Chapter 199: A Sword for the Unknown

Lethria had barely finished speaking when a clear, beautiful sound rang through the air.

Golden light filled the eastern horizon. For a moment, it seemed to wash all of Swordheart in gold.

"Lord!" Lethria cried. "The city is that way!"

Cassian looked up.

"A guide for visitors? Perhaps a Lord has to survive here for a certain length of time before being shown the way."

He frowned.

"No. That looks exactly like a treasure revealing itself."

Normally, he would have welcomed it. Finding treasure was the point of entering a place like Swordheart.

This was almost too inviting. Combined with Lethria’s warning, it brought less pleasant possibilities to mind. A trap. Someone waiting for a body to possess.

The light and music lasted a full minute before fading.

The Homeworld’s long history of Lords had left its descendants plenty of hard-earned knowledge. Much of it concerned how to build an army.

Raise the Domain’s Rank quickly. Use large numbers of cheap troops to earn Battle Essence, then spend it on a smaller force of elite fighters. That was how most Lords kept a powerful spearhead without exhausting their resources.

A few hundred main combat troops were common. More than a thousand at Rank XII, of the Qualities Cassian fielded, was another matter.

The stronger the army, the harder it was to rebuild after a disaster.

House Frost’s three rescuers were still guarding Darian. The Levels their troops had lost on descent would not return simply because they went back to Sector 642. Recovering their former strength could take years.

If Cassian’s main force were wiped out, he estimated the loss at seventy or eighty billion Battle Essence. Even with the Sanctuary, the Vein, and Riftward’s Fortune, ordinary hunting would take him at least two months to earn that back.

A place that frightened a Level-89 Faerie Dragon deserved preparation.

"Another ten days or so, and Tidecrown should have ten thousand Rank-XII Lords. Then the Governorship contest begins."

Swordheart had been cast into the void. Cut off from Elara and the others, he could only estimate their progress.

"Ten days of hunting here should earn at least ten billion Battle Essence. Enough to bring my Heroes and troops to the current Level-65 limit. I could even buy more Souls and raise another group to Nine-Star if I need them."

There was still time.

"Back to Riftward within ten days, then."

He turned to the Faerie Dragons.

"Three groups. Join the three hunting parties."

Their control magic would make clearing monsters much faster. Separating the newcomers would also leave them less opportunity to cause trouble together.

"Yes, Lord!" Lethria answered without hesitation.

Nine had been busy explaining their new home. Folded Sanctuary, the Dawnwing Pool, the Fountain of Life... Beside those treasures, even the wonderful food seemed less extraordinary.

The Dragons’ loyalty was climbing steadily.

Nine had enough sense to keep the Mythic sapling to herself.

Ten minutes later, Cassian hovered above a swamp.

Ancient Crocodiles ruled this patch of forest. Sensing intruders, they stirred beneath the water until the swamp looked as though it were boiling. Enormous bodies appeared and vanished in the murk.

He had won the Faerie Dragons without a battle. Now he wanted to see what they could do.

"Void Entanglement. Full strength."

Lethria and the five Dragons with her beat their wings gently and began chanting in an ancient Dragon tongue.

Ripples folded through the air.

The crocodiles surfaced, sensing danger. Water Arrows and jets of venom shot toward the sky. The Eclipse Legionnaires met the barrage with Aegis Fold, holding their formation against it.

Cassian had asked for full strength. Lethria deliberately prolonged the cast to draw out its greatest effect.

After more than ten seconds, transparent chains formed in the folds of space. One end coiled around a crocodile; the other vanished deep into the void.

"Like Dimensional Lock, in a way," Cassian said. "That anchors two units to each other. This anchors its targets to space itself."

He watched the swamp below.

"Control like Black Hole, over a much larger area."

Void Entanglement could be cast instantly too. Its users could trade casting time for greater range and power as the situation required.

An Epic crocodile Boss had just surfaced. Two Faerie Dragons concentrated on it. Bound from head to tail, it could do nothing but wait to be killed.

Cassian was glad he had talked them over.

He tested Phase Wander, Phantasmal Orb, and Crescent Mark next. Every result pleased him.

They finished the crocodile colony with ease.

"Carry on hunting," Cassian ordered. "Celia, come back to the Domain with me."

He brought Celia back to the Domain. Lethria’s group returned with them.

Veyra met him there and glanced at Celia.

"Lord, wasn’t Aurelia the one whose Affinity reached a hundred?"

Aurelia must have told her something in private.

Cassian gave Veyra a sharp slap on the backside.

"What a filthy mind. I’m doing something serious."

The Faerie Dragons stared. They had already felt how powerful Veyra was.

Their Lord was formidable indeed.

Celia followed him into a secluded part of the Deep Layer. He opened the entrance to the Enclosure and drew her through.

"This is..."

She stopped, startled. She had never known this particular space was here.

It covered little more than a hundred square meters, with a single Field at its center. A black tree barely two meters tall grew in the soil, its trunk gleaming like metal beneath a faint spiritual light.

Recognition flashed across Celia’s face.

"The Mythic sapling from Glory Battlefield?"

"Yes. An Enlightenment Tea Tree."

Cassian nodded.

"The name tells you what it’s for. There aren’t any tea leaves yet, but even practicing beneath it helps you understand arts and skills more than twice as quickly as in the Hall."

He renewed the Enclosure’s fiftyfold acceleration for ten Realm Days and paid the hundred million Aether charge.

"For the next ten days, work on your Sword Intent and keep nurturing your sword here. Carry on with the Veinheart Art."

Celia’s expression grew serious.

"You’re worried about the enemy ahead. I’ll give the sword everything I can, Lord. Whatever stands in your way, I’ll cut it down."

Cassian nodded. He wanted to be ready.

"At fiftyfold speed, ten days will be almost a year and a half for you. I’m asking a great deal."

Before leaving, another thought made him pause.

"Celia. If the training gets too much, go outside and take a walk."

She looked at him.

"Please don’t cut down my Tea Tree."

Color rose in her cheeks.

At their strength, even practice could cause serious damage. Repairs to the Eclipse Hall already cost him plenty of resources. Celia’s expression suggested she knew that very well.

It was one reason he had kept this wonderful little training space to himself.

Over the following days, Cassian hunted in person whenever he was not practicing his arts and skills in the Enclosure. He was too busy even to spend time alone with Aurelia.

Without Gate privileges, he moved the whole Domain instead. Whenever his forces cleared the hunting grounds for roughly fifty kilometers around them, he bought another Advanced Relocation Writ through the Exchange, paid for it, and used it to reach a fresh concentration of powerful monsters.

He kept the hunting force supplied, buying fresh premium Aether Crystals as needed to sustain Godslayer.

As their map grew, they began finding monster colonies above Level 90.

An Elite monster at that Level had a Combat Rating approaching six thousand stars, beyond what the veteran Legionnaires could match even with the Battle Name. Cassian steered clear of those colonies for now. There was no reason to spend lives when other hunting grounds remained.

So far, he had been right about one thing. They had found nothing above Level 100.

The relentless hunting paid off. Counting the ordinary Legionnaires working in Riftward, his daily income ran to more than a billion Battle Essence. Items piled up faster than he could count them.

Occasionally, they even found a Legendary monster. Another prize like the Faerie Dragon nest never appeared.

Seven or eight days passed.