Hours had passed since Vicente instructed Layla to absorb the green pentagram from the deceased Arcane Falcon.",

She diligently worked to assimilate the magical essence. Recognized by the beast she had slain just before its demise, Layla faced little difficulty in mastering its magical essence.

She would soon finish absorbing her first green pentagram, stabilizing her magical foundation, gaining a new power, but also increasing the quality of her first pentagram.

Like Casey, her first pentagram was much closer to maturing into the color orange, and that should happen when she was close to becoming a Paragon. Of course, if she didn't come across an opportunity like the one Rory had in this area of the Hot Wasteland.

When she finished her absorption, she told her group about her new ability, Molecular Acceleration, an ability to increase the molecular vibration of her body so that she could become invisible or pass through solid objects.

This was a fantastic ability with a lot of potential both on and off the battlefield!

Layla could have a perfect defense, at least temporarily, to withstand powerful attacks, but also to reach enemies in their moments of post-attack weakness.

The entire group was happy for her before they left this area and headed north to The Hungry Canyon, a high-level domain in the center-north of the continent.

Now that they had completed their main objective in this area, they were interested in continuing their search for Lina's pentagram.

The Hungry Canyon was not a small region within a state like the areas they had passed through so far. Their next area of interest was a domain of magical beings, where there was no dominant state or organization that ruled the area. It was a place the size of a state, but without the totalitarian control of a large organization.

The beginning of this area was only two days away from the group's current position. But finding Lina's pentagram could take days to weeks, considering how large the area was.

...

Three days later, Vicente's group was already in The Hungry Gorge when the group spotted a 4th stage creature with a green magical essence that was extremely compatible with Lina!

The group hadn't expected to have so much luck on this part of their journey, but when they encountered the creature that afternoon, they didn't waste any time. Soon the group surrounded it, with Vicente assisting the beautiful brown-haired woman in killing the Sky Sovereign beast.

He used little of his powers to pressure the creature. Even though he could make the creature immobile and helpless for Lina with his current power, it was always good to leave the beast with the impression that it had put up a good fight.

If the beast died after an interesting battle, it was usually easier to absorb its pentagram.

Neither he nor his companions used as much of their powers as they had against their 5th stage opponents up to that point in the journey.

Lina took the lead in fighting the creature of her interest, facilitating the work of her companions, who basically supported her while watching her.

Amid this, Torne was talking to Vicente, who had already completed his meditation time and advanced to the beginning of the 5th stage!

With Torne's advancement to the 5th stage, his mana had more than doubled with the birth of his soul avatar. His senses had increased more than fivefold with this advancement, and many of his characteristics had improved much more than his mana.

Because of this, he had pointed out the beast to Vicente a few minutes ago, and now he was advising his master about something else.

'Master, if we go west from here, we'll find the ruins of an ancient city that existed in this area in the distant past. I have a feeling that some members of the group will have unique opportunities there.'

'Oh? All right. We'll pass this ruin after Lina absorbs her pentagram.' Vicente said as he watched the beautiful brown- haired woman to weaken the opponent she was fighting a beautiful battle to watch.

It was not as exciting as a Paragon's battle, but it had been a good fight for the last three minutes.

With each passing second, Lina became more dominant, while the magical creature felt death creeping closer.

In the 5th minute of the fight, Lina would deliver the killing blow, finishing her opponent and achieving her goal on this journey!

As her opponent died from her attacks, the woman in the 4th grade robotic armor moved to absorb the green pentagram of this being, a Chronomancer Faunus, a half-human, half-beast capable of mastering the skills of the team.

As she meditated beside the monster's corpse, her companions approached, completing another successful hunt.

"That was quicker than I thought," Rory commented.

"Hmm. I didn't expect us to find Lina's target so quickly. I guess we got lucky today," Layla murmured in agreement and looked at the woman.

Sarah asked Vicente. "And now? We reached this pentagram in much less time than we thought. Shall we move on to The Pure Enclave now that we've hunted down its essence?"

"No. This area has many ruins and possibilities for us. We'll travel slowly through this area for three weeks. I think some of us will develop our pentagrams like Rory did and maybe even get some lost 5th grade artifacts. There's a ruin nearby. As soon as Lina is done, we'll go explore the place."

The group understood Vicente's answer, although Rory and Sarah were eager to add their pentagrams.

But even they didn't disagree with his decision. The longer they took to hunt their pentagrams, the better they could prepare to fight the magical creature with Vicente's pentagram of interest.

Another point was that if they hunted Vicente's pentagram too quickly, 5th and 6th stage creatures could hunt them much sooner.

They had already imagined the vampires were hunting 5th and 6th stage beings, so it was interesting that Vicente wasn't advancing so quickly in the short term. At least until the vampires completed their first stage of exterminating experts, it would be quite attractive for Vice to be at the 4th stage.

Of course, they couldn't delay their plans too much. But two weeks and a month to explore The Hungry Canyon seemed appropriate.

...

Hours later, Lina would finish her pentagram absorption and the group would head west, in the direction Torne had showed.