Chapter 1 – Concept

“Well now, if it isn’t the man of the hour? Looking deceptively fresh for someone who should be horribly hungover!” Upgrade teased as she caught sight of Sal in the workshop.

At her words, Martin and Gosia perked up, smiles on their faces.

Sal couldn’t tell who started it, but a small smattering of applause welcomed him to his workstation. It was embarrassing, but there was no mockery in their expressions.

Upgrade, who would normally be the first to poke fun at his expense, gave him a warm smile as she made her way to his table.

“I wasn’t able to watch the fights live, because they wanted to hold me in the infirmary for a bit. Heard you were incredible, though! Quest promised to send me the footage after your scores were tallied, so I’ll be watching it later.” She grinned as she propped herself up on one of the work stools near his desk. “I told you it was going to be a shit-show and you’d be just fine.”

Sal barely heard what she had said after mentioning the infirmary. His eyes widened. “Did you get hurt? I saw the footage of the raid, and you were incredible! I had no idea Forge could be that terrifying, but the way you two worked together to clear the dungeon floor was amazing.”

Upgrade’s smile grew wider. She waved her hand away as though it wasn’t important. “Just picked up a few scratches here and there, nothing to worry about. It’s been so long since I was out in the field that they wanted to make sure I was okay. Have to say, though, it’s nice to know that I haven’t lost my touch!”

Sal nodded in agreement as he exhaled slowly. “You were like an Offense class out there, just killing them left and right. Weren’t you scared at all? I can’t see myself ever fighting on the front lines like that.”

Upgrade’s smile faltered as her right eyebrow cocked up. “Like an Offense class? Don’t throw me in with those barbarians, thank you very much. Sure, I was scared…but I had my team with me, so that did a lot to calm the nerves. Supports can be fantastic on the field; it doesn’t mean that we have to like it. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re not fit for that type of thing. You won’t know until you’ve fought your first demon.”

Sal shuddered involuntarily, which got a light laugh from Upgrade.

She leaned closer and waved her hand in front of his face to get his attention. “You know, for someone who essentially crushed the other teams in his cohort…you’re still second-guessing everything, aren’t you?”

There was no mockery in her tone, but Sal couldn’t help but feel that there was a twinge of disappointment in its place.

Without giving him time to respond, Upgrade got to her feet and stood in front of his workbench with both of her hands placed on its surface.

“Let me reframe it for you. If you were capable of handling a situation that would protect someone you cared about, would you do it?”

Without any hesitation, Sal nodded. “Of course. Anyone would.”

Upgrade grinned as she held his stare for a few moments. “Exactly. I merely handled a situation…” Upgrade raised her right hand and pointed directly at Sal. “To protect the people I care about.”

Sal’s face turned red at the realization, but Upgrade put him out of his misery with a grin.

“As much as I love tormenting you, are you here to be sentimental on your day off, or are you here to do some crafting? This is one of the rare days where we’re free from countless first-years asking a million questions, so please don’t ruin it for me.”

With an awkward cough, Sal gestured toward the blueprint room. “I’m here to do some designing. What are you working on?”

Upgrade glanced over at the blueprint room with a grimace. “Someone’s using it at the minute. There’s plenty of space for you to work beside them, but I’d rather you didn’t meet them for a while. How do you feel about going through the class project proposals with me? We can check the feasibility of their suggestions, and I’ll count it as credit toward your grade?”

With a slight shake of his head, Sal withdrew the small tracker that Quest had given him the previous night. It was simplistic in design, with light scratches across the smokey-black visor and some natural wear and tear on the silver earpiece.

“I don’t know how long I’ll have this for, so I want to get working on making my own version of it as soon as possible. Could I get some of the equipment from the blueprint room and do my work out here?”

Upgrade glanced at the tracker and frowned. “Why would you need to use a tracker? You already have the Appraisal ability, which makes it redundant.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the tracker more carefully.

“Wait… Quest gave it to you? It probably has his System ability tied to it. What are you hoping to make from it?”

Sal shrugged as he looked at the compact tracker in his hands. “I met Professor Beck last night, and he got me to replicate his Analysis ability. It was way too much for me, and I could only understand fragments of it with this tracker. I want to design a solution that will use System and Analysis at the same time, so I don’t need to keep the power active. It’ll be helpful for when I start the Analysis class, or at least I hope it will.”

Upgrade bit her lip as she turned back to the blueprint room. “Okay, you can go in there, but don’t engage in conversation with him. He’s preparing for his next assignment and is in a particularly foul mood today.”

Sal looked at her warily and chose his words carefully. “You’re making him sound super ominous. Does he have a name?”

Tapping her finger on the desk surface, Upgrade gave Sal a sideways glance. “He has many names. Special Forces, working in the Hunter Bureau and a visiting lecturer for the academy. He just returned from the excursion with the second-years and it was apparently a disaster. I imagine him seeing a carefree, bright-eyed student working on something other than killing demons…it’s unlikely to fill him with confidence in our next generation of Heroes.”

Sal’s eagerness to enter the blueprint room evaporated by the second. The tension he felt from Upgrade filled him with a sense of dread, but he needed to get a blueprint written up for the tracker so he could improve on it in time for his first class in Analysis.

