Novice Merchant
He removed portions of the poor, basic exoskeleton, then began to attach the bulkier, sleeker pistons from the actuators that he had just bought.
It was certainly a process and meant that he had to assemble the shell of his exosuit slightly differently. There were thin gaps in the suit, as it didn't fit together as seamlessly as before, but it was most certainly still an upgrade.
[Exosuit: Vault Starter Suit]
[Evaluation]
[Speed: 26/100]
[Strength: 28/100]
[Power Efficiency: 60/100]
[Agility: 25/100]
[Armor Integrity: 21/100]
[Framing: 15/100]
[Maintenance: 23/100]
[Overall Rank: 22/100]
His overall rank had increased slightly, but his strength had made a substantial improvement from the previous rating of 20. If he could just incrementally improve this basic suit of his for the time being, it could let him perform better in the upcoming matches in the vault.
He couldn't even wait to use his new and improved exoskeleton, so he hopped right back in to test it out in battle.
He entered the 1v1 matchmaking mode and appeared in front of another fighter to continue his session.
He was large, and his exosuit had to be made larger around his midsection to fit in his rotund belly.
It was black, just like Cael's exosuit, but bulkier and clunkier.
Their match began and Cael immediately got a taste of this man's monstrous strength. Each punch and kick that he threw had some serious weight behind it, and the man didn't even fight defensively to block or evade his attacks.
He would simply endure the punches that Cael threw and try to throw attacks of his own, but that was not a good way to fight against a cyberjutsu user. Cael soon started focusing on mimicking the fighting style of WarriorBot, using seamless and controlled movements in between combinations to keep himself unscathed.
His attempts at remaining unhurt actually worked, and he was soon getting this large fighter to fight on the backend. He could tell that he hadn't done this often, as he not only had poor movement but poor stamina. This made him a sitting duck, and allowed Cael to just throw endless combinations to beat him down.
He mixed in several different attacks like elbows and swinging kicks to wear him down, which he most certainly did.
He whipped in a kick to the man's flank, before twisting his body in the other direction to land an elbow to his chin. The impactful strike rocked him and dropped him, sending him right back to the lobby.
[Match Won!]
[+20 Power Points]
[+9 Gears]
"9 whole gears?!" He blurted out, upon watching this happen.
If he could just continue getting wins, he would be getting right to unlocking more skills and upgrading his stats in no time at all.
He wanted to hop right into another session, but the whole school complex would be closing soon. They couldn't keep the place running throughout the night and so, he headed right home to then open his simulation lab.
Here, he wanted to use the items that he had on hand to at least sell something. Luckily for him, he had a lot of the items needed to sell the virtual forms of his Vulture XR-1 Aero. Upon looking at the design, he just wasn't too impressed by it, but felt like it could sell since it had before.
There wasn't a quest pressuring him to advance with his progress, so he started forming these virtual items from the packages that he had received.
It was a process that needed to be handled meticulously and so, he couldn't rush over the finer details.
In a few hours or so, he had two drones that had been fleshed out, and were only slightly worse than the ideal design that he had created. He placed them right on the market, then started creating even more.
It was almost like muscle memory to him, and he liked training these skills of his. Just like combat training, he was starting to feel more at home with the simulation lab's panels around him.
With five drones listed on the market, he didn't really utilise a large amount of the metals and components that he had. He used quite a lot more metal than he expected, because the virtual experience of mixing metals together and shaping them was a tough job.
It would make the metals unusable and, of course, he'd have to waste them.
He also had to sell portions of the components to buy the advanced thruster systems that he required for the model. The thrusters weren't currently in this components package, which was annoying but not too much of a problem for Cael either.
It was near midnight now, and the totally black sky was illuminated by the crescent moon and glistening white stars.
He turned to see the WM-01 Valiant model that he created simply standing there, unmoving. It was rare for him to see it move, and it only did whenever he entered the room to see if he was a threat or not.
After that, it would simply look forward, like a patient soldier waiting for deployment.
"Don't worry, you're gonna get some real action soon."
He could see the lights from the skyscrapers of central Carlo City in the distance, and it was a soothing sight to try and fall asleep to.
Upon trying to do so, a panel from his projector appeared then approached him as he was in bed.
[Item Sold!]
[Item Sold!]
[Item Sold!]
[Item Sold!]
[Item Sold!]
Merchant: WarriorMechanic]
[Star System: Cria]
[Followers: 7]
[Items Sold: 11]
[Innovation: 3.8/5]
[Price: 3.6/5]
[Quality: 3.0/5]
Cael hadn't spent a dime creating those components, since he found all the money, he needed to from selling some of the extra material he possessed. From its previous success, he sold each item for 400 dollars instead of 370, further increasing his profit margins.
"Go on then, Cael!" He thought to himself with excitement, upon seeing these notifications appear in front of him.
It really surprised him that people were choosing to buy so much of this item. It was quite sub-par from its rating, and he was sure that it wouldn't perform as well in the real world. Its durability and sensory capabilities were simply too poor for it to do its job.
[Title Upgrade!]
[Beginner Merchant -> Novice Merchant]
[Ability Upgrade!]
[Discount Mastery -> Lv. 2 Discount Mastery]
[The cost of buying actuator equipment has dropped by 15%]
[New Ability!]
[Ability: Extra Profit]
[Whenever an item is sold, the user receives gears as a reward. Reviews, the price of the item, and other factors can increase or decrease the number of gears awarded.]
Now, this was some serious progress. Not only would he have a steady income of gears if he continued to sell items, but he could also get gears from performing well in the vault.
With these two aspects of receiving gears, he could then drive his income right toward improving his stats, while acquiring and upgrading his skills.
He just laughed upon seeing this all happen. This was what true growth was like. Him a few months ago definitely didn't have the opportunities that he had now, and he could see the light at the end of his dark tunnel.
If he continued to persevere, it was almost certain that he would succeed.
The final day of his training period was over, and he was stood ahead of a training bag in a relatively empty training room. There were several floors designated for training rooms that the thousands of students could use to train.
It was already past the ordinary school hours, but Cael had nothing else to do. He had no parents to return to, and no friends to hang out with. He could totally devote himself to his grind and this is what he did.
The blazing orange sunlight made the metal equipment within the room scintillate and gleam, while also giving Cael a divine, golden appearance.
"And that is the basis to the Cyberjutsu martial arts style. I hope that you hone your skills and master this ability that you possess. With this power, the greatest leaders across the galaxy will quake upon hearing the moniker 'Warrior Mechanic'. This is WarriorBot signing off for now." The bot concluded, before vanishing for the final time.
"It was an honour, WarriorBot." Cael jokingly said, saluting the vanishing hologram.
[Quest Complete!]
[+1MP]
[+1 Strength]
[+1 Speed]
[+1 Durability]
[New Skill!]
[Power Surge]
[The user can drastically increase the power output of one's exosuit for a duration of 10 seconds. Requires a large amount of mana.]
[COST: 1MP]
With this immediate boost in power, Cael could already feel a new sense of vigour. He could feel it in the very fibres of his muscles, he could tell that he had become stronger.
Not only that, but with his 1 extra MP, the ceiling above him had been pushed further up. HIs potential had risen, which could allow him to valiantly fight alongside his creations.
"It won't be long before the world will know the warrior mechanic. As Sophocles said, 'without labour, nothing prospers'."