《the battle logs of the formation mage [REWRITE]》


 An Exceedingly Stupid Chase (log 001.1)

    It is a pretty weird feeling to sense the world through a sensory expansion formation. It feels like I am looking at the world through a blurry fog. It is pretty hard to get used to it even after a month of manning the airship. Even with how blurry it all is, it still is causing me a headache.


    Well, I am taking in information from about a hundred kilometers away. It is a surprise that I can even sense this far even with the formation. Most people would simply bleed to death due to the strain of the task. I am one of the only people at my power level who should be able to run this formation. Well, that is not important right now.


    If it was any other time, I would be celebrating this very moment. After all, the fact that you are reading this is an achievement of mine. My skill with mental magic or lack thereof is legendary in the hex mountain. To be frank, I still don''t know how I have managed to get this device working.


    Instead, I am forced to be in a state of focus, trying to keep this hunk of junk afloat. We are in a state of battle. I cannot have distractions be a cause of my death. It would be about the most embarrassing way to die. I certainly don''t want to be the one that ended up dying on his first thought log due to being distracted by his first log.


    Right now, we are being chased by three ships. All of them are antiques. Outrunning them with a standard ship would not have been an issue at all. The problem is that the head office has given me an antique as well. Well, they were ready to give me a standard guards ship. They had offered me the trashiest ship that they could find in the name of diplomacy and I had accepted it like an idiot.


    I will speak about the exact story behind it some other time. It is honestly stabbing myself on my own sword, the way that I have ended up in this situation. To any future captain going on their first mission. If the head office begins to praise your abilities, be sure that they are trying to screw you in some crazy way.


    Well I guess that I should focus on the matter at hand. Studying the ships behind me, they are the worst type of ship that you can find this north in the continent. (Which is saying something considering the quality of ships they already have.) It does not even have a cannon. These ships are what are popularly called as battering rams, ships which can be used to crash into other ships. both the ships are destroyed in the process.


    It is a tactic that is rarely used even by pirates due to how wasteful it is. After all how will you loot a ship if it is down on the ground shattered to pieces. On top of that you will have to even sacrifice a ship of yours. Regardless of how useless it is, a commoner here would have to work for many years to save up to get it.


    Well, it is time for me to focus on the battle at hand. I have three ships following me and I have no way of dealing with them from my present location as even I do not have cannons. The ships are antiques which means that they won''t be able to catch up with my ship any time soon. That doesn''t really mean we are safe due to the fact that the propulsion formation of my ship is failing.


    I honestly don''t know when the thing will fail but the instance that it does so the ship is going to fall. I can''t even try for a gentle landing because the thing has a busted suspension formation. Even the gentlest of taps is going to be destroying this vessel.


    My musing is distracted by a knock on the door. That would be Trevor, I think. With a wave, I open the door letting the man in. He is a soldier under me, though he has been placed more as a guide than an underling. It is a pretty interesting arrangement, of which I shall discuss later. Really, Why did this thing have to work in the middle of a battlefield? I do not get to speak on so many important things.


    ¡°Trevor, how are the hooks? Have they managed to get any into us?¡°, I ask the man, hoping that the answer was no. I don''t want to be dealing with boarders at this very moment. With boarders, I will have to get involved eventually. I cannot leave control of my ship at this moment, regardless of how slow the ships behind me are and my soldiers will not be able to handle too many boarders.


    ¡°No, Captain. They have not managed to get any hooks into us. Still, it is rare to see such persistent pirates. Most would have given up by now.¡°, Trevor speaks. ¡°Almost makes you wonder as to the reason that they are willing to do this.¡°


    ¡°Well, let''s hope that they do not have any more patience or this entire ship won''t even need the pirates to be destroyed. Still, I have managed to activate my thought logger finally.¡°, I speak, pointing to the thought logger. It is small formation made up of crystal that I have not been able to get working until the beginning of this log.


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    ¡°Well, better a month later than never. The head office was behind my back due to your inability to get that thing working.¡°, replies Trevor. ¡°you found the absolute best time to get the damn thing working, though. It will act as nothing more than a distraction.¡°


    ¡°What can I do, trevor. It is not like I have been sitting free in the last month to focus on the thought logger exclusively. You have given me the absolute worst ship present in the shipyard. The only reason that this ship is floating is due to my hard work.¡°, I speak, getting annoyed.


    ¡°Well, you were the one that accepted the ship that the head office had given. It is not like they were forcing it on you.¡°, replies trevor.


    ¡°Well, how was I supposed to know that the ship is going to be so crappy?¡°, I ask him.


    Trevor does not get to reply to this as one of the ships behind me shoots a hook right next to the room that we are in. This close to my room it packs a punch. It cannot be left there for long.


    Trevor leaves the room to get rid of the hook on my ship. I guess that I should explain what a hook is. What is called a hook is nothing but a harpoon. Granted, it is enchanted to make sure that once it enters into the opposite ship it will be quite impossible to remove them. All ships have them due to their many and diverse uses and the pirates have been quite creative with theirs. The hooks enter into the ship attached with a chain that would be quite easy to climb. Boarding like this is quite risky but compared to other methods it is quite cheap. I angle down the ship to dodge another hook flying above us.


    Once the hook enters the ship the enemy will be trying to board. individually they are not very strong but the other side has at least fifty people per ship. When you have a crew that can be counted on a single hand, you do not fight, you run. It does not matter how strong you are. Even if you can take on ten of these soldiers for sport, you do not want a fight to the death with a hundred of them. That would be such a pointless endeavor.


    Better that I should keep as far from them as possible even if it is pretty risky. Well, there goes my peace of mind. Behind me one of the ships has accelerated towards my ship quite dangerously. I am sure that they are overloading their formations to achieve this speed.


    Normally speaking I should be worried about this. After all, the entire reason that I am in my present situation is to prevent a boarding from occurring. The only reason that I am not losing my mind in fear is due to the fact that I have an ace. Just like any other ship, my ship also has hooks. Only in my case, the hooks are more explosive than they usually are supposed to be.


    One side effect of that has been that the range of the hook has been reduced. That is why I have not used it until now. That is the only reason that this humiliating chase exists in the first place.


    The release of the hook is almost ordinary, even more so than the hooks used by the enemy side. I wouldn''t be surprised if the enemy has not even noticed the hooks hitting them.


    My heart actually freezes for a couple of seconds. I can feel my mind beginning to go through each contingency. Thankfully, my anxiety doesn''t last for long as the enemy ship explodes like a balloon.


    Such a massive explosion should have been impossible. The week that I spent filling the hooks with mana should not have been enough to cause such massive damage. At most it would have created a hole in the ship.


    It took me a few seconds to find the actual reason that such a massive explosion occurred. The bastards were using a fire based propulsion formation. such a propulsion formation grants a decent amount of speed but there is always a risk of self implosion. So much fire mana in a single place is always risky.


    My hook acts like a trigger, setting the entire thing off. Well, I do not get a lot of opportunity to celebrate though. A burning ship so close to mine, I am struggling to keep my ship steady.


    It takes me a few minutes to stabilize my ship. I am sure that the explosion has already knocked out a lot of the formations placed on the outside of the ship. Most of these would be sensory formations, which would allow me to look at the world outside. Well, that literally reduces my headache at the very least.


    I will have to spend a while studying the formations after this battle. With the sensory formations gone things are going to be a nightmare to deal with.


    Right now, the only thing that I can rely on is my mana sense. At these distances, it is not very accurate but these ships emit a lot of mana. I can''t say for certain, but none of the other ships seem to be accelerating in this manner. That is good because I am not sure if I can pull off something like this again.


    Thankfully, I might not have to. The problem now would be related to the pirates that had boarded into our ship. I am sure that at the very least four hooks had gotten into our ship in this suicidal charge. I would eat my boots if they had not expected their ship to be destroyed.


    I am sure that at least twenty to thirty boarders must have climbed into the ship. With only three people in my troop, they outnumber us ten to one. That means that I have to get involved in this fight personally.


    Normally, That would be very annoying but I have a new formation to test anyway. It is an armor type one that I have been working on for the last couple weeks, in whatever free time that I have got. (Not that I got a lot of that.)


    I am calling it ¡°vine armor¡± for now, and it will have to be my primary method of attacking in this mission. Without my sword, this is about the only method that I have left to attack. Now, as to why I have not brought my sword here, you can blame my master for that. It was another of his assignments.


    Anyway, now is not the time for me to be thinking so much. I have a bunch of boarders to be fighting. It would be quite sad if my troop were to have any fewer soldiers than they already have. It is already a pretty pitiful number.

 Fighting the Stragglers (log 001.2)

    Pirates are in no way easy enemies to fight. What they lack in individual might they make up with pure quantity. Firstly, the weapons that they wield are nearly useless. An enemy boarder could strike me with his full strength and I will not notice it. Too many of those strikes and I will still end up wounded though.


    Many powerful mages have fallen to a troop of enemy soldiers, just because the mage had underestimated the enemy troop and was overwhelmed by it. It is such a common problem that every young mage is made to look at all the historic examples of these idiots. Still the list of idiots grows every year and I have no desire to be a part of that list.


    Thankfully there are just so many people that can fit on a ship. There shall be no pack tactics here at least. I am sure that every inch of the enemy ship was packed to its brim, but still the enemy would struggle to fit more than fifty soldiers in the ship. After all, you could easily fit in a hundred soldiers in the ship if you were to squish everybody, but where exactly will you be storing the food that is needed for a hundred soldiers? You can''t really cheat with that.


    Still, with thirty or forty enemy soldiers it would be wise not to underestimate them. Fighting them will also be easier in these cramped quarters where their swords will get stuck more easily and their shields will block their movements. That is if they have shields. Shields tend to be costly.


    Right now, I am making my way to the other people in my troop. They are presently in one of the storage rooms at the back of the ship. They are a couple of soldiers known as Andrew and Jacob. Both of them are at the moment boarding up a door, most likely to hold back the very people that I need to fight.


    It is a risk for them if the enemy were to breach the door, they would be left in a very vulnerable position. They would be outnumbered two to one. That is unlikely though, as the enemy seems to be battering the door, quite unsuccessfully. Pirates usually tend to have specialized tools for this, which these ones are lacking. Seriously, why exactly are these pirates so desperate to attack us? This early in their career as pirates, cowardice is the only thing that is saving their lives.


    ¡°Andrew, retreat to the formation room.¡°, I speak to Andrew, directing the duo to the room I had just left. ¡°You shall find Trevor nearby. The three of you make sure that the formation room is secure. Can''t have the ship messed up due to an idiot wrecking the wrong room.¡°


    ¡°Yes, captain.¡°, replies Andrew.


    Speaking to them makes me feel very weird, though the reason for it is long and complicated. Well, I could talk about it but it would not be wise to talk of them and their history. It would be quite detrimental in the place that we are going to. Not that I know of anybody in the place that can spy on a thought log. It is always safer to assume that somebody is.


    Within a few moments I am alone in the room, preparing my Armor. Well, calling it an Armor would be wrong as it is closer to a frame of vines covering my vitals. It will do well to stop an enemy strike or two but it won''t be able to do much beyond that.


    Well, this Armor of mine is not meant to be used defensively. It was meant to be a hidden ace. The fact that I am using it so openly is due to the fact that I have nothing else. Honestly, what problem my master has with me I will never find out. He always manages to figure out a way of screwing me over.


    Still, to speak of my armor''s ability. It has only one, called as thorn growth which allows me to manifest thorns from anywhere in the armor. It might make my armor sound quite useless, but it just depends on how you make use of it.


    For example, I can use it to protrude a bunch of sharp thorns all over my body. It makes my body resemble a porcupine but the effect is almost immediate. Through the door I can hear muffled screams as the protruded vines enter into the body of my enemies. It consumes quite a bit of mana though for the results that it has given. Looks like I will have to tinker with the formations a whole lot more. This efficiency is not good at all.


    It did not really cause a lot of heavy injuries but it was not meant to anyway. If anything it causes the men to push on the door even more. I certainly seem to have provoked them as they finally use something to batter the door open. I would have assumed that they would have run away on encountering a true mage. Looks like the men this north are made up of sterner stuff. They are at the very least more desperate. Maybe they do not have the experience to know when to run from a mage. Who can tell?


    It does not take them long too, as I manifest a couple of thorns in either hand. It isn''t particularly durable, but that is how it is meant to be. After all, I can summon quite a few of these thorns. I can certainly imagine a formation like this causing a lot of damage if used the correct way. Now, if I can just get the efficiency of the damn thing right.


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    The door breaks open with a snap as the enemy raiders swarm into my room. They are using an old bookshelf to break open the door (this ship has a lot of junk stored in it. The people maintaining this ship never expected the ship to fly ever again.). At the very least these guys seem to have been trained, if not particularly well. I would say that they were part of a militia. There are seven of them in the room, with the others standing just beyond it. They know at the very least that overcrowding a room is about the quickest way for them to get killed.


    Well, all it ends up doing is making my work a bit longer.


    I strike out with my thorns. The left strikes a raider right in his head. The strike is hard enough to break the thorn in my enemies head. He won''t be living more than a few moments. The thorn is much like a stick with a very pointy end. The right catches a raider right in his sword arm, disabling him though also leaving my thorns stuck in his arm.


    This gives the other five in the room an opportunity to strike. they certainly do take it. I am struck with three sets of clubs and two sets of swords in various spots on my body. All that results in is a dull ache and a little blood. Oh, how my friends would laugh at me if they were to witness this. Well, calling them friends is wrong. Better to call them hyenas. Even better to call them bastards, I say.


    I can''t let it carry on though. Injuries like this have a tendency of accumulating. I also cannot let my looks be affected much, for we are about to enter into a wolf''s abode. We certainly can''t have me looking like easy prey. Otherwise, my Armor has enough holes in it. I certainly don''t want another to be added to it, especially in the back.


    So I charge. In an instant, two new thorns replace the old ones and rather than strike an enemy I throw it. I need to see if the thorns will have the same integrity once separated from its source.


    Turns out it does and thus I keep on fighting. I have no desire to record every single blow of this pretty lackluster fight. The only reason that I have recorded up till now is due to the fact that the Armor needs to have a proper combat trial recorded somewhere.


    (After about five minutes.)


    The logic of this record is one of experimentation. How much mana I need to supply to the Armor to keep it working. The amount of durability and strength of a thorn that I will get for each unit of mana that I provide. What is the maximum length of each thorn? How many can be summoned in a single burst. I answer each question that pops in my mind related to the Armor. Well, I have to admit that this is not the ideal way to be testing a formation but as I said, this formation wasn''t meant to be in use at all right now.


    I have to admit that by the end of the fight, I had begun to play with the enemy boarders. My master would certainly frown on me for this type of thing. The man is a strong believer in the sanctity of life. I will have to make sure to ensure a cleaner end to my enemies the next time around. If my master were to even doubt that I was playing with my foes. It is a terrible thing to see him angry. I don''t even know why I am recording this.


    To come back to the topic, most of my testing is related to the basic stuff, something that I can experiment with only the formation. For example I can''t really experiment with poisons now. The armor that I am wearing is most used by assassins due to how easy it is to infuse poisons into the entire thing.


    It is a deadly process though, one that will require me to get used to the Armor and modify it to a certain degree. There are other avenues too, though it is going to be taking a while at the very least. I already have quite a few ideas popping in my head. For now though, I have to shelf all of those thoughts. Experimentation takes energy, something that I will have to reserve to keep this trash heap floating.


    Thinking about the ship, I actually need to get to the formation room as quickly as possible. I can access all the formations from anywhere on the ship but I can only have fine control in the formation room. Most people would call what I did as stupid. Nobody has ever heard of a pilot leaving his room in the middle of being chased to fight boarders.


    Well, what can I do? It is not like I have a proper troop of soldiers. I have three soldiers in this troop of mine. I am surprised that none of them are dead already in the way that our trip has been up till now.


    Returning back to me, I have to admit that this fight has left me more injured than I would have liked to admit. There is a stab wound on my back, that stings pretty nastily. Thankfully, there was nothing on the sword to prevent my blood from coagulating. Pirates always poison their blades. (Which is just another proof of how bad these pirates are.) Blood loss is a very annoying thing to worry about when you need to focus on running a ship.


    Other than that, there is a dull ache in various parts of my arms and my chest. This is where the enemy clubs struck me. I am sure that something is broken in my body, but it is already healing. At least I am cycling my mana to make sure it will grow into anything serious.


    That is why I am not already in the formation room. Can''t have the soldiers see me weakened like this. That would be quite a hit to morale. Though why I am worrying about morale with only four soldiers on this ship I don''t know.


    Still, I will have to get up soon enough. The room stinks of blood. That is a major problem with using a stabbing weapon in a group of enemies. Too much of what should be inside is on the outside, to my liking. With my sword here, things wouldn''t have certainly gotten so messy and these injuries would not even be something that I would be worried about.


    Well, I might blame my master but it was due to my ego that I am here in this state in the first place. After all, my master might be the man to set the challenges but I am the one that has to accept them.


    Well, I have complained enough. It is time to return to the formation room even if it is a bit of a pain.

 A Belated Introduction (log 001.3)

    It does not take me long to reach the formation room. On entering the room, I do not find the soldiers that I have sent here. The only person here is trevor. Before I can ask him about it though.


    ¡°Well, you have left the scholars unguarded, captain. If they were injured it would certainly not reflect well on you.¡°, speaks trevor.


    Well, I had completely forgotten about the scholars. They are after all the ultimate purpose of our mission after all. I am supposed to be escorting them to the snowwind empire.


    ¡°Fuck, I had forgotten about them. Are they safe?¡°, I ask.


    ¡°Yeah, the two soldiers should be there guarding them. Anyway, you seem to have gotten rid of the existing enemies.¡°, he replies. ¡°They are about as safe as they can be. Their main threat now would be the two ships that are behind us.¡°


    Trevor is not strong enough to actually run the sensory formation, but the man has enough of a mana sense to be able to vaguely sense the enemies position.


    ¡°Well, those fuckers are still following us.¡°, I reply, feeling the annoyance grow in my tone. ¡°What exactly do they think we are transporting that they are following us. We are not even a trade ship.¡°


    ¡°Well, I have my thoughts regarding that. I shall not distract you by telling them now. Just focus on getting away from the two ships.¡°, he replies. ¡°I shall be on hook duty. Can''t have anymore boarders.¡°


    ¡°Well, getting away from the pirates is easy, trevor.¡°, I speak, a bit smugly. ¡°It is keeping the ship together that is the challenge.¡°


    ¡°Well, then focus on that. It''s not like we have the option of changing our ship anyways.¡°, Trevor replies. ¡°Before you start crying, this is the result of accepting what the head office has offered. You will do well to remember this in the future. Those bastards will do anything to save a couple of mana stones. Regardless, before I leave I have to remind you. Introduce yourself and the mission before the head office chews my head.¡°


    ¡°Yeah yeah, leave already.¡°, I replied to the man, snapping a bit. He knows how to get on my nerves.


    Trevor doesn''t reply as I return to focus on the formations. I guess that I should check up on the propulsion formation but to do so in the middle of a flight will only cause my heart to fail. It is already on the verge of burning out. Instead, I return my focus to the sensory formations or what is left of them.


    A familiar sense of pain returns to me as I look at the two ships behind me. Well, they are nothing more than blurry spots behind me, depending more on my mana sense than anything else. They seem to be going at a steady rate for now so that is good news at the very least.


    Right, my work is actually pretty simple. I have to accelerate the ship to match the speed of the ships behind me. Too slow and the ships behind will be getting a very easy opportunity to attack us. Too fast and the propulsion formation might just end up failing. Then not even the ships behind us will be able to tow us to safety. It is about the most embarrassing way for this ship to go. To fail before the enemy ships even manage to get a hook into us.


    Well, as my master likes to say. Do not think of things too much, especially about stuff beyond your control. It is the easiest way to get a headache.


    Well, that leaves me with the issue of my introduction. Even before my issues with the thought logger, I dreaded introducing myself. The problem with that is due to the sensitive nature of my identity.


    Well, I can certainly introduce myself. My name is Antonio Sevenstars, of the black mountain (based in the hex mountain, to those that didn''t get it.). My master is the grand wolf of the formation corps. beyond that, I don''t think that I have to describe myself.


    Just this bit of information might end up leaking some things that I certainly don''t want the people I am about to meet to know about any time soon. After all, the reputation of my master is everywhere in the continent. I guess I will be talking about these secrets soon enough if things go badly.


    For now, let me focus on the people who I am supposed to escort. That would be the scholars. To speak of the scholars is to speak about the black mountain. The black mountain is not the strongest force on the continent, but it is considered to be the most knowledgeable. We have knowledge on nearly anything, be it magic or the dirty little secret using which a village chief can be threatened to do what you want.


    To put it simply, the scholars work to collect information for the black mountain and by information I mean everything from the history of a place to the more uncomfortable bits that I am better off not putting on my record.


    Let''s just say that everything that the black mountain knows (which is a pretty significant amount.) comes from the scholars in some capacity. They are even trained for it in their weird ways. They say that if you were to leave a scholar without supervision in a city for a day, he shall figure out the methods of invading it in that period. More importantly, the scholars are supposed to be the source of all the legendary magic that is used by the black mountain. Magic capable of crushing mountains, diverting rivers and building forts in a single day. All of these are supposed to be created or discovered by the scholars.


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    Rumors like this are why the scholars need an escort of dedicated guards in the first place. Right now, we are escorting three scholars. I don''t know much about them, only that they enjoy their privacy. I don''t even know their names.


    As for the where, I am supposed to leave the group of scholars at an old draconion ruin, that they call as documented ruin number 32. Just the fact that they have a name for it means that this is not a magical ruin that is being visited for the first time. Other than that there is little that I know about the ruin. Well, I might not even get to visit the place. There are treaties to follow and contracts to be fulfilled. I also have to stock up on a lot of materials if this ship has to make its way back to the hex mountain. I might even need to replace the entire thing. Now how much work that will take, I do not even dare to imagine.


    This place is one of the rare locations from which the hexmountain is not visible in the continent. Elsewhere in the continent, the hex mountain would stand there like a part of the horizon. Maybe not so imposing as being closer to it would be but it is true that the hex mountain is always there in your sight. Well, I guess that is what happens when you make the largest mountain in the continent your base.


    Focusing back, I am going to be quite busy soon enough. Until then, this ship is going to be keeping me very busy. The ships behind me seem to have slowed down finally. I am sure that they will soon disappear even beyond the range of my enhanced mana sense. Not that this range is much after almost crashing into a burning ship.


    Normally, with most pirates this would have been enough for me to breathe a sigh of relief. Here, the pirates are of a different variety. They seem to be oddly persistent in their chasing us. Maybe it is simply desperation, (it is the beginning of winter) though Trevor does imagine it to be something worse.


    I will leave him and his theories later. Now that things seem to be cooling down a bit, I can finally shut down this log. Before that though I will have to record something else. It is a brief rundown of the reason that we have ended up in our present situation and the seven temples incident.


    Firstly, I will have to discuss the snow wind empire and our relations with them. The empire is one of the closest locations to the frozen wastelands. Being this close to a mana desert (especially this mana desert.), the place is quite inhospitable for most people. The snow wind empire is the only empire that has managed to claim this piece of land as their own from all of their neighbors.


    They actually managed to carve their territory in a pretty bloody war. My master says that the people here have earned every inch of their land with enough blood to flood that inch of land. In short, I have blabbered so much about them to explain that they are supposed to be hard people hostile to everybody.


    Now, since we are so far away from their lands, the black mountain actually has a pretty uneasy alliance with them. We might just be the closest thing they have to an ally. Now that would not be much of a problem in normal cases. While I am sure that the snowwinders might not be friendly with us, they would at the very least be neutral.


    That all has now changed with the seven temples incident. Well, if you want detailed information on that disaster of a mission you will have to access the corresponding logs. For now, I will explain it to you in brief. The snow wind empire has another draconian ruin under their control known as the temple of the seven stars or the seven temples for short.


    Much like the ruin we are going to, the seven temples were a place that our scholars could access and study. Not going into too much detail, the seven temples have many formations which are quite ancient and incomplete. Activating them without caution will have very dangerous side effects.


    Let''s just say that one of our scholars got very impatient and managed to blow up the seven temples. That would still not be much of a problem, if it were not for the fact that the scholar in question was under the influence of one of the scholar''s herbs. Do not waste your time by asking me what the herb is, only that it boosts the functioning of your mind and that it has the side effect of making you look drunk.


    The scholars are supposed to be masters of creating different kinds of potions and herbs, all of which can produce some amazing effects. That is their secret though, one that they rarely share to even the other factions of the black mountain.


    Naturally you can imagine what a drunk scholar messing with formations he shouldn''t have will look like to the snow winders. It is a wonder that they have allowed their scholars to this ruin too. I am sure that there is a lot of politics behind the scenes which I don''t understand, but the snow winders need us at this moment. It is clear to even a outsider like me that has only studied these people from the records of the head office.


    I won''t bore you with the politics I do understand, save to tell you that the place we are going to, the frozen peak, has a lot of requirements for formation mages. That is why I have been sent. I am sure that I have been sent here to aid the snowwinders while the scholars do their work at the ruin. They are about to enter into a state of war and having a formation mage like me to help them out will certainly be helpful for them.


    Well, I am also about to be something of a hostage, I assure you. While I will be at the frozen peak, doing what is pretty important work for them they will kill me the instant that anything occurs at the ruin. That will lead to a lot of chaos though and a certain fraying of diplomatic bonds. So there is that as a consolation.


    Still, who can tell what will happen in a moment of emotion. These ruins also seem to hold a historic importance to these people. Well, overthinking about this is not going to lead to anything productive. The ships behind me finally have left the range of my detection.


    I am sure that these pieces of junk are unlikely to follow us. Still, I won''t be making the mistake of making that assumption again. It is going to be a pain to make this ship work once it has been shut down. I shudder to imagine the damage that I will be dealing with this time.

 Emergency Repairs (log 002)

    Well, it has been a day since the incident of the first log occurred. I had wanted to land immediately and start working on the formations. I could not take that risk though (even if I wanted to, Trevor would not accept it.). The pirates of this region are very persistent. I would not be surprised if the two ships we have outpaced are still behind us steadily chugging behind us. We have had to face a couple of ambushes like that.


    Now comes the crappy part. Right now I am in the formation room. I will now have to inspect the entire room and every formation here to make sure that it is not damaged (at least make sure that things are not worse than before.) Well, I can feel the damage in the formations in front of me and our situation is not pretty.


    The propulsion formation in front of me is on the verge of breaking apart and this time I do not know how to solve this problem on my own. There are fixes but the formation will fail, if not today then tomorrow.


    Now normally the purpose of a propulsion formation is quite simple. That would be to convert mana into some kind of spell that would be able to push the airship forward. That means that they are usually simple formations that have a single core and a control stick. The core is any material inscribed with the spell runes that will be the thing that will run the entire formation. The control stick is where I can link myself to the formation if I do not want to control the formation using a spell.


    Right now the problem that I am facing is that the formation core is on the verge of collapsing. The material used for the core of this particular formation is a piece of sky bamboo. It is as far as I can tell, inscribed with some form of a wind spell. The thing with sky bamboo is that it is pretty good at boosting the power of wind spells which makes it a good choice for this task. The only problem is that it has very low durability. Using it for an attack spell would be nice and would pack quite a scary punch but it would be consumed in a single move. To use such a thing as the formation core speaks of great stupidity or great desperation. Knowing the people who have created this ship, I would say it is a mixture of both. I am surprised that It has even worked for five years.


    The sky bamboo is burning up. After pushing this formation to its limit yesterday, It has reached a state where the runes are physically visible. That means that the mana passing through it has begun to affect the material of the formation core. It is such a rarity that I have yet to see it occur practically though I have heard of it occurring a few times. It is quite a risky endeavor too to deal with a failing formation core. With the amount of mana passing through this material, you never know what can happen. It will most likely create a hurricane in the middle of the room. It could also create a void in which none of us can take a breath. Still, in either case the propulsion formation will stop working.


    The problem with the propulsion formation is that I cannot predict when it will fail. if it were to do that in the middle of the flight we would plummet straight to the ground in the best case. As for the worst case, I don''t even want to think about it. I will end up with nightmares for days. Well, the material of the formation has begun to burn up. There was simply no way for me to accelerate the ship like I did yesterday without consequences.


    Well, other than changing the core of the formation I have no more solutions. Changing the core would essentially be creating a new formation. if I get a material that can act as the core to the new propulsion formation. I will still have to inscribe the formation. This will be the first time that I will be doing it practically for such a formation.


    The only thing I can do right now is to rearrange the runes that are supporting the core of this formation. This will reduce the strain on the core, which I hope is enough for me to keep this thing flying for a bit longer. If I were to do it though, our speed would only be roughly sixty percent of what it is now. On top of that it is only a stopgap measure not dealing with the actual issue at hand. The formation will still fail. Well, stopgap measures are the only thing I seem to have.


    Well, I guess that I should speak of the story of this crappy ship. Well, there is actually not much behind the story. The ship was given to us as a gift by the snowwinders when we had more friendly relations.


    The ship was given to us more as a political statement then anything else. The snowwinders are such fierce warriors that nobody is willing to provide them with any complex formations. These include combat airships and the method of building them. They meant to use this gift to show their capabilities, maybe as a method to request for more ships or it is a method of diplomatic threatening that I do not understand. This all is pretty new to me.


    The ship that I am driving is supposed to be the most advanced airship that they can build. The head office thought that using the very ship that they have provided would make us seem friendlier to the snow winders. I agreed to this like an idiot. Next time I will have to see the ship first.


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    I don''t know about friendlier, but they would certainly see us as idiots for making use of this piece of crap ship. Who knows, maybe they would be more busy laughing at us to bother attacking us on sight. There is a risk of that happening, you know. Them attacking us on sight. The frozen peak is the place where it is least likely to happen though.


    Regardless, I should go and inform Trevor about this development. The only reason that I am not in his room is that the man is going to be in one of his moods. Trevor has begun to suspect that the snowwinders are involved in this scheme in one way or another. Well, I have my suspicions about it too, but I cannot spend hours talking about it like Trevor can.


    We have more immediate worries, which would be the ship. The man certainly does not seem to be aware about just how easily this ship might end up being destroyed. If that were to happen, we have about a couple of months of trekking before we might reach a city. That is if we were to survive the crash in the first place. Well, regardless of how annoying it is, it is time for me to talk to the man.


    (After about five minutes.)


    I am standing outside Trevor''s quarters right now, which is also his office. Entering into the room is an experience. To paint a scene, Trevor''s room has a bed to the side, something that never seems to be used. His table though is the exact opposite, full of papers and documents. I am surprised it has not broken yet. He is always sitting in that chair, doing whatever he does. I do not know what it is and I do not dare ask. Opposite him, he has two empty chairs. Even right now, he is so focused on this work that he has not noticed my entry.


    ¡°Trevor, I have come to speak to you.¡°, I speak, looking at the man in front of me.


    ¡°Well, captain. It is a surprise to see you here.¡°, he replies.


    ¡°What can I do, it is not like you would heed my summons anyway. Regardless, we have important matters to discuss.¡°, I speak, taking one of the seats. ¡°We need to figure out what needs to be done regarding the ship.¡°


    ¡°Well, what can you do?¡° Asks trevor. ¡°It is not like we can stop in some city somewhere to get the ship fixed anyways.¡°


    ¡°That is true, but that doesn''t change the fact that using the ship has become dangerous. It could fall any second.¡°, I reply.


    ¡°Well, you are the expert. I am sure you have something to counter it already.¡°, he replies quite nonchalantly.


    "I have told you of my worries with the propulsion formations before as well. Most of them are coming true at the moment. The formation core is too fragile to handle this kind of strain again. I believe the formation core would burn out in a couple of days at the minimum and a week at the maximum." I spoke, trying to emphasize to the man the gravity of our situation. ¡°I can tweak the formation to make it more stable, but it will cost us speed.¡°


    "Well, how much time would we take to reach and how much time will the formation last then?" He asked.


    "I think that we can take a fortnight to reach now and this way the formation will last a month or even two, though it is still quite risky." I say.


    "Then it is a risk that we will have to take. Don''t forget, Even If an attack does happen, you should be enough to deal with them. Right now we are pretty close to the frozen peak. There will be no pirates here. Even if there are, they should be the variety that we can handle. I will keep Jacob and Andrew on a patrol." The old man spoke after a minute of pondering. ¡°I am sure that they have been coddling the scholars for long enough.¡°


    ¡°Well, was that really necessary? It is not like I have left any of the boarders alive for them to truly be a threat.¡° I ask, pondering on what could have led to this.


    ¡°Well, the scholars are a fickle bunch. They might be able to take care of themselves, but still it would be wise for you to assume that they are made up of glass.¡°, he says. ¡°They can make a small complaint seem life threatening and the head office is always looking for excuses to penalize us guards.¡°


    ¡°Still, I am not comfortable. I have never heard of pirates in this region. This is supposed to be a very desolate area. What would they even be getting here that would be worth pirating.¡°, I speak.


    ¡°Well, it is not as desolate as you assume it to be. The frozen peak are at the very least ten thousand strong. Such a large group of cultivators consume a lot of resources. On top of that, these people are right next to a mana desert. They will need a lot of mana rich fuel to keep running the frozen peak. I have to assume that the formations at the frozen peak must eat through their mana stone reserves.¡°, replies trevor. ¡°Anyway, the snowwinders have a very strong supply line in this area is my point. I am not surprised if a few thieves are active here.¡°


    ¡°If that is the case, the snowwinders would be the first to get rid of them.¡°, I speak. "They like to send messages."


    ¡°Well, now is a sensitive time for them. Anyways I don''t think these attacks have been accidental at all. The snowwinders are behind it somehow. I feel it in my bones.¡°, Trevor pondered. ¡°I shall not bore you with my conspiracies, as you have put it captain.¡°


    ¡°Well, I didn''t call them conspiracies, trevor.¡°, I reply. ¡°I just don''t have the time to worry about what someone so far away can do to me, when the very ship I am on can end up causing my death.¡°


    ¡°I shall have the two soldiers on a patrol then," he replies. ¡°We shall not face any more problems from the snowwinders until we reach the frozen peak. You worry about the ship until then. Do you have anything else to speak about.¡°


    Saying that Trevor returns to his work. I quietly slip from the room, wondering sometimes why such a man of presence is working as my underling. He would make a killing in the legion or even as a bandit.

 Reaching The Frozen Peak (log 003)

    Reaching the frozen peak, I do not need to worry about landing this ship. Due to the amount of mana that flows through a ship only a fool would allow the thing to be active near their defensive formations.


    That is about the quickest way to screw with the formations of a defensive structure. Even I can imagine quite a few methods of causing havoc if the ship was under my control. Heck, I don''t even need to do much. Just aim the failing propulsion formation right into their defensive walls. I am sure that something will be broken in the process, whether it be the wall or the ship and everything will explode. Well, we would end up dying in the process though.


    Regardless, the threat posed by the formations means that the instant that we entered into the range of the frozen peak, complete control of the ship was taken by the formations mages that the frozen peak has. (Bad formation mages are still formation mages.)


    I can resist such a control, but doing so would be considered to be an act of war. Right now, that is something that is neither good for me nor for the black mountain. It is still a very icky and uncomfortable sense, to give up control of your formation in that way. More skilled mages tend to be gentler, if they feel like it.


    That is why, all the people of the troop and the scholars are waiting here in the boarding room for our entry into the frozen peak. As for what the boarding room will open into is my primary worry at the moment. It could lead to a troop of armed soldiers or a trap or something that I cannot even imagine.


    Right now I have no work to do other than to ponder on the greeting that will be given to us. Honestly, thinking about it is about the stupidest way to spend my time but what can a man do.


    I am sure that I won''t be killed. There are not many forces in the continent that are able to afford provoking the black mountain in such a manner but that does not change the fact that this trip could be very uncomfortable.


    All this doesn''t change the fact that my heart is beating when the ship is landing. I almost don''t notice the ship crashing into our landing. That is what happens when the suspension formation is not working properly. It is considered to be very dangerous to leave the formation like that, but what can I do. It is not like the greatest of suspension formations will be able to smoothly land a crashing ship that has lost its propulsion formation. I know of empires that would kill for such a suspension formation. It would reduce their costs so much.


    The door to the ship opens up and I look outside. I feel two things the instant that I leave the safety of the ship. The first is the bone chilling cold that I feel the instant that my skin hits the outside. Well, at the moment I am wearing nothing more than my usual work clothes (my best ones.) under which I have the vine armor. Well, I have to admit that I have seriously underestimated this chill. I could channel mana to feel better, but that would be a sign of weakness. I can''t afford that in our first meeting.


    The second thing is much harder to describe. It would be accurate to call it a pressure, I guess. I think this is what a sheep feels when it looks at a dragon. I can feel my mind enter into a state of mindless panic almost like I am a stranger looking at myself. I have to reign in this feeling. If I do not do that I am sure that I would be running away at this very instant or I will just curl up into a ball.


    The source of this pressure would be the man that is standing in front of me. He is an old man, thin enough that he more closely resembles a skeleton than a living person. Still, only a fool would consider the man to be weak. He is such a powerful man, that the head office has a detailed record on him. Otherwise, this far north even the black mountain does not like to maintain records. Other than his raw power though, I do not know much about the man. I am not allowed to read the record they have on this man. That is enough to tell you how important they consider the man.


    ¡°Young Captain, I greet you. It is rare for us to see such a young talent so far away from the center of the continent", the commander begins.


    The instant that he speaks the illusion breaks. the intense feeling of fear that I experienced looking at him disappears like snow in the sun. Now the fear I feel is that of a man trying to impress his superior. The only thing is that the cost of failure here is death.


    "I bow down to you, commander.", I begin, trying my best not to keep my fear from showing on my face as I bow as is customary with this bunch. These are very particular people. "I apologize for the pitiful state that you have found us in. It has not been easy for us to make our way to this place at the best of times and right now it is the onset of winter. I had assumed people were exaggerating when they told us the danger of winter here. My overconfidence has caused us to suffer."


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    "That certainly seems to be a mistake from our side as well and as the commander, I will apologize to you. We should have been more hospitable and sent a couple of people to welcome you. Sadly even we are restricted by the onset of winter", the commander spoke, leaving me to wonder what hidden trap lay in this apology. If only I could gather my thoughts, I am sure that I would find it. That is a task for later. "for now, let us forgo much more serious talks. It is bad luck to stand too long at the door. you seem to be exhausted, so we shall speak again later."


    Saying that the old man disappeared as quickly as he appeared. For an instant, I had the feeling as if a massive weight was released from my body. One that I did not even know I was carrying. I can feel my thoughts slow down as if I have spent the last couple of hours working on a particularly hard formation.


    Two soldiers were standing at attention to the side, who took us to our quarters. A male and a female soldier, with strength roughly equivalent to me. Maybe I can hold my own against them, but that would require me to go all out and I would have to reveal the vine armor. Killing the two, would certainly put me at risk but would also mean the death of the troop. They don''t even need to try that hard to kill only three soldiers.


    ¡°What shall I address you as?¡° I speak, bowing to them in a manner that would be considered polite. Everything feels a bit dreamy right now if I am honest.


    ¡°You can call us as guards.¡°, speaks the female soldier, in a tone that clearly conveys their hostility.


    ¡°Right now, you will have to give up all your weapons. You shall be placed under guard by us both until the commander deems it so.¡°, speaks the male soldier.


    Normally, I would give at the very least lip service to this man and look like I was more resistant to them. I am after all supposed to be a representative of the black mountain after all. The black mountain would not like to look like cowards.


    Now, meeting the commander I do not have any particular inclination to do that. So I quietly give up my weapons, though I leave my formation on me. It would be stupidity to expose such an ace and I will eat my boot, if the snowwinders have enough mana sensitivity to sense my weapon. Well there is the commander.


    Thus we begin to make our way into the frozen peak. My first review of the frozen peak is how ordinary it looks. The place looks like about any fort that I have seen near my home.


    Well, I am sure that I won''t be escorted to any place that would be remotely interesting in this trip. The snowwinders would be quite careful with both us guards and the scholars. After all, they have to make sure that we don''t learn anything about the frozen peak.


    You see, the combat troops of the black mountain must maintain clear and well-maintained records. This is especially true during any mission. Let''s just say if one of these bastards were to assassinate me tomorrow, we will need to know who to kill. The logs are our best method of doing that.


    This information contains nearly every bit of information that a person is observing. From the behavior of the servants to the many habits of the guards. Every single piece of information is taken in and analyzed by the black mountain. They can make use of small information like this to predict almost all of our ally''s intent.


    You never know which place you might end up needing to take over, so any information is welcome. You have the obvious information such as the defenses and the troop placements. even petty information such as the sleep schedule of the people, the places of rest or even the kind of street food that the people will eat. (You would be surprised just how much the poison mages can do with such information.)


    To explain this thing particularly well, one cannot forget about the Iron Forest. The Iron Forest was one of the last centers of power for the druids. Iron Forest and its legendary iron wall can be considered to be the toughest nut that the legion had to crack in the Druidic campaign. The place managed to survive the siege of a general and his soldiers for two years. Even after that period, it did not seem close to falling. If anything, it was the troop that was suffering heavy losses.


    The reason that it was destroyed was from the log of a soldier known as Albert. He noticed the fact that the soldiers of Iron Forest had a habit of watering the iron wall to realize that it was a tree. Then it did not take long for our formation masters to figure out what they needed to do. A lot of poison to the roots and the iron forest became a part of history.


    I have a personal reason to tell this story. since it was from this place that we managed to acquire a majority of the druidic spells that the black mountain has records on. It is these spells that my master specializes in and what I am preparing to specialize in. They have one of the most unique formation systems in the continent. It would be a pity to lose it.


    Returning back to the frozen peak, all I can tell is that we have been taken somewhere deep inside the fort. I cannot tell the route that we have taken other than the fact that it is a confusing mess of twists and turns.


    Maybe the logs of one of the other soldiers might shed a better light, though I wouldn''t expect too much from them too. It is just a part of working with forts. I wouldn''t be surprised if the other side had formations in place to prevent people from being able to remember the path being taken.


    I am sure that we are being taken to an observation room. Every fort has one. A room that seems ordinary, even comfortable. Most of them are fit even for a king. Yet as the name suggests, the room is fitted with surveillance formations throughout the entire thing. I am sure that the snowwinders will be knowing everything that we shall be doing in the room.


    Well, this is a part and parcel of dealing with semi hostile forces. We are not in the dungeons at the very least. I am sure a fort like the frozen peak would have plenty of those too and they certainly are not going to be comfortable. If I resisted, it would have been quite easy to end up there as well.

 Confined To The Guest Room (log 004)

    Right now I am looking at the scholars. They are fascinating figures. They are beings of such great knowledge that it seems impossible sometimes.


    The scholars do not really like to talk to the guards. They always speak with us in a cautious tone, as if they are scared to let us know anything.


    I don''t know if it is caution or a superiority complex, but I lean towards the former. For better or worse, the scholars provide us with so much knowledge, either related to magic or our enemies. Such knowledge is precious to the correct people and most of this you can only find in the head of the scholars. I would not be surprised if they had trust issues with everybody.


    Even now, the scholars are careful to stay in their own huddle in this observation room. I don''t even know why I am talking about the scholars. The head office doesn''t like to have too many mentions of the scholars. I am technically only allowed to mention how many scholars there are, though even that is considered to be pushing it.


    It is not like I can speak anything about them anyways. They are the ultimate mystery after all. Nobody knows the magic that they practice, (not even their magical path.). Nobody knows the hierarchy of their organization. Nobody even knows the name of their leader. All we really know about them is what average layman knows.


    Well, I do not like to be passive like this. We have been stuck in this room for about two days. It almost seems like the snowwinders have forgotten about us. Well, we have not been forgotten, about that I am sure.


    Standing guard outside of our rooms are the two soldiers that have escorted us here in the first place. These soldiers are trained to resist the observations of the scholars or so I think at the very least. Every faction has a regiment of soldiers that are trained to resist the observations of the scholars. Not that they are particularly successful but people try at the very least.


    They stand outside of our rooms like statues. They do not talk to each other, they do not seem to sleep and I certainly have never seen them eat.


    They do not even tend to react to my provocations. Yesterday, I had tried to get them angry by trying to leave our room. The instant that I left the room, it was almost like the soldiers just shifted into a battle state. Cool and calm, they would have fought me to the death without any hint of passion.


    Thankfully, I did not have my armor on me or I would have activated it just on the basis of my instinct. That would have led to quite a bit of chaos.


    After that, I have decided not to provoke the guards too much. It would be wiser to wait for the enemies to make a move in this case. That is what I tell myself, but I honestly have no idea what move to make here.


    Well, stuff like this was why trevor was sent with me in the first place. The man was supposed to act as my advisor based on the negotiation that my master had done with the head office. He had demanded three things in return for my services to the guards as a formation mage.


    First was that trevor was meant to act as my mentor, essentially leading this troop. I don''t know why specifically trevor, but the man has experience and that cannot be denied. Maybe that is what my master had considered when making the request. Maybe he just meant to torture me.


    The second one was even more direct. This my master put in just to torture me. He placed me this close to the northern wastelands and that too on my first mission. On this matter, I do not want to speak for long. It would be quite risky if I let something loose now.


    As for the third, that is the weirdest of them all. He restricted my troop to only have four soldiers, including me. That is why I have such a restricted troop. Normally otherwise a troop is supposed to have at least ten people.


    Naturally, the head office agreed to this since it does not affect them. That is how I have ended up in this room, stuck like this.


    Anyways, why did I speak about all this. Yeah, trevor was sent here to guide me on matters of significance like this. The man has not been speaking to me since the last couple of days. He doesn''t want anything we speak to go to the enemy.


    He has been pacing the room looking for stuff that they are using to spy on us. He has actually been succesful too, destroying quite a few items with small formations on it. Regardless of how many he destroys though, the man does not seem to be satisfied with it.


    Looking at him, I can feel myself enter into a state of panic. Free time and overthinking are not anything good for me, I am starting to realise.


    On top of that, there are stories about snowwind formations among the poison mages and how they can use such formations to administer poisons that a poison mage would fear to touch. Well, this room is perfect for such a poison formation.


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    Well, thinking that has certainly not helped my peace of mind and trevors pacing has not helped one bit. Still, it is the calmness that is being showcased by Jacob and Andrew that is causing my panic to reach new heights.


    The two soldiers have been in meditation for the last couple of days, as if this room is their training room. How they have the state of mind to cultivate here is something that I have no idea on. Well considering where they have come from, it is not that surprising. Again I will stop myself from speaking further. It is better not to speak of their origin.


    To cultivate a soldier has to have complete focus on their mana core. To do that you need to be able to push everything away. I have not been able to cultivate personally ever since I have been on that damned ship. Just keeping it going could be considered to be a cultivation of a kind.


    Still, I hope that something will happen soon. This waiting has been very trying and certainly not good for my mind.


    (After about a couple of hours.)


    After seeing trevor avoid me for so long, it was such a surprise to see trevor approach me that the thought logger activated on it''s own. I am sure to most people that such an action would come to you easily. For me though, I have to make an effort to remember that I have to activate the damn device.


    It could mean that my skill with the damn device is increasing. Well, now is not the time to waste on these thoughts.


    "Well, you have been busy the last couple of days.", I speak.


    "A man has got to keep busy, captain or it is very easy for him to lose his mind.", replies Trevor. "Regardless, the lesser that they know about our conversation the better."


    "Well are you confident that we are not being spied on?", I ask the man.


    "About as confident as I can reasonably be. I am sure that they are listening to us anyways.", Trevor speaks. "That won''t be an issue. I shall not speak about anything particularly sensitive. After all, I am sure that what I shall speak the snowwinders have heard a thousand times. After all, much of it we have got from them only. What do you know about the purpose of the frozen peak?"


    "Well, I know that it is the northernmost fort of the snowwinders and one of the only structures that is closest to the northern wastelands.", I reply.


    "Well, you are a new captain. It isn''t a surprise that they have not shared much with you.", speaks Trevor. "Well, the purpose of the frozen peak is quite simple. This fort is meant to hold of the snowlords."


    "But there is no other power in our surroundings.", I exclaim.


    "Well, there is one. I am sure you can guess from where they come." Replies trevor. As they speak I do realise about whom he is talking about.


    It is a pretty popular myth, about a tribe of people that could survive even in the northern wastelands. They are considered to be one of the sworn enemies of the legion. Every soldier worth his salt have fought them or at the very least has a story related to them. They are known as the snow tribe and today I have learnt that the snowwind empire calls them as snowlords.


    "Well, what does that have to do with me. I am a formation mage. It is not like they can send me on to the battlefield.", I reply. I can feel a shiver in my spines as I ponder on the possibilities with a sinking heart.


    "Do not try to assume what the commander will ask you to do. I am sure that whatever task you will be given will be something that you will be able to manage.", replies Trevor. "If they give a particularly unreasonable task, I am sure that the head office will be the first to act."


    "Well, I will still have to complete the task, aren''t I?", I ask the man.


    "Well, you know the head office. I would think it wiser you deal with it yourself.", replies Trevor. "Well, it is time for you to learn. You need to tell me what you know about the snowlords."


    "Well, most of what I know comes from stories told by soldiers of the legion. I am sure that most of what they have told me is exaggerated.", I reply. "Otherwise I can''t believe half the stuff that the they have claimed about the snowlords."


    "Well, then it is safe to say that you don''t know much. That is a pity. I can''t say that I know much about the tribes either. The legion is a better source of information on them.", speaks Trevor. "Well, all I really know about them comes from the records of the snowwinders actually. At the onset of winter, the snowwinders are harassed by the snowlords. Every year they and their beasts descend from the northern wastelands to conduct raids into the snowwind empire. They are supposed to be very dangerous enemies."


    "Well, that much I know. They are supposed to be soldiers that are able to twist the very weather around them. They are supposed to have skins of iron that no ordinary weapons are supposed to be able to pierce. The grandest claim I have heard of them is that they are able to summon blizzards at will. Also, I don''t think I have heard any story in which the legion have ever fought them head on, only through stealth or traps", I reply while remembering the many stories of the snowlords that I heard. They were one of the few enemies among their massive list of enemies that they were willing to speak about.


    "Well, that can be considered to be the truth if a bit exaggerated. The snowlords are masters of manipulating external mana. Their soldiers are able to manipulate mana for kilometers around them in the wastelands.", speaks Trevor. "As for their ability to manipulate weather or summoning blizzards, you of all people should know how hard that actually is. They can affect the weather around them, but it is an aftereffect than a conscious control caused by their ability to manipulate external mana."


    "Well, that all is fine but why are we discussing the snowlords so suddenly?", I ask the man.


    "Well, I had to make sure that this information was given to you correctly. The snowwinders are not particularly open with such knowledge and you are going to be needing it soon.", he replies. "Also, your master was very insistent that you at the very least have a working idea about the many threats that you will be facing. The snowlords are the worst threat you shall face here. Also, I am sure that you must be recording. Shut it down for now. The head office need not know everything that we do."


    And hearing this, I shut down my log.

 talking to the commander (log 005)

    Right now I am sitting in the commanders office. His room reminds me of Trevor''s room. A table and two chairs, with nothing else in the room. Well, there is a map behind the chair I am sitting in. The room is pretty depressing with not even one window in the place. It would be an assassin''s nightmare too.


    As Trevor has expected I was summoned into his office soon enough. Well, soon enough is a bit wrong. I was summoned after almost a couple of hours. In that gap of two hours trevor described to me about the snowlords and the methods that are employed by the snowwinders to fight them. Most of what the man knows come from records that I am not supposed to have access to.


    I am mentioning this here in case the head office is wondering. Can''t have their imagination becoming active now. Now that bit of declaration is out of the way it is time for me to talk about the hexmountain treaty.


    The hexmountain treaty is one of the founding stones of the black mountain. The treaty at it''s core is quite simple.


    No force in the continent except those affiliated to the scholars are allowed to conduct any research into magical ruins. This research is naturally not done for free. In return for access to magical ruins the black mountain will grant favours to the power that keeps the ruin in their control.


    Most of the time these favours take the form of magical spells and knowledge that might solve a problem to these local powers. Sometimes though, in times of war we have to get involved in their war too providing aid where it is possible. We do this only for allies that are particularly important to us only though.


    That is another reason that scholars are not safe. After all, if the enemy manages to get rid of the scholars then the black mountain will not need to get involved in a fight.


    Well, my perspective of this treaty actually comes from the legion rather than the guard corps. The legion is one of the many enforcers of the treaty whose job it is to ensure that no non scholar party will mess with magical ruins.


    The legion actually does not need to do much work on this. Most people that mess with magical ruins end up falling victim to the exact same ruin. The work of the legion then becomes to clean up bodies. They do have more sinister tasks to fill their days though.


    Anyway, I have deviated from the topic enough. At the moment, due to the hexmountain treaty the black mountain owes a favour to the snowwind empire.


    As the representative of the black mountain presently stationed here, the person that has to accept any request will have to be me.


    Normally, with the power of a normal captain such a favour would be worthless. After all, I am sure that just this fort has at least a thousand beings at my level of power.


    Instead, it is my status as a formation mage that is more useful to the snowwinders. Even after not seeing a snowlord, I can tell that they can be defeated with the right combination of formations. Anything can be, to be frank.


    Naturally, working with formations would mean that I have to stay back at the frozen peak while the soldiers have to go with the scholars to the ruin.


    As the captain of this mission, that is not a state that I can enjoy being in. At least, Trevor has assured me that I won''t be in trouble with the head office at the very least.


    The snowwinders are not a folk that like to mess with the scholars. They like to screw with the guards, but they rarely mess with the scholars. That is true to a degree in most parts of the continent. Still, the snowwind empire is abnormally careful with the scholars.


    Even after the seven temples incident, the snowwind empire had returned the surviving scholars without causing any incident. Any other force would have executed them.


    So yeah, I at the very least need not worry about the scholars too much. I only have to worry about myself right now.


    (After almost a hour.)


    I have sat in this room for about an hour, waiting for the commander. The commander appears in my mana sense like a ghost.


    His appearance into my mana sense is more like him declaring his presence than me sensing it on my own.


    Well, I get up quickly to greet the man. The snowwinders are the ultimate sticklers for rules and for perceived slights on their honour. The commander still can be considered to be one of the more reasonable ones. It is the nobles that are the true nightmares, I have heard. Not that I have gotten to meet them yet.


    Anyway, the door opened a couple moments ago as I bow to the man. There are a couple more steps to this pretty complicated greeting before which I am interrupted.


    "You really should focus more, kid. Such a sloppy greeting would be considered an insult. Better to act arrogant than do such a sloppy greeting. It would insult them less.", he speaks. "Anyway, we are too busy to waste our time on this. I am sure that you know why you have been summoned here."


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    "Well, it would be wrong to say that I have a concrete idea. All I can tell you is that it has something to do with the hexmountain treaty, commander", I reply.


    "Well, you would be partially correct. I am going to be cashing in my favor acquired through the hexmountain treaty but that comes for later.", he speaks. "Instead right now, it is your skill as a formation mage that I require at this moment."


    For a second, I wonder how this man knows that. He replies a few seconds later.


    "I was in the group that presented the very ship in which you have come here my friend. I know that the ship was supposed to fail in a couple of years. It certainly was not meant to survive the trip that you have taken on it."


    "Still, it could have been luck.", I reply, pushing my luck a bit.


    "Well, we can go round and round having this argument. As I have mentioned already, time is quite short. Let''s just assume that you are a formation mage.", he replies. "Now, if you would be kind enough to go to the map behind you."


    As he speaks that I can see the map behind me light up. I cannot feel any fluctuations in the mana. This more than anything else causes a chill in my spine. Not many things have the ability to escape my mana sense.


    Forcing myself, I look at the map in front of me. It is presently glowing in two colors. One side is green and the other side is red.


    The red I have to assume is the territory of the snowwinders and the green the territory of the snowlords. If that is the case, the snowwinders have quite the bit to worry about. Almost two thirds of the map is green.


    "Well, the map you see in front of you is a record of just how deep the snowlords actually penetrated our territory in the last season.", speaks the commander. "As you can see, we have not been particularly successful in holding back the snowlords. The strategies that we have been using until now have been a failure."


    The commander gets up from his chair walking to the map.


    "Well, the reason that I have showed you this map in the first place is simply to explain our present situation.", the commander speaks. "With the way that things are going, it is clear that we need a new strategy."


    "I don''t understand why you are saying this to me.", I reply. "It is not like I have experience related to this."


    "Well, the reason that I am telling this to you is to give me a perspective related to a question that I have.", he speaks. "You see, one of the ideas I have rolling around in my head is a formation wall in this area roughly."


    As he speaks a line appears in the map cutting the map in two parts. If the map is scaled correctly, that would be a massive problem.


    "Commander, building such a massive formation wall will be quite impossible for you, If I have to put it frankly.", I reply. "The formation walls that you see at the bone pits or at the rhune kingdom are the work of generations of formation mages. Each section of that wall is class four or five at the very least. Only these formations will be large enough to even cover the entirety of the wall. It is wise not to build such a thing in the midst of an active battlefield. Making a mistake with a class five formation will be disastrous."


    "Well, wasn''t the wall at the bone pit created after the undead calamity?", replies the commander.


    "That is true, but they did it that way because they had no option and even then they had to do it in sections.", I reply. "the undead from the bone pits by then were dumb and stupid creatures. They did not actively mess with the walls construction. Do you think that your enemies will grant such a leeway to you."


    "Well, they certainly won''t. The snowlords realise the threat that they would face if they were to allow us to build any more forts here.", speaks the commander.


    "Well, you can attempt a fort chain captain." I reply. "Rather than try to build a formation wall directly, you can try to build it in three phases. First you build a set of forts, acting as nodes for your wall."


    "Well, do you think that building a fort in the middle of an active battlefield is any easier?", replies the commander.


    "I would assume that it would still be easier than building a formation wall. It is your field of experience, commander if what I have learnt from the records are true", I reply.


    "Well, that is true. Continue your explanation.", he replies.


    "Well, as for the second step that would be building walls in segments, connecting one fort to the other.", I reply. "The last step would be to connect these formations together to form a chain."


    "A formation chain. Aren''t they supposed to be very weak.", asks the commander.


    "Compared to a traditional formation, a chain is much weaker. But a well made formation chain will be able to show atleast three quarters of strength in half the resources.", I reply. "It also will put less requirements on the capabilities of your formation mages."


    "Well, suppose that I were to follow this strategy, how many forts would I need and what are the challenges we will be facing?", he asks.


    "Well, I will start with the latter question. What I know about fort chains is purely theoretical. Firstly, the hardest phase will be the first phase. Multiple forts will have to be constructed and formations will have to be built for each fort. These forts will have to be built at the same time." I speak.


    "To split the attention of the enemy, I would assume.", he replies.


    "That and there is a requirement on formations. A formation chain needs be built in the same time period.", I reply. "Overall, the wall will require much simpler formations. Class seven or class eight formations will be enough for each node.....


    (After about a couple hours.)


    I have spent the last couple of hours explaining to the man everything that I know about the fort chains. It is all the rage down south, to a point that even my master has been studying it. Finally, I have reached the end of my explanation.


    I have spoken so much that my head is buzzing. We had ended up back at the table sometime in the middle of this discussion. Right now he is quietly pondering on the feasibility of this idea.


    "You have given me much to consider, young captain.", he suddenly speaks. "I will have to ask that you return to the guest room. I shall speak to you in a few days."


    "Commander, I would have to request that we be allowed out of our rooms? As you have mentioned about our ship, it is in need of extensive repairs.", I ask the man, taking a bit of a risk.


    "Well, you will have to negotiate with the nobles on that. They have charge of your security." The commander replies and gestures me to go away.


    Well, before he gets to enforce that command of his, I leave the room.

 Negotiations (log 006)

    Right now I am sitting in the room of Jacob starfall. Now that name might not sound the most impressive or the most intimidating but this man is the second strongest figure in this fort. He is entirely a level below the commander, but then again figures at that level of strength are quite rare.


    Still, even then he is still as strong as a troop leader. I really have to explain how exactly cultivation works someday. You would be surprised at just how many people tend to not even know the basics.


    Anyway, to get back to the point the difference between the commanders and this man''s room is quite stark. The first major difference would be that the room is much larger in the first place. Even looking at the flashy room it is quite possible to tell that the man is a guest here. Everything in the room is meant to intimidate the people who visit. Something that a person that considers this place his home wouldn''t be doing.


    All through the room you can see spoils of wars.


    Weapons, claws, teeth are just a few of the things that I have seen spread across the room in glass cases. It is almost like the man is trying to prove to the world that he is a capable hunter. Looking at his trophies, I almost forget to look at the man himself.


    He is the only man in this fort that will be able to allow me into the frozen peak. That is something that even the commander cannot do. When the commander had given up control of my security to the nobles, he had essentially split that duty to all the noble families in the peak.


    He is the only man that can make all the noble families in the frozen peak agree to free me from my imprisonment. No other person, not even among the nobles will be able to achieve that.


    For all of his achievements and his present position I have to admit that the man actually does not look particularly impressive. If you were to place him in a group and tell me to find him, I might actually not be able to do so. Still, the man must be quite capable. After all the nobles would be idiots if they did not send a pretty capable figure especially if he is weaker than the commander by that much. Just the other nobles would end up killing him if he was weak.


    Still a power difference does exist between this man and the commander. The commander can slay this man with a swing of his sword if he did wish to do so. In a manner we both are in pretty similar situations. We both are in enemy territories, with only the power and reputation of our respective organisation acting as our shields. The only difference is that the commander needs a look to tear me to pieces and it will take him a move to do the same to the man in front of me.


    Well, I will have to explain the situation between the nobles and the commoners of this particular nation some other time. It will take too long and I have to focus on dealing with this man. He shall not be as forgiving towards any perceived rudeness like the commander had been. On top of that, with the seven temple incident it would be wise to be a bit careful among the nobles.


    "I greet you, young master Jacob.", I speak bowing down in the appropriate manner. This time I have practiced the move very diligently. I am quite fond of my head remaining exactly where it is.


    "Well, it has taken you long enough to appear here, Guard.", he replies. "You are supposed to greet the representative of the nobles within a day of reaching to the fortress. You would be wary not to break rules like that with my brethren. They tend to take this seriously."


    "We have had many things to consider, master Jacob.", I reply. "The commander has given me strict orders. I would rather not speak too much on it."


    Well, the commander has given no such instructions but I am not going to get involved in the politics of this place. It is not like he will be confirming this with the commander anyways. The man would be more than keen to stay away from the eyes of the commander.


    "Well, a lesser noble would have taken offense already for such behaviour, Guard.", he replies. "Regardless, with what business have you come here if it is not to discuss about the commander. I do hope that it is something important."


    "Well, I would like to know why exactly I am being imprisoned.", I speak feeling that I had been a bit too direct. The man seems to be reasonable at the very least. He does not have the legendary arrogance that the nobles here are supposed to have. That gives me hope about my neck yet.


    "Well, we have reason to worry for your safety.", speaks the noble. "Your people have managed to Provoke a lot of people here, Guard. With the seven temples incident, right now it is not particularly safe for you to roam in the frozen peak. We have reason to believe that somebody might try and attack you. We cannot predict which faction might take such an action and there are too many factions for us to actually ward against. Even the commander cannot claim that this place is completely in his control. Any of the more extreme factions would kill you very happily if they got the chance."


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    "Well, that still doesn''t explain why exactly I am being restricted to a room. It is not like placing us in a restricted space where all our enemies know that we are there is a wise idea. Especially when they are the very people meant guard us.", I speak, really pushing my luck. "I am sure that there must be a better way to do this."


    "Well if you can enlighten me on that other way I will certainly consider it. I cannot imagine how else will we ensure you safety. We already have given up on two of our best soldiers in your protection, Guard.", he replies. "If your people want to visit the peak, you will require at least a couple more guards. With the hunt approaching it is not a wise idea."


    "Well, I will still have to request that I be allowed into the frozen peak. I am sure that you need not send more guards to just escort me. I am pretty strong myself.", I request the man. "Maybe we can come to a deal regarding it. After all, I am a formation mage."


    "Well, if you were to die in the city, it would cause too much damage to my reputation.", he replies. "I specifically had to take responsibility of your protection, Guard. If you want to leave the fort and die, I have no problem but in the fort, your death is more costly than anything that you will be able to offer to me."


    "Well, it is quite important that I have to enter into the market place, young master. Without it we shall not have a working airship and that is just a bit too risky at the moment.", I reply. "What would you say that I have to do to be allowed into the fortress."


    "Well, if it is that vital, I guess that we can figure out something.", he replies. "I will be frank with you, captain. I have no interest in whether you die or not. If anything I prefer you dead at the moment. You and your people are nothing but distractions to my people at a time we should be focused. My only problem is that my reputation is at the moment linked to your safety. Figure out a method of breaking that link and I will give you whatever permission that you need."


    I finally get the man where I need him to be. Well, I must say that Trevor certainly knows what he is doing. Most of my actions today have been done on the basis of his advice and they have been working correctly up till now at the very least. That is the reason that I am being so direct today. Because Trevor told me to do so. (Certainly not because I actually don''t know how to lick the feet of the nobles.)


    "How about this, young master. Your main worry is that I might not be able to protect myself if and when such an attack were to happen.", I speak, finally getting to the point. "How would it be if I were to prove that I will be able to reasonably handle any attack on me."


    "Well, I will be frank. Just proving it to me will not be enough, Guard. You will have to show it to the entirety of the frozen peak.", he replies. "Then you can do whatever you want. It will be your life at risk, not mine."


    "Well, I guess my solution will work out perfectly then.", I reply, before I can be interrupted. "What I propose is quite simple, I want to undergo a duel with your best soldier. You can pick the date and the time."


    "Well, that would certainly handle this mess quite nicely. Do you understand what you are proposing though.", he speaks. "A duel is a pretty serious matter among us. A duel''s results are not forgotten easily. If you do end up losing, I can assure you that nobody among the starfall''s and its allies will forget or let you forget about it."


    "Well, I do understand it quite well, young master. We do understand the importance that a duel has. If I do end up defeating your soldier, do you think that the result will be enough to prove my strength.", I reply. I hope that I am projecting confidence.


    "Well, it certainly will be enough, but there is one thing that I have to confirm before I take such an drastic action.", he replies.


    As he speaks the world suddenly seems to constrict around me, crushing me to the ground. Thankfully, I was sitting in the chair or I was sure that I would have fallen to the ground.


    "Well, you certainly are more resilient than the fools that they usually send to this place.", he speaks. "Let''s see till where will you be able...."


    As he speaks, the pressure on me intensified like a constricting python. I can feel my breathes becoming harder to take. I think that I am on the ground, though I can''t feel anything at the moment.


    And still the pressure grew. Within a few moments I was sure that my breath would be squeezed out of my lungs. It had already begun to pain, a squeezing pain which felt as if my muscles were being pulled out of my body.


    Finally, even the pain disappeared and all that was left was a void, one which I remember vaguely like a bad dream. Yet like a nightmare, I remember the feeling of terror very vividly.


    (The pain was so great even my log came out half coherent. I had to later rework on all of it to make it more coherent. It is a weird feeling too to touch my thoughts already recorded and change them.


    It took me quite a while too, though I am sure that others would be able to do it quicker.)


    It took an eternity for the pressure to disappear. It started slowly, with first feeling returning to me.


    By then, I was ready to even welcome the pain that I was feeling at the moment. Slowly even the pain disappeared and the pressure finally disappeared.


    "Well, I am surprised that you managed to hold so well, Guard. Most of your kind die within a few moments.", he speaks, his voice echoing in my head. "Be thankful that my honour forces me to keep you alive. If it were not so, you would be ground into paste already. I accept your duel. You shall fight my strongest soldier tomorrow at noon then."


    After this I honestly do not even remember how I made my way back to my room. I remember it like a haze. Well, at the very least I made my way back to this room. For a few moments there, I was not sure if that would be the case.

 The Duel (log 007)

    Turns out that the man I am supposed to be dueling today is the very soldier that has been standing guard outside of our room until now.


    He is name Eric starfall (I only learnt his name due to the duel. I am sure the scholars must have already known that though.) And he is supposed to be the strongest first circle mage of the nobles.


    Now to those that do not know of the power system of the draconions (which is the arts practiced by the snowwinders.), it exists in the form of circles.


    Every being in the continent has a magic core. This magic core holds the ability to store mana and give your mana a specific attribute. To most people this attribute is called as life mana, like mine.


    With magical techniques you can change the nature of your mana core, making it stronger and able to hold more mana. Certain techniques can even change the mana attribute of your mana.


    I will go into detail about this some other day but the snowwinders follow the draconian magic system. The draconian divide their mana cultivation techniques into circles and to practice a certain circle''s technique you need to achieve a mana core of that circle.


    A first circle mage can cultivate a first circle technique and so on and so forth.


    At the moment, all of that doesn''t matter to me much. The only thing that is to note is that Eric holds about fifty units mana more than I have and that puts us at equal positions.


    I can''t be completely accurate about it but I have about one hundred thirty units of mana while the man opposite me holds about hundred eighty units of mana.


    Those fifty units of mana are going to push this battle mostly on the side of Eric. The snowwinders consider duels to be something sacred. In a duel, I will not be allowed to use all of my usual tricks. That includes my vine Armor too.


    Well, even if I could I would not be taking that formation with me into a battlefield. It is not a properly tested formation. You never know when it might give me a problem. I certainly don''t want to be discovering it in the middle of a fight. Most of these are to the death after all.


    That means that I am borrowing a sword from the snowwinders. Well, I don''t expect that they will be playing any tricks with the way that they give importance to this duel.


    The sword is pretty nice if I have to say so. It is made from steel, but it is good solid steel. It will be enough to wound the enemy but not kill him. It will snap like a twig if it is faced with a sword of mithril. Especially if somebody is channeling into it.


    Well, I have to say that after formations, close range combat is the thing that I am next best at. It is a weird thing, I have to admit. You can say it is a remanent of the time before my master took me in. Of that, I do not want to be speaking further.


    Well, I guess that I have spoken enough on that matter. I am good with a sword is all you need to know. Still, this fight is not going to be easy without a bag of tricks. A difference of fifty units of mana is going to make itself known.


    A duel (or any close combat between mages) at its core is a battle of where you are putting mana. You could use it to boost the strength of your body. You could use it to strengthen your weapons.


    It might sound simple, but if you have lesser mana than your enemies sword it will break your defense. If the mana strengthening your weapon is not enough you will not be able to pierce the enemies defenses.


    It then becomes a fight of the minds. A fight of bluffs and guesses. You either win by bluffing your intentions or guessing the enemies intentions. A game of two moves, as the legion likes to call it.


    That is what I am preparing for. I can never say that I was the best at this game, but I certainly was not the worst. I know of some monsters who are geniuses at this.


    With a difference of fifty mana units the other side will have more moves to play in this game, for the lack of a better explanation. I will have to play this game very carefully.


    Well, I have thought on this topic for long enough. Too much thinking won''t be of much help to me now. The only thing that I am doing is to scare myself into an early defeat.


    (After about a couple of hours.)


    Finally, I am at the location of our duel. It is a circle that has been built in the middle of a pretty massive room in the frozen peak.


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    I am suprised at just how much they must spend to maintain such a place. Such a massive room could fit in a hundred more mages and I would think that this fort would have quite a limited amount of place. After all, a ridiculous amount of mana is being spent each second to keep the ice mana away from every inch of this fort.


    Well, it is not my place to worry about these things. I am right now standing in the inside of this circle at the same time as Eric, who is wielding the same sword that I am wielding at this moment.


    Well, this is going to be an interesting duel at the very least.


    "Shall we begin the duel, captain. We cannot keep the soldiers waiting now, can we?", Eric speaks looking at me. This is the most words I have heard him speak.


    "Certainly.", I reply in one word entering into a defensive stance.


    The instant that I do so, the enemy is by my side striking me right on the throat. I block the strike barely.


    Well, the other side seems to be focusing his mana into his body for the moment to be able to achieve such a speed. Gambling a bit, I focus my mana into my sword and enter in for a strike.


    The enemy might be a bit faster than me, but in such a close range it does not matter. I almost succeed too as the other side ducks at the last second.


    Redirecting my sword downwards, I barely manage to catch the other sides strike at the last second. The force of the strike is enough to force our both swords away from each other.


    I take this moment to retreat backwards. I risk a glance at my surrounding to get my bearings. Focussing exclusively on the man opposite is the quickest way for me to be tricked out of the ring.


    For now I am still decently far away from the ring. Well, looks like I will be playing this match a bit more defensively. Thinking this, I begin to push my mana in my body.


    I feel the mana strengthen my body as I begin to feel lighter. I take care not to push too much mana into myself as it would have drained my reserves completely.


    As I think this, I have to block two more strikes from the enemy. One to the head, the other to the knee. I block both of them, though that was close.


    I cannot enhance myself too much, so the other side is significantly faster than me.


    He tries another attack, which is a bit succesful. The end of the sword ends up with a nick on my arms. Thankfully the match was not to first blood or I would have lost. Still, this duel will end with two more such strikes.


    Not that things are going particularly well though. I must have consumed atleast forty units of mana in this exchange. I am better at controlling mana compared to the other side but I still can''t be sure that he must have consumed more than sixty units of mana.


    Well, these few moments of thought nearly end in my defeat as the other side suddenly raises his sword. If I had not jumped back at the last moment that would have ended with a slash on my face. I begin to retreat a bit more, getting closer to the line.


    "You certainly fight well, my friend.", I speak.


    "Meanwhile, you stand there waiting for me to strike.", he replies. "One would think that you were scared."


    "Well, what can one do. You seem to be a mighty soldier that might claim my head.", I reply, with my most taunting voice. "Maybe if you got a bit closer, you could finally end the match."


    He doesn''t reply to this, other stepping away from me. I am sure that the man does not want to risk get too close to the line. After all, a sudden attack might result in him being out of the duel circle.


    Waiting would be beneficial to him. After all, I have to keep channeling my mana unless I want to give this duel to him and the other side has more mana than me. He can afford to wait.


    I have done nothing but bought myself a few moments. In these few moments I will have to make a plan on how to win this fight.


    If the others were here, I am sure that they would have something unique to win this fight. Me, I will stick to the old tricks.


    Well, this is going to be quick at the very least. I can feel my body heat up as I begin to push all of my mana into my body. For the next few moments, my body will be about as light as a feather.


    The trick is now to make use of these few moments to win this duel. I begin by charging towards my enemy. He reacts about how I expect him to. He begins by pushing more mana into his body.


    I do not give him the time to react though as I strike him. He barely manages to block it but the force of the block is enough to push him backwards and it is enough to leave him out of balance.


    I strike again and get my first blood. I press in for a second attack but the other side ends up blocking me. The strike is enough to push the man backwards.


    In this little while, though I have burnt through roughly a third of my remaining reserves. I won''t be maintaining it for much.


    The other side is taking the more careful option of burning only enough mana to ensure that he would be able to survive my assault. That is sad, it would have made things easy for me.


    I continue my assault while having this thought. He barely manages to block each strike. Damn, this man is more skilled at this than I had assumed him to be. Still, he is still not as careful as he thinks he is.


    It is a simple trap, what I have done. I retreated, exposing a pretty obvious weakness in my defenses. A careful man would never have been fooled by such an obvious trap.


    When I am burning so much mana, people seem to think that I am incapable of making use of basic traps like this. I am not a berserker, you know.


    Anyway, long story short, he attacks me in the weakness, which I exploit to get a cut on his right arm. That would be second blood.


    By now I have burnt through half of my mana, while the other side had a decent amount of his mana saved up.


    I keep pushing my attack, feeling the man slowly retreat under my attack. He maintains a solid defense in which I would not able to get the final strike for victory.


    I can see in my enemies eyes his overconfidence. Well, with my mana so dangerously near exhaustion, I make my final move.


    A stupid plan, that would have never have worked if the enemy had even a bit of caution. throwing my sword to the ground I duck down.


    As the enemy stands there paralyzed by inaction, I charge towards his legs. The force of our collision is enough to cause him to trip right out of the boundary of the duel circle.


    It happen at the correct time too, as my reserves finally get exhausted.

 the Frozen Peak and Shopping (log 008.1)

    Right now I am sitting in a tavern in the frozen peak, drinking my woes away. Sitting right next to me is Eric, who has yet to touch a drop of alcohol even though it wouldn''t affect him. The drinks here are quite shit.


    The man certainly has taken his defeat at my hands quite seriously. If before he was stoic, now he is a statue barely moving when he doesn''t need to be.


    Talking to him has been kind of annoying but since the man is my only guide, there is little I can do but that.


    After my victory at the duel, the nobles were forced to fulfill their agreement which was to allow me into the frozen peak. They did this by making Eric starfall my escort into the fort.


    Meanwhile, the remaining guard would be protecting my troop and the scholars. Well, with how disappointing the markets here have been I have to wonder why I even worked so hard for it in the first place. That reminds me, I had something to ask my escort.


    "Well, soldier Eric. I have to wonder, what happen to all your precious ores?", I ask the man. "With the number of dwarven prospectors that have been in your lands I would have thought that your markets would be flush with precious ores."


    It is one of the tasks of the black mountain to always keep an eye on the dwarves. Tracking their movement is one of the best ways of knowing what precious stuff belongs to which faction. The dwarves have been swarming the place for the last couple decades.


    "Well, every store that you have visited has precious weapons made of mithril, guard.", he replies. "If you do not consider that precious, I don''t know what will be considered precious by you."


    "Well, don''t get me wrong, mithril is a useful metal to have as a soldier.", I reply. "But, if dwarves want mithril they don''t even need to leave their houses. I would have assumed something that is a bit more rare for them would have moved them into action."


    "Well, the dwarves made a deal with the commander, guard. Anything they found I would assume that the commander has in his stores.", he replies.


    "I would have assumed that he has sold them for a decent amount of profit.", I reply. "There should have been some trickle down."


    "Well, what the commander wants to do is his wish. Regardless, do you think maintaining this fort is a cheap or easy task.", he replies, with a sneer.


    "That is true.", I reply, going back to my drink.


    "How long shall we waste our time here. None of the shops that we have visited have contained what you want.", he speaks, his annoyance barely concealed.


    "What I want is vital, my fellow. I cannot stop looking for it just because you shops do not have them.", I reply. "Anyway, this is a fort. Why do you have so many shops."


    "Well, that is related to how many families make this place their base.", he replies. "For every noble faction that is present here, there is a shop. They would simply not be able to trust anybody that is not one of theirs."


    "Well, that is quite surprising if I am honest.", I wonder. "I was under the assumption that you nobles were not one to participate in this battlefield. Isn''t it supposed to be quite unprofitable."


    "Well, all you shall find here are bastards, guard. Even the nobles need a place to throw their useless ones.", he replies. "That is why you shall find the nobles here quite easy to provoke."


    "Is that the reason that my life is at risk?", I ask.


    "Something like that. You are something of a problem to the nobles, if I have to be Frank.", the noble speaks. "Let''s just say if some radical bastard were to kill you for your crimes, the nobles would punish them by sending them down south."


    Well, it would be more accurate to call that as a reward. the southern border of the snow wind empire is a bloody mess, if I am to be honest but it is a profitable mess.


    I am sure that every ambitious person of this country hopes to be stationed there.


    "Well, then it must be quite annoying to have to guard me.", I reply.


    "It would be wise if you do not provoke the nobles too much.", he replies, with a rare bit of passion. "It is only the presence of lord Jacob that you are alive. That too is only due to the fact that he does not want his honour to be blemished."


    "Well, then I will have to bow to the man.", I reply, catching the man off guard. I think they consider being called dependent on others to be an insult. "If only, your markets had what I needed."


    "Why can you not use mithril? Your magic needs materials which can allow mana to flow through it. I don''t know of anything that allows mana to flow better than mithril.", he asks, a bit shaken from the failure of the provocation I think.


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    "Well, can you draw on water?", I ask him.


    "Well, no.", he replies.


    "Using mithril is like drawing on water. I can send in every bit of my mana into the material and still I won''t be able to let anything stick to it.", I reply. "Now, dwarves make use of formations even more than us. Their demand for those materials are tremendous. Now, if they came to this place like bees to a flower, I would think that the markets here should be overflowing with those materials."


    This makes the man opposite me pause for a moment.


    "Well, if you consider that the dwarves value these materials so much. Maybe they would have taken it all with them.", he replies, pondering on it. "After all, mithril weapons would be more useful at the moment."


    "Now, you would think that.", I reply, wondering if I should reveal it. Fuck it. "Dwarves are more creative than that. Rather than try and and get everything at the same time, the dwarves do not take more than half of any materials that they want. After all, anything that the dwarves give us will finally end up in the hands of the dwarves."


    "Now why would that be?", replies eric. I can see the man''s focus shifting. I wonder what political intrigue managed to distract this man so much.


    "Well, everything that the dwarves give you will always be something that you can use only on weapons. Whether that be metals like mithril, or materials that can be used to craft formations on weapons. They do this to control the price of their goods, I have heard" I reply, trying to bait for information. "As long as it is a weapon, it will ultimately end up in a dwarves forge, my friend. It does make one wonder though, where all of these materials are."


    "The commander and his soldiers were the ones that were mainly involved in the process of negotiations with the dwarves. If I remember correctly, the commander had to personally escort them to many of the locations.", he spoke, realising who he was speaking to as he spoke. His expression turns stony in a single instant. "The materials that you want aren''t in any of the stores that we have visited till now."


    "Well, I am sure that there are other shops in this place.", I reply. "Well, getting what I want is beneficial to us both. As long as I get what I want I am not particularly bothered about leaving the guest room. It would certainly make life easier for you and I can get started on my work."


    "Well, there is a shop. Though it is in one of the more shadier parts of the fort.", he replies.


    "How can a fort have a shady place?", I ask.


    "Well, it exists.", he returns. "The person that runs this shop is a friend of mine."


    "Well, if he has what I want, why would I be worried about who he is?", I reply while getting up.


    (After about half an hour.)


    After reaching this place, I understand why Eric calls this part of the fort shady. Firstly, the buildings here are so close together. It is very claustrophobic.


    Right now, there is barely enough place in the roads for me to walk. The roads here are thin enough that I can barely stretch my hand in it.


    The people here are also quite suspicious. Well, suspicious would be the wrong word. It would be better to call it desperate. Every soldier here has some serious injury or the other.


    Some of them have their hands in splints. Some of them have missing limbs. The only thing that is truly common among them is a sense of desperation.


    We do not spend a lot of time in the streets, thankfully. Somehow looking at these people really left me uncomfortable.


    The shop itself does not deserve to be called a shop, unless you consider a table with a few materials placed on it to be a shop. Most of what is on the table is various ores of iron, with a few ores of mithril. With Eric in here, the shop is completely full. There is going to be no duels here.


    The owner of the shop does not inspire confidence. While, compared to the people outside he is leagues better he is still painfully thin. He looks like a starved skeleton.


    "Are you going to even be buying anything?", the shopkeeper asked.


    "Well, that depends on what you have to provide. What you have on the table is nothing special.", I reply.


    "You certainly talk big, bastard. The only reason that I am not kicking you out is due to the fact that Eric brought you.", he speaks. "Show me that you can pay and I will show you the good stuff."


    I don''t reply to this other than throwing a bag in his direction. He opens it and quickly begins to count the mana stones that are present in it.


    "Three class seven mana stones in total. You are certainly a rich man.", he speaks. "Fine, I will show you the good stuff."


    Well, the way the man spoke about it, it seemed as If I was somehow disturbing his peace. He disappears for a few seconds but finally appears with the smallest chest I have ever seen in my life.


    "I have three things that might be rare.", he speaks.


    "Might be?", I ask.


    "Well, the dwarves have claimed that it is supposed to be very rare. Each is worth ten times the cost of a mithril ore, they said. I don''t actually know their worth.", he speaks. "I am sure something will catch your eye."


    He proceeds to remove a piece of rock from the box. There is nothing special about it other than the fact that there is an abnormally large amount of fire mana that is passing through it.


    "Well, this is supposed to be a piece of mithril ore that has been strengthened by a strain of sun metal.", speaks the man opposite me. "It is supposed to be a very rare metal. You would be able to craft weapons of the fire affinity."


    "Well, I do not want that.", I reply. "Do not show me anything related to mithril."


    "Fine.", he says, annoyed as he removes a piece of wood from the box.


    "Well, this is a piece of ice bark tree.", he speaks. "It is supposed to be able to channel massive amounts of ice mana into itself."


    "How would you be pricing that.", I ask the man.


    "Well, I will require at least a class 7 magic stone for it.", he replies.


    "For that, I would be willing to give at most two class 8 magic stones.", I reply.


    "You bastard, that is a fifth of what I stated to you.", he replies, getting agitated. "This is a high quality piece of ice bark tree. I can sell it to the soldier and they would be willing to give five piece of class seven mana stones for it. It can absorb the chill from your flesh, you know."


    "Well, then and go sell it to them unless you think that they will put you to death", I reply, losing my cool a bit. I do not like to be called a bastard. "I am sure that you must have stolen it from somewhere yourself. Whose grave did you rob."


    Saying this I leave the damn shop in a huff, my guard behind me collecting the bag that I had forgotten there.


    I almost do not notice the dagger flying at me as my hand moves to intercept it almost on instinct.

 the Ambush (log 008.2)

    The first thing that I understand about the dagger is just how sharp the thing is. I feel it viscerally as the dagger entered into my flesh.


    Granted my arms are not that durable if you were to compare me to the more combat worthy mages among my friends. They are still strengthened by a mana barrier which can hold against a couple of hits at least.


    The first thing that I do is to pull my arms down sharply. You are supposed to make sure that nothing pointy is close to your vitals. The blade will do lesser damage to my legs than my heart.


    It hurts like a bitch, but I focus my mana into my other arm and punch at the figure on his head. Attacking the head is one of the best ways of causing damage, I find. The attack does little more than temporarily push the bastard away from me. That is a very solidly built defense.


    This is no amateur mage that would panic at the first sign of an attack. I am sure that if I were to push my attack a bit more, I would be able to kill him. Just as I attempt to do this though I can feel another strike at my left.


    This time I block the strike with way less injuries from my side as the channeled mana bolsters my defences. This strike barely grazes my skin. before I can counter his strike though the the other guy retreats back.


    Right now the two are on either side of me. I can''t attack one without the other attacking me. A classic pincer with the classical methods of countering it. This is either going to be very easy or it is going to be very hard.


    Well, I charge towards the dagger wielder, not to attack him as he must be expecting. Instead, the goal is to cross him into the street behind him. The few moments that he wastes trying defend against a possible attack of mine is enough for me to cross him.


    That is the trick with breaking pincers you see. Whatever you do, the trick is to make sure that you do not end up stuck in between of two assailants. There regardless of how superior you are to the enemy, you will end up in a defensive position. Let''s just say it would be a very bad position to be in.


    As I record this, I have managed to make a decent enough distance between me and the enemy. Both of them are now in front of me, which is still a pretty risky position to be in but infinitely better than before.


    Well, the main threat in this crowded street is the dagger wielder. The sword wielder''s blade is just a bit too big for this street. It would be quite easy for him to get his sword stuck against the walls. Granted it might have been a problem if he were alone, but with two people in this small area it is too risky for him to make a move.


    Still, the ease with which the two enemies have turned in my direction confirms two things to me at the very least. The first being that these people''s target is me only and not my guard. Second they are not trying to mug me. They would be targeting my bag which is with Eric.


    Anyway, this is not a place in which people would be mugging you with such an intensity and dedication. An assassin would have both. Secondly, that eric has been kept busy by something in the shop, most likely the shopkeeper.


    I would have to assume that a fight is ongoing at the very least and that I can''t rely on my guard to ensure my safety. So much for honour and all that crap, I say.


    As I record this, there is something of a stalemate in the street. The two men opposite me are waiting to find a weakness in my defense, while I am attempting to do the same to them.


    This gives me an opportunity to study the two men. The clothes that they are wearing is new and freshly torn to look as if it had happen naturally. It is so clear that these men are not of this area that it should have been impossible to miss them.


    Other than that, the sword wielder is taller than me with thin and long arms. He would have quite a range if it were not for this street. The other is quite unassuming and has no feature that I would be able to recognise him with. This just solidifies my fear that this man is the one that I have to be especially wary of. No man that cultivates mana would be this unassuming if he did not have a reason to be so.


    Well, there goes my moment of peace as the two men finally attack. The sword wielder aims high trying to strike my head while the dagger wielder aims for my chest. This would be a well coordinated attack if the two men had just met yesterday.


    Regardless, I do not move. Instead I finally release two thorns in each hands (one of the drawbacks of my Armor is the time it takes to create good thorns. Not every enemy tends to be this slow). I duck down dodging the sword strike, and aim one thorn at the throat of the dagger wielder while using the other to block his strike. The dagger wielder manages to react at the very last second redirecting his dagger to block the thorn. I can feel the thorn being cut by the dagger, but it has held for now. Meanwhile, the thorn meant to block him bites into his arms.


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    Finally, I move making sure that the two assailants are behind me. A quick turn and I am facing them again. Both the sides take a moment to assess our losses in this clash. Firstly, I am again in the deadly position of being in a pincer. Behind me at the moment is the door to the shop. I can now hear sounds of a clash that is occurring in the shop behind me.


    I will have to leave that to Eric, who I am sure would be able to manage it quite well. Still, his failure would be quite disastrous for me. Meanwhile, the two men seem to realise my position at the same time that I realise it.


    They have entered into a defensive position. Their goal is to keep me bound to this street while the man behind him wins his fight. Looks like in that regard we are pretty much in the same position except the two soldiers will be able to escape quite easily if and when their third ally does get defeated.


    Fuck, I cannot remain as passive as I have been until now. I charge towards them while pushing mana into my Armor. I can feel the mana flow into the Armor, making it literally buzz. Well, I have never tested pushing so much mana into the damn thing. Well, I am hoping that it will not blow up as I charge it.


    This time the target is the sword wielder. Properly managed I will be able to get rid of the man quite effeciently. Then fighting only the dagger wielder will certainly make the work easier for me.


    As I am thinking this, I am pushing all of my mana into the Armor in both of my hands. These won''t be any ordinary thorns. While it still won''t be as durable as a traditional weapon the thing will be able to be used in a fight at the very least. While it might not sound particularly impressive, you should ask the soldier that has lost his weapon in a battle how useful it is.


    Or you could ask a captain that is getting assassinated like me, I guess. Well, there I go getting distracted again. I don''t understand how the others are able to manage recording and fighting at the same time like this. It is so annoying.


    Regardless, while I have been rambling my thorn has been manifesting. It normally doesn''t take long, but the more mana you put into the thing the longer it seems to take to build itself. (What can I do, it is not like I got to test the damn thing before now.)


    the enemy also doesn''t seem particularly inclined to attack me. They must be a assuming a defensive stance to be enough to hold me back. Well, I will prove them wrong soon enough.


    Finally, the thorn gets built as I spring into action. The hope is to catch them by surprise. I reach the sword wielder first who has already begun to raise his sword to block my strike. He is not fast enough as the sharp end of the thorn stabs into his chest.


    It is not a fatal strike as the thorn strikes one of his ribs. I am not able to push my attack as a sharp pain assails me. The dagger wielder had used this opportunity to strike me. I turn around sharply and try to get a strike in.


    I do not manage to do this as he retreats and the sword wielder comes to strike me. Well, it looks like it is time for me to focus on the fight at hand.


    (After about ten minutes.)


    We have finally reached a stalemate. The two bastards in front of me at still putting up a charade of attacking me, forcing me to keep moving even though it hurts. The bastards have managed to strike me at quite a few positions.


    Among them, the most painful at the moment is the one that is on my chest which the other party only got due to luck. Other than that, there is one on my leg which is not particularly serious, but every time I take a step it feels like somebody is pulling out my bones.


    Other than that there are multiple wounds peppered across my body. Well, compared to the enemies, I am still in a better situation. The sword wielder is in the worse situation. I managed to get in three strikes, the first hitting his arm, the second near his leg and the third seemingly striking one of his blood vessels. That is why at the moment he looks as if he is bathing in his blood.


    The dagger wielder is better of. I managed to get in only one strike in, but it was on his fingers. He is being forced to wield his dagger with his off hand which means that he is wielding his dagger quite clumsily at the moment.


    I have finally forced the two soldiers into a retreat and that is how we have arrived at our present stalemate. I can''t really stop them from retreating and they can''t really stop me from attacking them.


    Right now, the only hope that I have left is Eric. Even now I can hear the man clashing with his foe. It must be a pretty even matchup based on the way that the fight has been intensifying. The clang of their swords has been pretty clear in this entire process.


    That is why it is such a shock for us all when the clanging stops. It is only my training that stops me from turning around. No amount of training is able to stop the expectation of being struck though. It''s like a cold chill that I can feel crawling through my back.


    What I need to know comes from the men in front of me, whose face has taken on a grim expression that men only have when death is imminent. They are so steely in their resolve that I am not able to react for a second when they begun to run away.


    In that moment I do the only thing that comes to my mind which is throw the thorn in my hand (which had not come out unscathed from this battle. It is a wonder the thing hadn''t broken yet.) to stop at least one of the guys from escaping.


    Well, I am not able to tell whether I was succesful or not as the world around me begins to fade. Looks like my injuries were heavier than I assumed. Well, the thing with adrenaline is just how much it fucking numbs you.

 the Temporary Fort (log 009)

    Well, It turns out that my assassins have coated their weapons in some kind of a poison. it is supposed to be the kind of poison that prevents the clotting of blood and is supposed to paralyse you when taken in large quantities. I am not sure how these guys define large quantities, because I cannot feel large parts of my body and am certainly not able to move it.


    Well, that is good to know since it did seem pretty unlikely that I had a such a heavy wound that I would have lost consciousness due to blood loss.


    The poison is the reason that I lost my consciousness at the end of the previous fight. As to what kind of poison it could be, I have no idea. I did not even manage to find its name. The snowwinders are careful with their secrets is all I will be able to tell.


    Regardless, I guess I should talk about my assassination attempt. Well, there is some good news in that regards at the very least. The people that were behind this assassination attempt are a noble family, who often work as assassins.


    Again, I will not be able to provide a name due to how careful these bastards are, but I have figured quite a bit about this family who I shall name as the ¡°assassins¡± for now.


    Firstly, they seem to be proficient in the magic of shapeshifting. This I know due to the fact that the annoying shopkeeper was a shapeshifted assassin. This I found from Eric, who considered that shopkeeper to be a very good friend. He is most likely dead at this moment.


    It was due to this and Eric''s distress was the only reason that I even found out about this. Otherwise, this man is about as stone lipped as his people. I would have loved to exchange our conversation. I would have loved to rub it into my master''s face. The bastard was completely sure that I would have failed in this aspect of my work.


    As for the why, it is so that even if these logs were to fall to enemy hands nothing vital would be lost in the process. The art of wheedling out information from the enemy might just be the most vital skill of a scholar and his guards. Guarding that information is why we are so powerful in the continent.


    Regardless, the reason that I have started a record right now is to record what is about to happen here. They are saying that the commander will be making his way here now at any moment.


    Well, this is going to be an annoying task if I am going to be honest about it. If I was a bit stronger or the commander was a bit weaker, this would have put me in a pretty strong position. After all, an attack on a representative can easily be considered to be a attack on the organisation if you spin it correctly. With the power difference that exists here it would be wise not to provoke the man.


    These are the thoughts that I have in my head, while the commander is entering into my room. The very first thought that I have looking at the man is about just how tired the man looks. it looks like he has been spending the last couple of weeks without sleep. Knowing his cultivation though, I am sure that I am nowhere near the actual number.


    ¡°You have certainly left me in a fine mess, young captain.¡° Speaks the commander. ¡°Your little shopping spree might just end up costing me my neutrality.¡°


    ¡°Well, I have done nothing to provoke either group, commander. I have no idea why I have been implicated in the first place.¡°, I Reply. I word myself carefully. After all I have no idea which side the man actually supports. ¡°If anything I am equally suffering in the crossfires as you are, commander.¡°


    ¡°I know, kid. You do not need to explain me about the nobles and their damn politics. I have spent the last few centuries to keep the exact same thing off my home.¡°, he replies. ¡°well, you people are the master analysers. Explain the situation to me.¡°


    ¡°You are stuck in middle of a fight between the noble factions.¡°, I reply. ¡°One side is the starfalls, whose leader has sworn my protection based on what I can tell. I don''t know why exactly but there is the implication that my death would be pretty detrimental to them. Some local force had to have hired the assassins.¡°


    ¡°Well, he would lose his status as a noble and be made into a soldier. I would not be surprised if they destroyed his cultivation too. The starfalls are pretty traditional in that regard.¡° The commander speaks. ¡°That would essentially kill the momentum of the starfalls in this place. Many would benefit from that.¡°


    ¡°Still, that doesn''t explain what getting rid of the starfalls will do for my assassins.¡°, I reply. ¡°It is not like there is any other faction that holds power other than your people. You would be the only faction that would be able to pull of something like this and actually benefit from it. The noble faction would have essentially lost their united front.¡°


    ¡°Well, I can assure you that it is nothing related to me.¡°, he replies. ¡°I have no desire to see the starfalls prosper but your death would cause more problems than solutions. The black mountain is a key ally, even if the nobles do not like to recognise it. Regardless, if I wanted you dead it wouldn''t be in such a chaotic manner.¡°


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    ¡°Still, who else would benefit from such an action?¡°, I ask


    ¡°Well, it could be any of the other families. It might not give them any direct benefit but the families are more than happy cutting the benefits of one of their own.¡° The commander replies. ¡°I have to think it is one of the youngsters based on the way this plan is so short sighted. The nobles really have to teach their kids better. Regardless, the reason that I have come here is regarding you, captain. Jacob starfall agrees that he had serious lapses in your security. That is why he has finally agreed to grant the duty of protecting you back to me.¡°


    ¡°Well, part of it was due to m...¡°, I begin. I don''t know why, I suddenly felt like defending my actions. Is this how a kid is supposed to feel when he is caught doing something naughty.


    ¡°It does not matter, kid. Your death would have soured our relation regardless. Jacob starfall was an idiot for what he did. Now that you have been attacked, the other nobles will start getting riled up. An opportunity on Jacob starfall is something that no one can ignore and an idea planted is impossible to remove.¡° The commander replies. ¡°That means that your protection has just become infinitely harder. After all, anybody can hire assassins if he feels it to be worth it and Jacob starfall is worth it.¡°


    ¡°Just how many factions even exist here?¡°. I ask the man. It is a bit direct but what can I even do. ¡°It shouldn''t be too many right. The way that the starfalls hold an hegemony on the nobles here. I would say that it should not be more than ten to twelve major families.¡°


    ¡°There are a bit less than a thousand families here. Most are barely better than commoners but that would be the rough count.¡°, the commander replies. ¡°as for how Jacob holds control of them all. The answer would be barely and masterfully. nobody else would manage what he has done. He literally sows so much discord among the nobles that they are more than busy fighting each other. The man''s absence will make things easy for me if I am honest. You need not know beyond this.¡°


    ¡°So what shall happen now. Will I be restricted to the guest house again?¡° I ask.


    ¡°Well, you shall take control of temporary fort number 3 and work on building a formation there.¡°, he replies. ¡°If you feel like it, you can take your troop with you but I will have to warn you that I won''t be able to spare any soldiers to guard your scholars then.¡°


    ¡°Temporary fort?¡°, I ask.


    ¡°Well, it is a little something that the construction corps has managed to build up. It is in relation to the formation chain that you have spoken on.¡°, he replies. ¡°All you need to know beyond that is that the place is about the safest that you shall be from the nobles now.¡°


    ¡°well, it might be the safest but I have my charges. It is not like I can abandon the scholars just because I might be attacked.¡° I reply. ¡°I have to escort them to the Magical ruin at the very least.¡°


    ¡°Well, the magical ruin shall be en route to the fort. The fortress is about a day''s journey from the magical ruin. Maintaining the fortress is about the best way to ensure that your scholars shall remain safe.¡° He replies, with an air of confidence that makes me realise that this is not a request.


    ¡°Why can''t I just remain here?¡°, I reply. ¡°It is not like I will be leaving the guest room if it means I will be attacked like this.¡°


    ¡°Well, You do not see to understand just how many people will be trying to assassinate you. It is the nature of nobles to copy each other. I wouldn''t be surprised if there are daily attacks as well.¡°, the commander replies. ¡°My soldiers will be more than able to protect you but can you imagine just how much chaos your actions will cause. I cannot afford such a bloodbath before the winter. Especially if poison gets involved.¡°


    ¡°Regardless, if I do this mission of yours I would have to consider it under the hexmountain treaty. it is nothing personal but that is the only way that I will be made to leave the protection of my charges.¡°, I reply. ¡°Also, I will need materials to make the formation. I will also need a troop of soldiers at the very minimum to protect me. Without this, I will not be able to achieve much especially if all the claims I have heard about the snowlords are true.¡°


    ¡°you can consider all of these conditions met then.¡°, he replies. ¡°The materials for your formation has already been acquired. I can''t claim much knowledge on the material other than the fact that it is a class 8 material called as copper bark. As for your troop, they are already present at the temporary fort. All of them are soldiers that I have picked up personally and should have no problem in your protection. Nothing short of an attack from a snowlord will be able to harm you. That is if you have not boasted about yours skills.¡°


    ¡°I do not have a problem doing this, commander but I have to warn you as a professional that building formations in the middle of a battlefield is not an easy task.¡°, I speak. ¡°If the enemy were to sense the fluctuations of a formation inscription the very first thing that they are going to do is attack me. This might lead to some catastrophic losses if the enemy manages to attack at the right time. The ensuing explosion could destroy this fort of yours.¡°


    ¡°Well, do you think I would be one to care if the building were destroyed. If the building is razed to the ground, we will have a new fort standing there in a week.¡°, the commander replies. ¡°As for the materials for the formation, well I am sure that such a loss is something that I will be able to manage quite easily. Just make sure that my soldiers manage to survive this fight, young man and I will be more than happy.¡°


    Saying so the commander disappears as quickly as he appears. As he leaves, I get the feeling that most of the stuff that he had told me today was primarily meant for the head office.


    It would be a peace offerings of sorts. After all, one of their guards had nearly ended up dead in the commanders watch. With how tight lipped the nobles are anything about them is considered to be pretty useful knowledge for the head office.


    Also, the man is stuck in a weird position. Regardless of how he makes his move, the nobles will construe his action as either supporting the starfalls or against them. Neither will be enough to protect the neutrality that the frozen peak has. Even I can see that. This place might be powerful, but even they can''t do much against the force of a noble family. Well, I am sure that the commander will figure something out.


    The mission given to me seems to be perfect, but that is what is making me feel so uncomfortable about this. Things rarely tend to be perfect. I would rather know what horrific thing I will be facing.

 Cultivation (log 010)

    Right now we are travelling to the fortress via the caravans. This close to the northern wastelands, the mana in the air is too chaotic for airships to travel through it safely. It would literally be like trying to drive the airship through a wall of ice mana I am told. This storm won''t only be for a few hours though. It will be for every moment that I will spend in this place.


    That is why me and the troops are being taken to our destination through a caravan. The caravan is just like any other caravan that you can find in the continent, if you discount the fact that they are seriously solid. I think that I would not be able to break the thing unless I channeled mana through it.


    Well, leaving these suspiciously solid caravans aside, it is time for me to focus on the thing that got me here in the first place. Right now, the scholars are behind me in a caravan much like this one. Behind them are the remaining members of the caravans and a couple of soldiers that shall be their guides and escorts.


    This way, either caravan will be able to ensure the safety of the scholars who are in the middle. It is a bit overly cautious but I am sure that it is fine for the first mission. After all, I am sure that the head office is going to be penalising me quite heavily if even one of these soldiers were to get injured and murder me if it happens to the scholars.


    This journey is going to last us about a couple of days, after which the scholars are going to end up in their damned ruin finally. Once they reach there, I do not need to worry about their safety at the very least. People tend to forget this but the scholars do not really need us guards at all. They will be able to use the formations that they have in the ruins to keep themselves safe. In the worst case, they will be able to blow up the entire ruin and take their enemy down with the ruin. Not that they are likely to do that. Scholars are more than able to give up their own lives if it means they can save a magical ruin.


