The Mech Touch

by Stayrr

Humanity has conquered half the galaxy and the Age of Mechs reigns supreme! Ves Larkinson lacked the genetic aptitude to become a famed mech pilot. Fighting against his fate, he studied mech design in order to express his love for mechs as a builder instead of a soldier. When Ves graduated from college, he returned to a new but empty boutique. Left with a small, newly founded mec

14. 336

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The war came sooner than Ves had thought.

The Vesia Kingdom formally declared war against the Bright Republic, and followed suit by making an offensive thrust at Halcyon Point.

"That's where Uncle Ark is stationed!"

One of the most illustrious Larkinsons in active duty, Colonel Ark Larkinson was one of the family's rare and precious expert pilots. Although he only experienced the tail end of the previous Bright-Vesia War, his hard work and lack of vices had steadily improved his skills until he broke through the threshold that had stumped so many of his fellow colleagues.

Rare for an expert, Ark had also been gifted with an administrative talent. With his dependable leadership and a reputation for fairness, Ark had also managed to climb the chain of command without losing his edge as an expert mech pilot.

Every member of the Larkinsons regarded Ark with pride. Whenever the public thought of the Larkinsons, they thought of Ark. Whenever the people thought of Ark, they thought of his family.

Many people considered Ark to be a star that would shine as brightly as his father Benjamin.

"Like father, like son."

"The other two expert pilots of the Larkinsons are senile. Only Ark is vigorous enough to have a hope at advancing to ace."

"Hah! Do you think it's easy to advance to an ace pilot? Besides their founding ancestor, none of them had ever gotten close to becoming an ace!"

"I wonder if we'll see the birth of any new experts among the Larkinsons. They pop up during every war so far."

Ark's overall excellence landed him an important posting as the base commander of Halcyon Point. This was one of the most central and strategic star systems along the border between the two states.

Even if the Vesians could easily bypass Halcyon Point and invade the other stars further into the Republic, the substantial amount of mech divisions stationed there could easily wreak havoc behind enemy lines.

The necessity of maintaining supply lines and the treat to their rear lines meant that Halcyon Point could not be left alone by the Vesians. Even as the Vesians sent out several smaller forces out to raid the surrounding star systems, they focused their main thrust on this stubborn nail that kept constraining their strategic offensive.

The Bright Republic had long known that the Vesians eyed the strategic star system. Both its placement and unique characteristics played a vital importance in keeping the surrounding territories in check.

In fact, the Mech Corps had already reinforced Halcyon's Point during the Glowing Planet campaign. The main reason why they didn't send out any further reinforcements to the Glowing Planet was because they had been deeply afraid that the Mech Legion would exploit the moment the Republic diverted their attention from their border defenses.

Due to the prevalence of observers in the star system, sporadic bits of news constantly leaked onto the galactic net. It was almost impossible to suppress the news and misinformation that emerged from the net.

So far, Ves found it difficult to distinguish between truth and lies.

"At least the overall trend isn't overwhelmingly in the favor of the Vesians."

As long as Halcyon Point stood strong, Ves did not have to worry about Ark. The expert pilot could take care of himself, and if worse came to worst, he could easily fight his way out of enemy lines.

What happened at the frontlines right now had galvanized the entire Republic. While the older folk greeted the war with grim resignation, much of the younger generation looked forward to doing their part to defend their homes.

Ves met with Jake in his office the next day. His COO informed him of an important event.

"The Ministry of Economic Affairs has gotten in touch with us. Right now, they don't expect us to fulfill any obligations, but the LMC has been put into notice. We should expect to be called up to facilitate the production of supplies, spare parts or even complete mechs any time now."

"This is bad news. We only have one mature production line. If the Ministry wants us to produce some of their war materiel, we'll be forced to halt our commercial ventures."

Exiting from the private market would have dire consequences for their market position. The LMC risked throwing away months of hard work.

Jake had a suggestion for that. "It's time we expand our production capacity. We have the funds to procure two or three more production lines."

"That's impossible unless you are looking at budget equipment!" Ves quickly replied. "I don't want to settle for subpar equipment. At minimum, the production line should cost around 3 billion credits."

At 3 billion credits, the combination of 3D printer, alloy compressor, chemical treatment machine and assembly system presented a fairly complete package. All four machines had to be good enough to shoulder the LMC's future production for the next twenty years.

Jake retrieved a data pad and handed it over to Ves. "I'm not suggesting such a thing. Considering our performance and our growth, I've been huddling with Primrose Mackarie on and off for some time. We've ultimately came up with two different financing plans."

"This is… leverage!"

The first plan amounted to borrowing lots of money. The LMC at this stage shone brightly, but it couldn't keep up with demand due to the bottleneck in production. Rather than wait until the company made enough profit to expand their production, why not move this decision forward and use other people's money to get the machines up and running now?

Naturally, taking a loan also meant exposing the company to further risks. If their sales slumped all of a sudden to the point where they couldn't meet the repayment terms, they risked losing whatever they put up as collateral, such as his highly valuable reconstructed Dortmund printer.

Although Ves possessed a natural aversion to loans, he understood that he might not have much choice if he wanted to stay ahead of the curve. The LMC desperately needed more production lines, but it would take too much time to accumulate the necessary cash.

"There is also another plan on that pad."

Ves briefly browsed the other document. "Selling my stock? Absolutely not!"

As a private company, outsiders found it difficult to place a value on the LMC. However, business analysts loved to speculate. Their estimates of the company's total worth had continually been adjusted upwards.

Last Ves had checked, the fortune tellers pinned the LMC to be worth around fifteen to thirty billion credits.

This was a huge amount. This was because it got a hold of a lot of expensive assets and licenses without incurring a huge amount of debt. The company also earned a lot of profits because its expenses were relatively modest if you left out depreciation.

The only factor that doused investor enthusiasm was that the company heavily relied of Ves. Once he stopped publishing successful designs, the LMC's would certainly collapse like a house of cards.

Overall, investors preferred to put their money in mech companies that employed a variety of mech designers. Even if one designer produced a flop, the other designers could pick up the slack.

Still, Ves hated parting with his shares. This was his company.

"I'll put the first suggestion up for discussion at the next board meeting. You're right that we have to expand our production quickly, but we have to be careful not to chew off more than we can handle."

Even if Ves didn't take out a loan, his company would still follow an upward trajectory. They'd miss a lot of opportunities if they took the cautious route.

Sometimes you needed to take the plunge. If he was okay with risking his life on expeditions, then he should not be too timid to allow the LMC to take some risks as well.

Jake agreed with that sentiment. "This is great news. I've also consulted with Chief Cyril and narrowed down a handful of choices for hardware to fill up our manufacturing floor. Take a look."

Ves browsed the third document on the pad. It contained a small list of different printers and other fabrication machines. He briefly ran over their specs and found them to be adequate, though they couldn't quite compare against his current setup.

"Their quality meets the standard, if only barely." He admitted. "These production lines should be equivalent to what EME is running, right?"

"That's correct. Your young friend Carlos has a deep understanding of their production lines when he acted as our liaison. It's a system that's similar to ours and it works. Why come up with our own when there's already a practical setup before our eyes?"

"Well, there's a danger to blindly copying other people's setups. I'll take these models into further consideration."

Right now, Ves had little time to spare for these issues. Even if he found it necessary to expand the company's production, he could leave most of the work to his subordinates. As long as he held the final say, the situation wouldn't grow out of control.

Once Jake left his office, Ves sent the list of equipment back to his chief technician and ordered him to write up a report of what the best setup would be. "Since he picked out all of the models, he should surely know which ones fit the company best."

He handled some paperwork after that. The outbreak of war had changed the whole fabric of society in the Bright Republic. Some of the wartime provisions already came to being, which meant that the LMC had to change the way it operated to comply with the restrictions imposed on the company.

The last thing the Republic wanted to see was a domestic company inadvertently supplying the Vesians.

An important notice arrived in his comm. The government finally approved the establishment of the Avatars of Myth.

"That was fast!"

Ves had the sense some bureaucrat rubber-stamped his application once they recognized his name.

Him having a personal force was no different than he Larkinsons forming their own fighting force.

Even though the Avatars of Myth had officially come into being, the outfit didn't have any members as of yet. Ves rectified this situation by calling up Melkor to his office.

Once his cousin arrived, Ves showed him the approval notice.

"Avatars of Myth, huh?" Melkor mused, trying to sound out the name. "I hate to say it, but your naming sense could use some work, because it sounds as if we're all trying to compensate for something."

Both of them laughed a bit. In practice, the names hardly mattered as long as they remained recognizable. Outfits with sillier names constantly appeared every day, like the Freckled Ponies or the Barbeque Saints.

"In any case, now that we've passed the most important roadblock, I'd like to fill in our roster." Ves continued. "Let's start by gathering a cadre in a single basic squad of eight mechs."

"It's easy for you to say so, but without any mechs of our own, I don't believe we can appeal any mech pilots that are skilled."

The vast majority of mech designers didn't own a mech. Those that did often owned cheap rust buckets worth less than 10 million credits. Ves had no need to incorporate such garbage mechs in his ranks. He wanted to form a crack troop of loyal soldiers, not a motley crew of mercenaries in all but name.

"Two of the eight mechs will consist of gold label Blackbeaks. As I come up with new designs, the Avatars of Myth will have first pick. Right now, a premium rifleman mech design is on its way."

Melkor frowned at Ves. "How long will it take?"

"Around three months."

"That's too long. With the war breaking out, the mech pilots who are worth their pay are rapidly being snapped up by the Mech Corps or the other outfits. I'll have to move fast if I want to secure some talents."

"You have full authority to use whatever to entice these talents to the roster. Just make sure they're loyal."

"That is a given."

"As for the mechs, for now I'll release some funds for you to purchase some other mechs. I'm fine with filling out our roster with other designs as a temporary measure."

"What's my budget?"

"Don't spend more than 30 million credits for each mech."

"What?!"

Leaving out the two Blackbeaks that Ves would supply on his own, that meant that Melkor suddenly possessed the power to spend 180 million credits. The mech pilot could hardly get a grip on the dizzying amount of money.

He had never spent more than a couple of thousand credits at a time!

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Ves hardly blinked when he allocated 180 million credits to Melkor. He used to be like his cousin.

Now, he easily spent millions of credits like he was drinking water. As his career progressed and his company grew, he set his sights beyond the Bright Republic.

Once his personal fortune and company funds both surpassed a billion credits, Ves stopped equivocating about his bank balances. He could obtain practically anything for sale in the Bright Republic.

This was also why he thoughtlessly delegated the matter of procuring new production equipment and mechs to his subordinates.

"Purchases of this level hardly excites me anymore. Even the selection of a new 3D printer worth several billion credits is a chore in my eyes."

Ves used to agonize over spending tens of thousands of credits, but in less than two years he grew to a height immeasurable to his previous self.

"This is progress. This is growth."

His wealth extended not only to his credit balance, but also to his other so-called currencies. Due to the strong momentum behind the Blackbeak, his Design Points broke through 200.000!

"I can't forget about my merits from the Clifford Society either."

He currently possessed around 300 merits, which was a handsome sum for a Knight of the Society. For now, he hung on to those merits until he needed to purchase something exclusive from the Coalition, such as a high-tech license or a supremely advanced production machine.

"I'm sitting on a lot of credits, DP and merits."

For now, Ves did not feel any sense of urgency to spend all of this wealth. Three major priorities occupied his mind right now.

"First, I have to come up with a rifleman mech design within three months."

"Second, I need to get the Avatars of Myth up and running."

"Third, I have to ingest my Transcendence Pill as soon as possible, preferably before the Mech Corps comes calling."

That last point proved to be the thorniest. According to the item's description, the pill could knock out Ves for up to 88 days. This was far too long!

"I can easily design another original mech in that time!"

Ves did not doubt the pill's abilities. Going under for three months or less in exchange for breaking the limits that humans back was a no brainer to everyone else.

"The problem with me is that I'm too indispensable."

After a long absence, the LMC required a steady presence. Ves intended to be present in his company as he worked to design a rifleman mech. Disappearing for several weeks or months again would destabilize the company again and erode everyone's loyalties.

Ves summed it up in a single sentence. "An absent boss is not worth putting forth your passion in your work."

Besides, Ves couldn't afford to go under unless Lucky finished his level-up process. His gem cat still hadn't roused himself from his egg. Occasionally, the bony egg emitted strange signals.

The first couple of times it happened, SASS thought that someone tried to spy on the old workshop. Once they traced it back to Lucky's Egg, Ves had been forced to move the egg to a makeshift vault. The signals his cat kept emitting constantly tripped the alarms.

"I really miss you, Lucky."

He hoped his cat finished his evolution soon. Until then, Ves did not dare have any designs on his pill.

Ves got back to work. Once he finished his paperwork for the day, he turned his thoughts to designing a rifleman mech.

"I can recycle most of the components used in the Blackbeak design, but I'll definitely have to supplement my licenses."

At the very least, he had to obtain licences for a laser rifle, a ranged targeting system and a collection of minor auxiliary components designed to boost the accuracy of a mech.

Ves considered spending merits to obtain premium versions of these licences, but he reconsidered after some time.

"The difference between laser rifles isn't so big."

Laser rifles formed the single most abundant category of mech arms. Practically every mech squad featured at least a single mech with a laser weapon. This ubiquity led to a lot of progress in the field of laser weaponry. Humanity had pretty much exhausted all of their latent potential. Making any further progress was excruciatingly hard.

The market only got to taste a big jump in performance once they reached the next generation of mechs. The top designers and weapon manufacturers in the galaxy had managed to overhaul the conventional design of laser weapons and increased their power by twenty percent across the board.

This was significant progress!

The comprehensiveness of the new design meant that not only first-class mechs wielding laser rifles worth as much as an entire planet got to benefit from the power boost. Much of the innovations being released at the next generation could also be applied to the lowliest mech-sized laser rifles.

Unfortunately, the Mech Corps kept the advancements to themselves and a handful of powerful developers for now. Ves had no way of getting his hands on a nextgen weapon design.

He would have to make do with currentgen offerings.

"An expensive laser rifle will drive up costs. If it's too advanced, then nobody on the field will be able to service such a weapon."

Ves had already familiarized himself with the mainstream second-class laser rifles developed by the Coalition for their own use. All of them took advantage of the properties of exotics abundant in Coalition space but scarce everywhere else.

In order to fabricate a second-class laser rifle, Ves had to get his hands on a reliable supply channel for these exotics.

Even though third-class laser rifles couldn't hold a candle to the power of second-class weapons, Ves still decided to go for a more basic weapon for this reason.

He spent a couple of hours browsing the MTA's catalog for interesting component licenses. He bookmarked a couple of laser rifles and other components for later.

Before he bought the licenses, he first had to set his vision and draw up a draft design. The components had to fit his vision, not the other way around.

In order to develop a perfect Vision, Ves prepared to enlighten himself with this archetype with two different methods.

The conventional method consisted of interviewing rifleman mech pilots. He planned to consult a number of people, including Melkor and any mech pilots he managed to rope into the Avatars of Myth.

The other method consisted of spending 40.000 DP on [Rifleman Mech Mastery I].

A chill ran through his body as Ves thought about acquiring another Mastery. For the span of a couple of days, the System would whisk his mind from his body and send it back in time and space and stuff it into someone else's body.

What would it be like to occupy another body alongside the original mind? Would Ves be able to come to an accord with the original occupant?

"I don't believe the System will lead me astray when I cough up 40.000 DP."

Still, Ves had to wait until Lucky came out of his shell before he cast his mind into the mind of another mech pilot. Last time, he didn't know a single thing about how the System conveyed a Mastery to this mind, but now he knew that his actual body would be comatose and in stasis for several days.

It was imperative that no one found out about his infirm condition during this time.

If the Avatars of Myth had been ready to go, then Ves could reluctantly hand over the responsibility of guarding his body to his group.

As of now, the Avatars didn't even have a second mech or mech pilot to its name. Melkor warned Ves that it would take at least a couple of weeks for him to interview possible candidates in Bentheim.

"I should go ask some people about their thoughts on laser rifleman mechs."

While Ves could call Melkor, he preferred to leave him to his duties for the time being. Instead, he left his office and stepped into the workshop hall.

Everything looked the same, though Ves could vaguely sense some differences. The bots organized the gear and supplies a little tidier, and the mech technicians no longer appeared so green. A palpable sense of duty radiated in the air as everyone worked around the primary production line.

"Chief Cyril!" Ves called as he approached the chief technician. "How's the workshop?"

The man grinned at Ves. "It's better than last time. As you can see, everything is shaping up."

The LMC continued to produce its silver label Blackbeaks in this workshop. Under the Cyril's solid leadership and Carlos' insights learned from EME, they managed to optimize the fabrication process and cut down the time needed to assemble a model a little bit.

"That sounds impressive."

Compared to the hell he experienced with the Whalers, his own company followed the opposite trend. Soon enough, the LMC's technical workforce would be able to rival those from EME and other comparable mech manufacturers.

Ves was very thankful that the Larkinson Estate sent Cyril to his company.

"Anyway, the reason why I paid a visit is because I want to hear your perspective on laser rifleman mechs."

"Riflemen, huh? That's the most prevalent mech type out there." The chief took a deep breath and guided Ves away from the busy workshop floor. "So you're finally ready to dip your company into the business of selling these mechs?"

"I am."

"Follow me, then."

They arrived at Cyril's office. Once he closed the door, he turned to Ves. "Do you know how many rifleman mech models are for sale in the Republic?"

"Thousands?"

"Tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred-thousand. Even if most designs remain unsold, and the vast majority only sell a single digit's worth of mechs, it still means you're going to face the stiffest competition imaginable."

"I see. You're right about that." Ves frowned as he tried to recall all of the great designs in the market. "Offensive knights are rare, so my Blackbeak is easily able to squeeze its way into the market. I can't expect the same treatment for my next design."

This was a very major problem. The amount of competition surrounding laser rifleman mechs led to brutal struggles among mech designers. Many designers went bankrupt because they failed to offer anything compelling.

It was impossible to design a mech that surpassed the mainstream mech models sold by foreign trans-galactic corporations.

"The amount of thought and optimization that goes into rifleman mechs has reached an insane height. It's not even possible for a mech designer from the Friday Coalition to come up with a better design from the same materials, so you should better give up on that ambition."

Cyril basically told him that Ves couldn't compete against the mainstream models by designing a comprehensively better mech. It just couldn't be done.

"What about the domestic supply?"

"There's a substantial split between original designs and variants of mainstream designs. Right now, variants are more popular."

Ves had an inkling why this happened. "Let me guess. The mainstream models are a little too expensive or burdensome to produce, so mech designers develop a local variant made out of materials that are easier to source."

"That's exactly right. The single most important reason why mainstream models isn't monopolizing the entire mech market is that their design incorporates materials that can't easily be obtained in our star sector. Their designers are thousands of light-years away, and they have to design a mech that can accommodate as many star sectors as possible. Incompatibilities are inevitable."

"That's where the variant designers come in. They license the mainstream models and they put their local spin on them so they can be produced and sold by their own companies."

Ves had to admit that it sounded like a foolproof avenue for success. As long as a mech designer bought the right production licence, he would be able to sell an astounding amount of mechs in no time.

Cyril pointed his finger at Ves. "It's a good thing there aren't too many variant designers in the Republic. It's too expensive to licence a mainstream mech design. Every variant designer who currently owns such licenses obtained them through connections or special circumstances. Not a single one of them paid credits for their licenses. Even the government can't afford such extravagance."

Rumors floated around in the galactic net that the upfront cost of a single mainstream mech licence cost as much as 10,000 billion credits. And that was only for an older design!

How could Ves compete against variants derived from these ultra-expensive designs?

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Lucky's glowing egg reached a critical stage. Its bone-like surface sparkled and glistened. The pale blue glowing lines burned bright as the energies within spiked alarmingly.

The spillover effects had reached such a volatile stage that SASS thought someone attacked the workshop. Ves had to call back the incoming security guards before they mistook Lucky's egg as a bomb.

"I'm busy with an experiment! Don't enter my office! I'll take all responsibility for this incident!"

With that answer, the guards reluctantly drew back, though they kept a vigilant eye on his office door.

Ves learned his lesson and deployed his Privacy Shield. No matter how many times the egg convulsed, not a wisp of it escaped the Privacy Shield's barrier.

The egg began to radiate an eerie green glow that pulsed like a heartbeat. Ves could feel the thrum deep within his bones. Even his internal energy cycle disrupted its quiet routine and started to follow the pulsing pattern.

All of this astounded Ves. His eyes opened wide as his sixth sense brushed against sensations that tasted a lot like raw emotion.

The pulses kept accelerating until it reached a fever pitch. Just when the egg looked like it was about to explode, everything stopped when a crack appeared on the shell.

A dainty bone-white paw emerged from the cracks.

The violent activity had stopped as if a bomb had been defused at the very last second. Lucky's paws continued to crack open the egg that now seemed very brittle. Moments later, Lucky's head emerged from the widened crack. His curious eyes looked around until they centered around Ves.

"Meow!"

Lucky rapidly broke away from the shell and glided over to Ves as if he weighed nothing at all.

"Oof!"

Ves caught his cat in his arms and smiled at his pet. "You've finally leveled up!"

"Meow."

Despite the drastic procedure, Lucky looked the same as always. His exterior plating still consisted of a substance that resembled high-grade Rorach's Bone. This gave his cat an exotic appearance that couldn't help but draw people's eyes.

Fortunately, Lucky didn't glow anymore, so he wouldn't attract too much attention. Ves tried to spot any other changes but failed to see anything that stood out except for size.

Lucky had grown a little bigger. It was almost imperceptible, but Lucky did indeed grow a centimeter longer. This did not represent too much of a change, but it indicated that Lucky might grow into a tiger someday.

"I'd rather you stay small. You're easier to feed that way." Ves nuzzled Lucky's belly with his face, prompting his cat to paw at him. "Hahaha, I'll have to enjoy this while I can!"

"Meow meow!"

Once he finishing cuddling his cat, he set Lucky down and inspected him with the vision granted by the System.

[Pet Status]

Name: Lucky

Owner: Ves Larkinson

Rank: Exceptional [Exclusive]

Level: 3

Skills

[Gem Excretion III]

[Energy Claws II]

[Gravity Manipulation I]

[Regeneration I]

[Sharp Senses I]

[Spirituality I]

Overall, Lucky's evolution resulted in a substantial boost of strength. Ves had no doubt that Lucky became more durable and his energy reserves grew deeper. Even if the System didn't enumerate his exact specs, Ves already knew what to expect from the first time he leveled up.

What was different was that Lucky's rank jumped from Gold to Exceptional. This obviously indicated that Lucky had become a more advanced mechanical pet. This also reflected in the Skills that had been added to his status page.

Ves briefly went over the skills. Gem Excretion III spoke for itself. This was Lucky's foundational skill, and one that had the potential of bringing a lot of value to Ves. The jump from Gem Excretion II to Gem Excretion III shouldn't be too substantial. Every gem that Lucky left in litter box only boosted a mech's performance by a couple of percentages.

As long as Lucky kept leveling up, his gems would grow more formidable. At some point, Ves would be able to harvest gems that boosted an attribute by as much as twenty percent!

The power of Lucky's gems should truly come into being by then!

Lucky's Energy Claws II also leveled up. While Ves had no clue what had changed, they should be able to cut through even tougher materials or last a bit longer.

The remaining skills all appeared to be new. Ves tried to inspect them, but he found his borrowed power of observation to be limited. No matter how much he stared at those skills, the System refused to display a description of these novel additions.

"Oh, come on!"

Lucky's level up had put the cat at a higher pedestal. Ves suspected that he lagged behind. "Lucky advanced to level 3 while I'm still stuck as an Apprentice Mech Designer."

This put Ves to thought. The road to Journeyman was a difficult one. The most basic prerequisite had to do with his Skills. The easiest and most direct way to satisfy this condition was to upgrade a Skill to Senior-level.

"Apprentices rarely manage to reach such heights. It's easier to accumulate a lot of Journeyman-level Skills than try to advance a single Skill to the minimum standard of a vaunted Senior."

Still, what others might have difficulties with, to Ves it was a matter of spending Design Points.

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Apprentice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 223,356

Attributes

Strength: 1.3

Dexterity: 0.8

Endurance: 1.9

Intelligence: 1.8

Creativity: 1.9

Concentration: 1.7

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly: Journeyman - [3D Printer Proficiency III] [Assembler Proficiency III]

[Battle Mechatronics: Apprentice - [Knight Mech Mastery I]

[Business: Apprentice

[Computer Science: Incompetent

[Electrical Engineering: Journeyman - [Structural Pathway Configuration III] - [Energy Storage IV] - [Conductors III]

[Mathematics: Journeyman

[Mechanics: Journeyman - [Jury Rigging III] [Speed Tuning IV]

[Metallurgy: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression III]

[Metaphysics: Incompetent

[Physics: Journeyman - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization II] [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization IV] [Melee Weapon Optimization IV]

[Salvaging: Apprentice

[Signals and Communications: Journeyman

Abilities

[Superpublish: Available. Can be activated once a year.

Evaluation: A post-human mech designer with a random collection of Skills.

Ves accumulated so many Design Points over the past couple of months due to the proliferation of his Blackbeak Design. Both his virtual and physical mechs enjoyed commercial success.

He found it interesting that he earned as much DP from his physical mechs than from their virtual copies. It was the first time he had experienced such a thing.

The main reason for the Blackbeak's lack of popularity was that it couldn't deliver a powerful short-term performance. The Blackbeak's performance in the arena was rather dismal. It only redeemed itself in larger battles like the 50v50 Wartorn Instances.

Luckily, the people who bought physical mechs prized the Blackbeak's strengths in toughness and endurance. Sales had spiked during the peak of the Glowing Planet campaign and only tailed off after its conclusion.

According to the sales department's internal projections, demand for the bronze label Blackbeak would slowly decline as the limited demand for offensive knights continued to be met.

While this meant that EME would soon lost their cash cow, the LMC enjoyed a better market position.

"The market finally recognizes the efforts I've made into ensuring the quality of my products."

His gold label mechs enjoyed widespread renown. They had become veritable collector items. All of the limited edition mechs he sold at the Vintage Festival gained a substantial amount of value, the most expensive ones even straight-up doubling in value.

Even though the silver label Blackbeaks differed only minutely from their lesser bronze label counterparts, the mere fact that it carried the LMC's illustrious label had become an added benefit to his customers.

"This is exactly what I want."

Ves worked hard to associate his brand with quality and craftsmanship. He had to give up a lot of opportunities to earn a quick buck along the way, but the seeds had finally started to borne fruit.

His current goal should be to reinforce this association by publishing more designs with the same level of quality. Once the local market got used to his standards, Ves could then start with publishing more exotic designs without fearing any rejection.

"This will take a long time to ferment. First I have to prove that the Blackbeak isn't a fluke by designing a successful rifleman mech design."

Ves turned his attention back to the System and entered the Skills page. The projection shifted to an array of trees, all of which kept branching out like an endless river delta.

Considering that he aimed to design a rifleman mech, Ves focused on the fundamental Skills that played the biggest role.

"Both Mechanics and Physics are vitally important to rifleman mech designs."

Mechanics allowed Ves to design a wholesome frame that synergized with the pilot and his piloting style. The design of a rifleman mech required a wholly different application of Mechanics than with knights.

Knights favored brute force and robustness. Their frames must withstand a lot of shock and should continue to function even if it suffered moderate damage.

Rifleman mechs prioritized precision and finesse. Humanoid rifleman mechs should adhere closely to the human physique in order to maximize the transferability of a mech pilot's skill in marksmanship.

Battle Mechatronics applied to this as well, but Ves should first upgrade its parent Skills, hence why he eyed Mechanics first.

"I can also go with Physics."

Physics delved more into the science of how a mech's components and weapons worked. Whereas Mechanics dealt with mechs as a single system, Physics broke it down into its constituent components.

The largest benefit to upgrading Physics was that Ves would gain the qualification to tinker with mech-sized laser weapons. Even if he learned a fair bit about laser weapons by studying the forbidden research on gamma lasers, Ves still possessed a shallow foundation compared to those underground scientists who dedicated their lives to this field.

Upgrading his Physics Skill also enhanced his ability to optimize his designs. He would be able to program and utilize more complex mathematical models and adjust them on the fly based on his needs. He'd be able to gain some proficiency into some of the higher levels of Physics and make more inroads into understanding the effects of highly energetic exotics.

"I've got two good choices. Which one should I pick?"

Each choice emphasized different aspects of a mech. The safest choice would be to upgrade his Mechanics. A strong development required a strong foundation, and Ves couldn't think of anything that could beat Mechanics in terms of fundamentals.

Still, Ves did not lack for confidence in terms of Mechanics. Despite his lack of Sub-Skills in this category, Ves had developed his Mechanics Skill to a deeper level with the help of his Master and his own personal experiences.

He even dared to say that his Mechanics could keep up with actual Journeyman Mech Designers.

"Upgrading my Physics presents more practical benefits. First, the ability to modify a laser rifle is a powerful one. Second, my ability to optimize my designs will also improve."

Ves focused mostly on the former, but the latter also had a lot of value. Better optimization allowed him to close the gap against the dominant mainstream designs and their many variants.

The only downside to choosing Physics was that Ves might not be able to utlize its advantages with other mech types such as Skirmishers.

"I can always upgrade my Mechanics Skill later on. Right now Physics is more useful to me."

Upgrading a Skill to Senior-level entailed learning at least three Sub-Skills and completing an upgrade mission.

"This mission may take some time."

Ves was worried that the System would serve him another multi-month mission. He already had a lot of tasks on his plate.

After couple of seconds of hesitation, he decided to bite the bullet and dump 100,000 DP into upgrading his Physics to Senior-level.

A mission prompt appeared.

[Upgrade Mission]

Mission: Design and Fabricate a Functional Gamma Laser Rifle

Difficulty: C-Rank

Prerequisites: [Physics - Journeyman]

Description

The essence of a laser rifle revolves around converting energy into a form that causes damage to the target. Conventional laser weapons predominantly utilize the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

However, a mech designer should not be content with remaining within the boundaries of artificial rules.

Explore the potential of laser weapons and design a gamma laser rifle by yourself. Then fabricate it and test the weapon to verify its performance.

Reward:

[Physics - Senior]

The upgrade mission sounded simple. The System only assigned a difficulty of C to this task and it didn't even come with a failure condition.

The only problem was that Ves could not let anyone find out what he was doing. Producing gamma laser weapons was as bad as dabbling with nuclear weapons!

"This is illegal!"

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The seriousness in which the MTA and CFA enforced the laws on taboo weapons frightened all of human space. Practically no one except the lawless dared to cross the two biggest organizations that collectively guarded over humanity.

It was for their own protection. During the Age of Conquest, the humans who conquered the galaxy star by star possessed no bottom line. With their awesome capital ships, they showed no remorse in bombing highly populated alien planets to glass.

Saturating a planet with thousands of nuclear missiles proved to be the quickest, easiest and dirtiest method to wipe out an entire planet's worth of aliens.

Over time, humanity began to be more creative as they sometimes wished to occupy a planet instead of turning it into a lifeless radioactive rock. They experimented with biological diseases and chemicals as well as radiation as a way to cleanse a planet without rendering it uninhabitable.

The results were decidedly mixed, but that didn't lessen humanity's enthusiasm for these destructive toys.

At the tail end of the Age of Conquest, humanity ceased to expand outwards and started to focus inwards. Internal contradictions constantly flared up and the stagnant Terrans faced a revolt among their own ranks, which ultimately led to the birth of the New Rubarth Empire.

These intense and highly destructive wars mainly happened in space. Warships ruled the void. Sending out ground forces to invade a planet proved to be a laborious operation. Seizing control of a foreign planet's population and assets often cost too much time and effort.

The invaders found it more convenient if they rained down mass destruction and wipe out a quarter to half the planet's population.

Humanity began to turn their weapons of mass destruction to their own race.

The tragedies that ensued could not be counted even to this day. Too many atrocities happened in this period to keep track of. Once a state began flinging weapons of mass destruction against another state, the enmity that emerged between the two became irreconcilable.

"You hit me, I hit you back!"

The victims lashed out twice as hard and wiped out every inhabited planet they could reach. Historians had projected that humanity spread out over half the galaxy lost more than ten percent of its total population in a span of fifty years!

Ten percent might not sound so much, but this amounted to many trillions of wasted lives. The sheer amount of death and destruction changed the course of history and threatened to become a man-made plague.

It was easy to start a fight. It was impossible to stop it once the cycle of revenge began to revolve.

The emergence of the first mech piloted by the legendary Mack Liu ended it all. His emergence along with some other factors led to the formation of the Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance.

The two organizations heralded the Age of Mechs. Their strength awed the fractious states and suppressed the unruly parties that wanted to keep using their weapons of mass destruction. Human space quickly found out that it was not a good idea to incur their wrath.

Two important changes happened at the start of the Age of Mechs besides the ban on weapons of mass destruction. First, CFA assumed sole responsibility for defending human space against the alien empires that pressured it from every direction.

They straightforwardly confiscated every warship and formed their own defense fleet crewed by a variety of humans across the galaxy. States lost the right to wage their internal wars with ships armed to the teeth with colossal weaponry. It was too expensive to replace the fallen ships, especially since each of them cost a substantial fortune.

Capital ships took up an extravagant amount of manpower and resources to produce. The destruction and loss of each major warship weakened humanity's ability to withstand alien incursions. Therefore, the CFA had been tasked with preserving these assets as much as possible.

The second change revolved around promoting the use of mechs as the main mode for war. No longer would capital ships be allowed to orbit a planet and bombard it into oblivion with huge cannons or destructive lasers.

The transition to mechs turned out to be very bumpy. Besides the immature technology that underpinned workings, states also found the mech to be a lackluster weapon platform. Compared to the destructive power of a capital ship, a single mech was an ant.

The MTA overthrew a lot of states before humanity learned their lesson.

Ves recalled the last couple of hundred years and sighed. "Right now, we live in the Age of Mechs."

There was no place for a forbidden weapon like a gamma laser rifle in today's society. Only the most depraved and degenerate pirates used such a thing, and they never lasted very long.

In truth, the destructiveness of gamma lasers or grasers couldn't quite compare against the might of a nuclear bomb. The weapon type worked best in space where it could only threaten spaceships or space station.

For various reasons, the MTA and CFA added any laser weapon that weaponized some of the higher frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum to the list of taboo weapons.

Ves had to accept their stance without question. What could he do on his own? Should he visit the MTA's branch on Cloudy Curtain and ask for an exception to create a weapon of mass destruction because of a mission?

"They'll shoot me to pieces before I can even get another word in." Ves shook his head. "That is if they don't capture me and torture me to death."

This thorny upgrade mission compelled Ves to work alone. He absolutely could not trust a single person except for Lucky. Even his most trusted technicians such as Carlos or Chief Cyril would turn on him in a heartbeat if he showed any interest at all in producing a forbidden weapon.

The fear of the taboo had set in deep nowadays.

"Forget about designing such a weapon. Fabricating it without tipping anyone off is the biggest problem with this mission."

Ves never travelled alone nowadays. People constantly kept their eye on him, and while he could obfuscate their observation methods with his Privacy Shield, it did not block any naked eyeballs from seeing what he was up to.

Running his stealth augment was too costly to consider. His stealth only held up for five minutes before his comm ran out of power. Ves could hardly work in short, 5 minute intervals, especially when he began his fabrication.

The best solution for now would be to travel somewhere remote with a 3D printer. As long as he could do the dirty deed in the middle of nowhere, the System wouldn't quibble with him as long as he fabricated a successful copy.

Ves thought about his two production lines just then. The newer production line that centered around the Dortmund printer was absolutely essential to the LMC.

The older one however had been relegated to a backup line. The mech technicians mainly used the second-hand printer and assembly system to practice their skills, fabricate some replacement components or fulfill some odd jobs.

In other words, no one cared about it anymore.

A plan formed in his mind. In order to design and fabricate a graser rifle in peace, he planned to bring the second-hand printer along with a number of supplies and raw materials and move out to a remote planet, moon or asteroid and work alone from there.

Ves figured that he could fit everything he needed in the Barracuda, if only barely. The printer took up the most space by far, but the cargo bay should have enough space left over for a couple of smaller containers filled with supplies.

"Fabricating a rifle doesn't consume a lot of resources. I don't have to bring too much."

A complication emerged when Ves tried to formulate which resources he should bring. If he guessed wrong and ended up missing a vital resource to produce a graser rifle, then he had to halt the entire project and call for the Barracuda to ship the missing materials, which wasted valuable time and risked getting found out.

He estimated that the entire design and fabrication process shouldn't take too long. In ideal conditions, he might be able to manage it within a week. The need for secrecy ate up even more time than the actual process.

If Ves wanted to apply his upgraded Physics to his upcoming rifleman mech design, then he had no choice but to delay its design by several weeks.

He considered skipping this troublesome upgrade mission for now, but ultimately decided to take the extra time to go through with it. He needed every advantage possible to narrow the gap against his competition.

Hardly any Apprentice Mech Designer managed to find their footing in the oversaturated market for rifleman mechs. Even though many buyers jostled for mechs, even more sellers hawked their wares at them. The dizzying amount of choices meant that new designs hardly gained any attention unless they offered something compelling.

Ves knew his current Skills could only allow him to design a mech that underperformed compared to the mainstream model. Even Journeyman Mech Designers hadn't been able to compete head-on against these highly developed designs.

The only successful cases where they succeeded was when their designs happened to fill a niche through sheer strength.

Ves saw hope in this approach. The prerequisite of course was to upgrade a Skill to Senior-level.

Before he arrived at somewhere safe and isolated, Ves absolutely couldn't risk begin his design work on a graser weapon.

"I guess I better get the ball rolling." He muttered to himself and closed the page.

In the next hour, Ves called Captain Silvestra to drop whatever the Barracuda was doing and come back to Cloudy Curtain. He also arranged the transport of the old second-hand printer and a number of supplies and raw materials.

While his workers scratched their heads and puzzled over why the boss wanted to take the printer away, Ves informed his company of his brief absence.

As usual, his COO Jake disapproved of his random jaunt. "This is highly irresponsible. I thought we are clear about the consequences of any further adventures. I don't know what you are up to, but a chief designer who is constantly missing is not a good sign that the LMC is stable."

"Does stability even matter?" Ves retorted. He did not intend anyone to persuade him from his course. "This is not a public company. I don't have to answer to any shareholders except for myself. What I'm about to do is for the betterment of the LMC. Once I return, I'll be more than capable of designing a strong and commercially viable rifleman mech."

