The reason for my change of heart is simple; I am not ready.

The lesson from Nor Avante just emphasized to me that there are many things in this world that I have yet to understand. The entire field of magic is new to me and the knowledge humbled me. After a night of thinking, I now have to admit that the field of Battlesuit Design isn't that far behind. I never went to a technological college or a university, and everything I know came from my experience. Sure I had some success designing variants of various Battlesuits but there is a big step between that and designing a brand new suit from scratch. I am not ready to make that jump.

Right now I had only meddle with Battlesuits from the Age of Steam and the Clockwork Age; technologies that are about a hundred years ago. I hadn't fiddle with anything after that, and now I want to build a brand new Battlesuit that will impress everyone? Not likely. I can probably build a new Battlesuit but anything that comes from me right now would be average at best. I need to broaden my fields of studies and improve my fundamentals before I am able to build a good Battlesuit. That means I need more skills and knowledge. That means I need the System.

It may have a mission for me to become one of the best Battlesuit Designers of my generation, but it will to wait a long time before I am able to complete that mission. I am currently not ready. Speaking of which…

"System, are you there?"

[Yes, User Tobias Wong. How may I a.s.sist you?]

"I notice that the missions you give do not have a time limit. Does this means that I can take my time to complete the missions?"

[Although there may be missions in the future that requires the user to complete within a certain time frame, most missions given by the System do not have a time limit.]

"Why is that anyway? I would think having a time limit would force the various Users to work harder."

[The journey to greatness is a marathon, not a sprint. Besides, the Mad Triple create the System to help the Users, not to force them to work.]

Another popular image of my father just went up in flames. Most people thought my father was a mad man who would do anything to get what he wants but from what the System said, that did not seems to be the case. Or maybe he has a soft spot for his own children. I am talking about a man who once hacked and crashed The EMOS (Exalted Military Orbital Station) into Jupiter, killing over five thousand men, women, and children who failed to evacuate in time. Sighing to myself, I shook my head to clear it. Thinking about my father always bring up mixed feelings. Better to concentrate on things I can control. I turned on Dive and went back to the Creator screen. Using the filter, I searched for a special type of Battlesuits.

When people speak of Battlesuits, they always think of operators in battle armor attacking each other but not all Battlesuits are designed for combat. Some Battlesuits are designed and built to fulfill certain roles on the battlefield. These could be anything from Scouting Battlesuits to Battlesuits that a.s.sist in on-site mechanic repairs. Since I was looking to broaden my fields of design, I decided to look into building a non-combat Battlesuits.

After looking through the various Grade 1 non-combat Battlesuits though, I found an issue; most of the non-combat Battlesuits from the Clockwork era were too outdated for modern usage. In a way, that makes perfect sense. A clockwork Mechanic Battlesuit designed a hundred years ago would come equipped with tools that helps the operator repair clockwork and steam machines, not machines that runs on technology that hadn't yet been invented. Repairs on machines that runs on technology like Solar Tech and Compound Electricity requires modern tools. It seems that if I want to design a non-combat Battlesuit, I have a lot of work before me. An idea then popped into my head. It was a Eureka moment and I quickly used the Dive search function to look up a specific Battlesuit.

The Dive shows the Maid of Orléans on the screen and I took another good look at the ironic Battlesuit. I once tried to design a variation of the Maid but gave it up when I realized it was a bad fit for Transforming Technology. Now I have a better idea.

Joan Waterson had designed the Battlesuit to be a speedy and highly modifiable Battlesuit. While it didn't have the ma.s.s for Transforming Technology, it is almost perfect to be a modern scout. Clockwork Technology gives off less heat than modern technology anyway so the suit is less likely to be detected and even if it is, the suit is fast enough that the operator have a fair chance of getting away. I could even add some stealth technology in my variation to help…no, that won't work. Stealth technology will push my Battlesuit beyond Grade 1. I cursed at the mission given and not for the first time chafed at the restriction imposed by the System.

"Forget it," I murmured. "Focus on the prize Toby. You're doing this for the reward."

I look at the hologram of the Maid of Orléans and began to work.