Chapter 86: Everyone Wanted the Organ… I Took It Anyway

"Salts," Maelor said.

Garran shouted the order.

The soldiers smashed the remaining containers into the channels, turning the water milky. Juvenile Hollow Threads trying to escape began writhing almost immediately.

Then they stopped.

Valeria raised her barriers again while Raven pulled the sword free from the Broodmother’s corpse.

Predation was still reacting to it.

[High-Value Biological Sources Available.]

["Host Preservation" — Compatibility: 67%]

["Brood Network" — Compatibility: 31%]

["Mana Distribution" — Compatibility: 52%]

[Multiple Biological Conflicts Detected.]

[Immediate Assimilation Under Current Environmental Conditions NOT RECOMMENDED.]

Raven closed the interface.

He wasn’t going to eat a parasitic organ while standing in a swamp full of organisms actively trying to enter through any wound they could find.

Predation could wait.

Then he heard the croak.

It was deeper than before.

Close enough that Raven felt the vibration through the water around his boots.

Everyone turned.

For several seconds, nothing appeared.

The ruins were still settling around the dead Broodmother. Membranes sagged from shattered columns, black water rolled through the channels, and thousands of dying Hollow Threads writhed across the surface.

Another croak came from somewhere behind the broken stone.

A section of water rippled outward.

Then something moved.

Fast.

The Deepwell Toad launched itself from one of the ruins.

It crossed the gap in a single jump and landed among the dying parasites with enough force to send mud and water outward in a violent ring.

BOOM.

One of the soldiers instinctively raised his weapon.

The creature didn’t even look at him.

It wasn’t fleeing.

It had come back to feed.

The Broodmother’s death had released an absurd concentration of Hollow Threads swollen with stolen mana, and the Deepwell was taking advantage of the feast.

Its tongue snapped out.

A mass of parasites vanished.

Again.

Another cluster disappeared.

Again.

The creature barely seemed to chew.

Every group it swallowed sent a brighter pulse through the crystalline plates covering its abdomen. Pale blue mana moved beneath them like liquid trapped under pressure, illuminating the dark skin between the crystals.

The feeding became faster.

The glow became stronger.

Maelor stared.

"It’s absorbing too much."

Raven saw it too.

FORGE reacted.

[Deepwell Toad — Level 23 — Awakened]

[Reservoir Saturation: 87%... 89%... 92%]

[Mana Pressure Increasing.]

[Deepwell Crystalline Reservoir Quality: EXCEPTIONAL.]

Raven raised his sword.

Garran noticed.

"Wait."

"No."

"Raven."

"If it finishes feeding, it might leave."

"Or we capture it alive."

Raven looked at the nearly six-and-a-half-foot animal.

The Deepwell swallowed another cluster.

The crystalline plates flashed.

A pulse of blue mana traveled across its body.

Then the water around it exploded outward.

BOOM.

For an instant, the pressure carved an empty ring around the creature before the swamp rushed back in.

Raven looked at Garran.

"Go ahead."

The captain watched the water collapse around the Deepwell.

"Point taken."

The toad stopped feeding.

Its throat expanded.

The croak that followed struck Raven in the chest hard enough to feel like distant thunder.

Then its yellow eyes moved toward them.

The change was immediate.

Until then, they hadn’t mattered.

Now they did.

There was no intelligent hatred in the creature’s stare. No anger over the Broodmother, no understanding of Raven’s intentions.

Only territory.

Food.

Competition.

Its hind legs compressed beneath its body.

Predator’s Instinct tightened.

"Move."

The Deepwell jumped.

Not toward Raven.

Toward Valeria.

Probably because she carried more mana.

"Naturally," she said.

The creature crossed the distance much faster than something its size should have.

Then it landed.

BOOM.

Valeria moved aside as a wall of black water erupted behind her.

The Deepwell’s mouth opened.

Its tongue fired.

Fast.

Valeria raised a sheet of blood.

The tongue punched straight through it.

Raven moved in from the side.

He couldn’t attack the abdomen.

FORGE marked the restriction immediately.

[Deepwell Crystalline Reservoir Located Within Lower Abdominal Cavity.]

[Required HARVEST Integrity: 85%+]

[Avoid Abdominal Trauma.]

"Not again," Raven muttered.

Valeria heard him.

"You have to kill this one correctly too?"

"Yes."

"Your weapon is insufferable."

