Another 3 months passed with Sol and her household trading hits with the Royal family. Sol lost another 32 shops and was set back somewhat in the capital after losing a major storefront. She spent most of her time during the last month establishing another front behind the scenes as a subsidiary.

Her results were mixed, but could be categorized as a success. The cost of reestablishing a foothold inside the capital was far more expensive than she expected. Although she had no way of proving it, she was rather confident that news was leaked to the local businesses that Iridescent and Lunar Supply were at war.

That being said, there was little she could do. Though frustrating, there was nothing illegal about making a profit. Sol chose to ignore the upfront cost in respect for the future. Luckily, her moves to protect Iridescent assets in other territories were largely successful.

Reports from the Knights protecting them all were similar in content. They encountered humans with abnormal physical abilities attempting to sabotage each of their respective areas. Luckily, the local peace keeping forces that the Knights negotiated with were able to identify strangers in the town and alert early.

Through a mixture of preemptive assaults and abusing legal grayzones, the Knights were able to pick off the enemy or drive them away. Sol was already satisfied with their results. Of the 32 shops she lost, nearly 30 of them were in fringe locations where Iridescent had little influence. Although painful, it didn’t hurt her too much from a strategic perspective.

While Sol pushed the frontline of Iridescent and continued her takeovers, some of her other strategies also progressed. Settled at her desk, Sol reviewed the latest report on her infrastructure project. The roadway she started a few years ago finally reached the 50% mark.

Arcgate’s routes were already completed and were actively being used by both merchants and the populace. Loughzar’s roadway was nearing the 90% completion mark and Arcgate’s other neighboring territory, Littleflood, was nearing the 80%.

The two territories were already experiencing the bonuses from the roads and Sol utilized the honeymoon attitude of the territory leaders to insert more Iridescent facilities throughout their major trade hubs. As it stood, Sol felt her control over the neighboring economies was rather well developed.

Sol placed the sheet down and picked another up that contained Sir Leory’s progress. Initially, she left him alone to determine targets since she wasn't aware of the critical Lunar Supply locations. Sol was quick to discover that Lunar Supply employees were nowhere near as loyal as Iridescent employees.

It only took her a bit of money and territory in exchange for the information she needed. Since Sol practically co-owned Loughzar’s economy, she bribed the Lunar Supply employees in that region first. The information was quickly passed to Sir Leory who promptly adjusted his targets.

The letter detailed Sir Leory’s current progress as well as the resistance he encountered and, to Sol’s delight, the methodologies he used in conjunction with the leather coins. Affectionately dubbed the ‘Temperamental Betty’ or TB for short, the leather coins had a far greater application than Sol expected.

Initially, Sir Leory utilized the TB as Sol first demonstrated. Between hiring a 3rd party to plant the coin under the perception it was a dead drop or placing it themselves, he managed to successfully destroy nearly 20 store fronts.

Later, he found the stores boosted their security and anything left behind was promptly removed. Luckily, the TBs appeared rather innocuous and so failed to draw any unusual degree of attention. They were often removed from the surface and tossed into the trash as if they were gum.

After recovering the TB, Sir Leory started to get creative. The activation method and degree of damage was never truly tested in detail, so he requested extra TBs from Sol. After trialing the coin in various ways, Sir Leory managed to destroy another 56 storefronts and nearly 130 carriages.

TBs attached to flathead arrows boosted the range as if it were a flying explosive. The nature of the TB to destroy itself and the immediate area it’s attached meant the only evidence left behind was a mostly undamaged arrow shaft.

Written in his latest report was using the TBs under the ground. With proper intelligence, Sir Leory was able to blockade carriage routes in just the right way to force the vehicles along a certain path. As the wheels compressed the TBs, the magic would race up the thin wheel and into the carriage axle.

Although the main carriage and its cargo would survive, the carriage itself was destroyed beyond repair. Sol always enjoyed reading Sir Leory’s reports since the man was well aware of her intentions. He even provided some requests for future versions of the TB that Sol found fascinating.

