The Mech Touch

Chapter 3401: Possible Expansion

"…Miew…"

He found it hard to remain on topic while little Aurelia had grown to the point where she became increasingly more active when she was awake. Though she still slept most of the time, Ves distinctly noticed that Aurelia as well as Mana became increasingly more responsive and playful.

Gloriana looked radiant as she happily indulged in her daughter's antics. Alexandria meanwhile allowed the intangible white fuzzball to jump onto her red tail.

"Ahem." Ves coughed as his daughter adorably held onto Gloriana's finger. "As I was saying, our list of design priorities keep growing. Although a part of it is because it took longer for us to complete our most recent round of mech design projects, the fact of the matter is that the rapid growth of our clan has rapidly overtaken the growth of our Design Department. What we need to do is to bring the latter up to speed. Although I hoped to rely on internal promotion to solve our increasing shortage of lead designers, it appears that my assumptions were too optimistic."

"You can't raise Journeymen whenever you want, Ves." Gloriana proudly stated even as Aurelia's tiny fingers clung onto her hair. "What happened to Ketis is the exception rather than the rule. Otherwise, why are people like us who broke through before we reach thirty years old so special? Don't forget that most of our assistants lean on the younger side. They're less talented than us, so it's no surprise that they need more time to make substantial progress. The true situation of the mech industry is mostly like this. Even if you employ hundreds of assistants, it can take decades before one of them breaks through."

Her words described the cold hard truth about how unreliable it was to pin his hopes on internal promotion to fill up the ranks of Journeymen. The design teams were filled with mediocre mech designers who failed to distinguish themselves when they studied their crafts and worked at their initial jobs.

Their hunger for greater opportunities may have led them to the Larkinson Clan, but if they were more talented, capable and successful, they would have turned to much more attractive options!

Truly skilled and ambitious mech designers never thought about becoming assistant to other mech designers. They insisted on leading their own projects and designing mechs based on their own visions!

These were the true Journeyman candidates. As long as they possessed spiritual potential, their chances of breaking through was much higher than any of the drones in the Design Department!

When Ves glanced at himself as well as the other three Journeymen, he realized that none of them were typical mech designers.

Nothing needed to be said about himself. Ves was anything but conventional and he reveled in that. Breaking rules excited him and he never accepted the status quo.

Gloriana may have been raised to exacting standards by her strict mother, but she lived up to the expectations of the Wodin Dynasty. Her existence was proof that funneling a lot of money in someone's upbringing could result in fantastic returns.

Ketis grew up under much worse circumstances than the former Hexer, but she was already talented enough to do decently well in the frontier. Once she joined the Larkinson Clan and received proper tutelage and resources, she grew up at a rapid pace.

With the help of the companion spirit that Ves had gifted to her, she even became one of the most remarkable mech designers in existence due to her dual breakthroughs.

Juliet was the most ordinary Journeyman among this gathering. Although she possessed an unusual history, her trajectory as a mech designer was relatively conventional. Though her personality and design philosophy weren't as exciting as the others, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She brought a much-needed measure of calm, rationality and sanity to the group meetings.

Even then, Juliet was already remarkable enough for being able to advance to Journeyman at a relatively young age.

If Ves grouped everyone in the room together, then none of them were the sort of people that could easily be found on the job market.

With the expeditionary fleet getting closer and closer to the gate system, it became easier than ever for the Larkinson Clan to fill its job vacancies.

A seemingly endless amount of eager and ambitious Apprentice Mech Designers wanted to catch a ride to the Red Ocean while doing the work that they loved.

The Larkinson Clan even began to receive inquiries from various Journeyman Mech Designers. Each of them were attracted to different aspects of the Larkinson Clan.

Some thought that the clan had a prosperous future. Others were attracted by the short but illustrious track record of the lead designers. A few of the older Journeymen even thought the Larkinson Clan would be lucky if they became the new leaders of the Design Department!

Journeymen tended to be more passionate, colorful and confident in terms of personality, so the group of applicants looked like a circus to Ves. It was hard for him to take any of them seriously, especially when a large proportion of the applications lacked sincerity.

"I don't know, Ves." Ketis commented after a while. "I don't want to work alongside people who haven't fought and bled alongside us. I don't mean that literally, of course, but I respect everyone who joined up when we were much weaker and stuck with us through both the good times and bad times. Now that our clan has grown larger and more stable, it would be too cheap for other Journeymen to swoop in and take everything for granted."

The others frowned as well. This was a shared sentiment among the Larkinson mech designers.

Gloriana embraced Aurelia as she voiced her own opinion.

"We can give the newcomers a lower status than us. They will all have to prove themselves before they can earn sufficient trust to hand over greater responsibility to them. This doesn't have to happen in a hurry. We can observe them for a number of years in order to see whether they are truly committed to our clan or whether they are purely out for themselves."

