Dungeon of Niflheim

"Do you know any war magic." Asked General Jessica with a hint of impatience, her eyes dancing across both the battlefield and her own soldiers, Frost was barely an afterthought.

"….Apologies General but I don't." Frost as though infected by the strong sense of duty and militarism present crossed his arm across his chest in salute and slightly bowed his head.

War magic was a collection of modified spells that utilised multiple mages and wizards rather than a single individual, much like a battle formation. The resulting spell would thus be several perhaps even ten times the size and strength of a regular spell of the same circle. Such magic played a massive part in this war, allowing even the standard mages to wound enemy officers as long as they pooled their mana together as one.

"Tsk practically useless then." Jessica loudly clicked her tongue, clearly disappointed with his answer.

Frost not being privy to even a single war magic spell meant that his uses within the magic corps atop the wall was rather limited. Unlike the defences at Furano that relied primarily on the individual along with a few simple group formations Icethorne was a purely military outfit, here, against such overwhelming enemies things needed to be different, a standard needed to be put in place.

"Flora take him to the battery platoon, if he can't effectively utilise his mana then we will." Jessica waved her hand ordering a nearby mage to take care of Frost before ignoring him completely.

"Follow me Major." Flora a middle aged human woman with striking purple hair led him away with quickened steps.

"Please don't misjudge the General, the amount of work placed upon her shoulders with this war is unimaginable. If you can't be used then she doesn't have the time to pander you." Flora quickly defended her General's actions but didn't deny Frost's uselessness to them.

The young Dungeon core struggled to keep a straight face, his upper lip desperately trying to twitch in protest but thinking more upon the situation he kept silent and followed after Flora.

"Ketta got a fresh high level battery for you." Even further to the rear Frost was brought before a large group of people with exhaustion clear in their eyes and varied forms. Some were young and naive, others were old and several were even injured or crippled, dregs would be an apt description for this group.

Ketta the one of charge was the only one with a focused and animated gaze.

"Fantastic I've got the perfect place lined up." Ketta stared at Frost like he was a prized commodity, a delicate feast which she needed to devour. He couldn't help but tremble while under her gaze.

"He's a complete noob so explain how things work first then put him straight to work." Flora didn't waste much time in handing over the liability.

"Tch fine Yo pretty boy perk up your ears because I'm only gonna say this once."

"It's Frost ma'am."

"Don't care." Ketta raised her chin and fished out some wax from her ear, she really didn't give two shits. Clearly his treatment in the magic corps was going to be a lot different from the Vanguard.

"Listen up you're here in the battery platoon to offer up your valuable mana which you're incapable of using effectively on your own. Whether that's because you're young and haven't had enough training like the brats sitting over there." She rudely gestured towards a group of young recruits lying flat on their backs as they desperately tried to recover their mana.

"Or you're too old to efficiently control magic crests or if you're seriously wounded to the point that you'd be a liability on the frontlines I don't care. The only thing that's important to me is the level of your mana reserves and how quickly you can regenerate it."

Frost's knowledge of 4th circle spells and talent with ice magic were unimportant, in Ketta's eyes he was nothing more than a living mana battery, albeit a handsome one but a battery nonetheless.

Frost had to fight the urge to lash out and teach this woman some manners but there was truth to her words, and this was not his territory but the domain of the War Ursa Battalion. He wanted to learn and appreciate their methods, so he had no choice but to do as ordered.

He reluctantly nodded his head showing that he knew and understood his current position which earned him a slight smile from the platoon leader Ketta.

"Alright newbie you're job for now is to act as a mana battery for team Gamma." Ketta pointed towards a large runic crest placed on the floor with the words Gamma at the forefront. "Sit in the runic circle and cycle your mana and for the love of the Dark God DON'T REJECT THE PULL!"

Frost did as ordered and sat in the centre of the runic circle alongside several other platoon members.

The moment he sat down in the circle he could feel that the ambient mana surrounding him had grown in volume and had become much easier to absorb and manipulate.

The key lay in both the runic circle and the high quality mana gathering artifacts by the wayside. This whole area was a veritable mana producing factory.

"Since you can't take part in the primary or secondary roles of our war magic you'll have to be a tertiary resource. Though the efficiency isn't that great you can provide an extra boost of mana despite knowing nothing about the spells, making you slightly better than useless hahahahaha." Ketta continued to explain before erupting in a fit of laughter.

"Let's see how much stamina my new battery has." With a flick of her finger she activated the runic circle connecting Frost and the others who sat in the formation to the Gamma team.

"Urgh!" Grunts and groans quickly escaped the lips of those seated as their mana was forcibly pulled from their bodies and transferred to the Gamma team who were preparing a 4th circle war magic.

"Hmm." Frost with his vast reserves and impressive control felt this pull and like Ketta stressed he didn't resist it. The sensation was weird perhaps even a little tingly, but he wasn't groaning like those sitting beside him. In fact his first thought was that such forceful absorption would make for great training.

With his mind shifting to the idea of becoming stronger he stopped being passive. Instead of allowing this formation to take his mana he generously offered and even pushed it out himself.

His actions caused a reaction in the runic circle, the markings glowed a brighter hue of blue and the invisible threads connecting it to the Gamma team became visible.

On the opposite side of the formation the Gamma team felt that the amount of mana being provided suddenly multiplied and in response their spell formed far quicker than expected and utlised far less of their own energy to do so, the entire team was delighted.

'Must be a new high ranking battery or perhaps even several. Hmph I knew it Ketta definitely has feelings for me if she's assigning such worthwhile goods to my team.' The Gamma team leader an average looking wolf beastman couldn't help but conjure such thoughts in his head.

Back at the battery platoon, however.

"God damn kid that's a lot of mana and this regeneration is off the charts hahahaha I owe the General a drink for sending me such a fine specimen hahahahaha. Keep going kid don't stop pumping, show me how much stamina a young lad like you has." Ketta was elated and strongly urged Frost to keep running at full speed in a somewhat suggestive manner.

Frost wasn't the first battery to strut his stuff in such a way, most high quality newbies did so but eventually they'd hit a wall and have to stop. The key was finding out their limit as soon as possible thus allowing her to better gauge how to assign them. Stay tuned with empire

Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately for her Frost showed no signs of slowing down even after a full 15 minutes of proactively sending out his mana. Even a couple young kids who'd been acting passive the entire time were threatening to buckle under the hunger. Frost appeared bottomless to them, a monster.

"His mana reserves are already equal to the peak of B-rank yet he's still going strong….General what kind of monster did you find." Ketta's gaze that was usually filled with disregard and perhaps even a slight amount of scorn was now staring at Frost with interest, she wanted to know his depths.

After another 15 minutes Frost was starting to feel the burn, his output noticeably decreased but even, then his face was still full of colour.

"Kid what was your name again." Keta asked with a much friendlier tone than earlier.

"Hu hu Frost ma'am."

"Frost eh, I'll remember it." Ketta nodded her head and smiled, taking a mental note.

"You can get up now the Gamma team's received more than their fair share of mana."

"Don't I have to go until I'm bone dry." Frost glanced at the exhausted husks that lay on the floor beside him and at the one who had to be pulled out earlier.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Normally yes but you're an exception."

'Damn bastard can still talk smoothly and even has enough strength left to care about others.' Ketta felt like she was dealing with someone at the A-rank, a person with near bottomless mana thanks to both their massive reserves and obscene regeneration.

Thanks to both the runic circle and the high quality mana generators Frost's recovery was inching close to what it was like back in his Dungeon thus making him the ideal battery.

"Alright, where do you want me next ma'am?"