Sokram grinned at Veronica, “Now that we have been properly introduced, please…”

  His eyes snapped to Oliver. “Help me understand why my good friend and business partner here always falls apart for someone like you.”

  “Fuck… Kid, I’m sorry, look, I truly had no idea she would appear…” Sokram raised a hand for him to stop.

  “I know, had it been otherwise, I would be here to end our partnership and to cut my losses. But since I know you had no clue, I want to know if you have an answer for Lady Veronica's earlier proposition.”

  Oliver nodded, understanding that Sokram knew everything.

  Turning to Veronica, after unlinking his arm from hers, he said as firmly as he could muster, “I’m sorry, V. But I can’t help you this time. I can’t betray him.”

  Oliver’s gaze shifted to Sokram, remembering how his life was before he came along, and added, “He is the reason I’m in the position I am today. And as you can see, even though he knows all my weaknesses, he still did all of this to push away the only thing I always allow to destroy me: you.”

  Veronica's gaze met Oliver’s, looking at him as if she could pierce through his soul.

  Her expression slid from surprise to confusion before settling into a silent, final surrender. Resignation.

  Then, surprising him and Sokram beyond any expectation, she looked at Oliver with a sincere smile, “You’ve found a good friend, then. I’m happy for you, Ollie.”

  Turning to Sokram, her gaze sharpened, and her tone was firm, “You may think you know me, Mr. Dark Lightning Killer. But your friends in the Pavilion need better informants.”

  Her gaze moved to Oliver fondly, “The only reason I came here was to test you, and you passed. I’m happy Ollie finally found someone willing to go this far for him. But do me a favor, take care of this stubborn old man, for me, will you?”

  Veronica planted a kiss on Oliver’s cheek and began to walk away, but Sokram wasn’t done yet. “Are you sure you don’t want that Bear-head bandit group dealt with?”

  Veronica froze mid-stride, her body going rigid.

  Her head snapped back, the shock momentarily paralyzing her.

  She shook her head, “No, we Blackbloods will deal with our problems ourselves. Besides, I know you’re going to ask me to stay away from Ollie in return for your help. But that is the only thing I can’t do.”

  Sokram frowned, but nodded.

  And as Veronica walked away, Luma looked at him with a raised brow, “Do we let her go?”

  Sokram looked at Oliver, whose eyes were wide and moist, the guilt stamped deep in his expression, yet still sending him a pleading look.

  Sokram nodded, “Yes. Let her go and keep her safe. I don’t want this old fool moping around if she ends up getting killed.”

  “Yes, boss.” Luma leaned in, and a warm breeze brushed his face as she pecked his cheek.

  Then vanished as the shadows seemed to swallow her whole in one fluid step.

  Sokram looked at Oliver, his gaze stern, “I apologize for going behind your back like this, but it needed to be done.”

  Oliver nodded.

  He knew Sokram was right. Veronica had too much power over him.

  Then, surprising the old man, Sokram flashed him an evil grin, “I’ll make sure she doesn’t die, but not for free.”

  Shock, expectation, and a fragile hope flickered in Oliver’s gaze.

  Sokram continued, “First, you’re moving into the staff housing building. I’m giving you one of the manager’s penthouses there. Second, you’ll start training with Alain every day until you reach the Flawless level. And third, never lie or hide things like that from me again. You’re my friend, but even friendship has its limits.”

  Sokram turned around and walked away.

  Oliver watched his departing back, then leaned heavily on the fence, which creaked under his weight.

  His fist clenched tightly as he battled his feelings and inner turmoil.

  Looking down, he sighed heavily, “For Nether’s sake, Oliver. Don’t fuck it up this time again because of her.”

  Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

  Sokram was in his workshop, leisurely reading a book, when Miralyn came to call him, saying that a cute half-dwarven girl was waiting for him at the entry hall.

  Arriving there, he saw Monna.

  In her hands was a box that held the two spatial rings he left with the Millers, plus five needles.

  Near-perfect replicas of the ones he made with his Matter Manipulation Spell.

  “Your father is an amazing Whitesmith, Monna.” Sokram grinned broadly.

  His eyes were riveted to the needle in his hand, genuine amazement spreading across his face.

  Monna craned her neck, her eyes darting greedily from the polished floor, then the one-way see-through walls, and finally, to the marbled moonstone cladding, her curiosity palpable.

