Chapter 19 – Refinement

Sal was grateful that few people were in the workshop. It was the middle of the night, but he was wide awake and raring to go. He had gone to bed after wrapping up his plans for the Credit Store. After about nine hours of cramp-free sleep, he was up and motivated to get started on his new passion project.

The pain in his body had reduced to a dull ache and Sal, despite knowing better, did a full set of the workout routine Vanessa had given him. It had been difficult, but nowhere near as excruciating as the first attempt. He was surprised to find that he couldn’t complete many of the movements this time around, but he didn’t force it or dwell on it too much. When it was over, he had a quick shower before setting off for the workshop, arriving there just a little after four in the morning.

Sal made his way over to the blueprint room and buzzed himself in with his Q-Card. The lights came on and revealed a few messy workbenches, littered with half-drawn blueprints that seemed pretty uninspired from what Sal could make out. The fact that his eyes didn’t try to interpret the schematics told Sal everything he needed to know about their quality. That said, it was someone else’s work, so he stacked the drafts and placed them on a nearby table before signing into one of the workbenches with his own profile.

When it prompted him for a project name, Sal didn’t hesitate.

Project: “Rookie”

He had thought of using animal names but decided to use progressive ranks that denoted a shift in both quality and capability. For that, he elected to use loose military terms, like Rookie and Agent, for the first sets. He’d be able to come up with more specific builds in the future, like an Assassin or Vanguard type.

Sal started work on the boots, using the leaper boots from the tournament as a template. They were already Uncommon, so all he had to do was add in the Synergy trait, which he pulled from appraising his own clothing. Stylistically, they weren’t much to look at, and Sal made a mental note to ask Blathnaid if she could help him make the equipment look better.

They would have much better marketability if they looked good, but their effect would be the biggest selling point. He sketched out the changes and saved the file into the Agent project, which represented all the Uncommon equipment. Rookie was going to be the basics, all at a Common grade. It was likely going to be the best-seller for him initially, as it would have a set bonus, would be made of readily available materials, and even come with an ability. The main selling point would be its protective capabilities and durability. Uncommon grade, which he was calling Agent, was going to have more impact as it would incorporate the pulse gauntlets and shield guards.

Sal ran into his first obstacle when he tried to list the components for the successful creation of the blueprint. It kept adding Mythcrafter essence as one of the key ingredients, but that wouldn’t be possible for normal Crafters, so he needed an alternative.

Thankfully, the Mythcrafter ability came through with substitute materials that could create the same effects, but Sal hadn’t heard of many of them. He wrote them down, saved the blueprint, and moved onto the next batch. Each draft took him roughly twenty minutes to create, but it was more than worth it. In the space of two hours, he had both the Rookie and Agent sets completed, with a transition set of blueprints to guide Crafters in upgrading the Rookie set into the Agent set.

The trickiest part of it was coming up with a head guard that didn’t look terrible. The chest piece looked like crap on the Rookie design, but the Agent one allowed for an additional skill, so Sal added Transform as the ability. At least that way, it would mold around the user, making it more comfortable for those with different body shapes.

Rather than jumping straight into the next set, Sal uploaded the blueprints to the Credit Store. It was listed under the licensed category so he would earn a fee on every piece of equipment that used his blueprint as a template. He was excited to see how they did, but wanted to manage his own expectations. Firstly, nobody was awake and he didn’t even know how popular these sorts of schematics would be among the other students. His seller rating was nonexistent, so it would more than likely need to be validated by a member of staff.

Sal pushed those thoughts to one side as he submitted the designs for review. The blueprint workbench synced with his tablet without issue, and the steps for submission were straightforward. After he selected the grades and categories that his submission fell under, the store prompted him with a pricing suggestion. It took a little bit more time for him to find the option to submit them as part of a wider set, but when he did find it, the price jumped up dramatically.

Sal stared at the number for a few moments, wondering whether it was a glitch in their system.

Rookie Set	50 Q-Cred
Transition Schematic	40 Q-Cred
Agent Set	75 Q-Cred

Sal had to fight the urge to constantly refresh the tablet screen in the hopes of seeing that his entries were approved. He had more work to do, and it was going to be a few more hours before classes started and students descended upon the workshop. Creating a Rare-grade set was a little more challenging, as a number of the designs Sal came up with ended up falling into the Uncommon category.

Anything too ambitious seemed to overshoot the Rare grade and fall into Unique territory. Sometimes, it was something as small as a single ability being added to the Uncommon set that forced it over the threshold.

Another key restriction for him was limiting the scope of the Rare items to being the next development of the Uncommon items. He had to use the Agent set as his basis for the Specialist set. Then the Specialist would be the basis for the Captain set, which would be the basis for the Commander set.

