After spending the entire morning between the engineer's shop and the estate of a local enchanter, Vicente and his three companions continued their shopping in the afternoon.

With over a thousand gold coins spent that morning, the group purchased new spatial rings for their men, training items to meet the Mazzanti family's current needs and various defensive items for Vice's properties.

All of these items were already properly stored in the 5 spatial rings Vicente had purchased in Ironcrest. As such, they didn't have any bulky luggage that might attract unnecessary attention from prying eyes as they continued their afternoon shopping spree.

When the group entered a blacksmith's shop shortly after lunch, they returned to their shopping, showing no signs of what they had been doing since the previous evening.

Vicente purchased some artifacts, armor, shields, and weapons for his 2nd-stage men at the blacksmith's shop they had passed earlier in the afternoon.

Why would a blacksmith like him do that? Simply because he was a 1st stage blacksmith, and it would be a while before he would be able to produce that kind of artifact for his men.

As good as his weapons were for Acolytes, he needed armed men who could act on behalf of the Fuller family, i.e., those who accompanied Nina or him in public.

These people could not be seen with the Mazzanti family's guns!

Hence, Vicente had bought weapons for some of his men. But he had concentrated his purchases on defensive items. These things would be useful even for the people who only acted as members of the Mazzanti family.

Items made by blacksmiths were among the most expensive in the world because of their durability and importance in combat or self-defense. In a single hour, Vice's party dropped off several hundred more gold coins at another local shop.

...

Towards the end of the afternoon, Vicente had just left an alchemy shop, where this time, he had bought a lot of resources for 1st stage magicians, the stage of most of his men in Millfall.

To maintain his expansion in Millfall, Vicente needed quantity more than quality.

Instead of focusing on creating high-level Acolytes, he was interested in increasing the strength of his 2nd-stage and 1st-stage men at the same time, thus increasing the power of the group with their growing numbers.

He purchased more than 40 resources, pills, and potions for his 1st-stage men, enough to increase the power of his people with relative ease.

With that done, the group headed to the last shop in the city where Vice would be looking for items for himself and Rory!

Arriving at a small house with a strong medicinal smell, one of Vice's men asked. "Boss, how are we going to deal with the Scarlet Syndicate? They'll surely notice our improvements if our men absorb these resources."

"We won't do anything for a while. But they won't notice." Vicente smiled under his mask. "We will use those resources on some of our men who will stay hidden or go out to hunt pentagrams and 'die.' Just part of us will become stronger in public so that people outside our family will notice."

"Where will these people go?"

"Some will strengthen the merchant groups in my society, while others will go to Martell Village," Vice replied.

"But won't that take away our strength to complete our expansions in Millfall?"

"Not necessarily. On the one hand, if some of our strongest men distance themselves from us, it will free up our weakest men in the village and with these merchants. With them, we'll be able to suppress the demand for men to make our expansions."

Hearing it, the smartest of the three soldiers realized Vicente's move. "So that's it! The boss and the deputy will guarantee our actions with their deterrent power. At the same time, the weaker but more numerous men will occupy the positions we lack."

"That's right." Vice nodded at the man.

With his weapons, he doesn't need many Acolytes or high-ranking Acolytes. Right now, a larger number of Senior Apprentices was what could help him achieve his goals!

The other two men were encouraged when they realized they could quickly gain an additional 40 men with the shift changes Vice planned for these resources.

As they looked forward to returning to Millfall and watching the rise of the Mazzanti family, Vicente encountered another guard and quickly asked for items that would be useful to him and Rory.

Considering what he had learned at the Academy of Stars, he and Rory had an extremely solid foundation and could absorb magical resources without much risk now.

Acolytes could absorb up to two pills a year without damaging their foundation or their future, something everyone knew, given the thousands of years of magical research by scholars similar to Newton.

Thinking ahead to next year and how difficult it would be for him to justify buying some resources in Millfall before he dealt with the Scarlet Syndicate, Vicente wanted to buy the four useful items to help him and Rory progress more quickly.

"Hello, I'd like to..." He quickly indicated the resources he needed, ones with a strong affinity to the elements of Fire, Wind, Earth, and Lightning.

Considering the small number of items he was looking for and the low purity he and Rory needed these items to have, Vice got the four pills from this shop without much trouble, paying 230 gold coins for them.

After receiving his resources, Vicente left the alchemy shop with a smile, completing his objectives there.

'Now I'll absorb one of these pills, and we'll leave the city in the morning!' He smiled contentedly from under his mask, satisfied with his journey in Ironcrest.

When he returned to the inn where he had stayed with his men, Vicente had no idea of the groups watching him!

"It looks like they've done their shopping locally and are leaving... What should I do?" A blond man asked while holding a device and standing on a roof more than 200 meters away from Vice and his men.

Then, a male voice came from the device in the Mage's hand. "Do your investigation at Millfall. Killian didn't get anything out of the damned Scott. It seems Professor Newton made some kind of deal with Cesar."

"Oh? That's strange."

"I know. So go to Millfall. I don't want to take any chances with that brat before we know compromising things of him."

"All right. I'll talk to you in a few weeks." The blond man turned off his communicator, didn't stay where he was for long, and then disappeared.

Meanwhile, another group continued to monitor Vicente's movements on the ground!