SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

At the edge of the mine, the dark-red-cloaked Lord whose Rare Hero had tested Dame Maelin lowered his hand from his face. He looked up at Cassian’s name, then down at the much emptier Aether balance on his own panel. His expression was ugly. Not far away, Seraphine closed the Regional Channel.

"So it really was him."

"Yes."

Maelin didn’t make excuses.

"I underestimated the blank."

Seraphine looked at her.

"Can you read it now?"

"No."

The answer came immediately.

"I can only confirm one thing."

"What?"

"Not being able to see something does not mean it isn’t there."

Seraphine smiled.

"That lesson was expensive."

Her gaze shifted toward the Lords who had just lost large amounts of Aether.

"Though we weren’t the ones who paid the most."

At Forgotten Shrine, the ranking finally began to fade from the sky. A dark-purple pillar of light descended from above. Instead of striking the ground, it stopped directly in front of Cassian. The light dispersed. A purple chest with dark-gold metal corners floated in the air.

[Hero Power Ranking First-Place Reward Issued]

[Epic Chest ×1]

Cassian reached out. The chest dropped directly into his Lord space. He didn’t open it. Veyra glanced at him.

"You waited this long for that chest, and you’re not looking inside?"

"Something else first."

"What?"

Cassian had already opened the Regional Exchange. The Hero Power wager was settling. The locked pool still showed the same final numbers. Six hundred forty thousand total. Five hundred thousand under Seraphine’s name. Only ten thousand one hundred under Cassian. Now that first place had been confirmed, the system began redistributing all the Aether staked on losing picks to the winning side. A system panel appeared.

[Hero Power Ranking First-Place Wager Settlement]

[Total Pool: 640,000 Aether Crystal]

[Winning Side: Cassian Vale]

[Total Stake on Winning Side: 10,100 Aether Crystal]

[Your Stake: 10,000 Aether Crystal]

[Your Share of Winning-Side Stake: 99.01%]

The next line paused for a heartbeat. Then the number appeared.

[Settlement Received: 633,663 Aether Crystal]

[Aether Crystal: 1,058,966]

Cassian didn’t move. Neither did Sigrid. Eira had already removed her dented breastplate and was checking the straps beneath it near the stone steps. At the sound of the settlement notification, she looked up too. Six hundred thirty-three thousand, six hundred sixty-three. Cassian had put in ten thousand of his own Aether.

The more Aether everyone else had piled onto Seraphine’s side, the more of it now flowed to the winning side. Veyra looked at the panel, then at him.

"You look happier about this than you did about taking first."

Cassian didn’t deny it.

"First place is first place."

He glanced at the balance that had just crossed seven digits.

"Six hundred thirty-three thousand Aether is six hundred thirty-three thousand Aether."

Veyra raised an eyebrow.

"So?"

"I got both."

The smile still hadn’t left Cassian’s face.

"Why wouldn’t I be happy?"

Veyra studied him for two seconds, then laughed softly.

"That sounds better."

Cassian closed the settlement panel. 1,058,966 Aether. For the first time, his balance had genuinely crossed one million. The excitement lasted only a short while. Then Cassian started sorting priorities. The second Repeater Ballista Tower. The Warcamp. The unopened Epic Hero Sigil. The Epic Chest he had just received. And the Oath Hall. Before, every one of those choices started with the same question.

Could he afford it? Now, for the first time, he had enough room to ask a better question. Which one should he invest in first?

"One million."

Veyra leaned against a pillar outside the Oath Hall.

"How are you planning to spend it?"

Cassian pulled the Domain panel in front of him.

"Set aside half first."

"You just got it, and you’re already reserving five hundred thousand?"

"Yes."

Veyra gave him a look.

"You really can’t hold onto money."

"Money sitting there doesn’t grow soldiers."

Cassian opened the Oath Hall. The system re-read Forgotten Shrine’s Rank II status and Veyra’s current Temporary Covenant at the same time.

[Special Domain Unit — Veyra: Manifestation Level 4]

[Forgotten Shrine: Rank II]

A moment later, a line of dark-gold text appeared at the bottom of the Oath Hall menu. Cassian had never seen it before.

[Oath Hall Special Troop Building Expansion Available]

[Eclipse Muster Hall]

[Requirement: Forgotten Shrine Rank II — Met]

[Requirement: Veyra Manifestation Level 4 — Met]

[Function: Establishes a troop recruitment sequence linked to the Temporary Covenant.]

