Ves felt a lot of heartache when he sent Lucky off to perform the heist. Spending 1 billion credits to motivate Lucky into breaking into the grand cathedral didn’t concern Ves very much. WIth how much profit the LMC was making these days, he could afford to spend that much money like water. The same didn’t apply to Design Points. Accumulating 400,000 DP took a lot of effort. Ves practically spent all the DP he earned from his Aurora Titan design. "It took seven months of earnest effort for me to design the Aurora Titan." He muttered. Even if the Miniaturized Stealth Generator opened up a lot of new possibilities for Ves and Lucky, Ves constantly wondered if he could have spent his DP on something better. The amount of DP he spent in an instant was too abrupt for Ves to feel at ease! In fact, he wanted to be close to the grand cathedral as well in case Lucky hit a snag. He couldn’t. Not only did the Curins restrict his movements, it was an enormously bad idea for him to be in the vicinity of the Grand Cathedral of Ylvaine’s Mercy during the heist. He was already present at the Grand Church of the Grey Martyr during the terrorist attack. He would definitely attract High Inquisitor Poxco’s suspicion if he strayed near the grand cathedral during an attempt to steal its most valuable relic! The Ylvainan Inquisition only needed a reasonable amount of suspicion to take him into custody. Who knew what they would do to him once he ended up in their dungeon! Ves just had to put his faith in Lucky’s abilities. His naughty pet had a lot of practice stealing valuable minerals, so Lucky should know what he was doing. The Miniature Stealth Generator he received was like adding wings to the tiger! There was hardly anything that could stop Lucky from stealing something now that he gained the ability to hide himself from every form of observation! Even if it only lasted five minutes, if paired with his ability to turn intangible, that was all the time that Lucky needed to infiltrate most strongholds! Now that Ves thought about it, Lucky could easily use his new ability against him! Nothing would be able to stop Lucky from stealing and eating his own stuff! "Did I create a monster?" Ves trusted Lucky more than his friends and family. As far as he was concerned, his cat was his closest companion. Lucky was the only entity who knew all of his secrets! Even though humans didn’t put a lot of trust in AIs and mechanical pets, Ves knew there was something very special about Lucky. Despite his artificial form, Lucky differed from every other pet due to possessing his own spirituality! He often puzzled why Lucky possessed this strength, especially in the early days of his career. As Ves developed a greater understanding of spirituality, he no longer found it incomprehensible. "Life isn’t bound by an organic form. It can emerge from any shape as long as the conditions are right." As Ves waited for Lucky to return, he decided to turn his attention back to his mech design work. It would be best if he acted normally during this time in order to allay any possible suspicion that he was involved with the upcoming theft. He called Ketis over. "What’s the matter, Ves?" "For our upcoming design project, I’m willing to let you be involved." He said once they sat down. "It’s no secret to you that I’m working on a hero mech design. Considering your specialty and your familiarity with swordsmanship, I think your input is very helpful to our current design project." "You’re willing to let me have a say in the design?" "Yes." Ves nodded. "As long as your suggestions and corrections are sound, I don’t mind crediting you as a contributing mech designer to this project. It will do you a lot of good if you are able to meet that threshold!" 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮 There was a substantial difference between a contributing mech designer and an assisting mech designer! Assisting mech designers were basically coolies and number crunchers. The leading mech designer would never allow them to make any important decisions. In contrast, a contributing mech designer earned the right to make some meaningful design choices. As long as the leading mech designer approved of their decisions, their judgement affected the overall direction of the design project! This was a great honor to a Novice like Ketis. So much so that even she didn’t believe that a control freak like Ves actually meant what he said. "You wouldn’t be pulling my leg this time, will you?" Ketis asked with eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I’m not attempting to coddle you or anything." Ves reassured her. "While you’re still a Novice, that’s only because you haven’t completed any significant mech designs yet. Your knowledge base has improved a lot and you’ve spent a lot of time on diving deeper into subjects related to your design philosophy. Combined with your extensive exposure to the Swordmaidens and your personal swordsmanship skills, you’ve got a lot more practical experience than me when it comes to this area." While Ves possessed an extensive amount of theoretical knowledge on melee mech combat, it was better for him if he had a specialist in this field by his side. Once Ketis began to accept that Ves wasn’t joking, she immediately grew enthusiastic. "I’ll help!" "Good. Please take a look at my loose draft and see if there is anything that stands out. I haven’t decided what type of sword fits best for my hero mech." As Ves showed her a projection of his schematic, Ketis hummed for a while. She’d already been introduced to its mech concept. "This high-impact mech is much like the Silver Valencia the Swordmaidens used to field. Do you remember?" "Of course." Ves nodded. He could hardly forget about the signature mech of the Swordmaidens. The most iconic memory he possessed about the premium swordsman mech was how a dozen