Rhine Lab, Headquarters building.
Bang—bang bang.
Bright sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows into the spacious and empty room.
This room is Rhine Lab's Defense Department's dedicated training room, where both Defense Department members and external hired security personnel can train.
Melee attacks, crossbow volleys, Spell coverage, and even firearm designs would struggle to break this specially renovated room.
However, today, with a series of heavy impacts, the specially reinforced, high-protection floor was covered in various cracks and scratches.
A tall, slender, black-haired male, dressed primarily in white, was nimbly moving around the training ground.
Goki, this Researcher who arrived at Rhine Lab two weeks ago, has been officially accepted and became a full-time employee of Rhine Lab.
On the other side, a similarly tall, white-haired female stomped her athletic shoe on the ground.
Saria, Head of the Defense Department, is also the most combat-capable person in the Defense Department and a regular at the training ground.
To maintain her combat readiness, Saria habitually trains alone here—because the employees she drags in to spar with her can basically not endure her devil-level training intensity.
However, recently, those familiar with Head of the Defense Department Saria have noticed that the new person named Goki often spars with her in the training room.
"I'm coming, Goki!"
Her slender, pale white arms, which subtly revealed firm lines, clenched in front of her chest, one in front of the other, adopting a boxing stance.
Behind her, a bright crimson flash suddenly streaked across her originally dark green, spiky tail. Saria crouched down and instantly rushed close to Goki.
According to the physiological state of Wyvern, this clearly indicates that she has entered a combat state. While not going all out, she is showing no mercy!
"Oh my, full power again, Saria, can't you go a little easy on me—"
Without a weapon in his hand, Goki looked at the whistling punch and unhesitatingly rolled backward, retreating nearly two meters.
Boom!
Saria's unprotected fist smashed onto the floor, directly denting the special bulletproof metal Materials.
This is a Wyvern. On Terra, besides a few rare races—Dragon and Draco—their strength and Physique are the strongest.
Saria was not wearing her usual Rhine Lab charging suit but a simple tracksuit.
The black athletic shirt on her upper body outlined the Nona's good figure. Although her chest appeared only slightly prominent, Goki knew that was the result of binding and wrapping.
Once truly unleashed... it would be very detrimental to combat.
The tight black athletic shorts on her lower body constrained Saria's long legs, with a special opening at the back to accommodate her powerful Dragon tail.
Although she could smash the floor with a single punch, Saria's figure was actually a bit more slender than Goki had imagined.
Aside from a few muscle lines, Saria's lower abdomen beneath her shirt was exceptionally smooth, showing no trace of the abdominal muscles Goki had imagined, only two vertical lines.
How to put it... it was quite disappointing. While Goki didn't like the protein queen level of Physique from his biology classes, a little muscle would have been quite nice.
However, just as Skadi's body was full of soft flesh, Saria's strength came from her racial talent. No matter how much she trained, her muscles could not be that prominent.
"Don't worry, I will retract my strength upon impact, but if I retract it beforehand, it will affect my attack speed—after all, I'm not that fast."
Goki easily dodged the powerful blow. Saria did not stop, but rather pushed off the ground, stood up again, and pressed close to the just-steady Goki, throwing a hook punch at his chin.
Saria greatly appreciated this employee who had just arrived at Rhine Lab a mere half-month ago.
He was kind to others, helpful, strictly adhered to rules and regulations, never did anything out of line, diligently completed the work assigned to him, and conducted experiments strictly according to safety instructions.
What Saria found even more unexpected was that Researcher Gao Qi had joined her daily training last week and had stuck with it every day.
For a Mortal to keep up with a Wyvern's training with his Physique is quite remarkable.
To be honest, such a talented person is a treasure for the Defense Department.
Saria had high hopes for Goki.
Before he could catch his breath, Goki had to take another step back, leaning his body backward, narrowly dodging Saria's heavy punch.
"You're already very fast, Head of the Defense Department Saria. If you were just a little faster, I wouldn't have been able to dodge."
Although his strength had reached 25 points, Goki still couldn't go head-to-head with Saria.
If Skadi's strength, which surpassed human limits, was like a high-speed bullet train, then the Wyvern's all-around powerful Physique was at least a fully loaded dump truck!
Even without considering endurance and Physique, and only strength, Goki would need to level up to at least 30 points to barely contend with this Wyvern head-on.
The only thing Goki could boast about was that he was considerably faster than Saria.
Saria's mobility was only average. If Goki focused on dodging, the agile him would be very difficult for this rock-solid lady to catch.
After all, Saria specialized in defense, not offense. As long as he focused on escaping, Goki would be invincible—of course, provided she didn't use Originium Arts.
"Saria, aren't you going to use Calcification?"
With another slight head movement, Goki dodged Saria's sudden punch.
His disguised persona was that of a scholar who practiced self-defense, and he had been consistently adhering to his persona, trying to dodge as much as possible and not directly show his combat prowess.
"That would be even more unsportsmanlike. I told you, I won't use extra abilities in combat training—this is only to compensate for both our shortcomings—Hah!"
Her orange eyes fixed on the male she had always struggled to catch up with. Saria's muscles tensed, and like a female leopard, she converted her strength into instantaneous explosive power, pouncing on him.
"Ugh—"
Seeing the speed at which this Wyvern charged at him, Goki instinctively began to dodge.
"No—"
But he quickly realized that even if he dodged this speed, which was born from a burst of power and which Saria herself couldn't control the direction of, he would still be hit and injured by the momentum.
So, Goki unhesitatingly took a horse stance on the spot and opened his arms towards Saria.