The Deepwell turned.

Its crystalline abdomen flashed.

Raven jumped back just before a pulse of mana tore through the air.

It wasn’t electricity.

It was pressure.

The impact caught him even from several yards away and threw him into a root.

Stonehide kept anything from breaking.

Barely.

The toad was Level Twenty-Three.

Raven was Level Ten.

In open ground, without extensive preparation, that difference mattered.

A lot.

Raven pushed himself back to his feet.

"Don’t fight for damage. Control only."

Valeria understood immediately.

"What do you need?"

Raven studied the creature.

Protected abdomen.

Thick skull.

Large eyes.

Huge mouth.

"I need it to open its mouth."

"That is worryingly specific."

Roland fired.

The arrow struck a crystalline plate near the shoulder.

It didn’t penetrate.

But it got the Deepwell’s attention.

The creature turned toward him.

Its tongue snapped out.

Roland ducked.

The muscular appendage tore a strip of bark from the tree behind him.

Raven followed the trajectory.

The mouth opened completely for less than a second.

Enough.

If he could get directly in front of it without taking the tongue through his skull.

Valeria threw two blood threads around one hind leg.

The Deepwell pulled.

She slid half a yard through the mud.

"Heavy."

"I noticed."

"Any brilliant ideas?"

"Yes."

Raven picked up one of the soldiers’ short spears and checked the tip.

Steel.

Enough.

Kinetic Acceleration responded through the weapon.

"When it jumps, pull the right leg."

Valeria looked at the creature, then at Raven.

"That’ll make it turn."

"Exactly."

"Toward you."

"Exactly."

"I dislike the second part."

The Deepwell lowered its body.

Its hind legs compressed.

Then it jumped.

Valeria pulled.

The right leg shifted the angle of its launch.

The creature rotated in midair.

It didn’t land where it expected.

Raven used Burst Step.

He appeared directly in front of it.

Predator’s Instinct screamed.

Mouth.

The jaws opened.

The tongue fired.

Raven turned his shoulder.

The muscular mass passed beside his head.

Almost.

Part of it clipped his cheek hard enough to split the skin.

Irrelevant.

Raven trapped the tongue beneath his Stonehide-covered arm.

The Deepwell pulled.

That was what he wanted.

Raven used the force to close the distance.

"Raven!" Valeria shouted.

"I’m fine."

"That never means anything good."

The mouth was still open.

Raven raised the spear.

Kinetic Acceleration.

He drove upward.

The spearhead punched through the soft palate.

The Deepwell convulsed.

Raven shoved deeper.

Brain.

Not abdomen.

The creature tried to close its jaws.

Stonehide spread across Raven’s forearm.

The teeth struck stone.

Pain.

Brutal pressure.

Raven twisted the spear.

The body went still.

It collapsed.

Raven pulled his arm free before ending up underneath it.

For one second, there was only the sound of water.

Then:

[Target Defeated.]

[Species: Deepwell Toad]

[Level: 23]

[Rank: Awakened]

[Experience Acquired.]

[Current Level: 10]

[Current Existence Rank: Common]

[Experience Retained Beyond Current Rank Threshold.]

Valeria reached him.

"Your face is bleeding."

Raven touched the cut.

"Superficial."

"And your arm?"

"Not broken."

"That wasn’t the question."

"Then it’s doing fairly well."

Valeria closed her eyes for a moment.

"I’m going to start charging you every time you make me check whether you’re still intact."

"That sounds expensive."

"That’s the idea."

Raven was already looking at the corpse.

So was Garran.

Both remembered exactly what they had discussed the previous day.

Neither spoke yet.

First, they had to extract the organ.

---

The reservoir was much larger than the previous ones.

Maelor helped open only the necessary section while Raven followed FORGE’s guidance. The abdominal cavity was filled with crystalline structures partially fused with tissue.

It wasn’t simply a bladder.

It looked like an artificial heart made from living crystal.

It continued pulsing even after death.

Raven worked slowly, cutting membranes, sealing vessels, and separating connections.

Valeria watched in silence.

Garran did too.

That was more uncomfortable.

Raven ignored both of them.

One bad incision could turn weeks of travel into nothing.

Eventually, he severed the final conduit.

The reservoir came free in his hands.

Blue.

Semi-transparent.

Heavy.

Liquid mana seemed to move inside it.

FORGE appeared.

