The Mayfire castle is something pretty unique in the soldar plains. The nature of the conflict in the soldar plains will simply not allow for such a fort to come to power here. The thing that is important in the soldar plains is grain. All the major players here will have acres and acres of land in which they are farming. You could fill the entire place with forts but how exactly are you going to protect your grain from your enemy?

  You could hide yourself in a fort, but then all the enemy needs to do is set the crops ablaze around you. Doing that would be enough to destroy even the strongest forces in the soldar plains. Most of the groups here are not able to store grain for more than a couple of years before it is spoilt. The few that can, have not managed to scale it to a level where it can store a large amount of food.

  You would be helpless to act as all of your year's work is burnt to ash. Instead of a fort, the better method would be to use the same money to build a set of temporary outposts. A fort would take years, while the outpost would take a few months. They would be able to cover more ground this way, to guard their crops. They will certainly be easier to replace when said outpost does fall.

  The only exception to this rule in the soldar plains are the mayfires. Firstly, they do not have any crops of their own in this place. Any grain that they acquire is from the grain that is being sold by the surrounding powers. Now you could attack these surrounding powers and burn their crops. Why would the Mayfires care about that?

  You can destroy the grain of somebody that is five kilometers from here. Then the mayfires would only need to go to one that is ten kilometres away. They might have to spend a bit more time traveling farther, but that is about it. The people that you have attacked would certainly notice it though. They would certainly remember you, causing you to be stuck dealing with their revenge.

  The second reason is that the mayfires have included themselves in the grain trade of the place. Their main work is to escort grain ships from their source to the hexmountain. They ensure that nobody is attacking the grain in the process.

  The mayfires fully control this market. If a hundred ships were leaving for the mountain, then at least forty of those ships are guarded by the mayfires. Another fifty ships would be under mercenary groups that are owned by the Mayfires.

  That means that they have to face the ire of all the pirate gangs. A single unassailable fort is the only way that you will handle those bastards. They would rip through any outpost that these people would have created within the week.

  The third reason is that their absence will hurt us seriously. While the grain that they send towards us is significant, we can manage that quite easily. Their lack of protection will greatly reduce grain shipments. I can see why this situation inspired so much panic in the head office.

  The effect of their disappearing is already affecting us. As long as their time being inactive is not extended too much, we will manage somehow. Otherwise, things will end up more messy than a simple Increase in price. Just this fact also means that they have to face constant assaults from our enemies as well. I am still sure that our enemies are involved in this somehow.

  Not many powers in the soldar plains would be able to attack their fort and take it like this. There is no way that the Bloodfire gang was a part of that list. They came to our notice five years ago. They have some form of external support. The problem is who could that be.

  I mean the blood moon is a clue. That is something that only a specific faction of the vampire court will be able to pull off. The problem is I don't know much about this faction. Only that they are hard enemies to fight. Another problem is that the vampires do not have a presence in our lands. They certainly would not be able to support the Bloodfire gang to pull off something like this.

  Well, the man in front of me, who calls himself Steve and who we know as the demon is going to the solution to this puzzle. The man himself is pretty useless. I am sure that he won't know anything anyway. Instead, it is his master that I need to know about. He is a contract cultivator.

  Well, I guess I should explain what that means. A contract cultivator is considered to be a person who relies on a contract to cultivate. It could be external items like swords and spears. It could also be one of the gods.

  You could get this power from any creature. I have seen contract cultivators with their powers coming from some very weird sources. A few examples are demons, elementals, sprites, or even devils. However, if you find a devil cultivator, I would say that you run away for your life. They are the most dangerous of the group.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Returning to the matter, it is time to speak about the man codenamed the demon. (whose original name is Steve), mainly, he is a demon cultivator. Of that, I am sure by now. Demon cultivators tend to leave a ton of bodies, in their process of cultivating.

  The identity of the demon would be helpful to me right now. After all, the vampires are not closely allied to the demon. I am sure that there is a third party acting as the intermediary between these two powers. Even the type of demon will be enough.