The troop name and quality were still blank. The system would not reveal either until the building was completed. Cassian looked at the construction requirements.

[Construction Cost: Aether Crystal ×500,000 / Stone ×2,000 / Black Oak ×1,000 / Refined Iron ×500 / Gold Ore ×300]

[Gold Ore: 0/300]

Veyra slowly straightened from the pillar.

"Linked to my covenant?"

"That’s what the system says."

"So the first thing you’re doing with the money you just won is putting five hundred thousand into this?"

Cassian looked up.

"You took first."

"The first money from first place goes toward turning first place into soldiers."

Veyra was quiet for a moment. Then the corner of her mouth lifted.

"That one works."

She looked back at the Eclipse Muster Hall.

"When you finally build it, I want to see what exactly this system thinks it can recruit through my covenant."

"First we need Gold Ore."

Cassian didn’t post a bounty yet. He checked the Gloomhoof Warcamp first. The one unrecruited unit left from last night, plus the later production cycles, had brought the stock to five. There was nothing to debate. Cassian recruited all five and used twenty Elite Troop Souls to push them from Elite to Rare.

[Gloomhoof Reinforcement Complete: ×5 / Elite → Rare / Level 1]

[Aether Crystal -2,500]

[Aether Crystal: 1,056,466]

[Troop Soul: Elite: 31 → 11]

He didn’t spend Battle Essence on them. The original twelve Rare Level 6 Gloomhoof were more than enough to drill the new five on formations, routes, and commands. They could gain levels later. For now, that was enough. A private message from Rowan appeared at almost exactly the same time.

[Rowan Ashford: My 100 settled.]

[6,337.]

Cassian stared at the number for two seconds.

[Cassian: Think you bet too little now?]

[Rowan Ashford: Yes.]

Cassian smiled and decided not to make it worse. Veyra had already pulled the Epic Chest out of his Lord space. The purple chest landed on the stone table.

"You’ve finished looking at the wager."

"What about this?"

Cassian walked over.

"Now we look at the chest."

Click. The dark-gold lock opened. Purple light spilled through the gap. No weapon. No skill book. Not another Troop Sigil. There was only a black contract inside, thick enough to look more like a metal plate than paper.

[Epic Master Artisan Contract ×1]

[Quality: Epic]

[Use: Recruit one Epic-quality Production Settler.]

[Specialties: Construction / Processing / Repair]

Cassian studied it for three seconds. Veyra asked first.

"Disappointed?"

"Perfect."

"I thought you’d want another fighter more."

Cassian looked toward the outer wall. Twelve Stormlance Valkyries were sorting their equipment there. Farther out were the Gloomhoof and Blackfang. He even still had an unopened Epic Hero Sigil sitting in storage.

"I don’t need another fighter right now."

"I need someone who can actually work with high-quality materials."

Veyra looked at the contract.

"So you’re using your Epic reward to recruit a craftsman."

"Yes."

"That does sound like you."

Cassian confirmed immediately. The black contract broke apart into fine light in his palm. A modest summoning gate opened in front of the Forge. The first thing through was a pair of boots dusted with metal powder. Then a broad-shouldered middle-aged man stepped out with a tool chest almost half his height strapped to his back. Short gray-brown hair. Callused hands. He didn’t look at Cassian first.

He looked at the Forge. Then the broken walls. Only after that did he walk over.

"Bram Alder."

"At your service, Lord Vale."

His system panel opened.

[Bram Alder]

[Race: Human]

[Role: Production Settler]

[Quality: Epic]

[Core Trait: Grand Craft]

[Grand Craft: Greatly improves efficiency in construction, processing, and repair. Significantly reduces material loss when working with high-quality materials.]

No combat skill. Cassian’s first question was still direct.

"Can you repair armor?"

Bram followed his gaze to the dented breastplate Eira had set aside.

"Let me see it."

He took the armor and opened the inner layer. After only a few looks, his brow tightened.

"The shell can be hammered back into shape."

"But several conduction lines inside were knocked out of alignment. Flatten this from the outside and the plate will look fine—right up until lightning runs through it and snaps the lines."

Eira’s attention immediately sharpened. Bram didn’t add anything else. He carried the breastplate into the Forge. Less than twenty minutes later, he came back out and handed it to her.

"Test it."

Eira fastened the armor. Golden lightning spread cleanly over the plates.

