Ian calmly watches Maria's final test. She is controlling a fleet of 500,000 spaceships with her Mind Stone power. Her soul and will have become so powerful.
However, that was not the primary focus of this test. In this battle, she faced an army four times her size. In other words, a fleet of two million ships.
The battle was extremely fierce, but Maria was calm and collected. She split the fleet into two, with one part focusing on attack and the other focusing on defense by intercepting enemy attacks.
Through this strategy, she saved countless ships and weakened a considerable part of the enemy's strength. However, this was not enough, because she was still at a 1 to 4 disadvantage in numbers.
Maria remained calm and composed, using everything she learned in training, including tactics such as "Holdo Maneuver", to destroy countless enemy ships. In the process, she also lost countless spaceships, but she remained as steady as a rock.
Losing these spaceships did bring psychological pressure to her, but it also reduced her mental burden because she no longer needed to control so many spaceships. With more surplus Mind Stone power, she could control the surviving spaceships to perform more sophisticated tactical maneuvers.
After several hours of fierce fighting, Maria won the battle, and her fleet only had more than 10,000 spaceships left. The simulation system gave her an [S]-level rating, which is the second-highest rating after [S+]. Lin
An nodded approvingly after seeing it. In the Empire, [S+] is the theoretical limit of this test, and only artificial intelligence and six other people have ever achieved that score - including Ian's wife, Olivia.
'With her talent, she should be able to reach [S+] level eventually,' Ian thought.
'We must bring such talent back to the Empire,' Morgana suggested. 'Psychic Space Fleet Department needs such talent to compete with other departments.'
Ever since the tower masters Narcissa and Sorell discovered Mind Stone energy, the concept of using Mind Stone's abilities to command spaceships was introduced. The department achieved great success in the war against the Death Resistance god Guznader. Unfortunately, they did not perfect their system until after the war.
Due to a lack of sufficient merit, this division cannot be compared to divisions like Magic Space Fleet Department or Artificial Intelligence Space Fleet Department. Their divisions need two things to be at the top: a great war to prove themselves, and an unparalleled talent as a leader. Maria·Hill could be that talent.
'Indeed,' Ian nodded. He had high hopes for that department because that was the method he used to deal with what he called [Swarm Civilizations], such as Skynet, Zerg or Abyssal Demons with artificial intelligence. These civilizations responded to threats by overwhelming their opponents in numbers.
Ian spent countless sleepless nights worrying about this situation and thinking about how he should deal with these civilizations. He even tried to create his own version of Queen Zerg, and achieved a certain degree of success.
After capturing the creature known as Hive Mind in the world of <Rick and Morty>, he created a being similar to Queen Zerg. However, he did not fully recreate the fundamental characteristic that made that race so terrifying: their ability to utilize resources.
As long as the Queen has enough flesh, blood and soul, she can mass-produce Zerg soldiers from Tier 0 to Tier 9, possibly Tier 10. Ian has not yet reached this level of energy utilization.
Therefore, his main plan for dealing with those [Swarm Civilizations] is to rely on the weaponization of Obscurus, which has become an unlimited, all-devouring force of nature, and the use of technology; to be precise, the use of artificial intelligence.
After reaching the Tier 10 and combining the existing technology of the Empire, it should not be a problem to mass-produce the first to Tier 7 robots and compete with these Swarm Civilizations. Then, the Arcanist in the Empire will have to make up for the gap in higher-level combat power.
However, Ian has always had paranoid concerns about artificial intelligence, especially the kind of artificial intelligence that is purely based on technology. Therefore, he has secretly helped the development of the Mind Stone department because they are an alternative to artificial intelligence.
A Mind Stone commander can command a fleet of millions of ships. At higher levels, this number can reach billions or even trillions, making them perfect replacements for these robots.
"The second part of the test is about to begin," Morgana said, and Ian came back from his thoughts. Maria has a new fleet of 500,000 Tier 4 spacecraft, but this time, her opponent is Arcanist, the first Tier 6.
