"That... Why did those vampires attack us?" Sarah asked, misunderstanding Casey's words. "If they let people like us live to be their 'cattle', why attack us?"",

"It's not that," Casey replied, looking her in the eye. "What I meant was that the strongest of the vampires, especially the leader of the vampires who started The Purification, won't try to hunt us down. But if we go to him or meet other vampires, they won't forgive us."

"The point is, the ones they wanted to kill right away are already dead. Now they'll deal with the survivors one by one as they continue with their plans," Vicente said to the group.

"Yeah, that's their goal." Casey nodded in agreement. "The good thing is that we don't have to worry about being hunted by the vampire Paragons or Archmage Demien Bloodthorne. They've been collecting a lot of magicians' blood lately, and they don't want to wipe out the entire magicians' race at once.

For the next few months, maybe years, the strongest of the vampires will have to use their time to absorb the blood they've recently collected. Only the weakest, such as those who attacked us today, will move around the continent."

"Which is enough to put our community at substantial risk," Layla murmured, seeing the gravity of the situation.

Everyone felt the weight of Casey's findings. They had already imagined that the strongest in the magical community had gone from bad to worse, but that was a speculation for which they had no proof.

With the memories of the dead vampire at Lina's feet, the group was now certain that the strongest of their community had fallen to the vampires.

This was terrible!

Even if the strongest vampires weren't hunting them now, it was because they were too busy drinking the blood of the dead!

In the future, Demien and his companions would surely hunt down the strongest magicians left in the Polaris Realm!

"It's only a matter of time before we become their target," Vicente said in a low voice, obviously worried.

He had dealt with the Earth Sovereign vampires today. But apart from the help of his companions with special powers, he had Torne and Onyx. Even so, he had exhausted himself from dealing with the Sovereign vampires.

But how would he fare against a Sky Sovereign superior vampire? And against a Paragon vampire?

Considering that he couldn't even come close to facing a Paragon vampire, Vicente didn't even want to imagine what it would be like to face an Archmage of that race.

With that in mind, he said. "Let us continue our journey. Unfortunately, we have no right to mourn. The only way forward now is to become stronger.

Lina and Layla, I'll collect the blood of the four vampires and give you some to drink as soon as we find a place to recover from this fight." He looked at those women while the others were envious of her.

Everyone else there had absorbed vampire blood recently, so even if they were to absorb this essence again now, the effects wouldn't be as wonderful as before.

They could definitely win. After all, it was vampire blood of the same level as most of them there, while the vampire blood they had earlier in Scott Province was from a lower-level being.

Even though there was now a resistance in their bodies to make better use of such blood, they could still gain improvements from this valuable resource, which unfortunately could not be stored for long.

Everyone in the group agreed, and after Vicente's words, they left the area carrying the four vampire corpses.

...

Later that day, Torne found a cave that could serve as a shelter for the group because of its suppressive properties, capable of hiding magical fluctuations within itself.

Vicente and his companions entered the place cautiously, on the lookout for enemies. But after 10 minutes of checking the area, they found nothing but a dark place abandoned by time.

Inside the large cave, there were signs that intelligent beings had once used the place, with traces of man-made objects. But those who inhabited the area had left who knows how long ago, leaving the area empty.

As soon as they noticed this, the people in Vicente's group set up all the formations they had before settling there.

While almost everyone began meditating, Vicente prepared to drain the blood from the vampires' corpses and then cut them according to the procedure he had seen Newton and the other family's professionals perform in Saltstar City.

Vampire blood couldn't be stored for long, so it would have to be used there. But organs, bones, skin, etc. could last longer if they were preserved in special items.

Each of these items had a maximum time it could withstand without losing its properties, but except for blood, all parts of a vampire's body could be preserved for a few years. Body parts such as bones and skin could last much longer than internal organs, up to thousands of years without losing their characteristics.

Vicente skillfully did what was necessary, transforming the bodies of these four enemies into many unrecognizable parts that one would never say were parts of a vampire if one didn't know the information before seeing them like this.

'Master, you can't use their blood. Although your previous consumption of vampire blood doesn't prevent you from taking advantage of this opportunity, I'm afraid we'll have problems if you raise your level now.' Torne warned, considering that Vicente was a peak Sovereign without his fourth pentagram.

It would be risky for him to become a Low-level Paragon with only 3 pentagrams!

He'd had the same number of pentagrams since he was a Mage. It wasn't realistic to become a Paragon under these circumstances!

'I know. Don't worry, I'll let you and Onyx use my share,' Vicente said as he looked at the vial with 8 liters of 4th stage vampire blood.

Torne had never absorbed such an essence, just like Lina, Layla and Onyx, so they could use these essences far more than anyone else in the cave.

'Unfortunately, this means that you cannot consume other magical resources for a few more years.' Vicente regretted this characteristic of vampire blood consumption.

They were almost free of this problem, but now they would consume this essence again.

'This is for the best, master. No matter how many resources we have that the group can absorb in a short period, the truth is that even the best of them can't beat vampire blood. And vampire blood will lose its properties in a few days, but these special pills, plants, and gems we've collected along the way will only get stronger with time,' Torne said to his master, trying to free him from this negative thought.

Vicente knew Torne was right. Magical essences as potions, plants, gems, etc., became more concentrated and stronger with time. It wasn't something that would make a big difference in the short term, but it was much better than the decomposition that characterized vampire blood.

He sighed as he heard this in his mind before dropping the subject to share the vampire blood with his friends.