The Mech Touch

6009 Upgrade Arrangements

The celebratory banquet lasted for several hours.

Everyone filled their stomachs with exotic and high-quality meals.

Many of the invited Larkinsons had also managed to speak with Saint Tusa and MadGloriana.

Although the status of these two rising Larkinsons had exceeded that of many other clansmen, the two still made an effort to be approachable.

After all, the Larkinsons who got to attend this party were all promising or highly placed. These were the movers and shakers of the Larkinson Clan.

From the chief ministers to the legion commanders, each of them wielded a considerable amount of influence in the future growth and direction of the clan.

Everyone got what they wanted from their chats with the two rising stars.

The mood among the invited guests remained harmonious. Although the clan had grown so quickly that multiple factions had already started to cinto power, none of the Larkinsons had strong reasons to conflict with each other.

With the Golden Cat continuing to bind them all together, every clansman still regarded each other as brothers and sisters that they could trust on a nearly unconditional basis.

Whether that would last remained to be seen, but Ves was quite happy to see that his clan still retained a high degree of cohesion despite its rapid growth.

In any case, life had to go on after the celebration. Many Larkinsons still had work to get back to. The double breakthroughs most definitely had a lot of implications for the clan, but it would take tfor them to cinto fruition.

The day after the celebration, Ves and Gloriana descended down to the workshop yet again.

Saint Tusa was already by the Dark Zephyr's side. The living mech had grown considerably. E energies continued to pour into the machine, fueling his cultivation and allowing him to catch up to his powerful pilot over time.

"...IF I BECAN ACE MECH, THEN MAKE SURE TO INCREASE MY MAXIMUM ACCELERATION RATE. THE COMBAT WARP SYSTEM IS EXCELLENT AT MAKINGMORE MANEUVERABLE AT SHORT RANGES, BUT MANY BATTLES IN SPACE ARE FOUGHT ACROSS HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS. EACH SECOND IT TAKES TO INTERCEPT OUR ENEMY WILL RESULT IN MORE CASUALTIES FOR OUR CLAN."

The ace pilot shrugged. "I have asked the mech designers to look into it, but you shouldn't get your hopes up. We can't just replace your transphasic flight system with another one. I think we need to wait until the Design Department or one of the new R&D institutions managed to develop an improved version of the Combat Warp System."

"THAT WILL TAKE YEARS. I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG. I DON'T WANT TO END UP AS THE SLOWEST ACE MECH OF MY WEIGHT CLASS. DO YOU KNOW HOW EMBARRASSING THAT SOUNDS?"

"I don't think you have to worry about your enemies overtaking you. We aren't competing against human mech forces anymore. The only enemies we need to worry about are alien warships, and none of them accelerate faster than you. The only enemies that can give you a run for your money are phasefighters, but they are so weak that there is no point in taking them seriously."

Both Tusa and the Dark Zephyr had noticed the approach of the two mech designers a while ago, but they only suspended their conversation when the newcomers got close enough.

"Good morning, Tusa."

"Good morning, Ves. Good morning Gloriana."

"GOOD MORNING, MY PROGENITORS."

Ves smiled as he gazed up at the Dark Zephyr. "I have great news for you. My wife and I have just signed a contract with Master Benedict Cortez of the Cross Clan. He will be the mech designer responsible for converting you into an ace mech. This is the most convenient choice for us as Master Benedict still resides in the expeditionary fleet. The two of you will be able to return and fight alongside the Larkinson Army for several months before our old friend has completed his design work. Gloriana will work together with Master Benedict by remote, but she will not be able to help as much in this case. There are still aspects about ace mechs that surpass the realm of expert mechs."

"MASTER BENEDICT… HE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER MASTER MECH DESIGNERS. I LIKE IT. A MECH DESIGNER WHO IS COURAGEOUS ENOUGH TO BET HIS LIFE ON HIS OWN WORKS IS MORE TRUSTWORTHY THAN A COWARDS WHO HIDES IN THE REAR."

Unlike his battle partner, Tusa looked a bit more reluctant about this choice. "I can understand how convenient it is to let Master Benedict do the work, but he has only beca Master Mech Designer relatively recently. Aside from that, his specialization doesn't have a lot to do with light mechs. There ought to be many older, more experienced and knowledgeable Master Mech Designers among your friends circle, right?"

"There are, but I don't trust many of them to treat the Dark Zephyr right." Ves responded. "He is a third order living mech and a masterwork mech. It takes a respectful and restrained approach for a third-party mech designer to properly upgrade your machine into an ace mech. On top of that, your battle partner is also an archemech, which means that there are very few mech designers who possess the expertise to work with this tech base. Master Benedict is not too familiar with archetech, but he is willing to defer to Gloriana on this matter, which takes a lot of humility. Out of all of the candidates that we have explored, Master Benedict has shown the greatest amount of sincerity."