In an ideal world, he could draw out the blueprint of the Commander set, which would be at the Epic grade, and then reverse engineer it for the lower grades, but there was a problem. He already had the set of basic equipment that he was using as his foundations, so he needed to design upward toward the higher tiers, giving the basic equipment incremental gains until they were deemed a higher grade.

Another reason it wouldn’t have worked was because the equipment he was crafting wasn’t going to have an evolutionary trait. Each blueprint needed to be constructed, which was where the true value lay. Sal didn’t want to put up evolutionary weapons or equipment as blueprints, as it would show other Crafters how to become future competition for him. He’d save the evolutionary traits for equipment he actually made and put up for sale.

Sal sketched out the latest iteration, testing it in his mind before confirming it with ink. He decided on understated abilities that had amplification capabilities, like Overcharge and Barrier. If it worked the way he thought it would, the arm guard that he used for the tournament would project a bubble around the user if the item was overcharged. Same went for the pulse gauntlet, which had turned into a mechanical sleeve.

Adding in the Transform ability worked really well too, and it kept all the components within the range for Rare grade. The headgear was the biggest issue, and Sal had to amend the previous iterations to create a hooded cowl instead of a padded helmet. No matter what he added or tried, the weak helmet from the Rookie and Agent sets couldn’t be effectively improved with the materials that created it. It was possible if he flooded it with essence and forced it to improve like he had done with Hannah’s Barrier gauntlets, but it wouldn’t be an appropriate solution for the Crafters who bought his instructions.

Because his designs were still in review, Sal swapped out the padded helmets with the new cowl design for the previous iterations and hit submit again. He was rewarded with a screen that said his amendments were under review, so he put it out of his head and got back to work.

Sal had no idea whether anyone was even going to bother buying the designs, but he was having fun making them and exploring the Synergies between the different pieces. When he pulled up the entire Agent set, just to appreciate all the work he had done, his Mythcrafter ability finally seemed to understand his intention.

His mouth hung open as a whole new series of corrections flooded into his brain. Each of the components worked as a set, and worked individually. He made sure that all the runes were cohesive and paired all the equipment together, but the Mythcrafter ability saw a half dozen ways to make it more efficient. Sal didn’t question any of it, as he knew the details weren’t wrong. He had no idea what sort of impact the corrections would have, but he was excited to see the results.

Obviously, it was going to be a better blueprint, but if it improved the craftsmanship and gave additional capability to the items, he was happy to spend the extra time in getting all those details correct. What was more surprising than anything was that the ability started to suggest different materials to be used in the build.

When Sal let the changes take form, the entire set of equipment changed in appearance. Mythcrafter was literally giving him previews of how the set would look when fully transformed. Sal’s grin widened; he might not need Blathnaid’s help in the style department anymore.

Sal surfaced from his work and stretched his arms over his head, leaning back and rotating his hips to relieve some of the tension. He yawned out of reflex and smiled as he looked back at his progress. Rookie, Agent, and Specialist were all drawn up to perfection. They were synchronized as sets with the guidance of Mythcrafter, and Sal had even improved their transformations to make them look that much cooler as sets.

He was piling work up on himself, because he’d need to craft one of each set to really show off their capabilities, and that was going to cost him quite a bit of Q-Cred in materials alone. Added to that, if he was going to create the tracker for himself, and then the one for Anthony, coupled with the gun concept that Barry and Quest were pushing…he was likely in for a few late nights over the coming weeks.

Sal decided it was a good time as any to take a break, so he locked his workbench and went out to check whether Alex had set up shop yet with his alchemical delights. Despite it still being early morning, the workshop buzzed with activity. Judging from the sea of black uniforms with purple shoulders, it was mostly second-year Support classes, but there were a few gray uniforms in sight.

The atmosphere seemed somewhat lighthearted as students chatted to one another between the rows of desks. Upgrade and Forge were nowhere to be seen, but the familiar scowling face of Alex was visible through the crowd. Sal lined up behind the gathered people, waiting for his turn, but was surprised when Alex called for him to come to the front.

The friendly atmosphere was instantly threatened by the glares Sal received from everyone around him. Some of them looked confused at his custom outfit, and Sal even heard a few of them asking whether he was a third-year or someone visiting from a guild.

Alex gave Sal a weary expression as he handed over a coffee. “Putting it on Upgrade’s tab. She was gloating that she downed yours before class the other day. Some things are sacred, like a man’s relationship with his coffee.”

He finished with a wink and gestured for the next in line to approach. His words confirmed to everyone around him that Sal was a student who was close to Upgrade and Alex, and that revelation seemed to split the crowd down the middle. Some smiled in his direction, while others held looks of disdain.

Sal didn’t care in the slightest as he moved through them, making his way back to the blueprint room. He thought he had made it back to the comfort of his own space, when a familiar figure swiveled around on one of the bench stools, gesturing at the blueprint pages on Sal’s desk.

“What have you got there?” Chatfield asked with a wry grin