Jake had to take his word for it. The old man still looked at him with disapproval. "Try to keep in touch over the galactic net if you can. Even if you are heading to somewhere isolated, we'd still like to know you are physically safe and secure."

"That will likely be a problem. I'll be working well away from civilization. I can't afford anyone to stay close to me, including the Barracuda. I'll be out of range of her quantum entanglement node, so I won't be able to access the galactic net or call anyone with my comm during this period."

In his planning, the Barracuda would only check up on him once every few days in case he needed to order more raw materials. The rest of the time, his corvette should stay far away from his work site in order to prevent his activities from being leaked to any spies.

Ves never forgot who made the Barracuda in the first place. He won the ship after winning the finals at Leemar's Open Competition. The Leemar Institute of Technology could have stuffed all manner of bugs and listening devices on the ship. Even Lucky couldn't do anything about it as those features were integrated in the ship on a core level.

The best insurance would be to send the ship far away while he worked.

"Relax, Mr. Jake. I won't be going anywhere dangerous this time. I'll pick the most quiet, forgotten star system in the Republic and do my thing for a couple of weeks. Nothing will go wrong, I can guarantee you."

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The usually boisterous classroom in the academy abruptly fell into silence. Every potentate sat up straight as a uniformed mech pilot walked in front of the class. Joshua's eyes shone as he beheld the dashing man.

The man swept his view towards the boys and girls and mentally shook his head. What was the use of visiting these teenagers? They were at least five years away from being qualified to pilot mechs. Still, he had his orders.

"This is a time of war. The Vesia Kingdom has invaded us once again, and it is the duty of every citizen to repel them with the best of your ability. As mech cadets, your time has not yet come, but that is no excuse for you to slack off! The Mech Corps holds the frontlines so that kids like you can train in peace. Do not squander their sacrifice and continue to improve your skills. The Republic depends on you!"

Every boy and girl thrusted out their chest in pride. A veritable wave of enthusiasm passed over the cadets as they imagined wearing the mech pilot's uniform one day. Every mech regiment utilized a different uniform scheme, which led to a lot of variety in the Mech Corps. Joshua himself only recognized a couple of them, and the man's black-and-yellow uniform eluded his knowledge.

"As a potentate of the Republic, the most talented of you are treasured by us. Certain individuals here have distinguished themselves in their training. I am here to invite a number of you to accompany me back to Bentheim and enroll in one of their most prestigious academies on a fast-track training program. I won't lie, it will be hard, and the amount of drop-outs will be high. But if even one of you perseveres, you will have a bright future ahead of you in the Mech Corps!"

The majority of the cadets frowned or groaned. They knew their scores well enough to realize that they didn't qualify for such an extravagant program. Instead, they turned their attention to Joshua and a couple of other talented classmates. Out of all of them, their performance stood out the most.

"Cadets Joshua, Liss and Maye, you are deemed eligible to take up this opportunity. Are you willing to serve the Republic?"

"We are!"

The mech pilot smiled. "We will send out an information package to your parents. So long as your parents consent to the program, you'll be eligible to apply."

The rest of the classroom envied Joshua and the rest. None of them scored remarkably well in their training courses. In fact, their academy actually ranked at the bottom in the Republic. It couldn't be helped since Cloudy Curtain lacked a rich mech scene until recently.

The founding of the LMC and its subsequent rise changed all of that. Suddenly, their sleepy rural planet became a local hotbed for mechs as the LMC broke out of its shell with the release of the widely acclaimed Blackbeak model.

The mech manufacturer's ascension initiated a sea of change. Local politics had been thrown into a mess, while the influx of tax income invigorated public services. Culturally, the insular citizens of Cloudy Curtain finally opened up to the wider Republic.

Once stoked, the mech fever ran out of control. The enthusiastic younger generation flocked to the LMC like ducks and became the company's diehard fans.

The potentates among them formed a virtual fanclub called the LMC Association. They established a presence in every virtual game including Iron Spirit.

Joshua owed much of his recent success to the Association and the game. The only reason why he improved so quickly was that he wanted to pilot the LMC's higher starred virtual mechs.

Ves Larkinson published a handful of virtual mechs in his brief career. Over time, the members of the Association flocked to one dominant model in each tier. It became something of a badge of pride if the members could master every bestseller mech.

Currently, the list included the following mechs:

1-star: Fantasia 2R Seraphim - Aerial Marksman

2-star: TOC-1S Old Soul - Ambush Rifleman

3-star: HPL-100S Young Blood - Knight

4-star: FFL-25P DarkSpear - Assassin Mech

5-star: CA-1C2 Marc Antony Mark II - Hybrid Knight

The boisterous members of the Association generally reached a broad consensus on the first four mechs. Each of them represented the best mechs of their tier. Most of them consisted of Mr. Larkinson's latest virtual designs.

The only place the members couldn't agree on was the Marc Antony Mark II. As a Hybrid Knight, it was hard to pilot. Only the older members of the Association had reached the Gold League where they could unlock the ability to pilot a 5-star mech, and they all encountered significant difficulties trying to control the Mark II's many weapons.

Frankly speaking, the recently released Blackbeak virtual mech was much more suitable as a poster mech for the 5-star tier. As a pure knight mech, it lacked the complicated and uncoordinated weapon systems of the older design. While it didn't fare very well in small-scale duels, it still found a respectable place in Warntorn Instances and other larger game modes.

The only problem was the price. As a premium design, the Blackbeak sold for a ridiculous amount of gold or real credits. Only a handful of long-time players accumulated enough gold to exchange for the mech. The rest could only stare enviously.

In any case, Joshua had worked hard the last couple of years. Ever since he first came across Chasing Clouds' mechs, he had no idea that he was piloting a product of a homegrown hero. After Mr. Larkinson came into prominence, his drive to master Mr. Larkinson's mechs had grown into a deep-seethed obsession.

At his age, he should still be languishing in the upper Bronze League or the lower Silver League. Instead, he rocketed upwards until he finally broke through the Gold League.

His hard work paid off! The moment he promoted to the Gold League, he instantly spent the credits he'd been saving so far on a virtual copy of the DarkSpear mech, which had gained some notoriety in the Bentheim mech scene.

Joshua tasted bliss as he piloted the assassin mech. He utilized the skills he gained from mastering the Old Soul and achieved a decent amount of success with the assassin mech.

Still, it had been rough the first couple of months. His ranking fell as he struggled to adapt to the higher pace of the Gold League. His game account even demoted back to Silver League at some point, but the skills he learned from the high-pressure upper league allowed him to bounce back to Gold League in a brief amount of time.

His performance in game reflected back in his performance in the academy. Joshua sat at the top of his year in academy. Almost no one his age could match him in a duel.

To be honest, Joshua only accepted the invitation to attend an elite academy in Bentheim because he'd be able to promote his ranking faster.

"I'll be able to pilot Mr. Larkinson's 5-star mechs sooner if I go to Bentheim."

If the mech pilot who visited his class heard those words, he'd wring Joshua's neck. The Vesians have invaded the Republic's borders, and all you can think about is playing a game?!

Across Cloudy Curtain, Joshua consisted of a small number of mech cadets that recently showed a lot of promise. Each of them owed their improvement to the LMC in some way. The passion the mech company engendered among its fans had lit a fire inside their hearts

If the LMC initially stoked the fire, then Walter's Whalers fanned the flames.

Their participation and subsequent return from the Glowing Planet Campaign had captured the minds of the locals.

The proliferation of recordings from the Whalers and many other participants of the struggle to secure the Glowing Planet's resources had captured the minds of the entire Komodo Star Sector.

It sounded like an adventure drama. The Whalers arrived at the Glowing Planet and survived through several crises before they limped back home with a huge pot of gold. Billions of credits flowed into their account, and in the first couple of weeks they threw out party after party. The entire planet revelled in the success of the gang.

Only a handful stood still at the losses. Walter, Dietrich, Fadah and the other cadre quietly consoled the survivors and set aside two-hundred million credits for their pensions. It was the least they could do, and they didn't lack for money now in any case.

Once the partying had subsided, a contentious discussion ensued within the gang. Some of the older members wanted to retire with their riches, while others wanted to continue the good fight but with better mechs.

"Haven't we struggled for years in the mud for a big score like this?" An older member asked. "Look at how much we earned! We're richer than most companies right now! I bet we're worth even more than the LMC right now! The time to pilot mechs is over. If anything, we can hire others to pilot mechs in our stead!"

Even though a couple of members agreed with that position, Dietrich quickly thumped his fist on the conference table. "Is retiring all you can think about? Then go ahead and leave, but don't expect to get a large share of the prize. This money belongs to the Whalers! As far as I'm concerned, this is the time where our gang can flourish! With the Vesians knocking on our borders, the last thing we should do is to put down our mechs!"

The argument went back and forth for both sides. While many Whalers wanted to leave behind their old profession, others wanted to expand their organization and become more formidable in everyone's eyes. These hardcore members couldn't imagine a life of peace and leisure.

Once the two sides entered a deadlock, Walter finally intervened. "Walter's Whalers will continue on until we all drop dead or drop out. Those of you who wants to retire may do so. If you fought alongside me on the Glowing Planet, then I'll make sure you earned your fair share. As for the rest, don't expect us to be generous."

A substantial number of members who advocated for early retirement had in fact been left behind on Cloudy Curtain. They never shed their blood on behalf of the Whalers. Instead, they stared greedily at the tens of billions of credits the Whalers had earned from the sale of their mining haul to the Republic.

Walter's words instantly doused their greed. Most of the freeloaders subsequently quieted down and expressed no further interest in a retirement. Each of them could only expect to receive about fifty-thousand credits, which was a pittance.

In contrast, Walter treated those who experienced the tough campaign on the Glowing Planet and wanted to leave for one reason or another more sincerely. Though the Whalers still retained the lion's share of the pot, Walter issued a billion credits to the retirees, turning all of them into enviable pensioners.

Once everyone who still expressed a desire to leave had left, Walter addressed the loyalists who stuck by his organization.

"I won't lie to you. Much of the money we've made will be spent on mechs, ships and equipment. If you think you'll be able to drink the finest drinks and eat cloud rice every way then you're mistaken. We have a lifetime opportunity to become an elite outfit and I won't squander it away by wasting it on luxuries!"

No one outwardly objected to his decision, though plenty of members complained within their hearts at Walter's excessive frugality.

"In the coming months, we will build up our strength. Our first order of business is to fill up our roster and expand our scope. I hope to we can grow our numbers to the point where we can field a thousand mechs at a time."

"A thousand mechs!?"

That was half a regiment! So many mechs would turn the Whalers from a rural bully into a regional powerhouse. Though they'll never be able to surpass the Three Tyrants who ruled over Bentheim, such numbers gave them the qualification to contest over other minor star systems!

Each outfit that returned from the Glowing Planet intact experienced similar transformations. These lucky gangs and mercenary corps outpaced their rivals and competitors by far and began to recruit en masse.

The balance of power in the Bentheim region decisively shifted in their favor.

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In the past couple of days, Ves fulfilled as many duties as possible. He discussed and approved the expansion plans with the officers of the company.

In particular, he approved the procurement of two brand new production lines for the LMC's new manufacturing complex. Due to a lack of cash on hand, the company would have to go into debt to the tune of 4 billion credits, but this was easily bearable since the Blackbeak models still sold like hotcakes for now.

He also conducted his interview with Mercenary Central in his office. The interview was a lot more relaxed than the one he had with the Rimward Star herald. Ves mainly spoke some platitudes and constantly highlighted the benefits of the Blackbeak model. He tried his best not to trip over himself by uttering a gaffe.

Overall, the interview with Mercenary Central had largely been forgettable. The LMC and its partners only received a minor bump in orders for the Blackbeak models. Ves mainly treated the public exposure as a way to plant some seeds in the subscribers of the publication.

Not every mercenary was short on mechs at the moment. Once the war heated up, their losses would begin to pile up. Ves hoped that they remembered his words and took a closer look at the Blackbeak.

"It's difficult to raise more interest in my product at this time. The hype has died down."

The Blackbeak ceased to be a news item among the the public. The market had moved on to shinier toys that came out in the last month or so. Still, many professionals knew about the Blackbeak and what it could offer to its owners. Even if its sales started to slide, it hadn't cratered to single digits as of yet.

After the interview, Ves got in touch with Melkor who travelled to Bentheim and instructed him to manage the Avatars of Myth by himself for the time being.

"Are you having any trouble recruiting promising pilots?"

Melkor grimaced over the projection. "To be honest, I've come way too late. The Mech Corps and the mercenary corps have snapped up almost every competent mech pilot available for hire in the preceding months. The only ones who are left are failures or carry a black mark on their record."

"Take your time, then. I don't mind if you have to wait a few months to gather seven or eight good mech pilots. This first batch of mech pilots will form the core of the Avatars of Myths. It's vitally important to know that we can rely on them to lead our future recruits."

"I understand, Ves. I'm actually reaching out beyond the Republic at this point. There are still some promising foreign mech pilots who expressed some interest in working for a mech designer."

Mech pilots generally liked to work with successful mech designers. Unlike mercenaries, they didn't have to go around from job to job but instead mostly spent their time in one place. They only had to go out for a few errands once every few years.

Unlike company forces, mech pilots directly in the employ of a mech designer often received favored treatment with regards to the mechs they got to pilot. Mech designers always lavished their most loyal protectors with their best works.

Ves was no exception in this regard. In time, he planned to pair the entire roster of the Avatars of Mechs with his own designs.

"Have you also made a selection of mechs?"

"Not yet. I'm eyeing a handful of models, but It's hard for me to decide which ones I should settle on. It will help if you can tell me how you plan to use the Avatars of Myth."

"The Avatars will first and foremost act as my bodyguards. They should have the ability to act as my defenders and repel any Tom, Dick and Harry that wants to take a shot at me with their mechs. The second priority is to be able to go on an expedition in hazardous environments far away from civilization. Think of the Glowing Planet or Groening IV. The mech pilots of the Avatars of Myth should be mentally prepared to go on these kinds of arduous trips."

Melkor sighed. "I can easy gather up some mech pilots who are eager to take up guard duty, but the latter is a lot more difficult to deal with. Not a lot of talented mech pilots are eager to gamble with their lives. Everyone knows of the danger that's inherent with every expedition into the unknown."

"I'll make it worth their while. You can offer as much salary and benefits as you want, though I hope you don't stray too far from the predominant market rates."

Everyone had a price. As long as they threw enough money around, Ves and Melkor would surely be able to attract some poor but greedy mech pilots with some abilities.

Ves hung up on Melkor after discussing some further details. The issue of the Avatars of Myth could not be rushed. It was not as if he had any need for them at this time, especially since he was about to embark on a solo trip to the middle of nowhere.

Alongside his duties, Lucky often followed him as he went back and forth. Ever since he reached level 3, Lucky tested out his new abilities with the curiosity of a child.

The most drastic enhancement had to be his gravity manipulation. With it, Lucky finally gained the ability to fly.

In the first days, Lucky often raced around in the air like a dolphin in the water. Sadly, his control hadn't caught up with his enthusiasm and he often flattened his body against a wall or some furniture.

Everyone laughed when that happened, including Ves. Lucky hadn't been hurt, of course. Even if he flew fast enough to hurt a living cat, his Rorach's Bone-based body could endure a lot of punishment.

"Lucky, stop flying around so much! You're damaging the furniture!"

"Meow!"

His cat ignored him and continued to swim in the air. While Lucky started to get a hang of controlling his movements by manipulating his gravity, Ves arranged some plans the LMC should follow in his absence.

"I'm not certain we're ready to move into the new manufacturing complex. It's still a month away from finishing." Jake responded after he received the latest plan.

"We can't delay our move for long." Ves replied. "The war has already broke out. In the previous Bright-Vesia Wars, the Vesians always sent out raiding fleets to strike at vulnerable Republican infrastructure. For better or worse, we're part of the Republic's war industry and a valid target."

The thought of an attack had always lingered at the backs of everyone's mind, but no one truly considered the Vesians would spare a fleet to attack their meager workshop.

Jake couldn't believe the Vesians would resort to such a thing. "We only have a single production line after you dismantled the old printer. There are many other mech manufacturers that contribute a lot more to the defense of the Republic."

"All those companies with four or more production lines aren't stupid. They already bolstered their company forces in order to deter any raids. The Vesians won't send out too many mechs in their raiding fleets, so they have to pick their targets with care. Our old workshop is a soft target in their eyes. Even if we don't amount to much for now, it might be different in the future."

"I see. They might want to divert some resources at us in order to strangle us in our cradle."

The mech industry regarded the LMC as a promising mech manufacturer. As long as Ves didn't screw up and continued to publish quality design, its rise was already a given.

Naturally, the Vesians wouldn't like that.

"I'll put my support behind the move. I'll make certain the manufacturing complex will be up and running within two months."

Time would be tight, and mishaps were bound to happen, but Ves truly prioritized everyone's safety. The sooner they moved into their fortified complex, the safer they would all be.

Ves didn't have to arrange many major instructions after that. Besides the development of new designs, the company ran by itself, exactly the way he liked it. He only spent some time to issue some reminders to the board of directors. They better not be making any major decisions without his presence.

"Getting Vaun on board was bad enough. I won't accept any more dissention, even from my grandfather."

Although he resented his grandfather for supporting that move, Ves didn't have the guts to call him out on it. He avoided his grandfather and seemingly forgot about him during his brief stay on Cloudy Curtain.

On the day of his departure, he shuttled over to the spaceport and boarded the Barracuda with only Lucky as his companion. As he reached the hatch, he turned around and beheld his planet.

"It's too soon for me to leave again, but I don't have any choice. I need to do this mission alone."

Once he stowed away his luggage, he entered the bridge. Captain Silvestra already instructed the Barracuda to lift off into space. The corvette hardly rumbled as it escaped Cloudy Curtain's gravity well, which was a testament to her well-trained crew.

"I see you are all making your recent training to good use."

"Mr. Larkinson, welcome aboard." Silvestra nodded to him from the captain's seat. "You haven't told us yet where you want us to fly. Where do you want to go?"

"Set a course for NCVEFG-3438 for now. I'll feed you the next jump once we reach the next star system."

NCVEFG-3438 was actually a lifeless red dwarf with hardly any planet to note. The galaxy contained countless of red dwarfs, and most of them held nothing of value at all. They only formed a somewhat convenient transition point for ships looking to evade the public eye.

"Aye aye, boss. I'll set our next destination to NCVEFG-3438. Our estimated arrival time is two days."

Ves had already planned his route over four different stops, each of which consisted of four abandoned or empty star systems. There were too many of these star systems to count, even in a desolate place like the Komodo Star Sector.

Although he knew that the Republic and other forces hid some observation equipment in these star systems, as long as his crew put their vaunted skills to use, they could easily obfuscate their readings and mislead them into thinking they had transitioned towards another star system. Any trained crew could pull off such a trick.

Once Ves became satisfied with Silvestra's arrangement, he returned to his stateroom and sat behind his desk. He pulled up a secure data pad that contained a book he recently ordered from the Clifford Society.

With several hundreds of merits to his account, he figured that he should brush up on his knowledge on laser weapons while he travelled to his final destination. Ves planned to acquire some Sub-Skills from the System as well, but he wouldn't be able to enlighten himself with the personal perspective of past experts.

The books on his reading list consisted of textbooks and musings of various experts that had once made contributions in the field of directed energy weapons. Reading their thoughts and understanding their paradigms helped him digest the knowledge he learned from the forbidden research data on gamma lasers he unearthed a long time ago.

"Hopefully I can upgrade my Skills or gain a new Sub-Skill at the end."

Of all the things he enjoyed about his career, he loved to learn new things. His ability to design a mech had come a long way since the start of his career.

Before, he had to rely on designing virtual mechs and variants of existing designs.

Now, he became accustomed to designing his own original mechs. Even though he only had the Blackbeak to his name, he maintained full confidence that he could repeat the magic of his first original design.

"My rifleman mech should be even better than the Blackbeak, now that I'm about to work on upgrading my Physics to Senior-level. I'll have to design a groundbreaking machine in order to attract a lot of sales."

Though the challenge seemed daunting, Ves never lost his fighting spirit. He believed he could succeed.

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The Havensworth Star System was one of the most important and strategic locations in the wars between the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom. Situated right at the border between the two warring states, the fortified star system played an essential role in curtailing the advances of the aggressive Vesians.

People once said that the Bright Republic couldn't exist without this star system.

"The Vesia Kingdom is larger and more prosperous than the Bright Republic. The only reasons why we haven't lost to them is because their nobles are constantly stabbing each other's backs and because Havensworth is tying down a large portion of the Mech Legion."

Most star systems of note consisted of a number of stars and some orbiting planets along with a couple of asteroid belts or clouds. What made Havensworth extraordinarily hard to invade was due to its two peculiar properties.

As a binary star system, it consisted of two stars, a bigger one and a smaller one. The bigger one was a giant, which made it easier to travel to from a longer distance. Besides radiating a lot of electromagnetic radiation, it also ejected a fair amount of stellar wind, which made the entire Havensworth System a hazardous place for ships.

Any invaders attempting to conquer the system's sole inhabited planet had to endure the grinding stellar winds that constantly emerged from the giant star. The strength of the stellar wind varied from time to time. Even a capital ship would buckle in front of the strongest winds.

The giant's larger mass also widened the star system's gravitic field, which meant that a hostile fleet emerged out of FTL from a much larger distance. This provided the defenders with ample time to respond to the new presence. It also made it harder for the losers of a conflict to run away into FTL.

If that wasn't bad enough, the smaller star emitted a strange disruptive field that blocked all means of communicating through a quantum entanglement node. This effectively meant that anyone that went inside would be isolated from the rest of the galaxy. No form of communication could reach any ship of base in the disruptive star's influence.

Such stars were rare, but the Bright Republic happened to have occupied it before the Vesians could get their claws on it. Ever since then, the Bright Republic always managed to hang on to the Havensworth Star System no matter how much they'd been pressed.

The Mech Corps turned the largest rocky planet in the system into a veritable fortification. Havensworth II or Citadel Havensworth formed the nucleus of the Republic's defense against the Vesians. Although the citadel planet lacked any signs of life, the Mech Corps comprehensively transformed its underground terrain into a deep and exquisite set of fortifications.

It was virtually impregnable from above. The only way to crack this shell was to utilize taboo weapons or to invade the tunnels with a crushing amount of mechs.

An illustrious member of the Larkinsons commanded over the largest and most important bases underneath the surface. With Colonel Ark Larkinson holding the fort, the mech pilots of the Mech Corps would never give in to despair.

"So long as the Magnificent Knight still draws breath inside these tunnels, the Republic shall never fall!"

The Vesian Mech Legion had never succeeded in taking over the citadel planet, but they often tried again with each war. They faced a lot of difficulties due to the lack of instant communication and the stellar winds that pounded their ships.

Only heavily armored ships would be able to linger in the star system, and only up to a month or so. This forced the Vesians to divert much of their precious capital ships to the Havensworth System, leaving their lightly armored transports and logistic ships behind.

The Mech Corps on the other hand built up an enormous stockpile of supplies in their underground bases. They could comfortably hold the citadel planet for a decade, tying down their adversaries without any help from the rest of the Republic.

Right now, the Vesians pressed the Havensworth Star System with two divisions worth of fleet carriers and mechs. They destroyed the space stations that orbited the various planets in the system before proceeding to surround the citadel planet in a wide orbit.

They stopped short at invading the dreaded fortified planet. Even though its exterior looked as barren as any lifeless rocky planet, an extensive reinforced tunnel network ran many kilometers underneath.

They stretched for thousands of kilometers in every direction, branching out and converging back together in a random pattern meant to obfuscate even their own designers. Not a single Brighter possessed a complete map of the tunnels.

Furthermore, the Bright Republic collapsed and rebuilt the entire tunnel network after every war. This meant that the Vesians had to send out scouting parties to map out the upper levels of the tunnel at the onset of each new war.

Such an operation took several years to complete. The Vesians had already become familiar with this time consuming task, so they spared no time in starting their mapping operations.

Dozens of mech squads emerged from the fleet carriers and quickly dove to the surface of the rocky planet. They had to enter the planet's magnetic field as fast as possible in order to shield their frames against the stellar winds that occasionally penetrated closer to orbit.

The aerial mechs did not require any assistance in descending onto the planet, though they needed help getting back up into orbit, which the fleet carriers would send out after they completed their mission.

Once the squads of aerial mechs reached the surface, they fanned out towards the underground entrances the ships in orbit had already spotted.

One squad consisted of mechs from the Grand Chasers regiment. As a squad of light mechs, they excelled in scouting duties such as this. They swiftly flew inside the tunnels and mapped out the interior in rapid tempo.

The Mech Corps quickly sent out their own response. A squad of mechs from the 6th Stellar Lancers Regiment emerged from an underground hatch. A mix of twelve light and medium aerial mechs flew out to block the Vesians from going any deeper.

The two squads encountered each other a couple of minutes later. The initial clash went poorly for the Grand Chasers as they struggled to dodge the incoming Lancers.

At least half of the squad from the Stellar Lancers consisted of spearman mechs. Their mechs had all been designed to pierce through anything in their way.

The dreadful opening clash heavily damaged two hapless light mechs from the Grand Chasers. The subsequent battle turned into a brief and intensive dogfight until the Vesian interlopers finally managed to turn the other way around, dragging their damaged mechs with them as they fled like rats.

The Stellar Lancers tried to catch up to their prey but it was to no avail.

"Tch. They're too fast. The Grand Cowards are only good at running away."

Skirmishes like these happened every day. Due to the abundance of tunnels in Havensworth II, some of the scouts penetrated deeper into the tunnels before they met any opposition. It couldn't be helped as the Mech Corps only had so many mechs to spread around.

The scouts emerged from the tunnels a handful at a time. They converged on the heavily armored transports that had been sent out from the fleet carriers in orbit. The mechs filed into the transports which brought them back to their ships.

This pattern repeated again and again as the Vesians sent out squad after squad. The operation only stopped when the fleet carriers had to escape the brutal stellar winds that wore down its exterior armor.

Fleets from both sides occasionally dropped in, but they never stuck around for long.

Compared to the tame battles that took place on Citadel Havensworth, the other border systems encountered a lot more grief.

Cities burned while civilians fled to underground shelters as the Mech Legion overran the token defenses put up by the poor and underdeveloped border systems.

Frankly, the star systems situated at the border of the two states had changed their allegiance so often that the inhabitants possessed no intrinsic loyalty to either powers.

Someone's parents might have grown up onder Vesian rule while they themselves grew up under Brighter rule.

Everyone born in these border systems had become used to shifting their loyalties at the drop of a hat. Once the fighting died down, the garrisons shamelessly pledged to serve the Vesians while the citizens welcomed the occupying infantry forces as liberators.

"Down with the Republic!"

"Long live the Vesian King!"

Even though the Mech Legion easily occupied these border systems, they held no strategic value at all. They offered very little wealth and except for a paltry amount of taxes. Instead, they acted as a drag on the Vesia Kingdom. In order to hold on to the systems and push up the frontlines, they had to allocate a significant amount of mechs to hold these worthless territories.

The Vesians didn't dare to be too negligent in occupying these systems, because the Mech Corps sometimes used them as outposts in their counterattacks in past wars.

These were actually just the opening moves in the war. Both sides knew that the war would drag on for at least three to four years. In order to smooth the way for the subsequent years, the Republic and the Kingdom both held back the bulk of their strength. A pitched battle so early in the war benefited neither side, especially since they recently slugged it out at the tail end of the Glowing Planet campaign.

Across the entire Republic, the drums of war began to beat its citizens into action. Several potentates that pursued civilian lives had been called up by the Mech Corps. They enjoyed a lot of privileges in times of peace, but in exchange they signed up as reservists. Every citizen who could pilot a mech had to be ready to fight for their state.

A handful of reservists protested their reassignment during each and every war. They had become inured to the indolent life as civilians. They became scared at the prospect of piloting mechs in the middle of an active war zone.

"Don't take me away! I can do better at home!"

"Unhand me, you uncouth barbarians! I am a potentate! It's illegal to touch me!"

"My skills are atrophied! I'm hardly fit to pilot a mech these days!" A portly man squealed.

An armored infantryman bashed the potentate with the butt of his rifle. "Oh shut up. You spoiled potentates are always hollering the same things. Man up for once in your life and accept your duty!"

"What duty?! I never wanted to be a soldier! I'll faint at the sight of blood!"

The fat man received another thunk on his head.

"Hehe, we don't care. By the time you've gone through your remedial training, you'll get used to seeing buckets of blood. Take this lard ball away!"

Alongside potentates, the Republic also drafted plenty of norms. Every war nowadays centered around mechs, but there was still a place for infantry in order to manage occupied or liberated territories. Mechs also needed a lot of servicing from support personnel, and turrets and vehicles had to be manned as well.

Right now, the level of mobilization had only reached an early state. Even as the Republic shifted its society into war footing, it had to do so with care in order to prevent an overall collapse of its economy.

Only a handful of sectors thrived during a war. Mech manufacturers benefited most as long as long as their designs had merit. Their suppliers also did good business so long they could operate their mines without interruption.

The Vesians knew this very well, and sent out a handful of deep strike fleets to harass their adversary's infrastructure.

As a center of Republican industry and commerce, Bentheim often received the brunt of these raids.

But that was a story for another day, for the Barracuda had finally reached her destination after more than a week of travel.

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Ves looked at his Status page with pride. After more than a week of studying a couple of books from the Clifford Society, he managed to acquire a new Sub-Skill on his own.

[Rapid-Fire Laser Weapon Operation I]

This Sub-Skill enhanced his understanding of laser rifles and was much more specific and comprehensive than Directed Energy Weapon Optimization II. While the latter only allowed him to optimize an existing energy weapon design, his new Sub-Skill enabled him to design a laser weapon from scratch.

Specifically, Rapid-Fire Laser Weapon Operation I focused on delivering quick pulses of laser beams. A series of pulses as opposed to a single, long-burn beam. This mode of firing came with its own challenges, but it enabled laser rifles to use up less energy and slow down the buildup of heat.

The books he read also inured him to the perspectives of the authors, both of whom reached the Senior-level in their lifetimes. One author advocated that that laser rifles should be as efficient as possible, while the other author preferred to unleash as much power as possible with each pulse.

Both of them approached laser rifles from different directions, allowing Ves to make up his own mind about the topic.

"Laser rifles have a bad reputation for being unable to penetrate the shell of a heavily armored mech. That will certainly change in the next generation, but for now it's too hard for laser rifles to punch though the armor of a striker or a knight."

In his opinion, laser weapons excelled at outputting a steady amount of damage. Heat concerns limited their ability to burst down an opponent, but they generally lasted longer than ballistic and kinetic rifles Both used up bulky ammunition, and mechs only possessed a limited amount of carrying capacity.

"There are some who believe that laser rifles will replace kinetic rifles entirely."

Many wide-eyed theorists prophesied the phasing out of melee weapons in favor of ranged weapons. They also stated that the relatively low-tech ballistic rifles had no more place in this day and age because their fundamental principles hadn't really changed since their initial emergence on pre-space Earth.

"Too bad they're wildly wrong."

Even as laser weapons continued to grow in power and efficiency, those who specialized in armoring mechs had also tried to keep up. They blended various exotics together into unique formulas that underpinned the rise of energy resistant armor. Mechs that specialized solely against countering laser weapons performed extraordinarily well against a barrage of lasers.

Sadly for the armorers, most energy resistant armor proved to be highly vulnerable to physical damage. A couple of cheap, low-tech explosive shells would easily be able to tear down such a fragile shell.

Low tech weapons still had a place in the Age of Mechs. From the lowest rung of third-class frontline mechs, to the highest reaches of cutting-edge mechs, mechs of all shapes and sizes found a use for barbarically primitive weapons.

Besides, these weapons had progressed with the times as well. Even though they hadn't experienced a lot of changes in their fundamental workings, the development of smaller technologies and the use of exotics enabled these arms to compete favorably against laser weapons.

"Laser weapons are only a single means to damage a target." Ves scratched his messy black hair. "Even while I'm focusing on them, I shouldn't buy into the viewpoint that they are highter tech than ballistic weapons."

Besides working to acquire Rapid-Fire Laser Weapon Operation I, Ves also sneakily reread the research notes on Graser Rifles he stole from the underground base a long time ago. With his enhanced Intelligence and Journeyman-level Physics Skills, he easily grasped the points that eluded him the previous times he read the disparate collection of notes and data.

It helped that the researchers who produced the documents started from roughly the same foundation as him. While they possessed a much deeper foundation in this field, Ves still managed to keep up with the theories mentioned in their analyses.

The textbooks he perused earlier proved to be the key that allowed him to fully decipher the contents of the research notes. At a certain point, everything clicked in his mind, allowing him to fully follow the trains of thoughts of the researchers.

"It's pretty admirable what they've accomplished in a couple of years. They started out with a conventional laser rifle and enhanced it step by step until it became capable of firing gamma lasers."

The amount of engineering challenges they faced required a cross-disciplinary approach to solve. Ves benefited hugely from reading about the development of specialized components such as high-capacity energy cells and extended heat rods.

"Heatsinks shaped like rods fit a long narrow object such as a rifle better than a thick rectangular block."

The researchers opted to make the heat rods disposable. This meant that mechs could eject them from their rifles once they became too hot and replace them with a fresh one which they carried on their backs.

Personally, Ves understood the necessity, but he wasn't a fan of this solution. "Their gamma laser rifle design needs to be fed with both energy packs and heat rods. It's going to be an awful mess trying to cycle both of them during a pitched battle."

The actual rifle was more impractical than practical. While it functioned well enough in space, it hardly lived up to the likes of actual taboo weapons such as nuclear bombs and biological plagues.

"Well, the researchers did work from scratch, and with the technology level of a third-rate state. I'm sure that researchers from a first-rate superstate can develop something much more destructive."

Whatever the case, the System demanded that Ves design and fabricate an actual working graser rifle. He guessed that the System didn't care too much about its actual performance so long as it worked.

That still didn't mean that Ves planned to skimp on the design. He suspected that the lessons he learned from developing his graser rifle could be put to use when he designed his second original mech.

So with a renewed focus on laser weapons, Ves fully digested the research notes until the System deemed his studies sufficient and updated his Status page.

[Gamma Laser Weapons I]

"Finally." He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I was hoping I could make it before my ship makes it to my destination."

He turned off his Privacy Shield and removed his comm before placing it on his desk. Ten seconds later, the comm regained its full charge, allowing Ves to place it back on his wrist.

After freshening himself up, he stepped out of his stateroom and headed for the bridge. Once he entered it, he looked at the projected screens and saw that the Barracuda still had two hours left before it reached the lifeless planet in this generic abandoned star system.

"Welcome back to the bridge, Mr. Larkinson."

Ves tipped his finger on his chin. "Has there been any activity in NCJOEV-646?"

"Nothing has pinged our sensors as of yet. That doesn't preclude any stealth drones or ships that are masking their emissions, but I'm fairly certain this system is as quiet as a mouse."

Nothing ever happened in NCJOEV-646, or the Joe as everyone called it. Joe consisted of another run-of-the-mill red dwarf. What was special about Joe was that the star system contained no planets at all.

Instead, it featured a rather extensive asteroid cloud, although it was largely flat. This meant that ships positioned above and below the 'disk' would have no trouble navigating in the vicinity of Joe.

Currently, Ves ordered the Barracuda to head in-system through the sparser portion of the asteroid cloud. While the loose-flying asteroids posed a significant risk to the corvette, the sections she flew through wasn't so dense that she wouldn't be able to escape any sticky situations.

Ves had decided upon Joe as his final destination because the asteroids contained a lot of junk metallic contents. This would scramble any sensors trying to pick out ships. While a larger transport or carrier would still stand out somewhat, a slim and tiny corvette was virtually indistinguishable from an equivalent-sized asteroid as long as it didn't generate too much heat.

Joe would have been a perfect smuggler's hideout if it hadn't been situated close to the center of the Bright Republic. It neighbored several major star systems with substantial military patrols.

There was very little opportunity for smugglers and pirates to do business out of Joe in these circumstances. Perhaps only desperate criminals escaping the law from those major star systems took advantage of the asteroid cloud.

Much like Ves in this case. He did intend to break one of the most fundamental taboos of human society, after all.

"Have you fixed the location of my end stop?" Ves asked.

"As far as we are aware of, the asteroid you're looking for is still orbiting close to the red dwarf. It hasn't been bumped into for thousands of years."

He nodded. A lot of collisions happened in the asteroid field, but it happened less in certain places. Surveyors paid to scan desolate star systems had partially mapped out the asteroid field, though they didn't even try to register each and every single floating rock. A couple of collisions would make their overly detailed map out of date anyway.

Instead, the surveyors focused on mapping out the largest asteroids. They eventually recorded over a hundred-thousand asteroids with cavities, valleys or holes large enough to hide a corvette.

Ves picked out an asteroid that carried the abbreviated name of Joe-2364343 as a place to work on his gamma laser rifle in peace. The large asteroid just happened to offer a deep cave from which Ves could spend his next weeks out of sight of any peeping sensors directed at the asteroid field.

Even if someone placed some sensors inside the cave, he trusted that Lucky would be able to sniff them out beforehand.

Almost two hours later, they arrived at the asteroid in question. It loomed over the Barracuda like a cruiser. Its dark, rocky exterior appeared ominous in the dim light of Joe's red dwarf star.

Nothing had changed since the last survey. Joe-2364343 hadn't suffered any impacts that pushed it off-course. The cave also looked intact enough for Ves to inhabit.

"Everything looks okay." He nodded as he finished studying the sensor readings. "Let's get closer."

The Barracuda maneuvered close to the cave in reverse. This allowed the corvette to orient her rear cargo bay hatch with the entrance of the cave. Once they came as close as safely possible, the hatch opened up, revealing the cargo bay that had been depressurized beforehand.

Several sensor bots emerged from the cargo bay. They swiftly entered the cave and scanned it for any unpleasant surprises left behind by someone else.

Following that, a series of hauler bots began to lift the cargo containers from the bay and into the cave. Once they finished with the smaller containers, they returned and carefully brought out the old second-hand printer that Ves had been prepared to write off after this impromptu expedition.

"Careful now, bots!" Ves called out even though the bots weren't smart enough to understand his words.

He floated out of the open cargo bay in a hazard suit. Lucky floated alongside him. During the previous week of travel, his pet finally managed to get the hang of flying. The white cat nimbly drifted up and down and back and forth.

