After numerous days of long and tedious fabrication work, the five mech designers completed all of the parts they had been assigned to make. The collection of parts looked quite impressive. Despite involving multiple different mech designers who each possessed their own outlooks on mechs, the components and subcomponents they made with great care and attention were remarkably consistent! Even though a discerning mech designer could spot the differences in the output of every individual mech designer, the degree of cohesion and uniformity was much higher than usual! This was one of the many benefits of design networks! The ability for mech designers to share their insights and solutions to other participating mech designers made it so that their respective strengths spread out to others. It was almost as if all of the parts were made by a single amalgamation of the five mech designers! Of course, individual differences remained and those who became preoccupied with producing parts related to their specializations were unlikely to accept the input of others. This was why the components that made up the flight system or the armor system were still distinct from each other. In any case, the hardest and most influential phase had passed. The parts formed the building blocks of the mech that the mech designers were about to assemble, so their quality and other properties were extremely vital to the outcome of this fabrication run! Excellent parts made it a lot easier to build an excellent mech. As long as the assemblers possessed enough skill, they could put the mech components together in a ways that maximized their performance while minimizing any negative impacts on the final product. Of course, if the people assembling the mech were incompetent or out of their league, then they could easily fail to unlock the potential of the parts. At worst, they could even damage the mech! This was why no one who cared about mechs took the assembly process for granted. Every participant was like a cook that had meticulously prepared the ingredients. Now, they needed to employ all of their skill, knowledge and any other advantages they might possess to cook the best possible dishes over a span of two days! "Let us begin." Alexandria's design network continued to play a major role in this fabrication run. Although the mech designers did not need to borrow each other's expertise as much during the assembly phase, they still maintained a high degree of unity and coordination. None of them stepped on each other's toes and always maintained a tacit distance from each other. Only rarely did they work as two or three as it wasn't necessary for them to do so anymore. Every mech designer knew that there was a greater chance for problems to occur anytime four hands were needed to complete a task when two hands should be enough. The existence of the design network brilliantly made this optional since the mech designers could directly convey their own advice and solutions from one mind to another without any friction. As the oldest and most experienced mech designer in the current team, Professor Benedict Cortez expected to take the lead in the assembly phase. This was the traditional method of assembling mechs. The more the mech frame became complete, the greater the chance of colliding into each other. Someone always needed to be in charge to set priorities and determine the order of putting the parts in place. What the Senior discovered was that the Larkinson mech designers did not defer to him despite his qualifications. First, they were confident or overconfident in their own skill and approach. Whether it was warranted or not, the Journeymen all thought they could do just as well or even better! They were not entirely wrong. People like Ves and Gloriana made the most masterwork mechs out of all of them. If nothing else, their repeated successes not only inflated their confidence in themselves, but also increased their mech affinities to a considerable height! Professor Benedict quickly discovered that his fears were unwarranted. He was completely wrong to doubt the competence of the Larkinson mech designers. Though Juliet Stameros and Sara Voiken were not as perverse as the Miracle Couple, the two female Journeymen both carried their own weight. They were already accustomed to working together with Ves and Gloriana so they did not pose any hindrance at all during the assembly phase. This completely relieved Benedict from any burdens. One of the reasons why he refused opportunities to collaborate in the past was because he always became frustrated at the less-than-perfect teamwork that ensued. Many mech designers were too full of themselves and did not believe that they were wrong. They also held strong opinions on many design aspects and could become unreasonably stubborn when challenged. While that hadn't become invalid for this fabrication run, the design network solved a lot of misunderstandings before they happened. Pa nda Novel This caused Professor Benedict to be able to work a lot smoother than in the past. Due to his exacting standards and his intolerance towards failure, he had never been the easiest mech designer to work with. This was especially problematic when he teamed up with another picky mech designer such as Gloriana! Yet even though conventional wisdom in the mech industry stated that the two should conflict with each other, nothing of the sort had occurred. They either resolved their differences without saying a word or they simply avoided each other and worked on significantly different sections of a mech. Without the interference and interruptions that usually occurred during collaborations, Professor Benedict seamlessly performed his work in a harmonious fashion. The lack of irritations allowed him to become more engrossed in the craft of assembling a mech. "I missed this." He whispered to himself. He had made many mechs throughout his career. Each time he did so, he treated it as a chore at worst. There were only a limited number of cases where he had developed a valuable mech