Spiritual Ascension Online (SAO AU - SI Quartet) - Chapter 6

Launch Day Part 6

The small bit of bonding served as enough of a time waster that Marie didn’t even notice when she was in front of the workshop providing Engineering tutorial. The entrance to it was strewn with half assembled machinery, partially stripped engines and a fair few oil stains and torch marks.

The tutorial NPC was partially hidden underneath a slightly elevated truck, humming to himself as he went through the motions. Eventually, he wheeled himself out from underneath the vehicle and sat up, noticing Marie and Angboda. Sliding the goggles up his forehead, the man blinked a couple of times at the sight. "Huh. You need something done, lass, or are you just showing off your girlfriend to e'rryone 'round?"

The NPCs were really responsive. Probably Cardinal at work to make sure new players got hooked, so the question was how much it would fall off once she was out of the player onboarding island. For now, though, time to wing it again! "Looking for a refresher course on magitech. Want to slap a capacitor and some assorted bits for the axe to link up with a Rune of Lightning I'm going to put on it later, but it's been a hot minute since I welded or soldered anything."

"Ah, I do offer some instruction, true." The mechanic nodded amicably. "And for an aspiring runesmith too? Not the first time, even if your folk tend to shy away from mixing the disciplines too hard." The man commented idly, rolling his shoulders. "Sounds obvious, but most of our work uses [Machine Parts]. Most of the time we just buy them, the market average is good enough for anything that isn't commission work, but we can make them ourselves. You could ask a smith too, if you want higher quality parts, but unless you are working on something really high end, there's no point." The man explained as he scratched his stubble absent-mindedly.

Arriving at one of the tables, he started rifling through a stack of papers. "Hmmm, electrical modification for a weapon... that should use one of the sturdier models of the generators. Weapon modifications using [Machine Parts] are tricky, y'know? Need to be durable and efficient without ruining the balance or functionality. I swear I have just what you need somewhere 'round." The man grumbled as he kept rummaging.

"Oh, yeah, [Schematics] are important too. No way to really memorise every last bit and bop of every design of every machine and engine you're gonna make unless you do nothing but them, so we just keep an inventory of these for quick reference. Ah ha!" He declared vigorously as he pulled a sheet of paper out and held it above his head like there should be a chest opening fanfare playing. "Here, take a look, this should be what you need. I'll even let you use my tools and spare parts to make the first version. Just follow the instructions and you should make something acceptable." He added generously as he stepped back.

[Crafting - Material Quality: All crafting professions in SAO possess the ability to produce their necessary materials, the quality of which is determined by the Skill's rank. Higher quality materials will require, besides an appropriate Skill rank, a greater amount of ingredients. Each recipe a craftsman uses will have listed the minimum material requirements which need to be met to create a fully working end product. However, using higher quality components than the recipe calls for will result in comparatively better numerical outcome. Conversely, it is possible to substitute higher quality materials for a certain number of lower quality ones at the cost of introducing a Flaw into the end product.]

[During the tutorial, you will be provided with the minimum amount of the materials of appropriate quality to create your first items.]

[Once the tutorial finishes, you will need to explore or purchase new recipes and schematics to learn how to craft new items.]

"Got it!" She chirped, taking a quick chug of her healthcola even as she took the [Schematic]. It may not be the brightest idea to let a Gluttony imp much on her until there was a familiar bond, but this was a game. More importantly, Gluttony was reckless consumption that you suffered for in the long term. So she figured by playing on that and muttering things like 'mine' while petting the imp's head on top of saying the imp's new name at every chance it'd make something happen eventually. The Beta Testers had said good things about Cardinal as a Game Master. Channelling Greed to dominate Gluttony may just work.

Speaking of games, the crafting system was looking incredible. Marie could actually read and understand the [Schematic], the headset massaging her brain into parsing it just the same as it had slipped a whole-ass language with Daemonology. More than that, she could make it happen, every tool and technique feeling more like she was knocking rust off than doing something for the first time. There were some game abstractions, first with how everything was done to a silent beat and things clicked together far more neatly than they should, that hidden rhythm minigame the Beta Testers said was hidden in all crafting. Secondly in how [Machine Parts] were metal boxes that dispensed whatever bits she needed to build something, for all it felt no different from rooting around in a big bucket for the right lego piece. Both were blended in well enough that she barely even noticed them, so she just focused on the building itself.

Some conductive inlays on the blades to deliver the charge, a capacitor in the shaft to feed them, then a syphon worked right into it to turn ambient mana into stored electricity. All done and ready to get a Rune of Lightning hooked onto it to make the whole thing really shine. 

[Obtained: Ambient Electrical Generator Schematic]

[A simple and crude generator that produces electricity by syphoning mana to power itself. The design is noted for ease of both manufacture and modification, making it an excellent starting piece of an Engineer's career.]

