Ves missed the process of designing a mech.

Mech design was his chosen vocation, so he should be engaging in it as much as possible. It was just that recent events caused him to get distracted by all kinds of priorities.

Now that he was able to return to the job his life revolved around, he felt as if he had finally come home.

Every other priority faded from existence. The integration of the new Swordmaidens and the formers Lifers, the upcoming establishment of an Ylvainan mech force, the crewing problems of the recently-acquired Graveyard and the Dragon's Den, the troublesome financing and order placement of the Larkinson Clan's next flagship, the preparation of the new treatment variants of the Sanctuary, the search for more MTA merits, the acquisition of mutated beasts, the continuation of his experiments and so on no longer mattered as much to him anymore.

That was not to say that he forgot about those priorities, but Ves recognized he possessed something of a one-track mind. He was bad at juggling multiple different priorities due to his tendency of becoming fully invested in a given project or activity.

It was just how he worked. As a passionate mech designer, he performed at his peak when he became fully engaged in a mech design or experiment. If he had to do both of them at the same time, then his mind would easily become jumbled, thereby scattering his attention.

The expert mech design projects were still in their preliminary phases. Everyone was tasked with examining and researching different possibilities to include in an expert mech design. The Hexer catalog of high-end components offered quite a lot of choice, so it was important to mix and match together the right modules in order to fulfill a coherent vision.

On the day he decided to devote attention to the Chimera Project, he invited Ketis and Venerable Joshua over to his little corner in the design lab.

"Meow."

Mrow.

Lucky and Blinky perched on opposite sides of a desk while staring at each other. The two cats still hadn't gotten along yet, though they were able to tolerate each other's presence without coming to blows.

"Heya Lucky. Heya Blinky." Ketis grinned at them as she strode closer to scratch both of them beneath their chins. As someone who possessed a companion spirit herself, the Star Cat's intangibility didn't hinder her at all. "Do any of you want some snacks?"

"Meow!"

Mrow!

"Hehe. You guys are as hungry as ever."

She pulled out a chunk of mineral from her pocket uniform and threw it over Lucky's head. The gem cat eagerly tracked the passage of the mineral and jumped straight into the air when it flew above his head.

After a quick chomp, he floated down to the desk with a satisfied expression on his face.

"Meow~"

Blinky didn't eat normal food, but Ketis had a solution for that as well. She pulled out a pocket knife from her toolbelt and lazily slashed in the companion spirit's direction.

A small sharp sword energy wave slowly propagated towards the spiritual cat. Though the energy it contained was enough to cut through the desk material, Blinky did not take it seriously.

As soon as the crescent-shaped wave came close, the Star Cat opened his maw and formed a suction force that quickly shrank and devoured the incoming sword energy attack.

It didn't matter if the attack he absorbed was sharp and damaging. As long as it was made out of spiritual energy, it instantly turned into his food!

Mrow~

Ves looked up from his desk terminal and eyed his companion spirit with a thoughtful look.

They only discovered this interaction relatively recently. He supposed it was a holdover from the Unending One. Since the dark god was able to devour all sorts of energy, it made sense that he could swallow up dangerous and damaging energy as well.

Though Blinky was only a fraction as strong as the Unending One in his peak, he could still digest weaker energy attacks without any strain to his digestion system. Perhaps he might even be able to devour stronger energy in the future, though Ves wasn't willing to find out his current upper limit for fear of damaging a spirit that was less than a month old.

A floating greatsword came close to Blinky and started to sway back and forth. If not for the fact that it was sheathed, Ves would have been a lot more nervous about the fact that a self-moving sword was swinging so vigorously.

Swish swish.

Mrow mrow.

Since Sharpie and Blinky were the same kind of existences, they had struck an immediate friendship. The two were already swapping ideas about how to fulfill their jobs better and how much they liked their respective partners.

Venerable Joshua looked envious at what was going on. "Can I have one of these pets as well? They're really cool and I think it might be handy to have something around that I can carry in my head."

"Patience." Ves waved his hand at him. "This product is still in development. The ones you see before you are still experimental. I have to do my due diligence and monitor them in the long term in order to verify they are safe. Once I am done with that, I might be open to bestowing these new mind pets to people who contributed a lot to our clan."

"I can't wait." Joshua replied in an excited tone.

Of course he was excited. He was Ves' biggest fan. Not only that, but he also possessed a great sensitivity towards life. Gifting him with a living companion that he could bring everywhere, even into battle, would likely do wonders for his mood!

In fact, Ves just came up with an idea on how he might tie a companion spirit to mechs. If he was able to flesh out this idea, he might be able to empower Joshua even further and give him one more tool that could help him achieve victory!

