Abundant Martial Spirit

"Cool, cool! Now that I've got this, I'll be the beloved Hoom Knight everyone adores!" Kiana happily snatched the bracelet and put it on, then waved her wrist at Sheng Jiu as if to show off. "You'd better not mess with me from now on, got it? I'll punch your lights out!"

Sheng Jiu sneered right back. "Come on, then. I could have my way with you in less than five minutes. Two minutes would be plenty."

"You shameless creep!"

A vicious roundhouse kick slammed into Sheng Jiu's ankle. Caught completely off guard, he was knocked flat on the ground. He clutched his shin in pain. "Ow, my foot! My perfect foot! You old hag, just you wait!"

"Oh? What did you just call me?" Kiana's kindly face spread into a smile as she cracked her knuckles. "You've got a death wish, huh..."

"Heh heh heh... Aaaaaaaaaah!"

The next several thousand words have been omitted.

Five minutes later, Sheng Jiu returned to the dormitory, battered and bruised. After returning the fishing rod to Rin, he went alone to the Medical Department.

"Yo, you're here, bro?" Svet called out to him from the doorway without even looking up.

"...Yeah. Do what you have to." Sheng Jiu didn't need to be called over; he'd already taken the initiative and sat down in a nearby dentist's chair.

Ever since Sheng Jiu had started reporting to Svet after every mission, dragging himself in covered with wounds, his habit of spouting nonsense had gradually rubbed off on the genius military doctor. As a result, Svet had picked up his exclusive lingo entirely on her own.

"Tell me, what happened?" Svet took a wad of disinfectant cotton and slowly dabbed the bruises on Sheng Jiu's face.

"I got beaten up by that old hag (ó﹏ò)... Damn it... I'll make sure she pays next time!" Sheng Jiu rubbed his face, then angrily made a throat-slitting gesture.

"Give it a rest, old man. Let me show you your treatment records for the past month—" Svet pulled out a small ledger and read aloud, "August 15: Sheng Jiu came in to treat bruises on his arm after Kiana beat him up for arguing with her; one pack of cotton pads used. August 22: Sheng Jiu bought a bottle of medicinal liquor after Kiana sprained his finger. September..."

"Okay, okay, please stop reading!" Sheng Jiu clapped a hand over Svet's mouth, then shot a sidelong glance at the nurse at the front desk, who was listening with her ears perked up.

"Listen, what is your deal? Do you have some kind of weird fetish..." Svet irritably pried Sheng Jiu's hand away. "If you like her, why not just ask her out instead of using these low-down—"

"Hold on!" Sheng Jiu interrupted her, his expression dead serious. "That violent woman and I are just normal classmates. Keep saying stuff like that and I'll sue you for slander!"

"Besides, I keep coming to the infirmary because someone can reimburse me for the extra medical expenses..."

"Whatever. I was just— Wait! What's this?" Svet's eyes widened when she saw the small bottle of liquid Sheng Jiu had taken out.

"Then you have to promise—"

"Be quiet! Let me see!" Svet snatched the small bottle of blue liquid and cradled it like a treasure.

"Where did you get this?!" Svet grabbed Sheng Jiu's head and shook him violently. He struggled desperately as he felt two soft lumps pressing against his head. "Mmph... mmph..."

Only then did Svet realize Sheng Jiu was on the verge of suffocating. She quickly let go, though her eyes still glimmered with excitement.

"Haah, haah... Don't rush me, I'll tell you." After taking several deep breaths, Sheng Jiu grumbled, "It's a small bottle of tissue fluid from an Emperor-class Honkai Beast that I secretly brought back. I think it was ice-element. Most of the combat skills it showed when we fought were related to ice. Oh, and the craziest part was that if you got too much of its blood on you, your body would slowly start freezing over. The kind of freezing that even a flamethrower can't melt."

Sheng Jiu went on and on about how hard it had been to obtain the tissue fluid, completely unaware of Svet's increasingly odd expression.

Svet listened to Sheng Jiu finish with a blank look. She glanced at the small bottle of spit on the table, swallowed, and spoke in a voice calm enough to be terrifying. "Do you have any idea how much this bottle is worth?"

"How much? A bottle this small is probably worth a dinner, right? There was a huge puddle of it on the ground." Sheng Jiu waited curiously for Svet to explain. Even if she wasn't a frontline combatant, as a genius military doctor who dissected Honkai Beasts year-round, she had absolute authority on the matter.

Svet held up an open hand.

"Fifty?" Sheng Jiu's eyes widened. "That could buy two dinners."

"Five hundred thousand."

"W-w-w-wait, how much????" Sheng Jiu sprang to his feet. "Five hundred grand?"

