Regardless, Cael couldn’t rest any longer and needed to use those blueprints as soon as he could. Forming components himself would take quite a lot more time, since he was only well-versed with the assembly of larger overall units. However, with enough work, he was sure that he could get the job done.

His internal manipulation skills were great, and that was what he would really need to form these energy shields.

Upon finishing the last file, a few more notifications appeared in front of him.

[Quest Complete!]

[+2 Intelligence]

[+2 Creativity]

[+2 Focus]

[User: Cael Breckenridge]

[Titles: Competent Merchant, Vault Novice]

[Strength: 9]

[Speed: 8]

[Durability: 8]

[Intelligence: 23]

[Dexterity: 6]

[Creativity: 14]

[Focus: 17]

[MP: 13/13]

[Skills]

With these extra stats, Cael could feel that his mind had become even sharper than it once was. It was a frequent thing that Cael now found himself doing.

He would try basic arithmetic calculations and things of that sort to test how fast he could do them. Whenever his intelligence went up, he could feel that the time it took him to complete those calculations decrease.

Additionally, with his focus, it could allow him to increase the speed of his calculations once he entered a certain focused state.

Cael, once again, found himself somewhat directionless. He couldn’t really think of where to go, and there were no quests to keep him directed for the future.

[New Quest!]

[Quest: Lost Files II]

[Find the other set of lost files left by the Creator by searching throughout the galaxy!]

[Punishment: N/A]

Well, Cael didn’t feel the need to complain about this mission, but this couldn’t be the thing that would occupy most of his time. After conducting some of his own research, he found that there was another event that he could capitalise on to get his name out there more.

This was the Ultimate Autobot Showdown. This was a special event where mechanics from across a certain section of the galaxy could come together to a host state and show off their combat autonomous bots. With that, they would compete against each other in what they dubbed an ‘ultimate showdown’.

It was a detailed analysis of a bot, through several battles that it would have to partake in. It would be placed in gladiatorial formats with animal-like bots being pit against them. Along with that, there would be battle royales set up along with 1v1 tournament events.

In 8 months time, Cael had to be ready to go through with this event. The whole showdown was going to be hosted in a state called the Republic of Tecros. This was a very technologically advanced state that neighboured the furthermost colonies of the Soburg Empire.

In the Soburg Empire they were renowned for what the empire’s citizens viewed as overly liberal and left-wing policies. Along with that, the empire would ridicule the state for its petty army.

The Soburg Empire drew pride from its powerful military and its people deemed states with inferior defence to themselves as inferior. However, this was only part of the truth.

The Republic of Tecros was part of a supranational union, the Aegis Confederation. This union was focused on uniting resources and the people of its constituents. A main feature of the union was that if one member was attacked, the other states would be obliged to protect them.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

This is what kept Soburg so close to them, but non-violent. The manifesto of insatiable desire for land and control didn’t mix well with remaining so close to such a crushable nation, but the union kept them in check.

After a few short days of musing over his potential attack bot, he wanted to design a totally new weapon. The economical energy shield of the creator simply opened too many doors that he didn’t want to keep closed.

Thinking of the energy shield’s base, he thought of ramping the power up to a special electric baton. With the energy efficiency, lower-level exosuits could pump immense amounts of power into it and make it a deadly shocking weapon.

Along with an energy shield, that weapon combination would certainly be useful in the case of the gladiatorial match ups where this bot would be competing against powerful enemies.

After thinking over this tournament, the thought of Leon Areno entered his shortly after. The mechanic from the fighter-mechanic event that offered to work for him. With the thought of his expanding business, he could be of great use.

Cael was smarter now, and felt that his swarm design was in need of an upgrade or just an augmented alteration. The first idea that came to mind was a drone swarm solely focused on offensive capabilities. There would be no sensory drones, or at least very minimal, and the remaining drones would be various types of specialised attack drones.

They could use a wide range of different attack types, like explosive transporters or energy blaster specialists.

Along with that, to keep money flowing in, he wanted to make sure Leon could have some work to do with producing items for his merchant account. He would then make a fraction of the earnings on those items.

