I am back in the sewers in our little room. It is a bit cramped, if I am to be honest with three people present in our room. The journey to my escape route was surprisingly quick. It didnt take me more than an hour to return to this position.

I could feel something was going on in the city based on the manner in which the city had fallen into chaos. Everybody running everywhere and no person from the blood heart gang to manage that chaos. Anyway, Trevor and the formation merchant came roughly after a hour of our meeting.

Then I understood just how much chaos the man had caused in the city. This was the conversation I had with the man as he deposited the formation merchant on one of the beds. The man had become unconscious.

"Just what have you done, Trevor.", I speak, seeing the man struggling to move the quite heavy formation merchant.

"Well, I am certain that you could help with this bastard. Carrying him has been quite the pain.", Trevor speaks, his voice twinged with embarassment.

"Yeah, yeah.", I reply, promptly helping the man with formation merchant. "Still, my question remains. What did you do that the city almost feels empty of the blood heart gang."

"Well, I did exactly what I told you that I would be doing, captain. I released all of the prisoners of the bloodheart gang.", Trevor speaks, getting ready to tell his tale. "This is something that all people forget, but full prisons are not safe for a healthy kingdom. Sneaking into the place was damn easy too. Their base is a two stories inn, with the upper floor acting as a makeshift prison. The bottom floor was their base of actions. Over all, a pretty smart plan if you have capable guards manning the place. Smart these people are not. I didnt even need to do much, just knock out one of the cleaners of the Inn and then take his supplies to he base. They didn't even bother to verify my identity."

"Well, that was easy.", I reply.

"Not that easy too, the damn bastards made me clean all of their rooms too, before letting me up there. They managed to turn their rooms into proper pig stys, too. These old bones are not built for that kind of hard work.", trevor speaks. "There was this moment with the owner of the inn, where I was sure my cover was blown. I had assumed him killed. Instead they have been making him do some kind of accounting work. The man was thankfully smart and played along with me. I was sure that one of the guard suspected something though."

"So they allowed you entry upstairs.", I ask. "That is kind of careless."

"Not that careless. They sent a couple of guards up there with me. Head on fighting them would have been impossible without raising a din.", Trevor replies. "I just pretended that the door was stuck and while the two bastards were busy trying to pry it open, pushed them into the room. The prisoners there took care of everything after that for me. Well, after that I had little to do actually. The prisoners didn't take long to find their arms and then things just kept escalating from there. It was pretty to hard to find this bastard in that chaos though."

"Just how many people were there for such a thing to occur", I ask. "It felt to me that the entire blood heart gang had disappeared from the streets."

"Well, there easily could have been a hundred to two hundred people in that building. That is almost ten people per room. It is not an understatement to say that it was quite a tight fit.", Trevor replies. "The blood heart gang is clearly not very popular in the city. It was a pretty healthy mix of mercenaries, the city guard and the merchants."

"Well, what about the formation merchant. How did he end up in his present state.", I ask.

"Well, it will be better if you blame the bastard. He took up a fight with one of the other guys, a guard I think. The bastard ended up pummeling him into unconsciousness."

"Regardless, he is with us now. That means that we will be able to finally get that formation.", I reply, the prospect of that particular headache being over quite the motivation.

"Are you sure, that he will be able to legitimately provide the goods.", Trevor asks.

"Well, this grimoire of his is pretty high grade magic. You don't usually use that kind of magic to protect useless stuff. If the bastard is not able to provide us with that formation of his, then i will make sure to extract every single word of this book. This bastard is not going to be short changing us. Of that I am completely sure" I reply, the irritation apparent in my tone. What can I say, my body is still feeling the injuries that I have had to take for this bastard.

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"Well, you can do that anyways, can't you?", Trevor replies.

"I could I guess, but at the moment those formations are quite worthless to me. What is the point of having the schematics of even a divine weapon if you do not have the time to build it.", I reply. "And grimoire magic is quite hard to break. There are failsafes the bastard can still exploit."

"Okay, will these camouflage formation be enough to bring the ship here to this city.", trevor asks.

"Well, that is the truth. Though I don't see how that will really benefit us.", I ask him back.

"Well, we will still need an escape route.", Trevor replies. "You don't want to be stuck in the city after we have breached the walls of the inner keep. I have a feeling that we shall find nothing pleasant there."

