What should I speak of in this log? I have a lot to speak about and nothing specific to focus on. Well, let's start by speaking about the trek that we had to do to reach here. Traveling in the forest has certainly been an experience. The heat and the humidity are honestly not an issue. With my vital mana, I barely even notice it. Humidity is something that I am used to anyway. You will be if you work with my master.
It is the mosquitoes that are causing me a problem. With my instincts and agility, crushing them in my hands is not much of a problem. The problem is that there are so many of them that, after a point, you have to give up. After all, how many times can you slap yourself, even if it does not hurt? Even Jacob has begun to give me looks, and the man would not react to a bull charging at him.
Even now, they are buzzing around in my ear like they are practicing a symphony. A symphony meant to drive me into a rage. They have made sitting into an action that I have been avoiding for the last couple of days. (with a passion I don't get for many things.) Not that I am particularly safe from the infernal droning, even if I keep moving.
Other than the damn mosquitoes, our journey has been quite smooth. Right now, we are next to the Mayfire castle. We have camped about five minutes away from the castle.
We are presently hiding in a cave that Andrew has found. It is a hidden little place that was occupied by a wolf. It did not take us long to kill it and take over its cave. (The wolf itself did not go to waste as Trevor has made it into our food for the last couple of days.) The cave is a tight fit for us all, but I have to admit that it is putting my mind at peace. I could add a few runes to make it more hidden. A little something to hide the smoke. I could also try for a glamour, though that might require materials I don't have right now. It will be unstable and will only be able to last for a couple of weeks, even with me maintaining it. I could start work on it after this log.
Our goal is to get into the castle, but things are a bit complicated. We could go closer, but then we would risk discovery. Turns out the mayfires are in a worse position than we expected them to be in.
The minute we came to the castle, it was more than clear that the fort was under the Bloodfire gang. The fact that their crown ship is floating above the castle is more than enough proof of that.
It is a massive ship, reminding me of a merchant ship of all things. That is only the case with its size, though. No person would ever mistake this ship for a merchant ship. It has one too many cannons for that. Over the last couple of days, I have been counting the cannons on that ship. I can confidently say that I have counted to thirty cannons at the very least. Imagine dodging that many cannons. Even while dancing, we will die.
Well, there has been a constant stream of ships coming to and leaving the ship for the last couple of days. With the number of ships that can be seen here, I can at least confidently say that all of the gang is here. I will have to speak about them one of these days. If I am to be fighting them, I might as well record about them. (Ignore what Trevor says.)
As if that wasn't enough, I have been studying the formations on the outer wall. These are most likely formations that have been placed by the mayfires themselves. Right now, there is simply no way that the Bloodfire gang has not already taken control of them.
That is why we are camping in this place right now. We don't know how exactly we are supposed to breach the fort now. If I am honest, I am not even sure if the mayfires are in here. Trevor is still sure about them, though. He claims they are still somewhere inside the place, waging their war on our enemies. Now I have no way of knowing just how true that statement is, but the man seems confident.
As for what exactly we are doing here, camping. That is something that only Trevor has any idea about. Speaking to the man, the only thing that I have understood is that he is calling for allies. What allies he can call here I don't know. It could either be some kind of summons, or it could be the criminal element of the city. Both make use of summoning circles to communicate with people.
I am personally biased towards the latter. Every city has its rats, and the guard corps always worked to be friends with them. As for what is the nature of our allies, I have no idea. The man has not been willing to share those details with me at all. This is for good reason, though.
The guard corps can be unofficially divided into two halves. The first half is the official one, the ones that go and deal with our allies. The one who has to go and satisfy the Hexmountain treaty. The ones that have to engage in diplomacy with our allies. You can say that I am a part of this official group.
The other half is unofficial. I am sure that if I were to ask the head office about their existence, they would say that it does not exist. Even I know of their existence in whispers and rumors, mostly from my master.
They supposedly negotiate with the criminal elements of each city. At the same time, they deal with the more unsavory elements of our work. After all, an assassination would be more efficient on our coffers in certain cases. It would certainly lead to fewer losses on either side, though only if our allies never find out about it.
I think that Trevor has been placed with me to manage work like that. That is the reason that he is being given so much information that I am not being given. (And to be frank, I am not trusted by the head office.)
The man has been making use of contract magic. There is a pretty good chance that the man could be summoning one of our allies in other worlds. For the last couple of days, the man has been raising summoning circles after summoning circles. All of them are failing, though. Sadly, this is not my field of expertise so I can't say what he means to do. He could be summoning elementals, imps, fairies or demons for all I know.
