Chapter 258: A Terrifying Drop Rate

Cassian gave Darian permission to relocate his Domain, then set out with several hundred Eclipse Legionnaires, his Stormlance, and a few dozen Dawnwings.

Elara’s Domain was close to his. She soon spotted the force leaving his grounds.

"Cassian, your troops..."

Her voice filled with concern.

"I didn’t realize you’d lost so many."

Nearby Champions noticed too.

[Nine tenths of the Dawnwing corps, gone!]

[For a Mythic treasure this powerful, it was worth it.]

[He has the Troop Building. Give him a few months and he’ll recover.]

Only Darian kept looking around, as though searching for something.

"Did you really lose that many? Or are you hiding your strength again?"

Cassian felt a little awkward.

Several hundred meters above them, the main Dawnwing force, Crystal Maidens, and Faerie Dragons were already flying swiftly away under Invisibility.

Liora was a Legendary Nine-Star mage. Even Maren would have difficulty detecting her spell.

More Crown Champions caught sight of Cassian’s small visible force. Their regret did not last long. Something else soon drew every eye.

Lana Whitmere stood in fitted blue armor that showed off her tall, graceful figure. Her finely shaped face was blank with disbelief.

A squad of Golden Behemoths was striding past her Domain, heads high, as though nothing in the world could bar their way.

Darian had used the Golden Behemoth Sigil Cassian gave him. He had paid to recruit all twelve Behemoths, then spent Battle Essence to raise their Levels.

"Golden Behemoths..."

Lana could hardly think.

"Darian didn’t have Extreme troops during the battle for Divine Province. Were those enemy Behemoths sealed instead of killed?"

Before she could recover, cries rose from another direction.

[Are those Divine troops?]

[I’ve seen them in the catalogues. Light-and-Dark Templars! Legendary Extreme troops of the Divine race!]

Lana looked up sharply. There they were—the terrifying Light-and-Dark Templars. Their Lord was the sweet-looking Nessa Fenwick.

Nessa had done the same with her Light-and-Dark Templar Sigil, paying the recruitment costs for twelve Templars and raising their Levels with her own Battle Essence.

[This is madness!]

[With Cassian’s Stormlance, Divine Province has three squads of Extreme troops!]

News of the two new squads swept through the First Legion. Confidence rose everywhere.

In the eight Governors’ private Channel, disbelief gave way to delight.

[First the blessing, now Extreme troops. Unbelievable.]

[I thought we were here merely to take part.]

[Imagine the Council’s faces if they knew!]

[Come on. Let’s kill some monsters and see what these Pearl drops are like.]

Battles broke out across the surrounding ground.

Most of Fivefold Heaven’s monsters were above Level 80, with Elite as their lowest Quality. For the Crown’s Champions, they posed little danger.

Reports soon appeared.

[I got an Earth Pearl!]

[Quick, put it into the Temple. How much progress does it give?]

[Already did. The bar hasn’t moved.]

[It only displays two decimal places. Did you expect one Pearl to move it?]

After a few minutes, Lana had enough results to make an estimate.

[Lana Whitmere: About one Earth Pearl for every ten monsters.]

[Nessa Fenwick: I get one in about five.]

[Darian Frost: One in two. And about a tenth of the Pearls rise by one Quality.]

Only then did everyone realize their bonuses differed.

No one complained. Some felt ashamed. They had distrusted Cassian and contributed too little. Compared with the Legion rewards, what did that small amount of Aether matter?

[Corin Alder: But we don’t know the normal drop rate.]

Cassian frowned. He had forgotten to leave even one Lord unblessed for comparison.

"Leave it to me," Rowan said.

Using the posting permission Cassian had granted him, he entered the All-Races Champions Channel.

[Rowan Ashford: Friends, isn’t the Elemental Pearl drop rate a little low? We’re killing a hundred monsters for one Pearl of the same Quality. How are the rest of you doing?]

Most ignored him. Some races were more friendly.

[A hundred? Why is yours so low? We of the Flower race get one in about fifty.]

[It’s about the same for us Halflings.]

[The Homeworld split into two Legions. Perhaps the Realm is punishing you for fighting among yourselves.]

Malcolm appeared with a sneer.

[Malcolm: Poor lands breed troublemakers. You lot certainly fit the description. With a drop rate that low, stop embarrassing yourselves in public.]

Rowan had the answer he wanted. He did not bother responding.

[Rowan Ashford: Done. The normal rate is about two percent.]

[Soren Hartwell: Well done, Rowan!]

Rowan was pleased with himself.

[I’ve been Cassian’s diplomat since our days in Riftward Region. I’ve seen a few things.]

Cassian quickly compared the figures.

Ten million Aether per person gave roughly five times the normal drop rate. Fifty million gave ten times. Darian’s ten-billion-Aether contribution had given him twenty-five times the normal rate.

That did not even include the improvement in Quality.

The others reached the same conclusion.

[Fifty million each, and a thousand of us could produce as much as ten thousand Lords!]

[I only brought twenty million. Could someone lend me the rest? I’ll repay double when we leave.]

[Pell, I’ll cover your thirty million.]

Each Province had selected a hundred Homeworld Champions from tens of millions of Lords. Most came from royal lines or ancient families that had endured for a thousand years. Even Elara’s family could not compare with many of them.

Their generosity soon pushed the Aether available to Cassian past eighty billion. He sent out blessing after blessing.

Rowan had remained in the public Channel, making acquaintances among the other races. Suddenly, he spoke again.

[Is it just me, or are our monsters higher-Quality than theirs? Their maps even have Common monsters. Ours start at Elite.]

Cassian and Darian both looked at Elara.

Darian gave her a thumbs-up.

"That strange constitution of yours is extraordinary. It even affects Fivefold Heaven."

Each rise in Pearl Quality increased its contribution to construction enormously.

Lana’s excited report arrived just then.

[Lana Whitmere: An Epic Elemental Beast! I’ve found one!]

"If we do well here, much of the credit will be yours," Cassian told Elara with a smile.

Darian was growing excited too.

"Should we aim a little higher? The top thousand. Let’s fight for that!"

Nessa clapped her hands.

"Those fools won’t believe their eyes!"

Cassian smiled.

"You’d be satisfied with the top thousand?"

Before they could answer, he raised a hand. He paid the Aether required and activated the Domain Aether Vein’s Shared Blessing.

Dragon cries sounded from his Domain. Concentrated rays of golden light shot out and entered Nessa, Darian, and Elara.

There were limits to how many people he could bless this way. But with Riftward’s Fortune behind the Vein, the effect went far beyond Dragon’s Blessing.

All three stared at their notices.

"I must be seeing things..."