Nothing eventful happened during the night, save that there was the added scenery of the massive southern and western mountain chains to look at. Well, he could see them for the last couple of nights, but since they were only about 40 miles or so away from the base of the mountains, they had actual visual impact now.

The southern mountain chain was named the Azula mountains, while the western mountain chain was the Arboro mountains. According to legends, they were an ancient pair of dragons who were a couple, they laid down to rest and the mountains formed over their bodies. The Azula river, which originated in the mountains and ran through the southern territory of the kingdom, was supposedly Azula's drool. The Arboro mountains had great forests and jungles on it. Obviously, one dragon was said to be of the water element, while one was of the wood element. Felix didn't believe in this legend though, for several reasons.

Firstly, there were no other recordings or mentions or sightings of any other dragons in the world. Secondly, the mountain chains were way too massive. Thirdly, dwarves lived everywhere inside the mountains, and had dug to exceptional depths, they would have found something by now. He could keep going.

The Azula mountains were the home of the religious and orthodoxical dwarves. The Arboro mountains were home to the atheistic and heretical dwarves. The Azula clan was much larger, but both were allies with the humans, despite hating each other. The Azula clan supported the humans to defend against the demons because they knew they were the most likely target for the demons to invade if the humans fell, and the humans supported the Arboro clan because elves lived all over the Arboro mountain chain, and wood countered earth. So if they did not help them to balance it out, the elves would take over the mountains and could possibly allow the demons to pass via the Arboro mountain chain, bypassing their chokepoints. But the Azula clan hated the Arboro clan's guts, so they wouldn't spend even 1 copper to help them. It was a complicated situation.

Felix kept thinking about these things while keeping watch and constructing Mold Earth. Night Eye made the nightwatch position very easy since he could see just as well out of his right eye as if it was the middle of the day while he had it active.

There were spells that allowed you to see when mages were casting spells, but Felix wasn't concerned about anyone present having such a spell, or if they did, they would be from the escort unit, who wouldn't care about him using Night Eye. Alexander was a water mage, which was the best element for investigation, but Felix highly doubted he would have such a spell. Alexander had been stuck in Gurnkey working in the rice paddies his entire life up until now, from what he said he only constructed 3 spells so far (he was 18): Create Water, Create Ice, and Purify Water. He was still constructing Night Eye from what Felix could tell. Felix definitely wasn't worried about any of the peasant-grade mages having such a spell - how could they waste their precious time with such low affinity on constructing a spell that wasn't useful at all to a peasant? That would be pretty stupid.

The night passed uneventfully like usual, with Felix focusing on construction and taking a quick look around with Night Eye every now and then. He pretended to be super seriously focused for the last bit of his shift like usual just to put on appearances, and they loaded into the wagons again. Felix and Alexander slept like usual. When Felix woke up, he looked outside of the wagon. The mountains were gigantic, large enough that he couldn't see the tops from inside the wagon.

Fort Basil was located inside the Basil pass, so named because it was full of basil, the plant. The cooks in the fort used it all the time in their cooking, apparently. The pass had an upward slope, and the fort spanned from side to side, touching the two mountains. It was very large, constructed out of a combination of some kind of white stone and a black metal that Felix presumed was iron. It was very intimidating, with a large black spire in the center.

Felix didn't spend much time on sightseeing though, instead using as much time as he could for more spell construction. He finished Mold Earth, and began to construct Fling Rock, a spell that added momentum to rocks. It was actually a pretty simple spell, at only 19 nodes, but Felix considered Mold Earth as more of a generally useful spell. He only managed to construct 6 nodes of it, however, when they finally reached the fort.

The gate of the fort was a modestly sized wooden gate. It looked pretty small compared to the overall size of the fort actually. But, that kind of made sense, since the weight of the gate would probably get out of hand pretty quickly. The escort unit handled talking to the guards, the gate opened, and they were lead inside.

There was a large open ring around the central spire. The recruits were brought to a certain point with a flag on it, and hopped out of the wagon. They were handed off to a gruff looking guy who had on an open cloak displaying a rank insignia of some sort, but was otherwise in simple shorts and a t-shirt. The escort unit gave a quick salute, and left to disappear into the rest of the fort somewhere.

The man they were handed off to didn't waste time.

"Name's John. I'm your Captain. We got no time to waste. We're low on men, and reinforcements ain't coming from the capital or Fort Cumin before the demon forces get here. Scout units say they'll be here in 3 days, while reinforcements are estimated to be here in 2 weeks, due to breaking the blockade, repairing roads, interrupted communication, etc. That means I got good news for you and I got bad news for you. Good news is, most of you won't be doing anything combat related, you'll be working back-line support, while we field our few remaining trained units to do nothing but defense to hold on until we get reinforcements. Bad news is I have no guarantees we hold on 3 days from now. I'm going to just do some quick interviews, see where you lot would be best placed, and then you guys split up and do your jobs as best you can. Questions?"

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The recruit group shook their heads. Seemed pretty straightforward to them. John nodded and started doing interviews. He asked about skills, magical elements and affinity, known spells, etc. Most of the group were non-mages or peasant-grade mages who only knew 1 or 2 spells, and were quickly dispatched to labor units who had assigned some men to be there to receive the new hands.. Finally, he got to Felix.

"Name?"

"Felix."

