Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Chapter 216: Ordering From LAB

They headed into the sprawling luxurious foyer of the estate.

"Miss Lia," Martha offered instantly, slipping right back into her professional maid persona. "Would you like me to draw you a bath? Or perhaps I could assist you with your academy assignments in the study?"

"Assignments first," Lia decided responsibly, heading toward the grand staircase. "I have a massive mana-theory essay due on Monday."

"Excellent choice," Martha nodded approvingly. She turned to Silas. "And for you, Master Silas? A hot meal?"

"No," Silas grumbled, unbuckling the heavy mythril scabbard from his hip and leaning the sword against the marble wall. "I just need a bath. I am covered in the residual ash of a lot of things, and my muscles feel like they’ve been put through a meat grinder. I will be upstairs."

Silas turned and heavily trudged up the sweeping carpeted staircase with his heavy boots thudding against the wood.

Ten minutes later, Silas was submerged up to his neck in the massive, sunken marble bathtub located in his sprawling bathroom.

The scalding hot water was heaven.

He had poured half a bottle of restorative bath salts into the water, and he could literally feel the soothing concentrated mana aggressively sinking into his pores, forcefully repairing his micro-torn muscle fibers and soothing his bruised Warlord ribs.

’I need to go see Eluned and the others...’ Silas thought.

He leaned his head back against the smooth marble edge of the tub, closing his golden-ringed eyes as the steam filled the room.

The adrenaline of the extraction had finally worn off, leaving him with nothing but pure physical and mental exhaustion.

Eluned’s lap would do a lot of things for him right now.

As he soaked in the boiling water, Silas’s mind naturally drifted back to the apocalyptic events of the afternoon.

’Thor is really strong, huh?’ Silas thought as he specifically remembered the world-ending terror he had felt when the sky cracked open and the Norse deity descended. ’The power to crack through a Secret Realm has to be insane...’

He also remembered the crushing gravitational pressure of Thor’s presence.

’I really want to get stronger... I can’t be this useless, given the fact that I’m a Gold core, If this was a novel then I should be the Protagonist right?’ Silas thought.

He remembered standing completely frozen as Thor stepped directly into his personal space and he also re remembered the blinding electrical blue of her eyes looking directly into his soul, probably recognizing the hidden Gold Core in his chest.

And most vividly, he remembered the Daughter of Odin reaching out with her heavy, heavily runed iron gauntlet, gently but firmly patting him directly on the top of his head.

Silas slowly opened his eyes in the steam-filled bathroom, staring blankly at the vaulted ceiling.

’Wait...’ Silas thought, his golden-ringed eyes widening in the bathtub. ’Did I... did I actually like that?’

He sat up slightly, the hot water sloshing over his muscular chest.

’No. Absolutely not,’ Silas aggressively mentally denied it. ’She was a terrifying cosmic entity who could have deleted me from reality with a sneeze. I was paralyzed by fear. That’s it.’

But his traitorous brain provided a counter-argument.

’But her hands were so incredibly firm... and she called me a fierce warrior...’

Silas physically violently dunked his entire head under the scalding hot bathwater, aggressively attempting to drown his own thoughts.

’I refuse to have an awakening kink for overpowering deities,’ Silas screamed in his thoughts under the water. ’I refuse! I am a Lord! I do the dominating!’

He breached the surface a few seconds later, gasping for air, violently wiping the water from his sharp face.

He aggressively scrubbed the residual monster blood from his skin, determined to completely scrub Thor out of his head even if she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.

Thirty minutes later, Silas stepped out of the bathroom.

He was wearing nothing but a pair of loose comfortable gray sweatpants, a towel draped casually around his broad neck.

His dark hair was still completely damp, sticking to his forehead.

He walked across the sprawling incredibly luxurious master bedroom and headed straight for the far right corner of the room.

Sitting on a massive, heavy oak desk was a highly advanced top-of-the-line desktop computer system that had come pre-installed with the estate.