Gloriana snorted and crossed her arms. "He is far too curious about our latest work, Ves. The Master is familiar enough with living mechs to understand your rules, but he is also greedy for inspiration. The Ultimate Module that you have recently invented is a much more advanced application of hyper technology than what can be found on the mech market. When Master Benedict learned about it, he did not even bother to hide his overwhelming desire to study your innovation. I think he will try to copy sof your solutions and use them to improve his Endex System."

"Hehehe. He is welcto do so." Ves grinned. "I am not selfish. This is part of the trade. In exchange for getting access to the Dark Zephyr Mark III, he will do his utmost to upgrade our quasi-first-class expert light skirmisher into a first-class ace mech. Even if we have already laid much of the groundwork in advance, it will still take a lot of effort for Master Benedict to complete such a significant upgrade. The strength of the next iteration of the Dark Zephyr will reach a whole other level after this. I bet that not even the Mars can compete anymore."

That was an optimistic statement. The Mars may still be stuck with a second-class ace mech, but Master Benedict regularly updated the machine from tto time.

The Master Mech Designer mastered more advanced technologies over time. The rich plunder and profits earned from all of battles in the border region also enriched the Cross Clan, allowing it to afford more expensive materials that could be used to fabricate more expensive mech parts.

Compared to its initial form, the latest version of the Mars had becseveral times stronger and many times more expensive, and this was without factoring years worth of willpower baptism!

In addition, Patriarch Reginald Cross grew vigorously after he first piloted the Mars and turned it into his second skin. His Saint Kingdom was not only stronger, but the ace pilot definitely managed to deepen his control over his domain field.

Yet despite all of these factors, Ves possessed a great amount of confidence that Saint Tusa and the Dark Zephyr could already hold their own against Patriarch Reginald and the Mars.

The Larkinson Clan of today had much greater financial strength than the current Cross Clan!

The high-quality alloys that made up the mech frof the Dark Zephyr alone was worth several hundred million MTA credits!

Of course, this was just a very loose prediction. Ves did not dare to claim with absolute certainty that Tusa would win a duel against Patriarch Reginald.

"Saint Tusa, now that you have broken through, you have entered a period of rapid development." Gloriana said in a more neutral tone. "You may have gained an enormous boost in strength, but your utilization of your newfound capabilities has dropped. You need to spend texploring and familiarizing with your Saint Kingdom. Much of the power of an ace pilot comes from exploiting the vast power of his domain field. At this moment, you have not even begun to leverage it properly. Aside from that, you also need to relearn how to pilot the Dark Zephyr himself. The transition from a low-tier expert mech to a high-tier expert mech is already an enormous leap. You need to refamiliarize yourself with your battle partner as soon as possible."

That was prudent advice. The Larkinson ace pilot nodded with a serious expression.

"I know how powerful other ace pilots are. I already recognize that I am not as good as the likes of Saint Marissa Lewandowski in terms of control. I will work on this first as it is unacceptable forto lose my fluency in controlling my machine."

Ves was quite satisfied with Tusa as an ace pilot. His second breakthrough had not inflated his arrogance or altered his personality to the point he becunrecognizable.

Tusa was probably one of the most ideal candidates of the Larkinson Clan to break through first.

He respected Ves.

He loved the Larkinson Clan.

He was willing to risk his life to protect the Larkinsons.

He was not greedy for authority.

He maintained a relatively subdued and grounded perspective on reality.

He possessed a friendly personality.

He treated his living mech with utmost trust and affection.

All of these reasons and more caused Ves to feel lucky that it had been Tusa who had broken through the invisible barrier first!

If a guest pilot such as Venerable Davia Stark or an absolute idiot such as Venerable Vincent Ricklin broke through first, then Ves would probably gain an enormous new headache.

Ace pilots couldn't be restrained!

Even now, Ves no longer possessed the confidence that he could stop Tusa from doing whatever he wanted.

If Ves and Tusa ever had a falling out, then there was a considerable chance that a lot of Larkinsons decided to follow the latter instead of the former!

It couldn't be helped. Modern human society had been conditioned to worship high-ranking mech pilots.

Many people already treated god pilots as literal deities. Ace pilots were much more accessible but attracted an insane amount of hero worship.

Even now, many clansmen had already turned into dedicated fans! They were practically ready to worship Tusa as a literal patron saint of the Larkinson Clan!

Fortunately, it did not appear that Tusa was the sort of person that paid attention to that kind of stuff. His strengthened willpower exuded a sense of calm and inner peace. It was as if nothing in reality could affect his mood. This was a manifestation of his freedom domain.

After they finished their discussion on the circumstances of the Dark Zephyr's future ace mech conversion, Ves also mentioned a more immediate requirement.

"Tusa, Gloriana, both of you have broken through. This means that the two of you need to make another pilgrimage to a sector headquarters of the Red Association. Both of you will be gone for a week or so. I am not entirely sure what the mechers will tell you, but I am confident that the both of you will at least becaware of a very important pillar of the mech industry. Once you have completed this obligation, you will doubtlessly learn a couple of essential new techniques."

Gloriana eagerly nodded. "I have always wanted to learn how to design expert mechs on an independent basis. I can finally end my dependence on your contribution!"