[User: Cael Breckenridge]
[Titles: Novice Merchant, Vault Novice]
[Strength: 3]
[Speed: 5]
[Durability: 3]
[Intelligence: 16]
[Dexterity: 6]
[Creativity: 5]
[Focus: 12]
[MP: 7/7]
[Skills]
For this event, he’d need to take focus off his physical skills. He didn’t even need strength, since the event qualifiers would be in a virtual environment.
Therefore, he wanted to make sure to increase his other stats enough.
[Stat Upgraded!]
[+1 Creativity]
[Stat Upgraded!]
[+1 Creativity]
[Stat Upgraded!]
[+1 Focus]
[Stat Upgraded!]
[+1 Focus]
After receiving these quests, he could feel his mind was warping and altering completely. Creativity allowed him to see new ways to use the information that he already had.
It felt fascinating to have this jump in creativity so suddenly, and several flashes of new designs popped up in his mind that he wanted to fabricate.
However, upon trying to increase his intelligence, he saw that it would now cost him 250 gears to unlock, not the standard 100.
“Why is this happening, system?” Cael asked, curious but also irritated.
[Once a stat becomes 15 or more, the cost increases from 100 to 250 for its upgrades.]
Cael just sighed in annoyance, as he had already used 400 gears for his other stats. Therefore, he placed the last 100 of his gears right into Creativity, making it 8.
[User: Cael Breckenridge]
[Titles: Novice Merchant, Vault Novice]
[Strength: 3]
[Speed: 5]
[Durability: 3]
[Intelligence: 16]
[Dexterity: 6]
[Creativity: 8]
[Focus: 14]
[MP: 7/7]
[Skills]
With the remaining gears, he also wanted to just unlock the other level 1 skills. They were so cheap that he could just get gears and unlock the lot of them to just have some form of foundation, even if it would be very thin.
Level 1 skills didn’t really provide all that much. It was the further upgrades that provided the improvements.
It would still be beneficial, nonetheless.
Upon trying to unlock another skill of Level 1, he was met by this notification.
[Insufficient stats/titles for further skill unlock/upgrades]
[MINIMUM STATS/TITLES REQUIRED FOR FURTHER UPGRADES/UNLOCKS: Competent Merchant, 20 Intelligence, 10MP]
Now, he wasn’t expecting to meet this notification again. This was what had stopped him from mass buying the skills at first, but he didn’t even think that this would happen again. A lot of time had passed from that point and now.
The only viable way he thought of upgrading his title would be through selling more items. He had 30 more days to sell the items that he wanted and had a greater understanding of the vast field of mechanics to kickstart his next designing process.
Doing that, he just had to hope that his title would upgrade in due time.
With this, all Cael had to do was play the waiting game. Upon gaining all these skills, he was starting to think about all his productions differently.
He almost felt unable to contain this information flowing out of his brain. As a result, he went on to look at his WM-EX 1 design, and he noticed several flaws right away.
The internals were roughed up and looked like the web of a spider if it had half its limbs chopped off. It was a disordered array of interweaving silver wires, and he constantly grabbed the exosuit and zoomed in on its imperfections with a look of slight disgust.
Cael couldn’t just let this design stay as flawed as it was. In seconds, he already had the simulation lab’s blue panels surrounding him and he meticulously altered the layout of the exosuit.
The minutes of work turned into hours, and he had entered a deep flow state. His senses dulled out any unnecessary input. He didn’t pay attention to any form of smell or hearing. All that drew his attention was the floating exosuit directly in front of him.
The classic midnight black sky could be seen through his window and all the light that illuminated his room was from these glowing blue panels.
Tap! Tap!
“Done and dusted.”
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He patted his hands against each other, feeling a sense of relief as he finished his design. The large, dense exosuit that he had created turned in front of him, and he just couldn’t believe that he had come this far.
Just months prior, he was struggling to even flesh out a design, but now the ideas just popped up in his mind and were flawlessly created through his improved assembly skills.
