The addition of Beatrice Hendrix to the Design Department did not cause any major disruptions. The Larkinson Clan was too big and the Design Department already included a bunch of busy mech designers. Every Journeyman continued to devote their time on their studies, research and mech design projects. The only difference was that one of them had to play tour guide and nanny for Beatrice from time to time. Although Ves urgently wanted to turn Beatrice into a productive member of his clan, he knew he needed to restrain himself and bide his time until she fully embraced her identity as a Larkinson. Ves made sure to spend a few more days with her in order to ensure that her integration into the clan was on the right track. After that, he handed her over to Ketis who had agreed to show Beatrice around the different mech legions and familiarize herself with their unique martial traditions. This finally left Ves free to devote his time on his mech design projects. As he entered the Genesis Lab and sat down at his fixed workplace, he called up his agenda and briefly studied all of the important points that he needed to take into account. "There are less than five months left before the MTA returns the Spirit of Bentheim in my possession." He poured over 300 million MTA merits into upgrading his factory ship and flagship. Although the price of doing so was exorbitant, so were the expected results! Ves expected nothing less than a capital ship that could resist alien warship attacks head-on and could form the basis of a genuine first-class fleet in the future! What Ves particularly looked forward to after regaining possession of the Spirit of Bentheim was her brand-new Hyper Chamber. This expensive physical projection module would allow him and his family to truly connect to many more layers of human society than before, particularly the upper ones. Collaborations and teachings would become a lot easier with such an amazing piece of high technology at his disposal. "Hopefully I'll be able to complete the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project by this time." He wanted to resume the Trailblazer Expedition on a stronger footing than before. Adding two powerful and highly innovative expert mechs to the Larkinson Army would definitely boost his clan and fleet. Venerable Jannzi would no longer have to wander around looking as if she was missing the second half of her life. Ves might oppose her political stances, but he did not hate her or anything. She was still family and always tried to do what was best for the clan. Ves frowned as he pulled up his design schedule for the coming months. If he wanted to prioritize the two aforementioned projects, he had little choice but to take time away from the Eye Project, the Bloodripper Project and the Blood Knight Project. He did not mind delaying the Blood Knight Project since it was more of an experiment more than anything. He initially conceived of it after inventing the Empowered Blood Sharing System. While he still wanted to investigate the power of a Blood Pact, there was no need for him to hurry up with this particular research direction. The Eye Project centered around a relatively simple marksman mech that he designed in collaboration with Cormaunt Hempkammp. Ves could easily offload more responsibilities to his design partner. He had already contributed a lot to the spiritual design of the Eye Project and did not have to complete all of the more mundane design tasks. "Let's do that, then." Ves decided. "This project is already well on its way to completion. It just needs to undergo several rounds of testing and refinement." The only project that was almost just as important as the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project was the Bloodripper Project. It was another expert mech design project. This time it was centered around a light harasser mech. Ves basically considered it to be a high-end version of the Stingripper model often utilized by the Flagrant Vandals. Ves had never spent too much time on the Bloodripper Project as it simply wasn't necessary. Gloriana and Juliet both took charge of the design as their specialties were much more relevant this time. He briefly recalled the work he had already done and knew that he did not have to do much in order to ensure his contributions remained adequate. He did not feel worried about handing over even more responsibilities to the pair of former Hexer mech designers. They obviously knew what they were doing and the Bloodripper Project clearly aligned with their visions. With that in mind, Ves adjusted his work schedule and made sure he deprioritized a lot of distractions in order to free up more time for the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project. "No matter what, it's time to finish these expert mech designs. I have kept them in limbo long enough. There are no mysteries for me to solve anymore. So long as I don't get distracted again, I should be able to finish both of them before it is time to resume my expedition!" Ves deeply believed he could meet this deadline. It would have taken an ordinary Journeyman Mech Designer at least a year or maybe two to complete so much work, but he was different from the rest. His previous tournament run had fully illustrated the differences. As Ves went back to his agenda, he also caught another important event. "It shouldn't take more than a couple of months to complete the expansion of the Golden Skull Alliance!" This was a huge occasion and one that deserved his utmost attention! Even if he had to leave the Genesis Lab and suspend his design activities for a time, he would gladly do so because the Adelaide Third Fleet and the Boojay Family played a vital role