Chapter 7102: Superdimensional Craftsmanship Though Alexa Streon asked a lot of troublesome questions, Ves did not mind her behavior. She did not blindly accept his judgment and showed enough spine to question his decisions. That was a good trait in a mech designer. Obedient drones never progressed that far in the mech industry. Only those who were inquisitive and brave enough to question the assumptions of other mech designers possessed the qualities of a high-ranking mech designer. Ves was more than willing to tolerate her doubts so long as it kept her inquisitive and skeptical. Of course, there was a limit to everything. A mech designer that constantly questioned everything and never believed in the facts would not be able to make it. Their progress would stall because they rejected far too much existing teachings. The mech industry grew by relying on constant technological accumulation. This enabled latecomers to skip the process of researching old solutions and gave them the time to innovate newer and better design applications. Ves would have never been able to design his living mechs so easily during his lifetime if not for the four centuries of mech development that took place in the previous age. Every mech designer stood on the shoulders of giants. The earliest mech designers who plied their trade during the tail end of the Age of Conquest were no exception. They based their works from the progress made by humanity’s existing scientific process and blended it with the mysticism of the Metal Shrine. From what Ves had learned about the secret history of the Five Scrolls Compact, mechs themselves arose out of a rejection of the prevailing order. Neural interface technology had matured to the point where it became possible to pilot war machines directly with the human mind, but people remained reluctant to embrace this application for a long time. It was not until a number of brave pioneers and innovators fought against the status quo and dared to believe that they could do better that mechs finally earned a place in society. What Ves and his assistant were working on today did not have any direct relations to mechs, yet there was enough common ground. Ves moved over and picked up the Flower Parasol. "This artifact is a copy. It is not the original, only a pale memory of one. Our goal for today is to fix that and bestow it with its own identity. You have studied its design. You familiarized yourself with the updated technologies that I have managed to obtain from the Cybernetic Empire. You understand the materials that will be used to elevate the performance of this object. Do you have any further questions or doubts about our current project? This is the last opportunity that I am giving you. If you do not think there is anything worth discussing anymore, we shall proceed according to our current plan." Alexa frowned but did not voice any further doubts. "I do not agree with all of your decisions, but your plan is cohesive. I think that you are doing the best with what you have managed to obtain. The only thing is... why did you bring over a mechanical cat?" She gestured towards a cat that was lounging right next to Lucky. The new construct looked similar to Lucky at first glance, but anyone who took a good look would soon learn that they were very different creations. The black-plated masterwork noticed her attention and raised a friendly paw. "Nyow." "That is Ferrum." He said. "It’s a cat avatar that I recently built for infiltration and sabotage missions. My companion spirit is already possessing it. While I originally designed it for field missions, it can also be used to assist my work. It will be like having an extra body operate production machines and handle compatible tools. If I don’t make use of Ferrum, we will be here all night. If we are met with unexpected failures and complications, we may not be able to complete our work in time for Aurelia’s birthday. There is no way that my wife will agree to reschedule the big party, especially when we have already sent so many invitations." While Ves had been working on preparing his daughter’s birthday gift, his wife had become completely obsessed with organizing the upcoming birthday party. She contracted services, she commissioned custom furniture, she hired highly renowned entertainers and she made sure the venue was fully secured with the cooperation of the Red Association. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂 Word about the birthday party circulated more and more throughout high society. It was looking more and more that it would turn into an elite gathering of representatives from the groups that truly mattered. Invitations had become extremely desirable. Nobody who received them was willing to trade them away, not that this was possible as they were all tied to specific names. Gloriana refused to open the doors to people who did not come with invitations and hadn’t been fully vetted. Ves was more than happy to let his wife organize the perfect birthday party. He was not that obsessed with ceremonies and did not think that Aurelia needed so much flair and pomp just to mark the day she became 10 years old. However, he recognized that the party was a great opportunity to increase the visibility of the Larkinson Clan and forge newer and stronger connections with the dominant powers of red humanity. Even the Cyber delegation had accepted the invitation to attend the birthday party! This alone had fueled the hype surrounding this event. Too many people wanted to get a glimpse of the cybernetic people and try to strike up a lucrative business deal with the folk who possessed technology that was generations ahead. Ves shook his head and shoved aside his concerns about the scope of the birthday party. He had a more important job to do, and that was to craft an unforgettable gift for his girl. "Shall we begin?" Alexa asked. "Yes. Let’s get to work." They began to do so. Blinky, who was currently possessing the body of Ferrum, began to extend a spiritual connection