After more than 10 hours of meditation, the last of Vicente's men had ended their one-night retreat and awakened with new powers.

This time, none of these men had failed in their attempts, with 5 Intermediate Apprentices becoming Senior Apprentices and 4 Senior Apprentices reaching level 1 of the Acolyte stage.

The one Acolyte who had been given a chance to cultivate with 2nd stage resources the night before had also improved his strength, bringing his mana closer to level 2. He was still a level 1 Acolyte, but he was now the strongest in terms of magic level in the group.

Vicente looked at the Acolyte and advised him. "Logan, be careful with your cultivation from now on. Your mana should become more and more unstable from now on, so you should double your attention on what you do. Otherwise, you will explode."

The man who was closer to level 2 than at the beginning of level 1 heard this and nodded silently, knowing that his situation was delicate. Without the second Magic Pentagram, he really would have to meditate, fight, use his mana, and, in short, do everything more carefully.

Theoretically, it was safe to go to level 2 of the 2nd stage with only one pentagram but to do so, one would have to be 100% attentive with one's mana!

Otherwise... Boom!

"As for the rest of you, we're going to change the group's division of labor a bit from now on..." Vicente said, and with Rory's help, he soon explained to the ten people who had just left the training room and the other Acolytes and Senior Apprentices how things would work from now on.

Vicente had spent the last few hours upgrading the weapons of all his men. Not only that, he and Rory thought that they would be attacked in some way.

In order to protect their territory and make it more attractive to other merchants in the area, the group's Acolytes will be working with the Senior Apprentices in those shops starting this afternoon!

After briefing his men on how things would work from now on, Vicente saw the first groups leaving from there before he left with Rory.

...

After some time of walking through the city's shadows, Vicente and Rory entered the building of the local mercenary guild.

As they approached a group of mercenaries outside the lobby of this building, the two of them spoke in low voices.

"Did you ever do anything with that woman?" Vice asked.

Rory looked at his friend from under the mask on his face and said. "Sort of. I took her somewhere, and we exchanged a few caresses..."

"Oh? You're way ahead of schedule, huh?" Vicente laughed, imagining that his friend was enjoying this part of their plans.

Rory understood Vice's comment but didn't go into details. "Anyway, I'll talk to her about the Baron at our next meeting. If all goes well, I'll make our first contact at the residence after that."

"That's good. Take your time. First, let's solve this problem with the Defiant Tyranny." After saying that, Vice stopped next to a table in that area where some of the Martell Village mercenaries were standing.

"Fellow mercenaries, we can sit down. We have a deal to offer you." Vicente said, changing his voice so these people wouldn't recognize him.

The moment they saw those two standing next to them, the mercenaries who could not use magic and had no magic gems on their foreheads, looked at those two with a frown.

Not everyone could use mana. Therefore, some became warriors and followed the 9 levels of the bodily path.

Some of the mercenaries in this world were warriors, and it was not uncommon to find such people in buildings like this.

But Vicente and Rory did not underestimate these people because of the lack of magic gems in their heads. Warriors could fight people who could manipulate mana.

If you reached level 9, such a person could even challenge a Mage!

Knowing this, they were eager to enlist the services of these level 6 and 7 warriors!

However, while they knew the value of these people's strength, they also knew the problems that 'Cesar' was involved in.

Even though they did not know who 'Cesar' was, they knew that these two were associated with such a figure, and they immediately did not like being approached by these dangerous individuals.

"You've got to be kidding." Said a level 6 warrior, looking seriously at Vicente. "We're not going to work for a group that has everyone in Millfall paying attention to it..."

"Not even for 10 gold coins per month?" Rory questioned.

These men were capable of fighting Acolytes. So how much they deserved for their time and efforts was far more than the many Apprentices who worked for these two.

"10 gold coins?" One of those 4 men Vice and Rory had just approached, alongside the two individuals who had brought Vicente and Nina from Starsalt City to Martell Village, asked with interest.

With that amount of coins, he could go a few months without working and still get resources to try to improve his strength.

They couldn't buy pills or potions to improve their strength with that alone. Still, they could get resources to temper their bodies and improve their understanding of their martial arts.

For warriors, this had as much potential to increase their strength as using pills and other magical resources in magic.

At the same time, this was an amount that even they would take 3 to 6 months to get in normal situations!

Thinking that they could earn a lot of coins quickly, those men hesitated a little, even though they knew the risks.

"10 gold coins? Are you guys serious?" Soren asked Vicente.

Vicente looked at this old acquaintance and said. "Yes, 10 gold coins each per month. What do you think about that? For now, we can only hire 4 people, and we don't know when we will get more people for the group.

None of these people knew about the reward of 200 gold coins on Vicente's head, so they did not consider it and soon discussed that it was worth at least trying.

If they saw that there would be too much trouble on this job, they could terminate their agreement with these people. And, heck, every job has its risks.

For the right price, anyone would be willing to do almost anything!

"OK, I agree to this job. But what exactly are we going to have to do? And why us?" Asked Wesley.

"You'll have to work in the shadows for our group, keeping watch and gathering information from our enemies. In practice, they won't interact with us much." Vicente said, showing a positive point for these men to serve him. "Think of it as an outside job... And as for why you and not others, it's because we heard about you from one of our men. He said you were trustworthy, which is why we are here."

That was enough for these men, and they were not suspicious of Vicente's intentions.

As they agreed to join Vice and Rory, the young black-haired man had something in mind.

'I will show you the benefits of joining my family. In the future, some of you will go from being mercenaries in our service to becoming members of my family!'