Right now we are standing at the door to the left side of the corridor. I have my sword in hand, ready to transform at a moments notice or the exact opposite, depending on the nature of our foes. Can't have something like with Matthew happen again. If one of the other possessed captains can mess with me in the same way, it would be quite risky. What I am going to be doing against the captains, I actually have no idea.

My transformation is the only combat ability that I actually have at the moment. naturally, I do not tend to have such a deficiency. I have an entire set of formations depending on the situation. The bastard of my master managed to really screw me up again. I do understand the man's logic though. I would certainly not have started on true linking any time soon if I had all of my formations.

As I have mentioned in my previous log, I have been resting due to many factors. I still feel quite weak at the moment but there is little chance of me resting anymore. Even I can pick up the tension of the troop. They do not like sitting about doing nothing like this.

I can already feel that Trevor and other two are already at the edges of patience. Everyday, we hear noises from the outside, as if somebody were trying to get in. That doesn't help with their frayed nerves I tell you. It certainly does not help me. We should be more active. Waiting like this is wasting precious time. Well, I guess that is why I have Trevor to whisper caution into my ears.

As for the blood heart gang breaching the inner keep, I am not worried myself. Given the fact that the blood heart gang has stayed in the outer keep for a while, I would think that they would not be able to do so easily. The barrier that I have breached is not at all easy for a non formation mage to breach. Well, it is not supposed to be easy for even formation mages.

I can understand the structure of the formation and naturally have an understanding of the weakest point of this structure. Even then, it took me all of my mana to open up a hole in which a person could crawl through. If it was me even a couple of months ago, I would not have achieved it.

To somebody like Matthew, I would not be sure if even ten times the mana that I have used would be enough to do anything to the barrier. They would then need to permanently break a part of the barrier if they want to have any hope of getting in a sizeable troop into this place. I certainly would like to see if matthew would be able to do that. It will be an impressive bit of magic.

If everybody could make holes in barriers like I have, it would not be so well used. What I have done is actually considered to be something quite suicidal frankly. You would be surprised at the death toll such actions can have. That is why my method is so popular in the first place. You will find it most of the stories too for the same exact reason.

To get back to the matter at hand though, we are going to begin our exploration into the inner keep. We are doing this by opening the door to the left. There is no solid reasoning for this other than the fact that my gut says me to go in that direction. We will end up somewhere by taking either of these routes, so there is no real difference here.

Well, as far as I can tell there are no obvious traps on the door. Rather than comfort me, this just ends up scaring me more. Obvious traps usually act as warnings. Most of them do not tend to have any danger at all. It might sting a bit but they are still better than the truly insidious traps.

The silent ones are always more deadly in my opinion. That is why Trevor and the troop are hanging back waiting for me to trigger the trap. If there is something, you can be sure that no stick will be enough to protect Trevor. Anyway, Trevor's stick was destroyed with the explosion trap. I am sure that he will find something else soon enough.

The hope is that even if there is a trap, it won't be able to cause much damage to me. If it does, I will be able to recover from it pretty quickly if one of the troop were to provide me with a bit of their viral mana. That is especially true if we were to find an y enemies.

That is how I have ended up standing in this place, with the troop waiting for me behind. Well no point on delaying this anymore.

Steeling myself, I open the door. As the door swings open, I prepare myself to feel any number of poisons, acids and mana explosions but nothing occurs. It is very anti climatic in that sense.

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The door swings open to reveal no enemy getting ready to launch an ambush at us. Otherwise, in my imagination I was already thinking of ways to hold of multiple vampire captains, possessed or not.

We are in what I have to assume is some kind of a laundry. Well, there is nothing that threatens us here as we make it inside the place. The troop has already begun to scope out the exit paths of this place.

There are two doors in this room, one that we just came in from and one that is again closed. That will be my work as the troop clear the room of any traps.

If we need to beat a hasty retreat, you certainly do not want to be worrying if in front of you is a trap or not. It is a bit time consuming but what can a man do.

