As the Larkinson Clan experienced massive changes, the fleet eventually crossed through abandoned and distressed space and reached the territory of the Sentinel Kingdom!

Everyone's nerves truly relaxed at that time. Though the Penitent Sisters already provided them with a huge amount of security, the CRC could always spring a huge surprise on them while the fleet was still within its reach!

Entering the Sentinel Kingdom definitively closed this door. Though the Sentinel Kingdom didn't exhibit a strong bias towards women, it existed firmly in the sphere of the Hegemony. If the CRC dared to invade so far into Hegemony-aligned space, its forces would never make it out alive!

During this time, Ves slowly put his mind off all of the changes in the clan in order to direct his attention towards his design projects.

Gloriana demanded his full commitment to the striker mech project and the Hexer mech project!

"You're such a worrywart, Ves." She crossed her arms and tapped her feet. "Just let the Executive Council and the Larkinson Assembly do their jobs. That's what they are for, right?"

"I'm the clan patriarch. It's my duty to keep abreast of the developments."

"If there are any issues the council and the assembly can't handle, they'll bring them to your attention. That hasn't happened lately, right?"

Ves reluctantly nodded. To be honest, the council and the assembly mostly presented their solutions to him as a courtesy.

"I suppose you're right. I don't need to spend all of my time worrying about every single detail. I'll try and invest my attention to our mech projects."

His mechs deserved all of the love and attention he could provide. As a mech designer, it was a sin to hold back when he could have put more effort in his designs!

It was fine for his mech designs to exhibit shortcomings due to his lack of skill and ability.

What his professionalism couldn't tolerate was a mech design that failed due a lack of effort or investment on his part! Such sloppiness was completely preventable as long as he did his due diligence!

Once he let go of some of the current issues, his productivity went back to normal. While their third-class striker mech project didn't exhibit any significant changes, his increased energy made a substantial difference in the development of their Hexer mech!

Although it was just supposed to be a landbound knight mech at its base, the added functionality that Ves insisted upon produced a lot of technical challenges.

The mech not only had to accommodate a lot of energy cells, but also had to fit in an entire suite of energy transfer systems!

Ves listed the main requirements. "We need a system to regulate the energy cells. We need a system to safely and quickly transfer energy from our knight mech to another mech. We need a system to siphon energy from fallen friendly and enemy mechs. Oh, we also need a system to keep it all together and prevent energy from spilling into places where they aren't supposed to go! Have I missed anything?"

"Don't forget about the heat management systems." Gloriana reminded him. "All of those energy transfers will encounter various amounts of electrical resistance. Though the use of superconductors mitigate a lot of possible heat generation, not every process can be achieved with them. Aside from the limited total energy capacity, the heat management system will likely be the second weakness of our design!"

His girlfriend was right. Their knight mech had to devote too much of its capacity to the energy transfer systems. Even if second-class mechs could fit in a lot more modules, they didn't have the budget or spare capacity to do more than stuff a bunch of heat sinks inside their mech.

This was a distinctly limited solution that put a finite limit on the operation time of their mech.

In theory, their Hexer knight mech could remain online indefinitely on the battlefield as long as it kept siphoning energy from various sources.

In reality, other limitations would probably force the mech to leave the battle. Pilot exhaustion, heat build-up, battle damage and other stresses all made sure the mech wouldn't be able to last more than a day on the frontlines!

"That's fine." Ves largely dismissed her concerns. "The point of my mech is to support the female Hexer mechs in their assaults or risky maneuvers by providing its shield, bringing along its glow and putting its energy reserves at their disposal. It's not necessary for the limitations of our mech to surpass the limitations of the Hexer mechs."

In the end, their product was a knight mech with a support function. Its offensive ability was completely garbage, and neither Ves nor Gloriana did anything to address this shortcoming.

For one, Gloriana and the Hexers were fixated on the idea that male mechs had to possess as little teeth as possible!

While this rule was rather difficult to apply to rifleman mechs, when it came to defensive mechs, the male mech pilots better not have the ability to overpower a female mech!

As for Ves, he went along with this custom because he simply couldn't find any capacity to strengthen his mech's combat potential.

That said, he didn't entirely resign himself to designing a toothless mech.

"Siphoning energy can also be an attack if it is applied to an active hostile mech!"

Ves didn't share this opinion with Gloriana. He did his best to keep it in his mind and out of his implant. If his girlfriend ever thought that he wanted to turn his mech into a bona-fide energy vampire, she would probably erupt in front of his face again!

That was not a pleasant experience!

In order to turn this mode of attack into reality, he spent an inordinate amount of time refining the energy siphoning systems. After trying out various ways to add this system onto the mech in a way that made sense, he eventually settled on adding additional limbs to the Hexer mech.

