Chapter 35: A 900,000-Aether Hero Sigil—and an Unexpected Wild Tide Lure
Cassian skipped the haggling and took a screenshot of the Epic Hero Sigil listing. The first copy went to Seraphine.
[Cassian Vale: Epic Hero Sigil. Caravan price: 900,000.]
Seraphine replied quickly.
[Seraphine Valcrest: You’re offering to buy it for me?]
[Cassian Vale: If you want it.]
A few seconds passed.
[Seraphine Valcrest: No.]
Cassian was not surprised.
[Cassian Vale: Why?]
[Seraphine Valcrest: Heroes don’t add a single point before noon today.]
[Seraphine Valcrest: I’m not locking nine hundred thousand into a second Hero right now.]
The answer was immediate and very Seraphine. Epic was rare, but that did not make every moment the right time to buy one. Cassian sent the same screenshot to Elara. This time, the silence lasted much longer.
[Elara Vayne: The Caravan really has one?]
[Cassian Vale: It’s right here.]
[Elara Vayne: Nine hundred thousand...]
Another message arrived more than ten seconds later.
[Elara Vayne: I can’t put that much together right now.]
Cassian read the message once.
[Cassian Vale: How much can you put up right now?]
[Elara Vayne: One hundred twenty thousand.]
A long way short, but Cassian kept the channel open. His own Epic Hero Sigil was sitting in storage. The Caravan’s stay was limited.
His Sigil was not.
The real question was not how to find nine hundred thousand Aether for Elara within the next three hours. It was how far she was actually willing to go for an Epic Hero Sigil. Cassian checked the Caravan price once more, then replied.
[Cassian Vale: Eight hundred thousand.]
[Elara Vayne: ?]
[Cassian Vale: One hundred twenty thousand now.]
[Cassian Vale: The remaining six hundred eighty thousand by noon tomorrow.]
[Cassian Vale: I’ll reserve one for you.]
Elara took her time answering. She clearly understood what that meant.
The Caravan would leave.
Cassian was guaranteeing that she could still get an Epic Hero Sigil tomorrow. She left the Sigil’s origin alone and asked only one question.
[Elara Vayne: What if I can’t raise the rest by tomorrow?]
[Cassian Vale: The deposit isn’t refundable.]
[Cassian Vale: I’ll sell the Sigil to someone else.]
A few seconds later:
[Elara Vayne: Deal.]
The transfer arrived immediately.
[Aether Crystal +120,000]
[Aether Crystal: 320,466 → 440,466]
Cassian moved the Epic Hero Sigil dropped by Nightstripe to the top shelf of his storage. He left it unopened and untransferred. It now had a buyer, with six hundred eighty thousand Aether still outstanding. Veyra had followed the entire exchange from beside him.
"You just found out it’s worth nine hundred thousand, and you’re selling it for eight?"
"The Caravan listing it for nine hundred thousand doesn’t mean anyone can put that much cash on the table today."
"So you gave up a hundred thousand?"
"The discount bought me one hundred twenty thousand on the spot."
Cassian closed the trade panel.
"And someone who’ll have to come back to me tomorrow."
Veyra gave him a long look.
"The second part sounds more like you."
Cassian was about to check the Hall when another message from Elara appeared.
[Elara Vayne: Wait.]
[Elara Vayne: There’s something else.]
The trade window opened again.
Not Aether.
A dark-red wax seal no larger than a thumb appeared inside it.
[Wild Tide Lure]
[Quality: Rare]
[One-use consumable]
[When released at a chosen outdoor marker, the lure continuously attracts nearby wild monsters from within several kilometers toward the marked location for a limited period.]
[Cannot specify target species, quality, or number. Attracted targets retain normal hostility.]
That description made Cassian pause.
Elara’s messages followed.
[Elara Vayne: Dropped near the mine a few days ago.]
[Elara Vayne: I was going to keep it.]
[Elara Vayne: But my own mine is right there. There’s no way I’m setting this thing off beside it.]
[Elara Vayne: You’re holding the Sigil for me. Take this.]
Before accepting, Cassian called out.
"Orven."
The gray-cloaked Caravan manager was checking the goods racks. He walked over when Cassian called him. Cassian showed him the Lure’s description.
"What would you pay for this?"
Orven needed only a few glances.
"A one-use monster lure."
"Rare, yes, but the risk is hard to price."
"Twelve thousand at most if we’re buying it."
"If we relisted it, maybe twenty thousand."
His attention returned to the lure.
Twenty thousand.
For Elara, it really was just a Rare consumable she did not quite dare use. But the location could be chosen. Blackfang could scout the routes first. The formation could be laid out in advance. Once the monsters were actually drawn in, Cassian could inspect their Core Traits one by one.
If one was worth taking, he could reserve the final blow. If not, the army could clean it up. His purchase request for monster lures had sat on the Regional Exchange for days without a single match. Now one had fallen into his hands because of a Hero Sigil instead.
Cassian accepted the trade.
[Acquired: Wild Tide Lure ×1]
Elara sent another line.
[Elara Vayne: Don’t deduct it from the six hundred eighty thousand.]
A faint smile tugged at Cassian’s mouth.
[Cassian Vale: Wasn’t planning to.]
[Elara Vayne: You couldn’t even pretend to be polite?]
[Cassian Vale: You use it to invite trouble.]
[Cassian Vale: I use it to choose the trouble.]
Elara went silent for two seconds.
[Elara Vayne: ...Fine.]
Veyra was standing right beside him.
"A nine-hundred-thousand-Aether Epic Hero Sigil."
"And the thing you’re happiest about is the Rare item she threw in afterward?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
Cassian placed the Wild Tide Lure in the easiest storage slot to reach.
"Because I didn’t have one of these."
