A month had passed quickly for Jev and Jess, the couple who Harvir and Nyana had recommended to be capos, the Don had promoted them the day after they had been recommended. Since then the couple had adjusted well to having more power in the Mafia, as well as a large pay increase. Currently they and the other capos are standing before a teleportation array that had been built over the last month, now only the final step remained before it would be an active array. They had remained in contact with Geralt, the capo in Everwinter, through the cellphones the boss had given them. Doing this allowed for information the Lich had found on teleportation arrays to be passed quickly, the was very helpful in speeding up the building process.

Now stood six large stone pillars, in the center of the stone platform that the pillars stand on, is a blood ritual. Each of the pillars inscribed with a different part of the ritual, combined they create the symbol in the center of the platform. Currently six unfortunate homeless are tied to the pillars, crying and begging as the times comes closer for their deaths. Six soldiers stand near each of them waiting for the boss to give the signal to slice open their necks.

Alex does just that, watching as his soldiers use knifes to slice open the sacrifices necks. Then watching the blood flow down their bodies and into the cut outs in the stone, the blood then flowed and filled the blood ritual symbol in the stone platform. Once it was completely full the blood flared and started glowing, then Alex could feel Magic being drawn out of the very air and empowering the ritual. Next the blood was absorbed into the stone, giving it the power of teleportation. It is connected directly to the platform Harold had made near the cabin in Everwinter. Since both platforms used the same symbol they are directly connected, when someone uses the platform they change places and transport whoever and whatever is on it with it, the platforms can hold up to 30 people at one time.

Seeing that the ritual is done, and having a soldier test it, Alex nodded at his capos before walking back to his house while thinking on the last month. They had made around 700 platinum, the first week they didn't sell all their daily stock, instead his dealers would go to other cities and sell what they could there. During that week those who did buy would start realizing the potions did as advertised, and they would get addicted, then they would spread the word. Soon they had tens of thousands of customers, most only buying one or two potions every few days. His capos had also been recruiting aggressively, now they have over a thousand soldiers, 100 dealers and 20 alchemists. It had been a good month, but there were some issues he dealt with as well.

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The first issue was space for all his subordinates, he had to spend another 280 platinum on 80 more acres of land around the original 10 acres. Then he had a wall build around all of it and 10 more barracks for all his soldiers, he didn't need that many but they would continue expanding so he wanted to be more prepared, this cost him another 125 platinum. He also spent another 100 platinum to get 95 more Ar15s, he wanted to have at least 200 of his men trained with the weapons, they would be a huge advantage especially with magic enchantments on them. All of this coast 500 platinum throughout the month, meaning he really only gained 200 or so platinum. However he also had to play everyone, this cost another 60 platinum. Every month from now on would cost at least 175 platinum in pay to his soldiers and capos. So he ended with around 140 platinum, still good, but he would need to tone down his purchases and for now they had recruited enough.

He also had to deal with a few of his men stealing, he knew it would happen eventually so he decided to make a point to all of the Mafia. Bringing the thieves to the center of the compound and having them nailed to crosses and then burned. Hopefully everyone else would get the message, his capos were certainly shook for a couple days. Then he had to deal with the church's attempts to spy on them. Little did the church know that at all times he had soldiers, that specialize in spy Magic, guarding the compound from such attempts. Then they tried getting some of their own guards to infiltrate the Mafia, however the church forgot one major thing. All church priests, guards and templars are branded with their mark. Idiotic since it made identifying them extremely easy. Then the church attempted to disrupt their selling operations, so now the dealers and their soldier escorts would simply store their cloaks until they got near their deals. This threw the church off since they couldn't just follow those walking in the city with their cloaks on. Alex was amazed by the stupidity of the church leader here in Midcross, and with the gates opening they couldn't request backup for something they think is only a local threat.

The void gates opened, allowing for passage between the two worlds, one is this world while the other is full of all sorts of evils. Many of the larger adventurer guilds see this as an opportunity to enter the other world and collect loot, resources and items you are unable to find in this world. The church though see this for what it is, a threat. The last time the gates opened a demonic army marched into this world, destroying everything in it path. Nothing Alex read stated how exactly this army was stopped, but if the gates were opened so suddenly without armies and guilds being notified ahead of time, it could only mean one thing. They had been opened from the other world.