Chapter 81: Now This Is How You Farm Points—Three Fortune Secured

"Move in."

The moment Cassian gave the order, eleven Stormlance charged through the Warden Gate and onto the crystal slope. Aurelia and Celia split left and right, forcing the Crystal Wolves and Crystal Spiders pouring from the side valley toward the center.

Twenty Dwarf Rocketiers crossed the Gate behind them.

Veyra left only a small Eclipse squad with basic Mistveil training beside the Gate.

They did not chase monsters.

Their only job was to keep the traffic through the Gate from colliding.

Veyra herself remained inside Forgotten Shrine.

"That’s enough."

"Don’t turn my training into a performance for the monsters."

Cassian looked at the twenty launchers already rising into firing position.

"Overload."

BOOM—!

Twenty trails of fire tore across the crystal slope at once.

The Crystalkin that had just gathered ahead vanished beneath a sheet of flame. Crystal fragments burst outward like a storm, and Kill Points notifications flooded Cassian’s vision.

[Dwarf Rocketier killed: Crystal Wolf]

[Dwarf Rocketier killed: Crystal Spider]

[Dwarf Rocketier killed: Crystal Fox]

[Kill Points: Recorded]

The rest of the battle reports were quickly collapsed by the system.

The first wave of fire had barely faded when all twenty Rocketiers dropped into the familiar condition.

[Temporarily Combat-Incapacitated]

Cassian did not leave them there to wait.

"Back."

The twenty Dwarves shouldered their launchers and went straight through the Gate. The Eclipse squad beside the Gate shifted aside to open a lane, and the entire withdrawal passed through without stopping.

Veyra was already waiting on the other side.

"Into the Fountain."

Not the small patch of ordinary Life Aura near the Gate.

All twenty Rocketiers went directly into the actual Fountain recovery zone inside the Deep Layer.

On the far side, fresh Crystalkin did not stop coming simply because the Rocketiers had withdrawn.

Sigrid had already driven the Stormlance forward again.

Lightning snapped back and forth across the slope.

Aurelia struck wherever the monsters were thickest.

Celia held the flank and prevented fresh Crystal Beasts from circling toward the Gate.

They were slower than twenty Overload volleys.

But they were more than enough to cover the gap.

Less than ten minutes later, Veyra’s voice came through from the other side of the Gate.

"Ready."

The twenty Rocketiers walked out of the Deep Layer again.

[Combat State: Available]

Their launchers began reloading.

Cassian glanced toward the crystal slope.

Sigrid had just forced another group of Crystalkin back into the open firing lane.

"Switch."

The Stormlance withdrew.

The Rocketiers moved back in.

Cassian raised one hand.

"Again."

BOOM—!

A second wave of fire swallowed the crystal slope.

Kill Points began rising in batches all over again.

Veyra watched through the Gate for a moment.

"So this is what you really wanted from Rank V."

"The Gate only shortens the road."

Cassian looked toward the Fountain inside the Deep Layer, then toward the distant main keep.

"The Fountain turns one volley into the next."

"And the Crystal Mother makes sure there’s another batch after we clear this one."

The main keep remained intact.

The Crystal Mother had not been attacked.

Yet fresh crystal silhouettes were still appearing from the side valley and the outer nests.

Cassian did not let anyone take a single extra step toward the keep.

They continued clearing only the perimeter Crystalkin they could handle.

When the Rocketiers burned themselves empty, they returned to the Fountain.

Stormlance, Aurelia, and Celia covered the gap.

Once the Rocketiers recovered, they came back.

After several rotations, Cassian disabled the ordinary kill notifications and left only the total change visible.

He no longer needed to verify every retreat or every firing position.

The answer that mattered was already in front of him.

Before, the end of Overload meant that ranged unit was out of the rest of the fight.

Now—

the end of Overload only meant they had to go back and recover once.

And the Crystal Mother was still replenishing the monsters.

That was what made this route terrifying.

Not how strong the first volley was.

But what came after it.

A second volley.

Then a third.

As long as the Ranking kept running, Crystal Bastion’s perimeter would keep pouring points into their Kill Points total.

——

Another Realm Day passed.

Before noon, Cassian did not look at the Kill Points Ranking first.

Another countdown had already entered its final stretch.

[Region Fortune Duel]

[Contest: Agriculture Index]

[Settlement: Today, 12:00]

The five days were up.

Inside the Deep Layer’s agricultural sector, the second crop of Epic Moonrice had also reached the end of its maturation cycle.

At 17× Time Acceleration, nearly eighty-five Subjective Days had passed from start to finish.

Forty days for the first crop.

Forty for the second.

The margin between them had been just enough for the Settlers to reset the Fields, sow again, and prepare for Harvest.