"Go on ahead and track down any hidden recorders or spy drones!"

Lucky didn't slack off and began to dart into the depths of the cave. Ves believed that Lucky's recent advancement had improved his intelligence and detection capabilities.

"He should be alright." Ves muttered to himself as he floated above the asteroid.

The asteroid was large enough to dwarf the corvette, but exerted practically no gravity at all. Ves had already prepared some anti-gravity platforms beforehand for him to do his work, but it would be difficult for him to last more than a month. He only brought enough fuel to feed the power generator for a month.

"Let's hope nothing happens in Joe while I work."

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While the war between the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom flared up, a much bigger battle ensued out of the eye of the public.

After the passing of the seventy day deadline, the Glowing Planet and its immediate vicinity turned into a forbidden zone in the truest sense. This time, the danger didn't come from the unnatural phenomena radiating from the planet.

This time, the true rulers of the Komodo Star Sector had arrived.

"Bright Republic? Vesia Kingdom? Never heard of them."

Two enormous armadas spanning more than fifty-thousand ships and more than a million mechs collided against each other. Their so-called skirmishes easily dwarfed the most pitched battles the Vesians and Brighters had ever fought.

On the side of the Friday Coalition, every major partner chipped in their forces, leading to an eclectic mix of ship and mech models. Of all the partners, the Gauge Dynasty and the Konsu Clan fought the best and thereby claimed the biggest share of the proceeds of the strip mining operations.

As for the Hexadric Hegemony, the matriarchal society imposed a complete uniformity of its military forces. Their fleets looked like clones as they used the exact same ship and mech models throughout their entire navy and mech forces.

Both approaches had their good and bad points.

"The Six are One."

For the Hegemony, imposing the same designs for all of their war materiel vastly simplified their supply chains. Production, maintenance and training activities reached an unprecedented level of efficiency.

The Hegemony also centralized their design work to an unprecedented high level. A committee of Master Mech Designers inspected and approved every single new design regardless if they incorporated it into the military or released it to the civilian sector. If even one Master disapproved of a design, then it had no future in the Hegemony.

"Rebirth through Adversity."

As for the Coalition, their abundance of designs fostered a culture of innovation. Their researchers often trumped their counterparts from the Hegemony due to their hectic pace of development and production.

Sometimes, they published designs that flopped. However, with each failure, the developers and their competitors learned something new. Their next products definitely surpassed their previous ones.

The two second-rate states held diverging views on how humanity and society should be ruled. Their relations had always been poor, and the fact that they each occupied vital resource-rich regions in the center of the Komodo Star Sector added fuel to the flame.

The Glowing Planet merely provided an early window in how the two second-rate states would struggle over supremacy in one of the most remote star sectors in the galaxy.

Both of their armadas slip into smaller fleets that maneuvered around the Glowing Planet in complex patterns meant to preserve their mobility. Large-scale mining ships passing by from orbit deployed special apparatuses underneath the surface of the Glowing Planet. These devices promptly blew up or cracked apart a humongous chunk of land into space.

These remnants would subsequently be captured by other mining ships that had orbited into pre-calculated positions.

Chunk by chunk, the two states visibly chipped away at the Glowing Planet without any mercy. As a non-lifebearing planet, the Glowing Planet was not protected by the treaties imposed by the MTA and CFA.

No one cared whether it survived at the end of the clash. Both sides pursued the maximum amount of benefit in the least amount of time, hence they employed the most destructive methods of strip mining the hapless rogue planet.

It could only blame itself for bumping into a trade convoy when it passed through the Komodo Star Sector.

Even though the Bright Republic and the other third-rate states wanted to peek at the battles raging around the Glowing Planet, the two overbearing combatants had deployed a significant amount of machines that blocked and obfuscated any attempts to observe the surrounding area.

Any ship that strayed within a light-year of the Glowing Planet would quickly be pursuit and destroyed without any appeal.

Far away from the Glowing Planet but well inside the borders of the Republic, Ves floated at the entrance of the cave in his hazard suit. He looked out at the dim, red-tinted asteroids that streaked in front of his current abode.

The lonesome sight inspired him. He had not been truly alone for many years now. Hardly any human could be found within the Joe Star System.

Once the Barracuda dropped of Ves and his supplies, she flew towards another major asteroid well out of range.

For the time being, Ves wouldn't be able to communicate with anyone, but neither would anyone be able to locate him and observe his work.

Which was exactly the way he liked it at this time.

"This damn mission. Sure, it's a C-grade mission under normal circumstances, but why the hell does it want to saddle me with a war crime?"

The seriousness in which every human treated taboo weapons nowadays had reached a hysterical level. Just the mere hint of it could spark an immediate panic in the entire star sector.

Forget about the MTA and CFA, even the Bright Republic would deploy all of its forces to squash those who flouted this rule.

In the first day, Ves did not immediately embark on his design work. Instead, he installed and inspected all of the gear he brought. He spent the most time on partially disassembling his second-hand 3D printer for any hidden spying or recording components.

With the help of Lucky, they sniffed out over two-dozen different bugs.

"This is a lot worse than I thought."

He had no doubt that most of the bugs came from his hired help. Sanyal-Ablin never promised to respect his privacy when he contracted them to provide security.

Privacy? Did that word even exist in the Age of Mechs?

Ves ultimately had to delay his timetable and spend a vigorous amount of time catching each and every microscoping spy drone.

He thanked his lucky stars that he redeemed his Privacy Shield from the System early on when he hardly attracted any attention. The device had quietly shielded him from electronic observation during his most crucial moments when he interacted with the System.

Now that the LMC grew into a multi-billion credit behemoth, Ves attracted much more attention than before. He couldn't even go the the toilet or take a shower without being spied on by a dozen different parties.

Every public figure had to deal with such an intense level of scrutiny, including Ves.

Once he finished combing over every device including his hazard suit, he finally became comfortable enough to embark on his actual purpose for traveling to the middle of nowhere.

"Let's start designing."

According to the mission, Ves would pass its requirements if he successfully came up with a practical graser rifle design. Implicit in the description was that he wouldn't be able to pass the mission if he plagiarized the existing designs from the research notes that set him on this path.

"The spirit of the mission appears to be driving me towards pushing my Physics Skill and related Sub-Skills to the limit."

Ves had never designed a laser rifle before. His only practical experience with laser weapons was when he repaired them during the Glowing Planet campaign and when he modified an existing model for the 2-star Old Soul virtual mech.

Anyone could tweak an existing design. At the simplest level, a modification could be as simple as replacing one material for another or to shift a couple of components by several millimeters.

By working from the safety of a proven design, the person who performed the modification could be as sloppy as he wanted as long as his work remained within certain boundaries.

In contrast, designing a weapon from scratch entailed a lot more work. Ves had to take into account a thousand different aspects when he made his design choices.

"It's actually a lot like designing a mech."

Designing a weapon fell a bit out of his expertise, but Ves managed to stay on track by borrowing from his experiences with designing his first original mech.

"First, I'll have to set a vision for my graser rifle."

Distasteful as it appeared, Ves had to force himself into imagining the use of his weapon. He envisioned a frigid duel in space. Two spaceborn rifleman mechs circled around each other as they traded potshots at each other.

One rifleman mech utilized a conventional laser rifle adapted to space. It fired infrared beams from a bulky rifle that featured a much larger heatsink. Due to the lack of gravity in space, the rifleman mech wasn't overly hindered by its weapon's increased mass.

In comparison to the moderately bulky laser rifle, the gamma laser weapon wielded by its opponent resembled a miniature cannon. It featured a much bigger weapon frame in order to accommodate its jumbo-sized battery, heat rod and internal mechanisms.

"With my skills, I won't be able to design a rifle that's as compact as the one developed by the research team." Ves quietly judged.

The graser rifle's firing rate was a lot lower than a conventional laser rifle, but each energetic beam traced by a small amount of waves from the visible spectrum. Each time it hit the enemy mech, its armor hardly buckled, but an extremely large amount of energy got absorbed or passed through the layers of armor.

Whenever the gamma rays passed through an electronic system, they got fried. Once it reached the cockpit and passed through the pilot, the outcome of the battle became clear.

The stricken and irradiated mech turned into a lifeless entity after getting hit by only five high-powered gamma laser beams.

Ves pulled his mind back from his construction vision. "A graser rifle kills the pilot before the machine."

As long as the weapon pumped enough power into the beam, it could pass through any amount of armor and irradiate the enemy pilot.

"What a horrible way to die."

He knew very well how the human body fared against the might of a graser beam. Dr. Kawasaki who originally compiled the research notes had cruelly experimented on live subjects to satisfy his sadistic power trip.

The thought of following in Dr. Kawasaki's footsteps put Ves in a difficult position.

Should he even proceed with this mission? What was the System's intention by setting him on this potentially ruinous course of action?

"Laws and rules of convention constrain a mech designer. By purposefully incentivizing me to break a taboo, the System seems to be telling me that I shouldn't take the rules for granted."

The System set itself above the rules that governed human society from the onset of the Age of Mechs.

Would the System push him to breaking another rule in the future?

Ves mentally shrank from the idea. Even though the System acted deviously, Ves had no choice but to play along its tune in order to harvest some benefits out of it. For better or worse, he became an accomplice of the inscrutable System and its unknown goals.

"As long as I get to reach the pinnacle of mech design, I'll commit any number of war crimes if I have to."

Ves had already stepped aboard the ship. If he stepped out now before it had reached its destination, he'd end up choking to death in interstellar space.

He turned his attention back to his design. Now that he formed a vision of his weapon, he began to draft a design for his laser rifle.

Unlike with mechs, Ves did not employ his Triple Division or any other technique related to X-Factor.

"A graser weapon doesn't deserve the X-Factor."

Even he had his limits. If the System set him on the path to committing a war crime, he wouldn't do so with a smile.

Ves treated his design like a chore to be performed as soon as possible. He decided not to take any excessive care with his design choices and instead stick to a basic, workhorse design with plenty of tolerances for failure.

"The bigger the weapon, the more leeway I'll carve out for myself."

Ves spent two days on his draft design. After that, he spent five more days refining its schematic into a precise and functional product. In theory.

In the meantime, the Joe System was as quiet as a mouse. Not a single ship transitioned out of FTL during this time. Just the red dwarf, the asteroids and the Barracuda kept Ves company in the unremarkable star system.

The only excitement happened when Lucky decided to pass his boredom by boring straight towards the center of the asteroid. Once there, the gem cat encountered a peculiar rectangular substance.

Lucky curiously pawed what looked like a crystal window.

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While Lucky prodded a clearly artificial object buried inside the asteroid, Ves began to test his initial graser rifle design in a simulation.

The simulated weapon immediately blew up in the hands of the mech.

"What?!"

Ves was sure he nailed the design. It should have spat out at least an anemic gamma laser beam. To blow up in the face of the simulated mech was out of the realm of possibilities.

Thinking that the environment may had played a role, Ves repeated the simulation in different environments. He shifted from space to terrestrial environments such as forests or ice-capped terrain.

The graser rifle continued to explode without fail.

"I thought I was so close!"

He underestimated the technical challenges involved with turning a concept of a weapon into reality. He derived the bulk of his work from the research notes. Evidently, he made a mistake at some point. Perhaps he derived too much from the research notes and failed to adjust them to his own design.

Ves performed the simulations again and called up some data from the moment the simulated mech pulled the trigger.

Everything went fine in the start. It only started to go wrong when an abundance of power ran through the mechanisms responsible for generating the actual graser beam.

Certain components couldn't handle the load and melted down, leading to a variety of awful effects that cascaded into a dreadful explosion.

"Damnit, this mechanism isn't strong enough."

For some reason, Dr. Kawasaki made it work. The research notes abundantly laid out the detailed design process for the internal mechanisms. When Ves followed the instructions to design his own version of the mechanism, it failed to withstand the load.

"Let's see what happens if I dial down the power."

The graser rifle kept exploding until it reached a threshold where the mechanism failed to perform at all. Gamma ray lasers demanded a lot of power. Without a sufficient amount of power, the mechanisms failed to work at all.

"This is a problem." Ves said as he pressed his fists against his waist.

The constant isolation was getting to him somewhat. If not for the bumbling presence of Lucky, he might have turned erratic.

More than the lack of people, his inability to access the galactic net and stay connected to the rest of the galaxy irked him a lot.

"I have no idea how the war is progressing."

Historically, the Vesians cautiously probed the Republic's defenses. Their most destructive actions consisted of raids against Republican infrastructure and industry. The Vesians loved to take out soft targets early in the war before they could be of help to the Brighters.

He didn't worry too much about the LMC. It wasn't a high priority target and his workers should have already started moving his assets to the underground manufacturing complex. Sanyal-Ablin's substantial presence there was sufficient to deter any casual raid.

"I should focus on completing my own tasks."

He spent the next hours trying to puzzle out the exact failure point. He uncovered a number components that performed well below their theoretical parameters.

He'd been far too sloppy too sloppy in his design work.

"Rather than say I've been sloppy, it's more fitting to say that the graser rifle can't tolerate any failures."

Ves deliberately designed a bigger rifle to make it easier for him to design a workable heat rod and battery, but the design choice introduced its own complexities. Certain components couldn't be scaled at all. Other parts performed strangely when Ves had increased their size.

It took several more days for him to solve these problems. He ran over each component one by one and tweaked them until their parameters fell within the expected range. To be honest, he had to resort to a lot of kludging and improvisation in order to get the mechanisms to work with each other.

Ves had never designed a conventional laser rifle from scratch. Trying to design its big brother in a single go turned out to be highly unrealistic.

As the days passed by, Ves began to get a hang of trying to get his laser rifle to work. It started out with a maze of problems, but by tackling the most obvious issues one at a time, he steadily reduced the unworkable nature of his homegrown design.

He put his weapon to the test yet again in another basic simulation in space.

The weapon fired a graser beam without problem this time. The only issue was that the beam's power fell well below his intended output. Too much energy had been wasted in the conversion process.

"I'm getting close."

In truth, he could have already started to fabricate the current design, but his perfectionist streak started to take over. His interest in getting his graser rifle to work had engulfed his mind. He unconsciously poured his passion into improving his design.

In the meantime, Lucky through the asteroid and encountered more rectangular crystals. In its eyes, they looked a lot like windows. However, they couldn't be broken or melted at all. No matter how many times he scratched them with his energy claws or chewed them with his mineral-breaking teeth, the panes of crystals remained as whole as ever.

Lucky meowed angrily at the latest crystal window barring his tunnel. Couldn't a gem cat burrow through an asteroid in peace?

No sound actually escaped from his maw, as the vacuum environment couldn't convey any sound.

It was the thought that counted.

Nevertheless, the crystals annoying him to such an extent that he began to dig them out of the asteroid and carry them out of his tunnels. With a modest application of his gravity manipulation, he sent out the indestructible crystals out into space.

One by one, they escaped their resting place and flew out into the asteroid cloud.

In time, many of those crystals bumped into other asteroids. They burrowed rather deep in their new abodes. After thousands or millions of years, they would continue to rest inside the asteroids without incident.

Strangely enough, that didn't happen. The crystal windows thrown out onto other asteroid began to grow active. They shone with light as some unknown alien systems embedded into the transparent crystals wearily turned active.

Eons had passed since they last became active.

As the asteroids brought them tumbling away from each other, the crystals finally unleashed a portion of their might. They connected to each other with bright, intangible strings of energy.

The asteroids they resided on suddenly stopped their senseless tumbling. Their trajectory came to a halt as these heavy objects had been fixed into a forceful stop.

Then they began to move.

The energy strings forcefully rearranged the positioning of the asteroids until they formed a

decahedron relative to their original resting place.

This place just so happened to be the asteroid that held the cave where Ves holed up at the moment. Both Ves and Lucky ignorantly continued their usual routines.

The outline of the decahedron started to turn solid as the spaces between the lines turned opaque. Once they finally turned into a solid pane of white, everything inside had been captured.

The energy panes cut right through the other asteroids as if an atom blade had passed through them. Many chunks became loose and spun away. Some even bumped into the asteroid in the middle.

Ves hardly noticed a tremble as his hazard suit held him aloft.

Once the activity died down, the decahedron began to glow even brighter. It also started to pulse.

The pulse began slow, but sped up over time. This time, Lucky noticed something amiss and stepped outside the tunnel he had dug. Once he saw that the asteroid had been surrounded by a lot of panes of light, he immediately meowed in alarm and flew towards Ves.

The cat bumped straight into Ves and pawed at his hazard suit.

"Ouch! Lucky, I told you not to bump into me again!"

Ves had been knocked out of his highly focused state. He almost finished his final design!

Lucky kept acting like a crazy cat. Ves took note of his pet's behavior and figured out that something was wrong.

"Show me the way."

Lucky led him out of the cave, upon which Ves stumbled upon the amazing sight in front.

"What is this?!"

Everywhere his eyes could reach, what looked like solidified light had trapped his asteroid in a cage. He grew scared at the sight of the unknown.

"Did you do this, Lucky?!"

His cat acted like this had nothing to do with him. Lucky merely stared his big eyes up at Ves, hoping that he could come up with a fix.

"I don't know what's going on myself. This must be some kind of ancient alien contraption."

The ten-sided object surrounded the asteroid from all sides like an inescapable prison. Ves contemplated summoning his Amastendira to shoot at the panes, but ultimately held off on this decision. Who knew what might happen if he tripped some sort of failsafe.

"The main characters of those adventure dramas trigger alien traps all the time. I never expected something like this would happen to me as well! What awful luck!"

Ves picked up a rock that had been embedded into the surface of the asteroid and threw it at the nearest pane.

According to Newton's First Law, an object in motion stayed in motion. Deep in space and away from any major gravity wells like stars and planets, the chunk of rock continued to sail forth in a virtually straight line.

Once it reached the pane, it abruptly flashed and disintegrated out of existence.

Ves gulped in his hazard suit. "Alright, so it's not a good idea to go through this wall of light."

He threw another rock at one of the corners which formed the anchors of his light prison. He encountered the same result.

With an increasing amount of alarm, Ves tried to test out a number of ways in which he could open a gap in the decahedron. Nothing worked. All of it failed.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. After half an hour of procrastinating, he decided to take a risk. He summoned the Amastendira from his inventory and dialed it up to the highest setting.

"I don't know what's going to happen, but I hope it will work."

A bright beam flashed out from the barrel of the mastercrafted laser pistol. The thick beam carved a hole straight through the pane of light.

Everything changed at that moment.

The decahedron grew unstable while a wild storm of light happened just outside the hole. Ves grew dizzy staring at the nonsensical sight. It felt a lot like looking straight out of a window of a ship travelling in FTL.

He closed his eyes and tried to suppress his headache.

Once he opened his eyes. He emerged in an entirely different location.

Gone was the asteroid. Gone was the decahedron. The cave behind him disappeared as well, along with the 3D printer and supplies he had brought.

Only Lucky remained. His cat had hung onto his shoulder in fear. His paws tightly gripped his hazard suit to the point of scratching its coating.

"Where… am I?" He asked as he looked around his completely different surroundings.

Ves somehow emerged on a Terran jungle planet. The environment mimicked the Terran standard, and when his hazard suit tested the air, it found it breathable, though there were traces of poisonous substances in the air.

A human might be able to survive for a week. As for Ves, his hybrid human physique should comfortable be able to breathe the air, not that he intended to do so for the time being.

Gravity also started to act upon him. It hadn't acted on his body immediately, but rather eased him to it, as if he didn't entirely exist on this strange location.

Ves had the sense that the decahedron only partially transpositioned him to this location.

"Did I interrupt some kind of spatial shift?"

His spontaneous and reckless decision to shoot the decahedron with a high-powered laser beam had disrupted what he suspected to be a teleportation process.

Ves could have easily turned his body into noodles or fractured it in tiny pieces across multiple light-years. That he came through this disaster with his body somewhat intact was a miracle.

Still, that didn't mean he was out of the woods just yet. He still had to figure out a way to get back to his asteroid.

"Now what?"

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The decahedron brought him to an unknown planet without warning. If that wasn't enough, his intervention had screwed up the transfer process, stranding Ves in a strange state.

His body, his gear and Lucky only partially existed on this jungle planet. He could breathe the air and stand on the ground, but when he tried to touch a tree his hands went right through as if he was a ghost.

"Am I turning into my mother?"

Ves quickly shook his head. This was no time for jokes. He performed some more experiments and found out that besides breathing the air, he could only interact with the environment in a couple of ways.

The most important observation was that he couldn't go through anything thicker than the leg of a mech. Anything bigger became an obstacle to him. On the other hand, it also allowed him to interact with the object.

"Lucky, come try to scratch this big old tree."

The jungle was overgrown and ancient. It possessed a peculiar desolate aura that pinged his sixth sense. The trees had lived through countless standard years. Some of them even reached a thickness comparable to an office building.

When Lucky floated over and raked the bark of the tree with his energy claws, the tree had definitely become scratched.

Something changed at that moment.

Their surroundings whooshed as the giant tree trembled. The other trees began to sway as well.

The entire forest became agitated as if Lucky had affronted them all!

Lightning suddenly flashed between the trees. Thick bright lightning bolts interweaved the entire forest as if it had been turned into a lightning storm on the scale of a gas giant!

Just when Ves thought he would be fried to a crisp, the lightning bolts all harmlessly passed through his body and gear. Not even Lucky suffered a single burn.

The lightning storm only persisted for a couple of seconds before subsiding. Even though Ves got off unscathed, he still felt all of his hairs turn stuff.

He could have died just then!

The entire incident could have killed him if he hadn't entered a semi-corporeal state!

"These aren't regular trees. This isn't a terraformed planet."

Ves became aware that he fell into the trap of relying on his preconceived notions. Just because an alien tree looked like a tree didn't mean it behaved the exact same way as a Terran-standard tree.

Humanity came across many cases of convergent evolution in the galaxy. Countless of habitable planets that revolved around yellow suns grew trees that grew green leaves in order to make the most out of photosynthesis.

That didn't mean that all of these trees evolved into passive, unmoving lifeforms.

Having learnt his lesson, Ves towed Lucky away towards a random direction. He wanted to get away from this frightening forest as fast as possible. Who knew if they retained a means to affect a semi-corporeal entity such as him in his current state.

Ves and Lucky ran for half an hour. The forest seemed endless, and the canopy barely allowed him to glimpse the pale blue sky above. Throughout his passage, he never came across a single native insect or wildlife.

Had the trees fried them all? Had the indigenous life forms evolved to instinctively avoid this forest?

The all-encompassing presence of the trees put a fair amount of mental pressure on Ves. These trees hadn't held back their might when one of them suffered a scratch. Even now, his mental senses perceived a subtle waveband in the air that carried a vague threatening flavor.

No outsiders allowed!

Thus, even if he didn't see an end to the forest, Ves still ran as if his life depended on it. Fortunately, his partially alien physique provided him with a boundless amount of energy. Although his internal energy cycle still hadn't fully recovered since meeting his mother, it still provided more than enough of a push to sustain his run.

"Even my Jutland organ is acting strangely!"

The organ responsible for most of the changes in his body became more active all of a sudden ever since he ended up on this unknown planet. Ves had the sense that it leeched some of the ambient energy emitted by the trees.

Ves did not like where this was going. His body already carried an excess amount of internal energy.

Thus, he continued to run in hopes of exiting the scary forest. In order to make sure he ran in a straight line, he utilized his hazard suit's navigational functions. Although it temporarily hadn't been able to make sense of the planet's magnetic field, it still featured other settings that could keep track of his route.

Even without his hazard suit, his comm offered similar functionality, so he wasn't helpless from the start.

After another half hour of running, Ves finally reached the edge of the forest. The trees abruptly grew less dense until they stopped growing entirely. Once he finally escaped the forest he stopped and caught his breath. Even with a strengthened body, he hadn't conditioned it to sustain an hour-long run.

After he straightened up, he beheld the dready brown landscape before him. A wide valley stretched before him. Unlike the forest behind him, the valley was completely barren of any growths. Neither plants or animals came into his view. While that relieved him somewhat, it also puzzled him. Why would the forest abruptly stop its growth in this direction?

He swept his gaze over at the hills and mountains and caught a single location that shone and sparkled with a brilliant luster. The location sat on top of a low hill a fair distance away from his current location.

To Ves, it looked like a sign of civilization.

"Finally! A potential clue!"

Ves had always kept his eye out for any signs that could explain his impromptu teleportation. The sudden appearance of the decahedron and its strange light show came too abruptly for him to draw any clues on what had happened.

Whatever the case, the decahedron definitely fulfilled some sort of purpose. It wouldn't dump him on a virgin planet without purpose. The act of transferring him from the Joe System to a completely different one with a yellow sun and a habitable planet must have used an enormous amount of power.

The technologies that made this possible also made it clear that this was not a casual event!

Rumors swirled around that the first-rate superstates developed a means of teleporting something from one star system to another. Whether these rumors spoke the truth or not, most people considered such technologies to be out of reach of the general public.

Thus, Ves held a definite interest in the alien device. What was its origins? What kind of aliens constructed it? What was its purpose? Why was it buried in a desolate red dwarf system in the galactic rim?

"Why did it trigger now?"

He racked his brains over the last question and couldn't figure out an answer. He pushed his questions to the back of his mind and jogged towards the site that glistened in the alien sun.

He controlled his pace since it would definitely take a few hours to reach his destination. All the while, he kept observing his surroundings for any further clues.

"This valley is completely barren. There's not a hint of life in this place."

Now that he distanced himself from the forest, Ves sensed that the ominous waves he caught before had faded away. Nothing else brushed against his sixth sense, so he slowly let down his guard.

"There shouldn't be anything I should be worried about here."

Just as he took another step forward, the ground underneath broke apart as a massive mouth ripped upwards. Some kind of two-clawed worm emerged from below and tried to snap his body in a single bite!

Fortunately, the worm was just small enough to pass through his body, but the hole the worm had dug caused Ves to lose his footing. He started to slide into the bottomless well until he hastily engaged his hazard suit's antigrav function.

After the clawed organism failed to bite him, it crashed back down into the earth, turning around for another go. The soil beneath the worm's passage bucket as the alien creature forcefully dug close to the surface.

"You won't get me this time!"

Ves hovered higher and retrieved a white block made out of exquisite alloys and composites. It quickly unfolded in the majestic gold-crusted Amastendira.

He dialed the power setting to a moderate setting and pointed the muzzle in the direction of the disturbance in the soil.

"Come on then! Take a bite out of me if you dare!"

Even Lucky stood ready on his shoulder. The cat had been caught off-guard with the first strike, which shamed him to no end. If Ves couldn't take down the worm, then Lucky would definitely follow suit.

The clawed worm emerged from below yet again. As far as tactics went, the worm primarily appeared to be driven by instinct.

Some things always stayed the same. Worm-like creatures never exhibited any notable level of intelligence in the galaxy.

A thick golden laser beam seared the worm straight into its maw. Its internal organs received so much damage that it instantly broke the beast. With an agonizing wail, the worm collapsed on the soil, having reached just short of engulfing Ves.

The ugly worm's appearance repelling him on a primordial level, so Ves quickly shot it again until he became sure of its demise.

After that, he spent a couple of minutes inspecting the dead creature. As much as he wanted to leave the sordid corpse behind, Ves still had to find some clues on what went on in this place.

A brief inspection of the corpse revealed that the worm wasn't as long as he thought. It was roughly as long as a mech. It featured no obvious organs besides the claws. It didn't even possess any eyes as far as Ves had seen.

Underneath the cutting burns left over from the Amastendira, Ves spotted a number of unknown but disgusting-looking organs. He didn't dare to come any closer.

He might have been able to figure out a wealth of information if he was an exobiologist. Sadly, his expertise only extended to mechs and machines. He remained as clueless as a bystander when it came to alien life.

"This is one scary creature, though. It's likely not the only one that's around here."

Ves looked back at the barren valley and imagined the clawed worms lying dormant underneath the surface. The thought instantly sent a chill down his back.

He checked the power, water and oxygen reserves of his hazard suit. "I only have two days left until my oxygen reserves run out. Water will last a little longer, but my suit is able to recycle my waste."

If people had to leave their hazard suits every time they needed to go to the toilet, then they wouldn't be so widely used.

Ves tried not to think he'd be drinking water filtered from his own bodily waste in a couple of days and focused on his power reserves.

"My battery will only last for a week."

After that, his suit would run out of power. The motors that eased his motions would lock up and the waste management systems would stop supplying him with recycled air and water.

Ves did not relish the thought of devolving into a savage that lived off the land.

"I have to find a way out as soon as possible!"

He left the corpse behind and continued to run towards his destination. Along the way, he encountered several more ambushes. The clawed worms really didn't like it when someone stepped over their heads.

Ves solved each and every one of them with a single laser beam. The creatures possessed no resistance against this type of energy damage. Added to the fact that the Amastendira's battery constantly regained its charge on its own, Ves showed no scruples against the primitive beasts.

He finally reached the site atop the hill after four hours of running. The marathon took its toll on his body and he stopped again to catch his breath.

Once he looked up, he observed a clearly artificial sight, something he had never encountered since he ended up on this planet. He came across a city of crystal.

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The ground abruptly turned into an opaque white crystal that stretched from one end of the city to the other. It formed the base for the majestic spiralling structures that stretched out into the sky for at least two-hundred stories.

A large number of statues had been placed between the spiral structures. Most of them consisted of strange geometric shapes that resembles runes of some sort. They shone in a soft white light but otherwise showed nothing special at all.

The city would have looked impressive if not for its size. The tallest spiral structures merely reached a head above his own heights. The streets were so narrow and small that Ves would have to walk sideways if he wanted to squeeze between the spiral structures.

"It's like I'm the giant now."

He found the shift in perspective to be odd and amusing. Ves remembered some of the dramas he saw as a kid. Back then, giant aliens often showed up to threaten human cities.

The diminutive size of the ruins filled him with a bit confidence. It was hard to fear a dead alien species the size of his finger.

After shrugging off his idle thoughts, he resumed his attempt to find a way back home. The alien city would certainly contain a clue.

Ves tried to decipher the meaning of the runes but came up nothing. Not even his comm had been able to match the runes to its database of languages.

Humanity had never encountered these ruins before. The aliens who build this place must have lived a long time ago.

The galaxy was old. Aliens rose and fell since the birth of the galaxy many billions of years ago. It was a different time then. The universe was smaller and space seethed with excitement. Countless stars came into being and clumped together in vast agglomeration of galaxies centered around the largest black holes known to man.

Many theorists believed that the vast majority of exotics emerged from this time of cosmic turmoil. The first aliens who emerged from their planets and gained the ability to traverse the stars took advantage of the abundant amount of exotics within their reach.

Many aliens also evolved with the help of certain exotics, granting their races an unprecedented level of power in exchange for becoming dependent on their supply.

These early forbearers of the galaxy erected mighty mights that lasted for eons and changed many planets and even stars to suit their own species. Monuments of their works could be found everywhere in the galactic center.

Much of it had already been discovered and dismantled by humanity. As a race in ascendancy, it wouldn't do to leave the relics of other races alone. What if humans started worshipping the aliens?

Thus, true alien relics became something of a rarity in the galaxy. The galactic center had been scoured long ago while the purging of the galactic heartland still continued to this day.

The only place where people could reliably bump into undiscovered alien relics was the galactic rim. It was too vast, sparse and barren for humanity to control in its entirety.

The Komodo Star Sector happened to be one of humanity's most remote star sectors. Lucky prospectors constantly uncovered a handful of alien remains every standard year.

Most of them consisted of lifeless ruins, but a couple of remnants still possessed enough power to work.

Sometimes they even killed their discoverers. Ves almost shared the same fate.

Thus, even if the miniature city looked dead and frozen, Ves still kept his vigilance.

"Even if they're small, their technology surpasses humanity's in many areas."

Ves experimentally fired a spiral with his Amastendira. He dialed down the power setting to the lowest one possible.

The laser beam hit a spiral, and instead of destroying it, the spiral absorbed the entire beam!

"What?!"

The spiral structure glowed and pulsed until it released a strange white energy in every direction. Its spiral shape allowed it to hit every other spiral in sight without fail. Those spirals started to glow as well until they pulsed out their own lights, affecting other structures that hadn't been touched by the light before.

The entire city appeared to have been built like an array!

The strange phenomenon continued until each spiral structure glowed with white. They pulsed and pulsed, but the excessive splitting had dimmed the overall luminosity of the glow. There was too little energy to go around. After half a minute of flickering, the glows died down, and the miniature city fell back to sleep.

Ves almost had a scare when the entire city lit up. Something wonderful or awful might have happened and he hadn't been prepared at all. Who knew why the aliens turned their own abodes into energy emitters?

He didn't understand their purpose. He lacked too much context to make sense of the city. The only thing he knew was that if he pumped a sufficient amount of energy in the city, something drastic would happen.

"Is this a way home for me?"

On second thought, he didn't think it would be so easy. The entire arrangement appeared to be a defensive measure. If an enemy race came and tried to bombard it with directed energy weapons, they would probably receive a nasty surprise.

As for other weapon types? "They look tough enough to withstand kinetic strikes."

Ves experimentally picked up some rocks and threw them at the spirals with force. The crystals never showed signs of breaking.

After this, Ves considered his options. In order to escape his strange state, he should be doing everything he could to find a way back home.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

He decided to brave the unknown because he lacked any alternatives. Without a map or any kind of overview of the terrain, finding another artificial settlement like this would take weeks or months.

Perhaps this planet might not even host any other signs of alien presence!

Thus, Ves distanced himself a fair amount and raised his Amastendira. He dialed it to a moderate power setting and fired again at the spirals.

The light show that ensued this time carried more energy. The spirals glowed as bright as the sun that had yet to fall below the horizon, a sign that this planet spun a lot slower than the Terran standard.

Rays of light bounced from spiral to spiral until it engulfed the entire city. The lights then began to pulse in unison as if they followed the beat of a drum. The pulsing pattern mesmerized Ves and Lucky, and if not for taking a lot of steps back, he might have temporarily blinded himself.

This time, the city gained a sufficient amount of energy. A small portal emerged above the sky. Ves could tell it was a portal straight away because it led to another location entirely. The portal cut a circular portion the size of his head straight above the center of the city at what looked to be some kind of open temple ground.

"Is this a religious ceremony of some sorts?"

The mystery deepened as Ves cautiously walked closer in order to peek at the other side of the portal.

It was dark there. Only the lights from the city illuminated the terrain on the other side. The portal on the other side appeared to look down on an empty plane that might have been the other side of the planet.

No spiral city existed at the other side. It was completely empty except for a single depression in the middle. The bowl in the ground appeared to house some sort of monument made out of alloy.

The object resembled a series of runes that strung out into an alien sentence. If scaled to a human, it would have been as large as a house. As for now, he could comfortably pick it up with his hands if he felt inclined to do so.

Nothing else appeared on the other side of the portal. Just as Ves lost interest, Lucky became excited all of a sudden. His cat meowed and jumped from his shoulders and flew straight towards the portal.

"Lucky! It's dangerous!"

Ves hesitated to come forward but eventually gritted his teeth and spent his diminishing amount of power to activate his suit's antigrav modules. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep up with Lucky's speed.

His cat deftly reached the portal and squeezed his body through the other side without bumping at the edges. Once he reached the other side, Lucky cut the base of the monument with his energy claws. The alien alloys parted easily this time, allowing Lucky to grab onto the runes with its teeth.

Once he secured the monument, Lucky manipulated the gravity being exerted on his body and flew back to the portal. He quickly emerged back above the crystal city before its energy fizzled out and the disappeared into the void.

"That was close, Lucky! What if you became trapped on the other side!"

Lucky behaved as if he never heard his scoldings and bumped the monument into his grip. Ves looked at the thing with a strange expression.

"What is this?"

Although he called it a monument, it might not have served such a purpose to the aliens that originally constructed it. Why would they go through the trouble of constructing a crystal city that could open a portal to another place entirely? Why would they leave nothing behind on the other side except for this string of runes?

As he inspected the metallic monument, he realized that the monument's runes corresponded to the runes placed across the city.

"Is this a key somehow?"

Ves had the sense that he got ahold of a passphrase that allowed him to unlock a secured data pad. He frowned a bit. All of this smelled like a puzzle or a test. What kind of alien species was bored enough to set all of this up?

These long-dead alien pranksters left a hell of a mess behind for him. If he wanted to make some progress, he had to follow the clues laid out before him. The runes looked like a good start.

"Hitting the spiral structures with a laser activates a mechanism. Since the rune monuments in the city are made out of the same kind of crystal, then I bet that they can be activated in the same way."

The aliens erected hundreds of rune monuments, each with their own unique shapes. Ves had already tasked his hazard suit to map them all out, so he understood their distribution.

Looking up from above, the runes corresponded with a spiral, but in the shape of a galaxy. It didn't quite conform to the galaxy's appearance in modern times, which made him suspect that this species must have lived an extremely long time ago.

"How many hundreds of millions of years have passed? This city stands as timeless as ever. How come it hasn't been buried beneath a mound of soil?"

Perhaps this planet used to be dotted with crystal cities, but time and neglect had buried them all under the forest and the soil.

"Maybe the place I originally emerged from also contains a means to go back."

If the crystal city didn't offer any solution, then he could only return to the deadly forest and excavate some clues from there.

He stepped closer to the city and tried to touch a crystal rune monument, only for his fingers to slip right through them. "Seems like they can't harm anything in a dormant state."

Ves stepped back again and shot a random monument.

Just like with the spirals, the rune monument glowed and pulsed in white. It persisted in this behavior for over ten minutes before fizzling out.

"I see. Nothing happens if only one of them is active."

He thought he should be able to get a result if he transferred power to the correct sequence of runes within this timespan. Ves looked back at the metallic string of runes in his hand and started to gain a headache?

"Do the aliens read from left or right, or right from left? Do I need to read top to bottom or bottom to top?"

What would happen if he lighted up the wrong sequence? What if he blasphemed the tiny alien's religion by enacting their ritual in reverse?

After several minutes of procrastinating, Ves decided to go out on a limb and read the runes from left to right, going down a row at the end.

He started to raise his Amastendira. Hopefully, he didn't invite a cataclysm with this experiment.

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When Ves was about to fire the rune monuments in the sequence displayed by the key, he suddenly removed his finger from the trigger.

"Wait a minute. Am I missing an opportunity here?"

He looked back on his recent experiences and realized he only fixated on the danger. The fearful environment, dangerous organisms and incomprehensible alien ruins had pushed him out of his comfort zone. He became so sensitive to danger that he only thought about getting back as soon as possible.

