Chapter 292: Vespera’s Reward
Sky stared at her in total shock.
For ten agonizing seconds, the neutral clearing was completely silent. Sky’s shoulders slumped in utter defeat.
He knew she wasn’t bluffing.
In the streaming industry, a single public reputation hit from a high-profile Lord could tank his sponsorship deals for months.
"Fine! Sixty-fourty!" Sky groaned, throwing his hands up in the air. "You’re a terrifying negotiator, Vespera! An extortionist! That’s what you are..."
In truth, Sky was willing to eat the loss on the direct stream ad revenue because the real astronomical bags were made afterward... through the recorded LordTube highlight clips, short-form viral edits, and exclusive Itraeon membership subscriptions that would generate multiple of millions of credits over the coming months.
Sky unclipped a digital data-pad from his belt, tapping the screen.
"Give me your official real-world account details after we finish the Lord War, and I’ll wire your sixty percent share straight over."
"Deal," Vespera agreed smoothly.
They stepped forward and shook on it... Vespera’s heavy silver-and-gold gauntlet gripping Sky’s gloved palm in a firm binding handshake.
With the financial agreement finalized, Vespera stood up from her high-backed leather chair with her frame swaying slightly as the lingering mental exhaustion hit her again.
STEP! STEP!
From the sidelines near the Blessed Wolf mounts, Rowenna arrived at her Lord’s side in an instant.
The Grand Runemaster moved with effortless grace, her long violet-tinted hair shifting gently in the morning breeze.
The moment Rowenna stepped beside her, Vespera didn’t even hesitate.
She leaned her frame sideways, resting her heavy hooded head directly against the soft side of Rowenna’s body, letting out a quiet tired sigh.
"I just want to have a bit of a rest..." Vespera muttered, her voice muffled against Rowenna’s robes.
Rowenna’s blue eyes filled with immense warmth and tender devotion.
She carefully reached up with her slender, manicured hand, gently running her fingers through her Lord’s dark hair beneath the hood, cradling her head against her waist.
"Rest as much as you need, My Lord..." Rowenna whispered sweetly with her voice soft and soothing. "You did wonderfully out there."
In her comforting haze, Rowenna’s words went completely unnoticed by Sky, who was busy reviewing his data-pad inventory logs.
Sky clicked off his screen, turning back toward them with a wide energetic grin.
"Alright, Vespera! Follow me!" Sky called out, gesturing toward a heavy cargo ramp extending from the side of his mobile fortress. "Since you were a champ during the broadcast, I’m going to throw in some extra units of the Obsidian-Slate Stone! Consider it a bonus for dealing with those crazy nobles..."
Vespera lifted her head from Rowenna’s side, adjusting her coat collar as she stepped forward.
"Extra units? How much are we talking about?"
Sky paused near the ramp, tilting his head.
"Well, first of all... do you actually know what raw, unrefined Obsidian-Slate Stone looks like in person?"
Vespera blinked beneath her hood, offering a straightforward answer.
"No. I’ve only seen the blueprint requirements on my system interface."
Sky smiled broadly behind his mask, waving his hand for them to follow.
"Come on inside. Let me show you."
Vespera and Rowenna followed the streaming Lord up the metallic cargo ramp and into the lower industrial holds of The Unmovable Wall.
The interior of the mobile fortress was a marvel of modern engineering... massive steel girders, automated overhead cranes, and rows of reinforced containment vaults lined the multi-tiered floor.
Deep within the central material storage bay, two specialized dwarven architects wearing heavy leather aprons and safety goggles were hard at work, standing over a floating holographic blueprint table as they attempted to calculate structural load capacities for an upcoming fort expansion.
Hearing footsteps, the two architects turned, immediately bowing respectfully toward Sky and Vespera.
"Lord Sky! Warlord Vespera!" the head architect greeted gruffly.
"At ease, boys," Sky replied casually. "Pull up a primary sample crate of the high-density Obsidian-Slate Stone we hauled from the deep quarry veins."
"Right away, sir!"
