Woosh! The Time Gate swirled until Ves and Blinky finally returned to the System Space! The mysterious construct that had enabled them to go all the way back to 197 AOM in the old galaxy slowly started to wind down and return to dormancy. Even though Ves had returned to the time of his present, he still felt a lingering attachment to that earlier and more hopeful time period. The mechs at the time were a bit simpler. The Red Ocean was just one of many dwarf galaxies that orbited the Milky Way at an unimaginable distance. The Larkinsons in the Bright Republic struggled to grow their family in vain as the founding families deliberately prevented other groups from rising above their stations. The Polymath wasn't even alive in this early time period! Alas, Ves did not belong to this time period. If he truly had to make a choice, then he would definitely embrace his present time. The opening of the Red Ocean played a massive role in his rise and success. The opportunities of the new frontier had allowed him to compete on a more level playing field and harvest many benefits that would normally be robbed by other people after too much time had passed! As Ves regained his original mentality and recalled all of the issues that were on his mind before he passed through the Time Gate, he slowly got rid of his momentary disassociation. He turned around and swept his gaze across the dreamy and idyllic mountain landscape. He spent time on this little 'vacation'. It was time for him to get back to work. Before he exited the System Space, he briefly called out Blinky. The companion spirit dove out of his head. The Star Cat did not look as if he was about to explode due to swallowing a food that was too strong to be contained! Mrow mrow mrow. "I can sense that as well. It appears that the System Space is quite isolated from our main reality." This was good news. The last thing Ves wanted to do was expose an extension of a god pilot to the current environment! "Mrow~" As Blinky carefully coughed up the spiritual fragmented that he harvested from Emma, the crystallized energy glowed like an explosion that was frozen in time. The power and potency of this fragment was nothing impressive to be honest. The only remarkable aspect about it was that the infusion of Venerable Irene Mox's willpower had imbued it with a greater capacity to affect reality than normal. Ves did not dare to bring it out into reality, at least not in its current form. He had no idea what would happen if he took Irene's spiritual fragment in the same reality where the Destroyer of Worlds currently resided. The most destructive god pilot was still stationed at the border between human space and numerous threatening alien empires somewhere in the galactic center. Her power and deterrence factor was the greatest out of all of the existing god pilots, so it was logical for her to be stationed in this region. Divine Irene Mox had also become a guardian of the New Rubarthan Empire at this point, so it was also more convenient for her to reside within the borders of her current state. Despite being physically separated from the god pilot by several hundred-thousand light-years, Ves had no confidence that he would be able to avoid attracting her attention if he took out the long-lost piece of Emma! He could not guarantee that Divine Irene Mox would 'reconnect' with the spiritual fragment and cause it to transform to the point where it became a direct medium for her to extend her will and consciousness! Ves did not want to reconnect with her for the time being! Not only was he afraid of exposing truths that he would rather wish to remain confidential, he also did not want to lose too much control. The power difference between the two was too great. Ves was a complete nobody in front of a sacred and all-powerful god pilot. Even if Ves had great potential, he was still a Journeyman Mech Designer that had a long way to go before he could become a galaxy-shaking figure. In contrast, the Destroyer of Worlds commanded the respect of the entire New Rubarth Empire! She also wielded a huge amount of influence within the highest offices of the Mech Trade Association. Even if her direct authority was rather limited, she most definitely befriended dozens of god pilots and Star Designers. She could do almost anything as long as she took advantage of her amazing network of contacts! As for Ves, he might enjoy a little special attention from the Polymath, but that was far from receiving her direct protection. His backing was still too weak in the face of a god pilot. There was no way that Ves wanted to give up all of the initiative and hand over complete control to his 'friend'. It was best if he pretended that he did not know her at all. As for Blinky, he could keep using his companion spirit to assist in his design work like before. "Let's not be too hasty with this spiritual fragment." Ves decided. "I need to form a proper plan before I can properly make use of this valuable ingredient." There was no question about the exceedingly high value of this spiritual ingredient. It was practically begging to be turned into a design spirit! Now that he settled his thoughts on the matter, he descended down the steps and deposited the spiritual fragment in the Vault of Eternity. He hadn't been certain whether it could do more than store material objects. Fortunately, it accepted the spiritual fragment without any rejection. "That's convenient." Now that he thought about it, Ves would be better off if he stored all of his spiritual ingredients in the Vault of Eternity. It was completely secure and attached to him at all times. The only downside was that Ves needed to pay the annual rent in Ascension Points in order to make use of this useful function. Ves could think about earning Ascension Points later. He still retained a hefty reserve due to his prior efforts. "Let's return." It