It does not take me long to reach the formation room. On entering the room, I do not find the soldiers that I had sent here. The only person here is Trevor. Before I can ask him about it though.

  "You really should be more careful kid.", Trevor speaks. "You had forgotten to set up a guard for the scholars. The bastards tend to notice stuff like that."

  Fuck, I had actually forgotten about them. My work is to escort these bastards.

  "Well, I am sure that it won't be too much of a problem. After all, they should be able to take care of themselves.", I reply, hoping that I don't sound too defensive, "even the weakest of them is five to six levels above me."

  "Maybe, but I would suggest that you think of them like phoenix eggs. Scholars are the type that does not like to be disturbed.", Trevor speaks. "If they are disturbed too much, then they will start to complain to the head office and right now you don't need that."

  "Fine, I will be a bit more careful next time.", I reply. "Where are the other two?"

  “Yeah, I have sent the two soldiers to the scholars.", he replies. “They will give some peace of mind to the scholars. The scholars are about as safe as they can be. I assume that the boarders are dealt with as well. What about the two ships behind us.“

  "Well, I will be able to tell only after linking to the sensory formation.", I speak.

  As he speaks, I connect to the sensory formations or what is left of it at least to look for the two ships behind us.

  “Well, those fuckers are still following us.“, I reply, feeling the annoyance grow in my tone. “What exactly do they think we are transporting that they are following us? We are not even a trade ship.“

  “Well, I have my thoughts regarding that. I shall not distract you by telling them now. Just focus on getting away from the two ships.“, he replies. “I shall be on hook duty. We can't have anymore boarders.“

  As he leaves I settle into a more comfortable position and monitor the two ships that are behind me. While the two ships are still following us, I think that they will never reach us. They can try and attack us from far away. Even if they manage to get a couple of hooks into the ship they will never manage to send enough people over. Before any person can board, Trevor will have removed those hooks.

  At the same time they won't dare to come close to us. After all, I have destroyed one of their ships so thoroughly that nobody would dare to call it a ship. They won't be getting close to us. Right now I am just waiting for the other side to realize that.

  Well, that leaves me with the issue of my introduction. It is supposed to be the very first thing that you are supposed to do when you go on your first mission. Already I am a month late with this. Even before my issues with the thought logger, I dreaded to introduce myself. The problem with that is due to the sensitive nature of my identity. I don't know how my master thought that this mission would be a good idea for me.

  Well, I can certainly introduce myself. My name is Antonio Sevenstars, of the black mountain. My master is the grand wolf of the formation corps. Beyond that, I don't think that I dare to describe myself.

  Just this bit of information might end up being too much. After all, the reputation of my master is everywhere on the continent. (Even in this remote corner of the continent there must be people that know him.) I guess I will be talking about these secrets soon enough if things go badly.

  I guess that I should begin with black mountain and the hexmountain. I am surprised at how many people get these two things confused together. The black mountain is the name of the organization that I work for and the hexmountain is the name of our home fort. The black mountain is the name of the organization and the hexmountain is the name of a place. I hope that is clear.

  If that is clear, let me focus on the people who I am supposed to escort. That would be the scholars. To speak of the scholars is to speak about the black mountain. The black mountain might not be the strongest force in the continent, but it is the most knowledgeable. We know nearly everything, be it magic or that dirty little secret with which a village chief can be threatened.

  To put it simply, the scholars work to collect information for the black mountain. By information, I mean everything from the history of a place to the more uncomfortable bits that I am better off not putting on my record. The scholars have been doing that since the black mountain set up base in the hexmountain.

  Let's just say that everything that the black mountain knows (which is a pretty significant amount.) comes from the scholars in some capacity. They are even trained for it in their weird ways. They say that if you were to leave a scholar without supervision in a city for a day, he would figure out the methods of invading it in that period. More importantly, the scholars are supposed to be the source of all the legendary magic that is used by the black mountain. Magic capable of crushing mountains, diverting rivers and building forts in a single day. All of these are supposed to be created or discovered by the scholars.

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  That is why the scholars are so important. You want to cripple the black mountain, all you need to do is to cripple the scholars. No, they don't even need to harm the scholars. They just need to disturb the scholars and prevent them from doing their work.

  That is why we are assigned to guard them, to do all the work that would have otherwise disturbed them. We also have to make sure that they are not wasting time. We also are supposed to reduce the interactions between scholars and outsiders. After all, you never know which scholar might reveal something. We are supposed to be their watchdogs too making sure that they remain within their boundaries.

