THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 6840  The Price Of His Attention

"Venerable Glendale understands the consequences of piloting an ace juggernaut." Alexa Streon said. "He is willing to dedicate himself to fighting against the native aliens so long as he is able to wield a giant axe. In my opinion, letting him pilot an adapted version of the Otalon Sprius holds great merit, but only if he wields the power of a saint."

Ves looked skeptical.

"That's the biggest issue with this proposal, Alexa. He is still a high-tier expert pilot. It is a complete waste to design a juggernaut for him when he is still an expert pilot. Trying to convert the Otalon Sprius into an ace juggernaut in advance won't work. He won't be able to pilot it without breaking his willpower or whatever. It is simply too big and powerful."

Alexa already had a response to that. "Venerable Glendale is not asking us to do anything for him in advance. What he wants from us is a promise. As long as we promise to merge his Greenaxe into the Otalon Sprius and turn the combination into an ace juggernaut, then he will gain a strong motivation to accomplish his breakthrough."

That was a nice trick. Ves had given promises to other high-ranking mech pilots before, but the results were rather mixed. It worked in a few cases, but had yet to yield results in other cases.

It was still better to have an additional strong motivation to attain greater power than not. Venerable Glendale's breakthrough would benefit everyone in the Larkinson Clan.

"Is it necessary to merge the Greenaxe into the Otalon Sprius?" Ves inquired. "As far as I remember, it is a post-living mech. It has never developed an independent personality."

"That is true, sir, but its spiritual foundation has still grown stronger and more attuned to him. It has already accumulated a generous collection of Ascension Runes, many of which enhance the Greenaxe's strength and cutting power. If you can transplant the expert axeman mech's spiritual foundation to the Otalon Sprius, Glendale will not have to start from scratch."

"It would have been better to preserve the Greenaxe as a backup mech." Ves said with a frown. "There may be instances where the Otalon Sprius is too large to deploy in battle. The Greenaxe can still serve as an adequate substitute, no matter whether we upgrade it or not. I do not feel comfortable with permanently losing this machine by merging it into our juggernaut."

"Venerable Glendale will not mourn its loss." Alexa responded. "You can ask him yourself, but he has made his thoughts and feelings clear to me. He is willing to sacrifice the Greenaxe and make a break from his past so long as he can become useful to you. Piloting an ace juggernaut that wields a giant axe is a dream for him. He wants to wield the biggest axe and chop apart the greatest of foes. He can do that much better with a giant machine than a relatively small mech."

"Hmmm…" Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "I have to admit that the idea sounds incredibly intriguing to me. If not for the fact that it will take an insane amount of time and a huge amount of expensive resources to realize this monstrous juggernaut, I would have jumped on it already. As it is… I really cannot see how we can possibly embark on such a project during a time where red humanity's infrastructure is falling apart."

Alexa lowered her head. It appeared that she had become quite invested in this alternative proposal.

"I think this is the best possible use of the Otalon Sprius. The investment is great, but the payoff will be greater. So long as Kolak Glendale can become an ace pilot, piloting this ace juggernaut can turn him into a much more powerful giant slayer. He will be our most direct answer when it comes to killing oversized enemies. If there is any need for us to defeat ace mechs, we can assign that task to Saint Tusa or Saint Dise instead."

What Alexa proposed was a move towards specialization. It was not a wise idea to do this if the Larkinson Clan only had a single ace pilot, but now that it had accrued multiple of them, it could afford to turn one more into a specialized juggernaut user.

Ves couldn't help but grow intrigued. Many established rules would break when designing an ace mech on the scale of a juggernaut. He already began to salivate at the thought of the more promising benefits.

However, the cost was way too disproportionate. He could stomach the investment of relatively common versions of superdimensional matter, but the ace juggernaut needed way more expensive materials in order to function at its fullest.

The ace juggernaut concept was the most extravagant luxury product that the Larkinson Clan could embark upon!

The cost in resources and manpower exceeded all proportions!

While many starships were far bigger than juggernauts, the former was also a lot simpler and not as dependent on high-quality resonating materials and other high-grade materials.

Most starships depended more on scale than on quality to deliver powerful performance.

Juggernauts designed at the ace mech level had to be of the same standard or better at minimum. Ves could not accept anything less, and neither would Gloriana.

This gave Ves a headache because the Larkinson Clan would struggle to fund such a massive project even if it was at its peak.

Now that red humanity's entire economy and industries were beginning to crack, Ves felt it was stupid to even think about embarking on this prestige project!

However… he did not want to snuff out Venerable Glendale's either.

Ves felt a little sorry for the man for breaking through in a time where he was no longer able to earn the attention and appreciation of his patriarch.

"I have made a decision."

"Please tell me." Alexa said with anticipation.

