Chapter 17: Four Hundred Thousand in Hand—Rank II Comes First
Veyra crushed an Aether Crystal between her fingers.
Pale blue energy slipped into her palm.
She looked at the pile beside her, then at Cassian.
"One thousand."
"Mm."
"You used to give me ten at a time."
"I used to be poor."
"And now you’re not?"
Cassian was already looking at the Rank II panel.
"Someone just paid over three hundred thousand for an exit."
The corner of Veyra’s mouth curved.
"That does sound like you."
She did not refuse the second crystal.
The energy inside was still crude by her standards, but with enough of it, she could gradually recover what repeated use of Eclipse Spear had consumed.
Cassian had already moved on.
He did not check his balance again.
The Raid had only just ended, and the Rank II panel was already in front of him.
Deep in storage, the Gloom Lure still sat where he had left it.
He had put it away when the Forgotten Shrine was Rank I.
Now there was only one step left before it was time to bring it back out.
——
Far from the Forgotten Shrine, inside a white-stone Domain, Seraphine closed the Battle Feed that had just ended.
Dame Maelin stood beside her. The parchment she used to record the region’s strongest newcomers had already been replaced with a second version.
Seraphine spoke first.
"Twelve Rare units. Level 6."
"And a Repeater Ballista Tower with a two-hundred-meter range."
"None of that was public before today."
Maelin shook her head.
"Those aren’t the important parts."
"I know."
Seraphine looked at Cassian’s name on the parchment.
"Veyra never fought once."
Maelin fell silent for a moment.
She had tried to observe Veyra before and never gotten a complete answer.
That had not changed.
"I still can’t read her clearly."
"Then raise Cassian’s valuation again."
Seraphine said it without hesitation.
Maelin reminded her,
"Raising it doesn’t mean we have an answer."
"Twelve Rare troops and one defense tower both have explanations."
"The woman is still the part we can’t explain."
Seraphine smiled.
"By noon tomorrow, we won’t need to guess."
Both of them looked toward the Hero Power Ranking.
First place.
Epic Chest.
Maelin was an Epic War Seer.
Seraphine had intended to take first from the beginning.
For the first time, that position no longer felt secure.
And there was something else Cassian had done that bothered her even more than winning the Raid.
He had sold the same attack twice.
Fifty thousand to get in.
More than three hundred thousand to get out.
Seraphine said softly,
"He isn’t just protecting his resources."
"He’s putting a price on other people’s mistakes."
Maelin glanced at her.
"So you regret taking only five percent?"
Seraphine was silent for one second.
"A little."
——
Back at the Forgotten Shrine, Cassian opened the Rank II upgrade panel again.
This time, the first three requirements were already complete.
[Forgotten Shrine Rank II Requirements]
[Aether Crystal: 500 / 500]
[Stone: 1,000 / 1,000]
[Black Oak: 1,000 / 1,000]
[Refined Iron: 98 / 100]
Part of the Stone and Black Oak came from the outer resource points he had already secured. The rest came from the ordinary Warcamp loot he had not bothered reviewing item by item during the Raid countdown.
The only thing still short was Refined Iron.
Cassian did not go to the Exchange.
The Smelting Yard had been running steadily for a long time.
He waited less than a minute.
Two Settlers walked into the Shrine carrying the final two newly smelted blacksteel ingots.
[Refined Iron +2]
The final requirement lit up.
[Refined Iron: 100 / 100]
Alaric had come here intending to steal one hundred units.
Cassian used them first.
"Upgrade."
[Stone -1,000]
[Black Oak -1,000]
[Refined Iron -100]
[Aether Crystal -500]
Black-gold light spread outward from the Domain Core.
A deep vibration rolled through the ruins beneath the Shrine. One dim line after another came back to life.
The system prompt appeared at the same time.
[Forgotten Shrine is advancing to Rank II.]
[Estimated Completion Time: 2 hours]
[Spend 1,200 Aether Crystal to complete immediately.]
Cassian looked at it for one second.
"Complete it now."
Veyra glanced sideways.
"You got rich and suddenly you’re very willing to spend."
"Two hours is too long."
[Aether Crystal -1,200]
[Aether Crystal: 405,703]
BOOM—!
The entire Forgotten Shrine seemed to lift once from beneath the earth.
The broken walls did not magically repair themselves.
The fallen stones did not grow back into place.
But the black-gold light inside the Domain Core became visibly steadier.
The Domain boundary pushed outward, forcing the surrounding war fog back with it.
[Advancement Complete.]
