“Dear!” Hilda rushed to hug Sokram, knowing he had once more escaped death’s grip.

“You heard about the last mission, hm?” Sokram judged by how tight her hug was, not that he was complaining about it.

And once Miralyn joined the hug, his desire to leave almost vanished.

“What about the mission?” Margiory raised an eyebrow.

Brunhild’s voice reached their ears as she walked in, accompanied by Liaranna and Kasine.

“He found a Kasulla in the village southeast of here and escaped unscathed.”

Kasine looked at Sokram between the hugs of his two mothers and joked. “Heh, for someone so talented to be a momma’s boy, haha, who could’ve guessed it?”

Sokram gently untangled himself from his mothers' embrace, the lingering warmth a comfort he was reluctant to leave.

He took a few steps toward Kasine and hugged her tightly, “Nana, the Grandmaster is going to be fine. That Kasulla is just a Tier 3 Exalted. Don’t worry.”

Liaranna saw that and couldn’t hold back her widening eyes because Kasine hugged Sokram back, and her face showed a concern she hadn’t shown until now.

“If anything happens with him, the one giving me a baby will be you!”

Kasine grinned and pinched his ear playfully.

“I wouldn’t complain, but there’ll be no need.” Sokram winked at her but then asked, “Want to go see my new lab?”

“Oh, I already did. When I heard your Nana was building it for you, I went to help, even added a few gifts of my own.” Kasine winked at him.

The glint in her eyes told him that what she left for him was not simple.

But then she frowned, “Did you check everything before entering the city, clothes, camping gear, mounts, supplies, everything?”

“Yes, Nana. As scared as I was, I wouldn’t have missed anything. I even triple-checked it.” Sokram assured her.

Kasine felt more relieved hearing that.

“Alright, let’s go see your lab. I want to see your face when you see it.”

While Sokram and his family went to check his new lab, Licarus and his impromptu team of powerhouses were getting close to the village.

When they arrived, they were shocked to find that Sokram’s barrier remained active, but there was no one in sight.

Looking around the village, the air was devoid of movement.

There were no hares, no buzzing insects, no people, not even the lowing of cattle.

Only an eerie, silent, empty village.

The silence was only broken by the soft, crunching sound of their own footsteps on the packed snow.

After looking around some more, they found a hole dug in the middle of the village.

“Licarus, quickly, give me one of the hares Sokram gave you. I’ll use a tracking spell.” Neloph rushed but forgot something fundamental in his nervousness.

“No need; they are heading south. That thing must have left less than an hour ago and is heading southwest,” Licarus said as the wind brought their scent to him.

“There are many, too many. We need to tie the Kasulla and her hosts to one place.” Kamus added, and glancing at Sahvus, he asked, “You know any barriers like my boy does?”

“I thought he was Leona’s disciple?” Sahvus raised an eyebrow.

“Isn’t a grandfather twice a father to his grandchildren? But that’s beside the point, do you know a spell like that or not?”

Kamus frowned, not liking the implication that Sokram was less his disciple than he was Leona’s, even if it was true.

“I do. Don't worry. But it will be better to cast the tracking spell first; it might have left eggs behind. Beyond that, why is it going southwest?” Sahvus's question made many alarms ring in Licarus’s head, and he quickly summoned a communication crystal.

“City Lord Lythor of Greenmorrow, this is City Lord Licarus of Eversnow, old friend. And I have dire news…”

While Licarus sent messages to every city southwest of Eversnow, after getting the hares from him, Neloph began casting his tracking spell, chanting in ancient Aefhery.

“Mark of the Judgement, Lady of Might, help find this walking tragedy before it disrupts evolution and life…”

Two big arrays appeared above them, one red and one green, while, without being touched, the hares floated between his hands as if hanging by their heads.

Suddenly, Kamus's ears twitched, and using One Step, he appeared behind Sienna, blocking an attack that came from someone Licarus knew all too well.

“Hello, Uncle! Great Uncle Kamus too...”