[Storm Body]

The stray arcs that had been leaking from the damaged section were gone. Eira raised one arm, rolled her shoulder, then clenched her fist.

"Fixed."

Bram was already putting away his tools.

"Damage outside, inspect outside."

"Damage inside, fix the inside first."

Cassian looked at the stable current moving through the Stormlance breastplate. The Epic production slot hadn’t given him another blade. It had made sure the blades already in his hand didn’t slowly ruin themselves. He opened the Eclipse Muster Hall panel again. Bram scanned the materials once. Stone. Black Oak. Refined Iron. Then his eyes stopped at the red line.

[Gold Ore: 0/300]

"This Domain doesn’t have that."

Cassian nodded.

"Then we find it."

He closed the panel. There was only one target left. Gold Ore.

When Cassian reopened the Regional Channel, people were still talking about the Hero Power Ranking.

[Anonymous Lord: Has Cassian shown up yet?]

[Anonymous Lord: I just want to know what came out of the first-place Epic Chest.]

[Tobias Reed: I want to know what quality his Hero actually is.]

[Lucan Deyne: The ranking measures current combat power. First place doesn’t automatically mean higher quality.]

[Anonymous Lord: You finally learned to leave yourself an escape route?]

Lucan stopped replying. Cassian didn’t explain anything either. He posted a new message.

[Cassian Vale: Buying verified coordinates for a Gold Vein.]

[Range: Within 30 km of Forgotten Shrine.]

[Payment: 10,000 Aether Crystal after the resource point is verified.]

[First verified lead, first payment.]

The channel paused for half a second, then sped up again.

[Anonymous Lord: Ten thousand just for coordinates?]

[Anonymous Lord: A Gold Vein is a Rare resource node by itself. Who would sell the location?]

[Anonymous Lord: You took first place and immediately started throwing money around?]

[Tobias Reed: You need Gold Ore for a building?]

Cassian answered only that.

[Cassian Vale: Yes.]

He didn’t mention the Eclipse Muster Hall. There was even less reason to tell the entire region that the building was directly linked to Veyra’s Temporary Covenant. More than ten seconds passed. No one responded. A Gold Vein wasn’t an Iron Vein. The region had only been open a little over a day. Even someone who had found one might not be willing to sell the location. Cassian wasn’t in a hurry.

Ten thousand Aether was enough to make someone who knew something speak. It wasn’t enough to make a Gold Vein appear out of the war fog. He was about to close the channel when a name appeared.

[Darius Kelm: Lord Vale, I’ve seen one.]

Cassian paused at the name. Darius Kelm. The mine. Dark-red cloak. The Lord whose Rare Hero had faced Dame Maelin in that brief exchange. The same Lord who had put twenty thousand Aether on Seraphine.

[Darius Kelm: Southwest. A stone valley with two entrances, roughly twenty-six kilometers from you.]

[Darius Kelm: I only saw it from high ground. I didn’t occupy it.]

[Darius Kelm: If you want it, I can go confirm the vein now and send you the coordinates privately.]

The channel immediately filled with envy.

[Anonymous Lord: Easy ten thousand.]

[Anonymous Lord: If only I’d explored southwest.]

Cassian didn’t accept immediately. He opened Darius’s public profile. Domain rank. Lord level. Not much else. No Domain coordinates. No route history. Nothing unusual. Cassian sent one reply.

[Cassian Vale: Send proof of the resource point first.]

[Darius Kelm: No problem.]

That had gone a little too smoothly. Before Cassian could close the channel, a private call appeared.

[Elara Vayne]

He accepted it. Her first words were immediate.

"Don’t go."

Cassian leaned against the stone table outside the Oath Hall.

"Why?"

"Darius was at the mine today."

"I know."

"Do you remember how much he bet?"

"Twenty thousand."

Elara paused.

"You remember that quickly."

"I just checked."

"Then you should also remember which group was the least willing to accept the result."

Cassian said nothing. Elara continued.

"Darius isn’t alone."

"More than twenty Lords have been coordinating since they left the mine this afternoon."

"They think you already knew you’d take first and deliberately waited for them to finish betting."

Cassian raised an eyebrow.

"So?"

"So now he just happens to know where the Gold Vein you need is."

"And it just happens to be inside a valley with two entrances."

Elara looked at him through the call.

"You really think that’s coincidence?"

