"Let me introduce myself, I'm Ebony."

"I-" Sophia choked on the rice. Rice wasn't a common grain they'd like to eat, but a good portion of people still enjoyed it.

She never asked, but she knew what this man's name was. How could she not when she dealt with information?

Ebony, known by multiple small titles, was not known to the common household, but he and his presumably Xeng partner had some fame amongst anyone who knew war on Elcra.

Decades ago, against the Trolls at Fifth Tide. They were small names, fierce youngins with local fame. The Xeng name helped spread word of Scarlet's existence easily but their titles were spread together as Ebony was always mentioned together. It helped that ice magic stood out compared to other Imperial fighters or freelancers.

Fifth Tide was just a tiny battlefield and so were the soldiers there, a scant amount of Grandmasters in charge of that fight. So their fame didn't spread far but not many years later, the Tetramyths came.

Any freelancer or paid fighter of individuals or merchant firms knew about it. They must have been headhunted to fight at some point. The war was too big for the Nobles to cover up entirely. But thanks to the faith people had in the Royal family, especially in the Barrier King and Life Queen there was little to no mass panic amongst the populace.

Too many distinguished names appeared over time but Ebony and Scarlet were known though the time they spent throughout the war was not particularly long compared to most freelancers who loved the levels and skill refinements they were getting from the battle.

Many freelancers were saved by Ebony's mobile mage fortress. Imperial Knights and Mages knew how much his stamina and mana recovery spell helped. Sophia, having been exposed to it more closely, knew it was no spell and just the natural effect of being exposed to this man's aura and mana. There was also something else that calmed her mind down whenever she was near him.

And then there were his golem's insightful training tips. It helped her greatly even though he never directly trained her.

Although she knew his name and a portion of his capabilities, Sophia actually knew frighteningly little about this man. For a fighter of his fame, there should be plenty of information about him but no she couldn't find much.

He appeared out of nowhere, his connection with Scarlet did make it odd but she had imagined that he might have some Xeng background which made them separate from the Imperial citizen and cleared the doubts she had about where he came from.

He was low profile but profiled by the Jaded Parasites. Something that she mentioned to him before.

Due to the short time before he showed differing feats of power and ability, he was an unknown variable and listed as 'Avoid if possible but danger is minimal without hostile intent.'

Scarlet was different, just proof that she was a Xeng made the Jaded Parasites give an 'Avoid at all costs.'

The Jaded Parasites seem to be very wary of them, unlike the common Imperial who was just curious about this small group of people that wasn't under the Imperial's rule. Even the Elves didn't do anything about this which made the common man curious but apprehensive.

This seemingly all-seeing man had to know her name. "I'm Sophia Stiletto Ironshade, an illegitimate child of a fallen Noble family, Stiletto. Adopted daughter of Ironshade, a Dwarven family. You know what happened to them…" Sophia stared down at her plate, it was probably news to him that she was orphaned not once but twice.

Her father was kicked out of his own family, and died under a monster's claws. Stiletto family, most of them dead in a dungeon run while doing their duties as an Imperial Noble and clearing the Epic Dungeon in Tidal.

Ironshade…murdered in cold blood.

"Mmm. I suppose I'm part Xeng, part mana-being."

"!? Is that why you're such a good magic user?" Sophia didn't realise that she wasn't even facing a proper human. Sure, she always joked internally about how inhuman this man was but she didn't actually think that.

"Not really, being part mana doesn't make me use magic any better." The man casually debunked her. "It does change the way I see and use mana though."

"Anyway…why have you brought me here for dinner?" Sophia could not push her nervous curiosity back any longer.

Being made fun of by her colleagues and subordinates had been hard on her. She wasn't embarrassed but it threw the image she built for herself off a little. After all, she was a single lady and available men seemed to be all the other ladies thought about.

And this man walked up with his dastardly dashing look and waited for her outside her workplace after silencing their conversation in public earlier in the day. Making their meetup look more suspicious to the Quest Hall ladies. His cold expression was a big hit amongst the ladies.

Then he brought her into the fanciest restaurant she'd stepped foot in with prices she couldn't afford with her day job. It was fine up to this point.

The weirdness only crept in when she was the only one eating.

And even weirder when he started to persuade her to eat a bite of every dish on the menu. She had to watch her weight!

All the man did was stare at her every movement while she ate. When she truly couldn't fit any more food in her belly, he glanced at the plates full of food before devouring it so fast that her eyes could barely catch up. The weirder part was how elegant and mindful he was of table manners even with that nonsensical eating speed.

After a few blinks, the food was cleared up and he begun to introduce himself all of a sudden.

'He's taking this investment so seriously…' Sophia did consider it.

She wanted to leave the Jaded Parasites long ago, sticking around only to gather some information for Ebony and taking on a few jobs to supplement her living expenses while honing her skills.

