Chapter 541 (1/2)
Donny steepled his fingers, his expression grave. “What do we know?”
“They knew the location of the mine. They knew its defenses, at least in the general sense. They knew the location of Tellumurite in the mines. They retrieved the Tellumurite. It’s hard to tell if they knew our shipping schedule, but they struck two days prior to the packing day. Therefore, they received five days worth of the mineral.” Mrs. Hamilton said smoothly as if she was checking off items from a list in her mind. Then she glanced at Simon, who sat cross-legged in the middle of the room.
It was extremely rare for Simon to travel anywhere in person since he had become the Zone’s Champion. Which just made Donny more worried.
Simon said nothing, so Mrs. Hamilton continued.
“Their main force was composed of Raid Boss minions. The Raid Bosses themselves were located in a small camp several miles away. Their location has been found, but they have done well to cover their tracks. The Raid Boss minions were released to run rampant. Although we may have missed a few, Glendel is using his ghosts to cover most of the plains as we speak. Based upon these facts, I surmise that they have been biding their time nearby the mine for at least a month, building up forces. These all were fodder to obtain the mineral.”
“Why?” Donny asked, straightening his hands and flexing them. “Why spend so much time to get Tellumurite? It can give a boost to Skill performance and learning Skills, but with just that amount-”
“We can’t rule out that they plan to use it… in an unusual way.” Mrs. Hamilton said with a sigh.
“...you mean in the way Randidly used it. To ignite a great deal of Aether to cause an explosion.” Donny said with a sigh. “We are talking real terrorists. And if that’s the case, I assume the prime suspect is… Yystrix. The Creature, as Randidly calls her.”
All gazes turned to the fourth person in the room, Lyra. She calmly sipped her team, seemingly unperturbed by their suspicions. Donny had taken Randidly’s message seriously, but he had a very different relationship with Lyra. He understood that she was prideful, but she truly wanted the best for humanity.
But her posture now very clearly indicated that she would contribute nothing to the conversation. So Donny moved the topic forward.
He turned to Simon. “How did you miss this? With this many Raid Bosses, shouldn’t it be easy to detect?”
Simon sighed, and Donny was surprised that now, of all times, Lyra spoke up. “Let Mrs. Hamilton talk about the core squad of the enemy’s operation.”
“...Yes, I believe that also contains the answer. I am of the opinion that the Creature had a hand in this, but she hired out the labor. The core was four individuals. A man with obsidian armor. A huge man with a deep, bass voice who remained covered the entire time. A strange monster the size of a car. And…”
Simon sighed again and then spoke. “Someone who wields a hammer, yes? It was they that struck the final blow.”
The room fell silent for several seconds.
“Thea,” Donny said slowly, looking around. Lyra smiled at him.
“She is Nemesis,” The Village Spirit who had once been a person said softly. “Just like Champions seek to raise us up, us as in Humans, Nemesai will attempt to make us fail the tests of the System. The Calamity is their god. It makes sense that they would work in conjunction with Yystrix.”
The group mulled that over for a bit. A classification that would hinder the Zone made a lot of sense, considering the past moves the System made to fuck them over. It was just somewhat tiring because there was always a trap.
“But where did they find the man with the obsidian armor that kept Decklan tied up? That level of fighter… he wasn’t someone from Zone 1, unless they are severely tricking us with the information available.” Donny said.
Mrs. Hamilton pushed her glasses up her nose. “I have a theory. But it… has some troubling implications. Specifically, that the System’s goal is to punish overly powerful races. Even the final resting places of seven Zones means that there would be an extremely high pressure…”