Ves awkwardly coughed. "I am honored that you have faith in my ability to train expert pilots, but aren't you being a little too optimistic here? The probability of expert pilots emerging from a crowd of mech pilots is somewhere around one to several thousand, if not worse. This means that there is a high chance that the twenty MTA mech pilots you are sending to me simply don't have what it takes to undergo apotheosis! I don't want to waste my time and have my merits deducted from my account for nothing."

The Darkbreak module continued to project Master Willix's body without fail. It was so high tech that Ves could easily mistake the physical projection as real if not for the fact that it could not replicate her powerful spirituality!

Despite this limitation, Ves still sensed an instinctive source of power from her projection. This was an impression that he could never shake no matter how much he reminded himself that he was looking at a tactile illusion.

Right now, he could feel her irritation towards him. He hadn't been behaving very diligently so far. It was hard to blame him as Master Willix essentially roped him into a mission against his will.

Just because he surrendered to her authority didn't mean he liked being browbeat!

"You have already taken on this sort of mission before, have you not?" She raised her eyebrow at him. "Willian of the Urbesh Clan has turned from a cowardly disgrace of a mech pilot to a strong and fearless expert pilot. He's doing quite well for himself last I checked, though he is still mute for some reason. That is not a bad tradeoff if I might say so myself."

Ves twitched his mouth. "Our conventional training programs failed to inject some courage into William. We had to resort to extreme measures in order to kick him into shape. I wouldn't exactly call him a success story. Do you really want me to subject your fancy MTA mech pilots to similar treatment?"

"We must all make some sacrifices in this dire time." She said without any remorse. "That said, no one will benefit if you send back just half of the mech pilots I have given you in a broken state. The better your results, the better it will strengthen my position."

"What are you up to, ma'am?"

Master Willix sighed. "There are many clever people in the Mech Trade Association. I am but one of many Masters in its ranks. If I wish to have my voice heard, I must build up my political capital. I am already pursuing several initiatives that will likely increase my standing within my circle of peers, but I am not the only Master who is trying to rise to a higher position. Many of my rivals are working as hard as they can to assume a leadership position within our great organization."

Ves entered more familiar territory. Though the MTA was unfathomably powerful, it was still an organization comprised of humans. This meant that it was probably rife with factional struggles and selfish power grabs just like any other organization!

"What does it matter if you fall short, Master Willix?" He needled her with a playful grin. "You selfless Masters are all servants of humanity and the MTA, are you not? It shouldn't matter who among you gets to lord it over the rest. You are all on the same side!"

"I wish that were so." Master Willix disappointingly shook her head. "You should already know better, Mr. Larkinson. You have already touched upon the power struggle between the Rim Guardians and the Prime Humans. This is but one of many quarrels that has beset our Association. There is an even higher-level struggle within the upper hierarchy. The one that I am involved in actually goes all the way to the Galactic Mech Council."

"What?!"

The Galactic Mech Council was the supreme decision-making organ of the MTA. If Master Willix was chummy with one of the hundred councilors, then she possessed enough influence to change the course of human development!

"Oh, don't get me wrong. A single Master such as myself cannot possibly approach a Galactic Mech Councilor." She quickly clarified. "However, I am affiliated with someone who can definitely catch the attention of one of the highest leaders."

"..You're talking about the Star Designer that you're friends with, right?"

She nodded. "Correct. Even so, there are only around seventy Star Designers in existence. There are many more Masters currently alive today. Do you think it is easy to attract the attention of one of these great designers? The matters they handle and the problems they are dealing with are a billion times more grand than what is going through your head. Even if I have a solid connection with a Star Designer, there are many more like myself who can say the asme. It is imperative that I get ahead of my rivals and gain a higher standing before the subsequent phases of the enemy plan unfolds. I cannot trust many of my colleagues to act responsibly and do their best to preserve the Association."

Ves understood her position more and more. She was not so different from himself, in a way. Just like him, she was not assured of letting other people be in charge. She would only feel assured that everything would go right if she assumed leadership herself.

Though she painted herself as a noble and selfless servant of the MTA, Ves had serious doubts whether that was entirely true!

If Master Willix wanted to climb to a higher position, then she must surely be motivated by a more direct reason.

It was none of his business, though. The Master did not look willing to elaborate any further, so Ves did not think too much in this direction.

All he knew was that Willix wanted to obtain a promotion in order to ingratiate herself to one of the top dogs of the MTA, and to do that Ves had to do his best to pitch in and make her look good!

