novelraw Chapter 106 : Chapter 106
Chapter 106 : Chapter 106
Chapter 106 : Conception
Putting the light-hearted teasing behind him, Sal headed to the dormitory after lunch.
He had intended to stop by the workshop to conceptualize a new Tracker for Anthony, but due to the persistent pain spreading throughout his body, he was eventually forced to give up.
Fortunately, the elevator wasn't crowded with students, so Sal was able to reach the 51st floor in relative comfort.
"Phew..."
Sal leaned against the elevator wall, suppressing his discomfort as he caught his breath.
He resented his body for lagging so far behind his peers.
Chewing over the events of the past month, Sal realized that he had spent most of his time at the Academy either overworking himself or recovering.
When the elevator doors opened to reveal his floor, Sal pushed himself off the wall to gain momentum.
Even a simple movement sent a stabbing pain through both shoulders, causing him to wince involuntarily.
Sal gritted his teeth and headed down the hallway to his room.
As he approached his bed, a flicker of fear crossed his mind that his body might not cooperate.
The thought of trying to exercise again vanished completely the moment his bed came into view.
As the sliding door closed, Sal stepped inside and let out a sigh of relief.
He tossed his tablet and sunglasses haphazardly onto the nightstand and threw himself onto the hard mattress without even taking off his uniform.
He had to endure a few minutes of discomfort tossing and turning, but it was worth it.
Since it was the middle of the day, closing his eyes now would surely ruin his sleep rhythm, but it was far better than staring blankly at the ceiling with an aching body.
Curiosity piqued, he closed his eyes and checked the state of the Essence within him.
The strands of light, once thin as spiderwebs, now appeared much more vivid and sturdy.
He was relieved to see that the heavily sagging threads had loosened slightly thanks to the appropriate spacing between the connected points.
Since Sal had no difficulty with Essence control, he freely roamed through various Gates, carefully examining the changes compared to before.
By his standards, it seemed he had recovered almost to his prime level.
He wondered how this change would affect his abilities.
‘In this state, could I endure fatigue longer, or will I reach a new ability rank?’
Such questions lingered in his mind for a moment.
He thought he should ask Lombardi in tomorrow's Skill class.
Sal tried to calm his breathing with his eyes closed, but sleep didn't come easily.
It was a small mercy that the once sharp pain was gradually dulling.
Since he didn't have to go anywhere urgently and couldn't sleep at all, he decided to brainstorm ideas.
‘Since my Essence state is stable, using my ability carefully shouldn't be a big problem.’
He decided to stop immediately if any negative signals were detected from his body.
Firmly resolved, Sal held his breath for a moment while activating his Mythos Crafter ability.
However, there was no change in his ability.
It seemed no different from when he used it in the workshop last time.
He didn't know what he had expected, but trying it out felt a bit disappointing.
A blueprint for the ceiling light appeared before his eyes, but Sal ignored it and called up another blueprint stored in his mind.
What he focused on was visualizing the Tracker.
It appeared clearly just as it was during the last work session, still signaling the need for a Lord Crystal and Hellfire Titanium.
Adding a few more thoughts, Sal switched to the Tracker blueprint provided by Quest.
Imagining it in its most basic form, the blueprint suddenly shattered into pieces and bounced out of his field of vision.
"Uh...?"
He was flustered by the unexpected situation but soon decided to etch it as a valuable lesson.
Since he usually proceeded by drawing blueprints himself, using the Mythos Crafter ability was fresh and interesting for Sal.
Smiling, he called up Quest's Tracker and resumed work.
He quickly realized the cause of the previous failure.
The Tracker activation rune had been lost in the previous version.
So this time, he put his heart and soul into not tampering with the rune recklessly.
Random thoughts affected the entire design, making exploring possibilities even more difficult.
Just the thought of using different materials caused the visualized blueprint to distort and deform, leading Sal to repeatedly undo his actions while cursing.
"Damn it..."
His Essence control ability was excellent, but his mental strength hadn't caught up yet.
The fourth attempt was carried out much more carefully, very slowly.
After lowering the Quest Tracker to Common rank and adding Mythos Crafter Essence, the image ridiculously shattered immediately.
"Ha..."
It felt as if the ability was scolding him for his recklessness.
As another method, Sal tried imbuing his self-made Tracker with only the Mythos Crafter ability.
He expected success, but the blueprint couldn't be completed.
Adding the Mythos Crafter ability seemed difficult even with a Lord Crystal and Hellfire Titanium.
Sal realized his mistake and sighed.
"Ah... the materials were suitable for an Analysis Tracker, so they didn't match equipment focused on crafting."
He recalled the blueprint and conceptualized a Tracker to contain the Mythos Crafter ability.
Surprisingly, it worked properly this time, but in return, a list of dozens of parts that seemed difficult to fulfill poured out.
Barry's suggestions of lowering the rank and adding an evolution path also didn't have much effect.
The minimum rank for an item that could evolve into the required version was Unique.
Sal found it hard to understand that logic.
As shown on the screen, it started at Unique and ended at Legend rank.
