SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

Third place did not keep anyone waiting for long.

[Troop Power Ranking #3]

[Lord: Rowan Ashford]

[Reward: Rare Chest ×1]

Congratulations flooded the Regional Channel. Rowan himself sent only one message.

[Rowan Ashford: Third. Acceptable. Now there’s only one question left.]

He did not need to spell it out.

Every place from third through one hundred had now been revealed, and Cassian Vale was not among them.

Elara’s message jumped straight into private chat.

[Elara Vayne: You’re really in the top two?]

[Cassian Vale: The list isn’t finished.]

[Elara Vayne: There you go again.]

Cassian smiled.

The next line of gold had already appeared.

[Troop Power Ranking #2]

[Lord: Seraphine Valcrest]

[Reward: Rare Chest ×1]

The entire Regional Channel went silent for two full seconds.

Not because Seraphine taking second was strange.

Because second place now had a name, which left only one possible answer for first.

[Anonymous Lord: ...]

[Anonymous Lord: Don’t tell me it’s who I think it is.]

[Lucan Deyne: Impossible.]

No one even had time to argue with Lucan.

The golden text for second place faded, and the final line settled directly in everyone’s vision.

[Troop Power Ranking #1]

[Lord: Cassian Vale]

[Reward: Epic Chest ×1]

Forgotten Shrine, by contrast, was quiet.

Cassian looked at the first-place notice without opening the channel or touching the reward.

Nine Praetorians stood at the front. Behind them stretched the shield lines of two hundred Legionnaires. Farther back were the Blackfang that had just returned to the Domain and Eira’s group already preparing to leave.

When Cassian took first in the Hero Power Ranking, Veyra herself had been one of the main reasons his score was so high.

This time, not a single point came from her.

Veyra had clearly reached the same thought. She watched the sky for a few breaths before speaking.

”Not one point from me this time.”

”Mm.”

”That’s all I get?”

Cassian finally turned his head.

”You said something before.”

”What?”

”A path.”

Veyra paused.

Cassian looked back at the black-and-gold army.

”I built the army. This time, they’re what put me at the top.”

Veyra was quiet for a beat, then smiled.

”You remember that pretty well.”

The corner of Cassian’s mouth lifted too.

”That one was worth remembering.”

Only then did the Regional Channel truly explode.

[Anonymous Lord: FIRST WITH FEWER THAN THREE HUNDRED???]

[Anonymous Lord: Didn’t he say he only recruited a little over two hundred today?]

[Anonymous Lord: He left out a zero!]

[Anonymous Lord: Two thousand would make more sense!]

Elara appeared immediately.

[Elara Vayne: He didn’t lie.]

[Anonymous Lord: How would you know?]

[Elara Vayne: I asked him. New recruits today: 209.]

[Anonymous Lord: Then how is first possible?]

[Anonymous Lord: Wait. He only told us the number. He never said the quality.]

The channel went quiet for a beat before the guesses swung in a new direction.

[Anonymous Lord: Don’t tell me they’re all Elite.]

[Anonymous Lord: Two hundred Elites would already be insane!]

[Anonymous Lord: We still don’t know what quality those lightning troops from before are either, do we?]

Scattered details from the past few days suddenly started fitting together.

Cassian did not explain.

He only checked the notice that had been sitting at the bottom of his system interface the whole time.

[Eclipse Legionnaire Realmwide Announcement: Pending]

Not yet.

At least, not right now.

A private message arrived first.

Seraphine.

[Seraphine Valcrest: One last confirmation.]

[Seraphine Valcrest: Fewer than three hundred. That was true?]

[Cassian Vale: True.]

The other side stayed silent for a few seconds.

[Seraphine Valcrest: Then I didn’t lose because I was short a few recruits at the end.]

Cassian read the line.

[Cassian Vale: You bought capacity for almost two thousand.]

[Seraphine Valcrest: Exactly.]

Another beat passed.

[Seraphine Valcrest: Next time, I’ll ask the quality first.]

[Cassian Vale: Good.]

No consolation. No mockery.

Seraphine did not need either one. She had simply taken the lesson from this loss and folded it into how she would judge the next contest.

The system reward entered Cassian’s storage soon after.

[Epic Chest ×1]

Almost at the same time, Elara sent the complete battle record she had promised.

Cassian opened the record first.

The clip lasted less than two minutes.

When the twelve Ridgewardens emerged from behind the cracks in the ridge, none of them scattered. Four shields sealed the narrow opening first, while the short axes in the rear pressed forward past their shoulders.

Elara’s frontline troops charged once. Two Ridgewardens on the right shifted immediately and closed what had looked like an opening.

Their second adjustment was even faster.

That was the exchange where three of Elara’s frontline troops failed to make it back. She ordered everyone else to retreat on the spot.

The Ridgewardens chased for less than a hundred meters. Then all twelve stopped at the same time, turned, and withdrew into the ridge through the same stone gap.

Cassian replayed that part.

Not to watch how the three troops died.

To see why all twelve stopped together.

Standardized equipment. Standardized formation. A fixed patrol boundary.

If there was no wild Troop Building behind them, the squad was far too orderly to make sense.

Veyra watched the replay beside him.

”Still want to use the Lure first and drag them out?”

”No.”

Cassian closed the recording.

”We go in and find the Building first.”

The Wild Tide Lure could bring monsters out. But if the real prize was the Building behind them, pulling every guard away first could disturb the very route he needed to trace to the entrance.

This was not about choosing one monster to hunt.

The real prize was a Building that could keep producing troops.

Cassian was about to leave when Veyra held out her hand.

”The chest.”

Cassian looked at her.

”You want to open it?”

”Aren’t you the one who keeps saying my luck is better than yours?”

”It is.”

One of Veyra’s brows rose.

”That was fast.”

Cassian handed her the Epic Chest.

”No point pretending otherwise.”

Veyra gave a quiet snort and opened it.

Dark-gold and silver-white light poured from the seams at the same time.

[Epic Chest opened.]

[Obtained: Epic Formation Codex—Aegis Fold]