Once the Spirit of Bentheim temporarily unloaded much of the non-essential assets and personnel that could be transferred away on short notice, a warp bubble began to form around her hull. The upgraded factory ship finally had the opportunity to flex one of her superdrives for the first time the Red Association handed her back to the Larkinson Clan! A slightly tense moment ensued as the space around the Spirit of Bentheim began to warp and distort. This produced all kinds of distortions that made it a bit more difficult to observe the outside reality. The sensor systems of the Spirit of Bentheim struggled to maintain a clear view of the immediate environment. However, even the best form of compensation could not make up for the fact that once the factory ship began to approach or exceed the speed of light relative to the central star, it became a lot harder to observe immediate changes happening in front. This was why a starship equipped with a warp drive or a superdrive was never simple. Without the corresponding support systems, it became far too easy for such ships to run blindly into problem areas or fail to disengage the warp drive in time to prevent catastrophic collisions! It just so happened that the native aliens of the Red Ocean refined their usage of warp drives over many years. Humanity easily copied their best practices and used that to develop solutions that matched or in a few cases exceeded the performance of alien tech! "This is quite exciting." Ves remarked as his flagship separated from the main fleet. He felt a lot more vulnerable now that he could no longer count on the immediate assistance of tens of thousands of mechs as well as two extremely powerful standard mechs. His current state reminded him of the times where he got trapped on various planets and could only count on a limited amount of protection around him. Although he hated those challenging ordeals, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic for them as well. Whenever he could no longer count on quantity and excellent preparation to roll over his adversaries, he always became stimulated to develop a fantastic new solution that enabled the few forces left under his command to exert greater power! This was part of the reason why he insisted on accompanying the Spirit of Bentheim on her special mission. He thrived under pressure. It kept him on his toes and prevented him from clinging too much on his existing design solutions. Pressure also made him feel younger and more active, which had a great effect on mech designers as they aged! Ves had met many different mech designers throughout his career, and he noticed that the more successful ones always managed to avoid stagnation by developing strong obsessions and pursuing greater challenges. Although his method of stimulating his potential was a lot more extreme than other mech designers, the results he attained so far made it all worth it in the end! This time, Ves was determined to find a way to overcome the greatest challenge when it came to fighting against alien warships. "Those damn transphasic energy shields are too good at increasing the difficulty of taking down those powerful ships." Ves frowned. "While we are already working on specific counters against transphasic energy shields, there has to be other ways to counter this effective form of defense." He already came up with a few ideas on how he might possibly tip the scales in his favor during the upcoming confrontation. The problem was that he was woefully short on time at the moment. He needed weeks or months in order to complete more comprehensive undertakings such as upgrading the Transcendent Punisher to the long-awaited Mark III edition of this signature mech model. Even a relatively quick and easy upgrade such as replacing the old luminar crystal cannons with transphasic cannons took an awful lot of time and work. As an individual mech designer, Ves knew his limits. The best way he could use his expertise and abilities to good use was to perform a substantial upgrade to a few individual mechs. "I should pay another visit to Saintess Ulrika Vraken." He immediately decided. "I only made a quick pass on her Macharia Execelsia a short time ago. Her ace mech can penetrate through transphasic defenses a lot more effectively now, but there should still be room for improvement." The Hex Federation originally agreed to dispatch their ace pilots and ace mechs to the Golden Skull Alliance on rotation for the express purpose of receiving his unique upgrades. It was an extremely rare privilege for a Senior Mech Designer to be able to get into contact with an ace mech, let alone receive nearly absolute free rein on changing it according to his liking! Ves just didn't have the time to fully enjoy this rare and precious benefit due to his busy workload. "I'm always short on time." Ves shook his head. A part of him even contemplated whether it would be a good idea to make another incarnation of himself again. This was one of the only effective ways he could think of that could quickly increase his productivity and get a lot more work done in the same time interval. A substantial amount of time had already passed since he created Veronica. After that, he went through a mystical sublimation and successfully advanced to Senior Mech Designer. His Spirituality became stronger than ever! "I should think about this later." He still had a job to do. Aside from finding ways to quickly improve the performance of the Macharia Exelsia, he also tried to see if he could upgrade one of the Larkinson expert mechs that were taking part in this wild operation. "The Amaranto already has the Instrument of Doom, so she is good on this front. The Minerva's firepower is a little weak, but Commander Casella Ingvar always invests her power onto her subordinates, so it is fine. The Promethea packs a decent punch with the help of