Ves currently had 1032 Ascension Points at his disposal. This was a considerable sum of wealth. It was far from being able to buy everything that the System had to offer, but it still opened up a lot of attractive options. He could acquire a lot of different enlightenment fruits and stuff his head with lots of useful knowledge if he wished. He could spend much of it to acquire both ready made products and raw materials in the Divine Bazaar. If he was feeling lucky, he could even splurge his AP at the Wishing Fountain! It only took 5 Ascension Points for Ves to redeem a golden lottery ticket. If he bought a hundred of them at once, he would gain a lot of random prizes! Ves had no doubt that the majority of those golden lottery tickets would return little of value, but even junk still had value in his eyes. He could amass a large quantity of bulk materials which he could use as the basis of a large anti-phase whale weapon. He could also gain much more from the golden lottery tickets as they occasionally produced a much better prize! The only reason why Ves was reluctant to proceed with this course of action was because the results were way too random in his opinion. He did not want to rely on games of chance to save his life from the wrath of a powerful unclean whale! "Maybe Jovy is more comfortable with choosing this course of action, but I don't have his ability to manipulate the probabilities in my favor." Ves muttered under his breath. He shook his head. He decisively ruled out this unreliable plan. "The offerings of the Divine Bazaar and the Tree of Possibilities are a lot more expensive, but at least there is no ambiguity about what I can get for Ascension Points." It was an interesting dichotomy. The Wishing Fountain promised great rewards but at considerable risk. The Divine Bazaar and the Tree of Possibilities offered much less value for money, but the risks were pretty much minimal. If Ves didn't have an angry and hostile unclean whale looming over his head, he would have been more open to the idea of spending his AP like he was trying to have a good time in a casino! As it was, Ves could never forgive himself if he blew his only shot of saving himself, his wife, his children, his clansmen and his closest allies from getting affected by a preventable disaster! "If I go down this path, then I need to milk as much AP out of the Mission Hall as possible." Since the Missions offered by the System at this time played a crucial role to his new but ambitious plan, he briskly walked back to the Mission Hall and studied all of his available options. According to the rules, the Mission Hall was only capable of presenting 12 Missions at a time. Ves had no idea how the System determined their parameters, but they were probably randomized in a way that partially took his current needs and capabilities into account. While that was nice, there were plenty of reasons why he was less than pleased with this arrangement. What grated Ves the most was that a large and stately structure like the Mission Hall did not bother to give him a wider selection of Missions! "Come on, System! There is room for thousands of Missions in this place! Can't you give me a bit more leeway?!" Naturally, the Mech Designer System did not deign to respond to his complaints. Ves understood the logic of limiting the amount of Missions. It would have been far too easy for him to farm lots of Ascension Points by cherry picking the easiest and most practical Missions. He figured that the System wanted to limit exactly what he was planning to do at this moment! His hopes of exploiting its rules were dashed. He concocted a wild scheme where he could exit the System Space as a completely new man! This was because he could theoretically spend a decade, a century or even a millenia on upgrading himself inside the System Space as long as he had the Ascension Points to spare. The best part about this was that the outside reality would still be frozen from his perspective. This meant that he could get back to his actual life but at a much higher level than before! Unfortunately, he would not be able to keep this up for long. As far as he was aware, the Mission Hall only refreshed its available Missions after a lot of time had passed in reality. This meant that he could not fool around in the System Space and wait for the Mission Hall to refresh its current selection with a fresh batch of Mission. "I'll run out of ways to earn AP really soon once I have exhausted all of the viable Missions available in this round." Ves did not hope for anything extravagant. He would be happy as long as he was able to earn at least 500 additional Ascension Points. He figured that was enough for him to purchase the Puelmer Mid-Level Transphasic Weapon Principles enlightenment fruit while leaving enough of a buffer to buy enough time and resources to make effective use of what he had learned. "Let's see what I can do here." [Alien Relic Hunt] Mission: Alien Relic Hunt Difficulty: C-Rank Description The Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy is occupied by many alien races. Many of their relics and constructs hold considerable cultural and scientific value to the human race. Retrieve 15 different items of alien origin from where they have been left by their former alien owners. These alien relics must be of significant value to humanity in order to quality. You will earn a higher valuation if you have obtained more items or sought out relics of greater value. Reward: 40 Ascension Points Time limit: 2 years. Penalty for failure: Lower your Intelligence by 0.1. The Alien Relic Hunt Mission sounded like an easy way to bag 40 Ascension Points. Planets occupied by indigenous alien societies were everywhere in the Red Ocean. The problem was traveling to one that hadn't been taken care of by other human pioneers. Still, Ves