"Well, that is the truth. There is not much I can do until he wakes up though.", I reply.

And thus we sit in silence after this. the man seems to be almost sleeping, if you could ignore his face which look like he has put it inside a bee hive. The man is clearly not popular.

I wondered if I should make my contribution by punching him a couple of times but I resist that impulse. Can't have him dying before opening that grimoire of his.

Thankfully we don't need to wait long as the bastard finally opens his eyes. Whatever might be my annoyance, the man has clear understanding of his situation. The instant that he sees us, the man is on the ground bowing to us.

"Thank you, thank you, my lord.", he says. "you have managed to save me from quite a dreadful fate."

That leaves us both quite confused as to what to do. Finally, I speak up.

"Leave all that bootlicking to somebody that might like it.", I speak. "We had an agreement, you bastard. You will be fulfilling that immediately or my sword is quite thirsty for blood, my dear friend."

I am sure that came out more threatening than I assumed it to be, as the man almost begins shivering in fear. He recovers almost immediately though.

"Naturally, my lord. Give the grimoire and I will give it you.", he replies and I give him the book.

"What was you problem with the blood heart gang, though.", I ask him as he fiddles with the grimoire.

"They had need of my services in locating a certain formation, my lord.", he says. "A particularly strong one. A rank six one if their description is to be believed. they were quite certain that it was in my possession."

Finally the grimoire opens.

"Is it in your possession.", I ask.

"Well, if I had a class six formation, even the schematics for one. I would not be in this damn fort. I would be home, without having to do any work.", he replies. "I don't know anything about a class six formation. I do know something, but I can't guarantee that it is something that will help you out."

"Well, regardless, the damn book is open. Give me what you have promised to me and then we will see about leaving you alone.", I reply.

The man fiddles with the book for a while and finally opens one of the pages.

"My lord, this is a class eight formation. It is called as the light shield. The purpose of the spell is to create minor illusions around your ship, allowing you to conceal yourself as a cloud.", he speaks. "It is one of the most precious formations that I have at hand."

Saying that he suddenly tears the page from the book, handing it to me. I am sure that the book has mechanisms in place to restore the damage the man has inflicted on it.

"That was for the mission of returning my grimoire to me, my lord. I also need you to reimburse you for the act of saving me.", he speaks suddenly. "The reason that the blood heart gang was behind me was due to a map that I had acquired from one of their underlings a couple of years ago."

"A map to what?" Curiosity getting the better of me.

"I have to believe that it is the ruins of an old elven formation storage facility. Atleast that is my belief.", he speaks. "Now, I might have a map but I have no way of knowing the actual situation of the ruin. It could be empty for all I care."

"But if it is not and if even a single formation remained in the place, it has to be a class six formation at the very least.", I reply.

"Well, then it is an gamble isn't it. The question is are you willing to take it.", Trevor, who has been silent speaks suddenly.

"Well, I was quite sorely tempted, I must admit. You never know what you can find with the elves.", the formation merchant speaks. "But, it was simply too risky for my tastes. The ruin is right next to vampire territory in the first place. Even if it was not, it is quite an costly endeavour."

"So then why was the blood heart gang after you.", Trevor asks again.

"Well, they were under the assumption that I have already looted the place. Why they thought that, I don't know. They were not even ready to listen to anything that I had to say.", he replies. "Still, I will be able to escape soon enough. With the grimoire, I will be able to buy my way to the front of the bastards list. They will remove from this infernal place by the end of the week."

I can actually see that the man has a significantly worried expression. He is either a very good actor or he is being quite truthful. Regardless of which it is, the man does not stop ruffling with the grimoire, finally landing on what I have to assume is the map.

"The map is guarded with a little extra magic than my other formations. Unless I utter a specific phrase as I open it, the page will remain blank.", the formation merchant speaks. "This one you will have to copy on your own, since tearing that page is quite an impossibility."

"For an useless map, you have it safeguarded quite well haven't you.", I ask.

"Well, even if I were to place a class nine formation in front of the people that I have to usually deal with, they would never be able to make any head or tail out of it even If I were to give them a couple of days. A map is completely diferent.", he replies, as Trevor quickly takes the grimoire to do the necessary copying.

I could do it, but even though I am a formation mage my drawing skills are quite negligible. Better to leave it to an expert I say.