We have reached the frozen peaks nearly thirteen days after my last log. I have reached this place in nearly half of the time that my predecessors took to come here. ( granted that was kind of expected since my predecessors weren't exactly as crazy as me.) Which I consider to be a minor achievement in and of itself. Look at the positive side, I guess.

Anyway, Trevor at the moment seems to be very hyperactive. This might be because Andrew seems to have worn some part of his uniform in a wrong manner. That is the worst thing you can do in front of Trevor. Again, I am thankful that I do not have a uniform.

Anyway, I can finally feel the ship descend. The formation of the ship has degraded so much that any form of auto-piloting has stopped working. Granted, it was never working particularly well before also. Thankfully, that will be managed by the folk from the frozen peaks. They are not idiots to let a ship be controlled by anybody other than themselves when it is so near their cities. That is the easiest way to level a city you know. Fill a ship with bombs and then park it in the city to explode it to pieces.

Right now our ship will be left in the care of the snowwinders. It is both a method of preventing escape and a precaution to make sure we don't blow them up. (granted if they knew about our ships they would know that we are not able to land properly, let alone launch an assault.)

We fall with a thud that nearly floors everybody on the ship. That means my suspicions were right and that the suspension formation was damaged somehow. Let's just hope the folks outside have not noticed us. It is kind of embarrassing.

The instant that we left the safety of the airship, I had two thoughts in my mind. My very first thought was about the coldness that I felt the instant that I left the mouth of the airship. It was colder than I expected. It is harder to describe the second thought, let's do it this way.

Have you ever seen the sight of a deer in the presence of a lion? Right now I have the feeling that I must be looking the same. My back is slick with sweat, yet the freezing sensation that came with it is barely on my notice. I fear to move my body even an inch. It feels like if do so, something very unpleasant will happen.

I wonder for a second why these people would even need to ally with us. Well, that answers itself. The only reason that people want a diplomatic relationship with the black mountain is that the black mountain is powerful. Nobody can afford to have us as the enemy. This naturally means that they will become our enemy the instant that we show a moment of weakness. Right now I am standing on the edge of a sword and even the smallest of mistakes will separate my head from my body or something worse.

The reason for that is the old man in front of me is the commander of the frozen peaks. The only thought I have looking at him is, I have never seen such an old man. He resembled more a skeleton than a human if I am to be honest. However, that did not make him any less powerful. If the reports of the head office are to be believed this means that this man is an expert of the fifth circle.

That means that he is roughly about the same level as a general of the black mountain. Even on black mountain, there are only three generals (even my master has to treat these people as equals). That means that this man needs to look at me wrong and I will be ripped to pieces. It is the authority of the black mountain that is keeping me alive.

I am thankful that I have worn my armor, which honestly does not seem as impressive as I was hoping it to be. It was a formation armor known as "vine armor". It is not a fancy name but I have been exhausted the last couple of days. It resembles a bunch of vines covering me, which I thought would give me a more rugged look. In hindsight, I had forgotten that we were about to go to a place where even mana tends to freeze. Something a bit more tight would have been better. I will explain its creation some other day, if possible. It certainly took quite a bit of creativity from my side.

Anyway, I am on the verge of running away screaming looking at this old man (hence all this rambling). I don't know how to describe it but at the moment the old man seemed to be growing bigger and bigger in my eyes. It is like the world is disappearing. For a second I am left wondering if this is some kind of technique.

"Young Captain, I greet you. It is rare for us to see such a young talent so far away from the center of the continent", the commander begins.

The instant that he speaks the illusion breaks. the intense feeling of fear that I experienced looking at him disappears like snow in the sun. Now the fear I feel is that of a man trying to impress his superior. The only thing is that the cost of failure here is death.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"I bow down to you, commander. ", I begin, trying my best not to keep my fear from showing on my face as I bow as is customary with this bunch. These are very particular people. "I apologize for the pitiful state that you have found us in. It has not been easy for us to make our way to this place at the best of times and right at the onset of winter. I had assumed people were exaggerating when they told us the danger of winter. My overconfidence has caused us to suffer."

