SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

When Tobias Reed first saw the Gold Vein, he had not intended to start a serious fight. At least, that was how he thought of it.

The stone valley was less than nine kilometers from his Domain. When his scouts came around from the south, the first things they saw were mine carts, workers, and one woman in golden armor standing outside the entrance. A line of white stones marked the mine’s outer boundary.

No Cassian. No Veyra.

Tobias’s Hero watched the woman for a few seconds. "Only one guard."

The Troop Power Ranking had less than two days left. A Gold Vein closer to Tobias’s own Domain, guarded by a single visible fighter, looked very much like someone had stretched their reach too far.

"Make her back off first."

Six Elite shield troops advanced. The woman in golden armor tapped the white line with the tip of her spear.

"Talk from outside the line."

The first boot crossed over. She did not move.

"Second warning. Step back."

Tobias frowned. "Push through."

The third shield troop crossed the boundary.

Golden lightning exploded.

BANG!

The first soldier was thrown backward with his shield. The second took the spear shaft across the chest hard enough to cave in his armor and send him rolling back beyond the white stones.

"Retreat!"

The remaining four Elite troops pulled back at once, and the woman did not pursue them. Tobias froze for a second.

Then his Hero drew a weapon—and five more bolts of lightning dropped onto the distant ridge. Five Stormlance Valkyries were already returning from their patrol routes, and one lightning spear struck from the side hard enough to knock the Hero’s weapon away.

One had already been too many. Now there were six.

Tobias turned and ran. He made it a little over twenty meters before Sigrid landed in front of him and laid the shaft of her spear across his throat.

"Cassian gave us rules. If the ordinary troops retreat, we don’t chase them." She looked directly at Tobias. "The one who gave the order gets brought back alive if possible."

Tobias stopped moving. He hadn’t run into one powerful guard. He’d triggered a response Cassian had planned in advance.

Several hours later, Tobias stood outside the broken walls of Forgotten Shrine and finally saw the real Veyra. She was leaning against a stone pillar outside the Oath Hall, and one glance from her was enough to make him stiffen.

Very slowly, he turned toward Sigrid. "She’s not Veyra?"

Sigrid frowned. "Who?"

"You."

Cassian sat at the stone table and answered for her. "Her name is Sigrid."

Tobias swallowed. "Then she’s..."

"One of my troops."

The Hero ranked #1 on the Hero Power Ranking was standing nearby. The fighter who had crushed Tobias’s entire group was not that Hero at all; she was one of Cassian’s mine guards. And there were six of them at the vein.

Cassian did not give him long to process it. "Why did you touch my mine?"

Tobias took a breath. "It’s too close to my Domain. At first I thought it was a newly spawned resource point."

"Then you saw the workers, the white line, and the guard."

Tobias was silent for a second. "I thought there was only one."

"Now you know."

Tobias looked at him. "My Hero, two injured troops, and their weapons are still at the mine. The rest have already withdrawn. I want this to end here."

Cassian asked, "What are you offering?"

Tobias had clearly spent the entire trip thinking about that question. "A coordinate."

He pushed a map across the table. "Roughly eleven kilometers northwest. There’s a stretch of gold-colored ore exposed at the surface. A group of stone-armored beasts, all above Level 12, are around it. I didn’t get close enough to confirm whether the system recognizes it as a Gold Vein."

He held Cassian’s gaze. "If it is one, the coordinate buys my release, my Hero, the two wounded troops, and the return of our weapons. Then today’s matter ends."

This was not information Tobias had casually volunteered. It was the only bargaining chip he thought Cassian might actually want.

"And if it’s false?" Cassian asked.

"I stay here until you finish checking."

Cassian forwarded the coordinate to four Blackfang.

[Observe only.]

[Do not enter the ore layer. Do not engage the stone-armored beasts.]

[Confirm the ore, the monsters, and whether any Lords are active nearby.]

Tobias read the orders. "You’re not going straight there?"

"Last time someone gave me Gold Vein coordinates, more than twenty Lords were waiting behind them."

Tobias stopped asking questions.

Less than an hour later, the Blackfang returned the limited impressions Pack Dominion could relay: the direction was correct, gold-colored ore was present, there were many monsters, and no Lord activity had been detected nearby. There was still no live image.

Cassian looked at the sparse information and thought of Shared Sight again. If that Core Trait were already his, he would not have to work from a handful of vague impressions. Unfortunately, it was not his yet.

"Tobias."

"Yes?"

"The location checks out. That’s half the bargain."

Tobias blinked.

"The ore is real," Cassian continued. "I still need to confirm the system recognizes it as a Gold Vein. Once I do, your Hero, your wounded troops, and your weapons all go back to you. You stay here until then."

Tobias nodded.

Cassian stood and fastened his Wraithplate. After two steps, he stopped. "From now on, if you see groups gathering south of the mine, tell Sigrid before they arrive."

This time Tobias thought for a few seconds. "Fine. The fewer reasons my scouts have to come near your side, the better I sleep."

Cassian glanced at him. "Good."

It was not loyalty. It was simply an arrangement both sides had a reason to keep.

