Chapter 50 - 1.56 Million Points—First Place Is Out of Reach
Ten minutes later, Seraphine stopped asking how much inventory Cassian could possibly have.
The Ranking had already given her the first part of the answer.
[Resource Collection Ranking]
[#1 Cassian Vale: 104,380]
One hundred thousand.
Still rising.
A resource-allocation sheet was spread across the table in front of her.
Seraphine watched the score for several seconds, then suddenly put her pen down.
Maelin asked, "Stop collection?"
"No."
Seraphine did not take her eyes off the Ranking.
"Everyone follows the original plan."
"Don’t tear apart production lines just to chase him."
She paused.
"Actually, stop calculating how we’re supposed to catch his score."
"Calculate where his points are coming from."
Only then did Maelin nod.
"Understood."
She was clearly not the only Lord watching.
Across the region, plenty of Lords had stopped touching their own construction, Recruit, and resource-allocation interfaces.
Their workers were still working.
The Lords themselves were all staring at the same Ranking.
Cassian’s number was moving too fast.
Outside the Forge at Forgotten Shrine, the processing area had been split into three lines.
Complete equipment did not enter.
Anything worth repairing did not enter either.
Only pieces that could no longer be used and whose repair cost clearly exceeded their remaining usefulness went to the dismantling tables.
Bram even had two cracked Rare shields carried back to storage because their main structures were still intact.
"These two can be repaired."
Cassian glanced at them.
"Then don’t dismantle them."
"Costs you more than two hundred points."
"I’m not taking first by smashing things I can still use."
Bram nodded and flipped their tags back to Awaiting Repair.
This was also where Grand Craft truly widened the gap.
An ordinary dismantling process might melt Rare material and low-grade filler together until both became waste.
Bram could separate the layers first, pull out the portions that still retained Rare properties, and send the lower-grade alloy down another processing line.
The system cared about the resources that came out at the end.
Cassian cared about not destroying good material just to make that happen.
Less than an hour later, the Ranking silenced the Regional Channel a second time.
[Cassian Vale: 507,640]
Half a million.
Even the people who had been saying "his inventory has to run out eventually" went quiet.
Tobias was the first to speak.
[Tobias Reed: I take back what I said about two Gold Veins not being able to produce resources that fast.]
[Tobias Reed: The mines aren’t even the question anymore.]
[Rowan Ashford: Last time, I only put one hundred Aether on Cassian and regretted it afterward.]
[Rowan Ashford: Now I’m starting to regret that nobody opened a betting pool for this one.]
[Anonymous Lord: What does five hundred thousand points even mean?]
[Anonymous Lord: If every unit were Rare, that’s still more than five thousand units.]
[Anonymous Lord: Did he dismantle the Royal Hall?]
Elara’s private message arrived almost at the same time.
[Elara Vayne: Did you dismantle the Royal Hall?]
Cassian looked at it.
[Cassian Vale: No.]
[Elara Vayne: Then where did five hundred thousand points come from?]
[Cassian Vale: I dismantled the people who were guarding it.]
There was silence on the other end for several seconds.
[Elara Vayne: ...Fine.]
[Elara Vayne: As long as the Building is still there.]
Cassian closed the conversation.
Of course it was still there.
The Royal Hall was supposed to keep producing Hill Kings for him.
He was not going to destroy it for a resource Ranking.
Seraphine had seen the guesses in the Regional Channel as well.
At first, she had thought Cassian had simply saved some old inventory and timed its processing for today.
That was still true after half a million points.
What was no longer true was the word "some."
Maelin quickly listed the plausible sources.
"Two Gold Veins aren’t enough."
"The Royal Hall itself wasn’t dismantled."
"A normal newcomer couldn’t have saved enough Chests for this."
"That leaves Dwarf inventory from the mountains."
Seraphine frowned.
"A resource vault inside the Royal Hall?"
"Possibly."
Maelin continued,
"Or he took the defenders’ equipment stores when he claimed the Building."
It sounded entirely reasonable.
It was still wrong.
Cassian had not discovered some hidden treasury.
He had simply never treated the ruined loot from that battle as trash that had to be thrown away the same day.
---
Noon.
The final dismantling report arrived at the Oath Hall from the Forge.
Bram did not start with the Ranking.
He placed the final processing sheet in front of Cassian.
"Scrap section is cleared."
Cassian looked down.
[Royal Hall Scrap Loot Dismantling]
[Rare Stormforged Metal Resource: 14,790 units | Refined Dwarven Alloy Resource: 5,600 units | Common Recoverable Auxiliary Material: 2,040 units]
[Points This Run: Royal Hall Scrap 1,537,040 + Rare Chest ×5 Resources 18,210 + Post-Ranking Normal Gold Ore / Refined Production 8,000 = 1,563,250]
This was not a score sheet that became worthless after today.
Bram tapped the three material categories.
"Seal the Rare material separately. If we need to repair Dwarf heavy armor, shields, or launchers from the same line later, we draw from this first."
"Refined goes to the Forge. Common goes into routine Building and tool maintenance."
Cassian nodded.
"Do it."
A battle that had already ended had now done two things at once.
