Allen brought up the simulation sand table for Zone 18.

The locations of the five remaining mining sites were like five stars, scattered across the map.

The point of light representing Mining Site Four had gone out completely. After Mining Site Three, this was the second star to be extinguished on Allen’s map.

Victor floated nearby, also staring at the sand table with a furrowed brow.

Allen broke the silence. "You were right. We really can’t keep playing defense. He’s boiling us slowly. If we keep waiting, we’re just signing our own death warrant."

"Our only chance of victory is to concentrate all our forces and fight him head-on. But that Black Wizard has an advantage: his spatial transfer ability."

"If we can’t trap him, he can retreat with ease even if I move all my Golems there."

Victor nodded. "Some Wizards from the Contract School are a lot like us Alchemy Wizards. Their greatest strength isn’t themselves, but the Magical Beasts they command. Judging by how the artillery barrage at your Mining Site Three was able to shatter his defenses, his own personal defenses aren’t that strong."

"Once we trap him and attack him directly, we’ll have a shot at victory. There’s no other way."

Allen turned to look at Victor. "You just said you have a way to seal off a space?"

Victor took a deep breath. With a flip of his wrist, a palm-sized, silver Protective Talisman materialized in his hand.

The talisman’s surface was covered in complex Runes, faintly emitting a heart-pounding pulse.

"This is the life-saving trump card my family gave me." Victor’s voice was heavy. "The Realm-Splitting Defense. It can create a hundred-meter-wide spatial rift in front of the user that lasts for one second, instantly banishing all incoming attacks."

"It can even block a full-power strike from a Morning Star Wizard."

Allen looked at him, his eyes questioning.

Victor continued, "This item has a special use—if you forcibly destroy it with an overload of Magic Power, the resulting spatial turbulence will make it impossible to use any spatial transfer abilities within a radius of several kilometers for ten minutes."

"It’s similar to the advanced Witchcraft from the Witchcraft School, ’Spatial Anchor’."

Allen fell silent for a moment. "Why didn’t you use it for defense back at your workshop?"

Victor gave a bitter smile. "It can only be used once. Besides, even if I had used it back then, it wouldn’t have changed a thing. The Scorpion King and that horde of beasts... I still couldn’t have stopped them." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Using it would have only bought me a few more minutes, and then I would have lost this trump card for nothing."

Allen nodded and didn’t press the issue further.

"So, as long as we can find that Black Wizard, we can use this to trap him." Allen’s finger tapped twice on the sand table. "The question is, how do we find him?"

Victor’s brow furrowed even more deeply. "True. He’s bound to be extremely cautious. If you want to set an ambush, there are two problems."

"First, how do you mobilize all of your strongest combat units without being detected?"

He pointed to a slightly larger point of light on the sand table, labeled "Freedom Gundam."

"That Golem of yours is eighteen meters tall. In terrain like the Molten Iron Mountain Range, there’s no way to hide it. The moment it moves, he’s sure to notice."

"Second, even if your troops are lying in ambush, how do you lure the enemy into your trap?"

Victor looked at Allen. "The fact he can move so brazenly within your zone means he must have a way to track your Golems’ movements. And after getting caught in that explosion once, he’s going to be even more careful."

"He’ll be paying close attention to your ’Storm Falcon’ and ’Inferno’ launch platforms."

Allen didn’t answer immediately, instead zooming in on a specific area of the sand table.

It was Mining Site Five, located in the northeast corner of Zone 18—a mine with a secondary Mithril deposit.

"What if I told you I’m willing to use this mine as bait?"

"Are you willing to sacrifice it?" Victor asked. "That’s a Mithril mine! Even if it’s just a secondary deposit, its output is enough to make any Wizard green with envy!"

Allen’s expression remained unchanged. "It can only work as bait precisely because it’s so valuable."

He pulled up the detailed data for Mining Site Five.

"This mine has only been in production for three months. We’ve already extracted and refined about 100 kilograms of pure Mithril. At market price, that’s worth five hundred thousand Magic Stones."

"Right now, there are still over 40 kilograms there that haven’t been shipped out."

"I’ll have Jarvis create a ruse."

Allen’s voice was calm. "I’ll move all the ’Storm Falcon’ and ’Inferno’ launch platforms, scattering them around the two workshops. This will signal that our priority is self-preservation, giving him the false impression that Mining Site Five’s defenses are weak."

"And then, I’ll ’carelessly’ leave those 40 kilograms of Mithril exposed."

Victor was stunned.

"Are you thinking..."

"Yes." Allen nodded. "I’m doing the opposite of what he expects. The more he monitors my high-end assets, the more I’ll let him see that those assets are nowhere near Mining Site Five."

"A poorly defended mine, filled with Mithril."

"He won’t be able to resist."

Victor was silent for a few seconds before asking the crucial question. "Then how will you move your high-end combat units? The ’Freedom Gundam’ is massive. How could you possibly transport it to Mining Site Five without being detected?"

A cold smile touched the corners of Allen’s mouth.

"Follow me."

---

「Ten minutes later, at the entrance to an underground tunnel Allen had built.」

As the heavy metal gate slowly rose, Victor saw a massive tunnel stretching straight ahead into the darkness.

The tunnel was six meters high and wide enough for two Pacifista-model Golems to travel side-by-side. The walls were reinforced, and every fifty meters, a Magic Power lamp lit the way forward.

A conveyor belt was running at high speed, continuously transporting ore to the workshop.

"This is an underground tunnel?" Victor stared in shock at the subterranean highway.

"Yes." Allen stepped into the tunnel. "My ’Underground Great Wall’ project. It currently covers nine hundred kilometers, connecting all the mining sites and workshops."

"Moreover, this tunnel is fifty meters underground. Standard reconnaissance methods can’t detect it."

Victor’s expression grew complicated.

He finally understood how Allen had managed to build such a stable operation in Zone 18 in just three years.

"I can use the Underground Great Wall to secretly transport my high-end combat units to Mining Site Five," Allen continued,

"The Freedom Gundam, two PX-2s, plus all the PX-1s, combined with the mining site’s own defensive forces. I’ll be taking action myself as well."

"Assuming he can control three leader-class Golems, I should have about a seventy percent chance of taking him down for good."

Victor took a deep breath. "Are you sure you can trick him with this?"

"It’s not a trick."

Allen turned to look at him. "I’m going to let him see exactly what he wants to see."

"He’ll be monitoring my ’Storm Falcons’ and ’Infernos,’ so I’ll move all of those Golems somewhere else."

"He’ll think Mining Site Five is poorly defended, so I’ll genuinely reduce the surface defenses to their absolute minimum."

"And then, I’ll dangle two hundred thousand Magic Stones’ worth of Mithril right in front of him."

Allen’s eyes turned completely cold.

"Greed clouds one’s judgment."

Victor asked, "But it’s too dangerous for you to go yourself."

"This is our only chance. Not taking it means a slow death. I may usually hide in the back, but that doesn’t mean I lack the courage to put my life on the line."

Victor suddenly realized something. ’This fellow apprentice of mine isn’t just ’stingy.’ ’

’He truly treats every single Magic Stone, every Golem, every decision, and even his own life as a bargaining chip for victory.’

"How long will the preparations take?" Victor asked.

"Two days."

"In two days, the trap will be set. Then, we’ll just have to see if he dares to show up."