They'd hung an enormous electronic clock behind the stage, counting down from 3 hours. He didn't spend more than a few seconds getting himself prepared for what he needed to do. The next few hours were going to be a grind.He took stock of the materials given. Thin iron plates will form the chassis. A hollow bronze brick provides the channels. Wood and plastic are for the contestants to use as they see fit.Ether batteries were simple. A trained hand could assemble one in 10 minutes flat — given they had all the parts made and ready in front of them. Batteries could come in many shapes and sizes, but Hunter wasn't planning on being fancy. A simple brick-shaped construct would do the trick. He'd lose some style points, but hoped improved battery function and a clean network schematic would impress the judge enough to advance him.A basic battery performed the function of keeping the etherium flowing in a loop until it found a ground. With a battery, the ground was always an activated drawstone. For Hunter, only a split-second activation of the drawstone was required while the battery remains attached and activated. It was why a human element was necessary to use a construct. Etherium would only flow into, or through, a drawstone that a human was touching. Researchers long ago found that the ether continued to flow through a construct from the battery even after they released the activating drawstone.Once ether flowed, it wouldn't stop until it ran out or someone cut off its source. That was why there were different affinity ratings for different constructs. If your affinity was too low, you would have too much etherium drawn from you at once. No one had proven it, but many assumed the body had channels for ether to flow though, directly affecting the body.A body that wasn't acclimated to ether, and unable to bear a sudden increase in the amount of etherium flowing through it, could be strained to unhealthy degrees. Overuse of ether often caused profound exhaustion, as if the body had been under immense pressure, sapping all strength.Hunter was always careful when he was working longer hours. Too much etherium exposure would render him unconscious, unable to move very much for a few days. It took time to train the body enough to support more etherium. This was how AR would rise — the more you channel etherium through the body, the more etherium the body can handle.But Hunter was a rare specimen. To ask Hunter to design and create a construct with an affinity requirement of 15 might seem unfair—but Hunter knew how to overcome his limitations. He'd been doing it for years.He knew beyond any doubt that he could meet the minimum specifications of this round. His planned modifications to the battery's basic design included multiple output options to not only measure, but change the AR equivalence. He hoped that would be enough to define him as a solid contender for the rest of the competition, so long as the final two rounds provided reasonable challenges.Hunter knew it would get Trey Oberon's attention. But would it impress him?If he wanted to impress him, he would need to go the extra mile, but he had a way of doing that without introducing synergies.The extraneous design elements force him to create a smaller, more efficient battery. A swirling design of etched channels and Link glyphs took most of the internal space of a battery up. These batteries' basic design remained unchanged for decades; only the number of etched channels improved. Machines were now designed to create very fine channels, etched close together. The elusive nature of etherium meant that a precise means of measuring etheric volume had yet to be discovered. A drawstone, though, could contain far more etherium than many ground drawstone threads, even though the underlying principle remained consistent. Despite appearances, even simple batteries could hold a significant etheric charge.The biggest challenge was outputting the stored etherium. In order to stop it all from releasing at once, artisans had to design a way to restrict the flow of etherium. Someone had discovered that another partial glyph, like the Link glyph his father had discovered and popularized, appeared to slow the flow of ether. It was called Channel Resistance, which was usually shortened to Res. The more Res glyphs you networked into your construct, the slower the etherium would flow, but only until it met another glyph.There was also a hard limit on the amount of Res glyphs that you could use, and the way the glyph performed was unreliable. It would work with some constructs, but not others. No one understood the mechanism well. Hunter, however, had his own idea about it, one that his synergy theory seemed to explain.People hypothesized about synergies, or so Hunter thought. However, lacking his sensitivity to etherium, they worked blindly, unable to confirm or deny their theories.Sometimes he wondered why he, of all people, felt what he felt. But he'd yet to find any proof to back up the idea that he'd inherited a mutation. The only person he'd be able to ask was his dad, so he was out of luck. He also wondered if whatever was behind his sensitivity was behind his affinity handicap.There was no way of finding out, at least not yet. One day he'd understand it, and maybe even fix his handicap.As Hunter thought, his hands had been busy. He didn't know how long the judges would test the battery, so decided to err on the side of safety and plan for indefinite use. That meant it would need to hold a charge for as long as possible. Which meant more channels.This would be the most