targets with a laser rifle!
To be honest, his mech instructors and his mech cadets first looked at him as a fool. Why would he hold off on specializing for such a long time? Wouldn't he develop in a jack-of-all-trades and a master-of-none?
In a mech culture which highly prized efficiency and specialization, what Joshua did went against common sense!
Even now, his mech instructors still lament that he might have been able to reach the top of the ranking if he stopped splitting his training in multiple specialties. If he spent all of his training time in only a single mech type, then he might have vaunted himself into the ranks of the prodigies!
"They don't understand." He muttered. "They say I haven't specialized in any mechs yet. They say I'm still being indecisive."
The words of his detractors couldn't be more wrong.
In truth, he already specialized himself long ago. He did so as he piloted his first virtual mech from an obscure mech designer account called Chasing Clouds.
He specialized in piloting every mech released by the LMC!
The Young Blood and Old Soul both sustained him during the early days of his arrival at Bentheim. He trained and grinded up the leagues of Iron Spirit outside his classes until he finally gained access to 5-star mechs.
Once he finally reached this point, he finally began to play with the two mainstays of the LMC, the enduring Blackbeak and the agile Crystal Lord!
Though piloting the virtual versions of fully-featured modern mechs strained his capacity at first, he quickly began to adjust to the load he needed to endure in order to make full use of their capabilities.
His results in the academy quickly shot up as he became more proficient in piloting the two classics of the LMC!
Everyone thought he was on track to become a premier landbound mech pilot, but since a year ago he suddenly took classes in spaceborn mech combat!
At this stage in their upbringing, most mech pilots ought to narrow down their skillset so they could spend more time on polishing their key abilities.
Not Joshua. Ever since the LMC released the Aurora Titan, he instantly bought a virtual copy and eagerly entered Iron Spirit's mech arenas in order to channel its might.
"I failed miserably!"
His butt got whooped. How could someone unused to spaceborn combat expect to fare well in space, which required specialized training before any mech pilot could fight proficiently in this gravity-forsaken environment?
Compounding the problem was that the Aurora Titan was one of the most complicated and demanding space knights ever released in the Bright Republic in recent times!
Its complex polarizing module required focused, skillful use in order to enhance the Aurora Titan's defenses. Joshua tried and failed to split his attention to all of its systems during heated moments, causing his virtual mech to be blasted out of space time and time again!
Most mech pilots would have given up. Joshua certainly felt tempted since he never committed to spaceborn mech combat before.
He refused. He was better than this. Piloting the Aurora Titan may have been ten times harder than piloting the Blackbeak, but the rush he experienced was also ten times more impactful!
His mind and emotions always rose to an unseen height whenever he piloted the virtual copy. From all of the reviews and testimonies of the physical copies of the Aurora Titan, Joshua knew that he was only experiencing a pale shadow of what the real mechs could bestow to their pilots.
"Virtual mechs are just toys!" He exclaimed to himself. "I have to pilot the real thing!"
His dream had always been to pilot the LMC's mechs. He hungered to touch the surface of their armor with his hands. He longed to sit in their extraordinary comfortable piloting chairs. As for interfacing with these great machines...
"I can't wait to experience the nirvana that many lucky mech pilots already got to enjoy!"
Ever since he chose to master the virtual Aurora Titan, he poured most of his training efforts into raising his proficiency in the relevant skills. He took additional classes and reduced his time spent on polishing his skills related to landbound mech combat.
Though it had taken more than a year of constant struggle, the Aurora Titan became easier and easier for him to control. At some point, he started winning his virtual matches, causing him to accelerate his improvement as he felt more and more in tune with his virtual mech!
As of now, the Aurora Titan almost danced according to thoughts! Though its powerful polarizing module still hindered him a bit with the endless amount of choices it offered, that didn't count for other space knights!
"All the training mechs from the academy are nothing compared to a beast like the Aurora Titan!" He snorted.
He disliked piloting mechs designed by other mech designers. Meirling's training mechs were all great machines, but they lacked the feel of any of the LMC's mechs. Even the primitive Fantasia 2R Seraphim evoked more fighting spirit from him than the cold and clinical mechs.
This was another reason why his results failed to propel him higher in the ranking.
Joshua knew that piloting non-LMC mechs was a necessary evil for now. As soon as he graduated from Meirling, he already knew where he wanted to apply.
As for the Mech Corps?
"Forget about it! Aside from one exception, there's not a single LMC mech in any of their mech rosters!"
While various mercenary corps and security companies started fielding Blackbeaks, Crystal Lords and even the rare Aurora Titan or two, Joshua quickly dismissed them from his consideration.
"Why should I join these middling outfits when I can go straight to the source?"
Only in Cloudy Curtain would he be able to pursue his dream! That was because his goal for the last couple of years had been to join the Avatars of Myth!
As the personal mech troop of Ves Larkinson himself, the outfit got to enjoy the best and latest toys of the LMC! The Avatars distinguished themselves from every other outfit that made use of LMC products by fielding the most gold label mechs!
"Gold label! I have to pilot one!"
The LMC's gold label mechs achieved a mythical reputation in a certain portion the mech community. Those who became fans of the LMC all worshipped the handmade mechs as gods in machine form!
Merely standing in front of them compelled mech pilots to bend to their knees! They were just that powerful!
Joshua knew this very well, because during one of his holidays a few months ago, he specifically visited an exhibition showing off one of the rare and vaunted gold label Aurora Titans!
The memory still sent him into a rapturous glee. His mouth widened into a blissful grin as he remembered how close he came to the impressive mech.
He never came back the same after that! His proficiency in piloting the Aurora Titan skyrocketed as he somehow clicked with the mech.
He understood its essence!
"Coming in touch with the real thing is far better than spending thousands of hours practicing with the virtual versions!"
Sadly, he hadn't been able to get a glimpse of the gold label Blackbeaks and Crystal Lords as of yet. Too few of them existed and it was far too difficult for him to find the time to attend one of their exhibitions.
The only way to solve this deprivation in his life was to join the Avatars of Myth! His hellish commitment to his training had all been for a single purpose, and that was to make the Avatars take note of him and accept him into their ranks!
With his current ranking, Joshua already felt assured he'd be able to gain a coveted spot in the Avatars. They'd been pretty prolific in recruiting for the past few years so even if he achieved a middling result, he would still have a chance of becoming an Avatar.
"It's not enough!"
Why should he be resigned to a rank-and-file position when he could instead receive vastly more attention? Not every Avatar was lucky enough to pilot an LMC mech or a gold label mech.
"I can't let the latter slip from my grasp!"
As long as he became a mech officer or a mech champion, then he would surely receive the privilege of piloting one of their precious gold label mechs!
Everything he did, he did for the Avatars!
Just thinking about wearing their uniform, fighting alongside the Larkinsons and above all piloting their growing variety of LMC mechs excited him to no end!
"I only have a few more years to go. I have to endure. I have to achieve better results. Even if the Avatars have stopped recruiting, I'll force them to take me in! They'll never refuse a top Meirling graduate!"
His greatest hope was to catch the attention of Ves Larkinson himself! His greatest ambition was to convince this great mech designer to design a mech just for him! His life was not complete until he piloted a mech uniquely responsive only to himself!
"Just you wait, Avatars! I'll be joining your ranks soon enough!"
The mech cadet turned his attention back to his terminal.
He swiped his arm, causing him to select the invitation messages that enticed him to enlist in the Mech Corps.
After a single moment of thought, he decisively swept his arm in a discarding motion, causing his account to throw all of the invitation messages into the trash bin!
"Dream on! You're only worth my time if you start fielding LMC mechs! Otherwise, you can forget about luring me into your mech regiments!"
Chapter 1363
The Ylvaine Protectorate had never been the same after the brief visitation of the Bright Martyr.
His coming and going only lasted a few months, but the ripple effects of his actions still echoed throughout the highly religious state to this day!
A number of highly controversial debates ensued after the Bright Martyr painfully exposed many problems the Ylvainans tried their best to bury under the ground. The division between Ylvainans had never become more stark.
Yet even as the faithful joined sides and argued against each other over the best course forward, the Protectorate had never been more united!
Despite their differences of opinion, Ylvainans of all stripes grew more ardent about the faith they held in common.
They were all Ylvainans! No matter how much they disagreed, they were still brothers and sisters! United by a set of common beliefs, it became more important than ever to present a common front against the outside galaxy!
The Curin Dynasty, which aggressively pushed for greater reforms, readily agreed to compromises whenever the Poxco Dynasty pushed back.
The stoic and stiff-necked Kronon Dynasty also shifted some of their long-held customs. They loosened up some of their rules and cautiously introduced some compassion in their decision-making.
The Shepherds of the Flock, the Attendants of Ylvaine and the Protectors of the Faith all experienced their own renaissance. No longer did they grow further apart and divide the Protectorate into three isolated silos.
For the first time in hundreds of years, the three leading dynasties each started to move closer to each other!
Even the notorious True Ylvaine Dynasty subsided in their radical actions!
To Taon Melin, he experienced this new spirit of cooperation first-hand. As a young elite Kronon mech pilot, he originally fell under the employ of Director Cecily Curin. She selected him and five of his fellow elite Kronons to pilot the upcoming hero mechs designed specifically to serve as her ceremonial bodyguard detail.
"How things change. It seemed only yesterday that I was treated as an outcast for my Ascensionist beliefs." He sighed.
The Ascensionists, often regarded as cultists and deviants of the orthodox Ylvainan faith, now gained prominence within the Kronon Dynasty, to the consternation of the more conservative Poxco Dynasty.
Though widespread acceptance still wasn't on the cards, Taon Melin and his fellow Ascensionist enjoyed being able to talk about their beliefs openly.
It was all thanks to the Transcendent Messengers they piloted!
The mechs that had originally been designed to serve as ceremonial bodyguards turned out to be so much more. Each of the Transcendent Messengers were masterpieces of Ylvainan mech design!
Their ability to touch the faith of every devout Ylvainan became so famed that it became untenable for Director Cecily to maintain her possession of the mechs!
They were simply too precious to remain in the possession of a single person! The Protectorate already declared the mechs as national treasures. From what Taon had heard, the Poxco Dynasty even contemplated designating them as holy relics of the Ylvainan Faith!
The only reason why the traditionalists hadn't done so yet was due to their reluctance to further add to the credibility to the Bright Martyr. The Poxcos still regarded the notorious Brighter as a harbinger of change, both for the better and for the worse.
As Taon quietly contemplated the drastic turns of his life, the person sitting next to him at a bench in the courtyard of the Inquisition Headquarters finally spoke up. His guest had arrived a moment ago.
"How are you adjusting after your transfer?" Director Cecily asked with mild concern. "Neither of us foresaw that you'd be transferred to the Ylvainan Inquisition. Unfortunately, the Poxcos are insistent on obtaining control over Zeal."
"I am content, director." Taon offered the powerful woman a respectful nod. "I am the chosen of Zeal. The Inquisition tried their best to replace me with their Poxco mech pilots, but none of them can bring out its strength as well as I've been able to demonstrate."
Older mech pilots. Younger mech pilots. Innocent mech pilots. Scheming mech pilots. The Poxco Dynasty paraded many different variations of Poxco pilots in an attempt to supplant Taon Melin from the valuable relic mech.
Each of them failed!
Few mech pilots could proficiently pilot a hero mech to begin with. Those that did encountered another problem, which was that Zeal felt a little pale when others piloted the mech. Only when Taon Melin himself entered the cockpit did the mech truly come alive, as the Living Mech Corporation often described.
He was chosen!
Not only him, but his fellow Kronons who were originally assigned to serve as Director Cecily's bodyguard had been chosen as well!
It was as if the Bright Martyr specifically designed each of the six Transcendent Messengers for their use!
Not even the handful of Poxco expert pilots that the Inquisition paraded to Zeal succeeded in bringing out its greatest strength!
Both Taon, Director Cecily and the rest of the Ylvaine Protectorate heard about this strange phenomenon. The Ylvainans started to believe the mechs had minds of their own!
That Taon and his fellow chosen all happened to be Ascensionists led to a lot of bitterness from the Attendants of Ylvaine. Had they been wrong in rejecting the Ascensionist beliefs?
One thing was for sure. Taon did not mix well with the Ylvainan Inquisition. Despite his zeal and evotion in the Ylvainan Faith, the Inquisition was still sour at their failure to replace him with one of their Poxco mech pilots!
Director Cecily gave the young mech pilot a reassuring smile. "Your place as Zeal's designated mech pilot will remain assured so long as you align with its ideals. The Bright Martyr designs each of his mech with the premise that they are alive. Never take Zeal for granted."
"I am learning something new every time I hop inside its cockpit. Zeal is a fantastic mech and one that has brought me closer to the prophet than any church or shrine has ever managed to do. I am endlessly grateful that I received the opportunity of doing the prophet's work each time I sortie with Zeal!"
"I'm glad you think that way, Taon, because the time for you to muster up your mechs in parades and publicity stunts will soon be over. The Star Faith Collective have become more and more unbridled in their aggressive incursions. One of the reasons why I'm visiting the headquarters of the Inquisition is because we are discussing the potential deployment of several Transcendent Messengers to the border systems. Zeal may be one of the mechs that we will select to defend one of the border planets."
"I am already aware of my mission." Taon's eyes lit up with fiery conviction. "The Starrers must be stopped, and they shall! This, I am certain! Zeal is destined to turn back their unbridled assaults!"
"I.. see." Director Cecily replied. "Please keep in mind that failure is not an option. The Ylvaine Protectorate is taking a huge risk by deploying some of the Transcendent Messengers into battle. Zeal and every other mech in the set have evolved into symbols of our people. Their defeat in battle will come as a gut punch to the Protectorate. The loss or capture of a Transcendent Messenger will deal incalculable damage to our faith!"
"Zeal will not lose! I will die before I let that happen!"
"You are not piloting Sacrifice. Please do not treat your mech too carelessly, Taon. The deployment of the Transcendent Messengers represent a huge gamble on our part. While a considerable number of leaders are opposed to risking them in battle, I think the Ylvaine Protectorate needs to see that these mechs are not just there to look pretty. They are hero mechs, after all. To truly galvanize our people, the Transcendent Messengers must lead the charge!"
None of these political concerns registered to Taon that much. To him, piloting Zeal to the best of his ability was all that mattered. He already knew that Zeal was destined to be more than just a glorified parade mech.
"You will not find me wanting in battle." He promised. "Every Kronon mech pilot is already prepared for battle!"
"This isn't only about yourself! Do not forget who and what you are fighting for! Aside from the Ylvainan Faith and its believers, you are also fighting for one more person. The Bright Martyr himself is counting on you. Many Ylvainans are already convinced of his blessed status, but the more traditional-minded Ylvainans are still on the fence."
"They are fools." Taon crossed his arms. "They will see the truth. I am sure of it. Every mech pilot that isn't piloting one of the Bright Marty's mechs are missing out on a golden opportunity to ascend and grow closer to Prophet Ylvaine!"
Director Cecily smiled. "I'm glad you think that way. Please voice your opinions more, even if unasked. The Bright Martyr needs all the help he can get to gain wider acceptance. Above all else, please develop yourself further and aim your sights higher. If you happen to excel in a magnificent manner, there might be an opportunity waiting for you in the future."
"I'm aware. You don't need to look any further. Zeal and I will be at your disposal whenever we are needed. The visions do not lie!"
"Your conviction is admirable. If only more Ylvainans were supportive of our cause."
After a few minutes of chatting, Director Cecily finally departed from one of the inner courtyards of the Inquisition headquarters. She was a busy woman, and she still had a few more chosen mech pilot to visit.
Taon watched the woman saunter away in the company of her bodyguards.
Recent events may have brought many Ylvainans together, but they also hardened certain radicals against the woman responsible for pushing them in motion.
Director Cecily endured three different assassination attempts. Each of them failed, but her protection detail grew more and more numerous.
"She doesn't even need all of that protection." Taon contemptuously snorted. "She is far more deadly than all of the assassins put together!"
Taon saw visions. He had been seeing them for a while. Sometimes, the vivid visions came to him when he piloted Zeal. Sometimes, they came to him during his sleep.
A normal person would have dismissed these visions as dreams or fabrications of the mind. Perhaps even some Ylvainans would doubt the veracity of their visions despite their vividness.
Not Taon. He plainly accepted the visions as the truth. While he was not conceited enough to claim that he was following in the footsteps of the Great Prophet, he nonetheless believed he was blessed by the great figure.
"I am chosen."
This singular belief sustained him throughout all of the changes in his life. No matter who he worked for, no matter how much the Inquisition wanted to replace him with their own, his visions gave him the bedrock he needed to stand firm.
"I am ready."
He was ready to fight! He did not convert to Ascensionism because he wanted to live a life of comfort and luxury.
Though he had the option to sit back and enjoy the glory of being one of the chosen, he knew he could be so much more.
"I am a vessel."
He could feel it in his bones. Just as Ves Larkinson channeled Prophet Ylvaine, Taon too believed he too represented his will!
"The Bright Martyr..."
Taon held a lot of thoughts about the man. Unlike many Ylvainans, he easily got around to the idea that the Great Prophet favored a seemingly-faithless Brighter mech designer.
"Everyone is an Ylvainan!"
The prophet cared for every human and alien. Even those who held contradictory beliefs to the Ylvainan Faith still deserved redemption.
"Even the Star Faith Collective is worthy of redemption." He muttered.
Of course, they still needed to be taught a lesson before they saw the light. The Starrers and their heretical worship of stars needed to be stopped!
Chapter 1364
Jannzi Larkinson still couldn't believe how a single sortie changed her entire life.
The moment when she piloted the first production copy during the product reveal of the Aurora Titan, she never came back the same.
Jannzi pressed her hand against the Shield of Samar. A few years ago, she never dreamt she'd be able to become a notable mech pilot of the vaunted 7th Apocalypse Heralds.
Not only did the Heralds welcome her with open arms, they also invested lots of time and resources into nurturing her growth!
Ever since she became a Herald, the higher-ups showered her with genetic treatments, specialized training courses and exclusive tutoring from fellow expert pilots.
The brass thought that all of the focused nurturing succeeded in accelerating her growth.
While her skills and battle instincts indeed improved at a rapid pace, Jannzi knew the real reason for her progress came from a very different source.
She looked up at the immense bulk of the Shield of Samar with its savage lizard head at the very top.
"You've been my companion for all this time. Accompanying me to the Apocalypse Heralds has been a life saver for me, Shield."
She often spoke to her mech. As someone who spent some time with Ves Larkinson and his company, she knew their values inside-out. The LMC's motto spoke to her in a way that no other advice ever could.
Living Mechs. Partners for Life.
Her relationship with the Shield of Samar embodied those words. Whenever the Apocalypse Heralds compelled her to pilot another mech with the hopes that she would move away from the sluggish super-medium space knight, she never felt the same connection.
They weren't her partners. Her performance noticeably dropped and her drive to excel became noticeably absent.
After a lot of arguing and pushback, she finally convinced them to let her continue using the Shield of Samar as her main mech.
She knew the Heralds still weren't quite convinced of the Aurora Titan model. While it functioned well as a source of courage and inspiration, its lackluster mobility still posed a lot of tactical constraints.
The regimental commander probably hoped that Jannzi would grow out of her mech. Once she advanced to expert, it would be far too much to ask for a young and inexperienced Journeyman like Ves to design an expert mech.
Was the Shield of Samar destined to become obsolete?
"No. Partners don't abandon each other. Especially when we are bound for life." She whispered softly as she continued to caress the surface of her personal mech.
An unspoken accord developed between her and the brass. As long as Jannzi kept making brisk progress, the Heralds would let her keep using the Shield of Samar.
The moment she started to stall, her superiors would renew their push to replace her mech.
What they didn't realize was that Jannzi only worked harder in order to stave off this threat. Her love and devotion for the Shield of Samar was so much greater than a temporary fancy. She considered her mech to be the first and only partner of her life!
After some time alone with the Shield of Samar, someone else entered the mech stable, breaking her quiet contemplation.
"Jannzi. You are looking good."
"Venerable Larkinson."
The still young-looking Ghanso let out a rueful smile. "Cut it out. We're alone here and this isn't an official visit. The Starhawks just happened to stop by this space station, that's all. Since I happen to be here, I might as well visit the latest relative that has joined our ranks."
"I'm not an expert pilot."
"Not yet, but it's only a matter of time." Ghanso grinned. "I've read the reports. Your progress is remarkably fast. Though you have a lot of catching up to do with regards to your skills, your previous display of forced resonance hasn't lied. Anyone who can do that much upon their elevation to expert candidate will assuredly become an expert pilot in due time."
Jannzi knew in her heart that her older cousin stated a fact, but she did not allow his encouragement to blind her into complacency. If she thought she could sail her way into becoming an expert pilot in her sleep, she might instead begin to regress!
Expert candidates who demonstrated forced resonance had failed before. Jannzi studied their cases carefully and all of them taught her that expert pilots were exceptional for a reason.
When an expert candidate ceased to be exceptional and merely performed as a normal mech pilot, then they failed their candidacy! With such a low commitment to improving their ability to fight, they had no right to enter the ranks of experts!
Jannzi knew in her heart that the Shield of Samar demanded a worthy partner. Ever since she first interfaced with her mech, she resolved to do her best to meet her partner's expectations!
"Whether I'm an expert candidate or expert pilot, I will always be the same." She declared. "I am Jannzi Larkinson, and I am the only partner of the Shield of Samar."
Her forceful words made quite an impact on Ghanso, but not in a good way. The man crossed his arms. "Ah, that. I've heard about your undue attachment to your personal mech. Jannzi.. the mech our cousin designed may be great in some ways, but it falls short in many other areas. It's a commercial mech designed aimed at private sector mech pilots. While it's a bit more powerful and expensive than other machines, it's still a mech designed to make a profit."
"I've heard those words many times, Ghanso. Don't bother trying to convince me to pilot another mech. Moving on to another mech is like abandoning my spouse for a better-looking man. It's unthinkable!"
Ghanso sighed. He tried. "Alright. I said my piece. As an expert, I know our kind can get very stubborn in some ways. Sometimes, that can get us killed."
"I will have died a worthy death if I go down with my partner."
"Let's not go any further into this topic." Ghanso quickly said in an alarmed tone of voice. "One of the reasons I wanted to meet with you was to ask you about something important. What do you think about Ves Larkinson?"
"Hm? He's a fantastic mech designer. I cannot fathom how he conceived of the Aurora Titan design and built the Shield of Samar, but I am forever grateful to him. Like every other Larkinson, I've been skeptical about the first and only mech designer of our family, but he is a great man."
"I see."
"You disagree?"
Ghanso grimaced. "He's a Larkinson. And not. To be honest, I don't know what to think of Ves. He is so wealthy he can outspend us a hundred times over, but the only money the rest of the family receives are the dividends issued by his company. From what I heard about him from the other Larkinsons, he's not enthusiastic about bringing in more Larkinsons to help him run his business or his private mech troop."
"He earned his success through his own efforts."
"He's a Larkinson! He ought to be more grateful to the family! Even if he didn't have what it took to become a mech pilot, he still spent a lot of time among numerous veteran mech pilots, each of whom imparted valuable stories and lessons to him. The mechs he designed are partially made possible due to the heritage he has enjoyed as a Larkinson. Sometimes I wonder if he truly shares our blood. He's a mech designer, an oddball!"
"Your arguments are contradictory, Ghanso. First, you complain about how he's been ungrateful despite being raised as a Larkinson. Next you question how little he has in common with a Larkinson."
"Ugh! Sorry. Debating is not my strong suit. I'm sure the so-called 'Devil Tongue' can beat me flat with his words!"
Jannzi turned her full attention to her famous cousin. "Are you trying to grow a wedge between Ves and I? What is your problem with him? Despite what you think, he is still a Larkinson!"
"Just because he shares our family name doesn't mean he shares our values. Wake up. See what has happened with the Larkinsons. For centuries, we cultivated an image of an honorable, neutral and upstanding family. Whenever someone hears of us, they associate us with our long-standing tradition of military service."
"We are still that family."
"Not if we let Ves poison our family further!" Ghanso retorted. "Don't you see how we have changed in the last five years? Old ideals such as dedicating as many Larkinsons as possible to public service has made way for the pursuit of wealth and power! No longer did we maintain our neutral stance. Now, we have apparently joined Ves in throwing in our lot with the Tovar Family! All the while, some of our younger cousins no longer aspire to enlist in the Mech Corps. Instead, they have set their sights on piloting mechs for the Avatars of Myth!"
Such arguments sounded very familiar to Jannzi. The discussion within the Larkinson Family continued to turn more and more towards their recent changes in direction. Many military purists such as Ghanso wanted to retain their old and dust-laden customs.
"Families change. People change." She replied. "The Larkinsons of yesterday are not the Larkinsons of today. The Larkinsons of the future will doubtfully be different as well. Change is not inherently something to be feared."
A scowl appeared on Ghanso's face. "You and the rest of you money-loving Larkinsons can go ahead and abandon everything our family stands for. As long as you Ves worshippers continue down this corrupt road, the true Larkinsons will not be a part of this travesty any further."
His words caused Jannzi to sense that something great was at play.
"You are talking about a schism."
"I prefer to see it as a divorce. You see, Jannzi, the Larkinson Family has grown too big and too scattered. Our values are being eroded by the toxic dividends the LMC constantly dumps into the coffers of the Larkinson Estate. A number of concerned Larkinson elders have expressed an increasing amount of concern about this unwelcome development. For now, we are trying to do everything we can to keep the Larkinsons together, but our patience will run out at some point. In a future steering committee, we plan to issue our ultimatum."
"Your ultimation has no chance in passing." She smirked. "The amount of Larkinsons who are mech pilots are in the minority, and many of our cousins in the Mech Corps have made good use of their expanded budgets. In my eyes, the Larkinsons have never been better. All the money at our disposal has let us participate in expensive training programs or make use of gene therapies that used to be reserved for our wealthier rivals in the service."
"The Larkinsons have been doing fine for centuries without those luxuries! Too many Larkinsons are being spoiled by this bounty! I am starting to see too many Larkinsons climb up to positions that they didn't deserve! Instead of prizing diligence and hard work, they are starting to realize that they can achieve the same results by spending lots of money on their problems!"
"That's easy for you to say, Venerable Ghanso. Not everyone is fortunate and talented enough to break through to your height in a matter of years."
The air between them soured by the second. Ghanso did not hide his contempt at Jannzi's lackadaisical attitude towards the changes in the family. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to make any inroads on his younger cousin, he decisively turned around and walked away.
"A proposal will be put to the vote in the steering committee one day. If it is defeated, we will still part from your company. We have no intentions of sullying ourselves with your corrupt ilk."
Jannzi frowned. "We are still family. Is this the way a Larkinson ought to act?"
"If our proposal is shot down, then we are no longer family. You can have the Larkinson name if you want. We shall start a new family which will inherit the values that you have abandoned."
Ghanso's footsteps echoed against the deck as he slowly walked away.
Chapter 1365
Ves, Nitaa, Commander Cinnabar and Lucky all moved out of the hidden command center with the unconscious spy commander in tow. They moved into a different floor of the abandoned office building before finding an abandoned storeroom to conduct their interrogation.
Though Gavin attempted to follow, Ves turned him away.
"You're not cut out for this, Benny. You should stay outside."
"I can do this! If Fe Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar can stomach this much, so should I!"
"Your role is different from theirs. Bringing you into the room is as inappropriate as sending a mech technician into battle. Don't think you're useless just because you can't fight. If you want to be of use to me, why not coordinate with Commander Meivin in smoothing our relations with the planetary authorities? Paisley I must be wondering what we are doing here. Try your best in keeping them at bay."
After his stern lecture, Ves succeeded in soothing Gavin. He understood his assistant's helplessness. Ves himself experienced the same resignation during the war whenever he witnessed the Flagrant Vandals deploying for battle.
Support personnel like Ves and Gavin should never be the ones getting shot and firing back at their enemies. Though his instincts roiled against the thought, Ves recognized that he was more like Gavin than someone like Nitaa or even Lucky.
Both of them were in the same boat. Ves was just in denial sometimes. Be it his Larkinson blood, his history of getting caught in the middle of the fighting or some reason, he still had to force himself to stay put and place his trust in the people he hired or bought.
He had to admit that it required far more effort than he found ideal. Some habits died harder than others.
Once he settled down his assistant, he entered the room and locked it. With Lucky on guard and maintaining a strong ECM field, no one should be aware of what was about to take place.
"Alright, please wake up our captive. It's time we get some information out of this fellow."
Both Nitaa and Cinnabar had already stripped the man down to his underwear and searched his body numerous times. Ves and Lucky also scanned the unconscious body thoroughly in order to assure that they hadn't missed any hidden implants or suicide pills or anything like that.
Nitaa patted the unconscious man's wiry chest. "The man is clean. I'm fairly confident in my judgement. Our captive may be a trained professional, but he is not an elite operative."
"For this reason, don't expect to obtain much intel out of this fellow." Commander Cinnabar added as he chewed on some kind of stimulant. "Expendable field agents don't know much and the annoying part is that their trainers invested the most in their resistance to interrogation and indoctrination techniques. Just think about it. Who wants to hire operatives who readily spill everything they know once they fall into enemy hands?"
"I understand what you are saying. Let's try anyway."
Once Nitaa woke the unconscious man up by injecting a small substance in his bloodstream, the fellow slowly blinked and took in his situation.
"Ah."
Realization dawned upon the man as soon as he beheld the barren and faded storage room interior as well as the three people surrounding his bound and prone body.
Nitaa grabbed the man's hair and janked it up. "What is your name."
"Foreign scum! You won't get anything out of me!" The captive glared.
"That's what they all say." She spoke while jabbing her chest with her fist, causing the man to oomph. "Now let me repeat myself. What is your name!"
The man stubbornly kept his mouth shut even after more forceful persuasion from Nitaa. Just as she was about to draw out a drug that could make people more pliable to suggestions, Ves raised his palm.
"The methods you're about to employ likely won't work." He said. "Tough customers like these are already conditioned to resist these tricks."
The captive burst into laughter. "Hahaha! That's for sure! You must be new at this! Otherwise, you wouldn't mention this in my presence! Amateurs!"
Ves directed a shark-like grin. "Oh, just because I am questioning our methods doesn't mean I've given up. I just have an alternative method to get what I want."
He finally realized what it meant to hold a captive, especially one whose life and death mattered little to him or his enemies.
His eyes lit up as he raked his gaze over his unwitting captive's entire body.
The man in question shuddered as he momentarily lost his composure. Why was the target of the failed assassination attempt staring at him like he was a precious treasure?! His lower body started to clench as he tried to guess the foreign mech designer's impure intentions!
In fact, Ves indeed looked at the man with appreciation. He belatedly saw the uses in a captive who was both hostile and expendable.
Test subject!
To Ves, the man might as well be short, muscular and stubby rather than someone who held normal human proportions!
In his free time, Ves often fantasized about the experiments he wanted to conduct in order to explore what he could do with his spiritual powers.
Ever since he departed from Aeon Corona VII, he missed the unbridled way he could just grab some dwarves from the wilderness and subject them to his whims.
Civilized space functioned as both a refuge and a cage to Ves. He liked the safety and adherence to rules, but only when they suited him. Whenever he thought up a great experiment, he always bumped into inconvenient ethical rules that prohibited him from doing what he wanted to people.
To his credit, Ves indeed abided by these rules. Well, mostly. Even he knew that it would be a bad idea to recklessly experiment with innocent people.
He could get caught!
If there was one lesson that Ves had learned from other examples, it was that acting without scruples meant he would get caught sooner or later!
So for a long time, he held himself back and tried his best to maintain the conduct of a normal, civilized mech designer.
Yet this time Ves saw an opportunity to let out the part of him that he long held back. His inquisitive, experimental nature hidden in the back of his consciousness roused itself from its dormancy and entered the forefront of his mind.
"Hahahaha. Hahahaha! HAHAHAHA!"
Even though his Kinner subordinates looked at him like a weirdo, Ves still let himself go! No longer did he feel the need to hold back! Too much time had passed since he last got his grubby hands on a test subject!
Perhaps he might have held back if he was still in the Bright Republic, but right now he was in the Chuko Republic! The faltering state was falling apart at the seams!
With an absent central government, a power-hungry provincial government and a corrupt planetary government, law and order no longer held sway in where he was at right now!
Having recently persuaded the authorities to back off in exchange for a hefty bribe, they probably wouldn't intervene no matter how much his test subject screamed!
The situation was perfect!
Eagerness rolled off his body as he energetically rubbed his hands. "Hehe. The method I have in store for you is something that I always wanted to try out. Thank you for attempting to assassinate me. I really needed someone who I absolutely don't care about at all. Now that you happened to have land in my grasp, don't think I'll let you die without extracting every possible utility out of your body and mind!"
Genuine fear began to well up inside the captive. Faint stories about mech designers started to surface in his mind. Some were perfectly normal aside from a few quirks, but the smarter they became, the more often they deviated from the norm.
Some mech designers were straight up mad when they got excited!
"Stay back, you freak! Stay back!"
Ves grinned and ignored the pleas of his test subject. He hovered closer and gently brushed the top of his test subject's head. "What a precious mind. Hmmm. No potential. A pity. Still, let's see what I can do with your pretty little head. I hope you won't succumb too quickly."
Eagerness and enthusiasm visibly welled out of Ves as he started to concentrate his mind on the experiments he wanted to perform. His mind, body and design seed all harmonized with each other as he began to consider the results this impromptu experiment might yield him today.
The captive man squirmed and tried to bite his tongue. Nitaa had been ready for his and firmly inserted her armored fingers in his mouth, preventing him from using his teeth against himself!
With Commander Cinnabar pressing his weight against their captive's body, the unfortunate operative had no way to stop the scary mech designer!
Sweat poured over the captive's brows as Ves emanated an increasingly threatening vibe! His entire body urged him to flee!
"OMPHAEE! STOOO! I GIE UUUWW! III UWWW TEEWW UUU ANNYWIN!"
Just as Ves started constructing a devious image in his mind, Nitaa held up her other arm. "Sir, I think our captive has a change of heart."
"What?" Ves asked. His momentum stalled. Some of his excited energy disappeared as he took in her words. "He's given up?"
"He broke." Cinnabar remarked with a grin. "Just look at this fellow. He looks so pathetic right now!"
"Please, Mr. Larkinson!" The captive cried. "Stay away from me! I will tell you anything I know! Just treat me with respect!"
"..."
His excitement suddenly deflated. What kind of ridiculous situation was this? Just as Ves wanted to experiment with a method he came up with to manipulate someone into opening their mouths, the test subject suddenly withdrew from the test!
Test subjects weren't supposed to do that!
"This fellow..." Ves gritted his teeth.
"Let's make use of this while we still can, sir!"
Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar ignored their employer's visible dismay and began to pump the unresisting spy for information.
"What is your name?"
"Mackie Cire!"
"Where do you come from?"
"Paisley I. I was born and raised on this planet."
"What do you do for a living?"
"I lead strike teams on behalf of my organization."
"What is your organization?"
"33 C. It's a meaningless name specifically designed to expose nothing about us. Personally, I've long suspected that we are just a small cell of a much larger spy network. I really don't know much else, though!"
"Is 33 C a Whiteweller or a Bloodweller organization?"
"None! I don't know! Personally, I'm more inclined towards the Whitewellers, but 33 C has conducted operations that advance either one or the other."
This caused Ves, Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar to look askance at each other. They suspected that Mackie Cire worked for a clandestine organization on the side of the Whitewellers or Bloodwellers. To hear that 33 C fit in neither of those two boxes meant that they likely wouldn't be able to identify the ones who gave the order for the hit!
Nitaa asked another question. "What is the reason for targeting Mr. Larkinson, then?"
"I don't know!" Mackie helplessly shrugged. "We rarely targeted foreigners, but it has happened now and then. To be honest, we were only ordered to put ourselves in a position to take out Mr. Larkinson's shuttle! I was still waiting to receive the order to go ahead with the assassination attempt or abort our attempt when your machine cat jumped on us all!"
Lucky proudly meowed from the side.
As Nitaa continued to pepper Mackie for intel, Ves stood silently with nothing else to do.
His eagerness and enthusiasm departed from his mind like air flowing out of a punctured balloon. He had so much in store! How could his test subject lose his nerves so quickly?!
"Goddammit What a badly-trained spy! Is this the best that Chukans can do?!"
Chapter 1366
In the end, Mackie Cire really didn't know all that much. Mackie and 33 C functioned as an isolated cell within a larger network of unknown alignment and origin.
Ves vaguely suspected that 33 C and its overarching network may have functioned as offshoots of a foreign intelligence agency. Unfortunately, he obtained no proof to back up this assertion.
After questioning some more about 33 C, Ves and his Kinner staff learned that the cell only received a modest amount of funding and training. The lack of generosity reflected the lack of information the members of the cell received.
A strict hierarchy existed where only the cell leader maintained contact with the larger network.
Strike team leaders such as Mackie Cire only occupied a middle position within the cell. His responsibilities solely covered wetworks. Other aspects such as intelligence gathering, analysis and more fell under the purview of other cell members.
"It's useless, haha!" Mackie chuckled as Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar continued to hold his bound body in place. "As soon as my superior failed to get in touch with me, he'll know the gig is up! 33 C has prepared an insane amount of contingency measures in the event that any operation has gone askew. Even if they are overreacting, they will still go through with cutting off ties and bugging out of our former base! You won't be able to track down anyone from our cell even if you squeeze out every last nugget of information from my mouth!"
"He's telling the truth." Nitaa remarked.
One of the many functions of her combat armor was the ability to identify lies. While lie-detecting systems could be fooled, it would take a highly-trained operative like Calabast to be able to do consistently and convincingly under pressure.
Commander Cinnabar nodded, indicating that his gut feeling was inclined towards the same conclusion.
"Meow."
Even Lucky sensed nothing amiss with Mackie's statement.
As for Ves, even though he fell into a depressed mood, he still extended his spiritual senses. He failed to detect anything that hinted at dishonesty so far. Mackie had truly broken to the point where he no longer held any intentions to deceive!
"This fellow is useless." Ves scowled and gave the limp body a light kick to vent his frustration. "After all of this questioning, we don't know who is responsible, why I'm being targeted and whether there are others who want to have a second go at my life!"
He supposed he could still experiment on the man regardless if he spilled all of his beans. It wasn't as if Ves intended to let Mackie go if he obediently cooperated anyway. This was just the nature of the work he did.
Someone knocked at the door to the storage room. Ves approached it and briefly exited the room.
"Ves? The Planetary Guard is getting more and more insistent. They're constantly on the line threatening to go in regardless of my objections. Time is running out. You'll have to finish what you are doing before the authorities haul us out of this building by force!"
"Damn. Isn't our bribe enough to get them off our backs for a day?" Ves grimaced.
"We only bought off a single Planetary Guard official. Now there's a different official from another department on the line!"
"Alright. I understand. Tell the official we'll be departing in a couple of minutes."
Ves turned around and reentered the storage room. "The Planetary Guard is getting antsy. Let's cut this session short. We already obtained what we can get out of Mackie."
"So this is goodbye, right?"
It would be inconvenient for Ves if his Kinners dragged out a captive from the building. Bribes or not, the Planetary Guard still maintained a responsibility to protect its citizens, especially from nefarious foreigners who stirred up trouble.
"Yeah. This is goodbye."
Mackie Cire closed his eyes. "I've already made my piece with this outcome. People like me are merely pieces on the board. The moment I fell into your hands is the moment I already died. Just end it quickly. Don't leave me hanging."
With a simple gesture with his hand, Nitaa immediately carried out the unspoken order. She shot the man in the head with her pistol, ruining the brains and preventing anyone else from retrieving it and pumping it for whatever information could be recovered.
The occupants of the storage room left the reddening room and joined up with Gavin. Together, they left the abandoned office building and boarded their waiting shuttle. They returned to their hotel under heavy escort.
As the shuttle brought them back to their local accommodation, Ves gathered his Kinners in the same room to discuss their next course of action.
"While Mackie Cire talked a lot, the actual amount of useful information we've retrieved is very little." Nitaa began.
"That's by design." Ves gravely nodded. "Patsies like him serve as cheap and disposable tools. Once I break a wrench or something, it's far more likely that I'll throw it away and take out another one than attempt to hammer it back together."
Commander Cinnabar rubbed his red beard. "I think we did learn a few useful details. There is an unknown clandestine organization in the Chuko Republic that is specifically targeting your life for some reason. While we don't know which faction this organization belongs to, the fact that someone has taken note of you is already a cause for concern."
"It could be anyone, though. Whitewellers, Bloodwellers, Hinsoners, Phantasmers, Tradders, Hexers and whatever else you can think up are all possible suspects. We haven't been able to narrow down the culprits at all."
Ves helplessly shook his head. Today was a day marked with modest gains accompanied by a lot of frustration. He still had to process the insights he gained from his talk with the Prismatic Light. He also had to suppress his profound disappointment at being robbed of the opportunity to conduct valuable experiments related to spirituality.
He had so many ideas!
"Sir, some of the intel we've received might help us track down other members of his cell. If we move fast enough, we might be able to track them down."
"It's too late for that, Nitaa. 33 C may not amount to much, but they're professional enough to clean up their tracks."
"If we employ Commander Meivin's contacts to sound out the local situation, we might be able to track them down regardless. The local powers have a much better lay of the land than us. I'm pretty sure that some of them have already kept an eye on 33 C, especially considering that the cell has been operating on Paisley I for decades."
"There's no point." Ves reiterated. "Although I'm just as pissed as you for being targeted, this isn't my first rodeo. A lot of people wanted me dead or captured at some point in time. Most of them have given up. I'm a hard man to kill and the price of killing me is only getting higher. Staying alive is a sufficient form of reprisal. It's not worth it for us to pursue the matter in a dysfunctional state where we have no allies at all who we can count on to cover our backs."
Commander Cinnabar nodded. "I think our boss is right. My Battle Criers pissed off a lot of people too, but you don't see us going on a revenge spree. There are countless bastards in the galaxy. If you ask me, I'd like to punch each and every one of them in the face, but I won't even get past their guards in most cases. Sometimes the best decision is just to let it go."
"I understand that! But this threat is bigger than that!" Nitaa burst out. "Mr. Larkinson is an eminent person! It is a grave affront for someone to target his life!"
"Look Nitaa, I get it that you're his bondswoman now, but your duty as a Kinner is to protect his life. Following up on these tangled threads will just keep our employer in the Chuko Republic longer. I don't know about you, but I think we've had more than enough of this awful state."
Only now did Ves understand why Nitaa insisted on retaliation. She took affront that someone had the audacity to target a Holy Son!
In her view, Holy Sons were the most dignified and holy humans in the galaxy. For some scumbag in the shadows to have designs on the life of a Holy Son was one of the biggest crimes imaginable!
Ves nonetheless held out his hand. "Nitaa, enough. I'm fully on Commander Cinnabar's side on this. Lashing out reflexively is not a good idea when we have the option to avoid any further problems entirely."
"What if the masterminds will try again? What if they strike you even if you've left the Chuko Republic?"
"We'll deal with that problem when it is evident that a stronger reaction is required." Ves responded. "Remember the purpose of this trip. I merely set out to sample different cultures and conduct professional exchanges with fellow mech designers. Nothing in our lists of goals state that we should stick around and get entangled in regional conflicts. None of us have a stake in the future of the Redwell Province or the Chuko Republic. If the attackers are one of the factions involved in this struggle, then all the more reason for us to get out. As soon as we leave their range, we won't face any further threats."
His arguments still offended Nitaa's sensibilities, but she was sensible enough to agree to the decision that best ensured his safety.
From what little clues they gathered from Mackie Cire, 33 C operated on Paisley I for a long time! That was a considerable investment on a very specific planet that wasn't all that important in the greater scheme.
This pointed out that the ultimate masterminds were highly likely entangled in the local power struggle!
Staying in the Chuko Republic would just expose Ves and his companions to other attacks. 33 C was just one of many cells in a vast unnamed network.
Yet no matter how vast this network stretched, Ves doubted that it extended beyond a couple of states.
The only ones who could truly do so were enemies so powerful that Ves absolutely couldn't confront directly!
"So it's decided?" Cinnabar spoke. "We're leaving?"
"Yeah. I have had enough of the Redwell Province. While we still have another destination on the agenda, we'll just scrap it. I'm more than ready to leave the Chuko Republic and it's needlessly murky struggle for power behind!"
While Ves didn't know whether he made the right choice or not, his intuition did not ring any alarm bells. That was a good enough reason for him to go through with his decision.
Everyone split up after he brooked no further argument. Although he let his Kinner subordinates voice their opinions, he was still in charge in the end.
Once Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar left, Gavin entered the room.
Both of them stared at each other for a moment.
"How do you feel, Benny?"
"I don't know. Left out? Disgusted? Scared?"
"It's okay to feel that way about today's events. No normal person should experience what we've just been through."
"Is that what you think of me?! A normal person on your staff?!"
"I think of you as more than that. You don't have to fish for compliments from me, Benny. Today has been a day where Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar happened to be of actual use. Previously, they've been sitting on their thumbs while you got to help me with managing my affairs."
"You're right." Gavin sighed. "It's silly for me to think I'm useless just because I haven't been able to do anything today."
"If you want something useful to do then please prepare for our impending exit from the Chuko Republic. Get in touch with Commander Meivin to inform him that we're cutting our regular schedule short."
"Will do, boss."
Gavin exited the room in better spirits than before.
Chapter 1367
The Barracuda escorted by the ships of the Battle Criers exited the Paisley System without any further fanfare.
The Dustravens had been left behind as Ves no longer required their services. While the local mercs assisted the visitors with getting access to planets, they did not possess any substantial spaceborn forces.
"I don't quite trust them either." Ves murmured.
He always had the feeling that the Dustravens kept the Bloodweller faction informed of everything he did. It wouldn't have bothered Ves if not for the recent assassination attempt.
Though anyone could have been responsible for putting out a hit on him, the fact that it might be a local influence meant the Bloodwellers couldn't be ruled out. No matter how much the Dustravens acted honestly, their back influence continually aroused suspicion.
Ves sat behind his desk in his stateroom as he studied the regional star chart. The fleet had been meandering through the Redwell Province for a while now. The distance to Chuko's border with the Hinson Protectorate was only a short distance away.
Once they crossed over into Hinson, Ves hoped he no longer had to watch his back against the murky factions that continued muck about in Chuko. The state was so unstable that he couldn't even count all of the factions and organizations treating it as their communal playground.
Nitaa still felt sour at letting off the people who plotted for Ves' life. His bodyguard understood the logic of making a swift exit, but her immensely high opinion of the Holy Son made her unable to stomach such a meek course of action.
As Ves thought of a way to soothe Nitaa further, someone requested entry into his stateroom.
"Come in."
The hatch automatically slid open, revealing Michael Crindon. The Kinner bondsman had been spending his time continuously aboard the Barracuda in order to tear apart the most egregious backdoors.
Even though months had passed since he started his work, Crindon was nowhere done with the momentous task! Modern starships were simply too connected and almost every point was being monitored by several sensors!
"How's your progress lately?"
Crindon shook his head. "There are limits to what we can do by hand, sir. I've finished sweeping over this stateroom and the surrounding compartments, but there are many essential sensors that are part of the core functioning of the vessel that I haven't touched. Without a thorough revamp of this ship, she will always be riddled with vulnerabilities."
"At least there are less of them than before, right?"
"Right. All of the work I've performed hasn't been in vain. Your vessel is more secure and much less susceptible to hacking or undue tampering. The ship was already hard to access, but the measures I've taken means that even those with backdoors should encounter some hindrances."
"It's not enough, right?"
"If you want to obtain a truly secure vessel, then you should commission one that lacks all of the interconnectedness and conveniences of modern starships."
