While the Mirror Raiders scoped out Ulimo Citadel, the remainder of Task Force Predator had backed off in order to reduce the chances of discovery.

Though Ves constantly worried about Ketis, he really couldn't do much this far away. The only consolation he had was that Calabast dispatched a stealth shuttle bearing Lucky to the vicinity of Ulimo Citadel as backup.

He missed his cat a bit, but he didn't let the absence distract him from his many duties.

Aside from progressing his mech designs, he also paid a bit more attention to his subordinates.

Many of the Braves he recruited merely possessed a lot of potential at the start. Whether they would bloom or not in the LMC remained to be seen.

Luckily, every new hire in the LMC's Design Department adjusted well to their new life and job. None of them were unmotivated or neglected their work.

The enterprising Larkinson energy along with the subtle influence of the Larkinson Network made sure that each of them fostered genuine belonging to the Larkinson Clan.

Whether they l.u.s.ted after the rewards offered by the Larkinson Merit Exchange or wanted to offer their support to the clan, the assistants under his care all worked dutifully to keep their projects on schedule.

Enough time had passed for the differences to become clear.

For example, Catherine Evenson performed well enough to keep up with most of the Erudites when it came to solving complicated technical problems. Her noble temperament attracted the friendship of mech designers with better backgrounds.

Moltar Ringer exuberant unleashed his passion during every design session. His solutions were slightly more original and innovative as a result, though they weren't always executed well. He was still struggling to make something special out of his chosen specialty of signal disruption.

Rina Orion made few friends due to her cybernetic implants. Her design philosophy was very interesting, though. She specialized in targeting systems, which was something that was useful to all ranged mechs.

She had already accomplished a decent amount of progress in her nascent design philosophy before she joined the Larkinson Clan. After spending her merits on a select number of Clarion University textbooks, her understanding in her chosen field grew by leaps and bounds.

Aside from her competence, leadership ability and interesting specialty, Ves had another reason to pay attention to the former citizen of the Coman Federation.

She possessed spiritual potential. That was always remarkable, but hers was a little special.

It looked dim. For some reason, Ves felt as if he was looking at a starved puppy that had been leashed onto a pipe and left in the yard for hours or days.

Ves scratched his head at the perplexing sight.

Why did Rina possess such a defective spirituality?

From what he observed of her work, she was truly passionate and engaged in her craft and specialty. While Rina might be overly bossy towards the members of her design team, she didn't behave too excessively.

A mech designer like her should possess a more vigorous spiritual potential. While she may not be as talented as Dukan French, at the very least she should be slowly getting closer to advancing to Journeyman!

She presented an odd puzzle, and Ves felt the urge to take her aside and see what was wrong with her. He refrained from doing so after he figured that it might be weird to talk to her about a strange problem out of the blue.

For now, he intended to keep her in observation and monitor the changes to her spiritual potential. If it remained stagnant or began to deteriorate, then Ves would step in no matter whether it was appropriate or not. He did not wish to see a potential Journeyman get ruined by some weird spiritual affliction!

Aside from that, he also made sure to spend more time on guiding his two Larkinson seeds. Maikel and Zanthar were still too young to his liking, but they behaved like sponges as they observed the design teams at work.

Ves was also pleased with their studies. He had fed enough Attribute Candies to them to give them a leg up, but not so much as to distort or unbalance their personalities too much.

Their high Concentration allowed them to absorb knowledge from basic science textbooks for hours on end without getting distracted by their comms. Unlike many other boys their age, they did not play any virtual reality games or shared silly memes with their friends on Commbook during their study time.

Before Ves knew it, Maikel and Zanthar had already absorbed some fundamental knowledge that every mech design student learned in their first year at university.

He decided to call both of them into his office to discuss their future study trajectory.

"Maikel. Zanthar." Ves folded his hands over the desk. "The two of you have begun to dip your toes into mech design. While you have only studied the foundational sciences so far and have not yet performed any practical design exercises, I believe that both of you have already developed an impression at what is possible."

Maikel nodded. "It's really fascinating to learn how mechs are put together. Every day I see a mech, I think I understand a little more how and why it is designed that way."

"What about you, Zanthar?"

"There is something about building machines that can fight that is awesome. I can't wait to design my first real mech."

Both of them expressed genuine enthusiasm in mech design. It was difficult not to. Spending so much time in the design lab while occasionally mingling with Ves or the assistant mech designers increased their intimacy towards mech design.

Even if they didn't really understand what any of the mech designers were working on, simply witnessing the diligence they performed their craft was inspiring.

This was actually something that Ves deliberately set out to do. He did not want to waste his investment into the two adolescents.

By making them spend so much time in the design lab, Ves hoped that some of the passion and dedication of the assistants would rub off on them. It was like taking advantage of institutional isomorphism on a smaller scale!

