Chapter 3: Only What is Necessary.

40 millennium into the past, When mages roamed the lands as invincible experts. All other kinds of warriors were always considered beneath them. To kill a mage was impossible if it was not an assassination or an ambush, Even these methods had a very low rate of success, Magic or Mana as they called it gave them an unfair advantage. What use were arrows when the mages could level an entire field with their wind magic, what use were swords, spears or daggers when mages can kill you before you could even get close. Except for a few, who dedicated their entire lives to the study of their weapon could ever hope to survive a battle with an enemy mage.

40 millennium into the past, the lands were divided between kings and emperors. Each territory with their own culture, and rules. To the North of the continent lied a nation under a mage king, all mages above the fifth circle were nobility, and every other physical warriors were treated like low class citizens, essentially just like slave.

In this nation this nation there were ruins of a village, one burned down with magical flames. Flames that left embers, that burned any one who tried to enter or rebuild on the ruins. A village from which a single boy survived, with an ember far stronger in his heart; And a sword clenched in his soot covered right hand and a carbonized little doll in his left.

The legend says that he became the first to stab a sword through the heart of an elder mage after besting him battle.

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The armor felt great, it gives you an illusion of being invincible. Race felt as if he was a warrior preparing for a life or death struggle. While the entire audience wondered what Race could gain from wearing the armor after all mechanics can and should be able to understand the limits of an armors performance just from its spec sheet. That is usually true, But in this case there is no point in trying to improve the design from just looking at the design plans, Because the design was made by someone leagues above Race's level. So the only thing he could do was to customize the design in way that it suits him best. The weapons can be chosen from a catalogue that was provided to the mechanic.

The armor was not a bulky model, it was stream lined, But a bit boxy at the middle but not enough to seem bulk;, It was not given a particular color scheme, so it was a metallic grey in color due to the metal composite armor; the face of the user was covered in a glass visor as well as helmet of metal composite that will cover the visor in combat. All the vital area of the occupant was protected under heavy armor; while the joints were only given moderate armor. It wasn't even named. But it was still a pleasant site to look at.

"Lets take this out for a test drive. Lets see the real limits of the armor."

Race then interacted with a panel on the workstation and changed his production unit into a testing range. Race set the testing range to be in a grassy plain. He walked a little bit away from the testing instruments and took a basic stance with his sword. He then proceeded to do all the basic combat techniques he used to do in his past. Following which when he tried to do some more advanced movements the armor was able to complete it, But barely. He felt like he was in the past, When he was still training to attain the perfect control of his body.

In the VIP box:

An official in an outfit that showed that he was from the army after seeing Race's movement in the M A was surprised and thought in his head, " If this kid doesn't get accepted by the Enlightened one I will take him as my disciple."

"That's it. This armors artificial muscle fiber mesh is just like that of an untrained normal man". During his time in training to be a perfect state swordsman he understood that not every muscle required same bulk or training, some required more intensive training than the rest. Some muscles are not needed to generate power for the strike but to just be tough enough to be able to transfer the power the power without tearing.

So Race chose to change how the mesh is distributed; as well as to change the power distribution as well, areas with more muscle mesh required more power to run as well.

"While I am at it should rearrange the armor plating as well," Nearly 200 years of being a swordsman will definitely give an Idea on other close combat style's attack pattern as well. Being the perfect in one type of weapon can give an insight on other weapons as well.

"At the very least, 200 years of being attacked can definitely can tell you were you are most likely to get hit at. And combine that with the restricted movement of a mobile armor, you don't need to cover all of the design in heavy plate armor, Even all of the joints don't need moderate plating just a light amount is only necessary because mobility is more important in close combat".

Then race summoned the production center in a part of the grassy plains and disassembled the current armor and went to work on customizing the design. He chipped the armor away from areas that was hard to be hit and strengthened the areas most likely to be hit. He cut down the armor on the joints facilitate more movement as well as increasing the muscle mesh in more critical areas, as well as provide adequate power supply circuitry to the the newly buffed up areas of the M A design.

He even added a detachable wrist shield to his left hand with the remaining extra armor as well as a hook to hook a shield to the back of the armor. All though this all sounded simple it took him half a day to complete a prototype design. Along with the initial test that he conducted with the base design, his entire first day was over.

While Race was designing the prototype, other mechanics had also began to work on their designs, though they were a bit late. Even still the crowd moved through other streams as well, even though there were billions of participants each were ranked according to their achievements like designing or being part of designing groups or even just passing out with great results(Race is still studying). So the audience moved to streams of high ranked participants and local favorites( The entire Terran space is included in the tournament). But Race still held a sizable amount of viewers. As a mechanic who chose to don armor and practice with it. While others were still trying to create a working design, Race has already produced a working prototype which he started to test.

Race's lack of experience as a Mechanic began to show as he tested his prototype, various small bugs that are rookie mistakes easily escaped through his novice eyes, This again increased the viewership of Race's stream. Even though he was flooded with error messages, Race rectified them patiently ; Race's efficiency in rectifying various bugs was increasing by the hour and he was only left with a few minor bugs by the end of day 2.

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In the real world:

A rather fat guy with an average face was sitting in his office, and on his table along with various stationaries and files we can see a nameplate that reads ' Potte Sutes'.

A Knock was heard, and a voice requested, " May I come in Sir"

"Yes, you may ", Potte allowed.

Seeing that it was his assistant, Potte asked, "what is it Lasius?"

"Sir, the kid who you asked to monitor has achieved fame in The MAD tournament. Their has been large amount of messages and orders requesting his information has arrived at our office," said Lasius.

" WHAT!" the fat Potte nearly fell of his chair hearing the news and he continued " deny them all" ordered Potte.

" Sir we deny the requests from private individuals, But what of the official orders, and ours is not the only office that was requested to provide the information." informed Lasius.

"Then deny all that we can and delay the ones that can't be denied, Leave now!". yelled Potte.

when he was sure Lasius has left, Potte took out a rather shady looking device and pressed a specific sequence of keys.

A cruel voice sounded from within, " What do you need, Fat Pot? ".

Potte had a rather sinister grin on his face when he said, " You remember that little thorn that made my son lose his match".

" Ya"

" That little thorn is starting to grow into a big tree that can cause me some serious damage, So I need you to pluck it".

" Its gonna cost you bit more than the usual, especially since he is now something of a media sensation." the voice said.

" The price doesn't matter, just get it done and make it quick, I will pay extra "

"Ok, you got a deal", the voice on the other side seemed happy.

A 16 year old boy was currently in a VR world, trying to change his future, completely unaware that a squad of mercenaries in M A suits was currently traveling to his rundown apartment to kill him.