A wolf-kin with light brown skin, a well-trained body, around 1.8 meters tall, with grey-furred wolf ears and tail, and wearing a grey leather armor decorated with the pelts of the bears he hunted, and a pair of daggers which were just parried by Kamus's katana.

“Oh, Kutro…” Licarus muttered, a pained scowl etching his features.

Kutro looked at him with lifeless eyes, but a big, bright smile, “Worry not, Uncle, I’m evolving. I’ve become a part of a much greater being. Why don’t you join me, join us!”

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Kutro released a quick double slash that Kamus defended easily.

But he held back from slashing the wolf away, seeing Licarus’s expression.

“How is it controlling it from this far away?”

Kamus asked because of how fluid Kutro’s movements were.

The answer came from Neloph’s spell; the red array calling onto the Mark of the Judgment disappeared entirely. “This is impossible…”

“Hahahahaha!”

Kutro’s laughter twisted into a deep, guttural, layered with voices that didn’t belong to him.

“Puny mage,” he sneered, “You will not find me with that spell again! I’ve learned my lesson. This time, I chose Evolution instead of Chaos! Hahahaha!”

“An awakened Kasulla?!” Kamus shivered at the thought.

“Impossible! What is Natura thinking, accepting something like you as her child?” Sienna’s composure shattered.

Neloph quickly made a few hand signs.

The green array flared to life and chanted.

“Light of Might, show us the way to this lost child seeking the destruction of life!”

The array turned into a ball of light and divided itself into six; five of them shot into Licarus and his team's heads, and the last one shot southwest.

When Kamus looked at Kutro again, he could clearly see the various worms outlined by a green light inside his body.

“No saving this one, Licarus,” Kamus said firmly.

“I know. Sahvus, burn him to ashes, quickly!” Licarus pleaded more than ordered.

With a wave of Sahvus's hand, a black flame consumed Kutro’s body in an instant, with nothing but ashes remaining.

“Could have done that from the start,” Kamus complained.

“No. We needed the host alive to see if Neloph’s spell would show the worms or just the infected. You improved that spell a lot, Grand Arch-Magus.”

Sahvus explained, though his face remained expressionless even after complimenting Neloph’s spell.

“You heard what the Kasulla said, Sahvus. Do you think it’s the same one from that cave 300 years ago?”

Neloph met Sahvus’s gaze with nothing but concern in his eyes.

“Yes, I believe it is, let us haste…”

But even before Sahvus finished speaking, his and Neloph’s heads snapped southwest, “We must rush!”

Just then, Licarus received a message, and like he feared, it came from Greenmorrow...

At the same time, in a city similar to Eversnow, the only difference was that this city was surrounded by lush greenery instead of snow.

Lythor, the City Lord of Greenmorrow, a 2-meter-tall wolf-kin man with a very muscular build, pale skin, dressed in plated armor, with Black-furred wolf ears and tail, had just dismissed the strongest warriors in his city when he sent Licarus a message.

But outside his office, a young wolf very similar to him thought, ‘Why is the Kasulla coming here instead of the southeast? It matters not; the plan worked. I must contact Lady Steelheart.’

The young wolf-kin looked at his worried father and apologized in his heart.

‘I’m sorry, father. But for the future of our tribe and nation, we must have a new King. A King that will work to purify the bloodlines before Chaos consumes us all.’

At the same time, Sokram and his family were looking through his new lab that was just a few blocks away from Figos’s slaughterhouse and home.

Sokram now was seated, looking at a set of enchanted mortars and pestles that Kasine had gifted him, studying the enchantments carefully with shining eyes.

His fingertips traced the runes; every touch on a runic line caused the mana in it to ripple and resonate with his own.

“I can’t accept this.” Sokram’s voice came out resolutely before adding, “This must be worth at least three platinum imperial crowns…”

Kasine frowned at him before explaining, “Nope, I have two similar sets made by a dwarf friend of your Grandmaster. He made me an extra set in case I ever need a replacement, but since these things are so resilient and never break, I can gift it to you. And if they ever do break, all I have to do is travel to the Sacred Continent and buy or commission a new set from him. So, don’t even think of refusing it.”

