The Mech Touch

Ves felt like he had egg on his face. At the start of the third day, he glowered constantly as he shoveled his breakfast into his mouth.

Meanwhile, his cat was a ray of sunshine. Sitting contently on the table next to him, Lucky happily munched on his regular portion of exotic minerals like he had no care at all!

The others at the table had been trying to find a way to deal with yesterday's abrupt development.

\"There are hundreds of huge cats in the hunting zones.\" Gavin gently suggested.

\"That's true.\" Ves sighed. \"However, finding what I want is not that easy. I was pretty sure that the Dragon Cat possesses what I need. I'll have to perform additional investigations into the other huge cats to find a viable replacement. We might have to move to another hunting city elsewhere on the Asco Continent to find a huge cat that is just as promising as the Dragon Cat.\"

Ves did not say those words without reason. His gaze met Gavin's eyes in implicit understanding.

Both of them knew who urged the Rocit Butchers to hunt his first choice of game. Lady Miralix must have assigned spies to him or merely accessed the monitoring system of his hotel room in order to find out his interest for the Dragon Cat.

Since his Ves was continually doubting between aiming for the Dragon Cat or Zeigra, Lady Miralix recognized that taking away the former would push him to the latter!

It was the kind of shrewd maneuver that indeed strengthened the noble scion's bargaining power!

However, while Ves inwardly applauded her move, he didn't wish to concede his favorable negotiation position.

Not only that, he also felt affronted that Lady Miralix abused the three-day waiting period to pull off her own shenanigans.

The goodwill he initially extended to her had completely evaporated. How could he cooperate with someone who pulled off such a shady trick?

\"Goddamn nobles.\" He muttered.

He was being a little unfair here. Ves knew that non-nobles could be just as dirty as those who were bestowed with titles. People in power all learned to exploit opportunities in order to climb this far or maintain their current height. Those who failed to keep up would inevitably be pushed down!

Considering the position that Lady Miralix was facing right now, Ves couldn't blame her too much for manipulating the situation in her favor.

A part of him just wanted to leave Kemila and try his luck at another hunting city. While the other huge cats in the vicinity of this failed to arouse his interests, there were so many huge cats elsewhere on the continent that might offer even greater promise.

Right now, both Ves and Gavin deliberately mentioned this option in order to remind Lady Miralix or whoever was monitoring them that Ves still had alternatives! He just had to go through a bit more trouble.

\"Sometimes, I feel like it isn't worth it to stick around anymore. Felixia isn't the only planet with huge cats.\"

Later that day, Ves sent his subordinates out again on another fact-finding mission. In the meantime, he browsed the huge cat database on the planetary network to find alternative candidates to hunt.

Even though he hadn't really found anything comparable to the Dragon Cat in promise, he still kept looking in order to make the impression that he was still seriously looking for alternatives.

Later that evening, Lady Miralix finally arrived at his hotel suite.

Both of them took their discussion to a private room. Only their cats accompanied them into the room.

\"Meow.\"

\"Miao!\"

Unfortunately for his gem cat, the Felixian designer cat still refused to acknowledge his existence!

Ves immediately began the discussion with an accusation. \"Nice trick, by the way. Have the Rocit Butchers already managed to slay the Dragon Cat?\"

For her part, the noblewoman looked unapologetic.

\"I'm not aware. Communication is blocked in the hunting zones. We'll only know for sure when they return.\"

Ves crossed his arms to indicate his displeasure. \"Uh huh. Now, where is my rock?\"

\"Here.\" She said, and passed him the box she carried into the room. \"I've added some data chips inside that contain all of the condensed data we've gathered on the rock. For the most part, our researchers found hardly anything that suggests that it's an exotic, but we did find some strange, faint energy emissions in one of our most sensitive lab equipment.\"

That caused Ves to forget about his earlier irritation. \"Is it unique?\"

She smiled. \"Unique enough that we only found one material that emanates the same kind of emission pattern. A single exotic in House Laterna's material vaults happens to share this in common! Take a look for yourself!\"

The lady activated her comm and transmitted a virtual document to him. When Ves activated his own comm to read through the summary of the comparison analysis, he noted several surprises.

First, the P-stone that Ves owned largely resembled a grey space rock. The material that House Laterna stored in their vaults was very different. The shiny bronze-green rock resembled a chunk of molten metal. Its mass and density differed substantially from that of the P-rock, yet when put under the same sensitive scanner, the faint energy emissions they detected shared a lot of similarities!

Ves almost widened his eyes. This might be what he was looking for! Though the Barracuda offered a number of high-quality lab equipment, their small size limited them in many ways. The ship's lab also didn't have the space to accommodate enough variety of lab equipment.

It was different for House Laterna! Their expansive research facilities on the Talin Continent offered room for hundreds of different scanners and lab equipment!

He was sure that he'd encounter a lot of hindrances if he tried to borrow a fully-equipped lab. Such facilities were very expensive and normally reserved for existing research projects. Some lab equipment was so scarce and powerful that they featured waiting lists that stretched for months or years!

