The Warrior Mechanic

[Type: Mediumweight Exosuit]

[Evaluation]

[Speed: 59/100]

[Strength: 63/100]

[Power Efficiency: 45/100]

[Agility: 59/100]

[Armor Integrity: 63/100]

[Framing: 53/100]

[Maintenance: 58/100]

[Overall Rank: 60/100]

“Ooh, this is a nice design that I have here!” Cael stated, taken aback by the system’s rating.

To him, he’d just been doing what he always did when it came to making a design. However, from all of his attributes getting significant improvements, it allowed him to just conjure up better quality models.

With this design complete, he couldn’t help but begin modelling it. As he began the assembly process, he felt glued onto the idea of giving this exosuit a dark gold, gritty but metallic finish.

It would show off its greater quality, and wasn’t a common colour used for exosuits. Using unique finishes could give his designs more of a unique finish and establish an identity around them.

The assembly process took only 2 days, as the design was laid out for him. Just a few-hour-block of hard, focused work split across 48 hours was sufficient.

The design floated above him, and he was more than excited to enter the 1v1 basic mode to see what it was capable of. Just as he had hoped, the exosuit smoothly simulated his own movement.

His greater mana allowed him to power a large portion of the components of the exosuit. This mode consisted of no weapons, but this design was tailor-made to don the extreme heated blade.

He had designed the dagger, where the entire blade would become a scorching orange from the intense heat. Plasma edges lined the metal blade, and with sufficient power the dagger could deal fatal slashes.

Cael stood in the greyed arena with his new, gritty exosuit. He wiggled his fingers and shook off his body to warm himself up, and his opponent arrived in the arena shortly after, called dynamite_diesel.

The fighter was slightly taller than him, but lean and dropped down to lay on all fours.

He bounced from foot to foot, showing off his flexibility and agility. Cael knew that this warrior would be a 3-dimensional warrior and would be quite the bother.

Even if he looked skinny, underestimation would only leave him disadvantaged.

The fight begun and dynamite_diesel leapt forward using all four of his limbs. He threw down a punch and only managed to hit Cael’s tight block. The boy couldn’t do anything against the fortified armour of Cael’s compact suit.

Subsequently, Cael used his explosive power to land a punch of his own.

The strike made sure to keep dynamite_diesel away, as he didn’t look as confident as he once did. He did still run straight toward Cael, but swerved to the side at the last second.

Slipping to his left, he sprung forward with a swift punch. Cael moved his forearm just a few inches to catch the impactful strike right on it.

BAM!

Dynamite_diesel was forced to hit this block, but didn’t just give up. He lifted into the air and whipped his leg around to hit Cael straight in his chin with a quick aerial attack. Before Cael could hit him himself, he backflipped and landed on all four limbs to escape to range.

Cael gritted his teeth in annoyance from this fighter’s agility. These were the most infuriating individuals to share a ring with. Stronger people like Cael couldn’t actually remain still and utilise their strength to knock down the opponents.

He managed to throw some attacks that he couldn’t just bounce around, but dynamite_diesel employed a smart technique of parrying and blocking incoming attacks to minimise the damage that he’d receive from them.

Additionally, he stepped in and out of range with exceptional speed to try and deliver attacks before retreating. The only issue with this method of fighting was that he wasn’t wearing Cael down in the slightest.

Even when he could land lean punches and kicks, the force behind each strike was so low that Cael honestly wasn’t bothered about receiving them.

Entering range once again, dynamite_diesel managed to catch Cael with a speedy jab before trying to continue with more attacks while he was there. Cael tanked this jab and didn’t let it throw off his vision or focus.

With his adversary so close to him, this was his perfect chance to strike. He dipped under a swinging kick that was aimed for his face and grabbed dynamite_diesel before entering a grappling session with him.

From his attitude and desperation, Cael could tell that his opponent didn’t want to have any of it. His strength was far inferior to his own, and the robust actuators situated higher up his torso.

They threw each other around with heaving shoves, and this went on for a few seconds until dynamite_diesel ended up losing his footing. His lighter frame and weaker muscles meant that he couldn’t do much in this type of fighting.

He was hurled to the ground, and Cael used proper wrestling technique to keep his opponent on the ground. He tried his best to emulate the moves shown to him by Arlo, but could tell that they didn’t possess the same skill or precision.

Eventually, he had managed to pin dynamite_diesel to the ground and was given the opportunity to unload with punch after punch onto his body. The assault was relentless and Cael didn’t give him an inch of breathing space.

His guard was kept tight and high up, but there would always be gaps that Cael could find and exploit. With his body constantly moving, it wasn’t like he could maintain a steady guard, either.

After a powerful downward strike, the body of dynamite_diesel was turned to particles and Cael won the match.

[Match Won!]

[+6 Power Points]

[+11 Gears]

“11?” Cael wondered, surprised by his large reward of gears.

Usually, the number of gears he’d receive would be like, or less than the number of power points received. In this case, that wasn’t true, and he didn’t exactly know why it wasn’t.

Following this, Cael continued his session with the exosuit and soon noticed that his competition was great. These fighters, that he previously could overpower using power surge, were able to defeat him because he no longer had such a luxury.

This left him stuck in a single position within the rank, but Cael was not concerned. It would take time for him to grow, and as long as he was earning gears it wasn’t all too bad.

After this session, Cael started to think rather deeply about how he could find these lost files described in his second ongoing quest.

He told himself that he would leave it until after the tournament, but the thought of this quest constantly appeared in his mind. The possible rewards were simply too great to overlook, since the knowledge of the person that created his system would likely be worth the same as continents.

His system was able to literally create mass, a phenomenon that was equivocally thought to be impossible across all galaxies. Of course, nobody could hear of this from him but he trusted himself in revealing nothing.

As long as he kept quiet, everybody else would be left in the dark with his system and abilities. From a few minutes of deep thought, an idea suddenly popped into his mind.

How about he tried to find that helmet that granted him this system. In retrospect, he cursed himself for just leaving that broken technology on the floor, which could’ve given him invaluable information about the system and its source.

“There’s no need to berate myself. Hindsight is 20/20.” Cael told himself, lifting the vault pod in one of his institute’s towering skyscrapers.

His body was suddenly illuminated by the golden evening sun, and Cael readied himself to venture back out into the city to see if he could find at least fragments of that helmet.

He knew that certain areas of Carlo City were renowned for being particularly ill-maintained and dirty, so there was hope that some of the helmet would still be out in the open.

Instead of heading back home, he took the same route that he had done before. Upon taking the same path, the memories of weakness and sadness filled his mind. The contrast between the way he lived back then and now was stark.

He simply smiled, relishing the better times that he was happy to be experiencing.

Swiftly entering the hallway where he had received this system, he scavenged through the surrounding bins and hidden corners to try and find something. Much to his dismay, there was very little for him to look for.

He continued for a few minutes, moving over to the other side of the alleyway where he hadn’t even seen the helmet. Once again, he found nothing at all. There simply wasn’t a single fragment of that black helmet, but Cael didn’t lose hope.