Chapter 18: Rank II Reached—Tonight, the Monster Tide Begins
"So."
Veyra sat beside a pile of empty chests with the last Common Chest in her hands.
"You made me open all of these because you can’t pull anything good yourself?"
Cassian was standing beneath the Repeater Ballista Tower, checking its upgrade panel.
"No."
"Then what is it?"
"Division of labor."
Veyra looked at him for a moment, then opened the final Common Chest.
[Obtained: Common Tools ×3]
She read the prompt and looked back at Cassian.
"Your division of labor doesn’t seem to work every time."
Cassian glanced over.
"It worked on the Refined batch."
"So these don’t count?"
He had already lowered his gaze to the Tower panel again.
"If you want to open them a second time, I won’t stop you."
Veyra laughed.
All 208 Common Chests had now been processed.
Nothing else appeared that could directly change the way they fought. Most of the contents were ordinary equipment, tools, and basic materials.
Cassian scanned the list once and handed distribution over to the Settlers.
He was already at the base of the Repeater Ballista Tower.
The sky was darkening.
The Gloom Lure had to wait for night.
Before then, the Tower could reach Level 2.
[Repeater Ballista Tower]
[Level 1 → Level 2]
[Cost: Refined Iron ×50]
[Cost: Black Oak ×200]
[Cost: Battle Essence ×1,000]
[Upgrade Time: 4 hours]
The panel also offered an Aether Crystal acceleration option.
Cassian did not select it.
Veyra noticed.
"You accelerated Rank II immediately."
"Not this one?"
Cassian looked at the sky.
"It’ll finish before dark."
Veyra paused for half a second.
"So you planned that too."
Cassian did not answer.
He confirmed the upgrade.
Black-gold light began wrapping around the exposed mechanisms of the Repeater Ballista Tower. Its bow arms thickened and spread wider, while the rail that had once held a single Blacksteel bolt reinforced itself layer by layer.
Cassian did not stand there watching the whole process.
The twelve Rare Gloomhoof had just fought their first Raid and needed rest.
The Blackfang were sent back toward the outer resource points so the Raid would not leave those areas unguarded for too long.
Veyra continued crushing the Aether Crystals Cassian had given her one by one.
The energy inside them was crude.
There was simply a lot of it.
Time passed.
By the time true night settled over the Forgotten Shrine, exactly four hours had gone by.
BOOM!
The Tower’s upper limbs snapped taut.
A new panel opened.
[Repeater Ballista Tower]
[Level: 2]
[Combat Rating: 18★]
[Range: 240 meters]
[Rate of Fire: 1 shot / 2 seconds]
Almost at the same moment, another Domain notification arrived from the Warcamp ten kilometers away.
[Gloomhoof Warcamp production complete.]
[New Stock: Gloomhoof Centaur ×1]
Cassian glanced at it and did not recruit the unit.
One freshly produced Level 1 Elite had no reason to be thrown straight into tonight’s Rank II monster tide.
It could remain at the Warcamp for now.
Cassian looked back at the defense tower.
"Good enough."
"Only good enough?"
Veyra had already walked over.
She had used a large part of the thousand Aether Crystals. Her gray-gold eyes were brighter than they had been that afternoon, and the faint fatigue left by repeated use of Eclipse Spear was gone.
Cassian looked at her.
Not at her face.
At the system panel.
[Veyra]
[Current Manifestation Level: 2]
[Advance to Level 3: Battle Essence ×5,000]
[Seal Status: Eclipse Chains ×7]
The option was still there.
Tonight, he intended to use it.
"One more level."
Veyra’s brow moved slightly.
The next instant, dark-gold light descended from the Domain Core.
All seven Eclipse Chains rang with a low metallic vibration.
None of them broke.
But more power flowed through the Temporary Covenant and into the body Veyra could currently manifest.
[Battle Essence -5,000]
[Veyra Manifestation Level: 2 → 3]
[Eclipse Chains ×7]
[Seal Status: Unchanged]
Veyra closed her eyes.
Several seconds later, she opened them again.
She only clenched one fist.
