Outside the mine, the faint light of dawn barely penetrated the thin layer of clouds, casting its glow over the desolate mountain valley.
Half an hour had passed since Caesar led the four assassins into the mine.
This abandoned dark iron mine had three main large exits.
There were also several hidden ventilation shafts that required climbing or crawling to pass through.
At this moment, every exit was heavily guarded by the rebels.
In front of the largest main exit, a makeshift barricade of thick logs and stones had been built.
Several rebels armed with alchemical muskets and Transcendent warriors lay in ambush behind it.
The other two slightly smaller exits were cleverly blocked with thorns, camouflage nets, and tripwire alarms.
In addition, those inconspicuous crevices were set with poisoned spikes and deadly tripwires.
Near all the exits, high-end alchemical bombs imported from the Dwarven Kingdom were buried.
If a chain explosion were triggered, even a High-tier Transcendent warrior would find it difficult to survive.
Despite being fully prepared, Valk, the mage in charge of the operation, felt a faint sense of unease.
He stood next to a group of mages maintaining the barrier, his brow furrowed.
As a Low-tier Transcendent mage, he was already among the top tier within this group of rebel mages.
“Boss Valk, why have you been wearing such a gloomy expression since last night?”
A rogue mage wearing a tattered robe leaned in and asked in a low voice.
“By the way, isn't the leader making a mountain out of a molehill?”
“We've mobilized nearly half of our assets just to corner those three inside?”
Valk smiled bitterly in his heart.
Yes, it was indeed for those three.
They had deployed a total of over twenty Transcendents, more than a hundred High Rank warriors, and over a hundred marksmen skilled in using dwarven muskets.
His gaze swept over the hidden, deadly traps around them, and his heart grew heavier.
High-explosive alchemical bombs and trigger-activated 【Binding Arrays】 were buried near every exit.
These had originally been prepared to deal with the Kingdom's Knights.
They had even activated the regional isolation barrier, which they had acquired from a ruin a year ago at the cost of many of their brothers' lives.
To mobilize on such a massive scale just to deal with a High Rank knight, a mid-tier mage, and a sleeping Saintess?
At first, Valk had been just as baffled as the others.
But after monitoring the mage named Lin Gui inside the cave non-stop throughout the night,
an indescribable, eerie sensation began to shake his resolve.
The feedback from their alchemical creatures had confirmed it countless times.
The targets had not left, nor had they sent any alchemical creations out to investigate.
Everything seemed “normal,” yet for some reason, Valk could not shake off a hair-raising feeling.
It was as if that black-haired mage was quietly “watching” everything outside through the thick, cold rock barriers.
No, to be more precise, he seemed to have been “watching” the movements of their leader, Caesar, the entire time!
Valk recalled the monitoring trajectories recorded last night.
A scalp-tingling synchronicity emerged.
Every time Caesar moved to personally inspect a certain exit,
Lin Gui's movement trajectory inside the cave would shift subtly,
moving to the position closest in a straight line to Caesar.
At the closest point, one could even catch a glimpse of his figure from outside the cave entrance.
He was like a player on an invisible chessboard, adjusting his position based on his opponent's moves.
Valk had been hesitating on whether to report this discovery.
However, all data and detection indicated that the opponent had not used any known scouting methods.
Could it be... soul detection?
An absurd thought flashed through his mind, which he immediately dismissed.
Soul magic was the most profound and difficult of all magical arts to learn.
How could a Mid-tier High Rank mage possibly master it?
Just the opponent's mastery of Levitation alone was enough to shock their group of mages.
Shaking off these unrealistic thoughts,
Valk simply could not explain the opponent's bizarre behavior as mere coincidence.
After pondering for a moment with no result, Valk had no choice but to put it aside for now.
He prepared to send another alchemical creature to detect the target's position.
Valk pulled a Transmission Stone from his breast pocket.
It was a common communication tool. Although its range was short, it did not require laying cables like a telephone.
As long as the other party had a matching Transmission Stone, they could speak to each other.
“Carlos, send the earth moles from your end to conduct another search inside.”
He contacted his companion who was responsible for the search using the earth moles.
After a long pause, a brief reply came from the other side: “Okay.”
Valk frowned. He had waited for nearly two minutes before the other party spoke.
This was somewhat unusual.
“What were you doing? Did you desert your post again to harass your tigerkin slave?”
“...Yes.” The other side paused for a moment before coughing. “I won't say more. I'm going to start the search.”
Valk called out a few more times, but found that the other party was no longer responding.
Strange. Why was Carlos so cold today?
Normally, he would have already been bragging about his “extraordinary talent” in that department.
He switched to another Transmission Stone and contacted another mage responsible for tracking.
The other party's response was equally brief and cold.
He made several consecutive calls, and though the speaking styles differed slightly,
they all carried a similar sense of detachment that made Valk uneasy.
Unease spread in his heart.
Valk instructed the mages maintaining the barrier beside him to keep watch on his behalf.
He then climbed up quickly, crossing a dirt slope to look toward the other mine entrances.
Then, he witnessed a scene that shocked him to the core.
The rebels who were supposed to be tightly surrounding the cave entrances were all gone.
Over two hundred brothers stationed at all the exits had vanished!
“????”
Just then, a specially marked Transmission Stone in his pocket lit up with a glaring red light.
Caesar's anxious voice came from it.
“Valk! Tell me their location!”
“We've turned this place upside down and haven't found a single trace of them!”
“Didn't you guarantee me that the three of them never left your sight?!”
A voice identical to his own rang out almost simultaneously from behind him, reporting clearly into the Transmission Stone.
“Leader, they are indeed inside, right in... No. 3 Mine.”
“Surround them quickly. They are hiding in a crevice at the top of the mine shaft, very well concealed.”
Valk's pupils contracted sharply. He hadn't spoken at all!
This was... Novice Magic, Voice Mimicry!
A cold dagger was silently pressed against his throat.
A low voice whispered in his ear: “Don't make a sound.”
The Transmission Stone at his waist lit up, carrying Caesar's reply.
“Good, understood.”
The light then extinguished.
The next second, a heavy blow struck the back of his neck.
Valk's vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.
Rate on N.U.
