Chapter 127: Valkyrie Assessment
Kiana and the other two strolled through ruins that looked as if they had been heavily bombarded. They pushed forward cautiously, but all that greeted their eyes was a crater-pitted wasteland.
"I wonder what kind of test Teacher Himeko prepared this time?" Kiana walked at the forefront, her dual pistols raised alertly as she scanned the ruins ahead.
If it were a normal day, they wouldn't need to be this cautious. After all, Kiana had already scouted out the exam contents beforehand—it was supposed to be nothing more than Titans or a sparring match against an A-Rank Valkyrie.
But now, Aunt Himeko and Auntie had suddenly switched to using the Memorial Arena system.
All enemies were virtual, simulating real battlefield conditions as closely as possible. This meant that what was originally a solo assessment had turned into a three-person squad exam.
This was also the most commonly used formation for Valkyries. Since the three of them usually worked together, they naturally formed a team for this.
As for the difficulty, they weren't particularly worried. They already possessed the combat prowess of A-Rank Valkyries; their only concern was what kind of enemies they would actually encounter.
Kiana, who was frequently subjected to extra training by her Auntie, knew very well just how merciless her Auntie could be in this regard. The affixes added were more ferocious one after another.
"Let's be careful. I have a feeling nothing good will come of this." Project Bunny materialized behind Bronya. Currently, Project Bunny was armed with a shield in one hand and a heavy laser cannon over its other shoulder.
"Actually, the biggest problem right now is that we don't even know when they will attack us. Has it already been two or three minutes since we entered?" Mei frowned, gripping Lightning Soul in her hand.
"They're probably coming right now," Kiana muttered casually. However, a sudden sound caught her ear. Her excellent intuition as a Valkyrie prompted her to instantly aim the muzzles of her dual guns forward.
Sure enough, several Ballista-class Honkai Beasts appeared not far away. Judging by their classification, there seemed to be two tsundere-types and two aloof-types.
"They finally showed up." After a brief assessment, Kiana immediately raised her guns and charged forward. Kaslana Gun Kata was never meant for long-range combat.
"Kiana, be careful!" Seeing this, Mei had no choice but to immediately follow. An A-Rank Valkyrie exam couldn't possibly be that simple. With Kiana rushing in so recklessly, she was very likely to suffer for it.
"Sister Mei, be careful," Bronya reminded her. Project Bunny behind her slightly faded away, and a moment later, it swapped its weapon for a multi-barrel missile launcher.
Bronya had slightly upgraded Project Bunny's weapon storage system. Previously, it required preparation to swap out weapons and equipment, but now it could be done via the Quantization system.
At the same time, carrying multiple pieces of equipment and swapping them out only required a tiny bit of effort, drastically improving combat efficiency.
Finally, Project Bunny instantly aimed at the large round sphere on the abdomen of one of the aloof-type Honkai Beasts. They had encountered these guys before; they would hurl Honkai energy bombs from a distance.
They were highly threatening, but those Honkai bombs were actually quite unstable. With just a little bit of damage, they would detonate on their own. One either had to suppress them with gravity, or forcefully blow them up with high-fire-rate weapons. This was exactly why Bronya had switched to a double-barreled Gatling gun.
But just as the bullets were fired, those Honkai Beasts leaped high into the air. With a flip, their thick backs blocked the incoming barrage, while the bombs in their abdomens were hurled high into the sky, smashing fiercely toward the trio.
Bronya reacted immediately, directing Project Bunny to raise the Gatling gun and fire at the most threatening black-ice bombs. Those things would generate an extremely freezing chill that would impact their combat ability. Taking them out first was definitely the right move.
The bombs were swiftly blown up mid-air, but right at that moment, several Alloy Chariot-class Honkai Beasts suddenly dashed out from the nearby ruins, charging straight at them.
"The meat shields are here." Bronya's eyes narrowed. "Sister Mei, idiot Kiana, you two take care of those Ballista-class monsters. I'll handle these."
"Understood. Be careful too, Bronya," Mei nodded. However, Kiana had a bit of an issue with this. While dealing with a tsundere-type Honkai Beast, she turned her head back and shouted at Bronya.
"I'm not an idiot!"
"Is this really the time to argue about that?" Bronya sighed. Project Bunny turned into a phantom once more, and when it reappeared, it was already holding an assault spear in its hand.
