Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

The man adjusted the cuff of his glove.

”I didn’t come here to arrest you.”

”Then we don’t have a problem,” Valeria said.

”Yet.”

Raven glanced at her.

Her expression remained perfect.

Cold.

Noble.

Completely certain that her family name alone was enough to make someone reconsider their decisions.

And it worked.

Raven hated how well it worked.

Severin turned back to him.

”House Orbrecht does not forget men who kill its own.”

Raven replied, ”Then perhaps you should start by remembering why they die.”

Valeria closed her eyes for a moment.

Edric hid a smile.

Severin did not.

”We’ll meet again.”

”That seems likely.”

Severin left.

Only after the door closed did Raven look back at the documents.

Valeria looked at him instead.

”You could have been slightly less yourself for thirty seconds.”

”I didn’t need protection.”

”Naturally. You only needed a noble House to prevent someone from arresting you during a meeting full of witnesses.”

”He wasn’t going to arrest me.”

”Because I intervened.”

”That counts as logistics.”

Valeria went silent.

Then she smiled.

”I’ll take it.”

Raven knew she was going to remind him of that for weeks.

Oren Keller left the meeting shortly afterward.

Not voluntarily.

Edric ordered him to remain inside the Helmont complex until his company records could be reviewed.

It wasn’t an arrest.

Nobles simply had enough different words for being confined somewhere against your will.

Mara stayed.

Once only Edric, Mara, Raven, and Valeria remained, the nobleman placed both hands on the table.

”North Shaft Seven is officially closed.”

”I’ve heard.”

”Keller Mining submitted the closure declaration seven months ago. Deep-vein instability. Collapse risk. Production terminated.”

”And that isn’t true.”

Edric looked down at the documents.

”I now have reason to believe it isn’t.”

”So do I,” Mara said.

Raven looked at her.

She seemed uncomfortable.

”I refined two batches of Black Mithril above seventy-five percent purity over the last several months.”

”Source?”

”The secondary documents claimed old inventory.”

”You didn’t believe them.”

”Not entirely.”

”But you refined it.”

Mara’s expression hardened.

”My job is to refine authorized material, not investigate every mine.”

Raven didn’t need to answer.

She already knew how that sounded.

”One of the batches came through Keller,” she continued. ”Eighty-two percent before processing.”

FORGE would have been delighted.

So was Raven.

”Then the vein exists.”

”Almost certainly.”

Edric turned toward Mara.

”Why didn’t you report it?”

”Because a company can hold stock for years, and accusing Keller of concealing a vein without sufficient evidence would have been an excellent way to destroy my business if I was wrong.”

Raven understood.

Incentives.

Always incentives.

Edric stared through the window for several seconds.

”If Keller Mining has been extracting from an undeclared vein, they’ve been avoiding House quotas, Crown taxes, guild oversight, and military restrictions.”

”And some of the metal ends up in Bloodline restraints,” Raven added.

”Yes.”

”Then you want the mine.”

Edric looked at him.

”I want to know what is happening inside it.”

Valeria tapped one finger against the table.

”You can’t send troops.”

”Not officially.”

Raven understood.

”Because officially, the shaft is closed.”

”And because if I move Helmont men into a Keller concession without proper procedure, I turn an audit into an open conflict between Houses and companies.”

Raven looked at Mara.

She was already watching him.

Now he knew where this was going.

”So you need someone who isn’t Helmont.”

Edric smiled.

”You’re beginning to understand Dunvar.”

”I don’t like Dunvar.”

”That means you understand it perfectly.”

Mara pulled out a rolled map and spread it across the table.

”There’s something else.”

North Shaft Seven was marked beside an abandoned mining route.

”Three days ago, an internal team disappeared.”

Raven looked at the mark.

”Miners?”

”Supervisors and six guards.”

”Inside the shaft?”

”Yes.”

”Did Keller request assistance?”

”No.”

Valeria frowned.

”That makes no sense if they actually lost people.”

Mara pointed to a second notation.

”Because officially, those people were never there.”

Raven understood.

They couldn’t request a rescue without admitting they were operating a closed mine.

”Convenient.”

”Not for the missing workers.”

”For whoever wants to hide what happened.”

Mara continued.

”Yesterday, I received a private message from someone inside Keller Mining. No name. Only coordinates and one sentence.”

