While I was going back, Lu had stayed behind to help the kids sort out everything. There was a lot to do for them. Since they defeated the four guardians, the other soldiers were willing to surrender. Since they did not know if the soldiers would be helpful, they decided to just lock them all up and interrogate each one personally.

  For now, the most important thing is to quell the outrage and take over the industries that were previously taken over by the four guardians. These industries, although we don't approve of them, have been making money for a while and thus will have their st usage to be liquidated and turned into funds for the development of the town.

  Unlike before, a town is a whole lot bigger and more of a hassle to manage. Thankfully, the framework used by the previous guardians is to divide the authority for the town for each of the guardians to take a piece of. They just need to redivide all of the responsibilities for all six of them.

  That's right. The kid who broke through mid fight will also be there to help assist in managing the town.

  Between controlling a town and controlling a base, there will always be one major hurdle. Since this town falls under the Church's influence, the town needs to take care of the opinions of the Church of Light and specifically, the city that the town falls under.

  This city that the town falls under is known as White Horn City and is named after their patron saint, the Unicorn. It is said that the first city lord was saved by a unicorn in an adventure and received its blessing. He then named the city after his benefactor to honor it.

  Thankfully, because of the town's former reputation, the city would not react so much to the city changing hands. In fact, it is likely that the city would prefer it in the hands others who would likely not turn the city into such a state.

  After all, the Church of Light has the usual high moral standards you would expect from them. The only reason that the town was not sanctioned beforehand was that the Church had made a promise that in exchange for staying under them, the Church would not interfere with the inner operations of pces other than cities.

  If it was a City that we conquered, we would likely face the targeting of the Church of Light. Thankfully it hasn't come to that.

  With all of this said, the management of the town would likely be a long process and these kids are not capable of doing it all themselves so Lu finally decided that she would be assisting the kids on the side so she went on the communicator to inform me.

  This was the day after, so I had already gotten up and freshened myself up. When I saw the message I gave out a sigh before agreeing. I guess I'm going to have to learn to cook more for the next few days.

  Since I was going to have to take care of myself, I decided to prepare a meal for myself for after morning training.

  Cooking a meal is going to be a hassle so I after rummaging through the ingredients avaible to me I decided that I would be having a sandwich. Since I decided what I should be having, I went ahead and prepped all the ingredients and stuffed them into a sliced baguette like bread. I then pced them it into a container and closed it up before heading out to start practicing.

  I went and swung my swords as always. My most convenient method in combat is still my sword so I must always maintain my skill with my bde. When time passed and I felt my muscles rex from the exercise, I summoned a group of skeletons to practice fighting against.

  When this regur training was complete, I went ahead and took a little break before having my breakfast. Since it was just a sandwich, I didn't have much of a reaction to it. I mean, it really would be a problem if I could not assemble a sandwich from a bunch of ingredients tossed together.

  I finished my meal and went ahead and began my studying. In comparison to before, the knowledge that a Silver level person has to know is not different in terms of quality to those that a Bronze can use. According to my book, Gold is where Mages truly separate the mundane and geniuses. Without a deep foundation, most mages can't get anywhere near the limit of Gold level for the mage css. Although that is a topic for the future.

  I haven't even reached the Silver level after all.

  As I said before, I was already reaching the limit of Bronze before. I thought that I would be promoted by the time I finished helping the kids, but I guess I was a little off timing wise. Even though I can feel the boundary dividing Silver and Bronze, I can feel that it is not yet time.

  Unlike in my previous life, most extraordinary people have an unusually accurate intuition. This let me listen to my instinct and not try my best to upgrade to Silver yet. As a high level race, we vampires have a way to force a promotion, but I'll follow my instincts. I can always prepare a little more.

  And so, I continued to practice for the day. If it takes too long to reach that level I can always force a breakthrough after all.

  Since I might be here for a few days since Lu is out there helping the kids manage the town, I knew that if I did not want to eat sandwiches the whole time then I would start learning how to cook.

  3 days passed as I started learning to cook as well as train. After a while, I started to get used to the feeling of the tools in the kitchen. The fire started to feel more and more familiar as I improved from being a little bad to being able to cook.

