After the events at the courtyard, no one in the surrounding area dared come close to it. Not the hoodlums from the slums, not even their landlord.

Even the bird cage gang members stayed clear of the area for obvious reasons.

The courtyard had gone quiet in a way that felt deliberate. Like the city itself had decided to give it a wide berth.

In that time, Leon stabilized his foundations, and got used to using his magic with utmost efficiency. The control came naturally enough. The flow of it, the weight of it, the way it moved through him when he called on it. He had been running it through his body in small cycles, testing the limits, finding where the resistance sat and pushing just past it without breaking anything.

It was good work. Necessary work.

But it soon became obvious that he lacked something.

Transcendent magic spells.

These spells were not the normal type of spells magic users would use in the earlier stages of their development. They had an upper and lower limit, designed specifically to be used for long periods of time, and to increase the strength of a magic user by multiple folds at a moment’s notice.

The difference was significant.

A transcendent spell wasn’t just stronger. It was a different kind of tool entirely. The kind of thing that separated someone who was dangerous from someone who was truly hard to kill.

Leon knew which one he wanted to be.

Unfortunately, the old hydra hadn’t left a single spell of the kind. Not one. Leon had combed through everything the inheritance had given him and come up empty on that front. He had gone through it twice to be sure.

Nothing.

He needed to source one from outside.

He stroked his chin.

(Options. Think through the options.)

His mind moved through the five clans and sects with influence in the city of dogs.

One was the Wind Devil Sect, a sect with connections to the human sub clan Amon. They specialized in wind based magic and mental illusions. Useful, but not what he was looking for. Their spells would be tailored to their own cultivation path and adapting them would cost more time than it was worth.

Then there was the Long clan. A depreciated clan from the human clans, one that no longer had much pull, which was exactly why they had to rely on the city of dogs as their main base. Reduced to operating out of a place like this. Whatever they had access to would be limited.

The next was the bird cage sect. He didn’t linger on that one.

Then the Firestone manor.

But of all four, the last one was the one that truly caught Leon’s attention.

Because this force wasn’t connected to any human clan.

Rather, they prided themselves in dealing with rogue mages.

They were called the Black Dogs Underworld.

Leon let the name sit in his head for a moment.

Even though the central region was generally peaceful and had no large scale wars like the kingdoms beyond the wall, there was limited space. And limited space came with land grab clashes, resource disputes, quiet little conflicts that never made it into any formal record. Things that got settled quickly and quietly, with the right kind of help.

The Black Dogs Underworld stood as one of the many sword-for-hire organizations that helped facilitate these conflicts. They operated in the gaps. They knew how to move resources, acquire things through channels that didn’t officially exist.

They didn’t advertise it. They didn’t need to.

(A group that deals in rogue mages would have access to rogue spell sets. Unaffiliated techniques. Things that don’t belong to any one lineage.)

That was exactly what he needed.

"It’s the faceless mercenary company all over again," Leon laughed under his breath.

He turned to his left.

There a man that looked just like him stood, a smile on his face and a glint of light flashing through his eyes.

Leon looked at him for a moment.

The clone looked back.

"Find this Black Dog Underworld and register."

The clone said nothing back.

He just turned and walked out of the courtyard, taking large strides as he moved through the streets, steady and unhurried. Not rushing. Not drawing attention. Just moving like someone who had somewhere to be and already knew how to get there.

Before anyone could notice him he had blended into a crowd, his steps adjusting to match the rhythm of the people around him. He walked straight toward a busy market on the border between the east of the city and the north.

The market was loud. The kind of loud that swallowed individual sounds and turned them into one constant wall of noise. Vendors shouting, carts rolling, the smell of food mixing with something sharper underneath it. Animals somewhere nearby. The press of bodies moving in every direction at once.

His gaze moved through it all without hurrying.

Being a former member of the faceless mercenary company, he knew how these organizations hid their shady business inside civilian buildings. It wasn’t complicated. You picked somewhere that had a reason to have foot traffic, somewhere that people came and went without anyone tracking it. You kept the front clean. You kept the back busy.

The trick was knowing what to look for.

Not who was going in. How they were going in. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

With a quick glance he had already isolated the most likely building. A mid-sized structure set slightly back from the main strip. The foot traffic around it had a particular quality. People approaching and then adjusting their angle at the last second. A pause before entering that lasted a beat too long.

Suspicious activity. The right kind of subtle.

People going in but not quite matching the profile of regular customers.

"Hm."

Without thinking twice he walked straight in, a calm look on his face.

This wasn’t when he was a random person on the street.

Leon right now was a transcendent being.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​