"Do these ships actually exist?"
"They do, but I don't recommend you procure them. They're less responsive and much more dependent on their crews as almost every system is put under manual control. Aside from their resistance against hacking and electronic tampering, they perform much worse in almost every other aspect."
Ves looked disappointed. "Oh. I can see how that can be a problem."
Such vessels merely shifted control away from automated systems to human control. This meant that a single bad actor among the crew could do a significant amount of damage by abusing their control over critical systems!
"It'll be much better once we reach the drydock we've reserved at the Sentinel Kingdom. Due to their proximity and frequent interactions with the Nyxian Gap, they have become very good at developing resilient ships that can withstand anything the Nyxian pirates throw at them. The CFA is also very present in Sentinel."
The level of naval engineering at the Sentinel Kingdom was some of the best among third-rate states in the star sector. The Nyxian Gap consisted of so many hazardous and anomalous regions of space that regular starships generally fared very poorly in the region.
Ships had to be modified to endure the rigors of travel in a seemingly endless expanse of asteroids. It helped if the helmsmen also possessed an abundant amount of experience.
If neither of these conditions held true, then even an agile ship like the Barracuda could easily smash herself against an asteroid!
"After we arrive at the Sentinel Kingdom, I'll start taking you with me during my excursions." Ves spoke, moving on to another topic. "Although your work has been valuable up here, I need a virtual security expert by my side. Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar can't hack."
Crindon did not show a lot of confidence. "While I've shored up my hacking skills lately, I am still better at protecting systems than intruding upon them. My combat abilities aren't on par of that of Nitaa."
"I don't expect you to fight on a physical battlefield. Your place lies on the virtual battlefield. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Crindon reluctantly replied. "I can serve you better if you let me move independently."
"I'll think about it, but for now I want you to be a part of my entourage."
Ves was gathering quite the number of staff who followed him around. For a long time, he made do with Lucky and Gavin.
Now, the addition of Nitaa had already paid off by helping him foil a possible assassination attempt.
If Crindon had been on the ground with them at the time, they might have been able to recover some data from the quickly-deteriorating databanks at the time.
After a brief chat, Ves dismissed his Kinner bondsman and enjoyed some time alone. He made a grab for Lucky, only for the cat to jump and float in the air.
"Meow!"
"Oh, come on!"
Lucky denied the comfort Ves wanted as revenge for the times the cat got tossed in the air.
As his cat departed the compartment by phasing through the deck, Ves rapped his fingers against his desk. Now that his visit to the Chuko Republic came to an end, he wanted to sum up his gains.
Out of the various professional exchanges he conducted, he yielded remarkably less than he expected. A lot more mech designers turned out to be miserly, which meant that Ves wasted the majority of his visits.
Though he could have probably employed some coercion in order to get the stubborn mech designers to open up, that defeated the spirit of exchanges.
"It is not like I didn't make some gains."
Some conversations led to huge gains, which was enough to make him satisfied. The time he spent in the Chuko Republic had not gone to waste.
Even the conversations which mainly yielded little of value to his design philosophy still broadened up his perspective.
He sampled the diversity of opinions of various different Journeymen, each with their different design philosophies, backgrounds, achievements and more.
He also heard a diversity of opinions that opened up his mind to how others perceived a problem in a different way.
"Still, the most valuable insights are still the ones I've gained from my talk with Old Man Terrence."
Ves continually thought back on his exchange with the fading mech designer. Whether he wanted to confess his sins or give a younger mech designer a gift, the old man had been the most generous and open exchange partner up to this point.
Perhaps the single most important lesson he gained from this exchange was that there were two sides to every coin.
Neural interfaces opened up mechs for widespread application, but the dangers relating to their use still existed. The MTA and neural interface specialists merely conspired to understate the potential damage they still did to unwitting mech pilots.
Ves thought back on his own mechs and tried to think where their neural interfaces stood. Like almost any other mech designer, he defaulted to using the standard neural interface models, thinking that they were the safest option.
"Usually, I like to get something more exciting, but neural interfaces are too dangerous to mess around with. No mech designer wants to be culpable for the deaths of mech pilots due to dangerous interactions with tampered neural interfaces."
Yet something rotten hid beneath the innocent and harmless facades of standard neural interface models. Old Man Terrence's claims that the MTA engaged in manipulation at a very large scale by tweaking the limits of neural interface sounded very preposterous at first.
The more he thought about it, the more he became convinced.
He did his own research, of course. He tried to trawl the galactic net and the MTA's internal database, but he encountered no relevant data of this kind.
Ves sighed. "The MTA isn't stupid enough to publicize their dark experiments."
He turned his attention to studying the neural interface models instead. Utilizing his extremely basic understanding of neural interface technology, he tried to compare models of different generations and see whether the MTA shifted their limits.
So far, Ves found very little differences among the models used by the Komodo Star Sector. The tweaks were so minor that they wouldn't yield any measurable differences.
"Then again, a backwater star sector like ours doesn't merit any attention from the MTA."
He studied the neural interface models of other star sectors, particularly the ones prone to conflict and war.
Here, he spotted larger swings. The limits had been raised and lowered by as much as ten percent. Such a difference might not be huge, but over time they affected a lot of mech pilots!
After making this observation, Ves no longer doubted Old Man Terrence as much. At least on this point, he spoke the truth!
"He's probably right about all the other stuff he talked about as well."
A mixed expression overcame Ves as he thought about the danger his mechs posed to his customers.
"Risk is always accompanied by reward." He whispered.
The MTA thought long and hard about the relation between immersion and performance. Their overarching policy of developing as many high-ranking mech pilots as possible meant they chose to set the overall limits in the middle.
A lot of regular mech pilots accumulated brain damage as they continually interfaced with their mechs. Even expert pilots weren't exempt from these consequences!
"What is the value of a normal mech pilot compared to an expert pilot?"
The MTA's policy on neural interfaces revealed that they didn't care about the wellbeing of mortal mech pilots.
"Millions of brain-damaged mech pilots can't compare to a single expert pilot."
The human race consisted of an uncountable amount of individuals. Even if only 3.5 percent of them possessed the right genetic aptitude to pilot mechs, that was still an ungodly amount of potentates!
"The galaxy won't run out of normal mech pilots anytime soon!"
As long as mechs remained popular, new mech pilots always emerged. For this reason, the MTA readily treated them as expendable resources in order to generate as many expert pilots as possible from their ranks.
"Unlike mortal mech pilots, high-ranking mech pilots are far too rare."
Attrition was the number one reason why the MTA constantly sought to increase the amount of expert pilots. Too many of them died in battle over the course of their careers. The difficulty of extending their lifespan was another reason why it became so hard to maintain their numbers.
Even less got to live to ace pilot. Those that did had a very long road ahead before they could even have a chance to advance to reach the apex of mech piloting.
"It says something that only a hundred or so known god pilots exist, almost the same as the amount of known Star Designers in the entire galaxy!"
Even if numerous more god pilots existed in secret, their absolute numbers shouldn't be much more than the entirety of the Avatars of Myth!
Considering the immense size of the galaxy, that was still a depressingly small amount!
The MTA obviously pursued a risky policy with a very significant human cost in order to increase the amount of god pilots.
If there weren't enough expert pilots, there wouldn't be enough ace pilots! If there weren't enough ace pilots, then the number of god pilots that existed would never increase!
In fact, they would probably decrease, because even god pilots still died in battle every now and then! Just because their moniker contained the word 'god' did not mean they were unkillable!
"Even gods are not exempt from attrition!"
Chapter 1368
Ves had thought long and hard about the ethical conundrum with regards to neural interfaces.
If he really wanted to, he could opt to use slightly different neural interface models popular in other regions of the galaxy that possessed higher or lower limits.
While this course of action would definitely arouse some suspicion of the MTA, Ves figured it was fine as long as he stuck to MTA-approved models.
He could also do nothing at all and continue using the neural interface models that were prevalent in the Komodo Star Sector.
To be honest, Ves still leaned towards the status quo.
Certainly, he found the MTA's policies to be abhorrent. They decided the limits themselves while withholding crucial information and agency in their own risk exposure.
It was for their own good. If too much hysteria emerged about the safety of neural interfaces, then how many potentates would still choose to pursue a career in piloting mechs?
As many potentates as possible had to be pushed into piloting mechs! All of the privileges, honor and high regard associated with mech pilots were there for a very good reason.
Without sufficient tangible and intangible rewards, not enough people actually chose to risk their lives in battle!
With so many potentates reluctant to become mech pilots, the last thing the MTA needed was people casting doubt on the safety of neural interfaces!
"It's no surprise then that the MTA expects more from mech pilots." Ves muttered.
By setting the limits higher, expert pilots emerged in higher numbers, but at the cost of an uncountable amount of worn-out mech pilots who accumulated significant brain damage in the later stages of their career!
Ves even believed that unsafe safety standards may have played a role in forcing his grandfather Benjamin to fall from grace!
"My grandpa used to be an expert pilot, but then he regressed."
His grandfather didn't like to talk about it. For an expert pilot at the prime of his career to suffer a devastating battle injury at that point was very painful. Though Benjamin seemed to have made peace with his descent, Ves nonetheless found it to be a huge pity, especially in light of the information he received.
"If neural interfaces were safer, would my grandpa still be an expert pilot?" He mused.
Another question was whether Benjamin Larkinson would have advanced to expert pilot in the first place if he made use of safer neural interface models.
Ves didn't know the answer to those questions. His inability to make a solid argument against the MTA's stance meant that he did not strongly object to them. In their view, they made the right choices.
"But is it the right choice for me as well?"
If Ves never met with Old Man Terrence, he would have guiltlessly kept making use of whatever neural interface models the MTA shoved down his throat.
Yet now that this blasted old mech designer pried open his eyes, Ves could no longer pretend ignorance.
"Thanks for that, old geezer." Ves scoffed.
He imagined that plaguing him with guilt and doubt was probably a funny game to Terrence Reedan. Ves both hated and appreciated the Chukan mech designer for enlightening him to the ugly truth.
Ves now faced a very difficult question. Should he condone an unsafe practice for the good of society, or should he reject it in order to protect his own vulnerable customers?
His brows continued to furrow as he struggled with his decision.
"Not every mech pilot aims to become an expert, ace or god pilot." He reminded himself.
Part of that was because the chances of any mech pilot to break through to expert candidate was low.
Even so, only a portion of mech pilots seriously wished to advance their careers. A lot of mech pilots simply saw it as a phase in their lives, a job they performed out of duty or to earn a lot of money.
It didn't help that potentates exclusively attended mech academies, which almost solely focused on teaching mech piloting skills.
As for other subjects such as history, language, economics and more? Forget about it! Mech pilots should only seek to pilot mechs, not become a professor of economics or such nonsense!
Though the MTA and various states pushed as many potentates into becoming mech pilots, the people in question were not always so enthusiastic about risking their lives.
"These people are only in it to earn their paychecks and secure their generous benefits."
Ves did not begrudge their lack of commitment. It was just the way they were. The problem was that mech pilots with a 'nine-to-five' attitude suffered the brunt of the consequences of the MTA's perverse policies.
Unsafe neural interfaces benefited ambitious mech pilots the most, granting them a greater chance to break through to expert candidate and beyond!
As for the more casual mech pilots? Their brains aged and degraded faster, which meant that they spent less time enjoying their comfortable retirements!
No mech pilot was the same. An enormous variety of people existed who piloted mechs for a living. The MTA conveniently ignored this reality by unilaterally adopting a one-size-fits-all solution.
Ves chuckled to himself. "Now, I'm pretty much doing the same thing."
In an ideal situation, he would give mech pilots the choice to set their own safety limits. Yet that entailed disclosing the actual risks of piloting mechs to his customers.
While it was the right thing to inform his customers, Ves believed the MTA would resolutely stop him if he did!
To the MTA, telling mech pilots how some neural interfaces models wrecked their brains faster was the wrong thing to do!
Forget about providing mech pilots with the opportunity to make an informed choice! As many potentates had to be pushed into piloting mechs as possible, all for the sake of producing more high-ranking mech pilots!
As a mere mech designer, Ves lacked the power to resist the MTA's will. Seeing how much effort they made into nurturing as many expert pilots as possible, Ves was sure that this was one line that he absolutely couldn't cross!
Bereft with the option of giving mech pilots the choice, Ves found himself in the unenviable position of making this important choice in their stead.
"Most of my mech designs so far are aimed at advanced mech pilots."
The Blackbeak, Crystal Lord and Aurora Titan models all demanded a lot out of their mech pilots. For this reason, the main users of his products consisted of more ambitious mech pilots.
"If I take my current customers into account, then sticking to the status quo is fine."
This might change if he ever ventured into cheaper mechs. If he designed a budget mech or a so-called 'economy mech', then he shouldn't expect too much from the mech pilots that get to pilot them into battle.
Utilizing safer and more limited neural interfaces with cheaper mechs was the most appropriate choice.
Yet... did he really wish to gimp some his mechs?
Ves oddly disagreed with this notion. Even if his mechs slowly accelerated the deterioration of the health of many of his mech pilots, was it worth it for him to rob them of the opportunity to earn greater glory?
Another factor complicated his consideration. Unlike many other mech designers whose specialties possessed little relation to neural interfaces, Ves was deeply dependent on their parameters!
Safer and more limited neural interfaces may curtail much of the damage that mech pilots regularly accrued over time, but they also limited the benefits provided by the X-Factor!
"The shallower the immersion, the weaker the interaction!"
While Ves had not tested this relationship in a rigorous experiment, according to his existing knowledge, the X-Factor was strongly related to the depth of the man-machine connection!
"It's like comparing a long-distance relationship to a physical relationship! The two can't be compared!"
For this reason, his mechs performed vastly better in the hands of his mech pilots if their neural interfaces possessed very liberal safety limits. The less constrained the neural interface, the greater the potential for symbiosis!
If Ves made the decision to transition to safer neural interfaces, then he would basically be shooting himself in the foot. The degree of interconnectedness between the mech and mech pilot would be subject to many limitations.
"The famed piloting experience of my mechs will be a lot more muted than before! Mech pilots will notice the difference and think I've lost my touch!"
This would be an absolute disaster! After years of strengthening the X-Factor of his mechs, making use of safer neural interfaces would mean that the X-Factor would be subject to artificial caps!
"It's like lowering the ceiling of a house so that only dwarves can live in it! Who wants to live in such a tiny home?"
Nobody except dwarves and those who liked to crawl on their feet!
If Ves wanted to maintain his principal competitive advantage and preserve the unique strength of his products, then he should not opt for neural interfaces with more stringent safety constraints.
In fact, he should do the opposite!
"While it doesn't apply to everyone, for me, it's better if I aim for greater potency!"
Neural interfaces that allowed for greater immersion and depth of connectivity meant that the mech pilots that used his products grew much closer to them! This would likely lead to a substantially greater effective performance than before!
His eyes lit up at the thought. "For regular mech designers, looser limits will only yield modest gains at an increasingly greater cost. But the calculus is different in my case!"
Because of the properties of his specialty, a deeper neural interface connection directly correlated to a greater interaction with the design spirit of his mechs!
To put it in a simpler way, unsafe neural interfaces directly amplified the effects of the X-Factor of his mechs!
The realization exploded in his mind like a bomb. Ves always knew his design philosophy depended heavily on the man-machine connection, but only now did he understand that he could precisely manipulate its effects by messing with the neural interfaces of his mechs!
Ves tried to envision what would happen if he adopted riskier neural interfaces. The rate of brain damage and other adverse consequences would increase among his customers.
However, many of them also stood to enjoy a lot more gains from using his products!
"The effective performance of regular mech pilots will increase! As for those who already perform well, their chances of breaking through are doubtlessly greater!"
To the MTA and almost every other mech designer, the most optimal balance lay somewhere in the middle between absolute safety and reckless potency.
Yet to Ves, his mechs became so much more with this change. Their true potential would be unlocked as many mech pilots enjoyed a greater degree of symbiosis!
Another thought briefly interrupted his glee at the possibilities. One of Old Man Terrence's warnings came to the forefront.
"There are always two sides to the same coin!"
Loosening the safety limits paved the way for greater symbiosis, but also greater adverse side effects! On top of the known side effects, mech pilots also became exposed to greater risk if they happened to be incompatible with the design spirits of their mechs!
The possibility momentarily sobered him up. "If the mech pilot hates his mech and vice versa, then the damage the mech pilot suffers will be amplified as well!"
However... Ves found it hard to care about mech pilots who clashed with their mechs. If the design spirit hated a mech pilot to the point where it actually harmed the individual, then it was probably justified!
Ves found out that he didn't mind it if his mechs wanted to harm or kill their own mech pilots!
"My mechs demand respect!" He exclaimed. "The stupid mech pilots have it coming if they fail to heed this warning!"
Less and less objections stood in the way for him to transition to using unsafe neural interfaces. Even though he essentially took the MTA's heartless stance and took it into a more extreme direction, Ves did not feel guilty for making this determination.
Deep in his heart, he believed he was making the right choice for his customers!
"Mech pilots will thank me for this decision!"
As Ves exulted over his brilliant decision, he quickly came across a great idea.
While all of this theorizing was great and all, who knew whether his assumptions panned out. What better way than to test his theories by applying it on his upcoming mech design?
His eyes lit up as he began to recall the progress he made on his incomplete smart metal tiger mech design.
"With the changes I have in mind, my mech will be even more autonomous and lifelike! Hahahahaha!"
Chapter 1369
Over the past couple of months, Ves still hadn't finalized the draft design of his speculative smart metal tiger mech design.
Normally, he was quite decisive, but this time he frequently doubted his choices.
He couldn't help it as it was truly difficult to incorporate smart metal to a tiger mech in a meaningful way.
He supposed he could have saved himself a lot of trouble by choosing another bestial mech type.
He didn't want to, though. The stubborn part of his mind flared up whenever he thought about giving and switching to something that meshed much better with smart metal technology.
"Sure, I'd have an easier time if I design a spaceborn squid mech with tentacles made entirely out of smart metal, but where is the fun in that?"
One of the reasons why he stuck with the unfortunate combination of properties was because he wanted to challenge himself. Even though he sometimes felt that he bit off more than he could chew, he still persisted with his decision.
Over the past few weeks in between transit, Ves had continued to refine and revise his draft design. He continually tweaked the amounts of smart metal replacing or augmented the conventional subcomponents of his design.
Even as he tinkered with his design, he always felt he was missing something. His initial intention was to design a mech that provided its design spirit with a greater degree of agency.
Handing over control of the smart metal tail of the tiger mech to the design spirit was an inspired choice of his. Yet now that he came up with his new realizations, he intended to upgrade his vision for his unnamed tiger mech!
Ves leaned back in his chair and activated the integrated signal jammer that Crindon recently installed in his stateroom.
"Sorry Gloriana, no free show for you! Sorry MTA, this little design is not for your eyes!"
Only then did he call up his current draft design. As he stared at his current work, he already started to plan the adjustments he wanted to make in light of his new realizations.
"Let's start with the basics. The premise of my tiger mech is that it is a mech that can both think and act for itself to an extent."
Different from his other mech designs where people only indirectly perceived their liveliness, his next mech design marked a very radical change in direction.
He wanted to steer his design philosophy closer to the path of life! He wanted to explore some of the potential this path had to offer! Rather than treat his mech designs as passive, invisible participants in the mech piloting experience, Ves wanted to bring it out to the forefront!
He wanted his mechs to truly live up to his ideals and the name of his mech company!
"How can the products of the Living Mech Corporation still be static and mechanical?" He quietly lamented. "It's time for me to crawl out of my shell and showcase some of the promise of my design philosophy!"
His decision to stop hiding and reveal the tricks he could do extended to more than what he already decided. Letting the design spirit assume a limited degree of direct control over the mech was tame compared to his next design choice!
"Hmph." He smirked. "Since Old Man Terrence calls neural interface technology the devil's technology, then why not embrace this aspect? My next design shall be called the Devil Tiger!"
Devil Tiger!
Ves only envisioned producing a single copy of this mech, yet that did not reduce the impact of its potentially-seminal design. If the innovations that Ves introduced in the mech panned out, then he had no doubt that it had the potential to become another legendary mech like his renowned Transcendent Messengers!
The key property of the mech concept of his Devil Tiger design was to remove some of the safety limitations that ordinary protected both the mech and mech pilot!
"Rather than be afraid of the unknown, let's embrace it! Hahahaha!"
He envisioned his Devil Tiger as a double-edged sword. When wielded properly, it was able to perform fantastically. The potential of his mech might even be greater than that of the Aurora Titan or Transcendent Messenger if everything went right!
However, if the mech pilot of the Devil Tiger clashed with its design spirit, then there were lots of ways for the mech to hamper the individual in question!
"This is the price that must be paid by giving the mech more agency!"
Piloting this mech was like making a deal with the devil. Only by keeping the devil pleased would the mech pilot continue to derive a great amount of benefit from piloting the mech!
"Hehehehe. Hahahaha. Hahahaha!"
Ves occasionally burst out in laughter as he thought of how great and terrible his next mech design would be! He intended to propel it into a unique mech of which had never existed before in the history of mech design! How could he not feel excited?!
His wild and audacious vision of his Devil Tiger stoked his enthusiasm and passion to greater heights! He became fully engaged with his design project and no longer muddled over the choices he needed to make.
"First, let's solve the problem with regards to smart metal!"
Ves wanted to design a mech suited for the environment of Mournshell in the Nyxian Gap. The chaotic but resource-rich planet hosted numerous different outfits, each of them competing over the bounty of exotics that regularly crashed on its tectonically-unstable surface.
He rubbed his chin. "In the Nyxian Gap and in the vicinity of Mournshell, ready access to repair facilities are absent. Just like the scum in the frontier, I doubt the treasure hunters, dark mercenaries and pirates are any good in servicing technologically-advanced machines!"
This served as a very big constraint to Ves. On the other hand, he could also turn it around and see it in a different light.
"Repairability and ease of maintenance is key in the Nyxian Gap!"
For example, a mech like the Aurora Titan might perform great in such an environment at first. Its quality and performance parameters were head and shoulders above the trash mechs the Nyxian pirates predominantly used.
Yet after a few months of occasional battles, the outfit that fielded such an extravagant mech would begin to run out of spare parts and materials.
The expensive alloys that made up its structure couldn't be sourced from some grungy, poorly-supplied pirate station in the middle of the Nyxian Gap.
The armor compressor required to produce new armor plating to replace the broken ones couldn't be operated by any casual mech technician. Only a specialist in alloy compression could operate one without too many errors that resulted in a lot of expensive failures.
"Such specialized personnel is probably hard to find in the Nyxian Gap." He muttered. "Obtaining an armor compressor is also a relatively big burden to an outfit."
In short, any mech designed to perform well in the Nyxian Gap couldn't be too expensive and sophisticated! The 'target audience' for his Devil Tiger were simply too poor and stupid to maintain a high-performance mech!
"However, this is only the case with standard mechs! What if the mech is entirely different? What if it's made out of much more smart metal than I envisioned?"
Ves looked at his draft design and waved his hand, causing all of his previous progress to be wiped away! He didn't intend to develop this early version any further! Instead, he wanted to start anew with a more radical concept for his smart metal tiger mech design!
"My Devil Tiger won't be a conventional mech. Not every performance specification is important. The key is to make my mech durable and sustainable in an environment that features poor logistics and a lack of skilled personnel!"
He made a big mistake with his previous draft design. He sketched a mech design that was far too complex for the Nyxian Gap. While the notorious area featured a handful of outfits and mech pilots who could give elites a run for their money, they were the exception rather than the rule.
"I can't assume that whoever gets to pilot my mech is as skilled as a Larkinson mech pilot and has access to a competent maintenance crew."
Prioritizing speed, power, armor and so on was a mistake. A much higher proportion of mechs in the Nyxian Gap consisted of salvaged rust buckets or third-hand mechs, so why should he aim for a high level of performance?
What mattered more was whether a mech would last. First, their endurance had to be at least decent. Resupplying in the varied environments of the Nyxian Gap was extremely hard, so mechs needed to be able to last for at least a standard day without requiring replenishment.
Second, it had to be easy to service by lower-skilled mech technicians. Ves had to pick relatively simple parts that made use of cheap exotics that were prevalent in the Nyxian Gap.
He also had to find an alternative to using compressed armor plating. As much as its addition enormously increased the durability of a mech, it was still beyond the reach of most pirate outfits.
Third, it had to be easy to pilot. In the mech community, tiger mechs gained a reputation for being fairly easy to learn but hard to master. It shouldn't be too much of a problem for Ves to keep the tiger mech accessible to lower-skilled mech pilots.
At the very least, the active design spirit ought to be able to lend a hand if the mech pilot happened to fall short at times.
"Perhaps even those with a lower grade of genetic aptitude will be able to pilot my mech proficiently!"
Of course, that was an exaggeration. Ves did not think he would be able to solve the problem that Old Man Terrence wasted his entire life trying to resolve.
"The point is my Devil Tiger has to offer great power but without most of the burden!"
That didn't mean he wanted to design a junk mech though. Even if the System let him get away with it, Ves himself disdained developing a crappy mech!
His Devil Tiger had to be strong and awe-inspiring in order to be the legendary mech that he envisioned!
How could he make his mech both easy to work with and powerful at the same time?
"Money! It all comes down to money!"
Ves changed his mind about not investing too much in his Devil Tiger design. He had become too invested in its vision to stop halfway. A great mech deserved to contain some valuable traits.
He raised a finger and began to sketch his new draft design. The tiger mech that took shape looked almost identical to the previous design he discarded.
The most important difference however was that instead of containing a little bit of smart metal here and there, almost its entire insides consisted of the substance!
With the sheer amount of smart metal he included in the mech, reaching the target of thirty percent was a breeze, but Ves did not aim so low this time.
He wanted to design a true smart metal mech!
"It's not enough! At least sixty percent of my mech has to be made out of smart metal! Even the core components such as the power reactor, engine and large parts of the cockpit has to be made out of smart metal!"
The non-smart metal portions of the mech would only be reserved for components that absolutely couldn't be replaced with the smart metal he had access to. As for the armor plating of the mech, Ves had something special in mind.
"The entire surface of Mournshell is littered with junk and various useful exotics. Why not make my mech's exterior adaptable so that it can incorporate some of these materials? It's brilliant! Hahahahaha!"
This was one of the key features of his Devil Tiger! He wanted it to grow with time and continually improve itself!
"Instead of growing weaker, my Devil Tiger has to be a mech that continuously grows stronger over time! It will never become outdated!"
Chapter 1370
Ves came up with a very ambitious reimagining of his smart metal tiger mech. Not only did it have to be truly alive in a sense, it also had to be capable of continuous growth and evolution!
He wanted to achieve this without imposing too many demands on the owners of his mech. This meant that Ves couldn't rely too much on the competence of the maintenance crew that had to service the Devil Tiger.
In order to accomplish this, Ves opted to apply two measures that solved this particular problem.
"First, I'll impart some of my knowledge, particularly on metallurgy, to the design spirit!"
This way, his mech could skillfully repair itself without relying on the idiots or the enslaved to repair the damage to the mech after an arduous battle!
"Second, the exterior of my mech has to have a form of smart metal at its base that can assimilate various materials and exotics! It has to be able to replenish itself as well in the right conditions!"
Ves knew that such products existed, but they were prohibitively expensive! They only started showing up in second-class mechs, so for him to get his hands on adaptable smart metal armor plating was easier said than done!
The immense cost and other practical problems associated with his increasingly ambitious design project shocked him out of his excited state.
He palmed his face. "The devil is in the detail! It's all well and good to daydream about a fantastic mech, but how in the hell am I supposed to get it all together?"
Ves got so caught up in his imagination that he lost sight of his limitations! He made the same mistakes of a mech design student who just pieced some shiny parts together!
He calmed down as he tried to figure out how he could possibly obtain the most critical material, which was the adaptable smart metal armor system, or ASMAS!
"ASMAS is not only expensive, but very hard to obtain."
It sounded like a wonder material. ASMAS basically consisted of nanomachine goop that possessed basic material processing capabilities. If Ves threw a bucket of the goop at a junkyard, the nanomachines would follow its programming and scour the piles of junk for the best materials to form the best possible armor plating that was within their means to create.
Smart metal specialists developed ASMAS as a means to create a mech that required little to no actual maintenance and could subside on the field for years.
To their credit, they succeeded. Only, the price associated with this tech was very prohibitive.
In order to impart material processing capabilities at the microscopic level to a bunch of nanomachines, their complexity had reached an insane height. In order to even make it all possible, each nanomachine had to incorporate numerous traces of medium or even high-grade exotics!
In other words, to form the initial goop of ASMAS, Ves had to make an incredibly expensive investment just to get a bucket of this substance!
"This is also the main reason why no one is afraid that ASMAS will perpetually self-replicate and turn into a grey goo like threat."
There was another reason why grey goo attacks often failed. Plenty of crazies attempted to destroy a planet or even the entire galaxy by unleashing a plague of grey goo.
However, while smart metal could accomplish amazing things, at it base it merely consisted of a huge bunch of nanomachines!
"Sticking 'nano' in front of a machine doesn't make it any less of a machine! Every machine can be hacked, particularly those that depend heavily on connectivity and coordination!"
To be fair, the developers of smart metal did their best to make it as difficult as possible to hack their products. Nonetheless, their vulnerability towards hacking was a very huge reason why smart metal never took off in the galaxy.
There was only one exception. Mechs were notoriously difficult to hack because of the man-machine connection. As long as the smart metal hopped on to the man-machine connection, it became a bit less susceptible to hacking.
Normally, this was due to the human mind connected to the smart metal.
However, in the case of the Devil Tiger, Ves believed he may be able to achieve the same effect for his mech by tying the smart metal to the design spirit of the mech.
"That's yet another assumption I have to put to the test." He muttered.
In short, ASMAS was not only problematic to procure, but also difficult to replenish.
When smart metal mechs sustained damage, chunks of smart metal could easily be separated and thrown from the mech frames. Sometimes, the separated ASMAS could merge back into the mech, but if the nanomachines suffered too much damage, then the damaged mech could salvage only a little bit of exotics.
"What is the point of using an ASMAS mech when it can't repair itself anymore after a few months of battle?"
That was far from years of continuous use that the inventors of ASMAS envisioned!
Fortunately, the proponents of this tech already devised a solution to this problem. Perhaps the original exotics might be hard to source, but as long as someone shoveled a bunch of inferior substitute materials to the ASMAS, then its volume could partially be restored.
"It's only a substitute though. Compared to factory-fresh ASMAS, the substitute ASMAS isn't nearly as good in processing and adapting different materials."
ASMAS mechs had to maintain a minimum level of pure ASMAS in order to retain all of its essential functionality.
After several generations of development, ASMAS mechs got better and better at preserving pure ASMAS. Most of the time, it deployed substitute ASMAS closer to the exterior of the mech. The valuable pure ASMAS would be sequestered deep in the core of the mech, only to be brought out once the fighting stopped in order to facilitate repairs.
Ves scratched his chin. "This is one way to make an ASMAS mech more affordable. Instead of turning sixty percent of the mech into pure ASMAS, I can instead split that up. Perhaps I can get by a tenth as much on the expensive kind of ASMAS, while leaving the rest to substitute ASMAS!"
This potentially lowered the lifespan of the mech, but as long as the mech and mech pilot didn't suffer catastrophic damage, the pure ASMAS could last for a very long time.
Ves knew because he already read about it before. Some ASMAS mechs lasted for as much as decades! With smarter use, the pure ASMAS could last even longer!
"This is a good basis for my Devil Tiger!"
He made his decision. Even if it was expensive to get his hands on a starter batch of pure ASMAS, he had to do his best to obtain enough of it to form the basis of his tiger mech!
"With this much pure ASMAS and substitute ASMAS, my Devil Tiger will become a true smart metal mech!"
In order to realize his vision, he had to break one of his rules and spend an extravagant amount of money to obtain a few barrels worth of pure ASMAS.
Nonetheless, just because he resorted to something expensive to solve a specific problem didn't mean he no longer faced any challenges regarding his design project.
Mech design was all about making the best use of the tech and materials at someone's disposal!
"A good cook can turn cheap ingredients into a tasty meal. A bad cook will make expensive ingredients taste bad!"
As long as Ves made skillful use of the ingredients he obtained, the resulting 'meal' tasted good regardless of the cost!
"I have to be careful not to waste the ingredients." Ves furrowed his brows. "I don't even know if I can even obtain some in the Sentinel Kingdom."
The actual utility of ASMAS technology had always been rather niche. For the price of a single ASMAS mech, a mech buyer might as well buy ten regular mechs instead that performed just as well!
Ves considered whether he should just beg Gloriana to help him obtain the necessary amount of pure ASMAS.
He shook his head. "Not yet. I don't want to owe her any more than I already do. There ought to be a way for me to get the ASMAS on my own."
For now, he pushed the matter aside. He still had a long way to go before he finished the design.
A few hours went by as Ves continued to sketch and fill in some of the details of his draft design.
His artistic inclination came to the fore. He tweaked the external appearance of his mech to convey its devilish, double-edged nature.
"The Devil Tiger is a predator! It's a mech purely designed to kill!"
The predominant shade of his devil tiger was red. Along with its sharp black tiger stripes, the mech looked like a beast that had clawed itself straight out of hell!
The snarling maw, the sharp and unnerving tail, the devastating claws, the menacing contours and so on all contributed to a look that might one day inspire dread on the battlefield!
"Best of all, its appearance can change over time!"
Due to the properties of ASMAS, the shape and configuration of the Devil Tiger was not set in stone. The materials it absorbed and the programming that Ves planned to convey would give the mech the option to choose its own evolution.
As for who got to decide how the mech evolved over time?
"Not the mech pilot!"
Ves did not aim his mech at any specific mech pilot. The Devil Tiger was all about the mech for once! Whoever got to pilot it was just a body to enable its design spirit to do what it wanted, including directing the evolution of the Devil Tiger!
"Ah, but there's the rub."
Getting his hands on sufficient quantities of pure ASMAS was one major challenge to his design project.
The second challenge was to form the right design spirit for his Devil Tiger!
Due to all of the demands he posed to his mech, he couldn't make do with self-constructed images! He had to resort to a potent spiritual fragment in order to make the choices he wanted his mech to make!
"It has to be strong, at least as strong as the one I used for the Transcendent Messenger!"
These kinds of design spirits were fairly difficult to come by. He could probably make do if he obtained some kind of relic or other object that received a lot of worship in order to refine its spiritual accumulation into something useful.
He frowned. "I can't pick up any random object, though. It has to be related to cat or tiger-like species!"
This was a very specific demand! Ves didn't even know if such an object existed anywhere in this corner of the star sector!
"There's got to be at least somewhere in the local region which worships tigers. If that doesn't work, I'll just make do with something related to house cats if necessary! It's not like anyone will notice the difference!"
Lucky would approve.
In fact, now that he thought about his pet, he wondered whether he could borrow some of Lucky's spirituality.
Ves quickly shook his head. "He'll claw my face off my head if I make that suggestion!"
Aside from finding a spiritually-powerful cat-like creature or a totem object related to such species, Ves had few options to go on. He planned to perform some very thorough research in the next few days to see if he could obtain a source for the Devil Tiger's design spirit.
"It has to be strong! The stronger the source, the stronger the spiritual fragment! The stronger the fragment, the more expressive and lifelike my mech can get!"
His Devil Tiger was destined to be a very deviant mech design. Ves did not intend to implement all of the innovations he implemented in the Devil Tiger to his legal mech designs. He merely wanted to test his assumptions and see how his theories fared in an extreme situation.
"I have to make the most of this opportunity!"
Chapter 1371
The Sentinel Kingdom beckoned to Ves. After getting out of the mud pool that was the Chuko Republic, he expected to make a much bigger harvest in the strong and powerful third-rate state.
Ves and his staff already made a number of orders and reservations at Sentinel. He also had a number of goals in mind while he traveled from system to system conducting various exchanges with local mech designers.
From overhauling the Barracuda at a waiting drydock, illicitly obtaining the key materials required to build an ultracompact battery, accessing a lab to study the properties of P-stone, buying a remarkable pet for Ketis, finding a source of geril spice, investigating the circumstances of his father in the nearby Nyxian Gap, begging his girlfriend to procure a batch of pure ASMAS and harvesting a spiritual fragment related to tigers, Ves had a lot on his plate!
"I also have to design the Devil Tiger!"
The scope of his design project grew to an unimaginable degree. From his original intention to design an affordable, disposable experimental mech to creating a legendary machine from scratch, Ves had needlessly made things difficult for himself!
However, the reason why he broke his own rules and let his imagination run wild was because he became extremely passionate about the project!
"Sometimes, pursuing my passion is more important than sticking to practicality!"
If his goal was to earn money by designing a commercially-viable mech, then Ves would definitely have second thoughts.
"But that's not the case right now."
His primary goal was to complete the Upgrade Missions from the System. Once he accomplished this, his Metallurgy and Mechanics Skills would finally reach a level that would enable him to design mechs that could potentially capture a significant amount of market share.
"The gap in performance between my models and the mainstream mech models will further decrease!"
Nonetheless, Ves never aimed to compete over specs. Who cared if a competing mech performed ten percent better than his own. The unique selling proposition of his mechs could not be replicated by anyone!
"No one can design an LMC mech that out-LMC's the LMC!"
Perhaps a number of weird Class IX mech designers existed somewhere in the galaxy that could manipulate human emotions as well. Yet Ves strongly believed that even then, those who worked directly with spirituality must number extremely few.
The belief that he was pioneering an entirely new dimension in mech design always sustained his pride! His entire career was based around developing something new and unprecedented!
"And my upcoming Devil Tiger design will exemplify the innovations that I'll introduce to the market!"
Of course, as an illicit mech design based on pirated licenses, Ves did not want the Devil Tiger to be associated with his public identity. He'd have to modify the X-Factor of his mech in a way that largely focused its influence inward. He also had to obscure some of the mechanics related to his specialization.
Perhaps in time a very clever and inquisitive mech designer might be able to uncover Ves' fingerprints in the Devil Tiger's design.
Ves didn't particularly mind this possibility. He just had to obscure enough evidence to make it difficult for him to be directly tied to the mech and its design. As long as he maintained enough plausible deniability, nothing would come out of it. At most, he could simply say that someone stole a prototype of a confidential design project.
"It wouldn't be the first time someone stole a prototype." He muttered.
Time passed. As his fleet quietly exited the Chuko Republic, Ves and everyone breathed a sigh in relief.
Ves had not envisioned his visit to the Chuko Republic to be so problematic. To be fair, he pretty much asked for it by traveling to such a troubled state in the first place.
Despite cutting his visit to Chuko short, Ves was already satisfied with the gains he made. Not only could he look forward to wearing a second shield generator once he replaced its spent battery, he also gained the insights he needed to elevate his design project to a higher level.
The Devil Tiger continued to consume his attention in the following days and weeks. It was unlike anything he had ever tackled before. Working with newfangled ASMAS tech that played a key role in enabling the Devil Tiger's many functions forced him to hit the books.
He swamped himself in academic literature. With his Intelligence, his reading and comprehension speed allowed him to devour book after book and paper after paper. His view on smart metal technology and ASMAS technology grew by leaps and bounds in a very short amount of time!
"All of this is necessary if I want to reduce costs and increase efficiency! Pure ASMAS are simply too expensive for me to waste!"
Ves particularly focused on the properties of substitute ASMAS. He read up on a lot of material-specific papers to see what kind of materials and exotics functioned as the best building blocks of substitute ASMAS.
"Substitute ASMAS is meant to be the disposable kind of smart metal." He summed up. "If I want to make the Devil Tiger last as long as possible, then I have to enable it to replenish its substitute ASMAS from all the exotics that are prevalent in the Nyxian Gap!"
Longevity, sustainability and ease of supply dominated his concerns about his design project. He did not expect the owners of the Devil Tiger to march up to a populated trade system and order a batch of rare exotics imported from another star cluster to make up for any material shortfalls.
"Whoever possesses the Devil Tiger has to be able to scrape up minerals from a planet or asteroid and dump it near the mech so that it can perform its own repairs!"
Despite the many difficulties he faced, Ves nonetheless enjoyed the novelty of designing something different. He was working with an entirely different mold of mech design. Both the smart metal and bestial mech aspects of his design project forced him to revise many of his assumptions and move out of his comfort zone.
Exploring different avenues and keeping things fresh and interesting helped him a lot.
Some mech designers believed that they achieved the best progress by narrowing the scope of their work. By focusing on a few mech types or mech concepts, they could refine their proficiency in designing these kinds of mechs to a level beyond a generalist.
"Ketis is likely pursuing this path." He rubbed his chin. "However, this approach is not for everyone."
Ves differentiated mech designers between those who sought to broaden their capabilities and those who narrowed them down to a laser focus.
"There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches."
A mech designer who wanted to narrow themselves down to a smaller variety of mechs could design fantastic mechs that fell within their area of interest. Every mech designer with Class VI and Class VII design philosophies fell under this category.
However, the biggest shortcoming of these mech designers was that they couldn't really design a mech that fell outside of their specialty.
Oh, they probably possessed enough of a foundation to do a decent job at it, but a mediocre mech design didn't cut it in a competitive market environment.
"It would be like asking Ketis to design a rifleman mech! I know for sure it will end in tears for everyone involved!"
On the other hand, a mech designer like Ves who was insatiably curious very much enjoyed exploring new mechs. With regards to mech design, he did not fear the unknown. Instead, he embraced it! If he didn't have the courage to tackle something new, then he wouldn't have the guts to design a hybrid mech, a super-medium mech, a hero mech and now a bestial mech!
All of the aforementioned mech types gave lots of mech designers headaches! Ves too sometimes wished he worked on something easier, but he persisted because he always made a lot of gains after he completed a difficult design project.
There was no right or wrong answer with regards to which approach worked better.
"It's just like the debate about specialization versus generalization in mech types. The best option depends on the circumstances."
In his perspective, someone like Ketis would probably do fine if she became a generalist. However, she would probably do so much better if she pursued her interest in swordsman mechs and specialized in them. Her experiences, knowledge and passion all laid down a very favorable foundation for her to go far if she went down this road.
As for Ves, his design philosophy did not favor any specific mech type over another. Even though he mostly designed expensive mechs up till now, that did not rule out designing cheaper mechs in the future.
For him, specializing in a narrow range of mech types made little sense. The gains he could make from specialization would not yield more results than those who truly dedicated themselves to their narrow range of interests.
A generalist approach suited him much better as his competitive advantage was very broad and not limited to a handful of specific mech types.
He always knew he was inclined towards this direction, but now that the System pushed him to explore outside his comfort zone did he gain a new understanding about this approach.
"Even among generalists, there are differences!"
Some mech designers merely branched out because they wanted to form a complete mech catalog that covered all the conventional mech archetypes. They wanted their mech companies to be the one-stop solution for all the products a mech buyer could ask.
For a long time, Ves held this stance. His intention was to slowly increase his repertoire until he covered all the necessary mech archetypes. Once he completed his mech catalog, he no longer intended to explore something new.
"This is fine for most mech designers, but is it really the best direction to take for me?" He asked himself.
The System obviously didn't want him to grow comfortable anytime soon. Ves understood the logic of it all. By constantly tackling strange new design projects, he trained his mind in becoming more creative in solving problems.
If he just expanded his repertoire up to a certain point and no longer explored new methods and techniques, he risked becoming more complacent. His problem solving skills would solidify until he only became capable of solving problems that fell within his comfort zone.
"On the other hand, if I keep exploring something new, then I'll be so much more capable when I reach the point where progressing my design philosophy becomes difficult!"
This was the overall lesson he learned from Seniors who tried but failed to innovate their way to Master. A vast gulf existed between the two ranks, and only the most hard-working, creative and ingenious mech designers stood a chance of bridging this immense gap!
His passion for his Devil Tiger design project already indicated that he was heading in the right direction. If he didn't enjoy the process of learning something new and expanding his horizons, then he wasn't suitable to climb higher up the ranks.
"I can't cheat my way into becoming more competent!"
He called up his unfinished design and studied the progress he made. With increased understanding, he became a lot more clever with how he intended to utilize ASMAS in his Devil Tiger.
Though Ves did not create a specific image to guide his design process, his passion and his singular focus was sufficient to empower it with a preliminary degree of X-Factor!
Nonetheless, obtaining a spiritual fragment and forming it into a suitable design spirit for his Devil Tiger became a higher and higher priority for the design project. His mech would never reach its full potential without including this crucial element!
"Fortunately, I've got just the place where I can obtain something suitable!"
Within the Sentinel Kingdom, there existed a peculiar tourist planet. Its entire surface had been terraformed into a terrestrial paradise.
Along with seeding it with many ordinary Terran and alien species, the state also seeded it with a large variety of cats, tigers, lions, leopards, panthers, and other cat-like species!
The government even dumped various exobeasts that resembled cats in this wild and savage environment!
"Our next destination is Felixia, the Planet of Cats! Lucky will love it there!"
Chapter 1372
Ves held another 'virtual date' with Gloriana. This time, they visited a live projection of a ballet show that took place somewhere in the Hexadric Hegemony.
The two sat in a private gallery that overlooked the dancers down the stage who performed their intricate dance.
To spice the performance up, the performers danced across a transparent maze-like stage where gravity changed directions at different spots. Pockets of weightlessness allowed the dancers to spin perpetually and perform all kinds of visually-impressive feats.
Both Ves and Gloriana dressed up for the black tie occasion. Ves wore a black tuxedo enriched with sophisticated golden details on its lapels.
To be honest, Ves didn't pick his own outfit. His fashion sense was nonexistent, so he allowed Gavin to program his smart clothing in a stylish but safe configuration.
As for Gloriana, Ves found it difficult to ignore her gorgeous appearance.
She opted for a shimmering green dress that complimented her slender contours and reflected lights like stars over a green horizon. The dress left her arms and neck bare. Only her comm and a pair of exotic arm bracelets graced her arms.
She also carried her hair in a curly bun that fell like sickles across the back of her neck. Along with her shiny earrings and her sharp facial features, Ves could hardly draw his eyes away from her alluring face!
Obviously, his 'girlfriend' knew what kind of effect she had on Ves. She frequently raised the back of her hand in order to stifle her excited giggles.
While Ves and Gloriana sat together, their cats also tentatively interacted with each other.
"Meow!"
"Miaow!"
"Meow?"
"Miaow miaow."
Gloriana playfully placed a cute pink bowtie on top of Clixie's head, causing the Rubarthan Sentinel Cat to look extra cute.
Ves couldn't allow Lucky to fall behind, so he temporarily replaced his gem cat's miniaturized stealth generator with a black-and-white bowtie.
As the two cats admired each other's accessories, Ves and Gloriana engaged each other in light conversation.
"You're a lot more comfortable in your own skin than before, Ves. I like you better this way."
Ves smiled. "I recently commenced with a very difficult but very ambitious mech project."
"Oh? Do tell."
"I can't. The project I'm working on is not exactly proper. I'll get in a lot of trouble if it's exposed."
She pouted. "Don't you trust me?"
Despite her pleas, Ves held his ground. "I'm sorry, but what I'm working on really can't be exposed. It's not safe for me to divulge the details over a comm connection."
His coy attempts at keeping the details of his project to himself only aroused her interest. Ves inwardly smiled at the growing curiosity that formed behind Gloriana's sparkling eyes.
"Will you tell me about your design when we next meet up again in reality?"
"Sure. As long as we can talk securely, I don't mind showing off my work. It's just.. I don't know if I can present you with anything meaningful."
"Why so, Ves?"
"The challenges I'm facing are very considerable. What I'm trying to design is so radical and ambitious that I'll definitely achieve an evolution in my design style if I succeed! Such gains don't come easy! There's a chance that I'll get stuck at some point!"
