Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Morwenna chased them around the room with her boots slapping against the tiles as Silas bounded from pillar to pillar, and all three of them laughed as their voices echoed warmly through the Keep.

[Later that Evening]

Silas sat behind the heavy mahogany desk in his private office on the second floor of the Blessed Land Keep.

Outside the high arched stone windows, cold night had fallen over the territory, with genuine snow beginning to fall softly from the dark sky, coating the courtyard and the stone parapets in a pristine layer of white.

Silas leaned back in his leather chair, looking out at the drifting snowflakes through the glass.

”Snowing already,” he complained quietly of the weather, shaking his head at how rapidly the seasons shifted in this magical domain.

He reminisced with a smile that after their intense training session in the vault, the girls had all gone together with Thora and Kaelia in order to brew a new kind of alcohol using fresh ingredients and herbs harvested from where Eluned grew crops.

Their loud cheers and laughter had faded toward the outbuildings, giving Silas a rare quiet evening to himself in his office.

He pulled up his Lord Inventory interface with a swipe of his hand, bringing out the wooden bento lunch box that Martha had carefully packed for him back at the Silverleaf estate in Valoria.

He opened the lid and began eating with his chopsticks, loving the comforting taste of the warm home-cooked meal... tender grilled beef, seasoned vegetables, and fluffy white rice.

”Martha really knows how to cook,” he muttered with deep satisfaction, enjoying the familiar flavors of Earth amidst the magical keep.

At the same time, he also brought out the metallic container of scrolls from his inventory, setting it down onto the mahogany desk beside his meal.

Silas focused his mind, opening the translucent blue interface of his secret cheat... the Absolute Upgrade System.

He highlighted the metal box sitting before him and opened the Upgrade Tab to examine his options.

A glowing system prompt materialized directly before his vision, projecting crisp white text in the dimly lit office:

[Target Container: 18x Tier 1 Elemental Spell Scrolls]

[Upgrade Path Selected: Tier 1 -> Tier 3 (Batch Optimization)]

[Total Upgrade Cost: 3000 UP]

[Current UP Balance: 4400 UP]

[Remaining UP Balance After Execution: 1400 UP]

Silas stared at the numbers floating in front of him.

To upgrade all eighteen elemental spells inside the box simultaneously, it would cost exactly 3000 UP, which left him with 1400 UP left in his reserve pool.

”Three thousand UP for eighteen Tier 3 spells...” Silas muttered, a satisfied grin spreading across his face as he ran the numbers.

He immediately realized that this was a good price... an exceptional bargain that would advance his elemental repertoire without requiring years of tedious library study.

’I honestly expected it to be much more...’

He pressed [Y] on the floating holographic tab to confirm the transaction.

A warm radiant golden light enveloped the metallic box sitting on his desk.

The glow seeped through the seams of the lid for a single second before fading away completely.

All of the spell scrolls inside were instantly upgraded from basic Tier 1 scrolls to top-tier Tier 3 Spell scrolls.

Silas set his chopsticks down and opened the lid.

The rough cheap paper was gone, replaced by thick high-density parchment bound with golden silk ties with the runic inscriptions along the edges pulsing with refined elemental power.

”Haah~ What a good day~”

Immediately, as he was chewing a mouthful of rice, Silas reached into the box, took out the first upgraded scroll... Pyroclastic Comet and pressed the furled parchment directly against his forehead.

WHOOSH!

It felt like he had reached an epiphany!

A sudden electrifying surge of pure understanding flooded his brain, burning the Tier 3 spell structure, internal circulation paths, and everything else about the spell permanently into his Gold Core conduits.

He learned the spell instantly, which made him surprised at how seamless and natural the integration felt within his spirit.

’If this is how versatile scrolls are... How about I do all of them?’

Usually one had to take breaks in between absorbing knowledge from scrolls as it was tiring but for a Gold core user like him, he didn’t even feel a bit exhausted.

Silas didn’t stop there.

He set the spent scroll aside, picked up the second scroll from the container, and pressed it to his temple, absorbing its magical knowledge in a flash of insight.

