Chapter 1137. Supply Missions (1/2)
[Status]
Name: Ves Larkinson
Profession: Journeyman Mech Designer
Specializations: Spiritual Man-Machine Symbiosis
Design Points: 328,742
Attributes
Strength: 1.4
Dexterity: 1.0
Endurance: 2.0
Intelligence: 2.2
Creativity: 2.1
Concentration: 2.1
Spirituality: 1.3
Neural Aptitude: F
Skills
...
Abilities
[Superpublish]: Available. Can be activated once a year.
[Inventorize]: Unavailable.
Evaluation: A young Journeyman Mech Designer with a very distinct specialty.
Just before Ves stowed away his comm in his Inventory and ask Gavin to supply him with a new one, he looked up his Status.
Not much had changed, which surprised Ves a bit considering what a momentous change he had gone through.
”Part of it is because this Status isn't capturing the condition of my design seed.”
Was it because the System couldn't access it, or because it didn't know how to assess and quantify it? With the amazing capabilities of the System, those possibilities did not seem very likely to Ves.
”Maybe it's too lazy.” Ves snorted.
He first scanned how much DP he earned over the last seven months since he embarked on his joint design project.
While he spent a lot of DP on upgrading his Skills and acquiring Space Knight Mastery I, he earned much of it back through regular sales of his Blackbeak model. The Crystal Lord sold a lot as well, but the System withheld all the DP he earned from its sales because he Superpublished the laser rifleman mech design.
”This ability is really a double-edged sword.”
Despite this price, Ves contemplated using the Superpublish ability again for his fifth original mech design. He hated the thought of rushing his next design project because he wouldn't be able to refine and optimize it to the best of his ability.
Superpublishing the design would solve all of the inadequacies that Ves had missed in his rush to bring it to the market.
”It doesn't take very long to design a functional mech, especially now that I've advanced to Journeyman. All those months spent on optimizing the design will only elevate its performance by five to ten percent at best. Superpublishing delivers an equivalent amount of improvement after only a single activation!”
There was no use deciding on this matter at this moment. He would have to design his mech first and see where he stood in a couple of months before he made his decision.
One significant chance from his last Status update was that the System finally recognized his specialty now that it had crystallized into his design seed.
”Spiritual Man-Machine Symbiosis. That's quite a mouthful to describe.”
While Ves found the description the System came up with to be extremely clunky and inelegant, it nonetheless fit what he understood of his own design philosophy. All this time, he focused his attention on designing mechs that excelled in spiritually empowering its mech pilots and vica versa.
It was not a label he would be proud to carry in public, though. ”If anyone asks what my specialty is, I can probably say that I specialize in metaphysical man-machine symbiosis!”
Replacing the word spiritual with metaphysical made his specialty sound ten times vaguer and broader. Hardly any mech designer would be able to figure out what Ves exactly specialized in when they came across this word soup!
”The more confused they are, the more they'll substitute the actual meaning with their own guesses!”
Ves would never tell the truth about his design philosophy to anyone. He much preferred to be as vague as possible so that other people would come up with their own logical explanations.
He next went over his list of Attributes. All of them remained the same except for a single notable change. His Spirituality jumped from 0.8 to 1.3! This was a substantial leap in score, and while Ves had difficulty figuring out the System's measurement scale for Spirituality, such a big jump meant his spiritual abilities gained a substantial boost in strength!
The most important of which was imbuing his designs with a stronger X-Factor!
”If I am able to apply more of my own Spirituality on my own designs, I'll be less dependent on the strength of external spiritual fragments.”
This basically meant that Ves would be able to design mechs with a higher grade of X-Factor by depending on his own imagination. He even developed an inkling that he would be able to create images in his mind that equaled Qilanxo's potent spiritual fragment in strength one day!
”I'll probably have to advance to Master or Star Designer before I reach that point.” Ves chuckled deprecatingly to himself. That was too far away for him to contemplate at this time. ”At least I'll be stronger during my spiritual incursions through the imaginary realm. There are a lot of treasures there to be mined as long as I'm strong enough to brave its many threats!”
After passing over his Attributes, Ves quickly turned to his Skills.
His extensive list of Skills hadn't changed at all. Ves might decide to spend some of his DP to upgrade some of his cheaper Skills and Sub-Skills, but right now he did not feel a pressing need to do so. He was already very knowledgeable compared to other Journeymen!
The Inventorize ability rested immediately below the Superpublish ability. The single descriptor signified that Ves had already spent his single use of this ability.
”Even so, since this ability remains on my Status page, it shouldn't be impossible to gain another chance to Inventorize an object!”
The greedy, slave-driving System wanted Ves to work for the opportunity this time. Unlike the Superpublish ability which refreshed every year, Ves probably needed to work his butt off in order to earn this reward!
Speaking of tasks, the System prompted him with a message.
[You have received several new missions. Please check the Mission page for the details.]
Five new missions popped out of nowhere!
[Supply Mission]
Mission: Material Supply 1
Difficulty: S-Rank
Prerequisites: Advance to Journeyman Mech Designer
Description
The Mech Designer System needs to be supplied with several rare materials to facilitate future upgrades.
This Supply Mission can be completed by offering 45.5343 grams of Orpheidan Glow Glass.