"I know what that is like." Gloriana said with concern as her projection leaned into Ves. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Ves tried his best to suppress his sly smile. He'd been aiming for these words from the start.
While a part of him found it shameful to approach Gloriana for a handout, Ves still went through with this course of action. Since Gloriana pulled off all kinds of stunts already, then he at least deserved to take advantage as well!
As for shame? The damage to his pride was nothing compared to bringing his design project to fruition! As long as he successfully designed his Devil Tiger, then all of the suffering would have been worth the sacrifices!
"To be honest, I'm in a bit of a fix." He said carefully. "The mech I'm designing can't be realized without including an essential system. Unfortunately, my financial means and supply channels are not sufficient for me to get what I want."
Gloriana frowned. "You've always been fairly sober in your previous works. Is your design that complicated this time?"
"It's exactly because of these new additions that makes it so remarkable. If I still maintained relations with Master Olson or Leemar's Clifford Society, I could have exchanged some favors and merits to obtain what I need to complete my design project."
What Ves did not mention was that Gloriana was responsible for spoiling his ties to the Friday Coalition. She knew it. He knew it. What was done was done. There was no point for him to torch her over her very deliberate act to cut him off from the Friday Coalition.
His implicit message by reminding her of her 'crime' was that she ought to compensate him for the damages!
Since Ves couldn't approach his former Master or his former club for his second-class goodies, then Gloriana ought to provide him what he wanted instead!
Her perfectly face scrunched a bit as she fell into thought. "What is it exactly that you are trying to acquire? It's hard for me to understand your difficulties when you are withholding so much from me. It's so annoying how often you jam your stateroom, you know!"
Ves patted the top of her head, though his hand went right through her projection. "A man needs his privacy. Be happy my ship can't function well if I jam the entire vessel. As for what I need.. it's a little pricey. Are you familiar with ASMAS?"
"Adaptive smart metal armor system? I'm familiar with it. ASMAS doesn't have a good reputation in the Hegemony. Its fans constantly make a lot of promises but never manage to deliver upon them. If you're actually thinking of working with ASMAS, I really suggest you don't. It has too many flaws!"
"I know what I'm doing, Gloriana. I'm well aware of the merits and limitations of ASMAS. If you want to criticize my work, just wait until I complete it and show you the details. For now, I truly need at least a starter batch of ASMAS."
What he just asked for was quite expensive. Gloriana fell silent for a moment, leaving Ves guessing at what she was thinking.
"Okay." She eventually spoke up. "I can supply you with a batch. It won't be the best quality, but getting my hands on enough ASMAS to sustain a single mech is still doable. I can even have it shipped to your next destination. It's just..."
"What is it, Gloriana?"
She briefly smiled as he mentioned her name. She always liked it when Ves did that.
"I'll have to go through some trouble, you know. Don't you think you ought to repay me, Ves?"
He already expected to pay an additional price for this huge favor. Ves did not delude himself into thinking he could treat his girlfriend as a vending machine without inserting some tokens!
"What can I do to make it easier for you? Mind you, don't expect too much from me. I'm still preoccupied with progressing my design philosophy."
"Hehe. It's nothing too big." She grinned. "I was thinking we should meet up again! I'm still preoccupied with a couple of projects at the moment, but once I'm done I don't have anything that demands my attention in my agenda! Isn't this a lovely time for us to reunite in person? We've already spent so much time together in our virtual meetups that it should be fine for us to meet physically again, right?"
Just as Ves wanted to get something out of Gloriana, his girlfriend also wanted something out of him! The reason why he pushed her suggestion off previously was because he recognized its value to her. As long as he kept dangling the possibility of agreeing to another meeting beyond her reach, he could effectively use it as a bargaining tool!
At this moment, Ves recognized that the time had come to cash in his chips!
"I suppose.. I'm up for meeting up again." He answered reluctantly, though a part of him really looked forward to their next reunion! "I hope we can get to know each other at a gentle pace. I know you're excited and all, but we really do have to take our relationship step by step."
She briefly frowned for a moment, but wiped away the displeasure from her face. "Great! That's a promise then!"
"Don't forget about the ASMAS! If I don't get it, I'll probably be too preoccupied with my design project!"
"I'll obtain some as fast as possible! Don't worry, Ves! This little issue is not a big deal for me. I'm much more excited about our upcoming physical date! Hihi!"
They began to discuss when and where they could possibly meet. After comparing their agendas, they determined that it would be best for them to meet when Ves stopped by the Hertog Dominion or the Tomaris Federation.
"Let's meet at the Tomaris Federation!" She lovingly declared. "While it's a bit distant from the Hegemony, I still need the extra time to arrange all of my affairs if I want to spend the next few years with you! I can't let any lingering issues ruin our perfect time together, hihihi!"
"Whoa! What are you talking about?"
She offered him a brilliant grin. "Since we're meeting up in the future, we might as well stick around, right? Let's spend some time together! I'll go anywhere you go! I won't be a bother!"
"Ehhh.. uhm..."
"We can also design our first collaborative mech together! I'll let you take the lead this time! My specialty is great for designing the perfect mech for a mech pilot! Aren't there some you care about? This would be the perfect time for us to see whether our design philosophies work well with each other!"
Ah. This must be one of the biggest reasons why she wanted to spend an extended amount of time together.
Just as Gloriana obsessed over what their collaboration might yield, so did Ves, though not in such a single-minded way.
For this reason, Ves did not object to this proposal. He wanted to see for himself if their design philosophies really synergized with each other as both of them suspected.
If the promised compatibility and synergy did not take place, then... Gloriana would probably dump him really quickly.
Was this really such a bad outcome? Not necessarily. Either outcome favored him in different ways. He did not lose out no matter what results they achieved once they completed their collaborative project!
"I'm more than willing to design a mech together." He eventually answered.
"Yay! I'm so happy!" Gloriana exuberantly clapped her hands together. "Do you have a mech in mind already? It will help me a lot if you can tell me about the mech pilot you have in mind. I only design custom mechs, so it's really important for me to learn all there is about my customers."
Ves briefly contemplated who deserved to pilot a custom mech. He already formed a small list of people he wanted to bestow with a fantastic mech.
To him, family came first, but his protection was a priority as well! For this reason, he quickly turned his attention to the Avatars of Myth.
"I'd like our first collaborative project to benefit Melkor Larkinson, one of the cousins in my family. He's been leading my personal mech force for years, but he lacks an awe-inspiring mech that befits his rank."
"Okay." Gloriana nodded. "What is your cousin's specialty?"
"Marksmanship. He pilots a landbound rifleman mech."
"Rifleman mech, huh? I've got plenty of experience with those! I'll make the preparations right away!"
"Make sure you study my Crystal Lord mech as well. Melkor has been piloting one for years. Depending on his desires, we might end up designing an upgraded variant of my only rifleman mech design."
"Mmmm. Got it. I already studied it extensively so I know what it prioritizes. I'll be sure to do some research!"
Ves and Gloriana both became more enthused about their upcoming collaborative mech project. They continued to discuss the preliminary details with each other without any reserve.
Chapter 1373
Felixia. The Planet of Cats. The Cat Utopia. Originally, it started off as a barren rock in a star system completely devoid of valuable exotic materials.
As the Sentinel Kingdom started settling strategic or mineral-rich star systems, a number of eccentric aristocrats with way too much money than sense had another idea.
Why not terraform a planet into the perfect cat paradise?
When Ves first read about it, he thought these cat-crazed nobles were absolutely mad! What kind of value could a planet dedicated to cats bring to society?
Quite a lot, it seems.
"Cats are the most popular animals in human space. No matter what kind of cute and cuddly little exobeasts get discovered in the galaxy, cats are some of the oldest companions of our race. Isn't that right, Lucky?"
"Meow."
Lucky currently rested on his lap. The cat's bone-white surface crossed with cyan blue glowing lines felt warm to his touch.
"Are you looking forward to Felixia?"
"Meow!"
"I thought you'd be excited. There are lots of fellow cats for you to play with! There's big cats, small cats, alien cats, genetically-engineered cats and even other mechanical cats!"
"Meow meow!"
Ves chuckled. Evidently, Lucky disliked being compared to common cats!
Regardless of what Ves thought of Felixia, the initial colonists somehow turned it into an attractive paradise. It became so famed that it attracted lots of tourists from outside the Sentinel Kingdom!
The initial colonists turned much of the surface of the planet into a managed nature preserve. Different continents and subcontinents featured different attractions.
For example, one region had been turned into a giant petting zoo. Friendly house cats and comparable cat-like species casually roamed the forests, the canyons, the idyllic village settlements and other environments.
Families and crazy cat ladies alike swarmed to this region in great numbers!
Other regions offered other services and attractions. For example, hunting became a very big attraction. Wealthy or daring tourists could bring their own weapons or rent them from the local facilities and go on a hunt in various challenging environments.
The hunters could choose to hunt various mundane and exotic cat-like species, each of them interspersed in carefully-constrained boundaries in order to keep the challenge and risk level predictable.
For example, families bringing their kids to an outing could go on a guided hunt where they hunted down ferocious-looking but inwardly-tame big cats. The kids would come away from the trip with an awesome preserved lion head that they could show off to their friends.
More serious hunters and trained soldiers looking for a challenge could enter the riskier preserves. The big cats there had teeth and even killed some people from time to time!
Anyone entering these dangerous hunting zones did so at their risk, but that was part of the experience.
Aside from hunting mundane big cats, the hunters mainly aimed to take down more exotic cats. Felixia constantly seeded their hunting zones with new, recently-discovered cat-like exobeasts.
They also engaged in a liberal amount of genetic modification, cooking up hybrid cat-alien monstrosities with genes from dozens of different Terran and alien cat species!
All of the cats, whether they were human or alien, natural or artificial, looked good. Hunting down any of these species granted the hunters the right to do with them as they wish. For a fee, they could turn the heads of a big cat into a trophy, turn their hide into a fur coat and much, much more.
Anyone who returned from a hunt at Felixia with a coat made from the fur of their cat prey received the envy of their peers!
Hunting became such a profitable attraction on Felixia that it transformed an entire continent into something even better!
Rather than hunting an exotic big cat on foot, why not hunt them instead with mechs?
Such an operation reminded him of the training camp at Nova Migolatus I. The Vesians there turned an entire forested continent into a dangerous training environment by propagating it with huge exobeasts that posed an actual threat to mechs!
The same had been applied to Felixia's famous mech hunting zones! Instead of seeding them with human-scale cats, the authorities instead designed or obtained formidable mech-sized cats with enhanced strength and other tricks!
"These cats are huge!" Ves admired as he projected some of the footage of some of the impressive creatures. "Some have even survived for decades without succumbing!"
Some cats were too strong, cunning, clever or elusive to take down. With mech hunting teams subjected to various restrictions, it became a real challenge for these teams to take down the more formidable huge cats!
"Tons of mechs get wrecked and numerous mech pilots can even get killed when a huge claw pierces their cockpits!"
Again, while the danger scared away many mech pilots, a small proportion of daredevils and hunting fanatics remained who eagerly chased after these opportunities!
Ves remembered that then-Lieutenant Dise used to be a hunting enthusiast herself. Before she succeeded as the leader of the Swordmaidens, she became famed for hunting down many dangerous exobeasts in the many untamed planets of the frontier!
"Hunting is a big industry!"
The activity attracted a disproportionate amount of wealthy customers to Felixia, enriching it even further! The local authorities used that money to invest in research institutions dedicated to studying and modifying the genes of all of the cat species on the planet!
The scope of Felixia's cat craze frightened Ves quite a bit at first. Not only did tourists come to Felixia to hug cats or hunt them down, some also came to take advantage of the popular gene mod templates developed on the planet!
Though genetic modification as a whole was frowned upon, some fetishes simply couldn't be repressed. The amount of people who visited one of Felixia's renowned genetic clinics boggled the mind.
All of these people wanted to modify their own bodies so that they had cat ears and cat tails! Some even opted for more extreme modifications, such as turning their entire heads into cat heads!
Evidently, genetic modification as a whole was still frowned upon except when it came to cat girls and cat boys! Anyone who showed up with lovely cat ears at the top of their heads could expect to receive a lot of squealing and headpats!
Ves looked down at Lucky. "Do you think Gloriana will appreciate it if I show up to her with cat ears?"
"Meow!"
"Hahaha, don't worry, Lucky. I was just joking! You're still the only cat in my household."
Cat ears were too impractical for him anyway. He envisioned that he would have a lot of problems with his gear.
Trying to fit a standard human helmet onto his head while he had cat ears would be very difficult!
If he decided for some insane reason to go through such a needless transformation, then he'd likely be denied due to his already highly modified genes.
"I'm pretty far away from a baseline human." He muttered. "There's too much risk of negative side effects if I add cat ear genes to my already-crowded genome."
He discarded this option in quick order. If Ves wanted to indulge in his cat fancy, he could readily cuddle with Lucky. There was no need to turn himself into a partial cat!
"Meow."
"I agree. Furries are missing the point. Humans should stay human! There are enough cats in the galaxy!"
Overall, all of these cat-oriented services turned Felixia into a cat lover's paradise. The planet became so known in the region that it had been dubbed the unofficial cat capital of the star sector!
Among the many cute and attractive cats that populated the planet, Ves dismissed all but the largest ones.
His Devil Tiger required a powerful design spirit! To do that, Ves had to obtain a spiritual fragment derived from a powerful felinid exobeast.
The stronger the spiritual fragment, the stronger the resulting design spirit.
The stronger the design spirit, the more remarkable his Devil Tiger design!
He focused on the biggest, deadliest and most persistent huge cats. Ves hungered to harvest a spiritual fragment if possible!
As Ves browsed through footage of some of these specimens, he wondered whether some of them possessed a significant degree of spirituality. Developing special powers might be the reason why they eluded so many mech hunting teams.
"It's worth a try to see if they have what I need. The only problem is that I need to get in range in order for me to inspect their spiritual qualities."
The most cunning, deadly and unpredictable huge cats acquired so much renown in the mech hunting community that they fell into a separate category.
The Crown Cats!
The mech hunting community considered any huge cat that fell under this prestigious category as a veritable king or queen of their own species, hence the crown!
The Crown Cats officially listed the top twenty most challenging cats to hunt! Despite being hunted non-stop by various mech hunting teams, they always managed to elude or turn the tables against their pursuers!
Ves petted Lucky's back as he flitted through the top twenty. "Those Crown Cats are amazing! They all look great as well!"
Most of the Crown Cats consisted of hybrid alien monstrosities that had been cooked up as experiments in the research institutions of Felixia.
Most genetic experiments turned out to be disappointments. They either suffered from severe genetic defects or didn't turn out to be remarkable enough to justify their cost.
However, a small proportion of experiments resulted in a fantastic exception that outperformed almost every comparable huge cat!
The huge artificial exobeasts that became Crown Cats possessed valuable genetics that the research institutions sold to other interested parties. This alone signified the great value of these aberrant creatures!
Ves frowned. "However, each Crown Cat is essentially one-of-a-kind on Felixia. The authorities only make one unique specimen of each species available for hunting."
This made hunting them all the more valuable and exclusive. Even if some corporation bought the rights to the genes of a Crown Cat, the creatures they grew simply did not hold the same value as a Crown Cat who fought and resisted a mech hunting team under strict conditions!
Felixia deliberately pursued a strategy of maintaining artificial scarcity while hyping up the uniqueness of their remarkable Crown Cats. Only the wild ones who have killed or eluded dozens of mech hunting teams were genuine apex predators! Those grown in a lab environment and killed under heavily skewed circumstances simply didn't give the killers any prestige.
"The hunt must be respected! Only in Felixia do they count!"
One of the biggest reasons why the hunting community respected the hunts on Felixia was their reputation for fairness. No one, not even a wealthy Hexer who offered an enormous bribe to Felixia, could circumvent their rules for their hunts!
While some parties did manage to bribe the authorities in the past, the disgraceful hunts would always be exposed by savvy hunters who were very zealous about the integrity of the hunting challenges.
Those who got exposed not only lost all of the prestige of hunting down a Crown Cat, but their reputation tanked as well as every hunter hated their guts!
A proper hunt had to be a test of skill and intuition. Bringing an overwhelming number of expensive and heavily-armed mechs defeated the purpose of the hunt!
"Hunters can't bring too many mechs." He muttered.
Mech hunting teams could only consist of a single full mech squad at most, along with a limited number of transport or auxiliary vehicles!
The planet also imposed restrictions on the mechs that could be brought to the hunt. No aerial mechs and no heavy mechs were allowed to participate in the hunt, and ranged mechs couldn't bring too much firepower.
The quality of the mechs also couldn't be too excessive.
"With all of these handicaps, it's no wonder the Crown Cats foiled so many hunts."
His face scrunched into a frown as he considered this problem. Certainly, if he could make a deal with the authorities to send an entire mech company into a hunting zone, he wouldn't have any problem with accessing one of these majestic creatures.
Yet because the hunts were bound by so many rules, Ves could very well die if he accompanied a hunting team!
"This is really dangerous!"
Nonetheless, the danger only added to the allure of hunting down the impressive cats!
"Well, what do you say, Lucky? Are you up for hunting down one of your up-sized cousins?"
"Meow!"
"Hahahaha!"
The more he read about Felixia, the more Ves became attracted to the planet. Perhaps he was a bit of a cat lover after all! Cuddly cats, big cats and huge cats all livened up the tourist planet, turning it into a one-of-a-kind destination that he simply had to visit!
Chapter 1374
"You know, there are an endless variety of cats for sale at Felixia." Ves teasingly remarked to Lucky.
"Meow?"
"Some of them are pretty good. There are even geneticists for hire who can customize a brand new kitty to my tastes. Doesn't that sound great?"
"Meow! Meow!"
"Hahaha, why are you so jealous? You won't be alone anymore!"
His cat hissed at him. Lucky really didn't like the competition! He was all the cat that Ves could ask for! No cat could ever surpass a gem cat!
Ves paid Lucky's irritation no mind. Felixia offered a lot of attractions to both cat lovers and cats alike. He was sure that his pet would quickly change his tune once they arrived on the surface.
"There are twenty exceptional Crown Cats and numerous other cats that are almost as great. Surely one of them ought to have what I need!"
To be honest, Ves did not expect exobeasts to possess a great amount of spirituality. From his current level of understanding, only sentient species generated significant amounts of spiritual energy.
"Are the Crown Cats sentient?"
He looked up their descriptions. The mech hunting community collected a lot of intelligence on the beasts, and a number of them certainly acted smart enough to make people suspicious that they were self-aware.
Other Crown Cats exhibited much more primal and instinctive behavior patterns. Instead of outwitting mech hunting teams through clever positioning and devious ambushes, they wrecked the hunting mechs through overwhelming force and ferocious assaults!
Ves couldn't tell from the footage whether any of the sentient or non-sentient Crown Cats possessed a usable degree of spirituality.
He risked wasting lots of time he futilely tried to hunt a spiritually-active cat when none actually existed!
None of the cases alluded to anything that came close to matching the god species of Aeon Corona VII. Both the Sacred Gods and the Wild Gods of that heavy gravity planet mainly acquired their powers from exceptional conditions.
Both types of spiritually-powerful exobeasts benefited from extremely radical genetic modifications from researchers secretly aligned to the Compact.
The higher-dimensional particles leaking from the Starlight Megalodon's FTL drives also provided the essential building blocks that made the god species so exceptional on the spiritual front.
Felixia lacked these conditions! At the very least, Ves could definitely rule out the latter!
As for the former...
A sudden realization came to mind!
"Now that I think about it, Felixia sure engages in a lot of genetic modification."
One of the main areas of interest to the Five Scrolls Compact was their penchant for anything related to biology and living entities. Their understanding of selective breeding, genetic modification, exobeast studies, human augmentation and more was at the forefront in the entire galaxy!
Not even the MTA and CFA could surpass the Compact in these fields!
Knowing that the Compact heavily emphasized genetic modification and knowing that the cultists set up various puppet organizations throughout the star sector did not bode well to Ves.
If Ves applied basic logic to the situation, then chances were high that the Five Scrolls Compact maintained a secret presence on Felixia!
An even worse possibility came to mind. Agents of the Compact may have been involved in the founding of Felixia from the start!
"Goddammit!"
If Felixia really turned out to be a secret playground for the Five Scrolls Compact, then Ves would be jumping straight into the belly of the beast!
However... even if the Five Scrolls Compact maintained a presence on the tourist planet, what were the odds that they discovered something fishy about him? As long as he blended in with the tourists, there shouldn't be much risk of discovery!
"I'll have to watch my conduct." He murmured while he tickled Lucky's ears. "I better get used to eating lots of spicy Nyx dogs!"
If the Five Scrolls Compact really meddled with the biological research taking place on the planet, then Felixia became an even more attractive destination to Ves! The odds that some of the remarkable exobeasts on the planets exhibited a potent degree of spirituality jumped significantly higher if that was the case!
"Risk is often accompanied by reward."
Naturally, the degree of risk and the height of the potential reward varied enormously from instance to instance. Ves did not have the necessary information to make an accurate judgement whether it was worthwhile for him to proceed with visiting Felixia.
He made a decision based on his feelings, which strongly urged him to go through with his plans to visit the Cat Utopia.
"The planet still has a lot to offer." He concluded. "Who knows where I can find what I need from some other place."
His intuition hinted to him that he probably wouldn't be able to obtain a better spiritual fragment for his Devil Tiger elsewhere. The Planet of Cats was by far the best destination in this region of space for him to secure one of the crucial elements of his upcoming tiger mech design!
Having decided on his course of action, Ves decided to confer with Nitaa about the precautions they needed to take.
When his tall bodyguard entered his stateroom and listened to his speculations, she agreed with some of his concerns.
"Your reasoning may be right, but the CFA and MTA are just as aware, sir. The Big Two normally subject every organization engaging in bioresearch activities to additional monitoring. Genuine Compact researchers will never set foot in such a dangerous place for them. It's much more likely that the Compact quietly set up a splinter organization on the planet."
This realization eased some of their worries. A splinter organization like the Order of Fl'xix in the Kinner Tribe knew much less and were not as dangerous as core Compact cultists.
"There may be people among them who possess the same sensory powers as yours." Ves gestured at her remarkable nose.
"That is true, but unless their ability to distinguish your intangible scent is superior to mine, I'm certain that they won't be able to identify who you really are from all of the geril spice you've been consuming up to now. The spice is really pungent to my empowered nose."
Ves nodded in agreement. "I'll take that chance. Is there anything else to take note of while we're visiting Felixia?"
"Try to act as if you are on a normal holiday. The lackeys of the Compact don't have any reasons to screen the tourists in the first place, but if you stand out too much during the visit they might decide to look into you. Don't let that happen. As long as you maintain a convincing act, then you won't attract any more attention than the hundreds of millions of tourists that visit Felixia every year!"
Even if the Compact and its offshoot organizations were keeping their eyes out on his most valuable possession, the star sector was simply too big! There was no way they could conduct an intensive search in every corner of the star sector!
At the very least, before the reinforcements from the Ruined Temple arrived at the local Compact cell, Ves expected all of the searches taking place so far to be half-hearted efforts.
Their discussion continued a while longer as they planned out several precautions. Ves resolved to develop a persona of a wealthy mech designer looking to engage in his cat fancy while Nitaa prepared some extra assurances in order to minimize discovery.
The Kinner bondswoman directed her eyes to Lucky. "If you are willing to take the risk, perhaps we can do more. If we manage to identify a suspicious individual or organization, we can send out your cat to spy on them or sabotage their efforts!"
"Meow? Meow!"
Ves tapped his pet on the head. "Don't complain, Lucky! I gave you a very expensive miniaturized stealth generator. If you want to keep making use of this gadget, you better earn your keep!"
"Meow!"
"Just because you're a pet doesn't give you license to laze around!"
"Meow.."
"Look on the bright side. If you spot anything yummy during your jaunts, you can steal some if you want!"
That got Lucky all fired up.
"Meowwww!"
With that taken care of, Ves directed his attention back to Nitaa. "Do you know what the Compact might be after on Felixia?"
She shrugged. "I can't say. It may be that they don't expect to gain anything substantial out of the research being performed there except to steal some of the novel inventions emerging from the labs from time to time."
"Cats and their many genetically-modified variants are the most popular pet category in human space." Ves observed. "Though some would argue that dogs are still better."
"Meow!"
"Haha, don't worry. I'm not thinking about getting a dog anytime soon."
"Cats engineered for intelligence are some of the most prevalent pets that accompany people." Nitaa remarked. "Sir, it has come to my mind that they make for better candidates for empowered noses. Their sense of smell is naturally superior to that of a human. Empowering it even further may lead to a creature who outranges me by an order of magnitude!"
This was a very astute deduction! If the Five Scrolls Compact was serious in pursuing their research into developing a metaphysical sense of smell, then working on highly-modified cats and dogs made a lot more sense!
His face grew grave. "If this is true, then the Compact's presence on Felixia is a lot more important than we thought. I think we should thoroughly look into the research institutions and see if any of them are working specifically on enhancing a cat's sense of smell."
His upcoming visit to Felixia no longer revolved exclusively around obtaining a tiger-based spiritual fragment.
The possibility that the Compact engaged in research related to Nitaa's empowered nose was an opportunity to Ves. If he could obtain their research files on this topic, then he may be able to use the information to develop a better way of blocking his scent than consuming lots of geril spice!
Even though he liked the spicy taste, lots of people began to see him as a weirdo due to his spice-laden breath!
"Alright, we'll put that on the agenda as well. Is there anything more we should take into account when we arrive on Felixia?"
"I'd like to receive some clarification. If you are going through with your intention to investigate a Crown Cat in person, then you'll have to accompany a hunting team. What are your plans?"
"I've been thinking about forming my own hunting team from the Battle Criers, but they will probably fare poorly during the hunt. The Crown Cats have bested or eluded many experienced mech hunters. Expecting the Battle Criers to do better than specialized hunters is foolish."
"That leaves no other choice than to accompany an existing hunting team. Will they even agree to bring you along?"
"Every hunting team is bringing a maintenance crew along. The terrain can be harsh at times and the scuffles between their mechs and their prey produces serious damage. Constant maintenance is crucial in keeping the hunting mechs in optimal shape for the inevitable confrontation!"
Few mech designers accompanied these hunting teams unless they were truly desperate. The risks were simply too big as many Crown Cats deliberately targeted the transports first!
For this reason, Ves would probably be in high demand if he sought for a spot on one of the mech hunting teams. Not only was he a qualified Journeyman, but he also possessed extensive experience in the field.
He could boast about his wartime exploits to hunting teams with a vacancy on their maintenance crews. He could also showcase that he could work under pressure and that he knew his way around with fixing battle damage.
A Journeyman accompanying a mech hunting team was very remarkable due to the risks involved in every hunt. However, Ves took solace in the fact that it still happened from time to time, so he wouldn't attract too much suspicion.
Nitaa did not look happy about this, but Ves already made up his mind. As long as he found a promising Crown Cat, he would definitely accompany a mech hunting team in order to witness the huge cat in person!
Chapter 1375
The more Ves immersed himself in Felixia's attractions, the greater his anticipation. The Planet of Cats had a lot more to offer than just their Crown Cats, though to Ves the huge mech-sized apex predators remained his top priority.
Studying the Crown Cats and the other huge cats that didn't quite make it into the top twenty gave Ves a lot of inspiration.
He carefully studied all the footage he could get his hands on. While most hunting teams kept their hunting attempts private, some opted to showcase their bravery and skill by publicizing authenticated footage of their hunts.
Even if most of them ended in failure where only half or less hunting mechs ran out of the hunting zone intact, there was no shame in losing against a Crown Cat.
In fact, participating in a hunt already served as sufficient proof of the bravery of the participants! The honor they gained from setting out on a hunt and making it out alive was sufficient to propel them to the top of the mech hunting community!
"Mech hunters are a weird bunch." He muttered. "Instead of piloting mechs out of money, duty or advancing to expert, they are merely in it for the hunt! I never realized that there are so many proponents and traditions involved!"
Huge game hunting became popular activity in some circles. However, it also attracted a decent amount of controversy.
First, it was an inordinately wasteful hobby. Most of the time, the hunting trips always resulted in a loss, as even if the mech hunters succeeded in their attempts, their prey couldn't be sold for too much money.
Critics also questioned the utility to engage in this violent and costly hobby. Mech pilots who enlisted in the military or signed on to a private sector outfit at least served an important societal function. They contributed a lot to their societies.
Even the mech games served a purpose by providing mass entertainment to a huge number of fans. The mech games also focused on combat between mechs, which was highly relevant to anyone active in the mech community.
By far, only wealthy people engaged in huge game hunting, and only a few of them live streamed or published footage of their hunting trips.
Huge game hunting was all about hunting impressive prey. The more dangerous, the more impressive the prey. No one batted an eyelid if a huge game hunter bagged a docile elephant or something.
In order for a hunt to bring prestige to the hunters, the prey had to be capable of fighting back!
For this reason, huge game hunting led to an inordinate amount of waste as many mechs got trashed during difficult hunts.
A lot of mechs got trashed in order to satisfy the vanity of their owners!
Still, as a wealthy individual himself, Ves recognized the appeal of engaging in this activity for those who weren't professional hunters.
"It's all about earning reputation in a semi-controlled environment!"
A wealthy entrepreneur stood out from their peers if they could boast about an impressive hunt. Even if they weren't mech pilots themselves, merely financing and organizing a hunting team and accompanying them in a successful hunting trip was enough to enhance their renown!
The most valuable invisible currency in human space was honor, which mech pilots mainly earned in serious battles.
Huge game hunting did not involve a lot of honor. What the hunters were truly trying to gain was prestige!
This was a particularly classy form of reputation that enhanced the standing of anyone who possessed it! The recognition of accomplishing something challenging was worth quite a lot in contemporary society!
"Successful huge game hunters brag about their successful hunts in the same way I boast about my wartime exploits!" Ves realized.
Hunting trophies served a similar role as medals.
For this reason, a lot of businessmen, nobles and other wealthy people continually kept this perverse activity alive.
Ves sneered at these peacocks. "These people are too afraid to volunteer in the military during wars. The battles that they might be subjected to if they are deployed to the front are highly unpredictable. If they are receive a safer assignment, then they won't be eligible to earn any prestigious medals."
As Ves experienced first hand, war was dangerous and messy. Your own side tried their best to defeat their opponents while the other side tried their best to do the same.
The huge scale of wars also diminished the individual agency of those who participated in the fighting. Many times, Ves lamented his inability to control his own destiny. During his time in the Mech Corps, he functioned as a tiny cog in a very immense machine that followed the instructions of people far above his head.
"Participating in wars is a dangerous and unpredictable way to earn prestige. Hunting trips are much safer in comparison!"
Big game hunting in person and huge game hunting with mechs both offered crucial advantages.
First, hunting was an activity where the leaders and organizers retained a lot of agency. They got to decide where to go, which creatures to hunt, which mechs to field and so on. The risks were a lot more known, so the people involved could precisely calculate how much danger they faced during their hunting trips.
"As long as the hunters gathered sufficient intelligence, the hunting trips become predictable!"
Second, those who engaged in hunting knew exactly what they were getting into. A legitimate hunting trip still posed a threat, but compared to the completely chaotic battles taking place in major wars, the hunters and anyone accompanying them precisely understood the risks! The chances of something unanticipated happening was very low!
"Even hunting the Crown Cats isn't as dangerous as an actual battle!"
Smart and resourceful hunters planned for every scenario. Those who undertook the most challenging hunts still managed to make it out alive with at least some mechs and vehicles intact.
For this reason, Ves looked down on wealthy people who tried to buy prestige in this manner. While it was certainly impressive to participate in the hunt for a renowned Crown Cat, none of their achievements surpassed his own accomplishments!
"Still, it's better than nothing, I guess." He muttered.
Very few people among the upper classes experienced the hardships that Ves had gone through. These spoiled brats didn't have the stomach to expose themselves to greater risks.
Participating in a hunting trip with assessable risks was already prestigious enough to impress those who didn't have the guts to do the same.
"Well, at least there are some hunters who are doing it out of the love for the hunt."
Ves respected the genuine enthusiasts and professionals in the hunting community. They weren't in it for a season or two, but dedicated their entire lives to the challenges.
"In every hunt, something can always go wrong."
No matter how much the hunters planned ahead and calculated the risks, something catastrophic could always happen.
Perhaps a single attempt may not lead to anything unexpected. However, if hunters continually reentered the hunting zones, then one day they might bite off more than they could chew.
"Of course, the real hunters don't go into carefully-managed hunting zones."
Within the hunting community, the hunters who earned the most prestige consisted of those who entered newly-discovered untamed planets and hunted exobeasts that had never been hunted before!
The competition of earning a 'galaxy first' achievement for bagging a novel exobeast species turned out to be quite intense. A lot of hunters even joined treasure hunting expeditions to the frontier just so they could encounter and hunt down exotic new alien beasts!
Naturally, these hunts were a lot riskier due to the lack of information. Hunting a completely new beast often meant going in blind. At best, they might squeeze in a few days or weeks to observe their prey and assess some of the dangers.
Earning these so-called galaxy first achievements didn't interest Ves very much, but he understood its appeal to others. It was very difficult for space peasants to find meaning in their lives once they became aware of how little they mattered in the galaxy.
Being the first ones to hunt a formidable species of exobeasts was a good way to leave a mark behind.
Ves felt the same way about his works. Thousands of years from now, he'd probably be dead. Much of the details of his life would fade away with the passage of time as human civilization moved on from the past.
The only legacy that he left behind was his work. As long as he advanced to Star Designer, Ves was assured that his mechs would be remembered and recorded into history for eons!
"Reaching Master is not enough!"
Although Masters enjoyed an immense amount of prestige in today's society, there were too many of them to remember them all. Only the most exceptional and outstanding Masters might stand a chance of lasting longer in people's minds than the more inconsequential ones.
If Ves truly wanted to leave a permanent mark behind in the galaxy, then he had no choice but to reach the pinnacle of mech design!
"Designing the Devil Tiger will help bring me a little closer to that height." He smiled. "Isn't that right, Lucky?"
"Meow."
"It's a long road, I know, but I think this little step will be a very meaningful one."
Ves resumed working on his Devil Tiger design. Studying the immense Crown Cats of Felixia gave him a lot of inspiration on how to develop a deadly predator in the form of a mech.
His mech became more refined, graceful and threatening. Mech designers took inspiration from nature all the time, and this was no different.
Ves merely had to be careful that he didn't straight up rip off the contours, skeletal structure and musculature of a single Crown Cat. What worked for exobeasts didn't necessarily work for mechs.
He also wanted to maintain ownership of his own design. If he copied too many elements from exobeasts, then did he truly understand his own design? Ves had to justify every adjustment and avoid changing something just because it would look closer to one of the awesome-looking Crown Cats.
In addition, Ves also had to work with the peculiar properties of ASMAS. Armor and structural integrity posed significant challenges to him. One of the fundamental downsides to smart metal was that they weren't able to offer the same degree of protection as conventional armor systems.
His Devil Tiger partially compensated for that by utilizing substitute ASMAS that incorporated a lot of possible materials.
If the owners fed the mech something cheap, then the substitute ASMAS being formed would hardly be able to withstand a dent.
If the owners manage to scrounge up something more valuable, then the amount of damage the Devil Tiger withstood rapidly increased.
Ves envisioned a situation where the Devil Tiger may start off modestly but slowly accrued patches of exceptional protective sections. As long as its mech pilot or owners found a couple of chunks of medium or high-grade exotics, then the quality of substitute ASMAS that functioned as its exterior armor continually crawled upwards.
It might take years or even decades of scavenging, but as long as the Devil Tiger avoided getting trashed entirely, it could become a very formidable mech!
"Sadly, it can't completely rely on itself to upgrade all of its systems."
The Devil Tiger he envisioned fell short of a mech that could autonomously upgrade and evolve every aspect of itself. The more crucial and delicate systems such as the neural interface and various other critical functions had to be fixed components that couldn't be substituted by any form of smart metal.
This meant that the owners of the mech had to replace old and outdated parts with newer ones over time.
Ves shrugged. "Even with this shortcoming, it's not too big of a deal. As long as the Devil Tiger itself consents with the upgrade, this can easily be accomplished."
At its heart, the Devil Tiger was still a mech that decided its own fate!
Ves wanted to create a mech that held the upper hand over the humans who piloted and sent it into battle. He took great pleasure in bringing such a machine into being that subverted the rules.
"Normally, the humans are in charge, but this time they are not!" He grinned. "Anyone who thinks they can treat my Devil Tiger as a machine they can use and abuse will be in for a very harsh lesson! Hahaha!"
Chapter 1376
The fleet cut through several states in the journey to the Sentinel Kingdom. The powerful third-rate state loomed closer and closer. Captain Silvestra expected the fleet to arrive at Felixia within a week if everything went right.
"Felixia orbits a very strong star." She noted. "While the star system itself is worthless due to the lack of exotics, its massive and luminescent star is very easy to navigate towards. Whoever selected the star system for colonization made a very excellent choice. The most profitable tourism planets are always found in these kinds of places."
"That will cut our travel time short, right?"
"Correct. The stronger the star, the less stops required to reach our destination."
Michael Crindon, who was also present on the bridge, spoke up as well. "Felixia draws in a lot of starships from the Sentinel Kingdom and beyond. There's a decent amount of shipyards in the star system where we can begin some of the overhauls we have in store for the Barracuda."
Ves nodded. "I know, I hear the facilities at Felixia aren't as good as in other star systems."
"We'll have to travel to an industrial star system if we want to perform more extensive overhauls. Felixia is an excellent tourism destination but it lacks the infrastructure to support a robust mech and ship industry."
At least the Barracuda still underwent some changes while Ves was mucking about on the Planet of Cats.
For his upcoming visit, Ves couldn't bring along the Battle Criers. Planets dedicated to tourism were usually very strict about the mechs that visitors wished to bring to the surface.
Unless Ves formed his own hunting team, he wasn't allowed to bring down any mechs at all!
"We still have plenty to do, sir." Commander Cinnabar said over the comm from the Ion Tracker. "We can spend some of the time on servicing our starships. Though they are not in a condition that demands critical maintenance, it's a good opportunity to fix them up now to minimize the chance of breakdowns in the future."
"Okay. I'll have my assistant set aside a budget for that. Do you have something else in mind?"
"We could use some shore leave. Spending months at a time aboard our ships can wear a person down. When our fleet is parked close to a popular tourist planet, my men will probably riot if I don't give them the opportunity to relax on the surface!"
Ves nodded in understanding. "Granted. Make sure to rotate your men so that at least some of your people are keeping an eye on our assets."
"That's a given. We know what to do, sir."
An impulse thought suddenly flitted through Ves' mind. "Also, instruct Imon and Casella Ingvar to prepare to accompany me to the surface. They'll be joining Gavin, Crindon and Nitaa as my entourage for this excursion."
"Are you sure about that? The Ingvars are still kind of bratty, though my boys and I have gradually managed to force them to adjust their egos. If they leave our influence, there's a possibility that they might regress to their snobby old selves!"
Ves smirked. "Don't worry about that, commander. I think I'm quite capable of finishing the work you started. Besides, I haven't made much use of the Ingvars so far. Bringing them to Felixia might be helpful considering their background. As former nobles, they probably understand the dynamics in the hunting community a bit more than us. Hunting is a favored pastime for nobles, after all, and the Sentinel Kingdom has a lot of aristocrats who are looking to prove themselves!"
"Stupid brats and their games." Cinnabar cursed. "If they are looking for glory, they can easily find it by beating up some pirates in the Nyxian Gap! At least they'll be doing something useful with their time and money!"
The Sentinel Kingdom's many noble houses competed against each other for wealth, power and influence. Sentinel's internal politics lightly resembled that of the Vesia Kingdom.
The difference between the two states was that the Sentinel Kingdom was larger, stronger and far more cohesive. Sentinel constantly stressed unity in order to resist the frequent incursions against the scum spilling out of the Nyxian Gap every now and then. Colluding with pirates was the biggest crime imaginable in the powerful third-rate state!
The two moved on to another topic.
"So far, we're almost halfway in our journey. What do you think so far about working for me? Have you considered working for me on a more permanent basis?"
"We are still reserving our judgement, sir." The commander calmly replied. "So far, we have gone through a grand total of one brief battle and a lot of traveling. Don't get me wrong. Some of my boys like the calmer schedule, but there's also another portion of my men who are starting to chafe at the lack of excitement. Guarding someone for an indefinite period is a lot different than mercenary life where you encounter something new every mission."
Ves expected this kind of answer. "I hope you and your men will make up your mind when we reach the Bright Republic. I think you'll learn I have a lot to offer by that time."
He still held a very compelling means of converting the Battle Criers completely to his side. The number one thing a mech pilot loved the most was a mech, and a good one at that!
As a mech designer, Ves had never showed off his mechs to the Battle Criers before. He hoped that he could still impress the Kinner mercenaries by the end of the trip.
He bet that one good glimpse at the mechs of the Avatars of Myth ought to be enough to convert the majority of the Battle Criers on the spot!
They continued to discuss a few more operational matters before they ended the call.
So far, Ves was very pleased with the Battle Criers. While their battle capabilities were merely average, they had a lot of space smarts and knew their way around in strange and foreign environments.
For someone who intended to go on a grand expedition in the future, having the Battle Criers at his disposal as a division within his Avatars of Myth granted him a lot more flexibility!
He even considered keeping the Battle Criers as a separate and distinct outfit lately.
Ves envisioned the Avatars of Myth as shining beacons and exemplars of battle. They had to serve as a brilliant showcase of all of his mech models in action!
In contrast, Ves did not intend to use the Battle Criers as the standard bearers of his products. Instead, he envisioned a more practical purpose for them as his fixers.
"It's much better if they can be oriented to solve my problems without attracting too much attention."
This did not mean he intended to turn the Battle Criers into his shadow force or something. The Battle Criers were thugs, not spies. Subterfuge, espionage and assassination did not fall within their competences.
Instead, Ves placed them somewhere in the middle. They could perform tasks for him that were too murky for the Avatars of Myth and too banal for his shadow force to put into action and risk exposure.
"So ideally, I'll have three different mech troops at my disposal, each specializing for a different range of missions."
Ves wasn't too sure yet if he wanted to organize his current and future mech forces this way.
Maintaining three separate forces helped them maintain their distinct specialties and mech traditions. However, keeping them separate also led to a fair amount of redundancy, which was very wasteful.
"Well, I'll probably be able to afford it anyway." He scoffed.
Nonetheless, in the back of his mind, he knew he'd have to grow the LMC even more if he wanted to keep up with his growing expenditures.
The same conditions that led to booming business for mech manufacturers also required the companies to bolster their protection. Who knew if the Bright Republic followed the footsteps of the tragic Chuko Republic one day.
He rubbed his chin. "In the end, we can't rely too much on the government, the military or friends to bail us out. Being able to provide for our own security is best."
This was one of the benefits he gained from touring the Chuko Republic and meeting so many struggling mech designers. He learned first-hand how mech designers succeeded or failed to keep their enterprises aloft.
"One thing is for sure. When law and order is deteriorating, you have to fill the void quickly or else you stand to lose everything you worked for!" He exclaimed.
Perhaps he was being unduly paranoid compared to his colleagues, but he didn't care. Not even the Bright Republic enjoyed complete safety and security as random pirates and the Bentheim Liberation Movement constantly punished complacent mech manufacturers.
Later in the day, Calabast called his comm for a status update. Though their regular calls didn't yield any deep discussions due to the compromised nature of their comm calls, his partner still wanted to stay in the loop.
When she heard about his decision to visit Felixia and go on a hunting trip to observe a dangerous huge cat in person, her reaction fell within his expectations.
"I highly advise you to go to the petting zoo region of the planet, Mr. Larkinson." She mildly stated, though Ves could easily sense the hidden irritation in her voice. "The adult section of this safe and accessible region features some extremely docile huge cats, though I believe you may have some difficulty entering it considering your lack of maturity."
Ves pettily shook his head. "Those huge beasts are genetically engineered to be as docile as possible for cat ladies to fawn upon. They don't have a ferocious bone in their bodies! How am I supposed to design a ferocious bestial mech if all I have for inspiration is grossly-oversized house cats!"
"Meow!"
"You see? Even Lucky agrees! Those artificial abominations are a disgrace to the galactic collective of cat species!"
Calabast palmed her face, partially breaking her role. "The risks of huge game hunting on Felixia are very considerate, particularly when it comes to hunting their Crown Cats!"
"The Crown Cats are some of the most lethal huge cats engineered in the star sector!" Ves grinned and his eyes glimmered as if he could already see them in front of his face! "If I had a choice between getting inspired by the most docile or the most dangerous cats on Felixia, I'll choose the latter any day!"
"VES!" The woman screamed. "The risk of death is far too high to justify this trip! Sure, eight or nine times out of ten, you might be able to make it off alive. However, do you really want your parents to deal with the situation when that doesn't happen?!"
That suddenly stopped his enthusiasm short. "Uh..."
"I can understand it if the reward is worth the risk, but if there's one thing that's wrong with you, it's that you're completely incapable of weighing the risks against rewards! Why do you have to hunt a Crown Cat?! Just to enrich a single mech design?"
"It's not about a single mech! It's about the evolution of my design philosophy!" He protested.
"You dumb kid! I know the Crown Cats attract a lot of attention, but why are you fixating on them as the only solution?! At least consider the less dangerous huge cats first! You can get almost everything you want from them without gambling with your life! There are many juvenile, growing huge cats on Felixia who might grow into Crown Cats in the future but are still manageable to hunt, have you thought about that?"
"..No."
"Then consider it! Why play a needless high-stakes game that you can't afford to win when there is a much safer low-stakes game right next door? I hope you shake yourself out of your stupidity, Mr. Larkinson!"
Calabast angrily cut the call, leaving Ves with a lot of doubt. His hands worriedly stroked Lucky's back.
"Am I being reckless again?" He whispered to himself.
"Meow."
Chapter 1377
The fleet crossed into the Sentinel Kingdom without much fanfare. Nonetheless, Ves and the others immediately noticed the difference when they studied the local ship traffic in the Kingdom's star systems.
"There's a lot of military vessels and mechs on patrol." Ves commented as he viewed the local plot on the bridge.
"The Sentinel Kingdom places a lot more emphasis on control." Captain Silvestra noted. "Mercenary corps still exist in the Kingdom, but they're subject to far more restriction. They have to since many mercenary corps in the past used to maintain secret connections with the Nyxian pirates."
The Sentinel Kingdom's proximity to the Nyxian Gap led to a lot of destructive pirate attacks. Instead of compromising with the pirates, Sentinel instead united together to resist them in almost every sphere.
While the Nyxian pirates still managed to bribe or subvert some local Sentinel influences, the noble houses made sure to keep their noses clean.
All of them had to, since the royal house always cracked down on those who got caught with colluding with the pirates!
The most crucial difference between the Sentinel Kingdom and the Vesia Kingdom was that the latter featured a strong royal house. With the monarchy in firm charge over the Kingdom, no noble dared to contradict the monarch who ruled the state with an iron fist!
Of course, the downside was that commercial ventures faced a lot of barriers in the state. The royals and nobles captured the majority of industry and trade. Ambitious commoners and greedy foreigners were left with the most troublesome and unprofitable sectors in the economy.
"Sentinel's economy is closed to most foreigners." Ves remarked with regret. "Mech usage is very high here, but most of the market share is captured by domestic mech companies. Unless I befriend a noble house, I can forget about selling my mechs in Sentinel's lucrative mech market."
Different from the Ylvaine Protectorate, the Sentinel Kingdom's mech market fared a lot better despite the lack of foreign competition. The perpetual fighting against the pirates spilling out of the Nyxian Gap forced the local mech designers to become very good at their jobs.
