Though Ves occasionally paid attention to Joshua, he never really talked to the kid very often. A single one-on-one exchange therefore accomplished considerably more than he initially thought.
Joshua was like a boat that had gone lost in an endless ocean. Though the boat was clearly capable of traveling sowhere, it lacked a direction.
Now that Ves provided Joshua with a more concrete goal and destination to work towards, the expert candidate gained a strong motivation to grow stronger.
As Joshua's force of will evolved and grew a little more solid, Ves remained observant throughout the process.
This was not the first ti he studied an expert candidate. He had a decent idea of what Joshua needed to do to catch up to the other expert candidates in the clan. As for taking his first true step to godhood, that was an opportunity that he needed to obtain by himself.
What Ves found curious was the potential cooperation and synergy he could achieve with a ch pilot who shared his domain.
Even now, whenever Ves reached out with his Spirituality, he always felt he could 'link up' with Joshua's force of will.
Naturally, he wasn't reckless enough to actually do so. Neural linking between two humans was exceedingly dangerous, and it shouldn't be too different if it happened over a spiritual link!
What Ves began to think about instead was trying to take advantage of this condition in a ch designed exclusively for Joshua.
If the expert candidate ever succeeded in taking the next step and advanced to expert pilot, then he needed a suitable expert ch to exercise the full range of his newly-acquired resonance abilities.
While Seniors and Masters were usually the ones to design expert chs, Ves did not wish to pass off this responsibility to anyone else! There was no way he would rely on an external Senior to help him design an expert ch either.
No matter what, Ves had his own pride, and he believed that it shouldn't be impossible for him to design an expert ch at this stage!
Even if his work didn't asure up to the expert chs designed by actual Seniors, he could always design a better expert ch next ti!
Once Ves departed from the Redfeather and returned to the Scarlet Rose, he continued to speculate on the abilities he could bestow onto an expert ch.
Adding resonance abilities was a must. From what Joshua had briefly demonstrated back in the design duel, his domain allowed him to rejuvenate the parts of his ch.
On the surface, this made it seem as if he was made to pilot defensive chs.
"It shouldn't be that simple." Ves shook his head.
Certainly, integrating resonating exotics that enabled a ch to repair itself should likely synergize extrely well with Joshua's resonance abilities. Ves did not dare to think how much damage such a zombie ch could repair in mid-battle!
However, aside from this application, it was rather difficult for Ves to imagine what else Joshua could do. One of the defining traits of a life domain was how both of them were able to communicate with other entities.
This ant that Joshua might be able to achieve a greater level of cooperation with design spirits than usual!
Ves could scarcely fathom what that ant for Joshua's future expert ch. Would he be able to ld with certain design spirits and be able to channel so of their distinctive powers?
That sounded incredibly wild, but Ves felt that it might not be as ludicrous as it sounded!
"Expert chs are moving miracles. What they do defy common sense."
So far, Ves knew too little about the developnt of expert chs.
If he really wanted to, he could ask Gloriana to explain what made expert chs different. He was also pretty sure he could ask so favors from his allies and acquaintances.
So far, Ves did not feel inclined to pursue sothing that wouldn't be relevant for so ti. He needed to focus his attention on his current projects.
When Ves resud his work on his major projects, he continued to work together with Gloriana over the galactic net.
Even when they openly talked about controversial subjects such as proto-gods and the divine nature of chs, Ves did not avoid them, but casually worked normally as if they were no big deal.
He knew that the Darkbreak module he was using probably gave Master Willix and anyone else in the MTA direct access to their transmissions.
There was no way to avoid these onlookers. If he refused to use the Darkbreak module and instead used a conventional quantum entanglent node, then the CFA and many other parties would listen in as well!
Ves felt pretty helpless at his inability to keep his remote conversations and collaborations with Gloriana private. He might as well accept this reality and use it as an opportunity to promote the illusion that he was a crank!
Therefore, instead of rejecting Gloriana's distinctive terminology, Ves embraced it. Design spirit beca proto-god. Spiritual foundation beca divine nature. Spiritual attributes beca divine authorities.
Certainly, Ves believed that Master Willix must be probably learning quite a bit about his thods and approaches to ch design.
He was confident that it wasn't so easy to follow in his footsteps, though. Besides, if the MTA saw that both Ves and Gloriana sounded as if they were so delusional about their warped beliefs that they developed a consistent and systematic frawork for creating gods, then that only strengthened his cover story!
One day, the pair discussed how to shape the Valkyrie Redeer's personality.
"The Superior Mother, your mother, is a must." Gloriana stated with her hands placed on her hips.
"Miaow."
Clixie just happened to be projected as well. She looked confused as she failed to spot Lucky. Was he avoiding her or sothing?
Even though Ves felt annoyed that Gloriana kept equating the Superior Mother to his actual mother in a literal fashion, he let it slide. Trying to correct her would only make him appear more sane, which was exactly what he didn't want to do in front of the MTA.
