Just as expected, Gloriana was none too pleased with the deal. That did not change anything, though. Ves was the one who made the decision, and he did not intend to get back on his word. Superdimensional matter was extremely precious for now, but that was mainly because so little of it had fallen into human hands. Once Ketis used the Dimension Blade a few more times, the shortage of dimensional matter would no longer be as acute as before. Explore more at freewebnovel Demand for this stuff was not going to drop anytime soon, but the Star Designers and other major powers should at least be able to obtain enough superdimensional matter to conduct research and develop a superdimensional mech. The Larkinson Clan had 2 years to supply the requested quantities of high-grade superdimensional matter. If the clan failed to make enough progress during most of this period, then Ves and Ketis could always start another mission marathon and scrounge up enough Ascension Points to open a lot of dimension breaches. This was not a cost effective way to spend his AP, though. [Semi-permanent Breach - Level 1 (5,000 Ascension Points): Can generate a semi-permanent self-sustaining dimension breach that is able to persist without any further input. Can still be destroyed through external means.] This particular System upgrade regularly tempted me. Unlocking it would completely change the game for red humanity. It would allow for the creation of dimension breaches that simply did not dissipate by itself. Ves knew that it would permanently give humans access to what may very well be one of the most powerful resources in this universe. Yet in order to unlock it, Ves or Ketis had to accumulate 5000 Ascension points. This was a herculean task, and one that neither of them were capable of fulfilling in the short term. Even with the latest upgrade, the Mission Hall only released a limited amount of Missions at a time. Ves would have to wait weeks before the Mission Board refreshed its offerings. He did not look forward to monotonously waiting for the next batch of Missions to appear before trying to complete the ones within his power. How many times did he have to repeat this cycle? Five times? Ten times? Ves would go crazy if he tried to complete the System’s arbitrary and wacky demands! Although he recognized that the Missions mostly acted as diversions that allowed Ves to come into contact with new and unexplored aspects of mech designs and systematic cultivation, he could only tolerate so much novelty within a specific period. He was still human. Ketis might be able to persist longer on account of being a swordmaster, but she would also be at risk of breaking if she pushed herself too hard. Ves wished that the System offered a way to sell stuff in exchange for AP. He had access to lots of phasewater, high-grade exotics, high-grade hypers and now superdimensional matter. He was sure that the System could put all of this stuff to good use, but it had never once made any attempts to claim these powerful materials. This meant that Ves and Ketis could only earn AP the honest way, just as intended. Only hard work and personal ingenuity could allow a mech designer to earn greater amounts of Ascension Points. The worst part about trying to unlock this extravagantly expensive Dimension Observatory upgrade was that Ves and Ketis could not split the bill! They could only spend their own stash of AP on a single upgrade choice. The overly rigid Mech Designer System did not offer a way for users to transfer AP to each other or split the bill on an expensive item. This meant that either Ves or Ketis had to earn a whopping 5000 AP! No discounts! The astronomical amount of work required to earn so much AP was enough to put Ves in despair! He really did not see any way for him to earn such a massive amount of AP without feeling tempted to spend his earnings midway on a useful enlightenment fruit or other goodies. It was pure torture for the System to list out this attractive possibility before locking it behind an excessively high price tag. Ves shook his head. He refused to think about it any further. After concluding yet another contentious discussion with Ketis, Ves went off in order to fulfill one of his contract obligations. He gathered, organized and amended all of his articles, textbooks, design schematics and other documentation related to the finer points of living mech design. Ves was lucky that he had already prepared a similar information package for Alexa Streon. He merely had to call it up again and update it. He expanded the amount of knowledge and was not afraid of adding more complicated stuff to the package. The Terrans should have plenty of clever Master Mech Designers among them. They should be able to understand the gist of his more elaborate theoretical framework. That was not enough for them to design a living mech, though. A Class IX design philosophy was not that easy to replicate, especially without support from the Red Kingdom. The Terran mech designers all had to undergo the same struggles of Ketis and Alexa Streon. In order to design a real living mech, these mech designers had to be able to shift their mentality and genuinely regard mechs as living entities that were just as smart and powerful as humans. They also had to accept the principle that mechs deserved nearly the same respect, consideration and treatment as humans. This was a bridge too far for many mech designers. The older ones who were more set in their ways should especially find it difficult to adopt such a subversive cognition when they clung to their own views on mechs for so many years. "I am obligated to teach these Terran mech designers my craft, but it won’t be my fault if they understand my theories but cannot accept my perspective and cognition on living mechs." Very few Terrans should be able to succeed. Ves personally believed that only younger and more