THIS CHAPTER IS NEW AND WAS MISSED OUT WHEN THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER WAS RELEASED.
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Cael spent a long time reading up on ancient literature from the home planet of the humans. Earth.
Earth was still home to humanity and was now incredibly advanced. It was home to a powerful state, the Terran Free Republic.
In such ancient literature, was very wise words that helped Cael get through tough times. The works on stoicism and morality totally changed the way he thought, making him a more principled individual.
[User: Cael Breckenridge]
[Titles: Novice Merchant, Vault Rookie]
[Strength: 3]
[Speed: 5]
[Durability: 3]
[Intelligence: 15]
[Dexterity: 6]
[Creativity: 3]
[Focus: 10]
[MP: 6/6]
[Skills]
Now, with only a day to go, he had to take advantage of the two abilities that he now had. With Reward System and Extra Profit, he could make money from selling goods, and from getting wins in the Vault.
He was still in school, and so he decided to start his evening in the vault. He entered one of the vault rooms of the central skyscrapers to find it nearly filled to the brim with students. These were all students trying to hone their skills before the big day tomorrow.
It made sense, and Cael was here to do pretty much the same thing.
Upon entering the vault, he entered 1v1 matchmaking right away and was starting to see his improvements on his exosuit baring fruit.
His increased power complemented his technique so that when he landed attacks, he did more damage. He had to land more strikes to push his opponent to the very edge, and this allowed him to receive more wins.
He also possessed more speed and power from his upgraded statistics. He could feel it in his combinations that simply flowed more easily. He could whip in more powerful punches, while utilising cyberjutsu to keep himself unharmed.
After 6 matches, Cael had 4 total wins and received a total of 35 Gears from the system. On top of that, he had received enough power points to rank up to the top of the rookie rank, Rookie III.
After that would be the Novice rank, and he was sure that he'd have to make some more augmentations. People in the novice rank had to at least be somewhat competent, and usually were weak students of a C-Grade institute at the very lowest.
Trying to fight them as a no-skin would only put himself at a disadvantage.
For his first fight in Rookie III, he was stood against a warrior that was a little shorter than him. He had brown hair before he saw his helmet manifest from metal fragments across his face.
He was slim but still remained confident, and made his stance against Cael.
[WarriorMechanic7914 vs phoenixfury9091]
Upon watching this panel appear above their heads, his opponent jerked his head back and slightly lifted in his fighting stance.
"This can't be the same guy, can it?" Preston asked himself, looking at his no-skin exosuit.
A mechanic that was also an exosuit user. No, that couldn't be true, could it? It made sense to meddle in both worlds. If you had no mana, your only real chance at success came through learning to design and create the cutting-edge military technology of society.
As for one with mana, they could easily place all their eggs in one basket and focus on fighting utilising exosuits. They never had to worry about the sciences or the production of the technology that they either utilised or fought against.
"No, it has to be a coincidence." Preston whispered to himself, returning to his ordinary stance.
"I wonder what he's so surprised about." Cael thought, making his own tight guard.
"Begin!"
The match had begun, and the two fighters circled each other. They would both feint to try and feel out the other fighter, and to find the best time to throw an attack of their own.
They were both quite reserved in their style, but Cael was taller and so could throw ranged attacks while easily making sure to not get hit himself.
He threw a jab, and the smaller fighter managed to slap his hand right away. He then whipped a kick into Cael's gut before he could properly react.
Upon landing this kick, he leaped into the air then extravagantly flipped. With flair, he threw down his other leg to try and land a downwards kick but Cael made sure to retreat as fast as he could.
His flip was fast but too telegraphed. The distance was too great between them, and his leg just landed back on the ground intensely. His shoe caused the arena to shake a little, which made Cael alert and aware of this small fighter's power.
"Oh, he's definitely got a good exosuit." Cael realised, upon watching this happen.
He was hoping to have the physical edge, but he now knew that wouldn't be the case. He might've been stronger than phoenixfury9091, but that didn't mean much in a battle like this.
Preston confidently rushed in and threw a powerful punch right for Cael's face. His attack was too obvious, and even his speed couldn't help his poor telegraphing. Cael's head slipped right his face, and he then tried to throw a punch himself to try and hit the young boy.
His attack missed due to his speed but he then crouched down an alarming amount, remaining close to but still out of reach of his opponent.
"What the hell type of fighting style is this?" Preston wondered, watching him step around as if he was a crab.
Once he was out of range, he raised back up again, and the young boy cocked back his head upon watching such an odd technique.
He just shook his head then rushed right back into battle.
As he whipped a punch right at Cael, he dipped low once again, with his arms ready to handle any kicks that were to come his way.
Preston's kick would be too powerful for him to manage though, and the boy knew this from the weak exoskeleton that he possessed.
He simply threw numerous powerful kicks at Cael that forced him back. Many of the kicks reached past his hands and onto his head, and they were much more powerful than any regular punch.
The final kick made Cael wobble, and Preston dipped down to try and go for the takedown. However, Cael had practiced dipping down with speed.
Before he could go for his waist, both fighters were now crouched down and slammed into each other's shoulders.
The tactical striking match soon turned into a wrestling match, where each fighter was trying to overpower the other.
In a fight of this style, Cael could perform. This form of wrestling didn't need much speed but just weight and pure power.
These were two attributes that he had over this fighter, and he was lucky that he was naive enough to play this game.
He soon started to overpower this fighter and was close to getting the takedown that he desired. Before he could, though, Preston started throwing in punches to his gut and kicks to the stomach whenever he could.
Now, with these powerful strikes, he was starting to wear Cael down. Both fighters were getting tired, but Cael's body was also starting to get beat down. With the quick punches that Cael was also receiving to his face, he was losing the strong balance that he needed in his legs.
"Damn it, what can I do?" Cael thought to himself.
He didn't want to add another loss to his tally, but he was really running out of options. This was the only style of fighting where he could have an advantage over this man. If he pulled back, he'd soon be defeated by his superior speed and strength.
"That skill!" Cael then shouted in his mind.
He soon remembered about the skill that he had gotten, power surge. He could drastically increase the power output of his suit, and increase his strength as a result.
Maybe, just maybe if he was to use the skill, he could have a fighting chance.
This is what he did, and he thought of activating the skill in his mind. As he did this, his exosuit started to vibrate more loudly, and glowed more brightly as well. Preston looked down at this happening and couldn't really understand how or why his exosuit was doing what it was.
Most things that did this were special weapons that exosuits had access to. However, they were in a 1v1 match, where those types of items were prohibited.
A single punch right to the teen's face rocked him completely. He stumbled away, then Cael zoomed forward with his newfound speed.
As he advanced, Preston predicted and just threw out a punch to make sure that he had to change direction. It was a smart move, as it would give him just a fraction of a second more time to properly handle the next attack coming his way.
Even with such calculations, there was little that he could do. Cael had only seconds and he wasn't willing to waste any time here.