I wake up in my room… I had slept for 12 hours… Shit, so if I pass out from exhaustion, I have to sleep for far longer than I normally do. I only need 4 hours of sleep every night… Losing 8 hours on such an important day is going to be bad. Green must have brought me to my room… Or left me outside and someone else brought me here… With her, it is hard to tell.

Alright, I have to make sure everything is ready for our launch towards the pirate fortress. I head through my portal scroll and onto the ships… Someone had set sail already… It must have been Lance taking leadership because I had been knocked unconscious… Thankfully, I have so many good generals who can replace if the worst happens… I don't want to think about that but if it does happen. These troops have good leaders besides me.

With everything running smoothly… Shit! Did they remember to leave a portal there? That would be a problem if they didn't. I fly to Lance and ask him. He did… Alright, so that is good… I… I still need to teach Leon today. Perhaps it would be better to teach all the ninjas… I'll wait, they wont be going into this first battle. If I teach both Green and Leon, I might pass out again… It is worth the risk though, the time it will take to get to the pirate base is around a week.

I teach Leon scout… I still don't understand the reason bard was added… Perhaps I will find out why eventually. I check my fatigue points, I'm at about 55%… Hopefully I'll have 10% left after teaching Green… I doubt it though. I head to find Green. Teaching her nature mage… I check my fatigue points again and I'm at 12%… That's good, I still have things to do today.

I head to find Darkclaw. He has flown away, searching for gold/sunken ships elsewhere. That seems very dangerous. Even with Greed's help, he could lose track of us and drown trying to find us… I'll try to warn him to not fly too far away once he returns.

There isn't much I can do without a high amount of fatigue points. I head back to the fortress and start making the contract scrolls more. I still need to talk with Darkclaw but it can wait. I already know what he is going to say. I taught my team of enchanters the ability to make the contract scrolls. I have many questions about these scrolls. The murine folk were only using them one way. I wonder if someone without the ninja class can make a contract… What would the benefits be at that point?

It might be a good idea to have some of my generals try it out. Even a single skill would be helpful, at the cost of the contract though, it might not be worth it. Altogether about 50 scrolls are being made right now. I had made more enchanting stations, each allows for 8 scrolls to be made by each person. It will still take 2 weeks of enchanting to make them. Equivalent to the work of making 8 rares, these will be the only scrolls I'll have made until I can do more experimenting. Speaking of experimenting.

I had planned to make another longer/stronger knife cannon for me to use. Something like the launcher except with a smaller projectile, making it easier to carry. This will be the prototype for the creation of many similar versions. Each of my generals will end up with a different variant of this creation depending on their preferences. But having a base model to mass produce for my army is a good idea. I start working on that in my down time.

I get a few sheets of steel. All the other guns I've used have been either iron sheeting or an iron tube that has been hollowed out. This will let me work with a bigger length barrel. Sort of the same depth as Epieoths scytherifle but all the way through hollowed. Not stopping near the half way point of the stock. I fold metal into a tube and measure it against my knives cannon… To compare it, the length is about three times as long. The sheet averages out to almost 5 feet. I'll have to get the metal cut, then pounded into shape from the blacksmith, I doubt it will take more than a few hours.

Oh shit! Since I've passed out, I was unable to check on my food that I put on the drying rack. If it has spoiled the meat, the entire area around it would stink from the process… That was a huge amount of meat too. I head to the drying rack, some of the meat is still on the drying rack, a bigger portion is missing though. I call out.

“Hey what's with this meat here?”

An elderly male demon tribe steps forward. I didn't even know demon tribe could grow beards but this old man has a very thick, white beard. Since Ashley has moved out, we've been looking for a new head chef, this is the person who has taken over that role since then. He steps forwards.

“Hey! That meat is off limits until Kite comes an… WHAT!? KITE! What the death god happened to you!?”

“Heh, I got older. Sorry about scaring you old man.”

“The name is Gramps to you. Say, do you know who started cooking this meat here? It is a hit for most of the carnivorous troops.”

“Yea that was me. I was testing something.”

“Look, this meat is amazing. But if you're going to take a 100 pound slab of meat, please ask okay. You screwed up the food plans for this week. We'll have to have a vegetables only day now because of that. Do you know have many exclusively meat eaters you have in your army? A lot! But other than that… What kind of cooking method are you using, I've never seen this slow cooking method used before.”

“I had thought of it because of one of the items the greater god had given me.”

I pull out a ration and have him try it. He got the pork and gravy one instead but I wanted him to try the other things besides the meat. Once he tries the chocolate he devours it in a few bites. Then looks at me and says.