Its armour plates were much tighter together and you could barely see the intricacies of the exosuit’s frames and internals from outside. He didn’t bother to swap out any components but fitted them differently to allow them to function more efficiently.
There was also a switch-around of the location of the on-site mana cores and etherisers. He made sure the mana cores were evenly and properly distributed to give the exosuit a human-like sense of balance, so that users wouldn’t feel a sense of impedance
He wanted to just give this exosuit a bog-standard name, but he felt like he had made leaps and bounds with his designing abilities. It only felt natural for him to alter his naming scheme to illustrate this change.
This spinning exosuit exuded power and bloodthirst. He imagined a burly, savage warrior striking down their enemies, using the strength of the suit’s powered gauntlets. Roaring with exhilaration and fury as their fallen adversaries laid beneath their feet.
“Ares. Yes, Ares.” He told himself, as the idea suddenly popped in his head.
Ares. The God of War. A divine being born to fight, that relished the thrill of battle.
[Design Complete!]
[Name: WM Ares]
[Type: Heavyweight Exosuit]
[Evaluation]
[Speed: 60/100]
[Strength: 73/100]
[Power Efficiency: 44/100]
[Agility: 54/100]
[Armor Integrity: 76/100]
[Framing: 48/100]
[Maintenance: 50/100]
[Overall Rank: 57/100]
Now he could be classed as around average to slightly above average.
With 30 days to go, he had to get this design out and, on the market, as quickly as possible. Demand for heavyweight suits would still be rather high, and he wanted to capitalise on such demand before it was gone.
During these days, Cael spent his time doing just that, and making models of his WM Ares in his spare time. It wasn’t that expensive and was somehow cheaper than his WM-EX 1 model. With the other time that he had, he also spent it practicing within the vault, and doing some more physical training to train his body as well.
In another form of training with his instructor, Arlo, Cael was stood ahead another student.
They were stood in a large hanger-like building, that was used for students to practice their fighting with the use of exosuits while inside.
For basic sparring using just regular strength, precautions didn’t really need to be taken. However, people with exosuits could lift and hurl cars. That sort of force had to be applied in safe settings for the training to be worthwhile.
The air felt cool and dry, like it wasn’t even natural. The area was illuminated by several dazzling white lights, that gave the metallic equipment that surrounded them gleaming appearances. The smell of refreshed air, along with metal filled their noses and almost made these warriors feel at home.
The smell of active exosuits and new support bots straight from the factory was relaxing and soothing to Cael and his classmates.
Cael faced another weak student of his class. He went by Miles Larson. He had green hair tied back in a ponytail, similar to Milo that he had met in Amburg, and had pale skin similar to him too.
However, his sides weren’t shaved and he only stood at 5’8. Cael and Miles were clad in similar looking exosuits. This was because they were manufactured by the same company, that had been contracted to provide exosuits for the Soburg Empire’s exosuit cadets.
Cael’s was a mediumweight exosuit, that looked bulkier and denser. Miles’ own was slim and sleek. Even though his mana wasn’t plentiful, and he had little talent, he utilised his small frame to specialise in speed and agility.
“The Battle of the Ants is among us!” Blaine called out, gaining an uproar of intense laughter from the suited exosuit warriors that stood around watching.
“Silence, Blaine! You are here to watch your fellow classmates spar, and I expect the more talented fighters here to give them advice after their match is concluded. We are all here to see each other, being from rather humble beginnings in a C-Grade institute, grow.” Arlo claimed.
The final dig at Blaine being a student of a C-Grade institute made him scoff in annoyance. It felt great for him to put down those that were clearly weaker than him, but he was still merely average or slightly above average compared to other exosuit warriors.
The weakest member of an A-Grade institute could easily clobber somebody like Blaine.
“Begin!”
Cael made his stance, and seemed much more confident than before.
“I used to have some good fights with Milo before this system. I should be stronger than him now.” Cael thought, looking forward through the small opening in between his arms.
