Chapter 3391: Making A Difference Ves did not expect that at the start of fabricating the final expert mech of this round, he would derive a major insight on the nature of expert pilots. A comparison between two substantially different expert pilots produced many layers of contrast. By analyzing which aspects Joshua and Jannzi differed from each other, Ves was able to derive several new guesses and obtain tentative proof on his theories. He thought back on how expert pilots worked. They essentially derived their might from their extraordinarily high willpower. Yet willpower was not a neutral or abstract existence. Unlike other forms of energy such as heat or electricity, willpower came in different flavors and could not exist in complete isolation. It was a phenomenon that was derived from a living mind and also depended on that relation. The implication here was that every expert pilot derived their strength on how much they were willing to fight for a cause! Whether their goals were self-centric or for the greater good, each of them had to find a reason to fight, and they did not pursue it like normal people. No, these powerful warriors had to go above and beyond normal soldiers and develop an extreme obsession towards their respective goals. If expert pilots wanted to grow stronger, then they needed to strengthen their willpower. One of the ways to do that was to become more devoted to fulfilling their cause. This implied that one of the growth processes that expert pilots had to go through was to shed more parts of their humanity so that they could more easily sharpen their willpower. It was a lot easier for someone to dedicate himself to a cause when he harbored no other distractions! "What a mystifying existence." Ves whispered to himself. The connection between high-ranking mech pilots and extraordinary swordmasters implied that the latter served as a model for the former. When Ves thought about swordsmen who dedicated their entire lives to perfect their swordsmanship, it was natural to think that those who shed almost every other distraction such as love, fear, doubt and hesitation could display greater might than those with muddled heads. According to this theory, Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Stark should be experiencing faster growth than Venerable Tusa and Venerable Joshua. After all, compared to the two male expert pilots, the two women no longer lived any meaningful personal lives. In every waking moment, they constantly thought about what they could do to further their cause and pursue greater strength. It was also a coincidence that these two expert pilots happened to be the only ones who possessed masterwork expert mechs in the Larkinson Clan! The combination of more extreme dedication and access to masterwork expert mechs meant it was already doomed that Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Stark would grow a lot stronger. Becoming an ace mech was a lot more in reach for these two expert pilots than the overwhelming number of their peers. Did this make a more grounded expert pilot Venerable Joshua weak? If Ves viewed him the same way as Venerable Jannzi, then Ves would just sneer and think that the expert pilot deserved to be weaker. The problem was that Joshua was a lot more important to Ves than normal! Not only were they friends of sorts, they also worked well together. Out of every other expert pilot, only Joshua was able to align perfectly with his design philosophy. All mech designers dreamed of obtaining the services of an expert pilot that could utilize the full potential of their mechs! Therefore, Ves was unable to accept the notion that Venerable Joshua was weaker and had less growth potential. "Conviction doesn't determine everything." He told himself. "There are many other factors that ultimately determine the strength of an expert pilot. The power, quality and fit of his expert mech also plays a huge role!" The effective performance of a mech pilot was inseparable from his mech. This relationship remained the same no matter the strength level of the pilot in question. At the expert pilot level, the expert mech had to be adapted to the unique strengths and capabilities of its partners. Universal, open-ended expert mechs didn't exist because such machines simply couldn't align to the unique force of will produced by different expert pilots. Ves' eyes lit up as he grasped this key detail. Assuming that someone like Venerable Joshua suffered from a handicap compared to more promising expert pilots, one of the ways in which he could catch up to the likes of Venerable Jannzi was to pilot a stronger and more fitting expert mech! "It's up to me, then." Ves concluded as his fire burned hotter. One of his earliest models about the strength of a mech was that it was not solely down to the machine itself. The effective performance was actually determined by interplay between the mech, mech pilot and mech designer! Ves already understood that both Venerable Jannzi and the newly-upgraded Shield of Samar were formidable existences that possessed high potential. Together with the indeterminate support of Qilanxo, Jannzi would be able to go far as long as she did not die along the way! What Ves needed to do was to give Joshua an even better expert mech, and he believed that his own qualities could make the difference! He gained more confidence in his immediate goal after realizing one crucial difference between Venerable Joshua and Venerable Jannzi. "The Shield of Samar is a strong living mech, no doubt, but it suffers from one major shortcoming. The masterwork expert mech did not receive the support of a mech designer who specializes in defense." Mech designers could only excel in a limited number of fields. No one could be good at everything and that produced many constraints, especially in organizations that only retained a limited number of lead designers such as the Larkinson Clan. In the absence of a high-ranking mech designer who developed a defense-oriented design philosophy, Gloriana did her best to substitute this essential role. However, Gloriana possessed a more holistic design philosophy that did not