The temporary fort certainly cuts an impressive figure. I would say it is large enough to comfortably house two hundred soldiers. The fort is surrounded by a wall. At each of the cardinal directions of the wall is a gate. The gates are large enough that a decently sized caravan will be able to pass into it. (It could be a liability in such a hostile place.)
The problem is that it only looks impressive. Even just standing in here, I can tell that the temporary fort will be quite easy to break apart. I can crack a wall with a single punch. (even without enhancement of my vital mana.) I will be able to shatter the entire wall if I channel my mana.
This is certainly not what one would expect from the Snowwind Empire. They are legendary for their ability to build, especially defensive structures like this fort. If that weren't the case, then the Empire would have already fallen to the kingdoms that wage a war at their southern border even now.
One reason for this is that the entire fort in front of me has been built within a few weeks. The commander might have claimed it to be a single week, but that is impossible. I am sure that the Commander commissioned the place to be built after our meeting about fort chains. That means that they had about two to three weeks to build this place. (I know that is not a lot of time as well.)
Another reason for the fort's present state is that we are right next to the mana desert. If we were to treck about two weeks to the north, we will end up in the Frozen Wastelands. Being this close to the desert, this place is constantly assaulted by waves of ice mana.
I guess that I should speak a bit about the mana deserts. (It is not something that people know a lot about.) The problem is that I only really know myths about the place. Here goes the little that I know about them.
There are four mana deserts in the continent. The Frozen Wastelands to the north. The Bone Pits to the South. The Elemental Plains to the West and finally, the Slaughter Fields to the East. These mana deserts are locations that are occupied by mana of a single kind. (unlike ambient mana which contains all kinds of mana.)
The only reason that the fort is standing can be attributed to the skills of the Snowwind Empire, now that I think about it. The construction is solid enough that I don't need to worry about the fort falling any time soon. Rather, it is the people that I am worried about.
You see, there are about a hundred soldiers that are presently stationed in this fort. Most of them are non-mages, without any vital mana to defend themselves. The human body is not meant to handle a single type of mana. Exposure to the ice mana out there is not going to lead to any pretty outcome.
Well, there is a Environmental formation that is meant to prevent exactly that from happening. The problem is that these people have taken the environmental formation of an airship and put it in a fort. It is a miracle that it is not already exploding on my face.
An environmental formation can be said to be made up of two major components. The first is a barrier, which is meant to prevent all external mana from entering a place. The second component is meant to regulate the mana inside the barrier to ensure that it is in the correct concentration (and ratio) for a human to survive in.
Even now, I can feel the concentration of mana here falling signficantly lower than the mana outside. That will only happen if the mana here is being consumed without any replenishment. That means that the regulating component of the formation has already failed.
Due to that the barrier component is also barely holding on. While it is still holding against the ice mana outside, the pressure is building on the barrier. (Mana always moves to fill in a void.) I wouldn't be surprised if it failed at this very moment.
Right now, the only chance that this fort has is me. The fort faces two major threats. The first is the environment that we are in and the second are the Snowlords.
I am going to require an Environmental formation to deal with the former, and a set of offensive and defensive formations to deal with the latter. I am going to need to set it up quickly as well. I need to be ready for their arrival, after all. (I guess I at least have the time to work on my formations.)
I guess that I should take a break to explain that the Scholars are going to be perfectly fine. They must have already reached the magical ruin and should have already settled in the place.
They are going to be safe. Even discounting their ability to take care of themselves, the rest of my troop is there. That is enough to deal with any Snowlord that stumbles there. I did want the Sworn to follow me to assist me here. Trevor was insistent that the Sworn had to see combat without my interference, though. That is why he took them with him to the magical ruin.
At the moment, the lack of the Sworn is going to be a problem for me. I am not at the peak of my combat ability you see. While most of my injuries on me have finally healed, the one on my arm and my chest are still there. It is significantly better than before, with the swelling on either almost gone. Still, I am not able to put a lot of force on these injuries. (The wounds will open again if I were to still fight.)
Hopefully, I won't need to fight. The core I have been given is Copper bark, so it does seem unlikely. It is one of the most common materials among the druids. More importantly, it was extensively used by the druids to create their villages.
Every druidic village was supposed to have a formation at its center made from Copper bark. These formations were supposed to make their villages habitable. They had about the best environmental formations on the continent. I am more than sure that their formations will be able to work even this close to the Frozen Wastelands. (At least that is the hope.)
They also had to have decent offensive and defensive formations. Otherwise, with the enemies that the druids had, they would have not have survived a day. Other than that, the druids have already been destroyed. They will not be able to develop any new weapons with a formation design so old.
While it is still an advanced formation, it still maintains the spirit of the ban on the Snowwind Empire. After all, the reason that the ban was placed on them was that the Snowwind Empire had begun to develop weapons using advanced formations. (Only a fool would arm a war hungry bunch like this Empire.) They are certainly welcome to try this with the formations here.
It will take them a few centuries to just figure out the runes of the druids. As for looking for an expert on druidic formations, they can dream on. Most of the few that remain are at the Black Mountain.
