I am returning to the frozen peak right now, by the way. I guess that I should have guessed that this would happen sooner. Well, I did guess that I would be kicked out. I just didn't expect to be kicked out so quickly. They kicked me out of the fort the first thing the day after I had met them. I had expected them to try and force me to teach them how to use the formation. People usually tend to at least try before giving up.
I don't want to put myself at risk by entering meditation now. The trip this time gives me a sense of unease. I don't know how to describe it other than that I feel an edge in my surroundings. It feels like the world around me is trying to gobble me up. Well, I am sure that it is my imagination, but who will tell my head that?
I guess part of my unease is that I feel naked without the protection of the formation. I can still feel a phantom connection to the formation core. I remember connecting to the formation and just how powerful that made me feel. I still feel tempted to connect myself to the formation. Well, even I won't be able to connect to a formation that far away.
At the moment, I do not have any way of fighting other than this sword hanging on my belt. I can agree that it is a fine piece. It is made of an alloy of iron and mithril and was designed with mana enhancement in mind.
The sword is built in the shape of a standard snowwinder sword. It is a bit smaller than the one that the soldiers use normally, though. I have already begun to adapt to the sword. I would say that I can finally use it somewhat decently. The sword is about as hard and durable as a class eight formation core. A foundation stage mage like me can attack it with my full force and it won't even leave a scratch.
It is a fine sword, one that is worthy of any other mage. The sword won't shatter even in a fight with a snowlord (ironically I can't make the same guarantee for myself.) The problem is that it is a poor replacement for a formation, especially one as powerful as the one I have just left.
I can't even convert the sword into a formation. Inscribing on metal things such as swords is impossible. It is just such a slippery affair to do so. Most runes won't form on the metal. Even if the runes were inscribed somehow, 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 would explode.
I am at the moment sitting in this caravan, only after extensive assurances from Ankon. This is the middlemost caravan of this caravan line. I had planned to keep an eye out from the last caravan of this line. I might not have been able to do much if it were the snowlords. I still would have liked to know as quickly as possible.
I have to admit that Shamon was quite desperate when he forced me here in the middle. Firstly, he assured me that the enemy would not find out about this trip. Then he assured me that even if they did find out about it, there was no way that they would be able to attack me. The commander would be on their tails within a few minutes.
Still, I am not comfortable. Ambushing a formation mage en route to somewhere is the best way to get rid of a formation mage after all. It is such a strategy that I will find a hundred cases in other logs without even looking for them. That is why I am right now suppressing all of my mana. It will be enough to hide my presence. I don't know how successful this will be. It is still better than steadily making myself mad by doing nothing.
I also have to note down another point before I forget about it. I am reasonably confident that the Snowwind Empire has achieved leylining. Well, now how do I explain leylining it to you? Yeah, the best way of explaining it is that a leyline is an artificial elemental node. It is a stream of mana that is built between two points, and mana flows from these two points. A well-built leyline can transfer mana across entire nations, I have heard.
It is a fundamental thing needed to create a formation. Especially to create formations beyond class four. That is why I am not able to tell if leylines are being used here or not. This type of magic is just beyond me. I have seen quite a few leylines, but all of them were created by my master. If those were like mighty rivers, then the leylines they might have built here are like tiny streams. How exactly am I supposed to use those as a reference for these?
It is not exactly formation magic, but it is intrinsically a part of formation magic. Well, I haven't yet sensed these leylines if they exist. To explain my assumption, I will have to explain to you how exactly I think that the snowwinders are moving here. Right now, we are traveling in wooden caravans.
The caravans are enhanced by magical formations that can enhance durability. Traveling in normal wooden carriages on these plains would be tantamount to suicide. The storms here can collapse buildings, so you can imagine what they can do to mere wooden carts.
We do face storms during our journey, none quite as crazy as the one we faced at the fort. Still, the damage that has been done to the carriages is not enough compared to the storms we are facing. I can see the caravans are being powered by mana batteries. Still, unless the mana batteries can store significantly more mana than they are supposed to, they are not the answer.
