The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1598

Chapter 1598 Sixth Offspring

Gloriana's personal chefs were highly-trained and acclaimed in their craft. Their ability to manipulate ingredients and develop tasteful and sophisticated dishes was unsurpassed on Cloudy Curtain.

Dr. Lupo, the new chef and exobiologist that Ves recently recruited from a refugee settlement, possessed different strengths.

While he was not as adept in the culinary arts as as an elite second-class chef, he was a very capable exobiologist!

As a fully-fledged biotech expert who specialized in nutrition, he created and modified his own ingredients. This gave him an unsurpassed ability to cook meals that were extremely delicious, nutritious and fulfilling!

Perhaps his biggest value was that he could study a person's precise physical and genetic condition and use the results to tailor the ingredients for maximum benefit!

This was such a new concept to Ves that he quickly became intrigued.

According to Dr. Lupo's boasts, his food was so beneficial that they could strengthen someone's health, appearance and longevity over the long-term!

However, something like this sounded too good to be true. Ves soon became skeptical at Lupo's outlandish claims.

"How much does your food actually affect our health? How many years longer will I live if I keep you on as our chef?"

Lupo smiled sheepishly. "I'm still in the early stages of my research. For now, I've only started with studying ingredients that are already known to be nutritious and applied my own tricks to them. It will take some time and a lot of funding for my original research to bear fruit."

"In other words, you're far from a senior in this field, is that right?"

"I'll become an authority in the field of nutritious solutions sooner or later! Believe in me, Mr. Larkinson!"

Ves shrugged and turned to Gloriana. "What do you think? As long as Lupo doesn't poison us, I'm inclined to give him a chance."

While she looked troubled, she was sober enough to recognize Dr. Lupo's value.

After a moment, she came to a decision. "I'll allow him to work in the kitchen as long as he's limited to ingredient preparation. I want my chefs to do the actual cooking."

That sounded fine to Ves. He even added another suggestion.

"I'll also assign some guards to pay extra attention in inspecting the meals."

The guards from the Avatars and Glory Battalion already subjected all the meals reserves for Ves and Gloriana to rigorous scans.

To Ves, such a precaution was hardly necessary. His metabolism was so abnormal that he could easily digest most types of exobeast flesh without any problem!

Unfortunately, Gloriana was not as robust. Though her extensive genetic modifications and other augmentations made her much less susceptible to poisons and other toxic substances, she was much closer to a baseline human than her boyfriend.

If someone as smart as Dr. Lupo really wanted to kill Gloriana by poisoning, then he just had to develop an ingredient that was deathly without tripping any alarms.

This was why Ves posed an additional demand to Dr. Lupo.

"Don't use any customized ingredients without verifying their safety and effectiveness in lab conditions." He ordered. "I'll make sure my guards are capable of distinguishing between authorized and unauthorized ingredients."

"What?! That will take weeks, if not months!"

"SHUT UP! You'll accept this term, or you can kiss your generous budget goodbye!"

Dr. Lupo had no choice but to acquiesce.

Though he didn't know Dr. Lupo for long, Ves already figured the man out. He was just like any other obsessive researcher. As long as he enjoyed enough time, funds and facilities to pursue his research, he would agree to anything.

The extensive background check that Crindon performed on Lupo did not identify anything worrisome about his loyalties. His previous school and employer were normal companies that no longer existed once the sandmen overran their facilities.

Lupo also didn't appear to share any relations to fringe groups such as the Five Scrolls Compact.

While Lupo's obsessive tendencies strayed fairly close to uncomfortable territory, he was not as extreme as Dr. Jutland.

Since Ves required the services of a high-caliber exobiologist, he was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. He just had to make sure to curb Lupo's enthusiasm with sufficient checks and balances.

Once this morning incident ended, they commuted to the Mech Nursery.

There, Ves and Gloriana first paid a visit to the Avatar's recently-upgraded medical facility.

Ves paid careful attention to Davia Stark's ongoing physical treatments.

"We have made fair progress in treating our patient's injuries." A doctor reported to Ves. "She should be ready to wake up within two to three weeks, depending on any complications or adverse reactions that might arise."

"Take your time and be thorough. Madame Stark is one of the first beneficiaries of my charity. I don't want any of the veterans I've selected to die under our care. Is that understood?"

The doctor gulped. "We shall do our best, sir."

As the doctor moved away to supervise Stark's ongoing treatment, Gloriana turned to Ves in confusion.

"I didn't object to your decision to start a charity. I think it will do good in increasing your reputation, which will only make you more pleasing in the eyes of my dynasty. I'm just unsure why you've diverted some of your precious time to check up on this refugee's condition."

"Davia Stark is not just a pity case, Gloriana. She's a future asset. Don't you see?"