Raven waited.

Mara looked at him.

”’The vein isn’t the problem.’”

That could mean far too many things.

”What is?”

”I don’t know.”

Edric spoke.

”I want to know before I authorize any official intervention.”

Raven looked down at the map.

A clandestine mine.

Black Mithril above eighty percent purity.

Missing employees.

A connection to the Bloodline trafficking network.

Too many coincidences pointing in the same direction.

That made it dangerous.

It also made it useful.

”What do you want me to do?”

”Investigate.”

”Too broad.”

”Enter the mine. Confirm whether operations are still active. Find out what happened to the missing team. Recover production records and any documentation related to the diverted metal.”

”And if I find evidence of the experiments?”

”Bring it back.”

”Prisoners?”

”If you can.”

Raven raised an eyebrow.

”That sounded optional.”

”I’m not going to ask you to die rescuing workers from an illegal operation.”

Raven respected the man slightly more for that.

At least he didn’t pretend altruism.

”Payment?”

Valeria smiled.

”There it is.”

Edric looked at Mara.

She answered.

”If you confirm the vein and recover enough documentation for Helmont to intervene legally, we can allocate high-purity Black Mithril to you as compensation.”

Raven leaned forward.

”How much?”

Mara gave him the figure.

FORGE responded before Raven finished calculating.

[Estimated Material Allocation: SUFFICIENT for Prototype Rifle Structural Barrel Requirement.]

[Condition: Purity remains ≥78%.]

[Recommended Acquisition Assessment: ACCEPTABLE.]

Enough.

Exactly what he needed.

That was too convenient.

Raven looked at Edric.

Then Mara.

”Why me?”

Mara didn’t hesitate.

”Because you already destroyed another station belonging to the same network.”

Raven had never said destroyed.

Interesting.

”Who told you that?”

She smiled faintly.

”Dunvar has fewer secrets than you think.”

”That didn’t answer the question.”

”It didn’t need to.”

Raven turned to Edric.

”And you?”

”Because Orbrecht already has reason to hate you, Keller probably does too, and you need what is inside that mine. If something goes wrong, none of my soldiers were there.”

Valeria laughed once.

”Finally, someone as pragmatic as Raven.”

Edric shrugged.

”Running mines teaches certain habits.”

Raven returned his attention to the map.

”I want the plans.”

Mara slid another roll toward him.

”The official ones.”

”I want the unofficial ones.”

”I don’t have them.”

”Then I want names of people who worked there.”

”I can get some.”

”Guard rotations.”

”Old ones.”

”Secondary entrances.”

”There’s a ventilation shaft to the west, but it may be sealed.”

”Alarm systems.”

”Runes protecting the deeper entrances.”

”Vein composition.”

Mara looked at him.

”Now I understand why you survived the station.”

Raven kept reading.

”I haven’t accepted yet.”

Edric raised an eyebrow.

Valeria smiled.

She knew.

Raven had already started planning.

The decision was practically made.

Mara understood too.

”What’s missing?”

Raven pointed toward the promised allocation.

”Written guarantee.”

Edric laughed.

”Of course.”

”Minimum purity, seventy-eight percent.”

”Eighty.”

Raven looked up.

”That works.”

”Enough material for your project, provided you recover useful evidence.”

”Define useful.”

Edric answered without hesitation.

”Enough for me to legally enter North Shaft Seven afterward and seize the concession for fraud.”

Raven looked at Valeria.

”He wants the mine.”

She smiled.

”I told you.”

Edric didn’t deny it.

”And you want the metal. I see no conflict.”

Neither did Raven.

That worried him slightly.

Deals that looked too clean usually hid the dirty part somewhere else.

Mara rolled up one of the maps.

”One last thing.”

Raven waited.

”Don’t use the main entrance.”

”That was already decided.”

”It isn’t only because of the guards. Two days ago, Keller central office sent three crates of Black Mithril suppressors to North Shaft Seven.”

Valeria tensed.

Raven remembered the chain around Nyxara’s arm.

The burns.

The slowed regeneration.

FORGE’s warning about biological mana interference.

”Purity?”

”Between forty and fifty percent.”

”Enough to affect Awakened.”

”And probably worse for anyone whose magic depends directly on a Bloodline.”

Valeria looked at him.

