The Warrior Mechanic

He had a few project ideas in mind, but these certainly weren’t set in stone. Upon sitting on the side of his bed, directionless, two system quests appeared in front of him.

[New Quest!]

[Quest: New Model]

[Upgrade your Vulture XR-1 Aero and sell at least 10 physical versions of the model]

[Time to Complete: 45 days]

[Punishment: Loss of All Programming & Manufacturing Skills]

[Quest: Virtual Merchant]

[Create another design and sell 30 of such design in the ExoTech Marketplace: Virtual Edition]

[Time to Complete: 45 days]

[Punishment: 3-month ban from the ExoTech Marketplace & the Vault]

Cael read these two quests thoroughly, and was partially glad that his system had intervened in giving him direction for the next month and a half. However, he was never pleased with the punishments that came with such quests if he were to fail.

Both quests were most certainly not easy. Cael had never even sold in the physical market up until now, and that was when the system magically made his designs for him.

How would he manage to fabricate an upgraded design of his Vulture XR-1 Aero design on his own? He simply felt like his abilities when it came to design and assembly just weren’t up to par yet.

His programming was his best attribute, but he was still a clear novice. His ‘programming’ simply consisted of combining functions and ready-made blocks of code from the internet wherever he could. Programming a design from the ground up was well beyond his capabilities.

With this money, he was most definitely going to place a large portion directly into the fabrication of his new drone design. He intended to use components that were described as low-tier but also mid-tier. With more money to spend, he could try to improve his design not only in an abstract manner, but also in which components he used within its design.

The system had also practically forced him to create a second design entirely to sell in the virtual ExoTech Marketplace. For that, he wasn’t exactly sure the direction he’d go, but that was something he worried about less.

If he could get a design going for a simpler form of support bot, he didn’t have to worry about the assembly of such virtual designs anywhere near as much. Even so, it was still a worry and he remembered how difficult it was for him to assemble his Vulture XR-1 Aero designs.

“I need to try and figure out how to optimise the internal framework of designs. If I can make progress in that, I should be able to cut at least a third of my fabrication design right off.” He theorised.

He thought back to the assembly of the Vulture XR-1 Aero designs and remembered how most of his struggles were due to overlapping wiring, and densely packed components. With his new upgraded design, he wanted to remove as much of those issues as he possibly could.

The next few months were going to be some work-intensive months for him. With 350,000 dollars to work on as starting capital, he could really push forward and make substantial progress.

[User: Cael Breckenridge]

[Titles: Novice Merchant, Vault Novice]

[Strength: 4]

[Speed: 6]

[Durability: 4]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Dexterity: 6]

[Creativity: 3]

[Focus: 10]

[MP: 7/7]

[Skills]

[Skills]

[Skill: Power Surge]

[Skill: Lv. 1 Script Sage]

[Skill: Mana Stream]

[Abilities]

[Ability: Lv. 2 Discount Mastery]

[Ability: Market Savvy]

[Ability: Extra Profit]

[Ability: Permanent Combat Sales]

[Item: Free Repair Ticket]

He gave his entire system and its menus a deep look. A glaring issue that he found was his skills and stats. With two main reward systems that provided him with gears, he had to try increase the amount that he had greatly.

For now, he didn’t want to resort to using money to convert it into gears. The conversion rate of 50 intergalactic dollars to one gear wasn’t the best and so, he resorted to more organic ways of gaining gears.

First off, he’d have to buy a better exosuit model. He wanted one that provided a lot of physical strength and speed. If he could utilise his power surge skill, he could amplify those abilities even more and become a deadly warrior.

This could allow him to climb the ranks much more quickly, and earn even more gears as a result. With his money, also, he wanted a constant supply of Vulture XR-1 Aero drones to sell on his merchant profile, to also have a steady stream of gears that he could then place into buying more skills and upgrading his stats.

He only had 1 programming skill, one combat skill and then a single skill related to direct combat. Now, he needed to invest in more skills that he could use for things like designing and assembly, which was covered in the manufacturing section of his system.

He searched the market for an exosuit that he would like, and set a nice budget of 20,000 dollars. He wasn’t looking to go overboard, but he soon noticed that the type of exosuit that he wanted was being sold for much more than the original budget that he wanted to keep true to.

Even if he had a lot of money to spend, it wouldn’t be smart to blow it all on a single exosuit. He wanted to be economical, to maximise the benefit of the reward given. However, it seemed like his budget simply wouldn’t cut it.