“Hey this isn't like super special right? I just ate this without thinking it might be the last one in existence.”

“No, I gave it to you to eat. I want your opinion on it. I'm going to try and recreate these meals in the future with food that can last a long time without being eaten. That meat I had made could last a year without spoiling.”

“A YEAR! WHAT!? I've never heard of food that lasted that long… Well, that didn't taste like ass anyways. So that cha-ko-late bar had an expiry date of over a year?”

“Yea, I don't have the things it grows from though, so I'll have to get creative in my methods of recreating it.”

I pull out another few meals, each containing a different variety of food. Handing them to Gramps I tell him that, after eating them to write down ingredients that might mix to combine into that taste. Maybe this food will give him inspiration. I pull a chunk of the jerky off of the drying rack. Ripping it apart, it is as dry as the ones I had gotten from the greater god…

So it appears that this is how it is made, I wonder how long it takes to cook it like this though. I had left it going overnight, so it could be done in between 2 hours or almost an entire day. Would drying it longer make it more flavorful and expire later… All of this is just things I need to test more.

I head back to the boats… If Darkclaw hasn't returned yet, I will go looking for him. He has returned though. The only way possible is if he had someone who would know how to keep track of where the boats were going. Following the speed at which they were traveling. I don't think Darkclaw could do that even after years of practice.

I call out to him.

“Hey Darkclaw. I wanted to talk to you but I keep missing you.”

He has a void satchel around his neck. He requested one to be made after he had returned from his last trip. Carrying the crate of mana crystals back almost 20 miles of flying was very difficult for him. His claws aren't made for carrying things, their made for cutting into things.

“Y-yea master. Would you like to go somewhere to talk in private?”

“Sure.”

We head into the captains cabin of this ship. It isn't very good compared to my room at the fortress or castle mimic. The general of this boat has made it his home for now. Judging by the items inside it looks very tribal, some books lay on the floor… I would guess Swift has taken up residence here. Darkclaw had to change into human form in order to fit into the room. He sits in silence for a minute… Trying to think of what to say. I speak first because he is taking so long.

“Darkclaw… Is Greed inside you?”

“Y-yea… How did yo-.”

I cut him off with a hug… I continue talking.

“I'm sorry Greed. I almost got you killed, I'm glad you are still alive. Still able to help me when I need it. To help Darkclaw when he needs it.”

Darkclaw is flustered now. This might be the first time I've ever hugged Darkclaw in his human form. Back when he was a cute little hatchling, I would constantly play with him. With him getting bigger it keeps getting harder to keep track of him… To keep track of all my pets. They all do their own thing now… Perhaps it would be better to try and make time for them… We all might not be here after this war. I let go of him and back up. Darkclaw looks embarrassed because of the hug. It makes me a little happy to see one of the strongest creatures in my army still be flustered so easily.

“Can you let Greed speak through you? Or is he like my Greed, the only possible way is if you give him access to it.”

“Yea… It's me Kite… It's Greed… Long time no speak.”

“I hate to interrupt this moment but… Can you tell me how to use these mana crystals? If I add them to the mana canisters, how long do they increase the power?”

“Not permanently. I would say about an hour. Just be careful when you mix them. If you add more than a single crystal to a mana canister, it will cause an explosion… Chances are you would have more canisters close to you and… Well you know where I'm going… Lost a ship to that level of carelessness so be careful...”

“Understood… Thankyou… Have you been… Back to her grave...”

“No… I couldn't look at it… It still hurts to think about it. All these years, even going through 2 bodies and it still hurts me.”

Greeds voice changes and he looks the other way. Darkclaw must have taken back his body.

“What are you talking about? I only thought you cared to make me stronger.”

Silence fills the room. Greed is probably speaking internally to Darkclaw. Well… I'll just leave then.

The speech was just a formality. Hopefully Greed wont lead Darkclaw down the wrong path. I still have an hour or two before my metal tube is ready to shape into a new weapon. I begin to talk Darkclaw who is now over his speech with Greed. He must have put it off until he is alone. I had wanted to give him this just in case.

“Here Darkclaw, this is a teleport scroll. There are only a few made so far. But with your adventurous attitude, you should take one just in case. I'd rather lose a portal scroll over you, this is to be used as a last option if you get lost.”

“Thank you master… About Greed… I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier but he said not to.”

“It's fine Darkclaw… I trust both of you. He must have wanted to keep himself hidden for some reason… Most likely to see how far I've improved since we were combined.”

It has been long enough for me to go check on how my pipes the blacksmith is working on are coming along.