Our present location is really causing me to feel very uncomfortable. At the moment, we have finally made our way into the inner keep. I am trying to rest at the moment though my pillow and bed made of rolled clothes is not helping. I am also trying to keep my mana from bursting out. It is riled up in a way that I would have thought not possible until now.

That can happen when you have expended your mana five times in a row. As for why it is five times regardless of what Trevor said, there was no way that I was about to let anybody enter the barrier to the first time I opened it up.

I have never practically done something like this in real life before. When the first one was stable enough and once I had verified that, I allowed Trevor and his group from the second one onwards. It was a risk, but I would prefer to take that risk than for that hole to destabilize suddenly and cut them into two. (Not physically mind you, but wherever the barrier will pass will kill that part of the body. If that were occur at your neck, let's just say I would pity that person).

All of this mana pushing and whatever Matthew has done has made the mana in body a bit out of control. It is nothing serious, just that a bit more or bit less mana than I need is being pulled out each time I pull my mana. It would be disastrous if I had to inscribe, but it would cause no problems for now. At least that is the hope.

Pushing myself like that is something that I have never done before. My brethren who tend to be more vigorous with their cultivation would be very surprised at this. Pushing your mana like how I done is the only way to ensure that your foundation is more stable without expending resources.

This would ensure that you would be able to store more mana, have it flow more smoother and also have better control over the mana. Also, when you have to push yourself like how I have done, you tend to get lesser side affects. When you have to fight against your fellows capable of that, it would seem stupid not to undergo the same training.

I have never done training like that, sadly. Formation building is an involved task. It leaves no time for other pursuits. I barely have enough time to cultivate already. Otherwise, why would it take me three years to get the second foundation done.

Right now, I can feel my mana channels ache. It is like a pain in my bones, ever present and alway hurting. By tomorrow this pain will be gone and I will have stronger and more robust mana channels.

Anyway, it is time that I return to the topic. Well, I am not sure what to tell. Our entry into the inner keep was issue free, almost scarily so.

I was expecting the blood heart gang to pop up any second that I was sending the troop in. Nothing like that happen. There was no trace of moment of the blood heart gang. Granted, I don't how it would have looked if they did make a move on us I expected to notice something.

Their silence is more scary than any action that they could have taken.

I was so sure of their attack that I had the sword in standby too. Not that I could help it actually, pushing my mana out like that has my sword at an edge too.

I can feel it itching to activate, as it keeps pushing blood mana into me. I honestly cannot figure out the mechanics of the sword. How exactly is it converting my mana into blood mana, that only the vampires will be able to tell.

However it does this, it is excited. I am actually struggling to keep the formation in control. That is part of the reason that my mana is out of control.

The place that we are seems to be a storage house. It contains loads of clothes, stored here unused. It is a decently big room, enough to house the tents for us four.

Trevor and the troop has been quite liberal with these clothes, tearing them up to raise up tents. It is almost fascinating to seem them work with so much efficieny. They have even managed to get a fire burning from a set of clothes though I am not sure if it is actually needed. For a second I worry about that but I am sure that it would not be burning any bridges. The mayfires have more immediate worries than caring about what happen to their clothes.

Right now this is our place, our home base if you will. We cannot really proceed beyond this point without preparations and rest. Proceeding without either and I am sure that we are going to end up in a very messy position.

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Right now we have three main threats to contend with in the place. At least that is what I assume to be the case. I honestly have no idea what is going on here.

The first would be the traps that I am sure are hidden in every nook and cranny of this place. Unlike popular belief forts are the perfect places to hide traps. In the thrill of the battlefield they work the best even more than in tombs where you can expect them.

Traps are an integral part of the defense of a place. They are just so effective that it would stupid not to use it. It doesn't consume a lot of mana, like a mana sucking barrier. It has a better kill count than most defenses, like catapults and it certainly demotivates malicious parties very effectively.