  I could feel myself liking this feeling of cooking for myself and doing things on my own. I even did things like the dishes and undry! Although it was just putting them in their respective device and turning it on...

  I could feel myself rexing in this day to day life. Before, I was always worried that I would always be found by the Silver professionals here. Although I could survive with the tools my parents gave me, I always felt that I was in danger the whole time. That is why I always felt so cold calm and careful here.

  As the day ended, instead of going to rest, I went out onto the grass. Today was a rare Full Moon so I wanted to rest watch the stars and moon before I slept. So, I went onto an open patch of grass and yer down ft on the grass. Feeling the cold grass all over my body and tickling the back of my neck I gave out a genuine smile. I could feel the glow of moonlight on my skin and I just id out on the grass with my limbs all outstretched.

  I felt that I was rexed and all of the tension in my body was loosened. I could feel the wind blowing passed me as I id there.

  Under the moonlight, I felt my eyes slowly drop. Although I could head back in the base, I felt in my heart that this was going to be very important to me. Because of that, I decided to just quickly arrange a warning array and leave out a skeleton swordsman to protect me. I then succumbed to my sleepiness and my eyes closed.

  Unbeknownst to me, when I fell asleep, a ray of moonlight fell and was absorbed into my body. The bottleneck restricting my growth was quickly worn away as I breathed comfortably. The light around me seemed to suddenly be agitated. A vortex of light then formed around my body. It seemed like the light of the area around me was sucked away by me. Soon this range expanded and the whole area was bck and white excluding me.

  Then a crisp cracking sound echoed through the forest and color soon flowed back to the bck and white world.

  Soon, only steady breathing could be heard in the area.

  When I woke up, I felt that I was covered in bright light. When I opened my eyes, I found an azure blue sky above. I stood up and prepared to wash up. After washing up, I felt myself slowly waking up from my groggy state. I was finally able to feel how awful the idea of sleeping outside is. I probably have a bad back...

  I then realized that I didn't have any aches or pains. I guess extraordinary bodies have to do with it right. I then tightened my grip on the cup in my hand. The cup suddenly shattered and when I gripped it tighter which surprised me. Normally, even if I didn't pay attention, I wouldn't grip the gss till it shattered. I then looked at my hand and tightened it into a fist. That was when I noticed something was off. The strength in my fist wasn't at this level before.

  I then finally took a look in the mirror. Inside was the same familiar reflection, but I could see it in my eyes that something had changed. I went ahead and started circuting my energy again. Seeing the rushing torrent in my body, I felt completely confused. Did I accidentally breakthrough in my sleep?

  I then hurried over to the training ground even before preparing breakfast. When I was in the room, I took a deep breath before finally starting my test.

  Celine: Sanctuary of Blood!

  A familiar red grassnd expanded from my feet. The domain was indeed expanded and I could feel a certain change in the domain. I summoned my skeletons to be sure and indeed confirmed that my domain has had a slight change. I could feel that there was a connection between my domain and my summons. Unlike before, there was now a thread connecting my summons to my domain. I tested it out and now have confirmed that my summons can indeed now walk outside of the range of my domain. This was good because I could have more skeletons present at a time as well as sending my summons off.

  Although the range of the connection is not long enough to support it helping me explore beyond an area the size of a block unfortunately.

  I then went and familiarized myself with my current strength once again. I only stopped practicing was I had complete control of my body. To do this I did a sword dance with both swords in hand. Coordinating my hands and body in unison while holding swords is a tough task and when I can complete and entire dance will my coordination be perfected.

  And so I practiced for about half of the day before getting tired and suddenly remembering that I had not prepared breakfast as of yet. Just as I resigned myself to a fate of another sandwich, I felt tasty scent emanating from the kitchen. When I headed on over, I saw a familiar figure in the kitchen.

  I guess today is a day of double happiness!

  Quietly sneaking close to the figure in front of me, I suddenly made a leap and hugged her from her surprised back.

  Celine: Lu! You're back!

