The question didn't stun Ragnar alone. His other roommates were equally caught off guard by Ryujin's answer.“Benefits? Is there a need for benefits between friends?” Thane asked, bewilderment evident on his face.Ragnar smiled wryly and nodded.“You're right to doubt my help. After all, I don't exactly have a track record in medical care.”That wasn't what Ryujin thought, but he kept silent.He wasn't particularly close to Ragnar, and besides, he had no desire to become one of the many people constantly taking handouts from the strangely generous Storm heir. He had too much pride for that. Vonn turned towards Ryujin. “Don't you have a restoration elixir? You can just give yours to her.”“No!”Ragnar's shout came so abruptly that everyone at the table froze.He swallowed and quickly adjusted his expression, forcing himself to appear calm.“I mean, it might not be the best remedy for her current condition.”He paused briefly, glancing at the other three and immediately noticing the mi

Vonn cackled like a witch and raised an eyebrow, finally looking much more satisfied after the group chastising he had received.He shrugged. “Told ya! You're a show off. Good luck.”Ragnar sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping as though the weight of the entire tournament had suddenly settled on them. “Why me? When am I ever gonna get lucky in life?”Thane patted his shoulder, barely managing to suppress a grin.“I don't know about being lucky, but I do know you need lots of energy.”He finally opened the blood sea crocodile stew he had prepared, and the rich aroma immediately spread through the room, warm and savoury with a faint trace of spiritual energy that seemed to cling to the air.Thane bobbed his shoulders and sang the next words. “Guess what it is?”Ryujin took a deep breath through his nose.“Crocodile meat. I already knew.” Ragnar's fork immediately shot toward the bowl.Thane caught his wrist just before the utensil reached the central pot and slapped his hand away.“Get

WILCOX CLANThe patriarch, Seymour Wilcox, was scowling, his face a mask of thunder as he watched the rapidly declining charts before him. Red lines bled across the screens, each downward plunge a dagger to his pride.The board of directors at the company were at his neck, their calls incessant, their voices sharp with panic and blame. Two of their major spirit stone mines — the lifeblood of their wealth — had been reported for safety negligence and had been forced to stop operations by order of the province. The halt had affected their income greatly, severing a major artery.Their other companies were also facing problems, a cascade of disasters that felt too coordinated to be coincidence. Either some faceless entity had paid a higher amount and taken away their raw materials right from under their noses, or the hired mortals doing the manual labour had been paid handsomely to go home and wait to resume at another company with higher pay. Supply chains snapped. Workers vanished.Eve

EMERALD LAKE LODGE7:26 a.m.Ragnar sat before his workstation, a satisfied smirk playing across his lips as the glow of half a dozen collapsing empires reflected in his cold blue eyes.The screens before him were filled with charts, reports, breaking news, financial projections, and streams of information moving so rapidly that an ordinary person would have struggled to keep track of even a fraction of it.Ragnar looked perfectly at ease.[Sir, their stocks have fallen to a pathetic level. Should we acquire them?]His fingers danced across the keypad, languid and unhurried.[No. That would be too obvious. This is just a little warning to them.]The people on the other end of the communication channel couldn't help the violent shivers that ran down their spines.This... was a little warning?The coordinated dismantling of century-old clans, the collapse of their businesses, the exposure of their crimes, the destruction of their public credibility, and the sudden involvement of federal

STORM GROUP9:00 a.m.Zeraya walked into her office and shrugged off her coat, letting it slide from her shoulders onto the back of her chair.She had spent the entire night at the research plant, personally overseeing the final stages of the products Storm Group was preparing to deliver to the military under their latest agreement. Her hands still carried faint traces of chemicals despite the repeated washing, and her mind felt as though it had been running on nothing but stubbornness and pure willpower for the past several hours.Pulling an all-night shift wasn't what most CEOs did.Not the ones who appeared in glossy magazines, posed beside expensive cars, and delegated everything from research to management while they attended meetings and shook hands with other wealthy people.But Zeraya had never been that kind of CEO. For her, this was normal.She worked harder than most men around her, stretched herself thinner than anyone thought possible, and routinely pushed herself past th