"Okay, so what do we do now?" Mareona asked.

"Maybe we can use this token to activate the portal?" Ivette asked.

"Probably," Zafrina replied.

"Let's try it." Aldred stepped forward with a token in his hand.

The portal made a whirring sound as another blue energy formed within the gate. The runes on the altars lit up, and it began to turn.

"It worked!" Aldred exclaimed.

"Should we go in?" Kiara asked, wagging her tail.

"Of course we do!" Mally pushed her into the portal from behind, and then entered it herself.

The wives giggled and jumped into the portal before Aldred got in. The soldiers and Baendjbi and his group followed afterwards.

After entering the portal, they realized they were teleported to some sort of high-altitude platform.

Just like before, some people were gathered here.

"Seriously. There are still people keeping up with this treasure hunt?" Mary said. "The last challenge literally only have 1% survivability rate."

"There are lot of challenges that happened at the same time. All have different difficulties," Stella said. "Some people might be lucky to get all the easy test."

"Is that even possible?"

"Perhaps. But don't underestimate what people will do to obtain this treasure. After all, you're fighting against the whole continent."

Aldred nodded. "I see some groups that came from the Ceraisian Empire. Probably sent by nobles or wealthy merchants."

"Ughh. There are also some robots and people in power armor. Probably from Duria," Mareona said. She was very annoyed by people from Duria because she thought of Thinker.

"I did not see the mysterious trio," Aldred said.

"Maybe they got a different test," Stella replied.

Suddenly, in the middle of the platform, a circular altar was erected. It spun, and the runes carved upon it shone with bright light. And then, the light turned into glowing mist, dancing in the air for a few seconds before forming into the figure of a woman.

The woman was beautiful with angelic wings and she exuded divine light from her eyes.

"In this test. Each group will be assigned a mountain to defend. On that mountain is a village with ants living in it. Your task is to protect the village and the ants that live in it."

"Wait! I have a question!" a man stepped forward and raised his hand.

Seeing the ethereal woman did not reply, the man proceeded to ask: "How can you tell which people is part of our group or not?"

"I can tell."

"But what if you make mistake?"

"I never do."

The man was taken aback by the reply.

Stella giggled when she saw this happening.

"What will we defend it from?" Another person asked.

"You will have to find that out by yourselves."

The ethereal angelic woman flicked her hands, and they all teleported away.

Aldred and his friends arrived on top of a mountain. Below them was a town with houses, stores, and everything else. But instead of people, it was filled with ants. Not tiny ants, but 2 meter tall walking ants who pulled carts, mine stones, plowed the field, and diligently working.

A few kilometers away was the other mountains that other treasure hunters had to protect.

"I wonder if we can attack their mountains to win this test," Aldred said.

"You probably can," Stella replied.

"That would be too cruel." Aldred laughed.

"Since when did you begin to consider that your action is too cruel?" Mira commented.

"You're right. I want to see what we're going to fight against before I consider to do that."

Aldred then opened the portal to call his golems and undead. He told them to construct towers and walls around the mountains and to install defensive weapons all over the place.

With more than 100,000 golems working endlessly, the began to construct a ditch around the mountain 30 meters deep, and a couple layers of wall 60 meters in height, and 10 meters in thickness.

Not only that, Aldred also told them to build towers all over the place, and also with their own ditch and walls.

The golems also sand-papered the mountains, making them slippery and steep because the surface was as smooth as glass. Aldred also told them to put oil, and build some small caves for the gunner golems to stay.

"Wena, Zara," Aldred called. "Can I trust the dragons to take care of the sky?"

"Sure," Wena said.

Zara simply kept her silent.

Aldred summoned Bella and told her to create ice spikes below the ditch, around it, and on the walls.

"What else should I add?" Aldred asked.

"You can tell Xer Xai to make even more ditch outside our walls," Zafrina suggested.

"That's a good idea."

And so Xer Xai was summoned and told to wreck havoc on the earth outside their walls.

The ground was completely wrecked, and Xer Xai moved the stones and dirt into her stomach before vaporizing them.

Now there was an even larger ditch outside their walls. It looked like a literal abyss with no one able to see the bottom of it.

The other treasure hunters perched on their mountains were of course shocked to see this.

"What in the hell. Did he just created a super fortress in less than a day?"

"Bro, nobody can get to that mountain. Don't even mention the mountain, even passing the first wall would be impossible."

"If he was a general in the army, and he created this fortress out of thin air, his enemies would surrender right then and there."

They had seen the process of how Aldred built the fortress, but they still could not believe their eyes.

Some other adventurers had a magician that could cast [Instant Fortress] or [Fortification] to reinforce their defense, but it was nothing compared to what Aldred did.

"What else should I Add?" Aldred asked.

"Maybe that's enough?" Mary said.

"Nothing is ever enough," he replied.

"Maybe it's time for magic," Stella said before swinging her staff and reinforcing the wall, strengthening them.

Sophia also do her magic. She created magic circles all over the place that could slow down, poison, hallucinate, and even killed the enemy.

After seeing this, Aldred called Breth. He was one of the three lizardmen brother who specialized in magic. Specifically, dark magic. But he could do other type of magic with ease as well.

"Breth, do something to make the fortress stronger," Aldred commanded.

"Yes, master."

Breth stepped forward. His footprint left a mark of death and decay. He pointed with his staff and shouted: "Hell Flame!"

"Nightmare Area!"

"Mist of Blindness!"

"Despair Aura!"

"Mental Delay!"

The area around them was then filled with dark mist, hellish flame, and aura of eeriness.

It looked like a haunted fortress. From outside, every sound coming from the mountain made their scalp cold.

Every time a golem hammered something, it would sound eerie, and the image of horror would flash in their head.

"Wow. This place looked really scary now," Mary said.

"This won't stop a determined army," Breth said. "But it will make them doubt themselves the deeper they entered."

"Interesting." Aldred smiled.

"So what do we now?" Mareona asked.

"Well, as always, we wait for something to happen."