open-minded mech designers should be able to attain a higher success rate. He at least recognized that there were enough highly educated scions like Alexa in the Terran Alliance that might be able to do more than pay lip service to the idea that mechs deserved to be treated as equal partners. The Vulcanite mech designers that were interning at the Design Department had been doing fairly well in understanding the essence of living mech design. Ves had been a lot more earnest and attentive in teaching Trent Aaden and the other 9 Novices. It helped a lot that they were young, impressionable and incredibly smart and studious. The Eternal Vulcan Empire had definitely sent their best candidates. Ves actually found it a pleasure to teach so many enthusiastic students. Even if his time was limited, he still tried to be earnest about helping the dwarven mech designers find their groove. He did not want to give the Iron Emperor an excuse to suspend the deal and miss out on receiving a modern first-class fleet carrier! There was no way he was willing to invest so much personal attention to teach a bunch of random Terrans. He would give them an honest chance, but it was up to them whether they had what it took to design living mechs well enough to be able to develop their own Carmine mechs. Ves decided to write down his extensive warnings in a document before promptly sending it all to the Devos Ancient Clan. He was not stupid enough to transfer the files over the galactic net. He instead transferred his information package into a secure data chip before arranging a courier to deliver it to Master Laila Rebecca Devos by hand. It would not be devastating to his work and career if his information package got leaked anyway. Ves would merely lament the lost opportunity to sell his knowledge to other interested groups. After taking care of this issue, Ves began to direct his attention towards another important matter. "What is the state of our first-class fleet, Gavin?" "There are currently 15 first-class combat carriers at our disposal. Each of them are capable of housing and carrying the supplies for 30 first-class multipurpose mechs each." His personal assistant reported without delay. His recent augments allowed him to call up the most current data and information at a rapid speed "Most of them are built by Starfarer Bay, so they are consistent and high in quality. The rest are second-hand vessels that we procured from other parties at considerably high costs. None of them were modern, so we had to commission repair yards to service them and update the most essential systems." Ves grimaced. 15 combat carriers did not amount to much. The Larkinson Premier Fleet needed to become a lot bigger before he became satisfied. "Well, I already know that the Tortuous Scream is being finished up. She will be here within 2 months." He recalled. "What about the archeship? Have we manage to refurbish her so that actual humans can operate her controls?" "The archeship designated as A33 has indeed completed her conversion to a human-operable scout archeship." Gavin informed Ves. "She still needs to be operated by a crew that knows what it is doing. The Premier Branch has already hired the necessary officers and specialists. They are currently undergoing extensive training on how to operate archetech systems." "I see. That sounds good. Has there been any updates about the first-class fleet carrier that the Eternal Vulcan Empire is supposed to build on our behalf?" "We have received inconsistent updates on that front, boss." The assistant mentioned. "Ever since the start of the Hyper Generation, the Eternal Vulcan Empire has been… becoming increasingly more isolated from the rest of human space. We still have intelligence that indicates that our fleet carrier is still under construction. The Vulcanites have even revised and upgraded certain pieces due to newer developments in phasewater tech and hyper tech. This has caused the delivery date to be delayed, but it should be done several months after the Tortuous Scream has arrived. She will still have a 320-mech capacity, but this can be expanded upon if you are willing to make tradeoffs." "That won’t be necessary. The fleet carrier needs to be fast and tough enough to withstand the rigor of warfare. She also has to retain as many bunkers as possible to house our heavy artillery mechs." "Ah, about that, sir." "Hm?" "We are in the process of amassing a respectable amount of carrier vessels, but we do not have any living mechs to fill up their hangar bays and mech stables." Gavin noted. "The only first-class living mech of your design is the most expensive version of the Yellow Jacket model. I doubt that you want to rely on Yellow Jackets to fight from the Larkinson Premier Fleet." Gavin indeed pointed out a serious flaw in Ves’ short term plans. "That is very much the case." Ves sighed. "I do not know if I can remedy this issue in the short term. I suppose we can apply quick-and-dirty upgrades to our most popular quasi-first-class mech designs. Upgrading their power reactors, energy cells and heatsinks should at least bring them past the first-class threshold. Strengthening their energy transmission systems and other necessary adjustments will take time as well. Perhaps we are better off with ordering several hundred first-class mechs designed by other mech companies." "That is an understandable decision, but it will paint you as incompetent if you go ahead with this move. A mech designer who cannot adequately serve his own needs is pretty pathetic." "You are right, but I don’t think I can do much about this at the moment. I need to think over it further." "Very well, boss." "Let’s switch to another subject." Ves’ eyes grew sharper. "Have you contacted the RF yet on what is taking it so long to award our clan the RF Warship Tokens that we deserve for killing a bunch of orven phase lords in the last battle?"