The Golem Mage Chapter 1136: Tower Defense 2.

Alec gazed upwards, sensing a peculiar animosity from the Blood Moon directed at summoner-type mages. Realizing he would need to manage things himself for the moment, Alec commenced his trek towards the nearby dense forest.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side from his trajectory, two human mages were concealed, observing.

“See? I knew he was just a rookie. Let’s go claim what he’s left behind,” one of them murmured. His companion let out a muffled laugh, and the pair started advancing towards the sole circular clearing within the entire forest.

Their focus was entirely fixed upon the City Heart cube suspended mid-air.

The first mage extended his right hand, intending to retrieve the temporary lord token lodged within it – the very token that conferred ownership of the clearing to Alec.

However, before his fingers could make contact with the cube, a sharp crack resounded. He froze, watching as a projectile of stone, seemingly infused with some kind of lava energy, ripped through his hand, entering one side and erupting from the other.

For a fleeting instant, comprehension eluded him; it took a moment for the searing pain to register.

“Ahhhh!” the mage bellowed, his gaze fixed on the gaping wound in his hand.

His companion, still stunned by the attack's swiftness, instantly pivoted, following the projectile's path to identify the assailant.

But upon looking, he saw only Alec, approaching them calmly. Alec's left hand rested on the pommel of a bone katana, positioned slightly higher than the Bloody Changdao, both weapons hanging at his left hip.

His right hand remained extended, two fingers aimed forward as if firing a weapon.

The sight of Alec immediately caused him to connect the dots, realizing they had been deceived. The two had arrived with the intent to pilfer Alec's lord token and exchange it for points.

Yet, while they lurked with such malicious intent – intentions that would have left Alec vulnerable to the approaching horde, without a shred of concern for their shared humanity – Alec opted for his own stratagem, luring them out.

He still required intelligence on the operational mechanics of this format, particularly as this marked his inaugural participation in a Blood Moon battle within the origin realm.

Thus, he feigned ignorance, pretending not to detect their presences while venturing deeper into the opposing woods, just far enough to vanish from their sight and instill the confidence needed for them to emerge from hiding and enact their scheme.

And precisely as anticipated, that was how events unfolded.

“You scoundrel! Have you no respect for your elders, you insignificant brat? So small, yet so cruel. How dare you attack us? We are all humans!” the second mage – the associate of the one whose hand was breached – exclaimed.

Yet, even as he spoke, he advanced, his wicked intention to catch Alec off guard as he drew a short sword. However, he was the one who found himself surprised.

In a fluid, near-instantaneous movement, Alec drew his bone katana with his right hand, pressing the tip against the second mage’s throat without even needing to look directly at him.

The man was a peak Tier 6 mage, but his form and movements were so subpar that they appeared painfully sluggish when he attempted to launch surprise attacks at Alec.

It genuinely disappointed Alec that an individual of such caliber had managed to attain the Tier 6 realm.

“It appears you’ve suddenly become quite verbose and wish to champion the cause of humans attacking humans. But if you genuinely adhered to that principle, why were you both lingering so close to my City Heart in the first place?” Alec inquired.

“You—”

Before the man could utter another word, his expression shifted. He felt the tip of the long bone blade pressing into his neck with alarming ease and fell silent, unwilling to risk further movement and worsen his predicament.

“Do not provoke me. Before you even contemplate executing any maneuver crossing your mind, understand that I can plunge this blade through your neck and sever your head in an instant.” Alec directed his words to the mage with the katana at his throat, yet his eyes remained fixed on the first mage, the one with the blasted hole through his right hand.

“So, I have a question for both of you. The first one to accurately inform me of what you intended to steal and its function will be permitted to leave.”

“As if we would ever betray each—”

The mage with the blade at his throat had barely begun to speak when the other abruptly blurted out the entire explanation.

He elucidated that by seizing the temporary lord token, they could either assume the lordship of that particular region—if they had already been ousted from their own domain or if their former territory had been annihilated—or they could transport the token back to their homeland and offer it up for energy points.

The recompense obtained from sacrificing a solitary token surpassed what they might glean from hunting a minimum of three Tier 6 demonic beasts, illustrating why this clandestine operation had appeared as the more lucrative endeavor to them.

They could have also opted to plunder an abyss lord for a token, yet they were immensely too apprehensive to undertake such a perilous feat.

From all that Alec absorbed, he was able to ascertain that the territories were indeed structured much like those in the standard realms; Alec merely lamented the unfortunate circumstance that he would not be encountering the Orc lord who had commandeered one of the nearby human cities adjacent to his own lands, due to the fact that this particular lord was a Tier 8 entity.

This implied that the Orc lord was most likely engaged in combat on the Tier 8 battlefield, while Alec found himself within the Tier 6 battlefield, and each adjacent territory was the closest Tier 6 city bordering him outside the blood moon region.

Furthermore, they had mentioned something else: the clearing in Alec’s vicinity was considerably more expansive than theirs. The sole rationale Alec could connect to this disparity was the fact that he held dominion over approximately eight cities, leading to a mysterious expansion of his land within this realm as well, making it larger than typically observed.

Subsequent to the initial mage concluding his explanation, the second mage regarded him with a countenance etched in disbelief, as if questioning the very motive behind such a betrayal.

Nevertheless, a promise remained a promise. Alec swiftly slit his throat and propelled him directly toward the core as the mage's form crumbled beneath it.

"Convert to energy," Alec commanded.

The deceased mage's body was instantly enveloped in an unusual luminescence emanating from the cube, subsequently disintegrating into fragments that ascended into the air and assimilated into the cube.

[ +100,000 Energy ]

"Now, erect a level one wall around the perimeter of my territory," Alec decreed.

In the ensuing moment, formidable stone ramparts materialized, encircling the clearing. While not exceptionally tall, they possessed sufficient height and were imbued with a mystical property that rendered aerial passage impossible; transgressors would need to breach the walls physically instead.

The fortifications appeared both robust and primitive, redolent of an ancient, untamed era, mirroring the very walls of his own city.

[ -8,000 Energy ]