Although Saria's instantaneous burst of speed was fast, it was still a bit less than Skadi's explosive power, which easily broke the sound barrier.
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At most... it was equivalent to Skadi's pounces on him every time she got into bed.
And after several months of Skadi's continuous pounces, Goki had become very proficient in dealing with this kind of "self-sacrificing attack."
"Goki, why are you—dodge!"
Seeing Goki, who had always been accustomed to dodging her attacks during previous training, now not dodging, Saria immediately intended to stop her offensive.
But there's no turning back once the arrow is shot. Even if she retracted her fists, Saria couldn't stop her charging steps.
Duang————
So, in the next second, Saria, who had charged forward at high speed, retracted her fists and crashed entirely into Goki's arms.
"Pfft—cough."
Goki let out a light cough, his body swaying violently backward, but he was not knocked down.
"You, are you stupid? Didn't I teach you that when faced with an irresistible attack, timely retreat is the best choice? Why did you take it head-on—"
Slightly displeased with Goki's recent combat decision, Saria was about to reach out and lift Goki's head from her chest.
"You—"
But soon, Saria frowned and fell into thought.
She found that his hands, joints, and other points of force against her body had perfectly dissipated the force of her charge.
This was a very practiced movement. Even if Saria hadn't held back her strength just now, her punch would have been deflected by Goki.
"You keep giving me more and more surprises, Goki—you skillfully master ways to counter impacts."
Completely disregarding their recent close physical contact, Saria snapped her fingers casually, and a silvery mist instantly rose, carrying away the fine, shimmering sweat beads from her and Goki's skin.
"Your combat experience and combat skills are extraordinarily rich, clearly tested by considerable actual combat, but your Physique is insufficient to support your combat readiness—what exactly have you been through? Is it merely because you are an Aegir?"
In Saria's view, Goki was like a seasoned special forces soldier, proficient in various combat techniques, but insisted on fighting with a water gun.
Goki's combat ability had some contradictions, but this did not alarm Saria. Instead, it made her want to urge and supervise his training even more.
After all, even Rhine Lab's research on Aegir was not extensive.
"I will arrange training courses for you to steadily increase your Physique."
Ultimately, although Saria was the Head of the Defense Department, she did not base hiring decisions solely on combat effectiveness.
Goki was indeed an upright young man with pure ideals, possessing qualities rare among researchers—he did not discriminate against Infected individuals.
This was why Saria admired him.
"Goki, regarding yesterday's question, I think you should be able to give me an answer now—"
After a moment of hesitation, Saria asked Goki for the answer to yesterday's request..
"The Ifrit Project is an experiment being jointly promoted by the Structure Department and the Defense Department. This project brings together many elites in Originium life sciences, and the project's research results have long been pre-ordered by the Columbia military."
Since last night, Saria had decided to recruit Goki as a new participant in that collaborative project.
"But after Parvis's death, there are many internal conflicts within the Structure Department, and many external divisions are eyeing it. Getting involved in this vortex carries many risks, but the salary and benefits will definitely increase—we must be responsible for maintaining the safety of the experiment and not exceeding the bottom line."
However, even so, Saria had to explain the pros and cons to Goki and give him the choice.
"You can choose to refuse. I guarantee on my honor that I will not have any opinion of you because of it, but... Ifrit has also been wanting to see you. These two weeks, every time I go to see her, she keeps asking when you can go teach her Originium Arts."
A hint of embarrassment and apology appeared on her usually stern face.
Saria was always impeccably fair, but this time, because of Ifrit's request, she admitted that her words might have contained a bit of personal bias.
It seemed unreasonable for an employee who had only been at Rhine Lab for two weeks to join such an important project, but if the Head of the Defense Department personally recommended him... that would be different.
"From my personal perspective, I hope you can join the Ifrit Project..."
Listening to Saria's speech, Goki couldn't help but smile.
"Head of the Defense Department Saria, if I didn't know your personality, your words just now could easily be taken as a threat, implying that if I don't join, you'll make things difficult for me."
Just now, Goki was merely savoring the feeling of the Vouivre / Wyvern Nona's face wash and the faint, fragrant scent of sweat on her body—sorry, Goki was no gentleman!
"No, I just—"
Saria was about to speak in defense, but Goki immediately looked up, revealing a mischievous smile.
"Whether it's exploring the unknown or taking care of Ifrit, I'm very willing, but I have one condition—Head of the Defense Department Saria, can you tell me the story between you, Ifrit, and Silence?"
The main quest, how could he not accept it!
"Eh, story? No, there's nothing to tell..."
Hearing Goki's request, the Vouivre / Wyvern Nona, who had just kicked through a floor tile, suddenly hesitated.
However, at this moment, a somewhat casual, chuckling female voice suddenly came from the entrance of the training room.
"En, en, yes, actually I'm quite curious too. You care so much about Ifrit, could she really be your illegitimate daughter—Head of the Defense Department Saria?"
Goki raised an eyebrow, looking in the direction where there was no gaze, but indeed a person stood.
There, a young Liberi girl with light yellow long hair, wearing a Rhine Lab uniform, stood with her arms crossed, winking her yellow eyes at the two people in the training ground.
"Yo, I heard from my girls a while ago that a handsome young male came to the Defense Department—looks pretty good, actually."
Seeing this person, Saria's already stiff face immediately darkened.
"Head of the Ecology Department Muelsyse / Muir Sais..."
As if she hadn't seen Saria's expression, the Liberi girl made a face at Goki, revealing an exceptionally bright smile.
"How about it, Mr. Goki, would you like to try leaving this diamond-head and come visit our Ecology Department?"
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