    Even before that I will be able to send reinforcements once the central formation at this temporary fort is built. So reaching such a desperate state is already pretty unlikely. The key point in all of this is that the scholars are going to be quite safe after all. That is one of the reasons that I was more than happy leaving the scholars to the ruin when I might have ended up in the frozen peak.


    Anyway, right now I am focusing on something that I have been neglecting for nearly a month and a half. That would be my cultivation.


    Normally people are shocked to hear this. Cultivation is supposed to be practiced to a point that it seems blasphemy that you don''t do so. Firstly the problem is that my strength comes from my formations. I don''t really need a strong reservoir of mana in my body personally. The world is my reservoir.


    Secondly, the strengthening that occurs in a body when you cultivate is kind of pointless with me again. Most formation mages often do not even need to move from their positions when they are entering into combat. Being forced into melee can be considered to be a failure for most formation mages.


    Thirdly, a great amount of information about cultivation has been hidden from me. My master does not want me to be knowing about the stages beyond the foundation stage of the elven path. This particular command of his has been an absolute mandate in the hexmountain. You would be surprised just how much I have tried to wheedle out anything that I could. I have not even managed to find clues.


    So that would do a lot to explain my lack of interest in cultivation and why I seem to be so inept at it. what I am mentioning here is about everything that I know about cultivation and the many paths of achieving it.


    To begin from the absolute basics, every sentient creature holds in his body something called the mana core. The mana core contains the life mana of a person. (Also called as his vital mana.) This life mana is the only mana that a person will have absolute control over. The only exception to this might be folks like the snowlords, who have nearly absolute control over external mana too. Their magics are something of an enigma to us. The process of growing this life mana is also called cultivation and a method of cultivation is called a magical path. Now that we have gotten the basic definitions out of the way I can discuss my cultivation. (You would be surprised just how much these basics can confuse people.)


    To those not familiar with the magical path of the black mountain, we follow the magical path of the ancient elves. The elves were master magicians who believed magic to be an act of creation and cultivating to be the ultimate act of creation. Now why that is the case, nobody will tell me. It must be related to one of the later stages of cultivation.


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    All I know is that there are nine stages in this process and I am presently at the very first stage, which is called the foundation building stage. At this stage, I am supposed to be building something called the foundation, by absorbing mana from the world around me and using it to construct a formation in my mana core.


    Even right now, I am pulling mana from the air and condensing it to form a string as I am essentially weaving a massive rectangular slab from pure mana. With enough time It will turn into a segment of my life mana thus increasing my life mana reserves. However, the true magic is inside the slab, full of complicated weaves and shapes that I am only able to construct because it is inside my mana core, where I hold absolute control over mana. Trying that in real life would be like trying to draw with your brush attached to the other end of a stilt. It is ridiculously hard. I would know, I spent the first year of training trying this. The only reason that I was forced to stop in the first place is due to the fact that it was becoming impractical to maintain this folly of mine.


    To get back to my foundation I am presently in the stage of building the second slab, hence I am considered to be a foundation level, second stage mage. I really should focus on it a bit, but I am already so busy. I have been trying to learn how to build a class seven formation and that is no easy task I assure you.


    My master has given me extremely clear instructions that I am not allowed to enter the next stage until I have built a class seven formation. Until then, I am not even allowed to know the name of the next stage or to gather any bit of information about it and granted the elves are extinct, right now the black mountain is the only force In the continent that has access to the elven path and its techniques. So I cannot use my newly found independence to find out anything.


    Other than my path the magic I practice is of two types which are battery magic and formation magic. Right now I shall not speak of battery magic as to practice it one needs to be on the stage beyond the foundation stage. I only practice beginner level optimizations that will help me reduce mana consumption as I do my work. The only thing I know about battery mages is that they tend to have absurd amounts of mana and their efficiencies are so high that they can run on their reserves for days.


    As for formation magic, It is the very core of the magic that I practice. There are four spells that every formation mage is supposed to know. With sufficient mastery in these spells, I will be able to craft nearly any formation that I wish.


    There is the basic formation view that allows one to look at a formation and make out its contents. Without it one cannot even get started on the process of making a formation. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the spell that I make the most use of. Without it I would literally be a blind man painting.


    The second spell that one should be able to make use of is called formation decomposition, which allows a mage to break apart formations and remove all useable parts from them. This spell is not one that I have found much use for personally, but my master has assured me that it is a pretty practical spell for the future.


    The third spell is formation control, a spell that allows me to take control of formations at a level that other people are simply not capable of. With it I will be able to push the formation in a manner that would be impossible otherwise. I would be able to push it to output double the strength at half the cost.


    As for the fourth spell, it is one that I have barely any understanding of. It is called formation flow, whatever that means and it is supposed to greatly increase the speed of me inscribing formations.


    these four spells are the epitome of easy to learn, hard to master. Taking the example that my master used, these four spells are the foundation on which any formation mage has to work, lacking any of the spells he simply won''t be able to compete with a mage who does know these spells.


    With that, I think that I have given a pretty clear idea of my power and where I stand. As for me, I am going to keep cultivating till I reach the fort after which I will have to return to the problem of building a class 8 formation. I do so little cultivating already.


    Anyway, I have built only three class eight formations in my life and two of them were built by essentially my master, with my assistance. The man used it to sweeten the deal for a particular formation that he was selling while getting rid of them.


    As for the last, it is something that I built completely on my own, but sadly it is not with me. I actually sold it to get a few materials. (including the core for my vine armor.) Well, these were my master''s orders, so I had little chance of refusing them. The man believes that keeping me away from my work will help me grow my character.


    Still selling that core was about the worst thing that I could do. It is actually one of my most combat oriented formation too. It was called as ¡°the vine spear¡± and the formation is very much like the armor that I am using now.


    It was supposed to make things easy for me as these spears would be able to keep the enemies wounds from healing. With my swords ability that is about the best thing that it would be able to do.


    My vine armor design actually came from this spear. I think that a polite way of putting it would be I was inspired by the vine spear to work on the Armor because my bastard of a master made me sell it. Still, there is no point thinking about the spear now. I am sure that it must be already broken and burnt to ashes by some enemy of the hexmountain.


    After all it was a person of the legion that bought the spear in the first place. Their weapons do not tend to last. Okay, how the hell did I even end up talking about the spear I do not know but my point is that I have experience with building a class eight formation.


    Even with this experience though, I would not say that my success is guaranteed.

 the Temporary Fort and Shamon (log 011)

    The temporary fort is not the most overwhelming construction I have seen. even standing here I am able to tell that the thing will be quite easy to break apart. I can crack the wall with a single punch and I will be able to shatter the wall if I were to channel my mana into the wall. Well, no fort is able to purely function on the strength of the materials from which it is built from. Most forts don''t even need a mage channeling mana to break it. Compared to those this is still better.


    Still, if you were to tell me that this fort was built by the snowwinders I would be very reluctant to believe it. They are legendary for their ability to build things, especially defensive structures like this. After all their fort in the southern border has managed to survive the invasion of an alliance of four countries. It still stands in the south, preventing any hostile force from entering into the lands of the snow wind empire.


    Well, the reason that this fort feels so flimsy is due to the time that these people took to build it. The entire fort in front of me has been built within a week. well, it would be more accurate to say somewhere between a week and a month. even then, to think that the fort in front of me could be built in a month is a shock to say the least.


    As for how large this fort is, it will be able to comfortably house at least four hundred soldiers. The fort is surrounded by a wall (made of a similarly flimsy material.) which covers the entirety of the fort. At each of the cardinal directions of the fort is a gate.


    I honestly did not understand why so many gates are required, as that just means that I will be dealing with each as a potential point of entry. Well, I can''t really complain now, can I?


    While the base materials of this fort is flimsy to put it mildly, it has become my duty to ensure that this place won''t fall. Now, I can think of two methods of doing this.


    First would be to reinforce the entire fortress using some kind of a external material. I do not have the resources nor the expertise to supervise or attempt such a reinforcement. You would need stone masons, carpenters and architects who are actually skilled at their jobs. I can safely claim that I am none of those things.


    Instead, it is for the second method for which I have been sent here. This would be a central formation. Now a central formation is a formation that is meant to literally act as the center for this fort.


    It will manage all the environmental formations, all the defensive formations and all the attack formations of the fortress. It is supposed to be able to power and control every formation in the place. This includes the defensive formation, especially a passive defensive formation, one that will be able to increase the durability of every inch of this place.


    It literally acts as the center to the fort. You can say that it is the beating heart of the fort and I have been brought here to build this very heart.


    Now, I am a formation mage and not a construction mage for me to know a lot of these formations. I do know of a few that I might be able to use but most of these are so subpar that using it would be plain suicide.


    If these formations are inscribed then the fort will be destroyed. The strongest of our enemy won''t even need to breathe on the fort for large swathes of the fort to be destroyed. They are supposed to be first circle mages after all. I am certainly not going to be fighting them without strong weapons.


    Thankfully, the core for my formation is made up of copper bark. Copper bark is one of the most common material that one can find of the druids. The reason for that is due to the nature of the material. Copper bark and similar materials were used by the druids to create environmental formations.


    Every druidic village is supposed to have a formation at its center which is supposed to make their villages more liveable. They had about the best environment formations in the continent. I am more than sure that their formations will be able to work even this close to the northern wastelands. At least that is the hope.


    Well, that leads to my present problem which is the fact that just having a formation core is not enough for a druidic formation. They have to rely on mana nodes to function. To put it in simple terms, a mana node is a stream of mana that flows in the world.


    Most of them tend to be under the ground and are often coincident with magical ores. Detecting these nodes are supposed to be nearly impossible. The only two forces in the continent that I know that could manage this reliably are the druids and the dwarves.


    I have little to no idea how the druids actually find magical nodes. Maybe, my master might but he has not bothered to grant that knowledge to me. That leaves me the dwarves.


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    The dwarves make use of mana echolocation to find ore under the ground. Now, how do I explain this technique to you. The technique basically involves the process of releasing waves of mana into the ground. These waves will then be bounced of the magical ores that they want to find which can be used by the dwarves to find the exact location of the ore.


    Now I only know the absolute basics of mana echolocation. I have actually never managed to release a pulse into the ground and actually make any sense of it. I actually used it a few times in the air though and once in the water so I can say at the very least that I have used it.


    Using it inside the ground is a separate difficulty. There are just so many things in the ground. Only master echolocaters are able to sort through the complicated set of information that they recieve to be able to make use of this technique. Only they are able to tell if the reflection of their mana means that there is a piece of rock there or a magnificent mithril ore. I am not able to do any of that.


    Instead I will be making use of the dwarves that have already visited this place to complete my work. The surroundings of this place have many abandoned mines of the dwarves. Most of these mines are going to be empty, completely run dry by the dwarves and their mining.


    I would have to assume that means that the mana node that would be associated with this mine would also be run dry. That is what happens in most cases like this. There is a small chance though that the mana node is not completely dry and that is my goal at this moment. If I cannot locate a mana node at one mine, then I will have to visit another.


    It is all a game of probability. After all, if one location that I visit doesn''t have a node then I will just keep visiting these mines until I find one that does have a mana node. Just a fifty kilometer range around me has about a hundred mines. (That is a stupidly large number of mines.)


    I refuse to believe that I won''t be able to find a node (or three) in all of these mines. The only reason that I am not in those mines at the moment is only due to the fact that I am going to be given all the details about these mines that the snowwinders have.


    It is supposed to be provided to me by the present head of this fortress, who is going to be my deputy. He is an interesting man that goes by the name of shamon. His cultivation is supposed to be somewhere between a non cultivator and a first circle mage. The reason he is supposed to be so interesting is the fact that this man has managed to survive nearly ten years in this battlefield.


    It doesn''t take long too as the man appears in the corner of my vision. It takes him a few moments more before the man appears in the room. He is a middle aged man, with no particularly distinguished features to him. The only thing that is different about the man is the aura that he gives. The man gives me the aura of a soldier. A soldier at the pinnacle of discipline, someone that won''t panic even in the worst scenario. I will admit that it is a comfort to have such a second in command. The commander doesn''t want me dead at the very least.


    ¡°Captain, why have you summoned me here.¡°, the man speaks.


    ¡°Well, firstly I want a report on every soldier that you have under you.¡°, I begin.


    ¡°We have about a hundred soldiers under us. Five among them including me are capable of cultivating. None of us have reached the first circle though. Each person here is an empire trained soldier.¡° He continues. ¡°They will not break rank even if they are being cut in half by a snowlord.¡°


    ¡°Well, have you ever met a snowlord, soldier shamon?¡°, I ask him.


    ¡°Well, I am quite lucky in the fact that I have not, captain. I would be dead if that were the case.¡°, he replies. ¡°Regardless, a snow lord appearing means that you are very unlucky. They do not like to be anywhere where they can be found by the commander.¡°


    ¡°Well, have you bought up what I have requested?¡°, I ask him, distracting him from the topic of his soldier''s discipline.


    ¡°Yes, captain. A map of every mine in the region with a particular emphasis on the ore that is found at the location and its elements.¡°, shamon replies.


    ¡°Good, that is what I need.¡°, I reply. ¡°Well, you seem to be a local of this area, shamon. I am certain you must have an idea on the many threats that we must face in this region. What do you think is the most immediate threat.¡°


    ¡°Well, we have three main threats in this region. The first is the snowlords themselves. Regardless of how much you strengthen this fort though, fighting them is impossible. The only thing we can do when we find out that a snowlord is coming is to run and hope that the commander reaches us before the snowlord.¡°, replies the soldier. ¡°Thankfully they rarely appear this far south. Their minions though are a separate thing. Once the winter properly gets going, we shall be facing entire troops of ice beasts attacking us. By then, you will have to complete the formations on the fort, captain. Without a strong fort, the damn beasts won''t even need to do much to get rid of us. This is their territory after all.¡°


    ¡°What is the third thing then?¡°, I ask him.


    ¡°That would be the very winds, captain. Winters here have the worst snow storms. At its worst, these storms feel like the strike of a snowlord. I would say that the fort would buckle like a house of cards if it were to face a storm at this moment.¡°, he replies.


    ¡°And his long does it take for these storms to go bad?¡°, I ask him.


    ¡°We could face a storm like that tomorrow, captain. We might face it even in the next hour. There is simply no way of telling this far north.¡°, the soldier replies. ¡°That is why I would suggest that you begin the work on the central formation as quickly as possible, captain.¡°


    ¡°I know, soldier shamon. The maps that I have requested are related to this very task. I am sure that I will be able to get started on the formation under a week too. Until then, all we can do is hope that no particularly deadly Storm kills us all.¡° I reply. ¡°now that I have gotten that out of the way it is time for us to discuss about the troops......

 Finding Elemental Nodes (log 012)

    The problem with a building constructed in a hurry is that the things that one can take for granted in the case of other buildings are completely absent here. An environmental formation (which is vital in this frigid hellscape.) is the thing that is about to affect us the most. There is a significant worry about the weather and how it will affect the soldiers. The snowwinders can survive in weather like this but to fight in this weather is going to be hard unless I do something.


    The one thing that everybody forgets about this place is that it is not the enemy that is our main threat but the environment. After all, it is more likely that a person is going to freeze to death than fight an enemy. That means that the main threat that seems to affect those in these forts is the cold.


    You can think of our present situation like us sitting in an ocean of ice mana. Our life mana is like a boat in this ocean, protecting us from the worst of it. The soldiers are essentially a flimsy plank that might not even survive a single trip here and I am much closer to the fisherman''s boat, capable of surviving easily if things are calm, but I am equally likely to drown here once things get a bit chaotic.


    that is why this place is such an annoyance to handle and why this fort seems like a stupid idea. That is why these soldiers have to wear coats inscribed with formations to isolate them from the ice mana outside. Well, calling them formations would be wrong. I would say it is better to call them runes painted onto those coats. They certainly won''t be able to fight in those coats.


    While these soldiers are presently in a very crappy situation, I have something more important that I need to focus on.


    Shamon has been spending the last week trying to manage this problem as well as he can. He also seems to be succeeding at it. so I am sure that he can do that for a week or more. I will have a solution in place soon enough, after which shamon can focus on more combat worthy matters.


    As for my main focus. It is to make sure that I don''t bring the fort down because I had to fight in it at my full strengt


    This situation will grow a bit better once the formation base is setup. After all, the formation base of the formation I am building will work to at least push out the frigid mana that is freezing us to death. It won''t have the effectiveness of a environmental formation, mind you but it will still have a certain affect. I think it should at the very least reduce the dependece the soldiers have on their coats.


    To those that do not know of the formation base, it is time for me to give a basic explanation on a formation. There are quite a few components to a formation but the most basic of this is the formation base, which handles the flow of mana into the formation.


    The formation base is usually the most complicated part of the formation and acts as the base for the remaining part of the formation. It is also the first part of the formation to be built whenever we begin our work. It is the part of the formation that deals with the storage, manipulation and management of the mana that the formation uses.


    That is why I need the elemental nodes in the first place. The formation base of the formation that I am planning to build needs a stream of three mana nodes, one of the metal element, one of the water element, and one of the earth element. These are basically the elements that the copper bark tree has. It also needs them to grow.


    You see that is the fascinating thing about druidic trees. Most of them are able to grow even from a single twig as long as you are able to plant it in ground where mana of the elements that they need exist. The inscriptions that you build into the tree will also be able to grow and strengthen over time. The only problem to this is the fact that this process can sometimes take centuries.


    That is one of the reasons that the druids fell in the first place. When it takes you a few decades to build a forward base, a battle of attrition is something that you have to avoid. The legion is if anything else, the master of a battle of attrition.


    Anyway, getting back to more relevant matters. I need a few elemental nodes to make the formation base and start my work. Now, the process of capturing elemental nodes is also something that is very fascinating. Normally, non druids have to construct massive formations to redirect the elemental nodes at all. These formations tend to be massive, some of them even reaching class eight and still there is no guarantee if the elemental node will go in the direction that you want it to go to.


    The druids make use of a simpler and much more non destructive method of this. They do this by essentially telling the stream the direction in which it has to flow. Naturally, what I am saying is an over simplification but at its core that is what we are doing. A complicated set of mana manipulation (external mana manipulation is like trying to make ice flow like water.) is involved in the process, but I am sure that I will be able to make any elemental node that is in the surrounding fifty kilometers to flow towards the fort.


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    An actual master of this technique will be able to do the same thing from thousands of kilometers as well. At least, that is what I have seen my master do.


    Well, all of that will be done when I actually find a node. Until now I have visited five mines and I have not found even the trace of an elemental node. Normally, you are able to feel a small part of the node even if the entire thing has been distrupted. It is almost like somebody was here clearing the entire thing away.


    I have never seen a case where the elemental node disappears without even leaving a trace. I would have to assume that it has something to do with being this close to the northern wastelands. After all, I have heard that a mana desert can do weird things to mana.


    Even then things are going okay. After all, there are still almost more than fifty mines here that I will be able to make use of. The only thing that is a pain would be the fact that I have to physically crawl in these tunnels. That means that I am trudging in tunnels that the dwarves would consider a tight fit, and in which I can barely crawl through to reach the point where I can detect whether the place has an elemental node or not.


    Now the funny thing is that the druids crafted their methods of redirecting elemental nodes to be as non-invasive as possible. It means that I do not actually need to be in the dwarves mines to actually do this. I just need to do this when I am on the ground right over the mine and it would be fine.


    The only problem in all of this is the fact that right now up on the ground there is a storm that will most likely tear me into pieces. Reaching here would literally kill me. It is one of the legendary snowstorms of this place. The only reason that I am still safe is due to the fact that that I am presently in the dwarves caves physically crawling to get where I need to go.


    All of the dwarven tunnels are interconnected to each other. After all, knowing the dwarves they must be even more fragile than me. There is no way that they are braving the storm that is happening up above.


    Even down here I can feel the violent changes in the ice mana occuring. They hit me sometimes like waves in the beach. I can feel the ice mana wash over me, trying to drown and freeze me but my vital mana is strong enough to shrug it of. Still feels like I am becoming a block of ice though.


    Right now I cannot help but wonder whether this storm will be able to destroy our fort. Shamon seemed to be more than confident that the fort will be bruised up but it won''t be destroyed in any meaningful way. Looking at the storm though, I am really struggling to believe those words.


    Regardless, I have taken the man''s word for it now since I do not have any actual method of protecting the fort even if it was being destroyed. The formations are the only thing that I have at hand.


    Anyway, this is the reason that I have ended up in my present position. Crawling around in dwarven tunnels trying to keep myself warm and failing to.


    Normally, this is not a task that I would be doing personally. I cannot exactly send the soldiers in here. Firstly all of them are required above and while revealing such small secrets won''t cause me much problem, I have no desire to antagonize the head office more than necessary. The head office can be pretty petty if they decide that you are their enemies. You can already see me in my present case and I have no real enmity with the head office.


    Secondly, this place would certainly leave a lot of the soldiers, most of whom do not have any cultivation freezing down here. Ultimately, the best way to do this would be to do this personally. To physically crawl into these tunnels and find the elemental node.


    Part of the issue is with my clothing as well. I have after all not taken any of the coats that the soldiers are using to protect their vital mana. At the time, it seemed like the smarter choice. After all each of those coats is so bulky that each person wearing those coats looks more like a ball. Better to make use of my vital mana to resist the cold and be more combat ready was my thought process. I just did not expect down here to be even more colder than up there.


    Well, It does not help me to imagine the weather up there. It is not like I will be going there any time soon. Until I do so I think it is wise to focus on the task at hand. Right now I am in a mine which the dwarves have built to extract an ore that they are calling ¡°blue mithril¡±. I think it is meant to represent mithril that sides towards the water element. Any water based formation inscribed on a weapon made from this will be able to show more strength compared to other formations.


    My assumption is that this might lead to a elemental node of either the water element or the metal element. If I am really lucky it could be a elemental node of both the elements, though it is rare for such type of elemental nodes to coexist.


    That means that I am left with a lot of crawling and cursing and shivering, none of which I have the desire to record so I will be taking my leave here. A dwarves mines might look small on a map but they tend to be literal mazes I tell you.


    On top of that, you can''t be sure of the actual location of the node too. It will most likely be found in the region which has the highest concentration of the ore or you could find it right at the entrance of the mine. That means that I have to check out every inch of this place to make sure no elemental node exists in the mine.


    Fuck, just thinking about the amount of crawling left is beginning to make me feel claustrophobic. Screw it, I will continue this log when I have finally found an elemental node.

 a sword to the throat (log 013)

    Well, I am kind of fucked. To explain my present situation I will have to start from the very beginning. The deadliest place to build a formation is the battlefield. The reason for that is simply the fact that on the battlefield you have an enemy who is trying to disturb your work the entire time.


    Inscribing formations tends to release massive bursts of mana. This much mana makes it more than easy for the enemy to detect when you are inscribing a formation. Even the formation base which usually has the least mana leakage, still is quite obvious if the enemy knows what to look for.


    If the enemy managed to distract you in the process of inscription. well, I cannot imagine a more terrible way for a formation mage to go. He would literally be consumed by the mana that he is using to inscribe the formation. Naturally, my formations are still not that strong.


    I could still end up destroying the formation core that they have given me if things go wrong. Somehow I don''t think that the snowwinders have a lot of these material in reserve to grant to a stranger like me and anyways, the explosion that would occur when that would happen would still be enough to leave me stuck on bed for a month.


    As for what the enemy is in the present case. It would be the troops of ice beasts that are standing guard outside of our fort. Now, I guess I have to explain what a troop is. The ice beasts are the beasts of the snow lords. Based on my understanding, they use these creatures for everything from labour to war.


    You could also say that they are the reason that all the snowlords are not dead at the moment too. Every snowlord has a horde of these creatures under his command. Each horde consists of about eighty troops of ice beasts and each troop consists of a eighty icebeasts and a first circle icebeast acting as the troop leader.


    The commander would not even break a sweat if he had to kill a thousand snowlords. (This is the approximate number of snowlords that come here every year.) Once he does that though, all the hordes that were under the control of the snowlord will become free without a leader. They will then migrate south in search of fresher pastures which would be the snowwind empire.


    The commander might be able to kill thousands of these creatures with a wave of his hand, but that is if they are bunched up together. They are spread all over the battlefield. Even the commander and all of the frozen peak will not be able to detect each of these ice beasts before the battle will spill into the snowwind empire.


    The soldiers at the frozen peak even try to do this, by sending all of their soldiers at the begining of each winter to hunt for these creatures. To the snowwinders this hunt is literally killing two birds with one stone, since it helps in reducing the icebeasts hordes while at the same time ensuring that the frozen peak has enough of a food reserve for the winter. The commander himself also participates in this hunt, trying to kill all the snowlords that he dares to.


    These creatures are supposed to be fast breeders. If they become rooted in the empire, it will lead to a serious problem. Well that would be wrong to say, as this problem already exists in the empire. Shamon tells me that he and his people have to maintain militias around their villages due to the ice beast problem that they face.


    One reason for this could be that the nobles do not care, which leads to more strained commoner noble relations.


    Well, the ice beast problem would be a problem for the nobles as well since the region that would become infested would be the food plains for the empire. Having less food is always a problem for the nobles too.


    The only reason that the nobles are not willing to get of rid of the ice beasts is that the nobles do not have enough resources to actually eradicate the ice beasts. The implications of this I do not need to tell you with the number of enemies that they have. The frozen peak exists to ensure that this problem doesn''t become much worse than it already is.


    Right now three such troops are present outside of this fort. I cannot see them personally, (both visually and in my mana sense.) but shamon assures me that he has seen many signs of these creatures. They are supposed to be masters at manipulating the snow in this region to form structures.


    Shamon tells me that they have already dug massive tunnels in the snow to act as their base. That is supposed to be their magic, a basic ability to control elemental ice. It is not a particularly strong ability but in this area, it is one of the most terrifying abilities that you can face.


    Their claws and their bites are powered by the ice mana that makes this region such a death trap. Even a single of their strikes could prove fatal unless the soldiers are shipped to the frozen peak. They would literally freeze from the inside out becoming a statue of ice.


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    They gave it a pretty cute name too. They call it the chill, which I feel somehow doesn''t really show the gravity of the situation that they are facing. Remind me to explain this better in the future.


    Yeah, to return to the point, they have already built a base near the fortress. This underground base of their means that they have no desire to move from this region. Now, I am sure that such an action from our enemies has some kind of a conspiracy against me.


    After all, I am told that these temporary forts are built by the dozen at the beginning of each winter. It is rare for even a troop to appear like this in this manner. I have three. Now whether this is because the snowlords have discovered something or they have been told about me by somebody from the peak, I don''t know. I have been more than careful not to let anything leak. Still, I do have a bit of a reputation so you can''t really tell. with my survival on the line, now is not the time to ponder on this. This is a question for tomorrow.


    the enemy troops are acting like a sword on my neck. If I begin to inscribe any formation at this moment all the enemy has to do is swing and I am dead. The fort will be destroyed and even if I were to survive (the enemy has three figures at my strength.) the enemy would be able to hunt us quite easily in this place.


    We are literally surrounded by plains of snows on all four sides. Even our mana stands out in this frozen wastelands to a point where the enemy does not even need mana sight to track our path. I am not sure if I will manage to reach even the temple (which is the closest to us.) with enemies chasing us.


    Now, I think that I will manage to build at least one third of the formation base before the enemy will detect us. They do not have the mana sight and certainly do not seem to be sensitive to mana.


    As for what I want to build now, that would be the metal side of the formation base, a nifty little spell that is called the ironskin. It was a pretty popular spell among the druids. The spell literally allows you to coat yourself with metal mana.


    Due to the nature of metal mana (it is not particularly easy to shape such a mana. It takes days to shape metal mana if you were to work on it personally.) this spell is naturally not particularly useful for humans.


    Many druids used to practice it too. They used to say that if you ran this spell everyday for a century, the ironskin would become visible and with a long enough time this iron skin would become strong enough to compare to the hardest armour. These druids even were called as the ¡°iron druids¡± and even the generals struggled to hurt them during the campaigns. The iron skin that I will inscribe will do the same but to the building itself. The metal mana used to form this barrier will act as my reservoir for metal mana.


    To get back to the point, the only reason that this won''t be detected is due to the static nature of metal mana. Once the iron skin starts working, it will also be quite detectable even to these beasts. All of this means that there won''t be any immediate solution from the formations that I have to build. I could try the earth based formation base too but it runs into similar problems and the water base will be detected in an instant.


    So yeah, I am stuck in a conundrum here. I cannot get rid of the enemy without formations and I cannot build formations as long as the enemy is here. Now, Shamon assures me that he will be able to handle the enemy soldiers quite easily using the fort.


    The only problem that he is facing is the troop leaders. Any one of them will be able to bring down large chunks of the wall of this fort with a focused attack. If that occurs then the only benefit that we have against the enemy will be lost.


    Well, I cannot really blame shamon too on this. Even without the troop leaders they are outnumbered two to one. Then there are the troop leaders. I think I will be able to kill one troop leader quite easily. I will be able to fight two of them, though it is going to be a very hard fight. Against three, even I cannot tell who will live and who will die.


    It makes me wonder why they are not attacking us already. With their numbers they have a more than a decent chance of bringing us down with them. I am not even sure if they will face any heavy losses in the process too.


    Well, I will lose my mind if I have to ponder on the thoughts of the enemy. The situation left my control the instant that I appeared here. Right now the only thing that I can do is adapt. It is not like I am completely helpless as well. I have a few plans in the pocket, though they are going to be quite risky. I just do not want to record them in the middle of an active battlefield. You never know who is reading this stuff after all.


    Well, I had started this log to record about my successes with the elemental nodes. It is not like ranting about my present situation is going to help me in any way. Well, it did calm me down a bit.


    About the nodes, I have found all three of the nodes that I need to power this class eight formation of mine. I have not redirected any of them at the moment though. The major reason for that was the fact that I did not have any plans to build the formation base this quickly.


    Too much mana of a single variety flowing in a single location is actually quite deadly. The weather here and even the chill is quite tame compared to what can occur with other types of mana. Some types of mana can kill you in a few moments if you do not have a shield against it.


    You will swell with water when you have an excess of water mana. You will crumble to dust when you have an excess of earth mana.


    As for metal mana, I have heard that your blood will literally solidify into metal, killing you in a few moments. I can''t verify that one though.


    It won''t take too long for the redirection to occur anyways. I will do it whenever I decide to build the formation base. With the way things are going, it won''t be long as well.

 a surprise attack (log 014.1)

    It has been a week since we have been stuck in this stalemate. Right now, the iron skin spell is chugging along strengthening the fort as well as it can. In this week, the spell has accumulated quite a bit of iron mana. It won''t be of much help though unless I can break this stalemate.


    Well, there are not many things that a formation mage can do when he is forced to act without his formations. We are not as weak as some people like to make us to be without our formations but it certainly makes us quite desperate.


    Right now I am working with the five people other than me that have a cultivation. They are the only people that would be able to survive the outside of the fort without their coats.


    While those formations are more than useful at holding back the cold, but it also tends to make our presence obvious to our enemies. When I am strolling into their home base, being easily detectable is equivalent to suicide.


    These five people other than me are the only ones that I am confident will be able to hold their own if they were forced into a fight. Right now we are at the southern gate of the fort. The enemy has made their base about a kilometer from the southern gate.


    Right now the plan is to infiltrate into the enemy base. As for what we plan to do there, better to describe it as it occurs.


    ¡°Prepare the soldiers to leave, shamon. We will leave in five minutes.¡°, I speak to the man next to me.


    ¡°Yes, captain.¡°, he speaks while disappearing like a ghost.


    Well, now that I have five minutes I guess that I should begin by checking the durability of my damn sword. This particular sword I have had to borrow from the troop.


    It is quite embarrassing to have to ask my underlings for weapons like this. Well, there is little that I can do about it now. As for why I would need a sword when I have the vine armour. Well, the vine armour would be obvious against the ambient mana of this place. It would stick out like a sore thumb.


    On top of that, things might not turn out as positive as I am hoping it to be. Returning to the sword, it is a pretty standard design for a sword. It is something that is issued to every soldier of the frozen peak. The quality of the sword is decent at the very least. It is going to survive a fight between mages too. At least that is the hope. It is not like I can swing the sword at full strength now. I will end up breaking something and our presence would be revealed.


    This is not mana attuned metal, so there is not going to be any surprises there. I can fill it with all of my mana and the only thing that I will be able to guarantee is that the sword is not going to break any time soon. Even that is not a strong guarantee.


    I swing the sword a few times, trying to get used to its weight and balance. The sword is about the correct size for me to use all of my stances at the very least.


    (After about five minutes of me playing around with this sword.)


    Right now in front of me are the five people that are going to be my present team. Among them it is hard for me to even sense the cultivation of three of them. Looking at them, they are even younger than me. These are fresh soldiers in every sense of the term. The only thing redeeming them is their cultivation.


    Other than that, we have shamon and entim. Shamon has nearly achieved the first circle based on the mana that he is emitting. Entim on the other hand, I would say that he is half way through the process. He is the soldier with the most potential of breaking through in this group.


    I would say that he is roughly about my age. He might be a few years older. Regardless, all five of these soldiers are ready for action. Right now, it is mainly due to my actions that we are still waiting here.


    Well, I begin to focus on pushing back all of my mana back into the mana core. Right now the lesser the mana that we are emitting the safer it will be for us. I had formed a habit of circulating mana resisting the cold here. Now it has come to bite me in my back.


    It takes a few embarrassing moments for all of my mana to return to my core. Instantly, I feel like somebody threw me into a pool full of ice. I feel like my body has become sluggish and moving is becoming harder.


    Well, I somehow manage to hide all of this. I think so at least.


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    ¡°It is time for us to leave.¡°, I command, which the soldiers listen to dutifully.


    Right now we are standing in the safety of the southern gate. Once we step out we will be completely at the mercy of the weather outside.


    Not thinking about it too much, I step out into the frigid wasteland outside of the fort. Instantly it feels like I am trying to walk through ice. The winds battering me feel like blades of ice that are cutting into my body. The soldiers are walking through this weather like it is nothing.


    Well, I grit my teeth as we begin our trek. Right now, the enemy is about five to ten minutes worth of trekking from the southern gate. This trek is the most crucial part of our plan. After all, if we are caught en route, we will be too dead to care if the plan has succeeded.


    Thus we begin our trek. None of us even dare to strengthen our barriers for fear of being caught. The only mana that I dare to use is to reinforce my sword. Even for that I am pushing my mana control to its limits to achieve this. I can assure you that no ice beast will be able to detect my mana unless they are standing next to us.


    (After about five minutes.)


    We have finally reached up to the enemy''s caves. Things are going to grow quite tricky now. You see things are going to be quite uncertain from here on.


    Right now, we have no clear idea about the underground structure of the enemies base. The little that we know about comes from echolocation. I am no master of this dwarven art so the only thing that I can really tell is the general structure of this place.


    We absolutely cannot get lost in there, especially with what we are about to be doing. Well, I cannot really turn back after reaching here now can I.


    As I am thinking this, I throw my sword right into the throat of an ice beast. I had almost missed the creature in my mana sight. The creature is not a threat but I can''t have it warning it''s master before it is too late. It has just popped out of one of the nearly invisible holes in the ground and would have discovered us quite soon.


    Well, we have spent enough time outside. I gesture the soldiers to follow me into one of these holes. Jumping into the hole, I end up in a tunnel that is quite large for my expectations at least. if there is going to be a fight then we are going to be fighting quite comfortably.


    That is both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time as it also applies to our enemies. Well, no use obsessing over it. I gesture towards a tunnel to the left. based on my map that should lead towards the center of this tunnel system.


    I can''t say for certain but the center is in that rough direction. We manage to walk for a few moments as I feel a concentration of ice mana behind me. My sword flashes behind me right into the mouth of an ice beast. The creature struggles for a few moments before dying. I guess now would be a good time to mention that the icebeasts are quite similar to wolves in their shape.


    The only thing that could be considered different would be their faces. their faces and mouth resemble more like a snake than that of a wolf. Well, if the creatures can detect us enough to ambush us, there is going to be no point in maintaining stealth.


    ¡°Screw it. Troop, enter into a defensive position. We will charge towards the target.¡°, I command them. The soldiers follow my command silently and effectively as they quickly enter into a box like formation.


    I begin to run, while the soldiers behind me keep up with me as well as they can. Any creature ambushing us now would be in the easy reach of at least two soldiers.


    We begin to run. It does not take us particulary long to get lost. the entire thing is a confusing mess of tunnels built under the ground. Thankfully, we are still able to retain a general idea about the direction in which we are going in.


    I have been remembering every twist and turn that we have taken. If I mess this up while leaving, the icebeasts will be the least of my worries.


    Meanwhile, I think that we have managed to provoke every creature in these tunnels. It is almost a wonder that one of the troop leader have yet to make their moves. They are supposed to be really slothful creatures if Shamon is to be believed.


    Well, that was always the gamble involved with this mission. Regardless, things are going well for now. I am so lost in my thoughts that I almost miss the fact that we have reached our target.


    It is like a massive cave that exists at the center of this tunnel system. Shamon tells me that these centers always exist. Something about this place acting as the foundation of the entire cave system.


    The only thing that I have understood or care about at the very least is the fact that destroying this place will collapse the entirety of the tunnel. Again I am surprised that there is no troop leader here. after all, with such a massive structural weakness I would have assumed that a troop leader would always be stationed here.


    Well, it would take a massive amount of mana to destabilize this place in the first place. I might be able to do it if I were to expend all of my mana. Then I would not be able to run when the entire thing came crashing down.


    Naturally I have no desire to go out in a blaze of glory here. We are not even facing our proper enemy. Still, that leaves an issue of blowing up this place. For this I have to make use of the single most wasteful thing that a formation master can do with a mana reservoir. I am going to be projecting the mana from the reservoir at the fort to this place.


    Well, I am sure that many of you do not know what projecting is but it would be stupid to try and explain it in the middle of a battle like this. Better to do it later.


    Right now this cave of ours has two entries. Enemies will be pouring in from both of them. Before I even command the five soldiers under me have already begun to cover these positions. They have good teamwork so I am sure that they will manage to hold the enemy for a few minutes.


    Now I have to make use of these few minutes to do my work. Well, I have delayed this enough. Time to get to work.

 the escape (log 014.2)

    The first step that I have to do now is to throw away my vine armour. That doesn''t take long as I have already popped the thing in the ground in front of me.


    What I have to do next is the hard part. You see, every formation has a protection against projection. It is a set of runes on the formation which physically prevent projection from occuring. the results of accidental projection are so terrible that these runes are particularly hard to find and destroy. To ensure that an idiot like me doesn''t try and break them.


    Right now my work is to find these protections and shatter them. Now while I am doing that I guess I should explain what even is projecting in the first place. Projecting is something that can be done when you have a working mana reservoir. You can make all of this mana from the reservoir flow towards a target.


    The mana will flow towards the target unless there is an obstruction in the middle. The process is used rarely due to how inefficient it is as it wastes at least nine units from every ten units transported in this way.


    You also cannot control just how much mana has to flow into the target too. Usually the reservoir ends up empty and all its mana is either lost to the world or it will end up overloading the target.


    there are strict requirements on the target in this process. Firstly, it cannot be a living person. Secondly, the material has to be able to transmit mana and lastly the strength of the material has to be of the class nine at the very least.


    So naturally the target of my projection this time is the vine armour. As for how that will help us. The vine armour is going to be overloaded and explode right in this place. The explosion will them collapse this cave and take the remaining part of the tunnel system with it and all the icebeasts in the process hopefully.


    It is more than likely that I will lose my armour but there is little that can be done at the moment. Well, finding these runes is taking longer than I had expected it to take. After all I was the person that had inscribed those runes in the first place. I really should not be doing this here.


    Well, there they are. Destroying a rune is quite a invested process. A rune in a formation is kind of like a construct of mana that uses the formation core like a anchor to exist. Destroying these runes works by pushing all of your mana into the rune. The goal is to literally pop the rune like a balloon by stuffing it full of mana.


    It is a risky process. The popping runes could affect the stability of the surrounding runes. It could cause a cascade which could end up in the entire thing exploding in my face. With me in the enemies territory that is not a good thing to happen at all.


    It is with this thought that I begin the process of rune destruction. Behind me I can hear the other soldiers struggling against the ice beasts. Right now the tunnels are forcing the ice beasts to split apart causing the beasts to lose their primary advantage against us. Still, this advantage will not hold against the enemies too long.


    The soldiers must already be getting tired. Well, I guess that it might help me if I were to focus on the task at hand.


    (After about a couple of minutes)


    I can feel the rune collapse in my mana sense. The destruction of the rune could not have happen more perfectly as the surrounding runes are not even affected by this destruction. Well, it is not like these runes are going to be used in the future anyways.


    Around me the sound of the battle has already begun to grow intense. even with my focus, I cannot ignore the sound of claw against sword. I am surprised that nobody has ended up dead in this process. It would have been a guarantee if one of the troop leaders was coming here.


    Why that is not happening, I do not know. The only thing that I do know is the fact that the vine armour has begun to vibrate. any second now the metal mana from my reservoir will flow into the vine armour. What will happen then is something that even I do not know. All I know is that it is not going to be anything pleasant.


    It is only my will that is preventing this resonance from happening. Well, I can already feel the metal mana flowing into the vine armour already causing something to change in the material of the formation. I can''t say what it is, but it is nothing good. If shouldn''t be happening this quickly.


    ¡°Retreat troop.¡°, I scream as I make my way to the exit. Now, I have to make sure that I remember the path correctly.


    Behind me, the vine armour has begun to grow. The way that it is growing give me such a eerie vibe that I certainly do not want to be in the room when the mana will reach a critical value.


    The exit that I have taken has two people, who would be shamon and entim. The three remaining soldiers are behind me, retreating while defending against the ice beasts. They cannot hold these creatures in these caves as well as they could in the tunnel.


    I do not see their retreat as I focus on the ice beasts in front of me. I begin to channel quite a bit of my mana into my sword as I go on a killing spree. I am supported by the two soldiers who have already taken the role of supporting me as they weave behind me focussing on maiming and wounding the ice beasts so that I can kill them.


    This takes about half a minute, but the mass of ice beasts have already been cleared. The only problem is that I have had to channel about a quarter of my mana in the process. With the prospect of the troop leaders appearing any second this is not a position that I want to be in.


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    Regardless, we begin to run away. I will need to focus on recollecting the path back to the entrance. That will require me to focus.


    (After about five minutes.)


    Well, I have to admit that I would have never thought that I would be happy looking at the bleak and lifeless sight of this place. Regardless, right now the land outside looks like a heaven.


    Part of the reason is that the tunnels behind us have already begun to collapse. I can feel the concentration of metal mana behind me which has managed to finally destroy the cave behind us. Let''s just say whatever is behind us is not a pretty sight.


    The presence of the troop leader sticks out like a sore thumb even before I see it. It must be channeling its mana like crazy.


    ¡°There is a hostile at the exit. Assume it to be a troop leader.¡°, I speak. ¡°Focus on escape and do not engage it in any manner. I will hold it back until you complete your retreat.¡°


    Saying that I exit the tunnels into the plains beyond it. The troop behind me has already begun to run towards the fort. I am not doing so personally. I just focus on channeling my mana into my sword. I can''t have it break on me at this moment.


    It takes a moment for me to notice the troop leader against our surroundings. I expected it to look more intimidating than the average ice beast. The only thing that I can say about the creature is that it is a bit larger than the average beast.


    Still, the creature has finally noticed me. Now the hope is that it will focus on just me. Can''t have it run towards the troop now. In this environment, I can''t even match pace with this creature.


    I did not need to worry as the creature jumps at me, trying to claw me. I block it with my sword. I can feel the impact as I am nearly brought to the ground. The creatures are certainly stronger than their physique would suggest.


    Well, I still manage to push the creature away from me physically. I can feel a dull ache in my arm though. Well, I do not get to think up a new strategy as the creature is already in front of me, trying to get a bite into me. I barely managed to dodge the creatures bite as I try to keep the creature facing me. Can''t have it biting me on my ass.


    It catches me by surprise when the creature suddenly opens it''s mouth releasing some kind of an ice bolt right at my head. I can feel my sword shudder when I use it to block the bolt. I swing the sword again blocking another bolt that appeared on the top of its head again. This time from its forehead.


    Things are going to go quite downhill if it actually manages to get a strike into me. The chill is not something that I want to be dealing with in the middle of an actual fight.


    The creature also seems to have slowed down a bit. Right now the both of us are trying to predict the action that the other will be taking. At least that is what the creature in front of me is doing.


    I am waiting for an opportunity. It should already have happen by now. For a few moments I am left wondering if my calculations were accurate or not. It also surprised me a bit when the tunnels behind me finally begins to collapse.


    It is a pretty silent affair, but it must have had quite an impact on the creature as it just pauses for a second looking at the collapsing tunnel. The both of us are disoriented as the ground around us begins to shake due to the collapsing tunnel.


    We both take a moment to regain our footing and this is where I finally find my moment of attacking. You see the creature was not expecting this and I did. This single point of awareness is enough for me to recover just a moment before the ice beast.


    I do not waste this moment too as I concentrate most of my mana into my sword. Swinging the sword, it is so fast that I feel like the sword is leading me rather than me leading it. I can feel the fractures arising in my sword as it handles more mana than it is capable of handling. Even with the strengthening of my mana, it will become useless after this move.


    My gambit is thankfully successful at the end as I feel the sword enter into the creatures mouth and exit through the creatures skull. The strike is fatal, though it did not kill the creature the instant it was struck.


    It occurs almost in slow motion as the beasts mouth shuts right on my arm. I can feel the creatures teeth enter into me like a pair of daggers. It is so cold that it actually feels warm for a couple of seconds. Then it begins to spread in my body freezing me right to my bones. I begin to channel mana, feeling the cold retreat for a bit.


    I quickly shake the damn corpse off me. I already have to channel a majority of my remaining mana trying to keep this damn chill from completely paralysing me. Right now I can only hope that the collapsing tunnels behind me will be enough to distract the remaining troop leaders from looking for me. I am certainly in no state to fight them off.


    I can feel my thoughts slowing as I walk to the fort. I don''t even remember how exactly I had made my way to the fort. I don''t even remember who had helped me out of my clothes and put me in the medics room as the world around me began to grow black.

 the formation base (log 015)

    Fuck everything is so cold. It feels like I am sitting on a block of ice. this is the way in which the chill is affecting me. Well, I guess that I should explain the chill in detail before trying to complain about it.


    Well, I have explained you the situation that we are here in this frigid wasteland with the example of the boat. Right now the chill would be the same as if a hole has sprung in the boat. Ice mana is flowing into my body from my wounds. Here the ice mana has set, completely preventing me from passing mana into that part of my body.


    The chill is quite insidious in the way that it manifests. I can keep the thing in control by continuously channeling my mana to my wounds strengthening it enough that I can handle the adverse effects of this mana. Then the chill is much more manageable. It just feels like standing in a relatively cold spot without a jacket. That is on the condition that I keep channeling my mana.


    The moment that I forget to maintain this cycle though, the cold hits me like a bull. It feels like my insides have literally been dipped in ice as the ice mana flows into it taking over more of my body and freezing it. It is literally like a shock in the very core of my being.


    Even the coat that the soldiers have been using has not been particularly helpful to me. The coat helps me by cutting me off from the ice mana outside. That doesn''t change the fact that there is already too much ice mana inside of me. Until I get rid of that there is little to no chance of me getting used to it.


    The only way to recover from it is to restart my mana cycling. Even then it takes me a few minutes to enter into a state where I can ignore the chill again. This has become a cycle now with the chill striking me in waves. At it''s worst, I am not even able to walk let alone work. At it''s best, I can work at the very least.


    Thankfully on a more positive note, the drain on my mana reserves is more than manageable. It is more than a trickle, but I should be able to maintain a few weeks of this at the very least. Without those reserves I do not want to even know what would happen to me.


    Maybe I would end up in the same situation as the soldiers and end up freezing into a statue. Maybe, my flesh will end up dying due to ice mana. I honestly don''t want to find out.


    Right now I am actually risking this happening simply due to the fact that I have to keep working. I did not risk my life in the raid before and facing this chill now simply to destroy a few troops of the enemy. If that were the case, there are much easier and safer ways for things to be done.


    The reason that I had gone on this suicidal mission is for the fact that I am buying time for me to begin work on the formation. The only problem with this plan is that I did not account for myself to be injured. It was supposed to be a clean mission with minimum fighting and minimal injuries in the process.


    That means that to justify my injuries I have to now work with my injuries. After all, the reinforcements to the batch of ice beasts that survived the collapse outside would be coming any day. If I do not have a working defense by then things are going to be really bad. I do not have another formation core to waste even if I wanted to.


    Well, the chill has slowed my work down a bit but I am happy to tell you that I have finally managed to complete the formation base. Right now I have formations that are taking in mana from the three mana nodes and sorting and storing them in some form or the other.


    With the other two elements, the storage of the mana is much more mundane. The formation core itself is acting as the storage center for this formation. Spells like the iron skin are rare which do not use the formation core for the purpose of storing mana. It has its benefits and costs.


    With this I will be able to finally focus on the more offensive spells of my formation. I guess that I should begin by explaining to you how exactly formations beyond the ninth class work. Ninth class formation are what people think of when they are thinking of formations.


    These formations are created by inscribing runes into a class nine formation. These formations are basically spells at its core. When you are casting a spell you are essentially crafting a set of runes in your mana core which you can manifest into reality as a spell.


    We do the same thing, though we do it in the physical world instead of our mana core. This is the riskiest step, since holding runes in our mana core is already a hard task. If It is like trying to shape water into a specific shape in the core. Trying to do the same thing in the real world is like trying to shape air into a specific shape. In the core if the runes do not achieve a specific shape then you break apart the entire thing before it can explode on you. We do not have that luxury in the real world.


    After the rune is crafted we have to maintain this rune while slowly adding each part of it to the formation core. We do this by binding these runes to the material of the core. Once every rune has been successfully bound to the material of the core the spells become set. (which mainly means that it won''t explode on you.) After this they do not tend to change shape unless somebody breaks the core physically. Now the inscribed spell can be triggered by supplying mana to it. What I have explained is a pretty simplistic explanation but it will suffice for now.


    A simple way of putting it would be that at class nine, the formation is literally a spell that can be cast automatically as long as you can supply enough mana to it.


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    From the class eight onwards, formations undergo what is known as chaining of spells. This means that to craft a class eight spell into a formation, you need to inscribe ten class nine spells into it to act as a base for the class eight spell. To craft a class seven spell, you need to inscribe ten class eight formations into it. This means that you have to inscribe a hundred class nine spells for these ten class eight spells. This chaining goes on till class one formations, where the number of spells that need to be inscribed reach absurd numbers.


    To return to the point, right now to inscribe the class eight spell into the core I will first need to inscribe ten class nine spells into it. I have completed three such spells already. That would be the formation base and the spells related to it. I am still left with seven more spells to inscribe. The class eight formation that I am building is meant to nurture the formation core and thus a majority of these spells are geared towards a non-combative purpose.


    Still, there are a few offensive spells and the spell that I have to inscribe next is exactly one of those. It is a spell known as the water spear. The spell is a simple one, converting water into a spear like shape. These spears can the be physically wielded by the user or thrown towards the enemy. The spear will then explode once it hits it''s target.


    The power of the spell is pretty high especially for the amount of mana that it requires. Most spell formations of this variety tend to be guzzlers of mana but this spell is one of the most efficient spells that I have seen. Any other formations would require two times the mana to do the same thing. This comes at the cost of speed and range though.


    The spell is quite a bit slow. I think that I will not be able to use this spell to attack enemies at a long range. If I were to try something like that the enemy will have too much time to dodge my strikes. The only time that this can be used is when the enemy is right next to the fort.


    Other than the usual threats though, there is also the problem of stability. This spell requires me to actively maintain these spears as there is no way for the spell to do this automatically. I can maintain maybe ten of these spears with my full focus. When you have to throw hundreds of these spears, this naturally will throw a wrench in your plans. There is a fix for this though, which I can''t implement this quickly. It is another spell that I have to inscribe.


    Still, this spell will provide me with enough of a offense against the enemies. That is only possible if the enemy were to come and attack me at the fort. If they try to maintain another seige like the one that they were attempting before, there is little that I can do against them. Somehow though, I feel that the enemies will not be able to remain as passive as they were here.


    If you ask me, this is the biggest cost of being a formation mage. Our power comes from the formations that we build and each of these formations has a limited range across which it will be able to show its might.


    Within this range we might be equivalent to gods but the moment that we cross that range our power will reduce drastically. Still, this formation does provide a sense of security. After all if Shamon is to be believed we are going to be facing entire legions of these creatures soon enough.


    Turns out the snowlords do not like to reveal too many of their troops during the hunt. If they were to send too many of them during the hunt they risk attracting the attention of the frozen peak. After all if they were to lose too many troops, the commander will be able to kill the snowlord without worry. How the man is able to tell which snowlord has how many troops, nobody is able to tell. Only that he can tell it.


    Still, If they were willing to send so many troops during the hunt, they are certainly going to be sending more of them after it. With a working water spear formation I can manage it even if ten troops came here (at least I can guarantee that the fort won''t fall). Right now, Shamon''s major worry is related to if the snowlords will be willing to come here personally.


    It is pretty unlikely since we are still quite close to the frozen peak. A snowlord here would be in a dangerous situation. The commander would take literally a couple of hours to reach here. Even if he can''t kill the snowlord due to their horde, cutting their limbs off is no problem for the man.


    The only problem that we are facing here would be the fact that the snowlord would not even require more than a couple of minutes to kill us all. The only real chance of survival that we would have is if I were to inscribe the class eight spell into the formation completing it by then. Even then it is not a guarantee.


    Well, this got really serious in a hurry there. Again it brings to my mind why the snowlords are so insistent to attack me. The problem in my case is that the other side has too many reasons to attack me. Right now I cannot act in such a way that any of my secrets will be revealed to the enemy. After all, If they knew everything they would certainly not be this passive. I am sure that the snowlords would already be here if that was the case. Still it would bring me some peace of mind If I knew what they knew.


    At the very least I would know which of my secrets I have to be hiding right now.

 A tense seige (log 016)

    The way in which the ice beasts attack the fort is pretty surprising. At the very least it is not something that I would expect out of dumb beasts like these. I will admit that this is not the best strategy to employ at this moment, but it is a strategy nonetheless.


    They are presently systematically testing the walls of the fort for any weaknesses. They are doing this by attacking the fort in waves. Groups of five icebeasts attack the fort at various random locations. Most of these attacks are stopped by the soldiers on patrol. It is not even too hard, as the creatures tend to retreat immediately after the patrol begins to fight them seriously.


    If the patrol do not manage to do so or if the beasts manage to injure the soldiers, the creatures will focus their attacks at that location. They will strike in waves of ten at the location then. Most of the time, shamon manages to send reinforcements to the targetted area but until then the patrolling soldiers have to manage the fight.


    This barrage of attacks has certainly resulted in casualties. right now, five soldiers are presently isolated to the room in which the formation core is present because they are facing the chill. It is nothing as intense as what I am facing but it is there.


    The formation core is storing mana of the water and earth elements. It is able to displace the mana of the ice element to a certain degree. It is not much due to the efficiency of the mana core but even a one percent reduction in ice mana will help.


    On top of that, the location that I have picked to keep my formation core is the deepest basement that I could find in this place. It was supposed to be a storage room storing the rations of the soldiers.


    Most of those rations have now been removed to hold the formation core and me when I am working. It is actually pretty roomy, all things considered.


    Regardless, All of this means that right now it is one of the most secure rooms in the fort. Having them recover there ensures the safety of the soldiers too. We can''t really spare any soldiers right now to protect them anyways.


    It would be bad form if an icebeast managed to enter into the fort and kill our injured soldiers while they are recovering.


    Well, there is nothing really for them to recover from. They do not have any mana base to pull from to resist the chill. This also means that they cannot push out the chill like I can.


    Pushing out the chill is actually quite simple in theory. All you have to do is cycle your mana at its full power. The force of the mana circulating in your body will be enough to push out the external ice mana that is the root of the problem. Once that happens, things will return to normal. The only problem is that the chill is like a leaking boat. There is constant inflow of ice mana from the world outside that has to be removed as well.


    Naturally, the soldiers cannot really rely on meditation to do that. they are not mages to actively control their mana. Instead, they are trying to push out the mana naturally. Every person has a layer of vital mana that protects them. This mana circulates naturally and is able to push out ice mana too. It will be much slower but that is all these soldiers have.


    Even right now the only thing that can be done to help them is to cover them in coats and place them near the formation core. Until I can inscribe the final class eight spell into the formation I also do not have much that I can do to help these guys. Once that happens, all the mana in the formation core will come out forming a mana cycle. Once that occurs, the concentration of ice mana in this place will reduce drastically.


    Right now though these soldiers are quite safe. Their chill is not as intense as mine. I would say the ice mana that they have is about a thousandth of mine. Right now their chill is basically equivalent to a bad cold.


    The only risk that they are facing is that this chill could get even worse. It could happen naturally due to the flow of ice mana from the outside. It could happen due to an attack from the enemy. That is why these soldiers are not fighting now. As for how that impacts the troop that only Shamon will be able to tell.


    As for why I have yet to deal with the chill myself is due to the fact that I simply did not have enough time for it. Immediately after starting on the formation base, I had to start work on the water spear formation. That took me almost half a week to complete. With the enemy ready to attack at any moment that was quite the nervewracking week.


    The enemy did begin their attack roughly two days before the spell was inscribed but it was only the probe attacks I described till now which Shamon managed quite effectively. After that I have been constantly scanning the battlefield to keep out an eye for the enemy troop leaders. So naturally I had no time to push out the chill.


    On top of that pushing out the chill is a very slow process, taking anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. I would have to spend all of that time in meditation, completely cut off from the world. I will not be able to join the battlefield the instant that the enemy makes their move. When the enemy is already outnumbering me that is a benefit that I cannot give them. Also, the iron skin is no miracle worker.


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    It might be able to survive quite a few attacks from the enemy but if four or five troop leaders were attacking it simultaneously I am certain that they will bring down the entire thing quite easily. They might even end up requiring a single attack to do this. (This is a very untested formation.) If I had a couple of months for the iron skin to set in properly things would be quite different. There is no reason to give the enemy a reason to attack the wall.


    Yeah, I guess I should mention that we do not actually know how many enemy troop leaders there are. The probe attacks and the beasts following up after that are not particularly numerous, maybe somewhere closer to fifty. We do know that there are more than one because the enemy has made two separate bases, one to the west and one to the north.


    Shamon thinks that at the very least four troops are attacking us. He estimates that these troops would be at most six. Any more than that and the nobles present in the frozen peak would be tempted to swing by here. Then I do not even need to worry about the things going on here.


    It is not like I am worrying too much about it even now. All of that has been Shamon. Shamon has been quite exemplary in the management of the troop. He has a very clear idea on the battlefield, sending troops to reinforce vulnerable spots. If any attack does happen, he manages to send reinforcements in a couple of minutes at most.


    the man has managed to setup a system in which the soldiers split their day into three tasks. One third will manage the task of patrolling and the task of sending commands from Shamon to the rest of the group. The next one third will rest but will have to be ready to enter into a fight when commanded and and the last one third will have to sleep and rest.


    The soldiers are maintaining these schedules quite perfectly as well. I wonder what type of training these soldiers had to go through to achieve such a discipline. It is actually pretty rare to find such disciplined soldiers.


    Even with this the soldiers are not getting much rest. The intensity of the attacks of the icebeasts has certainly kept on growing. Before they used to attempt their probe once every hour. Now they are doing it once every fourty five minutes. It is just going to get worse.


    As for what I am doing to help out in this mess. That would be nothing. I could help out the soldiers and kill the icebeasts ten at a time. Still, that won''t be enough to really help out the soldiers. The enemies number in the hundreds after all.


    On top of all that I will have to risk being injected with more ice mana fighting these pests. Maybe a single strike won''t hurt me but such methods of fighting tend to cause injuries to accumulate. Even if I do not get injured all it will end up doing is waste my mana.


    I certainly am going to be needing all of my mana if I want to survive the fight with the troop leaders. After all, my present situation was caused by a bite from one of these creatures. Granted this time I will not be fighting them from such a close range. I will be on the wall, throwing water spears at them. Meanwhile they will be throwing bolts of ice mana at me. They could also throw it at the wall. I am hoping that the iron skin will dissuade them from doing that.


    Well, I will be frank with you it is kind of embarrassing that I got injured like this. Close range combat was one of the things that I have been trained the most on. Granted ever since I came under my master, fighting has been rare. Still, I have at least seven methods of killing the creatures without taking any hits. With my sword, you could make it a dozen.


    Well, with my sword it would have been an impossibility to get injured like this in the first place. My sword is halfway across the continent safely in the hands of my master. Even if I completed the journey I would not be able to get it from my master''s hand. The bastard finds the cruelest things to do sometimes.


    Anyway, back to the situation at hand. I absolutely cannot get hit. This time, it might be enough to tip the ice mana in me beyond the tipping point. If the ice mana entering my body were to go beyond my ability to push it out then I will be in a pretty similar situation as to the soldiers that are resting in the room below.


    Well, I would be in a worser position because I would have to keep meditating to make sure that I do not become a sculpture of ice. (Well, it will slow down the process at the very least.) The soldiers at the very least are able to move around even if that area is a single room.


    If I did become a sculpture, every person in this fort is going to die. That means all of their lives have suddenly become my responsibility. Well, thinking too much about it is the best way for me to enter into a spiral of anxiety. The best thing that I can do now would be to just relax and do something else.


    Fuck, I can''t even do that because the damn chill is freezing me from the inside out. All I can do now is to wait for the enemy to make a move while I sit here feeling like I am sitting on needles of ice and hope that they do not manage to screw me up even worse than I already am.


    Well, I will do my next log whenever these damn creatures strike next.

 the first attack (log 017)

    Well, I almost end up not noticing the attack of the troop leaders. You cannot really blame me for this now. The creatures appear almost the same as the ambient mana of this region. Even with my pretty sensitive mana sense the creatures just seem to dissolve into the background whenever they are not actively using their abilities.


    Still, if I had maintained a better vigil then I would have detected them much earlier. Well, it is not like the creatures have really caught me off guard. It is just that they have managed to get in a couple shots at the wall in the time that it took me to reach their location. Today I will be able to give a demonstration of formation control.


    Without this skill, I would not even be able to use this formation. the skill allows me to control a formation even when it is incomplete. The only method of controlling a formation other than this is the control stick and the control stick cannot be used unless the class eight spell has been inscribed into the formation.


    Reaching the wall, I do not activate the formation. It would certainly buy me a few precious moments but the problem is that the formation base was not meant to be used only to power a single spell and it is not designed to be activated in short bursts like this. Activating it once means that I will have to spend the next couple of days shutting it down.


    It would mean that I will be losing a majority of the mana that has been stored in the core in the end. It is not much of a problem now but it eventually is going to be. I can''t use it unless I confirm the beasts are actually there. Such a waste of mana cannot be done lightly.


    To return back to the creatures, now that I am looking at them directly it is easy to differentiate them. Right now there are four troop leaders standing here. The only difference that these creatures have to their underlings is that they are much larger than the usual ice beast.


    I would say one of these creatures is at least double the size of the usual ice beast. they seem to be manipulating the external mana to power some kind of spell. I can''t allow them to do that. Letting them attack the wall was already a failure.


    The moment that I step on the wall though they try to shoot what I can only call orbs of ice mana at me, the only problem being that their aim sucks. The goal of this ice ball is clearly not to cause physical damage but to cause its victims to freeze.


    I have the advantage of a wall on my side. The ice beasts and their powers are more suited to fighting on the vast open plains of the northern wastelands. If they were to climb to the wall, they would be fighting in an environment as favorable to me as it can get here. While the normal grunt ice wolves do not seem to realize this, the troop leaders are certainly smarter than that.


    That is why there is little to no chance that these creatures are going to be climbing the wall.


    Well, I begin to condense strings of mana which go deep into the fortress in search of the formation core. The instant that the strings find the core, suddenly it feels like my eyes have opened up. Honestly, it feels as if I have suddenly grown a third limb. It is such a freeing sensation that I feel like I can do anything. That is a dangerous feeling though. Most formations end up destroyed because it was pushed beyond its limit.


    I activate the water spear formation, which begins to take in the mana from the formation base. I can feel the mana being taken, passing into the rune and converting into a water spear. All of this is happening in moments as the central formation fully awakens, which the enemy can also feel. They are already raising their shields, though I am faster.


    Right now there is no way for me to use these spears other than throw them. Most projectile formations tend to be self sufficient. That is, using them is kind of like directing a troop of archers. Tell the formation where to strike and it will strike the target. This formation of mine provides me only with the spears. I will have to figure out a method of shooting these using other spells or my own two arms.


    The major benefit of this is I do not need to inscribe all of the runes that such a formation would have. (For aiming, shooting, control and much more.) I still need to create a specialized quiver to hold them, though that is a work for later.


    The fully formed water spear pops into my arm like a ghost. I can see the entire process of the spear manifesting in my arm. The best way to describe it would be that it was literally weaved into existence. Not giving the creature even a moment I throw the spear at it.


    I almost succeed in killing it instantly, but the creature''s half-formed shield while not strong enough to block the magic, knocked it off course. What should have hit the enemy''s heart hit its guts.


    The remaining ice beasts make use of this time to launch their spells at me. Naturally, those spells do not hit me as I jump to the side where three ice balls hit the place where I was just standing. Looks like I am not the only one trying to trick my enemies, as the ice balls have essentially frozen the spot that I was just standing in. They were clearly holding back before.


    I can feel the chill in my body grow restless as if the proximity to this much ice mana is giving it strength.(well, those ice balls are made up of ice mana compressed quite a few times so there might be an element of truth there.) Okay, I have seriously underestimated the deadliness of the chill. I do not have time to think as another set of ice balls fly in my direction. Too late to dodge, which means that the only way to block the strike would be to shoot a water spear at it.


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    My aim is true as three water spears leave my hands and deviate the spell from its path. Well, the fact that it can do even this is amazing. What I am doing is the equivalent of fighting a shark in the ocean. anyway, I can feel another water spear form, which I throw at another of the ice beasts. The beast uses its ranged attack to block that strike.


    I can see the troop leaders retreat taking the victim of my first strike with it. A bit more time and the creatures will pass the range of my throw. At the moment I am left with a dilemma. The retreating of the leaders can be considered to be an achievement but I certainly will not get another opportunity to hurt them like this.


    They are already aware of the strength of the spear after all. I can push them now and hope to get rid of the injured creature before they can complete their retreat. With the chill, this is going to be a bit of a gamble but this seems like a season of gambles for me.


    Not thinking too much, I jump down the wall. I begin to cycle all of the mana in my core along with siphoning a little of the mana from the formation, at least the little that I dare to channel into me. (Well, it is something that can killed you if you do it wrong.) Let''s hope that will be enough to counteract the chill. At the same time, I am running the formation to keep producing water spears.


    While all of that is happening, the beasts have reacted to my action by sending a leader to act as a distraction. I could try and chase after the injured one but even if I reach it, it is unlikely for me to kill it with two leaders acting as its guards anyway. It will also leave me quite vulnerable to the cannon fodder leader. My back will be to him.


    Preparing a water spear, the cannon fodder leader has already reached me as it tries to force me into a melee. I can sense the ice mana in this creature''s body gathering around its claws, strengthening it. I almost am not able to react as the creature seems to have teleported to my side.


    Thankfully, on instinct, I hit the creature in its snout, causing it to retreat, though what damage I might have done I don''t know. Well, in my present situation, I am missing my old formations which would have given me quite the edge in this situation. At the moment I feel like cursing at the old bastard.


    How in the hells is this teaching me, he is fucking getting me killed. (well, I had forgotten that I was in the middle of a battlefield at the moment) Due to all of these thoughts, I am almost struck by the creature''s claws. It is only twisting my body away from its claws that has managed to protect me. I am knocked off my feet though as the creature tackles me to the ground.


    After that, I am stuck in an embarrassing tumble to the ground, in which I am trying to fight the chill which seems to have intensified, the creature that is trying to get a bite into me and the perspective shift from being tackled to the ground. In that period at the very least, I had not gotten bitten by the creature. I cannot even imagine what would have happened to me if I did get bit again.


    It must have been adrenaline or something as I literally pluck the creature and throw it away from me. I can feel my body shivering, but there is little that I can do about that. Regardless, I can sense the creature standing just a bit away from me, gauging out what move I want to make. Good, because I need this time to reorient myself. I enter into a defensive stance preparing for an attack.


    Well, manifesting a water spear at this distance there will be a lag, a time in which the enemy can strike me quite easily. For now, I think that the wisest move I can make (of which I have been not making many) would be to distract the creature somehow before I end up dying and ambushing it with a water spear.


    Well, firstly I begin by manifesting a water spear. Thankfully, the other side does not seem to have noticed it, as I charge at the beast. Naturally, the beast focuses on the threat that it can notice which is me. (Splitting focus like this is quite risky.)


    Well, at this close range, there is little I can do to keep the enemy at bay other than to block the enemy charge by focusing all of the mana into my arms. That is what I do, as I duck dodging the beast''s mouth, but before I can retreat I am struck by the creature''s claws.


    I can feel the chill in my body grow stronger. Thankfully, in this period the water spear has manifested, delayed due to me splitting my focus on trying to keep this one in range. That is going to be a problem with this formation.


    The spear hits true to its aim or at the very least it would have if the opposite side did not suddenly jump back, nearly dodging the water spear. The water spear does hit the creature but it is a peripheral hit not even enough to keep the beast from running.


    The creature''s plan has succeeded. It was attempting to distract me so that its allies could retreat from the range of the water spear. While I was focussing on the creature, it was making sure that I did not throw any more water spears at its escaping ally. Now, the ally has disappeared from the range of my water spears, so the creature has also disappeared.


    Well, it has been a victory regardless of what my present state suggests. I am screwed but I have won this particular fight at the very least.


    I have to focus on dealing with the chill and healing myself though, one of these days. No formation is worth a claw to the throat.


    Limping, which I am sure is going to hurt like hell as I return to base, well, when the hell did I even get hit that it is paining there? Well, I am going to have a miserable couple of days to say it simply. Fuck it, I cannot maintain this record anymore.

 the quiver and the ballista (log 018)

    One of the major problems with the water spear is just how volatile it tends to be. After about five minutes in the open the spear will begin to grow unstable and its shape will be lost. After about half an hour the mana in the spear will begin to dissipate. Within a hour nobody will even be able to tell that there was a spear here. Even the mana will be lost to the world.


    The only way that a water spear can be stored is with a corresponding spell to keep it stable. That spell, is called as the quiver spell. The spell creates something akin to a storage location like how the formation base did with the formation core. Only here, the storage location will be mobile. I will be able to change its location whenever I want to. Any water spear stored in this location will retain its stability until it is brought out of that area.


    Right now that is the thing that I have to focus on inscribing. If possible, I wanted to have the quiver formation built before I had to activate the formation base. That would have saved so much of the mana that has gone to a waste now. Shutting the formation base took quite a while. I would say that almost a majority of the saved mana has already bled away dispersing into the area that is surrounding it. The only thing that is still safe would be the iron mana which is safely bound to the fort in the form of iron skin.


    The other two types of mana are at a critically low level. This is especially true with the water mana. For a few days I was not even sure if I had enough mana to make even a single water spear. At least I do not have that worry anymore.


    It won''t take too long to recharge the formation base (maybe a week or two) but it is still wasted mana. that is another problem with this formation you see. Once I inscribe the class eight formation it is going to be taking quite a bit of mana for it to activate. I would estimate it to be roughly ten times my mana capacity. I could activate it if I were to fill it with every single bit of my mana for ten days. That would even include the mana that I have to use to protect myself from the chill. I would literally become a statue before I end up supplying enough mana to the thing. A more stable method would end up taking thirty days for me.


    Well, this is a problem with all formations that run continuously. it takes a lot of mana to start such formations. Thankfully, I don''t have to act as the mana source for this formation. I don''t even want to imagine what being without mana in this hellhole will feel like.


    Other than the work that I am doing to prepare for inscribing the quiver formation, I have been observing Shamon doing his work. The man has been quite busy since the last week. The icebeasts have given up on their surprise attacks. Now they are attacking us with their full force. Three hundred and twenty beasts have been assaulting the fort in waves.


    They attack us like a horde, in a mostly formless manner. I am not able to predict the actions of these creatures at all. they appear like a horde attacking from everywhere. (it seems like it at the very least.) This continues on for most of the day with creatures trying to breach the fort in various positions. It is like fighting a octopus with a hundred limbs. The creatures never attack a single location too. If they feel like they are not succeeding in a single location, they immediately shift to another location.


    I am surprised that the beasts are even able to maintain this. It takes a certain kind of organisation for an army to be able to attack like this. If I were to try this on my own, the icebeasts would be tripping on each other completely destroying any momentum that the creatures would have instead of smoothly shifting to another location. The result of that would be the complete annhilation of the creatures.


    Well, whoever or whatever is leading the enemy forces is pretty good at it. I at the very least am not able to notice any major mistake that could be exploited. Granted I am no strategist. Even in the legion they passed over me many times for the leadership positions. Well, regardless of how skilled the enemy seems to be, Shamon seems to be better at this.


    Even with a third of the enemies numbers, the man has been giving a equal fight to the beasts. Granted we have the wall which the creatures are not able to climb.


    Well, technically speaking they can climb the wall by literally digging their claws into the wall. By the time they did so they would end exhausting their ability to control mana. (Even the ice beasts have their limits to controlling external mana.) Then all it will take is one push to throw them to the ground where they will most likely fall to their death. Before that though these creatures are more than capable of taking lives.


    With the strengthening that is provided by the iron skin the wall is holding its own at least. There are more than a few spots where the enemy has damaged the wall. Still, the wall is nowhere near to a collapse.


    As for what is Shamon''s strategy, I have lost track of it a week ago. The only thing I can tell is that the man seems to be ordering the soldiers on the fly. There has been a constant stream of orders that the man has been giving, redirecting the soldiers to different positions.


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    As for the strategy of the beasts, that is more obvious at the very least. They just want to maintain pressure on us. Their attacks are meant to keep us on edge until we make a fatal mistake. Then they bring us down like a crazy beast. They are clearly being used as pawns by their masters, most likely to keep us busy.


    Well, whatever Shamon has been doing has been very successful. He has yet to make any mistake. There have been no major losses and the enemy soldiers have certainly been facing more losses than ours. There have been losses on our side too, mainly three deaths and seven injuries infected with the chill.


    At least in this matter the mana that has leaked from the mana core has helped us out. All that mana will disperse in a couple of days, but for now it is helping insulate the soldiers from the chill.


    Once it dissipates though, things are going to be much worse here. All the injured soldiers are essentially useless until they can recover from it.


    The morale in the fort is pretty bad if I am to be honest. The soldiers are professional enough that they don''t let it affect their actions too much, but it is starting to creep in. Well, I think that I can help out on this front at the very least.


    Building formations has always been the best way to boost the morale of a fort.


    While I am certainly not completing any today, they should at the very least feel like some progress is happening. I should be able to give that feeling at the very least with the quiver. Other than this I cannot think of anything else that will be able to boost the morale of the soldiers.


    I won''t be helping them beyond that though, either in strategy or physically. After all, what is the use of good morale if it means that the enemy is going to slaughter every single one of you. I have a primary task here after all. I have to take care of the troop leaders or regardless of how skillfully and brilliantly shamon does his work the only end will be death. They might be able to kill a leader if they were to isolate it from its troop but it would kill too many soldiers for it to be a viable strategy.


    The four troop leaders have not been present on the battlefield ever since the previous fight so that is a good thing at the very least. All they have been doing is circle the edges of my formation directing their soldiers. Until they make a move things are going to be like this.


    Right now the hope is that I will be able to complete the ballista before they attack. The ballista is a combination of two spells, an earth spell which will conjure the body of the ballista and a water spell which will act as the string of the ballista. Once I have inscribed these two spells, I will be able to launch the spears at the enemy rather than throw it at them. With the ballista I will be able to fight them off quite easily.


    Even with the quiver and a steady supply of spears I can''t be sure as to how effective it will be in the battlefield. After all, having more spears won''t mean anything if I don''t get to shoot it. That is why I will have to get started on the ballista immediately after the quiver.


    This is about the hardest part in the crafting of this formation. Conjuration spells by their very nature need to be very precise. most humans take years and decades to be able to craft conjuration spells exactly as they want it. to do it with a formation is even more harder. All runes need to be precise or the best case scenario would be the formation exploding in your face.


    All of that is assuming that the enemy will be giving me time to protect myself. I am surprised that I am even being given so much leeway


    Normally, these creatures could harass me by consistently attacking me.(That is what would have happened down south.) As long as they do not give me the time to inscribe.


    The fort is the ultimate target. If the enemy causes enough damage to it, all they would then need to do is to send their underlings. Without the wall, even I will be able to do little to protect myself against the literal horde of beasts that we are facing.


    It will just take twenty of the grunts to crush me. Well, thinking all of these thoughts is just causing me to enter into a panic. All I can do is to focus on my work. Anything beyond this is out of my control.


    On to more positive news, I have finally managed to begin work on expelling the chill. Even now I can feel the insidious chill wax and wane like the moon. It is not being expelled as quickly as I would have liked it to be but it has certainly gotten more easy to manage.


    To remove the chill properly would require me to enter into meditation and that is still not an option at this moment. While I have grown powerful enough with the water spear not to worry about a sudden strike from the enemy, I still have not grown strong enough that I can completely relax.


    Even now if they were to attack suddenly I will have to be there within a couple of minutes or they will gain the ideal opportunity to attack the base. They still will be able to bring down the wall if they were to focus their attacks for a while. If before it would have taken two or three minutes, now it will take five to seven minutes. Well, complaining doesn''t really help me achieve anything. It is about time that I got back to work again.

 musing in the middle of a battle (log 019)

    The troop leaders are at the moment hiding in the battlefield. If it was any other time I would be throwing spears at them already, but there must be a reason these creatures are taking such a risk and I need to know their reason.


    Right now the beasts are trying to hide in a group of their underlings. If shamon had not warned me of this particular tactic of theirs it would be easy for the troop leaders to sneak in like this. I might have been actually fooled by the creatures too if I did not keep a very keen eye out for them. I have no desire of repeating my mistakes.


    The creatures have managed to suppress their mana outputs to an absurd degree. The reason that I actually managed to detect them is that their mana output is actually lesser than the mana that the ice beasts that they are using to hide themselves with. They also seem to have shrunk in size making them only a bit larger than their soldiers. The size is enough for them to be mistaken as their soldiers if nobody was keeping a keen eye out for them. Such a method must certainly be quite damaging to the creatures. I wouldn''t be surprised if the creatures end up dead by the end of the next year.


    As for why we are waiting to attack them is mainly to figure out what exactly these beasts were attempting to do. I am studying them at the same time trying to figure out what exactly the creatures are. Something tells me that these troop leaders are not the only ones that I will be facing. I don''t know how but the creatures are being compelled by their masters to attack us. (Any kind of magical method of ensuring obedience will simply not work this faraway.)


    Now when I am relatively in control of the situation would be the ideal time to study them. Maybe if I figure out how exactly they are being compelled to attack me, I could manipulate it to my benefit.


    They must be planning to attack me somehow. I cannot explain their behaviour with anything else. The creatures have been sneaking into the battlefield for the last couple of days. First they would dip into the battlefield cautiously, ready to escape in an instant. Then they began to make their way closer to the fort. Now, they are almost a part of the group that is reaching the wall and trying to breach it. Whatever they are planning they are very careful of me and my mana sense.


    Thanfully they overestimated my mana sense. Otherwise, if they were to attack me the instant that they made it into the battlefield I might have been actually ambushed by them. I don''t even want to imagine being attacked by them without my mana shielding me.


    That is why I am not able to figure out what they are planning. What they are doing is just decreasing their chance of harming me. Instead, what they are attempting to do seems to be more like they are trying to study me, though shamon argues that the creatures are too dumb for such a thing to be possible. After all, I have been quite active on the walls for the last couple of days and it feels like they have been trying to enter into the fort since then.


    I have not been doing much, just using the mana in my core to attack a few of the creatures that had managed to breach the wall of this place. The attacks are only strong enough to push the creatures out of the wall. The reason for this is that I have been careful in making sure that the enemy beasts would not be able to track my mana. Well, it looks like I have not been particularly successful at this as I would have hoped to be based on the way that the beasts have been trying to infiltrate this place.


    Well, I guess that I should have not been on the wall at all. It is not like my presence would have helped the soldiers here much. All I can really claim to have done in the last couple of days is to boost the morale of the soldiers. I can''t even claim to have been very good at that as well. After all, two more soldiers have died yesterday.


    They were two of the soldiers that were infected with the chill. I could have done little to help them anyways. The morale has become heavy enough that it has begun to affect the performance of the soldiers.


    That is part of the reason why I am suddenly helping out the soldiers after staying out of their way for so long. It is also due to the fact that I have managed to push out all of the chill in my body finally. It was a grueling process to say the least. If I was in meditation at the very least I would not have felt this process so viscerally, but I dared not enter into meditation.


    Without meditation, I could feel every bit of the ice mana in my body being pulled out. All I will speak about the process is just how fucking cold the process was. If before with the chill I felt as if I was sitting on a block of ice, now it felt like ice is flowing in my blood. Still, with every cycle of my vital mana I could feel the ice mana being pulled out of me.


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    That is why I am not working on my formations at this moment. I guess that I could work on the ballista but right now my mind is too exhausted to even consider working on it. All of the runes will just collapse even if I were to work now. Better to do it after relaxing my mind. That would certainly not be happening if I were to stay cooped up in the formation room, with the four walls and the injured soldiers who could die at any moment as my only company.


    The death of the two soldiers have been particularly demotivating, since I did not manage to do anything that might have helped them out in the situation. I was awake when the soldiers were discovered. They had gone completely blue and still. So still that the soldiers next to them had gone to check what was happening. Just yesterday these soldiers were fine. I would go so far as to say that they were hearty even.


    To seem them fall like a corpse like that when I could see them so fine yesterday has affected me in a way that I do not understand. Let''s just say that at this moment it is not only the soldiers who are suffering from a case of low morale. Still, I don''t know how long I can stay away from that room. Delaying my work like this is dangerous.


    Well, speaking of the formation room reminds me, that I had managed to complete the quiver formation about half a week ago as well. Completing the formation did not release as much mana as I would have expected it to release. I don''t know if I should feel happy or sad about that. The fact that barely any mana was released is proof that I had managed to inscribe it in the formation core almost perfectly.


    Regardless, being active on the battlefield has certainly been more than helpful to me. People tend to forget that even formation mages tend to be humans. It is quite hard for us to spend days and weeks in a single location trying to craft the runes that we are trying to inscribe into a formation. I was literally going crazy down there.


    Well, it is not all bad news. The organisation of the ice beasts has begun to falter finally. There are holes that are being formed in the creatures ranks during the assault that shamon has been using to cut through the enemy numbers. (Not much, but at least five of these creatures die in every encounter.) I have to admit that I have not been particularly skilled at finding all of these flaws myself. I do recognise a few but I certainly would not have been able to exploit them if I were in command.


    Part of the reason for this I have to assume is the fact that nobody is present among these beasts to lead them. Before the troop leaders would always be present at the edge of the battlefield leading these creatures. Now they are hidden among the rank and file. (How they expected to hide their presence when their absence would have such a obvious affect I don''t know.)


    With that, I have completed much of my report today. The only thing that I have left is what I have learnt from shamon and his bunch of soldiers (people tend to forget that a mage has ears. One that can hear much of what you are speaking even if you are whispering across the room). I guess that I should begin to talk about the general situation that we are in. Most of what I have learnt has come from shamon who is nothing more than a farmer that has become a soldier here. He knows more than the average soldier but he is still a soldier. Much of what he knows, he has learnt from the stories and boasts of his superiors. (Some things do not change with the nobles anywhere.)


    The enemy that the snowwinders are facing are also called as the snow tribe. Most of the tales that shamon has heard is about the snowlords but there are stories about the tribe themselves as well.


    Based on what I have heard, the snow tribe is a tribe of blood thirsty humans each with the ability to survive in the northern wastelands with just their bare flesh. The creatures are supposed to come from beyond the wastelands as well.


    There is very little that is known about this land, other than the fact that the mana that is flowing here is supposed to be so chaotic and so deadly that it makes the chill look like a party trick in comparison. As for the reason that they make their yearly raids down south, I would assume it is for resources. (Well, shamon claims that it is for the blood of the warmblooded soldiers but the man himself speaks of it with such disbelief that it is kind of funny.)


    The snowlords and their hordes are supposed to be the main vanguard of the snow tribe. The snow lords are supposed to be masters of manipulating the mana of this land. This is to a point where shamon claims that they are stormbringers. Most of the snowstorms of this season are also the fault of the snowlords at least according to the soldiers.


    Other than that, the snowlord are supposed to have bodies that are equivalent to iron. As for the degree of this, I have heard a tale where an arrow shot into the eye of the snowlord got deformed after hitting his eye. The snowlord was even supposed to be unharmed after this. Well, features like this do tend to get quite exaggerated.


    What else, what else. Yeah, the snowlord is able to look through the eyes of their troops leaders. They also are supposed to be able to command these creatures remotely. Some of the soldiers even claim that the snowlords are able to forcefully possess the body of their creatures as well.


    While it does seem like a tall tale, I have to admit that possession would certainly explain quite a few things.


    Most of what I have heard comes from soldiers that have heard this stories from soldiers that are either boasting their success or justifying their failure. The truth tends to get twisted quite the bit in either case.


    Well, I am getting tired of maintaining this record. I will send in the next record when the damn beasts actually end up attacking. Until then, the only thing that I will really have are complains which will end up benefiting nobody, not even me.

 the second attack (log 020.1)

    Right now I have a water spear in my hand. I am preparing to throw it while explaining to the man next to me why I cannot manifest spears to my hands like I could the last time the formation was active.


    ¡°Shamon, I would appreciate if you were standing a bit farther away from me.¡°, I begin to speak. ¡°As for your previous question, the water spear formation has to have a location at which it will be able to manifest the spear. It does this with the help of a rune which presents it in the correct location. Before the rune was aimed at my hand, now it is aimed at my quiver. I cannot just keep changing the rune so flippantly.¡°


    ¡°Why can''t you repeat that then, captain.¡°, shamon begins, trying to cut me off. ¡°It would be wise that you have some way of protecting yourself when you get close to the enemy.¡°


    ¡°Well, with the quiver there is no reason to do that. I could do as you say and I would lose out on more spears that I could use. I can hold only so many spears.¡°, I reply to the man as I aim the spear. ¡°Anyway, it  is not like I will try and fight these creatures from the ground again.¡°


    Returning to the target, I have three targets to choose from. The troop leaders are attacking from the north, East and the west. Each is targetting the wall. Well, all three of them are doing pretty equal damage to the wall so I can strike anybody. It is not like being split apart like this they will be able to damage the wall significantly.


    I target the one that is closest to me. Throwing spears is something that I have learnt very long ago, so I have to admit that I am pretty rusty. Well it is not like I need to aim them anyways. The goal is to grant the spears with enough force that they can fly at the target. I can aim using formation control.


    Well, I finally decide on my target as I throw my spear into the air. The beast in the east is the closest so that is where my spear travels. this spear is much faster than the one that I threw the last time. It still is not fast enough to actually hit the creature.


    The spear punches into the ground right next to where it was a couple of moments ago. If only the creature was not moving about so much. Well, I do not get long to regret it as I grasp the next spear from the quiver. The creature was prevented from gathering mana to strike at the wall. Right now that is enough for me.


    Now how am I supposed to describe the quiver. The best description that I can think for it is that it is a hole in the iron skin. Inside the hole are all the water spears that are being produced by the formation. There are not many water spears, only a hundred or so. I have been using the spears almost as quickly as they are being produced especially with this attack.


    Well, Calling the quiver a hole in the ground would be wrong. The quiver is a formation that makes use of iron skin as the base to build on top of which is the quiver. It can be placed anywhere the iron skin exists. I would have to make sure that you know that this is not a spatial formation. such a formation would be class six at the very least.


    Water spears are constructs of water mana, so it would be accurate to claim that right now they are being stored in the iron skin. The iron skin is ensuring that the water mana present in the spear is not dissipating.


    Regardless of how the quiver works and looks like, I grasp another spear from it and aim it. (grasp would be the wrong word. It would be more accurate to call it willed to my hand.) not that I need to but it still takes mana to redirect the spear and it wastes time on top of that. I already give them too much time to react to my spear. If I manage to kill one of them, dealing with the remaining would certainly get much easier.


    I am right now standing in the tallest tower of this fort roughly equidistant from all the walls. It is a watch tower that is meant to keep a lookout for the enemy. It is not useful, since these creatures are almost impossible to notice in this white plain. I have retrofitted the place to act as the launch station for my ballista whenever I build it.


    Since I have yet to inscribe the spells related to the ballista, right now the place has only my quiver. Instead of the ballista I am taking over the work of launching the spears. It is not a perfect system but it is working for now.


    As I am speaking, I have launched three more spears each targetting a different beast. Only one of those spears is a success as it grazes the leg of one of the creatures. It is not a heavy injury but these injuries tend to accumulate.


    With the quiver formation, at the very least the water mana is not going to a waste. Every few moments the elemental node grants enough mana to make a water spear. That is enough for me to throw a water spear every ten seconds or so. The earth mana is still going to a waste though.


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    Due to the water spear, I have managed to fight off the creatures even when they are split up like this. As for why they have decided to suddenly attack this morning, that is something that only the beasts will be able to tell. Maybe they didn''t find the ideal time to ambush me and were growing impatient. According to shamon it is an old strategy of theirs.


    The creatures like to sneak into the fortress and assassinate the leader. This is to a point that when the creatures began to sneak closer to the wall, he ended up assigning a five men team to guard me while I am sleeping. It is a creepy experience to have people stare at you while you are sleeping.


    Maybe the patrol worked or my mana sense scared the beasts aways, they did not attempt anything like that. Well, I don''t dare to think much about it, but things are going pretty well. The troop leaders are only a threat to the wall when they are separated like this but I have managed to tie them down with the water spears.


    With an elemental node powering the formation, it can run almost indefinitely so there is not threat of running out as well. The only threat that we are facing is the threat of the troop itself. That reminds me I had to actually ask the man why that was so.


    ¡°Shamon, I would assume that at the moment that you should be down below commanding the soldiers. Why are you up here?¡°, I ask the man.


    ¡°Well, captain. I am trying to figure out what the creatures are trying to do.¡°, he speaks. ¡°Anyway, with the troop leaders entering into the fray, the creatures are not going to be giving us any surprises.¡°


    ¡°Still, wouldn''t it be wiser to just be down there?¡°, I ask.


    ¡°I guess, but this place does present the best vantage. Not everybody has the same sight as you, captain.¡°, the man speaks. ¡°Right now, I want to know why the troop leaders are joing into the fray.¡°


    ¡°Well, isn''t that obvious Shamon. The water spear would be able to decimate the enemy forces.¡°, I reply.


    ¡°I wouldn''t be so sure captain. You would be able to take out ten, maybe twenty but the creatures are not fools. They would be able to dodge those strikes quite easily.¡°, he replies. ¡°I would say two to three of yours bolts will manage to take out one of theirs. They are creatures of very accurate instincts.¡°


    ¡°Wouldn''t it be easier to strike them. I will have literally have hundreds of targets to aim at.¡°, I speak, pointing at the obvious.


    ¡°It would be more accurate to say that you have a hundred locations to strike, captain. If you were to try and hit all of them, it would take hours. They could boost their shields and barely survive that strike too so even a hit isn''t guaranteed to kill them.¡°, he replies. ¡°You could try and focus on one icebeast, but that is just telling the creature to prepare to dodge. They might not be the smartest creatures, but they have very good instincts.¡°


    ¡°So all in all, you tell me that this formation won''t work against the troop. How in the hells is it that I have managed to hold the troop leaders if they are so good at dodging it? They would be better at dodging, wouldn''t they?¡°, I ask the man.


    ¡°Are you completely sure that you are the one tying them down. From where I am standing it appears to be the opposite.¡°, he answers, entering into contemplation. ¡°they are holding you down, though I can''t figure out the reason for it. Unless they have something up their sleeves ultimately they will end up facing serious losses. If not among the leaders, then among the underlings.¡°


    I consider things from his perspective for a few moments. I begin to understand his dillema.


    ¡°Do you think that the enemies are getting any reinforcements, then? That would be the only thing that would be worth such a tactic.¡°, I ask the man.


    ¡°Well, it won''t be a troop at the very least. I am surprised that we don''t have bounty hunters here already.¡°, he replies. ¡°even one more troop would be enough for that nobles to come, I am sure. At least until the hunt ends there won''t be anymore troops.¡°


    ¡°Then for what are they waiting for then, a snowlord?¡°, I ask.


    ¡°That is even more unlikely. The commander or his direct underlings will end up here if that occurs. Regardless, a snowlord would have more direct signs of his presence. You would not be able to miss a snowlord. If they were hiding more troops, it would still make sense, But all of their troops are accounted for¡°, he replies. ¡°That is the problem, captain. What exactly are we supposed to be looking out for.¡°


    ¡°Well, we will figure it out when it occurs. It is not like we have been doing particularly badly.¡°, I reply. ¡°Even if another troop were here, I would not be worried.¡°


    ¡°Captain, I certainly hope for things to be that simple.¡°, replies the man. ¡°The snowlords do not like to waste their troops like this. Somehow I am finding it hard that the snowlords would approve of such waste. It is not like we are leaving anyways. They could wait for the end of the hunt quite easily. They have a plan.¡°


    ¡°Well, maybe they fear the formation growing much stronger.¡°, I reply.


    ¡°Well, do you think that you will be able to make the formation strong enough to handle a snowlord.¡°, I reply.


    ¡°Maybe if I can complete the formation. Even then I won''t be completely sure.¡°, I reply. ¡°That is going to take a lot of time. I haven''t even completed the class nine spell inscription.¡°


    ¡°Well, it could be as you say. Formations like this are quite new to us. Maybe it is the same for them.¡°, he replies.


    ¡°You don''t know if they have formation magic?¡° I ask the man, clearly surprised.


    ¡°Well, we have little idea of their magic. It is too.....¡°


    The man is not able to complete his statement as a massive spike of mana so strong that even the man in front of me can notice it. I don''t even need to activate my mana sense to look at the massive spike of ice that is penetrating into our southern wall.

 the third attack (log 020.2)

    The man next to me has taken a look of shock that is not comforting. The damage to the wall by the spike is pretty minimal based on the damage I can observe. The iron skin has been breached in only a few limited locations.


    It takes me a few moments but I realise what is going wrong here. The spike is acting like a platform allowing for the beasts to climb onto the wall. The reason that I realise it is due to the fact that the troop leaders are now all running towards that exact location.


    I could try and stop them with my spears but it won''t be fast enough to actually cause them any harm. I could only have done anything with the ballista crafted. If only I had a couple more weeks. At the very least I had no need to worry about the troops as they seem to have entered into action already, fighting and pushing off the creatures that have already made their way to the spike.


    I just stand there paralysed unsure as to what I can do. I have a thousand plans going on in my head, each more unlikely than the other. The only thing that manages to break me out of my trance is the man next to me.


    ¡°Captain, would you focus on holding back the troop leaders. No matter what happens they cannot be allowed to reach the spike.¡°, he speaks suddenly pointing at the troop leader in the east. Right now he is the closest to the spike.


    ¡°I can''t do that. The damn creatures are too fast for me to actually strike them with my spear. Even thrown at its maximum speed, the spear takes too long to actually reach them.¡°, I admit, trying to get a good angle at the creatures. It is a futile act though, with the creatures moving faster and faster.


    ¡°Captain, right now try to strike them when they are closer to the spike. They will be slowed down among their underlings.¡°, he replies, as his panicked expressions begins to morph into a calmer one. ¡°The soldiers will be able to shatter the spike as long as the only thing fighting them is the weaker ice beasts.¡°


    ¡°How exactly am I supposed to be doing that?¡°, I ask.


    ¡°Captain, wouldn''t that just end up giving you a free shot at these creatures. You wouldn''t even need to hit them fatally. Just making them fall of the spike will be enough.¡°, he replies. ¡°That is enough to kill them.¡°


    The man looks at me as if he is looking at an idiot. It is then that I realise that I am beginning to enter into a panic. We are nowhere near a truly hopeless situation. Grasping the next spear from the quiver I just hold it for a few moments. Throwing it in a hurry won''t be worth it anyways.


    I begin by cycling all of my mana into my arms. I can feel the spear grow lighter in my hands. (This is purely mental I assure you. Things made of mana weigh only as much as you believe that they should weigh.) I wait for a few moments and chuck the spear.


    Launching the spears, it is not only depending on my arm strength but it is also depending on my mana to propel it. It literally flashes like a bolt as it streaks in the sky. I redirect the shot which has traveled the sky in an instant. Before I know it the spear has enter into one of the troop leaders legs.


    The force of the strike is enough that it pins the creature to the ground. The water spear is durable enough that I don''t need to worry about the beast biting through it anytime soon.


    I don''t get to relax, as the other two beasts are already slowing down changing their direction. They are channeling their mana, clearly feeling these new spears to be a threat. These spears will not be able to do as much damage as the previous ones managed to do. The enemies are prepared for it.


    Well, I can''t easily manage a shot like that again. The main problem with it is how much longer it takes to strengthen my arm with my vital mana. Now, I will only be able to manage a shot every thirty seconds. As I have been speaking I have been charging another spear to throw at the second one.


    As I am doing this, the two icebeasts have reached the location of the trapped ice beast. Well, I can''t allow them to free up that one now can I. I throw my spear aiming it at the icebeast that is now gnawing at the ice spear stuck in the creatures legs.


    I almost succeed at catching it offguard too, if it were not for the third ice beast shooting a ice bolt at it from it''s mouth. Picking up another spear I throw it simply. This time I am aiming at the third beast. This doesn''t strike true as it hits the ground beyond them but it still manages to push the creatures into a more panicked state.


    They have finally stopped trying to help their fellow. The creature is still trying to gnaw through the spear clearly trying to freeze it and shatter it. It will happen eventually but the hope for now is that it will hold for a while at least.


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    This time, I begin to charge up a spear feeling my arm grow hotter. Strengthening yourself using mana like this tend to have limits. I am nowhere near my limit, but I can feel a dull throb in my arm. As my cycling completes I throw my spear.


    This time I am aiming at the trapped bastard. As expected it causes the two beasts to enter into a panic as they try to blow away the spear. With this, the creatures are completely focussed on protecting their third teammate. They are not particularly smart which is why I have managed to trap the creatures for now, however flimsy it is.


    ¡°The creatures cannot abandon one of their own now.¡°, he speaks, almost as if he reading my mind. ¡°Especially if they have done what I think they have done.¡°


    ¡°Care to elaborate on that.¡°, I ask the man, throwing another spear. The creature should be halfway through the spear binding it. I guess, I should switch my focus to trap another of those creatures. Not that it is likely to happen again.


    ¡°The ability of a troop leader to command his troops is something that is granted to them from their masters. They can command their troops to die and they will die.¡°, he speaks. ¡°Such a control is hard to maintain though. The troop leaders can safely command only eighty such creatures.¡°


    I have been throwing spears as the man explains. I almost get another bastard, but it is saved by its fellow at the last moment.


    ¡°The other leaders are already overburdened. They must be controlling the four troops by sharing it''s command among them.¡°, he speaks. ¡°That is why the creatures have been getting sloppier but that is how they managed to get an ice spike into the wall.¡°


    ¡°All the four troops are here, shamon and all the troop leaders.¡°, I scream. The pain in my arm has begun to throb even more. The trapped beast is already three fourth through the spear. I have to admit that I am starting to panic again.


    ¡°Well, you are not counting the missing leader, captain.¡°, he replies, his voice absurdly calm. ¡°With it''s injuries it won''t be able to pull of something like the ice spike. It will be able to lead a group of soldiers to cast this magic though. Every ice beast holds the ability to control external mana. They would be able to pull of such a strong attack if it is a group. I would assume that these are at least twenty more soldier level ice beasts. Using soldiers like this is not standard strategy at all. It takes them too long to manipulate external mana like this, even if they number in the tens or hundreds.¡°


    ¡°Let''s focus on the battle at hand before we discuss strategy. What exactly am I supposed to be doing here.¡°, I reply. ¡°I am barely holding them back as it is. I won''t be able to do this for very long. Even my charged spear won''t catch them off guard like this.¡°


    ¡°Well, you do not need to do this for very long, captain. The soldiers must be already regaining control around the spike. Once they have achieved it won''t take them long to break the spike.¡°, he replies, ¡°we have faced attacks like this quite a few times, captain. Even if they did catch me by surprise this time. We just have to make sure that no troop leader climbs that spike and we are fine.¡°


    ¡°So how long will that be taking?¡°, I ask him.


    ¡°Well, I have know way of knowing that. From this far up I am not able to see beyond a few blobs.¡° He replies.


    Fuck, that was not a reply that I wanted to hear. You see, I would be able to strengthen my mana sense using my vital mana. The only problem in the process is the amount of information that I will have to process. Let''s just say that it will lead to quite a few headaches.


    Bracing myself I do exactly that. Already I can see every bit of vital mana of the soldiers.


    They stand out like a fire in the area surrounding us. I am not able to focus on them for long. At the moment I can see all the ice mana in the region.


    It stands out like a blinding mirror, making it seem like the area is flooded with light. I can already feel my head beginning to pound. Well, I force myself to focus on the soldiers. From this far it is hard to make out, but I am sure that one of the soldiers is pounding away at the Ice spike with his sword. It could also be a hammer though that doesn''t matter. What matters is that they are breaking the damn thing.


    Stopping my mana from cycling, I can feel my head pounding. Forcing myself to think through it, I notice the damn beasts breaking through the spear. Finally the damn troop leader is free of the spear. It is still limping so that is a good thing at least. They have already begun to make their way to the spike.


    As they do so though, I can feel a plan form in my mind. Well, I check my mana first to make sure that I have enough mana to pull off what I plan. Well, I think it will be a bit less than needed, but I think that I should be able to make it work. What can I do, strengthening your body like this is pretty costly and I am not a combat mage.


    Regardless, I dip both of my hands into the quiver and hold one spear in each hand. I already begin to channel my mana into my arms. Meanwhile, the creatures have been making it to the spike. Well, by the time that I am done charging the creatures have reached it.


    The limping leader and one of the other leaders are holding camp, ready to deflect any shot. The last leader is now climbing the spike. Well, the key here is timing. I can''t mess it up or I will be screwed.


    Taking a deep breath, I wait. Shamon next to me has already entered into a panic, but I wait. Finally, the creature is in position right next to the region where the soldiers have been breaking the spike. I throw both of my spears at the creature at the same time.


    Both spears fly, reaching their targets in a few moments. The first was aimed for the creature on the spike, which the creature dodges by jumping over it. the other is aimed at the spike below it. Normally, the spear would not be strong enough to really damage the spike but the soldiers have been having at it for a while. The spear is enough to push the spike to its breaking point.


    The spike begins to crumble, as the troop leader falls on it. Its weight is enough to collapse the entire thing as the troop leader plummets to its death.

 building the ballista (log 021)

    Well, I have to admit that I am quite groggy at this moment. The last couple of days have been draining to say the least. Part of it is due to the fact that I am having to work overtime. I am trying to inscribe two spells in the formation in the time that it takes to inscribe a single spell.


    That is beginning to show its strain. I am sure that I will be able to complete it but it is going to leave behind side effects, I am sure. on top of that both of these spells are conjuration spells with magical effects.


    Conjuration spells are already very hard to inscribe. These spells have to be inscribed very precisely. If the runes are imprecise, then it can even cause the spells to backfire as well. On top of that, the conjured items are supposed to have runes of their own.


    You should try to paint a rune within a rune. It will give you a very strong understanding of just how annoying magic tends to be. Regardless, I guess I should also explain about the two runes that I am inscribing into the formation.


    The first is actually a pretty common formation at least among the druids. They call it as the "standard ballista model type: strength". They have an entire series of these spells each crafting different types of ballistas. The model that I have chosen strengthen the force with which the spear will be leaving my ballista.


