Behind him, a black cliff towered into the clouds; before him stretched a desolate, sprawling red gobi.

In the distance, the silhouettes of a volcanic range shimmered in the distorting heatwaves.

The fierce wind whipped up sand and grit, making his Wizard Robe snap in the gale.

It was as if he were the only person left in the entire world, save for the workshop behind him.

Alone. Insignificant. Surrounded by danger.

Any mortal faced with such a scene would likely have felt a soul-deep tremor of dread and bewilderment.

But Allen was no mortal.

He slowly raised his head, feeling the rampant yet abundant Magic Power in the air. As he looked out at the vast land waiting to be conquered, the corner of his mouth curled into a faint smile.

He was like a hardcore gamer who had finally reached the moment a new server went live.

’My mentor’s plan was certainly grand,’ he thought, ’but ultimately, I’m the one who has to walk this path.’

Having admired the scenery, he returned to the workshop and began issuing commands.

[DSeek, primary objective: establish an initial safe zone.]

’Creating a will for the workshop is important, but a soul unable to protect itself will just become a tasty morsel for a Magical Beast, along with its physical shell.’

’A sense of security... that’s something you have to provide for yourself.’

[Task confirmed. Executing Phase One of the "Bulwark" Protocol.]

Allen’s command was instantly relayed through DSeek.

On the workshop’s roof, an inconspicuous hidden door slid open, and five black spheres silently ascended into the air—the Demon Eyes.

They ascended rapidly and fanned out. Upon reaching an altitude of one hundred meters, their optical camouflage activated, and they vanished completely against the crimson sky.

Next, the workshop’s heavy main gates slid apart with a muffled, grinding sound.

Twenty "Spider Slayer, Model II" units emerged in silent succession.

In the dim light, their dark armor blended almost perfectly with the rocky ground. Their articulated legs scuttled in a silent, interlocking rhythm, making not a whisper of a sound.

[Command: Sweeping Mode. With the workshop as the center, eliminate all active units within a three-kilometer radius. No exceptions.]

Allen put on his Insight Glasses, and a real-time, three-dimensional tactical map immediately materialized before his eyes.

Twenty blue dots, representing the Spider Slayers, paired up and spread outward, forming an ever-expanding circular search grid.

Soon, faint red dots began to appear sporadically on the map.

They were Low-Level Magical Beasts, some lurking in rock crevices, others burrowing up from beneath the ground.

They were annihilated by the Spider Slayers’ precise energy beams before they could even react.

A red dot would appear, then vanish.

Appear, and vanish again.

The whole process was clean, efficient, and almost tedious.

Allen leaned against the control console, watching it all unfold with a calm expression.

’It seems the dozen or so behemoths Gordon cleared out earlier were the apex predators in this area.’

’Now, his job was to mop up these small fry, ensuring his new nest was absolutely secure in its early stages.’

Seizing the opportunity, he began to set up his internal defenses.

He opened his spatial briefcase, releasing the PX-0 prototype first. Its massive cannon and heavy armor made the very air in the workshop feel heavy.

It was followed by three brand-new, mass-produced PX-1 models.

[Command: PX-0 and PX-1(A), enter dormant mode. Stand by at Repair Bays 1 and 2.]

The two colossal war machines strode to a corner of the workshop. After a soft hiss of depressurizing joints, they fell completely silent, the light from the Rune Arrays on their chests fading to black.

He then positioned the other two mass-produced PX-1s to flank the workshop’s main gates.

They stood like two imposing sentinels, the dark maws of their Divine Punishment Main Cannons a silent declaration of ownership over this land.

Having done all this, Allen released his logistics team.

The mechanical butler, Ah Fu, a Mechanical Body dressed in a tailcoat, appeared and immediately gave a meticulous bow.

"Master, Ah Fu is at your service."

Behind it stood twelve "Fortune" series Factory Servants, numbered F-01 through F-12. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Several of the Mechanical Bodies had been hastily manufactured before he left the academy; they looked exactly like new employees waiting for the corporate grind to begin.

"Ah Fu, have them familiarize themselves with the workshop, inspect all equipment, and prepare to receive the first batch of production orders."

"As you command, Master."

Ah Fu immediately led its "Fortune" squad away. They fanned out methodically and began a detailed inspection and calibration of the entire workshop. The cavernous space finally had a semblance of life.

About an hour later, a notification chimed from DSeek.

[Sweep complete. No life signs detected within the three-kilometer radius.]

[Spider Slayer squadron returning to base.]

Allen watched the tactical map as the ring of twenty blue dots contracted toward the center, finally converging at the workshop’s entrance.

The alloy gates opened once more. The twenty Spider Slayers returned to the workshop in silence, each retreating to its designated docking bay and entering standby mode.

"Good."

Allen murmured to himself.

[Phase One of the "Bulwark" Protocol complete. Commencing Phase Two: Wide-Area Surveillance.]

High above, the five invisible Demon Eyes received new orders and resumed their ascent.

Four of them climbed to an altitude of one thousand meters, establishing a high-precision, dynamic map with a thirty-kilometer radius centered on the workshop. Not the slightest disturbance could escape their notice.

The fifth continued upward, soaring to roughly three thousand meters, instantly expanding its surveillance range to an astonishing one-hundred-kilometer radius.

The three-dimensional map before Allen’s eyes switched from a detailed topographical view to a grand, regional strategic display.

A vast swath of the western portion of Zone 18 was now laid out before him.

[DSeek, cross-reference the new map data with the intelligence provided by my mentor and Gordon. Mark all known threat and resource locations.]

[Cross-referencing...]

[Data fusion complete.]

An array of colored markers materialized on the map.

Pickaxe icons for known mineral veins, red skulls for Magical Beast lairs, black question marks for unidentified danger zones...

[Initiating continuous scan. Prioritize monitoring of high-energy Magic Power fluctuation sources.]

Allen’s finger swiped across the virtual light screen, zooming in on the map.

His gaze fell on the nearest red skull icon, located in the depths of Three-way Canyon, approximately sixty kilometers from the Anvil Hills.

Gordon had mentioned that place; it was the lair of the Crystal Shell Giant Scorpion.

Just then, a shrill alarm blared through the DSeek channel.

[Warning! Two high-energy signatures detected! One has a peak Magic Power fluctuation of 1230.]

Allen raised an eyebrow.

’A "surprise" already?’

’And to think, the Divine Punishment Main Cannon’s power level only capped out at 1180.’

He immediately switched his view to the feed from the Demon Eye that triggered the alarm.

The image was magnified and enhanced, eventually resolving into a clear picture.

On the edge of Three-way Canyon, about a hundred kilometers from the workshop, a chase was unfolding.

A behemoth, over fifteen meters long and clad in a thick, rocky carapace resembling a pangolin, was frantically hunting something.