Right now I am hiding in the warehouse that I have been working in for the last week now. Sneaking in here has been pretty easy if I am honest. The people here were more worried about getting away from this place when the sun fell.

  Well, the last week has certainly been useful. I have been able to get quite a bit of information on our enemy. I am reasonably confident about the layout of the place. I have confirmed the people who are entering the place. I have figured out how to get into the place as well.

  Right now, I really should not be dallying this much. After all, the blood sacrifice can start any minute now. There are quite a few species of demons that would be able to detect my presence once I were to enter the place.

  The reason for this is my sword. Fully activating my sword has always been an intense experience. The fusion spell is not going to make it any less intense. If anything, creating the minor bond to the foundation slab has made it worse. Even now, I find my hand traveling to my sword even now.

  Activating it this early is not going to help me out. I will do it precisely the minute that I need to. I need to have that much control over my sword at least. Otherwise, I am just an inferior copy of a vampire. Right now the goal is to infiltrate the other warehouse and I already found my point of entry. It is a window on the second floor of this warehouse. I noticed it a couple of days ago and it is going to be the perfect place to infiltrate it.

  The window is open, most likely rusted into its present orientation. The other side has been certainly trying to get it closed for a couple of days. Well, I can see why they have not particularly bothered to close the place though. Getting there is not going to be easy.

  The only way that I will be reaching that place is by jumping from this warehouse. That is something that I will only be able to pull off by transforming.

  Well, this is going to be worth it as I don't need to fight anybody this way. The other party is doing their blood sacrifice on the first floor. The second floor is where they are hiding their treasures. If all things go well, I will not be meeting anybody in the gang.

  The formation merchant's grimoire should be hidden there. I will be able to detect it if it is within my arm's reach. Grimoires like this tend to have protections against being detected by mana senses. If my mana sense was back at its peak, I would be able to tell the instant that I entered the room.

  Well, I have waited enough time for this. I activate my sword finally, feeling the world change around me.

  The infusion of blood mana always starts that way, as if somebody has changed the world itself. My sight becomes sharper. Right now I can see the warehouse with such obvious detail that I can see the rust on the open window.

  My hearing has been similarly enhanced. I can hear the footsteps downstairs. The bastards downstairs certainly seem to be quite busy. Their footsteps are like drums in my head. Any louder and it would be painful. My sense of touch is similarly enhanced. I can feel every inch of cloth that is scraping across my skin. It is very uncomfortable actually and yet at the same time it is exciting.

  Yet it is my sense of smell that is causing me problems right now. I can smell the sickly sweat of the people downstairs. More importantly, I can smell their blood. It is like smelling a dish. A warm and beckoning meal. Yet the thing causing me a problem is the stink coming from that window. Now I understand why they were willing to leave it open.

  I force myself to take a deep breath as I center myself. I can't let anything disturb me. I am not surprised that the vampires cannot resist their thirst. I am physically incapable of acting on it and I still find myself tempted. So tempted. Thankfully, I don't have the stomach for it. Just the thought makes me want to vomit. The enhanced senses are the main benefit and problem with my ability.

  I have used sensory formation for weeks sometimes, but that enhancement is nothing like that. I am sure that I get more raw information from a sensory formation. Still, there is something that is just more personal with my sword.

  Still, time to focus on the mission. Well, another benefit of blood mana is that it enhances my strength. Right now my sword is pulsing like a heart pumping my body full of blood mana. Well, I have stayed hidden for long enough as I jump. I can feel the wind outside like sand on my skin as I travel through the air.

  My head feels like somebody has hit it with a bat as my face hits the wall above the window. At least I didn't alert anybody, though it feels like I hit with enough force to shake the building. Even now I can feel my face smarting as I enter into the building.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  As I enter the room, I realize what the smell is. The room is suffused with the smell of rot and stale blood. The entire thing is filled to its brim with corpses.

  Looking at their bodies, you wouldn't think them to be dead just sleeping. The only way that I can tell about their death is that I can smell their blood. Such stale blood can only belong to corpses.

  Well, the reason for their death could be the mana they have inside their body. I can't sense it, the only thing that I can sense is a trace of a trace of mana. The mana is familiar to me but I just can't place it. I just need a minute to find out what it is.

  Just as I feel like I am about to remember why it is so familiar, a burst of mana from the below catches my attention. Well, now is not the time to get distracted. They will be summoning their demon any minute now.

