"What happened after that?" Ves asked over the comm as he rested on the couch. Lucky curiously tried to paw Melinda's head projected by the comm.
"The juggernaut blasted half the walls of the military base apart. It set up a panic in our team. Frankly, the only reason why we lasted so long after the juggernaut entered the field was because its pilot went drunk with power. He destroyed half his team with all the collateral damage he caused."
The two spoke about the performance of the Marc Antony, and how Melinda found it to be a good mech despite its many faults. "It doesn't have a good place on the front lines due to its scattered strengths. It's not quite a knight, not quite a striker and its pitiful launchers don't give the mech a lot of long-ranged firepower."
"Well, I'm only working with the tools I have. Frankly, if I could replace the mace and shield with something sturdier, I'm sure the mech would perform just as well as the Caesar Augustus."
"Sadly, that's not an option if I want to keep costs and complexity under control." Ves shook his head. "I've anticipated most of the issues you've mentioned, but they're kind of built into the fundamental design of the mech. I'm not aiming to replace the Caesar Augustus. I just want to deliver an affordable variant that can perform well in smaller engagements."
Melinda nodded. "I'm certainly impressed with the mech. I kind of want to replace my patrol mech with it, but I know the pencil pushers in the Guard won't allow such a thing. It doesn't have the endurance."
After the conversation ended, Ves put the finishing touches on his second handmade mech and sent it off to be sold in the market.
"Let's see my progress so far."
[Status]
Name: Ves Larkinson
Profession: Novice Mech Designer
Specializations: None
Design Points: 235
Attributes
Strength: 0.7
Dexterity: 0.7
Endurance: 0.6
Intelligence: 1.2
Creativity: 1
Concentration: 1.2
Neural Aptitude: F
Skills
[Assembly]: Apprentice - [3D Printer Proficiency I] [Assembler Proficiency I]
[Business]: Apprentice
[Computer Science]: Incompetent
[Electrical Engineering]: Novice
[Mathematics]: Incompetent
[Mechanics]: Apprentice - [Jury Rigging I] [Speed Tuning I]
[Metallurgy]: Apprentice
[Metaphysics]: Incompetent
[Physics]: Novice - [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization I]
Evaluation: Almost reached the standards of an apprentice mech designer.
His stats hadn't changed much since the last time he viewed it. His concentration had gained 0.1 points again due to his single-minded focus in mastering the Marc Antony. Besides sleeping, eating, bathroom rituals and taking short breaks to reset his mood, he spent all his time fabricating the Marc Antony.
His DP counter remained stubbornly stagnant, further indicating that the sales potential for his Fantasia variants had reached the bottom of the well. Much of his DP came from the two Marc Antony's sold so far. They offered much more for a single sale due to their higher value.
"It doesn't look like my Marc Antony model will catch fire." Ves noted disappointingly. "With only a little more than a week left until the YTE, I won't be able to increase my sub-skills or attributes in any meaningful way."
While he spent a lot of work designing the Marc Antony then mastering its fabrication process, the things he learned provided marginal help at best when joining the contest.
The contest only lasted one day, just long enough for mech designers to showcase their skills without boring the audience to a multi-day engineering fest. The day before the main event, the organizers hosted a qualifying round in order to filter out the eight best contestants.
Both events revolved around designing and putting together a functioning mech out of a bunch of parts and a random stripped-down model. It showcased the mech designer's skill in creating new mechs while skipping out the boring part of fabricating the parts from scratch.
The old Ves without the System probably wouldn't get past the qualifiers. Even with all the additional benefits the System gave him, he might not even be certain he can reach the top 3.
"I shouldn't be obsessed with trying to reach first place. I have to keep my priorities clear. As long as I can find a single customer for my Marc Antony design, I've already won."
The impending interest payment term loomed within a month, which caused Ves to bear immense pressure.
"I stand a much better chance in the contest if I can earn enough DP to buy the Jury Rigging II sub-skill before it starts."
He already experienced the power of Jury Rigging I. The skill energized with his creativity, allowing him to form unorthodox solutions to complicated technical problems. It did not add any new knowledge, but instead improved his ability to combine the knowledge he already learned into something new. An example would be to strip a laser rifle and turn it onto a shoulder mount. Though such a shoddy modification won't work as well as a purpose-built shoulder weapon, it should work well enough in an emergency.
"I should get my workshop ready." Ves reminded himself. If all went well, he should be able to find a customer for his new design. He'd have to get his workshop ready and running by the time he got back from the event.
First he took a look at his 3D printer. As a fairly old, second-hand model, it lacked the most current technology in fabrication. Ves meticulously went through the settings of the printer, and with the help of his improved knowledge in assembly, added presets that helped fabricate certain parts easier and with less errors.
Then, he looked at his inventory. Besides the raw materials required to produce the HRF armor plating, he lacked pretty much everything else required to build up a Marc Antony. Ves took note of the list of raw materials and visited the local site of the Mech Trade Association. The MTA offered many services to anyone looking to build, buy or sell a mech. It conveniently partnered with resource wholesalers that allowed them to sell various raw materials through a convenient market interface.
"Hm, to fabricate the HRF requires about 11 million bright credits in raw materials. To purchase the rest of the materials requires just 7 million credits. The total cost comes at 18 million credits. If I charge 24 million credits for the Marc Antony, I'll recoup my cost and earn just enough profit to meet my next interest payment."
Selling a mech that priced at 24 million credits was much easier than one that demanded more than double the amount. It cost 45 million credits in total to cover the raw materials for the Caesar Augustus. The materials for the Augustus' proprietary armor plating cost 38 million credits alone, and Ves lacked the facilities required to process exotic materials into advanced armor plating.
"These prices look reliable, but it's not entirely reflective of the entire market." Ves noted carefully, remembering what he learned in college about running a business. "I'm sure there's plenty of private agreements between a small group of partners that offers substantially lower prices."
Ves curiously inspected the market prices for the Caesar Augustus and its close variants. The official base model produced by National Aeromotives sold for a whopping 65 million credits. Naturally, as the original manufacturer and with the now mature Jason Kozlowski at the helm, the CA-1 produced by NA was top quality.