It had locked down the Ranking lead—and stocked Forgotten Shrine with high-grade repair material and forging stock that could keep feeding the Domain long after the score stopped mattering.
The Ranking refreshed at the same moment.
[Resource Collection Ranking]
[#1 Cassian Vale: 1,563,250]
[#2 Elara Vayne: 48,250]
[#3 Seraphine Valcrest: 46,672]
[#4 Rowan Ashford: 12,365]
[#5 Tobias Reed: 11,082]
There were more names below them.
No one looked.
One point five six million.
Second place had not even reached fifty thousand.
There was still a full day before formal settlement.
But this was no longer "temporarily first."
Even if Elara and Seraphine maintained their fastest current collection rates for the entire remaining twenty-four hours, the gap would not close.
Not unless one of them suddenly produced another untouched high-grade stockpile on the same scale.
The Regional Channel was silent for several full seconds.
Then it detonated.
[Anonymous Lord: Isn’t settlement tomorrow?]
[Anonymous Lord: Why does it already feel over?]
[Rowan Ashford: Because at the current rates, it is.]
[Tobias Reed: I ran the numbers once. Don’t bother.]
[Anonymous Lord: Where does one point five six MILLION even come from?]
[Anonymous Lord: If he didn’t dismantle the Royal Hall, is there a Rare mine underneath it?]
[Anonymous Lord: Or do Dwarves keep their own resource vaults?]
[Anonymous Lord: How much did he actually take out of those mountains without telling anyone?]
Elara sent another private message.
[Elara Vayne: My resource lines are already running at full capacity.]
[Elara Vayne: That gap is the first time I’ve looked at a Ranking and thought first place was simply out of reach.]
[Elara Vayne: So I’ll ask something else. How much more of this "I’ll deal with it later" inventory do you have?]
[Cassian Vale: On this scale? None.]
[Elara Vayne: ...I’m remembering that sentence.]
The messages came faster and faster.
Some people tried to reverse-engineer the amount from the size of the Royal Hall.
Some guessed the Realmwide Announcement had secretly awarded Cassian resources he never disclosed.
Others became convinced there had to be an Epic resource point deeper in the mountains.
Not one of them landed on the actual answer.
A battle that was already over.
And a mountain of ruined equipment most Lords would have discarded as useless scrap.
Cassian posted one message.
[Cassian Vale: Inventory’s finished. One-time only.]
The channel stopped again.
Then somehow trusted him even less.
[Anonymous Lord: Last time you said you had fewer than three hundred Troops.]
[Anonymous Lord: Now when you say "one-time," I just want to know how many one-times you have left.]
Cassian did not explain.
He already had the result he wanted.
They could keep the guesses.
---
Seraphine’s Domain.
When the Ranking refreshed to 1,563,250, she did not speak for a long time.
Maelin did not rush her.
Every conclusion they had made about an inventory burst being temporary was logically correct.
The mistake was using the size of their own inventories to estimate the size of Cassian’s.
Seraphine suddenly laughed once.
There was no amusement in it.
"Yesterday, I told him Regional Warden isn’t only about combat strength."
Maelin said, "At least on the resource side, he seems to have listened."
"No."
Seraphine shook her head.
"None of this appeared today because of the Contest."
"He took the Royal Hall before today."
"He brought the loot back before today."
"And Bram—the man who can recover high-grade material from that scrap—is someone he recruited himself."
"Today just happened to come with a Ranking."
She pulled her Regional Warden assessment sheet back in front of her.
Cassian’s Resources and Production section had originally been estimated from only his two Gold Veins and Forge.
Seraphine crossed it out completely.
"Redo it."
"Leave the combat section alone."
"Resources, inventory, production capacity—reassess all three at the highest risk level."
Maelin glanced at her.
"And the ten-million-Aether wager?"
Seraphine’s finger paused for a moment.
"The bet is already made."
"Now I figure out how to win it."
That was what she said.
But her eyes still returned to the two numbers once more.
1,563,250.
46,672.
The gap was ugly.
---
Forgotten Shrine.
After looking at the Ranking one more time, Cassian finally felt some of the tension inside him loosen.
Not because settlement had arrived.
Because first place no longer needed chasing.
This was different from winning by a sliver.
He liked this feeling.
Show enough of your hand at once, and the other side stops calculating how to catch up.
Bram put away the final dismantling record.
"Everything left is worth repairing."
"Then stop."
Cassian closed the Ranking.
The lead was enough. What remained in storage should eventually be used as equipment, not traded for another meaningless stretch of digits.
"Next, clear the old inventory."
He started with a blueprint that had been sitting around for a long time.
[Repeater Ballista Tower Blueprint ×1]
Forgotten Shrine already had one Level 2 Repeater Ballista Tower.
Now it also had the Eclipse army, the Stormlance Valkyries, Rocketiers, and five Epic Highbloods.
A second low-tier defense tower of the same type had been falling lower and lower on the priority list.
Cassian checked recent transactions on the Regional Exchange.
Around thirty thousand.
He messaged Tobias directly.
[Cassian Vale: Need a defense-tower blueprint?]
[Tobias Reed: What grade?]
Cassian sent the panel.
