His tower spirit Flora announced, “Report: three advanced energy sources have been detected! I repeat: three advanced energy sources have been detected!”

“There they are!” Abel said to himself as he saw the red alert on the map, “Flora, switch to automatic attack mode. I want every war puppet to start firing the large ballistas. There is no need to verify their identities. It’s a shoot-on-sight order.”

“Yes, Master. Automatic attack mode has been switched on.”

For a moment there, Flora sounded kind of excited when it responded to Abel’s order. It was an artificial being, but its thoughts were starting to get more complex, almost human.

It started firing. A fake mountain appeared from the hanging fort platform, and the crystal bodies revealed started emitting light. Everything started to shine. Abel wasn’t too sure what was going on. If he had to guess, the magic tower’s operation room was probably sending a huge load of data towards the tower spirit itself.

What kind of data? Apparently, they were data on all sorts of battle strategies. As the previous owners have used them countless times in their ancient battles, there was pretty much nothing left to be perfected. Everything was already tested in actual combat. They were analyzed, and only the most refined of plans remained.

Information: Three rank seventeen advanced wizard

Current equipment: one hundred consecutive large-sized ballistas, fifty thousand armor-breaking ballistas

Current energy storage: Completely full

Defense point: fifty thousand attack point for the defensive barrier

Assist tool: time-freezing ability. It can stop time flow in the targeted area for ten seconds. It can be used once a day.

As the information was inserted into the war fort, thousands of different outcomes and possibilities were considered within just a minute. After that, Flora proceeded to select the ideal defensive strategy. It was the first time that Abel gave it the right to do whatever it wished, so it made sure that it was doing the best that it could.

At the same time, the three wizards flew closer.

Wizard Jallel asked Wizard Nigel, “So why is Abel already prepared to fight us? You didn’t rat on us, did you, Nigel?”

“No! No, I didn’t!” Wizard Nigel cried out loudly, “I’ve been with you two this entire time! You think I have time to make a call to Grandmaster Abel? And don’t forget! I’ve already come this far, so do you really, really think there’s any way out for me?”

“Relax, Sixth,” Wizard Bunker said, despite the tense look on his face, “Nigel here isn’t going to sell us out. Why should he? Abel was a beginner wizard. There are three of us here, so what’s the point of him trying to sell us out?”

As easy as Bunker tried to make their circumstances sound, he was not taking this easily. There was a world of difference between an unprepared grandmaster blacksmith and a prepared one. In fact, from his perspective, if Abel already knew about the fact that they were coming, he might’ve just made an escape already.

That’d be troublesome to them. Right now, since both Bunker and Jallel couldn’t stay in the Holy Continent for too long, they must make sure that they settled their business with Abel quickly.

Wizard Bunker looked towards Wizard Nigel, “Are you sure that Abel is still there?”

“Yes, Wizard Bunker! That’s the exact information that I got! There’s no way that it could be wrong!”

Talk about trust. Before, Wizard Bunker was talking about believing in Nigel, but now, before anything even started happening, they were already starting to doubt the man for his credibility.

Before Nigel could say anything in defense, a white light suddenly appeared in front of them. There was about a distance of 400 meters in between.

A small figure teleported in their sight, “Hey there! My name is Cyril, in case you don’t know. If anyone of you three has beef with Grandmaster Abel, you better get past me first.”

“A dwarven wizard!”

The three advanced wizards were just starting to get a picture of what they were facing. They all knew how good Abel was with the dwarfs, but even then, they wouldn’t expect a rank seventeen wizard to appear in front of them so quickly.

By the way, the spot that Wizard Cyril was at was very safe for him. With this much distance between him and them, it’d be hard to finish him with one attack.

Wizard Cyril continued his warning, “Listen here! Grandmaster Abel is a good friend to the dwarfs. Think before you act, okay? You don’t want to mess with the dwarfs, I tell you!”

Wizard Bunker wanted to let Wizard Nigel settle this, but Wizard Nigel wasn’t saying anything. He was too scared by Wizard Cyril’s words.

Wizard Bunker shouted back, “You! We have come to visit Abel for the Cliff murder case. What we are doing is none of your business! You are a dwarf! We are humans! Go back to where you came from and stop being a nuisance!”

Wizard Cyril wasn’t paying too much attention to what Wizard Bunker was saying. He was more focused on identifying these three advanced wizards.

“You! The one screaming nonsense at me! I don’t know you! And who’s the one beside you? I’m pretty old, so I should know all the advanced wizards on the Holy Continent! Where did you all come from?”

Wizard Jallel started yelling frantically, “Like he said, none of your business! Shut up! Get out of the way!”

“Wait, Sixth,” Wizard Bunker stopped Wizard Jallel, “he’s trying to stall us.”

Even if Wizard Cyril was being honest about not knowing them, he should at least know where they came from. He wasn’t trying to have a conversation with them. He was trying to make time so Abel could call for reinforcement. It was the only possible explanation.

Wizard Cyril started laughing, “So that’s what you think, ha! Well, it doesn’t matter what you think, mate. One of you has to stay. I’ve made my promise to Grandmaster Abel. I’m taking one of you down, and that’s that.”

Wizard Jallel was already walking in front of Wizard Bunker, “Leave this to me, Fifth! I’ll slaughter that midget where he stands!”

“Midget.” It’s not a word that dwarfs particularly liked to hear. When Wizard Cyril heard Wizard Jallel use this word at him, he coldly glared at him.