Chapter 41: The Beastfather

The BeastfatherSobek stared at the teenager, watching his reaction to his words carefully. He said nothing to confirm anything but his reaction to them was all the proof he needed.

So the information he had received from that suspicious looking man had been correct.

His grin became almost predatory and suddenly burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha! What a prodigy! A remarkable prodigy!"

He spread his arms.

"A Mythical Beast at your age! Do you have any idea how absurd that is? Most people spend years upon years refining their spiritual energy, strengthening their bodies and souls, gathering resources and risking their lives just to force their Patron Spirit through one evolutionary threshold, yet this boy somehow awakened as a Mythical Beast!"

Usually, everyone awakened at the initial stage, then built themselves up to the higher stages. However, this boy skipped all of them and awakened at the highest stage.

This was an unprecedented discovery. This made him an anomaly!

Though Rune didn’t seem pleased with that. He sighed.

"Can you stop yelling? Your voice is so annoying to listen to its giving me a headache"

Sobek ignored him and continued with his words.

"I haven’t gone beyond my initial evolution, and I’m 37 years old. My Class has been Delta since I first awakened. I spent years trying to refine myself and still ended up mediocre"

His expression turned bitter for a moment before he pointed toward the masked giant.

"Obba here is supposedly Epsilon Class. According to the system, anyway"

He chuckled.

"Epsilon means ordinary citizen. Someone without a Patron Spirit, incapable of meaningful combat. But that isn’t what I sensed from him."

Sobek’s eyes narrowed while he looked at the massive man thoughtfully.

"The spiritual energy flowing through that body isn’t normal. It’s like standing beside a well that never runs dry. There’s too much of it. Far too much for an Epsilon. He has to be Beta at minimum, perhaps even Alpha"

Rune’s tired eyes moved toward Obba. Sobek stroked his upper lip hair.

"Somehow, he fooled the system. That means someone helped him conceal his true strength. If Obba can hide himself, why couldn’t you?"

The teenager looked at him with a difficult to read facial expression. He sighed again.

"Man, you really like hearing yourself talk"

Sobek stepped closer.

"But you’re different from Obba. Much more interesting. Hiding that much power would already require someone extremely capable, but hiding a Mythical Beast? That isn’t something a nobody can accomplish. Someone helped you"

He crouched and brought his face closer to Rune’s.

"Someone with considerable authority to alter or conceal records. I’m going to find that person"

His voice became almost gleeful.

"Once I do. I’ll make them an offer they won’t be able to refuse. I’ll keep your little secret buried, and in exchange, they’ll help me climb into the inner rings. Everyone wins"

Rune stared at him for several seconds before cracking a mocking smile.

"You’re an idiot"

Sobek’s smile twitched. Just as when he was about to punch this smug bastard in the face, a guard appeared at the doorway, breathing heavily.

"Sir, we have a problem. There are intruders in the facility!"

"Intruders?"

He immediately wondered who could possibly be invading them today of all days..

Everything had been going perfectly until now. The auction was only hours away, he had acquired a replacement for the mutant he had lost and he had finally gotten Rune into his possession after months of stalking.

For once, Sobek had believed fortune was finally smiling upon him, so of course, something had to come along and ruin it.

"How many are there?"

Sobek demanded as he stood up and faced the guard who swallowed nervously before shaking his head.

"We don’t know, sir. There might be more somewhere in the facility, but so far we’ve only identified one intruder. The others haven’t been confirmed yet, and the guards stationed near the western passage stopped responding several minutes ago"

"Just one?"

Sobek’s brows rose.

Just one person had caused enough commotion to put the entire facility on alert? That was not something to take lightly.

The guards operating this facility were hardly amateurs. They were hardened criminals, smugglers and former mercenaries who had survived enough bloodshed to know how to kill another human being. They were not Rangers, but that did not mean they were weak.

An ordinary person wouldn’t have been able to tear through them so quickly, which meant whoever had entered this place was either extremely skilled or monstrously powerful.

A cold thought suddenly entered Sobek’s mind.

Had the Ranger Corps finally caught wind of their operation?

’No. That couldn’t be it. If the Rangers had discovered this facility, there would have been an entire Division surrounding the place by now. They wouldn’t send one person’

Well, unless that person was a Keeper.

Sobek’s expression darkened as he looked toward Obba. He refused to have his big night ruined because some bastard decided to play hero.

"Obba, go deal with–"

The space where the giant man had been standing was empty. The little horned girl was lying motionlessly across the stone floor. Sobek stared at her for a while longer.

"Obba?"

He quickly searched the room for him, but he couldn’t find him. He was gone. There was no sign of him.

"OBBA!!!"

A mocking chuckle reached his ears, it came from Rune.

"Heh, guess your big, strong man ran with his tail tucked between his legs"

Sobek ignored him, turning his attention to the unconscious girl. Whatever had happened to Obba, there was no time to figure it out. He pointed toward one of the guards.

"You. Chain that girl up properly and keep watch over both captives. I’m handling this myself"

The guard hesitated before nodding quickly

Sobek tugged the whip from his belt and wrapped it around his hand before stepping toward the doorway. His irritation was rapidly turning into anger. Whatever was happening in this facility, he would personally put an end to it.