Those who thought they could coast their way through success would quickly find their products ignored in favor of better-performing models!
When lives were on the lines and battles could be won and lost due to a crucial difference in quality, Sentinel's mech forces couldn't afford to indulge in patronage and other corrupt practices!
Large territory, strong cohesion, a strong central power, persistent external pressure and other conditions shaped the Sentinel Kingdom into arguably the strongest third-rate state in the star sector!
Though their strength and prosperity obviously fell short against the second-rate states, they were still considerably stronger than the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom combined!
Naturally, the Sentinel Kingdom suffered from its problems. Its efficiency in non-military sectors ranked below average as many noble estates derived fat profits from the overall lack of competitive pressure.
In many cases, the prices of many goods did not match their quality levels. Commoners weren't being paid very well and had less money to spend on overpriced goods and services.
Nonetheless, while the lower classes enjoyed considerably less luxuries, their safety and basic needs were fully met. As long as the military did a good job of protecting Sentinel space from pirates, the citizens remained content.
"One important trait to take note of when you visit this state is that Sentinels are very proud of their state, sir. Questioning their rulers or how the Kingdom is being run will attract a lot of animosity from the locals."
"I'm aware, captain. This isn't the first place I've visited where the locals are strongly committed to their state."
It reminded Ves of the Ylvaine Protectorate and how most Ylvainans looked up to the three ruling dynasties. Blending in state and church aided a lot in keeping the local Ylvainans subservient to authority.
One key difference that distinguished Sentinel from Ylvaine and Vesia was the lack of upward mobility.
The commoners from the two neighboring states of the Bright Republic offered various opportunities for the lower classes to climb their way upwards.
In the Ylvaine Protectorate, talents and exceptionally hard-working Ylvainans attracted the attention of one of the leading dynasties. The Poxcos, Curins and Kronons regularly issued invitations to adopt the promising Ylvainans.
In the Vesia Kingdom, commoners who earned a lot of merits in battle or became notable scientists or such might receive a noble title! The state deliberately set up avenues for commoners to promote into nobility in order to keep the masses content and to keep the noble houses from growing too complacent!
The cutthroat infighting within Vesia occasionally led to situations where vigorous common-born nobles had successfully managed to topple established noble houses! Despite their rich heritage, as long as they lost their dynamism, they failed to maintain their standing!
"Within the Sentinel Kingdom, commoners will always remain commoners with almost no exception."
Only high-ranking mech designers and mech pilots had the opportunity to buy or earn their way into nobility, but they all had to contribute a lot to the state in the process.
Nonetheless, even if Ves did not entirely agree with the way the local blue bloods ran their state, it wasn't any of his business. At the very least, the high security and stable economy contrasted sharply with the conditions in Chuko, thereby making it a lot safer for Ves to travel around in the state!
Once Ves finished discussing some matters with the captain, he left the bridge and returned to his stateroom in order to devote the remainder of his time to designing his mech.
As he summoned up his incomplete design schematic, he sighed at the many areas which remained in limbo.
"There's so much I can't decide upon yet without obtaining a solid direction."
Ves adopted a different design process than before. In his previous designs, he always formed his images and obtained his spiritual fragments before he proceeded with the meat of the design process.
Right now, he was embarking on the latter without securing the former. This effectively meant he had been designing his mech without a concrete vision to guide his work!
Normally, Ves opposed designing his mechs half-cocked, but this was a very different situation.
First, he needed to finish his design during his stay in the Sentinel Kingdom. His mech functioned best in only a couple of chaotic planetary environments in the Nyxian Gap. It wouldn't be of much use when employed by a regular mercenary corps or mech regiments.
Second, even if Ves hadn't found an ideal tiger-like spiritual fragment as of yet, he could still lay down the groundwork by designing what every tiger mech had in common.
A key attribute of his mech that made this approach a lot more viable was its malleability.
"My Devil Tiger is a mech that is designed to be open to change from its inception!"
Working with smart metal and especially ASMAS granted Ves a lot more flexibility in how to configure the mechanical layout of his mech.
No matter how high, low, wide, narrow, long, short he designed a specific subcomponent, he could always shift it into another shape later on when he had a better idea on the final shape of his design.
If something didn't work after he produced his mech? Then he could just adjust the programming of the ASMAS and let the mech adjust its shape on the fly!
"An ASMAS mech is practically a maintenance-free mech!"
This was the biggest charm in working with a mech that consisted of at least sixty percent of smart metal!
If not for the exorbitant cost that even made Gloriana wince in pain, Ves would have liked to take ASMAS even further and incorporate it into some of his other mech designs!
"It's too darn expensive!"
For the time being, the Devil Tiger would probably remain as his only smart metal mech in a very long time. He couldn't even take credit for designing it since he broke so many rules during the design process.
From pirating component licenses without paying their rightful owners to granting the mech so much autonomy that it could harm its mech pilot, the Devil Tiger embodied some of the MTA's worst nightmares in one single design!
"Hehehe." Ves self-indulgently chuckled. "The stuffy internal mech designers of the Association will probably suffer heart attacks when they see my design!"
Of course, after they got over their shock, they'd probably arrest or kill him outright for egregiously violating their precious rules and regulations!
One aspect that Ves paid a lot of attention to in recent days was the configuration of the neural interface. This vital component within the cockpit strongly affected the relationship between the mech and mech pilot.
"According to Old Man Terrance, this single component is far more impactful than I realized!"
In his past design processes, whenever he came across the neural interface, he merely copied over one of the standard neural interface models from the MTA. Each neural interface model developed or endorsed by the MTA gained a reputation for safety and stability.
To mech designers who didn't specialize in neural interfaces, this was all the information they needed to make use of these deceptively low-risk components.
"I can't brush past this decision like I used to in the past." He muttered to himself. "Neural interfaces are far more influential and much less safe than I previously thought!"
Whereas before he saw the MTA-approved neural interfaces as universally safe, now he regarded them as barbed roses.
"They look good and smell nice, but you can easily cut your hand if you hold them improperly!"
Nonetheless, the beauty of roses might be worth the risk to some.
What Ves wanted to do with his Devil Tiger was to explore an extreme. What if he broke the mold of his previous design and deliberately made use of a neural interface with much looser restrictions than the MTA approved?
Less restrictions meant the mech pilot could immerse himself a lot deeper into his connection with the mech. This led to both upsides and downsides.
The obvious drawback was that the negative feedback would be amplified. In the wrong conditions, this might lead to much more severe brain damage in the event of suffering from damage.
"I don't think any mech pilot can last more than five straight years with my Devil Tiger!" He guessed.
This was an extremely awful projection! Normally, mech pilots ought to be able to pilot their mech for fifty or a hundred years without suffering any debilitating effects.
Cutting all of that short to merely five years meant that the Devil Tiger would likely prove fatal to many mech pilots if it managed to last a couple of decades or more!
Despite the immense potential harm his Devil Tiger could do to its mech pilots, the advantages were just as spectacular.
Ves obsessed over the man-machine connection. Lately, he faintly developed a notion that what he had managed to achieve with his previous mech designs only scratched the surface of what it could do.
With much less restrictive safety limits, a closer spiritual melding of man and machine could take place, leading to a vastly greater degree of mutual strengthening and cooperation!
"The core of my design philosophy revolves around symbiosis, after all! If I don't explore this method of empowering it, I won't be able to let it go!"
It was better that he indulged in his desire to explore the limits of neural interfaces in an illegal, one-off mech design than in one of his commercial projects! Ves would never dare to unleash something as harmful to the mech pilot as his Devil Tiger to his loyal customers!
"It's better to sell my mech to a Nyxian pirate." He grinned. "Even if the poor fellow's head blows up, it's no big deal!"
Now that he thought about it, pirates might be the ideal test subjects he had always been looking for. Most of them were scum with numerous crimes under their belt. No one cared if his experiments proved fatal as long as he limited his wild experiments to their kind!
"Hahahaha!" He bent back his head in laughter, causing Lucky to look up at him in alarm! "I should have thought of it sooner! Let my Devil Tiger be my inaugural experimental mech!"
Chapter 1378
As Ves continually tinkered with his Devil Tiger, his fleet smoothly entered the Felixia System.
Just like any other major tourism destination, the Felixia System became host to a lot of starships.
A considerable amount came from other states, but plenty of Sentinels headed towards the famed Planet of Cats as well. The high proportion of foreigners in the state made Felixia a lot more welcoming than other places within the Sentinel Kingdom!
\"Business is booming.\" Ves observed as he called up the local plot.
Thousands of vessels were transitioning in and out of FTL in the inner system. Most of the ships consisted of fuel-efficient passenger liners who transited tourists from neighboring foreign states at affordable prices.
As far as tourist destinations went, Felixia did not attract the highest number of visitors in the Sentinel Kingdom.
However, its many varieties of cats and cat-based services constantly attracted a very generous inflow of cat lovers!
When it came to their passion for cats, they freely opened their wallets and bank accounts. This made Felixia very profitable to the Noble House of Laterna, whose founders developed Felixia into the most prominent Cat Utopia in the star sector!
\"About half of the tourists are cat lovers.\" Captain Silvestra mentioned. \"They're crazy about cats and can be completely unreasonable when the topic shifts towards them. No matter how many times they visit Felixia, they always come back to undergo another cat nirvana.\"
\"I know.\" Ves replied while he hugged Lucky against his chest. \"I'm looking forward to visiting it myself!\"
\"Be sure to buy an organic cat ear headband, then! I hear that it's all the rage these days.\"
\"Maybe I'll do so.\" He chuckled.
Nitaa and him developed a plan to cast him as a mild cat enthusiast when he visited the planet. Though Ves honestly did not adore them as much as the genuine cat lovers that frequent Felixia, disguising himself as one of them was a good idea to avoid attention.
Some cat lovers could be quite eccentric, so much so that they would probably be declared insane in any other place!
Felixia served as their refuge and their paradise. Whereas on other planets they had to keep their behavior in check, on the Planet of Cats they could fully unleash their true nature among like minded enthusiasts!
\"If you think about it, the Planet of Cats is literally a temple for cats.\" The captain remarked. \"While many casual tourists visit Felixia in order to enjoy a completely new experience, others are treating it as a holy pilgrimage!\"
The description caused Ves to grimace. If there was one thing he hated, it was fanatics who unflinchingly believed in something to the point of losing their common sense!
As much as he wanted to deny Captain Silvestra's words, he knew that there were some odd people in the galaxy who adored cats above humans! As Felixia centered around everything related to cats, much of those crazies congregated to the planet like moths to the flame!
\"Many of those crazies flock to the Eron Continent, though.\" He stated. \"The cat worshippers love nothing more than to hug all of the cats that roam the cities, villages and wilderness of this continent!\"
Felixia featured four distinct continents. House Laterna, which founded and developed Felixia, engineered each continent towards a distinct purpose.
Eron was a hemisphere-sized petting zoo and playground. Tame cats of all sizes and harmless prey populated much of its idyllic landscapes.
Cat lovers and families with young children spent weeks or even months on this landmass without ever getting tired of all the cats they could hug and play with! Literally billions of docile cats ensured that no one ran out of cats to hug!
Ozzo had been turned into a big game hunting paradise. Cats whose sizes ranged from mouses to bears prowled the diverse environments of the Ozzo Continent.
Unlike the harmless and domesticated cats on Eron, most of the felines on Ozzo still retained their wildless! Aside from the cats of the start zones, the Ozzo cats were very much capable of killing their hunters!
While the prestige of hunting an Ozzo big cat was fairly significant, it paled in comparison to the much more extravagant huge game hunting that took place on the largest continent of the planet!
Asco's sheer size and diversity of biomes housed many expansive hunting zones, each of which supported a specific mix of dangerous huge cats the size of dinosaurs or greater!
Aside from the three continents open to tourists, the Talin continent served as the administrative and research hub for Felixia. House Laterna also based themselves in the continent and guarded it very tightly against unauthorized visits.
Talin's remoteness and inaccessibility posed a very significant challenge to Ves. While the other continents housed a large number of small-scale research outposts, they only hosted a minute amount of core research data.
If Ves or Nitaa identified a suspect researcher aligned to the Five Scrolls Compact, then they might not be able to obtain anything useful.
While Lucky could sneak into any facility with his abilities, it was hard to cross an entire ocean and roam undetected for days in a continent that House Laterna avidly guarded against any intrusion!
He left the bridge after he became assured that nothing unusual took place on Felixia. No terrorist attacks or major accidents occured.
Not a single docile cat killed any humans on the Eron Continent, though many tourists regularly incurred injuries when they handled a cat too roughly.
The hunters on foot in Ozzo left the planet with bundles of trophies in tow. A portion of them even wore their new overcoats made from the fur they harvested from their successful hunts with pride.
As for the Asco Continent, business was booming as always. Even though some mechs, mech pilots and support personnel never came back alive from hunting the huge cats, a continual influx of hunting teams and their sponsors continually entered the depths of the hunting zones to challenge the mighty Crown Cats.
As the Barracuda and her escorts slowly traveled to Felixia I, Ves spent his remaining time on refining his mech design and preparing for his impending visit.
Due to the various rules and regulations House Laterna imposed on every visitor, Ves wasn't allowed to bring a single weapon onto the surface of the Eron Continent!
This rule annoyed Nitaa to no end. If they really met with any trouble, they could only resort to their fists and feet to fight back!
Fortunately, House Laterna maintained a very strong guard on the surface. Rulebreakers knew better than to start any trouble, especially since Eron highly prized its family friendly nature.
Adults looking for more excitement could instead visit Ozzo or Asco to indulge in more violent pleasures.
Once Ves had his fill of the Eron Continent, he and his entourage were allowed to carry some of their weapons and equipment when they visited the Asco Continent.
With so many dangerous people and wildlife roaming Asco, self-protection was not only prudent, but advised!
\"The settlements on Asco are not very secure.\" Nitaa noted during their final meeting before landing on the surface. \"We will have to watch out for ourselves while we're there. Drunken brawls and deadly fights between hunters happen frequently.\"
\"Why doesn't House Laterna secure the Asco settlements more strictly?\" Crindon asked.
\"It's because hunters sometimes need an outlet for their frustration. When their mechs are downed and in the process of being restored, when they suffer injuries which puts them out of the cockpit and when they are waiting for sponsors and organizers to hire them, they often get bored. The hunting community attracts all kinds of people. Sadly, some of them are rather rougher than we'd like.\"
\"Kind of like pirates or criminal gang members.\" Ves added. \"They're the same type of people. The ones on Asco merely decided to wear the coat of a hunter.\"
\"Will we have to hire additional guards?\"
\"It's fine, Crindon. From what I've read, a single well-armed bodyguard is enough to deter most trouble makers. That aside, the hunters know better than to molest a wealthy visitor. People like me are seen as potential sponsors who can fund an expensive foray into the hunting zones.\"
It cost a lot of money to conduct huge game hunting. Many hunting outfits in Felixia weren't able to pay for all of their expenditures through their own activities.
Hunting the huge mech-sized cats on Felixia almost never paid off! Aside from hunting down a prestigious Crown Cat and putting up the trophies for auction, the remains of all the other huge cats simply couldn't be compared!
Even if a slain huge cat yielded a lot of money, the hunting outfits had to pay a significant amount of taxes to House Laterna for making use of their hunting zones.
\"Speaking of hunters, have you decided upon which hunting outfit we'll accompany, sir?\"
Ves shook his head. \"Not yet. I'm not even sure which huge cat I want to study up close. I'll make my choice later when I get some first-hand information from the hunters at Asco. Depending on the difficulty of hunting down my desired target, I'll hire a regular or a premier hunting team.\"
This time, he put Calabast's advice under serious consideration. Though he felt inordinately drawn to the Crown Cats, he did not necessarily have to obtain a spiritual fragment from a creature likely to kill him instead!
The huge cats ranked far below the most vicious and cruel of their kind might possess what he sought. Seeking out the younger and more juvenile among their kind exposed him to far less risk, though the spiritual fragment he expected to gain would probably be significantly weaker.
\"You're not taking the Crown Cats into consideration, sir?\" Nitaa asked with a hint of relief in her voice.
He smiled at her. \"The elite hunting outfits that predominantly focus on hunting the Crown Cats and other formidable huge cats aren't easy to hire or sponsor. They only associate themselves with clients who know what they are doing and have participated in numerous lesser hunting trips. A newcomer and a complete unknown in the local hunting community like me won't be able to get access to them without an introduction.\"
He looked into the customs of the hunting community on Felixia and found out about how difficult it was to approach the better hunting outfits.
Just like with the Kinners, the hunters based in Felixia paid a lot of attention to reputation and familiarity. The better the hunting group, the more selective they became.
Merely having a lot of money didn't guarantee their acceptance, as many hunting teams previously suffered immensely when they got into bed with awful clients who needlessly risked their lives!
\"Do you already have a huge cat in mind, sir?\"
\"I've formed a list, but there's still too many names. As I've said, I don't know for sure which of the known huge cats. I need to make a more thorough investigation on the ground.\"
It was difficult for him to explain what exactly he sought from the huge cats. Perhaps Nitaa might have some clues given that she knew one of his secrets, but Crindon, Gavin and the rest thought that Ves was being eccentric again.
Ves didn't consider himself eccentric. His goals were just beyond everyone's understanding!
\"Meow.\"
Lucky climbed up his shoulder and arrogantly licked his paws.
\"I know, I know. Regardless of how huge and impressive those mech-sized cats appear, you'll always be the best cat in the galaxy!\"
\"Meow!\"
\"Although... if there's a cat out there who's more powerful than you, who knows if you'll have a companion to play with. Doesn't that sound like a great idea, Lucky?\"
\"MEOW!\"
Lucky hit his head with his paw and rudely jumped off his shoulder. His cat really didn't like to share, it seemed!
\"At least I'll be on the lookout for a pet for Ketis! She deserves some companionship too, you know!\"
Chapter 1379
\"Mew.. mrrrrrew..\"
\"Meow meow meow!\"
\"Miaooooow! Miaoooow!\"
Cats. Cats everywhere. As soon as Ves touched down at the busy spacepart with his entourage in tow, he immediately confronted hundreds of free range cats!
The entire spaceport adopted a very friendly cat theme. Smiling animated cats projected all over the place delighted the children of the families that had just begun their vacation.
Of course, many families also brought their own cats along. Organic cats, mechanical cats and virtual cats all meowed at each other as if they were chatting to each other like humans!
Strangely enough, Lucky refused to partake in the pointless exchange of meows. Like an emperor among peasants, the gem cat merely stuck up both his head and his tail as if he awaited the adoration of lesser cats!
...
Unfortunately, hardly any cat acknowledged Lucky's existence! This was an absolute travesty to him! Didn't these cats realize that an eminent example of their kind was among them? Did they just dismiss him as if he was a common house cat?!
\"MEOOOOOWWW!\"
Ves dinged Lucky's flank with his knuckle. \"Pipe down, Lucky. Don't cause a disturbance here. There are kids around and lots of security to ensure nothing spoils their fun!\"
Amidst all the bright visuals and friendly cats, a lot of guards and bots patrolled the halls in order to keep the peace.
Naturally, none of the guards wore intimidating suits of armor. Instead, they wore bright uniforms with cartoonish cats depicted across their surface. Every security guard maintained a smile or at least a friendly demeanor in order to present a happy facade. Even their weapon had been designed to resemble cat-themed toys!
\"Don't mistake these guards as weaklings.\" Nitaa warned them all. \"The men who guard a busy spaceport like this one are skilled in many different areas. Not only that, but they are very perceptive and can spot anyone that poses a threat to public safety.\"
Crindon nodded in agreement. \"Even their weapons are deceptively capable. All the extra components shaped like cat limbs or cat tails are additional modules supporting alternate firing modes. They can discharge a variety of both lethal and non-lethal projectiles.\"
\"Can you guys relax?\" Gavin complained. \"We're here for a holiday, right? There's no reason to assess the strength of the guards!\"
\"Benny is right. I know you're just doing your jobs, but don't look too jumpy.\"
Compared to Nitaa and Crindon who were warily looking everywhere for potential threats, the two nobles who accompanied them looked much more at ease.
\"Thanks for bringing us along, Mr. Larkinson.\" Imon Ingvar said. \"Staying cooped up on the Ion Tracker for months on end is not how I envisioned my first mercenary mission.\"
Casella Ingvar whacked her brother's side. \"You should be lucky that nothing has happened! We're still earning our pay even if we never have the opportunity to fight. Our presence alone serves as a deterrence!\"
The group slowly moved out of the spaceport and took a cat-shaped transit vehicle that brought them straight to a nearby city.
Not surprisingly, Ves stood out from the crowd. Most visitors consisted of Sentinel commoners or middle-class foreigners looking to experience something novel and different.
While Ves did spot people with means at the spaceport, they were few and far between. The Eron Continent held very little attraction to power-hungry people who desired to enhance their reputation and prestige! Hugging friendly cats all day was not going to do their stature any good!
\"Mr. Larkinson, can I ask you a question?\" Imon asked.
\"Sure.\"
\"Why did you decide to visit the Eron Continent?\"
Ves smiled. \"Why not?\"
\"Eron is just for kids and cat lovers. There's nothing related to combat or mechs going on here!\"
\"Exactly. Before I visit the Asco Continent in order to try my luck, I want to see the other sides of Felixia first. If the cat on my shoulder isn't obvious enough, let me tell you that I adore cats!\"
In truth, he liked dogs and other animals as well, but right now he wanted to maintain the act of a cat person!
Fortunately, Felixia made it really easy for people to love their cats.
Even now, various photogenic cats lounging in the cat-shaped vehicle lounged on the laps of delighted passengers. Children, women and even men couldn't help but surrender at the cuteness emanated by the friendly cats. Lots of squeals and petting ensued!
Just as a white long-haired persian cat neared their seats was about to hop onto Ves' lap, Lucky suddenly hissed.
\"Meow!\"
\"Maw!\"
The persian cat jumped like a frightened kitten and immediately bolted through a small cat-sized tunnel beneath the seats! His fluffy white tail snaked through the gap like a withdrawing snake!
\"Why did you do that, Lucky?\"
\"Meow.\"
\"I pet you practically every day! I'm not your exclusive property, you know. Sometimes I'd like to touch real fur instead of your bony hard shell!\"
\"Meow!\"
Ves could only admit defeat against his unyielding cat. Lucky often acted aloof when they were by themselves, but now that Ves visited an entire planet filled with cats, his pet suddenly turned into a jealous husband!
Gavin and some of the others tried to stifle their laughs and hide their amusement.
\"Seriously though, I'm also visiting Eron for another reason.\" Ves explained to his group. \"There's a lot of pets and services related to genetic modification for sale. Both cats and humans undergo a lot of changes every day.\"
\"Are you interested in getting cat ears or something, boss?\"
\"My genome can't take anymore additions. It's already highly optimized and adding different organs will just mess that up. I merely want to take in the sights and see how popular these services are. I think genetic modification is making a resurgence again.\"
Truly, catgirls and catboys thoroughly redeemed the awful reputation that genetic modification once acquired during the latter days of the Age of Conquest!
A couple of them were even not too far away in the transit vehicle! Their distinctive cat ears decked with fur in the same color as their hair attracted a lot of envious glances from the other passengers!
Once the vehicle arrived at its destination, the passengers arrived at a parking zone that lay right in the middle of a bright and beige-colored city!
Trees, nooks, boxes and lines stretching over their heads provided a myriad of places for cats to saunter or doze upon. Meows echoed throughout the streets as thousands of cats played with themselves or the gleeful visitors who bought various toys and snacks from the nearby vendors.
\"So many cats...\" Gavin emptily muttered. \"This is a cat lover's heaven!\"
To Ves, he felt as if he entered a cartoon version of a city. Almost everything took on a cat theme as even the cleaning bots looked like mechanical cats!
\"Look Lucky, unlike you, your cousins are being productive! You could learn a thing or two about them and be more useful for once!\"
\"Meow!\"
Lucky angrily swatted his head with his tail. It was a travesty to equate him to a cleaning bot!
\"Oh come on, lighten up, Lucky! This planet should be paradise for you! Go play around for a while!\"
Ves grabbed Lucky's body off his shoulder and placed him on a raised perch shaped like a large cat bed. An organic feline meowed in curiosity as Lucky suddenly dropped.
\"Miaow..?\"
\"Meow!\"
\"Miaow!\"
The organic cat jumped on Lucky and both creatures quickly started to wrestle around!
Ves led the others away while Lucky became engrossed in teaching the other cat a lesson!
\"Is it okay to leave Lucky behind?\" Gavin asked.
\"It's fine. Don't you see the others letting their pets run all over the place? Eron is a place where all cats can indulge in themselves, not just the ones who were born and raised here from the start.\"
If Ves wanted to interact with other cats, having a jealous and possessive companion like Lucky around made it very difficult for him to do so!
Indeed, once Lucky got distracted by all of the pleasures that Felixia had to offer, Ves managed to pick up pleading cats and hugged them without any interruption.
Even some of his other companions had become swayed by all the fuzzy cuteness surrounding them. Imon held a bright green cat exobeast with two tails while Casella cuddled with a larger tiger-striped house cat.
\"You know, a part of me wants to live here forever. There's an endless amount of cats to play and cuddle with!\" Gavin exclaimed as he lifted a hefty maine coon in his arms. \"Do you notice the lack of outside transmissions? Eron is completely cut off from the worries and troubles of the outside galaxy. I can't even access the galactic net from my comm.\"
Their comms only connected to the planetary network. Only the most urgent messages got sent through, and to receive other messages the guests had to visit a specialized comm center. Ves recognized this as a deliberate measure to provide their guests with an uninterrupted cat experience.
\"I feel the same way, Benny. If House Laterna didn't prohibit companies from setting up shop in their star system, I would have been tempted to move my headquarters here as well!\"
The Eron Continent's cat attractions thoroughly won over their hearts. The sheer amount of cuteness in sight overruled their previous conceptions. The sheer energy the surrounding people spent on the cats was like a charged atmosphere that encouraged even the most skeptical people to begin adoring the fluffy, innocent animals!
\"Cat ears! Get your organic cat ears here! Get the latest model, they'll last for decades!\"
Ves turned his attention to a number of stalls selling cultivated cat ears and cat tails of all things. Out of curiosity, he approached one of them and browsed at the items for sale.
\"Nyaaaaah, hey there, customer!\" A cute teenage salesgirl greeted him from the other side of the stall. Her maroon tail twitched excitedly behind her back while her twin pointed cat ears perked upwards. \"Would you like to sample the latest products developed from our labs, nyaah? Felixia's best geneticists have poured countless hours to develop the best, safest and most responsive organic cat attachments in the star sector! They're completely functional while remaining completely removable, nyaaaaaaah!\"
\"Is that what you're wearing right now?\" Ves curiously asked.
\"Nyaaaah!\"
\"Is that a yes or a no?\"
The girl puffed up her cheeks. \"Who do you think I am, nyaah? As a born and raised Felixian, of course my cat attachments are real! See?!\"
She sharply tugged at her cat ears, causing her to yelp. \"Nyaaah! It hurts!\"
\"Okay, okay, no need to hurt yourself!\" Ves raised his palm. He couldn't bear to see a cute catgirl in pain! \"Do you have a pair of ears that match my hair color?\"
\"Oh, we do, but you'd look even better with different colors, nyaah!\"
\"No thanks. I'm too old for that. Give me the black ones.\"
The catgirl seller pulled out a box from underneath the stall and opened them up to show off two, furry cat ears laying dormant while hooked up to some sort of cultivating machine to keep them alive and healthy.
The catgirl took the ears out of the box and gestured Ves to lean over, which he did. Once his head came within reach, the salesgirl expertly placed them on top of his head.
The bottom side of the cat ears did not press against his hair but weaved through them instead. Ves felt as if two squirming tentacles stuck themselves on the top of his head. It was a slightly unnerving situation, but the sensation quickly passed.
Surprisingly, once the black-furred cat ears finished settling in, his eyes widened in surprise as he actually started hearing sounds from his cat ears!
Not only that, but his range of hearing expanded to a range beyond the human norm! He heard various sounds in the air that he previously couldn't hear but were as obvious as day to cats!
\"These ears are amazing!\"
\"Nyaaah! Of course they are!\" The catgirl grinned. \"They're the latest and most premium products that came from our labs! They contain their own auditory processing organs and are able to transmit their sensory data to your head through safe, non-invasive, organic and remote transmission! Nyaah!\"
\"Wow.\"
\"If you think this pair of ears are already great, you should consider implanting them permanently on your head, nyaaah! If you become like me, your sense of hearing will improve at least five-fold!\"
Ves became seriously tempted at the offer!
Chapter 1380
Ves knew better than to implant cat ears onto his head on a permanent basis. Playing with toys like the ones attached to his head right now was fine for a short period of time, but he did not wish to be stuck with them forever!
He had become very paranoid about his body changes in recent years. Having the mad Dr. Jutland mess with almost every aspect of his body years ago had left an invisible scar behind.
Who knew what kind of hidden bioprogramming the organic products carried. They might even be a possible means for House Laterna to keep tabs on everyone who used their products!
Even their cats themselves were rather suspect, now that he thought about it. Every cat he spotted displayed intelligence beyond baseline house cats. Who knew if their instincts contained programming that induced them to spy or steal from their owners.
Still, as long as Ves didn't buy any of the products, there was no harm in indulging in them for a while. He didn't hesitate about the organic cat ears placed on top of his head and readily paid for them without thinking about it further.
\"Nyaaah! Thank you for your patronage, customer!\" The catgirl gleefully cheered as the money transferred over. \"By the way, why not add a tail while you're at it? Your new look won't look complete without an elegant tail sticking out of your—\"
Ves quickly shook his head. \"No thanks. The ears are already enough. Tails are a bit of a hassle and it'll be a pain to sit on chairs.\"
\"That's no problem at all, nyaaah! All of the chairs and seats in Felixia feature a convenient hole where you can freely stick out your tail!\"
Despite the catgirl's protestations, Ves refused her suggestion and already moved on. As they calmly browsed the strange cat-themed goods for sale, Gavin and the rest of his companions looked at him weirdly.
\"What's the matter with you guys?\" He frowned as his black-furred cat ears twitched in irritation.
\"...\"
\"You look.. different.\" Gavin lamely replied. \"No offense boss, but most of the time you're always serious and focused on your work. Seeing you with a pair of cat ears is... disturbing.\"
Ves maintained a flat expression, which looked even stranger now with his new additions!
\"Even I want to enjoy some fun sometimes, you know. It's just that you haven't seen me having fun while I'm working on my design projects. I'll have you know that I am still capable of laughing!\"
\"Are those ears really great?\"
\"They're quite fantastic actually. Whoever engineered them did a good job in making them feel unobtrusive. I quite like the enhanced hearing, though I don't know how they managed to do that. I'm definitely going to study them in more detail once I return to the Barracuda!\"
Ves suspected that the cat ears incorporated some aspects of neural interfaces in a limited and miniaturized form.
The group moved on to a stall selling miniatures of bestial mechs. From ferocious tiger mechs to agile cat mechs, the diminutive models on display represented almost every variety of cat-based mech in use in the star sector!
The stall also offered a selection of non-feline bestial mechs. Their inclusion livened up the display and enriched their vision.
\"It's a shame the Komodo Star Sector doesn't have a strong bestial mech tradition.\" He idly remarked as he studied the wares from the lens of a mech designer. \"These mechs are all successful products in the markets they emerged, but...\"
\"Most mech buyers still prefer humanoid mechs.\" Gavin summed up.
Imon Ingvar scoffed from the side. \"Animal mechs are a pain to get used to. While their mobility is great on rough terrain, it's not worth the trouble of mastering them when humanoid mechs can fulfill the same almost just as well.\"
\"Humanoid mechs and bestial mechs each have their own advantages.\" Ves sagely replied. \"It's just that the conditions in a remote star sector like ours doesn't offer the best conditions to showcase the strengths of the latter.\"
The learning curve of bestial mechs was higher than that of humanoid mechs. The additional hurdle of adjusting to an animal-shaped body required additional directed training that some mech academies simply couldn't afford to include in their curriculums.
While they argued about the merits of bestial mechs, Ves made sure to reserve some of his attention on studying the miniatures on display. Each piece represented a really successful mech model.
Only a handful of spaceborn mechs counted in their midst despite their higher utility in battles in space. The predominantly bird-shaped mechs functioned pretty much like fighter craft as they eschewed limbs and in some cases even wings in order to present an efficient package optimized for battles without solid ground or gravity in the mix.
\"Why aren't spaceborn bestial mechs more popular among you spaceborn pilots?\" Ves asked the Ingvars directly.
Imon sneered. \"They don't pilot like real mechs. They're worse than frontline mechs because they don't have articulated limbs. When you strip a mech of its arms and legs and slap a couple of weapon barrels on their flanks, they've lost almost everything that makes a mech a mech! No mech pilot I know enjoys piloting these fake mechs! The only ones who do are those whose genetic aptitudes don't allow them to pilot anything better!\"
This sounded like a prejudiced answer to Ves. Nonetheless, what Imon just said encapsulated the outlook of many mech pilots towards these types of mechs.
His sister offered a more nuanced opinion.
\"Bestial mechs in space may perform better when you look at their numbers, but most of us prefer to stick to a humanoid form. Even the legs that some of you mech designers find redundant can still be useful. Flying around in a mech without legs like most frontline mechs designed for space warfare end up is way too disturbing.\"
The two mech pilots both underscored the comfort that a humanoid form provided. Ves understood their sentiment, though a part of him still thought that mech pilots were being a bit too inflexible.
\"Spaceborn bestial mechs still have their roles. Even if they aren't as flexible as humanoid mechs, they are simply more efficient if you compare by tonnage.\"
The Ingvars and Ves still disagreed with each other, but that was fine. As a mech designer, Ves ought to be tolerant of the opinions of his customers.
After he finished studying the various miniatures, the group moved on to browse the other goods for sale.
During their stroll, Ves continually prodded the cat ears planted on top of his head with his fingers and his thoughts. It was uncanny how real they felt and how comfortably they melded in his conscious and unconscious body operation.
Since he currently grew his messy black hair long enough to cover almost both of his human ears, to all intents and purposes Ves looked no different from the catgirls and catboys in the crowd! They even raised their cats at him in greeting as if he was a fellow member of their cat cult!
\"Are those ears nice, boss?\"
\"They're actually quite pleasant. I think I'll keep them for as long as they last.\" Ves replied with increasing satisfaction. \"They're so soft. Petting them and feeling the sensation of having your ears being petted is quite sublime.\"
He simply couldn't stop touching his cat ears! There was just something soothing and addicting about his ears being caressed. Faint memories of his younger self being hugged and embraced by his then-living mother came to the fore. What would she think when she saw him right now?
\"Can you buy me a pair as well?\"
\"Go buy your own if you fancy them so much.\"
Gavin looked sick. \"I can't afford them! You don't pay me enough!\"
\"Then buy something that is priced within your means! There are plenty of cheaper organic cat ear attachments for sale!\"
\"They aren't as good as yours!\"
\"Then too bad! I'm not giving you a raise.\"
\"How about a bonus then for my loyal service so far?\"
\"Let's wait for the performance evaluations that happen at the end of the year.\"
As the space peasant lamented his poverty, Ves gleefully diverted to a nearby park and began playing around with the cats who idled there and looked for human companionship.
He picked up a handsome grey-striped shorthair cat that oozed coolness. The aloof cat exhibited masculinity in a way that probably attracted a lot of female cats during mating season!
\"Mrow?\" The cat mewled when a random human picked him up. \"Mrow.\"
\"You're pretty mature for your kind.\"
\"Mroww.\"
\"I'm not like other humans.\"
\"Mrow!\"
\"Hey, I talk with cats all the time! And don't call me a fake cat! My cat ears are just an accessory!\"
\"Mrooooow mrow!\" The cat squirmed in his grip, trying to get away.
\"Oh, you're hungry? Why don't I buy you some yummy snacks?\"
That quickly got the grey cat to subside. The apparently sentient animal directed his cute, huge eyes at Ves as if pleading for the tasty treats he was promised!
\"Hahaha, you're so cute!\"
As Ves bought some expensive snacks that delighted the grey cat and attracted the attention of other felines, he began to subject it to some questioning.
Meanwhile, Gavin, Nitaa, Crindon and the Ingvars looked on with gaping mouths. They weren't entirely sure whether their employer could truly communicate with cats or if he was under some sort of delusion!
\"How do you like it here?\"
\"Mrow!\"
\"Yeah. There's cats everywhere. I can understand why you don't feel like you have enough space.\"
\"Mrow.\"
\"I'm glad to hear you're being well taken care of. Accepting treats from humans every day sounds like a lovely way to spend your days.\"
\"Mrow mrow!\"
\"Oh? Curious.\"
\"Mrow!\"
\"I believe you. Thanks for warning me. It's a shame you cats are like that, but I guess you're already comfortable here on Felixia.\"
Gavin couldn't hold in his curiosity. \"What did you find out?\"
\"Nothing important.\"
In fact, Ves did learn something very important. Some of the cats here like the grey cat he held right now were designed to be more than pets.
They'd been engineered to act as spies and informers on behalf of House Laterna!
Ves already formed this suspicion beforehand, but that was mainly his paranoia cropping up. To find out from the grey cat that this actually took place alarmed him quite a bit!
To be fair, the grey cat believed that most cats sold on Felixia were perfectly fine. Only a small proportion of cats served as spies, which made it very hard for investigators to find anything fishy about them. The chance of encountering a spy cat was very small, though the grey cat happened to be a part of this secret program!
This also explained why the grey cat was so smart!
\"Still, I can't believe you just said that to me in my face.\" Ves told the cat. \"Aren't you supposed to keep that to yourself?\"
\"Mrow mrow.\"
\"Hehe, I get your point. You don't have any say in what you are. I'd be pissed too if I was in your place.\"
\"Mrooow!\"
\"If you could talk to your creators, they probably won't like what you have to say. That's why sentient animals like you aren't granted human vocal chords.\"
The topic of sentient animals aroused a lot of controversy. The overall consensus in human space was that sentient cats, dogs and other pets were okay, but only if they remained animals.
When geneticists created pets that started to speak or communicate like a human, a lot of existential crises took place!
Right now, the predominant rules mandated by the Big Two firmly forbid uplifting pets into a fully-fledged sentient race.
Who knew what geneticists might cook up in their labs if this rule wasn't in place. Humanity would have engineered their own doom if they came up with a species superior to humans in every aspect!
Chapter 1381
Lucky eventually tracked down Ves and his group while they were being surrounded by a veritable herd of cats!
\"Miaow Miaow!\"
\"Mrooooow!\"
\"Mew mew!\"
The sight riled Lucky up, especially since he saw Ves laughing while he fed some treats to a pampered white cat!
\"MEOW!\"
The domineering entry of the gem cat instantly caused the other cats to look up in alarm. Their cat senses told them that Lucky was a cat to take note!
\"Meow.\"
The cats in the way stepped aside as Lucky majestically sauntered straight towards Ves. The female white cat who previously enjoyed his owner's attention grew scared and quickly jumped away!
With Ves' lap free, Lucky jumped onto it and perched on it like he was sitting on a throne!
\"Meow!\"
The cats started to disperse, though some of the more stubborn ones stuck around but ready to flee if Lucky made any hostile moves.
For his part, the gem cat ignored what he saw as lesser cats and began to look at Ves as if expecting his tribute of patting.
Ves obliged and stroked Lucky's back. \"What have you been up to this last hour?\"
\"Meow.\"
\"Haha, I can imagine the number of cat persons who want to buy you. It must have given you a lot of headaches when you tried to make it clear that you're not for sale.\"
\"Meow.\"
\"Oh, you decided to move elsewhere to escape the crowd?\"
\"Meow meow. Meow meow meow. Meow! Meow meow.\"
\"Interesting, interesting.\" Ves rubbed his chin in intrigue. \"Did you find out anything else?\"
\"Meow.. meow?\"
\"Ah, sounds interesting. It's too bad this planet is too damn monitored and secured.\"
While Ves left Lucky to play by himself, his cat slipped away and utilized his miniature stealth generator to snoop at a nearby underground research and observation post he detected with his advanced sensors.
During his brief jaunt, his cat quickly explored the labs but found nothing interesting. The most his cat managed to do was to sneak to the local data banks stored in the bottom-most floor and utilize his automated CFA hacking programs to surreptitiously steal mountains of raw data.
While Lucky believed the hack succeeded, Ves did not expect to gain much out of the random data that his cat had retrieved. In a busy city like this where loads of people roamed around, House Laterna would be stupid to place critical data within the vicinity!
The only way he could obtain more valuable data was if he or Lucky could sneak onto the Talin Continent somehow.
All of Felixia's major research institutions were situated there, but no casual tourist was allowed to step foot in Talin. Ves saw no way of crossing an entire ocean unless he hijacked a very good stealth vehicle, and those weren't exactly close at hand.
He shrugged at Lucky. \"Let's leave that aside. Let's just enjoy what Eron has to offer before heading to Asco so we can get a move on tracking down a huge cat.\"
A full day passed as Ves let himself go and enjoyed the various cat-themed attractions that the Eron Continent offered to its visitors.
A part of him thought that he should have brought Gloriana along. The festive cat atmosphere was perfect for dates!
Ves had a lot of fun during this time. Even if Lucky behaved rather cattily whenever he cuddled with a cat, at least his pet didn't exhibit too much jealousy anymore after Ves made a lot of promises that he wouldn't acquire any cats.
\"Sheesh! You're just like Gloriana, Lucky!\"
\"Meow!\"
His cat currently perched himself atop his head like he belonged there. Not only that, but Lucky also started licking the cat ear attachments as if they needed a bath!
Despite his grumbling, Ves thoroughly enjoyed his visit on Eron. Felixia had been in the tourism business for a very long time and knew exactly how to provide an enjoyable experience to their guests. The meowing, purring and yowling cats he encountered in cities, villages and in nature preserves won over Ves and the rest of his entourage!
The only person in their group that resolutely kept her distance from the affection-seeking creatures was Nitaa. His bodyguard dutifully remained alert to threats and refused to let any begging cat distract her from her mission!
Ves appreciated her dedication, though sometimes he felt she could use some relaxation herself. He had never seen her engage in any hobbies or take any time off at all.
\"What do you do for fun, Nitaa?\"
\"I train. I perform my duty. I sleep.\"
\"That.. doesn't sound very fun.\"
She smiled at him. \"I know what you are hinting at, sir, but this is what I was made for. True Kinners are always able to derive our enjoyment from our work.\"
\"That's because you've literally been raised this way.\"
\"Is that bad?\"
Ves wanted to say yes, but he couldn't summon up a sufficient argument. He thoroughly believed that a human would be able to reach their greatest potential if they had the opportunity to live a wholesome and fulfilling life.
Someone raised to be a bot in human form did not meet his standards of a wholesome and fulfilling life. Still, he knew that changing Nitaa's outlook on life was easier said than done. The Kinners indoctrinated their tribesmen very well.
\"Besides, I don't like cats that much. I'm not a cat person.\"
\"Why so? Don't you think they're cute?\"
\"They are too selfish and whimsical to my liking, sir. Your own cat Lucky is a prime example of this. To you, that makes them interesting and cute, but in my eyes they're nuisances.\"
\"Sounds like dogs are more to your liking.\"
She smiled in a brief, indulging manner. \"They're loyal, caring and obedient. What is not to like? Dogs are the favored pets of Kinners.\"
\"I can see how they are to your liking.\"
Perhaps Ves should get her a dog sometime, though not now. On Felixia, the existence of dogs was taboo!
During their visits, the Ingvar siblings also loosened up. Spending months among the Battle Criers and being subjected to daily training and attitude adjustment sessions took their toll.
The jovial atmosphere and friendly cats were exactly what the Ingvars needed to recall happier times and rediscover who they were before they became fugitive mercenaries.
Of the two siblings, Ves thought that Casella was clearly the brighter of the two. During an evening meal where everyone except Nitaa enjoyed a sumptuous dinner in a restaurant served by catgirl waitresses, Casella took him aside for a private meeting.
\"I've been thinking about our situation during our assignment.\" She began with a serious expression. \"It has been a few more months since my brother and I embarked on this assignment, and the sting of House Ingvar's fall and the betrayal of our household guards has faded. The time we've spent with the Battle Criers has humbled us a lot. Though I can't speak for my brother, I really need to get this off my chest.\"
\"What's the matter?\"
\"I think... it's best for us to work for you in a longer-term capacity. Though we aren't Kinners, I still prefer to continue working for you while our one-year contract has run its course.\"
That surprised Ves a bit. He thought it would take a bit more hardship and humbling to get the noble Ingvar brats to realize their new reality.
\"Working for me on a more fixed basis isn't impossible, but the two of you need to convince me that you are willing to follow my orders.\" He spoke. \"I'm not a noble and I didn't grow up in a feudal state. To me, the two of you are simply mercenaries on my payroll right now.\"
\"I'm aware. It has taken some time for me to recognize that we are no different from commoners now that we've lost the backing of our house. A part of me still wishes for us to retain our pride of our upbringing, but without the necessary backing, we are merely empty shells. I'm more than ready to discard it and begin anew as a simple mech pilot.\"
\"What about House Ingvar?\"
\"I don't know why the Royal House of the Black Poppy attacked our house. Maybe we intended to betray them. Maybe we had something they really wanted. Maybe they wanted to elevate another noble house in our place. Whatever the reason, House Ingvar is no more, and taking revenge will not bring it back.\"
\"You sound different than before.\" Ves noted. \"At the start, didn't you guys express some intentions of getting back at Black Poppy one day?\"
She snorted. \"Not even a Master Mech Designer can topple a royal house. Black Poppy is too strong! The only way we could ever pose a threat to them is if we raise enough forces to challenge their rule over their territories. Even if Imon and I one day raise such a humongous mech army, the other two royal houses won't sit still and let Black Poppy take the brunt of the assault.\"
\"Because they're afraid they'll be next.\"
\"Right.\" She closed her eyes. \"As much as I want to take Black Poppy to account for wiping out our relatives, we don't have any right to speak. After a long time to think, I think it's best for us to move on with our lives. The Kingdom of the Three Flowers no longer matters to me. They can rot in their corner of the star sector for all I care.\"
That sounded quite encouraging to Ves, though her story contained a huge caveat. \"What does your brother Imon think about your willingness to move on from the tragedy that befell your house?\"
\"Imon is.. not at this point yet. He's very taken in by the pride and traditions of our fallen house. Getting him to let go is.. difficult.\"
Ves smiled sardonically at Casella. \"The two of you are a package deal. It's all well and good that you've become aware of your new reality, but what if Imon wants to depart on a doomed quest to revive House Ingvar and tear down Black Poppy?\"
She looked down to her feet. \"I'm still working on that.\"
\"Well, you better work at it harder. The both of you have potential, I can see it. I also understand the attachment the two of you hold for your fallen house. However, life isn't fair. There are winners and losers everywhere. If you find yourself on a losing end, you won't magically turn into an epic hero and become capable of toppling a ruling power of a state with justice and determination.\"
She let out a deep sigh. \"We know that life doesn't resemble the dramas, but deep in our hearts we still hope to redress the injustices that have befallen our house. The difference between Imon and me is that my brother is much more optimistic.\"
\"You've given up while he is still clinging on to hope.\"
\"Yes. It is difficult for proud mech pilots like us to give up. We've been taught not to surrender if there is still a ray of hope.\"
Casella left after a short while. Ves reflected on their conversation and believed that it was up to Imon whether they would fully be able to start anew. Once they both reached this point in their development, Ves would be more than willing to invite them into the Avatars of Myth and nurture them properly.
