SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 689: A Share Worth Waiting For

By the time they reached Jade Moon Palace, Leon had finished his report and read it twice for anything he had forgotten.

Vyra’s supply accounting required no such revision.

Han Suwen accepted both at the residence gate, glanced through the expenditure list, and paused over the final figures.

”Everything is accounted for?”

”Everything drawn from the household allowance,” Vyra said. ”The unused materials are listed on the reverse.”

Han Suwen turned the page.

Leon watched her expression settle into something close to approval.

”I’ll have the balance credited back to the account.”

”Thank you.”

Loriel was already looking past them toward the inner garden. Ira had put down her bags long enough to stretch, then picked them up again after catching Vyra’s eye.

The ordinary familiarity of the residence pleased Leon more than he had expected.

He spent the afternoon putting his cultivation records in order and leaving the more private ones behind his own wards.

Ji saw him the following morning.

She read the White Reed account while he drank the tea that had been set out for him.

”Elder Shan took the collector that evening,” she said at last. ”The records have given my investigators several useful directions. They will continue from there.”

Leon set down his cup.

”Did the formation master reach safety?”

”He is under Palace protection. His account is being checked against the correspondence.”

”Good.”

Ji placed the report on the table.

”You handed over a living witness, six prisoners, and intact records. That was a useful conclusion to the assignment.”

”Thank you, Master.”

”Now. You mentioned changes to your circulation in the note you sent with this.”

Leon took out the three sheets he had prepared.

He had removed the dates and the records of his energy supply. What remained showed the old branch relationships, the revised arrangement, and the responses he had measured at different outputs.

Ji drew the first sheet toward her.

Leon explained the Earth adjustment and how the resulting strain had appeared elsewhere.

”I had been treating the matched rates as something the method needed permanently,” he said. ”They were useful while I established the structure. After that, I kept correcting departures from the pattern without testing whether some were preferable.”

”And you found they were.”

”Some of them. Only after adjusting how the returning currents interacted.”

Ji compared the figures.

”Unequal circulation is familiar,” she said. ”Keeping nine affinities stable through one neutral route is where your difficulty lies. You cannot borrow the proportions from a method built for two or three and expect them to hold.”

”I tried enough combinations to become convinced of that.”

Her eyes lifted toward him.

Leon told her about getting up for water.

A faint amusement entered her gaze.

”And until then you had tested it seated?”

”I had tested changes in output. I hadn’t adequately tested divided attention.”

”Those are different demands.”

”Yes. I’m aware.”

”I imagine you are.”

He let her enjoy that for a moment.

Ji returned to the records.

”And now?”

”It holds through movement and the changes I’ve tested. I left more tolerance in several junctions instead of choosing the arrangement with the lowest cost at rest.”

”That was sensible.”

She asked about two transitions, and Leon answered from his notes. When the discussion reached a point he had not tested, he said so.

Ji marked the place lightly.

”Compare a sustained draw with repeated short releases when you next have the opportunity. The same average consumption can place different demands on the return.”

Leon made a note.

She had not seen his private training records or examined the new native cultivation beneath his older foundation. He intended to keep the conversation on the method, and she allowed it to remain there.

”May I retain these?” she asked.

”These copies, yes.”

Ji placed them beside his report.

”Then we can discuss what you should prepare for next.”

She unrolled a chart of Ashen Rain Basin.

The entrance complex was marked beneath the western survey region. Around it, the Palace’s survey notes had become considerably more detailed since Leon’s visit.

”Ruan is maintaining the seal and observing the realm’s formation,” Ji said. ”The original estimate was three to six months. We do not yet have enough consistent measurements to replace it with a reliable opening date.”

Leon leaned closer to the chart.

”So we have time.”

”Time to prepare. Not a reason to assume the earliest estimate is a promise.”

”Understood.”

”When the Grotto-Heaven opens, we intend to send an expedition. Your role in finding and securing the entrance will be reflected in your allocation.”

That had his full attention.

Ji noticed.

”You may ask directly, Leon.”

”What does the allocation give me?”

”A personal share of the distributable gains, with priority when choosing suitable resources to fill that share.”

He considered the wording.

”Before the ordinary distribution?”

”Yes. Once the finds have been assessed, you make your selections before the remainder is assigned.”

”And those selections count against my share.”

”They do. Priority determines when you choose. It does not give you a second allocation.”

”Vyra will want that written down.” 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

”It will be.”

Leon smiled.

Ji continued before he could ask the next question.

”If a single discovery exceeds the value of your allocation, it requires a separate agreement. You do not acquire an unlimited claim by pointing first.”

”I was about to ask.”

”I know.”

She tapped the entrance marked on the chart.

”The Palace also retains responsibility for the realm’s infrastructure. Anything necessary to preserve its stability or access is outside ordinary distribution. We will establish those boundaries before entry.”

That was reasonable. Leon had spent enough time repairing the entrance to understand why letting excited cultivators dismantle important structures would be a problem.

”Can I select materials for my household?”

”Within your allocation, yes. Their needs are yours to consider. Their own contributions can also be recorded through the normal process.”

He thought of the breakfast conversation in Moonfall.

Seraphine would want the compatibility reports. Vyra would want to know how valuation was handled. Loriel would probably ask whether living specimens could be preserved until she examined them.

Ira would ask what could withstand her fire.

Ji watched his attention move across the chart.

”Before you make a list of treasures,” she said, ”remember that we have not seen the interior.”

”What can Ruan tell?”

”The forming realm shows strong storm and spatial-temporal characteristics. Combined with the basin’s existing deposits, that gives us reasons to expect useful materials. It does not establish their quality, quantity, or accessibility.”

”So no catalogue.”

”No catalogue,” Ji agreed. ”There may be resources suited to you. There may also be things the Palace values highly that you have little use for. Your priority allows you to choose intelligently once we know the difference.”

Leon liked that considerably more than being promised an unnamed treasure.

He asked a few practical questions about assessments and the recording of finds. Ji answered what had been decided and identified what still needed to be settled.

By the time he left, he understood what he had earned and where its limits lay.

On the path back to his peak, he found himself thinking about Foundation Establishment.

The first stage of the Scripture now had a complete cultivation history behind it. He knew how it behaved throughout Qi Refinement. The next stage would ask different things of the vessel and the energy it held, and four reservoirs would not relieve him of the need to understand those changes.

He wanted materials worth studying. He wanted options suited to his own path, and enough freedom to reject impressive things that did not fit.

The others wanted much the same.

Below him, the residence came into view. Loriel was in the garden with one of the workers, examining a tray of seedlings. From the western courtyard came the sound of Ira striking a practice target.

Leon slowed at the gate.

There was work waiting, but he had chosen this work.

He went inside to find Vyra and tell her about their share.