SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

The clock in the Deep Layer seemed to slow.

It wasn’t an illusion.

A single breath passed on the main layer. Nearly ten passed here.

Aether Mist still drifted over the agricultural sector they had marked out the night before. The ten Rare Field Plot Blueprints and ten batches of Rare Moonrice Seed had already been handed to the Settlers, but nothing had actually been planted yet.

Cassian stood beside the first planting line.

"Raise the Quality first."

Several Settlers immediately spread out the Field-related Blueprints, agriculture Skill Books, and Production Training Manuals they had taken from the Hall of Renown before it disappeared.

Cassian pulled out the higher-grade construction plans corresponding to a standard Field Plot.

The Rare Field Plot Blueprint remained the base design.

The Field-related Blueprints adjusted its Aether circuits, soil specifications, and construction standards, pushing the original Rare plan one tier higher.

The agriculture Skill Books and Production Training Manuals covered the higher-grade processing and sowing standards for the Moonrice Seed.

The markings on the first Field Plot Blueprint lit up.

Silver.

Then they deepened into dark gold.

[Rare Field Plot Blueprint ×10]

[Field-related Blueprints: Applied]

[Result: Epic Field Plot Blueprint ×10]

On the other side, the ten batches of Rare Moonrice Seed went through the same process.

Sorting.

Aether infusion.

Reprocessing each Field Batch to higher Cultivation standards.

[Rare Moonrice Seed | Field Batch ×10]

[Agriculture Skill / Production Manual Processing: Completed]

[Result: Epic Moonrice Seed | Field Batch ×10]

Cassian read the two lines.

"Build."

There was no Hall left to disappear now.

No plan to debate again, either.

The positions of all ten Fields had already been marked the night before.

Stone, Black Oak, and ordinary construction materials came out of storage. The Settlers began working directly from the blueprints.

Time was already stretched inside the Deep Layer.

Only a short while passed on the main layer.

Here, the empty ground became actual Fields.

One.

Two.

Until all ten were complete.

[Epic Field Plot ×10 | Construction Complete]

"Sow them."

All ten batches of Moonrice Seed were opened.

Rows of pale-silver grains dropped into the soil.

Aether Mist hung low over the ground.

Before long, the first hair-thin silver-white shoots pushed through the earth.

Only then did the ten Fields begin recording Crop Growth.

Cassian was about to check the Agriculture Index when the Settler who had worked the old Moonrice Patch from the beginning hurried over.

"Lord."

"Speak."

"The maturity time is showing."

Cassian stopped.

The Settler opened the Field status.

[Cultivated Crop: Epic Moonrice]

[Current Environment: High-Aether / Current Allocation Ceiling]

[Estimated Mature Cycle: 40 Subjective Days]

Forty days.

Veyra stood at the edge of the agricultural sector.

She had asked the same question the night before.

Now they finally had the answer.

"Forty days."

"Yeah."

"Ten times isn’t enough for two harvests."

"So I change it."

Cassian opened Time Acceleration.

The previous setting was still running.

[Current Time Acceleration: 10×]

It was the ten-hour subjective-time segment he had paid 60,000 Aether to activate the night before.

Building, preparing the soil, and sowing had consumed most of that segment.

Cassian did not cancel it midway.

When the last stretch finally ran out—

[10× Segment: Completed]

—he opened the next Time Acceleration setting.

[Target: 17×]

Confirm.

The sense of time inside the Deep Layer shifted again.

No storm.

No new Building.

The faint sounds filtering in from the main layer simply slowed another step.

[Time Acceleration: 17×]

Aether consumption began accruing under the new setting.

Cassian only watched the time.

Five Realm Days.

At seventeen times speed, the agricultural sector could experience roughly eighty-five Subjective Days.

Forty days per crop.

Two full cycles.

With a little margin left over.

Veyra finished reading.

"So that’s why you said a hundred percent yesterday."

"Not because you knew it would take forty days."

"I didn’t."

"And you still said it?"

Cassian looked at the newly sprouted Moonrice.

"Because he gave me five days."

Veyra gave a quiet snort.

"Now it really does look like a gift."

Only then did Cassian open Riftward’s Agriculture Index.

The night before, with the Fields still unbuilt, the number had not moved enough to matter.

Now there were ten Epic Fields.

Ten batches of Epic Moonrice.

All of them had entered valid growth.

The number jumped immediately.

[Riftward Agriculture Index: 12,250]

Yesterday, the Region had barely been above one thousand.

The ten Epic Fields had only just been planted.

They had already pushed the score past ten thousand.

Tobias’s message arrived almost immediately.

[Tobias Reed: Did the Region panel just jump?]

Cassian replied once.

[Cassian Vale: Yeah.]

[Tobias Reed: To what?]

Cassian closed the panel.

[Cassian Vale: Don’t post it yet.]

There was a pause of several seconds.

[Tobias Reed: Fine.]

He did not press.

Three points of Fortune were still on the table.

If Sable March wanted to judge by public information, Cassian was happy to let them keep doing exactly that.

