This was the first time that Ves worked on a mech design after advancing to Senior. Becoming aware of the Kingdom of Mechs was both a blessing and a curse to Ves. It was a blessing because Ves no longer remained in the dark about the processes that took place when he designed a mech. It was a curse because Ves no longer believed that he was designing his mechs by relying on his effort! He spent hours on monitoring his new condition. Although his efficiency and productivity had definitely improved, Ves noticed that it was not entirely consistent. One of the more curious observations he made was that when he fiddled with the design of the active stealth system or the internals, his adjustment work became noticeably smoother than before. He was not only able to spot a lot more areas that could clearly use a bit of tweaking, but he was able to come up with effective solutions that he would have never thought of in the past. When he began to work on the areas of the Ghost Project that were more directly related to his design philosophy such as the Geist System and the spiritual foundation, he became a lot less productive. It did not take much thought for him to deduce the reason. "It is not just because I don't know all that much about this field." The Kingdom of Mechs no longer gave him any hints or nudges either! Ves made a bold guess after figuring out the difference. It turned out that the Kingdom of Mechs could only offer assistance based on its existing knowledge reserve! All of the contributions that Master Mech Designers and Star Designers made over the years caused the kingdom to build an exceptionally large and expansive library of knowledge. Yet how many of them consisted of information related to spiritual engineering and living mechs in particular? Ves had always guessed that no other mech designer had pioneered this field in the past. The behavior of the Kingdom of Mechs whenever he worked on his own specialty was remarkably less helpful because it did not know what to do either! "If this is the case…" A thoughtful expression appeared on his face. He understood a lot more why the MTA took the initiative to inform mech designers such as Ves about the existence of the Kingdom of Mechs. It was because at this stage that they could make these observations and learn how much of a role it played for every mech designer, not just themselves! Ves likened the Kingdom of Mechs to a professional crowdsourced database. It was an immense and responsive library of knowledge that was only as good as the mech designers who contributed their own insights and expertise to this evolving spiritual construct. After four centuries of continuous growth and expansion, the Kingdom of Mechs had grown to such a degree that it was able to provide substantial assistance to practically every mech designer! A lot of highly complicated and specialized design work proceeded a lot smoother as countless mech designers managed to avoid a lot of setbacks and detours. It was like the difference between designing a mech completely by hand and designing a mech with the help of a calculation program. The former was a slow and clumsy method of completing a job, while the latter was much faster and more convenient! Ves guessed that the assistance it provided went beyond pure theory. There was also an additional and more metaphysical component! When Ves studied the behavior of his enflamed design seed, he began to feel that it had become more remarkable in ways that were previously not as noticeable. The most surprising change was that Ves had the feeling that his design seed's connection to the Kingdom of Mechs made it easier to design elements that only specialists in their respective fields could handle! This effect was strongest when he worked on parts and systems that had become staples of his craft. An innumerable number of Master Mech Designers contributed to the development of stealth systems, power reactors, sensor systems and communication systems in their own unique ways. What happened when they realized their design philosophies? According to Ves' guess, these promoted mech designers not only contributed their theoretical advancements, but also donated at least a part of their design philosophies! Once they passed on the essence of their work, the Kingdom of Mechs grew stronger and more expansive as it integrated a new design philosophy. The Kingdom of Mechs subsequently gained the capacity to channel this design philosophy for the entire collective of mech designers! "So this is why Master Mech Designers are so important!" Ves gasped. He strongly felt that he had deduced the mechanism that made the mech industry so vibrant and prosperous! The entire point of it all was to turn individual extraordinary power into a collective resource that became accessible to every mech designer! If Ves managed to realize his design philosophy one day, he speculated that the Kingdom of Mechs would evolve to better accommodate living mechs. As a result, it became much easier for random mech designers throughout human space to enter his field and design living mechs of their own! "It no longer requires special talent or a particularly rare mindset in order to get started!" Ves could not help but develop an even greater appreciation for the Progenitors of Mechs. Their product of spiritual engineering was even more brilliant and multi-faceted than he thought! The Kingdom of Mechs provided varying degrees of assistance to mech designers depending on their ranks. Novices and Apprentices only received a tiny amount of assistance because their connections to the kingdom could not accommodate anything more. However, even a small connection was enough for them to get started in complicated fields which normally required exceptional effort in order to produce any results. Journeymen formed a design seed which presumably enabled them to form a more solid