[Minimum Requirements: 4x F-Grade Machine Parts]

[Dwarven Battleaxe: 10 physical damage, 10% chance for Bleed] -> [Capacitor Dwarven Battleaxe: 10 physical damage, 1-4 Lightning Damage, 10% chance for Bleed]

Woohoo, that was almost half the weapon's base damage when the capacitor was at full charge. Sadly no chance of stun or paralysis or whatever lightning did here, unless that was automatic for lightning damage, but hey. She'd withhold judgement until the Rune of Lightning was added.

The tutorial NPC inspected Marie's end result, humming and hewing before nodding. "Acceptable first try." He declared patting her on the shoulder. "This one is better suited to modifying weapons and simple items than actually powering machinery or using in armour... well, in an efficient manner for the former, at least. I could throw something simple for that armour of yours, if you'd like, unless you have an idea?"

"Yeah! I'd love that, I'm shooting for full on power armour eventually, so every bit counts in getting me ready to build that. I also have some ideas for mechanising my weapon, turn it into a grinder saw to crush and tear monsters into hamburger meat, but I know that is going to need to be built from scratch. I did have an idea about making it able to split into a mace and a shield by disconnecting the shaft, which could maybe be a viable mod for my axe right now but probably too tricky to pull off at this point." Rockefeller rambled on excitedly, gesticulating with gusto for all she was careful not to hit anything

The engineer nodded as he listened. "I have a fair few pneumatic exoskeleton schematics that can enhance traditional armour and would provide the direction you are looking for. Enhanced mobility and strength, so you could slap'em on some more impractical heavy armour to offset those penalties.” 

Marie chuckled, pushing past how the NPC hadn’t given any advice on the weapon without a second thought. "I'm definitely looking to be a big armoured behemoth with a hell of a lot of horsepower, so gimme something tuned for that. Don't care about having to add extra plating to my current set to really make it shine, hopefully I can just rivet that in right here and now. After that maybe I should add some sort of grappling hook, just more about moving others than me, yanno? Yank friends out of danger, pull enemies right into my axe, that sort of stuff."

"One heavy infantry design, coming right up." The engineer grunted before grinning at Marie and moving over to another stack of blueprints. "Grappling hook is a popular mod, heard of a guy who put it on his gun and made it work as a mobility assist. Where are- AHA!" The man crowed in triumph before presenting Marie with two more schematic sheets.

[Obtained: Rudimentary Grappling Hook Launcher Schematic]

[A simple mechanism launching a hooked harpoon on a chain towards a target. Beloved by both those who wish to return to monkey and Deadly Battle stans.]

[Minimum Requirements: 2x F-Grade Machine Parts]

Interestingly enough, the schematic she got had instructions for multiple different ways to construct the launcher depending on which bit of gear she would intend to attach it to.

[Obtained: Basic Pneumatic Assistance Exoskeleton Schematic]

[A suit designed to increase the wearer's strength and agility by utilising a combined system of pneumatics and hydraulics with the barest of needs for power supply once activated. Most commonly used to allow one to add extra armour beyond what they could feasibly use.]

[Minimum Requirements: 6x F-Grade Machine Parts, 1x E-Grade Machine Parts]

"Unfortunately, the basic designs can't have armour stapled directly onto them." The man shook his head sadly. "Still, it's some extra strength to you so you can put extra metal onto you."

"Fair 'nuff. More horsepower is more horsepower." Rockefeller said with a bob of her head, for all it was a bit of a lie in the land of game logic. "...Also, I may get yelled at by my elders if I just rivet on some plain slabs of metal on this armour."

Her piece said, she drained the last of her can of coke to top up since Angboda had not at all stopped sipping on her veins on and off, then got to work.

Power tools were fun and so was mounting a whole-ass harpoon on her right forearm.

[Obtained: Rudimentary Grappling Hook Launcher]

[Category: Accessory (modification]

[Deals 1 Physical Damage. Range: 10m. Difficult to remove. As long as it remains lodged inside/wrapped around the target, the wielder may attempt to move either themselves or the target closer to each other's original position.]

[Obtained: Basic Pneumatic Assistance Exoskeleton]

[Category: Accessory (modification)]

[Allows the user to wield heavier weapons and armour without meeting minimum STR requirements without penalty. If used while the minimum STR requirements are met, provides +2 AGI bonus instead.]

[Mechanical Accessories: Many modifications created through Engineering skill are considered gadgets and as such occupy your Accessory slot to provide their benefits. Any Accessory with (modification) suffix can be permanently attached to your gear, freeing the Accessory slot they occupy at the cost of limiting the amount of future modifications which can be done to the piece of gear in question. without dismantling said piece of gear entirely.]

Marie's impromptu teacher inspected her new belongings for a moment before nodding in satisfaction. "That would do it. Solidly made, which is to be expected when working with proper tools and parts. Speaking of which–" The man paused to haul a decently sized toolbox with ease and put it on the bench in front of Marie. "ere, this one is for you. Not gonna send a journeywoman out without her tools, eh?"

[Obtained: Engineering toolbox]

[Quite literally the essential tools of the trade]