Chapter 82: Sable Falls to Negative Two—Time to Bargain with the Crystal Mother

After Riftward’s Fortune reached eight, the first thing Cassian checked was not the Wager payout.

It was not the Agriculture Index either.

It was the Domain Aether Vein.

The pale-gold lines that had just risen from 5% to 8% had not faded yet.

The recalculated long-term effect appeared immediately after.

[Domain Aether Vein]

[Vein State: Fortune-Touched I]

[Current Fortune Resonance: 8%]

[When a formally owned Forgotten Shrine Lord / Hero / Troop participates in a valid kill, standard loot-drop probability: +16%]

[When Cassian Vale opens a random-result Chest / Reward Container, base probability of a High-Fortune Result: ×2]

The second effect had not increased with the 8% resonance.

It remained ×2.

The first effect, however, had risen from +10% to +16%.

Cassian finished reading without surprise.

At five Fortune, 5% resonance had given +10%.

Now at eight, 8% gave +16%.

At least for that effect, the relationship was clear enough.

Veyra returned from the training area with the Mistveil March Manual still in hand.

"Eight really is more than five."

"Yeah."

"So what about the two Writs in your Inventory?"

Cassian opened it.

Two golden Writs still sat at the bottom.

[Region Fortune Duel Writ ×2]

Neither had been used.

Veyra looked at him.

"You just took three points from Sable."

"And you’re not continuing?"

"Not worth using them now."

"That isn’t what you said when you bought them."

"I bought the choice."

Cassian pulled the Second Regional Ranking beside the Inventory.

[Second Regional Ranking]

[Metric: Kill Points]

"This Ranking isn’t settled yet."

Veyra understood.

"You want to wait and see who ends up with the most Fortune?"

"Right."

Cassian nodded.

"Using a Writ on some random Region now isn’t the same as waiting for the Ranking to settle and choosing someone with more Fortune—and enough value to justify the fight."

"What if you take first again?"

"Then there’s even less reason to rush."

"And if you don’t?"

"Then I see who did."

Veyra stared at the two Writs.

"So you didn’t win once and get addicted."

"Why would I?"

"The whole of Riftward was shouting about eight Fortune yesterday."

"That was them."

Cassian closed the Inventory again.

"I only have two Writs."

"Let other people gather more Fortune first."

Veyra gave a quiet laugh.

"If anyone outside heard you say that, they’d start by trying to steal those two Writs."

"Then don’t tell them."

"I wasn’t planning to."

She rested the Mistveil Manual against one shoulder.

"I know that part better than you do."

——

The heat from the Agriculture Duel had not fully faded in the Riftward Regional Channel.

But the Second Regional Ranking was already pulling the conversation back toward Kill Points.

Cassian did not post anything about taking first again.

He did not tell more than four hundred Lords to start hunting other Lords just because the multiplier was ten times either.

He posted only three lines.

[Cassian Vale: Keep taking the Wild routes you can actually handle.]

[Cassian Vale: Ten times is high.]

[Cassian Vale: But Lords aren’t free monsters.]

The Channel went quiet for a moment.

Tobias answered first.

[Tobias Reed: Translation.]

[Tobias Reed: Don’t chase ten-times points so hard that you turn yourself into someone else’s ten-times points.]

[Cassian Vale: Close enough.]

[Rowan Ashford: Supply lines stay at the current hunting scale. Report cross-region transport needs ahead of time.]

[Elara Vayne: Eastern Mountain route keeps clearing. Eira is still with me.]

Only then did the rest begin chiming in.

[Anonymous Lord: I’ve got a Level-20-plus Beast route here. Continuing today.]

[Anonymous Lord: I’m not touching Lords. Monsters are fine.]

[Anonymous Lord: Ten times looks great, but my troops still die for real.]

Cassian said nothing else.

A ten-times multiplier was enough to make people reckless.

But he already had a route that did not require gambling lives first.

The Crystal Mother.

There was no reason to shove all of Riftward into trading kills with other Regions.

That was the part outsiders found hardest to understand.

The ten-times reward was sitting right there.

