Strengthening the item again would upgrade it to a first-tier item, boosting its power to a whole new level. However, this kind of advancement required a huge amount of experience points. Vega glanced at the 300 experience points left in his system, thinking it would be enough, but the system's prompt dashed his hopes — it required 1,000 experience points to upgrade the Black Shadow Mask to first-tier.
With only 300 experience points left, he couldn't strengthen the mask any further for now. Naturally, he decided to save the experience points for later. After all, in Vega's opinion, the Shadow Warriors were already more than enough to deal with the low-level thugs from those battle groups.
The Shelby family's battle teams had almost been wiped out, so continuing to hunt in Nacro City wouldn't make much difference. Now, the powerful Vega was ready to take down the Shelby family completely. Even if the Shelby family had hired someone with special abilities like a reader, Vega had saved up over 300 experience points — enough to strengthen a powerful item to counter any threat.
Being cautious, Vega didn't plan to rush straight into the Shelby family's stronghold. Instead, he intended to send the Black Shadow Warriors in first, letting them scout and attack to test the Shelby family's true strength. If their power was insufficient, he would unleash all his Shadow Warriors at once. If the Shelby family was stronger than expected, he would devise a different plan.
With this strategy in mind, Vega drove toward the Shelby family villa.
Inside the Shelby family villa, the atmosphere was tense.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One exquisite piece of art after another was thrown to the ground. Tom's eyes were red with fury as he glared at his subordinates in the room.
He was furious — the good mood he had been in, ready to dominate Nacro City, had long since vanished. He wanted nothing more than to vent his rage on these worthless fools in front of him.
"You bunch of trash! What use are you, just bowing your heads and admitting mistakes?" Tom shouted. "You're not even good enough to be toilet cleaners!"
Tom's neck veins bulged with anger as he gestured wildly. Then, in a sudden burst of rage, he slammed the butt of his gun into the face of one low-ranking subordinate, blood splattering and knocking him unconscious.
"For hours, from eight or nine in the evening until dawn, nothing but bad news kept coming!"
"My Shelby family just crushed the Pengellet family, was on the verge of uniting the entire city, had formed an alliance with the Ten Old Men — we were about to take off!"
"But now? Griffin is dead, our city strongholds attacked, our search teams outside are ambushed constantly!"
"Hundreds of our best men are dead, our elite strike teams are gone!"
Tom's fury grew with each word. "And you trash still don't even know who's ambushing us!"
At this point, Tom looked like a desperate gambler who had lost everything. His family's men were exhausted, and with nothing left, what value did he have to rule Nacro City or to the Ten Old Men? The once thriving Shelby family was now falling apart. Such a humiliating gap made Tom furious enough to kill.
"You keep saying it's Vega. That damned man brought by Pengele. Like a bloodthirsty beast," Tom grabbed his top subordinate, John, by the collar. "Tell me, Pengellet was nearly wiped out by us, their top and middle ranks were killed or wounded. How is it they still have survivors?"
"All our elite troops were gone — where is Vega getting all his manpower from?"
John lowered his head, swallowing his grievances. Seeing Tom's fury, he dared not say a word to contradict him.
Tom pressed the cold barrel of his revolver to John's head, the threat of death causing John to tremble.
"Speak. Now. If you're useless, I'll kill you."
John panicked but quickly said, "Lord, there's news — his subordinates just sent intelligence."
Tom's eyes gleamed with killing intent. "Then tell me. Don't waste my time."
John hurried on, "Someone survived. They say Vega commands a group of soldiers dressed in black who continuously attack our men."
"Those warriors in black aren't just strong — they kill endlessly. When they're killed, they break into pieces and disappear."
Tom looked at John in disbelief, anger bubbling inside him. "What kind of nonsense is this? Who turns to pieces after death? Are you making up stories to save your own skin?"
Just as Tom pulled the trigger in rage, a sudden figure appeared in the room.
Without looking at Tom, a man in his thirties with a goatee and a lean build fixed his serious gaze on John and said, "Boy, repeat what you just said carefully."
"Yes, sir, right away."
John quickly turned to the newcomer — the bodyguard who had been following Lord Daniel.
Lord Daniel was a powerful figure whom Tom dared not provoke.
Seeing that his survival depended on Lord Daniel, John nodded eagerly and whispered the information to the bodyguard.