Alexa came up with a thought-provoking guess! If the creation of a masterwork required the maker to sacrifice a small part of himself, how much more would he have to give up in order to create a grand work? Logic dictated that the price had to be much greater in magnitude! Ves just had to think back on the amazing performance of the Heavensword to understand that relics like that must have demanded an unimaginable price to construct. The cost to create such an amazing work not only encompassed physical goods and materials, but also pure spirituality. The latter served as the essence that elevated the ordinary into the extraordinary. Grand works possessed a far greater quantity of the latter, so it should be logical that their creators also had to give up a lot more in order to bring them into fruition. If this was the case, then any attempt to create a grand work may be a career-ending decision for a Master Mech Designer. It turned out that Masters did not have it easy. They had to confront a test that was similar to the Mech Body Merger Process that prevented many peak ace pilots from smoothly transcending the last vestiges of their mortality. Ves had never heard of Masters dying in droves, so the attempt to create a grand work likely did not lead to a fatal outcome, especially if they made as many preparations as possible. However, the success rate was probably incredibly low, or else the vast mech industry would have produced way more than around a hundred Star Designers. Ves could not imagine how much pressure these Masters endured as they sought to develop a product that was innovative enough to qualify as a grand work, but also increase their spiritual qualifications so that they became strong enough to sustain the incredible consumption! Even then, the low success rate of such attempts meant that a lot of Masters still failed to achieve their goals. Ves did not have enough information at the moment to determine whether these Masters possessed the ability to recover and try again, but even if they could, they likely had to wait for decades or even a century to return to their peak conditions and make another attempt. There may be other variables that affected this condition. Ves was not arrogant enough to assume he figured out the full story behind what a Master Mech Designer needed to accomplish in order to ascend to godhood and become an honored Star Designer. Ves just felt that Alexa had only partially lifted the veil behind this mystery. As the three mech designers continued to think about the insane demands that Masters had to fulfill in order to realize one of their greatest dreams, Ves eventually shook his head. "Let us set this matter aside and focus on more immediate concerns." He told Gloriana and Alexa. "Neither of us are Master Mech Designers. It is pointless to know about what is needed to be promoted to a Star Designer in advance. The mech industry deliberately withholds information about this from us. This means that it only adds needless clutter in the minds of little Journeymen and Seniors. Instead of trying to prepare to become a vaunted Star Designer, let us first worry about realizing our design philosophies first. This junction alone has already stopped many mech designers from progressing further." A mech designer must first prove that he or she possessed the knowledge, discipline, ambition and ability to make a significant and meaningful contribution to the mech industry. If they could not persuade the Red Kingdom to look favorably towards their design philosophies and the applications derived from them, then it was useless to think any further ahead. Even Ves who believed his qualifications were better than many other Seniors still had to take this challenge seriously due to his own career choices. He chose to aim high, which promised great rewards if he succeeded, but could also ruin him if his actual capabilities did not match his ambitions. Everything was fair. If he wanted to become a Master at all cost, then he could have downgraded his goals, but he felt that this was not a true test of his capabilities as a mech designer. At most, the theory that Alexa proposed just now gave Ves a potential explanation why this was the case. Not that it changed anything. Even if he remained in the dark, numerous well-meaning Master Mech Designers had given Ves enough hints and guidance on the importance of correctly setting a goal for himself. Mech designers who only truly cared about becoming Master Mech Designers and thought that going any further was beyond their reach could concentrate their research on more modest inventions. This was usually the case for many second-class mech designers. It was not that they wanted to take a step further, but doing so required them to prove their excellence and achieve great success in the mech market. If their works were merely good but not exceptional, then that indicated that their qualifications and potential were not that great compared to the best of the mech industry. Given that even first-class mech designers universally struggled to cross the great divide that separated them from advancing to the rank of Star Designer, how could second-raters possibly think they had a better chance? It cost an unimaginable amount of funding to engage in the kind of immense research projects that were needed to develop any sort of grand work. It was impossible for many mech designers to earn so much money or attract enough funding from outside investors. That did not necessarily mean that these Masters were ready to lie down and relax, but they understood their own situations best. They could only remain patient and consider a promotion as a very distant long-term goal that would probably take centuries for them to be ready to make the attempt. Perhaps an event might take place in the meantime that abruptly changed the equation. Ves thought about it and believed that the Age of Dawn