“So... you want to start your own business,” Philipe said as Lucas sat across him in his office. “Won’t be hard since you already have a reputation in the south. Do things well and you’ll be well-known in the east too.”

  Lucas came to Philipe for advice on starting his own business since he was from a merchant family.

  “Starting your own business by yourself is possible. Hard, but it’s doable,” Philipe rubbed his chin in thought. “If you can find a way to speed up production with the help of a big company, you’ll make a lot through commercial sales. In the meantime, I suggest primarily doing custom commissions.”

  Lucas took note of everything Philipe explained and began thinking of ways to implement them.

  “I spoke with that new assistant of yours regarding the purchase of lands,” Philipe mentioned, referring to Althea. “It seemed you invested quite a lot on purchasing land alone. She already bought a large plot of land for the location of your business, and several apartments for commercial earnings.”

  “Apparently she had more talent in being a secretary than being a recruiter,” Lucas replied.

  “Splendid, anyways, you’ll need a staff,” Philipe stated. “I can help you with that, but it’ll take a while since we need to focus on quality given the sensitivity of your work.”

  “I’m fine with that,” Lucas said.

  Philipe clasped his hands together. “Alright. Time to turn Iris into a corporation.”

  A woman beautiful woman emanating a green glow hovered above a building. She has pale skin, long raven black hair, long eyelashes, and blank black eyes. Her attire consisted of a purple blazer with the sleeves rolled up, purple business pants and heels.

  Vanessa Eldragon descended onto the roof of her building. As she expected, several people were already there to greet her. The members of the mage association and her disciple.

  It was to be expected considering she disappeared without contact for a long time. As a king-ranked mage, her actions were closely monitored, so she had no choice but to go off the radar to settle some private matters.

  “Master,” Jasmine bowed.

  “How have you been Jasmine?” Vanessa asked and noticed Jasmine seemed nervous as she looked away.

  It seemed her disciple got into some trouble.

  After being briefed of everything that happened while she was gone, Vanessa was left examining the artifact she created for her disciple.

  It was an artifact capable of conjuring powerful shields to protect the user from harm. It functioned automatically, so even surprise attacks were ineffective. Vanessa created this by using a scroll that implanted a magic circle into the artifact. A magic circle she obtained from an ancient civilization’s ruins.

  Even if Vanessa knew the magic circle, it was impossible for her to remake it by hand while keeping the runes in the right place. The fact that someone repaired it was shocking to hear.

  Other people would have done an investigation on the matter, but Vanessa just let it go. It was a shame that the artifact wasn’t functional, but she’ll figure something out to fix it.

  As Vanessa read through the reports in her office, she received a distress call on her phone. A dimensional rift had opened near the bother heading to the eastern sector.

  “Give me the details,” Vanessa asked as she took flight, heading to the location of the rift.

  “A small group of monsters came through the rift, but they’re estimated to be class five monsters.”

  Vanessa sped up. A single class 5 monster was already a threat to a sector, a whole group of them would require multiple king-ranked mages to deal with them. Depending on the monsters, it could be even more dangerous.

  But upon arrival, Vanessa found the corpses of seven dart tortoises. A monster known for its impenetrable magical defenses and only having one weak point, the small gem on its forehead. Unless someone was fast enough to strike the gem with enough physical force, the tortoise won’t even take damage.

  “Who did this?” Vanessa asked the enforcers in the area as she landed.

  “We don’t know ma’am. It happened so fast,” the enforcer answered.

  Receiving no direct answer, Vanessa turned to one of the monster corpses. The gem on its forehead was completely crushed and there were no other signs of damage on its body, so it was killed with one strike.

  “Three of the corpses are missing!” one of the enforcers called out.

  Vanessa proceeded to activate a tracking spell.

  “You’ve improved,” Perci praised as Lucas got back into his car.

  “Thanks. But I could have done better,” Lucas replied as he got back into his car. “If I was faster, there would have been less collateral damage,” Lucas stated.

  “Don’t be hasty human. You’re already progressing faster compared to your level of talent,” Perci stated. “Simply focus on refining the wild aura you absorbed. It should be enough to create one perfect circle and a decent third one.”