Then, it fiercely charged toward the Alloy Chariot-class Honkai Beasts. Driven by Project Bunny's speed, the sharp spear directly pierced through the hard exterior of the Alloy-class Honkai Beast.
On the other side, Kiana and Mei cooperated flawlessly, completely wiping out the Ballista-class Honkai Beasts, which had been rendered powerless after losing their bombs.
Now, only these Alloy Honkai Beasts remained. Kiana reloaded her pistols, her face brimming with confidence. "This level is way too easy."
"There's really no difficulty to the A-Rank Valkyrie exam at all."
"It probably won't be this sim—" Before Mei could finish her sentence, the surrounding ground began to quake violently. Finally, a gigantic Honkai Beast resembling a wild boar burst forcefully from beneath the earth.
"Ganesha, a super-giant Honkai Beast. This should be our real test this time." Bronya, who had the best grades, immediately recognized the true identity of the Honkai Beast before them.
"An Emperor-class Honkai Beast."
"Isn't that the same as the Emperor-class Honkai Beast we dealt with a few days ago?" Kiana scratched her head. "Then taking it down will be a piece of cake."
"Idiot Kiana, the Emperor-Class and the Emperor-class Honkai Beast tier are completely different in difficulty." Bronya sighed. The difference in the phrasing determined the classification of the Honkai Beast.
Once a Honkai Beast reached the Emperor class, its combat prowess was on a completely different level from before. It required at least an S-Rank Valkyrie or a large squad of A-Rank Valkyries to subjugate it.
However, the Ganesha before them was likely a version with weakened stats. Otherwise, if it were the original Ganesha, there was no way the few of them could defeat it.
-Observation Room-
"Isn't this difficulty a bit too high?" Himeko watched her students get thoroughly blasted by bombs.
"Isn't this thing an Emperor-class Honkai Beast? Why is it appearing in the exam? Was it weakened?"
There hadn't been an exam question involving this guy during her tests. Could it be a special test set up by Theresa? But wasn't the difficulty far too high?
Although, from a modern perspective, Ganesha's strength was nowhere near as terrifying as when it was first discovered. The development of technology had made their ability to combat Honkai Beasts increasingly stronger.
Emperor-class Honkai Beasts that once required an S-Rank Valkyrie to lead a team against could now be subjugated by a group of A-Rank Valkyries working together.
Or, a battleship could simply be deployed to bombard it with firepower. However, for Kiana and the others, who were merely three A-Rank Valkyries, Ganesha was still a very difficult challenge.
"Well~" Irene shrugged, casting a brief glance in Rita's direction. This, of course, wasn't their doing. It was simply the contraband Rita had sneakily slipped in.
"Consider it the first ordeal they have to experience—learning to understand that the enemies they face are never simple."
"Yeah. Being drilled by you guys every day, their combat power should barely be enough." Himeko rested her chin in her hand. Although she found the sudden surprise a bit strange, she decided to leave it at that.
Furthermore, since it was a simulation, it was probably a weakened version. And since it was weakened, it shouldn't be a big problem.
Plus, looking at Irene's calm and collected demeanor, it should be fine. The data for this guy must have been included in the subjects Irene had tested them on, right?
"Speaking of which, regarding the situation with that battleship..." Since there was nothing to worry about anymore, Himeko glanced at Rita and leaned in to whisper to Irene. Their academy had been open for a long time and had undergone quite a few inspections.
But having an S-Rank Valkyrie come for a personal inspection was extremely rare. And lately, the only thing worthy of attention was that strange battleship.
"Don't worry, there's no problem. We already took Miss Rita to see it yesterday," Irene nodded at Himeko. "As for the item mentioned in the system..."
"Overseer Otto has also responded, saying we can directly inquire with the Oceania Branch regarding the Gem of Desire. As soon as the handover is complete, we'll be able to bring the Gem of Desire over."
"We can actually request it?" Himeko looked at Irene in surprise. That was a Gem of the Herrscher! Could it really be requested that easily?
Shouldn't that thing be a strategic-level resource? Even just using it as an energy source was incredibly important!
"Lord Overseer's stance is that the gem has been in Oceania for so long without yielding any results," Rita chimed in from the side, addressing the confused Himeko.
"The idea is that, although precious, if it's of no use, it's merely a highly concentrated crystal. It's better to see exactly what that battleship is plotting."