Her skills in the art of Divine Refinement were improving as well as her understanding in how to construct runes. The painfully slow progress did little to deter her though as she understood the complexity behind it. Compared to when she first started, she now held a deep respect for the field.

There was an inherent tradeoff regarding the complexity of her end goal and the exponential difficulty to achieve it. The number of materials Sol destroyed in the process of practicing over the course of the last 3 months could no longer be measured by quantity and instead was appropriately replaced by the tonnage.

Along the same note, Sol felt a miniscule pressure in her soul for the first time during the last half of the month. After discussing it with An, she was happy to learn that she was reaching her first Soul Refinement as an Assembler.

According to An, the first Soul Refinement an Assembler went through would affect their future progress. Knowing that, Sol heeded An’s advice and held off on the refinement. She would rather continue her progress until the absolute limit.

Her decision wasn’t only based on her future. After refining her soul, Sol’s control over magic would diminish to a certain degree until she adapted to her new strength. By description, An compared it to a full grown man lifting lumber being suddenly asked to lift a feather.

There was a need for her to adapt and adjust her strength before trying anything as complex as Divine Refinement. That delay in her practice wasn’t something Sol felt she could afford since she was at the most critical moment.

While a boosted strength would open new doors for her, something inside Sol was warning her that progression while she was weak was more important than brute forcing it with strength. There were plenty of reasons to hold off, and few to proceed.

Sol wasn’t the only one busy during the past few months. An, too, kept progressing his own plans. Although he wasn’t burdened with a company, An was instead focused on Sol’s defense. Over 4 months ago, An had already succeeded in most of the manor’s defenses.

The recent 4 months were split between playing with Sol’s Knights and investigating the orb he recovered from the first scout he killed. An was aware that things were spiraling out of his control and he alone lacked the strength to cover all Sol’s weaknesses.

If the opponents were humans, then he wouldn’t be nearly as worried. Sadly, life never takes the smooth route. An managed to draw the lucky straw and find their target before anyone else under his Master and yet he was also unlucky enough to run into an opponent capable of communicating with the higher realm.

While the action sounds simple, the amount of preparation required to reach the upper realm from a lower realm was abysmally complex. The efficiency alone was atrocious. The lower realm just didn’t contain enough magic to establish a proper channel.

Such limitations were why the orb An held in his hand was so fascinating. After in depth examinations, he managed to discover the core principles behind the device. An’s gaze drifted from the broken orb and onto a similar orb slotted upon an altar.

If he was correct, the orb acted as a catalyst to boost whatever magic was sent into it. While the results dramatically strengthened the magic, it also consumed it at terrifying rates. Even at full strength, An couldn’t guarantee being able to fuel the thing for more than 20 seconds or so at any time.

He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the next step. The orb was so inefficient that he would have to inject his own magic supply into it since the environment lacked it. He felt as if he were about to throw his magic supply away with the attempt.

While he could recover over time, the lower realm would make the process painfully slow. Despite that, he released the held breath and started injecting his magic into the orb. Magic rushed into its core and catalyzed with the runes inside. After reaching a critical state, the orb burst out with a pulse of light and tore the fabric of the realm.

Though surprised at success on his first attempt, An shot his spiritual awareness through the gap and loaded it with as much information as he could. First and foremost of that information was the simple request. ‘An Long reporting target discovered. Enemies encroaching. Requesting backup.’

While details were tacked onto the end, it was hard for An to know how much would be successfully transmitted. The fabric of space mended itself and as if struck by a rebound, the orb fractured. Though it retained its shape, the item could never be used again.

“Single use? Good to know.” An tossed the orb to the ground and stomped it into dust. Although he managed to create a copy of the enemy’s communication mechanism, he felt it wasn’t something that could be done often. Even he would struggle with creating more than three of the orbs, much less his enemies. An’s gaze drifted to the sky. Would they receive his message? Who would come down?