to Alexa. This brought Ves and his discipline into a familiar design network. The latter immediately had a better impression of what the former was trying to make. As Ves began to process the weapon-grade superdimensional matter that he had reserved for this project, Alexa began to unravel the imperial banner of the New Rubarth Empire. She did not hold any special sentiments towards this historic object, but she still felt reluctant about unmaking it. Though its existence was tied to a controversial ruler, it still held a lot of significance as a relic of humanity’s past. Even a former Terran like herself did not like to dismantle a physical mark of history. However, Ves needed its threads more than the object as a whole. Alexa had questioned earlier whether he would lose more than he would gain if they unmade the imperial banner. His response was succinct. "Much will get lost in transition, but not all. The threads will still retain a semblance of the beliefs and sentiments of the Rubarthan people, and we will let the Flower Parasol devour the pole. An echo of Rubarthan majesty will still live on in the new artifact." Hours went by as the pair continued to work. While Alexa handled the easy and miscellaneous work, Ves had thrown himself straight into the most difficult assignments, most of which had to do with processing superdimensional matter. The weapon-grade variety was the most powerful but also the most volatile variety to work with. It took a combination of hardened production equipment and the extraordinary senses of a phase lord to overcome many of the complications. The most difficult part of this entire session was to carve and integrate electronic components within the extradimensional space of the thin superdimensional alloy components. Ves had already made ample preparations in advance. He borrowed technological insights from his wife and other sources. The new alloys that the Resonance Smith had created to enable the integration of superdimensional matter with archetech also happened to work well with conventional technology. He also consulted the latest scientific journals, both the public and more secret ones that were exclusive to the Red Association. Armed with so many new theories, Ves already conducted a number of simple experiments in order to verify that his plan was viable. Ves proceeded to create multiple different varieties of superdimensional alloy. Each of them held different but important functions. There were dense solid blocks of superdimensional alloy that were hard enough to resist the most damage. They were ideal when used as the outermost layer of the shaft. Then there were lighter but much more stable superdimensional alloys. What they lacked in toughness, they made up for it by providing greater stability when integrated with electronics. As Ves created these materials and shaped them into various components, he made sure to include other materials such as high-grade exotics, hypers, phasewater and Solus Gas whenever appropriate. Combining so many different materials with all kinds of different properties in a single handheld object should not have been possible under ordinary circumstances. Many materials had a tendency to produce violent or unstable activity when exposed to other volatile matter. Yet Ves was able to get a handle on it from beginning to end because he knew what he was doing. He had done his homework. He had verified many of his assumptions by gathering empirical data. He was not only making full use of his extraordinary senses as a phase lord, but also borrowed the expertise and insights of Vulcan. His dwarven avatar had already descended into his mind. Unlike the instance where the Polymath squeezed a part of her powerful presence into the mind of a Journeyman, Vulcan’s possession was a lot more refined. Part of that was because the spiritual life form was not as powerful as a Star Designer. Another part of it was because the design spirit’s compatibility with Ves was near perfect. Vulcan was one of Ves’ external incarnations. Even if the former developed differently from the latter, their roots remained the same. There was no friction. There was no disagreement. Both of them were in complete alignment with each other. The only major difference was that they approached their work from different angles. Vulcan’s contribution was incredibly important to Ves. The incarnation which had currently adopted a dwarven form brought a huge amount of expertise and instinctual familiarity with artisanal work. Ves’ hands remained precise and exacting without slowing down to an excessive degree. With Vulcan exerting his exquisite skills, Ves seemed no different from a master smith who had plied his craft for over a century. Slowly but surely, his work was coming together. What he was doing went beyond the capabilities of all but the most powerful developers. Ves seriously doubted that many people and teams outside of Star Designers could replicate what he was doing. He might not like his phase lord cultivation so much, but its synergy with phasewater technology and superdimensional technology had redeemed it in his eyes. Ves was willing to put up with the complications created by Sev so long as he could leverage his expanded senses to create exceptional superdimensional products. It was too bad that integrating electronics into very thin superdimensional matter like this could only be done by hand. The machines that could automate and scale up this amazing production method did not exist yet. It may take years before the first ones emerged, and their cost would probably exceed everyone’s imagination. Without the ability to scale up this production method, Ves did not think he could apply it to his mechs. Not yet at least. Perhaps he could ease his burden by turning more mech designers into phase lords. He briefly glanced at Alexa, who looked back in confusion. "What is it, Ves?" "Ah, nothing relevant. Let’s get back to work. We need to finish this first before we can tackle other problems."