Chapter 79: Black Banner Keeps Adding to the Wager
More than two days later.
Sable March had just posted its latest Agriculture Index at noon.
[Sable March Agriculture Index: 54,238]
The moment the number appeared, Black Banner’s side sounded noticeably more confident.
Forgotten Shrine did not respond.
Because inside the Deep Layer, the first crop of Epic Moonrice had just completed its full forty Subjective Days.
Cassian stood at the edge of the Fields.
"Harvest."
At his command, all ten Epic Fields moved at once.
The system did not simply dump the Harvest into Inventory for them.
Several Settlers were already standing among the crops.
The agriculture Skill Books and Production Training Manuals acquired from the Hall of Renown had not magically turned them into a different high-tier profession.
But they had taught them how to handle a true Epic crop properly.
The first bundle of Moonrice was cut.
Silver-white grains gleamed faintly inside the Aether Mist.
[Harvest: Epic Moonrice]
[Valid Harvest: Recorded]
Second Field.
Third.
...
All ten entered harvest.
Cassian did not stand there waiting for every yield notification.
He only took a small handful of freshly husked Moonrice.
The nearby communal kitchen produced the first pot quickly.
By the time the aroma spread, Veyra was already standing beside the table.
Cassian looked at her.
"Still ordinary?"
"Let me eat it first."
She took a bowl.
One bite.
Her movement stopped for a moment.
Cassian watched her.
"Well?"
"Better than before."
"That’s all?"
Veyra took another bite and pulled the bowl a little closer to herself.
"You ask too many questions."
Cassian smiled once.
He did not press.
The system had already opened the food information.
[Epic Moonrice Meal]
[The original Moonrice effects on Aether recovery and meditation support are significantly increased.]
The effect had simply continued along Moonrice’s existing path.
Faster recovery.
Stronger assistance during meditation and training.
From the Refined Moonrice Meal on the first day of the Realm to this Epic version.
A resource line that had always been too slow to reach the front of Cassian’s priorities had finally crossed a real threshold.
More importantly—
once the first Harvest completed, the Agriculture Index began recalculating.
Cassian opened Riftward’s Region panel.
The number refreshed once.
Again.
Then stopped.
[Riftward Agriculture Index: 525,380]
The Oath Hall went quiet for two breaths.
Veyra put down her bowl.
"Five hundred twenty-five thousand?"
"Yeah."
"Sable just posted fifty-four thousand."
"I saw it."
"That’s almost ten times."
Cassian stared at the number.
Even he paused this time.
Not because his earlier certainty had somehow been blind luck.
The result was simply more brutal than he had expected.
Ten Epic Fields.
One Harvest of Epic Moonrice.
A high-Aether environment.
17× Time Acceleration.
And the Fields, Seeds, and Farmers Riftward’s other Lords had committed over the last two days.
Together, they had pushed the entire Region’s number here.
Veyra asked, "Post it?"
"No."
"Still hiding it?"
"The other side is volunteering to report theirs every day."
Cassian closed the Region panel.
"Let them."
The first Harvest ended.
The second crop did not wait.
The Settlers had already begun preparing the Fields again.
Cassian gave one order.
"Keep planting."
[Epic Moonrice | Second Crop: Sowing]
Five days.
Eighty-five Subjective Days.
The first Harvest had only used the first forty.
There was still another one coming.
——
The agricultural sector stayed busy.
So did the rest of Forgotten Shrine.
For more than two days, Crystal Bastion’s perimeter and several high-level hunting routes through Galegrass Expanse had kept producing materials.
Crystalkin mostly left Crystal materials behind.
The actual flesh-and-blood Outer-March Beasts nearby were processed into usable food in batch after batch.
Before, there was no such thing as too much.
Now there was.
The first Epic Moonrice Harvest had already raised the quality of Forgotten Shrine’s main-force food supply.
Continuing to pile up huge amounts of Common, Elite, and even part of the Rare Beast Meat in storage was becoming less useful.
Rowan messaged him.
[Rowan Ashford: Are we still keeping that meat in storage?]
Cassian glanced over the inventory records.
"Sell it."
[Rowan Ashford: How much?]
"Everything the main force won’t eat."
[Rowan Ashford: Regional Exchange?]
"One batch for Riftward."
"One for Shattered Marches."
Rowan paused.
[Rowan Ashford: Two prices?]
"Yeah."
The Riftward Regional Exchange lit up first.
[Outer-March Beast Meat | Common—Elite Batch]
[Outer-March Beast Meat | Rare Batch]
[Riftward Price: Below current public average for the same Quality]
[Purchase Limit: Enabled]
Cassian did not need to explain the purchase limit.
Rowan did it himself.
[Rowan Ashford: The discount is for strengthening the Region, not for you to flip it for a margin.]
The Regional Channel immediately came alive.
[Anonymous Lord: You’re selling Rare too?]
[Anonymous Lord: I’m buying first!]
[Tobias Reed: Do Officers get an internal reserve?]