"There's no question that it's dangerous here, but am I really at risk right now?"

His semi-corporeal form had already saved him from being electrocuted by the storm trees and being eaten by a giant clawed worm. It might be able to save him from every other threat on this planet.

He hadn't considered taking advantage of his unusual state up to this point. Now that he calmed down, he thought that it would be a waste to miss the opportunity in front of him. How could he forget that the crystal city was a product of a highly-developed alien civilization?

It was chock full of advanced technology!

"Danger and fortune goes hand in hand!"

The Komodo Star Sector fostered a lively community of treasure hunters and fortune seekers. They constantly plowed the unclaimed space beyond the star sector for the opportunity to encounter rich exotic deposits or the remains of alien races.

Ves had practically hit the jackpot! If he didn't reminded himself of that, he might have left without picking up the prize!

"This is a marvel of alien engineering." He exclaimed. His eyes gazed hungrily at the dormant crystal city scaled for an alien species that he could easily pinch with his hands.

Diminutive they might be, their mastery of materials, electromagnetic radiation and spacetime surpassed the standard of the Komodo Star Sector by a very wide margin. If Ves took some time to study these ruins, he might be able to decipher some of the principles that underpinned the crystal city!

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

Ves understood that humans actually didn't invent most of the technologies they used to this day. Although their race possessed a formidable capacity for research, they derived most of their advancements from reverse engineering the efforts of other advanced races.

There was nothing wrong with this approach. Many of these ancient alien species used to be formidable, but almost none of them survived to the present. Rather than reinvent the wheel, humanity might as well take a shortcut by stealing the homework of their seniors.

The Age of Conquest had only been a smashing success due to the theft of many alien technologies, such as the FTL drives.

By now, most alien technologies had already been fully explained by the top researchers of the galaxy, but that didn't mean the knowledge was available to everyone. The MTA, CFA and the first-rate superstates monopolized the most groundbreaking technologies, leaving everyone else with an insurmountable disparity.

Hence the need to explore other ruins. The big players provided lavish rewards for anyone who discovered wholly new technologies.

Sadly, humanity had already seen practically everything the galaxy could produce, so realistically it wasn't possible to surprise them anyone. The big boys only provided a modest reward to those who handed over alien technology that they could already reproduce themselves.

Still, even if the MTA and CFA already understood the principles, they still held a lot of value to the smaller players such as the Friday Coalition or the Bright Republic.

Something as strange as teleportation and portal generation should be of prime interest to these states.

Ves didn't plan on revealing this treasure to anyone.

"First, I don't even know what triggered the decahedron. It's unlikely I can replicate the phenomenon again and return to this virgin planet."

He had to make the most out of this accidental trip. He wasn't a professional treasure hunter, after all. He still had to design a new mech and grow his company.

"Second, I won't gain much of an advantage if I share these technologies."

Many stories circulated from the frontier on how treasure hunters got stiffed by their clients. The disparity in power between a bunch of nobodies and the apparatus of a state meant that anyone who offered technology had to swallow their ambitions.

Most of the time, the technology in question wasn't remarkable enough to foster mutual competition between states. It was nice to get to know it, but they wouldn't go the extra mile to attain it. Established states already possessed sufficient confidence in their technology base.

Unless he could explain and reproduce the ability to generate a portal, Ves figured that the Bright Republic wouldn't attach any importance to his discoveries.

"It's better to keep my advancements to myself."

Many older mech designers often kept their specialties to themselves. The technologies they grasped might not be unique in the perspective of the galaxy, but they likely wouldn't have to face a direct competitor that mastered the same advancements.

"This is a way for me to step ahead of the competition."

In light of his intentions to design a rifleman mech, what would be better than to enhance his laser rifles with a new mode of laser propagation?

Not only that, by studying the way in which these crystal builders utilized light, he might be able to enhance his gamma laser rifle and thereby exceed the grading standards of the System's upgrade mission.

"The System always gives me something good whenever I go the extra mile."

From his long interactions with the System, he knew that this ice-cold machine couldn't be cheated. On the other hand, it also wouldn't hold back if Ves aligned with its ideals.

"Let's start grasping the inner workings of these ruins."

Ves approached the crystal city. Even though his state protected him from physical damage, he hadn't ruled out the possibility that the crystal builders mastered a way to harm energy beings.

Nothing happened, thankfully.

He pulled out a portable multiscanner from the toolbelt attached to his hazard suit and began to sample the crystals.

The dinky little thing beeped in alarm.

ERROR. UNIDENTIFIABLE SUBSTANCE DETECTED.

Ves waited and waited, but the scanner only managed to measure some basic properties such as the dimensions and the opacity of the crystal. The machine lacked the capability to accomplish anything more, such as telling him what the crystals actually consisted of.

"Too weak!"

This wasn't any regular old multiscanner! He took it from the Barracuda's lab! This multiscanner had been built according to the standard of a second-rate state.

He frowned at the scanner. "These ruins are too advanced for this scanner. The only way for me to get results is if I get something bigger or something higher tech."

Not every treasure hunter possessed the funds to afford a fancy multiscanner. They often compensated by buying a large, shuttle-sized multiscanner. Their larger size afforded these devica lot more power and capabilities, and essentially brute-forced their way towards understanding the things they measured.

Ves hadn't expected to go on a treasure hunting expedition when he travelled to the Joe System. If he knew something like this would happen, he wouldn't have left behind the large-scale multiscanner back at Cloudy Curtain.

As for a portable multiscanner that offered more strength than the one he currently held, Ves had no chance of obtaining anything better. The Friday Coalition definitely developed better models, but they never sold them to foreigners.

"Wait a second. I still have another source."

He couldn't forget about the System! The convenience it brought to Ves couldn't be understated. Even if he was cut off from civilization and taken away to a completely unknown planet, he could still buy his way out of a problem.

Perhaps Ves could even return to the Joe System if he bought the correct item!

"Now is not the time to be too anxious. I can think about returning home later. I should first find a way to increase my benefits."

He activated the System and went to the Store page. Since he already destroyed all the spy bugs, he didn't bother activating his Privacy Shield. Ves quickly browsed the multiscanner section of the Store and came across a variety models. His face quickly turned a little black.

"A hundred-million DP?! Really? Why show something like that to me?!"

Many of the multiscanners offered by the Store made him drool, but their exorbitant price tag scared him off. He had no choice but to consider something cheaper.

"I currently have over 130,000 DP, so I can still buy something that's reasonably capable."

He checked out both the large-scale scanners and the portable versions. The large-scale scanners promised much better performance, but Ves wasn't inclined to buy them due to their bulk.

"This won't be the last time I'll come across something strange. A portable multiscanner is an essential tool for treasure hunters and mech designers alike. It's best to start investing early in this kind of gear."

After half an hour of browsing, Ves had made his choice.

[Vulcaneye - Multiscanner - Level 1]

Price - 100,000 DP

This multi-functional scanner is able to scan and determine the parameters of a large number of substances. It contains over a thousand different measuring modes and it is extremely sensitive up to the nanometer scale.

The level 1 Eye of Vulcan contains a database of over a hundred-thousand different exotic materials. If the Vulcaneye encounters any unknown material, it will update its database and slightly improve its scanning capabilities.

The Vulcaneye caught his attention due to its upgradability. Not every item offered by the Store possessed this trait. From his understanding of the Store, the items that provided this option usually started weak, but became incredibly formidable when it reached its tenth or higher upgrade tier.

The only downside was that their costs exceeded every other item in the same tier. They weren't really cost effective in terms of DP. The only reason why Ves hung on the Vulcaneye was the possibility of fostering its growth if he bought it early.

"It's much like Lucky. Any piece of technology can be improved along the way."

He could even use his Special Upgrade Voucher (Machine) on the Vulcaneye if it came down to it. Ves had been saving the ticket due to a lack of viable options. Most of the important machines he owned were either too large or too advanced for the voucher to display its full value.

"If this scanner isn't advanced enough to resolve the crystals, I can always use up my voucher."

This would be his safety net. It decreased the risk of making a 100,000 DP mistake. After all, a non-upgradeable scanner only cost him half as much. Ves essentially gambled that the extra 50,000 DP paid off handsomely in the future.

"This is an investment. I shouldn't be too sparing with my DP at this point."

He gritted his teeth and confirmed the purchase. He put aside his old scanner and grabbed hold of the newer one. It appeared a lot slimmer and the scanner module affixed to its front looked like a burning eye.

"Vulcaneye indeed. Let's see if the gaze of a god can make sense of these crystals."

When Ves pointed the Vulcaneye at the nearest crystal spiral, the gadget instantly projected a whole laundry list of data. The raw data confused him for a bit, but he quickly became ecstatic once he realized that the Vulcaneye easily smashed through the crystal substance's mysterious defenses.

Ves began to pour over the wealth of data projected by the scanner. He also saved a copy of the readouts to his comm for later study.

While he obsessively scanned different crystals from different angles, Lucky began to grow bored and wandered around the inert crystal ruins. The cat yawned and began to rest his body in the middle of the temple at the center of the city.

Ves had no time to play with his pet. The scans excited him beyond measure and pushed beyond the limits of his existing base of knowledge. While he couldn't make sense of most of the readings right now, he still retained a modest reserve of DP.

"Should I still save up the rest of my points?"

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Ves always treated his DP like treasures. After a spate of troubles early in his career, Ves developed the habit of retaining a reserve of DP.

Points meant power. He could immediately spend his DP on a variety of benefits, from extra Skills to life-saving objects.

Ever since he'd been whisked away by an unknown alien gadget, Ves unconsciously treated his DP as a final failsafe. If he couldn't find a way to get back home, he'd spend his way out of this fix.

The more DP he saved up, the higher the odds of escaping this perilous situation. Many objects became available once he saved up more than 100,000 DP.

Right now, he temporarily shut that door by buying the Vulcaneye. While he could still come up with a couple of solutions with the 30,000 DP he had left, his options became a lot more limited.

"If nothing else, I can still wait until my points climb back up."

The LMC, EME and Vaun constantly sold a substantial number of mechs each day. Each sale generated a little bit of DP, so as long as the Blackbeak design stood strong, he didn't have to worry about his income stream.

"If I don't spend anything now, I'll regret it later on."

What was the use of holding back his spending at this point? He constantly saved it up in order to respond to any threats beyond his capability to solve.

Yet at his current state, Ves feared very few threats. His shield generator and intangible state neutralized most attacks while Lucky and the Amastendira could kill anything that posed a threat to him. Did he truly require an additional safeguard?

"Let's take this opportunity while I can. It's never unjust for me to invest in my Skills."

His Skills broadened his knowledge and remained useful throughout his entire lifetime. The Skills and Sub-Skills he planned to acquire not only helped him understand the crystal city, but also came into use when he moved back to his design projects.

As Ves worked to scan and understand the readers, he bought a number of different Skills from the store.

[Materials Science - Incompetent: 200 DP

[Materials Science - Novice: 500 DP

[Materials Science - Apprentice: 1000 DP

[Materials Science - Journeyman: 2000 DP

[Crystallography I: 2000 DP

[Crystallography II: 4000 DP

Ves acquired another major Skill by acquiring Materials Science and upgrading it directly to Journeyman. At his level of Intelligence, the enormous influx of knowledge and data hardly strained his mind at this point.

He needed this Skill in order to understand the readings of the crystals in their inactive states. He also threw in Crystallography I and II in his shopping list because he realized that he was dealing with a complicated composite crystal made out of several exotic and mundane materials.

"It's not a monolithic block of crystal. It's actually something of an array. I just can't see it with the naked eye because it's all transparent."

The discoveries continued to fascinate him as he peeled back layer after layer of their inner workings. He suspected that the highly complex patterns and arrays acted as circuits that acted according to the intentions of the designers of this creation.

"Deciphering these circuits is beyond me." He shook his head. He had to take a step back and focus on the materials and they way they interacted with energy. "I'll be satisfied if I can figure out how it's able to manipulate light."

Ves suspected that the circuits formed part of a massive system responsible for generating portals. They likely carried out a lot of other functions as well, but Ves knew his limits.

Once he stopped gaining any harvests from scanning the crystals, he considered scanning them when they entered an excited state.

"Lucky! Get out of the city!"

His cat appeared to have fallen asleep. Ves had to float to the center of the tiny city and haul his cat out of the danger spot. Lucky instantly woke up and yowled at being drawn away from his comfortable perch.

"Just stay put over here, will you?"

After Ves dumped his cranky pet well outside the city, he began to perform his first experiment. He shot a random rune monument at the edge with his Amastendira, causing it to light up without affecting any of the other crystal structures.

He then proceeded to point his Vulcaneye at it. The rune monument's active state provided his multiscanner with a lot more data, most of which muddled his mind. Since he still had some DP left over, he might as well solve his confusion with more lavish spending!

[Optics I: 200 DP

[Optics II: 1000 DP

[Optics III: 4000 DP

[Crystal Laser Propagation I: 2000 DP

[Crystal Laser Propagation II: 5000 DP

The cost of the Optics Sub-Skills ramped up hard, but Ves urgently needed the knowledge to make sense of the way the crystals treated electromagnetic radiation.

While it helped a lot in finding out how the crystals focused their output, it didn't explain how the crystals converted other sources of energy and turned them into potentially deadly light. After a brief rundown of his Skill Tree, he settled on Crystal Laser Propagation and immediately upgraded the expensive Sub-Skill to the second tier.

Ves discovered that the crystals could even convert pure electricity to light, so they were definitely able to propagate lasers.

"This is what I'm looking for? I have to understand this process!"

Crystal Laser Propagation II provided him with enough knowledge to crack the mystery! The veil in his mind had finally been parted!

The workings of the crystal was exceedingly complicated, and Ves only brushed the surface of how it worked. Still, what he gained up to this point more than made up for his extravagant spending!

"I understand now! It works like this! Hahahaha!"

He always enjoyed it when he learned something new. Now that he grasped something exclusive to most of his peers in the mech industry, how could he be reserved?

To make the long story short, Ves learned a number of new tricks. First, as long as he reproduced the basic makeup of the crystal, he'd be able to repurpose it into any kind of laser weapon no matter the scale.

The crystal functionally replaced at least half of the internal mechanisms of a laser weapon. While the expense would be considerable, it took up much less space than conventional solutions.

What did this mean?

He freed up a lot of space for additional features such as larger batteries and heat sinks! He'd be able to pile them up while avoiding any bloat!

Ves thought about how such a weapon looked like. His cheer disappeared somewhat when he realized that such laser rifles already existed in the Komodo Star Sector.

"I'm not the first one who came up with this."

In fact, some of the more expensive mainstream models wielded laser rifles that worked on the same principles. The crystals that formed the core of their weapon's performance might utilize vastly different materials and patterns, but the principles that governed their workings shouldn't be any different.

Ves cursed at the alien city. "Stupid aliens! Invent something original next time!"

It couldn't be helped. The fallen alien race wasn't to blame for this outcome. The human race advanced too much and worked out the principles behind too many pieces of alien technology.

"Even if I'm not the first one who discovered these principles, I still obtained enough of an advantage."

Knowledge about these special crystals should be hard to come by. Ves bet that not even the Clifford Society offered anything like this in their Moon Library. Leemar's club of talents didn't hesitate to offer basic knowledge, but it always kept the best for their inner circle.

After deciphering the special crystals, he also understood why it hadn't become ubiquitous in the Bright Republic.

"It's extremely hard to design these crystals. It's even harder to fabricate them, and expensive to boot."

Without understanding all of the theory behind it, anyone who tried to pirate it would likely end up wasting their time. Only true understanding opened the way towards employing the special crystals in their own products.

Ves was very glad with his harvest up to this point. He finally put away the Vulcaneye because he didn't think he could learn anything else. He already scanned the city from top to bottom, so he could always study the readings later.

Right now, Ves hungered for a different kind of harvest.

Through his extensive studies of the crystal city, Ves gained the idea that the rune monuments acted as a variable input mechanism.

"It's too extravagant to place hundreds of runes but only use a dozen of them or so. Even if it's some kind of lock or puzzle, it still doesn't justify the cost."

While he couldn't make any judgements on the rationality of the crystal builders, he thought they should not be wasteful to that extent. The crystal city appeared to be a marvel of efficiency. The crystal builders hardly devoted any space for leisure or other activities.

Thus, if they built extra runes, they definitely served a purpose. And Ves thought he grasped the secret.

"It's much like a keyboard. The runes present certain meanings, and by lighting them up one by one, I can form a complex meaning out of any number of simple ones."

The only problem was that Ves had no clue on how the rune language worked. He was a complete stranger with regards to this long-dead alien construction.

He decided to employ the dumbest method of testing them out. He'd shoot a random sequence of runes and see what the crystal city spat out.

"It's not like I can be harmed. I can keep activating the runes until my laser pistol runs out."

The Amastendira never ran out of charge as long as Ves rationed its power carefully.

Since he put down most of his worries, he enacted his makeshift plan.

Ves shot fifteen runes in succession, the same amount depicted by the key. He didn't choose any of the runes displayed by the recovered object, though. If it turned out this sequence brought him back home, then he didn't wish to trigger this procedure early.

After lighting up the fifteenth rune, the crystal spirals began to glow as well.

Sure enough, the crystal city accepted a fixed input of fifteen runes.

Light stretched out from the fifteen runes and hit a number of different spirals. Some spirals got hit by multiple beams of light. Once the rune monuments kept up their channeling for a couple of minutes, something majestic happened.

The spirals shot out several beams of light straight towards Ves and Lucky! The beams ran through both of them and scorched the ground underneath their feet!

Lucky panicked and jumped and Ves almost pissed his pants. If not for their intangibility, the lasers might have fried them to a crisp. That was close!

"These aliens sure didn't mess around."

Even after their death and descent into obscurity, these tiny aliens hadn't held back their hostility.

After Ves calmed down Lucky and his own heart, he began to try again. He shot out another random sequence of fifteen runes, making sure to record their shapes and the order in which he lighted them up.

This time, a different set of spirals lighted up. His hopes momentarily went up, but quickly fell back down when the spirals attempted to kill him again.

"That's a dud."

He proceeded to repeat this experiment again and again. He held a faint misconception that he was constantly buying lottery tickets that failed to deliver any prizes. The only reason why he kept on buying them was because he could buy them for free.

The only thing he really spent was time.

"As long as I have time, I don't see why I can't win!"

He tried out hundreds of sequences. It became such a chore that he stopped keeping track of which runes he hit and at what order he hit them. It hardly mattered as the chance of hitting the exact same runes was minimal.

The spirals shot at him so many times that the ground beneath him had become charred beyond recognition.

The crystal city finally displayed a different reaction at the 865th attempt. For once, the spirals didn't shoot at him. Instead, it opened up another portal in the sky above the temple. This time, it led to a different location.

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Ves vaguely imagined sitting in front of his terminal trying to browse the galactic net by pressing fifteen random keys.

The difference between browsing the galactic net and trying his luck with the crystal city was that the former at least returned something.

As for Ves, it took more than half a standard day to persist in his gambling. It had been incredibly mind-numbing for him to repeat the same routine for more than eight-hundred times.

At the very least, Ves got to practice his marksmanship. He began to get used to wielding the large but elegant Amastendira. Despite being a little larger than a regular laser pistol, it weighed remarkably little.

He had the sense the gunsmith made it for a woman. As a designer himself, he easily picked up the clues. The weapon carried a feminine touch that would put any woman at ease once they wielded the Amastendira.

Still, it had also been designed for an expert. The complete lack of targeting systems and aim assistance made the weapon difficult to hack, but the wielder had to rely on their own skills to make the best of the weapon.

His marksmanship hadn't improved all that much even with all of the practice. He possessed no talent in this area at all, though part of it could be blamed on his below-average dexterity. He did managed to get comfortable with wielding the Amastendira. The muscle memory he built up would allow him to wield the weapon with much less hesitation during battle.

"There's got to be a purpose in these runes. So long as the light beams can't hurt me, I should keep going."

Evidently, the crystal city's 'galactic net' was a lot smaller than that of humanity. It took more than eight-hundred random lottery draws for Ves to draw a prize.

Ves had not expected the crystal city to open another portal. He walked closer to the city with Lucky in tow and peered through the gap.

This time, the portal led to a lifeless moon-like area. The area beyond the portal was obviously in some sort of vacuum environment, but the portal somehow prevented the air from this side to leak to the other side.

"These aren't simple portals. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes."

Ves quickly whipped up the Vulcaneye and began to scan the active rune monuments and crystal spires as well as the small portal. His fancy new multiscanner hadn't failed him so far and spat out a bunch of raw data that he saved into logs for later study.

Just a simple glance at the data from the Vulcaneye's observation of the portal made him dizzy. This was far beyond his range of expertise.

"There's no point for me to understand this stuff."

He closed the projection of the readouts and let the Vulcaneye work on its own. Instead, he turned his attention to what lay at the other side of the portal.

To the small-statured aliens, the moonscape appeared to host some kind of palace. The majestic structure adopted a very different aesthetic standard than the crystal city. The crystal possessed a blue-ish tint and the palace incorporated a lot of hexagonal shapes.

It looked like a honeycomb gone mad.

"Did it belong to a different ethnic group or class? Or a separate state?"

He lacked the context to figure out the relations between the crystal city and the crystal palace, but obviously the two shared some relations. Why else would the crystal city possess a rune sequence that led to this moon?

In any case, Ves figured the crystal palace might be hiding something good. He wasn't about to let the tiny portal stop him from attempting to loot what looked to be another alien ruin.

"Even if the crystal city is empty, I don't believe the aliens cleaned up every ruin."

This time, the portal on the side of the moon hovered fairly close above the crystal palace. While he could still stretch out his arm through the portal, he didn't want to take the risk of cutting off his limb when the portal abruptly closed.

"It's safer for me to find out first how long the portal lasts."

Ves waited for another two minutes before the glowing crystal spirals dimmed and the portal fizzled.

The portal lasted a little bit less than three minutes.

He suspected that this might not be the end of it. Ves shot the same sequence of runes again, but this time he used a higher power setting on the Amastendira. Fortunately, his comm had recorded every sequence and even pointed out the location and order of the runes.

Once the portal emerged yet again, Ves patiently waited at the sides with a timer keeping track of how long it stayed open.

This time, the portal lasted over five minutes.

"So my guess is correct. The portals last longer as long as I pump more power into the crystal city."

While he expected this result, he actually hoped for a different outcome. At this time, the portal was only wide enough to squeeze his head through the gap, and only if he took off his hazard suit's helmet.

The diameter of this portal was more than ample enough for the crystal builders to convey an army or a convoy of transports. It was wholly inadequate for Ves to slip to the other side without cutting himself into a sausage.

He did not want to find out what would happen to him if he brushed the edges of the portal.

"Alright Lucky. Go on and dig out that palace. If you see anything interesting, bring it back to me."

Lucky resentfully meowed at him, but obeyed his instructions anyway. Ves re-opened the portal again with fifteen powerful laser beams. That should provide Lucky with an ample amount of time to root out the crystal palace.

Once the portal stabilized, Lucky curiously flew to the other side. He momentarily lost control due to the lack of air resistance and the differences in gravity, but he quickly regained control of his floating body.

His cat looked around a bit and didn't spot anything on this moonscape besides the palace. Lucky floated to the top of the palace and curiously landed his paw at it. The limb went straight through the hexagonal roof as if it didn't exist, but Lucky didn't let that stop him. A faint glow appeared on the limb and this time the cat managed to pat the roof.

Nothing happened. Ves figured if the crystal palace possessed any defenses, it had long been drained of any power. Unless Ves shot his Amastendira at the palace, it shouldn't be able to rouse any defenses.

"Wait a moment." Ves abruptly realized an important fact. "Why is Lucky able to touch the crystal palace all of a sudden?"

He realized that Lucky had already done something similar by cutting off the rune key monument in his previous portal jaunt. Ves hadn't thought about it back then, but now it was more than obvious that Lucky possessed a way to interact with the material world if he chose to. How did he do it?

Then he thought back to the time on the Glowing Planet when Lucky repelled the semi-corporeal devourer king with his energy claws. His cat already gained the ability to straddle the divide between the lower and higher dimensions back then.

"Is that because he ate all of those exotics and Rorach's Bone?"

Lucky hadn't eaten any of the higher grades of Rorach's Bone at the time. After that, he ate a whole bunch of medium-grade ores as well as a sumptuous piece of high-grade Rorach's Bone.

"Rorach's Bone is especially valuable because it's one of the few exotic materials that's able to facilitate and amplify the resonance between a mech pilot and his mech."

What did resonance actually mean?

"Does it refer to spirituality?"

Ves recalled that Lucky's status contained a skill called Spirituality I. Was this the secret to resonance, the X-Factor and semi-corporeality?

A bomb exploded in his mind as various clues, suspicions, inferences and conclusions melded together into a single overarching hypothesis.

Ever since the System set him on the path to understanding the X-Factor, he always felt he tread a path that few had ever walked. Even if others suspected that spirituality lay at the root of these amazing phenomena, humanity possessed no means to observe or interact with this nebulous concept.

Only Ves gained the ability to interact with this concept because he possessed a nascent sixth sense. As one of the few people who could see in a crowd of blinded people, he constantly progressed towards a unifying set of assumptions that he could tentatively gather into a convincing theory.

Right now, it was if the last pieces of the puzzle had filled the gaps that annoyed him for ages. If Ves previously parted the veil, now he fully managed to pull back the curtain.

"It's all in the mind!"

As Lucky attempted to chip away at the crystal palace with his energy claws, Ves turned his attention inward as his knowledge on Spirituality finished sublimating in his mind.

An unprecedented feeling of satisfaction ran through his intangible body. He felt as if he solved a problem that trillions of humans had puzzled over ever since the Age of Mechs came into being.

No one understood how Apprentice Mech Designers advanced into Journeyman Mech Designers. Similarly, neither did humanity figure out how to transform an advanced mech pilot into an expert mech pilot.

Ves believed that both of these rare and highly-valued professions required a breakthrough into a person's spirituality. Mech designers had to possess spirituality to design a mech that fostered resonance, while mech pilots used spirituality to activate the resonance lying dormant in their mechs.

"I see now! They're both connected!"

He already uncovered the pieces, but fitting them altogether required a bold step in thinking. Even though Ves hadn't fully tested out his hypotheses, he strongly believed he was on the right track.

The importance of his conclusions couldn't be overstated. The issues that Ves figured out had stumped humanity for over four-hundred years. If humanity had already mastered spirituality, then a lot more higher-tiered mech pilots would exist at this time.

"Right now, even the mightiest human entities in the galaxy can't reliably pump out expert mech pilots."

Sure, compared to a tiny state like the Bright Republic, the big boys like the MTA and the first-rate superstates had a lot more elite pilots on their retainer. But that was simply a function of their influence and the amount of people they could draw on.

The MTA recruited their mech pilots from all of human space, while the first-rate superstates occupied the largest and most densely populated star sectors. If Ves looked at the amount of elite pilots relative to the total population, then the more prosperous states and organisations didn't hold an overwhelming advantage in this area.

In his eyes, their much-vaunted secret training regimes had a lot of things in common with quackery and superstition. They fumbled blindly in the dark and figured out a handful of tricks that increased the odds of allowing an advanced mech pilot to make a breakthrough to the next tier.

Ves had progressed beyond that stage. Had his breakthrough been enough to finally receive the System's acknowledgment? He quickly summoned up his Status.

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Apprentice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 8,353

Attributes

Strength: 1.3

Dexterity: 0.8

Endurance: 1.9

Intelligence: 1.8

Creativity: 1.9

Concentration: 1.7

Spirituality: 0.4

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly: Journeyman - [3D Printer Proficiency III] [Assembler Proficiency III]

[Battle Mechatronics: Apprentice - [Knight Mech Mastery I]

[Business: Apprentice

[Computer Science: Incompetent

[Electrical Engineering: Journeyman - [Structural Pathway Configuration III] - [Energy Storage IV] - [Conductors III]

[Materials Science: Journeyman - [Crystallography II] [Crystal Laser Propagation II]

[Mathematics: Journeyman

[Mechanics: Journeyman - [Jury Rigging III] [Speed Tuning IV]

[Metallurgy: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression III]

[Metaphysics: Novice - [X-Factor II]

[Physics: Journeyman - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization II] [Gamma Laser Weapons I] [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization IV] [Melee Weapon Optimization IV] [Rapid-Fire Laser Weapon Operation II] [Optics III]

[Salvaging: Apprentice

[Signals and Communications: Journeyman

Abilities

[Superpublish: Available. Can be activated once a year.

Evaluation: A post-human mech designer pioneering the field of metaphysics.

He did it! His Metaphysics Skill had advanced to Novice! The System also acknowledged his achievements in the X-Factor by turning it into a formal Sub-Skill.

"What's this? Another Attribute?"

His Attribute section received a curious new addition. "Only 0.4 Spirituality? Oh come on!"

Ves understood that all the other Attributes scaled around 1. A score of 1 meant his Attribute was average compared to the rest of humanity.

The abnormally low score of 0.4 in the case of Spirituality obviously didn't fit in with this standard. Unless an entire civilizations of humans existed with a formidable amount of strength in this Attribute, Ves figured that the System didn't wish to inflate his current strength.

Indeed, Ves had a lot more to go before he could imitate Lucky's strengths.

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It was only a matter of time before he made these discoveries, but it certainly helped to grasp this concept early. Most importantly, Ves had gathered more clues to break through his perennial bottleneck in achieving a B-graded X-Factor.

"Spirituality is a lot more intertwined in our society than I thought." Ves concluded.

Humans ruled over half of the galaxy with the might of its warships, but they competed against each other with the use of mechs. Every state made it a priority to cultivate talented mech pilots into experts and aces.

That they managed to convert a fraction of mech pilots into the realm of the elites could be attributed to their occasional successes amid countless failures. In the early days of the Age of Mechs, a lot of horror stories emerged that revealed the extent that people went through to enhance their military force.

"I can consider these matters at a later time." Ves shook his head. He still had an alien ruin to excavate.

With the help of his spirituality, Lucky had managed to pry apart the roof of the tiny hexagonal palace. His cat resembled a bear trying to break open a honeycomb in order to steal some honey.

Bits and pieces of tiny crystal furniture dotted the rooms inside. Neither Ves nor Lucky paid any interest in them after figuring out they served as tables and chairs.

Lucky continued to dig through the upper floors, but encountered a lot of resistance from the blue crystals.

At least they weren't indestructible like the transparent crystals. Their slightly lower grade gave them hope that they could uncover something valuable.

"This must be a lesser side influence in the alien society."

The longer he interacted with the alien ruins, the more he understood their society. Ves guessed that the crystal city acted as a capital or a final refuge of some sorts. It would explain the existence of the rune monuments and the effort the aliens had made in creating a portal system.

Ves found it regretful that they hadn't left anything behind in the crystal city. At some point, they evacuated it, taking away anything that hadn't been affixed to the city.

"The aliens sure built them to be tough. They couldn't even dismantle them in their haste to evacuate the city."

He was certain the crystals possessed extremely remarkable properties. Ves had succeeded in deriving their composition and structure with his Vulcaneye. As long as he figured out a way to reproduce it, he'd be able to create an extremely powerful substance that could act as both an armor system and laser propagator.

Even if he lacked the capabilities to reproduce the exact formula, he could still attempt to derive a lesser version if he substituted the rarer exotics with less valuable ones. Such experiments happened all the time.

"I recall that Master Katzenberg from Leemar is a specialist in this area."

Perhaps if he submitted his readings to Katzenberg, she'd be able to come up with a host of different substitutions. However, Ves did not possess a direct channel to the prestigious Master Mech Designer.

"I can always attempt to fumble around on my own. If I haven't achieved any results, I can always pass on the data to someone else."

Data that he couldn't use held no value to him. He might as well sell it or exchange it for something useful, although he would only receive a fraction of its true value.

"Lucky! Go dig the left compartment! I think there's a storeroom there!"

The palace appeared to house an affluent household. It contained a lot of rooms, but contained very little furniture in each. Lucky loomed over the tiny palace like a giant tiger about to engulf the inhabitants. Ves found the dichotomy in scale amusing.

It took Lucky a lot of effort to get past the subsequent layers. Ves even had to call back Lucky before the portal closed before he opened it again. Although he faintly guessed that there should have been a way to sustain the portal, Ves didn't wish to waste any time to figure out the exact mechanics.

Lucky finally broke in what looked like a vault after a few more minutes of anxious digging. The vault room contained a lot of miniscule hexagonal blocks that formed the alien race's version of a resource bar. They were so small in fact that Ves had to employ the magnification function of his hazard suit in order to observe them with his eyes.

"That's it! They should be treasures! Bring it back!"

Before Lucky could do anything, a number of crystals floated from their perches at the sides of the vault. So the palace still retained some defenses after all!

They angrily blinked and hovered around Lucky before unleashing thin beams of light at what they perceived to be an intruder.

Naturally, the noodle-thin light beams passed straight through Lucky's semi-corporeal body and blinked away into space.

Lucky stared at the defense drones with a playful gaze. His tail swished back and forth as he took little notice of the light beams passing through his body.

"Stop wasting time! Take care of them quickly before bringing back those treasures!"

The drones might have been able to threaten a tiny alien, but even Lucky would scoff at them. The substantial difference in size had turned everything made by the aliens into a joke.

Lucky took care of the drones by swatting them from the air. The drones bounced against the walls and floor of the crystal palace before regaining their balance. They continued to fire at Lucky despite their bumps.

This time, Lucky employed a different method. He opened his maw and ate all the drones. The gem cat didn't even chew before swallowing the helpless drones into his matter-coverting stomach.

Ves looked at Lucky with a crooked gaze. "Are you alright in your head?"

Lucky ate minerals and excreted gems. If Lucky happened to eat a crystal, would that be considering eating his own…

Thankfully, his cat showed no signs of being aware of what his owner thought. Lucky opened his maw again and gulped the stacks of materials.

"Uhh, Lucky. What are you doing?"

His cat disregarded his transmissions and continued to eat the vault room bare. With a satisfied squint in his eyes, Lucky flew up from the crystal palace and passed through the portal before flying back to Ves. His cat hacked and coughed a little and dropped only a couple hexagonal blocks.

The pinprick-sized materials fell onto his palm. They seemed so tiny that Ves would easily loose track of them if he dropped them onto the ground.

Ves stared at Lucky with a scornful gaze. "You could have left a bit more for me."

"Meow."

Lucky started grooming his body as if Ves didn't exist.

"Forget about it."

Ves retrieved a container on his toolbelt and deposited the remaining blocks before returning his attention to the crystal palace.

He waited until the portal winked shut before opening it again by shooting the exact same sequence. After a lot of nagging, Ves managed to get his lazy cat to return to the crystal palace again and finish his excavation of the abandoned structure.

This time, Lucky failed to uncover anything of value. They hadn't found any books, resources or machines that Ves could use to uncover any benefits.

Overall, besides the vault, the crystal palace contained nothing of value. It was another sign that pointed towards a hasty evacuation.

"Even the aliens that inhabited the crystal palace had to leave in a hurry. Why else leave their vault filled with valuable materials?"

The aliens evidently hadn't been able to empty the vault in time before they had to flee. A vault the crystal builders considered to be almost impregnable turned out to be fairly tedious for Lucky to break into.

It sure felt good to be the giant this time.

"Well, let's try again this time."

Ves took a brief break before he resumed his random activation of the runes. The crystal spires kept being roused and they always attempted to shoot down Ves and Lucky without fail. The ground became to charred and cratered that Ves had to keep moving in order to maintain a stable footing.

Hundreds of combinations passed by without a diverging result. The aliens really hadn't programmed many destinations in their portal system. Ves wished he could stay here for years and try out each and every combination, but his obligations to the Republic pushed him to cut this trip short.

"The Barracuda is currently hiding in another part of the Joe System. She's scheduled to fly back to my asteroid and check in with me after three more days."

That meant that Ves had to return to the Joe System before then if he wished to avoid a panic among his crew. His disappearance and all of the recent turbulence in the surrounding asteroids could lead to alarming conclusions that would be hard to explain.

Ves practically shot the runes on autopilot while his mind drifted off. He continued to refine his theories on Spirituality. He came up with a lot of interesting questions that needed to be answered.

"What if I can induce spirituality into a mech pilot? Can I turn Melkor into an expert pilot?"

With an expert pilot leading the Avatars of Myth, Ves would have no more concerns about his safety. The power of an expert pilot vastly outpaced their lesser counterparts if paired with a suitable mech.

Ves frowned a bit at that last detail. "Even if I can turn Melkor into an expert pilot, I can't pair him up with a mech that can bring out his strengths. I still have a short way to go before I can advance to a Journeyman Mech Designer."

Still, now that he gained a rudimentary grip on spirituality, he shouldn't encounter any obstacles in his next advancement.

The crystal city abruptly responded differently after Ves shot fifteen different runes for the umpteenth time. The spirals channeled their energies into another portal.

"It's about time, you stupid city! Bring me close to something good this time!"

The portal actually emerged in some kind of peaceful garden estate. The alien aesthetics conformed to an entirely different standard. The crystal city loved to utilize spirals while the crystal palace incorporated a lot of hexagons.

The garden didn't make use of any geometric shapes. Instead, the crystals looked like they'd been dug out of the ground. They took on rough and natural shapes, exactly like the natural unprocessed crystals that anyone could mine from a planet.

Ves called the site a garden due to the abundance of native indigenous flora. Weirdly enough, the plant-like growths looked like they'd been crossed with animals. Their surface was dotted with purple flesh that rhythmically moved according to an unknown pattern. They intertwined the purple crystal houses and structures as if they had married the ruins.

"This might be dangerous."

Ves hesitated on whether he should send out Lucky. The growths creeped him out, but he smelled the whiff of treasure inside the houses.

"The alien who lived here must be very powerful."

The crystal city wouldn't have programmed a portal to this destination if someone average lived in this garden. It would have been too much of a waste if the portals led to aliens holding statuses equivalent to gardeners or plumbers.

The more he thought about it, the more Ves hungered to crack open those abandoned houses.

He decided to shoot the growths first and see what happened. He extended the Amastendira and aimed at one of the largest purple growth.

He shot it with a low-powered beam.

The growths immediately went wild. Its tentacle-leafed like branches flailed in every direction as they tried to smack the source that threatened it. One of the branches reached the portal and smacked it from the sides.

The branch parted in half. The tip of the branch fell away while the rest of the growth pulled back its branches in fear. Getting one of its limb cut off resulted in a lot more damage than being hit by a laser.

In fact, the growth hadn't sustained any damage from the low-powered laser beam at all!

