The Star Designer taught him a few simple but ingenious solutions that he could add to the Larkinson Network like expansion modules. These additions did not change the fundamentals of the kinship network, but added vital new security and efficiency gains that should allow the Larkinson Network to remain competitive in the next decade. Ves was very grateful to the Web Mistress for these gifts. Their earlier talk already made him feel this meeting was worth it, but it would have been better if he also obtained more concrete and readily applicable solutions at the level of a Star Designer. Of course, two hours had not yet gone by, so there was still plenty to talk about. "I am grateful for the assistance that you have given me, but I still feel the Larkinson Network needs additional protection against potential enemies." Ves said. "The best way to avoid getting attacked is to make yourself untargetable. I don't like how the Larkinson Network is so exposed. Is there any way to hide it and prevent enemies from approaching it in order to tamper or destroy it at a time of their choosing?" The Web Mistress did not look surprised that he made this additional request. "There are two general approaches that you can choose from. The first approach is to shelter it behind a defense that is strong enough to deter most of your enemies. This can range from your own ace pilots, a god pilot, a specialized construct developed by a Star Designer or… the Red Kingdom." Ves frowned. All of these suggestions sounded unacceptable to him. The Larkinson Clan needed to maintain its sovereignty. Relying on the protection of his own ace pilots sounded nice, but they were not strong enough to impede a True God-level opponent. Placing its Larkinson Network under the protection of third parties such as other god pilots essentially subordinated the Larkinson Clan to one of the other major powers. Of the god pilots he had opened up relations with, neither option sat well with him. Choosing the Evolution Witch was a terrible idea for many reasons. It did not matter that she had entered into an alliance with his mother when they were both awful individuals. This madwoman had proven to be quite temperamental and was not above resorting to coercion and intimidation to make Ves dance to her will. She was an option of last resort. Seeking the protection of the Destroyer of Worlds was much more acceptable. She was much friendlier and genuinely respected him. Unfortunately, she had a duty to the Rubarthan Pact and did not answer to the Larkinson Clan. Ves did not want to put her in a position where she had to deal with conflicting loyalties. As for the two remaining options, relying on a construct developed by a Star Designer or seeking shelter from the Red Kingdom itself both amounted to the same problem as before. Ves simply did not want to rely on the goodwill of a third party to protect the Larkinson Network. That was just begging for him and his clan to get stabbed in the back during a time where they could least afford betrayal. "What about the other approach?" Ves asked, indirectly making it clear that he did not like to pick the previous options. "You hide the Larkinson Network. You obscure it from sight, either by making it less visible and conspicuous, or placing its nexus inside a large and powerful anomalous zone that scrambles every ingoing and outgoing signal." The Star Designer laid out. "The former is too difficult for you to accomplish. I am perhaps the only individual who can help your kinship network hide in plain sight, but it will require a considerable amount of time and resources on my part to complete this transformation. Your minor favor cannot cover the material costs and more importantly the opportunity costs of this commission." "How… how expensive?" "The only payment that you and your clan can offer me is the delivery of high-grade superdimensional matter. I will require enough armor-grade and weapon-grade superdimensional matter to construct 4 full superdimensional medium mechs, delivered within 6 months starting from this day. Do not think I am overcharging you. When I am done, your Larkinson Network will be the most well-hidden kinship network in the Red Ocean. Most god pilots will not be able to sense it, and only a small number of other Star Designers should be able to detect it if they make a concerted effort to locate it. I do not anticipate that any ancient phase whale can stumble upon it. Not without help." The Web Mistress offered what she considered to be a fair transaction, and Ves did not think she was lying on this front. The potential rewards indeed sounded tempting. Making the Larkinson Network invisible to all but a handful of True Gods largely fulfilled his demand and could make it much less vulnerable against attacks by third parties. Unfortunately, the Web Mistress clearly told him that this measure did not go far enough. Sure, only a handful of human True Gods would still be able to detect the Larkinson Network, but that alone already negated much of the outcome that Ves desired. He and his clan had most to fear from strong opponents, not weaker ones. Ves did not blindly assume that he and his fellow Larkinsons would be able to maintain friendly or neutral relations with every god pilot and Star Designer. If the Red Association ever fractured, a future may arise where the Larkinson Clan may ultimately become rivals or enemies with some of those powerful leaders. It would be nice if they could not threaten the Larkinson Network so easily at that point. Even if this bleak future did not unfold, Ves still wanted to place his kinship network out of the reach of these powerhouses. "I am afraid our clan will not agree to such a translation." Ves diplomatically replied to the Star Designer. "The quantity of armor