Totems were associated with savage, primitive religions in humanity's ancient past.

Some alien races also developed religious worship into some kind of spirit or god that was represented by some sort of decorated object.

Of course, these days totems were regarded as products of superstition in much of the galaxy. Only a few religions utilized them in their rituals.

Frankly speaking, a highly secularist organization like the MTA should have no business with totems. Ves doubted Master Willix was interested in them because she wanted to worship any proto-gods.

Considering the MTA insatiable hunger for knowledge, Master Willix and her fellow colleagues would definitely research them as much as possible!

Ves felt rather chilly at this prospect. How much would Master Willix be able to decipher from the glow of a totem?

Perhaps the only reason why he didn't panic any further was because he couldn't really stop the MTA from poking its nose in his business anyway.

If they wanted to study an LMC mech in great detail, they could just purchase a bunch of copies and subject them to all sorts of examinations.

The MTA archived most of the design files and schematics of the LMC's commercial mech designs. Many of the notes that Ves had left behind possessed hints towards the mech's interactions with an unknown entity.

The fact of the matter was that the MTA could already get its hands on a bunch of applications of his design philosophy.

Crafting a bunch of totems for the MTA did not sound like a big deal if that was the case. It was not as if the glows attached to totems were different from the glows attached to mechs.

If the MTA truly wouldn't get much useful out of researching his totems, then Ves did not mind accepting the trade.

Ves did not immediately accept, though. He frowned as a couple of concerns weighed him down.

First, the MTA's research capabilities were very formidable. They were also aware of spirituality in the form of psionic power and probably developed their own understanding of this phenomenon.

This made it dangerous for Ves to underestimate the Association's research prowess.

Second, the wording used by Master Willix made it clear that the MTA only authorized him to access some of its research on luminar tech. How much would he obtain? Would it be enough to achieve a substantial performance boost with the Crystal Lord Mark II? How practical would it be to implement this tech?

"What exactly will I be able to work with?" Ves asked the physical projection. "Your description of your offer sounds rather vague. I don't have enough information to determine whether I can obtain what I need."

Master Willix activated another projection that depicted a lab test. "You can see for yourself. This is some of the gains that one of our research groups have made over the last two decades."

The second projection depicted a completely empty white room. A standardized dummy mech built to average third-class specifications rested at one end of the testing chamber. A mech-sized laser rifle apparatus was affixed at the other end of the testing chamber.

A lot of numbers and labels scrolled through the view. Ves only partially deciphered the technical readouts.

Eventually, the rifle fired a powerful laser beam that instantly hit the dummy mech!

Ves estimated the energy level of the laser beam and the damage it was supposed to inflict. If his read on the situation was correct, then the concentrated laser beam should have penetrated halfway through the frontal armor of the dummy mech.

His eyes widened as the area struck by the rifle looked a lot more damaged than he thought!

After performing some rapid mental calculations with the help of his implant, he estimated that the damage of the laser beam was actually thirty percent more potent!

"How is this possible?!"

"More efficient energy conversion, mostly." Willix answered. "Compared to comparable commercial laser rifle models, the rifle in this demonstration is capable of converting much more electrical energy into useful damage output. Less energy is wasted in the form of heat, which has the added side effect of considerably decreasing the heat generation of the weapon."

While this effect was also present in the original Crystal Lord design, it wasn't as drastic as the MTA's demonstration!

A thirty percent boost in efficiency over modern, new generation laser rifles was huge! As long as the cost of this crystal laser rifle wasn't too excessive, it would definitely be able to empower the Crystal Lord Mark II to a considerable height!

Seeing that the lab test of the crystal laser rifle made a powerful impression on Ves, Master Willix switched to another piece of footage.

"The luminar race not only excels at outputting energy damage, but is also proficient in defending against it, as you surely already know."

The same crystal laser rifle as before now pointed its muzzle at a large crystal block. Ves could faintly recognize the odd alien circuits formed inside the crystal block through unknown means.

When the laser rifle fired a beam that was exactly as powerful as the one in the previous lab test, the block absorbed the laser beam without any issue!

Hardly any heat got released. The large crystal block perfectly absorbed the entire laser beam without any complications!

While Ves was already familiar with this phenomena, the laser rifle wasn't done yet. It continued to fire laser beam after laser beam at the same block.

THe large crystal continued to accumulate energy as a result. It began to glow brighter and brighter in white. When the laser rifle stopped firing, the crystal block suddenly released all of the captured energy at once in the form of a magnificent white light beam!

The beam struck another target placed in the chamber, causing it to sustain a devastating amount of damage!

Though the original Crystal Lord was capable of performing the same feat with its central crystal, the capacity and damage output of the crystal block vastly exceeded what his old mech design was capable of. Not even his gold label Crystal Lords could release such a powerful beam!

In fact, even accounting for the increased mass and volume of the crystal block, its devastating counterattack already surpassed the threshold of third-class mechs!

"This.." His breath shivered. "Was this attack strong enough to threaten a second-class mech?"

