Taking the Mafia to the Magic World

"Those bastards haven't tried to sell a single jewel since they arrived in Ironcrest..." Mark commented to his companions as he sat in an inn room with the two women from the Congregation of Revelations.

In the middle of the room, the pink-haired woman watched Vicente's movements in real-time, reporting back to her companions what their target had done until now. She had seen everything he had done so far, not listening to Vice's conversations but seeing that he had made a lot of purchases.

Based on her comments from time to time, the two in the room with her knew Vicente had never tried to sell the Irwin family jewels.

That was good because they could still get what they wanted on this trip. But it was also bad because Vicente had spent the coins he had stolen, something tough to trace and which could be very useful to those people who were interested in stealing him.

"That man... What is he trying to do?" The other woman commented to Mark, already aware of Cesar's identity, which could put him in a bad position very quickly if it came to the attention of the noble families in Millfall!

"The sums they got for stealing the Irwin estate seem much higher than I thought." Jasmine finally got up from her position, having stopped using her ability after hours of following Vicente from a distance.

"What are you doing?" Mark asked when he saw her leave her position.

Jasmine explained. "Cesar just started absorbing the essence of a pill. He'll be meditating for the next few hours. His group will probably make a decision at dawn."

"Oh?"

"Very well. I'll watch them in the meantime. Get some rest, Jasmine." The other woman commented to her friend and went to the observation position of the enemy group.

Standing alone with Jasmine, Mark asked her. "What should we do? If Cesar is taking a pill, this might be the best time for us to act."

Jasmine reached for a bottle of water as her eyes narrowed. "No. Someone powerful is watching him. If we act, we risk forcing that person to move. But I don't know if that would be good for us."

"Is someone else watching him? Why? I thought Cesar was a stranger outside of Millfall." Mark frowned in surprise.

They didn't know what Vice had done in the Alpine Woodpecker Forest!

"I thought so, too," Jasmine said. "But my skills are second to none. Until a few moments ago, someone much stronger than me was watching him. So we'd better wait until dawn. I don't think he'll be in Ironcrest much longer, or he'll draw the attention of the locals to his level of purchase power."

"Do you think he'll leave tomorrow?"

"I can't say for sure. But he won't stay here for more than two days. Besides, after absorbing that pill, he'll need about 6 months of meditation to absorb another artificial resource without jeopardizing his progress. So he won't get any stronger before he leaves Ironcrest." She analyzed the situation coldly, considering what her organization knew about resource absorption by low-level magicians.

The higher a magician's level, the more mana they would have in their body. But this means that, in order to get stronger quickly, the level of mana needed would be higher. Consequently, there would be higher levels of impurities in the resources they would need to absorb.

What did that mean in practice? The number of resources one could safely absorb per year would decrease as one progressed through the magical levels.

Only with time could one deal with the impurities in their bodies and eventually progress safely.

An Apprentice could consume more resources in less time than an Acolyte, while an Acolyte could do so more often and in less time than a Mage. That was true even at the highest levels of magic.

Of course, this considered that one would try not to damage one's magical base. But if you didn't care about that, you could advance faster. Evidently, this would have problematic consequences for such a magician's future.

Considering Cesar's enormous talent, Jasmine was sure he wouldn't try anything crazy, so he couldn't advance much after taking that pill.

"Perfect. Let's take action against them when they leave Ironcrest!" Mark let Jasmine go to rest right after he said that.

...

At dawn, Vicente had finished resting from the training he had just done after absorbing the 2nd-grade pill he had bought for himself the day before.

When Vicente came out of his room in the morning and saw his men, they were immediately surprised to see their boss at a new level!

"Boss, you reached level 2? That easy?" One of the three asked, not having felt Vicente's advancement because of one of the items they had bought the day before, which Vicente had used to disguise his advancement that night.

Even though two of the three had stood guard outside Vice's quarters while the other rested, none of them had noticed their Don's advance!

Vicente had reached 29% of progression at level 2 that evening and was very pleased, looking forward to studying his forge in Millfall and returning to Benson's house for new tips.

He smiled at the congratulations from his men but then changed the subject. "Don't think too much about it. Now it's time to get back. With everything done here, there's nothing left to hold us back in Ironcrest."

"Hehe, that's what I wanted to hear!"

"Sigh... Time to hit the road again. But I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the group is doing in Millfall."

"Yes. The family will be shocked to see how the boss is doing."

Vice ignored his men's comments, and they soon left the inn where they had spent the last two nights and headed to where their carriage was waiting.

As they entered their carriage and began to head for one of the city's exits, Mark and Jasmine's companion soon noticed their movement.

"They're heading out of the city. Let's move!" She warned them, rousing Mark from his rest, while Jasmine plastered a beautiful smile on her face, sensing that it was time for some action.

"Get ready. Your group certainly has those pesky weapons to counterattack with. Cesar is very dangerous. We have to be very careful with him. In The Rocky Gorge incident, he was able to escape from a 3rd stage beast and many peak 2nd stage beasts and humans. Don't think he won't be able to do the same to us."

"Okay!" They both said at the same time, aware of how slippery Cesar could be but much more confident in their formation than the Millfall incompetents who had fallen in front of him.

So they would move quickly behind Vicente's group. As soon as they left Ironcrest, they would make it clear to all four Mazzanti family travelers that they were in trouble!