The Mech Touch

The Mission Hall was ultimately a great addition to the System.

Before, Ves had no ability to accept Missions on his own accord. He had to wait for the System to serve him with one. As a result, years could go by before he could gain another Mission.

Now, if Ves wanted to earn Ascension Points and possibly other rewards, he merely had to enter this new hall and browse from a dozen available Missions.

Just like with the Divine Bazaar and the Tree of Possibilities, the Missions offered by the Mission Hall periodically refreshed if Ves had left them alone for too long.

This meant that Ves had to make sure to visit this place on a regular basis in order to keep his eye out on any easy or exceptionally lucrative Missions.

Ves had a feeling that the System was unlikely to give him an easy way to earn buckets of Ascension Points.

Each AP was precious. The purchasing power of an Ascension Point was much higher than a Design point, but they were also a lot harder to earn as a result.

While Ves appreciated the fact that he did not necessarily have to spend all of his time on designing mechs to earn Ascension Points, he did not like the way these Missions forced him to engage in weird and maybe dangerous activities!

"It's as if the System is pushing me onto a specific path!"

Clearly, the System took Spiritual Ascension a lot more seriously than Ves thought. Many of the Missions looked as if they solely existed to direct him into developing into different gods!

"This is all nonsense!"

Ves was Ves! He did not aspire to become a war god, a patience god, a flower god or a comedy god. He just wanted to become a Star Designer!

He felt increasingly more repulsed at what these Missions might lead him to. The last thing he wanted to do was to go astray and lose his passion for designing mechs.

He didn't even know why the System offered him all of these different ways of developing and growing different domains when he had already set his own path.

"Wait… what if I don't have to complete these Missions in person? What if… I can let my incarnations complete them in my stead?"

His eyes lit up! The Mission Hall made a lot more sense after he made this realization!

Certainly, there was no way that Ves would dedicate 4 scarce and valuable hours to sitting around doing nothing in the name of meditation, but so what?

Ves could just create a more peaceful and boring version of himself as an incarnation to work on the Patience is a Virtue Mission for 50 straight years!

Of course, he also reminded himself that he needed to be able to make the incarnations in order for him to adopt his approach.

If the cost or difficulty of making new incarnations was too great, then Ves would probably have to complete the Missions himself. The burden on himself would be much higher if that was the case.

"It's too bad that there aren't that many Missions in this Mission Hall?"

The large board only presented a dozen different Missions, which made it difficult for Ves to pick an optimal one that he could easily complete.

Nonetheless, Ves was relatively happy that he gained this possibility in the first place. He became a lot more confident in his ability to earn a lot more Ascension Points.

While it might not be possible for him to earn more than half-a-dozen Ascension Points per design round, he could earn 20 or 30 AP at a time by completing a single mission in the same time period!

Ves also noticed that the more difficult Missions rewarded him with more AP. This meant that if he became stronger and more capable in the future, it was not impossible for him to earn hundreds of AP per year.

"Well, it will take a long time before I can reach that point."

Overall, Ves was quite happy with the Mission Hall aside from the limited pool of missions available at any time.

The Mission Hall did not offer anything else to him aside from a chance to review his current Missions. He quickly checked out the list to confirm he still had to complete the ones that he accepted in the past.

"Four Supply Missions and one Upgrade Mission. Damn, I should really find an opportunity to design an amphibian mech."

He exited the Mission Hall a moment later and continued his journey to the top.

There weren't a lot of places left for him to visit. His next stop was a large but ancient-looking workshop structure.

[The Workshop of Creation is where you can design and make different mechs and items. You are only allowed to produce with objects and materials that are stored in the Vault of Eternity. Currently, the Workshop of Creation has granted you access to a set of second-class production equipment. You can upgrade this equipment by spending Ascension Points. You will need to pay 1 Ascension Point to make use of the Workshop of Creation for 24 standard hours.]

This was the System's replacement of the old Designer module that Ves had never really utilized.

Initially, Ves did not look impressed by what he learned. Though the workshop looked impressive and allowed him to produce a useful item even if he did not have access to a production site in reality, the cost of working in this place was far too high!

"1 Ascension Point just to use the Workshop of Creation for 24 hours is too much!"

It took months of design work to complete a decent mech design project! Why should Ves invest all of that hard work to spend a single day in this imaginary workshop?

He couldn't even work with all of the materials he had on hand!