    It is a pretty standard formation so I have started my work first on this. I should be able to get this spell inscribed pretty easily. The problem with this spell is that it doesn''t create a string for the balista. It only provides a body for the balista. as you can guess, I had no idea that I would be creating a new class eight formation here. Even if I did, how could I know that I would be creating this exact formation here.


    Regardless, I am doing exactly what the druids used to do to manage this situation. They would usually inscribe in another spell known as ¡°string of water¡±. The spell manifests a string of water mana that can be used to launch the water spears. It will also provide a decent speed boost to a  water spear that is launched from it.


    It is also very hard to craft. Much harder than the body of the spear if I am to be frank. I guess that it is stupidity that I am trying something like this. Technically speaking, I have another trick up my sleeve. One that would just require me to inscribe a single spell into the core. The only problem is that I am saving it for the day that a snowlord might end up attacking us. The damn bastards can look through the eyes of their underlings.


    That means that I will not be talking about this nasty surprise. All I can do is just focus on the task at hand and make sure that I do not end up screwing this up.


    I guess that I do not need to hurry this much, but I have a feeling that things are going to go much harder than I am expecting it to occur. The hunt is going to end in the next week. Once that occurs, a majority of the nobles in the frozen peak are going to be returning to their homes.


    That is the interesting thing about the hunt. It has been created mainly due to the nobles. You see at the beginning of winter, the nobles like to send their children to the frozen peak to hunt the ice beasts and their troops. It helps them reduce a kind of pest that might end up ruining their land while training their kids at the same time. They naturally would not want their kids to remain for the actually dangerous parts, which comes later in the winter it seems.


    The hunt attracts quite a bit of the youngsters of the nobles. It is supposed to be something of a competition to them. To see who will be able to hunt the most number of ice beasts. Without them, the frozen peaks simply won''t have enough people to send out to hunt them in such a grand scale.


    Once the hunt ends, the more permanent soldiers are all going to retreat to the frozen peak and the region surrounding. The frozen peak will then act like a plug, blocking the ice beasts and their troops from leaking too much into empire land. Sadly, we are at what can be considered to be the outskirts of this safe zone. The frozen peak will be able to send us reinforcements but it will be too late for it to be actually worth anything.


    If the fort was just a bit further, I would be able to simply refuse going here. I do have certain privileges as a representative of the black mountain. The commander has chosen this fort of his very wisely. There was no loophole to exploit with it. Regardless, my point is that I need to have something to handle any of my enemies surprises. they are going to pull of something crazier if they were already ready to commit so much forces against me during the hunts.


    They are going to have much more freedom to act already with the hunt stopping. I would not be surprised if they are going to send five or six troops here. Well, I would be surprised but these were the exact words of shamon. The man is more workaholic than me at this moment.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    He has been like a ghost possessed the way that he has been directing his soldiers. Their major work for now has been to break that ice spike and repairing damage to the walls. It has been quite hard to get rid of it. If we had a fire mage it would have been easier but the soldiers have to satisfy themselves with shattering it piece by piece.


    The soldiers have also been taking in the corpses of the ice beasts that they have killed. Their major focus have been to convert all of their meat into jerky as soon as possible. Well, they have been cutting up the beasts quite clinically. I am sure that they have left nothing to waste. The claws are now nails. their hides have become clothes and their flesh has become food.


    Looking at the intensity of their preparations though, it almost feels like they are preparing for something bad, something really bad. We have enough reserves to survive a few weeks at the very least without any problems. I mean, we are a bit far away from the peak, but it is not so far away that we won''t be having supplies. It is a bit too cautious in my opinion.


    Well this is better than the soldiers losing their mind because they have nothing to do I guess. This fort has been a pretty oppressive place.


    Finally, I guess that I should talk about our enemy. Things have been very quiet on that front. The reason for that is the two injured troop leaders. You see, every troop leader is able to control eighty beasts and they have to always keep them in control. With two beast leaders injured, the remaining leaders have to control the troop of the injured leaders.


    That means that at the moment the troop leaders are barely able to make their troops move in a straight line. This is supposed to be the reason that they are being so passive right now. The troop leaders will only be able to direct these creatures in hordes.


    They are certainly not going to be able to show any of their fine strategy that they have showed till now. If that does actually occur, it will make things easier and tougher for my soldiers. The soldiers will be able to hold of the creatures at the wall if they do end up attacking in a horde like this.


    The only problem will then be the fact that our casualties are not going to be particularly little with a horde. We are going to be losing a majority of our soldiers. Shamon expects to lose at least thirty soldiers if a full assault does happen. It is going to bring our numbers to a little more than half of our original numbers. That actually brings out another issue.


    According to shamon, it would be a fools hope to expect any reinforcement from the frozen peak. The reason for that is quite simple. There are two major factions in the frozen peak, the nobles, who have no interest in helping us out in any shape or form. Any reinforcement they send is essentially going to be to take over this fort and to bring it under their control.


    If that happens, my work at the very least will be over as the nobles will then have to figure all of this mess out if they want to keep the fort but that won''t be happening unless the commander is ready to give it to the nobles. Before that any reinforcement sent to the fort will be considered to be ¡°rude¡±. I am sure that the commander has many ways of playing with his ¡°rude¡± nobles.


    So the nobles won''t be helping us at all. As for the commoner faction, they are even less likely to help us out. It is through no fault of theirs though. They are at the moment quite busy managing the hunt. The commoner soldiers are considered to be the backbone of the hunt.


    They don''t participate in it themselves, but work in the background, collecting the hunted corpses from the nobles, maintaining the ranking for the nobles in the hunt. (There is no official ranking in place, but without somebody neutral counting how many creatures were killed by the nobles this entire hunt would never work out.), transporting these corpses to the frozen peak and processing them to get what they need.


    Clearly put, the hunt would not exist without the work of these soldiers even if they are not actively participating in the battlefield. Even if that was not the case there is simply no possibility of them coming. Once the hunt ends, they are going to be even more busy as they will have to maintain constant patrols to ensure that not too many troops end up passing through the defensive line.


    That means that we are going to have to figure out our own reinforcements. On that front at least we have good news. You see, we are not the only temporary fort in the area. Shamon has already initiated communication with them, hoping to bargain with them for their soldiers. The fact that so many enemy troops were concentrated here means that the other forts have had to face much lesser numbers of them. That means they have had much less losses as well.


    There are a total of seven forts this year, including ours. if we were to get even five soldiers from each fort we would manage to recoup our losses too. I think it might even end up being better for the simple fact that shamon thinks in terms of the worst case.


    If the man says we might lose thirty, he usually means that we might end up losing twenty. On this front also, I can''t help this man. This type of bargaining requires a kind of personal touch with the leaders of those forts. Naturally I won''t be able to provide that. All I can do is leave it to shamon for now.


    If I was a noble, things would have been quite easy for shamon. After all no commoner likes to be near the place where a noble has died. The backlash of a nobles death is enough to destroy every single soldier here and it might end up implicating their villages too.


    If I were a noble, I am sure all the troops of the seven forts would be here. The punishment for failing their defense might be better than facing the wrath of a noble. This is also an example of just how wide the gap between noble and commoner has grown in this empire.

 the ambush (log 022.1)

    Well, I would like to begin by clarifying that inscription is very exhausting. You have to understand, that I normally have never attempted to create formations this quickly. Until the moment that it happen even I had not realised just how deep my sleep had been. I am a soldier trained under the rules of the Iron Legion from my childhood, do you think that I am comfortable admitting that I was in a state of half sleep when an enemy had attacked me?


    Now to begin my log, which is essentially the reconstruction of a log that I had somehow recorded in a state of half sleep so much so that even I am curious what the fuck had happened here with the first doubt being how the hell did I even manage it. For most logs, I fail even at full focus. all I know is that I have done something very curious here.


    This log of mine begins in a dream, which I have forgotten now but I remember the conversation I had with my mind or at least have imagined into existence now.


    Subconscious- wake up, Antonio something is wrong.


    Me- well, can we do it later, look at the pretty sheep.


    Subconscious- something is wrong, get up. It is important.


    Me- the pretty sheep are important too you know. Look they are flying into that horrible creature''s mouth. What is that?


    Subconscious- you are being attacked, you idiot. Move, you fucker.


    It was sheer luck and a lot of daring that I managed to survive the attack that followed. Honestly even I don''t know how I managed this particular feat as I took the sword under my pillow (every sane soldier will have one under his pillow), and stuck it right into the mouth of the opposing creature.


    As I was doing this, I had already taken note of the three beings that were here at the formation core with me. I could not predict their strength but they seemed to be the troop leaders. The one that had taken my sword was already injured and my sword had struck a major vessel, which I could tell due to the almost ginger way in which it was moving. It is the sensitivity of a man trying to keep his guts in place after his stomach has been opened.


    It is almost on the verge of death and would not be a worry. It was the other two that were the problem. I don''t know how they managed to sneak into this place, but that was not the moment for such questions (or so I assume as I would admit that I would have frozen on the battlefield with those exact thoughts if I were fully awake). I can already feel the two creatures beginning to charge up their ice mana.


    That would be enough to bring Shamon and the patrolling troop down here. Even a group of five soldiers along with me is enough to take care of them and Shamon had way more troops than that. These two creatures had taken a great risk to come here and were going to win if I did something really stupid.


    While these thoughts were going on in my head, I could feel the two creatures tense up and charging their mana. I use this time to extract my sword from the corpse of the creature that had stopped moving about a few moments ago. Getting into a defensive stance I charge at the two creatures. The legion''s sword arts are ideal for fighting multiple opponents.


    They were not expecting such a fierce retaliation. One of the creatures had begun a charge at me at the same time, while the other almost seemed to jump back in panic. Using my sword I blocked the attacking wolf kicking the creature right in its chest. I don''t know how much force I put in it (what can I say, my leg is still hurting) but it was enough to push the creature across the room.


    I don''t stop as I charge towards the retreating ice beast. I had an advantage here that I could lose. If the two creature regained their coordination I am dead. The retreating ice beast is almost caught by surprise but it blocks my sword at the last minute.


    It is at this moment that I did something stupid, that I would have never done if I were fully awake but I did it at that moment. I dropped my sword to the ground as the ice beast''s claws cut through the fabric of my shirt. I think I can still feel the sting of that strike over my stomach and my guts. An inch here and an inch there and I would have a majority of my insides on the outside.


    I was not passive in that period as I essentially got the creature in a stranglehold, which was quite terrifying according to Shamon, who burst into the scene almost ten seconds from this particular instance. The creature was trying to claw me but did not seem to reach me. Its mouth was inches from my face but I seemed to be like jelly, disappearing wherever it was trying to strike. Meanwhile, the other creature was also trying to hit me, but it must have been worried about friendly fire as I barely remember its attacks (I do not even have an impression of the other creature''s attacks.) This is a perfect example of the legions wrestling arts.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    At this moment, I want to be clear that wrestling is something that I know but I have only ever done it against humans and I have never been particularly stellar with it. The only thing that I am worse at can be considered to be mental magic.


    Regardless, the moment that Shamon felt the presence of ice mana in the fort. He led a troop of twenty soldiers down here. Thankfully, with me keeping one of the creatures busy, the soldiers had a pretty easy time killing the other troop leader. Shamon had the brilliant idea of dousing me with a bucket of water in this frigid cold. It seems to be a precaution these bunch have for when their enemies tend to try to use mental magic to make us sleep. (Another ability of the snowlord that I need to remember.)


    It was pretty effective too, if one can ignore the being soaked in such a fucking cold place. You want me to be honest, I am missing the chill. At the very least it did not seem to enter into places where I certainly would not want to feel cold in.


    Regardless, now that I am capable enough to talk again I will have to talk to Shamon who is very confused about what is happening here. Well, I am in a similar state here too, You know. I have a lot to ask him about what the hell is going on.


    (About five minutes later.)


    "Captain, are you fine.", shamon begins with an expression I can''t place. I think the man has taken my injury quite personally with the vigor with which he is acting.


    "Well, I am in a tiptop condition, Shamon. It''s your luck that I tend to be prepared for such events and my luck that my plans work.", I say, fibbing a bit. As my father says, the best time to project confidence is when you least feel like it. Well, let''s hope the other side can''t hear the crack in my voice which I won''t be rid of any time soon. "Why wasn''t I informed that the ice beasts can sneak into our bases."


    "Well, I had assumed that they wouldn''t be doing it after the weeks they wasted already. Only the troop leaders can do it and they cannot use the entirety of their power in that state. The only thing they have is the element of surprise and that means that they can only really assassinate one person or a small group of people. Not one such attack has resulted in a dead troop leader." Shamon begins.


    "How do they do it, I assume it is not any kind of cloaking magic since they seem to become seriously weak while doing it. My sword was not powered with mana when I killed that one. No matter how injured it is, it should have been able to shatter my sword with a bite.", I ask, wondering about the mechanics of such a thing. Don''t blame me, you can never really sate a formation master''s hunger for new spells.


    "Well, the present theory is that they somehow crack their mana cores, leaking out all their mana. Their mana then is equivalent to the ambient mana of this place." Shamon replies simply, "We can''t verify it though, we don''t dare to leave a fully powered troop leader to experiment on"


    "Well, let''s put a pin in that. If that is the case, then why were we targeted like this? It is not like the fort will fall if I am dead. Iron skin works passively and that should be their main worry." I ask, feeling my heart fall "I assume these creatures are smart enough to figure that out. I have reason to think that they are attacking with such ferocity due to other reasons."


    "Naturally, captain", Shamon replies "Well, I have found that guessing the intent of the ice beasts is a futile exercise. For now, we need to make sure that the formation core is safe. For all we know they could have come for that."


    Well, I had forgotten about the core. Not that it is a matter of worry. Unless these beings had a method of fine mana control like my mana strings they simply could not destroy the core without causing it to take half the fort with them.


    "The core is safe and finally functional enough. With the next formation, I would have been able to take care of the troop leaders quite safely anyway." I say to him. "You can say the embryo of the formation is complete with the spell after this.¡°


    ¡°Well, your formation has already proved to be strong enough against a troop of this size.¡°, he replies. ¡°I am sure we will be able to handle anything that they throw at us.¡°


    ¡°I wouldn''t be so sure, shamon.¡°, I reply. ¡°How likely do you think that the snowlords were looking through the eyes of their creatures.¡°


    ¡°I would say that there is a very strong likelihood that it has occured, captain. No troop leader would be willing to pull of something like this if their masters were not actively commanding them to do so.¡°, he replies.


    ¡°Then they will be pulling of every trick in their book. Let''s just say that I have made a mistake here that will end up screwing up all of our chances at going unnoticed.¡°, he replies. ¡°The snowlords are going to be hitting us with their full power.¡°


    ¡°why is that captain?¡° He asks, not realising the scope that this fuck up of mine is going to have.


    ¡°The arts that I have used here belongs to a group that is known as the iron legion, shamon.¡°, I reply. ¡°the snow tribe has sworn to destroy us, in every form and every shape. They have sworn to destroy us from the memories of every man. That also includes every single practitioner of the legions arts.¡°


    ¡°How seriously is this enforced, captain?¡°, he asks.


    ¡°Well, the most atrocious thing they have done in fulfilling their promise was slaughter a town of ten thousand.¡°, I reply. ¡°well, slaughter would be the wrong word. They literally froze each person, from the inside out. All to find one suspected member of the legion.¡°


    ¡°Well, I will quickly go and set up a patrol then.¡°, shamon replies, his face taking on a serious expression.

 the mad beasts (log 022.2)

    Well, it did not take long for shamon to appear back down into the formation room. I am sure that I will be of more use upstairs but the events of the last hour had shaken me more than I would like to admit. Weakness is not something that you show to your underlings.


    Shamon took about ten minutes to appear. The instant that I look at him I can tell that the man is coming here bearing bad news.


    ¡°Captain, the patrols have come bearing news.¡°, he speaks, his voice serious enough that I know we are in deep shit.


    ¡°Well, get on with it. Do you really need to follow the protocols now.¡°, I speak to him getting a bit annoyed.


    ¡°The four troops that have lost their captains are all now heading in our direction.¡°, he speaks. ¡°They also seem to be reinforced by three more troops that do not seem to have any leaders as well. Where these leaders are we have no idea.¡°


    ¡°Seven troops. This is going to be a tall order all right.¡°, I speak ¡°but they do not have any of their leaders. With my help I am sure that you will be able to manage it. After all, how long before they attack us.¡°


    ¡°Well, we do have a couple of hours.¡°, he replies. ¡°But I did not complete my report. The creatures are in a death trance, captain.¡°


    ¡°Now what is a death trance?¡°, I am seriously not in the mood for learning right now. I am shaking, a mixture of exhaustion and adrenaline. It is a wonder that I am on my feet at this moment.


    ¡°Well, to explain that, I will have to discuss about the troops a bit. As I have explained to you before the troop leader has the ability to force his commands into his creatures.¡° He replies. ¡°This ability works in a pretty insidious way, you see. It is like a whisper at the back of their mind, telling them what to do. They say that most of the time the creature is not even able to tell that it has been commanded.¡°


    ¡°Well, does this explanation have to be this long?¡°, I reply, getting annoyed. It almost feels like the man is rambling now.


    ¡°well, the death trance is like the whispering suddenly becoming screaming. Right now these creatures are not able to think about anything else other than breaching the fort. They will throw their bodies at the wall if they have to achieve this.¡°, he speaks. ¡°The snow tribe must really hate this legion of yours. Every single troop will die within the week due to this trance. Such a waste within such a short time.¡°


    ¡°Well, that means that we only need to hold our own against them for a single week.¡°, I reply. ¡°I think that we should be able to manage that at the very least.¡°


    ¡°I wish things were that easy. Let''s just say that a creature in the death trance has a kind of passion that you won''t be able to find anywhere else.¡°, he replies. ¡°This is not going to be easy is all I will speak on this. Something are better of witnessed, captain.¡°


    ¡°Well, regardless of how hard it is we will need to figure out how to fight them.¡°, I reply. ¡°All you need to do is buy me a couple of days. I will be able to inscribe a spell into the formation. Once that happens, we can screw things up for the enemy. Once the spell is completed we will be able to kill any troops that come at us. I almost succeded at it too yesterday. If I just did not fumble at the ending.¡°


    ¡°Certainly captain, but first I will have to assign you guards. At this moment we have three troop leaders unaccounted for. Seeing what happened just now, it would be wise that you do not remain alone.¡°, he replies. His expression has taken the vacant look of a man in the middle of pondering.


    ¡°Well, I am not one to be that unaware on the battlefield, shamon. It has just been that inscription is a exhausting process. On top of that I have attempted to inscribe two spells back to back. I am not going to be attempting such a feat.¡°, I reply, not understanding why I needed to justify myself. ¡°I am sure that you need to do not such thing.¡°


    ¡°You have quite a few spells to inscribe, captain. Now would be the time that you focus on your work. I will manage against the enemy. They will have to give a pound of their flesh if they wish to take our fort¡°, he speaks. ¡°I have to make sure that the soldiers are prepared for this fight. I will be taking my leave today.¡°


    Saying that he leaves me, leaving me pondering on my screw up today. I guess I can justify it in a thousand ways, but however intense the attacks were before, things are going to be much harder. Even now shamon does not realise one thing. The enemy has not yet made a move knowing that I am of the legion. Whatever move they have made, it had to have been made a while ago.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    While their reaction up till now have been pretty extreme, it will be nothing compared to the hell that they are going to be throwing at us now. A snowlord coming to attack us is now a guarantee. The only question that is left is of when.


    The snow tribe is one of the many forces that has sworn to destroy the iron legion and it seems to be one of the more passionate ones at doing that. There seems to be quite a bit of history between the two forces. Something that I am not allowed to read up on.


    Regardless, Every single soldier trained in the battle arts of the legion are also taught from a diverse and varied group of battle styles that do not resemble our legion''s style. The problem is due to how easily recognisable it tends to be. All of our enemies tend to be always on an active lookout for the soldiers of the legion. It certainly does tend to make our work much harder.


    That is why we have been trained to hide our identity every moment of our life that we are outside of the hexmountain. This is true even if we are sleeping as well (especially if we are sleeping). Let''s hope eric isn''t reading this log. The bastard would gloat a bit too much on this to my liking.


    Well, as for why the legion tends to be such a hated figure. Well, part of that is due to the black mountain and part of it is just due to the legion. Basically, the black mountain uses the legion to wipe out any other force that they deem to be a threat to them.


    Publically, their primary duty is to ensure that nobody breaks the hexmountain treaty. For this they have about the same access that a scholar would have. They also handle the work of defending magical ruins in contested areas and assign ownership for when the scholars do come.


    Secretly, they have also destroyed hundreds of forces that the black mountain have decided were trying to create their own ¡°scholars¡± or have tried to compete with the black mountain in the business of knowledge. Some of these threats might have been legit, but most of them were the result of the paranoia of the black mountain.


    This is to a point that our enemies call us the ¡°mad dog of the scholars¡°, that the black mountain throws at its enemy. This mad dog then proceeds to rip you into pieces.


    When you tend to attack people without a solid enough reason, it tends to leave quite a bit of bad blood with them. Well, bad blood would be wrong. It would be more equivalent to a death promise at least to the level of the death trance that shamon just described.


    Still, the major problem with the legion has been the fact that they are absurdly good at their task. They have a nearly hundred percent completion rate at exterminating their enemy. Every single force they have been sent to destroy has been crushed to fine powder. Such kind of perfection does tend to breed quite a bit of fear in every force.


    After all most forces can never be sure if the single legion soldier passing through their lands, is a ssoldier doing a routine inspection or a scout promising the attack of the legion. It is this fear that drives our enemies more than anything. After all, you can never tell when the black mountain will decide you to be the enemy and release their mad dog on you.


    Yet the worst enemies to the legion you can find are among the tribes. Why that is the case, I have absolutely no idea. When I was in the legion, I was not allowed to read their history and when I got out, there is no way that they will let me read their history. Some things even the scholars know not to be curious about. All I know is that there is a lot of bad blood between the following tribes and the legion.


    I guess that I should speak about them some day, but for now all you need to know is that any person from a tribe would sacrifice his life if it meant that he can kill a soldier of the legion.


    I guess that I should begin with speaking about the tools that I have at hand. Firstly, I have completed the body of the ballista at the very least. Where I have failed is the string of water that almost ended up burning the core.


    If during the inscription process, one of the runes were to destabilize just as I start the inscription, it can cause that spot to be burned. Essentially the spell will be inscribed into the formation core, but with a couple wrong runes it will be useless. In the worst case it can also end up causing the entire thing to explode.


    That would mean that I would essentially have only nine working class nine spells. If that were to happen then the only thing that I would be able to do is to just change the formation core, which would be quite impossible at this moment. The class eight spell that I am inscribing needs all ten spells to work.


    I have given the man two days and I will have to push myself to achieve that. I will have to be more careful doing this though. This time, I will have to spend today resting and leave the spell for tomorrow.


    With the exhaustion that I am feeling, a single day of rest will not be enough but that is all I can give at the moment. At the moment, I am seriously considering if I should just run away from this place. I could take the soldiers and run away to the frozen peak. I would certainly be in a pretty bad position, but it feels like it is going to be better than my present situation.


    I can only consider this if the enemy troops do not catch up with us. If they do, the fort is the only thing that we will have left. Otherwise this creatures outnumber us almost eight to one now.


    Fuck, I can feel the exhaustion creep into my mind. The adrenaline of the last hour has begin to fade. Even now, I can feel my mind struggle to remember the runes that I need to craft. What would have taken me a minute at my peak, now feels like it will take me ten. I cannot risk inscribing now.


    The funny thing is that I have put myself in my present situation. I cannot blame anybody else. After all, I have been explicitly warned from trying to inscribe two spells back to back like this more than once.


    The exhaustion caused by the first spell would more than guarantee the inscription of the second spell would fail. I just could not help myself. With a completed ballista it would have given me an edge that would have more than guaranteed that I would be able to deal with the troops.


    Well, I have to try and sleep now regardless of how wrong it feels to me.

 the fourth attack (log 023)

    Shifting the quiver is such an hard and annoying job. I am cursing myself about why I had it set in the first place. On top of that I have to move the ballista as well. Better to focus on the task at hand or I won''t get anything done. At the moment I am tired, though nowhere near as tired as what I was about five days ago.


    The single day that I took to rest worked wonders in ways that I had not expected it to. The next day, my thoughts were so light that I completed my string of water in a single day. I mean it is not my first time pulling of something like this but you have to admit that right now it feels like my greatest achievement.


    It might be my greatest achievement but over all it has been a waste of time. We did try to use it a couple of days ago, but shamon was really not doing it justice when he told me that the creatures were going to be dedicated. When he said that they would have no other thought in their head, I assumed them to be mindless creatures without any hint of a thought attacking us like a horde.


    Now, the creatures are anything but mindless. A bit dumb maybe, but certainly not mindless. That is how they managed to screw with us in the first place. The damn beasts are using the corpses of their fellow troops to create a pile of corpses right on the wall.


    The first thing that they had done when they had done when they reached this place was to dig up the corpses of their fallen brethren. With the ice preserving their corpses, most of these bodies were intact. Then they begun to deposit these corpses right on the southern gate. I think the creatures were originally trying to break open the gate by launching the corpses at it. (It is kind of like the magic that they used for that ice spike. Instead of the spike, they launched the corpses) With the iron skin, the gate can handle that weight quite easily. If that was not so, I would not like to imagine what would have happened.


    Once the pile grew larger, I think they realised that they could simply climb onto the wall. Once the beasts began to climb it, there was no way to stop them anymore. All of this happened during the time that I was busy sleeping. Otherwise, I could at least tried to delay this corpse pile from being formed. (I do not know of any magic that is that destructive, but a formation mage always has his ways, even if he does not know it at the moment.)


    By the time that I had entered into the fray, the ice beasts had already begun to climb the walls. Thankfully, just in this process of climbing it many of these creatures slip and fall to the ground. Many do not even rise up. they just get added to the corpse pile which has completely covered the southern gate by now.


    Here I have understood the frenzy that these creatures can display. The instant that they are on the wall, they begin to bite and scratch at the soldiers. This they do even at the cost of their lives. An icebeast could have a spear in its heart and still it will keep trying to take down the man that has speared it.


    Thankfully, at a time only three to four of these creatures manage to make it on the wall. That number has been growing steadily since the corpse pile has been growing. I have tried to help out the soldiers as much as I can. Most of the spears that I throw only end up adding more bodies to the pile.


    Similarly, I can''t help out the soldiers for a fear of friendly fire. Already the soldiers are dropping like flies. The ballista is very powerful and has helped out a bit in the battle but ever since the melee has begun it has lain there useless.


    Meanwhile my soldiers have been facing some very serious losses. I have stopped counting our losses but we have dipped below fifty soldiers at the last count. At least we did not try and escape to the frozen peak. We would have been ripped apart on the plains.


    As for what I am doing at this moment, that would be to patrol the walls. After all, it is clear that most of the soldiers have been concentrated on the southern wall. I am making sure that the enemy does not try to ambush us. The way that I am doing so is quite creative.


    I am linked with the formation core as I send the mana strings into the iron skin surrounding the fort. As long as a creature steps on the iron skin I should be able to tell their presence. It is a pretty advanced version of formation control, one that I have barely begun to use in general like this. This is better than me purely using my mana sense. It is pretty exhausting, but I should be able to pull this for half a week more at least.


    As for why I am moving the quiver, it is for the sake of a trap. As for exactly what I plan to do here, the lesser that I speak about it the better.


    Let''s just say that it is going to take care of all of our problems, If it works. Once I manage to complete this I am going to have to go and convince shamon about the validity of my plan. Well, I could try and command him to do it. But my trap is going to require his cooperation.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    (Almost a day later.)


    I am again quite sleepy. I have been patrolling for quite a while now. The situation has stabilized somewhat. The creatures are still pretty manic, but they do get tired. It is just so chaotic that the soldiers are not able to make much use of it.


    Most of the soldiers are still pretty active but with the drowsiness of a person who has not slept for a week. That means that the pressure on the soldiers has reduced quite a bit. The soldiers are resting in groups of five. They rest for a couple of hours, sleeping a sleep that could have rivaled mine at the beginning of this mess and then return to fight.


    Well, The losses on our side have been quite heavy. I am sure that we do not have more than thirty soldiers. On top of that, there is this soldier that has lost his arm. Honestly speaking he should be dead at this moment, dying due to the chill. He almost seems fine if you could ignore his missing arm but the chill has begun to affect him.


    The formation core needs to be completed, very quickly at that or the attacking horde needs to be destroyed unless I want this soldier to die. The soldier who has lost his arm, named Eleron is in a particularly deep shit. The former is nearly impossible and for the latter, well I will need to talk to Shamon about it, now won''t I? It took me nearly a day to just get everything in place.


    Well, I decided not to distract Shamon from the southern gate until now. It has been quite a brutal fight, based on what I have seen. Well, it does not take particularly long for me to reach Shamon, who is presently resting in one of the rooms closer to the southern gate. Thankfully, the ice beasts have not tried an ambush from another location, as I have to admit that I have been slacking in my patrolling. Well, if they were to attack I do not have any way of killing them. After all the ballista is not in a position where I can use it right now and quiver is also out of my reach.


    By the way, I am already at the man''s room, just waiting for him to complete whatever he is doing. Shamon is not in a very presentable state. (He is the soldierly type. They seem to be particular about this type of stuff.) He has the look of a man that has reached the very edges of his ability to think. The last couple of days have been quite exhausting for this man. Not that I am surprised, I have never seen a fight like this.


    He is at the moment sitting in the corner of the room, trying to meditate based on what I can tell. He is struggling with that the way he is twitching about. It can happen when you have too many thoughts in your head. I twitch in a similar manner when my master gives me a difficult formation to inscribe.


    "Well, you are in quite a bind, aren''t you shamon?", I speak, sitting next to him. That breaks his meditation in an instance.


    "Captain, well the last couple of days have not been very good for my heart. Regardless, I hope that you have a solution to our present problems. Even I am surprised that we have managed to hold against the beasts for so long.", shamon says, "If these creatures were a bit smarter about their suicidal charge, we would have fallen already. Heck, I tremble to think what our situation would be if one of the troop leaders were leading them."


    "Well, I have a solution but it is going to be quite risky.", I begin. "I want to set a trap for the beasts."


    "There is no place to set a trap in this region, unless", Shamon speaks, realization hitting him like a battering ram.


    "Well, it is a bit of a risk but right now what other options do you have? Letting them in and killing them here is infinitely easier than trying to hold out like this. The beasts might have slowed down due to exhaustion but your soldiers are also one step from the grave. They are already being slaughtered by the dozen.", I tell him.


    "That is not a problem, the fort can fall for all I care if we can live for another day. The problem is with the ice beasts. They are not particularly smart beasts, but they still tend to have very sharp instincts. If we were to suddenly open the gates after holding them off for so long, they will feel something wrong even if they are not able to specify what." He tells me.


    "Well, I can try and mimic a natural break of the gate. It would make sense with the number of corpses piled over it. It will take me some time to redirect the iron skin in that area, but after that, the gates will be quite fragile. Will that be enough to fool these beasts?", I ask him.


    "Well, I guess that could work. I honestly cannot predict with their leaders dead. I have never faced a troop without a leader before, let alone one in the death trance." Shamon speaks, "Regardless, how are you planning to trap these creatures, is it one of your formations? Maybe that ballista of yours."


    ¡°There is a long tunnel like that near the east gate, which is meant to connect the armory to the living quarters." I speak. "It should be relatively close enough to the south gate so those creatures are pretty likely to follow us if they were baited inside. That is where I plan to strike the creatures.¡°


    ¡°Well, we are entering into a state where we need desperate solutions. What you are asking is quite risky. To let the enemy into the fort will ensure that we will end up at their mercy if it doesn''t work.¡°, he speaks. ¡°There is also the issue of the creatures actually taking the bait. How likely is that?¡°


    ¡°well, I have not thought that far ahead to be frank. Still, get them into that tunnel and I will make sure not one of these creatures will manage to leave that tunnel alive.¡°, I reply.


    ¡°Well, I think that might be possible, but it is still a big gamble.¡°, he speaks up. ¡°If we do not end up killing them all, it is going to be a very difficult melee.¡°


    "Figure out a way to get these creatures inside while I prepare the trap. I will manage the part of killing them.", I command him, feeling quite weird as I set the man''s tasks. "As for the exact trap...........

 the trap (log 024)

    I certainly hate these moments, between when I have completed my work and when I have to see it pan out on the battlefield. A thousand things that can go wrong and a million things going on in your mind, it is not a state that I enjoy.


    Well, I guess that I should explain what the trap does before I enter into the fray. Our trap is going to begin with the southern gates falling. At least that is what it will look like as the soldiers have already loosened the hinges of the massive gate. With the iron skin withdrawn it should be enough to cause the entire thing to collapse quite nicely in a while. At least that is what I hope but I can''t say for certain until the thing does fall.


    From there we will have a troop of soldiers acting as bait, slowly retreating until they reach the corridor that I have designated for this task. It is a tunnel connecting the armory to the soldier barracks. It is a surprisingly long and wide tunnel. I think that four soldiers will be able to fit in it side by side. This tunnel is something that is meant for the absolute worst case, when everything else has fallen. The armoury would be the best place to turtle up especially with the tunnel acting to separate them from the enemy.


    The ice beasts are significantly thinner so we are assuming that more of them will be able to fit. Even with that, it is going to be a tight fit. The soldiers are going to go from the barracks to the armory, trapping as many of the creatures as possible, while I set the trap. If it goes well all of the damn creatures should be dead.


    What I want to do is make use of the water spears to cut the limbs of all these creatures. (I could try and kill them all, but Shamon has pointed out that there is a chance quite a few of them would survive such an onslaught.) It has been a pain to set up the ballista here and is going to take nearly half of my water spears in the quiver. Ten spears were set up all through the tunnel to react to touch.


    To these water spears, I have added a few more runes to control their release to when pressure is applied to it enough to blow up the legs of any creature that is stepping on that water spear (well, I did try to make sure that the spell could retain its spear like form, but I failed at that. This form of the spell is essentially an unstable mass of mana.). It is not even a formation so I know the things that can go very wrong. Spells are not meant to be modified like this. In the hands of most non formation mages, it would explode. Even with a formation mage like me, who knows the structure of spells better than most, it is a gamble.


    Still, as long as even five of these spears explode, the beasts it will hit should be enough to stop the entire group at once, which is where I come in. Right now I am hiding in the barracks under one of the beds. The moment the traps are set, I will come out and use the ballista to shoot the damn creature''s legs off. The ballista is already set up at the other side in the armoury. I will be activating it using formation control the instant that the enemy has paused in the tunnel.


    After that, the soldiers in the barracks will quickly take care of the delimbed creatures that are in that tunnel. Meanwhile, I will take care of any stragglers. That is the entirety of my plan, simple according to Shamon and too complicated according to me. Fuck, so many things can go wrong here.


    The other side can sense my presence while they enter the barracks, they could be smart enough to sense the spears in the tunnel, they could not all fit in the tunnel, formation control could fail at the last moment or one of the soldiers might end up stepping on the traps even with the red color I have painted on the walls next to the Spears to warn them (I don''t even know why they had that paint.). Heck, the red colour could end up warning the icebeasts of the Spear''s location. The soldiers have assured me that this won''t be happening though.


    The spears could explode at any moment because the runes I put on the spell could not handle the mana of the spear.


    These are all thoughts running in my head, causing me to want to get up from my present position and recheck everything. With the gate about to collapse any second that is a risk that I am not willing to take. Still, being cramped like this under the bed is not nice. I can feel my leg cramp up due to the half kneeling position I am under here. I cannot lie down unless I want to end up losing the ideal opportunity to cut the limbs of these bastards.


    I can feel the burning sensation in my leg as I try to hold my pretty weird position. I can pass mana through it to keep the burning at bay but that is not a risk I want to take, after all, if the creatures can sense it then a lot of them will stop to deal with me. Right now I am like a spring fully coiled to take the correct position the moment the spears are triggered.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Regardless, I am finally relieved as the gates fall with a bang. (Don''t get me started on that. It was a nightmare to make the southern gate fall. I would get into it but now is not the time for that. I have nearly three hundred beasts to kill after all.)


    I can feel my thoughts slow down as I enter into a state of focus. Things might go wrong here but thinking about that now is not helpful. Now is the time to act. Well, the soldiers should be already making their way here. It takes roughly one minute for the soldiers to make their way here from the Southern gate.


    The only indicator of their presence would be their footsteps which will echo in this empty part of the fort. Almost like the clockwork, I can hear the soldiers running. I stop breathing and try to be as still as a statue. Now, I need to wait for the deformed spears to activate.


    This state seems to continue for an eternity as I try to will the beasts from noticing my position. Finally, the first Spears activates, resembling a flood of water mana in my mana sense. I wait for a second for the other Spears to activate, which does not happen for a heart freezing second.


    I am jumping from my hiding place the second that it does occur. the scene in the tunnel is roughly what I expected it to be, as the ice beasts have stopped there for a confused second. That is all I need as my mind kicks into overdrive looking for the best spots to strike the enemy.


    It does not even take a second as the spears fly true to their targets leaving a trail of carnage as many of the ice beast''s limbs are ripped cleanly from their bodies. I might have missed a couple of them, but I will have to leave them be. The soldiers can handle the stragglers.


    I remove my sword as I finally notice that not every beast had entered into the trap. Almost half a dozen ice beasts are in the room, taking position around me, with a couple still entering the room.


    A number that I can manage but will take my full focus. Entering into a defensive stance I wait for the creatures to make the first move. There are too many here, my major goal, for now, is to ensure that they don''t end up surrounding me while I try to separate them and take them out.


    One of the beasts is the first to make a move. The creature tries to swipe at me with one of its claws. I could have killed it instantly but that would mean that I would not be able to block it. It might not be able to induce a chill in me, but with seven of these creatures in the room, it is not a risk I want to take.


    I hit the creature with the flat of my blade, using all of the strength of the strike to push the creature backward. That gives me a moment as I look at the room. I am in the barracks, with nothing in the room other than beds and chests. The chests are the flimsy kind, which means that the only tools in my belt are the beds.


    Well, the creatures are also studying me while I formulate a plan. Finally, the creatures move into action, with three of the creatures acting as a vanguard who will charge at me. The remaining four will adapt according to my actions. Good, these creatures tend to make pretty obvious plans at the very least. (Well, I have been studying them during the patrols so it seems quite obvious.)


    I jump to the side, to the bed that is nearest to me. It is a bed meant for utility, with nothing other than a wooden frame and cushions that would work better at bashing somebody''s head in. Anyway, with my full strength and quite a bit of mana, I kick the bed.


    My world goes blank for a moment as a wave of pain takes my every single thought. what the hell did they make it with? At the very least, the bed flew taking the four creatures with it. Well, that brought me a few moments at the very least.


    Shifting into a more offensive stance I turn to the icebeasts attacking me, who are still in the process of turning around. I don''t have long as I charge towards them. My leg feels as if somebody is hitting it with a hammer. My sword enters the creature''s heart as I duck under it, sliding to the second wolf. This one is a bit more ready as it shifts its position as my sword hits one of its ribs.


    The force of my strike is enough to shatter its ribs, which I think has struck something vital as I can feel the creature weaken, though my sword is stuck, at least for the moment. Leaving my sword, I jump to the position of my final victim. Pooling mana into my arm I enter into a grappling stance. The creature''s teeth pass me by inches as my arms wrap around its throat. The creature struggles for a few seconds as its spine snaps with a clear pop.


    With this, I let myself look at the four ice beasts struck by the bed, the creatures have already taken a defensive posture, getting ready to retreat. Their death trance has been overpowered by their survival instincts.


    Well, I would not be worthy of my position as a mage if I were to let these creatures escape now. Freeing my sword from the corpse of the icebeast and pushing mana to my legs I jump towards the four creatures, which did not expect my burst of speed.


    I still struggle to make use of this particular skill, which the legion likes to call a dash. It is a simple application of vital mana, which any of its practitioners are supposed to know, but it still takes a lot of practice to use it perfectly.


    Well, I won''t bore you with the result as I am already in the process of gutting them. That is how I can tell that these creatures are the top predators in their environments. They don''t even know how to run away from a stronger opponent. At the very least the pulsing in my toe has reduced somewhat. Honestly, what is that bed made up of?

 the celebrations (log 025)

    I have heard a lot about the snowwinders. they are supposed to be genius builders that have built works of art that can last for millennia (granted this is one of the few things that the black mountain is not good at so we cannot really judge.) and are so disciplined on the battlefield that my predecessors like to compare them to the steely stillness of the undead.


    Granted, the scholars are never a good reference (they literally live in their own world) and my predecessors were treating this as more of a vacation than an actual job. Not to badmouth my own people, but there is a reason that our present ties with the snowwinders are this frayed.


    Not to get distracted, I have heard a great deal about the snowwinders and every single description that I have heard has certainly not prepared me for the scene in front of me.


    In front of me are two soldiers that are completely naked except for their undergarments, which has left me on the verge of bleeding from my eyes.


    Well, I remember the beginning to this particular tavern brawl. It had all begun with shamon opening a reserve of some kind of an alcoholic drink that I will never be able to pronounce. For now let''s call it ale.


    I don''t know how strong it was or how much the soldiers had drunk of it, but what was originally a friendly contest of arm wrestling had devolved into a competition to check who had the biggest balls, quite literally. Based on what I have understood of this particular match both soldiers will stand in front of each other and begin stripping in front of each other until one person gives up this particular match or until their jewels shine in their full glory to the world (their words, not mine.) And the fun part, they said they are supposed to do all of this in the snow, where I would think twice before sitting on and they are stripping in it. It would take a unique kind of balls to do that. (Fuck, these guys are ruining me). If these soldiers end up dying to the chill, I will resurrect them and kill them personally.


    That is how we are presently stuck in this situation, with either person convincing the other to step back and admit defeat while all the people around them are convincing them both of completing the final step. I was certainly not thinking of chants of "off with the underwears" when I thought of the snowwind soldiers. Over all it has been a loud, quite tasteless mess but somehow I have not been able to keep my head away from this particular direction for sometime now.


    Normally, I guess that I should be one of the people that is joining the bunch downstairs, but I am not going to break my rules so easily this time. (Especially after the embarassing debacle of the last week.) Those of the iron do not lose their focus in the middle of a war. I might have left the legion, but some habits remain. I have to admit it was quite tempting until the stripping began. I think such a situation can only be found funny when you are quite drunk. Also, even these soldiers know that their victory is now dependent more on me than them now. They have already done a good job. Let them have their moment of peace.


    Anyway, If I was in their place I would be sick with worry. Not much to stop thinking when you have no work to do, I guess. Regardless, my work is pretty important. after all, if the enemy were to suddenly reveal a unknown legion hiding I would like to be ready. Granted a single legion does not have the strength to really challenge us anymore. Even from here I can just shoot them down with the ballista, remotely.


    The presence of the ballista should be more than enough to keep the snowlords from wasting too many of their creatures on us. It is back in its rightful position at the watch tower. (Took me a day too, you know.)


    Anyway, I can see that I am not the only person among this bunch that seems to have forgone the drink this day. It would be shamon who seems to be in a similar situation to me. Well, he is making his way towards me.


    "Well, captain I would have expected you to be among these rowdy bunch already.", he speaks, his voice taking an amused tone. "It is a great time for you to become familiar to the soldiers and it will boost their morale."


    "I will be honest, I was tempted but there are rules to follow you know.", I speak to him, wondering if the man in front of me would be ready to listen to my pretty petty complaining of the rules of the iron legion.


    "I would have thought that would have been not much of an issue with your people. After all isn''t that how your people blew up the temple in the south.", he begins, sitting next to me. "Became wasted and tested certain formations without thinking."


    "Well, that is a different case. The scholars make use of a certain set of drugs to boost the performance of their minds. Sadly a few of the side affects do look like they are drunk." I reply to him, wondering if I should be recording this. It is technically the truth though. "I can see how you people might have gotten confused."


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Well, I am not one to question the hobbies of other kids, but it is nice to see that I have company among this bunch. You would be surprised how boring this all gets when you have seen it a hundred times.", he says. "I am not sure if those two idiots will even be able to wake up tomorrow without a cold. It is fine as long as it is not the chill. Most of these guys will go on to make the army of tomorrow. I shudder to think how we shall be protected."


    "Somehow, I find that hard to believe among this bunch.", I say to him, as my vision goes to one of the naked ones trying some kind of a rude gesture to provoke the other. What it would do to help him, I do not know though it must have made quite the bit of sense in their drunken mind as this guy is doing it with a child like enthusiasm.


    "Well, you would be surprised. Regardless, you are free and I am free right now. Let''s talk business.", shamon begins.


    "Well, my ears are open. I wish my eyes were not. I am not asleep. About as much of a best time it can be.", I reply, as he plops down next to me.


    "Why are the snowlords so interested in you, captain.", he speaks, his voice suddenly taking a measured tone. "I have led quite many troops against the icebeasts and the only time I have seen them this suicidal is at one of the failed forts and I mean this even before this legion business of yours."


    "Well, there could be any number of reasons. Maybe it was the fact that they managed to track the emissions of my formation base, which did grow quite substantial before their attacks.", I begin. It is actually one of the disadvantages of using elemental nodes. A skilled enough mage is usually able to tell about the existence of the formation.


    "Somehow, it still doesn''t really explain their rigour in getting you killed. They don''t act like that unless the snowlords are involved somehow.", shamon speaks.


    "Well, it could be any number of reasons, but I have two main reasons that might actually be the case." I speak, bringing to mind something that I have been thinking about for quite a while. "One case could be that your commander is a sadist and he is the bastard that let out the fact that a soldier of the legion is stationed here. Not a high chance of it though, as it wouldn''t really benefit the man."


    "Somehow I don''t think that manages to describe the commander. He is not one for that kind of politicking.", shamon speaks. "That is how he ended up in the north, some say. At the very least nobody gives a good answer to why exactly is he here. his work doesn''t really match his power."


    "Well, then it is the alternative. The enemy has somebody that is able to make sense of formation structure, maybe even build a few.", I speak."The type of formation that I am building is a special type of formation, that will help you dealing with the chill at a limited level at the very least as I said before. Due to that, I had to make use of elemental nodes. while I won''t say what I am doing is quite common, it is not so rare that somebody won''t be able to tell what I want to do. Only a formation mage will be able to actually tell though."


    "Well, the enemy can tell when we are starting to build formations.", shamon speaks "I don''t really see how that really hurts us. All it really takes is a bit of planning. Look, you have built four or five of those even though the enemy seems to have been hounding us at every step of the way."


    "Well, most formations take a lot longer to build, shamon.", I speak, "I usually take a week to properly inscribe class 9 formations. Here I have done it in two days. Honestly, I am not sure how I have managed it. Maybe this is why my master wanted me to come here. To learn to work under pressure."


    "Well, all I honestly care about that formation is if it was worth the death of so many soldiers and the maiming of even more", the soldiers speaks with anger in his voice.


    Honestly, I guess I should feel something about it but I don''t really feel anything about it. Maybe if I was there in the battlefield with them, maybe if they fell in front of me with me being able to do little to stop that maybe I would also be more emotional.


    Hey, as a formation mage I already participate in enough what ifs to reach the moon. No need to add another to it. Regardless, it is the way that these soldiers are partying that is more fascinating to me. In the iron legion, where death is uncommon it is a somber occasion with ceremonies and rituals that every person on the hexmountain knows to his heart by now.


    Here death is more familiar, so much so that no amount of tears will suffice. Instead they celebrate with so much passion that death will stop in the path or at the very least they strip in the ice, because they are stupid. Philosophy can be so pointless sometimes.


    Well, I am not one to claim too much knowledge in this but with thoughts like this I think I understand why the scholars do what they do. It''s fascinating to look at people think.


    "Well, by the time you leave, it shall be the end of winter anyways. By then it is the headache of the folks from the frozen peaks.", shamon speaks.


    "I assumed you and your troops were of the frozen peaks.", I asked, a bit confused.


    "Well, the commander borrows soldiers from other areas when he believes that it is worth it. I personally come from the south. The soldiers are still newbies so they come from the east.", he says "any troop from the frozen peak will have fallen on the first day under siege. Well, that would be my cue. Their stupid game has gone on long enough."


    Hearing that I take a look at the two strippers who had finally completed their goal at the same time. The look of surprise on eithers face was enough to clue me in that either had not managed to take the final step, so somebody in the crowd had done that for them. Well the crowd seemed to have realized that at the same time, resulting in a howl that would have scared any hidden troop from their hiding spots.

 the final push to complete the formations (log 026)

    I have been making use of the free time that I have gotten in the last week to begin my work on the remaining spells. I have completed almost all of the spells that could have given me an edge in the battlefield.


    The three spells of the formation base have been completed. Then we have the water spear spell and the quiver spell to store it. After that I have completed two spells, which together work to form my ballista.


    Before I know it, I have already completed seventy percent of the spells that I need to begin the work on the final spell. With that spell inscribed I should be more than be able to handle any number of troops that they throw at me. It should theoretically be able to handle any snowlord that they throw at us.


    A class eight spell is more than powerful enough. I haven''t been given much opportunity to play around with a class eight formation. (The most basic spell that my master uses is at the class six. Even those he has to use too carefully to ensure that it doesn''t get destroyed in a moment. Sometimes his strength seems so far out of my reach.)


    Each time that I have taken control of a class eight formation it is such a heady feeling. It feels like I am a god. It is an illusion I know, but there is no way that a snowlord can be stronger than a class eight formation.


    I guess that I should speak about the remaining spells that are left for me to complete. There are three class nine spells left, of which I will speak about two. The last is related to my nasty surprise that I will leave for the damn snowlords.


    The first spell is a certain spell known as ¡°earth pack¡±. The spell allows for the earth to be compressed to absolute degrees. Much like the Iron skin though, it is a spell that takes time. With time the spell will be able to compress the earth in the ground.


    It is supposed to strengthen the ground to ensure that when the copper bark does take root, it will be able to handle its own weight. Immediately it is not particularly useful though, other than stopping enemies from digging into the ground below us.


    Even that is not particularly needed since the ground here is covered in so much snow. Other than that the ground under it is as hard as stone. It actually makes me wonder how exactly the dwarves have dug their mines into this land. Well, the dwarves and their bombs are almost legendary now.


    Well, the second spell that I have to describe is the iron bubble. Well, how do I describe the iron bubble. It is a spell that is meant to supplement the iron skin spell. It doesn''t provide me with any particular boost to the spell. The only thing it does is aurify the spell.


    Well, aurification is hard to describe if you are not a body mage. Only those bastards need to make use of spells like this. Well, let''s try my best. If the iron skin is at this moment like paint on the wall. Then with the iron bubble spell part of the iron skin is going to be well, like a bubble covering the fort.


    The bubble is going to be useful, much later once it has been given a chance to grow. For now it does not have much use. It might be able to block a few arrows from the enemy and it will also have a bit of an isolating effect. That means it will reduce a bit of the ice mana in the region, not enough for it to have a significant effect though. (Unless I give it a couple years, which is becoming a statement I have used too many times.)


    That leaves me with my final spell and the eighth class spell, neither of which I want to talk about at this moment. Now is not the time to waste a good surprise is it. At least, the gambles that I have been taking in the last couple of months have finally paid of.


    Right now we have managed to survive anything that the enemy has thrown at us. Every troop that they have thrown at us we have managed to destroy. That has brought us at least a couple weeks of peace in which I will manage to complete my work. The hunt is going to end soon enough.


    It has already gone longer than is usual. Even now I am sure that the nobles are returning to their home. Even with the end of the hunt, shamon thinks that the snowlords will not throw anymore troops at us. The man thinks that they have already wasted a majority of their troops that they must have reserved for the task of destroying temporary fortresses.


    They usually do not tend to reserve a lot of troops for this task. They do not really need to. After all, what destroys a majority of the forts here is not the enemy. Instead it is the storms of this land.


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    I have yet to see the legendary storms of this land, other than a few storms that shamon has called heavy winds. The storms have been quite easily manageable though the man claims that the storms are going to get more violent.


    I personally think that the enemy won''t be making any move this soon as well. I do not think this because the enemy has drained their resources like shamon does. Instead I think that the snowlords are sharpening their weapons looking for an opportunity to strike.


    Regardless of how much I have tried to explain to the man about the seriousness of the threat he has refused to take it as seriously as he needs to. Regardless of this, the man has done his work. At the moment he has already drained most of his soldiers in this fight.


    At the moment he has thirty soldiers, that are still able to keep fighting in this moment. These soldiers are not even enough to maintain vigil at one of the gates. That is why shamon has them focusing on protecting the injured soldiers.


    The injured soldiers are the one that are having to face the worst of the situation at this moment. They all are suffering from the chill, though at varying levels. Other than the injured soldiers, another thing that the man is worried about is the southern gate.


    That is because the weakness at the southern gate is something that I cannot fix right now. It took me all of my creativity to make the gate fall in the first place. spells like the iron skin tend to have runes in it that is used to describe the exact area in which the iron skin has to be applied.


    Without it, it would be quite impossible for the iron skin to even function. Manipulating these runes should only be done at their creation to specify the structure of the entire building. This way, the iron skin can be applied at every wall, at every gate and at every hinge.


    I have the ability to manipulate the runes that I have inscribed. It is very risky though, like trying to remove a card from a castle of cards. That is what I have done. To achieve my task I essentially made my formation stop applying the iron skin on the hinges of the southern gate. I could try and change the formations to make it go back to its usual state.


    That is a risk that I do not want to take. You see, if the entire castle were to fall because I needed to return one card back to its position, well I don''t even know how I would react. Maybe I would burn the entire thing down. All I know is that it would be nothing good.


    Well, I think that shamon has understood that point by now. I can''t really say if that is the case but the man has at least given up trying to convince me to repair the damage to the formation. He has taken to more mundane methods of reinforcing the southern gate.


    A group of soldiers have been reinforcing that gate with everything that could be spared in the fort. I have seen old furnitures, new furnitures even be dismantled to shore up the gate. Old spears, old barrels, and everything that was there in the stores have already been broken apart, stitched together to reinforce that gate.


    I honestly don''t know how effective it is going to be but at the very least it should be able to do something. It really shows their ability to build as well, when their footsoldiers are able to build something like this.


    The gate cannot be used at all now so these new reinforcements better be worth it. It has kept the soldiers busy and at the moment that is enough.


    Speaking of soldiers, I guess that I should also tell you that shamon has failed at getting any reinforcements. The frozen peak is useless at the moment, as anything or anybody that they will send will have to travel a week at the very least. While the storms are not particularly intense it is more than enough to make the process of travelling through it quite hard.


    The remaining temporary forts are a different matter. Based on my understanding of their conversations, the other forts have not been attacked as intensely as they are usually attacked. This is what makes shamon think that all the troops that have been attacking us have been redirected from the forces that were meant to attack these places.


    Regardless of how true this is he has been making very good use of this rhetoric to try and get a few soldiers here. Not that he has been particularly succesful at this process.


    This politics I understand at the very least. The other forts are trying to save their own hides. They have more than enough soldiers to spare but they are not going to do so. It is a simpler process to keep their soldiers with them rather than commit them to some random fort whose success would not even help them.


    After all even if this fort lasted, it would not really help them out in any manner. Instead, if they were to commit their troops to help us and their fort was lost it would just make their own work that much harder.


    Also, the situation this time is more chaotic than usual. There is a clear lack of nobles in this place. Normally, at the very least one set of nobles are sent to these forts. That usually creates a pretty clear chain of command. It would also be quite easy to send multiple noble factions to this place. (This is what must happen usually.) This would also create a pretty structured chain of command. Two to three forts at the very least would be able to work together.


    This time there is nothing of that sort. Not a single faction of the nobles have been given command. That has led to a certain amount of chaos. No fort is acting as the center for this battlefield so that means that all the forts are acting on their own. It has also led to another problem, which is the lack of mages in the temporary forts.


    Based on shamon''s estimate there are only seven mages in total here, including me. One for each fort. That is an abyssmal amount. In the previous years, every fort at the very least had four to five mages to help hold of the enemy.


    Well, I will leave the politics of this to the scholars. The only thing that I care about at the moment is this fort of mine. As long as it lasts all the other forts can fall for all I care.

 the arrival storms (log 027)

    I have no idea if I have told this before but the environment surrounding this fortress is one of the most lifeless places I have ever seen in my life. There is little movement in the area other than movement of snow and ice. Even when the ice beasts were here, I could only notice them due to their mana. Otherwise our surroundings remained the same as it did before they came. Dull, lifeless and seemingly eternal.


    Looking at my surroundings sometimes, the place seems to be a painting drawn in grey and white with an almost timeless quality to it. It is to a point where it has almost been impossible to say the time in this place. For me night and day in this place looks exactly the same as each other. I mostly tell the time on the basis of our meals.


    Anyway, weather in this area has been relatively stable during the attack of the ice beasts. Even before that we had a few snowstorms but most of them were at a level where iron skin was not even needed. It has something to do with the snowlords, who seem to have partial control over the weather of the regions or at the very least seem to be the cause of this weather.


    They can manipulate the intensity of the snowstorms in the region. They have been reducing the intensity of snow storms for their horde up till now, based on what I have understood from shamons thoughts on the matter. Well, whatever they have been doing they seem to have finally retracted it as I finally understand why the main worry of the snowwinders have been the storms. I can finally see just how bad it can get.


    Even now I can feel the entire fort tremble and I don''t even need to be connected to the formation to tell that. Every few seconds I can feel the vibration of whatever block of ice or snow accelerate to some deadly speeds collide with the walls of the fort. The iron skin is dealing with a majority of these impacts, but even it is not enough for a few of those strikes. Thankfully, it still does it''s job of taking in a majority of the impact so the physical wall is safe at the very least. The wall will break if the same spot is hit again though. The chances of that happening enough times for significant damage are quite low, thankfully. We will need to repair the wall though.


    The vibrations are annoying me to no end. The closest analogy I can think of this is that I am sitting in a group of drummers with each playing their drums just out of tune. You know that there is supposed to be a tune but no matter how much you try you can''t just place what it is. Well it would be a lie to call it a analogy as I had the misfortune of being in such a room myself once. Granted I was also one of the drummers in that room and the class ended up with our teacher vowing never to teach another class of music to us deaf and idiotic humans (he had quite a few words more, but thankfully i don''t know any demihuman languages.). Our teacher was a bat demi human with senses many times sharper then ours and used the exact same drums that he was teaching us to communicate with his people from leagues and leagues away. After this incident, my master never dared to teach me music again.


    Anyway, we cannot even leave the fort even if we want to. The winds of the storm is enough to carry a man like a piece of paper and snow that feels closer to daggers rather than frozen water. I won''t even talk about the cold, other than the fact that I wish for the time before the storm. Shamon has been quite cruel in making me aware that this not even the coldest that it can go and that I should be ready for something even worse.


    That is not my worry at the moment as according to shamon we are presently about to be visited by more than one snowlord and that they are charging to reach our territory. The proof for that is the weather that we are facing, it seems.


    I will certainly not try to explain the reason for that though. Better you listen to shamon. I recorded this a while ago when the storm had just begun to pick up. Good that it happen then too. If it were to happen now, I wouldn''t be sure if I would even be able to hear his reply. He seems to have expected something like this to happen from the beginning the way that he has been moving about the fort. Anyway here is the recording as I attempt something here.


    (Six hours ago)


    "Well, what the hell is going on, shamon. It feels as if somebody is throwing boulders at the fort.", I ask him annoyed out of my mind. (I had just woken up then. I have been trying to regulate my sleep for the last couple of weeks. I had almost died the last time I did not sleep properly. It''s not an easy task with a formation to build and no way to tell the time)


    "Well, captain it is not rock, it is chunks of ice and it is going to get worse, way worse.", shamon spoke, who was sounding quite bored for the situation we are in. The man is either very good at hiding his emotions or he has faced this many times. For now my opinion is that it is the latter. The sound is quite similar to the sound of catapults carrying fire rock hitting the fort. (Well, at least what I imagine them to be based on my masters description of it.)


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    "Well, that is not pleasant to hear. What exactly is going on.", I ask him, feeling the vibrations in the fort as if somebody was throwing rocks at it. I guess I should feel more panicked but shamon''s mood has rubbed of on me.


    "It is the arrival storms, captain.", he said. "Though I want to be honest and say that I have never seen it get so bad so quickly."


    "The arrival storms?", I ask, my voice quite curious. I had not read about this in any of the reports.


    "Well, it has to do with us being so close to the northern wastelands. At the onset of winter, there is a large amount of ice mana that moves from the wastelands to here.", shamon continues. "Most of the storms you see are caused by the flow of that mana. That would still not be much of a problem if it were not for the snowlords. The snowlords are massive emitters of ice mana. They emit enough mana that the already quite chaotic mana becomes even more chaotic and the more chaotic the mana the stronger the storm it generates. That is what the weather mages say at the very least."


    "What is the arrival storms though.", I ask him, seeing him get off topic.


    "That is what we call the storm that occurs whenever a snowlord is coming near to you without regulating his mana. they only do that when they are moving at full speed. It is often a step worse than the other storms that we have to face that season. We use the arrival storms to steer clear of them. Any idiots that dares to brave the plains in a storm will most likely end up dead by their hands.", he says. "To be honest we would have already abandoned the fort if it were not for the fact that even if we were to leave, the snowlord that would be coming here will have most likely located us and killed us. Anyways, I have a feeling that it is not a single snowlord with just how quickly this storm is becoming worse. I have never seen storms like this. That reminds me, how goes your formations."


    "Well, it is going well shamon. Yesterday I have completed the tenth spell on the formation core. Only one remains and within three to four days it also should be complete.", I say to him.


    "Isn''t it supposed to be the class eight formation. I would have assumed that it would be harder.", shamon speaks, his voice taking a inquisitive tone.


    "Well, the inscription process is same regardless of which level formation you inscribe. All of them are a set of runes. Designing them though, that is a whole set of headaches though." I begin, stopping myself before I go deeper. A formation mage discussing his work is the best way to put people to sleep, I have discovered. "I know the formation I am inscribing so it will take me three to four days and then your formation is complete and theoretically it should be enough to handle any snowlords."


    Shamon looks like he is about to speak something more, but before he can do that one of the soldiers comes running to him with some issue at hand and the man disappears quite quickly after that, most likely to the southern gate. That place is quite a danger in this storm.


    (Back to present.)


    Fuck, that was a very weird sensation. I want to be honest, this is the first time that I have attempted to slot in a past recording in my log like that. It is supposed to be a basic skill for everybody but me and honestly this is the first time I have dared to use it.


    My fellows like to use it for recording any diplomatic talks they had, long after the talks and with a lot of discussion of their successes, failures and other such things preceding their recording. I am sure that you must have found something like this with one of the other logs though do not expect too much of that here. It is rare for a formation master to actually engage in that kind of diplomacy and my skill with this process is non existent.


    I also do not hold the interest to convert my log into boring lectures analysing stuff like that. I have ended up sleeping reading logs like that. There is no way that I will be awake while creating them and I have heard stories about people that have ended up sleeping in the process of recording a log. Well, I am certain that some part of it is exaggerated at the very least but it would still be a horror story for me, at least the part about wet dreams.


    It was such a weird feeling too, having two sets of thoughts in my mind. It is almost like two sets of thoughts were slotting one after another causing me to almost stumble in my thought process. It is kind of like using both of your hands to write poetry, without writing gibberish in either.


    I don''t even know how I managed this. Regardless, with that particular experiment complete it is time for me to return to the task at hand, something that I have been dreading to do with so many distractions which is the inscription of the class eight formation.


    While it is true that it should not be too hard, heck I know of a few class nine formations which are harder but the consequences of failure is much higher here. If it fails there is a chance that I might have to redo the entire thing. After all this particular formation will link with all the other formations and be responsible for managing them. I am literally going to be making this formation over the runes of all my class nine formations.


    Well, as my master says, "thinking of failure before you have begun your work is no way to succeed now, little brat.". Fuck, I am annoyed now. Let''s begin the work now. At least with this success I will have another class eight formation under my belt. If only it was a class seven formation.

 completing the formation (log 028)

    This is an ideal time for me to describe how inscription for the levels beyond class nine formations actually work. Well, calling them spells would not be correct exactly. They are closer to a set of runes than a spell model. At class nine, most spells that are inscribed have only a single function. That would be the task that they are meant to do, which is a reason that class nine spells are so easy to use. The spells inscribed into it are often direct copies of spells that are normally used by people.


    For example a druid practicing iron skin would be using the same runes that I have inscribed into the formation, except maybe the runes that define the shape of the entire thing. A person could make use of my formation core to learn every single one of the class nine spells that I have inscribed on it, maybe with a few modifications. This is granted he knows of a few spells similar to the spell that he is trying to decode.


    From class eight, the spells inscribed tend to have two major purposes. First would be whatever is the purpose of the spell and secondly would be the management of all the lower formations in the core. That is why class eight formation runes tend to be so much larger than any class nine runes. Most spells modified into class eight or above formations tend to have so many things changed that it becomes very hard to tell just what the orginal spell was let alone it''s spell model.


    Regardless, the point I wanted to make was that a class eight formation is fundamentally different from a class nine formation especially during the process of designing it. As my master likes to say, every man in the continent can make a class nine formation if he spends enough time on it, but from class eight onwards is the domain of the formation mage. Only with a self designed class 8 formation a man can be considered to be a formation mage.


    Well, I am one formation closer to that particular goal. The eighth class formation that I have built is a general version of the class eight formation that the druids use in their formation. We actually do not know the name of the formation but we know its purpose. It is a standard nurturing formation that works on a bunch of trees along with a few tricks up its sleeve.


    My master calls the formation as "metalbark core" for the fact that this can give good results in the nurturing of almost any metal bark tree like the iron bark, copper bark or the bronze bark in my case. This formation could be found at the center of any druidic forest or village, acting as the core of their defence or playing a very key role in it at the very least. It is a pretty versatile formation that can be used in any place regardless of the surrounding region and its mana concentration.


    One of its key feature is the focus that is given to its domain, which makes sense with the nature of the spell. Essentially once I activate the class eight formation a domain of water, earth and metal mana is going to start surrounding the fort, making it free of the ice mana in the surroundings of the fort at the very least. Well, I have never seen the formation work in a region so focused on a single mana to tell just how effective the domain will be but there should be some level of effectiveness.


    That means, the soldiers can be protected from the almost insidious chill and it could have not happened at a better time.


    The storms picked the exact worst time to grow worser. The injured soldiers cannot be taken back to the frozen peak. This is simply sheer bad luck, I guess. Well, most of the soldiers are managing it pretty well except the soldier that has lost his arm.


    Well we can manage with or without the reinforcements but the only problem in all of this is the fact that the formation base is still not at the threshold for activating the formation. The formation base had been essentially been emptied a few times in the last couple of weeks and the process of it recharging has been annoyingly slow indeed. At least it should not take long before I have enough though, so that is a positive. The only mana reserve that I have at the moment which can be considered to be behind the threshold needed is the water mana reserve. With the way that I have been using it, it is not a very big surprise.


    The formation is going to require a particularly large amount of mana from each of the elements for the creation of the domain, especially due to the ice mana outside. Thankfully that absurd cost will only exist in case of starting the formation and after the creation of the domain, such a cost should be reduced quite dramatically. At least an amount enough for the elemental nodes to be able to manage it on its own. That reminds me that I have to tell these guys to arrange other sources of mana for this area. The elemental nodes should be enough in the short term. But few months or years down the line it will be emptied.


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    The water base is the reason that I am actually delaying the creation of the domain until the snowlords make their presence known. It should buy me time in which the formation can gather mana. Not much time, especially with the way that the storm has been intensifying. If shamon had a doubt about the approach of multiple snowlords, he is sure of it now. He did not even need to come down here and inform me about that. It can be seen in the way that he has taken to pacing through the fort, fretting about everything.


    He is presently coordinating our soldiers through out the fort trying to patch up all of the holes in the fort. One of the benefits with such a storm is that at the very least the snowlords will not have a cohort of ice beasts with them. Such bad weather is quite deadly to the ice beasts as well, it seems. It is a reason that multiple snowlords never move together. Without their hordes they are simple shooting practice for the commander. That means that from now on it should purely my work from now on.


    Well, I have been dreading this particular step of the process since the moment that I decided that I am going to be making use of a nurturing formation and that would be the process of digging into the ground. Anywhere else there would be entire teams to whom I would have given the task to, but the soldiers are already overworked and even if I wanted to give it to them, honestly it is better I do it on my own. That still does not change the fact that I absolutely detest the hard labour that I am about to do. One of the sad realities of being a formation mage is that we are not exactly the most physically fit.


    To explain myself better, one of the conditions that need to be satisfied before I can activate this particular formation is that it needs to be placed in the ground. After all there would not be much reason for nurturing the plant if it did not have the area to spread its roots, now would it. The druids make it a clear requirement by introducing certain runes that do not activate until it comes in contact to the ground.


    Well, if I knew exactly which runes were responsible for this particular effect, maybe I could have modified the formation to remove this requirement. I have memorised the runes without much understanding of the runes themselves. Anyway, that might have led to problems that I might not have expected anyways. Messing with already inscribed formations is like playing around with a pack of cards. You never know what could you get.


    Regardless, it is for this reason that I am standing in the cellar with a pick that I have borrowed from shamon. It is the kind that is used in construction, strong enough to break through the floor into the ground below it and not break due to a particularly strong swing of mine. It should be enough to dig a decently sized pit in the room.


    Thinking this I begin to swing the pick with all of my might right into the location that shamon had indicated and I feel the pick pass through the floor, but not an inch beyond that. The land of this region is supposed to be hard enough to rival iron during the winter. My formation certainly must not be helping in that regard. On hindsight, I should have begun digging before I put in the last formations. It would have been worth it if it made my work a fraction easier.


    Well this is a bit embarrassing. Granted that I had not used mana, this is not the feats of strength that I would want to show to my soldiers. After all, this entire structure should be built by a group much like the soldiers of this area and they must have dug the ground quite the bit for the foundations. I would have assumed my brute strength to be enough.


    Well, I raise the pick with all my strength and make it hit the exact same location, with the ground breaking a bit more. It is not much and I can already feel a dull throb in my arms. This is not going to be pleasant. Thinking this, I begin to cycle my mana into my arms. Let''s get this done quickly.


    Thinking this I get down to work feeling the ground give away under my mana empowered strikes. After almost an hour and with quite a significant chunk of my mana used I have finally managed to dig a decently sized hole in the ground. I can feel a dull throb in my arms, even after strengthening with mana which showed just how much of a challenge this is. now I have to wonder what is exactly the strength of the construction corps of the empire, if they have built the fort in a week.


    To get back to the topic, the hole is smaller than I would have liked but it will have to do for now. Picking up the formation core I throw it into the ground as my mana strings enter into the class eight formation. The mana strings flow smoothly throughout the formation without any obstruction especially into the runes of the class eight formation. If I were to try that with the entire thing out of the ground, my mana strings would have simply not been able to link with the class eight formation.


    With that confirmation I feel the entire thing, feeling the walls vibrate in this tune that was not a tune. I wonder if I should be feeling a sense of success or relief, though I have to admit that I am feeling nothing at the moment. It won''t take me long before I start wondering what could go wrong with the formation and if there are any tweaks that I should be doing.


    Knowing me, without anything to do waiting for the enemy to strike is going to be even more exhausting and worry inducing than building the formation. At least with the formation my mind was not idle. If anything it has been the opposite with this project. Well, let''s try and rest at the very least, though it is easier said than done.


    After all, I will have to be at my maximum freshness before I go and get my formation active. Using any new formation is not supposed to be particularly easy and I do not think that I am going to get much opportunity to practice. It would not be a particularly terrifying first impression if I were to miss the enemy by leagues, now would it.

 the arrival of the snowlords (log 029)

    I have been trying to find out everything that I can about the snowlords and their abilities. It has not been as easy as I was hoping it to be. To the soldiers here the snowlords are something that they have never seen. The only thing that they know about them come from the nightmares of the survivors or from the drunken boasting of the nobles.


    Neither is a really good source of information. So I am stuck trying to plan for something when I have no idea what the other side can do. It is at moments like this that I realise that I am a very creative man. I have quite a few tricks ready for them, even with my limited resources.


    Regardless, I guess that I should be describing the snowlords as I see them at this moment. Their arrival onto the battlefield was very anticlimactic. I dont know what I was expecting to happen, but this was certainly not what I had expected.


    They appeared like ghosts at the gate of the fortress. Well, that is what they must be thinking now as they are standing right next to the western gate. I have been tracking them for quite a while now. I was almost ready to crank up my ballista. I had almost done so too, if it were not for shamon stopping me at the last moment.


    ¡°Captain, the enemy is flying a flag of peace. You do not want to be attacking them with that flag.¡°, he spoke just as I was aiming the ballista.


    ¡°Why would I not be taking such a perfect opportunity to strike them.¡°, I reply. There is no way that they are going to be making peace deals with a person of the legion.


    ¡°It is a general enough convention. If you break this today, the little negotiation that we are able to do with the snowlords will also disappear. I don''t know about the commander but every person in the frozen peak will curse you to death if that were to happen.¡°, he speaks.


    ¡°Fine, but just remember that no negotiation will be succesful. After all, I am surprised that they are already not attacking us like rabid beasts.¡°, I reply to the man as I stay my hand.


    That is how we have ended up in the present situation. With the snowlords standing right at the gate. They are three snowlords standing at our gate. among them two do not seem to be particularly intimidating. Even their mana stores are comparable to me.


    It is only one man that is the strong one in this bunch. He is roughly the size of a small hill and his entire body is covered in some kind of runic tattoos. None of them are active, but once that does happen he is going to be a pain to manage. Even without it, his mana output is particularly crazy.


    As I am speaking this, shamon and his soldiers have been preparing to greet the snowlords into the fort. For this they even have a room, though it is not clean at all. That is why everybody is waiting for the soldiers to clean the place up. I can sense shamon rushing to the gate of the fort to open it up.


    Normally it should be the commander of the fort that should be doing this task. In this case that would be me. I am not going to be taking such a risk. After all, if the bastards have come here with the express purpose of getting me killed there is no way that I am revealing myself.


    This is the perfect trap, regardless of what shamon is willing to accept it. the man is pretty safe, if the snowlords even show the slightest intent of attacking the man, I am going to pepper them with the ballista.


    Granted it is going to leave a few holes in the building but that is an acceptable loss isn''t it. Right now, I am listening to them by strengthening my mana sense. It will leave me with a headache but what can I do.


    ¡°Greetings, snowlords.¡°, shamon speaks while opening up the gate to the fort. ¡°For what purpose have you decided to come to our humble abode?¡°


    ¡°Your master seems to have a certain amount of spunk, to dare to intrude in our lands.¡°, it is the man that speaks, his voice strengthened with mana so that it is audible for everybody in the fort. ¡°Come on out, you little spawn of sages. Just because you are not using the arts of your people, do you think that we will not be able to track you down.¡°


    Well, I still am not making a move though the only reason for that is suspicion. There is no way in hell that I actually got that lucky now.


    ¡°I do not know what you mean, I am the commander of this fort and I have presented myself as is the tradition.¡°, Shamon spoke.


    ¡°Well, commander. We understand the mana signature of the sages and the touch that they have with their magic. Even now I can feel the bastards mana sense.¡°, the man spoke, his voice normal now.


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    ¡°Well, sage we are waiting down here. If you do not get your ass down here, I will be forced to tear down this work of yours.¡°, he screams again.


    Well, again I find myself questioning if I should be going to the gate. for now, I think the prudent choice is to just go with the flow.


    (After about a couple minutes.)


    I have finally made my way to the gate. Normally I am much quicker about this but I am wary. Even right now my heart is beating like a drum.


    Right now I am taking an absurd risk by coming here. If all of this was a clever ruse to get me away from the ballista then I am screwed. All of my mana reserves should be nearing the threshold value but that is a risk that I am not willing to take at this moment. Even a few more hours will be enough.


    ¡°for a sage I must admit that you are quite fit.¡°, the man spoke. In all of this while his two retainers have not spoken one word. ¡°Regardless we are in snowwind territory and we will have to follow their traditions.¡°


    Saying so the man begins to charge in. I turn to shamon behind me who only signs for me to wait. By the time I turn back to the man he is already entering deep into the fort.


    I follow suit and soon enough we are in a room that has been cleaned up by the soldiers in a hurry. It is a kind of a massive guest room.


    ¡°Well, it is in no way comfortable, but at the very least it shall do. Sage, the bastards must be offering you quite the bit if you are willing to stay in this hellhole.¡°, the man speaks, her two servants behind her like a couple of ghosts.


    ¡°Well, sir....¡°, I begin.


    ¡°No need to break protocol now. Otherwise the bastards will begin to take it as an invitation to stab us in our back.¡°, he replies. ¡°Any talk of business will have to be postponed till tomorrow.¡°


    ¡°My sir, what would be your name?¡°, I ask again.


    ¡°Well, I have no desire to fall victim to your magic, sage. I shall not be giving you the name of any person here.¡°, he replies with an air of finality.


    With that, I leave the room about as confused as a man can be.


    (After almost a couple of hours.)


    Shamon has been rushing about the base for the last couple hours. The man has been trying to get a feast cooked and I have to admit that he has been more them exemplary at it. He has rounded up a few of the soldiers who seem to be good at cooking and opened up a random room full of food items.


    I am surprised that the soldiers have not raided this pantry. The rations that they have here are filling but they are certainly not appetising.


    I am in the kitchen at the moment salivating while smelling the food that is being made here. (What can I say, a man needs to eat sometimes.)


    ¡°Captain, we will not be getting to eat unless the guests have eaten.¡°, shamon speaks behind me.


    ¡°Well, I have come here to ask you how in hell are we suddenly feeding the snowlords?¡°, I ask.


    ¡°Well, captain. that is a question you will have to answer. Why are they suddenly thinking of you as a sage?¡°, he replies.


    ¡°I do have a bloodline of the sages, shamon. It is not activated so I can''t use any of their abilities though.¡°, I reply. ¡°As for why a sage is in the black mountain. That is a question that might get you killed. Now answer my question.¡°


    ¡°Well, we cannot just keep fighting with the snowlords all the time, captain. There have been years when we have had to negotiate with them as well to have them back off.¡°, he replies. ¡°Due to that we do have protocols in place for when such a negotiation has to be done. I have to admit that I have never seen them followed though. The last time I heard it was done was ten years ago.¡°


    ¡°So what exactly am I supposed to be doing today?¡°, I ask the man.


    ¡°Today you have to do nothing, captain. Right now is the day of rest. Today they shall eat the feast and rest. Any and all business has to be left for tomorrow.¡°, he replies.


    ¡°isnt that kind of stupid?¡°, is my only reply.


    ¡°It might be, but this is how the nobles do it in our empire. It is meant to be a proof that neither side is going to be impulsive. The nobles believe that tired men are quick to fight.¡°, he replies. ¡°Regardless, we cannot break protocol until they do. For now I would suggest that you return to the ballista. After all, if they do end up making a move that is the only thing that can hold them back.¡°


    Saying that shamon essentially dismisses me to the tower. As I do so, I cannot help but think about the sages. Well, how do I describe sages to men that have never dealt with them. I think the best way to describe them is that they are men of every faction. The bastards are capable of selling the same spells to both sides of a war and do so in such a way that both sides have no option but to do so.


    Their ability to do this is to a degree that even the black mountain will be able to learn lessons from them. After all, even we have quite a few enemies. One example is the tribes.


    They deal with every faction in the continent. Part of the reason for this is that their services are nearly indespensible to everybody. Very few beings can beat a sage in terms of magic.


    Even the black mountain with its massive reservoir of magic will struggle to compete with them sometimes. The keyword being sometimes. That is mainly due to their bloodline. The sages tend to have certain abilities present in them inherently that make magic come to them like it is their second nature.


    As for how I am descended from a sage, that I will have to leave for some other day. It is a long and an annoying story to tell. All you need to know is that I am part of a group that is called as the ¡°orphans of the legion¡±.


    As for why the sages have a presence here at all. It is harder to find a place where they do not have a dealing with the local forces. I don''t know why but the snowlords seem to be thinking that I am a sage.


    I cannot imagine why they would have such a misunderstanding. All I can guess at this moment is that there seems to be a communication gap between the various snowlords. Otherwise, if they were to know of my allegiance with the legion, things are going to be quite crazy. Well, the only way that I will be finding this out is going through whatever negotiation is going to be occuring tomorrow.


    The negotiation is going to fail ultimately but it is going to at least give me time and I get to do the only thing that is positive in this entire mess is that I get to play with my water spears.

 a failed negotiation (log 030.1)

    Well, right now I am shivering in my robes. Normally, I am not one to wear robes. They bring up too many bad memories for me to like them.


    It is the clothes of preference for a sage though. They might not even notice it if I do not wear my robes, but that is a risk that I cannot take.


    Right now we are in the best room in the fort, sitting on a circular table that I think must be built of some kind a fancy wood. I did not bother to ask shamon. The only thing that I know about it is it has some kind of a formation engraved into it that is supposed to grant it more durability. It is not particularly useful as even I will break the table apart with a strike especially now. Instead, it will do the work of hiding my new trick quite nicely. Granted for that to happened I had to modify the existing formation quite the bit.


    The room itself is quite bare though. The only other thing that is worth noticing about the room is the window that gives a view of, well the frozen wastelands. If things go well, the window is going to be quite useful.


    ¡°Oh sage, if you are checking me out now. I would suggest that you keeps your eyes to yourself.¡°, the lady soldier finally speaks first. Turns out, I was staring at the few creatures. Thankfully, they have assumed my fear to be my lust.


    Controlling my awkwardness, I speak out as a sage would.


    ¡°Why would I not, my lady. such a fine physique you have.¡°, I reply. Don''t judge me, all sages tend to have the same personality. I wonder if you can call being horny a personality.


    Regardless of my embarassment, I focus on my future enemies. I forgot to mention it to you yesterday but the other two snowlords were a man and a woman. Now that I have looked at them properly, it is clear that they would be about as strong as the giant, but they have burnt through their mana somehow, most likely to reach here.


    ¡°Well, I have not certainly come here to be ogled. I shall consider it an attack the next time that you ogle at me.¡°, she replies, clearly used to it and quite annoyed at it. Looks like the snowlords have quite the experience dealing with sages. That is a point to be noted.


    ¡°Certainly, my lady. I certainly would not like to be attacked by you.¡°, I reply. Well, a sage would make use of more expletives but I think the enemy has yet to notice.


    ¡°Well, then begin with an explanation, sage.¡°, the giant speaks, his voice so laden with killing intent that it is a wonder he is not attacking already. ¡°Why are you here. This close to the truelands, do you want to break the treaty.¡°


    ¡°Well, I wouldn''t know of which treaty that you are speaking of.¡°, I reply, taking the most sarcastic tone that I could possibly take. These people are idiots, to think that a treaty with the sages would be followed. Unless they are trying to trick me and there is no treaty. Then I am dead.


    ¡°Well, Mr sage, you are dangerously close to losing your head at this moment. After what your people have pulled of at spear valley, the fact that we are talking is proof of the goodwill of our tribe.¡° he replies.


    ¡°well, I guess that we have played around here enough.¡°, I speak. ¡°Why are you here?¡°


    The only reply to this is that the man opposite me has begun to laugh. His laugh is booming as is befitting his size. He is pissed off, if his fists are any indication. He would be very bad in a true negotiation.


    ¡°The question is why are you here. The snow tribes shall not accept anymore help from the sages.¡°, he speaks. ¡°Be thankful that you were not found in the truelands. Else, we would have been forced to kill you then and there.¡°


    Well, I am confused about replying to this. It doesn''t take me much time to commit though.


    ¡°Well, why would I be going to your lands. The only reason that I am here is that the snowwinders offered me a good deal. I shall build their formation and leave.¡°, I reply. ¡°I wonder if that breaks the treaty.¡°


    Well, let''s just hope I sound sarcastic in case of the worst case. No matter what they should not get the idea that I don''t know what they are talking about.


    ¡°You bastards. All of you.¡°, he suddenly gets up and slams the table. ¡°You and your kind have agreed not to fight in this battle. Remember what we have given to you, we can snatch it just as easily from you.¡°


    ¡°I wonder what you have given them.¡°, almost as soon as I spoke it I realised my mistake. The other side is much faster than me at catching it though. I don''t think he has fully realised the implication of my statement as he attacks me almost on instinct.


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    I jump down, feeling the opposing sides fist pass above my head. I don''t even need to look back to know that the wall behind me was blown away completely. he has already begun to gather mana in his other fist.


    Fuck this, as I finally activate my trap. Well, calling it a trap is wrong as the table collapses under my hand. I am surprised the damn thing managed to handle the pressure of what I had hidden in it.


    It is a water spear, though not a normal one. I will speak about it later but for now I grab it. The instant that I do so the power of the spear overhelms me. The mana in it washes into me like a tidal wave. A lesser mage would have lost control of it but I grasp the mana and direct it into me, ensuring that I do not lose control for even a second.


    Well, on the spot I am only able to think of mage hand. It is a basic spell that is able to manifest the hand of the user. the more power that is put into the spell, the larger the hand is.


    With the mana I have put into it, the mage hand formed is the size of a giant''s hand. Well, I do not waste any more mana as I direct the hand towards the giant. The force of the hand is enough to carry him right out of the window and the hope is that it will last until he is really far away.


    Well, I don''t get to celebrate that victory as the lady had already begun to charge towards me. I am not even able to react as the lady punches me right into the wall. I can feel my skull punch through the wall.


    Well, this was the expected case. There is no way that I will be able to fight these bastards in a direct fight. Well, that was never the plan anyway.


    ¡°That was certainly rude, my lady.¡°, I speak out, trying to provoke this lady. There is blood in my mouth which is not a good sign. ¡°well, what else can be expected of the tribes. All of you are brut.....¡°


    I don''t get to complete the statement as the lady appears in front of me like a ghost and before I know it my throat is in her hands. She is not as weak as I considered her to be.


    ¡°You should be careful, you damn bastard.¡°, she finally spoke, her voice wispy and tired. ¡°The men of the legion have been killed for lesser.¡°


    ¡°How much lesser?¡°, I squeak, almost on an impulse. The result is a tightening of her hands. I can feel my spine cracking.


    ¡°Well, as long as you exist you have to be killed.¡°, she spoke.


    I finally stab into her with my spear. The spear barely penetrates into her flesh. That is enough as I push all of the mana of the spear into her body. I can feel the spear physically diminish in my arms until it dissipates completely.


    As the world around me blackens, I can see the body of the lady swell up like a balloon.


    (After about five minutes.)


    I can''t really tell how much damage actually happen to the lady. All I know is that the damage was enough for her to leave without killing me. I can safely assume that she is out of this fight.


    Well, that went well. The third person of the group, the man has also disappeared. I think he disappeared the instance the giant was blown away, to save him. He must have assumed that I would easily die to the ladies hand. If he stayed back. Fuck, let''s not dwell on the what ifs.


    The man leaving has both made things easier for me and much much harder.


    Well, I begin to run towards the ballista. The tower I have placed it in is actually pretty close to the room of our negotiations. as I enter into the place, I notice that shamon is also there with me.


    ¡°What the fuck are you doing here¡±, I scream at the man, while aiming the ballista. Meanwhile my mana sense has grown to cover the entirety of the castle. I will know when the enemy is going to be approaching.


    By the way, even this mana sense of mine is a result of my bloodline as a sage. Well it is the only thing unless a sage decides that I am worthy of having my bloodline activated.


    ¡°Well, the soldiers are already in the formation room. they will manage guarding the place. I am better of here.¡°, he replies. ¡°Regardless of what happened downstairs I would have been here to manage the ballista.¡°


    ¡°as I have told you a dozen times before, the ballista will not work for anybody but me right now. The formation is not fully active. Regardless, I have told you that the spear would work. The snowlords might be able to handle ice mana perfectly, but then all we needed to do is to overdose them with some other mana type. Strong resistance to one element of mana usually means a weakness to another type.¡°, I speak to the man. ¡°That spear of mine had almost the entire mana of twenty five spears stuffed into it.¡°


    ¡°how many did you even get with that spear of yours?¡°, he asks.


    ¡°Well, only one, but to justify myself I had to spend a majority of my mana to push that giant far away from the castle.¡°, I reply.


    ¡°Well, then what are you waiting for captain. Activate the formation at least now.¡°, he starts again.


    ¡°I will, I will, let them come to the battlefield already. There is no need to tip our hand to the enemy.¡°, I reply. ¡°Now do not disturb me. I have a battle to prepare for.¡°


    saying that I begin to concentrate on the spears that are in my hand. As I bring them closer I can feel the two spears repel each other. I don''t stop pushing them as strings of mana bind them. Once they cross a threshold the two spears merge into one.


    I put that merged spear back and start the process again. These spears will not be lasting for more than a few hours. If I had more time I could make more spears like the one I used downstairs. That took me almost the entirety of the last night.


    Right now there is no way in hell that the enemy will be letting me play around like this now. These merged spears will have to do for now. If they don''t well, the only thing that I have left in my hand is the nasty surprise.


    That would require me to activate the central formation which is the only reason that it is not active right now. I guess that I could have it started right now. That would be the best case as it will take about five minutes for the entire formation to activate.


    The only reason that I hesitate is the fear that I might not have enough mana in the formation. It is not like the few minutes will make any real difference in the grand scheme, but even a fraction of a benefit is a fraction of a benefit. It will give me peace of mind at the very least even if it doesn''t do anything else.

 the fight with the snowlords (log 030.2)

    It doesn''t take very long for the snowlords to reach the wall. Thankfully, my stunt with the spear at least managed to get one of them. If my plan of ambushing them had worked it might have actually taken care of the three of them. Well, at the very least it has taken out one. We could be in an infinitely worse situation if I am to be frank. The giant could still be in the fort.


    The moment that I feel their presence in my mana sense, I activate the formation. Now, this formation will take about five minutes to warm up. Now the only problem is that I have to survive for that long.


    That is going to be a very hard task. Already the two snowlords have made it to the vicinity of the wall so quickly that I can already see them. It does not take them longer than a few seconds to make their way to the wall.


    Fuck, maybe I should have activated the formation much earlier. The giant has all of his tattoos activated. I can sense the amount of mana that is flowing into his tattoos. It is like a whirpool, dragging in every bit of mana surrounding him.


    ¡°We won''t be able to stop him outside shamon.¡°, I tell the man. ¡°Now would be the time to run away I guess.¡°


    he is running towards the wall, his each step matching a hundred of my own. (I don''t even want to imagine the that he could do to the wall colliding at that speed with it.) Well, I take aim and shoot the spear. The spear flies true to its aim hitting the giant right in his ankle. The force of the spear is enough to cause a small cut on his leg and also trip him to the ground. The force of his fall is enough to cause a small pit to be formed on the ground.


    The other snowlord is not visible anywhere. I guess that I should also keep an eye out for him, but the giant is already so terrifying. There is no way that I will be able to focus on the both of them. I will have to leave that snowlord to the soldiers that should be huddled in the formation room. That should be his target at the moment. The place would be pretty independent of ice mana. (Since the formation is becoming ready to activate.).


    In there the soldiers should be able to make use of their numbers to overwhelm the man. These creatures might be at the second circle, but cut of from their mana, they should have the strength of a first circle mage. Thirty soldiers all ganging up on him will be enough to get rid of at least that one snowlord. Especially if I am there to help after dealing with this giant.


    Already the giant is getting up. I take out another of the spears and shoot at his throat. This time he is more ready for my presence. His hand flashes out like a hawk as he grasps it in his hand. All he needs to do is flex his hand for the spear to break into two.


    Fuck, even the combined spears are this ineffective. Well, this pushes things to dangerous levels. As the giant has reached the wall, I begin to send my mana into the ballista as I can feel the ballista break apart.


    I have to do it carefully to ensure that the damage does not spread to the top of the ballista. If that happens, the ballista will become useless. I cannot even recreate the ballista. That would consume mana that I simply cannot spare and attract the attention of the giant.


    What I am going to be doing is going to do is damaging the formation a bit, but I will be dead within the minute if the damn giant manages to catch me. I will repair any damage that has occured to the formation after the battle. If I cannot, well it is the problem of whichever person that comes after me.


    Right now what I am doing is breaking the support to the ballista so that I can hold it in my hand. It takes about a quarter of my mana reserves but I manage to finally remove the ballista. It is pretty light in my hands. After that is done, I quickly grasp as many of the spears that I can. The instant that they are out of the quiver I can feel the mana in it dissipate.


    Well, these spears are not going to be lasting the hour in my hand though that is not a worry. After all, I will either have won this match or will be dead by the end of this hour. As I am lost in this train of thought, the giant punching the wall forces me to return to focus.


    Leaving shamon in the tower I disappear into the fort below. You see, the fort is a confusing mess of tunnels and pathways, just like any fort in the continent. It is a simple strategy to deter any invaders. (It took me a month to get used to the routes in this place.)Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    My hope is to make use of these confusing paths to try and ambush the giant. Maybe I won''t be able to injure him but I will be able to buy time. as I think this, the giant has managed to break into the fort. I can literally feel the wall crumble and vibrate as he breaks into the wall.


    I am approximately able to tell his position due to the mana that he is emitting. Let''s hope that this is enough for this fight. Enhancing my mana sense would be too dangerous right now.


    (After about three to four minutes.)


    Well, I wish that I could have recorded the fight with the damn bastard. He has almost managed to get me more than a couple times. Even now he has managed to shatter my left arm, though I did manage to escape him.


    Right now I am huddling to try and catch my breath. I don''t even know from which tunnel the man will be making his move. After all, even though I am vaguely able to tell his position it is in no way enough to tell his precise position.


    He has also made my knowledge of the area nearly useless as well. After all, he is literally charging through the walls like a blind bull. Thankfully, his mana sense is not as sensitive as mine or I would already be dead.


    I have completely exhausted my spears as well. So I have no way of striking the giant at this moment. Most of my strikes were misses with only three getting anywhere near to him.


    The first time went the best. The man is not exactly the quietest as he essentially announces his presence. I did not even need to aim for this shot. Still, that shot nearly took the head of the giant though as bad luck would have it he blocked it with his hand. I assume quite the bit of damage was done to his hand at the very least when the spear hit him from so close.


    The second shot was still fine, this shot taken from a particular L shaped tunnel roughly about enough length for the man to cover in a few moments. I released the shot the moment that he was taking the turn. I had assumed it would catch him off guard and it did. This time it hit his chest, though his tattoos seem to have done something to block that strike. it grew bright enough for spots to appear in my eyes. Making things that bright is being wasteful with your mana if you ask me, though I don''t think it is a problem with them in this land.


    The third was the most disastrous, with the shot ready and primed to strike the enemy as he breaks the wall to my left. He literally punched through the fucking wall and grasped me by the hand. I literally dropped my ballista as I jump back trying to dodge. The pang of pain that I feel is enough to cause my head to blank out. Still, the shot does get fired striking the wall behind him. The suddeness of the shot is the only thing that saved me as he drops me. I disappear into the fort. That ballista has been completely broken though in this process. That leaves me with no way to strike him. Trying to get back the ballista is not possible as firstly I don''t have the time and secondly the act of breaking the ballista must have damaged the formation conjuring it as well. Forcefully conjuring the ballista will increase this damage.


    I guess I should start making my way to the formation core already. The flow of the elemental mana might just reduce the ice mana in the region. If not anything else, it will make the snowlords a bit weaker at the very least.


    It is not like roaming about randomly in the fort is going to be getting me anything useful. Without the ballista I have only one option left in case I meet with any of the snowlords and that would be my nasty surprise. The only problem with that is I need to activate the formation for it.


    With that I begin to make my way into the fort which is not a prospect that I am enjoying. I can see why the snowwinders have struggled to build any new forts. the snowlords are experts at demolishing stuff. I can seen the holes in the wall, extending till beyond where my eye can see as if the man was simply running through these walls. Knowing him that could literally be the case too.


    If they are given free rein, they will be able to bring down the entire place quite easily in half a day. Well, I and my formation are here to prevent that exactly happening, which should have been ready to activate already.


    While thinking all of this, I do not notice the sound of the breaking walls. As I begin to realise it the world around me turns black. I temporarily stop feeling the pull of gravity as I fly in the air. it takes me a while, but I finally notice the cause of my flight. The bulky bastard has finally found me and in a single hit broken at least a couple of bones I think. I can feel a throbbing in my chest that is nothing good, I assure you. I begin to push mana into it to relieve the pain.


    Fuck, I did not really want to meet the bastard but I finally manage to get a look at the man and the damage that I have done to him. He is moving his arm gingerly, though his other arm is still big enough to single handedly wrap around my throat. His skin looks to have been cut in places where the explosion of water mana from my third arrow seems to have struck.


    Somehow the damage that I have done to the man seems negligible compared to the size of the man and already healing based on what I can tell. I could not really see it until now, but this man is massive, almost double my height and triple my width. His tattoos seems to also have the ability to cause his body to grow in size. How in the hells am I supposed to fight the man.


    While, I am looking at him, the man is also looking at me. I don''t know how, but the man has managed to somehow express surprise without moving an inch of his face. How he did it, I don''t know but I suddenly feel a twinge of annoyance. What is he doing going about surprised like that.


    Thinking that I extend the strings of my mana into the ground, towards the formation core. Time to properly start this fight. The damn formation is finally ready to be activated.

 the nasty surprise (log 030.3)

    Controlling a class eight formation feels really different from controlling a class nine formation. I like to compare this to the process of making a puppet. The class nine formations are like the limbs and face of the puppet and the process of controlling them is like moving the limbs with your own hands. It is simple and a kid could do it but there is not much you can do with it. You will be more likely to end up breaking the puppet in the process of using it too.


    A class eight formation is like making the strings of the puppet. It is hard and annoying but with the correct practice I should be able to make the puppet indistinguishable from a man.


    It is at this moment that I wish that the process of activating a class eight formation was more impressive than it actually looks like. It would at least work to intimidate the fucker in front of me.


    Even right now I can feel the formations in the formation core working at their full capacity. It is going to be a long time after this (maybe a few months.) that this formation will be able to reach this state again. There is simply not enough mana for it to work like that.


    Anyway, I do not have the time to worry about that though as I have the giant in front of me and at the moment he is charging towards me. I quickly unsheathe my sword and enter into a defensive form.


    With a single punch I can feel the ground under me give away as I crash against the wall behind me. Maybe now was not the wisest of times to face against the enemy.


    Even given a couple of minutes, the mana in the air should be thinned enough for this to be a proper fight. (Right now the nurturing formation is literally pushing away the ambient mana to create a bubble of mana which would be more conducive for plant growth which thankfully does not involve ice mana)


    Well, time to focus on the fight. The man seems to be confused about the fact that I am not dead at the moment. There is a reason that people do not like to be dependant on external mana. It tends to be so unreliable at key moments like this. If we were outside in the ice mana that hit would have liquified my insides.


    Anyways, I do not get to think much as the man begins to charge towards me. I do not even get a moment as he suddenly appears in front of me. Just what kind of brute strength is that, I think as I charge to the left barely dodging as the man charges creating a hole into the wall behind me.


    The man is not even phased as he turns back and charges to my location. This is not going to be easy, but he is getting slower at the very least. I can see the brightness of his tattoos becoming dimmer with time. A bit more time and then I can make use of my final ace. I can''t really use it until the mana field is somewhat stable.


    That means that I have to keep dodging the brute for the next couple of minutes.


    (A couple of minutes later.)


    Dodging the man is surprisingly easy granted he seems to be focused on strength rather than agility. Well, I think his duty is to bring down buildings like this. That would certainly explain his charge which would be considered suicidal in any other perspective. My master would certainly enjoy playing around with a brute like this, heck even me with my formations would be pretty well suited to fight him. If only I had activated it before.


    Regardless, I think that the formation should have stabilised already. At the very least I am not able to sense any sudden fluctuations in the mana of the region. I could tell better if I had specific tools, but even this level of stability is going to be enough, I guess.


    Well, the damn bull has essentially been running quite freely through the fort to a point where I don''t know what his target is. He is just randomly charging through the place now forgetting about me fully. I think he wants to bring down the building with me as a secondary concern. (Which I have to admit is quite embarrassing. The snowwinders built the fort in seven days. I would have been a better target.) I can literally feel the building shake every time he goes through a wall which while making me fear that the roof is going to fall on top of us is also acting as a pretty good indicator of his presence in my surroundings.


    Well, that is enough complaining as I return to my hidden ace. Among the ten formations of the nurturing formation, only the ballista and the water spear is meant to be offensive in nature. They are not the scariest formation though, the title for that would go to the ring of dew formation. It is a conjuration formation that is used to create a simple ring large enough to contain me if I were to scrunch up in it a bit. the formations on the ring have a simple task, to expel water mana at a steady rate.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    The formation inherently is not that dangerous. It is actually used by the druids to water their plants. One ring for each tree in their forest. Given that there is no forest in the place and it is pretty unlikely for one to come here any time soon, there was quite a significant reason for me to replace it with something else.


    One second, I can feel the ground rumbling from the north (the man has managed to disfigure the fort enough that I have no idea where I am.), I take the route to the left of where the vibrations are coming from. After a few moments I am safely out of his path. Well, if this continues I am going to have more significant worries. (Namely, if my formation will have a fort left to enhance.)


    Anyway, returning to the ring of dews. The reason that I have even put it in the formation is to actually test a hypothesis of my master. Well, no sense in delaying it any further. Manipulating the formation, I begin to create a ring of dew at every entrance to the place( two official entries of the tunnel and three holes in the wall where the bastard passed through.). At least the creation of the formation is occuring quite well. I am pretty sure that I can create these rings in real time though powering them will take some time. It is very weird to feel the conjured formation, which will activate based on my will. It is like a ghost limb in the formation. A formation within a formation.


    I can feel the ground vibrate under my feet as the man continues his demolition run. Honestly, I feel a bit annoyed. The man has clearly forgotten that he is supposed to be fighting with me. Well, he will come to regret that day, especially if my masters modification works. I don''t want to think what will occur if that is not the case. Well, I am sure that the man would not enjoy being drenched in this weather.


    Well, I am embarrassed to admit that I almost got run over as I got a bit lost in my worries. It is almost instinct as I activate the ring of dew from the tunnel behind me, almost missing the man as all the water mana in the ring (which would have been enough to feed a small tree for a day. Pretty negligible compared to a water spear) is released in a fraction of a moment.


    The funny thing about water mana is that concentrated enough it becomes very sharp at high enough concentration. I have seen men using concentrated expulsion of water mana to cut into metal and in the present case it does not disappoint as I can see blood seep from the cut on the man''s leg which was inside the circle. I was hoping to see his leg cut of, but this is still a pretty good result considering moments ago I could not damage him without using dangerous methods.


    Well, I will not get to enjoy my handiwork as I begin to create rings throughout the surrounding regions. With my capabilities I should be able to create ten such rings in an instant though it will take a while to power it. The man becomes a bit more cautious as he is not sure of the rings positions (another reason I needed to wait for the formation to stabilize. Such rings would have been quite obvious in a purely ice mana region.)


    "Bastard of the legion, what magic are you running.", the man speaks for the first time.


    "I was beginning to think that you were dumb, you damn brute.", I can''t help but curse, the man has destroyed quite a significant part of the fort and frankly, I am getting quite attached to the place.


    "Well we hunt bastards like you every year. You are quite a confident man, to think you would come into our home and taunt us." The man speaks, taking a cautious step forward. There is no ring there but a step to the left and the man will be in for another strike. "I wonder what the snowwinders gave to your people that they are willing to send you here."


    "I wouldn''t certainly know, but this seems to be quite familiar to you. I could hire you to bring down buildings. The dwarves would have quite a use for you.", I speak in what I hope is a taunting tone.


    "Well, what could be said about you legion bastards. We have brought down so many of your so called forts that I could do it in my sleep. You bastards are quite bad at this job.", the man spreads his arm to the left like a man groping in the dark.


    I activate the ring as his arms enter into the ring. It is quite pleasant to see the man grunt in pain especially with the failure of my combined spears. I really wanted it to work you know.


    "Well, you will find this particular fort much harder to conquer, my dear friend. It would be best for the both of us if you were to retreat don''t you think.", I speak. "It would not be particularly difficult to get you killed at the moment."