  "Yeah, I know," she nodded, her attention already elsewhere.

  “You want a tour?” Sokram joked, finally looking at the stunning Half-Dwarf in front of him.

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  Looking caught, Monna looked up at him with a sheepish grin, “I would love to, but I can’t. I need to go back to the shop. Maybe another day?”

  “Sure,” Sokram smiled at her, but from behind her came Margiory with Riella, and the four Wood-Elven siblings, Frinna, Thinor, Mujur, and Alinir.

  Sokram smiled brightly as he greeted his grandmother, “Nana, this is Monna. Monna, this is my grandmother, Lady Androny.”

  While Monna looked stunned at the young-looking Lady Androny, Margiory gave a once-over at the beautiful girl.

  When her gaze returned to Sokram, Margiory’s grin curved slowly and feline, a glint of mischief in her eyes, “Another one, hm? Well, you have quite the eclectic taste for women, baby.”

  Then her gaze shifted to Monna with a bright smile, “She is quite stunning. I approve.”

  Monna turned red like a tomato but remained silent.

  But Sokram corrected Margiory, “No, Nana. She is the daughter of the Millers, the master smith couple I told you about.”

  His gaze didn’t shift toward the four siblings following his grandmother.

  Still, he baited them in, “If we manage to find a good tailor in the city soon, I want to hire her parent to make the uniform armor for our people.”

  “Oh, but she is quite tall for a dwarf.” Margiory looked at Monna, who continued to blush despite being calmer now that Sokram cleared the misunderstanding.

  Then, Frinna’s voice reached them, “Boss, if I may.”

  Sokram nodded, signaling for Frinna to go on.

  Frinna, looking at Monna, started, “My mother is a Master Tailor, recognized by the Records like Monna’s parents, and she worked on many pieces of armor, working together with Ronna.”

  Monna nodded eagerly, “Yes, that’s true. Lady Liaranna’s War Dance Armor is one of them.”

  Sokram pretended to be surprised, “Really?! Then we have what we need.”

  He looked at Riella, puppy-eyed, “Can you go meet them and arrange it? I’ll go meet their mother as soon as I can, but I want to finish testing something before preparing to go hunt.”

  “Yes, I’ll go meet them and take care of it.” Riella nodded promptly.

  Turning to Monna, Riella sported a warm smile, “If you can wait, I would like to follow you back to your shop.”

  “Sure, I’ll wait.” Monna nodded eagerly.

  Riella went upstairs with Margiory to her office.

  After Margiory and Riella left, Sokram heard Frinna’s voice again, “Going to hunt something good?”

  She cast him a curious glance.

  “Nah, just 30 Wendigos. Nothing too grand.” Sokram shook his head.

  Frinna froze, looking at him. Stunned because of what he said about the wendigos. 'How is killing thirty wendigos nothing grand?'

  Sokram, breaking her out of her daze, followed up with a question. “Why haven’t I ever heard of your mother before?”

  “She only works with clients brought by other clients as her work is quite specialized and expensive, but if the order is big, she always gives good discounts.” Frinna's tone was full of pride.

  “I see, and what is her name? Such a great tailor must be at least somewhat famous, right?” Sokram flashed her an innocent smile, pretending not to have all the answers to his questions.

  “I doubt you've ever heard of her. She prefers not to draw too much attention, but her name is Freydis.” Frinna’s smile when she spoke her mother's name made even more evident how much pride she carried for Freydis, both as a Master Tailor and as a parent.

  “Yes, I still didn’t have the honor, but I’ll go visit with Riella once I have the chance.”

  Turning to leave toward the training grounds, Sokram shot the one last smile as he said, “Well, if you excuse me, I have to test these little beauties here. See you later, guys.”

  Sokram grinned at the box in his hand, a grin too broad to be polite, then he bolted toward the training grounds, his excitement increasing the pace of each step.

  Frinna looked at his back, a shy smile on her face.

  Monna approached her slowly, “Is my big sister eyeing the sky?”

  “Nope, it's just that he is the best boss ever, and he's super strong and talented, and… Ok, I was looking at the sky a little bit.” Frinna joked.

  “Well, I can’t blame you, I looked too.” Monna giggled.

  “Cough, cough!” One of Frinna’s three brothers cleared their throat, as their conversation was getting uncomfortable, and the girls giggled.