"I was thinking of adopting a more youthful and aggressive expression of the Superior Mother." He told her. "The Valkyrie Redeer is a marauder ch that is strong in both speed and offense. Those are traits that fit much better with maidens rather than matrons."
"That's not necessarily the case, Ves. Mothers can be very angry and very aggressive when roused."
"That's true, but that is sothing that fits more closely to the Blessed Squire, where the Superior Mother is watching over the male ch pilots. In the case of our current project, the female ch pilots of the Valkyrie Redeer do not need to fight as if their mothers are leaning over their shoulders. They need to have the room to run wild and follow their impulses."
"Hmm.. maybe you are onto sothing. Is it even possible to express the Supre in such a fashion? It sounds as if you are forcing your mother to do sothing she might not like."
"What woman doesn't dream of becoming younger?" Ves boldly grinned.
His fiancé chuckled. "You have a point. If you are confident you can make your mother younger, then by all ans, go for it. I wonder what she was like when she was younger. What kind of life did she live to birth a wonderful lover like you? She must have led an exciting life!"
Ves coughed. "Enough about my mother. Let's continue with the design of the Valkyrie Redeer."
It was not a good idea to talk about his mother's personal life over a compromised channel! If the MTA ever found out that Cynthia Larkinson wasn't as dead as the record stated, then he would definitely be in trouble!
Just as with the design of the Cat's Paw, the pair began to look at the weapon loadout first. The armants of a ch often defined its overall fighting style.
They already decided to design a dium marauder ch. The ch had to be tougher than light chs because it was expected to make direct assaults in smaller units.
Ves fully envisioned the Valkyrie Redeer as a ch that flew over the periphery of a battlefield. Rather than join the pitched battles at the front, the ch should instead be looking for its own opportunities to finish off an isolated opponent or sabotage critical infrastructure.
"I'm not quite certain about the pulse submachine gun that we initially paired with this ch design." Gloriana frowned. "It's lightweight, consus a modest amount of energy and doesn't take up a lot of capacity. It's just..."
"Individually, pulse submachine guns are rather weak." Ves finished for her. "I'm aware of that, but pairing a marauder ch with a full-sized rifle will basically turn it into a hero ch, which is quite difficult to pull off and pilot."
The inherent lack of range and accuracy at longer distances ant that the pulse submachine gun was only effective at closer ranges.
Normally, this sounded like a shortcoming, but it was actually a hidden boon in this case. Designing a ch to handle full-sized rifles while ensuring a high degree of accuracy and precision was very difficult.
Rather than waste much capacity in order to add a long-ranged solution to the Valkyrie Redeer, Ves instead preferred to minimize his investnt in this area and stick to a short-ranged weapon.
The pulse submachine gun undeniably imposed much less demands. The Valkyrie Redeer only had to fly close enough to a target before peperring it with a large volley of pulsed particles.
"We need to keep the ranged option for the Valkyrie Redeer modest because we have to dedicate a lot of capacity to strengthen its most powerful mode of attack.
The Valkyrie Redeer also ca equipped with a small shield and shortspear. This turned her into a discount version of a lancer ch as the ch was capable of charging any target on the ground!
Both Ves and Gloriana already possessed so experience with lancer chs when they designed one of the Bright Warrior's configurations. They knew the most important aspect about facilitating charge attacks was to ensure the attacking ch survived the impact!
Gloriana did not express much concern. "You don't need to be concerned about finding the right materials and components that excel at absorbing shocks and impacts. The licenses provided by DIVA already cover this area. I even picked so of them out. They're all fantastic in what they do and they're already used in existing Hexer lancer chs."
"I'll leave the decision up to you, then. Make sure to keep expenses in mind. Our budget can only accommodate so goodies."
Ves envisioned the Valkyrie Redeer as a mythical valkyrie that offered redemption by delivering death. Right now, without the triggered ability that he intended to add to its spiritual makeup, the marauder ch did not quite live up to its potential.
Just like with so of his other ch designs, he felt as if the Valkyrie Redeer missed sothing special. Ves felt the urge to add sothing more to the design, though he had no idea what he could fit in considering most of its capacity was already taken up by its existing weapon loadout.
"Hmmm. Let's get back to this topic later." Gloriana suggested. "Since we are working on several projects at the sa ti, we don't have to focus too much on a single issue. We can think over it slowly while we work on other projects."
The Valkyrie Redeer would likely be the second commissioned ch design that the pair intended to deliver to DIVA.
As they both added more detail to its draft design, the vibrancy of the ch already beca apparent! To Ves, it seed as if the ch contradicted the phase of death, but Ves was in no mood to design a creepy, skeletal ch.
There was no way that female Hexer ch pilots would pilot sothing that looked so ugly and abhorrent!
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