Chapter 436: Sneaking Into The Facility

Katarina had arrived, ready to support Auric with the investigation.

"We’ve got the map." Katarina showed the picture as soon as she arrived. "We’ll be able to enter it soon."

Before they could continue, Arnie opened the door and saw everyone already gathered.

"You’re still here?" Maya looked surprised.

"Is that a problem? I’m curious about what they’re hiding over there."

"But shouldn’t you get an order from the higher-ups to shut down your operation?"

"Yes. I’ve forced them to comply with the closure, and I personally oversee the complete evacuation of this facility. In other words, the facility is not active, so you will have to go in the dark."

"Don’t worry. We have him." Maya pointed at Auric.

"Ah, right! You have a light element. Now that I think about it, is it fine to reveal that element now?"

"Yes. I have shown them almost all elements, except for the light element and the water element. So, it doesn’t matter anymore. For the time being, the information is suppressed by the Evolution Association in exchange for my tests for all elements."

"Hmm. Fair point." Arnie nodded in understanding.

"By the way, anything we need to know about the facility?"

"I don’t think so. They should know that even if I sneak inside, I’m not allowed to do anything or eliminate them. However, they also know they won’t be able to stop me from entering the facility.

"Any traps or sensors should have been deactivated, so we will be fine. Still, I’m trying to learn what they’re doing down there. I can always use the excuse of the woman I saved from the elemental turbulence to get out of trouble."

Maya thought for a moment and raised one finger. "I don’t mind you tagging along. It might be safer that way, but I need a bit of your cooperation."

"Of course. As long as it’s not illegal from my perspective, I’m happy to cooperate."

"Good." Maya smiled. With Arnie around, their operation should be safer.

"So, what’s the plan?" Arnie asked.

Katarina briefed them. "The plan is to go under the cover of darkness. We’ll enter, search the area around, and leave without leaving any trace. This way, no one will suspect that we’re the ones manipulating them."

"Are you going to take anything? They should be monitoring everything with the cameras, and the data should be in the computer. Since the facility is not operational, we won’t be able to get access to it."

"We are not planning to do that. What we want is simple. Figure out what this place is all about and leave." Katarina reassured Arnie.

Auric added, "All I need is to get a clean scan to know what’s going on. After that, we’ll leave."

"You’re going to share that information with me?"

"Maybe?" Auric shrugged. He didn’t know how sensitive this information would be, so he wasn’t sure what to do.

Most of the time, it would be him and Lindwurm who did the thinking. After filtering some information, Auric would then give that information to the people around him.

This time, he wasn’t so sure. This was a clue left behind by his father. It might contain the truth about this world, so he didn’t know whether he should share it or not.

After all, information like this would be considered top secret.

Hence, he planned to verify the information first before revealing anything.

"Fine by me. If that’s the case, see you tomorrow night. It’s best to let the two families fight it out first before we make a move. Besides, they will lower their guards once they apologize to that kid, Axel Aheron." Arnie turned to Auric. "Still, you may think you’re amazing for being able to move the Aheron family, but from what I’ve heard, the Aheron family is like a vampire. This deal you’ve made with them might come back to bite you."

Auric nodded with a serious expression. "Everyone has told me that."

"Very well. See you again tomorrow." Arnie waved his hand and left.

Auric and the others just looked at each other.

Katarina simply continued, finalizing their plans based on the current situation.

...

The next day.

They gathered not far from the facility. With Arnie around, they could sneak out of the city without any problems, killing all the beasts in their way.

Katarina monitored the entire situation, especially the activities of the two families. Meanwhile, Auric alerted them to all the beasts on their path, making sure none of them made any noise.

With two Rank 5 humans and one Rank 6 human, they managed to suppress all the beasts on the way to the facility.

As expected, even though it was closed, security personnel still remained in the area. They couldn’t afford to have the beasts entering this facility and ruining everything.

However, the security had become lax due to the conflict between the two families.

Arnie led the team and slipped past all of them, using the darkness as cover. Auric and the others followed closely, using the darkness as their cover. If the darkness wasn’t enough, Auric and Maya would be there to provide additional darkness to completely disappear.