Sensing his apprehension, Upgrade sighed and started to move in the direction of the room. “Come on, I’ll go with you. Leave the talking to me.”

Sal got to his feet and followed Upgrade, sparing a moment to wave and smile at both Martin and Gosia, who popped their heads up from their desks to say hello.

When they were a few feet away from the door, the sounds of cursing became audible through the apparently soundproof walls, suggesting that their mystery occupant was likely shouting. That deduction was confirmed the moment the sliding door opened, with a stream of curses blasting out dramatically.

“If you’re here to tell me to quiet down, you could help me instead,” a haggard voice called from one side of the room.

Sal was surprised to see a man who couldn’t have been much older than Upgrade rifling through countless sheets of blueprints. His hair was sandy brown, and his face was covered in stubble. His blue eyes were made all the more striking by the dark bags underneath them.

If Sal had to guess, he’d have said the man hadn’t slept in the last year.

Upgrade stepped in front of Sal and blocked his view of the man. “What do you need help with?” With her free hand, she gestured for Sal to move to one of the nearby tables.

As Sal moved toward a free bench, he glanced back in time to see a flash of red light appear around the haggard man’s arm.

“You could help me understand why your department is producing concepts far beyond their capabilities, and completely overlooking the basics! One of the most glaring flaws of the excursion was how ill-equipped every student was, and I’m starting to get a better grasp of why that is.

“Are you encouraging the crafters to make magnum opuses? Why is there an exoskeleton suit blueprint and a grappling hook, but nothing for basic defenses? Is this truly the standard you’ve curated for your third-years?”

His voice became more frustrated with each and every topic, but Sal’s eyes were locked on the man’s still-glowing arm.

Upgrade’s eyes fell to the blueprints on his desk, and her smile tightened. “Those aren’t third-year designs. You can find those on that shelf over there. There are more practical examples with realistic build quality.”

She moved to the blueprints in question, but the man raised his hand to stop her. He had locked eyes with Sal on the other side of the room, and it seemed to annoy him further.

“No classes today, kid. Make yourself scarce.”

It was an order more than a request, and Sal felt incredibly out of place in the very room he had come to love. He packed up the equipment that he needed, but it wasn’t fast enough, apparently.

The man got to his feet and marched across to Sal, where he grabbed his arm. “I don’t have all day, so come on.”

The runes on Sal’s shirt flared to life and activated their protective functions. What should have been enough to throw the man across the room did nothing more than knock him back a step.

Before Sal could apologize, a pulse of red energy swept through the man’s grip and shot around Sal’s torso. Sal tried to remove his grip, but it was deceptively strong.

“Relax, kid. I’m just having a look.” His voice wasn’t as rough as before, and he looked to be deep in concentration as he studied the shirt, his eyes tracking the pulsing red light as it moved.

Upgrade appeared by Sal’s side and pulled the man’s grip off him. “With all due respect, Captain. You’re going too far.”

Frowning slightly, the man took a step back and pulled the pulse of red light back into his arm. “Why is a first-year wearing an Epic-grade shirt?” In a flash of red light, his entire torso was covered in a glowing replica of Sal’s shirt.

Sal activated his eyes and locked onto the shirt to see what had happened. It didn’t seem like it was possible.

Name	Argento Shirt (Concept)
Origin	Essence Construct
Age	Temporary Summon
Grade	Epic (Middle)
Dimensions	Chest 42 inches | Neck 17.5 inches
Materials	Refined Concept Essence
Attributes	Defiant: Shirt negates piercing and blunt damage. Chance to reflect damage. Synergy: Abilities are shared among set items. Chameleon: Shirt morphs to match the ability essence of the wearer.
Abilities	Defiant | Synergy | Chameleon
Power Source	External Essence
Evolution	No
Quality	Perfect
Condition	100%

Sal’s eyes widened. He had somehow created a temporary replica of the shirt, and it had all the same abilities as his own. It had been a few seconds of him investigating it, and he made a perfect copy.

Sal desperately wished that he had the Analysis ability trained up, because he wanted to know everything about this man and his power.

Upgrade stepped between them. “Captain, this is Salvatore Argento. He’s one of our first-years.” Upgrade turned to Sal, a forced smile on her face. “Sal, this is Captain Chatfield. He’s going to be one of your lecturers in the future.”

Sal offered his hand, but Chatfield stared at him as though he had two heads.

“Salvatore Argento. You’re the team captain who won in the Silver cohort, right?”

Sal’s hand paused in mid-air as he stared back at the lecturer in surprise.

Upgrade looked up at the ceiling and sighed in exasperation. “The blueprints you were going through were made by him. He’s still learning the basics, so you’ll have to forgive his naiveté with build design.”

Chatfield didn’t seem to care as he moved around to examine Sal from a different angle. “So, you were a Support class and not a Controller?” When Chatfield’s eyes met Upgrade’s, he snapped his fingers and the ethereal shirt disappeared from his torso.

He grasped Sal’s extended hand and muttered darkly, “You should enjoy your day off, Mr. Argento. It’s going to get a lot more hectic from here on out.”