"You can inform Venerable Glendale that I am… interested in this proposal. However, our clan will not design this extravagant ace juggernaut for him if the circumstances do not permit us to do so. There are several strict requirements before I can think of agreeing to go forward with this project."

"What are your requirements?"

"First, Kolak Glendale must become an ace pilot. This is an absolute necessity. He can forget about getting it while he still remains stuck as an expert pilot."

"He already agrees."

"Second, so long as he still wants this ace juggernaut, we will not be upgrading his Greenaxe. It is a waste to upgrade his relatively outdated machine to a much more powerful version when it is destined to get absorbed into the Otalon Sprius upon his breakthrough."

Alexa frowned. "That is a heavy demand, sir. You are asking him to potentially doom himself to remaining stuck as an expert pilot because he is not able to gain any additional support from his expert mech."

"Our clan is not a charity, Alexa. We can only allocate our resources where they are needed the most. I am not in the mood to squander Gloriana's precious design time on a high-tier expert mech that is doomed to destruction. Venerable Glendale is responsible for his own choices. He can either choose to receive the treatment that every Larkinson expert pilot receives, or he can choose to prove himself worthy of my personal attention and favor."

He deliberately set this up as a test in order to stimulate Venerable Glendale. The requirement he set was harsh, but not unreasonable. Ves made sure to argue that it was all for the greater good of the Larkinson Clan.

His disciple certainly looked convinced by the argument. "I shall do my best to convey your words and intentions to him. From what I understand of his personality, there is a 80 percent chance that he will accept your challenge. To him, receiving a generic upgrade to his Greenaxe is not enough for him to fulfill his goal. He knows that it is difficult for him to surpass the first movers who have already won your favor such as Saint Tusa and Saint Commander Casella."

The fact that the expert pilot was not wrong in this assessment made Ves a little depressed.

He moved on. "The third requirement that Venerable Glendale must meet is that he cannot rely on a breakthrough alone to receive an ace juggernaut for free. This thing is so expensive that he must 'earn' it through his actions. As long as he makes a great contribution to the Larkinson Clan, he can quell the resentment of fellow champions who have not received such extravagant treatment."

"This demand sounds… reasonable, if difficult for him to satisfy." Alexa said with a frown. "I cannot imagine that he will be able to earn such great merit unless he slays a greater phase lord in person."

Ves chuckled. "I am not expecting a feat as extravagant as that. I will be happy if he is able to kill a lesser phase lord. Other than that, he can earn merit in other ways. What is important is that he should not think that he is entitled to receive an ace juggernaut just because he asked. He needs to prove himself worthy to pilot such a great machine. If he is not able to measure up to this standard, then he can forget about it. He can always change his mind and request an upgrade to his Greenaxe. It is a perfectly fine mech concept. Even if its configuration is relatively simple, I can always expand it with additional features."

"Do you wish to impose any other requirements, or is this sufficient, sir?"

"Well, there is a fourth condition that must be satisfied, but Glendale has no control over it. In order to refurbish the Otalon Sprius into an ace juggernaut according to his desires, red humanity must retain enough of its industry, commerce and infrastructure to enable such a massive construction project. We cannot afford to squander our resources onto this boondoggle if we are all reduced to space nomads in a dwarf galaxy that has once again fallen into the complete control of hostile aliens. This project only really makes sense if red humanity does not lose too much territory and has managed to stabilize its frontlines."

The female mech designer nodded in agreement. "This is also a reasonable requirement. Even if you still want to develop the ace juggernaut, I would have tried to discourage you if it imposes an excessive burden on our finances and industrial capabilities."

The two continued to talk about other requirements. Both Ves and Alexa gained a clear idea on what sort of conditions had to be satisfied to embark on this bold transformation.

If for whatever reason Venerable Glendale managed to satisfy all of the requirements, then Ves would be willing to go all-out to turn this fantasy into a reality!

Ves already had a feeling that the Otalon Sprius had the potential to turn into a powerful machine beyond comparison.

Now that he had become enlightened to this new possibility, his feeling for the juggernaut had grown stronger!

It was too bad that this was not the time to think about embarking on such an ambitious project.

For now, he needed smaller and more manageable mech design projects.

It took less time than expected for the Design Department to complete the Minerva Mark II Project.

The First Sword Mark III Project should also be close to completion.

The Riot Mark III Project should be done in around 4 months.

The Lionheart Mark III Project might be done at around the same time if Ves and Gloriana were willing to work on multiple high-end projects at the same time.

All-in-all, it should take way less time than they had originally anticipated to work away the backlog of high-ranking mech design projects.

Even then, the Greenaxe still wouldn't get its turn under normal circumstances. The Everchanger had a great need for an upgrade, and Ves wanted to modernize the Bastion as well.

The only way for Venerable Glendale to get ahead in queue was to break through and earn enough merits to earn special treatment!

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