Well, my last few days have been pretty busy. I have been doing three main things in this period.

The first is resting, feeling the damage caused by my death trance. On this front I have nothing particularly to report. As my master said, mana sense is too closely linked with the soul for me to be able to do anything about it. I am not even supposed to have it at my present stage of my cultivation. (Most people need to reach the fifth foundation slab for their mana sense to awaken.)

At least the resting part of it is going well. I can feel my mana sense recover a bit. I can't still feel any mana from beyond my mana core, but I can make out something being there. It is kind of like a blurry blob. (It is so vague I can't even tell if it is real or not)

It is still too vague for it to have any use but seeing it return is a very good thing. I had forgotten just how much I tend to rely on my mana sense.

Other than that, I have been running this ship continuosly for the last couple of days. I have yet to be attacked in this period which is a good thing.

The thing is that I have yet to fix my master's cannons into the ship. My master has provided me with two cannons. One is of the fire element and has a decentish range (fire cannons are always the most destructive to the wooden airships.). The other is a light based cannon with a pretty ridiculous range. Looking at these cannons I really want to shoot them once.

I know I was supposed to do that immediately, (after all, who has heard of a ship this good without a cannon.) but I still have time.

After all, we are still in the north. The only real threat of pirates that we have in this journey is going to be in the second half when we reach closer to the hex mountain. After all, the ship looks costly enough that no pirate would be trying to attack it this far north. After all, something this precious is usually pretty well guarded. Why would a pirate, who is nothing more than a poor farmer himself would consider trying to attack such a ship unless he is suicidal.

Then there is the fact that I will be able to go faster than almost all of the ships this far north. (You don't know how satisfying that feeling is especially with how much I have suffered the first time around due to a slow ship.)

The funny thing is that we had the opposite problem while going to the frozen peak. While coming we had a pretty trashy ship that no real pirate would have wanted. That is why we were sure that no pirate would attack us that close to the hexmountain. After all, they have better ships to attack than the heap of shit that I was driving before.

A grain ship sending food from the soldar plains to the hex mountain would have been a better target than us. (Usually only new pirates tend to raid those, for the simple fact that grain is not particularly profitable loot especially in the soldar plain.)

Now that I think about it, whatever did happen to the ship. I assume that it is right now in the hands of the snowwinders. Considering it was already theirs to begin with, I am sure that they will be keeping it. Even a useless ship like that has it's value. They might study the modifications that I have done to the formations. They might remove all the working formation cores on that ship. (the only thing that is of any real value is the formation core of the propulsion formation. I really want to see how they will get that to work.) Heck, they might at the very least be able to cut the entire thing and use it to light up a bonfire.

As for the scholars and my troop, they will be escorted by the soldiers of the snowwind empire to the hexmountain. I can imagine that it must have taken quite a bit of bargaining to achieve even that. The snowwinders are going to be pretty hostile towards us for the foreseeable future.

That must be another reason that the head office is so pissed off. (That and the fact that I wasn't really supposed to be going on that mission anyways.) They do not like to commit more resources into a place that already had a resource commited to it. They are already stretched too thin due to the scholars and their suicidal tendencies.

While all of that is fine, it is my studies that is consuming most of my time. Just studying the theory of the fusion spell and I am starting to lose my mind in frustration. My progress with the spell has been painfully slow.

It is complicated beyond belief. Well, the main reason that it is so complicated is mainly due to the fact that the formation deals with the soul. That is a field of study that I have little to no idea on.

The only source that people my age would have on such an esoteric topic is often related to the stage beyond the foundation stage. As you can guess, I don't even have that little bit of knowledge to support me. (Unless you consider boasts about that stage as a source of information. Even during boasting people tend to be careful to not leak any information to me.)

Other than that, it is actually going pretty well. This time my master has focussed very little on the theory beyond the formation, instead he has focussed on the actual practical applications of the spell and how to perform it even without the underlying theory.

Granted, it still is a bit too complicated for me to actually understand what I am doing here, I should be able to make use of the spell (with a bit more study.)

Just don't quiz me on how the spell works. Based on what little understanding that I have gotten of the spell, it acts as a link between my mana core and the primary formation (in this case, that would be my sword.)

