The Mech Touch

After Ves taught Venerable Jannzi his lesson, he soon retracted Qilanxo's presence.

It was too costly in terms of spiritual energy to channel her powerful might. Now that he lost the Grand Dynamo, he had to become much more careful about depleting his mind.

Fortunately, he didn't have to persuade an entire crowd this time. The loss he suffered was small enough to minimize the impact on his mentality.

He carefully watched Jannzi's expression to see whether his words hit home. He had become tired of Jannzi's constant accusations and attempts to tear him down. If he wanted to work together with her to protect the Larkinson Clan, then he needed to do something about her distorted views of reality.

What better way to correct her mindset than attempting to change those views?

Even though Ves knew that his attempt amounted to another distortion, he hoped his attempt might be able to nudge her towards normality.

As the tense silence stretched, Ves began to harbor some doubts. Had his attempt worked? Had his description of Qilanxo hit home?

Eventually, the expert pilot calmed down. She no longer looked as conflicted. Her force of will had shifted, but it still retained much of its original character. That was not an optimistic sign.

She let out a deep breath. "I don't know Qilanxo as well as I thought. Thank you for pointing that out to me. I'll be sure to commune with her and get to know her better. However, don't think that you've won. I respect Qilanxo and I am grateful for all of the help she has provided, but I am a Larkinson, not an Ylvainan. I do not worship gods, and I never viewed her as one. There is no rule that states I have to take over all of her values. I will hold to my own ideas. I believe that Qilanxo is open-minded enough to allow me to disagree with her. If it turns out that I am wrong, then I have no qualms about going it alone."

As she spoke, her force of will calmed down. She had ceased the turbulence that had swept over her mind.

In fact, Ves even suspected that he may have pushed her will forward!

"While I agree with you that Qilanxo isn't a god, she is the root of your strength. She has not only played an indispensable role in your breakthroughs, but has also helped with turning the Shield of Samar into the fantastic mech it is today. She made you just like I did. In fact, you should consider us your parents."

Jannzi indignantly crossed her arms. "Should I call you daddy, then?"

He coughed. "You don't have to go that far. My point is that we aren't your enemies, Jannzi. We might not be of one mind, but we don't have conflicting goals. All three of us want the Larkinson Clan to prosper. Sure, we also have our own agendas, but the best part about our clan is that it embraces ambition. There is room for Larkinsons and relatives who don't want to take too many risks. However, don't force everyone else to turn into herbivores. Some of us just want to eat more meat. Let me tell you that Qilanxo is a carnivore as well. For all of her yearning to protect her family, she's a meat eater like other predators."

The conversation ended soon after that. Jannzi still stuck to her stubborn stance that Ves was not suited to be the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan. She even voiced her willingness to turn her back to Qilanxo if the sacred god prevented her from pushing her own agenda!

What an obstinate expert pilot!

Ves had seen his fair share of stubborn demigods, but Venerable Jannzi willingness to burn everything in order to accomplish her goals!

Well, maybe Venerable Ghanso came close. The two expert pilots were so similar that Ves felt unnerved.

As he watched the expert pilot march away, he wondered whether Jannzi would follow in the footsteps of his hateful cousin.

Had his conversation with her pushed her further upon this path? Ves wasn't sure. He did not possess a sufficient understanding of expert pilots and how they progressed. He had too little exposure to older expert pilots to know what it took for them to ascend to the rank of ace pilot.

All he knew was that this road was long and difficult to traverse. Far too many expert pilots died or declined in strength before they came close to reaching the next rank.

Of every expert pilot that Ves had ever met, only Patriarch Reginald Cross gave him the feeling of someone that was very close to becoming a Saint.

Ves continued to wonder about expert pilots for the remainder of the day. When Ves finally returned to his grand stateroom, he laid down on one of his couches and idly hugged and cuddled with Bygul.

[Mew~] The electronic cat cutely purred.

"Hehe. You're so well-behaved. Lucky doesn't even come close to you. It's too bad you aren't alive."

Despite this shortcoming, Ves still came to like his new pet. It was just like embracing a new plushie animal. Even if it was nothing like a real animal, it still provided him with joy.

It was at this time a hatch slid open. Gloriana, Clixie and Lucky tiredly entered into the living room.

"I'm home, Ves!"

"Welcome back, Gloriana."

As ves was about to suggest they eat dinner, a certain cat became indigant.

"MEOW!"

Before Ves and Gloriana could blink, Lucky zipped forward and clawed Bygul's projected body!

The glowing blue cat instantly disappeared as the physical projectors were no longer capable of maintaining his form. The ASTERA AI core's avatar popped like a balloon!

"Meow!" Lucky exultingly cried as he managed to destroy his competitor!

The gem cat then proceeded to lick and rub all over Ves as if he wanted to mark his territory.

Ves belonged to him! No other cat was allowed to take his favorite meal dispenser away!