tedious part of the build.He sketched a plan using a secret technique. Instead of spirals connecting to glyphs, he used a crosshatch pattern on the copper brick. He'd made one out of wood before, but it was a much simpler project. Channels carved in wood could become uneven because of the woods' grain, and this project demanded nothing short of perfection.The material wasn't as important as the channels. Having a copper brick was both a challenge and a boon. The difficulty of correcting mistakes and the longer etching time were drawbacks, but the benefits included a more robust, durable product and the recyclability of the material.He connected his crosshatched channels to a few Link glyphs, preparing material to hold the Res glyphs for later installation.He planned to attach the Res glyphs to a series of pull-release latches. He had a quick, familiar design in mind, but it wasn't very durable. Hopefully, they wouldn't fiddle with the switches excessively; otherwise, his extra effort would be wasted if some glyphs misaligned.Aligning the crosshatch output with the final link glyph was the most time-consuming step. He had to check numerous intersections to ensure proper etherium conduction. The crosshatch would allow for the etherium to flow a lot more freely, and it would distribute itself much more efficiently than it would in a normal battery. Etherium was kind of like water, in that way. It would fill whatever container it was poured into.Using this crosshatch would bypass the need for extraneous materials. Most people thought that more spiral channels you made, the longer the etheric charge would last — but Hunter discovered you didn't need to cycle the etherium at all. At least, not directly. It would create its own cycle if you gave it an environment with enough free movement. The few link glyphs he'd placed strategically would act like whirlpools, which would pull etherium in and then spit it back out without altering its charge.He had to add at least four glyphs to ensure that all the etherium stored in the crosshatch channels would move. Etherium that wasn't in motion through a channel would dissipate. No one knew why, and Hunter didn't know either. Whether it was a natural property of etherium, or a consequence of using drawstones as a medium of conducting etherium, was unknown.A few quick tests assured him that his design worked. The crosshatch channels and the glyphs didn't take too long to carve. He cut thin rods from the wood. These would act as guides, attached to the longest sides of his 10x5 inch chassis. So that it would be easier to line up the copper brick and the etched channels with the Res glyphs he was etching into the latches. The switches he would soon install on the side of the chassis would allow the battery's user to toggle through the different output settings.Hunter paused and slapped himself on the side of the head. He can't believe he'd been so shortsighted.Why go through the trouble of setting up a series of binary switches when a sliding switch could do the job more easily? Thankfully, he wasn't too far into the design. He could use the latches he'd just created, but now he would just have to line them along the inner wall of the chassis. He had already installed material guides in the chassis. He could carve along these to channel the etherium to the Res Glyphs and then to the output nodes.He took off one wall of the batteries' case, made the changes he imagined, and lined up the latches. A series of plastic strips of various lengths dragged the latches into place as the slider moved; he had attached the latches to these strips. Using a latch-like design made it a bit more difficult for the pieces to move once they were in place, which made the construct feel much more professional. It would take a small bit of effort to move the slider back, but it wouldn't damage the latches too much. As long as they weren't constantly spamming the slider side to side, it should stand up to whatever they throw at it during the assessment period.He assembled the latches vertically. Once one was in place, the slider would pull the next latch into place. This way, the user would always be in precise control of the batterie's internal resistance.He looked up at the clock. One hour remaining.The battery was done, the sliding switch was done, all he had to do now was test his work. He thanked himself once again for bringing the third arm and changed out the battery that he'd been using. He attached the new battery at various points along the network, then he tested the latches.It worked. He machined and installed the battery's input and output sockets along the case, then tested the battery one more time from both ends. It still worked.He glanced back at the clock. 10 more minutes.He assembled it all together as carefully as he could. His hands were shaking, and he felt like he could sleep for a few good hours. Constantly activating the batteries drained him, but at this point it was nothing he wasn't used to.He dreaded what the next day would bring. There would be two rounds tomorrow, and he hoped he had enough stamina to get through them both.He was proud of his final product. If he had more time and AR, he'd have loved to use a cylinder — the shape that Oberon typically used for its last few generations of ether batteries. But designing around a cylinder would have been incredibly tedious and time consuming. The crosshatch would have worked, but carving it on a rounded surface differed from a flat surface like the small copper brick. It would have been a lot more difficult to design a switch