Ch.3232. Hive Valkyrie

Thus, while Teresia temporarily returned to the base for her upgrade, I was diligently expanding my territory bit by bit.

The expansion was directed northward and eastward, specifically beneath the Baekdudaegan mountain range and the East Sea.

This was partly to leave a multi in Japan, similar to how I had left Tetra in Gangwon Province as a precaution, but it was also preparation for the full-scale takeover of North Hamgyong Province, Manchuria, and eventually all of North Korea.

And to take control of North Hamgyong Province, there was something that absolutely had to be done first.

That was to eliminate all the high-ranking monsters that ruled North Hamgyong Province.

There are four high-ranking monsters in North Hamgyong Province. Two of them are just regular monsters, not bosses, but the other two are different.

One is a well-established named boss monster that appeared in the game, and the other is one that only existed in the lore—a boss monster with identical species existing worldwide.

First, regarding the two regular monsters, the Nine-Tailed Fox and the Centiyard, I don’t need to worry too much about them.

The Nine-Tailed Fox is a Grade 2 animal-type monster specializing in psychic abilities, and the Centiyard is a Grade 3 animal-type monster resembling a centipede. Both are low-grade and solitary creatures, so our Grade 1 dragon—which I named Theseus—can easily handle them alone.

However, the other two are both boss monsters and Grade 1 creatures, making them formidable opponents by any measure.

While we do have Theseus, a Grade 1 dragon monster, he is still just a regular monster despite some modifications.

In contrast, the other two Grade 1 monsters—the Fire Dragon of Mount Baekdu and the Mountain Lord of Baekdudaegan—receive significant boss monster bonuses.

Boss monsters in the Project Monster series are generally larger than regular monsters. Due to the nature of VR games, where larger body size makes it easier to be hit, all creatures in the game receive invisible stat and HP bonuses proportional to their size that don’t show up in their status window.

Additionally, all monsters receive various bonuses when in their designated territory, and bosses often gain extra special abilities on top of these bonuses.

While these bonuses might exist because it’s a game… considering how many game elements have been transformed and applied to this world in various ways, it’s definitely not something I can ignore.

Beyond this, boss monsters possess special characteristics, skills, bio-weapons, or patterns.

There was a unique hedgehog-type monster with hundreds of shock lances on its back, an Orc Arch-Shaman with a special pattern of psychic flames enveloping its body, and even a troll with bat wings capable of flight.

Just as many boss monsters have unique features, the Fire Dragon and Mountain Lord also possess their own special abilities.

The Fire Dragon, which typically inhabits suitable volcanoes on the server, can breathe lava breath that deals both physical and fire attribute damage, while the Mountain Lord possesses a skill called “Shadow Clone.”

This skill summons a shadow doppelganger that looks identical to the original but is made entirely of shadows. Although the clone can’t use skills, it retains characteristics and bio-weapons at one rank lower and maintains 80% of the original’s stats.

So effectively, you’d be facing a Grade 1 boss and another monster of around Grade 2-3, and on top of that, the tiger monsters under the Mountain Lord’s control are absolutely not to be underestimated.

The Mountain Lord (male) has at least seven Grade 4 boss-level tiger monster wives, and there are easily hundreds of baby tiger monsters that can rapidly grow to Grade 7 within ten days.

Considering that the boss had a pattern in the game of summoning independent mid-level tiger monsters that had grown from these cubs, while their numbers might not match a Hive Mind, their mid-level monster forces could be considered equivalent.

However, compared to them, our Grade 1 monster, Dragon Theseus, has such a significant disadvantage that he would certainly lose in a direct fight against the Mountain Lord.

This largely stems from the difference between flying and ground monsters. To enable flight, Theseus has a much lighter body weight—a key element in close combat—and his muscles are concentrated more in the back than the legs for flying.

Therefore, Theseus needs to leverage his ability to fly and engage the Mountain Lord with ranged attacks… but unfortunately, the Mountain Lord has near-top-tier psychic resistance, and Theseus’s ranged attacks are limited to fire breath aside from psychic abilities.

After sending a Hive Flight to scout, I confirmed that since the Mountain Lord is positioned below the Fire Dragon, it will be our first opponent, requiring me to prepare countermeasures.

Therefore, I decided to make additional modifications to Theseus while also creating another high-ranking monster capable of dealing with the Mountain Lord’s shadow clone.