And Cassian still did not move.

——

The reaction on the other side of the Shattered Marches was much less calm.

Sable March.

Region Fortune: -2.

It was not merely an ugly number hanging on a panel.

The first piece of bad news appeared in under an hour.

[Sable Lord: Part of my northern Refined Iron Vein collapsed.]

[Sable Lord: Patrols were normal last night.]

The second was even more direct.

[Sable Lord: One of my registered Elite Resource Points dropped in Quality today.]

[Sable Lord: Is this negative Fortune?]

No system message appeared to answer them.

Nothing declared that every bad event was definitely caused by Fortune.

But before yesterday, none of these Lords would have looked at ordinary misfortune and immediately connected it to Region Fortune.

Now they did.

Because the number was negative two.

Less than ten minutes later, another Sable Lord started cursing in the internal channel.

"When we overdrew two points, you said we’d just win them back."

"Where are they now?"

"My mine is the thing collapsing first."

"Who pays for these three points?"

Someone immediately followed.

"I said we shouldn’t stake everything on Agriculture in the first place."

Nadia Serr placed the messages on Varek’s table.

The other Black Banner Wardens standing nearby looked just as unhappy.

The first person to speak was not Varek.

"You’re responsible for this loss."

Varek looked at him.

"When I staked three points—"

"Did you object?"

The man stopped.

No.

At the time, Sable had more than twice Riftward’s Lord count.

Black Banner had also just concentrated agricultural resources there.

Riftward would not even publish its Agriculture Index.

Three Fortune had looked like meat sitting on a plate.

No one had truly believed they would lose.

Another person said, "Arguing about that doesn’t help now."

"Sable is at negative two."

"People are already asking whether they can relocate."

This time, Varek did not dodge it.

"Then we find a way to win Fortune back."

He raised a hand.

The Second Regional Ranking opened.

[Sable March | Current Kill Points Rank: 3]

The room finally quieted a little.

Third.

At least for now, Sable was still in the top three.

Varek looked across everyone present.

"We lost Agriculture."

"That’s true."

"Negative two is also true."

"If you want to break apart over one loss, you can."

"But once you leave—"

"Third place in the Kill Points Ranking does not leave with you."

No one answered immediately.

This was not warmth.

No sudden return of loyalty.

The arithmetic simply was not finished.

Black Banner had gathered these people together because the coalition was worth more than standing alone.

Sable at negative two had lost part of that value.

But Rank 3 in Kill Points still existed.

Varek continued.

"Push Rank V and Gate development forward."

"Map nearby Regions that aren’t Black Banner."

Nadia looked up.

"You want to use the ten-times rule?"

"If there’s a cheaper Wild route, we use Wild first."

Varek’s voice remained level.

"If someone nearby is easier prey than the Wild routes—"

"Then why would we refuse ten times?"

After that, no one mentioned leaving immediately again.

At least not today.

——

The daily refresh of the Second Regional Ranking had also completed after the Duel settlement.

Cassian did not open it until he returned to Crystal Bastion’s perimeter.

The Warden Gate stood only a few dozen meters away, and the golden Ranking interface floated directly over the crystal slope.

At the previous day’s noon refresh, Riftward had still been outside the top one hundred.

Today—

the top ten appeared first.

No Riftward.

Top twenty.

Still no.

Top thirty.

Nothing.

Tobias’s message had already arrived.

[Tobias Reed: Yesterday we were outside the top 100.]

[Tobias Reed: Guess where we are today.]

[Cassian Vale: You already looked?]

[Tobias Reed: I’m waiting for you to scroll there yourself.]

Cassian ignored him.

The list continued.

Forty-seven.

Forty-six.

Then the next line.

[Rank 45 | Riftward]

Cassian stopped.

Yesterday: outside the top one hundred.

Today: forty-fifth.

One complete refresh cycle.

Veyra’s voice came through from the other side of the Gate.

"See it?"

"Yeah."

"What rank?"

"Forty-five."

There was a brief pause on her side.

"Twenty Rocketiers."

"Sigrid and the other eleven Stormlance."