  Lu: Oh Celine! Don't jump at me like that, I still have to cook.

  Ignoring her words, I went ahead and rubbed my head on her back while tightening my grip on her. She gave a wry smile and simply allowed me to hang on to her like a backpack. She went ahead and finished her cooking and brought us to the table. She then loosened my arms and pced me on a seat at the table. In front of me today was a light vegetable soup that Lu had prepared along side some bread and a few sausages.

  After finishing the delightful meal, I then started asking Lu about what was going on around her. She then expined all about her trip trying to teach the kids about how to manage the town. Eventually, some of the staff members from the base arrived and were able to relieve Lu and the other combative kids from government duties.

  During that time, the kids were able to completely take over all of the industries in the town and have even returned all the kidnapped kids to their families. Those who have lost their families were then prepared to be sent to the base.

  The most important thing there is that they had met up with a representative from White Horn City. Thankfully, the staff kids had already arrived and were able to deal with the negotiations to a satisfactory degree, although judging by the expressions and actions of the representative, they were quite happy with the deal as well.

  What they negotiated was the fees and taxes to be delivered to White Horn City. Before, the city had received a certain amount of taxes and the like as a sort of tribute to gain the protection of the Church of Light. Since we can't face the Church head on, we agreed that the way they handled it was indeed good.

  Since Lu was at the bronze level, when the representative arrived she secretly left to not warrant any unwanted attention. A group of six Bck Iron kids was already a little eye catching so the existence of an unfamiliar Bronze level professional would definitely get the church's attention.

  After she finished saying her end of the story, she then asked about how I lived these past few days. I then told to her all about my struggles and the mysterious breakthrough. After some thinking and brainstorming, Lu finally determined that is was likely the power of the moon that helped to spurn on my promotion.

  We then stayed at the base for a day and finally decided to head on back to the town of White Lilies. We packed up and as we were on the road, I decided to look over at what was has changed in the communicator. The biggest thing that happened in the organization recently is that the five strongest kids from the base have returned from their adventure.

  They had taken on a mission to clear a bandit hideout and succeeded with minimal injury. After returning, they officially named their party the Ptinum Stars.

  Solving this request skyrocketed the reputation of the adventure group in the guild and has resulted in more kids going out and doing commissions. According to the reports in the communicator, some people have wanted to enter the group and take over the group. Of course, these troublemakers were dealt with accordingly. The group has only accepted younger kids who are more likely to accept the teachings of our organization. Of course this spread is on the down low in order to not alert the Church of Light.

  There is a reason that the church has been able to survive and thrive on this pne for so long. They have absolutely slowly infiltrated into every part of our lives here so it is always safe to be careful.

  As we were learning more about everything, I finally found another post on the communicator that attracted my interest. On the post there was a report by the one of the weaker groups. They had reported a sighting of an unusual creature over in the distance.

  They had taken a request to help a merchant travel around and they were going to a third city. Unlike before, this city is on the edge between the Dark Race Alliance territory and the Church's territory.

  On this trip they found an unusual creature in the distance that quickly ran away after being spotted. According to the locals there, the creature is a mixture of a rabbit and a bat with the ability to howl like a wolf. When I heard this description, I felt it was somewhat familiar and so I started looking in my ring for an animal encyclopedia.

  After some searching I found what I was searching. It is a strange creature known as the Shadow Hunter. It is a creature native to the shadow pne and is a natural assassin type character. They are usually reclusive and secretly hide in the shadow realm when they are spotted. They are not only super rare due to their shadow shuttle method, but they are also super valuable as the fur and fangs of the rabbit can grant equipment that uses their materials one of two effects.

  One is the Shadow Leap ability. Although not as strong as their shadow shuttling method, shadow leap is still strong whether it is for assassination or escape. Shadow leap allows for a temporary spacial jump by going through the shadow dimension. You can pop out of almost any location that is covered in shadows. It is extremely useful in the dark in undeveloped pnes that do not have artificial light.

  Another ability is the Shadow Clone. Even though it is less rare, it is a very powerful enchantment that either allows for body doubles when on body equipment, or the creation of phantom illusory limbs to disorient the opponent. It is a very practical piece of equipment for any skill or speed based fighter.