I could help them to speed up the process but, there is also a need for a lookout and I have the sharpest senses in the group for the better or for the worst.

The troop takes five minutes to complete it's work. There are no traps in the room. Once I get the go ahead from Trevor I open the closed door again. Again, there is no trap.

(After a couple of hours, I think.)

The first leg of journey into the inner keep has been about as boring as boring can be. Up till now, wherever we have entered has revealed nothing of interest to us. Well, to be frank calling it boring would be wrong. After all, every moment when you feel like the enemy is going to ambush you from any corner of the room, you certainly don't feel bored.

It is a mixture of anxiety, boredom and fear. There is also the persisting feeling that I am missing something quite vital. That is what is messing things for me, the feeling that something is not as it should be. This mixed with my overthinking really makes my mind the perfect breeding grounds for anxiety.

The procedure of entry for each room is same. I open the door, the troop goes in with me at the back. The troop quickly and thoroughly checks the room to ensure that there are no traps in the place.

Sometimes this is over in five minutes, sometimes this takes about half an hour with Trevor simply not convinced that there are no traps in this area. He prods and twists around the trying to trigger any new traps like a crazy daredevil. He has gotten a discarded sword in one of the rooms that he is using as his new stick.

Right now we are stuck in what I have to assume is some kind of a army Barracks. Trevor certainly seems to be taking this place more seriously than normal since the man has been poking around the room to no affect for almost an hour. If it were up to me, I would have left the place as soon as we entered the place. That is true for every room until now.

Anyway, there have been no traps up till now. Now, rather than comfort me this terrified me. A fort always has traps. Even a unused piece of crap fort will have its share of traps. This obsession with traps is to the point that it always causes a problem even to the people that are living in a fort. They need years to understand the position of each trap in the place.

A place so devoid of traps can only mean that somebody has been triggering these traps left and right. Now, no local would be triggering these traps for fun and there is only one party other than ours and the mayfires that is here.

I am pretty sure that we are following the trail of the vampires. Trevor seems to have realised that even before me as our progress into the keep slows to a snails pace. This is the case about two rooms ago.

Well, I actually need to talk to him about this now. Inaction has its own dangers.

"Trevor, how long are you going to be checking for traps?", I ask the man.

"Well captain, You can never be sure of which trap hides in which corner of the fort.", he replies. "Checking for them carefully is always the more prudent option."

"There hasn't been a trap, Trevor. You know what that means. Every minute of time that we are wasting is a moment that we risk being discovered.", I speak.

"Well, it is a risk, but so is being struck by a trap as the enemy is in front of us.", he replies. "now is not the time to hurry the fight. We are at an disadvantage, captain."

"Well, it is going to be a very hard fight, Trevor if we are forced into one.", I reply. "We have to make sure that we don't end up in a fight or to at least make sure that we are at our best for the fight."

"That is the hope, captain that we won't end up fighting.", he replies. "Anyway, I don't think it shall be an issue. Anything that involves the captains will attract the mayfires. All you need to do is hold of the captains for a while."

"Well, how easy do you think that is. I can hold them for a while but do you think that the mayfires will be able to fight them of?", I ask him.

"Well, I would assume that they are decently strong. The situation would be completely different if the two sides were not of equal strength.", he replies. "I am at the very least sure that the mayfires are able to put up a fight with them."

"Well, I find it to be peaceful not to think too much of it at the moment.", I speak. "For now let's just find people, whether they be allies or enemies."

What can I say, all of this waiting is getting to my head. It is a annoying feeling. I am invading an enemies keep. Isn't it supposed to be a bit more exciting?

It is due to this thinking that I not able to notice the thing that is in the next room. It is some kind of armory based on what I can tell. The thing that I had not noticed was the group of corpses that was walking in the middle of the room, who seemed to be in the process of munching something.

As I begin to focus on them, the creatures also look at me. The creatures charge at us the instant that they look at me.