Venerable Isobel Kotin's explosive method, but their synergy clearly has a lot of room for improvement. The Star Dancer Mark II is too weak and outdated. Only a full upgrade can make my brother-in-law more relevant again. As for the Everchanger..." Ves was not lacking for ideas on how he could optimize and fine-tune the Everchanger's performance. The expert hero mech was so flexible and pliable in his hands that he could use his prized work as a testbed for all sorts of whacky ideas! As much as he wanted to head to his favorite mech and tinker with it all day, he needed to be more economical with his time. "I've already handed over the upgraded Gray Lotus to Everchanger, so his firepower should be sufficient for the time being." After a brief consideration, he decided to spend a little time with the Promethea as well. He had good reasons for this selection. Ves hadn't any time on upgrading the Promethea aside from granting it access to Ascension Paths. Venerable Isobel Kotin also happened to be the only other expert pilot aside from Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson who mastered a mystical attack method. Given Tusa's increasing proficiency in borrowing the power of heaven and earth to enhance his shadow techniques, Isobel should be capable of doing the same! In the Age of Dawn, any fighter who had access to any mystical cultivation or fighting method enjoyed a clear advantage to those who had always been groping around by themselves! Ves called up the location of the Promethea and immediately marched over to the hangar bay where the expert rifleman mech was being prepared for battle. He stopped for a moment and watched with satisfaction as one of his best maintenance crews meticulously cleaned and tuned her parts. "Isobel!" "Sir? What are you doing here?" The female expert pilot asked as she turned around. Venerable Isobel wore a custom piloting suit that offered a high degree of protection against all kinds of hazards. Strangely enough, she hardly looked like she was about to enter into a difficult and dangerous encounter against multiple alien warships! Her self-control was a lot better than many of the other expert pilots under his command. Her fiery side only truly came out during the heat of battle. "I came here to see whether I can apply quick modifications or upgrades to improve your performance in the upcoming battle. We need all of the firepower that we can get." Ves frankly said. "How well have you mastered the Detonation Code I gifted you a while ago? Have you found a way to increase the effective damage that you can deal against transphasic energy shields?" The female expert pilot let out a sigh. "No. Not really. Don't get me wrong, sir. The Detonation Code is really useful. I have come to understand the actual meaning of a lot of the strange descriptions stuffed inside my head. I have already begun to amplify the explosions that I can produce with my expert mech by fueling them with E energy radiation. It is just..." "What is the matter, Isobel?" He softly asked in concern. "The more time and effort I spend on the Detonation Code, the less I spend on honing my abilities with fire." She said. "I feel increasingly more that I am turning into another kind of pilot. I am not sure I like this change, sir. I don't want the techniques supplied by the Detonation Code to become more than stopgap solutions for me. I would much rather figure out how I can make use of my original talent and strengths to burn those annoying transphasic energy shields instead." Her misgivings sounded a bit familiar to Ves. Venerable Tusa also issued a similar complaint in the past. The fact that both recipients of enlightenment fruits suffered from the same problems indicated that Ves needed to be more discerning about handing out mystical methods next time! The cultivation methods and techniques had to match the traits of their recipients. Ves thought for a moment. "I think you are right about your doubts. There is no need for expert pilots such as yourself to contort yourselves into becoming someone else. The Detonation Code is definitely powerful, but if you find that its philosophy and techniques goes against your preferred fighting style, then feel free to deviate from it. Have you attempted to adapt its theories and techniques to enhance your non-explosive attacks?" "I have, but it is difficult." Isobel grimaced. "The Detonation Code works on very specific principles. It is meant to produce attacks that are immediate and violent. That goes against what I actually want to produce with my attacks. I want to set fires that don't release all of their energies in an instant. Instead, I want them to converse their power and quietly burn whatever they touch in order to progressively feed the flames until I can produce a giant conflagration that can engulf an entire starship!" Ves could feel the heat of her desire as Venerable Isobel clearly expressed one of her cherished ideals! Even though he was sure that the Detonation Code contained a number of impressive techniques that could produce results that were just as impressive, they just did not excite the expert pilot as much as setting fire to the largest possible targets! Ves began to think He recalled all of the knowledge that he recently obtained from the Beginner Five Elements Spells Enlightenment Fruit. Could he adapt one of the simple 'fire spells' he learned into a brand-new combat technique that Venerable Isobel could readily apply in battle? It might be possible. Venerable Isobel was not unfamiliar with mystical methods. Learning the Detonation Code granted her a basic foundation in this kind of stuff. She could rely on her existing proficiency in the fighting methods of the Alfari Corps to quickly learn a fire-based technique that she could channel through the Promethea! Ves just had to figure out how to make this happen in a handful of hours.