——

That afternoon.

The Warden Gate lit again.

Veyra did not cross.

Crystal Bastion was in the Outer March. The boundary of her Temporary Covenant had not changed because of an Agriculture Duel.

She stood beside the Gate as Cassian fastened his Wraithplate again.

"The Fields just started."

"Yeah."

"And you’re leaving?"

"There are people watching them."

"I know."

Veyra raised her eyes.

"I mean, last night you said to get them running first."

"They’re running."

Cassian looked through the Gate.

"Time to look at the other thing."

Veyra laughed once.

"Fine."

"I’ll watch the agriculture side."

"Don’t treat Legendary as an immortality badge over there."

"I won’t."

Cassian stepped through.

Aurelia and Celia were already waiting at the outer observation point.

Eira was still on Elara’s eastern mountain route.

Cassian had pulled the other eleven Stormlance back together for this trip.

Not to assault the Bastion.

Only to look deeper.

Celia pressed the latest route onto the map.

"The perimeter hasn’t changed."

"Level forty-plus."

"They have ranged attacks and control."

"Farther in, the density rises fast."

Cassian swept his eyes over the route.

"Move."

They did not charge straight toward Crystal Bastion’s main keep.

Instead, they followed the safe outer edge Celia had mapped over the past two days and pushed inward piece by piece.

The deeper they went, the less ordinary stone remained underfoot.

Transparent, pale-blue, and milky-white crystal strata broke through the ground in broad sheets.

The first Crystalkin lunged from behind a slope.

Aurelia did not even draw her sword.

Sigrid had already stepped forward.

She did not throw Thunder Javelin.

The spear stayed in her hand.

One thrust.

BOOM!

The six-meter Crystal Fox was not pierced cleanly through the forehead.

Instead, its entire body reacted as if a hammer had struck it from within.

Cracks raced outward from the point of impact.

A heartbeat later, it shattered.

[Crystal Fox Alpha]

[Quality: Rare]

[Level: 42]

Cassian looked once.

He had only given his 3.72-million-Battle-Essence investment in the twelve Stormlance one brief controlled test back at the Shrine.

Now the field answer had come to them on its own.

Sigrid withdrew her spear.

"Softer than a Praetorian’s shield."

Celia glanced at her.

"Because a shield knows how to bleed force."

Aurelia was already walking forward.

"Save it."

"More are coming."

Not one.

Three Crystal Wolves rushed down the ridge from the side.

Farther out, Crystal Spiders crawled down the cliff face.

The Stormlance split to both flanks.

Lightning flashed only a few times.

The formation never stopped moving.

Two hours later, Cassian finally understood why Celia had refused to push farther alone.

It wasn’t that any single Crystalkin was especially difficult.

It was the density.

The closer they came to Crystal Bastion, the more monsters there were.

Crystal Foxes.

Crystal Spiders.

Crystal Wolves.

Then a cloud of crystal-winged bats poured from caves higher up the slope.

Ordinary Level-40-plus targets were only the outermost layer.

Rare targets were beginning to appear in groups.

Aurelia dropped a layer of Thunder Crown to force the crystal bats back.

Celia’s Lifeless Edge cut open a clear route on the right.

Cassian did not order the group to speed up.

Instead, he looked up.

Crystal Bastion had finally come into view.

Halfway up the mountain.

The entire fortress looked as though it had grown directly out of the crystal vein inside the mountain.

No bricks.

No ordinary stone walls.

The main keep, side towers, caverns, and outer nests all fused into one structure.

At last, the system returned more than Unknown.

[Crystal Bastion]

[Wild Domain]

[Estimated Domain Rank: IX]

Cassian said nothing.

Rank IX.

Forgotten Shrine was only Rank IV.

This was not a place he could take by lining up eleven Legendary Stormlance at the front gate.

But he had never come here to attack today.

Celia looked at him.

"Enough?"

"One more look."

"Where?"

Cassian’s gaze settled on the main keep.

There were too many Crystalkin along the entire route.

This did not look like normal Wild Domain perimeter spawning.

It looked like something inside was making them.

"If this were only a mine," Cassian said, "the outside wouldn’t be this crowded."

Aurelia looked up as well.

"You think something in there is producing them?"

"Yeah."

The moment he finished speaking, the most intact crystal wall in the center of the main keep rippled like water.

Every Stormlance raised her spear.

Celia’s hand closed around her sword hilt.

Then a gigantic female face slowly emerged from the crystal surface.

Not flesh.

Brows, nose, lips—every feature was formed from translucent crystal.

Her voice came from the entire mountainside.

"Human."

"Why have you entered my territory?"

Lightning had already gathered around Aurelia.

Cassian raised one hand.

"Don’t attack yet."

He studied the face.

The system did not show a full combat profile.

Only a name.

[Crystal Mother]

The corner of Cassian’s mouth finally moved.

He had guessed right.

Celia turned her head.

"What are you smiling at?"

"This thing is valuable."

She was about to ask when an entire layer of crystal on the right side of the main keep lit up.