"The arms of our mech are already needed to hold the sword and tower shield." He explained as he projected a sketch of his proposed solution. "The energy transfer and siphoning systems need a way to reach out and establish a connection with other machines. It's impractical to expect our knight mech to drop its sword or shield in the middle of a battle in order to reach out its hand to a friendly mech."

To solve this problem, Ves attached an extra pair of specialized 'arms' on the mech's lower back. It made the humanoid mech look a bit like an insect. The extra limbs were longer in order to facilitate their reach but thinner because they weren't designed to hold any objects.

Sharp, needle-like implements that were geared towards connecting to energy ports or piercing through softer armor formed their tips. All in all, the mech looked a lot more menacing with the addition of these inhuman limbs!

Gloriana studied his sketch and frowned. "This isn't what we planned."

"I know, but how else will you solve this problem? Adding extra limbs is the most convenient solution. I know the Good Boy transfers its energy in a different fashion, but that mech is not expected to fight or do anything else with its arms! In order to allow our Hexer mech to operate on the frontlines, we have to ensure its ability to defend itself no matter the circumstances!"

In the end, Ves had his way when Gloriana failed to offer a better solution.

Though the extra limbs added to their workload, Ves began to enjoy this project more and more. While it was still a mech that treated its male mech pilots as support personnel, he hoped that at least a couple of them would discover and utilize the offensive possibilities that the energy siphoning limbs enabled!

Ves didn't dare to do much more than that. He was already fortunate that Gloriana was too taken in by her biases to realize that this new change could make the mech more dangerous!

All in all, while there were still a couple of months of development to go, the progress they made so far made both mech designers very content!

Of particular note was the increased performance of their design teams. After Ves personally inducted the Tovars, the Ylvainans and the two oddballs into the clan, they began to perform their duties with a lot more fervor than before!

Their high morale not only increased their results, but also accelerated their progression!

One major reason for that was that Ves no longer saw his subordinate mech designers as employees.

They were Larkinsons now.

Sure, they still retained a part of their old identities through their compound names. However, their addition to the Larkinson Network meant that Ves was much more certain about their loyalty and commitment to his endeavors!

For this reason, he began to devote a little more attention to his lessons. His earnest guidance allowed his assistants to avoid several pitfalls in their development, thereby speeding up the growth of their design philosophies!

A couple of individuals achieved a lot more progress than he anticipated.

Miles Tovar-Larkinson began to exhibit a greater degree of spiritual strength! Each time Ves peeked into the new clanman's mind, he noticed that Miles' spiritual potential began to grow and show more activity!

This was a rather fascinating process! Ves didn't have much experience in observing the transition of Apprentices to Journeymen. He could only base his theories around his own transition, but he had no clue whether other mech designers followed the same steps!

His curiosity drove him to pour more attention onto Miles. If the Apprentice was still an employee, then Ves would be much more reluctant to provide so much help.

Who knew if Miles Tovar would leave the LMC as soon as he advanced to Journeyman!

Yet now was different. Miles Tovar was different from Miles Tovar-Larkinson. The former was an employee while the latter was an employee as well as family!

Since the adopted members of the clan weren't allowed to undo their joining unless something exceptional happened, Ves could trust Miles to stay for the long haul!

Elevating one of his assistant mech designers to Journeyman therefore posed much less of a risk than before. In fact, adding another Journeyman to his roster would do much to strengthen the clan and increase the design capability of his mech company!

That said, it would still take a fairly long time for Miles to actually complete the transition and form his design seed.

"You have a lot of potential, Miles." Ves mentioned. "You have prior design experience and you have done a lot to shore up your knowledge in the past few months."

"Thank you, sir. I feel really great. Joining the clan was one of the best moments of my life!"

Miles had many reasons to smile. While he had to make his separation from the Tovar Family permanent, he was very much aware how lucky he was to receive so much personal attention from a talented mech designer!

"There's one problem that is slowing you down, though."

"What is it, sir?"

"You haven't been designing any mechs for a while, right?"

"I.. don't have the time. I started up a few projects, but the work that we're expected to do is consuming all of my attention."

Ves grimaced. That was partially his fault. "While I still require your assistance, I think it's time for you to cut back."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm freeing up some time in your schedule so that you can resume the development of your personal mech designs."

Miles looked surprised. Ves was never known to be generous in this fashion! This was a completely uncharacteristic decision from a notorious workaholic!

"Why?"

Ves couldn't tell the truth, so he resorted to a lie. "I see a part of myself in you. There is a drive within you that wants to explode, right? I think it would do you a lot of good if you unleash that drive onto your own mech designs instead of our current projects. Just try it out and see if you can progress your design philosophy. As my aerial mech specialist, I'll be leaning on you whenever we are tasked with designing mechs of this nature!"

"I'll do my best, sir!"