The man has not been doing blood sacrifices, so it is not one of the devil's, at the very least. The Hexmountain is better than that. (At least for an official mission like this.)
Right now, in this group, I am the only person who is not able to handle this waiting. Andrew and Jacob are both meditating like crazy. I am not surprised that they are so willing to meditate.
Andrew is at the fourth stage of the foundation stage. Jacob is at the third stage, almost on the verge of reaching the fourth stage.
They both (especially Andrew) are at a key stage of their cultivation. If they both manage to break through into the fifth stage and unlock their mana sense, it would be very good for them. Still, I don't understand how they are capable of focusing so much. I could learn so much from them.
The only problem with that is they are of the legion. I don't want to speak on it, but let's just say that they will listen to every command of mine, but they will not be friendly.
Looking at them makes me want to continue my studies as well, but my question is how the fuck are they doing it?. After all, studying my master's books requires so much focus and I can't do it with these damn mosquitoes.
At the moment I can't even try and cultivate. After all, if cultivating was the goal, I already would have the second slab complete by now. I could have begun work on the third slab already. I am still not too confident that I would be able to pull off the fusion spell. I could study the fusion spell, but at the moment I don't want to do that.
Studying that spell reminds me of all the formations that I need to fix on the ship. Then I start thinking of my ship, and that is just depressing. I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I thought that I could deal with all of this damage. Well, I still could, but it is just so much work.
The damage done to the ship this time is even more extensive than I was hoping it to be. Every single one of those formations was put in there by my master. Knowing my master's work, I know that the formations are not going to be easy to fix.
All of the formations that he has put here are recorded in his notes. It is not going to be an easy task. Just the list of formations that I need to manage is causing my head to spin.
Right now, my primary goal is to fix the sensory formations. They are the most screwed formations on my ship because I had to explode them.
I guess that I should explain why I had to blow my sensory formations like that. As I explained before, I had to dissuade the enemy from stepping into my ship. The best way to do this would have been to make them believe that the mana battery in my ship had become unstable.
An unstable mana battery is a recipe for disaster. Even the smallest of forces could cause the entire thing to go up in flames. I am hoping that the risk of an explosion (at least in their heads) would make them double-think the prospect of exploring the ship. Since I don't make use of a mana battery, there is no risk of the thing blowing up.
As for the reason that I have blown up the sensory formations. The reason for that is that the sensory formation blows up when powered by an unstable mana battery. Whenever you are supposed to enter a wreck, you are supposed to check the sensory formations. If they are fine, then the ship is safe to explore.
Well, to return to the matter of the damage on my ships. The formations used to navigate the ship are also shot. The culprit is one of those cannon shots.
They managed to take out the formations meant to keep the ship in control. It actually should not be that hard to repair. After all, it is just replacing a few inscriptions. Well, the only problem is that this is my master's work. Until I completely understand his notes, that is going to be very hard (if not impossible) for me.
The greatest damage is to the mana storage formation. That is completely and truly screwed. This damage happened during our second crash. There is a crack the size of my head in the mana storage formation.
Any mana that will go into my storage is just going to leak out of the crack. This is the major cost of running with an ambient storage system. The durability of your mana storage is about as strong as the mana core used. (Which is not much considering the materials usually used.)
That is one benefit of using mana batteries. It is that breaking a mana battery is very hard. The only problem is that once the mana battery is broken, things are going to go to shit very quickly.
And before you ask, no you cannot use a mana battery to store ambient mana. The mana battery is only able to store mana of one variety. If I were to link up a mana battery to my gathering formation, it would explode before the day is done. Now that I think about it, that is a good way to destroy an enemy ship. I should do some research into that.
Well, I guess that I should speak of what mana batteries are exactly in the first place. It is not exactly common knowledge for nonformation mages. Well, a mana stone is a naturally occurring mineral that can be mined from the ground. Mana stones can be recharged, but they can break after recharging a couple of times.
A mana battery is a more processed form of a mana stone. Formations are put into a mana stone to regulate the mana leaving and going into the battery. It is capable of absorbing and emitting mana for a period longer than any mana stone should be capable of. That is why mana stones are used so much in airships.
Well, for now, I think that I should stop this log. Well, I had started the log to distract me from my boredom. Now I feel my anxiety grow. Fuck it, I have recorded enough. I might as well begin work on those cloaking runes.