On the second day after Rita's observation, Theresa and Irene had colluded with Rita to put on a show and contact Otto. While they called it a discussion, it was really just everyone acting. Irene knew Otto would definitely agree.
Because the Gem of Desire had been a discarded pawn thrown out by Otto from the very beginning. It was unstable, highly dangerous, and not worth caring about. In contrast, the Gem of Serenity might give birth to the ability Otto needed.
The Gem of Haste was an external cheat-like combat asset in Otto's plans, provided when needed. The Herrscher of the Void's core went without saying; it was the core of all his plans.
The Gem of Conquest wasn't under Otto's jurisdiction and was currently inside Mei's body. As for the Gem of Desire, it was difficult to store, highly dangerous, and had absolutely no use in Otto's plans.
So Otto just tossed it out. Whoever wanted it could take it. If they could research something out of it, everyone would naturally be happy; if they couldn't, it wouldn't affect Otto's plans in the slightest.
Therefore, regarding the current request, Otto merely said a few words before nodding in agreement.
As for Otto, he completely didn't care. No matter what his granddaughter wanted the gem for, the worst-case scenario was simply her using it to rebel against him.
And this worst-case scenario was exactly what Otto hoped to see anyway. Since that was the case, what was the point of keeping this already unimportant gem in the hands of the Oceania Branch?
Since his own granddaughter wanted it, he would definitely make Oceania spit it out. After all, Oceania had been researching it for so long without producing a single result.
The two sides thus discussed the inconsequential matter of its ownership for a few sentences. Finally, Otto reminded Theresa to pay close attention to the safety and storage of the gem.
And with that, the ownership of the Gem of Desire was settled in a tacit understanding.
"I see." Himeko nodded. She didn't understand politics very well, but since it had already been negotiated, there was nothing more to say. Right now, Himeko was more curious about the situation with that battleship.
"The Storm of Desire... I'm really curious, what kind of weapon or equipment requires four Gems of the Herrscher to power it?"
The Gems of the Herrscher were no simple goods. She had fought Mei before, and even with the power boost from the Nexus System, Himeko had still been suppressed and beaten by Mei.
If Kiana hadn't suddenly exploded with power and awakened Mei, the best-case scenario in the end would have been mutual destruction. After all, that was a Herrscher.
"I believe it will be an extremely powerful weapon." Rita looked at Himeko and smiled, though from the corner of her eye, she kept paying attention to the battle footage of Kiana and the others, which she had specifically enlarged on the screen.
It seemed the Honkai Beast she had chosen was still a bit too weak. But it couldn't be helped; if she had actually brought out Ganesha's original data, Himeko and the others would definitely have stopped the test immediately.
After all, the control over this Memorial Arena system was still in the hands of St. Freya. If Himeko and the others wanted to cut the power, they could do so instantly. The emergency stop system wasn't something that could be bypassed via electronic warfare hacking.
That thing was a mechanical power cut; one press and it was guaranteed to work. As for it failing to serve an observational purpose right now, Rita had no other choice. The stats of the weakened Ganesha simply couldn't beat these three highly coordinated Valkyries.
Even though Ganesha still appeared to be rampaging wildly right now, as time went on and its wounds continued to accumulate, it would eventually be defeated.
However, she had done everything she could. Overseer Otto shouldn't have much to say about it either. After all, she had done what she could; it wasn't like she could actually go in there and bully the children herself.
A friendly match had to follow the rules of a friendly match. She couldn't actually deal lethal blows, but without lethal blows, it definitely wouldn't serve any observational purpose.
Having thought this through, Rita cheerfully decided to just slack off. Why exert herself to death? No matter what she did, it would be a thankless task, so she might as well leave it at this.
Himeko was certainly unaware of Rita's internal shift in mindset. Seeing that the situation had already tilted in favor of Kiana and the others, she nodded. A thought sprouted in her mind, and she turned to look at Irene.
"Speaking of which, I remember the scenery over there is pretty good. Do you want to take them on a trip there once they get their certificates? Consider it broadening their horizons and taking a break along the way?"
"I wouldn't mind." Irene nodded, a faint glimmer flashing in her eyes before she smiled and said, "It will most likely just be a sightseeing tour anyway. After all, a lot of materials need to be handed over there, which should take quite a bit of time."
"Besides, there's going to be a short holiday after the exams are over. Let's just treat it as a way for them to relax and a reward for their hard work."
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