Chapter 2316: Salted Coffee As the newest hope of the Larkinson Clan, Venerable Jannzi attracted a lot of attention. The clan suffered heavily during the Battle of Ulimo Citadel. Over 500 valuable Larkinson mech pilots lost their lives, and this was a heavy blow to a clan that valued kinship and family very highly. No matter the origins of those who joined the clan, once they became a Larkinson, they quickly began to view each other as kin as well. Losing battle companions hurt. Losing family hurt even more! Therefore, the leaders of the clan eagerly welcomed the arrival of any good news and sources of hope. Of all of the props the clan could use to uplift the moods of every Larkinson, the emergence of a new expert pilot was like rain in the desert. Nothing excited mech pilots more than to enjoy the protection and company of an actual expert pilot! The Larkinsons already had a taste of what it was like to enjoy the patronage of an expert pilot when Venerable Brutus was still around. Unfortunately, just because he was Gloriana's brother didn't mean he was willing to become a part of the clan. As long as this was the case, it was the Wodins who enjoyed the protection of an expert pilot, not the Larkinsons! Jannzi's breakthrough finally changed this equation. As long as she was allowed to come into power and gained a matching expert mech, she could serve as a proper deterrent against many potential enemies. Her substantially elevated piloting skill and powerful strengths also turned her into a fantastic teacher and mentor to other mech pilots. Therefore, as long as she was willing to guide her fellow comrades, the Larkinson Clan's combat foundation would definitely rise to a higher level. This was one of the reasons why the old Larkinson Family always remained strong across many generations. Expert pilots like Venerable Jannzi brought huge benefits to organizations such as the Larkinson Clan! At the very least, its prestige would double as long as the news started to spread. Those in power who didn't take the Larkinson Clan seriously up to this point would definitely reconsider their opinions once they learned of Venerable Jannzi's existence! While Ves wasn't sure whether this was enough to make everyone of importance recognize the Larkinson Clan as an independent, sovereign spaceborn clan, at the very least the Larkinsons had made a lot of progress. The result of all of this was that Ves possessed much greater confidence in the clan's ability to roam through space. While the patronage of a single expert pilot might not be impressive to the organizations that had the capital to enter the Red Oceans, it was different closer to home. Many private organizations simply didn't even consider messing with expert pilots! Though states weren't as deterred, their government officials were much more likely to take the Larkinson Clan seriously. As long as Ves and his clansmen didn't provoke any neutral states, there shouldn't be a reason for them to aim at the Larkinsons. Yet for all of the amazing benefits that Venerable Jannzi brought, the burden of employing an expert pilot was not trivial. "She needs an expert mech!" Though Ves studied a bit about how to design an expert mech, he wasn't even close to doing so. Expert mechs were so complex and unique that designing them was pretty much a separate discipline! On top of that, even if Ves was capable of designing such a powerful machine, how could he possibly fabricate one in the Nyxian Gap? The limited production facilities of the Scarlet Rose and the other ships of the task force were too inadequate to produce all of the powerful high-quality parts that expert mechs demanded. Aside from that, even if Task Force Predator plundered a lot of exotic materials from Ulimo Citadel and other pirate bases, their properties were very heterogeneous and mixed. Expert mechs demanded at least two different types of rare and expensive materials. First, to build their strong and damage-resistant frames, Ves needed to obtain large quantities of expensive exotics. Second, he had to get his hands on a sufficient quantity of suitable resonating exotics. Not every resonating exotic was compatible to a specific expert pilot. Only a small proportion of resonating exotics allowed Jannzi to exert her strength to the fullest when piloting a mech, and it was extremely unlikely that Ves would find any of them in Ulimo Citadel's vaults! "Coffee doesn't go well with salt!" Only after returning to civilized space would Ves be able to obtain the obscure materials that Jannzi needed through the open market. Of course, some exotics couldn't be bought so easily. Ves would have to bargain with the states or organizations that produced these rare and strategically-important materials, but that was a concern for later. For now, Ves had no choice but to accept that he and his task force was in no condition to equip Jannzi with a proper expert mech. The most he could do was spend some time on tweaking and upgrading the Shield of Samar to account for her elevated skill. "Such a modest upgrade will hardly do an expert pilot like her justice." Ves grimaced. Even if the task force successfully returned to civized space, what then? How was the Larkinson Clan supposed to supply Venerable Jannzi with a proper expert mech? The LMC did not possess the capability to design and fabricate expert mechs. Out of every mech designer in the clan and mech company, only Gloriana participated in the design of expert mechs. That wasn't as impressive as it sounded. She worked alongside scores of other younger mech designers to assist the efforts of the Seniors and Masters who were truly in charge. Expecting Ves and Gloriana to design an expert mech was like expecting Ketis to design the next LMC mech. No matter how talented she was, Ketis was still an Apprentice Mech Designer. The mechs she was capable of designing with her current knowledge base and level of experience were too immature at this point. The issue weighed down on him so much that he figured he might as well discuss it with Gloriana. He left his stateroom