After the consciousness of the second Magic Gem of Vicente faded, he left the interior of the cave and went to where the werewolf was waiting for his party nearby.

"You made it, huh?" the furry creature sitting on a branch of a nearby tree said as it looked at Vicente, feeling a completely unfamiliar sensation from the magician in front of it.

"Thank you for the information. It helped me a lot." Vicente thanked it sincerely as he stopped next to the creature before looking up at the beautiful, large moon visible from there.

"Tell me about our destination," he got right to the point, making the magical creature next to him take a deep breath and turn its attention to the full moon.

"Our target is a Manticore. The creature has long been at the level of a Beginner Archmage, so it's very close to reaching the Intermediate level. It lives in a shadowy area in the far northwest of the Valley of Lightning.

Its powers are based on two elements: poison and shadow. With its sting, it can inoculate a poison that can kill even Intermediate Archmages, while its control over shadows can turn shadows into our enemies.

It is a terrible warrior on the battlefield for its enemies. It is very strong, with a very resilient body, unparalleled speed, and a high level of regeneration.

I've heard stories of creatures who challenged it and couldn't even scratch its fur... Everyone who faced it eventually died. Some escaped for a few days, but as I said, its venom is deadly. If one of us gets hit by it, we'll die."

The werewolf stopped staring at the moon and looked into Vicente's human eyes. "I'll be honest with you. If I hadn't seen your potential, I would never have gone ahead with my current plans. Everything depends on you."

"I understand... What do you stand to gain by taking such a risk?" Vicente asked curiously.

"It is a resource compatible with me. If I absorb it, I could become an Archmage in a few days. Then I won't have to worry so much about those damn vampires," the werewolf replied, unable to hide its displeasure at the current situation on the continent.

Vampires and werewolves had historically been enemies in the Polaris Realm. But the werewolf tribe was currently in hiding, weakened by the sacrifice that had led to the appearance of the first Archmage of the vampire race.

"How bad is the situation? I came from the south, so I still don't know exactly how things are here." Vicente asked, curious to know what the creature before him knew.

"Things are terrible. Since the fall of the magicians of the Dark Path, the vampires have become much stronger. Until about 3,000 years ago, the situation for the vampires was the same as it had been for over 100,000 years. There was a balance of power in the northern region.

But then more and more Dark Path magicians disappeared. The new ones that appeared after them could not live or were closely watched, restricted. This gave the vampires room to develop their plans for their current state.

Currently, the Archmages and Paragons you have seen or sensed in the Valley of Lightning make up over 30% of the magical beings at that stage on the continent.

Until recently, the vast majority of magical beings at these stages were humans or allies of humans. But with the rise of Demien Bloodthorne, most of them have fallen, leaving only a few high-level magicians on the continent. 80% or more of the Paragons and Archmages on the continent are now beasts or monsters." The creature summarized the recent history and couldn't help but show its regret.

"Who knows what will happen from now on?" It asked in a desperate tone. "Then I must take the chance I have now. This might be my only alternative to fight them!"

"I have a feeling the future is going to be pretty bitter," Vicente said, voicing his opinion. "I met some vampires on the way here and found out that the vampire leaders want to use the surviving magicians as cattle to strengthen them. They won't hunt us all down right away."

"As expected. It's a plan that makes sense." The werewolf looked meaningfully at Vicente and asked. "What are you going to do? Let's say everything works out and you get your next pentagram. What are you going to do?"

"Go to a certain place and save someone. After that, I'll go south to help my people prepare for the arrival of their enemies," Vicente said.

He wasn't naive enough to think he could go to the door of the vampires and challenge Demien Bloodthorne to end the current situation on the continent once and for all.

Vicente had become powerful, but against Demien, a superior vampire with Beginner Archmage cultivation, he still had a long way to go.

At the very least, he would have to add all four of his missing pentagrams to the Throne of Darkness or advance to the level of a High-level Paragon to challenge that vampire with any chance of survival.

Anything less in the face of Demien's power would be suicide!

The werewolf had imagined it, so it didn't find Vicente's plans strange. It made sense to hide and prepare for the future, even if this young man was so strong.

"Good luck with your plans. But maybe we'll meet again in the future. I, too, plan to head south sometime," the furry creature said while Vicente remained silent, thinking about how close he finally was to Lauren.

Since the two cyan pentagrams he had absorbed in the past few hours had enhanced his powers, he felt after obtaining the cyan pentagram for the second position of the Throne of Darkness, he would be strong enough to go to Nixlas' Shadows.

The headquarters of Nixlas' Shadows was close to this area in the Vinia Empire. This sect was in an area in the empire's west, less than a month's journey away from where Vicente and his group were at the moment.

Considering the stops for cultivation, recovering from confrontations that might happen in the meantime, or even the times they might need to hide, he and his group could reach such a place in two months at the most.

Thinking about it, Vicente couldn't help but imagine Lauren's face, how she looked after all these years and what it would be like to take her home to see Nina again.

About 12 years had passed, but given the wonders of magic, she should be exactly the same as she was back then, at least physically.

While he was thinking about it and planning his reunion with Lauren, Vicente left the werewolf after saying they would wait until his companions had finished cultivating.

This would take a little over three days, when those who had a chance of advancing could finally complete their advancement to the level of Sky Sovereigns!