may have created better opportunities for mech designers. After all, now that they entered a medium-energy environment, it became a lot easier for mech designers to grow their spiritualities. It was also easier to rely on external sources of power to imbue their creations with E energy, though most of it was admittedly low in quality. Multiple Star Designers should emerge from the mech industry in the next few decades if his theory was correct. What was unfortunate was that all of this took time to ferment. Only a few years had passed since the start of the Age of Dawn. Mech designers still needed time to familiarize and take advantage of the new possibilities. They still had to build up a lot of accumulation in order to enact a big plan. It all came down to time. Would the native aliens be friendly enough to give red humans the time to sort everything out? No way! This was why the upcoming operation was so important. Attacking a single den of alien thieves might not be significant enough to turn the entire war around, but it should still have a considerable effect on the changes to the ownership of the Caesarion Upper Zone. As the two fleets continued to cut through space at a blistering pace by engaging in warp travel, the Larkinsons and their allies were gradually finalizing their preparations. Ves had already concluded his hasty test and demonstration of his latest creation. Saint Dise had taken the now-inert Ferrum back to the Vulcan's Glory. Lucky accompanied her as well, much to the gem cat's dismay. Lucky was naive if Ves thought that he would let his cat grow lazy while trying to digest samples of superdimensional matter! If the cat did not exercise his combat capabilities every once in a while, its personality would grow completely rotten! At the final hour before it was time for the Premier Fleet's only fleet carrier to test out her shiny new gravitic catapult, Ves received an unexpected guest in his office compartment. Formation Master Andrea Vos of the Moloch Squadron had decided to ferry over to the Tortuous Scream in order to speak to him in person. "Hello, Andrea." Ves greeted the woman in a familiar fashion. "What is the matter? If you have any need to discuss the upcoming operation, then you should contact the Saint Commander. She is the real person in charge." "We have already held our discussions with Saint Commander Casella Ingvar." The woman known as the Farseer responded. "Our Moloch Squadron's many cultivators are currently working to provide various forms of support to the elements of our two fleets, from scrying the enemy's position in order to track whether there have been any unexpected arrivals or departures, to bestowing inconsistent blessings to our mechs and warships. As support personnel, our contributions are not as visible, but they are not trivial. I am proud of our men and women for being able to make a difference in this operation." "It sounds like you guys have everything in hand. Why look for me, then?" "We have heard that you are planning to conduct your own infiltration mission at the same time we are entering into battle." She said. "To be more precise, you hope to use a specialized infiltration device to board an important enemy vessel or base in order to steal covert intelligence related to phase lords or other information that is related to the native aliens." Ves raised his eyebrow. Although he and the Larkinsons did not work too hard to maintain confidentiality surrounding Ferrum, it shouldn't have been common knowledge. It was quite noteworthy that the collies had managed to sniff out his plan. Had the Farseer used her famous scrying abilities to spy on him? That wasn't supposed to happen. Not only was he sensitive towards being observed, the collies had already taken the initiative to install anti-scrying measures on the Tortuous Scream. "I don't know how you figured that out, but you are correct." He said. "Personally, I don't expect too much from this. The native aliens may be a little more primitive and inexperienced than us when it comes to a lot of different matters, but they are not stupid. They know better than to bring highly classified data on strategically valuable subjects so close to the frontlines of the Red War." The Farseer smiled. "What you say is correct. More importantly than that, the native aliens also exercise decently good information security. If they think that their ships are about to fall into the hands of red humans, they will transmit a command that will immediately wipe out the most sensitive data stored in their data banks and other storage media. What is worse is that they are improving in this aspect with every passing month. They have become much stricter in policing their data since the start of the war." That made sense. The native aliens may have been sloppy at the start of their confrontation against red humans, but after making so many mistakes in the first year, even dummies knew how to plug their shortcomings. "If that is the case, then my primary mission has very little chance to succeed." Ves flatly said. "Not necessarily." The formation master responded. "We know that there is one glaring exception to this rule. The mortal aliens are able to impose their regulations on other mortal aliens, but what about their gods? They never have the courage to tell a god to follow their rules?" Ves became a lot more interested in what Andrea had to say! 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖 "Do you mean that the native aliens over at Screed Tanner VI-F may have brought personal storage devices that contain juicy secret information?" "Yes. We have employed our unconventional intelligence gathering methods to determine whether this is the case. While we cannot give you absolute confirmation, we have good enough reasons to believe you may be able to find what you are looking for at several possible locations." Ves leaned forward. "Tell me more."