Could the aliens have cultivated the growths with their crystals? How could they be immune to lasers?

"If a laser doesn't, what about a cat?"

Ves sent out Lucky through the portal and ordered him to slice apart the growths. His cat did so reluctantly. Evidently, the growths didn't look very appetizing to the pet.

The sheer disparity in size and power had turned the hybrid growth into shredded plantmeat. This time, they uncovered something surprising underneath the growths.

They found the corpse of an alien.

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The aliens that built the crystal ruins always fascinated Ves. Through his continued proximity to the crystal city, he imagined an increasingly detailed picture of their race.

The crystal builders very likely evolved from a terrestrial planet not too divergent from the terran standard. This meant they likely looked like organisms from the terran animal kingdom. Throughout the galaxy, nature often led to the same solutions to the same problems. That was also why humanoid-looking aliens were remarkably common in the galaxy.

Some radical scientists even believed that some outside force had artificially inflated the prevalence of sexually dimorphic humanoids with two arms, two legs and a head. Of course, no one believed them. The most predominant theory was that the shift from walking on four limbs to walking on two limbs freed up the forelimbs for the usage of tools, which subsequently led to the birth of civilization.

These kinds of humanoid aliens made up a substantial amount of species in the galaxy.

The crystal builders happened to be a variant of the standard humanoid form. As Ves peered over the remarkably preserved corpse through the portal, he noted that it was as small as he imagined.

The tiny corpse possessed a weird face with cavities all around its uneven ball-like shape. Ves couldn't figure out which senses corresponded with any of the cavities. One hole might turn out to be the mouth while the other could be an ear.

Its torso possessed a natural hunch, which meant the alien likely walked around while holding a naturally bent posture akin to primates. Nevertheless, their arms were remarkably short and stubby even for their stature, as if they had atrophied through long generations of neglect. Their legs looked lean and normal, with much wider soles and more bend into them in order to stabilize their hunched posture.

"They look like little puppets."

Another amusing thought sprang into his mind. He imagined a kid playing around with living crystal builders. The kid grabbed two of them with each hand and smashed them against each other, not caring at all how much he hurt the aliens.

Ves shook his head. He couldn't help but belittle these tiny aliens despite their impressive technological achievements. It was human instinct to treat any creature smaller than themselves as toys or pets.

Such assumptions could be dangerously negligent, as some species of small aliens possessed a lot of might.

"Lucky, don't eat the corpse. Bring it back to me!"

Fortunately, Lucky appeared to obey him without any fudging this time. As a gem cat, his favorite food consisted of mundane and exotic minerals. Actual flesh and blood hardly whetted his appetite. Lucky carefully grasped the corpse with his maw and flew back through the portal before depositing it onto his outstretched gauntlet.

"Curious."

Ves had no idea how much time had passed since the alien had died, but it must have been millions of years at the very least. Why hadn't it decomposed?

Ves whipped up his trusty Vulcaneye and meticulously scanned the alien.

He quickly found out why the corpse hadn't broken down all these years. The alien had actually replaced his flesh with a flexible crystal substance. Certain cavities within the body must have hosted the brains and other vitally important organs. They had long been broken down into dust, leaving only an empty shell behind.

"Even for the crystal builders, this must be an extravagant procedure."

He imagined this alien once held a very high status among his race. He might even be the master of the crystal garden.

While Ves would never in a million years wish to replace his body with a mechanical equivalent, he still found this corpse to be of utmost importance. It was a potential treasure in the eyes of those who pursued immortality through mechanising their bodily functions.

The supple, flexible crystals that bent when he lightly squeezed them with his gauntlet also held a lot of value. If Ves could derive its composition and reproduce it in his labs, he might be able to invent a new substance that would be ideal in armoring the joints and other parts of a mech that needed a of flexibility.

"It's likely to be extraordinarily expensive."

From what Ves could gather from the readings of his Vulcaneye, the exotics used in the flexible crystal exceeded the ones used in the solid crystal ruins. Thus, any attempt to derive some value out of the flexible crystal could only be put off until his career had advanced.

Ves put away the crystal builder's corpse and ordered Lucky to dig up the crystal garden for any other treasures.

The portal opened and closed several times. For safety's sake, Ves always called back Lucky to his side of the portal before it closed. Although the crystal city's portal generator worked fine so far, Ves would be a fool to assume that ancient alien technology worked flawlessly after countless eons of neglect.

The crystal garden suffered a very different outcome from the crystal city and the crystal palace. The aliens abandoned the latter two, but the former still held a single powerful occupant. Perhaps a retinue of servants and bodyguards had accompanied the crystal cyborg to their deaths, but nothing of their existence remained in the ruined garden.

As Lucky dug out the uneven crystal structures in the garden, Ves studied the sample of the plantmeat that Lucky had also brought back. The Vulcaneye read out a bunch of data that only exobiologists would understand.

All he knew for certain was that it was actually still alive and that it possessed both plant-like and flesh-like traits. Considering that it had grown over the crystal garden and survived for who knew how long, Ves suspected that it might be some kind of bioweapon.

"A clash between two different alien civilizations perhaps?"

Besides the sample of plantmeat, Ves hadn't found any traces of the threat the crystal builders faced. All of their history was lost to time, and only their most enduring creations remained to prove their existence. So many races rose and fell in the galaxy that Ves hardly shed a tear to the passing of another race.

Humanity was a practical race. They only cared about the benefits. Most of the time, that meant exterminating any aliens they came across and loot the best parts of their technology for humanity's own use.

Ves merely thought of himself as someone who followed that trend as he instructed Lucky to crack open the crystal structures, which held a lot of cultural significance.

The crystal structures of the garden contained a lot more furniture, but none of them interested Ves. It wasn't until Lucky dug into the basement levels of the largest crystal structure that he managed to come across something remarkable.

It was a circular plate the size of his palm. To the aliens, it must have been a large table or piece of art. To Ves, its shape hardly roused his interest. Instead, he focused on the tiny crystals embedded onto its surface.

"Is that the galaxy?"

The embedded crystals on the table depicted the Milky Way Galaxy in a very accurate depiction. It hardly differed from the modern appearance of the galaxy. Ves could actually use the differences between the two to date the table's construction, though he wasn't particularly interested in doing so.

What Ves focused on instead was that the map highlighted a couple of stars with crystals of different colors. They were so small that Ves had to magnify his helmet's visor in order to see them clearly. He realized that the outermost one corresponded to the location of the Komodo Star Sector.

"That should stand for this planet or where the Joe System."

The other miniscule gems spread out over the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy, though most of the colored gems had been affixed in roughly the same 'slice' of the galaxy. This likely meant that the crystal builder's civilization had stretched from the galactic center to the galactic rim!

"Had they once been the dominant race of the galaxy as well?"

The significance of these ruins went up if that happened to be true. Had those portals stretched over thousands of light-years? Was the crystal garden actually located in the galactic center?

That would be a mind-blowing fact if that was true!

Sweat started to trickle down his back as Ves realized the implications of his discoveries. Perhaps he misinterpreted the map, or perhaps the crystal builders liked to exaggerate their accomplishments, but Ves became more determined than ever to keep this secret to himself. He ordered Lucky to retrieve the table.

The crystal garden hadn't turned up any other treasures. Lucky dug up a lot of furniture, but in his eyes it might as well be junk. Still, the table potentially held a lot of value, because when Ves scanned it with the Vulcaneye, he found out that it held a dense amount of circuits.

He intended to decipher their contents later once his abilities progressed.

"Well, that's two ruins down. Hopefully, there's more."

The galaxy map fostered some hope in Ves. It contained a score of colored gems, and Ves hoped that they corresponded to all of the destinations of the portal generator. As long as he played the lottery long enough, he should eventually be able to open a portal to all of those locations.

"Sadly, I'm running out of time." He sighed.

Much of the value derived from these ruins consisted of things that weren't immediately useful to him. He would have to improve his knowledge base by a substantial amount and put in a lot of research before he could profit from his gains.

A potentially massive payoff twenty or so years from now wasn't very useful compared to what he could earn when he went back to designing mechs.

"I'm a mech designer. I design mechs. Researching alien remnants is only useful if it helps me build better mechs."

It only made sense for him to moonlight as a treasure hunter so long as it benefited his designs. If he could readily decipher the crystal builder's technology, then he didn't mind being stranded here for years, although he would likely be forced to subside on clawed worm meat.

His face crinkled into a disgusted expression. "No thanks."

Over the next two days, Ves resumed his endless lottery draw. He continued to shoot the alien rune monuments like a monkey banging at a keyboard.

If the monkey continued to type a random mash of letters, he'd eventually be able to reproduce an exact copy of Old Earth's classics.

Ves indeed felt like a monkey as he continued to persist in this monotonous task with hardly any rest. He forcibly kept himself awake as sleep would eat a precious amount of time that he could have used to gamble for another successful combination.

His luck turned out to be awful as Ves failed to hit a successful combination in the remaining amount of time. Every single time he hit a different combination of fifteen runes, the crystal spires would shoot out their light beams at him without fail.

"Seems like I won't be gaining anymore harvests this time." He sighed at the end of his time limit.

His mind had practically become fossilized at the excruciatingly boring routine. Even Lucky hadn't bothered to do anything but sleep at the same spot. Even if a light beam passed through his intangible body, the disturbance wasn't enough to wake him out of his rest.

Ves was ready to go home.

He retrieved the alloy key monument and wondered why the crystal builders had used metals instead of crystals. He also wondered why they made it relatively easy to open a portal to the location of this monument.

"Will it actually be able to bring me back home, or is it some kind of trap?"

No matter the truth, Ves owed it to himself to try the combination. He had already fixated on the runes in question and began to shoot at them in the order depicted by the keys. He chose to read out the runes from left to right and top to bottom.

A bunch of light beams hit him right through the head.

"Okay then. These aliens aren't a fan of reading from left to right."

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Ves employed a number of different orders, but it hadn't worked. Even if he started from right to left, the crystal city treated him like he was an intruder.

Not willing to give up, Ves began to employ more creative methods of reading out the runes. After more than a score of different combinations, he finally achieved a different result. This time, he started from the center, and radiated outwards in a counterclockwise circle.

The crystal spirals began to focus their energies upwards and generated another portal.

This time, he came across a very welcome sight. A familiar asteroid with a very familiar cave beckoned him back home.

"Yes! That should lead back to the Joe System!"

His exuberance quickly died down once he noticed the portal hadn't grown wider than his head. Same as the other portals, the current one only allowed someone like Lucky to pass through.

"These stupid midgets!"

How would he be able to squeeze through this tiny portal?!

The problem caught him in his throat. He let the portal expire while he furiously churned his mind for a solution for his problem. How could he make the portal large enough to fit his body?

"Wait a minute. What about my semi-corporeality?"

Even if he passed through the portal, if he remained a ghost, it was nothing different than being dead. Imagining himself as a specter who haunted people for their energies scared him to death!

"This son isn't going to follow in his mother's footsteps!"

In order to stave off a panic, Ves forced himself to think in a logical manner. "First I should break down the problem."

He currently had to achieve two essential goals. The first one should be to regain his corporeal state and the second one was to find a way to return to the asteroid in the Joe System.

Both problems presented seemingly insurmountable obstacles to Ves. He had no clue how to go about the first problem while the second problem was within reach if only if he could master the crystal city's technology.

Ves looked at himself and his somewhat transparent body. He couldn't pick up any object or interact with this alien world in his current state. The botched teleportation had turned him into some kind of energy being that existed in a higher dimension. It was already remarkable enough that he hadn't been torn to pieces or ended up into a dimension of nihility.

His eyes happened to have gazed over at Lucky, who had woken up after some time. His cat currently played with some rocks on the light-burned ground. Lucky's paws glowed with spirituality as he effortlessly crossed the line between tangibility and intangibility.

"Lucky isn't the only one with spirituality here."

Ever since his last eureka moment, the System had updated his Status to reflect his current strengths. It explicitly added Spirituality to his Attribute tab. Although a score of 0.4 looked pathetic, it was already better than most other humans.

"Spirituality and semi-corporeality are related. One should be able to affect the other."

Could he manipulate his intangible state into a solid state? And could he go back to being a ghost?

He began to speculate that energy beings might be holding their intangible bodies using spirituality. It might also even be the reason why Ves and Lucky had survived the initial teleportation process.

If they hadn't possessed this special quality, they might have been phased out of existence!

"This is frightening!"

The thought that he unknowingly dodged an unfortunate fate did not help with calming his mind. His thoughts also spun into several tangents. He recalled the energy beings he encountered before, from the massive devourers to his mother's ghost.

"Is she truly even dead?"

A mix of emotions pressed upon his heart. Ves did not dare continue to follow this train of thought and centered his mind back to his own state.

Right now, he strongly believed he should be able to exert some control over his intangible body.

"Energy beings hold themselves together with their thoughts rather than their flesh. Their flesh doesn't exist in this state. It's all in the mind."

He believed if he brainwashed himself into believing that he was a dog, his intangible body would turn into a dog as well. Not that he had any interest in trying out this particular experiment.

"Let's start with something simple."

His transformation hadn't encompassed his body alone. His hazard suit and his gear had also transformed along with him. This provided him with a convenient way to test his latest thoughts. He retrieved a compact nutrient bar from his toolbelt and stared at it with the same intensity as when he designed a mech.

"Turn solid. Turn solid. Turn solid."

He repeated the same mantra over and over again. He knew that as a fairly logical person, he would have a lot of trouble trying to trick his mind into believing falsehoods. The best method he came up with was to think of nothing else but the same set of words. Essentially, he tried to override his conscious thoughts with a faulty statement so that it had the chance to become true.

It took more than ten minutes for something to go into effect. The nutrient bar glowed before losing its opacity.

It quickly fell between his intangible fingers.

"It worked!"

His thoughts had hit the mark! Spirituality formed the core of manipulating an intangible object.

Ves gazed down at the nutrient bar that had returned to the material dimensions and waited for something to happen. More than fifteen minutes went by until Ves tentatively became assured that the nutrient bar wouldn't return to its intangible state on its own.

He saw hope now.

Now that he confirmed his train of thought and proved that he possessed the same capabilities as Lucky, Ves tried to perform a bolder experiment.

He wanted to turn his own body back to solid.

However, he stopped his experiment before he began. What if he couldn't reverse the process? That wasn't an issue if he returned to the Joe System, but as long as he stayed on this unknown planet, that would be the death knell for him. By forsaking his special state, he lost any chance of squeezing through the tiny portal.

"I can figure this out later. First, I have to find out if I can manipulate my own size."

He believed that if he could turn turn his body from a ghost back to normal, that it should also be possible to change the shape of his ghost form.

This attempt took a lot longer to produce a result. Ves patiently wished for his body to grow smaller without fail. It was a lot harder to do so because humans weren't supposed to be so small. It went against everything he learned from birth.

Still, as long as he brainwashed himself long enough, he was able to accomplish the impossible. His body eventually flickered before growing smaller and smaller. Lucky stopped playing with his rocks and stared at the shrinking Ves with alarm.

Was his owner trying to turn into a cat?!

"It worked!"

He succeeded in shrinking his body to the size of a doll, but it came at a heavy burden. Almost all his concentration had been allocated to believing the lie he told to himself. If he became distracted in any way, he might not be able to hold his current state.

"It's time to go, Lucky!"

Ves wanted to leave this barren place and return home. He retrieved his miniaturized Amastendira and shot at the correct sequence of runes. Despite its shrunken state, the Amastendira's output hadn't diminished at all.

When the crystal city generated the portal back to the Joe System, Ves didn't hesitate and flew up to the portal over the crystal city. Lucky followed behind him with a fascinated gaze. The cat couldn't get used to seeing a human of this size.

The downside of having shrinked himself was that it took a bit longer than he thought to traverse the distance. Unlike the Amastendira, his hazard suit's output had scaled according to its size. Ves felt as if he tried to fly out of the atmosphere of a habitable planet. It took an agonizingly long time before he reached the portal.

"Hurry up! The portal will almost close!"

Ves dove through the portal just as Lucky went through as well. The portal winked out twenty seconds later but Ves had already sprawled himself against the asteroid. His intangible form had also returned to its normal size.

"I'm back! Haha!" He celebrated even as fatigue swept over him. The change in stature had really expended an enormous amount of mental energy. Ves had to take a lengthy before he could contemplate his next problem.

Right now, he remained stuck as a ghost. If he ever wanted to return to normal, he had to find a method to turn his body back to solid.

"It shouldn't be too different from turning that nutrient bar back to solid."

He employed the same method of hypnotizing himself into believing his body was corporeal. It actually went a lot easier than he thought, because he essentially didn't lie to himself. He always possessed a fully material body. He just had to reinforce this truth in order to effect a change.

"My body and gear are solid. My body and gear are solid. My body and gear are solid."

The only issue that complicated his efforts was that he also wanted to turn his gear into solid at the same time. It wouldn't do for him to turn his body back to normal, only to die in vacuum as his hazard suit still remained intangible.

Eventually, he succeeded. His body along with his hazard suit and other possessions suddenly blinked back to a solid form. Ves had succeeded into turning back to normal!

Despite his success, he still remained cautious and stood still while he waited for his body to flicker back into ghost form.

One minute. FIve minutes. Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes.

Only after one full hour did Ves become assured that his transformation had been permanent. He sighed in relief and let down his guard. Hopefully nothing strange would happen in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, Lucky played and floated around the asteroid as if Ves had nothing to do with him. The cat stubbornly remained intangible.

"Lucky! Turn back to normal!"

Lucky pointedly turned his butt at Ves and continued to play with the rocks that had been shaken loose from the asteroid. Ves sighed to himself and gave up trying to persuade his pet to stop fooling around.

Lucky's intangible state didn't come with any downsides as far as he knew.

Ves looked back to the cave entrance and thought about the graser rifle design he had to get back to. It was such a long time ago since he last worked on it that he forgot about some of the details.

"With the insights I've learned from the crystal ruins, I should be able to design a much better rifle."

Even without applying any of the alien innovations, Ves still gained a lot from the Skills and Sub-Skills he acquired from the Skill Tree. They corresponded closely with the inner workings of a laser weapon, and Ves immediately thought of a number of ways to enhance his old design.

The difference between the old design and the improved one would be like night and day. When Ves returned to the cave and studied the design, he shook his head.

"It's so simplistic."

The design became so rudimentary in his eyes that he quickly overhauled the entire schematic. He couldn't bear to fabricate the old design as it possessed a large number of flaws that grated his perfectionist sensibilities.

A mech designer should have more pride in his work!

He vastly improved the graser rifle design in several areas, increasing its endurance while cutting down its weight. It would be able to output a lot more power as well while generating a bit less heat. Its capabilities more closely matched the graser rifle design outlined in the research notes.

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Before Ves could finish the design on his reimagined graser rifle, the Barracuda arrived at his asteroid. Captain Silvestra came as scheduled, but this time she brought a disconcerting message to Ves.

"Did something happen here?" She asked as soon as she established a communication channel with Ves.

Ves knew that the initial teleportation process had been too conspicuous to hide. "An accident happened with some alien relics that had been laying around here."

"I see." Silvestra sounded like she wanted to know more, but her employer had been acting secretly all this while. She refrained from questioning him more. "There's a problem. Whatever happened here has pinged all of our sensors, and if we can pick it up, so can the monitoring equipment scattered all over this star system."

"Has anyone arrived yet?"

"As far as we know, no one has transitioned into the system as of yet, but that might change in the next couple of days. The only reason why a ship hasn't arrived yet is because the Joe System is based around a red dwarf."

The smaller and more pathetic the star, the harder it was to navigate towards it in FTL. Only a couple of exceptions like port systems disregarded this rule.

Ves mentally calculated how much work he had to do before he finished his errand. "I won't be staying here for long. Return the Barracuda to her hideout and come back in seventy-two hours. I'll be ready to pack up and go home by then."

Although Captain Silvestra revealed some misgivings, Ves did not wish to go through the trouble of delaying the completion of his mission. It would be a hassle to find some other desolated star system for him to resume his work in piece.

Once his corvette turned around and left Ves alone on his rock, he thought about his timetable for the next three days.

"It's going to be tight." His face pinched up. "Yet I'm going to have to wrap up this design."

In truth, he set a hard deadline for himself so he wouldn't keep adding more features on his graser rifle. It had already evolved from a rudimentary proof of concept into a formidable weapon of radioactive destruction.

In designing the weapon, he had become much more proficient and familiar with working around laser weapons. The difference between before he embarked to the Joe System and after he returned from the crystal city couldn't be more stark.

His proficiency with regards to light, lasers and crystals had reached an unprecedented level to him. His gains regarding these fields almost rivaled his recent gains in the field of spirituality.

"It's like learning to run before learning to walk. It's the wrong order, but it makes learning how to walk a trivial problem."

After finishing this side trip, Ves gained a lot of confidence in being able to design a workable laser rifle. He also planned to apply some of his preliminary research gains from his studies of the alien remains. This would certainly push the quality of his laser rifle closer to those wielded by mainstream mechs.

In the next two days, he raced to finalize his design. He stopped adding any major features but instead optimized the graser rifle's existing configuration. Ves caught several major flaws that could have led to a bad outcome this way. He also slightly increased the graser rifle's efficiency by a minor step.

Once he finished his final design work, he stood back and sighed. "For a taboo weapon, it sure doesn't look like it now."

He cut down on the bulk considerably. With his increased proficiency in lasers, he found he didn't have to compensate for his inadequacies with the use of buffers.

"Buffers are a sign of inefficiency. An excessive amount of moderating components only add to the bulk while taking up space for more essential components." Ves remembered from his classes back when he studied at Rittersberg. "Buffers also encourage more sloppiness because there is a higher tolerance for errors."

In short, only those who lacked the confidence to design a good weapon added a lot of buffers. Bigger wasn't always better. This rule especially applied to laser rifles. Their mean appeal to mech pilots was that they were light, slim, accurate and low maintenance.

While his graser rifle design hadn't met all of those criteria, it still functioned as a practical weapon that wouldn't fall apart after receiving a few bumps. Ves possessed a lot of skill in increasing the robustness of everything he designed, so he had spent some extra effort into toughening up the rifle's frame.

Once he beheld the entire design, Ves thought that it deserved a weapon even if he hadn't put his full efforts into designing the rifle. He refused to infuse his Spirituality into the design, but that did not mean it deserved to be nameless.

"Let's call you the Tainted Sun."

The Tainted Sun sounded a bit more poetic than he meant to, but Ves cared little of the opinions of others. He wouldn't publish the weapon to anyone to comment on his naming choice, after all.

After wrapping up his design, he proceeded to his 3D printer and began to fabricate the components. Ves brought a handful of old bots to assist him with the work. The lack of gravity on the asteroid helped a lot with handling some of the heavier materials. He processed them all and churned out rifle part after rifle part.

Despite fabricating the graser rifle for the first time, Ves did not encounter any challenge in this phase. He already completed the hardest portion of this mission. With his ample fabrication abilities, he ensured that each and every part came out well within the tolerances necessary to ensure a tight assembly.

Once he finished fabricating all of the parts, he didn't immediately move to assemble them into a rifle. Instead, he inserted an extra step in his fabrication process by scanning the parts with his Vulcaneye.

"This thing's more useful than scanning alien components."

Now that he bought an expensive gadget, he might as make the best of it. The multiscanner possessed far more power than the hulking scanning machines back at his workshop. It was able to detect if his parts had come out crooked or if some of their structure contained cracks or faults.

His prudence paid off as his multiscanner detected a minor structural weakness in the casing of the battery. If the graser rifle fired a lot of gamma laser beams in quick succession, the battery might heat up and exacerbate this fault. It could have blown up the battery in the worst case.

"Phew. Good thing I caught this problem in time."

Ves went back to his 3D printer and used some spare materials to fabricate a replacement casing for the battery. Once he finished that chore, he proceeded with the final step of his fabrication process.

While he hadn't brought any assembly machines with him, the zero-G environment along with the bots allowed him to assemble the rifle manually. It likely wouldn't have been possible to do so with mechs as some of their components required a lot of force to budge into place, but the largest component of the rifle consisted of its barrel, which was still manageable for him and his bots to move.

It took less than a day to complete the final assembly. Once the last part clicked into place, Ves felt as if he completed a mighty task.

He created a true forbidden weapon.

The thought that he outright flaunted the rules that kept humanity from destroying themselves from within had sunk in deep at that moment. His mentality experienced a subtle change. It was as if the Tainted Sun had marked his soul.

The mark saddled him with an inescapable guilt. His fear of the MTA increased. He would always step on his toes in their presence for fear of being found out.

Yet this ordeal also liberated him from the shackles imposed by human society. He had already stepped out of the box that the MTA had painstakingly constructed around him. From this point on, his perspective on mech design encompassed unconventional solutions.

If Ves had to break a rule to achieve a goal, then he wouldn't hesitate as long as he could get away with it. The important part was the latter half. Everything could come crashing down as long as a single person found out and revealed his misdeeds to the public.

"I have to destroy the evidence."

That included the graser rifle as well as the 3D printer, the terminal and the remaining spare parts. None of them should exist in this galaxy.

Ves retrieved his Amastendira and was about to fire at them before reconsidering. "It's not safe to destroy them with my laser pistol. It also won't disintegrate the remains. Who knows if someone can reconstruct what I've just created from the slag that's left behind."

In addition, he felt that melting the weapon down with his Amastendira was a disgraceful fate for a weapon that he personally brought into reality. He couldn't bring himself to shoot his own creation.

He quickly came up with an alternative plan and proceeded to fabricate a composite fabric with sensor-blocking properties before wrapping it up around the only copy of the Tainted Sun. After that, he packed up his workplace and waited for the scheduled arrival of the Barracuda.

In the meantime, he checked up on Lucky. Ves walked outside the cave and spotted Lucky floating around with a handful of rocks orbiting his form. Lucky resembled a sage as he expertly manipulated the rocks with his gravity manipulation. Sometimes, the rocks passed straight through his form, indicating that Lucky hadn't bothered to turn his body back to normal.

Ves sighed at his pet. "Lucky, it's time to stop fooling around. Who knows if its safe for your to remain in that state!"

Lucky briefly glanced at his owner before turning back to his rocks. Ever since Ves turned back to solid, Lucky acted like he shouldn't have to listen to Ves anymore. After all, what could he do?

Ves looked at his gauntlets and willed them with spirituality. After five minutes of concentration, he activated his hazard suit's antigrav modules and flew towards Lucky. He swiped his gauntlets towards his cat, only for them to pass straight through his target and knock some rocks aside.

The interruption pissed Lucky off. He yowled at Ves through the communication channel and darted off to the other side of the asteroid.

"Damn cat."

Just like any other major Attribute, Spirituality could be applied in many different ways. His own Spirituality leaned towards observation and the creation of the imaginary. He possessed little experience in other areas such as manipulating semi-corporeality. Lucky was a lot stronger in this area.

Both Lucky and the System benefited hugely from the Glowing Planet. Lucky gorged himself with a priceless amount of Rorach's Bone while the System absorbed the mysterious jewel hidden within the skull of a giant humanoid.

While these fantastic exotics possessed remarkable effects, Ves believed their main value lay in their ability to strengthen the spirituality of an artificial life form like Lucky and the System.

He had to remind himself that they started off as machines. Through accompanying him in his career, they slowly gained the opportunity to become more lifelike. What was the goal of the System? Where did Lucky originally came from, and who designed him in the first place?

"Every machine has its creator. They are all meant to serve a purpose."

The Amastendira came with a brief but informative back story. Its origin story made it clear that the System didn't invent its items out of nowhere. Almost every item that Ves could obtain from the Store or the Lottery already existed in this reality.

Anyone in the galaxy could potentially gather all of these valuable items. Yet that would never happen. Every faction had their secrets. No one wished to expose their trump cards and the secrets to their success.

The true value in the System lay in its ability to gather these wondrous inventions regardless of their ownership and offer them to its user. It directly converged the collective strength of humanity into a single interface.

"How scary."

Some organization must have mastered the production of attribute candies, while another may have unlocked the secret to creating self-resonating gems.

However, despite the System's all-encompassing nature, it very much explicitly lacked things related to Spirituality. This meant that a study into this field had never become systematic enough to be passed around from generation to generation.

This should be his own unique strength.

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The Barracuda quietly traversed the asteroid cloud and reached Ves after a couple of hours. The corvette turned around and positioned her rear cargo hatch next to the cave. A number of bots began to retrieve everything from the cave, including the thickly-wrapped Tainted Sun.

Ves kept an eye on his freshly fabricated graser rifle. He was unwilling to let it out of his sight for a single second. Even though he trusted the women he hired to crew the Barracuda, he couldn't account for their curiosity. It was better to forestall any problems by maintaining his vigilance.

A handful of crew members such as Jenn and Ushra helped with securing the cargo. While they locked the containers, they noticed Lucky flying straight through solid matter as if it didn't exist.

"What the?!"

"Intruder alert!"

"Hold on, false alarm girls!" Ves quickly interposed when they attempted to draw their pistols. "That's still Lucky. He's just a little special now."

He quickly came up with a sloppy excuse for Lucky's current state. He spun a tall tale about obtaining a special exotic during the Glowing Planet campaign. Since he was already lying about it, he conveniently added that the whole reason for this trip was to figure out a way to incorporate this mysterious material into Lucky.

"So you turned your mechanical pet into an energy being this way?" Ushra replied in a baffled tone. As the ship's engineer, she possessed a lot more expertise in technical matters, so she wouldn't be fooled so easily. "This is amazing. How did you do it?"

"Trade secret." Ves simply replied.

He figured that Ushra still held some reservations, but he didn't need to say anything more. What mattered was that Ves could use the same excuse to anyone else and they wouldn't be able to refute it to his face. After all, the Glowing Planet yielded a bewildering variety of exotics.

Once the crew finished storing all of the goods, the Barracuda turned to head to the edge of the system. Just before she could fire up her thrusters, Ves called a halt.

"What is it you want, sir?" Captain Silvestra asked as she appeared in the cargo bay as a projection.

"Don't leave the Joe System yet. Head towards the red dwarf in the center of the system. Get close to it as possible without damaging the ship. I want to dump a bunch of cargo into the sun."

The woman looked oddly at Ves before she acknowledged his order. Her projection winked out, leaving Ves alone in the cargo bay. Lucky had already passed through the upper deck and played elsewhere.

Since the asteroid with the cave already orbited fairly close to the sun, it didn't take too long to approach the red dwarf. The corvette still took more than half a day to navigate between the asteroids, though the asteroid cloud had become increasingly sparse the closer they neared the sun.

Nowadays, suns served as the ultimate garbage dumps. It only took a brief trip close to the scorching sun at the center of any star system to dump all manner of garbage that needed to disappear.

However, with the current advances in recycling used materials, only low value bulk materials got dumped this way. The cost of transforming worthless junk into usable materials exceeded the cost of shipping them straight into a sun.

The only reason why someone went through the trouble of dumping valuable materials in the sun was if they had something to hide. Ves did not hide his intention to the crew, but he misdirected them by hinting that Ves had employed a very unique procedure on his cat instead of violating a taboo.

As the Barracuda neared the sun, she started encountering some issues. Even though red dwarfs was one of the weakest suns in the galaxy, it still radiated enough energy to scorch a planet as long as it received all of the energy it pumped out in a single second. Proximity to any star entailed a lot of risks.

Captain Silvestra's projection returned to the cargo bay. "Sir, we've almost reached the threshold. Do you wish to begin the dumping process?"

Even Ves could feel the heat creeping into the cargo bay. He nodded. "Let's proceed as soon as soon as we ready the cargo."

Ves waited for the Barracuda to turn around. She still continued her approach towards the center of the star system with the momentum she had built up, but this time she pointed the stern towards the sun.

Once she finished her maneuver, Ves began to remove the collars and safeties preventing the cargo from being shaken around in the event of a change in momentum. After that, he quickly left the cargo bay and climbed the decks until he reached the bridge.

"Sir." Silvestra tipped her hat at him when he sat in the observer's seat. "Shall we begin the dumping process?"

"Go ahead." Then Ves remembered something crucial. "Ah, wait a bit. Can you check where Lucky is hanging out right now? I don't want him to get sucked out of the cargo bay."

A projection appeared which displayed Lucky's current location. Right now, his lazy cat had broke into the lab and raided some of the spare materials he locked up in the cabinets. Bits and pieces of minerals lay strewn over deck next to his dozing form.

Ves palmed his face. "Urgh. Even my pet is taking up after my thieving mother."

"What was that, sir?"

"Oh nothing. Please check one more time that nothing is out of place in the cargo bay. After that, you may proceed with dumping the entire cargo bay."

"The entire cargo bay? Including the 3D printer?"

"Including the printer."

He'd been ready to say goodbye to his first 3D printer ever since he reconstructed the Dortmund. The capabilities of this generic second-hand model couldn't catch up with his ambitions anymore. Even as a spare device that could be used to fabricate replacement parts, its imprecise mechanisms and terrible output prevented it from remaining relevant to the LMC.

He might as well throw it away in that case.

Ordinarily, Ves would have sought to sell it a desperate mech designer who wasn't too picky about buying third-hand goods, but now that he used it to fabricate the Tainted Sun, he couldn't risk letting someone else get their hands on it. Even if Ves had removed every possible bug and recording routine, he wasn't confident enough he caught everything.

Thus, Ves would rather miss out on the fifty to hundred million credits that he could have earned if he sold it on.

"Goodbye, old companion."

The printer deserved better. It had accompanied him in his first steps on his road to becoming a mech designer. He fabricated the Marc Antony Mark I and II's with this machine. It was a piece of company history that would certainly become a priceless artifact if he become someone influential a couple of decades from now.

Yet his paranoia forced him to put aside his sentiments and prioritize his safety. The rest of the galaxy couldn't find out about the Tainted Sun. It would destroy his career and ruin the Larkinson name in the process.

The Barracuda used its reverse thrusters to continue accelerating towards the sun. Then, the captain ordered the cargo bay hatch to be opened. A bit of air had been left inside the bay, which leaked out into space in an instant. The decompression caused some of the cargo begin moving towards the edge.

Simultaneously, the antigrav modules in the cargo bay removed the artificial gravity that kept the cargo in place. They then exerted a horizontal repelling force on the cargo, pushing them away from the ship at a moderate speed.

Once everything inside left through the hatch, the Barracuda ceased to power her reverse thrusters and began to fire up her main thrusters again. This slowly halted the Barracuda's descent into the sun and pushed her back from the threshold.

Even though the antigrav modules in the cargo bay hadn't exerted that much pushing force onto the cargo, the ship had been accelerating towards the sun at a brisk pace. The ejected cargo had inherited this momentum which sent them soaring towards the embrace of the sun. They'd be burning up within the hour.

Ves lamented the waste, but hardly felt pained by the loss. As the Barracuda turned to leave the Joe System, Ves remained at his seat and kept watching the spinning cargo as they slowly neared the furnace of the red dwarf. He only left the bridge once he personally saw them burning up.

"Alright, you can head back to Cloudy Curtain now. Make sure that no one finds out we've been here."

They might have to skulk through the asteroid cloud and make some detours in their route, but Ves could never take enough precautions.

He left the crew to their jobs and left for his stateroom. Once he entered it, he sat behind his terminal but didn't activate it yet. Instead, he held up his comm and activated his Privacy Shield before running the System.

[Congratulations for completing the Upgrade Mission! A mech designer must strive forth and use any means to improve his designs. A mech designer reveres their own abilities and nothing else. Possessing the means to design a special mech but lacking the will to make it into fruition is a sign of weakness. The ultimate mech designer must be free and unrestrained!]

"That's easy for you to say." Ves snorted.

He was glad he finished the mission to the System's satisfaction. Even if it carried a moderate difficulty, Ves was still afraid he had fallen short of the System's standards. Good thing he passed.

[Please stand by.]

"Stand by for what?"

A mass of knowledge suddenly thrust into his mind. His calm and serene mindscape instantly fell into disorder as an incredibly dense amount of knowledge poured into its midst. Ves held back his screams as more knowledge than he could ever imagine assimilated within his mind in the most straightforward method possible.

Ves thought his mind had improved to a point where he wouldn't feel any pain from acquiring a new Skill. He was wrong. The Senior-level Physics he waited so long to acquire was so much more significant than he thought. It carried much of humanity's recent advancements in the field of theoretical physics, with a bias in areas directly related to mechs.

Many of the theories directly or indirectly touched upon the wonders made possible by exotics. Their ability to bend the laws of reality allowed for much more extensive observation and experimentation. This led to many conclusions that shook his conception of reality.

Hundreds, thousands of different changes opinions happened within seconds of each other.

"The higher dimensions are countless, and they're not as unreachable as I thought!"

"I made so many fundamental mistakes in designing the Tainted Sun. Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

"So that is why the crystal builders are proficient in manipulating light and portals. It's their unique crystals that are at the heart of their technology!"

"I see! This is why those materials are prohibited! They're too dangerous to be circulated. They can annihilate an entire star!"

"So this is how a modern battery works! I understand why they use these materials!"

What was a Senior Mech Designer? As someone who surpassed the level of Journeyman, such a person would have an august status everywhere he went. Even the first-rate superstates respected Seniors due to the wealth of knowledge they earnestly accumulated over many decades.

Ves had to compress all that lifetime of knowledge in a single sitting. It took over twelve hours before the System stopped pouring in a transport's worth of knowledge into his mind. It took a lot more time to digest these gains. Ves only fully mastered one percent of what he gained, and those merely consisted of the easier parts.

"It's going to take a bit longer for me to master this knowledge." He frowned. His face revealed his fatigue. Unlike the last times, his mind simply couldn't handle the profoundness of what he gained. The System did as much as it could to help him digest the materials, but it wasn't a god. "I'm being limited by my mental capacity."

Ves thought about hurrying up the process by ingesting a Transcendence Pill. Without enhancing his Intelligence, it might take months before he could fully utilize his Senior-level Physics.

He thought about how the war went so far and calculated whether he could delay his upcoming design project. He had no doubt the war would heat up in the next couple of months. By then, the MTA would certainly call him up to contribute to the Republic.

Did he have enough time to ingest the Transcendence Pill and complete another original design?

"It's going to be another gamble."

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He decided to go through with the gamble, even though he might not obtain the intended result.

The Transcendence Pill he received from the System as a reward from the Glowing Planet campaign came with a very powerful benefit. It could directly break the attribute limit of any of his mental Attributes.

There were two major problems. One of them was that it hadn't mention any way to control the outcome. Ideally, Ves hoped to boost his Intelligence, because it would directly help the speed in which he mastered his new and overwhelming Senior-level Physics Skill.