The monitor was massive, curving slightly to provide maximum visual immersion.

Silas sat down in the heavy leather desk chair.

He cracked his knuckles, rolling his broad shoulders as he tapped the glowing power button on the base of the monitor.

The screen instantly flared to life.

"It’s time to order..."

Silas opened the secure web browser and navigated directly to the official URL for Lord Association Online.

The homepage loaded instantly.

It was a sleek professional interface dominated by deep blues and golds, featuring a massive scrolling banner advertising subjugation quests and upcoming corporate auctions.

Silas clicked the ’Secure Login’ button in the top right corner.

He typed in his Lord ID and his highly encrypted password.

DING.

A prompt appeared on the screen.

[Two-Factor Authentication Required. Please check your registered mobile device for the 6-digit security code.]

Silas reached into the pocket of his discarded trousers lying on the bed, pulling out his smartphone.

He unlocked the screen, opening the text message from the Association.

He stared at the six-digit code with a smirk crossing his face.

’It doesn’t matter if you’re living on Earth or fighting dragons in a magical Sovereign dimension...’ Silas thought dryly, typing the code into the computer. ’Corporate bureaucracy and annoying 2FA logins are a universal constant. Some things never change.’

The screen refreshed, logging him securely into his private Lord dashboard.

Silas didn’t waste time browsing the vanity items or the weapon catalogs as he immediately clicked the ’Magic Market’ tab and selected the ’Skill Scrolls’ sub-category.

His strategy was incredibly simple and broken too.

To forcefully evolve his Gold Core to the second stage of Refinement, he needed to reach ’Adept Mastery’ in eight completely different elemental affinities.

He already possessed Water and Ice from Mia’s teachings. That meant he needed six entirely new elements while refining ice.

’Which Morwenna should know too...’

However, Silas didn’t need to purchase incredibly expensive spell scrolls to learn the magic.

Because he possessed the Absolute Upgrade System, he only needed the foundational ones.

He just needed the cheapest, lowest-tier spell scroll available to officially register the element in his body.

Once the basic Tier 1 spell scroll was in front of him, he could simply dump his UP directly into the skill scroll, making it increase in Tiers.

"Alright," Silas muttered to himself, leaning forward in his chair. "Let’s go shopping."

He clicked on the [Pyromancy] tab first.

He sorted the inventory by ’Price: Low to High’.

He scoffed at the results.

Even the lowest most pathetic Tier 1 fire spell was exorbitantly priced due to the high demand for offensive magic.

"Tier 1: Lesser Fireball," Silas read the description on the screen. "Generates a sphere of thermal energy equivalent to a standard campfire... Cost: 20,000 Spirit Credits."

"Twenty grand to light a campfire?" Silas grumbled, shaking his head. "The Association is completely scamming Lords man."

But he needed them to feed his system.

To ensure the element was properly anchored into his Gold Core, he couldn’t just buy one spell per element... he decided to purchase exactly three different Tier 1 scrolls per element to build a solid foundation.

He rapidly clicked ’Add to Cart’.

[Tier 1: Lesser Fireball (20,000 SC)]

[Tier 1: Ember Cloak (22,000 SC)]

[Tier 1: Flame Spark (18,000 SC)]

He backed out of the Pyromancy tab and clicked into [Aeromancy].

[Tier 1: Wind Cutter (25,000 SC)]

[Tier 1: Zephyr Step (24,000 SC)]

[Tier 1: Minor Gust (20,000 SC)]

He navigated to [Geomancy] as Earth spells were slightly more expensive due to their defensive utility in dungeons.

[Tier 1: Stone Spike (30,000 SC)]

[Tier 1: Earthen Shield (32,000 SC)]

[Tier 1: Tremor (28,000 SC)]

He clicked into [Electromancy].

Lightning was the premium offensive element, dominated by corporate elites like Harper’s family so the prices reflected the monopoly.

