Chapter 147: Claymore Labs, Willheim Discovers The Truth About Riven

-----

The portal sealed behind him with a wet, electric snap, completely cutting off the collapsing mountain and the insolent boy’s furious glare.

Willheim stumbled once on the polished black tiles of the primary transit chamber, then quickly straightened with a soft, satisfied chuckle. The air here was cold, sterile, and heavy with the constant low hum of layered mana barriers. Bright fluorescent strips cast a clinical white light across the vast underground complex that few people outside the highest echelons of Claymore Enterprises ever saw.

Claymore Labs – Sub-Level 7, Restricted Bio-Genesis Wing.

He glanced down at the bony claw that still protruded from his right forearm. A single drop of the boy’s blood clung stubbornly to its tip, shimmering with an unnatural multi-layered luster of red, black, and the faintest trace of silver-white. Even now the blood resisted normal coagulation, pulsing faintly as if it still possessed a will of its own. The sight was most intriguing, most amusing, and most delightful.

"Magnificent..." he whispered, his eyes gleaming with open greed behind his thin glasses. "Absolutely magnificent."

He retracted the claw with a wet schlick. Flesh closed smoothly over bone as though nothing unusual had ever happened. The precious sample was carefully deposited into a sealed stasis vial that materialized from a spatial ring on his left hand. The vial glowed a soft, hungry crimson the moment the blood entered its containment field.

A soft chime echoed through the chamber.

[Identity Confirmed: Professor Elias Willheim – Clearance Level Omega]

[Welcome back, Doctor.]

The heavy blast doors parted with a mechanical hiss. Beyond them stretched the true heart of Claymore’s darkest research: endless rows of towering incubation tanks, each containing writhing, half-formed abominations that should never have been allowed to exist. Technicians in white coats and black combat armor moved with quiet, practiced efficiency. Every head bowed the moment Willheim passed. None of them dared meet his eyes for longer than a second. They all knew better than to test his patience, lest they end up like the failed experiments floating in those tubes.

He strode purposefully toward the central analysis suite, cradling the vial as if it were a holy relic. A calm, composed, and deeply confident smile spread across his face.

Inside the circular chamber, dozens of holographic displays flared to life the moment he entered. He carefully slotted the vial into the primary sequencer. Soft blue light bathed the sample as nanoscopic needles extracted microscopic droplets and began their intricate work.

"Now, now, let’s see what secrets you hold..."

Willheim leaned forward slightly, hands clasped behind his back, watching the cascading data streams with the patient intensity of a man who had waited decades for a single true breakthrough.

"Ahhh! As I thought...! This young man...! Just what...! What is he?!"

Complex genetic markers unfolded rapidly across the screens.

Human baseline... heavily overwritten.

"What is this?! He’s been overwriting his own human genes using skills?!"

Giant bloodline – active and actively assimilating.

"Giants..."

Multiple high-density monster genes: Gashadokuro, Mizuchi, Inugami... and several others that remained unidentified.

"And more Yokai... along with other monsters mixed in. But this is... he doesn’t look aberrant at all. He’s... an incredible specimen. He absorbs anything beneficial and quickly discards whatever is useless or harmful."

Anomalous spiritual imprint detected.

And deepest of all—

"Oho?!"

His breath caught in his throat.

A faint, almost invisible signature matched the outer membrane of a true Genesis Cell... yet it was incomplete and somehow inverted, as though something had reverse-engineered the primordial code of the Precursor of the Stars herself and rewritten it completely from the opposite direction.

"Impossible..." Willheim murmured. A slow, delighted smile spread across his face. "Did you actually consume her cells? And yet... you were not assimilated by them. You... you took her power for yourself. You somehow achieved a parallel evolution. Predatory assimilation without ever receiving the Mother’s blessing."

He remained silent for a long moment before he started to laugh quietly.

Just what could this discovery even mean for the future of their research?

"Huhuh... Hahahaha! HAHAHAHA!"

As he laughed, his mind drifted back to someone specific — a certain young woman who had once escaped this very facility years ago.

She had been among the few experimental specimens injected with pure Genesis Cells while still a fetus in the womb.

If he recalled correctly, he had allowed her to live only because she ended up being adopted by a wealthy family due to her emerging psychic abilities. She later became a hunter while carefully hiding her true identity and origins.

Her face... somehow reminded him strongly of this young man.

No. It couldn’t be possible... could it?

After all, the young man’s powers appeared to originate from some kind of magical source — an Authority or a Class — rather than pure genetic manipulation.

...Or could there be far more to Authorities, Classes, and Skills than even he had previously believed?

Willheim laughed softly again. The sound echoed strangely in the sterile chamber.

"Riven Claymore... black sheep of the family or not, the name still carries considerable weight. And the blood... the blood is even better than I had dared to hope."

He opened a secure private channel. A holographic crest of the Claymore family rotated once in the air before a cold, authoritative voice answered.

"Report, Willheim."

Arthur Claymore himself had answered — the President of Claymore Enterprises and its original founder.

"I have returned with far more than expected," Willheim said, his voice silky with triumph. "The side project I was working on was... compromised. However, I successfully recovered a blood sample of extraordinary scientific value. Subject designation: Nameless. Apparent age: eighteen. Official rank listed as E. Actual combat capability approaching mid-to-high B-rank, and possibly even higher when under full transformation."

A short pause followed on the other end of the line before the President finally voiced his annoyance, his voice loud and clear, trying to intimidate Willheim, something that never worked. The mad scientist was simply too insane to even be intimidated by one of the few L Rank Hunters in the world.

"Who is this man? Can you not identify him properly, Willheim?!"

-----