The second ore layer ran much deeper than Tobias had described. The exposed section was only the outer edge; the main body slanted into the mountainside, while more than a dozen heavily armored stone beasts rested around the entrance, most around Level 12.

Cassian approached with Eira and five Stormlance Valkyries but did not attack immediately. The beast deepest inside was only slightly larger than the others, yet it never left the mine mouth.

Eira threw a probing spear. Two nearby beasts were forced back by the impact, but the larger one dropped all four limbs into the ground and barely moved.

Cassian’s gaze stopped on it.

[Stoneplate Bulwark]

[Quality: Rare / Level 13]

[Core Trait: Ground Anchor]

[While stably grounded, greatly increases resistance to impact, knockback, and dragging. The effect rapidly weakens after active movement.]

Cassian read the last line twice. Eira had already noticed his expression.

"Lord?"

"Leave the one in the back to me."

"Core Trait?"

"Yeah." Cassian kept his eyes on Ground Anchor. "I want this one."

Shared Sight was still in someone else’s hands. This one was right in front of him.

Predator Step helped him decide where he could get to. Dread Mantle helped him survive one dangerous impact. Ground Anchor filled a different gap: when something tried to force him off a position, could he simply refuse to move?

"Eira, clear the left. Three of you seal the rear." Cassian pointed toward the Bulwark. "Don’t take that one through the throat. Don’t punch through the chest either."

"Understood."

Lightning split the mine entrance apart. The Stormlance Valkyries cleared the outer beasts first, never directing their full burst into the Bulwark’s fatal zones. Two Thunder Javelins struck across its shoulder armor; both times, it drove its limbs into the stone and bled the force into the ground. The third strike finally cracked its right shoulder plate.

The Bulwark roared and lunged out of the mine mouth. The instant it moved, Ground Anchor weakened.

"Now."

Cassian moved first. Predator Step collapsed the distance as the Bulwark swept a claw toward him. He slipped past the edge of it, sparks tearing across Wraithplate, while Eira’s spear struck the cracked shoulder at the same moment.

It was not a fatal blow. It was only enough to wrench the beast’s head to the right for an instant.

Cassian entered from the left and drove his short sword into the gap behind its jaw, where the armor did not fully overlap. The Stoneplate Bulwark jerked its head upward, but Cassian kept his grip and forced the blade deeper until the massive body crashed to the ground.

[Kill: Stoneplate Bulwark]

[DEVOUR]

[Core power available: Ground Anchor]

"Devour."

A thin gray-white light pulled free from the corpse’s chest and sank into Cassian’s arm. His legs settled slightly—not because he had become heavier, but because every point where his weight met the ground suddenly felt distinct.

[Permanent ability acquired: Ground Anchor I]

[While stably grounded and actively holding position, greatly increases resistance to knockback, collision, and dragging. Movement rapidly releases the effect.]

The notification had barely faded when a wounded stone beast charged from the side. Eira raised her spear.

"Don’t."

Cassian stepped forward instead and lowered his center of gravity.

[Ground Anchor I]

BANG!

The beast’s shoulder slammed into Wraithplate. Broken stone sprayed in both directions, and Cassian’s boots carved two short grooves through the ground.

He gave less than half a step.

Eira’s spear shot past his shoulder and pierced the creature through its already-broken neck armor. The beast collapsed.

Eira looked at the grooves. "It barely moved you."

"That’s what I wanted."

Ground Anchor did not make force disappear. It made Cassian much harder to remove once he chose to hold his ground.

The rest of the fight ended quickly. Then the system identified the ore layer.

[Discovered: Gold Vein.]

A second one.

Cassian sent a message immediately.

[Cassian Vale: Coordinate confirmed. Release Tobias, his Hero, and the wounded troops. Return their weapons.]

Veyra sent back one line.

[Got it.]

Only then was the exchange complete.

Cassian opened a channel with Bram. "I found another one."

"How big?"

"The exposed seam is thicker than the first."

Bram asked only one question. "Can you hold it?"

Cassian looked at Eira and the five Stormlance Valkyries behind her. "Yes."

"Then I’ll split the crew. The first mine doesn’t stop." Bram paused before adding, "One more thing. I rechecked the first batch of waste rock. The workers were sorting by ordinary mining standards and threw out some low-content pieces. The system recognizes a wider range as Gold Ore than they expected."

"You changed the standard?"

"Already done."

The mine had not suddenly become richer. Grand Craft had simply let Bram recover material that ordinary sorting would have thrown away.

Late that night, after both Gold Veins were running, the new total appeared.

[Eclipse Muster Hall]

[Gold Ore: 286 / 300]

Fourteen short.

Veyra looked at the number, then at Cassian. "You went out to confirm one mine and came back with a permanent ability."

"It happened to be there."

"You make that sound accidental."

Cassian glanced at Ground Anchor I at the bottom of his ability list. "I still want Shared Sight more."

Veyra laughed. "At least you didn’t come back empty-handed this time."

Her gaze returned to 286. "The Ranking settles tomorrow at noon."

"I know."

"So now you’re finally allowed to be impatient?"

Cassian pulled the Eclipse Muster Hall construction window to the front. "It’s not impatience. The door is already in front of me. I don’t like standing outside a door for long."