Taking the Mafia to the Magic World

909  Beginning of Seclusion n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Tenglin looked at the large Roc for a moment, then agreed. "It makes sense. Once they acted here and were forced to flee, they wouldn't have been able to enter this area without at least one vampire with Intermediate Archmage cultivation."

Someone with the cultivation of this race must be as strong as the human Archmages who have passed through this city in its long history.

Vicente worried about this and looked at Tenglin seriously. "Demien Bloodthorne will be an intermediate Archmage at my first meeting with him. The Divine Dragon Matrix showed me our meeting when I should be a High-level Paragon with nine pentagrams.

Vicente's four companions were silent for a moment, obviously worried. Demien might awaken in the next few months. Vicente was already at the peak of the 5th stage, so this place might not last much longer!

"That's worrying," Tenglin began, "but let's not despair. The future you saw will not happen as you saw it. You don't have nine pentagrams, and you might get to the 6th stage before Demien awakens. Even if what you saw has to come true, it will happen in a different way."

"Still, we'd better take everything this place has before we leave. Let's preserve the knowledge developed in the Citadel." Acidbelly said firmly.

Vicente agreed before taking a step back. "By the way, what do you think happened to the population of the city?"

"If I had to bet my life on it, I'd say the main warriors of the city were drained of their blood by the elders of the vampire coalition. The leading experts were probably enslaved to provide resources for the vampires, and the weaker ones were either killed or kept to become the next generation of guinea pigs or vampire food."

Tenglin agreed with Acidbelly, "That's probably what happened."

"There are also Dark Path magicians who are traitors to the magical race. They probably took some of these prisoners to enslave or sacrifice." Qiang remembered the 24 people who had attacked them—24 Archmages.

He didn't know of any human force on the continent that had that many Archmages!

However, this group was all members of the same sect, judging from their clothes and belongings. How had they created so many specialists? Vicente was sure that it was through the diabolical technique created by vampires and used on a large scale by the Congregation of Revelations.

"Hmm, probably." Lonan agreed with the hippogriff, while Roc and Qilin shook their heads in agreement.

"Speaking of which, my next step is to hunt down every one of these traitors. Once I advance to the 6th stage, I'll hunt them down along with my next pentagrams." Vicente narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists in anger, remembering all too well what had happened to Lauren.

To Vicente, the race-traitors of the Dark Path were just as guilty as the vampires for the current disaster.

He might not be able to hunt down all the vampires on the continent, but the situation with the Dark Path magicians was different.

"Anyway, let's focus on gathering materials and using the defenses of this place to our advantage. I want to go into seclusion to advance to the 6th stage. So prepare to stay here for a few months," Minos told the group.

They all agreed and then did the same as the robotic armors, splitting up and going in search of what had been left behind.

Vicente headed straight for the headquarters of the Blacksmiths' Association, located around the Citadel's central square, which also housed the headquarters of ten other major non-war organizations on the continent.

Entering the largest Association building he had ever seen, Vicente soon found himself in an enormous library where he would soon research things he hadn't yet come into contact with.

Many of the books in this place had copies scattered around the continent, meaning they were materials he already knew. However, there were so many books in the library that there were bound to be new things for him.

While the others gathered resources, irreplaceable books, and other things, Vicente would spend the first five days in the Citadel just gathering the materials he thought would be worthwhile for his seclusion.

The robot armorers would do the same, looking for techniques from various professions that might be compatible with their master's forge. Not only that, but they would also look for spells based on their master's elements.

The Citadel was not only home to the largest organizations specializing in the manipulation of mana and elements, but also to the scholars who had developed most of the continent's popular spells.

With a week at the Citadel, Vicente would have a quantity of materials he thought would be sufficient to begin his seclusion. At this point, he would begin his slow journey of understanding, learning new spells and techniques useful to the forge, beginning his period of reading, training, and failing in search of mastery over these new possibilities before him.

...

Two and a half months into Vicente's seclusion, he was busy with his attempts to overcome the bottleneck of the 6th stage, while his companions waited for him on the outskirts of the city.

After almost three months in this desert place, the four magical beings had already gathered everything they needed to gather and were just waiting for Vicente to be able to continue his journey.

But that day, while they were watching the place—they had done so even considering the Citadel's powerful defenses—Qiang suddenly noticed something strange on the horizon.

From the top of the tallest building in the city, Qiang narrowed his eyes as he saw what looked like a camp being set up southeast of the Citadel.

"We have trouble. Enemies!" He opened his mouth, causing his three allies to instantly turn their eyes to him, see him looking to the southeast, and then turn their eyes in that direction.

Lonan clenched his fists as he looked in the direction of the camp, where a pale-skinned being he knew was standing, looking in their direction with a smile on his face.

"We're in trouble," the werewolf said, his lips dry and his face losing its usual vivid color. "This is Vlad Abyss Void, right hand of Demien Bloodthorne, who was supposed to be a peak Paragon eight years ago."

Qiang, Tenglin, and Acidbelly immediately understood the problem.

Gulp!

"Archmages? Don't tell me that the new vampire Archmages are finally coming out of hiding?" Acidbelly's mouth opened for the first time in a long time, showing a hint of fear.

If this camp really had Archmage vampires on their side, this could be the end of the group's journey!