This is an ideal time for me to describe how inscription for the levels beyond class nine formations actually work. Well, calling them spells would not be correct exactly. They are closer to a set of runes than a spell model. At class nine, most spells that are inscribed have only a single function. That would be the task that they are meant to do, which is a reason that class nine spells are so easy to use. The spells inscribed into it are often direct copies of spells that are normally used by people.

For example a druid practicing iron skin would be using the same runes that I have inscribed into the formation, except maybe the runes that define the shape of the entire thing. A person could make use of my formation core to learn every single one of the class nine spells that I have inscribed on it, maybe with a few modifications. This is granted he knows of a few spells similar to the spell that he is trying to decode.

From class eight, the spells inscribed tend to have two major purposes. First would be whatever is the purpose of the spell and secondly would be the management of all the lower formations in the core. That is why class eight formation runes tend to be so much larger than any class nine runes. Most spells modified into class eight or above formations tend to have so many things changed that it becomes very hard to tell just what the orginal spell was let alone it's spell model.

Regardless, the point I wanted to make was that a class eight formation is fundamentally different from a class nine formation especially during the process of designing it. As my master likes to say, every man in the continent can make a class nine formation if he spends enough time on it, but from class eight onwards is the domain of the formation mage. Only with a self designed class 8 formation a man can be considered to be a formation mage.

Well, I am one formation closer to that particular goal. The eighth class formation that I have built is a general version of the class eight formation that the druids use in their formation. We actually do not know the name of the formation but we know its purpose. It is a standard nurturing formation that works on a bunch of trees along with a few tricks up its sleeve.

My master calls the formation as "metalbark core" for the fact that this can give good results in the nurturing of almost any metal bark tree like the iron bark, copper bark or the bronze bark in my case. This formation could be found at the center of any druidic forest or village, acting as the core of their defence or playing a very key role in it at the very least. It is a pretty versatile formation that can be used in any place regardless of the surrounding region and its mana concentration.

One of its key feature is the focus that is given to its domain, which makes sense with the nature of the spell. Essentially once I activate the class eight formation a domain of water, earth and metal mana is going to start surrounding the fort, making it free of the ice mana in the surroundings of the fort at the very least. Well, I have never seen the formation work in a region so focused on a single mana to tell just how effective the domain will be but there should be some level of effectiveness.

That means, the soldiers can be protected from the almost insidious chill and it could have not happened at a better time.

The storms picked the exact worst time to grow worser. The injured soldiers cannot be taken back to the frozen peak. This is simply sheer bad luck, I guess. Well, most of the soldiers are managing it pretty well except the soldier that has lost his arm.

Well we can manage with or without the reinforcements but the only problem in all of this is the fact that the formation base is still not at the threshold for activating the formation. The formation base had been essentially been emptied a few times in the last couple of weeks and the process of it recharging has been annoyingly slow indeed. At least it should not take long before I have enough though, so that is a positive. The only mana reserve that I have at the moment which can be considered to be behind the threshold needed is the water mana reserve. With the way that I have been using it, it is not a very big surprise.

The formation is going to require a particularly large amount of mana from each of the elements for the creation of the domain, especially due to the ice mana outside. Thankfully that absurd cost will only exist in case of starting the formation and after the creation of the domain, such a cost should be reduced quite dramatically. At least an amount enough for the elemental nodes to be able to manage it on its own. That reminds me that I have to tell these guys to arrange other sources of mana for this area. The elemental nodes should be enough in the short term. But few months or years down the line it will be emptied.

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The water base is the reason that I am actually delaying the creation of the domain until the snowlords make their presence known. It should buy me time in which the formation can gather mana. Not much time, especially with the way that the storm has been intensifying. If shamon had a doubt about the approach of multiple snowlords, he is sure of it now. He did not even need to come down here and inform me about that. It can be seen in the way that he has taken to pacing through the fort, fretting about everything.