"That certainly seems to be a mistake from our side as well and as the commander, I will apologize to you. We should have been more hospitable and sent a couple of people to welcome you. Sadly even we are restricted by the onset of winter", the commander spoke, leaving me to wonder what hidden trap lay in this apology. If only I could gather my thoughts, I am sure that I would find it. That is a task for later "for now, let us forgo much more serious talks. It is bad luck to stand too long at the door. you seem to be exhausted, so we shall speak again later."

Saying that the old man disappeared as quickly as he appeared. For an instant, I had the feeling as If a massive weight was released from my body. I can feel my thoughts slow down as if I have spent the last couple of hours working on a particular hard formation.

Two soldiers were standing at attention to the side, who took us to our quarters. A male and a female soldier, with strength roughly equivalent to me. Maybe I can hold my own against them, but that would require me to go all out.

(The next day)

Well, I am kind of embarrassed with my performance yesterday. I would have liked to say that I had recovered from the presence of the old man the instant that he left. it just seemed to get worse after meeting him. It almost felt as if I had fought the greatest battle of my life in those few minutes. The instant that I saw a bed I had ended up unconscious on it. I don't even really need to sleep that long.

I have reviewed the thoughts that I recorded yesterday and let's just say there is not much there. You see, the combat troops of the black mountain must maintain clear and well-maintained records. This is especially true during any mission. Let's just say one of these bastards were to assassinate me tomorrow, we will know who to kill. The logs are our best method of doing that.

This information contains nearly every bit of information that a person is experiencing. From the behavior of the servants to the many habits of the guards. Every single piece of information is taken in and analyzed by the black mountain. They can make use of small information like this to predict almost all of our ally's intent.

You never know which place you might end up needing to take over, so any information is welcome. You have the obvious information such as the defenses and the troop placements. even petty information such as the sleep schedule of the people, the places of rest or even the kind of street food that the people will eat. (You would be surprised just how much the poison mages can do with such information.)

To explain this thing particularly well, one cannot forget about the iron forest. The Iron Forest was one of the last centers of power for the druids. Iron Forest and its legendary iron wall can be considered to be the toughest nut that the legion had to crack in the Druidic campaign. The place managed to survive the siege of a general and his soldiers for two years. Even after that period, it did not seem close to falling. If anything, it was the troop that was suffering heavy losses.

The reason that it was destroyed was from the log of a soldier known as Albert. He noticed the fact that the soldiers of Iron Forest had a habit of watering the iron wall to realize that it was a tree. Then it did not take long for our formation masters to figure out what they needed to do. A lot of poison to the roots and the iron forest became a part of history.

I have a personal reason to tell this story. since it was from this place that we managed to acquire a majority of the druidic spells that the black mountain has records on. It is these spells that my master specializes in and what I am preparing to specialize in. They have one of the most unique formation systems in the continent. It would be a pity to lose it.

Anyway, in the record yesterday no such information exists. The only thing that I noticed that would be useful from the logs is the walls that surround this place. While I cannot say with certainty I have a feeling that the place has a very powerful formation. I do not have anything else, such as the type of formation, the mana consumption or at the very least the class of the formation. even I, a formation mage could not identify the class of the formation. (regardless of how indisposed I ended up at the moment.) This means that is at least a class five formation and could be even lower than that.

Looking at the wall, nobody would feel that. The wall itself was not in the most perfect position, with the wall giving an ancient and eroded vibe. The holes that are present in the wall give it a look as if these people had just survived a very grueling war. given the stories about this fort and the people they fight it could be a pretty reasonable guess.

It also makes sense looking at the weather in this place. This place is constantly bombarded with snow storms from the northern wastelands. Any fort that can last for millennia in any other location won't even last for a month in this place.

For acquiring any other information though, we have yet to meet any other person of this fort. we haven't even been allowed outside our rooms. Being isolated like this is not a good thing as far as I can tell. That is the standard procedure for the Snowwind army. Well, that is the principle for anybody dealing with the black mountain. General lockdown and extremely limited contact with the troops and other things. They will do anything to make sure that the black mountain will learn nothing about them.