The other problem related to the amount of time he'd be indisposed. The Pill's description offered a very wide range of time, from just a single day to eighty-eight days of adjustment. In the meantime, Ves would fall into a coma as the Pill did its magic.

"I can't afford to be down for three months. The Bright Republic's situation will certainly deteriorate in that time."

Ves thought about it and figured the main reason it might take so long to unlock his genetic limit. The Pill would be facing an uphill struggle if the person who ingested it possessed a weak foundation.

Most of his mental Attributes scored 1.7 and higher, so Ves had no concerns in that area. However, just to be safe, he spent the last dregs of his DP to round his Attributes out to its current maximum limit. At his state, Ves had no excuse for leaving his Attributes so low.

[Intelligence Attribute Candy: 1800 DP

[Intelligence Attribute Candy: 1900 DP

[Creativity Attribute Candy: 1900 DP

[Concentration Attribute Candy: 1700 DP

[Concentration Attribute Candy: 1800 DP

[Concentration Attribute Candy: 1900 DP

"Too bad the Store doesn't offer any Spirituality candies."

If his conjecture about the source of the Store items was correct, then Ves shouldn't get his hopes up. After all, not a single human in the galaxy possessed a deeper systematic understanding of Spirituality.

The candies worked their magic in his body and Ves could feel his mind grow in minute ways. The boost in strength had not been as large as crossing past 1.0, but it definitely brought other benefits. It appeared the closer a human got to 2.0, the more their mental prowess quickened and became more steady.

"It's actually an increase in stability!"

A small weight had been lifted from his mind, and strange enough, the internal energy cycle within his body had also grown a little lighter. Ves rubbed his stomach and chest with a deep expression.

"So this thing that Dr. Jutland has implanted within me isn't purely a physiological matter. It's strongly related to my mentality. Perhaps it's even directly related to Spirituality."

He always suspected something like that might be true, but he subconsciously dismissed it all of this time because of Dr. Jutland's crazy ravings. His constant rants about the importance of developing the mind over the body sounded crazy back at the time, but now, Ves couldn't help but reconsider his words.

Had the mysterious and rebellious Five Scrolls Compact been on the right track? Why had they fallen out with the CFA and MTA?

A chilling dread ran through his spine. Dr. Jutland appeared to be an outcast of the heretical organization. If the higher ups of the Compact took him a little more seriously, they might have been able to master the phenomenon of Spirituality.

Fortunately, from Jutland's resentment, Ves gathered that the Five Scroll Compact focused most of their efforts on enhancing their physical bodies. They pursued a completely different direction.

"It's not like they can help it. Human science is still biased against things they can't observe."

As long as no one could sense or measure spirituality directly, even the most radical scientists in the Compact possessed no clue.

Still, Ves did not underestimate the ingenuity of the human mind. Like Dr. Jutland, there must be several other hermits and outcasts who might be on the right track, if only coincidentally.

At some point, the secret wouldn't be a secret anymore.

"At least I have a head-start in this field."

The benefit of being a pioneer was that he could reap the benefits first. Ves became more determined to develop his mental Attributes and find a way to grow his Spirituality to even greater heights.

He took the rest of the trip back to Cloudy Curtain to rest his mind. He cleansed his mind of any distractions and attempted to bring it to its peak state.

He shoved aside any concerns about designing a rifleman mech for later. He also halted his attempts to integrate the influx of Physics knowledge.

The Barracuda took a little longer than necessary to return to Cloudy Curtain. Even though she possessed enough capability to hop directly from the Joe System to the Bentheim System, such a straight and obvious trajectory could easily be traced back to Ves.

Thus, Captain Silvestra chose to obfuscate their presence by transitioning to a number of uninhabited star systems before they finally approached Cloudy Curtain without passing through Bentheim.

The monitoring equipment in the Cloudy Curtain System was extremely rudimentary. The captain believed that it wouldn't be able to pinpoint the exact star system the ship had made their final transition.

"Good work, captain." Ves nodded to Silvestra as he stood on the bridge while the corvette made her final descent onto his home planet. "I won't be needing the Barracuda for a couple of months I think, so she should get back to regular duty."

"Understood, sir."

The Barracuda had become something of a status symbol to the executives who needed to commute between Cloudy Curtain and Bentheim. Her sleek appearance and impeccable Coalition pedigree always impressed their business partners.

Once they reached the spaceport, Ves left for his old workshop with his intangible pet in tow. At first, the security escort dispatched by Sanyal-Ablin looked nonplussed at Lucky's casual ability to pass through the plating of the armored shuttle.

"Hahaha, don't mind my pet. He recently received a couple of upgrades." Ves quickly attempted to defuse their suspicions while trying to grab on to his lawless cat. Unfortunately, he utterly failed at grasping onto Lucky as he floated through people and fixtures with no regard.

The journey back to the old workshop therefore became a little tense. Ves had no doubt the security officers would report their sightings back to Sanyal-Ablin's office, which would then pass on the intelligence back to the Konsu Clan.

Ves had made no attempts to hide Lucky's new state. Even if he could get his cat to obey him, the benefits decisively outweighed the risks.

He had done some studies of Lucky's intangible state with the help of his Vulcaneye. It turned out that Lucky had become as elusive as if he entered the field emitted by the Privacy Shield. Although optical sensors could still detect the mechanical cat, many other sensors ceased to work entirely.

This turned Lucky into a great spy and thief. Ves had become well aware of the implications as Lucky had raided the Barracuda's stores of spare materials bare with impunity.

Thinking about his losses prompted Ves to stare his pet with a vigilant expression. Lucky had better not try to break into the storerooms of the LMC.

"I'm keeping my eye on you."

"Meow?" Lucky responded back, and tried to act cute. He floated down to Ves and partially solidified on his owner's lap. "Meow!"

Ves couldn't help but take the invitation and stroke Lucky's back. He chuckled. He couldn't stay angry at his pet.

A couple of hours later, the armed escort arrived at the outskirts of Freslin. The old workshop looked a little bit less lively since he last visited the place. When Ves exited the shuttle, he met with Carlos who waited on him at the front entrance.

"Carlos, how's it going here?"

"It's largely empty here at the moment. We've already moved most of our operations to the new complex. By the way, you forgot to name it. Everyone's calling it the Complex or the Place. It gets confusing sometimes."

"Let me think about it on the way. First, I want to take a stroll through this workshop one last time."

Before Ves left for the Joe System, he ordered the LMC to pack up and move to their operations to the new complex with haste. Even if the construction project hadn't been finished yet, Ves wanted to hurry up with the move because it was already a lot safer to work from there.

As Ves entered the halls, he instantly noticed the lack of furniture and people moving around. Previously, the office areas of the workshop had been packed with workers. Now, their absence left a gaping void that could never be plugged again.

The old workshop already attained a touch of history in its empty halls. Almost everything from the desks to the monitoring equipment had been removed. Only the old cleaning bots still moved within these halls. The old machines had been left behind because the manufacturing complex possessed a better suite of bots.

After glancing at his old personal office, Ves wandered over to the yard, the empty storerooms and the fabrication hall.

The mech technicians had already packed up the Dortmund and the rest of the main production line and moved them away. The absence of all the large machinery had turned the hall into an empty cavern.

"Just think about it." Carlos prompted. "Almost two years ago, you began your business with a single old printer and assembly machine. I doubt you had more than a couple of million credits to your name. Now, your net worth must have ballooned into the billions."

With his enhanced mind, Ves sensed the subtle thread of envy in the voice of his friend. "It's all thanks to my designs. Without my work, the LMC would have never grown so big at this point. As the first person who joined me, I won't mistreat you."

He felt the need to reinforce Carlos' loyalty. Ves casually handed him a bonus of a couple of million credits, but they both knew that such an amount of money wouldn't change anything.

"You've already been more than generous to me, Ves." He responded as he looked at Ves with a despondent expression. "The money is great, but it's the practice and the books that's truly useful for me. I've been studying under you for all this time."

"How far have you come along?"

"Further than when I started. I've even designed some variants of the Blackbeak in my spare time. Would you like to take a look at them?"

"If you wish."

This time, Ves gazed with interest as Carlos transferred some files to his comm. He projected the design schematics and studied them with his full professional attention.

He knew why Carlos opted to design a variant of the newer Blackbeak instead of the older Mark Antony Mark II design. The latter was an extremely complex hybrid knight while the Blackbeak was one of the simplest mech types in existence.

However, just because the Blackbeak appeared relatively simple didn't mean it contained a lot of complexity. Ves incorporated a lot of subtlety and nuances into the Blackbeak. Those who failed see through these secrets would never be able to trump his original vision.

Ves only took a minute to determine that Carlos had missed the most essential points. His variants all increased the Blackbeak's power at the cost of endurance.

That didn't sound so bad on the surface, but many of the Blackbeak's components specialized in lasting power. To turn that around and force them to perform past their shallow peaks meant that they'd be worn out within months at worst. For a design that Ves intended to last for at least a decade, that was blasphemous.

If that wasn't bad enough, Carlos had also botched the tradeoffs. He traded far too much endurance to squeeze out just a little bit more peak performance out of his variant. If Ves made a casual effort, he could easily double the gains, not that he would ever want to. Carlos opted to pursue a vision that was diametrically opposite to the original intention of the Blackbeak.

As for the X-Factor, Ves generously didn't include that factor in his evaluation. Carlos hadn't been clued into that particular secret anyway.

When Ves wiped away the projection of the design schematic, he turned his eyes towards his friends. "I don't know how to say it, but your work could use a little more maturing."

"That bad, huh?" Carlos replied with a low voice. It was as if he already accepted that he botched his designs. "Can you tell me what I should work on?"

Ves quietly sighed in relief. At least his friend hadn't been in denial and accepted his shortcomings. There was hope for him yet. "Before you design a variant, it helps if you set a vision for it that's compatible with the base model. You can't turn a marathon runner into a sprinter in a single go. Figure out a set of criteria that your variant has to meet that's also not too different from the parameters of the base model."

"Won't that defeat the point of my work? If my variant performs too similar to the original work, what's the point of publishing a variant in the first place?"

"That's not exactly wrong, but it's better to err on the side of caution. Get some practice in first before you begin to deviate further. Try to figure out a way to add a new capability without sacrificing too much performance. For example, the Blackbeak has always been a little bit poor in terms of heat management. If you can come up with a solution with regards to that area, then you can save me a lot of trouble."

Hope sprung in Carlos' eyes. "You can count on me, Ves!"

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In truth, Ves didn't think that Carlos could come up with a solution that the LMC could accept. His friend's foundation was still too lacking, and his talent and learning ability was decidedly average. He would never amount to anything in the mech industry unless he ate a lot of attribute candies.

That put Ves to thought. Would Carlos be able to benefit from the attribute candies as well? If that was true, then Ves might be able to nurture Carlos into a welcome and much-needed assistant.

Right now, the LMC depended too much on Ves to do all of the essential design work. If he could offload some of the more trivial tasks such as designing variants of his own designs to Carlos, then the company might be a lot better off in the long term.

"Carlos." He began. "What do you see yourself doing ten years from now?"

"I see myself working alongside you as always." His friend replied with an aspirational tone. "I know it's going to be difficult catching up with your growth, but I'm a hard worker. I know I can do it. Don't forget that I helped build the LMC to its present height as well. It's my baby as well, so I'll work as hard as I can to make it into an ever greater company!"

This reassured Ves. If the LMC ever grew to the point where it needed to bolster its design capabilities with a team of designers, then Carlos would certainly play an important role. His shallow foundation and average talent could always be amended with the help of the System.

Still, Ves wasn't in a hurry to do so. Besides having a lot of matters on his plate, he also had to figure out a way to prevent exposure.

After finishing his tour of the old workshop, Ves boarded the armored shuttle and flew towards the manufacturing complex. An hour later, they had arrived at the immense site, which looked a lot more finished than before.

Jake waited for him outside the landing pads. "Ves! I hope you'll stick around longer this time!"

"If nothing unexpected happens, then you'll certainly get your wish." Ves chuckled back. "Fill me in on how the LMC is doing these last couple of weeks. Has anything changed?"

"There's a spike in orders. The entire mech industry is getting swamped with customers. Every outfit that have earned a killing in the Glowing Planet are eagerly trying to bolster their capabilities. Some of the smaller gangs that participated in the event have already been robbed and killed by rivals who missed out."

Ves nodded when he heard what had happened. The influx of the nouveau riche had turned the entire Bright Republic on its head. Too many outfits gained an abundance of money, but sustained severe losses as well. They turned into the best kind of targets to vultures looking for an easy score.

"How has the market responded?"

"These newly enriched outfits generally adopt two different buying patterns. The smaller ones with less capabilities are prioritizing delivery speed over quality. They want to take immediate ownership of their purchase and aren't willing to wait for more than day. Quality doesn't matter too much, so the smaller players of the market with readily available stock are having a field day at this moment."

"That sounds great, but it probably doesn't have anything to do with us. We've never been able to build up an inventory of mechs."

The LMC fabricated mechs as fast as they shipped out, so the news hadn't been relevant to Ves. His company had long grown past the definition of 'small player'.

"That's where the second type of customers come in. These are the big players like the major mercenary corps and the Blood Claws. They've all placed a big batch of orders for our products. The waiting list has practically doubled in the last couple of weeks, and it's only growing longer by the day."

He smiled at that. He had anticipated that this would happen. That was why he agreed to take out a major loan in order to finance an expansion in the company's production capability.

"Are the two new production lines up and running yet?"

"It's been shipped a week ago. Chief Cyril took charge and brought them down to the fabrication floor. Last I heard, the chief and his men are still in the process of setting up the production lines, but I'm not an expert in this matter."

"That's fine. I'll go down and help out in person. I know more about the production equipment than anyone else in the company."

"Before you go, Ves, the manufacturing complex needs a name. It's a multi-billion dollar project and it will one day house thousands of employees. It's a great start to a major undertaking of the LMC. It's destined to become one of this planet's most iconic landmarks."

"Landmark, huh?" Ves uttered as his mind drifted off. "Let me think of a name."

When Ves initially planned the construction of the manufacturing complex, he hadn't fixated on a name. He figured he could casually come up with something on the spot, but now he thought that the complex deserved a more considerate name.

The future of the Living Mech Corporation rested on this massive company site. This was the exclusive domain of his company, and everyone who stepped foot here day by day would put their hopes on its prosperity.

Besides serving as a production site for mechs, the complex also featured a lot of fortifications. The walls, turrets, mech patrols and other security features insured that anyone who attempted to attack the complex had to pay a price.

The LMC had signed a more extensive contract with Sanyal-Ablin to insure that the site would not receive any disturbances, either from sabotage or overt attacks. The beefed up contract added to the company's expenses, but with the impending addition of two production lines, it should be able to shoulder the extra burden.

"Since this complex is the center of the LMC, it needs a name that reflects the ideals of the company. How about… the Mech Nursery?"

Jake was absolutely floored at the name. The old man tested the words in his mind for a little bit. "It's an unconventional name. I don't know if it will fit the complex."

Although his COO still held some reservations on the name, Ves didn't change his mind. The more he thought about it, the more the name fit the aspirations of the company.

He wanted to create mechs with life, and what better than to call their place of origin as the Mech Nursery?

Even if it sounded weird, it reinforced the impression that Ves wanted to convey to the mech industry and his customers. His products carried the spark of life, and they deserved to be treated that way.

Right now, Jake reluctantly registered the name through his comm. After signing some paperwork, the complex would officially be known as the Mech nursery. It already churned the old man's stomach.

"Haha, let's go inside now. I want to see what you've done to the place!"

Under the company of Jake and Carlos, Ves proceeded to tour the complex from top to bottom. He visited the aboveground offices first. Most of the floors hadn't been put to use as of yet, but Ves envisioned a time when these empty white halls would be brimming with people.

Modeled after Marcella's office, Ves enjoyed the top floor to himself. The wide open spaces, the gold and brown furnishings and the exquisite furniture all added to his prestige. He would definitely be able to imitate the likes of Marcella and Mr. Chandler of the MTA if he sat behind his imposing desk.

Ves tested the padding of his desk chair and realized that it hid a large number of features that added to his comfort. Lucky also perched at the top of the chair and partially materialized to test out its functions as well. The seat had evidently been designed to accomodate pets.

"I'm very glad with the look and feel of my office. It makes me feel like a successful CEO."

"That's good. We've especially hired a number of renowned interior designers to decorate the offices."

As pleasant as his new office looked, the real work was done below. They left the top office and took the elevator that brought them straight underground.

Ves only briefly toured the underground floors. He already visited them a few weeks ago and besides some additions, they largely remained empty due to a lack of capacity.

Only the manufacturing floor possessed a lot of liveliness. The Dortmund production line had been moved to the first production hall. A number of mech technicians could be seen working on fabricating another silver label Blackbeak.

Ves left the workers to it and visited another hall. A larger number of mech technicians gathered around the brand-new production line.

It consisted of a full set of 3D printer, alloy compressor, chemical treatment machine and assembly machine. They all came from the same company called Benson Industrial Machinery.

Benson enjoyed a significant amount of renown in the Bright Republic for producing lines of fairly excellent mech manufacturing equipment. Chief Cyril had evidently been a fan of them, since he chose to purchase two of their upscale production lines in a single go.

"Chief!"

"Come over here, Ves! Help me with the configuration of this Benson printer!"

Ves figuratively pulled up his sleeves and stepped close to the 3D printer that formed the core of the production line. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know if we missed something, but the printer refuses to work. It spits out a bunch of error codes but the manual only provides us with a brief description."

"Have you called for support?"

"Hah! BIM's support lines are swamped with calls for help. The LMC isn't the only company who decided to expand their production. Our competitors are joining in the race as well, since there's a lot of money going around these days."

Without the influx of customers who had recently gotten wealthy off the Glowing Planet, Ves wouldn't have pulled the trigger and taken out a loan to finance the Benson production lines. The other mech manufacturers must have performed the same calculus and accelerated their expansion plans as well.

"Looks like we need to fix this ourselves. Let me take a look at it."

Ves had bought a fair number of Assembly Skills from the System, so he quickly figured out the root of the problem. The 3D printer and the rest of the machines functioned normally, but they required a lot of connections in between. Without effective communication between the different machines, the production line lost a lot of efficiency.

With the help of Ves, the chief and the rest of the technicians became enlightened about the problem. Once the source of the problem became known, the technicians could fix it on their own. Ves left the mech technicians to their jobs but pulled Chief Cyril aside for a private talk.

"How effective do you think the Benson production line will perform?"

The chief scratch his stubby chin. "Compared to the Dortmund line? It's a lot more automated, so it's bound to be faster. However, the Dortmund you've retrieved is unparalleled in precision and quality control. I'd say there's going to be a little more waste if we utilize the Benson machines at their full capacity. If you want to achieve the same level of quality as the Dortmunds, then we'll have to cut our production speed by at least thirty percent."

"That's unacceptable." Ves shook his head. Even though he constantly emphasized the importance of maintaining a high level of quality, it didn't come at the cost of common sense. "The silver label Blackbeaks will be fine with a small drop in quality. We can catch the worst faults in time if we scan and double-check each part that comes out of the 3D printer."

"That will slow down our production process as well. Scanning each and every part as they come out is a laborious process, although it's faster than slowing down our overall rate of production."

"Then we'll do so. It's very important to scan our parts for their integrity. I don't want to hear about any cases where our customers died because we haven't been prudent enough to check our own parts."

The chief nodded in acknowledgement. He agreed with the sentiment. "That's a good choice. It will cut into our earnings, but it will give our customers some piece of mind."

After questioning Cyril about how other matters, Ves finally left the manufacturing floor. Once they stepped into the elevator, he decided to go down to the lab floor.

Jake frowned as he stood besides Ves. "Why do you want to enter the lab? We've already visited it."

"I'm about to conduct a very important experiment. I'm sorry about the short notice, but I'll be indisposed for up to three months. I won't be coming out and I won't be accepting any interruptions during this time."

"What?!"

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Ves thought about it carefully. The value of the Transcendence Pill lay in its ability to overcome the human limit without any side effects. It only cost him time, while precious, would never be short in stock.

Therefore, even if the Bright Republic faced tumultuous times, the benefits of the Pill absolutely outweighed the cost. Even if Ves ultimately couldn't finish his second original design in time, he would still be able to use his increased capabilities in other ways.

A special elevator slowly descended many kilometers deep into the earth. It passed through a number of checkpoints and defenses that surrounded the sensitive lab and private workshop floor.

When the elevator doors finally opened, Ves stepped into the lab with Lucky floating behind him. The cat quickly darted away, passing through a number of walls without encountering any hindrance.

Besides Lucky, nothing should have been able to penetrate the thick defenses of the lab.

An uncountable amount of defenses and security measures hid behind the alloy-paneled walls. Advanced electronic defense systems thwarted the intrusion of any bugs and jammed any form of signalling or transmission. A secure but expensive quantum entanglement node formed the only method of communication with the outside galaxy.

Closed air circulation and filtration systems ensured that the entire floor was completely sterile and free of contaminants. A storeroom filled with water and nutrient packs as well as an excellent organic recycling system ensured that Ves would easily be able to last inside the floor for more than a decade.

The way the security systems had been set up made it difficult for Sanyal-Ablin to snoop in on him. A thick layer of signal-blocking material enveloped the entire floor. The only way that they'd be able to receive telemetry was if some kind of miniature bug hitch-hiked on his body or inside his comm.

"Good luck with that."

The System practically monopolized his comm and didn't allow any form of malware or spyware to invest his most important electronic device. As for external bugs, Lucky often snacked on them every day.

Ves even went to the trouble of hiring several other security companies and consultants to supervise the construction of this floor. He even asked the Larkinson Estate to send their own specialist to keep an eye on the supervisors.

All of this had ballooned his expenses, but Ves wasn't short on money these days.

"From now on, this is my temple."

Ves became inspired to construct a private workshop after Oleg invited him into Master Olson's workshop in Leemar. Despite her absence, her workshop carried a majestic air that made it clear that miracles emerged from that place.

Right now, his own workshop was half-empty and rather barren. Much of the fancy machines cost much more than ten times the total worth of the LMC. Ves had no choice but to set aside his intentions of purchasing all of those expensive machines and settle for the basics.

"It's sufficient for now."

He planned to make full use of what he got once he started designing his rifleman mech. Right now, he had a pill to ingest. He left the working area and entered the attached living space.

After freshening himself up yet again, Ves called out to Lucky. "Come over here!"

Lucky floated through the walls and stopped in the air in front of Ves. "Meow?"

"I'm going to be out cold for a time. I don't know how long it lasts, but make sure nobody enters this floor, okay?"

"Meow."

"Hey, don't argue with me. I left a whole batch of high-value minerals inside the storerooms. Feel free to munch on them while you guard over me."

"Meow!"

This time, Lucky appeared to comply with his orders. If nothing else, Ves could always bribe his cat with food.

Once he finished making his final preparations, he took out the Transcendence Pill he received as a reward at the end of the Glowing Planet campaign. The thumb-sized pill carried an organic gold luster, as if it had been condensed by the blood of a god.

"If the System is able to bring out a Transcendence Pill, then someone in the galaxy is able to produce them. How difficult is it to make such a wondrous pill?"

Gene boosts already cost a fortune to produce, and they only provided marginal effects compared to the Transcendence Pill. This tiny object had the potential of transforming the life of anyone who ingested it. The price for this pill must certainly be horrible for any single person to bear.

The depths of the galaxy hid an uncountable amount of powerhouses. Master Mech Designers emigrated from the galactic rim and the galactic heartland all the time in order towards the galactic center

Besides competing for the best technologies and the most miraculous exotics, Ves guessed they also struggled to obtain the favor of organizations that grasped the production of these precious pills.

"There's nothing in the galactic rim and galactic heartland that can keep these Master Mech Designers interested."

The Komodo Star Sector especially had it bad. As one of the most backward star sectors in the galaxy, over two-thirds of the Masters that emerged from this region had eventually said goodbye to their old states and journeyed to the center of the galaxy in order to join the Terrans or the Rubarthans.

Would Master Olson choose to go for greener pastures as well some day?

"She only advanced to the rank of Master a fairly short time ago. She's still too young at a hundred years old."

With a sufficient amount of life-prolonging treatments, a wealthy individual could easily push up to six-hundred years. Many fossils that experienced the violent transition from the Age of Conquest to the Age of Mechs still clung to their lives to this day.

He estimated that Master Olson should take at least another hundred years to shore up her foundation before she made her play.

Once that happened, everything would change. Ves knew that if he tried hard enough, Master Olson would certainly extend an invitation for him to join her expedition to the center of the galaxy.

If Ves was a normal mech designer, he'd certainly look forward to it. But with the System, who knew if he would still be Master Olson's apprentice in a hundred years. Perhaps he'd be able to treat her as his equal by that time.

"If Master Olson is a genius who can advance to Master in a hundred years, then I'll certainly be able to accomplish the same!"

Advancing to Master in a hundred years, how ambitious! Ves even harbored ambitions of reaching such a height well before he turned a hundred years old!

The renowned Star Designer who held the title of Polymath held the record for the youngest advancement to Master. She she took less than fifty years to rocket straight to Master, astounding the entire galaxy in a single feat!

"All of that is still too far away." He sighed and turned his attention back to the Transcendence Pill. "This shall be the next step in my road to ascension."

Ves carefully laid down on his bed and popped the pill into his mouth. He didn't require any water to swallow down the pill. In fact, it had turned into liquid as soon as it entered his mouth.

A rush of energy emerged from his stomach and shot straight to his brains. Before he could even contemplate the feeling, an invisible pillow smothered his consciousness.

An unknown amount of time went by as Ves slumbered on his bed. He completely fell into dormancy, and wouldn't wake up even if he grew hungry or needed to relieve himself. Naturally, he already prepared some bots to take care of those issues beforehand, but strangely enough, his body remained in a state of stasis.

Besides his respiration, almost every other bodily function had paused.

Sometimes, Lucky emerged from the walls and landed atop Ves. His mastery over his intangible state allowed him to materialize completely for short moments of time by now, and he often did so in order to bump Ves from his sleep.

"Meow."

Unfortunately, nothing he did managed to wake Ves up. Sensing the futility of his actions, Lucky gave up on the idea and instead spent most of his time sleeping atop his owner.

As for Ves, his mind had been cast far away from the Komodo Star Sector. The Transcendence Pill had a marvelous effect on his mind. He felt as if he experienced an out-of-body moment yet again, but instead of being brought into someone else's body, his mind and soul had reached an immeasurable height above the galaxy.

His incorporeal senses gazed down at the splendid disk of the Milky Way. The galaxy spun much faster according to reality. Thousands of years went by with each second that passed by. It clued him in that he was looking at an illusion.

Still, real or fake, the unfiltered sight of the revolving galaxy had impressed him beyond belief.

"It's so beautiful. The galaxy is much more vast than I can imagine."

Red dwarfs, blue giants, black holes and more made up the fabric of the constantly spinning galaxy. At the center of it all lay the supermassive black hole that kept the stellar objects together.

Witnessing the wealth and breath of the galaxy through his soul affected him more than he thought. As he gazed down at the galaxy, the galaxy gazed up at him. An immense, primordial energy that spun with the galaxy quietly seeped a tiny portion of its being into his soul.

As soon as that happened, Ves received a mighty shock to his mind that instantly catapulted him out of the illusion.

Back at the underground private workshop, Ves woke up with sweat streaking down his body. His breath became disorderly as his mind and body momentarily fell out of sync.

"It hurts!"

His brains heated up as it experienced an inexplicable transformation. Ves groaned and squirmed on his bed as he tried to endure the pain.

He blacked out once again.

The next time he woke up, he found to his surprise that the pain had subsided. His sweat-stained body had also been cleaned up by the bots that stood by. After Ves tentatively prodded his head, he sighed in relief as he didn't appear to be suffering from any further side effects.

"That was one hell of a trip."

Moments later, Lucky passed straight through the door and solidified his body in order to cuddle against Ves.

"Meow!"

"Hahaha! I missed you too."

From Lucky's urgency, Ves deduced that the Transcendence Pill had eaten up a fair amount of time. He quickly activated his comm and looked at the date.

"Thirty-three days went by!"

That was better than he feared, but worst than he hoped. Just over a month went by, which meant that anything could have happened in between. Before he inspected his changes, he first wanted to contact Jake and hear from him if anything had happened during his coma.

Since the quantum entanglement node on this floor had been confined to a closed system, Ves couldn't use his own comm to contact the outside world. Ves slowly slid from his bed and shakily walked out of the apartment.

He approached a closed chamber which held a solitary terminal that connected directly to the quantum entanglement node buried just underneath. He connected to the galactic net and entered his mail box.

"Hm, nothing serious happened."

He arranged for Jake, Melkor, Marcella, Calsie and Gavin to send him weekly reports. Although plenty of notable events took place in the past month, nothing directly affected the LMC in any detrimental way.

"A few raids on Bentheim and the surrounding systems… price inflation… shortage of rare exotics… Ah, Melkor finally finished recruiting his cadre for the Avatars of Myth!"

With an abundance of money and authority from Ves, Melkor eventually succeeded in hiring eight capable mech pilots. He also spent much of his allowance on purchasing mechs for them to begin their live training, although the two knight pilots still waited to receive their gold label Blackbeaks.

"That can still wait."

Once he reassured himself that nothing critical demanded his presence, Ves shut down the terminal. RIght now, he mentally stimulated his mind and tried to figure out if anything had changed. He resumed the long-stagnant process of integrating the Senior-level Physics knowledge that he succeeded in obtaining.

"It's faster!"

The integration of knowledge happened at least ten times faster! The difference between before and after couldn't be compared. His processing speed had sped up by an entire order of magnitude.

"Yes! My gamble succeeded! My Intelligence has broken through the human limit!"

What did that mean? From now on, Ves would rapidly be able to learn and process all kinds of esoteric knowledge. He could even branch out into fields that shared no relations with mechs, though he didn't plan to do so.

"How high is my Intelligence right now?"

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His mouth gaped open as he called up his Status page. Much of it remained the same so he skimmed over them entirely. Instead, his eyes narrowed down on his Intelligence score.

Intelligence: 2.1

"Just 2.1?"

The difference of 0.1 at this level actually produced a sea of change. Obviously, the Attribute scores didn't follow a linear pattern of growth.

For example, someone with an Intelligence of 2.0 wasn't twice as smart as someone with an Intelligence of 1.0. Each increment of 0.1 provided a different amount of improvement.

Reaching a score of 2.1 was a vast gulf of difference, especially when it had reached a stable state. Ves once reached a height of 2.2 in Endurance, and that had transformed his body in many ways.

It was a pity that he gained such strength from Dr. Jutland's insane experiments. Jutland hadn't actually been able to break the human limit, so the abnormally high Endurance actually started to break down down his body. If the CFA hadn't reverted some of the changes, he would have died when he reached fifty years old.

"It's far too soon for me to die at fifty years!"

Let alone fifty years, Ves believed he could easily last more than five-hundred years!

Once Ves understood his changes, he didn't hesitate to integrate the immense amount of knowledge provided by Senior-level Physics. What previously took months to digest now took up just a week.

For the next week, Ves did nothing but sit behind a desk while casting his mind inward. An extreme amount of theories with regards to fundamental Physics became understandable over time.

Much of the knowledge enabled him to understand and work with various types of exotics. Before mastering this level of knowledge, the only way that Ves could integrate exotics into his own design was if he obtained a readily available license.

For example, the Veltrex armor system with its three layers of armor plating that withstood different damage types came with several ingenious formulas. The research institution poured a lot of resources into developing these formulas that combined several exotics into special alloys that provided a wondrous effect.

Previously, Ves was purely a consumer of these formulas. Now, he gained the minimum qualifications to produce his own formulas.

"Still, it's not that simple."

The Senior-level Physics only provided him with a broad but fairly shallow foundation. If he wanted to develop an actual formula, then he needed to supplement his Main Skill with several Sub-Skills raised to a certain height.

Right now, Ves didn't hold any ambitious of developing his own component designs. Even though it cost him a lot of money or merits, making use of existing licenses saved him a lot of time and energy.

"A mech pilot doesn't have to know how to build a mech. A ship captain doesn't have to know how to build a ship. A doctor doesn't have to refine his own medicine."

Ves believed that it should be enough to focus on his core job of designing new mechs. Even if the System easily allowed him to unlock a myriad of specialties, he did not have any intentions of imitating the Polymath.

"I have my own way of making mechs come to life."

Even without the relevant Sub-Skills, the Main Skill alone provided a lot of benefits to Ves. He easily understood the heart of each phenomenon and became more proficient in handling advanced technology.

In particular, he gained a comprehensive boost in understanding laser weapons. If before he could only design an average gamma laser rifle design, now he would easily be able to improve the Tainted Sun by more than twenty percent!

Once a week went by, Ves fully integrated his long-awaited boost. Now, he directly met one of the criteria to advance to Journeyman Mech Designer. According to the demands set by the MTA, he only needed to formulate his design philosophy and pass some tests before he could officially leave his Apprentice days behind.

"I still have to design a number of original mechs."

The MTA set a strict bar for anyone who wanted to be acknowledged as a Journeyman Mech Designer. They had to design five original mechs. Naturally, the designs also had to meet a minimum performance standard. In that regard, the Blackbeak already passed the test, so Ves wasn't worried about failing to meet the standard.

Ves first checked his messages again on the isolated terminal. Nothing special had happened although the amount of raids by the Vesians had increased. He figured that the LMC could last a little longer without his presence.

"I've been delaying my next project for too long. It's time for me to make the first step."

He finally felt ready to embark on his next design project. His inadvertent adventure with the crystal ruins had given him a lot of inspiration on how his next design should look like, and he was eager to turn his ideas into reality.

Immediately, he faced an important choice. First, should he collaborate with someone on this project, and second, should he log his every action in detail?

Different from designing his first original mech, Ves faced a lot less constraints this time. He already went through his debut and proved that he could design an original mech without any outside assistance. Now that he gained the mech industry's acknowledgement, he enjoyed a lot more freedom this time.

Ves thought about his gains from the crystal ruins. Once he began to design his mech, it would become obvious that he incorporated alien insights into his work.

"When the MTA checks the logs, they won't care about these matters."

To a behemoth like the MTA, they wouldn't lift their brows if Ves applied some of the principles that powered the alien ruins. His recent upgrade in Intelligence and his acquisition of Senior-level Physics had vastly improved his understanding of the crystal builder's technology. Even if he still couldn't unlock the secret behind the circuits, he still harvested in many other ways.

While Ves had a lot to hide, he didn't mind being stared at by the MTA. Logging his design process would instead insure his claim on his own design and prevent others from accusing him that he stole his design from someone else. That happened more often than anyone thought.

Still, Ves did not entirely wish to rely on himself this time. He knew the challenges of competing directly against the mainstream models and their variants. The market for rifleman mechs was too competitive for Ves to make an impact even with all of his recent gifts.

Ves gently stroked his comm. When the time was right, he'd disable the logs and activate his Superpublish function. He hoped that he could elevate the quality of his design just enough to break into the market.

As for how to explain the jump in quality, Ves could just hand out an excuse that he let an unknown expert make a pass on his own design.

Mech designers with a lot of connections often invited experts to elevate their designs to another level. Most of the time, these experts insisted on being credited by their works, but sometimes they wished to remain anonymous.

In this regard, Ves could easily explain his Superpublish function by crediting an anonymous contributor.

"The only downside to the Superpublish function is that I won't earn any DP from its sales."

This was a very steep price. However, as long as he captured a small chunk of the market for rifleman mechs, the profits would be immense and his prestige would rise well above his fellow Apprentices.

Right now, Ves desperately needed to enhance his prestige and reputation. Otherwise, the Mech Corps wouldn't value him when they eventually called him up to serve the Republic.

Ves moved back to his design project. "Alright, a good design starts with a solid vision."

He aimed to pin down a vision and complete a draft design within a week. After that, he would solicit everyone's opinions before he moved on to turning his draft into a full design.

"I already have a great idea for a vision."

Through his first-hand experiences in the Glowing Planet campaign, Ves acquired a rich perspective on rifleman mechs. As the mainstay of any mech force, they would often be fielded in great numbers.

"Rifleman mechs are rarely sold one at a time to any single customer."

A small-scale buyer like a single-squad mech corps might only ever purchase one knight. As for rifleman mechs, they wouldn't hesitate to buy at least two to four of them in a single instant.

"The market for rifleman mechs is big and profitable. The high volume of sales alone is enough to fight over."

Under these highly competitive circumstances, Ves had to carve out a place for his own design. He set his sights on the upper-premium segment of 60 to 70 million credit mechs.

In the Bright Republic, the vast majority of rifleman mechs sold for fifty million credits or less. The mainstream mechs were no exception, which also made them so attractive in the first place. It wasn't enough that they delivered a higher level of performance, but their pricing also bankrupted many aspiring local mech designers.

Still, the Republic wasn't completely clueless and imposed a number of tariffs and other barriers that made it slightly less attractive to purchase a foreign mech. The Bright Republic wouldn't be able to host such a lively mech industry if they let the trans-galactic corporations operate with impunity.

"The most expensive mainstream mech still costs only fifty million credits." Ves shook his head. "It's hopeless for me to compete directly against them at this price point."

The Blackbeak managed to be successful due to his decision to design a rarely-seen offensive knight. Ves purposefully avoided the crowded market for defensive knights and thereby avoided direct comparisons between the Blackbeak and the mainstream knight models.

He intended to do the same with his second original design, only this time he wanted to differentiate his product through its price category.

"With my existing licenses, I can easily clad my rifleman mech with compressed armor. With the help of my improved Skills, I can also beef up the capability of its primary weapon."

As long as Ves managed to control his costs, he believed he could design a very strong rifleman mech that performed a notch above the mainstream models. Perhaps it would lose out in terms of optimization and refinement, but the boost in raw performance would easily make up for that disparity.

"A rifleman mech that costs at least 60 million credits is absolutely a mech fit for a leader."

With a powerful laser rifle and an ample amount of armor, only the best could make full use of these capabilities. It had to offer a certain level of rounded performance in order to appeal to highly-skilled mech pilots.

"I can take some inspiration from the modifications I made for Fadah's mech. Speed and mobility is essential to a modern rifleman mech. This should be my first priority. I can't skimp on this area."

Firepower was a close second, followed endurance and staying power. Since he intended to reuse most of the licenses he acquired to design the Blackbeak, his next design should also be able to last an entire war.

"Armor is only the fourth priority, but that doesn't mean I should neglect it entirely."