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

How do I describe this spell, the spell reminds me more of a formation being built inside my mana core (kind of like my foundation slabs). As for the exact runes of this formation, most of them are beyond me but I can at least try to guess at their purpose. The only problem is that most of these guesses are going to be wrong.

Anyways, the spell is acting to link my foundation blocks in my mana core to my primary formation, which would be my sword.

That is the reason that my master told me that I would regret having started cultivation already. (Knowing the man, it might have been a reason that he gave me those techniques in the first place. He can be a damn sadist sometimes.) The fusion spell is going to be modifying the foundation blocks in my mana core.

If I were to cast it when the foundation block is just formed, it wouldn't be that painful, but now that I already have formed foundation blocks in my mana core that is not going to be the case.

I will essentially have to destroy part of my foundation blocks (considering that the slab is part of my mana core.) for the fusion spell to be successful. That is going to be a painful process one that is supposed to be equivalent to all my bones being broken and there is always a chance of more serious consequences.

(Well, every step of this destruction has been clearly documented by my master. If I were to try something like this on my own, the best case scenario would be the rupturing of my mana core.)

Anything related to mana core is always like that. I dread to think of the day that I will have to deal with this problem and practically implement the spell.

Thankfully, I only have one fully formed foundation slab to mess with. So that is nice at least. If I had properly focussed on cultivation than I would have achieved the sixth or the seventh slab at the very least by now. I don't even want to imagine how painful that would be.

To kick this particular problem to the future as much as possible, I will be first completing my second foundation slab first and fusing it. With the theory that I have already learnt, I think that I will be able to pull this off with near certainty at least. It will also give me enough experience with the spell that I will be more confident to deal with the first slab.

Right now I am at three-fourth completion of my slab. If I were to focus on it for the next couple of weeks, I will be able to complete the second slab and begin the fusion process. Not that I am going to. Until I get a solid grasp on the spell there is no use for me to actually work on it.

That is all for the future though. I guess that I should first speak about what benefit this is going to bring to me.

Well, the primary benefit of this spell is the fusion which will essentially give me almost god like control over the primary formation. That is what my master does with his formation. Without his fusion, I don't think that he would be able to control that wolf skin of his so precisely.

In my case, what will be achieved is a bit more different. To explain this, I will have to explain what my sword is exactly.

A vampire's bone acts as his mana core and his blood vessels act as his mana channels. Every moment, a vampire's vital mana is converted into blood mana through his bones.

I have managed to achieve the same thing with my sword. When I activate the formation on it, it converts the mana that I have given it into blood mana. At the same time, it is able to absorb the life force of my enemies to produce blood mana. The only condition to this ability is that my sword has to touch their blood. The more blood it touches the stronger the bond formed and the more blood mana is produced.

This blood mana then I inject into my body, giving me most of the abilities of a vampire grunt. The only problem with this is the fact that my body is not built to accept blood mana as is the case with an actual vampire. I have heard firsthand that it is a very painful process (this is usually proceeded by gutting that grunt though. So exact details are not available.)

Their transformation is a mystery for me. (My master has tried to explain it to me multiple time, but it is just beyond me.) My master has been doing research into it for the last few years (since my discipleship began actually) but the man has not achieved anything substantial till now. If my master's logic is right, then once the fusion occurs, blood mana is going to become a part of my vital mana.

As any person that cultivates vital mana will tell you, changing your vital mana will change your body. My master hopes that this changes will make my body more suitable to managing blood mana. If that occurs, my body should become more like a vampire's. Maybe not enough to become a full vampire, but enough for me to use my sword comfortably.

Anyways, who wants to be a full vampire. Most are susceptible to holy magic, can't enter the defensive barriers of most cities and the older vampires are not even able to handle the sun. On top of all of this, there is the thirst. A nearly unquenchable lust for blood. (A fun fact, this is the reason that most vampire grunts are caught in the first place. Not drinking blood is supposed to be like being in a desert to them it seems.)

Anyways, all of this is purely speculation and theory. I will have to put it into practice myself, something that I am quite a distance from still achieving.

Still, I wish that I was progressing on something at the very least. It almost feels like I have been doing everything and nothing the last couple of weeks.