"Any skills or noteworthy occupations?"

"Orchard hand and night watchman."

"Major element?"

"Earth."

"Spells?"

"Night Eye and Mold Earth. I'm working on Fling Rock currently."

"Affinity?"

"Top end of low-grade, sir."

John raised an eyebrow at that, and grabbed his arm. He did some mana manipulations that felt a little weird in Felix's arm, and nodded.

"Guess there's a lucky find in this batch. Wait to the side." John said and continued interviewing.

He only took a bit more time on Alexander, but ultimately just assigned him to the kitchen. Finally, it was just Felix and John left.

"Follow me." he said simply, and started walking south. Felix did as instructed and followed him. After about 20 minutes of walking, they arrived at a certain building with an insignia of a rock on it. Captain John knocked on the door and waited. After a couple of seconds, a lackey came to the door, and saluted the Captain.

"What can I help you with, sir?" he asked.

"New recruit I think would work best with you guys. Decent affinity on the high end of low-grade, knows Mold Earth and Night Eye. Pass him off to Captain Leris for me." Captain John replied.

The lackey nodded and saluted Captain John, who returned the salute and left to go elsewhere in the fort. The lackey turned to Felix.

"Welcome to the environmental engineering team. We alter the terrain for battles. Follow me, you're heading out immediately, since I'm sure you're well aware of the situation. We'll suit you up, stuff your belly, and get you working within the hour." he said, and headed inside. Felix could do nothing but follow him. Sure enough, he brought him to an empty room, and showed him his bed. He handed him a new pair of simple clothing, which consisted of brown cargo shorts and a t-shirt, and give him a cloak with a single chevron on it, with a rock pin that was the same as the one on the front of the building. He sat Felix down at a table, handed him a bowl of soup, some bread, and some water, and told him he had 10 minutes to eat. Felix ate it all within 8 minutes, they got up, and he had one of the other guys who had come back to drop off some papers take Felix off of his hands. This new guy was wearing the same outfit, and had 2 chevrons on his cloak, so Felix guessed he was one rank higher than himself. They headed to the southern gate, and were let out.

The new guy was named Toby, and he explained that their unit was busy building pitfalls, ditches, defensive lines, etc. Sure enough, there were defenses everywhere, including forward facing wooden spear-lines, metal wire-lines, ditches, walls, and pitfalls everywhere in front of the fort. Felix was starting to regret having constructed Mold Earth, because frankly he would much rather be scrubbing a toilet somewhere inside the fort rather than be outside of it digging a ditch. Outside of the fort was obviously much more dangerous. But, it was too late now.

They walked past all of the defenses, and were a good quarter-mile away from the fort. There, they ran into the captain of the environmental engineering team, and the rest of the unit, who were all busy working on a new ditch. Felix could see the vanguard of the demon forces from here. They were a good distance away, setting up similar simple defenses. Felix couldn't make out any details of them though, he had good eyes, but not good enough to see over the mile or so distance to make out much.

The captain turned to look at them when he was greeted, and he wore a look of surprise when he saw Felix. They both gave a salute (although Felix's was sloppy since he was new), and the captain appraised him.

"Who's this then? Haven't seen him before." the captain asked Toby.

"Fresh blood handed off by Captain John, sir. Names Felix, knows Night Eye and Mold Earth. He's got night watchman experience and is on a night sleep schedule currently. Probably didn't spend an hour in the fort before he got to where he's standing now." Toby informed the captain.

The captain nodded. "Felix, is it? Demonstrate Mold Earth for me, would you?" He said, looking at Felix.

"Yes, sir. I have constructed it, but I just finished on the way here, so this will be my first time using it, though." Felix responded.

The captain laughed. "It's fine, please just go ahead."

Felix nodded and used Mold Earth, slowly depressing the ground in front of him. Since he was an earth mage, the usage came very naturally to him. and he got the hang on of it quickly.

The captain nodded. "Great. I'm sure you're aware of the situation since you can see the demons literally right over there. I wont waste time with small talk. Toby, take him to unit 8, they're west over there. Tell unit leader Louis he's to work through the night on helping mold the trench we're putting over there." the captain dismissed them quickly, and got back to directing his own unit on the trenches they were constructing. Toby and Felix quickly saluted him, and they started walking west along the trench, which was in a large semi-circle from mountain to mountain around the fort. Finally, after a couple of minutes, they found Unit 8, who were all the way on the furthest side of the trench, and were evidently beginning construction of the next trench line about 20 feet further out than the trench they had followed, which would be the new furthest defensive line.

Toby brought Felix to his new unit leader, Louis (he had 3 chevrons on his cloak), and relayed the captain's orders to him. Louis nodded, dismissed Toby, and sized up Felix. He sighed after a bit and brought him to the point of the trench furthest to the side, and told him to start depressing it further, since they had made a shallow depression to note the trench line, and needed to deepen it to make it an actual trench. He then walked away, leaving Felix alone. Felix was now the person furthest away from the fort possible, on the frontmost defensive line, and was about 500 feet from the next person, who was similarly depressing the trench.

He was fucked. He knew his value was low since he had zero training, but they straight up chucked him out to the wolves. There were no demons around him or anything, but he knew his position was dangerous. But all he could do was stand there and start slowly depressing the earth into a trench.

At least he didn't have to shovel it by hand.