[Forgotten Shrine: Rank I → Rank II]
Cassian looked at the words.
No Regional Channel announcement followed.
No reward dropped out of the sky.
He preferred it that way.
Alaric had spent fifty thousand on a Raid Writ because he wanted one hundred Refined Iron badly enough to rush Rank II.
Now Alaric was gone.
Cassian had advanced first.
That was enough.
He opened the item that had been sitting in storage for hours.
[Gloom Lure]
[Quality: Special]
[Effect: Strongly attracts Dark-type monsters and can deliberately trigger a Dark Monster Tide appropriate to the current Domain Rank.]
[Night Use: Tide scale doubled.]
When the Forgotten Shrine had still been Rank I, Cassian had read the expected level range and put the lure straight back into storage.
Now it was Rank II.
He closed the item panel again.
"Not yet."
Veyra heard him.
"You’re already Rank II and you’re still waiting?"
"Until dark."
She looked toward the sun outside.
"You even choose when the monsters get to come?"
"Night doubles the tide."
Cassian sounded as if the answer should have been obvious.
——
Once Rank II was handled, Cassian finally turned to the other pile of loot he had left untouched.
[Refined Chest ×58]
[Common Chest ×208]
Nearly three hundred chests were stacked beside the storage area.
Before the Raid, opening them would only have disrupted his preparation.
Now he had time.
Cassian took the first Refined Chest.
Open.
[Obtained: Black Oak ×18]
The second.
[Obtained: Refined Light Armor ×1]
The third.
[Obtained: Stone ×26]
He kept going.
The fourth.
The fifth.
The tenth.
Then all the way to the thirtieth.
There were plenty of materials.
Plenty of equipment.
Nothing that changed how he would fight the next battle.
Cassian looked at the thirtieth empty chest by his feet and stayed silent for two seconds.
Veyra happened to walk over from the direction of the Oath Hall with another Aether Crystal in hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Opening chests."
"You don’t look pleased."
Cassian did not answer.
He simply pushed one Refined Chest toward her.
"You open it."
Veyra looked at him.
"Why?"
"Try one."
"You’re finally starting to believe in luck?"
"Open it."
Veyra laughed softly and flipped the lid.
Light spilled out.
[Obtained Building Blueprint: Repeater Ballista Tower ×1]
Cassian stared at the prompt.
Veyra looked down at the blueprint, then back at him.
"Want me to keep going?"
"Two more."
The second chest.
[Obtained: Refined Iron ×20]
The third.
[Obtained: Troop Soul: Elite ×4]
This time Veyra could not hold it in.
"Cassian."
"Mm?"
"Are you actually this bad at opening chests?"
Without changing expression, Cassian pushed every remaining Refined Chest toward her.
"Continue."
Her smile deepened.
"You’re admitting it already?"
"The results are right there."
Veyra laughed harder.
The remaining twenty-odd Refined Chests were hers.
The system prompts never hit quite as hard as the first three, but the final settlement still looked far better than Cassian’s first thirty.
[Refined Chest ×58 fully opened.]
[Key Rewards:]
[Troop Soul: Elite ×25]
[Repeater Ballista Tower Blueprint ×1]
[Refined Iron ×60]
[Black Oak ×240]
[Additional Refined equipment and basic materials obtained.]
Cassian checked the Troop Soul inventory.
He had six left before.
Now—
[Troop Soul: Elite: 31]
That was enough to start pushing the next batch of newly recruited Gloomhoof toward Rare.
He did not use them now.
The Warcamp only produced one troop every four hours.
There was no new unit to spend them on yet.
Veyra pointed at the two hundred Common Chests beside them.
"And those?"
Cassian looked at her.
"Yours too."
"I’m starting to think my job here is becoming very strange."
Cassian gave her a glance.
"At least you’re better than me at this."
Veyra’s brow rose.
"You’re actually willing to admit that?"
Cassian had already picked up the Repeater Ballista Tower blueprint.
"Chests don’t lie."
He did not build a second Tower immediately.
Instead, he opened the upgrade panel for the one he already had.
[Repeater Ballista Tower: Level 1]
[Upgrade Requirements: Refined Iron ×50 / Black Oak ×200 / Battle Essence ×1,000]
The chests had just supplied enough.
Cassian looked toward the sky.
The sun had already begun to sink.
"Save the blueprint."
"Upgrade the existing Tower first."
Veyra followed his gaze toward the back of the storage area.
The Gloom Lure sat there in silence.
She understood.
"Tonight?"
Cassian nodded.
"Tonight."