He couldn't wait to develop methods that enabled and accelerated the development of expert candidates and expert pilots.
One of the theories he came up with was that spiritual attributes mattered. They reflected the personalities of the mech pilots.
Most mech pilots with a perceptible amount of dormant spiritual energy shared similar attributes. While there was nothing wrong with them as they could still advance to expert pilots and develop strong abilities, Ves suspected that rarer and more peculiar attributes yielded more exotic results.
This was why Ves paid special attention to the Ingvar siblings! Their attributes were different from that of every other mech pilot!
However, drawing out their strength and nurturing the two Ingvars to experts was a very consuming endeavor. Ves did not wish to have another Jannzi situation on his hands, where all of his efforts went to naught!
Having learnt his lesson, this time Ves would ensure he laid the groundwork to obtain the loyal service of any potential expert pilot!
\"Don't disappoint me, Casella.\" He whispered.
Chapter 1382
The Asco Continent. As Felixia's huge game preserve, Asco encompassed the largest landmass on the planet.
House Laterna needed all of that room in order to provide spacious habitats to as many huge cats as possible!
When cats grew to the size of mechs, their demand for space increased by quite a bit. The quantity of prey they demanded grew as well, and all of these giant creatures required more and more space to sustain their lives.
Asco offered this and more. Hundreds of hunting zones spread across the continent offered a very precise variety of prey and predators. By combining influencing technology with genetic programming, all of the beasts on Asco remained stuck within their designated hunting zones.
This gave every hunting team a very good idea of what they would face when they entered a particular hunting zone.
House Laterna deliberately arranged the hunting zone in this fashion to provide predictable challenges to hunting teams of every skill and experience level.
The rookie hunting teams could cut their teeth with the somewhat mundane huge cats, while the premier hunting teams went into the very depths of the continent to tackle the Crown Cats without facing any other interference!
Several cities dedicated to servicing the hunting outfits were spread across the Asco Continent. Ves decided to bring his group to the city of Kemila, which was situated in the tropical zone of the planet.
Hot and humid air greeted their faces as they emerged from their long-distance transit aircar. Ves breathed in the air and smelled the familiar air of metal and grease associated with mechs in use.
As far as cities went, Kemila wasn't as big as the cities on the Eron Continent. While the kid-friendly side of Felixia drew in billions of tourists, much less traffic diverted to Asco.
The hunting community did not like to be bothered by their fans. House Laterna knew that and imposed moderate entry requirements to anyone wishing to travel to one of the cities in Asco. Only those who held permanent residency on Asco or held jobs related to the mech or hunting service industries on Asco could travel to the lightly-populated continent.
Ves, by dint of his Journeyman status alone, easily secured passage to Asco. Hunting outfits of all stripes respected mech designers quite a bit, and for good reason as their lives literally depended on good design work in some cases!
Higher-ranking mech designers were particularly respected. People like Ves were very capable of designing or modifying mechs to suit the specific hunting circumstances of a hunting zone.
This was critical when a hunting team attempted to track down a Crown Cat. The challenge of hunting these apex predators on Felixia was so considerate that every preparation mattered. Optimizing a mech to withstand razor-sharp claws or improve their targeting systems to account for illusionary abilities could mean the difference between death or escape!
Indeed, as soon as Ves emerged onto the dirt-laden streets of Kemila, a lot of bystanders noted his arrival and distinctive appearance.
His luxurious semi-formal clothing along with his entourage marked him out as a wealthy person.
His young age and the presence of the Ingvars who still possessed the demeanor of nobles yet acted subservient in his presence marked him out as special.
\"We're being stared at by lots of people, and not all of them look friendly.\" Nitaa warned in a low voice as she gripped her holstered pistol.
\"It's fine.\" Ves waved aside her concern. \"No one is going to cause trouble to a mech designer here. Our profession is too respected among the local hunters.\"
Different from Eron, Asco was a dangerous continent. Aside from the threat posed by the huge cats, the rowdier hunters also got into fights with each other from time to time.
House Laterna maintained a much looser security regime on Asco for reasons that Ves could only guess at for the time being.
Perhaps they wanted to give the residents of Felixia an outlet for their frustrations. As long as the troublemakers diverted to the Ozzo and Asco Continents, all the violence they unleashed would only affect those used to danger!
In this way, the Eron Continent and its immense amounts of tourists wouldn't be bothered by violent incidents on the streets.
Whatever the case, the reality on Asco meant that anyone treading foot onto this continent should better come with protection!
Nitaa wore her full suit of combat armor. Crindon, Imon and Casella all wore standard suits of combat armor as well, though Ves did not expect a lot from them if a battle happened to break out. Infantry combat was not exactly their forte.
Ves reached out his hand towards his head where Lucky still clung for some reason! His hand patted both Lucky and the cat ear attachments that Ves hadn't removed as of yet. He had grown quite attached to the new cat ears!
Even now, he was able to eavesdrop on conversations that he ordinarily shouldn't be able to hear!
\"Hey, look at those fresh new arrivals! Look at that wealthy-looking fellow with the cat ears! Hee looks like he came straight from Eron!\"
A snort. \"Don't think about approaching them. That bodyguard of theirs is alert. They don't look like easy marks.\"
\"Shame. Our gang is getting rather short on spending money.\"
\"You dimwits! Why are the two of you talking so close to the new arrivals?! Don't you know what those cat ear attachments can do?!\"
The pair of thugs leaning against the side of a shop suddenly realized their mistake. They quickly darted into an alley and ran out of sight!
Ves merely smiled. These cat ears attachments were proving to be quite useful! He would hate to part with them, though he knew it was necessary. Who knew what kind of shady bioprogramming the organic attachments contained.
He really ought to find a reliable biotech researcher or something. This was the second organic gadget he received that he didn't dare to make use of on a permanent basis! His inability to judge the veracity of his Archimedes Rubal and now a premium pair of cat ears was seriously hampering his upgrade opportunities!
A huge part of Asco's industry revolved around hunting alien or genetically-modified cats. Exobiologists and geneticists, many of them unaffiliated with House Laterna's research institutions, offered their services to the hunting outfits.
Nonetheless, most of the biotech researchers working here were not skilled or knowledgeable enough to work for better firms. That, or they simply wanted to conduct their research independently without any obligations.
\"Let's check into the hotel first before we explore our surroundings.\"
They did so, arriving at one of the more upscale hotels. Ves was sure that a lot of watchers noted his entry into the establishment, but he didn't care.
Once they settled in, Ves gathered his crew in order to distribute some tasks.
\"Now, all of you know what I'm here for. I'm not here to hunt a huge cat, but study one. Killing them isn't necessary but I don't particularly care whether a hunting team kills them or not after I am done with them. As long as their rates are within my budget, I don't mind which hunting team I get in bed with. What truly matters is the cat that I wish to study up close.\"
\"You've never told us what you are looking for, boss.\"
\"That's because I can't quite judge what I want from footage alone.\" Ves calmly replied as Lucky started tugging at his cat ear attachments with his paws again. \"I need a better impression of the cats that I have in mind, and for that I require information that isn't necessarily available on the galactic net. I need hearsay and testimony from the hunting teams that have encountered the specific cats before.\"
\"Do you want us to interview the local hunters?\"
Ves nodded, and then directed his gaze to the Ingvars. \"Imon, Casella, I'll leave this task up to you two. I'll give you a modest budget that you can spend on loosening up the tongues of the hunters drinking at the bars or lazying about on the streets.\"
\"Do we really have to, sir?\" Imon scrunched his face in disgust. \"No offense, but the hunters are predominantly...\"
\"I know they're rough, Imon, but you've spent months with the Battle Criers. Interacting with this kind of ilk should be within your capabilities.\"
The male Ingvar still looked ill at ease.
\"If you can manage it, you can approach the more professional hunters instead.\" Ves sighed. \"Just make sure you squeeze some reliable information out of them without prematurely emptying your budget. Make sure to ask Crindon to load your comm with a lie detector module so you can verify if the hunters are telling the truth.\"
This suggestion caused both Imon and Casella to look a lot more relieved! With their noble identities, they felt much more comfortable interacting with the upper ranks of the local hunter community!
\"You can rely on us, Mr. Larkinson!\" Imon confidently patted his chest, as if his earlier doubts never occurred at all!
While Ves held some doubts, he nonetheless let Imon and Casella decide on their own approach. The task he handed to them partially served as a test. He wanted to see if they were resourceful and adaptable enough to handle this simple task.
Once he gave the Ingvars a list of huge cat specimens that he wanted to know more about, he turned to Crindon.
\"As for you, I'd like you to look into the hunting teams themselves.\" He instructed. \"What I've read from the galactic net only consists of official records and dry reports. While they are already informative, I know better than basing my judgement on official papers alone. I need you to go out and discreetly listen to the rumors circulating around Kemila. Discreetly. Don't attract any attention or make it too obvious what you are doing.\"
Unlike the Ingvars, Crindon did not show any hesitation. \"Understood, sir. Do you have any priorities in the intel I gather?\"
\"I'm preferably looking for hunting teams that put themselves up for hire. I want to know which ones have a reputation for reliability and customer service. I don't want to hire a hunting team without knowing that they have a penchant for ignoring the instructions of the client even if they don't pose a threat!\"
\"Got it. I will be on the lookout for obedient hunting teams, though I think there aren't that many of them here. Hunters are by their nature self-sufficient and unwilling to bend to authority in hunting-related matters.\"
Once Crindon received his instructions, Ves turned to the last two members of his group. \"Gavin, Nitaa, the two of you will be coming with me to the hunting hall. While Crindon and the Ingvars collect information from informal channels, we'll be paying a visit to the local hunter hall and meet with the officials.\"
As a Journeyman Mech Designer, Ves expected a good reception from the local officials. Unfortunately, Ves would be disappointing them as he did not intend to set up shop on Felixia.
The mech designers who worked in Asco predominantly consisted of Novices and Apprentices. High-ranking mech designers had better things to do than tinker with a handful of hunting mechs engaging in an artificial circus.
As much as the hunting activities here required real skill and preparation to succeed, Ves had no illusion that everything about the entire experience had been carefully crafted by House Laterna.
The savvy rulers of Felixia planned out almost everything except the behavior of the cats themselves, and even that Ves wasn't sure of. From what he learned so far, House Laterna wasn't above employing secretive means to spy on people.
He wouldn't be surprised that the biologists under their employ secretly influenced the behavior of the Crown Cats, to the point of being able to instruct them to kill a certain number of hunters!
The Asco Continent was more of a playground than a true hunting preserve.
Chapter 1383
\"Mr. Larkinson! I am Benedict Vinzler, senior relations manager of the Kemila Hunting Hall. Welcome to our fine establishment!\"
Ves offered the middle-aged manager a polite smile while they shook hands. \"I hope my unscheduled arrival hasn't brought any inconvenience, Mr. Vinzler.\"
\"Greeting an esteemed guest such as you is no inconvenience to us at all!\" The hunting hall representative gushed. \"Journeyman Mech Designers such as you are highly prized in Kemila. A lot of doors will open up for you as long as you offer up your expertise!\"
As they started to enter the austere and way too clean hunting hall, Ves decided to burst the hunting hall's bubble before their misunderstanding stretched any further.
\"Mr. Vinzler, please don't assume I am offering up my services. I am only paying a visit here. I don't intend to stay longer than a couple of months.\"
That caused the manager to stop short. \"You are not here to help the hunting teams improve their mechs?\"
Ves smiled. \"Not for the long-term, no. However, I may be amenable to offer up my expertise for a limited duration in lieu of other payment.\"
That caused the manager to regain some of his cheer. \"I see! I know some hunting outfits who value their mechs very highly and would appreciate such a favor. It isn't every day a Journeyman such as you graces Kemila.\"
Kemila wasn't the largest or the most popular of settlements on Asco. Other cities had access to many more Crown Cats or were close to lots of hunting zones.
The city that Ves decided to visit only ranked in the middle in terms of hunting team density. Hardly any top-tier hunting outfits based themselves in Kemila as only a single Crown Cat resided within range of the city.
Still, Ves decided to visit Kemila over other cities because the nearby hunting zones hosted many huge cats that sparked his interest. He judged that he had the highest chance of encountering a huge cat with spirituality if he started his search in this tropic city!
\"Meow.\"
Ves reached out to scratch Lucky's ear as the cat comfortably observed the surroundings on his shoulder. \"Don't wander off, Lucky.\"
\"That's a very impressive mechanical cat you have.\" The manager complimented. \"I don't recognize this exquisite model.\"
\"It's a present.\" Ves curtly replied. \"Don't ask me where you can find him. I also upgraded him numerous times, hence his unusual appearance.\"
\"You have quite a taste for cats! If you put your mechanical cat up for auction in Felixia, I'm sure you can earn a fortune from his sale!\"
\"Lucky is not for sale.\"
\"Well, if you change your mind, know that Felixia is by far the best destination for you to sell your exquisite cat.\"
The group entered the interior of the hunting hall. The huge lobby partially served as a showcase for successful hunts. Enormous preserved cat heads hung on the walls as trophies. They were so huge that even Ves felt threatened by their snarling appearances!
\"Impressive, is it not?\" Vinzler grinned. \"Sadly, these honored trophies have only been taken from the younger and smaller prey in the hunting zones. The larger trophies would have taken too much space in our halls.\"
If the younger and weaker huge cats were already this intimidating, then Ves wouldn't want to see a massive Crown Cat up close!
After the manager spent some time to show off the trophies, they moved to an open meeting room decorated as the interior of a hunting lodge. Smaller cat trophies along with fur pelts lined the floor and walls. The comfortable seats were made of leather skinned and treated from notable huge cats.
Fortunately, despite seeing all of the treated remains of dead cats, Lucky exhibited no fear or displeasure at all. It was as if belonging to a superior cat species made him immune to the same fate that befell the lesser cat species!
Nitaa and Gavin remained standing while Ves enjoyed the luxurious seat.
\"Alright, Mr. Larkinson, how can our hunting hall be of assistance?\"
After a brief moment of contemplation, Ves decided to be open about his motives. It wasn't as if he needed to keep them secret anyway.
\"I'm considering designing a bestial mech. A tiger mech to be exact.\"
The hunting hall manager nodded in understanding. \"So you are looking to gain inspiration from studying the carcass of one of our huge cats?\"
\"It depends.\" Ves said in an uncertain tone. \"It's difficult to describe what I need. I may have to get my inspiration from observing a living huge cat. Killing one might not be what I need.\"
\"That.. is a rather unusual but not unheard-of request, Mr. Larkinson. Kemila has played host to a number of clients like you who seek to base their next mech designs on our huge cats.\"
The manager began to explain the basic procedures and options to Ves. There was a substantial difference between hiring and sponsoring a hunting team.
\"For your purposes, it is best for you to hire a hunting team rather than sponsor them. Sponsoring is a long-term commitment that isn't suitable for your needs.\"
\"That's true. Do you have any hunting teams in mind?\"
\"Many hunting teams can do what you ask, but I know of half-a-dozen of them who are more than willing to trade favors with notable mech designers. As long as you make yourself available as a mech consultant who can assist in modifying and improving their mechs, you can secure a significant discount on hiring these teams.\"
\"Can you give my assistant a list of suggestions?\"
\"Certainly.\"
Once Vinzler sent a brief message containing a list of names to Gavin's comm, he began to explain some of the basic traits that Ves had to take into account.
\"Mech hunting teams and mech hunting outfits operate in a similar way to mercenary corps, but there are several critical differences. First, the mech pilots on Asco are generally professionals to varying degrees. Hunting is a ritual to them, and they aren't very tolerant to interference from laymen in the art of hunting.\"
\"I understand.\" Ves replied. \"I know better than to instruct the hunters on what they should do, have no fear of that. I wouldn't want a mech pilot to tell me how to design a mech either.\"
Vinzler smiled. \"It is good to hear that from you. Disputes between clients and hunting teams are depressingly common. As long as you know your boundaries, you will find the hunters to be more than willing to accommodate your more reasonable requests.\"
As the discussion continued, Ves got the sense that the value of a Journeyman was even higher than he expected. Most hunting teams used standard landbound mech models designed for general purpose or war in mind. Rarely did they pilot mechs specifically optimized for hunting activities.
It couldn't be helped. The hunting market alone simply wasn't as lucrative enough. Ordinary mercenaries numbered so much more.
Mech designers who specifically designed hunting mechs generally did so out of lack of confidence. They didn't think they were good enough to compete in the larger markets.
This was where people like Ves could help. As a Journeyman, his design abilities were very formidable, at least compared to the Novices and Apprentices who advised or directed the maintenance crews responsible for keeping the mechs in tip-top shape.
This gave him a considerable advantage as he could easily issue a couple of suggestions and modification plans that could considerably alter the performance of a hunting team.
A boost of five or ten percent may sound small, but to the hunter mech pilots who put their lives on the line, every little bit helped!
Ves did not even have to stick around to make his contributions. Merely analyzing the mechs and composing detailed, annotated design plans was sufficient! It would be the job of the resident mech designers to follow the instructions that Ves laid out beforehand as he had already performed the heavy thinking.
At some point in the discussion, Vinzler looked at Ves with an intrigued expression. \"Please allow me to be presumptuous for a moment. As a relations manager, it is my responsibility to connect with every significant figure in Kemila. I am familiar and on friendly terms with every big figure in this city.\"
\"Are you trying to refer me to someone?\"
The manager smiled apologetically. \"There is a.. special individual who is currently residing in the city that may be of interest to you. She can dearly use the services of a Journeyman such as you, though the favor she may request from you may be quite significant.\"
\"Who is this individual you are talking about?\"
\"A noble scion from House Laterna.\"
\"No thanks.\"
\"Pardon?\"
\"Mr. Vinzler, I prefer not to get entangled in political matters during my tour through the Sentinel Kingdom. Felixia is just the first Sentinel planet that I intend to visit, and I don't want to take any sides at this point.\"
\"I.. see.\" The man looked defeated. \"If that is your wish, then it is better not to engage with Lady Laterna.\"
Obviously, there must be a huge story behind this young Lady Laterna. Ves wasn't interested in her troubles or ambitions. The Sentinel Kingdom was simply a stopover point to him and he didn't care who rose to the top or fell from power.
As their talk neared the end of the session, Vinzler made one more suggestion.
\"The majesty of Felixia's huge cats are indisputable, but reading about them and witnessing them in the form of projections does not do them justice. If you want to get a better idea about the creatures, you should visit the underground holding cage complex. Whenever a hunting team subdues and captures a huge cat alive, they're temporarily placed in one of the holding cages before they are shipped offworld.\"
This aroused Ves' interest. \"I read that the holding cages are off-limits to the public.\"
\"To the public, yes. To an esteemed mech designer such as you, I'm sure we can make some arrangements. The holding cage complex is under our purview, after all. The only reason why we bar the facility from the public is because we don't want footage circulating of our huge cats in their most pathetic state.\"
As a business owner, Ves agreed. Felixia marketed Asco as an exciting and dangerous continent where humongous cat species prowled the wilds and ambushed mechs. All of their promotional footage centered around showcasing the impressive cats in their prime.
Seeing the same cats injured, defeated and stuck inside a cage would present a completely different image that wouldn't be good!
\"When can I visit?\"
\"Preferably tomorrow. Today is not a good time as some transfers are taking place in a few hours.\"
\"That is acceptable.\"
The two quickly wrapped up their meeting. After shaking hands with Vinzler, Ves grabbed Lucky and led Gavin and Nitaa out of the hunting hall.
As Ves idly admired the trophies on the way out, he noted that he attracted a lot more attention than before. The hunters and other people milling in the lobby seemed to recognize his appearance as if they had seen an image of him beforehand.
\"Mr. Larkinson!\" A hunter stepped forward. \"Our Dire Hogs have heard that you are looking to hire a mech hunting team. How about picking us up? We'll waive fifty percent off our regular fees in exchange for your help in upgrading our mechs!\"
Another hunting team representative shoved aside the first fellow. \"Don't listen to this pig! His Dire Hogs are a bunch of hogwash hunters! They've been in operation for less than two years and only have ten successful hunts on their belt! Come to us instead! Our Zinc Asps have been in the hunting business for over a decade!\"
As more hunters started to press closer to Ves in order to solicit his services, Ves raised his arm in a brief but clear message to Nitaa.
The woman in armor stepped forward, her armored feet clanking against the floor with loud metallic clacks. Her face, surrounded by an open helmet, glowered down at the hunters.
Nitaa's tall stature and armored form instantly caused the hunters to wither and step backwards. A straight line spontaneously formed in the middle, allowing the group to exit the hunting hall without any further obstruction.
On his way out, he threw out a single remark at the hunters. \"Your interest is appreciated, but I will come to you, not the other way around. Don't approach me again.\"
He and his group departed from the hall while leaving behind a silent crowd of staring hunters.
Chapter 1384
Later in the evening, everyone returned to the hotel room. Ves ordered Lucky to set up his ECM field before he made his subordinates report their findings. He also stowed away his cat ear attachments in another room under a locked box just to make sure they weren't actually recording his conversations while bypassing the jamming.
\"Alright.\" He clapped his hands. \"I know that half a day isn't enough time to get a complete picture of the local landscape, but I hope you've at least made some early gains. Let's hear it. You first, Crindon.\"
His resident security expert and spy stepped forward with a smile. \"Well, the first good news is that Journeymen Mech Designers are in demand by many mech hunting teams.\"
\"I'm aware. I almost got swamped by them earlier in the day when I visited the local hunting hall.\"
\"With good reason. A good mech designer can suggest improvements that allow the mech hunting teams to improve their performance quickly without outright replacing their mechs. While the expenditure is still significant, a ten percent boost in overall performance ensured a higher rate of success while preventing significant damage. Studies have been made on how much of a difference it makes. Did you know what the researchers found? Hunting teams with mechs customized by Journeyman earned up to forty percent more profit!\"
\"Forty percent! That big?\"
\"Half of it is due to the objectively better performance of the hunting mech. The other half is attributable to the confidence the overhauled mechs bring to their mech pilot.\"
Basically, it came down to confidence. If mech pilots utilized ordinary mechs, then they would unlikely see themselves as hotshots. If they piloted more expensive and higher-performing machines, then entering the cockpits already boosted their confidence and self-esteem before they deployed for action!
Equipment mattered. Mech pilots equipped with better mechs possessed higher morale. This was a very proven fact that applied in almost every situation in the galaxy. It shouldn't surprise Ves that it played a key role in Kemila as well.
\"Okay, I get it.\" Ves waved his hand. \"Continue with your briefing. What did you find out about the individual hunting teams?\"
\"I've looked into a number of hunting teams and hunting outfits on your list. I manage to gather some compelling information on a number of them. I've already written up a condensed report that lists out all the rumors associated with these groups along with my judgement on the reliability of the hearsay.\"
\"Give me a summary. Let's leave aside the outfits associated with negative rumors. Are there any groups with notably good reputations operating in Kemila?\"
Crindon pressed a finger to his lips. \"I think there are three smaller hunting teams that may be of particular interest to you. All three are fairly small, but they have close ties to the Kemila hunting community and are also professional to boot. Their mechs aren't the best, but that is also an advantage for you as you will easily be able to upgrade their aging mechs. Some of them are even lastgen machines!\"
These groups didn't sound too powerful, but Ves probably did not need the services of anything superior.
Besides, the stronger hunting outfits only worked with known clients with established reputations. Journeyman or not, these better-equipped hunters already piloted pretty good mechs, so they exhibited less urgency for upgrades and modifications.
A projection came to life as Crindon showed snapshot footage of the first mech hunting team in question.
\"The first group that caught my notice are the Cadence Stalkers. They're a small hunting team that has been operating from Kemila for just over two decades. They stand out from the other hunting teams in their degree of preparation.\"
The projection switched to public footage of one of their hunts. The edited snippets show numerous light mechs coated in a mottled green camouflage pattern hiding a few hundreds meters away as an unsuspecting huge cat with a beautiful fire-red fur pattern padded forward.
Just as Ves expected the mechs to open fire with their ranged weapons, the huge cat suddenly roared in pain as his front limbs got caught in a massive bear trap-like contraption!
Though the huge cat quickly began to slice the trap into pieces, the huge exobeast's momentary immobility proved incredibly unfortunate as ranged mechs started to pepper it with medium-range electrier attacks that continually paralyzed and hurt the beast, slowing it down from freeing itself from the trap!
The melee mechs of the Cadence Stalkers swiftly rushed forward with great speed. The predominantly light mechs closed the distance rapidly and began to club the trapped creature with blunt-tipped staffs.
\"The Cadence Stalkers wanted to kill the huge cat without damaging its exquisite fur. Hence the use of electrifiers and blunt weaponry.\" Crindon noted.
Ves admired the smooth execution of the hunt. \"They've prepared very well for this hunt. They set the trap ahead of time at a place they knew their prey would pass through. They also hid their mechs relatively close and downwind and managed to obscure their presence to a high degree.\"
\"The Cadence Stalkers are very methodical, patient and prudent in their hunts. However...\"
\"They aren't daring enough.\" Ves guessed.
\"Correct, sir. They don't dare to tackle larger or more dangerous huge cats than this one because their traps won't last as long against their claws, teeth and other possible abilities. The Cadence Stalkers are great in bullying the weaker cats but can only flee when faced with stronger cats. They're also not very time efficient as their study and preparation eats up lots of weeks.\"
\"So if I want a job done quickly, I shouldn't go to the Stalkers.\"
\"Yes. Nevertheless, all of that time spent in preparation has done them pretty well. Despite their low earnings, they rarely suffer a loss. Their death rate is among the lowest of all the huntings teams in Kemila, and that is saying something for their twenty-year track record.\"
It figured that Crindon showered a lot of favor for the safest hunting team.
\"I get it.\" Ves crossed his arms. \"If I happen to have a weaker huge cat in mind, I'll approach the Cadence Stalkers first. What's next, Crindon?\"
The projection switched to mechs that adopted a completely different style from the Cadence Stalkers. The blood-red coated mechs didn't bother at all with camouflage or patiently stalking their prey.
Instead, the mechs boldly crashed into the forest, toppling numerous trees along the way and raising a huge commotion in the process. The mechs brazenly butchered the large wildlife that served as the food source for the huge cats with their heavy greatswords and axes!
Such a naked provocation and a threat to the food supply had to be answered! The huge cat that held this territory had no choice but to confront the invading mechs up front!
\"The red mechs belong to the Rocit Butchers. As their name suggests, the Butchers aren't believers in the hunting tradition and instead prefer to butcher their prey up front.\"
The somewhat reckless strategy the Butchers adopted led to a sudden surprise attack on their mechs. As the blood-stained melee mechs of the Butchers passed through a heavily-forested area, a huge cat suddenly emerged from below the ground and mauled an unsuspecting axeman mech into pieces before the rest of the mechs could reorient themselves!
With the initiative on its side, the soil-stained brown-coated huge cat began to lash out at the surrounding mechs, using its formidable strength and jumping capabilities to avoid getting surrounded!
To their credit, the Rocit Butchers responded well by grouping up, thereby forcing the attacking cat to endure several heavy attacks whenever it wanted to pounce on the mechs that razed its territory!
A huge roar escaped from the creature before it pounced!
Unfortunately, a knight mech quickly moved into place to intercept the pounce! Though the mech sustained some stress damage, the lunge had been successfully blocked!
As the cat recoiled from his failed pounce, the offensive Butcher mechs quickly moved to the creature's sides and began to hack its body with their brutal swords and axes!
The huge cat quickly succumbed as its fur wasn't capable of repelling sharp attacks as well as mech armor!
\"Well, none of the fur will be left after such a brutal slaughter.\" Imon muttered with contempt.
The uncouth hunting style of the Butchers offended his residual noble sensibilities. Even Casella, Gavin and Nitaa looked a bit disturbed.
Their reaction fell within Crindon's expectations. \"The Butchers might look dubious, but among the smaller hunting teams, they are the only ones who dare to hunt the higher-ranking huge cats. While their casualty rate is not very pretty, they are notable for their courage and their willingness to go after the more challenging prey, though they stop short at hunting the Crown Cats.\"
Casella nodded. \"For good reason. The tactics these Butchers exhibit are rudimentary. I'm not sure their leader can be trusted.\"
\"I share the same concerns.\" Ves said. \"The Butchers probably make a lot of money since they seem to be making a lot more turnover. However, if every battle is like this, they're spending a fortune on repairs. Hunting teams like these probably value their mechs the least.\"
Crindon knew all of this. \"Those are valid points, but as I've mentioned before, they are one of the few small-scale hunting teams willing to tackle riskier hunts. They're also fast so if you're short on time for some reason you can move out with them in an instant.\"
All in all, the Cadence Stalkers and the Rocit Butchers both sat at different ends of the spectrum. Based on his demands, either one or the other served his purposes better. Ruling out the Butchers just because their hunting style looked distasteful would be foolish.
\"There's one other aspect about the Butchers that I haven't mentioned.\" Crindon added. \"Their team commander usually doesn't go on the hunts themselves. He's a very formidable mech pilot and his mech is a cut above the machines you've seen in the footage. If the team commander leads a hunt in person, then the battles will usually go a lot smoother. He only rarely sets out, and only when the Butchers are tackling the more challenging cats.\"
\"Ah. I see.\"
That was an interesting aspect about the Butchers.
The projection then switched to footage depicting white-and-blue mechs. Just like the Butchers, these mechs eschewed camouflage. Unlike the Butchers, they didn't charge at their target like berserkers.
\"The mechs you see before you belong to the Mark of Caantz. The Mark is an unorthodox hunting team that fields skill hunters with better-than-average mechs.\"
Ves recognized the quality of the mechs in an instant. Whereas the previous two teams made use of budget mechs, the Mark of Caantz fielded midrange mechs.
The difference this quality bump provided was significant. As the footage continued to run, Ves saw to his astonishment that the huge cat failed to gain an advantage against the melee mechs of the Mark!
After a bit of pushing, five of the mechs surrounded the cat on all sides, blocking its escape route. The mech at the front brandished its sword in a very elaborate flourish, as if taunting the huge cat to attack!
The creature, seeing no other avenues of escape, pounced ahead!
CLANG!
The swordsman mech at the front miraculously blocked both of the huge cat's claws! Not only that, but the mech pilot skillfully pivoted the mech so that it redirected most of the force aside!
As the cat made a very rough landing, the swordsman mech continued to pivot and quickly stabbed forward, cutting deeply in one of the huge cat's rear limbs!
A pained roar escaped from the creature. Despite its crippled limb, the ferocious huge cat counterattacked with a devastating bite!
Unfortunately, the swordsman mech anticipated the attack and swiftly managed to step aside in time. As the half-crippled huge cat missed again, the mech raised its sword with both arms in a movement that conveyed a strong and graceful touch of finality.
SWISH!
The mech beheaded the formidable huge cat with a single, heavy chop!
\"FOR CAANTZ!\"
\"FOR CAANTZ!\"
\"FOR CAANTZ!\"
The cries thundered from the speakers of the mech as if they had just completed a sacrifice!
Ves had a very bad feeling about the Mark of Caantz. Seeing them fight in such an abnormal fashion and now raising the weapons of their mechs while chanting their victory cries throughout the entire hunting zone gave him a very familiar feeling of foreboding!
\"The Mark of Caantz is a religious hunting team.\" Crindon said, confirming Ves' suspicion! \"They are very dedicated to their ritual hunts.\"
Of the people in the group, only Gavin knew something was wrong. Nitaa, Crindon, Imon and Casella failed to notice their employer's unease!
\"Aside from their greater capabilities, what makes the Mark of Caantz so special?\" Ves asked in a whisper.
\"They are the only small-scale hunting team in Kemila that successfully hunted a Crown Cat!\"
That caused everyone in the room to gasp! A Crown Cat!
Chapter 1385
Three hunting teams. More of them existed, but Crindon found these three to be notable enough that Ves should consider them first.
Each of them exhibited very different combat styles.
The slow and methodical Cadence Hunters.
The fast and furious Rocit Butchers.
The strong and mysterious Mark of Caantz.
Ves regarded each of them with doubt. In his perspective, the three neatly embodied three different extremes.
The first drew strength from rationality.
The second fought with passion.
The third followed a belief!
For some reason, Ves saw bits and pieces of himself in each of the three hunting teams!
The thought discomfited him a bit. How could he see himself in the Mark of Caantz! He wasn't a religious nut! He was a Brighter, a born secularist! He hated superstition!
Ves furiously shook his head and rid himself of the nonsense that polluted his mind.
\"Let's leave aside the Mark of Caantz.\" He said gently, trying not to be too explicit with his bias. \"They are probably overqualified for my needs and they might pose unusual demands. I think it's better to start with the Cadence Stalkers and the Rocit Butchers and keep an eye on other mech hunting teams that haven't been mentioned yet. Any opinions?\"
Imon raised his hand. \"I think the Mark of Caantz ought to be under consideration, Mr. Larkinson. The footage depicting the three hunting teams couldn't be more clear on which one is the best. The Cadence Stalkers haven't shown any fighting spirit while the Rocit Butchers indulge too much in senseless violence. If the footage represents them accurately, then I'd say Mark possesses the right balance!\"
\"My brother is right. The Stalkers appear to be our safest option, but they're too methodical to the point that they're probably far weaker when they are faced with unanticipated situations. The Butchers are willing fighters, but their lack of tactics leaves me doubtful that they'll be able to provide adequate protection to you while they are high on battle lust.\"
\"The Mark aren't the easiest hunting team to hire, but they are still rather open compared to the more exclusive hunting teams and outfits. They have a good track record and are known for their honor.\"
Of course they were, Ves inwardly scoffed. Religious fanatics always abided by their rules!
\"Let us not cast our vision too high and overlook the lower-hanging fruit.\" He spoke, hoping to dissuade the others from considering the Mark any further. \"Let's move on from this topic. It isn't the time yet for me to make a selection. I first have to determine which huge cat suits my needs the most. Ingvars, please report on the progress you've made so far.\"
Casella Ingvar shuffled forward with some hesitation.
\"We've managed to gather some descriptions of some of the animals on your list, sir. Although we haven't been able to ascertain the reliability of the information we've gathered, I think they are reasonably accurate.\"
Ves looked at her sharply. \"Can you judge that for sure or is your gut feeling telling you that?\"
\"...The latter.\"
\"Then don't say something like that. You are letting your own bias taint your findings.\" He pointed out.
He conveniently ignored how he expressed his dislike of the Mark of Caantz just then due to their religious traits!
\"Ah, my apologies, Mr. Larkinson.\" The female mech pilot said. \"The information we've gathered came from professional mech pilots who we've managed to befriend while drinking at a couple of bars. They opened their mouths easily enough when we plied them with free drinks.\"
\"How much of the budget I've allocated to you is left?\"
\"We spent all of it. We had to end our investigation sooner than I thought when we ran through the money.\"
Ves refrained from palming his face. He set a fairly generous budget! Yet the pot had been emptied far too quickly! Were the Ingvars even aware of the value of money?!
\"Ugh. Whatever. It's only 100,000 bright credits.\" He muttered before he turned his attention back to Casella. \"Please sum up the stories you've heard. They better be good.\"
She smiled. \"Kemila is rife with stories about the huge cats. The tales spoken about the Crown Cats are the most popular, but anecdotes related to the other huge cats in the hunting zones are prevalent as well. The older the huge cat, the more stories it accumulated.\"
She activated the projector and loaded it up with her own files. The first recording displayed a white-furred snow leopard-like beast. The only abnormal detail that set it apart from terrestrial snow leopard was its strange, shining green eyes that pulsed with light!
\"Old Smokey here has survived for over a decade despite his lack of strength compared to the other huge cats. He's described as a wiley huge cat who prefers to hide and evade a hunt rather than to attack the mechs aiming at his life.\"
\"What are his strengths?\" Ves asked.
\"The leopard possesses exceptional perception. It's how he evades most hunts before they can find and corner him. It's said his green eyes are so good that they can detect signals and other energy emissions! Since almost every mech emits emissions, the cat can see every mech coming from kilometers away!\"
\"That sounds impressive, but it's not exactly what I need. Has Old Smokey exhibited any unusual traits at all? Something that gives him an edge in battle?\"
\"No. The battles he's been through have always been by the skin of his teeth. What the mech pilots who faced him in battle did mention was that Old Smokey had an uncanny ability to identify the weak points of a mech and deliberately target them in order to overcome his opponents.\"
Not enough. Ves couldn't determine whether Old Smokey utilized spirituality. His intuition told him that Old Smokey lacked that bit of flair that he associated with spirituality. At the very least, the huge white leopard did not show any abilities that surpassed his biological constraints.
\"Next, please.\" He said, conveying his lack of interest towards the white leopard.
The projection switched to a larger, more ferocious-looking huge cat. The exobeast showed only a vague resemblance to cats as its outer surface glistened with yellow-brown scales. Thick whiskers trailed from its face, whereupon five eyes blinked in every forward-looking direction.
\"The Dragon Cat as she's called is an exobeast that Felixia imported from the frontier. It is one of the rare exobeasts in Asco that hasn't been subjected to any genetic modification. It's wilder and more unrestrained and has racked up a lot of kills along the way. She's considered one of the more challenging huge cats to hunt because of her fearsome ability to accelerate at an instant and charge straight into a mech, impaling it with the horns on her head!\"
Ves already read up on these basic details. \"What do the hunters really say about the Dragon Cat?\"
\"Well, the hunters who claimed to have participated in the failed attempts to take her down say that they felt strange when they faced her in battle. They say that the reasons why many of their hunts failed despite their adequate preparation was because they lost their cool and got caught up in the fight.\"
That caused Ves to widen his eyes. \"Their mood changed?\"
She nodded. \"Some of the hunters swear that even though they memorized all kinds of tactics and strategies to mitigate the charging attacks of the Dragon Cat, they failed to act according to plan when confronting her. It was as if the analytical part of their brains shut off. Attempts to capture her in a net, to harpoon her into place, to use an ultraheavy shield to blunt her charge and so on all failed because the mech pilots failed to perform their roles as well as they should!\"
Ves leaned further and further forward while stroking Lucky's back. \"Have the mech pilots who claimed to have hunted the Dragon Cat describe their conditions in greater detail?\"
\"Well, they're pretty ashamed about it. Lots of mech pilots received blame from their commanders for screwing up the hunt. Whenever they described their difficulties, their superiors rebuked the mech pilots because none of the sensors of the mechs picked up any unusual emissions from the Dragon Cat. In their eyes, the mech pilots probably quivered because they feared getting impaled by the Dragon Cat's formidable charge!\"
\"Interesting, interesting.\" Ves smiled.
Now this was more like it! The hunting teams wouldn't publicize stories like these because they were too shameful! He had already heard that the Dragon Cat acquired a reputation for causing bad luck to any hunters that wanted to hunt her down, but now he finally knew the reason why many hunting teams passed her over despite not being able to match many other huge cats in pure strength.
He ordered the Ingvars to dig up more stories about the Dragon Cat. He wanted to obtain more information in order to substantiate his suspicion that the Dragon Cat may have been playing with spirituality.
\"What else is there?\" He asked.
\"Well, we've managed to question one mech pilot from a large hunting outfit who participated in the hunt against Zeigra, the Mech Cruncher!\"
\"The Crown Cat!?\" Gavin gasped.
\"Yes!\" Casella and Imon looked very proud to have encountered a mech pilot who faced Zeigra and lived. \"While the mech pilots didn't want to open his mouth at first, we managed to pursuade him to share some details that haven't been mentioned in any of the public reports.\"
Like his nickname suggested, Zeigra was a huge cat with a rust-bronze colored coat. The creature started off as yet another experimental test tube cat grown from House Laterna's labs.
When the researchers initially dumped Zeigra into a random hunting zone near Kemila, nobody paid any particular note to the cat due to its lack of size and strength.
As smaller hunting teams attempted to take down what they saw as an easy mark, they inexplicably failed. Zeigra proved to be feistier than comparable young huge cats. Not only that, but he started to grow quickly, as if he had just entered his growth spurt!
More hunts ensued, and more hunters failed. Zeigra quickly shot up in the ranking as he started to master the ambush approach. His ability to remain hidden and camouflage his presence became better and better.
\"Every genetically-modified cat on Asco is altered to make it harder to track them by their scent, heat signature and other emissions.\" Casella noted. \"This is so that tracking them will require actual effort on the part of the hunters. But the mech pilot claims that Zeigra is so hard to find that their hunting team wasted three times the amount of time they thought was necessary to track down the cat!\"
As Zeigra continued to defeat more hunting teams, his fur grew increasingly more red! His strength and capabilities also grew in proportion, so much so that the Kemila Hunting Hall eventually confirmed that Zeigra's fighting capabilities had propelled the initially-unimpressive cat to the ranks of the Crown Cats!
Compared to other Crown Cats, Zeigra lacked an obvious killer ability that made him exceptionally difficult to deal with for many hunting teams. However, his overall mix of strength, speed, resilience, stealth, patience and intelligence was enough to break even the most formidable hunting outfit in Kemila!
\"Zeigra is a fairly new Crown Cat and still ranks at the bottom of the listing.\" Casella mentioned. \"However, according to the mech pilot we've questioned, the premier hunting outfits in Kemila all know that there's more to her than what is publicly known. There's a belief within the upper end of the hunting community that Zeigra is a metal eater!\"
\"A metal eater?!\"
\"Yes! According to this belief, the reason for Zeigra's explosive growth is that it has been munching certain parts from defeated mechs! When hunting teams kept serving their mechs to Zeigra, the cat grew faster and faster. At this point, Zeigra's ranking will probably shoot up even higher when the listing refreshes in a couple of months!\"
\"Is there more?\"
\"Yes! Not only is Zeigra capable of growing faster by consuming certain exotics, but there is also a belief that he can induce corrosion among the mechs he battles! Several mechs that faced Zeigra in battle faltered faster than usual, so much so that some mech designers suspect that the Crown Cat caused certain parts of a mech to break down in a suspicious manner!\"
Chapter 1386
When Ves initially picked Kemila as his starting point on the Asco Continent, he looked up on the only Crown Cat within the vicinity.
Zeigra, the Mech Cruncher, earned his name for his penchant of biting entire chunks out of mechs with his abnormally strong and powerful teeth. A lot of mechs that successfully fled from the notoriously bad-tempered cat returned to Kemila with gaping bite marks marring their frames.
Yet the lack of mention of more exceptional abilities painted Zeigra as a huge cat who merely relied on his exceptional physical endowments to defeat his hunters. Ves no longer looked into the rust-colored Crown Cat any further.
However, if the hearsay gathered by Casella and Imon was reliable, then there may be more to Zeigra than met the eye!
Two traits about Zeigra made Ves take a second look at the Crown Cat.
First, Zeigra's supposed ability to grow faster by ingesting and incorporating certain metals or exotics sounded very interesting! While it sounded like a purely physical ability, it reminded him a lot of his own pet!
He looked down at his lounging cat. \"Does Zeigra happen to be your cousin or something?\"
\"Meow!\"
\"Haha, forget I asked.\"
The two cats were so completely different that the notion that they were related was ridiculous.
The real reason why Zeigra's assimilation ability attracted his interest was because of the potential value it could add to his Devil Tiger.
His smart metal bestial mech mostly consisted of pure ASMAS and substitute ASMAS. While the former was irreplaceable, the latter could continually be replenished and improved depending on the quality of materials that the Devil Tiger obtained.
If Ves instilled a piece of Zeigra's spirituality as his Devil Tiger's design spirit, then the mech's ability to upgrade itself might become a lot smoother.
Having a design spirit that already understood this process would increase the mech's autonomous operation in this function!
Second, Zeigra's rumored corrosion inducement ability also held a lot of promises. If the Crown Cat genuinely possesses this capability without relying on physical means, then there may be a chance that Zeigra applied a form of spirituality!
Ves made a decision. \"Add Zeigra to the list of huge cats that require deeper investigation. I want to hear more stories that haven't circulated on the galactic net. What makes him so powerful? What other abilities does he have up his sleeve? Try and gather more information and corroborate it with other mech pilots.\"
Sending out the Ingvars on an intelligence-gathering assignment worked out well this time. As mech pilots, the Ingvars connected easily with other mech pilots. Their privileged upbringing and former noble roots also made it easier for them to mingle with the upper end of the hunting community.
After a bit of discussion, Ves wrapped the meeting up. \"Alright, I'm satisfied with the information you've gathered, but it's not enough. All of the pertinent information I've so far consists of rumors. While I'm sure that they have a grain of truth, that's not enough for me to make a solid decision.\"
He issued instructions for Crindon and the Ingvars to continue what they were doing.
To facilitate their tasks, Ves gave Crindon permission to hack into local networks if he ever found a good opportunity.
\"Are you capable of hacking into networks without getting caught?\"
\"The hacking equipment you've provided me is a lot more up to date compared to the security systems in Kemila.\" Crindon explained. \"That said, many hunting teams have staff on hand that make sure their virtual security is up to date. They can get into big trouble if their data leaks to their rivals.\"
\"Why so?\" Ves frowned.
\"Because sometimes rival hunting teams sabotage each other.\"
\"What?!\"
Crindon offered a mocking smile. \"It's one of the unspoken secrets within the hunting community. Some hunting teams are very competitive and constantly brag about their hunts. This has led to very ugly rivalries and vendettas. While the authorities strictly prohibit any mech-to-mech combat and punishes a hunting team severely if they are caught, shenanigans occasionally take place. It's very difficult to prove, though, but every hunting team is on guard regardless.\"
\"I see.\"
The only limitation was that the hunting teams couldn't afford to splurge on virtual security. They invested most of their money on procuring and maintaining their mechs. Mech pilots also demanded generous salaries. Other priorities had to make due with a very diminished pot of money.
The Kinner security expert couldn't do much by himself. \"Don't expect miracles, sir.\"
\"Just do what you can, but err on the side of caution.\"
Aside from giving Crindon more room, Ves also provided the Ingvars with a bigger bag of money that they could spend on schmoozing with the local mech pilots.
\"If you can, don't confine yourselves to interrogating the mech pilots who work for the premier hunting outfits.\"
\"We'll try.\" Casella said without too much enthusiasm.
After their first day in Kemila, Ves and his entourage settled down and continued to go on an information gathering spree.
Ves was sure that his attempts to gather more information had spread throughout the hunting community. The hunters didn't mind if he learned some obscure information, but they began asking higher and higher prices.
\"We're being exploited.\" Gavin spoke bluntly at the start of the third day. \"Practically every hunter knows that they can drink top shelf liquor on your tab whenever they are fortunate enough to be approached by the Ingvars.\"
\"I know, Benny. It was only a matter of time.\" Ves said as he calmly stroked the back of a feral savannah cat. \"I'm surprised the hunters caught on quickly.\"
Currently, they resided in a private courtyard where they just ate lunch. Ves felt it was beneath his dignity to trawl the streets for information on foot. The whole point of expanding his staff was so that he could delegate the tasks that needed to be performed to others!
\"I don't know why you insist so much on gathering information through informal channels, boss. All of the information we've received up to now is highly dubious. Who knows which pieces of information are true and which ones the half-drunken mech pilots made up on the spot in order to brag about their experiences?\"
Ves smirked as he scratched the savannah cat's chin. Fortunately, he already sent out Lucky on his own snooping mission!
\"The key to gathering information is to corroborate it with multiple sources.\"
\"Will that even be possible with our current approach? The hunters can make complete fools of us by sticking to the same story even if its pure fantasy!\"
\"What I said still applies.\" Ves calmly replied. \"You just have to find a different type of source, preferably one that isn't beholden to the same motives as the original source.\"
\"Is that why you sent out Crindon with orders to try his luck?\"
He nodded. \"That is one of the means. I still have another means.\"
\"And what is that?\"
\"Hehe, that's a secret.\"
In fact, the secret that Ves alluded to happened to be resting right on his lap! He just didn't want to mention it out loud because of the monitoring systems that were surely keeping an eye on the courtyard.