She used to need money, a lot of money. That was the original purpose of joining Jaded Parasites, to help her father while he worked. His death only pushed the debt to her.

Finding her way to Lure was for revenge, for the Ironshades.

Now that sweet sweet revenge was all taken care of and the killers of her foster family dealt with. She was at peace. She had no one to blame for her real father's death but a damn monster.

She no longer had to take care of Ironshade financially, and she was much stronger, capable of earning more than she was as a Journeyman. She had the need for money for equipment, that was the only way young her thought she had a chance for successful revenge.

But she never expected that getting stronger than her targets was so easy. A bit of metal, smarts and timing was all it took, no expensive equipment was needed to overcome stronger opponents. The mister of Ironshade adopted her after calling her a 'natural'.

But Sophia was kept grounded by knowledge of truly strong people. Any core member of Ducal families and above were basically untouchable to even the strongest or richest Marquis. The gulf between them was almost impossible to cover.

She wasn't able to get enough information but the consensus was that the Archducal families weren't too different in power compared to the Ducal families. They just had an individual or two who stood out even in their families and that was enough to push them to the top.

The Lord family was as old as the first mention of Elves in the Empire's history. They had been around but didn't stand out so much until recent generations.

However, having money and being rich was practically a childhood dream of hers. That liking for money was still around even without the great need for it. Greed was in her blood and since she was 'free' she couldn't come up with many reasons not to take this opportunity.

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She wasn't attached to the Quest Hall or the Empire either.

But she was attached to her life.

Just the requirement of getting personally getting stronger was worrisome.

Without replying to her, the handsome man who acted ignorant of his looks stood up and brought her out of the restaurant. It completely surprised her since she assumed it was time for her to decide whether to step out of the shell she created for herself.

Once again, he hailed the fastest rides they could get and ushered her in mechanically. It was human no doubt, but she could read through most people. He was merely copying motions of what he thought was the norm.

There was no other reason she feared this man more than anyone in the world. Exchanging eye contact with Ebony was what she dreaded the most. His ice golems were more friendly in that regard, seeing him again after so long reminded her why she feared him so much.

There was nothing in those depths, she couldn't see deep enough to find even the slightest notion that this man was thinking about anything at all.

For her colleagues were gushing for her, she was fearing for her life every moment in front of him.

Now that he wasn't speaking and pulling her around, the anxiety was kicking in again.

In that manner, an hour passed as she sat in the carriage with him.

The silence ate her.

She barely registered that she had been brought deep into Central Tidal and was standing before a grand store decked in shiny jewels. Just the decor itself was worth more than her life savings.

"Uhm, what are we here for?" Sophia blinked twice and ran her mind through the store name, it was clearly a jewellery store.

A pair of staff members held the door open and welcomed them in. They must have smelt wealth, not a rare skill if they were great merchants or apprentices of one.

Ebony still didn't reply and she got dragged around in stunned silence. Moments later, she had dozens of bracelets and jewellery pushed against her skin but he never touched her, just the jewellery.

Finally speaking up, "You're pale from your indoor job and you train at night. Ah, pick anything you'd like as compensation."

'That explains nothing!' Sophia exclaimed internally.

"Ah! You're getting a gift for the missus." It would've hurt her pride as a woman if the man before her was anyone else.

"Mmm."

After being used, where the tests had been pointless since the man bought everything she tried. They left the store in a hurry again. She'd been too scared to receive a gift so pricey. Even if she took the gift, she wouldn't dare to wear it.

"Okay, thank you. The offer?" Curt and direct, Sophia was relieved since he was acting more normal this way.

Without her knowledge, he moved both of them to his house's garden where she was offered tea that his ice golem prepared in advance.

The speedy movement didn't shock her. Not a single hair of her was lost from the winds for there was no winds. She was grabbed by mana, protected by mana and seemingly went through buildings to get here in what seemed like an instant.

Sophia calmed down, "Let me make this clear." She pointed a finger up, trying to hide her shiver.

"You're hiring…investing in me to do business. Whatever I want other than focusing on agriculture and growing produce you want. I need to get stronger for whatever reason. I get paid half of all our profits. While you provide capital. Is that it?"

"Mmm."

"You understand I'm no merchant."

"Mmm. Doesn't take a merchant to do business, you can hire merchants if you need to. If there's anything I learnt about business, I suppose you should build a brand." Ebony truly didn't know much about business.

"What else do I have access to? Starting anything from scratch is not so simple as having a lot of money."

"Sophia, information and management are some of your specialities. I'll get you an Ancient Eidolon portable module, tell me how much money you need for your information-gathering activities."

