Three Weeks Later...

Vicente's group traveled for some time until they arrived near the headquarters of Nixlas' Shadows and The Ivory Desert.

Arriving in an area shrouded in mist, where the morning chill forced small creatures to stay in their burrows in the morning laziness, the group moved on and began their investigation.

From Vicente's recent memories of the previous trip to Nixlas' shadow headquarters, his group was at most a few hours away from the place he had destroyed years ago.

Now, the former headquarters of Nixlas' Shadows should be occupied by high-level creatures allied with vampires, or even powerful vampires.

Vicente and his team preferred to keep their distance from this location.

So they floated slowly through this sparsely vegetated area, characterized by hilly terrain with many places where one had to be careful not to fall into traps or slip on the constant mud in certain areas.

The area right next to them, within reach of their eyes, was nothing like the place Vicente had seen in the Divine Dragon Matrix. This was certainly not the place where his pentagram would appear.

However, without knowing whether the area in question was behind the farthest hill in their field of vision or far away, they could only observe the area with caution and move slowly.

The presence of monsters in places they couldn't see was another concern.

So they walked until they reached the top of the hill to the northwest, where they believed the place Vicente had seen must be.

When they passed the hill and saw an area completely different from the place Vicente had seen, Victor sighed as he saw the group leader's sign.

The silver-haired man opened a large map of the area and covered another area of tens of thousands of square meters with red paint, marking this place as already explored.

By adding up this marked area, the group gradually left a large red area on the map that they would not return to investigate in the future.

"Let's continue. I have a feeling that there are creatures nearby. Let's move carefully." Vicente warned the group, again using his special abilities to erase the visual traces of his team.

With their invisibility, each of them continues to hover a few centimeters above the ground, enough to leave no trace of their passage through the area.

...

The journey of the group of 11 vampire enemies would be neither short nor exciting.

The area that Vicente thought was a few thousand square meters, and that they were looking for, could be anywhere around over 250,000 square kilometers.

Given the strong enemy presence in the area, the group had to move slowly, almost like stepping on eggs.

With each day of travel, they were eliminating a few hundred thousand square kilometers of the vast territory they were searching. But at their current pace, it could take weeks to cover the entire area.

Although they could find the place they were interested in at any time, the opposite could also happen. Maybe they would not find it until they had searched the entire area.

After the first three weeks of the group's exploration of the area, its members had thought that the second case was the most likely, and it would still take them days to reach their destination.

With less than two months to go before the cyan pentagram appeared, the group grew more tense as they eliminated more areas in their path.

The constant presence of powerful creatures in their path didn't help. Having to dodge monster camps or even wandering monsters every few hours, sometimes being forced to pass through areas they had already explored, the group's frustration grew with each day of travel.

But they could only bear their frustration and continue the tedious and stressful journey of looking for a needle in a haystack.

Unable to get excited and fight with the beings, as that would show their position and make everything more difficult than it already was, they had to avoid incidents with all their might.

That afternoon, as they continued on their way, their resolve would be tested!

...

As they continued their search, Vicente's group quickly hid in the upper branches of the trees in the forest area where they were today.

In this place of woods, with lawns here and there, they quickly hid in what they considered to be the most tough place to analyze, while Vicente used his powers to camouflage his group.

Nearby, a wagon with a cell and a luxurious carriage made of wood and iron of good quality and construction passed through the area.

From where they were, each member of the group could sense the presence of peak 4th stage vampires in it.

Meanwhile, three humans, including a child, were tied up in the cell on the cart behind the wagon.

'Shit! Those three will be sucked up by the vampires!' Victor said in the minds of his companions as he realized the fate of these three poor humans, two of whom had no magical cultivation and one of whom was only an Acolyte.

Few superior vampires would waste their time sucking the blood of such weak beings. However, there were many inferior vampireswho did not gain power from sucking the blood of their targetsthat would be happy to suck the blood of any human, regardless of their power.

Inferior vampires needed to suck the blood of living beings in order to continue to exist. It didn't strengthen them, but it allowed them to last longer in the Polaris Realm. Also, the sensation of drinking the blood of their targets was pleasurable.

The victims of an inferior vampire wouldn't turn into vampires either, which meant they could be kept as food for these beings for a long period!

Thinking this was probably the fate of those three people, the humans in Vicente's group couldn't help but feel strange.

Their intention was to go there and rescue them. Sadly, these were three lives that were dispensable in the name of the common good.

Vicente clenched his fists and closed his eyes as he lamented to himself, 'Let's wait for them to pass and move on. If our plans work out, we'll be able to save these people in the future. For now, we can't afford to risk our lives for them.'