The answer came almost immediately.
[Tobias Reed: One hundred thousand.]
Cassian: "..."
[Cassian Vale: Thirty thousand.]
[Tobias Reed: Since when do you volunteer to take less money?]
[Cassian Vale: That’s the market price.]
[Tobias Reed: I offered one hundred thousand.]
[Cassian Vale: Which is why I’m not taking it.]
Several seconds passed.
[Tobias Reed: Fine. Thirty thousand.]
The trade completed quickly.
[Repeater Ballista Tower Blueprint ×1: Transferred]
[Aether Crystal +30,000]
[Aether Crystal: 180,466 → 210,466]
Tobias sent one last message.
[Tobias Reed: I’ll still report movement on the southern mine road.]
Cassian answered with one word.
[Cassian Vale: Good.]
It was not a favor debt.
And it was not a gift.
An old blueprint Cassian had no intention of building, sold at market price to someone who had a reason to keep watching the southern approach.
That was enough.
Next came the Beacon Watchtower Blueprint from the five Rare Chests.
Cassian did not build it simply because it was Rare.
He checked what it actually did first.
[Beacon Watchtower]
[Quality: Rare]
[Construction Cost: Aether Crystal ×200,000]
[Effective Observation Radius: 1,300m]
[After detecting a Stealth / Invisible target, maintains a mark for 5 minutes]
[Provides high-intensity area illumination at night]
[Can dispel certain ordinary negative statuses from allied units within observation range; effectiveness depends on relative strength]
Cassian’s eyes stopped on "maintains a mark for 5 minutes."
Shared Sight was still in Teren’s hands.
The Beacon Watchtower could not replace remote shared vision.
It could only watch a fixed area.
But right now, Cassian had no shortage of fixed areas worth watching.
Forgotten Shrine.
The Muster Hall.
The Forge.
And an increasingly valuable concentration of high-grade Troops and inventory.
Until he got the remote eyes he actually wanted, there was no reason to let another observer comfortably hide along the Domain edge.
"Build it."
[Aether Crystal: 210,466 → 10,466]
An empty patch of ground on the western side of Forgotten Shrine lit up.
A stone base rose first.
Then a narrow tower body.
There was no giant ballista at the top.
Instead, a ring of dark-silver observation arrays unfolded outward.
Light swept across the Domain boundary.
The war fog clinging to the gray western slope was pushed back in a clean line.
Thirteen hundred meters.
Night had not arrived yet.
The illumination patterns at the top of the tower still flashed once as they came online.
Veyra looked up for two seconds.
"More useful than a second Ballista."
"That’s why I sold the Ballista."
Cassian took out the last Blueprint worth inspecting.
[Spring Node Blueprint]
[Quality: Rare]
He had nearly put it away again.
Then his finger stopped before closing the panel.
Dwarf Gunner had only been Elite.
What had made Cassian buy that line was the extreme Rare branch hidden farther down its growth path.
Spring Node was the same kind of question.
Rare only told him what it was now.
Not how far it could go.
Cassian did not wait for the system to volunteer an answer.
He manually expanded the Blueprint’s full Construction Path.
Basic Irrigation.
Restoration Spring.
Aether Spring.
Farther down.
At the very bottom, one line finally stopped his hand.
[Deep Evolution Branch: Fountain of Life]
[Quality: Legendary]
[Evolution Cost: Aether Crystal ×10,000,000]
Ten million.
Exactly the same number he had wagered with Seraphine that morning.
Cassian expanded the description.
[Fountain of Life]
[Continuously accumulates high-concentration Life Energy, greatly improving injury recovery and power recovery within the Domain.]
[When sufficient Life Energy has been stored, may perform life reconstruction on a dead Hero or Troop with a formal Domain contract / belonging record.]
[Exact cost and reconstruction time depend on target Quality, Level, and death state.]
The space outside the Oath Hall went quiet.
Aurelia’s Life-Echo Brand could pull one fatal state back during battle.
But that was Aurelia’s power.
One restoration per day.
And it still required her to have enough power left to trigger it.
Fountain of Life was different.
It was a Building.
Once established inside the Domain, it addressed something much larger: the losses Cassian’s entire army might eventually suffer.
Until now, when he thought about Seraphine’s ten million, he had simply seen it as a very large wager.
If he actually won the money, his first instinct would have been to hold that level of capital for the next Legendary Troop Building worth taking.
The Dwarven Royal Hall could steadily produce Legendary Hill Kings.
The Building itself was still only Epic.
If he eventually found a true Legendary Troop Building, the increase in hard military power would not be small.
But now Fountain of Life had stepped into the same price range.
One choice pushed the blade farther forward.
The other gave the high-grade Heroes and Troops he had already built another layer of protection against real losses.
That ten million suddenly had two possible destinations.
Veyra had seen the Evolution Cost too.
She turned her head toward him.
"So the Regional Warden Contest hasn’t even started yet."
"And you’re already dividing up the money she’s going to lose to you?"
Cassian put the Spring Node Blueprint back into storage.
"Win first."
"And then?"
"If I still haven’t found a Legendary Troop Building worth taking by then..."
He paused.
"I build this first."