"Alright, that's good enough. I'm sure you got the notification too?" Kellin asked, Gypsy moving away from the log she was currently trying to climb and back over to the pedestal after beeping twice.

They'd been working on her ability to jog and move around nimbly for the past fifty or so minutes, but Kellin realized he'd forgotten one extremely key thing if she was going to operate solo inside of a forest: the ability to climb over things. Pretty much every ten paces Kellin had needed to jump over, scale, dodge, or simply run around downed trees, holes, rocks... it was a veritable obstacle course out there.

When the suit got close enough he moved toward it and [Equipped], a slight rush of information present in his mind as he took a moment to adjust to all the new sensory and physical input.

"[Stats]."

[Body Status(Together)*:

Condition: Normal

Integrity: 100/100

Health: 80/80

Energy: 109/110

Stamina: 110/110

Mana: 56/56

Psionic Energy: 49/50]

[Stats:

Strength: 13

Dexterity: 14

Armor: 3

Constitution: 8

Density: 10

Endurance: 11

Battery: 11

Cardio: 7

Efficiency: 5

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 8.5

Sensors: 9

Willpower: 20

Tech: 5]

Kellin nodded at their new [Stat] count, the last notification they had gotten about the finished adjustments from the [Minor Class Evolution]. He wasn't sure exactly what was taking so long with the [Profession's] [Tech] [Stat], but he knew he'd been given access to [Psionic Energy] immediately and had yet to receive anything saying it was done adjusting. By his count, there was still about an hour and a half until it was done with... whatever it was doing.

A little quick math let him see that their [Resource] pools didn't seem to go up because of their combined [Stat] values. He knew that his [Mana] was tied into [Int], but the clarity he felt every time they [Equipped] due to the increase he shared with Gypsy didn't have any effect on their [Mana] at all.

In any case, it didn't matter too much for now.

"Current [Blueprints]," Kellin stated, the [System] bringing up a small note page that he chose to share with Gypsy, one description sitting on it.

[Blueprints]

[Cannister Rifle Blueprint:

Complexity: Moderate

Cost: 20 Material, 5 Credits

Creation Time: 1 hour]

"5, huh," he muttered, looking at the 21 [Credits] they'd had available dropped all the way down to 1 if he were to begin the gun.

He hoped the 5 was cheaper than if they would have tried just making the rifle without a [Blueprint], though it was impossible that way until they received an upgrade to the [Create] [Skill] he believed.

"And a fat 20 [Material]... That's going to cost us a lot to make. With only 1 [Credit] leftover as well, I don't know if we should-"

"11 will be left over. Notification on [Threat Level] increase dismissed earlier. Current spent [Credits] over threshold."

"Wait, what?" Kellin asked, eyebrows lifted as he checked, sure enough noticing a couple of notifications he'd dismissed after confirming the creation of the rifle [Blueprint].

[Congratulations! Individual Kellin Finnel, Gypsy, Designation #Progenitor has spent a total of 10 Credits and increased their Threat Level*! Credits awarded for achieving level 1: 10]

[Note: Threat Levels hidden below 10]

The two notifications were short and to the point and when Kellin followed it up by checking their [Status], it indeed showed they had gone up a level. If he remembered correctly, it was possible to view their [Threat Level] if someone had a [Skill] that revealed those things, but they were far and few in between. Not to mention, the first ten levels were very... broad in the amount of strength they hinted at.

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If Kellin were to take themselves into account currently, against a normal Human, they were closer to a [Threat Level] of 6 or so, but had less [Active Skills] available to them because they hadn't hit their Level 5 spike. Someone with the right combination of abilities or with enough supporting equipment after small [Evolutions] and [Upgrades] at 5 could easily take them down.

That was another point that he'd seen go heavily in his favor earlier, too, with the [Elite Guard] he'd killed. They were leagues stronger than him physically and he was certain the [Skills] they had available to them when piloting their Combat Suits would have shredded through his small Marine suit, but... they weren't in their elements, all outside their suits. Their [Credits] had been invested into abilities heavily reliant on their piloting, but they believed they were safe so far inside of Sector Five and were caught with their pants down. [Threat Levels] merely told you how strong someone could be, generally, in the right circumstances, making even a vastly weaker person potentially deadly if he had luck on his side.

