I seriously wonder why I have such bad luck. This mission wasn't supposed to be going like this. I am supposed to be at the frozen peak. I am supposed to be in a comfortable room, trying to build useless formations for the snowwinders. (Well, they wouldn't be able to tell.)

  I am not supposed to be out here in the frozen wastelands. I am not supposed to be creating such a powerful formation while being hounded by enemies like this. This was fucking supposed to be the easiest mission they had at hand. Something that is meant for newcomers like me. Before I keep complaining I guess that should explain what exactly is happening here.

  We are facing a siege right now. There is a force of at least three troops that has camped out there. Well, it could be even more as well. Shamon is not sure of their numbers, only that they are more than they seem.

  The creatures have a pretty similar strategy to the three troops that came before them. They have also camped out in the wastelands, only this time they have built two tunnel systems. One to our north and the other two out west. So we won't be able to destroy their base like we have done the last time.

  They are also not passively waiting to be a sword to our throats. Instead, these damn creatures are attacking the walls. How the ice beasts attack the fort is pretty surprising. At the very least it is not something that I would expect out of dumb beasts like these to be capable of. I will admit that this is not the best strategy to employ at this moment, but it is a strategy nonetheless.

  They are presently systematically testing the walls of the fort for any weaknesses. They are doing this by attacking the fort in waves. Groups of five icebeasts attack the fort at various random locations. Most of these attacks are stopped by the soldiers on patrol. It is not even too hard, as the creatures tend to retreat immediately after the patrol begins to fight them seriously. Almost as if they are conserving their forces for a big attack.

  If the patrol gets injured while fighting one such wave, the creatures will focus their attacks on that location. They will strike in waves of ten at the location then. Most of the time, Shamon manages to send reinforcements to the targetted area. Until then the patrolling soldiers have to manage the fight.

  Thankfully I have Shamon with me here to manage the logistics of all of this. Without the man managing everything I would have not gotten any work done.

  Speaking of work, I finally managed to complete the water spear yesterday. I have had to work with both the chill and the threat that the enemy troop leaders can attack any day now but I finally did get it done.

  I feel wiped out and exhausted from inscribing the spell. It feels like have been running a marathon for the last couple of weeks. That is why I am forcing myself to rest. I could do more work but that will do more harm than good at this point.

  Honestly, things are good, the only problem is that I have yet to use the water spear. The problem with the water spear is that it is only really useful against strong enemies. It is too costly to use against a large number of weak enemies.

  That means that I haven't had anything to keep me busy until now. I can't get rid of the chill because I have to be ready for when the troop leader finally attacks. I am just sitting in the formation room, waiting for the troop leaders to attack. I have also been trying to get rid of the chill.

  I am not able to get rid of the chill. You can say that I am stopping it from getting worse. The only way to get rid of the chill is to get rid of the ice mana causing it.

  The only way to get rid of any foreign mana is to use your vital mana to push it out of yourself. That would require me to meditate, which would cut me off from the world.

  With the troop leaders already in our neighborhood, I need to be able to react the instant that they attack us. I have to be ready for anything we can throw at them.

  That means that I have to force myself to sit and do nothing while waiting for the enemy to do something. I have to do this while my bones feel like a block of ice. It is very frustrating.

  The injured soldiers down here with me are also not helping. Five soldiers are presently isolated to the formation core because even they have been affected by the chill. These are the soldiers that have been getting injured in their fight with the ice beasts.

  The reason that they are at the formation core is because the core can displace the ice mana in the room to a certain degree. It is not much but it is enough to help out these soldiers. The only better option that they have is to go to the frozen peak. (It is the only place that would have a lower concentration of ice mana.) but right now that is unfeasible.

  On top of that, the location that I have picked to keep my formation core is a storehouse in the basement.

  One reason is that this is a druidic formation. It would be best to keep it under the ground. The other is because it is very easy to guard. Having them recover here ensures the safety of the soldiers too.

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  These soldiers will be staying in here with me until they manage to get rid of the chill. Unlike me who can actively control his vital mana, the only option the soldiers have is to passively expel the ice mana. It is a very slow process and the only thing we can do to help is to keep them as far from ice mana as possible.

  The chill is like a leaking boat. There is a constant inflow of ice mana from the world outside that has to be removed as well. That is why everybody suffering from the chill had to reside in the formation room.

  Even right now the only thing that can be done to help them is to cover them in coats and place them near the formation core.

  The only thing that I can think of that would reduce ice mana further is that I can inscribe the final class eight spell into the formation. Once I do that, the concentration of ice mana in this place will reduce drastically.

