Torne knew that Vicente would leave the Seidel Kingdom sooner or later on his own, so he didn't say anything to rush his master. As backward as such a state was, it was minimally good at protecting weak people from the dangers of the continent.
"It looks like there are monsters like you all over the continent..." Layla commented as she looked at Vicente. "I imagine you'll be a Sovereign by the time you're his age.
What's it like to meet someone like you?"
Vicente smiled at his companion. "The same feeling I get when I look at you or anyone else."
"Really?" She laughed. "You didn't have that open mouth and shocked look when we first met."
"I was too busy trying to protect my life," Vicente spoke as he corrected his posture and put aside his apparent shock. "But I can't deny seeing someone so strong and young is a surprise."
She stopped joking and sighed. "It's like that on the continent. If you travel further north, you'll find more and more people like him.
But even then, people like him are only a fraction of those with the potential to reach this boy's level. Most of them die halfway through when they're Mages or Sovereigns." She turned her full attention to him. "Do you know why that is?"
"The pentagrams?" Vicente asked, but he knew that was the right answer.
"Yes, hunting pentagrams gets harder and harder as you go along. As much as we get stronger as we go through the levels, the quality of the pentagrams has higher and higher requirements as you go up the 'ladder.'
The higher the quality of the pentagram, the higher the power level of the being that created it. That in itself makes everything difficult, as the chance of a magician defeating a magical being with a pentagram of interest to them is 50%. Half will succeed, while the other half will die in the hunt.
But since humanity has won the war for control of the continent, our numbers have significantly increased, and we have more high-level people than there are magical beings capable of creating the best pentagrams for those magicians. That naturally leads to a competition for pentagrams among the strongest on the continent.
In the fight for the best essence, some geniuses fall before becoming Paragons." She looked back at the brown-haired young man. "That makes him even more impressive. Becoming a Sky Sovereign can't have been easy..."
There were enough pentagrams for all the magicians in Polaris Realm. But most people would rather fight over a good pentagram than look at an average or weak one. For this very reason, pentagrams with a green rating or higher were very difficult to find, and there were usually several people interested in each of these essences.
Vicente had only not experienced this in Scott Province because there were no Sovereigns in that area. After all, only Sovereigns or stronger hunted green pentagrams.
Layla looked back at Vicente and said sincerely. "That is why you must be careful. The chances that you will meet this kind of person from now on are very high. Eventually, you'll meet people like him or stronger on your journey to find stronger pentagrams. So be careful."
He nodded at her. "I will."
They were silent for a moment until a waiter brought their respective plates.
They ate in silence for a moment and then went back to talking about their local affairs. They needed to rest, but they also needed to do some shopping and selling in the city.
Layla had collected some resources in The Skull City that would be of no use to them. Some could be used on Vicente's family, but they had agreed to sell others to collect coins and buy other resources that could be useful to them.
Layla hadn't forgotten about her friend Jasmine and planned to bring some interesting things for the pink-haired woman when she returned to Saltstar City. So she had to do some shopping on the spot.
On the other hand, Vicente had to buy resources for his family, study his forge, and buy materials for 4th-stage blacksmiths.
That was partly so that he could improve his forging skills when he became a Sovereign, but it was also so that he could report to the Council of Elders of the Saltstar City Blacksmith's Association, something he had promised earlier.
Until that day, they hadn't been anywhere interesting for him to shop. But in Eaglewind, he could start shopping and get what he needed to justify his trip to the Chutha Dynasty.
So, after chatting for a while while finishing their meal, they paid their bill and left the restaurant full of influential and powerful people.
It was not easy to avoid the many guards and powerful magicians in the area without attracting unnecessary attention, but they would manage to get out of there and eventually find an inn to rest in.
They wouldn't resume their plans until the next day when they would split up to settle their affairs.
...
The next day, Layla and Vicente left the inn where they had rested for 24 hours and parted ways.
She went to the local Awakening Temple to send a letter to Jasmine, while he went directly to the Blacksmiths' Association building.
From these two locations, they planned to continue their plans for this city before meeting in front of Eaglewind's central square to reunite and leave.
Neither would encounter any difficulties on their way that day, and they would soon accomplish their goals on the ground.
At the end of the afternoon, they would meet in front of the downtown restaurant where they had eaten lunch the day before and begin their journey to one of the local exits on the west side of town.
However, before leaving the city, a group of boys would stop on their way and hand Vicente an envelope, surprising him and Layla!
...
"What's this?" Layla asked as she looked at Vicente and the boys, who had stopped looking at them as if they were expecting something.
Vicente read the contents of the letter strangely at first, but he soon understood what it was about, and his expression improved.
He took out a gold coin and gave it to the boys, causing them to move away as they talked and smiled.
He looked at Layla and said. "It's about Casey. It seems that my investigators were in this city not long ago. They left this letter with the boys to give to me when I came by."
"That..." She looked at him with doubt in her eyes.
But Vicente's investigators knew he would pass through this city on his way to the Bone Mountains. It wasn't difficult to leave such a message since there were ways to target such messengers.
"Are you sure it's your investigators?" She asked him. "I don't want to be pessimistic, but they could be criminals trying to trap us."
"I don't think so," Vicente said. "It could be, but to put the code I left with this group in that letter, other people would have to kidnap them and torture them to get them to talk."
"That could have happened..."
"Yes, but I don't think so. In any case, it's worth following the letter's trail. Either my investigators are in trouble, or the contents of the letter are reliable, and we could be close to Casey's trail," Vicente said confidently. "Either way, we have something to solve. And since the path this will take us on won't take us away from our main journey, I don't see a problem with it, even if it doesn't lead to anything."
With that, they left Eaglewind with a new destination in mind!