[Mantle of the Inferno.]

[Incineration Ray.]

[Gale Guillotine]

[Cyclone Slipstream]

[Hurricane Repulsion]

[Obsidian Impaler]

[Aegis of the Monolith]

[Tectonic Rupture]

[Fulgur Annihilation]

[Voltaic Execution Chain]

[Thunderclap Blitz]

[Solar Flare Detonation]

[Radiant Cellular Reconstruction]

[Prismatic Refraction]

[Shadow Submersion]

[Shadow Constriction]

[Night-Stalker Eyes]

He did it for all of them, taking each golden scroll and pressing it against his forehead.

Eighteen distinct Tier 3 magical weaves poured into his consciousness one after another.

Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Light, and Shadow anchored themselves firmly into his spirit alongside his existing Water and Ice mastery.

When the final scroll dissolved its stored knowledge into his mind, Silas leaned back heavily in his leather chair, breathing heavily once he was done.

’I feel very different.... Much stronger...’

His chest rose and fell in deep gasps as his Gold Core thrummed, expanding its internal pathways to hold eight complete elemental foundations simultaneously.

The mental weight of absorbing so many spell structures at once was immense, but his physique handled the strain.

He finished the last bite of his food, summoned away his empty lunch box with a wave of his hand, and put the spent spell scrolls back into the metal container, dropping the box back into his Lord Inventory.

”When are they coming?”

Suddenly, his heightened senses sharpened. He sensed presences coming down the stone hallway toward his office door.

The oak door of his office opened smoothly.

Aeli stepped into the room first, leading two female combatants from the barracks behind her... Brida, the fierce warrior clad in polished plate armor and Tasmin, the silent Huntress wearing dark leather with twin chained blades strapped to her waist.

Once they arrived in front of his mahogany table, all three of them bowed respectfully in unison.

Aeli reported with her voice crisp and attentive as she looked at her Lord.

”Lord Silas, Brida and Tasmin have arrived as instructed from the training grounds.”

After delivering her report, Aeli walked around the desk and stood quietly at his right side, taking her natural place as his loyal secretary.

Brida and Tasmin stood at attention before the desk, looking up at him expectantly, waiting for his orders.

Silas rested his forearms on the polished wood of his desk, crossing his fingers beneath his chin.

He looked at the two women who had fought for his territory, his face turning a bit somber as he studied their posture.

”You two must wonder why I’ve called you right now,” Silas said quietly with his deep voice carrying across the quiet office.

Brida and Tasmin looked up at him expectantly, their eyes focused and ready for whatever quest or assignment he was about to hand down.

Silas leaned forward slightly, looking directly into their eyes as his expression turned serious.

”Do you think you’ve hit a wall?”

Tasmin and Brida looked at each other in the dim light of the office with their expressions changing as the full weight of Silas’s question hung in the air between them.

The wind outside howled against the stone walls of the Keep, rattling the leaded windowpanes and scattering fresh snowflakes against the glass.

Inside, the quiet was punctuated only by the crackle of the hearth and the slow tense breaths of the two female combatants standing before the dark mahogany desk.

Both women simultaneously gulped, their throats tightening as an unspoken anxiety finally bubbled to the surface.

Brida adjusted her stance, the thick iron plates of her pauldrons clinking together in the quiet room.

She looked up at Silas, her amber eyes shadowed by a frustration she had kept bottled up for quite a while during their border patrols and sweeps.

”As of late, My Lord...” Brida began, her voice sounding tight with an emotion she struggled to keep under control. ”I am not getting any stronger... It doesn’t matter how many monsters I kill in the forest or how many patrols I run through the wilderness. Despite all the beasts that I have slain... it seems my level has become completely stagnant.”

She gripped the heavy leather strap of her shield hilt, her jaw setting in a hard, pained line.

”I reached Level 30 a week ago,” she continued, her broad shoulders tense under her armor. ”And since that moment, not a single drop of experience has registered in my core... My body feels ready for more strength and my muscles feel primed to carry heavier weight, but nothing accumulates. The energy simply dissipates into the air, as if my body refuses to hold it.”