It had to be good enough that his buyers would willingly stomach forking over at least 60 million mechs. That meant that Ves wouldn't be able to cover his mech only partially with compressed armor. He had to give his mech the full treatment without weighing it down too much.

"That's going to be a major challenge."

Even assuming he succeeded in balancing the speed and armor of his rifleman mech, he also had to distinguish his mech from the competition in other ways.

"I need a gimmick."

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Ves already worked with gimmicks before. Back when he designed the 3-star virtual variant of the Hoplite, he adapted one of the spear-wielding knight's gimmicks to the Young Blood.

The gimmick consisted of various enhancements to the shield of the Young Blood so that it would be able to bash its shield with greater speed and momentum.

The implementation came with a number of flaws. The Young Blood could only enhance its shield bash for a limited number of times, because the batteries embedded into the shield carried only so much charge. In addition, the components lacked sufficient sturdiness and could easily be rendered inoperable.

"Still, it doesn't matter if the actual implementation is disappointing. It's an attention grabber."

The mere existence of the gimmick attracted a lot of attention. The Young Blood became known as the ultimate shield-bashing knight mech and its existence had been imprinted on countless Iron Spirit players.

The best gimmicks bestowed otherwise normal mechs with seemingly inconceivable superpowers. Meanwhile, the worst gimmicks actually turned out to be a detriment on the battlefield.

No matter the case, a gimmick always attracted a lot of attention, thereby making them the perfect marketing material.

Ves knew that purist mech designers disdained the use of gimmicks. They would rather focus their efforts on maximizing the core performance of a mech. The more a mech designer emphasizes a gimmick, the worse the overall performance of the design in question.

Adding a gimmick to a mech always came at the cost of weight, space, power or heat management. It also raised the price of the mech and disproportionately increased the maintenance burden.

"A good gimmick justifies its existence. A bad gimmick becomes a weight that drags down the design."

Ves did not even have to browse the galactic net to come across countless failed implementations.

For example, one iconic example often bandied about in the mech industry was the Grenadier. Nominally, the designer designed the Grenadier as a Skirmisher. However, it carried a bandolier of high-explosive shells on its torso.

The purpose of the Grenadier was to sneak behind enemy lines and inflict severe disruption with minimal footprint. Compared to missiles, grenades took up a lot less space and weight, and didn't require any launchers either. The grenades also didn't cost a lot of time and money to produce.

Alas, the actual implementation fared much worse than the designer had intended. Almost every Grenadier that got caught got blown up when its opponents focused their fire on the bandolier. The Grenadier might be carrying around a lot of explosive might, but compared to missiles, they lacked much of the preventive measures against premature detonations.

"I also can't forget about the Adaptris."

The Adaptris was a so-called multi-environmental mech. It was a heavy mech that was simultaneously an aquatic mech, a landbound mech, an aerial mech and a spaceborn mech.

The mech designer of the Adaptris piled his mech up with so many systems that it could adapt in almost every circumstance. The logic of the Adatris was that since it could be fielded in almost every situation, it could be produced and fielded en masse. The advantages of scale would eventually outweigh the inherent inefficiencies in the design.

Heavy mechs always strained the resources and industrial capacity of a state. If the Adaptris could be produced in enough numbers, then the heavy mech component of its military force would become ten times deadlier.

Sadly, the designer had a few screws loose in his head. He somehow succeeded in pitching the idea to a handful of third-rate states, which allocated a huge portion of their limited industrial capacity in producing these gimmicky heavy mechs.

For all their adaptability and theoretical performance, the mech designer hadn't actually designed a good mech. The heavy mechs came laden with flaws due to the excess of different systems stuffed inside their frames. The most fatal flaw was that they ran out of power up to seventy percent faster than a normal heavy mech!

With countless more examples just like this, the mech industry adopted a wary stance towards gimmicks. If a mech designer wanted to add something special to their mechs, they should better restrain themselves and keep their implementation modest.

Ves did not intend to flaunt that rule. "The only mech designers who resort to gimmicks are those who can't compete the normal way."

Why did crazy designs like the Grenadier and the Adaptris come into existence in the first place? It was because their mech designers faced too much competition!

They couldn't compete against the market with their normal capabilities!

"It's too difficult to compete directly against mainstream mechs!"

The dominant trans-galactic corporations ruled over the galactic mech industry from their headquarters in the galactic center. Design teams numbering dozens Masters and hundreds of Seniors focused all of their immense expertise into perfecting a single standard design at a time.

How could any average mech designer compete against the best that humanity had to offer? Even though the galactic center was tens of thousands of light years away from the galactic rim, any newly published design from the center would instantly reach the rim through the galactic net.

Within a single week, mech manufacturers around the galaxy would instantly produce at least a billion copies of the new design. Within a single month, the number of copies might surpass a trillion.

The amount of demand for the latest mainstream mechs from the most reputable trans-galactic corporation could make any single mech designer die from envy!

Fortunately, many states wouldn't allow these trans-galactic corporations unrestricted access to their mech markets. They adopted a variety of measures, from tariffs to quotas to give their domestic mech industry a chance to survive.

States had to be careful in implementing these trade policies.

If they acted against foreign mechs with a heavy hand, they risked coddling their mech industry into complacency. Without the pressure of outside competition, the state's domestic mech designers faced little incentive to exert their full efforts into maximizing the performance of their mechs.

The difference might not become evident in a couple of years, but this sort of change always took its time to seep into the vitality of a state. After twenty years or more of continued decline, the strength of the domestic mech industry would be a shadow of its former self.

The mechs that proliferated in this state that closed its market to outsiders wouldn't be able to measure up against the mechs of their rivals. Many states ended up grinded beneath the feet of their neighboring states because they disregarded outside advancements.

On the other hand, if a state treated foreign mechs too leniently, then their domestic mech industry would eventually atrophy, crippling its ability to design purpose-built mechs for their mech forces.

This indirectly weakened the state's ability to wage war, because mainstream mechs would always be analyzed to death by the entire galaxy. Their strengths and weaknesses would quickly become clear to all, including any possible opponents. It would be trivially easy to exploit these traits if an entire mech force consisted of the same handful of mainstream mech models.

"The Bright Republic is in a difficult spot. I can't blame them for opening up their market to mainstream mechs."

The Bright Republic had to square off against the Vesia Kingdom, a larger and more populous third-rate state. It couldn't afford to put too many restrictions on the high-performing mainstream designs that constantly proliferated from the galactic center.

These extremely well-designed mechs provided the Mech Corps and the various private forces that operated within its borders with a readily available supply of high-quality mechs.

Naturally, the Vesians often exploited the well-known weaknesses of these mainstream mechs, but that couldn't be helped. Much more importantly, the pressure of galactic competition separated the wheat from the chaff. Incompetent mech designers had no place in the Republic. Only the best and most resilient mech designers continued to survive under these circumstances.

"Still, I'm far away from competing against the mainstream mechs in an upright clash. I can only resort to tricks."

Ves already had something interesting in mind. Before his latest trip to the Joe System, he agonized over the problem, but after he explored the crystal ruins, he quietly formed some ideas.

The key to his gimmick lay in the composition of the crystal structures. Even if he didn't understand the circuits embedded into the crystals, he would still be able to attempt to reproduce a copy of the naked crystals.

All of this became possible due to his timely purchase of the Vulcaneye. The crystals bared all of its secrets against the powerful multiscanner.

As Ves studied a projection of the crystal's composition, he put his formidable knowledge and enhanced mind to use. Could he fabricate the crystals by himself?

"It's not possible." He shook his head. "It's too costly."

Coincidence or not, the composition of the crystals from the crystal city utilized exotics available in the Komodo Star Sector. Perhaps that might be why the crystal builders left behind a presence in the Joe System.

However, an unimaginable amount of time had passed since the passing of the tiny alien species. The Komodo Star Sector back then looked a lot different than today. Several of the core ingredients could only be found in the center of the star sector, smack dab in the middle of the Friday Coalition.

"Now that the Friday Coalition is clashing directly against the Hexadric Hegemony over the Glowing Planet, they'll keep all of their high-value exotics to themselves."

Ves also couldn't forget about the drying imports. The surrounding star sectors also became engulfed in war. Few shipments of rare exotics made it all the way to the Komodo Star Sector these days.

"If I can't use the original composition, what about using substitutes?"

Substituting an expensive or scarce material for a more readily available one happened all the time. Ves was no Master Katzenberg, but his breadth and depth of Skills and Sub-Skills gave him the basic qualifications to figure something out.

"If labs contain samples of pretty much every exotic available in the Republic. As long as Lucky hasn't emptied them all, I'll have a good chance of creating an inferior copy."

Ves fixated on the crystals because they formed the key to lowering the bulk of his laser rifle. He already applied some of the insights he learned from the crystal ruins into cutting down the bulk of the Tainted Sun. However, he could have done a much better job if he had some actual crystals to work with. The gamma laser rifle eventually failed to live up to its potential.

"My next laser rifle will be a far cry from the Tainted Sun."

He already gained a lot of experience designing the laser rifle's big brother. Graser rifles demanded the utmost in terms of integrity, tolerance, power supply and heat management. Ves faced a lot less pressure if he designed a regular laser rifle.

"The first gimmick will be to implement as much crystals as possible in the laser rifle."

Ves already envisioned the laser rifle being smaller and slimmer than a standard model. Combined with the reduced weight of his rifleman mech design, the entire package would allow mech pilots to move faster and nimbler on the battlefield. At the very least, its mobility could compete head-on against the swiftest mainstream mechs in the same weight class.

"Still, this isn't enough."

A better laser rifle only scratched the surface. Ves intended to embed a crystal in the frame of his design as well.

A bold idea surfaced in his mind. He imagined a large crystal embedded in the head or the chest of a mech. It would accumulate energy over time, perhaps even absorbing enemy laser beams to charge itself faster. Once its energy accumulated up to a critical point, it disgorged its entire charge in a single powerful light beam.

The idea sounded very fanciful and unrealistic. At the very least, Ves couldn't recall any mech that had used such a gimmick. While many designs did in fact embed laser projectors directly onto the frame of a mech, only the most expensive second-class or first-class mechs employed such a gimmick.

"Laser projectors are vulnerable and present potential weak points. I'll have to find a way to reproduce a crystal that's both resilient and affordable enough."

Ves turned to his lab and eyed the handful of high quality equipment. This would be the first time he put the capabilities of his lab to test.

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The work put his new capabilities to the test. If he hadn't pushed his Intelligence and Physics to the next level, Ves wouldn't dream about reverse engineering the alien crystals.

However, he long stepped out of the confines of what an Apprentice Mech Designer should be capable of. His leapfrogging into Senior-level Physics provided Ves with a rudimentary ability to play around with exotics.

Naturally, he wouldn't be able to match the capabilities of a seasoned Journeyman or newly-advanced Senior. The main reason why Ves maintained his confidence was because he could reference his detailed scanner readings as well as a live sample.

He carefully opened the box that held the corpse of the crystal builder he found in the crystal garden. As the supposed leader of the crystal garden, his cyborg corpse incorporated the highest quality of crystals. It varied only minutely with the composition of the crystal city, which in itself served as some sort of capital or refuge for the alien race.

Ves treated the undecayed remains with reverence and respect. "I can't imagine how many millions years it rested beneath that strange mass of plantmeat."

He tried to date the remains, but failed to do so. His lab equipment didn't come with this kind of capability. After all, why would a mech designer need to figure out the age of an alien artifact? He wasn't an exobiologist nor a treasure hunter.

All of the organic bits in the crystal-laden corpse had long decomposed into nothing, leaving only the resilient crystals that served as the body's armor and mechanisms.

Ves couldn't imagine what kind of powers these augmentations bestowed to the leader. He must have been a formidable alien when he was still alive.

He continually speculated on the alien leader's story as he studied the crystal remains. He didn't do so on a whim or because he was bored, but because he had a use for it later on. While he worked on deciphering and decomposing the exact nature of the alien crystals, he already branched out a part of his mind on the next phase of his design project.

Now that he set a vision for his rifleman mech, he was ready to proceed with the construction of the images that powered its X-Factor.

"It's been a long time since I last worked on the X-Factor."

His stint with the Whalers in the Glowing Planet campaign exposed him to a lot of mechs, but he didn't get to design or produce any new ones. He mostly spent his efforts on repairs and modifications. These situations didn't allow him to bestow any spirituality to the mechs he worked, except for maybe the Blackbeak he gifted to the Whalers.

"I wonder how my first production model is faring."

The potentially historic and priceless mech could have been saved up and sold for a massive fortune, but he gave it away without hesitation. It was a shame to part with such a valuable treasure, but Ves needed to prove his sincerity to the Whalers and couldn't bring out any other mech at the time.

He thought about asking Walter's Whalers to hand back the first production model, but didn't do so in the end. Now that the Whalers became one of the few small-scale gangs that earned a handsome reward for their efforts, they would soon grow in power and influence.

Ordinarily, such a small but obscenely wealthy gang wouldn't be capable of holding on to its assets. However, their previously-hidden relations with the Blood Claws scared away the vultures eying all of their wealth.

From the latest weekly reports sent by his subordinates, Ves remained apprised of the gang's current situation. It was no secret that they recruited a whole bunch of mech pilots and issued large amount of purchase orders for mechs as well.

Strangely enough, this time they set their sights higher. Instead of buying bargain bin mechs valued at 3-5 million mechs, they started buying more expensive mainstay mechs with an average value of 30 million credits.

Furthermore, they also ordered a handful of advanced mechs for their veteran pilots. They even placed a generous order for a handful of silver label Blackbeaks at the LMC. Ves sent back a message to prioritize the fabrication and delivery of the Blackbeaks to the Whalers.

At this point in time, the interests of the LMC and the Whalers intersected with each other. They both occupied a vital position on the sleepy planet of Cloudy Curtain.

Ves had even broken his rare isolation and initiated a call of Calsie through the isolated terminal to apprise himself of the latest news.

"Calsie, what are the Whalers up to right now?"

"They're doing a lot of things at once. The Whalers are continuously expanding their numbers. They're also upgrading their bases into highly defensive fortifications. I can tell that once they've finished their expansion, they'll start to swallow some of the neighboring rural star systems."

"That's an ambitious plan! They sure have a big appetite!"

In a time of war, the Whalers opted to spread their wings and expand their influence. It was a bold and risky action, but if they succeeded, they would no longer be putting all of their eggs in a single basket. If the Cloudy Curtain System fell, they still had a number of escape routes available to themselves.

"How is the rest of Cloudy Curtain faring under these changes?"

"Support for the Whalers have never been higher. The increased recruitments means that a lot of locals are joining up with the Whalers. Even if they aren't very good mech pilots, the Whalers have hired a large number of trainers to shore up their new recruits. Right now, they only have numbers on their side, but after a couple of years of training, their strength will enter a whole new level."

This meant that the Whalers would transition from a small an inconsequential rural collection of thugs into a true interstellar gang. Such a shift in scope brought a lot of prosperity to the Whalers, but only if they successfully pushed out their surrounding rivals.

Ves turned to another topic once he finished asking about the Whalers. "Has anything changed in the political landscape? I don't believe the farming consortiums are resigned to let the LMC and the Whalers take over their home planet."

"I'm afraid you're correct." Calsie regretfully sighed. "The farming consortiums along with the White Doves and the Greens have been collaborating quietly behind the scenes. It's hard to keep track of their movements when the LMC and the Whalers make so much noise. Once they sprung their plan, it's too late for the Pioneers to intervene."

That sounded serious. Ves began to frown. "What happened?"

"Our opposition pulled back their influence from Freslin and concentrated all of their strengths in Orinoco. Politically, they've abandoned Freslin to the mech fanatics and the supporters of the Pioneers in favor of turning Orinoco into their bulwark. It's become impossible for us to penetrate the capital."

Ves was taken aback at this news. With the onset of war and the increased prominence of mechs, he never imagined the ossified elites who long ruled over Cloudy Curtain like their own fief to stop the bleeding in this fashion.

The more he thought about it, the more he admired whoever came up with this plan. By relocating their headquarters, businesses and supporters to the capital city, they maintained an impregnable position that couldn't be assailed.

Their decision had split Cloudy Curtain in half.

"So right now, our influence is near absolute in Freslin, right?"

"That's correct, but that's not as valuable as holding the capital. They still control the spaceport. They can implement any number of rules or collect any number of fees for every shipment that comes in and out of Cloudy Curtain."

Ves scratched his chin in consternation. "It's unlikely they'll do so immediately. They'll face a backlash if they purposefully hinder the LMC."

"That's what the Pioneers think as well. They're keeping the White Doves and the Greens in check for now, but that's no guarantee for the future."

Calsie looked at Ves as if she hoped he would relent on his stance of maintaining his neutrality. The young law graduate had always made her allegiance to the business-friendly group very clear. Ves indeed continued to retain her for her connections. That didn't mean he was inclined to change his mind.

"Monitor the situation for now and inform me of any changes."

Ves cut off the conversation and threw the local situation from his mind. Right now, what happened on the surface had little bearing on his work in the labs.

His studies into the crystals had progressed to formulating different compositions of crystals. Using the machines in the lab, he produced more than a dozen attempts to reproduce the essence of the alien technology.

He didn't have any high-value exotics on hand, but the lab did come stocked with all manner of regular exotics in regular supply. All of his attempts so far resulted in outright failures. Every crystal he cultivated so far ended up as brittle as glass. If they possessed the strength to propagate a laser beam, then they only emitted enough energy to light a closet.

"Difficult! Difficult! Difficult!"

Ves did not expect to succeed in a single day, but he hoped to make an early breakthrough. The more time he wasted on trying to get this gimmick to work, the more he delayed to completion of his second original design.

He set a solid deadline for himself. If he couldn't produce a satisfactory result in two weeks, he would abandon any plans on implementing this gimmick in his design.

In the meantime, he continued to ponder on the construction of the images.

The Triple Division technique lay at the root of his current methodology in fostering the X-Factor in his designs. The strongest result he had ever achieved only scored into the C's. Ves had always strived for breaking through the invisible barrier that held him back from scoring a B.

Right now, his recent breakthroughs in spirituality showed him a light in the dark. It remained a possibility for now, but the idea in his mind presented a possible way to finally break through that persistent barrier.

"The Triple Division technique is a way to superimpose three distinct images into a single amalgamation that's stronger than the sum of its parts. Although it's not possible to stuff three material objects into one, the rules in the imaginary dimensions are much less strict."

The three images consisted of the base model, the totem animal and the human myth. Up until now, Ves treated the latter two as something completely within his mind. He could invent any number of imaginary creatures or persons with the traits he desired.

However, their strengths remained largely in his mind.

He only deviated from his pattern when he used the Triple Division technique on the Blackbeak. For the human myth, he took inspiration from Jackknife Jake, the deceased captain of the Velton Myrmidons of Moira's Paradise.

The aquatic planet lively mech scene and intense underwater mech duels had a profound effect on Ves, and Jackknife Jake's tragic ending inspired Ves to incorporate the captain's dauntless courage into the Blackbeak's human myth.

Ves hadn't thought about it at the time, but now he realized he missed a precious opportunity to elevate the human myth.

"The realm of the imaginary is powered by thoughts and emotion. Something which only exists in my mind can only hold so much strength. What if I use an image that's shared by many, or carries the weight of history?"

Ves eyed the miniature husk of the crystal leader that had endured a countless number of years. How many aliens looked up to this leader? How much influence did this alien wield in his lifetime?

When Ves focused his sixth sense on the corpse, he could faintly sense a desolate flavor. The ancient alien corpse carried a unique strength that Ves hoped to borrow for his upcoming design.

What would a rifleman mech look like if it carried some of the spirit of a long-dead alien leader?

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At the opening of the Komodo Star Sector, a fair number of colonists descended upon the far-flung region. Barren as it may be, its official recognition as a star sector under the collective rule and protection of the CFA and MTA turned it from a lawless frontier into a safe tract of stars.

Right around the same time of the founding of the Bright Republic, another sovereign entity came into being. Founded by a wealthy individual with delusions of grandeur, the Vesia Kingdom came into being.

The two newly-founded states butted heads almost immediately. The Bentheim port system formed the main sticking point. While the Vesians already occupied two other port systems, the greed and ambition of the newly inaugurated Vesian King knew no bounds.

The fairly pacifistic Bright Republic had no choice but to stand their ground, or be engulfed by the Vesians over time. A third-rate state with control over three strategic port systems would certainly grow into a regional bully.

If the Republic possessed no port system at all, it would never be able to match the growth of their neighboring rival.

A war ensued almost immediately.

As the Komodo Star Sector had been opened fairly early in the Age of Mechs, the two states mostly fumbled around with the new technology. The ancestor of the Larkinsons took part in the war on behalf of the Republic as a mercenary and distinguished himself against the unending aggression of the Vesians.

Ever since then, the Vesians declared war and brazenly invaded the Bright Republic almost every single generation. As much as the Brighters wished to counterattack and deter the Vesians from lusting after their stars, they couldn't match their lifelong opponents in population and industrial capacity.

As the perennial underdogs of the conflict, the Bright Republic had no choice but to endure and take up a defensive posture.

Months into the war, the Vesians took full control over the nominal border between the Kingdom and the Republic. The aggressors only considered this takeover as an appetizer. The main course had yet to be served.

On the expansive command center of a majestic Vesian fleet carrier, an extravagant amount of bridge officers tirelessly worked to prepare their fleet led for the upcoming operation.

An officer clad in a dark brown uniform slowly hovered up to the floating circular platform that looked down on the command center. A young woman barely in her thirties sat upon an ornate throne-like chair with her back as straight as steel. Her brilliantly coiffed blond hair framed a charmingly delicate face, which unfortunately took on an iron-willed expression.

Her purple uniform stood out from the rest. In addition, a distinctive golden epaulet adorned her left shoulder. It depicted a hand holding aloft a notched sword with 5 blazing silver stars on top.

Anyone in the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom knew what this image represented.

The Kingdom adopted the hand with the notched sword as their national symbol. It represented the nobility of their polity, and only a fraction of the population earned the right to wear this symbol.

Those who carried the hand with the notched sword on their epaulet served in the Mech Legion. Practically every officer in the Mech Legion was invariably a noble.

With the five silver stars shining down on the hand with the notched sword, The lady in purple stood above the rest. The Vesian Kingdom adopted a condensed version of the standard human ranks of nobility. The number of stars reflected the rank, while their color hinted at their relation to the rank.

The lowest and only non-hereditary rank was knight. It only shone with a single star. Most often, those who earned the rank of knight distinguished themselves in battle. The rank of knight opened up a lot of avenues to these warriors. They were always addressed as Sirs.

The next rank was baron, and it was the first true rank of nobility. Not only was it hereditary, it also came attached with a fief. Their Houses often formed the backbone of the middle ranks of the Mech Legion. The rank of baron shone with two stars.

The rank after that was count. Anyone who inherited the rank of count was a true mover and shaker within the Kingdom. Many higher officers carried the rank of count, and they also had a say in how the Kingdom should be run. The rank of count shone with three illustrious stars.

Arguably the most powerful rank was duke. A small number of dukes and duchesses carved up the Vesia Kingdom into several dukedoms, over which their Houses ruled with near-absolute impunity. Even the Vesian royals only exerted a limited amount of influence in the core stars ruled by the dukes. This powerful rank shone with five blazing stars.

The second-to-last rank was the rank of prince. Only a member of the Vesian royal family carried this rank. They wielded a vast amount of power, but simultaneously held very little authority. The rank of prince shone with seven fiery stars.

As for the monarch who ruled over them all, only the king carried the right to bear the nine majestic suns. The symbol incomparably outshone the rest.

Besides the royal ranks, the symbols could further be distinguished from the color of the stars.

Those who carried stars in bronze only shared peripheral relations with the noble in question. These would often be members of branch families or those who had been adopted in the family of the noble.

Those with silver stars consisted of the direct descendants of the noble that ruled over their lineage. They possessed the right to inherit the title and properties of their parents.

Only the true holders of the rank carried golden stars. They ruled over their noble Houses with a tyrannical amount of power. Only they earned the right to be addressed by their ranks.

Besides knights, the other members of their House could only be addressed by Lord or Lady.

In that regard, the Vesia Kingdom hadn't deviated too much from the standard pattern of neo-feudalism in human space.

Currently, the woman possessed an immense amount of power. Her epaulet directly indicated that she stood a chance of inheriting the Imodris Dukedom. She carried as much authority as the Duchess of Imodris herself, who ruled over the dukedom with an iron fist.

The noble lady looked over the expansive projection engulfing the entire front portion of the command center. Hundreds of fleet carriers, combat carriers and transports awaited her command. The amount of power at her fingertips would intoxicate any individual, but the woman treated it as normal as breathing air.

Once the officer arrived at the throne, he thumped his chest with his fist. "Reporting, ma'am! Every regiment of the 3rd Imodris Legion has reported in. The fleet is ready to transition into FTL."

"Has the destination been set, Sir Jameson?"

The knight nodded submissively at the woman he had served since the start of her career in the Mech Legion. "The fleet will arrive at the uninhabited Coxer System in approximately seven days."

The woman frowned. "That is too slow. This is only the first of seven hops. The Duchess has commanded me to reach the Bentheim region within two months. The entire strategic deployment of the Imodris Mech Army rests on the timing of our operation."

"My apologies, Lady Amalia." Sir Jameson bent her head. "I shall convey your wishes to the admiral and exhort him to make more haste."

"That is good. I do not wish to hear any further excuses. Dismissed."

Half an hour went by as a handful of engineers across the fleet prepared their ships for a distant transition.

The further their destination, the riskier the hop, especially if they wanted to travel to a smaller star. If they failed to navigate the gravitic waves in the higher dimensions during FTL, they might get thrown off-course and emerge hundreds or even thousands of light-years away. Often times, they ended up in a completely random position in space as well.

Many wayward ships that encountered mishaps in FTL ended up several star sectors away. They lucked out compared to the rest, as over sixty percent of the ships that went off course would never be heard again.

People used to believe they disappeared somewhere else, until extensive investigation revealed that they'd been sucked into a major gravity well. That almost always meant they crashed into a sun or a black hole.

Thus, the coordinated jump into FTL had to be done with care and precision. The transports that carried the supplies and provisions of the fleet required extra attention in this regard. Their engineers poured every bit of energy into pushing the transports to keep up with the rest.

Once Lady Amalia received another notice that the fleet would arrive at their initial destination a little faster, she stood up from her throne.

Hidden recorders flared to life. The massive viewscreen in front of the command center switched to project the commanding officer of the 3rd Imodris Legion. Almost every single projector aboard every ship relayed the same event to the rest of the fleet.

"Citizens of Imodris. On this day, my mother the Duchess of Imodris has given me a command. Within six months, the pathetic Republic's precious Bentheim region must burn and quake! The 3rd Imodris Legion will be the vanguard of their doom! As the tip of the spear, we shall drive the Brighters to tears!"

"Imodris!"

Every serviceman of the 3rd Imodris Legion had stood up and held their fists to their chest. Whether they served as spacers or mech pilots, they respected Lady Amalia from the depths of their hearts. She carried the will of the Duchess of Imodris.

"Fight well, hold nothing back, and kill as many Brighters as you can. Their Republic is soft and ripe for the picking! We have devastated them time and time again, rendering them helpless and mewling for peace. Vesians! Shall we grant them mercy?"

"No!" The entire bridge thundered. The same word echoed throughout the rest of the fleet as the servicemen of the 3rd Imodris Legion collectively stood behind their leader.

"In the coming operation, we will transition deep into Republican space. I hope to see the 3rd Imodris Legion smash aside their feeble in-system defenses and stomp their precious industries to the ground! The perils of fighting behind enemy lines are great, but we are doing Imodris and the rest of the Kingdom an important service! Does the 3rd Imodris Legion lack any courage? No! Because we are fearless! We are dauntless! We are invincible!"

"Imodris! Imodris! Imodris!"

The entire legion became invigorated by her speech. Their hunger for glory and their duty to Imodris drove them to a state of hysteria. Every subject of the Kingdom had been brought up to hate the Bright Republic since birth.

The Kingdom's conflict with the Republic was deep seethed and irreconcilable. Conflicts of territory turned into an accumulation of grudges and a never-ending cycle of revenge. The Vesians would never rest until they ground the Republic beneath the heel of their boots.

"Imodris shies away from battle! The other dukedoms may be dragging their feet and continue to cautiously probe the Mech Corps, but Imodris is different! We shall take the bull by the horns and teach our enemies a lesson they won't forget! Once the history books speak of this war, it will be the 3rd Imodris Legion who will shine the brightest!"

"For the Third!"

"For Imodris!"

"For the Kingdom!"

Lady Amalia maintained her impassioned posture and kept on grinning before the recorders. She only dropped her performance once the transmission cut off. Once she returned to her throne, she seated herself in a languid manner and resumed her next calculations.

She turned back to Sir Jameson, who had been quietly standing by her side. "Major, what are the odds of success? Tell me the truth."

"Our analysts aren't optimistic about our current plans." Jameson minutely frowned. "Her Grace the Duchess of Imodris expects much from the Third. Too much, perhaps."

Lady Amalia smiled coyly. "That just indicates my mother's regard for me. It is true that we are about to enter head-long into the jaws of the decrepit beast that stands for the Republic, but this is a role that I volunteered for myself. If we succeed, the 3rd Imodris Legion shall be known throughout the Kingdom as the legion that has struck the first true blow."

The major nodded at her words, but refrained from voicing his misgivings. As veteran of the previous war, Jameson knew that the Bright Republic wouldn't roll over for the Mech Legion without a fight.

Perhaps Lady Amalia knew that herself, but she desperately needed to distinguish herself on the battlefield. As the sixth-born of the Duchess of Imodriss, the fight to inherit the dukedom was not in her favor. Her older siblings had decades ahead of her and built up a vast network of nobles.

No one in the noble circles favored the tragic Lady Amalia, who had been born too late.

She wanted to prove them all wrong.

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Back in the underground labs of the newly-christened Mech Nursery, Ves continued to develop new iterations of crystals. He minutely adjusted their composition and patterns, gaining more data by the day.

Most of the time, the crystals turned out to be outright failures. Ves had never eliminated the odds of producing brittle and opaque pieces of crystal. Let alone being embedded into the chest of a mech, they wouldn't even qualify as laser pointers.

"Why is this so difficult?!"

A depressing week marked with constant failures had already gone by. Ves kept trying to discover suitable substitutes to the original composition of the alien crystals with unerring persistence, but even his upgraded Intelligence and Physics hadn't been able to guarantee a quick success.

The unending setbacks taught Ves that he underestimated the enormity of working around exotics. Properly speaking, Ves should have delegated this work to a team of specialists. Lately, he started to consider if it might be a good idea to get some people on board this project.

After weighing the pros and cons, he decided not to do so at this time. "The LMC hasn't grown to the point of justifying a dedicated research team."

Ves could easily hire a horde of average researchers who graduated from regular institutions like the Rittersberg University of Technology. However, average wouldn't cut it. His Senior-level Physics vastly outshone almost every other physicist in the Republic.

An accumulation of the highest mech-related physics knowledge over several decades was nothing to scoff at. Only other older mech designers or true talents in the field of physics could match his intellectual acumen.

"It's useless to take on a bunch of dummies when I can do everything better myself. If I have to form a dedicated research department, then I'll have to find a way to hire the best."

Only true talents and leaders in their fields entered his discernment. However, it was exactly because of their competitive that everyone else already valued them highly.

Major companies, institutes and governments had already hooked their claws in them even before they graduated. As long as any student revealed some talents, they'd be recruited on the spot and received extensive training from their organizations upon graduation.

These talents would quietly disappear from the public and henceforth dedicate their entire being for the organization that coddled them like precious treasures.

Ves wouldn't be able to hire anyone with actual skill from the job market for this reason. "I can't form a design team the conventional way."

The LMC had only just begun to transform into a medium mech manufacturer. It still fell behind a true medium manufacturer in many other ways, from production capacity to research and development. In a way, it hadn't completely shaken off the trappings of a small mech manufacturer.

"Well, I still have one more week to go. I refuse to give up now that I've generated all of this data."

Each failure brought him closer to success. He continued to rule out the wrong directions, leaving only a handful of narrow paths which might bring him to his desired outcome as long as he didn't stumble upon a dead end.

In the meantime, Ves mentally tried to construct an elaborate set of images for his upcoming design.

This time, he planned to incorporate an alien into the 'human' myth. Actually calling this type of image the human myth was just an expedient way for Ves to describe its purpose.

"The base role sets the foundation while the totem animal strengthens the primal instincts. The so-called human myth is needed to insert higher thought into the gestalt that influences the X-Factor."

Ves was no exobiologist, but he believed the crystal builders had developed their own form of civilization. Their ruins provided no evidence that they acted like savages that acted solely on their baser instincts.

Thus, even if he knew almost nothing about the crystal builders, he still wished to draw upon the existence of the deceased crystal leader as an image.

In order to build up an accurate image and take advantage of the crystal leader's immense potential, Ves tried to commune with its remains, in a sense. He constantly attempted to prod and poke the crystal leader's crystalline corpse with his severely underdeveloped spirituality while he continued to work on forming new crystals.

He mainly relied on a set of assumptions to drive his current action. No human in the galaxy knew how spirituality worked, let alone Ves, but believed his original design would gain a lot of strength if he succeeded in roping in the spirit of the crystal builder.

"Whether it's the alien's actual spirit or merely an imprint that he left behind in the fabric of history is still a question."

What happened when someone died? Humanity developed all kinds of fanciful theories, and Ves developed his own idea. If someone's spirituality became detached from their bodies due to death or other reasons, Ves believed that he could reel it in and make use of it in his designs.

Ves tried hard not to refer to the spiritual remnants as souls, because it carried a lot of theological implications. Religions around the galaxy would go nuts if they heard a description of what he planned to do. In their perspective, what was attempting to do might be considered necromancy or an attempt to play god!

He had to stifle his chuckle. "It's not like I'm trying to resurrect the dead. If some spiritual remnants are floating around in the imaginary realms for eons, then I might as well repurpose them for something useful."

Spoken like a true rationalist. He did not consider his actions as desecrating the dead and felt absolutely no guilt about his actions. All that talk about reincarnation, purgatory, redemption had nothing to do with him. Well water didn't interfere with river water.

In general, citizens of non-religious states always held a bias against any form of religion. The Bright Republic valued rationality very highly, so it was the strongest adherent to this unspoken rule.

Ves never stopped giving up his attempt to trace the spiritual remnant of the crystal leader, although his hopes started to dim as a few more days went by.

In contrast, his constant experimentation with the crystals started to bear fruit. They stopped being easy to break and they became capable of projecting a significant amount of power.

"Looks like I finally grasped the right direction. Right now, I need to strengthen the formula."

He only created a nail-sized piece of crystal. This was barely large enough for a toy laser pistol.

A laser crystal suitable enough for a mech-sized rifle should at least be the size of a chair. As for the crystal that Ves planned to embed in the chest or head, it should be at least twice or thrice as large.

Whenever he attempted to synthesize anything larger, cracks and faults started to appear. Ves believed that he would eventually be able to minimize the incidence of faults as long as he became more proficient. Still, the process demanded the utmost of his capabilities and his extensive familiarity with the nature of the crystals.

No one else would be able to replicate his feats even if they got a hold of the blueprints. While Seniors and Masters should be able to crack the secret, they had better things to do than to pay attention to a trivial Apprentice Mech Designer.

At the very least, none of his direct competitors would be able to imitate his gimmick.

While it gratified him to achieve a significant amount of process in this area, his search to grasp the spiritual remnant still remained empty-handed. Eventually, Ves stopped his lab work and took a break.

He entered a small kitchen area and pressed a button on the large automatic cooking machine. The advanced device recombined the stored nutrient packs into a close imitation of sausage and mash.

Ves grabbed his plate and set it down on a nearby table and begun to dig in.

A few minutes later, Lucky floated through the walls and brushed against Ves in a familiar greeting. When Ves attempted to scratch Lucky's face, the mischievous cat quickly turned intangible again.

"Meow!"

"Oh come on, little buddy. You can't avoid my touch forever!"

Lucky swirled around Ves in a playful gesture before landing atop the kitchen machine to rest. In the past few weeks, Lucky continued to break inside the highly secured storerooms that secured a precious stock of expensive exotics. Not a single security measure proved capable of hindering Lucky's thieving claws.

At the very least, the cat didn't abuse his powers too much. He only nibbled a few bites before he contently left the storerooms. Ves still had plenty of inventory left to continue his experimentation on the crystals.

As he ate his meal, he looked at his contented cat with a thoughtful expression. "How well can you control your intangible state, Lucky?"

"Meow." Lucky lazily shifted from tangibility and intangibility and back several times over, demonstrating a complete level of control over the strange phenomenon.

Ves looked down on his own hand and willed his mind to turn the limb intangible.

He failed.

"Damnit, why doesn't it work for me? Is my Spirituality Attribute not high enough?"

Ves experienced a lot of crazy things ever since he embarked on his career as a mech designer. He discovered the X-Factor, ate a strange heavenly flower in Groening IV and met a ghost that looked and acted a lot like his mother on the Glowing Planet.

In his latest adventure, he even peeled back the veil on spirituality and unified a lot of related theories and assumptions. Nevertheless, spirituality remained a marginal buzzword so long he couldn't make use of this knowledge.

"I'm missing something important. Why can't I extend my reach into the imaginary dimensions? Why am I unable to turn my body intangible?"

Perhaps an individual could only specialize in a narrow application of spirituality.

For example, Ves excelled in creating images from nothing and imprinting them onto a design.

Lucky took to intangibility like a fish to water.

Elite mech pilots specialized in drawing out the hidden potential of exotics through resonance.

High-ranked mech designers fitted different configurations of exotics together and bestowed new strengths onto their designs as if they performed magic.

"Can someone only do one of these things at a time?"

Ves did not believe that was the case. Perhaps elite mech pilots were the ones who monopolized the ability to resonate with exotics, but every other ability should be within his fingertips.

If only he had some sort of guide in this endeavor. From the start of his exploration into spirituality, he worked completely by himself. He could trust no one else with his advancements.

He had no qualms in admitting his selfishness. If he discovered something good, would he share it with the rest of the galaxy like a good samaritan?

Nope.

He wanted to keep his secrets to himself and take advantage of everyone else's ignorance. Why shouldn't he profit from his own work? The rest of humanity fared well enough on its own, and besides, everyone withheld their own secrets.

"The MTA,the CFA, the first-rate superstates and the heretical organizations like the Five Scrolls Compact all hold their own secrets. If they aren't sharing anything, why would I?"

