Ves took some time off to grow more comfortable with his expanded knowledge base. He looked at reality a bit more different now that he learned so many new theories.

Though he became ecstatic at all of the knowledge he acquired, he knew that it would take a lot of time and practice to increase his utilization of what he learned.

Just because he stuffed his head full of theories didn't mean he would be able to use them to the fullest effect.

He hadn't even made full use of his recently-upgraded Mechanics and Metallurgy Skills yet. Now he compounded his problem by adding a bunch of new Sub-Skills.

"It's fine." He sighed. "Even if I'm fairly inefficient in applying my knowledge, I'm better off than before. That's enough."

Ves merely wanted to improve his ability to design the Desolate Soldier. He accomplished this goal with his latest round of upgrades. As for the repercussions, Ves believed he would naturally be able to mitigate them over the course of his work.

That was because once he returned home, he planned to go on a design spree! The start of a new mech generation was the best time for him to design lots of mechs! With the mech market in flux, any early mech model could rise to become the market leader in a state or region!

Therefore, Ves didn't worry about lacking practice. The biggest benefit to being an independent mech designer was that he could dictate his own work, after all.

"Filling up my mech catalog is not only good practice, but also good business. It's about time the LMC offers a complete line of mechs!"

He needed to have an expansive design team to manage so many projects at once, but that was a problem for later. For now, the urgency of the situation required him to devote himself fully to his Desolate Soldier project.

Though Ves already laid the groundwork for the technical design aspects of his mech, he still hadn't fully addressed its spiritual aspect.

Ves already planned to make use of Nyxie's spiritual fragment as the base of a new spiritual product. The only reason he hesitated was because the spiritual product would certainly become a poor fit if he only relied on spiritual energy from Nyxie and himself.

Nyxie's spiritual attributes were full of arrogance, tyranny and a vast number of alien attributes. His own spiritual attributes were also messy, and his mech-related spiritual attributes were too general to align his spiritual product with the Desolate Soldier.

"What I need is a third ingredient that can impart the necessary spiritual attributes to make my spiritual product fit my mech design!"

That almost certainly meant that he needed to go out and find an expert pilot who specialized in s.p.a.ceborn ballistic rifleman mechs.

The good news was that Ves already identified a bunch of them in an earlier search. Though a lot of information about expert pilots tend to be cla.s.sified, sometimes their base of operations were known.

Ves wanted to borrow a spiritual fragment from an expert pilot for more than just their affinity towards s.p.a.ceborn rifleman mechs.

"Many expert pilots are known for their strong sense of duty!"

States often invested a lot of effort and resources in shaping the thoughts of expert candidates and expert pilots. To put it in a more uncharitable way, they indoctrinated their expert pilots so that they became extremely loyal to their state!

Ves realized that this was no secret and happened everywhere. Venerable Xie who was unflinchingly loyal to Prince Hixt-Klaaster was a good example.

Of course, the level of indoctrination didn't go too far. No one dared to cross the line set by the MTA and brainwash their expert pilots as extensively as the Kinners did to their own tribesmen.

"They are still somewhat similar, though."

Ves wanted to obtain and amplify the sense of duty in his spiritual product.

He couldn't get it from Nyxie's spiritual fragment because the alien ent.i.ty was far too tyrannical to accept subservience.

He also couldn't get it from himself because Ves was not someone who blindly answered to authority.

If his Desolate Soldiers inherited his own sense of duty, then they would definitely become disasters in the making!

Ves already had a target in mind who fit all of his criteria. He only needed to inform Captain Silvestra to alter their course and divert to a specific star system which hosted a specific military base.

The only reason he hadn't done so already was because he continued to mull over Gavin's words.

Though Gavin's outburst was a bit uncalled for, Ves frequently mulled over his words.

"He's right to question whether it's right for me to design my mech this way." He rubbed his head.

He was thankful that Gavin brought up his a.n.a.logy. By mentioning the Kinner practice of brainwas.h.i.+ng their own tribesmen into becoming human products made available for hire or for sale, Ves grasped the key to keep his mech legal!

"Why do the Kinners get away with their practices?" Ves suddenly asked Nitaa. "Surely, people have lodged accusations at your tribe for engaging in slavery."

"The Kinner Tribe does not practice slavery, sir." Nitaa admonished him. "Our practices are legal. We have many customers, many of whom support our industry."

"That is the key!"

"The key to what, sir?"

"The support of your customers is the main reason why your Kinner Tribe hasn't been forced to change their practices! Perhaps many people find your tribe's primary industry to be distasteful, but you have a lot of powerful customers from all over the Komodo Star Sector. With so much foreign support and political cover, the critics of your tribe are rendered helpless!"

p.i.s.sing off the Kinner Tribe meant p.i.s.sing off all of the powerful and wealthy people who bought the human products. There was no way they wanted their a.s.sets to become prohibited and lose value overnight!

The Kinner Tribe managed to unite many different states and allied individuals in support of their practices. The broad network of supporters they cultivated was enough to s.h.i.+eld them from criticism!