Tasmin stepped forward alongside her frontline comrade, nodding in grim agreement.

Her slender frame was still dressed in her dark leathers, the steel chains of her twin daggers hanging silently at her hips.

”It is the exact same for me, Lord Silas,” the scout reported, her dark eyes solemn and sharp. ”I feel like I could move faster... I feel like my reflexes want to expand and push past my current limits, but there is something physically blocking my conduits. It is as if an invisible wall is keeping me from going any further, no matter how hard I push myself in training or in live combat.”

Silas leaned back into his heavy leather chair, listening quietly to their reports.

He didn’t look shocked by their words, nor did he offer a sudden burst of frustration or disappointment.

Instead, he simply let out a long, quiet sigh, resting his broad, calloused hands flat against the polished mahogany surface of his desk.

”It isn’t a fluke, and it isn’t a mistake on your part,” Silas told them calmly, his golden-ringed eyes meeting theirs in turn. ”What you are experiencing right now is simply the natural limit of your class.”

He held their gaze, letting the fundamental reality of the Sovereign Realm’s rules settle over the room.

”Normally, every class below A-Rank has hard limiters built directly into its core design,” Silas explained, laying out the stark mechanics that governed every summoned Troop across the Sovereign Realm. ”Even standard A-Rank classes eventually hit a ceiling at Level 80. For C-Rank classes like yours... Shieldmaiden and Wilderness Huntress, Level 30 is the absolute end of the road. This is where the natural system fated you to be.”

Brida’s lips trembled.

The tough battle-hardened warrior who had stood unflinching against charging beasts along the eastern border looked down at her broad, calloused palms.

Her fingers slowly curled into tight, trembling fists.

”So that’s all we are?” Brida muttered, her voice cracking slightly as the bitter truth washed over her. ”Limited by our potential... trapped behind a limit...”

A heavy suffocating cloud of despair settled over the two combatants as reality was bitter and unforgiving.

The other women in the territory... beings who were born or summoned as higher entities like Eluned, Morwenna, or Aeli could keep growing, continuously scaling to terrifying heights of power as the domain expanded.

They could face high-tier dungeon lords and corporate strike forces without fear of being left behind.

Meanwhile, Brida and Tasmin would remain trapped at Level 30 for the rest of their lives.

They would never be able to advance.

They would never be able to grow stronger or keep pace with the Lord they served.

They were static pieces on an evolving board, condemned to watch from the sidelines as the battles grew fiercer.

Brida stared down at the floorboards with her thoughts spiraling into a dark desperate place.

’If this is my limit...’ Brida thought bitterly, her chest aching with a sense of inadequacy. ’If I am stuck as a basic C-Rank Shieldmaiden forever... then how am I supposed to stand beside my Lord? How am I supposed to protect his back when real threats come for our territory? How can I call myself his shield if my arm shatters against the first real boss we encounter? How am I supposed to have his children... Who would want children with a weak woman like me?’

Tasmin gritted her teeth so hard her jaw muscles bulged beneath her pale skin.

She looked up at Silas with her decision made out of a painful self-sacrificing sense of duty to Blessed Land.

”Due to this reason, My Lord,” Tasmin said, forcing the words past her tight throat, ”I would like to officially resign from being a Commander. I am simply not strong enough to lead our scouts into high-tier zones, and I cannot allow my lack of potential to harm the others or drag down the efficiency of our patrols.”

Standing beside Silas’s desk, Aeli looked at the two women with profound sadness in her silver eyes.

The elven arcanist gently pressed her hand against her chest with her heart aching for her comrades.

She couldn’t believe they were being forced to step down and surrender their command simply because of the realm’s rigid class boundaries.

Yet, as the room filled with gloom, Silas didn’t look troubled in the slightest.

Instead, a broad confident smile slowly spread across his face, lighting up his sharp features.

”Do you think I can’t fix it?” Silas asked, his gravelly voice cutting cleanly through their despair.