Since it usually took weeks or months for these kinds of job applications to get processed, Ves quickly submitted his own to a bunch of ch design universities.
Naturally, Ves did not randomly transmit his job application to any institution.
He read a few guides, skimd through a few industry applications and ford a list of a hundred or so candidates.
Humanity had already entered the Red Ocean for a number of years, and the amount of people who passed through the greater beyonder gate surpassed a trillion individuals.
Capital ships that were entirely geared towards transporting passengers were akin to layered cities that could bring half a planet's worth of population across thousands of light-years!
Many of such ships had been built, and more were on the way. The Red Ocean had an incredible demand for population and the old galaxy seemingly had an endless supply of adventurous individuals.
With population ca the demand for educational services.
Higher education was especially in demand as pioneers had an enormous demand for many essential professions such as shipwrights, ch technicians, fabricators, mining engineers and agricultural specialists.
ch design also ca under demand as a huge amount of ch companies needed more skilled assistants to speed up the developnt of Red Ocean-style ch designs.
The ergence of novel alien technologies, newly discovered exotics and the endless applications of phasewater threw the entire ch industry in a frenzy!
Every class and layer of the ch industry beca enthralled by all of the new options presented by the Red Ocean.
Ves had already witnessed this trend in Davute, and he figured that the situation was not that much different in the upper zones.
Although the threshold of studying at a first-class university was so high that not even ordinary first-raters had much hope of getting admitted, they still pumped out a lot of reasonably competent ch designers that could assist in the design of highly complicated chs.
Ves primarily set his sights on the more modest institutions that had lower recruitnt thresholds.
They weren't diploma mills, exactly, but they couldn't be called centers for excellence either.
Funding, backing and heritage were all needed to found a good ch design university that could stand its ground in a highly competitive market.
The lower-tiered institutions lacked star professors that required a huge amount of incentives or even equity in order to teach in their halls. Without enough renowned and prestigious professors, the schools would not be able to attract excellent students and professors.
They also lacked enough support from a powerful state, a pioneering organization or an old galaxy power. Rival universities with better backing could easily gain more favors and bend the regulations in their favor.
The founders and investors of these schools might not have much ties with existing heritage brands in the old galaxy. This made it a lot harder to inspire trust as the lack of ties to a famous institution ant that the quality of education was still in question!
It would be nice if Ves managed to get hired by a ch design university that scored well in funding, backing and heritage, but that was as unrealistic as breaking through to Star Designer on the spot!
As a second-class ch designer and only a Senior at that, Ves ranked so low on the list of desirable professors that he only had a shot of obtaining a position at the shabbiest and most dubious universities.
"That effectively ans that I should only apply to struggling or failing institutions."
There were important differences between struggling and failing schools.
The forr might not do so well, but they established enough of a footing in the educational market that they could keep its gates open for at least a decade.
The latter deteriorated so much that it was doubtful that it could keep its classrooms occupied in the next two or three years.
The problem was that it was difficult for Ves to distinguish between the two. These shabby universities did everything in their power to obscure the truth and present overinflated impressions to the public.
The galactic net was filled with so much junk information about them that it was impossible to distinguish truth from falsehood.
The most reliable way to obtain the truth was to command the Black Cats to send field agents to lurk around the campuses, but that was a needless extravagance to the Larkinson Clan.
Ves tried to resort to an alternate ans of investigation. He pulled out a totem of Ylvaine and requested answers.
"Can you check over the ch design universities on this list and predict which ones will still remain operational five years later?"
The replies he got in return were murky. Ylvaine lacked the strength to make so many predictions. This was especially the case when the Great Prophet had to look into the futures of large educational institutions that employed at least a dozen Master ch Designers!
The high concentration of spiritually powerful individuals made it surprisingly difficult for a relatively weak design spirit such as Ylvaine to make any solid judgnts about the future!
Seeing that the cost of obtaining answers was way too high, Ves dismissed the design spirit and gave up on this thod of inquiry.
"I need to complete my first ch design commission for Davute as soon as possible." Ves muttered and frowned. "I also need to tie him to an expert pilot in order to increase his ability to penetrate the secrets of more powerful targets."
Though Ves had neglected Ylvaine's needs for so long because of his bias against religion, he could not do so any longer now that he recognized the design spirit's strategic value.
The capacity to track down specific targets was too useful for him to abandon!
It beca a lot more important to cultivate Ylvaine and allow his predictive abilities to glimpse the futures of more powerful individuals.
"Soon." Ves curled his lips into a smile.