However, at this stage in their learning, Ves did not want them to follow an ordinary study trajectory.

As his next batch of students, Ves wanted to turn them into innovative mech designers who weren't afraid of blazing their own trail!

From his observations of many low-ranking mech designers, Ves knew that they had to meet two requirements.

First, they needed to develop spiritual potential. So far, Ves didn't know how they emerged, but Maikel and Zanthar had plenty of time to foster their own potential. He could do nothing but facilitate their passion in mech design with the hope that this was one of the methods to develop spiritual potential.

Second, competent mech designers had to develop a mindset towards innovation. Even if human science was incredibly advanced, even if many innovations had already been done before, a mech designer needed to develop an unflinching conviction in their own inventions!

This was why Ves pushed Moltar towards researching and developing his own homegrown solutions in signal disruption.

Ves knew very well that if he wanted to buy a good jammer or interference device, he could just license a highly-optimized module from the MTA's internal catalog.

Yet that did not mean that the innovations of an Apprentice or Journeyman were obsolete. As long as their specialties developed to the point where they were able to augment their inventions with their own spirituality, the performance of their mechs reached a higher level!

In any case, it was far too easy for beginner mech designers to get caught up in the cycle of learning. Ves did not wish for Maikel and Zanthar to become accustomed to spending all of their time absorbing knowledge.

At some point, every capable mech designer had to generate new knowledge. This was the only way for them to become something more than an imitator whose future was limited.

Ves theorized that mech designers should start innovating in their first year at university. This was very early, but it was much harder to instill the correct mindset into his students when they grew older!

"Both of you must have developed a decent overview on the specialties that people of our profession can devote towards. Choosing a specialty is one of the most important choices in your lives. While I don't expect you to have made any solid choices, it is helpful to explore what inclinations you developed during your studies. Could you please tell me which fields interest you the most? Maikel, you go first."

"Oh." He grew more nervous. "Uhm, to be honest, I'm more interested in the glows of your mechs. It's so fascinating to see how they are alive despite their nature of machines. I.. I would like to learn how to design a mech as remarkable as yours."

Ves blinked. He should have expected such an answer.

He didn't know yet whether he was willing to pass on his core trade secrets. His design philosophy was very unique and he didn't even know if Maikel was capable to adopting the extreme mindset that Ves adopted whenever he thought about mech design.

He coughed. "You have a bright future ahead of you. Don't let success fool you into believing that you will become just as renowned as I. Try and find something that interests you that doesn't directly depend on another mech designer's work."

"What do you mean?" Maikel looked confused.

"I'll give you a quick example. If you are still interested in my design philosophy and what I can do, then don't try and develop the same design philosophy as mine. Only the direct disciples of very renowned Masters can do so boldly. You are better off finding a path that is more suitable to your interests."

"What if I don't want to do something different?" Maikel stubbornly asked.

Ves developed a bit of a headache after hearing that. Obviously, spending so much time around LMC mechs had turned Maikel into a devotee of his own work! This was not necessarily good!

"Every mech designer is different." Ves stated. "This means that some mech designers are better suited to some specialty than others. Right now, I don't believe that my specific field fits you best."

"If that's the case, why can't I change myself so that I do fit well with your field? Anyone can change as long as you work hard enough!"

That.. was true. Ves believed in this statement, which made it difficult to reject Maikel's suggestion.

He bowed his head. "Let's return to this topic when you progress your studies some more. Both of you have only scratched the surface of mech design so far. There are many more possibilities out there for the two of you to explore once you graduate into fully-fledged mech designers."

Both Larkinson seeds nodded.

"Zanthar, let's start with you. What interests you the most right now?"

"I.. uhm.." Zanthar grew a little nervous. "During this expedition, I got to take a look at big and powerful weapons. I am no stranger to mechs. Even though your LMC mechs are great, I'm rather bored of seeing them all day. It's only when we started attacking pirate bases that broke up the monotony. Seeing the Alpha Mines, the Omega Lasers and those other huge and powerful weapons up close is very exciting! The sheer might they contain is impressive! I… well.. I know it's wrong, but... I want to build something like that too one day. In a mech! Legally, of course!"

Ves glowered at Zanthar when he heard those words. The young man grew nervous.

"At least you are honest." Ves eventually said. "Not every interest is healthy, Zanthar. Let me note down your initial fascination as an admiration of extreme firepower. Taboo weapons aren't the only impressive weapons that mechs can wield. I highly suggest you expand your horizons. First and second-class mechs are very diverse when it comes to their armament!"

Though Ves believed that every mech designer should follow their passion, that did not mean he was okay with letting Zanthar go down a crooked path! The Larkinson Clan only possessed room for one war criminal!