This time, Veyra was not standing beside a table waiting for Cassian to ask.

She was already in the Fields.

The second crop of Moonrice bowed lower than the first, layers of silver-white grain stacked across the Fields.

When Cassian entered the Deep Layer, she only lifted a hand.

"It’s ready."

"Harvest."

All ten Epic Fields began harvesting at once.

First bundle.

Second.

Third Field.

...

The system did not drown them in hundreds of yield notifications.

The line that mattered appeared only when the last Field completed a valid Harvest.

[Epic Moonrice | Second Harvest: Recorded]

[Riftward Agriculture Index recalculating...]

The number began climbing.

Six hundred thousand.

Seven hundred thousand.

Nine hundred thousand.

Still rising.

Because over these five days, the Fields, Seeds, Farmers, and valid Harvests submitted by Riftward’s other Lords had continued entering the Region total as well.

At last, the golden number stopped.

[Riftward Agriculture Index: 1,140,000]

Veyra stared for two breaths.

"The first Harvest was five hundred twenty-five thousand."

"And the second takes it over a million."

"Yeah."

"Post it now?"

Cassian glanced at the time.

[11:41]

"Wait nineteen minutes."

Veyra turned her head.

"You really like waiting until the end."

"No."

Cassian closed the interface.

"Posting it now gains me nothing."

"And nineteen minutes from now?"

"Nineteen minutes from now, I won’t need to post it."

The system would do it for him.

——

In the Shattered Marches Channel, Sable March had already pushed its Agriculture Index to a new publicly visible high.

Not the final value.

Only its latest visible update.

[Sable March Agriculture Index: 160,000+]

After 54,238, Varek had not simply sat and waited to lose.

Black Banner had poured higher-grade agricultural consumables capable of shortening maturity cycles and improving Field turnover into more than twenty core agricultural Domains.

Not all of them were reusable.

And none were free.

But Sable’s number had genuinely climbed.

The Black Banner Lord who had previously promised a public apology appeared again.

[Black Banner Lord: 160,000+.]

[Black Banner Lord: Riftward still planning to hide?]

[Tobias Reed: Yeah.]

[Black Banner Lord: You answering for Cassian now?]

[Tobias Reed: He hasn’t posted for days. I think the answer’s been pretty consistent.]

Laughter followed.

Some people reopened the Wager too.

Tobias had kept dragging the old screenshot back into view over the last several days.

A good number of people who had originally decided there was no reason to bet on a "guaranteed" Sable victory had been pulled back in.

Even so, as the lock approached, Riftward’s side remained much thinner.

The reason was simple.

Sable had a public score.

Riftward did not.

At 11:50, Tobias messaged Cassian privately.

[Tobias Reed: Can I add more?]

[Cassian Vale: It’s your money.]

[Tobias Reed: I’m asking whether you think I should.]

[Cassian Vale: Haven’t you spent the last few days telling everyone the answer’s been consistent?]

The other side went silent for several seconds.

[Tobias Reed: Fine.]

[Tobias Reed: Then I’ll own it myself.]

Cassian did not tell him how much to bet.

He did not place the bet for him either.

At the same time, Cassian opened the Wager himself.

Riftward’s odds were still available under the Duel.

Cassian glanced at the ongoing Aether drain from 17× Time Acceleration.

Then at the Warden Gate’s operating reserve.

Finally, he moved a portion of his currently liquid balance.

He did not touch the reserve keeping the Gate running.

He did not hollow out the remaining Aether Allocation in the agricultural sector.

He simply dragged that amount onto Riftward’s side.

[Personal Wager: Confirmed]

The amount was not broadcast to the Channel.

Cassian did not look at it again.

Five days ago, Varek had not wagered Aether.

He had wagered three points of Fortune.

That was the settlement worth waiting for.

Not the Wager payout.

——

11:58.

Sable March.

Nadia Serr placed the final internal summary in front of Varek.

"More than twenty agricultural Domains used their forced-growth resources."

"Every Harvest that could finish today is done."

Varek asked, "Riftward still hasn’t posted?"

"No."

Someone beside them said, "If they really had more than a hundred and fifty thousand, they should’ve posted it already to pressure the Wager."

Varek did not answer that.

He was looking at something else.

Cassian had become too quiet in the last few minutes.

It had been the same in the previous Ranking, when Riftward’s odds were 12.0.

He waited.

Then acted at the end.

Now he was doing it again.

"Keep waiting."

Nadia looked at him.

"You think something’s wrong?"

"Yes."

"Then why don’t we—"

"The Duel is already locked."

Varek cut her off.

"The Fortune is already staked."

"We’ve done everything we can do now."

He did not force himself to say they were guaranteed to win just to sound confident.