Willix nodded, thereby confirming his radical guess! "The luminar crystals possess very interesting properties that allow them to function as great counters to many pure energy attacks. The crystals are highly effective at storing electromagnetic radiation and to a lesser extent thermal energy. The energy is then repurposed and homogenized in a form that allows the crystal to discharge the energy at once as a coherent attack.

Ves became incredibly excited by what he saw! This tech had the potential to elevate the Crystal Lord Mark II into a true beast on land! The meager applications that Ves came up with on his own paled in comparison to what the MTA accomplished after performing dedicated study into crystal builder technology!

Though Ves had become incredibly dazzled at what he saw, he knew he couldn't allow himself to get too hyped by the potential benefits.

There had to be a catch!

"This is.. very impressive." he said. "I'm concerned about their cost, though. Will implementing these luminar crystals in my mechs double their price? If that is the case, then it is very hard to justify their implementation into my Mark II design."

Master Willix faintly shook her head. "I have already taken your circumstances into account. The demonstrations that you have seen today will not unduly add to the cost of the mech. The luminar crystals will only add around 300,000 hex credits or so to the production cost of your mechs. The real challenge is producing them. Very advanced production equipment is required to synthesize these crystals."

Ves narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "What kind of equipment do I need?"

"They are out of reach."

"If that's the case, then how can I possibly produce these powerful crystals?"

"We can come to an arrangement. Every MTA branch that has reached a certain scale can synthesize these crystals and supply them to the LMC or any of the third-party manufacturers that produce your Crystal Lord. You only need to pay the requisite costs to the branches."

This condition made Ves lose the wonder he gained from witnessing the impressive lab tests. This arrangement made the LMC too dependent on the MTA for the supply of luminar crystals.

Ves figured that they must have figured out a way to create the crystal cube that 'activated' luminar crystals. Perhaps they even developed a better version of the crystal cube that Ves still stored in his vault!

Though he resented the arrangement proposed by Master Willix, he already understood that he wouldn't be allowed to produce the luminar crystals themselves.

Once the production methods leaked, alien crystals filled with inscrutable alien runes and circuitry would probably show up everywhere in the galaxy! The MTA already bent its rules by a considerable degree by allowing Ves to play around with them in his new Crystal Lord Mark II design!

If Ves and Gloriana hadn't continually impressed the MTA with successive accomplishments, there was no way that Master Willix was willing to accommodate his request to this degree!

This only made him feel more worried about the price she demanded. For some reason, Master Willix and the MTA really wanted to get their hands on his totems!

At least Ves possessed some very desirable bargaining chips. Since Master Willix valued them so much, he was curious whether he could milk the MTA further.

"The way you speak about luminar crystal technology suggests that the researchers working on it have probably developed more applications, right?"

"You are correct. Don't think about obtaining anything more, Mr. Larkinson. Your Crystal Lord Mark II doesn't require additional features."

"What about scaling up the luminar crystals so they become capable of empowering second-class mechs?"

This time, Master Willix chuckled a bit. "The main reason why you are eligible to work with luminar crystal technology at all is because it is mainly relevant to the lowest class of mechs. It is an entirely different matter to allow you to incorporate second-class luminar crystals into second-class mechs. The difference that this can make is enough to destabilize the second-class mech market."

The MTA may offer a lot of tech in the form of component licenses to mech companies and mech designers, but it also held a lot of it back. This kind of alien tech that was clearly superior to conventional human tech was truly dangerous to human society if it started showing up everywhere.

Ves already knew he had to revise the availability of the Crystal Lord Mark II in order to avoid ruffling the MTA's feathers too much. He would likely have to jack up the price of his product so that its amazing performance was paired with an even more excessive price!

He thought for a while. It was trivially easy for him to craft a bunch of totems that were pretty much useless other than their glows. It hardly cost him anything for him to do so. This entire trade sounded too easy, in fact!

Yet from what he saw, the luminar crystal technology truly fit the Crystal Lord Mark II to an amazing degree. Ves was not worried whether the Master Willix made the wrong selection or whether the MTA attempted to scam him in this trade.

With so many pros and so few cons, logic dictated that Ves accept this deal.

Even his emotions urged him to say yes.

There was just one more issue he needed to clarify. He addressed Master Willix once again.

"I can provide the MTA with a number of totems once I return from the Nyxian Gap, but I won't provide you with every glow. Some of the more obscure ones, such as those attached to my virtual mechs and those utilized in competition mechs, aren't within my reach anymore."

To be honest, Ves could probably reproduce some of them, but he simply couldn't be bothered to. He didn't want to hand over too many totems to the MTA and this sounded like a nice excuse to limit what they received.

"That is not a problem." Master Willix replied. "We are mainly interested in your stronger glows. Let us form a list."

They entered into a quick discussion. Eventually, Ves agreed to provide totems that carried glows that represented all of the commercial mech designs of the LMC as well as a few commission and private mech designs.

In his opinion, he was giving up a bit too much of the latter two categories, but Master Willix was fairly insistent!

Eventually, Ves reached out and shook hands with Master Willix's physical projection.

"It's a deal." She said with a smile.

"It's a deal." Ves replied with a mix of excitement and resignation.