I have to admit that at the moment I feel bored enough that I think that I might just end up willingly practice mind magic. Other than this profound boredom the only thing that I feel is profound bone chilling cold. Honestly, this cold is better than how it was just ten hour ago. Then I could feel nothing other than a weird sense of warmth. That is how cold my body has gotten that it overloaded my ability to feel cold. I had to be carried down here as my body tried to push away the foreign ice mana on instinct. I went unconscious too. Even now I can't move my body as I would like to.

The move used on me be by the giant turned out to be one of the favourite method of attacks for a snowlords. Called as the "snowlord's hammer" by the soldiers. The move is supposed to be a favourite sieging technique of the snowlords who use it to bring down enemy forts.

The mechanics of the spell are also quite fascinating. It is literally a massive amount of ice mana compressed and released in a single burst. It is kind of like my ring of dew in that regard, though they are certainly been more effective with this tactic. That is only because they have more raw mana to throw around. They also had the ability to compress it absurd degrees. They also had a method of storing that compressed mana. Ok their spell is infinitely better than mine.

As for from where I got this information, that would be shamon who suddenly seemed to be more chatty about the snowlords than even before we had to face them, when it would have been actually useful. He did not want to cloud my mind with legends which might have been true or not though it is quite evident that he simply forgot about it.

I do not want to even think about shamon at the moment, as I cannot even vent my frustrations. Frustration is the absolute worst feeling to have when you are not able to move any of your limbs. It is thankful that is the case as I am not able to strangle the man, which would certainly have done me any good. The snowwinders protect their own. Still, This information would have been quite useful you know. I would have activated the formation much earlier and stopped playing around like that. I did not even really need to be near the enemy. The nice thing about the rings of dew is that it can be set up from nearly anywhere in the fort.

As for where I am sleeping at the moment, it would be the formation core. Once the formation core has fully activated the concentration of the ice mana in the room is negligible. Anywhere else, I would have been a popsicle with the amount of ice mana that has entered into my body.

Even here it is taking too much time if I am to be honest. Thankfully, the snowlords have retreated. The giant and the female snowlord have disappeared. This is not before wrecking a massive chunk of my fort though.

At the moment I would have been worried about another attack from the snowlords if shamon had not come down here assuring me of reinforcements. He also told me that they actually managed to kill the male snowlord.

The man has the expression that is not exactly happiness. I would call it closer to relief, but the man certainly has a spring in his step. He has been relieved of what I have to assume has been quite a stressful position.

I have yet to meet these reinforcements but they seem to be first circle experts based of the mana that I can sense and thankfully they have been quite busy. They are rebuilding the fort, though just how much of a progress they would make before the next attack I am not sure. The fort has essentially been leveled by the enemies attack. Massive chunks of the wall have been broken as they lie fallen on the ground and the lesser that I speak about the destruction to the fort itself the better.

Well, at the moment they are the least of my concerns though. My world is at the moment stuck to the formation core and the room it is in, which is pretty boring I must admit. The only person in the room other than me is the man who lost his limb, whose name I cannot remember.

His situation is about as bad as me, if not quite the bit worse. The man has had to face the full brunt of the chill, which must certainly have not been easy. I am surprised that the man has managed to cling on to life till now.

Ever since I have been put down here, the man has been sleeping and has begun to resemble a corpse if not for the fact that I could see his mana which is also not particularly strong. The worst thing is that he does not seem to be getting better even with the activation of the formation and being placed in the formation core.

Well, that certainly does not help with the formation. The only good thing that can be said is that I have finally been given the time to relax my mind. I have been quite occupied in my thoughts. Just sitting in a single location certainly has calmed my mind by a significant bit though calling this relaxing would be very wrong. It would be quite accurate to call it mind numbing.

(After God knows how long.)

I don't actually know how long I have been down here, but I can finally move my limbs. It is still nothing to boast about, just jerky spasms that is closer to shivering than actual movment. Still it gives me something to do other than just stare around at the stuff around me.

More importantly, I have regained my ability to speak which is going to be quite crucial especially with the construction up there. Now they can come down here and ask me rather than poking around in stuff that they should not be messing with. Also, I am finally able to push the ice mana out of my body with meditation which should accelerate this process by quite a bit.

