Master Willix provided him with a brief lesson on the most essential property of an expert mech.

He had learned a bit more about what it took to design an expert mech. The choice and matching of resonating materials played an essential role in empowering them. Without resonating materials, expert mechs wouldn't be the powerful machines that everyone knew and admired!

"While you have brought a surprising amount of interesting first-class materials to the table, none of them possess resonating properties." She explained. "While they are excellent in reinforcing the base performance of your envisioned mechs, you will need to source resonating materials as well in order to complete them. A mech doesn't need to incorporate a large quantity of resonating materials, but more is mostly better."

This requirement added a considerable burden to his ambitions. Resonating materials were far scarcer and harder to obtain. The better ones were treated the same as high-grade exotics. They were solely in the hands of states.

Fortunately, Master Willix understood his difficulties and offered him a reprieve.

"You do not need to source these materials yourself. I promised to take care of the aspects that you are unable to satisfy when it comes to the development of your expert mechs. It is not a problem to provide you with some materials taken from my own reserves."

His eyes lit up. "You would do that for me, ma'am?!"

He loved getting free stuff!

"You shouldn't celebrate too soon, Mr. Larkinson. My generosity has limits. I will only provide you with the amount of materials I deem necessary. They will be enough to last for your expert pilots for some time. If you want to obtain more, you will have to pay for them. Mind you, be prepared to exchange a large amount of merits."

His face soured. "This.. is not exactly what I had in mind."

"You have received more than enough welfare from me. I am not your nanny. This is for your own good. If we incorporate too much resonating materials in the expert mechs, your expert pilots will exhaust themselves too quickly in battle due to the enormous strain in controlling them. It is easier to swing a data pad than a chair."

"Isn't there a way to cut off the resonating materials until the expert pilot is ready to handle the added power?" Ves suspiciously asked.

"Such a solution indeed exists. It won't be necessary for us to employ it in any of your expert mech designs."

What a bummer. Ves had no right to demand Master Willix cough up additional resonating materials.

Though she wasn't willing to provide him with much, she assured him that she would be picking the most fitting resonating materials that she was readily able to provide.

"You may not know this, but resonating materials have varying degrees of fit with specific expert pilots. Some materials resonate fully with an expert pilot. Achieving 100 percent resonance is very rare. In practice, the chance of stumbling upon the most ideal resonating material is too small. Most expert mechs incorporate materials that resonate around 40 to 80 percent with the expert pilot in question."

"That.. sounds quite bad." Ves frowned. "Why can't we go higher?"

"The mech designers or the organizations they are working for only possess a finite collection of resonating materials. In the absence of a perfect resonating material, the mech designers must make do with alternatives that come close enough. In any case, 40 percent resonance is better than 0 percent resonance, which is the case for every other material."

The chance of winning the jackpot was too small. Humanity discovered an endless variety of exotics in the galaxy. Only a small proportion of them possessed resonating properties, but by far most of them did nothing to expert pilots who weren't compatible with them. Trying to match suitable resonating materials with unique expert pilots was quite a cumbersome effort!

"Is there a possibility that a resonating material will result in detrimental outcomes?"

"There is." She nodded. "This is one of the dangers of recklessly putting expert pilots in expert mechs that are designed for others. If the incompatibility is high enough, the mech or pilot might meet an unfortunate accident."

He already suspected that this might be the case. Standard, universal expert mechs did not exist. They were customized to a specific individual by definition. This meant that it was highly inappropriate for them to be piloted by someone other than their intended pilot!

"So.." He said. "I suppose you'll ensure that my expert pilots will receive the best possible resonating materials for their intended mechs?"

She smirked. "Don't push your luck. While it is true that our Association possesses the largest collection of resonating materials in the galaxy, even I cannot obtain every sample. Far from it. While I can try to obtain perfect resonating materials for each of your expert pilots, the expense is too great. This treatment is largely reserved for ace mechs and god mechs. You can forget about attaining perfection at this stage."

"Gloriana will be disappointed."

"She's a big girl."

What did that make Ves then?

"Don't be such a cry baby, Mr. Larkinson. You underestimate my reserves. I dare say that I have the largest collection of resonating materials in the Komodo Star Sector. I've obtained many of them while traveling through the galaxy. Attaining at least 80 percent resonance for all five expert mech design projects is assured. In fact, the ongoing matching process has already resulted in a number of positive hits."

It turned out that when the expert pilots initially underwent a complete examination by the MTA, her personnel already recorded their unique resonance signatures. They could then subject this resonance signature to different materials in order to find out whether they reacted with each other.