He is presently coordinating our soldiers through out the fort trying to patch up all of the holes in the fort. One of the benefits with such a storm is that at the very least the snowlords will not have a cohort of ice beasts with them. Such bad weather is quite deadly to the ice beasts as well, it seems. It is a reason that multiple snowlords never move together. Without their hordes they are simple shooting practice for the commander. That means that from now on it should purely my work from now on.

Well, I have been dreading this particular step of the process since the moment that I decided that I am going to be making use of a nurturing formation and that would be the process of digging into the ground. Anywhere else there would be entire teams to whom I would have given the task to, but the soldiers are already overworked and even if I wanted to give it to them, honestly it is better I do it on my own. That still does not change the fact that I absolutely detest the hard labour that I am about to do. One of the sad realities of being a formation mage is that we are not exactly the most physically fit.

To explain myself better, one of the conditions that need to be satisfied before I can activate this particular formation is that it needs to be placed in the ground. After all there would not be much reason for nurturing the plant if it did not have the area to spread its roots, now would it. The druids make it a clear requirement by introducing certain runes that do not activate until it comes in contact to the ground.

Well, if I knew exactly which runes were responsible for this particular effect, maybe I could have modified the formation to remove this requirement. I have memorised the runes without much understanding of the runes themselves. Anyway, that might have led to problems that I might not have expected anyways. Messing with already inscribed formations is like playing around with a pack of cards. You never know what could you get.

Regardless, it is for this reason that I am standing in the cellar with a pick that I have borrowed from shamon. It is the kind that is used in construction, strong enough to break through the floor into the ground below it and not break due to a particularly strong swing of mine. It should be enough to dig a decently sized pit in the room.

Thinking this I begin to swing the pick with all of my might right into the location that shamon had indicated and I feel the pick pass through the floor, but not an inch beyond that. The land of this region is supposed to be hard enough to rival iron during the winter. My formation certainly must not be helping in that regard. On hindsight, I should have begun digging before I put in the last formations. It would have been worth it if it made my work a fraction easier.

Well this is a bit embarrassing. Granted that I had not used mana, this is not the feats of strength that I would want to show to my soldiers. After all, this entire structure should be built by a group much like the soldiers of this area and they must have dug the ground quite the bit for the foundations. I would have assumed my brute strength to be enough.

Well, I raise the pick with all my strength and make it hit the exact same location, with the ground breaking a bit more. It is not much and I can already feel a dull throb in my arms. This is not going to be pleasant. Thinking this, I begin to cycle my mana into my arms. Let's get this done quickly.

Thinking this I get down to work feeling the ground give away under my mana empowered strikes. After almost an hour and with quite a significant chunk of my mana used I have finally managed to dig a decently sized hole in the ground. I can feel a dull throb in my arms, even after strengthening with mana which showed just how much of a challenge this is. now I have to wonder what is exactly the strength of the construction corps of the empire, if they have built the fort in a week.

To get back to the topic, the hole is smaller than I would have liked but it will have to do for now. Picking up the formation core I throw it into the ground as my mana strings enter into the class eight formation. The mana strings flow smoothly throughout the formation without any obstruction especially into the runes of the class eight formation. If I were to try that with the entire thing out of the ground, my mana strings would have simply not been able to link with the class eight formation.

With that confirmation I feel the entire thing, feeling the walls vibrate in this tune that was not a tune. I wonder if I should be feeling a sense of success or relief, though I have to admit that I am feeling nothing at the moment. It won't take me long before I start wondering what could go wrong with the formation and if there are any tweaks that I should be doing.

Knowing me, without anything to do waiting for the enemy to strike is going to be even more exhausting and worry inducing than building the formation. At least with the formation my mind was not idle. If anything it has been the opposite with this project. Well, let's try and rest at the very least, though it is easier said than done.

After all, I will have to be at my maximum freshness before I go and get my formation active. Using any new formation is not supposed to be particularly easy and I do not think that I am going to get much opportunity to practice. It would not be a particularly terrifying first impression if I were to miss the enemy by leagues, now would it.