The following day, Sokram’s work continued.

  While waiting for Hannah to leave isolation, Sokram began working on perfecting his new spells.

  Sokram brought Amber, Savannah, and Lucy with him to the underground training grounds of the palace.

  Most of his family was there, except for Brunhild, who had disappeared with Liaranna somewhere after they both entered the Semi-perfect Existence level.

  And Moira, who was busy with something in the temple of Belladona.

  Leia and Cassandra were there, too, sparring with Lymus.

  Sokram saw Kiren and Kara practicing there.

  Their contrasting auras pulsed in sync, faint but vibrant.

  Sokram’s lips curved before he realized he was smiling as he sensed that they had finally Awakened at the Tier 1 Common level.

  When Karini saw Sokram looking at her daughters, she joked, “You should enjoy strengthening your bond with them while you can.”

  Her tone was a low, teasing murmur, but she also sounded conspiratorially hinting at something.

  “Well, we’ll have time for that.” Sokram grinned back at her confidently, feeling that the mark of their promises was still on his left forearm.

  Karini raised an eyebrow at his words, “You don’t know?”

  “Know what?” Sokram turned to her, confused.

  “They’re heading to the Royal City. Accepted into the Royal Academy, they’ll be leaving in two days to enroll. Lycius is taking them.”

  That left Sokram briefly stunned, but then he smiled.

  “Amazing, though I could help them better than any teacher or instructor there, the reputation that comes with it is something that will help them in the future.”

  A rare, genuine smile broke across Sokram’s face, crinkling the corners of his eyes.

  He gave a firm nod, adding, “But this will also save them from when I enter my first frenzy.”

  Karini was a little taken aback by his mature response, but nodded, agreeing, “Don’t worry. Their feelings for you are real. Just don’t get too many wives before they have a good chance to fight for a good spot in your harem.”

  “Well, you will be here to keep their position safe, right?” Sokram winked at her.

  “Couch, couch!”

  Sokram looked back and saw not only Leona but also Lycius standing behind him.

  “Stop flirting with my wife when I’m not around, kiddo,” Leona said with a stern expression.

  Her stern look instantly fractured, replaced by a naughty, slow-spreading grin as she added, “If we team up on her, she gets more flustered. I love to see her cheeks flushed.”

  Hearing Leona joking like that and with how Karini got flustered, the others around didn’t resist laughing.

  “Stop teasing my baby.” Kasine appeared beside Karini and enveloped her in a crushing, warm embrace.

  Karini even felt moved, as wolves weren’t used to showing sympathy, but that didn’t last as Kasine joked, “It’s not because she is so easy to bully that you two can do as you please.”

  Karini didn’t know whether she should laugh or cry in that situation.

  Unbothered by the commotion, Lycius passed them and walked toward Kiren, leading her to the other side to train her glaive.

  Kara came to Karini to train with her because Kara had awakened as a Shieldmaiden as well.

  Sokram led the girls to a corner to aid him with his new spell.

  When Kasine saw that, despite his exhaustion from the previous day, Sokram was back at work, grinning, she joked, “You’re not just a battle junkie, you’re a workaholic too.”

  “I can't lose time when the war is still looming at our doorstep. I thought Frostaxe and Whiteland would give up after losing their main powerhouse, but they are still moving around the borders.” Sokram justified himself.

  “Sokram, we are stronger now, you can relax. Live a little, enjoy your youth.” Leona told him, truly wanting him to live a little more normally.

  But to everyone’s surprise, the answer came from Hilda: “Stagnation means death, Leona. And Sokram feels the happiest seeking out Evolution, so let him grow. What we can do is grow with him.”

  “Heh, did you two swap roles?” Miralyn joked, flashing them a silly grin.

  Hilda took the question seriously, “No, I just woke up to the reality that our son is a true Dragon of the North.”

  Sokram, of course, beamed hearing that, “Thanks, Mom! I’ll keep growing stronger!”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “That you shall, dear,” Hilda nodded, smiling, already turning away to go back to her and Astrid's training.

  “Thank you, honey!” Miralyn winked at him.

  “Is it that much better now that she is stronger?” Sokram scratched the back of his head, not able to contain his curiosity.

  “Yes, I enjoy the feeling of being protected. And Hilda became much more dominant, too,” Miralyn whispered, a faint blush rising to her cheeks as she gnawed her lower lip.

  A wave of giggles rippled through the training ground at the sight as she walked away to join Astrid and Hilda.

  Before Sokram could start his work, Kasine gently pulled him aside, her usual fierce gaze momentarily softening, the corners of her mouth pulled into a hesitant frown.

  She decided to break some news to him: “We are going back home tomorrow.”

  “Oh… But you’re coming back soon, right?” Sokram asked, hopeful.

  He truly enjoyed having her and Kamus around.

  “No, child. Until the war starts, we’ll stay with the clan. Kesia must be missing us, too, and thanks to you, I now have many formations to replace in the camp.” It broke Kasine’s heart seeing his face fall like that, but Kasine and Kamus never liked living inside the city’s walls.

  They loved the wild and the nomadic life.

  “I understand, Nana. But can you delay it a couple more days? I want to prepare a few more gifts for you, Grandmaster, and the rest of your clan.” Sokram looked at her with eyes shining with hope.

  Kasine looked back at him, nodding, her eyes gleaming with greed at the word gifts, and she told him, “Alright, if you insist, we will wait a couple more days.”

