When Hua Yi returned to his dormitory and opened his virtual interface, he found that his Friendship Points had increased significantly, as expected. It wasn't just Kiana's share; his contact with Theresa today seemed to have triggered a substantial jump in points as well.
However, Hua Yi had no intention of deliberately seeking out Theresa just because he had tasted success. Aside from his connection to Kiana, he currently had very little to do with her. Such matters required a sense of moderation; Hua Yi would not let greed drive him to make erratic or suspicious moves that defied common sense.
Theresa was different from Raiden Mei and Kiana. As the Principal of St. Freya Academy and the adopted granddaughter of the Schicksal Overseer, Otto, her status was extremely sensitive. Hua Yi couldn't afford to take the initiative to approach her recklessly at least not yet.
He continued to consume his Friendship Points to pull from the Friendship Supply. Unsurprisingly, he received coin items. By now, Hua Yi had accumulated quite a few Coins, enough to reinforce a two-star Stigmata to its maximum level.
At this moment, he already possessed a full set of Selena and Charlotte, along with a single Hannah (M). Rather than continuing to reinforce the Charlotte set, which was nearing the same level of perfection as his Selena set, Hua Yi intended to focus on the Hannah (M) piece.
It wasn't just that he valued higher-star Stigmata more; he wanted to confirm something.
Maxing out a one-star Stigmata required one thousand Coins, while evolving it cost five thousand. Maxing a two-star Stigmata required ten thousand Coins, and now Hua Yi wanted to know exactly how many Coins were needed to evolve a two-star piece.
Since the Selena and Charlotte sets could only reach a two-star ranking at most, Hua Yi hadn't been able to investigate this before. Now that he had the Hannah Stigmata, which could reach three stars, he could finally test it.
If evolution costs followed the same fivefold increase as the one-star tier, the situation would be dire. Even if he established connections with more Valkyries in the future and gained more Friendship Points daily,
he didn't think the Coins from the Friendship Supply could sustain the cost of crafting Stigmata. After all, two-star or even three-star Stigmata weren't particularly high-level items.
If reinforcing and evolving them required massive amounts of gold, he would only be able to stare in despair when he eventually obtained four-star or five-star Stigmata.
After maxing out the Hannah (M) piece, Hua Yi didn't even stop to feel the surge of power in his body. He quickly navigated the virtual interface, his eyes fixed on the evolution tab.
The number displayed there wasn't fifty thousand, but twenty thousand. Evolving a max-level two-star Stigmata to three stars only required twenty thousand Coins it wasn't a fivefold increase like the one-star tier.
From this, he could roughly guess that the Coin consumption for reinforcement and evolution would double with each tier. As for that fivefold jump at the first star, it likely wasn't that the evolution cost was high, but rather that the reinforcement cost was unusually low. Perhaps it was some sort of "newbie benefit"?
Regardless, Hua Yi felt a wave of relief.
While the sample size was too small to be certain, at least the evolution of a two-star Stigmata wasn't as prohibitively expensive as he had feared. He could continue to maintain a steady pace of growth.
As for his combat skills, Hua Yi didn't believe that continuing to study the fighting techniques of ordinary people would give him much of an edge against the Honkai. If his opponent were a regular human,
his current level of strength and speed would allow him to kill them even with the clumsiest of attacks. But when it came to the Honkai Beasts infected by the Honkai, most were massive creatures; trying to face them with standard grappling techniques would be suicidal.
The Herrschers, on the other hand, maintained normal human proportions, as they were originally human. However, a Herrscher would never choose to engage in close-quarters combat.
They preferred to use their control over the Honkai to unleash high-level attacks that were beyond human imagination. Their physical bodies shouldn't be too exaggerated. When the time came,
Hua Yi might be able to rely on the raw power granted by multiple Stigmata to suppress them in close range, rendering fancy techniques unnecessary.
His combat skills had reached a level of mastery where further time investment wouldn't yield significant improvements, and even if they did, the effects would be marginal. The treadmills and barbells he used for physical training had also started to feel less effective lately; he had clearly reached a bottleneck. The same applied to his swordsmanship.
So, what should his next goal be?
Hua Yi found himself feeling momentarily lost. He didn't stay that way for long, though. He glanced at the time, looked out at the dark night, and quickly came to a decision.
Having slipped into Chiba Academy frequently of late, he felt his infiltration skills had improved considerably. Combined with the physical enhancements from his Stigmata sharper observation,
faster reaction times, and better coordination he figured he could try to sneak into the high-level weapon research lab in the ME Corp branch building before the Third Honkai Impact arrived.
Gaining something would be ideal, but even if he didn't, he needed to find another path early. If the Third Honkai Impact broke out while he was still empty-handed, he was confident enough to face Deadmen and Honkai Beasts with his bare fists, but he had no certainty when it came to a Herrscher.
When the time came, the version of Raiden Mei about to awaken as the 3rd Herrscher would be in a very peculiar state. Because her Herrscher Core was not formed autonomously it was originally a fragment of the 2nd Herrscher's power she would be much weaker than a normal Herrscher. Even so, Hua Yi intended to treat her with the utmost seriousness and prepare as thoroughly as possible.
Since he was planning to sneak into ME Corp, should he act immediately?
Hua Yi decided he first needed to map out the positions of the cameras along the way to avoid exposing himself. The cameras on the streets shouldn't be too hidden; he just needed some time to take note of them. As for those inside ME Corp, he didn't expect to find them all. He would just have to disguise himself and move with precision when the time came.
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