Right now I am sitting in the commanders office. His room reminds me of Trevor's room. A table and two chairs, with nothing else in the room. Well, there is a map behind the chair I am sitting in. The room is pretty depressing with not even one window in the place. It would be an assassin's nightmare too.

As Trevor has expected I was summoned into his office soon enough. Well, soon enough is a bit wrong. I was summoned after almost a couple of hours. In that gap of two hours trevor described to me about the snowlords and the methods that are employed by the snowwinders to fight them. Most of what the man knows come from records that I am not supposed to have access to.

I am mentioning this here in case the head office is wondering. Can't have their imagination becoming active now. Now that bit of declaration is out of the way it is time for me to talk about the hexmountain treaty.

The hexmountain treaty is one of the founding stones of the black mountain. The treaty at it's core is quite simple.

No force in the continent except those affiliated to the scholars are allowed to conduct any research into magical ruins. This research is naturally not done for free. In return for access to magical ruins the black mountain will grant favours to the power that keeps the ruin in their control.

Most of the time these favours take the form of magical spells and knowledge that might solve a problem to these local powers. Sometimes though, in times of war we have to get involved in their war too providing aid where it is possible. We do this only for allies that are particularly important to us only though.

That is another reason that scholars are not safe. After all, if the enemy manages to get rid of the scholars then the black mountain will not need to get involved in a fight.

Well, my perspective of this treaty actually comes from the legion rather than the guard corps. The legion is one of the many enforcers of the treaty whose job it is to ensure that no non scholar party will mess with magical ruins.

The legion actually does not need to do much work on this. Most people that mess with magical ruins end up falling victim to the exact same ruin. The work of the legion then becomes to clean up bodies. They do have more sinister tasks to fill their days though.

Anyway, I have deviated from the topic enough. At the moment, due to the hexmountain treaty the black mountain owes a favour to the snowwind empire.

As the representative of the black mountain presently stationed here, the person that has to accept any request will have to be me.

Normally, with the power of a normal captain such a favour would be worthless. After all, I am sure that just this fort has at least a thousand beings at my level of power.

Instead, it is my status as a formation mage that is more useful to the snowwinders. Even after not seeing a snowlord, I can tell that they can be defeated with the right combination of formations. Anything can be, to be frank.

Naturally, working with formations would mean that I have to stay back at the frozen peak while the soldiers have to go with the scholars to the ruin.

As the captain of this mission, that is not a state that I can enjoy being in. At least, Trevor has assured me that I won't be in trouble with the head office at the very least.

The snowwinders are not a folk that like to mess with the scholars. They like to screw with the guards, but they rarely mess with the scholars. That is true to a degree in most parts of the continent. Still, the snowwind empire is abnormally careful with the scholars.

Even after the seven temples incident, the snowwind empire had returned the surviving scholars without causing any incident. Any other force would have executed them.

So yeah, I at the very least need not worry about the scholars too much. I only have to worry about myself right now.

(After almost a hour.)

I have sat in this room for about an hour, waiting for the commander. The commander appears in my mana sense like a ghost.

His appearance into my mana sense is more like him declaring his presence than me sensing it on my own.

Well, I get up quickly to greet the man. The snowwinders are the ultimate sticklers for rules and for perceived slights on their honour. The commander still can be considered to be one of the more reasonable ones. It is the nobles that are the true nightmares, I have heard. Not that I have gotten to meet them yet.

Anyway, the door opened a couple moments ago as I bow to the man. There are a couple more steps to this pretty complicated greeting before which I am interrupted.

"You really should focus more, kid. Such a sloppy greeting would be considered an insult. Better to act arrogant than do such a sloppy greeting. It would insult them less.", he speaks. "Anyway, we are too busy to waste our time on this. I am sure that you know why you have been summoned here."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Well, it would be wrong to say that I have a concrete idea. All I can tell you is that it has something to do with the hexmountain treaty, commander", I reply.

"Well, you would be partially correct. I am going to be cashing in my favor acquired through the hexmountain treaty but that comes for later.", he speaks. "Instead right now, it is your skill as a formation mage that I require at this moment."

For a second, I wonder how this man knows that. He replies a few seconds later.

"I was in the group that presented the very ship in which you have come here my friend. I know that the ship was supposed to fail in a couple of years. It certainly was not meant to survive the trip that you have taken on it."

"Still, it could have been luck.", I reply, pushing my luck a bit.

