The next few days passed uneventfully.
Keran settled into a steady routine.
Every morning he headed to Fallo Scrapyard to build weapon modules and modified parts for Grey-jaw.
He got paid daily, steady credits rolling in.
At the same time, he dug up all sorts of still-usable mechanical parts from the scrap piles, snuck them back to his room, and slowly fabricated each component of his tactical armor piece by piece.
Finished parts went into the locker, waiting until he had everything to assemble the full set.
The rest of the time he stayed at the repair shop working through orders.
The DSD never stopped testing him.
Two or three different agents would show up every day, posing as customers.
Lira thought business was finally picking up.
She was so happy she cooked extra dishes every day to reward Keran.
Sometimes when he walked past her, he would catch her muttering about expansion and franchise locations.
It made him break out in a cold sweat every time.
He was pretty sure he had given the shop owner some very unrealistic ideas.
Gareth would hover around Keran now and then, trying to figure out where he had learned his assembly technique.
It was useless.
Keran’s methods were entirely his own, no recognizable style or training to pin down.
Halden dropped by fairly often.
Every time he came, he would drag Gareth into another round of their game.
The two old men would face off over the hologram, tense as if drawing swords.
Now and then he would chat with Keran about modification details.
Keran was happy to indulge him.
A few quick words on optimizing power transmission, and Halden would walk away thoughtful.
Over time, the two of them grew more comfortable around each other.
…
For Keran, building and modifying gear was the fastest way to improve his technical skills.
Material refinement came next, then armor repair.
Straight assembly gave the least progress by far.
He did not have access to advanced knowledge yet, so he focused on honing what he already had.
He dumped experience points into the three skills closest to max level, Basic Armor Awareness Lv3, Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat Lv8, and Basic Marksmanship Lv8, to earn more potential points.
At the same time, his Material Purification kept getting more precise.
The same alloy, once processed, saw noticeable jumps in strength and conduction efficiency.
Power Overload’s duration grew longer too, and he had gotten better at minimizing the durability toll it took on his gear.
The power arm on his right arm was already on its second iteration.
He had rebuilt the casing with refined alloy and rerouted the conduction circuits.
It was nearly twenty percent lighter, packed thirty percent more punch, and its power draw held steadier than before.
…
At Fallo Scrapyard, Keran worked at the bench, assembling the last batch of modified modules, then slid them across the table to Grey-jaw.
Grey-jaw sent over the credits.
Keran glanced at his balance, pocketed it, and said, “That is it for today. I’m out.”
“Appreciate the work these past few weeks.” Grey-jaw gave a thin, cold smile.
“Stock’s piled up enough for now, but the offer still stands. Help yourself to any parts in the yard, whenever you want.”
Subtext: he was putting their partnership on hold for now.
He had enough modified gear stockpiled for the time being, but he was not ready to turn on the kid just yet.
More than once he had thought about how much money he could make if he could get that knowledge all to himself.
Problem was, Keran shook off every tail he sent without breaking a sweat.
And that first fight had left him wary.
He had never dared try anything heavy-handed.
“Suit yourself.” Keran knew the side gig was over.
After a few more empty pleasantries, he left the scrap yard.
He cut through a few side streets, lost his usual tail, and ducked into a large industrial parts market.
The market sold all kinds of metal stock and precision components.
Keran worked down his list, picking up every last critical part he still needed for the tactical armor, plus a spare set of energy conduits and power drive modules.
Easy come, easy go.
By the time he checked off everything on the list, most of his side income was gone.
He hauled everything back to the shop, locked his bedroom door, and got to work assembling.
A few days later.
Every last component was finished.
Keran stood in his room and locked all the tactical armor modules together into a full set.
It was a full set of modular light tactical armor.
A streamlined helmet, main chest plate, paired power arm, and leg protection all locked together in sequence.
Every module interface had been precision calibrated.
The seams fit perfectly, no gaps anywhere.
The outer layer was matte-finished lightweight alloy plating.
Power drive ports sat at every joint.
Energy conduction channels ran along all major stress lines.
