Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

The rain was coming down in relentless, jagged sheets across the endless desert basin.

Of course, in the subterranean layers of a dead god’s Secret Realm, it wasn’t regular rain.

It was a torrential downpour of razor-sharp glass shards falling directly from the burning featureless amber sky.

The millions of condensed desert glass fragments plummeted downward with the ballistic velocity of fired arrows, completely shredding the rolling sand dunes outside and filling the cavernous atmosphere with a deafening continuous high-pitched screech that grated heavily against the eardrums.

Silas was seated with his legs folded together in a calm, highly disciplined meditative posture on the ground.

He wasn’t out in the storm as he was currently sheltered securely inside a massive reinforced cover made entirely of magically conjured ice.

The frozen structure was quite huge, curving upward like a subterranean cavern onto itself, providing a freezing sanctuary against the lethal weather outside.

The walls were thick and translucent, allowing the small ambient amber light of the sky to filter into their temporary base camp.

Silas opened his eyes, listening to the violent pinging and shattering of the glass rain striking the exterior of the dome.

He reached out from his seated position, pressing his bare, calloused hand flat against the freezing wall of the shelter.

He didn’t just touch it... he channeled a dense pulse of physical energy directly into his palm and hit his hand aggressively against the ice.

THUD!

The ice didn’t even tremble.

It didn’t crack, it didn’t splinter, and it didn’t shed a single drop of ice.

The frozen water was fundamentally as strong as a corporate skyscraper’s reinforced foundation.

Silas let out a slow appreciative sigh, watching his breath fog in the chilled enclosed air.

”Magic is truly amazing,” Silas murmured quietly to himself, staring at his palm. ”The structural density you can achieve just by manipulating ambient moisture is terrifying... If I could reinforce my physical strikes with this kind of elemental compression, my strength in close quarters would double.”

He really wanted to learn more of it, to understand the intricate pathways that governed elemental manipulation, but right now he had to focus on the important stuff.

He held a glowing, high-tier treasure in his left hand... an intricately carved sapphire amulet they had dug out of the sand hours ago.

He ran his thumb over the smooth gemstone, feeling the dense mana humming beneath the surface, before looking over at the other side of the ice cavern.

Valerius was seated right next to him.

The gold-armored Lord was holding his own treasure in his gauntleted hand... a glowing silver-forged bracer etched with avian runes.

Valerius was currently in a deep meditative stance with his eyes closed as he worked to calm his breath and cycle his depleted mana core after their frantic exhausting sprints across the dunes.

Silas watched him closely, tracking the mana flow in the room.

Every single time the aristocratic Lord breathed out, a sharp burst of green wind followed the exhale.

The wind rippled outward from Valerius’s lips, rattling some of the loose glass shards that had fallen near the entrance of the ice dome, blowing them harmlessly away across the sand before they could enter the shelter.

’It seems that Valerius has a Wind affinity from what I can see,’ Silas noted, analyzing the elemental discharge. ’That perfectly explains his ridiculous burst speed during the dune sprints earlier.’

Valerius’s eyes suddenly snapped open.

Upon feeling the scrutinizing weight of Silas’s golden-ringed eyes focused directly on him, the gold-armored Lord immediately shoved his silver bracer straight into his Lord Inventory with a rapid flash of spatial light.

”Don’t you dare try to steal this, Graves,” Valerius warned him, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Silas with his hand resting defensively on the hilt of his sheathed longsword. ”I dug this out of the dirt with my own two hands and we still haven’t found that kite yet.”

Silas leaned back against the ice wall, casually crossing his arms over his chest.

Valerius wasn’t wrong at all.

The Golden Wing kite... the Tier 3 Sovereign Mobility Artifact that granted permanent flight was the entire reason that they had come over in this specific direction of the desert in the first place.

It seemed that this entire sector of the wasteland was completely full of hidden treasures, at least according to the Elf’s ability and the erratic pinging of their brass radar.

But out of the fifty distinct magical signatures they had tracked and dug up over the last three hours, only two were real.

”I’m not trying to steal your shiny bracelet, Sterling...” Silas replied flatly, his tone laced with exhaustion. ”I’m just annoyed. Fifty signatures... we dug fifty massive holes in the baking heat, and forty-eight of them were just glowing rocks radiating false mana.”

”This Secret Realm is incredibly annoying!” Valerius complained bitterly, running a gauntleted hand through his sweat-dampened hair. ”It’s using high-density elemental mirages! The mana of the dungeon is actively mirroring the exact frequency of actual artifacts... all that preparation for nothing.”

”And the radar can’t filter it out,” Silas added, glancing over at where Aeliana and Mia were resting. ”And Mia couldn’t tell the difference either.”

”It’s probably because this is the domain of a God...” Valerius sighed, throwing his hands up in frustration. ”The laws here completely override baseline tracking magic! Ititius deliberately flooded the floor with false positives just to waste our stamina and bleed our mana reserves dry...”

After the small talk, Valerius stood up with his heavy mythril boots clanking loudly against the solid ice floor. He stretched his broad shoulders, his joints popping in the quiet chilled cavern.

”I am retiring inside,” Valerius announced, gesturing toward the deeper recesses of the ice shelter.

He looked down at Silas with his suspicious glare fading, replaced by a begrudging genuine smirk. ”I have to admit, Graves... I quite enjoyed spending time with you today.”