Only someone as influential as Lady Miralix could bypass all of those waiting lists and insist on subjecting his P-stone through as many examinations as possible!

Regardless of whether he obtained the second P-stone in House Laterna's possession, Ves was already satisfied with his current gains. The energy emission pattern he received could potentially be used to search for other P-stones offered by prospectors and traders elsewhere!

As long as he could confirm that the bronze-green metallic rock interacted with spirituality, then his desire to make wider use of P-stones came one step closer into fruition!

Of course, since Ves was in the middle of an ongoing negotiation, he did his best to suppress his excitement. He calmly set aside the virtual document and kept the box closed.

\"Well, what you've given me is a start. It is far from enough to secure my services, though.\"

She smiled at him as if she knew he was putting on an act. \"I'm sure my contribution thus far is still of significant value to you. I have called in a lot of favors to get the labs to prioritize the analysis of your strange rock.\"

\"I hope you have more in store. If I may ask, my lady, why me? Surely I'm not the only Journeyman in Felixia. The Eron Continent attracts a lot of visitors from the entire region.\"

\"I indeed have alternatives.\" She said simply, but said no more.

Ves suspected that Lady Miralix valued his specialty very highly. Considering his recent two mech designs, he didn't blame her for putting a lot of hopes in his abilities. She wasn't shy about admitting to that fact either, which meant her desperation was really quite considerable!

No matter what promises she made and what concessions she agreed to, as long as she succeeded in hunting a Crown Cat, she could easily make up for it later! With a prestigious Crown Cat under her belt, her future career would likely develop by leaps and bounds.

The two gradually proceeded with the negotiations. Ves maintained a disinterested expression as Lady Miralix continued to dangle various offers in front of her face.

Offers such as providing him with House Laterna's designer cats or other biotech-related goods and services fell flat with him. He simply didn't trust Miralix or her house enough to rely on their products.

Other offers interested him a bit more.

\"The Sentinel Kingdom normally imposes a significant amount of trade barriers to any mech manufacturers looking to do business here. I can pull some strings to bestow your LMC with better access to our mech market. You have to know that Sentinel's mech market is very attractive to mech companies. It sets a standard throughout the region, meaning that as long as your mechs do well in Sentinel, the neighboring states will soon follow suit!\"

\"The LMC is already on a healthy growth trajectory. It is not in dire need to gain access to Sentinel's mech market.\" Ves calmly replied.

She raised another offer.

\"Are you interested in the Nyxian Gap?\"

\"Everyone who visits the Sentinel Kingdom is interested in the Nyxian Gap. I'm hardly the first person who looked it up on the galactic net. That said, I don't think I'll ever step foot in it. It's far too dangerous for the likes of me to enter this pirate-infested region.\"

She dangled her next offer in front of his face. \"What if I can offer you temporary access to the Sentinel Peacekeeper Association? The Peacekeepers exist to connect every privately-owned outfit under a common banner in order to coordinate our actions against the Nyxian scum. The SPA is sanctioned by the state and enjoys greater rights and privileges than normal, especially with regards to the Gap. One of the most notable perks is priority access to any spoils the Peacekeepers retrieve from the Gap!\"

Ves raised his eyebrow. \"So it's a way for me to obtain access to the Nyxian Gap's specialty goods?\"

\"Yes! In fact, the metallic rock that's stored in our vault is part of a batch of odd minerals and exotics that we've procured from the SPA! If you are looking to obtain additional samples of your so-called P-stone, then accessing the SPA's closed market's is your best bet!\"

Now this really sparked his interest. Aside from finding and securing additional samples of P-stone, Ves also wanted to obtain the source for geril spice or at least a bulk shipment of this rare and expensive Nyxian product!

Short of entering the Nyxian Gap, Ves could only trawl the black markets of the Sentinel Kingdom, which was inherently risky. If he could acquire the goods he wanted from a legal channel, then that was great!

Still, Ves restrained his excitement and tried to look as if he still wasn't satisfied. He casually leaned his cheek against his fist. \"Is there anything else you can provide in exchange for my services?\"

She paused for a moment. Her eyes darted back and forth before she withdrew a jamming device from her suit jacket. As soon as she activated it, she revealed the last concession she was willing to make.

\"We also have ties to.. the other side.\" She whispered. \"I can't say anything more about the organization in question right now, but if you want to transact with certain parties in the Nyxian Gap, then I can provide you with a one-time opportunity to make a trade!\"

Now this sounded interesting! Ves recognized that this kind of offer would likely be very hard to obtain elsewhere. Since the lady's future career was at stake, she didn't hesitate to raise something that was probably very taboo in this pirate-hating state!

His interest peaked, so much so that Ves finally relented a bit. \"As I've said before, as long as you make it worth my while, I'm willing to lend my abilities to you. It won't be cheap though. All of the offers you've made aren't enough in isolation, especially since the last two are one-time instances. Let's go over your suggestions again.\"

The two began to hash out an agreement over the course of a few hours.