Chapter 579 (2/2)

Slowly, Randidly moved and took all of their black masks off. They all had the same youthful female face. Father Foster’s.

Then it all clicked.

His visage stony, Randidly walked out of the small room. Even as he was furious, he knew he couldn’t risk letting any hint of his presence leak out. Or else the people here… He would need to move fast to save them. Even now, he sent messages to Dinesh and Tykes to bring people to assist him. But they would be hard-pressed to handle the threat alone.

Abruptly, he felt a pang of loss that he had cut himself off so abruptly from Donnyton. He looked to the East, where that strange new Aether could still be felt, albeit dimly as it merged with the Aether of this world. He had to, in a way. He couldn’t stand Lyra and recognized that she was perhaps just as powerful as he was, in her own way. What she had accomplished… Well, Randidly suspected he didn’t even know the half of it.

But he couldn’t trust her. She thought she knew better than him. And in her mind, that was that.

Sighing, Randidly turned back forward and froze. Down the hall from him, a figure was standing. Her gaze was on him, a small smile on her face. Randidly’s eyes narrowed.

She spoke before he did. “Fascinating. I had worried that you would be a rather capable warrior, but I figured the sedative I prepared could knock out anyone… Do you have a Skill for recovery? A high Level one too. Fascinating.”

Her steps were loud as she walked down the empty metallic hall towards him. Randidly was acutely aware that they were at the bottom of a deep lake. The weight of water around them was enough to crush all of the normal people being slowly sliced apart in this facility by the monster before him.

“No hard feelings,” Father Foster said, flashing a smile at him. “Just fulfilling a request. I believe I would have eventually sought you out to discuss different projects on my own, eventually. But this concerns the fate of the entire Zone. Your body will be an unfortunate casualty. But worry not, the transfers have an incredibly high success rate, all things considered. Even without the suspension field, we still average above 40% retention of Skills. Ah, don’t do that.”

Randidly was clenching his hand into a fist. Father Foster waggled a finger at Randidly like he was a naughty child. “You are strong. Perhaps as strong as me, Mr. Baloo Erickson. But the people in here are not. Based on your previous actions… I suspect you wouldn’t want them to die in the fighting? And let me assure you, they would die.”

Randidly relaxed slowly. But inwardly, he wanted to laugh. This man really thought he was still just Baloo Erickson…? Maybe this disguise was worth something after all. It’s a good thing that he hadn’t blown it away when dealing with Maude.

Randidly’s change made Father Foster’s expression turn even more serious.

“...as expected, you are no fool. I wonder. Well, we can have a true conversation after the procedure. Please, follow me.”

Father Foster turned and began to walk down the hallway, without glancing backward. But in her straight spine, he saw the implied threat. If Randidly did not follow, she would make good on her promise to kill those people here.

Barely restraining a chuckle, Randidly closed his eyes. Mana flowed out of him like water. When he opened his eyes, he calmly walked behind Father Foster while matching her pace. They walked in cool silence down the halls. Finally, Randidly let his curiosity get the better of him.

“How did you do it?”

This seemed to annoy Father Foster. “Bah. A simple question. If you are half the man I believe you to be, you can figure it out yourself.”

Grimacing, Randidly switched tactics. “I was imprecise. What I meant to ask… was how did you realize such a thing was possible? Why did you want to become a Raid Boss?”

“Ah.” Father Foster was silent for several seconds, and then she sighed. “It pains me to admit it… but discovering the idea to become a Raid Boss was a natural extension of a coincidental line of research. A fool named Ezekiel Ghosthound came to me with a problem. He couldn’t live without killing humans, you see. Monsters wouldn’t do. The cost over time was enormous. So we started looking for alternatives.”

The corner of Father Foster’s mouth quirked off. “What, after all, does the System define as a human? You would honestly be surprised how loose the definition is. With that problem solved, we then wondered if humanity can be transplanted… what else? Stats? We have experienced modest success. Skills? Of course, especially if they relate to a particular part of the body. Soul Skills? Maybe even Classes…. Well, those will be for the future.”

Father Foster’s eyes were deep and dark as she smiled down at her hands. “Then of course… the next question was what we could transplant from monsters into ourselves.”