"Quick, get me inside!" Rory yelled as some of his men appeared in front of the building. "Ignore that body. Let's get all our defenses up. There may be more assassins in the area."
As a few men pointed their weapons in different directions at the group outside the building, two of them quickly grabbed Rory and backed slowly into their building.
"Who would do that?" One of the men asked before the last of them entered the building and closed the door.
"I don't know. It could be anyone. It could be anything from the Scarlet Syndicate trying to get a new deal to force us to hand over our weapons to them or even the Symons family.
There are also local nobles who resent what our group has done, and soldiers too." He said as he tried to ignore the pain in his right chest, where he had already stopped the bleeding with his mana.
As much as Rory was not in immediate danger, he would need a doctor to take care of his wound and prevent it from becoming something that would leave him with a sequel.
That was the main purpose of doctors in Polaris Realm: to prevent complications. Few diseases in this world could affect people who could use mana and destroy invading cells, such as bacteria that would cause wounds to become inflamed.
On the other hand, potions and recovery pills were very helpful in regenerating exhausted or even injured tissues.
A doctor's job, then, was to manage the recovery of his patients so that their bodies returned to normal.
Doctors worked with alchemists to do this, using pills and potions. But only they could prevent a serious wound from healing the wrong way and creating a problem that could not be solved in the future.
Aware of this, he didn't take long to look in the direction of one of the men in the area and say. "Anyway, get me a doctor as soon as possible. I will change my plans for today and stay here until I'm fully recovered, and Vice replaces me."
As the man that would send the request for a doctor left, an Acolyte asked. "What do we do now?"
"Be on alert. Get all our resting men off their breaks and position them around the strategic points of our building. We could be attacked again in the next few hours."
"Okay, deputy!"
...
After a hectic start to the day for his men on the Mazzanti estate, Vicente found out what had happened when he visited one of the taverns under his protection after dropping Nina off at the Academy.
When he heard what had happened, he was naturally concerned for his friend and angry at the enemies who wouldn't give his family a moment's peace.
But without knowing who was behind this morning's attack, he had little choice but to continue with his plans.
After leaving the tavern where he had learned of it, he made his way to the Association, where he would finally receive the resources he had ordered days ago.
With these metals, he could finish upgrading his men's weapons and return to his identity as Cesar!
...
When he had received more than 250 kilograms of metal bars and a lot of ore, Vicente was in the back of the Association, where carts usually passed by to pick up some of the heavier and bulkier items sold by this organization.
Spatial storage items were very useful and practical for many things, but they had limitations that made it impractical to transport many resources with them.
Such items were limited by volume, not mass. So, regardless of the mass of Vicente's items, what prevented him from transporting those resources in his storage item was the size of the various ores he had acquired.
With only one 2 cubic meter storage item, he couldn't even carry 25% of what he had just received.
That's why he stood there with his men, who worked directly for the Fuller family, and watched as the Association staff finished loading the boxes of ore and metal bars onto their wagons.
"That's all, young master Fuller." One of the workers said as he watched the last crate being placed on Vice's second wagon, jotting down a few things on a piece of paper on a clipboard.
When the man showed him the piece of paper, Vicente quickly checked what he had received and left a magical signature to indicate that he had received his orders.
"Okay. Thank you for your services."
"We at the Millfall Blacksmiths' Association thank you, haha. If you need more resources, don't hesitate to contact us. We'll give the young master priority over the first-level blacksmiths." The man said goodbye to Vicente, following the orders the council had already given to the rest of the staff at this post.
Vicente wasn't exactly one of the Association's chosen ones, but he was close, and he had privileges that put him ahead of many members of his rank.
So, this Association official wasn't trying to curry favor with Vicente or lure him into a new business with those words. He was following the orders of the post's management.
Vice was already aware of how different the treatment within such groups could be depending on one's qualities, so he didn't bother and quickly went to his home in the city center.
After extracting the metals from these minerals and reducing the volume of these resources, it would be time for him to return to his people on the Mazzanti estate on the eastern side of the city.
'Time to work.' Vicente thought to himself, knowing that he now had to upgrade his people's weapons, expand his mafia family's operations, and stabilize his local position before he could search for pentagrams.
...
While Vicente was thinking about the various things he had to do, the council met inside the Millfall Blacksmiths' Association.
To the surprise of some, for the first time in years, Benson King showed up to attend the meeting!
As Benson sat down in his chair around a large round table in a room on the top floor of the Association building, the three old men already seated nearby looked at him with different expressions on their faces.
While Henry, the leader there, looked at him with a neutral expression, a red-haired man with a goatee smiled and said. "Old King, how long has it been since you left your house? You're only here because of your new disciple, right?"
Benson wasn't bothered by the red-haired man's comment and said. "Yes. You want to talk about him, don't you? How could I ignore that?"
"We're going to talk about Vicente Fuller, but we're also going to talk about the tournament we're going to have very soon. Our top names are already preparing for the trip out of town." Henry said when he saw Benson's sharp eyes on him.
Henry didn't take Benson and his threats seriously only because many in the association knew that the two had several differences, being the two best local blacksmiths.
Benson hated this arrogant side of Henry and closed his eyes.
"Then let's talk about my pupil first. I have no interest in this silly tournament. None of the youngsters we currently have are worth watching." Benson said as he looked at the guy with the same white hair, beard, and mustache.
