Chapter 107 : Refining
Sal was relieved that the workshop was sparsely populated.
It was the middle of the night, but his eyes were shining, as if he were ready to start working imdiately.
After finishing the Credit Store plan, he had gone to bed and fallen into a deep sleep for about 9 hours.
Now he was ready to fully imrse himself in the new project.
The remaining pain in his body had subsided into a dull ache, but he still completed a full set of the workout routine Vanessa had put together, knowing full well what it entailed.
It was strenuous, but not as unmanageable as when he first tried it.
This ti, he found himself wondering why he couldn't perform many of the movents perfectly, but he didn't push himself too hard and didn't care deeply about it.
After finishing the workout and taking a quick shower, he headed to the workshop.
He arrived a little past 4 AM.
He went to the Blueprint Office, tapped his Q-Card, and opened the door.
As the lights ca on, cluttered workbenches and unfinished blueprints ca into view.
They were works that didn't inspire much.
Sal didn't bother looking closely at the blueprints.
Just by looking at the layout, he could sufficiently guess the quality.
But that was soone else's work.
Sal gathered the drafts, organized them on the table, and logged into the workbench with his profile.
When a window asking for the project na appeared, Sal typed in the na without hesitation.
Project Na: Rookie
At first, he considered using animal nas, but decided to use nas that indicated quality and ability changes in stages.
So he chose military rank nas like Rookie and Agent as the na for the first set.
In the future, he intended to create more specific types like Assassin or Vanguard.
Sal started working on creating boots modeled after the Reaper Boots used in the tournant.
Since these boots were already Uncommon rank, he only needed to add the Synergy attribute extracted from the clothes he possessed.
‘The style isn't great... I should ask Blanid to make them look cooler.’
Good aesthetics would increase marketability significantly, but the most important selling factor was performance.
Sal sketched the changes and saved them as a project file nad Agent.
Agent was the na representing all Uncommon rank equipnt.
Rookie belonged to Common rank as the basic stage.
In the early stages, the Rookie set had the highest potential for sales.
It had set bonuses, materials were easy to obtain, and it even had abilities.
Its main strengths were protection and sturdy durability.
The Uncommon rank, called Agent, would include the Pulse Gauntlet and Shield Guard to make a more powerful impact.
However, Sal, who was about to write down the parts list for successfully crafting the blueprint, ran into his first obstacle. The core material called Mythos Crafter Essence kept being added, which general Crafters couldn't use.
So he needed a substitute material.
Fortunately, thanks to the Mythos Crafter ability, he could find substitute materials that produced the sa effect, but most of them were things he was seeing for the first ti.
After recording the materials and saving the blueprint, Sal moved on to the next task.
Drafting took about 20 minutes each, but it was worth the investnt.
In two hours, he completed the Rookie and Agent sets, and even created a transition blueprint set for upgrading the Rookie set to the Agent set.
The trickiest part was making the unimpressive headgear.
The chest armor of the Rookie design was a ss, but for the Agent design, he could apply additional skills, so he granted it the Transform ability.
‘With this ability, it will deform to match the user's body shape, so it will fit various body types more comfortably.’
Instead of imdiately starting on the next set, Sal registered the blueprints on the Credit Store first.
Whenever the blueprint template equipnt registered in the License category was sold, he could receive a commission.
He looked forward to the results but tried to restrain excessive expectations.
No one was awake yet, and it was hard to gauge how popular these blueprints would be with other students.
Since there were no seller ratings, it seed highly likely that staff approval would be needed.
Putting aside thoughts of additional work, Sal submitted the blueprints for review.
The blueprint workbench synced seamlessly with his tablet, and the submission process was simple.
When he selected the rank and category of the blueprint to submit, the store suggested a price.
"Uh...?"
At first, it took ti to find the option to submit as a set, but once he found it, the price jumped significantly.
Sal stared at the numbers for a mont, wondering if it was a system error.
Rookie Set: 50 Q-Credits
Transition Blueprint: 40 Q-Credits
Agent Set: 75 Q-Credits
Suppressing the urge to check if the blueprints were approved, Sal tried to keep refreshing the tablet screen.
But he still had work to do, and there was ti before class started.
Creating a Rare rank set was even trickier.
Because most of the designs Sal made stayed at the Uncommon rank.
If he got too greedy, they would surpass Rare rank and beco Unique rank.
Sotis, just adding one ability to an Uncommon set pushed it over the standard.
Another constraint given to Sal was to limit the scope of Rare rank items to imdiately follow Uncommon items.
The thod was to create a Specialist set based on the Agent set, then a Captain set based on the Specialist, and then a Commander set based on the Captain.
Ideally, one could complete the blueprint for the Commander set (Epic rank) first and then downgrade it to create lower-rank blueprints, but there was a problem.
