It has been two weeks since my battle with the possessed vampire.

  I am almost fully healed, but my wounds, especially the one on my chest are still stinging. Well, if it was paining it would have been better, honestly. Right now the sting is more itchy than painful and I am struggling to stop myself from scratching. Every time that I do end up scratching it leads to more stinging in my chest, which devolves into more itching. It is becoming a pretty vicious cycle now.

  If I could just make use of my sword, this wouldn't even be an issue. It would be pretty stupid to do that now though.

  Well, my run through the fort has ended up attracting the ire of our enemies. Right now the Bloodfire gang is ripping through the city looking for me and they are doing a very bad job of it.

  Well, the fact that they are doing such a bad job is the problem, it seems. The organization knows how to hide itself when the other side acts more like a hunter. If the enemy were trying to attack only them, things would be manageable. A base above could be abandoned if need be.

  Right now the Bloodfire gang is like a berserk bull. They are attacking and destroying everything that comes into their sight. For every organization hideout they destroy, ten legitimate merchants are attacked without reason. Alliances built for decades are crumbling under such a blind assault.

  Well, this is not a good thing for obvious reasons. Even I can see that the organization is struggling to protect their interests. Quite a few of their outposts above the ground have already been raided and destroyed.

  Old allies are betraying these outposts to save their hides. They have yet to shift their attention down here into the sewers, but it is going to be a matter of time.

  Trevor has suffered the most due to this. He has been in the city for the last couple of weeks doing some kind of extra work for the organization. This is payment for my protection after the chaos I caused in the city a couple of weeks ago. He has been careful not to mention too much of this job to me. Well, that is the reaction he has for everything related to the organization to be honest.

  I have yet to meet him for a while now. He has been busy with his work for the last couple of weeks. This is to the point that I don't think that I have even seen him sleeping. Well, I guess that I could have missed the man as well. I haven't exactly been wasting time as well. I have been sitting down and working on the fusion spell in this period.

  I have a bunch of projects that I am working on right now. Entering into meditation has been never this hard. Still, I find myself forcing trying to meditate. It is not like I can just enter into meditation that easily. It requires a focus that is hard for me to achieve. This is especially the case now when every few seconds my brain goes to the next thing I can be working on.

  I have been trying to build the next foundation slab in my mana core. I haven't made much progress since it only has been a week, but there has been progress.

  More importantly, I have managed to achieve the major bond with my second foundation slab. How do I describe to you what the major bond feels like? It brings a sense of durability to the link between my sword and my mana core. If before the bond between my sword and me was like a string, which would have snapped if enough force was put to it. Now it feels like a rubber band, which can be stretched for quite a while.

  The foundation slab also now acts as the tether for the connection between the sword and myself. This allows me a much deeper control over my sword, (this is behind what even I thought would be possible.)

  With the major bond, the rejection that I have felt with blood mana is decreasing. For how much I use it, blood mana is still an external mana for my mana core. Before, a part of my vital mana was converted into blood mana. While it was made from my vital mana, it was still a foreign mana. Maybe less so than absorbing blood mana made from somebody else's life force, but still a foreign mana.

  Now a part of my mana core has become able to store blood mana. This is purely blood mana, which I can control as freely as my vital mana. I could use it to cast even vampiric magic.

  Vampires can pull off some pretty amazing things with this mana of theirs. If I can pull half of the things that they can then all of this work would have been worth it. All of the passive benefits that I have with blood mana are just growing. I am becoming stronger, and faster and my senses are getting more sensitive with each passing day. The problem is that it increases my dependence on my sword.

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  With the major bond, I have to admit that the cost has also increased. If before I could use the sword once every year, now I have to use it once every ten months.

  My dependence on the cycle has also increased, though that also means that I can make use of more blood mana.

  (After half a day.)

  The first thing that I think while looking at Trevor is that the man looks exhausted. If anything the man looks like he could do with a massage. Well, I won't be the one to say that to him. That is going to end up in a lecture lasting at least an hour about the softness of the youth of this generation.

  "Well, you look at me like I am about to drop dead in the next few minutes, kid.", he speaks. As speaks he completely breaks my track of thoughts. "I am not that fragile, but I need you to focus. I need your help."

