As for raising a shipgirl from level 100 to level 110, it was hard to say whether that was the better deal.
In game terms, going from level 1 to 100 takes about 1.24 million experience, while 100 to 110 takes about 720,000.
On the face of it—since the horn can only be used once—the former pays out more value (and even "saves" the 100-diamond handling fee).
But that's not how the math works.
A level-110 shipgirl stands a full two tiers above a level-100 shipgirl.
Hikaru glanced at Yamato, who was staring wide-eyed across from him, and sighed a little.
The horn was incredible in every way but one: it couldn't break the level cap.
Level caps were a hard rule for shipgirls. The medals from the earlier Defense Mission had made that plain—the system-issued medals could pierce the cap.
But this strange horn was explicit: it could only raise shipgirls who were already above level 100.
If it could let cap-locked shipgirls like Yamato—stuck at 100 for who knew how many years—break through, humanity would band together to hunt Abyssal Yamato just to find more of these.
Across the entire world, aside from Hikaru's shipgirls, there wasn't a single human-side shipgirl who'd broken past level 100.
Obviously, this horn was rare on the Abyssal side too. Otherwise, when an Abyssal Yamato appeared in the South Seas earlier, the system would have issued the same collection task then.
This horn's collection reward was 100 diamonds. The other collection task's reward was 300.
Hikaru didn't yet know what that other trophy would do, but he already meant to claim it.
"This horn is extremely potent," Hikaru said, turning the purple length in his hands, reluctant to set it down. Then he passed it to Bismarck. "If the pressure on the front line isn't too high, let's hold off using it. I'll summon the next shipgirls first."
Bismarck's eyes lit. "You're saying this strange horn can directly increase our strength—like those special trophies we used to get?"
Those "special trophies" were the old large-event rewards the naval district had earned in the past—collection items that boosted certain factions or classes by a point or two. Nice to have, but marginal.
Unfortunately, those trophies—and the shipgirls' old medals—couldn't be brought over.
"This is more direct," Hikaru said, winking. "Keep it safe."
"Understood," Bismarck replied at once.
Yamato was practically scratching her ears in frustration. Seeing Hikaru turn toward the construction room, she blurted, "So what does it actually do?"
Hikaru waved without looking back and didn't answer.
After steadying himself, he laid a hand on the fresh resource crates and sank into another memory of steel.
He hoped for a big hull. Moskva was easy on the eyes, but as for combat power—at best she could run expeditions and scrounge resources. With a million-strong Abyssal army at the gate, she had no place on the line.
The moment the new memory's "protagonist" appeared, Hikaru knew his prayer had gone unanswered.
It was a supply ship.
In the naval district, three supply ships huddled together, heads bowed in conspiratorial whispers.
The red-haired girl in a blue work apron and black tights was Vestal. Wearing a gentle smile, she rested her chin on her hand and listened to the two little ones chatter.
The black-haired girl in a Mongolian fur coat, chewing a grass stem, was Sukhbaatar, the district's fishing queen. She swung a wide-brimmed service cap and intoned in a spooky voice:
"I had a dream last night. In it, I became an all-powerful flagship. Not even six hundred B-25s could sink me. I'd toss a little paper airplane and blow the enemy sky-high—Odin! Are you listening to me?"
The absent-minded white-haired girl was Odin. She was fiddling with a miniature net-cutter; only when Sukhbaatar called did she look up, helpless.
"You're bragging about your invincible dream again. A dream is just a dream!"
"Can't dreams come true? Didn't the Commander say he found us in a dream?" Sukhbaatar looked wounded. "You've changed, Odin. You're not my best friend anymore!"
Sukhbaatar was the fishing queen, and in history, Iceland's fishery-protection ship Odin specialized in cutting illegal nets with gear like that very net-cutter.
And though their traits clashed on paper, in truth they were inseparable—the perfect little duo.
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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