The Warrior Mechanic

There were whispers within the crowd as they discussed Cael’s odd fighting style, along with his sudden improvements in ability.

Talent was supposed to be set in stone. How could he have jumped from being an utter weakling to being a half decent fighter.

Many people just assumed it was because he was a Breckenridge, and he had unlocked some form of hidden talent in some way. This didn’t even seem plausible, because this had never happened before ever since exosuits became the paradigm of military warfare.

One would know a general idea of how talented they were once they were in just their tweens. These students were closing in on being adults and were going to become proper rookie soldiers soon. You couldn’t just increase your talent in a flash at this age.

However, they saw what they saw. Even if it was hard to believe, how else could they explain the performance that Cael had just had?

Cael just kept quiet and didn’t pay attention to the commotion. It wasn’t long before these people would forget about him. Even if silence kept him awfully isolated, it was simultaneously a superpower.

Whenever he’d do something embarrassing, everyone that witnessed it would just forget that it ever happened in mere days, since he was so unimportant and irrelevant in their eyes.

“Good job.” Miles said to Cael, now stood beside him.

There was a sense of effort in his admission, and Cael perceived that right away. However, he felt happy to see that he’d even come here to try and praise him anyway. If he had done the same thing to Blaine, he would’ve likely found a time after school to beat him down as badly as he could.

Cael returned home that day to see a lot of attention being brought to his new creation, the WM Ares. With 10 items placed on the marketplace for $12,000 each, they were all swept up and Cael received 8 follows from the 10 purchases.

[Item Sold!]

[+8 Gears]

[Item Sold!]

[+7 Gears]

[Item Sold!]

[+9 Gears]

The total cost for each item fell to $10,000 from $11,000, but he decided to decrease the price less to receive more profits. He received $20,000 of pure profit because of this ploy and was more than happy with his progress.

With 82 gears received from his sales, he had 146 gears ready to spend. Instead of keeping gears on deck, he decided to place them into his focus, basically maxing it out at 15.

[User: Cael Breckenridge]

[Titles: Novice Merchant, Vault Novice]

[Strength: 3]

[Speed: 5]

[Durability: 3]

[Intelligence: 16]

[Dexterity: 6]

[Creativity: 8]

[Focus: 15]

[MP: 7/7]

[Skills]

Now, it would cost him 250 gears to improve his focus, so that would be his limit for now. 250 gears to increase it by one point would just be way too expensive for what he was rewarded with.

The weeks passed, and the day of the tournament wasn’t long away.

Heading to Arlo’s office within one of the four tall skyscrapers of his institute, he soon received a reply.

“You may enter.” Arlo’s booming voice called out.

His neutral face turned into a keen smile upon seeing Cael enter.

“Oh, hello Cael. Fancy seeing you here. What’s the issue?” He asked, hurling the panels that blocked his field of view to his left.

“I’ve been doing some work as a mechanic and I’m going to be participating in the Youth Championship Fighter-Mechanic event. I would like to be excused for the coming days to take part in the qualifiers and the main event if I get through.” Cael explained.

“Oh, wow, that event. I remember getting my first eyes on me from that thing so many decades ago. Anyway, sure. I’ve never heard of a warrior aspiring to be a mechanic, what led you down that path?” Arlo wondered, intrigued.

“I guess it’s just because I like sciences and things. I feel at home on the battlefield, but I feel a similar way when designing exosuits and things.” Cael replied.

“Very interesting. I wish you the best on the tournament! I’ll be watching you if you get to the main event!”

“Thank you, Sir Arlo.”

*****

The very next day, the Qualifier event for the Youth Championship Fighter-Mechanic tournament was upon him. There were two tiers to this event, the Championship tier and the Premier tier.

All Cael had to do to determine which tournament to compete in was analyse the heavily televised winners from each division. It seemed like most individuals entered at the championship tier, while the premiership tier was meant for the most talented mechanics.

These teens had already studied in venerated mechanic academies, specialising in honing the skills of young aspiring mechanics. They were also mana-less children within powerful and rich families, using their backing to get exclusive privileges and head-starts ahead of their competitors.

Cael didn’t really fit any of the criteria and saw that the winners of the Championship tier still received decent traction and attention. Many prevalent mechanics that he could see had been winners of the previous editions of this tournament.

As he was already here, he gave a quick overview of the most successful mechanics in the world. He just wanted to see the creations of those that he aspired to become, and he was in awe upon seeing the marvels of design appear in front of him.

Even from just viewing the exterior design of these holograms, he couldn’t believe that the exosuits he viewed were as compact as they were.