‘Why can't it evolve to Mythos rank? What's the special reason only the sniper rifle can?’
Lying on the bed, Sal continued to stare at the blueprint floating above his face.
Despite numerous repetitions and modifications, the Tracker eventually lost its viability and ran aground.
The persistent struggle to balance precariously between success and failure was still ongoing.
He had to seek a solution relying solely on his intuition without expert help like Upgrade, but he soon faced his limits.
He even tried lowering the Mythos Crafter ability to a lower rank like Rare Craft, but the blueprint wouldn't accept it.
It was the same situation as when he tried to put Chatfield's ability into a blueprint at Upgrade's suggestion and was rejected.
Through this experience, Sal came to understand the Mythos Crafter ability more deeply.
He realized that even if it was his ability, it couldn't be applied to a blueprint in a modified form.
Sal agonized over various methods for nearly an hour but eventually had to admit failure.
The most similar result was a Rare rank Tracker applying Upgrade's ability, but the price of the necessary materials was formidable.
He decided to keep that blueprint in his mind and later sketch it in the workshop to post on the Credit Store.
Thinking about that, Sal paused his work for a moment and smiled.
Although he had never registered a single item on the Credit Store, his mind was already filled with dozens of blueprints.
Barry's idea of selling evolution equipment was truly brilliant.
He especially liked the point that the owner of the equipment had to gather enough Essence themselves for evolution.
Sal intended to go a step further and sell the equipment crafting recipe itself containing a perfect blueprint.
The equipment crafted for the tournament had already been successful, and according to Chatfield's report, there was a severe shortage of equipment for second-years.
Sal recalled the stories of second and third-year Crafters he heard from Upgrade.
‘They stick to safe choices when crafting and are unwilling to take risks.’
Sal smiled gradually until he was grinning broadly.
He began to formulate a plan.
The goal was to register all blueprints at Mythos rank and create an overall realistic design that Crafters of each rank could utilize.
He established a strategy to lower the price initially to prove the superiority of his designs and gradually increase the price as the rank rose.
‘Should I add a few dreamy designs to catch people’s eyes?’
Biting his lip, Sal unfolded the colorful possibilities rising in his mind.
He considered full set equipment that only he could craft, and auctioning off commission slots once his reputation grew.
The possibilities were endless, and Sal couldn't hide his excitement imagining a future where Q-Credits piled up.
Especially since Jez was planning to raise the difficulty in the Administration class, he didn't want to settle for reality.
Forgetting the fatigue weighing down his body, Sal struggled to get up from the bed.
Then he headed to the next room and stood in front of the Class Assignment Board hanging on the wall.
Listed there were the Academy classes.
Offense, Defense, Controller, Healer, Support.
He had to immerse himself in crafting the best equipment that would catch everyone's eye.
When he last checked a Rare rank breastplate up for auction on the Credit Store, the price far exceeded 300 Q-Credits.
Even considering the listed benefits, it was by no means a cheap amount.
Sal wrote 'Breastplate' next to the Defense category and 'Tracker' next to the Control and Support categories.
He categorized the blueprints he had made and pondered which group had the most suitable blueprints.
Sal quickly wrote down words on the board, smiling broadly.
Countless ideas gushed out like a flood and were naturally captured in writing.
It was the moment when concepts that existed only as possibilities in his head materialized into a perfect business plan.
Utilizing the Synergy attribute of the uniform he was wearing, he granted set bonuses to equipment pieces of each rank.
The basic composition of the Uncommon set was organized for each class, and all sets possessed at least one ability including the Synergy attribute.
Set bonuses were designed to exert additional skills and effects along with an overall stat increase.
‘Like this, everyone will eventually buy the entire set to get the bonus effects.’
Since everything existed only in blueprint form and actual crafting was unnecessary, Sal could post various proposals on the board in batches.
Spending a little time in the Blueprint Office within the workshop would be enough.
After continuous brainstorming, he added an Upgrade blueprint to each set.
Crafters could now upgrade an Uncommon rank set to Rare rank, and further to Unique rank.
He also deliberated on giving each set a luxurious name.
After completing the blueprint, actual item crafting was up to the Crafter who purchased it.
Forgetting even the pain in his body, Sal immersed himself in conceptualizing the Credit Store page, staying put for several hours.
These blueprints, consisting of four independent sets and three transition sets with five pieces each, were scheduled to be registered on the Credit Store as a total of thirty-five individual listings.
High-rank blueprints like Epic or Legendary were put off for later.
Even if the blueprint was perfect, the possibility of it being crafted was slim, but there would surely be those with vast amounts of Q-Credits.
Sal intended to gladly take their Credits.
Designing all these blueprints and matching synergies would clearly take considerable time, but Sal wasn't worried in the slightest.
As long as he had the Mythos Crafter ability, blueprint work was a piece of cake for him.
Because he just had to draw what he saw, and if there was a mistake, correct it immediately.
Working at the Argento Auction House with his father for years, he had watched countless buyers participate in auctions searching for specific set pieces.
Most irrational auction spending stemmed from overheated bidding to obtain set bonus items, and Sal intended to profit by exploiting exactly that point.