The establishment of Diandi Base comforted Ves a lot. He no longer felt as if he was a guest in another person's home. The rented villa at the Eden Institute may have been convenient for Ves to move to the classrooms where he performed his teaching duties, but it was too Terran for his liking. The advantage to owning his own base was that Ves and the Larkinsons could change it however they liked. It was their own piece of property, and while it suffered from a serious shortage of personnel, it was located relatively far away from other Terran settlements. This helped to make Ves feel at ease in this different and foreign environment. He did not hate the Terrans. He liked them a lot. They had always been friendly, courteous and accommodating towards him since his arrival. They were genuinely interested in cooperating with him and did not attempt to resort to pressure tactics even once. This enabled him to make substantial gains in diplomacy. His biggest coup was the rather extensive secret agreement with General Axelar Streon and the Streon Ancient Clan. From the moment the Renewer of Terra had begun to plan for an ambitious heist on an alien home planet, there was no way Ves wanted to be left out of the party! This was an operation that could define the early years of the Age of Dawn. Ves could actively contribute to the emergence of a potential new god pilot. Aside from gaining a huge amount of fulfillment as a mech designer for seeing one of his clients succeed, Ves would also gain a powerful backer in the process! The Devos Ancient Clan was also worth his time. Having spent a decent amount of time on New Constantinople VIII, Ves gained a more thorough understanding of the ancient clan's difficulties in the new frontier. It was a pity that Ves could not offer too many services to the Devosans. He needed to become a proper first-class mech designer first before he could use his mech designs to strengthen their armed forces. For now, Ves had already agreed to open up his Premier Branch for limited recruitment. The relatively new branch of the Larkinson Clan did not advertise this in public. Ves was afraid that his staff would get swamped with an excessive amount of applications. Ves decided to entrust the Devosans to seek out the right candidates and selectively issue invitations to them. They were much more clever and sophisticated in this kind of stuff and could easily save the Larkinsons a lot of work. Unfortunately, it was not easy to find any Terrans who were sincerely willing to abandon their old identities. They might claim that they were completely willing to abandon their old citizenships, but when it was time for them to bare themselves to the Golden Cat, they ultimately failed this crucial test. "I knew this would happen." Ves muttered. "Nyaaaa..." Goldie glumly responded as her manifestation floated at his side. Gavin meanwhile struck another name off the list. "This is the 26th potential recruit so far that has failed the loyalty test. These Terrans are tough cases. I wonder how many of them are spies sent by other organizations." The failed candidate had already stepped away from the totem of the Golden Cat and left the chamber. The Larkinsons had already explained that there was no future for them here if they could not gain the approval of a strange and glowing entity. "It's not their fault, Gavin." Ves spoke in a subdued tone. "I have paid attention to the recruitment processes. The interviews and other examinations show that these Terrans are sincere about starting anew. They all have their own reasons to throw themselves to our clan. I can feel their sincerity from here. It is just that they are still way too reluctant to completely break with the Terran Alliance. They don't harbor any significant hate or resentment towards their current superstate. As long as that is the case, I don't think that these fellows can fully bring themselves to make a clean break with their past." The current display was a testament of the strength of Terran pride and culture. The Terrans were already extremely loyal to the Terran Alliance. The successor state had inherited all of the virtues of the Greater Terran United Confederation and completely replaced it in everyone's hearts. Ves was actually quite impressed that the Terrans were so strongly committed to their own identity, culture, state and values. The fact that they managed to instill so much loyalty among themselves without resorting to an artificial solution such as a kinship network showcased the national strength of the Terrans. No wonder the ancient clans weren't in a hurry to make a deal about acquiring their own kinship network! Their urgency was much lighter because they did not fear that their own citizens would commit treason anytime soon. The Terrans were more interested in the other benefits that a kinship network could introduce to their society, but there was no need to rush the negotiations for these reasons. In any case, now that he had taken his measure of the first batch of Terran applicants, Ves had seen enough. "I will leave all of the matters relating to recruitment to you, Gavin." Ves spoke as he turned around. "It will probably take a while to find a handful of Terrans that meet all of our requirements. We may even need to extend our search outside of the territories of the Terran Alliance." "The locals won't like that, boss." "The Premier Branch can't afford too many delays. If the Terrans are unable to supply the manpower that we require, then we will go looking elsewhere no matter what they think. You can go tell them that. The Devos Ancient Clan will probably intensify their efforts to meet our needs." After Ves had issued his verdict on the matter, he left the chamber and went back to his new design lab. The transplanted base originally did not come with a design lab, but it was easy enough to convert a few office spaces into a workplace that was suitable for mech designers to do their work. The truly important part was the workshop facilities that came with the base. Not only did the Larkinsons gain another set of first-class production machines, but they also gained their first materializer! Yes, a materializer! Unfortunately, the original owners of the outpost had not invested too much in this expensive gadget. The materializer was among the smaller and cheaper variations on the market. It was slow and consumed enormous amounts of energy. It was decent enough at producing smaller parts so long as they did not incorporate any difficult first-class materials. While it was adequate enough to materialize most advanced first-class components, this high-tech gadget was completely unsuitable for industrial production. Only the most desperate first-raters would use this small materializer to produce a complete first-class mech! When Ves and Gloriana initially familiarized themselves with their latest toy, their enthusiasm quickly cooled when they discovered all of the limitations of this budget-tier materializer. "It is much faster and more effective at fabricating second-class parts." Ves remarked as he pressed a conspicuous button. On the other side of a transparent wall, various thin but incredibly precise particle beams and laser beams had begun to materialize a totem of Vulcan that he had just uploaded to the control system. The simple design and material choice made it so that the materializer quickly completed its job within half a minute. "Wow. That's slower than I expected. This model is worse than I thought." Ves frowned. Once the freshly materialized totem cooled down and went through an automated inspection routine, it eventually fell onto a large output tray. Ves casually picked up the metal totem and inspected it from every side. "Let me see as well." Gloriana came closer and snatched the totem out of her husband's grasp. "I see that your prediction was true. The lack of a human touch has indeed deprived "Ugh! I can't afford to remain stuck at this level! I need an upgrade!" Ves already determined that it was impossible for him to install a new cranial implant. His body had mutated beyond the scope of conventional human understanding, so he could only resort to cultivation science to go further down this deviating path. He became so fixated on this priority that he began to put serious thought on how to solve his current problem. "How can I turn myself into a better mech designer?" He asked himself. "If I don't do something about this, then my wife will most certainly overtake me half a year later when she finally gets to obtain her own customized first-class cranial implant!" That put a lot of extra pressure on his back. He could not allow his wife to overtake him in their shared profession!