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"I am going through a lot of changes at the moment, and I am already obliged to design a bunch of other mechs already." Ves told the leader of the Adelaide Third Fleet.

"Oh. I see."

"Besides, I don't think we should act too hastily on this matter. My clan has yet to fight alongside your mercenary fleet outside of the Battle of the Boryan Belt. I already have a decent idea on how your forces fight, but I need to observe your mechs in action further in order to figure out what sort of living mech model can best complement your existing combat approach."

"We always have room for lighter mechs, though I will not say no to heavy firepower either."

Ves recalled that the Adelaides had a preference for mobility warfare. Getting bogged down in battles of attrition was extremely unprofitable, so the Adelaides preferred to outmaneuver their opponents. They also liked to distance themselves from enemies that were too costly to defeat.

The Jedda Sandivar of the Adelaide Third Fleet loosely matched the strategies that the mercenaries favored.

The ace light skirmisher was too fast to get pinned down and possessed plenty of means to isolate and disrupt its chosen prey. All of these advantages ensured that Saint Marissa Lewandowski always held the initiative.

Ves already came up with a few interesting ideas that might give the Adelaides an extra edge on the battlefield, but there was no hurry.

"If you want to dip your toes into living mechs, then I highly recommend you look into our Ferocious Piranha Mark III. It is an effective mech against all sorts of enemies, but is especially useful against aliens who aren't mentally resilient enough to withstand its disorienting glow."

General Foraine was familiar with this mech model. "Our fleet has purchased a dozen Ferocious Piranhas. I cannot deny that they are useful, but we cannot replace all of our existing light skirmishers so easily."

"I understand."

Their talk did not go on for too long as Ves still needed to chat with other important people.

He was tempted to ask whether he could gain permission to study and tinker with the Jedda Sandivar, but he ultimately did not voice this request.

Just because he was able to do so before did not mean it was appropriate for him to drool over the Adelaide Third Fleet's trump card on a regular basis. It would be disrespectful to its existing designers to hijack the work of other mech designers!

Besides, even if the Adelaides were crazy enough to give Ves free rein to the powerful ace light skirmisher, he wasn't qualified to design most of its systems despite his recent promotion.

Ves met and chatted with a number of other people for half an hour before it was time to enter the dining hall.

The opulent restaurant that the Larkinson Clan took over had not undergone too much of a makeover.

Aside from hanging a lot of banners and emblems related to the Larkinson Clan, the luxurious furniture and the warm decor already did a good job at turning this into a special occasion.

A lot of Larkinsons as well as many guests took their seats.

Not many people could sit at the main table where Ves took the seat of honor. Only the most important Larkinsons received this special honor.

"Papa?" Little Marvaine asked as he sat on his elevated child-sized chair.

"Yes, my boy?"

"What is so great about being a Senior?"

Ves reached out and patted his son's neatly combed brown hair. "The answer is a little too complicated for you. To put it in simple terms, a Senior Mech Designer has proved himself to be a better mech designer in general terms. You can count on a Senior to design a better mech than any Journeyman, though there are exceptions. To be honest, I don't know the full answer myself. I still have to talk to the MTA in order to understand it myself."

He already contacted his pals over at the MTA and scheduled a meeting later this week. He had a feeling that the mechers would solve much of his confusion.

"Seniors are qualified to teach classes." Gloriana mentioned one of the most obvious changes. "Your father's record and accomplishments will easily allow him to take up a teaching position at an impressive virtual school. If the first-raters do not look down on him, it may even be possible for him to teach at your future university!"

"Yay! Papa is the best teacher!" Marvaine squealed and enthusiastically clapped his hands.

Ves chuckled and shook his head. "I do not think that it is possible for you to formally enter any of my classes. It is against the rules of any decent institution. Still, it doesn't matter. Your mother and I will most assuredly teach you everything that we can pass on to you so long as you are ready."

General Ark Larkinson who sat further down the table spoke up at this point.

"I am glad that our clan has gained a powerful Senior, but we cannot pin all of our hopes on you." Uncle Ark said. "While we can still rely on your wife and your colleagues to an extent, we do not have enough talented or promising mech designers among the younger generations. If we want our clan to become comprehensive enough to guarantee its ability to maintain its prosperity throughout the years, it is important to set up as many of our descendants for success as possible."

Ves and Gloriana already understood what he meant. Big family organizations always concerned themselves with maintaining inheritances and securing their long-term stability.

It was critically important that the Larkinson Clan put a lot of effort into developing an unbroken chain of talents and leadership figures.

