While Ves felt enormously put off by his new task, the Rim Guardians didn't take no for an answer. Lieutenant Ferct cared nothing for his objections and was blind to his reluctance.

Her attitude reflected the typical stance of the MTA. Locals not only ought to, but desired to fulfill their whims!

Ves felt enormously put out by this arrogant attitude. Even if the Rim Guardians possessed the strength to back up their assertiveness, they could have shown they actually cared.

At the end of the trials, the Rim Guardians at least gave him something extra before they kicked him out of the Pit. Lieutenant Ferct passed him a data chip before shoving him, Lucky and his previous purchase through a portal.

"A little welcome bonus for passing our trials! I hope you have fun with it! If you want more, I expect you to work for it! We're already sending the mech pilot in question to your ship docked in orbit!"

Ves emerged back onto the surface of Centerpoint V.

"Meow?"

"Yeah. I don't really know what happened either. It seems I've become associated with yet another club."

He decided to take a break and rest at a hotel for the night. His mood to explore the rest of the Centerpoint system had faded now that he had unknowingly entered an initiation session.

Although he resented that he had no choice, Ves did admit that it wasn't all that bad to build up a relationship with the Rim Guardians.

While Ves preferred to keep his distance from the MTA, the powerful organization might not like it. For now, he was just an insignificant Journeyman that was just entering the prime of his career.

Once he advanced to Senior and made strides towards Master, the MTA's interest in him would certainly multiply, especially if he improved rapidly.

If the MTA paid closer and closer attention to him, he would prefer to enjoy some support from within the organization.

This was especially important when Ves became more prominent in the future. With the way his design philosophy worked, he was already attracting a lot of attention with his recent designs.

If Ves continually proceeded to design mechs with X-Factors as strong as that of the Aurora Titan and Transcendent Messenger, then he would surely attract a huge amount of attention!

No matter how much Ves tried to deflect the MTA's attention, they obsessed over all things mechs and would never miss any novelty. His designs would definitely attract the attention of their internal mech designers who would begin to value his design philosophy even if it was unlikely to be realized at the Master-level.

"This is actually a fortuitous encounter." Ves muttered to himself while he idly stroked Lucky's back in his hotel room. "I just wished Charlotte could have told me about what was in store for me if I used her invitation card."

Ves could hardly explain why Charlotte chose to give him the invitation card without explanation. Did Charlotte genuinely think that she was helping him, or did she just decide to invest in him and expect a future payoff?

If it was the former, then she was a friend, if a misguided one at that. If it was the latter, then Ves needed to treat her in the same way he treated his other business partners such as the Tovars or Calabast.

"Well, what do I expect?" Ves shook his head. "As a probationary recruit, Charlotte would have certainly known the value of a mech designer who advanced before reaching thirty. If I were in her place, I would have invested in such a promising mech designer as well."

If Ves truly wanted to avoid attention, then he would have delayed his advancement by at least a decade. A Journeyman who advanced at their forties was incredibly unremarkable.

Although late bloomers existed who rose to greater splendor in the later stages of their lives, there were far too many muddleheaded mech designers who simply weren't diligent enough to reach those heights.

"It's too bad I can't afford to take it slow."

Ves received numerous hints and warnings from various different sources that larger developments were afoot.

War would definitely break out in the future, that was for certain. If Ves wanted to avoid being treated as a disposable mech designer like in the previous war, then he needed to make as many strides as possible.

"It's probably unrealistic to make it to Senior by the time the next big conflict breaks out. It takes too much time to do all the research that's required to develop my design philosophy." Ves shook his head in regret.

He would just aim to become a prominent Journeyman instead.

"It depends on how much time I have."

He already changed his status a bit by becoming a Journeyman, but that was not enough for him. The closer he got to Senior, the more regard he received from the Bright Republic and everyone else. The days of accompanying a task force that went on suicidal missions should be over.

"Let's see what this data chip is all about."

Ves refrained from accessing the data chip immediately. Now that he was alone with nobody else but a dozing Lucky, he finally felt secure enough to see what it contained.

He slotted in the data chip to his comm and began to explore its files.

"These are… lithic mech research reports?"

He already received a glimpse in the workings of lithic mechs. Obtaining these documents and reports provided him lots of data and analyses to make greater sense of them. It opened the door for him to design a lithic mech by himself.

"Still, who would want to buy a lithic mech?" Ves scratched his head.

The application of mechs based around stone materials rather than metallic materials was rather dubious. Perhaps the only instances that stone-based mechs would be useful was if someone ever needed to employ a mech in an environment that was extremely hostile to metal objects.