  Just the fact that it is a demon already cuts off most of the churches. What they peddle is just another form of contract cultivation after all. They won't accept another competitor in that market. Then again, most of them tend to work with demons, even if they don't admit it openly.

  The merchants down south might work with them if their identities were not revealed. Still, it would be a risky investment. If they were discovered all the churches would stop doing business with them. Anyways, with how chaotic it is in their homes, the demons are additional chaos.

  The north is also unlikely. For that to happen they would need to stop fighting with each other long enough to pull that off. They don't have such s strong presence here.

  Those fanatics to the east will also not work with chaos demons, except for a few exceptions. Now that I think about it, this does not reduce by much at all.

  It could also be somebody from that desert in the west. Though, they don't tend to bother with the rest of the continent.

  Well, leave it be. I must not think of all of that. (Leave that to scholars I say.)

  To speak about what I am doing right now. I am pretending to be a laborer in the warehouse next to where the demon is hiding. (Well, can it be considered to be pretending when you are getting paid for it for a couple of days now.)

  It is not that hard. The rags were quite easy to find and steal. Right now there are too many labourers roaming the streets without work. Nobody will know that I am not from here. (I just need to make sure that nobody will look at my hands. They are too smooth to be that of a laborer.) well, the physical aspect of my work is quite easy. A mage is easily ten times as strong as a nonmage and this is purely grunt work.

  The acting is a problem though. The only reason that I am still not triggering people's paranoia is because they are not looking at me.

  All of them are a bit too preoccupied with the people in the opposite warehouse. They could attack here any second after all. The only reason that they haven't put their hands on this place is that there is nothing worth using here.

  Even right now I can look at his soldiers. They are systematically looting through the entire castle. They bring it back with them to the warehouse in front of me. Enough discipline to pull something like this is very hard, especially with vampires.

  That too pirates that are being led by a demon cultivator. Demons are creatures of chaos. They revel in the chaos that they can create. The same behaviors repeat in the people that take their power.

  Right now though my target is Steve and his warehouse. Things are going to be a bit easier than I hoped it to be. The damn bastard is preparing for a blood sacrifice. Well, I guess that I have to explain how blood sacrifices work with a demon. Naturally, when a person enters into a contract with a demon, the demon is not doing it out of the goodness of its heart.

  The only reason that it is doing something like this is to get something in return. That is usually the souls of the victims of its contractee or at least their life force.

  Now the thing with such sacrifice spells is that it tends to leave the person committing them quite weak. (After all, they need to punch through the dimensional barrier.).

  The other party is already one of the weaker captains. If he were to weaken himself in such a manner I would be able to fight him. I might even end up winning, but it is not something that I am willing to bet my life on.

  I won't say that it is too helpful to fight him now though. Fighting a demon cultivator is a messy business. You can never tell with demons what tricks they have up their sleeve. That is why conflict is not my primary goal. I just need to locate the book, take it and escape from the place. If I manage to do that along with dealing some damage to the gang, this is going to be a pretty successful mission. Right now the goal is not to draw attention to me.

  That is why I am here right now, doing what can be considered to be moderate exercise. My mana sense has recovered enough that I can follow a person who is actively emitting their mana. This is the case even if it is another building.

  Granted it is still not precise enough that I would be able to tell their exact numbers. Still, I can confirm that there is one major source (which should be the demon) and at least six to seven minor sources.

  These minor sources I can't confirm exactly. Still, based on the people that I have seen leaving, there should be about ten people here.

  There should be more of course, way more. Their absence feels a bit weird until an idea pops up. I think a majority of the people here have been redirected to the archer and his patrollers. Right now that is the main thing that the gang must be worried about. After all, I would not be surprised if the head office is already preparing a force to attack them. One of their own is being attacked here.

  Right now my main work is to ensure that we are meeting up with the Mayfires. Right now they are the only ones we can call an ally.

  The organization can be trusted only as far as I can throw them. Trevor is sure that the only reason that they are not betraying us is because they need something from us. There is no way that we can stay here after we have not given them the ledger.

  The mayfires are the more trustworthy ones, if only we could meet up with them already.