and weapon-grade superdimensional matter that you have requested is at the limit of the amount that we can gather in the next mining run and perhaps a part of the previous one as well. We would have to forgo full superdimensional conversion of several expert mechs and ace mechs during a period of human history where hard power has become even more vital to our security and survival than before. Compared to the solid benefits of increasing our hard military power, it is difficult to persuade my clansmen to favor a more abstract solution that only offers vague benefits." He might be able to bargain down the price, but Ves did not even think of attempting this. Not only would it be uncouth for him to haggle with an honored Star Designer, but he still would not accept this proposal even if the price got cut in half. The Web Mistress obviously sensed his determination, so she did not press this matter. "Then the only option that is palatable to you is to hide the nexus of your Larkinson Network inside an anomalous region of space. You will have to search for an area that meets a number of specific criteria, travel to it, construct a temple stronghold for your Golden Cat and leave her behind in this isolated facility." Ves furrowed his brows. He did not like the sound of leaving Goldie behind in such a boring and dreary place. "Nyaaa…" The ancestral spirit's ears drooped. She clearly did not like the sound of this proposal! "Doing so will cut Goldie off from more direct interaction with my clansmen, is that correct?" "Not completely, Ves. The network will still exist, though its connections will become distorted and function less effectively than before. Yet so long as it preserves its nature as a network, the Golden Cat can still interact with your clansmen. It will only be less direct and straightforward. Think of establishing a low-bandwidth remote connection in an area that is subject to heavy jamming and signal interference. This is the tradeoff that you need to make if you resort to this unconventional approach to reduce the visibility of your Larkinson Network." Perhaps there were still ways to make the Golden Cat accessible to the common Larkinsons, but that would likely entail other convoluted solutions. Ves grew disappointed with the suggestions made by the Web Mistress. This was not her fault. She had presented him with multiple possible solutions instead of just a single one. His standards were simply too high to accept any of them as presented. Was he asking too much? Should he lower his standards? He did not want to. Every time he thought about it, he wanted to shake his head and look for alternatives. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦 Yet doing so meant keeping the Larkinson Network a lot more exposed and vulnerable for a long time. Ves would have to gamble that no one would come and try to mess with the Larkinson Network in the coming months and years. "I think I will try my luck elsewhere." Ves respectfully told the Star Designer. "I am grateful for making me aware of these possibilities, but none of them sound acceptable to me. My plan is to continue to travel and look around for anything that resembles the solutions that you have mentioned and try to improvise if possible. There are so many oddities and curiosities in the Red Ocean that we have yet to discover and explore. I am hopeful that I will be able to stumble upon the right conditions and take advantage of it to fulfill my goal." If that did not work out, he could still attempt to figure out a solution of his own. Whether it was tossing the Larkinson Mandate at a secret coordinate into the Blue Dimension, placing it inside a large and convoluted superdimensional vault, he might be able to homebrew a partially effective solution that might satisfy his needs in the short term. The Web Mistress was actually pleased to see that he had not simply given up on making his Larkinson Network more difficult to destroy. "Very well. I approve of your initiative. Mech designers are not individuals who should stand still when they are told that their dreams are unrealizable. Impossible is not a word that should exist in their lexicon. If there are no existing solutions available, then invent one. If the right materials are not available, then sidestep them and seek to solve your problem from a different angle. It is much more challenging for you to solve problems that fall outside of the category of mechs, but the willingness for you to tackle them in them in the first place is one of the many prerequisites that you must possess to have a chance of becoming a Star Designer." Star Designers no longer worked exclusively on mechs. It could even be said that they had 'graduated' from mech design and hardly spent their time on working on it further because there was so much more stuff they could make. True Gods such as the Web Mistress may have become a lot more powerful than other mech designers, but they had yet to get rid of the limitations of time. They could only do so much work in a day. They had to be strategic about how they spent their time. Just this meeting alone prevented the Web Mistress from full devoting her time and attention on developing the next iteration of shield link technology or inventing another variation of support link technology. Circumstances where the Polymath managed to reverse the effects of a greater spacetime bubble and buy an extra half century worth of time for her to tinker on technologies were exceedingly rare. Ves definitely believed that the native aliens would never dare to pull off this trick again! If they happened to trap Yernstall or another star system with a notable population of high-ranking mech designers inside it, a second human superpower like the Cybernetic Empire might emerge from it one day!