The story of the black silk female knight

Ideally, one should lure someone with considerable power and status, but who won't attract the city lord's attention, to gather intelligence.

"That's right... Yes, it's been found."

The old fisherman remained unperturbed by the bald man's mockery and boasting, his expression unchanged, except that the hand holding the fishing rod suddenly jerked upwards.

Blah blah blah...

Valensa saw the reel on the fishing rod begin to spin rapidly in reverse, rotating almost three times per second when the hook was first cast.

Only a Noble Phantasm fishing rod dares to play like this... If it were a regular fishing rod, the friction generated by the spinning light wheel would probably be quite hot to the touch.

Soon, the old man's hook and line were retrieved, and his prey was pulled out of the water like a fish that has taken the bait.

It was a necromancer-type monster with a horse's head and a human body, made entirely of bones, wearing armor, wielding a spear, and wearing a cloak, somewhat resembling a patrol squad leader.

However impressive its armor, spear, and cloak are, they cannot hide its current wretched state, with a fishhook hooked around its nose, rendering it unable to move.

Whoosh!

Snapped!

The old fisherman cast his line again, and the horse-headed, human-bodied undead monster traced a perfect parabola in the air before landing at Valensa's feet.

"This should be a horse-headed skeleton warrior, an undead monster, at the peak of the Lighthouse level."

The old fisherman glanced at it casually and immediately identified the monster's species and strength, then smiled and looked at Valensa:

"Want to practice with it, little girl?"

"This……"

Valensa hesitated for a moment, feeling a slight urge to act, but ultimately made a cautious choice:

"No need, I'll have plenty of opportunities to practice later. Let's focus on gathering intelligence for now."

Chapter 152 New Equipment

Seeing that Valencia had no intention of making a move, the old fisherman cast his line again, tossing the horse-headed skeleton warrior to the bald man's feet, and shrugged.

"The rest is up to you. Your technique and speed in creating soul crystals are absolutely unparalleled on the continent."

"Hehe... It's nothing really, just a matter of practice makes perfect."

The bald man didn't refuse. He grabbed the horse-headed skeleton warrior by the back of the neck, picked up this monster with the strength of the peak of the Lighthouse like a chicken, and tore the fishhook out of the skeleton horse's nostril.

This seemed to provoke a struggle and a desire to resist in the horse-headed skeleton warrior. The flame in the eye of its skull flickered, and its hand gripped the spear tightly, trembling slightly.

But that's it.

Snapped!

The bald man completely disregarded the horse-headed skeleton warrior's intentions. He grabbed it, slammed it to the ground, patted it, and then kneaded and rubbed it a few times, transforming this peak-level undead monster into something like mud, eventually turning it into a grayish-white crystal the size of an egg.

Soul crystallization.

"Here."

Ignoring Valensa's slightly greedy licking of her lips, the bald man tossed the grayish-white soul crystal to the old fisherman, who caught it and casually put it away.

Although Valensa could directly consume soul crystals to obtain information, her method was still somewhat crude.

Just as a gourmet can distinguish the ingredients and spices used in a dish by relying solely on their tongue, mistakes and omissions are inevitable, and their accuracy is still not as good as that of professional scientific instruments.

Within the Gourmet Association, there are a few spellcasters who, like Tia, can use soul crystals as external hard drives to slowly read and study data.

This method is certainly less efficient than Valencia eating directly, but it has the advantage of high accuracy... Conquering dungeons is no child's play; every piece of information could potentially prevent a major loss.

For initial reconnaissance, it is enough to confirm the existence and location of the dungeon and capture a dungeon member with some strength and status.

To avoid alerting the enemy, the bald man and the old fisherman took no further action and returned to the capital with Valensa.

There will likely be several more investigations and intelligence gatherings into the dungeons, but the actual dungeon strategy won't begin for at least a few months.

Since Valensa had already received the money from selling the information, she stopped following up on the matter and only kept track of the general progress to ensure that she wouldn't miss the real strategy event.

With the batch of high-quality, attribute-free magic crystals in Yashiro's possession, the repair and development of the underground ruins can be accelerated. It's also time to find a way to completely drive away the wild beasts that are stationed far away and monitoring the perimeter of the ruins.

At the same time, the collection of materials for the special pheromone solvent that activates the Beast's self-destruct command should also be carried out. Even if you can't afford the materials for the time being or can't defeat monsters that have the materials, you can first find out where the materials are and then acquire them when you have the means.

On the third day after the initial investigation of the dungeon concluded, Chiba emerged from seclusion after returning from the Mawsmora Basin. She had successfully broken through and become the third Beacon among the second-year students, following Valensa and Tia.

This immediately spurred many people on. Led by Ryan, the descendant of the Sword Saint, several second-year elite students who had already reached the threshold of the Lighthouse chose to go into seclusion and train intensively.

