CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

Jason woke up relatively early the next day at 6:30 AM.

During his time as a One Star Boss, he'd naturally started sleeping late and waking late.

His shift ended at midnight but started at noon the next day.

It seemed like most of the other One Star Bosses preferred the later schedule - they liked going out or hanging out with their friends late at night.

However, Jason felt a little more comfortable with earlier waking hours.

It seemed uncommon among most other gaming enthusiasts, but Jason really liked natural light. He only turned the lights on in his room if he absolutely had to.

Now that he was on his own, he was excited to shift towards his own schedule.

He got changed, ran downstairs, and quickly made a cup of instant coffee.

There were plenty of people who cherished their morning coffee, but Jason wasn't one of them.

He simply treated the coffee as a quick dose of caffeine - he liked it as quickly as possible with tons of sugar.

After he finished the first cup, he promptly mixed a second cup.

Then he mixed a third.

Jason smirked to himself.

Plenty of people back at school or the Overdrive gaming complex had described his morning routine as barbaric.

Truth be told, Jason agreed with them.

Taken out of context, someone downing three cups of coffee in a minute looked totally insane.

However, it was what he was most comfortable with.

After he finished his drink, he got the aftertaste out of his mouth with a large glass of water and then grabbed his keys to go for a walk.

When he came back, his mind was feeling fresh and awake. He stretched, then changed back into his usual lounging clothes as he sat in his seat.

He promptly picked up where he left off last night - documenting the frames.

Overall, Jason had won twelve Bandits and eighteen watchdogs.

That was more machines than Jason expected.

The higher numbers were a reflection of how the Salvage rule worked.

If a Mech died, the Salvage rule automatically granted the frame to the machine that dealt the final bit of damage. If Jason had to guess, the forest fires created by the Titan's Macuahuitl and Valorous Ji had likely finished off several wounded frames.

The Bandit Mechs weren't particularly interesting to Jason.

The machines were reliable, but Jason wasn't interested in switching to a new frame. He was sticking with the Red Minerva.

On top of that, he had no interest in using a Grunt frame.

Jason respected Grunt pilots, who made the most with limited resources. They were truly skilled players.

However, Jason wanted to play powerful Mechs that used the full 50,000 Ace Credit Cap.

Grunt Mechs were used in four-on-four competitive play or Guild Wars, where Jason currently wasn't competing.

He'd keep one Bandit frame around to be safe, but he'd sell the rest for Credits.

The Bandits were a unique proprietary Grunt frame created by the Illusionists. The assassin guild was the only group with the build recipe. The only way to win the frame was to participate in the Tournament of Assassins.

The Bandit frame's performance was equivalent to standard top-tier frames like the Guardian or SPG series. It was sturdy and reliable, and it could fight at all ranges.

They were sure to fetch a good value on the open market.

On the other hand, Jason had big plans with the watchdog frames.

He was extremely excited that he'd gotten far more frames than he'd anticipated.

Had it not been for the urgency of the mission, Jason would have tried farming some more watchdogs for his future plans. Fortunately, he'd lucked out due to the enormous conflagrations he'd set up in the forest.

Due to their relatively weaker defenses, more watchdogs had died than Bandits.

Like the Red Minerva, the watchdogs were biological Hemoborn, meaning the cyborgs carried valuable genetic information that would cover some of the Red Minerva's weaknesses.

Normally, Jason wouldn't be interested in absorbing genes from the watchdog frames.

They were well-built Mechs, but they were ultimately just Grunts.

In comparison to the Red Lamia boss, absorbing strength from the watchdogs was a big step down.

If done improperly, it would even weaken his partner's overall strength.

A Hemoborn's statistics were the average of all the machine's genes.

However, a machine's performance wasn't exclusively tied to its raw stats. The watchdog had unique abilities that Jason needed.

The modified hounds had exceptional senses of hearing and smell.

Right now, trap detection and scouting were two of the Red Minerva's greatest weaknesses. There were many times during the first round when Jason had been at a distinct disadvantage compared to his opponents.

In the end, Jason had relied on the Lucky Duck's scouter, and Jason knew that Danny wouldn't always be there to bail him out.

While it was possible to purchase an external scouting system or to equip the trap detection unit he'd won after beating the first round, Jason wanted to keep his Credit cap dedicated entirely to weapons.

Incorporating the watchdog's keen senses to the Red Minerva was a far more elegant method.

