Ves felt better and better as he completed his stalled mech design projects. While the minor design projects didn't provide him with as much satisfaction as completing his prior projects, he still felt his design seed churning at the visible progress he made.

The Crystal Lord Mark II, the Sanctuary and the Chiron each contained several new innovative features that Ves had not implemented before!

This made his design seed very happy. His design philosophy advanced considerably faster after just a few months in the Nyxian Gap than several years in civilized space!

"Of course, I'm not stupid enough to stay." He muttered to himself.

He had gained a lot of progress but suffered progressively worse losses further into his journey.

The deaths of 60 percent of Task Force Predator's mech pilots dealt a heavy blow to him. Losing Nyxie, his Grand Dynamo and the high-grade serum all at once permanently hampered his ability to create spiritual products.

Nonetheless, Ves would gladly trade away these external enhancements to improve his core abilities. The knowledge he gained, the extraordinary events he witnessed and the battles he experienced all enriched him as a mech designer.

To him, it wasn't enough to design mechs from the comfort of a lab before proceeding to see them in action from a remote location.

He would rather experience his mechs up close! Not just him, but also his Braves gained a greater understanding of mechs. They learned what aspects mattered and what kinds of mistakes to avoid. They saw for themselves which theories held up in an actual battle and which myths turned out to be untrue.

Mech designers didn't learn these kinds of lessons as poignantly if they remained averse to battle. Ves ultimately believed that despite the inferior intellectual capabilities of his Braves, the mechs they designed on their own should definitely be more practical than the fancy products developed by the Eridutes!

"If the two of them work together and contribute their own strengths to the mech design, then that's even better!"

This relationship pretty much applied to the Miracle Couple as well. Ves never expected Gloriana to follow him on every adventure. In fact, he didn't want to subject her to any risk at all. She had no need to sharpen her superior technical design prowess by pursuing extremes.

Any shortcomings she might have for being a relatively sheltered mech designer shouldn't impact their collaborative mech designs as long as Ves compensated for this weakness. This was just one of the many benefits that their synergistic relationship produced.

The prospect of marrying Gloriana made Ves feel both excited and apprehensive.

"That reminds me, I should complete our wedding bands before I return."

He developed several new interesting ideas to make them special, but he wanted to wait for the right time before he made them. He wasn't entirely confident he could pull off what he wanted. He wanted to flex his spiritual abilities a little bit more before he tackled this small but crucially important project.

After all, if his mech design projects failed, he would only lose a lot of potential income.

If he botched the wedding bands, then Gloriana would definitely grow furious with him, and that was an outcome that Ves had to avoid at all costs!

"Well, I'm definitely on track to return in time for the wedding, so I don't have to worry about that anymore."

The pirates were nowhere to be seen as any scum that haunted the route taken by the Wodin Warriors had already gone on an extended vacation.

The Hexers weren't vegetables!

Bored with the lack of activity, Colonel Alexandria Wodin granted her mech pilots permission to form hunting packs that ranged further ahead from the fleet.

Typically gone for at least half a day, these roving Hexer mechs eagerly tracked down any presence of nearby pirates and ruthlessly blew up their mechs and ships regardless of their threat level!

Once this happened, a very broad corridor formed within Wreckage Paradise. No sane pirate gang wanted to be anywhere near this corridor until the Larkinsons and Wodin Warriors had finally left their space!

In the meantime, Ves took a brief break from his design marathon to perform some of his other responsibilities. He spent some time tutoring his two students before turning his attention to Ketis.

His first student had not been idle in the past few weeks. After significantly revising and refining some of her personal designs, she quietly completed her first original work.

Now, she drew on the stockpile of salvage and materials of the fleet to fabricate her work in person.

Since this was such a pivotal moment for her development, Ves had to be there.

As he entered the mech workshop of the Scarlet Rose, he remained quiet as he calmly studied the mech she was assembling.

He frowned a bit as he recognized what mech she chose to produce first. The large and thick mech lacked some of the nimbleness of more classical swordsman mechs.

Oriented towards defense, Ketis' first work stood out for its default armament. Two thick and broad swords that were not too long were already placed to the side. Their sharp edges gleamed in the light. While Ves did not have to employ much imagination to conclude the heavy swords were capable of slicing through a lot of armor, he was still skeptical whether the entire mech concept worked in practice.

Still, this was what she chose. Whether she was right or wrong, she would gain something from the experience regardless.

As soon as Ketis put the final piece of the puzzle together, she paused.

An unprecedented feeling swept over her. The satisfaction of completing her first actual mech was indescribable!

Ves understood what she was going through and did not disturb her. Several minutes went by as his student continued to embrace the distinct sense of euphoria that greeted any creator when they completed a significant work.

Now, several years after she initially came under his wing, Ketis finally joined the club of mech designers who succeeded in designing their first original mech design!