”That includes me.”

Her Blood Magic came from an inherited human Bloodline.

Raven nodded.

”Then we don’t enter relying on your magic either.”

”How exciting. Now I understand why you enjoy operations so much.”

”I never said I enjoyed them.”

”Your face changes when you start planning.”

”No.”

”Yes.”

Mara looked between them.

”Last night’s rumors are beginning to sound less absurd.”

Valeria smiled.

Raven closed the map.

”Don’t help.”

They left the Helmont residence shortly after two.

Raven carried a sealed contract, official plans, an initial list of workers, and a guarantee of enough high-purity Black Mithril to satisfy the rifle’s third requirement.

He also carried a mission into a mine that officially did not exist, operated by a company possibly connected to Bloodline trafficking and equipped with material specifically capable of interfering with their abilities.

Valeria walked beside him down the steps.

”So.”

”So what?”

”Last night, we pretended to be possibly engaged. Today, we stopped Orbrecht from turning you into a legal problem, and now we’re infiltrating a clandestine mine together.”

”When you say it like that, it sounds less efficient.”

”I think it sounds like a remarkably fast relationship.”

Raven looked at her.

Valeria was smiling.

She was still enjoying the previous night far too much.

”It was logistics.”

”Naturally.”

”And I didn’t need you to protect me from Orbrecht.”

”Also naturally.”

”You prevented an administrative complication.”

Valeria pretended to consider that.

”So I was useful.”

Raven stopped.

She had done it intentionally.

That word.

Again.

Valeria walked two more steps before looking back.

”What?”

Raven studied her.

”Nothing.”

”That didn’t look like nothing.”

”I’m considering how long you intend to keep using that word against me.”

Valeria smiled.

”Probably for as long as it keeps meaning more than you admit.”

Raven resumed walking.

”That could be a long time.”

Valeria took half a second to answer.

”Careful. That almost sounded like you plan on keeping me around.”

Raven didn’t respond.

She didn’t need one.

Her smile lasted all the way back to the commercial district.

Roland was waiting at the inn.

Raven spread the North Shaft Seven plans across the table.

The archer studied them.

”Did we buy the metal?”

”No.”

”Get the permit?”

”No.”

Roland frowned.

”Then what did we accomplish in three hours?”

Valeria sat down.

”A secret mine.”

Roland looked at her.

Then at Raven.

”Of course.”

Raven pointed toward the map.

”We go in tomorrow.”

”What’s inside?”

”High-purity Black Mithril.”

”That sounds good.”

”An illegal operation.”

”Less good.”

”Missing workers.”

”Worse.”

”Suppressors capable of interfering with mana and Bloodlines.”

Roland closed his eyes.

”I’m going to stop asking.”

Raven pointed toward one of the access routes.

”I need you to study this.”

Roland leaned over the map.

Valeria watched Raven from the opposite side of the table.

”You know what’s funny?”

Raven continued reviewing the routes.

”You’re probably going to tell me.”

”A few days ago, you thought getting Black Mithril meant reaching Dunvar and buying it.”

”That seemed reasonable.”

”Since then, you’ve faked an engagement, irritated a noble House, uncovered mining fraud, and agreed to infiltrate an illegal mine.”

Raven looked up.

”Killing monsters was simpler.”

Valeria laughed.

Roland pointed to a notation on the map.

”This says the shaft was abandoned because of collapse risk.”

Raven looked back down.

”Officially.”

”And unofficially?”

Raven thought of Transfer Station Four.

The restraints.

The Bloodline extraction experiments.

Oren Keller recognizing him.

The missing workers.

And a vein of Black Mithril pure enough to interfere with bodies far stronger than his own.

”Unofficially, we find out tomorrow.”

FORGE appeared in front of him.

[PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE]

[Completion: 31.4%]

[Core Components: 2/5]

[Structural Barrel Material: NOT ACQUIRED.]

[High-Purity BLACK MITHRIL Source Identified: NORTH SHAFT SEVEN.]

[Acquisition Route Available.]

[Warning: Significant Biological Mana Interference Expected.]

Raven closed the interface.

He had arrived in Dunvar looking for metal.

Now he had to steal information from a mine that didn’t exist so he could legally acquire material already being extracted illegally.

Civilization.

Valeria had been right.

It was dangerous.