  I open the door to this just a smidge, enough for the voices outside to be clear in my ears. Okay, there are no sounds of footsteps outside. The only thing that I notice is the sharp tang of fresh blood. Looks like the bastards have started their sacrifices also. Well, I can risk it then. I open the door decisively, my sword ready to reap the life of anything that dares to ambush me.

  There is nobody here. I do a quick survey of the layout of the place. A long corridor ending in a staircase, with three doors to the left and three doors to the right. Right now I have come from the room on the left side.

  I will be opening each of them, though I have to be careful about it. Right now my best defense is that I am anonymous. That is the only reason that I am ignoring the pile of bodies in the room that I have just left. Right now is simply not the time to fight.

  I have finally found the treasure room if you can call it that. I found it exactly where I was expecting to find it. The room that is the closest to the stairs. The place where even the slightest of whispers would have been heard downstairs.

  The only reason that the place is not covered with enemy guards is the sacrifice. Being half-assed with such a thing will result in your death.

  There is everything in this room from coins to mana stones and a bunch of other things in the room. Most of it is worthless but there are quite a few mana sources in the place. Any of them can be the grimoire.

  I am not going to be taking anything other than the grimoire though. I could take it with me, but that is the problem with having something that can emit mana. It can be tracked too easily. The grimoire is also a risk, but I will be able to get rid of it soon enough. The formation merchant should be leaving pretty soon.

  The organization has certainly been quite tolerant already. After all, I am supposed to be sitting quietly in the sewers. I don't want to push them beyond this. I haven't seen Trevor be cautious even around the snowwinders. These are certainly more dangerous folks.

  As I am thinking about this, I finally find it. It is hidden under a pile of coins. As I am going down to wipe away the coins to get the book, I pause. For a few moments, I wonder if I am somehow deluding myself, fear taking over my senses.

  Well, there it is, the unmistakable tap of somebody trying to climb the stairs quietly. It is like a small tap, something that I only manage to get with my enhanced hearing. You don't do that unless you are ambushing somebody.

  Well, looks like a fight is inevitable. Well, the situation is still salvageable. I was expecting to drop a couple of bodies anyway. Securing the grimoire. (meaning that I have stuffed it into a sack that I brought with me.) I quickly take position behind the door, trying to keep as quiet as possible.

  The sound of a door being opened is the first sign that the other party is out there. They are looking for an intruder. It couldn't have been the demon that could have told them about me. They take more time to appear on this plane than the little time I have spent here. I wonder how they found my presence here. It doesn't take them long to open the door to this room. I am ready as I stab my sword right through the door into the body of the person who is opening it.

  Well, I was hoping for a kill wound, but the surge of blood mana that I am getting is still worth it. The blood mana left in their body will act as a poison. It will absorb their vital mana and send it to me until the other party can expel it or they die.

  As the other party retreats, I kick the door open. The force of the kick is enough to send him flying into another room.

  I charge outside, seeing my enemies. There are two of them, each between me and the stairs. Well, this is going to be annoying. The two bastards charge at me at the same time.

  I barely block it, as I feel the impact of the sword. How the fuck are these bastards so strong. I circulate my vital mana (along with the blood mana) as I feel the pain in my hand disappear.

  After this, the two tried to strike at me, but I would have blocked them even without my enhancements. The bastards are being enhanced by some type of external mana, though.

  Among demons, there are very few figures that should be able to provide magic like this. If any of them is showing interest in this part of the world, the next few years are going to be interesting. Well, I have played with my food enough. I circulate the mana in me at my full speed feeling my senses get even sharper.

  Both of them are still in front of me, trying to keep me locked in. Well, one of them comes to attack me and I dodge it by a small sidestep. This leaves me in the correct position to strike right at the other side's throat. The force of the slash is strong enough that I manage to half decapitate the other side.

  This happens so quickly that the person behind him is not able to stop his charge at me. I am not able to block this strike as the other party's sword enters into my left hand. I make use of my sword to relieve the other party of that hand.

  Well, time to escape....

  (A few seconds later)

  I have finally come to rest at the bottom of the stairs. It takes me a few moments to understand what has happened. It was the bastard that had entered into the treasure room. He had tackled me down the stairs. This cost him his life, as my sword entered into his heart.

  That is the least of my worries as I have landed right in the middle of the blood sacrifice.