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As a mech designer, he wanted nothing more than to work with superior equipment.

He still hesitated for several more minutes as he tried to convince himself that he was spending his MTA merits in a responsible manner.

"We can upgrade our design and workshop facilities with money instead of MTA merits." Ves remarked. "Our MTA merits are scarcer and more valuable. Once we spend what we have, it is not so easy to replenish what we have lost. We also forgo the opportunity to exchange for items that are not available on the open market. What if we need access to life prolonging treatment?"

Gloriana shook her head in disapproval. "None of us need any of that. It will take at least a century before we have to resort to this solution. We have plenty of time to earn more MTA merits in the meantime. It is much more logical to spend our MTA merits on more immediate improvements to our design environment."

"Why insist on spending MTA merits when we can just wait until we have earned more money?" Ves asked. "In fact, we can pay for many comparable products by trading for them with phasewater."

"That's not a good choice. We can't squander our phasewater, Ves. It's much more precious than these products. There are real differences between the exclusive equipment that we can only obtain for MTA merits and the more regular versions that are sold for regular money. Don't you realize that the former are first-class lab and workshop machines that even the MTA doesn't look upon? Many of the models are actually co-developed by the mechers!"

Though Ves often complained about the profiteering behavior of the MTA, he never questioned the organization's credibility.

The MTA spent a lot of effort into making its merits as valuable and desirable as possible. The goods and services that it offered through its expansive and renowned exchange were all precious and useful without doubt!

The only question was whether the products were relevant enough.

When Ves applied this test to Gloriana's shopping list, he reluctantly admitted that she chose well.

Practically every item on the list was a first-class product. The cheapest items easily cost hundreds if not thousands of MTA credits if the Larkinsons had to buy them on the open market!

The most extravagant workshop addition was the Handagan AP-VEX High-Precision Superfab.

This single device was worth 5,000,000 MTA merits!

When Ves curiously looked up the specs of this superfab, his mouth already started to salivate.

Every single technical specification was vastly superior to what Ves had worked with before!

The AP-VEX superfab practically beat the ELKINE 3D printers that Ves and Gloriana had worked with for several years in the dirt!

"The AP-VEX superfab is a first-class production machine." Gloriana introduced. "It isn't a top-of-the-line model, but it is more than adequate for our current needs. It is designed to work with extremely tough or volatile first-class materials, so we don't have to exceed the limits of our ELKINE production line anymore whenever we want to add superior components to our work."

"The power requirements of this superfab must be insane." Ves frowned.

"That is why I added a first-class power reactor to the list. However, the AP-VEX's energy needs aren't as great as long as we use it to process second-class materials. It can also produce second-class components at much faster speeds. This will allow us to shorten our fabrication runs by several days! The Minerva took around a week for us to make. The AP-VEX along with the other first-class production machines on the list will allow us to finish the job in three days or less! Not only that, but we can exert much more precise control over the parts that we can make that it is much easier for us to attain higher quality levels!"

Gloriana wasn't boasting. While Ves was only able to work with ordinary tournament superfabs a couple of times, he had thoroughly studied the devices and learned what the more expensive versions were capable of. Even the cheapest first-class superfabs were a treasure to any competent mech designer!

Of course, it wasn't easy to make full use of them. While they ordinarily featured a lot of automation, an demanding operator had to become a lot more involved in order to obtain the best results.

The AP-VEX granted its users a huge amount of control over different variables. The problem was that all of its additional settings inflated its learning curve.

Ves and everyone else had to spend a significant amount of time to master the new production machines!

Each of them were designed with first-class mech designers and production personnel in mind.

These people usually learned how to operate these difficult devices back when they were students.

The Larkinson mech designers did not enjoy this advantage. They had to allocate additional time in order to gain proficiency in operating all of the new machines.

No one issued any complaints. The AP-VEX superfab provided such a powerful production boost that Ves would be a fool to turn to any cheaper alternatives!

"There is also another reason why we should acquire this superfab." Gloriana mentioned. "The AP-VEX is capable of working with small quantities of phasewater. We will need to make use of more specialized production machines if we want to work with larger quantities of phasewater, but the AP-VEX such be good enough for most applications."

Ves' eyes lit up when he heard that. This was another useful feature!

"Alright, then. I can agree with this selection. I don't see any clear problems with your selection. The first-class power reactor is also a nice addition. It can supply additional power to our factory ship whenever we are not making active use of the superfab or any of the other power-hungry equipment."

This would definitely be helpful in case the fleet ended up in another battle. The Spirit of Bentheim's shield generators gained a lot more staying power!

Once the Journeymen completed their examination of all of the advanced items, Ves tentatively agreed to exchange for all of the items.