Since basic equipnt sets were already in use, he had to design higher ranks while progressively improving the performance of the basic equipnt.
Eventually, he had to increase the rank by adding improvents little by little to the basic equipnt.
Another reason was that the Evolution attribute would be absent from the equipnt Sal crafted.
Each blueprint had to be crafted independently because only then could it possess intrinsic value.
Sal was reluctant to include evolutionary weapons or equipnt in the blueprints.
Because other Crafters could look at the blueprints and beco future competitors.
‘I should keep the Evolution attribute only for the equipnt I craft and sell myself.’
Sal conceptualized the latest version in his head and drew it into the blueprint.
He chose restrained abilities with amplification capabilities like Overcharge Mode or Barrier.
If it worked as expected, the Arm Guard used in the mounted combat would create a shield around the user when in an Overcharge state.
Also, the Pulse Gauntlet would transform into a chanical sleeve to perform the sa function.
Adding the Transform ability was also very effective, and all parts stayed within the Rare rank range.
"Ha... now this is the problem."
The biggest problem was the headgear; Sal had to modify the design to create a hood-type cowl instead of the padded helt from the previous version.
No matter what he added or tried, the weak durability of the helt in the Rookie and Agent sets couldn't be effectively improved with existing materials.
There was a way to forcefully reinforce it like Hannah's Barrier Gauntlet by filling it with Essence, but that wasn't a suitable solution for Crafters who bought the blueprint.
Since the blueprints were still under review, Sal replaced the padded helt from the previous version with the new cowl design and resubmitted it.
Checking the notification that the modifications were under review, Sal forgot about it for a mont and imrsed himself in work again.
Sal had absolutely no idea who would buy his blueprints, but he enjoyed the crafting process and exploring the synergy between different parts itself.
When he called up the entire Agent set to admire the result of his work, his Mythos Crafter ability seed to finally grasp his intentions properly.
Sal dropped his jaw and accepted the new modifications pouring into his mind.
Each part worked excellently both as a set and individually.
He harmoniously arranged all the runes and connected the equipnt to match them.
But the Mythos Crafter ability found six ways to make this even more efficient.
Sal didn't question any of those points.
Because he knew there were no errors in the details.
He didn't know what impact these modifications would have at all, but he looked forward to the results imnsely.
Since it was sure to be a better blueprint, if he could improve crafting skills and grant additional abilities to items, it was worth investing more ti to get every detail right.
‘What? Now it's starting to suggest other materials to use for crafting too.’
When Sal applied the changes, the appearance of the entire equipnt set changed.
Mythos Crafter was showing a preview of the completely transford set.
"I guess I won't need Blanid's help with styling anymore?"
Sal muttered with a wide grin, then looked up for a mont, stretched his arms high above his head, leaned back, and twisted his waist to loosen his stiff body.
Yawning inadvertently, he smiled as he looked back on his achievents.
Rookie, Agent, and Specialist sets were all perfectly completed, and he had even implented synergy between sets through the guidance of Mythos Crafter.
Sal also refined the transformations to look cooler, enhancing the completeness of the sets.
Sal was giving himself an excessive workload.
Because he had to craft one actual piece of equipnt for each set for them to perform properly.
Just the material costs would consu a considerable amount of Q-Credits.
Moreover, considering the production of Trackers for himself and Anthony, and the gun design Barry and Quest were pushing for, all-nighters seed unavoidable for the next few weeks.
Deciding to take a short break, Sal locked the workbench and went out to check if Alex had prepared the alchemy item.
Even in the early morning, the workshop was full of vitality.
It was mostly second-year Support Class students wearing uniforms with purple epaulets on a black background, with occasional gray uniforms visible.
The students were chatting between tables in a sowhat excited atmosphere.
Upgrade and Porge were nowhere to be seen, but Alex, frowning as always, stood out even among the people.
"Sal!"
Sal was surprised when Alex suddenly called out to him while he was standing in line waiting for his turn.
Instantly, sharp gazes from the surroundings poured onto Sal, destroying the amicable atmosphere in a flash.
So glanced at his outfit and started whispering whether he was a third-year or a visitor from a guild.
Alex handed coffee to Sal with a weary look and spoke.
"Pay Upgrade back. He was bragging a few days ago that he drank all your coffee before class. There are truly sacred things in this world. Like the relationship between a man and his coffee."
Alex winked and beckoned the next person.
Like that, Alex revealed to the surroundings that Sal had a close relationship with both Upgrade and himself.
People around them reacted differently to that.
So threw smiles at Sal, while others cast looks of contempt.
Regardless of the surrounding reactions, Sal headed to the Blueprint Office.
It felt like returning to a sanctuary.
Then, a familiar figure turned from the workbench chair, pointed at the blueprint on Sal's table, and spoke.
"What is that?"
Chatfield asked with a bitter smile.
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