His eyes lit up as he realized that he could make use of their example to solve not only his current problem, but also his future problems!

Though he hadn't returned home yet, Ves received frequent reports on the accusations lodged against the LMC's mechs. How many sales had his company lost because his customers bought into the conspiracy theories?

Though Ves and the LMC could issue as many denials as they liked, the effect would be limited. After all, it was a given that he would support his own products!

He grinned. "It's a different matter if other authorities put in a good word!"

As long as he cultivated support among his customers, he could mitigate the damage and even neutralize it to a great extent! This was because a mech that revolved around duty was exactly what was needed to address the current crisis!

"If something is illegal but also highly needed, it won't stay illegal for long!"

As long as he managed to obtain the buy-in of many powerful individuals by making them value his Desolate Soldiers, then they would naturally back him up! Just like how the Kinner Tribe's polite form of slavery earned acceptance, Ves wanted his Desolate Soldiers and other mech designs to be accepted as well!

"All I have to do is to make my Desolate Soldier model indispensable to the desperate states whose citizens are wavering!"

Ves predicted that his Desolate Soldiers would enjoy a lot more demand in weaker and more unstable states such as the Reinald Republic. The Bright Republic on the other hand did not lack in fighting will, but even the Desolate Soldiers could still play a role in keeping morale high.

He felt a lot better about himself and his current design project now that he came up with a way to solve this increasingly more intractable problem.

Though the solution sounded a bit distasteful due to its parallels to the Kinner Tribe's practises, at least it had been proven to work!

"Heh, there's no need for me to trouble my conscience any further." He grinned. "It's fine as long as it works!"

He began to enact some of his plans. First, he contacted Captain Silvestra to divert to a specific star system.

"Sir, this course adjustment will delay our arrival to the Hertog Dominion by several days."

"That's fine. Some business has come up and I really need to stop by this star system."

Once he did that, he began to work on his mech design. While he hadn't created his spiritual product beforehand, Ves believed it was fine if he created it later. He already had a very good vision in mind.

If his spiritual product didn't conform to his mech design, then Ves would simply hammer it into shape by force!

"Whatever. I can't waste any time!"

The border states already started falling like dominoes and it was only a matter of time until the sandman invasion reached the third line of defense. Ves needed to be ready to publish the Desolate Soldiers by that time!

Though Ves came under a significant amount of pressure, he never saw that as a detriment. He threw himself in his work and converted his draft design into a proper design.

Starting with the internal frame, Ves immediately fleshed out a proper internal architecture for his mech. Despite the lack of quality materials and components, Ves easily worked around the limitations.

Due to his expanded knowledge base, older problems which frequently forced him to pause and think up a solution no longer hindered him any longer. A Sub-Skill such as Internal Structure Specialization I provided him with so many theories and approaches that he rarely resorted to improvised solutions in his current design project.

"What a time saver!"

One of the princ.i.p.al reasons why he spent so much time on designing his mechs was that he often had to puzzle out solutions to difficult problems. With so many choices available to him, Ves had to develop several different alternatives at once and calculate which ones delivered the best results.

All of that took valuable time and effort. Yet now that he gained a number of relevant Sub-Skills, he no longer needed to reinvent the wheel all the time!

While Ves recognized that developing his own solutions by hand were valuable learning experiences, he couldn't care less about developing his own solutions right now.

He just wanted to design the soundest and most efficient iteration of the Desolate Soldier that he could accomplis.h.!.+

The amount of time he saved with his selection of upgrades was considerable. What took three months to design back when he was just an Apprentice now took only three weeks!

Time flowed like water as Ves completely immersed himself into designing his Desolate Soldier. The mech looked increasingly more detailed and real with every pa.s.sing day. The more his mech design approached his vision, the more enthusiastic he became about completing his work.

His pa.s.sion burned like wildfire, motivating him into working faster while also encouraging him to put more of his heart into his efforts!

Even if he didn't pair his Desolate Soldier with a living design spirit, its inherent X-Factor already carried a strong hint of duty and the other traits that Ves wanted to impart into his work.

Ves believed it was his duty to design the Desolate Soldier! He was doing the Bright Republic and the Komodo Star Sector a huge favor by making his vision into reality!

Soon enough, Ves rapidly completed the basic design of the mech frame. By keeping the design as simple as possible, he saved himself a lot of work.

Even though he aimed to keep the mech frame simple, the Desolate Soldier was anything but a shallow mech. Its internal and external structures incorporated many ingenious nuances derived from all of the advanced theories he recently acquired.

"If a Senior could see my work, they would probably suspect that I borrowed the a.s.sistance of one of their own kind!"

He was anything but done, though. Not only did he have to pair his mech frame with a fitting ballistic rifle, he also had to subject his design through a large barrage of tests in order to refine and optimize his work.

Even so, Ves was well on his way to completing his mech design on schedule! He might even be able to finish it ahead of schedule if he skimped on the iteration process!