"Aurelia."

"Celia."

"That one route did this?"

"Riftward’s other Lords contributed too."

"I’m asking about your side."

"Yes."

Veyra did not answer right away.

She knew better than anyone outside.

There had been no sudden recruitment of five hundred troops.

No Swordsman Hall and Archer Hall thrown up overnight.

No mysterious new Legendary army.

It was yesterday’s force.

The same force.

Only now, after Overload, they could come back.

And after they came back, they could go again.

When the targets were cleared, the Crystal Mother replenished them.

"People outside will guess wrong," Veyra said.

"Let them."

Cassian closed the Ranking.

He no longer needed to prove that this route worked.

Rank 45.

That was only the first day.

What made him lift his eyes was the direction of the main keep.

The monster-farming loop was stable.

The Agriculture Duel was settled.

Three Fortune points were already in hand.

Until yesterday, the Crystal Mother’s greatest value had been staying alive and producing monsters.

Today, Cassian could look at a second price.

That Epic silhouette.

The Crystal Maiden.

Celia had only recorded the location.

No pursuit.

No contact.

Now it was time to negotiate.

——

Sable March.

The same Ranking lay in front of Varek.

Third place was still there.

He let out a breath.

Then Nadia stopped at another line.

"Varek."

"Hmm?"

"Riftward."

"What rank?"

"Forty-five."

The room went quiet.

Varek looked up.

"Yesterday?"

"Outside the top hundred."

"You’re sure?"

"Certain."

Nadia placed the two refresh records side by side.

Not ten places.

Not twenty.

One day.

Straight to forty-five.

Someone’s first reaction was immediate.

"How many more Rocketiers did he recruit?"

Another person said, "Twenty can’t rise that fast."

"Unless Forgotten Shrine has another high-grade production line."

Varek did not accept it immediately.

The last time, they had treated "the twenty Rocketiers were seen in the Outer March" as the complete picture.

Then hundreds of people had died outside Forgotten Shrine.

He was not going to repeat the mistake by turning speculation into fact.

"Any change in public Troop records?"

"No major change."

"Any mass Recruit announcement?"

"No."

"Then don’t build him an army that doesn’t exist."

The room fell quiet.

Varek stared at Riftward’s forty-five.

The real problem was not that he knew how Cassian had done it.

It was that he did not.

"Keep upgrading the Gate."

Varek pressed Riftward’s line back into the Ranking.

"Keep building the list of nearby Regions too."

"First find out where we can actually reach."

——

At Crystal Bastion’s perimeter, Cassian did not march the twenty Rocketiers toward the keep.

He did not push the Stormlance in either.

The only ones actually going with him this time were Aurelia, Celia, Sigrid, and two Stormlance.

Enough.

He was not attacking a fortress.

He was negotiating a price.

Three Praetorians remained at the Gate.

Twelve Legionnaires continued handling the rotation there.

Veyra stood on the Forgotten-Shrine side and watched him through the Gate.

"Yesterday you called her a production line."

"Today you’re going to trade with her."

"Contradiction?"

"No."

Cassian looked toward the keep.

"Being able to replenish monsters is one price."

"Being able to give me Crystal Maidens is another."

Veyra studied him for two seconds.

"How do you know she’ll give you any?"

"I don’t."

"And you’re still going?"

"That’s why it’s called a trade."

"Not collecting a reward."

Veyra laughed once.

"That one works too."

Cassian turned and walked from the Gate toward Crystal Bastion.

The closer he got to the main keep, the more complete the crystal layers became.

In the areas that had just been cleared, fresh crystalline light was already beginning to gather again.

The Crystal Mother was still activating more Crystalkin.

She had not stopped simply because they had farmed her perimeter for an entire day.

Cassian reached the place where he had first seen the face in the crystal wall.

He did not draw his sword.

He did not ask Aurelia to raise Thunder Crown.

He only looked up.

"Crystal Mother."

The mountainside did not respond.

Cassian waited two breaths.

Then said one more sentence.

"I want to make a trade."

This time, the crystal wall at the center of the main keep slowly rippled like water.