Chapter 7412  Assembling A Team

Ves knew that this was not the time for him to indulge in his latest innovation spree, but he couldn't help it. If he did not act on his current bout of inspiration, he doubted he would be able to transform a daydream into a practical application in record time.

Besides, it was not as if his presence was necessary in the next few days.

He was not responsible for the planning related to the upcoming campaign. Saint Commander Casella Ingvar-Larkinson took charge of this effort. She allocated a whole staff department or two towards information gathering and analysis. They probably knew a hundred times more details about the enemies up ahead.

As for his highly anticipated meeting with the Terran developers and test pilots related to the Arboreal Project, they had already been waiting for this for months. It shouldn't matter too much if they waited a couple of days more.

What truly mattered right now was to link the tier 3 Destroyer spear to Saint Orfan and the Riot Mark III in a new and different way.

This was not as easy as it sounded. Neither of the three elements truly got along with each other.

The mutual hostility between the ace pilot and the D-mech needed no further explanation.

The high-tier Destroyer weapon might not truly be alive, but it definitely possessed enough traits to be able to express universal hostility towards anyone, no matter whether they were friend or foe!

In fact, Ves doubted that Destroyer weapons could ever establish any friendships. They treated everything as foes, including itself!

The Destroyer particles that served as the source of their destructive power were so active and destructive that they even repelled each other!

The Terrans exploited this key trait to create their iconic Destroyer weapons.

Through means that Ves still did not understand, they produced Destroyer particles and attempted to stuff as many of them into weapons as possible.

The amount of effort they put in the latter determined the tier of the resulting Destroyer weapons.

At low concentrations, the weapons gained a destructive edge, but still remained relatively usable by ordinary wielders.

It was at higher concentrations that their lethality became increasingly more exaggerated. The weapons grew more extraordinary but also more dangerous to hold.

There were good reasons why tier 5 Destroyers weapons and higher could only be wielded by high-ranking mech pilots!

It took a lot of willpower to forcibly suppress the destructive impulses of the weapon and channel them towards enemies.

This was relatively common sense to anyone familiar with Destroyer weapons.

However, Ves began to question whether this assumption was truly as absolute as everyone thought.

"Is there a way to reduce the hostility of a Destroyer weapon towards oneself?"

This was a profound question. He bet that a lot of Terran experts in Destroyer weapons had asked the same question.

Ves did not know whether they managed to develop a solution that successfully mitigated the harm that these armaments posed towards their wielders. He doubted that the Terrans would give him an honest answer if he asked them directly.

"It doesn't matter."

He was not looking to replicate the solutions of others, if they existed at all. If he was being honest to himself, he actually knew nothing beyond the basics of Terran Destroyer technology.

This way, he could peel back the layers of secrets that made it so dangerous and effective on his own terms.

As Ves began to rub his hands in anticipation, he mentally composed and refined his development plan.

His first conclusion was that he probably wouldn't be able to complete this side project in a timely manner by himself.

It was not strictly necessary for him to resort to outside help, but it would make a lot of stuff more convenient. He could also draw on the expertise of his helpers to assist him in fields that did not hold his interest.

Working together with others would make it a little more difficult for Ves to maintain his flow, but that was alright. He was confident enough in his leadership ability to keep them in line.

He proceeded to make a selection.

"Gloriana? Hell no. She's too busy, anyway. Alexa? She is always helpful. Zanthar? This falls outside his specialization, but… studying Destroyer weapons up close will do him a lot of good."

Aside from Alexa and Zanthar, Ves also thought hard on whether he should invite other Larkinson Journeymen to take part in his side project.

They all had their own strengths, but not all of them were relevant for his purposes. Working together with them would not only make Ves more familiar with them, but also allow him to gauge whether they were suitable to induct them into the Mech Designer System.

He ultimately narrowed down his selection to Merill O'Brian, Cormaunt Hempkamp and Kelsey Ampatoch.

Once he finalized his selection, he invited all of them to a spare meeting room and quickly explained the premise of his side project to the mech designers.

They all looked a bit bewildered. The invitation to help Ves in his development project arrived so randomly that they felt ambushed.

"Why me?" Zanthar asked. "I am not an expert in melee weapons."

"That is true, but don't you want to tinker around with Destroyer weapons and examine Destroyer particles up close? This is your chance to do so." Ves responded with a grin. "As a Journeyman, you do not necessarily have to stick to studying the most relevant fields of your specialization. I am not saying that it is a bad idea, but stepping outside your comfort zone may allow you to get exposed to phenomena that can ultimately birth a radical new idea in your mind. That is how I often get my own inspiration from. This will be a good learning experience whether we succeed or fail."