directly enhance the defense of a mech. Rather, her ability to pursue a great degree of technical perfection allowed her to design and make better defensive structures than someone who did not excel in them like Ves. This was definitely an advantage, but not as significant as the benefits that a defensive specialist could bring to the table. In comparison to the latest version of the Shield of Samar, the Chimera Project was designed from the ground up to complement Venerable Joshua's own qualities. His broad skill set, his ability to pilot different mech types and his open-mindedness towards different forms of life all resulted in a unique expert mech design that aimed to maximize each of these traits! Right now, Ves focused on Joshua's compatibility with different forms of life. As a mech designer who took advantage of this quality many times, Ves was able to leverage this capability more effectively than others. Now that he was connected to a design network, Ves proactively sought to reach out to Venerable Joshua, who was still immersed in the novelty of being able to peek into the thoughts and emotions of various mech designers. "Joshua." Ves called out to the expert pilot standing on the other side of the workshop. At the same time, his summons echoed through the design network, making it impossible for the expert pilot to miss his intentions! "Yes, sir?" "Come over here. Stay by my side and cooperate with whatever I am trying to do. I think we can combine our strengths in a way that will produce a greater result." Venerable Joshua looked hopeful. He did as he was told and stood next to Ves. His force of will also enveloped the mech designer, causing them both to become highly sensitive towards different aspects of life! Ves did not even need to explain his intentions to Joshua. The design network allowed him to convey an impression of his plans. He planned to use the coming week of fabrication work as an opportunity to perform experiments! Just the thought of being able to derive a new innovation from this special moment stoked his passion further! Naturally, his enthusiasm infected the other mech designers through the design network, thereby causing everyone to approach their work with greater optimism! Gloriana briefly glanced at Ves and Joshua and looked intrigued. It was too bad that she wasn't able to contribute to whatever her husband was planning. The only thing she could do on her end was to perform her own work to the best of her abilities. A day went by as the mech designers began to fabricate the first parts of the Chimera Project. Compared to the Shield of Samar, the expert hero mech that was designed for Venerable Joshua was considerably smaller and lighter. There was an immense difference in mass and volume between a medium mech and a heavy mech. In addition, the Chimera Project was designed to be a fairly mobile and maneuverable machine among expert mechs, which meant that it was not too thick. It would only take seven days to fabricate this mech, though Ves took into account that it might take an extra day due to complications such as the need to care for Aurelia. Right now, the baby had not produced any significant disruptions to the schedule. Carrying her around made Gloriana happy. Even if she spared some time away from her duties in order to stop her baby from crying, she made up for it with renewed enthusiasm. In comparison, both Juliet and Ketis acted fairly low-key again. They quietly worked on the parts that were directly related to their respective specialties, which was already sufficient. The mech designer who truly had the greatest influence on the outcome of this fabrication run was unquestionably Ves. Even as he performed his duties, he went out of his way to try out different experiments in order to see whether he could achieve a breakthrough in his methods. The only problem was that he could not completely invest all of his efforts on his trials. This was why he started off small and began to make small changes to his work approach. The first idea that came up to him was to find a way to inject more life in his work. Together with Venerable Joshua, he asked whether the expert pilot could inject his extraordinary force of will into the parts that were being made. The results were relatively lackluster so far. There was no inherent way to inject Joshua's willpower in any of the components and subcomponents that Ves was fabricating. It just didn't stick. This meant that Ves had to leverage Joshua's power in a different way. He began to draw from Joshua's force of will with the pilot's permission. Ves subsequently tried to immerse himself in it. This was harder than it sounded because the willpower of another person was not easy to embrace. However, as Ves stopped trying to master Joshua's willpower in a forceful manner and instead tried to harmonize with it, he finally achieved a different result. By adopting a friendly demeanor and trying to achieve greater cooperation with Venerable Joshua, Ves found out that he was able to grasp the expert pilot in a way that reminded him of embodying his design spirits! "Joshua." "Yes, patriarch?" "I need you to trust me. I want us to do something that other people will probably consider stupid." The expert pilot looked skeptical. "What are you trying to do, sir?" Ves turned and grinned at Joshua. "Let's try out a new experiment. Pretend I'm an expert mech and try to resonate with me. Don't go full out. I don't want you to blow my head or anything. Just start out slow and see what happens." Joshua couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you mad? You're not a mech! I never heard that something like this could be done!" "There's a first try for everything! If my assumptions are correct, I think we'll be able to achieve a surprising result! I know what I'm doing here and I don't think it is as impossible as you think." "What about a neural interface?" "It's not necessary. Our design network already ties us together!" Ves' proposal was so mad that not even the other mech designers could remain calm. All three of them finally had a direct taste of the clan patriarch's infamous madness!