Sophia gulped, the Common ranked portable modules for Eidolon were something every information dealer like her wished for. To use it, they needed a Myriad Bracelet from Hex branded stores or artisans and not any of those from Imperial Crafters. The price for the items was still reasonable, especially if all she needed was Common ranked but the transport fee was outrageous.

Some strong members sold the information about Eidolon a couple of years back, she had managed to get her hands on information through other sources. She would be able to afford a pair of that bracelet and module if her only income was from her position in the Quest Hall for 6 to 7 decades.

The functions and range of a Common Module were so limited it was mentioned that it was for children and apprentices with safety functions that block out access to many features of Eidolon for their protection.

"Farming…we could buy some operating farming guild," Sophia muttered. It honestly wasn't the worst of ideas with the current geopolitical situation. Elcra was land-rich, and there was plenty of decent soil.

Although there were many strong Worldcores out there, there were even more young Worldcores owned by people. From the people that visited Elcra, Uncommon to Epic Worldcore visitors were not rare.

These Worldcore owners would have their merchants travel around and Elcra was getting popular if not for the limited access put in place by the Barrier King with the help of some Spirits that had contracts with the old family from who knows how many years ago.

Besides, she was surprised to find out that owners of entire Worldcores like Elcra weren't particularly powerful. They might be Kings or even Grandmasters who were given their fiefs. Similar to the olden fiefdoms of Elva's lands.

Nowadays, the Empire's Nobles were in charge of a district where smaller Quest Halls were under lower-ranked Nobles.

These owners would be taxed by their superiors with their Worldcore's speciality products and crafts. In their Sector, Ancient ranked Worldcores were already the highest around. So Elcra was a shockingly strong contender for how young they were open to the society outside.

The Three Great Farms produced a vast amount of crops every year and they've been making good money from selling them to Worldcores without arable land and sourced all their food from exports. Tidal limited their sale of farmland to the Imperial citizens and no otherworlders but even then, farmland was decreasing by the day.

Farmer guilds ranged from small groups of a dozen farmers that worked together with differing farming specialities to produce a specific crop better in quality than others. Even with the Three Great Farms being controlled by the Three Farmer Kings of Elva, they had numerous farmer guilds because that was how great and special crops could stand out.

In Sophia's mind, she was already picking out farming guilds that specialised in fruit and nut shrubs and trees. Just buying them out would allow profit in a short time since the farmland was long prepared and the crops planted. These farmers can easily settle new fruit or nut breeds on their farms.

"No, we're not buying out another farming guild. We start afresh. We don't need people who only work for Sulpto but people who want to continue working for us." Ebony was looking at her but his hands were fiddling with an ice golem's torso. He was doing mana work that she couldn't keep up with.

"...We're not going to see money for decades," Sophia muttered while her senses were being distracted.

She understood what he meant. The thing called brand was not unheard of. Reputation was something Z&Z, the biggest firm on the Continent built over a long period. Their employees were known to be loyal to the firm, contract or not the firm was fair to its people.

But getting new farmers loyal to an upstart? With no farmland or crops already planted?

"We have time. You need to train beforehand anyway, the time for the farmland to develop can happen at the same time. I see you've already accepted my offer. Nice working with you, Sophia." Ebony raised a palm towards her for a tet.

"I-" That wasn't supposed to happen, she wasn't planning to turn the conversation in this direction!

'My mind has been agreeing with him since he popped up near me! This damned calming aura.' Sophia relaxed her gripped fist. She had already been onboard before he got her for dinner to be honest. She just wanted to drop everything and get away from this Quest Hall manager persona she built for herself.

And his words kept crawling into her heart, why does he think so highly of her?

That stroked her pride and ego by quite a bit.

"I want an out-of-the-world experience." Sophia sighed in resignation, she hated this place anyway. Giving the man a full palm tet, his freezing fingers almost made her flinch.

Having been orphaned twice in her short life. She could finally leave this place. This was as big as an opportunity could get, with a rich and powerful backer.

"You are serious. Perfect…soon enough." He raised his eyebrows, something she'd seen for the first time.

"Uhm no?" Sophia was expecting, 'are you serious' more than a statement.

"We already have an employee, he will be your bodyguard. He will also be your first duelling partner before your real training starts." A metal crate floated in front of Ebony.

"We have an employee? I have a bodyguard, and I still have to train?" This was moving too fast for Sophia. She barely decided on accepting this offer and he was pushing training onto her? What about the business?

"Mmm, the content of this box is for our first employee. A Dungeon. I have high hopes that this would allow him to exist outside his confines."

Sophia uncharacteristically dug her ears, laid back and looked up into the night sky before sipping her tea.

She understood each individual word Ebony said but couldn't understand anything he just said.

A Dungeon is their employee? A dungeon could…leave itself?

What?

Then her metal mana jumped when the box in her investor's hands started shaking.

Something alive was inside!

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