"Well, we can go round and round having this argument. As I have mentioned already, time is quite short. Let's just assume that you are a formation mage.", he replies. "Now, if you would be kind enough to go to the map behind you."

As he speaks that I can see the map behind me light up. I cannot feel any fluctuations in the mana. This more than anything else causes a chill in my spine. Not many things have the ability to escape my mana sense.

Forcing myself, I look at the map in front of me. It is presently glowing in two colors. One side is green and the other side is red.

The red I have to assume is the territory of the snowwinders and the green the territory of the snowlords. If that is the case, the snowwinders have quite the bit to worry about. Almost two thirds of the map is green.

"Well, the map you see in front of you is a record of just how deep the snowlords actually penetrated our territory in the last season.", speaks the commander. "As you can see, we have not been particularly successful in holding back the snowlords. The strategies that we have been using until now have been a failure."

The commander gets up from his chair walking to the map.

"Well, the reason that I have showed you this map in the first place is simply to explain our present situation.", the commander speaks. "With the way that things are going, it is clear that we need a new strategy."

"I don't understand why you are saying this to me.", I reply. "It is not like I have experience related to this."

"Well, the reason that I am telling this to you is to give me a perspective related to a question that I have.", he speaks. "You see, one of the ideas I have rolling around in my head is a formation wall in this area roughly."

As he speaks a line appears in the map cutting the map in two parts. If the map is scaled correctly, that would be a massive problem.

"Commander, building such a massive formation wall will be quite impossible for you, If I have to put it frankly.", I reply. "The formation walls that you see at the bone pits or at the rhune kingdom are the work of generations of formation mages. Each section of that wall is class four or five at the very least. Only these formations will be large enough to even cover the entirety of the wall. It is wise not to build such a thing in the midst of an active battlefield. Making a mistake with a class five formation will be disastrous."

"Well, wasn't the wall at the bone pit created after the undead calamity?", replies the commander.

"That is true, but they did it that way because they had no option and even then they had to do it in sections.", I reply. "the undead from the bone pits by then were dumb and stupid creatures. They did not actively mess with the walls construction. Do you think that your enemies will grant such a leeway to you."

"Well, they certainly won't. The snowlords realise the threat that they would face if they were to allow us to build any more forts here.", speaks the commander.

"Well, you can attempt a fort chain captain." I reply. "Rather than try to build a formation wall directly, you can try to build it in three phases. First you build a set of forts, acting as nodes for your wall."

"Well, do you think that building a fort in the middle of an active battlefield is any easier?", replies the commander.

"I would assume that it would still be easier than building a formation wall. It is your field of experience, commander if what I have learnt from the records are true", I reply.

"Well, that is true. Continue your explanation.", he replies.

"Well, as for the second step that would be building walls in segments, connecting one fort to the other.", I reply. "The last step would be to connect these formations together to form a chain."

"A formation chain. Aren't they supposed to be very weak.", asks the commander.

"Compared to a traditional formation, a chain is much weaker. But a well made formation chain will be able to show atleast three quarters of strength in half the resources.", I reply. "It also will put less requirements on the capabilities of your formation mages."

"Well, suppose that I were to follow this strategy, how many forts would I need and what are the challenges we will be facing?", he asks.

"Well, I will start with the latter question. What I know about fort chains is purely theoretical. Firstly, the hardest phase will be the first phase. Multiple forts will have to be constructed and formations will have to be built for each fort. These forts will have to be built at the same time." I speak.

"To split the attention of the enemy, I would assume.", he replies.

"That and there is a requirement on formations. A formation chain needs be built in the same time period.", I reply. "Overall, the wall will require much simpler formations. Class seven or class eight formations will be enough for each node.....

(After about a couple hours.)

I have spent the last couple of hours explaining to the man everything that I know about the fort chains. It is all the rage down south, to a point that even my master has been studying it. Finally, I have reached the end of my explanation.

I have spoken so much that my head is buzzing. We had ended up back at the table sometime in the middle of this discussion. Right now he is quietly pondering on the feasibility of this idea.

"You have given me much to consider, young captain.", he suddenly speaks. "I will have to ask that you return to the guest room. I shall speak to you in a few days."

"Commander, I would have to request that we be allowed out of our rooms? As you have mentioned about our ship, it is in need of extensive repairs.", I ask the man, taking a bit of a risk.

"Well, you will have to negotiate with the nobles on that. They have charge of your security." The commander replies and gestures me to go away.

Well, before he gets to enforce that command of his, I leave the room.