One of the architects stepped over to a heavy, reinforced steel container, punching an access code into the digital keypad.
PFT-SHHH!
Pressurized steam vented from the container hinges as the heavy lid slid open.
The dwarf reached inside using insulated leather gloves, lifting out a heavy, dark rectangular stone block roughly the size of a chest piece, and handed it over to Sky.
Sky caught the stone block, turning toward Vespera.
The material was breathtaking.
It was a dense pitch-black slate stone with an impossibly smooth, obsidian-like sheen that seemed to absorb the ambient light of the storage bay.
"This is unrefined, Tier 2 Obsidian-Slate Stone," Sky explained, holding it up for her to see. "It’s virtually immune to standard fire magic of the same level, possesses an absurdly high physical impact threshold, and holds enchantment runes better than standard granite."
Sky then offered a confident smirk beneath his mask. "And check out this unique property."
Sky raised his gloved hand and sharply tapped his knuckle against the center of the dark stone block.
PING!
The moment his knuckle struck the surface, a soft ethereal wave of lighter purple energy rippled outward from the impact point.
The violet pulse traveled across the smooth face of the black slate like a liquid stone wave before slowly fading back into the deep obsidian finish... It looked really cool like a shockwave forming.
"Pretty cool, right?" Sky grinned, turning the glowing stone block in his hand. "When kinetic or magical pressure hits the stone, it disperses the force along internal mana veins, creating that purple resonance glow... It makes walls look incredible at night."
Vespera stared at the block, offering a calm composed response.
"Wow. That’s quite impressive, Sky."
...However, deep inside Silas’s mind, he couldn’t give a single flying fuck about how cool the stone looked.
’So what if it glows purple when you tap it?!’ Silas complained in his internal thought. ’Where are my actual units?! I don’t care about a magic trick... I have an entire residential quarters to construct, perimeter walls to reinforce, and a territory to return to! Just hand over the stone so I can leave this place!’
Sky chuckled, clearly enjoying her calm demeanor.
He tucked the sample stone block under his left arm, stepping up directly in front of her.
"I promised you two thousand units, Vespera..." Sky stated smoothly, his eyes glinting behind his mask, "...but because you endured that insane twenty-minute interview, I’m doubling it. I’m handing over four thousand units of Obsidian-Slate Stone."
Vespera’s golden-ringed eyes widened slightly beneath her hood.
Four thousand units!
That was a massive astronomical surplus of high-density construction material! With four thousand units, she could build multiple of the Tier 2 Living Quarters, reinforce the Keep’s outer walls probably and still have enough granite left over just to use later.
"Thank you, Sky," Vespera acknowledged smoothly, keeping her voice composed. "How do we execute the transfer? Do I need to bring in Cargo wagons?"
It was not like she did have any.
Sky laughed, shaking his head. "Cargo wagons? What is this, the dark ages? Hold out your right hand."
Vespera held out her right hand encased in the sleek silver-and-gold Sil-Grave Arm Guard.
Sky reached out, lightly pressing his gloved palm against her gauntleted fingers.
HUMMM!
A bright brilliant pulse of deep blue light erupted between their touching palms.
A spatial transfer channel established itself instantly between Sky’s inventory reserves and her sovereign system storage.
A sleek translucent blue system notification materialized directly before Vespera’s vision.
[RESOURCE TRANSFER RECEIVED]
--------------------------------------------------
+ RESOURCE: Obsidian-Slate Stone (Tier 2 High-Density Granite)
+ QUANTITY: 4,000 Units
+ SOURCE: Mobile Fortress ’The Unmovable Wall’ (Lord Sky)
--------------------------------------------------
[CURRENT INVENTORY LIMIT: 4,000 / 10,000 UNITS]
Vespera looked at the notification, verified the exact four-thousand-unit count sitting safely inside her Lord Inventory, and closed the window with a satisfied flick of her wrist.
"The transfer is complete," Vespera confirmed, pulling her hand back. "Thank you, Sky. I appreciate the generous bonus."