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Other than that, little has changed in the room other than the soldier who has woken up a while ago. Somehow, the atmosphere has become more tragic with his awakening. Thankfully, he has returned to his sleep just a bit ago.

Well, at the moment one of the new sources of mana is coming down here. I do not know who it is, but I will certainly need to keep my game face on. (Especially with the way that I must look at the moment.).

The source of mana is a young soldier, much like me. He is at the moment being directed by shamon, who leaves the room almost as quickly as he enters it. The only thing that I find of interest with the man is the fact that he is wearing a coat, which seems to be some kind of an animal leather. (To those not of the region, while animal fur is quite common the process of tanning it to leather seems to be quite an expensive endeavor up here. Thus it is something meant only for the nobles.)

"I would presume that you are captain antonio, of the black mountain.", the man spoke first bending down to match my eyeline. He certainly looks quite ordinary. You can hear the arrogance in his tone though. This is a man that thinks quite heavily of himself.

"That would be the truth, my friend. Though I do not think that I know your name.", I reply.

"I am captain ankon starfall, of the snowwind army", he speaks, he doesn't like to be called my friend. "specifically, of the construction corps."

"That is nice, though I would have to enquire you of your exact purpose. I am not in a state of greeting you, I fear.", I speak.

"Well, I have to intrude on your healing. It relates to the repair of the fort above. We have not worked with formations like yours and thus have no desire to cause any uneeded harm to it." He speaks, finally sitting down next to me.

"Well, the formation that I have put into the core behind me are quite flexible. Complete your repairs to the fort and I will do all the necessary repairs to the formation down here. I will have to ask for a couple of days though since I need to recover from my present state." I reply, trying to maintain a fine balance between telling what the man needs to know and what I do not want to give to him. I have to assume that I am doing a good job though. At least this one cannot crush me with his presence.

"The chances of the snowlords attacking are quite high, antonio. It would be wise to return to a combat ready state as quickly as possible.", he speaks. The lack of honorifics is a clear attempt to prove his strength.

"Well, it is a job that requires precision, Ankon. Clearly, I am not in a state to do precise work. I have fought them and certainly hold no desire to fight them again. Anyways, I would think that it would take you at least a couple of days to get the fort in a working order.", I speak, kind of getting tired of the conversation.

"Two days is too long, we need maybe half a day. The snowlords while quite destructive have been quite kind in leaving behind a skeleton for us to work on. It won't be as strong though as we have only patched up the broken parts. That is where your formations will play a key role.", Ankon continues. "So we will have need of your skills in at least a day."

"Well, that is certainly astounding but you need not worry. The key formations will work as they are meant to even if the fort has been burnt to the ground. As for the remaining they shall not provide you with benefits in such a short time so restoring them immediately is kind of useless.", I reply, "the formations will be ready the day that I am able to move my mana freely enough. I assume that to be two days. It could be earlier too."

That seems to catch the man offguard. Well, druidic formations are unique that way. Most formations have to depend quite heavily on the durability of their forts to function properly. druids rarely do tend to have forts and certain flexibility is required when your buildings are literally growing with you.

"Well, is there any chance of completing it earlier. It would be quite helpful in case of an attack.", he tries again. He certainly seems to be in a hurry.

"I could try, but with the way you are distracting me it would be quite hard. Your people must not have much better experience with what I am going through. Formation magic is not something that can be done half heartedly. The result of rushing this work can be disastrous." I reply.

"I shall take my leave then. You will have to complete the formations quickly though." He speaks to me, getting ready to leave.

"Well, before you leave I have ask you, just how many soldiers has your army sent to reinforce us", I ask, almost forgetting a question that has been nagging me for a while.

"That would only be three. Me and two other captains from the sword corps", he replies. "We are all soldiers of the first circle so we should be enough to deal with the enemies. Especially if your formations work as the soldiers claim them to work."

"You three are going to repair the damage that has happened above.", I speak, surprise in my tone. The fort above should almost be a ruin.

"No, Antonio, the repair work will be handled by me alone. After all, the other two are more likely to destroy the fort if they were to join the process of repairing it." He replies, a smile evident in his face as he leaves the room.