That is why tomb raiding is such a dangerous process. Traps kill more people in the tomb than any other defense that might exist in that tomb and it certainly a similar case in case of forts.

Right now traps are going to be making our progress so hard. The storehouse leads to corridors with a door on either side. Right now, the troop have cleared the corridor of traps. There was a nasty one that exploded on somebody stepping on it.

Thankfully, Trevor activated that trap with a stick. Other than that there are a few alarm traps, which I think can be ignored safely. Somebody would have already come if that was not the case. Anyway, the folk it will give a warning to will be the one that we want to meet anyway.

We can't be sure of the two doors though. They have mana passing through them, but with this much mana pulsing around us it is hard to tell if a trap exists or not.

They certainly must have a trap, but we honestly do not know which one. I would assume that it will be some kind of a passive trap, like the alarm traps that we triggered since a door has to be opened even in normal times. Active traps would certainly cause more headaches for genral commute in a fort. Still, there is no need to take that risk now that we seem to be in a pretty stable situation. Especially with how much of my combat ability is compromised at the moment.

That is why we are so passive in the first place. With me expending so much mana and with my previous injuries, I am not at my peak at this moment.

The troop is resting for now, until I recover my mana and get a reasonable amount of combat strength.

After that we will begin our journey into the fort properly. Other than the traps, there is a matter of our enemies also.

At the moment I certainly would not want to meet a vampire captain, especially with the sword acting up like it is. Matthew does seem to be an exception with the way that he was playing with me. That is a risk that I cannot take. Regardless of which case it is, I will be fighting at a disadvantage. It is so annoying that I cannot use my sword to deal with them.

That reminds me, I have completed work on the second foundation. It occured after we had broken through into this place. The pressure caused by my continuous expulsion of mana certainly must have played a role in that. It didn't even take me that long, the foundation seemed to be building itself the way that it was going.

I am starting to understand why everybody is willing to put themselves with this torture of pushing their pushing mana like I did if it can help them build up the foundation like I did.

That must be another reason that my sword is so riled up. Still, all of this ends up in the conclusion that fighting the vampires is not an option at the moment. At the moment there are eight captains in this place, each about as powerful as Matthew or worse. Somehow, I get the feeling that this won't be the worst of what I will be facing in the place.

Well, I actually don't know if they are here but where else they can be. Trevor could not find a trace of them anywhere outside.

As if the vampires were not enough of a headache, I have to deal with the mayfires. The mayfires would certainly have no idea about how trustworthy we are. It would be quite funny if we were to end up dying at the hands of our trigger happy allies.

They also must be hidden somewhere in this fort, though where exactly is a question that I do not know. Even if I knew where it would not be worth much since I don't know where we are. Trevor did try his best to get even a rudimentary map of the inner keep. The mayfires have good reason to ensure that their enemies do not know the layout of their home.

This is all well trodden knowledge. Thoughts that I have had from even before we entered into the place. I am recording all of this mainly for the head office and also to understand what is going on here. Well, recording all of this is only causing me to worry about this even more.

No, that would not be the correct way to put it. I had expected every single thing that I have described till now. What I am feeling is not related to any of this is all I have understood. This anxiety is completely different.

It feels as if I am missing something very obvious here and the feeling is not pleasant. Well, obsessing over this is certainly not going to be helping me. For now it would be wise for me to focus on the process of recovery.

Well before leaving, I guess I should talk about the magic of the mayfires. They are elmental conjurers, cultivators that use fire in the shape of items, beasts and in many different shapes.

They tend to have decent combat ability, especially those that specialise in flame conjuration. The mayfires are specifically famous for their ability to conjure birds of prey from fire. The birds are supposed in such a lifelike manner that it feels like the mayfires have put a piece of their soul into their conjurations.

While, that is certainly not the truth (splitting souls is the business of necromancers.) But there must be something there.

Their combat ability is good enough that the black mountain considers them to be an ally. That is more than enough proof of their strength in my eyes. Though, I am still not sure how they would fare against the vampires.