Ves was only limited to working with the stuff he was able to store in the Vault of Eternity. Right now, that included his useless System comm, his outdated Amastendira and his newly-gained Black Demon Steel.

Perhaps he might want to experiment with integrating a chunk of Black Demon Steel into the Amstendira, but he might as well do that in reality where he could access his own workshop for free!

"It only makes sense to pay for the right to use the Workshop of Creation if I'm stuck in a prison cell or a primitive planet!"

He truly did not see why he should value the Workshop of Creation except if he ended up in an emergency.

Even then, he was heavily limited to what he could make since he could not import any materials from the material realm unless he Inventorized an entire object.

"Wait… how much time passes while I am working in the Workshop of Creation?"

The answer was nothing!

The System had already told him that time would no longer pass in reality while he was interacting with it in this fashion.

He would have to confirm this later after he exited the System Space and looked up the time logs, but he was pretty certain that this was truly the case!

"If time truly freezes for me in reality, then the Workshop of Creation is actually worth a lot more than I thought!"

His eyes lit up as he imagined the possibilities. He didn't realize it until now, but allowing him to spend a lot of time in this System Space without worrying about time passing by in reality was an amazing benefit!

Time had always been his scarcest resource!

Even as he grew wealthier and more powerful over time, he was still subject to the same time constraints as any other mech designer.

The opportunity to spend just 1 single Ascension Point to gain 24 hours of time was incredibly precious if he could spend it well!

One potential way to take advantage of the Workshop of Creation was to use it to buy additional design time when he was competing in a mech design contest!

Of course, Ves would never do something so dishonorable. He was a mech designer who loved and respected his profession. If he competed in a design contest under fair conditions, then it would be incredibly despicable for him to enjoy days worth of extra design time.

"In any case, there are many more ways I can make good use of the Workshop of Creation." Ves smirked. "This is especially the case when my ability to earn Ascension Points has skyrocketed."

Not even Master Mech Designers or Star Designers could buy more time for their work! Ves was different, and that granted him an incomparable advantage over the rest!

He spent a bit more time exploring the Workshop of Creation.

He found out that this was the place where he could manage his Superpublish option. He also discovered that he could call up nearly any second-class production equipment. Their conditions were perfect and flawless and would not get worn out through use. This meant that the production circumstances in this area were much more controllable than in reality!

"My chances of fabricating a masterwork mech should be a lot higher if this is the case!"

One of the most important determinants of reaching exceptional levels of quality was the ability to produce exquisite parts with as few flaws as possible.

Better production machines that were able to maintain consistent output allowed people like Ves to worry less about their equipment growing wobbly over time. This enabled him to focus more attention on what truly mattered, thereby allowing him to improve the quality of his output.

Overall, the Workshop of Creation definitely had its uses, but Ves could only make selective use of its facilities. There weren't many instances where he was able to justify the expense of paying 1 Ascension Point for 24 hours of access.

He could spend his AP on many other useful benefits from the System!

"This workshop is a playground for the rich!"

Once he finished exploring the Workshop of Creation, he left and resumed his journey once again.

At this point, he saw that the top was not far away. There was only one additional stop left before he reached his final destination.

He encountered another gate as he climbed up. This gate was different from the one that led into the Vault of Eternity because it was just resting on open terrain!

"What is this?"

[The Time Gate is the portal which you can enter in order to start a new Mastery session by temporarily occupying the mind of a mech pilot in the past. You may pay 20 Ascension Points in order to start a completely random Mastery session. You may pay 5 additional Ascension Points each time you wish to lock in a specific parameter such as time period, location and mech type. The Time Gate can only be used once per standard year.]

"Whoa."

On one hand, Ves was happy that the System added the Time Gate. Compared to before, he had much more control over the Mastery experiences he wanted to start.

One the other hand, the price to start a single session was much higher than before. A completely random Mastery session cost him 20 whopping Ascension Points, and the chances were great that he wouldn't gain anything useful because he ended up in the mind of a low-level mech pilot!

"Still, it's worth it if time is still frozen for me in reality."

The Time Gate reminded him of the first upgrade track that the System had presented to him. He had no doubt that the Time Gate would have been a lot more generous and elaborate if he chose to focus the System's improvements on this aspect!

Unfortunately, his choices were limited and he opted for a more controllable and fitting upgrade track for the System. Ves did not regret his decision at all even though he felt it was a shame that he was left with a more barebones version of the Time Gate.

"Oh well. It's not as if it is important for me to mess about with history. I already have plenty to do in the present."