  These two abilities are quite rare and effective even among the Gold level so encountering such a thing here is quite the surprise. Although no one around me right now are able to process a material this good, I can always bring the materials back when the war above is finished.

  And so, I determined my next order of business. My next goal will be to search for and hunt down the suspected Shadow Hunter and explore the world while doing so. I have already achieved the limit of this pne so all I can do strength wise is to solidify in this level. Since that is the case, I might as well just wander around for the next while till I eventually get recalled back. During this time, I can start delegating responsibility for the base to the kids when they grow up a bit more.

  Of course, for now the kids need someone to help take care of things. And so I think that mission should be given to Lu. At least, till there is a better option who is both skilled with paperwork and will maintain loyalty appears.

  So, I went ahead and proposed my idea to Lu. After giving it some thought, she came up with a different idea.

  Lu: Celine, your parents entrusted me to take care of you. Leaving for a few days for my own peace of mind is already a negative so just wait for me to delegate a representative to send the documents through my communicator to work with so I can work on the go.

  I nodded at the idea and Lu then asked me to, once we return to base, stay for a few days to sort out everything. I give the nod and we head back to base a little faster than before.

  While we headed over to the base, the base had started to gain more and more members due to the influx of orphans taken in by the organization. Due to the massive influx of members, the space in the base was getting crowded so the kids from the Dark Branch had reported to me on the communicator and asked for the usage of some of the hidden bases as temporary full on bases to help take care of the massive influx of kids.

  This would be a stop-gap measure and the kids who have grown a little would eventually be sent over to the base in White Ember Town to help take care of their member problem.

  Since we took over the town as guardians, we might as well take over the other parts of the town by sending our members to take up many of the positions. Although this would take a while to fulfill.

  I agreed with the Dark Branch and allowed them the usage of the secret bases to keep the kids. I can always build a few more and since we took over an entire town, the amount of hiding pces we can have has skyrocketed.

  We soon arrived at the base and saw how busy most of it is like. Many of the older kids who were strong or confident enough have chosen to leave the base in order to live their lives while the ones here are either those unconfident or too weak to go on their own. Of course, there is also the new batch of kids to join the organization as well so the base seemed busier than before.

  Now there are the more experienced kids who are taking care of many of the previous jobs of the golems like basic teaching and menial tasks like cafeteria duty. Although the golems would be more efficient at these jobs, I not only have to provide the kids an opportunity to work for wages, but the golems are quite pricy to maintain in the long run.

  In the end, letting the weaker and non combat staff do small tasks like this would be better than to just hand it to the golems.

  So, what I have to do now, is to build a few more main bases to house the increasing groups of kids coming into the base. Over in White Ember Town, the kids who were trafficked can stay over there to help the kids managing the pce while the rest I have to find a pce to pce them. I went into my room in the base and went to a drawing board that had a map of our surroundings on it.

  After taking a gnce at it, I made sure to make the room completely untraceable from the outside world before writing down all the locations of the current bases and secret bases on the map.

  With all of the bases on the map here, now it was time to begin expanding in a big way. After crossing out the locations that already have bases on them, now I had to decide where to build the bigger main bases to house the influx of kids. This one base can't be responsible for everything.

  Taking my finger and leaving magic traces that I can see, I was able to find the approximate influence of our bases on the map. There are still plenty of pces to hide bases, specifically in White Ember Town as well as the various vilges that are dotted along the way. Although the official vilges under the towns are a good start, the real target for bases are those unofficial towns that are not under the jurisdiction of the Church.

  These vilges are where a group of people spontaneously decided to live out on their own without the help of a town or city. The important thing is that they are usually pced away from any rare resources which means less people go in their direction than the officially chosen vilges.

  With my goal in mind, I selected a group of Five of these unofficial vilges to pce bases on. By using the map as a guide, these five vilges are all in different directions from this base to add to the security of this base. To go after the bases, you would need to spread your influence quite widely. In addition to that, I will be making dummy false bases to trick and sacrifice when the need arrives. All of these preparations will help to conceal the organization and leave several ways out if the situation goes horribly.