Sokram couldn’t believe Kasine was giving him something so valuable as if it were nothing.

Besides, he knew this craftsmanship; if the dwarf she was talking about was the same Grandmaster Runic Enchanter he had in mind, the set she gave him would be worth more than just a few platinum imperial crowns.

Platinum imperial crowns were the highest currency in the Elven Empire, worth ten thousand gold coins each.

As long as the coins adhered to the imperial standard of 20g of gold per coin.

“Sigh… alright, but I don’t want you insisting on buying pills from me, whatever pill I make for you and Grandmaster Kamus from here on out are gifts. And I won’t take no for an answer.”

Sokram also frowned, pretending to be stubborn, and although he had his back turned to Kasine, he knew how greedy her smile had turned.

“Since you insist, Nana will accept your gifts too,” Kasine grinned shamelessly, but no one dared to stand up to her, knowing how much of a bully she was.

After finishing inspecting the set Kasine gifted him, he stored it safely in his Void Glove.

Sokram looked around his alchemy lab, which had some bookshelves carrying a few Almanacs and theory books.

Margiory was planning to gift him those books in the future, but now it seemed more appropriate.

There were all sorts of lab glasses and tubes, as well as an assortment of spatial rings that carried glasses for potions, and bottles for pills.

Against the three walls away from the entrance door, there were three different types of long tables.

One carrying the glasses and tubes, one with the mortars, pestles, and other tools, and the last one was an empty table.

Sokram stood in front of that table and, with a pen in hand, he started outlining an array.

But once he did that, he heard Brunhild sighing while Margiory and Kasine giggled.

“Pay up,” Sokram heard Kasine saying, and then Brunhild groaning.

“I truly thought it was a table for his book and notes…” Brunhild whined, and Sokram understood why she lost the bet.

“You forgot he never needed to take notes because of how good his memory is?”

Margiory held back from mentioning his bloodline gift by name, but Kasine still raised an eyebrow.

“But I see him writing notes occasionally,” Brunhild mentioned casually.

“It’s mostly for you.” Sokram explained, “I usually compile everything I learn to share with you. I’m doing something similar for Nana Kasine and Grandmaster, too, for when we finish converting their cores in Spirit Magic Cores.”

“Such a filial child, you girls have my respect. If I ever manage to get a son from that old wolf, I’ll definitely seek your advice on how to raise him.” Kasine praised them with a humorous undertone, but she was truly praising them.

Sokram and his family could only smile wryly, his family because Sokram had always shown himself a very mature child, sometimes even displaying a duality in his personality.

And Sokram, because he knew the only way for someone like him to appear would be if they had returned to the past like he did.

Which would be impossible, as that was a spell he created and never shared with anyone, not even Fate could see through what he had done.

After going through the lab equipment, Riella guided Sokram to the underground floor, which was previously used as a storage, an enormous room with no windows.

The walls were covered with white tiles revesting the concrete walls.

The first thing Sokram noticed was the newly installed Magi-Lights on the ceiling and the Magitech ventilation system.

Then his gaze drifted toward the raging goblins inside the cages, all cuffed with Energy Sealing enchanted cuffs of Dark Steel.

Seeing the people entering, they cursed and trashed around, but all they did was bruise themselves.

“You know Natura wouldn’t approve of you using a race that was once one of Nhiria’s children as test subjects, right?” Riella asked, a teasing glint in her eye.

But Sokram only shrugged, “Evolution sometimes involves sacrifices. So I say, better them than us. I know Nhiria won’t blame me if I get good results. And if I don’t, I'll endure her scolding once we reach the Star Palace.”

Riella giggled, thinking it was just a cunning comeback. But the others held complicated gazes, hearing the conviction in his tone.

Sokram examined the rats that were trying to find their way out of the cages, and nodded approvingly.

“Well, now I have everything I need to start. Will you guys stay to watch me work? We can hang out since it's been a while, but things might get a little stinky.” Sokram flashed them a broad and excited grin.

They knew that now that he was there, he wouldn’t leave his lab so easily.