The Mech Touch

It did not take long before the Larkinson Clan and the Wild Fighter Association finalized all of the details and came to a consensus.

One of the biggest hurdles in the round of negotiations was determining how much money the Living Mech Corporation should earn per produced mech.

Obviously, a strong mech was much more valuable than a weaker one. Yet how could anyone determine where the Monster Slayer design fell in this spectrum?

Not even Ketis knew how good her solo mech design would be! Her track record was too small to make a reasonable assessment on the value of her upcoming work!

Eventually, both sides decided to wait until Ketis completed the Monster Slayer design before defining the exact sums. This was the fairest way to settle this question and also provided additional motivation for Ketis to do her best for her debut commercial mech design.

To commemorate this important cooperative venture, the Larkinsons and the Wild Fighters gathered together in order to hold a modest ceremony.

Ves and Director Kadar both signed the virtual document that represented the contract that they had agreed upon.

Both of them smiled and shook hands before exchanging pleasantries.

"I hope Miss Ketis will be able to deliver a complete mech design within a year." Director Kadar said.

"We will make sure of that." Ves promised.

The Monster Slayer was not supposed to be a complex mech design. Ketis wanted to design a clean and simple landbound swordsman mech that was affordable and maximized the impact of piloting skill to win its battles. There was no need to burden its design with needless and expensive gimmicks.

Ves estimated that Ketis should be able to design a basic, low-budget swordsman mech model in four to five months.

However, the Wild Fighter Association demanded a heartland-level mech design that performed well enough to impress most crowds.

This meant that it had to incorporate more advanced materials and components than what Ketis had been working with in the past few years. This meant that she needed to learn a lot in order to master all of these new resources!

That would definitely add a few additional months to the project duration, so it was prudent to set a more generous deadline. Who knew what would happen in between that might cause the design project to be delayed.

Once the ceremony had ended, Ves happily returned to his hotel. He was pleased now that there was finally another mech designer who could take over some of the burden of financing the Larkinson Clan.

"Ketis is finally turning a profit for me." Ves smirked. "It was worth it to invest all of that time and effort into nurturing her. Once she makes a name for herself, we can earn a lot more money from her second commercial project!"

Though Director Kadar saw a lot of promise in Ketis' work, he did not dare to go all out. Ketis still needed to prove herself in the commercial arena before the Larkinson Clan was able to demand higher prices from its business partners.

Even so, the loose estimates he heard from the financial experts of his clan were quite optimistic. The Living Mech Corporation could potentially earn as much as 5000 MTA credits on an annual basis!

Of course, all of this money came in the form of royalties. Since the Wild Fighter Association was doing most of the work, it was natural for it to receive a much bigger cut of the profits!

There was a huge difference between earning 5000 MTA credits and 50,000 MTA credits per year!

Yet Ves did not let his greed overcome his better sense in this instance. He knew quite well that earning the latter amount was much more troublesome than he could handle.

"It's good to sit back and just watch the money roll in by itself." He muttered as he returned to his upscale hotel suite.

"Meow." Lucky greeted as Ves returned to his temporary home in Chance Bay.

"Miaow~" Clixie blinked at Ves as she rested beside the crib where little Aurelia was napping.

Speaking of earning money, while Ketis was taking her first steps to put money in the Larkinson Clan, his wife had been doing the opposite!

"You…"

"Welcome back, Ves." Gloriana smiled as she carefully brushed her brand-new personalized designer handbag. "Look what I've got! It took a few weeks for Hoenbach to fulfill my custom order, but I've finally received my long-awaited handstitched two-toned lavender-and-white puelmer leather Giarna handbag! Look at this leather! You have to feel its texture. Look at these seams. They're so precise and dense that it is hard to believe it is all done by hand! Look at how the artisans have managed to form my initials with precious red jewels. Hoenbach completely delivered what I asked!"

Ves wanted to puke when he saw the handbag.

The most generous term to describe the design of this designer item was that it was 'fashion forward'.

The idea of using the skin of a sentient alien race to produce a new form of leather and dye it in bright tones before turning it into a handbag was certainly not a normal idea!

Only a pretentious fashion company like Hoenbach could turn stupid ideas into highly desirable luxury goods!

To be fair, the craftsmanship of Gloriana's new handbag was truly good. If Ves ignored its unconventional design, the workmanship was truly worth a lot of money.

He would never pay 120 MTA credits for this bag, though!

The more he thought about how much money Gloriana had spent in her shopping spree, the more Ves became upset at how much the Larkinson Clan's debt burden had grown.

He had to shift his attention away from this infernal bag as soon as possible!

"Ahem, our clan has gained a new expert pilot." He said as he turned away in order to remove the overpriced handbag from his sights. "Commander Casella Ingvar needs an expert mech. We can't cooperate with Master Willix this time, so we need to turn to another helper in order to design such a high-end mech."