and entered the isolated chamber with the Darkbreak module. He had already called Gloriana when the final mech battle had just ended. He still had plenty of duties to attend to at the time so he kept that discussion short. Now that the Larkinson Clan was beginning to get a handle of everything, Ves was much less in a hurry this time. He calmly called his fiancé, who answered within seconds. Her physical projection quickly appeared, and with it a pleasant lavender perfume. As soon as its scent wafted to his nose, he already felt some of his stress going away. "Hello again, Gloriana." He greeted her as he hugged her soft and warm physical projection. "Ves!" She smiled brilliantly at him as they separated. "I'm so happy for you. Our clan will surely rise to a new height with Venerable Jannzi watching over us. I haven't heard a lot of details about the battle yet. Could you tell me what exactly took place? You didn't tell me much other than that the pirates trapped you in some kind of anomaly and that Jannzi's breakthrough helped turned the tables." He coughed. "We are still taking stock of the battle ourselves. I'll tell you more after we make sense of all of the abnormal stuff that took place. Let me tell you that getting caught in an anomaly, even if it's just a pale human-made imitation of the real thing, is not pleasant!" "Are you okay, Ves?" She asked with genuine concern. "It could have been worse, but we won in the end. While it's regrettable that many of our mech pilots have fallen, it's better then getting wiped out entirely." While Ves wanted to say much more to his lover, he didn't want to expose any sensitive secrets to the MTA. As far as he was concerned, Master Willix was probably listening in on their private conversation at this very moment! Therefore, Ves resolutely kept his mouth shut about anything related to spirituality and the Five Scrolls Compact. That didn't mean that he could keep all of the details under wraps. Too many Larkinsons witnessed and lived through the extraordinary phenomena that accompanied the anomaly. Their mechs and ships also took plenty of battle footage. Even if the interference made everything past a certain distance a little fuzzy, there were plenty of revealing elements in the recordings! However, just because the Larkinsons encountered a lot of weirdness didn't mean they understood any of it. For now, Ves believed that pretending to be ignorant of the truth was the way to go. It wasn't even difficult for him to do so because the rest of Task Force Predator didn't know anything either! After explaining some less important details about the battle, their discussion soon turned to the problem of outfitting Jannzi with a new expert mech. "To be honest, I did not expect one of your expert candidates to break through so soon." She replied as her physical projection sat down on the deck next to Ves. "Neither of us are qualified to design a true expert mech. I know more than you, but that just helps me understand how lacking we are compared to mech designers who are truly capable of designing expert mechs." "Then what will we do? I don't want to deprive Jannzi of a proper expert mech." "We can collaborate with a Senior or Master who is willing to take charge of such a project. With our growing fame and prestige, I'm sure that we can find at least someone who is willing enough to partner up with the Miracle Couple!" "No!" Ves vigorously shook his head. "Expert mechs are one of the trump cards of any force. The issue of confidentiality is extremely important. Involving a third-party in the design of such a crucial mech is too risky. We need to keep the design completely in-house." She frowned. "The Wodin Dynasty has partnered with several excellent mech designers. As long as we ask, I'm sure they are willing to help! You can trust them, Ves. They're not only Hexers, but also our allies!" "No thank you." Ves pressed his lips into a thin line. "I know you think they are trustworthy, but I'm not willing to involve any external party." There was no way he was going to partner up with any Hexer mech designers! Gloriana was the only one he could tolerate working with, and that was only because she was willing to accommodate his preferences. "The expert mech doesn't have to be Venerable Jannzi's main option!" Gloriana suggested. "We just need to supply her with an expert mech so that she can begin to exert and practice her new abilities. We can just treat it as a stopgap solution that can buy time for us to come up with something better." "Unacceptable! My earlier objections still apply. Aside from that, Venerable Jannzi is only willing to pilot the Shield of Samar unless there is no other choice. She won't pilot a better machine just because it's an expert mech. As for transforming the Shield of Samar into a stopgap expert mech, this is completely a non-starter. We need to preserve the original character and identity of Jannzi's personal mech as much as possible, and introducing a powerful Senior or Master with a different style and philosophy will ruin everything!" Gloriana slapped his chest and let out an exasperated sigh. "Then what are we supposed to do!? I already told you that we truly can't design a proper expert mech for Venerable Jannzi at our current state! It will take years or decades before we are truly qualified to design such a powerful machine!" "You're right." Ves admitted, though perhaps the System might be able to shorten that. "To be honest, I was thinking that we don't have to design something so complicated at the start. What if we design something more.. modest and gradually work our way up from there? Instead of designing a complete expert pilot right away, we could take an incremental approach and slowly improve the Shield of Samar step by step. What do you think?" "Are. You. Serious?" Gloriana glared at him. "Are you trying to suggest that we should design a quasi-expert mech?!" "What's wrong with that?!" "It's a crippled expert mech! It's a mech that tries to be an expert mech but fails! I can't stand designing such an imperfect mech!"