  Now I had to wait for Lu to be finished with her delegations before I can tell her about this expansion pn. She will then be able to decide on who goes where to start building bases. Of course this operation will be a long term project and will only truly take effect when we return to base. For now, all I expect from them is to settle down at the vilges for a while. This will help keep the attention down low when we arrive there as friends to secretly build our bases.

  Since our future idol has been decided, I took the opportunity to head off to where the Shadow Hunter was sited to do our initial surveilnce. Shadow Hunters are usually very shy and reclusive so the fact that they were spotted multiple times in the same area is quite odd to me. There are only three conclusions that I can make to expin this phenomenon.

  Perhaps, the Shadow Hunter is attracted to the area for unknown reasons? Maybe they are a tamed beast and they are simply patrolling the area at their master's request. Finally, they could also be mentally controlled and circling the same area.

  If it is the second option, I have to see the tamer and then decide whether to kill the tamer or to leave them be. If it is the first and third option, I can just take care of them when the time comes.

  After looking at the path that the kid had taken to the area, Lu and I prepared for the journey. According to the kids recollections of the path, it would be a few days trek to arrive near the st siting of the Shadow Hunter.

  When we prepared all of the materials we sat off. On the way, there are two vilges in that general direction that can help us to know and correct our direction should we lose our way. Knowing this, we prepared in advance with things like a compass and sharp tools to make marks on the road as well as string so we won't lose our way.

  On the first day over, we encountered various animals and pnts of familiar varieties that the organization had already kept records of. There were a few times we were attacked by wild beasts like an aggressive hawk that Lu's summons detected and we quickly killed. We also met some forest wolves who have adapted to forest combat and had excellent teamwork. Thankfully, my previous training at home included jungle combat so I was able to kill their leader and scare the rest of their pack away.

  When we went to rest, we made sure to spray a natural bug repelnt around our tent to prevent insects from coming at us at night. Although we do not fear insects as extraordinary people, it is still easier to prevent them from arriving in the first pce.

  After we were well rested, Lu helped prepare a meal for us. I was thankful to have Lu with me on this journey, I wouldn't know what to do without her taking care of me like this.

  On the next few days, we started to go off the trail and into uncharted territory. Compared to before, the vegetation and beasts around kept getting more varied and difficult to deal with. The territories of the creatures around here are not as defined as I would have liked. This lead to more encounters with various beasts than I would have liked to deal with.

  Among them, the most dangerous encounter was when we met a family of bears known as Bullet Bears. This family had two Bronze Level parent bears and a whole group of Bck Iron and unrated children around. When we entered their territory, they immediately unched an attack and dashed right at us. The dangerous thing about Bullet Bears is their ability to turn their body into a metal like substance with the hardness of steel.

  This steel shell not only increases the strength and defense of their body, but it allows them a certain ability that lets them propel themselves in the air to shoot out like a bullet. Because of their size and defense, they can repeatedly attack in such a manner and have been reported to charge into and smash through the outer walls of many castles. This ability let them be known as one of the most dangerous beasts to encounter.

  During that fight, I had to take on both parents while also maintaining my stamina to deal with other altercations.

  Previously, in order to end a fight quickly, I once used my st resort form to wipe out a crowd of wolves. After the battle, when the both of us put our guard down, A venomous insect came in and took a bite and injected its venom. Thankfully, there was already a known herb that cured its effects that we picked up earlier on. This encounter let me recognize the dangers of forests like these and how important maintaining your strength and awareness here in.

  With this lesson learned, in the fight against the bears, I not only had to deal with the two bronze level bears, but also maintain my stamina to deal with any sneak attacks. This lead to the fight being quite extended before we were finally able to put down the bears.

  All of these animals were all dismantled by Lu with me keeping guard. In order to let her take her time to keep all the parts in good condition, I needed to make sure all the threats that could interrupt her be neutralized.

  This all slowed down our trip and it was not until a month ter that we finally arrived in the range of the Shadow Hunter sightings.