Today was not about creating new companion spirits though, so Ves quickly set this idea aside.

Once Joshua and Ketis sat down next to each other, Ves activated a projection of a vague sketch of the Chimera Project.

"I'm sure that both of you know the overall direction for this expert mech design project." Ves began. "The simplest way to put it is that it takes the concept of the Bright Warrior but takes it a step further on account of incorporating superior materials, better technology and a much more ambitious outlook. While Gloriana has already explained what you want to see in your expert mech, now that we are fleshing out the details, we have bumped into some additional junctions that require your input."

Venerable Joshua grew confused. He turned to his girlfriend. "What is he saying?"

"He means you get to make more choices!" Ketis slapped his arm. "It's your expert mech, so you have to be the one to tell us what you use to implement. While mech designers like us can make many smaller decisions on your behalf, there are plenty of details that will have a profound effect on your battle performance. We can't assume responsibility over them, so that is why you are here."

"I see. I understand. Then ask away."

Ves began to introduce the most pressing question.

"As I have said earlier, the Chimera Project is multi-functional, just like the Bright Warrior. The difference is that the former is currently set up as a hero mech while the latter is a modular mech platform. What this means is that mechs such as the Quint can only fulfill one role at a time. In order to turn it from a swordsman mech into a rifleman mech, it has to spend at least half an hour if not more under the care of a maintenance crew in order to swap out the modular mech parts. Do you want to go through this trouble when you move on to piloting your expert mech?"

Venerable Joshua looked thoughtful. "When I piloted the Quint, there were many situations where I would have liked to wield a rifle while I was wielding a lance. When I wielded a lance, I sometimes wanted to wield a sturdy shield as well. I could have done a lot more in battle if I had access to multiple tools on the battlefield."

"I understand your desire, but it is simply not practical for the Bright Warriors." Ves sighed. "The modular mech platforms are already marked by a lot of compromises, but if I try to turn them into hybrid mechs that try to fulfill every role at the same time, it will turn into a bloated mess that can only deliver mediocre performance. There is virtue in specialization. The Valkyrie Prime that you are currently piloting is much stronger because it is designed to be good in its chosen role."

"I… understand all of that. There are lots of mech pilots in the LMC who are looking forward to moving on from the Bright Warriors. What does this have to do with my expert mech, though?"

Ves smiled. "We have already decided that you should adopt a flexible expert mech, but there are further choices you can make. The central question which I am trying to present to you is whether you wish to pilot a multipurpose mech or a modular mech?"

"A multipurpose mech is like a hero mech but with several more options. A modular mech is like a Bright Warrior where you can swap out components to change its strengths." Ketis quickly explained.

The pros and cons of both approaches should already be clear to Venerable Joshua. The problem was that he couldn't make a choice.

Even though he piloted mechs for a living, he simply did not possess enough comprehension to make informed decisions on complicated technical matters.

Ves decided to offer him a tip. "Don't think about what goes on inside the frames of the mechs. That is a job for mech designers. Think about what will serve you better in battle. Do you want to have lots of choices when you are deployed in battle or are you willing to sacrifice this convenience in order to gain greater performance in the configuration that you have chosen?"

The expert pilot looked genuinely torn. He could imagine plenty of scenarios where he would rather have one or the other.

"What do you recommend, sir?"

Well, Ves expected this question. Venerable Joshua was not yet accustomed to having so much choice. Prior to this moment, he piloted whatever mechs his superiors assigned to him. He never had much choice whether he was assigned to the Bright Warrior IC, the Quint or the Valkyrie Redeemer.

One of his most notable strengths was that he was able to adapt to many different mechs, particularly if they were designed Ves. There was never a case where a mech would be adapted from the beginning of the design phase.

"Let me tell you what I think." Ves said. "The Chimera Project can go both ways, but I believe that too much choice and too many compromises is not a good thing. The reason why the base form of this project is a hero mech is because you can already do a lot with just two weapons. There may be cases where you can play a greater role if your expert mech turns into a lancer mech or a cannoneer mech or something, but in general you can already perform similar jobs by sticking to a hero mech type."

"So are you saying I should settle for a simple expert mech?"

"Not quite." Ves shook his head. "I know a thing or two about hero mechs. They seem a bit more confining to you. The idea I have in mind is to combine the two aforementioned choices by enabling your expert mech to mount sizable add-ons that can be shed at any time in battle. Think of the base form of your expert mech as a core and the add-ons that we can mount on it as temporary external accessories. While this is an expensive option, it is not a big deal for us to finance it as long as you can make the most of it. Are you interested in trying out this concept?"

Silence reigned. Neither Joshua nor Ketis knew what to think about this bold proposal.