After informing his leader of the amounts collected on the bodies of the enemies, the man who informed Vicente left to attend to his order regarding doctors for the group.

Left alone in his office, Vicente made an ugly face as he felt pain in his back. 'I need a healing potion.' He thought to himself.

Unfortunately, the potion he had was not suitable for Apprentices like him. If he drank it, even if it was meant to heal or even strengthen whoever consumed it, he might even explode!

The amount of mana one had in one's body was something very delicate. When one ingested something that would naturally 'bless' one's body with mana, one always had to be mindful of one's absorption capacity.

If they took in more than they could handle, they would run the same risk of increasing their cultivation and not increasing the number of Magic Pentagrams to stabilize their powers.

With that in mind, Vicente decided to find an alchemist when morning came.

'I will use some of what I set aside to buy new weapons to get some pills and potions.' He reconsidered his plans.

With so many dead, he now had more weapons than staff. His urgency for new artifacts was also lessened because he had begun to study forging.

As someone with several men on his team who could advance a level or two with resources, Vicente changed some of his plans to increase the quality of his forces rather than just increasing the number of men on his side.

...

While Vicente was considering what to do with his savings, news of what had happened to his group was already spreading through the city!

At the Defiant Tyranny headquarters brothel, the leader of this local criminal group, a level 5 Acolyte, was red with rage when he discovered that one of his battalions had been wiped out.

He didn't even know that the group had gone into action until the news of their destruction reached him a few moments ago!

To him, the group was just watching these people, as he had ordered earlier.

"What the hell! How did this happen? And how did those bastards do it?" He shouted as the mana in his body solidified around his fists, and the people in the room kept their distance from their boss as the table smashed to the floor.

A Senior Apprentice broke into a cold sweat and informed his leader.

"Boss, I was watching the area earlier when it was time for the shift change. The new watch leader was informed about a visit of the Scarlet Syndicate to these people and ordered an attack afterward."

"Scarlet Syndicate?" One of the group's high-ranking henchmen narrowed his eyes. "Have they joined forces with our enemies?"

"I'm not sure." The Apprentice looked at the level 4 man who asked him. "But there was a contact, and the person who replaced us decided to attack preemptively.

There was no way for us to know that they were strong enough to withstand an attack from one of our 4 battalions. After all, there were only Apprentices in that group."

"Only Apprentices? Are you saying we lost one of the battalions to such a group?" The number two over there shouted angrily, feeling this was a terrible mistake.

Obviously, they wouldn't let it go unnoticed. However, attacking such a powerful group without preparation was an undeniable mistake.

"What are these people's magical talents?" The leader asked, knowing that this was the only acceptable explanation for this defeat.

"We don't know. They hide their Magic Gems with masks..." The man quickly described what he knew, not even knowing these people's abilities, for only a few had acted publicly and shown their powers until now.

After listening for nearly ten minutes, the leader of the Defiant Tyranny ordered. "I want this resolved as soon as possible. Find out the talents of these people so we can attack them with everything we have! I will personally slit the throats of the fucking person behind this group!"

...

On the other hand, while the two physicians requested by Vice earlier were already moving to his headquarters, Rory was already in Scarlet Syndicate's post.

Having used the contact from earlier to gain access to the staff of this post at one end of Scarlet Syndicate territory, Rory nervously was watching the people watching him as his contact came to this place.

The people in that group were rather hostile. They looked at him with ugly expressions, seeing him rather negatively.

But was it bizarre to do that to someone who reeked of blood and had several battle scars on his clothes?

Even criminals had their standards and would not only be more careful with some people but would also be influenced by bad first impressions.

But Rory's wait would not be extended, and soon, the man he had seen earlier with Vicente entered the waiting room where he was being watched.

"You guys made up your minds faster than I expected." The man entered the room smiling as he looked at Rory and understood what had happened. "Let me guess. You were attacked?"

"More or less... Anyway, we've considered your proposal, and we're ready to go through with it. It still stands, right? You said we'd have until the next night to think about it. We still have a few hours before the deadline."

The man said nothing and asked. "Who attacked you?"

"The Defiant Tyranny." Rory didn't hesitate.

"I see..." The man was playing with a ring on one of his fingers when he heard that and tapped twice on the table.

After a moment of silence, he said. "We can proceed with the deal I proposed earlier. But we'll need more if your group wants our protection from the Defiant Tyranny. How about 70% of your profits?"

"55%," Rory said.

"70%."

"60%."

"70%."

"65%! That's the best we can do." Rory got a little nervous, seeing that this person had not only caused problems for his group but wanted to charge them to solve what they had created!

This was the height of absurdity!

The red-haired young man said. "If we can't make a deal, you won't gain anything."

"And you will die." The blond man smiled at Rory.

"It's not that simple. We can run and hide. Plus, we can raise our level and hire mercenaries. It would be harder, but we can survive for a while." Rory said in a determined tone without showing his desperation. "And if we die, you will gain nothing. You might even get into trouble because of a local destabilization.

I hear your group is being targeted by several others these days... Will they stand by if Defiant Tyranny's actions cause local destabilization?"

Sometimes, major conflicts did not start because they lacked a "spark" to detonate the explosive "material" already in the "area."

In the case of Millfall, the Scarlet Syndicate was definitely the group with the most enemies at the moment. If there was any local instability, the chances of that explosive "material" going off and harming that group were not small.

As a group that was enjoying some of their recent gains, this was no time for them to face problems like a war in their "backyard."

Rory and Vicente knew the complicated situation of the local powers and were not ignorant of the consequences of getting involved with these groups.

The man noticed that Rory wasn't an ignoramus getting involved in problems he didn't understand and stopped playing with the ring in one of his hands.

"Very well, 65%. We can agree on that."

With those words, the two of them would soon draw up a quick and simple Magical Agreement, stating that the Scarlet Syndicate would support them locally while they would give them 65% of the profits from their operations in their public business.

Vicente would also have to sign an agreement with this group, so right after finishing his talks there, Rory quickly made his way back to the almost-destroyed building with the agreement already signed by that representative.

...

Nothing more exciting would happen in Millfall for the rest of the night, and the day slowly dawned on the city.

While surprising rumors began to spread in the neighborhoods of Vicente and the Defiant Tyranny, the agreement with the Scarlet Syndicate had already been confirmed by being signed by the leaders of both sides.

The physicians called in by Vicente's men had already cared for the men in more worrisome conditions on the almost-destroyed estate. However, there were still people who needed the care of those doctors for more time.

Not all of them could be cared for with medical treatments alone and needed potent drugs to recover fully.

Vicente and Rory had used the remaining time between their nightly actions and dawn to recover some of their physical condition. However, still bruised from their previous battles, which had given them injuries that were difficult to recover from with meditation and self-healing, they left the estate at dawn and went in search of local alchemist shops.

It was time for them to strengthen the group with some drugs!