After Ves discovered that the living gem was leading him to somewhere rather than trying to run off on its own, he had become a lot more wary of its motives.

It became clear to Ves that the intelligence driving the gem possessed enough awareness of its situation to perform navigation, recognize specific people and lead its current owner into the pinnacle lab in order to fulfill an unknown objective!

It was the latter part that really sent alarm bells ringing in his head.

Perhaps the gem had been observing Ves ever since he obtained it. Perhaps storing the Supreme Comprehension gem on his own person was a mistake!

Still, just because something was alive didn't mean it was an enemy. If the gem was driven by some remnant portion of the Supreme Sage's spirituality, which Ves highly suspected was the case, then it should be smart enough to make a deal.

Ves simply wanted to gain some valuable loot. As long as he could take away some of the most valuable high-level goods and research data from the pinnacle lab, he didn't mind cooperating with a gem that sought to fulfill a specific goal.

Of course, the premise of their cooperation was that the precocious gem did not have any hostile intentions towards Ves and his clan!

During the preparation phase of their upcoming exploring run, Ves quietly drew out the gem in question in order to issue a stern warning.

"Listen, I know you can understand me. I'm only giving you this warning once. If you do anything that I regard as hostile or dangerous to me, I will pinch you until you crumble into pieces. You're not indestructible. So if you want to keep your current form and gain my cooperation, you better show some sincerity. Have I made myself clear?"

The gem vibrated up and down as if it was nodding.

That was good enough for Ves. It was pointless for him to issue any further warnings. He believed the gem was smart enough to make the rational decision to cooperate and play along with Ves. As long as their goals didn't clash against each other, they could both get what they wished!

Once he had and his team had made their preparations, they all entered the suspicious cargo container while fully kitted out for a dangerous mission.

His honor guard all wore formidable combat armor that had been loaded with extra equipment. Grenades, ammunition boxes, medical kits, workshop tools, hacking devices, flamethrowers and more all hung from their frames.

Though Ves did not expect that his honor guard needed to use all of this equipment, there was no harm in bringing it all along as long as the teleportation portal was not too picky.

Nitaa stood out from the rest by being the only person aside from Ves to wear a suit of combat armor plated with Unending alloy. This gave her a much greater chance at surviving any threats they might encounter from within.

Of the eight people that were ready to plunge into the portal, one of them clearly stood out. A woman wearing a slimmer suit of light combat armor awkwardly moved her limbs as if she was still trying to get used to wearing something different from a hazard suit

She was the only non-combatant in the team. Since they were about to explore a pinnacle lab, how could they not bring a biotech expert along?

Out of all of the possible choices, Ves settled for an Apprentice Mech Designer who recently joined the clan. Even though she was part of the later wave of refugees who fled from the city center, she adjusted fairly well to the clan. Ves did not feel that she possessed any complicated motives, unlike some of the older biomech designers that had joined the ranks of the Larkinson Clan.

"Doctor Avalon Perris, are you sure you wish to go through with this mission? The risks and dangers we might face inside this forbidden lab might exceed your imagination. This is a job for soldiers, not civilians. If not for your expertise, I wouldn't have added you to the team in the first place."

The woman adjusted her pixie-cut blond hair before enclosing it with her integrated suit helmet. "I will try my best to stay out of the way of your soldiers, sir. I have no intentions of turning away. Do you know that everyone who grew up in this state admired the Supreme Sage? The chance to enter one of his main labs and witness the cutting-edge research he conducted is the opportunity of a lifetime! If I can retrieve just a single data chip's worth of research data from the lab systems, I will be happy for the rest of my life!"

Even if she recently renounced her identity as a Lifer, it was hard to shake off a lifetime of indoctrination and hero worship! The Supreme Sage was a legendary figure in the Life Research Association and practically anyone who entered the biotech industry wanted to walk in his footsteps!

As Nitaa and her fellow honor guard were checking all of their gear for the final time, Ves briefly chatted with his biotech consultant in order to get to know her a little better.

"What did you do before you joined our clan, Dr. Perris?"

"I worked as an assistant mech designer for one of the biomech companies based on this planet. I did not design any biomechs by myself, but I assisted in the development of a dozen different designs."

"What is your specialty?"

"My aim is to specialize in rapid self-regeneration. I have studied this topic extensively in my spare time and I have already developed some methods that could improve the regeneration of soft organic tissue under field conditions."

Though Ves only possessed a limited understanding of biomechs, he could already tell that this was not an easy specialty to pursue. While all biomechs possessed some self-regeneration capabilities, their healing process was very slow without external aid. Just like human bodies, it could take weeks or months to restore moderate wounds!

If there weren't any battles on the horizon, then this was completely fine. Allowing biomechs to heal by themselves and without much external aid might not be perfect, but it was a lot cheaper than the alternatives.

