Chapter 546 (1/2)

The first thing his roots told him was that there were several people crying in tiny cells along the back of the facility. There was a large front area that he couldn’t really get into, but beyond that, there were several smaller rooms. Two of them appeared to be laboratories. One was a gym, of all things.

In one of the laboratories, a woman was standing over a senseless young woman, seeming to stop and admire the scalpel. Randidly’s lip curled upwards.

‘Don’t you fucking dare.’

All across the facility, Randidly poured his Mana into the plant matter that was squirming along on reconnaissance missions. With that infusion, the tiny individual plants swelled to ten times their size, reaching out to grasp the half-dozen or so workers that were in the facility. Instantly, alarms began to ring.

Randidly cursed quietly. If he had time, he could have disabled that. But saving the girl was more important. And within 10 seconds, his plants had ripped deeply enough into the electrical lines that ran through the facility that the alarm sputtered and failed. There wasn’t even a backup power to the bunker, so everything was plunged into darkness. Those crying individuals in the back continued to wail.

For now, Randidly had to ignore them. Instantly, he sprung into motion and leaped over to land on top of the small mound. He had a problem. Although he had quickly overwhelmed the other workers, that fucking scalpel woman was fighting off most of his vines. Although Randidly thought he had her dead to rights from the get-go, she was able to overpower his vines and click something on her belt. It activated an energysuit which sprung up around her.

The suit burned through the plants, but it also quickly ripped through the energy cell that kept the suit going. Randidly’s mouth quirked into a vicious smile. That was the real problem with the exosuits that Randidly had seen; they simply didn’t embrace the System. They were powerful sure, but they relied on batteries. Who had time for batteries in a fight?

After making a mental note to see if exosuits used different runes to operate, Randidly redoubled his efforts against the scalpel woman. Luckily she had moved away from the unconscious woman when Randidly moved in with the plants, but it also meant she had been able to reach other cutting medical tools, which she used very skillfully to fight his plants off.

Then Randidly was able to cut the power. Within 5 seconds, the woman was bound and restrained, albeit with some difficulties. Randidly grimaced. The woman probably had almost 200 Strength, or a Skill Leveled to a ridiculous degree.

Upon the surface, Randidly pointed at the ground and sent a command to his plants. There was likely an easier way down into the facility, but he couldn’t be bothered with it. Besides, the woman had spoken rapidly while fighting off his plants, and Randidly somehow doubted that she was asking for mercy from a plant.

So his plants swelled and simply ripped apart the ground, exposing the facility below. Randidly hopped down, Dinesh close behind him.

“There are 8 people at the back in cells. I’ll go handle the girl they already brought to the operating room,” Randidly said grimly, and Dinesh nodded and dashed off into the darkness. Randidly took a different path and soon arrived at one of the laboratories. Although he didn’t want to dwell too long, he took the time to peer in.

The plants had senses that Randidly could use, but mostly they were pressure and air currents. Therefore sounds and objects were possible to discern with a little work, but color was difficult. Not that Randidly thought he would find a big red button, but still…

What he did see in his brief glance was that there were bloodstains on the table. Randidly’s eyes narrowed. Although it was almost perfect darkness, Randidly seemed to see the room in perfect clarity. It was due to one of Neveah’s Skills seeping over, but it was extremely useful.

Below the operating table, there was actually an apparatus that collected blood. The wall was lined with shelves that could house jars. There were 6 tables in the lab, but only one of them ever seemed to be used. Underutilized? It was audacious, that it seemed that whatever organization that created these locations had plans to scale up the usage.

What was their timeline?

After checking the scalpel woman was still safely bound and the unconscious woman was breathing, Randidly walked forward a bit and peered into the gym area. The large area up front he had now infiltrated and was just a loading bay for their trucks. There were small housing quarters for the employees along the east wall, but the gym still struck Randidly as extremely strange.

And upon seeing it, Randidly realized why.

“This equipment isn’t for the employees…” Randidly whispered as he looked at the intricate and intimidating pieces of machinery. Every exercise piece contained restraints. “...these are for the people they captured?”