Wolfe was more interested in the changes to his inheritance spell than in what had been happening with the Witches around him.
His Bloodline Skill [Clarity] had enhanced again when binding himself to so many servants. The process had also improved his demonic bloodline, which increased his rate of mana absorption to go with the increased density that came from completing his second focus.
But he had also awakened a large chunk of his Magi Bloodline when the third focus formed.
His senses were growing clearer by the second, and Wolfe could sense the number of living things nearby through their disturbance of the mana around them. The range was short, but it should be nearly impossible to sneak up on him anymore.
He could also sense the active inscriptions around him. Every coin that the witches were carrying was clear as day in his mind, but the ones that were made by witches, using their magic and additional reagents, had a wrongness to them.
It was a feeling that they had been forced into existence, lacking elegance and flow, with a vagueness where the reagents had filled the gaps that the Witches couldn’t accomplish on their own.
Even the inscriptions that he had placed on his rifles felt amateurish as he gained a better sense of the flow of mana. They were effective but crude as if formed by a student who didn’t quite understand the subject material.
He would have to redo them later, but it was perfect timing for him in a way. He didn’t have to suffer through slowly modifying a whole pile of weapons or wasting so much mana on individually enchanting ammunition for the mutants.
Using [Detect Hidden], he could see every cartridge in a magazine, the same as before, but with his improved sense for mana, he no longer needed to take them out to inscribe a simple spell into them.
He couldn’t quite get the hang of doing larger numbers at once, but even five at a time meant that he could do a whole magazine in under thirty seconds. With practice, he was sure that he could improve, but today, he was still lacking the talent.
They would go through a lot of enchanted rounds over the next few weeks, but with his improved power, it shouldn’t be an issue as long as the stockpile of ammunition held out.
The battle between Sylvan Coven and the mundane army was beginning to drag on, and the region around their Den was the best route to move between the two nations without going through the worst of the mountains or directly through the home territory of the coastal monsters.
That meant that every convoy they intercepted directly improved the lives of the witches behind them and brought the humans one step closer to a forced retreat.
All Wolfe had to do was help the locals survive since they needed the supplies to replace what had worn out since the last major raid through the Wastes. Everything from kitchenware and clothing to weapons was in demand. Nothing would be left behind for the mundane army to recover if they could help it.
Hundreds of kilometres away, Reiko and Mary had nearly collapsed when they felt the influx of energy from Wolfe and the Pentacle link trying to equalize their power up to the standard of whoever was strongest at the moment.
From this distance, everyone else was close enough together that they couldn’t tell that it was Stephanie, but everyone in their group felt the same surge of power.
The fact that the link was still active meant everyone was still alive and well, and that little bit of new knowledge was enough to bring a smile to the two witches’ faces as they prepared for their final day of travel to Morgana City.
Wolfe briefly felt their relief while he got to work, enchanting all the tools that they would need for the next day.
He would have to explain the basics of the enchanted ammunition to everyone and warn them to go easy on it since it couldn’t be replaced with enemy supplies immediately, but they were used to attacking with far less.
Not that they wouldn’t understand the concept, but if he wasn’t completely clear, they might end up damaging supplies that they needed with the first few rounds before they were aware of its output.
“I will be working on the equipment for the rest of the day, so please, get some rest. There will be more convoys after this one, and we won’t have assistants for them all.
Tomorrow is a recovery day for you, so it will just be me plus Cassie, Ella, and Priya going. Unless you need Priya here to catch you up on the situation?” Wolfe asked.
The witches waved off his concern. “We will get our answers while you work tonight. Holding a scout position is something we’re all trained for, so we just need to know the area.”
Wolfe smiled at her casual acceptance of everything that had happened that day, then walked out to begin the easy part of the job.
It was time-consuming work, and by the time he had a crate of magazines prepped for the mutants, plus five each for the three witches going with him, it was nearly midnight. That was probably way more than they actually needed today, but it was better to be on the safe side than to risk running out in the middle of a fight.
Wolfe took the rest of the night to meditate, flowing mana to all of the links that he had activated, and only woke up when he sensed a dense cluster of mana approaching.
It wasn’t a witch’s aura. It was stored mana, so it could really only be an enchanted item or another demon.
The answer turned out to be both. The fox demon didn’t have any mana in her body, but she was actively channelling it to a bit of Jade kept in a pocket under her clothes.
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Since she didn’t appear to want to enter and disturb or frighten strange witches, a decision that Wolfe couldn’t really fault her for, he went to her, bringing with him a chunk of preserved boar monster meat and some vacuum-packed flatbread from the supply room.
“You might as well come in. I have a lot of weapons for your team, and they need to be warned never to let the humans get ahold of these. They can be used by anyone, just like a regular bullet, since your teams can’t pull mana like I do.” He greeted her.
“We can eat here. Inside reeks of witch and chemical soaps. I can assure you that my teams will be very frugal with the ammunition you made.” She replied.
“Use it as you need it. I made enough for a while. Just don’t let it be captured. Did you want the inscription to create more yourself?” Wolfe asked.
She was a good ally, and it would be a big boon for her people if she accepted.
“I’m not like you. I can use what I can use and no more. That’s how it is for female demons. I can make it look different, but I can’t create or transfer elemental inscriptions. Before they were cursed with Demonhood, female Magi couldn’t use new spells at all, only empower ones that already existed.” She explained.
“You got the short end of that deal.” Wolfe sighed as he realized she couldn’t help him lighten his workload.
“Better than male witches, they’re totally useless. They can’t even channel mana.” The Fox Demon giggled around a mouthful of food.
She had a point. Male witches were basically humans. Their only real purpose was to make more witches.
“I don’t suppose you know why that is?” Wolfe asked curiously.
“No Mana Focus. The Focus would imbalance our bodies, and the extra energy would be too strong for a child to survive. We even need to be careful how much we channel during pregnancy.
It’s like evolution decided that we would stay and defend the children while the men built us a safe place to live. Female Demons can use more mana than males at the same rank, so once the spells are created, we’re quite adept at using them.” She explained.
So it was a matter of biology then. That was understandable, even if it was a bit of a disappointment in this situation.