This monster, which will follow Teresia, Tetra, and Theseus in naming and be called Theo, is a humanoid monster that will openly be known as a high-ranking monster produced by the Hive Mind, as I have no intention of disguising it as a wild monster.

Theo (Hive Valkyrie)

Grade :: 1

Level :: 79

Stats

Strength :: 3250

Agility :: 8565

Vitality :: 4750

Intelligence :: 3150

Resistance :: 4600

Energy :: 5500

Leadership :: 2500

Characteristics

Monster Gene (A), Predator (A), Hive Mind (A), Subjugation (EX), Bio Core (A), Versatile Psychic User (A), Composure (A), Aerial Combat Proficiency (A), Firepower Projection (A), Human Mimicry (A), High-Speed Calculation (A), Super Regeneration (B), Clairvoyance (B), Close Combat Proficiency (B)

Skills

Psychic Construct (A), Psychic Stealth (A), Complex Detection (A), Swiftness (A), Psychic Barrier (A), Telekinesis (B), Gravity Manipulation (B), High-Speed Flight (B), Evasion (B), Advanced Weapon Techniques (B), Physical Enhancement (B), Mental Manipulation (C)

Bio-Weapons

Valkyrie Suit (A), Psychic Shooter (A), Psychic Sword (A)

As evident from her appearance, she would look like a human wearing some kind of suit at first glance, and indeed, if you were to remove the Valkyrie Suit (A), which is a type of bio-weapon, her form resembles a female similar to Teresia.

But just as with Teresia, this is merely a disguise; beneath the human skin, she’s no different from other humanoid monsters.

And this similarity to other humanoid monsters extends to her characteristics and stat composition as well.

Her stats, characteristics, and skills are close to those of a high-speed mobile monster capable of both close and ranged combat, but I gave Theo a “Valkyrie Suit (A)” bio-weapon as a distinguishing feature from other monsters.

This suit, made of black fibers and pure white metal that are part of her body, boasts incredible performance thanks to my complete overhaul of Seongwang Defense’s top-tier enhancement suit technology for high-ranking hunters.

Its defensive capabilities are so strong that it remains intact even when hit directly by top-tier plasma weapons without a barrier field, and it has auxiliary thrusters attached throughout that multiply the wearer’s speed several times.

Additionally, the wing sections attached to the arms can be detached to serve as psychic shooters flying around or used defensively, and it comes with virtually every convenience feature imaginable.

It even incorporates some of the technology I’ve been developing for space exploration, making it capable of functioning in outer space, so its equipment functionality can be considered top-tier.

‘…Oh. I almost forgot.’

After focusing intensely on Theo’s design for quite some time, I suddenly realized that I had almost forgotten about information manipulation.

Previously, when I evolved into a Grade 1 Hive Mind and launched a large-scale invasion, I significantly reduced the scale of forces I sent down at appropriate times, using the war with Theseus as a front to prevent waste.

But since this upcoming subjugation will outwardly appear as a conflict between Theseus and the Mountain Lord, I naturally need to scale down the fake war between myself and Theseus.

Therefore, although the war with Theseus has ceased, I still need to send invasions of appropriate scale, if not as massive as before.

‘They’ll definitely salvage and use whatever I send…’

So despite knowing that all the monsters I send will be hunted down, dismantled, and turned into resources for humans, I reluctantly began preparing to send monsters southward through Tetra.

‘Teresia, once your modification is complete and you return, move immediately to the Gangwon Province front line. It seems you’ll need to play the hero again, like before.’

‘Understood, Mother.’

Since these monsters will be sacrificed and wasted anyway, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have Teresia handle them, thereby further enhancing her reputation.

Taking advantage of this situation, I also issued orders to my puppet, Nano-Tech, and made several preparations in advance to allow them to intervene in this matter.

Thanks to replacing new employees with identical monster duplicates under the pretext of training, Nano-Tech is essentially composed entirely of Nina-79s, so there’s no real interference.

Therefore, I used Nano-Tech’s capital to negotiate with the government, placing Nano-Tech’s subsidiary guilds on the Gangwon Province front line—which everyone avoids due to manpower shortages—in exchange for various rights.

From priority rights to purchase monster byproducts to receiving a certain percentage of government-sold monster byproducts for free, as well as supplying Nano-Tech products to the military.

For me, who plans to eventually exert influence over the entire Republic of Korea, this was an excellent contract as it allows me to infiltrate Nano-Spirits into the military.