However, the genetic transfer process was extremely difficult.

It involved a high-stakes test using the same Genetic Splicers that Jason had worn while battling the Red Lamia.

Jason planned on completing that test as soon as possible.

However, he wanted to put his machine in top condition first.

He'd only read about them, but he knew the Genetic Caverns were an extremely grueling trial that only expert Hemoborn ace pilots bothered attempting.

As a result, Jason gathered up the watchdogs and temporarily set them aside. He'd return to them after making one last adjustment to his Mech.

Lastly, Jason turned to the last and most exciting frame, the King of Thieves.

The King of Thieves was the most valuable item in his inventory.

The only Mech that might have come close was the Smoulderhulk, which had an as-of-yet unidentified value.

In general, Mech frames were always worth more than Mech parts of similar strength.

It was pretty obvious why - Mech frames had a far larger role in determining a machine's overall performance. In addition, their powerful built-in abilities, such as the Blazing Avarice or the King of Thieves's theft and evasion abilities, were often worth tens of thousands of Credits.

The King of Thieves, as a five-star frame, would naturally command an extremely high price.

However, this was where Jason valued upgrading his Mech over making money. He would happily sell items that didn't fit his playstyle, but this was just too perfect of a match.

A theft ability like this synergized perfectly with Jason's style of outwitting his opponents and turning their strengths against them.

In Jason's opinion, the Illusionist guild's map restriction on the frame had severely hampered its true potential.

Although the Illusionists had wanted to gather as many rare parts as possible through the Salvage rule, they'd still kept the battle fair.

The King of Thieves had spent the entire match in a prominent position.

After all, it was meant to be an assassination target.

During the Guild Wars, the Illusionists went all-out.

They abused the King of Thieves's theft ability to its maximum potential with hit-and-run attacks from out of vision. Their victims lost their items before they'd even realized what was happening.

Jason was already comfortable sneaking around and shifting between the Red Minerva's two forms. A theft ability like this would only add to his machine's strength.

Jason had already decided that he'd incorporate the theft ability into his build no matter what.

During Overdrive customization, players were only bound by their imagination. In general, they could add any ability to their machine so long as they were willing to accept the possible downsides.

For example, Jason could not directly copy the Lucky Duck's maximum strength sword with his Blazing Avarice weapons system.

However, there were always workarounds.

Jason could add the extendable dancing sword to his machine, but only if he accepted the One-Armed Bandit's luck-based restriction.

In that specific case, Jason wasn't interested in paying the high price of introducing so much variance to his build.

This was a different situation.

The theft ability was so appealing that Jason was willing to accept a significant nerf in exchange for using it.

After harvesting the Prince of Thieves's theft ability, Jason would happily sell the rest of the frame.

For obvious reasons, most players wouldn't purchase a Paragon frame without its signature ability.

After all, the super robots were defined by their unusual powers.

However, the base frame would still be a high-quality Ace created by the famed Illusionists. In addition, the machine would still have the Peerless Escape Artist skill. It was sure to fetch a respectable price.

Although Peerless Escape Artist was an interesting ability, it was an exceptionally poor fit for the Red Minerva, which needed to fight in melee range. Jason almost never wanted to move away from his opponents - that would be utterly counterproductive.

The Pestilent Snipe was the only reason to attack from afar, and the mere five hundred feet of space granted by Peerless Escape artist wouldn't allow Jason to charge up a full blast before his opponent closed the distance again.

Jason spent the rest of the morning examining how he could incorporate the King of Thieves's signature ability into his machine.

He soon found out that the process would be more complicated than he'd hoped.

On the surface, the ability was rather simple - the Mech stretched out his hand and stole the enemy's weapon. However, the behind-the-scenes mechanics were very complex.

Initially, Jason had hoped that this theft ability was a part he could simply install onto his Mech.

In fact, the item would have had excellent synergy with the Blazing Avarice's Left Hand of Destruction.

Jason could steal items and then promptly absorb them. It would have been a truly devastating combo.

Unfortunately, Jason discovered that simply claiming the other Mech's arm wouldn't work.

The King of Thieves was a Paragon, meaning that it was empowered to use special abilities. Cyborg Hemoborn lacked the mystical metal Eternium, which was the source of all Paragon abilities.

It was similar to adding a blood-empowering bonus to Paragons. While it was possible to equip the skill, there simply wouldn't be any effect.

Fortunately, Jason had a workaround.