  "Well, as long as it is not fighting I should be able to manage it.", I reply. "I just need a couple of days to recover from the damage that I have taken in my fight with the demon. After that, I can fight. Fighting now would risk opening my wounds."

  "Weren't you supposed to have advanced regeneration?", Trevor asks.

  "All of that requires me to make use of blood mana. Now that it is confirmed that there are vampires of the court here, that is a risk I cannot take.", I reply. "If I were to fully activate my sword they will know my location within ten minutes."

  "Well, that's good. We can make use of that.", he speaks. "Would you be able to fight them? I don't even need you to fight them. I just need you to buy me an hour."

  "Well, I can pull off something like that I think. As long as the other side does not have too many vampires stationed here.", I reply. "For all the benefits that my sword gives me, fighting against vampires of a higher rank is going to be very hard. Especially one that is from the court. "

  "Well, that is fine. I have a plan that might need bait.", he speaks. "If what you say is true, then push comes to shove, you will do good work."

  "Fine, what am I supposed to do?", I ask, somehow shivering while looking at the glint in his eyes.

  "Well, you are going to the inn, kid.", he speaks, looking at my confusion. "And before you ask, They are making use of the inn as a temporary prison. It holds all the people that they have imprisoned. They are mainly merchants and guards of this town. It has particularly become full after they started looking for you."

  As he speaks, the man sits down on a chair getting comfortable. This is going to take a while, it looks like.

  "Well, let me tell you the task I have been given. We are to engineer a mass jailbreak from the inn.", he continues. "That would give the Bloodfire gang something to keep themselves busy."

  "Well, why are they involving us? Isn't this something that they would like to do themselves.", I ask.

  "Well, that is true with most groups. The organization is pretty different. You can say that they are more profit-driven. Right now is a business season for them. It would be more economical for us to do the rescuing so they will make us do it. It also allows them to make the most use out of the present situation.", he speaks. "They are already sending most of their people into the task of smuggling people out. Anyway, where was I, we have been tasked to save them and let as many prisoners out as possible."

  "What is the plan? You are not the kind to be without one.", I ask the man.

  "Well, I have already scouted the location for you. I already tried to save them once, but the bastards caught me at the last moment.", he continues. His voice is now receding into agitated mumbles. "I had reached the second floor as well. That bastard of a guard detected me at the last moment."

  "So that must mean that they are going to be alert for another attempt.", I reply. "well, since you have come to me, you must have a plan for me."

  "Well, not exactly a plan but I can get you the map of the place. That means we can make a plan to infiltrate the place together. The problem is that somebody strong has been stationed there. It is not a captain, but somebody approaching that level. They have been stationed there after my attempt", he replies. "The only thing is that we need to get a point of entry for you. Well, how confident are you with the disguise of a porter? I have heard that you already used it."

  "Well, I can't be anything that obvious. The porters are going to be the first people that they will search through on this inn. The damn bastards have my posters stuck everywhere.", I reply. "And regardless of how carefully I try to hide my mana. The other side will only need to look at me with a bit of focus and they will be able to detect my blood mana. They will be looking at any porter they see with that much scrutiny at least."

  "Well, then we just need to make sure that the other side does not give you another glance. So a porter is out of the question", he speaks. "I just need to get you into a couple of rags and I can make you a half decent beggar. The only problem is that you have such smooth hands. You have let go of combat practice haven't you."

  "Well, beggars are going to be even more searched than the porters.", I reply. "I have seen it happen so many times in my missions with the legions."

  "While you legioners are adept at the art of disguise, we at the guard corps are true masters of it." He replies. "You don't need to worry about that. A beggar would look at you and think of you as a beggar."

  "Well, we are hunted in every city that we go to.", I reply, a bit irritated. "If our disguises are not perfect then we will be swamped with enemies."

  "Well, for you disguises are a matter of convenience. It is meant to stop you from having to fight in every city that you visit. There is no real cost to getting caught other than one more fight", he speaks. "For us at the guard corps, if our disguises are caught then it will be our death. We are not as strong as you guys."

  "Fine," I reply, with a bit more heat than I expected. I don't know how to argue against that.

  "Now to speak about the plan.", the man speaks. "It would be better if you stopped recording now."