The next day, Vicente continued with his true identity, having spent the previous night between his forge studies and quality time with Nova.

In the morning, he had a rich and happy breakfast with Eve, Nina, and Nova before the three women in his life left, two of them for the academy and the other for the local army headquarters.

He stayed at home for a while before heading to the association building, where he would spend much of the day studying and training his skills at the forge.

Amid this training, he would reach the peak of the 2nd stage, an important moment for him. However, he couldn't advance at the moment because stage advancement wasn't like level advancement.

The difference in the amount of mana between the highest level of one stage and the lowest level of the next was much greater than the difference between levels of the same stage. As a result, advancing to the magical realm required more time and preparation than ordinary advancement, which Vicente would only have time to properly prepare for after the competition for the 3rd-grade rock.

Being at the top was very good for him, and he already had his next pentagram in mind!

Meanwhile, things were relatively quiet in Millfall. The royal army was holding its ground without making much progress in the investigation of the post-auction incidents, while the nobles were busy preparing for the local changes.

There were so many suspects who could benefit from the Symons family's downfall that the Martial Court became much stricter with the army in order to expose some of the more daring activities of that force.

While the most important people in the city were busy investigating or preparing for a new local Viscount, the Scarlet Syndicate and the Mazzanti family were on the move.

Vicente's family continued to absorb the business left behind by the Defiant Tyranny, continuing their efforts to strengthen and improve their operations. As for the Scarlet Syndicate, this group focused on improving their relationships with the local nobility and simply maintaining what they already had.

In the midst of all of this, a bit of peace settled over the recently troubled city.

...

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away from Millfall, to the west of this area...

There was a mountain range that separated the territory of Scott Province from that of Lake Province, a sort of natural demarcation that the powers of the Palaris Empire used to define borders.

When traveling across this continent, one would know exactly where the territory began because of rivers, mountain ranges, lakes, canyons, and so on.

Thirty-Three was riding her horse at high speed toward a small group camping there at the farthest point from the province where Vicente lived.

Her horse was swift and never tired. A journey that would have taken eight days for people using ordinary carriages took her just over 40 hours.

And so she arrived at the place where her party was waiting for her to continue their journey out of this province.

"Miss Death, I'm back." Thirty-Three said as she dismounted and knelt in front of a woman about five feet tall, dressed all in black with a veil covering her face.

Around the wooded area where the group had a fire, there were four other people, all Mages.

The only Low-level Mage there was Miss Death herself, while the others were Mid-level and High-level Mages.

"You took a little longer than we expected, Thirty-Three. Did you have any problems on your way to Millfall?" A man, the second High-level Mage in the group, asked her.

Everyone there was dressed in black, some with darkness surrounding their bodies, others without using their powers to hide their appearance.

But upon closer inspection, except for Miss Death, they all had pale skin, dry lips, and deep circles around their eyes.

They were all Dark Path magicians. Even those on the path who didn't go mad or become stereotypes of their kind lived exhausting lives. Because they were so powerful and often killed more people than ordinary magicians, these people lived on the run and in hiding.

The more they killed, the more vengeful people there were looking for their heads. Many of them could be ignored, but one or two would happen from time to time.

Because of these rare successes, people on this path had to be vigilant, avoid cities, avoid unnecessary rest, and often train, meditate, and fight to the extreme.

Given this reality, it wasn't unusual for Dark Path magicians to have low vitality for people of their level and to age faster than Light Path practitioners.

But Miss Death was different from the rest of her group, being much younger than everyone else and possessing a special power that was simply terrifying.

While Thirty-Three explained what had happened to the group, Miss Death had her three pentagrams around her while her magical form condensed in front of her.

A large book with a black cover and yellowed pages lay open in front of her at the height of her navel, and she used what looked like a black quill to write something down.

'Paul Stewart...' She wrote the name of a man whose portrait was on a wanted poster held by one of her companions.

Meanwhile, several such posters lay on the floor, and the names of the wanted men depicted on them were written on the sheet of paper Miss Death was writing on.

When she was done, she closed her book and made it disappear. "I have finished. We'll be able to collect the rewards from these 10 wanted men in the next few days. I've left my mark on their bodies."

"Hahaha, Miss Death's power is truly fantastic. We don't even need to face those damned opponents. As long as we're near them, they'll naturally die before Miss Death!" One of those people shouted when he saw that their lady's plan was really very good.

Months ago, their superior had sent them on a mission to train Miss Death. Their goal was to help her kill 5,000 people so that she could refine her killing intent and improve her understanding of their sect's special spells.

At the very beginning of the mission, Miss Death suggests that they hunt down criminal bounties and that she use her special power to complete the mission quickly.

And it had worked very well. In the past year, she had killed more than 2,000 people this way without scaring the cities or attracting negative attention.

No one cared about the convicts she killed with her Book of Death!

Miss Death ignored her companions' comments and said to Thirty-Three as she removed the veil covering her face. "It's good that you got some resources in Millfall. For now, give me the Fear Anise. I'll assimilate its medicinal power before we leave this province."

Thirty-Three looked at Miss Death's beautiful face and saw the symbol of a scythe on the black-haired beauty's forehead.