Chapter 150: Chapter 150

Sokram got dressed and followed Kasine straight to the lab to continue his tests on the rats, but that day, they still didn’t have any good results.

Hannah and Kasine had finished all fifty of their test solutions, while Sokram still had ten remaining. But as the rats had been wasted, he would have to wait until the next day to continue.

That night, Sokram didn’t go to the tower.

He was exhausted, his steps dragged, each one echoing the ache in his bones.

He chose to rest his body properly; a few hours of meditation under the moonlight would speed his muscular recovery.

He could also feel, for the first time since he awakened the gift, his muscles compressing and turning denser.

A gift from both his Lunar and Solar Aefhery bloodlines.

And he knew that this was just the beginning; by the end of this training, he would be as physically strong as an orc, of course, without considering cultivation levels.

After a few hours of meditation, Sokram returned to the room, a place that he had barely visited lately, nearly forgotten.

As soon as his head hit the pillow, sleep claimed him, knocking him out into a deep slumber.

This routine continued until the last day of training before his days of rest.

The only thing that changed in his routine was that Kamus and Leona would lead Sokram to walk in circles, carrying more weight each day, until he completed the designated distance.

Kasine would sometimes only show up near midday to pick him up. Sokram had the feeling they were hoping he would fail just so they could punish him, yet Sokram never did.

He needed the training, but he had no intention of enduring the needless torture Lymus suffered all week.

“Alright, kiddo. You gained your rest. You have two days. Meditate, sleep, eat, do whatever, but after these two days, meet us by the gates before sunrise. Don’t be late.” Leona patted his head, a mix of pride and disappointment on her face.

Not only had Sokram not failed in any part of his training, but he always purposefully chose the hardest way to train whenever given a choice.

As a Master, she was proud.

But as a former disciple who underwent that same hellish training and made even more mistakes than Lymus, an unavenged part of her wanted to watch Sokram go through it as well.

Sokram had made far more mistakes than the two of them. But those mistakes were left behind in a timeline he erased.

He would never go through that again.

Still, despite his success during the first week of training, his lab trial didn’t match it.

By the end of that same day, all the rats had been wasted and burned to ashes.

For the first time, Sokram appeared utterly defeated.

He sat in a chair in the corner with his head in his hands.

He stared at his stained gloves, the smell of charred fur clinging to his fingers, and asked himself in a low tone, just enough to sound like a dramatic moment of self-doubt.

“Did I see it wrong? It should have shown some results besides being rat poison by now.”

Hannah, like a good mentor and grandmother, patted his shoulder with an encouraging smile, “Darling, there are still over a hundred and fifty samples to try.”

“I know that, Nana. But…” Sokram didn’t even look up at her as he tried to answer her.

“Darling, look at me.”

Sokram looked at her, his eyes glistened with unshed tears of frustration, and Hannah continued, “You are too accustomed to success. We haven’t had the chance to teach you this until now: sometimes, things don't work as we expect.”

His eyes lowered, but Hannah tilted his chin up, forcing his gaze to meet hers. Follow current novels on N0velFire.ɴet

“But as I said, you still have over a hundred and fifty samples to try. If you found a treasure map, would you feel discouraged for not finding the treasure after only walking half the distance until the mark?”

Sokram smiled wryly but nodded, “You’re right, Nana. There are still more samples, more work for tomorrow.”

Sokram stood up and hugged her tightly, “Thank you, Nana.”

Then he went over to Kasine, who was watching them, and hugged her too, “Thank you, too, Nana Kasine.”

“Sure, child. It’s been quite fun.” Kasine chuckled and pinched his cheek.

Sokram once again went home to dine with his family.

Both his mothers and grandmothers exchanged quiet, worried glances across the table, noticing his gaze remained distant, as he picked at his food with preoccupied hands.

He spent hours meditating under the moonlight, each breath a slow, deep pull that made his muscles feel less like flesh and more like solid iron growing cold beneath his skin, hardening with each breath as they healed.

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Meanwhile, Hannah explained to the others what happened.

Later that night, while lying in bed, he struggled to sleep.

Anxiety twisted inside him.

Not from doubt, but from imagining the looks on Hannah’s face, Kasine’s, and even Nhiria’s and her Paragons' distant gaze.

Then, a knock sounded at his door.

“Come on in.” He called, and Hilda and Miralyn entered.

“Hannah said you had a hard day in the lab today. Do you want to sleep with us tonight?” Hilda sat by his side, caressing his chest.

“Won’t I be… Well, you know… Interrupting? Haha.” Sokram joked sheepishly.

But Miralyn’s comeback was sharp, her tone deceptively innocent, “No, no. We’re planning to give you a show. After all, sexual education is fundamental for dragons.”

Sokram and Hilda’s heads snapped toward her with wide eyes, and Miralyn threw her head back, bursting out in laughter.

Sokram pouted, and he joked, “And here was I thinking it was going to be such an amazing night…”

Only for Hilda to swat at his chest playfully with a mocking-stern glare.

“The two of you just aren’t more alike because you’re a dragon and she’s an elf. Hmph! Let’s go! I’m not giving you a choice anymore. You need some cuddles. Maybe your mind will become purer after some maternal cuddling.” Hilda argued as she pulled him up.

But Miralyn wasn’t satisfied with just one joke and added, “Or more impure, after all, with a mom like that…” Miralyn slapped Hilda’s backside playfully, “Even I, son. Even I.”

Miralyn winked at him while Hilda only giggled.

That night, while Sokram lay between two of the women he loved the most, who insisted on making his chest their pillow, he finally fell asleep fast and peacefully.

The next day, Sokram woke up feeling energized and renewed.

He started the day with some morning meditation, joining Hilda and Astrid, who had become even more serious about cultivation since the orcs’ attack.