Nor did he pretend the final investment from those twenty-plus agricultural Domains made them unbeatable.

He only watched the countdown.

"Look at the result."

——

12:00.

Two golden Region marks lit up across the Shattered Marches at the same time.

Riftward.

Sable March.

Every Wager message sank beneath the settlement interface.

[Region Fortune Duel settlement begins]

[Contest: Agriculture Index]

[Riftward: 1,140,000]

The first line appeared.

The Channel went dead.

Not for one second.

For three full breaths.

No one who had just been spamming 160,000+ immediately replied.

Tobias posted only one number.

[Tobias Reed: 1,140,000.]

Then the second line appeared.

Sable’s final result was pulled into the settlement as well.

It did not catch up.

It was not even close.

The golden light continued downward.

[Winner: Riftward]

[Region Fortune Stake: 3]

[Riftward Region Fortune: 5 → 8]

[Sable March Region Fortune: 1 → -2]

Only then was the Duel truly over.

The first thing to react inside Forgotten Shrine was not cheering.

It was the Domain Aether Vein underground.

The pale-gold lines that had carried 5% resonance spread visibly outward.

[Fortune-Touched I]

[Current Fortune Resonance: 5% → 8%]

Cassian’s gaze paused.

No new formula appeared with it.

For the moment, the system only confirmed that the resonance itself had increased.

Outside, the Riftward Regional Channel had already erupted.

[Anonymous Lord: Eight points?!]

[Anonymous Lord: We actually knocked Sable down to negative two?]

[Anonymous Lord: My Rare Field just triggered another high-Quality event!]

[Tobias Reed: Don’t count every good thing as Fortune yet.]

[Rowan Ashford: Record first. Don’t make things up.]

Veyra stood at the edge of the Fields, looking at Cassian.

"Yesterday you said Varek already owed you two points."

"Yeah."

"And now?"

"Now he doesn’t owe me."

Cassian looked at the 8 on the interface.

"It arrived."

The corner of Veyra’s mouth finally lifted.

"That one works."

The Exchange settled the Wager at the same time.

Cassian’s winning stake returned to his account, and the balance moved again.

He did not stop to create a new exact ledger for it.

The 17× acceleration had still been burning Aether up to this point.

The Exchange had also been bringing money in for days.

The one number that was truly fixed now was the eight Fortune.

Cassian raised a hand.

"Turn off 17× in the agricultural sector."

The Duel was settled.

There was no reason to keep burning Aether at the highest setting for a third crop.

[Time Acceleration: 17× → Off]

The Deep Layer’s sense of time gradually slowed back down.

Veyra looked at the freshly harvested second batch of Epic Moonrice.

"You’re distributing this batch too?"

"We keep this one."

Cassian opened Rowan’s channel.

[Cassian Vale: Set aside a batch of the Rare Beast Meat we screened earlier.]

[Rowan Ashford: Selling it?]

[Cassian Vale: No. One portion for every Registered Lord.]

Rowan paused for several seconds.

[Rowan Ashford: The whole Region?]

[Cassian Vale: Yeah.]

[Cassian Vale: Anyone who actually submitted Fields, Seeds, Farmers, or Harvest records during these five days gets an extra portion.]

[Rowan Ashford: Understood.]

The Rare Beast Meat had already been selected from the higher-Quality food produced by hunting around Crystal Bastion and the Outer March.

It could be sold.

It had been sold before.

But it was not the newly established Epic Moonrice core production line.

Using it for the Region dividend preserved the value of the second Harvest.

The Regional Channel heated up all over again.

[Anonymous Lord: There’s a dividend too?]

[Anonymous Lord: I only submitted Field records twice. I still get one?]

[Rowan Ashford: Every Registered Lord gets one. Anyone who actually contributed to Agriculture gets an extra portion.]

[Tobias Reed: Take it this time. Those three Fortune points weren’t grown by Cassian alone.]

Cassian did not correct him.

Over these five days, people had contributed Fields.

Seeds.

Farmers.

Harvest records.

Riftward’s final 1.14 million had not all come from Forgotten Shrine.

They had won together.

So they could take a share together.

Veyra listened, then looked back at the Epic Moonrice beside her.

"They get Rare Beast Meat."

"Yeah."

"And mine?"

Cassian looked at her.

"You don’t have a registered Domain."

Veyra’s fingers stopped.

Then she turned her head very slowly.

"Cassian."

"Yeah?"

"You should answer that again."

Cassian looked at her for two seconds.

Then pushed a small pouch of freshly packed Epic Moonrice across to her.

"Yours doesn’t go through Rowan."

Veyra took it.

"That’s better."

The cheering outside continued.

Riftward’s eight points of Fortune had truly arrived.

And this time, the win wasn’t Cassian’s alone.