Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

Nyxara straightened away from the table.

”I think that question deserves a quick answer.”

Keller swallowed.

”High-purity Black Mithril can almost completely shut down specific mana channels if the runes are designed correctly.”

Raven looked at the restraint on the table.

”Champion?”

”I don’t know.”

Nyxara smiled.

Keller corrected himself immediately.

”It can affect one. Contain one is different. Bloodline density matters. So does metal purity, rune architecture, exposure time—”

”The chain used on her was barely twenty percent,” Raven said.

Keller stopped.

That told Raven enough.

The chain had burned Nyxara’s skin, slowed her regeneration, and weakened Abyssal Dominion.

At low purity.

FORGE updated.

[BLACK MITHRIL — Material Property Analysis Updated.]

[Biological Mana Interference Increases with Refinement Purity.]

[High-Purity Samples May Disrupt Host Mana Circulation if Incorporated Without Isolation Architecture.]

[Prototype Rifle Compatibility Remains HIGH.]

[Additional Structural Design Adaptation Recommended.]

Raven stared at the message.

The material he needed to contain the rifle’s internal pressure could also interfere with his own mana if he built the weapon incorrectly.

Perfect.

Nothing could ever be simple.

Valeria noticed his expression.

”FORGE?”

”High-purity Black Mithril can interfere with me too.”

”Does that change your plan?”

”No.”

”Of course not.”

”It changes the design.”

That answer satisfied her more than the first one would have.

Raven opened the next document.

Payments.

Large ones.

Keller Mining Company was receiving money through ordinary commercial accounts, shell companies, and several routes that made no sense for low-grade metal.

Raven slid the ledger toward Keller.

”This isn’t payment for restraints.”

Keller said nothing.

”The station doesn’t move enough merchandise to justify these numbers either.”

Still nothing.

Raven tapped one entry.

”So what are they buying?”

Keller looked at Nyxara.

Bad choice.

”Research.”

”What kind?”

”Hereditary extraction. Trait preservation. Graft stabilization. Rejection suppression.”

Raven waited.

Keller understood.

”And transfer between subjects.”

Valeria’s expression hardened.

”The laboratory downstairs.”

”One of them.”

That changed the room.

Raven looked up.

”One of them?”

Keller realized too late what he had said.

Nyxara moved closer.

”How many?”

”I don’t know.”

”Better answer,” Raven said.

Keller’s jaw tightened.

”The work is compartmentalized. Different sites handle different stages. Some extract. Some preserve. Some test implantation. No station receives the whole process.”

Distributed research.

That was worse.

Destroying one laboratory would accomplish almost nothing.

”How long?” Raven asked.

”The program expanded eighteen months ago. Before that, we moved monster organs, restricted alchemical materials, illegal grafts. Then the orders changed.”

”Live subjects.”

Keller nodded.

”Who changed them?”

”I never saw a name.”

”Code.”

Silence.

Nyxara moved one finger.

Keller’s shadow stretched unnaturally across the floor.

”Patron Seven.”

Valeria glanced at Raven and shook her head.

Unknown.

”Person?” Raven asked.

”I don’t know.”

”Organization?”

”I don’t know.”

”You moved their money.”

”I moved what I was told to move.”

”How much influence?”

Keller gave a humorless laugh.

”Enough that shipments disappear at borders. Enough that inspectors sign papers they never read. Enough that people in three kingdoms learn not to ask why certain caravans aren’t searched.”

That was more useful.

And substantially worse.

This wasn’t a wealthy collector funding private experiments.

It was infrastructure.

”What does Patron Seven want?” Raven asked.

Keller hesitated.

Nyxara’s shadow climbed the leg of his chair.

”A stable transfer.”

”Of what?”

His eyes moved toward Nyxara.

No one needed the rest.

”Bloodlines,” Valeria said.

”Not only Bloodborn,” Keller said quickly. ”Any strong hereditary structure. Noble human lines. Beastkin. Demons. Anything stable enough to survive extraction.”

”Why Bloodborn?” Raven asked.

Keller’s gaze dropped.

”Older Bloodlines preserve their pattern longer after removal.”

Raven understood immediately.

Bloodborn weren’t valuable merely because they were rare.

Their power was deeply embedded in their biology.

Better experimental material.

Better chances of surviving extraction.

Better chances of making the impossible work.

Nyxara walked toward Keller.

Raven didn’t stop her.

