The Mech Touch

As time passed by outside the dwarven frigate, the Golden Skull Alliance had already retracted half of their mechs.

It did not make much sense to keep so many mech pilots in such a stressful position. The Olympus Mons had already exhibited so much power that the humans simply couldn't overcome its might.

If that was the case, they might as well take it easy. They all realized that they had turned into hostages. Since Ves already called in and informed everyone that the dwarves would let them go after a time, the threat of death no longer hung so closely over their heads.

Of course, Ves had declined to mention the difficulty of his task and the consequences of failure. If the expeditionary members knew that the Iron Emperor was willing to have them all killed if he did not get his way, the oblivious humans wouldn't have relaxed their guard to this extent!

At this time, two expert pilots stood silently in the observation chamber of the Spirit of Bentheim. Both of them were still suited in their piloting suits due to the current alert state, but neither of them had any illusions about their chances in battle.

Ordinarily, Venerable Joshua didn't like to be around his ex-girlfriend. Venerable Jannzi had changed too much as she dedicated herself to her calling. Their opinions on Ves, the direction of the clan and other topics diverged too much for them to find each other's company pleasant.

This was a different occasion, though. The utter defeat inflicted upon the Larkinson Clan today weighed heavily on their minds.

The fact that their contribution in their attempt to resist the Olympus Mons was too marginal caused both of them to have a lot in common this time!

As a result, neither of them minded each other's presence at this time.

Venerable Joshua stared out in the direction of the Olympus Mons. "I wonder if we could have repelled the Olympus Mons if we finally obtained our expert mechs."

"Unlikely." Jannzi said. "An ace mech can easily deal with expert mechs in the same way we can clean up regular mechs. Our mechs would all get crushed no matter what fancy tricks our patriarch has prepared."

Both of them envied the strength displayed by Saint Mayorka. Her domain field and her ace mech had made a strong impression on every mech pilot, but the expert pilots were particularly affected due to their ability to make direct comparison to their own level of strength.

Jannzi and Joshua had always known that the gap between an expert pilot and an ace pilot was big. Now that they witnessed the power of the latter in person, they understood that they had still underestimated how much stronger an ace pilot could actually be. Not even the Larkinson Clan's battle formation could be their equal!

"I thought that borrowing the power of the Superior Mother and the like would be enough for us to defend against other hostile ace mechs." Joshua gripped his fists.

"You're not the only one who thought that way. We all got complacent. We were too ignorant. If Saint Mayorka hadn't taught us a lesson, then some other ace pilot would have done the same. Sooner or later, Ves' reckless behavior will put us in conflict against a group that can field an ace mech. We need to step up when that happens."

"That will take a long time, Jannzi. I want to become an ace pilot more than anything now that it's clear our clan needs the protection of one, but… we're too far away."

Both of them had only advanced to expert pilot more than a year ago. They only piloted prime mechs until then and did not have an opportunity to truly channel their new strength as of yet. Their growth had stalled, leaving them far closer to the starting line than they wished.

Even if they obtained their expert mechs, they still had many years or decades ahead of them before they even came close to reaching the next threshold!

Venerable Jannzi remained stoic as she crossed her arms. "We'll have to leave this job to other expert pilots. Patriarch Reginald Cross is the most likely candidate to become an ace pilot. He can break through pretty soon if he is lucky enough. The only issue is that he's not a Larkinson. Though he seems to be an honorable enough sort, the way he disregards the lives of his own clansmen is just as bad as Ves. I can never respect a person who is willing to sacrifice his own dependents to fulfill an ambition."

"Well, our clan isn't exactly swelling with powerful expert pilots." Joshua said. "The most promising one among us is Venerable Stark. She's older and much further ahead than us. Ever since she obtained her masterwork expert mech, her resonance strength has been surging by a lot. She's measuring at 27 laveres last I checked."

This was an explosive level of growth considering that Davia Stark had only obtained the Amaranto roughly half a year ago. Though her rate of improvement was already starting to slow down, she would still be able to reach the threshold of a high-tier expert pilot within a handful of years as long as nothing went wrong!

"Getting a masterwork expert mech is our only chance." Venerable Jannzi observed. "If any of us obtains an expert mech that can equal the Amaranto, we can quickly become the pillar the Larkinson Clan needs in order to maintain its security in the Red Ocean. Hardly any pioneer wants to risk any forces against an ace mech that is comparable in strength to the Olympus Mons."

This was her current goal at the moment. Venerable Jannzi had always felt driven to protect the Larkinsons against threats, both from within and without. Now that she learned how much better an ace pilot could withstand much greater threats, she hungered to attain this power for herself!