Once she came off her high, Ves slowly approached until he reached her side. "Do you know what it's like, now?"

"I do. I.. no wonder you insisted that I complete my mech designs. I'm grateful now that I've finally finished what I started. My Yandra Blocker design is so much more real now that I finished this beautiful mech."

"Is that what you've decided to call your first product?"

"Yandra is the name of one of our fallen Sisters." Ketis quietly responded. "She would have loved to pilot this mech. I designed it in her honor."

The mech held greater sentimental value to her than he thought. Ves did not comment on it. Just like her, he always put more effort into his work whenever it got personal to him. This was how passionate mech designers produced some of their greatest works.

"Well, now that you've finally made your first mech, why not take it out for a spin?"

"Uhm, sure. I already contacted someone from the Swordmaidens to pilot my first official work."

"Did you perform any prototype testing?"

"I skipped that step."

Ves frowned. "That's irresponsible, Ketis. I can see from here that there are several problematic elements about your mech designs that will likely hamper the performance of your mech. Many of these problems should have stood out to you as long as you bothered to test at least one prototype."

"I don't intend to do anything else with this design. I just wanted to complete it in order to make progress. I want to get as much practice as possible in order to design the Monster Slayer. That will be my actual contribution to the Swordmaidens."

As Ketis showed Ves an updated version of her plans for the Monster Slayer, her first mech was being moved to the hangar bay. The two of them moved to the bay as well.

"You still plan to design the Monster Slayer as a second-class mech? That's very ambitious, Ketis. I advise you to wait and get more practice."

"I know, Ves. I already intend to finish four more mech designs in the next two months. They're similar in quality to the Yandra Blocker because they represent my early work, but I'll definitely do better after that! I can hardly hold myself back from designing the Monster Slayer in earnest. I've made sure to keep up with my studies. I'm pretty confident that I have learned much of what is necessary to design a basic second-class swordsman mech. Just don't ask me about other mech types."

Ah, he overlooked that aspect of her. She didn't need to learn as much knowledge as Ves because of her narrow specialization.

"While I can accept you made a lot of progress on that front, your Yandra Blocker design is quite crude. It shows that you still have much to go before you are truly able to translate book learning into better designs. I recommend you design at least five more third-class mechs to achieve the necessary level of practice."

"Ves! That's too much! I can't wait that long!" She whined.

"You'll thank me for it later when you finally begin to design the Monster Slayer in earnest. I can tell it's your first passion project. There is so much at stake that it is truly worth the wait."

"The Swordmaidens can't wait that long! My sisters are long overdue replacements for their old mechs. The sooner they obtain their new mechs, the sooner they can catch up to the Penitent Sisters."

Ves turned to Ketis and looked at her in the eyes. "If you truly can't wait, then consider turning the Monster Slayer into a collaboration project. As long as you advance to Journeyman, you're qualified to work with Gloriana and I as equals. In fact, we'll even let you take the lead since the project is your brainchild after all. Does that sound better?"

She struggled with the decision.

Collaborating with the famed Miracle Couple ensured that the performance of the Monster Slayer would definitely be up to standard. This was very important because the Swordmaidens could use all of the help they could get from their machines.

The stronger the mechs, the stronger the Swordmaidens.

This reason alone pushed her close to accepting Ves' offer.

Yet another, more ambitious part of her wanted to design the Monster Slayer by herself. Neither Ves nor Gloriana had fought across the interior of Ulimo Citadel. The two Journeymen simply couldn't understand what she experienced when she dueled the mutated Grey Watcher in single combat.

As long as she remained in full control over the Monster Slayer design, she had room to realize her complete vision no matter whether there were better alternatives available!

One of the lessons that Ves had taught to her was that developing her own solution was sometimes more important than borrowing someone else's solution.

Even if the latter was superior in every way, Ketis wouldn't have gone through the arduous process of creating her own solutions. Without this essential experience, how could she ever tackle other problems over the course of her career?

"I… have to think about it, but I'm not inclined to accept it. I'm sorry, Ves, but the Monster Slayer should truly be designed by myself."

"It's okay." Ves nodded in understanding. "Just do what you think is best. Listen to your heart, not your mind. In any case, once you've successfully completed the design by yourself, there's nothing stopping you from coming to me afterwards in order to develop a more refined variant."

Ketis clearly did not intend to sell the Monster Slayer to the market. This meant she didn't have to abide by troublesome rules. If she wanted to tweak or update the design, she could do so whenever she wanted! No troublesome bureaucrats or administrators stood in her way. This was the benefit of keeping a mech design private.

As the two chatted a bit further, the test pilot finally arrived.

"Hey, sister!" Lieutenant Sendra waved as she marched over to the pair. "So you've finally done it, Ketis. You actually made this big mech. Well, let's see how far you've come."