Chapter 462: The Greatest Monster Maker I

"But the more we studied this man’s creations, the more we realized that we were not dealing with an ordinary Volkari."

"How good is he?" Lian asked.

Gareth stayed silent for a few seconds.

"Probably the best monster creator we have ever seen from their civilization."

He understood the importance of the prisoner behind those walls, if what the commander said was true, that man was not just a crazy person from a strange civilization.

He might have part of a knowledge that, if the Federation gained access to it, could affect the power of all humanity.

They walked a few more steps in silence.

"So what exactly do you want from me?"

"Get him to talk." Gareth answered without going around the subject.

"That’s it?" Lian raised an eyebrow.

"That simple thing that everyone in this base has failed to do, plus there are three main things we want."

He raised his first finger.

"First, see if you can find out what he wants in exchange for cooperation. He doesn’t have to give us all his knowledge right away. Even if we only find out what can convince him, we will have taken one step forward."

His second finger.

"Second, find out if there are other people like him in our world."

His expression became more serious.

"This part is even more important for security than his monster-making knowledge. We are not comfortable with the idea that people from the Ruined Realms might be living inside our cities without us knowing."

Then his third finger.

"And finally, find out how he entered our world."

"I thought he entered through the cracks." The young Vorhelm slightly frowned.

"That was our first guess too."

"But?"

"We have no evidence." Gareth slowly shook his head.

Lian said nothing for a few moments, cracks or rifts were one of the best-known results of failures in the Ruined Realm.

The exact conditions for opening them were not always the same.

If the clearing of a dungeon in the Ruined Realm failed, the monsters inside could enter Earth through a crack.

The death of a certain number of Awakened could cause a crack to open.

Some events had their own special conditions, sometimes no one even knew which condition had been activated until the crack opened.

But the result was almost always the same, a path between the two worlds opened and monsters entered Earth.

Lian had thought from the beginning that the white-eyed man had somehow entered along with one of these waves.

At that time, because they had guessed that not only monsters but also people from the Ruined Realms might enter through the cracks, even he had become worried.

Because if that was true, all their knowledge about the Ruined Realms would be called into question.

But it seemed the Federation was still not sure that such a thing was possible, or it simply was not willing to accept it.

"Our guess might be correct. There is even a high chance, but a possibility is not enough." Gareth said.

Lian understood what he meant.

If the white-eyed man had found another way to travel between the worlds and if others also knew that way, the Federation’s security problem would be much bigger than a few cracks.

The problem was that there was a large civilization in the Tenth Ruined Realm and they did not want to take the risk that the people of this realm might also find a way to enter their world.

That was why, to make sure something like that would not happen, they had to identify the way itself as soon as possible.

"I understand, but I won’t promise that I can get anything out of him." He slowly nodded his head.

"I’m not expecting a miracle."

"But I’ll try."

"Thank you, Mr. Vorhelm." Gareth smiled.

"Mr.?" Lian turned his eyes toward him.

"You’re trying so hard to help us, I should show you a little respect."

For a few seconds, the weight of the conversation became lighter, but another question was still in his mind.

"Anyway... how are the cracks these days?"

The commander’s smile disappeared immediately and a short frown appeared between his eyebrows.

"Bad, very bad." These two words were enough to make the young Vorhelm serious.

"The number of cracks opening is higher than we expected. Not a little higher... significantly higher."

They passed another security door.

"Several small cities have fallen. We took some of them back, some are still in the hands of monsters. The army, Guilds and independent groups are constantly moving around, but the main problem is the number of fronts."

"How is it compared to the previous Ruined Realms?" Lian asked.

Gareth frowned.

"The number of monsters that have entered Earth from the Tenth Ruined Realm during this same period is much higher than what we saw in the first year of several previous realms."

He became silent for a moment, this comparison was not a small thing, the Tenth Ruined Realm was still new, if the pressure was already this high at the beginning, what would happen in the following years?

"Don’t you have a plan to prevent the cities from falling?"

"We do. That’s why no major city has fallen so far."

The commander locked his fingers behind his back.

"The defense networks of the main cities are on the highest level of alert. We have quick response groups, the Guilds have given their required number of forces, the army has moved more units and the warning systems are constantly being improved."

Then he let out a short sigh.

"The problem is the small cities. You can’t keep a permanent army, several high-level Awakened and a defense system as strong as the capital in every small city. Resources are limited."

His tone became heavier.

"The governments are sending forces, the Federation is doing the same, the Guilds are also helping whenever they can, but there are not just one or two problems."

With every step, his voice became more serious.

"The cracks are one problem. The Ruined Realm itself is another. Dungeons, evacuating people, moving resources, defending cities, taking back fallen areas... all of them need forces at the same time."

He stayed silent for a few moments and this time his silence was different from before, as if he did not want to say the next sentence.

"What is it?" Lian noticed.

Gareth did not answer for several steps ....then he slowly said.

"What bothers me the most is that I feel this is still only the beginning."

The young Vorhelm looked at him and this time he did not stop either.

"If this continues, we might face the hardest test humanity has seen in these two hundred and fifty years."

He paused for a moment and then said something that even made Lian’s steps slow for a moment.

"Maybe even something on the level of the Forbidden Era."

He said nothing.

The Forbidden Era.

It was not a name that someone would easily say in a normal conversation.

Even several decades later, history books still recorded a large part of the information from that era in a different way from normal events.

An era when a Demon had entered their world.

And the presence of that single creature had been enough to cause the fall of a continent.

A continent!

Even now, more than 150 years later, parts of that disaster had still not been completely repaired.

Lian only looked at the hallway in front of him for a few seconds, if a student made such a comparison, it might be called an exaggeration.

But Gareth was a commander who saw the real reports about cracks, casualties, fallen areas and the situation on the fronts.

If he was talking about the Forbidden Era, it meant that what normal people knew about the current situation was probably only a small part of the real picture.

"Commander, what do you mean by—" He opened his mouth.

Gareth suddenly stopped, Lian also became silent... there was no longer a long hallway in front of them, instead, a huge black door covered the entire wall.

It was almost four meters tall and there was no normal handle or opening on its surface.

Several array circles were carved into the metal, some for restraint, some for resistance and several other arrays were so complex that their purpose was not clear.

Two armed guards were standing on both sides of the door and both immediately moved aside when they saw the commander.

But what caught Lian’s attention the most was the pressure, the mana suppression arrays in this area were several times stronger.

The mana inside his body was still moving, but it had become extremely heavy.

Even activating a powerful skill here would probably be several times harder than normal, in fact, it was completely impossible, he could not even activate a skill here.

Gareth looked at him.

"We’ll talk about the rest later."

Then he placed his palm on the identification panel beside the door and a thin white line moved across the panel.

[Identity confirmed.]

Click.

The first lock was released, the light on one of the array circles went out.

Click.

The second lock.

Then the third.

Each time, the sound of the heavy lock opening echoed through the hallway, louder than the one before, and finally all the lines on the door turned white for a few seconds.

He lowered his hand.

"It’s here."

Vorhelm kept his eyes on the black door.

Behind these few meters of metal and arrays was the same man who, among everyone in this base, had asked to speak to only one person.

Him.

"The white-eyed man’s cell."