He also opted to wear his organic cat ear attachments again despite his increasing suspicion that they served as organic sound recorders that secretly transmitted its data to House Laterna's specialized receivers.
Being paranoid was okay, but being too obvious about it only engendered further suspicion. Ves already knew that he already merited a lot of attention for being the only Journeyman in Kemila.
The best way to deflect suspicion was to let the monitoring systems see what they wanted to see. By acting as casual and unconcerned as possible, Ves hoped that many people would overlook the aspects he wanted to keep under wraps.
\"Maow..\" The organic savannah cat turned his head so that Ves could scratch his ears.
\"Oh, what an adorable little fellow you are!\" Ves grinned as he pampered the feral cat with rubbing and scratches. \"Am I your favorite human?\"
\"Maow...\"
\"Haha, that's okay. So which humans do you like the most?\"
\"Maooow... maoow.\"
\"Hehe. What about the huge cats? Which one is the strongest?\"
\"Maow! Maaaaooow!\"
\"Mhmm. The biggest cats aren't always the most impressive ones.\"
To Gavin, Nitaa and anyone observing Ves, they probably thought he was spending his days playing with the feral cats that roamed the streets of Kemila.\\
Just like every other part of Felixia, the Asco Continent also featured a lot of cats. Different from the Eron Continent, the cats on Asco weren't the docile, hug-friendly creatures designed to be as harmless as possible.
The cats of the Asco Continent had to hunt for their own food or depend upon the generosity of the humans who had better things to do than feed a lot of cats every day.
Asco's feral cats merely livened up the place a bit, but served no other purpose. House Laterna hadn't made them sentient or turned them into spies.
This sounded odd to Ves at first, but then he realized that the hunting teams were probably a lot sharper than innocent tourists. They firmly kept the roaming feral cats off their compounds for fear that they carried listening devices in their bodies.
Nonetheless, even if the feral street cats weren't allowed to enter the sanctums of the hunting teams, they still witnessed a lot of conversations!
The only problem was that getting useful information out of them required a lot of interpretation and guesswork on his part. Cats such as the savannah cat on his lap exhibited the intelligence and attention span of a four-year old kid, which meant that Ves had to question a lot of cats in order to combine many tiny snippets of information into coherent clues.
A few days passed by as Ves kept waiting and gathering more information. Aside from collecting intel from his subordinates and the feral street cats, he also received valuable information from Lucky.
\"Meow meow.\"
\"Uh huh.\"
\"Meooow.\"
\"Interesting.\"
\"Meow meow meow.\"
\"Do you really think so? Crown Cats do deserve their reputation.\"
\"Meow!\"
As Ves retired to his hotel room at the end of the fifth day since arriving at Kemila, he developed a pretty good picture of the local situation. He even learned enough dirty secrets of various hunting teams to rule them out of consideration.
When it came to the huge cats, his alternative intelligence sources weren't of much use. The feral cat community of Kemila mostly heard about them in passing. They never met them in person aside from the few captive huge cats brought to the holding cells.
\"That was another disappointment.\" He sighed.
Only a couple of captive huge cats occupied the underground holding cells. When Ves inspected their spirituality, he sensed nothing different from the average feral cat on the streets.
As far as he was concerned, the huge cats were genetic abominations who relied purely on the strengths programmed into them by House Laterna's genetic researchers.
For this reason, Ves began to doubt whether any genetically-modified cat on Asco possessed any spirituality at all. This potentially included Zeigra, though accidents could always happen.
His mind came back to the Dragon Cat. Of all the huge cats who resided in the hunting zones around Kemila, only the pure exobeast gave him the most hopes of obtaining what he wanted. The abilities she presumably possessed sounded very much like a spiritual phenomenon.
Still, the Dragon Cat's ability to influence the moods of mech pilots and make them lose their cool sounded rather... underwhelming.
If Ves had a choice, he would rather opt for obtaining a spiritual fragment from Zeigra. The Mech Cruncher's affinity to metal, even if exaggerated, fit a lot more with his vision for the Devil Tiger!
Yet the thought of hunting down a famed Crown Cat made him recall Calabast's rebuke. Was the risk really worth the reward?
Ves felt enormously tempted to chase after Zeigra regardless of how poor of an idea it sounded.
\"Zeigra is perfect for my Devil Tiger!\"
Chapter 1387
Ves felt conflicted. After almost a week of gathering intel, he was beginning to exhaust his sources. Kemila wasn't all that large and there were only so many mech pilots and feral cats he could question.
Most of them already said the same things for a while, which further reinforced his belief that he was wasting his time at this point.
In truth, he recognized that he was merely stalling over his decision. He felt torn between setting his sights on the weaker Dragon Cat or the very formidable Zeigra.
Both of them possessed their own strong points and peculiarities, but the difficulty in getting close to them varied very wildly.
\"Hunting a Crown Cat isn't easy at all!\" He lamented.
If he set his sights on Zeigra and his rumored metal assimilation and corrosion abilities, then Ves faced a lot of difficult hurdles to hunt down the dangerous cat.
First, he had to hire a strong-enough hunting team willing to take him along for the hunt.
Hardly any established hunting outfit who dared to tackle a Crown Cat would work with a strange foreigner like him. Mech designer or not, Ves was still an outsider in the hunting community.
His choices were very few for that reason. In fact, the only hunting team that he might be able to persuade in hunting down the strong huge cat was the Mark of Caantz!
Just the thought about getting in bed with a bunch of religious nuts who engaged in strange ritualistic hunting ceremonies gave him the creeps!
Right now, evening settled on Kemila. Tomorrow, he decided to take the next step. The only consideration he had to make was which huge cat he should settle upon.
\"Should I go for the Dragon Cat or Zeigra?\"
The two weren't in the same league.
While the Dragon Cat only exhibited a single vague ability, everything about Zeigra was exceptional. Ves suspected that House Laterna likely wouldn't be able to replicate his abilities if the Crown Cat relied on spirituality to perform his tricks.
In the end, caution won out for once. Hunting a Crown Cat was a very big endeavor that required weeks or even months of preparation. A hunting team didn't decide to go out into the hunting zone to hunt one of the most dangerous huge cats on Felixia in an instant!
He couldn't afford to linger too long in the Sentinel Kingdom. He had a schedule to maintain, and his shortened stay in the Chuko Republic only bought him a couple of extra weeks at most.
Ves recognized that he faced the same kind of difficult choice back when he was shopping for Kinners.
\"One choice is adequate but doable. The other choice is great but very difficult. Which one should I choose?\"
As a mech designer, he always pursued a high degree of excellence in his work. He really hated working with inferior materials and component designs.
Though Ves was not as compulsive about quality as Gloriana, he still believed he should make the effort to obtain something better if he had the option to do so. This was why he continually hesitated about crossing out Zeigra.
He felt like he was doing himself, his ambitions and the Devil Tiger a disservice if he went for the lesser option!
Ves furiously shook his head. \"Damnit! I'm not Gloriana!\"
She would probably opt for Zeigra over the Dragon Cat anyday. As long as she could get a hunting team to agree to hunt down the Crown Cat, why shouldn't she make the attempt?
He was different. He did not demand perfection from his mechs. His previous designs reflected a reasonable balance between quality and practicality. While his premium mechs were more expensive than the average mech on the market, he made sure not to go too far.
The question of necessity also came to the fore. Certainly, everything he heard about Zeigra made the Crown Cat highly compatible to his vision for the Devil Tiger.
Combining an adaptable, evolvable smart metal tiger mech with a design spirit from a notorious Crown Cat who shared some of the same abilities sounded like a match made in heaven!
\"It's too bad that heaven is too unobtainable.\" He sighed.
His original purpose for coming to Felixia was to obtain a spiritual fragment of a large cat or tiger-like species. It hardly mattered what kind of fragment he obtained so long as it came from a creature that could adapt to the Devil Tiger's mech frame.
The main reason why Ves focused on gathering rumors about supposed strange abilities associated with the huge cats was because he needed to determine which ones possessed spirituality.
He accomplished that. After almost a week of gathering information, he became certain that both the Dragon Cat and Zeigra both possessed spirituality, and with considerable strength.
Though they weren't Sacred Gods like Qilanxo and Pairixan who could call down lightning storms from the skies or form an impenetrable space barrier, their strength ought to be sufficient for Ves to obtain a decent spiritual fragment.
\"It won't be the strongest, but it will probably be good enough to empower my mech.\"
As for what attributes they carried and what abilities they could bestow to his Devil Tiger, those considerations went beyond the scope of his initial plans.
Certainly his Devil Tiger design might very well exhibit an immense boost in power and survivability if it inherited some of Zeigra's remarkable abilities. It would bring the mech one step closer to achieving the legendary status that Ves had dreamt.
Yet.. could he afford to engage in feature creep?
\"I've been so caught up in admiring a Crown Cat that I've inadvertently moved my goalposts!\"
That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. His initial imagination before he arrived at Felixia was a little limited. He had no idea what kind of spiritual fragments he could obtain and turn into the Devil Tiger's design spirit.
Now that he blew away the fog and uncovered two different options, the question of choice paralyzed him into indecision.
\"This is the first time I have a choice.\"
His Crystal Lord's X-Factor was fine despite possessing a very anemic design spirit based around a spiritual remnant.
His Aurora Titan's X-Factor blew everything else out of the water, but how could he possibly obtain another spiritual fragment as wondrous as that of Qilanxo?
His Transcendent Messenger's X-Factor was nearly as strong as that of the Aurora Titan, but Ves made use of the spiritual residue of a very significant human figure.
In each of those cases, choice never came up. Ves just worked with what he had without thinking too much about alternatives.
Ves crossed his arms and thought deeply.
\"It's different now. Now that I have more agency in this aspect, I have the option to change my mind.\"
Even if he already defined many aspects of his Devil Tiger design, he still left a lot of ambiguity. Once he finally obtained a spiritual fragment, he could easily tailor his ongoing work to the properties of the huge cat the fragment belonged to regardless of their quirks.
Regarding their fighting styles, the Devil Tiger was flexible enough to accommodate both.
\"It's the mech pilot that really defined the fighting style.\" He muttered. \"Though if both the mech and mech pilot matches, then the combination will perform much better.\"
So the choice of what kind of design spirit he adopted mattered. The influence it exerted through the X-Factor meant that the Devil Tiger would perform a little better under different circumstances.
Ves activated his comm and reviewed some of the footage of the Dragon Cat and Zeigra in battle. Which cat fit best with his Devil Tiger if he only looked at their fighting style?
Though both cats fought ferociously in head-on brawls, they each adopted slightly different styles.
The Dragon Cat was a pure exobeast. She lacked most of the genetic programming that the biotech researchers of House Laterna inserted into the genes of their organic products.
\"That's not necessarily a bad thing.\"
The Dragon Cat fought with natural instinct honed over millions of years of constant evolution. Going through the process of survival of the fittest ensured her species was very good at dealing with the threats on her native planet and environment.
In contrast, almost every aspect about Zeigra had been designed. The exobiologists and geneticists who cooked up his species had probably been messing around, but also incorporated many artificial improvements into his genome.
Many of those enhancements likely addressed combat against mechs. One of the biggest reasons why Zeigra had become so infamous was because he recognized the roles of different mechs and tried to avoid their strong points while exploiting their vulnerabilities.
Just like any intelligent huge cat, Zeigra preferred to ambush ranged mechs whenever possible!
This was a lot different from the Dragon Cat, who preferred to take out whatever mech was closer!
\"The Dragon Cat thrives on instinct while Zeigra is guided by his programming.\"
Ves had a feeling that this difference might prove crucial. What if Zeigra's bioprogramming contained hidden instructions?
The possibility that House Laterna's biotech researchers planted all kinds of backdoors and hidden orders into the Crown Cat's genes was very real!
Ves had studied some of the raw data that Lucky retrieved from House Laterna's research outposts in Eron and Asco. While he failed to interpret most of the data, he did get a sense of how much the local researchers interfered with the wildlife on the planet.
\"Almost every aspect is under their control.\" He concluded.
As much as Ves admired Zeigra's abilities and fighting prowess, he preferred to impart his Devil Tiger with a more primal design spirit.
With an X-Factor inclined towards ferocity, instinct and brutality, his Devil Tiger might fare a bit worse on the survival department, but the boost to its aggression reinforced its double-edged nature.
\"Maybe going with the lesser choice isn't so bad at all.\"
While the Dragon Cat had her shortcomings, Ves did not mind them all that much. One of his goals for the Devil Tiger was to design a mech that demanded the utmost from its mech pilot.
So what if his mech drove a mech pilot to death?! The only mech pilots who were going to be piloting his mech anyway would be a bunch of murderous Nyxian pirates!
As a one-off experimental project, the primary purpose of the Devil Tiger was to test his assumptions and confirm or disprove his guesses.
The more extreme he designed the mech, the more pronounced the results it returned!
On top of amplifying the extremes, the rumored ability of the Dragon Cat might prove to be a boon if the Devil Tiger was capable of imitating its powers.
\"Will it, though?\"
As far as he knew, no Aurora Titan produced by the LMC ever replicated Qilanxo's space barrier.
Could a mech even express the powers of its design spirit in the first place?
\"I don't know the answer.\"
He didn't have any evidence ruling this possibility out, but neither did he possess any proof that his Aurora Titans could summon space barriers either.
\"It's an interesting possibility nonetheless.\" Ves rubbed his chin.
As he thought about this question even further, he suddenly made a very significant realization.
What if.. he could instill his mech designs with design spirits based off other entities.
Entities such as.. mech pilots?
What if he transferred the spirituality of a dead or dying mech pilot and infused it into his mech?
\"That's just the start!\"
As soon as Ves came up with this notion, countless new ideas emerged from his imagination!
What if he created a dynastic mech where he continually infused the mech with the spiritual fragments of past generations of its mech pilots? How well would the mech perform if piloted by the latest generation of their family line?
What if.. what if he obtained a spiritual fragment or the complete spirituality of an expert pilot and implanted it into his mech design? Would the mech turn into an 'expert mech' that still expressed the power of one even if a regular mech pilot interfaced with the empowered machine?
If Ves somehow managed to make this radical notion into a reality, then he would in essence solve one of the MTA's biggest problems!
He'd be able to ensure the continuity of expert pilots or even ace and god pilots by perpetuating their abilities after their death!
\"This.. this is a game changer!\"
Ves started to breathe heavily. How could he have overlooked this direction?!
The possibilities were limitless, and so was their potential!
Chapter 1388
What was spiritual energy?
Why did only a tiny proportion of humans develop significant amounts of spiritual energy?
To what extent did spiritual energy affect reality?
Could spiritual energy think for itself?
All of these questions and more plagued Ves for a while. Without answering these questions and more, he really didn't have an answer to the question whether he could empower his mechs with the abilities of other spiritual entities.
Nonetheless, nothing intrinsically ruled out this radical possibility!
An entirely new branch from the path of life opened up in his eyes!
\"What should I call this new branch?\"
After a bit of thinking, he decided to refer to it as spiritual replication.
\"Replication because I can potentially replicate what everyone believes is impossible!\"
More ambitious terms came up, but Ves did not wish to get carried away by a new and unproven notion. Despite his immense excitement towards this new direction, Ves deeply tried to restrain himself from getting carried away!
\"This isn't the time to explore this direction!\"
Just as he swatted aside one attempt at feature creep, now he had to do it again! He could only test so many aspects at the same time. Muddling his design project with additional objectives threatened its failure!
He decided not to develop this direction, for now. He planned to delve into this direction at a later time on a project tailored to put these new range of possibilities to the test!
\"Still, the potential of all of the new applications that I can think of is great!\"
One idea that continually lingered in his mind was the possibility of creating expert mechs that didn't have to be piloted by expert pilots.
When Ves thought about how expert mechs worked, he knew that the role of the expert pilot was pivotal. Without a human in charge who broke through the extraordinary threshold, the full potential of an expert mech would never be reached.
The same applied in reverse. An expert pilot would never be able to showcase their full strength without a corresponding expert mech. Ves had witnessed this tragedy in person when the Flagrant Vandals initially kidnapped Venerable Foster at great cost.
Even though she successfully advanced to expert pilot during the battle, her training mechs simply couldn't keep up with her level of performance!
As a Journeyman, Ves was capable of designing an expert mech. He knew the theory and even studied a few of them up close and in detail. He knew that certain exotics and materials resonated with the force of will of mech pilots, thereby achieving many wondrous abilities that resembled magic!
The key ingredient here was what Ves called force of will! This strengthened and more cohesive form of spiritual energy appeared to be intrinsic to expert pilots and possibly the higher ranks.
No other source of force of will existed except for what resided in the minds of expert pilots!
It was for this crucial reason why the MTA's heavily slanted towards nurturing and protecting expert pilots.
Without their existence, expert mechs and other high-end mechs lost their meaning!
For a very long time, the paradigm that expert mechs had to be paired with expert pilots and vice versa became common sense. Every attempt to replace the expert pilot with an AI or something different failed miserably.
Countless ambitious mech designers wasted their time and effort into achieving one of the holy grails in mech design, which was to make an expert mech work without a corresponding expert pilot!
His heart raced as he thought over the possible firestorm that would erupt in human space once Ves presented the mech industry with proof he'd been able to make this premise into a reality.
The role of expert mechs would forever shift!
If Ves became capable of designing mechs that imitated some of the abilities of the original source of the design spirit, then the mech community's dependence on expert pilots would instantly decrease!
\"Expert pilots may even become expendable!\"
Naturally, expert pilots still had to be nurtured. Without a continuous influx of raw materials, how would Ves be able to continue empowering his expert mech designs?
In short, what this potential innovation made possible was for regular mech pilots to unleash the power of expert mechs! Ves knew that wealthy mech pilots everywhere in the galaxy would pay a fortune to pilot such a self-powered expert mech!
This was why he called it spiritual replication. He was in effect replicating the power of an expert pilot without requiring the expert pilot's physical presence!
The potential implications frightened him. Making this happen would lead to an even more frenzied demand for his mechs than if he merely bestowed them with life.
An uncountable amount of mech pilots desired to wield the power of an expert pilot! Some of them would doubtlessly do everything possible to secure that power for themselves!
\"This is a hot potato of epic proportions!\"
He couldn't overstate the astonishment this potential innovation would provoke from the entirety of human space if they found out about this amazing possibility!
\"There's more!\"
If it only worked for expert pilots and expert mechs, then that was already revolutionary enough.
However, what if spiritual replication wasn't confined to expert pilots? What if stronger spiritual entities such as ace pilots and perhaps even god pilots fell within the range of this technique?
\"This...\"
HE COULD NEVER REVEAL THIS ABILITY TO ANYONE!
Even now, when he had just theorized it in his mind, he could never leak a word of it to anyone! His hands instantly pressed to his mouth as if he was afraid that he'd unconsciously slipped up as he always did whenever he entered a state of deep thinking!
\"MMfmww! Mmwwmmw!\"
Nonetheless, he almost couldn't contain his excitement on this new idea! A strong temptation lured him deeper into the direction of the path of life!
Nonetheless, the mere suggestion of abandoning his current path of balance in favor of embracing the path of life attracted him like a siren call.
Ves shook his head again to rid himself of unreasonable thoughts.
\"I can't let go of what I am! I can't let go of the goal I want to pursue!\"
The System described his design philosophy as spiritual man-machine symbiosis for a very good reason!
He believed the full potential of a mech could only be realized by combining man and machine! This was the core premise of mechs as a weapon system!
What did it mean if he fully embraced this direction and tried to make it into fruition?
Mech pilots might prove redundant!
\"The existence of high-ranking mech pilots is the pivotal condition which justifies the existence of mechs!\"
What if one day Ves became capable of designing mechs that inherently exhibited the powers of an expert mech, ace mech or even god mech?
The machines may not even require a mech pilot at all! Forget putting a regular mech pilot in the control seat, why not get rid of cockpits entirely and convert the mechs into giant autonomous robot fighting machines?
It would be the end of the Age of Mechs and the start of the Age of Bots!
Of course, Ves still had some questions about the supply of expert pilots, ace pilots and god pilots, but even then he could think up some alternatives.
For example, the existence of a spiritually powerful exobeast like Qilanxo proved that spirituality was not the exclusive domain of the human race.
Aside from farming high-ranking mech pilots, the newly arisen Bot Trade Association or whatever would probably start breeding remarkable aliens and exobeasts with spiritual potential.
The supply of this critical material acted as a huge bottleneck.
It wasn't so easy to develop an entity with the power of an expert pilot, let alone that of a vaunted god pilot! The MTA had to pull out all the stops over the entirety of human space just to nurture a hundred god pilots!
Supply problems aside, the real reason why Ves felt ambivalent about this direction was because he did not wish to divert from his core ambition.
It was counterproductive to develop a new method that might possibly make mechs extinct!
\"Humans should always maintain direct control over their war machines!\"
The moment humanity started delegating their security and defense to bots, AIs and other autonomous weapon systems was the moment of their race's decline!
This was the original reason why Ves rejected embracing the path of determinism and the path of life. Both led to outcomes where the role of the human mech pilot was made redundant in different ways.
As someone who proudly considered himself a mech designer, Ves simply couldn't bring the potential deathknell of mechs to life!
Aside from these galactic implications, spiritual replication would also conflict with his design philosophy. The symbiosis aspect would be completely out of whack by empowering mechs at the expense of mech pilots.
Ves knew that if he continued to dedicate himself to designing mechs that spiritually replicated the abilities of high-ranking mech pilots, his design philosophy would gradually warp and mutate away from its current emphasis on symbiosis.
He deeply feared what he might lose in the process.
\"Will I even be able to recognize myself?\" He asked himself.
Since young, he was a boy who grew up around mechs. He loved mechs and adored them for all his life. He also admired mech pilots of many stripes. From his parents to the rest of the Larkinsons, Ves deeply respected mech pilots.
He even wanted to become one himself when he was young!
\"Respect. That's the key word.\"
Right now, Ves pursued his design philosophy in the belief that the mech community didn't show enough respect to mechs. By infusing them with life, he hoped that one day he might be able to steer the perception of mechs in a positive direction.
Yet if Ves went overboard with improving mechs to the detriment of the role of mech pilots, then he'd simply be reversing the current problematic imbalance with another form of imbalance!
\"Balance! What I seek is balance!\"
The path of balance that he had always pursued since the start favored both mechs and mech pilots in equal proportion.
Ves already pursued one impossible ambition. Opting to chase after another impossibility would completely consume him and lead him astray from his original goals.
When Ves compared his original ambition with this new possibility, he did not feel as moved when he thought of the latter.
\"If I don't have as much passion for it, my chances of turning it into reality is much lower!\"
In the worst case, he might end up like Old Man Terrence and the innumerable amount of Journeymen and Seniors who failed to realize their design philosophies over their lifetimes.
Even if Ves believed he was different, it was still unwise to make his advancement even harder to achieve!
Lately, he often thought about Gloriana whenever he faced a situation like this. Should he really be chasing after shinier toys when he was already perfectly content with lesser but serviceable toys?
\"I'm not like her.\" Ves reiterated. \"I don't need everything to be perfect. I just need something that works.\"
With great reluctance, Ves decided that he would merely explore this potential direction. He did not plan to invest serious time, effort and resources into exploiting spiritual replication to the fullest.
For example, with regards to his current design project, Ves would have to see whether it was possible for his Devil Tiger to inherit some of the Dragon Cat's emotion manipulation powers.
\"However, if it can't be done, then whatever. My mech design doesn't revolve around these esoteric abilities!\"
He suspected that spiritual replication required more than just a fragment from a formidable spiritual entity. He might have to harvest the complete spiritual consciousness of the Dragon Cat in order to imbue his Devil Tiger with her abilities!
\"Doing that will kill the exobeast.\" He murmured.
After all, if Ves robbed a living being of all of their spirituality, their body no longer held the spark of life! They'd be as useless as clones!
Chapter 1389
No one in Kemila knew what kind of drastic, galaxy-overturning ideas that Ves had formed yesterday night.
If it was up to him, nobody would ever find out. Not even Lucky, who curled up on his lap, knew what kind of radical theories Ves cooked up in his mind!
\"Meowww...\"
\"You've already had enough to eat! Don't complain!\" Ves berated his cat as he munched on a croissant.
As Ves and the rest of his group aside from Nitaa enjoyed their breakfast, he began to announce the decisions he made yesterday.
\"Starting today, please suspend all investigations. I'm satisfied with the information we've gathered up to now. It's time to begin with the next step.\"
That caused everyone to feel relieved. Crindon and the Ingvars felt they had been making less and less gains lately.
\"Which huge cat have you decided upon?\" Gavin asked.
\"The Dragon Cat.\" Ves declared. \"Out of all the notable huge cats in the hunting zone, she's one of the few pure exobeasts that hasn't been subjected to genetic modification and programming. She's a genuine product of nature that isn't bound to the biases and preconceptions of House Laterna's biotech researchers.\"
\"Is that important?\"
\"Yes.\" Ves nodded. \"If I ever want to design a bestial mech, then it's best to derive my inspiration from works of nature rather than works of man. Going straight to the source, as it were. Don't get me wrong, though. Most artificial creations can be superior to naturally-evolved exobeasts. It's just that for my purposes, I think I'll obtain better gains from observing a more primal creature.\"
This was just an excuse to obscure the real reasons he decided to pick the Dragon Cat over Zeigra.
Nonetheless, Imon frowned a bit. \"We collected a lot of hearsay about Zeigra, all of which painted an impressive picture. Why didn't you settle for him, Mr. Larkinson?\"
Ves crossed his arms. \"I don't owe you an explanation, but if you must know, there are too many practical problems involved with hunting a Crown Cat. Not only will we have to secure the cooperation of a very strong hunting outfit, we'll also be wracked with numerous delays as the hunting attempt requires an exceptional amount of preparation. Even then, the hunt is unlikely to succeed! The chance of death is too large to justify the attempt. It's not worth gambling my life just to obtain a good impression of Zeigra.\"
That shut everyone up. Nitaa and Gavin looked inordinately pleased at his sensible decision. Neither wanted to see Ves throw himself against one of the deadliest cats on the Asco Continent!
\"Which hunting team do you want to approach to help you hunt down the Dragon Cat?\" Gavin probed.
\"I don't need the Dragon Cat to die.\" Ves held up his hand. \"For my purposes, just spending some time with the creature is sufficient. Nevertheless, depending on the actual situation, I might change my mind. I don't know what I'll need until I actually actually see her in the flesh.\"
His main goal for visiting Felixia was to harvest a spiritual fragment of an enormous cat-like creature. Ves already knew that spiritual fragments retained their qualities regardless of the life or death of their sources.
\"As for the team...\" Ves continued. \"The Mark of Caantz is out. They're overqualified to hunt this kind of game. I'm not sure whether the Cadence Stalkers are suitable, though. They'll require weeks of preparation and even then the actual hunting trip will last a while due to their trap-based hunting style.\"
\"So you've decided to go with the Rocit Butchers?\"
\"They're my first choice, yes.\"
That caused some consternation to a few people. The Ingvars in particular looked disgusted.
\"The Butchers are literally brutes!\" Imon protested. \"Their existence besmirches the honor of our profession! At the very least, the Battle Criers are brave warriors. The Butchers only care for killing and eating their own prey!\"
The former noble referred to their penchant for eating the meat of their kills. Cooking and eating the flesh of the formidable huge cats that roamed the hunting zones was a big activity that united the otherwise rowdy Butcher mech pilots.
That, and the strength of their commander ensured that none of their mech pilots fell out of line.
Ves directed a calm expression towards Imon. \"Again, I'm making the decisions here. While I recognize your opinions, I haven't heard anything that convinces me to opt for another outfit.\"
Just as Ves wanted to move on with issuing new instructions to his staff, the doorbell to his hotel suite rang.
A couple of people frowned. No one should be looking to approach him at this time.
\"Benny, please answer the door.\"
As Gavin rose up and walked to the front door, he came face-to-face with a very well-dressed woman.
The newcomer ignored the assistant and tried to look further. \"Mr. Larkinson, I know you are present. You are a very hard man to schedule an appointment with. Well, no more delays. Let us talk.\"
Ves looked towards Crindon who made a very urgent hand sign.
\"That's Lady Miralix of House Laterna, the third daughter of Countess Katherina!\" The Kinner spy furiously whispered.
His face soured. Ves had kept his head down as much as possible in the past week in order to avoid political entanglement. If there was anything he knew about nobles, it was that any interaction drew the ire of someone!
Still, now that she came up to his hotel suite in person, he could hardly refuse her direct request for a meeting. Ves was confident he could fob off a messenger or an envoy, but refusing a noble lady on the very planet her noble house ruled over was practically suicide!
He waved his hand. \"I'll meet her in the front room. Please make sure we aren't disturbed while I have my chat with the lady.\"
As the lady entered the suite, Ves greeted her with a mild smile. He tried his best to keep his irritation out of his expression, though it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was less than enthusiastic about meeting a Sentinel noble.
\"Lady Miralix.\" He greeted gently as he shook her hand. \"To what do I owe the pleasure of your abrupt visit?\"
As he withdrew his hand, he noted that her palm exerted strength and stability. Those were the hands of a warrior!
Her appearance and clothing further reinforced her martial upbringing. Her gold-frilled military-esque uniform showed off hints of her athletic stature. Her blond hair had been cut to a bobcut, which prevented it from getting caught or stuck if she wore an interfacing helmet.
She offered a sharp smile back. \"It is not every day that Kemila is graced with a Journeyman such as you. This city and the rest of Felixia doesn't have much to offer to mech designers of your height. It is a rare opportunity for me to meet with a capable mech designer on my homeground. I do hope you won't mind my presumptuousness.\"
\"It is of no concern, my lady.\"
While Ves and Lady Miralix continued with their facetious greeting, Lucky padded warily towards the noblewoman's pet.
As a scion of House Laterna, how could she not possess her own cat?
The feline that accompanied Miralix looked exquisite. The cat oozed elegance as her purple-black fur accentuated her slender, sinuous form. The genetically-modified cat sat on her butt with her head turned upwards as if nothing in the room was worth her attention!
\"Meow?\"
\"Miao.\"
\"Meow!\"
\"Miao!\"
Lucky did not make much headway into engaging the purple-black cat in a conversation!
\"That's a remarkable cat you have there.\" Ves diverted. \"She's very proud of herself as well.\"
He could tell, because the arrogant organic cat continued to rebuff Lucky's attempts!
Lady Miralix smiled indulgently at her cat. \"Genevieve is a proud designer cat of our house. She is one of our house's most exclusive products. If you want a cat like her, it's not impossible for me to supply you with one that matches your specifications.\"
\"No thanks. As you can see, I already have a perfectly serviceable cat.\"
\"Your pet is very interesting. My men have done some research to trace his model, but we haven't identified the producer.\"
\"I've been upgrading Lucky over the years. He's very different from how he started out at the beginning.\"
After chatting a bit about their cats, Lady Miralix finally cut to the chase.
\"I'm sure there is much to talk about, but I didn't come here for a social call.\"
\"I'm not open to business.\" Ves calmly but firmly replied. \"I'm already preoccupied with my own concerns.\"
The lady smiled. \"I've heard. You have been sending your lackeys into the city in order to gather intelligence. Are you interested in hunting for Zeigra?\"
Ves shook his head. \"No. Felixia's Crown Cats deserve their formidable reputations. I have no intention of getting anywhere close to them. Zeigra is a very impressive specimen, but I am only courageous enough of admiring him from afar.\"
This was not what the lady wanted to hear, obviously. Miralax sat down on one of the couches in the hotel suite, prompting Ves to follow suit.
\"I think it's best if I start this off by describing my own situation. You see, Mr. Larkinson, I am a mech pilot. As a member of House Laterna, I've been subjected to high expectations for all of my life. I trained and polished my mech piloting skills as much as possible in order to meet our house's high standards. No mech pilot of House Laterna must ever exhibit any shortcomings! Weakness is very much frowned upon in the Sentinel Kingdom's high society.\"
That sounded very similar to what took place in the Vesia Kingdom.
\"Sentinel is a very strong state. I'm not surprised to hear that the nobility is expected to set an example.\"
\"Ah, so you understand. Good. Now, before it is time for me to lead a detachment of household mech troops, I am expected to complete a mandatory challenge. Every mech pilot of House Laterna is expected to pass this challenge shortly after graduating from the mech academy.\"
\"Mandatory?\"
\"Yes.\" She nodded seriously. \"We either pass this test, or die trying. You're an intelligent man, Mr. Larkinson. I think you can guess the nature of the challenge that I have to complete.\"
Ves already had an inkling of what Lady Miralix alluded to. \"You are tasked with hunting Zeigra?\"
The noblewoman shook her head. \"Not Zeigra specifically. I can choose to hunt any Crown Cat in Asco. I am not allowed to depart Felixia while I haven't completed this challenge. If I choose not to go on a hunt, I will be stuck on this planet for the remainder of my life!\"
That probably sounded fine to some people, but not to an ambitious-looking woman such as Lady Miralix. Ves could see it in her eyes. She possessed the same gaze as those in the piloting profession who aimed higher!
\"Why Zeigra, then?\"
\"Zeigra is the twentieth-ranked Crown Cat on the listing. While I'm aware he's a fast grower, for now he is not as tricky or deadly as the higher-ranked Crown Cats.\"
So Lady Miralix merely targeted Zeigra because he was the least formidable Crown Cat. That did not detract any bit from the sheer amount of risk surrounding this incredibly deadly huge cat!
\"I would think that hunting a Crown Cat poses little difficulty to an eminent person such as you. After all, you are part of the ruling house of this planet, correct?\"
\"It is not as simple as that.\" She shook her head. \"There are rules that every hunter has to abide by. I am no exception to this. Otherwise, how can we maintain our moral superiority when we restrict other hunters from bringing in more firepower? There are limits to the quality and quantity of mechs I can assign to my hunting team.\"
\"Even if that's the case, I'm sure your hunting team is more than up to the challenge.\"
Lady Miralix smiled sadly. \"I wish I shared your optimism, Mr. Larkinson. I am not so confident about my chances. House Laterna does not tolerate weakness. The rules will not be bent for me just because of my lineage. The remains of plenty of Laternas have ended up in the stomachs of Crown Cats over the years!\"
That caused Ves to widen his eyes. That was really ruthless of the house! No wonder Lady Miralix treated this challenge so gravely!
Chapter 1390
Really, what is it with these nobles and their habit of placing insanely high expectations on themselves?
Hardly any mech pilot was cut out to hunt a Crown Cat!
Even elite mech pilots might falter and lose their lives when they hunted these dreaded huge cats!
Nonetheless, Ves knew that the Sentinel Kingdom exhibited a high degree of militarism. Their emphasis on military prowess matched that of the Vesia Kingdom despite never being embroiled in as many wars.
It was all due to Sentinel's proximity to the Nyxian Gap! By necessity, the nobles who wielded a considerable amount of power in the Kingdom had to prove they were strong enough to protect the common folk from the depravity of Nyxian pirates.
House Laterna, despite its emphasis on tourism, research and specialty trade, had to demonstrate their chops as well!
In these circumstances, being born a noble to one of Sentinel's noble houses was not a fortunate birth. As soon as the doctors identified her as a potentate when she reached ten years old, her house looked upon Lady Miralix as a vehicle to uphold the reputation of her house!
When it came to touchy matters like this, noble houses could be quite ruthless. Even if she was the third daughter of Countess Katherina Laterna, Lady Miralix still had to prove her chops as an eminent noble and mech pilot of her house!
Having dealt with several nobles from different states, Ves no longer found someone like Lady Miralix exceptional. When he thought about it, nobles were essentially privileged people who were born in their position.
They were no different from the average commoners they looked down upon. Nobles faced many of the same concerns as regular people, but on a higher level.
Ves held no sympathy for Lady Miralix's circumstances.
If her words were correct, then if she balked at the challenge, she could still live out the rest of her life while remaining comfortably stuck on Felixia.
He hardly doubted that House Laterna would mistreat her too much or make her life miserable. She would merely have to live with the label of a coward plastered to her forehead.
Unfortunately.. if there was one thing mech pilots hated, it was being branded as a coward!
Indeed, Lady Miralix took no notice of his hints of rejection and continued to press on with her persuasion attempt.
\"Mr. Larkinson. I need your assistance. If you put your abilities as a mech designer at my disposal, I will stand a much better chance of succeeding in my hunt for Zeigra.\"
\"My lady, I've already said that I'm not interested.\"
\"I am willing to remunerate you very generously for your services.\"
Ves shook his head. \"I am not interested in what you have to offer. Besides, I'm sure you and your hunting team are already piloting the best mechs that are allowed to step into the hunting zones. I hardly see how your machines can accommodate any more augmentations without exceeding the upper bounds of what is allowed.\"
The authorities treated hunting as an honorable profession in Asco. If rich, young scions such as Lady Miralix could field mechs that cost as much as a light carrier each, then what was the worth of such a hunt?
Anyone bringing a cannon to swat a mosquito wouldn't be able to earn any prestige out of a successful hunt!
As expected, she confirmed his guess. \"That is true. I have acquired and outfitted my hunting team with the best mechs and other accessories that are allowable. Unfortunately, Felixia does not house any mech manufacturing operations. The mechs I've procured are all standard products sold by well-regarded mech companies, but haven't undergone any modifications.\"
\"A good mech designed by a knowledgeable mech designer and sold by a reputable mech company is mostly great as it is.\" Ves spoke. \"Altering a mech from its original parameters can do more harm than good. They are complete packages put into a way that optimizes the synergy between all of their parts. It is far from true that modification will always ensure better performance. The base model would have already reflected these changes from the start if that is the case.\"
His argument didn't take hold. Lady Miralix continued to smirk at him. \"My advisers have said the same. Modification can always go wrong. But that isn't the complete story. You've withheld a crucial detail, Mr. Larkinson. A skilled mech designer, say a Journeyman, can tailor a mech much better to a mech pilot while avoiding many of the pitfalls that cause many lesser mech designers to stumble.\"
\"You hold a very high opinion of my design abilities, my lady. I'm just a Journeyman, and barely one at that. Do you see how young I am? I can hardly match the efforts of more seasoned Journeymen with dozens of mech designs under their belt!\"
\"That's not what I think.\" Miralix retorted. \"When I studied your mech designs, I became wholly impressed with the great quality of your work! Many mech pilots swear by the products of your LMC! What impresses me in particular is your specialty. They say you are able to impart all of your mechs with an indescribable quality that doesn't entail any hardware improvements!\"
Ves grimaced. \"I excel in improving the ergonomics of my mechs. The impact that it brings to the performance of the mech pilot is vastly overstated. Essentially, I aim to increase the comfort of mech pilots and reduce the irritations they face when they pilot their mechs. It is not the panacea that you think it is. Your mech will not magically perform twenty percent better just because I tinkered with it for a while.\"
The two stared at each other as a brief moment of silence fell in the empty room. Neither Miralax or Ves brought their bodyguards into the room, but they were certainly close at hand.
Meanwhile, Lucky failed to gain Genevieve's acknowledgement. The arrogant purple feline continued to sit by Lady Miralix's side as a watchful guardian cat!
\"Lucky, stop bothering Lady Miralix's cat!\"
\"Meow!\"
The noblewoman took a closer look at Lucky. Ves recognized that she was starting to grow more intrigued at his pet. His lively behavior and exceptional quality probably provoked a lot of questions in the mind of someone who lived with cats for all of her life!
It wouldn't be good for him if she started to ask difficult questions about the origins of his cat!
For this reason, he quickly spoke up again.
\"Lady Miralix, I'm sorry to say you won't find what you are looking for in me. Not every Journeyman is the same, and my specialty lies mostly in improving comfort rather than battle performance. While the two are interconnected, I hardly think it will matter when you are facing a life-and-death battle against a Crown Cat.\"
\"You haven't even heard what I am willing to offer yet, Mr. Larkinson.\" Lady Miralix dropped her smile and adopted a serious expression. \"While my standing within House Laterna is nothing remarkable, my mother is still a countess of the Sentinel Kingdom. There is much I can offer if you so desire.\"
\"Not interested.\" Ves shook his head.
The woman proceeded onwards as if they were still negotiating!
\"Hear me out, Mr. Larkinson. First, whatever you want from a huge cat, I will give it to you. The only spoils I require is Zeigra's head so that I'll be able to return in triumph with a trophy in my hands. All the other parts of the carcass is yours to do as you wish.\"
He shrugged. \"Do I look like a Rocit Butcher? I have no use for the meat, bones and fur of a huge cat.\"
\"That is just the start that I can offer.\" She leaned in. \"I can arrange for you to undergo genetic enhancements. You can permanently walk around with sharpened cat ears if you'd like. Whatever bio modifications you need, our researchers will do their best to fulfill them all.\"
After Dr. Jutland messed with his body long ago, Ves swore he would never let anyone he didn't trust mess with his body again!
\"No thanks. I'm already at my capacity in terms of genetic and biological enhancements.\"
\"I can trade numerous high-quality designer cats. A cat like Genevieve her is one of our prized organic products. You have family, do you not? How about you gift your relatives with a wonderful companion that has been genetically modified to be intelligent, to provide comfort and to guard their lives in case they fall into danger.\"
Ves felt tempted, but only for a moment. While he rated House Laterna's designer cats very highly, they were not worth the trouble of political entanglement!
Even if he merely souped up her mech but declined to participate in her hunt, he would still be taking sides! Her enemies might possibly wish to deal with him before he could aid Lady Miralix any further!
She could see that Ves still withheld interest, so she began to pile on more offers. \"I can provide you with access to services provided by the Sentinel Kingdom that are closed to outsiders. Closed markets, society clubs, black markets and other areas that offer exclusive goods and services to nobles will open their doors to you. In fact, if you urgently require something, you don't have to go through the middlemen. Just ask me directly and I'll see if I can satisfy your request.\"
The value of insider access that she offered sounded quite considerable. From his own experiences with the Clifford Society, he knew that these exclusive clubs and circles sold some really great goodies.
Yet right now, Ves couldn't think of anything he wanted to obtain he couldn't get from the open market. He already reserved a lot of parts to upgrade the Barracuda and he also ordered a shipment for the key materials to build an ultracompact battery through a black market contact.
With most of his critical demands met, Ves truly did not have any pressing need to ask for expanded access in a state he would be leaving fairly soon.
Certainly, while Ves did require a spiritual fragment from a powerful huge cat, he already made plans to acquire one himself. There was no way he would ask Lady Miralix to hand-deliver him something she shouldn't even be familiar with, let alone procure on his behalf!
However... Ves did think of one particular object he wanted more of. The problem had been hanging back in his mind for a while now.
He sent a command from his comm. Nitaa entered the room soon after while carrying a box.
\"There's one area in which you can help me.\" He began. \"Stored inside the box my bodyguard is carrying is an unidentified exotic which I call the P-stone.\"
Lady Miralix curiously accepted the box from Nitaa and opened it up. \"Is this truly an exotic?\"
\"While it looks like an ordinary space rock, I can assure you it is very much an exotic.\" Ves smiled. \"Let's make a deal. I'll provide you with what little documentation I have. I'll let you borrow my P-stone for.. let's say three days. I would like you to analyze the P-stone at the most advanced materials study lab you can access. At the end of this period, I want you to return as much data as possible from your lab equipment.\"
\"This rock has a lot of meaning to you.\" She concluded.
Ves placed a lot of trust in Miralix. If he lost the P-stone, he would suffer a pretty major setback.
However, it wasn't in her interest to screw him over this issue. What the noble scion sought from Ves could only be obtained voluntarily. If she made any attempts to coerce him into cooperation, who knew what kind of hidden danger he would leave behind in her mech?
Ves could literally think up of at least ten-thousand different ways to sabotage a mech without making it too obvious! As long as a Senior didn't inspect the modifications he made to a mech, there was no way Lady Miralix could be sure her mech was fine!
From the start, Ves recognized that he essentially had Lady Miralix over a barrel. Having the upper hand in a negotiation meant he could issue almost any request, trusting that the woman would do her best to fulfill his needs!
As expected, Lady Miralix grasped this crucial opening that opened the door to deeper cooperation. \"I will do what you ask, Mr. Larkinson. Will you agree to working on my mech if I do what you ask?\"
\"It's a start.\" Ves replied and casually leaned back as if everything was under his control. \"If you can obtain additional samples of P-stone, let's just say that I am open to your demand. If not... well, regardless of how the subsequent negotiations proceed, I want your promise that you will return my P-stone as well as the full lab data.\"
Lady Miralix instantly agreed.
Chapter 1391
Once Lady Miralix left with her cat Genevieve and the box containing the P-stone, Ves informed his staff of what transpired.
He received a mixed reception.
\"Just after you decided to go for the Dragon Cat, you suddenly consider hunting Zeigra again because a lady asked for help?\" Gavin asked.
\"She didn't seduce me, if that's what you're implying, Benny. The equation is simple. Hunting the Dragon Cat is fairly safe but yields little return. Hunting a Crown Cat is a lot more dangerous, but I won't necessarily get anything better than the previous choice.\"
\"If that is true, why did you reopen the door to hunt for Zeigra?\"
\"Because Lady Miralix is desperate.\" Ves grinned. \"She needs a skilled mech designer to modify her mechs, and for now her only choice is me. Considering her situation, I don't think she can afford to hold out for another mech designer, not without losing her standing within her noble house.\"
\"So it's a seller's market! You can essentially dictate any price you want as long as it doesn't cross her bottom line!\"
Both of them knew what it meant. Because of time and opportunity constraints, Lady Miralix appeared to be in dire need to enhance her mechs!
Ves had tested out her resolve by presenting an unyielding attitude. If she already had some alternatives in mind, then she wouldn't have accommodated him to this extent.
This clued Ves in that Lady Miralix really had no choice but to continue to negotiate with him! Though she maintained her composure as an eminent lady of House Laterna, she'd actually been begging him throughout the entire negotiation!
\"Do you really think you can negotiate more concessions out of Lady Miralix, boss? Nobles tend to be very proud. If you go too far, she might retaliate!\"
Ves waved away the issue. \"I've gotten a good measure of Lady Miralix, and I don't think she's stupid enough to let pride get in the way of completing a life-changing coming-of-age ceremony. This hunt is important to her. There is no way she'll attempt to screw me over while she still requires my earnest cooperation.\"
His judgement of the woman and his intuition both pointed towards this direction. This made him feel more at ease with playing hardball.
\"Still though, Ves. Zeigra is a very dangerous cat. A lot of bodies ended up in his stomach. I can hardly see whether all of the concessions you've managed to secure from Lady Miralix is worth exposing yourself to so much risk!\"
\"That's why I intend to be unabashed in setting my demands. My cooperation won't come cheap, that you can be assured of.\" Ves grinned like a shark.
The other people in the room said their piece as well.
Predictably, Nitaa objected the most. \"I highly suggest you stick to your original plan, sir. Hunting the Dragon Cat is a safe and secure course of action, as you yourself have described. Why are you throwing all of that out of the window as soon as the noble you wanted to avoid the entire week appealed to your greed?\"
\"It's all about weighing risk against reward.\" Ves reiterated. \"I'm making a rational decision here! As long as Lady Miralix coughs up enough goodies, then participating in an attempt to hunt Zeigra is no longer a ludicrous choice!\"
Both Gavin and Nitaa looked at Ves as if he had lost his mind!
\"No offense, boss, but that's the stupidest risk assessment that I've ever heard! You're basically pressing the muzzle of a faulty gun against your head while betting that it will misfire when you pull the trigger! Is it really worth it to pull the trigger when the chance of shooting yourself in the head is significant?!\"
Ves did not see anything wrong with that analogy as long as he added something.