Once they reached a certain point, they immediately took the shortcut by jumping down.

Auric used his wind element to soften the impact.

As soon as they reached the entrance, Auric scanned the area to see if anyone remained.

"No one seems to be around," said Auric.

"It’s extremely dark, so we’ll have to be careful." Arnie waved his hand.

Auric and Stella used their light elements to create multiple light balls to brighten the area. They immediately entered the facility.

"Hmm..." Maya looked around. The corridor was filled with steel mesh and huge pipes.

"According to Axel, this facility was built because of the high concentration of energy. They’re trying to create artificial ruins and harvest the relics. Unlike the farming ruins where they clear the entire area and put things inside, they’re trying to contain the energy from the former ruins with this facility."

Auric nodded in understanding. "The concentration of energy here is indeed high, especially the concentrations of wind, earth, and dark energy. However, that’s all I can see right now. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. Let’s continue."

’Lindwurm, do you know anything?’ Auric asked.

Lindwurm shook his head. "Unfortunately, I can’t say anything to you right now. However, you should be able to find the clue in this place."

Auric kept looking. At the very least, Lindwurm had worded his response in a way that implied Auric could find the clue while the facility was not active.

This meant the trip wouldn’t be wasted.

Katarina looked at the map and said, "We have three main areas to check. The first one is the chamber that even Axel couldn’t access. The second one is the main cave. There’s supposed to be nothing there, but according to the people here, it has the highest concentration of energy. Last but not least, they seem to be holding some pieces of artifacts that don’t seem to belong to this facility or the apartment complex."

"Which place will we find first?"

"According to the map, it will be the second one."

"The cave..." Auric frowned.

As Katarina said, the energy density in the area was gradually increasing as they approached the cave.

However, Auric couldn’t see anything special on the way to the cave, which made him suspicious.

Arnie asked, "Getting exposed to such dense energy won’t be a problem for us, right?"

He thought that if there were a barrier here, they would end up dead.

Auric nodded. "Don’t worry. Everything is safe. The dense energy is a concern, but it’s not as concentrated as the energy in your typical barrier. At best, this is a kind of environment within the ruins. Just have a lot of energy that will harm you after prolonged exposure. Since we’ll be leaving before the sun is up, there should be no problem."

"Very good." Arnie felt relieved. He didn’t want to owe Auric anything else no matter how small it would be.

"This way. We just have to take a left one more time to find the cave."

They nodded and increased their pace, trying to reach the cave as quickly as possible.

The facility ended not long after. There was another gate.

"Hmm... How are we supposed to enter this place? We can’t destroy it, so..." Arnie frowned.

Auric, on the other hand, noticed something. The energy behind the door was actually much denser and more concentrated. "Hmm... That’s weird."

"What’s weird?"

"The energy behind the door looks much more like the energy inside a barrier." Auric frowned.

"Really? What does that mean actually?" Arnie tilted his head in confusion.

"Such a thing can only occur within a barrier."

"!!!" Arnie frowned. "Are you saying that there is another barrier in this location? An underground palace or something?"

Auric shook his head. "No. Rather than ruins, it’s like..."

Auric paused for a moment, trying to figure out the correct words to describe what was going on.

"I’m not entirely sure right now. Are they trying to trap the energy and let it continuously accumulate inside this cave? As a result, the energy will gradually become denser and denser, making it similar to the barrier. After that, they’ll put items inside. Since there’s nothing else for the energy to stick to, the energy will stick to these items..." Auric frowned.

"Is that like an artifact generator?" Maya frowned. "That’s definitely going to put my family out of business."

"I’m warning you that you can’t sabotage them. I’ll consider it illegal and take you down." Arnie stared at Maya.

"I know that."

"Not really. If they could do that, they would have done so already. Besides, creating the ruins yourself would be much more efficient for producing artifacts." Auric shook his head.

"What? You can make ruins?" Arnie frowned.

Auric looked surprised for a second before saying, "Of course... not."