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 normal means of transport. It would be like trying to drive a ship through a whirlpool, I have heard. There is certainly no way that I want to try with that wreck that they call a ship.
That is why the troops are being taken to our destination through a caravan. The caravan is just like any other caravan that you can find on the continent. (I have not seen too many of those, though, since we usually prefer airships.) The only thing interesting about them is the fact that they are seriously solid. I think that I would not be able to break the thing unless I channel mana through it.
Well, I am sure that the head office doesn't want to hear about these suspiciously solid caravans. It is time for me to focus on the thing that the head office wants to hear about. Right now, the scholars are behind me in a caravan much like this one. Behind them are the remaining members of the caravan. Most of these folks are going to be part of the scholars escorted to ruin no 32.
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 not going to be gentle if something happens to the scholars.
The scholars are going to end up in their damned ruin finally, in a couple of days. Once they get there, I do not need to worry about their safety at the very least. People tend to forget this, but the scholars do not need us guards to protect themselves.
They are more than strong enough on their own. On top of that, 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.
The chance of that happening is already very low. 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. That is one of the reasons that I was more than happy to leave the scholars to go to the ruin without me. Granted, then I thought that I would end up on the frozen peak.
Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I will have to speak about cultivation. I don't know why they have to force me to do this. (It is supposed to be a tradition. It gives an idea of how strong you are.) I would like to start by saying that all of what I am saying is going to be quite basic. The problem is that cultivation is something I have very little idea of.
Firstly, the problem is that my strength comes from my formations. I don't need a strong reservoir of mana in my body personally. The world is my reservoir. I can use a fraction of the time that I need to cultivate to create a stronger formation to use.
Secondly, most of the other benefits that I might get from cultivating are pretty useless. Even a stronger body or enhanced healing are pretty useless to me as well. I have managed to boost even that using formations. Anyway, it is not like we formation mages get involved in close combat. Letting things reach that stage can be considered to be a failure in itself.
Thirdly, a great amount of information about cultivation has been hidden from me. My master does not want me to know about the stages beyond the foundation stage of the elven path. This particular command of his has become 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 everything that I know about cultivation.
I guess I should begin from the absolute basics. (You would be surprised just how confused people can be about such basics.) Every sentient creature holds in its body something called the mana core. The mana core contains the life mana of a person. (Also called his vital mana.) This life mana is the only type of mana that a person has absolute control over.
The process of growing this life mana is called cultivation. Every power on the continent has its method of cultivation, which is called a magical path. Now I will speak about my cultivation.
To those not familiar with the magical path of the black mountain, we follow the ancient elven magic path. There are nine stages in this path, and I am presently at the very first stage. It is called the foundation building stage. At this stage, I am supposed to be building the foundation. The foundation can be said to be a formation built inside the formation core.
Right now, I am pulling mana from the air and mixing it with my vital mana. This is condensed into a string, which I am using to weave a massive rectangular slab from pure mana. Once the slab is built, it will integrate into my mana core, making my mana core stronger.
Trying to create a foundation slab outside of the mana core is almost impossible. It is like trying to draw with your paintbrush attached to the other end of a staff. It is ridiculously hard to put it mildly. I would know, I spent the first year of training trying this. That was a year of my time wasted.
To get back to my cultivation. I am presently in the stage of building the second slab in my mana core. That is why I am considered to be a second-stage foundation mage.
I know that I really should focus on meditating a bit, but I am already so busy. (The irony is that with my practice with formations, doing this must be easier for me than for my peers.)
As for why I do not know about the stage beyond, you can blame my master for this. My master has given me extremely clear instructions. I am not allowed to even know about the stage beyond until I craft a class seven formation. You can say his words in the black mountain are law, so there is no way I can learn anything at the Hexmountain. The elves are extinct, and so is their magical path. Right now, the black mountain is the only force on the continent that is close to figuring out its path.
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. The only thing I know about battery mages is that they tend to have absurd amounts of mana. They can run on their mana reserves for weeks on end, supposedly.
As for formation magic, I can speak more about it. It is something that I practice every day after all. There are four spells that every formation mage is supposed to know. With sufficient mastery in these spells, I will be able to craft any formation that I want.
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 be a blind man painting.
The second spell is called formation decomposition. It allows a mage to break apart formations and remove all usable parts from them. This spell is not one that I have found much use for personally. My master has assured me that it is a pretty practical spell for the future, though.
The third spell is formation control, a spell that is more theory than actual spell. It mainly involves optimising the control string and its control over a formation. With it, I will be able to push the formation in a manner that would be impossible otherwise.
As for the fourth spell, it is one that I have barely any understanding of. It is called formation flow, whatever that means. It is supposed to greatly increase the speed at which I inscribe formations. How exactly it does this is something that I have not figured out, though.
These four spells are pretty easy to learn but hard to master. Everybody has some idea of how to use all of these spells. To achieve any mastery with them is something that takes years of practice.
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 that, I will have to return to the problem of building a Class 8 formation. (I need to cultivate better than this, I know.)
Anyway, I have built only three class eight formations in my life. Two of them were built by my master, with my assistance.
As for the last, it is something that I built completely on my own, but sadly, it is not with me. I 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.
This formation was a pretty interesting formation, known as the vine spear. The spear had the unique ability that anything struck by it would keep leaking mana.
Incidentally, the design for my vine armor came from this spear..
I think that a polite way of putting it would be that I had to create the armor because I lost the spear. I am working on the Armor because my master made me sell the spear. (The spear would have worked so well with my sword as well.) Well, there is no point in thinking about the spear now. I am sure that it must already be broken and burnt to ashes by some enemy of the hexmountain.
After all, it was a person of the legion who bought the spear in the first place. Their weapons do not tend to last. Okay, I have rambled about my spear for long enough. The point is that I have experience with making class eight formations.
Even with this experience, though, I would not say that my success is guaranteed. After all, I have never made one in the middle of a battlefield.