Chapter 3233: Painful Options "Well, here we are again." Ves sighed as he sat in front of his main workstation in his personal workshop. "It seems that every time I'm being confronted by a powerful enemy, I have to pull out another rabbit out of my hat." "Meow." Lucky floated around Ves before settling on the table. The cat was already familiar with this routine and wondered what he would be able to witness this time. The scariest aspect about an imaginative mech designer like Ves was that he developed a lot of ideas. A handful of them were good. A lot of them were awful. A fair number of them promised significant benefits but not without complications! Ves shelved a lot of ideas that fell into the last category. Although he liked to take a risk every now and then, he did not generally feel the need to resort to them when he was already doing fine by maintaining a stable trajectory. Unfortunately, the good times were over. After a year of stable growth, the Larkinson Clan finally bumped into an enemy that was too powerful to overcome by letting Venerable Tusa out of his cage. "It's not just the numbers that daunt me." He whispered. If the 30,000 mechs dispatched by the Vulcanites fought like a mob, then Ves would still have ample confidence in his forces. However, the Ferril Provincial Army was a professional mech military that did not feature any obvious shortcomings such as lack of funding, corrupt and complacent leaders or low morale. The incoming enemies were all trained and driven soldiers who knew how to fight like a proper army. Even if their martial traditions were not old and even if they lacked recent battle experience, they were still capable of employing proper strategies and tactics that attempted to achieve greater synergy out of the three mech divisions. The strength of a coordinated mech army was two to ten times stronger than a swarm of unorganized mechs piloted by undisciplined scum! Fortunately, the Larkinson Army was also close to military-grade. The mech legions were only deficient in a couple of aspects such as accumulation and martial tradition, but they had already proven that they could hold their own against the likes of the Fridaymen. "This isn't enough, though." Ves did not like the current odds as he saw it. Even if the Larkinson Clan and its allies were able to achieve victory, it would most definitely be paid with the blood of a lot of people and the loss of many crucial starships! A pyrrhic victory at this stage was barely better than an outright loss. If his clan lost most of its capital ships and a huge amount of mech pilots and other critical personnel, then he and his clan would no longer be in a position to enter the Red Ocean. "I won't accept this outcome." This was why he started to pull out old ideas from the back of his mind and contemplate whether it was feasible to implement them. Almost no option was too taboo for him anymore! "Should I build a giant warship-grade luminar cannon and mount it on the prow of my factory ship?" Ves ruled out this idea straight away. Even if he won the battle, he would land himself in hot water with the Big Two. Whatever happened to him and his clan in this case would be no worse than losing the battle. If he wasn't able to get ahead in some way, it was not worth it to employ the idea in question. "Besides, a cannon of that size and caliber takes too long to build." There were many impractical ideas like that. After contemplating several more suggestions, he came up with a simple one that was a lot more practical but was associated with a considerable opportunity cost. Ves reached into his uniform pocket and retrieved a pouch. He opened it up and withdrew a handful of gems. [Bastet's Favor] The blessing of a feline patron is stored in this gem. Enhances the cutting power of a mech by 20 percent. [Bastet's Regard] The blessing of a feline patron is stored in this gem. Improves the agility of a mech by 20 percent. [Bastet's Affection] The blessing of a feline patron is stored in this gem. Increases the firepower of a ranged mech by 20 percent. The three gems were the latest batch that Lucky had managed to produce. Unlike many of his other gems, these ones provided straightforward boosts without any complications. The only weirdness was that they appeared to have ties with the same patron, but that was not important at the moment. Ves currently contemplated whether he should use them on his existing expert mechs. "If I do so, I won't gain any substantial benefits with regards to my progression." Their greatest value to him was the possibility to upgrade a mech that was already high in quality into a masterwork mech. This was an immensely profitable procedure that had already provided considerable boosts to his ability to design mechs. In essence, the more he utilized his gems in this fashion, the faster he was able to realize his design philosophy! It also brought him closer to fulfilling his ultimate ambition to become a Star Designer. Ever since he learned about Senfovon's Ladder of Craftsmanship and its relevance to his profession, he realized that making masterwork mechs was even more critical to his future accomplishments. The headstart he managed to accrue with the help of Lucky's gems already put him at a significant advantage. It gave Ves a whole new appreciation of his first pet. At the same time, he also suspected that there was an even greater meaning to having him by his side. Whether his mother, the System or some other unfathomable existence arranged Lucky to assist his mech design journey, it was clear that the remarkable gems were crucial to increasing his affinity for mechs and thereby allow him to catch up to the best and most talented mech designers. To use them up at this junction and give up the opportunity to make three future masterwork mechs was a painful thought. Yet when he thought about the opposition that his expert mechs had to confront, he also felt a lot of pressure. What if the First Sword succumbed against the Gatecrasher because its sword wasn't sharp enough to cut through the latter's defenses? What if the Amaranto was torn to pieces by the Paravad because its firepower