"Let us wait before we acquire all of this new gear."

"What? Why?"

"I have a lot more upgrades in store for our factory ship." Ves revealed as he waved his hand in a circle. "The Spirit of Bentheim is seriously undergeared for the challenges of the Red Ocean. We don't need to upgrade all of her systems to first-class standards, but she needs to be a lot tougher and more productive in order to keep up with our growing demands."

Ves was also concerned about the vulnerability of his factory ship. Installing a superfab and other advanced equipment worth tens of millions of MTA merits instantly turned the Spirit of Bentheim into a highly lucrative loot piñata!

This was why Ves had already tasked Vivian to work on a comprehensive refit plan for his factory ship. He wanted the Spirit of Bentheim to become tougher, faster and more productive.

Though Gloriana quickly wanted to get her hands on all of the juicy new equipment, she knew that Ves was right. The fleet wasn't ready yet. It would take months if not years to complete all of the necessary adjustments.

"Can we at least upgrade the primary data vault first?" She asked. "Our next design round is just around the corner. We can get much more work done if we have access to much more processor power."

Ves reluctantly nodded. "I suppose that is doable. I will look into it later."

Now that they were done with discussing how to invest their MTA merits, the Journeymen moved on to discussing an occasion that everyone had been waiting for. They had prepared so long for this occasion!

"You all know what comes next. While our clan is about to undergo a lot of changes, that doesn't mean we should set aside our work. Now that our fleet has returned to Davute, we can finally start a new round of mech design projects."

A new round!

Every mech designer stood up straighter in their seats. They looked as if they couldn't wait to introduce their proposed mech designs!

Ves smiled at everyone. "I have already informed you that we will be recruiting an additional batch of Journeymen in the next few months. That won't affect our design round as it will take several months for the newcomers to familiarize and integrate into our clan. Given our current numbers, I think we should tackle up to 14 mech design projects. Also, don't forget that we have agreed to collaborate with Professor Benedict to design the Mars Project."

The Mars Project was the most ambitious expert mech design project of the Golden Skull Alliance. Ves and Gloriana would definitely spend a lot of hours on this massive project! It would probably be the closest thing to a ace mech that they would get in touch with for the time being.

"Will you have enough time to lead two expert mech design projects?"

Gloriana snorted. "You should have more faith in me, Ves. As long as the upgrades to our primary data vault go through, I can get so much more work done that I can promise you that neither of the projects that you are talking about will fall behind schedule."

"I will make sure we can hurry up with those upgrades, then."

He activated a projection and instructed it to display two different sketches of different mech designs.

One of them depicted the C-Man Project, the extensive effort to upgrade the B-Man into an expert mech.

One of them depicted the Firestarter Project, a fairly normal effort to design a completely new expert rifleman mech.

"The C-Man Project is significantly more intensive than the Firestarter Project." Gloriana explained. "A brawler mech at the expert mech level is much more complicated than it looks. It needs to endure stresses and resist forces in many more ways than other melee mechs. We also need to realize this design by upgrading an existing mech."

"The advantage of the C-Man Project is that it doesn't involve a lot of different fields." Ves remarked. "It is all about its mechanical structure. Sara, Tifi, we will be counting on the two of you to do the bulk of the work."

Sara Voiken and Tifi Coslone would be responsible for designing much of the exterior and interior of this physical mech. Their work directly affected how well the C-Man would be able to dominate the battlefield in the future!

In comparison, Gloriana and Ves did not have to contribute as much.

Ves merely planned to take care of the spiritual design of the expert mech. Gloriana would mostly play a coordinating and facilitating role while designing more miscellaneous elements.

Gloriana gestured towards the sketch of the expert rifleman mech. "The opposite is true for the Firestarter Project. A mech like this will involve many different disciplines. Each of the mech designers involved in its design will need to make substantial contributions."

"The Firestarter Project is not that different from the Minerva that we have recently developed. We can take advantage of the experience we have gained from designing Commander Casella's expert mech and make sure we can provide an even stronger machine to Venerable Isobel Kotin."

Ves already grew excited at the thought of working on the Firestarter Project. It was an expert rifleman mech that was paired with an expert pilot that wanted to apply her attacks in a different manner.

He could already foresee the many flames that Venerable Isobel would unleash upon her enemies in the future!

His only regret was that there was far too little time for him to learn anything substantial from the MTA's files on first-class luminar crystal technology.

Perhaps he might learn a trick or two, but he doubted he would be able to make any substantial breakthroughs in so little time.

Ves consoled himself by telling to himself that he could always design a better rifle for the Firestarter Project at a later date.