After meditating until close to midday, Sokram and Hannah left for his lab.

He was starting to agree with Margiory that having a more spacious estate would allow him to move his lab there instead of having to move around like that.

After buying the rats from the slum’s people, Sokram told them that he would buy another fifty today if they brought them by sunset, which made many of them happy.

Sokram even bought ten more rats than the usual fifty, so he could finish the ten that remained from the previous day’s batch.

According to his calculations, twenty-seven samples would show good results on the rats.

But only one that would show good results on the goblins and any humanoid race.

Hannah felt more at ease seeing Sokram so much more excited and encouraged. But her worries weren’t directly related to him; they were a projection stemming from her son, Garuth.

Garuth, like Sokram, was someone with a very inquisitive mind and a great genius.

But whenever one of his projects failed, Garuth would become unstable and depressed for many days.

And Hannah ended up subconsciously projecting that fear onto Sokram.

To Sokram, there was no surprise when the ten from the previous batch didn’t work; he even finished testing those before Kasine arrived.

“You started without me?” Kasine said with a mock-pouty face.

“Just finishing what was left from yesterday. Today we will work until a little later. I ordered more rats to be delivered before sunset.” Sokram spoke as he casually turned the remains of the tenth rat into ashes.

“So you fired up again, hm? Hannah truly knows how to cheer you up.” Kasine’s words made Hannah blush a little.

“Yes, her words put the fire back in my belly. But the two of you here, and the faith you have in this project, also give me strength…” Sokram said his cheesy line in a cheesy pose, making Hannah and Kasine giggle.

Satisfied with the response, he added, “Let the work begin.”

Two hours later, Sokram truly began to doubt himself; they had killed thirty rats already, and nothing.

He even paid close attention to Kasine and Hannah to see if any of them had made any mistakes when using guided cultivation on the rats, but they didn’t.

Just as he was about to get truly nervous, it happened.

Sokram had two fingers over the rat's back, carefully circulating mana when the solution began to work.

A faint, sickly green glow pulsed beneath the rat’s fur, and the tiny body gave a sudden, powerful twitch.

“It’s working…” Sokram muttered, stunned.

Kasine and Hannah’s heads snapped to him, and they stopped what they were doing to watch.

“Cultivation is increasing fast! Half-step to Tier 1 Common!” Sokram’s voice cracked, brimming with sheer excitement.

Two minutes of extreme tension dragged by.

The only sound was the faint tap-tap of Kasine's nervous fingers drumming against the workbench.

Hannah and Kasine were frozen, watching intently, struggling with their own feelings, when they sensed it.

A rat, one of the few creatures that lived a normal animal life, eating only insects and garbage, reached Tier 1 of the Common Level of Existence in a few minutes.

Sokram had a broad, relieved grin on his face.

He put the rat back in its cage, turning to meet their gazes, and he flashed them a broad smile.

“Ladies! Sample 413 is showing good results. We have our first step forward!”

“Yes!” Hannah cheered, almost squashing the rat she was holding out of excitement.

Kasine let the rat she was holding fall to the floor, breaking it out of its hypnotic state, as she jumped up in celebration.

But Sokram quickly caught the rat using Force as the critter tried to run away.

“Alright, let’s see how many other successes we can have before the next batch of rats arrives,” Sokram said in good spirits.

While Sokram and his two lab companions worked harder, killing rat after rat, in the center of the galaxy, Nhiria watched along her Paragons.

Resting in her cosmic throne, Nhiria’s amusement shimmered, blooming into a silly grin as she watched Sokram about to discover something that could change the fate of the entire galaxy.

“Milady, on my calculations, there are twenty-seven samples that will likely have a good effect like the first,” Belladona spoke, also watching intently.

“Twenty-Eight.” Mentyr corrected.

“What?” Belladona looked at Mentyr with a confused expression, thinking Mentyr was joking.

But then Nhiria nodded, agreeing, “Twenty-Eight. But he has no idea what he is creating, though one of the pills will act according to what he expects, according to what he said to Hannah. The other one… Well, let's see how he reacts after realizing what he created.”

“But, Milady, isn’t it dangerous to let something so valuable in the hands of a child?” Ariana asked with sincere worry.

She was a woman from the Mystic race: her hair was snow-white like a dragon's, her eyes deep blue like a High-Human's, and her skin pale and rosy like a snow-elf's. Her voluptuous body could stand toe to toe with any Succubus, draped in pristine white mage’s robes.

She was the tenth Paragon and the last to be raised to Paragony by Nhiria.

“Ariana, at seventeen, you created a spell that could disintegrate matter to the last atom. And I still didn’t take your toy away. How you little geniuses deal with your creations is how you show me who you truly are in terms of character.” Nhiria flashed her a proud grin.

Ariana smirked embarrassedly and nodded. “You’re right, Milady.”

Back on Sokram’s planet, they started finding one successful sample after another.

Eight had been found, and by the time they ran out of rats, there were still a couple of hours before sunset, so Sokram, Kasine, and Hannah sat down to drink some tea and wait.

“How do you expect it to work on humanoids? Because what I’ve seen happening in the three rats that those samples worked on in my hands was something out of fantasy books.” Kasine was shocked.

She sat back in her stool, running a hand through her hair.

Guiding three of her rats to the Common Level of Existence had left her speechless.

One of them, she even pushed the rat to Tier 2, merely out of curiosity to see how long it would take.

But when that happened below the ten-minute mark, she realized the real value of Sokram’s research.

“I believe that, if it works on humanoids, it might make it possible to reach Ascendance in a little over a hundred and fifty years,” Sokram spoke casually, too casually for something so grand.

Making even Hannah spit the tea in her mouth.

Luckily, she wasn’t facing any of them.