That is why Copper bark is the perfect type of material for my needs.
Before making the formation, I need to figure out how to power them. To power this formation using mana stones will bankrupt me in a couple of weeks. I could power it with my own mana, but I will be able to power the formation for a few hours at most. (In my defense, the mana draw of any formation here will be absurdly high.)
Thankfully, druidic formations rely on Elemental nodes to function. Now I just need figure where I can find these nodes in our present location. I guess I should explain what a Elemental Node. To put it in simple terms, an Elemental node is a stream of mana of a specific element that flows in the world.
Most of them tend to be underground and are often coincidental with magical ores. Detecting these nodes is supposed to be nearly impossible. There are only two races on the continent that I know that can detect Elemental nodes with any confidence. These are the druids and the dwarves.
I have no idea how the druids find Elemental nodes. Maybe my master might know, but the man does not trust me enough to teach me yet. That leaves me with only the dwarf's methods. The dwarves go about looking for elemental nodes by looking for the ore that you would find with them. On this front, no other force on the continent can challenge them.
The dwarves make use of mana echolocation to find ore under the ground. Now, how do I explain this spell to you? It involves the process of releasing waves of mana into the ground. These waves will then be bounced off of mana sources. These reflected waves can then be used by the dwarves to find the exact location of the ore.
Now I only know the absolute basics of mana echolocation. Using it inside the ground is something only masters of the spell can do. Only a master can tell if a reflected wave means that there is a piece of rock with a bit more mana or a magnificent mithril ore. I was originally planning to try it even if it had a low chance of success. Turns out, I have a better method.
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 Elemental node would also run dry with its ore. That is what happens in most cases like this. There is a small chance, though, that the node is not completely dry, and that is my goal at this moment.
It is all a game of probability. If one location that I visit doesn't have a node, then I will just keep visiting these mines until I find what I require. Just a fifty-kilometer range around me has about a hundred mines. (That is a stupidly large number of mines, by the way.)
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 right now is that I don't know where they are. That is why I am presently here, waiting. The folks here have certain information that I need.
The person providing me with the information that I need is a man by the name of Shamon. He is supposed to be a mage of the first circle, with a cultivation that matches mine.
Speaking of the man. He finally appears in the corner of my mana sense. It takes a few moments more before the man enters my office. He is a middle-aged man with no particularly distinguishing features. The only thing that is worth noting 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, who 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. (The battlefield is the best place to get rid of formation mages.) They say that this Shamon has been stationed in temporary forts for the last few decades. That means that he has experience with the kind of combat in this area.
"Have you brought what I have requested?" I ask him.
"Yes, Captain. A map of every mine in the region with a particular emphasis on the ore found at the location," Shamon replies. I can see the doubt in the man's eyes. He can't see what I want to do with a bunch of empty mines.
"Good, that is what I need. You can leave it in the corner," I reply. "You seem to be a local of this area, Shamon. I am certain you must have an idea of the many threats that we face. What do you think is the most immediate threat?"
"We have three main threats in this region. The first is the chill," replies the soldier, explaining as he sees the confusion on my face. "The fort is constantly facing ice mana from the Frozen Wastelands. If we humans are exposed to this much Ice mana then we will freeze into living statues. We call this the chill. Mages like us are able to resist the chill to a degree, but even we cannot do so forever. That is why the first thing we need to focus on is fixing the environmental formation."
"You don't need to worry about that, Shamon. You are not going to die due to the ice mana. I have already begun work on the formations need to protect your fort," I reply, pointing to the documents to the side. Based on the man's expression it is clear that he doesn't believe me. "What are the other two threats that I need to take note of?"
"The next thing that you need to worry about are the Ice Beasts, Captain. Once the winter properly gets going, we shall be facing entire troops of the creatures," The man replies, beginning to explain again. "They are the servants of the Snowlords. This early in the winter it is unlikely that one will be coming here. Instead they send an entire horde of Ice Beasts to soften up our defenses. These attacks already happening at random intervals, but I can manage those. Still, you will need to shore up our defenses for larger groups."
"What about the Snowlords. When will they start attacking us?" I ask.
"By my estimate it is unlikely that they will come any time soon. The start of winter is a dangerous time for them," Shamon replies. "Still, the Commander must be worried about an attack if he has sent me here."
Well, this is the first time that I have heard about these Ice Beasts. This could be a challenge. I was expecting to be given some time before having to fight anybody. Even if they are weaker than the Snowlords, building formations tend to take time. I would rather not get involved in a fight now.
"What is the third thing then?" I ask him.
"That would be the very winds, Captain. Winters here have the worst snowstorms. At its worst, these storms are enough to cause the fort to buckle like a house of cards," he replies.
"And how long does it take for these storms to go bad?" I ask him.
"We could face a storm like that tomorrow, Captain. Heck, we might face it in the next hour, even. There is simply no way of telling this far north," the soldier replies, his chuckle echoing through the fort. "All we can really do is huddle in the fort and hope."