When Ves presented his mounted wargear plan to Joshua and Ketis, they acquiesced quickly enough.

Who said that expert pilots couldn't be persuaded?

They might be stubborn about their own likes and the causes they fought for, but they could still be swayed in other matters!

After getting Venerable Joshua's buy-in, Ves already began to develop some ambitious plans for the mounted wargear loadouts that he had sketched out. The artillery, lancer and so-called meat suit loadouts were all big but not that terribly complex. This meant that he could delegate much of the crunch work to his assistants.

As Ves finalized the details of his proposal, he rose from his chair and left his workplace to visit his wife.

"Meow."

Mrow.

Blinky dematerialized and returned to Ves' mind while Lucky jumped off the desk and followed like a lost puppy.

When Ves reached his destination, he saw that Gloriana was explaining her thoughts to a design team. He patiently waited for her to finish her instructions.

"Miaow~"

"Meow~"

Meanwhile, Lucky landed on a large pillow where Clixie comfortably rested. The two cats bumped their noses and sniffed each other.

Mrow!

Blinky materialized above them and fell on top of Lucky's back. The gem cat did not appreciate the passenger on his back and rolled around in order to swat the spiritual cat away!

"Meow!"

The two tomcats wrestled against each other again while Clixie watched on with an amused expression. Her tail elegantly swished from side to side as she watched the boys defend their pride.

"What are you doing here?" Gloriana eventually turned to Ves after dismissing the little assistants. "Aren't you supposed to be fleshing out our draft design for the Chimera Project?"

Ves grinned and approached his wife in order to embrace her and plant a kiss on her lips, but she firmly raised her palm before he got too close.

"This is not the time! We are on duty at the moment. Can't you control your beastly urges for once and remain professional for once?"

"Hey! You never complained in the past!"

His wife frowned and crossed her arms. "That's because we weren't under so much time pressure. This is different. We are working on the most important projects of our lives. I don't want them to be ruined because we slipped up. Be serious!"

"Uhm, okay." Ves lamely replied. He would just have to try again when they were off-duty and back in their grand stateroom. "Anyway, I did have some business to talk about. I just came up with a fantastic new idea that would definitely elevate the Chimera Project!"

He enthusiastically explained his proposal. He even projected his sketches in order to convey his thoughts in the clearest fashion possible.

"...With all of this mounted wargear, we can use the Chimera Project as a powerful rallying symbol and a vessel to intimidate the mech pilots arrayed against us. The impact on morale when fighting against an extremely powerful giant is not something you can imagine."

"...The best part of this all is that it plays to our strengths and mitigates our weaknesses. Since we are nowhere near the size of conventional states, we don't have a large base of mech pilots to establish a continuous supply of expert pilots. People like Venerable Joshua are very scarce to us, so it makes sense to invest in them and empower them as much as possible."

"...Since it is much easier for us to acquire funding, we can invest them all in large amounts of regular exotics and low-grade resonating exotics that are readily available on the market. It doesn't matter if their properties are relatively shabby. As long as we cobble them together into a loadout that is massive enough, sheer quantity will ensure that the final product is still powerful!"

"...In short, this plan is perfect! This will truly make the Chimera Project shine!"

As Ves finished his brief presentation, he waited to hear the praises of his wife.

..She did not look amused. Her frown grew deeper as she formulated a lot of thoughts.

"Uhm, Gloriana?"

"Ves." She finally ground out. "Have you gone crazy?"

"What?"

"Did you go mad?"

"No."

"THEN WHY DID YOU DEVIATE FROM MY INSTRUCTIONS AND EXPAND THE SCOPE OF THE CHIMERA PROJECT?!"

"It's not as bad as it sounds! This is a great way to—

"YOU IDIOT! THE DESIGN DEPARTMENT IS HORRIBLY SHORT OF MANPOWER! IF WE PURSUE YOUR INANE IDEAS, THE CHIMERA PROJECT WILL BE DELAYED BY AT LEAST A YEAR!"

"It won't take that long! We're not designing an extra expert mech, but merely external add-ons that can temporarily augment an existing expert mech. It's just another form of mech equipment!"

Gloriana slapped her palm against his chest. "YOU ARE OVERLOOKING AT LEAST ONE CRUCIAL FACTOR! I participated in an expert mech design project. Even though I was just working in an assisting capacity back then, I still know something that you don't! Have you ever considered the issue of resonance compatibility?"

Ves finally paused. "Uhhh… what?"

"Thought so." Gloriana huffed and crossed her arms. "To be honest, if you proposed to apply this mounted wargear concept onto regular mechs or prime mechs, I wouldn't be so opposed to it. This is different. Do you know why? Because expert mechs must be internally consistent when it comes to their resonance profile."

Ves scratched his head. "Please explain."

The two of them sat down on a nearby couch. Clixie moved over and dropped herself onto Gloriana's lap. She curled her back as a dainty hand began to stroke her furry back.

"Miaow~"

"The most defining factor that makes expert mechs so powerful is because they resonate with expert pilots. This is something that you already know, but think deeper about what I just said. Why are some expert mechs stronger and some of them weaker? Assume that they are designed by the same mech designers with the same materials and mech components."

That left out a lot of obvious answers. Ves had to think over it a little deeper.

"It has to be a design factor, then."

"Correct." She said. "Just by having the same designer, the same materials and the same components doesn't ensure that the end result will be similar in terms of quality. This is because resonating materials have to abide by additional rules in order for them to show their value. One of them is that they also affect the resonance of other resonating exotics. Do you understand?"

