Chapter 272: Behind the Trap

On the day Moon arrived in Deshter, he was finally left alone for a moment by himself.

Yet, today he wasn’t overthinking; well, he was overthinking something different from the usual.

Nizar, the leader of the Church of the Sun...

In that video, he opened his hand, the world brightened, and the army was gone.

Moon did the same; he opened his hand and rolled something invisible forward...

Obviously, nothing happened.

Moon pursed his lips and sat down on the bed.

He wanted to lay down a trap for the Fable army, for an entire army...

He also had something in mind, but he also might have overestimated the settings of the world beyond the first floor.

Moon was certain that Enzo would just give the first win easily, but he also could be wrong...

If he was wrong, what would he do?

His mind raced, unable to sleep, partially thanks to the coffee he had finally tasted after some time of caffeine deprivation.

In the end, he decided to visit Delilah first, sneak to her room to be exact.

The twins said they were given the permission to support him however needed without holding back.

It was time to test how deep the pockets of Lucen, the three-thousand-year-old man, were... If he saved a single Tower Coin every day, he must be filthy rich by now.

Thus, Moon left his room and snuck around the corridors until he was in front of Delilah’s room.

Knock~

He knocked on the door lightly once.

The door opened ajar, with Delilah looking in the direction the door opened, only to find no one. For a second, she frowned.

The next second.

Umph~

A strong hand clutched her mouth. "We need to talk," Moon whispered close to her ear.

She shot him a look, mouth still sealed; she nodded, looking somewhat fearful.

In her room, Moon closed the door carefully.

"Sorry about that; it’s important," he said first, before turning around. Delilah was holding her staff, ready to attack.

Moon pursed his lips; he would have done the same, so he just ignored her defensive approach.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I want engravings, explosive arcane engravings," Moon explained right away.

He had been taught about arcane systematically by Uon for a while, so he knew many things, but his Spark Echo was too small to do most of it.

Especially so for engravings.

Delilah squinted. "How many do you want?" she asked.

"As many as you can make..." Moon added.

"With my Echo, I can make around 60, but it’ll take too long, and I’ll be left without any Echo..." She explained.

Moon’s tongue stuck at the corner of his mouth; he started doing the math.

Uon had said that a good arcanist could produce 5 basic engravings for each 1 Echo value, which made her total pool of arcane around 12.

"I’ll also need White Stones for that," Delilah added.

She didn’t oppose the idea, but she looked concerned.

"I’ll bring you everything you need," Moon said, before he fished out the Energy Crystal he had gotten from killing the Scorpion Cow the other day. "Basil said these could be used to power arcane; can you use it?" he asked.

Delilah shook her head regretfully. "The level of control needed to extract the energy from this crystal and pour it into the engravings is beyond my current abilities."

Moon, as regretful as she was, put the crystal back in his pocket.

"Keep your window open; I’ll be back," Moon said before leaving the room through the window.

That day, he committed his first theft as a free man; he stole a bag of White Stones from the military storage.

He started searching for where the tactical stones were kept; Gustav had mentioned the storage spots but not which was which.

A large storage zone for weapons, another for armor... A place where military-assigned metal was kept.

Grains and dried food.

Water tanks secured as well in some spaces.

Moon was seeing these things up close for the first time, and he was amazed; still, he was unable to find the tactical stones room.

Before long, he found a small room that was less guarded and didn’t seem that important in the storage zone.

Through the steel-bar window high beyond the reach of a normal person, Moon slid down the roof and entered without making a sound.

Inside, he found the sacks of different kinds and colors of stones.

He took what he needed and left.

He had entered the storage room while the soldiers were watching, then left under their noses.

’Does that make me a better thief than Basil?’ Moon thought inwardly, admiring himself for a moment.

Thus, the first night came to an end; Delilah had her mission, her work and her material ready.

"Hey, what about my Echo?" She was still concerned.

Making engravings with her own Echo meant that her Echo would stay inside the stones until it was used, released, or undone.

"Stay with your sister at night; just make sure to keep this a secret if you want us to win this war," Moon said before jumping off the window again.

"Ah," he paused and returned. "If you need help, just say it; just be loud, and I’ll hear it... probably."

With that said, he disappeared.

Back in his room, he slept soundly that night.

Until the next day came with the potion Lexie made.

"Can Lexie make something that would start a fire?" he asked with newfound anticipation.

Delilah’s work was partially what he had in mind, but it lacked the heat he wanted. He wanted real fire, real flames.

Talia left the meeting room for a few minutes before returning. "She can, but what do you need them for?" she asked.

"Don’t worry..." Moon said dismissively. "How long does she need, and how many?" he asked. "Ah also, how does it work?"

"2 or 3 days; she’ll start making them today... It’s different from potions; this is a work of alchemy, and the process is different." Talia began to explain.

"She will make a total of 200 tubes," she added.

As for the last question.

"These don’t start fire by themselves; they only make fire once they’re poured into something flammable, like firewood."

Moon listened well, nodding absentmindedly.

’So... something flammable is needed too, dammit.’ He thought to himself.

Thus, the second night came, with the first batch of explosive engravings in his pocket.

He snuck out of Deshter, past the city walls, all the way to the mountain pass, where some watchmen were stationed in bunkers carved into the mountain.

Moon began studying the gaps in the rocks where he could stack the engravings inside. The watchmen made it impossible for him to actually dig at the top, but it was possible at the lower sides.

Thus, Moon stacked a few of the explosives inside the crevices on both sides before starting another trip back into the castle.

Now, it was time for a new chain of thefts.

Firewood and dry straw.

For the next few days, Moon stole a pickaxe and a shovel to dig at the bottom of the mountain while using his Echo as a sound muffler until it ran out.

He also made multiple trips back and forth, stealing from the farmers more than once every day.

Hiding them within the folds of the stone carefully, keeping them as high as possible.

Moon would sleep for an hour at most every day, if he slept at all... Just for a chance to bring an image in his imagination into reality.