[Rowan Ashford: No.]
[Tobias Reed: This Officer system can still be improved.]
Cassian ignored him.
Another batch of the same-Quality food entered the Shattered Marches Exchange at the same time.
The price was significantly higher.
It was not the system applying some automatic faction surcharge.
They were simply two different markets.
Riftward internal price.
Shattered Marches public price.
Black Banner wanted to buy?
They could.
At the public price.
It did not take long for someone to notice.
[Black Banner Lord: Why is Beast Meat of the same Quality so much cheaper inside Riftward?]
Tobias answered instantly.
[Tobias Reed: Because that one is called the Riftward Regional Exchange.]
[Black Banner Lord: You’re deliberately raising the price on us.]
[Tobias Reed: You can choose not to buy.]
Laughter followed.
Cassian did not join in.
He only watched inventory fall rapidly on both markets.
Both batches sold out in less than an hour.
Cassian did not stop to total the exact Aether income transaction by transaction.
17× Time Acceleration was still consuming Aether as well.
Money was coming in.
Time was burning it back out.
His balance kept moving.
Neither mattered as much as the three points of Fortune on the table.
——
After Sable March posted 54,238, Black Banner became much more willing to talk.
Varek himself did not jump out and declare victory.
He simply kept Sable’s Agriculture Index public.
Pressure.
And an open move anyone could see.
The most active voice was the Black Banner Lord who had made the bold promise earlier.
[Black Banner Lord: 54,238.]
[Black Banner Lord: Riftward still isn’t posting theirs.]
[Black Banner Lord: Less than three days left.]
Tobias stared at the messages.
Then he dragged up the screenshot he had saved earlier.
He did not post it yet.
He sent it to Cassian first.
[Tobias Reed: Post this now?]
The Black Banner Lord’s own words were still there.
[If Riftward still wins Agriculture five days from now, I’ll publicly admit I got this wrong and apologize to Riftward in this Channel.]
Cassian did not tell him to post it immediately.
He opened the Shattered Marches Exchange first.
A public Wager had already formed around the Fortune Duel.
There was plenty of Stake on Sable’s side.
Very little on Riftward’s.
The odds were not especially dramatic either.
The reason was simple.
Everyone expected Sable to win.
When belief became that one-sided, even a correct bet might not find much opposing money to take.
Cassian watched for several breaths.
"Tobias."
[Tobias Reed: Here.]
"Post it."
The old screenshot appeared in the Shattered Marches Channel a moment later.
[Tobias Reed: We’ll look again in five days.]
The Black Banner Lord appeared quickly.
[Black Banner Lord: What? Riftward finally willing to post its Agriculture Index?]
[Tobias Reed: No.]
[Black Banner Lord: Then why post this?]
[Tobias Reed: So you don’t forget.]
The Channel immediately started egging them on.
A group that had previously thought there was no point betting on a "sure win" got pulled back into the Wager.
[Anonymous Lord: If you’re talking this big, I’ll add to Sable.]
[Anonymous Warden: They were willing to stake three points of Fortune. I’ll put some in too.]
[Black Banner Lord: Riftward won’t even show its score. I’m adding more.]
Stake began rising.
Tobias’s private message lit up.
[Tobias Reed: Is this what you were waiting for?]
[Cassian Vale: Waiting for them to decide the money looks too easy.]
[Tobias Reed: Please never let me post that sentence.]
[Cassian Vale: That’s why this is private.]
The other side went silent for several seconds.
Then sent only one thing.
[Tobias Reed: ...]
Cassian closed the message.
Riftward Agriculture Index.
525,380.
It remained on his own panel.
Not one digit had been made public.
——
That afternoon, Crystal Bastion’s perimeter sent back another batch of prey and materials.
Not because Cassian was desperate to clear inventory.
That route had simply started becoming stable.
The Crystal Mother had not left the main keep.
But the outer Crystalkin kept replenishing.
Aurelia and Celia did not attack the keep.
The Stormlance did not push into the deepest areas either.
They only took the perimeter targets they could handle.
Kill.
Pull back.
Shift position.
Kill again.
That was what Cassian wanted.
A high-level Monster source that did not require finding a new coordinate every day.
Veyra finished reading the day’s report.
"You have Fields now."
"Meat."
"And a Crystal Bastion that makes its own monsters."
Cassian asked, "What are you getting at?"
"What I’m getting at..."
Veyra leaned against the Deep Layer entrance.
"Is that you’d better not see a fourth thing and forget the first three."
"I won’t."
"Really?"
"Take what disappears first."
"Eat what won’t run away later."
Veyra studied him for two breaths.
"That one’s acceptable."
The moment she finished, gold light washed over the Shattered Marches Channel.
Not Sable’s Agriculture Index.
Not the Fortune Duel.
The first realmwide announcement dropped.
Then a second.
A third.
Golden notifications fell like rain.
Veyra looked up.
"Again?"
Cassian had already pulled the interface in front of him.
"New ranking."