Chapter 22 : Chapter 22
Chapter 22 : Limit
“That was a remnant.”
Upgrade emphasized again.
Sal clutched the blanket covering him up to his chest tightly.
Upgrade pointed to the crystal pendant hanging around her neck.
“I use this as an Essence source. My internal Essence alone can’t power the suit. If I used it without a Core? It would run for a moment. But eventually, a remnant state comes. That must not happen. Never push yourself to that extent!”
Although she didn’t raise her voice, she ended her sentence with weight.
Upgrade took a deep breath and started walking slowly around the workshop cafeteria.
As if choosing appropriate expressions.
“You connected five runes. Did you even think about the Essence consumption required to wear that? Of course you didn’t. Since you haven’t learned it yet.”
Sal watched her quietly.
He was sitting on a fluffy sofa, and on the table in front of him was a special coffee brewed by the workshop’s alchemist barista.
Every time he took a sip, the fog pressing down on his head disappeared.
Realizing once again how stupid he had been, he replayed the scene of blowing Upgrade away over and over again.
To Sal, who was blaming himself with his eyes closed, her voice was heard again.
“Are you listening to me?”
Upgrade’s voice was still firm, but clearly contained a different emotion.
When Sal raised his head, he saw her holding the shirt he made.
“First, know the basic principles. It’s prep week right now, and personal projects are permitted a month later at the earliest.”
Upgrade examined the shirt, turning it this way and that.
“Even without appraisal ability, I recognized at a glance this is Rare grade equipment. For a first work, it’s nonsensical. Moreover, in just one day?”
Upgrade trailed off, then carefully folded the shirt and looked at Sal.
“Never experiment with equipment you made yourself on your own body in the future. Okay?”
Only then did Sal realize what the emotion felt in her words was.
Worry.
He quietly nodded and tried to apologize, but Upgrade raised her hand to stop him.
“Crafters are like that. Don’t drown in talent and die. Because you have to pump out a few Mythos-grade items before you die!”
With those words, Upgrade smiled and handed the shirt back.
“You could sell this to upperclassmen with ample internal Essence. Or maybe the guilds would be interested too. Want to put it on the credit market?”
Upgrade pointed to the coffee cup on the table.
“Take that with you, and give me the blanket for a moment.”
Sal was flustered by the sudden request.
The blanket was the only shield covering his upper body as he was currently shirtless.
Upgrade casually activated her suit and said.
“Who do you think took off your shirt for you?”
Sal immediately handed the blanket to Upgrade.
Upgrade’s mechanical arms started moving busily.
“I’m not a tailor, but you should be able to wear it for about a day.”
Sal watched her hand movements blankly.
The actions of cutting, connecting, rotating, and trimming the fabric happened in the blink of an eye.
After a few stitches were finished, she threw the completed clothes to Sal.
In Sal’s eyes, it appeared as a Common grade item, but the durability had definitely increased thanks to Upgrade’s skill.
The moment he pulled the shirt over his head to wear it, Upgrade was already walking out towards the door.
“Now, follow me. Don’t forget the coffee.”
Sal was surprised touching the new shirt that fit his body perfectly.
There was no trace anywhere that it used to be a blanket.
It wouldn’t look strange to other people either.
‘Can I dye it grey?’
Sal thought for a moment but soon shook it out of his head, grabbed the Rare grade shirt and coffee cup, and followed Upgrade.
As soon as they stepped out the door, he saw the relieved faces of his peers looking up from their workbenches.
Only Francis still had a worried expression.
Upgrade looked at him and shook her head.
“No, Francis. Not today. Ask about runes later. He needs to see the Core Storage first right now.”
Francis slumped his shoulders as if dejected, and Upgrade took Sal to one of the closed spaces inside the workshop.
When Upgrade placed her hand on one of the sensors, a huge automatic door opened.
Cold air hit Sal, and he was genuinely grateful for the newly acquired shirt.
“We maintain a low temperature to prevent Essence from leaking from Cores. This is our Core Storage. Renting costs Q-Credits, and we don’t do outright sales. Usually, whatever a crafter makes, the Core itself is often more valuable. This is yours.”
Upgrade stepped aside and pointed to the Core Sal had restored a few days ago.
“It’s Epic grade, and absorbed Essence from the air for a day at the top of the tower. Once charged, it will be able to hold quite a lot of Essence… Maybe as much as the Cores used during your skill registration?”
Upgrade laughed and gestured to other Cores on the opposite side of the room.
Unlike typical Cores displayed in a circle on small stands carved from metal, the skill registration Cores were fixed in steel frames and wrapped in complex wiring.
“This is set up like this to make it easy to plug into machines. They say repairing the Core you burned out might take a bit longer. The Principal said to leave it be until you qualify to repair it yourself.”
Upgrade said with a laugh, but Sal was confused whether she was serious or joking.
He was at a level where he couldn't even touch machinery yet.
Since he wasn't even properly handling fabric and engraving tools.
Sal sighed inwardly and drank another sip of coffee.
Along with the warmth, he felt his head clearing.
He looked at Upgrade and cautiously brought up a topic.
“If you had my ability… what would you use it for?”
He worried he might be comparing abilities, but Upgrade showed no sign of offense at all.
“If I had that ability?”
Upgrade was lost in thought for a moment, then answered.
“If Mythos Crafting was possible… hmm. If I were a 1st year, I would have made weapons. Unconditionally.”
She continued with a laugh.