[Tier 1: Static Shock (35,000 SC).]

[Tier 1: Lightning Tether (34,000 SC)]

[Tier 1: Voltaic Dash (35,000 SC).]

Silas continued his aggressive shopping spree, navigating through the various elemental tabs.

The Lord Association marketplace had sections for nearly everything except for the highly restricted and regulated affinities like Soul Magic or Darkness.

He picked up three Tier 1 scrolls for [Luminomancy] (Light Magic) and three for [Umbramancy] (Shadow Magic).

Having successfully gathered three foundational spells for six completely different elements, Silas finally moved his cursor to the top right corner of the screen and clicked the glowing golden [Proceed to Checkout] button.

The screen refreshed, displaying his final itemized invoice.

Silas stared at the monitor.

His heart stopped beating for a solid two seconds.

The total cost for eighteen absolutely basic low-tier completely pathetic Tier 1 spell scrolls was sitting there in bold, uncompromising red font.

[Subtotal: 475,000 Spirit Credits.]

[30-Minutes Delivery Fee (Premium): 25,000 Spirit Credits.]

[Valoria City Arcane Tax (10%): 50,000 Spirit Credits.]

[Total Amount Due: 550,000 Spirit Credits.]

Silas sat completely frozen in his desk chair.

He physically felt as though a broadsword had been violently driven directly through his chest.

’Even if I have the money... I still can never get used to spending so much money especially for low tier items!

Half a million credits?

’What if I was trying to buy Tier 3 spells...?’

He was spending half a million credits on garbage magic just to feed his system.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep shuddering breath.

Silas reminded himself of the math. Elora had just given him nearly four million so he could easily afford this.

This was an investment in his survival.

If he unlocked the second stage of his Gold Core, the return on investment would be exponential.

"Pain is temporary," Silas whispered to himself, trying to soothe his crying wallet. "Power is forever."

With a trembling hand, Silas moved the mouse cursor.

He clicked [Confirm Purchase].

DING!

His smartphone sitting on the desk instantly chimed loudly.

Silas picked it up, staring at the notification from the Valoria Central Bank.

[-550,000 Spirit Credits.]

[Thank you for shopping with the Lord Association! Your items are on the way!]

Silas groaned, dropping his forehead directly onto the heavy oak desk with a dull thud.

The financial damage physically hurt his soul. He didn’t care how rich he currently was... losing half a million credits in one click was pure agony.

Before Silas could even lift his head to check the screen, the heavy oak door to his master bedroom violently burst open.

BANG!

The door slammed aggressively against the wall.

Lia Graves stormed into the bedroom.

She was fuming.

Her face was flushed bright red with outrage as she was marching toward his desk with the uncompromising momentum of a Lord charging the frontline.

In her small hand, she was aggressively clutching her smartphone, holding the glowing screen out like a weapon.

"Silas Graves!" Lia yelled, entirely abandoning the ’Big Brother’ honorific.

Silas whipped his head up from the desk, his golden-ringed eyes wide with confusion.

"Lia? What’s wrong? Did Martha burn dinner?"

"I decided to look up the car!" Lia shrieked, completely ignoring his question.

She violently shoved her smartphone directly into his face.

Displayed brightly on the screen was the official corporate webpage for Apex Sovereign Motors.

Specifically, it was the landing page for the exact vehicle currently sitting in their driveway.

[Zenith IVR]

[Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: 4,100,000 Spirit Credits.]

[Fully Loaded Options: +4,200,000 Spirit Credits.]

[Total Value: 8, 300,000 Spirit Credits.]

Silas completely froze.

He stared at the eight million figure on the screen.

’Fuck she shouldn’t know this...’

Lia lowered the phone, glaring at him with fury.

"Five hundred thousand used?!" Lia screamed, her voice echoing loudly through the building. "Big Brother... why in the hell WOULD YOU BUY A CAR WORTH EIGHT MILLION SPIRIT CREDITS?!"