A light shone in Ves' eyes. "If that is the case…"

Gloriana waved her hand and activated a simple projection. "Let me give you a brief example. Let's say that material A is a resonating exotic that can regenerate armor systems and is compatible with Venerable Joshua. Since the material's properties are relatively simple and uncomplicated, we can easily implement small or large quantities of it onto his expert mech."

"And that is not always the case?" Ves puzzlingly frowned.

"Yes. Many resonating exotics are weird. Don't ask me why. However, let's say that material B is also a resonating exotic that is compatible with Venerable Joshua. Now, let me say that it can empower the firepower of his energy rifle, but when we test it out, it turns out that it is only effective when used at a quantity at or greater than 50 kilograms. Any less and it loses its resonance effect."

Those were some odd rules, but certain regular exotics also work in this fashion.

"Now let me state a third rule. Material B inhibits the resonance of material A and vice versa. In other words, they cancel each other out. Now think about that. What does this mean, Ves?"

"It means… a powerful rifle must incorporate a large quantity of material B in order to be powerful enough, but that will directly weaken the effects of material A. The regeneration resonance ability of the expert mech drops as a consequence. That.. is quite bad."

"There's more to it than that." Gloriana said. "The large quantities of material A that is incorporated in the armor system will also weaken the effectiveness of material B. The energy rifle won't receive as much empowerment. In fact, the degree of weakening is so much that it makes it so that material B acts as if there are less than 50 kilograms incorporated in the expert mech. When it falls below this threshold, the resonance is canceled out. That lump of material B has effectively been neutralized."

"Then we apply more material B."

"Ah, but then material A will be weakened even further." Gloriana shook her head. "The end result is an expert mech that makes only a fraction of the use of the expensive resonating exotics it incorporates. The degree of utilization is just 20 percent from what it could have been if the two resonating exotics didn't fight each other."

That did sound like a huge problem, but Ves didn't think that was all. "If there are resonating exotics that cancel each other out, then there should also be ones that mutually reinforce each other."

"There are. The problem is that there are way more relationships that lead to mutual suppression than mutual reinforcement. The latter is relatively rare, and that leads to all kinds of complications. Let's say that there is material C that can enhance the resonance shield of an expert mech. When this material is in close proximity to material A, a wonderful effect happens. They strengthen each other by as much as 50 percent. The defensive properties of the expert mech become drastically stronger."

"I can hear a 'but' coming…"

Gloriana grinned. "Of course. Do you think that everything is perfect? Far from it. Material C also happens to be incompatible with material B. The two weaken each other, causing the rifle of the expert mech to lose power while the resonance shield weakens as well."

"Then why not just get rid of material B since it is such a problem?"

"What if I told you that it is the only viable material that we can use to strengthen the offensive power of our expert mech? It wouldn't be a big deal if we're talking about an expert space knight, but what if we're dealing with an expert rifleman mech? It is intolerable for us to abandon this means of strengthening for a mech that centers around ranged combat!"

"Then we ditch material A and C instead! I don't believe there are more resonating materials out there that can also strengthen the defenses of an expert mech!"

"Then we have to deal with other problems! Say that there is material D that can also strengthen the armor of an expert mech. It also happens to establish mutual resonance with material B, causing the resonance abilities based on both of them to strengthen by as much as 300 percent! It is in fact the best possible solution that we can identify."

Ves narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Then what is the problem?"

"It's a high-grade resonating exotic. Let's say we need at least 3 kilograms of material D in order to make it worthwhile for us. There are no deposits of this rare resonating exotic in any of the local states. The only way for us to obtain it is to exchange 5 million MTA merits per kilogram of material D. Would you agree to such a deal?"

Increasing the effective performance of a couple of resonance effects by 300 percent sounded insanely powerful, but if Ves had to cough up a whopping 15 million MTA merits for it, then he would rather forget about it. He didn't even want to relinquish even a single merit!

Gloriana suddenly looked tired. "Do you understand now what I have been trying to deal with in the past month? A typical expert mech does not incorporate so few resonating exotics. A low-tier expert mech incorporates at least a dozen of them, and that is mostly to take advantage of the mutual resonance of cheaper exotics to produce a strong effect."

"If it is already that complicated for lower-end expert mechs, then what about the better ones?" Ves curiously asked.

High-tier expert mechs incorporate as much as thirty different types of resonating exotics, and the amount of work that goes into making everything fit together is insane! There are countless properties to take into account. For example, material E only works if it is shaped in a horseshoe form. Material F only works if it is blended with material G in a 1-to-103 proportion. Material G is relatively easy to obtain, but it suppresses the effectiveness of materials D, H and I. Do I need to go on, Ves?"

He finally understood the reason why she objected to his proposal. "So the point is that making an expert mech bigger and adding more resonating exotics will make it difficult to achieve a high degree of mutual resonance?"

"Exactly! The smaller the expert mech, the fewer the quantities and varieties of resonating exotics, the less complications we have to face. This is why I think we will probably complete the Disruptor Project first and leave the Bulwark Project for last. What you have just suggested will definitely push the Chimera Project further behind, because each mounted wargear loadout has to be compatible with the mech that carries all of that extra gear! And before you suggest, if you just make it out of regular materials, then the loadout won't be able to enjoy any strengthening and protection effects. The expert mech will probably tear it apart when it activates its resonance shield or exerts lots of force and stress due to its extreme performance!"

If this was the case, then applying mounted wargear to Venerable Joshua's expert mech would be a lot more complicated than he thought!