The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4338

Though Master Benedict no longer continued this discussion any further, Ves still had plenty of food for thought.

Unlike Gloriana, he could hardly focus on examining the Neo Amadeus and its various pieces of high-end equipment due to all of the turbulent thoughts running through his mind.

Ves understood that he had made enough progress and produced enough results in the Red Ocean to move into the big leagues of the mech community.

Though his status as a Journeyman caused many people up high to dismiss his presence, that did not stop the more discerning people from taking him seriously.

As Master Benedict just said, the power imbalance was too great for Ves to feel secure. Anything could happen to him as his work began to make more changes to society.

Some people stood to benefit from the popularization of living mechs while others would definitely lose business.

Instead of waiting until a greater and more damaging event occurred in the future, Ves needed to preempt these risks.

The way to do that was to build up more leverage and support by developing a close relationship with a mecher that was powerful enough to cover for him but also friendly enough to take risks on his behalf.

As Ves thought of possible candidates that he could get closer with, he found out that the list of people he might be able to depend upon wasn't great.

He was certain that the Survivalist Faction and the Transhumanist Faction encompassed a huge amount of people, including a huge amount of powerful Masters and numerous Star Designers.

Yet just because their factions supported Ves didn't mean that they would stick up for him during the bad times.

This was what Master Benedict was truly warning him about. Ves had never met the vast majority of Survivalists and Transhumanists and could not possibly count on them to cover his back if he needed their help.

The only people he could truly count upon were those he spoke to in person and developed a positive impression on him. What Ves needed to do was to increase his value in their eyes and build a more reliable relationship with them. It was best to forge a true partnership with them just like the one he formed with Calabast.

The amount of people from the MTA that Ves could approach was awfully short.

He had built up a great relationship with Master Willix in the past, but the huge distance between them had cooled their friendship as the years continued to pass by. Ves did not dare to assume that Moira Willix would stick up to him when they hadn't spoken with each other for more than five years.

Master Termaneo Dervidian was a better target. Ves had sporadic contact with him as the prestigious Master possessed a clear interest in his work. Yet the talks between the two mostly amounted to Ves updating his contact person from the Transhumanist Faction of his latest research results.

This was not enough anymore. If Ves wanted to turn Master Derividian into a more reliable backer, then he needed to expand his talks with the busy MTA mech designer.

However, the difficulty of doing this was too great. Even if Master Dervidian favored Ves, that didn't necessarily mean that this man who only submitted to Star Designers would sincerely interact with a little punk!

The difference in status between the two were simply too great for Ves to have much confidence.

If Ves wanted to make more progress, then he needed to approach someone who was not as distant and aloof.

The problem with that was that anyone weaker than Master Dervidian might not necessarily have the pull within the MTA to provide him with the cover that he sought.

"The closest person that comes to mind is Jovy Armalon."

Ves smiled a bit as he thought about his first real friend within the MTA. Though they had never met each other in the last five years, they still got in touch from time to time.

In fact, their friendship should have already passed a point where Jovy would be glad to assist Ves in dealing with potential trouble.

"He's still too young, though." Ves sighed.

Jovy was a great friend, but his influence within the MTA was too marginal. His value was almost entirely based on his potential rather than his accomplishments so far. Until he was able to realize his design philosophy and prove that he had the capability to throw his weight around, there was little that he could do to affect the MTA's trends.

The most that Jovy could do was ask for help from his own backing to help Ves out. He had already done that a few times, but there was a limit to how many favors he could cash in at a time.

"Damnit." Ves frowned. "It's still not enough. I need to approach other people, preferably ones like my wife that clearly benefit from my work."

"What did you say, Ves?" Gloriana looked up from her data screen as she heard him mention her name.

"Ah, it's nothing, honey."

Ves slowly floated over to Gloriana's position.

At this time, his wife was hovering over the derelict frame of the Neo Amadeus. Despite missing its cockpit, the overall damage to its frame was fairly light. This granted her plenty of insights about the design work of famed Gauger mech designers such as Master Huron and the Multi-Armed Designer.

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