"Don’t worry about it!" Sky replied warmly, giving her a thumbs-up. "Consider it payment for the absurd stream numbers. Happy building, Lord..."
"Until next time," Vespera nodded.
Turning on her heel, Vespera walked back down the cargo ramp with Rowenna by her side, exiting the humid interior of the mobile fortress and stepping back out into the bright morning sun of the neutral clearing.
Out on the grassy perimeter, near the tree line where Sky’s perimeter guards were stationed, one of Sky’s elite Hero-class combatants was hard at work.
It was Hiro... the tall blind warrior dressed in lightweight, dark training tunic and trousers.
He was currently standing in a wide combat stance, practicing precise, high-speed sword slashes against a massive training post with his steel blade cutting through the in with whistling precision.
SWISH! SWISH!
Exiting the fortress holds, Vespera’s gaze briefly flickered toward Hiro’s sharp sword forms.
Seeing his clean blade execution, Silas felt a sudden, tempting urge ripple through his body.
He felt a strong desire to pull out his own blade and test out the Second Style of the Tide-Blade Arts.
...However, Silas quickly suppressed the urge.
He wasn’t entirely sure he had the intricate mana flow of the Second Style fully mastered yet at all so it would look like he was doing nothing but covering himself with water.
Executing an incomplete high-tier sword style in front of a rival Lord and his elite Hero would not only expose his physical combat techniques, but it would also put himself in unnecessary danger too.
’Patience,’ Silas reminded himself. ’I’ll practice it safely back at the Keep’s training grounds with Morwenna...’
Stepping over to the resting Blessed Wolf mounts, Vespera reached out her single gauntleted hand, gently patting the thick fur of Valkyrie’s head.
"Good girl..." The wolf let out a low, affectionate huff, lowering its snout so Vespera could smoothly swing her frame into the leather riding saddle.
Beside her, Rowenna stepped up to her own mount, Luna, fluidly climbing into the saddle and taking the reins with ease.
"Let’s head home, Rowenna," Vespera instructed softly.
"Understood, My Lord," Rowenna replied sweetly.
With a sharp tug on the reins, the two riders turned their giant Blessed Wolves around, kicking up small clouds of dust as they trotted away from The Unmovable Wall, disappearing into the dense forest paths leading back toward the Blessed Land.
Standing near the edge of the clearing, Lord Sky stood watching their retreating backs as the two wolf riders disappeared into the dark Ironwood canopy.
Sky reached up, slowly sliding off his dark sunglasses, his full-face streaming mask reflecting the shadowy forest horizon.
Beneath his mask, Sky’s face twisted into an intensely frustrated stress-filled grimace.
"Fuck..." Sky muttered under his breath, his voice laced with deep simmering anxiety.
Sky was a master at reading people, but Vespera was an enigma.
Every single time she visited his territory, she brought along a completely new, absurdly powerful individual...
Last time, it had been that silent shadow assassin who radiated an overwhelming physical killing intent and next it had been the Jade Beauty with ice magic.
Today, she had brought along this breathtaking woman in arcanist robes.
And yet... Sky hadn’t managed to catch even a brief, passing flicker of what class or elemental discipline this new woman actually possessed.
Sky possessed a high-tier passive sensory skill that allowed him to detect ambient magic signatures, but as he had watched Rowenna stand beside Vespera, her mana reserves had felt completely smooth and unreadable too.
Sky gripped his hair through his mask, feeling like he wanted to pull his hair out in frustration.
’Fuck! She’s a mage, I know she’s a mage!’ Sky screamed internally. ’But what kind of mage is she?! Fire?! Ice?! Spatial?! Void?! How the hell does Vespera keep finding these absurd S-Rank casters?!’
"Runes..." a quiet calm voice suddenly spoke from beside him.
Sky blinked, turning his head toward the training grounds.
Hiro was standing by his wooden training post, smoothly sheathing his steel sword into his scabbard with a soft sound.
CLICK!
The warrior walked over to Sky, pointing a long, callous finger toward the leather chair where Rowenna had been earlier.