  Lucas nodded as he drove off.

  After about thirty minutes of driving, he arrived at his destination. A market event where they would sell rare materials and powerful artifacts.

  Althea had tipped him off that a monster lord’s core would be sold here, so Lucas planned on trying to buy it.

  “So... your plan is to amass an army of monster lords,” Perci commented within his head.

  “Yes,” Lucas answered directly.

  He wasn’t going to skip out on his aura training, but having his own personal army to protect the people he cared about was a must.

  “Any chance you can locate the core for me?” Lucas asked.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “No need,” Perci answered. “It’s heading straight for you.”

  Lucas raised an eyebrow and looked ahead to see a somewhat familiar face.

  “Lucas!” A handsome man with blonde hair and blue eyes approached him with his arms around two beautiful young women.

  Joshua Salazar, a friend in high school who Lucas lost contact with after he got his mage evaluation.

  “Joshua,” Lucas smiled fondly.

  Joshua removed his arms from the women and proceeded to punch Lucas in the gut. “You motherfucker! How dare you cut contact with us,” he proceeded to put Lucas in a headlock. “Leonard is going to snap you in half when he finds you.”

  “I’m sorry!” Lucas coughed out as Joshua released him.

  Throughout his student years. Lucas only made three friends, Philipe, Joshua, and Leonard. They barely had anything in common with Lucas barely even doing anything else but study. Still, they became friends that Lucas cherished.

  “Ghosting us aside, what brings you to a crowded place?” Joshua raised an eyebrow in confusion, which was warranted considering Lucas normally avoided crowded places.

  “I wanted to try buying a monster lord’s core,” Lucas answered.

  Joshua raised an eyebrow again before pulling out a stone from his pocket and tossing it to Lucas. “Here.”

  Lucas caught the stone. It was black with a brown emblem of a bull head. “Oh... what do I owe you?”

  “Every fucking contact information you have you prick,” Joshua replied. “Phone number. Work and personal. Address, also work and personal,” Joshua demanded. “You aren't disappearing on us again!”

  Lucas had to hold in his laugh, while the women with Joshua just watched the scene with confusion on their faces.

  Joshua was the son of a high-ranking government official in the southeastern sector and had a frivolous personality. If Philipe was obsessed with money, Joshua was obsessed with women as evident by the two women with him, who Lucas was certain Joshua didn’t even know the names of.

  “How did you get this?” Lucas asked.

  “It was used as a power source, but it’s already drained,” Joshua mentioned. “It’s just a pretty rock now.”

  Joshua gestured for Lucas to follow him. He led him to a massive tent set up near the edge of the market. Stepping inside, Lucas saw several booths selling rare materials.

  “My father is sponsoring this event, so he sent me to keep an eye on things,” Joshua mentioned as they entered a barricaded section of the tent. Joshua gestured for the women to wait outside as he gestured for Lucas to take a seat. “What are you up to these days?”

  “Starting a business,” Lucas answered.

  Joshua nodded. “Philipe mentioned something about that. You’re into building golems, he said.”

  “Yeah. Since I couldn’t be a mage, it was the next best thing,” Lucas stated.

  Joshua passed him a bottle of soda. “Got a special lady?”

  Lucas shook his head. “You of all people should know I’m not good with that.”

  Joshua shrugged. “You’re a decent guy. Some of the girls in our high school would have dated you if you asked them out,” Joshua mentioned. “But you were into older ladies. Specifically, our homeroom teacher.”

  “She was nice and pretty,” Lucas defended.

  “Won’t argue on that front,” Joshua replied. “But I prefer them youthful.”

  As they were talking, they began hearing a loud commotion outside of the tent. Joshua stepped out to find out what was going on with Lucas following him. Arriving outside, they found out that a Duke-ranked mage arrived with some people.

  “Excuse me, I need to take care of this,” Joshua told Lucas.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Pick up my calls,” Joshua said with narrowed eyes at Lucas before heading to greet the duke-ranked mage.

  “You surprisingly have some decent friends,” Perci commented.

  “I do,” Lucas replied as he began walking around the market.