Whether the Larkinson mech designers managed to transform the Shield of Samar into a masterwork or not, Jannzi was determined to catch up or overtake Venerable Stark!

After all, Venerable Stark was ultimately a guest pilot who had always made it clear that she was not a part of the clan. Since she was a strong-willed expert pilot, the Larkinsons hadn't even tried to persuade her to stay and join the Larkinson. The former citizen of the Vindmar Republic was too haunted by her own trauma and tragedies to let go of her vendetta.

Though both Jannzi and Joshua yearned to obtain a masterwork expert mech just like the Amaranto, they both understood that the chances of getting their way was too low. It was unfair to put unrealistic expectations on Ves and the other mech designers of the Larkinsons due to their previous successes.

"If any of us obtain a masterwork expert mech, we have to shoulder a greater responsibility. If not…"

Then they would just have to rely on their own efforts to defy the odds!

Back inside the dwarven frigate, their patriarch was occupied with making a different kind of masterwork.

"Damn, there's too much choice when it comes to designing a crown."

Ves did not have a lot of time at his disposal, so he tried to rush the initial concept creation as much as possible.

He did not consider a lot of alternative choices because it took way too much time to properly consider them all. Regardless, whenever he envisioned a crown, he could think of at least a hundred different design elements that he could add to his design.

It was hard to settle for one choice over another since many of them already looked fairly good.

He browsed a lot of images of existing crowns on the galactic net and opened his eyes to the works of other artisans. Each crown maker applies different ideas to enhance the majesty of whoever wore their creations. Ves gained a lot of inspiration from these examples, but of them quite reflected his own ideas.

Ves merely used them as tools to narrow down his own choices.

"Tall crowns can look quite good and they have an even better effect on dwarves."

"I don't have to be afraid of using up a lot of materials. Dwarves are so strong that they can surely handle a bit of weight on their heads."

"The metal of most crowns primarily come in a single tone, but that doesn't mean I should stick with that as well. I can use two tones and still make my crown look exceptional as long as there is enough contrast."

Slowly but surely, Ves began to design a rather tall and heavy crown that looked more like a solid block of metal than a slender headband. Though he hadn't made any decisions when it came to its material composition, he wanted to come up with an alloy that looked metallic grey.

Along with the dwarven-styles shapes which culminated in a raised front section that extended into a hammerhead, the entire crown looked utterly unique and different from any other symbol of authority that Ves had ever seen!

Ves added a bit of detail work to the front as well. He carved a small depiction of Vulcan to explicitly tie the crown to the God of Dwarves, Mechs and Craftsmanship.

If it ever fell into someone else's hands, it wouldn't do for others to mistake the original purpose of the crown and put it on the head of a human monarch!

"Rion! Please take a look at this sketch. Are you happy with the style of my proposed design?"

The Iron Emperor had always been keeping an eye on his guest's progress. He already formed an opinion of what Ves had made.

"YOU ARE TAKING A BOLD RISK BY USING MULTIPLE TONES ON A SINGLE CROWN. I DID NOT ENVISION MYSELF WEARING SUCH A DISTINCT PIECE. I CANNOT SAY I LIKE IT, BUT IF YOU ARE ABLE TO MAKE IT WORK, THEN I WILL NOT OBJECT TO WEARING YOUR WORK."

The dwarven leader pointed out a couple of elements that he wanted to change. He didn't want to make the crown too heavy and he also wanted Ves to pare back on the amount of reddish alloy he intended to use. He was fine with the overall style of the crown and he did not mind the luminar crystals either, so Ves didn't need to make any changes in that regard.

"I AM IMPRESSED, VULCAN. I ANTICIPATED THAT YOU WOULD FIND IT DIFFICULT TO EMULATED A DWARVEN DESIGN STYLE. IT APPEARS MY FEARS WERE UNFOUNDED. YOU HAVE ADAPTED TO OUR AESTHETICS LIKE A FISH TO WATER."

"Hehehe, I've interacted with many dwarves. I'm familiar with what you guys tend to like." Ves nervously laughed.

After obtaining permission to go through with his current design proposal, Ves began to turn to another important design aspect.

"It's time for me to look at the materials I can use."

He moved over to the storage cabinets and began to survey the different metallic exotics and other expensive materials.

Ves didn't have a clear idea yet which ones were suitable to be used in his crown.

"Most of these materials lean on the denser side."

That could be a problem, especially considering that his proposed crown was not small.

"I shouldn't worry too much. Rion received a lot of augmentation.. He can easily bear all of this weight."