"U.S. dollars." Svet gave him a sly smile.

Sheng Jiu began turning to stone. Svet watched him crouch in the corner, drawing circles on the wall, then patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay, it's okay~ Look on the bright side. Just bringing back this little bottle will greatly advance the Far East Branch's research. The headquarters' Research Department would've packed up and taken away that whole puddle of blood anyway."

"So why is this stuff worth so much?"

Svet pulled out a blackboard and began explaining. "Look, I'll break it down for you. As everyone knows, Honkai Beasts fall into four broad categories: lower-tier Honkai Beasts, Emperor-class Honkai Beasts, Judgment-class Honkai Beasts, and finally, End-of-Law-class Honkai Beasts."

"There are many kinds of lower-tier Honkai Beasts, like the Assault-types and Tank-types you usually encounter. Their combat strength is fairly average, and they range from zero to twenty meters in size. A B-rank Valkyrie can kill them fairly easily."

"At the top of the lower-tier Honkai Beasts is the Herrscher of Honkai—oh, the one who turned your clothes into a backless, slit qipao last time." Svet pretended not to notice Sheng Jiu's murderous glare as she sketched the Herrscher of Honkai. "This one isn't very big, only about five or six meters at most, but it's the strongest of the lower-tier Honkai Beasts. Usually, you need a B-rank Valkyrie squad working with an A-rank Valkyrie to deal with one."

"Above those are the Emperor-class Honkai Beasts, which are much trickier. They're usually over fifty meters tall, and each one has its own designation. They're extremely tough to deal with; taking one down requires five thousand ordinary soldiers or an entire mechanized corps. For example, there was Parvati, which appeared in 1973, and Ganesha, which killed two A-rank Valkyries in 2012."

"Good grief, I had no idea Emperor-class Honkai Beasts were that powerful. I can't believe I thought I could solo it. We were lucky just to survive until Rita came to rescue us..." Sheng Jiu steadied himself, still shaken.

"Mm-hmm, that's right. We won't even get into Judgment-class and End-of-Law-class Honkai Beasts. Neither of us would make it back alive if we ran into one. Let's talk about this tissue fluid."

"First, Honkai Beasts above Emperor-class each have an elemental attribute, allowing them to launch elemental attacks at their enemies. They also have extremely high resistance to physical damage, so you usually need to use an elemental weapon that counters their attribute. For instance, you need fire-element weapons to fight an ice-element Emperor-class Honkai Beast."

"Tissue fluid from Honkai Beasts containing different elements is prized by every branch. Just a few milliliters is enough to develop weapons far more powerful than battle-axe missiles. So I'm not exaggerating when I say you brought the organization at least five hundred thousand dollars' worth of value this time!" Svet declared confidently.

"Then, wise and brilliant Doctor Svet, could you use this ice-element Emperor-class tissue fluid to develop anything powerful for me?"

All girls liked hearing other people praise them, and Svet was no exception. She smiled sweetly. "No problem. Leave it to me!"

An hour later, Sheng Jiu went outside for a stroll and returned to the office to find eight or nine palm-sized crystal balls arranged in front of his chair.

"What are these?" Sheng Jiu picked up one of the crystal balls and turned it over in his hand.

"Careful. You don't want to break that thing." Svet gently took the crystal ball from him and set it back on the table. Then she said solemnly, "This is my own invention: the Frozen Bomb Mk.1. It's a genuine weapon."

"Oh? What makes it so powerful?"

Svet picked up one of the crystal balls and gave it a gentle shake. Sheng Jiu heard liquid sloshing inside.

"These nine ice bombs each contain a portion of the tissue fluid, and I've also added a little Honkai Energy activation enzyme. In other words, if you smash one of these onto a target, even a small amount of tissue fluid will quickly freeze their entire body permanently... All right, stop looking at me like that! Of course I kept half the fluid for my research!"

Without even blushing, Svet pocketed most of the remaining tissue fluid. Sheng Jiu gave her a strange look. "As a powerhouse of St. Freya, when did I ever need to use such underhanded, dishonorable tactics in battle?"

"What the hell do you know!" Even the erudite and refined Svet couldn't help swearing. "A soldier who can win is a good soldier. If you can leave your opponent shitting themselves, I'd be delighted to see you do it!"

"Fine, fine. I'll take them. If these things work, make me a few more next time." Sheng Jiu reluctantly stuffed the nine ice bombs into his pocket and turned to leave. Even as he closed the office door behind him, he could still hear Svet's booming voice: "Next time you use these, remember to write me a usage report! Nothing crazy, just five thousand words..."