In any case, now that Ylvaine was unable to provide any aningful assistance for the ti being, Ves was left to use his own judgnt.
He first whittled down the list by applying additional criteria. Schools that were too large or were located in more restrictive states were a bit too troubleso.
He then relied on his whims and intuition to pick out half-a-dozen different nas. If his initial attempt went nowhere, then he could always revisit the list and select a handful of other universities.
The ones that he intended to apply for first all had issues that made them less attractive.
For example, one of them was located close to an ongoing conflict between two rival first-class powers.
Although it was unlikely for outright war to break out, the frequent skirmishers disrupted trade and scared away a lot of potential students.
If the two sides managed to make peace in the future, then the university would probably recover as calm descended on the region.
If the squabbling powers were unable to make up their mind, then many different companies would suffer, not just the university that was struggling to retain its students and professors!
"It takes guts to attend this school."
A lot of students had already left, causing its finances to dip deep into the red.
However, Ves saw it in a different light. Not only was the school lacking in professors who could teach and manage the courses related to core and foundational subjects, the students that remained despite all of the bad news were definitely more to his liking!
There was also another school that had already gone bankrupt before being picked up by a financial group looking for opportunities.
Though the new owners stabilized the school and retained most of the professors by offering higher salaries, a lot of students had already fled to greener pastures!
With intense competition squeezing the ch design university from every direction, the new administrators could only lower the admission standards and take in less qualified students.
The problem with filling up the classroom benches with inferior students was that this made the professors more disgruntled!
Each of these Masters and Seniors wanted to pass on their knowledge to more promising future prospects. It was pretty much a waste of ti for them to teach ch design students who could only beco Apprentices or maybe Journeyn at best!
Unlike most snobby first-class ch designers, Ves did not look down on these so-called 'inferior' students.
"Heh. Ketis and I started out as third-raters, and look where we are today. Everyone has potential. It just takes more effort to draw it out. Maybe I can employ special ans in order to give my classes an extra boost."
Ves did not have many ans to employ his unique arsenal of tricks to augnt his teaching by remote, but he should still be able to whip up a few solutions with a bit of planning and preparation.
He continued to apply to a few other schools in comparable dire straits. Whether they could dig themselves out of their holes was still in question, but it was exactly because of these adverse circumstances that Ves believed he had a chance!
"That should do it." Ves smiled in satisfaction after he sent out his last job application. "I might not have to wait too long to obtain a reply considering that these institutions desperately need to put out their fires."
Desperation bred expediency. All of those proper first-class ch design universities could easily take their ti because they had already adopted a winning posture.
It was the schools that were doing their best to fight for another tomorrow that put down their arrogant postures and no longer put up so many obstacles as before!
Now that he had taken care of this chore, Ves set aside his thoughts on finding a teaching job and turned his attention back to his other needs.
Now that all of the excitent and novelty around his promotion to Senior had passed, it was ti for him to handle the priorities that he had previously pushed aside.
"I need to complete the Ghost Project."
Superpublishing the Dullahan Project caused Ves and his collaborators to harvest a lot of new and useful insights.
While Ves had been spending his ti on other affairs, Gloriana and Master Benedict had been reworking a lot of different design aspects of the Ghost Project.
They applied many of the design improvents of the Dullahan Project to the Ghost Project!
Now that Ves no longer had any distractions, he spent a few days on performing his own tweaks.
He imdiately experienced many of the differences between working as a Journeyman and working as a Senior.
His Spirituality skyrocketed. His intuition beca a lot stronger. He could recall existing knowledge more easily. He could solve difficult equations a lot faster. He could spot errors and inconsistencies with greater efficiency. He was able to nurture a stronger and livelier spiritual foundation for his upcoming living ch.
In short, everything beca better, and this was just the start!
Ves even had the ti to figure out whether these improvents ca from his latest evolution or whether they originated from his upgraded connection to the Kingdom of chs.
He still couldn't sense this connection directly, but now that he beca aware of its existence, his intuition vaguely spotted a few hints.
There were certain tis during his design sessions that he suspected that he was getting a little push from the Kingdom of chs.
"It's strange."
He did not quite know what to make of this external help.
On the one hand, his work beca smoother and he wasted a lot less ti on getting stuck.
On the other hand, he occasionally felt that he wasn't doing all of the work. If he kept relying on the Kingdom of chs to cheat his way out of a difficult situation, he would never properly train his problem-solving skills.
Was the Kingdom of chs really beneficial to ch designers?
Ves seriously questioned this assumption.
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