After remembering that moment, Kellin shot off a short prayer to that same God of luck that had blessed him then and moved back toward the Hutch. Setting the Rifle to [build] while they were scouting was a must since it would take a lot of extra time.

"What do you suggest for the 20 [Material]," he asked, moving through the door and heading for the crafting bench.

"30 [Mana], 50 [Health], 20 [Integrity], 60 [Stamina], 50 [Energy], and 25 [Psionic Energy] if planning to scout still. Extreme costs suggest change of plan."

Kellin cringed a bit at the massive Psionic Energy dump. Not that they'd be building or crafting anything else really... overly costly in the week until they could [Create Blueprint] again, but five days to regen it all would hurt, not to mention what they'd have to use for building right now.

"No, we can still go. Most of those resources except [Integrity] will slowly come back as we move around and we won't be so far away that we can't [Cloak] and sprint home. If anything, I'd suggest giving up another 10 [Mana] and 15 [Stamina], but we wouldn't be able to use the [Wave Pistol] much then if needed... No, your numbers are fine," he eventually finished reasoning out. "Then, let's get to it."

If Gypsy could sigh, he got the feeling she would have at that point as he was met with her reluctant silence. When it became clear she wasn't planning to respond, Kellin began the extremely unpleasant process of allowing his [Health], [Mana], and [Stamina] to be torn away into a glowing, wispy ball of purple energy before him. It was joined by other mists of purple as the suit seemed to deteriorate slightly, losing a bit of its sheen and having the cuts it had received from their earlier escape reopen.

When he tried to sacrifice the [Psionic Energy], he felt a need of confirmation from Gypsy hold him up until she let it go through. Unlike the unpleasantness of the other [Resources] disappearing, it felt like this was exactly what [Psionic] was meant for. Zero unpleasantness, almost instant gathering to join the ball of floating energy before them and appearing more robust than the other energies.

Not bad by any means.

Once everything was finished, Kellin called up the [Blueprint] again and willed it to [Build], a notification popping up shortly afterward.

[Build: Canister Rifle(Moderate)]

[How much Psionic Energy would you like to add to the proceadure?]

"10, no... 5. Let's go with 5," Kellin decided.

Six days worth of the energy would disappear for this, regenerating in time for another [Blueprint] and leaving them some to utilize in the event they needed a lot of ammo on the fly.

[Build: Canister Rifle(Moderate)

Time until Build Completion: 10 hours]

The moment the final notification popped up, it seemed to float into the purple wisp ball before them as he dismissed it, sinking into the ball of energy and causing it to explode out away from itself. The numerous wisps of [Material] flew down to the table it had been hovering above and began stretching itself across the surface into a thin but long form. Kellin could feel an... instinctual connection to the process before him, letting him know that if he wanted to, he could even help guide it more efficiently.

He stared, mesmerized at the process for a few seconds until Gypsy snapped him out of it.

"[Build] has started. According to [Skill], assisting will reduce time to three hours due to vast knowledge of Captain Finnel, leaving plenty of daylight left to scout. Suggested-"

"Alright, let's get going then," he interrupted, moving the suit toward the Hutch door after breaking himself away from the workbench, once again almost feeling his AI friend wanting to sigh but being unable to.

He checked their [Condition] one more time prior to exiting, confident in their ability to escape should the need arise, but not seeing it being a real issue if they remained very close. Based on the lack of any proximity warnings and the fact that they hadn't run into anything on their mad dash east from the Savul territory, he expected it to be a nice, easy attempt to at least get some idea of what their surroundings looked like. His body felt pretty weak after sacrificing so many of his [Resource] pools, but he could already feel the temporary condition slowly being warmed away.

He knew he was being a bit rash in the decision to go out and gather information, but he'd also done this hundreds of times and if he was being honest, he wanted to stretch his legs a bit anyway after being cooped up inside for the last day.

[Body Status(Together)*:

Condition: Normal

Integrity: 80/100

Health: 30/80

Energy: 59/110

Stamina: 50/110

Mana: 26/56

Psionic Energy: 24/50]