He could remove the machine's right hand and add the ability as one of the Blazing Avarice's options.

The Blazing Avarice weapons system reliably replicated the effects of every item it absorbed. The flame simulations ignored the typical restrictions that existed from machine to machine.

For example, the Gorgon Flail could only be used by Mechs with serpent blood.

Although the Red Lamia looked like a snake-woman, it didn't actually have any snake blood.

Rather, it was the Blazing Avarice that allowed Jason to replicate the item's effect.

The same principle should apply here.

On top of that, a fist was technically a melee weapon.

It should be possible for Jason to absorb it.

Presumably, the hand would act like a talisman, similar to the Gorgon Flail.

Jason spent the rest of the morning experimenting with the Blazing Avarice, doing his best to discover how it could absorb hands.

He used some of the Bandit Mechs as test dummies.

Once again, Jason realized that he was dinging the machine's financial value - the parts consumed by the Blazing Avarice were gone forever, and a parts vendor would be irritated to see Jason selling a bunch of machines that lacked arms.

However, Jason had already established that he was willing to take a financial hit to add the theft ability. He would just have to work harder later to make up for what he was sacrificing right now.

Jason's process was a mix of science and intuition.

Sometimes, he would carefully examine the machine's joints before picking a point to try and absorb.

Other times, he would simply grab blindly at points that felt right.

He documented everything he did, making sure not to repeat the same mistake twice.

All his attempts failed.

The Blazing Avarice system would inflict irreparable damage to the hand before displaying an irritated note.

INVALID ITEM. THIS IS NOT A WEAPON

Jason was just about to give up when he stumbled on an extremely creative solution.

He cut off one of the Bandit's hands, then attached it to the back of a longsword, using the hand as a grisly pommel.

He touched the sword, and the absorption worked.

The Blazing Avarice weapons system reliably replicated the sword, with the hand remaining attached at the end.

On top of that, Jason could even give the mechanical hand basic commands. For example, he could order the flame replica's hands to open and close.

It stood to reason that he could do the same thing if he replicated the process with the King of Thieves's hand.

He repeated the hand-pommel process two more times, just to be safe. Each time, he overwrote the previous data on the Blazing Avarice's system.

Once he felt confident, Jason moved on to the real thing.

His heart beat quickly as he severed the King of Thieves's hand and attached it to another longsword in his inventory.

Although the first three experiments had worked, Jason was still nervous. Failure would have meant losing the King of Thieves' most powerful ability for nothing.

But to Jason's immense relief, the process was a success.

A notification appeared on his screen.

BLAZING AVARICE: LEGERDEMAIN BLADE

The Blazing Avarice system had granted the weapon a new name, but the functionality was identical to that of the King of Thieves's hand.

However, the weapon came with a significant restriction - unlike the original machine's ability, Jason could only use the Legerdemain Blade once per game.

The restriction was due to the innate build differences between the two machines.

The King of Thieves absorbed items by magnetically yanking them away from their targets. Normally, magnetizing an item so quickly would cause the hand to shatter.

The force required to remove an item at high speed required an entire internal system dedicated to cushioning the impact and diffusing it throughout the Mech.

However, the Red Minerva did not have the King of Thieves's built-in system. Using the theft ability repeatedly would require extensively reworking the Red Minerva's internal mechanisms.

The process would remove the Blazing Avarice system entirely, a sacrifice Jason had no interest in making.

As a result, his Legerdemain Blade could only be used once per game before the force of stealing an item caused it to destroy itself.

As Jason had learned during his battle, destroyed items couldn't be summoned again until the following mission.

However, Jason didn't mind. He'd been prepared to accept a nerfed version of the King of Thieves's theft ability.

The King of Thieves's greatest strength was its ability to repeatedly steal items.

However, the Red Minerva's strength was the enormous quantity of moves at its disposal.

The potent Legerdemain Blade would become yet another of Jason's utility options.

Once again, it was a perfect choice for one of his seven all-valuable slots.

Like the Titan's Macuahuitl or the Gorgon Flail, the theft ability filled a role that no conventional item could emulate.

Jason smiled.

Between the Legerdemain Blade and the Mindmeld Garotte, his Mech had grown substantially stronger.

But now, it was time to take advantage of the Hemoborn class's most unique strength - their biological components.

Jason hit a few quick commands in his lobby, and then a notification appeared on his screen.

WELCOME TO THE GENETIC CAVERNS