Cassian considered it for two seconds.

"Then I might save the ten thousand."

Elara stared at him.

"...Cassian."

"Yes?"

"I’m telling you there may be an ambush."

"I know."

"Then why is the first thing you think about saving money?"

"If he’s actually trying to lure me there," Cassian said calmly, "then the coordinates aren’t worth ten thousand."

Elara closed her eyes for a moment. When she spoke again, her tone had changed.

"The number of people isn’t actually what worries me most."

Cassian looked up slightly.

"I saw the Nightstripe battlefield," she said. "Twenty ordinary newcomer Lords and a few hundred ordinary troops don’t automatically mean they can overpower your high-tier units head-on."

"The problem is two other things."

"More than twenty Heroes, and no one knows every ability they have."

"And the valley."

She held two fingers close together in the call.

"Two mouths. High slopes on both sides."

"If they don’t try to fight your high-tier units directly—if they use their Heroes to hold people for a few seconds, split their ranged troops across the slopes, then focus everything on you as the Lord—"

"Then the few hundred troops actually matter."

Cassian wasn’t smiling now.

"That’s why I’m not going in blind."

Elara watched him.

"What are you checking?"

"The valley mouths."

"The high ground."

"Which Heroes aren’t standing with their troops."

"Any prepared positions."

Cassian paused.

"And the monsters around the mine."

Elara frowned.

"You’re checking that too?"

"Rare resource node."

Cassian’s answer was simple.

"No reason not to see the whole field first."

Elara didn’t press the point.

"Just don’t take first place and start assuming everyone who comes after you is lining up to die."

"I won’t."

"If all they have is numbers..."

Cassian looked past the outer wall into the shadows.

"Then the numbers alone aren’t much to worry about."

Elara was silent for a second.

"Still better than hearing you say you’re leaving right now."

"I wasn’t planning to."

"Remember, this isn’t your Domain."

"No wall."

"No Repeater Ballista Tower."

"No Boundary Sense covering you."

"I know."

"Scout first."

"This time I believe you."

The call ended. Cassian didn’t summon the Stormlance. He didn’t call the Gloomhoof either. He marked Darius’s direction on the map. Southwest. Twenty-six kilometers. A stone valley with two entrances. If a large group had entered in advance, they would leave tracks. There would be watchers on the high ground. Routes through the valley mouths would have been trampled more than once.

And anyone seriously preparing to kill him wouldn’t leave every Hero in the most obvious position. Blackfang were perfect for finding those details first. Cassian raised one hand. Four Blackfang rose from the shadows.

"Southwest."

Pack Dominion carried the direction and distance to them.

"Observe only."

"Do not engage."

"Valley mouths. High ground. Heroes. Prepared positions."

He added one more instruction.

"If there are any high-tier monsters around the mine, mark their locations too."

The four Blackfang gave low growls. A moment later, four dark shapes crossed the outer wall and disappeared into the war fog. Veyra had been standing nearby the entire time. Only after the Blackfang vanished did she speak.

"You have twelve Stormlance."

"If it’s really just twenty-some newcomers, is this worth that much attention?"

Cassian looked down at the map.

"Twenty people aren’t."

"Twenty Heroes whose abilities I haven’t seen, plus a valley they chose in advance, are."

Veyra turned Crimson Oath lightly in one hand.

"And if they have nothing?"

"Then this gets easier."

"And if they do?"

Cassian looked up.

"See the whole situation clearly first. Then decide if it’s worth taking."

The corner of Veyra’s mouth rose.

"That’s more like you."

She paused.

"So they really want to kill you because they lost a wager?"

"Maybe."

"People get this worked up after losing money?"

Cassian smiled.

"Not everyone."

"Only the ones who can’t afford to lose."

The ten thousand Aether wasn’t important. The Gold Vein was. As for the trap— If there wasn’t one, Cassian would take the coordinates and pay exactly what he promised. If there was, then Darius had at least done one useful thing for him. He had gathered the people who still wanted trouble into one place. Cassian looked southwest. Suddenly, he found himself hoping it really was a trap.

Twenty-six kilometers away, inside the stone valley with two entrances, Darius Kelm closed the Regional Channel. The polite expression disappeared from his face. A golden vein of ore was exposed in the rock at the bottom of the valley. The Gold Vein was real. It wasn’t bait. A fake vein was exactly the kind of bait Cassian would see through. The trap was everything around it.