Though Ves already invested enormously in the development of all of his children, it would take at least thirty to forty years before they grew up sufficiently enough to take over his burdens.

This was too long of an interval. This was why the Larkinson Clan needed to develop more stopgaps that could ensure that the younger clansmen of today could step in if the older generations proved to be insufficient.

Ves looked around until he spotted Maikel and Zanthar Larkinson.

His two former students were still Apprentice Mech Designers, so they did not get to sit at the main table. The two young mech designers still had a lot to go before they became ready to advance to Journeyman.

"I will pay more attention to this." Ves promised to General Ark Larkinson. "I will give any Larkinson a fair opportunity to learn from me, but the premise is that they are smart and compatible enough to accept my teachings. Few mech designers and mech design students are capable of adopting a similar design style as mine."

"Just do the best you can."

Everyone here knew that the Larkinson Clan had become too reliant on Ves. This was the case from the beginning, but slowly eased as many other capable Larkinsons arose.

His early advancement to Senior Mech Designer provided a lot of new benefits to the Larkinson Clan, but also had the downside of reversing the previous trend!

The significance of a young Senior Mech Designer was too great!

All of this meant that the Larkinson Clan would soon return to a circumstance where it could rapidly fall apart if anything happened to Ves.

Although everyone recognized this problem, it was not so easy to find a solution. The only way to mitigate this vulnerability was to raise more powerful pillars for the Larkinson Clan.

The two most likely pillars that could help take over some of Ves' burdens were Gloriana and Ark.

As long as Gloriana caught up to Ves and as long as Ark attained his long-awaited breakthrough, the clan would no longer remain stuck in a unipolar state.

Ves already understood what held his dearest uncle back.

To be honest, he had been waiting to advance to Senior and learn the secret about expert mechs before he intended to design Ark's next battle partner.

When Ves glanced towards his wife, he wasn't sure how long it would take for her to return to parity with him. It would be rather inconvenient if he designed the next batch of expert mechs without a competent collaborator by his side.

He had grown too used to working together with Gloriana. She was truly an ideal design partner in many ways.

It would be a tragedy if he continued to make rapid progress while his wife increasingly fell behind.

Ves was already to help Gloriana pay for her much-desired first-class cranial implant as soon as the Design Department completed its current batch of expert mech designs.

Dinner soon got served. Exquisite looking clockwork bots floated to the tables and delivered the initial dishes.

As the Larkinsons and the guests began to dig in, Ves continued to talk to all of the clansmen who wanted to know how his promotion changed their lives.

"Will you upgrade all of our expert mechs?" Venerable Joshua asked as he sat next to Ketis and his children. "The Everchanger has been clamoring to reach the standard of Jannzi's new machine."

"Please upgrade the Larkinson expert mechs assigned to my Warborn Division first." General Ark quickly requested. "The expert mechs that remain attached to your fleet will not be subjected to as much pressure as my troops. The Larkinson expert pilots who volunteered to take part in the upcoming war will inevitably fight against their Karlach counterparts. Any upgrade can make a difference in these confrontations."

This was true more or less. Given how Ark was eager to earn a lot of war merits, the Warborn were bound to fight a lot of tough battles.

The mechs and expert mechs would subsequently be subjected to a lot of abuse and difficult circumstances.

It wasn't just the intensity of combat that worried everyone, but also the frequency of battles.

Wars between second-rate states often sparked many different battles, each of them centered around different star systems.

There were hardly any circumstances where two warring states decided to take it easy and refrain from launching attacks!

Ves began to frown. "I am not opposed to upgrading the Riot, the C-Man and the other expert mechs under your command, but it will be rather difficult. Just because I have become a Senior doesn't mean I can work on so many projects at once. You will have to wait for me to revise our current expert mechs in batches. Aside from that, it would be highly inconvenient for me to upgrade any existing machine in your Warborn Division when our expeditionary fleet has traveled far away from Davute. I do not intend to compel the fleet to turn around and travel all the way back to the Krakatoa Middle Zone just to solve a single problem."

"Could you not plan out a route that will regularly swing your fleet in the vicinity of our current zone?" Ark suggested. "I am not asking for your fleet to come back immediately after a single call. We can arrange it so that we can still wait until you have completed all of the necessary upgrade projects."

"Hmm… that sounds a lot more reasonable. I think we should talk further after this banquet is over."

Ves did not want to deprive the Warborn of any major upgrades, but he did not want the Davute Branch to shackle his fleet either.

He needed to find a reasonable balance where the main branch of the Larkinson Clan could support its side branches but not to the extent of turning into their slave!