for it as well. Not impossible, but he would want a lot more time to plan and create that sort of thing.It would have looked better, though. Apparently, that's worth points. As the clock counted down the final few minutes, he saw that most of the other teams were done. The team nearest him, the one that had tried to get him disqualified, had created a sphere.Which seemed silly, but he would not judge. They had people here who would do that for him.Hunter was proud of his work. It was a simple, if challenging round. He only hoped that it would be enough to impress the judges.He studied the attitudes of the surrounding teams. Most seemed happy with how things turned out. Despite having more manpower than him, they'd all taken about the same time that he had.He was surprised by the crowd's unchanging size. They were probably family and friends, following these teams to Oberon's domain from all around the world.The clock struck zero, and a buzzer sounded."Contestants, your time is up. An attendant will soon arrive to collect your battery. If there is anything that you want the judges to know about your submission, you can tell the attendant and they'll write it down. We will announce the results at 4 p.m., and will also post them near the stadium entrance if you miss the in-person announcement. For those of you not selected to advance, Oberon Enterprises thanks you for participating in this year's Global Youth Artisan Competition! All disqualified participants may remain for the rest of the competition to cheer on all the remaining teams. I congratulate those selected for round two and look forward to seeing you here tomorrow!"The battery he'd made suddenly seemed so small, for all the weight of his destiny he was placing upon it.As the attendants filtered through the stadium, Hunter took the chance to peak at more of his opponents' batteries. Some seemed similar to his, encased in either a cubic or rectangular chassis. Others appeared utterly open and exposed — a bold choice, but Hunter would bet that it was incompetence, rather than confidence. However, the professional etiquette training of all attendants was apparently evident; none showed disapproval.Other teams showed no such restraint. The derision Hunter was enjoying earlier was now directed elsewhere, in all directions.An attendant showed up to take Hunter's entry, and he briefed her on his design choices. She nodded, exposing not a shred of an opinion about his entry. A couple of teams noticed his battery and pointed at it, discussing amongst themselves. Hunter didn't think too much of it. They were doing it with every entry that passed by.Hunter was confident that there would be very few teams who had a similar product to his, functionally speaking. The crosshatch was his own invention, a blend of his father's past experiments and his own years of research.The spiral channels in a typical battery created a situation where the ether could only flow in one direction once it met the Res glyph. The sudden bottleneck would always lead to some dissipation. A crosshatch allowed the ether to find new avenues to flow through when it encountered the Res glyphs. Less dissipation, more efficient design, better product.His stomach growled. On his way back to the hotel, he would need to buy some food. From his initial 95 credits, he still had about 80 left.He left the stadium with the other teams. As he exited the stadium lobby and breathed in the fresh capital air, a young man he recognized from the competition stopped him."Hunter, right?"Hunter considered ignoring them. His body screamed for rest; sleep was the only thing he craved. He needed a coffee, or a nap. But the young man's posture didn't seem confrontational. Hunter crossed his fingers, hoping that this conversation wouldn't take long."That's right," Hunter said.The young man scratched the back of his head and grinned."Sorry about how other teams were treating you, but we come in peace, promise," he said. Hunter felt tense. He took a deep breath and relaxed."Yeah, sorry. It's been a long day already," Hunter said."Me and the guys were about to grab something to eat. You want to come join us?" the young man asked."Sure, I was gonna grab some coffee anyway," Hunter said after considering it for a second. He needed more information about the competition and thought that these people might help him with that. Besides, if these they ended up proving difficult to get along with, he could just leave."Great!" the young man said, holding out his hand for Hunter to shake. "I'm Jeremy.""Hunter. Koar," Hunter said, shaking the offered hand."Yeah, we heard," someone else, Hunter presumed, it was one of Jeremy's teammates said as three others gathered around."Nicole," one of them stepped forward to introduce herself. She was shorter than average and had glasses that looked like they could see into another galaxy.Jeremey gestured to the rest of the team."This is Stephan," he said, pointing to someone who was about as tall as Hunter. Stephan nodded with a smile, "and Rodney."Rodney had his arms crossed and looked at Hunter with skepticism. He offered a curt nod and looked away."Don't take it personally," Nicole said. "he's like that with everyone until he gets to know them.""You know the type, brilliant enough that they can't understand why normal people aren't able to keep up with them," Stephan said, earning a scowl from Rodney.Hunter frowned, but nodded.He didn't know the type, and wasn't sure that he and Rodney were going to get along."Alright," Hunter said, "are we getting coffee?"Nicole nodded enthusiastically.