That was another good suggestion, although Ves already spotted a couple of problems.

"This isn't a risk-free plan." He said. "All of the projects we are working upon such as our recent expert mech design projects are highly sensitive and classified. If an outside Journeyman joins our ranks and works on a dozen or so important projects only for us to deem him unsuitable, what should we do with him? If we kick him out, he'll not only resent us, but also walk away with a lot of internal design secrets."

"We could keep him but reassign him to another function." Gloriana proposed.

Ves shook his head. "That won't work. Journeymen are proud and are used to enjoying a higher status. They won't accept getting marginalized. If I reassign them to less important projects or move them out of the Design Department entirely, then we'll definitely suffer a backlash."

Journeymen couldn't be treated as normal clansmen and employees. They enjoyed a higher status in every part of human society, but they were even more respected in the Larkinson Clan.

Part of the problem was that Ves wasn't a Senior or Master. If he was a higher-ranked mech designer, then it would have been much easier for him to keep Journeymen under his thumb.

After a few more minutes of discussion, Ves came up with a tentative decision.

"I don't think we should give up on internal promotion, but our need for more design capacity is so great that we must be open to alternatives." He slowly said. "I want to try and see what happens if we accept two new Journeymen into our clan. Naturally, they will start off lower on the totem pole and must prove their loyalty, dedication and value over a span of several years until they receive our actual trust. What do you think about this proposal?"

He originally wanted to recruit four extra Journeymen, but that made this batch more difficult to control. By halving the recruitment target, he didn't need to be afraid even if both of the newcomers banded together.

"Two is a good amount." Gloriana concurred. She was the most afraid of losing her power in the Design Department. "It's much easier to supervise the new recruits that way. They better be worth the effort, though."

Juliet was also open to this proposal. "We could certainly use more specialists. Venerable Jannzi will be ecstatic if a Journeyman with a Class III design philosophy can finally bring the defensive capabilities of her Shield of Samar to the next level."

This was one of the most compelling reasons why Ves was so eager to add more Journeymen to his clan. Since he planned to design a lot more specialized mechs for the Larkinson Army, it was essential that the Design Department was able to cover the most essential attributes of a mech.

Aside from a defensive mech specialist, Ves also wanted to recruit a ranged mech specialist so that the Design Department could better serve all of the mech pilots who fought at range.

Although Ves was in the process of grooming Zanthar Larkinson into a future authority on luminar crystal technology, the young man hadn't graduated yet! It took too much time for him to become a Novice, Apprentice and finally a Journeyman.

A lot could change while Zanthar remained irrelevant! Just a single decade was enough to completely alter the circumstances of the Larkinson Clan. The mech legions needed stronger mech designs sooner rather than later in order to make sure the clan survived the upcoming events.

"What do you think, Ketis?"

The young woman shrugged. "I don't know. I'm okay with it I guess, but if the new Journeymen turn out to be bastards, I don't want to work alongside them. They shouldn't even be allowed to play a role in the design of our crucial Larkinson mechs."

"You're not alone in this Ketis." Ves smiled in response. "It's not that easy to earn my trust. I will do my best to screen and filter all of the applications so that only the most earnest and well-meaning Journeymen will join our ranks. I won't hire any older and more experienced ones because it is too likely that they will abuse their seniority in order to obtain more say in how we run the Design Department."

They briefly discussed which criteria they should set to evaluate the possible applicants. Age, design philosophy, background, culture, design library, prior employment and even political stances were all factors that determined whether a new Journeyman was a good fit for the Larkinson Clan.

"I have one more suggestion." Gloriana spoke up. "You should wait until we've entered the Red Ocean before you begin recruitment. The pool of available Journeymen in our current region is fairly limited and boring. We can draw from a much more diverse population of Journeymen in the new frontier. Those that have managed to obtain passage through the beyonder gate aren't average, so you won't have to waste any time with the riff raff."

Ves looked intrigued. "That's a good idea. We'll be delayed for a bit, and we will have to integrate mech designers who are much more different than the people we are accustomed to dealing with, but… the payoff is a lot greater."

Although Ves didn't look down on mech designers who grew up in the galactic rim, he was a lot more keen on diversifying the Design Department by adding mech designers who originated from the galactic heartland to the roster!

As for the mech designers who grew up in the most prosperous part of human space, Ves had no hopes that his piddly little Larkinson Clan could possibly attract such elites.

"Let's settle for this proposal, then. If you have a bit of free time, then do me a favor and look up the Journeymen who are available for hire in the Red Ocean… If we can lock them down early, then we don't have to wait too long to welcome our new colleagues."