believed that it shouldn't be too difficult for him to seek out several existing or abandoned alien settlements and raid whatever junk the former occupants had left behind. It was a pity that the only way for him to complete this Mission was to actually exit the System Space and proceed with his Trailblazer Expedition. "That is not really helpful to me at this moment." Ves sardonically said to himself. There were several other Missions that required him to spend a lot of time and effort in realspace, so that immediately made them irrelevant to his current situation. He needed to accept Missions that he could complete entirely inside the System Space. [Introduction to Biomech Design] Mission: Introduction to Biomech Design Difficulty: B-Rank Description A rounded and versatile mech designer must work beyond the familiar patterns of mechs. A mech designer that only possesses experience in designing conventional mechs can get stuck in narrow and incomplete paradigms, making it difficult to embrace new theories. Getting started on biomech design is a good way for certain mech designers to expand their horizons and increase their versatility. Design one viable second-class biomech. The biomech design must be at least 95 percent organic in nature. The higher the performance parameters of the biomech, the more Ascension Points awarded for completing this mission. Rewards: Up to 250 Ascension Points Time limit: 1 Year 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖 Penalty for failure: Lower your Intelligence by 0.1 "This is a good one." Ves muttered. Introduction to Biomech Design only required him to deliver a design, not a real and functional product. He did not have to spend hundreds of Ascension Points on acquiring lots of materials needed to grow a biomech. Funnily enough, the Workshop of Creation happened to offer him a complete set of facilities that he could use to grow a biomech, but it was not necessary for him to bother with this particular feature. "The only limiting factor to completing this Mission is that I don't actually know how to design a biomech from beginning to end." Oh, he learned a couple of lessons over the years. His exposure to biomechs during his visit to the Life Research Association allowed him to learn a lot of general principles. He knew the differences between conventional mechs and biomechs. He understood what parts of his knowledge he could apply to the latter, which was surprisingly much. He also learned a lot of insights related to biomechs and bioconstructs by overseeing the development of the Titan-5 Project. That wasn't enough, though. His biggest shortcoming was that he lacked a systematic education on how biomechs worked and what he should pay attention to when designing them. All of the sciences involved were largely related to biology, an incredibly broad field that was far too foreign to many conventional mech designers! Ves recalled that there were numerous enlightenment fruits available that offered him the expertise he needed to complete this potentially lucrative Mission. They might not be ideal, but at least they provided him a pathway towards success! "If I want to complete this Mission and earn a high evaluation, then I need to become proficient in biomech design." Ves determined. "Failing that, I need to acquire a systematic foundation in any field of biotechnology. It doesn't really matter what specialty I acquire as long as it provides a base for me to combine biotechnology with mechs." Ves did not rush to accept this Mission on the spot. Instead, he turned around and left the Mission Hall. He rushed back to the enormous Tree of Possibilities and studied the enlightenment fruits related to biotechnology. Unfortunately for him, the big tree did not offer any enlightenment fruit that could directly instill the essence of human biomechs into his head! "I can only take refuge in tangentially related fruits." With hundreds of available fruits, there were bound to be a few that could get him started in biotechnology! [Blood Cult Scarlet Oak Tree Growth Manual] Price: 30 Ascension Points Imparts a complete manual on how to develop, grow and care for special oak trees according to the methods of the Blood Cult. Scarlet Oak Trees can produce blood of different species with remarkable properties depending on their bioprogramming and the nutrients they absorb when in use. Requirements: Intelligence must be 1.3 or higher. Spirituality must be 1.5 or higher. "Well, it's easy to guess who developed these oak trees in the first place." Problematic origin aside, knowledge was still knowledge. The science on how to cultivate these so-called Scarlet Oak Trees not only encompassed plant life, but also animal life considering they were meant to produce different kinds of blood. This gave Ves the confidence that this affordable enlightenment fruit would provide him with enough of a foundation on biotechnology as well as provide a little extra expertise on trees. "That stuff about trees isn't very relevant to me at this moment, but I can definitely make good use of it once the crisis has passed." Ves and the T Institute experienced a lot of setbacks in the years they worked on the Spirit Fruit Project. The spirit trees that he envisioned as a way to empower a large number of people did not grow the fruits that he wanted. It was clear that he and the Aduc bioresearchers were missing several crucial steps. Previously, Ves thought that the only way to fill in the blanks was to spend a lot of time on trial and error. If he was able to obtain a part of what the Five Scrolls Compact knew about special trees, he was confident that he could achieve a breakthrough in the Spirit Tree Project and finally attain a practical result! "In that sense, 30 AP is a fantastic deal!" Still, was it enough for him to be able to design a biomech?