A stern middle-aged man stared down at his whimpering progeny in dissatisfaction.

Ardon Gravenport was not born to riches. He has built up his family from the ground up to the point they are today.

Adruil was important to him. It was where he had started off his humble beginnings and why he had wanted the boy of his favourite son to learn his lessons here.

Initially the boy was an embarrassment despite having the full support his favourite sons finances he failed to beat some paltry local business with no backing.

Eventually though the boy learnt. Did he build up his riches by being a business genius?

He was never particularly talented in that regard, he was competent enough to know the basic necessities of how to run a business smoothly but he had often ran into competition that was just better than him.

It was to be expected, Ardon was not particularly passionate about the products he often focused in, it was to be expected business owners who were both passionate and competent to exceed what he could produce.

It was why he never planned to play fair to begin with. He grew up in the poverty stricken areas of Adruil, the backwater places the rich pretend to not exist.

There the gangs were a bunch of cut-throats. They did whatever they could to be on top, backstabbing, schemes, whatever you could think of to get an edge on the competition would be done without remorse.

He always believed to be a good businessman you must apply the skills you learn from life-lessons. That was why he viewed it as a waste to ignore the advantages coming from such a background.

Those uppity folks never saw it coming when they realised he never planned to beat them at their own game from the very beginning.

He was glad he finally instilled that in this petulant whelp since arriving here.

From the very beginning it was obvious the upstarts store would never eradicate all the business going to that store from the very beginning no matter how much coin he pumped into his own.

The only way to blow them away was to recruit a Tier 3 Spirit Seamstress which was impossible as you’d only find such individuals that proficient in their occupation serving the Royal Family or located in the richest, most affluent places in the Empire.

Spirit Seamstresses were not particular rare in the lower levels, but you required some Mage talent to become one.

Usually Mages with low potential would do such an occupation since it is a respectful occupation in the later levels, and if you develop fine control over your Attuned Qi it is something you can progress in, though the more talented a Mage you are the more efficient you would be.

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A Tier 1 Spirit Seamstress was usually the limit of most thought, anything above that took much time and dedication.

Becoming a Tier 2 Seamstress meant they can work with more precious materials without wasting them, and since the gap to becoming Tier 3 was large, there were differences in the level of clothing produced by a Tier 2 Seamstress.

Only a Spirit Seamstresses can bring out the full potential of precious silks, materials, whilst also infusing their own attuned Qi in the progress of working with them, making the clothes more resilient, resistant to certain attributes.

The clothing store his upstart progeny was competing against had a surprisingly competent Tier 2 Seamstress.

Superior to than the ones he found for his own store anyways, it made him extremely frustrated, irritated the boy continued to try and pull away the business from the store believing a more fancy-looking store, creating rumours to discredit his competitors and continuously pumping money on large events to bolster his own stores reputation would chase away all the high-end customers that store get.

The boy failed to understand that anyone of affluence in this place was not fools.

Perhaps the silver spoons would be intrigued by the fancy get up and get caught up in all the fad of this new high end store, but anyone with any power would know a superior product when they see one and these people won’t play about with their lives for fancier looking clothes.

In the end that store produced stronger, more resilient clothes whilst also being able to handle stronger materials than their own Tier 2 Spirit Seamstress, they was simply better at the one thing they could not pay for and the there was only one solution when a rival had such an advantage.

He was initially satisfied when the boy finally realised this after being nudged by himself.

Ardon still had contacts with the nefarious gangs of the city and they were put to good use this time, however now the boy once again sat before him remaining the snivelling cowardly runt he absolutely detests.

To think such weakness would originate from his family, that expensive poison was wasted to gift to the boy, anyhow that didn’t mean the boys next words didn’t intrigue.

“There was a bunch of elves with her I swear it! A little girl that even had such strange features, her hair was all blue and that she looked like some…” The boy said snivelling pathetically however the words he said made him stand up in shock.

“You said what?” Ardon asked.

“There was som’ Elves and she smacked me real hard, it friggin’ hurt!” The boy said angering him so he couldn’t help but smack him hard sending him to the ground.

“Focus on that child! Tell me everything.” Ardon Gravenport demanded sending the boy into a stupor.

He did not understand, he was grovelling to his Grandfather to get revenge on that evil woman and he was focused on a bunch of elves, why the child in particular? That mature one was the one he was hoping…

He once again felt a hard slap as he felt himself wake up from his thoughts.

“Alright … alright, so she was at the back… I didn’t see much before that harpy got hold of me but…” The boy started describing.

Ardon Gravenport found himself listening eagerly to the boys words as he heard what he saw.

‘It can’t be… to have one out here, have I hit the damn jack pot? I must make plans urgently, or I might lose this opportunity…’ Ardon thought excitedly, however he knew that he couldn't get ahead of himself, he must research the group thoroughly before making a move.

He didn’t get to where he was by making mistakes.