  “Great! Thanks, Nana. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!” Sokram promised as he started walking back to the girls.

  “Alright, let’s start with this,” Sokram told his three girls, who were distracted talking about something else with Leona.

  “What are you trying to do now?” Leona's voice came out louder than she meant to, as she was very curious, which drew the attention of the others around.

  “I’m going for Ariana’s Destruction now,” Sokram told her as if it were just another thing someone could learn and do just like any other day.

  “A Paragon’s Legacy spell, really? And the spell that gained her the title Paragon of Magi? Do you know how many people failed trying to replicate that?! And how many others died as they failed?” Cecille's voice, coming from the entrance so suddenly, surprised everyone as she appeared to have materialized out of thin air.

  “Well, I have something I need to accomplish with all the knowledge I gain from your Tower, Arch-mage Cecille. But don’t you also need to do the same?” Sokram shot her a teasing grin. A mischievous spark danced in his eyes.

  But Cecille didn’t take it as a joke. She saw it as a challenge, “Hmph! Your funeral, but try not to drag these talented girls with you.”

  “Don’t worry, they are here only to lend me some mana, since I still don’t have enough.” Sokram turned back to Savannah and nodded.

  Savannah quickly activated the Runic Siphoning, but this time, unlike the previous ones, it was Sokram who was on the receiving end.

  The three girls sat a few meters away from Sokram, focusing on sending him as much mana as they could.

  Sokram summoned an apple, an iron bar, four sacks of sand, and a bucket of water from his Void Glove.

  The others stopped their training to watch what he was up to this time.

  First, he left the apple a couple of meters away from him.

  Sokram extended his palm toward it.

  He began to chant, a hushed torrent of ancient, unfamiliar words escaping his lips, each syllable vibrating with unrestrained power.

  Sokram chanting was highly unusual.

  A mage who could cast with thought would only chant spells that could be considered as Grand or Mega spells.

  This was precisely the case, but it wasn’t the destructive area that made the spell so heavy to cast.

  It was how thoroughly it could destroy something.

  Sokram had to read many tomes on molecular transmutation, spacetime, and scientific reports on atomic, quantic, cellular, and molecular structure.

  He read many published research papers and books on how Magi could influence and transform reality.

  Which, along with his mastery of alchemy and its periodic table, gave him enough knowledge to justify this much now, if any higher being ever came knocking.

  The first thing the others felt was how much more intense and denser the mana around Sokram and the apple became.

  Then they saw something that shocked them all.

  The apple shimmered and began to disintegrate, its form dissolving into invisible threads of vapor.

  Sokram grinned widely, a lonely drop of sweat running down the side of his face.

  Cecille’s intake of breath was sharp enough for everyone around to hear it. Her knees buckled beneath her, and she crumpled with a sharp thud that echoed across the chamber.

  When the apple vanished completely, Sokram exhaled in relief, then pumped his fist in triumph.

  “Complete Molecular Separation!” Sokram's loud voice echoed through the silent training grounds, cheering his own success.

  “In the first attempt?! This… Oh, Come on!” Cecille looked indignantly, unable to accept it.

  Sokram looked at her and grinned widely, “You’re getting excited too early, Arch-Mage Cecille! Hahaha! I just did what has already been discovered! But what I’m about to do, no one has done yet!”

  His tone remained a mix of teasing and challenge as he held her gaze.

  Now extending his two hands to where the apple was, he started chanting a different spell.

  This time, the mana pull was even greater than before; the girls giving him mana began to struggle to keep up with his spell.

  But once again, the air grew instantly thick and heavy, tasting electric on the tongue as the mana around Sokram and the apple condensed into a palpable, vibrating presence.

  Everyone around could sense the mana around him becoming denser and sharper, as if there was a chain connecting him to where the apple used to be.

  Shocking everyone, the apple began reappearing; the vapor it had become was reassembling back into solid form.

  To grasp the scale of the magical calculations racing through Sokram’s mind, considering the estimated number of atoms in an apple, and the fact that its molecules are made up of one or more atoms, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that reassembling it would be like assembling a puzzle with trillions of quadrillions of pieces.

  In that moment, in the center of the Galaxy, the Tenth Paragon stood from her throne, but it wasn’t just her.

  Harten, Belladona, and even Mentyr couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

  While the others couldn’t even grasp the level of mental calculation that Sokram was handling right then.

  Ariana looked at Nhiria, who only had a big smile, seeing Sokram surpass her Tenth Paragon as if it were just another day.

  “He can have my seat, Milady! You should raise him to Paragony as soon as possible.” Ariana said. Her voice trembled as she sank to one knee before Nhiria.

  “No need to be dramatic, Ariana. He is just reversing the logic of your spell. Though it takes far more mental power to reconstruct what one did not create, he’s just readapting it.” Nhiria shook her hands dismissively, but she also didn’t hide her pride in watching Sokram’s growth.

  “Besides, with the enhancement his mental gifts received with his mind locks being lifted, this much, although delightful to see, it’s not surprising with him carrying that many bloodline gifts. It’s nothing much, really. You could have done the same back in the day, had your blood been carrying the same gifts as his.”

  Although she sincerely wouldn’t mind giving her seat away to Sokram if it meant having a stronger and more talented Paragon, Ariana felt relieved hearing Nhiria's words.

  But Nhiria wouldn’t raise him to Paragony even if Ariana wasn’t there, because she hoped Sokram would become her First Champion instead.

  She just needed to find a way to inspire his heart to follow her will along the path.