Trying to accelerate this self-healing process was doubtlessly possible, but all of that time savings had to come from somewhere. The burden of allowing mechs to heal their damaged tissue in a shorter timespan not only consumed more energy and resources, but also required the inclusion of additional modules in order to make it all possible.

There were three reasons why Ves paid attention to Avalon Perris.

First, she was suitable to join his design team. While she mainly specialized in designing biomechs, one of the prerequisites of that was understanding how to design regular mechs. This meant that she would always be useful even if she wasn't assigned to a biomech design project.

Second, her specialty might be useful if Ves intended to work on a number of biomech of cyborg mech projects in the future. He had a feeling that her specialty might be especially useful in the design of Venerable Joshua's expert mech.

Third, she stood out from her peers within the clan. Doctor Perris was not the only biomech designer that his clan recently picked up, but she was the most promising one. As one of the few individuals who possessed spiritual potential, she might become the first Journeyman among the Larkinsons who excelled at designing biomechs!

Though Doctor Perris also had her faults, Ves was confident that he could deal with them as long as he nurtured her properly.

Originally, Ves wanted to add Dr. Swindell to his team, but the biomech technician was woefully underqualified. Even though he graduated with a degree in biomech design, he didn't study a lot of advanced knowledge after his graduation.

What Ves needed right now was a consultant who was well-versed in academic research and more advanced applications of biotechnology. Someone who fixed up competitive biomechs for a living might possess a lot more practical knowledge than a lab nerd, but he latter was unquestionably superior when it came to interpreting high-level research!

After making sure that everyone's gear was in working condition, the exploration team was finally cleared to go. Ves carefully stepped up and used his gem to activate the teleportation portal once again.

"Here goes nothing."

The honor guard stepped in first. Once they confirmed that the internal base defenses did not respond to their intrusion, the rest followed suit.

Once they all passed through, the portals on both sides automatically shut down. The Larkinsons had to wait at least 78 minutes before Ves could activate them again!

The immediate area around the portal on the other side had become very crowded due to the abundance of armored personnel. They carefully stayed within a marked radius of three meters for fear of triggering the automated base defenses.

Ves lifted the gem in front of his faceplate and shook it a bit. "Okay, we're here. Can you tell the base systems to refrain from treating me and my men as intruders? I don't want to get crushed by 10,000 gravities."

Just because he was protected by his Unending Regalia didn't mean he assumed he was invincible. Gravitic attacks still posed a very lethal threat against him. It didn't matter if Unending alloy could resist the pressure. The human physique, even an augmented one like his, would definitely get crushed into paste if subjected to so much force!

And this was just one of the potential hazards that intruders of the pinnacle lab had to face. Ves did not intend to take any step forward until his gem was able to convince him that the way forward was safe.

"Open our path."

Different from many other facilities in the LRA, the room they were in right now was not made of organic tree matter. Instead, it was made of highly-metallic bone tha barely looked different from fabricated metal. Ves had no doubt that all of this bone alloy was incredibly difficult to damage.

What was worse was that all of the base defenses were covered with this resilient material. It would definitely be a pain to destroy all of the open turrets. It would be even more challenging to destroy anything situated behind the bone alloy walls!

Fortunately, his gem did not leave him hanging. It vibrated a bit and tugged in the direction of his wrist. Ves interpreted the gem's actions as best as possible.

"You want access to a comm interface?"

Though this was a risky decision, he had already trusted the gem to this extent. He decisively activated an external comm interface, allowing the gem to input specific commands by directing Ves to press specific buttons.

Slowly but surely, the gem directed Ves to transmit an open electronic signal to his immediate surroundings. Ves wasted a lot of minutes by manually inputting a 237-character password.

Once his comm transmitted this laboriously typed code, the turrets seemed to have lost their vigilance. They retracted their barrels and ignored the presence of the humans who entered this room.

An honor guard carefully stepped forward. Unlike the bots that had attempted to move beyond the three-meter safe zone, the base defenses didn't act.

When the rest moved past the teleportation portal, Ves released some of his nervous tension. "We can proceed forward! Be careful though. I doubt that transmitting a simple pass phrase is enough to allow us free reign to the pinnacle lab. Don't touch anything without permission."

The exploration team was about to venture through one of the most important research facilities of a second-rate state. Safe passage was never guaranteed especially since they weren't originally authorized to enter the lab in the first place.

Ves was sure that there were multiple layers of access permission. The emergency code that he just transmitted with the help of his sentient gem should have just given him and his team surface-level access.

This meant that if any of them entered the wrong space or touched the wrong item, the deadly base defenses might decide to eliminate the exploration team!

Everyone was aware of this possibility, so no onee moved impulsively. Even Lucky was content to rest on Ves' shoulders, his tail flicking with worry.

"Meow…"