    "It is a neat trick, I admit my friend. Those bastards try the same things so many times that it gets boring. You seem to be using some kind of a formation. I would assume that you originate from the south, maybe the plain of forts." he speaks as his bleeding injuries seem to begin freezing as his flesh takes on a greyish tone. The fucker is freezing his own body.


    "Well, I have never been to the plain of forts. You are quite close to my base though.", I say. I try to form a ring under the man''s position. The man seems to sense it, as he takes a step back.


    "Good attempt, my friend. My senses are not that dull. I am surprised that the snowwinders are willing to rely on you bastards. You destroyed one of their ancestral forts didn''t you. That while you guys were drunk." he speaks, as he suddenly looks at me.


    "Well, not me personally. It is risky business with ancient magic. Even for experts." I speak.


    "Well, I still have to thank you for chatting with me. The others would not have allowed so much time for us to prepare. I will have to take my leave here then.", he says.


    I do not get to reply to the man as all of his tattoos begin to grow brighter and brighter completely dominating my vision. I remember pulling on every bit of my mana to protect my body. I do not even realise it as I am blown away as a massive amount of ice mana passes through me like water in a waterfall. A waterfall that had somehow frozen into an iceberg. By the time vision returns to me (at least as far I remember), the only thing that I can see and sense in my surroundings is the ruined fort which looked like It had just survived a snowstorm.

 defeat of the snowlords (log 030.4)

    It takes me a few moments to return to the world around me. I was encased in a thin layer of ice, (which is still breaking apart right now.) though the same cannot be said about the man in front of me. He has frozen completely into a block of ice.


    I don''t know what move he was trying to pull of, but I have to admit that if


    he had succeeded in doing it properly or even if he managed to do it out of the bubble with full access to the mana outside I would be dead at this moment. That final attack of his was meant to destroy the entire fort and I took it on at point blank range.


    Even now I can feel the massive amount of ice mana that has made its way into my body. I would easily say that it is ten times the amount that I had to deal with the previous time I faced the chill.


    I can feel it rampaging in my body like a blind bull. Well, this is a well and proper mess. Regardless, it is time for me to focus. After all, this is the only chance that I will get to kill the man in front of me.


    he is about as helpless as he can be. One stab into his skull and I am sure that he will die. Well, better to do it quickly. There is lot of ice I have to go through. The man looks like he has been frozen in the ice for a decade. I can feel my vision blurring already.


    Grasping my sword I begin to move, though not particularly fastly. I feel like the world around me has turned to jelly. It takes me what feels like an eternity to reach the giant.


    Just as I am about to make a move though, I can see the glint of steel in front of me. I barely am able to raise my sword to block the enemies strike.


    ¡°To think that you managed to block the snow drive of the young master.¡°, he speaks. ¡°not many are able to do that, you brat.¡°


    Blocking his strike I realise one thing. The man does not have a lot of mana. If anything he has roughly as much mana as me. His dagger I can hold of easily. At least for a man that is supposed to be at the second circle.


    ¡°Are you sure that you are a snowlord.¡°, I speak to the man, as tauntingly as possible.


    ¡°I am more than sure. I am the reason that we even appeared this quickly here. Hiding our tracks was no easy feat, legioner. Without me that commander would be here.¡°, he replies, fear clear in his voice. ¡°Not even the young master can do what I have done in the last week. The only problem is that the magic that I have used to pull this of has broken my connection to the freeze.¡°


    ¡°you do seem to be so weak.¡°, I reply. ¡°I am sure I can take you even as I am. You barely have the mana of a first circle....¡°


    I do not get to complete my sentence as the other side suddenly strikes me with his dagger. Even with his limited connection to the freeze (which I assume is their word for the external ice mana.) the man''s strike packs a punch.


    I barely manage to dodge this strike.


    ¡°I have leaked enough secrets of my people, legioner.¡°, he speaks. ¡°If you die, this little bubble of yours should be broken. If that happens then you will die. To take in the master''s strike and not become a sculpture of ice. This bubble of yours is amazing. Something worth studying.¡°


    As he speaks, the man keeps trying to strike me.


    With each strikes he hits me a bit better. The only reason that I am able to handle his strikes is that I am also getting better at handling the chill and every moment the bubble of mana is pushing out the ice mana from my surroundings. Not that my situation is getting better. The ice mana inside me seems to be getting wilder, most likely due to the man in front of me.


    ¡°how long are you going to be retreating like that, legioner. Your death is fixed. It might be in the next strike or in the tenth strike after this but your death is fixed.¡°, he speaks.


    Hearing the man speak, I can feel my heart sink. The man is supremely confident in his words. Not that he is lying though. He can get me killed easily. Already I can feel the very act of thinking becoming harder.


    To be frank I have only one option here, that is the soldiers who are hiding in the formation room. Quite a bit of the fort has been decimated but the formation room should have been safe. It is under the ground for a reason after all.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    The soldiers will be able to take this man, as long as they have the element of surprise. I am sure that most of my strength will be consumed in taking the man to the formation room, but if I pull it off the man is going to die. The only problem now is how to take him to the formation room.


    ¡°Well, that might be the case, but do you think that you will be able to leave this place alive. The commander must be on his way.¡°, I speak, dodging another strike of his. ¡°Seems a bit suicidal?¡°


    ¡°Well, we were not supposed to be here for fighting. We were just sent here to threaten a rogue sage not following the treaty.¡°, he speaks. ¡°How were supposed to know that we would be finding an orphan here. you certainly have balls of steel. To think that you dare to barge into our land.¡°


    ¡°Last I remembered, this was the territory of the snowwind empire. What claim do you have here?¡° I reply, as sarcastically as I could.


    ¡°Well, this is our land, legioner. Make no mistake on that. The empire might be hanging their flag in that fort of theirs, but out here is our land.¡°, he replies, his voice getting serious ¡°the freeze can destroy anything. Even that paltry empire.¡°


    ¡°This freeze of yours does seem to be struggling against the frozen peak my friend.¡°, I reply. ¡°It isn''t even that Impressive of a fort.¡°


    ¡°It will be destroyed ultimately. I can see that you are struggling. What are you planning to do, I wonder. what trick is up your sleeve.¡°, he speaks, his tone getting more and more irritated ¡°Your steps have too much purpose for a man on the verge of death.¡°


    As he speaks, I am not able to block his dagger. It makes a cut on my left arm. Rather than the wound it is the ice mana that it imparts that is the problem. I can feel the pain of the strike at all. Taking a step back I enter into a defensive stance.


    I can''t say for certain but I am sure the formation room is behind me. It is not really visible in my mana sense (well, a cloak to hide the core is a very important part of the formation core.) for me to pinpoint its location.


    ¡°Well, killing you is the trick. I am of the legion, do you think that I haven''t handle worse.¡°, I reply, trying to sound confident.


    ¡°Are you sure you are of the legion, young man.¡°, he speaks. ¡°I know the status that you orphans have there and are you sure you are of the legion when you do not even know their arts.¡°


    Well, the man is astute or well informed. I will give him that but did he need to be so insulting. Regardless, I have finally found the location of the room. It is right behind me, pretty close by too. Now all I have to do is take the man there with me in such a way that he doesn''t realise who is down there.


    ¡°The legions arts would be wasted on you.¡°, I reply, smirking at him. I think so at least.¡°They are meant for true opponents of the legion.¡°


    ¡°Then you will die, young man.¡°, he replies.


    (After about a minute or so)


    After the previous dialogue the man shuts up completely as he begins to strike me with a barrage of blows. Most of them I barely manage to block pushing them away. The man might have mana equivalent to me but the man is physically much stronger than me.


    He makes full use of this as he keeps striking me like a cannon. This is to a point that I cannot even dodge the man anymore. All I can do is block him. Thankfully, all I need to do is keep going back or it might have been much more difficult for me.


    He also does not need to keep cycling mana to push out the chill like I am having to. Even now I can feel my limbs shivering. How the hell did I even end up in this situation.


    Regardless, I guess that I should be quite happy that at the very least the man is not killing me in a single strike. That is what would have happen if the man had the mana of a second circle.


    ¡°You are certainly tenacious, legioner.¡°, he speaks. ¡°Most people would be dead by now.¡°


    ¡°I am not so easy to kill.¡°, I reply. I hope that the man cannot detect the exhaustion in my voice. I just need a bit more time and a few more steps.


    ¡°Well, the next time you say that make sure that you are not standing like a half dead zombie.¡°, he replies to that. ¡°Not that there is going to be a next time.¡°


    He stresses on this point with another strike. this time the man is aiming at my throat. I block it though, his dagger too close for my comfort. I also cannot feel my right hand anymore. that is not a good sign is it. Also why is everything fading around me.


    I do not have long. Not that I need it. the man needs to follow me. just a bit more and I will be able to get rid of him. Just a bit more of distraction and I can sleep.


    ¡°Well, why exactly did they send three of you. Even one of you would have been enough to destroy the fort.¡°, I ask the man. I am so exhausted that this is the only insult that pops up in my mind. Is it even a insult.


    He replies with a strike that I am not able to block. Just a bit more. thankfully he speaks which jolts me awake. (What can I say. A man of black mountain is always curious.)


    ¡°Well, are you sure that you want to know the answer to that. You are on the verge of death here.¡°, he replies. ¡°You really should pick better methods of showing bravado.¡°


    Saying that he strikes me again. This time the force of the strike is enough to floor me. My legs really feel like jelly. I could try and get up, but my legs have other plans.


    Screw it this is going to hurt. With all of my will, I pull every bit of mana that I had put into pushing out the ice mana and send it to my legs and my arms. It takes every iota of my will to do this. I can feel my body freezing as I jump at the man grasping him in an iron grip.


    ¡°You bastards down there what are you waiting for. Come and kill the damn bastard already.¡°, I scream. Let''s hope that my calculations are right and I can hold the man for long enough. Else, the soldiers are in for a crazy fight.


    I hear the noise of people shuffling and the men below realising what my plan finally is. At the same time as the bastard in my grasp, actually. He begins to trash about like a crazy man trying to get away but I hold on. As panic leads to desperation for the man below me, I can feel the world fading away and everything becoming black again.

 the reinforcements (log 031)

    I have to admit that at the moment I feel bored enough that I think that I might just end up willingly practice mind magic. Other than this profound boredom the only thing that I feel is profound bone chilling cold. Honestly, this cold is better than how it was just ten hour ago. Then I could feel nothing other than a weird sense of warmth. That is how cold my body has gotten that it overloaded my ability to feel cold. I had to be carried down here as my body tried to push away the foreign ice mana on instinct. I went unconscious too. Even now I can''t move my body as I would like to.


    The move used on me be by the giant turned out to be one of the favourite method of attacks for a snowlords. Called as the "snowlord''s hammer" by the soldiers. The move is supposed to be a favourite sieging technique of the snowlords who use it to bring down enemy forts.


    The mechanics of the spell are also quite fascinating. It is literally a massive amount of ice mana compressed and released in a single burst. It is kind of like my ring of dew in that regard, though they are certainly been more effective with this tactic. That is only because they have more raw mana to throw around. They also had the ability to compress it absurd degrees. They also had a method of storing that compressed mana. Ok their spell is infinitely better than mine.


    As for from where I got this information, that would be shamon who suddenly seemed to be more chatty about the snowlords than even before we had to face them, when it would have been actually useful. He did not want to cloud my mind with legends which might have been true or not though it is quite evident that he simply forgot about it.


    I do not want to even think about shamon at the moment, as I cannot even vent my frustrations. Frustration is the absolute worst feeling to have when you are not able to move any of your limbs. It is thankful that is the case as I am not able to strangle the man, which would certainly have done me any good. The snowwinders protect their own. Still, This information would have been quite useful you know. I would have activated the formation much earlier and stopped playing around like that. I did not even really need to be near the enemy. The nice thing about the rings of dew is that it can be set up from nearly anywhere in the fort.


    As for where I am sleeping at the moment, it would be the formation core. Once the formation core has fully activated the concentration of the ice mana in the room is negligible. Anywhere else, I would have been a popsicle with the amount of ice mana that has entered into my body.


    Even here it is taking too much time if I am to be honest. Thankfully, the snowlords have retreated. The giant and the female snowlord have disappeared. This is not before wrecking a massive chunk of my fort though.


    At the moment I would have been worried about another attack from the snowlords if shamon had not come down here assuring me of reinforcements. He also told me that they actually managed to kill the male snowlord.


    The man has the expression that is not exactly happiness. I would call it closer to relief, but the man certainly has a spring in his step. He has been relieved of what I have to assume has been quite a stressful position.


    I have yet to meet these reinforcements but they seem to be first circle experts based of the mana that I can sense and thankfully they have been quite busy. They are rebuilding the fort, though just how much of a progress they would make before the next attack I am not sure. The fort has essentially been leveled by the enemies attack. Massive chunks of the wall have been broken as they lie fallen on the ground and the lesser that I speak about the destruction to the fort itself the better.


    Well, at the moment they are the least of my concerns though. My world is at the moment stuck to the formation core and the room it is in, which is pretty boring I must admit. The only person in the room other than me is the man who lost his limb, whose name I cannot remember.


    His situation is about as bad as me, if not quite the bit worse. The man has had to face the full brunt of the chill, which must certainly have not been easy. I am surprised that the man has managed to cling on to life till now.


    Ever since I have been put down here, the man has been sleeping and has begun to resemble a corpse if not for the fact that I could see his mana which is also not particularly strong. The worst thing is that he does not seem to be getting better even with the activation of the formation and being placed in the formation core.


    Well, that certainly does not help with the formation. The only good thing that can be said is that I have finally been given the time to relax my mind. I have been quite occupied in my thoughts. Just sitting in a single location certainly has calmed my mind by a significant bit though calling this relaxing would be very wrong. It would be quite accurate to call it mind numbing.


    (After God knows how long.)


    I don''t actually know how long I have been down here, but I can finally move my limbs. It is still nothing to boast about, just jerky spasms that is closer to shivering than actual movment. Still it gives me something to do other than just stare around at the stuff around me.


    More importantly, I have regained my ability to speak which is going to be quite crucial especially with the construction up there. Now they can come down here and ask me rather than poking around in stuff that they should not be messing with. Also, I am finally able to push the ice mana out of my body with meditation which should accelerate this process by quite a bit.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Other than that, little has changed in the room other than the soldier who has woken up a while ago. Somehow, the atmosphere has become more tragic with his awakening. Thankfully, he has returned to his sleep just a bit ago.


    Well, at the moment one of the new sources of mana is coming down here. I do not know who it is, but I will certainly need to keep my game face on. (Especially with the way that I must look at the moment.).


    The source of mana is a young soldier, much like me. He is at the moment being directed by shamon, who leaves the room almost as quickly as he enters it. The only thing that I find of interest with the man is the fact that he is wearing a coat, which seems to be some kind of an animal leather. (To those not of the region, while animal fur is quite common the process of tanning it to leather seems to be quite an expensive endeavor up here. Thus it is something meant only for the nobles.)


    "I would presume that you are captain antonio, of the black mountain.", the man spoke first bending down to match my eyeline. He certainly looks quite ordinary. You can hear the arrogance in his tone though. This is a man that thinks quite heavily of himself.


    "That would be the truth, my friend. Though I do not think that I know your name.", I reply.


    "I am captain ankon starfall, of the snowwind army", he speaks, he doesn''t like to be called my friend. "specifically, of the construction corps."


    "That is nice, though I would have to enquire you of your exact purpose. I am not in a state of greeting you, I fear.", I speak.


    "Well, I have to intrude on your healing. It relates to the repair of the fort above. We have not worked with formations like yours and thus have no desire to cause any uneeded harm to it." He speaks, finally sitting down next to me.


    "Well, the formation that I have put into the core behind me are quite flexible. Complete your repairs to the fort and I will do all the necessary repairs to the formation down here. I will have to ask for a couple of days though since I need to recover from my present state." I reply, trying to maintain a fine balance between telling what the man needs to know and what I do not want to give to him. I have to assume that I am doing a good job though. At least this one cannot crush me with his presence.


    "The chances of the snowlords attacking are quite high, antonio. It would be wise to return to a combat ready state as quickly as possible.", he speaks. The lack of honorifics is a clear attempt to prove his strength.


    "Well, it is a job that requires precision, Ankon. Clearly, I am not in a state to do precise work. I have fought them and certainly hold no desire to fight them again. Anyways, I would think that it would take you at least a couple of days to get the fort in a working order.", I speak, kind of getting tired of the conversation.


    "Two days is too long, we need maybe half a day. The snowlords while quite destructive have been quite kind in leaving behind a skeleton for us to work on. It won''t be as strong though as we have only patched up the broken parts. That is where your formations will play a key role.", Ankon continues. "So we will have need of your skills in at least a day."


    "Well, that is certainly astounding but you need not worry. The key formations will work as they are meant to even if the fort has been burnt to the ground. As for the remaining they shall not provide you with benefits in such a short time so restoring them immediately is kind of useless.", I reply, "the formations will be ready the day that I am able to move my mana freely enough. I assume that to be two days. It could be earlier too."


    That seems to catch the man offguard. Well, druidic formations are unique that way. Most formations have to depend quite heavily on the durability of their forts to function properly. druids rarely do tend to have forts and certain flexibility is required when your buildings are literally growing with you.


    "Well, is there any chance of completing it earlier. It would be quite helpful in case of an attack.", he tries again. He certainly seems to be in a hurry.


    "I could try, but with the way you are distracting me it would be quite hard. Your people must not have much better experience with what I am going through. Formation magic is not something that can be done half heartedly. The result of rushing this work can be disastrous." I reply.


    "I shall take my leave then. You will have to complete the formations quickly though." He speaks to me, getting ready to leave.


    "Well, before you leave I have ask you, just how many soldiers has your army sent to reinforce us", I ask, almost forgetting a question that has been nagging me for a while.


    "That would only be three. Me and two other captains from the sword corps", he replies. "We are all soldiers of the first circle so we should be enough to deal with the enemies. Especially if your formations work as the soldiers claim them to work."


    "You three are going to repair the damage that has happened above.", I speak, surprise in my tone. The fort above should almost be a ruin.


    "No, Antonio, the repair work will be handled by me alone. After all, the other two are more likely to destroy the fort if they were to join the process of repairing it." He replies, a smile evident in his face as he leaves the room.

 meeting snowwind nobles (log 032)

    Meeting the young elite of the snowwind empire is something that occurs so rarely that there is a higher chance of me meeting one of the generals of the black mountain (and no I have yet to meet one of the generals. They are truly busy and even my master gets to meet them so rarely.) Our records contain detailed records on the soldiers of the snowwinds, passable records on the many clans and their leaders, yet we do not have any record on the young powers of these clans.


    We do not have any idea about the next generation of the snowwind. Now it is true that all of our "allies" have always been guarded about their knowledge around us. Nobody would like to leave a talented youngster in the presence of a scholar. Adults that have spent their life guarding against the curiosity of the black mountain struggle to do so, what do you think a youngster that have barely begun to master their own magics would be able to do.


    Still, the protectiveness of the snowwinders is still a level beyond what I would expect of any other force in the continent. When you think about that, our reinforcements are quite unique in that regard. Three first circle beings have come to reinforce this region and one of them is of the construction corps. That is another enigma for us.


    I am sure that the scholars must already be poring over every detail that I am sending. We do have a hegemony to maintain after all.


    Regardless it is time that we return to the discussion at hand. Three first circle level beings, each with the power to challenge me anywhere except this fort and the three together might just be enough to actually do me in even here in the fort. If they catch me by surprise. Even the one of the construction corps that I have met has a very dangerous presence. Their presence feels less like reinforcements and more like an hostile takeover.


    The one that had come into the formation to talk to me was called as ankon starfall, who seemed to be an up and coming genius of the construction corps. While shamon has little knowledge of actual use, ankon seems to be a genius at fixing and modifying existing buildings.


    It has barely been two days since we met the man and he has already managed to bring the fort back to a spick and span shape. Unless I were to look closely at the place I would not even know that it has been repaired at all. I literally had to do the repairs to the formation the instant that I could move simply for the speed with which ankon has done his work. That was no easy work. Trying to move mana when you can barely move yourself is a very hard task I have found out.


    The other two men seem to be no less formidable (in strength and in background.) though I have only their mana to base that out of. Theo and Travis starfall are supposed to be direct descendants of the starfalls and I know very little about the starfalls. the starfalls are supposed to be a merchantile family with above the average military power among the snowwinders.


    They are still known more for their commercial capabilities then their military might, though that does not mean that I should be underestimating them. Mistakes like that are what will lead us to death.


    Now that I have transmitted this vital information (for the head office at least) it is time for me to return to the discussion of my formation and it''s success. The activation of the nurturing formation has been a success that even I did not think would happen, especially the ring of dew.


    The ring of dew could have just as easily been useless in the battlefield and I dare not imagine what would have happen with the snowlord then. I have been gambling on quite the bit with this class eight formation, I have to be frank.


    Well, let''s leave the beating myself up for my future works and focus on the things that matter for now. The very first thing that can be noticed about the entire thing is the dome of mana that is now surrounding the formation. Well it is closer to an amorphous blob rather than a dome to be honest and it is not visible. The only thing that marks the presence of said dome is the sharp decrease in ice mana that can be felt while entering it.


    Actually, that reminds me that I have to tell somebody to keep cultivating in the region nearby. To put it in simple terms, the dome is created by the mana leaking from the formations. With the druids such a dome is useful for the simple fact that the druids would use it to increase the concentration of mana in their surroundings. Right now this mana is literally disappearing into the wind. Maybe not as much as opening the formation base would have leaked, but it will be significant in the long run. The only way to make use of this mana would be to absorb it and use it for cultivation. It is actually a virtuous cycle as the emitted vital mana then would strengthen the blob. Granted, just like with everything related to the druids, it is a slow and steady process.


    I can actually think of a few formation that will be able to absorb this discharge and enhance the concentration of mana in the region but I have done enough for the snowwinders, especially in terms of formations.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Other than that though, nearly every other formation especially the iron skin formation and the water spear formations are working at their full efficiency. These two formations actually benefit from the presence of the dome as well.


    I can literally feel the quiver being filled up with spears and it is such an addictive feeling to feel the sheer quantity of spears that are present in the quiver. This is especially the case with the way that I have had to adjust with working with a limited amount of bolts for such a long time.


    That also means that my time in this fort will be coming to an end soon. Simply put, no man would like his neighbour to have the keys to his safe and in my case it is even a formation that will allow me to comfortably fight against a second circle being. Sadly, my replacement jas already arrived at the spot too with the reinforcements. I expected a bit more time.


    At the moment, I would now prefer to be sent to the ruin already. I am quite surprised to see how much I am looking forward to talk to Trevor.


    Anyway, to return to the matter of talking to reinforcements. It is about time that I have been called up to meet with them. Only ankon has deigned himself ready to come down here and talk to me. That too mainly because he did not want to mess with my formation. The other two might as well be ghosts. This will be the first time that I will be dealing with a snowwinder''s ego.


    Today I am finally going to meet them, regarding which only I am sitting down here waiting for them. They will simply not meet me by the formation core. It could be because they do not want to meet in the location where I would be the most powerful. (A common misinformation about formations is that proximity to them makes them more powerful. While that is true, it is valid across distances as large as the distance between nations. Anywhere in the fort and the formation will serve me with the same capabilities.)


    Even now, I have to go up to meet them. It is for that reason that I am waiting for shamon to actually come up and take me up there. These nobles are the sticklers for conduct after all.


    (After a few minutes.)


    "Captain, I hope you are ready to meet the starfalls.", shamon speaks his voice echoing from outside. The man enters with a hurry that I did not even see with the ice beasts suicidal charge. the starfalls scare this man.


    "Well, you will do well to calm down my friend. We are not going to meet the devils.", I say to the man.


    "The devils would be easier to deal with my friend. If you truly displease them, then they will only kill you. The starfalls are new nobles, with an itch to prove themselves. If you offend them they will likely kill you and every person in this fort to make their point.", he speaks, his voice in quite a bit of panic.


    "Well, you need not worry about that, shamon. I do not think they have any reason to kill me. I am certain that I must have exceeded their expectations quite the bit with this mission.", I say, as I allow a bit of pride into my voice. This has been an achievement for me at least.


    And it is with this kind of nervousness that I go to meet my reinforcements. The men are in the southern gate, all three as they seem to be deep in discussion until they notice my arrival.


    Ankon was studying the gate and most likely it''s hinges. Well that is their problem to figure out. The other two starfall brothers are standing to the side, absurdly tall for a human. They were tall enough to look down on me while talking. I would have thought them to have giant blood, if they did not have the necessary mass for that to be true.


    "Captain sevenstars, it is rare for us to meet people of your capability this far north. It is an honour to meet you.", the one I think called Theo speaks. He is the elder of the two, recognisable with a scar on his cheek. He is supposed to have got it wrestling with an ice beast as a child, which seems unlikely based on personal experience. Even this story was a rumour of a rumour we overheard from random soldiers talking to each other by a previous dilpomat to the frozen peaks.


    "Let''s just get to the point my friend, I am exhausted and flattery is beyond my capability at the moment.", I speak. I can see the way in which the two soldiers change the moment I speak. If they were relaxed a moment ago, now they are ready to trade blows.


    "That is certainly direct. We shall return the favour then, the commander has been quite explicit that you shall have to surrender control to the formation and return to the frozen peak." The second brother speaks, who looked a step shorter than Theo.


    "I do not mind returning. If anything that is what I want. This place has been quite miserable for me. Sadly, I have duties too and I cannot leave the place unless you can confirm that me and my people will be protected.", I speak looking at Theo with my most serious expression.


    Travis looks like he is about to speak, but his brother interrupts him before that can occur.


    "That is fair my friend. We are honour bound by the hexmountain treaty to protect you and your ruins. Failure to do so would be a stain on the honour of the commander and we cannot afford such a thing ourselves.", Theo speaks, "we shall March to protect you and your soldiers should they even think of attacking you."


    The man speaks as if he was performing in a play, taking a tone too grandiose for reality. It is quite weird if I am to be honest.


    "While that is nice to here, it is not practical. what army shall march to my aid. The soldiers here have barely held on against the enemy.", I ask.


    "Well, captain. The enemy was not supposed to pile up against you like that. It shows the strength of you and your formations that this place has held, with even the snowlords unable to cause significant damage to the place. Maybe that is why the commander has commanded quite a few troops to swing by this direction. In a few days this place will be quite stocked with troops.", ankon speaks to the air, as his focus had not left the gate.


    "What about me then, am I to remain here or is your commander planning to send me elsewhere.", I ask.


    "You are to return to the frozen peaks, to talk to the commander after which you are free to do what you want in the fort.", theo replies. "With that I think we have covered everything of note. you can retire if you wish, but we need to figure just what has to be done with this gate."


    Taking the request to leave I dissolve into the background.

 back to the frozen peak (log 033)

    I am returning to the frozen peak. They literally kicked me out of the fort first thing in the morning (or so I think at the very least). None of the soldiers were present at my send off other than the soldiers of the caravan and of course the three people that had come to replace me. This was almost immediately after my meeting with the starfalls too.


    This time I do not have the luxury of cultivating en route so this is going to be an annoying week, along with a heavy dose of nervousness. There has been quite the bit of overthinking involved in the process too. This journey requires me to be in a ready state, ready to fight at a moments notice. If it were not for a couple of the injured soldiers taking care of patrolling for me, I would sadly have to forsake sleep too (which is quite painful to those that have never used meditation to replace sleep. It literally feels like somebody is splitting my head with a axe by the end of the second day. No way that I will be inscribing in this state.) I have no desire to be ambushed by any icebeasts.


    I feel naked without the protection of the formation. It literally feels like I have been ripped from the fort and I still feel a phantom connection to the formation core. At the moment, I do not have anything other than this sword hanging on my belt, which while I can agree is a fine piece of work is no formation. Made of an alloy of iron and mithril, the sword is built in the shape of a standard snowwinder sword, though it is a bit smaller than the one that the soldiers use. The sword is about as hard and durable as a class eight formation core (which is not a good metric, remember the sky bamboo) and is about as mana conductive.


    The sword is going to be very good at pushing mana and I might even be able to inscribe a few formations on it though the chances of that are ridiculously slim. Inscribing on a purely metal structure such as swords and anything of metal is such a slippery affair. Most runes won''t simply form on it and even if they did there is a pretty decent chance that the rune would lose its structure the moment that I pass mana into it. Good luck would mean that the rune would dissipate and the worst case is that the entire thing will explode.


    Getting back to the point, the sword is the reason that I am here sitting in a caravan. After all, it would be poor form if I were to agree to the snowwinders suddenly sending me to the frozen peak, far away from my formation especially when the enemy seems to have an disproportional interest in me without getting something in return.


    The sword is my bribe, to return to the fortress and I am quite thankful the snowwinders had the sense to give it. Else, it would have been similarly quite easy for me to remain at the fort and make it seem as if I am the only one that can control the formation. The art of formation control is quite mystical to those that have never properly seen a formation before and even if they had, I am still skilled enough to fool any second rate formation mages. (These people might know how to build stuff, but formations are my domain.) I could have insisted to remain at the fort, though there is a risk of escalation with such things and I am in their lands. it would be quite easy to lose my little life due to accidents and my body could as easily be lost in the snows of this place.


    I am at the moment sitting in this caravan only after extensive assurances from Ankon who I have to admit seemed quite keen to get rid of me. Firstly, they assured me that the enemy has simply no way of knowing that this caravan would be containing the formation master that has been such an annoyance to them. Ambushing a formation mage en route to somewhere is the best way to get rid of a formation mage after all. Still, I am at the moment suppressing my mana as much as possible, even though none of these creatures have a sensitivity similar to mine. Why take a risk.


    I also have to note down another point before I forget about it, one of the snowwinders has basic formation control capabilities at the very least. They were absurdly quick to get rid of me and they did not ask for any information about the formation except Ankon. While my formation is not something that needs any kind of special control techniques, it is not something that a non formation mage can learn without asking.


    That means that one of these three have access to spells like formation control at the very least, under my opinion. It is nothing advanced and nothing that would violate any treaties but it is the first step in that direction, I would think. I am thinking it could be Ankon.


    Getting back, The second reason was this sword, given to me by Theo who certainly seemed to have brought it as a gift. Else, without a method of protecting myself I would not have left with these bunch regardless of how much anonymity that they promised me. (The ease with which this sword was given is another proof. The sword would be worth quite a bit to a normal mage but quite worthless to a formation mage.)The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The last reason for me leaving now would be at the moment other than me there are most of the injured soldiers including Elon in this particular caravan. That is another reason that I am joining these bunch. There is not enough resources or soldiers to send this bunch with a proper guard. These soldiers would have left anyways, with the severity of their injuries especially Elon who seems to have become completely comatose for a while now. According to Shamon, these soldiers had to be taken to the frozen peak before the chill would cause permanent damage to these people. We might have been too late in case of one soldier at the very least.


    I have not dared to relax until now, in the third day of our journey (I honestly do not know, I am counting on the basis of the number of times we have stopped for food.) That is why I am recording now whem I am almost half way through our journey. We are at the moment solidly in snowwinder territory and if anybody were to attack us here, there is a decent chance that the disturbances will be enough to attract the commander if the snowlords were to come here and anything weaker than that I will be able to handle. I am not adding being attacked by a troop to that though. (There are still those three troop leaders unaccounted for. Shamon thinks it is more likely that they are dead.) These soldiers would not even be able to act like bait in this case.


    That is a gamble that I will have to take I guess. While I have been spending all of this time worrying I have to admit that the trip has been going quite smoothly and I have to admit that this is the first time that I have properly noticed our surrounding plains. The time I came to this place I had not noticed the way in which the snowwinders move about this place and I have to admit that the way that they do so reminds me quite strongly of formation magic.


    It is not exactly formation magic, but the bones of it still exist here. To explain this I will have to explain to you how exactly I think that the snowwinders are moving here. Normal travel of wooden carriages on these plains would be tantomount to suicide here. The storms here can collapse buildings, so you can imagine what it can do to wooden carts.


    We do face storms during our journey, none quite as crazy as the one we faced at the fort and each time the damage to our carriages is almost negligible. Also, the carriages seem to be moving quite smoothly for a place that is essentially a frozen desert. I would assume that our trips would be a bit more jerky.


    That would mean that they have formations for protecting the body of the cart like the iron skin, formations to reduce any sudden jerks and formations to hide all of this and very good ones at that since they are able to escape the sights of a formation mage. Maybe it isn''t even a formation. It could be way more rudimentary than that.


    And even if that is not true The carriages have methods of protecting themselves and any such method would be quite mana intensive for them to rely on mana batteries and I am certain that nobody but me would have the mana to run these hypothetical means of protection in our present caravan. (And ambient mana formations are not good for anything but lighting especially in this area, except maybe a formation that would freeze water. Not that you need a formation for that.)


    So what I am assuming that is happening here is some kind of a leylining. Now leylines refers to mana that is being flowed in predefined streams, often as methods of transporting mana (you can consider elemental nodes to be a kind of a natural leyline.). It is used to power massive formations, the kind that can span cities or kingdoms. Leylines can be created by any decent formation mage and are often used to power magical carriages in most cities. Those leylines would be quite similar to any hypothetical leyline that might exist here.


    I can''t say for certain since I have only seen leylines only a handful of times and most tend to be quite distinct. Still, I cannot think that they would have any other method of transmitting mana over long distance especially in our locality.


    I could also be completely wrong and the snowwinders just might be geniuses at designing carriages and they might have some method of guarding their carriages that I simply do not have an idea about. I still think that this might be something that head office would like to put under consideration. I am sure that the black mountain would benefit in some way with cards against the snowwind empire, especially now. Especially if that means that I am not coming here anymore.


    With all of the key points completed it is time for me to admit something. I must admit that regardless of how much nervousness this journey has brought me, I have got the opportunity to relax finally. even I have not noticed how tightly strung I have been in the fort. This has been a strange experience if I am to be frank.


    I have finally figured out The reason for that. The snowwinders do not have any respect for formation mages. The snowwinders as a society barely tend to rely on formations for any of their tasks. While I am sure that is not something they do by choice, it is also the truth that they are not really reliant on formations.


    That means that they do not really have much need of formation mages too. Even me, who can barely be considered one can feel the way in which people change their behaviour when they come to learn of my profession. That respect certainly makes work very easy for us formation mages. If we had to explain every single action of ours it does tend to make life so much harder. People tend to look at our works like a piece of art and at us like artists.


    That has been lacking with the people here and that could be one of the reasons that things have been so weird here. Regardless, my work as a formation mage is complete. I won''t be building another class eight formation at least.

 why wont this end (log 034)

    The funny thing about being a formation mage is the fact that our power is so volatile, so dependent on formations that it seems to be a joke. Men that we could crush with a single wave, men that we could kill by the thousand yesterday, would be able to cut you up like a fish the next day. This is a reality all formation mages have to contend with, to accept and to adapt to.


    This is not my words, but the words of my master. He has said it to me so many times and in so many places that I can even predict the length of his lecture simply from the first few words that he uses. In all of that I have to agree that I have heard what he has always told me, but today I have to come to accept it or at least understand it.


    Yesterday I was at the fort, able to control an entire fort at my whim. If I wanted to I could have killed every single man there. With water spears it might have been hard, but with the rings it would have been quite simple. Heck, I fought a man an entire level above me and and came out relatively well. Most men in my place would have been a frozen corpse by now. (Well, if you can call the chill relatively well.)


    It was quite an addicting feeling I admit, though I think it is for that reason that I was removed from the place so quickly too. Even if the control to the formation is usually surrendered, the formation mage remains at the location for a while (even forever sometimes) taking on a consulting role. (An outsider controlling your formations is the biggest taboo for any organisation.)


    Today, I am stuck on the ground not able to move an inch while all the soldiers injured around me are still fine. They still do not dare to move though. After all, the two men who are the cause for my present situation only need to look at me wrong and I would be crushed to death. A few inches from me is my sword, but it might as well have been a couple of leagues for the help that it has done.


    One of the men is actually quite familiar to me, an old man so old that he is closer to a skeleton than a man. The commander arrived at our position almost as quickly as the other man appeared. we are still almost three days from the frozen peak too. There might not have been more than a few seconds difference between the two men appearing, but those few seconds have been the worst in my life.


    I still remember the other man appearing like a speck in the horizon. I did not even have another second to look at him as the world around me faded. No calling it faded was wrong. My brain has judged the world to be useless information and is using every inch of its capability to look at the man that it has felt as a threat. Even then I know that I won''t be able to see the man move. I don''t think he needs to honestly. Who will tell my mind that though.


    The appearance of the commander a few seconds later greatly reduced this "pressure" on me. The other man is a bulky man almost thrice the size of the old man, who is covered in the pelt of what I have to assume is a massive wolf as a cloak. The mouth of the beast acts as a hood for the man, though he is not wearing it at the moment. It lies loosely behind him.


    The two man continue their staring contest for a few seconds or for a few centuries. I honestly can''t tell at the moment. Finally the commander speaks.


    "Lord, you are not welcome in these lands. Your presence will break our treaty.", he speaks, his voice is not loud but is clearly heard like the wind itself does not dare to stop the man''s word. They are projecting their voices for some reason.


    "My old friend, I do not like to come to this place myself. Every time I come here it feels like I am sitting in the middle of fire.", the second man speaks. "I sometimes wonder why you people don''t just melt away. It would certainly reduce quite a few of our problems."


    "I am no friend to you, lord. If you do not leave at the moment I will be forced to use my sword on you.", the commander speaks, giving me a moment of hope.


    "Well, you could remove your sword, I could get serious. I honestly want to know who among us two would win. I wonder whether the first blow will kill the kid or the second. Kind of pointless to kill your own men for a fistfight. Anyway I have come to bargain.", the second man speaks, disappearing.


    My mind almost shuts down for a second in panic, as I catch the second man halfway through speaking.


    ......."Want this outsider.", he says. "Anyway I seem to have heard that one of them got pissed and wrecked one of your ancestors graves. Seems to be quite the affront."


    The man is now next to me, though I honestly don''t know how he got here. Maybe he simply walked and my mind was not fast enough to notice it. Maybe he teleported like the mages of the ancient times. I guess that my fear should have intensified but this is already beyond my capacity for fear that I don''t know anymore.


    "We are honour bound to protect him, you bastard.", the commander speaks. He is also by my side, his sword at the man''s throat. The weird thing was that it is still sheathed. "It would be even more of an affront to my ancestors if I were to break a promise taken on their names."


    "Give your excuses, you pretentious bastard. You would dig all your ancestors graves and personally piss on their bones if it meant you would get an iota more power.", he speaks, his voice taking on a growling tone which seemed to echo in my mind. "Such paper thin honour that sometimes I wonder why you even bother to pretend."


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Don''t go beyond your limits, you fucking half breed.", the commander speaks, his voice certainly not containing the emotion his words conveyed. It was almost like he was reading from a script and a well read script at that.


    "Well, do we really need to go through these motions. I am sure your masters would be pleased with your present performance. I honestly think they know what you are doing. Such an obvious con and you call us stupid beasts.", the man speaks, laughing as if he had heard the funniest joke.


    "Well, I am sure they do. All they need is that I am at least putting their interests first and that I have moved to protect their honour. After all, you are our enemy, you bastard. You never make things easy. Our last fight nearly got me court martialled.", the commander spoke, irritation finally entering his tone. "They seem to have an hatred for you especially."


    "Well, I was offering to fight at another location. you are the one that suddenly charged at me. I had to go all out personally. I certainly would not have the energy to care for that abomination you call a fort.", the other man spoke, his voice finally losing that growling. "As for your masters, if my poking is enough to harm their so called honour do they really need it. Few things are fragiler."


    "Regardless, you are in our territory and if I let you linger for too long, I will get court martialled again. I need you to beat it now.", the commander spoke, finally removing his sword.


    "Well I would, but I need to take the kid with me now. Sadly, that is not negotiable in the least. I leave only when you let me take him.", the other man speaks.


    "Well, what is stopping you. Pick him up. Take him with you.", the commander speaks, with a bit of an edge in his voice.


    "I know you. You will ambush me the instant I pick him up. I also know that I will block anything that you throw at me. The kid would blow up like a pimple about to burst. That is not something that I can handle at the moment.", the other replies, causing my heart to relax. At least he is not looking to kill me instantly.


    "Well, I can allow you to leave, but I will have to face quite the problem if I were to let the kid get taken in my watch. I did mention to you i have been almost court martialled.", the commander speaks.


    "For that I have the ideal solution. Let me take the kid with me now and I will make sure that he has a fighting chance against the other tribes. I can also command the tribes allied with me to retreat this season. You can imagine just how much of a loss that is for me.", he speaks "you can be praised with reducing my influence on this lands while giving this lad a chance at leaving here alive. I won''t bend anymore beyond that though."


    "that is quite the bit, you bastard. What did he do to earn such an ire from your kind and is he your bastard, the way that you are protecting him.", the commander spoke.


    "You fool, the kid is not related to me in any way. As for what the kid is. He is a child of the sages. You will get me killed talking like that. This is nothing but a business deal and quite a attractive one at that.", the other man spoke, his voice finally becoming a bit flustered. "else imagine me moving to protect a child of the sages."


    "That still does not explain your presence. The kid is not really in any danger just for his heritage and if he was a sage with active abilities, i would know it.", the commander spoke. My heart sank hearing all of this. Looks like these guys do know of me or at least about my people. That is not nice, but the sages do have many enemies. If they knew of the legion that would be a different thing. Maybe they don''t kno.....


    "Well, just being a son of a sage is no crime, at least to the son. the crime are his skills and that he uses them. the kid uses the skills of the iron legion. Nothing of their hidden arts, but their style we will discover anywhere in any form and we shall burn it from all living memory", the other man recites, his voice finally serious.


    "An orphan of the legion, eh. if that is the case I will have to admit that the kid has balls, coming here. I am surprised that they are allowing them of the mountain with how many feathers they have ruffled across the continent", the commander spoke. "Well, I shall agree to your deal. I will need guarantees though. If the kid does die I want detailed records on it, along with the identity of the killer. I will need information that I can give to the iron legion too. Those crazy bastards might just fall on me for this. I want to offend them even lesser than my masters. I would at least survive my masters ire."


    "Well, always covering your ass aren''t you Alveron.", the other man speaks. "Fine I agree, though I also will need to point out that there is little I can do in this case. This is a matter of all tribes. If it were any of the others, the kid would be paste on the ground."


    As soon as this conversation ended, the world around me became black. It was not much later after this that my mind simply blanked out as I lost consciousness.

 cloak and the black tower (log 035)

    Being kidnapped is a very boring experience. Maybe the fact that I have not been able to move for the last couple of hours or the fact that I have not even been able to turn my head could be quite a significant factor for it. It is not even paralysis, it is almost like every muscle of my body has been chained by chains of steel.


    Another fact for my boredom could be that at the moment I am being carried by the man I have now named as wolf man in a position that reminds me of a farmer carrying a sack of rice. I was rather embarassed at the beginning, but now I am bored.


    I also have to admit that till half an hour ago I have had a choice viewing of the wolf cloaked man''s butt, which I have to admit is not something that I have the desire of looking at again. Thankfully the man had shifted his position and I have finally gotten a view of the world around me.


    At the moment there is little to see though. The world around me is a white blur as I am moving at speeds that should have killed me. The wind feels like a sharp knife on my skin, though oddly the sensation is not accompanied by any pain. I have to assume the man carrying me has something to do with that. I shall not even speak of the cold as at the moment I can''t even sense it. It is so cold that my mind has overloaded in the cold and at the moment I feel pleasantly warm.


    Regardless the reason that I have started recording now of all times is simply for the fact that the man is capable of killing me in a single move and the log would be the last method for me to transmit any information. It is taking quite a focus to do this but I literally have nothing else to do at the moment.


    The man might be able to kill me with a thought but he certainly should not be able to interrupt a log in the process of transmission. I would at the very least like to give my colleagues a chance at understanding these men and beating them at the very least. After all even the druids can fall if you know where to poison them. These snowlords are nothing compared to them.


    In that regard I will need to talk about my surroundings. For quite the while we have been going upwards, as if we are climbing a massive mountain. Steadily I can feel the flow of mana becoming wilder and wilder until we reached this place. If the place we had been in is a frigid hellhole then the place we are going to is a step beyond that. at the moment, this place seems closer to a sea of ice mana. My mana sense is literally blinded by the movement of ice mana in this region. There are skills to suppress the mana sense of a man. Until today I have not understood the necessity of it.


    Standing here (or carried here) I am reminded of the feeling of standing in a ship of the sea, feeling the world around me shake and turn. I can literally feel the content of my stomach turn as it threatens to come out. I seriously debate the pros and cons of letting it happen. Well, the man is literally my only chance of surviving in this region so I master my stomach and keep it from emptying.


    Whatever the man has done to protect me is the only thing keeping me safe. If he were to retract that protection, let''s just say that the chill would be nothing compared to what is going to happen here. I would not die due to my mana channels freezing like with the chill, I would die because I would have become a statue of ice in a few moments.


    Finally after what seems to be an age, I can feel the man slow down. At the moment I am about as useless as a blind man so I can''t really describe wherever we are going to other than the fact that it seems to be a massive tower. I cannot really tell you much about it but as we are getting closer to it, it seems to be made up of some kind of a black rock.


    Well, the moment that we entered the tower the first thing I noticed was that the pressure from the wind had disappeared. If a second before it felt like I was being put under a waterfall suddenly I felt like a feather floating in the wind. Sadly none of my limbs still seemed to show any signs of moving. Well if the man wanted to kill me he does not need to do all of this. the alternatives are not particularly nice though. Formation mages tend to make ideal slaves.


    "I would suggest not moving your body yet, my little wolf.", the wolf man spoke, putting me down in what I assume to be some kind of a bed, though sleeping on it did not feel like that. It felt more like it was a statue that seemed to be carved from a rock rather than a bed that somebody would use. Even with all of this discomfort, I can feel my body slip into the comfort of sleep.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    (After almost a day.)


    I have to admit that, while my body feels like I have been sleeping on a rock I can finally move my body. I would have given up all the pleasures in the world for the simple ability to move my head as I wish. That is what I am doing at the moment though my body is cramped in places where I would have assumed it to be impossible.


    Right now we are completely in the northern wastelands, in the parts that should be having no living people at all. I don''t know how these people actually do end up surviving here.


    The room that I am standing in is a simple room, with everything constructed of some kind of a black colored rock. Everything in the room seemed to be carved of this rock. It is a work of art, everything in the room. All of this seems to be the work of an expert.


    "This rock is the only thing that can survive in the true lands my young friend. Nothing, except the frigid rock can survive in the ice mana that flows through this land. I would suggest therefore that you do not attempt to escape from this place.", a voice suddenly spoke behind me, revealing itself to be the wolf man, explaining to me. "I will also suggest you get comfortable. Firstly, I am an ally of your master, and have no desire to kill you. I have to assume that is evident."


    "Well, your actions up till now have been to the contrary, my lord.", I spoke, taking on quite a rude tone. Let''s hope the man is not a sensitive one. Massacres have happened for much less.


    "Well, there are no lords here my friend. We find that it is not very conducive to a cooperative effort and without cooperation not many of our people would survive in this lands. Even our people can freeze to their deaths in the true lands.", he speaks, pointing to a chair "I do insist you sit down though. This is going to be a pain to explain but I will try my best. You can call me cloak. Everybody does."


    "Well, what do you know about the sages. I do not think your trainers would have spoken of them much. It would have been quite the sore spot to them", the wolf m.. cloak spoke.


    "Well, all I know is that the iron legion used to have them as allies and very close ones as that. Enough that they were willing to intermarry and have children. Then something happened and now they are quite hostile to us. They left their children with the legion who took us in and trained us, all of us who are now called the orphans of the legion.", I replied, the reply sadly well practiced. Everybody is curious about the orphans of the legion.


    "Well, it shall be enough for now. The thing is your master called on me to protect you in case something were to happen here. Until I knew of your heritage I did not know why the man was insistent on this.", he spoke, sitting next to me. The man was large enough that him sitting on the ground was enough to put him at eye level with me on the chair.


    "The people of the truelands have problem with you due to two main reasons. Firstly, they do not trust sages. We have a lot of history with the sages. The sages often used the tribes of the snow to test their formations, especially ones related to environment modifications.", cloak speaks.


    "Isn''t that supposed to be a very tricky field of formation magic, with extremely high chance of these formations failing.", I reply, as I remember from my masters books.


    "Well, that is the problem. Every year we have a few tribes that listen to the sages and entire tribes are wiped when these formations fail. The snowstorms of our lands are not tame affairs like the storms of yours. Very few things can survive in these lands, especially flesh.", cloak replies. "All the tribes have now agreed not to allow the sages into our land. Especially after what happened at spear valley they will enforce this. Their previous association with you people does not help this thing too. Thankfully in your case that is not a problem since your blood has not even woken up yet. Our people have tricks to recognise the blood of the sages, especially their active blood."


    "What is the second reason then.", I ask, curiosity dulling most of the fear that i was feeling. There is little that is told to us about the sages. Enough to mimic them, but not enough to try and follow them.


    "Well, that is a bit more complicated and certainly a whole lot more tragic. It is ancient history and I do not think a few days would be enough to explain the relation between us and the iron legion.", cloak replies. "Ask your master if you wish to know, young wolf. All you need to know is that the tribes have decided to annhilate every trace of the iron legion. That means any that dares to practice their arts will be put to death. It could be from the legion. It could be from their textbooks. If you knew their hidden arts, even I would not be enough to save you. You do not know any of their hidden arts, do you?"


    "Only their names. The iron legion have given up their claims on me only when they saw I was bad at their arts and that I was talented in the magic of formations." I reply, remembering just how much of a scandal it had actually caused. A fish should have been more likely to fly than the iron legion leave one of their charges. Even me as a child understood just how much of a rarity it was.


    "Good, the tribes have gathered to decide your fate. Until that is decided you shall remain in my tower. No tribe would dare to cause offense to me in my own lands.", he replies. "Until your fate is decided, you will be remaining in this tower. I would assume that you are going to suffer quite the bit, but even the conclave of tribes will not dare to offend me and the grand wolf at the same time. We still have to take care not to offend them, though."

 the council and the mountain (log 036.1)

    Right now things are going pretty well if I have to say so. Cloak is right now carrying me into the storm and the man has yet to drop me to my death. Given the number of chances that he had to do that, I can at the very least be confident that this man has no desire to kill me. Well, if the man were to even drop me of here, I am confident that I will be able to survive. The weather has been becoming more stable the further the man is carrying me into the council''s territory.


    The man is delivering me to the people that would be deciding if I am to die or not. They are called as the council and I am surprised that cloak was even willing to share to me anything about the council. Most people do not tend to be that open with the black mountain.


    If anything, the man has been more than happy to share with me the functioning of the council. The snow tribe is not a monolith as they like to show themselves as. Instead they are an alliance of smaller tribes that work together to form the council.


    There are five major tribes that work together to form the core of the council and it is of these five tribes that I need to speak of today. Each of them is going to be voting on my fate and each will be having one vote to decide my fate.


    The first tribe is the tattoo tribe. As their name suggests, they are masters of tattoo magic. As far as I can tell these tattoos of theirs is supposed to be a variant of formation magic. They are able to control a ridiculous amount of ice mana through their tattoos.


    Other than that they also are the strongest of the five tribes that make up the council in terms of military might. They are strong enough that none of the other tribes will be able to beat them on their own, though an alliance of two or more tribes will be able to do so.


    They are also going to be after my head now. Turns out the giant was a person of the tattoo tribe and a pretty important one at that. Also, these people are the ones that have the worst relation with the legion. They send the most people to hunt for the soldiers of the legion and also lose a lot of their people to the legion. There is no way that this blood debt is going to be paid any time soon.


    The tribe after that is the spear tribe. They are masters of the spears and are supposed to be able to use magic that makes their spears nearly unbeatable in battle. Cloak has not been particularly interested in describing their powers to me, so there is little I can tell other than that they use spears.


    They are also strictly after my head. In this case though, they are more after my identity as a sage. Turns out the sages managed to screw up a place known as the spear valley which is supposed to be a very important place to these people due to their faulty formations. (Well, knowing the sages it could be intentional as well. They ally with everybody after all.)


    The third tribe is the beast tribe. They hold the ability to command the ice beasts and a variety of other beasts. In the council, they hold a pretty interesting position since they do not hold a particularly strong combat capability. Cloak claims that the only reason that they are barely considered of the five tribes is due to the fact that their trade is extensive and widespread. They provide ice beasts, beasts of labours and many more things to the various tribes in this place.


    Due to their tendency to be merchants, they also are the only neutral force of the snow tribe. They have a good relation with almost every force of the snow tribe and they also have the most unpredictable vote due to it. It could be against me or for me, depending on if I manage to convince them that I don''t harm their bottom line.


    The fourth tribe is the wolf tribe. They are supposed to be item mages, based on how cloak speaks of them. They imbue their magic into beast hides, specifically a species known as the winter wolf. As you can guess cloak is supposed to be a member of this group, though the man claims that he is independent of them now.


    He actually spoke of them the least, only letting me know that they are supporting me. He did not even tell me the reason that they were willing to support me. Some places even I know not to push.


    And that leaves me with the fifth and the most interesting tribe of them all. They are called as the blood tribe and their abilities are unknown. Either cloak is unwilling to tell me or even he is not sure of their abilities other than the fact that it has something to do with blood.


    They are the smallest tribe, having only a thousand or so people. yet, none of the other tribes seem to be particularly inclined to fight them in any shape or form. They are supposed to be so great at combat that none of the other tribes can ever be sure if they can take them.


    They are also supporting me, though the only reason for that is my master has made a deal with them. How and what the man has traded to buy their support I do not know.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Anyway, the blood tribe likes to go against the popular opinion. That is if three tribes were to vote for my death then they would vote for my life and vice versa.


    So these five tribes together form the council. I guess that I should also explain why the council is needed in the first place. Well, the simplest way to put it is the truelands (as they call it.) is not a gentle place to live in. The snow tribe has the ability to resist the chill and live in the northern wastelands but even they are not able to survive in the storms of this place.


    Storms in the truelands occur only during the winter and they are devastating to put it in mild terms. That is if you are not ready for it. Only the snowlords and their masters are able to physically survive in the truelands during the winters.


    That is why, every tribe has to make sure that they are protected against the storms. Well, the only way to be doing that would be to erect massive barriers that would be able to block the storms, protecting the more weaker of their people.


    The council is here to make sure that every tribe will be able to actually pull this of. Firstly, they make sure that every tribe will be able to set up these barriers. If they are not able to do so the council will absorb these tribes into other tribes that will be able to do so and so on and so forth.


    By the way, I do not know any details on this barrier that cloak speaks about. All I can tell you is that it is not formation magic of any kind. Such a strong formation would have left marks that I will be able to detect.


    Regardless, this barrier of their does not seem to have a particularly high success rate since it is supposed to fail quite explosively too. If that happens, then the council is also charged with rescuing them and protecting them.


    That is why they need to raid the snowwind empire. That is the only place nearby that would be able to provide them with the supplies that they would need to feed these people.


    Naturally, the council does not do this for free. They are supposed to extract a very heavy price for their protection in the form of tributes. Though what form these tributes take is something that the man is not willing to speak about again. Now that I think about it, the man does have experience with the black mountain. He knows how to hide the truly important stuff.


    Anyway, I have spoken about the people that will be deciding my fate. I guess that I should now speak about the place that is going to be my court.


    The council of the snow tribe is a piece of work. it is a massive crystal mountain, that seems to be glowing like a sun in these frigid lands. Well, it would be wrong to call it a crystal since the entire mountain is made up of a special kind of ice, though why the material is special has again been withheld.


    As for why it is called the council, it is because it is the only place in the truelands where the council will be able to convene. As you can guess, the mana that is emitted by the leaders of the five tribes would be more than capable of worsening any storm that would be in the region.


    The mountain is a massive environmental formation that is working to stabilise the weather of the surrounding region. Well, calling it only a formation would be wrong. It is a mixture of magics of which formation magic is only one thing. I am not even sure if there is a formation in the place. There is something quite similar to it though.


    The mountain barely shows any pulsation of mana which would have calmed anybody else down. Any non formation mage would take that to be proof that the formation is not being powered with that much power. They never seem to realise how wrong that logic of theirs tend to be.


    No mana leakage is often a sign of mana efficiency and only a good formation mage is able to create formations of that variety. It would be easier to find a bad formation mage experienced in using only good materials but much harder to find a formation mage that would be able to make complete usage of a formation using any materials. Just doing this can cut the costs of a formation by a quarter.


    it is doing it''s work amazingly well. The instant that the mountain came into view, I could feel the wind around me stabilize almost stopping now that we are much closer. Only very powerful formations should be capable of something like this and I personally cannot imagine creating such a thing.


    it is supposed to be the grandest work of the council and the greatest proof of the council''s ability to work together and also the most precious thing that the council owns, though I would say the better proof would have been the thousands of tents containing shops next to the mountain. I can better explain once you know of the history of the tribes.


    The market is also another thing that defines the council. It is supposed to be the greatest market of the truelands. Almost every tribe is able to make their way here and trade for goods here.


    The way that the market connects the people of different tribes is also one reason that the council holds such great power. After all, even the beast tribe who can be considered to be the richest of all the tribes would not be able to afford the cost of building the massive block of ice that works to keep the market below safe from the weather.


    I guess that I should describe what my present position is. Right now I am standing outside one of the gates of the council, waiting to be allowed into the place. Cloak has just dropped me here just a couple of moments ago.


    Based on the looks that the people around me are giving, I have to hope that the man will hurry. If they don''t, I don''t think there will be anything of me left for the council to pronounce a verdict on.


    Other than that, I guess I can describe to you how the place looks from close by. Well, the place looks painfully ordinary to be frank. The ice it is built from reminds me of glass rather than ice.


    I don''t touch the gate though. I am sure that it will be more than cold and that is something that I don''t want to be experiencing now anyways. The people that are surrounding me are already giving me weird looks.

 meeting the council (log 036.2)

    Entering into the ice mountain gives me the vibes that I get from the head office. Even the head office doesn''t look particularly impressive, but you can say that it is the beating heart of the hex mountain simply from the number of people that are entering and leaving the place at any moment.


    Even this place has the same vibe, if I am to be honest. There is a constant stream of soldiers and messengers that are making their way in and out of this place. In this place, I am sure that all the decisions related to the entirety of the truelands are made. Who gets to live and who gets to die.


    Well, I do not get to remain at this part of the council for long. The people that will be deciding on my fate are going to be much deeper in the mountain.


    Cloak doesn''t speak anything to me, as he drags me through the complicated mess of tunnels of the mountain. As we go deeper into the place, I can feel the cold grow more intense, both physically and in my heart. I guess that I should be describing the place but I can feel the pressure growing on me.


    As a person of the black mountain, hearing is a skill that has been engraved on us since our birth. The amount of stuff that you can learn from simply hearing. Here, the simple act of listening reminds me of the fact that I am a stranger in this strange land.


    I can still make a few inferences though. The people are agitated to see me. The agitation is not particularly intense. It is at the very least not at the level of what I would have expected it to be if the people here were to know that I was a legioner.


    That leaves me to assume that the council is not particularly open to the people here. I guess that they are suppressing the information at the very least. Right now, that is not my worry. An angry mob is not what is going to kill me.


    (After about a couple of minutes.)


    ¡°Well, I have to assume that we are safe from prying ears at the very least.¡°, cloak speaks. ¡°Can''t really trust those bastards, though. I wouldn''t be surprised if they are double dealing.¡°


    ¡°Well, who are these bastards?¡°, I ask.


    ¡°The beast tribe. They are merchants through and through. Remember that when you make any deals with them in the future that they are more than likely to end up screwing you over if you are not ready.¡°, he speaks. "Even if they seem like they are ready to give their life for you, be ready for a sword in your back."


    ¡°Why would I be making deals with them.¡°, I reply.


    ¡°Well, that was just a hypothetical. Well, I need you to focus now. Well, even the council cannot ask for your head just like that. Well, I should have told you all of this before leaving the tower.¡°, he speaks, a bit too anxiously ¡°Regardless, that is why they are going to be charging you with certain crimes.¡°


    ¡°Well, aren''t they more than ready to kill a person of the legion. I have seen the desperation with which your soldiers hunt our people.¡° I reply.


    ¡°Well, if they were to know that you are a person of the legion, that is going to be the case. Every single person here would be demanding your head.¡°, he speaks. ¡°Not a single person would be here to stop your head from being separated from your body. They will cheer while it is happening even. Still, if the lower tribes were to see the council executing people, it will remind them that the council is capable of doing that. That is not going to be leading to anything positive. I can assure you of that. The tribes have a long memory and a shallow pool of trust.¡°


    ¡°Okay then what are the charges against me.¡°, I speak.


    ¡°Well, you have three charges against you. The first is the least likely to stick on you and that is the crime of breaking a treaty. The sages and snow tribe have a very clear treaty. Right now, your standing here is breaking that treaty.¡°, he speaks. ¡°Don''t worry about that one since I will manage it.¡°


    ¡°But I am not even of the sages.¡°, I protest. ¡°I am a soldier of the legion.¡°


    ¡°Well, we consider the sages to be a species, not an organisation. Even an unawakened sage like you is considered to be a sage, sadly. Also, do you really want to be flaunting the fact that you are a legioner in front of the council. As I have said, the tribes have a long memory.¡°, the cloak replies. ¡°I have told you that I will be managing that particular charge against you. Even I cant help you if you keep reminding them of it every chance that you get.¡°


    ¡°Okay what are the other two.¡°, I reply. No need to annoy the only man in this place that is protecting me.


    ¡°Well, the second one is illegal use of formations in the truelands. Even about this you do not need to worry about much. The beast tribe will be taking care of this charge for you.¡°, he replies. ¡°And the third charge is the trickiest to handle. You have hurt the honour of the tattoo tribe by fighting a champion of their tribe using unfair means.¡°This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°what exactly do you mean.¡°, I reply. I draw a blank until I remember the giant that had invaded my fort. ¡°But he was a second circle mage. How exactly was I supposed to fight him. On top of that I am a formation mage. What else did he thinks that I was going to fight him with.¡°


    ¡°Still doesn''t change the fact that you fought him using unfair means. The general expectation of the people here is that you will fight him in honourable duel, even if it means that you will die.¡°, he replies. ¡°On top of that, formations is a taboo topic for the people in the truelands. On this particular front there is little that I can do to help you. All I can do is to help you get a much lesser punishment. ¡°


    ¡°Well, what would be the punishment for such a crime then?¡°, I ask him.


    ¡°Well, punishments for dueling using unfair means is usually a reconducting of the duel with the council ensuring that there is no scope of cheating.¡°, he replies. ¡°We can try to reduce this punishment to a sledding duel. Maybe get it reduced to a winters loop. That all depends on how you convince them though.¡°


    ¡°Two questions, what is a sledding duel?¡°, I ask him. ¡°And why exactly are we discussing all of this here.¡°


    ¡°Well, the former has a very long answer and as for the latter, it is mainly because the beast tribe has promised us some privacy.¡°, he replies. ¡°The bastards have their nose everywhere. I am sure that they are still hearing everything that we are saying but I at least can be confident that they won''t be selling it to the other tribes. They might be bastards but they tend to keep their promises, If you are careful in making them. regardless, it is time that we went and met up with the bastards already.¡°


    Well, saying that the man essentially pushes me into what is a massive meeting room. There are two floors to the room. The lower floor is where I am right now. This room is meant to intimidate anybody not of the upper floor. Everything in the room is constructed of whatever ice the place is made up of. Yet every inch of the room is carved. Most of it is nonsense, images from their history most likely.


    The thing that terrifies me is the things that do not make sense to me. Nonsensical squiggles that kind of look like runes. I am trained under the grand wolf of the black mountain. One of the greatest formation masters in the continent, the man should know all of the runes in the continent and I have learnt all the runes that the man knows. Well not all runes, but I should at the very least be able to recognise the origin of these runes.


    I am starting to get an inkling as to why my master would be interested in this place. Why he might have forced me to come here, knowing the risks. The man cannot resist not knowing something. He has to know anything that he doesn''t know. It picks at him like a sore tooth. Still, how exactly he thinks that I will be learning the runes, I do not know. Right now I will be happy to leave this place alive.


    The upper floor is where the representatives of the five clans are sitting right now in their own tables. They are presently forming a u around me. Each of the tribes has a table here, with five people at each of the table. The leftmost is the blood tribe I guess. They are not particularly different from the people that surround them but you just can tell that they are different. More aloof and standoffish, they seem like they are on the edge of battle.


    On the other edge we have the wolf tribe, each wearing a wolf skin much like cloak. one thing that I notice is that cloak has been very careful not to make any eye contact with them.


    Right at the center we have the tattoo tribe. The bastards are the most obvious in the bunch. Every single person at that table is covered in tattoos of various kinds. They are supposed to be scary motherfuckers based on how cloak describes them to me.


    To their left, we have the beast tribe. Again they look pretty ordinary but there is something about them that is different. I guess the correct term would be that they are comfortable here. If the others are giving a more combatative vibe, as if everybody here could be a potential enemy they give the vibe that they don''t consider anybody a threat here.


    Right opposite to them is the spear tribe, which is giving me the exact opposite vibe. This is especially so whenever they look at me. I really wonder what the sages have done that they have inspired such a bloodlust in the spear tribe.


    Looking at them, I am actually worried. They have brought their spears here. No other tribe has brought their weapons here. granted, most of them are still a threat without their weapons. (I am looking at the tattoo tribe and the wolf tribe especially here.) The spears are still pretty intimidating. Well, I am sure that cloak will protect me, but it does feel like there is nothing that he can do when and if they gut me.


    ¡°Well, the accused has entered into the meeting room. It is about time that we started this farce.¡°, the one that spoke was cloak behind me, translating the word of the man from the blood tribe. ¡°I do not want to waste my time.¡°


    ¡°Well, the council has it''s procedures for a reason, blood tribe.¡°, a lady from the tattoo tribe speaks. ¡°not that you brutes are going to be understanding it.¡°


    ¡°well, it is a waste of time.¡°, the man from the blood tribe speaks. ¡°And what is it with you guys, you know my name.¡°


    ¡°Well, as we have briefed you a thousand times. We shall only call you by the name of your tribe. You represent the will of your leader. your names should hold no value here.¡°, the lady from the tattoo tribe essentially politely screams at the other man. Even I can tell that was the wrong thing to do here and I haven''t even seen too many of these councils in my life. This lady is already losing control of the council. Don''t know if I should be happy or sad about that.


    ¡°well. The blood tribe is unique among all the tribes. I am certain you can forgive their lack of politeness, lady of the tattoo tribe.¡°, spoke the man from the beast tribe. ¡°It would be wise that we get this trial started in haste. A man of the legion can cause chaos that would benefit none of us.¡°


    ¡°so, antonio of the legion, you have been brought before the council to answer for your crimes......¡°, the lady of the tattoo tribe begins to speak.

 the trial (log 036.3)

    "Child of the legion, state your name and your identity to the council. Let the council decide if a man of your kind should even waste the time of the council."


    ......


    "Introduce yourself as a child of the legion, specifically as an orphan of the legion."


    Is what cloak tells me to do at the end of the monologue of the lady. It went on for a while as the lady kept on speaking. Right now in the room only cloak is listening only because he has to translate for me. None of the others have even bothered to act like they are listening to the lady.


    "Do they even understand our language?", I ask, distracted by the thoughts I am recording. What can I do, the ladies monologue had me feeling sleepy. Though the instant I speak it I realise I fucked up as the table to the right gives me a look that told me what a million words could not have. A presence so strong that I caught my breath in my throat. They understand my language and they don''t need a translator to make their opinions known it seems.


    "Well, then I am Antonio sevenstars, captain of the black mountain. I was an orphan of the iron legion. Now I am the disciple of the grand wolf, formation master of the black mountain.", I speak, better to dissociate myself from the iron legion. Can''t have something I have already left behind to be the cause of my death.


    The lady from the central table speaks, their language kind of making sense in my ear, but that is just my mind making patterns where I can''t find any. To me all of this is just noise and I would do well to remember that.


    "The tattoo clan is warning the other clans that nobody leaves the iron legion unless they are dead.", cloak spoke. "And that you are still the blood of the sages. Trickery is supposed to be in your blood."


    Almost in reply, the guy that gave me the look speaks. Cloak takes a second to reply.


    "The leader of the blood tribe asks the council to get on with it''s work and decide whether you are to be killed now or tomorrow. Your origin and whether punishment is necessary for it has already been discussed. He has heard enough about blood without getting to spill any.", cloak speaks.


    They continue their back and forth for a few moments, clear that it is some kind of a debate that is ongoing there. This continue for a few minutes, as cloak joins in once in a while. I am being kept out of the conversation. Now judging from the tone, I have to assume things are going relatively well. For all I know though these people could be discussing about beheading me with this intensity that I would have talking about my evening tea.


    "The argument happening now is not related to you. The tattoo tribe and the blood tribe, well any tribe and the blood tribe tend to have pretty bad relations. The tattoo tribe is threatening to attack the blood tribe and the blood tribe is teasing them into actually attempting it.", cloak speaks.


    "Aren''t they a bit too calm if two of their factions going to fight like this.", I ask, clearly confused now.


    "Well, every tribe has their round of challenging the blood tribe. Nobody really likes them and nobody will actually attack them. Even they know it.", cloak speaks again. As he speaks the man speaking for the tattoo tribe turns to me and speaks in a rapid fire pace. The man is clearly in a worse mood than before.


    "The tattoo tribe is asking everybody to return to the topic at hand. They have accepted your identity and speak on the charges placed on you.¡° Cloak speaks, almost with a smile. ¡°The first charge on you is related to the charge of your bloodline. Sages are not allowed to enter the true lands.¡°


    Hearing this, it is the spear tribe that begin to speak. There is a desperate kind of anger in his voice. The intensity with which they speak makes me shiver. Thankfully, it is not me dealing with him. Even as the spear tribe speak, the man behind me has begun to speak.


    (After almost fifteen minutes)


    Well, whatever is happening is more intense than I certainly expected it to be. The folks of the spear tribe have already reached the stage of threatening us more than a couple times.


    With the number of times that the spear has been brandished I am surprised that they have not attacked each other already.


    I think the reason for that is the man next to me. He has been doing the work of reasoning with the spear tribe, trying to calm them down. It has not been easy going, but the man has been doing it pretty well if I am frank. At least that is the assumption. They could just as equally be discussing about the weather.


    The only thing that I can say for certain is that the tattoo tribe is trying to inflame the entire council against me. They certainly seem to have taken this personally. Almost too personally if I have to say so. Almost as if they do not want me to be in the presence of the council for long.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Still, cloak seems to be managing this pretty well. At least the tone and confidence of the man have not changed. The man would be making a killing in a game of poker.


    Well, it has finally ended though. As I was recording the man of the spear tribe has finally sat down again. Based on his expressions and that of the lady of the tattoo tribe I can at the very least be sure that this particular charge won''t be sticking on me.


    As I think this, the lady of the tattoo tribe barks something at me, annoyance clear in her tone.


    ¡°With that, the first charge levied against you has been countered.¡°, speaks the lady. ¡°Next we shall move onto the next charge. The charge of using formation magic in the truelands. A momentously risky and stupid move......¡°


    She keeps on speaking for a while. Cloak doesn''t bother to translate what she is speaking. All she is speaking are pretty words, even I can tell that without the translations.


    Even before she completed her speaking, the wolf tribe begin to speak.


    ¡°The wolf tribe make use of a certain magic pretty similar to formation magic.¡°, cloak speaks to me. ¡°Due to this they are very sensitive about any discussion related to formations. Right now they are telling the council that there is no restrictions on formation magic this far south of the truelands.¡°


    This reply of the wolf tribe is cut short by the lady of the tattoo tribe.


    ¡°the lady is claiming that the southern plains are still the territory of the snow tribe. The laws of the council apply there.¡°, she speaks.


    The reply to this is the man from the wolf tribe gets up as if he was provoked.


    ¡°She shouldn''t have said that. The wolf tribe already have to travel to the southern plains for the Wolf''s dance.¡°, cloak tells me. ¡°If the council were to decide that you were illegal in using formation magic there, the wolf tribe will be first to face problems due to that in the future. That is why they will make sure that you do not face any charges due to this.¡°


    ¡°Wolf''s dance?¡°, I ask the man.


    ¡°Ask some other time. Now is not the time for us to be talking. Already the council notices us.¡°, he speaks, as the lady from the tattoo tribe suddenly speaks to cut us off.


    ¡°Well, I have been told to tell you that I am only your translator. my duty is to just translate what the council needs me to translate.¡° The man behind me speaks. ¡°Any more out of turn speaking and the council will force me out of this room.¡°


    After this the council returns back to their debating. All I can tell is that things are becoming heated in a hurry here.


    (After almost ten minutes.)


    Well, if you want any input from me, the last ten minutes of discussion would have been something that any scholar would have given his right hand to listen in on. That is if they could actually make out anything that they have said.


    This is where the main defense of the snow tribe comes to point. just the fact that I am not able to make out even a few words of their saves them from the scholars. Else, the scholars would be trying to get into this place like locusts. From what little I know of the place, it has history.


    Cloak is at the moment standing behind me. The man is listening to each word of the conversation with rapt attention and looking at the face of every person here.


    Well, at the moment I am completely out of this discussion that might get me killed. It is not like listening to them without translation is useful to me anyways.


    The reason for that is the tattoo tribe. I am wondering how exactly they could have found me this quickly and why exactly were they so secretive about it all.


    If the treaty was so important why exactly were they trying to parley with me. It is not like they would have had any incentive to be gentle with me. It would have been easier to drag me to the council in chains, rather than with whatever they were attempting with the negotiations.


    "Well, don''t look so out of the discussion, kid.", the voice behind me whispers to me.


    With that I completely lose track of my thoughts. I return my focus to the five sets of people that are deciding my fate.


    The only two groups still arguing are the tattoo clan and the wolf clan. Even I who can''t make out anything that they are saying can understand that they are fighting quite viciously.


    The wolf tribe is quite hostile to the tattoo tribe. With that I think that I am starting to understand what the relations are among the tribes to a degree.


    The beast tribe is a neutral force favouring the tattoo tribe. They won''t support the tattoo tribe, but they won''t attack them as well. The spear tribe is supporting of the tattoo tribe.


    The wolf tribe are clearly opposite to the tattoo tribe. The blood tribe is the weirdest of them all. The way that they are behaving it seems like they are trying to fight every person in the council.


    As I am studying them, the council finally stops their fighting. Based on the expression of the lady from the tattoo tribe this charge is also something that they have been forced to drop.


    "They have decided that your usage of formations in the southern plains is legal, though they are warning that you cannot do such an action here in the truelands." Cloak speaks behind me. "If you are caught using magic here the spear tribe will cut out all of your mana channels and leave you in the middle of a storm. That is the brutalest punishment that the council likes to hand out."


    As cloak speaks this, I can feel a burden in my chest disappear. That is another charge at me cleared.


    "With that we return to a matter of personal honour. Something that the council will have to consider fairly.", the lady begins again. "We present to you sir Laufen, the mage that was charged with apprehending the man. Laufen, state your charges to the people here."


    As the lady speaks, the giant appears in the room. I don''t know how he made it into the room without my knowledge nor do I want to. The man looks at me as if he wants to eat me. As he speaks I can feel a chill crawl up in my back.


    A few moments later, cloak''s voice resounds in my ear translating the words of the man in my ear.


    "Great council of the snow, I stand before you today to report the crimes of the legioner.......

 the trial part 2 (log 036.4)

    The giant looks like he has seen better days. He is presently standing in front of the council on a crutch. One of his legs is completely covered in a bandage looking as if I had somehow cleaved through his leg. Damn bastard, I hadn''t even injured him that much. How the hell did a flesh wound devolve into this.


    As for the charges that he is throwing at me. It is the stuff that cloak has briefed me about. The man is blaming me on cheating during an official duel.


    Right now there is a discussion occuring in the room if the fight that I had with the man could constitute as a duel for the laws of the duel to hold. There seems to be very specific steps that need to be followed with this bunch for it to be considered a duel.


    I cannot interfere in this part of the discussion, which is why I am recording right now. After all, I will end up undermining my own case if I were to interfere here. After all, I actually do not have any idea of the laws of this land.


    It is mostly cloak and the wolf tribe that are involved in the discussion. All I can really tell about it is that it is a very intense discussion. Nobody is getting violent so that is good at the very least.


    Right now I am not focusing on that discussion. It is not like I can understand anything that is happening there anyways.


    Instead, I am thinking about the bullshit statement of this Laufen and what actually happen. Well, I guess that I should begin with what he had told me.


    The man started with a description of his mission. The man omitted to mention the fact that he had spent the night in the temporary fort. Based on his report the man had felt a sage and followed it''s track to the temporary fort. There they reminded me of the treaty and requested me to leave.


    When I refused to leave at their prompting, they were forced to challenge me to a duel to which I had agreed. As they got ready for the duel, I ambushed them with my formation killing one and nearly killing the other two snowlords.


    The entire thing is a pile of bullshit, but that was expected. After all, the damn bastards can bullshit as much as they want. Even if the truth is different who is going to prove it. My words are worthless here and that is the only thing that I have here. Well, there is the snowwinders but only the legion is hated less than them.


    The only thing I don''t understand is why they were bullshitting about the beginning of the story. After all, it is the truth that the soldiers had appeared at the fort the day before and spent the night according to the rules they had agreed to with the snowwinders.


    Well, it could be that I am reading too much into it. It could also be that there is something there, the only thing being why would the snowlords benefits by hiding the fact that they spent the night at the fort.


    Well, I do not get to think on it for long as cloak speaks from behind me.


    "Well, the council has agreed that what soldier Laufen describes as a duel was conducted in a fair and just manner. Thus the laws of a duel can be applied to it.", the lady of the tattoo tribe speaks, a tone of smugness evident in her voice. The lady is enjoying this too much. "Is there any way for the defendant to counter the charges placed on him."


    "My lady, would the council believe me if I admit that Laufen never did anything that he claims to have done.", I speak. "The man has attacked me in the middle of a negotiation. If anything he has broken the rules of negotiation that you people have with the snowwinders."


    The reply to this is a bark of laughter from the lady, following which she speaks.


    "Well, if you can prove it certainly.", cloak speaks, behind me.


    I do not reply to this, as what exactly can I present as a proof. Surprisingly, even cloak behind me is silent. The man seems to have reached the limits of his influence here.


    As I am thinking, the lady of the tattoo tribe finally speaks. I don''t even need a translation to know what the judgement is, though one is provided almost immediately.


    "The laws of a duel are absolute and the very first law is clear. The battle conducted has to be fair or it shall not be a duel. The victim has been cheated out of a fair duel and the sanctity of the duel has been challenged. The laws are clear. The challenged and the challenger will have to fight again, this time under the watchful eye of the council. All the tribes that agree to this can raise their hands.", she speaks sitting down while raising her hands.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    For a few moments that seem like a century, the representative of the Tribes all ponder their decision. The blood tribe and the wolf tribe do not raise their hands clearly against the policy. The lord of the beast tribe raises his hand after pondering for a while. Well, that was expected. The only variable on this matter we had was the spear tribe.


    Before the lord of the spear tribe could end up raising his hand he spear swipes into the air striking at something in the air. As the man''s spear comes to a rest it is revealed to be a small red gemstone that the lord of the blood tribe was playing with.


    The spear tribes lord speaks up.


    "Bastard of the blood tribe, keep your dirty magic to yourself. Do not try to disturb the council.", comes the translation.


    "You really should learn not to be so uptight, lord of the spear tribe.", speaks the man from the blood tribe. "I just had a few questions of the kid before you go and sentence him to his death. I am sure that you can postpone your vote for a bit. After all, I think that you would like to listen to what I have to ask."


    "What are you trying to insinuate here, lord of the blood tribe. This is simply a matter of reconducting a simple duel. It shall be fair.", the lady of the tattoo tribe speaks. "How dare you call it anything beyond that."


    "Well, I speak as I see things, my little lady.", the man speaks, with a sarcastic tone that even I get without the translation. "You are asking a young fledgling who can barely wield his sword to fight a grown man armed to his teeth. Only a fool would call that fair now. May I ask my questions then, my lady?"


    "Well, that is something the kid should have considered before challenging him to a duel, my lord. Blame his arrogance if you need to. As for the part about asking questions. That is your right.", speaks the lady with gritted teeth.


    "Well, I would like to begin with what were you doing at the temporary fort?", the man asks me.


    "My lord, it is part of our treaty. I work under the empire in return for access to magical ruins. You must be familiar with the hexmountain treaty.", I reply.


    "Then this position that you held for the snowwinders, this fort of yours. How close was it to the frozen peak?", asks the man again.


    "I would say that it was very close to the frozen peak. It would have just taken us a week to reach the frozen peak if we made use of the caravans.", I reply.


    "Ah, the legendary caravans of the snowwind empire. A week on those caravans would be nothing more than an hour for your "commander"", he speaks. "Well, why would you think that the snowlords would risk their lives to come so close to your lands. Especially this close to the hunt."


    "Why would I know that, my lord. It is not like I can read the thoughts of your men.", I reply.


    "Well, humour this lord of yours. Show me the legendary analytical ability of the black mountain.", he speaks.


    "Well, that is something that I cannot understand, my lord. Firstly the snowlords appeared in the battlefield not with fists swinging as I expected them to do. I assumed them to have presented themselves after knowing of my identity as a part of the legion.", I speak, for a moment forgetting where I was. "They did not hold any kind of violent inclinations towards me as if they did not know of my identity. It was only later, during negotiations that my identity got revealed and we entered into a fight."


    As I spoke, I begin to realise what had left me confused in this entire matter. The snowlords were not there because they found out that I was of the legion. The location I was in is not a place that is sage for them to come without purpose. So why exactly were they so close to my location to make it there so quickly.


    As these thoughts go on in my head, the lady of the tattoo tribe is flustered as if she did not expect this to come out.


    "My lord, how long would it usually take for the snowlords to make it to the location of my fort?", I ask. Being preemptive like this is very risky but I have grasped something here.


    "I would say that it usually takes a day, for them to travel from the outskirts of the truelands to the location of your base.", he speaks, an hint of amusement in his voice. He understands what I am going for here. Maybe that is why he started asking me those questions in the first place.


    "Well, there is a discrepancy here then. The three snowlords were not at the temporary fort the day they claim to have come.", I reply. "They appeared the night before. How could they have travelled that much distance that quickly if they were here in the truelands."


    This time it is the lady of the tattoo tribe that speaks at me.


    "Well, how exactly are you going to be proving this claim of yours.", comes the translation.


    "Well, my lady. If I was given access to the formation in my fort, I would be able to show you the precise mana records of the snowwinders in the fort.", I speak, bullshitting out of my ass. I can maintain mana records but that requires a very specific formation. "They spent the night in the fort under treaty. The trio was willing to negotiate with me until they discovered that I was of the legion."


    This time the lady speaks with a calm edge to her voice.


    "Well, any man can come here and claim anything. Since you are not able to prove yourself in a reasonable manner, the council will be continuing with its vote.", she speaks, annoyance (and what I hope to be fear) clear in her tone. "Spear tribe, you have yet to declare your vote."


    It is then that the lord of the spear tribe speaks.


    "This new information presently leaves us undecided. We reserve the right to vote until the next meeting of the council. We propose that the council meets within a week and discuss on this topic again. Those that agree raise your hands."


    As I am hearing the translation of the statement the blood tribe, the wolf tribe and the spear tribes have raised their hands.


    I catch the eye of the man from the blood tribe. To be honest, I have only half an idea what it is that I have done here. All I know is that I have kicked the problem to tomorrow.


    Whether that is going to come to bite me in the ass or actually end up saving me, I don''t know.

 the winter loop and sledders (log 037)

    Things have been pretty hectic after the trial. Almost as soon as the spear tribe abstained from voting, we were out of the building. It was almost like there was a fire under the cloak''s ass.


    We have already returned to the black tower. The man disappeared after dropping me off in my room. The man has been doing something in another part of the tower. He did tell me what it was but he was in such a rush that I barely understood what he was trying to say. All I really understood about it was that it was related to gifting some kind of a sledder to my master.


    Well, right now he is at the top of the tower. Which is why I have begun recording in the first place.


    I am surprised that my mana sense is even working in this place. Even the warmest and most open person in the black mountain tend to have formations to block the mana sense of a guest in their homes after all.


    As I am thinking this, cloak appears in front of me. There is something about the man that tells me of his power.


    It is nothing overt like it is with the commander, nor is overwhelming like with my master. It is hard for me to describe it, but the man has the presence of somebody in charge.


    "I can see why the people outside tend to be so nervous around your kind.", he speaks suddenly, breaking me out of my thoughts as he speaks with a seriousness that I did not expect him to have. "Well, I would need you to listen here kid."


    "Why, are things that bad?", I ask the man, not sure if I could manage to hear the answer. Sometimes it is better of not knowing the answer.


    "Well, it is a mixture of both. The bastards of the council managed to fuck it up quite spectacularly. Well, at least the blood tribe managed to salvage the situation.", he spoke. "That young lady does not seem to know her place. The tattoo tribe is going to suffer quite the bit from that exchange."


    "How would that be?", I ask again.


    "Well, the interests of the five tribes are more mixed than any of them like to admit.", he speaks. "If we are willing to suffer a bit, we still can cause the tattoo tribe to suffer quite a bit. Any chair to the council that doesn''t realise that fact has always failed at their duty. Anyway, all of that doesn''t matter to you. Let''s return to the matter at hand shall we."


    "Certainly.", is my reply. "What exactly even happen? I only have a vague idea that I managed to cause some kind of an argument."


    "Well, the politics of the tribe is more complicated than it seems. I will try to simplify it for you. Right now the tattoo tribe can be considered to be the most powerful among the five tribes. This is only by the thread of a hair, but it still is there.", he speaks. "Due to this, the spear tribe and the beast tribe have a tendency of supporting them. This alliance is pretty weak though. There are still many matters on which they don''t tend to agree on."


    "Like the sages, I guess.", I reply.


    "Yeah, the spear tribe has clear reason to hate the sages. They managed to fuck them up the most after all.", he speaks.


    "This spear valley incident?", I tried to guess. I wish I could get more information on that event. I have heard of it a few times now.


    "Yeah, that isn''t the only event though. Anyway, where was I, the tattoo tribe tends to be quite supportive of the sages. They were even trying to get the treaty changed to allow for more limited access to the truelands in controlled places.", he speaks. "This makes the spear tribe wonder whether the tattoo tribe is in league with the sages."


    "And how true are they.", I ask.


    "Well, it is more than likely that it is the truth. After all, the magic of the tattoo tribe is too similar to the sages formations for us to not to have doubts. There must be some collaboration.", he speaks. "Anyway, all of this does not matter to you. The main thing is that you and the blood tribe have managed to split the spear tribe and the tattoo tribe. That leaves us with room to prepare and negotiate."


    "Negotiate?", I reply.


    "Well, the spear tribe won''t be throwing their support towards us for free.", he speaks. "Still, I am not sure that the negotiations will be completely successful. I can''t prevent you from getting charged."


    "So how exactly am I supposed to be dueling a second circle being?", I ask. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "Well, you are not the first hot headed kid that dueled well above their level of strength.", he replies. "We thankfully have a contingency for that. The only problem is that it is not meant for outsiders like you. You are going to have a busy week, my friend."


    "Well, what is it?", I ask the man.


    "It is going to be the winter loop for you, kid.", he speaks. "And before you ask what the winter loop is, it is better that I show it you. That is why I have been so busy too, you see. After all, arranging a sledder on such a short notice is very hard. Especially if the tattoo tribe does not want you to have them. I managed to get a training sledder for you at least."


    As the man says this, he directs me to the door to this room.


    (After about a couple minutes.)


    Well, outside the room is a long spiralling set of stairs that just keep going down and down. The tower is way longer than it looks. If I was sure that there was no chance that these people were using formations, I would have thought that he had used a spatial expansion formation.


    Anyway, we have finally reached to the bottom of the tower and I have gotten the shock of my life.


    Moored at the edge of the tower is a ship. (Moored would be the correct here since the ground here is equivalent to the sea at it''s roughest.)


    It is not an airship, that much I can tell immediately. After all, I can''t detect any of the formations that would have propelled the ship and the two massive slabs of wood at the bottom of the ship made it more than obvious that this was not something meant to fly.


    Even with a propulsion formation this thing will end up crashing into the ground.


    "I am sure that you do not know what this is. This is known as a sledder and this is about the only way that you can travel in the truelands.", he replies. "And within a week you are supposed to be able to run this thing. It is the only way for you to be able to survive a winters loop. Let''s just hope that your master was not boasting when he told me of your skill with airships."


    "What is a winters loop?", I ask him again.


    "Well, how do I describe it. it is a sport for our people, where we race our sledders through a winter storm.", he speaks. "The first sledder to leave the storm can be considered to be the victor. It is also one of the few types of duels where you will be able to live even if you were to lose."


    As we are speaking, the man has been taking me into the ship. On the deck, I can see that the ship is pretty similar to an airship. Whatever this sledder is supposed to do it is derived from the design of an airship.


    As we go deeper into the place, I can see the differences. The differences is mainly in the formations that these guys are using. Well, to call them formations would be wrong. After all, it seems more like these are paintings of runes. They spread out across the ship in the form of nonsensical patterns that I cannot make heads or tails of.


    If I am supposed to be piloting this thing then there is little that I can do if I am supposed to be using these squiggles to do so.


    I have to assume that these are kind of like the runes that were used in the council. I have to think that the tattoos of the tattoo tribe are also something similar to this.


    That I can''t say for certain. After all, the bastards are certainly hiding these runes in their tattoos. It is actually kind of ingenious. Most of their tattoos are images of various kinds of beasts and plants, which can be used to hide their magical runes too.


    Anyway, it is time for me to return to the topic at hand. We have finally reached somewhere. Right now, cloak is fiddling with some kind of key which does not seem to be opening this lock.


    After a few embarrassing moments he finally manages to get it open. As we step into the room, I can see a set of runes that are more than familiar to me. This room is full of formations.


    "Well, welcome to the steering room. It is the only place in the truelands where you shall find formations, as you people call it.", spoke cloak behind me, explaining. "Formations are banned in the truelands, except in places like the steering rooms. Let''s just say having too many formations can have very destructive effects in our lands. The formation here are supposed to help our navigators in steering these sledders. I have heard that it is supposed to be like steering a airship. Can''t personally tell if that is the truth. I have never used either."


    As he speaks, strings of mana emanate from my hand, connecting me to the formation.


    As soon as I connect to it, the first thing that I feel is the strangeness of the ship. I don''t know how exactly am I supposed to explain it. I think the best way of describing it is trying to speak a language that you barely know.


    You know the meaning of each individual word but you have no idea how they are supposed to go together.


    As I flex my connection to the controls willing it to go forward, I can feel that the ship moving to the left.


    Fuck, how the hell am I supposed to stop this fucking thing. Fuck, fuck, there it is.


    I can feel the ship slow down as I finally bring it under my control. Well, that was intense. How the hell is it so reactive. I had just nudged the formation a little bit and the damn thing flew. I do not know of any formation that would be able to achieve something like this.


    I break my connection to the formations of this ship as cloak looks at me. The man has a look of judging curiosity. He is wondering if I will be able to handle this particular challenge. I have seen that look too many times for it not to be something very familiar to me. The legion is not gentle.


    "So what do you say, young wolf. Will you be able to master this within a week.", he speaks. "If not, things are going to be much harder."


    "I shall be able to master this sledder. The control to the ships are quite similar to that of an airship. The only thing is that the controls are not the same as the one that I am used to. It will just take me a while to get used to the controls of the device.", I speak, more to myself than to the man opposite me. "I should be no magician with it but I will be able to steer it pretty well. Not enough to beat a person that must have practiced it from childhood."


    "Well, the goal is to survive, young man. Not to win. Make sure you are able to do that and it will be fine.", he replies.

 the second trial (log 038)

    Well, I would have assumed that my second visit to the council would be a bit less stressful compared to the first one.


    Well, the place itself has not changed much. There is still the market acting as the heart to the place. Right now the shops are not as active as they were the previous time.  Almost everybody here seems to be looking at me. It is actually a pretty awkward experience.


    If before the people knew little about me, now they knew who exactly I was. I could see it in the way that the people here stopped everything that they were doing here to look at me. I am surprised that the people have not already begun to riot. The people certainly looked ready to do that.


    The way that they look at me is not the way in which a person would look at a  curious creature. Instead it is the way in which the people would look at a convict on his way to the executioner. A kind of morbid excitement. These people are here to see some blood.


    There is a clear tension in the air that was missing the last time that we were here. I can see the legendary aggression of the snow tribe now. I can see why the council has to be careful in dealing with these people. Just the smallest thing might set these people and you cannot who it will explode on.


    All in all, this time my trip into the council is not a pleasant experience at all.


    Anyway it is time for me to focus on the matter at hand. This time the council trial room is more familiar. I do not have anything to add to it though. This is a simple place with a simple purpose. Not that it is any less intimidating though.


    The arrangement of the five tribes are also the same as the last time. This time there is a difference in the atmosphere of the room. The reason for that I think is the man that is leading the tattoo tribe this time.


    Well, I am not really able to get a read on the man. Compared to the lady the last time, he is much older. I would say he could compete with the commander in terms of age.


    The only thing that I can really tell about it is that the man has a presence about him. If before, with the lady everybody here were more relaxed, now they are more stressed.


    Even the men of the blood tribe are taking on a more alert posture.


    The man begins to speak, his voice heavy and has a gravitas that only experience can bring.


    "Well, we have come here to deal with this mess.", speaks the man. "This thing has gone on for a week too long. I call the trial of this legioner to head. Anybody that has a problem with that can voice it now."


    Even I can tell a challenge when I hear it, even if it is in another language.


    Nobody rises to the challenge. Thus the man speaks on.


    "Well, does any of the other clans want to vote on this man''s fate. The beast tribe and the tattoo tribe have already voted and we have no desire to change it. Does any of the other tribes want to change their votes. Well, you have not voted technically." He speaks on, this time directed at me. With the way that his presence magnifies, I understand that this is a threat. This man does not like me one bit.


    "Well, the last time the control of the council was in the hand of a leader that was a novice. It was her first time here.", he speaks. "You shall find no opportunity to shoot your mouth here, legioner. Such obvious attempts at dividing us. As can be expected of the legion."


    "Well, my lord. I just answered the questions that were asked by the blood tribe.", I reply. I struggle a bit to get the words out but this is no commander.


    He speaks to me again, some kind of a threat maybe.


    "The lord says that you have no need of answering any questions then.", cloak speaks behind.


    The man shifts his attention away from me completely, now speaking to the blood tribe.


    "Lord of the blood tribe, do you change your decision.", he speaks. "I have warned you against the outsiders for centuries now. Don''t fall to their words now. Trusting a man that is with the legion of all things."


    This time the man of the blood tribe speaks. There is still no fear in his voice but there is a clear edge to his words.


    "My lord, the blood tribe knows what is good for it and what is not. We do not need you to tell us that.", he speaks. "As for our vote we shall change nothing. The man will not die due to this duel of yours, if we can help it."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "As my predecessor must have pointed out this is not a execution. What can we do if the kid is arrogant enough to challenge a snowlord with his paltry strength.", he speaks, his presence pressing on the man like it did with me.


    Well, it did not even have the effect it did on me. If anything it just helped to piss off the other side.


    "That is what you tell. Though knowing what the kid has told us, it would be wiser for you to take care of your allies before us.", he speaks. "The vote of the blood tribe will not change. The kid shall not duel your snowlord."


    "Fine, then, lord of the wolf tribe. Do you change your vote?", he asks them.


    Well, the lord of the wolf tribe is a man of a few words. Even during the previous trial the man did not speak much.


    "We do not change it, lord of the tattoo tribe.", he speaks. "We have reason to believe that you will not be able to conduct this duel fairly. Thus respecting the spirit of the duel, we do not approve of it."


    The man does not try and convince the other side more than this. With that he turns to the spear tribe who will be deciding my fate.


    "Lord of the spear tribe, this council is then brought to you. You have withheld your right to vote in the last trial as well.", speaks the man of the spear tribe.


    "Well, I thank you, lord of the tattoo tribe.", he speaks. "We have reason to believe that the snowlord has lied about issuing the challenge to the duel. We shall verify the validity of the statements from the accused. Does the lord grant us the right to do that."


    "Yes, I give you that right.", he speaks, contradicting his own statement a few moments ago.


    (After almost an hour.)


    Right now I can feel my own head slow down. It is almost like I have suddenly woke up from sleep. I have been spending the last one hour speaking continuously.


    The spear tribe have been continuously questioning me about the fight I had with the snowlord.


    They questioned me about every aspect of it for the last hour. This is to a point that I have been repeating my answers for a while now.


    I don''t know what exactly they are looking  for but they have been certainly insistent in their questioning. I think they are trying to see if I might change my story if enough pressure is put on me.


    They have finally stopped about a minute ago. I can still feel my head ringing from the amount of talking that they have made me do.


    I almost do not catch what they are speaking. A few moments later I hear the translation.


    "The spear tribe has questioned the kid and finds there to be no reason to doubt the tattoo tribe. At the same time, we have to agree that the wolf tribe is also right. This duel, while true to the laws will go against the spirit of the duel. We cannot therefore support the motion to conduct a duel. We therefore vote against this duel."


    As I am processing this, the lord of the spear tribe goes on.


    "we propose an alternative. We would believe that a winters loop would be a more fair method of conducting this duel."


    "Are you sure, lord of the spear tribe.", speaks the man at the tattoo tribe, his voice taking a very dangerous edge. Anywhere else that tone would have meant swords would be drawn.


    "We are more than sure, lord of the tattoo tribe. The man has the relevant experience at controlling formations as well. It is the ideal choice.", the spear lord replies.


    "Well then, we shall accept this alternative. We assume that the spear tribe has already voted on it.", he speaks. "Whichever tribe agrees to this raise their hands."


    None of the tribes speak, as the spear tribe, tattoo tribe and the beast tribe raise their hands.


    "With that cleared, we have to discuss about which tribe will be taking charge of the legioner.", he speaks. "With every passing day the presence of the legioner is causing chaos. The quicker we get rid of this matter, the better for us. We of the tattoo tribe will not take charge of his security though."


    "The beast tribe will not be able to manage protecting the kid. We will not take charge of the kid.", the beast tribe speaks.


    And then everybody starts speaking. Even cloak behind me stops trying to translate them. Even he seems to be struggling to keep up with all the people suddenly speaking.


    (After about ten fifteen minutes.)


    I have no idea what the fuck is going on here. All I can really tell is that nobody wants to take responsibility of my safety.


    Right now the main argument is happening between the tattoo tribe, the spear tribe and the wolf tribe.


    Both the blood tribe and the beast tribe are out of this argument now. The remaining three are arguing with a passion though.


    Anyway, the reason that I am recording right now is actually due to the fact that the lord of the blood tribe has spoken up.


    Even right now he is speaking, though I am not able to make out a single word of his. All I have really is his tone. The man has a calm and collected tone, though there is an edge hidden in his voice.


    Whatever the man is speaking, the others in the room do not like it. The way that they react remind me of the soldiers of the legion before they enter into a fight. That steely calmness, not many in the continent can replicate.


    "The lord of the blood tribe have taken responsibility of your protection. He has informed the council you will be taken to the bloody city.", cloak translates behind me. "He shall take you their immediately after the end of the council. He is asking the lord of the tattoo tribe to end the council so that everybody can be on their way."


    As I am hearing the translation, the tension in the room has taken on another new level. For a few moments I am left wondering if they will end up fighting.


    Finally, the lord of the tattoo tribe finally barks something, which I have to assume is the command to end the council.


    Almost as soon as that statement ends all the figures present there rise at the same moment. Again, it feels like there is going to be a fight as the council all begin to slowly disappear, each into their own hidden tunnels.


    (After about five minutes.)


    I can feel the blood pound in my head like a drum as cloak makes me rush through the complicated tunnels of the council.


    He does not even dare to stop even for a few moments as we just keep running through the place.


    He has finally stopped now, which is why I have started this thing again. The reason that he has stopped is due to a bunch of snow tribe people all armed to their teeth.


    I don''t recognise any of them, other than the five that are leading them. This is the blood tribe''s soldiers it looks like.

 A quick retreat (log 039)

    Well, at the moment I can say for certain that my muscles want to leave my body and go die in a ditch somewhere. Isn''t the cold supposed to numb pain like this, how the fuck am I feeling it even more intensely now. It feels like somebody is pulling my muscles out of me and wringing it like a cloth.


    Cold and pain have defined my being for the last couple of hours. Right now we are climbing what can be considered to be one of the steepest paths that I have ever seen in my life. (I am a child of the hex mountain. We know steep paths when we see one.)


    Well, I have discovered that there exist mountains in the truelands and that the blood tribe makes these mountains their home. They can move through the narrow paths of this mountain like a goat. I am sure even the soldiers of the legion would be surprised about this capability of theirs.


    I have experience in climbing the largest mountain in the continent (the hex mountain is much steeper than this place). Compared to that the hex mountain, this place is a tiny hill with a gentle slope.


    Well, the fact that it exists is just as impressive as the hexmountain in my eyes. If the hex mountain is a sword standing unsheathed to its full glory, the mountain here is a sword well used, broken to its hilt and still used to stab someone in the eye as it''s final defiance.


    Right now, I am one of the two people that is struggling to deal with this ascent. The other person is cloak. All the other soldiers are climbing up the mountain like clock work. It literally feels as if all of them are controlled by one person. (Such coordination is rare to see in an army. They must be a pretty strong fighting force.)


    Before my fellow soldiers of the legion begin their teasing, My problem with climbing this mountain is the weather. If it was cold down there, then it is freezing up here. I can feel the chill (the normal kind) even through the protection that cloak has placed over me and the protection that the blood tribe has provided us all. I can feel my body growing numb in this weather. Well, I honestly appreciate the numbness. My muscles feel like somebody has been crushing it into a paste for the last couple of hours now. (I mostly blame the cold for this.)


    I struggle to keep moving, feeling my body steadily lose heat. At the moment I am envious of the soldiers of the blood tribe. They are wearing some kind of a fur skin that is kind of like the coat that I am wearing right now. (well, I had worn it while going to the frozen peak. How was I supposed to know that I would be going to a place even colder where it would be useless.) It also works to isolate the person wearing it from the surrounding ice mana. It is way better at it though, then even the coat that I am wearing now. They look downright comfortable in their skins, while I feel like I have taken a bath in a block of ice.


    Well, if my problem is with the temperature, cloak struggles with the climbing.


    The man is like a blind bull charging up the mountain, often slipping. Where he should be still the man moves and where he is supposed to move like his life depends on it the man simply refuses to move. Twice, the man has simply slipped and fell down the mountain. A less powerful man would have broken every bone of their body. The man is not even harmed though. (More importantly, the cold seems to be barely affecting the man as well.)


    I can see why the blood tribe can afford to piss off all the other tribes. If even a man like cloak (I am sure that other weaker beings will have even less control over their body and certainly way less durability.) is struggling to climb these mountain then they can hold these paths with a fraction of the force that the enemy needs to field here. At the moment I am actually debating if they really need anybody watching these paths. It is such a torture to climb this place that I wonder if anybody would be willing to do it.


    Well, I guess that I should begin this with how we even ended up in this damn place. Well, the instant that the second meeting of the council happened, we rushed out of the place.


    The blood tribe and their soldiers escorted us across the lands of the truelands since. It began on flat ground, which we covered in the matter of a few hours.


    We travelled across the plain on caravans made up of some kind of a rock like wood. The only reason that the caravans are even able to travel across the chaotic weather of the truelands is due to that totem of theirs.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    It is a statue, made up of a blood red rock. I think it is supposed to be showing a man stabbing some kind of a bird through its heart. Based on what I can tell, it is supposed to be some kind of an eagle (or a phoenix. I can''t really tell those two apart). The statue itself is kind of commonfare. (When every village has a hero that has killed such a terrible beast, such statues are really common. A bit too common.) The really unique thing about the man is that he isn''t the usual hero type.


    Most people tend to depict their heros as the soldierly kind. Muscular, well armoured and often with a massive sword.