The plan to create new equipment using the battle-hardened cave monster's large one-eyed creature and long black tongue is also progressing smoothly.

Under the technical guidance of Friggia, Tia personally used alchemy to create a short staff shaped like a fairy wand and a long black whip.

The short staff possesses the same ability to manipulate gravity and repulsion as the tempered cryptid, and has been further optimized using other alchemical materials.

Although the strength of the attraction and repulsion forces has not increased significantly, the stability has been greatly enhanced, allowing for seamless switching between the two forces without cooling until the energy is depleted.

This extremely rare spell-like ability is very interesting; it's surprisingly difficult to use with normal magic.

Forcing its use is not impossible, but it will result in excessive power consumption or various other problems, just like incompatible computer hardware drivers.

Using magic crystals as an energy source is still not ideal. Only high-quality, attribute-free magic crystals are slightly useful, but it's about the same as Tia using magic power to drive it herself, so the effect can only be described as barely acceptable.

Currently, the only energy source that allows this short staff to unleash its full power is the natural, primordial bio-energy essence produced by Valensa. A small bottle is enough to sustain two to three hours of high-intensity combat.

In other words, Valensa will not only have to feed Tia frequently, but will also be responsible for increasing production to power up Tia's defensive weapons.

This short wand, which Valensa jokingly named the "Reincarnation Wristband," became Tia's exclusive equipment in many ways.

The other piece of equipment that was created, a black whip, became one of Valensa's backup weapons, just as planned.

Although Valensa had never practiced whip techniques before, she had consumed the soul crystal of a tempered dungeon monster, so she could use the whip in the same way that tempered dungeon monsters used their tongues. If she could also consult two teachers at the academy who were skilled in whip techniques, that would be enough as a countermeasure or emergency tactic.

Valensa had previously speculated that the long black tongue might have a powerful magic-breaking effect, because when the battle-hardened Crypt Fiend fought the female elemental mage and Harry, it was like hitting a newspaper shell; he could easily pierce through several layers of shields with a single tongue.

However, after Tia and Friggia personally tested and experimented, they discovered that Valensa had guessed wrong, or rather, her guess was not entirely correct.

The long black tongue does indeed have a strong magic-breaking effect, but it can only break elemental spells. Ice shields, earth shields, and whirlwind shields are all extremely fragile in front of this tongue and will break with a single puncture.

However, by using non-elemental magic shields such as [Shot Deflection], [Refracting Force Field], and [Iron Guard], one can effectively defend against this black tongue, and also defend against the black whip made primarily of this black tongue.

In short, the black whip doesn't seem as useful as Valensa had imagined, but it's sufficient as a countermeasure and emergency weapon.

After they both received their new weapons, they also sparred a few times.

Valensa's improvement is only icing on the cake; the new weapon offers some enhancement, but the overall impact is minimal.

Tia, on the other hand, was practically a tiger with wings... Relying on her manipulation of gravity and repulsion, along with her own spatial linking secret technique and simplified domain, she possessed almost unparalleled control over her peers.

Without using the Evil God Mode, Valensa couldn't get close to Tia at all. Even if she used a powerful divine spell like the Sunfire Ray for a long-range attack, she would be teleported to another location by the spatial link.

Therefore, almost every sparring match between the two ended with the female knight voluntarily admitting defeat.

"Let's stop fighting, let's go back to the room to shower and sleep, darling."

Chapter 153 Arms Deal with Wei

On a day near the end of the first month of winter, Valensa prepared Vi's favorite food, wine, and beautiful ladies in advance, and entertained Vi in a private room at Pink Rose.

While enjoying the incredibly relaxing massages from the beautiful young women, the two conversed in their former Chinese language, discussing the next batch of supplies to be exchanged.

In order to completely drive away the wild beasts stationed around the underground ruins, Valensa came up with a plan: first, Tia and Lily of the Valley would use necromancy to summon a large number of the weakest and cheapest skeleton soldiers, and then equip these skeleton soldiers with automatic rifles.

Although Friggia is fully capable of summoning an army of high-ranking undead directly, this great witch is still too dangerous.

Whether it was the advice from Saintess Velenkasa or Valensa's own idea, there were no plans to give Friedia too much power, not even temporarily.

Therefore, necromancy should still be used by Tia and Suzuran, while Friedia will continue to provide technical guidance.

Incidentally, Friggia also possesses the human transmutation technique that Suzuran is incredibly skilled at; in fact, she herself is the ultimate creation of this technique.

Not long after Valensa sent Lily of the Valley to Friggia, she was successfully transformed and can now practice magic like a normal human in her android form.

Previously a Lighthouse-level necromancer, and now with Friggia's guidance, Suzuran's magical skills are recovering very quickly; it's estimated that she'll be back to her peak level in at most six months.

