HI3: I Don't Want to Be a Valkyrie

At the thought of the dungeon core's value, Rozaliya's excitement skyrocketed.

30,000 crystals! That's more than enough to fuel my card draws and shopping!

"Don't get too excited yet, Rozaliya," Liliya cautioned, her voice peppered with habitual superiority. "Values differ greatly here.

"To the people of this world, a dungeon core might be worth ten thousand times their source stones. But to the System, it could amount to mere tens of times."

Liliya glanced at Rozaliya's beaming face, feeling the urge to deflate her enthusiasm once again.

"Ugh, Liliya, you're relentless," Rozaliya replied, exasperated. "Can't I just enjoy this moment?"

"I'm merely tempering your expectations," Liliya shrugged, her gaze impassive. "The greater the hope, the greater the potential disappointment. I worry you might not handle reality when the time comes."

"..."

Rozaliya found herself utterly speechless.

"But still, even without those 30,000 crystals, a few thousand wouldn't be so bad, right?"

Though her enthusiasm had waned compared to before, the ever-vigorous Rosaliya wouldn't let such a minor setback dampen her spirits.

"True enough..."

Liliya glanced at the mission that had triggered all this.

[Commissioned Mission: Exterminate the Demon Lord]

[Mission Requirement: Slay the underground Demon Lord within the Cronis Eagle Kingdom within one year.]

[Mission Rewards: 100 crystals, Compensation promised by the King]

While 100 crystals wasn't a staggering sum, it was undeniably high for a commissioned mission.

More enticing still was the reward of originium from the King of Kroneagle. Successfully vanquishing the Demon Lord would earn Rosaliya an additional 20 originium stones—equivalent to a massive 600 crystals.

In total, a 700-crystal bounty, plus the dungeon core—this mission was shaping up to be immensely lucrative.

The crystal rewards in this world far surpassed those of the previous two. Was it perhaps due to the advent of a new Valkyrie?

-

"Rozaliya, do you know what's inside the gift box from Princess Dalisaya?"

Rozaliya was playing with the exquisite gift box, which Dalisaya had given them, her curiosity piqued.

"Well, wouldn't you know right away if you opened it?" Liliya replied, refusing to take a guess.

"Dull..." Rozaliya pouted momentarily but still began to open the gift box.

And then... a beautiful piece of Originium appeared before Rozaliya's eyes.

"Originium." The moment she saw the stone within the box, Rozaliya was astonished, never having imagined Princess Dalisaya would gift them such a thing.

"What a pity there's only one."

"Be grateful, dear!" Liliya moved closer to Rozaliya and gently took the Originium out of the box.

Without hesitation, she converted it directly into crystals, adding another thirty to their collection.

"Huh, there's something else in there." As Liliya removed the Originium, Rozaliya noticed additional items in the gift box.

Curiosity winning out, she revealed two sets of clothing, which she carefully unfolded.

To their delight, they were two stunningly beautiful princess dresses...

Both primarily white, one featured pink accents, while the other boasted sky-blue patterns.

"It must be because we lent our spare clothes to Dalisaya earlier. She's returning these dresses as thanks! They're so pretty. Liliya, shall we try them on?" Rozaliya looked eagerly at the princess dresses, already imagining herself in them.

"...If you must." Liliya was about to refuse, but upon seeing how truly lovely the dresses were, she couldn't bring herself to object further.

-

When Liliya and Rozaliya changed into these two princess dresses, they discovered that they fit perfectly.

Rozaliya looked at Liliya standing before her, even more beautiful than the princesses in fairy tales.

Such a beautiful Liliya had to be shown off, so Rozaliya immediately took her to Cellinia's room.

"Cellinia, Cellinia, isn't Liliya adorable?" Rozaliya and Liliya entered Cellinia's room and exclaimed proudly right away.

"Lady Liliya... and Lady Rozaliya... you're both so cuuuute!" As soon as she saw the twins in front of her, Cellinia was instantly charmed; they were too adorable!

How can two Heroes be this cute?

"Liliya is so lovely and pretty. Cellinia, look, don't I look exactly like Liliya?" Rozaliya pulled Liliya close, embraced tightly with her younger sister, and asked energetically.

"You dumb Rozaliya, stop finding ways to compliment yourself." Surrounded by Rozaliya's arms, Liliya wore a helpless expression, letting her embrace continue.

First praising Liliya's cuteness and beauty, then saying she looks just like Liliya? Isn't that still indirectly complimenting herself?

"Both Lady Liliya and Lady Rozaliya are incredibly cute." The wolf-eared girl Cellinia nodded enthusiastically, wishing she could wrap her arms around these two lovely Heroes and give them affectionate licks.

-

After greeting their admirers, Rosalia and Liliya returned to their room.

Once inside, they began discussing where they should go to have some fun.

Although they had a quest, the one-year deadline meant they weren't in any rush. Having arrived at the capital of the Krone Eagle Kingdom, they decided to enjoy themselves before worrying about anything else.

However... it seemed like Ai-chan couldn't bear to see her boss wasting time so carelessly. With so many crystals still owed to her, and no thought of repayment, Rosalia and Liliya were planning a leisurely day out!

Thus, Ai-chan promptly assigned them a new quest:

[Special] Limited-Time Quest: Underground Dungeon Speed Run Challenge

Quest Requirement: Clear all three levels of the underground dungeon and defeat the Demon Lord at the fastest possible speed.

Quest Rewards:

Completed within 1 week: 100 Ai-chan Points

Completed within 3 days: 200 Ai-chan Points

Completed within 1 day: 300 Ai-chan Points

Completed within 12 hours: 400 Ai-chan Points

Completed within 6 hours: 500 Ai-chan Points

Completed within 5 hours: 600 Ai-chan Points

Completed within 1 hour: 1000 Ai-chan Points + 1x 10% Discount Coupon

Ai-chan's Warm Reminder: Timing starts as soon as you enter the underground dungeon.

"Hmm? What?"

As the task suddenly appeared before them, both Rozaliya and Liliya were instantly stunned. Especially when they read the mission requirements and rewards.

Rozaliya and Liliya completely skipped over the initial rewards and went straight to the most difficult condition with the highest reward.

"1,000 Limited Coins! And there are even discount vouchers? A 10% off voucher—if you buy something worth 800,000, that's a saving of 80,000... We need to get our hands on this."

"Beat the Demon Lord within an hour and slay him... This condition..." Liliya and Rozaliya exchanged glances, both of them tempted, but the conditions seemed quite challenging.

Not to mention the state of the dungeon, and as the Demon Lord—even a newly born one—would undoubtedly be no ordinary foe.

"It seems we can only... switch Valkyries..."

Skyfire could only use one move, so it wasn't really an option.

Liliya opened the Valkyries interface, looked at the four unlocked Valkyries, and tapped on the SSS-rank Gyakushinn Miko...