of them dogpiled Venerable Foster’s Belisarius and self-destructed at the same time. Despite their valiant sacrifice, the Vesian expert mech didn’t incurred any serious damage! Its defensive and regenerative abilities were too disgusting! Ketis continued her explanation. "The Silver Valencia is an upgraded version of our Devil Razor model. What they both share in common is that they’re fast, flexible and strong. Mayra experimented with pairing our Devil Razors and Silver Valencias with many types of swords before settling for a broad, straight sword. Its strength and heft makes it suitable for hacking shields and tough exteriors." "I don’t think my hero mech needs to wield something so cumbersome. I’m operating on a very generous budget for this commission. We can make use of very strong alloys to pair my hero mech with a slimmer sword." "I don’t think that will fit with your design." She shook her head. "With the strength your hero mech is capable of exerting, it should do fine with a smaller sword, but it’s really a waste of its potential to me. You want to design a high-impact mech, right? To me, your hero mech is more like a juggernaut than a fencer. Pairing it with a strong and hefty sword allows it to forgo any fancy techniques and instead rely on pure strength to overcome its opponents." Ves frowned a bit. That didn’t sit very well with his original intentions. "My original intention is that my mech should provide ample space for the mech pilot to exploit their considerable skills. I tried to achieve a good balance between finesse and brute force." "I don’t think that’s the way to go here." She shook her head. "An ordinary swordsman mech wouldn’t be troubled because it can adapt with its entire mech frame. It’s different with your hero mech because the other half of its frame is dedicated to operating a rifle. That pretty much limits the amount of finesse your hero mech can display." It became clear that Ves hadn’t put enough thought between balancing force and finesse. The high-impact mech he envisioned should possess a lot of speed, but his draft design incorporated a lot of flexibility in order to provide his mech with a lot of room to perform advanced techniques. However, according to Ketis, that should be necessary. "I don’t think it’s worth the effort to add all of that extra agility and weaken the structural integrity of your mech as a consequence. It might not seem as if momentum-based combat is very complicated, but it’s far harder to pull off in practice because you need to plan your moves ahead." Ves recognized where he made a mistake. He initially designed his draft design not too long after returning from his latest Mastery experience. Witnessing a Terran mech pilot operate his mech in combat gave him a warped perspective on what a mech pilot was capable of. Ves unconsciously designed a mech with Terran design sensibilities by giving the mech pilot too many options at the cost of overall integrity of the mech. While the Terrans tried to encompass as many fighting styles as possible, the mech designers of the galactic rim always chose to give up versatility in favor specialization! Ves appreciated Ketis for pointing out this oversight. While his design choice didn’t turn his hero mech into trash, it wasn’t very optimal either. After some thought, he decided to put his trust in Ketis. "I’ll let you try and decide what sword is best for the hero mech. No matter if its a rapier, a broadsword, a scimitar or whatever, as long as you have a good explanation, I’ll accept your design choices!" "I won’t disappoint you, Ves!" He transferred some of his design files to Ketis and packed her off after giving her some instructions. This would be the first time he made use of a subordinate mech designer in this fashion. Ves felt as if a weight lifted off his shoulders. By passing on some responsibilities to another mech designer, he no longer depended exclusively on his own judgement. "I should flesh out my design team with other specialists." He thought about Carlos for a moment. Hopefully, his old friend would be able to get over his jealousy. While Carlos didn’t sound as if he locked in his design philosophy, a mech designer who specialized in heavy guns was very useful to Ves when he wanted to design a ranged mech. "Both Ketis and Carlos can help me design the offensive aspects of my mech." If Ves wanted to round out his design team, then he should add mech designers who specialized in defense and mobility. As long as he completed his collection, he’d be able to adopt a different style of mech design where he could entrust his subordinates to perform the bulk of the actual design work. Even if he lessened his involvement, with his growing Spirituality, Ves was sure he’d be able to maintain the strength of the X-Factor of his designs. His current decision to give Ketis an opportunity to contribute to his mech design was both an experiment and a time-saving decision. As long as Ketis made some successful contributions, Ves knew that he could proceed with involving other mech designers in his design projects. At this time, a loud alarm sounded outside. Every Ylvainan outside thought that something disastrous would take place and quickly ran for shelter. At the same time, the Protectors of the Faith who guarded the guest compound began to enter a state of higher alertness. Every Kronon mech pilot who was off-duty all donned their piloting suits and boarded their dormant mechs! "What’s going on?!" Gavin quickly arrived at his room. "Ves! It’s a disaster!" "Do you know what happened?" "I just managed to read the news before the Ylvainans locked down the galactic net. Apparently, the True Believers broke into the grand cathedral and stole their holy relic!" Ves widened his eyes. That must have been Lucky! But why did the Ylvainans suspect the True Believers were behind the theft?