This time, Veyra did not need to ask whether he meant useful or whether he actually wanted it. She could already tell.
The one hundred twenty thousand had barely arrived before Cassian started spending it. At the Hall, the ninetieth Legionnaire was already walking through the arch. He extended the recruitment queue.
One hundred.
One hundred twenty.
One hundred fifty.
One hundred eighty.
Then two hundred.
[Eclipse Legionnaire: 200]
From eighty to two hundred. One hundred twenty new Legionnaires.
[Aether Crystal -144,000]
The 120,000 deposit covered most of that batch, but it was still 24,000 short of the full 144,000 recruitment cost. Cassian immediately changed the remaining fifty-two pieces of Dark equipment on the Regional Exchange into a single bulk listing. There was no shortage of buyers asking for gear in the last stage of the Ranking.
These pieces were worse than the thirty-six Seraphine had picked earlier. Rather than sell them one by one, Cassian listed the entire batch.
[Dark equipment ×52]
[Bulk sale: 28,000 Aether Crystal]
[Dark equipment remaining on Regional Exchange: 0]
The recruitment payment settled first.
[Aether Crystal: 440,466 → 296,466]
Then the fifty-two Dark equipment pieces sold.
[Aether Crystal: 296,466 → 324,466]
Orven followed the whole process from nearby.
"The money came in, and you turned it into troops almost immediately."
Cassian nodded toward the last Legionnaires emerging from the Hall.
"That’s why I wanted it now."
Nine Praetorians.
Two hundred Legionnaires.
The black-and-gold formation stretched from the Hall all the way to the broken outer wall.
Cassian stopped recruiting.
He opened the growth interface instead. The dry-riverbed fight had just brought back 21,600 Battle Essence. With his existing reserves added in, there was no gap left in the batch upgrade. The nine Praetorians had already reached Level 2. Now it was the Legionnaires’ turn.
[Eclipse Legionnaire ×200]
[Level 1 → Level 2]
[Battle Essence ×40,000]
Cassian confirmed.
Dark-gold light fell in row after row. A deeper black-gold ring lit around all two hundred heavy shields. The polearms rose over the line again.
[Eclipse Praetorian: Level 2 / 36★]
[Eclipse Legionnaire: Level 2 / 16★]
[Eclipse new-army panel power: 3,524]
One glance at the final number, and Cassian closed the panel. Veyra lingered on the formation. She walked to the front line, pushed one Legionnaire’s shield half a handspan outward, then made another troop in the second rank shift one step left.
As she adjusted the line, Cassian said, "I thought I was setting the formation."
"You are."
Veyra kept her back to him.
"I’m telling you this spot will still jam on the second rotation."
She walked a few more steps down the line.
"Three more places."
"Fix them yourself."
Cassian let her work for a moment. "Suddenly willing to teach?"
Veyra finally looked back.
"I already told you."
"They’re not my past."
She swept a look across the nine Praetorians.
"That’s why I want to see what you turn them into."
Cassian nodded.
"Then watch."
He opened the newest hunting-point map from four Blackfang scouts.
Nine directions.
Every route had already been explored. There were no Epic signals and no known target with a Core Trait valuable enough for Cassian to reserve the kill himself.
"Nine teams."
"One Praetorian per team. Split the Legionnaires yourselves."
"Blackfang report the location first."
"If you run into anything above the estimate, withdraw."
"If you find a Core Trait, don’t kill the target yet. Report it to me."
The orders went out one after another. Cassian checked the Wild Tide Lure in storage one last time.
He left it sealed.
There was no reason to spend it just to chase Ranking points. For the first use, he wanted to choose the battlefield himself.
Before the Wandering Caravan departed, Orven came to Cassian alone.
"One more thing."
Cassian glanced over. "Go on." Orven glanced toward the black-and-gold squads leaving the Hall one after another.
"You still haven’t made that Rare recruitment line public, have you?"
"No."
"Then think before you do."
Orven sounded less casual than he had on arrival.
"The people who come looking for you won’t all be here to buy something."
Cassian gave him a brief look.
"That’s why I haven’t published it."
Orven smiled.
"Understood."
The Caravan began turning around. Cassian stayed where he was. The first Eclipse team had already reported contact from the north. Then a second report came from the west. A third followed immediately after. There was no reason for the entire army to stand inside Forgotten Shrine and watch a countdown.
The resources Cassian had just poured into this force were already starting to earn themselves back.
With a little over twenty minutes left before the Troop Power Ranking settled, Cassian ignored the Regional Channel and opened the battle log first. Ever since the nine Eclipse squads had left in different directions, the unread count had kept climbing.
One hundred.
Three hundred.
Six hundred.
Then into four digits.
Cassian skipped straight to the summary.
[Parallel hunting duration: 47 minutes]
[Confirmed wild-monster kills: 947]
[Primary level range: Level 7–11]
[Elite: 74 / Rare: 6]
[Battle Essence +58,400]
[Allied deaths: 0]
[New serious injuries: 0]
The eleven Legionnaires lightly injured at the dry riverbed had not joined this hunting run. That left one hundred eighty-nine Legionnaires behind the nine Praetorians.
Nine squads.
One Praetorian and twenty-one Legionnaires per squad.
Forty-seven minutes.
Nine hundred forty-seven kills.
And they had not been farming low-level strays just to inflate the number.
All six Rare targets had come from harder points Blackfang had marked in advance, while the seventy-four Elite monsters had been mixed into several stable monster concentrations. An ordinary newcomer Lord who found that density right before a Ranking settlement would probably mark the coordinates and leave rather than send a main force in to clear them.
Every Eclipse troop came back. Cassian filed the 58,400 Battle Essence into his resource record and left the nine hundred individual kill logs unopened.