only took a blink of an eye for him to return to his bathroom in his Royal Mansion. He raised himself from his toilet seat and looked around to see if there was a god pilot hiding in the corner or something. "Phew. She's not here. I'm in the clear." Practically no time passed since he went in and out of the System Space. After he carefully inspected the bathroom to make sure that it still remained free of bugs and hidden observation devices, he forced himself to relax and went to his bedroom. He mentally wrote down all of his observations and insights now that his memories were still fresh. He carefully stored his latest virtual documents in the depths of his cranial implant. He planned to revisit them later once he was ready to work on his first mech design commission for Davute. "All in good time." Ves returned to his old routine more or less. He continued to devote most of his time to bringing the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project to completion. At the same time, he occasionally relaxed by continuing to study the ins and outs of heavy artillery mechs. His latest Mastery experience helped him enormously in this regard. Not only was he able to understand and digest all of the relevant theories to an impressive degree, but he was also able to discuss his views with Master Decimus Horst on a more equal level! The man's expression looked impressed in the projected image. "You are a better mech designer than any student that I have taught in the past. You have made great strides in understanding the essence and purpose of heavy artillery mechs. You only need to improve your artistic vision of this mech type before you are ready to start our collaborative design project." That was high praise from a Master who previously treated Ves like a kid. His latest Mastery experience not only helped him set up his next mech design commission, but also provided him with ideas on how to tweak and improve the designs of his next two expert mechs. Even if Venerable Irene Mox piloted a completely different machine from the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project, there were still many common elements to piloting any expert mech! The first-hand experiences he gained from his latest time jaunt had directly increased his overall understanding of expert mechs and their interactions with their powerful pilots. In the past, Ves always found it difficult to fully envision what it would be like to pilot the expert mechs he contributed to. He had to rely a lot on dubious assumptions to fill up the gaps of the Amaranto and the Everchanger while he was working on their designs. That was no longer the case. Ves possessed a much higher understanding of what pilots such as Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Zimro went through once they interfaced with their respective expert mechs. The suggestions and improvements he made over the course of the following weeks were so much better that his wife immediately noticed the difference! "How come you understand expert mechs so much better all of a sudden?" She expressed her confusion. "I spent years studying expert mechs. I patiently endured the eccentric personalities of many different expert pilots so that I could thoroughly interview and analyze them over a long period of time. It is ridiculous for you to catch up to me to this extent in a matter of days! You even obtained insights that I have yet to touch!" What could Ves say to this? He could only shrug and reply with a perfunctory answer. "I just had an epiphany, that's all. Don't feel jealous of me, honey. These epiphanies are helpful, but they are no substitute to systematic learning. You will always be better in that regard." Gloriana quickly lost her irritation. She smiled with satisfaction after her husband stroked her ego. "It is good that you acknowledge my superiority in this area. You could help me become even better if you help me pay for a first-class cranial implant." "Didn't we already talk about this? Let's wait until we complete our current batch of projects!" Several months went by as the much-anticipated expert mechs came closer and closer to completion. Though numerous mech designers such as Gloriana and Master Benedict tried their best to elevate these two critical designs by implementing fresh improvements, no one worked as hard on them as Ves! His passion, enthusiasm and innovative vision caused him to become the most productive participant of the two expert mech design projects! The Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project undeniably carried his stamp as a mech designer! Once the Design Department completed the first iterations of the expert mechs, Ves and the others knew that they had essentially completed the bulk of the work. It was always difficult to optimize the designs of expert mechs. The material costs were so insanely high that it was impractical to perform live tests with the help of physical prototypes. In order to guarantee that the two upcoming Larkinson expert mechs started off on the best possible footing, Ves began to think of a way to leverage the Mech Simulation Training System to test the crucial designs in a much better simulation environment. "Since it is possible to realistically reproduce the performance of existing mechs and expert mech within the MSTS, why should that hinder it from reproducing the performance of virtual mechs?" Though the idea sounded great, the results were anything but satisfactory! It turned out that it was impossible for him to realistically simulate the expert mechs in the absence of concrete data. All he had was estimations, projections, guesswork and feelings. That was far from enough for him to be able to use the MSTS as a substitute simulation program for his design work! Since this little idea didn't work out, he had no choice but to fall back to more traditional testing methods.