The problem with a building constructed in a hurry is that the things that one can take for granted in the case of other buildings are completely absent here. An environmental formation (which is vital in this frigid hellscape.) is the thing that is about to affect us the most. There is a significant worry about the weather and how it will affect the soldiers. The snowwinders can survive in weather like this but to fight in this weather is going to be hard unless I do something.

The one thing that everybody forgets about this place is that it is not the enemy that is our main threat but the environment. After all, it is more likely that a person is going to freeze to death than fight an enemy. That means that the main threat that seems to affect those in these forts is the cold.

You can think of our present situation like us sitting in an ocean of ice mana. Our life mana is like a boat in this ocean, protecting us from the worst of it. The soldiers are essentially a flimsy plank that might not even survive a single trip here and I am much closer to the fisherman's boat, capable of surviving easily if things are calm, but I am equally likely to drown here once things get a bit chaotic.

that is why this place is such an annoyance to handle and why this fort seems like a stupid idea. That is why these soldiers have to wear coats inscribed with formations to isolate them from the ice mana outside. Well, calling them formations would be wrong. I would say it is better to call them runes painted onto those coats. They certainly won't be able to fight in those coats.

While these soldiers are presently in a very crappy situation, I have something more important that I need to focus on.

Shamon has been spending the last week trying to manage this problem as well as he can. He also seems to be succeeding at it. so I am sure that he can do that for a week or more. I will have a solution in place soon enough, after which shamon can focus on more combat worthy matters.

As for my main focus. It is to make sure that I don't bring the fort down because I had to fight in it at my full strengt

This situation will grow a bit better once the formation base is setup. After all, the formation base of the formation I am building will work to at least push out the frigid mana that is freezing us to death. It won't have the effectiveness of a environmental formation, mind you but it will still have a certain affect. I think it should at the very least reduce the dependece the soldiers have on their coats.

To those that do not know of the formation base, it is time for me to give a basic explanation on a formation. There are quite a few components to a formation but the most basic of this is the formation base, which handles the flow of mana into the formation.

The formation base is usually the most complicated part of the formation and acts as the base for the remaining part of the formation. It is also the first part of the formation to be built whenever we begin our work. It is the part of the formation that deals with the storage, manipulation and management of the mana that the formation uses.

That is why I need the elemental nodes in the first place. The formation base of the formation that I am planning to build needs a stream of three mana nodes, one of the metal element, one of the water element, and one of the earth element. These are basically the elements that the copper bark tree has. It also needs them to grow.

You see that is the fascinating thing about druidic trees. Most of them are able to grow even from a single twig as long as you are able to plant it in ground where mana of the elements that they need exist. The inscriptions that you build into the tree will also be able to grow and strengthen over time. The only problem to this is the fact that this process can sometimes take centuries.

That is one of the reasons that the druids fell in the first place. When it takes you a few decades to build a forward base, a battle of attrition is something that you have to avoid. The legion is if anything else, the master of a battle of attrition.

Anyway, getting back to more relevant matters. I need a few elemental nodes to make the formation base and start my work. Now, the process of capturing elemental nodes is also something that is very fascinating. Normally, non druids have to construct massive formations to redirect the elemental nodes at all. These formations tend to be massive, some of them even reaching class eight and still there is no guarantee if the elemental node will go in the direction that you want it to go to.

The druids make use of a simpler and much more non destructive method of this. They do this by essentially telling the stream the direction in which it has to flow. Naturally, what I am saying is an over simplification but at its core that is what we are doing. A complicated set of mana manipulation (external mana manipulation is like trying to make ice flow like water.) is involved in the process, but I am sure that I will be able to make any elemental node that is in the surrounding fifty kilometers to flow towards the fort.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

An actual master of this technique will be able to do the same thing from thousands of kilometers as well. At least, that is what I have seen my master do.

Well, all of that will be done when I actually find a node. Until now I have visited five mines and I have not found even the trace of an elemental node. Normally, you are able to feel a small part of the node even if the entire thing has been distrupted. It is almost like somebody was here clearing the entire thing away.

