Chapter 4: F-Rank Luck? The Trial Countdown Keeps Ticking
[First Blood Trial]
[Countdown: 00:28:17]
Scarlet numbers hovered in the upper-right corner of Cassian’s vision.
He had already left the Forgotten Shrine, but before he made it two hundred meters into the forest, his Lord panel vibrated again.
It wasn’t the trial.
The regional channel had gone wild.
"I found him. Cassian Vale—this year’s graduating class at Blackstone Academy."
"Domain awakening records are public. F-grade Forgotten Shrine. No starting troops, no resource buildings, no defensive buildings."
"Then how was he the first to reach Rank I?"
A familiar name appeared almost immediately.
[Lucan Deyne]
"F-grade needs the same 100 Essence as everyone else. If he advanced first, either his spawn was unusually rich in weak monsters or that Golden Newcomer Chest gave him something special."
The explanation spread quickly. Luck, an unusually favorable starting area, a first-place reward—any of those made more sense to the channel than an F-grade Lord simply outperforming everyone else.
None of them knew that almost all of Cassian’s 103 Territory Essence had come from monsters he had killed himself, or that DEVOUR had already given him four permanent abilities.
Cassian skimmed the messages and left them unanswered. If everyone wanted to invent explanations for him, that was fine.
The longer they took to understand DEVOUR, the more things he could take before anyone learned how to price them properly.
Another name appeared in the channel.
[Elara Vayne]
"Cassian, did you see the First Blood Trial notice?"
"Divine Protection is already gone for Rank I Domains. The trial difficulty is based on the combined strength of the Lord and hero."
"You don’t have troops. Stop running around outside."
A private request followed immediately.
[Elara Vayne requests temporary coordinate sharing.]
Cassian rejected it.
A moment later, another message came through.
"At least tell me where you are. If you’re close enough, I might be able to send scout cavalry your way."
Cassian finally replied.
"No need."
Rowan remained silent.
Inside the Ashen Fortress, all twelve Ash Spearmen had returned, and two temporary arrow towers were already under construction. His own First Blood Trial had begun counting down the moment he reached Rank I, only forty-seven minutes behind Cassian.
Rowan looked from the channel back to Cassian’s name.
F-grade. No troops. First to advance.
The pieces didn’t fit.
But Rowan didn’t believe pure luck could create a forty-seven-minute gap, especially not with Cassian. Back at the academy, the most irritating thing about him had always been how rarely he gambled blindly.
When Cassian actually chose to take a risk, it usually meant he had already noticed something everyone else had missed.
——
In the forest, Cassian closed the channel and started toward the nearest red marker on the Hunt Map again.
Before he could get far, a low vibration ran through the ground beneath his feet.
Hum—
Dark-gold light rose from the distant Forgotten Shrine.
After its advancement to Rank I, the black vines covering two ruined sections of the Domain had begun to peel away. Two new entries appeared on the territory panel.
[Forgotten Garrison]
[Status: Damaged]
[Repair Cost: Territory Essence ×10]
——
[Oath Hall]
[Status: Sealed]
[Unregistered high-order life-form detected within the current Domain.]
[Repair Cost: Territory Essence ×15]
Cassian stopped.
His remaining balance was:
[Territory Essence: 29]
Twenty-five Essence would repair both structures. He looked once toward the first red marker on the Hunt Map.
[Distance: 2.8 km]
Then he checked the trial timer.
[00:24:51]
Cassian turned around.
The hunt could wait.
Not because he was afraid of the target. Something more valuable had just appeared closer to home.
Ten points of Territory Essence vanished, followed by another fifteen. Two heavy rumbles came from the direction of the shrine.
[Forgotten Garrison repaired.]
[Basic Domain unit recruitment unlocked.]
[Currently Recruitable Unit: Shrine Guard]
[Grade: F]
[Recruitment Cost: High]
Cassian gave the panel one glance and closed it.
An expensive F-grade troop was not worth his attention right now.
The second notification followed.
[Oath Hall repaired.]
[Domain hero covenant function unlocked.]
[Special target detected.]
[Veyra]
[Target status is abnormal.]
[Analyzing...]
From the shrine came a violent crash.
All seven black-gold chains pulled taut at once.
Cassian looked up. Even from several hundred meters away, he could see a column of dark-gold light rising from the center of the Forgotten Shrine.
The regional channel went quiet for a heartbeat.
"What was that?"
"Whose Domain just triggered that?"
"Looks like Cassian’s direction."
"Don’t tell me that came from the first-place chest too."
Lucan answered immediately.
"There it is."
"I knew he had to have pulled some special reward from the first-place chest."
"That explains everything."
Cassian smiled when he saw the message.
If that explanation made sense to them, all the better.
He started back toward the shrine as the countdown continued to fall.
[00:21:33]
The Oath Hall finally finished its analysis.
[Special high-order life-form detected.]
[Name: Veyra]
[Race: Unable to Determine]
[Grade: Unable to Determine]
[Warning.]
[The target is not currently your subordinate.]
[Establish a Temporary Domain Covenant?]
Cassian didn’t confirm immediately. He looked toward the depths of the shrine instead.
"Veyra."
Her voice came from underground.
"I heard it."
"The system wants to put you on my Domain roster."
Silence held for a moment.
Then Veyra answered, calm as ever.
"Let it try."
Cassian pressed confirm.
The next instant, the entire Forgotten Shrine shuddered.