In the following battles, independent individuals with huge power will replace huge armies as the focus, so Maria's main energy is focused on this aspect.
Maria controls her fleet in battle against Arcanist, who wields countless spells; she must deal with his endless array of tactics to ensure she is able to kill him. After defeating him, she must also fight countless other individuals.
After all, Arcanist's power will vary greatly depending on how they condense Magic Core at the first Tier 5 and their understanding of magic. What's more, different branches of Arcanist also have unique fighting methods.
Ian and Morgana calmly watched her go through this test. Maria not only had to fight against different branches of Arcanist, but also against various creatures in the Empire's records, as well as creatures created by Ian in this world. In the end, she received a final score of [S-].
"As expected, the spiritual summoner was her nemesis," Morgana commented, and Ian nodded. She could have gotten a higher score, but the spiritual summoner broke through her mental defense and she almost lost control. Maria opened her eyes and took off the headset.
"How do you feel?" Ian asked.
"It's still not enough," she said calmly. Everyone else had finished training, but she stayed because of the spirit summoner. She had gotten an [A-] score before and was not satisfied with it, so she stayed and continued training to improve her score.
"Indeed," Ian nodded. Just as she had high hopes for herself, so did he.
"However, you have reached the minimum requirements to end this training. You can complete the rest by yourself."
"I understand," Maria nodded. "Is there any news from Fury?"
"No, but he is still alive, that's enough," Ian replied. Fury had been reincarnated, and Ian used a piece of Divination Divine Artifact he left at Blank Domain to determine whether he was still alive. Although it would be troublesome to have someone check it occasionally, it was the best option because he didn't want to leave any causal connections related to his timeline.
"It's great to hear this news," Maria nodded. "What about my fleet?"
"Ready," Ian replied, giving her access to the fleet.
"So many spaceships?" Maria was surprised. She sensed more than 10 million spaceships, many of which were so powerful that she could not control them with her current sixth-level psychic power.
"It's nothing," Ian said calmly. He wasn't bragging. After reaching Tier 10, his productivity level reached another level. Many things can now be easily automated and mass-produced.
For this fleet, he just built a second Synthesizer and provided enough energy, and then, lo and behold, he built such a huge army. What he showed to Maria was just the tip of the iceberg.
Maria nodded and said nothing more. In the past few years, she has understood how terrifying this person is. "Do you have any instructions?"
"Not yet," Ian replied.
"In that case, I'll take my leave first." Maria turned around and left, Ian looked at her back calmly.
"What? Are you interested in bringing her into your harem?" Morgana joked. "She meets the standards: talented, ambitious, and extremely hard-working."
During this training, this House-elf saw how crazy Maria was in training. She seemed to understand that as long as Ian was present, she would not die, so she continued to break through her limits. This is why although her talent is inferior to Avengers, she was still able to reach Tier 6.
Ian shook his head. He was too mentally tired now to think about women. Is he interested in Maria's beauty and talent? Of course, otherwise he would not be Ian. However, now is not the time.
"Get this over with now," he muttered, and then summoned Sam Wilson, Falcon, the future Captain America.
Sam is different from others; he is unrestrained and looks around curiously.
"So, what kind of powers are you going to give me?" he asked. "Will it be magic? If I became a wizard, I could wear a hat. Or maybe laser eyes—that's the kind of super power I always wanted when I was a kid."
"Your power will be based on your talents," Ian explained. "Stand in front of the sphere."
"Oh, okay."
A few minutes later, Ian received the result and looked at him strangely.
"What's the problem?"
"No, there's no problem." There was nothing abnormal about the test results. Even though he had a talent comparable to Avengers, it was "normal" in a sense. The reason why Ian looked at him strangely was because his talent was "Beast Taming".
Sam in Marvel Cinematic Universe is just an ordinary person without superpowers, but in the comics, he has the ability of bird sensing or bird control, that is, the power to control or influence birds.
However, in this Multiverse, after being affected by Grace and given supernatural powers, Sam Wilson gained the ability to control all Beast.