  The soldier's chill is not as intense as mine. I would say the ice mana that they have is about a thousandth of mine. Right now their chill is equivalent to a bad cold.

  The only risk that they are facing is that this chill could get even worse. It could happen naturally due to the flow of ice mana from the outside. It could happen due to an attack from the enemy. That is why these soldiers are not fighting now.

  Otherwise, the soldiers are pretty fine. Most of them are sleeping simply out of boredom. Even though these soldiers have a fraction of the ice mana that I have, it will take them longer to get rid of it.

  I just wish that I could meditate right now. If only the creatures gave me a week or so. The iron skin is no miracle worker. It might be able to survive quite a few attacks from the enemy. If four or five troop leaders were attacking it simultaneously I am certain that they will bring down the entire thing quite easily. (This is a very untested formation. It would be wise to assume the worst.) If I had a couple of months for the iron skin to set in properly things would be quite different. I could have meditated freely while the creatures battered their skull against the walls.

  Yeah, I guess I should mention that we do not know how many enemy troop leaders there are. Shamon is sure that at least three troops and at most six troops are attacking us. Any more than that and it is beyond our scope of handling it. The frozen peak will have to get involved.

  It is not like I am worrying too much about commanding the people. All of that has been Shamon. Shamon has been quite exemplary in the management of the troop. He has a very clear idea on the battlefield, sending troops to reinforce vulnerable spots. If any attack does happen, he manages to send reinforcements in a couple of minutes at most.

  The man has managed to set up a system in which the soldiers split their day into three tasks. One-third will manage the task of patrolling and the task of sending commands from Shamon to the rest of the group. The next one-third will rest but will have to be ready to be called in as reinforcement when commanded to and the last one-third will have to sleep and rest.

  The soldiers are maintaining these schedules quite perfectly as well. I wonder what type of training these soldiers had to go through to achieve such discipline. It is pretty rare to find such disciplined soldiers.

  Even with this, the soldiers are not getting much rest. The intensity of the attacks on the icebeasts has certainly kept on growing. Before they used to attempt their probe once every hour. Now they are doing it once every forty-five minutes. It is just going to get worse.

  As for what I have been doing in all of this while, I have been waiting for the troop leader to attack while purging the ice mana in my body. It is not as effective as meditating but it is better than doing nothing. It at least lets me control the most insidious parts of the chill.

  The chill is pretty scary if I am honest. You can say that you are being frozen from the inside out. I can imagine my muscles and my bones being frozen as I speak, so slowly that it is not registering on my senses. It feels like something is crawling inside of me. Most of it must be my imagination but still, it is not a very comfortable sense.

  I would have spent all of my time meditating if it were not for the damn creatures out there waiting to attack the fort at any moment. By the way, I have confirmed this from Shamon but there shouldn't have been so many troops attacking us this quickly.

  The snowlords don't like to keep too many of their troops in one place for obvious reasons. This early in the winter, Shamon claims that there should have been one or two troops here. The yearly hunt hasn't even begun and the snowlords don't tend to become this active unless the hunt has started.

  This means that the snowlords are focusing on me for some reason. It couldn't have been due to anything that I have been doing. I have after all not even some anything right now. The only thing that I could have done that is different from what is happening at the other forts is my formation. I refuse to believe that the snowbirds have enough experience with formations to be able to tell what I am trying to make here.

  I believe that there could be three reasons that they are targeting us. Though none of them make much sense.

  The first reason could be that they are planning to attack the ruin where the scholars are. If that was their plan, attacking this fort would have cut off any communication to the frozen peak. I don't think it is likely. The Snowlords have never shown much interest in ruins. While they have attacked the place quite a few times, it was only when the Snowwinders were there. Right now there are at most ten Snowwinders there.

  The second reason could be the formation. They are attacking us because they fear the strength of the formation. As I have mentioned before this is also unlikely. I am sure that this formation is head and shoulders above the other formations built here but the snowlords cannot tell that. I haven't even used the formation once.

  The third and the least unlikely is that the creatures have found out my identity. With how careful I am being, I have not let anything about me leak out. (I haven't mentioned about my identity in the logs.) the only way then that the snowlords would learn of me is from the snowwinders. The snowwinders would not have been that stupid, right?

  Anyways, this is the least likely because if they knew about me they would have responded with even more force. Frankly, I would not be surprised if one of the snowlords personally came to get rid of me.

  Well, I am only wasting my time trying to guess the enemy's intentions. I simply do not have enough information to tell anything. Well, I am shutting this log down then. I will record when the troop leader finally ends up attacking us.