[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 189: Ingenuity

With around seventeen-thousand DP in his name, Ves had to consider his purchases carefully. The greedy System charged an arm and a leg for a high-powered transceiver or high-density energy cell, the latter of which also came without a charge.

"It'll be a waste to purchase an item from the Shop except for attribute candies." He concluded.

A side effect of his decreased Dexterity strangely reset the prices for the equivalent candies. It seemed like such a great deal that Ves instantly bought three of them in order to regain his former level of coordination.

[Dexterity Attribute Candy]: 500 Design Points

[Dexterity Attribute Candy]: 600 Design Points

[Dexterity Attribute Candy]: 700 Design Points

After swallowing the candies one after another, his body merely tingled for a couple of minutes before it finished its transformation. When he flexed his fingers, he nodded in satisfaction. His body hadn't changed much, but he regained his coordination, which helped him a lot when he worked with his tools.

He retained fifteen-thousand DP after his minor purchase. This sum wouldn't be enough to purchase a powerful item, but he had plenty to spare for handy Skills and Sub-Skills.

When he initially obtained the System, Ves spent a lot of DP on Skills. Only later did he wake up to the fact that he needed to upgrade his Attributes and his equipment as well, so he spent vast sums on the latter two categories to make up for his deficiencies.

"That doesn't mean I can neglect my Skills."

A mech designer relied on his his knowledge and expertise to make a living. A powerful mind assisted him in advancing up the ranks, but what mattered now was what he could do with the resources and tools at hand.

Their awful state made them very difficult to work with at his current level. Ves had only ever really worked with gear in their optimal or at least well-maintained state. Now that he had to work in dismal circumstances, he urgently required an upgrade in his capabilities.

"Otherwise, it will take too long to get a transceiver up and running."

Ves didn't expect Jutland to return for a couple of days, but he'd be hard-pressed to complete his project by then without the convenience of a working 3D printer. The autoforge worked great with large, uniform components but couldn't really fabricate any micro-components such as processors or chipboards.

[Salvaging - Incompetent]: 1000

[Salvaging - Novice]: 2000

[Salvaging - Apprentice]: 4000

[Signals and Communications - Incompetent]: 200 DP

[Signals and Communications - Novice]: 400 DP

[Signals and Communications - Apprentice]: 800 DP

[Jury Rigging III]: 600 DP

Ves added two major Skills to his repertoire. The Salvaging Skill encompassed everything related to recovering parts from derelict mechs. Purchasing the Skill in succession dumped a large amount of knowledge into his head.

While the cost of getting it up to Apprentice-level halved his available DP, his increase in capabilities made it up in spades. It urgently filled the gap in his knowledge on how to fully exploit the heaps of wrecks piled up in Jutland's cave.

"At least I won't be ruining anything I dig out now that I know how to recover them safely."

Different from fundamental skills like Physics or Mechanics, Ves learned a large amount of practical knowledge instead of highly abstruse theories. Seasoned salvagers mostly learned on-the-job, and the System-granted Skill offered him years worth of experience in an instant.