I have never seen a case where the elemental node disappears without even leaving a trace. I would have to assume that it has something to do with being this close to the northern wastelands. After all, I have heard that a mana desert can do weird things to mana.

Even then things are going okay. After all, there are still almost more than fifty mines here that I will be able to make use of. The only thing that is a pain would be the fact that I have to physically crawl in these tunnels. That means that I am trudging in tunnels that the dwarves would consider a tight fit, and in which I can barely crawl through to reach the point where I can detect whether the place has an elemental node or not.

Now the funny thing is that the druids crafted their methods of redirecting elemental nodes to be as non-invasive as possible. It means that I do not actually need to be in the dwarves mines to actually do this. I just need to do this when I am on the ground right over the mine and it would be fine.

The only problem in all of this is the fact that right now up on the ground there is a storm that will most likely tear me into pieces. Reaching here would literally kill me. It is one of the legendary snowstorms of this place. The only reason that I am still safe is due to the fact that that I am presently in the dwarves caves physically crawling to get where I need to go.

All of the dwarven tunnels are interconnected to each other. After all, knowing the dwarves they must be even more fragile than me. There is no way that they are braving the storm that is happening up above.

Even down here I can feel the violent changes in the ice mana occuring. They hit me sometimes like waves in the beach. I can feel the ice mana wash over me, trying to drown and freeze me but my vital mana is strong enough to shrug it of. Still feels like I am becoming a block of ice though.

Right now I cannot help but wonder whether this storm will be able to destroy our fort. Shamon seemed to be more than confident that the fort will be bruised up but it won't be destroyed in any meaningful way. Looking at the storm though, I am really struggling to believe those words.

Regardless, I have taken the man's word for it now since I do not have any actual method of protecting the fort even if it was being destroyed. The formations are the only thing that I have at hand.

Anyway, this is the reason that I have ended up in my present position. Crawling around in dwarven tunnels trying to keep myself warm and failing to.

Normally, this is not a task that I would be doing personally. I cannot exactly send the soldiers in here. Firstly all of them are required above and while revealing such small secrets won't cause me much problem, I have no desire to antagonize the head office more than necessary. The head office can be pretty petty if they decide that you are their enemies. You can already see me in my present case and I have no real enmity with the head office.

Secondly, this place would certainly leave a lot of the soldiers, most of whom do not have any cultivation freezing down here. Ultimately, the best way to do this would be to do this personally. To physically crawl into these tunnels and find the elemental node.

Part of the issue is with my clothing as well. I have after all not taken any of the coats that the soldiers are using to protect their vital mana. At the time, it seemed like the smarter choice. After all each of those coats is so bulky that each person wearing those coats looks more like a ball. Better to make use of my vital mana to resist the cold and be more combat ready was my thought process. I just did not expect down here to be even more colder than up there.

Well, It does not help me to imagine the weather up there. It is not like I will be going there any time soon. Until I do so I think it is wise to focus on the task at hand. Right now I am in a mine which the dwarves have built to extract an ore that they are calling “blue mithril”. I think it is meant to represent mithril that sides towards the water element. Any water based formation inscribed on a weapon made from this will be able to show more strength compared to other formations.

My assumption is that this might lead to a elemental node of either the water element or the metal element. If I am really lucky it could be a elemental node of both the elements, though it is rare for such type of elemental nodes to coexist.

That means that I am left with a lot of crawling and cursing and shivering, none of which I have the desire to record so I will be taking my leave here. A dwarves mines might look small on a map but they tend to be literal mazes I tell you.

On top of that, you can't be sure of the actual location of the node too. It will most likely be found in the region which has the highest concentration of the ore or you could find it right at the entrance of the mine. That means that I have to check out every inch of this place to make sure no elemental node exists in the mine.

Fuck, just thinking about the amount of crawling left is beginning to make me feel claustrophobic. Screw it, I will continue this log when I have finally found an elemental node.