It was not an attack.

Fine lines of light appeared inside a pale-blue crystal slab that had shown no life reaction at all.

Limbs.

Torso.

Head.

In less than a dozen breaths, a new Crystal Wolf tore itself free from the mineral layer.

The system filled in the missing information at the same time.

[Crystal Mother]

[Observed Core Function: Crystal Awakening]

[Continuously awakens Crystal within controlled crystal-bearing territory, generating Crystalkin.]

[Actual generation rate depends on Crystal reserves, environment, and the Crystal Mother’s current condition.]

Not a one-time spawn.

It would keep replenishing them.

The lightning around Aurelia slowly faded.

"So you don’t plan to kill her now."

"No."

Cassian watched the newly born Crystal Wolf.

"Leave the main keep alone."

"Clear whatever we can safely take from the perimeter."

"Her—we leave."

Celia finally understood why he had smiled.

This was not a fortress that had to be conquered today.

As long as the Crystal Mother remained alive, it would continue replenishing high-level prey on its own.

Cassian had come only to confirm what Crystal Bastion was hiding.

Instead, he had found a hunting ground that renewed itself.

"Can we fight her?"

"Not now."

Cassian did not advance.

He looked down instead.

Crystal was everywhere beneath their feet.

It had been everywhere along the route too.

How strong the Crystal Mother herself was did not matter most today.

What mattered was the other function.

[Observed Trait: Crystal Activation]

[The Crystal Mother can continuously activate eligible Crystal within its territory into Crystalkin.]

Sigrid stared at the line.

"Continuously?"

"Yeah."

"Then the ones we just killed—"

"More will come."

Cassian looked up at Crystal Bastion again.

It wasn’t merely a fortress he couldn’t take today.

At least, not anymore.

As long as they did not kill the Crystal Mother, and as long as the surrounding crystal strata remained, Crystalkin would keep appearing.

Rare.

Elite.

Possibly higher.

No need to send Blackfang hundreds of kilometers every day searching for targets.

No need to wait for another Wild Tide Lure.

The monsters would grow here on their own.

Aurelia understood too.

"So now you don’t want to attack?"

"I never planned to attack today."

"Now I’m even less interested in rushing it."

The Crystal Mother’s voice came again.

"Leave."

Cassian was very cooperative.

"Sure."

"We’ll stay outside."

The crystal face paused for a breath.

Apparently, it had not expected that answer.

Cassian had already turned around.

"Pull back to the perimeter."

"Don’t touch the main keep."

"Only clear Crystalkin that come out on their own."

Sigrid asked, "Every day?"

Cassian glanced back at the crystal wall sealing itself again.

"As long as she keeps making them."

"We keep clearing them."

——

More than two days passed.

Crystal Bastion’s perimeter was not breached.

Cassian did not push toward the main keep again either.

Aurelia, Celia, and the Stormlance rotated through the outer area, clearing high-Quality Crystalkin.

The Crystal Mother never came out to pursue them.

New Crystalkin kept appearing anyway.

The route really was renewable.

On the afternoon of the second day, Celia returned from near a side tower closer to the main keep with another observation.

Not an ordinary Crystal Wolf, Crystal Fox, or Crystal Spider.

She had only seen it once, from a distance.

A slender humanoid crystal figure passed behind the tower carrying a long Crystal Spear. Several Rare Crystalkin nearby moved aside for it on their own.

The system managed only a brief identification.

[Crystal Maiden]

[Quality: Epic]

[Level: Unknown]

Celia had not followed.

"Too close to the main keep."

Cassian studied the record.

"Good call."

"Remember the location."

"Don’t touch it."

The Crystal Mother was already valuable enough.

Now there was something else inside the keep worth remembering for later.

At the same time, the Domain Aether Vein and Fountain continued to operate only on Realm Time.

Extra time inside the Deep Layer did not create a second Daily Output.

Cassian did not spread every routine notification in front of himself.

Because at noon, Sable March posted a screenshot into the Shattered Marches Channel first.

[Sable March Agriculture Index: 54,238]

More than two days.

Fifty-four thousand.

Black Banner messages followed almost immediately.

[Black Banner Lord: Riftward still isn’t posting theirs?]

[Black Banner Lord: You only get one five-day window. Hiding until settlement won’t grow you another crop.]

Tobias’s private message lit up.

[Tobias Reed: A lot of people are asking for our score now.]

[Cassian Vale: Don’t post it.]

[Tobias Reed: Not even to me?]

Cassian looked toward the Deep Layer.

Under 17× Time Acceleration, the first crop of Epic Moonrice had just filled the last segment of its growth bar.

[Epic Moonrice | First Harvest: Mature]

He sent Tobias one reply.

[Cassian Vale: Wait for the result.]

Then he stepped straight into the Deep Layer.

Ten Fields.

Silver-white Moonrice covered them from end to end.

Veyra stood on the ridge between the plots.

When she saw him enter, she said only one thing.

"First crop’s ready."

Cassian nodded.

"Harvest."