Over the next few days, I got to know a few of the rowdy bunch of men, I mainly talked with Vali though, we had bonded through battle. He was a nice guy once you got passed the love for fighting and bloodshed, he was raised in a small village called Skara, grew up with his parents on a farm, but they never returned one summer after they went raiding so he set off to make a name for himself at 15, he had been with the Ravens for 7 years, travelling throughout Scandinavia and had a few trips to the Saxon kingdoms.
Another person I had gotten to know, was Ulfrik he was a short skinny boy and the gang made him get into tight spaces, to get into towns and buildings. They nicknamed him "mouse, " fitting name by his looks he had short spikey white hair and pinkish eyes, an albino. He was an orphan who the gang had picked up around a dock and offered him a family of sorts. He wasn't timid like his nickname would suggest, a bit wild and loud when he could be.
I'd also been fortifying my mind some more and catalogued all my spells when I went into my mind palace I had discovered, a lot of new images I had no recollection of. These were mainly types of metals, stones, crystals and plants. They must have been from the blessing of knowledge coupled with the blessing of Gaia.
I had to rearrange the knowledge of all them as well, it ended up with a whole bookcase full of each category. Some of the metals even had smithing techniques and there finer details such as; melting point, elastic limit, tensile strength, thermal and electrical conductivity, lustre among other things. The problem was most of this stuff was useless without the advanced technological forging equipment.
With all the new information I ended up making a library it was shaped like a pagoda each level was a different section. It was the biggest building surrounding outside the forest, the library was arranged by category further broken down into colour coordinated segments, spells broken down into charms, runes, jinxes and such. Then Metalwork was divided into useful weapon ingredients and additional components like construction, electrical and decorative. The botanical section was the largest though, each plant had a book, there were at least half a million that had medicinal uses, others poison and even food.
Then came the knowledge of each world, I had moved everything from the shelves in the cave to the library while sorting through, I'd gotten even more information. I had to break them down even further, bestiaries of each world lined one shelf, events arranged chronologically, even though I knew most things were different in this world the contents hadn't changed. For example, there was information on Lillith the first being God created and Adams first wife before Eve, that would not be the case in this world as the originals were the first vampires.
'Ah shit, that's why the seer mentioned Vinland! That's where the Mikaelsons were made vampires! Not Norway how could I forget? Eidetic memory isn't what it is cracked up to be! I should have asked for perfect recall! So I need to go to Vinland and find them at some point, I want to see if I can help Nik with the curse he is of my kin after all.'
I thought after reviewing the contents of the worlds, true blood was mainly set in the modern-day. 'Hmm I wonder if the Volturi and the authority will be the same organisation in this world, will Lilith still be a vampire she may be a first sire? And believed to be an original? What will Elijah and the other Mikaelsons unique powers be? Only time will tell'
After that train of thought, I got back to work. I started to arrange the inventions I knew how to create they were mostly handcrafted stuff like a water-powered hammer, kiln, loom, stone mills and some other simple things I did know how to make, it would be useful while I was creating a settlement in Pangea though.
I even gained knowledge of the world and Pangaea, mostly topography, ley lines and some places of power.
After all that was done, I took a trip to the cave in the centre of my mind again and visited my inner wolf for the first time since my awakening. It had grown and was even darker than the last time I saw it, it was twice my wolf's size and the crown-like markings on its head had a slivery glow to them. It just stared at me, a majestic look in its blood-red and bottle green speckled eyes as we made eye contact I felt a connection between us form a deeper bond. But I was suddenly snapped out of my mind as I began to approach.
'Hmm I can feel my strength has improved slightly but why couldn't I approach? Am I too weak to merge with the wolf? I accept it is me and I am it, so that is not the problem, maybe the transition is still ongoing? I wish I could ask another werewolf if this is normal'
After clearing my mind, I focused on my magic core. I was trying to grasp an understanding of how magic assimilated with my body. following the flow through my bloodstream into my every muscle and bone, it seemed to fill the gaps in each cell empowering them before cycling back to my core.
I had a theory that if I used outside magic after it had cycled through my system and filled my cells to capacity, it would enter my core and either expand it or condense my magic depending on how I utilized the energy, if I circled it throughout my core it would compress, or if I forced it towards the edges carefully it would expand it, increasing my magic capacity. I didn't want to try that just yet, without a doubt it was dangerous forcefully expanding your core might destroy it in the process.
I had expanded my core before but it was on instinct not intentionally, at that time I had just modified my mind palace and added runes to the trees, walls and pathways and my magic had circled my system 7 times. It was probably because my mind arts had caught up with my bodies development, resulting in a synergy between the two.
Sighing, I got up from sitting in meditation and stretched and a rush of energy dispersed through every muscle on my body and my bones popped, it was a comfortable feeling like getting into fresh bedding. I felt invigorated, the meeting with my inner wolf had boosted my energy somewhat.
Early one morning as the sun began to show the Ravens began to set up their ships at the port, I helped where possible I knew how to hoist a sail and the different parts of a boat but id never actually done it, so Brynjar showed me the ropes of everything happily, saying "Every man should know the sea" that made me chuckle for some reason. I could swim the sea if I wanted and it would probably just be as quick. Ratatoskr seemed to enjoy being on the top of the mast and scurrying around the ropes so I let him be, I did tell him not to steal anything though. He probably wouldn't listen but if he was sneaky enough it wouldn't matter.
After pushing away from the jetty and setting sail, I called upon my nature affinity to fill the sails with a strong wind. It got the men whistling a tune, which I found funny, It was a bad omen in some cultures to be whistling on a boat. There was a black cat aboard one ship which was considered a bad omen as well, but I knew they had it to get the rats that would eat the supplies. Ratatoskr appeared to enjoy tormenting it as he spanned the fleet of ships jumping from rope to rope. The men seemed to like him, Vali did ask why I named him that and I showed him my back which got a few gasps of surprise from the onlookers.
"That's some mark lad! A fitting name for the little one" was his remark he had a shocked expression but I just shrugged it off.
"I called him that before I even knew I had this mark, haha, he just seemed like the one from the stories I was told when I was younger" I replied with a laugh.
"How did you never know you had the world tree on your back?" He asked raising a brow.
"No one ever told me I found out when I was 13 winters old" informing him we carried on chatting as the bow cut through the waves crashing against it.