In every other case, people were better off using standard mechs. The study in the use of lithic materials in mechs was a very obscure research field. Other than mech designers who specialized in using stone-like materials as substitutes for alloys, no one else wanted to waste their time on developing a material that only three or four people would ever make use of in the entire galaxy.

Therefore, the value of the research files on the data chip was very much of limited value to Ves. Certainly, since he already received it, he might as well spend his time studying what he already got. He just wished that the Rim Guardians were more considerate.

"Research on lithic materials in mechs is pretty much trash for them. That's probably the reason why they gave it out so freely."

The Rim Guardians sent an unspoken message with this data chip. If Ves wanted to obtain papers on more valuable tech related to mechs, then he needed to work for it. The files he obtained was just an appetizer compared to all of the knowledge they held in store!

Ves certainly knew that the MTA held back a lot of exclusive tech, but unlike every other mech designer, he wasn't so desperate to beg them for access. Not when the System could take care of most of his needs in this area.

"I'm much better off trying to obtain their protection and to make use of their network to obtain rare exotics."

Hardly any organization could rival the MTA's reach in human space! They probably had access to nearly every exotic material discovered by humanity!

He was already thinking about seeing whether he could obtain some of the exotics needed to fulfill the System's Supply Missions.

"It would be nice if I can do that." He sighed. "But that would mean earning their favor first."

Ves dreaded what he would find once he returned to the Barracuda. The Rim Guardians already intimated to him that the mech pilot they wanted to turn into an extraordinary was a bit of a problem case.

While he hadn't met the mech pilot as of yet, it was clear the Rim Guardians already gave up on him! Why else pass him over to a random mech designer?

He had about three years to shape up this mech pilot into an expert candidate or expert pilot. Lieutenant Ferct mentioned that the latter was more preferable, but unrealistic. Achieving the former was already more than good enough.

"Still, how easy can it be to advance to expert when you don't have the guts to fight?"

The lieutenant plainly mentioned that the mech pilot was a coward. From what Ves knew about how mech pilots advanced into experts, they needed to develop a strong will or conviction!

How could a coward who easily gave up or retreated from a fight ever develop a strong and coherent force of will?

It was impossible!

"Well, I can take my time at least. Three years isn't long, but it isn't short either."

Ves doubted that he would receive any punishment from the Rim Guardians if he failed. If it was so easy to turn someone into an expert pilot, then the entire pilot roster of the MTA would have consisted of experts or higher by now!

If he was really desperate, he could resort to more unorthodox solutions.

Perhaps he could solicit a design spirit like Qilanxo's spiritual fragment to intervene once again.

Perhaps Ves could do the procedure directly with his own spiritual techniques. He knew the theory. He had seen it happen before. How hard would it be to replicate Qilanxo's feat?

Without experimenting with his techniques on some test subjects, Ves wouldn't dream of messing with the mind of an important mech pilot!

"Meow."

"You're right, Lucky. I should meet with the mech pilot first before I cast any judgement. Maybe he's not as bad as Lieutenant Ferct made him out to be."

"Meow."

"Yeah, I still have my other purchase."

Ves grabbed the floating box off his side and opened it up to reveal the grey meteorite. He touched its pitted surface a few times but sensed nothing remarkable.

Had he really felt a reaction from this exotic when he swept it with his spiritual senses back then or was it just an illusion?

He spent a few more minutes studying the rock with his hands and his spiritual vision.

To his fingers, it just felt like any piece of rock. His spiritual vision yielded nothing either. As far as his spiritual senses were concerned, it was completely devoid of spirituality!

"How can that be?"

He frowned at the rock, suspecting there was more to it than met the eye. How could it cause a small number of people to faint when they came in touch with it, yet remain completely inert when it fell into his hands?

Ves became more engrossed in his study. He wanted to crack the secret of the rock. He didn't even want to contemplate that he spent a lot of money on a useless rock that was no different from the ones he could pick up from the streets!

"Maybe the rock only reacts to something more substantial." He guessed.

Having grown a bit desperate to get a reaction out of the rock, Ves reluctantly employed his partially-recovered spiritual energy. He separated a tiny portion of it and moved it closer to the rock to see if it reacted in any way.

A change occurred!

As soon as the mote of spiritual energy came close, the rock suddenly sucked it in! Ves became astonished at how his spiritual energy had been hijacked!

Ves quickly suppressed his excitement. He was still on Centerpoint V, which meant that he shouldn't be acting like he was alone.

Still, a small smile crept up on his face. He no longer regretted his purchase! While he still needed to figure out the full properties and uses of this material, at least he could feel relieved he hadn't bought a useless rock!