When Vicente activated his first ability, he immediately felt all the metals around the building, feeling more control and less weight on his consciousness.
When he activated his ability, he had to focus on a particular amount of metals, and if he couldn't control that, he would feel pressured because there were more metals around him than he could handle.
But as he got stronger, Vicente felt that he could control more and more metals, and the pressure he felt from what was beyond his control diminished.
This was a somewhat obvious breakthrough for him after he had greatly increased his understanding and the mana density in his body. But beyond that, Vicente felt he could go further with spells involving the Earth and Lightning elements.
He furrowed his brow and felt the Earth around his building, realizing that if he wanted to, he could subtly manipulate part of the walls of his property at will.
Unfortunately, the walls were not made of 100% Earth, so he did not have enough to modulate this building as he wished and thus repair the various damages caused by enemy magicians.
But he felt he could manipulate the electrons around him more easily now, to the point where he could even electrify non-metallic surfaces and objects.
'Well, it's better than nothing.' He deactivated his ability, and the mana around him returned to normal.
He thought that he'd have to practice some of his forging skills later to see how this improvement would affect them. But soon, Vicente took note of where Rory had already finished his meditation and tested his powers as well.
"As expected. You haven't progressed either." Rory smiled as he looked at his friend.
"What did you get from the pill?" Vicente asked.
"I must have reached the middle of the Intermediate Apprentice level. We were hasty in not informing Liam that we had recently advanced to such a level."
"Yes." Vice agreed. "But it doesn't matter. He had nothing that could help us without hurting us. This upgrade today at least didn't create too many impurities."
Rory didn't disagree and changed the subject. "So what now? What do we do?"
"We will protect this post until tomorrow. In the meantime, let's authorize our men to use the pills we bought for them."
If these men became stronger, they could not reach new heights because of the combination of their powers with their weapons. After all, those weapons could only withstand the power of Junior Apprentices. But if they were stronger, they could see more, be faster, and be tougher.
As they advanced, they could become better shooters and, more importantly, have a better chance of surviving enemy attacks.
"If one of them advances and becomes an Acolyte, we'll have to look for Magic Pentagrams." Rory reminded his friend.
Vicente nodded, indicating that he had not forgotten. "We will do that when we advance and become Acolytes. We can hunt Magic Pentagrams together and save time."
Magic Pentagrams provided abilities, but they also stabilized a magician's mana. Therefore, they were crucial after breakthroughs.
But it was not dangerous not to absorb a new pentagram right after a breakthrough. What was dangerous was to keep trying to get stronger without a pentagram!
So, someone who became a level 1 Acolyte could go without their first second Magic Pentagram until they reached level 2. At that point, they would either have to stop trying to get stronger or risk exploding.
For this reason, it was not uncommon to find level 1 Acolytes with only one Magic Pentagram, even if it was not ideal.
With that decided, Vicente and Rory soon allowed the selected 4 Senior Apprentices and 8 Intermediate Apprentices from their group to go meditate and consume the other pills they had purchased earlier.
...
The next day morning...
After a full day since the previous incident, Vicente and Rory's group had yet to suffer any consequences for defending themselves against Defiant Tyranny's attack.
On the contrary, they had had enough rest for the day, and after hours of meditation of their 12 men, 10 had made breakthroughs!
With the resources at their disposal, most of them had achieved the expected promotions, with 7 becoming Senior Apprentices and 3 becoming level 1 Acolytes.
Of the two who had failed to advance, one had died, and the other had failed to take advantage of the opportunity and was still an Intermediate Apprentice.
Vicente and Rory had regretted it when one of their strongest men had died trying to advance, but it was out of their control, and they had only promised the others to return the person's things to his family.
They had all accepted the risks. This had been a fluke among many successes, so the group remained determined to move forward.
As for the failed survivor, he had been badly wounded in the previous battle, and the failure to advance had added to his injuries.
He was not out of danger yet and was already under observation by one of the doctors Vicente had hired earlier to care for his men.
At the beginning of this new day, Vicente and Rory were still at their group's headquarters, right in front of the newly promoted men and some of the other low-level individuals.
"Well done, we are stronger even though we lost some of our brothers the day before," Vicente spoke to his men with a solemn expression on his face. "Unfortunately, we do not have time to mourn. We now have powerful enemies who will knock on our doors sooner or later.
Concentrate on getting stronger and on our operation. As we improve our position, more opportunities like the pills from the day before will appear for the most dedicated men."
"Yes, boss!"
The men shouted almost simultaneously, determined to avenge their dead friends, but even more determined to get opportunities for advancement.
None of them were afraid because of the death of the Senior Apprentice who had failed to advance. This was a great opportunity for them to reduce their insignificance in this world!
Vicente then left for his home while Rory went to take care of some business on behalf of the group.
The stronger men left behind soon split up into shifts to protect this post while others went to arrange for repairs to the building.
Their defenses had been destroyed, and they had to build new barriers over this place!
And so three days would pass in the blink of an eye, with everyone in this group working harder than ever for their cause!
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