From what the System just said, I won’t be surprised if there is a future mission telling me to be a Battlesuit designer known to the whole world, or one that say I need to be acknowledged as one of the best Battlesuit designers of my generation. Both sounds like great missions that promises great rewards; there is only one problem.

Both missions are absolute total nonsense! I have as much pride as the next guy but I know my skills. More importantly, I know how much talent I have. I am currently a passable Battlesuit designer and with the help of the System, I can see myself being a good or even great designer in the future.

One of the best in my generation? A designer known throughout the world? Right! That’s going to happen. If not for the fact that the System is an AI, I would have given it a piece of my mind. However scolding an AI is just stupid. It can’t change it’s programming even if it wanted to. Sighing slightly to myself, I decided to drop the matter. The missions had already been set into the System and even though I doubt I would ever complete the two missions, there’s not much I can do about them. I can only focus on what things I can do. I turn on Dive and began searching for Grade 1 Battlesuits.

My current mission from the System require me to design a Grade 1 Battlesuit and it would probably tell me to build it after finishing the design. Usually I would pick a Battlesuit on Dive that caught my eye but it is different this time. I need something impressive for the festival. Knowing the System, how well I do in the competition will affect my rewards so I need something that will wow the judges. After an hour on Dive, I realized I had hit a dead end.

A few of the Grade 1 Battlesuits did catch my eye but none of them truly satisfied me. It is one thing to design and build something for the general market but I needed something more than that for the competition. I know myself well enough to know that I want to impress everyone at the festival. Maybe it was the hint from the System that I need to be acknowledged as one of the best designers of my generation but I really want something impressive that will make me stand out.

That is an issue because all the Clockwork and Steam Battlesuits on Dive are old. Everyone had seen the classics before and the non-classics just aren’t as impressive. More importantly I realized that any variant I put out will be just that; a variant. Between an original and a variant, most of the credit always goes to the designer of the original. That’s the way it is and I personally agree with the notion. This is a huge problem with only one solution.

I need to design an original Battlesuit.

Having an original will definitely make me stand out. The SCR Festival is for Steam, Clockwork and Rocket Power technology and very few people design original Battlesuits with these technologies anymore. Any new stuff coming on the market would be variants like what I had been doing. There are several reasons for this but the main thing is that designing an original Battlesuit is easier said than done.

Designing a variant is way easier than designing an original because the base of the variant is always viable. Even a poorly received design like The Golden Boxer is a viable Battlesuit that had undergone months, sometimes even years, of testing before being put onto the market. Designing an original means I have to test everything from making sure the operator won’t tip over while walking due to incorrect balance of the suit, to making sure the engine won’t explode due to an improper design, to making sure the Battlesuit won’t break apart at the first tap of a laser blast.

Basically a thousand and one things can go wrong with an original design and I need to make sure all of them are accounted for. Am I ready for such a big task? Am I ready to take this next step in my career? Most probably not but if I fail, it will be in a blaze of glory.

“Go big or go home.” I never liked that saying but it suits my current thinking perfectly. “I’m getting cocky with all the success.”

I laughed at my own joke and swipe away the search function of Dive. I thought about the new original Battlesuit I am going to create and…came up blank. I realized I have no idea what I want to do! I quickly decided that I am going to use Clockwork Technology instead of Steam but outside that I got nothing.

Am I doing to build an enclosed Battlesuit like the Steambot or a smaller exoskeleton Battlesuit like the Maid of Orléans? What is be the aim of my suit? Will it focused on protection or offense? Maybe a mix of the two like the Trackbot-P. What is my vision? I quickly realized that I have none. I have no vision of what I want my Battlesuit to do!

That’s a big problem but it is solvable. I just need to back to the basics. I thought of all the variants I had designed so far and my biggest success is the Trackbot-P. It is a Steam-powered enclosed Battlesuit that’s tough but able to move quickly due to it’s tracks and jumping ability. That’s as good a place to start as any.

A hybrid Battlesuit that can both take a punch and have an ability for quick movement. That’s not an easy design but I have done it before. Can I do it again? Most probably but maybe not to the extent of the Trackbot-P. The Trackbot-P uses both Steam and Clockwork Technology with a third form of technology, Transforming Technology, to make them work together. It’s probably too much for me to design an original Battlesuit like that so something simpler…

The door alarm of the workshop rang and I saw from the camera that Howard and Nor Avante had just walked into the workshop. I turn off Dive and put the idea of making an original Battlesuit to the backburner. My first class on magic is about to start.