    Here they have depicted the man as a scholar. He is dressed in scholarly robes that would better suit a court mage than a hero. And even his weapon is a staff that looks like it should be snapping under the weight of the beast. Heck, even the man looks ancient compared to the usual idea of a hero.


    Looking at the statue I am left wondering of the story behind it. Well, I will have to smother my curiosity for now. The curiosity of someone from the black mountain is the thing that will most likely get him killed here. That too in a land where men of the legion can drive the men of that land into a bloody frenzy. (It is usually the kings that have reason to fear the presence of the legion not the commonfolk.)


    Anyway, where was I. Yeah, the only reason that we are able to travel in this land is due to this blood red statue. It is like a totem which emanates a massive bubble protecting us from the storms. In this bubble, the storms of this place are almost non existent. There is still a leakage of ice mana here but that is quite manageable. After all, I can still manage even with this coat. It just leaves me very miserable.


    Without it, we would have already fallen to the storms of this place. Even now the only thing that is visible beyond the boundary is the grey of a storm.


    I am sure that if I were to take a step beyond this boundary the only thing that will be left of me is a block of ice.


    The magic that is being used by the blood tribe is actually very fascinating to me.


    As far as I can tell, this magic seems to be a portable version of the magic that is maintained by the council. Just like that bit of magic, I have no idea how this works.


    All I know is that this magic of theirs is very closely related to tattoo magic and is at the same time very different from it. For one thing, it is way more mana intensive. This must be something that is unique to the blood tribe. This idea is more instinct than logic though so don''t ask me to justify it.


    Each of the lord presiding over my trial have been powering the statue in shifts. While I am not even able to tell how they are powering the device (they are just sitting in front of the statue, meditating.), they are releasing ridiculous amounts of mana which is being consumed like a wildfire.


    Well, it would be wrong to call it ridiculous. I would say that it is somewhere between the mana being emitted by a snowlord and the mana being emitted by cloak. Still, it is very mana intensive. Even the lords, who must be equivalent to third steps at least are only able to power the thing for two hours at a time before running out.


    Soon the plains of this place gave way to the rocks of the mountain that we are climbing right now. Our travelling speed has greatly reduced after that.


    The main reason for that is cloak actually. I am actually able to somewhat keep up with the blood tribe soldiers. (What can I say, even I am surprised. I was sure that I would struggle climbing this mountain. I guess you climb one mountain you have climbed them all.) The only problem with me is that I am forced to take frequent breaks due to the cold.


    As I have said, the climbing speed of cloak is atrocious. Without him, it would be quite easy for us to double our speed. Right now, the man is being assisted by a group of soldiers who are helping the man climb. Even they seem to be struggling at doing it though.


    Without them, the man wouldn''t even have an idea of how he is supposed to be climbing the place. Well, not that he is doing any better with their help. After all he has still slipped and fallen about twice since the beginning of this journey.


    Both times, the man slipped beyond the boundary of the statue. Any other person would have already become a frozen statue. Thankfully, cloak is durable at the very least.


    Both times that he fell the man ended up taking at least a couple of hours to return.


    Well, part of the reason that he is so bad at it is how much he is being rushed. We could be actually taking it a bit easier and we would make the same time.


    I think that the people here do not seem to be realising that. I don''t think at the moment they are even realising that they are rushing so much.


    I think they are expecting somebody to attack them. I am not actually sure about this though. After all, the blood tribe soldiers are quite disciplined. I don''t think I have yet to see them express any emotion. (Except frustration from trying to help cloak climb the mountain. You can guess how annoying it is to them.)


    Similarly, the only thing that can really be said about cloak is that the man is frustrated. That is due to his inability to climb. I am sure that the man is not used to being so slow. After all, on the plains the man won''t even need a few hours to cover the distance that took us nearly a day.


    Instead, I am basing my judgement on small actions of theirs. The way the soldiers are cutting their rest short even though they are not that well rested. The way that the lords have been expending more and more of their mana, trying to keep the statue active for longer even though it would not really give them any benefits.


    I am starting to feel as if even cloak has begun to hurry up, forcing himself to move faster and faster.


    Not that it is really helping them. If anything it will end up slowing them down. We have made pretty decent progress and we should be at our target soon enough.


    That is what is causing me to worry about it so much. What can cause such seasoned soldiers to worry about something at such a basic level that they do not even realise it this close to their homes.


    Well, recording this log has only caused my worry to grow now. Sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself.

 the bloody city (log 040)

    The blood tribe is a interesting place. There are many reason for this. For one, cloak obviously is very antagonistic about the people here. You could see it in the way that they treat each other. It is a careful politeness meant to ensure that no side would be pissed off.


    Even the way in which the man speaks of them to me is very different. How do I put it better, the man is very careful on the way in which he presents the information of the other tribes. He is very careful in only providing me with the surface level information of the other tribes.


    The kind of information that would make it easy for me to work with them, but not enough so that I would be able to exploit that knowledge. After all, even this bit of information is something that most scholars would trade their hands for. (I mean that quite literally too.)


    With the blood tribe, the man is very open with his information. That is the other thing with the man, he clearly has a very good idea about the blood tribe. He knows about the them in the same way in which we know about our enemies. The way that the scholars of the black mountain tend to study our enemies, in fact.


    Well, right now I am standing in the capital of the blood tribe, whose name I will never be able to pronounce. Translated the name of the place means "bloody city". That is what I will be calling the place for now.


    Simply put this place is a fort in disguise. They put their utmost effort in trying to hide it but I am a formation mage. A majority of our work is related to forts and defensive structures. It would be embarrassing if I were not able to tell.


    The first thing that tips you of is the location of the place. It is located in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. It makes this place almost impossible to scale, especially if you are here in large numbers and you are like cloak and his ability to scale a mountain. There is certainly no chance that they will be able to bring any war machines here.


    As if that wasn''t enough, you can look at the shape of the city itself. It has a ring like structure divided into three rings, with the housing of the people present at the very center in the innermost ring.


    The houses are clustered together in the center of the town, with houses reaching till the fourth floor (even most houses in the hex mountain usually tend to be two floors high). It is made up of the same kind of rock as the black tower so it is very durable as well.


    You can be sure that hidden somewhere in this ring, they should have a grain store and a source of water hidden in there. Not that I will be able to find it''s precise location. Not that I should anyways, that would piss of our hosts.


    Surrounding the houses in the middle ring is the less important things that you need in the city, like their markets, their shops and most importantly their barracks are here. This ring of shops and markets would act as a barrier for any invading army, making it easier to defend against them.


    All of these markets and shops are arranged in such a chaotic manner that any invading force would essentially come to a standstill in this place.


    By the way, the point of the barracks reminds me something. These guys have a pretty impressive standing army as well. I already could see it in our climb to this place, but it is even more clear here.


    The way that they do things actually remind me of the legion. The way that the legion works is not to create a single massive army that would be able to work together in a war. Instead, the legion works to nurture teams. Usually consisting of five members these teams are taught to work together independently and without any support from their fellows. They are also trained to work with other teams, though that does occur pretty rarely.


    The training of the legion is good enough that you could drop a team anywhere in the continent and you could be sure that they could survive.


    Well, that is the minimum requirement to be a legioner, with the number of enemies that we have.


    Anyway, returning to the topic at hand, the soldiers here are trained in a similar manner. That is actually pretty rare and I can actually understand the purpose for that.


    Such an independent style of working would make them very useful in guerrilla warfare, which is what these people must be expecting to handle here.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I am sure that these people would be able to hold back a much larger group even with their more limited number.


    Finally, surrounding this two layers of the city is a final ring of farmlands. While, I am sure that they are not lying about the place being a farmland, I am sure that the large "channels" that they have dug in the ground are certainly not meant to transport water across the farms as they claim it to do.


    Well, it could be true but the "channels" could be flooded quite easily to make them into moats.


    Even their source of water for this is very well guarded. It is somewhere under the ground is all that I have managed to figure out about it.


    All of this makes me conclude very easily that this place is meant to be a fort and that these people are more than ready for a fight.


    Well, until now I have been speaking about my observations of the place as I have studied it in the last couple of days. Even now I am standing here in the balcony of the room assigned to me looking at the flow of the people below me. It is a pretty busy little place, if I am allowed to speak.


    Now, I will record what cloak has told me about the blood tribe. Where should I start from.


    Yeah, the blood tribe is something of an anomaly in the council. The other tribes in the council all have something that makes the useful to the others. The beast tribe are the merchants facilitating deals between all the forces of the tribes.


    The spear tribe act as guards protecting the many sledders going to and fro through the truelands. The tattoo tribe provide many things, the chief of which is the sledder.


    Finally the wolf tribe act as mercenaries for hire for all the tribes. This all means that all the tribes of the council have a certain degree of interdependence. Harming the other side would end up harming yourself to a certain degree as well.


    The blood tribe has nothing like that. The only thing that they really have in terms of trade is their black rock.


    Well, the only thing that I have understood about the black rock is that it is one of the only materials in the truelands that is able to survive a storm of this area and is something that all the tribes desire.


    Due to that it is one of the most popular materials to construct your houses and forts from. The blood tribe are the masters of carving, shaping and procuring this black rock (which they mine from the mountains surrounding them). Even the black tower of cloak is a creation of the blood tribe.


    Other than that, the blood tribe keep to themselves. This is to a point that it is supposed to be impossible to see a blood tribe member outside of the bloody city. Most of the times, they don''t even tend to visit the council.


    Their vote is always known in the council. It is always against the popular vote of the council. The only reason that they interfered this time is due to something that my master has promised them. I wonder what that is.


    They are also extremely self reliant, rarely needing to trade with people outside of their tribe.


    That is another thing that is weird about them. They have a extremely negative view of the other tribes.


    Most of their encounters end up in conflicts with the other tribes. The reason for that is beyond me though. There is a limit to how open cloak is willing to be, even with the blood tribe.


    (After an hour.)


    "You should be wary, child of the legion.", a voice speaks behind me. "The people here do not like to be studied."


    I guess that I should act surprised but the man has been behind me for a while now, from even before I started this log. He is the man that spoke in the council.


    "My lord, why should I be wary. You have taken responsibility of my safety and I can see that I am in good hands.", I speak. "Your people also seem to be equally curious of me. They have been studying me for a while now."


    "Well, that is true but you seem to be a kid with a good head. You certainly would not like to piss of your only allies.", he replies. "You are in our care, as you said and we have little care for honour like the other tribes. That is actually why we are not doing anything to you right now."


    "Well, I do have cloak. He seems to be taking good care of me.", I speak.


    "I guess that is the truth. We are the only allies of yours that know what we are dealing with though.", he speaks. "Cloak plays a dangerous game, trying to please both sides. The man does not realise what your master is capable of. This gambit of his will fail, of that I am sure. What do you think of this winter loop. What has the man spoke about it."


    "Well, it is the safest option among many dangerous options according to him.", I reply. "The laws of the winter loop prevent them from trying to get me killed."


    "Well, that is a truth. It is not the complete truth. The tattoo tribe will try to kill you. They are the tribe in the council with the least respect to those rules. Even we are not as crazy as them on that front. The duel has restricted their chances, but they would be fools not to try it. We certainly would have.", he speaks. "Of that we are sure. You are the disciple of the great wolf. I am sure that this warning should be enough for you to make your own preparations."


    "Well, what has my master promised you?", I ask the man.


    "Well, aren''t you a curious lad. That is between your master and us.", he speaks. "Let''s just say that the man shall provide us with wings. That is something that is not important to you now. Let''s discuss something that is. Do you realise what you have done to piss off the tattoo tribe."


    "Well, I have no idea. Is it the fact that I am of the legion?", I ask.


    "Well, that is a reason. The reason right now is different than that.", he speaks. "Use your mind, legioner."


    I think for a bit, finally replying.


    "Is it because I have the bloodline of a sage.", I reply.


    "Well, it is and isn''t, kid. Rather than your identity the problem is more with your timing.", he replies.


    "How exactly am I supposed to understand that.", I reply.


    "Well, it wasn''t really meant for you. The men who would be reading this log of yours would have understood it.", he replies. "As for you, the only warning that I will give you is that be wary of cloak. Most men here fight to protect their home from their enemies. Cloak fights because he fancies himself a man that can bend the council to his schemes. Don''t think that you truly understand his motives."


    "And is he actually capable of that?", I ask.


    "Well, who can really tell. The man is dangerous is all you need to know.", he speaks. "For now though, he is your ally."

 the winter loop (log 041)

    I must admit that I am feeling quite numb at the moment. The thing is I have been in many competitions in my life but none has ever ended in me having to fight to my death in a sledder. Heck I did not know they existed until a while ago and I have just used and practiced with them for less than a couple of weeks. Even if they are similar to airships that is no time to master anything.


    As for why I am suddenly calling it a duel to the death, well after my chat with the elder of the blood tribe it is easy to see the way in which things are going.


    It is conjecture at the moment but I don''t think that the duel right now will be as peaceful as cloak likes to speak of it. I mean I could take the man''s warning, but there is also the possibility that the man is trying to sow discord too. Still a warning is a warning.


    I am sure I am supposed to be feeling quite nervous at the moment, but the only thing that I can feel is a numbness. That is a good thing because I will need every iota of my focus at hand in this so called "fair duel".


    Well, I guess that I should properly explain what exactly are the rules to this winter loop before I start the damn thing.


    Well, simply put the winter loop is a race between two participants through a storm of the truelands. We will be provided with sledders by the council and then we will have to race through a storm and the person that is the first to leave it will be the victor.


    Quite a simple set of rules. One that doesn''t need to end in the death of the participants.


    The council has been quite busy in the last couple of weeks, as they prepare for the winter loop. This punishment is particularly resource intensive for these people as they have to firstly provide two sledders which mostly won''t be making it through the storm intact. It is not a surprise if they are destroyed in the process as well.


    To these people that can only make use of sledders to travel the truelands this must be a pretty heavy expense.


    Also they have to locate a storm through which the two participants will be able to spend a satisfactory amount of time in after all. Storms in these lands are quite common but most would be either too long or too short for the winter loop. They take quite the while to locate the storm with the ideal length of time. That is usually about five minutes to one hour depending on the strength of the people involved. For us it will be at the lower end, about five minutes.


    This is another fascinating thing that I have found out about the snow tribe. It is their knowledge of the weather of the truelands.


    To any person that has worked with only a single type of mana (which is not your vital mana.) you would know just how crazy it is to try and predict its motion.


    Anyway, neither side will be having any method of attacks, other than a reinforced bow which can be used like a battering ram. That means the goal of this fight is essentially what boarding ships attempt to do in the air. To collide with the other sides ship in a controlled and safe manner. (as safe as a airship colliding into a airship can be.) In the air boarding would be much simpler, though inside a Storm there is no way of predicting what can happen. There the winds will be able to rip us apart in a few moments.


    "Prepare for the storm", a voice screams into my ears directly.


    As I link myself to the formations, I can see the storm approaching us. It is not actually physically visible but to those with a mana sense it would look like a massive wall of ice mana charging at us. It is no wall though as the ice mana in that "wall" is flowing even faster and deadlier than a whirlpool. Beyond the wall you shall find the storm though the storm wall itself is the first threat in this duel. I need to breach the wall, which is built of ice mana so packed that from a distance it appears solid.


    I shall speak on this later as the storm arrives in front of us. I can literally feel the chill as the wall passes into both of our ships. I can sense the other ship somewhere to my right though telling the precise location is impossible.


    I even lose that a couple of moments later as the world begins to lose all direction. I can feel the sledder groaning as ice mana laden winds buffet it from all the directions. If I keep allowing the ship to move headerless like this, soon enough it will split into many pieces.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    This is something that one needs to be wary of with a airship too. The trick to survive such a thing is to go with the flow. Moving the device in whichever direction it is supposed to be going and not against the wind. The only problem is that the wind is constantly changing in this case. Only a skilled pilot will then be able to go with the flow.


    I can finally understand why cloak has been saying to me that I could be able to do this. All I really need is a really sensitive mana sense and a passable skill at driving a sledder to attempt such a thing. Still, I focus as I link up with the sensory formations.


    I can feel the wind buffet the ship in all directions. The winds are coming at me randomly, pushing the ship in all directions that I can still not tell my location exactly. I begin to move the sledder, which really feels like travelling on a ship in this chaotic storm. Before the ground had a level of stability that made it easy to orient myself. Now the ground itself is like water in a storm, moving about like waves that threaten to capsize me.


    I begin to move the ship, first left then immediately to the right then suddenly slope it downwards as I try to go with the flow. Now the battle between me and the giant is one of speed. Right now, both of us are like leaves in a storm. Whoever stabilizes first and breaches the wall will get the opportunity for the first hit.


    So I get busy, try to move the ship with the flow of the storm. Here I clearly feel the limitation of being stuck to the ground. in an airship, you can simply go up whenever there is an updraft. With the sledder whenever there is a updraft, I have to angle the ship upwards and hope that I won''t end up flying into the ground. Cloak has warned me against doing that, as it can damage whatever it is that is pushing the ship forward.


    After all the two stumps at the bottom are playing a pretty important role in the sledder. Any damage to them will drastically reduce my speed. Still, the process of adapting is taking longer than expected. The other side might have already done it too and is waiting to steer the ship towards my direction. He will ambush me the moment that I breach the wall.


    (A couple minutes later)


    I finally break through the wall into the storm beyond it. Here the winds are still very strong, enough to overturn the ship but at least the wind here is not strong enough that I will capsize the moment I go against the wind. There is a decent chance of the ship being overturned though if the wind is moving to the side of my ship.


    I am lost in my thoughts as the other side finally appears to my side. His bow is perpendicular to the side of my ship and it can cause quite the significant bit of damage. It is almost on instinct that I try to move the ship upwards. That costs me a few precious seconds as I reverse the ship. The other side still hits but it is the front of the ship, which is armored. There is damage but nothing that can get me killed in the short term. Thankfully this is not the ocean or we would be sinking already. Still, this ship won''t be holding for long.


    Turning the ship I move to the left, which would be away from the opposing ship. Sadly the wind is in the direction opposite to me slowing me down quite significantly. The other side also retreats, unless he wants to press his attack in which both of us would fall as one ship would become stuck in the other. I can''t maintain this for long though. The enemy will begin to follow me soon enough and he will catch up to me in this storm quite quickly.


    For a few seconds I do not know what to do as the opposing ship begins to chase after me, after which I get a idea. It is quite risky but there is little that I can do anyways. To start my plan I quickly reverse the ship (another nice thing about the sledder they do not have a front or back, so they can move forward or backwards at equal speeds.). Thankfully even the wind is supportive of that and It is quite stable too. Well. If it suddenly come from the right or left, well I would wish luck to both of us. You can tell the ship is being boosted by the outside winds just from how the ship is being cradled like a babies crib. It feels like the ship will be carried away by the wind at any second. Now I am scared that this thought will become the truth.


    That means that I have given the opposite side the time to catch up to me though. It will be worth it. The other side moves to my right as I hoped he would though not by much due to the wind. He must be expecting a charge much like what he had done. Such a charge would lead to head on collision and then it is a matter of luck of which ship would survive. That won''t happen now anyways.


    I turn the ship at its maximum speed, directly perpendicular to the wind. I can feel the ship being pulled by the wind as it is in the verge of of overturning. I do not have much time, before the winds will overturn my ship. I use this moment of time to strike my target which is moving away from me.


    He is not perfectly perpendicular to me but he is within the range of me striking. I push the ship to its maximum speed, even as the ship sways to the left and right. Just as it feels like the ship is about to fall my bow finds its target. I can feel the opposing ship crunch as my ship pierces into it. I can still feel the ship wanting to turnover and fall, but the opposing ships acts as an anchor albeit not a perfect one.


    Before either of us can do anything though the world around me beings to spin, as if we both were standing on a spinning top. I begin to lose all sense of direction again though it is nice to see that I am still stuck in the other ships side as the force of the spinning drives me deeper into the ship.


    That is all the information I am able to get as the world finally becomes a black void as I lose consciousness. The spinning of our ships literally caused me to fly away and hit the wall.

 the death trance (log 042)

    Have you ever been woken up because something is running towards you and your are sure that you are about to die. I have experienced that today.


    Well calling it woken up would be wrong. After all one doesn''t simply wake up from being unconscious. What would be the accurate term I do not know. Maybe shocked into awareness would be right. Regardless of how you describe it, here I am as if somebody filled my mind with drugs. This must be the death trance that Philip likes to speak so much about. Focus of such extreme degree that the world seems to have slowed down to a standstill.


    Well, whatever it is I certainly did not expect the scene in front of me. Thankfully the storm seems to have passed with minimal damages to the ship. Well minimal would be relative to what is in front of me. The other side''s ship has essentially split into two. The two pieces are connected to each other by the barest piece of wood.


    There is simply no way that ship is going to be moving any time soon. I don''t think it ever will. My ship is much better off. The bow has been bent to a weird angle. I certainly am not going to be doing any ramming with this ship and there are holes in the ship. The only one that I need to worry about is the one that is near the bow, the one that was caused by the ramming of the enemy ship. The hole has expanded becoming much larger in the process. It would be easy for a elephant to enter from there let alone a man. That would have been quite a source of my worry if it were not for the fact that there is a chance I might not survive this fight. This ship might not sink but that much ice mana is not good for anybody.


    The annoying thing is that the thing that woke me up was a glowing man that stood out like a fire that is charging at the ship at this moment. Somehow the glow of the man''s tattoos seems to be even more intense here than in the fort. If I did not know better I would have thought that the man was on fire. Well it makes sense, if their tattoos work on ambient mana, they have way more mana to work with here than they had elsewhere and he certainly seems to be running his tattoos at full throttle. if that is the case The man is going to chew through me like a toffee.


    I don''t dare to look at him with my mana sense. After all that much mana in my mana sense would be pretty dangerous. It might even lead to permanent damage.


    Right now the only chance of survival that I have is to ensure that the other party is not going to be entering into my ship. Thankfully that is something that I have a certain level of experience with. The process of preventing boarding has been the only thing that I have been spending my time on my journey here. I have to admit that I have never done this against a single man though. The basic principle should be the same though. Such a thing would be impossible with an airship. Most die just being exposed to the sky after all.


    Right now the glowing bastard has only one point of entry to enter into my ship. That is where I think that he is charging towards. I am not completely sure as the man can simply punch a hole in the ship too. Granted the ship is sturdy enough that I think it should last a while under his assault, he has too much control of mana for me to tell accurately. At the moment retreating is not a option. The man is moving towards me at a speed that the sledder will not be able to match. It is like a tortoise that is trying to swat a mosquito. The only option left then is to go on the offensive and not let the man anywhere near the hole in the ship.


    Strings of mana worm their way into the formations that are working. I quickly access the sensory formations as my mana sense overlap with the input from the formations. (A risky step but I need precise information of the enemies location.) I began my move at the correct time. I begin to accelerate the ship, which is not as impressive as it was before (it is only half the acceleration that I have managed before). I don''t know what has been damaged and I do not care at the moment.


    Thankfully the man certainly did not expect me to go on the offensive. He just pauses there for a second as he processes what has just happened here. Sadly, He is barely able to jump to the side as the winds caused by the ship cause the man to be blown away. Now is the time that the true threat begins. The man is very close to the ship and I can''t create a distance from him anymore. The only option left is to keep attempting what I am doing, trying to run over the man with the sledder while keeping him as away from the hole as possible.


    Sadly, the man seems to realise that at the same moment as me as he begins to charge towards the hole in the ship with a renewed effort. He is at the moment on the side where the hole is. Again I pick the more agressive choice as I turn the ship in his direction. This sledder has not been designed for this as I can feel the ship bending too much for my comfort but at least it does not overturn. The man is ready for such a thing as he jumps to the side. I honestly wish this ship had hooks. With such good sensory formations it would be quite easy to snipe the man. At least it would do more to keep the man on his toes than what I am doing. The man is very careful at the moment, playing very defensively. If he was more aggressive, well this mosquito would be quite capable of biting into this tortoise.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    And thus our cat and mouse chase begins. The man tries to close in to the hole, while I turn the ship towards him always attempting to hit the man. Twice I manage to get a hit as my damaged bow hits the man, the force of the blow enough to make the man fly. He always returns, with barely any damage to the him. I think I can feel the bow cracking with each succesful collision. I think the ship is going to give away before the bastard is going to get tired.


    This is not as easy as it looks like. A ship is naturally much slower than him. Every second it feels like the man has reached into the ship. Every turn that doesn''t allow him to do this surprises me just as much as the man outside. The sensory formations of the ship are amazing. Now that I am using it take study the world, I realise just how much the sensory formations are helping me to handle this.


    I don''t know how long I can manage this. I can feel myself tiring and each reaction of mine is just a fraction slower than before and it is starting to add up. My movements are already like a man that has not slept for the last couple of days. I am quite sure that my vision is going blurry and I can''t say for certain but I am certain I have peed my pant. I dont dare to check my pants. That is a distraction that I can ill afford.


    I cannot feel my body anymore as the only thing that I can see becomes the man blowing around me like a leaf. He is always near the hole, no matter how I try to surprise him. Every turn of my ship is just that bit slower. Every moment I can feel him come closer to breaching the ship.


    For a moment I wonder why I am even doing this. I will literally only buy minutes, maybe seconds doing this and there is no man here that truly cares to save me. Even cloak only has helped me because he fears my master. Otherwise, I can feel the venom that exists in the back of his mind. The man has no reason to risk his life to save mine. I guess that I should feel angry and I think that I do feel it, but exhaustion is the only thing that I can really feel now. The only thing that I am sure of is that I will be the death of these men.


    That thought proves to be my undoing as the man uses this moment of lapse to enter the ship. I let go of my strings, as I finally notice that I seem to have collapsed to the floor.


    I can at least confirm that I do seem to have peed my pants. It could be sweat too I can''t really tell.


    I think that I should be scared at the moment, but I have never been this exhausted. I can''t move an inch, though I am still trying to crawl away. The world seems to have slowed down as I wonder what I could have done to not end up in this situation. When is the fucker going to come here. Thinking has never been such a chore.


    The world suddenly flashes like somebody overloaded a light formation. The only thought I could think before my executioner entered the room was, the bastard did not need to destroy a wall, the door was unlocked.


    Everything after this is a blur of memories, though I guess that I should try and make sense of it. I have to admit that I have had to edit much of this particular part of my memories. Most of this I found out much later after the event occured. immediately after my loss of consciousness the man that came into the ship was not Laufen, as I had expected. Instead it was a giant grey wolf who had literally charged through the ship to get to me.


    The thing that caught me off-guard about the wolf was how familiar it seemed to me. I had never seen the creature in my life but there was something familiar about it. It is the size of a small giant, so that shouldn''t have been possible. Such a large beast is not easy to forget.


    The first thing that I noticed as the wolf came deeper and deeper into my ruined ship was that the wolf had a set of limbs in his mouth. A pair of arms and a pair of legs. As soon as he saw me, the wolf dropped these limbs and scampered towards my side.


    As he entered the room the wolf opened its mouth, most likely to eat me in a single gulp. Instead it holds me in such a gentle manner that I feel like it is carrying me in the air.


    As we are leaving the sledder I can see the damage that has been done to the ship. The sledder given to me looks literally as if somebody has shot an arrow into it though my memory of it is quite vague. I honestly can''t tell if it is memory or imagination at this point. Other than that the force of the impact burned through most of the formations on the thing. The two ships involved in this sorry affair are lying there like a monument to our fight.


    Yeah where was I. The wolf carried me away from the ruined ships and dropped me on the ground outside. The beast begins to shudder as a man emerges from it. As I begin to lose consciousness I recognised the man''s face. Bald like a ball, with a mustache that dominated his face. Yet the most unique feature of the man was the scar that ran through his face from his left eye to his neck like some giant dragon had clawed his face.


    This was the grand wolf of the black mountain, the beast that defied death and my master.

 the conclusion (log 043)

    Well, it has been the first time in my life that I have edited a log before sending it like I did yesterday. It is a weird sense, changing a log. It feels like a man changing his words mid speech. If you are not careful it comes out all jumbled up.


    It took a significant bit of effort, more than it would have taken for anyone else to achieve, I am sure.


    Still, something like yesterday never has happened. I was so focused on the enemy that I didn''t even notice that the log was not sent. (I usually send it the instant that I make them. I almost don''t even realise that I am doing so nowadays. I might actually be getting used to this magic.) That would have been quite funny, somebody hearing me rambling on random matters but missing the one that would have been the most important. People don''t seem to realise how frequently it occurs as well. How many unsolved deaths actually exist in the legion''s records. Well, better that I don''t speak too much on that.


    Then again, the death trance is something that I have experienced for the first time in my life. It was almost like for those few minutes, there was no other thought in my mind. Even the log, much of it I had to edit into a more understandable form which is what I was doing till now.


    Most of what I had present was fragmented thoughts and fractured emotions. Sadly, the log is not the only thing that has been broken. My mana sense is burnt. At the moment the only mana that I can see is my own vital mana and even for that see would be the wrong word. Better to call it a feeling. This is how the martials must feel.


    On top of that, I can feel my mind getting tired as I think my thoughts. My body feels as if somebody had been hammering it like a piece of iron ingot. Who would have thought that the death trance would be so painful. It almost seems like a forbidden technique.


    As if all of that was not enough, I still might not be completely clear of the council. Even now they are debating my fate in the council. Paltroc, who is the healer that has been taking care of me has been quite happy to share news with me. The man is a gossiper though, equally likely to believe a rumour as he is willing to listen to the truth and certainly not interested in differentiating the two. But he can speak my language and hearing the man speak I realise the thought process of the people here.


    I really wish I could have paltroc speak to a scholar. The amount of information that he would provide us would be astounding. They would be able to do whatever they do to get a foothold into the language of the people here. (What the scholars do is miracles, beyond my understanding at least. So don''t expect me to explain anything that they do.) How they are able to convert the thought process of the people they study into hard knowledge like this is beyond me.


    Also the room I am in at the moment is completely devoid of anything but the bed. (The precautions they took to isolate me and the way that they made a chatterbox my healer. Almost makes me want to laugh.) So the man is literally my only link to the world outside. It is quite funny since all the events that are going to affect me are happening in the building that I am sitting in. Right now I seem to be in one of the rooms in the council.


    He has heard that the council meeting involves all the bigwigs of the council. The lady of the spear, lania. The lord of the fallen inked, allon. The cloak, who wields no title. The lord of blood, palok. The lady of the beasts, shilva. Lastly, it is the arch magus of the magicians. These are all the titles of the people that have attended the meeting in the last couple of days. People that have not left their tribal homelands in centuries have come to this council meeting, it seems. Somehow I don''t think I warrant such attention.


    I am sure that the head office would be happy to hear all of this. They after all have a list of people that they need to infiltrate and study. The tribes are the very first on that list.


    These are the leaders of all the major factions of this place, except maybe cloak and he is the man that is supposed to be representing me. talking to paltroc I understand why such a massive reaction has occured.


    Well, there are actually two reasons for this. First, is due to the identity of my master. My master holds a complicated relation with the people here. To many he can be considered to be an ally. At the same time he is also considered to be tied too closely to the legion for him to ever be trusted too much.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Other than that though, the snow tribe is sensitive to anyone powerful entering their lands. Part of the reason is the fragile nature of their cities. The cities of the truelands are protected from the storms of this place with barriers very similar to the council and its surrounding.


    If these barriers are breached, it can end up in destroying that city as well. That is another reason that they reacted so violently to his presence. It is mainly to hold him back. After all, he could go about popping all these barriers without any problem. That would be a disaster.


    See, hear me rambling on. People would think that I am a scholar the way that I am going on.


    The only thing of matter that I have found out here is that I have seriously underestimated the influence my master has in these lands.


    I can''t really believe that though. I have never really heard my master mentioning the north except in the passing. Even then it was mostly to caution me about the people here.


    Even now I am sure that he is arguing for my safety along with cloak. Well, my master is handling the matter now. If it does well or not, there is little I can do. Turns out at the moment I do not even have the strength to scheme properly. That would be a pretty good mark of how tired I actually am given my history of overthinking. Whatever people say about overthinking they have to admit that it certainly prepares one for quite a few possibilities.


    Anyway, at the moment I do not even want to think about my bodies present state. I have never been injured to such a state and I have taken quite a few nasty hits just in this trip alone. my head is still pounding and there is nothing that I can do to stop it. Even paltroc stopped after trying quite a few medicines to stop it. Nothing has worked on it. He has managed to stop the rest of my body from hurting using a mixture of herbs, medicine and magic.


    So that is how I have ended up in my present situation of lying in my bed, with my entire body numb and with my head pounding like a drum beat. At the moment, I really don''t know which feeling I hate more, the feeling in my head or the inability that I feel at the moment.


    I can''t even decide how to feel. It is oddly freeing to have to not worry about what is going to happen. At the same time it is not a nice feeling to have your life in the hand of others like this.


    Today of all days these two emotions are clashing with one other, leaving me quite confused. Well, whatever misgiving I have about that bastard, the man is more than capable of handling things. Better not to think too much on it.


    (After God knows how long.)


    When the door opened and I saw the man, my heart dropped. For a second I was sure that cloak had come to announce my execution.


    "The council has made a decision regarding you. They have decided to drop all of their charges on you. You are to immediately leave the truelands and not participate in any more matters involving the snowlords. That involves building formations for the snowwind empire, as well", cloak speaks, looking at the wall behind me.


    The man sits down, still looking above me. Hearing this I guess I should have felt relief or something. The only thing I felt was sleepy and exhausted. Exhausted enough to stop wondering how exactly the council came to such a conclusion. I wonder what nightmare the council will have to deal with now. Any deal made with my master always ends up badly for you. (For an example, look at me.)


    "Well, leaving immediately might be an issue. At the moment I cannot even get up if I wanted to. I am quite helplessly stuck in this bed for at least a week.", I ask. My head is still pounding.


    "Oh that is fine, you won''t be leaving this land on your own. It will take a couple of days, but there is an escort coming for you. Your master will be taking you personally, it seems.", he replies. "Until then, I will have to stand guard over you, to make sure my brethren don''t do anything stupid. Well, my presence should be enough for these guys to stop doing anything funny. Well, if they do end up trying something. These fuckers seem to need a reminder every few decades. Cleaning up a bit of their trash should be acceptable to the council as well. The people they allow there nowadays."


    "Well, what happened to the sledder, the one that you were giving to us as a gift.", I ask. "I hope it has not been damaged in all of this mess."


    Well, I honestly do not know why the ship even came to my mind. I am sure that I should have more immediate worries but it just popped in my mind suddenly. I certainly would not like anything happening to it.


    "It is fine, young wolf. It took too much effort to acquire that ship to risk it in a children''s fight.", cloak says "and the tattoo tribe knows that the ship is a gift to somebody important for them to try anything with it. Regardless, it is better you rest up. I don''t know what forbidden art that you have used, but your body is quite damaged."


    "What forbidden art, cloak. It was the death trance.", I reply. I am not surprised that the man does not know about it. It is common knowledge among the legion but outside of it, I am sure nobody knows it exists.


    "Now what would that be.", cloak asks.


    "A more accurate way to describe it would be the final focus. During life and death battles, a being can sometimes be able to pull out all their reserves of power and enter a state of focus that is not achievable any time else.", I reply, word to word as it had been taught to me. "The legion does not speak much about it, since so few warriors are able to even achieve such a state."


    Looking at cloak, it is quite clear that the man did not know about that certainly. For a moment, I worry that I have divulged something that is quite important. Well, I can''t even think at the moment how I might have messed it up. Well, whatever will happen will happen. At the moment I don''t even feel like thinking about this topic.


    The man just stands there for a couple of minutes.


    "Well, it seems that matters here are well in hand. I have quite the bit of work elsewhere in the building. So take care and rest up. You need to be able to walk before your master makes it here." Cloak speaks and leaves.


    That leaves me here again in this room, quite bored out of my mind. Well, there is only one thing that can be done now. That would be to sleep. If the bastards want to kill me, let them do it in my sleep.

 path to power (log 044)

    My master is a damn bastard. Even now, the man is more busy carrying cloak''s gift rather than talk to me. I am supposed to be very traumatized here after all. He is doing it wantedly I am telling you.


    Right now he is in his giant wolf form, which was something that I did not expect him to do. I guess people do not call him the grand wolf for his looks. The only annoying thing is how in the hells did the man even manage to hide that from me. I was almost always with him in the hex mountain. I guess that revelation should have shocked me more, but my master likes to keep his secrets.


    He actually looks very funny, as the gift in question is a sledder the size of a massive whale. Compared to what he is carrying, he looks like a tiny blip. He is carrying it on his back, essentially giving a piggy back ride to the ship.


    Not that this is the case for long. The man is approaching the council like a comet.


    (Within about five minutes.)


    My master has finally approached the council and it''s massive building. He is right now approaching us on his feet, his body shifting from his wolf form to that of a human.


    It is a fascinating process too. As the skin of the wolf moves away from his body first giving way to the human.


    Seriously why has the man never done this in front of me. I don''t think I have seen him do anything like this before. (Not like I would have forgotten it.)


    Right now the only person here with me is cloak, who has taken responsibility of my safety in the council. If I were to die, it would end up becoming very bad for cloak.


    "You little brat, what do you think of the gift.", my master initiates conversation. "Our friend cloak had to spend a pretty penny on this gift after all."


    "Well, I am sure that it must be a fine gift. Right now I am not in the state to care for it. what is there to think about it. Just get me out of the place.", I reply.


    "Well, I am going to need you to drive the sledder. It would look stupid if I were to try and carry it now.", he replies.


    "You did not bother to learn how to do it?", I ask, feeling with a sinking realisation why my master was lifting the entire thing like a boulder on his back. Here I was hoping it was just a show of force.


    "Well, it is not like it would be useful outside of this place anyways.", he replies.


    "You lazy bastard.", I mutter under my breath, sure that both the men beside me had heard it. There is no point in trying to argue with that bastard though.


    (After about half a day.)


    Right now we are making our way to the frozen peak. Travelling in this sledder is a pretty unique experience.


    Sensory formations without a strong enough mana sense is a pretty weird thing to feel. That is half the problem people face when piloting an airship.


    Still, the trip is going quite smoothly. My master''s mana sense is strong enough that he is able to help me out where the sensory formation of the ship fails.


    The main reason that it is unique though is the fact that the ship itself is amazing, a piece of work. I don''t know what kind of wood the ship was made from but it is clearly druidic in nature and meant for my master.


    The formations are pretty amazing too, allowing me to control the ship with a finesse that should be impossible. All I can really tell about the ship is that it is an amazing piece of work.


    On top of that the entire thing is luxurious. Most control rooms tend to be bare with nothing in the room other than the formations needed to run the damn thing. This one has an entire miniature bed room in it. The damn place has cushions for the drivers comfort.


    Well, I have wasted enough time describing the ship. It is a fine piece of work but it is not the reason for me to suddenly start to record. The reason that I suddenly started to record, it is due to my master actually. Right now we are in the plains near the frozen peak. It is still pretty far away (almost half a day too), which is why I am confused as to why my master made me stop here. We are nowhere near civilization here. There isn''t even a pretty tree that might have caught my master''s eye for him to stop like this. There is literally nothing but snow and ice mana in our surroundings.


    "Well, brat how long are you going to take to come out.", he screams, His voice echoing in the interior of this ship.


    Right now, the damn bastard is standing outside of this ship waiting for me.


    The weather outside is still fine, but I will need to wear an ice mana isolating skin (the ship had a few in store) to come outside. This cold is not going to be good for my injuries.


    Well, no use thinking too much about it. The more you try to use your brain with my master, the more the bastard stops to make sense.


    (After about a couple minutes.)


    Finally I make my way out of the ship onto the freezing plains. The first thought I have after stepping out it is that it is not as cold as I was expecting it to be.


    Well, that could be due to my master''s presence. The man''s control over mana can be considered to be one of the most precise in the continent. I am not even sure if he realises that he could be doing this as well. It could be completely instinctual for him.


    "Well, you took your sweet time. I guess that I should begin with this then.", he replies.


    "What crazy assignment are you going to be giving me now?", I ask the damn bastard. You always should verify with this bastard.


    Stolen story; please report.


    "Well, my assignments are not crazy, they are just meant to test you. Regardless, today the reason that I have come here actually is to reveal a little something to you.", he replies.


    "Go on, it is not like I won''t end up suffering due to you, you bastard.", I reply.


    "Well, what do you think is the greatest weakness of a formation mage?", he asks.


    "Well, it is our formations.", I reply. "Without them we are useless and we can''t lug them around with us. "


    "Well, that is the truth. Well, I was hoping I could do this in a better way, but what can a man do, I can''t control the world around me.", he speaks. "With my initiation, we had such a grand party. It is your luck that we have to do it in a dump like this."


    "Stop rambling and get to the point.", I speak to the man getting annoyed. He can go on for hours with his stories from the past.


    "Well, I have explained it to you before, but the reason that I do not like to speak about cultivation with you is due to our tradition.", he speaks. "I will not speak about cultivation until you are deemed ready."


    "I know, I know. You also don''t think that I am ready. You also think that I am especially reckless so you are even more careful with me. I know all of that. You take every opportunity to remind me of it." I reply.


    "Well, do you want to listen to what I have or not. Seriously, you are getting more disrespectful with time.", he replies. "You brat, now I have lost track of what I was speaking. Be quiet and let me talk now. My master would have you cleaning the bowels of a ergenlot for that disrespect."


    "You were speaking about cultivation.", I reply, quieting down. The man doesn''t like to speak about this topic at all. As for what an ergenlot is, I have learned not to ask my master about stuff like that. The man can go on a rambling mess for hours on topics like this.


    "Well, I am going to be teaching you a very interesting technique.", he speaks. "Something that is going to be very important to you in the future."


    "Will you be finally teaching me about the levels beyond the foundation stage.", I speak.


    "Well, you know that won''t be happening.", he speaks. "I have set a very clear condition for you kid. Create a class seven formation and I will tell you about the stage beyond the foundation stage. It is too risky for you before that."


    "Well, why can''t you at least tell me what it is.", I speak, starting to lose my cool.


    "As I have told you a thousand times before, you will know it when you are ready.", my master speaks, his voice taking on a serious tone. Looks like I have pushed the man enough. The man can handle disrespect but there is a limit to it.


    "Fine, speak what you need to.", I reply.


    "Fine, I am going to teach a technique to you. Something that is very important to you. Do you really need to be so moody.", he speaks. "Fine, I will show it you a bit prematurely."


    As he speaks, I can feel the mana in the area suddenly become still as if somebody has frozen it all. How does a man do that?


    "The technique that I want to teach you is simply called as "fusion" and the ability that it grants you is quite simple. It will allow you to fuse your mana core to a formation.", he speaks. "I am sure that you don''t understand what that means. That is why we are here in this desolate wastelands at the border between both forces. Can''t have any misunderstandings now."


    As he speaks, he shows me his hand. On it is a ring with a red ruby on it. It looks quite ordinary, but I have seen him wear it since I was a kid.


    "This ring is my core, the formation that has fused with my mana core.", he speaks. "It might look quite ordinary, but it is a class three formation, kid."


    As he speaks, the ring begins to shine as the man''s skin becomes grey, sprouting hair on it like a wolf''s skin. He looks like a werewolf at the moment.


    "This is my class nine formation, "wolf skin".", he speaks. "It is a simple spell, which allows me to cover myself in wolf skin."


    As he completes speaking, his bones begins to collapse as he falls on his four legs taking the shape of a wolf.


    "This is my class eight formation, "wolf flesh", which allows me to turn into a pure wolf.", he speaks.


    His presence magnifies as he speaks. Right now I feel like I am looking at a wolf preying on me. I can feel the creature biting at my throats. It''s claw cutting at my back.


    "This is my class seven formation. You don''t need to know what it is now.", he speaks.


    Again his presence changes. It is almost the same as his before but something is different. I can''t pin point what it is though.


    "This is my class six formation. A pity your mana sense is so bad at this moment. It is a beautiful sight to behold.", he speaks.


    As he completes his statement, I can feel the presence of this man. It is like a crushing pressure as I fall to the ground.


    "This is my class five formation.", he speaks.


    Almost as soon as I fall onto the ground, his presence disappears.


    "Well, I must say that you are better off than me. During my initiation. I had fallen to my master''s sixth formation itself.", he speaks. "You sages really tend to be quite sturdy don''t you."


    "What was that?", is all I am able to speak as I begin to get up.


    "That my dear student, is your path to power.", he speaks. "And I am here to teach you the very first step to this path."

 the gentle sword (log 045.1)

    The ship that we are travelling on at this moment is called as the "gentle sword" and it used to be a sledder. Well, to put it precisely it used to be the sledder that was gifted to us by cloak.


    Right now, my master is in the process of ripping apart every single inch of the ship and replacing it with the formations that you would find in an airship.


    Even now the man is running about the ship cutting it open in a way that would make the shipyards down south have nightmares.


    Well, the man has probably built more airships than what one of those shipyards can output in an year. I am sure that he must know what exactly he is doing here.


    The keyword here is probably. After all, I do not even know why my master has the audacity of claiming that he could convert it into an airship. Airship building is an old and complicated discipline.


    On top of that, the damn bastard is trying to modify the airship while the damn thing is still moving. Every time the ship lurches, I can feel my heart plummet to the ground. (Thankfully not literally or my heart would have actually failed.)


    I am sure that the bastard would be able to pick me up before the ship was even falling, but it is the principle of the thing. The scariest thing that the pilot of a ship can feel is a ship sinking.


    This fear of mine is another reason that he has locked me in this room.


    Turns out that I am a bit too nosy for my master''s taste and that I really should stop trying to learn stuff that were out of my league. (I didn''t even do anything. I was just studying a few of the runes that he had made.)


    Anyway, how the fuck am I the careless one when my master is the one that is modifying a running airship. I mean, I could have accepted if the ship was on the ground at least.


    On top of that, how the fuck did he even get the damn thing working. He has locked me in this room for about half a day. In that half a day he has somehow managed to change the shape of the ship itself.


    Within half a day, the man managed to convert the sledder into a ship. How the fuck does a man do that. I have to strike the ship with my full force to even be able to cause a dent to appear on it and my master managed to do very precise carpentery on it with his bare hands. (My master is not the kind to lug around a lot of tools with him.)


    It is with things like this that I realise the power difference between me and my master. Like, I know he is supposed to be powerful but my master is very careful in controlling his power, especially around me.


    I wonder why he does that. It is not like seeing him at his full power will harm me. If anything it will only motivate me more to achieve his level of strength.


    That is what the soldiers at the legion do to motivate their disciples. If anything, the soldiers like to showcase their power every possible opportunity that they get. It is almost a wonder that the hex mountain is not levelled with some of the things that they like to do.


    Regardless, my master has been very careful in showing his power to me. If anything, it is almost like the man is scared that he will do irreparable damage to his surroundings.


    Whether that is the truth or not, it is the truth that my master does not like me to grow stronger. The man has completely restricted all knowledge of cultivation from me.


    I have not even heard of the stages beyond the foundation stage even in the boasting of the legioners. It is almost like the moment that they hear the word cultivation come from my mouth, they lose all of their confidence.


    It is not like I have tried. I have tried almost every trick that I know. I have tried to threaten people into revealing it to me. I have tried to trick people into revealing it to me. I have tried to beg people into revealing it to me.


    The weaker ones begin to panic, as if I have tried to kill them somehow. Most of them end up either making me leave whatever room we are in or leave it themselves. The stronger ones look at me with pity and all just advice me to go and ask my master.


    How exactly my master has managed to intimidate all of the hex mountain, don''t ask me. The man has his means (most of which I have never seen clearly.)


    I had hoped that I would be able to find something about it in the snowwind empire but the instant that I got access to the markets of that place, it was clear that I would be finding nothing useful there.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    While they were certainly selling spells and cultivation methods related to their draconic path, it had nothing to do with mine. (They were putting those at such high prices anyway, that I would not have been able to buy it.)


    The path that I follow, as I mentioned earlier is the elven path and the only people that have any idea of the cultivation of this path is the elves. Now that there are no elves, their path has been derived in its entirety from their ancient ruins.


    Since it is related to magical ruins, you can say with absolute certainty who has a monopoly over it and my master has done a very good job of making sure that I will learn nothing over there.


    Therefore, right now there is no place in the continent where I can bother to try and learn about the steps beyond the foundation stage. That is why, every bit of my focus has been on trying to build a class seven formation, after which my master will finally stop this ban on the knowledge. If only building a class seven formation was easy.


    Anyways, there has been enough complaining from my side. It is not like I will be able to do anything until my master let''s me out of this room.


    Anyways, it would do me good to rest. My body is aching all over and my head still feels like a well used anvil but I have not slept as well for what feels like a few years. All of this is the side effects of the death trance.


    I do wonder why the legion speak of this experience as if it is something divine. The only thing that I can say about it is it is quite a crappy experience. I won''t say anything beyond since the legion tends to be quite sensitive about this. It is supposed to be a matter of pride that you have experienced the death trance among the legion, you know. They boast about it.


    Still, even before the death trance there was always a pressure and a stress that I did not even notice until I stopped experiencing it. There was a while even in this crappy time when the pressure of my work did not threaten to overwhelm me. That was when I had completed the formation. Even that was snatched from me almost the instant that I completed it.


    Now that I am left without the pressure, I realise just how crazy the things that I have done actually are and how exhausting they are.


    (After a day.)


    Right now I am in the formation room to the gentle sword and the only thing that I can tell about the ship is just how much the damn place has changed in a matter of a couple days.


    My master has managed to change the shape of the entire ship and the first thing he as done is throw away all the cushions.


    Right now he is standing in front of me, messing with one of the sensory formations I think.


    "Well, you really should learn to act a bit more natural while recording that log of yours.", my master speaks. "I can tell without looking at you that you are recording."


    "I am in the process of learning exactly that. What can I do if my mastery of the magic is bad.", I reply.


    "Well, it would still be wise to manage that now. Not everybody will take your recording at the face like I do.", he speaks. "Anyway, your skill at mind magic is not why I have called you here. I have called you for three things mainly. First is that I am gifting this ship to you."


    "This ship?", he asks.


    "Well, what other reason do you think that I would have to spend the last couple of days to work on it. I have been working my ass off to give you the best ship here.", he speaks. "You are my disciple after all. Anyways, the ship is both a gift to you and a challenge."


    "Well, I did not expect anything else. you need not worry.", I reply. "You are not one to give gifts."


    "Well, this challenge is something that you are going to enjoy.", he speaks. "After all, if you complete this challenge you will get your hands on the knowledge beyond the foundation stage. The challenge is simple kid, I will be leaving an incomplete formation on this ship. Complete it and I will provide you with what you need."


    "Wait a second, is it going to be a class seven formation?", I ask.


    "Well, how do I put it, it is going to be a class six formation.", my master replies. "That is why you only need to achieve minor completion of the formation to get your reward."


    "You bastard, I can''t complete a class seven formation and you want me to complete ten of them.", I scream at the man. (Inscribing the ten spells into the formation is called as the minor completion of the formation. I can''t believe I forgot to mention that.)


    "Well, it is a bit insensitive but that is only because you do not know of the ability of the formation I have left.", he replies. "It will be worth your effort, you brat."


    "Fine, go on.", I reply.


    "Well, the material of this ship is a druidic material known as heartwood. It is a pretty precious material and that is due to a single ability that it has.", he speaks. "It is called as memory regeneration. Once this ability of heartwood is activated, then anything made of it will not be able to lose its shape. For example, a sword made of heartwood will never lose it''s edge. You could break that sword into two and the sword will regenerate to it''s proper shape."


    "And this formation of yours, will it be able to activate that ability of the ship?", I ask.


    "Something like that.", he replies. "That is something that you are better off trying to figure out on your own. Words won''t do this justice. As for the formation itself. I will leave you with all of my notes on it. I am sure that you won''t have a particularly hard time with it."


    "Fine, what is the second thing then.", I reply, I have discovered that there is no use arguing with my master on certain matters.


    "Well, that is going to be a bit more harder to tell you. You will have to swear to me that you won''t lose control.", he speaks.


    "What did you do now, you old bastard.", I speak, my master doesn''t take that tone unless he has seriously ended up screwing up something.


    "Should you really be taking that tone with your master, you little brat. You don''t even know what I have done.", my master speaks. "Well, it is tradition. My master has done it for me. His master for him."


    "Just out with it.", I snap at the man.


    "Well, I might have had to destroy every single formation of yours except your sword.", the man speaks.


    The world blacks out around me as I find myself swinging a fist at my master.

 the bloody fang (log 045.2)

    Before I know it, I find my arms being held by my master. His grip is like iron as he holds on to me. I struggle to remove his hand, but it feels like a rock. Any more force and I think that my arm will be broken.


    "I will stop holding you, if you do not suddenly jump at me like that." He speaks. "Deal?"


    As I relent, the man loosens his grip on my arm.


    "How thorough is your destruction this time?", I ask the man. It is not the first time he has pulled of something like this. The last time he pulled of something like this the destruction ended up with only three formations of mine left behind in then legion headquarters. That was when I had just come under my master.


    "Well, I have destroyed most of the formations that you have provided to the legion. The ones in active use I have replaced with better quality formations.", he replies. "Right now the only piece of your work in the continent is your sword and the formation that you have built for the temporary fort."


    "I am surprised you have not destroyed that as well.", I reply to the man, feeling a sense of anger deep in my heart. Years of work destroyed in a few days. He must have a reason, though he has never been able to explain it to me.


    "Well, I was hoping to do that. The only thing is that the environment is too volatile there. Me doing anything there will end up sparking a conflict that we all are better off without. Both the snowwinders and the snow tribe have been pissed off with my entry this time.", he replies. "Anyways, knowing the track record of those forts, it will be gone by the end of the season."


    "You bastard.", is all I am able to reply to this. "At least be a bit more regretful about it. You destroyed years and years of my work."


    "Well, now that is over, I think it is time for the third thing. Frankly it is the most important thing right now.", he speaks, clearly choosing to ignore my last statement. "It is going to take you roughly a week to drive this airship to the hex mountain. In that period of time, I will be teaching you the fusion spell and the method of using it. I will need you to focus exclusively on this matter. It is very important. You will have to learn the basics of the spell by the time that we are at the hexmountain."


    "Well, I do follow what you say. That is why I am still with you even after all the destruction that you have propagated. That is why I went to the north, without my sword at hand too.", I reply.


    "Well, I guess that is true. Regardless, it is time for me to properly explain to you what using this spell is gonna mean for you.", he speaks. "I have already shown to you the end goal of this spell."


    "Yeah, I remember that.", I reply, as I remember my master''s presence. Whatever complains I have on that man, he is powerful.


    "Well, the fusion spell is how you are going to be achieving that.", he continues. "The spell is actually pretty simple in it''s core considering the task that it has to do. It is going to be fusing this sword of yours with your mana core."


    Saying that the man throws the sword at me. Well, it must have been in his spatial storage, though he did move at a speed beyond my senses to remove that sword and throw it at me. It would have been a bit better with an intact mana sense though.


    Catching it, I see it is my sword. My most important creation, the one that led me to my present discipleship. My master took me in after seeing that sword only.


    It is a pretty basic longsword, one that is almost indistinguishable from a sword that you can find with the legion. The only thing that would differentiate it is the fact that it is made up of bone. A vampire grunt''s bones to be precise. It is familiar to me in such a fundamental way, that I can feel myself relax. Just touching it is enough to send a bolt of alertness into me. Looks like it''s magic is still working at least.


    "Do you remember what I told you about this sword the day that I took you in.", he speaks.


    "That this sword is the reason that you have taken me as a disciple.", I reply. "That what I have done with it is something that seasoned formation mages would not be able to do."


    "Well, those were not my precise words. What you have done is something that most seasoned formation mages would not have dared to do.", he replies. "Well, I guess that I can open up about that at least. The ability of your formation magic is actually called as bloodline stimulation, kid."


    I finally shut up and listen to him with my full focus. He rarely tends to speak about stuff like this. The man almost seems to be scared to share any knowledge with me, especially related to formations. Almost all of my knowledge after coming under my master has been essentially self taught.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Everytime that you are activating that formation of yours, what you are doing is activating the bloodline of the creature whose bones you have used as the core for this formation.", he speaks. "In my case, it is the heartstone of a stormwind wolf which gives me the ability of the stormwind wolf to cover themselves in the storm skin. In your case, it is the bone of the vampire, which allows you to use their infernal ability of creating blood mana."


    "There is a fundamental problem with bloodline simulation magic. Simply put, our human bodies are not able to handle these abilities. That is true especially in your case.", he speaks on. "Blood mana has many benefits. It allows you to heal quicker, have more sensitive senses and drain the life force of your enemies. it has it''s cost though. Every time that you use blood mana, it leaves behind changes in your body."


    "Haven''t we managed to deal with that. That is why you have taught me about cultivation haven''t you. The passive regeneration of being at the foundation stage was meant to counter that wasn''t it.", I reply, maybe with a bit too much venom in my voice. "You were not even willing to share that little with me otherwise."


    "Once you make use of this spell, you will understand why I was this unwilling to talk about cultivation with you kid. Well, if what I want to do with you works out, then I think that I will be able to bring that particular aspect of your sword under control.", he replies, more to himself than to me. "I can maybe turn it into something that is actually positive for you."


    As he speaks this, the man points toward a pile of notes that he has next to him.


    "This is the notes that I have on the fusion spell and the method of applying it to your formation.", he speaks


    "I know that it is a bit larger than the notes that I usually provide you with but you are going to be needing it in this case."


    Well, that is a serious understatement as a class eight formation would have a tenth of those notes and my master''s notes are more detailed than normal. Any other formation master would only need about half of the notes that he takes.


    "It contains everything that you need to know about the fusion spell. Make sure to keep these as safe as possible. I am going to be quite busy once we return to the hexmountain this time. Replacing it is going to be a pain.", he speaks. "This mission of yours wasn''t supposed to be this chaotic. Anyways, I guess that I should mention that the head office is not particularly happy with you mission performance this time. In their eyes, you did abandon your scholars in a volatile environment, putting their life at risk."


    "Well, what exactly was I supposed to have done differently. It is not like I could have fought against cloak.", I reply, feeling the annoyance return to my voice. My master was the one that put me in that damn place.


    "Well, the head office is out for blood this time. They were expecting one less problem to deal with when they agreed to the deal. Now not only do they still have to deal with the snowwinders, now the snow tribe has also been thrown into the mix.", he speaks. "Anyways, it is my fault. Things weren''t supposed to be this chaotic. Once you return to the hexmountain, I am sure that these guys are going to throw you into a pretty annoying mission. I can already guess what it is going to be. That is why I am making all the preparations with you right now."


    As he speaks, he sits down right on the ground. The man is so random sometimes.


    "Firstly, I am going to be pretty busy from now on. I have to study this "tattoo" magic of the tattoo tribe. The less that you mention about it to the head office, the better though. If you are not careful, you will end up having to deal with the scholars and you don''t want to deal with a bunch of curious scholars.", he speaks, seriousness in his voice. "Secondly, you are going to take over piloting this ship in a couple of days as I start my study. Do not disturb me during this time. If you have any doubt about the fusion spell, keep it with you until I come out of my room."


    "Are you sure that you will be leaving that room of yours? I know how you get when you have something interesting in front of you.", I ask.


    "I will make sure to come out once every couple days. How does that sound.", he replies. "I am not even sure if you will have any doubts. My notes do tend to be pretty clear."


    That is quite the understatement.


    "Well, what exactly am I supposed to do when pirates are going to come knocking?", I ask him. "It is not like this ship has any defenses."


    Well what can I do, there is a serious pirate problem in the region surrounding the hex mountain. In some ways, it is even worse than the piracy near the snowwind empire.


    "Oh right, I did forget about that.", he replies."I will give you two class seven cannons. That should be enough for you to manage anybody coming at you. You will have to install it yourself though. It will allow you to get used to the formation base of this ship."


    "Wasn''t I supposed to focus on learning the fusion spell?", I ask the man.


    "Well, I know you kid. You will get distracted while you do that. This will ensure that you do not end up wasting too much time in the process.", he replies. "Before I leave though, I have to ask how exactly did you end up injuring yourself like this. What you have done is self inflicted."


    "Well, it is kind of the case. What I went through is the death trance of the legion. I didn''t expect it to be so painful though. It is supposed to be a mental technique. I didn''t know that there was a physical component like this. Maybe it has something do with my bloodline.", I reply, pondering on it like have been the last couple of days. "After all, most of the orphans do not tend to take active combat roles like I do, so who can tell."


    "Well, I would still caution you to be careful, brat. You will recover this time, but damage to the mana sense is no laughing matter. It can almost be considered to be damage on your soul.", my master speaks, clearly speaking more to himself than with me. "Maybe I should go and have a chat with the legion about this."

 the fusion spell (log 046)

    Well, my last few days have been pretty busy. I have been doing three main things in this period.


    The first is resting, feeling the damage caused by my death trance. On this front I have nothing particularly to report. As my master said, mana sense is too closely linked with the soul for me to be able to do anything about it. I am not even supposed to have it at my present stage of my cultivation. (Most people need to reach the fifth foundation slab for their mana sense to awaken.)


    At least the resting part of it is going well. I can feel my mana sense recover a bit. I can''t still feel any mana from beyond my mana core, but I can make out something being there. It is kind of like a blurry blob. (It is so vague I can''t even tell if it is real or not)


    It is still too vague for it to have any use but seeing it return is a very good thing. I had forgotten just how much I tend to rely on my mana sense.


    Other than that, I have been running this ship continuosly for the last couple of days. I have yet to be attacked in this period which is a good thing.


    The thing is that I have yet to fix my master''s cannons into the ship. My master has provided me with two cannons. One is of the fire element and has a decentish range (fire cannons are always the most destructive to the wooden airships.). The other is a light based cannon with a pretty ridiculous range. Looking at these cannons I really want to shoot them once.


    I know I was supposed to do that immediately, (after all, who has heard of a ship this good without a cannon.) but I still have time.


    After all, we are still in the north. The only real threat of pirates that we have in this journey is going to be in the second half when we reach closer to the hex mountain. After all, the ship looks costly enough that no pirate would be trying to attack it this far north. After all, something this precious is usually pretty well guarded. Why would a pirate, who is nothing more than a poor farmer himself would consider trying to attack such a ship unless he is suicidal.


    Then there is the fact that I will be able to go faster than almost all of the ships this far north. (You don''t know how satisfying that feeling is especially with how much I have suffered the first time around due to a slow ship.)


    The funny thing is that we had the opposite problem while going to the frozen peak. While coming we had a pretty trashy ship that no real pirate would have wanted. That is why we were sure that no pirate would attack us that close to the hexmountain. After all, they have better ships to attack than the heap of shit that I was driving before.


    A grain ship sending food from the soldar plains to the hex mountain would have been a better target than us. (Usually only new pirates tend to raid those, for the simple fact that grain is not particularly profitable loot especially in the soldar plain.)


    Now that I think about it, whatever did happen to the ship. I assume that it is right now in the hands of the snowwinders. Considering it was already theirs to begin with, I am sure that they will be keeping it. Even a useless ship like that has it''s value. They might study the modifications that I have done to the formations. They might remove all the working formation cores on that ship. (the only thing that is of any real value is the formation core of the propulsion formation. I really want to see how they will get that to work.) Heck, they might at the very least be able to cut the entire thing and use it to light up a bonfire.


    As for the scholars and my troop, they will be escorted by the soldiers of the snowwind empire to the hexmountain. I can imagine that it must have taken quite a bit of bargaining to achieve even that. The snowwinders are going to be pretty hostile towards us for the foreseeable future.


    That must be another reason that the head office is so pissed off. (That and the fact that I wasn''t really supposed to be going on that mission anyways.) They do not like to commit more resources into a place that already had a resource commited to it. They are already stretched too thin due to the scholars and their suicidal tendencies.


    While all of that is fine, it is my studies that is consuming most of my time. Just studying the theory of the fusion spell and I am starting to lose my mind in frustration. My progress with the spell has been painfully slow.


    It is complicated beyond belief. Well, the main reason that it is so complicated is mainly due to the fact that the formation deals with the soul. That is a field of study that I have little to no idea on.


    The only source that people my age would have on such an esoteric topic is often related to the stage beyond the foundation stage. As you can guess, I don''t even have that little bit of knowledge to support me. (Unless you consider boasts about that stage as a source of information. Even during boasting people tend to be careful to not leak any information to me.)


    Other than that, it is actually going pretty well. This time my master has focussed very little on the theory beyond the formation, instead he has focussed on the actual practical applications of the spell and how to perform it even without the underlying theory.


    Granted, it still is a bit too complicated for me to actually understand what I am doing here, I should be able to make use of the spell (with a bit more study.)


    Just don''t quiz me on how the spell works. Based on what little understanding that I have gotten of the spell, it acts as a link between my mana core and the primary formation (in this case, that would be my sword.)


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    How do I describe this spell, the spell reminds me more of a formation being built inside my mana core (kind of like my foundation slabs). As for the exact runes of this formation, most of them are beyond me but I can at least try to guess at their purpose. The only problem is that most of these guesses are going to be wrong.


    Anyways, the spell is acting to link my foundation blocks in my mana core to my primary formation, which would be my sword.


    That is the reason that my master told me that I would regret having started cultivation already. (Knowing the man, it might have been a reason that he gave me those techniques in the first place. He can be a damn sadist sometimes.) The fusion spell is going to be modifying the foundation blocks in my mana core.


    If I were to cast it when the foundation block is just formed, it wouldn''t be that painful, but now that I already have formed foundation blocks in my mana core that is not going to be the case.


    I will essentially have to destroy part of my foundation blocks (considering that the slab is part of my mana core.) for the fusion spell to be successful. That is going to be a painful process one that is supposed to be equivalent to all my bones being broken and there is always a chance of more serious consequences.


    (Well, every step of this destruction has been clearly documented by my master. If I were to try something like this on my own, the best case scenario would be the rupturing of my mana core.)


    Anything related to mana core is always like that. I dread to think of the day that I will have to deal with this problem and practically implement the spell.


    Thankfully, I only have one fully formed foundation slab to mess with. So that is nice at least. If I had properly focussed on cultivation than I would have achieved the sixth or the seventh slab at the very least by now. I don''t even want to imagine how painful that would be.


    To kick this particular problem to the future as much as possible, I will be first completing my second foundation slab first and fusing it. With the theory that I have already learnt, I think that I will be able to pull this off with near certainty at least. It will also give me enough experience with the spell that I will be more confident to deal with the first slab.


    Right now I am at three-fourth completion of my slab. If I were to focus on it for the next couple of weeks, I will be able to complete the second slab and begin the fusion process. Not that I am going to. Until I get a solid grasp on the spell there is no use for me to actually work on it.


    That is all for the future though. I guess that I should first speak about what benefit this is going to bring to me.


    Well, the primary benefit of this spell is the fusion which will essentially give me almost god like control over the primary formation. That is what my master does with his formation. Without his fusion, I don''t think that he would be able to control that wolf skin of his so precisely.


    In my case, what will be achieved is a bit more different. To explain this, I will have to explain what my sword is exactly.


    A vampire''s bone acts as his mana core and his blood vessels act as his mana channels. Every moment, a vampire''s vital mana is converted into blood mana through his bones.


    I have managed to achieve the same thing with my sword. When I activate the formation on it, it converts the mana that I have given it into blood mana. At the same time, it is able to absorb the life force of my enemies to produce blood mana. The only condition to this ability is that my sword has to touch their blood. The more blood it touches the stronger the bond formed and the more blood mana is produced.


    This blood mana then I inject into my body, giving me most of the abilities of a vampire grunt. The only problem with this is the fact that my body is not built to accept blood mana as is the case with an actual vampire. I have heard firsthand that it is a very painful process (this is usually proceeded by gutting that grunt though. So exact details are not available.)


    Their transformation is a mystery for me. (My master has tried to explain it to me multiple time, but it is just beyond me.) My master has been doing research into it for the last few years (since my discipleship began actually) but the man has not achieved anything substantial till now. If my master''s logic is right, then once the fusion occurs, blood mana is going to become a part of my vital mana.


    As any person that cultivates vital mana will tell you, changing your vital mana will change your body. My master hopes that this changes will make my body more suitable to managing blood mana. If that occurs, my body should become more like a vampire''s. Maybe not enough to become a full vampire, but enough for me to use my sword comfortably.


    Anyways, who wants to be a full vampire. Most are susceptible to holy magic, can''t enter the defensive barriers of most cities and the older vampires are not even able to handle the sun. On top of all of this, there is the thirst. A nearly unquenchable lust for blood. (A fun fact, this is the reason that most vampire grunts are caught in the first place. Not drinking blood is supposed to be like being in a desert to them it seems.)


    Anyways, all of this is purely speculation and theory. I will have to put it into practice myself, something that I am quite a distance from still achieving.


    Still, I wish that I was progressing on something at the very least. It almost feels like I have been doing everything and nothing the last couple of weeks.

 soldar plains (log 047)

    There has been little progress in the modification of this ship. It has been both hard and annoying but there is no way that I am going to make any progress on it and time soon. Even with my master''s notes, class seven formations are still beyond me. Give me a couple months and I will be able to start my work on it.


    The only task that I have made any progress with is the process of adding cannons to the ship and even that has been more annoying than it should have been.


    The main problem with that has been getting used to the ship and its formations. The layout of the formations on this ship have been one of the most confusing formation matrixes that I have studied in my life.


    The first problem was that this ship was not meant to be a airship in the first place. It was meant to be a sledder and while the design of both a sledder and an airship is basically the same, there are still fundamental differences. Formations have to be modified to accommodate this difference in designs. Even I am surprised by just how much of a difference they have made in the formations.


    The next problem is that my master was the one that inscribed all of these formations on his own. Now, airships tend to have a pretty standard design. After all, most airships come from a few places, most of which are present down south.


    Those process obsessed bastards are only able to achieve their output by having completely standardised processes. How else would those fuckers be able to peddle their cannons and magic sails, if their customer is not able to setup those on his own.


    It is not like I am complaining, those standard designs makes things so easy for us. Right now if I wanted to design my own cannon, I would be able to do it and put it on any ship I want because they are so standard. These designs have not changed for the last couple millenia at the very least.


    That tends to make stuff like adding a cannon to a ship easier. I would have been able to add a cannon to such ships even in my sleep if it followed the standard layout. It is literally such a basic thing, that even a non formation mage would be able to insert the cannon if he wished to.


    My master has his own way of doing things, though that means his designs are a complete mess.


    The design seems completely nonsensical to me. Things aren''t where they are supposed to be and even if they are, I am not really able to tell easily. To put it in polite terms, even the basic formations that my master constructs are completely beyond me.


    I think a good way of explaining it would be. If I were to construct a class nine formation, I would just inscribe ten runes to complete it. In my master''s case, he would have almost a hundred such runes to do the same thing.


    It is not like these runes are useless as well. (As is the case with the inscriptions by most non formation mages) Each runes would have its purpose and its goal. Some might reduce the mana consumption, some might increase the effect of the formation.


    Well, all of this in brief means that my master''s formations are much more harder to understand and very hard to mess with, unless I want the entire thing to blow up on my face.


    Just recognising those formations take me so much time and I certainly am not going to be messing with them any time soon.


    The only reason that I have made any progress with my task is mainly due to the notes that he has left me on the topic. If that wasn''t there, things would have been way harder. Thankfully I have finally succeeded at the task of adding cannons to the ships.


    The cannons are of two elements. The first is of the fire element and is a mid range cannon. It is a class seven cannon. Fire cannons are the most economical cannons that you can have on a ships. Most of them pack a decent punch and considering most airships are made of wood, there is the added benefits of fires spreading on the other ship. Most people don''t tend to bother with the enemy ship when their own ship is burning like wood at the campfire.


    The second cannon of mine is of the light element. It is also a class seven formation. As is usual with this element the range of the cannon is very high but it has a pretty average damage even though it is a class seven formation.


    I have managed to add these two cannons to the formations powering the ship so there is no need for me to charge and aim these cannons individually now.


    If I did not achieve this now, then I would have had to power these cannons individually and let''s leave the matter of aiming them. That would have certainly caused a mess since I need to pilot this ship as well. (And my master certainly would not like to pilot while I run around the ship setting of the cannons.)This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Even now it is not a perfect solution. Every shot of my cannon is going to be a risk. There is every chance that the cannons might delink from the formations of the ship.


    Still, even getting in a couple shots can sometimes make the difference between victory and defeat in these air battles.


    I have achieved this at the correct time as well. After all, we are about to enter into the soldar plains. I need to have a working defense if I want to be able to make my way through this area safely.


    I guess I should explain why exactly the soldar plains is such a hot mess, though every person on the hex mountain knows of this bit of politics by heart. Our stomachs literally depend on it after all. Well, I am bored and don''t have anything else to do anyways.


    Well, the hexmountain is the largest mountain in the continent and acts as the home base for the black mountain. the black mountain has essentially taken over all of the safe parts of it for our personal use. That means what we have is an iron grip on one of the easiest place in the continent to defend. We have made full use of this as well by constructing what can be considered to be one of the greatest fort chains on the hex mountain guarding it. All of this means one simple thing. Nobody will be attacking my home by force.


    Almost nine tenth of the buildings of the black mountain are present in the hexmountain. The remaining tenth tend to be outposts for the scholars spread out across the entirety of the continent whose loss won''t even be noticed by us. Therefore, our enemies have no real way to strike us until they manage to cripple the hexmountain.


    The topic of conversation is not the hexmountain but the plains that surround it. This can be considered to be one of the only weaknesses of the hexmountain. Surrounding the hex mountain is the soldar plains.


    It is like a valley surrounding the hexmountain and due to that one fact it is one of the most chaotic locations in the continent. Firstly, the only thing that is of any real importance in the plains is their grains and their farms.


    The only real consumer of grain that these people have is the hexmountain. (I mean they could sell it to the north and the south, but they would have to be able to transport it first. That is a pretty costly process.) that means that we are basically the only buyer and we have almost nine to ten sellers for us to choose from.


    That quickly leads to a complicating of positions as every power in the plains is trying to attack every other person on it. After all, the hexmountain will buy grain from the person with the cheapest price. Costs (and therefore price) tend to go up if a pirate were to enter your land and torch the grain that you grown for the last year. When you are competing with multiple sellers, driving costs tend to be a good way of hedging things in your favour.


    Most do this through funding pirates (behind the scenes of course.), whose duty it is to go into any other territory and do their banditry. That is why every pirate that is worth his salt always has people going for those grain ships. (It is also a good way to train their new recruits, I have heard.)


    This particular thing has grown so complex that I am not even sure if the pirates even know which power is funding them or if all of them are. I don''t think they particularly care at this point as well. Most pirates end up being financed by somebody or the other though. I would not be surprised if there are auctions where the pirates sell their services to the highest bidder.


    The guard corps does try to maintain order in this place, but it''s hands are tied by the situation in the plains. We need the people of the plains divided and united at the same time in a nutshell.


    The hexmountain cannot have a single power rule over the plains. That would give them too much power over the hexmountain. (If these guys were to suddenly decide that they did not need to sell us their food, a majority of us will starve. Well, maybe not starve but it will certainly be a hit on our coffers. After all it would be just as costly to transport food from the north or the south to our location as it would be to transfer it from our location to theirs.)


    At the same time, we cannot allow too many people to rule over the plains too. If that were to occur, they would be too busy fighting each other for the farmers to prosper. The result of that is also starvation for us.


    That is why the guard corps has to be very careful in how we act here. We make use of a mixture of negotiations, threats and guard patrols to keep the situation in the plains ideal for us. We also cannot do this in a heavy handed manner or we might just end up uniting the plains against us.


    If we were serious, just the guard corps would be enough to manage this complicated mess. (Not even considering the other forces at our disposal.)


    All of this is further complicated by the fact that there are a lot of outside powers trying to strike at us through the plains. Well, even if you ignore the legion which can be considered to be the sharpest spear in the continent, there is the problem that we have control of the hex mountain which can be considered to be the greatest fort in the continent. Our enemies do not have many avenues to attack us from.


    Some of our enemies tend to fund a single group to make them achieve domination over the entire place. Some tend to fund them all, to devolve the place into further chaos and most tend to do a mixture of this, trying to achieve either. Even now, of the nine powers that rule the soldar plains, we are sure that at least seven powers are related to outside powers in some way or the other. Not that we are going to tell them about knowing that though.


    I am sure that we have entire buildings worth of documents on just the soldar plains and an entire legion of scholars trying to figure what the hell is going down here.


    All in all, this place is a proper mess. One that we need to go through with a precious ship. (Especially one that looks really precious.)

 a pirate ambush (log 048)

    Fighting with this ship this time is a completely different experience from the previous time that I fought in one (or more accurately ran away in one.) My previous ship feels like a tortoise compared to this one both in speed and the way that it moves. This ship reacts almost immediately to every command that I give it. If there is any lag I can''t detect it.


    The ship behind us is a pretty good vessel, though. I am pretty sure that the other side has at least two cannons. They have been trying to get their cannons in position for quite a while now. (Since they started to chase us.)


    Often the cannons are placed to the side for convenience and to put as many cannons in the place as possible, but the opposite ship have taken the option of keeping it to their front and back. They can keep much fewer cannons that way, but it is going to be harder to hit them with my cannons.


    The ship shouldn''t be particularly strong in combat though, for the simple fact that it has managed to ambush us. That means that these pirates have invested quite the bit in their camouflage formations. (And you can tell most pirates never spend much on their ships. That is why they are such wrecks.)


    The fact that even my sensitive mana sense did not manage to capture them, means that they should have spent a lot on it. It could also be that my senses have not recovered as much as I hoped they would have. My master would have detected them for certain, but the man is the kind that he would not bother to mention it to me so that I can have a learning experience. He is right now in the storage, so I can''t really expect him to react. Well, I should be able to handle them or the enemy would have been destroyed before I even sensed them.


    I would have already taken down the ship too if they had not ambushed me like this. The ship is a mid sized one and the reaction speed of the ship can be considered to be quite decent too though it is still a bit slower than mine. The problem is that their pilot is pretty experienced too (certainly more than me. I was given a ship to drive only when I was made a captain. While I have been studying the theory of piloting a ship since I was a kid, it is not really that helpful at the end of the day. Practice makes a man perfect as they say and raw talent can only help out so much.), so I won''t be able to take him down just by using basic tricks.


    The ambush was a cannon shot that should have pierced through the ships defence and hit the formation room. It is a common tactic to attack the formation room. You will end up missing most likely but you will still end up hitting something. (Especially since formation rooms tend to be the middlemost location in a ship anyways.) That would have wrecked most of the control formations and would have made the process of boarding quite a bit easy for the other side.


    The opposite side missed and I entered into action, quickly diving down to dodge any further attacks. That means that the opposite side doesn''t have particularly strong cannons (granted my ship is smaller than the average.). It should be class eight or even class nine. The surprising thing is that the ship even managed to hold up quite well.


    The cannon did not even manage to penetrate the outer wall. There is damage but I think that I will be able to repair it on my own quite easily. After all, after running that heap of junk that I used while going to the north makes this ship feel almost invulnerable.


    Returning to the ship, right now we are trying to get into positions. The enemy ship is trying to get perpendicular to me while I am trying to get parallel to them. As is usual, I have placed the cannon to the sides of the ships. While two cannons are not particularly a large number of cannons, it is something I am used to and it is not like I will only be using two in the future anyways. the flame element one is on one side and the light based one is on the other.


    Where the enemy suddenly turns forward or backward. I immediately back down or go up, essentially dodging the shot but it also ruins all my chances of lining my shot. A more skillful pilot could maybe pull of the turn, essentially turning in line with the ship so I am parallel to it and peppering it with all of my shots. That is the standard method of operation based on all I have learnt.


    That is the usual method, but I do not have the skill to pull it off with the opposite sides pilot. He seems to almost realise my intent and react accordingly to it. If I even show an inclination of going their way, the enemy almost dives down so steeply that I can''t help but wonder if they are crashing. You can never really tell with pirates and the ancient stuff they use. (I have never been that lucky though.)


    Otherwise, if the other ship was a combat worthy ship of this era, this would be a terrifying fight. Thankfully most such ships are not something the general public would be able to access anyways. Heck even seeing them is a rarity. Some of the newer models, even the head office is not sure they exist. The scholars certainly do though and they will never tell us.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    So we dance, each trying to get a shot without the other hitting us. My trip to the north has at least increased my patience with energy consuming chases. Here I have quite a bit more control. This is especially since, we haven''t even stopped making our way to the hex mountain. It is still a couple of days away. The closer to the hex mountain we are though, the more allies that we have. Not that we need them at the moment.


    This particular dance where neither side is able to shoot the other will continue for a while. That is until the pirate would either retreat, attempt a boarding or do something crazy. It is the crazy ones you should be careful with the pirates. They will end up destroyed but they will also end up taking you with them.


    Anyways, We will have allies in the area, who would be able to help out a friendly ship like me even if we were to end up in a fight. That puts the pressure of completing this fight early on the enemy rather than me for once.


    After a while of this stupid chase, the enemy finally does something decisive. Rather than try to weave around me, the enemy ship decisively comes towards me. Rather than try to charge at me, it takes a sudden turn which essentially puts it in parallel to us. The enemy begins to shoot hooks into my ship. So that proves that they are trying I board us.


    The enemy essentially gave me the opportunity to shoot it in return for a chance at boarding my ship. A risky move for them so I naturally take the opportunity as the enemy presents it to me.


    The side which the enemy has parked at is the side where I have placed the cannon of the fire element. I let it rip, as the fires of the cannon eat into the enemies ship. The fires that it will cause will be enough to leave the enemy ship quite damaged even if they manage to escape. Wood is wood, no matter how much you enchant it.


    The hooks are a problem though. Fighting a boarding battle in such a small ship is unwise, even if I wanted too. The enemy seems to have banked on that, expecting to catch me offguard. Here I have to again thank my experience dealing with hooks from my journey to the north. (Thankfully there were no cannons involved in our journey north or we would be a wreck.)


    My normal trick to deal with enemy hooks were to shoot it with my hook, essentially causing a head on collision. This is a good enough trick to deal with single ships and their hooks and is useful even here. It needs you to have a pretty good aim though.


    This is even easier since I have a cannon on my ship. The mana in those cannon per shot is easily ten times the mana that I had overloaded my hook with. It would literally take me ten weeks to gather that much mana. That means that the cannon doesn''t even need to be particularly accurate to destroy the other sides hook. It will just burn up like a paper placed in a fireballs vicinity. On top of that these fireballs will still end up hitting the other sides ship.


    The enemy certainly does not seem to have expected such a reaction, especially since what I have done is shooting at myself to prevent the enemy from boarding. It does damage my ship but I expect a boarding would be harder to deal with and would certainly cause greater damage anyways.


    With the failure of the boarding hooks, I think the opposite side has decided to retreat, as the ship begins to dip falling behind me as if they cut their propulsion formation quite a bit. I could try and shoot my hooks into this ship but that would ultimately earn me nothing. Destroying this ship would simply mean that another pirate gang would take over this region.


    After all, if the pirates were so easy to deal with, the guard corps have people that are expected to take on entire armies. A few pirates would be quite easy for them I have to assume.


    The pirates here must have something that allows them to fight with the guard corps on equal footing. (To speak nothing of just how messy this place would become if we were to try something like that.) I certainly am not in the mood to discover that ace in the hole, especially with this new ship of mine.


    Even my previous ship, is a size above this one, though no pirate would be likely to attack the thing simply for how poor it looks. A small pretty ship means people assume the ship to be a easy prey. After all, anybody powerful enough to be a threat would be travelling In a ship that would be matching his strength.


    Well, the only armed force that can operate near our home base is the guard corps except the fact that they do not like to interfere much in the local politics for obvious reasons.


    It sometimes feels like they want the soldar plans and its many powers to feel like the guard corps to be way weaker than it actually is. I am not really sure how effective it is though. They barely do anything unless something serious has happened. Even then they send newbies like me to the spot to manage it.


    Most of these tend to be easy missions, since nothing really dangerous exists in the area. The only threat that can exist in the region are the pirate gangs.


    Most of them are non existent threats. Farmers that had their lands snatched or ambitious young men that are out to make a quick buck tend to be the targets of our missions.


    It seems almost a pity to have to hunt them down, but travelling would become quite a hassle if it is allowed to continue though (even more than it is right now.) and while we are no trade center or a land people would like to travel to, trade of grain is something that needs to happen and too many pirates doesn''t help that.


    Anyways, regardless of how weak these pirates are, if they do manage to survive our hunting they also tend to become quite the pain in the ass too. After all, one just need to see the existance of the pirate kings for just how much of a pain in the ass they can be. At least we don''t need to deal with them.

 home (log 049)

    The hexmountain is the largest mountain on the continent. Somehow those words don''t really seem to do it justice. Even standing here it is hard for me to accept that the thing in front of me is supposed to be a mountain and I have been living here since I was a baby.


    Nothing I have ever seen is as visually impressive as the hexmountain. The closest I would say would be the bone pits, though even that place I have only seen in passing really. Well, the mountain in the true lands cannot be forgotten. That place was impressive in its own right.


    From where I am standing the place seems to be a wall of stone that is covering everything in front of me. How do I describe the hexmountain to somebody that has never seen it? (Well, not that I really need to but hey you always have a few figures reading your logs that might not have witnessed the hex mountain up close.) You can imagine that half of the world has suddenly been replaced by stone. The slope of the mountain is angled, but the mountain itself is so large that it looks like a wall in front of me. Even with my senses enhanced by the sensory formations of the ship, the only thing that I can see is the rock of the mountain in front of me. It looks as if the mountain was created by some giant that bent the ground towards the sky.


    Though, to be honest I would struggle to imagine a large enough giant to be able to achieve this feat. Maybe, we could consider the titans of old. (Not really though, after all the continent is supposed to be the corpse of a titan according to some religions.)


    From my vantage point any building that I see looks like a toy. That is pretty misleading though, after all if it is visible from up here then it means that it is the office or home of somebody important. Most of these are palaces that would make the frozen peak look like a commoners house.


    Just considering my master''s palace. It is large enough that I can fit ten temporary forts in it. I can actually see it below me, though from this high it looks like a small toy house.


    It is for this perspective that I am risking being this high up in this place. Looking at the mountain from this high, everything seems so small. From here, everything that we worry about seem to be so small.


    It almost feels like somebody has turned the heaven and earth by ninety degrees. For a few moments I wonder if this is what a man crashing to the ground would look at. Well, that is a visual that will haunt me for a while. Not a good thing to imagine while piloting a flying ship.


    Any higher than this point and even this sturdy ship will break due to the storms that rage in the mountains. Even coming this high was already a risk. I have almost reached the storm line. Any more higher and I would be thrust right into the storm up above.


    It is a wonder that my master is already not here. The man doesn''t like to be this high up in the mountain. He has a paranoid fear of the storms here.


    One of the consequences of being one of the tallest mountain is that the mountain is plagued with storms, capable of crushing the bones of anybody that crosses the storm line. The Storm line is the point beyond which the storms on the mountain truly become crazy. Below it, where I am, the winds can be considered to be strong. Up there though, the storm is strong enough to rip through this ship like a sheet of paper.


    I have heard that only the generals are able to survive beyond the storm line and even they have to be careful when they reach the peak of the hexmountain. Though nobody would be stupid enough to try such a pointless act, especially the generals. Each of them are important men, all of whom are not presently here. Each of them must be out dealing with one of our enemies or to intimidate the less willing of our allies. All in all they are busy men.


    "Get the ship down, you have already damaged the ship too much.", a voice behind me speaks. It is my master who is quite annoyed by my daring. I am surprised that he has taken this long. After all, he seems to have been completely lost in his research this time. Looks like this "tattoo magic" is not as simple as it looks. Usually he makes his way here much earlier.


    "I will, I will. I am sure that even you don''t get many opportunities to appreciate the beauty of the storms.", I reply. "You can do with a bit of relaxation in your life, old man. Anyway the ship is more than capable of taking care of itself."


    The storms of the hex mountain are a sight to behold to those that have the sight. It looks like a painting in which one could get lost in, ever changing and always unique. I could look at it for hours.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Sadly, at this moment my sight is like that of a blind man. Honestly, I don''t even know why I am up here. Old habits, I guess.


    Still, I heed my masters command as I tip the ship downwards. As we go down, the buildings down there grow larger and larger. Most of them have areas flattened out for the landing of ships.


    My target is my masters personal landing square which is one of the least used places in the mountain. My master is a solitary man and I am the only person other than him that is allowed into his complex.


    The only reason that the man even has a landing strip is that it was already there when he was given this place and the strip never came in the way of my masters own renovations. Well, it ultimately ended up benefiting me since the man is pretty unlikely to ever use it. He is of the strong belief that he does not need to know stupid things like driving an airship. I am sure if things become that serious that he needs to go anywhere quickly, my master is faster than any airship.


    My master''s complex is one of the closest buildings to the storm line. The reason for that has something to do with my master''s ability to keep chaotic flows of mana in check. This is only my guess though, as my master completely shuts me down everytime that I ask about it.


    Actually, one of my very first challenges when I became his disciple was to make my way to his office on foot. The result was that the young me was almost blown into the air due to the strong winds in the place. (While the winds here are not as strong as near the storm line, they are still stronger than you would expect especially when you don''t have cultivation yourself.)


    It almost killed me and did result in me breaking both my legs. Some kind of a tradition for my master. He has many of those. Whoever his master was, he certainly seemed to have taken pleasure in hurting him.


    Now, with my present cultivation I can easily reach my master''s complex. I can even approach the storm line. Maybe even cross it. Can''t really tell since I have yet to attempt it. This particular challenge of my master certainly left me with a healthy respect for the mountain.


    As I am thinking all this, I am landing the airship on my master''s airship. It is not a particularly hard task, though the winds here are a bit stronger than is the norm.


    (After about a couple of hours.)


    Right now I am sitting in my room trying to get some shut eye. without anything to do, sleep is very hard to come by. My room is a pretty simple affair, more a place to store my half finished works and sleep than to stay in.


    Without my works here, the only thing that is present in the room is my bed and my cupboard for my clothes. (Which is also quite empty since I mainly use it to store my formations as well.) Other than that, the room is bare. Even I have forgotten how plain this area actually was.


    Most of the stuff in the room has already been destroyed, though I honestly can''t feel too bad about it. Most of it was meant for the legion, who already must have superior replacements. That is if my master is to be believed. Well, he is pretty honest about stuff like this and he never compromises with his work.


    In a way, I can actually understand his logic in destroying my work. It will allow me to focus on the fusion spell. The bunch of half finished formations would have only worked to distract me from that work.


    They would have nagged me at the back of my mind like a half finished puzzle. There have been days when I have forgone sleep in the process of completing a formation. Even if I tried to sleep during such a period, it would be short and even my dreams would be related to the formation I would be dealing with.


    Still, the destructive approach taken by my master is not ok. Anything that he does in the name of tradition is something crazy, I have realised. Sometimes it makes me wonder if he uses it as an excuse.


    Well, with that out of the way I guess that I should speak about what my present situation is. Well, I have technically failed my first mission. After all, what I have done would actually look like I have abandoned the scholars and my troops. While I am sure that they won''t be charging me for abandoning my post, it is not a good look to have.


    That means that I will have to face the judgement of the guard corps. The head office also might end up meeting for this review. If that were to happen, things will become very annoying to handle for a while.


    Normally, failing the first mission means that I am going to be removed from the guard corps. After all, for most guards the first mission is something taken on a probationary role, with somebody else leading the mission. It is meant to see how well you might be able to manage on a mission.


    The only thing in my favour is that I got my mission due to my master''s interference. If I manage to convince them that my master is an asshole and the situation was completely out of my control, I might be able to save my position. Even with that there is a pretty significant chance that I will be removed.


    The only saving grace is that a new guard like me is not usually given a mission like the one that I was given. That is meant for somebody with at least a bit of experience. Especially for somebody with my background.


    I guess that I should be worried about the fact that I might be removed but I had joined the guards in the first place due to my master. While being removed would still feel pretty crappy,  I was  supposed to be a part of the formation corps. After all that matches more with my abilities.


    I don''t know why but my master got it in his head that I would gain more experience if I were to work in the guard corps. Knowing him, he would mention another of his traditions with a stupid logic.


    Well, if I am to be removed, then I might just be able to convince him to let me join the formation corps. (The chance of that happening is pretty low, if my master gets it in his head to do something then the man is like a little kid about it.)

 performance review (log 050.1)

    Right now I am standing in one of the many offices of the head office. Among the many palaces that lie near the storm line, the head office looks almost ordinary. Not that it isn''t impressive if you were to compare it to an ordinary fort.


    Yet every person in the hexmountain knows that it is the beating heart of the place. The reason for that is not due to the work that is done here, nor only due to the people stationed here. The reason is due to the quantity of work that is being done here.


    Almost anything that you need to be done has to go through the head office in some form or the other.


    You need some kind of funds, either to build a formation or an airship, you come here. You need refunds for breakfast and dinners eaten during a mission, you come here.


    Basically, as long as you have a problem in the hexmountain, you come to the head office.


    The only people that tend to be relatively independent of the head office are the legion and the formation corps. Both tend to be doing their own things anyway.


    As for the guard corps, they function almost exclusively through the head office. This is to a point that the head office and the guard corps are synonymous with each other. To speak of one is to speak of the other.


    Right now I am in one of the many meeting rooms that you can find in this place. It is a standard design, a table that is placed at the center of the room, with chairs on either side. The room would do just as well for a group of equals arguing with (or sharing drinks) with each other and just as well for a supervisor to chew out his underling for failing at his mission. Knowing my luck, I will get kicked out today. I just haven''t decided yet if it is going to be good luck or bad luck.


    I am waiting for my supervisor right now. Every ten guards in the guard corps has a supervisor. The supervisor deals with all the matters of arranging things for the guards including things like mission assignments and mission reviews.


    A fun fact that I remembered is that the supervisors are the very first people to read the logs that we send. They do this to sort the information that we are sending and also to make sure that sending reinforcements in a timely manner is possible.


    Naturally, what they do is more complicated than that. Let''s not get into that now, all you need to understand about it is that you do not try to mess with your supervisors. They can make your life very hard if they want to.


    On top of that, the problem with the supervisor is that the man holds the authority to punish, remove or reward their charges.


    Only a committee of supervisors will then have the ability to override a supervisors commands when it comes to their underlings. When everybody speaks of the head office, it is this commitee that everybody is referring to.


    Right now the major source of my worry, is that my supervisor is considered to be a bit of a hard ass among the many supervisors that can be assigned to the guards, with quite a few enemies. He usually isn''t even assigned to a new guard like me.


    Well, I can''t really blame him though. Daniel is usually assigned to the guards that take on more combat oriented positions such as in the bone pits or towards the eastern desert. If the rumours that I have heard about him are true, the man is supposed to be able to chew through his underlings. I haven''t seen that side of him yet.


    He doesn''t really have the experience to deal with a new guard like me, who are usually put in politically sensitive positions. (Places where sending a strong person can have disastrous consequences) So there is that as well.


    On top of that the old ass really doesn''t have the patience to deal with politics of the head office. I mean, the man looks like a young man that might have passed of as my uncle if anybody were to see him.


    I swear, that I have yet to see a white hair on him and he certainly doesn''t move like an old man, but the way that my master behaves around that man he must be at the very least as old as my master. The man certainly treats him as his equal. For reference, my master must at the very least be as old as the commander.


    Anyway, I have complained about the man enough. I am sure that he must not be reading this log right now. Even if he did, I am sure that he won''t take offence. You can''t really tell with the man though.


    (After about ten minutes.)


    Looks like they are not calling the entire committee on me at the very least. There are only two people here for my review. The first is naturally Daniel and the other is a lady that I have never seen in my life.


    How do I describe her, she has a kind of beauty that does not feel real, like she is a statue brought to life rather than a human.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Well, from the time that they have entered into the room, they have been sitting in the table in the room just studying my logs. I guess that I should say something. I don''t think that they will be able to or are willing to hear though.


    They have covered themselves with a cloak, which is completely muffling whatever they are speaking. It is a fascinating piece of magic, one that is very commonly used in formations. Place a cloak or one of its many variants on a mask and you suddenly have a mask that will be able to completely stop you from speaking, or make your voice only heard by a specific or my favourite, make sure everybody can hear you. (It is a pretty useful spell to inscribe onto crowns.)


    Anyway, where was I. Yeah, they are right now speaking with each other behind a cloak. It is the spell variety of a cloak, the kind with which I can look at the other side, though I can''t hear their voice.


    Just based on their body language, I can''t really tell what they are going through though. I would say that they are pretty civil to each other talking calmly. That is a good sign


    I could be completely wrong though. (After all, even we at the legion would have lessons to mask our body language. Why won''t the guard corps who work at more sensitive places have something similar.)


    "Guard Antonio, you have left us with something of a mess. After all, it is not like you pulled of any major scandal in this mission. You just have pretty bad luck. ", it is Daniel who speaks, his voice oddly excited. "Honestly what we should do with you is a question that nobody really wants to answer."


    As he speaks, I can see the man dismantle the cloak spell. It happens instantaneously as the barrier dissolves and the voices it hid are now revealed to me.


    "Focus, Daniel. The quicker this mess is dealt with the quicker that we will get to leave.", the lady speaks, her voice very robotic and slow. It feels the exact opposite of Daniels. There is also very clear animosity in her tone. She either doesn''t like me, doesn''t like Daniel or both.


    "Guard Antonio, we have studied your performance on this mission and I find you lacking on many points.", the lady speaks at me. The words are not directed at me, she speaks it like she is addressing the room rather than me. "How do you defend yourself?"


    "My lady, well if I was given a better description about my supposed mistakes I will be able to justify myself.", I reply, as a sense of nervousness creeps into me. It is a funny sensation, as I shouldn''t particularly care if they remove me from the guard corps and that is the worst that they can do to me.


    "Well, there are three things. The first is your willingness to abandon the scholars in enemy territory.", she replies.


    "My lady, I did as I was instructed by the behaviour of the people that took the mission before me. In most cases the guards and the scholars were separated when we go to that place. That is what my supervisor would had adviced me to do. That is what I have done.", I reply, as calmly as possible. "The soldiers at the frozen peak have always escorted the scholars to the magical ruin, without the guards. The other side have never done anything worth suspecting them for and they have never failed at their duty as well. Meanwhile, I was not resting. I was situated in a outpost quite near the ruin fulfilling the hexmountain treaty. If anything did happen, I was in a position to quickly send reinforcements."


    "Still, have you not abandoned your scholars.", she replies, an edge to her voice that warned me not to push it with her. Before I can reply.


    "Leave it, Minerva. You known as well as I when a demigod kidnaps you, there is little you can do to save yourself.", Daniel speaks. "The kid did pretty admirably in my opinion. After all, he left the rest of his troop to protect the scholars. Few in his position would do that. Also, he is right about being in a position to send reinforcements. He could have sent soldiers to their position in two days. I can vouch for that."


    "Fine, on to your second mistake. You have leaked formation magic to our enemy, especially the snowwind empire.", she speaks. "If any of our allies were to find out about that, it is going to be another mess for us. It will break a set of agreements that will fill a hundred sheets."


    "My lady, the man asked me to do it invoking the hexmountain treaty. It is not like I can go directly against the hexmountain treaty.", I reply to this. "I still tried my best to limit the damage. The formation that I have placed at the temporary fort is a druidic formation. Unlike other formations, it will take too long for it to be of actual use to the enemy."


    This is a bit of a lie, as any person that has dealt with or studied druidic magic would know. After all, regardless of how gentle druidic magic seems to be it has a dangerous edge that only those that have seen it can understand.


    The guard corps has a pretty thin link with the druids, so let''s hope that this lie won''t be caught. Based on the twinkle in Daniels eye, the man knows clearly that I am bullshitting. At least he seems to be on my side.


    "Fine, the last thing is a complain from the snowwind empire.", the lady speaks. "Regarding the way in which you have broken treaties between the snowwind empire and their enemy, the snow tribe. The snowwind empire were pretty offended on this as well."


    Well, I don''t really have an answer for this. I can''t really waive this away.


    "Well, I can''t really justify this, my lady.", I reply, hoping that she can''t hear the slight tremble in my voice. Again, I don''t know why that tremble exists. "I was as much a victim of the circumstances in this case. The other side were there with the clear intent to attack us."


    The instant that I speak this I can feel a tingle on my back. The same feeling that I would get while hunting cornered vampires with the legion. Looks like I have misspoke here.


    Thankfully, I don''t need to reply to her as the cloak appears around the lady again.


    I can feel my heart pounding by the time that the cloak is opened, which is not that long actually. I am sure that the other side can hear it as clearly as drums. If they do they don''t give me an indication of noticing it.


    "Well, guard antonio, I have to admit that lady Minerva has made certainly good points. Meanwhile, you have provided reasonable justification for each of my colleagues worries. As your supervisor, I don''t see any reason for us to remove you from the guard corps.", he speaks. "Lady Minerva will be taking her leave now, as I present you with your next mission right now. I think that you will find it more suited to your skillset."

 a new mission (log 050.2)

    "well, that went well.", Daniels speaks. "You can say that Minerva has a bias against you formation types. The fact that she did not fight me on this matter is a very good thing. That means she is at the very least willing to give you a chance."


    "Why would that be?", I ask, my mouth shooting off faster than my mind could catch up. The man in front of me might seem friendly, but he is a terrifying bastard. At least if my allies are to be believed. The man is someone that managed to grab the attention of the legion and the legion doesn''t really like to appreciate anybody that comes from the guard corps. Their work is not as violent as ours after all.


    "Well, somethings are better if you don''t get to know about it, kid.", speaks the man, the man still with the same body language as before. He certainly does not seem to have taken any offense at that. That is good. "Still, since you have asked. Lady Minerva has a problem with those that practice formation magic. Especially those that work at the formation corps."


    "I have never worked at the formation corps", I reply. "My master has never allowed me to do it. Will that help with lady Minerva."


    "Well, then I should mention it to lady Minerva one of these days. I actually don''t know how much it will help you, though.", he replies. "The committee will be sending her with me for your future performance reviews. They are of the feeling that I will be biased in your case. Well, then let''s focus on the mission. it is not going to be anything easy."


    "How long will this take. I assume that I won''t have a lot of time to prepare.", I reply to the man.


    "Well, you will be leaving for this mission within the week.", he speaks. "I normally would try to get a break for you, but everybody is already pissed off about the mess they had to deal with at the snowwind empire. That took a pretty decent amount of time and energy. You and your master also cost us quite the good will of the snowwind empire."


    "That is fine, I kind of expected something like that to happen. It is not like I did good at the mission anyway", I reply, I honestly want to explain why I did fail, but my master has clearly warned me never to try and negotiate with this man. My master does not give warnings lightly. "What is the mission?"


    "Well, this time the mission is going to be more in line with your capabilities. No more needing to worry about pissing of the wrong people.", he replies, a smile on the man as if he has won the lottery. The man really hates politics. "Firstly, it is going to be much closer to the hexmountain. So that would be a good thing. I will be able to send reinforcements more easily. As for the mission, it is reacting to an emergency in the soldar plains."


    "Which power triggered their emergency beacon?", I ask. "And is the guard corps still handing those things out."


    The emergency beacon is something that the guard corps has given to many powers in the soldar plains. They can be triggered to get the help of the black mountain. Very few actually tend to use it since owing a debt to the black mountain is something that no one likes. No merchant ever wants to be in the debt of his customer. Makes for a bad business and the black mountain is good at making you pay.


    As for how I know about this, it was the formation corps that crafted those beacons. My master personally worked on a few of those.


    "Yes, we still hand those out. Nobody really expects anything from them though. Even in the present case, no emergency beacon has ever been used. Instead, what we are doing is more akin to checking in. One of our key allies in the soldar plains, the mayfires have not been responding to any of our communication attempts.", he speaks.


    Now that might actually lead to a problem. The mayfires are our only pure allies (least likely to sell us out to our enemies.) in the soldar plains. I can''t remember beyond that about them, just that they are pretty important. I will need to hit the files once I return to my room. I really should memorise those files one of these days.


    "So what seems to be the issue?", I ask the man. "The guard corps must not have suddenly decided to check up on the mayfires."


    "Firstly they haven''t been making their regular grain deliveries. The mayfires are not the largest supplier of our grains but they haven''t missed a single delivery in the last couple decades. Even then it was only because their castle was under attack by multiple bandit groups.", the man continues. "Then we at the very least had communication with them. They have never gone completely silent like they have done right now."


