"Have you made up your mind?" the system asked.
More or less, Shinji replied. What do you think?
"From where I'm standing, once Narita Brian chose you, there was never really a problem anymore. She has no way out now—" The system's voice carried a trace of smug pride. After all, washing away Narita Brian's abilities had been one of its "achievements." "As for King Halo, she's actually not complicated at all. Quite the opposite—she's a very simple kind of horse girl."
Shinji neither agreed nor disagreed. He simply took a few deep breaths before finally speaking the words he had already settled on.
"Let's choose a rune for Halo first. I actually want to wait a bit longer on Brian. I want to see how her blessings develop first, and she isn't in a hurry anyway. But Halo is going to challenge G1 races again in the first half of next year, so let's prioritize her."
The system had no objections. Shinji had always had a pretty good handle on the pacing of his trainees' growth, so the system was not worried.
"Then I'll pull up King Halo's current status panel for you. It might help you choose."
Trainee: King Halo
Condition: Excellent
Popularity: 50,147
System Blessing: None
PT: 0
Attribute Points: 0
Five Stats:
Speed: 664 (1652)
Stamina: 508 (1292)
Power: 717 (1584)
Guts: 513 (1283)
Wisdom: 437 (1166)
Running Aptitude:
Front Runner: G
Pace Chaser: B
Late Surger: A
Closer: D
Distance Aptitude: 1000m–2600m
Track Aptitude: Turf A / Dirt G
Skills:
Call Me King Lv. 4(Unique) — When she can calmly plan her race, her speed increases in the final 200 meters.
Straight Specialist (Yellow) — Slightly increases speed on straight sections.
Pick Up the Pace (Yellow) — Slightly increases speed when overtaking during mid-race.
Hard Worker (Yellow) — Makes overtaking slightly easier. (Late Surge)
Domain: Unawakened
Runes: None
Special Status: Sleep Deprived
Training Tendency: Better at Power and Guts training.
Looking at King Halo's panel, even Shinji felt a headache coming on. On the surface, Halo's past training looked very diligent, but her obsession with being "first-rate" had clearly imposed all sorts of invisible restrictions on her growth. Otherwise, during the summer of her Classic year—the most important developmental period for a horse girl—her stats would never have ended up like this.
Other than Speed and Power, Shinji was dissatisfied with all three of her remaining stats. If not for the focused training of the past month, her Stamina and Guts might not even have broken 500.
As he thought it over, he felt even more strongly that King Halo truly was pressed for time. Unlike Offside Trap, who benefited from the Lord of Vassals bond effect, Halo couldn't just train however and rely on raw stat gain. With Offside Trap, all Shinji had to care about was maximizing total stat growth. But with his other trainees, he had to painstakingly discover the most efficient training methods bit by bit.
That took time.
"Honestly, you don't need to be this anxious about time," the system said, trying to reassure him. "Offside Trap's natural talent really is on the ordinary side. But King Halo and Narita Brian both have the advantage of superior innate talent, so they should grow much faster. Even with the boost from rune bonds, Offside Trap is only about on par with them."
Shinji shook his head. The system was obviously just trying to sweet-talk him into spending emotion energy again. It had been the one to say that Narita Brian's growth would also be limited by the strain left behind by her blessings.
Now it had gone and forgotten that, and was talking as if Brian's talent alone would send her skyrocketing.
(#~#)
"Show me Halo's rune page first."
(Noble) (Reviver) (Abyssal Minstrel)
Supremacy Above All
When affected by other opponents during a race—through positioning, pace interference, and so on—the horse girl will enter an all-stat contest against the interfering opponent. If her overall stats are higher, she drains 5% of that opponent's maximum stamina. Limited to once per opponent. During the all-stat contest, all her stats gain a 5% correction.
Cost: 1200 Emotion Energy
(Earthkeeper) (Mystic)
Sandy Gallantry
On sand or dirt tracks, skill activation rate becomes 100%. Skills with restrictions tied to track or distance type are corrected even outside their normal conditions.
Cost: 700 Emotion Energy
(Believer) (Mystic)
Twilight Devotee
The farther back the horse girl is before entering the final straight, the stronger her skill effects become. For every horse girl ahead of her, skill effects increase by 3%.
Cost: 700 Emotion Energy
(Mad Craftsman) (Lord of Vassals)
Soulcore
All stats +1%.
Grants the rune equipment Soulcore: for every G1 victory in her career, one battle spirit is randomly awakened. Once all five battle spirits are awakened, she receives the blessing of the Ancient Battle Spirit and gains Battle Spirit Aura [Presence].
Swift as the wind, steady as the forest, fierce as fire, unmoving as a mountain, unknowable as shadow, sudden as thunder.