\"If I get to win a huge prize if I win the bet, then sure I'll pull the trigger!\"
\"You!\"
Gavin palmed his face. \"Don't you realize how ridiculous you sound?! How many times can you pull the trigger before the gun eventually fires off?! You might win a gamble once or twice, but the chance of lethal discharge can't be staved off forever! It only takes one wrong gamble for you to lose your life!\"
Ves shook his head. \"The problem with analogies like the one you're using right now is that they are grossly oversimplified. The chances of encountering a mishap while hunting a Crown Cat is significant, but I can do a lot to stack the odds in my favor. As long as I improve the mechs assigned to the hunt to an impressive degree, then the chance I'll get gobbled up by Zeigra is much lower!\"
The argument continued to rage between Ves and his staff.
Nitaa and Gavin heavily disagreed with what they saw as a suicidal course of action. Crindon expressed opposition as well, but to a lesser degree.
As for the Ingvars, they surprisingly took the opposite side!
\"Hunting a Crown Cat is a prestigious accomplishment.\" Casella declared. \"While I'm familiar with Mr. Larkinson's colorful wartime record, his bravery is confined to only a single conflict. Perhaps the citizens of the Bright Republic have a different opinion, but to foreigners like us, his wartime accomplishments are so impressive that we can't help but doubt they are even real!\"
\"What does doubting his record during the Bright-Vesia War have to do about hunting Crown Cats?!\" Gavin asked in a heated manner.
\"To prove that Mr. Larkinson's earlier accomplishments aren't hogwash! A successful hunt on a reputable hunting ground in Felixia conveys a lot of prestige, especially if we can return with a trophy in hand! While it's a shame that Lady Miralix insists on claiming the head, the other parts can still be used to show off the perils that our boss has gone through!\"
The perspective of highborn scions differed from that of common-born citizens such as Gavin, Nitaa and Crindon.
Though Ves found many aspects about Imon and Casella Ingvar to be detrimental, this time he saw a lot of value in their upbringing.
\"How reputable are hunts?\"
\"A lot.\" Casella answered. \"To many nobles and high officials, wartime service doesn't rate that high if you're not a mech pilot, because what can you really do in a mech battle? The logistical support you provide in the background is nothing compared to pitching a mech to the forefront of a battle!\"
Unspoken here was the tendency for influential and connected people to arrange cushy positions in the rear of the war theater. Ves had encountered plenty of such practices in the Bright Republic!
\"So having a hunt under my belt is of greater value than earning merits in war?\" Ves asked dubiously.
\"Your wartime service is great for impressing commoners, but not from those born in a higher station.\" Imon stated. \"Hunting grounds like the ones that Felixia provide are known for their fairness. Places like these are set up all over human space to provide an equitable competition for every noble and high official to prove their mettle.\"
It sounded absurd to Ves that high society considered hunting to be more reputable than wartime service!
Casella added another complicating factor. \"A big problem with wars is that they happen only intermittently. Some states never even go to war. Back in the Kingdom of the Three Flowers, restless nobles participate in all kinds of high-profile events to prove they are better than their rivals. Hunting is one of the most convenient ways to bolster your reputation and earn some prestige because it is available all-year.\"
This was the reason why the hunting industry generated a healthy amount of business despite providing little practical contribution to society. It was a rich person's hobby that allowed nobles and other members of high society a way to puff themselves up.
As someone who hadn't been born in a higher station, Ves still had difficulty coming around to this perspective.
\"Will it really provide an advantage to me in my relations with others?\" He asked with a tinge of doubt.
\"It's difficult to explain. Hunting is both a dangerous, life-threatening activity and a form of theater. As long as you've hunted down a formidable creature, you can make endless use of your trophy to impress the uninitiated and earn respect from the initiated. The point about the hunt isn't about challenging or proving yourself. It's about leveraging your achievements to your advantage in your business, political or social life.\"
\"So it's a masquerade, pretty much. The trophies we gain from the hunt are the masks we wear to make us appear more formidable than we really are behind our facades.\"
\"The masks can only be obtained for a price. Only hunts that are reputable and recognized by high society matter.\" The female Ingvar emphasized. \"Felixia's Asco Continent happens to be recognized by every third-rate state in the star sector. Hunting a famed Crown Cat will earn you kudos not only in the Sentinel Kingdom, but also in the Kingdom of the Three Flowers, the Kinner Tribe and maybe even in your home state!\"
\"Okay. I think I understand. Let me think about this matter further. Hunting Zeigra is never about earning prestige to me, but I do have to admit that it's a nice bonus. However, my main goal has always been to obtain inspiration for my next design project.\"
He decided to wait and see what Lady Miralix could drum up in three days that could bring him around to the idea of hunting Zeigra.
While Gavin suggested to him over and over that Ves did not have to accompany Lady Miralix on her hunt after tuning up her mech. Why not do the job, accept the rewards, then go back to planning to hunt the Dragon Cat?
\"It's an option.\" Ves partially became swayed. \"I'll judge for myself whether Lady Miralix, her mech pilots and her mechs are strong enough to fare well against a Crown Cat. If I don't think they have a good chance of success, I'll just stay in Kemila while they head into the hunting zone.\"
He still eyed the additional boost to his reputation and prestige if he personally accompanied the hunting team. While it sounded rather farcical to commoners, Ves knew that this was actually a very valuable opportunity to earn an invisible currency that he always had trouble with recently.
For example, his lack of reputation in high society prevented him from gaining access to the more premier Kinner mercenaries. Notable talents that Ves really wanted to hire such as Commander Oryn Mair flatly refused to engage with him because he was a nobody in their circles!
\"Reputation matters!\"
According to the Ingvars, hunting a Crown Cat was one of the most prestigious hunts in the sector-wide hunting community. Ves would be able to earn enduring advantages in the Komodo Star Sector and perhaps even beyond if he had a successful hunt under his belt.
At the end of the second day, Ves was just about to retire to his bed when Crindon arrived at his room with a worried expression.
\"This is bad, sir!\"
\"What is it?\" Ves looked alert and stopped petting Lucky. \"Are we in trouble?\"
\"I've recently got word that the Rocit Butchers set out this morning to hunt the Dragon Cat! Right now, they're probably halfway, and considering their hunting speed, they'll reach her habitat by the next day!\"
\"What?!\" Ves stood up in shock.
\"That's not all! The hunting commander of the Butchers has set out in person this time!\"
The leader of the Rocit Butchers was rumored to be a formidable mech pilot and warrior! If he led the hunting team in person, then the Dragon Cat was as good as dead by the end of the next day!
\"That's not all! Word on the street is that the Butchers hadn't decided to hunt the Dragon Cat on their own initiative. They accepted a very lucrative mission that's been issued to them the day before yesterday!\"
Ves did not have to think long to know who was responsible!
\"Damnit! Well played, Lady Miralix!\"
Chapter 1392
Ves felt like he had egg on his face. At the start of the third day, he glowered constantly as he shoveled his breakfast into his mouth.
Meanwhile, his cat was a ray of sunshine. Sitting contently on the table next to him, Lucky happily munched on his regular portion of exotic minerals like he had no care at all!
The others at the table had been trying to find a way to deal with yesterday's abrupt development.
\"There are hundreds of huge cats in the hunting zones.\" Gavin gently suggested.
\"That's true.\" Ves sighed. \"However, finding what I want is not that easy. I was pretty sure that the Dragon Cat possesses what I need. I'll have to perform additional investigations into the other huge cats to find a viable replacement. We might have to move to another hunting city elsewhere on the Asco Continent to find a huge cat that is just as promising as the Dragon Cat.\"
Ves did not say those words without reason. His gaze met Gavin's eyes in implicit understanding.
Both of them knew who urged the Rocit Butchers to hunt his first choice of game. Lady Miralix must have assigned spies to him or merely accessed the monitoring system of his hotel room in order to find out his interest for the Dragon Cat.
Since his Ves was continually doubting between aiming for the Dragon Cat or Zeigra, Lady Miralix recognized that taking away the former would push him to the latter!
It was the kind of shrewd maneuver that indeed strengthened the noble scion's bargaining power!
However, while Ves inwardly applauded her move, he didn't wish to concede his favorable negotiation position.
Not only that, he also felt affronted that Lady Miralix abused the three-day waiting period to pull off her own shenanigans.
The goodwill he initially extended to her had completely evaporated. How could he cooperate with someone who pulled off such a shady trick?
\"Goddamn nobles.\" He muttered.
He was being a little unfair here. Ves knew that non-nobles could be just as dirty as those who were bestowed with titles. People in power all learned to exploit opportunities in order to climb this far or maintain their current height. Those who failed to keep up would inevitably be pushed down!
Considering the position that Lady Miralix was facing right now, Ves couldn't blame her too much for manipulating the situation in her favor.
A part of him just wanted to leave Kemila and try his luck at another hunting city. While the other huge cats in the vicinity of this failed to arouse his interests, there were so many huge cats elsewhere on the continent that might offer even greater promise.
Right now, both Ves and Gavin deliberately mentioned this option in order to remind Lady Miralix or whoever was monitoring them that Ves still had alternatives! He just had to go through a bit more trouble.
\"Sometimes, I feel like it isn't worth it to stick around anymore. Felixia isn't the only planet with huge cats.\"
Later that day, Ves sent his subordinates out again on another fact-finding mission. In the meantime, he browsed the huge cat database on the planetary network to find alternative candidates to hunt.
Even though he hadn't really found anything comparable to the Dragon Cat in promise, he still kept looking in order to make the impression that he was still seriously looking for alternatives.
Later that evening, Lady Miralix finally arrived at his hotel suite.
Both of them took their discussion to a private room. Only their cats accompanied them into the room.
\"Meow.\"
\"Miao!\"
Unfortunately for his gem cat, the Felixian designer cat still refused to acknowledge his existence!
Ves immediately began the discussion with an accusation. \"Nice trick, by the way. Have the Rocit Butchers already managed to slay the Dragon Cat?\"
For her part, the noblewoman looked unapologetic.
\"I'm not aware. Communication is blocked in the hunting zones. We'll only know for sure when they return.\"
Ves crossed his arms to indicate his displeasure. \"Uh huh. Now, where is my rock?\"
\"Here.\" She said, and passed him the box she carried into the room. \"I've added some data chips inside that contain all of the condensed data we've gathered on the rock. For the most part, our researchers found hardly anything that suggests that it's an exotic, but we did find some strange, faint energy emissions in one of our most sensitive lab equipment.\"
That caused Ves to forget about his earlier irritation. \"Is it unique?\"
She smiled. \"Unique enough that we only found one material that emanates the same kind of emission pattern. A single exotic in House Laterna's material vaults happens to share this in common! Take a look for yourself!\"
The lady activated her comm and transmitted a virtual document to him. When Ves activated his own comm to read through the summary of the comparison analysis, he noted several surprises.
First, the P-stone that Ves owned largely resembled a grey space rock. The material that House Laterna stored in their vaults was very different. The shiny bronze-green rock resembled a chunk of molten metal. Its mass and density differed substantially from that of the P-rock, yet when put under the same sensitive scanner, the faint energy emissions they detected shared a lot of similarities!
Ves almost widened his eyes. This might be what he was looking for! Though the Barracuda offered a number of high-quality lab equipment, their small size limited them in many ways. The ship's lab also didn't have the space to accommodate enough variety of lab equipment.
It was different for House Laterna! Their expansive research facilities on the Talin Continent offered room for hundreds of different scanners and lab equipment!
He was sure that he'd encounter a lot of hindrances if he tried to borrow a fully-equipped lab. Such facilities were very expensive and normally reserved for existing research projects. Some lab equipment was so scarce and powerful that they featured waiting lists that stretched for months or years!
Only someone as influential as Lady Miralix could bypass all of those waiting lists and insist on subjecting his P-stone through as many examinations as possible!
Regardless of whether he obtained the second P-stone in House Laterna's possession, Ves was already satisfied with his current gains. The energy emission pattern he received could potentially be used to search for other P-stones offered by prospectors and traders elsewhere!
As long as he could confirm that the bronze-green metallic rock interacted with spirituality, then his desire to make wider use of P-stones came one step closer into fruition!
Of course, since Ves was in the middle of an ongoing negotiation, he did his best to suppress his excitement. He calmly set aside the virtual document and kept the box closed.
\"Well, what you've given me is a start. It is far from enough to secure my services, though.\"
She smiled at him as if she knew he was putting on an act. \"I'm sure my contribution thus far is still of significant value to you. I have called in a lot of favors to get the labs to prioritize the analysis of your strange rock.\"
\"I hope you have more in store. If I may ask, my lady, why me? Surely I'm not the only Journeyman in Felixia. The Eron Continent attracts a lot of visitors from the entire region.\"
\"I indeed have alternatives.\" She said simply, but said no more.
Ves suspected that Lady Miralix valued his specialty very highly. Considering his recent two mech designs, he didn't blame her for putting a lot of hopes in his abilities. She wasn't shy about admitting to that fact either, which meant her desperation was really quite considerable!
No matter what promises she made and what concessions she agreed to, as long as she succeeded in hunting a Crown Cat, she could easily make up for it later! With a prestigious Crown Cat under her belt, her future career would likely develop by leaps and bounds.
The two gradually proceeded with the negotiations. Ves maintained a disinterested expression as Lady Miralix continued to dangle various offers in front of her face.
Offers such as providing him with House Laterna's designer cats or other biotech-related goods and services fell flat with him. He simply didn't trust Miralix or her house enough to rely on their products.
Other offers interested him a bit more.
\"The Sentinel Kingdom normally imposes a significant amount of trade barriers to any mech manufacturers looking to do business here. I can pull some strings to bestow your LMC with better access to our mech market. You have to know that Sentinel's mech market is very attractive to mech companies. It sets a standard throughout the region, meaning that as long as your mechs do well in Sentinel, the neighboring states will soon follow suit!\"
\"The LMC is already on a healthy growth trajectory. It is not in dire need to gain access to Sentinel's mech market.\" Ves calmly replied.
She raised another offer.
\"Are you interested in the Nyxian Gap?\"
\"Everyone who visits the Sentinel Kingdom is interested in the Nyxian Gap. I'm hardly the first person who looked it up on the galactic net. That said, I don't think I'll ever step foot in it. It's far too dangerous for the likes of me to enter this pirate-infested region.\"
She dangled her next offer in front of his face. \"What if I can offer you temporary access to the Sentinel Peacekeeper Association? The Peacekeepers exist to connect every privately-owned outfit under a common banner in order to coordinate our actions against the Nyxian scum. The SPA is sanctioned by the state and enjoys greater rights and privileges than normal, especially with regards to the Gap. One of the most notable perks is priority access to any spoils the Peacekeepers retrieve from the Gap!\"
Ves raised his eyebrow. \"So it's a way for me to obtain access to the Nyxian Gap's specialty goods?\"
\"Yes! In fact, the metallic rock that's stored in our vault is part of a batch of odd minerals and exotics that we've procured from the SPA! If you are looking to obtain additional samples of your so-called P-stone, then accessing the SPA's closed market's is your best bet!\"
Now this really sparked his interest. Aside from finding and securing additional samples of P-stone, Ves also wanted to obtain the source for geril spice or at least a bulk shipment of this rare and expensive Nyxian product!
Short of entering the Nyxian Gap, Ves could only trawl the black markets of the Sentinel Kingdom, which was inherently risky. If he could acquire the goods he wanted from a legal channel, then that was great!
Still, Ves restrained his excitement and tried to look as if he still wasn't satisfied. He casually leaned his cheek against his fist. \"Is there anything else you can provide in exchange for my services?\"
She paused for a moment. Her eyes darted back and forth before she withdrew a jamming device from her suit jacket. As soon as she activated it, she revealed the last concession she was willing to make.
\"We also have ties to.. the other side.\" She whispered. \"I can't say anything more about the organization in question right now, but if you want to transact with certain parties in the Nyxian Gap, then I can provide you with a one-time opportunity to make a trade!\"
Now this sounded interesting! Ves recognized that this kind of offer would likely be very hard to obtain elsewhere. Since the lady's future career was at stake, she didn't hesitate to raise something that was probably very taboo in this pirate-hating state!
His interest peaked, so much so that Ves finally relented a bit. \"As I've said before, as long as you make it worth my while, I'm willing to lend my abilities to you. It won't be cheap though. All of the offers you've made aren't enough in isolation, especially since the last two are one-time instances. Let's go over your suggestions again.\"
The two began to hash out an agreement over the course of a few hours.
Chapter 1393
Due to his strong position, Ves held the upper hand during the extensive negotiations.
He continually opened his mouth and demanded an extensive amount of concessions and accommodations.
Lady Miralix tried her best to limit the damage. On some points, she conceded without too much fuss.
She held her ground in other areas, though. In particular, she was loathe to cede any control over her hunting team.
However, Ves continued to insist on reserving the right to issue certain orders, such as holding back an attack or delay killing Zeigra if they ever managed to defeat the Crown Cat in battle.
\"Why?\" She asked.
\"Because I'm not certain if I can obtain what I want from Zeigra. I may require extensive observation up close before I gain a sufficient amount of inspiration. Don't worry, my lady. I won't stop you from killing the Crown Cat and claiming its head as a trophy.\"
In truth, Ves did aspire for the head as well. It contained the brains of the Crown Cat which definitely housed the creature's spirituality. He could probably do a lot of things he hadn't done before, especially if he continued to climb up the path of life.
Sadly, Lady Miralix would never let go of Zeigra's head. She had to return to her noble house with an impressive trophy in her possession. Without physical proof of her accomplishment, she would only gain half as much prestige from the risky hunt!
Eventually, he did manage to gain the right to influence the proceedings of the hunt. Ves insisted on it as he wasn't sure how he could obtain a spiritual fragment from a Crown Cat as formidable as Zeigra.
He also wasn't sure whether he could harvest a spiritual fragment from the beast when he was dead. Ves developed a guess that he might be able to obtain more than just a fragment if he was present at the moment of its death.
However, this was just a guess. He didn't know for sure, so just to be safe, Ves planned to secure a spiritual fragment before Lady Miralix forced the confrontation.
\"If everything goes well, I'll probably need an extra night after we first encounter the Crown Cat.\" He said.
\"Zeigra may decide to go on the attack as soon as he detects our scouts.\"
\"Then by all means, fight.\"
The negotiations continued. Ves and Lady Miralix grew more comfortable with each other as they hammered out an agreement that left both of them somewhat satisfied.
In summary, the agreement stipulated several demands to both Ves and Lady Miralix.
Ves promised to do his utmost to upgrade the lady's personal mech. He would also spend some time to go over the other mechs of her hunting team and suggest various modifications.
In addition, he would also accompany the hunting trip and continually advise and assist in field maintenance of their mechs. Nothing about this was new to him. Considering the relatively short duration of a hunting trip, Ves did not expect to endure anything like he experienced on the surface of Aeon Corona VII.
In return for these simple services, Lady Miralix made a lot of concessions.
First, she already promised to give him some initiative over the direction of her hunting team. While she remained in full operational control, Ves had the right to issue certain broad instructions as long as they didn't pose a grave threat to the lives of the hunters or the success of the hunting trip.
Second, Lady Miralix surrendered the rest of the carcass into his possession. While Ves wasn't sure what he could get out of the remainder of Zeigra's carcass without its essential head, he didn't rule out anything.
Next, she promised to provide him with access to both the Sentinel Peacekeeper Association and a very prohibited black market organization called the Circle of Mota.
The former didn't require much elaboration. The outfits acting as pirate hunters, bounty hunters and foolhardy prospectors frequently entered the Nyxian Gap and returned with a variety of booty in their cargo holds.
While the Peacekeepers kept most of the good stuff to themselves, they frequently sold spoils they didn't find any use for. This applied to numerous strange exotics uncovered from the ubiquitous asteroid in the Gap.
In fact, much of the exotics for sale at Centerpoint originated from organizations like the Peacekeepers!
Ves had high hopes of accessing their exotics marketplace. He wanted to uncover more treasures like the P-stone. Even if he couldn't get another space rock that possessed the capability to hold and store spiritual energy, perhaps he might be able to find something that repelled spirituality or converted it into another form!
As for gaining access to the more obscure and secretive Circle of Mota, Lady Miralix emphasized its prohibited nature.
\"Within the Sentinel Kingdom, it's a serious crime to associate with pirates. I can get in serious trouble if I introduce you to the Circle of Mota. I can only arrange for you to get in touch with them through a middleman.\"
He grew curious that such a thing was possible at all. \"How pervasive is the trade between Sentinels and Nyxian pirates?\"
\"Not as much as you think. The royal house and many noble houses are very strict about befriending pirates. However, there are still many goods in the possession of the pirates that Sentinel nobles are willing to pay a high price to acquire. The same goes the other way. The Nyxian pirates and dark mercenaries have a very high demand on technologically sophisticated goods and services. The chaotic and undeveloped region of the Nyxian Gap is an awful environment to develop a tech center.\"
Just like the frontier, the Nyxian Gap suffered an enduring shortage of techs and science adepts. Mech technicians, mech designers, ship spacers, doctors, and other skilled and educated personnel did not grow from trees!
A region required a robust educational system to produce these kinds of people en masse. While virtual education programs and modules offered an alternative, the results often left much to be desired. At the very least, the quantity and quality of graduates who were raised this way was vastly lower than those graduating from formal institutions!
\"For this reason, the most convenient and abundant trade goods that Sentinels supply to the Nyxian Gap are slaves.\" She declared.
The revelation shocked him, though he shouldn't have been surprised. If not for the jammer blocking every form of monitoring in a hotel that was likely under her direct control anyway, she would have never spoken these words aloud!
\"How come your noble house is involved with this so-called Circle of Mota?\"
She smiled sardonically at him. \"Some of our more clandestine biotech products are in high demand. Innocent designer cats like Genevieve here are toys in comparison!\"
\"Miao!\"
\"Oh, I didn't mean to disparage you. You're very precious to me, Genevieve!\"
As Lady Miralix briefly played with her cat, Ves processed her revelations. If she wasn't so desperate to secure his services, she would have never revealed such a bombshell.
In fact, the risk of revealing House Laterna's relations with the Nyxian pirates was a huge risk in itself. Wasn't she afraid that Ves would tip off the Peacekeepers or something?
Perhaps she already had insurance in place. Perhaps it would take solid proof to back up his accusation. Whatever the case, Ves did not have any intentions of betraying Lady Miralix in the first place, so the point was moot.
What Ves actually saw in the offer was a way for him to connect with the actual power structure Nyxian Gap. Not only would he be able to trade away his Devil Tiger through this contact once he finished its design and production, he might also be able to get some clues about the source of geril spice.
Of course, all of those matters paled in comparison to finding out the whereabouts of his father!
\"You've offered a lot to borrow my design abilities.\" He remarked at the end of this impactful negotiation. \"May I ask why you're willing to go this far?\"
The lady shrugged. \"Because I know it is worth it. You may be a young Journeyman, but studying your record has impressed me very much. Not only are you battle tested and possess a more intimate understanding of the rigors that mechs face in the field, but your products are also extraordinary. If you can elevate my mech to the height of your Transcendent Messenger, then that is a price worth obtaining at great cost!\"
Ves was taken aback at her frank enthusiasm. It seemed his prior accomplishments played a huge role in attracting her attention.
Though she didn't initially look like one, it turned out she was actually a huge fan of his work!
\"Oh... thank you for the compliment. I have to warn you though that designing a mech like the Transcendent Messenger is a very time and resource-intensive process. I won't be able to bestow the same degree of strength to your mech in the timeframe we are working with. I'm also short on various resources which aren't easy to obtain.\"
She dismissively flicked her hand. \"I am aware it is difficult for you to drum up a miracle on short notice and on an existing mech. Just do the best you can, Mr. Larkinson. Your remuneration depends on the success of our upcoming hunt. As long as we succeed, you will have all the rewards I've promised, so it behooves you to improve our mechs as much as possible!\"
That was the critical demand that Lady Miralix imposed during the negotiations. All of her hard work and sacrifices would go to waste if she failed the upcoming hunt!
In order to ensure that Ves would be incentivized to pull out all the stops, she made the hunt's success an essential condition for him to earn all of the rewards!
Ves eventually agreed to it, because he wouldn't be able to obtain all of the valuable concessions otherwise.
He just had to work extra hard in the coming days. Lady Miralix had years to prepare the groundwork for this tradition of her noble house, so her hunting team certainly wouldn't look shabby!
As Lady Miralix finally departed from his hotel suite with Genevieve in her arms, Ves called in Gavin to relay to him the details.
\"I hate to ask you again, but is all of that really worth participating in such a dangerous hunt, boss?\"
\"Benny.\" Ves directed a flat glare towards Gavin. \"I make the decisions here. I've already made up my mind concerning this matter. All of the concessions I can expect to receive upon the successful conclusion of the hunt is more than worth all of this trouble! I won't argue with you any further about this. I've already struck a deal with Lady Miralix so it's not like I can change my mind at this point.\"
Though he employed Gavin in order to act as a voice of reason, sometimes Ves didn't feel like listening to reason! In the end, he gave in to temptation, trusting Lady Miralix and his own capabilities to stack the deck against Zeigra.
He ignored Gavin's concerns and picked up Lucky, lifting his cat in the air like a baby.
\"Meow.\"
\"Who do you think is stronger, you or Zeigra?\"
\"Meow!\"
\"Of course you'd say something like that. I don't know if reality will match your expectations.\" Ves shook his head.
Lucky possessed deadly capabilities, but Ves doubted his ability to hide and deal damage could kill a powerful huge cat in an instant.
Not a single huge cat in Felixia was easy to kill. The ones developed by House Laterna in order to provide a sufficient challenge to mechs were incredibly resistant against damage!
With flesh, hide and even fur resistant to mech-sized weapons, top predators such as Zeigra could probably shrug off his Amastendira's full-powered discharges with ease!
\"The best we can do is run away.\" He told Lucky. \"Even then, our stealth probably won't last long enough to outrun a Crown Cat's sense of smell!\"
\"Meow!\"
Chapter 1394
The deal he struck with Lady Miralix set everything in stone. Ves no longer considered the lesser huge cats such as the Dragon Cat any longer.
Though neither Ves nor Lady Miralix dared to draft a formal contract that formalized all of the terms, they were very much bound by a common goal this time.
Both were aiming for one of the most deadliest cats on Asco. Zeigra, the Mech Cruncher, may be among the youngest and weakest of Crown Cats that graced the hunting zones. However, his deadliness was not in question!
Ves expressed a lot of interest in the mech Lady Miralix intended to pilot for the hunt. In order to confront an infamous Crown Cat like Zeigra, House Laterna must have accumulated a lot of experience and know-how in this area.
The rulers of Felixia designed Zeigra's genome after all! They possessed an absolute information advantage!
Yet as Lady Miralix brought Ves, their cats and some of their staff to her hunting compound in Kemila, she gave a surprising answer.
\"I don't enjoy any advantages of the other mech hunters.\"
\"What?\"
\"This hunt is a trial.\" She elaborated as they passed by a training ground where a number of mech pilots exercised their bodies under the local system's sun. \"Every son and daughter of House Laterna who graduates as a mech pilot must prove that they haven't been coasting through the mech academies.\"
\"What if they fail? What if they die?\"
\"Then they deserve to die. Sentinel demands strong soldiers and even stronger leaders. How can I gain the respect of Sentinel's military mech pilots if I cannot defeat them in battle? It is better for my useless self to die rather than disgrace my noble house!\"
This sounded absolutely silly to Ves! From her tone, he got the sense that she truly believed in her words! The upbringing she received from House Laterna placed a very huge emphasis on strength, honor and reputation, so much so that those who disgraced their name were better off dead!
\"So if I understand you correctly, you don't enjoy any insider knowledge such as an internal research report on Zeigra's genes or such?\"
The blond woman shook her head. \"Cheating only demeans the very point of the trial. If weaklings who should have died managed to pass this challenge with ease by depending on unfair advantages, they'll only disgrace our noble house in the future! Pirates and other enemies will not be so easy to cheat!\"
That made sense, though Ves still thought that House Laterna was taking this way too far.
\"How will everyone else know that the hunt is conducted fairly?\"
\"I'm being monitored by an inspector of the state. The Sentinel Kingdom has rules. Every test a noble house imposes upon its own members has to be a genuine challenge. The royal house serves as the neutral arbiter who judges the validity and authenticity of the trials. Only in this way will passing the trial have meaning!\"
To Ves, it sounded as if every noble house engaged in this tradition! He knew that the Sentinels placed a lot of emphasis on strength, but throwing every mech pilot that carries their name into life-and-death trials just after graduating sounded rather extreme!
As far as he knew, not even the Vesia Kingdom engaged in such a man-eating practice!
Hell, something as cutthroat like this would never fly in the Larkinson Family!
..Then again, the Larkinsons never insisted on excellence like the Sentinels. Back home, every Larkinson potentate received focused training from their retired aunts and uncles.
Most Larkinsons ended up a cut above the average mech pilot graduate, but some just didn't have the genetic aptitude, learning ability or talent to grow very far. While these dullards that carried the Larkinson name never enjoyed the renown of their more notable cousins, at least they weren't forced to their deaths!
As a Larkinson, Ves knew that his extended family didn't care too much about the bad apples in their midst. So what if a Larkinson or two turned out to be awful mech pilots? The reputation of the Larkinsons hardly suffered because a lot of other Larkinsons performed well enough to keep their name respected.
For this reason, he really couldn't understand families like the Laternas who placed an undue amount of importance to maintaining their reputation from everyone who carried their name.
Perhaps it made sense to people like Lady Miralix who had been born under high expectations. Yet who else really cared?
The same people who demanded universal excellence from their family were probably the only ones who judged others for making missteps in this aspect.
Ves doubted that the common-born Sentinels seriously cared whether someone like Lady Miralix embarrassed herself in battle or something.
To average people, high society was far too distant from them. Ves only recently emerged from their midst, so he knew how little they knew or cared about the lives of those who lived seemingly pampered lives.
Apparently, he hadn't managed to hide his doubts, because Lady Miralix exhibited a knowing glance.
\"You think that trials like the one I am facing are extreme, correct?\"
\"I can never make sense of you nobles and your games.\" He admitted.
She chuckled. \"Understandable, though don't think I'm as open-minded as the other Sentinel nobles. Felixia attracts visitors from many foreign states, so I don't mind your presumptuousness. Take care not to question the customs of our state. We aristocrats are rooted in the belief that our harsh traditions are the reason why we still deserve to be in charge. Commoners don't understand us because they aren't shouldering the burdens of the Sentinel Kingdom.\"
\"The crown weighs heavily on your head.\"
\"Then I'd better develop a strong neck in order to keep my head aloft!\"
As Ves fell into thought, the cats that trailed behind them started to tussle a bit with each other.
Apparently tired of being ignored, Lucky started to paw at Genevieve, who immediately grew angry for allowing a dirty mechanical cat to dirty her immaculate dirty coat!
\"Miao!\"
\"Meow!\"
\"Miao!\"
Genevieve quickly pounced at Lucky in order to show who's boss, and the two cats rolled around the dirt and wrestled against each other!
Nitaa, who followed behind them all, shook her head. \"Cats.\"
In any case, as far as nobles went, Ves developed a good impression of Lady Miralix. Unlike someone like Lord Javier, she didn't insist on corrupting him to her viewpoint. She also acted cordially with him as if he was a fellow friend and noble.
Of course, the main reason Lady Miralix presented an intimate demeanor was because of his own status. A Journeyman not only possessed engineering and design capabilities that surpassed the human norm, they were also regarded as galactic citizens!
As Ves earned these eminent titles through his own merits, feudal states such as the Sentinel Kingdom pretty much regarded him as a noble! This made it easy for Lady Miralix to regard him with respect!
After walking a bit further into the noblewoman's compound, they arrived at the mech stables where a number of mechs stood dormant. Ves studied the mechs with a critical eye.
\"I see these mechs are some of the best midrange mechs you can buy from Sentinel's mech market.\" He spoke.
All of the mechs were worth around forty to forty-five million bright credits if sold in the Bright Republic.
\"I've spent several years building up the Felixia Catstrikers.\" Lady Miralix said proudly. \"All of our mech pilots are comrades that I've befriended in the mech academies, so our teamwork and cooperation is already solid. The mechs I've procured have all been selected on the advice of the mech pilots of my house.\"
Teamwork played a vital role in Asco. The mature huge cats that roamed the hunting zone could easily defeat a single mech in isolation! They were simply too strong and big, as most of them actually weighed more than a heavy mech, but moved much faster to boot!
Relying on pure strength almost never led to a successful hunt. Even the Rocit Butchers, for all their seemingly mindless ferocity, employed simple tactics and formations to make sure that they applied their strengths effectively.
\"What do you think of the mechs of my Catstrikers?\" She asked, eager to hear the opinion of an expert in the field.
\"I think they're very suitable to hunt a formidable beast.\" He replied as he studied the various mechs by their appearances alone. \"While I can't judge their exact parameters, as far as I can see, they are all designed for peak performance. As long as their energy reserves last, they can exert a lot of strength from their frames.\"
What he didn't mention was that these mechs were very wasteful in terms of durability, longevity and depreciation. These mechs were designed to exert as much strength as possible to the point of overloading their systems and overstraining their physical components!
At best, they could only participate in three or four arduous hunts before their performance and structural integrity degraded! At that point, it was best to recycle them rather than risk them in battle further!
Nonetheless, the benefit to all of these sacrifices was that the mechs performed significantly better than mechs built to last and endure such as his own products.
Ves designed mechs such as the Blackbeak, the Crystal Lord and the Aurora Titan in the context of the prevailing demand in the Bright Republic. His home state frequently engaged in war, which was very expensive each time it happened.
Mech buyers therefore learned to prioritize mechs designed to survive the rigors of war and last through continuous low-to-medium intensity battles.
For this reason, Ves tweaked the parameters of his mechs to last for years or potentially decades. This approach also complimented his specialty as the X-Factor of his mechs slowly grew and adapted over time.
It was one of his greatest ambitions that his mechs grew in value over time, rather than depreciate in value as they grew more outdated!
His mechs really started to shine when used for many years! They were even better if their owners slowly upgraded their parts in order to keep up with the latest mech generation!
The mechs used by the Catstrikers adopted a completely opposite approach. They were far from prudent investments for the long term! Ves bet that Lady Miralix would quickly get rid of all of her mechs once the hunt came to a conclusion!
Though her mech loadout made Ves wince due to the sheer amount of waste it represented, Lady Miralix and her wealthy house could easily afford the expenditure!
\"If your mechs only exist to hunt down a single Crown Cat, then the selection of these mechs is very optimal.\" He commented. \"As long as you can bear the cost, that is, which you probably do since your house is running a lucrative tourist planet.\"
\"While I can't break the rules, I can still make sure to set myself up in the best possible condition to engage in our coming hunt. None of our mechs surpasses the cost limit. All of them fall just below the ceiling imposed on every hunting mech in the Asco Continent.\"
\"Does the same apply to your own personal mech, my lady?\"
She grinned. \"That's a given. Why don't you see so for yourself! We've finally arrived at my personal mech! Behold my Kinslayer!\"
Calling her mech the Kinslayer seemed apt. Instead of piloting a humanoid mech like the rest of her Catstrikers, Lady Miralix instead opted to pilot a bestial mech!
To be more precise, she piloted a tiger mech!
\"This... you're hunting a Crown Cat with a tiger mech?\"
\"Yes!\"
\"Isn't that... dangerous?\"
She laughed. \"I am a Laterna! Cats are intimately bound to our house! Almost every mech pilot that has emerged from our house has chosen to pilot a bestial mech! Many of my ancestors have succeeded in hunting down a Crown Cat while piloting tiger mechs like mine! To become a master of cats, we must learn how to dominate a cat on their own terms! This is the central belief of our house!\"
Ves looked befuddled. House Laterna really took their cat obsession way too far!
Chapter 1395
When Ves studied the predominant tactics employed by mech hunting teams on the Asco Continent, he learned they predominantly adopted persistence hunting against formidable huge cats.
Monstrously strong Crown Cats such as Zeigra couldn't be felled in a single confrontation. The damage they could endure matched or exceeded that of a heavy mech!
These huge cats grew up on a personalized diet of exotics deposited at various places in the hunting zones at regular intervals. For a single huge cat to develop into a fearsome Crown Cat, they needed a lot of specialized minerals and exotics over the course of their growth!
This was very expensive! House Laterna was bleeding money to sustain the hunting activities in Asco.
Nonetheless, the biotech research they engaged in to develop the huge cats eventually paid back for itself. There were many possible applications for fearsome organic products that could equal the strength of mechs.
Crown Cats happened to be their crown jewels, which was very apt considering the immense amount of resources invested into their growth!
Normally, a huge cat as young as Zeigra still required a few more years to grow to his level of strength.
Yet Zeigra smashed everyone's expectations by supplementing his diet by eating chunks out of mechs! His tolerance range for exotics was a lot wider than the researchers who designed his genes expected!
Neither Ves or Lady Miralix dared to underestimate this creature who became worthy to join the ranks of Crown Cats in expert time. If he grew a few years more, it was very much possible that he might one day shoot all the way to the top of the ranking!
Against these formidable Crown Cats that sometimes matched the strength of second-class mechs, hunting teams predominantly adopted strategies meant to tire and bleed the fearsome creatures over time.
\"Hunting the weaker huge cats requires less effort on the part of hunting teams.\" Lady Miralix elaborated as they drew closer to her Kinslayer. \"The weaker cats are still strong enough to pose a threat to mechs, but their strength and resilience can always be overcome in a single battle.\"
\"And that's not viable with Crown Cats?\"
\"No.\" She shook her head. \"Crown Cats are the best of the best. They are much more terrible than a regular huge cat. If my Catstrikers attempt to fell a beast like Zeigra in a single battle, then our mechs will almost certainly break before our prey does! The only way we can conclude our hunt successfully is if we wear it down over multiple rounds!\"
\"So unlike the lightning strike approach adopted against weaker cats, you're trying to egage Zeigra in a battle of attrition?\"
\"That is an apt way to describe my plan. fighting against a Crown Cat is a contest which will both sides nibble at each other until one side can't keep up anymore.\"
\"Your mechs don't exactly look suitable for a long slog.\" Ves remarked.
\"That's why we have to make sure we fight ferociously enough to beat Zeigra into a retreat or deter him from pursuing us when we pull back.\"
\"I take it that doesn't always work out the way you want.\"
Her face took on a grim expression. \"It is during these times where most of the casualties fall. Cats are very opportunistic, especially those we genetically modified to become more formidable predators. They expend a lot of energy during fights, and constantly judge whether it is worthwhile for them to persist in the fight or cut their losses and retreat.\"
\"So in other words, a huge cat will choose to retreat as long as it thinks it can't defeat its opposition?\"
\"On the other side of the coin, they'll continue to press their aggression as long as they think their opposition is weak! This is what we have to avoid at all costs! As long as Zeigra smells weakness, he will continue to exert his energy into killing us, thereby pushing our mechs to their breaking points!\"
It sounded simple, but the cost of failure was immense. The Kinslayer and the other mechs of the Felixia Catstrikers were geared towards outputting an overwhelming amount of strength and ferocity in a short amount of time.
Depending on their energy expenditure, after fifteen to thirty minutes had passed, the mechs would quickly run out of steam. Unless they could resupply their spent energy cells during combat, the mechs would not be able to resist the furious ire of a Crown Cat!
\"Naturally, the Crown Cats can't afford to fight too long, as their endurance has limits as well.\" She noted. \"However, if they throw all caution to the wind, they will definitely choose to fight to the point of utter exhaustion!\"
In order to avoid this awful outcome which was the leading cause for failure in hunting Crown Cats, the Catstrikers had to fight in a way that made them appear stronger than they really were. They had to put up such an intimidating front that the cat they wanted to hunt would eventually choose to back off or let the mechs disengage without continuing the pursuit.
\"I can hardly see how this is possible.\" He admitted. \"Crown Cats are the strongest cats on the continent. Surely they're incredibly proud and full of themselves, right?\"
\"Part of what you said is true, Mr. Larkinson, but don't forget that Zeigra is still a young huge cat. Even if we started ranking him among the Crown Cats, this is merely a human construct. According to the investigations I've conducted on Zeigra, the cat himself still adheres to the behavior pattern of an adolescent of his kind. That means he is a bit more inclined to flee if he thinks he faces a serious threat.\"
\"That's a very bold assumption to make. What if you're wrong?\"
\"Then the hunt will result in failure.\" She replied flatly.
While Ves had a lot of misgivings about the risky nature of her hunting strategy, it was the only viable option to tackle one of the deadliest beasts on the continent.
\"My respect for hunters who succeeded in killing a Crown Cat has grown. While I don't claim to understand the culture surrounding the hunting community, I can see why these kinds of hunts draw admiration!\"
Just because wealthy individuals had a way of earning prestige didn't mean it came easily. The integrity and validity of their accomplishments had to be impeccable to make their accomplishments count.
High society took a very dim view to those who attempted to get by with exaggerated accounts or outright cheating. Letting lazy or cowardly individuals subvert the challenges not only put the hunting tradition into question, they also devalued the accomplishments of genuine hunters!
Since many people who engaged in this tradition happened to be wealthy or powerful individuals, they possessed the means to impose fairness to the process. Only in this way would huge game hunting continue to be a prestigious activity.
\"Will we be followed around by neutral inspectors during the hunt?\"
Lady Miralix nodded. \"That is a given. The entire process of the hunt will be monitored as well. As soon as we return to Kemila, all of the footage and raw data will be uploaded to a database of the Galactic Hunting Club. Once they analyze the footage and verify their authenticity will the hunt be formally added to my record. Yours as well.\"
\"Galactic Hunting Club?\"
This was the first time he heard of such an organization!
\"I'm not surprised you haven't heard of the GHC. It's a well-known entity among hunters in the galaxy, but it doesn't advertise its existence to commoners. Its only purpose is to impose a set of common hunting rules throughout the galaxy so that every hunter can compare their hunting achievements to fellow hunters without any confusion.\"
\"Is it a weaker trans-galactic organization like the Mercenary Association?\"
\"That's a good comparison. The GHC works along the same lines. They are mainly responsible for registering, verifying and cataloguing notable hunting achievements. The inspector that will be accompanying us in our hunt is both an envoy of the royal house and a mid-level official of the Club.\"
\"I see. You said the GHC will record a successful hunt in my record as well?\"
She smiled. \"As long as you make good on your promises and accompany my Catstrikers into the hunting zone, you are as much of a hunter as I. Just because you don't pilot a mech doesn't make you any less of a huge game hunter in the eyes of the Club!\"
That was... a somewhat mixed surprise to Ves. While he indeed wished to pad his record by adding in a notable hunt, he didn't know that it was so formalized.
This was good news to him because if the GHC's influence truly stretched over the galaxy, his hunting achievements would still be relevant even if he moved to a completely different star sector!
\"Let's go take a closer look at your Kinslayer. Can I look at its performance specifications as well?\"
\"Everything is open to you as far as my mech is concerned. Feel free to explore it to your heart's content.\"
Ves began to study the tiger mech that Lady Miralix intended to defeat a Crown Cat.
Overall, he found many similarities to the humanoid mechs piloted by the rest of her hunting team.
\"This is a custom mech, right?\" Ves guessed.
\"Right. I commissioned a Journeyman to tailor a mech that complies with the limits.\"
\"It's a good design.\" He appreciatively remarked. \"There's hardly any waste in the design. Every aspect of the mech is being utilized. I haven't spotted any fatal weak points either.\"
Whoever designed the Kinslayer not only knew their way around with bestial mechs, they also exhibited a solid and stable design approach.
While the custom mech might not have a lot of exciting features or gimmicks, its base performance parameters were very high considering the underlying tech and materials.
Ves had the impression that he was studying the work of an older, steadier and more experienced Journeyman.
This was both good and bad for him. It was good because a solid foundation meant that Ves did not have to waste a lot of time to fix flaws that were beneath his notice.
However, a mech that was already pretty good left very little room for improvement. So far, Ves did not see a lot of areas where he could implement clear improvements.
Perhaps he might be able to spot more opportunities to improve the Kinslayer if he upgraded his Mechanics and Metallurgy Skills to Senior. Yet the entire point of his recent actions was to design a mech that fulfilled the upgrade missions for those Skills!
This meant that Ves would not be able to contribute as much as he hoped. The best he could do was to alter a few design choices into a different direction that strengthened one aspect while weakening another aspect of the mech.
Doing this couldn't really be considered as improvements. At best, they were merely modifications that shifted the specialization of the mech.
Perhaps the only value he could add to the mech was his specialty. While this wasn't the first time he added an X-Factor to an existing mech not of his own design, he lacked a lot of experience in this area.
Perhaps he could remedy that shortcoming this time.
\"Alright. I think I know what I am dealing with.\" He declared. \"To be honest, your mech is already a very fine machine. Don't expect me to achieve any substantial jumps in the performance of your mech.\"
\"I've already taken that into account, Mr. Larkinson. Just do your best to turn the Kinslayer into something remarkable. Any advantage, no matter how small, is worth the effort!\"
It relieved Ves quite a bit that he was dealing with a sensible client this time. Lady Miralix had a good head on her shoulders, and knew enough about mechs to keep her expectations in check.
\"If you don't mind, I'll start with my work.\"
\"Very well. I will be at the office in the center of the compound if you need me. Be sure to spare some attention to the other mechs of my hunting team as well. My entire maintenance crew is standing ready to assist you with the grunt work.\"
After Miralix and her cat departed the stables, Ves took a good look at the Kinslayer's unfeeling mech frame and wondered how he could breathe life in this machine.
Chapter 1396
The more he delved into the design of the Kinslayer, the more Ves took note of how its designer applied the principles of tiger mechs.
\"This is a bestial mech designed to fight against beasts!\"
Quite a number of aspects present in regular bestial mechs would not work out when pitted against an organic monstrosity like a Crown Cat.
A Crown Cat could never be felled by a single ambush! They were also fairly resistant to damage, so no matter how much a tiger mech emphasized offensive power, it would never be enough to defeat these apex predators in a single round!
\"Zeigra isn't called a Crown Cat for nothing! He's a veritable king of his hunting zone!\"
For this reason, the Kinslayer and the other mechs of the Felixia Catstrikers piled up a substantial amount of armor.
The thick armor plating allowed the mechs to withstand several solid hits from a formidable Crown Cat without instantly losing battle power!
However, the key phrase here was 'several'! Due to the limits with regard to the cost and quality of every mech deployed for hunting, the armor systems of the Kinslayer and the humanoid mechs of the Catstrikers really couldn't endure that much damage!
Normally, if the armor of the mechs proved insufficient, then they often relied on mobility to evade damage.
However, due to the substantial amount of armor weighing down the mechs, their mobility was firmly below average!
\"These mechs can't possibly outrun a Crown Cat!\"
At first glance, this common configuration made little sense to Ves. The Catstrikers had no confidence that any of their mechs could withstand a lot of blows from Zeigra. Not even the two knight mechs of the hunting team looked like they were geared to block Zeigra's attacks for long.
Ves could read the underlying approach of the Catstrikers from the configuration of the armor of their mechs. They treated the beginning of a hunt as the moment where their mechs were still in peak condition.
Throughout the process of hunt whereby multiple rounds would ensue between the hunting team and Zeigra, the condition of the mechs quickly degraded.
\"The Catstrikers are deliberately sacrificing the durability of their mechs in exchange for weakening Zeigra and sapping his strength!\"
Turning the hunt into a contest of attrition meant that Lady Miralix and her hunting team would have to manage the condition of her mechs carefully. That was going to be a very big challenge as the rounds they fought against Zeigra had to be as ferocious and aggressive as possible in order to deter the cat from persisting too long in a round!
