The Golem Mage Chapter 1132: External Spying.

From his own throne room, Alec had observed the entirety of the unfolding events. As the battle concluded, a smile graced his lips.

His pleasure was genuine, for every aspect had transpired precisely as he had orchestrated. The very first step in his plan involved establishing a teleportation axis within Brandon’s domain.

Given Brandon's status as a subordinate lord, the territory he governed was, in essence, Alec's own. This facilitated Alec's construction endeavors using his system store without requiring the approval of the city's acting lord.

Although he intended to implement such teleportation axes across all his subsidiary territories eventually, this ambition was temporarily deferred. The cost of a single Space Axis amounted to 500,000 System Points, with an additional 100,000 System Points to designate a travel destination on it.

Consequently, defending Brandon’s city with such apparent ease had incurred a substantial cost of 1.2 million System Points for Alec.

This included 500,000 points for the Space Axis situated outside his own castle, another 500,000 for the one within Brandon’s castle, and finally, 100,000 points each to register both locations as reciprocal travel points on their respective teleportation axes.

As Alec contemplated how a surge of expenses seemed to materialize each time he prepared for an upgrade to his spirit equipment set, he slumped his head in a gesture of defeat.

Nevertheless, he found solace in the fact that he had managed to secure the corpses of one Tier 7 and several Tier 6 entities from the exchange.

To him, that solitary Tier 7 corpse held a value of at least a million System Points if he opted to sacrifice it for points, a fact that lessened his current concerns.

Alec had consistently held a high degree of faith in his golems. This confidence had only burgeoned since their ascension to the Tier 7 realm, transforming them into Lord-rank golems.

There had been scant few occasions where they had truly unleashed their full capabilities, with the exception of their engagements within the amulet space.

Even so, he desired for them to gain experience not solely from battling demonic beasts. He sought for them to contend with intelligent species as well – races possessing humanoid forms – thereby enabling them to master combat against both quadrupedal and bipedal adversaries.

Despite their limited encounters with humanoid lifeforms, Alec never once harbored doubt that the High Orcs would pose a significant challenge to them.

His golems possessed the capability to vanquish a low-rank Tier 8 mage when fighting in pairs.

This was applicable to ordinary Tier 8 mages, not formidable beings or prodigious talents like Takeda. To Alec, the orcs appeared rather unremarkable, which explained his decision to leave one of his primary golems to safeguard Brandon, as he always maintained that one could never be too cautious.

The swift conclusion of the battle by Butcher and Oni did not particularly surprise Alec; he was aware that a minimum of five peak Tier 7 High Orcs would be required to even restrain a single one of his main golems.

And this estimation did not even represent the standard for all his golems, as elite units like Oni, Butcher, Titan, and Legion could effortlessly contend with five peak Tier 7 mages deployed against them.

While Alec was observing the entirety of the battle's progression, he was not the sole spectator. The elder who had bestowed upon him his lord token was also monitoring the fight. Although he had discovered his direct surveillance of the eight cities assigned to Alec and his contingent was obstructed, this did not preclude him from observing through indirect means, which was precisely his tactic.

Owing to his position, he could still oversee most of the Wilderness, excluding the interiors of structures within those eight territories. Recognizing this restriction was linked to Alec, he did not delve too deeply into the matter.

However, during a moment of idleness that day, he received a notification regarding a minor invading force. Such news would typically hold little significance, as skirmishes and invasions were commonplace occurrences in the Wilderness regions.

Yet, this particular event marked the inaugural defensive engagement within Alec’s newly acquired territory, a fact compelling enough for him to observe. His primary objective in stationing Alec there was for him to contend with the Orcs on his behalf, making it clear that Alec could not evade this conflict; he would inevitably face them.

But the instant he activated his observation, the sight that greeted him were the imposing, rugged stone walls now encircling all eight cities. This alone astonished him, as he could not comprehend how such defenses had been erected so rapidly.

Indeed, every city necessitated some form of protection and adequate fortifications to be taken seriously. However, he had never anticipated that the very initial action undertaken by Alec and his group would be the construction of stone walls.

He had reviewed their profiles and was aware of their exceptional talent as mages, particularly with earth element, a heritage passed down through their clan. However, their ability to construct such towering and robust walls with such remarkable speed led him to suspect a deeper reason behind their prowess.

A suspicion began to form that he should observe them more closely to unravel the mystery of their accomplishment—whether it stemmed from a forbidden clan scripture or a innate skill deeply rooted in their bloodline.

Nevertheless, all such inquisitive thoughts had to be immediately set aside the moment he witnessed two golems surge from the city to confront the approaching Orc army.

Initially, he expressed surprise that merely two golems were dispatched for the engagement. He knew from Alec’s records that golems were indeed employed in combat. Yet, like most individuals in the Origin World, he had never conceived that Alec could achieve such a profound level of mastery with them.

This initial disbelief, however, was transient. Once Butcher commenced his assault, he became a silent observer of the unfolding events, completely captivated. By the conclusion, his mind was made up: a visit to Alec was inevitable.

_ _

“I distinctly recall informing you that they belonged to me,” Butcher grumbled.

“Hmph, I didn’t journey all this way merely to let you hog all the excitement. You’d best gather the fallen into your spatial ring so we can make our return,” Oni declared, already turning to depart.

“But—”

“You’re considerably swifter than I; you possess that lightning-fast speed,” Oni interjected, launching himself skyward. With that, he vanished into the air, leaving Butcher no recourse for argument as he streaked back towards the castle, re-entering the city.

Upon witnessing the blur streak past the city gates, some of the men who had prudently taken cover below, hesitant to become casualties of flying debris from the external conflict, finally dared to raise their heads and observe.

What met their gaze seemed almost illusory.

Orc corpses lay strewn across the battlefield, while the meager remnants of their forces were already in a panicked retreat. It was a scene that defied belief, something they had never before witnessed.

Ever since the orcs initiated their invasion of the Wilderness Region and began their relentless sweep across every theater of war, they had never endured such a catastrophic setback.

This was utter annihilation.

“The orcs… they’ve been vanquished!” one of the men stationed atop the city wall bellowed. A profound silence followed, as the populace struggled to absorb the implications of his declaration.

Then, the realization truly dawned. They would not perish today; nor would they be subjugated as slaves by the orcs. In short order, the entire city erupted into an ecstatic outpouring of cheers and unrestrained jubilation.