  The arrival of a powerful mage caused the market to erupt into chaos as the merchants rushed to try and sell their products to the duke-ranked mage and his group.

  Lucas was tempted to just leave as he already got what he came here for. But it didn’t hurt to look around, he might find something useful. Wandering around, Lucas passed on the rare materials and examined the runes being sold.

  As talented as he was with magic circles and mana circuits, Lucas lacked the skill to create runes. Primarily because runes were only taught in universities and was a specialized subject.

  He didn’t see anything special with everyone just selling powerful attack runes that came with enchantments. Lucas was about to leave when he noticed a booth devoid of customers. Based on the sign, it was selling runes as well. But when Lucas approached, he didn’t see a single rune stone being sold. What he saw was a bunch of books with notes detailing their effects.

  Reading through them left Lucas scratching his head in confusion. They seemed to have the same functions as enhancement runes but were called soul runes.

  There were three types of runes. Attacks runes that conjured attack spells like fire balls and ice spears. Crafting runes were the ones used in crafting artifacts as they functioned as specific processes for the ability of the artifact. Lastly, enhancement runes gave physical boosts like durability, agility, strength, and other buffs. He had never heard of soul runes.

  “Can I help you?”

  Lucas looked up to see that the booth owner was a woman with short black hair that curled at the tips. She had round glasses that framed her black eyes, wore a baggy beige sweater and jeans. The woman seemed to be around her mid-thirties with little make-up on her face.

  “I was just checking,” Lucas replied. “What do they do?”

  Lucas noticed the woman hesitate for a moment before answering. “They’re runes that allows you to inject a part of your soul into an artifact or spell to empower them and get better control of them.”

  “That sounds painful,” Lucas commented, knowing a few things about magic that involved the soul.

  “It is,” the woman admitted. “Overusing could even lead to death. But with proper restraint, it has a lot of possibilities. As long as you allow your soul to heal after using it, you can reap the benefits.”

  Lucas looked thoughtful for a moment. He wasn’t some idiot without any self-preservation, so he had faith in himself not to overuse a power that uses his own soul as material.

  “Which one gives better control of an artifact?” Lucas asked.

  “You want to buy one?” she asked in confusion.

  “Aren’t they for sale?” Lucas was even more confused.

  “T-they are,” the woman said as she hurriedly grabbed one of the books and held it up to Lucas. “This one allows you inject a part of your soul and gives you a conscious control over the artifact,” she explained.

  Lucas raised an eyebrow. “I have no idea what that means, so I’ll need to test it out later to understand,” Lucas said as he paid for the rune.

  “Thank you for buying,” the woman bowed as Lucas walked away.

  He was already leaving when he realized that he didn’t get her name, nor a way to contact her again if he wanted to buy more runes.

  As Lucas was heading out, he spotted a woman looking around confused at the entrance, seemingly hesitating to enter. She was wearing a face mask, but it was still fairly obvious she was beautiful underneath the mask. Along with her pale skin, it was clear this wasn’t the type of place she frequented.

  “Are you alright?” Lucas asked.

  “Ah yes,” she nodded. “I was just leaving,” she turned around to leave, only to see nothing but a forest and a dirt path.

  Lucas wondered if she came here with people and got separated or flew in from somewhere. The latter option became the answer as she began to float but was stopped when heavy rain suddenly came down on them.

  “...”

  A heavy silence ensued as she floated back down to the ground and turned back to Lucas. They just stared at each other for a while before Lucas gestured to his car. She bowed and accepted the offer.

  With her tracking spell wearing out and leaving her lost at the entrance of a market event, Vanessa was at a loss of what she could do. Additionally, a heavy rainfall happened just as she was about to leave. That left her no choice but to receive help from a stranger.

  “Here,” the man offered Vanessa a hoody. “You can change inside. The windows are tinted, so nobody can see you.”

  Vanessa nodded in gratitude. “Thank you. You may stay inside,” Vanessa stopped him from leaving the car.

  “You need to change,” the man said.

  “You may stay inside,” Vanessa replied.

  The man sighed as he leaned back against the driver seat. Vanessa saw him close his eyes through the rear-view mirror.

  That left a smile on her face.