was not strong enough to destroy the avian expert mech on its approach? What if the Dark Zephyr fell under the massed bombardment of the Gauss Baron and other Slug Ranger mechs due to its inability to evade enough attacks? Even if the gems only boosted a single property by 20 percent, as long as they were applied to the strongest and most crucial attributes of his expert mechs, they would definitely perform a lot better! "It could even mean the difference between victory or death!" As Ves stared at the gems he took out, he struggled with this decision. Lucky on the other hand stared at his own waste products and yawned. "Meow." "I suppose you're right…" Gems were precious, but he still retained a channel where he could obtain more. They weren't like Unending alloy which Ves was pretty sure he would never be able to get his hands on outside the Nyxian Gap. Though he would definitely miss some precious opportunities months or years from now, at least he still had a future to begin with. From a logical standpoint, it did not make sense to hang on to them when he risked losing everything. He made his decision. He felt like he was trading the opportunity to earn 100 million MTA merits in the long term in order to obtain just 10 MTA merits in the short term. The loss was too much, but Ves had no other choice because obtaining 10 MTA merits right away might end up saving his life in the coming few days! After making this difficult decision, he began to contemplate other possibilities. He soon thought about one of his most dramatic trump cards, his battle networks. "Can I expand my battle networks?" He quickly went over his options. The Avatars of Myth, the Living Sentinels and the Flagrant Vandals were too messy and diverse to form a battle formation. That had not changed from before. However, different from last time, the Larkinson Clan welcomed one more mech legion into the fold. "The Eye of Ylvaine all share the same beliefs." As much as he loathed it, he had to admit that religion was a great way to homogenize a large group of people from different backgrounds. Their strong beliefs in the same god or tenets caused them to form a connection with each other that was strong enough to allow them to form a working battle network! "I'll add this to the list." He didn't expect much from this solution, though. Ylvaine wasn't doing so well as a design spirit these days. Being cut off from a lot of spiritual feedback now that the Ylvaine Protectorate stopped making use of Holy Soldiers and Deliverers caused Ylvaine to go on a starvation diet. Though the situation had improved a bit from before due to the slow expansion of the Ylvainan Faith in the Larkinson Clan, the design spirit didn't have a lot of energy to spare. "Still, anything is better than nothing. The Eye of Ylvaine only needs to make their precious opportunity count." The only complication was that the Ylvainan mechs largely consisted of artillery mechs that were locked in bunkers. They weren't able to move around, so how could they place themselves in specific formations that allowed them to channel the power of their design spirit? Ves scratched his head. "Maybe they'll be able to work something out. There's not much of a cost to granting the Eye of Ylvaine a battle network so I won't lose anything if it fails." As he was thinking about this potential issue, he suddenly gained an inspiring thought. "What if I combine the use of battle networks with powerful totems?" He thought about the Four Aspects of Lufa and the statue of the Superior Mother. Each of them were remarkable and spiritually powerful in their own right. If he used them as a catalyst or booster to a spiritual process like his battle networks, then he might be able to achieve an even stronger effect! This was a crazy yet brilliant idea! Even though he had no idea whether it would work or whether it was safe to mess with spirituality in this way, at this moment Ves did not consider all of the ways that this could lead to catastrophic results. As long as there was a chance to achieve a powerful result, it was worth the gamble! Now that he came up with this idea, he soon matched his battle networks with suitable anchors. "The Swordmaidens have the First Sword and the Decapitator. The Penitent Sisters have the statue of the Superior Mother. The Battle Criers have the Four Aspects of Lufa. As for the Eye of Ylvaine…" They didn't really have a suitable totem now that he thought about it. The closest object that could fulfill this job was the Zeal, one of the six Transcendent Messenger mechs that Ves had designed a long time ago. Even though the third-class hero mech was long relegated to a museum piece, it was still a revered mech among the Ylvainans. Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "Should I repurpose the Zeal or create a more suitable totem?" He was leaning towards the latter. As much as he saw the appeal of reinventing the Zeal, it was not built for the job that he envisioned. It was too fragile and probably had to be piloted in order to achieve its maximum effect. In contrast to choosing this messy solution, he much preferred to start with a clean slate and create a purpose-built totem. "I've become quite good at making totems, and I think Ylvaine will be able to channel his powers much better if I develop a specialized vehicle that is designed to work with his battle network." It was similar to designing an expert mech for a mech pilot. The difference was that his client was a design spirit and the vessel came in the form of a totem. The only problem that caused Ves to pause was the implications of doing this. If he went through with creating a totem dedicated to the Great Prophet, the Eye of Ylvaine and the Ylvainan Faith would definitely be energized! Ves could already foresee that the Ylvainans would be able to convert more Larkinsons in the future. This was an unfavorable development that increased the proportion of believers and reduced the number of secularists in the clan! His expression became pained again. "Damnit. Our clan really needs Ylvaine's power… I can't pass this opportunity up just because I don't like what happens afterwards."