“Honestly speaking, throughout my time at the academy, I only thought about making things to make my life comfortable. But now I want to make things helpful to other people. What I’ve upgraded so far are Essence Collectors, barrier devices, train turrets… I’ve tried upgrading everything you might know!”
Upgrade said with a bright smile.
Sal felt like it was the first time seeing her make such an expression.
“Can you imagine what a Mythos-grade train turret would look like? How much efficiency would increase if you upgraded an Essence Collector? Maybe you could even make an unbreakable barrier?”
She shook her head and laughed.
“Sounds cool, but considering the materials or time required… realistically it’s absolutely unmanageable. Especially if it’s a kid like you who can make weapons every guild would drool over.”
Sal’s head was filled with possibilities he had never thought of until now.
He had only pondered how to use this ability advantageously for himself, but this power held the potential to save countless lives beyond himself.
But as he thought, he felt blocked.
Sal placed his hand on the Core in front of him.
Even to the eye, it was full of Essence.
The Core that was useless just a few days ago had now become an important resource.
He realized the fact that although he restored the Core merely to show off his skill, he was actually missing the core point.
The silver shirt he held in his hand suddenly felt trivial, and he thought he had been using his ability in a completely wrong direction.
Turning to Upgrade, Sal handed over the shirt.
“I’ll sell this and try to make something more useful with Q-Credits like Upgrade said.”
Upgrade raised her eyebrows slightly as she accepted the shirt.
“Such a noble spirit at that age? Excellent thought. But one shirt won’t change the world… are you prepared for that much?”
She smiled, but her gaze seemed to challenge Sal.
Sal had nothing more to think about. This was what he truly wanted to do.
“Please teach me.”
Upgrade laughed and left the Core Storage, signaling Sal to follow with a hand gesture.
After locking the door, she headed to another room at the end of the hallway.
She looked back, picked up the coffee cup from Sal’s hand, and placed it on a bench next to them.
“No liquids allowed inside here.”
Upgrade explained just that much, opened the door, and entered.
Inside was cold like before, but the interior was a completely different world.
Blueprints filled the walls, and Sal’s eyes reacted as if singing with joy as soon as he saw them.
He didn't know where to look first, where to place his gaze.
Then eventually his eyes stopped on Upgrade's smiling face.
She spread her arms and pointed to the blueprint displays on all sides.
“This is our Design Lab. Here, you’ll learn how to draw proposals or blueprints directly with your own hands. All the noteworthy inventions of the past decades have blueprints here!”
Upgrade was excited like a person who had completely entered her own world.
She walked straight to a specific shelf and felt each cylindrical storage container with her fingertips.
Seeming to find what she wanted, she pulled one out and opened the lid.
Sal watched as she carefully unrolled the blueprint and spread it on the desk.
Upgrade pointed to various parts of the blueprint and explained with an excited voice, but Sal couldn't hear any sound.
His eyes sparkled. Until now, his ability had always struggled to create answers with minimal information.
But right now, Sal was happy enough to stop breathing.
There were thousands of minute errors on the blueprint, and he instinctively knew how to correct them.
Sal barely tore his gaze away and looked at Upgrade.
She was smiling brightly as if enjoying Sal’s reaction.
“First, the very first thing to learn is how to make a blueprint! High-quality blueprints can be resold to the school, or you can receive commissions to create them. But this one…”
Upgrade pointed to the blueprint that had captured Sal’s gaze.
“…is a blueprint I made a few years ago. If I were you, this would have been the first thing I’d want to make. The material cost is absurd, and 90% had to be outsourced to other experts… but if successful? How many people could be saved? I come back every few months to look at it again. Wondering if I can improve it, if I can change it to be even a little realistic.”
Sal’s eyes turned to the blueprint again, and his heart started beating fast.
His whole body was itching to modify and refine this blueprint, but he didn't touch it.
He knew well that it was foolish to believe his ability would automatically solve every problem.
Just looking at the single shirt that made him faint, the lesson that his ability wasn't perfect was sufficient.
Sal deactivated his eye's power and looked at the blueprint as it was.
Then he looked at Upgrade and smiled.
Now was the time to learn step by step, one by one.
“Can I make such a cool blueprint too?”
Upgrade laughed, walked around the table, and stood next to Sal.
She took out a tube of grid paper from under the desk and spread it over the existing blueprint, and Sal carefully flattened the paper over her drawing.
Upgrade handed him a pencil and said.
“It’s an old-school method, but best for practice.”
Before Sal could say anything, Upgrade pressed a button attached to the side of the desk.
Immediately, the desk surface glowed brightly, revealing the original blueprint more clearly.
A few seconds later, when a clear notification sound filled the space, Upgrade carefully pulled out the original blueprint that lay under the new paper and rolled it away toward the wall.
Yet the lines of the drawing still floated on the desk.
Sal opened his eyes wide.
He lifted the new paper and realized the drawing was being projected from the desk surface.
Upgrade pointed at the table, suppressing a laugh.
“Hmm… maybe not exactly a very old-school method. Still, with this method, you can test your ideas without ruining my blueprint.”
Sal chuckled and reactivated his eye’s ability.
Then the problems he saw in the original blueprint began to appear as they were.
But Upgrade didn’t just leave Sal alone.
She pulled a chair over and sat next to him.
“Theory is important, but doing it directly with your hands improves you faster. Let’s do it together. I’ll help you. But the first step of a blueprint is always the title.”
She tapped the top of the paper, and Sal leaned forward and wrote the title in his own handwriting. And below that, he wrote his name.
Self-Charging Combat Drone - Salvatore Argento