As to how much Cael was willing to give him, Cael wasn’t exactly sure, but he felt it would be necessary to contact him and find out his preferences for himself.

[Hey there, Leon. It’s been a while since you contacted me so I apologise but would you still be willing to do some work in association with me?]

It took about 10 or so minutes, and Cael was given a swift, enthusiastic reply.

[Hi, Cael. Of course I’d be up for it, man. What could’ve changed in just these few weeks?] Leon jokingly replied.

[That’s fair enough. I was looking for you to produce some items for my merchant account. If you were to produce those items, I was thinking that you could get 40 to 50% of the profit on those items but what else would be a good reward for you?]

[That’s quite a lot, I’d be fine with that to be honest. As for anything else, maybe promotion of my own items would be great. I wouldn’t be asking for anything much from the revenue of those, if any. The main perk to you making my own things would just be eyes on my stuff.]

[Ah, alright, I could do that. Well, what type of assembly experience do you have?]

Cael was willing to outsource his assembly but only to the right person. If he had sold rather shoddy products in the past, he did not want to do the same now.

[I almost got into the Vista Technical Academy in Oseron but they didn’t cover my rent and things. Even when they covered the stupidly expensive fees, I still couldn’t even cover my 1-bedroom apartment!]

Cael resonated with this, as Oseron wasn’t the most forgiving of places for those who didn’t have the money to live there. Before his parents died, living in Oseron was a possibility that his parents considered. However, after they were gone, he couldn’t have those same opportunities.

Without the Breckenridge even giving him a penny to help with his living costs, he could only dream of living in such a place.

He was sure other people’s situations were much worse than his.

[I ended up going to the Amburg T.A, which is pretty decent, but I didn’t want to just go and work for some company that would squeeze me dry and just give me little pennies along the way. Business is a mechanic's only way to the big bucks!]

Cael felt a similar way, and resonated with this sentiment even more. He felt great to be working with somebody that had a similar thought process to him, even with his rather unique eccentricities.

Nonetheless, the academy that he almost managed to get in to was a venerable institution. It was known for developing and having some of the most talented mechanics in their roster. To receive even any form of scholarship from that place would mean that they were very talented and intelligent. This was likely where many of the Alnwick family’s talents would go to harness their technical skills.

Amburg T.A. was then the 3rd highest ranked technical academy in the whole of the empire. Within the several star systems that neighboured the Cria system and others, it was still around the top 25.

[How many years did you spend in that place?]

[Well, I stayed there until the first year of higher education but the costs for everything just got too damn high. I don’t understand why those academies feel the need to charge so much for certain things]

Cael could hear the frustration, even through his texts and sympathised with him. With so much talent, he would’ve likely seen those less intelligent than himself end up in better opportunities due to their background but that was just how the world worked.

Reality was painfully harsh.

With this, the two furthered their conversation until they settled on what was going to happen with both going forward. Leon Areno had designed a rather nifty autonomous bot that he’d been aiming to sell virtually.

Without much, if any, capital to work with, he couldn’t even enter that scene either.

Cael looked at the design himself and was taken aback with its intricate, sleek design. The autonomous bot was an attack bot, with special thruster systems that were designed for flight.

Here, with these lower tier components, flight was not going to be possible. Even if it was, it wouldn’t last for much longer than a few seconds.

However, that was now what the thrusters were there for. Adding extra thrusting power to the back of the bot allowed it to have exceptional agility, and the compactness of its overall design meant that these cumbersome components didn’t weigh the bot down significantly

The symmetry and balance of the design was also very high level, meaning that these thrusters didn’t throw the bot dangerously off balance when they were activated.

[Name: Areno 360 V1]

[Type: Mediumweight Attack Bot]

[Evaluation]

[Speed: 65/100]

[Agility: 73/100]

[Firepower: 42/100]

[Power Efficiency: 60/100]

[Intelligence: 56/100]

[Maintenance: 65/100]

[Versatility: 66/100]

[Framing: 65/100]

[Overall Rank: 68/100]

“What a design!”