Ves found it entertaining to speculate about the future of his clan. After all, there weren't many sources of entertainment around here. The System Space had never been designed with leisure in mind. It was a solemn place that was primarily dedicated to facilitating his progression as a mech designer. If he wasn't making any meaningful progress towards becoming a Star Designer or completing his spiritual ascension, then there wasn't any reason for him to squat in this place longer than was necessary. Ves still had a few hours left before he had to pay his rent in order to stay any longer, so he still wasn't in a hurry to do anything productive. He continued to use his remaining free time on contemplating the life he had led and the decisions he had made up to this point. He found it liberating to be able to think about everything from a detached perspective with no one else passing judgment on him. Aside from the Mech Designer System itself, there was no one else who could exert pressure on him in this magical space! Neither his wife, Lucky, Calabast, or any of his design spirits such as Goldie could figure out what he was thinking and pass judgment on his ideas. It felt liberating for him to be able to spend his time on the notions that he had never dared to think for fear of causing an incident. For a small period of time, Ves indulged in the darkness that he had tried his best to repress in his mind. He thought about divorcing Gloriana. He tried to figure out what he could obtain from disassembling Lucky. He came up with radical spiritual augmentation ideas that might make his children a lot more powerful. He even thought about killing off all of his weaker and more flawed design spirits so that he could replace them with superior versions! Ves could calmly think about all of these ideas without his wife screeching in his ears or Goldie manifesting above his head before proceeding to bite him with her teeth. Still, as much as he found it fun to entertain all kinds of taboo ideas, there were good reasons why he never dared to think about them before. "I should get on to business." He eventually told himself. He pushed all of his dark and inane ideas back into the depths of his mind where they belonged. Although he felt like he could benefit from taking a longer vacation than this, he didn't know how much Ascension Points he needed to fix his way out of the crisis that was awaiting him back in reality. Thanks to the System Mission that he had recently completed, he was not short of Ascension Points. Contributing to the ace mech that eventually led to the death of Saint Jeremiah Gauge had netted him a whopping 1000 Ascension Points, which instantly transformed him from a pauper into a nouveau riche, at least as far as the System was concerned! "I can do a lot with 1000 AP." Ves briefly smirked, but that only lasted for a short while. "I can also squander all of this wealth in an instant." Ves was all too well aware of how the more expensive offerings of the System could easily tempt him into squandering his hard-earned wealth. Just because he happened to earn 1000 AP at once didn't mean that it would be easy to earn another windfall in the near future! The Mission Hall only presented him with a limited selection of Missions that periodically refreshed with the passage of time. Most of the missions were frankly impossible or too impractical to complete for a Journeyman like himself. In order to make sure that he was not missing out on another potentially lucky opportunity to earn another bag of Ascension Points, he moved to the Mission Hall and studied the current selection of offerings. [Stairway to Ascension] Mission: Stairway to Ascension Difficulty: S-Rank Prerequisites: Spirituality must be higher than 10.0 Description The time has come for you to create a pathway to ascension that is accessible to the common man. Combine your knowledge, resources and ingenuity to create a physical or intangible stairway that can help the worthy evolve beyond their limits with each step they take. The stairway will only be considered complete if the final step can trigger an individual's promotion to a True God. Reward: 100,000 Ascension Points. Time limit: 100 years. Penalty for failure: Permanent death of mind, body and soul. "..." Ves quickly glanced at the other ridiculous or impractical Missions before he immediately turned away and left the Mission Hall without a word. Seeing that there was no way for Ves to earn a lot of Ascension Points in the short term, he would have to make do with his current savings. "I have 1033 Ascension Points left in my possession, so I can theoretically spend 1033 days in this System Space before I need to go back to the reality that should still be frozen all of this time." There was no way that Ves would actually go through with a ridiculous plan! Sure, Ves could get a lot of work done in 2.83 years, but was it the best use of his Ascension Points? No matter how much time he spent on designing a new gadget that might allow him to break the unclean whale's defenses, he didn't have the time in reality to fabricate the object and put it to use! If he wanted to make better use of his stay in the System Space, then he needed to invest his AP on more substantial benefits! Ves knew that the System was able to offer all kinds of powerful boosts that could reverse his situation. He just had to spend his limited budget of Ascension Points as wisely as possible. He created a new mental note and wrote down the points he needed to pay attention to in order to form a good plan. "First, time is precious, but it is not the