He strugglingly found an exosuit that he deemed tolerable in terms of its quality, and it costed 25,000 dollars. With that, the item was bought, and was ready for him to access within his linked vault account.

[Exosuit: BruteForge N-1]

[Evaluation]

[Speed: 33/100]

[Strength: 44/100]

[Power Efficiency: 38/100]

[Agility: 35/100]

[Armor Integrity: 41/100]

[Framing: 28/100]

[Maintenance: 28/100]

[Overall Rank: 36/100]

The power efficiency seemed decent from comparing it to other items, but it actually wasn’t that impressive at all. This almost made this exosuit exclusively for use in the shorter modes of the vault.

If it was to be used in longer modes, the user would simply tire out too quickly.

However, this was exactly what he wanted.

Using this exosuit, along with the money that he had to spend, he started spending a lot of his time working in the vault and adding more and more of his Vulture XR-1 Aero designs to the market.

His new exosuit provided him with a lot more strength and speed and whenever he would encounter somebody that he couldn’t defeat, he would just resort to his power surge skill to take them down.

Cael made sure to use this technique rarely, because he didn’t want anybody to see that he had the ability to use such skill. His skill didn’t come from the power of the exosuit but his own body, which meant that he wasn’t exactly cheating in the mode, but that was information that he wanted to keep to himself.

Who knew what would happen to him if people were to become aware of his ultra-powerful system that had the ability to literally create matter.

What he soon found was that the sales for his item had slowed down. He had no idea why this was the case, but this was due to the LTM Total War being removed from the vault.

LTMs were branded as limited time for a reason, and many people almost intensively played the hot new mode before it was gone.

However, as for Cael, he was too invested in his time facing people in the 1v1 mode that he didn’t even think about it.

Cael was up against an arrogant fighter, that was younger than he was, with a slimmer physique. This didn’t immediately place the battle in his favour, because he could tell that his exosuit was expensive.

However, Cael possessed technique superior to him. He felt like he was a strong, young student within an exosuit cadet institute of the C-Grade. People like Vanessa and Blaine were almost boxed off from the true talents of the world, only being superior to the very lowest tier of the pyramid.

This gave them arrogant minds, even though they weren’t that talented overall.

Cael wasn’t able to damage this person substantially, but he resorted to using his special power surge. His exosuit glowed blue before he charged forward at full pelt.

He took his opponent totally off guard, and he threw a straight punch right to his face. His knuckles drove into his cheek, causing blood to spurt out his nose in the process.

This arrogant fighter simply tried to attack in reaction. This was a primitive, emotional response to receiving a strong strike for most fighters of the overconfident, arrogant type.

Their anger from taking such an impactful strike would anger them, and make them easier targets as a result.

Cael was already beside the man’s knees, with his arms up and ready to block any incoming attacks. A kick then followed, as he was so low down, but the attack just landed on his exosuit’s arms. The impact was minimal for him, as he prepared to take that attack, and Cael sprung right up for a take down.

He had only a few seconds left, but this was all that he believed he needed.

Grabbing the boy, he immediately threw him to the ground and landed two powerful punches to his face that seemed to knock him out. His eyes drifted off into the crowd and looked lifeless, and the match was over.

[Match Won!]

[+11 Power Points]

[RANK UP]

[New Rank: Novice I]

[+13 Gears]

“Yes! Finally!” Cael said to himself, lifting to his feet with glee.

His opponent, called GodSlayer45, exited his vault pod and looked furious at his loss.

“How could I lose to somebody in the Rookie Rank! I literally tanked to get to Rookie so I could pad up my record, but I lost?!” He exclaimed, furious.

He was not in any type of communal room but instead, a well done, spacious bedroom. His vault pod was large but barely took up a fraction of the room’s space.

“How did he just get stronger suddenly. It was like he was using a powered gauntlet but across his entire body! I need to report him right now!” He exclaimed, with a break in his voice as if he was about to come to tears.

There was a special site, named the Vault Forum, that was used to discuss pretty much anything pertaining to the vault. There were large conversations created from almost every update, and different people asking for tips to improve on various aspects of the game.

[GodSlayer45: “Is this guy hacking?”]

He detailed a post talking about a specific user, ‘WarriorMechanic7914’, that seemed to be hacking. Unluckily, there wasn’t any form of recording system set in place during the match, and that was a feature that could only be done through two parties consenting to it.

However, even if this user didn’t ever agree to do so, with enough anecdotal evidence, his question would eventually be answered.

“You won’t go far, WarriorMechanic7914. Don’t think you can cheat and beat me!” He declared, clenching his fist in anger.