  Well, I also have to state what exactly I am doing in this mission (that is half the purpose of an introduction). I have to escort the group of scholars to an old draconian ruin, that they call documented ruin number 32. Just the fact that they have a name for it means that this is not a magical ruin that is being visited for the first time. That means that things are going to be a bit easier for me since I will have an idea on the people that I will be dealing with. After all, when else would the logs of the people before help out.

  Right we will be going to a fort that is under the control of the snowwinders. A place that they call the frozen peak. It is supposed to northenmost fort that is under the control of the snowwind empire. From there the scholars will go to the ruin, while I will be doing what is needed of me.

  Other than the name there is little that I know about the ruin. Well, I might not even get to visit the place. There are treaties to follow and contracts to be fulfilled. I also have to stock up on a lot of materials if this ship has to make its way back to the hexmountain. I might even need to replace the entire thing. Now how much work that will take, I do not even dare to imagine.

  As I am recording this, the two ships behind me have started to slow down. It is almost like they want to keep following us but their mana stone reserves have finally begun to run out. As they slow down, I can finally stop focusing on them. My sight naturally drifts to the horizon (it is a blurry mess) which feels weirdly empty for me.

  This place is one of the rare locations from which the hex mountain is not visible on the horizon. Elsewhere in the continent, the hex mountain would stand there like a part of the horizon. Maybe not so imposing as being closer to it would be but, indeed, the hexmountain is always there in your sight. Well, I guess that is what happens when you make the largest mountain in the continent your base.

  Well, with the enemy ships slowing down I can finally stop the ship. Oh right, before that though I will have to record something else. It is a brief rundown of the reason that we have ended up in our present situation and the Seven Temples incident.

  Firstly, I will have to discuss the snowwind empire and our relations with them. The empire is one of the closest locations to the frozen wastelands. Being this close to a mana desert (especially this mana desert.), the place is quite inhospitable for most people. The snowwind empire is the only empire that has managed to claim this piece of land as its own.

  They managed to carve their territory in a pretty bloody war. My master says that the people here have earned every inch of their land with enough blood to flood that inch of land. In short, I have blabbered so much about them to explain that they are supposed to be hard people hostile to everybody.

  Now, since we are so far away from their lands, the black mountain has a pretty uneasy alliance with them. We might just be the closest thing they have to an ally. Now that would not be much of a problem in normal cases. While I am sure that the snowwinders might not be friendly with us, they would at the very least be neutral.

  That all has now changed with the Seven Temples incident. Well, if you want detailed information on that disaster of a mission you will have to access the corresponding logs. For those without the clearance, I will explain it in brief. The Snowwind empire has another draconian ruin under their control known as the Temple of the Seven Stars or the Seven Temples for short.

  Much like the ruin we are going to, the seven temples was a place that our scholars could access and study. Not going into too much detail, the seven temples have many formations that are supposed to be ancient. Activating them without caution will have very dangerous side effects.

  Let's just say that one of our scholars got very impatient and managed to blow up the seven temples. That would still not be much of a problem if it were not for the fact that the scholar in question was under the influence of the scholar's herbs. Do not waste your time by asking me what the herb is. All I know is that it boosts the functioning of your mind and that it has the side effect of making you look drunk.

  The scholars are supposed to be masters of creating different kinds of potions and herbs, all of which can produce some amazing effects. That is their secret though, one that they rarely share with even the other factions of the black mountain.

  Naturally, you can imagine what a drunk scholar messing with formations he shouldn't have will look like to the snowwinders. It is a wonder that they have allowed their scholars to this ruin too. I am sure that there is a lot of politics behind the scenes which I don't understand, but I know that the snowwinders need us at this moment. It is clear to even an outsider like me who has only studied these people from the records of the head office.

  I won't bore you with the politics I do understand, save to tell you that the place we are going to, the frozen peak has a lot of use for formation mages. That is why I have been sent. I am sure that I have been sent here to aid the snowwinders while the scholars do their work at the ruin. They are about to enter into a state of war and having a formation mage like me to help them out will certainly be helpful for them.

  Well, I am also about to be something of a hostage, I assure you. While I will be at the frozen peak, doing what is pretty important work for them they will kill me the instant that anything happens at the ruin. After all, executions are the best way to keep an angry mob happy. It will lead to a lot of chaos though and a certain fraying of diplomatic bonds between our organizations. So there is that as a consolation.

  Still, who can tell what will happen in a moment of emotion? These ruins also seem to hold a historic importance to these people. Well, overthinking about this is not going to lead to anything productive. By the way, the ships behind me finally have left the range of my detection.