most valuable resource that the System can offer. I should only spend my AP on extending my stay in the System Space if there is no better alternative. That said, I can't allow myself to get kicked out too soon. I should always maintain a modest reserve of AP in case I need a little more time than I previously thought." "Second, I should spend as much of my AP as possible. There are circumstances where it's best to save them up but there are also circumstances where holding back is the height of foolishness. Since my clan and I are currently confronting an unclean whale, an alien beast that is far more dangerous than a regular phase whale, I cannot afford to assume that the hostile creature will treat us kindly. Our mechs have already launched many powerful attacks towards the imprisoned whale. I doubt we will be able to receive a hug in return." "Third, I should try and be as efficient as possible with my spending. No matter whether I use up my Ascension Points on tangible or intangible items, I should always seek to get the most while spending the least amount of money. It would be best if whatever I am spending my Ascension Points on is solely applicable to my current situation." Ves wrote down a few more points, but they all followed the same idea. His resources were limited and he needed to spend them as wisely as possible in order to maximize his rate of return. He made certain to reread his guidelines and also verified whether he was in the right state of mind to tackle the problem with a sober and rational mindset. This was not the time for him to get caught up in his passion and make all kinds of foolish and wasteful decisions in order to pursue a crazy idea! "No. That's too risky. I need to keep my cool and approach this issue like a normal mech designer." By reducing the current matter to an engineering problem, he put himself in a specific mindset that reminded him of the times he conducted long-term research or resolved a particularly tricky design problem. He would have never adopted this mindset if he was in a hurry, but fortunately he had enough AP to spare for a lengthy stay. "That reminds me, I should pay my rent for the day before it's too late." The System had already created a growing sense of rejection towards him. Though he was confident that he could stick around for a couple more hours, there was no sense in tempting fate. He dropped by the Workshop of Creation to pay the daily fee and felt a lot more at ease all of a sudden. "Thank you, System." With that out of the way, he proceeded with the first step of his plan. "I need to see what I can work with. Everything that I can exchange from the System is a potential resource that I can use to resolve the immediate problem." He decided to stop by the Tree of Possibilities first. In the past few hours, he developed a faint hope that the Tree of Possibilities may have grown a powerful new enlightenment fruit that could impart a powerful new offensive of disruptive spiritual technique. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖 If Ves found a way to leverage a critical weakness in the unclean whale's spatial barrier or other aspect, he might be able to interrupt the former captive's attempts to pull off a mass displacement technique! Ves patiently scanned all of the enlightenment fruits that were ripe for the picking. There were hundreds of them, many of which had thankfully entered the range of his budget, but none of them were tailored to his needs. His expression gradually soured when he failed to find the magic bullet that could stop a powerful unclean whale in an instant. "Damn, I knew it was too good to be true." There were plenty of powerful and useful enlightenment fruits that he could spend on with his Ascension Points, but they weren't immediately relevant to the situation at hand! At best, there were a dozen or so enlightenment fruits that might help him on his way to solve his current problem, but only when he spent additional AP on other complementary goods. A few of them looked particularly attractive in his eyes! [Puelmer Mid-Level Transphasic Weapon Principles] Price: 850 Ascension Points Imparts a comprehensive set of essential theories and design principles related to the most widespread transphasic weapon types mastered by a mid-level weapons engineer of the puelmer race. The knowledge applies to weapons at every scale, from small arms to battleship armaments. Requirements: Intelligence must be 2.5 or higher. Physics Skill must be Senior or higher... Ves couldn't help but drool when he noticed this enlightenment fruit. It was larger and heavier than the others, but he believed that it would definitely impart him with the knowledge he required to develop a superweapon that could give the unclean whale a hard time! He shook his head. "It's too expensive!" It was too much for his budget. If he spent 850 Ascension Points in an instant, then he had precious little left to spend on all of the sophisticated materials offered by the Divine Bazaar. All of the puelmer weapon technology in existence would be able to make any difference if Ves lacked the materials to reproduce a weapon that was powerful enough to affect a phase whale! While it was difficult for Ves to figure out how much he needed to spend on materials, he cautiously assumed that he needed to reserve at least 400 Ascension Points on materials. If he was able to figure out a better plan, then he might be able to get away with spending a lot less, but for now he needed to make sure he would not screw himself over by going overboard with obtaining shiny new enlightenment fruits.