Cael held a tight guard, that was quite alien to the other students. Most of them simply formed their unique style based on the techniques and style taught to them by Arlo.
However, the way Cael moved was foreign to them. He stayed out of range, but just far enough so that all it took was a slight move forward to hit his target. After several matches in the vault -more than 100 now- he could judge range and distance much better.
Miles usually fought fearfully and in a reserved manner, but not against Cael. He was renowned for being the weakest out of the group. It was the only spar that he was capable of winning often.
He slugged forward his right fist but Cael tapped his fist to the side to drive his own into his stomach.
POW!
The power behind his strike winded Miles, and made him step back while holding the point of impact. Some of the students jolted their heads back upon watching this happen.
It was like Cael was using a powered gauntlet of some sort, and many of the spectating teens looked down to see if this was the case.
However, his exosuit had no such glow. He had just delivered quite the powerful blow to Miles, and they could tell that he had done so through his grimacing face.
Miles looked alarmed as he clearly didn’t want to lose his only chance at validation. Receiving constant losses and ridicule from the others, similar to Cael, he wanted to take advantage of this only time to boost his fragile, battered ego.
Shouting with anger, he threw a sequence of punches and kicks right at Cael, who managed to use his exceptional sense of range to remain untouched.
A punch caught him on his cheek, and Miles couldn’t help but smile as it landed. The boy got a little too ahead of himself, though, and leaped into the air.
His exosuit propelled him 10 feet upward, and he drove down his heel in the form of an aerial kick to try and finish Cael off in style.
Cael was already crouched down near the ground, with his fists by his face. A simple roll was all he needed to totally evade the incoming attack, and Miles was left to hit the silver metal floor.
Thud!
The ground vibrated lightly under this impact, but the floor had been made specifically to handle impacts from warriors like these. A hit from Miles wasn’t going to do any sort of lasting damage.
In a flash, Cael shot himself forward and saw that Miles was barely even fast enough to react to him. Cael’s exosuit was no longer clunky and never inhibited his movements. It felt just like skin, and he moved with total freedom and grave.
Aiming low, he struck Miles in his stomach with a punch before lifting and hurling his right leg into his jaw.
WHAM!
Miles was sent off course and knocked several steps to the side. He even stumbled to the ground, before using an arm to push himself back to his feet. His eyes were filled with shock as he couldn’t believe how this fight was playing out.
Looking to his side, he saw students that struggled to hold in their laughter when he looked at them.
Now was no time to take his eyes off his target.
Cael took this chance to take him off guard with a full speed assault. Punching him in his stomach yet again, he subsequently hurled his knee into the same area that he had just hit.
Miles felt the strength fading from his legs upon taking these hits and looked distressed from his paling skin and wide open eyes.
Cael landed a final elbow to the warrior that almost seemed distracted from the fight as a whole. His eyes gazed at the ceiling of this hanger in a still manner, and he looked totally out of it.
His movements were sluggish and weak, and it took a few seconds before his senses returned to him.
The first thing that he could hear was laughter, followed by the burly appearance of a new Cael that stood over him.
Even through the laughter, Cael reached over and held out his arm to try and help him up.
“Sorry about the hit there. You fought well.” Cael politely said, helping Miles back up to his feet.
His face remained still and he didn’t even dare join in on the laughter. It quickly died down as Arlo revealed himself anyway.
Cael had been the subject of such ridicule in the past. How could he be any better than these people if he just acted in the same manner?
No. Just because he’d experienced growth didn’t mean that he would put down those that he had overtaken.
“Congratulations, Cael. This is your first win in over half a year. Relish in the victory, I hope to see much more success from you soon.” Arlo said with praise, placing his hand on Cael’s shoulder.
Cael felt quite flustered upon receiving this compliment. Now that he thought about it, it had been several years since he had received a direct compliment like this about his combat ability.
Nobody had really complimented him on this topic besides his parents.
“Thanks, Sir Arlo. It means a whole lot.”