The Mech Touch

Aside from that, trying to break or reduce people\'s relationship with Vulcan would have an adverse effect on the growth of his spiritual incarnation.

Samandra Avikon successfully argued to Ves that if he wanted Vulcan to grow faster and become exposed to more craftsmen throughout the Red Ocean, he needed to set aside some of his most rigid objections.

"You can\'t have your cake and eat it too, patriarch." She argued with him. "The purest faith and devotion that is freely given to a divine existence is one of the most sacred and intimate acts in life. Please respect the faithful who for one reason or another found their source of spiritual sustenance in Vulcan."

He sighed yet again. "Fine. These people can do what they want as long as you don\'t turn them crazy somehow. Let\'s talk about more practical matters. How many members does the Creation Association have these days?"

"Over 100,000 people, but many of them have only signed up for the lowest tier of membership that we offer. The fees they pay are minimal and they generally do not take part in many of the activities that we organize. A much smaller proportion of members have decided to increase their commitment, but they also gain more benefits in return. Many of them tend to be senior production workers or master artisans who require more guidance and structure in their busy, stressful lives."

The woman spent the next few minutes detailing the kind of services they provide to the higher level members.

Aside from putting in a good word to Vulcan, the workers of the Creation Association also acted as counsel and advisors.

All in all, the Creation Association took on a lot more responsibilities than at the start.

Ves placed his hands on his hips. "You do know that I set this all up so that I can sell more totems and earn more money from their usage, right?"

The robed woman shook her head. "Money should not be your primary concern anymore. The clan has other sources of income that can cover for its expenditures. What is truly important to you is to connect Vulcan to more people. Changing our status from a generic non-profit organization to a religious institution helps us to connect to a wider audience of individuals who seek relief from their overly materialistic lives."

"That sounds nice, but how much revenue is the Creation Association making these days?"

"Around 2000 MTA credits a year, but we spend much of that on various investments such as building additional churches on other industrial planets."

"I see."

Although 2000 MTA credits meant little to Ves these days, it was still a massive amount of wealth to nearly every other person in the Krakatoa Middle Zone!

The spending power of 2000 MTA credits was extremely high in most second-rate states in the old galaxy.

Even in a busy place like the Red Ocean where all of the prices were inflated, 2000 MTA credits could easily be used to fund the creation of a mercenary outfit or a modest mech company!

The investments that Samandra was referring to had to be massive.

"How many branches have you set up so far?" Ves asked.

"We have built over 200 different branches up to this point, though many of them are rather small and staffed by only a handful of employees at most. The majority are located in the star systems aligned to Davute, though we have made a greater effort to expand outside of this sphere as of late. The more people become aware of Vulcan and the Creation Association, the more convenient it is for us to establish branches in more distant territories."

"I see." Ves looked impressed. "Your expansion progress exceeds that of the rest of our clan. I did not expect that out of all of our institutions, it would be yours that has made the greatest progress."

Even if most of the branches were little more than rented offices that accommodated a couple of people at most, that still meant that the Larkinsons had managed to establish a foothold on a planet!

This was what Ves sought the most. A foothold allowed the Larkinson Clan to integrate into the local scene and gain a deeper understanding of local conditions.

He talked a bit more with Samandra Avikon about the expansion strategy of the Creation Association.

It turned out that aside from setting up branches in the middle zones, she had already set her sights on the lower zones!

The woman explained her rationale for setting up branches in the lower zones.

"I am aware that our clan has long ceased to orient much of its business operations towards third-raters, but that does not mean they serve no use to us anymore. To a deity like Vulcan, humans are all equal for the most part. It makes little to no difference whether his flock consists of second-raters or third-raters. I believe that the same goes for first-raters."

Ves never thought about this topic from this angle, but she was pretty much correct!

The spirituality of a citizen of the New Rubarth Empire wasn\'t inherently stronger than that of an ordinary citizen of the Bright Republic.

The material differences between a mecher and a space peasant from a third-rate state may be so enormous that they might as well belong to two separate species, but in terms of spirituality they might as well be identical!

While there were definitely a lot of amazing transcendents among the Big Two and the first-rate superstates whose metaphysical attributes had reached amazing levels, they were so few in number that they did not affect the overall statistics.

As such, if the Creation Association wanted to expand quicker while spending less money, it was a great idea to expand its presence in the neglected lower zones of the Red Ocean!

Ves grew more intrigued. "How is the reception over there? Is it easy for the Creation Association to found branches in a lower zone?"