If Zeigra smelled any notable weakness from the mechs who attacked him, the ruthless cat would surely press on with his assault in order to get rid of his attackers once and for all!
If the Catstrikers wanted to avoid this outcome, they had to use their mechs boldly and without reserve. They needed to accept that their mechs would get more and more trashed after each round with the Crown Cat.
Of course, if everything went right, then the sacrifices the Catstrikers made would be worth it. A battle of attrition was a race to make an opponent tire themselves out and lose battle effectiveness first!
Though Ves found this hunting strategy to be rather iffy on many points, the huge game hunters on Felixia utilized this approach for decades.
As Ves studied the mech in greater detail, he left Gavin and the rest of his staff to perform other errands on his behalf. Some of the arrangements he made with Lady Miralix required some preparation on his end.
For example, as part of her payment, she withdrew some valuable materials from House Laterna's warehouses that Ves anticipated he would need to fabricate the finished version of the Devil Tiger. Shipping them to one of the supply ships of the Battle Criers and ordering additional materials to round out his requirements took time.
While Gavin took care of these logistical matters, Ves also sent Crindon and the Ingvars onto other fact-finding missions.
He wanted the Ingvars to carefully sound out any information about the Peacekeepers. A lot of mech pilots in Kemila used to serve in one of the outfits aligned with the anti-piracy organization, or had friends or relatives who fought under their banner.
Mech pilots like Imon and Casella should find it relatively easy to connect with these people.
As for Crindon, Ves tasked him with the much more sensitive mission of gathering information about the secretive and highly prohibited Circle of Mota.
He trusted his Kinner security expert and spy to investigate the Circle discreetly, which was very hard to do on a planet like Felixia where practically every corner was being monitored.
Still, Crindon confidently expressed his ability to circumvent these means, so Ves didn't worry too much. The Kinner he bought had more than proven his competence.
He turned his attention back to the Kinslayer. As a tiger mech, Ves gained a lot of interest in its configuration and overall structure.
From a battle mechatronics perspective, the Kinslayer excelled in short-duration brawls. The tiger mech could take a lot of hits due to its thick armor and well-protected internal parts.
Its offensive power was considerable as its limbs were strengthened and could exert a lot of force. Its claws were sharp and made of high-quality compressed alloys that added significantly to the cost of the mech.
One interesting attribute about the claws was that they were designed to be disposable. If a claw ever broke or grew too dull to slice through exobeast hide, the mech could eject the spent claws and slot in replacements.
This could even take place in the middle of battle!
\"This is quite a good solution to the problem of spent claws.\" He muttered.
When humanoid mechs broke their weapons, they could easily discard them and pick up replacements. This was a bit harder to do for bestial mechs which came with integrated weapon systems, so this little claw-replacement mechanism aimed to solve one of the weaknesses of the mech type.
Aside from the claws, the tiger mech also featured a ferocious feline head with very strong jaws and teeth.
According to Lady Miralix, the Kinslayer's primary armament was its claws. In normal circumstances, the mech should not employ its teeth until the hunt came to a close.
The Kinslayer's crushing bite was its finishing move. When used at the right moment against Zeigra, the Crown Cat hopefully lost enough blood and energy to fail when he attempted to shake off the bite.
However, if Lady Miralix misjudged the moment, the Kinslayer's head would definitely sustain massive damage as Zeigra vigorously shook off the bite digging into his hide!
In addition to its strong and potentially fatal bite, the tiger mech also incorporated the customary weapon system in the throat. A powerful but very short-ranged heat projector insured the Kinslayer would surely melt, burn and vaporize anything caught in its jaws!
\"This mech is all about the bite. As long as it can bite onto Zeigra and keep hold, this heat projector will slowly be able to finish off the Crown Cat!\"
From this, it became clear that Lady Miralix intended to refrain from entering the fray until the final round. At that point, the other Catstrikers hopefully pushed Zeigra to the brink of his endurance.
The approach made a lot of sense to Ves, though the price was pretty serious!
\"Her lackeys will have to face the brunt of Zeigra's fury!\"
If the hunt lasted for four rounds, then the noblewoman's subordinates had to risk their lives and their mechs in the first three rounds without the support of the Kinslayer.
The first round was particularly dangerous to the humanoid mechs of the Catstrikers, as they were tasked with trying to consume Zeigra's strength when the Crown Cat was in his best condition!
\"The first round is key!\" He realized. \"If the mech pilots hired by Lady Miralix don't have enough resolve, then Zeigra might decide to persist!\"
The hunt would be doomed from the start if this happened! At best, Lady Miralix would deploy her Kinslayer ahead of schedule and hope that her unplanned addition was enough to repel the Crown Cat's offensive.
However, the price of doing so would certainly be big as the Kinslayer would be hard to repair in the field once it accumulated serious battle damage!
\"The big problem is that the Kinslayer isn't a mech built to last!\"
None of the mechs of the Catstrikers excelled in durability and longevity. Sure, they piled up a lot of armor, but the hunting team merely intended to use them as disposable buffers over the course of the hunt.
For the first couple of rounds, Ves had to make sure the humanoid mechs lasted long enough. As long as they succeeded in tiring Zeigra out, then it didn't matter if they weren't in fighting shape anymore once the final round began.
That would be the moment when the Kinslayer stepped forward. Perhaps Lady Miralix might even opt to duel the injured and tired Zeigra by herself!
Ves grimaced at the thought. \"That's a needlessly perilous decision.\"
These kinds of 'heroic', one-on-one duels looked great in footage. It didn't matter if Lady Miralix sent out her subordinates as sacrificial lambs to weaken the Crown Cat beforehand. People who saw the footage would automatically assume that Miralix herself had brought Zeigra to the brink!
Such duels therefore allowed Lady Miralix to harvest the most gains out of hunting Zeigra.
Showing off a trophy alone wasn't enough to convey the fearsomeness of a Crown Cat to her fellow members of high society.
By providing footage of her impressive stand against Zeigra, she'd be able to show off her battle prowess in the best possible light!
However, the problem that Ves had with this course of action was that this was a decision that optimized vanity, not success. By forcing her teammates to surround the Crown Cat but refrain from attacking, she would have to face whatever might that Zeigra still retained during the final round!
\"In short, the Kinslayer has to be capable enough to duel an exhausted but very desperate Crown Cat!\"
Ves could not imagine what kind of state Zeigra would end up at that moment. Even he did not dare to assume that a weakened and wounded Crown Cat would be weaker than a fully-intact tiger mech.
All of these uncertainties and guesswork frustrated Ves as he found it difficult to anticipate how he should adjust the mechs of the Catstrikers.
\"In any case, the humanoid mechs need to be tweaked in a way that will improve their odds of lasting for multiple rounds.\" He judged.
As for the Kinslayer, its current configuration should already be sufficient. It was designed to output its full strength for a single round of combat and Ves believed this was probably the most optimal approach.
\"It's better to confront a cornered beast with one pristine mech and eleven damaged mechs than twelve damaged mechs!\"
On this point, Ves happened to agree with the strategy adopted by Lady Miralix. However, this also left him with very little to do with regards to the Kinslayer's design.
As a work designed by a fellow Journeyman, Ves was reluctant to mess with its solid foundation.
However, if Ves changed too little, then Lady Miralix might suspect that Ves was dragging his feet and only went through the motions!
He frowned. How could he turn the Kinslayer into a mech that seemed as if it had undergone some serious work?
As Ves started to plan his upcoming modification plan for the Kinslayer, Gavin paid a sudden visit to him at the compound.
\"Ves!\"
\"What is it, Benny?\"
\"There's news! The Rocit Butchers have returned!\"
\"What?! That fast?!\"
\"Yeah! What's more is that they've succeeded! They killed the Dragon Cat!\"
That caused Ves to sit down. Inwardly, he hoped that the Butchers would fail to kill the Dragon Cat or at least capture her alive, but the Butchers weren't known for their restraint.
\"I see. Thank you for informing me. I'll get back to work.\"
\"You're not getting it, boss!\" Gavin shook his head. \"The reason why I went out and informed you is because the Butchers have temporarily stored the remains in a cooling chamber in the city! Didn't you want to study the Dragon Cat? This is your chance! Even if the huge cat is dead, you can still take a good look!\"
Ves widened his eyes. \"That's a great idea!\"
Chapter 1397
Since Ves had a deal with Lady Miralix, he decided to leverage her status and ask her for a favor.
As a scion of House Laterna, it only took a few calls for her to grant Ves permission to visit the cooling chamber which stored the frozen remains of the Dragon Cat.
By the time Ves arrived at the Kemila Hunting Hall with Lucky and Nitaa as his company, Benedict Vinzler greeted him yet again.
\"Mr. Larkinson! I did not expect to see you so soon!\"
As soon as the two shook hands, they began to board a waiting aircar. As the vehicle headed to the entrance of the underground holding cell complex, the relations manager began to explain the allowances they made.
\"We first requested the Rocit Butchers for permission to allow a guest to observe the remains.\"
\"Since we're on our way to the facility, I take it they granted permission?\"
Vinzler smiled. \"Every member of the Butchers, from their commander to their mech technicians, is out partying in the city right now. They're always incredibly exuberant after every hunt. I believe they are still drinking their faces stupid even now!\"
That made it easy for the hunting hall to request a favor from them. Perhaps to them it wasn't a big deal that someone wanted to see the results of their hunt up close.
\"In what condition is the carcass?\"
\"It's partially complete, though it doesn't look pretty. The Butchers already carved out some portions to cook and consume the meat immediately after they slew the Dragon Cat. They believe the meat tastes the sweetest just after successfully taking down a beast.\"
\"Is the head still present?\" Ves pressed.
This was a very important question to him! The presence of the head and the brains of the Dragon Cat was pivotal!
\"No. The head is the most valuable part to hunters. Even the Butchers value them. They've already removed the head and sent it to the taxidermists in order to treat it and turn it into a hunting trophy.\"
What a shame! Ves expected that something like this would happen seeing that hunters placed a huge value on , he lamented the loss of opportunity to see the head of a freshly-slain beast in person!
From what Ves observed of the hunting trophies mounted in the Kemila Hunting Hall, preserved heads retained nothing of their original spirituality, if they even had one at all. He guessed that spirituality only lingered for a limited amount of time upon the death of a spiritually potent entity.
\"What is your interest in the Dragon Cat, if I might ask? It is not every day that a visitor demands to see the carcass of a huge cat.\"
\"I've made a deal with Lady Miralix to tune up her mechs in preparation for the upcoming hunt.\" Ves replied as he came up with an excuse on the fly. \"I'd like to study the remains of a huge cat up close both to help me optimise the design of her personal mech and to get a better idea what kind of opponent she's about to face.\"
Vinzler nodded in understanding. \"I see. One point I'd like to note is that the Dragon Cat is an unadulterated product of nature. She's a pure exobeast, and a very alien one compared to the organic products of House Laterna. Her physiology and body structure is vastly different from that of a genetically-designed Crown Cat such as Zeigra. Aside from that, the Dragon Cat is also smaller and weaker, so do not think that Zeigra is as easy to defeat.\"
\"I'm aware. I'll be sure to take that into account.\"
\"You've already visited these holding cells before, though. Haven't the captive cats you've observed before satisfied you enough?\"
\"Yeah, but that is when they were still alive and too dangerous to let me approach. I'd like to take a really close look, if you know what I mean.\"
The manager shrugged, not quite comprehending what Ves wanted out of this visit.
That was fine. Mech designers tended to be weird, and to reinforce that impression, Ves intentionally wore his cat ear attachments on his head again.
Once the aircar deposited them in the underground holding facility, Vinzler led Ves and his company all the way to the floor which held the cooling chambers.
After a brief inspection, they walked through a small side door placed next to the huge mech-sized vault door.
A chill briefly splashed across their faces, but a background system quickly became active which warded the humans from the cold.
\"Here she is! The Dragon Cat, or at least what the Butchers have left unattended! Impressive, is she not? I can still imagine the majesty this exobeast conveyed when she was at the prime of her life!\"
Ves indeed admired the Dragon Cat by quite a bit. Its lizard-like traits reminded him of the hexapod kings of Groening IV.
Of course, the Dragon Cat still resembled cats in many ways, otherwise she wouldn't have been brought to Felixia in the first place.
\"It's a pity though..\" Ves disappointedly said. \"The Butchers have really went to town on the Dragon Cat.\"
The carcass... it looked awful. The footage of the Dragon Cat portrayed her as a majestic giant exobeast. Now... the headless carcass displayed a multitude of ugly cuts and bruises. Many of her scales got lost during the fight or got cut right through by the giant blades and axes wielded by the Butcher mechs.
Huge chunks of flesh had been ripped out of the carcass as well, either due to the brutality of the battle or because the Butchers wanted to organize a huge barbecue.
Whether the Dragon Cat's flesh was even edible to humans or not, Ves had no idea! Since the members of the Rocit Butchers hadn't started dropping dead yet, then it was probably okay.
\"Can I have a moment alone?\" Ves asked. \"I'd like to study the carcass in peace. The quiet will allow me to think like a mech designer.\"
\"Certainly, Mr. Larkinson. I do have to warn you that you aren't allowed to touch the carcass or remove any tissue, fluids, bones or any material. The contents in this vault completely belongs to the Butchers. If you provoke their ire, I don't think your status as a Journeyman will save you from their butcher blades.\"
Ves smiled. \"I know my limits.\"
As Vinzler left the cooling chamber, Ves turned and picked up Lucky. His dull white bone-metallic shell felt cool to his hands.
\"Are you cold, Lucky?\"
\"Meow.\"
\"Well, I hope you can stay warm, because we're about to get a very close look at the carcass.\"
\"Meow..\"
Ves turned to Nitaa. \"You can follow me around, but don't disturb me in my contemplation. I don't want anyone to interrupt me while I'm studying the carcass, is that clear?\"
\"Yes, sir.\" His tall bodyguard stoically replied. \"If I might say, the carcass may be emanating bacteria and other toxic particulate matter. You never know with exobeasts.\"
\"I'll be fine. My body can take a few alien germs.\"
Though Nitaa looked incredibly dubious at his claim, Ves actually held back. He could probably drink a glass of raw sewage and still be able to digest the contents on account of his numerous body upgrades!
As Ves carelessly stepped forward, he began to unfold his spiritual senses. He immediately picked up Nitaa's latent spiritual power, but sensed none from the frozen mass of flesh before his sights.
This.. was incredibly disappointing. Though the remains of the once-mighty Dragon Cat definitely impressed him up close, the fact that he sensed no spirituality in its flesh at all was a huge letdown.
Had he misjudged the Dragon Cat? Was she really just a big, dumb exobeast with the spirituality of a nutrient pack?
He refused to believe the Dragon Cat's carcass was devoid of spirituality. He strongly suspected that she possessed more than a trace amount of spirituality when she was alive, and her body should still have motes of it left if only through diffusion.
\"If only the Dragon Cat's head is still here.\" He sighed.
What he saw right now simply consisted of a giant, mutilated pile of flesh. The stench emanating from it was dreadful, and Nitaa firmly kept her helmet closed in order to maintain an airtight seal within her armor.
Not Ves. He wanted to douse himself in the Dragon Cat's scent. The huge chunks of frozen blood and flesh didn't scare him at all. What he wanted was to immerse himself in the once-proud exobeast and see whether he could find a thread that might lead him to a remnant of the Dragon Cat's spirituality.
He had no idea what happened with the spirituality of a powerful entity after they died. He long theorized that they would partially linger in the material realm for a while before shifting completely to the imaginary realm.
Right now, he guessed that enough time had passed for the unbound spirituality of the Dragon Cat to have moved on to the imaginary realm.
From what he could tell, the weaker spiritual remnants would quickly be obliterated by the corrosion in this strange and not-quite-real plane of existence.
The stronger ones such as the spiritual remnant of the crystal builder might be able to endure for longer, but even then most of their traits and strength would be worn away by the constant corrosive spiritual winds that flowed throughout this realm.
\"All I need is a trail! A thread! Something that can lead me to the source!\" He whispered to himself.
Nitaa had no idea what her employer was looking for. Lucky knew more than her, but even he lacked the spiritual sensitivity of his owner!
It was only when Ves strayed closer to the long and broken torso that he finally paused.
It was as if his heart skipped a beat.
\"Do you sense that, Lucky?\"
\"Meow?\"
While Lucky expressed his confusion, Ves closed his eyes and concentrated fully on his spiritual senses. He was sure he picked up something unusual! He tried to remember the direction of the disturbance, and slowly began to shuffle his feet.
\"There! I'm getting closer!\"
An echo of something.. was present in the vicinity. Like a cat smelling a juicy fish, Ves slowly neared the source of the increasingly alluring presence.
\"Mr. Larkinson!\" Nitaa called and gently placed her armored hand on his shoulder. \"Careful now! You were about to bump into the carcass!\"
Though a flash of irritation struck his mind, he nonetheless opened his eyes to see he was looking straight into the cut sides of the Dragon Cat's ribcage!
\"Ah, sorry. I lost myself for a moment there.\"
He didn't step forward but neither did he move back. Instead, he reengaged his spiritual senses and tried to penetrate them deeply into the carcass.
At this distance, the strange presence had become a lot more clear to him. Like a lighthouse in the distance, Ves unerringly approached the distant light, which subsequently became more clear to him. Now that he locked in a solid direction, he accelerated his approach!
As he continued to stretch his spiritual senses further, he finally realized what he had found.
\"If I'm guessing right, this is the heart of the Dragon Cat!\"
Due to convergent evolution, much of the Dragon Cat's physiology resembled that of terrestrial beasts. Ves knew from his studies that the exobeast possessed a heart that circulated its blood throughout its body.
From the coordinates of the spiritual echo he sensed, Ves was pretty certain that it sat right in the location of the Dragon Cat's heart!
\"The heart is the key!\"
As a critical life-sustaining organ, the heart played a pivotal role to many species throughout the galaxy! Ves was not surprised to find out that the Dragon Cat's heart still exhibited some latent spirituality.
Much of the blood that circulated through the brains also returned to the heart! Along with the vital nature of the heart, it was pretty much the second-most important organ in the Dragon Cat's body!
Still... now that he detected this.. echo, what could he do with it? From what he could sense, the echo was merely an imprint of something that used to be present. Right now, neither the heart or the rest of the carcass seemed to contain any active motes of spirituality!
\"It's all gone!\"
Ves stared at the mountain of frozen flesh right before his face with a determined expression. While the echo was only a shadow of what used to be present, it was still a critical find.
\"It's a trail! As long as I follow it, I can close in on the source!\"
Although it was just a theory, Ves felt it was worth a try!
Chapter 1398
Sometimes, spirituality left an echo behind. Ves likened it to a space where a spiritual energy dwelled for so long that its sudden absence left a gaping hole and some lingering ripple effects.
The echo he sensed within the Dragon Cat's heart was like the start of a thread that led off far away and into the imaginary realm.
This was what he sought!
As long as he found a trail, he might be able to find her remnant spirituality!
What happened after an entity with spiritual potential died?
He was about to find out!
He ignored Lucky and Nitaa. He ignored the chill and the stench of dead flesh and blood. He simply closed his eyes and extended his Spirituality in a tentacle that slowly crawled its way towards the site of the echo.
Once his Spirituality reached that point, he began to explore the indentation that the Dragon Cat's spiritual energy left behind.
What he found was largely a void that was difficult to describe. Though Ves figured he might learn something useful if his Spirituality dwelled here for a while, he suspected he was on a time limit.
The more he dawdled, the more the spiritual remnant of the Dragon Cat degraded!
He had to find its location in the imaginary realm right away!
After a bit of vague exploration, he finally found a tunnel, for lack of a better world. Ves sent his Spirituality through the tunnel, fearless of what might lay ahead. If worse came to worst, he could just cut off the spiritual energy he invested through the portal.
Fortunately, he encountered no imaginary space beasts or spiritual eldritch horrors or the like. As his Spirituality entered a plane that did not exist in reality, he instantly felt he entered familiar turf.
The imaginary realm's corrosive winds caressed his tendril of spirituality, attempting to wear it out and break it down into ownerness spiritual energy that would add their strength to the wind!
Fortunately, the quality of his Spirituality easily held against the docile winds. As long as he didn't encounter a spiritual hurricane or something, he could easily persist for a long while.
Now where was the spiritual remnant he sought for? He found nothing in the immediate vicinity of his emergence point in the spiritual realm.
\"Damnit.. don't tell me it's gone with the wind?\"
The way the imaginary realm worked was kind of fuzzy to Ves. Still, if the spiritual wind acted like regular wind, then it might have whisked away the spiritual remnant!
\"How does anchoring even work in this kind of place?\"
He didn't know, and right now he didn't care. All he wanted was to find the drifting spiritual remnant before the chaotic turbulence in the wind threw it far off course!
\"Follow the wind!\"
Out of every direction the spiritual remnant could have drifted, following the overall direction of the wind was his best bet. Right now, the wind blowed into one broad direction, and Ves started to coast on it before accelerating even further.
He had to outrun the wind if he wanted to catch up to the spiritual remnant!
A lot of time passed. To be honest, Ves lost all track of time as he continued to stand and close his eyes right next to the humongous carcass of the Dragon Cat.
Lucky grew bored and played with bits and pieces of the carcass while Nitaa vigilantly remained on guard.
Even if absolutely nothing happened, she never grew bored or complacent!
As for Ves, his travels through the spiritual realm was an unimaginably uneventful journey. Much of the spiritual realm was empty, giving him the illusion that he wasn't progressing at all!
All around, a white-like fog extended in each direction. Carried by the wind, the spiritually corrosive fog blew aimlessly from one point in the imaginary realm to another point.
Despite the incredible dullness and the lack of progress, Ves persisted in his search. He could last for days or even weeks if he had to, though he couldn't afford to waste too much time in this cooling chamber.
He still had a job to do! Lady Miralix expected him to soup up her Kinslayer and the mechs of her subordinates, and quickly at that! Ves also had to hurry up considering that he was on a fairly short timetable.
Nonetheless, the tranquility of the imaginary realm lulled him into a very serene mood. With all the happenings going on in the material realm, he enjoyed this period of quiet as an escape from both his worries and responsibilities.
Of course, the paranoid part of his mind did its best to keep Ves from becoming too immersed in this idyllic imaginary environment.
\"I can't fall asleep! Who knows when or if I'll wake up!\"
He tried to pepper himself up occasionally in order to keep his mind on his primary task. Yet as an indeterminate time went by, Ves started to doubt whether he was still on course to find the missing spiritual remnant.
If he had a better impression of its flavor, then Ves would have probably been able to hone in on it through some other method. An echo was not enough for him to sample the flavor of the Dragon Cat's spirituality.
\"I don't even know if I can identify it if I get close.\"
He could only continue with the gamble he had made and hope the wind hadn't changed direction too much.
Fortunately, his persistence eventually yielded a result, as he started to sense a vague spiritual presence in a different direction than he thought.
He immediately woke from his state of half-focus and began to hone in on the direction of what he sensed.
The emanation in the distance grew stronger, causing him to become encouraged.
He found something!
Time passed, and before he knew it, his spiritual presence in the imaginary realm had reached the side of what appeared to be a very chaotic cloud of spiritual energy!
\"This!\"
Ves had a very strong feeling that he had found his goal!
Yet despite succeeding in tracking down the errant spiritual remnant, he had yet to rejoice.
That was because there was a very big problem with what he found!
\"It's degraded to an awful state! It's deteriorating further even now!\"
The spiritual remnant's size led Ves to believe it hadn't been very strong when it used to be whole and healthy. It's heavily-damaged and bleeding state weakened the Dragon Cat's spirituality even further, putting it close to the brink of complete deconstruction!
Ves couldn't think that much at this moment. If he wanted to salvage anything out of the Dragon's Cat spirituality, then he had to act quickly! The more he dawdled, the more the corrosive spiritual wind submerged the former exobeast's precious spiritual energy!
\"What should I do? How can I maximize his gains?\"
In ordinary circumstances, Ves would opt to carve out a small chunk of spiritual energy out of a greater entity. In previous cases, he succeeded in doing so to a couple of unalert expert pilots.
He could do so here as well. In fact, it was probably even easier because the heavily-damaged spiritual remnant didn't show signs of conscious guidance. That, and the holes and tears riddled throughout the spiritual remnant made it extraordinary easily for him to swoop in and grab a bunch of alien spiritual energy.
Yet.. why go for just a small fragment of a small entity when he could grab the whole thing instead?
Was it viable for him to gulp the entire spiritual remnant with a single bite?
Ves had the impression that he was a snake trying to swallow a mouse. It would probably strain him a bit if he attempted such, but it wouldn't break his limits. The spiritual remnant was already so weak that it might be viable for him to grab the whole thing!
\"Let's do it! What could go wrong?\"
He acted on his impulse and his intuition and boldly tried to grab the weakened spiritual remnant.
While the remnant exhibited a pronounced lack of conscious resistance, parts of it still tried to fight against the foreign spiritual energy.
As someone who broke through the extraordinary threshold and grew substantially in Spirituality ever since, Ves managed to exert enough strength to keep it under control.
It was working!
As his Spirituality tried to take a firm and all-encompassing grip over the spiritual remnant, the corrosive spiritual wind from the imaginary realm stopped battering the weakening entity.
In exchange, the increased surface area of his own spiritual energy caused him to receive a lot more battering from the imaginary environment!
He had to leave the imaginary realm as soon as possible! Even now, his stretched Spirituality was losing grip on his prize! It was as if the imaginary realm really didn't want anyone to make off with one of its prizes!
\"Return! I have to return!\"
A lot of aspects about the imaginary realm still confused him, but he was pretty sure he didn't have to go all the way back to the hole he initially emerged from. In fact, leaving the imaginary realm with his prize turned out to be as easy as concentrating on the idea.
One moment, his consciousness stretched all the way to the imaginary realm.
In the next moment, his consciousness returned to his mind, but this time he brought back a guest!
Ves opened his eyes and gasped. \"Wow! Is it really so easy?\"
The only reason why he encountered less hindrances than he expected was due to the awful state of his spiritual salvage.
Even now, in a cavity within his mind, the spiritual remnant looked more dead than alive!
The sight of this sad cloud of barely-coherent spiritual energy made him feel.. disappointed.
Was this what hours worth of exploration in the imaginary realm yielded? Was this the extent of what remained of the Dragon Cat?
Not only had the spiritual winds of the imaginary realm ravaged the remnant, Ves also had the feeling that even in its intact state, it was still incomplete. He suspected that some of its spiritual energy must have lingered in the head of the Dragon Cat, though he wasn't quite sure of this guess!
\"There's too many things I don't know!\"
He could leave those mysteries for later. Right now, Ves wanted to inspect the state of his salvaged spiritual remnant in greater detail in order to see whether it could be used in one of his ongoing projects.
His attention fully returned to the material realm. He glanced at Nitaa and gestured with his arms. \"I'm done here. Let's go back to the compound housing the Catstrikers.\"
He picked up Lucky who was chewing on a scale of the Dragon Cat and left the cooling chamber.
Soon enough, he boarded an aircar and began to inspect the new entity in his mind during the short flight.
As he inspected the spiritual remnant in greater detail, he managed to make several notable observations.
First, the spiritual remnant was more than a fragment, but less than a fully-functional entity.
In fact, unlike living spiritual entities, the remnant he retrieved was as lively as his cat ear attachments. Aside from some instinctive reactions, it exhibited no consciousness at all!
Did he retrieve the spiritual equivalent of a mutilated carcass from the graveyard of the imaginary realm?
He cursed a bit. \"Damnit! What use is this barely-coherent collection of junk!\"
As he inspected the spiritual remnant in greater detail, he realized that it was missing far too much of its former existence. Instead of retrieving a 'complete' spiritual carcass, he felt as if he only retrieved a forelimb, a rear limb, a chewed-up torso and perhaps part of the Dragon Cat's tail!
This was not a good foundation for an image! Such a mangled and incomplete spiritual remnant was worse than a spiritual fragment because the latter at least enjoyed conscious guidance from its source!
\"What can I even do with a bunch of incomplete salvage?\" He muttered and pressed his face against his palms.
Chapter 1399
As Ves returned to Lady Miralix's compound, he sought out a break room in the mech workshop and began to think about a way to deal with his spiritual salvage.
Its damaged and incomplete state likely rendered it useless in its current state. Trying to instill it into a mech or mech design as a design spirit would probably lead to chaotic and erratic behavior.
Ves predicted that if he idiotically tried to infuse it in the Kinslayer for example, the incoherent instincts and impulses of the spiritual remnant would probably make the mech go out of control at times! At the very least, Lady Miralix might be forced to work against her own mech in the middle of a battle, which was the exact opposite of what he wanted to happen!
In order to shape the X-Factor of a mech into something beneficial, the design spirit had to be alive.
An incomplete collection of spiritual body parts that missed the spiritual equivalent of the head and brains was not what he considered alive.
\"Can the dead be brought back alive?\"
Perhaps not when it came to biological forms of life, but weirder things had happened with spirituality.
For example, back in the Ylvaine Protectorate, the spiritual fragment he refined out of a miniscule portion of Prophet Ylvaine's spiritual remnant started out weak and as clever as a newborn baby.
Yet as time continued to pass, the spiritual fragment started to grow. Its liveliness grew more active and its intelligent consciousness started to become increasingly sophisticated.
Now that so much time had passed, Ves scarcely dared to imagine how far the spiritual fragment developed, especially now that it housed a fantastic mech design!
This precious experience with spiritual remnants gave Ves some ideas on how to make use of his spiritual salvage.
\"First, I need to find a purpose for it. Which project fits it better?\"
Right now, Ves involved himself in two different projects. The existing Kinslayer mech and his unfinished Devil Tiger designs were both based on the tiger mech archetype.
This meant that the Dragon Cat's spirituality could be applied to both of them if he wished.
After a bit of thinking, he decided to apply his gains to Kinslayer. As the more immediate project, Ves could quickly make use of his spiritual salvage before it deteriorated further. Though Ves had taken it out of the imaginary realm and its corrosive winds, that did not mean the remains stopped deteriorating!
Its condition was so awful that Ves didn't trust its integrity to hold up for long.
Its instability also made it unviable for Ves to use it as a design spirit right away. He needed to do something about the damage before he could take the next step.
Aside from its deteriorating state, the other reason why Ves declined to apply the spiritual remnant to his Devil Tiger design was because too much had been lost.
\"It's not worthy enough to be applied to my own designs.\"
Ves cared less about the Kinslayer than his Devil Tiger design. The latter was his own work, while the former was just a mech he agreed to modify. His emotional investment in the Kinslayer was so low that he regarded it as a good platform to do some experiments!
\"Let's see if I can put my salvage to use on this mech!\"
Though the consequences were fairly awful if Ves failed to make effective use of the spiritual remnant, Ves didn't care right now. He couldn't wait to play around with what he obtained!
As Ves thought of ways to convert the spiritual remnant into something usable, he began to look at it from a salvager's perspective.
Salvagers made their living searching through trash belts in space or on forgotten battlefields on the grounds.
Mech wrecks were still worth quite a lot of money!
Most outfits knew that too and tried to retrieve the fallen wrecks as much as possible, but sometimes this wasn't viable. Salvagers swooped in to obtain the lesser value wrecks.
Sometimes, all they managed to pick up was a bunch of loose parts separated from the frame of a broken mech!
Even so, salvaging incomplete wrecks and disparate parts was still worth it. The savvier salvagers even found ways to repair the damage and piece the parts back together onto a working mech frame!
Of course, the quality of those restored mechs left much to be desired. If the salvagers were unable to obtain or reproduce all of the original parts of a mech, their resident mech designers usually designed the missing parts on the fly.
This led to the creation of mechs made out of a mix of salvaged and freshly-fabricated parts.
\"Some of them are real abominations!\"
This was how most frankenstein mechs came to be. The salvagers completely perverted the original designs and the intentions behind them in their quest to cobble together mechs on the cheap!
As much as Ves hated the practice, he had to admit it was an efficient use of trash. Right now, Ves contemplated doing something similar to the spiritual remnant of the Dragon Cat.
\"So what if it's incomplete? I'll just fill up its holes with something else!\"
Of course, that 'something else' had to be something substantial and compatible.
To be honest, Ves was dealing with something completely new here. He didn't have the guidance of Qilanxo's spiritual fragment or any existing example to draw upon. The risk of messing up was quite significant!
Solving this problem fell into the domain of the path of life. If he wanted to come up with a viable way to turn his salvage into something useful, he had to delve deeper into the mysteries and potential of life.
Right now, the answer he came up with substituting the missing spiritual parts with other parts.
Nonetheless, it wasn't as simple as obtaining a random chunk of spiritual energy and throwing it at the hole-ridden spiritual remnant of the Dragon Cat.
That sounded as idiotic as trying to plug the gaps of a damaged mech by pouring water into its holes!
If he wanted to turn his salvage into something useful, he had to encourage a transformation, something which didn't happen normally.
Usually, spiritual energy with different attributes and imprints repelled or clashed against each other. Rarely would they merge or meld together into a greater whole.
As Ves thought about how he could overcome this problem, he came up with three important points.
First, the spiritual remnant was rather weak. Weaker than his own Spirituality. Combined with its lack of consciousness and liveliness made it extraordinarily malleable to manipulation.
Second, since Ves intended to use it on the Kinslayer in order to give its X-Factor a big boost, why not make use of the spirituality of its mech pilot while he was at it? Perhaps something surprising might happen if he tried to blend the spirituality of Lady Miralix with the Dragon Cat's spiritual remnant.
\"The only problem is.. Lady Miralix doesn't have what I need!\"
Just like most mech pilots in the galaxy, Lady Miralix may have the genetic aptitude to become a mech pilot, but she lacked the spiritual potential to break through the extraordinary threshold!
Ves did not understand much about spiritual potential. He didn't know whether it was something that a tiny proportion of humanity was born with it, or if certain lucky people developed it after undergoing an unusual event in their lives that caused their minds to produce significant amounts of spiritual energy.
Even if the latter was possible, Ves did not know how to spark this process.
Still... what if he tried something?
\"Hehe..\"
He grinned as he started to come up with a radical experiment. He made a lot of assumptions as he tried to come up with a way to make the spiritual remnant more compatible with Lady Miralix.
What if he inserted the spiritual remnant in Lady Miralix's mind?
Ves had a feeling that dumping the spiritual remnant in her mind was a very bad idea! Since their attributes were fundamentally different, there was no way her mind would be able to accommodate something alien!
\"However, storing it there isn't the point.\"
Her mind may be almost devoid of spiritual energy, but it was still suffused with her presence.
Her mind contained all of her thoughts and emotions. Most of it was intangible to Ves as they possessed neither a material or spiritual presence. They existed in another undefined plane that Ves couldn't manipulate for the time being.
However, Ves guessed that those thoughts and emotions wouldn't sit still if he shoved a foreign spiritual remnant into Lady Miralix's mind!
\"This is going to be a very delicate process!\"
There were so many ways this could go wrong!
Yet despite the risks, Ves still wanted to go through with this experiment!
The plan he came up with sounded pretty crazy, even to him! Yet he also believed it had a chance of working!
\"Even if there's a lot of side effects, it's worth a try!\"
The possibilities he came up with intrigued him to such an extent that he threw caution to the wind. He just had to try it out!
\"Hehehehe!\" He rubbed his hands in excitement. \"I've never done this before, but let's see how it goes!\"
Ves began to tamper some of his glee in order to focus his mind. He began to undergo another spiritual excursion. As soon as he sensed he shifted over in the realm he had just explored a short while ago, he carefully explored his surroundings.
Right now, he wanted to find Lady Miralix's spiritual presence in this strange void.
\"This is going to take some effort.\" He muttered. \"It's worse than finding a needle in a haystack!\"
People who crossed the extraordinary threshold such as expert pilots and Journeyman Mech Designers occupied a very strong presence in the imaginary realm. They maintained outposts or fortifications that were strong enough to repel intruders and defend their spiritual energy against the corrosive winds that flowed throughout this intangible plane of existence.
What about normal people? What about those who didn't even exhibit a sliver of spiritual potential?
Ves initially believed they were completely cut off from the imaginary realm, but now he began to doubt that conclusion. His insight into the imaginary realm led him to suspect that all forms of life possessed a presence in this place.
They were just too weak for him to take note.
Ves began the boring process of exploring the seemingly empty surroundings from his emergence point. Though the corrosive wind was seemingly the only thing that occupied his surroundings, he refused to believe that normal people left no trace at all in this realm.
\"Lady Miralix should be in her office, so she's physically close.\"
That usually meant that her spiritual presence ought to be close as well in the imaginary realm. Ves cast his senses in an expanding sphere around his emergence point until he finally found a tiny pinprick that faintly tasted like Lady Miralix to his spiritual senses!
\"This is the place!\"
Though the hole in the imaginary realm looked extraordinarily tiny, size didn't always matter when it came to the imaginary realm.
Ves extended a tiny portion of his spiritual projection and compressed it as much as possible.
Though its strength was nothing to speak of, Ves managed to squeeze it small enough to barely fit through the tiny opening.
As expected, his semi-detached spiritual projection entered into the mindscape of Lady Miralix!
\"However.. as expected, something weird is going on.\"
His spiritual projection didn't exist in the same phase as Lady Miralix's mind! This meant that his spiritual projection could fly right out of her mind without bumping into anything, because they were completely unable to touch each other!
However, as Ves scrutinized the condition of his spiritual projection further, he found that this wasn't entirely the case. His Spirituality was so potent that it exerted some kind of force around it that resembled gravity in its working.
The thoughts and emotions that flowed through Lady Miralix's mind bent around his presence!
\"Good! So there's some interaction after all!\"
With a bit of finicking with his own thoughts, he managed to pull the Dragon Cat's spiritual remnant from his mind and deposit it at the site of his spiritual projection.
He managed to dump the remnant straight into Lady Miralix's mind!
Same as his own piece of Spirituality, Lady Miralix's mind barely reacted to the introduction of the spiritual remnant of an exobeast.
Both of them also existed in a different phase!
\"Damnit, what is going on?\"
Chapter 1400
The odd occurrences he witnessed so far led him to develop a theory about spirituality.
It existed in different phases.
For now, he tentatively identified a 'weak' phase and a 'strong' phase.
The weak phase consisted of spirituality belonging to entities below the extraordinary threshold.
The strong phase consisted of spirituality from spiritually-powerful entities such as Ves, Qilanxo and every other high-ranking mech pilot and mech designer.
Both of them existed alongside each other but hardly affected each other directly.
\"Is this a form of protection for weaker existences?\"
Spiritual entities with negligible amounts of spiritual energy were so weak that they'd be crushed in an instant if a monstrously powerful entity like Qilanxo strolled along.
In fact, human space would have been ruled by high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers by now if this was the case! Against the tyranny of strong spirituality, ordinary people stood no chance!
\"The MTA would have beaten the CFA long ago if that happened!\"
After all, as far as Ves knew, the CFA didn't actively develop spirituality or psionic power as they regarded it. The MTA, which poured a huge amount of effort into nurturing and developing psionic power, possessed an absolute advantage in this aspect!
Still, a scenario like this hadn't taken place, which meant that weak spirituality inherently enjoyed protection against strong spirituality.
Right now, this condition posed a lot of hindrances to his plan, but not to the point of making it impossible.
Dumping the Dragon Cat's spiritual remnant into Lady Miralix's mind hadn't yielded any dramatic effects.
Yet as Ves studied the changes closely, he saw that the thoughts and emotions of Lady Miralix distorted even further around the spiritual remnant.
Ves believed that this was a favorable development.
\"Even as they are being warped, they're also starting to adjust!\"
It was like dropping a heating element into a glass of water. While the water didn't turn into wine or anything, it did began to grow warmer.
Something similar was taking place around both his own spiritual projection and around the Dragon Cat's spiritual remnant.
The thought energy swirling in the mind of Lady Miralix started to familiarize and grow a little more comfortable with the alien emanations of the intruders.
What did this mean? It meant that as long as this process continued for a while, Lady Miralix wouldn't feel uneasy if she piloted a mech that incorporated the spiritual remnant as its design spirit!
\"This is an important observation!\"
The new phenomenon he witnessed compelled him to name the process and add it into his growing handbook of spirituality.
He decided to call it spiritual alignment.
In truth, he first wanted to call it spiritual contamination, but that implied the process was harmful.
Then, he came up with spiritual indoctrination, but again the phrase implied that Ves was doing something malicious to Lady Miralix.
\"I have good intentions!\"
In order to make him feel better about what he was doing, he eventually came up with a sufficiently neutral and accurate description.
He settled for calling the ongoing process as spiritual alignment because he believed that Lady Miralix's weak spirituality was indirectly becoming more aligned to both his own and the Dragon Cat's spiritual remnant.
What results this phenomenon might yield, Ves had no idea. He was doing so many new things that he hardly became sure of anything.
\"Well, since I'm already this deep, I should at least complete my experiment.\"
With regards to the incomplete and fractured spiritual remnant, he decided to restore it by reconstructing it in a smaller, more condensed fragment.
To put it simply, he gave up on trying to turn the remnant back into its former state. Instead, he decided to make the most efficient use of his salvage by shrinking it and refining it into a more coherent fragment.
Of course, even if he did so, the remnant still lacked the spark of life.
\"The biggest problem with my plan is that I don't have another source!\"
If he obtained another spiritual fragment, it might be possible for him to blend the two or use one of them as raw material to fix the other one.
However, since he lacked a spiritual fragment, he could only turn to the only available source within reach.
Himself!
Of course, as he was aware of the many downsides of expending his spiritual energy, he did not intend to exhaust a piece of his Spirituality.
\"Fortunately, I've accumulated a small reservoir!\"
Earlier, Ves obtained the box that stored his P-stone from Nitaa. Right now, he grabbed hold of it and opened the box.
The dull, grey space rock glowed slightly in his senses. Since he obtained it, he made a habit out of injecting portions of his excess spiritual energy into the P-stone.
At this time, the P-stone accumulated a modest but respectable amount of spare spiritual energy.
\"Drawing from this reservoir won't affect my strength!\"
He stopped dawdling around and began to extract the excess spiritual energy from the P-stone.
Considering the relative strength of the spiritual remnant, he only drew out a small portion. If it turned out that he needed more, he could always go back and scoop up another portion.
\"Still, this is probably enough to act as the glue for the transformation I have in mind.\"
He siphoned the excess spiritual energy into Lady Miralix's mind and brought it close to the spiritual remnant.
As expected, the two didn't react with each other, as they consisted of vastly different attributes. A mech designer and a cat-like lizard exobeast didn't necessarily go together, after all.
\"Since a reaction isn't taking place, I'll have to be more proactive!\"
What Ves did next was the equivalent of breaking apart a mech! He put his spiritual might to use by smashing the Dragon Cat's spiritual remnant.
Considering that it was already in a rather poor and broken state, it only took a moderate amount of effort to break it up!
However, a problem quickly started to emerge!
With the spiritual remnant broken up into multiple smaller remnants, their overall integrity started to degrade more rapidly! Some of the byproducts even started shifting to a weaker phase and interact much more strongly with Lady Miralix's mind!
\"Damn, I have to be fast!\"
Ves couldn't afford to think or plan! He just had to trust his judgement and the assumptions he had made and go into action!
What he did next was completely new territory to him. Facing a completely unfamiliar process, Ves defaulted to his mech designer's instincts.
\"Something that is broken can be put back anew!\"
He began to treat the broken and incomplete pieces of the Dragon Cat's spiritual remnant as salvaged parts. Just like how a mech designer working for a salvage operation tried to cobble together a functioning mech out of existing parts, Ves tried to do the same.
Of course, the lack of 'raw materials' meant he wouldn't be able to restore the spiritual remnant to its former glory. He could only cobble together a lesser spiritual fragment which condensed and concentrated what the remnant hadn't lost into what Ves hoped would be a new living spiritual entity.
It was similar to what he did before when he refined Prophet Ylvaine's spiritual fragment.
As he continued to piece together the Dragon Cat's spiritual parts, he didn't feel as if he created a new form of life.
\"As expected.\" He muttered. \"Once the spark is gone, it can't be restored.\"
The spark of life was an intrinsic property of spiritual entities. Without it, spiritual energy was merely a resource. Only when it was infused with the spark of life did it possess an active consciousness and awareness of its own existence!
Having anticipated this problem, Ves didn't panic. Instead, he directed his excess spiritual energy into the shifting cloud that represented his work in progress.
The two types of spiritual energies didn't merge with each other, but Ves wasn't discouraged. He simply continued to apply his excess spiritual energy in the gaps of the reforming spiritual fragment.
\"Just like how mechs are made of different materials, energy can coexist as well!\"
As long as they didn't repel or detest each other, they could exist alongside each other!
Of course, what Ves sought was something more than placing the two types of energy side by side. He wanted to form a mutually-beneficial bond between the two divergent energies!
The Dragon Cat's spiritual energy served as the 'mech'. It provided the base and the platform of the forming spiritual fragment.
His excess spiritual energy served as the 'mech pilot'. It added the vital spark of life and everything that ensued from the presence of life!
Combined, Ves hoped he could form a connection and establish a form of symbiosis!
The idea was completely radical and came out of nowhere! However, as the ongoing restoration process continued, Ves had a sense that it might actually succeed!
The spiritual abomination that he attempted to create would be an entirely new spiritual existence! In a very warped perspective, Ves even had the illusion that he was creating a new child!
An offspring between the Dragon Cat and himself!
The resulting spiritual entity represented neither an exobeast or a human. It represented aspects of both, blended in a spiritual equivalent of a frankenstein mech!
\"Hahahahaha! More! I want more!\"
The spiritual restoration process gradually formed something new, all within the space of someone else's mind!
This was an important detail! By performing this process in the mind of Lady Miralix, he was in essence treating the mental space as his mech workshop!
Bits and pieces of her mind continued to curve around the spiritual abomination that continued to transform into a stabler and more potent form.
All of this took place in Lady Miralix's mind! This meant that as soon as the process finished, she'd already be familiar with the new spiritual entity and vice versa!
An uncertain amount of time began to pass as Ves fully invested his attention to directing and shaping the transformation process. Frankly, he had no idea what he was doing, but as he continued to push and prod his excess spiritual energy around, it began to 'react' when it attached to certain places.
The integration process slowly proceeded as Ves found more and more configurations that worked through sheer trial and error.
When Ves felt he put the final piece of the puzzle in its place, a very profound step in the process took place.
The bond was being formed!
A radiant strength welled from the abomination. Ves lost connection to his excess spiritual energy as it began to integrate with the Dragon Cat's remnant spiritual energy on a deeper level.
Along with this rise in strength came fluctuations that Ves had tried to create from the start!
\"It's.. it's alive!\"
An immense sense of pride and satisfaction welled from his mind as he witnessed the birth of a new spiritual entity!
Formed by combining a salvaged spiritual remnant with his own excess spiritual energy, the resulting spiritual fragment was a completely new and unique existence!
Part mech designer, part exobeast and formed within the chamber of Lady Miralix's mind, Ves expected this new spiritual fragment to be exceptionally suitable when put to use in a mech like the Kinslayer!
\"I did it! I created something new! Out of so little, I managed to create something wondrous! Hahahahaha!\"
As Ves burst out in laughter while spouting nonsensical statements, Lucky and Nitaa looked at him as if he completely went out of control!
What the hell was he dreaming about?!
Ves paid no mind to how his observers regarded him right now! He exulted in the success of his latest spiritual innovations! He fully indulged in the many possibilities that the path of life had to offer!
Spiritual invasion, spiritual alignment and spiritual restoration was only the start of what this promising direction had to offer!
As he proudly observed his newborn spiritual fragment make sense of its new existence, Ves realized a very pivotal insight.
The path of life was all about creation!
\"Life from death! The creation of something new from the remains of something old! That is the circle of life!\"