  Meanwhile, Sokram met Hannah on the way and dragged her to the training grounds.

  “I have the needles. Let’s go, Nana!”

  Seeing his excitement, Brunhild, Liaranna, and Leona, who were nearby, also followed.

  Sokram sent them to the training ground while he went to pick a few goblins from the underground prison.

  A few minutes later, Sokram appeared in the training ground with five goblins following him in an orderly manner.

  Leona, seeing that, couldn’t help but joke, “All bow to The King of Goblins, Ladies!”

  The others joined in the joke and bowed reverently to Sokram as if he were a king, but Sokram only chuckled at their antics.

  But this time, Hilda, Miralyn, Astrid, Alyssa, and Amber were also there since they were sparring and training when Hannah arrived with the others.

  Sokram quickly lined the goblins on a corner and, after marking one of them with a runic key that would link them to the spell in the needle, he looked at Amber with a grin and told her, “If this works, the credits are yours.”

  “Come on, it’s your spell formula and your idea. How can I take credit for it?” Amber blushed slightly.

  Alyssa, now a Tier 1 True Existence Magic Knight, grinned proudly, seeing her daughter being praised like that.

  “All right, then. Part of the credit is also yours, then. But enough talking, let's test this.” Sokram took a deep breath, drawing in some mana.

  He aimed the needle at the far end of the training ground and snapped his wrist.

  The needle cut through the air, wizzling through the silence in a perfect, unwavering straight line.

  Sokram was amazed at the level of craftsmanship Draven could achieve.

  Once the needle was about to reach the fifty-meter mark, Sokram willed the goblin to activate the spell.

  The goblin blinked out of existence. Not a flash, but a total, instantaneous absence.

  Only to reappear fifty meters away, the needle now clutched in its fingers, as its small body shivered from the sudden displacement.

  But Sokram didn’t celebrate yet.

  Instead, he ordered the goblin to come back and did it again, again, and again.

  Once it was past the tenth time, Hilda asked him, “Is there something wrong?”

  “What?!” Sokram turned to her, spooked out of his daze.

  Then he shook his head, “Oh, no. I just understood what Nana Hannah meant when she said she couldn’t see through it. It’s a perfect jump. I couldn’t even sense it.”

  His gaze studied one of the needles in his hand, but his mind was far deep into the calculations of his spell. “It leaves no ripple, no tear in the fabric of space. I… I think I just created a perfect spacetime jump. I might have to fine-tune it a bit, but watch this…”

  Sokram threw the needle, and a moment later, he disappeared.

  Hannah’s eyes snapped closed until she heard his voice again, “I’m going to have to incorporate this in my fighting style, but it can be quite… lethal.”

  Leona's jaw hung slack. The look on her face was a ridiculous blend of amazement and hunger.

  “Lethal? Kiddo, you might just have created the best tool for stealth killing and surprise attacks. You just disappeared from my senses, and I only noticed you again when you spoke.”

  She shot him a pleading look, “You will teach me, right? RIGHT?!”

  Sokram chuckled seeing her reaction, but nodded, “Sure, Master. It’s not even that hard since you don’t need to memorize the formula. All you need is to practice the activation timing, I guess…”

  The others were still somewhat stunned because, as Sokram and Leona said, they couldn’t notice any shift in the space.

  Sokram vanished, then reappeared.

  There wasn’t even any air displacement.

  “Can you explain to me how it works, dear?” Hilda was already walking toward him, but Sokram threw a needle in her direction, and just as it was half a meter from her, he appeared with the needle in his hand.

  “Did you sense anything? You could see the needle, right?” Sokram grinned at her spooked expression.

  But Hilda shook her head, “No, I thought I might have to catch it or deflect it, and then you appeared, and I couldn’t sense anything.”

  Sokram once again threw the needle, but this time toward Hannah, who was still quiet and anxious.

  Her pupils dilated, lips parted.

  He appeared in front of her, the air where he'd been only seconds ago unmoved.

  Her hand flew to cover her mouth, her eyes wide with a dizzying blend of wonder and disbelief.

  "Nothing?" Sokram grinned, raising a brow.

  She could only shake her head, speechless.

  Sokram raised his two arms, bumping the air, “Success! It works!”

  He hugged Hannah in celebration, but she was still too stunned to react.