The air around her seemed to press downward under an invisible weight.
"So you’re finally letting me fight this time?"
"Tonight is your turn."
Cassian turned toward storage.
Veyra watched his back, and the corner of her mouth slowly rose.
"That sounds better."
At the very back of storage, the item that had remained untouched since Cassian bought it from the Wandering Stall was finally taken out.
[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 Cassian had first bought it, the Forgotten Shrine had still been Rank I.
The monsters it could call at that point were too weak.
So he had kept it sealed.
Now—
Rank II.
Night.
The Repeater Ballista Tower was Level 2.
All twelve Rare Level 6 Gloomhoof had fully recovered.
Veyra had just reached Manifestation Level 3.
Cassian looked toward the southern side of the Domain.
"Gloomhoof, three groups."
"Southeast, southwest, and due south."
The twelve Centaurs split apart immediately.
"Blackfang, do not chase anything outside the Domain."
"First identify where the tide emerges."
The orders spread through Pack Dominion.
Veyra drew Crimson Oath.
"And me?"
Cassian looked at her.
"Stay beside me for now."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Then?"
"Hold."
Cassian watched the war fog churn beyond the boundary.
"Wait for the leader to show."
Veyra tightened her grip on Crimson Oath.
"You’d better leave me something decent."
Cassian lowered his gaze and broke the black wax seal around the Gloom Lure.
[Use Gloom Lure?]
"Use it."
[Gloom Lure consumed.]
Black light erupted.
Not outward.
It spread like a drop of ink falling into water, rapidly staining the sky above the Forgotten Shrine.
The next second—
CRACK!
A bolt of pitch-black lightning struck down from high above.
It did not illuminate the night.
For an instant, everything around it seemed even darker.
Veyra looked up.
"This thing really is foul."
Cassian watched the sky as well.
"Bigger reaction than I expected."
A second black bolt fell.
Then a third.
The war fog outside the Domain began to churn violently.
One narrow spatial rift after another tore open in the darkness.
Eyes appeared first.
Red.
Dense.
Watching.
Then a shrill cry split the air.
KRAA—!
Six enormous black crows burst from the first rift, each with a wingspan close to four meters and six narrow crimson eyes set across its head.
[Six-Eyed Gloomcrow]
[Quality: Rare]
[Level: 8]
Cassian’s eyes sharpened.
Rank II really was different.
Before the first group of Gloomcrows had even spread out, more rifts lit up.
Dark Rangers in black cloaks stepped through with longbows in hand.
Nearly transparent Grave Wraiths drifted behind them.
Hollow Mages emerged dragging bone staves.
Then came clusters of Hexeyes—massive eyeballs surrounded by writhing tentacles.
Even the weakest were above Level 6.
Rare units kept appearing.
The twelve Gloomhoof began pawing restlessly at the ground.
The Repeater Ballista Tower slowly rotated toward the forming tide.
Veyra smiled.
"Now this looks more interesting."
Cassian did not answer.
His attention had shifted to the farthest rift.
It was wider than every other tear in the air combined.
Black mist rolled out first.
Then came a Nightmare with dark-violet fire burning around all four hooves.
A tall figure sat on its back.
Black plate armor.
A long cloak trailing almost to the horse’s belly.
There was no face beneath the helmet.
Only two dark-red flames.
The moment it entered the world, the surrounding Rare Dark monsters moved aside on their own.
The system panel finally appeared.
[Dread Duke]
[Quality: Epic]
[Level: 10]
Cassian’s gaze locked in place.
From the moment the Dread Duke stepped out of the rift, Rare monsters continued pouring into the battlefield around it, but he did not spare them another glance.
His right hand was already resting on the hilt of his sword.
Veyra turned toward him.
"Finally nervous?"
Cassian did not answer.
He simply raised one hand in front of her.
"Leave this one to me."
Veyra looked at him.
"You want the kill yourself?"
Cassian kept his eyes on the black-armored figure riding the Nightmare.
"I do."
Veyra tightened her grip on Crimson Oath, her smile deepening.
"Then let’s see if you can bring it down yourself."