Therefore, as much as Ves wanted to bring in others to help him with his research, he persisted in charting his course alone.

Perhaps the only people he would make an exception for were his parents. "Father, where are you?"

Last he heard, his father still mixed with the dark mercenaries in the lawless region of the Nyxian Gap. Ves hoped his father kept his head down there. He had no doubt his father would be able to avoid his pursuers and eke out an existence among the endless asteroid fields of the Gap.

As for his mother, Ves tried hard not to think about her. He always believed she had died quietly in her bed when he was young, but recent events kept prompting him to reconsider his beliefs.

"Are you still alive?"

As much as he wanted to move on from his mother's death, Ves still couldn't get over his hopes.

Too bad Ves had left the ghost behind on the Glowing Planet. With the Hegemony and the Coalition fighting over the resource-rich planet, it shouldn't last very long. Once the planet broke into pieces, any hopes of meeting the ghost of his mother would fade away.

Just then, a slim, pale hand reached out from behind and placed a juicy apple in front of his empty plate.

"You shouldn't eat those foods assembled from nutrient packs all the time. It's not as healthy as organically grown food."

Ves yelped and jumped from his chair like a scalded cat. He threw aside the table with the plate and apple and rolled forward in panic. He fumbled inside his pockets until he retrieved the Amastendira.

He pointed the laser pistol straight at the floating white specter that had crept up behind him. "Mother!"

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"Mama! Papa!"

"Come here, Vessie boy!"

A cute, black-haired toddler waddled over to his parents, who looked down on their son with eager grins. Ryncol Larkinson, a mech pilot of the Mech Corps, and Cynthia Larkinson, a wedding photographer and graphical artist, waited until their boy stumbled out of their house with his little legs.

Cynthia picked the boy up and gave him a loving smooch. "Who do you love more? Mama or papa?"

Little Vessie gazed at his mother and father with a confused expression. He put his thumb in his mouth and sucked on it. "Hmmm… mommy! I love mommy the best!"

The two began to cuddle affectionately while their father Ryncol ruefully looked on. "But you love daddy too, right!"

"Daddy!"

The little boy, now a little bit older, felt warm all over as his mother tucked him into his bed. She kissed him more than a dozen times on the cheek, making him feel as if the scary night had faded away.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, honey?"

"I want a sister. Can you give me a sister?"

"Oh, Vessie." His mother kissed him yet again. "Just wait a couple of years. It's not time yet."

"Please hurry. All my other friends have sisters but I don't have any."

"I promise you, Ves. You will have lots of brothers and sisters to play with in the future."

His mother stroked his cheek and couldn't resist giving Ves another kiss. After making sure the little nightlight stayed on, she left his room, allowing the little boy to enter a blissful state of rest.

"Mommy! Look at what daddy got me!"

The little boy, having grown up a little bit more, scampered over the grass towards his mother. He held a toy rifleman mech in one hand which he showed with childish glee.

A slim dark-haired woman sat next to a tree under the murky clouds of Cloudy Curtain. Despite the grim-looking skies, the woman smiled as if nothing in the galaxy could ruin her day. She picked the little boy up and held him on her lap.

"Oh, what's this, Vessie?"

"It's the latest Oncalix Systems GTNVC-39BE! It even has the underbarrel grenade launcher attachment! Look at how cool it is!"

Cynthia indulgently stroked her son's head. "Vessie boy, your father has given you enough mechs for toys. Isn't it enough? How about a stuffed tiger?"

"Noooooooooo! I want more! I never have enough mechs!"

The boy kept nagging his mother for more toy mechs. He wanted to play with the entire collection of Oncalix Systems. Ves only had their rifleman and skirmisher mech models. His friend Joey who lived down the streets in the suburbs of Freslin constantly bragged about owning all nine toy models.

"I'll promise you another toy if you've been good. If you make mommy happy, I'll buy you another toy next month!"

"Moooom! That's too long! The Oncalyx Systems mechs will grow old by then!"

His mother sighed. She understood nothing about his son's fascination for mechs, yet she knew that every other boy was just the same.

"Get back, I've got a gun!"

Ves, now a full adult, pointed the resplendent-looking Amastendira at the apparition that suddenly appeared behind him without warning.

It should have been impossible for anyone to sneak into his private workshop floor! Several meters of pure alloy walls engulfed the floor, which was several kilometers underground. State-of-the-art sensors monitored any disturbances in the soil around the exterior of the floor.

As long as anyone tried to penetrate the vicinity of the Mech Nursery, they would undoubtedly get caught!

At least, that was the intention. Yet he made a massive oversight! Ves had not considered defending against energy beings that could turn their entire bodies intangible!

The trivial manner in which Lucky passed through high-security walls and vaults with contemptuous ease should have triggered some warning bells in his head!

The ghost looked much more formidable this time. Last time, the energy being that pretended to be his mother had casually stolen the high-grade Rorach's Bone that should have been his reward. Thankfully, he excavated another sample of high-grade ore on his own, but he always wondered why his mother took it away.

Now he knew. The ghost obviously used up the Rorach's Bone to her own benefit. Her exterior shone with milky white radiance that closely matched Lucky's own appearance.

The resemblance was uncanny. Nothing except high-grade Rorach's Bone could have caused the two to look so similar.

His mother dismissed his pistol-brandishing form with a wave of her dainty hand. "Ves, put that toy away. You're no soldier. It's dangerous to play around with guns."

The way she commanded him to put away his weapon sounded extremely familiar to Ves. She used to adopt the same motherly tone of voice when Ves stayed up too late while playing with his miniature mechs.

Some instinct buried deep within his bones moved his body before his mind could process the request. His arm automatically lowered the pistol before he sobered up.

"Your tricks won't work on me!" An angry frown appeared on his face as he raised his pistol and aligned the barrel to his mother's figure. "Stay back! I'll really shoot you if you come close!"

The ghost tutted as she slowly hovered forward. The closer she neared, the more Ves felt pressured. An invisible cloying miasma surrounded his mother that brushed against his sixth sense.

Strangely enough, this time his mother didn't leech off his internal energy cycle. His mother seemed much more complete. Perhaps she had grown stronger to the point where she didn't have to rely on outside sustenance for the moment.

Ves did not let down his guard in any case. This deceptive energy being certainly had an agenda of some sorts. Her intentions would certainly be detrimental to him. His attitude remained harsh and he even dialed up the power of his laser pistol.

"Stop! Don't come any closer! Lucky, help me!"

"Meow?"

Lucky kept lounging on top of the kitchen machine. The abrupt presence of another intangible presence hadn't alarmed him in any way. He completely treated the ghost that wore his mother's face as family.

His mother smirked and held out a hand. An unknown piece of glowing mineral materialized in her palm. Once it became solid, she threw it towards the cat.

"Lucky, is that what Vessie named you? Be a dear and play outside. I need some time alone with my son."

"Meow!"

Lucky jumped up to catch the mineral in his jaws, having partially materialized his upper body to manage the feat. Once he secured his snack, he eagerly floated away, leaving Ves to fend off his mother without any backup.

Even though he expected the betrayal, he still looked disappointed. "This stupid cat."

"As I said, my dear, don't forget who gifted you these toys. You have no idea where he comes from. Only your father and I are aware of his origins."

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Ves couldn't take it any longer. "My mother is dead! You are just some wraith who somehow managed to escape from the Glowing Planet! I don't know how you got out, but don't think you can act with impunity in my presence! This time I can hit you back!"

His mother dropped her smirk. She closed her eyes in exasperation. "Vessie, while I am not happy that you've clung to mechs in your adulthood, at least you haven't become a soldier. I'm proud to see you grow up to become a successful man, but you should at least recognize that you have no business pointing a gun at your mother."

As she spoke, she slowly floated closer. She completely disregarded the threat of the Amastendira, as if she treated him like he was a five year old holding up a toy gun to her body.

Ves struggled against the competing impulses of his instincts, his fear and his rational mind. The ghost had crossed the halfway point by the time he resolved his internal contradictions.

No matter the truth, he couldn't allow the ghost to get close. Before he ascertained the threat, he should keep it well away from his vicinity.

"Stop! If you come closer, I'll really shoot. This is your last warning!"

Again, his mother didn't look deterred. She calmly floated closer as if she wanted to bait him into action.

After several seconds of second-guessing, Ves steeled his heart and pulled the trigger.

A bright and thick laser beam emerged from the Amastendira and pierced straight through his mother's intangible form. The beam continued to strike the wall behind and bore a hole straight through the thick layers of alloy, ceramics and composites.

Against the might of a fully-powered laser beam from the Amastendira, everything in its way devolved into non-existence. The beam carved out over five hundred meters of solid walls and bedrock before its energy ran out.

Such a mighty laser beam could have threatened a mech or carved open the belly of a transport ship.

Even more remarkable, the laser beam also carried a hint of spirituality. It was one of the mastercrafted pistol's most cherished features, and allowed the wielder to fend off all manner of energy beings that roamed the galaxy.

It should have annihilated his mother, or at least inflicted grievous wounds on her intangible form.

Instead, the instant before he pulled the trigger, a hole had already emerged in his mother's intangible form. It lined up exactly with the trajectory of the beam. Thus, his mother evaded damage entirely. The peripheral heat that bloomed around the laser beam posed no threat to intangible forms at all.

The hand that held the Amastendira started to shake. Ves had never expected the ghost to pull off this kind of move. Such an insane reaction speed akin to precognition wouldn't have been out of place if he faced an expert mech pilot, but this was his mother! When she was still alive, she was a photographer!

The quick reaction further reinforced the idea in his mind that he faced an impostor.

Ves attempted to pull the trigger again, but held off at the last second. His mother would likely react in the same manner. The first laser beam had already inflicted a large amount of collateral damage. The containment of his private workshop floor had been breached, and it was extremely expensive and troublesome to fix all of the damage.

He instead walked back, trying to keep his distance from his mother. He started to circle in order to avoid cornering himself like last time. His mother followed suit, and they slowly spun around the kitchen area as if he was a giggling young boy running around in circles while his mother playfully chased after her son.

Naturally, Ves did not feel any amusement at the tense standoff. "Tell me why you're here! How did you escape the Glowing Planet?"

The woman shook her head. "The so-called Glowing Planet was never my home. I do have to thank the Republic, though. Without their intervention, I would have never get past the monsters that you've called the devourers."

Obviously, his mother took advantage of the vacuum that ensued when Gregarious Wrath met and killed off the devourers and devourer king.

"What does that have to do with your presence here? Why can't you bother some other schmuck?!"

"Because I only have a single son. You are my only child, and nothing will stop me from meeting you again."

Her mother spoke those words with such a sweet tone that Ves mentally admired her performance. She truly performed her role to perfection. Even Ves couldn't spot any flaws.

"I suppose you stowed away aboard one of the ships that evacuated from the Glowing Planet. An energy being like you can probably make yourself undetectable if you wanted to. Am I right?"

"Correct, but that is not the entire story. You see, you are sorely mistaken if you believe I am some indigenous life form from the Glowing Planet."

Ves widened his eyes.

"The Glowing Planet is merely an opportunity. I've always been there. Only now am I able to appear before you in this form."

Deceptive witch! Her words muddled up his judgement until he became completely confused whether he should treat the ghost as his enemy or his mother.

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Ves tried hard to keep his mind on track. No matter what her mother claimed to be, she still remained a potential threat. "You haven't answered my question! Why are you here!?"

The ghost definitely had a purpose in revealing her presence to him at this time. Indeed, his mother smirked and materialized a familiar object in her grasp.

"You've been bumbling around like an idiot with this toy for over a week. As your mother, it's my duty to set you back onto the right path."

"What?"

Ves recognized the object in her palm. It was the crystalline remains of the leader he found in the crystal gardens. Ever since he started on developing the gimmick for his upcoming design, he continually studied the intricacies of the corpse.

All the organic parts had decayed away, leaving only pure crystals behind. Ves discovered that the quality of the miniature crystals surpassed those that made up the ruins the alien race had left behind.

He even figured out some of the rudimentary principles of the crystal augmentations. The tiny corpse that could fit in the palm of his hands possessed a lot of powerful cybernetic prowess in its crystal circuits.

Last he remembered, he left the corpse behind in his lab equipment.

"I know what you intend to do." His mother continued as she waved around the crystal leader's corpse. "You are doing it wrong. Do you realize the enormity of pulling back a vestige of the past? How arrogant to believe you can take what you want."

Ves temporarily ignored his mother's identity and the fact that she held one of his precious artifacts. For more than a week, he attempted to connect with the remains and attempted to trace some sort of spiritual presence that had been left behind.

So far, he completely failed to grasp a single useful thing. Thus, despite facing a ghost, Ves couldn't help but grow curious.

"What do you suggest?"

"There are many ways of accomplishing your goals, but most of them will result in fruitless outcomes. You are too weak and ignorant to know what you are doing. There is only one method that is suitable for a human with your strength."

Ves practically stood on his toes. He eagerly wanted to hear his mother's solution. "What method is that?"

"You must beseech the individual from beyond the grave. Resonate with his life, and let it borrow from your strength. A price must be paid."

Resonate with a dead person's life?

She demonstrated the method in front of him. Her milky-white ghost-like form flickered as she concentrated on the object in her hand. "The sentient being who inhabited this corpse has left behind a lot of regrets. His race is dead. His legacy is gone. Too much time has passed. What remains is only traces of his former self. Yet it is exactly those traces that are the strongest and most enduring parts. You only need to gather the most suitable one for your purposes."

Ves saw the light. He previously believed that the alien leader's spirituality might have drifted somewhere in some distant dimension. He hadn't realized that it might have been split up.

"How do I attract a portion of its spirituality?"

"As I said, you resonate with its desires. For example…" His mother looked down on the small but incredibly durable crystal corpse. "This individual is part of a long-dead race. What stands out for you?"

"Uhm, it's exquisite and small."

"Indeed, it's small. His entire race is small. You can fit an entire crowd of these aliens in your hands. Now ask yourself, how do their stature compare to the average sentient alien beings in the galaxy?"

"Leaving out the weirder forms of life like the silicate sandmen, they're really tiny. You can hardly find any smaller humanoid aliens out there."

"In the perspective of these aliens, the rest of the galaxy is a frightening place. It is filled with monstrous giants who can easily crush them beneath their feet if they will it so. Their bodies, their weapons and their ships are tens or hundreds times larger than those of this diminutive race."

Ves started to understand what the crystal leader felt. "The tragedy of the small."

"Indeed, the tragedy of the small! Their race held a lot of potential, but the scale in which they worked with has crippled their development as soon as they met other space-faring races."

Ves could easily imagine what others races thought of the tiny aliens. At first contact, those aliens with normal body sizes compared to humans must have treated the crystal builders with contempt.

"It is this alien's eternal regret that their race has been born so small. No matter which alien race they tried to engage, they were never taken seriously. It has even led to their eventual downfall."

"How did you know all of this?"

"Because the fragment that holds this regret has told me so."

Her other palm flickered and a tiny silvery flame hovered over it. Ves became shocked when he sensed his sixth sense pinging at the flame.

It was another form of life!

"Is that…?"

"Indeed, this is a fragment."

Ves worked so hard to summon something like this. A small part of his mind believed that it couldn't be done because it sounded so fantastical. Was there really life beyond death?

His mother thrust out her palm, which pushed the flame away from her. It gently drifted over to Ves, who tried to take hold of the flame.

He failed. The flickering flame pushed right past his hand and went through his body! If he couldn't stop it from traveling forward, it would certainly disappear into the earth!

"Use your gifts, Vessie. I know you can do it!"

Driven by panic, Ves hastily focused his mind on his free hand. He still held onto the Amastendira, but he threw all thoughts of shooting his mother to the side. Compared to her foreboding presence, he eagerly wished to obtain her insights.

Ves eventually managed to halt the flame from submerging into the walls. It took a very special kind of focus to affect the silvery fragment. His mother had been right in that he needed to understand their perspective.

He didn't actually stop it with his hands. Instead, he reached out with his mind and tried to connect with it with a sympathetic viewpoint.

The fragment acted much like a bot who responded to only certain commands. With his mother's help, Ves finally cracked the secret.

"I understand. The fragment is a remnant of a sentient life, but it isn't actually capable of independent thought. The only way to influence it is if I send out thoughts that drive the fragment to action."

Just then, Ves resonated with the fragment by plainly showing it an image of a rifleman mech. His rich creativity painted a detailed scene which compared the mech to the scale of the crystal garden.

The mech practically towered over the collection of crystals like a monolithic giant loomed over a bunch of ants.

The sheer difference in size might have scared away the fragment, but Ves communicated a desire to implant the spiritual fragment into the mech.

In essence, he wanted to solve the fragment's lifelong regrets by granting it a body that towered over many other alien races. The sheer might at its fingertips would turn about its racial inferiority complex and give the fragment a taste of what it was like to own a towering body.

There was no question whether the flame would respond. It instantly turned docile and patiently hovered above his palm.

"Uh, what do I do with it?"

"You cherish it and feed it until you have constructed a mental lattice in which it can rest." His mother responded patiently with a smile as she toyed with the crystal leader's corpse. "The fragment looks frail, but as long as you give it hope, it will continue to persist until you need it. Do not worry about its health."

Indeed. Through his sixth sense, Ves could feel a strengthening conviction in the fragment. It wanted Ves to deliver his promise of integrating the fragment with a mech. So long as that remained a possibility, the fragment would do everything in its power to remain in the material dimensions.

His mother had pointed out the light in the dark. Now that she gave him a direction, Ves could figure out the rest on his own. His animosity towards the ghost had dropped to the point where he could tolerate her existence.

He still felt highly uncomfortable about her presence, though. An awkward silence ensued where Ves wasn't sure about holding his mother at bay with the Amastendira.

Even this wondrous weapon came with limits. Against a foe who could easily manipulate her intangible body around a laser beam, the Amastendira offered very little countermeasures.

Ves had studied the weapon for a time, so he knew it came with a wide-area light projector. Basically, the light projector mode turned the straight and narrow laser beam in a cone of light that spread out quickly.

Ordinarily, such a mode would quickly diffuse the energy to the point where it hardly inflicted any damage. However, with sufficient power, it would still be able to cook an armored man within a distance of up to ten meters.

Maybe he could still exorcise this ghost this way, yet the collateral damage would be huge. Without an armored suit of his own, the heat would affect his body as well.

Even then, he wouldn't be able to guarantee that his mother would pull off another trick. She seemed incredibly capable of avoiding a light projector.

His mother smirked at him, as if she guessed what was on his mind. "I must take my leave now. You are old enough to stand on your own, and you don't need your mother to tell you what to do."

"Mom!"

Before she left, she focused on the crystal leader's corpse. Slowly, her humanoid form flickered, as if it lost some stability. Her form behaved as if it reflected off a pond which rippled from a stone.

Then, something drastic happened.

Her intangible bone-white substance got pulled into the crystal leader's tiny corpse. It was as if some kind of hole sucked her inside!

The crystal leader's corpse continued to hover in the air despite no one holding it aloft. It started to shake a few times before the crystals that made up its limbs started to glow in white. Some of the cavities in the strange alien's head started to glow, as if all of its eyes had turned to life.

A sound emerged from the corpse. "Ah, that was harder than I thought. This body is more older than I anticipated."

The crystals embedded into the corpse started to reconfigure themselves into different orientations. The hunched posture of the tiny alien straightened up, and the body started to resemble a human female.

The cavities that dotted its entire head closed up. Instead, two symmetrical eyes opened up, adorning the faceless head with a touch of humanity.

Ves was taken aback. He stood there with his mouth wide open as his mother intricately molded the cyborg body to her tastes. Ves never knew such a thing was possible! Had the corpse always contained this function, or was it something she forced with her own powers?

Whatever the case, it didn't change the fact that his mother had taken possession of a body! Even though she looked like a doll, Ves knew better than to underestimate its capabilities. The crystals possessed remarkable capabilities that could wreck havoc!

He was certain that his mother was up to no good!

After she finished her adjustment, she smiled again at Ves and turned intangible. Once she made sure she retained the capability to pass through walls, she turned to go.

"Wait! That artifact is mine! I still need it for my research!"

"I've seen your work. You are almost done with your research project. What's yours is mine, and what's mine is yours."

His mother disappeared before Ves could get another word out.

She stole his artifact! Ves could have continued to perform more research on the corpse and figure out more applications of the crystals! Now it was gone!

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The departure of the ghost that pretended to be his mother left Ves in a morose mood. His ambivalence towards her identity deepened with each subsequent meeting.

Even with his superhuman Intelligence, he still couldn't determine whether the ghost spoke the truth. She moved exactly like he remembered from his childhood, but her attitude had turned ten times worse. Even though she helped him out, she wrapped up her benevolence with thorns.

Her unilateral appropriation of the crystal leader's corpse particularly set back his future plans. Without a live sample to of crystals to study, Ves wouldn't be able to delve into its secrets and progress his understanding of the alien technology. Even though he took plenty of scans, they only offered a finite amount of data.

"Scans won't be able to substitute for the real thing."

More disturbing than his mother's lack of sensitivity regarding the ownership of his property, she also showed competence in areas which she shouldn't know.

"It's like she's some sort of highly-trained soldier or mech pilot."

As far as Ves was aware of, his mother lived a completely normal life. Ves inherited a small portion of his artistic sense from her. In her spare time, she enthusiastically played with recorders and snapped a lot of images of their family. She made a small business out of recorded some of the weddings in Freslin.

Even though a couple of recorder bots and some automated software could do the job, they would never be able to convey the emotional impact if a human stood at the helm. His mother truly stood out in that area.

"My mother spent her lifetime developing those skills. It's impossible for her to be good at fighting."

Ves came up with three different answers to this discrepancy. Either she gained a lot of new skills after her death, or she was never the person she pretended to be when she still lived.

As for the final answer, the ghost used to be someone else, but for some reason or another assumed his mother's identity.

"This is far too complicated."

He could speculate all day, but from the evidence at hand, he failed to make up his mind. If the ghost assumed any other identity, then he may have been able to look at this conundrum in an objective manner.

Yet when it came to his mother, his judgement became clouded with emotion. He was not a bot who could strictly look at a situation and spit out a yes or no. Bots had the luxury of ignoring everything that fell out of their consideration.

Ves enjoyed no such luxury.

"At least she didn't suck out the life of me this time."

He faintly sensed that she became more formidable each time she paid a visit to him. Previously, she seemed more primal and ephemeral, as if she was one step away from oblivion. Now, she behaved much like a living human being, as if she had truly been resurrected from the grave.

Obviously, the ghost constantly sought to strengthen herself. Otherwise she wouldn't go through the trouble of stealing his high-grade Rorach's Bone and his crystal artifact.

"Even if we're related, that's no reason for taking away my stuff!"

Sadly, the ghost was nowhere to be found. She came and went according to her own whims. Even if she hovered right next to him, as long as she exerted her utmost in hiding her presence, Ves wouldn't know he was being spied upon.

His glowering mood turned even gloomier at that realization. The only reason why he didn't panic was because his mother wouldn't expose his secrets to anyone else.

She was just like his father, who offended a dangerous trans-galactic secret society in order to deliver the Mech Designer System to him. "If she's truly my mother, she only wants the best for me."

He turned his attention to the fragment that hovered before him. Ves carefully treated the flickering silvery spirit with care. He slowly drew it from the mess hall and brought it back to the labs.

"Let's see what makes you tick."

Ves proceeded to subject the fragment to all manner of tests and scans. Unfortunately, most of the machines failed to make sense of the fragment. It was as if it didn't exist. Similar to Lucky in his intangible state, the fragment could only be seen, not touched. He could forget about trying to manipulate it with the help of any tools.

Even the Vulcaneye had to admit defeat in front of the fragment. While the multiscanner spat out a few more observations, it hardly told him anything he didn't know.

"In the end, a spiritual fragment only responds to spiritual stimuli."

He gently manipulated the fragment between his hands. He became more proficient in tugging it back and forth. He found that he didn't need to employ his full focus to direct the fragment. As long as Ves revealed a hint of emotion, the spiritual fragment eventually reacted.

It had to be the right set of emotions and thought in order to work, however. The fragment yearned to be big. So long as Ves intimated that he would put the fragment into a mech, the silvery flame became as docile as a pet.

Ves couldn't experiment too much with the fragment. As fascinating as its existence implied, he still had a lot of work to do. His research on finding a more economic composition of crystal was almost done. He only needed to solve the problem of producing larger crystals without flaws.

"Let's finish up the images."

He sat down and relaxed while keeping the fragment in his view. The Triple Division technique called for superimposing three different images, but they didn't need to be of equal strength.

Yet Ves had never worked with an existing spiritual fragment. Even though it looked like anyone could snuff it out with a pinch of his fingers, it held a surprising amount of spiritual power.

Over millions of years of drifting about in the imaginary realms, the fragment lost everything redundant, leaving only the purest thoughts and emotions.

Whenever Ves brushed his senses close to the fragment, he countered unyielding will. It lacked much of the context that he wanted to know. He knew nothing about the crystal leader's history. This made it difficult for him to construct a backstory around the fragment.

"Maybe it doesn't need anything more."

Anything he added to the spiritual fragment wouldn't stick. Its unyielding will worked against Ves whenever he wanted to alter its makeup. Unlike most of his other images, the fragment had already endured for eons.

He set the fragment aside and focused his mind on constructing the other two images. Ves already put a lot of thought to them, so he easily constructed the images in his mind.

The base model consisted of a fast and nimble rifleman mech. It possessed the same defining traits as the mech in his vision, although in a more idealized way. The rifleman mech took up a starring role no matter if it fought alongside other rifleman mechs or operated at the head of a squad.

Ves even added a little flamboyance to its performance. This would be a mech meant to be piloted by the skilled. It catered to mech pilots who demanded a high amount of mobility while simultaneously wanted enough armor to triumph against enemy marksmen.

"My mech has to be fast, accurate, enduring and tough."

That was a very tall order, but Ves possessed enough confidence that he could deliver the goods.

The base model required little else. Ves only strengthened its core traits as much as possible in order to put up a decent fight against the spiritual fragment. He also imagined its performance becoming better over time. Age didn't degrade its performance, but rather strengthened it to a higher level.

"Now for the totem animal."

The totem animal had to fit the archetype. He needed to construct a mythical animal that fought with speed and finesse.

Rather than scouring the galactic net over an existing example, Ves conjured up an animal from scratch.

After several weeks of thought, he came up with a skinny fire ape. Unlike most primate species which relied on their brute strength to fight, this animal relied on his supernatural ability to shoot out concentrated fire from its eyes.

The fire ape began as a small and weak member of its tribe. Its differences and lack of physical prowess quickly forced it out of its tribe. As a young ape, it survived in the jungle by itself. It barely kept itself fed.

All of that changed once it manifested its power of fire. Its eyes grew red and the fury it became capable of releasing constantly became more formidable.

With increased strength came increased food. The more it ate, the stronger it grew. This cycle fueled the fire ape's growth, enabling it to range into the depths of the forest and contend with the kings that ruled over the animal kingdom.

Up to the very end, the fire ape had become the sovereign of the forest. It commanded the allegiance of all the other apes, allowing its species to become the first species under heaven.

Even then, the fire ape looked up at the skies and dreamt of breaking through the barrier that constrained it to its world.

Just like the base image, Ves made sure to incorporate a growth element in their story. His second original design shared a lot of traits with the Blackbeak design. Ves intended both of them to be enduring and resilient. They would definitely last long enough for their X-Factor to experience a lot of growth.

He already looked forward to how his mechs performed a couple of years from now.

Ves spent a lot of time on the fire ape's back story because he wanted to bestow a lot of strength to the image. If the fire ape buckled too easily against the spiritual fragment, then there wasn't any point in employing the Triple Division technique.

"I'm going to have to come up with another technique soon."

His studies into the X-Factor had only scratched the surface. He came up with the Triple Division technique after recognizing that images could be superimposed together. A lot of time had passed between now and then. He gained a lot of new knowledge, from learning that the images and X-Factor could grow, to the true nature of spirituality, to realizing he might be able to incorporate other sources of spirituality.

To make full use of these new insights, Ves required a new way of working with images. He wanted them to be strong and useful. The biggest downside to the Triple Division technique was that mutual cannibalism among the images resulted in a lot of waste.

Even if the eventual victor consumed the essence of its defeated rivals, it was a stretch if they could repurpose all of their strengths.

"It's a way of turning three weak images into a stronger one."

However, what would be the result of using two weak images and one incredibly strong one? Ves guessed that the stronger image might outright reject or annihilate the weaker images without attempting to absorb their strong points.

That was not the outcome he wanted.

When Ves looked at the fragment, he sensed an impenetrable wall. This spiritual remnant brooked no intrusion.

He wondered whether he could soften it up before he performed the final phase of the Triple Division technique. If he left it like this, then the technique would certainly result in failure.

"This image spent too much time in limbo. It has gone through hell and back and survived where many other spiritual fragments have disappeared."

However, Ves called it a fragment because it was an incomplete portion of a whole. Despite its all-encompassing defenses, it longed to be reunited with its fellow fragments.

Ves figured out a loophole. "If I can fool this fragment into recognizing the other two images as one of its own, what will happen?"

This notion went beyond the confines of the Triple Division technique. While it wasn't an entirely new technique, it deserved to be distinguished from the standard method.

Still, all of his ideas might come to nothing if he failed to fool the spiritual fragment. His brows began to furrow as he tried to figure out how he could open up a chink in the fragment's armor.

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Ves thought about the issue for a couple of minutes.

"If I constructed the base model and totem animal in a way that matches the spiritual fragment, then there's a good chance they'll merge."

The spiritual fragment didn't need any strengthening. Rather, it needed the traits that the other two images brought to the table. Otherwise, his X-Factor wouldn't be able to bring out a comprehensive enhancement.

While his idea sounded like it could work, it wouldn't help him out in his current situation. He already constructed the other two images and they shared little in common with the spiritual fragment that Ves wanted to employ as the human myth.

The key to the Triple Division technique was to put together three distinctly different images. If he made them too similar, then that would defeat the point of the technique.

"This won't be the first time I'll handle a spiritual fragment. I can't keep making compromises if I encounter a recalcitrant fragment."

He needed to find a different solution. When he turned his attention back to the spiritual fragment, he recalled its bot-like behavior.

Another idea sprung to mind. The fragment couldn't think for itself. After all, it was only a small portion of a formerly complete entity. What if he issued a more elaborate command? Would the fragment behave according to his will?

He needed to approach this in the right way. He didn't want the fragment to assimilate the other two images in a seamless fashion, and neither did he want the fragment to obliterate them either. Whatever the final product may look like, it had to be greater than the sum of its parts.

"It has to be akin to a complete form of life."

Every other product of his Triple Division technique resulted in living images. His recent ones also incorporated a growth element in order to make them more formidable as they experienced multiple battles.

Ves knew how to approach this problem.

He sent out a couple of mental directives to the fragment. He laid out some of the fragment's inadequacies, prompting it to strengthen its desire to become whole again.

"It's impossible for you to merge with the other fragments from the crystal leader that are left adrift."

He wanted the fragment to be a little less discerning in its demands. It didn't need to seek out its original companions. Ves could introduce it to two new friends.

Even though the fragment proved obstinate, Ves managed to lower its guard by experimenting and figuring out the right kind of logic that would pass muster.

"It's like a puzzle."

After several hours of continuous probing, Ves managed to soften the fragment up to the point where it would comply with his intentions.

This was the point where he put all of his conjectures to the test. Failure would set him back a lot, and in the worst case the spiritual fragment might sustain irreparable harm.

He coaxed the image to inhabit his mindspace. After a moment, the fragment got sucked inside his head.

Right now, Ves felt as if his brain became a little stuffy. His thoughts flowed a little bit less fluidly as the fragment occupied a significant portion of his mindscape.

He also sensed that the fragment didn't remain inert. It interacted with the errant thoughts floating in his mind and exerted an unknown influence on his mind. He imaged drastic changes to his thinking pattern if he let the fragment occupy his mind for an extended amount of time.

"Best get to it then. I can't let it stay like this for too long."

Ves proceeded to carefully introduce the other two images to the new presence. If the fragment appeared almost solid, the other images looked as if they would break like eggs if they smashed against its surface.

The disparity was too big.

The safest approach would be to encourage the spiritual fragment to assimilate the images. Yet he didn't do so because he thought it would lead to an imperfect merger.

"There needs to be some struggle. It can't blindly incorporate the good and bad parts of the other images."

Therefore, Ves conditioned the dimwitted fragment to treat the other images as supplements that could enhance its strength and make it become whole.

In order to exert some control over the process, Ves focused his concentration and gifted the other two images with a considerable portion of his mental power. They needed to last long enough for the fragment to consume them over time.

After a bit more encouragement, the spiritual fragment went to work. It flew towards the other two images and clashed against them. Although the base model and the totem animal were much weaker than the fragment, they had the advantage of independent thought.

As living images, they possessed enough self-awareness to understand their dire situation. If they didn't band together and push back against the domineering spiritual image, they'd be swallowed whole and disappear from existence.

"Come on. Put up a fight!"

Ves continued to pump more mental power into the underdogs, yet it hardly availed them as the fragment's imposing strength overwhelmed their defenses with ease. The pushback only allowed the images to delay their foreordained deaths.

He became a little distracted by the gruesome massacre being carried out in his mind. He felt as if he corrupted an innocent child into becoming a mass murderer.

Worse, he offered his own children as its first victims. He did create the base model and totem animal out of his own imagination. As his creations, they deserved better than be fated to die.

"Cattle are born to the slaughter every day." He shook his head. "I can't be too soft-hearted about what's happening."

As long as he achieved his desired outcome, he wouldn't let any doubts get in the way.

Ves kept his full attention on the struggle for dominance. Both the base model and the totem animal fought to the bitter end. As for the spiritual fragment, it ceaselessly broke up the portions that it managed to dislodge from the other two images and incorporated into its own existence.

The sheer disparity in strength meant the spiritual fragment hadn't grown any stronger. Instead, the additions prompted the fragment to lend some of its strength and fill them with life.

The fragment transformed inside his mind. It ceaselessly filled up the portions it lacked and ballooned into an entity that looked more complete.

Naturally, the fragment didn't restore itself to what it looked like before it was whole. That was gone, and could never be recovered.

Instead, the newly incorporated additions contained the essence of the other two images. The spiritual amalgamation slowly shook off the identity of a fragment and grew into a newly birthed spiritual entity.

Success!

When the two sacrificial images finally disappeared into the belly of the spiritual entity, Ves finally beheld the results. After a few more minutes of transformation, the spiritual entity showed off its new form.

It looked like a crystal golem. The entity's physical appearance no longer looked like a flame. Now, it turned into an imaginary crystalline life form that clearly derived its form from the appearances of the other two images.

The humanoid crystal golem released a formless pressure onto his mind. It was no longer a naive bot-like remnant that could be fooled by a couple of thoughts from Ves. It possessed its own capacity to think and decide.

It looked around his mindscape and kept up a vigilant stance. Every other image unconsciously accepted his presence. This was not so for the crystal golem.

"Hey, I didn't fool you. I made you whole, and I'm about to fulfill my other promise to you in a couple of months."

Ves got the sense that the crystal golem's patience would quickly wear thin. He had to work fast and complete his second original design fairly soon before the crystal golem did something drastic within his mind.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. The process had taken a lot out of him. He used up almost every portion of strength in his mind.

"I could use a break."

Ves decided to take a nap and let his mental strength recover while he slept. He left the labs and entered the bedroom area on the private workshop floor. Upon reaching his private bedroom, he came across a dozing Lucky.

"So there you are, you lazy backstabbing cat."

Lucky softly purred in his slumber. The gem cat didn't even had the decency to do his bathroom business in his litter box. Ves picked up the shiny blue gem the cat deposited on his bedsheets and inspected it with his System-augmented vision.

[Zhilvenas of Swiftness]

Increases acceleration by 8% when installed on a mech.

Lately, Lucky's waste products started to come in the form of junk exotic gems. Sometimes, they even shone. This gave the gems a lot of class. Besides looking pretty, their effects also started to become more noticeable. A boost of eight percent in any parameter could not be underestimated.

"This is one of the good ones." Ves smiled and put it inside a small bag where he collected a number of other gems. "At least you're good for something, Lucky."

The cat softly purred again. Ves shook his head and picked him up and shoved him a bit further down the bed to make room for his body. He laid down on his bed and went to sleep.

The next day, Ves went through his morning ritual and resumed his work. Even though he built up the crystal golem, he still had to finalize his work on the gimmick.

He entered the labs and looked at his half-finished project. Just as he tried to figure out how to scale up the crystals without introducing cracks or other flaws, the crystal golem in his mind started to stir.

"What's going on?"

The crystal golem started conveying thoughts to Ves. Initially, he failed to interpret the stream of thoughts sent in his direction. It was only when he looked at the crystals he attempted to synthesize that the thoughts started to make sense.

"Are you telling me… I'm doing it wrong?"

The crystal golem didn't actually convey a lot of data to Ves. What it did decided to tell him only amounted to a couple of key concepts that Ves had a lot of difficulty trying to understand. The crystal builders adopted a completely different perspective on their technology, and Ves had to employ his entire upgraded Intelligence in trying to parse the alien thoughts.

Still, the things he figured out proved to be very relevant to the situation at hand. "I get it now! So that's why the crystals break! I've got to treat it as if I'm cultivating them! They're like organic growths!"

Just this lesson along with some other interpreted insights saved him a lot time. Ves immediately put his new notions to the test and synthesized a crystal the size of his head. He had to use another lab machine to do so, and he also used up several critical raw materials that he stored up.

"It worked!"

The crystal golem hadn't let him astray. While the new solutions didn't guarantee that Ves would be able to synthesize a full-sized crystal that could be embedded in the chest of his mech, it already proved sufficient to be integrated in a laser rifle.

Even if he encountered some problems trying to produce a larger crystal, Ves could figure out the rest on his own.

"Thanks, crystal golem!"

The image didn't respond. It had only been a remnant instinct for it to lend a hand to Ves.

Now that he achieved enough progress with regards to the crystals, Ves was ready to move on to the next phase of his design project.

"I'll have to spend some time drafting up my new mech. It helps that I'm mostly going to reuse my existing component licenses."

From the Trailblazer engine to the Veltrex armor system, Ves intended to recycle as much component licenses as possible. Naturally, he wouldn't be able to incorporate every single license, but the ones he already possessed provided a solid framework to work around.

"I've got to finish this quickly. I've already wasted too much time on other diversions."

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