"We've already cooperated once with the Hexer Master Mech Designer who should almost be done with completing the new expert mech design for my brother!"

"No!" Ves immediately barked. "We're not going to work together with the Hexers! I've been thinking about working together with Professor Benedict Cortez of the Cross Clan. He might not be a Master, but he's an excellent Senior. We're bound to design a high-tier expert mech for Patriarch Reginald Cross in the near future, so we can treat this instance as an exercise to help us get accustomed to working together."

Though the Cross Clan had become increasingly eager to deliver a masterwork expert mech to its patriarch, this job could not be rushed.

After entering the Red Ocean, the Larkinsons weren't the only newcomers who had to get accustomed to all of the new tech, materials and methods.

Though Ves had no idea what Professor Benedict was doing these days, the ambitious Senior was probably doing his best to expand his own design and production capabilities!

Even a Senior needed time to absorb all of the new possibilities available in the Red Ocean. As long as Professor Benedict invested a year to get up to speed, he would assuredly be able to design vastly superior mechs!

Of course, all of those new toys also cost a lot more money. Just like the Larkinson Clan, the Cross Clan needed time in order to generate a source of revenue and gain access to all of the resources necessary to construct the best possible expert mech for Patriarch Reginald!

While neither Ves nor Gloriana were eager to cooperate with mech designer that was less capable and less trustworthy than Master Willix, the Larkinsons had little choice.

Ves simply didn't know enough high-ranking mech designers. He hadn't managed to befriend a single Senior or Master during his stay in Chance Bay.

Even if he did acquaint himself with these higher figures, he would be quite reluctant to involve them in the design of one of the key strategic assets of the Larkinson Clan. What if they sold him out to his enemies?

While Professor Benedict was anything but harmless, Ves was confident that the man was currently on their side. Past incidents had brought the Larkinsons closer to their allies. There should not be a compelling reason for the former Skull Architect and the Crossers to abuse his trust.

Though Gloriana tried to convince Ves that the clan was better off if they cooperated with proper Masters like the ones from her former state, he remained unmoved.

"Fine then!" Gloriana angrily said as she hugged her expensive new handbag. Her slim palm lovingly rubbed its unique textured surface. "If you want us to collaborate with Professor Benedict, then go ahead. Just know that a Senior will never be as good as a Master!"

Ves crossed his arms. "That's not necessarily a bad thing. Master Willix only contributed the bare minimum to our expert mech designs. If she added anything more, her powerful design philosophy would have overwhelmed ours! When we cooperate with Professor Benedict, we need to make sure that he restrains himself. Commander Casella's first expert mech ought to be a Larkinson mech, not a Crosser mech."

Now that he made his decision, the couple moved on to discussing their other future projects.

"Have you decided what you will be doing for the upcoming design round?" He asked.

"I plan to design three custom mechs for individual Larkinsons." She answered. "There are a number of Larkinson mech pilots who have waited too long for a reward. They've collected a lot of Larkinson merits and are willing to spend most of it to obtain a powerful custom mech."

"Who?"

"Commander Melkor Larkinson, Vincent Ricklin and Imon Ingvar."

Ves fell into thought as he heard those names. "One regular mech pilot and two expert candidates."

Although he wasn't sure whether Vincent and Imon needed a custom mech from his wife, Commander Melkor had waited too long to receive a personal reward.

Ves felt a bit guilty about neglecting the Avatar Commander. He never had enough time and there were always greater priorities on his mind.

It was ultimately good that his wife could take over this responsibility. Melkor truly deserved better.

Gloriana briefly outlined her preliminary ideas about her custom mechs.

"Commander Melkor is a ranged mech specialist, so I intend to design a rifleman mech for him." She said. "Although I mostly want to design this mech on my own, I will need your help to pair my work with a good luminar crystal rifle."

"I can do that."

"Good. As for Imon Ingvar, he's a melee mech pilot but fights best with swords. I'll have to design a swordsman mech for him, and I intend to call upon Ketis to contribute to this project."

That didn't sound like a solo project anymore, but Ves did not mind all that much. The mech pilots would never reject the opportunity to pilot a stronger and better-designed custom mech!

"What about Vincent's custom mech?"

"He works best with a hybrid mech design, so I intend to develop a more powerful incarnation of his old Adonis Colossus."

Ves looked surprised. "Are you sure you're okay with designing a masculine mech?"

His wife did not deign to reply. She merely snorted as if she was offended by his doubts!

"Er… okay. I look forward to seeing how you'll complete this design."

It would certainly be an interesting design! There had to be a reason why Gloriana took it upon herself to design a mech for one of the most masculine mech pilots in the Larkinson Clan!

What was interesting about this custom hybrid mech design was that Gloriana intended to rely on herself to complete this project. She even chose to avoid luminar crystal technology so that she did not have to ask for his assistance!