Each plate perfectly fit the next one, and it resembled the wall of a brick building. Every brick was placed in just the right place, and no gaps were left in the designs.

It partially scared him that these were people that he would inevitably have to go up against. However, with this system of his, he was sure he’d have a fighting chance.

As he waited, though, the time had come. The qualifiers were soon to begin.

Opening the website that allowed individuals to enter, he entered his credentials and was given access to the tournament. It was a boxed off operating system of sorts, with a set number of applications.

There was no ability for applications to communicate with this system and vice versa. It made sure that the competing mechanics were restricted to just their skills and the resources discriminately provided to them.

It blocked the other projections from his pocket teleporter, and only the grey and blue panels of this tournament were visible. They were initially blank, but the central rectangular panel appeared to show a widescreen video, an introduction to the tournament.

A chill went down Cael’s spine as this video loaded. It had begun.

“Thank you, my young mechanics, for making it to the qualifying stage! Well, it shouldn’t have costed you much except a few minutes of your time, but now things certainly won’t be as easy. I am Prince Leighton, also known as Brigadier General Leighton. I will be introducing you to the event that is to take place and how things are going to go.”

The Prince had slick back hair, along with pale and clear skin. Wherever he was, the lighting was nearly perfect and gave him an enchanting gleam. One of the most standout features of his face was his clear, piercing blue eyes.

He was known rather well by the Soburg Empire, as he was the heir apparent to the role of emperor.

“Firstly, the qualifiers will be a single event, and shouldn’t take more than a day to take place. As for the main event, things will go slightly differently. Also, it will take place from wherever you are located right now.”

“Don’t think that if you are in the comfort of your bedroom or some other safe place that you can cheat. We are taking in volumes of sensory input as you are watching this video and are actively blocking any form of projections from forming using other devices. Now, it’s just you and this test.”

This prince then went on to explain the rules behind this event. These were rules that Cael had already assimilated from the webpage describing it beforehand.

Therefore, he just stood there, slightly anxious, shaking himself off to try and calm down. The weight behind his performance here was heavy, and he only had one chance to make things work.

He was 17 now and wouldn’t be able to qualify for this event again.

“Just you wait, guys. You’ll wish you didn’t abandon me after I’m done here!” Cael told himself, addressing his Breckenridge relatives.

After the short introduction, there was a short intermission to get the students mentally prepared.

They weren’t even allowed any form of food of water, and it wasn’t like the people conducting the exam weren’t watching.

Breaking the rules would immediately disqualify you.

The platform soon appeared to him, and it resembled a modified version of the simulation lab. It looked much more basic, and the panels were a silver-grey instead of the standard blue.

He quite liked this colour format, but he swiftly threw such thought to the back of his mind. A timer appeared on the main panel, showing 29 seconds remaining before the students were allowed to begin.

The clock ticked down slowly but surely, and Cael swiftly commenced his designing as the clock ticked down.

[7 hours remaining]

With only this much time to work with, Cael had to make sure to speed himself up.

Several more windows appeared from the numerous panels that surrounded Cael, but it still wasn’t enough to make the user interface not look limited compared to the TechForge simulation lab.

The leftmost panel contained the program libraries, while the rightmost panel contained the main components that Cael would have to utilise.

Before he rushed in here, he had to think of the type of autonomous bot he was looking to make. He liked the idea of his WM-01 Valiant, but it just didn’t seem to fit this type of warfare.

Since this was a battle royale, the event would be basically a war of attrition. The bots with the greatest and most efficient power supplies would be the ones to make it through.

To do this, he aimed to not overload his bot with needless energy rifles and weaponry. That would only serve to eat up its power supply even more and increase its weight.

Cael’s eyes and body remained awfully still as he considered the best options for him here.

After a few minutes of deep thought, Cael came up with an idea of a lightweight/mediumweight bot. He wanted a bot that almost teetered between the boundaries of these two classes.

A lightweight bot here would be great for speed and stamina in the long-winded event, but a lack of firepower could cause it to get fried by a significantly heavier bot. Even if it could use its agility to escape or defeat foes larger than itself, it would only be a matter of time before it would be caught by a stray blast of some sort.

Upon thinking back to his code for the WM-01 Valiant, he felt keen on donning a swordsman once again. His bot had helped him significantly with its swords against the boarman that he had faced in Amburg.

The blades could move quickly and would be deadly if they were placed in the right hands. Here, Cael could craft his creation to make sure this was the case.

An image of a dual sword slasher popped up in his mind. Slim but fast and skilled, dealing significant damage with its blades.