He had done something similar before, carving out a secluded training ground in the Thunder-crag peaks. But that had been a rudimentary shelter—a functional cave meant only for himself. What he needed to build tonight was a fully operational syndicate headquarters, a laboratory, a forge, and a living space capable of sustaining a small group of highly dangerous, highly sought-after individuals.
And he had to do it before dawn.
"Four hours," Lencar murmured to himself, his natural voice barely audible over the howling wind. "Better get to work."
He stepped up to the sheer face of the black cliff. He didn't draw a grimoire; thanks to his Absolute Replication and the vast array of attributes he had siphoned and integrated, his body itself was a conduit for a terrifying spectrum of magic.
He raised both hands, pressing his palms flat against the freezing, jagged stone.
First came the excavation. Lencar tapped into the Earth Magic he had copied from Goro, blending it seamlessly with the Stone Magic from the mason Rek. His mana flared, a deep, resonant brown aura surrounding his hands.
The cliff face shuddered. With a low, grinding rumble that vibrated through the soles of his boots, the solid obsidian began to part. Lencar wasn't blasting the rock apart—that would be too loud and structurally unstable. He was commanding it to move, forcing the stone to liquify and roll back like the parting of a heavy curtain.
He carved a massive, perfectly rectangular tunnel leading deep into the heart of the mountain, angling slightly downward into the bedrock. As he pushed forward, walking steadily into the newly formed cavern, thousands of tons of excavated stone piled up behind him.
Leaving a massive mound of freshly churned rock outside would be a dead giveaway. Without breaking his stride, Lencar simultaneously activated his Spatial Magic. He opened a series of large, dark portals directly behind him, linking them to a deep, active volcanic fissure he had sensed several miles to the north. The displaced rock and earth cascaded seamlessly into the portals, vanishing from the site entirely.
For the next hour, Lencar became a machine of pure elemental force. He hollowed out a massive, cavernous main hall deep beneath the earth, large enough to house a small army. From there, he branched off, carving out connecting corridors, specialized chambers, and a massive sub-level dedicated entirely to Dominante's future workshop.
The sheer physical and magical exertion was staggering. The Shivering Crags' ambient mana was constantly fighting him, pushing back against his spells.
By the end of the first hour, the raw excavation was complete, but Lencar was breathing heavily. Sweat beaded on his forehead beneath the wooden mask, and his muscles ached from the continuous, high-output channeling of his Stage 3 Peak mana.
He stopped in the center of the massive, rough-hewn main hall. He dropped to one knee, resting a hand on the dusty stone floor. He needed to recover. Pushing himself to the point of magical exhaustion in a Grand Magic Zone was a death sentence.
Lencar closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He activated [Verdant Cellular Knit], a highly advanced application of his Plant Magic. A soft, glowing green aura bloomed across his skin. The magic seeped into his fatigued muscles, rapidly repairing micro-tears, flushing out lactic acid, and soothing his strained tendons. Simultaneously, he entered a state of deep meditation, actively drawing in the chaotic ambient mana of the Crags. It was like drinking boiling water, but his core was strong enough to filter the wild energy, forcibly converting it into usable, refined mana to replenish his reserves.
After ten minutes of intense, focused recovery, Lencar stood back up. The ache was gone, his core was thrumming with power once more, and his mind was sharp.
"Now for the foundation," he noted, looking at the rough, unfinished walls of the cavern.
An underground base of this size needed unparalleled structural integrity. The weight of the mountain above them was immense.
Lencar extended his hands, his aura shifting to a cold, metallic silver. He called upon the Iron Magic harvested from the Iron-Eater Brothers and the Steel Magic taken from the bandit Kael.
Massive veins of raw iron and steel began to bleed out of the stone walls, floor, and ceiling, guided by Lencar's precise will. He forged massive, load-bearing pillars of solid steel at calculated intervals throughout the main hall and the corridors. He wove a skeletal framework of iron rebar directly into the stone ceiling, interlocking the metals into an unbreakable grid.
To ensure absolute perfection in the dimensions, he used his Chain Magic, shooting out taut, steel-hard chains to act as flawless measuring lines, adjusting the placement of the pillars down to the millimeter.
But standard steel wasn't enough for Lencar. He needed something that could withstand a siege from a Magic Knight Captain.
He layered his spells. Over the steel pillars, he unleashed the devastating Crystal Magic he had harvested from the Diamond Kingdom's General Mars. Brilliant, translucent pink crystals erupted over the metal framework, encasing the steel columns in a layer of hyper-dense, magically resonant armor. The crystal bonded with the steel, creating a composite material that was nearly indestructible.
With the structural skeleton in place, it was time to refine the environment.
Lencar switched to Sand Magic, creating a localized, contained sandstorm within the halls. Millions of microscopic grains of hard sand whipped against the rough stone walls at blinding speeds. The sandblasting eroded the jagged rock, smoothing the floors, walls, and vaulted ceilings into perfectly flat, pristine surfaces.
Then, he unleashed a massive wave of Fire Magic. The air inside the cavern superheated instantly. Lencar carefully directed the roaring flames across the newly smoothed stone surfaces. The intense heat baked the rock, essentially turning the outer layer of the cavern walls into a smooth, glossy ceramic, perfectly sealing out any dampness or loose dust.
To prevent the ceramic from cracking under the sudden heat, he instantly followed up with Water Magic, sending a fine, highly pressurized mist across the glowing hot walls to flash-cool them, tempering the stone into a glossy, obsidian-like finish.
The main hall was now magnificent. It was a sprawling, pristine underground cathedral of black glass, steel, and glowing pink crystal.
Lencar paused again, leaning against one of the cool crystal pillars. He pulled his wooden mask up slightly to wipe the sweat from his chin, his chest heaving. The seamless transition between Earth, Spatial, Iron, Steel, Chain, Crystal, Sand, Fire, and Water magic was a mental tightrope walk. His brain felt like it was vibrating.
He allowed himself another five minutes of recovery, leaning heavily on the Beast Magic he had harvested from Bronto. He tapped into the primal, endless endurance of the beast, forcing his human body to ignore the screaming fatigue in his bones.
"Two hours left," Lencar calculated, checking the internal clock of his mind. "Time for the workshop."
He walked down the main corridor to the sprawling sub-level he had dedicated to Dominante. An artificer of her caliber needed absolute perfection.
He didn't just carve out a room; he built a specialized laboratory. Using his Earth and Stone magic, he pulled massive slabs of solid, unblemished marble from deep within the bedrock, shaping them into massive, heavy workbenches that wouldn't vibrate or shift during delicate runic carving.
In the center of the room, he constructed a massive forge. He lined the interior of the blast furnace with his highest-density fire-resistant earth, and then embedded a permanent, self-sustaining core of his Fire Magic at the base, creating a flame that would burn clean and hot without producing smoke.
For her alchemical and cooling needs, Lencar used his Water Magic to draw an underground aquifer up into the base, creating a series of polished stone basins that constantly flowed with pure, cold water. He added an isolation chamber nearby, coating the walls with thick layers of Ice Magic to create a refrigerated vault for volatile, temperature-sensitive magical materials.