This was not something Ves needed to deal with. Master Willix only provided him with a brief explanation to keep him in the loop. He needed to take into account that he needed to incorporate some resonance materials in his designs. She determined the exact use and placement of those materials.

Though Ves was a bit peeved about the lack of control in this matter, he had no choice but to surrender to her terms.

"If I want to obtain resonating materials without exchanging a huge amount of merits, what do you suggest?"

"Resonating materials are mostly in the hands of states or very powerful organizations. You will have to approach them directly and convince them to provide you with some. Mind you, it is customary to trade one resonating material with another resonating material. Any state that reduces its stockpile of resonating materials will weaken the potential of its expert pilots. This is why this trade mostly takes place between states at the same level."

In other words, private individuals such as Ves wouldn't be taken seriously unless he whipped up resonating materials himself.

"I believe the Friday Coalition is highly engaged in this type of trade at the moment." She added. "The state has employed a large number of foreign expert pilots. Each of them require expert mechs that are up to standard. In order to make sure that the needs of every new expert pilot is met, the Fridaymen must acquire specific resonating materials that they hold in short supply. It makes sense for them to trade away the resonating materials they have in excess to obtain specific exotics that match well with individual expert pilots."

This was an important strategic matter! If the Friday Coalition failed to make these trades, the expert mechs of the foreign guests wouldn't be as good!

As it was, due to the haste in designing and fabricating so many expensive expert mechs, the Fridaymen had to make a lot of compromises. Whether it was in cost, fit, sophistication or resonating materials, they were not as good as the Coalition's proper expert mechs.

It didn't matter. Quantity was a quality of its own. Fielding two weaker expert mechs against a single stronger expert mech almost always resulted in the defeat of the latter!

"What about the Hexadric Hegemony?"

"The Hegemony.. has less trading partners. To be fair, the state is under less pressure to source materials elsewhere. The Hexers occupy the most prime territory of this star sector. They have access to richer deposits of exotics. Of course, they can't meet every possible need. The reason why the Coalition is much keener on trade is because it needs to expend more effort to achieve more parity with the Hegemony. This case shows the importance of finding and holding onto a good starting position. If you ever intend to found your own state, then pick the right location."

Ves brushed aside her advice. "I don't have any intentions to anchor myself to a fixed location. I am much more in favor of the nomadic way of life."

That elicited a heightened reaction from the Master.

"I advise you to reconsider. Living in space for the rest of your life is not natural. The spaceborn clans are not good role models. Long-term living in confined spaces results in many detrimental behavior changes that will seriously affect the mental health of your entire clan. Do not forget how the collapse of the Age of Conquest initially came to pass."

"What does that have to do with living in space?"

She frowned. "The admirals and naval officers who were in charge of the warfleets that guarded their space had all become detached from general humanity after too much separation. Their long service aboard their battleships and other warships has caused them to forget where they originally came from. At some point, the spacers developed a superiority complex. They considered themselves better than the humans living ignorantly on their planets. Once they no longer identified themselves with these lesser humans, it has become a lot easier for them to justify the act of slaughtering innocent civilians."

Ves shrugged. "I'm a mech designer, not a fleet admiral. What does this have to do with me? My fleet is nowhere near as powerful as a warfleet. There is no way that I'll follow in the footsteps of these arrogant spacers. I thought we all learned from the Age of Conquest and tempered our use of augmentation!"

"You are not understanding my point, Mr. Larkinson. The evil that humans inherently possess has a greater chance of getting free in insular environments. The smaller the environment, the greater the problem. Not just ships, but other small communities such as isolated villages and small churches are subject to this rule. If you want to ensure the long-term health of your Larkinson Clan, then you should strongly consider finding a good planet to settle. Humanity is simply not a race that is suitable to live in space."

Of course, a representative of the MTA would say that.

Ves was a bit skeptical about her advice. She was clearly biased against the CFA. The elite spaceborn clans that Ves admired seemed to be doing fine despite never ruling over any permanent territories.

That was pure freedom! With the entirety of human space within their reach, the spaceborn clans could evade any danger and move to any star sector that held the greatest opportunities to them. Their lack of territory may deprive them of some very useful advantages, but the upside was that they weren't shackled to the fortunes and misfortunes of a specific region!

This was an extremely relevant advantage to Ves as he had to worry about some very powerful enemies such as the Five Scrolls Compact.

He could never allow himself to be cornered if the worst came to pass!

His meeting with Master Willix soon came to an end. Ves boarded his shuttle which brought him to his next appointment.

Ves fell into thought. While he was convinced that going nomadic was the best solution for him, was that really true?

Though the CFA and the spaceborn clans embraced this way of life, they weren't exactly the most wholesome people that Ves had met.

"They're strong, though. That counts for something."