    "So is it going to be causing any issues. Do I need to rush to the location. I can leave now if there is a need to. I will be a bit underprepared in case of a combat situation.", I ask the man. "I will also be alone, since my troop has yet to return to the hexmountain. That is going to cause a few problems."Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "Well, you can leave once your troop has returned to the hex mountain.", he replies.


    "Well, how much time does that buy me?", I ask.


    "Not much, I would say a week, but I won''t be pushing you to leave any time soon. You need to be ready before you leave for this mission." He replies. "Though don''t make it too late or I will be in a pretty bad position."


    "Isn''t it an emergency. Will this delay not cause any problems?", I ask.


    "Not really, the mayfires are a pretty formidable force themselves. It is unlikely for them to be overwhelmed anytime soon. If they are struggling against an enemy, then I would like you to go in there with your full preparation. At the very least I need you to wait for the troops. Already that master of yours has restricted it a bit too much for my liking. Whoever has heard of a troop of only four people." He speaks. "Right now the assumption is that it is an active combat zone. I would suggest that you take it as seriously as you take a trip to the bone pits. That is another place that we consider to be an active combat zone, by the way."


    "Could the situation be that bad. I mean, I can''t say I remember much about the mayfires, but their fire magic is something that even the legion noticed. That must mean that it must be strong enough to handle anything.", I reply. "I mean they should be able to deal with anything in the soldar plains on their own."


    "Well, you are asking the wrong guy here, soldier. Maybe the mayfires can handle it on their own, but they would still appreciate it if we were there. They might not speak about it, but they will remember. I can''t really tell much about the politics going on here. After all, the place that my guards usually are sent to is the bone pits. There is not much politics there thankfully.", he replies. "Still, based on the reports that I have read. The guard corps is sure that something is wrong there. Firstly, the mayfires are good allies of ours. They have ways of communicating with us that do not involve the emergency beacon and secondly, you are not the first set of guards that have been sent to this place."


    "Which group is that?" I ask.


    "One of the groups under lady Minerva actually. A troop of twenty soldiers. Not particularly strong, but they should be halfway decent at the very least. They have yet to send any logs or communicate with us in any manner, so something has to be wrong.", he replies. "That is why they are considering sending you actually. You have shown a resilience in the snowwind empire, that the guard corps thinks that you should be able to handle whatever happens there, even if things do end up being worse than we assumed. After all, knowing the soldar plains, it can be any of our enemies pulling their strings in that place."


    "Well, am I going to be provided with any resources at least. The mission sounds risky enough for some help from the head office. Maybe another troop to support me.", I ask the man. I know that it is pretty unlikely but a man has to try.


    "You won''t be provided with anything. The legion is already pretty pissed off with you, kid. The snowwind empire has been a fiasco of the highest degree.", he speaks. "I haven''t seen the committee this annoyed at somebody for a while and that is saying something. Better that you don''t ask them for anything. I could try if there is a need, but who can tell."


    "There should be something. Some reward for the previous mission. It is not like I messed things up that badly. It was mostly my master if we are to be honest.", I reply.


    "Well, I could ask them but the committee doesn''t like you already. If you were to go in there demanding rewards, they will remember that. You want the committee to be on your side, kid. If you piss them off, they can make your life pretty annoying.", he replies.


    "I need mana stones. I need to buy some stuff and my personal reserves will not be enough for it. There must be something that can be done?", I ask the man.


    "Well, there might be something that I will be able to do, but you will need to explain to me for what purpose you need this and be ready to provide me a detailed list of what exactly you have bought. I will be submitting all of this to the committee.", he replies.


    "Why won''t I be ready? As for what I need it for. I mainly need it to install a coordination matrix and another cannon on my ship. Right now the one I am using is quite lacking.", I reply, explaining as I see the confusion on my supervisors face. "A coordination matrix will allow me to coordinate all the cannons on the ship and aim them as is needed. I can already do that, but it is not very useful in an actual combat situation. With a coordination matrix I will be able to control multiple cannons as if I  were aiming them myself."


    "Well, your troop could have done this for you. if you don''t give a good enough reason, then I am not going to be able to get you the funds. You know how stingy they can get.", he replies.


    "Well, I have only three soldiers. I can''t really have all of them on cannon duty now can I. If things go well I will be adding more than three cannons to the ships, what should I do then?", I speak, pointing out the obvious. "Even now I can''t really spare them. I have them do vital tasks such as patrolling for boarders and so on. If they were busy shooting cannons, I would need my troops to be expanded at least."


    "Fine then, we supervisors are allowed to lend their guards some money for their missions. This is meant mostly to allow people to prepare for their missions. You will not need to pay interest on it and the amount lent will be cut directly from your rewards of the mission.", the man speaks. "You can actually choose not to pay back the head office, but you know how stingy those bastards tend to be, so I am warning you before you take the credit, to pay it back as soon as possible."


    "I know how the head office can get. You have to remember that my master is the one that does maintenance on their formations.", I reply, "my master tends to get less frustrated with the merchants down south, then he can get with the guard corps."

 the preparation (log 051)

    The only reason that I am writing this log is because Daniel has warned me that this is the best way to tell the head office about the expenses of going on this trip. Otherwise I am going to have to sit in front of a committee, having every single purchase of mine checked and judged. It is supposed to be a complicated mess, one that I have no interest in involving myself in.


    I will also be making use of this log to properly schedule my work as well. Within a few days, I have managed to accrue a pretty large list of tasks for me to complete. (If my master destroyed all of my formations so that I can focus on the fusion spell, he has not done a very good job of it. Already work is popping up like nothing else. Well, that is life as a formation mage.). Seriously it hasn''t been a week and I already feel like I am upto my nose in work.


    Well the first task in this list of mine is the coordination matrix. A coordination matrix is a pretty ambitious thing for the ship. I am sure that most of the guard ships that is being run by the guard corps do not have a coordination matrix. They are that rare, at least in this part of the world. (While part of the reason is the cost of the ship, another reason is that running a coordination matrix is something that not everybody is capable off. It is kind of like the sensory formation in that regard.)


    My master has done a pretty good job with the ship but the man had only a few days to do what would take a team of men, months to complete. The fact that the man even managed to complete the basic formations is a surprise to me. I mean creating the formations itself is not a surprise after all. But putting so many formations together is very hard. To be frank, I don''t know how my master managed to do it for most of the formations. The little that I have understood, makes the entire thing seem like a piece of art.


    Most formations tend to interfere with each other in a pretty explosive manner. This phenomena is actually called as the interference. Magic, by its very nature is a manipulation of mana and it is supposed to be a very precise art. We can make use of runes to move mana extremely precisely. A spark spell with just that bit more mana will become a fireball. (Or just as likely to set you on fire.) When you are controlling ambient mana, you cannot simply just make use of your will to create a spell like you can do with vital mana. With runes, we can send mana into the formation in a very precise manner. The only problem in this process is that one rune can control mana just as well as another rune.


    If you were to stuff a small room full of formations like this, then one rune can interfere with the performance of another rune and cause the entire thing to become very chaotic. A rune meant to transfer one unit of mana could transfer 0.1 units of mana or in even more extreme cases, ten units of mana. The former will cause the formation to fail and the latter can possibly end in the entire thing exploding.


    I think you still can place multiple class nine formations, (at least I have never noticed the interference myself.) but from class eight onwards when formations are placed together they tend to have side effects, most of which are pretty explosive. That is why you actually need managing formations from class eight onwards. (I have heard that from class five onwards, the major work of the central formation is to manage this very interference that exists in the formation. I can''t verify that though, as of right now class six formations are also beyond me.)


    On top of that my master has placed a incomplete class six formation in the middle of the entire thing. While the formation is still not functional, it''s runes are having an affect on the surrounding formations. That is why my master has not added a bunch of formations that would be useful to me but which are not vital to me. Those I will have to add on my own. Knowing my master, he must have assumed that this was the best way to test me. Honestly, I want to figure out this formation as quickly as possible. Even after I have spent so long studying formations under him, I am not able to understand any of the formations that he has designed.


    The only formations of his that I have understood, are the one that he copies. The inferior copies that he can produce in moments. The one that he produces for the sake of satisfying the demands of the legion or the guard corps, are the only one that I can understand. His own works are a mystery to me. Even after seven years under him. I have to change that soon enough or things are going to get very embarrassing for me.


    I guess that I should speak about how much I owe to the head office as well. That is why I have started this log in the first place. I have brought two things on credit from black mountain. The first is a cannon of the seventh class.


    I managed to get it on a deal as well. It is of the fire element and I managed to get it at quite a deal. I managed to get it at five class seven mana stones. Granted, the damn thing is almost on the verge of breaking into pieces, but I will be able to fix it. It is a basic fire element cannon, with a pretty standard design. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    It is a bit ambitious, since I haven''t really ever played around with a class seven formation, but I should be able to fix it. Even if I have never really manipulated class seven cannon formations, I have seen their design long enough, that I should be able to do it.


    The cost of the cannon was just a bit too tempting. I don''t think you would get it at that price even if you were to go and buy directly from a cannonsmith down south.


    Already, hexmountain have very few cannonsmiths. The main reason for that actually is the legion. the thing is if you make weapons for the legion, you can only make weapons for the legion only. That exclusivity and the prices that they offer divert the already few good cannonsmiths in the place.


    That tends to really drive up the prices in this place. That is why the only cannons that we can play around with are the spoils of war from the guard corps or the legion when they go on their missions.


    Even this cannon of mine must have come from one of the pirates in the soldar plains. That is the only explanation you have for this cannon appearing here. The many powers down south certainly do not want to see us succeed, even if they are our allies. That is why even after we have warned them not to send their cannons down here personally, their cannons always seem to find their way down here. (That is why we have a general stationed there at all times. To put their more destructive impulses under control.)


    So yeah, all of that in summary is that I have managed to get a cannon that I will now need to sit and repair. That is task number one actually and by far the simplest task that I have right now.


    After that, I have brought the materials needed for the coordination matrix. A coordination matrix is also a formation of the seventh class, but the cost of these materials is leagues above the cannon. The reason for that is actually down south. Those damn war mongers would not like these formations to actually become common now, would they.


    A complete coordination matrix can go anywhere from ten class six mana stones to a hundred class six mana stones. (In terms of class seven stones that is a hundred class seven stones and a thousand class seven stones respectively. Considering all of my savings together is five class seven mana stones. You can understand why I decided to take it on credit. )


    Since I have bought only the raw materials for one, I managed to bring down the price to about five class six mana stones. Making the coordination matrix is going to be my next major task. it is a class seven formation, but I should manage to inscribe one of the class eight spells of the matrix by the time that I will leave for the mission.


    Even that class eight spell is going to be enough to make things easy for me, though the class seven one would have been better. It will allow me to coordinate the three cannons that I have on my ship, at least to a reasonable degree.


    That is actually going to be task number two. To complete the coordination matrix at least till minor completion by the end of this trip. That should be enough for now.


    So yeah, before I go onto task number three, I will have to mention that the total number of mana stones that I owe the legion is going to be five class six mana stones and five class seven mana stones. I don''t want any misunderstandings on this later. This is the precise amount that I need to repay. I won''t be repaying anything beyond this.


    Now to return to task number three, it is naturally the process of figuring out the fusion spell. Well, technically speaking I have already understood the spell, but you have to be careful with anything that involves the mana core. Anything goes wrong and a crack might form on my mana core. Then I wouldn''t be able to cultivate and I have heard it is supposed to be painful as well. Before you go about laughing at my lack of knowledge on mana reversal, what can I do, my master has been quite thorough on his ban of knowledge related to cultivation. Even the warnings he keeps away from me.


    All I know about it is that it is supposed to destroy your body quite thoroughly and is the most painful way for a mage to die.


    After all, if I have managed to get some method of cultivating from my master after so long, I won''t destroy my chances due to impatience. That is why I have put this as my third task. It is the most important of all my tasks, but I can''t rush it. It is not like cultivating is really going to be enhancing my fighting strength.


    As for the final task, that would be to make the class six formation that my master has left for me. This is something that I will not be able to rush with anyways. I simply do not have any knowledge related to it.


    I will have to start by doing a detailed analysis of all the formations that my master has left behind in his notes. With that I should be able to finally understand the notes that my master has left behind for me regarding the incomplete formation.


    Until then, there is no way that I will be able to do any work on that. It is actually annoying. A class seven formation is still fine. With the way things     are going, I will be able to make one soon enough.


    The main problem is that my master is simply a bit too beyond me. I have never really managed to figure out any of his formations till now. this incomplete formation of his just might be the simplest formation of his that I might have seen in them all.


    Well, I think that I have covered everything of importance in this log. Well, I am going to start my work in the coordination formation now. Right now, the only thing preventing me from leaving for the mayfire''s castle is the fact that I am waiting for my troop. Daniels is not going to allow me to leave without the troop.

 the mayfire castle (log 052)

    The mayfires are one of our key allies. No, that is wrong they are even more important than that. I think they are our only true allies in the region. (We do have others, but they are also double dealing with our enemies.) They are the only ones that are truly loyal to us. That is why they are so important. They are the only ones that we can trust. Anyways,  After all they have done to help us, we certainly will not be able to ignore them when they need us.


    For a more practical and selfish reason, They are our warning bell. Any attack on the hexmountain would certainly be preceeded by a attack on the soldar plains. (The damage to our supply lines it would do is something that our enemies will simply not be able to give up on.) the greatest damage to our interests in the soldar plains is going to be removing the mayfires from the chessboard.


    If such an attack were to happen, it would look something like what we are seeing here. No wonder the guard corps are in such a panic. They need to confirm the truth of the situation as quickly as possible. With enough suspicion, the legion will have to interfere and that is not an experience either group is going to enjoy.


    An invasion on the hexmountain is always doomed to fail, but it will still cause us to suffer. (Even the head office will have to answer if such an attack were to happen.)


    To speak of the mayfires, they are a fascinating bunch. People tend to forget about this, but they are not really a part of the soldar plains. Their history here starts as refugees from the desert in the east. The great desert there is as much as a mystery to me as it is to most of you. The only thing that is known about that place that is it''s people are some of the strongest warriors on the continent.


    To return to the mayfires, They managed to set up a presence in this region primarily due to their fire magic. In the soldar plains, that presents them with a very unique advantage, which they capitalised on to reach their present position.


    You see, the soldar plains at its core is a region of earth mana and wood mana. Almost all the people here are Masters of earth mana and wood mana. Wood mana tends to be particularly susceptible to fire mana, as you can guess. (It doesn''t really tend to affect the users of the earth mana, but earth mana is not particularly offensive.) Also, which power would like to fight the mayfires, who would be able to set fire to every single crop of theirs. When the only thing that you have are crops, you tend to be very careful around those that can burn it to the ground.


    Still, what the mayfires have achieved is actually a step beyond that. They have managed to set roots in this area like no other new power in the region.


    The mayfires have managed to create a base of power in this region that might be able to rival more established powers. They have been in this region for at most three hundred years and yet they are now able to rival powers that have been here for a millennia.


    The reason for that is also the mayfires castle. Now, how is a man supposed to explain that castle''s significance, when I have not even seen it with my own eyes until now. Much of what I am speaking comes from the logs of my predecessors (an heavily censored log at that. The mayfires are a key ally, which makes any information on them that tpmuch harder to give out.)


    Well, the mayfire castle is both the military stronghold and the business center for the mayfire''s. To explain the former, it is a castle after all. Even the guard corps consider that place as very hard to infiltrate. If you know the stuff the guard corps tends to do, that is praise that very few powers will be able to claim.


    It is the latter that I am going to struggle at explaining. To put it simply, the mayfires are not farmers. (Unlike every other power that exists in the plains.) They might be able to burn every single crop in the soldar plains but it is of no benefit to them if they cannot produce crops of their own.


    Instead they take up an unique approach. They rather act as the middle man between the black mountain and the many small powers that exist in the region. (Who would not be able to bring much to the table, if they were to do so individually.) These powers are often the ones that have had all of their warriors defeated and killed by the mayfires.


    They offer protection to these small powers, protecting them from bandits and the like, making sure that their food is safely delivered to the mountain. These small powers grow the food and the mayfires transport it to us. With this approach, the mayfires have managed to establish quite a decent trade with us and at the same time made themselves quite important to their neighbours.


    While they might not be the force in the plains with the most trade with us, they are comfortably in the top ten with this strategy. The way that they facilitate this trade is through that castle of theirs. It acts as a heart for the mayfires, both a place where they can coordinate this process and the place where they can store these grains. Stolen story; please report.


    The mayfire castle is considered to be the greatest storehouse in the soldar plains. We have heard rumours that at their full capacity, the mayfire castle can hold enough grain to feed the hexmountain for a year. Another reason that we cannot ignore them.


    Personally, I think that these rumours must have an element of truth to them. After all, there must be a reason that the black mountain gives so much importance to the mayfires. This is as good as any conspiracy, I say.


    This importance of theirs is a reason that we don''t really tend to allow the scholars to spy on them. (We can''t really do anything to push them to the enemy now) This leads to something of a paradox actually, as we know less about the mayfires than any of our enemies. We know very little on the mayfires, other than the magics that they wield. Weirdly, we have quite a detailed record on that. (I will speak of it later when we actually meet them. Until then it is a waste of time. The closer to your heart you keep such information the better.)


    Of the little that is known about them, the amount that I have access to is even more little. The little that I had access to, I have mentioned in this log. (This will actually help me out later, stops me from having to read all the necessary logs again.)


    I am supposed to be a formation mage. We are supposed to carve magic formations to deal with any enemy. There is little I can do when I don''t even know much about our allies, let alone anything about their enemies.


    Well, I have already done as much preparation as is possible. I won''t be able to go beyond this. At least until I get more information. It would just be a waste of time, I feel like.


    Right now trevor and the other two are getting familiar with the ship and its layout. Their work is to familiarise themselves with the layout of the ship. Once they do that, they will then be practicing with the cannons. Before the head office loses its mind on this matter. My troop is training with the cannons as a temporary measure. I can still control the cannons remotely but it is always better to have backups (and no, the coordination matrix won''t help this quickly.)


    Right now I have only managed to Inscribe seven class nine spells of one of the class eight base. Well, the coordination matrix is actually a repetition of the same spell. It is known as the "manipulate" spell and it is used to control any cannon.


    Every spell being inscribed into it is actually the same. The reason for that is the spell being used in the coordination matrix, has a pretty significant chance of failure. (That is why every cannon troop tends to have multiple people for a single cannon.) Instead of setting off the cannon, the spell will not react at all or in the worst case actually backfire on you. (Thankfully the chances of that are very low.)


    That is why the matrix uses multiple copies of the same spell, making sure that even if a single iteration of the spell fails, another will succeed where it fails. (I mean this does increase the chance of the cannon exploding, but the control it gives me is worth the increased risk.)


    So with that bit of theory out of the way, right now I have seven iterations of the spell to work with. that is roughly two spell iterations for each cannon. So all of that means that right now, I still will have to depend on the troop to man the cannons if and when things go wrong. Thankfully this is the worst case so there is that.


    I should be in a better situation by the time that I reach the mayfire castle but this is the best that I can do with the limited amount of resources that I have at hand. (The most limited of it being time.)


    Let''s hope that my luck holds up this time at least. With that I guess I should speak about the remaining tasks. for the first task, which is my cannon. Progress has been slow on that front. After all, until the coordination matrix is more set up, I won''t be able to use it. That is why right now, most of my focus has been on the coordination matrix.


    That doesn''t mean that I haven''t made any progress on it. I have been studying it''s makeup and I know precisely where the problem is in this cannon now. Well, to explain that flaw I will need to explain how these cannons work.


    The way that they work is actually kind of like how propulsion formations work. in a propulsion formations you are essentially converting mana into a spell that will push the ship.  This occurs in a steady manner, allowing the ship to stay in the air.


    The cannon is essentially the same thing. Except, in this case the spell is not released directly like we do with a propulsion formation. Instead we are storing that spell in a containment unit, where the spell can be stored and compressed. Then we can simply open up the containment unit using the trigger spell to release the stored spell directly at our target.


    Right now the problem on the cannon is actually on the containment unit. Somebody seems to have struck directly at the containment unit causing it to fracture. This means that right now the containment unit has some serious fractures present in it causing the entire thing to leak like crazy.


    Right now my work is just to convert this half broken containment unit into something that will be able to hold a charge at the very least. I can focus on boosting the damage after this.


    To speak of the third task, which is the "fusion" spell, that has been a proper mess. I have tried to study it for the last few days, but there is a limit to which I can study this theoretically. Right now I have reached a point where I need to practically test stuff to understand it further. If only the damn thing was not related to my mana core.


    I will have to leave this task until I reach a safe place. Right now, when I am at the risk of being attacked any second, this is a pretty stupid thing to try.


    That finally leaves my final task, which is the incomplete formation that my master has left for me. At least on that front I have more positive news. I have been studying the notes that my master has left for me. While my understanding of the spells is nowhere near anything useful or practical. I am making progress at the very least.

 the patrol ship (log 053.1)

    I guess I should explain to you how pirates really work in the soldar plains. Don''t worry, it is not going to take long. I am sure much of this you already know but there are protocols.


    Every pirate gang have four types of ship. The first is the crown ship. Every pirate ship has one that acts as a mobile headquarters for them. This is the beating heart of a pirate ship. It is kind of like the head office in that regard. Anything that they need to do has to go through the crown ship. If you manage to destroy the crown ship of a pirate gang, you have essentially destroyed that gang. After all what is the point of having all these ships if you cannot give them any commands.


    The second is the brawlers, slower and heavier ships (though not as slow as the crown ship.) that are meant to be used for fights. These are meant to be used to fight other gangs and even us actually. One of our main duties in the soldar plains is to actually attack pirates. This is where all the real members of a pirate gang (the ones that will be able to fight) are stationed at.


    The third type is the crawler, slow ships that act as the treasury for the gang. Not every gang has these. For most pirate gangs, their crown ships also tend to act as their crawlers. Only the really rich pirate groups tend to have a separate crawler. After all, if you have a crawler you really need to be able to afford the necessary defenses for it. Otherwise you are giving others a free meal. Most crawlers tend to be repurposed grain ships.


    The last type is the patrollers. Small ships that are pretty fast and are used for patrolling and scouting. Most tend to be lightly armoured and lightly equipped. These are the most common pirate ships that you will be able to find.


    The reason that I am mentioning all this now is since I forgot to add all of this information in the previous logs and I have a patroller following me. If even one person complains about my records, the head office will kick me out . I know those bastards very well.


    Technically, this all is supposed to be present on the log after the briefing since this is a majority of what I have been reading from the documents I have been provided. I had other things on my mind as you must have read. Regardless, I am not starting a log just to tell you this bit of information. The reason for that is we have entered into mayfire territory a couple of days ago and the patroller has been following us for a while now. I am sure that most of you must not be understanding why that is weird.


    Most patrollers tend to be useless ships, often on the verge of being scrap. The people on it are nearly useless, most being either new recruits to the gang or the one that have been injured so bad that they can''t recover. Most well to do gangs have hundreds of such ships. They send these patrollers to look for potential ships to be stealing from.


    After all most ships that run in this place are grain ships, sending grain to the hexmountain. They tend to be like turtles, often without any real defenses of their own. If such a ship is found by the patrollers, then the patrollers can return, sending information to the brawlers who will be able to reach the ship before it can fly away to safety.


    This way, the brawlers can be reserved for only when they are needed. After all, brawlers that are good at combat must be pretty mana intensive to move. They must go through mana stones like crazy.


    Also, you can mitigate some of the risk you tend to face when looking for a target, from both us and other pirate gangs. For example, we or other pirate ships might hide in a grain ship, waiting for somebody to attack it. It is a good ambush. Other pirate gangs might be looking at the same ship as a target and if two brawlers were there it would have lead to heavy losses to both gangs. (This is the main reason that two pirate gangs fight it seems.) Maybe a travelling expert might be in that ship, destroying you with a single move. (Well, that is a occupational hazard for us all.)


    As I have said, these ships tend to be close to scrap anyways. You can lose a hundred of these and you won''t notice their loss. You cannot say the same about the brawlers.


    As for why what is happening to me is so weird, most patrollers would usually disappear by now, reporting to their nearest brawlers once they have confirmed my travel route. Well, the ship has been following me for a while now. They could retreat any second and If that were to happen, I would be in a pretty sticky situation. I am not capable of fighting a brawler right now.


    As for why this ship has yet to retreat, I have a theory. They must be looking to raid my ship. I kind of expected something like this to happen. Their ship is roughly as big as mine and it has been after us for a while now. I am not driving the ship at its full speed, so it must look like a weak target. (I am entering an active combat zone. There is no way that I am going to risk my life by going at full speed.)Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    So the other side must be considering me as a potential victim. Anybody with a bit of brain would know to be careful of a lone ship travelling alone in the soldar plains, but greed and stupidity have no limits. Well, to give the other side credit, this might just be their first time. Maybe they have no idea what they are supposed to be doing here. After all not everybody can be like me, getting to study detailed documents on enemy behaviour, even before coming out here on our first mission.


    I would have already attacked the ship if it had come closer to me, but it is keeping it''s distance. I could try and attack now, but with such distance (about ten kilometres) there is a chance of me missing.  If that happens, I will be spooking the other side. If they were to run away and report me, things would become bad for me pretty quickly. After all, if I were to end up fighting a brawler in mayfire territory it would attract attention that I would not want on me. That is considering that I would be able to survive the fight.


    Anyways, I have been studying the ship for a while now. There are  only two strong enough mana sources. The first is the propulsion formation. The other is most probably some kind of a cannon. It is not a strong cannon, of that I am sure. If they had a good cannon, then I would be able to detect it even now. This kind of cannons are the only ones that would be able to do any damage to me. At most, It is going to be a really shitty class seven cannon or a really good class eight cannon. (Neither capable of taking me down in a single shot. Hence why I am so calm.)


    So, I can allow them to come closer to me, if they are stupid enough to do so. Then I just need to pepper them with my cannons. This is about the best way for me to deal with this situation.


    I am still making my way to the mayfire castle, so having that ship behind me is not hurting me at all. I will continue the log when the other ship ends up doing anything worth noting.


    (After about half a day.)


    Well, the ship is coming closer to us. I don''t know why they suddenly decided to come after us. I swear that for a moment they looked as if they were about to retreat. Right now they are ten kilometres from me.


    I need them to come just within five kilometres of me. With that distance I can just let lose all of my cannons and hit them with certainty. It is a bit risky to allow them to come that close, but it should be worth it.


    At least the other side is not suicidal. They are creeping closer to me but they are careful about it. The instant that I show them any intent of attacking, I am sure they will bolt away.


    Right now they are nine kilometres away. I mean I could stop my ship to allow them to come closer, but that is going to spook them away as well. After all, why would a ship suddenly stop mid chase. Let''s just hope my act of trying to run away is good enough to fool them for a bit longer.


    This is harder than it looks. The other side is not coming at us with their full speed. This close, it is more likely to crash into us if they were to do so. Right now, they are accelerating their ships. I am trying to go at a speed that is just a bit slower than theirs. Not enough that it looks like I am stopping my ship just to let them come closer and not fast enough that I leave them in the dust. That would certainly spook them into retreating.


    Right now they are seven kilometres away from me. I wonder if I should attack them already. well, I can feel the second mana sources of theirs flair up. It looks like they are readying their cannon. Right now, that means that they intend to come closer to me to shoot at me. Their reasoning on this must be similar to mine, that is to shoot me before I do so.


    Well, with the strength of their cannons, I am sure that there will be a few holes in the ship but it should be nothing serious. At least compared to what I am about to unleash on them. It is going to be worth the effort and cost of patching up these few holes if it means I can safely get rid of the other side. I really don''t want to get embroiled with a pirate gang before I even find out what exactly is happening at the castle.


    Wait a second, if I am able to sense their cannons they might be able to sense my cannon preparing as well. Fuck, I did not think of that. If they were to detect my cannons, it would be enough to spook them. Fuck, fuck, fuck.


    Calm the fuck down, they would have been running away already if that was the case. Now that I calm down a bit I realise that for it to be a problem they need to have a mana sense first of all. I am sure that most people on that ship have never felt any mana except their vital mana. Well, most pirates in this place tend to be farmers that could not pay their debts. (Well, there tend to be many reasons for it. A bad crop, a pirate attacking, or most commonly, the lord of that region suddenly deciding to increase the taxes.) I tell you, that most people in that ship must have held a sword for the first time.


    Even if they have a mana sense, most people do not have enough experience with sense enhancing formations to be able to sense the other side as precisely. Anybody capable of sensing mana would at most think the spike in mana would be due to my propulsion formation. I am just so used to having a mana sense way greater than the average, that I don''t need to worry about things like this. Even injured, my mana sense is comparable to a person at the later stages of the foundation level.


    Well, the other ship is six kilometres away from us. I need to be ready, so I prepare the coordination matrix. The instant that the ship is five kilometres away, I will set it off. There is a significant chance that it will fail, but I have Andrew and Jacob ready at the cannons. The failure of the coordination matrix will be enough to alert them to manually adjust the cannons.


    There it is, the five kilometer mark. I flex the coordination matrix feeling it ready as I se.......

 the ambush (log 053.2)

    How the fuck did they do that. Right now there is a hole in my room. It is nothing dangerous, but there is a fire burning in the room. I can feel the heat of the flames, as I pick myself up. It is not strong enough that I need to bother with it immediately. At the moment I have other things to worry about.


    The force of the fucking cannon shot was enough to blow me across the room. Just a few more moments and I would have set of the fucking cannons. I was just on the verge of activating the matrix. Then taking this hit would have been worth it. Those cannons would have ripped through the other parties ship.


    Well, there is no use crying over spilt milk. Strings of mana spread from my hand, giving me access to the formations. I take a moment to study my ship. Right now, the only major damage is to my formation room.


    How the fuck did they manage such a thing. That is a very precise shot. I mean I have heard of such things happening, but all of them have been in stories, mostly being boasts from drunken men. It is the first time that I am seeing something like this happen in real life. The other side has a very good cannonneer. One that would be able to destroy a piece of art like this with a fucking class eight cannon.


    As I am taking back control of my ship, I finally link to the sensory formations. As I do so, I can feel the other side charging their cannons. My cannons are fully charged, which is the only reason that I am safe right now. They are scared I will get a shot in.


    The only reason that we are not dead is simply due to the fact that the durability of my ship is something that you do not see in other ships. Any other ship in our place would have a completely wrecked formation room and a wrecked formation room means that the ship will become useless.


    Another shot to this place and we will still end up in that exact situation. Right now, my fully charged cannons are the only reason that the other side is trying not to shoot me down. If they come within the range of hitting, it will also give me the opportunity to hit them with my cannons.


    It might not completely annhilate their ship, but it will render them useless. Right now the other ship is solidly within the range of me shooting but we are right now bobbing up and down, moving with such frequency that I cannot get a shot in. This is a standard practice in airship combat, something that only experienced pilots tend to know. While it is preventing me from shooting them it is also preventing them from shooting at me, thankfully.


    With how precise their cannons are I cannot take the risk of letting them come closer to me. That also means that I won''t be able to go closer to them to take my shot. At my present position I won''t be able to hit them, as long as they maintain the evasive maneuvers.


    At the same time, I cannot take the risk of trying to run away from them. The instant that I stop showing the intent of attacking, the other side will be free to shoot their cannon. If the other side takes the second shot, my ship will be ruined.


    At the moment I don''t know what I am supposed to do. How the fuck did I even end up in this position. In a few moments, I have somehow shifted from being the one with all the advantages to somehow my enemies holding all the cards.


    As I am thinking this, the door to the formation room opens up with a bang. It takes me a moment to focus back into this room, but it is trevor. The man is huffing like he had just run a marathon.


    "What the fuck is going on here.", the man screams at me. Not that he needs to. Right now I am linked to the sensory enhancing formation. His screams are like thunderclaps.


    "Will you cool it. I don''t need people screaming at me.", I am growling at him, I realise.


    This moment of distraction almost ends in disaster, as my ship lurches to a pause. A few more moments and the other side would have had enough time to let loose on my ship.


    "Fine, what is the situation?", he asks. This time he has the good sense to whisper.


    (A couple of minutes later.)


    I have been explaining to the man opposite me what I have recorded in the log already. There is no point in repeating all that. Anyways, right now we all are stuck in something of a stalemate.


    The other side seems to be not particularly confident that he will be able to make the shot unless he is closer to me. During this period, they have been getting further and further away from us. Right now we are about six kilometres from each other. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The other side will not be able to do any damage to me from that distance, their cannon is not very strong. It''s strength is simply not enough to do any real damage to the ship. That is unless they manage to hit the formation room again. If that happens, then a majority of the controls of this ship would be destroyed in the subsequent destruction. (And I don''t even want to imagine what would happen to me. I have heard things happen that causes a chill to climb up my spine)


    Even now, I can see the wall on the brink of collapse. Trevor is trying to extinguish the flames on it and he has been pretty succesful at it. Most of the flames are out, except a few of the stubborn ones.


    Even with that though, the wall is not in a good position. There are cracks all over the thing like a spider web. At the moment it looks like just a tap will make the entire thing fall over. The cracks are large enough that I can use it to look outside. Thankfully, my master''s environmental formations are good enough that I do not need to worry about the air in the ship any time soon.


    Now that I have a moment of calm, how the fuck did they even manage this. Well, I guess I should explain to you just how hard of a shot that would be. Right now, if my ship can be considered to be an archers target then my room is like an ant on that target. I simply don''t know how the fuck it is possible to make such a shot. More importantly what the hell is a man like that doing in such a place. Such men are in pretty high demand.


    "Captain, do we have a plan?", he speaks. "We won''t be able to hold them off for long like this. What are the chances of us running away."


    "Well, I could try and run away from them. But with our enemy having such a precise aim, that is too risky.", I reply. "The same risk applies for trying to engage them in a fight. so what exactly can I do."


    "Well, you could try something interesting", he speaks. "Before I discuss it with you, I would like you to shut down the recording. You never know who is looking."


    (After about five minutes.)


    "That is a fucking crazy plan, trevor.", I speak.


    "Well, do you have a better plan at this moment captain. The ship is strong enough. It can handle damage like that.", he speaks. "Right now, this is our only option, captain."


    "Well, fuck it. If we do end up crashing. I will be sure to forward all the repair costs to you." I speak. "Are you sure this will work? I have never seen a cannon being used in such a manner. I could achieve something like that but I can''t leave this room."


    "I have seen it used in such a manner more than once, captain. I know how to make the cannon function exactly as we need it to. I don''t even need a fancy spell to do it.", he replies, as cool as a block of ice. Sometimes I wonder just how many missions this man has completed.


    "Fuck it, leave now.", is my only reply.


    As I steel myself, I look at the other ship. It is still behind us, following us with a steady pace. The way they move me reminds me of a hawk, always looking at you, preparing to strike at the first sign of weakness.


    The few times that I tried to slow down, the other side almost seems to charge at us, preparing to get a shot in again.


    Well, if what I am planning has to work then I will need all eyes on me, looking at me as closely as possible . I hope the other side is also making use of sensory formations.  Well, I am sure that by now trevor must have reached the cannons.


    Well, I stop the ship, feeling it grind to a halt under my influence. The reason that I have taken such a risk is to buy a moment for trevor. Right the other side must have to redirect the cannon to my new direction, so I have bought him a few moments. This moment is all I need as I let loose only one of my cannons. To be specific, the light element one.


    Well, this thing is going to be in trevors hand. The way that he described it to me was going to be a glint in the sun. He is going to let lose the cannon just a bit, just enough for the cannon to attract the attention of every person on the other ship.


    Once that has been done, he will let the cannon go fully which will be enough to blind every person on the other ship. Once that happens is when I am going to enter into action.


    Right now I have shut down my sensory formations as well. Otherwise I would also be one of the people that would be blinded. Right now the problem is that while what trevor has described to me seems to be feasible, achieving it would require some level of formation control.


    While trevor seemed to be very confident about it, I still have my doubts. The fact that I have to see the result of this fight based on my ordinary senses (Minus my mana sense.) is not helping me in any way.


    Fuck, there it is. The cannons shot appears like a bright flash, bright enough that it can be seen through the cracks in my ship.


    Screw it, I stop thinking as I aim the ship downwards towards the ground. Every second I am expecting a cannon shot piercing through the room blowing me out of the place. (With the aim the other side had it would have been possible.)


    I heave a sigh of relief as the ship enters into the forest below. Now I am sure all you must be confused as to how the soldar plains can have a forest. Well, the mayfires do not tend to cultivate their own lands and they have not cut the forests of their lands for the last few centuries.


    This has led to the emergence of a pretty wild and untamed forest to grow in their lands. This very forest is going to be my saviour. Even as I speak, I have entered into this forest and am going through it at my full speed.


    Every impact of a tree on my ship is equivalent to having a giant swing at us, but I cannot slow down. After all, we don''t know how long the other side is going to remain blinded. I hope it is long enough that  I would be able to navigate the ship somewhere safe.

 the closing trap (log 054)

    We are in a pretty fucked situation to be honest. Right now we are hiding in the forest under the cover of trees. I have to be thankful that the mayfires are not farmers. If they were, surrounding us would be crops instead of such a dense forest.


    Then there would have been no way for us to hide out like this. After all, even the most useless of sensory formations would have been able to pick up a ship in the middle of a farm.


    The forests provide a better source of camouflage. Right now this little bit of camouflage is the only thing that is keeping us alive. I wonder just how little of a fuck the mayfires give to farming. After all, such dense forests do not appear from nowhere. It might take centuries or a few decades if you are the druids.


    Returning to the ship, things are pretty bad here. Our little trip in the forest has nearly wrecked the ship. the fact that we are not a ruin at this moment is already proof that my ship is way more durable than the average ship.


    That is the reason that we managed to escape from the other side. They would have been destroyed completely trying to follow us in the forest and their sensory formations would simply not have been strong enough to actually catch us in the forest. Still, I had to travel a hundred kilometres at my full speed to leave them in the dust behind us.


    Right now we have landed in the forest, presently hidden. Another thing that I should be thankful is that the trees here are old and strong enough. If this was a new forest, with trees younger than a few decades I would be leaving a trail of destruction that would have made taking such a risk pointless.


    Well, the present situation of my ship is also due to the fact that these were not new trees, that would snap from simple contact.  Most trees that I have collided with have managed to leave pretty significant cracks on the ship. The trees themselves are fine though.


    The cracks are still fine. The ship will lose quite a bit of its durability, but it would be able to fly at the very least. The main problem right now is the holes in the ship. Airships are designed in such a way that there is going to be little contact with the environment outside. After all, without the suitable environment we will end up in a very uncomfortable position of being dead. Environment formations will help out in a situation like this but they are not really useful when you have hundreds of holes in your ship from which the air of your ship is leaking out.


    Without patching those holes, we will only be able to fly for five minutes before the environment of the ship will become too dangerous for my troop and me. Right now, my troop is actually focussing on doing just that. They are cutting down the surrounding trees to make makeshift planks, that they are going to use to cover those holes. Once that is done, flying the ship is still going to be risky but at the very least I will be able to stay in the air for an hour at least. Also, there is a risk that the cut trees might be noticed, but trevor is out there supervising the other two. He has assured me that the trees will be cut with enough distance from each other that nobody will be able to really see it from that far up. As for the noise, there is no way a ship that far up will be able to hear this much sound.


    You would need a mana sense at least as strong as mine and a sensory formation as good as the stuff that my master makes for that.


    Other than that, there has been quite a bit of damage on all the formations as well, especially the sense enhancing ones. Thankfully my experience with the previous ship has managed to make this part of my work easier. I will be able to manage this amount of repairs quite easily. Right now, my major problem is the formation room. I mean the damage that it has faced is still fine. There is a small hole in the ship but it is still not that big. The major problem is that the shot has greatly reduced the integrity of that wall.


    That means that any shot at the formation room that will connect is going to lead to the entire wall giving away. No amount of reinforcement is really going to help with that. If that sharpshooter were to attack us again, the wall is going to be a weakness that would mean my instantaneous defeat.


    I actually have to ask about that to trevor. The man has all the detailed records on the soldar plains. All the documents that were considered to have sensitive information that I would not be able to keep hidden are all provided to trevor. This seems to include all the detailed notes on the many pirate gangs that exist in the area. Don''t ask me why I wasn''t provided with this documents, The head office can have a thousand reasons for it.


    After all, a person that is so precise with a cannon has to be famous and their pilot was not particularly bad as well. I mean, I am no genius but I am pretty good at piloting. The other side was only a bit inferior to me. I am sure that trevor would be able to give me pretty detailed information on them as well.


    Right now, I have completely shut down all the formations on the ships to hide ourselves from our enemies. You see, the way that our ship is powered is actually from ambient mana gathering formations. These formations can absorb the ambient mana around us and store it, which is used by us to power up our ship and our cannons.


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    The main problem with those formations is that they tend to be very obvious to everybody even with a lackluster mana sense. It would literally be like a black spot on a white sheet. It is a bit of a risk for if we are discovered as  we do not have enough reserves to even run our cannons let alone run away. Doing this is also greatly reducing the risk of being discovered in the first place though.


    I am pretty sure that trevor doesn''t actually approve of this, but it is for this reason that I am the captain. He doesn''t have any idea how airship battles normally occur. At least that is what I am telling myself. Any second now I am sure that our enemies are going to make their way here and kill us in moments.


    Well, there I go sending myself into a panic. It is not like these what ifs are going to be helping me. The only thing that I can do is focus and work on what I can work on. I have done enough recording for now. I will continue this log when trevor makes his way here. I after all have repairing to do now.


    (After about half a day)


    Well, we are yet to be caught so that is a positive at least. Not that it is really helping with my anxiety. The troop is half way through the process of patching the ship up.


    Trevor is right now in the formation room with me. I was about to go and meet him in his office, but the work with the formations has taken longer than I had expected it to take.


    "So who was it?", I ask the man.


    "Who?", he asks.


    "You know as well as me, what I am talking about. Who has attacked us?", I ask him, a bit more fire in my voice than I would have liked. This was a pretty embarassing defeat after all. If it was a brawler, it still would have been fine. I am in such a situation with a mere patroller.


    "Well, I will be frank, we actually don''t know who it is.", he replies. "We still have a pretty decent idea on him though."


    "How can we not know. We have a near constant presence here.", I interrupt him. The scholars not having a record on somebody so close to home is pretty surprising.


    "Well, this particular ship has never attacked a black mountain ship.", he replies. "All we know comes from second hand information, whether from their allies or their victims. As you can guess, this particular enemy of ours has quite the ability in stealth...."


    "Get to the point.", I reply, snapping a bit. The man was about to go off on one of his tangents.


    "Well, You were the one to ask.", he replies. "It is a pretty specific pirate gang, one called as the bloodfire gang and the ship that he heads is called as the shadow, headed by the archer. This archer is confirmed to be a captain of the bloodfire gang."


    "So speak about the bloodfire gang. I don''t know what a captain is for them.", I command him.


    "Well, the bloodfire gang is a pirate gang. They are just like any pirate gang out there. The only really unique thing about them is that they have a very clearly defined hierarchy.", he speaks. "They start at the recruits, newbies thathave never gone any mission for the gang. Then there are the soldiers, who have gone on at least one mission. Then there is the sub captain, a soldier that has been given control over a patroller. This is followed by a captain, who are given control of a brawler and lastly we have the leader."


    "Well, those are intersting titles over there.", I reply.


    "Well they have no clear names for such a role. We named them for our convenience so they are a bit simple.", he continues. "To return to the archer, he is a captain of theirs. We have never really met him but the man is supposed to be very good at shooting cannons. The people that we have captured claim that he has never missed a shot in his life. We don''t know how true that is, but with the performance of his that I have seen it can''t be very far from the truth."


    "Well, such a precise shot is very hard to believe. The man would have a made a killing in the bone pits. Why would he be here?", I ask. "And if he has a brawler, why was he in a patroller."


    "Well, nobody knows. As for why he was in a patroller, that is his usual strategy it looks like.", trevor speaks. "He ambushes people using a patroller. After all, nobody is expecting a patroller to be capable of causing such damage. Any other ship would have been destroyed with that first shot. That is why he calls his ship as the shadow, it seems. it is rarely seen in use."


    "If that is one of the captains, what about the others.", I reply. "If one of their captain has come into action, it must mean that we are facing the bloodfire gang in some way or the other."


    "Captain, I can give you all the information that you need but I need the guarantee that you won''t go about blabbing about them unless you meet them.", he speaks. "The reason that you weren''t provided with all of these documents in the first place is that you don''t have much control over your mouth. The head office was worried that you would go about leaking all this information, without suitable reason."


    "Fine, I will shut down the log now and I swear that I won''t speak about them unless we have to fight them.", I reply. To be honest I am not particularly shocked, the head office always does stuff like that.

 the still prey (log 055.1)

    Right now every single person of the troop is with me in the formation room. The reason for that is simple, they are going to be useless in the battle that is going to occur. After all, if they do end up getting close enough to board us, it would be easier to just shoot their cannons at us. Right now having them out there is just going to be increasing my work. Better that they are here with me, where it is safer.


    Right now the major problem that I am facing is the fact that this is not going to be the standard battle, involving my cannons or anything else. The ship is too fragile right now for it to be able to survive an actual battle. Even a single shot might just end up ruining this ship. That is simply a risk that I will not be able to take.


    That means that I am going to get to try something that I have never really done before. I am going to be trying the dance. Well technically it is called as advanced airship maneuvering, but everybody calls it the dance.


    You see, airships and the way to control them is usually quite restricted. After all, if you were to twist and turn the ships as you wanted it is going to end up with everything inside of it flying around like a ping pong ball, especially the people.


    That is why you have basic maneuvering, which kind of makes traveling in a ship kind of like travelling in a ship of the sea. (This is not to say basic maneuvering is not more complex than advanced maneuvering. It is just more stabler and less likely to cause the ship to careen out of control.) basic maneuvering certainly makes the act of shooting cannons easier than with any other style of ship control.


    While most ships do tend to have protections for when we are using advanced maneuvering, we do not have it. As far as I know, every ship of the guard corps has such a protection. Even my crappy ship before had formations to root everything to the floor, though it had begun to fail much like everything on that ship. Well, the gentle sword does not have that. Maybe my master did not expect that I would be facing such a heavy opposition, maybe he simply did not have the time to put it in, but it has ended up screwing things every where. We have had to fasten down everything using the standard method, which would be ropes.


    That is another reason that the troop is in here with me. The formation room does not have anything that might end up flying into the air if and when I have to tilt the ship. Also, when the rope does end up snapping, there is nothing pointy here is hay might result in somebody blinding themselves accidently.


    Well, this is as reasonable a compromise as I can make, since holding down my cannons like this has nearly made them useless. I could try and shoot them, but it is going to blow a hole through the ship''s wall which would just work to damage the already weakened ship. If I am dancing, I will not be able to aim anyways.


    Well, it is a reasonable tradeoff, since this would mean that this will greatly reduce the chance of them actually harming us. Well, this is about the best that I can do. After all, how exactly am I going to be aiming these cannons. The coordination matrix is nearly useless without further work.


    As for what we are doing right now, we are all waiting down here with enough tension in the room that it can be cut with a knife. Right now the shadow and its patrollers are looking for us somewhere up there.


    As for why I am saying it seems to be, is the fact that my mana sense is barely able to catch it. I could use my sensory formation to sense it better, but that would also mean that the other side is going to detect me. If I was at my peak, I wouldn''t have needed the sensory formation to at least tell that there was something up there. Right now all I can feel is the flashes of the sensory formation activating. I can''t tell where it is nor give a direction to it. All I can tell is that sensory formations are being used. It is like seeing a blob, where I should be seeing a bullseye.


    Being blind like this is more scary than I have expected it to be. Every time that I hear a leaf rustling outside, I imagine it to be a ship landing onto the ground next to me. Why the hell is the forest so windy.


    They are looking for us in a grid like pattern, with every patroller having a region assigned to them, which will allow them to use their crappy sense formations more economically. This is the case at least according to trevor who has confirmed to me that it was their general operations. Their patrollers are spread apart looking for us. This is another place where the stinginess of the pirates have benefitted us. Their sensory formations are really very crappy.


    And they are active sensory formations of the worst quality at that. (The reason they are called this is due to how much mana they release when being used ) They are active sensory formations of the kind that only enhance the five senses. Of these five senses, only two are of a real threat to us right now. That is sight and hearing.


    We have somewhat managed sight by camouflaging ourselves. The troop has been particularly busy doing that as well by covering the ships with branches and leaves after they completed the patchwork of the ship.


    It is not a good camouflage in any way, but it should be able to fool a ship looking at us from five or ten kilometres away. If we are lucky, they might even end up passing us by without finding us. At least that is the hope, that the camouflage will be able to fool any ship looking at us for the next half an hour or so.


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    As for hearing, we are trying to be as quiet as possible. Right now, none of us are even twitching for fear that somebody would be able to hear it.


    That is the only benefit of this search party. If we manage to fool them for this period then most of their ships will be away from me and I will have a free shot to the mayfire castle. If I were to go there at my full speed, I would at least be in the general vicinity of the place.


    Honestly, with the way that things are going my hope of finding allies near the mayfire castle is decreasing. If the mayfires were active, they would have already revealed their presence here. The bloodfire gang wouldn''t certainly have been able to function with such activeness. Right now there is no use in thinking about. The mayfires are not weak. Even if they are not able to leave the castle, they should still have control over a decent chunk of the place.


    (After about ten minutes.)


    Right now the ship is silent enough that I would be able to drop a pin and it would be heard at the other side of the ship. The reason for that is quite simple. Right now we are being looked at by somebody.


    You are always able to tell with sensory formations. If not actively like me, then unconsciously at least. Right now though, their sensory formation is visible to me like a fire in my vision. They are pretty close to us, about two kilometres away though I can''t really confirm that with a lot of confidence.


    Still, I can feel thoughts pop up, causing my back to become slick with sweat. Anything that we do right now might end up screwing it for us. The camouflage has an already decent chance of failing. Right now I have no way to tell how our present situation is going to end up.


    If we do end up being discovered things are not going to be pretty. Up there are at the very least ten ships. Granted, these ships are the kind that will fall with a single shot. All they need to do is shoot me once and at least one of those shots is going to end up screwing with me, I tell you. (Knowing my luck it is going to be the first shot that is going to do me in.)


    All of this is not considering the fact that the archer can be on any one of those ships. If he is there, then I am screwed. Thankfully their brawler is not here or things would have become really bad for me.


    After all, a brawler would have had five cannons at least. Even dancing I would not be able to handle that many cannons, especially with the archer at the helm of those cannons.


    Looking into the eyes of the soldiers opposite me, I can see their fear and panic make way into their eyes. With trevor it is more the patience of the hunter, who is keeping his entire body still just to spring into action as would be needed.


    With the other two, it is the fear of a prey and is more reactive in nature. I have to be thankful that the two have not unlocked their mana sense or I am sure that they would have already done something by now.


    Not that being completely still like this is going to help us. Very few ships tend to have formations that are able to enhance a person''s hearing to such an extreme degree. It is just such a finicky sense, and so prone to overloading a person''s mind that it is not very useful. There have been more than a few cases of people losing their hearing when they crank it up to such an extreme degree.


    Still, that is a risk that none of us want to take. By the way, with every second that I am speaking, the mana signature is becoming clearer and clearer, clearly indicating that the ship is getting closer.


    Now it makes me wish that I did not have my mana sense. Every second, it is taking all of my will not to just connect to the formations and bolting away.


    Fuck off, I am stopping this log. The more I record, the more I can feel myself slip into a panic.


    (A few minutes later.)


    Well, it looks like we have managed to fool the ship for now. They will return soon enough, but we will not be here by then. Right now, the mana signature of the ship is blurring again, which can only mean that they should be going away from us.


    Right now we are all getting into position. This means that I am connecting myself to every formation here. Once the ship has gone a decent distance away I am going to activate the ship at its maximum throttle.


    The speed of that is enough that I hope that I should be able to leave them in the dust, that is especially if they have to turn back to come in our direction.


    Right now the main threat that I will be facing would be the ships that are still in our path. While even they would not really be able to keep up with us, they will still pose a threat. Especially because I have to assume that they are going to have the archer in there somewhere.


    They might not have, but it is better to assume that.


    "In a minute captain.", it is trevor that speaks.


    His voice is barely a whisper but in this silence it seems like a thunderclap. Well, I was the one to tell him to time it for me. I will need to warm up the propulsion formation after all.


    It is a bit of a risk, but I hope there is no way that just that bit of mana would be enough to be a real risk. It would be more risky for us to not be able to achieve our maximum speed immediately. They might have cannons in the back of their ship after all.


    "Now"


    Trevors voice interrupts me, as I release the propulsion formation to go at its maximum speed.

 bolting to freedom (log 055.2)

    Well we are not crashing into the ground already so that is a positive at least. Right now in front of me are three ships, each coming at me at its full speed and I cannot dodge them. I am moving at my full speed already aimed right at them. To try to reverse my movement would result in something that is not pleasant.


    Well, at least I seem to have caught the patrollers in front of me as off guard as I hoped. Turning the ship to the right, I have directed the ship diagonal to the direction of our enemies ship. I could go through them but that is a risk that I cannot afford. If even one of them has a charged cannon it will be able to do some serious damage to the ship.


    The other side is not as lax I as I was hoping them to be. I can already see them charging up their cannons to shoot at me. Well, let''s give them a few moments. There, that should be enough. I am now moving to the left taking the opposite ship by surprise.


    Such a violent change in direction comes with its costs as I can feel the entire ship shake and tilt as it feels likes I am standing in a baby''s crib. If everything wasn''t fastened down, we would already have everything in the ship flying about. Already, the rope that is binding me to the ground has begun to take on some tension as it keeps me stuck to the ground.


    Thankfully, this move is useful as the other side has already shot their cannons towards the direction that I have just escaped from. Three streaks of magic pass by me harmlessly as I keep running. That means all three have managed to waste their cannon shots this time. These are cannons of the fire element.


    Fuck, the other side has already begun to reverse their direction. I wonder just how many mana stones they are burning to even do this. Well, this was to be expected. Still, I thought that I would be luckier. Leave it be, right now I do not have the time to think about this. Already I can feel the ships behind me charging their cannons again.


    At least the ship has stabilized somewhat, as I again point the ship to the right. The ship is shaking like crazy now. This will be worth it as it will put me in the correct direction to the mayfire castle again. Right now the problem is the patrollers I have at my back.


    I have enough of an head start that I don''t need to worry about the patrollers catching up to me unless they burn everything that they have. They will still be able to follow me and shoot their cannons. If even one of those cannons manage to land a lucky hit on me I am screwed. The damage that it will do will force me to slow down my ship. Not one hit can be afforded.


    Right now the three ships have begun to follow me. Ship one is right behind me, while ship two and ship three are to my left and right, respectively. They are trying to encircle me in such a way that they can now shoot me from the left and right as well. This way if I were to go to the left or to the right, they could still shoot me quite easily.


    Fuck, who the hell taught them maneuvering like that. That is proper battle strategy. This is strategy and planning that no mere farmer is supposed to have. It is only possible with a proper military training. Granted, I had already doubted the archer to be from some army. That is the only way to explain the man''s training. With this I realise he must have been pretty high up in that hierarchy if he managed to train a bunch of farmers this well. Well, here I was hoping that dancing would be enough to confuse the other party.


    Shit, Ship three shoots at me this time. I barely dodge it by diving the ship downwards. The cannon shot passes above me, but I can already sense the other two ships come down to my level. Fuck, I don''t know how many more turns I can pull like this. My damn ship is on the verge of spiralling.


    Ship one shoots, which I dodge by going to the left. Ship two capitalises on this by shooting at me before I can react to it. thankfully, the other side also has aimed at me in a hurry as it seems to have missed me by quite the bit.


    I can already feel ship three''s cannon heating up. It is still above me, which puts it at a benefit while hitting me. The only way that I can counter it is to go up. As I do this, the ship begins to shake and spin like a top that has been just released. Fuck, the ship is spiralling.


    Fuck, I wasn''t supposed to spiral this quickly. How do I describe spiralling to you. For every move you make on a ship you are supposed to give it some time to stabilise. Even the least laggy of ships, it takes a few moments to stabilise.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    This means that a ship going to left will go to the left for a few more moments than you would expect. If you were to suddenly start moving the ship in this period to let''s say the right, you have no idea what will happen. You could go to the right, or you could go to the left. Regardless of what happens, this is enough to cause the entire ship to spin, rolling around like a top out of control. There is also a little chance that you would be completely still but that is something you can only pull of with experience and a lot of training it seems. I have never seen it actually be pulled of at least.


    In the time that I have been explaining this, the ship has been spiralling. For the moment I have temporarily disconnected myself from the sensory formations so I have no idea what the enemy might end up doing. It is a risk but if I don''t do this, I will end up with everything in my stomach coming out. I am sure they won''t be able to shoot at us. The spiral is too chaotic for any of them to shoot properly. Maybe, if the archer was here, things would have been different. Anyways, their cannons require some time to recharge.


    How do I describe a spiral. Well the only way to describe it is that the entire ship is spinning like a top that has lost control. The main problem with it is the fact you are spinning so much. Right now the ship must be spinning from the left to the right and from the top to the bottom. That is the only way that this is so chaotic. Right now, I have no idea what is supposed to be up or down. I mean there is the rope that is keeping me steady, but I am just being pulled in all directions for me to be able to tell what is the ground.


    Finally, the spiral has started to slow down. I feel like vomiting as I activate the sensory formations. (Well, there is a reason that people do not like to dance with their ships.) I could wait a bit more to prevent this sense of nausea, but that would be something that the other side would have expected me to do. They must have fully charged cannons ready to blow holes into my ship. They are just waiting for the ship to stabilise as well so they can aim better.


    It takes me a lot to ignore my stomach as I note down mine and the other three ships positions. I am actually pretty close to the ground as I seem to have maintained my downward trajectory. in an instant I point the ship upwards. I do not have any wish to take a trip in the woods again. This time the ship won''t be able to survive it.


    Doing this causes the stuff in my stomach to come to my mouth. I forcefully swallow. now is not the time in which I can afford such distractions. The cannon shots that I have dodged were so close that I can almost feel the heat of the cannons as well on my formations.


    The ship is still lurching like crazy but I am able to get the thing to go upwards. at least my nausea was worth it as I managed to get two of those ships to shoot at the ground. Ship number three has held its fucking shot though.


    Well, it can try to shoot at me. This can at least not be anymore chaotic than it is right now. I keep my upwards direction for now. The ship is still shaking and spinning but with every moment it is getting steadier. If only the other side would give me a minute so that I can stabilise the ship fully.


    That makes my task both harder and easier, as the ship becomes more predictable both for me and my enemies. Well, the only reason that I am still calm is the fact that I am overtaking these ships. In all of these exchanges, I have been getting farther and farther away from the other side.


    Let''s hope the enemy does not realise it anytime soon. Unlike my ship, which works on a reserve of ambient mana the other side relies on mana stones to power the ship. If they were to burn their mana stones without care they would be able to increase their speed twofold. The only problem they would be facing is the fact that they won''t be able to maintain it for long. This is also considering the fact that they will have to use the same mana stones to power their cannons. Speed or attacking is the choice that they can make.


    As I am thinking all this, ship number three takes a shot. Thankfully the other side was being painfully obvious about it, so I manage to dodge by going to the left.


    Fuck, I come painfully close to spiraling again as I immediately go right. ship two shot their cannon the instant that I turn in that direction.


    Fuck how the hell did the other side manage it this quickly. Duh, they are using mana stones. if they don''t mind losing those mana stones they will be able to charge it in an instant. Fuck, why the fuck did I have to fight such a spendthrift group of enemies. even my heart is paining at the mana stones that they are wasting. You know I would be able to build them a new cannon with the mana stones that they are using right now.


    These few moments of thoughts are enough to screw me as ship one shoots their cannon at me. The only reason that I am alive right now is that the other side has missed, their cannon shot streaming to the side of my ship with no way of hitting me unless I were to steer right into it.


    Well, I won''t put that completely on my luck as well. I am beginning to put those damn ships behind me finally. They are far enough away from me that they cannot aim at me with full confidence (or more precisely, recklessness) as they have been doing till now. The distance between us is growing quicker and quicker. Since I am not accelerating, the enemy ships seems to have finally slowed down.


    Looks like I have seriously overestimated their reserves, with how they are slowing down. Why the fuck were they coming after us so recklessly. I can feel my mind enter into a panic as I fully activate my injured mana sense almost in instinct. Ignoring the stinging pain in my mana core, I can feel my heart drop as my fears are confirmed. Right in front of us is a massive airship with a mana shield training all five of it''s cannons at me.

 the brawler (log 055.3)

    I wonder how exactly did I get so unlucky in my life. I just want to run a ship without somebody blowing it to smithereens for once. Well, I at least want to have a working ship by the end of a mission at the very least if not even that is possible.


    That is what I am thinking as five cannons shoot at my ship. They are more skilled at this type of fight than the ones in the patrollers. They are shooting at me in waves. (another military strategy. This man has some affiliation with an army, I am sure of it now.) This means that as I am plunging down to the forest to dodge these shots, I can feel two of those shots piercing into the ship.


    This is not a particularly easy to execute strategy as well since you would need to be able to reorient a cannon on the fly. Something only somebody trained for it will be able to do.


    The first shot hit me at the back of the ship. Nowhere particularly significant. It is the second shot that managed to screw with me. It managed to hit the storeroom. To give you a perspective, the storeroom is about a couple of rooms away from the room that we are in right now. The damage is not particularly significant but that doesn''t mean that I will be able to take too many of those shots.


    Only one person could have such a crazily accurate shot. Looks like the archer is presently in the shadow. I can feel my mind blank out as I try to think of a plan of action. There is no trick, nor any plan in which we can escape safely with the damn ship coming out safe at the end of it.


    "Captain, keep moving.", I hear a voice behind me.


    That reminds me that I need to level out my ship. I can''t just end up crashing into the ground. Well, for now I have to focus on moving and staying away from our enemies.


    Right now, I absolutely cannot let the archer hit this room. I can give up on the room and the ship if push comes to shove but the moment the ship pierces the formation room, we are done for. The problem is that we all will fall to our death. Also, before falling we would be exposed to the elements outside and that will kill us even before the fall will. (This ship does not have any type of formations to prevent that.) Let''s not forget about the formations that would be lost in the process.


    Well, there is no real need to change my plan. The goal is still going to be to escape. How are we going to do that. Right now the problem that I am facing is the fact that we won''t be able to make it very far with this ship. Already the damage to the ship from the trip in the forest has made this ship pretty unuseable. I am surprised that it has already not begun to fall. Well, let''s not tempt fate.


    If I were to consider the ship as disposable there is something that I can do actually. A plan that I had made for the piece of crap that I was piloting in the previous mission. Something that is going to end up in the ship being completely and utterly screwed up.


    Well, my plan is simple at the face of it. It is to crash the ship and escape to the mayfire castle from our present position on foot.


    It is not going to be an actual crash, of course. I am not stupid enough to actually do that. It will be more of a cosmetic thing. Overload a few of the sensory formations and you will make it seem like the entire thing has exploded. That is going to ruin most of the formations in the ship, but I will be able to land the ship. (ok, it is going to be more like controlled crashing.)


    Right now the trick is to put up the appropriate amount of resistance. Too much and they will come down after the crash to double tap us. They can''t have such a violent threat down here when they are maintaining a defensive line. Too little and they will actually end up destroying us. (Well being destroyed is the goal, but you have to do it with style.) It is a fragile balance to maintain.


    "How far are we from the mayfire castle?", I ask the man next to me.


    "It will take a day in a ship, captain. if you mean on foot, then it will take us about a couple weeks.", trevor replies, the man already guessing what I am planning to do. How does that man do that? It is kind of annoying if I am to be honest. I guess that is why he has been paired with me.


    "Good, well everybody brace for impact.", I scream to the people surrounding me. Not that I need to.


    While all of this is going on, the ship above me has been recharging it''s cannons. I mean I might have been the one to give it enough time to do so. That is the problem with a bag of tricks. You need to be able to pick a trick when the time comes to choose or you will end up in a worse situation than when you have no trick.


    Well, it is not a surprise as the shadow finally takes it''s shot or shots as all five of the shots hit the ship. I can feel the wood of the ship crunch as the shots streak through it. There goes the second storeroom, my room and andrews room. Thankfully, there is nothing in the room that is worth worrying about. The bloody fang is dangling from my hip right now and everything else can be recovered from the wreckage.


    Even if I have decided to abandon the ship it hurts to see it damaged like this. This ship was barely in my hands after all before it was annhilated like this. Repairing all of this is going to be a pain.


    Well, I can''t go down now. This close to the enemy they are going to come down to find loot. Our enemies are pirates, one can''t forget that. The goal is to make it as costly for them to look for our ship as possible. Thankfully the ground below us is a forest area. Looking for a ship made of wood is going to be a pain in the ass for anybody that does not want to look for it. Now the trick is to make them not want to look for it. If this area was like the rest of the soldar plains, I would be screwed. They would have not left the ship even if they see it crumble into ashes. I would have to abandon the ship fully if that were the case.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Well, I begin this process by aiming towards the sky. I can feel the ship go up into the air slower than it should have done normally. The five cannon shots must have affected the propulsion formation finally. Well, that might be a bit of a wrinkle. If the propulsion formation has begun to fail, it usually means that the other formations are not particularly far from failing as well.


    Screw my reserves, I am going to crank the ship to its maximum speed. With the way that I am burning my reserves I am going to have five minutes to get away. At least it is really selling the fact that this is a wreck.


    I shift to the left almost on instinct, cleanly dodging the other parties shots. looks like the hunter was expecting me to remain stationary. Well, nice to see that the other side has missed at least once especially that fucking archer.


    Again, the ship has begun to shake but it will be fine for now. At least there is no risk of spiraling. Right now with the speed at which we are going it is enough to leave the brawler in the dust. I would say that it is about seventy percent of the speed at which I was moving from the patrollers though. (This means that the propulsion formation has begun to fail completely)


    Thankfully, a brawler is still slower than the patroller. The main reason for that is the other party is not willing to burn through their mana stone reserves like the patrollers were willing to. That would take a fortune to be frank. Something even a rich gang like the bloodfire gang can''t afford, I am sure.


    Right now, they are about five hundred meters away from me. (Thankfully, the shadow is still going in the direction opposite to me, though it has begun to slow down.) the only reason that the hunter is already not wrecking us is due to the crazy way in which the ship is moving.


    The damage to the ship is certainly more extensive than I expected it to be. My controls have begun to fail. It is still pointed towards the castle, but it is almost like somebody is having a stroke while controlling this formation with the way it is jerking and bobbing.


    As I am thinking this the next set of shots are charged by the enemy. I try to dodge this one by shifting the ship to the right but it is not succesful as three cannon shots spear into the ship again.


    This time I do not bother to see the damage done to the ship. It will just distract me. Right now my focus has to be guarding the core of this ship, which is this very room.


    Right now that is the unique thing about this ship if you ask me. While the material it is made from is more durable than the average wood these sets of formations are the true price of this ship.


    The efficiency of every formation in this room is off the charts. If you were to ask anybody, matching multiple ships running on mana stones with a ship running on ambient mana storage in terms of speed is something that many people would call a dream. On top of that, men like my master do not tend to make such basic formations very often. It could be sold for well above the price that other such formations would command.


    As long as this room is safe and my master was not boasting about the nature of this material than I will be able to get this ship back to a working state, maybe even back to its pinnacle. Well, boasting is something that my master does not like to do.


    fuck, fuck, fuck. I was so lost in my thought that I did not manage to react in time. Three shots hit me from the ship behind. The other two would have missed me naturally. Right now we are four kilometres away from the other sides ship.


    This time the damage is a bit more extensive than I would like. It is due to the fucking archer. His cannon managed to pierce the food storage room. Entire months of food reserves lost just like that. That is not my major problem though. this room housed a very key node for the sensory formations.


    With this the effectiveness of my sensory formations has been cut by half. Already I can feel its loss as the visual behind me has become blurry. I am sure that there is more damage here but I won''t be able to tell anymore, as my sensory formations have become unreliable.


    Well, I seriously can''t take this anymore. I focus the ship straight ahead. I am already at five kilometres. I just need to push the ship to its maximum. To be honest that is the only thing that I can do at this moment. I have tried to move the ship to the left and to the right. Both controls have stopped working.


    Well, this time the impact of the cannon shots are more like dull thuds. Well, that is not a good thing. The sensory formations are more damaged than I had originally thought them to be.


    Well, I think the propulsion formations are also failing as the ship behind us is getting clearer and clearer. (And no that is not due to the fact that my sensory formation managed to repair itself miraculously. That is going to be my work.) that means that the propulsion formation has begun to fail as well.


    That is why I am thankful that my sensory formation has failed as I tip the ship towards the ground. At least that part of my ship is working, as my ship goes down towards its inevitable crash.


    As strings of mana leave from the formation room to the few sensory formations I have still left. I can feel the mana leave my body as I begin to overload it with mana. Within a few moments these formations are stuffed with enough mana to cause the entire thing to explode.


    Thankfully, due to the loss of the sensory formation I do not feel the actual collision into the ground as the world loses all traces of order.

 reaching the mayfire castle (log 056)

    What should I speak of in this log. I have a lot to speak about and nothing specific to focus on. Well, let''s start by speaking on the trek that we had to do till a couple days ago. Travelling in the forest has certainly been an experience. The heat and the humidity is honestly not an issue. With my vital mana I barely even notice it. Humidity is something that I am used to anyway. You will be if you work with my master.


    It is the mosquitos that are causing me a problem. With my instincts and agility crushing them in my hands is not much of a problem, but there are so damn many of them that after a point I had to give up. After all, how many times can you slap your own face, even if it does not hurt. Even jacob has begun to give me looks by now and the man would not react to a bull charging at him.


    Even now they are buzzing around in my ear, like they a practicing a symphony. A symphony meant to drive me into a rage. They have made sitting into an action that I have been avoiding for the last couple of days with a passion. Not that I am particularly safe from the infernal droning even if I keep moving. How the fuck is a mosquito annoying a mage.


    Other than the damn mosquitoes, our journey has been quite smooth. Right now we are next to the mayfire castle. We have camped about five minutes away from the castle. The camp has been hidden as well as it can be from our enemies.


    We are presently hiding in a cave that Andrew has found like magic. It is a hidden little place, that was occupied by a wolf. It did not take us long to kill it and take over it''s cave. (The wolf itself did not go to waste as Trevor has made it into our food for the last couple of days.) The cave is a tight fit for us all but I have to admit that it is putting my mind at peace. I could add a few runes to make it more hidden. A little something to hide the smoke maybe. I could also try for a glamour though that might require materials I don''t have right now. It is just such an unstable spell without something to anchor it.


    We could go closer but then we would risk discovery. Turns out the mayfires are in a worse position than we expected. Way beyond the expectation of the head office.


    The minute that we came close to the castle it was more than clear that the place was completely under the control of the bloodfire gang. The fact that their crownship is floating above the castle is more than enough proof of that.


    It is a massive ship, reminding me of a merchant ship of all things. That is only the case with it''s size though. No person would ever mistake this ship for a merchants ship. It has one too many cannons for that. Over the last couple of days I have been counting the cannons on that ship and I can confidently say that I have counted till thirty cannons at the very least. Imagine dodging that many cannons.


    Well, there have been a constant stream of ships coming to and leaving the ship for the last couple of days. With the number of ships that can be seen here, I can at least confidently say that all of their forces are here.


    As if that wasn''t enough, there is a series of traps and formations that I can feel on the walls of the fort in front of me. These are most likely formations that have been placed here by the mayfires themselves but right now there is simply no way that the bloodfire gang has not already taken control of them.


    That is why we are actually camping in this place right now. We don''t know how exactly we can breach the fort now. Trevor is still sure that the mayfires are still somewhere inside the place, waging their war on our enemies. Now I have no way of knowing just how true that statement is but the man is completely sure.


    As for what exactly we are doing here camping. That is something that only Trevor has any idea about. Speaking to the man, the only thing that I have understood is that he is calling for allies. What allies he can call here I don''t know. It could either be some kind of summons or it could be the criminal element of the city. Both make use of summoning circles.


    Every city has it''s rats and the guard corps always work to be friends with them. As for what is the nature of our allies, I have no idea. The man has not been willing to share those details with me at all.


    Well, I am not surprised that Trevor is not so open with me. The guard corps can be divided into two halves. The first half is the official one, the ones that go and deal with our allies. The one that has to go and satisfy the hexmountain treaty. The ones that have to engage in diplomacy with our allies.


    The other half, is an unofficial half. I am sure that if I were to ask the head office about their existence, they would say that it does not exist. Even I know of their existence in whispers and rumours, mostly from my master.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    They supposedly deal with the criminal elements of each city and at the same time they deal with the more unsavoury elements of our work. After all an assassination would be more efficient on our coffers and certainly lead to less losses on either side, though only if our allies never find out about it.


    I think that trevor has been placed with me to manage work like that actually. That is the reason that he is being given so much information that I am not being given. (And to be frank, I am not really trusted by the head office.)


    The only thing that I know is that the man has been making use of contract magic, so there is a pretty good chance that the man is summoning one of our allies in the other worlds. Over the course of the last couple of days, the man has been raising summoning circle after summoning circle, trying to look for a specific creature. Sadly, this is not my field of expertise so I can''t really say what he means to do. He could be summoning elementals, imps, fairies or demons for all I know.


    The man has not been doing blood sacrifices, so it is not the devil''s at the very least. The hexmountain is better than that.


    Right now in this group, I am the only person that is not able to handle this waiting. Andrew and Jacob are both meditating like crazy. I am not surprised that they are so willing to meditate.


    Andrew is at the fourth stage of the foundation stage. Jacob is at the third stage, almost on the verge of reaching the fourth stage.


    They both (especially Andrew) are at a key stage of their cultivation. If they both manage to break through into the fifth stage and unlock their mana sense, it would be very good for them. I actually need to ask them about their cultivation. My only problem is their background. Everything that I speak to them is reported back and that gives me a certain kind of anxiety dealing with them.


    Looking at them makes me want to continue my studies as well but my question is how the fuck are they doing it. After all, meditating just requires so much focus and I can''t do it with these damn mosquitos. I don''t know how people do it sometimes. Even in the legion, I used to be the one that got the most distracted. (That is one of the reasons that I am still at the second stage.)


    At the moment I have no idea what it is it that I want to do. I can''t meditate anyways. After all, if cultivating was the goal I already would have the second slab by now and begun work on the third slab. I am still not too confident that I would be able to pull of the fusion spell. I could study the fusion spell, but at the moment I don''t want to do that.


    Studying that spell reminds me of all the formations that I need to fix at the ship. Then I start thinking of my ship and that is just depressing. I honestly don''t know what I was thinking when I thought that I could deal with all of this damage. Well I still could, it is just so much work.


    The damage done to the ship this time is even more extensive than I was hoping it to be. Every single one of those formations were put in there by my master. Knowing my master''s work, I know that the formations are not going to be easy to fix.


    While all of the formations that he has put here are recorded in his notes. It is not going to be an easy task. Just the list of formations that I need to manage are causing my head to spin.


    Right now my primary goal is to fix the sensory formations. They are the most screwed formations on my ship due to the fact that I had to explode them.


    I guess that I should explain why I did that in the first place. It was actually a trick that I learnt in one of the other logs. You can overload the sensory formations to cause a decent explosion. Usually any explosions in ships like this is quite dangerous for any ship that has a mana battery. Any strong force is able to destabilize a mana battery.


    An unstable mana battery is a recipe for disaster. Even the smallest of forces could cause the entire thing to go up in flames. I am hoping that the risk of an explosion (at least in their heads) would make them double think the prospect of exploring the ship.


    Well, to return to the matter of the damage on my ships. The formations used to navigate the ship are also shot. The culprit is actually one of those cannons shots.


    They managed to take out the formations meant to keep the ship in control. It actually should not be that hard to repair. After all it is just replacing a few inscriptions. Well, the only problem is that this is my master''s work. Until I completely understand his notes that is going to be very hard (if not impossible.) for me.


    Then we have the formations that store mana for me. They are completely and truly screwed. This damage actually happen during our second crash. there is a crack the size of my head in the mana storage formation and I will need to replace them all.


    Any mana that will go into my storage is just going to leak out of the crack. This is the major cost of running with a ambient storage system actually. The durability of your mana storage is about as strong as the place in which you have inscribed the storage formation. (Which is not much considering the materials usually used.)


    That is one benefit of using mana batteries. It is that breaking a mana battery is very hard. The only problem is that once the mana battery is broken, things are going to go to shit very quickly.


    well, I guess that I should speak of what mana batteries are exactly in the first place. It is not common knowledge for non formation mages. Well, a mana stone is a naturally occuring mineral, that can be mined from the ground. Mana stones can be recharged but they can break after recharging it a couple of times.


    A mana battery is a more processed form of a mana stone, with formations put into a mana stone to regulate the mana leaving and going into the battery. It is capable of absorbing and emitting an absurd amount of mana for a period longer than any mana stone should be capable of. That is why mana stones are used so much in airships.


    Well, for now, I think that I should stop this log now. Well, I had started the log to distract me from my boredom. Now I feel my anxiety grow. Fuck it, I have recorded enough. I might as well begin work on those cloaking runes.

 unsavoury allies (log 057)

    "Don''t pace around like that kid, looking at you makes me feel tense too.", Trevor speaks.


    "What are we waiting for then. It is not like we have a lot of free time here. We have left the ship unguarded.", I reply. "We can''t exactly keep waiting like this everyday now. You can never tell when those damn pirates might get greedy."


    "Well, the people we are about to meet are somebody quite dangerous. Better to be in a good state of mind.", he speaks.


    "Well, who are we meeting then? I am sure that you can give me something.", I ask. The man is so unwilling to share information sometimes. Maybe that is why he has been assigned to my troop. Well, weeding out information from people is something that I have been doing since I was a kid. I would not be surprised that the hexmountain is wary of that trait of mine.


    "Well, the lesser you know about these folks, the better off you will be. If the head office were to know that you know, they will make sure to extract complete value from that knowledge. You really don''t want to deal with these bastards, even with the backing of the guard corps. Especially with their backing, to be frank.", he replies. "I myself wish I had never gotten to know of them. Life would have been so much easier."


    "Well, are these people really that terrible?", I ask. The man''s words are starting to creep me a bit. I can feel it like a tingle in my spine.


    "Well, it is not exactly terrible but it is a matter of image. If everybody were to know that we work with them, it would certainly make things very difficult for us.", he says. "They have been a thorn in the side for quite a few of our allies and they know this very well. Dealing with them at a disadvantage like this is dangerous."


    "So is it the shack or the divine valley? The way you are speaking, it can only be either of them.", I ask. "Nobody else would warrant so much caution."


    "I have no desire to tell you even if you want to know kid.", Trevor replies with a finality that makes it clear that there shall be no more discussion.


    And thus we sit waiting for whatever criminal organisation is going to be aiding us. The only two that I have a real idea about are the shack and the divine valley. Well, everybody know about them.


    The shack is named after their headquarters, a place only known as the shack. They are a group of assassins that meet up at the shack and then assassinate people. They are a pretty simple organisation at the face of it. The reason that they are famous is due to the shack. There has been a concentrated effort by all the major forces to get rid of the shack but nobody has succeeded to do that yet. Nobody has even managed to find the damn place.


    The divine valley is even more famous if you ask me. They are essentially a religious sect that believes the divine valley to be their god. How a place can be a god don''t ask me. They are religious fanatics that consider the valley to be the king of the continent and all kings to be imposters.


    They are essentially smugglers and arms dealers that sneak in weapons to rebels of all countries. Other than these two though, I don''t really know of any organisation whose association with the black mountain would be so harmful to the black mountain.


    Actually, we make use of the divine valley once in a while. They have a pretty strong presence in the Snowwind empire. That is one of the reasons that our relation with the snowwind empire has been so bad in the first place. They think we are assisting them somehow.


    "You really should speak about us to the kid. I would rather be dealing with a naive flower like him than a tough old fruit like you. How long do you expect us to keep dealing with the same old people I do not know." Spoke a voice from somewhere behind me. "If you were to die due to a stroke, who will come to meet us next year."


    Until he spoke I did not even detect the man. Even with a injured mana sense I keep it active to some degree. Even though it will delay my healing a bit, I am in a active combat zone.


    I do not dare to turn around, something in me warning me that this man is something I am better of not seeing. His mana is chaotic, like a blizzard in the true lands though of some kind of a dark mana that I can barely sense with my mana sense. I don''t know how I have not managed to detect the man as he approached. Trevor in front of me just sighs, as If he has faced that man a thousand times.


    "Well, I have been commanded not to tell anything to the kid. If you want to you can do so. I don''t know who will come to hunt you though.", he says. "I will begin to run away now though if you don''t want to shut up."


    "Well, well. Why would I risk such a thing if the great Trevor is not willing to do so. Anyways, let''s get back to business. The boss has told me that it would be nice if you stopped calling him for every small thing. If you really want to bother him so much, he is willing to even give you a honorary position. The black mountain overwork you anyways.", the other person speaks.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Well, that would be nice if your organisation was not so reviled. Anyways, let''s get things over already. We need to get into the city.", Trevor replies.


    "Well, I have never seen in you in such a hurry, nor so compliant of the rules. I won''t ask you who the kid is. I would say the great Trevor is scared, if I didn''t know better. you know the rules, A favour for a favour.", the other man replies.


    "Well, fear is a natural response for when you are dealing with somebody terrifying, don''t you think. Also, you get to the point. What is the favour that you need.", Trevor replies. "Well, we won''t be assassinating anybody. We don''t have the setup for that."


    "Well, it is actually something simple for you. We need you to break into a particular building and steal a book. It is not even a grimoire, just a ledger of a company.", the other man spoke. "You must have quite the experience with that already, don''t you."


    "Well, if it was that simple you wouldn''t be asking me to do it. So what is the catch, you bastard.", Trevor speaks. "Does a demon guard it or is it an elemental? Could it be a ghost?"


    "Well, we do know how to deal with elementals and demons, just the loss of life is not worth the investment. The only thing that can be considered to be closest to an issue would be the fact that the bloodfire gang are doing something there. It isn''t even an issue for you though." The other man speaks. "Anyways, for this particular problem I don''t need your expertise, I need the kids. The book that we want is protected by a formation. A pretty complex and fragile formation at that. The kind that if somebody damages it, it will be destroyed along with the contents of the safe. As you can see, that leaves us with quite the conundrum until you appear with a formation master in the tow."


    "Well, we certainly accept that deal. We need you to get us into the city and help us contact the mayfires.", Trevor speaks. "I am sure you have associates in the family as well. You seem to have quite a few businesses already setup in the city."


    "Well, that is a favour that we won''t be able to complete. The mayfires have retreated to the inner keep. The castle is split into two, the inner keep and the outer keep as you must already know. The inner keep is a place that only the mayfires can enter or leave, especially now. What they are doing behind their shield when their city is mutilated like this, only the mayfires can tell.", the other man speaks.


    "Especially now?", Trevor asks.


    "Well, three weeks ago the mayfires completely sealed the inner and the outer keep with magical barriers. We were stuck in the city until the bloodfire gang somehow pierced the outer barrier. They have taken the outer keep completely. The mayfires all are in the inner keep, with us having no way of getting inside right now. Whatever the bloodfire gang did with the shield in the outer keep is not working on the inner keep shield." The other man replies.


    "So then, how is life under the bloodfire gang.", Trevor asks. "Business must be booming."


    "Well, it has never been better. The bloodfire gang make us look cheap in comparison. The merchants have been flocking to us like never before. We have had to double up our smuggling operations in the last couple weeks and still we are considering if we can increase our capacity. We are doing this favour for you only because you are our ally. Time is money my friend." The other man replies.


    "Well, I am sure that the loss will be manageable, but what about the bloodfire gang. How are they at holding a city.", trevor speaks.


    "Quite poor, though their numbers are very high. Abnormally high for a bandit gang. All quite inept though. So I think they have been recruiting quite heavily.", the other man speaks. "Our boys have been playing with them the last couple of weeks. They are quite passionate though. We have lost three teams in the last week, all new ones thankfully."


    "They have somebody backing them then, the blood fire gang certainly should not be capable of breaking apart the defenses of this castle. They had to have relied on somebody. Anyways, we have deviated too much from the topic at hand. What are you willing to offer then?", Trevor asks.


    "Well, we can provide you entry into the city. We will hide you from the bloodfire gang and if you are willing to waste your time, we can take you to the wall of the inner keep safely. After that, you are on your own.", the other man speaks.


    "What would happen if we were to fail our favour though? To do your favour we would have to be in the city in the first place.", Trevor asks.


    "Well, a favour owed is a favour owed. If not today we would find a method of reclaiming it soon enough.", the other man spoke. "You are a useful man to owe deals to. The kid also has potential."


    "Well, we accept your deal, but you know the rules. Nothing that harms the black mountain nor something that would be a obvious suicide for me. Also, keep the kid uninvolved in the matter." Trevor speaks. "I would warn you that he has quite the backing."


    The other man does not reply. Just as weirdly he appeared, the man disappeared. Again, I could not figure out how he is moving. More importantly, I cannot feel any mana of his. Right now my mana sense is recovering, but it still should have detected something.


    "What was all of that?", I ask.


    "Well, the lesser you know about them the better of you will be. For now let''s just call them the organisation.", Trevor speaks. "They are a bunch of profit hungry bastards. They tend to occupy cities and then slowly take over all their illegal businesses slowly and steadily. Beyond that you have no need to know about them. Your master would have my head if I do not protect you from them"


    "So why would they need a book.", I ask, thinking about the request the stranger made of us.


    "Who knows, maybe it could be the true ledger of some local smuggler, who is lying about his profits. Maybe it is a human trafficker against whom they can use this book as blackmail. I can imagine a thousand things. With the b...organisation it would be wise if you do not ask too many questions." Trevor speaks. "You do not want them getting interested in you. If that happens, they always end up getting their hooks into you."

 the blood fire gang (log 058)

    The bloodfire gang is an interesting gang. Trevor has finally given me the records related to the bloodfire gang. I already told you what I have access to. trevor has way more documents on them, including records of every single interaction that we might have with the gang. While I had a basic idea before, now I have a pretty clear idea on their hierarchy. Before I start doing this, I guess that I should speak about where I am.


    Right now we are inside the mayfire castle. As for how we ended up in here, I have been stopped from recording that by trevor. He says that such things are better of a mystery. After all, with my security clearance anybody would be able to read my records. Let''s just say that it was a stinky process, which I have no desire to do again.


    Well if I were to be precise we are under it. We are in the sewers of the mayfire castle. Not many people think about it but it is the perfect place to put a criminal enterprise. The sewers is a relatively safe place that is easily accessible and also a place that nobody is willing to go to.


    A dedicated criminal organisation would be able to spread their influence across their city quite easily, without having to worry about if some random kid were to stumble on their base. (Well, murder is frowned upon even in a criminal organisation. Hiding bodies is costly and killing kids is something that attracts pitchforks.) Very few people would like to come to a sewer as you can guess. You just need to make sure to keep whatever guild of sewer workers that work here under your control and you have privacy.


    The sewers down here must have been expanded by the organisation itself. It takes earth mages working continuously for a couple of months to achieve something like this. Otherwise with such wide tunnels the city will collapse. Anyways nobody that works to build a fort is ever willing to spend that much on the sewers. I know of the number of forts that have been destroyed simply due to shoddy sewer work.


    The organisation makes full use of these sewers though, (as I think that they have exclusive control over the sewers) so their investment makes sense. They have a proper setup down here. They have the entire shebang, most of which I have not even been allowed to visit. I have managed to find an armoury, some kind of a meeting space and a residential quarters that would put quite a few guilds to shame.


    While I won''t be able to say precisely if this is the case, but the organisation should be more than capable of putting up a fight when and if any enemies were to come down here. That might be the bloodfire gang or it could be the normal enforcers of this city. The tunnels are the dream location for a guerilla fight. They could simply collapse the tunnels to crush any outsiders. Well, I am sure that they must have less destructive strategies in place. I can see why they are not too worried about the pirates taking over the outer keep.


    Right now, they have given me a room in the very living quarters that I mentioned a while ago. The room that they have given me is a pretty clean room actually, (for being inside a sewer.) though it is a bit tight. It would have been pretty cosy for a single man. I am sharing this room with trevor, with Andrew and Jacob (they are busy meditating, as usual.) being given another room quite close to us. Right now I don''t know where Trevor is. The man is doing something related to the favour that we owe the organisation. Most likely scoping out our target.


    He has disappeared for almost the entire day at the end of which I am making this. He gave me the records on the bloodfire gang before he left though. I have been spending the day studying this very records actually. As I am learning more about them, I feel like the bloodfire gang is a pretty interesting gang.


    They are something of a mystery to us and just that makes it very fascinating. Like everything about the gang, most of what we know comes from stories from captured members or the victims of the gang. Every significant person in this group is a bit off is the best way to put it.


    Let''s start this properly from the beginning. The bloodfire gang actually begins with two people, the first being the leader of this gang, a certain figure known as the void. (We don''t know what he is called, so void is his title for now.) He is the main enigma of this group. Nobody knows who he is.


    He rarely leaves their crownship and is functionally a ghost. Very few people among those we have captured have seen the man, let alone speak with him. Knowing the nature of pirate gangs, that is very odd. Being so inactive tends to breed thoughts among the underlings. If you are not needed, why are you at the top position.


    That is why leaders of pirate gangs are always active, actively joining the raids and always have something of a reputation. This one has nothing like that. For all we know he could not even be a real figure. That is how little we know about him. Still, the man has a very strong control over the gang. Based on what I can tell he has no recorded revolt on his hand. If you know about the other gangs, that is an achievement that very few gangs would be able to claim.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Other than him though, we also have the hunter. He is one of the five captains of the bloodfire gang and the very first captain to join them actually. the reason that he was given the title of hunter is due to the fact that the man is very skilled at hunting for talent. They say that he is the person that recruited the other four captains of the gang as well. Where he found such figures in the soldar plains do not ask me, such people are always in pretty high demand, especially down here.


    Each of the captains is supposed to be a mage at least at the seventh stage of the foundation stage. A couple of them are even suspected to be at the stage beyond that (well, even the head office listens to my master on this point. The name of the next stage literally is cut out of the recording.)


    Thus there are five captains of the bloodfire gang, each of whom hold a certain duty in the gang. Naturally the first among them is the hunter, who is charged with recruiting new people in the gang.


    He is something of an enigma himself, though not as much as his master. He mostly roams about the soldar plains looking for new people to recruit. The only time that he ever really seems to enter into action is when he is procuring bodies for the demon. (About whom I shall speak in a bit.)


    Based on what we know of him, he is supposed to have a decent amount of troops under him and is actually supposed to be pretty strong personally. We can''t really verify that though. He has a single brawler called as the ghosts path and three patrollers under him. (Well, with how much the patrollers are used, these numbers are not going to be precise.)


    Then we have the archer, the person that is charged with scouting and patrolling in the gang. You can naturally guess why that is the case. As I already must have mentioned about him, the man does not tend to miss his shots. He must have destroyed many ships in stealth using this technique of his. Most ships are not strong enough to tank even a single shot like I could.


    Right now he is the captain that is going to hurt me the least or to put it more precisely the other party had already done all the damage that he can do to me. He is supposed to be pretty useless if he is pulled away from a cannon. Now that I am in the mayfire castle, he is not such a major threat. The other captains are more of a threat now.


    He has a single brawler, the shadow and almost all of the patrollers that the bloodfire gang controls. He is supposed to have at least twenty patrollers under him. So this man actually controls almost all of the ships that are under the blood fire gang.


    After him comes the demon. Well, the demon is not an actual demon thankfully. A demon this close to the hexmountain would have been detected and destroyed as quickly as possible. Demons are not good for business.


    He is suspected to be a contract cultivator though. One that gains access to cultivation by the path of blood sacrifices or soul sacrifices. I can speak about them, but I will do it later since I have to speak on the information that I have gotten over here first.


    A demon cultivator is going to be much harder to fight. They tend to be more durable and have more tricks in their bag than people that have achieved the same rank using the usual methods have. Thankfully, I have a certain amount of experience in fighting them from my time in the legion, but you never know which demon it is.


    His duty is protecting the crawler of the bloodfire gang, a ship known as the red whale. Other than that he is supposed to have a brawler called as the hidden blade and ten patrollers under him.


    The fourth captain of the blood fire gang is the warrior, who is actually the most famous of the gang. He is what people would think of when they think of a leader of a gang. Quick, both in temper and movement, the man is supposed to be the greatest warrior of the bloodfire gang.


    He is supposed to be a berserker and specialised in close combat. The man is also the most violent of them all and the one that we have the most records on, which shows just how much he tangles with other ships. That is the strongest example of his strength as anybody that can safely fight of all the threats in the soldar plains can be considered to be strong.


    He controls a single brawler, called the bloody crystal. He is also charged with combat duty. That means that he is supposed to attack any person that might pose a threat to the gang. This could be rival gangs or our patrol ships. This ship has also destroyed the most number of ships in the gang, based on our research.


    Finally, we have the snake. His duty seems to be do whatever is necessary at the present situation. He has been known to take charge of patrolling, fighting or any other odd job. There is nothing particularly unique about the man.


    The only thing of note is that the man seems to be a poison mage, and is known for his preference of making use of a blowdart, most likely poisoned. He has a brawler under him called as the viper and four patrollers under him.


    Right now, the void and at least two of the captains are supposed to be in the inner keep. We have not confirmed this and only Trevor is speculating this.


    The archer is doing the work of maintaining a defensive line. Finally, the last captain is supposed to be at the guard house. This is the very place that we need to sneak into to find the ledger.


    The guard house is a building at the other end of the fort. The only thing I know about the place is that the gang is doing something very weird there.


    As for which captain might be at the guard house, even trevor has not been able to make a good guess. Well, I will deal with it soon enough.


    Finally, the demon is going about the place looting everything that is in site, being the only person behaving like a pirate in this place.

 the fusion spell and linking (log 059)

    When one thinks of a criminal organisation that makes their base in the sewers one expects them to be like the shadows. Silent and efficient in their work, with a certain amount of creepiness added to the boot.


    What one does not expect is for people to be screaming at each other at the top of their lungs like this. I am supposed to be focussing right now but in this infernal racket I can''t even hear myself think. Well, I can''t really blame the organisation for this though. They seem to be the quiet sort.


    It is the people that they are rescuing that are not able to keep control of themselves. You see, the organisation has been smuggling the many merchants that are in the city out of it. Naturally they are doing it for the purpose of saving the people from the bloodfire gang.


    The bloodfire gang is a pirate gang, naturally they are going to be looting the city, which at the moment seems to be primarily under the control of the bloodfire gang. If the situation was more of an even split, where the mayfires had managed to keep control of even a small section of the outer keep, things would be more calmer down here and the organisation would have way less business.


    The bloodfire gang makes the organisation seem way cheaper. The organization are naturally charging quite the bit for this smuggling process but losing a majority of your goods is still better than losing all of your goods.


    That is why it seems that all the merchants that have a spatial storage are already down here. They have made this place into a market the way in which they are haggling, bargaining and most annoyingly, screaming at each other. While I haven''t yet to confirm it I think that these people all are waiting to be extracted.


    The people here are essentially swapping their positions on the line to leave this place. At this moment there are so many people here that the organization is struggling to smuggle them all out. After all, the more frequently that you smuggle something out, the quicker that you are going to get that route discovered.


    That is why everybody is waiting here. With nothing else to do, the people here have reverted to their usual work. That is, trading with each other. Just like a normal market the people here have been making bargains with each other. With every deal struck the arguments just seem to be growing in this place.


    Well, putting them all in one massive room is going to do something like that. I think this is supposed to be some kind of a storage that has been retrofitted into housing for all these merchants.


    My bad luck is that my room is pretty close to this storage room, which is why all of it is so audible. Now, I am not one to care much about noise or chaos, (I can tune it out usually.) but it is something that is undesirable when I am doing something that is so vital.


    Today is going to be the first time that I am going to be making use of the fusion spell. I would have preferred to have done it at better and more peaceful times, but I have a feeling that I am going to need every iota of my strength to be able to survive in the coming days.


    Today is going to be more a practice run, as I achieve the primary linkage to the formation. The process of linking a foundation slab to the mana core has three stages, requiring the spell to be cast three times actually.


    The first stage is the primary linkage in which a bond is formed between the primary formation and the foundation slab. This is supposed to be the weakest connection.


    This primary linkage will then act as the foundation for creating stronger bonds, known as the minor bond and the major bond. The minor bond will make sure that even if I am far away from the formation, the bond won''t break and the major bond should make it unbreakable by most means.


    That all is meant for the future though. For now I have to achieve the primary linkage with my mana core. If my master''s notes are to be believed. Doing this will result in a bunch of benefits, though which benefits exactly is something that even my master is unsure about.


    Well, I have procrastinated on the matter for long enough. The further that I delay on the matter, the harder it is going to be.


    (After about a day.)


    I have finally done it, though I would rather not speak about it. screw it, it feels like right now somebody is pulling all of the bones in my body out of me, while still connected to my nerves. Then the person is using those bones to play a drum.


    It is kind of like that pain that you get when somebody is pulling out a teeth of yours, just that this is all over your body. No, all over your body is still not enough to describe the fucking pain that I am feeling at this moment.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Well, at least my master was correct about the benefits of this spell. Already I can feel the cycle form in my body. Well, how do I explain to you what exactly the cycle is.


    To explain it first I will have to explain what exactly this fusion spell was supposed to do. The spell essentially creates a channel between my mana core and my formation. The only thing that will be able to travel through this connections is my mana.


    In my master''s case (at least as he explains it.) this connection is supposed to be one way. His ninth class formation, called as the wolf''s skin is supposed to allow him to cover himself in storm wolves skin.


    All he can do is send the mana from his mana core to the formation. Without having to do it through the usual process. The only benefits that it gives him is that it is way more efficient than the usual process. It also allows him to control the formation with a precision that even the best user of formation control will never be able to achieve.


    In my case, this bond formed is actually a two way connection. Even now, I can feel the vital mana in my mana core flow into the formation that I have built into the bloody fang. It is not a pleasant sense to have your vital mana moving like that. It kind of feels like my teeth are wiggling whenever I focus at something else.


    The only reason that I am not panicking at this moment, is because the mana is also flowing back into me. Through the same connection, the sword is sending the same mana back to me. The only thing is that there is a little trace of blood mana in the mana that is being returned to me.


    Do not ask me the exact theory behind this, but it seems like the formation is now passively active all the time. The sword is now taking on the role that it used to take in the body of the grunt that I have taken it from, at a much lower level though. The sword is acting as an extension to my mana core, converting my mana to blood mana at a steady rate. It is not a particularly high conversion rate. It will take a year just to convert one percent of mana stored into blood mana.


    Now you might ask me why that is such a wonderous thing. This is going to allow me to adapt to blood mana. The biggest disadvantage of using my sword is the fact that this much blood mana is like a shock to my body, causing serious side effects each time that I use it.


    With the sword always active, it is going to be way less of a shock to me. It is still not going to be pleasant, but I will be able to use it way more, maybe even permanently after long enough.


    This is going to do wonders for my tolerance of blood mana. If before I could use my sword for fifteen minutes each day (it is not the correct amount, but I am also not willing to state it in such a public record.), now I will be able to use for sixteen minutes. It might seem a bit less, but within a couple of months this is going to reach thirty minutes.


    The second benefit is that my physical strength is going to be enhanced from now on. After all, vampire grunts have easily ten times the strength they had pre transformation. While my strength won''t be enhanced that drastically it is still going to be nothing to sneeze at.


    Well, now that I have spoken about all the benefits of this formation, I might as well describes the limits of it. Naturally, if there are so many benefits it is going to have costs.


    The first cost is going to be the fact that I cannot have the sword physically far away from me. Having it on my body at all times would be the best case scenario.


    The farther that the sword is from me the harder the cycle will be to maintain. If it is far away from me the cycle is going to collapse. (This is going to be the case until I achieve the minor bond.) Right now, neither me nor my master know what is going to be the consequence of breaking the cycle.


    The best case scenario is going to have me lose all of the enhancements that would have happen to my body. The worst case scenario is going to be that I will become a blood addicted idiot. You see, this is the major disadvantage of using blood mana. All of the benefits that it provides come at the cost of a dependence on blood.


    Even leaving the matter of physical dependence on blood, there is the problem of getting addicted. When you have seen vampire grunts scream in despair, begging, threatening and selling themselves for just a little bit of blood, you tend to realise just how dangerous such a dependence can become.


    This is something that I have too much experience with actually. The general strategy while dealing with a vampire (especially the grunt) is to lock them up someplace and then starve them of blood. Fighting even a well fed vampire is considered to be tantamount to suicide.


    I have seen gentle men that cannot hurt an ant become like mad dogs in their pursuit of blood for me to realise just how dangerous such a dependence can be. After all, we also have to deal with the few grunts that manage to escape their prisons. Each and every time that has happened, it has been a hard and drawn out fight that took an entire team.


    The other disadvantage, is that I have to keep using my power regularly from now on. There is a chance that my sword might cannibalise my own blood to keep itself running if I were to keep it starved of blood.


    vampire grunts literally have to drink blood every few days or their body will literally drain itself to sustain itself. That is actually one of the reasons that vampire grunts are so easy to find. A vampire grunt might be able to control his instinct and keep himself from attacking a person and draining them.


    How is the grunt then going to hide it when he goes from a physically fit person to a living skeleton in a matter of weeks. Thinking of all this actually causes a chill to travel through my spine.


    Well, whatever happens my side effects are not going to be that extreme at the very least. After all the benefits that are recieved by a vampire is way more than I am ever going to get. All of their abilities guzzle through their blood mana reserves.


    At least that is what I am telling myself. Fuck it, I am shutting this record. This should have been a moment of victory. How the hell did I manage to convert it into another worrying session?

 the formation merchant (log 060)

    There is something that is common throughout the continent and that I believe is the annoyingness of haggling with formation merchants. Every city that I have gone to and every merchant that I talk to makes me wish that I could strangle them. It is especially annoying when you rely on skills to pay for stuff.


    As for with whom am I bargaining, that would be one of the merchants that are smuggling their goods outside the city. A formation merchant to be precise. (Hence the reason I am so frustrated.) The only reason that I want to work with the bastard is the fact that I need cells immediately.


    Formations cells are miniature formations that can temporarily take over the function of the propulsion formation. It is just enough to replace the propulsion formation for a day or so. I don''t know if it will work in my case, but better to have it I say. It is not like I have anything else to keep me busy anyways.


    Anyways talking to him, I finally understand the state of the castle. The mayfire castle has been acting as something of a final bastion to the people of this region.


    Most of the people here are grain traders as you can guess, mostly bought from the farmers that call the surrounding region their own. The mayfires actually make their money by providing protection to the merchants and the villagers that call this location their home. Due to this they are something of a trade hub in our surroundings.


    With the disappearance of the mayfires most of the merchants were thrown in for a loop. Thankfully, the organisation seems to have taken in most of these merchants and is slowly smuggling them out of the city. They can''t take everybody out at once for obvious reasons, so most of the merchants are hiding down here, with most of their precious wares.


    Anyways, the reason I was blathering so much was due to the fact that with any decently sized settlement you shall always find a formation merchant. They tend to be greedy buggers that make their money by selling things that people need to stay alive.


    And that brings me back to the man in front of me, who has been talking so much that my thoughts had begun to wander around everything but what he is saying.


    He is a middle aged man, whose hair has begun to grey recently and he has a potbelly that I think I have only seen with formation merchants. It is a hard trade though. Formation merchants are mainly needed in outposts and settlements which frankly put are not the best places to live. The man has been very careful in making sure that I do not know his name. That makes me wonder if he has a bounty on him or something. Merchants are the folks that can most likely end up with a bounty after bandits.


    "...hiring guards has also become so costly nowadays. We used to hire them from the farmers, though even that has become very hard due to the grain merchants. The bastards charge such low rates for everything that most farmers end up starving. Starving farmers dont make for good guards.", he speaks on.


    "Well, all of that is fine, but you have yet to answer my question. Do you have a cell.", I interrupt the man.


