It would not be an understatement to say that I am miserable at the moment. My bones feel as if they are being placed on a block of ice. It is a hard feeling to describe. The closest I can come to describe it is that it is like an ache in your tooth. A pain that is quite mild, yet it seems to take over your every waking thought. It somehow becomes a headache that doesn't let you think.
Even if I somehow ignore my bones, I can't do the same for my flesh. At the moment, I can barely stop myself from shivering. Weirdly, my flesh feels almost warm. It is a slippery kind of warmth, which feels worse than being outright cold. (It could be due to the coat that I am wearing. It is quite thick, if I am being honest.)
And yet the worst side effect of the chill is the slugishness with which my vital mana is moving. It takes twice the will to move half the vital mana at the moment. Thankfully, I am a formation mage with access to an external mana source, so practically it is not a major problem. Still, this means that the ice mana in this place is able to affect the soul. Even if my soul is sturdier than the average mage, it doesn't mean that I can ignore damage to the soul.
Even now, I am forced to wear one of the coats of these people to keep the chill under control. Granted, it is not working particularly well. (I guess that I could try and upgrade it. I just need to make sure to destroy it before I leave here.) The major problem with the coat is that this is going to make fighting a very hard task. That means, even if I can inscribe with it on, I can't take it into a battlefield.
At least I don't need to worry about going to sleep and suddenly waking up with my arms frozen into ice with it on. (That is quite possible, it seems.) There are only two real ways that we can deal with the chill here in the Northern Wastelands. The first is that we make use of the Icebark Tree to suck out the chill. It is a magical tree that you can find in the Northern Wastelands, capable of feeding on the ice mana found in this place. Charms made from the tree are able to suck out the Ice Mana in your body, allowing you to deal with the chill.
That means that stupid shopkeeper was not lying to me. Now I should have actually ended up buying the tree then. If I am not wrong everything in that shop should presently be in the hands of Eric. (After all, the man was the one who defeated the fucking Shopkeeper.)
That leaves me with only the second option. It is something that all mages can do. I have to push out the external ice mana using my vital mana. The only problem with this is that this is a time taking process. Time that I am unable to waste at this moment.
Right now, I am cycling just enough mana to make my body resist the chill. It is just enough that I can focus on my work. There have been plenty of challenges during the process of inscription even then. (You are not really supposed to be distracted while inscribing.)
You see, I need to maintain this cycle using my own will. The moment that I forget to maintain this cycle, the chill hits me like a bull. This usually happens when I am deep in the process of inscribing. It is only my training that prevents me from destroying the rune I am inscribing. (which would destroy the fortress with myself in the process.) It feels like my insides have been dipped in ice. It is literally like a shock at the very core of my being. I almost screwed up the formation a couple of times, though I am happy to report that nothing has exploded yet.
The only way to recover from it is to restart my mana cycling. Even then, it takes me a few minutes to enter a state where I can ignore the chill again. This has become a cycle now, with the chill striking me in waves. At its worst, I am not even able to walk, let alone work.
I am also happy to tell you that I have finally completed the formation base. (Even with the chill hindering me.) The two spells meant to control the earth node and the water node are now active. They are gathering mana even as we speak at this moment.
The mana storage for the other two elements is not as fancy as the ironskin. The druids did not even have a name for it, after all. Still, it will do its task of storing the mana of its respective elements pretty well.
The only problem with these spells is that the mana will be stored in the formation core itself. (Granted, I don't need to waste my time creating a mana battery due to this.) Should the formation core fail from now on, the ensuing explosion will be enough to destroy the fort. Right now, there is enough mana in the formation to run a class eight formation for a few days at least. That much mana is enough to rip through a mage like me.
Speaking of the mana core, I have finally managed to solve the problem of the soldiers freezing. The mana from the mana core is able to push out the ice mana quite effectively. I can thank the environment formation over this place for that. It's barrier is still strong enough to hold in the three types of mana to the fort. (Even though its mana regulating component has failed completely by now.)
The place is not completely free of ice mana yet, of course. Still, the mana in the area has decreased enough that the soldiers can fight on the wall without their coats. (They still have to wear it when they are not fighting.) So that is good. It could not have happened at a better time, as well. After all, the troop has been taking care of the survivors from the enemy base. The collapse of the enemy base did kill most of these beasts, but the few that remained kept trying to sneak into the fort since then.
Ever since the base has fallen, Shamon and his troop has been on the wall, preventing the Ice Beasts from breaching the wall, without my help. If I had to help them with combat, then the inscription process has certainly not been completed so quickly.
I managed to inscribe both the spells of the formation base in a single week. Even without the chill, that should have taken me a couple of weeks at least. In a way, working on the battlefield has been very helpful. The pressure of being here has been helping me improve my work to an absurd degree. (The better that I get at making formations, the stronger I will grow.)
With the formation base here, I have a bit more freedom to act. As I mentioned before, the formation base tends to be the most complex part of the formation. From here on out, the inscription process should not be as stressful. At least I don't need to rely on risky plans like earlier. With the chill finally handled (to a certain degree at least.), I can finally focus on dealing with the Snowlords.
I already have plans in place for them. I already have an idea of which spell I want to inscribe into the formation core next. The spell that I have to inscribe is a spell simply known as the water spear. The spell is a simple one, shaping water mana into a spear-like shape. These spears can be physically wielded by the user or thrown towards the enemy. The spear will then explode once it hits its target.
The problem is that the spell is quite slow. I will not be able to use this spell to attack enemies at a long range. If I were to try to attack them at a distance, the enemy would have time to dodge my strikes. The only time that this can be used is when the enemy is right next to the fort. I have a solution for that though I can't create it immediately.
There is also the problem of stability. This spell requires me to actively maintain these spears. I can maintain maybe ten of these spears at a time. 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 I can't create this immediately as well.