Silas raised an eyebrow. ”Is that right?”

”Yes,” Valerius nodded firmly, adjusting his armor. ”Regardless of how slimy and cutthroat you are, it is actually a refreshing change of pace from the people who usually spend time with me in Valoria City. The elites only tolerate my presence because they want political benefits and lucrative guild contracts.”

Valerius pointed an armored finger directly at Silas’s face. ”You just want to steal my treasures! It’s honest! I can respect that!”

Silas couldn’t help it. He let out a low chuckle, shaking his head at the bizarre logic but he wasn’t lying though.

”Get some sleep, Valerius,” Silas wished him goodnight with a smirk. ”Keep one eye open, though. I might take your boots while you’re snoring.”

”You can try,” Valerius snorted, turning on his heel and walking deeper into the shelter.

The interior of the massive ice cavern had been structurally modified for their overnight stay.

There were two thick splits of solid ice going through from the main entrance, dividing the shelter into private quarters.

One side was specifically designated for Valerius and his summon, and the other side was reserved for Silas and Aeliana.

Silas remained seated near the entrance, acting as the frontline sentry. From his side of the dividing wall, he could clearly see Aeliana sleeping.

She was curled up gracefully on a smooth slab of ice with her white spider-silk robes draped over her like a blanket.

Even though Elves didn’t biologically need much sleep, or to sleep at all under normal conditions, the physical and magical toll of the raid had caught up to her.

Aeliana had been constantly training and expanding her mana capacity for this whole Secret Realm operation for the past three days back at the territory.

She was exhausted.

Furthermore, she had used her Spatial Teleportation repeatedly over the last few hours to help Silas rapidly reach some highly elevated treasures hidden atop the dunes, only to find out they were useless mirages.

She had earned the rest.

On the other side of the ice wall, Silas heard Valerius’s heavy armor clatter against the ground as the Lord removed his breastplate.

Less than a minute later, the distinct sound of deep snoring echoed through the cavern.

Valerius had laid down and fallen asleep instantly.

Silas stared at the ice wall, completely bewildered. He couldn’t help but sigh, rubbing his temples in utter disbelief.

’Does this bastard really trust me that much?’ Silas thought. ’He is sleeping like a baby... Even I wouldn’t trust myself to fall asleep in front of Elora, and we are literally classmates that had known each other for years. If I wanted to, I could walk over there right now and slit his throat, though I won’t be able to take his inventory.’

Silas shook his head, deciding to accept the strange camaraderie they had formed.

He faced forward, staring out through the translucent ice wall at the relentless storm of falling glass.

Then, he heard the soft virtually silent crunch of light footsteps behind him.

Mia stepped next to him.

The little white-haired girl didn’t look sleepy at all. Her large green eyes were wide, glowing with a bright light.

Before Silas could ask her why she was out of bed, Mia raised her small hands.

”Silent void, swallow the sound. Let the air turn to stone, and seal the breath of the world,” Mia chanted softly.

The air around them instantly rippled as a shimmering dome of pressurized moisture expanded outward from her small frame, creating a sound barrier that completely enveloped the two of them.

”There,” Mia assured him, dropping her hands. ”The others will not be able to hear a single syllable we speak.”

Then, moving with a speed that completely defied her diminutive physical stature, she stepped forward and forcefully tapped her small index finger directly against the dead center of his chest before he could even react.

The moment her skin made contact with his sternum, an overwhelming wave of resonance occurred.

Silas’s chest literally illuminated from the inside out. His Gold Core violently reacted to her ancient mana, beginning to glow with a blinding golden light that shone straight through the dark fabric of his shirt.

Mia grinned with a wide satisfied smirk spreading across her youthful face.

”Ooh~ I was correct,” Mia purred with her voice echoing inside the sound barrier. ”You really have a Gold Core.”

Silas immediately slapped her hand away, stepping backward and hastily crossing his arms over his glowing chest to physically muffle the light.

”What the hell are you doing?!” Silas complained in a furious whisper with his heart hammering against his ribs. ”How did you do that?! And what if the other people saw?!”

Mia rolled her green eyes, completely unfazed by his panic.

”I am not a noob, boy,” she said dismissively, waving her hand. ”I am a Grandmaster. I have secured that visual variable as well. The light cannot pierce the exterior walls of this sound barrier as we are entirely concealed from Valerius’s perception as well as Aeliana.”

She took a slow step closer to him, her ancient eyes looking up at him with profound reverence.

”In my long, long life,” she continued, her voice becoming absolutely serious, ”I have only ever met one other individual who possessed a true Gold Core... There are not even five of them in the entire endless vastness of the Sovereign Realm.”

Silas froze with his anger completely evaporating, replaced by a sudden thirst for actual historical knowledge.

”They are all destined to become gods,” Mia stated softly.

She looked away, staring into the dark ice.

”The one I met... the only other Gold Core I have ever laid my eyes upon... is All-Father Odin himself. I met him when he was making a territorial treaty deal with the Elf King, several centuries ago.”

Silas felt a massive cold chill run directly down his spine.

”Odin...” Silas breathed out.

”Yes,” Mia nodded, turning her gaze back to him. ”He carried the exact same terrifying gravity that you do. Though, it is painfully clear to me that you are not using your Gold Core to its full potential.”

Silas blinked, thoroughly confused. ”What do you mean?”