that was more powerful than normal or incorporated a new invention. Those were the moments where he invested a lot more in the fabrication process than before. Those instances were rare, though. In fact, as he grew older, he enjoyed the process less and less. Part of that was because his growth had slowed down. Back when he was younger, he continued to learn so much new knowledge. If that wasn't sufficient, he performed research and developed new techniques based on his results. Whenever he came up with an excellent innovation, he became a lot more eager to fabricate a good mech. This was how he managed to create a few of his best works. Yet… the further he progressed, the harder it became for him to make new achievements. He found himself in a position where he needed to spend time on much more complicated studies, many of which were so tenuous that they rarely if ever yielded usable results. How could he maintain the same fire as before? With reality beating him down every time he tried to push it, he began to hold less expectations about his work. It was only when he started to work alongside the Larkinson mech designers that he regained a portion of his drive. One example was gaining inspiration of Ves and Gloriana's design solutions to develop numerous innovations including the Magma Vein System. There was just something about getting in touch with younger and eager mech designers that shocked Professor Benedict out of his inertia. Now, that sense of change became a lot more evident as they were gradually piecing the Minerva Project together. A sense of anticipation and fulfillment surged from the Larkinson Journeymen. Ves and Gloriana particularly held high hopes for the outcome of this fabrication run! Though it was far too premature of them to assume that they had met their goal, the increased confidence and enthusiasm they exhibited towards their work was infectious. Even without the design network, their optimism and eagerness inspired confidence in those who were working alongside them. Juliet and Sara couldn't help but have higher expectations as well and began to put even more effort into their work than before! Though Professor Benedict was able to maintain a degree of soberness, his ambitious and hopeful side of himself wanted to embrace the positive vibes generated by the Larkinson Journeymen! "This… is delusional." Though he along with everyone else were satisfied with their work so far, there was no reason for them to feel convinced that the expert mech would become a masterwork mech. Yet… there was always hope. Previous successes had buoyed their confidence and so far none of them had made any blunders. From a rational perspective, the Larkinson mech designers were gamblers who purchased a lottery ticket with the firm expectation that they had won the lottery! "The odds aren't that high!" Yet… what if they became lucky? What if they happened to do everything right? "What if they only needed to put in a little extra effort to succeed? All of this logic gave Professor Benedict an excuse to indulge in his own hopes. As the hours passed by, he became increasingly more astonished when he noticed that his productivity had increased! He was highly sensitive towards these changes due to his design philosophy. There was no way that he had made a mistake! "I am actually working faster and smoother than before. I have also improved the quality of my work!" These changes came for no good reason aside from getting infected by the emotions of the other mech designers. "It's… nice, though." He had worked by himself too many times. A hint of loneliness affected him for a moment before the companionship of his fellow collaborators drove it away. While Professor Benedict regarded himself as a Senior Mech Designer with formidable design capabilities, he had forgotten that he was a human as well. Eventually, he decided to throw logic out of the window and immerse himself in this moment. The next few hours went by in a blur as the older man entered a state of mind that reminded himself of his younger self. He used to be bolder and more unrestrained when he was a Journeyman. He had yet to learn about the immensely difficult challenges to come and readily believed he could become a Star Designer as long as he worked hard enough! Though Benedict had gradually come to reject this naive mindset, the youthful passion shared by his other collaborators caused him to see this mentality in a new light. He derived a lesson from this experience. "You will do your best to attain your goal when you think that everything is possible. If you assume your goal is impossible to achieve, then you have been defeated before you have even tried." He wasn't sure whether the former statement was valid, but he was wise enough to recognize that the latter was absolutely detrimental to his career! This was why he readily embraced the youthful vigor of the younger mech designers. He threw aside every other doubt, concern or distraction and fully tried to relive his younger experiences in working on mechs. Without his notice, the time had come to put the finishing touches on the Minerva Project. When he started to gain awareness of himself again, he discovered to his surprise that the expert command mech looked harmonious and complete in a way that he had rarely seen before! Every other mech designer backed away as Ves and Commander Casella floated above mech. "Ketis taught a little ritual." Ves said as he handed a small knife to the Sentinel Commander. "Blood can cement your connection to your mech. Go ahead and do the honors, Casella. Your battle partner awaits your mark." Commander Casella looked solemn as she accepted the knife and slit her palm. As the drops of blood splattered over the surface of the Minerva Project, the silvery mech came to life in a way that Professor Benedict never would have expected under ordinary circumstances. Yet when he was working alongside these youthful and happy Larkinson mech designers, he felt as if this result was their expected reward! "Masterwork!" Benedict gasped.