With this ready, though, I will have options even if the troop leaders were to appear. I actually don't know what happened to them. it would be wise to assume that they survived the battle, though.
After fighting the creatures, I can say I expected them to be even stronger. I am never underestimating anything capable of surviving a mana desert. They might have been physically weaker than I expected, but fighting these creatures has been harder than I expected. I had expected to fight a beast, you see.
A beast is easy to fight. They are servants of their instincts, and their movements can be predicted. A skilled enough hunter like me will not face too many problems against a creature like this. They say even the ancient dragons could be hunted by men.
Now that I reflect on the fight, there was something very human about the creature. The way that it reacted to the collapsing cavern, for example. A beast would have begun to run away about that time, a slave to its instincts. This one just stood there as if it could not imagine something like this happening. You could see it in the way that it fought as well.
Until now, I have been making light of Shamon's belief about the Snowlords being able to possess their underlings. Today, I believe that it is the truth. I could wrong, but I would rather be wrong and overprepare, than be caught off-guard.
Another factor in all of this has been my powerlessness. The power of a formation mage is dependent on his formations. After the fight with the Ice Beasts, I realized how true this statement is. Without my formations, I have not been able to show even a fraction of my power. (I don't have my sword or kit at this moment to mitigate this as well.)
I can't be like an elemental mage, who would be able to use their magic anywhere on the continent. Granted, most "good" elemental mages tend to be as dependent on their surroundings as we formation mages tend to be on our formations. I would like to see a fire mage throw their spells in this place, for instance. It is also true that without my formations, I don't think I will be able to fight even a decent fire mage here.
I also can't be like the martial mage, whose strength comes purely from the vital mana in their body. It has been ages since I have practiced martial magic. My skill with swords has also gotten very rusty.
Without the proper formations, I am only able to show a small fraction of my powers here. Otherwise, regardless of who possessed the Beast, there is no way that it would have fought such an even battle with me.
There is no use of complaining about all of that. Instead, I should speak about what I mean when I say I am Inscribing a formation core. (As a formation mage, this is something that I will speak about quite frequently, after all.)
For how much of ordinary thing a formation tends to be, we formation mages are considered a mystery. People seem to think that we just wave our hands and a formation is created. What we do can be considered to be science. (I would argue that it is a science that every mage should learn, as well.)
A formation can be considered to be a spell manifested in the real world. A spell is at its core a set of runes that you make in your mana core. These runes then manifest into reality as a spell.
These same runes if then manifested into reality using external mana, becomes a formation. (Almost everybody can make a class nine formation.) Once every rune has been successfully manifested, they have to be bound to the material of the core. If we don't do so, then the runes will destabilise and will explode on your face. (If you are lucky.)
We make use of our control strings to do this. The control string essentially acts as the glue between the rune and formation core. Once this happens, the spells become set. (which mainly means that it won't explode on your face.) Now, the inscribed spell can simply be triggered by supplying mana to it. If you craft the correct formation stick, anybody will be able to control the formation and cast it a thousand times.
This ability of a formation to be used again is the main benefit of formation magic, I can use a thousand spells at the same time. (As long as there is enough mana for it.) This particular nature of a formation is taken to its extreme by formations of class eight and beyond.
From 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 the formation core. 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 the class one formations. (where the number of spells that need to be inscribed reaches absurd numbers.)
To get back to the point, I will first need to inscribe ten class nine spells into it. I have completed three such spells already, which form my formation base. I am still left with seven more spells to inscribe, of which one is the water spear. Now that I have spoken so much about this, I might as well explain a bit about my class eight formation.
The class eight formation that I am building is a druidic formation. Just like all their formations, this spell is meant to nurture the Copper Wood it will be inscribed on. It also has a few spells meant to be used for fighting, though it is mainly meant to be defensive in nature.
It is fine for me. I have no desire to enter the plains outside to fight the beasts anyway. (That would be suicide.) Still, I would have liked it if I had the option of not being so passive. Even right now, I can imagine a Snowlord stumbling upon our fort and destroying it in a couple of hours. Shamon assures me that is not possible, though. The Snowlords won't dare to come this close at the start of winter.
Building this formation can be considered to be an achievement for me. It is going to take me one step closer to my primary goal. My goal always has been to create a class seven formation, you see. The reason for that is my master and his unreasonable demands. I have already mentioned to you how my master has restricted my knowledge of cultivation.
The reason for that is my master thinks that I am not be ready for the stage beyond the foundation stage yet. So he has made it impossible for me to know everything about his stage. Can you understand just how powerful a class seven formation can be? It would be able to destroy a person at any level of the foundation stage with a single move.
Even the meanest of the class seven formation will have the strength of a hundred spells. Let's just say that this was even the most basic spark spell. If you could boost its power by a hundred times, that thing would burn a mage to death.
Even the people in the Formation Corps tend to only create a class seven formation when they are in the stage beyond. Their literal work is to create formations and they don't try to do something like this.
I honestly don't know why my master expects that I will be able to do it. I have tried to convince him about this. He is not ready to listen to anything that I tell him. The man has the same reply for everything. It is tradition, and then he goes on a rant about how his master made him do it as well.
Building the class seven formation is the only way I have left to reach the stage beyond it looks like. I have tried to wheedle out the information from anybody I could reach in the Black Mountain. I have tried to threaten people for it, and I have tried to beg people for it. Nobody is ready to share it with me.
If the person on the other side is a bit weaker than they just have a look of panic in their eyes, as if I have held a sword to their throats. If they are strong enough, the only thing I get out of this all are looks of pity. The only thing I don't get is the answers that I need.
Fuck, just thinking about this is causing my blood to boil. I am shutting down the log for now.