"What about the rest of us, sir?"

"Merrill. You are here because you are a rational mech designer. I know you can't simulate many design philosophies yet, but we need your contrasting approach to mech design and engineering to address any problems that we have overlooked."

The relatively young woman nodded in acceptance.

Ves had never paid too much attention to Merrill because she connected a lot more with Gloriana.

Though Merrill often maintained a relatively low profile in the Design Department, Ves was still vaguely aware of her progress.

She was a rational mech designer in a similar vein to that of the Polymath. This meant that she did not possess an inherent design philosophy, but trained herself into simulating the design philosophies of other mech designers.

That included Ves' own design philosophy!

Getting employed by the Larkinson Clan and working on living mech designs for multiple years had significantly increased her understanding of what she was working with. She could imitate Ves' design philosophy at the level of a Journeyman Mech Designer to a very convincing degree these days.

That was incredibly helpful because she was developing into an increasingly more adequate substitute of himself.

In addition, Merrill had also become quite competent at imitating Gloriana's design philosophy. While she was not yet proficient in archetech or other advanced subjects, it was no problem for the Journeyman to imitate Gloriana's more basic quality-oriented design applications.

Of course, Merrill never intended to become a shadow of Ves or Gloriana. Her ambitions were greater than that. She had worked to become better at imitating other design philosophies, taking particular care to develop specializations in fields that were not common within the Design Department.

Though rational mech designers infamously needed a huge amount of time to live up to their potential, Merrill was gradually approaching that point.

If she ever gained access to the Mech Designer System, then she could become a much more powerful design asset for the Larkinson Clan in much less time!

That was the main reason why Ves wanted to bring Merrill aboard his side project.

He had a feeling that Merrill may have figured that out by herself. Just because she was low-key did not mean she was blind. In fact, the opposite may be true. She had to be incredibly observant if she wanted to become a good rational mech designer.

"Hempkamp. Your specialization in neural interfaces is not directly related to the current project, but what I need from you is your broader understanding on how individuals and objects interact with each other. I need you to look beyond the confines of neural interface technology and help develop a new interface that can successfully bind a Destroyer weapon to the ace pilot and ace mech."

The Journeyman looked troubled. "This is not a light challenge, sir. I am afraid you are overestimating my abilities. I will try my best to facilitate your work and put my expertise to use, but I cannot give any guarantees."

"That is okay. I am aware of your limitations. Just give it a try. Perhaps you may still be able to make a number of key suggestions. This is a team effort, so I expect everyone to contribute in their own way. You don't necessarily have to take a leading role. Serving in an assisting capacity is already helpful enough."

Cormaunt Hempkamp looked a little more relaxed after hearing that. He had been afraid that Ves would hold him to high standards.

Ves finally turned to Kelsey Ampatoch. He had been recruited a little later than the rest, and therefore possessed abilities that were a cut above the rest.

"As for you, I am sure you can figure out your purpose. Your design philosophy is made for seeking vulnerabilities. That is exactly what we will need. I think you can be a great help discovering and exploiting possible loopholes in the systems we are working with. I need you to put your ingenuity to use."

Kelsey nodded with confidence. "I see. You have chosen the right mech designer. Saint Rosa Orfan, the Riot Mark III and the tier 3 Destroyer spear are all incredibly strong and highly complex sources of power that all operate according to their own rules. These rules may be internally consistent, but often do not perfectly mesh with other rulesets. Contact between three of them at the same time is bound to produce holes that no one has ever anticipated. So long as we look closely enough, we may be able to discover one or two within a day."

Though Kelsey Ampatoch sounded a bit overconfident, Ves did not really mind his attitude. It was better to be optimistic than the other way around.

Seeing that everyone was clear about their responsibilities, Ves began to hand out more specific assignments to them. Each of them needed to conduct different forms of research in order to advance their latest project as efficiently as possible.

After asking a few more questions, they split up and went to work.

While not all of them believed in his latest obsession, they did not intend to slack off in front of the most important mech designer of their clan.

Ves was not too certain about it, but he suspected that the lead designers had gained at least a vague awareness of a huge but secret benefit.

Perhaps the signs were not too obvious, but it was very plain to see that Ves and anyone he favored eventually broke past the limitations of their rank and became a lot more competent in their work!

This pattern was pretty clear to see when studying Gloriana and Ketis at work.

Although Alexa had yet to enjoy the benefits of the System long enough, her attitude after getting inducted into the System had changed in a profound way.

Though she had tried her best to control herself with the help of her upbringing, there was no way for a mech designer to hide the growth in her passion, confidence and enthusiasm.

Perhaps that was why the mech designers invited into the team took this initiative a lot more seriously than they should.