connection to the kingdom. Seniors gained significantly greater access to the kingdom, enabling people like Ves to design common elements a lot more effectively than before! In short, the kingdom of mechs was a powerful tool that elevated the collective work of mech designers over time. The greater the accumulation, the greater the common benefits to every mech designer! This was also why it was so important for the mech industry to nurture successful mech designers who could eventually realize their own design philosophies. Only Masters and higher were meaningful to the kingdom as only they could expand this collective resource! That also explained why the Kingdom of Mechs offered huge rewards for any mech designer who taught a student who eventually managed to advance to Master! "It is a similar model to the referral programs of popular games. If people pull in their friends who subsequently spend a lot of money and reach higher levels, they can earn a lot of in-game bonuses!" Mech design was not a game, but Ves couldn't help that this scheme was a particularly apt description to how the Kingdom of Mechs actually operated. Its main priority was to expand its database and accommodate a greater variety of design philosophies. Any act that directly or indirectly promoted this process was definitely deserving of a reward! Ves briefly closed his eyes. "It is not all that good, though." There was a downside to the Kingdom of Mechs. The stronger it became, the more it lessened the challenge to mech designers. Ves felt that he could grow lazy and outsource considerably more tedious design work to the Kingdom of Mechs. "If it has already become this noticeable for a Senior, how much more intrusive will it become when I become a Master?" Perhaps that was why there was a major gap in design results between a Senior and a Master! One piece of good news that partially allayed his concerns was that he could control how much the Kingdom of Mechs interfered with his work. It took a bit of introspection, but he eventually felt as if he could turn an invisible dial and slowly cut off the active assistance from the Kingdom of Mechs. When he had dialed it down to the lowest setting, Ves became stumped by problems that he previously breezed past without needing to know all of the theory. A lot of hints that Ves previously attributed to his powerful intuition actually came from his connection to the Kingdom of Mechs! "So this is how it works." Ves couldn't stand this state when he knew that he could save a huge amount of time by opening himself up to the feedback provided by the Kingdom of Mechs. The most precious resource of mech designers was time! The Kingdom of Mechs enabled many mech designers to have more time available on more important work such as progressing their core research. This was also why he felt so ambivalent towards the kingdom. The more mech designers became dependent on its assistance, the less they developed their research ability and problem-solving skills. Since the Kingdom of Mechs could not help them expand in a field that it was not familiar with, Senior Mech Designers who desired to realize their design philosophies abruptly had to rely on their own efforts! This disparity made it extra difficult for Seniors to succeed in their research! "It is no wonder why so many Seniors remain stuck in this stage for their entire lives. They may have become good at designing conventional mechs that make use of existing tech, but they are not able to succeed at developing innovations that relied on newly developed theories and principles!" Ves feared that he would fall into the same trap. His first instinct was to dial down the connection to the kingdom to its lowest setting, but he eventually abandoned this idea. "I can't lose a good tool." The Kingdom of Mechs did more good than harm. Just like how conveniences such as AIs enabled humans to skip a lot of tedious work, this powerful construct increased the productivity of every mech designer by a whole level! If Ves cut off his connection to the Kingdom of Mechs, then he would fall behind other Seniors in many ways. This was completely unacceptable! In the end, Ves decided that it was better if he kept using the Kingdom of Mechs as intended. The problems he had with it were not insurmountable. He considered it a test for Seniors to overcome the downsides to borrowing from the collective resources of the Kingdom of Mechs.. So long as these Seniors became good enough to succeed in conducting original research, these Seniors fully deserved to advance to Master! Unlike many other mech designers who specialized in well-trodden branches such as armor systems or energy weapons, Ves was already accustomed to developing successful innovations and pioneering a new field of mech design from scratch! Ves understood now that this was the quality that truly allowed him to earn a lot of appreciation from older and wiser mech designers. People such as Master Moira Willix and Master Benedict Cortez had been willing to invest in Ves because they had greater confidence that he would succeed in realizing his design philosophy one day! With this advantage, Ves no longer feared the sequelae of building up a dependency on the Kingdom of Mechs. "I just need to formulate the right strategy to maximize the benefits." His new relationship with the Kingdom of Mechs reminded Ves a lot of his existing relationship with the Mech Designer System. He could not bring himself to give up on taking advantage of the System, but he did not allow himself to become a slave to its powerful features either. As long as he restrained himself and settled on a comfortable balance, he would be able to obtain the help he needed to stand out from the competition without going overboard! Ves smiled. He felt a lot more comfortable now that he had sorted out his future path. "Let's wrap up the Ghost Project."