As soon as he left the family's cultivation room, Vicente found the main names of his family waiting for him.

He saw Rory and some level 3 Acolytes, the first to join him, who were still standing on this Mazzanti family journey. Several of his family members had died on the way here, and only 4 men had managed to reach level 3 with the chances they had.

Vicente smiled at his friend and most trusted soldiers, greeting them as he received their congratulations.

"Thank you all. That is not just my progress but that of the whole family. Without the help of everyone here, I would not have reached this level so quickly." He said as he looked at his men with sincerity.

Rory patted Vicente on the back and said. "Your advance relieves me, man. The soldiers from the capital are about to arrive in the city, and very soon, The Faceless Ones will react to the previous events. But with your advance, we'll have a chance to survive it all."

He looked at Rory, this young man who was close to reaching level 4, and said. "You should use one of our magic stones and go into seclusion for the next few days. Try to get to level 5 as soon as possible because I'm going to Ironcrest very soon."

Rory and the level 3 men became more serious as they listened to their leader.

"Won't that be dangerous? Isn't it better if we solve the situation with the soldiers coming from the capital first?" One of them asked.

"There is no time. If we try to solve one problem after another, we'll fail." Vicente shook his head negatively. "I will leave before the soldiers from the capital reach the city. But first, I'm going to finish a certain project and improve the family's weapons, which still need upgrading.

Anyway, you won't be defenseless. I'll leave Rory in charge, and Bart will be at your disposal. And if you've done your job well, you won't have to worry about soldiers in the short term. You did what I told you, didn't you?"

One of them said affirmatively. "Yes, boss. We've already started to spread the word about The Faceless Ones' involvement in the deaths of the kingdom's soldiers. In no more than two weeks, the Congregation of Revelation staff investigating the matter should notice these clues.

As for the soldiers from the capital, they will probably notice the clues at the beginning of their local investigation. They won't have much time to think about us when the disturbing clues about their men's involvement in the deaths of Congregation of Revelation members arrive."

"Perfect. Then, just try to stay quiet for now. After I leave, you'll just have to stay under the radar. It'll be a while before any of those soldiers from the capital try to harm us." Vicente said confidently.

Things might turn out a little differently than he had planned. But given how disturbing it would be to realize the involvement of soldiers from the kingdom in the deaths of members of the Congregation of Revelations, it was more likely that the soldiers from the capital would be more concerned with the incident at The Vile Altar before they turned their attention to the Mazzanti family.

With evidence that The Faceless Ones were there as well, it was very likely that the army would try to create some sort of story to distance themselves from the deaths of the Congregation of Revelation members, perhaps even using that Ironcrest faction as a scapegoat.

In short, Vicente planned to let these three forces bigger than his family waste time on each other while he moved on to other goals.

This gave him confidence.

He said to his men. "I'm going to my master's estate now to take care of some things, and I'll be back later. In the meantime, prepare the family's materials and weapons for when I return."

"Okay." One of the soldiers said before they separated.

The family had recently acquired a lot of resources, using their coins to buy items that could improve their strength and raise the level of the family members.

Among these items were materials for the production of weapons, which the Mazzanti family could obtain without Vicente's involvement due to a recent deal Rory had made with a local noble power.

...

Vicente would later arrive secretly at Benson's estate to show his master the changes he had undergone.

Benson had been surprised by Vicente on several occasions. Still, when he saw his pupil this afternoon, he was even more surprised to see a Mage with two pentagrams, one orange and one yellow.

Normally, newly advanced Mages would have a red and an orange one, while those with the third essence would have a yellow in their third space. But Vicente was completely abnormal.

After the initial surprise, Benson watched Vicente show what he could do, gaining a better understanding of Vice's new abilities and how they would affect the young man's production of new items.

After a moment of reflection on what he had seen, Benson said, forcing his student to stop meditating and listen. "Vice, now I want you to spend the next few hours getting used to your new powers by using them to forge weapons. Once you've had a few hours of experience, we'll make our first attempt at robot armor."

Vicente had not only shown Benson his special abilities by coming to this estate. He had also talked to his master about how he saw the forging art now that he was a Mage and his opinions on his master's theories regarding robotic armor.

Considering what he had heard from Vicente, Benson felt that his student was prepared, having reached almost the same level of understanding as him on some points.

Vicente would still have to study the 3rd-stage theory, which would take him at least a few weeks, but he already had some insights similar to Benson's.

Considering Vicente's unique ability, Benson thought this young man could already succeed in producing the robotic armor for the first time.

"We won't use the mineral that old Henry gave us yet, but if you succeed, we'll be able to use it in our third attempt within the next six days. Until then, I believe we can make some corrections to the original design to better suit your characteristics." The old man chirped.

Vicente accepted Benson's advice, quickly grabbed the materials his master had given him, and began to use his skills to form new firearms.

In the next few hours, he would create the first weapons and ammunition capable of killing Low-level Mages even when used by mere Acolytes!