(Supplement: for example, Wind Spirit — becomes better at Speed training; Speed gained from training +5%, and all speed-related skill calculations receive additional correction.)
Cost: 2000 Emotion Energy
(Noble) (Mad Craftsman)
Noble Adornment
The horse girl may choose one piece of equipment to gain a special effect.
She may also choose one item and treat it as equipment, granting it a special effect as well.
If the horse girl is wearing a Noble Crest, it can be converted into a Mad Craftsman Crest.
If she is wearing a Mad Craftsman Crest, it can be converted into a Noble Crest.
Cost: 1600 Emotion Energy
Of the five runes laid out before him, Shinji's eyes were immediately drawn to Soulcore. This was the first time he had ever seen a rune priced at 2000 Emotion Energy, and his breathing unconsciously grew a little heavier.
But reason prevailed, and he didn't buy it blindly.
Long before deciding on a rune for King Halo, he had already thought things through. Of all the rune bond effects he currently knew, Noble was by far the most compatible with Halo's personality. Her mental state was so easily disrupted the moment something interfered with her; even though training and repeated tempering could correct some of it, if he could reduce the impact of that interference at the same time, then the two approaches together would unquestionably bring the fastest and greatest improvement.
His eyes shifted naturally to Noble Adornment. He had already seen how powerful top-tier runes could be—both Mockery of Preservation and Deep Sea Rhapsody had proven that much. With those two runes, Offside Trap had utterly overturned the expected order in the Japan Cup, defeating some of the strongest names in the global Flash Series. If Noble Adornment was also a top-tier rune, then it had to be worthy of its cost.
Besides, if the system's description turned out to be too vague, he could always still choose Supremacy Above All later.
Just as he was about to make up his mind, the system spoke first.
"Oh, right. One more thing. You'll be able to see this on every trainee's rune page from now on."
?
Shinji blinked. Had the system been updated at some point without telling him?
(Abyssal Minstrel) (Believer) (Mystic)
Witch's Authority
For every instance of Three Goddess Blessing present on the field, all of the horse girl's stats decrease by 20.
If any Three Goddess Blessing exists on the field, the horse girl gains +10 Will for every competitor present.
The witch despised the beauty of the Three Goddesses and crafted dolls in their likeness, recreating them with the ugliest faces imaginable.
Cost: 2200 Emotion Energy + 1 Crude Doll
"What?"
Even Shinji couldn't help blurting it out. The description and effect of this rune were so absurd they bordered on comical. He could only describe it as downright clownish.
So the Crude Doll was for this?
He remembered now how the system had refused to explain it back then. Looking at the effect now, he truly couldn't understand why the system had bothered being secretive. In a top-level race, if just one opponent had received two blessings from the Three Goddesses, then with fifteen competitors that would amount to a three-hundred-point drop across all stats.
Sure, it gave a hundred and fifty points of Will in return, but Shinji felt his training already did plenty to harden his trainees' willpower.
Is there some additional hidden effect later on?
"There… probably isn't."
"You're serious?"
The system immediately played dumb again.
Shinji drew in a breath. If there were goddess blessings, this rune gutted the user's stats. If there weren't, then there was no meaningful compensation. He honestly wanted to know what kind of deranged logic had produced such a 2200-point rune. Even if all it cost was the Crude Doll, he still wouldn't buy it.
Unless Will, as a rare minor stat, was secretly absurdly powerful—and that was why the rune had been priced so high?
But he wasn't about to gamble blindly on the strength of Will.
That aside, now that he thought about it, no wonder the doll had seemed oddly familiar before. Ugly as it was, it had obviously been modeled after one of the Three Goddesses.
Until this moment, he had assumed rune effects and their prices more or less lined up. Now he suddenly found himself worried whether Noble Adornment could really justify its own cost.
"Can you at least tell me a little more about Noble Adornment's effect?"
"This is obviously the kind of rune whose strength depends heavily on the equipment and item chosen," the system finally said, offering rare actual guidance.
"And it also depends on the horse girl herself. If the equipment and item you pair with it are especially compatible with her, it might end up performing above its listed cost."
That reminder immediately clarified Shinji's thoughts. He had already decided on an item for King Halo. With that in mind, his determination solidified.
"Then this one."
[Purchase complete.]
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 142)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter181)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter103)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter192)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 173
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 166
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 110
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 190
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 165
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 156
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 81
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 102
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 120
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 80
Uma Musume: I Want All 95
I Can Copy Unique Skills 84
Summoning an Evil God, but the 66
Supernatural Multiverse 83
My Harem Is Indescribable 75
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 81
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 75
Still playing traditional Honk 55
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 60
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 55
Checking In in Demon Slayer 60
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 65
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 35
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 35
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 39
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 58
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