She placed the black horn recovered from the caravan on the table.

”I want the supplier.”

Keller went pale.

There it was.

”I can’t.”

Nyxara smiled without humor.

”You can.”

”They’ll kill me.”

”If you remain useful to them.”

Keller looked at her.

Nyxara leaned closer.

”If you don’t answer me, usefulness stops mattering.”

Valeria stayed silent.

So did Raven.

Keller’s breathing quickened.

”Soren Vhal.”

Nyxara went completely still.

Raven watched her face.

Recognition.

Not surprise.

”You know him.”

”Yes.”

Her voice had lost every trace of amusement.

”Soren Vhal belonged to a minor House of the Night Courts. Six years ago, he sold border-route information and disappeared before judgment.”

”We thought he was dead,” Nyxara added.

Keller shook his head.

”He isn’t.”

”Where?”

”I don’t know. He uses intermediaries. His last payment moved west twelve days ago.”

Nyxara grabbed the ledger.

”Route.”

”N-17.”

Raven found it.

West.

Away from Dunvar.

Nyxara studied the entry, then closed the book.

She had what she needed.

For now.

Raven turned back to Keller.

”My turn. Which mine?”

Keller stared at him.

”What?”

”I need Black Mithril pure enough to survive extreme structural pressure. Not refinery waste. Which Keller Mining operation produces the best ore?”

Valeria glanced at him.

”Subtle.”

”He knows we have the records.”

Keller laughed weakly.

”All of this, and you’re still thinking about your metal?”

”Partly.”

”North Shaft Seven.”

Raven unfolded the map.

”Show me.”

Keller pointed northwest of Dunvar, close to the mountains.

”Officially, it produces medium-grade ore.”

”And actually?”

Keller hesitated.

Raven looked at the hidden payment ledgers.

Then at the suppression restraints.

Then back at him.

”You already answered the difficult questions.”

Keller exhaled.

”We found a deeper vein seven months ago.”

”How pure?”

”Enough that we stopped reporting samples.”

Valeria leaned over the map.

”House Helmont doesn’t know.”

Keller said nothing.

Raven answered for him.

”No.”

”The vein was declared unstable,” Keller finally said.

”While Keller Mining kept extracting it.”

”Small quantities.”

”How small?”

”Enough that Helmont wouldn’t notice without auditing the waste records.”

Which meant the same accounting trick funding the trafficking network was hiding high-purity Black Mithril from the House that legally controlled the region.

Raven marked the location.

FORGE reacted.

[Potential High-Purity BLACK MITHRIL Source Identified.]

[Location Recorded.]

[Structural Barrel Material Acquisition Probability Increased.]

[Current Project Completion: 31.4%.]

He still didn’t have the metal.

But the search had narrowed from a region to a mine.

From a mine to a shaft.

From a shaft to a concealed deep vein.

Progress.

”I need access.”

Keller looked at him as though Raven had asked for the keys to a royal treasury.

”You cannot walk into North Shaft Seven.”

”I assumed.”

”The deep levels require separate authorization.”

Raven picked up the Keller Mining seal.

”This?”

”Warehouses and surface facilities.”

”So no.”

”No.”

Raven searched the black box again.

A sheet folded four times sat beneath the remaining documents.

Shipping certificate.

Authentic company seal.

Temporary material inspection authorization.

Destination: Dunvar.

Issued through Keller Mining Company’s central office.

Valeria took it from him.

”This could get us through the outer facilities.”

Keller closed his eyes.

”For now.”

Raven looked at him.

That qualification mattered.

”For now?”

Keller opened his eyes again.

”If Station Four misses its next scheduled report, central operations will know something happened.”

”How long?”

”I don’t know exactly.”

Raven’s stare remained flat.

Keller corrected himself.

”Soon.”

Valeria looked toward the road east.

”And once they know?”

”Credentials get invalidated. Routes change. Warehouses empty.”

Nyxara added quietly, ”And laboratories disappear.”

Keller didn’t contradict her.

Raven folded the permit.

So North Shaft Seven wasn’t simply a destination anymore.

It was a closing window.

And somewhere between them and Dunvar was an organization wealthy enough to hide shipments across three kingdoms, distribute Bloodline research across multiple sites, silence its own employees remotely, and quietly divert a material capable of suppressing hereditary power.

Raven stored the permit.

”I don’t need it to work forever.”

Keller looked at him.

”Only long enough.”