"If you expect me to do a good job, then tell me about twenty mech pilots that you are sending." Ves said as he crossed his arms. "How old are they? How good are they? What training have they gone through? What are their personalities? Are they pissed at the fact that they're being assigned to my clan? How far can I go in order to push them to their limits?"

He hoped he wouldn't be getting spoiled brats or something. Perhaps it might be a great way to earn a colleague's support by turning one of their descendants into an expert pilot, but these sorts of scions weren't easy to suppress!

"I can only speak in general terms as I have not finalized the section, but you can rest assured that I will only dispatch professional soldiers with native backgrounds. These individuals tend to be the easiest to control. They all answer to different individuals, so they are not a united group."

"What is the point of turning them into expert pilots when they will just go on to benefit your colleagues?" Ves asked.

"It is a demonstration of ability." She replied. "I am essentially proving my ability to deliver expert pilots to the Association. As long as I become known for this, my peers will respect me for it. This will help elevate my standing. Don't underestimate the value of doing this. Mature expert pilots have already formed their loyalties so they are exceptionally hard to win over. In contrast, younger mech pilots can very easily be persuaded to join someone's camp. As long as these talents succeed in breaking through, then you will effectively be able to command an expert pilot!"

That made a lot of sense. In fact, this was what Ves had been aiming to do as well, with some degree of success. He didn't know where he went wrong with Venerable Jannzi, but at least Venerable Joshua's fanatic loyalty towards him had become permanently locked!

There was only one big problem with this arrangement.

"You do know that you are not the person who is actually responsible for enabling this conversion." Ves replied with a brief cough. "I'm the one who is doing all of the hard work here. You are the one who gets to reap most of the rewards. The only remuneration that I receive in return is just a paltry sum of 500,000 MTA merits per head."

Master Willix did not relent, however. "You can stop trying to bargain with me. As I have stated earlier, I have already provided plenty of assistance to you. It is only fair for you to reciprocate. I wouldn't have approached you with this assignment if I thought you were incapable, but since I have confidence in this ability of yours, I think it is appropriate to call on you for this matter. Besides, 500,000 MTA merits is not a trivial amount for what I am asking."

Seeing that Ves couldn't renegotiate this term, he gave up. He merely listened to Master Willix as she explained her conditions.

"I trust in your methods, so I am willing to grant you a great amount of leeway for this assignment. You can be as harsh with the batch of mech pilots as you want. You can even send them into battle and risk their deaths. They cannot use their prior status within the Association to call the shots or refuse any lawful orders you give to them. Just take into account that it becomes harder to gain any benefits if too many of them die during this five-year period."

"Will they really accept taking orders from the leader of a second-class clan?" Ves skeptically asked. "No offense, but you mechers are too powerful and full of yourselves."

Willix adopted a harsher posture. "I can promise you that none of the mech pilots will resist your training or call the MTA in order to stop you from doing what you want. It will not further their career in the slightest if they object to this arrangement. What I cannot do is to persuade them to follow your instructions sincerely. You will have to do that yourself."

Ves pressed his lips into a line. These weren't the hardest of conditions that he heard, but he still had his work cut out for him. The status disparity was too big. This was the equivalent of sending one of his children to a space peasant!

After issuing a few more specific instructions, Ves roughly knew how he should treat his incoming guests.

"When will I be receiving these little bastards?" He asked.

"It will likely take a couple of weeks to finalize the list. Once I do, it will not take long for me to send them to you. In fact, I will transfer them over to your care in person. This will also allow me to transfer some important materials relevant to your expert mech design projects."

His eyes lit up at this mention. "Are you giving us valuable resonating exotics?"

The Master nodded. "I might as well. Consider this an advance payment for your services. Don't expect too much, though. It is not good to pair expert pilots with resonating exotics that are too potent. The difficulty of controlling an expert mech and harnessing its resonance abilities increases drastically if you go overboard. It is good for you to aim high, but you must always make sure that you stay measured when you design something as important as an expert mech."

Though his enthusiasm dampened a bit after hearing this, Ves still felt pleased at this development. As long as he and his wife gathered enough resonating exotics, they could quickly move on from the tedious conception and research phase and proceed with the actual development phase!

He knew what she was doing, though. Master Willix wanted to keep Ves at her disposal, so she cleverly released a string of rewards in order to ensure his compliance.

Though his pride took some hits, his greed was satisfied. He didn't mind if Willix wanted to attach a leash to his collar as long as she supplied him with enough dog food!