The front of the right power arm housed the integrated energy emitter module he had modified earlier.
A few lines of notification popped up on his system panel.
[You have crafted Tactical Armor: Ranger (Generation 1)]
[Tactical Armor: Ranger (Generation 1)]
[Quality: White] [Base Stats: Armor Durability 880, Defense 22, Energy Reserve 150/150, Power Level 45]
[Weight: 38 lbs]
[Coverage: Head / Torso / Both Arms / Legs]
[Integrated Weapon: Right Arm Energy Emitter. Attack 34~42, Fire Rate 0.8 rounds/s, Energy Cost 6 per shot]
[Passive Effect: Hydraulic Boost. Increases melee attack damage by 35%]
[Passive Effect: Shield Deflection. Chance to reduce incoming damage by 28% when blocking]
[Note: First generations are always rough around the edges. But it’s a starting point.]
Keran stood in his room and put on each piece one by one, then rolled his shoulders and flexed his joints.
It was heavier than the makeshift mod arm he had been using, but it covered far more of his body, and the power transfer was much smoother.
The main materials were standard-issue lightweight alloy and composite resin plating, common off-the-shelf stuff.
Once he got his hands on refined high-grade materials, that same frame would see a huge jump in defensive stats.
Right now the Ranger set ran on a standard energy core, so its power output was on the low side.
He would need to learn Energy branch tech to build a high-performance core.
Finishing the armor earned Keran 20,000 experience points right away.
Crafting gave the biggest experience payouts, scaled by build time, final quality, and technical complexity.
He moved around the room a few times, making sure none of the modules rattled or squeaked.
Satisfied, he took the armor apart piece by piece and stowed everything back in the locker.
Back downstairs, a customer was talking to Lira, glancing over at Keran every few seconds.
Another agent.
Keran spotted it instantly.
They started pumping Lira for information about him instead.
When the man left, Lira turned to Keran, looking confused.
“Why do people keep asking about you lately?”
“Guess I’m popular.”
“But they’re all guys.”
Keran’s face went stiff.
“You’ve got the wrong idea.”
“Relax, I don’t judge.” Lira giggled.
No matter how he looked at it, Keran found that giggle deeply unsettling.
She has definitely got the wrong idea.
Right then, a new notification popped up on his system panel.
[E-Rank Mission Triggered: Bounty Hunt. Accept / Decline?]
Keran blinked.
Where had this come from?
“Accept.”
The thought had barely crossed his mind when the full mission details unfolded.
[Mission Brief: A group of hunters has caught wind of your bounty. They’re lying in wait out of sight, hungry for the prize. Meanwhile, a certain agency is watching from the shadows, waiting to see what you do. What will you do?]
[Objective: Successfully escape the incoming hunt]
[Base Reward: 10,000 experience points] [Special Reward: 1 Basic Skill Upgrade Card]
It was obvious enough.
Bounty hunters were after him.
And that “certain agency” in the mission brief?
No guesswork needed.
It was the DSD.
They were the only ones who knew exactly where he was in Dawn City.
Nine times out of ten, they had leaked the word on purpose, maybe not even entirely consciously.
It let them test his combat strength while keeping things contained.
This was the main city district, after all.
If things got too destructive, the DSD would have hell to pay for it.
The base reward for an E-rank mission was nothing to write home about, but that Basic Skill Upgrade Card caught his eye.
Items like that could instantly level up any skill of matching rank, saving hours of grinding.
It was incredibly useful for him right now.
Special rewards almost always came with hidden completion conditions.
The clues were right there in the mission brief.
Keran thought it over for a second and figured it out.
Escaping was just the bare minimum requirement.
The real hidden objective was taking out every single one of the hunters.
If the DSD was willing to let them loose, the hunters could not be that strong.
Perfect chance to test out the Ranger armor.
He had no intention of getting Gareth involved.
If he could not handle this much trouble on his own, he could forget about ever working with the DSD or standing up to Undercurrent.
Keran looked out the window.
A plan was already taking shape in his mind.
There was only one place perfect for a fight.
Fallo Scrapyard.