to his ambitions. "Once their ace mechs preside over our expeditionary fleet, we should have the capital to go deeper into the frontier than ever before!" His eyes turned into stars when he thought about all of the potential targets he wanted to hunt down! Phase whales and alien warships might spell certain death to many pioneers, but Ves and his fleet were different! Beating them numerous times had completely dispelled his fear and awe towards these indigenous enemies. They could be beaten as long as his clan grasped the right information and his troops made the appropriate preparations. The only fly in the ointment was that General Ark Larkinson refused to lend his strength to his expeditionary fleet. That robbed Ves of a powerful high-tier expert pilot and expert mech. He recalled that he still needed to have a good talk with his dearest uncle about a handful of future arrangements. Ves mentally added these items to his to-do list before he looked further into his agenda. "I can't miss the conference organized by the Survivalist Faction." This was an extremely important event for many different reasons. Not only did he look forward to meeting up with Jovy and forge new connections with many important figures, he also wanted to collect as much inside information about the ongoing conquest of the Red Ocean as possible. As long as he did well enough during this crucial conference, Ves might have the opportunity to turn himself from a smaller pawn into a bigger pawn! Perhaps he could even promote himself to a knight or a bishop! "That is still a long distance away from turning myself into a chess player, but I don't have the strength to do so anyway…" Ves had a feeling that the people he met and befriended during this serious event could drastically change the trajectory of his life! "After that…" He did not have a good idea on what he should be doing next. He figured that he would have a much better idea on what he should be focusing upon after he absorbed a lot of new information during the Survivalist conference. "Oh, I almost forgot about this!" Ves jerked as he recalled another important priority. He looked around and made sure to activate more security measures and activate a few jammers. Lucky wasn't around at the moment, but Ves was confident no one had been able to plant any bugs in his design lab. Once he made sure that he had a measure of privacy, he pulled out a special skull from the storage space provided by his System Space. Ever since the Vault of Eternity allowed Ves to rent additional storage space, he had enthusiastically taken advantage of it to store a number of goods that he wanted to keep on his person at all times. The only annoying part was that he needed to pay a fixed fee of Ascension Points in order to cover the rent every year. That reminded him that he should not neglect the System. He needed to wait until the available Missions refreshed so that he could complete the easier ones and earn himself a bunch more AP. He also wanted to explore the function of the Time Gate. He had been reluctant to use it in the past because he was already mentally preoccupied with so many other matters, but now that the all-important founding ceremony and founding festival had passed, he should be able to utilize this evolved System function without any significant burdens. Since the System stated that he could only utilize it once a year, he should make use of it sooner rather than later. "Maybe I'll try it out in a week." Right now, he became more curious about the skull of the primordial human that he managed to excavate in Davute's pocket space. The investigator dispatched by the MTA never mentioned anything about human remains during the interrogation session. Ves wasn't sure why the mechers hadn't brought up this topic at all because he had not hid the skeleton in his hand when the human troopers started to fight against the pescan remnants. Did nobody ever wonder why the leading figure among them was holding a weird glowing skull in his hands?! There was no way the mechers missed such a detail when they interrogated everyone else that had also been trapped in the ancient alien prison. Were the mechers trying to do him a favor by deliberately ignoring the presence of the special skull, or were they waiting to send a more important figure to him in the future?! "Urgh. I hope someone like the Polymath doesn't drop by again." He sighed. He needed to get rid of the skull and the rest of the ancient skeleton. While he would love to examine it for years and figure out the mystery behind primordial humans, this was a hot potato that might cause him to land in trouble with the wrong sort of people. His mother needed it a lot more. While Ves already had a plan in mind on how he should smuggle it through the greater beyonder gate and ship it all the way back to the Komodo Star Sector, it would probably take a long time for it to come into fruition. "I should see if I can make any quick gains by studying it for a little while." He decided. "There is no need to send it out right away." He at least wanted to figure out what kind of materials it was made of and whether he could formulate anything similar enough. The skull was an extraordinarily powerful tool for him to channel his spiritual manipulation abilities! Ves did not need to obtain a channeling medium that was just as good as this ancient human skull. He would already be content if he obtained an imitation product that was only a tenth as good! "Let's see what you're made of, shall we?" He smirked. "It's a good thing that I upgraded my lab instruments to first-class standards. I don't believe they are unable to pry out your secrets. Life forms are temporal, but science is eternal!"