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 here.
That would mean that they have formations for protecting the body of the cart. (Imagine something like the Iron Skin.) They also must have suspension formations. They also must form formations to keep and formations to hide all of this from me. ( They must be very good ones at that since they can escape the sights of a formation mage as skilled as me.)
Maybe it isn't even a formation. It could be way more rudimentary than that. A prototype leyline, if you will, powering a bunch of runes that give very rudimentary effects.
And even if that is not true, my point stands. The Snowwinders have some degree of formation magic available to them, it looks like. Some way to enhance the strength of the caravan without making it too mana-intensive.
I am certain that nobody but me in this group has the mana to run these hypothetical formations. (If they exist.) So nobody's mana is powering it with their vital mana. One other thing I can think of is ambient mana formations. The problem with that is that ambient mana formations would not be able to output so much mana. You only really use it to light up an area. This is especially true in this area, where only a single type of mana exists.
I could also be completely wrong, though. The snowwinders just might be geniuses at designing carriages. They also might have some method of guarding their carriages that I simply do not have an idea about. They could just be using all of their stock of mana batteries to power these caravans as well. That is very unlikely, though. The Snowwind Empire isn't supposed to have a very large stock of mana batteries. Mana batteries are one of the things that they have been banned from trading with their allies.
I think that this point about leylining might be something that the head office would like to know. I am sure that the black mountain would benefit from this in some way.
With all of the key points completed, it is time for me to admit something. I must admit that, regardless of how nervous I am right now, I have finally got the opportunity to relax. 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. The stress of my duties is one thing, but it is the strangeness of the people here. I finally figured out why these people feel so strange. The snowwinders do not fear the black mountain. I mean, all the powerful people are pretty fearful of my people, but the common soldiers here are not scared of me. Even Shamon has snapped at me more than his fair share of times. Even I am surprised by just how refreshing a feeling that has been.
Another thing to be noted is that the formation mages are not respected here. Anywhere else, formation mages are looked at as gods in many places. After all, we provide people with so many things. Defensive formations keep them safe. Environmental formation keeps them alive. Weather formations allow them to grow their crops peacefully. (There are way more formations than that. Though listing them all will take a few days.)
People also tend to treat us like we are made of glass. (Well, I do admit that we do tend to be pretty weak for our levels.) That also has been lacking here. Now that I think about it, staying here has kind of reminded me of my time in the legion.
Not the bloody parts of course, like hunting beasts from town to town. Instead. I am speaking about the invisibility I get during that time. Nobody tends to care that you are a formation mage when they see you dressed in the dirty rags of an adventurer.
Well, look at me rambling on. To put it in short, it has been a pretty eventful mission. I guess this might have been what my master intended to do while sending me here. Well, I have stopped guessing with the man. He could have done this simply to torture me as well.
Most of his challenges feel like torture if I am honest. I sometimes wonder what exactly the man has even taught me. What can he even teach me? All that he knows is simply at a stage that is beyond me.
The weakest formation that the man can craft is at class six. The man simply is not able to craft anything simpler than that. At the moment, the most powerful formation that I can make is of the eighth class. My goal is to make seventh-class formations, which will finally let me begin to study the stage beyond. Then I can finally think about class six formations.
Almost everybody in the formation corps who can craft a class seven formation is on the stage beyond. I don't know why my master has put it as a requirement for even the information about the stage beyond. All I can say is that the man has very high standards. I sometimes feel like just cursing the man for a couple of hours.
Once I reach the stage beyond, though, I think that my master will finally personally tutor. He tried to do so at the very beginning of my discipleship. All I can say about those attempts is that I could understand each word that my master told me. When I tried to put them together, I could not make a head or tail of it. I still can't.
That is why the man has such a hands-off approach regarding my education. He provides me with all the books that I need. he also keeps taking me to new teachers in various fields. I have learned so many different things under the man. All except the art that I am supposed to be a master of, though.