"Hihihi!" Gloriana giggled at the sight. "It looks like Lucky doesn't want you to cheat either."

"I'm not cheating! I was just playing with my new toy. It's not as if I'm getting rid of Lucky!"

"Meow!"

"I'm telling the truth!"

"Meow meow."

"Why don't you believe me?"

It took half an hour to placate his jealous and possessive cat.

Later that evening, Ves and Gloriana just finished their meals and cuddled against each other. They tuned into a news program while their cats rested atop their bodies.

Ves enjoyed embracing his wife. She was not only warm and lovely, but also smelled nice. He enjoyed her lavender scent.

As Ves talked about the capital ship designs that Vivian presented to him, Gloriana shared her own thoughts.

"Those ships do sound useful. While the Glory seekers already possess their own fleet carrier, there is no harm with getting more. However, I don't want you to turn us into another version of the Cross Clan. There is more to us than fighting. The Gorgoneion and this silly Ovenbird are both geared towards improving our combat strength. I'm not saying that you're wrong to pursue these ships, but we need to balance out our fleet with other capital ship types."

Ves raised his eyebrow. "What do you have in mind?"

"Think about the production side of our fleet. I happen to agree with your priority in making our clan self-sufficient to an extent. The Spirit of Bentheim allows us to produce mechs and other machines without needing to borrow someone else's production facilities. If we obtain this Ovenbird ship, then we can also lessen our dependence on shipbuilding companies. However, these two capital ships only address a portion of the supply chain. If we want to obtain greater independence, then we should go even further."

"What ships do you have in mind?"

She raised a finger.

"First, we need a mining ship. While it is too troublesome for us to mine every resource we need to fabricate our mechs, it is still useful to mine the most valuable deposits that we can find in a star system. Aren't we entering the Red Ocean in order to take advantage of all of the riches it contains? How can we not bring a powerful mining ship on our own? If we have a capital-grade mining vessel, we can excavate a lot of valuable exotics at an industrial pace! With a mining ship, we can also supply a lot of valuable materials to the production halls of our factory ship."

Ves hesitated for a moment. He had thought about obtaining a mining ship as well. He hesitated because it was a bit extravagant to go for a capital-class mining ship when a smaller mining vessel sufficed.

If the Larkinson Clan obtained a large-sized mining vessel, then it had to make good use of it. That meant that his expeditionary fleet would linger more in star systems with an abundant amount of mineral wealth. The focus of his clan would shift from pure production to a mix of resource extraction and production.

Nonetheless, Gloriana might have a good point. Right now, Ves and the LMC had grown far too used to purchasing readily-available materials from the open market. While that was fine in a relatively stable region within human space, he could not assume that the resource market was just as developed in the Red Ocean.

She was also right about the purpose of heading into the Red Ocean. Ves never thought about relying entirely on designing and producing unique mechs to develop the Larkinson Clan. Extracting unique and highly-valuable resources like phasewater was definitely on his agenda!

"Okay, Gloriana." He nodded. "You've convinced me. I'll tell Vivian that she should devote more attention on developing a mining ship concept."

"I'll take care of that for you. I've been on several mining ships in my early career. I know how they work. Just trust me. The mining ship of our clan will not disappoint!" Gloriana grinned.

"Do you have any more capital ships in mind?"

"Of course! A mining ship is not enough, you know. We need to process some of the minerals as well. Even though a fully-equipped mining ship is capable of processing ore into refined metals, that doesn't cover everything. We need to obtain a refinery ship in order to supplement our resource extraction and processing capabilities."

"A refinery ship? Do you want us to make our own fuel?"

"That's exactly what I am suggesting. Why not? You told me once that the Spirit of Bentheim makes use of very high-grade reactor fuel that is not that easy to obtain. If that's the case, why not make this fuel ourselves? With a refinery ship, we can harvest the substances of gas giants and process them along with other substances to form all sorts of refined materials!"

Refineries were able to make fuel along with all sorts of other gasses, liquids and even solids. Depending on their refinery equipment, refinery ships could single-handedly meet all of the fuel requirements of his expeditionary fleet and supply a considerable amount of input to his factory ship.

Ves hesitated a bit more on this suggestion. "I'll think about it. A refinery ship is useful, but it's a huge commitment to invest in a capital ship that is fully invested in this role. A part of me feels we could use an additional fleet carrier instead."

"You don't have to choose, you know. You can obtain both! Perhaps for now, we are limited by the amount of capital ships we can pass through the beyonder gate, but once we reach the Red Ocean, we no longer have to abide by any quota! As long as we reach the other side, we can invest in as many capital ships we wish!"

"It'll be expensive. There is too much demand and not enough supply on the other side of the beyonder gate. I don't want to pay ten times as much and wait at least five years before I'm able to obtain a new capital ship."

"Then why are you hesitating?" Gloriana tilted his head. "As long as we establish an independent supply chain, we can build our own ships, including capital ships! It's perfect!"