[Deepwell Crystalline Reservoir]

[Integrity: 96%]

[Mana Retention: 98%]

[Mana Capacity: EXCELLENT]

[Output Stability: EXCELLENT]

[Pressure Tolerance: HIGH]

[Recharge Potential: EXCELLENT]

[Prototype Rifle Compatibility: 94%]

[Stable Mana Storage Requirement: SATISFIED.]

[HARVEST?]

Raven didn’t hesitate.

[HARVEST.]

The interface changed.

[Deepwell Crystalline Reservoir Registered as FORGE Component.]

[PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE]

[Core Components Acquired: 2 / 5]

[Activation System: AVAILABLE]

[Stable Mana Storage: AVAILABLE]

[Completion: 12.6% → 31.4%]

[Component Preservation Protocol Initiated.]

Thirty-one point four percent.

For the first time, the rifle no longer felt like an impossible concept attached to a ridiculous percentage.

There was still a long way to go.

But it existed.

Raven carefully placed the reservoir inside the best container they had.

Garran spoke.

"We’re requisitioning it."

Raven closed the container.

"No."

"Ashford."

"We already had this conversation."

"The situation changed."

"For you."

The captain gestured toward the ruins.

"We just found the source of an epidemic that has killed dozens of people. The central ward has enough reserves for only a few more days, and that organ could keep it running for weeks."

"And I’ve spent weeks crossing the kingdom looking for it."

"You can find another."

Raven looked at the dead Deepwell.

Then at the captain.

"You find one."

Garran’s jaw tightened.

The nearby soldiers didn’t move.

Neither did Valeria.

Raven didn’t put a hand on his weapon.

There was no need yet.

"You’re inside a quarantine under my authority," Garran said.

"And you came in here because you needed me to find something your patrols couldn’t."

"That doesn’t make the reservoir your property."

"I killed it. I extracted it. And our previous agreement deliberately left this exact situation unresolved."

"Because I expected you to have enough sense to understand what matters more."

Raven looked at him.

"I understand perfectly. To you, Mirevale matters more. To me, my project does."

"There are hundreds of people behind us."

"Then you have hundreds of reasons to find an alternative."

Garran stepped forward.

Valeria spoke before the argument could become something else.

"Captain."

He looked at her.

"Not now."

"Especially now. Because if you try to requisition it by force, we turn a successful operation into another crisis while we’re still standing inside an infected swamp."

Garran said nothing.

Valeria pointed toward the dead Deepwell.

"Besides, we still don’t know what resources the colony left behind."

Raven looked toward the ruins.

She was right.

Several membranes were collapsing, exposing cavities that had previously been hidden.

Inside were bodies.

Not human.

Reservoir Toads.

Many of them.

The Broodmother had been storing prey.

Raven walked over.

Maelor followed.

They found eleven corpses.

Most were too degraded to be useful.

Four were recent.

Their reservoirs were still intact.

FORGE analyzed them one by one.

[Crystalline Mana Reservoir — Integrity: 89% — Project Compatibility: 66% — INSUFFICIENT.]

[Crystalline Mana Reservoir — Integrity: 93% — Project Compatibility: 70% — INSUFFICIENT.]

[Crystalline Mana Reservoir — Integrity: 84% — Project Compatibility: 61% — INSUFFICIENT.]

[Crystalline Mana Reservoir — Integrity: 91% — Project Compatibility: 68% — INSUFFICIENT.]

Raven looked at Maelor.

"They’re garbage to me."

The alchemist almost looked offended again.

"Stop calling them garbage."

"Insufficient."

"Much better."

Garran approached.

Maelor studied the four reservoirs and began calculating.

"With these and what we already have stored..."

"How long?" Garran asked.

"Not weeks like the Deepwell. But several additional days for the central ward. Longer if we prioritize the medical pavilions and use mana crystals for everything else."

Valeria looked at Raven.

He didn’t say anything yet.

Maelor continued.

"And if the Broodmother really was the primary source, demand should begin falling as we eliminate the existing infections."

"If there isn’t another colony," Raven said.

Everyone looked at him.

"Don’t ruin the moment," Valeria said.

"It’s possible."

"I know."

Garran looked at the four reservoirs.

Then at Raven’s container.

He didn’t ask for it again.

Not yet.

"We’re going back," he said.

Raven agreed.

That probably prevented both of them from discovering exactly how much legal authority was worth inside an infected swamp.