Although there's still a long way to go, I can still help Tia summon and control skeletons, the most basic summons in necromancy.

Normal skeletons are very fragile; even a regular beast warrior can cleave them in two with a single axe swing. But what if thousands of skeletons equipped with automatic rifles were to use cover to mow them down?

Valensa was very excited about this scene, so she made a deal with Vi to buy a large number of automatic rifles and bullets.

Wei readily agreed... Guns in the cyberpunk world are almost like bread in Valensa's previous life; they can be bought anywhere from small shops on the street. With Wei's status and abilities, acquiring 10,000 automatic rifles would be a piece of cake.

What Wei needs are still various shield-type magic scrolls and shield-type magic jewelry that can be used without magic power. Any kind of shield will do, as long as it is a magic shield.

Of course, shields like [Shot Deflection] and [Iron Guard] are better.

In a technologically advanced world where shooting is the primary mode of combat, magical shields are incredibly valuable.

Since establishing a long-term resource exchange relationship with Valencia, Vivi and her company's henchmen have become increasingly invincible.

Whether it was armed resistance groups rebelling against the company's oppression or thugs from rival companies, they were all utterly defeated by Wei.

This continuously enhanced Wei's status in the company, making her even more favored by the beautiful boss.

Four or five months ago, Wei had already won over her beautiful boss, Arasaka Miyuki, or rather, been won over by her beautiful boss, becoming the de facto boss's wife of Arasaka Company.

So after the gun purchase deal was successfully agreed upon, Valensa proposed a new deal, which was also the most important purpose of her hosting Vivi for this trip.

She also wanted to purchase a small reactor and a batch of dirty bombs to power the underground ruins and eliminate the wild beasts.

This time, Wei remained silent for a long time before politely declining.

"It's not that I don't want to help you, sis, it's just that it's really too difficult."

Wei sighed, pulled the two Pink Rose ladies who were massaging her into her arms, kissed them both, and then continued:

"You know that my place is a cyberpunk world, but before it became a cyberpunk world, my place was actually not much different from our previous life... except that the place names and people's names were different, and the general historical trajectory was similar."

So why did our world become a cyberpunk world? It's because of nuclear war... More than 80% of human civilization was wiped out in nuclear war... For decades, the people where I lived were living in a wasteland.

You think that when humans on our side started using cybernetic bodies on a large scale, it was because they really liked mechanical ascension? Not at all. It was because nuclear war caused such severe environmental damage that it became impossible for flesh and blood to survive, which is why our civilization gradually transformed into a cyberpunk civilization.

Nuclear war taught us a lesson far too profound, so everything related to nuclear weapons is currently under strict control there. Let alone me, even if Miyuki were to do something like this, a leak would make our company an enemy of the world.

The nuclear bomb I got for you last time was already the limit... Because of it, I suffered a crisis of trust from Miyuki, and almost ended up like that V, getting fired from the company and becoming a nightlife delivery guy who hangs out in bars all day.”

"Is that so...Okay then."

Valensa was very disappointed, but she didn't insist.

She needs nuclear reactors and dirty bombs, but she can't ruin Wei's future.

Being a rebel against the order of the cyber world sounds pretty cool, but who would want to be a rebel when they can be the wife of a big company boss?

Even the famous V from Night City in the game, wasn't he forced to become a deliveryman after being fired from his company?

"...How about this?"

Valensa was considerate of Vivian's feelings, and Vivian was naturally very loyal to her.

It was indeed difficult for Vivi to provide Valensa with a complete nuclear reactor and a dirty bomb, but she came up with a compromise:

"I can find a way to get you an empty reactor without nuclear fuel, and also a batch of dirty bombs with the uranium removed."

Your world is so big, there must be radioactive minerals similar to uranium. If you can find similar minerals yourself, I guarantee everything I give you will work, okay?

Finding radioactive minerals in this world that can replace uranium... Hmm, that's one way to do it.

"it is good."

Valensa quickly calculated in her mind and then decisively nodded:

"Then I'll have to ask you to help me with these things... What about you, sis? What do you want?"

"Necromantic spells, perhaps."

Wei answered without the slightest hesitation, clearly having planned it all along:

"Actually, this is what Miyuki wants... You know, I think I mentioned you to her. She's very interested in the necromancy here and wants a spell that can revive the dead."

The dead do not need to be revived to have combat capabilities, as long as they can retain their work skills from when they were alive. Of course, it would be even better if they could be more obedient.

Miyuki has always felt deep regret for the outstanding employees who have passed away or died suddenly at work... Miyuki wants to use necromancy to resurrect the dead and let them continue working for the company.

Chapter 154 Preparing Goods

How can you use necromancy to revive dead employees and make them continue working?