"The reception is no different than the reception in a middle zone, sir. To what extent people will embrace Vulcan depends on other factors such as fame and word of mouth. Regardless, since our Creation Association is classified as a second-class organization, we cannot directly apply our standards in a lower zone. We have to abide by the prevailing rules, which means that we must recruit external personnel in order to manage the branches on our behalf. The facilities we have built on third-class planets are also of the same standard. That makes them cheap but also limited."

The manpower issue was the greatest problem. In order for the third-class employees of the Creation Association to represent the organization and Vulcan properly, they needed to be screened before undergoing an intensive training program.

"These third-class employees aren\'t actual members of our clan, right?"

"No. Not immediately, at least." Samandra replied. "We have drawn from the Retainer Policy of our clan to turn them into our representatives without fully bringing them into our clan. The rules remain the same for all retainers. If they have acted improperly, they will be fired from their jobs. If they have earned a great amount of merit or served us loyally for many decades, then they may apply to join our clan and enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other clansmen, provided they pass our inspections. This chance alone has made it extremely easy for us to staff our branches in the lower zones with competent, diligent, loyal and most importantly enthusiastic employees."

He could easily see how this strategy could bloom in the coming years. The cost of setting up a branch on a planet in a lower zone was a fraction of doing the same in a middle zone!

The differences in expenses were so vast that with the current levels of revenue of the Creation Association, it should easily be possible to set up thousands of branches in the coming years!

Of course, it was not that easy to set up a branch in an unfamiliar place.

"Our clan does not have a close connection to third-raters anymore, so it is difficult for us to approach, connect and obtain the agreement of willing partners in the lower zones." Samandra explained. "We are trying to improve our capacity to engage with third-raters, but we find that specific colonies, administrations and cultures have different tolerances for us. Some do not care about our arrival while others strongly disapprove or outright hate what we are trying to introduce to their lives. This is also a problem for our second-class branches."

Ves rubbed his hairless chin. "Which sort of locations do you encounter the most opposition?"

"It would have to be closed societies and population centers that are already captured by different faiths, sir. The former mostly come in the form of a settlement that is reigned by controlling tyrants. These despots have a low tolerance of any influences that are not under their direct control. The latter are worse for us. Just as there is competition in the business arena, there is also competition in the faith arena. Any religious organization that has already \'captured the market\' of a planet will fiercely defend what they have, because if they do not do so, they will inevitably lose their accrued advantages."

Human-occupied space in the Red Ocean functioned as a melting pot where people who originated from every part of the Milky Way gathered together in relatively small and compressed territories.

That had the consequences of bringing a lot of different churches together!

Many of them used to be strong in specific regions of the Milky Way, but never conflicted with too many other faiths because they were too far apart from each other.

This was not the case anymore once they all began to occupy the same zones and star systems in the Red Ocean!

As these old faiths who already attained a lot of success in the old galaxy tried to spread their gospel to the new frontier, they found that they needed to become a lot more aggressive in order to prevent them from losing all of their devoted (and donating) followers!

This did not surprise Ves that much. "People of strong faith reject other faiths the most. It is quite ironic in that sense. In contrast, it should be much easier to build a following for Vulcan in more secularist environments as they are largely unclaimed by highly protective religious institutions."

Of course, trying to convert secularists came with its own fair share of challenges, but the Creation Association enjoyed several advantages that significantly reduced its difficulties.

First, Vulcan was a real existence who actually responded to at least some of the silly prayers that he received.

Second, the totems sold by the Creation Association provided real and amazing benefits that could not be explained with conventional science!

"Much of the revenue earned by the Creation Association is through the usage fees of its totems, right?" Ves asked.

"Correct, but we toned it down in order to give our critics and opponents less ammunition. We raised the price and reduced the frequency in which the totems can bless different craftsmen with invaluable insights and inspiration to at least once every three months for the largest and most expensive totem."

That was still a fairly quick interval for a craftsman to receive an effect that was effectively a watered-down version of getting hit by the Hammer of Brilliance!

"How goes the effort to produce totems in-house without requiring my direct intervention?"

That was a problem that Ves eagerly wanted to solve. In the past, it had always been necessary for him to make the totems by hand, which severely limited the amount that the Creation Association could distribute to interested members.

However, Ves or rather Vulcan came up with a possible approach that might allow third parties to produce qualified totems that could function just as well as the original product!

Samandra had been waiting for this question. She smiled and gestured to Ves to follow her to a different hall.

"I believe it is better to show you in person. Come this way, please. Our workshops are located underground."