    "I do have cells, my friend. Though I can''t give it to you for free now, can I. That would cause me quite the bit of losses." He replies.


    "I am a formation mage and I will be able to repair any damaged goods that you have.", I reply. We have been arguing on the same point for quite a bit of time. The man is simply not ready to accept that I am a formation mage. I don''t look that young no?


    "Well, as I have already told you. I have no need for a formation mage messing with my goods. I already sell products of the highest quality. If people got to know what do you think would happen to my reputation.", he speaks, his reaction so dramatic that I am left wondering why he didn''t become an actor. Well, they would have kicked him out of the guild for overacting.


    "They would rather respect the fact that the man sells his products at the highest quality and actually works to maintain his quality.", I reply. That finally seems to shut up the man, though he has shut up like that at least four times by now.


    "I will think about it, kid. Too bad you do not have only five class seven mana stones. They would have been useful. Even buying grain has become so hard now.", he begins speaking, ready to enter into another speech about the difficulty of getting food in this market. This is his third time speaking about that. He won''t stop now. For a formation merchant the man is just a bit too obsessed with the grain market.


    "If you want to trade with the grain merchants, isn''t now the best time." I speak, cutting him of. "Most of their carts must have environmental formations. Otherwise I cannot imagine why they would dare to bring in wares into the sewer. Rotting food would be bad for business."This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "Well, that is true. I made quite a bit of killing on that, but they already have the formations.", he replied. "It is not like they want to buy a new one, even if their previous formation is not as effective as they expected it to be."


    "Well, the formations must be running at full force for the last three weeks. I have to assume then that some of the formations must already be showing some issues.", I ask him.


    "Well, that is the truth. It has been causing quite the damage to my reputation too. Almost everyday they come and start another argument with me about their formations.", he replies.


    "Then you have a person that can repair your formations for you. You just point me at the people that need their formations repaired and I will repair it for you. All you need to give me in payment are three cells.", I speak. "It is quite a bargain don''t you think. You are lucky that I need a cell urgently or I wouldn''t have worked for so cheap for you."


    Right now cells would be priced quite dirt cheap since there are no ships to make use of them and the one group of people that could, are more likely to murder the merchant and take everything he owns rather than pay for it.


    "Well, you talk big but how can I tell that you will actually be able to repair the formations. If you were to mess anything up, it is my reputation that would be dragged in the mud.", the man in front of me replies. "They already seem ready to stone me to death."


    "Well, test me then. If I don''t work out, business isn''t exactly lining up for you anyways.", I reply, wondering if the man would have bothered to ask the same thing of my master.


    (After a couple of days.)


    I am seriously bored out of my mind. Repairing carts is not exactly the hardest of works that I have ever done and honestly, I have seriously underestimated just how crappy and simple these formations are.


    Well, at the moment I am resisting the urge to kill the man in front of me. I can think about killing him after he gives me those cells.


    "Well, I am surprised at your skill. Those formations are as good as new. Here are your cells. You have repaired ten different carts in the last couple of days, which I think should be enough for two cells don''t you think." He speaks.


    "you old man, Three of those formation I had to build from the scratch up. Give a little something extra", I reply.


    "That might be the case, but you have caught me at a point when I am quite low on my wares. I had to leave most of my formations in the shop. The bloodfire gang came after my shop almost immediately after the barrier broke. Most of what I have are related to preservation. You are lucky that I brought the cells with me.", he speaks, throwing what looks like a couple of rocks at me. With a touch I can tell that these are cells of pretty high quality. I don''t want to admit it but I might just have lucked out in this deal.


    "Well, there must be something that you can give.", I ask. Well there is no problem in asking just a little more. You never know what you might end up getting.


    "Well, I would have to assume that you have a ship stranded somewhere outside, since you want cells.", he asks. "If that is the case I might have something for you."


    "Well, something like that.", I reply. Better to be non committal. You never know what might happen with merchants. The bastards are just as likely to sell me out to the bloodfire gang if the situation calls for it.


    "When I had to leave the shop I had to leave behind a grimoire of mine. It contains all of the formations that I have ever managed to discover contained in it.", he speaks. "When I had to leave the shop, I had to leave it behind. If you were to get it back for me, I will provide you the schematics to a class nine camouflage formation and one more cell. How does that sound."


    "A camouflage formation, of which element.", I ask. The best element for such a task is light, followed by water and wind.


    "It is of the light element. I was quite lucky to get it. I had to trade a class eight preservation formation to even get it. You know how rare it is for preservation formations to have a class and The camouflage formation itself is of the ninth class. The preservation formation is almost an environment formation if you tweak it a bit at that class.", he begins to speak.


    "all that is fine, what is the catch to this.", I ask. Nobody gives a camouflage formation for simple tasks. "You certainly do not have a giving spirit."


    "Well, the person that raided my shop was a captain of the bloodheart gang. He is a bloody bastard called "heart burner Steve". He continued, looking at my confusion. "He is the bastard that burns the heart of his victims. The demon worshipper."


    "So I have to get the book to you and I will get the formation, nothing else. Nothing like fighting this Steve or killing him.", I ask. Better to always make sure I say. Though, I am sure my final plan might just involve fighting this Steve.


    "Yes, I have no desire to be chased by the bloodfire gang.", he replies. "Just get me my grimoire back and that will be enough for me."


    "Okay, I will try to get your grimoire. I want a proper explanation of the formation you are about to give me.", I speak, as the merchants finally becomes jubilant. Seeing this I wonder for a second, if I had been scammed into accepting this. Somehow I get the feeling that I have been played.


    Seeing that the other side is a formation merchant that is most likely what is happening here. Well, that is the nature of our work.


    While I have been doing all of this, Trevor has essentially disappeared. He is presently in the castle working to prepare for the heist. Until he comes back I have to figure out the formation issue as quickly as possible.


    I have a feeling that I do not want to stay here for more time than necessary. The situation down in the sewers is quite stable, but I can''t let go of this sense of unease that I feel.

 the demon and contract cultivation (log 061)

    The mayfire castle is something pretty unique in the soldar plains. This is not the south, where you shall find the entire place littered by forts. (There are so many forts down there, that it is sometimes also called as the plain of forts.) The nature of the conflict in the soldar plains will simply not allow it. 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.


    It is something that you won''t be able to bring inside a fort. 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 that would take decades to build, the better method would be to use the same money to build a set of temporary outposts. They would be able to cover more ground this way and they will certainly be easier to replace.


    The only exception to this rule in the soldar plains is 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 but who among the mayfires would care about that.


    You can destroy the grain of somebody that is five kilometres from here, then the mayfires would go to one that is ten kilometres away. They might have to spend a bit more than the usual, but they wouldn''t even notice that. The people that you have attacked would certainly notice it though, causing you to be stuck dealing with their revenge.


    The mayfires have included themselves in the grain trade mainly as a way of enhancing the relation between us and them. Their main source of income is actually from more violent sources, specifically mercenary work.


    Their magic makes them more than ideal to work as bandits themselves. While the mayfire might condemn these people if and should they get caught, but at the same time there is no real way you could punish that single individual without setting off the entire group. It is also not like every person in this group is going to be attacking others.


    The main mercenary work in the soldar plains is actually protecting the grain ships. Their work is to escort ships from their source to the hexmountain ensuring that nobody is attacking you. Based on what I have understood about the mayfires, they have basically cornered that market. For example, if a hundred ships were leaving for the mountain, then at least fourty of those ships are under the protection of the mayfires. Another fifty would be under mercenary groups that are run by somebody from the mayfire castle.


    While the grain that they send towards us is significant, it is not a source of worry for us. Their lack of presence will reduce the grain shipments coming to our location. In a manner of speaking, I can see why the mayfires suddenly losing communication with us caused so much worry for the head office.


    The effects of their disappearing will be seen in a few months with the price of grain. (As long as their time being inactive is not extended too much. Otherwise things will end up more messy than a simple Increase in price.) Anyways, I have been speaking about all of this to point out the simple fact that the mayfires do not have a lot of weaknesses. You could burn the forests that surround their lands and they would join in with you, just for the fun of it. Just the fact that they have such intact forests is a good example of this. If they were attacked, the first thing to happen would be the entire thing being destroyed, after all.


    At the same time, they do not have enough manpower to actually maintain a set of outposts like the other powers do. (While each member of this family is pretty strong, they don''t have as many people. They are just too new of a power for that to be the case.) The smartest choice for them is to actually concentrate all of their power in a single location, exactly as they have done right now. That way when somebody does end up attacking them, they know where exactly they are going to be attacked.


    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 into existence five years ago. they have some form of external support. The problem is who could that be.


    The man in the building in front of me might be able to answer that. He doesn''t even need to speak with me. just his presence is enough. he is a contract cultivator and one that has made a contract with a demon at that.


    That already cuts of 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. The merchants down south might work with them, if their identities are not revealed. Still, it would be a risky investment. If they were discovered all the churches would stop doing business with them.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Those fanatics to the east will also not really work with chaos demons, except a few exceptions. Now that I think about it, this actually does not reduce my list at all. I can only confidently say that the churches can be removed, but now that I think about it I can already think of a couple expections even among them.


    Well, leave it be. My duty is to not think of all of that. I will leave it to people that are better at this than me. Right now I am following a contract cultivator. well, I guess I should explain what that is. A contract cultivator is considered to be a figure that relies on external items or external powers to get their cultivation.


    You could get this power from any creature. I have seen contract cultivators with their powers coming from demons, elementals, sprites, or even devil''s. Though if you find a devil cultivator, I would say that you run away for your life. they are the most dangerous of the bunch. If you know that the other party is a devil cultivator, then chances are you are going to be killed in the next few moments.


    Returning to the matter, the man codenamed as the demon and whose original name is Steve, is a demon cultivator. Of that I am sure by now. Right now I am scouting him.


    If you ask me how, at the moment I am pretending to be a labourer that is doing the work of shifting things in a warehouse. (Well, can it be considered to be pretending when you are getting paid for it for a couple of days now.)


    It is actually not that hard. The rags were quite easy to find and steal and right now there are too many labourers here, for anybody to know that I am actually not from here. (I just need to make sure that nobody will look at my hands. They are too smooth to be a labourers) The only thing that might be considered to be a problem is the fact that I might have had to use a bit of my mana to get this particular work done.


    The amount of strength that I have shown is something that shouldn''t be possible only with my physique. Well, it has been a couple of days, nobody is looking at me anymore. Any suspicions would have been confirmed a couple days ago and any attempt at my life already taken.


    All of them are a bit too preoccupied with the people that are opposite the warehouse that I am working at right now. They could attack here any second now after all. This is the place that has been made as a base by Steve and the soldiers that are under him.


    Even right now I can look at his soldiers that are systematically looting the entire fortress and bringing it back with them to the warehouse in front of me. That is going to be a problem. Pirates are not supposed to be so disciplined.


    That too pirates that are being led by a demon cultivator. Demons are creatures of chaos and you can see the same behaviours repeat in the people that take their power. The only way that would be possible is if these people were being led by something that is pretty scary. Well, I won''t talk about this problem for now. For better or worse, this is a problem for Tomorrow.


    Right now 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 general consensus is that it tends to cause a cultivators cultivation to drop by two levels at the very least.


    Granted that the other party is already one of the weaker captains, suspected to be a seventh stage foundation mage. If he were to weaken himself in such a manner I would be able to survive a fight with 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. With the boost from my sword this is going to be an easier fight at least. That is the hope at the moment. 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 succesful 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 excercise. Granted most of my work is in the warehouse, my mana sense has recovered enough that I can follow a person that is actively emitting their mana.


    Granted it is still not precise enough that I would be able to tell their exact numbers, 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 but based on the people that I have seen leaving, the other side should not have more than ten figures with them.


    There should be more, but 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 take care of them. Nobody would like to have a mad dog rampaging in their garden.


    Right now my main work is to ensure that we are meeting up with the mayfires. Clearly, the organization is not one that we should be trusting.


    Trevor is sure that the only reason that they are not betraying us is due to the fact that they need something from us. The mayfires are the more trustworthy figure here, though I don''t know if anybody from that family is even alive. Trevor is sure that they are, but I have my doubts.

 the infiltration (log 062.1)

    Wielding my sword is an intense experience. I had forgotten just how tempting it gets. Right now I am hiding in the warehouse that I have been working for the last week now.


    Well, the last week has certainly been useful. With it I have been able to get quite the bit of information on our enemy. Well, I got everything I needed in five days, but I spent the last couple days as a precaution. I needed the time anyways.


    Part of the reason is that I am scared to actually go on this mission. The reason for this is not anything that the enemy will be able to throw at me. It is what my own sword is going to do to me.


    Fully activating my sword has always been an intense experience. The fusion spell is not going to make it any easier. Even now, I can feel myself inching to activate the sword. This is especially the case since I have achieved the minor bond of my second slab yesterday.


    Well, I expected the minor bond to give me more benefits, but I can barely detect it''s presence. Well, it makes my link to the sword more complete.


    If anything all the minor bond has achieved is to make me want to activate my sword fully already. Activating it this early is not going to help me out, but who will tell my head that. I will do it precisely the minute that I need to. 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 have 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.


    The only way that I will be reaching that place is by doing quite a dangerous bit of acrobatics. Something that I will only be able to pull of by transforming. Well, it is going to be worth it as I don''t need to fight anybody this way. It is clear that the other party is doing their blood sacrifice in the first floor and the second floor is the storage area.


    The formation merchants book should be hidden there. I will be able to detect it if it is within my arms 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 have been able to tell the instant that I enter the room. Right now though the only thing that I can do is to vaguely tell that it is somewhere in the second floor.


    Well, there is my cue. The other party seems to have started their blood ritual finally. That is the only way that the spike of mana can be explained. 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. Looks like they did manage to get the windows closed, but then they opened it up again. I wonder why they have done that.


    My hearing has been similarly enhanced. I can hear the patter of 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.


    I am not surprised that the vampires cannot resist this thirst. I am physically incapable of acting on it and I still find myself tempted. So tempted. Thankfully, I literally don''t have the stomach for it. Centering myself, I find myself taking a deep breath. The enhanced senses are the main benefit and problem with my ability.


    I have used sensory formation for weeks at end, but this enhancement is nothing like that. I am sure that I get more raw information from a sensory formation, but 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 and right now my sword is pulsing like a heart pumping my body full of blood mana.


    Well, I have stayed in this state 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. Looks like I have underestimated my strength. At least I didn''t alert anybody. Even now I can feel my face smarting as I enter into the building.


    As I enter into the building, I realise why the people here had to open the window again. 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 am able to tell about their death is that I can smell their blood. that is something that no living thing is capable of emitting.


    Well, the reason for their death could be the mana they have inside their body. I can''t really 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.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Well, now is not the time to get distracted. I have a clear goal. 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 sacrifice already. 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 I am sure that I am not being swarmed by enemies is the fact that they are doing a sacrifice ceremony downstairs. Being distracted during such a ritual can be 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 organization has certainly been quite tolerant of me doing something like this already. I don''t really 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 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 unmistakeable 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 anyways. 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 the first door opening is the first sign that the other party is really out there. 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 hand 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. Well, the blood mana left in the body of the other party will act as a poison, absorbing their vital mana and sending it to me until the other party can expel it or they die.


    As the other party retreats back, they close the door as I kick it open. The force of the kick enough to send him flying into another room.


    The instant that I get out, I find all of my potential 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 try 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.


    Among demons, there are very few figures that should be able to provide magics 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 as I dodge it by a small sidestep. This leaves me in the correct position to strike right at the other sides 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 parties sword enters into my left hand. I make use of my sword to relieve the other party of that hand.


    Well, they were easy to handle....


    (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 has entered into his heart.


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

 things go to shit (log 062.2)

    Well, this is going to be a very annoying battlefield, I can already tell. Right now in front of me are three people. Sadly, these three are not going to be so easy to fight. This close to a blood sacrifice, the power of the blood sacrifice must be empowering whatever mana they have boosting them. Even more than the people that I had just fought. They are not going to be easy to fight.


    At least the demon is busy. Right now he is in the middle of summoning his master it looks like. That is the benefit of striking during a blood sacrifice. While a demon is not likely to kill his contracted cultivator, it is more than likely to kill everybody else in the room.


    The only way that a demon cultivator is able to keep his underlings safe is to summon the demon behind a barrier. Until the sacrifice is complete, the captain can be ignored safely. Breaking the barrier would have pretty disastrous consequences actually. Even the weakest of demons is not an enemy that I will be able to fight.


    I don''t know how long I have though. Blood sacrifices can be both absurdly short and ridiculously long. Demons are creatures of chaos, you can''t really tell with them. (Though knowing them it will be on the shorter side.) Well, I will need to get rid of these three before the captain manages to escape. Once he does, I will still be able to fight him.


    "Who are you, half transformed mutt?", speaks the man behind his barrier. "Soldiers attack him."


    As he speaks, I dodge backwards escaping from a blow from one of the soldiers. Let''s call him grunt one. I ready my sword blocking another strike from grunt number two.


    Grunt number three is behind both of these soldiers, looking for a point to attack. Tipping my sword a bit forward I cause grunt number two to lose balance as he trips to the ground. Meanwhile grunt number one is going to be wasting time in turning around.


    using this time I charge towards grunt number three. He certainly wasn''t expecting me to charge towards him. Normally people try to escape from an encirclement not actively go deeper into it. That is why he fumbles as he dodges my strike.


    My sword manages to pierce into his left shoulder, drawing metallic and tangy blood. A moment later the other parties vital mana enters into me.


    I am embarrased to admit it, but this stops me for a few moments. I don''t know why, but there was something that is familiar with this vital mana. At the same time, I wasn''t expecting so much vital mana from my victim. It is like a mighty raging river where I was expecting a thin stream.


    Grunt number three takes this time to scurry towards its ally. By the time that I manage to react to them the three are already attacking. Thankfully, reacting to situations like this is more instinct than thought.


    I block grunt number one, sidestepping grunt number three and kick grunt number two''s face causing him to lose balance again. This time I don''t try to orient myself as I press my attack. With my enhanced senses this is harder than I expected it to be.


    Grunt number one manages to react to my attack as he enters into a defensive stance. He blocks my attack before my sword is anywhere near his head. Seriously what magic is powering these bastards. This is quite a bit of boost.


    Before I manage to dodge, grunt number three manages to get a strike in. It is a gash, though it has already begun to fill in. The flood of life force that is being provided by the other party is enough for this wound to fix itself soon enough. I have never felt the bloody fang work with such strength or efficiency. The fusion spell is already showing its worth.


    Even as I am collecting myself, retreating in a defensive stance, I can see that the three men are preparing to attack. Grunt number three is not in a good situation, with his skin becoming pale. The way that he is moving though is an indication of his weakness. I don''t think he himself realised how much damage he is actually facing.


    Whatever mana is empowering them makes them numb to pain it looks like. Useful magic to give to your grunt, which would make them able to ignore their life threatening wounds to come and give you one more strike (often that is enough to clench victory.). It is a favourite magic of anybody that makes use of dark magics, especially demons.


    It is an annoying magic to deal with. The only benefit is that they won''t be lasting for long. I would give grunt number three another minute or so before he would die.


    This time I don''t give them the chance to think as I charge into their midst. I focus on grunt number two as I finally manage to get a sword into his head. The cost of this is that the other party has managed to get a sword into my chest as well.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I can feel the heat of wound, as I smell my own blood. It is already congealing and taking on a jelly like consistency. Well, this is going to be annoying. The burst of lifeforce that I get from grunt number two hits me like a rampaging bull, almost knocking me of my feet.


    I lose focus for a moment, which grunt number one makes use of to strike at my leg. I try to dodge it but the burst of life force is very disorienting. All my senses get ultra sensitive for a second. I can feel every inch of the sword as it plunges into me, causing a spike of pain that blacks out the world around me.


    Fuck, this is another problem with my transformation. My master has warned me more than once that I should learn to master these overloads or it is going to be the death of me. Normally I can do so, but the fusion spell is more efficient than I expected it to be.


    Before grunt number three can get a strike into me, I manage to dodge him. As I retreat, my senses return to normal. Grunt number three has begun to slow down visibly.


    Grunt number one has begun to retreat slowly and steadily, trying to physically cover his fellow grunt. That is going to make this an easier fight. Well, it is time for me to focus. Get rid of them and then their master.


    (After about a couple of minutes.)


    Well, I have finally managed to kill both of these grunts. Grunt number one died after I hit him five times. He is a bit too hardy for somebody this weak.


    Grunt number two has died a bit more easily, with a sword in heart. Even as he died, the man couldn''t get a strike in, though he did try his best. The mana powering them makes them quite durable.


    Well, as I am doing this, the remaining soldiers in the floor above me have also died. Right now the only two people in this building are me and Steve.


    "You half transformed mutt, which family has come to hit my lady.", he speaks as I turn towards him.


    The man speaks to me with half a focus. Right now he is still forming sigils, which he is cycling through quite quickly. His hands are dancing as they take on shapes that would have normally broken his hand.


    That is quite a complicated blood sacrifice over there, as the man is still doing it. (Demons are impatient bastards.) Well, there is something about what he just said that makes me feel weird. Whatever it is, is at the tip of my tongue, if I could just focus a bit more.


    Right now snaking throughout my body is a patchwork of pains and wounds. I have taken in a decent amount of wounds in this fight. I have taken worse, (nor my sword has ever given me so much blood mana) but the pain is never pleasant.


    "Would you stop calling me a half converted mutt. I am not a grunt.", I reply, as I begin to cycle my vital mana. I can literally feel my body stitch itself back. It is going to take a while.


    "Well, why would I make the mistake of calling you a grunt, you damn half converted mutt.", he replies. "My lady is already stepping through. Tell me the name of your master and I can promise you that you will get a pleasant ending."


    As he speaks, I finally figure out what is wrong here. The insults that the damn bastard is using is something that is used only by vampires. Ones that serve at the court at that. Even if the other party became a vampire by mistake, their would be no way that he would know these things without contact from somebody in the court.


    They really tend to look down on people like me. Every person that is turned into a vampire grunt take about a month or so to complete this transformation. During this period they are considered to be a half converted mutt. Whenever I activate my sword, I am in a similar situation.


    Wait, why the fuck am I sitting about explaining the fucking insult. The other party is a vampire. I return to focus at the man stuck in the barrier. Now that I know what I am looking for I can see the traces of it.


    The man is pale, with runes inscribed all over his face and hand. The runes of the formation that is acting as his barrier is also familiar to me. I have never studied them but I have seen them quite a few times. I think the barrier is meant to hold in blood mana. Now that I know what to look for, I can feel it. Seriously when is my mana sense going to return to its old strength. Being blind like this is not a nice feeling.


    The barrier is only meant to be used to facilitate a possession. Well, higher vampires in the court have the ability to forcefully possess the body of the lower vampires that they have created by using ritual magic like this. I have never seen one succeed until now.


    It is a fascinating process, the little that I can see. I can see the blood mana inside the barrier take the shape of runes that I have never seen in my life. I can''t see these runes specifically as they are blurred by the barrier blocking out all outside mana. Still, it is fascinating to see blood mana being manipulated like that. I have never managed to pull of something like that.


    Wait what the fuck am I doing right now. As I am thinking this I can feel the surge of blood mana emanating through the barrier. The mana in there in strong enough that I can smell the mettalic scent of blood.


    Okay, I can''t destroy the barrier now. I am too late for that. If it had been the first thing that I had done, it might have worked. Spells like possession requires a certain concentration of blood mana that can''t be achieved by mere grunts without barriers like this. Everytime that we have faced a grunt with a barrier like this, the troop that I used to be in the legion with became serious. My troop used to become serious only for a few things.


    Whatever magic needed to be cast has already been cast, if the dropping concentration of mana is to be considered.


    Right now the only option that I have is to run away with my life. I am not sure if I can get away far enough with the time that I have. I have to try though as I run towards the door of this warehouse.


    It is locked from the outside. I cycle my mana fully to try and force the door open. I can feel the damn thing bend in my hands, but I just can''t get the damn thing open.


    "A half converted mutt? Who dares to do such a thing I wonder.", the man behind me speaks. Something is off about how he speaks. There is a certain femininity in the way that he spoke.


    I can''t think on this any further, as the world around me becomes black.

 the escape (log 062.3)

    As I come to, I am on the street outside the warehouse. I get up, keeping my sword ready for any strike that the enemy will be throwing at me. Looking into the room I was just in, I look at the man that led me to my present situation.


    He is moving with a calm energy, as if I won''t be able to harm him. Knowing who is driving that body, that confidence certainly makes sense. He is right now picking up a sword.


    Well, I start to run, but I stop a few moments later, as I jump to the side. The place that I had just jumped away from is where the other side has crushed the floor with their fucking hands.


    "Well, you are certainly skilled for a half transformed mutt.", the other side speaks, with a feminine voice that one wouldn''t expect of such a body. "Who would waste such a fine grunt for inconveniencing me? I wonder?"


    As she speaks, she strikes at me with those claws of hers. I barely manage to block it, the force of her claws enough to make me fly.


    As I feel my back crunch into the wall behind me I realise that things are not going to be easy. Well, the amount of mana that the other party has is half of mine, but the way in which the other party uses it makes all the difference.


    A vampire grunt is not able to control blood mana. Whatever changes happen in the body of a grunt comes from the passive effects of blood mana. I am at the most able to cycle mana which has the benefit of causing some of my blood mana to be cycled along with it. The only reason that even works is due to the fusion spell. I could not do it before.


    The other party can make use of blood mana, controlling it as freely as I can control my vital mana. Even now, I can feel the blood mana in my body beginning to flow towards the other side. Thankfully, it has not left me completely.


    "Has a bat got your tongue, mutt.", the lady speaks. "I would suggest that you do not test my patience."


    As she speaks, her claws plunge into my shoulder. The instant that she does so, I can feel a pain jokt me from the tip of my hairs to the soles of my feet like somebody has shot me with lightning.


    My legs give way to the ground. I can almost taste the dirt of the ground as it fills my lungs. This is not going to be a pleasant experience it looks like. Before I can even turn around properly, the other side is on top of me pinning me to the ground.


    "If you speak right now, I will give you a quick death.", she speaks. "Else, you certainly must know of my reputation. While this body does not have the tools that I usually have. I can be quite creative even with my claws."


    Even as she speaks, I can feel her claws plunge into my back. I can feel pain radiate from my back like she has stuffed my back with a hot rod. With each passing second I ignore the pain, feeling it across my body.


    For my present nonchalance to pain, I have to thank the legion. It is their methods that I am using to meditate during a battle. it is a fascinating technique about which I really shouldn''t be talking about right now.


    The sword has flown away from my hand, when the other party attacked. I know where it is, but unless the other side let''s me pick it up, it is not an option for me.


    It is within my arm''s reach, but the enemy is standing over me like a mountain. The only thing that I have at the moment is dirt on the ground under me. I could use it but will the other side fall for such a stupid thing. The best thing to do now is to wait.


    "Silence will not help you, mutt.", the lady speaks, her voice sounding weird for her body. "The pain will only grow."


    As she speaks, I can feel the pain grow. It is an intense experience, almost breaking through my defenses. Well. Screw it, any more of this and I might get permanently damaged.


    As I steel myself, I hold up a clump of dirt and throw it at the person on top of me. To my surprise, the lady reels back leaving me completely.


    I exploit this fully as I run at my full speed, grasping my sword at the same time. Before the other side can fully clear the dirt in their eyes, I have disappeared into the mess of streets in this place.


    I am at the very least familiar with this place which allows me to navigate it somewhat. This should buy me some time at least. The noble lady would be completely lost here.


    "You mean to hide in front of a noble. You seem to be quite delusional.", I hear a voice whisper behind me. I almost turn and strike at the voice behind. It is a lot of self control that stops me from doing that, no more flair ups of vital mana "You do know that you are leaking quite a bit of blood mana aren''t you. It will take me a few minutes to find your location."This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    As she speaks, I realise that my sword is still pumping into me blood mana which the other party can detect quite easily. Stopping the formation makes me feel like somebody has covered me in wax. Right now no amount of enhancement will let me win this fight.


    Well, with a possessed vampire the only option that I have left is to go to the burial groun....


    "I wonder how you have hid yourself, young grunt.", the other side speaks. "Is it that sword of yours. I wonder if it is the bloody baron. Only that bastard has enough reason to hate me. Well, if he is willing to gift me a vampire artifact I would be a fool to refuse it now, would I?"


    Seriously that is fucking creepy. better get going. Anyways where I was, I need to get to the burial ground. The burial ground is something that you find in every city with a large population of people.


    A burial ground looks likes any other cemetery, except if you have the sight. Every inch of the ground here has been inscribed with formations that separate the flesh from the spirit. Any person that has been buried in such a place will have a body completely devoid of spirits, protecting them from necromancy, spirit summoning and more importantly in my case possessions.


    If I manage to get this lady there I will be able to fight her of at the very least. Well, the routes are still a bit confusing for me, but I will be able to get there. Thankfully the formations put there are strong enough that I do not need to worry about losing track of the place. It will always stand out like a beacon to me.


    (After about five minutes.)


    "Do you think such a paltry formation will protect you mutt, this formation will take hours if not days to expel me from this putrid body.", the lady speaks, as he (or she) enters into the place.


    "Why are you chasing me like this, my lady", I reply, finally speaking to the lady. "It is not like I have truly harmed you in any way."


    "You really are an arrogant mutt aren''t you. To think you would try and question your superiors. The reason for your death is simple, mutt. You forced me to possess the body of a putrid man.", the lady spoke. She becomes a blur as my sword collides against her claws.


    I am barely able to redirect her attack as I prepare to block her claws.


    "Months of preparation, wasted."


    I block the left hand, but she twists her right hand right into my throat. I jump backwards, feeling the edge of her claws grazing my throat.


    "You fight well for a mutt, but how many strikes can you hold against me."


    This statement is followed by a flurry of claws strikes which I am still not sure how I blocked. It resulted in a swipe on my right hand. The wounds keep bleeding, without stopping. I can''t do much except pass my vital mana into those regions.


    "Who is your master, mutt. Tell that and your death shall be painless.".


    Another flurry, which I barely manage to block. The lady is playing with me.


    "Well, I have no master, my lady. He has died almost a couple of years ago.", I speak, bullshitting with such confidence that I am surprised at my words. I can be impulsive sometimes, you know.


    "At least lie a bit better, do you think that the death of a noble capable of creating grunts would not be noticed by me.", she replies, taking a swipe at my head. I duck to dodge it.


    Fighting this lady is going to be painful. Simply put my injuries will be at the moment healing the enemies wounds. Not that it matters, My vital mana must seem quite paltry to the other side.


    That doesn''t mean that the vital mana leaking from me won''t debilitate me. I can already feel the vital mana that I have been using to reinforce my body dissipating through my wounds.


    "I shall ask you one final time, tell me the identity of your master.", she asks again.


    "Well, if I were to tell you that I have no master, would you be able to believe me.", I reply. Well, has the world begun to rotate or is that me getting dizzy. I honestly don''t know.


    Well, I don''t even catch the ladies movement, as she charges towards me. Her movement feels as if she is in slow motion.


    Well, that certainly means nothing good. I think loss of blood can cause something like this or else the lady has poison on her nails. I can''t really discount that too, now that I think about it.


    You know one funny thing about combat, just how much of combat is dependent on your solidity with the basics.


    I enter into stance, feeling the ladies hand aim for my heart. I take a step to the left, feeling her hand pass into my chest. This is going to hurt.


    The stance that I have taken is positioned in such a way that my sword is aimed right over the enemies head. Almost as soon as I swing my sword down the lady retreats, but the thing is in a battle of fists to blades, the blade will always have better range.


    No matter how fast or agile the enemy is, this fact is not something that can be changed immediately. I can feel the resistance on my sword as it enters into the enemies skull splitting it.


    Well, such an injury doesn''t actually hurt someone who has possessed a body, (vampires can even possess corpses.) but we are in the burial grounds. The burial ground you can say is pulling the spirit from the flesh. You can think of the body as a container and the burial ground is the gravity that pulls everything to the ground. The more broken it is the more the contents of it will spill out to be pushed away by the burial ground.


    There is a reason that I came to this place. Thankfully, the enemy is busy. What I have done is equivalent to me shattering the base of the container, through which the soul is leaking out.


    Well, I don''t really get the chance to react to the enemie''s strike though. The pain of the strike hits me like an elephants charge. I can barely keep myself in a steady state as I look at the dissipating lady. The expelled spirit looks likes smoke wafting from a bonfire.


    "I have remembered your mana, you half converted mutt.", she speaks, her voice the barest of whispers behind my back. "We shall meet again in the court and then I shall show you the finest of pains. You will be screaming your masters name in the process of begging me for mercy. This is my promise."


    I do not retain consciousness to see the entire process of dissipation as the world turns black.

 the blowback (log 063)

    My head is splitting like somebody has taken a saw through it. Even now thinking is something that I am struggling with. Well, it has been two weeks since the damn vampire has been killed by me.


    I am almost fully healed, but my wounds, especially the one on my chest is still stinging. Well, if it was paining it would have been better, honestly. Right now the sting is more itchy than painful and I am struggling to stop myself from scratching. Everytime that I do end up scratching it leads to more stinging in my chest, which devolves in to more itching. It is becoming a pretty vicious cycle now.


    Let''s speak about what I have been doing during the time that I have been stuck to my room. Well, my run through the fort has ended up attracting the ire of our enemies. Right now the bloodfire gang is ripping through the city looking for me and they are doing a very bad job of it.


    Well, the fact that they are doing such a bad job is the problem, it seems. The organisation knows how to hide itself when the other side acts more like a hunter. Right now the bloodfire gang is like a berserk bull attacking and destroying everything that comes in their sight. For every organisation hideout they destroy, ten legitimate merchants are attacked without reason. At least that''s what trevor tells me.


    Well, this is not a good thing for obvious reasons. Even I can see that the organisation is struggling to protect their interests. Quite a few of their outposts above the ground have already been raided and destroyed. They have yet to shift their attention down here into the sewers but that is going to be a matter of time.


    The main cost of this has been faced by trevor. He has been in the city for the last couple of weeks doing some kind of extra work for the organisation. This is payment for my protection after the chaos I have caused in the city a couple weeks ago. He has been careful not to mention too much of this job to me. Well, that is the reaction he has for everything related to the organisation to be honest. He hasn''t even mentioned to me what he is planning to do in the heist.


    I have yet to meet him for a while now. he has been busy with his work for the last couple of weeks. This is to the point that I don''t think that I have even seen him sleeping. Well, I guess that I could have missed the man as well. I haven''t exactly been wasting time as well. I have been sitting down and working on the fusion spell in this period. I have never really meditated like this after all, with it being the only thing that I am doing.


    I have something or the other to keep me busy at home. With the number of projects that I have entering into focus for meditation is one of the hardest thing that I can do there. It is not like I can just enter into meditation that easily. It requires a focus that is impossible to achieve when every few seconds your brain goes to the next formation you can be working on.


    It is fascinating if I am honest. I can see why people get so addicted to meditating. It is a interesting feeling to see yourself grow stronger like this. By the way, I have finally completed the major bond on my second formation slab. Again, I don''t really know how to describe the major bond.


    It brings a sense of durability to the link between my sword and my mana core. If before the bond between my sword and me was like a string, which would have snapped if enough force was put to it. Now it feels like rubber band, which can be stretched for quite a while.


    By the way, I have started work on my third slab as well. Well, the third slab is not going to be as painful to complete as my second slab. That is because I will be able to incorporate the fusion spell into the slab from its creation. That is going to take a while though. Incorporating the fusion spell into a new foundation slab is harder than I expected.


    Still, the second slab and the benefits that it has given me is enough motivation for me to keep working at this. Well, I guess that I should describe what is happening in my mana core once I have completed the second slab. I think it is called as integration, the process in which the slabs merge with the walls of the mana core, becoming a part of the mana core. It allows you to absorb more mana into your core. It is supposed to strengthen your soul as well.


    In my case, I get even more benefits from this integration. The foundation slab also acts as the tether for the connection between the sword and myself. It integrating and becoming a part of my mana core has benefits that I don''t think even my master would have predicted.


    With the slab integrating, the rejection that I have felt with blood mana is decreasing. For how much I use it, blood mana is still an external mana. If before, a part of my vital mana was converted into blood mana, now a part of my mana core has become able to store blood mana.


    This means that the concentration of blood mana in my mana core is going to increase. I will be able to drag more blood mana through my body as I cycle my vital mana. I wish there was a better way of controlling blood mana, but this all that I can do.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Vampires are able to pull of some pretty amazing things with this mana of theirs. If I can pull half of the things that they are able to then all of this work would have been worth it. All of the passive benefits that I have with blood mana is just growing. I am becoming stronger, faster and my senses are getting more sensitive with each passing day. The problem is that it really increases my dependence on my sword.


    If the sword does not taste blood every few days, it will consume my vital mana to power itself. Well, that was something that I expected would happened. My master has very clear notes on it for me.


    There is another problem. It is that I will have to achieve the major bond with the foundation slab for the process of integration to begin. Normally, the foundation slab integrates as it is created. Due to this a cultivator gets a steady increase in their mana storage as they complete their slab. In my case, my mana storage is going to increase in a few days, now that I have achieved the major bond. So that means that my mana control is going to take a hit for a while. Thankfully, this should not effect my work with inscribing.


    (After half a day.)


    The first thing that I think while looking at trevor is that the man looks exhausted. If anything the man looks like he could do with a massage. Well, I won''t be the one to say that to him. That is going to end up in a lecture lasting at least an hour about the softness of the youth of this generation.


    "Well, you look at me like I am about to drop dead in the next few minutes, kid.", he speaks, completely breaking my track of thoughts. "I am not that fragile, but I need you to focus. I need your help."


    "Well, as long as it is not fighting I should be able to manage it.", I reply. "I just need a couple days to recover from the damage that I have been inflicted. After that I can fight."


    "Weren''t your kind supposed to have advanced regeneration?", trevor asks.


    "Well, firstly I am not a vampire, to be their kind. Secondly, all of that requires me to make use of blood mana.", I reply. "With a vampire of the court up there that is a risk that I don''t want to take. If I were to fully activate my sword they will attack here within the hour."


    "Well, that''s good. We can make use of that.", he speaks.


    "Well, I can pull of something like that I think. As long as the other side does not have more vampires stationed there.", I reply. "For all the benefits that my sword gives me, fighting against vampires of the higher rank is going to be very hard. Especially one that is of the court."


    "Well, that is fine. I have a plan that might need bait.", he speaks. "If what you say is true, then push comes to shove, you will be able to attract the attention of the enemy."


    "Fine, what am I supposed to do?", I ask.


    "Well, you are going to the inn, kid.", he speaks, looking at my confusion. "And before you ask, that is one of the few bases of the bloodfire gang left in the city. One of two to be precise. They are making use of the inn as a temporary prison. It holds all the people that they have kidnapped, mainly merchants and the remaining guards of this town."


    As he speaks, the man sits down on a chair getting comfortable. This is going to take a while, it looks like.


    "Well, let me tell you the task I have been given. We are to engineer a mass jailbreak from the inn.", he continues.


    "Well, why are they involving us? Isn''t this something that they would like to do themselves.", I ask.


    "Well, that is true with most groups. The organisation is pretty different. You can say that they are more profit driven. Right now is business season for them. It would be more economical for us to do the rescuing so they will make us do it. It also allows them to make the most use out of the present situation.", he speaks. "Anyway, where was I, we have been tasked to save them and let as many prisoners out as possible."


    "What is the plan? You are not the kind to be without one.", I ask the man.


    "Well, I have already scouted the location for you. I already had a plan, but the bastards caught me at the last moment.", he continues, his voice receding to agitated mumbles. "I had reached the second floor as well. That bastard of a guard detected me at the last moment."


    "So that must mean that they are going to be alert for another attempt.", I reply, "well, since you have come to me, you must have a plan."


    "Well, not exactly a plan but I can get you the map of the place so you can have a plan of attack, but the problem is that somebody strong has been stationed there. It is not a captain, but they have been stationed there after my attempt", he replies. "It would be unwise to make a plan on old information, but I feel like we can risk it. They are not particularly smart, the people of this gang. The only thing is that we need to get a point of entry for you. Well, how confident are you with the disguise of a porter. I have heard that you already used it."


    "Well, I can''t be anything that obvious. The porters are going to be the first people that they will search through. The damn bastards have my posters stuck everywhere.", I reply. "And regardless of how carefully I try to hide my mana. The other side will only need to look at me with a bit of focus and they will be able to detect my blood mana."


    "Well, then we just need to make sure that the other side does not give you another glance.", he speaks. "I just need to get you into a couple of rags, I can make you a half decent beggar. The only problem is that you have such smooth hands. You really have let go of combat practice haven''t you."


    "Well, beggars are going to be even more searched than the porters.", I reply. "I have seen it happen so many time in my missions with the legions."


    "While you legioners are adept at the art of disguise, we at the guard corps are true master''s of it." He replies. "You don''t need to worry about that."


    "Well, we are hunted at every city that we visit.", I reply, a bit smugly "If our disguises are not perfect then we will be swamped with enemies."


    "Well, for you disguises are a matter of convenience. It is meant to stop you from having to fight at every city that you visit. There is no real cost to getting caught other than one more fight", he speaks. "For us at the guard corps, if our disguises are caught then it will be our death. We are not as strong as you guys."

 the inn (log 064.1)

    Well, I never expected that this is what I would be doing in an active combat zone. Then again I have rarely ever worked with the guard corps. At the moment I am thankful that I do not have a mirror.


    Otherwise I would have felt quite embarrassed. You see, right now I am wearing the guise of a beggar. It must be pretty realistic, the way that the people have been ignoring looking at me. (That is another reason that I don''t like the disguise of a beggar.)


    Well, the rags that I am wearing seem to fit me like I have been wearing them for years now. I have a staff at hand, to act as my support. Inside the staff is my sword, hidden in a fake compartment. If need be I can shatter the staff to get my sword.


    Meanwhile, the man has managed to age my face using makeup. Right now, anybody looking at me would think that I am a middle aged man, instead of a teen. Don''t ask me how the man managed to do it, but this is not even the most convincing part of my disguise.


    The honour of that would go to the false hump on my back. The man has managed to craft a false hunchback for me in such a convincing manner, that I am inclined to believe it myself and I haven''t even seen myself in a mirror.


    Just like everything else though I can get rid of it in a moment to get ready for a fight. (Don''t ask me how he did it, because I seriously don''t know.)


    Well, I would say that the worst part of this is that the best part of my disguise is not any of this, but the card that shows me as a part of the beggars guild.


    Turns out this fort has a beggars guild. I mean most forts have one. They are tasked with managing all the beggars in the fort after all, making sure that they are evenly spaced and not being too much of a bother to everybody.


    In places such as this, they also have the duty of making sure that nobody can roam about in the disguise of a beggar. That is why groups like the organisation are so useful to have. If you were to bribe the correct person in the beggars guild, you can get a few of their cards, to be used in situations like this.


    As for what the plan is, well I am going to enter into the inn through the kitchen. The people working at that inn, give out all their excess food to the beggars of the beggars guild. They usually do this by letting the beggars into the kitchen. It is not allowed, but not everybody has a heart of stone. It gives the beggars a place to escape from the heat.


    Even under new management, the people there are the same. I don''t even need to do much, just get into the fucking place. Even if I do not manage to save the people, I will be able to execute my backup plan at least.


    Right now I am standing outside the inn. It is an old and strong building, made of stone. I can see why the bloodfire gang has made this place their prison. With a bit of reinforcing they would be able to hold the place even if they are attacked from the inside or the outside.


    The place that we are standing in is a hidden corner of the inn, where people are not willing to look at. I can see why such a disguise is useful. Nobody has looked at my face ever since I have worn this disguise. Right now the threat is going to be the other beggars


    They are already giving me odd looks, as if they are trying to place where I am from. A few have already asked for my card. For now though nobody has caused me any problems. Right now everybody here is more worried about food rather than the odd guy that they can''t remember.


    As I am thinking this, the door finally opens leading into the kitchen. The instant it happens, I can feel all the beggars surge towards that area. I make myself a part of the crowd as I enter into the building.


    The kitchen is a simple place, with two gates. One is the one that I have just entered from and the other the one that leads into the inn. At the gate here is a single soldier, holding guard.


    The man is half asleep, clearly given the duty after a heavy lunch. More importantly his back is to me. Time to get into action. Channeling as much vital mana as I dare to crush the staff in my hand. As I do so, the fake hunch on my back falls away.


    Within a few moments I am back to normal. There are two cooks in the place, each looking at me with shock that makes me want to chuckle. So careless, I would have cut them into ten pieces before they squealed. I don''t do so as I sneak towards the guard.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    The man is not even able to fully open his eyes before my sword enters into his throat. One benefit of my sword is that it absorbs all blood it is in contact with, so there is no blood as the man grunts losing his life. Before leaving the kitchen though.


    "I am sorry but I have to knock you all out.", I speak to them all, the cooks and the beggars. "They will end up killing you if I were to just leave you alone."


    This is more a declaration than a conversation, as I charge towards the people. Before they can react I have hit them all with the butt of my sword, knocking them all out. I didn''t really need to speak with them, but it can be useful once in a while.


    Well, that was a bit of an unnecessary risk, but I can''t have them alerting everybody now can I. Time to return to the task. If the map that trevor has given me holds the kitchen will open into a tavern.


    From the tavern, I have to take a right and there will be a set of stairs that will lead to the second floor. That is one of the two stairs that go up, and should put me in the vicinity of the captured people.


    These people do not have a proper jail here. so they are using a storage room in the second floor to act as their prison. The remaining rooms hold the members of the gang stationed here. Well, if this was the legion, they would have cordoned of the entire floor.


    Living quarters and prisons should never go together like this. If they were separated, it would have been easy to make the stairs a checkpoint.


    They would be able to guard the place with only two soldiers. Right now, it would be pretty easy for me to sneak in. While thinking all this I have been crawlong to the stairs to this place.


    Once I climb up the stairs, I need to take a left and I will end up at the prison. Once I reach the place, my task is to free them all.


    The chaos caused by all the people escaping from this place should distract the bloodfire gang for a few days at least. Half of the people here are merchants that took to more violent means to protect their goods after all and the remaining half are the guards of the city.


    They might not be able to fight the bandits, but they make things very inconvenient for them. That is what the organisation is aiming for, to stop the bloodfire gang from completing their search for me.


    Now that they are out, they will be able to protect themselves in a better manner. After all, before they were caught offguard by the sudden appearance of the blood fire gang.


    Well, I really should stop losing focus like this in the middle of a combat zone. It is going to leave me in a mess one of these days.


    Well, this leads to a problem. This prison must have guards. If I take a left I need to be able to deal with that. If I had my fully intact mana sense or even the enhanced senses of my transformation, this would not have been a problem.


    Right now, I have no idea about the strength of the other side and I can''t enter into a messy fight here. The only disadvantage of having a prison in a living space is this. Right now almost every person that is in this building is sleeping here in this floor.


    That is actually why sneaking into this place has been so easy. Everybody had a pretty heavy lunch and are sleeping it of right now.


    Well, this has always been the riskiest part of my mission. If I manage to get through it, I will manage to sneak into the place. The people here must be in a similar situation as the guard below, half asleep.


    I can take their life without any noise if there are two people. It will become hard if there are more than two people. Well, the longer that I stay out here the more that I risk getting discovered.


    Well, here it goes. I take the turn and almost sigh in relief. There are two soldiers, who have barely reacted to my presence. As they realise my presence I am already charging towards them, my sword already out of my hand.


    The sword pierces one of the guards in his throat, absorbing his blood. Meanwhile, I have reached the throat of the other person strangling him. I literally smother out any scream out of the man.


    I stay still for a few moments struggling to control my formation. Right now I am actively suppressing the formation. Otherwise, it would have activated the second that it touched blood.


    It feels like stopping yourself in the middle of swallowing. You feel like you are about to choke and you just feel uncomfortable all over. I will be able to the stop the sword for now. I won''t be able to do it for long. Well, I don''t really need long.


    Well, I am not hearing anything right now. Looks like I might actually be able to pull of something like this. As carefully as I can, I open the door. Thankfully whoever is running this inn must be doing well to oil his doors.


    The people inside the room have the good sense to keep quiet as I enter into the room. If they were to scream, well I am here to save these bastards only but I can still escape on my own.


    As I enter into the room I look at the people in the room. Well, a quick scan shows me a bunch of scared people. Well, amongst vampires that is to be expected. prisoners usually tend to be food to the vampires.


    I sign the people to leave. Even with my clear indication the people are not leaving the damn place. This is going to be annoying. I sign them to leave with me again. Should I command them to do so. I want to, but speaking is risky. If they all are whispering it would still be fine, but In such a large group it easily become screams I find.


    Even with my repeated signing the people are not moving. I go towards the person nearest to me, while speaking as loudly as I dare to.


    "Follow me yo....."


    I stop midway as I look into the eyes of the person that I was about to follow. The man looks paralysed in fear. That shouldn''t be for me. As I jump backwards I can feel the sword pierce into my stomach. The thing that chills my heart is the blood flowing into the sword.

 escaping the inn (log 064.2)

    Well, this is a mess. I wonder what tipped of the other party about my presence. Well, there was always the chance that I would have failed. Trevor has planned the entire thing expecting this very eventuality.


    The other party is a lady, clearly a vampire. That is the only way that she would be able to wield a vampires artifact. I mean I have seen a vampires artifact only once before, so I can''t really confirm it.


    They are supposed to be relics made from vampire bones (that is where I got the idea for my sword actually) though nobody ever makes one from a grunts bone. Only a vampire of the court would have access to such a weapon. She is clearly not one of the captains, so I have no idea about her power. She could be a noble for all I care. The weaker kind at least.


    Well, this is going to be annoying. As I am steadily retreating, the lady has removed her sword from it''s unfortunate victim. He already looks like a drained husk.


    "Well, you are the grunt that destroyed lady erica.", she speaks. "She has put a bounty on you, you know."


    "Well, she can put as much of a bounty on me as she wants. She won''t be able to find me.", I reply. Well, what I said is technically true. How would they find me when they are looking for me at the court.


    "That is quite a bit of confidence, you half transformed mutt.", she speaks. "But you are standing in front of me. I can give your corpse to lady erica today itself."


    As she speaks, she moves at me with that sword of hers. A sidestep is enough to dodge her strike. Not that she commits to her attack. The instant that she sees me dodging, she retreats returning to her previous position. If I were to strike, I am sure that I will face a vicious counterattack.


    She is being careful with her attacks, which I can''t really complain about at this moment. I have to make sure that this does not end up in a fight. After all, these people can still be saved. There is the backup plan after all.


    "Well, I am sure that you will try. I wonder who you are though.", I speak "you do not speak like the nobles. So you are not a possessed underling. You certainly are not a common underling boosted to your present position with that sword. You are of the court."


    "Who knows. I might be the lost heir of an ancient family. I might be sleeping with one of the counts. I might even be a blood descendant of the vampire king.", she replies, with a smirk on her face. "Right now, your identity is the more curious one. Who are you?"


    "Well, I cannot make it that easy to you, now can I.", I speak looking at the door. The lady opposite me has not made any noise to wake up her crew. Maybe she wants the glory of killing me, maybe she is confident that she can kill a half transformed mutt without her troop. (Arrogance has screwed people more powerful than you and me.) I don''t know but she at least has not made any move to reveal me.


    "Well, you don''t need to do anything.", she speaks. "A sword capable of suppressing blood mana. There are not many people capable of making something like that. Your identity is easy to discover."


    As she speaks, she swipes her sword at me playfully. It doesn''t even reach close to me. Even without blood mana, her movements are too precise. This is a proper vampire grunt. Thankfully she is not a noble or that strike would have been in my head.


    "Someone with your training is also very rare.", she continues. "I wonder which of my lady''s enemy was willing to waste such a talent before even allowing them to shine."


    "Why does everybody say that.", I wonder out loud. Sadly the lady does not bother to answer me.


    Well, I don''t know what to do. I could try and escape through the door behind me. If I do that though, the lady will be forced to wake the gang to attack me. As wonderous as the gifts of a vampire are, their punishments are more painful. Especially the ones that come for failure.


    Right now my goal is the window which is just behind the lady. I just need the lady to get away from that window and I will be able to jump out of it. Jumping from the first floor will be dangerous but I will be able to get lost before the lady can awaken the gang. Already, our clashes must be rousing a few of these bastards. Who can tell?Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    I might break my legs, but with the life force that I have absorbed I will be able to fix it quite easily. The only problem is that I need the lady to get away from the window without tipping her off.


    That is going to be another problem, actually. Forcing my sword shut like this is going to have consequences. It is not going to activate with the promptness that it usually does. There is going to be a delay in my transformation. A minute at most, which is quite quick but a minute in a duel is often enough to decide the duel.


    "What are you planning to do here? I am sure that you have not come to this place for the loot.", I ask. As I ask I take a step towards the right. I am hoping that she thinks I am doing this to get a better position. (I am actually taking a better position, so it isn''t really a waste.)


    "Quite bold of you. To ask something like that directly.", she replies, taking a step to the left to be directly opposite me again (and a bit more away from the window.) "All of us serve the king in our own ways."


    Well, vampires have always been a secretive bunch. Even the scholars have never acquired much from them. The only thing that we really know about them is the basic structure of the court.


    "Well, I am sure that you can give me something.", I reply, I take another step to the right as the lady looks at me. "You are certainly not here for the loot. Such paltry things would not attract the great vampires. Especially those from the court."


    "Well, the...." She speaks, stopping as she suddenly squints her eyes at me. "You don''t know. You are a poor sucker, to think that your master was not even willing to inform you on this. He clearly expected you to die."


    "My master has told me all that I need to know.", I reply, taking another step to the right. I don''t need to wait for long to escape. "Anyway how are you so sure that you will be killing me."


    "Well, every fool has his delusions.", she replies. "Even if I don''t kill you today, you are going to die soon enough."


    I don''t reply to this. I can''t reveal that I am not of the court now can I and that is what is going through my mind right now. The only reason that we have not entered a fight already is because the lady thinks that we are colleagues.


    In the court, everybody might be your ally and everybody might be your enemy. You never screw with a man that is going to be your ally tommorow. That is a good way to get a dagger in your back, especially in the court.


    "Well, if you are going to get me killed then you might as well tell me how you got that sword of yours.", I ask.


    "Well, you are certainly hung up on that. You do realise just how invasive such a question is. I might as well ask you how it felt for you to transform.", she replies, a grimace appearing on her face. Why the hell is she annoyed.


    "Well, well. I apologise. No need to take it seriously.", I speak, taking another step to the right with the lady mirroring my action. A couple of steps and I will be able to make my escape.


    She doesn''t reply to this as we stare at each other. That actually leaves me to wonder where exactly the people in the room are. A quick glance to my side reveals that everybody has flattened themselves against the wall.


    Well, they will still get hurt if we were to go all out, but they are going to be relatively fine for a few clashes. I think I have time for that only. As soon as I realise this, I have to jump back as the lady makes use of this distraction to get another strike at me.


    I barely manage to block it, but she manages to get another strike at me. I make use of this time to get closer to the window. As she strikes at me I realise.


    "You cannot allow these people to get hurt.", I speak. "I assume that your master has commanded you to protect these people. They are your blood bags."


    The look of surprise on her face is enough to confirm my suspicions. Vampires really don''t like to draw attention to the fact that they need to drink blood and that is the purpose of people put here. What I have just spoken out loud is equivalent to speaking about our underwear to them.


    Well, that is good. This enough for me as I finally let go of the restriction I forced on my sword. As I do so I can feel the lady charge at me. Entering into a defensive stance I block her attack, using the force of her blow to push her back.


    I can feel the pain in my stomach disappear as the blood mana surging into me makes my body stronger. Not by as much as I would like, but it will do for now. As I release the formation I realise just how uncomfortable it had gotten for me to stop my sword from creating blood mana. A while longer and it would have become physically painful as well.


    It is kind of like stoping yourself from peeing, when you have already started peeing.


    As I do so, the lady does the same thing that I had done. Her blood mana surges as we cross swords. The force of her strikes is enough to cause my legs to buckle, but I somehow hold on.


    I had forgotten that the lady in front of me was a proper grunt. The boost that she gets from blood mana is way more than I will ever get in my life. Her body is literally designed to accept blood mana. Well, the more that I drag this fight the more I will progress in my transformation.


    "Well, that was unexpected.", I speaks, blocking another strike of hers.


    Right now my arms feel like somebody has released worms inside my body. Seriously just how much of a boost did she get.


    "A bit of mercy, after all I might work with you in the future.", I speak, though maybe I shouldn''t have.


    I barely manage to block her strike. Well, can I really call it blocking it when the force of her strike was enough to cause me to fly across the room. Well, I have hit the wall right next to the window. the impact is not pretty though as I feel like my back has become paste under the impact of this collision.


    Well, I have reached my goal so I do not delay any longer as I jump through the window. The next thing I know is the pain in my left leg. I had landed on it. I must have twisted it in the process of landing.


    Well, there is nobody that is following me. So it looks like the lady is taking the usual routes down this place. She is not as adventurous as me. Well, I can literally hear the chaos erupt as my senses finally kick into high gear. This is the last bit of my transformation which is complete now. (Seriously that transformation took absurdly long.) Well, It is time for me to disappear from this place.

 the brawl (log 064.3)

    Well it has been almost an hour since I have run away from the lodge. I have been sneaking through the city moving at random. The main purpose of this has been to leave a clear trail of my presence without actually revealing it. At least not immediately. The lady can try and follow me, but it will take her a while.


    Even if vampire grunts can sense blood mana, it is not something that they can do easily. At least someone more combat oriented like that lady will not be able to do it. I have heard stories about the vampires at the court though.


    Right now I am in an abandoned lodge quite far away from the enemy and the inn. The owner of this place was the very first victim of the gang. I am in the first floor, in what I have to assume is the tavern of the lodge. The place is perfect. Anyone''s entry into this place will be quite obvious to me and the place won''t be missed even if I were to end up demolishing the place. The owner of the place must already be dead. Not that such a intense fight will happen.


    I have an ace in the hole for when such a damn thing will occur. I sit down on the floor, feeling the orb of black metal I have stashed in my shoes.


    Trevor actually has got his hand on a pretty rare formation this far north. It''s called as the void bomb. It is supposed to create a mist in which all the senses are blocked completely. The people stuck in it feel as if they are stuck in a endless void. It is a class eight formation, but it will easily have the cost of a class seven formation. This close to the hexmountain, it would cost even more.


    I could have used it during the infiltration but that would have been a pretty poor use of such a formation. The thing with this formation is that you should be able to pick the battlefield to use it. That was the enemies homeground.


    One problem is that this is a double edged sword. I can just as easily get affected by the void bomb. Another problem is the time it takes to use it. I need to charge the bomb with my mana, before throwing. Vampires are sharp enough to dodge it if they realise what I am doing.


    Still if they get trapped in it, there will be little that I will need to do. Escaping the void is nearly impossible, except by accidently walking away from its edges or when the mana powering it is over. Regardless of which occurs, this will buy me at least ten minutes of time. Granted I don''t get stuck in it myself.


    That will be enough for me to disappear into the sewers. That is another benefit of this place. There is a opening to the sewers here from which I can make a quick escape. After all that is the backup plan that Trevor has proposed, mainly because it is going to reveal the organisations presence in the sewers.


    It is quite simple, if a bit risky. Vampire clans are nearly legendary for their infighting. If a clan is doing something, you will find its opposing clan somewhere nearby trying to make it fail. I was transformed when I killed the lady.


    Trevor and I assume that she thinks of me as a suicidal attacker of some clan. She did keep calling me a half converted mutt, so I have to assume that the same thought is forwarded to the bloodfire gang.


    Right now I will transform using the sword, pushing out my mana like a beacon for the bloodfire gang. Fully converted grunts with control over their blood mana should be able to sense blood mana in their surroundings even if it is not their masters, though they would only be able to do it barely.


    To complete the plan, I will be acting as a bait to the enemy while Trevor will sneak into the place and free the people. They certainly won''t be expecting me to have an ally. (Even if they did, trevor has a bag of tricks I am starting to realise.) Right now I have fully stopped any restriction on my sword as the blood mana produced leaves me fully powered. The lady that I have just escaped from should be able to detect me quite easily.


    If they knew that I was from the guard corps, they would have promptly ignored me. Because they consider me as a part of the court, they will not be able to ignore me. Such an obvious provocation from my side will need answering. If they don''t come to attack me now, then it will be equivalent to damaging the reputation of their master in the court and reputation is very hard to build up in the court.


    (After about fifteen minutes.)


    Well here they are. The first thing that I can confirm that it is two enemies, one coming down the only set of stairs in the place, which is quite creaky. The other has just threw a rock through a window. At the very least stealth does not seem to be a skill of theirs. That is good, because stealthy vampires are the worst.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    The lady is the first to find me. She comes at me the instant that she locates me, as I block her strike. I don''t allow her to maintain a momentum as I keep pressing my attack on her.


    In a few moments, I hold the more dominant position. (What, the only reason my performance was so bad before was that my transformation was delayed the last time.) She does have training, but the court is more a place of intrigue than fighting. She might be physically stronger than me but my skill with the sword is greater.


    I don''t get to keep it up though as the second vampire comes to attack. It is a man, who is thankfully using his claws. If they had another artifact I would be screwed. I am barely able to get in a strike into the bastards side, as his claws aim for my heart. I block using my hand, while stabbing one of his legs.


    I can feel a string of vital mana flowing from the man to me. If before the fusion this string was single string, now it is like four or five of those strings have merged to form a new string. The amount of lifeforce I am getting now is way more than I could before. It could also be due to the fact that a vampire has more vital mana than is normal.


    I jump back taking a defensive position. We stare at each other for a while after which the lady strikes finally. I block her sword, as the man tries to sneak behind me. He is aiming for my heart, which I dodge by ducking.


    For a second, I have the hope that the man would end up hitting the lady, but even she jumps to the side, barely dodging it. The two people don''t know how to work together at the very least. That is good news.


    (After a couple of minutes.)


    I have been keeping the two bastards quite busy for a while now.


    I gave up on offense completely as I danceed around the tavern blocking and dodging. I exploit every bit of the unfamiliarity that the two people have with each other and to their surroundings. Honestly speaking, it is their inability to work together rather than my skill that has left me so pristine in this fight.


    I will not be able to maintain this for long though. My mana expenditure in the fight has been constant, while the two can be more conservative with their mana. As if that was not enough, I took an injury. It is a pretty inconsequential injury, but it takes a constant stream of vital mana to make sure it doesn''t get worse.


    I jump to the side, dodging the lady''s sword. It has taken on a greyish colour by now. I assume that something quite deadly will happen if I get hit by that thing. This is going to be something other than my blood being absorbed. That is mana of the earth element. This would be a ideal time to attack, but I am forced to dodge as the man appears to my side. I use the sword to block him.


    I feel a sharp pang of pain. The lady managed to sneak in an attack, in that while. The new effect of the sword seems to be petrification, as my skin begins to take on a greyish tone. I have to push mana into my wounds. The petrification is stalled temporarily. With enough time I will be able to expel that mana but you can''t really meditate in a battlefield.


    And thus I begin to lose. I believe I hold a pretty formidable defense but that can only be confirmed by my enemy. I block both of them as much as possible but my mana is already approaching the bottom of the tank.


    On hindsight, maybe I did not really need to fight for so long. I could have used the void bomb five minutes ago and escape, but I kind of got lost in the fight. A person of the legion is supposed to be good at fighting, even if he has left it for years now. Still, The only thing that I was supposed to be doing was buy some time for Trevor to do his thing. I really should think about escape now. Well, I got an idea but it is going to be quite painful.


    I jump back barely dodging a sword strike from the lady. Now is seriously not the time for complicated planning so it is a simple plan.


    I jump back again, feeling my back hit the wall. Fuck, I can feel both of them charging in to take a swing. I duck down, not dodging the enemies blows, but to reach my shoes.


    The lady redirects her blade right into my back. The Sword is lodged solidly in my back. I can feel my flesh beginning to petrify as I pour all of my remaining mana into the block of black metal in my hand.


    I seriously hope that I have not calculated the range wrong as I throw the block at the two people, who as I expected bolted backwards away from me. Well, I had accounted for that. The black metal suddenly expands forming a sphere of pure blackness. It seems to be devouring the very light in the world. Turns out I did calculate the range wrong, the sphere has formed up right next to me, close enough that I can see the sphere eat up my nose.


    Almost in fear I take a step backwards hitting the wall behind me. My nose is still there thankfully, but I still keep moving. Pulling out the ladies sword, I move away from the place. After all, knowing my luck I am sure that the two people will make their way out of the place any second, getting out of that void out of pure luck.


    The petrification has not stopped completely, so I cycle my vital mana just enough to form a equilibrium (just enough to stop any further petrification). Just that takes a significant chunk of my mana.


    I hope that the organisation does not make me deal with more headaches like this. Even if they do, at the very least I got a magical tool from this endeavor. A vampires sword at that. Thinking this I begin to hobble, going to the gutter entrance that is hidden in this place.


    I am telling you, if after all of this trevor ends up failing at his task. I am going to personally strangle him.

 The aftermath (log 065)

    Well, I feel like punching somebody right now. The issue is with my left ankle. I seem to have got it twisted in my escape from the inn. Normally it should have healed already but the damn thing is still aching. I just need to put my weight on it and it feels like somebody is pulling out all of my nerves out of my body.


    Other than that though, I have managed to heal myself quite well. Well, I have been using my sword for the last couple of days. I still can''t activate it fully or it would be detected but right now the bloodfire gang has other worries than to detect a small trace of blood mana in the sewers. Grunts do not have a mana sense as sensitive as mine after all. They still can detect blood mana pretty well though.


    Well, all of these injuries have been worth it at least. After all, the prison break has been more than succesful. I am sure that even trevor could not have predicted that it would be this effective, regardless of what he claims. Right now the bloodfire gang has lost almost all of its influence in the city. I guess that I should elaborate a bit more on that.


    There were two main types of prisoners in the inn, the first were the guards of the mayfire castle. They were the people that are charged with maintaining order in the castle before the invasion. While they are not particularly skilled at fighting, they are familiar with the city.


    They make use of their familiarity with the city to setup ambushes for the bloodfire gang. Any time the bloodfire gang has a group going on a raiding session, they find the guards of the city in the process. They are looted of everything on their body, especially their weapons.


    Whenever the gang tries to send a large group of their underlings after them, they disappear like ghosts. Due to this, the bloodfire gang has taken to moving in groups of at least ten to twenty people. This has greatly reduced their reach in the city.


    It has at least stopped their mad rampage in the city. Even if they want to pull of something like that again, they simply won''t be able to do so at the pace they had before. Well, now that I think about it even if they wanted to pull of something like that again they simply will not be able to.


    The reason for that is the other half of the prisoners. The other half of prisoners in that group were the merchants. They were merchants that made the mistake of fighting the bloodfire gang. Most of them are ex mercenaries or ex guards that have abandoned their old position to become merchants. They are the type to still hide their weapons in their shops, meant for folks like the bloodfire gang.


    The merchants must have been taken as a warning. The goal of the gang must have been to intimidate the folks of the city. After all, what is happening to them is nothing pleasant. Being fed on by a vampire is not a pleasant experience. The fangs of the vampires contain a kind of toxin which numbs their victim of all their pain.


    It is supposed to make them feel a sense of pleasure. A person would literally be smiling as their life is drained out of their body. I have seen people stumbling from a lack of blood, trying to get bit by their master so that they can feel that ecstacy even as their life is being drained out of them.


    It is not a pleasant sight to witness. That is why vampires do not find it that hard to take over towns. The damn bastards can finetune the art of the stick and carrot to extreme degrees.


    Anyways, I have completely lost track of what I was saying. The merchants are the violent type was my point and they are taking their revenge pretty well. Most of the merchants have taken to the sewers themselves. (Nowhere near the organisation''s land) Any pirate troop that dares to enter into the sewers, are killed with extreme prejudice.


    All in all, the influence of the bloodfire gang is completely wrecked. They are nowhere near defeated, mind you. They have just focussed all of their power into one location and they are not moving away from that place.


    The place that they have made their base is the guardhouse of the outer keep. It is supposed to be a place that is built to withstand a invasion and that is all I really know about the place.


    As for why I know so little about the place. Well, all of this is something that I have just been hearing from the mouth of trevor to be honest and the man is being completely quiet about the place. He is of the feeling that I am better of not knowing about there until I recover enough to actually participate. Seeing that my recovery is going to take another week at least, that man is not going to tell me anytime soon.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    From my side that is actually fine. I do need some time to heal. The only problem with healing is just how boring it can be. Right now, I am waiting for my ankle to heal and don''t have anything that is worth doing at this moment. If I had my formations at the very least I would have something to do.


    The pain is enough that I don''t feel like studying my notes and working on my cultivation at this time would be equivalent to suicide. If the pain were to flair up at the wrong time, I might just end up poking a hole into my mana core.


    The only thing that I have to do is to study the sword I looted from that lady vampire, which I have dubbed as the "rock sword" until I can think of a better name for it. Well, I have seen a vampires artifact only once in my life. It was the spoils of war from one of our missions.


    It was a spear, with the spear tip being made from the bone of a vampire count. It was a particularly bad mission too. This group of grunts were trying to get possessed by a vampire from the court. It was a proper cult as well.


    We can''t be sure exactly which vampire it was, but we are sure that it was a count. It was a proper blood bath. You see the stronger a vampire is the more costly it is to summon them even for possession. (You need to sacrifice at least twenty to thirty bodies to get enough blood mana.)


    A basic vampire soldier (the stage beyond the grunt.) can possess a grunt directly, but with those higher up in the court, they require a lot of blood sacrifices to be summoned, even as a spirit.


    Thankfully, the legion was present there and we managed to stop the ritual, though it was a close thing. The instant that we recovered the spear we destroyed it within the week. I was the only person allowed to study it because I had already begun work on my sword then and I was sure that studying the spear would have helped me with the bloody fang. Well, it was kind of useless as I didn''t really learn anything.


    Well, the sword that I have at hand is about as useful as the spear. The problem with both of them is the same. The thing is that with a vampires artifact, I simply have no idea how to activate the damn thing.


    I have been probing around the entire thing for a week now and I have gotten nothing of use. It is full of runes, that I am barely able to detect. I have been probing about their functions for a week now and the only thing that I can tell is that the damn thing guzzles through my vital mana.


    Well, that could be due to the fact that it uses only blood mana and my concentration of blood mana is still pretty abysmal compared to a true vampire.


    Well, that is also the reason that I have not managed to activate the petrification effect. I don''t think I expected to anyway. Well, it is essentially dead weight in my hands. The only thing that I can use it is to study the blood magic of the vampires. right now I am activating the runes in the sword and seeing how it works.


    Now the problem is that this is not going to happen easily. The scholars have to study for centuries, to figure out one of the spells of the elves and they have one of the most detailed records on the continent for elven magic.


    With blood magic, I have nothing like that. I have nothing at all. The court made sure of that. The problem is figuring out the purpose of a rune is not easy. It is like language in that regard. Every rune has a particular purpose.


    Every rune brings about a particular change in the world. The only problem is figuring out that particular change. With language, it is still easy since everything you need to understand is on the paper with you.


    Let''s say you get a book from some ancient dead era and when you need to decipher that book, you need to guess the mood of the person that was writing the book. A symbol written in anger would mean something different from a word written in boredom and so on.


    Working with runes is kind of like that as well. The problem with runes is that beyond the shape of the runes, you also need to figure out the intent of the rune as well.


    Figuring out the intent is always the hardest. For example, a spark spell with an offensive intent will absorb as much mana as possible to give as large a spark as possible. The same spark rune, if given the instantaneous intent would burn all the mana provided to create as hot a spark as possible.


    Just the spark rune has seventeen runes like that, all of which would have the same shape with the only difference being in intent. At least figuring out the intent is straightforward. I just need to feed the rune with my mana and try to predict their behaviour from they way that they react.


    It is not particularly dangerous. It is just very time consuming and the possibility of making errors is very high. I just need to make sure that I am activating only single runes. If I were to activate a set, there is a possibility that the sword might explode on my face. The chance of that happening is pretty low, since I will be very careful about it after all.


    Now the truly dangerous thing would be to build something on my own using these half formed ideas. The chances of that exploding on my face is pretty high. Well, I have nowhere near enough information to attempt something like that.


    Now I am not the variety to take such a risk but the potential benefits of it are worth it. Right now, the blood mana in my body is still pretty less so it is fine. That is not going to be the case forever. Soon enough, I will have enough blood mana to activate this artifact and I will be going beyond that soon enough as well.


    The only way that I will be able to make full use of that mana is to learn blood magic. The problem is where exactly am I supposed to learn blood magic from. I could sell myself to a vampire but then becoming a grunt would be the better option.


    This is the only way that I have. Well, studying runes is something that I will have to learn anyways. There is simply no way that my master will skip teaching that. The man loves learning new runes too much to skip that.

 the heist (log 066)

    Finally Trevor has been involving me in the planning of this heist of his. If you can call single sided conversations as conversations. He is basically telling me the plans that he has made as formality. This formality is not even meant to respect me. The only reason that I know anything is because my security clearance is lower than his and he wants to tell everybody what he has learnt. More people can read my logs than his.


    The annoying thing about that is that both Andrew and Jacob now know more about this mission than me. They have been helping the man in all of this, gathering information for him. The man has been keeping the two of them quite busy.


    Well to get to business, the very first thing that I had understood is why the hell the inn was so easy to breach. The damn place does not even have a quarter of the forces of the blood heart gang and none of the four remaining captains were stationed there. The base is essentially like one big scarecrow protecting something for the bloodfire gang. Anybody would find nothing of value at the inn, other than a few prisoners. Granted it is these prisoners that is causing half their problems right now.


    Even Trevor and the organisation do not seem to know what it is that they are protecting. All they know it is something that is very important to the bastards and they have been quite careful in that things protection. Trevor thinks that it has something to do with how the gang has managed to destroy the barrier of the outer keep.


    He can''t say for certain, but they must have that thing ready somewhere. This weapon of theirs must be at the guard house or it must be in their crownship.


    All they know about the thing inside the guard house is that it is some kind of a statue, covered in odd etchings that are definitely not formation markings. It was acquired from some kind of an old elven ruin. That is all we know about it.


    If rumours are to be believed it is the statue of an elven god, with traces of divinity on it. Naturally these are rumours, otherwise the clergy of most gods would destroy this fort for such a blasphemy. Though knowing that the other side is funded by vampires is blasphemy enough for most clergies.


    This could also be one of the gods of the vampires. If that is the case, it is better to be very careful. They are supposed to be very powerful, but equally lazy. All in all, it would be wise not to mess with that statue. Regardless of whose it is, dealing with the gods is a messy business always.


    Anyways, regardless of what it is they have a constant force of soldiers protecting it, and at least one of the captains is always near it. As for where the other captains are, trevor thinks that all of them are presently inside the inner keep. We have not found any traces of them at least in the outer keep.


    All the forces that they had stationed at the inn have also been directed here. That reminds me, the organisation has managed to get quite the profit due to the prison break. It is almost as if they have been given wings the way that they have been smuggling people out of the city. So they have finally stopped irritating trevor and by extension me.


    Leaving all of that aside, whatever treasure that they are protecting is not the goal of our mission. Instead our goal is in the room right next to the treasury, where they would be guarding such a precious thing. The guard house of the mayfire castle is a simple structure considering all things. It is built up of the same kind of rock as the walls of this fort. That makes it quite indestructible and quite resistant to assaults.


    The only benefit is that the building is not peppered with as many traps as the walls of the fort. If that was the case, there is no way that we would be able to sneak into the place. The guards of this place must be majorly non mages. They are more than likely to set of these traps themselves if they were placed here.


    Other than that, the entire thing is a box, refreshingly simple compared to other such buildings. The treasury and the accounting room is near the northern side of the building. Our Target is right in the accounting room. It is the accounting books of the guards containing all of the business deals made by the guards of this fort.


    Such information will be quite useful to the organisation as they can do quite a bit with this knowledge. For example, if they were to find out which blacksmith (there must be many) manages the creation, maintenance and repair of the guard''s weapons. Killing that blacksmith would cause them to stumble for a bit. This would prove quite useful if say they were going on a large scale search operation for the organisation and they suddenly find their favourite blacksmith unable to sharpen their weapons.


    That is why no blacksmith would go about boasting about this fact in the first place. They can also predict the actions of the guards based on the orders given to said blacksmith. For example, a increase in weapons ordered would mean that the guards are about to become more active, which would be a cue to the organization to calm things a bit. Maybe take a vacation.


    All of that is just from the blacksmiths. The record books would contain even more than that. Masons, architects, apothecaries and so much more. I would not be surprised if the organisation would be able to predict every single move of the enemy, at least for a while.


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    And all of this is considering the fact that the guards would be angels, without a hint of corruption. The organisation would be able to control quite a significant chunk of the guards simply by threatening the more corrupted folk of the guardhouse. Then they would just need to ask the soldier for all this information frankly.


    If the organisation makes full use of this information, they would be able to keep the guards of this place under their thumb. With how scared trevor is of them, they should be able to pull of something like this.


    I can see why the organisation has been so persistent in finding these books. It would certainly give them quite the edge in this city. It would be enough to make them solidly grounded in this fort, I tell you. With how much they have spent in building this sewer base of theirs, solidly grounded is something that they would love to be.


    Well, wanting it and getting it are two different things. The place is pretty heavily guarded, and that is even before considering all the extra people that would be standing guard in that area. Firstly, sneaking up to the building is itself going to be a significant problem.


    Surrounding the guard house is a moat, which won''t be doing much against an enemy charge but is certainly going to make sneaking into the place very hard. If we were to be detected en route, we would be converted into pincushions with the number of arrows they will shoot at us. (Oh yeah, the guardhouse also has all the weapons of the guards in the place. While swords and such things are not a problem, the bows and arrows are going to be a problem.)


    Even if we got into the building, there is the issue of patrols. The treasury is right next to the accounting room and the place is quite consistently patrolled by the captain of the bloodfire gang stationed there. If we are not able to keep them occupied then we have failed.


    While I can certainly hold them off, that would lead to the the third hurdle in this matter we will not be able to manage and that would be the formations guarding the books. It won''t be anything heavyweight like the grimoire, but it is still going to be a challenge, especially since I have to do it so quietly.


    Also, trevor certainly would not be able to open this formation. If he did, such formations are designed to destroy what is inside it if somebody were to be a bit rough with it.


    As for how we are going to manage this thing, I have no idea. All of the planning I have left to trevor and the man is even less forthcoming about his plans than I am. Let''s just say, I will discover what is about to occur at the same time as you.


    I just hope that this time our stealth will actually end up working. The thing is stealth has not worked for me even once in this mission. The first time that it was screwed up was the fight with the demon. Granted, I still think that was something of a success. At least it created the misunderstanding that I was of the court. Even the second time, trevor was more than confident that my stealth would fail. To be frank, things went exactly as he planned. The damn bastard even planned my random route to the inn.


    Now the man assures me that stealth will not fail us and I certainly hope that it does not. I don''t think that I will survive another fight here especially with a captain.


    I might have fought a captain, but that was when the person had sacrificed quite a bit of his reserves for a summoning ritual. Even if the person controlling it was an higher noble, they simply did not have enough mana to fight properly. If she had a full mana reserve, I don''t think that the fight would be so easy.


    Even with so many benefits the lady basically managed to own me. The only reason that I managed to beat her was the burial ground. This time whatever captain is here will have way more mana than me. Of that you can be sure.


    I am saying all this not even considering the fact that I will have to deal with those grunts as well. They must certainly be a part of the forces there as well. This is not going to be an easy fight.


    Even with the boost that I got from completing the second slab, that is not a fight I am going to be winning. Oh by the way, I have finally started working on my third foundation slab.


    As for my physical condition. I am about as fine as I can be. there is a patch work of wounds all over my body, most of them in the final stages of healing.


    Quite a few of them are about to scar, it looks like. Well, I am not too worried about that though. Right now my only worry is my ankle. It has healed, but the damn thing is still paining. The pain is not particularly intense.


    It is a small stinging sensation, which I can ignore almost all the time. The problem is that the wound is supposed to be fully healed and it is not supposed to hurt.


    The only reason that this might be an issue is if my ankle has not set properly in the healing process. If that has happen, the only way that I can set it properly is to rebreak my ankle and heal it again.


    The process is about as pretty as it sounds. I have seen troop captains in the legion cringe in fear at having to do something like this. For now though, I will leave it as I have a mission to complete. Screw it, I am done recording. I have managed to work myself into a panic again.

 infiltrating the guard house (log 067.1)

    Well, the guard house is certainly a very hard place to sneak into. The main problem with the place is that it has been built like a miniature fort. Much like the place it has been built in, the guard house has a wall that is surrounding it.


    On top of this miniature wall, it also has a moat that is surrounding it. Well, calling it a moat is wrong. It is more like a channel that you are more likely to find at a farm than anything else.


    The purpose that it serves is also different from real moats. Instead of a line of defense the thing is meant to be used to make patrolling the place a bit easier. overall, it is kind of useless.  I would say that this place is more like a glorified sewage.


    As for why I can tell this confidently I am right wading through this moat myself. The smell of the place is the only thing that would be deadly to a would be attacker.


    We began sneaking into the place about half an hour ago and we have spent a majority of the time Inside the moat. You see, there are no buildings that are surrounding the guardhouse. After all what is the point of building a miniature fort like this while leaving a potential spot for infiltration by having buildings right next to it.


    Well, they might as well have had something built, when they left a moat for us to hide in. While hiding in the moat is not particularly comfortable it is the only way that we would be able to sneak into the place.


    It is a pretty right fit, since the stream in the fort is barely capable of reaching my knees. The only way that we are able to hide ourselves in the damn thing is by crawling in it. I am sure that must sound almost impossible, but it is not that hard if you are trained for it.


    Most mages are capable of holding their breathe for hours on end. While neither Trevor nor me are capable of pulling that off, both of us can pull of stretches of few minutes quite easily. I think that I can push myself to do ten minutes if the need be.


    Well, I don''t really need to push myself if I am being honest. That would have been a worry if the pirates that are doing the patrolling above me were any good at their job. Well, pirates already are not the most disciplined bunch.


    The fact that they are even willing to follow schedules like this is a surprise for me. they should not be willing to do that. If they were actually willing to do something like that they would have been a part of an actual army.


    Well, even if the vampires have somehow motivated the gang to act as guards, they are not particularly good at it. The patrols on this wall is a mess if I am honest. Every delay in a person reporting to his position means that part of the wall is unsupervised.


    That gives us plenty of opportunities to pop up and take a breathe. If this was the soldiers that the mayfires must have put here than this would have been more stressful. I might actually have to touch my ten minutes limit if they were here.


    Well, just because hiding in the moat is easy does not mean that it is pleasant. I was not kidding when I called this place a sewage. this  place is basically being treated as a sewer.


    The moat is basically full of debris through under which we are moving through. Everything from the food that they have thrown away to their shit is floating in the moat. I can fell all of this slide across my back.


    The only reason that I am bearing with this shit (literally) is because this will allow us to sneak into the guardhouse, relatively undetected. As for how we are going to be doing that, we are doing that through the toilets of this people.


    As I told you, the people are shitting into the moat and the only way that they can do that is to literally make holes in the ground and shit through it. Trevor thinks that with a bit of creative climbing and sawing we will be able to sneak into the guardhouse undetected.


    That is why we are sitting here waiting in the moat. Right in front of us is the toilets of the guardhouse. Right now, we are waiting for the period in which a majority of the pirates up there are unlikely to make use of the washrooms.


    That time is something that trevor is going to decide. I could make the decision for the group, but then if somebody were to use it when we are sawing through it. Let''s just say, we might as well forget about stealth then.


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    On top of that, the main problem is that I am going to be the person doing the work of sawing through the stone and with my sword at that. I can adjust staying inside this half sewer, but there are some things that are beyond even my limits of tolerance.


    I will therfeore leave the decision to trevor. After all he has been the one that has been scouting the place. I don''t know what exactly is the man waiting for but it''s shouldn''t take long.


    Right now the remaining two members of my troop have been left in the sewers. having them will just increase the probability of us being caught and they don''t really boost our combat strength by much.


    As I am recording this, trevor has been popping his head up to scout the scenario up ahead. He has been doing that every half an hour to decide if it is finally safe for us to continue our task.


    This time is different from the few times before as he gestures me to come up with him. Well, here it goes. As I surface up, the stink of our present location hits my nose like a bull.


    Well, let''s hope that I don''t need to transform in this mission or things could go really bad. Almost as soon as we have leave the moat, we are on the wall.


    The wall is smooth, built by clearly skilled masons. There are gaps between the individual slabs of stone used in making it, but they are thin enough that I don''t think that am ant could get though it.


    Well, that is not a problem as I channel cycle my vital mana. Then I begin to climb the wall, my hands entering into the wall. Well, right now it feels like somebody is crushing my fingers between two rocks (considering what I am doing that is not far from the truth.)


    Well, I can''t take too long doing this. Trevor is looking at me. That I what I tell myself as I climb the damn wall. Well, the holes in the wall are a bit of an risk but at the moment this is the only way that we will be able to get up there.


    We absolutely cannot fail now. if we do that, we will be leaving a clear proof of the plan that we are following. As I am recording all of this, I have finally reached out target.


    Trevor is right below me, making use of the holes that I have left to climb behind me. Well, he will be poking me with the butt of his sword to indicate when I have to start sawing. To prepare for that, I start by removing my sword first.


    The instant that I do that, I can feel the weight of my body in my left hand. It is dull throb, something that I should be able to manage for now.


    I feel the pressure in my legs as trevor tells me to begin my work. Well, I begin by cutting into the wood in the ground. The way that they have built these toilets is by removing a few slabs in the wall and covering it all with wood.


    Right now I am cutting into this wood to create a hole large enough for the both of us. As I begin to saw into the wood, I can hear the noise of this like a drum.


    Right now if anybody were to hear this, then we would be in a pretty helpless position. I can already feel the ache in my hand grow steadily. That is why trevor is keeping an eye out for other people while I focus on sawing.


    As I am recording this, trevor pokes me again. That is a sign that somebody is out there. Right now trevor has a very good view of the wall, as he is just a bit under its top. I am parallel to the top of the wall, so I can''t see anything up there.


    Well, I stop my sword hoping that this does not drag on for long. Already the pain in my arms is like a fire slowly and steadily taking over all of my thoughts.


    I can feel the sweat forming on my body, both from how much I am pushing myself and the situation. It feels cool in this weather. Not that I can feel my grip in the stone become loser due to my sweat. Almost in panic, I grasp the wall even more tightly as the pain in my hand grows a hundredfold.


    The pain is so great that I almost ignore the footsteps echoing in the empty hallways. Somebody is walking through this part of the fort.


    The wave of fear is almost enough to overpower the pain in my arms. I can feel my hand quiver under my weight as I try to keep as quiet as possible. these echoes seem to continue for almost an eternity as I wait for a head to pop up from above us. (Don''t ask me why they thought that a toilet should have a window in it.)


    The only consolation that I had was that with the way that we were positioned any person taking a dump woulld do it right at trevor. If we are going to die, that is going to be a pleasant revenge at least.


    The echoing of footsteps finally stops, as trevor finally pokes me to continue my work. I start sawing the wood, each movement of my sword a drumbeat in my ear. frankly put, I honestly don''t care how loud I am being. I just want the fucking burning in my hand to stop.


    Every movement of my sword is bringing a fresh wave of pain in my hand. The pain is still fine. I know how to handle it. (Though even that is reaching the edges of my tolerance.) It is the fact that I can feel my arm grow weaker that scares me.


    Right now I am doing all of this on as little of my vital mana as possible. the more vital mana that I use the more I risk discovery. I could cycle a bit more vital mana. It would not help me with my pain, but it will at least  make sure that I will not lose my grip.


    As I am recording all of this, my sword has been sawing into the wood. I almost don''t believe it as I complete my task. I pull out the damn block of wood as it falls to the ground.


    A new wave of pain almost makes me open my hand as I sheathe my sword back. As my now free hand grasps the floor of toilet, I almost sigh in relief as I pull myself into the guardhouse.

 the statue and the books (log 067.2)

    Well, I have never been this happy in my life to be in a toilet. Things were a bit hit and miss there. right now there is a burning sensation in my hand. The pain In my hand has disappeared like for now but I know that it is going to be a bitch to deal with when it returns.


    Well, when trevor had proposed the plan to me I had not expected it to hurt this much. I mean I could cycle my vital mana to reduce the pain in my hand, but that would risk discovery. I am not even thinking about using my sword. If there is a captain here then they will detect me. They might not have a mana sense as sensitive as mine but the bastards can always track blood mana.


    Behind me, trevor is also climbing into the room. The man looks about as miserable as me, if I am honest. I at least have a weak cycle of vital mana to keep me up. The man has nothing like that.


    "Well, what is the plan now.",  I ask the man, taking care to whisper as silently as I can.


    "You are going to be following us. While we have the maps to this place, they are not particularly precise.", he speaks, not particularly bothering to keep silent. "And we need to worry about the patrols inside the place as well. For now, just follow my lead. You won''t be able to help much here."


    (After about fifteen minutes)


    Well, we have been resting for the last five minutes. we could have gone deeper into the guardhouse as soon as we entered into the place but we have to clean up first. We might adjust to stink that we must be emitting but the thing is that we have vampires on the other side. They have a sharp enough sense of smell that they can and will smell us. Thankfully, the toilets here are connected to their washrooms.


    A quick wipedown and we are about as clean as we can be. Personally, I am going to need at least a couple of hours in the bath to feel comfortable but at least right now, we won''t be announcing our presence to every person in the building with out stench.


    "Well, it is time for us to leave.", trevor speaks. "Keep quiet and just keep following me."


    The man has been sitting at the door to the room, poking out his head every few seconds as if he is waiting for something. Even now, he has opened up the door just smidge, gesturing me to follow him.


    I do so, as quietly as possible. The door opens to reveal a long corridor with doors on either side. Well, the map is with trevor but I think we are supposed to take a right from here. trevor does exactly that as he opens one of the doors to our right. This door opens into another empty as we keep walking through it.


    (About five minutes later.)


    Well, trevor knows what he is doing at least. The man has been taking us through the fort, at a pretty decent pace. While what he is doing personally seems to be a bit much, I am sure that the man has saved us from being detected more than a few times.


    Right now I have no idea where exactly we are. Trevor has been making quite a few confusing turns. As I said the map is in that man''s hand and I don''t want to distract the man by talking to him. he has such a focussed expression that disturbing him would not be wise. I have been kicked in the butt too many times to ever make that mistake again. (What, you don''t want to disturb my master when he is working.)


    "We are here.", trevor speaks suddenly, his voice echoing in the silence of the halls.


    "Well, where exactly are we.", I ask.


    "We are in a servants tunnel that leads to the treasury.", he speaks. "You see that door on the left."


    The door he speaks of is a wooden door, with a massive latch. Overall, it is a plain door. It is not something that I would expect to lead to a treasury.


    "It is a servants route. It is not  meant to attract attention. That would beat the entire purpose of such a place.", he speaks. "Vampires are pretty vain creatures, so they are not the variety to notice anything that is meant to fade into the background like this. I am sure thay they would have blocked this door."


    "Blocked the door?", I asked.


    "Well, see it for yourself.", he replies. "That would be the best way for you to understand."


    I do as he asks realising that while the door looks ordinary, it is also very sturdy. I don''t think I would be able to break this door even if I were to kick it full force. Maybe if I were to cycle all of my mana. I open the door slowly. Almost as soon as I open the door I want to shut it. As I open the door, I can smell the familiar scent of blood. I don''t even need to look to tell who the captain is among that bunch though I should not have looked.


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    I can feel myself paralyse in fear and awe as the man''s face glances in our direction. For a second I am sure that I have been detected as the man looks in my direction. The man looks unreal, like he is a sculpted statue than a real man. The  man he is holding by the collar is not helping. The man is completely covered in blood as if somebody has cut his veins.


    Looking at the man though you wouldn''t think that he was dying. He has an entranced expression that a man would have for his lover. I have seen this more than a few times and it means nothing good.


    Even though I know that I should have shut the door, I find myself staring at the vampire. (If you meet a higher vampire, whatever you do don''t look at their face.). If he had not returned to feeding, (it is a disgusting sight) I would have just kept staring at him until he would have detected me and made me a blood bag. My back is slick with sweat as I close the door. Any second now I expect a hand to burst through the door right into my heart.


    "So I presume that the captain is just outside of that room.", trevor speaks, his voice absurdly loud. We can''t let that fucker find us.


    "Will you quiet down, the other side will hear you.", I whisper as loudly as I dare.


    "Calm down, kid.", he speaks, not reducing his voice one bit. "This is a servants path. even if you are dying inside here, the sound won''t carry out. I am surprised that you don''t know anymore."


    It takes me a few moments to calm down, which trevor gives me before asking.


    "What did you see out there.", he asks. "I need every small detail."


    "It is a small corridor, with four doors. Two of them are boarded up. The captain is standing guard at one of those doors. There is another door next to it. I presume that is where we will find what we need to."


    "Yes, the library of this guardhouse.", he replies. "Other than that what else can you tell. What about enemy numbers."


    "There are three people there. Two of them are ordinary soldiers with the third being a blood bag.", I reply.


    "A blood bag?", he asks.


    "Oh right it is slang for the victims of a vampire. People that the vampire feeds on.", I reply. "That is why we have yet to be detected. You are seriously underestimating how sensitive the senses of a vampire noble can be. They lose track of the world when they are feeding though."


    "How are you feeling that they are a vampire noble?", he asks.


    "Well, he has a glamour on him. It is a magic that only vampire nobles can make use of. It makes them very irresistible.", I reply. "And it is a strong glamour at that. I could not bring myself from tearing away from him once I laid eyes on him. These are never easy enemies to fight. At the legion, my troop was advised to stay away from these bastards as much as possible. We have lost entire troops to such beings."


    "Well, that is interesting.", trevor continues. "Thankfully I expected something like this already. Just give me a minute."


    Saying that trevor finally opens a package that he has. He has been holding it since we came here. I expected it to be some kind of a explosive with his gently he was handling the thing. What he has is something that is even more surprising. It is an illusion formation and one of the rare active ones. (Illusion formations, especially the active ones are the kind of formations that only illusion mages can use. It takes too much skill to make a illusion believeable. The formation only works to make the casting easy.)


    "Are you sure you can run that?", I ask.


    "I have my tricks, captain.", he replies. "Just be ready to react to anything. I don''t know if the illusion will be enough to fool the vampire."


    Saying that the man goes back to his fiddling. Soon enough he has the thing running and in front of me are two men, perfect replicas of us. Looking from even this close, I can''t tell the difference between us too. They have a proper body language as well. (Granted, it is a bit robotic. It is not something that I would be able to pull of. It will be enough to fool the vampire, so I am not complaining.) The only thing is that the illusions do not have the mana presence of us. That doesn''t matter much though, which person would try to sneak into a place without having suppressed their mana.


    The two illusory men sneak their way into the room passing through the door like a ghost. I open the door into the corridor beyond. They reach the door of the accounting room passing the four men in between them. It is not that surprising, since the guards are staring at the vampire and the vampire is lost in his meal. The man had noticed one of the doors being opened. The illusory me has already bent over the door, acting as if he was fiddling with the formation (being an illusion it naturally cannot interact with a formation.)


    It doesn''t take long for them to be noticed though. First it is the two soldiers, who look like a rabbit that have been caught in a trap. Their surprise is enough to attract the attention of the captain, who has finally stopped his meal.


    I finally get a look at the captain. He is a middle aged man, but quite well built. He gives me the vibe of a general. He won''t be an easy enemy to fight. They begin to attack the illusory us, as the illusory us retreat and begin to run across one of the other corridors. Let''s just hope noobdy notices how these men do not need to open any doors. Thanfully there are quite a few shadow abilities that allow for something like that so nobody will doubt us for a while at least.


    Within a few moments the room is silent again. I wait a few seconds, as Trevor beside me is scrunched up in concentration. Controlling an illusion like that and keeping it believable must be quite the strain on the man''s faculty.


    Grasping the man''s arm I walk towards the accounting room. From now on this is my work.

 the vampire captain (log 067.3)

    I make my way to the door. It is a simple lock. To be honest, the only thing to worry about it is the small alarm formation that exists on the side of the door. The man that had placed it did not even bother to hide it. Maybe he was not capable of it. Not everybody is good at this after all.


    I don''t even need to think as strings of mana enter into the formation and break all links it has with the door. It is a pretty standard design too, as I find all the critical points on it. The alarm is never going to ring again in its life. Nobody will be able to tell from the outside though. It looks as pristine as the day it was created. Almost forgetting the man behind me I enter into the room.


    Trevor is still focussing on maintaining that illusion of his. That is why right now he has the face of somebody day dreaming. Somehow that looksvery odd in his face. I could slap him in the face and man will not even react to me. You could say at the moment the man is literally somewhere else. That is actually a risk with using active illusion magic.


    The man is sweating like crazy. He looks as drenched as if somebody has poured a bucket at him. It looks like he is reaching his limits. While an illusion formation does have a greater range than a spell at the same level, trevor must be reaching the limits of his range. The fact that he usable to maintain it at this range is already proof that the man is very experienced with it.


    The farther the illusions get away, the harder it will be to control, I have heard. For now at least I don''t hear anybody rushing to attack, so I have to assume that the illusion is holding for now. Anyway, grasping him as gently as I dare to I enter into the room and the first thought I have about the place is just how ordinary it is.


    For all the effort taken to get to this place, the place is painfully lacklustre. It is basically a library for the guardhouse, full of documents and books for the legion. Just from the place I am standing in, I can see the room is full of books and books. Most of them are novels.


    Any person taking a single glance at it would think that this is meant for the guards. The only problem is that this is too many books for the guardhouse. The place has almost been stuffed from top to bottom with books. There isnt even place for me to walk comfortably here.


    The books here are old, ancient even. Right now I am sure that if I were to pick up a single books it will just crumble in my hands. I can already guess what happened here. The bosses in the guardhouse wanted a way to hide their finances and their ledgers.


    They decided that keeping a single room would tip of people that wanted such a thing. So they brought a bunch of books in bulk at very cheap prices and stuffed the place full of books. Otherwise which genius would have the idea of opening a library right next to their treasury. Just vetting people into the library would become such a headache.


    Shit, what the fuck am I doing. I should be looking for the damn ledger. Right now, the very thing that is meant to protect it will reveal it to me.


    I focus on my mana sense, looking for traces of mana until I find the location the only hint of mana that I can detect through my mana sense. (there could be fainter sources, but I have complained enough about my mana sense.)


    The only reason that I even managed to find my target was due to the glow of the mana it emitted. Otherwise it would have been lost in the complex mess of cupboards in the room. Well, this is actually a pretty good idea. After all, not everybody has a trevor to scout out such a place.


    I sometimes wonder if the old man somehow flunked out of scholar training (Nobody knows what happens to the failures. It is one of the many mysteries of the scholars.) with the amount of knowledge that he shows about such things.


    The moment that I get close to it, I can sense the mana formation on the cupboard. It is the trusty old pressure based runes, which will trigger at the lightest of taps. It is acting as the first and only layer of defense to this cupboard. The runes of such a formation tend to be quite fragile. Even a touch will be able to break them. Once that happens only god can tell what can occur. Some just tend to be alarms. Some tend to release noxious fumes. the best traps (or the worst for the man in it.) are often the result of a formation mage and poison mage working together.


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    Such traps though will not exist this close to the hexmountain thankfully. (What, we keep our neighborhoods clean.) Still, this trap will be more than enough to get me screwed if I mess with it. After all we are hiding in the room right next to the people whom such a formation would alert.


    And thus I begin my work. Strings of mana extend into the formation, like cautious rats next to the trap. My work now is to find the section of the formation which will correspond to the trap. The part that will cause the alarm to be raised. If I can do that without damaging the part that will collapse on touch, the security will be disabled. For now I will call this part the non trigger.


    Then I will need to start work on the other layers. Shit, I catch myself as in this moment of distraction I almost triggered the trap. It is time for me to return to focus.


    (After five minutes.)


    And thus I work, my body drenched in sweat for the next five minutes. I don''t do much, just study the structure of the formation. It is an art, to hide the non triggering part of the trap. That is why they keep the structure so confusing. What might be the trigger in some formation, will be the non trigger and vice versa.


    It is all a gamble. Some formations even add a buffer layer to the entire thing, making it even more confusing. The buffer layer does nothing other than increase the complexity of the thing.


    That is why dealing with security formations is such a hassle. You can never be certain. In this while, I have actually found the non trigger or at least what I think is the non trigger.


    I have been poking it with my mana strings for a while and it has not reacted. It could be that this is the trigger and the formation mage was not skilled enough for his work. Thus, the trigger has been rendered non reactive. however much pressure I put will not activate the trap. at the same time the trap setter could have been skilled enough to make the trigger resistant enough that it can survive a few pokes. If that is the case, the opening the cupboard will set it off.


    For a few heart breaking seconds I fear a puff of poisonous mist on my face. Thankfully, the moments drag on and nothing happens. I breath a sigh of release as I destroy the remaining formation. (It is not so hard since it was built to do so.)


    Before I can continue on to the next layer though a voice interrupts me.


    "Captain.", whispers Trevor as if he is being choked.


    I turn back from the formation to look at the female captain standing behind, her claws on the neck of Trevor.


    There are moments in life when your brain is supposed to go all out. When in the instant of looking at something you suddenly realise a plan of action.


    Nothing like that happen here. The only thing that I could speak was.


    "Why haven''t you killed him yet.", I ask.


    For a second the three of us look at each other. None of us expected my statement.


    "I will kill him, unless you return my sword to me.", the lady speaks.


    "I do not have your sword with me.", I reply. "It is not like it would have been useful to me anyway."


    As I speak, I can see the hand that she is using to hold trevors throat tighten. Looks like I have mispoken, but I don''t know what.


    "Where is my sword, mutt.", she asks. "There is no way that you would leave such a useful tool behind."


    "Well, I don''t need it. I have a better sword.", I reply.


    As I speak can see her other hand clench. Right now I am not sure if should risk it. If I piss her off enough, she will leave the man alone and focus on me. If that happens, at least it will be an easy fight.


    I don''t have long too, with trevor so distracted, the illusion must have failed. The captains must already been making his way here. if I am not careful I will be overhelmed quickly.


    "Has fear prevailed over your arrogance finally, mutt.", she speaks. "To think that a mere mutt could have caused us so much harm."


    "I am just thinking what your family would think of you, when a mere mutt would separate your head from your neck.", I reply, trying to speak in my most annoying voice.


    I seem to have touched a nerve as the lady throws trevor at the wall behind me asshe charges. I don''t get think as the lady strikes at me. before she can reach I already have my sword ready to intercept one of her hands.


    Using my other hand, I hold her other hand pushing it against the rack near to me. A wave of pain stops me for a second as I hear a cracking sound. I seem to have broken her hand. I can''t reveal in this for long as I feel a sharp pain in my chest.


    As I retreat back, I see the damage done to me. The lady has managed to get her claws into my stomach. It is not a serious injury, the only problem being the fact that it is bleeding.


    I have done equal damage to her. I can see that one of her hands has been twisted to a degree that I am surprised that I was the one that did it.


    I did it with my left hand as well, which right now feels like somebody has been hammering it for a few days now.


    "Who are you, mutt.", the lady speaks, circling around as much as the mess of bookcases would allow. "This is not something that a mere grunt should be capable of. You are barely transformed and yet you are capable of causing so much damage. Your fangs haven''t even popped yet."


    "What can I say, I might be the most unique thing that you have seen in your life.", I reply, technically speaking the truth. What I have achieved with the bloody fang is supposed to be pretty unique.


    "It''s fine, mutt.", she speaks, her face splitting into a grin. "You might be the most unique thing we have ever seen, but that is only until we open you up and see what makes you tick. You might have equalled me, but I wonder what you will do against my master."

 survival (log 067.4)

    I don''t even need to look at the door to the room, to know that the captain is in the room. I can feel my body shiver as if I am standing in front of a lion. As he speaks, I feel like pissing my pant.


    "What is it that I see here.", he speaks, his voice smooth as silk. "My favourite grunt being played around with like this. By a mutt no less."


    I control my impulse to look at the man, now is not the time to lose my mind.


    "This one has his wits about him at least.", he speaks, moving into the room. The place is getting a bit crowded. "Ah, I see. How did you achieve it, young man."


    "Achieve what, I wonder?", I reply. I can feel myself want to look at the man in front of me. I ball my left hand into fist. It literally feels like somebody is hitting it with hammers now, the pain pulsing with my heart beat.


    "Use a grunts bone like that.", he speaks. "I know of know of no bone smith that would be able to achieve such a transformation with a mere grunts bone."


    "what grunts bone.", I lie. I honestly don''t know what I am speaking at the moment. Resisting him is the only thing in my mind.


    "Fine, you don''t want to speak about it.", he speaks. "The youngsters nowadays, so rude. Look at me."


    As he commands me, It feels like my head is being pulled in that direction like a magnet. No matter how much I try to stop myself I can''t stop it. As my eyes fall on the man next to me, the only thing I can do is to grasp my left first tighter. I almost don''t even notice the pain as the man looks at me.


    Well, how do I describe it. Feature wise the man is nothing impressive. I have seen even more handsome men, but looking at him I simply can''t remove my eyes away from him. There is something that makes the man so easy to look at. As I push my hands the pain finally clears my mind.


    "You are doing well for that pseudo transformation of yours.", the man speaks, praising me. "Must fully transformed grunts would have prostated themselves for something this intense."


    As he praises me I can feel myself getting happy at this. Screw this, I clench my injured fist so tight that the pain radiates from my arm like it is on fire. I am going to regret the damage that I have done to my hand. Other than that I notice other things about the man. He seems to be very pale and I swear that he looks a bit thinner from when I saw him in the corridor.


    "Well, I don''t see how that makes a difference. You don''t seem particularly strong", I reply, without turning back. I can''t have them focus on Trevor now. "Trevor, if you would be kind enough to get near the window."


    The man actually doesn''t look too strong. He is very thin, like he has been starving for a few weeks. That should be impossible since the man has fed right in front of me.


    "Lady Erica, if you would be kind enough to introduce the two of us. We shall speak of your disobedience later.", he speaks, now speaking to me "I had commanded her to tail me like a ghost, you know. That took quite a bit of my energy as well. That sword of hers is quite precious to her you know, enough to resist my commands it seems."


    I can see Erica (nice to have a name finally.) Visibly contract in fear at this. She still speaks.


    "You damn mutt, meet the master of the bloodfire family, Matthew. Master, this damn mutt is the half converted grunt that had damaged lady Erica''s possession ceremony."


    "Well, it is nice that I have met you. What would your name now be, young mutt. I can''t keep calling you a mutt now, can I?", he speaks. Listening to him is enough to make my spine chill.


    "My name is Alfredo, great vampire.", I reply.


    "Well lied, young Alfredo.", the man spoke, his arm looking thinner all of a sudden. "I shall ignore that insult for now. All I really need is your master''s name, if you have one. I personally don''t like to enforce my will but seeing you lie so freely what can I do. I have a reputation to maintain."


    As he speaks, the world around me grew stifling. It feels like somebody has drained all the color in the world. The pain in my hand and feet disappear like had never had them. It is not pleasant though. It is like the world has suddenly become blank like somebody has thrown me inside a void bomb.


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    "My brethren use the blood hierarchy to enforce their commands. That is like using a hammer to break an egg, don''t you think? What I do is more elegant. I have just cut out your ability to process the world around you.", the man speaks, his voice like a ghost in haze. With how pale he looks, he might actually have been one.


    I can feel the sword lying right next to me, pumping vital mana and blood mana into me like a heart. I had not even realised when I had begun to channel it. The damn thing was absorbing my own vital mana by the second. I would have been empty in a few moments if I had not stopped it.


    As I shut it down, The difference is almost immediate. The pounding also stopped as the world came back into focus. Matthew also seemed to be quite surprised.


    "Now how did you do that, Alfredo. Is it related to that sword of yours.", he speaks as he understands my swords importance in an instant. This is no ordinary vampire.


    "Maybe you can let me go. I can give you the secret of my sword.", I reply.


    "Well, if I wanted to I would figure it out in a month or two. You have pissed of erica and that lady will always hold a grudge. She especially hates being forced to possess a man. That means your safety is a costly thing to ask for", he replies. "I would say the knowledge of how your sword works is enough to cover such a favour. Sadly the only problem is that I don''t trust you. Knowledge such as the one you offer would be guarded by blood curses strong enough to hurt even me. I have no desire to become a puddle of blood now."


    "Well, a man has got to try. You never know", I reply. "How about this, I can leave you my sword. You can study it yourself with no. Involvement from me. I just want to live."


    "I would trust what you were saying if could not feel the mana gathering in your hand.", he replies. "What spell can you cast that you think can harm me."


    "Well, a man has got to try, doesn''t he?", I reply again. As he speaks, a fireball appears in my arm. I throw it immediately at my target. The man jumps back as If I am about to attack him. The fireball splits into four separate parts and lands in many spots in the room. The wooden bookshelves and the paper books catch on fire in an instant. The room goes up in a blaze as I turn and run towards the window in this room. Trevor is already standing there ready to escape with me.


    "Naughty kid, would you stop for a second.", he speaks.


    As he does so I can feel my body lock up as the sword in my hand start again at its full speed. I am pushing my damn foot forward, but it does not move an inch.


    "Did you really need to start a fire.", he speaks. "Do you know how many explanations I will have to give for this. The statue of the moonless lady is in the next room."


    "Well, if it causes you a problem why will I complain.", I reply.


    "You arrogant brat. If that statue is damaged you know as well as me that the moonless lady would take her revenge on everybody in the vicinity.", he speaks. "That is your master''s goal isn''t it. Well, whoever he is certainly crazy. I wonder who told you about the trap in the next room. It was supposed to be such a neat surprise too."


    I can feel the heat of the flames, which has begun to spread already. Soon enough this room is going to be completely covered in flames. esmerelda has already disappeared leaving only her master behind.


    "Look at the damage you wrought.", he speaks, his tone getting annoyed for the first time in this fight. His body looks like he has not been eating for half an year. "You completely ruined all of my plans you know. Not even once at that. Three times at that. You killed my favourite underling and botched an summoning about to succeed. Now I will need to deal with lady erica."


    As he continues, I can feel the fire finally reach me. The burning sensation at my legs is painful enough to compete with the pain in my left arm.


    "Will you listen you brat.", he speaks, his body getting thinner. "The you released all the people that were meant to feed. Look at how thin I have gotten. You know how hard it is to find good quality food in this god forksaken place."


    By now the pain has grown so much that I am sure that my legs are ruined completely. Still I can''t get myself to move.


    "Finally, this fire. I expected you to be crazy enough to destroy this room. Who would have thought that somebody would have dared to mess with the moonless lady.", he speaks, his body steadily getting thinner and thinner. Right now he resembles more like a skeleton than a man. "Look at me, it took me quite a few decades to prepare this body."


    "Aren''t you over reacting a bit?", I ask. "It is not like I set fire to this statue of yours."


    "You brat, you know about the moonless lady.", he speaks at me, anger appearing in his voice for once, as my body feels like somebody is throwing it . "No, no. Even a fool would not make such a taunt. You are not of the court are you."


    "Whatever do you mean.", I reply, suddenly feeling a sense of fear.


    "Interesting, interesting. If you are of the court then you would be able to tell me my title.", he speaks. "Go on, prove me wrong and tell me my title."


    As I stare at the man, growing steadily thinner and thinner with his inquisitive glances at me. He speaks finally.


    "Well, I wish I could chat a bit longer with you, but this body of mine has limits. I have remembered your scent, outsider. I will find you.", he speaks, as he literally begins to crumble. "Well, things are going to get intersting. One word of advise human, try and stop using that sword of yours for the next couole of weeks. Live until I find you. I will rip these secrets out of your mind, human."


    As he completes saying this the man crumbles into dust. The moment he does so I can finally move. More importantly, I jump back finally escaping my fate of being roasted alive.


    Well, both trevor and me look at each other as we realise what is the only move we can make. I don''t even stop to speak as I run towards the window. I can feel the sting of glass as I jump through window, holding trevor as protectively as I can.

 the blood moon (log 068)

    Right now I am waiting for trevor. Nobody has been visiting this room since the last couple of days. The only thing that I remember from the heist is the part that I had managed to read from the log. After that everything that happened I had to listen from trevor.


    According to trevor, once we fell to the ground I lost consciousness. He had carry me into the sewers. The only reason that the man managed was due to the crimson moon. (I will speak about it in a bit.) The soldier of the bloodfire gang were busy trying to get the fire that I had started under their control. So nobody attacked him as he carried me to safety.


    Also the mission this time has been a success. Trevor had the presence of mind to sneak to the cupboard and take the ledgers that were needed. It is good because there is no way in hell that we will be able to infiltrate that place again.


    Ever since I started the fire, the moon has disappeared in this place. It is now replaced by a bloody moon. The only thing that we know about the moon is that it blood red, almost as if it has been crafted in blood. At the same time, it is not the moon. I don''t know how I know it but this is not the moon.


    The blood moon happened when the fire was not even in the room the statue was placed in. With this, I am at least sure that the statue is of somebody from the vampire''s pantheon. The gods of the vampire are a fickle bunch looking for excuses to punish their underlings.


    The blood moon is only affecting vampires and those that make use of blood mana. Right now that is why recovering is taking so long. The steady stream of blood mana that the sword gave me has stopped completely. Well, there is still minute amounts of blood mana being produced but I can''t feel it if I did not look for it. Someone with a weaker mana sense than me would not have even felt it.


    This lack of blood mana is affecting me more than I would like to admit it. Most of enhancements, how ever little they were has been lost. With this all the benefits that I used to get with my blood mana have disappeared. While the other losses are still somewhat manageable the loss of healing has affected me more than I expected that it would.


    Well, this time the injuries are even crazier than is usual for me. My left arm is almost useless. I can barely make a fist without the entire thing paining like somebody has been shooting lightining through my arm. The pain in my arm is a little blip compared to pains in the rest of my body though.


    My right arm is injured as well. I seem to have landed on it on my jump through the window. The bone is broken, so I have to keep it in a cast of it will heal after a long time. My left leg is also fucked to a pretty extreme degree. The existing Injuries and the jump from the window has completely screwed with my leg as well. The only good thing about my leg is that I don''t need to re break my leg. This time I won''t make the same mistake again, as I keep the entire thing in a cast.


    Right now the only limb that I can use to any degree is my right leg. It has been relatively free of any damage. It is the only limb that I can move without waves of pain shooting through my leg. That is why I have been completely stuck in my room for the last couple of weeks.


    Right now the organisation is more than happy. They don''t need to worry about vampires right now. The blood moon has completely stopped the vampires, which turns out to be most of the leaders of the bloodfire gang. At the same time, they have even managed to get the ledgers as well so they have certainly gotten more than they expected to get.


    So right now they are more than happy. They dont even need to bother about the fact that right now they have to sneak us closer to the inner keep. The only problem in all of this has been my injuries. We won''t be able to leave for the inner keep until my injuries manage to heal fully. This time the injuries that I have gotten will take some time.


    By the way, I have confirmed the identity of the captain that I might have killed. (Well, I have seen the man crumble into dust, but most of the higher vampires can do that if they feel like it.) he is the hunter, the second in command of the bloodfire gang.


    Well, I am thankful that I managed to survive that man. This might just be the most terrifying vampire that I might have faced. I mean I do have a good idea about the bloodline hierarchy that they have amongst themself. The vampire nobles hold the ability to command those of their kind when they command them.


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    I know of this ability of theirs. I have seen it in action quite a few times. Even as barely connected to blood mana as I am, the man''s command seemed almost impossible to ignore. Thankfully, this ability of theirs seems to be very costly to use. I wonder why he used such a costly method with me.


    After all, if he had actually fought me, I would have lost my little life. The man was stronger than me in every way. Well, I will lose my head trying to guess the intentions of the vampires. They have schemes within their schemes.


    Right now, we are almost certain that we will be able to make it to the inner keep. The organisation will take us there. I guess that I might as well speak about the inner keep now. The inner keep is the most important location of the Mayfire castle. Right now it is the place in which the mayfires are fighting the remaining vampires.


    At least trevor is completely sure of that. Personally, I don''t know. I mean I have seen the magic of the mayfires a couple of times before. Their magic is one of the most destructive magics of the soldar plains. They certainly would not be able to hide the effect of their battles if they were going all out in there.


    At the very least no serious fighting is happening inside that place. The only thing I can imagine it to be is a stand off. A stand off would be counterproductive to either side. After all, the vampires would certainly not like to be there when the guard corps will roll in. The mayfires also are not the variety to patiently bide for time. They are not built for skirmishes. Their magic guzzles a lot of their mana. So right now, it would be best that we do assume that the mayfires are not in as strong as a position that trevor is hoping them to be.


    I won''t make the mistake of pointing this out to trevor again. The man is sure that they are in there and the battle is occuring in an intense manner. Meanwhile, the man also assures me that the archer is going to be somebody that I do not need to get worried about.


    The archer is right now busy trying to hold of an attack force from the guard corps. While that means we won''t be having reinforcements soon enough it also means that we will not need to worry about the archer as well.


    As for how trevor is able to achieve communication with the guard corps, don''t ask me. The man has enough mysteries about him, that I have stopped thinking about it.


    Anyways, once we are inside the inner keep things are going to be a bit easier. The inner keep is right now being surrounded by a very strong magic barrier. right now my assumption is that it is a mana isolating barrier.


    Such barriers will stop the flow of mana from one side of the barrier to the other side of the barrier. Such barriers are usually used in mana storage but they can also be used defensively like this. The only problem with using these barriers like this is that if you mage to breach the barrier then you can enter the place without any problem.


    Right now we are making all of our plans based on this assumption of mine. If it is an elemental barrier or any of the other barrier formations than breaching into the place is going to be very hard. The chances of that happening are pretty abysmal. The thing with a isolation barrier is that I don''t need to worry about failure. With an elemental formation things are not going to be so easy.


    It must be a very strong barrier though. After all not many things will be able to handle divine magic and it is pretty clear that they were using divine magic to break open the barrier. After all, the bloody moon above is more than enough proof of the statue being divine in nature.


    Right now, I am reasonably confident that I will be able to get into the inner keep though. After all, the problem with magic barriers is that all that power is spread out. This especially the case with a isolation barrier.


    I will be able to make a hole into the barrier at its weak point. With that I will be able to enter into the place. At least that is the plan. Right now I have no idea about if I will be able to do that. I will only be able to tell once I actually get to see that barrier.


    Right now even reaching the barrier is going to be a task of its own. You see, the inner keep of the mayfire castle has a lot of defensive structures built into it. If we were to go about poking into the place without thinking, we will be detected instantly.


    Now based on what trevor tells me, we can be detected either by the guardhouse or those in the inner keep. While the guardhouse doesn''t have matthew with them now, they are still a threat.


    After all, that esmerelda must not be the only vampire that is in the bloodfire gang. I will not be able to hold of against a group of three or four vampire grunts even with the blood moon. they might get weaker due to it, but the same is happening to me.


    Still, I will be able to at least fight against any force that they send from the guardhouse. If we manage to attract the attention of the vampire forces that they have inside the inner keep, it is not going to even be a fight.


    After, the other side has at the very least two possessed vampire captains and more importantly, this leader of theirs. I might have gotten rid of two captains, but that was more luck than my own personal strength.


    With the guard corps sending an attack force, this thing is going to end in one way or the other. Right now though, our enemies are beasts that have been put against the corner. Right now we have to make sure that we are not going down with them when it happens.


    I mean we are in a pretty stable situation, so this instinct of mine is harder to explain. Something is going to happen if we were to stay out here. Of that I am sure. Right now the only way that we will be able to survive is to get inside that inner keep. The mayfires will offer us a better chance of survival.

 entering the inner keep (log 069)

    Right now we are at the wall of the inner keep. The place that we are standing in right now can be considered to be the closest place to the inner keep in the city.


    We are naturally in the sewers that connect to the inner keep. The barrier extends to down here so there is no hope of being able to enter the inner keep easily. The room that we are in right now is one of the nodes of the barrier. Just behind the barrier I can see the runic script that will be powering the entire thing.


    The node can be considered to be the formation that is powering the entire formation barrier. Depending on how many nodes there are, destroying the runic script in front of me would bring down a part of the wall or the entire wall itself.


    I wonder why exactly the mayfires would have placed such a key component of their defenses in such an obvious place. well, I can think of a thousand reasons for it. The most obvious reason that I can think is that they must have assumed that it would make the barrier more easy to maintain.


    After all, even though I can see the formation on the other side, I won''t be able to damage it. After all, the barrier will completely stop any mana from my side to enter the other side.


    My mana will simply not be able to pass through this barrier unless I manage to overpower the barrier. even a basic class nine war formations uses about ten times the mana that I would be able to provide it and this is a class six formation at least.


    I could concentrate all of my mana into a ball and I still will not be able to make a dent in the barrier. My mana would literally bounce away like a ball bouncing on a wall. At least, that would have been the case if somebody like my master had made this barrier.


    This barrier has been made by somebody way below that level. This, there are flaws in the barrier. Flaws obvious that somebody like me will also be able to detect it. My plan will be to exploit these flaws to pierce into the barrier, creating a small hole.


    Detecting these flaws is not easy. Thankfully my mana sense is sensitive enough to do so. The barrier appears like a literal void in my mana sense. Looking for flaws in the barrier is kind of like looking for a less black spot on a fully black wall.


    Right now I am looking for these very spots. I am throwing my mana against seven possible sites to see how the mana will bounce of it. If it shows a less intense then I have my flaw in the wall.


    Well, it is a long and tedious process, but I have been making steady process. When I had started this log I was at sixteen possible spots. This tediousness is why I have started the log actually. It was also meant to distract me from how conjusted this place.


    Right now, even with only four people I am barely able to move here. The other three people are huddling at the other end of the room and still I have barely any place to move. Thankfully, formation work does not require a lot of movment or we might have needed to retreat before we could try anything. That is just how little space we have here.


    This close to the inner keep, the organisation would not have dared to expand the tunnels. These tunnels are therefore as thin as they are supposed to be, which is just thin enough for a reasonably thin person to pass through.


    I am down to five spots now. Meanwhile, I might as well talk about our journey to this little room. For how much I have payed for this, it almost seems anticlimatic. We literally just took a walk through the sewers to reach our present position.


    It seems simple, but that is only because the organisation was with us as a guide. Just like any organisation that would have a maintained a fort, the mayfires have protected their sewers with a large amount of traps and surveillance formations.


    I have worked on enough forts with my master, to know just how gruesome some of these traps can be. (I am literally qualified to work only on the traps when my master used to take me with him.)


    I could have maybe managed the traps, (bring overconfident with traps is a dangerous thing.) but the surveillance formations are something that I don''t think I will be able to do. The surveillance formations will inform those in the inner keep about our presence.


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    Right now, we don''t know whose those formations will report to. Will it be the vampires or the mayfires. If it is the latter, we will be fine but if it is the former we will end up screwed. The enemy would know of our precise location and we would then have to run away.


    These sewers are literally a maze for us and while it will be the same for the folks they send after us, the other side might have access to the schematics of the sewers here. If they have that, then we will be caught.


    That is why we need the the organisation. Firstly, the route was planned entirely by the organisation. I don''t think that this route was even meant for us. The organisation must have prepared it for the day that they would have fought the mayfires.


    After all, It must have taken years to craft this tunnel. Firstly, they could have only done this like rats, slowly disabling one trap after another. If too many traps are disabled at the same time then it would alert the mayfires about this and they would have fixed all the traps.


    It is the same case with the The surveillance formations. They must have disabled each of the traps bit by bits, spread over the years. They would have had to be slow enough to not alert the mayfires.


    That is how they must have crafted a tunnel like that and it is something pretty precious, if you are to be honest. Tommorow, if the organisation were to be attacked by the mayfires then they would be able to use this tunnel of theirs to cause a lot of chaos in the enemy lands.


    Well, the ledgers that we have gotten them will offset any loss they face from making use of this tunnel. Anyway, as I am recording all of this, I have reduced the number of possible weak points down to two.


    Well, I have been probing these two spots for a while now. Of these two I am not sure which might be the actual weak point. It could be both of them, it could be one of them or it could be none of them.


    I am still trying to prove it but it is not as easy as it looks. I could pick one of them and try to open up the weak point, but it is not a choice apthay I can take lightly. The way that I will be breaching the barrier is that I am going to be concentrating all of my vital mana into the tip of my sword.


    Then I am going to pierce the weak point of the barrier. If I have guessed right then it will create a hole in the barrier, one that we will be able to crawl through. This hole will be there long enough for the troop to be able to make it through. If I guess wrong, the hole formed will be small enough that I won''t be able to put my hand through the hole.


    Then I will have to sit down and meditate for about a couple of hours before I will be able to attempt it again. Given that right now we have no food supplies and with no water, we will be able to stay down here for about a couple of days. Well, there is enough time. It will take me at most two to three tries to do this.


    It will still do me well to be a bit careful. I mean there is a small chance that a large enough hole will form but it could close in the process of entering the hole. The chances of that happening is pretty low. There is more chance that a bolt of lightining will kill me right now. At least that is the hope. Being cut by a mana isolating barrier is not pleasant. Any being with vital mana channels in their body would do well to fear it. It literally creates a void of vital mana in that place.


    Without vital mana, that part of the body will begin to die. Within a few moments that part of the body feels as if it has been rotting for the last couple of weeks. All in all, it is not something that I want to be imagining right now.


    Screw it, the more that I delay this the more I am going to be losing my nerve. I pick one of the two spots that I was struggling and begin the process of controlling my vital mana. Controlling vital mana like this is completely different from controlling external mana. It is both more familiar to me and yet at the same time it is completely different.


    I would say that my vital mana is like a excited kid, almost flooding towards the direction that I direct it towards, while with vital mana it is more like a old man who has to be forced towards going anywhere. The difference makes controlling vital mana quite a bit of a challenge. Even as I am recording this I can feel my mana flowing into the sword like a way.


    No matter how cautiously I try to make the mana flow this is how it goes with my vital mana. I can feel my body weaken, old pains returning and new pains appearing in other places. I can feel my body grow heavier as well, as I wrestle with my mana to get it into one spot.


    It literally feels like I am wrestling with a waterfall as I finally manage to get my mana into the tip of my sword. I won''t be able to hold it there for long as I pierce my sword into the barrier.


    As my sword pierces into the barrier I can feel the barrier trying to push away my mana. My mana manages to overpower the barrier as my sword pierces into the barrier. as it passes through the barrier, I finally lose control of my vital mana.


    My vital mana literally rips into the barrier creating a hole about twice the size of my head. Right now is the moment of truth. If I have picked right then the hole will stabilise at its present size, holding for a few minutes.


    If I have picked wrong then the barrier will shrink back to about half of its present size. I hold my breathe in anticipation for a few moments.


    Finally, after about ten seconds of time I finally decide that the hole will hold for a while.


    "Time to get moving, trevor.", I speak, reminding him "I can guarantee you about two minutes in which the hole will last. As you enter into the hole, make sure that you do not touch the barrier. You won''t like the results of that."


    As I say this, I finally sit down as I feel a wave of exhaustion eat me up. I almost collapse to the ground. I wonder how exactly the martial bastards make use of their vital mana so freely.

 exploration part 1 (log 070)

    The stone used in building the keep is the exact same stone that they have used to build the guard house. While the material is very durable, (I don''t think that I will be able to break it unless I channel my vital mana.), it is also very uncomfortable.


    My temporary pillow and bed are not helping at all made from rolling all the clothes present in the room. Right now, we are in some kind of a storage room. They have been stuffed full of clothes, uniforms of some kind. I think they are ceremonial clothing for the guards. That would explain why they are so uncomfortable to sleep on. They also look equally uncomfortable to wear.


    We have been making full use of the clothes, especially the troop. Jacob and Andrew have been using these clothes to make a temporary tent, which is where we all are sleeping. It was fascinating watching them work on the tent. They literally tore through the clothes, stitching and rearranging to create the tent.


    As for how I have ended up in my present situation, almost completely paralysed. I blame my underlings. I warned the bastards to be ready for a quick entry. They managed to get through the holes pretty quickly but the damn bastards had forgotten all of our food supplies on the other side of the barrier.


    I had to open the hole in the barrier in quick succession to get everything here. I barely allowed my mana core to stabilize before pushing it all out again to create another hole. By the time the hole closed this time, Andrew ended up stuck on the other side of the barrier. By the time I made a hole in the barrier for the third time I lost consciousness and found myself in my present position, barely able to move.


    That is literally three weeks worth of food, without which things would get very dangerous very quickly. I wonder how exactly did the two men forgot the food supplies. It is heavy enough that even us mages are struggling to carry it.


    I am partly to blame here. I expected the vampires to knock on the door any second so I was trying to rush through it. Well, pushing out all your mana in a burst like thtcis something you are not supposed to do, especially if you are channeling it out of your body. I think it is called as mana burnout and it is supposed to really strain your mana core.


    Men have survived worse burnout. The only thing that I need to worry about if I have left any lasting damage here. Even that is not something to worry about It is only possible to leave lasting damage on your mana core if you were to push it ten to twenty times back to back. The only reason that I am so worried about it is due to the fact that if I were to get injured, healing it is going to be a pain in the butt.


    There is only one way to deal with damaged mana cores. That is either spend years on looking for something that will be able to fix such damage. Such treasures must be capable of healing the soul, which is very hard to find.


    The only reason that I am thinking so much about it is because I have nothing else to do. I mean I don''t even know why I am worrying about it so much. The chance of my soul getting damaged from this is about as likely as a meteor hitting my head.


    Well, now that I have complained about my present situation, I should record what the other people in the troop are doing.


    All three of them are right now focused on mapping out the place. They have made this room we are in as their base and they have been slowly and steadily making their way into the fort and mapping out everything.


    Now that must sound ironic. Mapping out places is always one of the goals of the hexmountain, especially of our enemies. After all, it would certainly make your life easier if you could have knowledge about the enemies layout. It would certainly make a guards life very easy.


    The mayfires are considered to be our allies, so the scholars are put under way more restrictions. That includes mapping their home base. Even now the only reason that we are allowed to map the place is that it is a emergency.


    Basically, all of this is politics. We can discuss about that later as well. right now we do not have a working map of the place. Refer to trevors log, he is the one that is doing the mapping.


    Other than that, Andrew and Jacob are cultivating. overall it has been pretty uneventful, which is also due to me. We can''t do anything seriously until I actually get better. Even the troop have been playing it very safe. They have only explored about three rooms up till now.


    To give a review of their search, we assume that we are some kind of storage area. One of the rooms contains bedsheets, while the remaining two contains various types of items for eating and cooking food. We can try and go beyond but that is quite a bit risky.


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    There are many threats that they need to face after all and they will need me for them. The first threat is most simply put the defensive formations of this place.


    Right now I have no idea if the formations are under the control of the mayfires or the vampires. Right now they could be under the control of either side.


    The defensive formations are usually built to be modular in nature, with each region having a separate control. While this does make it easier to take over a region of the fort, it also makes it worth less. If all of these controls were put in one place, then taking over that place would mean taking over the fort.


    Doing things this way means that you have to visit and attack each part of the fort, to be able to take it over. This gives most of the advantages to the party that makes this place their home.


    The defensive formations will be a mixture of alarms, traps and barriers which would make travelling very annoying if we are in the vampire part of the keep. After all, we if we end up setting off any of the traps then we have to deal with the vampires that it will alert as well.


    Dealing with traps in a fort is always one of the more uncomfortable part of the experience. People seem to have a misconception that traps are only meant for tombs. While they are certainly deadly in tombs (most adventurers die due to traps, rather than anything else.) they are even more deadly in places like this.


    after all, with a tomb, most of the traps have been spending centuries without use. In a fort, they can be maintained and upgraded every few years. That increases their deadliness to the next level.


    Right now that is the main thing that is keeping us held back. If I could move, I would have been able to disable the traps or at least set them of in such a way that nobody would know that we are here. That way, we would have begun our search for the mayfires.


    Other than that, we absolutely don''t want to meet the bloodfire gang and the vampires. I especially don''t want to meet the vampires. There is the leader of the bloodfire gang and his two captains, who are somebody that I don''t want to meet.


    Matthew might be an exception in the way that he played around with me. The man could have easily killed me if he had taken me seriously. Right now the issue is how exactly am I supposed to fight them.


    I can not use my sword against them, that much is clear. I have fought against vampires before so I have a set of other formations at hand ready for that eventually. My master destroyed all of those.


    Also, I don''t know how to fight against somebody like matthew. The man literally made me pause like a statue. How the fuck do you counter something like that. I mean, I know that higher vampires are supposed to be able to do that, but I did not expect that they would be able to do so through a possessed body. The most annoying thing I want to know about is how did that man manage to activate my sword when I had it deactivated.


    Right now my hope is that we will find the mayfires before we meet the bloodfire gang. That would be the best case scenario. Once that happens I can just leave all of the fighting to the mayfires and focus on what I am doing. Well, I have spoken about the bloodfire gang for long enough. Any more and I will just work myself into a panic.


    I also cannot forget about the mayfires. the mayfires are right now in a combat mode. They expect to be attacked any second. We can''t predict how exactly they will react with a person from the black mountain coming here.


    I mean, we have methods of proving our identity but that would require that the mayfire to not attack us at first sight. Knowing them there is more than a little chance that the other side might attack us on first sight.


    My sword will not be helping with that, I assure you. It looks too much like a vampire artifact. Right now the hope is that things don''t actually end up in actual fighting.


    If it comes down to it, the mayfire are not easy enemies at all. Their fire magic is very fascinating in the first place.


    they are able to conjure projections of fire, so life like that they seem to be actual creatures. They can conjure tigers, birds, wolves and even bulls from their flames. I have never got to work with


    The scholars have confirmed that is not the case to us. They are a type of soul projection, is our best guess. Now how exactly am I supposed to explain soul projection. Yeah, you can consider them similar to possession. Only in case of possession the soul forces itself into a loving body. The body has to be alive or at least recently dead.


    Any soul that existed in the body is obliterated and the new soul takes over. Soul projection is gentle compared to that. In this case a part of your soul is put into something that does not have any soul.


    For example, with he mayfires it would be their flames. Another example of this can be found among the druids. The bark warriors of the black forest area another example of soul projection. It is a more temporary and certainly safer method compared to possession.


    These projections move as if they are creatures of fire themselves and that makes them terrifying. Think of a flame that could enter into your wounds and burn your body from the inside out. You would have to always be on guard, to make sure that even slightest of flame does not stick to you.


    That is what fighting the mayfires will be like. The only reason that I prefer to fight the mayfires over the vampires is the simple fact that I can at least use my sword with the mayfires if things go bad.


    The chances of that happening are actually pretty little but one should be ready for anything. The mayfires have been under attack for a while now. Nobody will be able to predict their actions.


    Now that I think about it, we might have just left the frying pan to enter into the fire.

 exploration part 2 (log 071.1)

    We are making decent progress for having had to stay in the same room for the last couple of days. By the time I managed to stabilise my foundation,cvery single little sound had begun to startle us.


    Any more time in that room and we would have begun to attack each other at the sound of our breathing. Things had gone that bad. I still don''t know why we were not attacked already.


    The instant that I recovered from overusing my formation base we began our exploration of the place. Speaking about our exploration, we are making actually good time. We have visited almost six different room. A kitchen, three dorms and two storage rooms.


    Well, we had the good luck of ending up in one of the less important places in the inner keep. It is some kind of a servant quarters. That means that the quality of the traps and alarms here are much inferior to the ones that we could find in the inner keep proper. They also had to seriously keep the alarms in the area less sensitive than they are usually kept. Otherwise, we would not be able to make such quick progress. Even the traps are less complex than they would usually be.


    Not that I have needed to worry about traps though. I have not yet needed to dismantle even a single trap in this entire time. Alarms yes, but not traps.


    That is actually pretty weird if I am to be honest. Trevor thinks this is because the vampires must have set off all the traps. After they would have needed a point of entry and this is about as good as a place to infiltrate the place.


    I just can''t see how they could have done it though. Any traps set off should have set off the alarms as well. All alarms are designed in such a way that they will react when they sense a certain amount of mana flowing in the region. I can expect a martial mage to be able to control their vital mana to such a degree that they will not set of such a trap, but precise mana control is not what pops into your head when you think of vampires.


    If anything, they are the race that least need to worry about not having enough mana. Well, if I am honest vampires are creatures that always have a bag of tricks. Just their grunts can get so hard to fight. I will figure out this trick of theirs soon enough. I am personally betting on some kind of a infernal summoning. A imp would be capable of pulling this off.


    Well, I don''t bother thinking too much on it. After all we are in enemy territory right now. I had expected to be attacked on our first day here. Somehow our luck has held till now. Yet I can''t stop the creeping suspicion that something is following us. It is like a ghost at the edge of my vision.


    Well, vampires are capable of that kind of stealth. I just don''t think they would be this willing to be stealthy when they already control the place. I am sure that we would have been attacked by now if the vampire were after us.


    Fuck, I really should be focussing right now. After all I have to open this alarm without setting it off. Alarm spells are pesky little formations to deal with.


    They are build in such a way that even the lightest contact with external mana will set the entire thing off, warning everybody to your presence. To dismantle it you basically need to separate the sensitive part from the non sensitive and you have to do so gently. Otherwise you risk setting of the alarm yourself revealing to everybody you are here.


    Then the vampires will attack us, regardless of if they are following us or not. Right now that is something that we cannot afford. To be honest we don''t know who controls the defense formation of this part of the fort. It could the mayfires or it could be the vampires.


    If it is the mayfires, we don''t need to worry about being revealed because ultimately that is our goal. If we manage to meet up with them then I can finally calm down a bit. It is the vampires that we don''t want discovering us.


    The alarm formation that I am dealing with is one of the most sensitive formations that I have dealt with in all of this time. This makes me think that this door leads into one of the more important areas of the inner keep.


    That means that we have more chances of encountering the bloodfire gang or the mayfires. Thus, it would be wiser to be very cautious.


    (After about ten minutes.)


    Well, there it goes.


    The minute that the spell gives away I retreat at the same instant. I literally jump backward keeping my sword ready. After all, if anybody is there in the other room the instant after the alarm spell is shattered is the best time to ambush a person.


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    The chance of that happening is actually pretty low, considering the fact that I would have detected them if that was the case. Still, the one thing that I have learnt in my life is to be as careful as possible. you can never tell what vampires can be capable of.


    I signal to the other people in my room to enter into stance. Trevor takes position to my right and Andrew takes position to my left. Jacob is just behind me.


    Jacob is the fastest of us, wielding twin daggers. If an enemy were to be present in the next room, his duty is to convey that information. Based on the enemy strength jacob will have to convey which strategy we will be following.


    Andrew, who is using a sword and shield and trevor, who is using a sword are the reserve. They will either follow me, stay put or retreat based on the enemies action. Finally, I am the vanguard. I will be the first to enter into the place, and based on the enemy strength give commands through Jacob.


    With everybody taking position it is time for me to open the door. All of this preparation seem to be a bit over, but you never know who could be on the other side.


    Finally, the door creaks open as I quickly case the room. It is some kind of an office. The room is bare except for a table and a bookshelf. More importantly there is no enemy here.


    I signal the soldiers to follow behind me.


    They quickly make their way into the room. Already, I can see trevor casing the room. The places in which potential enemies might be hiding. The possible places in which we can hide.


    Well, I am supposed to be doing the same thing. Well, the room is pretty easily defensible. We can make use of the table to blockade the door. It is a good solid table. Nothing will be able to break it easily.


    Similarly the bookshelf can be used but moving it would make way more noise. The books present in the bookshelf can be used to light a fire. Out of curiosity, I open the books to see what is on it.


    Well, it is some kind of an entry log for the servants, recording their time if entery and exit. I put the thing back quietly. I mean, it could be paranoia but I can''t see beyond this room in my mana sense.


    "Well, Andrew would you close the door to the room behind us.", I whisper to Andrew, my voice echoing like drum beats.


    The room has two doors, the one that we just came through and the one that leads to the outside. The formations on this door are even stronger than the one that I have just broken through. Thankfully, There is no alarm formation.


    At a quick glance, there are three formations here. The first is the reason that my mana sense is not working. The other two are some kind of formation to monitor this room. They most likely record any noise in the room and record any mana signature in the room.


    Well, if they had a person monitoring the core formations for this we have been discovered already, though the chance of that actually happening is pretty low. The enemy is in a state of active combat. I have a sneaking suspicion that they don''t have enough people to attack the mayfires, let alone monitor all the defensive formations.


    So right now I will focus on the first formation. Give me five minutes, I don''t need to be as gentle with this formation as I need to be with a alarm formation. Still, I will try to be gentle. I can''t really tell if there is a enemy in the other room after all.


    (After about five minutes.)


    Well, it was good that I destroyed the formation. Right now I can sense mana in the room beyond. I am not able to tell exactly how much mana or how many mages are using it but I can tell that it is being used. There are mages on the other side of the room.


    Well, we do not have the option to hide anymore. The destruction of the formation would have alerted the people there. With how much they are throwing mana around they will notice this. The only hope that I have is that the other side is not vampires. I cant tell if the mana on the other side is blood mana or not.


    Still, I keep my sword ready, not activating it though. I will do so on the basis of enemy we are facing. The troop has taken positon behind me already, the same as the previous time.


    I open the door ready to be ambushed. The scene beyond is about as shocking as one would expect it to be. Well, I was certainly not expecting to see a genocide like this. there are corpses strewn across the hall I find myself in.


    The corpses all are wearing different uniform, so it must be the bloodfire gang.


    "This is a surprise.", a voice speaks out from the other end of the hall.


    The hall is massive with four or five doors spread across it. I make a note on every door as I finally look at the man. To do this I need to step over a few of the bodies. They have all been burnt black. My troop follows behind me in formation.


    The man is hiding in some kind of a barrier. I rack my head trying to think if the man is an ally or not. Logically speaking it should be a mayfire but something feels really long. It is the mana that they are using for the barrier. It is not fire mana. It is also not blood mana. I have never seen such a type of mana. All I can do to describe it is that it is creepy.


    "Are you dumb, vampire.", the man speaks again, his voice more like a harsh whisper. The more he speaks the clearer it is that we are enemies.


    "I am wondering what kind of magic you are wielding. I have never seen magic like this", I reply, pretty much on an impulse.


    "You don''t know do you, vampire.", the man speaks, his voice seriously creeping the fuck out of me. "Well, they did mention about you. The vampire that is killing all the vampires."


    I do not get to reply to this. Even as he speaks I feel the mana that he begins to emit. That is too much mana flowing in the room, flowing like a tidal wave of ice. Yet the thing that caused me to shiver from my bones is not this wave of mana. I can see the corpses get up in the corners of my eyes.

 the necromancer (log 071.2)

    A necromancer, that is what we are dealing with here. Of which kind I can''t be sure.


    "Has a cat got your tongue?", the man speaks. "Your silence won''t protect you, you know."


    Even as he speaks, I can feel the mana in the room flowing under his control. I can feel his mana pool around me, trapping me in a bubble. This is death mana. Too much of it and my body will simply start dying. I cycle my mana feeling the cold sensation withdraw for a bit. I won''t be able to maintain it for long though. This man is capable of throwing around a lot of mana.


    "Well, why should I fear you, necromancer.", I speak. "Your power is restricted to this very room."


    The man begins to laugh, his voice echoing creepily. I can feel the quantity of death mana surrounding me increase. While it is painful, this was the best outcome. The more death mana I have to face the lesser that the others will have to face. Andrew and Jacob will still be fine, but Jacob will be in a very bad position.


    "And yet you have entered into place.", he speaks. "Should I call you brave or foolish."


    The man speaks almost as if he cannot see me. Like he is speaking to me by approximating my present position. Could it be?


    "Necromancer, you certainly talk big.", I speak. "Yet all I see in the room are corpses. You must be an apprentice since all you can control are zombies."


    Well, all I know about the necromancers is that they can raise zombies. It is supposed to be their most basic undead they can raise.


    "You can thank the mayfire for that.", the man speaks. "You would already be dead if he had not attacked me out of the blue."


    Even as he speaks, I can hear the corpses behind us shuffle as if they are getting up. The undead appear as blobs of death mana in my vision. How the fuck did I not notice that before.


    Well, it would be wise if I do not make any sudden moves. The zombies are surrounding us from every side. Zombies are pretty easy to fight when they are alone, but when they combine together to form a horde they are not easy to fight.


    The deadliest thing about them is the plague that the carry around with them. Each zombie carries with them the plague of undeath. One bite or scratch from this people and you will be infected with the very same poison that made these people into zombies in the first place.


    We mages can fight it of with our vital mana, but it will leave us useless. We also have trevor to protect as well. The man will become a zombie if he does not get medical treatment in time. Right now, I am not sure the mayfires would be able to handle a zombie plague.


    In the time that I have been recording this, the man opposite me has been busy. He is moving massive amounts of death mana in the room, for what purpose I don''t know.


    The man does not need to move around that much mana just to attack me. So I have to assume that something else is happening here.


    Still, I am caught in a bear trap here. The only thing that I can be sure of is that the other side is struck to this very room. I can''t tell how the man is moving around that much mana in the room, only that the barrier he is in has something to do with it.


    The man''s range also shouldn''t be that high. Even retreating to the room that we have just left should be enough to greatly diminish the man''s power.


    The only problem is how. The man is barely concentrating on me and I can feel myself drowning in his mana. On top of that death mana is just hard to defend against.


    If he were to see me retreating the man will attack me. The only question is will I be able to survive until we retreat. I mean, I am more than confident that I will survive. I am more worried about the old man. He will be the first person attacked.


    "Who are you fighting against?", I speak, trying to project as much confidence I can into my voice. The man opposite me might be able to kill me in one move, but he doesn''t need to know. I have stood against the commander, I have fought a snowlord.


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    "You don''t need to know. After all you are going to be a part of my army soon enough.", as he speaks, the man''s face splits into a creepy grin.


    As he speaks, I can feel the surge of mana around him, as he raises all the corpses in the room under his control. As he does so, I gesture the soldiers behind me to retreat.


    I don''t need to honestly, as the corpses start shambling towards us. in front of me are five zombies, each burnt in some way or the other. I move forward without breaking formation, attacking the leading zombie.


    I don''t aim for any of his vitals. Doing so would mean that the other zombies will attack me. Instead, I attack the legs of the creature leaving a long gash on the leg.


    This is enough to trip the creature to the ground. I retreat out of the grasp of the zombie. It is still trying to get up, but it can''t. This is enough to stop two of the zombies from coming forward though they have already begun to go around the injured one.


    The other two are still moving as they are. I push as much mana as I dare to into my sword, activating it forcefully. The stench of the corpses makes me want to retch but I keep myself steady and attack.


    My sword passes through the neck of the two creatures decapitating them in a single move. As the two corpses collapse to the ground, I realise that the creatures yield no blood mana. Well, that is going to make things annoying.


    That single swipe cost me ten percent of my mana reserves. Well, now that I am relatively free I get an idea of what the other people in the troop are doing. Andrew is dealing with three zombies.


    While he doesn''t seem to be able to defeat them he is in not threat from this creatures. Jacob is fighting against one zombie, dancing around it and trying to disable it with quick jabs of his dagger. Once he manages that our escape route will be safe.


    As expected the man at most risk right now is trevor, who is somehow holding against two zombies on his own. I wish I can move to help him, but I have my own enemies as the three zombies finally begin their attack.


    The injured zombies attack first. It teeth aimed at my ankle. The remaining two are aiming for the ground above me. The fucker is directing them. I refuse to believe that zombies are capable of this.


    Well, it instinct that drives me as I take a small step to the left dodging the maimed ones bite. A quick step and my leg has crushed the man''s face on the ground. I duck down at the same time, as the zombies claws meet the air. I thrust my sword into the neck of the zombie in the ground.


    I shouldn''t have done that as I feel the claws of the undead pierce my leg. It feels like a whisper in my ears as the poisonous mana infects me like in a glass of water. I duck again to dodge the other zombies.


    I have to admit that the world around me has begun to a bit airy, as if I am not even here. It takes me a while to return to the battle. In that time my body moves like somebody is possessing me. I step to the side dodging another strike from one of the zombies.


    It is a weird feeling.


    (After about five minutes.)


    What the fuck was that. Right now, we are back in the office, with Andrew and Jacob pushing the table against the door. The only thing that I can feel is the surge of pain that I am feeling in my arms.


    It takes me a few moments to recollect the carnage that we have managed to survive somehow. The only person injured in this endeavor is me. Even now I can feel death mana like sludge in my body.


    I can barely get my mana through the death mana. It is not concentrated enough to simply kill me, but it is there and it is enough to stop my vital mana from functioning ptoperly. This I feel like a wave of exhaustion, leaving me groggy in a way that I did not expect.


    Fuck, I did not even mention about my sword. Right now my sword is still present in the throat of the zombie. Even now I think that the damn creature is trying to get out my sword but it has at least pinned to the ground.


    It is suggested that one is not supposed to stab into zombies. Unless you get the spell that is animating them, there is little to no chance that you will be able to kill it.


    At the same time, stabbing them increases the risk of the sword getting stuck in the body. This is what has happened to me. That means that I won''t be able to rely on the sword to heal myself.


    Even if I had it, I wouldn''t be able to do much with it. The sword works the best when I am absorbing the vital mana of an enemy. I could take the the vital mana of one of my troop, but that is a task that is going to take very fine control over my vital mana.


    If I have to be honest about it, I don''t think that I will be able to do it now. For now, we have brought ourselves some time, but I am not sure how long we have.


    The necromancer is busy fighting somebody else, one of the mayfires I presume. He won''t bother about me, unless I were to return to the room. That doesn''t stop him from sending his underlings after me.


    The zombies are already attacking the door. They punch at it and claw at it. Thankfully the door is holding. It is good old wood and unless the necromancer was to interfere suddenly will hold for a good long while.


    "Captain, can you remove the plague from your body before it takes root?", trevor suddenly asks me.


    "I think that I will be able to. It will take me a couple of hours though and I will need to meditate.", I reply.


    "Good, do exactly that.", he commands me.


    "Trevor, the bastards can break the door any second..."


    "We have the time, captain.", he speaks. "Right now we need to make sure that the plague doesn''t take root in you. Jacob and andrews can hold against any enemy that breaches the place."


    "We can at least retreat.", I reply. "We have a fucking necromancer in the room beyond us."


    "The necromancer is bound to that circle of his. He will lose his power if he were to leave it. That leaves us only the zombies to worry. They will be the easiest to fight here.", he speaks with complete certainty. "Your soldiers will be able to handle it.

 Alfred mayfire (log 072)

    "why exactly are we still here, trevor.", I ask the man. "You do realise that we have a necromancer in the next room, right."


    A quick glance and I understand what is happening in the room. Trevor is right now maintaining vigil on the gate. I can see Jacob and Andrew both catching a nap in one of the corners of the room. A bit unprofessional but then men have been exhausted in all of this time anyways.


    "The zombies have stopped attacking the door, captain.", he replies. "We assumed that it would be best to be here to see how they will behave. Anyways, we won''t find a better place to hold back any zombies they throw at us. You won''t be able to fight against them in those nareue tunnels."


    Remind me to explain to you what exactly meditation is one of these day. Nobody ever explains it this precisely. I have just left meditation about five minutes ago, almost half a day over the time I was supposed to do so. (Hey, don''t blame me. It is easy to get lost in meditation.). That shouldn''t have happened. I am not that skilled with meditation.


    "What exactly is happening in the room beyond.", I ask. This should have been the first thing that I should have asked but I am still recovering from my meditation. I can see the man''s point. This is the best place to hold back the zombies but is also within easy reach of the necromancer. Even without that formation of his, a necromancer is not an easy enemy to fight.


    "We dont know what is happening in the room beyond. We haven''t dared to peak into the room.", he speaks. "The only thing that we can be sure of is that something has happened to the necromancer. He was throwing massive bolts of mana until a while ago. He has stopped doing that now."


    As he speaks, I finally notice it. The mana in the air shows signs of being drained. I have seen it before, but never without a large number of mages working their magic at the same time.


    "Who do you think he could be fighting. That much mana, the enemy is not anybody weak.", he replies.


    "Well, the necromancer is clearly fighting against somebody.", he speaks. "Now the vampires are unlikely to travel half the continent to just fight the necromancers in our territory. They do plenty of that In their own lands. I have to assume that the person that he is fighting is one of the mayfires. Also, the necromancers must have allied with the vampires."


    "But that has never happened.", I reply, trying to think of one instance where they have worked together. "They have always been fighting against each other."


    "Well, you are asking the wrong person, kid.", he speaks, "they have a very complicated relation is all that I will be able to tell you. In the recent times, they have ended up fighting each other but they have worked together an equal number of times. I can easily think up of five examples on the spot."


    "Still, why would they attack the mayfires?", I ask.


    "Well, I cant really be sure. Only that the mayfires might be involved in the matter.", he speaks,


    "Now how would that be the case?", I ask the man.


    "Think about it kid, does the outer keep look like a necromancer has attacked it?", he replies.


    "Well, they tend to rip through a place.", I reply. At the legion, we have never faced necromancers. We have cleaned up after enough of them though. They are not pretty.


    "That means that the necromancers did not appear here from the outer keep.", he replies. "What options does it leaves behind."


    "A teleportation formation.", I realise. "But the the mayfires would have protections against something like that."


    "Which is why I think that the mayfires are hiding something.", he replies.


    "You think they could be working together?", I ask, feeling a chill crawl down my spine.


    "No, if that was the case, we wouldn''t be the people here.", he replies. "The mayfires are able to communicate with us. If they had used those means, then the legion would be here. You agree that they are better targets than us."


    "Well, then what could they be planning.", I reply.


    "That is the question of the hour.", he replies. "And something that you don''t need to worry about. How is the corpse poision."


    "Poison?, you mean the plague.", I reply, confused for a second. Only old folks call it corpse poison. "Well I have managed to remove almost all of it. There is still a bit left but that won''t harm anybody. I can fight again, though without the bloody fang I can''t say just how useful I will be."


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    "Good, because I need you to take over the watch for me. I have not slept for two days straight now.", he replies. "I need to take a quick nap."


    Looking at the man, it is clear that it is the truth. The man looks like he is about to keel over any second now. Well, the man joins my two underlings in their sleep, leaving me alone again. Knowing him, the man is going to end up asleep in a few moments. I have not seen him sleep more than a couple of times but the man sleeps like a rock when he does.


    I don''t think that man will even stir even If I were to shake him awake. I don''t want to be the one to test it though. The man freaks me out a bit if I am a bit honest.


    Still, I feel very awkward standing here. Right now, all of my instincts are screaming that I should not be here. I mean we are about as safe here as anywhere else. The zombies will not be able to attack us as long as the door is not breached and the necromancer is clearly occupied with something else. Somebody will have to tell my head that though. It refuses to calm down.


    Oh right, that reminds me. I quickly walk to the corner of the room in which we have kept our supplies. Ruffling through my stuff and I find the rock sword kept in my packs.


    It is of a different length compared to the bloody fang and I won''t be able to use its petrifying ability any time soon, but I can strengthen it using my vital mana and it is about as decent of a replacment as I can find in this place. Though I have to be careful in making sure that no vampires sees me using it. It is considered to be very rare to be given a artifact in the court. It will be enough drive them into a frenzy.


    I did not want to remove the sword out here, but I have no option. They say that vampires are able to detect their artifacts. Let''s hope that I don''t attract any in my head right now.


    I shouldn''t have brought it with me. It is just such a precious thing, that we simply could not have left it behind with the organisation. The damn bastards would have stolen it. Trevor was against this but I managed to satisfy the man by placing a couple of runes to hide the things presence.


    They do tend to be effective, but they are so fragile that even unsheathing the sword will break these runes. The best option would have been to not use the sword, but when the zombies break in there is no way that I will be fighting them with my bare fists


    If the mayfire manages to beat the necromancer, I won''t even need to fight but if the necromancer beats the enemy, then we will be cornered completely. We could survive for a bit longer by retreating but I don''t see getting out of this alive.


    Well, the only thing that we can do at this moment is to wait. Right now all of our hopes of survival depend on this mayfire who we have never seen in our lives.


    Well, I will continue this log when the damn necromancer does actually end up attacking us. If I were to keep recording until then I will certainly lose my mind in the anxiety.


    (After another four hours.)


    Finally, somebody is attacking the door. Even right now they are attacking the door, each attack causing the door to quiver. The air is so full of the necromancer''s mana that I can''t even tell if the other side is a mayfire or the necromancer.


    I assume it is the mayfire. After all if it was the necromancer, he would simply be using a much larger amount of mana. Then again, once the necromancer were to leave that barrier of his he would not be able to command the ridiculous amount of mana that he can wield. Maybe he simply can''t use that mana.


    "Captain, who is attacking us?", trevor asks behind me. When did the man get up.


    "I can''t tell.", I admit. "Regardless of who it is it would be wise to be ready. Get the two to weapon up and get into formation."


    Hearing my command, the man quickly goes to wake up the two men. I mean, being in formation might send the wrong message if a mayfire were to enter but we can''t risk being in a less threatening formation at the moment.


    After all, if there is a necromancer in the door behind us, it is not going to be an easy fight. There is a reason that the necromancers have survived even after pissing off all the gods. They are bloody tough enemies to fight.


    The door cracks open leading to a small crack opening up on the door. the two soldiers wake up behind me. Well, they are well trained at the very least. otherwise, people would usually panic if they are suddenly woken up like that.


    These people are calm and begin to take their positions as the crack in the begins to expands as a flaming eagle punches through the door.


    This is not an eagle caught on flames. Every inch of the creatures is made up of pure flames, like a fire elementakl. Even now, the fires have begun to eat into the door as the creature circles up above us.


    I am so caught up with the creature that I almost don''t notice the man that is entering through the door. He is roughly my age, though his mana suggests that the man is in the latter half of the foundation stage. Other than that the man is the perfect example of what you would think a warrior to be.


    He is chiseled in a way that would make even the soldiers of the legion be wary of this guy. Well, half the guys in the legion would have a physique like this, if they were allowed to have them. We can''t really be doing our work if we end up triggering every guard that we end up meeting due to looking intimidating.


    Shit, where was I. Yeah, so it is clear that the one opposite me is a mayfire. Before I can say anything, the man opposite me speaks up.


    "Captain antonio of the hexmountain.", he speaks. "We have been expecting you. I believe that this is your sword."


    As the man speaks he throws my sword at me. I grasp it in my hands, feeling better the instant that I touch it.


    "Well, I apologise for not knowing your name, mayfire.", I speak, trying to sound important.


    "I am Alfred mayfire.", he speaks. "I am not surprised you don''t know anything about me."


    Fuck that means that the man in front of me is the young master of the mayfires. He is supposed to be the man that is supposed to take over the mayfires when the present head were to die.


    He is also supposed to be a genius that has cast his first spell at the age of eight. (I was ten years myself.) He has also supposedly fought and killed a phoenix at the age of twelve. (I am not a fool to try that.) Well, this is going to interesting.

 the fire altar (log 073)

    The damn mayfires have a mana controlling barrier. Don''t ask me how the bastards have managed to get something like, but I can feel the damn thing in front of me.


    Before you ask me about how do I know that, I will be clear. The feeling it gives me is very clear. A sticky sensation that makes me feel like I will be caught in it if I were to take a step into. This is a mana controlling barrier. Nothing else would be able to present such a clear sensation.


    We have not yet entered into the barrier, though we are going to do so in a minute. Right now Alfred mayfire is preparing the ritual to enter into the place. Don''t ask me what the exact ritual is, I don''t think that the mayfires would appreciate me revealing it. Anyways, I don''t think I have really understood it.


    The man has been standing in front of the barrier and has been chanting for the last couple of minutes. The man makes sure that I won''t be able to hear anything of interest. The bits that I have understood make the entire thing seem like a prayer to their ancestors.


    As the man does his thing, I might as well explain how exactly I have ended up here. It took us about a couple of hours to reach the place. Without Alfred mayfire, we would have not reached here this quickly. Without the man, it would have been pretty unlikely that we would have made it alive.


    After all, the damn place is crawling in zombies. There are enough corpses here that I am left wondering just how many servants the mayfires keep. The mayfires are seriously lazy folks if the number of corpses they have here are to be considered. This also shows that the necromancers have managed to take over almost the entirity of the place.


    That is the only way that they would have been able to something make so many undead is if the necromancer have managed to take a significant portion of the fort. The mayfires are not in a pretty situation, is all I will be able to tell.


    Right now my main question is where exactly have the necromancers come from. It is pretty unlikely that they came from somewhere outside. Necromancers are very messy enemies to fight. They would not have left the city so pristine if they were fighting out there. So how exactly did the necromancers appear.


    Well, I am sure that I will be finding that out soon enough. For now, I am just happy that I don''t need to fight the zombies. I mean, fighting zombies is easy, but the problem is dealing with a large amount of them because you absolutely don''t want to get bit by them. They also don''t have any vital mana that I can draw on so fighting them is very hard for me. They can be considered to be the perfect counter for me.


    For alfred mayfire, the situation is the exact opposite. The man has been built to destroy the zombies. Alfred mayfire doesn''t even struggle to get rid of the creatures in an instant. Their magic is just suited to get rid of a large number of weaklings.


    The man literally summoned a flock of fire sparrows and burns a group of eight zombies to crisp just like that. I would have taken about half an hour to pull that off. I would have to attract the attention of each individual zombie and kill them like that. That is the only way that I can be assured that I won''t be bit.


    Anyways, where was I? Yeah, we have reached a mana controlling barrier. Now, a mana controlling barrier is something that you only tend to see down south. They are the only ones with the knowledge and the resources to build something this complicated.


    I am completely sure that this is a mana controlling barrier. This not only due to the fact that it just feels so wrong arround the barrier. It is also the only thing that can explain the view that I can see in my mana sense.


    Mana in the atmosphere is always flowing. It crashes into each other, with mana of different kinds combining to form other kinds of mana. In short atmospheric mana tends to be very chaotic. (It is literally a kaleidoscope of color.) Even in the northern wastelands this holds true. The only thing about that place being that the mana there is of a single type. That is why the place is so dangerous.


    In this barrier there is mana of every variety present inside. The only thing being that the mana has stopped moving completely. It almost feels like the mana has frozen in an exact moment of time. It almost looks like a painting if I am honest about it.


    With a mana controlling barrier, the mana inside the barrier is under the absolute control of the person that is controlling the barrier. Inside the barrier, nobody else can take control of mana outside their body. That means that I won''t be able to do anything that would require me to control mana externally. That includes inscription as well. That means that most kind of spells cannot be used inside the barrier. Well, let''s hope that the mayfires don''t plan to kill me. I won''t really be able to put up a fight inside the barrier.


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    "Captain sevenstars.", Alfred speaks. "How long will you be observing the fire altar barrier. I have completed the ceremony to allow you inside."


    That breaks me from my study of the barrier in front of me. Can''t make it too obvious. Even the most friendly of our allies do not like to be the victims of our curiosity.


    "I apologise, you don''t get to see formations like this this north of the continent.", I reply. "It must have cost you a lot to build such a fine formation."


    "Well, it would be wise that we enter the barrier as quickly as possible.", he speaks, the unease clear in his eyes. "The necromancers have been getting more and more aggresive nowadays. We don''t want you get involved in one of their attacks. Anyways, It is not polite to stand at the door so long."


    "Oh yeah, I apologise for that. Let''s go in.", I speak, noting that the man had been staring at my sword as he spoke this. Looks like the man also wants me in a place where he can get rid of me easil


    Entering into the barrier is a weird feeling. It feels like a foreign mana is trying to break into me and is trying to take control of it. I could have resisted it but that would have lead to me being killed by the man next to me. My troop would not have been able to save me.


    It is very hard, but I don''t resist the foreign mana. Soon enough, it finally leaves me as I take control of myself. Almost on a impulse I try to push out my mana in the form of mana strings. As soon as my mana leaves my body I can feel it slip out of my control. The mana bleeds away from me.


    I cycle my vital mana, feeling it strengthen my body. The mana is under my complete control, as long as it remains in my body. The instant that I push even a bit of it out of me, I can feel it bleed away. Now I want to know who has made this formation.


    Creating a mana barrier capable of breaking a persons control over vital mana is very rare. The reason for that is necromancers ironically. Such a barrier would make the work of a necromancer quite easy. Where before they would have needed to manually separate a person from his vital mana to make him undead, the barrier will do it for them now.


    "Only those blessed by the fire altar can use mana inside this place, captain.", speaks Alfred mayfire. "The only reason that the barrier is not attacking you is because I have named you allies of the mayfires. Otherwise you would already have begun to burn at the altar."


    As he speaks, the man has been taking us through the narrow tunnels of the keep. Finally, the tunnels have opened up into a room full of tombs. There are rows and rows of corpses placed evenly across the room. I would say that there are at least a hundred corpses in the place. A bow of reverence from alfred is enough to tell me that this is a important place to these people.


    "Where are we?", I ask Alfred.


    "We are in the fire crypts. Every member of our family is put to rest here in the presence of the fire altar.", Alfred speaks.


    I don''t reply to as I digest this information. The mayfires are from the east. They are really superstitious about their dead. They would never disturb their dead unless they were pushed into it. Just how have the necromancers managed to do so much damage.


    As I am pondering in this, we have been making our way through the crypt. Passing the corpses we have finally ended up in some kind of safehouse.I can see different rooms connected to each other through a single tunnel. Every room has the mayfires, either cultivating, sleeping or just staring at the wall in front of them. Most that I have seen till now has a injury of some kind of the other.


    Even the ones that don''t seem to be particularly injured move with a kind of resolute energy as if they are steeling themselves before a fight. Alfred finally stops in front of a door. I don''t even need to peek in to tell that the room is empty.


    "Captain, you and your troops can rest in here.", he speaks.


    "I was under the assumption that we would be meeting the patriarch of the mayfires.", I ask.


    Right now I just want to lay down and drift off. Sadly. I represent the black mountain here. Meeting the patriarch cannot be missed.


    "Well the patriarch is right now busy with other works. You have been fighting a pretty grueling battle with the dead, the patriarch wishes you rest now", he replies, "he wishes to meet you at a more opportune time. Anyways, it would be wise that you are a bit more presentable before you go to meet him. This will give you the opportunity to freshen up and rest before he calls for you."


    Well, this gives me the opportunity to rest without Insulting the mayfires. I don''t even need to command it as the soldiers begin to filter Into the place one by one. I don''t as I can see that the man is about to leave. Before he can do that.


    "What is the situation right now?", I ask, knowing more than well, I won''t be getting anything here. "What exactly is happening here?"


    The instant that I ask the question I can see the man stiffen up. While his expression doesn''t change I can see his guard rise.


    "I am not sure what I am allowed to say.", he speaks, his voice taking in "The patriarch will brief you on the situation himself. I would advice that you don''t get out of this room. With how high the tensions are, I cannot predict how the soldiers will react to your presence. Your sword can cause a lot of panic here."


    Saying that the man leaves, clearly intent not to speak anymore with me. The room that has been provided to us is pretty small, with barely enough place for two beds. The four us will be able to somehow adjust on the bed, but it is not going to be easy.


    Still, none of us complain, as we fall on the bed in armour. Even as my back hits the bed, I can feel exhaustion catch up as the dreams begin to take me.

 meeting the patriarch (log 074)

    Right now I am standing outside of the patriarch''s office. I have been standing here for the last couple of hours, waiting for the man to call me in.


    I have been making use of this time to study the people who have been conferring with the soldiers.


    The very first man was some kind of a soldier. The man had a scar on his face that disfigured his nose to a little stump. I have to assume that he is some kind of a warrior. He sat in there with the man for almost half an hour and left with a scowl on his face.


    The second man was some kind of a formation mage. He was in there for an hour and left with a grim expression.


    The last person to enter was Alfred who did not come out yet.


    Such a type of waiting is nothing new to me. One of the favorite tactics that people have with formation mages is to make them wait. They think that would make us impatient and more easy to deal with. When you have to sit working on the same project for months, patience is the first thing to learn.


    It is something that you come to accept when you work with the guard corps as well. After all, many of our allies like to make us wait. Some tend to do it because they are genuinely busy and it is hard for them to make the time needed to meet us. Others do it as a show of force. You can''t show your irritation to either. We can''t afford to annoy our allies and man needing to show off tends to take offense quickly.


    In this case, I have to assume that it is the former since the mayfires are good allies. If it is the latter, the files of the guard corps need some serious updating.


    The patriarch of the mayfires is a reasonable man. Based on what I have been allowed to read about him, the man seems to be a practical sort. His background is also pretty unique. He did not start as a mayfire. He was supposedly a mercenary that they hired. He became a man of the family through marriage and took his position after years of plotting.


    The other three people in my troop are still in the room resting. They are warriors, not soldiers that have any diplomatic responsibilities. That particular responsibility is completely mine. Anyways, I would prefer at least a few of us be well rested for the eventuality that the mayfires are going to betray us.


    I will be honest, I don''t know what to expect here. Right now the main issue is the fact that I don''t understand where the mayfires lie. All of the documents that I have on them tell me that the mayfires are our good allies. The scholars tend to be so appreciative of very few powers. They consider even fewer powers as our allies.


    Yet one cannot ignore the fact that the mayfires are hiding something from us. A pretty large something at that. Now the question we have is why and whether we can keep trusting them.


    I don''t have much that I can do against the mayfires. For better or worse they are the dominant force here and that is not a position that I enjoy as a formation mage. This is the ideal position to be exploited after all.


    Right now, they can ask me to do anything and I don''t have the option of refusing them. If I am unlucky, they might give me a risky job such as helping out in the maintenance of the barrier. Since the people here won''t be willing to share the designs of the barrier with me, I am at least not too worried that will happen.


    If they do end up sharing the design of the barrier. Well, I would be willing to work for an entire year if it meant I would get to study a barrier like this. This type of barrier is something that even my master struggles with. Well, the chance of this happening is very low, so I think it would be wise not to get my hopes up.


    Instead, I think I will be given a more rudimentary task which would be to fix the weapons and the armour of the soldiers. It is a task of vital importance as well. One worthy of a mage from the guard corps, they will say. After all, if the said weapon or armor were to fail in the middle of a battle the outcome would usually be death for that soldier. Still, it is gruntwork at its core. There is nothing that will come of use from this other than helping me waste some time.


    I am so lost in my thoughts that I almost don''t notice the door to the room opening up. I think there are formations on it to reduce the noise produced by it. Just how much mana must they have inside the isolating barrier? Even as I get up, I can see Alfred who is leaving gesturing me to go into the room.


    The instance that I enter into the room, I can tell that the mana in the room is completely still. I could try moving this mana but I won''t be able to do it. Not without a formation of my own. This is not only due to the formation but due to the man in front of me as well. He is not somebody that I should be taking lightly. I would say his mana control is only a few steps worse than my master. (My master is the best in the black mountain at formation control.)


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    The patriarch of the mayfires is a surprisingly small man. I would say that the man would come to my shoulders if we were to stand side by side. Yet, one would just need to look at the man to tell that he is not a man that you should be trifling with. Age has barely touched on the man, though I guess that he easily could be the age of my master. His eyes seem to convey his experience.


    His room is surprisingly bare, with the only thing of interest being a sword that has been placed on an altar to the side. Looking at it, I can swear that I can feel the heat of the room spike as if the room has been set on fire. I avert my eyes before I can offend the people here. Nobody likes the curiosity of the black mountain. This is something important to the mayfires. They also don''t like to speak about it, since I have read nothing about it in the documents given to me,


    "The disciple of the grand wolf.", the man suddenly speaks, as he checks me out. "I didn''t expect that they would be sending you for such a mission. Be thankful we were informed that you were coming. Otherwise, we would have hunted you as one of those deplorable vampires. That sword of yours lets you use their mana."


    "Patriarch, I greet you.", I greet, as I bow my head.


    "There is no need for such formality, kid. We are in a state of war. Such formalities waste too much time.", the man speaks. "I must say that the fates are on our side."


    "Why would you say that, patriarch.", I speak.


    "Well, we needed a formation mage, kid", he speaks. "Just as we were worrying about what we could do, you pop like a little miracle."


    "What could I even do, patriarch.", I reply feeling my heart drop. I don''t want to craft another formation while enemies are attacking. "There is not much that we formation mages can do during a battle scenario."


    "Well, we need you to do a vital job for us.", he speaks. "We need you to man the defensive lines surrounding the fire altar."


    "Well, I can do that job very well, patriarch.", I speak, trying to keep my voice level. "However well I can do it, your formation mages will do a better job than me."


    "Well, our formation troops were one of the first forces hit. We lost a majority of them. We have only twenty of them left and right now we need them for something else."


    "Well, I don''t mind taking over the defensive line.", I reply. "But I would like to enquire what you mean to use these twenty formation mages for. Wouldn''t they serve better here with me?"


    "Well, it is nothing sinister, Antonio.", he speaks. "Right now the necromancers have taken over the southern half of my fort. They have filled it with some type of toxic miasma. Any person entering it dies within a few minutes. Until this poison is dealt with, we can''t fight them. Even I can''t enter that miasma."


    "How do you plan to get rid of this poison?", I ask.


    As he speaks, he gets up to the altar. He grasps the sword after bowing down to it once. The instant he does so I can feel the mana in the room get even more still, if that is possible.


    "This is the ancestral sword of my people. It is the formation stick for the barrier surrounding the fire altar.", he speaks. "My mages tell me that I can use the sword to access the mana that is present here in the fire altar. This much mana will be enough to burn through the miasma"


    As he speaks, I realize that the man is asking for my opinion on the matter.


    "Well, the only way that would be possible is through projection. I would say that such a thing is technically possible. I would say that it is possible, but even in the best case, you would only be able to use a fourth of the magic present here. You will lose the remaining mana.", I reply. "Also, controlling this process is going to be very hard. If anything goes wrong the sword could explode on your face. You would need an entire troop of formation mages to monitor the process. I could give a better idea if it will work if I could study the sword."


    The man stares at the sword for a bit but he decisively puts it back.


    "Well, then your task is to maintain the defensive formations that are surrounding the fire altar. Alfred and a troop of soldiers will be left here to assist you while we go and deal with this necromancer problem.", the man speaks. "You must hold against any attempts to infiltrate the place. If you fail and they manage to damage the fire altar, then that would mean the death of me and everybody that is going to go with me. Will you be able to hold against infiltration?"


    "I can, patriarch.", I reply, "controlling formations is something that I have been doing since my childhood. Very few would be better than me."


    "Good, good.", he speaks. "You should take rest now then, Antonio. You are not going to have much of it when they begin attacking. You can meet up with Alfred, for anything that you need."


    "For now, I will need nothing, patriarch.", I speak, getting up and bowing. Just as I was about to leave the room.


    "What do you think the black mountain will make of all of this mess, kid.", the man speaks, a steely edge to his tone.


    "I can''t speak about how the guard corps think, patriarch. This is my second mission under them.", I reply. "All I can tell is that they do not tend to be comfortable not knowing something. Especially if it can harm them. They certainly don''t expect such a thing from their allies."


    "Well, I guess it was to be expected.", he speaks. "Tell your head office that I am willing to speak about what we were attempting here if we survive the battle."


    "I can''t speak for the head office, patriarch. I can only tell you that they are listening.", I reply.


    "Well aren''t they always.", the man speaks. "You can take your leave now. Just be ready for a fight."

 preparations for a war (log 075)

    Well, I have to admit that I have been given a pretty interesting challenge here. First I guess that I should speak about the place that I am defending. The fire altar is supposed to be one of the most protected regions in the inner keep.


    I might be the only person of the black mountain that has been given such access to this place. Even that is mainly because I am the only person that will be able to defend this place.


    It is supposed to be the place in which they are supposed to bury their ancestors. It is also the place where they come to worship their ancestors.


    I would say that they have not spared any money in the defense of this place. Just a mana-isolating barrier would have a cost equal to the mayfire castle. Right now the problem is that formations can''t be made inside the fire altar.


    The mana isolation barrier would make the maintenance of said formations a pain in the ass. These formations would have to be taken out of the fire altar every time that they need to be maintained. Also, you can never tell how these formations would behave inside the barrier.


    That is why all the formations defending the place have been concentrated outside the fire altar, in the paths to this place. The fire altar is a place that is pretty easy to defend, all things considered. It was built with defense in mind after all.


    There are only three ways in and out of the place. One is the main tunnel to the place. It is the largest tunnel to the fire altar and is only meant to be used to enter the crypts of this place.


    There are three barriers, in this path. While they are not as strong as the barrier in the fire altar. They are certainly capable of holding against a few assaults. I would like to activate them to test out how strong they are, but that would tip off the enemies. Still, they should be able to last a decent time against the enemy. At least that is the hope.


    The most important defense in the area is a class nine formation, a little spell called fire vines. It is laced throughout the tunnel, activated whenever I want it. It will conjure vines made of fire, that will wrap around a person and burn them to death. I don''t know how successful that will be against the vampires, but it will still work well to bind them.


    It is a simple spell, but one that I can see myself using in many ways. It is a good spell that could work well in synergy with the traps in the area. I don''t want to speak of these traps or my ideas yet. You never know who is intercepting these things.


    Incidentally, this is the path through which we have entered into the fire altar. This means that the formations are pretty well hidden. Though if I was actively looking for them I would have found them.


    The next point of entry is the servant''s tunnel. There are no magical defenses because it is meant for servants to use. Thus the place can only be defended in a fashion.


    The servant tunnel is narrow and there is barely enough place for one person to move through the place. While it does open up into the fire altar, the room is separate from the actual location and easily held. The person holding the room will be able to hold against an army trying to break through. The only problem is that it will be a problem to defend the area should this room be lost.


    It is the third tunnel though that is the main problem right now. They call it the path. Based on their explanation, it is some kind of ceremonial path that is taken only when a person in their family has died.


    Due to its ceremonial nature, there are no defenses present here. The only thing that is present is a set of alarms that will do little to inform me that we are being infiltrated.


    The main problem with this path is that, unlike the servant tunnel, this opens up right into the crypt. As you can guess, that is a pretty risky place to hold against the enemy. If they somehow manage to take the crypt then they take the main tunnel pretty easily as well. If that were to happen, we won''t be able to hold against the enemy for long.


    Another problem is that I can''t station any soldiers in that tunnel. The only time that you are supposed to enter that tunnel is when somebody in your family is dead. I could maybe threaten a few of the soldiers to enter the place should things get bad. Until then the only option that I have left is to station soldiers at the crypt. Even that is something that the people here are very superstitious about.


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    The only benefit of this path is that it is supposed to be hidden. If the enemy were to look for it, they would find it eventually though.


    Well, I am pretty sure that I will be able to manage something about it. At least the people assigned to me this time are strong. I don''t need to worry about actually joining the battle when somebody inevitably attacks us. I can focus purely on my work.


    In terms of manpower, I have been assigned all the young elite of the Mayfire family. There are about thirty people who are at my level of mana (they are my age too). Their combat strength is nothing worth writing about though. Their magic is too costly for them to sustain it for long and another problem is that they have not seen much of combat.


    There are about five or six people with mana beyond me. They should have a combat capability that is approaching my level. Among them though, I have to keep an eye out for two people especially.


    The first is Alfred Mayfire. The man is supposed to be the strongest in this generation of the Mayfire family. He is supposed to be a genius at flame conjuration, which is the art that these people are the strongest in.


    His placement during the battle is going to be vital. I am not too worried about the man himself though. Alfred Mayfire is somebody that we have quite a bit of information on. In terms of combat capabilities, he is somebody that can be considered to be quite elite even in the legion.


    I am sure that the man would beat me if I were to try and fight him. Not that he will be able to kill me that easily though.


    It is the second person that I am worried about. Her name is Amelia Mayfire. She is also supposed to be a genius at flame conjuration. However, her variety of conjuration is something that we do not have a lot of ideas about. They say that she can summon weapons made up of flames.


    Based on our interactions with the mayfires, we know that she is supposed to be a close contender for the position of the young master. The only thing is we do not know whether it is because of her strength or because of the politics of this family.


    She is an unknown variable in all of this. Right now, I am wondering if I can challenge her to a fight. It would give me the best idea of her combat capability. The only problem is that the mayfires are a willful bunch. Victory could mean that my command over these people will become tenuous. These are a proud bunch and I am an outsider here.


    If I were to lose, this lady might not be willing to listen to my commands. As I said, these are a proud bunch. I might still challenge her, but I am going to have to think about it a bit more.


    It is not like I am free at the moment anyway. I have to check up on the formations and make sure that nothing is at risk of failing in the heat of the moment. After all, with the patriarch still here, the necromancer and the vampires are pretty unlikely to attack us. The man is planning to attack after about a week.


    Any maintenance work or any repair work has to be done now in this week. That is why I am right now back in the main tunnel, steadily going through the formations in the place.


    I am also going to be modifying a few of the formations. I won''t say anything about it though.


    I have a troop of seven soldiers with me here right now. I have to say that they are well-trained at the very least. They keep an eye on the exit to this tunnel, In a cool and disciplined manner. Well, better that I don''t form an opinion here. Things like discipline are only understood when you enter into the heat of things. Any assumptions made now would be wrong only.


    I guess with that I should start recording the enemies that we might be facing here. Again I don''t know who or what will be fighting us


    I assume that we will be mainly fighting the vampires. The necromancers could attack, but that would leave their homes unguarded. Overall, it would be pretty stupid.


    Anyway, There is no use thinking about them since I have no idea about their strength. They are going to be an unplanned variable always. I have faced a few necromancers in my time with Legion. I can guess their ability based on that, maybe. They feel much stronger than the few necromancers we have hunted though.


    If it is the vampires, at least I have an idea of who could be attacking me. With the people assigned to me and the defenses in this place, I am worried about only six people in the Bloodfire gang.


    Of these six, only three are in the inner keep with me. The archer is busy holding off the guard corps from attacking them. So there is no way he will come in here. The demon is dead, beyond a doubt. I have to assume that the hunter is dead as well though even if survived he is no state to fight.


    The remaining three that I need to worry about are the two remaining captains and the mysterious leader of the Bloodfire gang. Surprisingly, the person that I am worried about the least right now is the warrior. Based on what I have learned about the man, he is good at direct confrontation only.


    In the narrow tunnels of the inner keep the man will struggle to show any of his capabilities. Still, I think that it would be wise not to underestimate him. After you never know what bag of tricks a vampire can have.


    Still, I am more worried about the snake. The man is variable in this situation. I honestly don''t know how effective the man would be if he were to attack now.


    Yet it is the master of these two that worries me the most. How am I supposed to fight a man that even the black mountain could not get any information on? I am sure that the man is formidable. Vampires are not the variety to allow themselves to be pushed around like this. They will only follow the strong.


    Well, I am not doing myself any favors by recording it now, am I? If anything I am just working myself into a panic.

 a week later (log 076)

    I have been scaling the tunnels and the area around the fire altar. The reason is that I am trying to find the optimal route for patrolling the area. There are three areas to breach the fire altar. The tunnels that connect these three paths are pretty complicated in their own right.


    I need to set up a proper patrolling route through these areas. Such that I can cover the place securely with my limited soldiers. I guess that I could have left this particular responsibility to the soldiers under me. Alfred mayfire and Amelia mayfire certainly have the better mana sense. (Only for a little while though.)


    The problem is that I am the only person here who knows how exactly all the traps have been placed. Alfred or Amelia would have inevitably set off all the traps here if I were to give them this task.


    I also don''t want them to be finding out about a couple of surprises that I have hidden in the forbidden tunnel. It is nothing special, but I don''t know how they will react to this tunnel being damaged.


    Another problem is that relying on them for such a thing will certainly be a hit on my authority. I barely can command these people as it is. The only reason that they are bothering to follow my commands is because I am the formation mage.


    If Alfred or Amelia were to start questioning me, it would lead to a rift. When that time inevitably ends up coming, I want them to have as little authority as possible.


    I will be honest. I think that I am being a bit paranoid about this. None of the people here have yet to challenge my authority. Still better to plan for the worst-case scenario.


    Figuring out something as basic as a patrol route is something that would have taken me half an hour. That is with my intact mana sense though. I am being forced to physically map out a route because I cannot rely on my mana sense to do it for me.


    I guess that I should explain to you why I am being forced to focus so much on patrolling. One of the major flaws with the defenses of this place is that it is heavily reliant on the traps and things that I have to manually activate.


    The problem with such a type of defense is that traps can be deactivated. If the enemy were to sneak up on us, I don''t have a lot of tricks to deal with them. We cannot let them get even a small foothold in the fire altar.


    Without my mana sense, I have to rely on my soldiers to come and wake me up when the attack begins to make sure that I am ready. Even that might not be enough in the heat of the moment.


    That would require that my patrolling troupe is not caught off guard. Even a minute wasted might be enough to catch us off guard.


    That is why this is something that I want to keep a particularly keen eye on. Anyways, I don''t know what else I am supposed to be doing. Inside I would have been forced to remain in my room.


    After all, The patriarch is going to be leaving on this attack of his within a couple of hours.


    Right now inside, every soldier is preparing for this attack with mad energy. Even the young ones that are going to remain behind here with me are helping the soldiers pack.


    I wish that they would have allowed me to observe this preparation of theirs. I would have learned so much. There is a limit to how trusting the mayfires will be.


    I am sure that they are preparing every single trick that they have for this attack. If I could just observe them I would be able to learn quite a few of their secrets.


    Well, trying to enter back into the fire altar would be pretty stupid. The soldiers will find a convenient excuse to leave me on the other side of this room.


    Why increase my work and theirs by trying to pull it off? After all, I need these people to succeed as well. I guess that I should make use of this time to discuss what they are even planning to pull off here.


    To explain their plan of attack, I will first have to explain what the fuck is even going on here. It has mostly been Trevor that has learned most of these things.


    The soldiers are just too alert around me, Jacob and Andrew for us to learn anything.


    Everything that we have learned here comes from what Trevor has learned by gossiping with these people. So there might be a possibility that some details are not true.


    You see at the beginning of this mess, the necromancers had managed to catch the mayfires by surprise. They quickly managed to conquer large chunks of the fortress. (How exactly they made it in here is something that we haven''t managed to learn yet.)


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    By the time the mayfires managed to react, they had lost most parts of the fort. Still, they retreated to the fire altar and quickly set up the barrier. Right now it is separating the necromancers from the rest of the city. This was the only thing that gave them a fighting chance against the enemy.


    The fire altar is acting as a makeshift mana battery powering the barrier. If they had not managed to put up this barrier, the mayfires would have all been defeated in a matter of a week.


    A populated city is the worst place in which you can fight a necromancer after all. The mayfires did a pretty good job restricting them like this. After all the Soldar Plains is a pretty heavily populated area.


    A necromancer army here would have been a threat that could have harmed even the hexmountain.


    The necromancers managed to take control of the southern part of the fort though where they had a base. This is the area in which all of the formation arrays of the mayfires are present.


    These arrays contain all of the more violent defenses that the mayfires have. The things that they can use to attack the enemy and get rid of them quickly.


    Thankfully, the mayfires have protection present against the activation of these formations. Only authorized people can activate them. Thankfully, the necromancers have yet to break through these defenses.


    Still, by taking over the place, they have managed to make the mayfires weaponless in this fight. Even the mayfire''s move of restricting the enemy to the inner keep cannot be maintained forever. After all, the mana present at the fire altar is not infinite.


    They estimate that they will not be able to power the barrier in about half a month more. That is why there is a desperate edge to the people here.


    Anyways, even if they could maintain the barriers for long enough. It is not like they would have been able to hold against the encroaching undead. Fighting a battle of attrition against a necromancer is stupid. Every soldier that you lose means that they gain a soldier.


    The necromancers had started this fight with only the corpses of the servants in this place. Slowly and steadily though, they have been growing their army from the soldiers here.


    Right now, we have not managed to confirm just how many people have been lost here.  We just know that it is a significantly large number.


    This means that the mayfires won''t be able to hold on for long. Right now the only option they have left is to attack the enemy and take back the fort before they are decimated fully.


    That is where their plan of attack comes in. The mayfires are betting their survival on a single attack which will allow them to take over the enemy stronghold. It will also help them get back their weapons.


    The main problem that the mayfires are facing while trying to attack this base is the barrier. The necromancers have covered their base in some kind of toxic miasma. You can barely resist it by channeling your vital mana. When you have to face a group of necromancers you cannot handicap yourself in this manner. Trying to fight them near this miasma is stupidly dangerous.


    With their abilities, they should be able to quickly take over the enemy base, otherwise. The goal of the patriarch is to simply burn through this miasma.


    The plan is simple if you were to think about it. The attacking forces are going to split themselves into two groups. The first is the patriarch and the formation mages. The second is the remaining mayfires.


    The second group must attract the attention of the enemy. They will essentially be making noise and forcing the necromancers to divert their undead to fight them.


    Then the first group is going to be getting close to this miasma while sneaking through the undead. They will then make use of the mana in the fire altar to power some kind of a powerful spell. They theorize that it should be able to burn through the miasma.


    Once that happens, the second group is going to attack the undead along with the first group. With all of the necromancer''s army stuck in this pincer, they should fall pretty quickly. At least that is the hope.


    It is a pretty risky plan, but I think that the Mayfires have no other option right now. Even this last gamble of theirs they are trying out because I have come here. After all, this plan of theirs is forcing them to commit all of their resources to attack.


    If the enemy were to attack the fire altar during this period the place would be left defenseless.


    On top of that projection is always a risky process. Even if the formation mages somehow succeed in controlled projection there is always the chance that something will go wrong. The sword could get overloaded with mana. Then who knows what will happen? It could simply explode. It could cause the entire fortress to melt. There are so many things that could go wrong.


    I can see why they are taking a risk though. If they succeed with this plan of theirs they will be able to quickly take back their weapons. Once they do that, the necromancers will be pretty easy to get rid of.


    Then they can ambush the pirates in the outer keep as well. With the guard corps coming it would let them take back the city with minimal damage.


    If they fail though, they will be hunted like deer in their fort. As if that wasn''t enough, the move that the patriarch is planning will completely drain the fire altar of mana.


    It won''t be able to maintain the barrier anymore. The necromancers will be allowed into the city and they will slaughter them all to raise their new soldiers.


    With the archer holding back the reinforcements, the necromancers will quickly carve a niche in the fortress.


    The guard corps might finally be forced to give up their mission to the legion. I don''t want to imagine the destruction that they will be bringing to this place.


    Well, my work is cut out in all of this. I don''t need to think about the patriarch and his success. My thinking about it will not help me in any way.


    Instead, I should be focusing on making sure that nobody will manage to breach the fire altar or damage it in any way.


    If they manage to breach the fire altar during this process there is a pretty good chance that the entire plan will fail on the spot.


    If that were to happen, it does not matter whether the patriarch succeeded or not. We all will die.


    Well, there I go working myself into a panic again. I am shutting down this log for now.

 the first day (log 077)

    I have never sat in an office like this before. I have to admit that it is a pretty weird experience. Granted it is nothing fancy as there is only a table in here, with a couple of chairs to sit in. I am in one of those chairs and Trevor is in one of these chairs.


    Now I am not normally one for offices like this, but Alfred insisted that I make use of this. The soldiers here expect certain standards from their lords it seems. They barely accept my commands as it is.


    Well, I am not one to complain about stuff like this. It is not like it matters too much at the end of the day. Especially with how the vampires are behaving.


    I have had three reports of the vampires appearing already. Once it was in the servant''s tunnel and twice at the main tunnel.


    The reports that they have given to me are disturbing, to put it mildly.


    The reports are of enemies sneaking into the paths. They ran away in the instance that they met up with the soldiers patrolling there. There is no way that a vampire would be this careless. They certainly would not need to run away like that. They also are not the type to be this aggressive.


    Enemy movement in both of these tunnels. They should not be entering into action this quickly. Vampires are plotters by their nature. There is something seriously wrong here.


    I am sure that the hidden tunnel is the safest at this moment. I have my troop stationed there. They should be able to manage anything that the vampires can throw. Anyway, we are sure that the vampires still don''t know about the hidden tunnel. At least not yet.


    "What do you think could be the case, Trevor?", I ask the man. "What do you think they are doing? Are they trying to scout us or are they trying to intimidate us?"


    "I think that they are tending towards intimidation.", Trevor speaks. "It is a bit early for them to try scouting us. After all, it has been barely a day since the attack force left. I would still assume that they are focussing on the attack troop."


    "Still, I can''t see what they would gain by intimidating us.", I reply. "It just tips me off that they are here."


    "Well, you legioners might be unflappable.", the man speaks. "I am sure that the story of the invaders popping up in the tunnels has already begun to spread. It will harm the morale."


    "What do you think that I should do here then.", I ask. "I can''t exactly boost the morale here. I barely know the people here. One of the two people I can rely on to do it is actively making my work harder."


    "Well, you are the commander here for a reason.", the man replies. "You have more military experience than I have. Any plan I give will be worse than yours."


    "Yet you have an idea as to what I have to do here. I can almost see you burst from not telling me.", I reply. No way that the man is off the hook here. "You are supposed to be guiding me here."


    "Well, I would suggest that you hunker down and prepare for a fight. Intimidation or scouting, you do either of these only when you mean to attack.", the man speaks. "And that whatever you do has to be half an action. If it should look to the vampires that you are panicking in any way, they will strike hard."


    "I know, but hunkering down now would be stupid.", I reply. "We need an idea as to what the other party''s strength is. What hidden aces do they have to act this confidently? Without that, we can''t be sure what they are capable of."


    "Well, that is why you are the commander.", the man speaks. "My only suggestion would be to involve the lady Amelia in any plan you make. She is not the type to sit still."


    "Well, I have an idea what I can do about that.", I reply, wondering if I should share my plans with the man. Not that I don''t trust the man. He is just not a part of the plan.


    "Leave me for now.", I command Trevor. "Make sure that Jacob and Andrew are stationed at the hidden tunnel. Warn them clearly that engaging the enemy is not the goal here. I should be informed the minute that anything goes wrong there."


    With Trevor gone, I can think about the problem a bit better. There is no way that the vampires would make such a scene without being confident that they could fight us. I would say they have some kind of hidden ace. I just need to find out what that is.


    The main issue is that I can''t discount the fact that this could be scouts scoping out our response. How we will react. Whether we will react. (Even to see if they can bait us.). Regardless of what it is, the solution right now is to remain hidden. I can allow four or five such infiltrations, beyond which I will be forced to act.


    The problem right now is the lady Amelia. I can convince Alfred to listen to me, but Lady Amelia is of the belief I shouldn''t be leading this group. She believes that we should have already begun attacking our enemies the minute that they showed their faces. She has been making her opinions known to her underlings from the minute that the patriarch has left.


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    (After about an hour.)


    Right now in the office, we have Alfred and Amelia standing in front of me. Alfred has barely spoken anything, while Amelia has been the exact opposite.


    "Captain Antonio, could you focus when I am talking.", Amelia snaps at me.


    I realized that I had gotten distracted while talking to the lady. I should be more careful while recording. Well, the lady was already pissed off. Now she is going to be a pain to handle.


    "My lady, I have been hearing your opinion for a while now.", I speak, trying to keep the irritation from my voice. "I have to make sure that the defenses that your patriarch has left me will keep working. The enemy is at the doorstep."


    "you have yet to act on it.", she speaks. The lady is making no effort to keep her irritation away from her face. "They are already challenging us and yet you just sit here waiting for them to sneak into our bases. Should we fight them tomorrow when they slit our throats while we are sleeping?"


    "As I have been trying to explain to you. I have been keeping a strict watch over the enemy. That won''t happen", I speak. "We will be ready when they come to attack us. We won''t be attacking them a minute before that though.."


    "The enemy is being so forward with us because of this.", she almost screams at me. "they are already scouting us out. Will you wait till they know every defense they have against us? Till they know every trap that we have prepared against them. We should be striking them now. Strike them with such a force that they can''t mount an attack on us.."


    "I agree with you but we cannot engage the enemy at this moment. Not without knowing what makes them this confident.", I reply. "Our goal is to buy time for the patriarch. As for them scouting us. They can try and study the traps all they want. They won''t get anything from that. The traps that your mages have set here are good enough for that and I have modified them to be more hidden, as well."


    "We cannot just keep waiting for our enemies here.", she speaks, her arms tensing up. if I don''t defuse the situation the lady will hit me.


    "For today, we wait. I do plan to strike against them, but you can''t blindly attack vampires.", I speak, my voice as soothing as possible. "We are the hunters. We can''t move from our position until the prey falls into the trap. I will inform you the minute that I need you to attack them."


    I look at the lady, looking for any trace that my words might have calmed her down a bit.


    She doesn''t speak for a few moments, though her rage has yet to leave her eyes. Without saying anything she leaves my office. She bangs the door with such force that the door is still quivering.


    "Do you share Lady Amelia''s opinion then.", I ask the man who is sitting next to me still.


    "No, Antonio. I do think that we should be more active. What my sister proposes though would be a bit impatient.", he replies.


    "Yet you come here to support her.", I point out.


    "Well, Amelia is a blind bull. She will rip through you if get her angry.", he speaks. "And getting her angry is not something that you want here. She is not completely wrong also. These are tricky enemies that we fight."


    "Well, how is she on the battlefield.", I ask. "Can she handle following commands in a combat scenario?"


    "I think so. She just likes to keep moving.", he replies. "Waiting for the enemy to strike first is something that she struggles with."


    "Well, then I might as well tell you my plan of action.", I speak. "The vampires would be coming for a negotiation. I am sure of that. I am going to need you and Amelia to be ready to infiltrate the vampire camp when that happens."


    "How are you even sure that they will be coming for this "negotiation."", he asks. "They could just as easily attack us right now. They have already begun to scout us as well."


    "Vampires love the sound of their voice, Alfred.", I speak. "They consider using brute force to be an inelegant process. They will be coming to attack us soon enough, but they will reveal themselves before that. They will come to negotiate before that."


    "Fine, it is a risky thing that you ask.", he speaks. "These vampires are not easy enemies to fight."


    "That is why I am only sending four people. You, Amelia and my soldiers.", I reply. "The people that I am confident would be able to survive if it came to fighting in their base."


    "What are we to do? We are not subtle enough to try and assassinate the enemy. Unless your soldiers happen to be experts in disguise.", he replies.


    "Well, your goal is to study them.", I speak. "I just need you to scout into the enemy territory."


    "That still doesn''t explain what we are to do.", he speaks. "We have a reasonable enough idea about our enemy''s strength and who their experts are. It would be dangerous to enter into their territory just to confirm what we already know."


    "You don''t understand one thing. The vampires are a cowardly race.", I speak, kind of getting irritated now. "They are not the type to be this forward. Something is boosting their confidence. I need you to find that something. Whatever you do, you are not looking for a fight. That is why I need you to tell me honestly, can she listen to commands on the battlefield."


    "She can, if she feels that what is being done is reasonable." He replies.


    "And can you convince her?", I reply, not quite able to hide my irritation anymore.


    "If I am convinced about it.", he replies. "The patriarch put you in that position because of that sword of yours. You have hunted plenty of these creatures or so you claim."


    "And", I snap.


    "I find the stories they tell of you to be exaggerated.", he replies, his voice gaining an edge to it. "you say that they will come to negotiate. Somehow I can''t bring myself to believe it."


    "What do I need to do to convince you.", I reply, calming myself down. Now is not the time for emotion.


    "Nothing you tell me will assure me. You say that the creatures will come to negotiate.", he speaks. "I say that they are sharpening their swords to strike. If they come to negotiate, I will listen to your command and infiltrate their base."


    "And if they attack us before that?", I find myself asking.


    "Well, I have heard a lot about the young wolf of the formation corps and how he is supposed to be a genius at fighting.", he speaks. "You will have to be on the frontline fighting the damn creatures. If you can''t prove your knowledge of these creatures, at least prove your strength."

 the negotiations (log 078.1)

    Well, I have to admit that I am about as shocked as Alfred is when the vampires come to negotiation. I will be honest, that I was only half confident that they would come to negotiate with us.


    I mean, it is a tradition at the court to speak with their enemies before they enter into battle with them. They speak lies to sow discord. They pride themselves on their ability to cause their enemies to fight each other.


    We have always hunted the vampire grunts that were never important to the court. They followed this tradition once in a while. This was the case every time that they were sure of their superiority.


    Well, they are announcing their presence right now. Those atrocious drums are their signal to negotiate. Now we are supposed to meet up with them under the "peace of the blood moon". (Don''t ask me what it is, for me it is just a name.) They will not attack us until they feel insulted enough to justify attacking. That is why most negotiations with the vampires end up in insulting matches between the involved parties.


    Right now I am in the office with Alfred who has been helping me figure out where the enemy base could be. We are planning the potential plan of infiltrating that base.


    Even now their drums are audible throughout the entirety of the the fire altar. They are loud enough that I check for a minute if the dead have been roused. (Thank god I didn''t try to make that joke out loud. There are necromancers here and we are in the family crypt of the mayfires). It is an aggressive beat, which causes my head to pound. It is profoundly uncomfortable.


    Well, I see that Alfred is looking at me to give him commands. I mean, I didn''t think that we would end up in such a position.


    "Tell your soldiers to quickly set up a force at the other two tunnels. We can''t have them infiltrating the other two tunnels. Send your ten strongest soldiers with me. One that can handle enemy intimidation well.", I command the man as I grasp my sword. "As for you and Lady Amelia, Go and find Trevor. He will tell you what you are supposed to do."


    Alfred leaves without questioning my command, as I prepare myself for this. I grasp my sword. I realize that I have been careful not to use my sword among these people. After all, looking like a vampire when they have been fighting vampires for a couple of months would have been stupid.


    Well, I will be ready for whatever they throw at me. As I am making my way to the main tunnel, I see that a group of ten soldiers are already assembled there. Looks like Alfred Mayfire is a very efficient man.


    I gesture to the soldiers to follow me as I finally enter into the tunnel and feel my mana able to manifest again. Even as I get out, strings of mana have begun to spread from my hands, as I link up to the formations here. If this is going to end up in a fight, I want to have a chance of survival at least.


    I finally get a look at my enemy. It is a bunch of bandits, along with a bulky man. The blood mana that he is emitting tells me that the man is a vampire. I can''t bring myself to believe it though. The man looks more like a berserker than a vampire. I can see why the man got the name of warrior. He would not pass off as anything else.


    "Well, to think that I would meet one of the legion here.", the warrior speaks. "That too one of the sentinels."


    "I wonder what gave it away.", I reply. "I did used to be one."


    "Do you think that we wouldn''t know about you and that sword of yours.", he speaks. "The bastard of the legion who managed to make use of our abilities without becoming one of the kin."


    "I must say that the ability of the court has fallen.", I reply, in my most arrogant voice. "to think that it would take you so long to figure that out. I killed two of your fellows already."


    "Well, shall we return to the topic then.", he speaks. "We can play this game later. I wonder why the black mountain is interfering here."


    "Why should we not? It is our territory.", I reply.


    "True and yet it was a formation of the black mountain that brought us here.", he replies.


    "Well, you certainly spin quite a story. Why would the black mountain summon you into the territory of our allies.", I reply.


    I don''t even need to glance back to tell that this speech is not meant to unnerve me. I don''t even need to turn to feel the seeds of doubt being planted into their heads.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    "You will have to ask your masters about that, bastards", he replies. "We are only the mercenaries in this case."


    "Well, let''s come to the point. You have marched on our territory. You have the first word. Speak why you have come here.", I speak, my anger getting the better of me.


    "You know our traditions well, bastard.", he replies.


    "Well, the servants that you keep sending into our territory have learned the traditions of the court well.", I reply. I wonder what the hidden barb in his words is. I assume he thought it would insult me somehow. "will you speak or shall we spend the day here, throwing empty insults at each other."


    "Well, then I shall get to the point.", he speaks. "We know that the fire altar is empty of anybody worth fighting. That all your adults have gone to commit suicide. Give up now and we shall ensure your safety. Resist us though and we will kill you without mercy."


    "I know the status that we humans have in the court.", I speak. "Your mercy to us means that we won''t be seeing the blade that shall kill us. I don''t understand why you bother to pretend, vampire."


    "Well, since you want to be so direct. Let me be direct as well.", he replies. "We need to go and reinforce our armies. You are not a distraction that we can afford. If you give up, I can guarantee that you shall be protected."


    "That still doesn''t change my point.", I reply.


    "How about this? Shall I make that transformation of yours permanent.", he speaks, "A single bite and you shall feel the strength that will make that blade of yours feel insufficient. We rarely make such an offer to someone outside the court. Then you can ensure the safety of your people. We don''t mess with the cattle of our fellows."


    "I have seen the state of the people that you convert, vampire.", I reply an edge of rage in my voice. "You cannot create allies, only servants."


    "Fine then let us depart on peaceful terms. The next time we shall meet will be on the battlefield.", he replies. "Before the peace is broken, I have to ask you something. Which of the elders taught you to make that sword."


    "I don''t understand.", I reply, my back suddenly slick with sweat. There is something wrong here.


    "To create a sword like yours you would need somebody to teach you to activate the bloodline of a vampire. A mere grunt would not have been able to show you something like this.", he speaks. "Which of the elders is allied with the black mountain, I wonder."


    As he speaks, I am left wondering why he would be interested in such a thing. I don''t reply to the man as I look at the bandits behind him.


    There is an odd gleam of excitement in their faces as if they have won something. Just what the fuck is the warrior''s angle.


    I then do something stupid. I turn to look at the people behind me. I can''t explain why I did it. Doing such a thing left me vulnerable to an attack from the man in front of me. Still, I did it.


    Yet as I look into the eyes of my soldiers, I realize what the fucker was doing here. He was trying to poison the soldiers against me.


    Everything that he has been mentioning paints me as related to the vampires. I can already see the uneasy glances that the people here give me when I don''t even used my sword. Having me here is like having an enemy here for the Mayfires.


    I might have countered everything thrown at me logically. Still, that won''t change the fact that if they look at me as a vampire, they will look at me as an enemy. Then a dagger in the night is assured for me (or a sword to the neck, if Lady Amelia is involved. She is painfully direct, that lady.)


    "Why are you not speaking, bastard.", the man speaks. "I can leave now if this is not something that you wish to speak about."


    "Oh no, I was wondering if I should answer you.", I reply. "after all your fragile hearts might not be able to handle it."


    That gets the man to become attentive. If I don''t want to be seen as a vampire, he doesn''t want to be seen as weak.


    "It is not a pleasant story for you vampires.", I reply, not letting the man speak. "The story begins in a little town quite close to the soldar plains.


    There was a man there that heard the voice of a vampire


    "Bring me a body and I shall make you a lord," the voice claimed.


    "Why should I, the people of this town already respect me and love me more than a lord.", he claimed.


    "Then I shall make you irresistible to all," he claimed. "Women shall fall in love with you, like a moth to the flame".


    "Why should I", the man replied. "I have a sweetheart who loves me more than any of these ladies."


    "Then I shall make you eternally young. Time shall not touch you.", the voice claimed.


    This time the man did not reply." "


    "We know the story human, it was his bone that you used to make that sword of yours.", the giant speaks, pointing to my sword. "you killed him because he offered his master the blood tribute. You failed to stop his blood sacrifice and his master descended on that town. "


    "Oh yes, we were too late. He had driven a spike through the heart of every person in his village. His sweetheart, he used as a vessel to call upon his master", I keep speaking. "it took a leader of the sentinels to bring the vampire under control."


    "I don''t see the point of this story, human.", the giant speaks, suddenly uncomfortable.


    "Well, I am getting to the point, vampire. The only two people in that town left were the vampire and its newly created grunt.", I speak. "The grunt we killed on the spot. To the vampire that caused all this pain, we decided a simple beheading would not be enough. We bound her to the very town she destroyed."


    "Enough, human.", he threatens me.


    "You asked me how I managed to create this sword of mine. I studied the mana flowing through this vampire, as she starved in that town. I figured out how she activated her bloodline. I recorded it to create my sword.", I speak. "I was the person to see her die. As she was dying she told me that she was a countess. She promised me a spot in court, immortality and so much more. Yet, I refused as she kept trying to drink the blood of the very people killed to summon her. I know how pathetic your kind truly are, so no I don''t want to be a vamp......"


    I jump back as the giant jumps at me about to strike me.